As Promised here is the report for the latest ' in the middle'battle we fought. So far no-one in the middle has won. Now was the time for Olaf's Necro Dieter to try and stave off the combined forces of Dwarves and Empire. Here's my list.
General
Lvl 2 Necro - Dieter
Book of Arkhan
Lvl 2 Necro - Heinrich
Power Familiar
Thrall
Dietz Von Carstein
Flayed Hauberk, GW
Core
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
29 Zombies + command
29 Zombies + command
24 Skeletons + command / LA
10 Skeletons + LA
Special
3 Fell Bats
3 Fellbats
10 Grave Guard
standard, shields
Rare
Banshee
Total 1699 points
Spells wise both my Necro's got ION and GON
The Empire mage took lore of light and got Burning Gaze and Dazzling Brightness.
My opponents only had 750 points each. We set up.
The Empire player had a big unit of Swordsmen on his left led by a priest, he then had Flagellants, a Gunner unit led by a Light Mage and lastly some Knights. I lined up my big Zombie and Skele units against him, it was a squeeze due to my narrow deplyoment zone so I knew I had to get out there quick before the Dwarf Gun line took hold.
The Dwarf player went Gunny and had 2 units of Thunderes either side of the Board, in the middle he had a small unit of warriors led by a Runesmith with a Gt on one side and an Organ gun the other. These 2 machines I hate and could cause me problems so I simply thought to send in my quick stuff and simply use the rest of the army on the Empire. So my 4 units of Wolves, my Bats and My banshee would try to keep them busy for a while.
Turns 1-2 Empire and Dwarf got first turn and Empire pushed his Knights down the Flank and moved his Swordsmen and Flaggellants up the board.
Magic was a washout and the Dwarf shooting simply took out a few wolves and a bat.
It was then the VC turn and I sent my Wolves and Bats out towards the Organ Gun and Thunderers, I thought I'd give him loads of targets and hope something survived to take out the machines..
My 2 Zombies Units marched down the Left Flank right in front of his Knight unit, he would have no option othet than to Charge one and hope to break though them, this was made harder by Dieter bolstering their numbers with ION.
The Banshee had marched to just within range of the GT and tried to scream at the crew but their resolve was strong..
The Empire then charged the zombies with his Knights and pushed his 2 infantry units up the field. The Dwarves moved his left hand unit of Thunderers up the pitch as they were out of range of everything. He wheeled his warriors round to face the wolves and bats to try and protect his machines.
The Empire mage then revealed his Doomfire ring which was dispelled along with his other magic. The magic phase was very close and the The Dwarf player had borught along a rune of balance and so our PD vs DD was a very close thing. His Priest prayed and made the Swordsmen Unbreakable..
The shooting started off well for me as his GT deviated so badly that it nearly ended up hitting itself. The Bats and wolves took casualties to the rest of the shooting but not enough to stop them charging next go.
In CC the Knights killed 6 and crumbled another 2 zombies, not enough to avoid the counter charge!
So in the VC turn 2, I charged both his war machines with bats and wolves
And counter charged his Knights in the flank with my other unit of Zombies.
They were going to have a hard time now they had dropped their 'rubber lances'...
Meanwhile my other 3 units were coming up against the Flaggellants. Dieter sesning trouble moved out of his Skelelton Bodyguard unit and into the nearby GG. The Skeletons then positioned themselves carefully as to draw the manaics on to them but not let them overrun into anything. The big Skeleton unit led by Dietz came to threaten their flank.
I was up against 10 DD in the magic phase so was quite pleased simply to kill 2 Flaggellants with a GON spell.
In CC my attack on the Organ gun faltered as my unit only killed 1 crew member and crumbled in CR, my bats fared slightly better against the GT crew and it was a draw.
In the fight against the Knights, amazingly they did not wound one single zombie who then in turn managed to actually kill 2 of the tin cans with their bare hands! The Knights then of course ran off the board and my Zombies captured their standard, a great days work for my braindead followers..
The Empire player at this point was
not a happy bunny!...
Turns 3-4 The Dwarves moved his warriors and Thunderers up the board again and wheeled his Organ gun round to face the remaining wolves, The Flaggellants did not dissapoint and charged the small skeleton bait unit.
In the magic phase his mage managed to Burning Gaze 4 of my Skeletons in the big unit but his ring again failed to work.
The Organ gun hit the wolves 10 times ( he always, always rolls a 10 on his 2 attempt) and wiped them out and the Empire gunners took out another 4 skeletons from the big unit.
The CC went rather well in the big fight and the skeletons and Flaggellants both lost 2. leaving my unit to crumble by one, they had held and that was key, I could now counter charge their flank (a pattern was forming here).
The Bats failed again against the GT crew and one fell to crumble.
My turn began with my skeletons charging the Flaggellant flank and my overunning (shambling) zombies came back on the board. My bashee also charged the GT crew to help out the bats.
In the magic phase I was up against 10 DD again ( that storing rod of the empire is a bane to my existence) but somehow managed to summon 11 skeletons for the big (bigger now :D ) skeleton unit.
And the Banshee came up trumps at last killing the GT crew by screaming an 11..
The Flaggellants only lost 2 men in the CC despite the overwhelming odds and stood firm.
The Empire then responded in their next turn by trying to counter charge Dietz's flank with his swordsmen unit, this would not have been good but I had suspected they were out of range, and how? They failed by 1/2 an inch.
2 Zombies fell in the magic phase, victims of the ring and 3 more were slain by the now in range, Thunderers in the shooting phase. The Organ gun
again scored 10 hits and the last 2 Fell Bats dropped out of the sky. The Empire gunners added to the dead by killing another 3 zombies.
However to cheer me up in the CC phase, the Flaggellants finally fell to my Skeletons, leaving me with the Swordsmen to worry about..
So in my turn 4 , I simply moved my 2 necros out of the GG unit and into the safety of the nearby Copse of trees and turned the GG and skeletong unit to face the fearless Swordsmen.
I tried to use the Book of Arkhan to charge my Skeletons into them but it was dispelled and also ran out (double blast), I compensated for that by bolstering their ranks with ION by 10.
The Banshee turned to face the Thunderers down on the left flank but her voice had gone...
Turns 5-6 The Swordsmen charged the Skeleton unit and all the Dwarf units that could moved forward.
The mage cast burning gaze on the zombie unit killing another 6 but his dazzling brightness on the swordsmen was dispelled.
The Thunderers killed another 3 zombies and the Gunners targetted the other zombie unit and took down 6.
In the CC Dietz hacked apart the swordsmen unit champion and the CR was won by 1 but I had forgotten they were unbreakable and they held...
So in my next turn I charged their flank with my GG
The Zombies kept heading for the gunners and my Necro's moved through the woods to avoid any dwarven gun fire.
My magic phase was a non starter and so was my Banshee's attempts at being scary, the Thunderers were now so used to her they saw her as more of a mascot, a pet, than a threat... :(
The GG cut down the swordsmen and I won the CR by 5 but
AGAIN I had forgotten to dispel their Unbreakable, so they stood firm another round.
In their last turn the Dwarves ambled forwards.
3 more zombies fell from burning gaze and I at last dispelled the unbreakable which he failed to repeat.
The Organ gun.....Guess what???............Did another 10 hits on the small skeleton unit taking down 7 of them. The Thunderers killed another 3 zombies leaving only 6 left in that unit, this was the unit with the empire standard and the gunners knew they had to kill all 6 to claim it back, only 3 fell in that final volley, so whilst they had half that unit's points I had their standard! :D
The CC was closely won by me, no thanks to the GG who hit nothing, and they finally ran away and were caught, I also got their standard.
Nothing happend in the final VC turn, with all my magic failing. So the battle ended.
The 2 captured standards helped alot and mainly due to me killing Empire (the Dwarves only gave away 105 VP's) I won by 319 VP's giving me a MV.
The first time in 5 battles that the army in the middle had won, a great result and a good game. A battle in which against the Empire, some very precise movment and placements had won me the game.
"Dieter turned to face his apprentice Heinrich, an expression akin to a smile creeping across his face. The battle had been won, the ambush a failure down to Dieter ignoring the Stunty ones and heading towards the frail humans in a bid for his freedom. As he turned back to the field he could see his Zombie horde reach the last humans, the gunners and tear them apart along with the accursed Light Mage. So some good had come about from this trap, as there would one less of that accursed order to bother Dieter and his master in their good work. With that he motioned for Dietz to round up the troops and order them to march, the Dwarves were closing in on them and they had no further time for distractions. Count Olaf was waiting a few miles away, a great battle soon to be fought, a great prize to be won. And there was something about his new pet that intrigued Dieter....."