Introduction

This was the first game of three played at the “Conflict” Regional Tournament, and only my second game of Warhammer ever. My opponent Joel was a great guy and went on to win “Most Sporting Opponent”. Unfortunately due to time constraints all of the games were rushed and we didn’t finish more than three full turns. However, I enjoyed myself and the experience has inspired me to play more Warhammer. Hopefully my next game will be at a more leisurely pace at home.

The Armies

Armies were to 2000 points. My army was “Captains of Morgul”. From my previous, first game of Warhammer I made a number of changes, as follows:

• Replaced the first Wight Lord with a Necrarch Vampire Thrall
• Replaced the second Wight Lord with a Wraith
• Gave both my Necrarchs “Nehekhara’s Noble Blood” bloodline power
• Gave my Necromancer a bound spell (“Book of Arkhan”) and a dispell scroll
• Reduced the Spirit Host to 2 bases
• Removed the Banshee
• Replaced the second skeleton unit with a 16-strong unit of Grave Guard

These changes made a big difference to the army. Without them, it just wasn’t competitive and I would have got thrashed. As it stands, I am happy with the army and would play it again with almost no changes.

My opponent had a lovely High Elves army using the new range of miniatures. It’s main feature was that it was alarmingly strong on magic, with a level 4 wizard and various special rules for High Elves. Of course my army is strong on magic too, so we had many magic duels. Both of us still managed to cast spells.

As I remember, the High Elves army consisted of the following:

• A small unit of scouts
• Two wizards, one of them the army general
• One other heroic character
• Two great big bolt throwers
• One unit of crossbowmen
• Three infantry units, one with spears, one elite unit with two-handed swords and one elite unit of SeaGuard.

(It is still an unfortunate feature of Warhammer that “elite” units frequently outnumber non-elite units. If you look at my three main units, the Grave Guard and Black Knights are elite and the skeletons with spear are non-elite.)

The Terrain and The Scenario

I thought it was a good omen that there was a graveyard in the middle of the battlefield! As it turned out, lots of tables had graveyards because it was a popular terrain piece. Generally, all of the tables were fairly open with the odd hill or wood. This first battle actually had the most terrain, with a hill, a wood and a graveyard.

The scenario was a standard meeting engagement, with units placed alternately on the table and dicing for the choice of first turn.

Magic

We diced for spells. The High Elves had a bagfull. I ended up with the following:

Thrall

1. Gaze of Nagash (magic missile)

Necromancer

1. Invocation of Nehek (raise Undead)
2. Hand of Dust (hand-to-hand power)

Count

1. Invocation of Nehek
2. Hand of Dust
3. Gaze of Nagash

“Hand of Dust” was pretty useless and I never used it. I did managed to use “Gaze of Nagash” to take casualties, but it was always dispelled when I tried to use it against lone characters. I also had success in using “Invocation” to raise a new unit of zombies. This is a lovely spell.

The Game

At the start, the table looked something like this:

My plan: The Fell Bats to take out the Bolt Thrower, and/or possibly the scouts (I didn’t know if they should win against the scouts) on the left-hand side. On the right-hand side, my wolves to take out the Bolt Thrower and Crossbows (hopeful), or at least shield the Knights from them. The Knights would try and move around the graveyard and catch the opposing infantry in the side. In the centre, the Spirit Host were to shield the Grave Guard from missile fire while they advanced against the enemy infantry. Hopefully my Wraith would cause a failed Terror test when they got closer, although Elves have high Leadership.

Amazingly, I think the plan was sound and seemed to go quite well.

On the left…

On the left, my Fell Bats charged the Scouts after they came out of the wood to fire. They held the Bats up for a couple of turns, but eventually the Bats just won the combat (only just). The remaining Bats (or Bat?) manoeuvred to charge the Bolt Thrower, but I was surprised to find that the rules allowed the Bolt Thrower to be re-laid at no penalty, and it shot down the last Bat. However, at least it stopped it firing at my valuable troops that turn. In a previous turn, its super-powerful bolt went through my Grave Guard and took casualties (no armour save allowed).

In the middle…

My Spirit Host did their job of shielding the Grave Guard, but not for very long! Although invulnerable to normal missiles, they were attacked with magic missiles which destroyed them after two turns.

Eventually the infantry units clashed in the middle. The Wraith, and for that matter all my fear-causing units, failed to cause any failed Leadership tests. I forgot to remove my Necromancer from the combat and I think he got cut down.

On the right…

The right flank progressed much better. The wolves were shot down but still managed to make it to the units on the hill. I managed to cast Invocation and raise a new unit of zombies behind the Crossbowmen. They were caught between the zombies and wolves and destroyed. The Bolt Thrower crew fled but later rallied.

My Knights swerved around to meet the High Elf spearmen, but unfortunately we ran out of time before the big clash.

The troop movements are illustrated below:

Victory or Defeat?

There were very few points to be awarded to either side. When we added them up, I had marginally more, but well within the band for a DRAW result. I was satisfied with a draw, given my inexperience. It would have been nice to play the game through to get a more decisive result.

Lessons Learnt

Overall, I was pleased with my army and my tactics. My main observation was how vulnerable my best units were to magic missiles, which ignore armour save. I’m wondering whether it is better not to give my Black Knights barding on their Nightmares. The extra movement and extra points may prove more useful. Also, of course, Ethereal creatures are also vulnerable to these attacks. But hey, you can’t have evreything!

© 2004 Mike Adams
www.smallbattles.co.uk