Cancon 2025 Aftermath - Part 3

This is the third part of my Cancon report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 3 - Flank Attack
Koen Garlick-Trease - Tomb Kings of Khemri (Mortuary Cult)

• High Priest (Level 4, Necromancy) with Hand Weapon
• High Priest (Level 4, Elementalism) with Hand Weapon, Amulet of the Serpent
• Arch Necrotect with Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Whip
• Mortuary Priest (Level 2, Elementalism) with Hand Weapon, Battle Standard Bearer
• 39 Skeleton Archers with Hand Weapons, Warbows, Master of Arrows
• 5 Skeleton Horse Archer with, Hand Weapons, Warbows
• 5 Skeleton Horse Archer with, Hand Weapons, Warbows
• 8 Skeleton Skirmisher with Hand Weapons
• 4 Tomb Swarms
• 6 Ushabti with Hand Weapons, Heavy Armour, Greatbows
• Tomb Scorpion with Ambushers, The Terrors Below
• Tomb Scorpion
• 5 Venerable Ushabti with Hand Weapons, Heavy Armour, Ritual Blades
• 5 Venerable Ushabti with Hand Weapons, Heavy Armour, Ritual Blades
• Casket of Souls
• Necrosphinx

Man, that was a lot of magic. 10 spells plus the casket, and the ability to boost the casting values on his spells by harvesting the swarms (I found out how that worked as we went along)... I was a bit worried about how this would go. Mercifully it wasn't as bad as it might have been, given Koen was more interested in using the casket for the Light of Protection than the Light of Death.

Man, that is a bunker. All of the characters were piled into the big Skeleton Archer unit, which of course meant they'd be firing poisoned arrows thanks to the Amulet of the Serpent. The Venerable Ushabti went on either side in slightly jammed formations (I don't think Koen fully realised how awkward it would be to get them out of those shapes without advancing).

Nagash vs Karl Franz Ascendant

James Brett and I decided to play a 6,000pt game on the weekend, pitting Nagash against Karl Franz Ascendant and Balthasar Gelt, Incarnate of Metal in a game where hopefully their power wouldn't completely dominate the game. 

This is not really a battle report, but I was taking some pictures with my phone as we went along, so I thought I would give an account of how things panned out. I apologise for the quality of some of the photos. Nagash wasn't painted anyway, so I didn't bother to bring my good camera along - and now I regret that decision. Obviously I need more practice with this phone camera if it is going to serve as my backup.

Empire Army
I knew Nagash would be in the enemy army, but that was about it. I decided fielding really large units of knights would probably mess up the game balance, so I focused on big infantry blocks instead. I figured a unit of 60 Halberdiers with 2 horde detachments of 30 would be good for a laugh (and potentially scary), so that was the most exciting thing in my list. Apart from Karl Franz Ascendant, I guess. He's OK too...

• Karl Franz Ascendant
• Balthasar Gelt, Incarnate of Metal
• Arch Lector on War Altar with Armour of Fortune, Great Weapon, Shield
• Ludwig Schwartzhelm
• Warrior Priest with Great Weapon, Heavy Armour
• Engineer
• Captain with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Sword of Striking
• Captain with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Sword of Might
• Battle Wizard (Level 2, Lore of Light) with Dispel Scroll
• 60 Halberdiers with Full Command
• 30 Halberdier detachment
• 30 Halberdier detachment
• 16 Inner Circle Knights with Full Command
• 16 Knights with Great Weapons, Full Command
• 60 Greatswords with Full Command
• 60 Flagellants with Prophet of Doom
• 15 Reiksguard Knights with Full Command
• 4 Demigryph Knights with Full Command
• Great Cannon

The Cannon was basically an afterthought. I decided it would be worth having, just to give Nagash something to think about. Other than that, I had no shooting. There's not much point trying to shoot the Undead to death.

Undead Legion Army
James knew I would be taking both KFA and the fancy version of Balthasar Gelt, so decided to give Nagash a bit of backup in the form of a blender Vampire Lord. He also threw in the End Times Krell, figuring he was likely to tag along wherever Nagash went. The other main unit of note was the 15 Vargheists, weighing in at about 700 points.

• Nagash
• Vampire Lord (Level 1, Lore of Vampires) on Hellsteed with Ogre Blade, Talisman of Preservation, The Other Trickster's Shard, Quickblood, Red Fury, Heavy Armour, Shield
• Tomb King with Armour of Destiny, Great Weapon
• Krell, Mortarch of Despair
• Vampire BSB (Level 1, Lore of Vampires) with Dragonhelm, Dispel Scroll, Heavy Armour, Great Weapon
• 40 Crypt Ghouls with Ghast
• 40 Crypt Ghouls with Ghast
• 40 VC Skeleton Warriors with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command, Banner of Swiftness
• 16 TK Skeleton Archers with Full Command
• 16 TK Skeleton Archers with Full Command
• 30 Zombies with Standard, Musician
• 5 Dire Wolves with Doom Wolf
• 5 Dire Wolves with Doom Wolf
• 15 Vargheists with Vargoyle
• 2 Fell Bats
• 2 Fell Bats
• Corpse Cart with Balefire
• 6 Black Knights with Full Command, Lichebone Standard
• 5 Hexwraiths with Hellwraith
• Hierotitan
• Casket of Souls
• Necrosphinx
• Terrorgheist
• Terrorgheist
• Varghulf

The list is notable for all the things I didn't bother with - magic standards, small disposable units with which to help control the game... Such subtlety was lost on me when I started thinking of units of 60 models.

The Game

Deployment, after James makes his vanguard moves. we didn't bother with alternating deployment. We were both a bit worried that James would run out of room on his side if he couldn't reshuffle things as he went along. I would not recommend a regular 6x4 table for games larger than this one.

Moonstruck Aftermath - Part 3

This is the third part of my account of the recent tournament Moonstruck. You can find the previous part here.

Game 3 - Battle for the Pass
Viv Gleeson, Undead Legion

• Vampire Lord (Level 4, Lore of Vampires) on Barded Nightmare with Heavy armour, Shield, Ogre Blade, Talisman of Preservation, The Other Tricksters Shard, Red Fury, Quickblood, Beguile
• Tomb Banshee
• Tomb Banshee
• Necromancer (Level 1, Lore of Death) with Dispel Scroll
• 41 Skeleton Warriors with Light Armour, Shield, Full Command, Banner of Swiftness
• 18 Skeleton Archers with Standard
• 18 Skeleton Archers with Standard
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Vargheists
• 5 Vargheists
• 9 Black Knights with Barding, Lance, Heavy Armour, Shield, Standard, Champion
• Screaming Skull Catapult
• Screaming Skull Catapult
• Black Coach

Comp Score: 1

Viv! We meet again. The Blender Lord himself was my next opponent, and this time around he was sporting a painted army. Excellent! Unfortunately it looked like a pretty frightening army for mine, which was less excellent. Flaming catapults? Durthu was displeased. Actually, all of my units were displeased, except the Dragon Princes who thought such considerations were quaint with their fancy asbestos Dragon Armour...

I got briefly excited in the lead-up when it occurred to me that Alarielle would get to use her Touch of Purity rules, which mean she wounds on a 2+ and inflicts D6 wounds in combat against Forces of Destruction. Viv then informed me that allying Vampire Counts with Tomb Kings actually makes your army less evil instead of more evil (even though as a person it makes you more evil instead of less evil)... The point was conceded that Alarielle would do D6 wounds against Viv himself as he was a bad man, but this would not help me in-game.

The game began with plenty of threats about how the Black Coach would have flaming attacks by the time it made combat (yes, it can do that), how the Blender Lord could take Durthu in a single turn, and how I was going to Dwellers off said Blender Lord before such a confrontation could take place. 

The Undead set up. There was a horrible Temple of Skulls hill thing in the middle, but nary a model would balance on it and so we swapped it out for something a little flatter and rules-laden. Did you know my army theoretically required 5 army books? High Elves, Wood Elves, Vampire Counts, Khaine and Nagash. I blame Lore of Undeath. And End Times. Anyway, it came in useful here...

Warhammer World Series 2013 Aftermath – Part 3

This is the third and final part of my account of the Warhammer World Series tournament held on the weekend. Below are the links to the first 2 parts:

Part1 (games 1 and 2)

Part2 (games 3, 4 and 5)

Game 6 – Rowan Keating

Table 8 – Aerial Duel

Scenario – Battleline

My army:

Bretonnians

• Bretonnian Lord
  • General; Heavy Armour; Questing Vow
  • Virtue of Heroism
  • Sword of Strife
  • Enchanted Shield
  • Royal Pegasus
• Paladin Battle Standard Bearer
  • Heavy Armour; Battle Standard Bearer; Questing Vow
  • Sword of Might
  • Gromril Great Helm
  • Warhorse
• Damsel of the Lady
  • Magic Level 1; Lore of Beasts
  • Warhorse
• 8 Knights of the Realm
  • Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Standard; Musician; Gallant; Barding; Knightly Vow
• 6 Knights of the Realm
  • Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Standard; Musician; Gallant; Barding; Knightly Vow
• 4 Pegasus Knights
  • Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Standard; Musician; Gallant; Knightly Vow
• 4 Pegasus Knights
  • Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Standard; Musician; Gallant; Knightly Vow
• 5 Mounted Yeomen
  • Spear; Bow; Fast Cavalry
• 5 Mounted Yeomen
  • Spear; Bow; Fast Cavalry

Rowan's army:

Vampire Counts

• Vampire Lord
  • General; Lore of Vampires; Lance; Heavy armour; Magic Level 1
  • Enchanted Shield
  • Dawn Stone
  • Quickblood
  • Hellsteed
• Vampire
  • Battle Standard Bearer; Magic Level 2; Lance; Heavy armour; Shield
  • Nightshroud
  • Hellsteed
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 27 Zombies
  • Standard; Musician
• 20 Crypt Ghouls
  • Ghast
• 4 Vargheists
• 4 Vargheists
• 6 Black Knights
  • Barding; Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Standard; Musician

This table was one of those constructed with a particular theme. In this case, it was as close as we could get to a workable “aerial duel” type of game. Rowan chose the Vampires and away we went.

After deployment and vanguard moves.

Lores of Magic: The Lore of Nehekhara

Two posts in one day?? Well, I promised some time ago to review this Lore, so it's now well overdue. Let's have a look and see what the Lore of Nehekhara has to offer...

In the previous army book, Tomb King magic used to be the defining characteristic of the army. It behaved differently from other Lores of Magic and could be largely unstoppable if the player built his army right. It allowed Tomb King units to charge with impunity in the magic phase, and completely changed the dynamic of the game. Those times are past, however. The new book contains a Lore that is more in keeping with the game as a whole, and most notably it does away with the magic charges (which are now all but extinct in 8th edition).

What does it do?

The Lore Attribute of the Lore of Nehekhara is The Restless Dead. Units affected by augment spells from the Lore immediately regain D3+1 lost wounds, in addition to whatever effect the spell has. The Restless Dead is now the only way for Tomb King units to regain lost wounds or models. This is both a good and a bad thing. The upside is that you no longer need to dedicate some of your magic specifically to raising stuff back, as it happens anyway as a side-effect of your other spells. In effect you get two spells for the price of one. There is no one spell that your opponent can plan to block in order to prevent your raising - so long as you still have an augment spell remaining, you still have a chance to raise.

The downside to the raising being restricted to the Lore Attribute is that there is no way for you to make a concerted effort to save an endangered unit. No matter whether the spell is boosted or not, the affected units will only ever regain D3+1 wounds. The other downsides are the limitations I have not yet mentioned. Animated Constructs may only ever regain a single wound per phase from The Restless Dead - regardless of how many augment spells may be flung their way. This is a very harsh limitation, and means that choices like Ushabti are slightly less appealing. One wound per turn will never compensate for a concerted amount of punishment from the enemy. Furthermore, characters and their mounts will never regain wounds from this spell. So you can't heal Tomb King characters. This is a significant disadvantage compared to Vampire Counts (the other life-challenged army out there), who are still able to prop up their characters.