Despite his bravado Captain Guthook could not help but be amazed by the ethereal tower that had materialised before them with the rising of the sun.
Even the snorting Cygor the Slaughtermaster had bound to their cause stared at the sky in wonder! It's single eye surveying colours his brutish mind could not even begin to comprehend.
Guthook stared down the line of the Ogres and his Orc allies which had mustered for this battle and smiled. Within the massed ranks titans of legend towered above their temporary masters, their minds subjugated to their cause through scrolls of binding.
Guthook winked at his half brother 'Big Eric' as horns blared up and down the line signalling the advance. Soon the Gatehouse would be theirs and therefore they would be one step closer to getting their hands on that bloody flying fastness!
This Saturday saw the four generals of the Badlands muster at Lano's garage. We had decided to make this end of season scenario a big one with 3000 points aside and well as the 25% extra's for the 'storm of magic' battle which would erupt around the Gatehouse. Because of this we met up at the earlier time of 3pm. Just as well as the final whistle would not be blown until just past midnight!!!!
With Storms of Magic being such confusing games and knowing this was going to be a long game I had decided to just bring simple 'meat and potato' units to the battle to keep things as simple as possible.
Lee also seemed to have a really strong grip on the forces he brought to the table.
Arrayed opposite us was the 'odd couple' alliance of Phil and Lano. With Lano turning to the forces of the undead for support and Phil bringing Chaos allies maybe Lano was also turning to the dark side?
One thing was for certain; we all struggled to get all our forces on the table! There was going to be very little in the way of manoeuvring in the early turns.
Phil and Lano win the first turn and Phil's 'Exalted Lord of Change' makes a break for the Gatehouse!
Well this is going to take some shifting!
Phil makes an aggressive move forwards.
On the left flank a swirling melee erupts as the Orc horde gets busy on the mass of rats arrayed before them.
With Phil's elite units bottle necked behind his chaff and nowhere to go we decide to try and drop a 'Comet of Casandora' in their midst's!
A miscast gets it off and the consequences are not too bad for my Butcher. RESULT!
With the Skaven continuing to be a victim of their own mass, Lee is able to single out the Skaven Abomination with his bound Cockatrice.
Of course Lano is wise to this and plonks his ghosts in front of my Mournfangs to stop this.
Without magical weapons they are unable to harm the ethereal forms before them. That's another unit bogged down!
In a mirror to what is happening to Phil's forces on the other flank the rest of my Ogre forces are bottlenecked behind the committed units!
Knowing I need to break this deadlock I once again commit my bound monsters against the Lord of Change but to no effect.
Lee finally decimates the rats but once again Phil's Battle bus is bottled up behind the 'Soul Grinder'. This allows his Giant and Orc bus to crash into the Bloodletters with wild abandon!
To add salt to the wounds the Comet cames crashing in and Lee and I are more then happy with the results but it does cost Lee his idol!
Still unsure how to get my hands on Lano's Necromancer, Lano decides to help me out by miscasting while casting a spell with only two dice!
Then an abysmal roll on the miscast table see's the Necromancer sucked into the warp!!
Could the table's be about to turn?
Due to space constraints Phil teleports his Vermin lord over to my quarter of the board!
Thankfully I manage to fence it in with my Sabretusks buying me valuable time to think!
As the Skaven Abomination and Lee's Cockatrice continue to rip lumps from each other the Orc horde rip the Bloodletters to pieces.
The rest of Lee's forces move forward into the maelstrom!
Soul Grinder and Giant collide on the right as the Giant arachnid moves into position.
I LOVE Storm of Magic as you get to play with all your big toys!!!
Once again I fail to winkle the Lord of Change from the Gatehouse.
This causes me all sorts of headaches around the Gatehouse as I just do not have the room to manoeuver or support my units engaged in melee!
At least their still alive which is a nice surprise!
As the sun starts to set (quite literally) my Ironguts have annihilated another unit of Sword Masters (truth be told a small unit but another unit none the less) and line up a charge on the Elven unit of spears.
At the half way stage there is certainly more room on the table but things continue to be balanced on a knifes edge.
The Skaven Vermin Lord continues to chew through my Sabretusks and my Firebellies rush towards the Verminlord to try to tip the balance.
With the Necromancer gone the resourceful Lano turns to other means to preserve his zombies and casts a spell which gives them a 2+ ward save against ALL attacks!
This is frustrating but maybe all three of my general's will survive the battle at this rate?
Lee's pump wagon finally gets in on the action and wipes out several Elves!
Every little helps.
My Ghorgon and Cygor continue to batter at the doors of the Gatehouse to dislodge the Lord of Change but with no success!
At least the photo looks good ;0)
I think at this point Phil decides to help us out when his Screaming Bell takes a toll on any toughness 7 units on the field.
Much to everyone else's amusement this includes Lano's Bolt Throwers ;0)
On the right flank Lee continues to grind down the Skaven forces arrayed before him.
With everyone absorbed in the carnage Lee manages to sneak forward his bound Lammasu under everyone's radar!
With Lano and Phil needing a really strong magic phase Phil rolls 4 D6 for the winds of magic. . . .
YEP! That's yer lot. . . . . . 5 dice!!!!
Our laughter is short lived when Phil rings his Screaming bell and lays waste to our surrounding units including my bound monsters!
Casualties continue to mount but to my dismay Lano is still fielding a substantial force on the table!
If I can break my forces through I decide I will have to settle with just trying to snipe out Lano's remaining wizards to tip the balance in the end game.
At this point our fortunes really take a turn for the worse when Lee's battle bus is hit by the Skaven catapult and fail a moral check of a nine even with the re-roll!
This causes several other units to also turn tail and flee for the back table edge!!
So far this battle had had more up's and downs than a see-saw!
Suddenly Lee's Giant Arachnid is left holding the entire left flank!!!
AND that bloody Lord of Change is still occupying the bloody Gatehouse!!
Suddenly Phil and Lano can't stop smiling!
I think Phil might have even been singing a little song at this stage.
The only ray of hope for us is the Skaven Abomination is finally dispatched!!
Lee goes 'the full Orc' and charges the Arachnid into the Skaven horde of Storm Vermin!
Thankfully the Orc units rally before they hit the back table edge as Lee's general 'Scrapper' cracks a few heads together and gets his units facing roughly the right direction.
Lee looks and me a bit shifty and decides that this was a well rehearsed 'tactical retreat'!
Another plus is Lee's Lammasu rips the Skaven Plague monk occupying his arcane fulcrum apart and despite our precarious position we now have magical 'dominance' of the battle field and are currently winning the game!
Desperately trying to drag myself back into the game my Mournfang's finally destroy the skeleton warriors and I try to over run into the Elven archers behind them to isolate and kill the wizard hiding in their midst's.
Unfortunately the overrun is short.
With the Tyrant and his bodyguard FINALLY free of the zombies I am unsure which way to turn so have to content myself with another attempt to 'snipe' the Elven Loremaster with my Maneaters.
Ominously ALL the Elven bolt throwers train their sights on my Tyrant and his bodyguard!!
The Elven bolt throwers on the hill finally clear their field of fire by massacring the unit of Harpies which had blocked their fires of fire the previous turn.
Things could turn bloody for me next turn with a mass of bolt throwers traversing their sights towards my Tyrant. . . . . . .
. . . . YEP. That's SIX bolt Throwers lining up to gun down my Tyrant next turn . . . . . .
. . . . . . . Until Phil rings the bloody Screaming Bell and once again ALL Lano's toughness seven Bolt Throwers have to take another hit and explode into splinters!!!!!!!!!
To say Lano was not impressed is an understatement!
Yes both Lee and I pissed our pants ;0)
Once again the pendulum swings in our favour!
Over on the left flank both Phil and Lee reform their lines and look set to plunge their exhausted forces once again into melee!
In a surprise move (and to save some face from running away earlier) Lee's general 'Scrapper' chugs down his potion of foolhardiness and pitches himself up the stairs of the Gatehouse to take on the Lord of Change single handed!!!
Noticing that Lano is trying to move his Sky chariots towards the right to try to tip the balance there I decide to fully commit to my 'dead man walking' role in this battle and chase down the escaping Sky chariots.
If nothing else I hope to rip at least one to pieces and form a battle line across Lano's line of advance to stop (more likely slow) his breakthrough.
With limited options I crash my Regiment of Renown Ogres into the decimated unit of Elven spears. I have a small hope that their 'devastating charge' will have some impact (pun intended) against their 2+ ward save . . . . .
NOPE!!!
Having been kicked out of the Gatehouse once already 'Scrapper' girds his loins once again and charges up the stairs of the Gatehouse to have it out again with the Lord of Change!
The rest of his boyz await the outcome with bated breath . . . . . .
Unfortunately this task is beyond Scrapper's ability but he survives the battle and he stumbles down the stairs bloodied but unbowed to wild cheering from his boyz, His standing as the boss once again established!!
Lee's surviving forces encircle the Gatehouse as . . . . . .
. . . . . . A Goblin Shaman rushes up the stairs of the Gatehouse for Lee to finally claim it as his prize!!
Phil charges forward with his surviving Storm Vermin to punish Scrapper for his heroic act but the old Orc survives the melee!
Lano sets his giant, computer brain to work and thiks he has one last ditch attempt to secure the victory.
Lano reaches for the magic die and lets them roll . . . . . . . We all stare at the die and quickly try to total the numbers but a grown escapes Lano's lips as he realises his roll is ONE SHORT from the total needed!!
HOW BLOODY CLOSE WAS THAT!!!!!!!!!
With the night enveloping the battle field (quite literally, it was about midnight at this point) and Lano and Phil unable to wrest any Fulcrums from our grasp they are forced to relinquish the field to our victorious forces!!!!!!
As you can see below there is a LOT less miniatures on the table then when we started!
Lee's Goblin Shaman leers out across the devastation and claims the Gatehouse for the Orc nation and the sun sets on Geheimnisnacht as Morrsleib hangs full in the night's sky!!
What a battle!!!
The pendulum swung back and forth all game.
After nearly eight hours of play the battle was won by our opponents failing a spell role by a single point in the final turn.
EPIC STUFF!!!!!!
Despite the length of the game it felt nowhere near that laborious and the game stormed along at a good pace even considering the number of miniatures fielded. Of course the great company and knife edge game certainly helped the time clip along.
Post game rolls saw the centre of the map become a real kaleidoscope of colours as we all try to aggressively expand our empires.
The armies were arrayed on the table and my word it was quite a sight!
Really glad we did not play on a 4x4 table as originally planned!
With Storms of Magic being such confusing games and knowing this was going to be a long game I had decided to just bring simple 'meat and potato' units to the battle to keep things as simple as possible.
Lee also seemed to have a really strong grip on the forces he brought to the table.
Arrayed opposite us was the 'odd couple' alliance of Phil and Lano. With Lano turning to the forces of the undead for support and Phil bringing Chaos allies maybe Lano was also turning to the dark side?
One thing was for certain; we all struggled to get all our forces on the table! There was going to be very little in the way of manoeuvring in the early turns.
Phil and Lano win the first turn and Phil's 'Exalted Lord of Change' makes a break for the Gatehouse!
Well this is going to take some shifting!
Phil makes an aggressive move forwards.
Being fielded opposite Lano I know I am in for a rough ride.
Over the last couple of games Lee has managed to get the ascendency over Phil so I decide my role this battle is to tie up Lano for as long as possible to stop him assisting Phil and hope Lee continues to get the better of Phil.
Fingers crossed Lee will have sufficient forces to roll over Lano during the final turns.
I am not being completely altruistic as I have brought 5 wizards to the table and if an opportunity presents itself to grab a fulcrum or especially the Gatehouse in the end game I will definitely take it but mostly I will set myself up as a meat shield against Lano.
With this in mind I unleash my Ghorgon against Phil's Lord of Change.
With Phil fielding so many horde units he was forced to make a difficult decision and plumped for using his chaff units to absorb the brunt of Lee's attacks.
This means he is unable to support his 'chaff' units with his more destructive units due to their being kettled up behind.
On my side of the table Lano has decided to sit back and let his bolt throwers do all the heavy lifting.
They get to work and start whittling away my Ironguts.
With the rest of the Elves happy to sit back and watch I am forced to commit my Ironguts to a pointless combat which will probably see them flanked and destroyed next turn. At least I will trim down the Elves for Lee.
On the left flank a swirling melee erupts as the Orc horde gets busy on the mass of rats arrayed before them.
With Phil's elite units bottle necked behind his chaff and nowhere to go we decide to try and drop a 'Comet of Casandora' in their midst's!
A miscast gets it off and the consequences are not too bad for my Butcher. RESULT!
Lano's 'Loremaster' is causing us all sorts of headaches with his Book of Hoeth and other shenanigans so I decide to give him a little surprise when my unit of Maneaters open up on him with their Ogre pistols. Thanks to their 'sniper' and 'poisoned attacks' ability they are able to single him out of the unit.
I am disappointed when he only suffers one wound but the real point was the give him a fright and make him commit more units into combat with the Tyrant and his Maneater bodyguards.
My Ironguts rip through the Elven unit of Swordmasters they charged and thanks to the Ogre Cataclysm spell 'Feast of the Fallen' recoup enough wound to resurrect three Ironguts.
They line up another charge with their bolstered numbers.
With the Skaven continuing to be a victim of their own mass, Lee is able to single out the Skaven Abomination with his bound Cockatrice.
Lano does commit a unit against the Tyrant but it is not the unit I except when his Zombies lurch towards him.
It will stop the Maneaters being shot at and preserve them to the end of the game but I need to slaughter the Necromancer controlling them or he will just raise more and more zombies to bog down the unit.
Of course Lano is wise to this and plonks his ghosts in front of my Mournfangs to stop this.
Without magical weapons they are unable to harm the ethereal forms before them. That's another unit bogged down!
In a mirror to what is happening to Phil's forces on the other flank the rest of my Ogre forces are bottlenecked behind the committed units!
Knowing I need to break this deadlock I once again commit my bound monsters against the Lord of Change but to no effect.
Lee finally decimates the rats but once again Phil's Battle bus is bottled up behind the 'Soul Grinder'. This allows his Giant and Orc bus to crash into the Bloodletters with wild abandon!
To add salt to the wounds the Comet cames crashing in and Lee and I are more then happy with the results but it does cost Lee his idol!
Still unsure how to get my hands on Lano's Necromancer, Lano decides to help me out by miscasting while casting a spell with only two dice!
Then an abysmal roll on the miscast table see's the Necromancer sucked into the warp!!
Could the table's be about to turn?
Due to space constraints Phil teleports his Vermin lord over to my quarter of the board!
Thankfully I manage to fence it in with my Sabretusks buying me valuable time to think!
As the Skaven Abomination and Lee's Cockatrice continue to rip lumps from each other the Orc horde rip the Bloodletters to pieces.
The rest of Lee's forces move forward into the maelstrom!
Soul Grinder and Giant collide on the right as the Giant arachnid moves into position.
I LOVE Storm of Magic as you get to play with all your big toys!!!
Once again I fail to winkle the Lord of Change from the Gatehouse.
This causes me all sorts of headaches around the Gatehouse as I just do not have the room to manoeuver or support my units engaged in melee!
At least their still alive which is a nice surprise!
As the sun starts to set (quite literally) my Ironguts have annihilated another unit of Sword Masters (truth be told a small unit but another unit none the less) and line up a charge on the Elven unit of spears.
At the half way stage there is certainly more room on the table but things continue to be balanced on a knifes edge.
The Skaven Vermin Lord continues to chew through my Sabretusks and my Firebellies rush towards the Verminlord to try to tip the balance.
With the Necromancer gone the resourceful Lano turns to other means to preserve his zombies and casts a spell which gives them a 2+ ward save against ALL attacks!
This is frustrating but maybe all three of my general's will survive the battle at this rate?
Lee's pump wagon finally gets in on the action and wipes out several Elves!
Every little helps.
My Ghorgon and Cygor continue to batter at the doors of the Gatehouse to dislodge the Lord of Change but with no success!
At least the photo looks good ;0)
I think at this point Phil decides to help us out when his Screaming Bell takes a toll on any toughness 7 units on the field.
Much to everyone else's amusement this includes Lano's Bolt Throwers ;0)
On the right flank Lee continues to grind down the Skaven forces arrayed before him.
With everyone absorbed in the carnage Lee manages to sneak forward his bound Lammasu under everyone's radar!
With Lano and Phil needing a really strong magic phase Phil rolls 4 D6 for the winds of magic. . . .
YEP! That's yer lot. . . . . . 5 dice!!!!
Our laughter is short lived when Phil rings his Screaming bell and lays waste to our surrounding units including my bound monsters!
Casualties continue to mount but to my dismay Lano is still fielding a substantial force on the table!
If I can break my forces through I decide I will have to settle with just trying to snipe out Lano's remaining wizards to tip the balance in the end game.
At this point our fortunes really take a turn for the worse when Lee's battle bus is hit by the Skaven catapult and fail a moral check of a nine even with the re-roll!
This causes several other units to also turn tail and flee for the back table edge!!
So far this battle had had more up's and downs than a see-saw!
Suddenly Lee's Giant Arachnid is left holding the entire left flank!!!
AND that bloody Lord of Change is still occupying the bloody Gatehouse!!
Suddenly Phil and Lano can't stop smiling!
I think Phil might have even been singing a little song at this stage.
The only ray of hope for us is the Skaven Abomination is finally dispatched!!
Lee goes 'the full Orc' and charges the Arachnid into the Skaven horde of Storm Vermin!
Thankfully the Orc units rally before they hit the back table edge as Lee's general 'Scrapper' cracks a few heads together and gets his units facing roughly the right direction.
Lee looks and me a bit shifty and decides that this was a well rehearsed 'tactical retreat'!
Another plus is Lee's Lammasu rips the Skaven Plague monk occupying his arcane fulcrum apart and despite our precarious position we now have magical 'dominance' of the battle field and are currently winning the game!
Desperately trying to drag myself back into the game my Mournfang's finally destroy the skeleton warriors and I try to over run into the Elven archers behind them to isolate and kill the wizard hiding in their midst's.
Unfortunately the overrun is short.
With the Tyrant and his bodyguard FINALLY free of the zombies I am unsure which way to turn so have to content myself with another attempt to 'snipe' the Elven Loremaster with my Maneaters.
Ominously ALL the Elven bolt throwers train their sights on my Tyrant and his bodyguard!!
The Elven bolt throwers on the hill finally clear their field of fire by massacring the unit of Harpies which had blocked their fires of fire the previous turn.
Things could turn bloody for me next turn with a mass of bolt throwers traversing their sights towards my Tyrant. . . . . . .
. . . . YEP. That's SIX bolt Throwers lining up to gun down my Tyrant next turn . . . . . .
. . . . . . . Until Phil rings the bloody Screaming Bell and once again ALL Lano's toughness seven Bolt Throwers have to take another hit and explode into splinters!!!!!!!!!
To say Lano was not impressed is an understatement!
Yes both Lee and I pissed our pants ;0)
Once again the pendulum swings in our favour!
Over on the left flank both Phil and Lee reform their lines and look set to plunge their exhausted forces once again into melee!
In a surprise move (and to save some face from running away earlier) Lee's general 'Scrapper' chugs down his potion of foolhardiness and pitches himself up the stairs of the Gatehouse to take on the Lord of Change single handed!!!
Noticing that Lano is trying to move his Sky chariots towards the right to try to tip the balance there I decide to fully commit to my 'dead man walking' role in this battle and chase down the escaping Sky chariots.
If nothing else I hope to rip at least one to pieces and form a battle line across Lano's line of advance to stop (more likely slow) his breakthrough.
With limited options I crash my Regiment of Renown Ogres into the decimated unit of Elven spears. I have a small hope that their 'devastating charge' will have some impact (pun intended) against their 2+ ward save . . . . .
NOPE!!!
Having been kicked out of the Gatehouse once already 'Scrapper' girds his loins once again and charges up the stairs of the Gatehouse to have it out again with the Lord of Change!
The rest of his boyz await the outcome with bated breath . . . . . .
Unfortunately this task is beyond Scrapper's ability but he survives the battle and he stumbles down the stairs bloodied but unbowed to wild cheering from his boyz, His standing as the boss once again established!!
With a smirk crossing the avian features of the Lord of Change he begins to mummer the beginning of a cataclysmic spell.
Possibly distracted by the cheering of Scrapper's Boyz below, the Lord of Change loses his concentration for a fraction of a second and causes a miscast which sees a portal to the Realms of Chaos open before him and his shrieking form disappears in a blaze of magic!!!!!!!
With the Gatehouse unoccupied all the unengaged wizards are compelled to run towards the tower!
Unfortunately for one Elven wizard this brings him within charge range of my Leadbelchers!
I imagine the tackle went something like this . . . .
. . . . . as the Wizard is flattened by their impact hits!!
Now even more desperate to stop Lano's advance and with all his Sky Chariots committed against my Mournfangs I try to kill the Elven Loremaster in the final throes of the game and finally commit my Maneaters against him!
So much for my generals surviving the game ;0)
With everyone trying to swing the game in their favour Phil's Vermin lord storms my Arcane fulcrum to wrest it from my control!
Thankfully the 4+ ward save awarded by the fulcrum itself keeps my Slaughtermaster in the game!
In an effort to even up the combat my Butcher gobbles down his Hell Heart. The miscast fails to finish off the Vermin lord but it does diminish the power pool for their magic phase.
Lee's surviving forces encircle the Gatehouse as . . . . . .
. . . . . . A Goblin Shaman rushes up the stairs of the Gatehouse for Lee to finally claim it as his prize!!
Phil charges forward with his surviving Storm Vermin to punish Scrapper for his heroic act but the old Orc survives the melee!
Lano sets his giant, computer brain to work and thiks he has one last ditch attempt to secure the victory.
Lano reaches for the magic die and lets them roll . . . . . . . We all stare at the die and quickly try to total the numbers but a grown escapes Lano's lips as he realises his roll is ONE SHORT from the total needed!!
HOW BLOODY CLOSE WAS THAT!!!!!!!!!
With the night enveloping the battle field (quite literally, it was about midnight at this point) and Lano and Phil unable to wrest any Fulcrums from our grasp they are forced to relinquish the field to our victorious forces!!!!!!
As you can see below there is a LOT less miniatures on the table then when we started!
Lee's Goblin Shaman leers out across the devastation and claims the Gatehouse for the Orc nation and the sun sets on Geheimnisnacht as Morrsleib hangs full in the night's sky!!
What a battle!!!
The pendulum swung back and forth all game.
After nearly eight hours of play the battle was won by our opponents failing a spell role by a single point in the final turn.
EPIC STUFF!!!!!!
Despite the length of the game it felt nowhere near that laborious and the game stormed along at a good pace even considering the number of miniatures fielded. Of course the great company and knife edge game certainly helped the time clip along.
Post game rolls saw the centre of the map become a real kaleidoscope of colours as we all try to aggressively expand our empires.
We are now into the final four games of the Badlands campaign.
Winter is coming!!!!!!
Outstanding, absolutely epic stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks man.
DeleteIt was edge of the seat stuff for the whole game.
If I had written about all the tactics and dirty tricks being used the write up would have taken as long as the battle!