Had my second trial game with my new 1,000 point list today. Again, that list is:
Wight King with Black Axe (general, RotN, Tomb Blade)
Necromancer
Tomb Herald
30 Skeleton Warriors (spears, tomb shields)
10 Zombies
10 Zombies
3 Skeleton chariots
3 Necropolis Knights
This time, however, I was up against no soft lot of mortals, but rather against an enemy as cold and heartless as myself - another death player! And not just any death player, but one with strikingly similar taste in unit selection!
His List:
Necromancer (general, ruler of the night, ring of immortality)
30 skeleton warriors (swords, tomb shields)
6 skeleton chariots
6 necropolis knights(!)
Needless to say, I was quite intiidated.
Since his list didn't qualify for the campaign scenario (which requires a minimum of 3 units of 10), we played a battle plan out of the matched play section of the general's compendium. I forget the name of the mission, but it puts an objective in the center of each player's deployment zone. You claim an objective if 5 of your models and none of the enemy's models are within 5" of the objective. You immediately win if you control both objectives at the end of any game turn (ie, check before rolling for initiative), otherwise winner goes to the player who kills the most points worth of enemy units, including any summoned units.
As one might guess from the lists in question, this fight was a slog, and ran all the way to the end of the 5th turn, so I'll pass on the play by play this time, and just cover the broader stuff.
Opponent put his chariot and necroknight units on opposite flanks, with his skeletons guarding the objective. His necromancer followed after the snakes, to keep them and the skeletons in deathless minion range.
I put my smaller chariot and necroknight units opposite his necroknights. With zombies to man my objective, I was able to put the skeletons opposite his chariots, with characters enough to cover everything. The zombies on my objective stapled his large skeleton unit to his, as if he moved them off the objective I could threaten an instant victory by just run-withdrawing my faster stuff into range of his objective.
Early game, I presented my skeletons, buffed by vanhels and lord of bones, to his chariots, and pulled my other units back a bit to force a long charge with his vanhels'd up knights. He thankfully failed that charge, and his chariots got picked apart by my buffed up skeleton block. I then shifted buffs to my necroknights and charged his knights with my knights and chariots, and that fight just dragged on. For the next several turns he hovered between and 4 knights, while I hovered between 1 and 3 each of the knights and skeletons, but neither side could get rid of the other. A few failed or dispelled casts of vanhels didn't help.
Frustrated, I tried to turn the tide by charging my wight king in, thinking a few extra d3 damage attacks might break the deadlock, but that was a critical error, as a couple vanhels'ed up necroknights ate my wight king and busted me down to 6+ deathless minion saves.
At this point the end of the game was closing in, and his knights had a very good chance of taking my smaller units apart now, so I withdrew my knights and chariots, positioned them to try and make an assassination run on his skeletons, and charged my skeletons into the necroknights to keep them out of the way. I did manage to kill his skeletons, but not before his necroknights killed mine and charged badk into the chariots, wiping them out and contesting the objective.
So in the end it came down to victory points. I killed:
His skeletons (240)
6 chariots (280)
Total:520
He killed:
My skeletons (240)
My chariots (140)
My wight king (120)
Total: 500
Death put up a good showing and fought a tough game, but in the end, despite some tactical blunders, Death still managed to pull out a victory over Death, securing another point for Death in the summer campaign!
Granted, I don't think it's supposed to work that way, but if the local store wants to log another victory for glorious Nagash, who am I to object?
The main thing I've learned from this is that the Wight King is really just there to spread ruler of the night and lord of bones, and absolutely not to throw into combat. In light of this, I'll probably be giving him the ring of immortality in future games. I want to expand out to 2,000 points as soon as possible, though, and in the process trade the wight king for a more melee-capable lord in the Royal Warsphinx. I also loved the opponent's large necropolis knight unit, and look forward to upgrading my own unit to 6.
On that subject, I traded my most-of-a-settra-the-imperishable to my opponent in exchange for that second box of demigryph knights, so now all I need to pick up for that 2,000 point army is the corpse cart. Still an awful lot to paint, though.
Wight King with Black Axe (general, RotN, Tomb Blade)
Necromancer
Tomb Herald
30 Skeleton Warriors (spears, tomb shields)
10 Zombies
10 Zombies
3 Skeleton chariots
3 Necropolis Knights
This time, however, I was up against no soft lot of mortals, but rather against an enemy as cold and heartless as myself - another death player! And not just any death player, but one with strikingly similar taste in unit selection!
His List:
Necromancer (general, ruler of the night, ring of immortality)
30 skeleton warriors (swords, tomb shields)
6 skeleton chariots
6 necropolis knights(!)
Needless to say, I was quite intiidated.
Since his list didn't qualify for the campaign scenario (which requires a minimum of 3 units of 10), we played a battle plan out of the matched play section of the general's compendium. I forget the name of the mission, but it puts an objective in the center of each player's deployment zone. You claim an objective if 5 of your models and none of the enemy's models are within 5" of the objective. You immediately win if you control both objectives at the end of any game turn (ie, check before rolling for initiative), otherwise winner goes to the player who kills the most points worth of enemy units, including any summoned units.
As one might guess from the lists in question, this fight was a slog, and ran all the way to the end of the 5th turn, so I'll pass on the play by play this time, and just cover the broader stuff.
Opponent put his chariot and necroknight units on opposite flanks, with his skeletons guarding the objective. His necromancer followed after the snakes, to keep them and the skeletons in deathless minion range.
I put my smaller chariot and necroknight units opposite his necroknights. With zombies to man my objective, I was able to put the skeletons opposite his chariots, with characters enough to cover everything. The zombies on my objective stapled his large skeleton unit to his, as if he moved them off the objective I could threaten an instant victory by just run-withdrawing my faster stuff into range of his objective.
Early game, I presented my skeletons, buffed by vanhels and lord of bones, to his chariots, and pulled my other units back a bit to force a long charge with his vanhels'd up knights. He thankfully failed that charge, and his chariots got picked apart by my buffed up skeleton block. I then shifted buffs to my necroknights and charged his knights with my knights and chariots, and that fight just dragged on. For the next several turns he hovered between and 4 knights, while I hovered between 1 and 3 each of the knights and skeletons, but neither side could get rid of the other. A few failed or dispelled casts of vanhels didn't help.
Frustrated, I tried to turn the tide by charging my wight king in, thinking a few extra d3 damage attacks might break the deadlock, but that was a critical error, as a couple vanhels'ed up necroknights ate my wight king and busted me down to 6+ deathless minion saves.
At this point the end of the game was closing in, and his knights had a very good chance of taking my smaller units apart now, so I withdrew my knights and chariots, positioned them to try and make an assassination run on his skeletons, and charged my skeletons into the necroknights to keep them out of the way. I did manage to kill his skeletons, but not before his necroknights killed mine and charged badk into the chariots, wiping them out and contesting the objective.
So in the end it came down to victory points. I killed:
His skeletons (240)
6 chariots (280)
Total:520
He killed:
My skeletons (240)
My chariots (140)
My wight king (120)
Total: 500
Death put up a good showing and fought a tough game, but in the end, despite some tactical blunders, Death still managed to pull out a victory over Death, securing another point for Death in the summer campaign!
Granted, I don't think it's supposed to work that way, but if the local store wants to log another victory for glorious Nagash, who am I to object?
The main thing I've learned from this is that the Wight King is really just there to spread ruler of the night and lord of bones, and absolutely not to throw into combat. In light of this, I'll probably be giving him the ring of immortality in future games. I want to expand out to 2,000 points as soon as possible, though, and in the process trade the wight king for a more melee-capable lord in the Royal Warsphinx. I also loved the opponent's large necropolis knight unit, and look forward to upgrading my own unit to 6.
On that subject, I traded my most-of-a-settra-the-imperishable to my opponent in exchange for that second box of demigryph knights, so now all I need to pick up for that 2,000 point army is the corpse cart. Still an awful lot to paint, though.
nice battle report btw, I look forward to seeing how your lists evolve.