As the painting progresses we were itching to get some gaming in. So my chum adapted the opening scenario a bit and we played that through to give us a bit of a taste for the forces.
I set up in the graveyard with my Necromancer on Corpse Cart and Wight together and two units of skellies and a unit of Zombies just outside. As long as I was in the graveyard any successful Vanhels spell would gain me an additional D6 dead things to add to my forces. In the far corner of the board some knights, swordsmen, flagellants and handgunners hove into view. Thier mission being to cut down the Necromancer before turn six was up. Any other result would see me triumphant.
Lord of all the deadmen
There was little incentive for me to move, at least at first, so as the followers of Sigmar advanced I stood stock still in the graveyard and tried to cast Vanhels to bolster my meagre forces. Sadly the winds of magic largely deserted me and no more cold dead bodies rose to my aid.
Sigmars knights
Crazy madmen. And some flagellants
Meanwhile the knights were bearing down on me and the human infantry drew ever closer.
Stumble forward you maggot ridden menaces!
Eventually, despite failing to raise any additional followers I urged the zombies and skeletons to fall upon the knights, rather than be fallen on. The zombies made it, but the skellies tripped over their spears and failed to push home.
Squelch!
Deprived of their charge the knights could only draw the initial combat, meanwhile the dead failed again to rise from their (obviously far too cosy) graves. The knights were spooked by the graveyard stink of the
zombies and failed their fear test so rather more zombies hung around than
expected. However the handgunners forswore to shoot and charged the Zombies in the flank.
With rabid cries to Sigmar for protection the Flagellants
fell upon the hated skeletons and began smashing skulls.
Thwack!
As the Empire net began to close around me I maneuvered to
try and buy the Necromancer more time. The Skeletons angled themselves to
ensure that any overrun from the knights went off the board. Meanwhile the
Wight sacrificed himself in front of the swordsmen to ensure they couldn’t get
to the undead wizard. I also backed up the corpse cart to lengthen any future
charges. Finally managing to get some spells off I boosted the Skeletons facing
the knights with Hellish Vigour but still managed no raising.
So that's three ranks a standard and....pop!
The flagellants duly battered their way through the
remaining skeletons and lined themselves up to charge the corpse cart.
The Hellishly vigorous Skeletons did well against the
knights, thinning them out a bit.
Over the wall and SMASH HIM UP!!!
In the final empire turn the swordsmen failed to charge home
but the flagellants crashed into the corpse cart and despite failing to wound
the cart caused the Necromancer and his foul conveyance to crumble to dust,
winning the game for the forces of Sigmar.
Game over in just over an hour meant we could swap sides,
reset and go again.
Trot, trot, trot.
In stark contrast to the first game the necromancer
repeatedly cast Vanhels before I was able to close, making for a sizeable bunch
of dead things to chew through.
So the flagellants are going the long way are they sir...?
Try getting through that little lot
The knights suffered at the hands, or at least the finger
bones, of the skeletons and were seen off. My chances of getting to the
Necromancer were looking vanishingly small.
However at this point fate intervened. The necromancer had
been throwing caution to the winds and hurling six dice at his Vanhels
attempts. Wth big units in place he chose only to use three dice, two of which
duly came up as sixes. Inevitably he rolled low, and then was sucked off into the
warp for his sins. Meaning I got a (undeserved) win.
However with not much fighting done we decided to just play
on (though the moral high ground was all mine).
Despite some clever positioning of the handgunners
preventing a second unit catching the swordsmen in the flank the Wight hurled
himself into the fray and skilfully beheaded the Warrior Priest.
My flagellants eventually managed to charge the zombies and
aquitted themselves well, thouh the handgunners were cut down by the skeleton
warriors.
Ah, a glorious end.
And with that te game ended with the Necromancer still very
much alive and continue his reign of terror.
Two good fun games, and it was nice playing some smaller WFB
using small units and lesser characters.
I learned a bit about the units and armies we’ll be using in
the campaign and even manged to win a game (albeit as a result of a miscast)
Looking forward to the campaign proper even more now.
