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Post by baaderthegreat on Dec 26, 2021 21:15:42 GMT
I dug up this very special battle that took place in October 2020... for several reasons this was a very interesting game.
After having played several Triumph & Treachery scenarios, we wanted to try out the other multiplayer scenario: "Battle Royal" from the big red book. The next idea was to combine that with End Times rules: 50% for Lords and Heroes each, Khaine magic, Lore of Undead may be chosen, and of course End Times armies...
The participants were: - Undead Legions (Vampire Counts, Tomb Kings) - The Host of the Phoenix King (High Elves, Dark Elves, Wood Elves)
- The Black Host of Morhog from Kevin Coleman's Grom book (Orc & no Goblins, Chaos Dwarfs)
For those who are not very familiar with the Battle Royal scenario: - Unlike Triumph & Treachery, you don't choose an opponent for each phase. You are always allowed to attack everyone. - One player starts in the centre of the battlefield, the others on the edges. - There are 3 objectives on the battlefield (we used small monoliths for them). Every objective is 1 VP. - Killing another player's general is 1 VP. - If your own general survives, that's 1 VP too.
The battle is supposed to take place in the Dark Lands.
So, let's get started...
The White Lions get ready!
A mighty Black Orc Orkadon...
A Magma Cannon and Chaos Dwarf Thralls with blunderbusses.
Morhog da Mighty himself, leading two Trolls into battle!
Undead Legions in all their glory.
To be continued...
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Post by Crazy_Dokta on Dec 26, 2021 22:32:13 GMT
Can you tell me where CDwarfs cannon from (sculpted/old GW/other manufacture)?
About report: it's great! We are waiting for continuation (and rosters, if possible).
Thanks.
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Post by baaderthegreat on Dec 26, 2021 23:09:19 GMT
The cannon is the "Dwarf Heavy Cannon" from Scotia Grendel. It's still available there and costs only 9 pounds.
As for the rosters... since I was the Morhog player, I can give you that, it is a little bit more difficult for the other armies.
BLACK HOST OF MORHOG
Lords - Morhog 430 - Orc Great Shaman Level 4 with Earthing Rod 225 655
Heroes - Daemonsmith-Sorcerer Level 1 with Dispel Scroll and Charmed Shield 125 - Black Orc Big Boss BSB with Enchanted Shield and Luckstone 125 250
Core - 47 Black Orcs with shields, full command and Standard of Discipline 661 661
Special - 20 Hobgoblin-Cutthroats with musician, bows and shields 114 - 27 Chaos Dwarf Thralls with musician and blunderbusses 388 - 1 Magma Cannon Hellbound 170 - 1 Troll 35 - 1 Troll 35 742
Rare - 1 Black Orc Orkadon 290 290
TOTAL 2598
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Post by baaderthegreat on Dec 28, 2021 11:15:09 GMT
I try my best for the other two armies...
Undead Legions Krell was the general. And of course there's some Necromancer... it seems there is also an BSB.
2 units of 30 Skeletons with spears each 4 units of 5 Dire Wolves each 1 unit of 21 (?) Grave Guard 3 unit of 3 Crypt Horrors 1 Nekrosphinx 2 Screaming Skull Catapults 1 Casket of Souls
Host of the Phoenix King Not being an elf player (with the exception of having played Wood Elves a few times), I sometimes still have problems telling which unit is which. There are White Lions, the Black Guard of Naggarond, some Wood Elf archers (but which ones?), a Treeman, some riders, a character on a Black Pegasus... and then there's Alarielle, Avatar of Isha.
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Post by baaderthegreat on Dec 28, 2021 18:21:21 GMT
Let's go on...
I'll hope not to disappoint - since the game took place some time ago, I cannot go as much into detail as I would like to. I'm afraid my notes are not very structured, but I'll do my best and try to give you a good impression of the game.
So here is the battlefield:
You can see, the Elves are right in the centre. They face a difficult situation, but on the other hand, their deployment allows all of their units to get Alarielle's 5+ ward save.
Let's see what happened next...
Now let us concentrate for a moment on the lower left side of the battlefield...
The Tale of Morhog and the Sphinx (Part 1)
And to battle Morhog went! He met the Legions of the Undead with a mighty clash! Morhog's chariot hit two different Dire Wolves units in the flank at the same time. (At that time, all three players agreed that this is in accordance with the rules, but I'm not so sure now...) The Wolves were quickly obliterated, Morhog overran and hit the Skeleton's in the flank. A mighty battle arose. Morhog was hacking, slicing, biting and smashing his way through old bones and skulls. Soon one of his two Trolls arrived to join his master in combat. The Skeletons crumbled before such reckless power, when suddenly, without warning, a mighty undead construct came of of the sky. Morhog had no choice than to face that new foe in deadly combat...
The Necrophinx attacks Morhog in the flank.
To be continued...
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Post by baaderthegreat on Dec 28, 2021 19:23:01 GMT
The Tale of Morhog and the Sphinx (Part 2) And the fight raged on. So equally contested was it that neither side was able to gain an advantage over the other. And when the sun set they still continued to fight... Yes, the fight between Morhog and the Troll on one side and the Necrosphinx and the Skeletons on the other side was still going on when the game ended. In one turn, it could have been over, because Morhog and the Troll had lost and they had to pass a morale test with their morale reduced to 6... and both Morhog and the Troll were lucky with their rolls! But after that, they won every turn and the Skeletons continued to crumble, with the Necrosphinx always taking little or no damage at all.
The Tale of the Black Guard and the Black Orcs (Part 1)
In the meantine... fearlessly, the Black Guard of Naggarond and a gigantic Treeman chose meet a huge horde of Black Orcs in battle...
To be continued...
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Post by baaderthegreat on Dec 30, 2021 12:08:41 GMT
The Tale of the Black Guard and the Black Orcs (Part 2)
Everyone who saw it was terrified: They fought without mercy, and the earth drank much blood that day. But who is still here to tell what happened? The Black Guard and a Treeman fought a lengthy battle against a unit of 47 Black Orcs that also contained the Great Shaman and the BSB. In the first combat round, the Black Orcs killed the Treeman before he had any opportunity to attack. The Orc Great Shaman quickly fell too.
Then, the Black Guard failed their test and fled (which was a surprise since they are stubborn). They got away, however, and rallied, and soon the fight between the Black Guard and the Black Orcs began anew.
Under normal circumstances the Black Orcs should have won this... but they didn't have any magical support, while the Black Guard benefited from Earth Blood, Flesh to Stone and Regrowth several times.
In the 6th and last turn of the game, the remaining Black Orcs finally broke and fled. However, they had served their purpose: Behind them there was one on the VP markers, and there wasn't enough time left for the Elves to get there. So that 1 VP went to Morhog's host!
To be continued...
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Post by baaderthegreat on Dec 31, 2021 9:47:42 GMT
So... you've seen that my Morhog army got stuck. The Black Orcs fought the Black Guard until the end of the game on one side, and Morhog and his Troll buddy fought the Necrosphinx and the Skeletons until the end of the game on the other side.
My Chaos Dwarfs with blunderbusses didn't have much impact because I'm stupid - I deployed them exactly there where a big piece of rock blocked their line of sight. Only in the last turn, after a lot of moving, they were able to shoot some Elves.
My Magma Cannon killed some Elves in the first turn, but in the second turn it rolled a misfire, and after the Daemonsmith's reroll it was still a misfire, and the cannon exploded...
The Orkadon shot some Elves, but I always had it in the wrong spot in order to go into close combat.
The Daemonsmith used the Lore of Undeath to summon, well, some undead, but only the bats got into a positon to do something important... I will tell you about that later.
Orkadon, Chaos Dwarfs with blunderbusses, Daemonsmith and newly summoned Skeletons... what do they have in common? They all look nice, but they all were almost useless in this game...
So next is... what happened when the Elves fought the Undead in the centre of the battlefield?
Let's take a look:
To be continued...
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Post by baaderthegreat on Jan 2, 2022 20:38:25 GMT
I forgot to tell you about my Hobgoblins - you see them next to the Black Orcs on one of the pics. These Hobgoblins were useless too. They never wounded anything with their bows, they failed their first panic test and fled off the board.
But I promised you to tell you what happened in the centre of the board.
- The two Screaming Skull Catapults hit some of the Elves, but Alarielle's 5+ save and Regrowth helped them a lot.
- In close combat, the Bat Swarms did surprisingly well against those Elven riders (although they didn't win in the end). - The Undead Legions' magic was good in the first half of the game, but unimportant in the second. - The Elves' magic was powerful all the time. - In my last pic, you see there's a huge combat in the centre. Let's talk about that.
The Tale of Krell's Demise Krell came in all his horror and might. With him came his soulless guard and many, many of those who cannot live and cannot die. The Elves, however, showed no fear!
The Black Pegasus guy also joined the fight. This combat went for some time until the Undead, and with them Krell and the BSB, were finally defeated. This means that the Undead player won't have 1 VP for a surviving general at the end of the game, and the Elves player got 1 VP for killing a hostile general.
To be continued...
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Post by baaderthegreat on Jan 3, 2022 10:10:07 GMT
While Morhog's host was stuck and Krell was busy getting killed, the Elf cavalry went into the forest that you can see on the last pic where a unit of Skeleton archers guarded one of the objectives. The Elves passed their terrain tests and killed all the Skeletons. They stayed their until the end of the game - so that's 1 VP that went to the Elves!
To be continued...
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Post by baaderthegreat on Jan 3, 2022 12:46:19 GMT
Remember that good old Morhog had two Troll bodyguards? But only one of them joined Morhog in fighting the Undead, right? So, what did the other Troll do?
Troll number two went straight for the third objective marker. It was located near that huge rock (on the the Elves's side of that rock). The Troll ended his movement as close to the objective as you can get. But I wanted to play it safe - I wanted to have a second unit there just in case the Troll got eliminated somehow. So, a Bat Swarm summoned by the Daemonsmith (using Lore of Undeath) flew over the big rock and ended its movement at that objective too.
Then, in the last turn of the game, the Elves attacked. The Dark Elf character on the Black Pegasus charged the Troll. The Troll lost the fight and needed snake eyes in order to stay there... and snake eyes he rolled!
Another Elf unit (forgive me, I don't know which one; EDIT: from the last pic, I can see now that it's the White Lions) charged my Bat Swarm in the same turn. The Bat Swarm crumbled and the Elves overrun into the objective. So, both that Elf unit and the Troll were equally close to the objective when the game ended - both armies got 1/2 VP.
On that picture, you can see a little bit of my Troll behind that big rock. To the right, the fight between the Black Orcs and the Black Guard is still going on. Note that there are not many White Lions left in the centre of the battlefield - the Chaos Dwarfs had their turn of shooting. The Elf cavalry in the background is heading for the Skeleton archers in the forest.
That blurry photo is the last picture of the game.
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After turn 6... - The Black Host of Morhog still had their general (1 VP) and controlled 1 1/2 objectives (1,5 VP). - The Host of the Phoenix King still had their general (1 VP), killed one general (1 VP) and controlled 1 1/2 objectives (1,5 VP). - The Undead Legions had lost their general and controlled no objectives.
And that means... 1. The Host of the Phoenix King (3,5 VP) 2. The Black Host of Morhog (2,5 VP) 3. Undead Legions (0 VP)
Some thoughts... - Tactically I could have been much better. I made stupid mistakes - and I was lucky that I finished second. - The Undead fought better than the result implies. - I like Battle Royal. It was the first (and sofar only) time we played that scenario. After six games of Triumph & Treachery, it was nice for a change. - I'm not sure if I like Khaine magic. But it didn't bother me much in that game. - The End Times armies were fun. - The O&G general on a chariot with two single Trolls for protection - I will try that again.
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