So last night saw the first campaign game for the Tomb Kings in a fight to take the castle of
I faced Anneurin's high elves who also saw the castle as a strategic advantage. So with both of us mustering 1500 point forces we fought a capture the two scenario.
The tomb kings were made of up of the following
Level 4 hierophant with a dispel scroll, the earthing rod and a 4+ ward save
Level 2 Liche priest with the law of light,
Tomb Prince on foot
28 skeletons,
a unit of three chariots
a unit of 3 necro knights
13 archers
a hierotitan
and a casket
The elves came with a level 2 mage with the law of shadow,
a prince battlestandard on a horse
a large block of knights on horses, a large block of seagard, 10 sword masters and a lion drawn chariot.
Apart from the tower there was a hill with an elvern waystone (though we played it as non-magical as neither of us were on home teritory
The high elves won the toss but couldn't deploy anything in the building as they didn't have a unit small enough. This gave me the first turn. So I moved everything forward, the skeles toward the tower, the chariots to face the knights with the titan as support.
Magic did some damage to the chariot and the sword masters and shooting a little more.
The elves then moved. The chariot moved out to my right flank, the swordmasters into the tower and the seaguard and knights in a position to shoot and charge respectively, the archers going into two ranks to maximise shooting.
Magic didn't really do anything but shooting took down a few archers.
Turn 2
The skeles repositioned to take a charge from the chariot and the titan moved further forward in preparation of the charge against the knights.
Magic saw me get off smiting on the archers, bringing back the dead in the process and getting off light of death but the elves passed the leadership test. Shooting was nasty as I shot everything at the swordmasters, killing enough to cause a panic test, which they promptly failed and fled from the tower. Yay.
The elves retaliated by declaring a charge with the chariot on the skeles and on the chariots with the knights. The first succeeded but the second was short by an inch. The Seaguard elected to stay where they were and the swordmasters rallied. Magic saw the first of the mindrazor spells cast and fail by 1 (which is bloody horrible as it switches the unit's strenth with their leadership, making them strength 8). Shooting saw the seaguard butcher the chariots, destroying one of them.
And then combat. The lion chariot did a suitable number of wounds to the skeles who returned the favor by taking two wounds off it and leaving it with one wound. Another 7 skeles died to crumbling.
Turn 3
The chariots and giant charged the knights and everything else stayed where it was. The necro knights appeared behind the seaguard to threaten the rear. Unfortunately the giant couldn't manage the 7 needed to reach the knights which whould leave the chariots on their own. No worries, I thought, a possible 12 impact hits should still do some damage.
So I tried casting a large smiting but the elves dispelled it and the rest of my magic was pretty ineffective. Shooting saw me kill a couple of seaguard as that was the only target. Then combat. The lion chariot died to the skeles as predicted and they reformed towards the building and then the chariots. They got a measly 3 impact hits and then did nothing with them, took three wounds from the knights for zero return and crumbled to dust. This allowed the knights to reform and face the titan. Bugger.
The elves retaliated by charging the titan and moving the swordmasters back towards the building. The seaguard reformed to face the necro knights.
Magic saw the mindrazor spell cast and a withering, further hampering my giant, not that he would get to attack. The giant was killed outright to strength ten attacks. Luckily the building was in the way otherwise the knights could easily have overrun into my skeles. So they reformed to face my archers.
Turn 4
Things were not looking great. I'd lost the chariots and giant whilst not making a dent in the knights, my skeles were depleted and my archers were about the be decimated.
But the game can be won by taking the building so in I went and the necro knights charged the seaguard. Magic failed miserably and shooting knights with a 2+ armour save was a waste of time. The knights lost to the seaguard and got reduced to a single model.
The elves had the advantage and started to press it home. The knights charged the archers and the swordmasters the building. The seaguard fought the necro knights to a stand still. Magic saw another mindrazor go off on the swordmasters and into the frey they went. The skele archers predictibly died and the elves made their first mistake by reforming to face the lone liche priest. The sword master champion was challenged and needed 5s to hit,which he did with two of his attacks, the prince only saving one of them. The prince managed to cut him down and then the rest of the swardmasters butchered more of the skeles, losing another of their number. More skeles crumbled and the number left was getting dangerously low but we still held the building.
From turn 4 onwards you roll to see if the scenario ends but this time it did not. So I had at least another round to survive. Magic needed to work this round and I IFd the ward save spell, promptly losing two levels of magic but gaining back much needed forces. I tried light of death on the sword masters and managed to kill one and then bounced it to the seaguard and killed a couple of those as well. With no shooting or combat it was over to the elves
The seaguard fought and killed the necro knight and reformed towards the building The few remaining swordmasters charged the building again and the knights reformed to face the casket rather than keep chasing the liche priest. Another mindrazor spell was cast on the Swordmasters but this time the elven wizard also IFd and after the fallout, had managed to kill 4 of his companions and disappear into the warp.
Fighting saw the swordmasters cut down more skeles and more crumbling but still the tomb kings owned the tower.
The rest of the elves again butchered the skeles and after the final count and crumbling only the standard and heirophant were left. But the tomb kings still had control
Unfortunately the roll to end the game didn't go my way so another turn needed to be fought.
Turn 6
Things were now desperate. No movement meant going to the magic phase and for once I had a doozy. 6 dice thrown at the casket saw it IFd and as the spell is an inate ability there is no miscast result. This saw how powerful the light of death spell can be. The spell rolls three d6 and compares this to the unit's leadership and any points over does a wound with no armour saves. I rolled three 6s killing ten seaguard and then it bounced onto the swardmasters and killed another one of them as well causing them to panic. Another ward save on the hierophant's unit saw them regain troops and then it was the elves turn.
The knights charged the casket and the seaguard the building. With no magically enhanced attacks the fight was more even and by the end the skeles were still in the building. Albeit down to just the standard and the heirophant again. The knights predicably destroyed the casket and turned to face the building
And then the roll to end the game... and a 5 ended it.
Win to the tomb kings, all beit with only two characters and the skele standard to the few remaining seaguard and two thirds of the knights.
Continuing the game would surely have seen the tomb kings utterly destroyed but this scenerio is all about holding the objective and unbreakable units are great for that.
Anneurin played a great game and I think I'm going to really struggle against him in the future. I'm learning that the Tomb Kings are a difficult army to win with as they rely on magic to work and if that goes the wrong way you're toast.
So that's it. Next will be a painting update at the weekend.
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