Sigmar's Blood (13) - The Midnight Hunt

At last, after several months of preparation and painting and a hiatus whilst we attempted to synchronise calendars (he was in Poland, Scandinavia and the US. I went to Swindon) it was finally time to play the first game(s) of the Sigmar's Blood Campaign.

This was the sight that greeted me when arriving at my Chum's gaff.
Splendid looking table with all the bits present and correct as shown in the campaign book (albeit in slightly different colours). Marvellous!

Behold the field of battle!

The buildings in particular looked lovely, some new GW verdigris paint really enhancing the copper roofs.

The Witchunter leads the Empire forward

Noble blackpowderists

The forces of evil...

And so after a prolonged Admiring Our Handiwork phase we decided we should probably actually play a game or something.

I won the roll-off for army choice and decided to go with the Empire.
I deployed the swordsmen just back from the deployment line with the cavalry poised to sweep out left and the handgunners ready to race toward the tower. Getting models into the tower gives a benefit later in the campaign and the hand gunners seemed the best chaps for that particular job.
The necromancer and his hideous minions assembled on the start line and we were off.
The forces of undeath (almost inevitably) won the roll-off for first turn, and not wanting to stare down the cannon barrel for any longer than necessary went first, trundling toward my lines.

The classic undead pincer

Foolishly I had deployed too far forward. The undead moved first and with the said of Vanhels they were almost on top of me before I'd taken a turn.
In an attempt to minimise the damage to my swordsmen I maneuvered the knights in front of the skeletons and backed the swordsmen up to try to prevent the Corpse cart rampaging home. Over on my right the handgunners sprinted toward the tower.
Taking careful aim with 'Owd Betty', the imperial cannon, I bounced a cannonball straight into the corpse cart. The steel ball caught the necromancer himself full in the face and killed him stone dead. Well that improved my odds a bit.

Crumbling begins in earnest

The dogs prepare to fly into the flank

Immediately the undead began to crumble including the newly arrived Dire wolves.
Despite the loss of their guiding power the undead shambled home and began to lay about the empire troops.
The ghoul champion launched himself at the Witchhunter and pulled him to the ground before the Empire hero could even swing. However the rest of the unit took a toll on the ghouls and the units stayed locked in combat. The skeletons meanwhile flailed uselessly at the heavily armoured knights and suffered at the hands of the Empire and their horses. As the combat ground on the wolves maneuvered to charge but the cannon and crumbling meant they were unable to swing the combat.
Meanwhile the hand gunners gained the tower and sent their message asking for help.

The knights wreak destruction on their bony foes

As the undead forces began to fade away the men of the Empire were able to crush the last resistance and claim the field as their own.

And so, with the first game over in under an hour we swapped sides and went at it again.

Come to us, dead dudes

I deployed the forces of undeath in similar fashion to the first game. I considered not using the Direwolf vanguard rule and using them to block the hand gunners from accessing the tower but in the end decided to leave them. The empire, learning from the first game deployed deeper.

Shamble, drool, creak

Once more with the pincer

I rushed the undead forces forward but the better positioning of the knights saw them able to charge into my ghouls. 'Owd Betty' spat her inevitable iron ball at the corpse cart but this time it struck the cart itself and regeneration saved any damage.

The ghouls take it hard in the front

Good, doggies, niiiice doggies...

The knights wreaked havoc on the ghouls, though a few fell in return. The skeletons charged the swordsmen on the hill and the Corpse Cart thundered into the knights battering the horsemen whilst the Direwolves positioned themselves between tower and hand gunners. In the combat the skeletons made little impact on the swordsmen and lost several of their own in return. The knights killed more ghouls but still more were pulled down.

A one sided grind

As the empire took their turn the handgunners blasted the dogs to ruin but it was in the combat phase that the damage  was done. Having already killed the ghoul champion the Preceptor of the knights challenged the necromancer and duly cut him down. Despite their ghouls pulling two more knights down  the inevitable crumbling began and the undead threat faded away...

So we played two good fun games with very similar results in a couple of hours.

We both felt this game favoured the empire, but then that's the nature of campaigns - not always a fair fight.
Really looking forward to the next game now, when it all jumps up a level with the arrival of a Von Carstein and an Arch Lector.
No game next week as my opponent is off to Las Vegas. And I'm back to Swindon.