The First Battle in a War
Most Saturday mornings, GGage and I play a game in his den. Typically, these games are between 500 & 1000 points with me scrapping something together and GGage bringing a well painted horde of greenskins. During a recent one of these mornings, I decided to proxy the forces of the Amethyst Veil and give them a test drive.
The game was our standard, line up and kill each other scenario. We went through the process of placing the terrain, a series of chain fences and dwarven idols. With the board prepared, we placed our forces. My opponent for this battle had come packing a regiment of boar boyz, a large unit of night goblins, a decent size unit of savage orcs, a warboss I knew well, and two shamans. I had brought the Veil (2nd lvl mage, w/ Skeleton Summoning and +1 dispel staff), 2 units of 10 skeletons w/ full cmd, 5 black knights w/ musician/std, 6 cairn wraith w/ a banshee and a wight w/ the skeleton making sword.
At the beginning of the game, I rolled for my spells and received the Curse of Years (scary) and Raise Dead [not sure if that is the right name for the zombie summoning spell]. GGage rolled and got magic missile stuff (can you tell I am bitter about it). 8)
For those that want the quick recap, black knights died to a fanatic, cairn wraiths died to magic missiles and CR, vampire and 1 unit of skeletons died to savage orcs and the warboss, and the other unit of skeletons died to everything. In return, I killed one shaman and some night goblins.
The long version is I moved the wraiths and black knight forward at the start of the game. GGage did the same with his whole army. In the early magic phase, I nearly doubled one unit of skeletons and fixed the other. On turn two, GGgage moved his night goblins into 8” of the cairn wraiths, releasing his fanatics onto the populous. This had no effect on the cairn wraiths, but it foreshadowed trouble ahead. In the same turn, GGage called on the power of Gork and Mork to begin destroying my wraiths.
In return, I moved my cairn wraiths within range of his goblins and commanded the banshee to let out a bone chilling scream on the enemy. Obviously partially deaf from her own screaming, she rolled a 5 on the dice, which was useless against the leadership of the warboss inspired goblins.
In turn three, I watched as the fanatic found his way into the middle of my black knights. This resulted in a minor seven wounds on the units. The problem, I only had five knights. The turn also continued with more magic missiles, I am sure in a nice hew of green, blasting away on the wraiths, leaving me with three models at the start of my turn.
At this point in the battle, I could feel the tide of victory creeping further away from me. I moved the remaining wraiths into a few inches of one of his shaman and commanded the banshee to scream again. This time she had found her voice, and the shaman fell. I also moved the Veil into LOS so that he could attempt to curse the approaching savage orcs. His curse failed as the orcs clearly couldn’t understand the fact that they were even being cursed. It also helped that my opponent dumped all of his dispel dice into stopping the spell.
In turn four, the last of the wraiths were charged by the enemy and fell to the power of rank bonuses. At the same time, the skeleton core was hit by the savage orcs and warboss. This caused the unit to quickly crumble and fall.
In my turn, I charged the vampire into the savage orcs, and proceed to kill him. How was that for a plan! I also watch as the other unit of skeletons fail to recover from a fanatic that passed through them on the way to a party. Needless to say, at the end of this round, I was down to a few skeletons and a wight.
The last round was watching the skeletons and then the wight being surrounded and having their undead cards revoked.
Overall, it was a great game. I had a lot of fun and did enjoy what my army could do when it actually did it. I still like the theme and will continue with it, I may just proxy a few different units in future games.
Things that I learned from my defeat:
1. I expected the cairn wraiths to do more. Rolling a 5 (I originally quoted it as a 4) on the scream against the night goblins really hurt. Also, with all of the magic missiles that were hitting them, they didn't survive long.
2. The combination of the staff of sneak'n stealing and all the dispel dice from multiple goblin shamans, just shut down my magic phase. I had a good 1st turn with making more skeletons, but after that, I didn't do anything.
3. The fanatic hitting my black knights and doing so many wounds that the unit was wiped out was harsh.
4. Once the vampire dies, the game is over. Wasn't much I could do since I was short on units at that point.
5. The skeleton sword on the wight lord was useless, but that was cause I kept the skeleton units back expecting the wraith and knights to do the work.
6. My opponent had an overall game plan that worked against me. It was well thought out and executed. I didn't expect two shamans or the staff, so it was a smart play that really paid off. Hats off to him.
This Saturday, I plan on bringing the army again, this time with some more changes and a little more spice.
Vampire w/ Staff of Sorcery (+1 dispel), Skeleton Summoning VS, 2nd Magic Level VS (Hero/General)
Necromancer w/Invocation of Nehek & dispel scroll
Skeletons (10) w/ full command & std that doubles the unit size (Core)
Skeletons (10) w/ full command (Core)
Black Knights (5) w/ full command and barding (Special)
Cairn Wraiths w/ Banshee (6) (Rare)
I’d really like to do a proxy of an army built around skeletons and corpse carts with lodestones, but I will save that for another day.
As for work on the painting front, I am proceeding with the remaining skeletons and should have the first row of the unit ready for Saturday. I find that the rules I have set really slowed me down in terms of how much I can get done, but it has really helped with burnout. I have also been burning some hobby time playing with a skeleton horse and a grave guard model to make a black knight. The first try is decent and I may paint it up this weekend if I want a short distraction. (I know, I am breaking my own rules, but that is why they are there.)
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