blood and glory 2.5K DE vs TK

[Loempiaketzer]

Hi, yesterday i played a very close game against a friend of mine.
2500pnt tomb kings vs Dark elves. Blood&glory scenario.
this will be a short battle report to keep it as an easy as possible read.

List
TK- scorp-spear-collar
TK- hat - GW
Iconbearer - Red ring - ironcurse - opal amulet
Liche priest - scroll - casket
2*3 chariots
40 bowmen - FC banner of flame
5 light horsemen
swarm
25 tomb guard + FC + BoUL
2 scorpions
bone giant
SSC

DE was something lik
lvl4 sorc
lvl 2 sorc
BSB master
20 bowmen
10 bowmen
35-40 spearmen
6 cold one knights + FC
18 black guards
hydra
2 bolt throwers
2*9 shades
2*5 harpies


Deployment was tricksy from my side. I deployed all vanguards first. then bonegiant in the middle, then scorp in the middle and the swarm. Keeping my 2 big blocks of infantry last possible deployed. I ended up deploying on the left side of the field. Next to a tower of blood (bad choice... hatred and frenzy for DE withing 6")
However, i did manage to get his 20 archers + reapeter crossbows + 5 harpies and his shades out of play with this deployment for the whole match! (except one unit of shades)
His black guards, bolt thrower, 10 bowmen, hydra and cold one knights were facing my bowmen and tomb guard.

before turn 1. i get the vanguards in moving all away from the right side covering my flank. some decent ground made up here since he would have to get 2 turns with that flank to get to me.

Turn 1 TK;
i win the roll. I managed to get my archers mostly out of range. so could only shoot with about 5 skeletons on his archer unit.
I gave his black guards -1M with the lore of shadows.
i hit with the SSC in the shooting phase on his block of spearmen... around 18 hits, killing about 3. passing his panic.

turn 1 DE;
He moves everything up and manages to charge with his harpies into my light horsmen. they didnt stand a chance and got powned.
shooting and magic did very little. but destroying my 3 chariots.

Turn2 TK:
i charge with my swarm on the harpies. my burried scorp comes into play which charges his unit of spearmen with the BSB and the lvl4 in it together with my other scorpion. 1 flanked 1 frontal.
my other chariot charges and takes out his bolt thrower
Shooting doesnt do that much but killing of some xbowmen and about 3 black guards. ow yeah.. SSC hit home on the hydra taking it out with a single shot of 5 wounds!
Combat, he uses his black dragon egg killing 1 scorpion .
The other scorpion allocates all his attacks against the BSB, hitting 3 wounding none... and he crumbles. (i was next to a charnel pit, but forgot about the 6+ regen) he overruns to gain ground.
my swarm kills of his -2ws harpys! hurray! but made a crucial mistake with the swarm facing.

Turn 2 DE:
he charges with his black guards into my swarm
he alligns his spearmen block to flank my tomb guard in his following turn.
he massaceres the swarm offcourse and hits my TG. This sucks, he has eternal hatred and is frenzyd because of the tower. Should i have faced the swarm differently i would ahve time to get away! *damn me*

Turn 3 TK:
TG are tied up, archers move into possition for a possible flank charge but come up too short. my bone giant moves to protect my TG unit from the spearmen.
magicphase rolled snake eyes... anything but 2 would have been awesome (3 to 4 perhaps)
I magicly charge his unit of spearmen with my BG.
i get all my extra incanctations off, he saves his dice for the casket.

From there on, i suffered a lot of casualties on my TG unit. it took around 3 close combat phases with 33 attacks from that black guard unit before wiping the tombguard unit out... its the mose resialiant unit ive ever seen. with only 25 models receiving such punishment and just NOT giving up.

on the other combat, my bonegiant could only get 1 or 2 hits each combatphase and stomp didnt do more than 1 or 3 wounds a phase. but he kepty the unit away, and couldnt kill his lvl 4 or bsb.
my TG unit eventually succumbs to the massive loads of attacks he gets off and i lose my BSB and general giving him the victory.

things that went wrong from a gaming kind of view;
i didnt notice the tower of blood and its range, making him frenzy was BAD news for me.
the swarm was facing the wrong way, so he could overrun. this cost me the battle.
I forgot the 6+ regen on my scorps and the construct rule for my entire army.... *and the bsb-1 crumble* First time i play with him...

things that went wrong rulewise
black guards with frenzy 6 wide made 6*3 attacks * 2 ranks for a total of 36 attacks. This should have been 24 instead... since supporting rank only gets 1 aditional attack (correct me if im wrong)

In the end, it was a good game and we some good laughs and tension in games.

hope you enjoyed reading, questions and such are always welcome.

 

[Danceman]

Sounds like a good fight that. A shame to see TK losing but as you pointed out a few things going differently could have turned things around drastically.

I've never been much for the Bone Giant, even with thunderstomp. WS3 isn't good enough.

A small suggestion. Put spaces between the turns, reading it was a bit tough on my old poor eyes.

 

[Loempiaketzer]

yeah,... well... if the swarm facing OR the lighhorsemen placement OR the double tomb scorpion assassination action would habve gone a bit better i am sure i would have won something

and adjusted the spaces...

as for the bone giant. he's quite resiliant, has a great charge range and CAN dish out awesome damage.
good manouverability wins it over the ushabti's for me...

 

[Danceman]

Yeah, it isn't that bad. I've just had too many times where it fluffs his attacks and gets bogged down. My preferences does end up with Ushabt(2x3 or 2x2) and Tomb Guard to be heavy hitters but like you say, when the Bone Giant works it hurts, a lot. It will be interesting to see what they do with it with the new book(whenever it arrives...). Been all manners of rumours about great weapons and various missile weapons.

 

[Loempiaketzer]

It will be VERY intresting what they will do with a new book. I think the book TK has got at the moment is very well put together. Its like a 100 years old and still playable/competitive in my opinion.
Even the cap of 25 tombguards is a 'good thing' to not get overpowered. (thinking of 1000pnt big unit of TG in a 2250 game.. consisting of 50 tomb guard... with serious magic/smiting/movementsincanctations back up, that makes them kill everything...)

I could only hope for a mounted prince, higher ArSv cav and maybe some different core choises.

I think the book is pretty awesome. It just needs some minor tweaks.

but a tomb prince in full plate mail riding a scorpion with spear of antharak and the ICFBelow special rule would be REALLY awesome looking if you ask me!

on th bone giant part, on flanks, outside the BSB bubble he is really nasty with his terror. If put in the centre, clipping in with a unit of archers/TG makes you get really good combat rez most of the time! (even if its only the stomp he gets to do)

 

[Danceman]

I agree. The book itself is nearly perfect, just some minor tweaks and we're there. When TK was released I went straight out and bought a battalion box, chariots, archers and a ton of characters, haven't looked back since.