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Author Topic: My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.  (Read 3360 times)

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Offline MagicJuggler

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My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.
« on: April 19, 2009, 10:06:43 PM »
Hey everyone. I won my first victory in WHFB (incidentally my first game), against a Tomb Kings army, at the 2250 pt level. The army lists are as follows:
Me:

Engineering Experimental Cavalry Division:

Archlector: 280 pts.
+War Altar
+Armor of Meteoric Iron
+Van Horstmann's Speculum

Warrior Priest: 142 pts
+Warhorse
+Barding
+Heavy Armor
+Great Weapon
+Doomfire Ring,

Battle Wizard: 160 pts
+Aldred's Casket of Sorcery
+Warhorse
+Level 2 Upgrade:
+Sigil of Sigmar:

Battle Wizard: 140 pts
+Rod of Power
+Warhorse
+Level 2 Upgrade:

Knights: 9 Knights: 247 pts
+Preceptor
+Standard Bearer
+War Banner
+Musician
Knights: 5 Knights: 123 pts
+Musician
Knights: 5 Knights: 123 pts
+Musician
Outriders: 6 Outriders 176 pts
+1 Champion with Hochland Long Rifle, Musician
Outriders: 6 Outriders 176 pts
+1 Champion with Hochland Long Rifle, Musician
Outriders: 6 Outriders 176 pts
+1 Champion with Hochland Long Rifle, Musician
Pistoliers: 8 Pistoliers : 204 pts
+Musician
+Outrider with Repeater Pistol&Pistol
Steam Tank: 300 points

Total points: 2249

I attached the Sigil wizard to the pistoliers, and kept another wizard independent. The warrior-priest was attached to the 9-strong unit of knights, where he could fully take advantage of his hatred ability.


His list had the following as far as I remember:

Khalida
Icon Bearer
-Icon of Rakaph
Liche Priest
-2 Dispel Scrolls
Liche Priest
-Staff of Ravening
20 skeletal spearmen
25 Skeletal archers
10 Skeletal Heavy Horsemen
8 Chariots
4 Ushabti
3 Carrion
Tomb Scorpion
14 Tomb Guard
1 Screaming Skull Catapult
1 Bone Giant

I deployed my Arch-lector in the center of the map behind everything else. I deployed my pistoliers behind a forest, and deployed a unit of knights and my large unit of knights full inches foward, center of the map, alongside the steamtank. On the rightmost flank, I deployed 2 units of outriders, on the leftmost flank I deployed a unit of knights and an outrider.

He deployed a unit of archers, and his Tomb Guard+Khalida in the center of the map. He deployed his chariots and ushbati on my leftmost flank; on my right flank he deployed his spearmen, light horsemen, carrion, screaming skull catapult, and bone giant. He left his Tomb Scorpion in reserve for It Came From Below. He attached Khalida to a unit of Tomb Guard, the Icon Bearer and Liche priest to the archers, and another liche priest to spears.

Magicwise, for my Sigil wizard, I rolled Healing Energy (which I swapped for Burning Gaze) and Cleansing Flare, while for my other wizard, I rolled Blinding Light and Burning Gaze.

Empire Turn 1:
I went first and hurtled my central knights and tanks straight at the enemy lines, my pistoliers using them as cover. Meanwhile, I moved my arch-lector to my right flank to assist the outriders, and the knights on the left flank to prepare a charge towards his center. My magic phase was uneventful; I got a single casting of Hammer of Sigmar off, and killed 2 skeleton bowmen with Burning Gaze, but aside from that, my army failed to kill stuff. Anticipating a horrid magic phase next semester, I save 2 dice through the Rod of Power.

The shooting phase comes, and I shoot one of his High Priests with my Long Rifles. He was shocked because of the Scientific precision rule and someone else pitched in and said "yes, it's basically a sniper rifle" and he was pretty demoralized through the rest of the battle. I wound one of his Liche Priests but otherwise fail to intimidate him.

Tomb Kings Turn 1:
His turn comes, and he positions his Usbati and Tomb Guard as if ready to receive a charge from my knights; meanwhile, he rushes his cavalry and chariots and carrion throughout the battle. He casts Righteous Smiting on his archers and they fire a good 23 shots, killing a grand total of 0 knights. He attempts to use several movement spells to move his heavy cavalry but those end up dispelled. Finally, I dispel the Staff of Ravening and Khalida's serpent staff. His Screaming Skull misses my steam tank, and his archers again fail to kill any infantry.

Empire Turn 2:
My next turn comes and things get nasty. I charge his archers with my 9-strong knight unit, passing the fear check. Meanwhile, I burn 4 steam points and move/position my steam tank's cannon in a manner that I'm now flanking his chariots. I move my pistoliers within 8" of khalida, and am told that I cannot steal Incantations (apparently the FAQ says otherwise but what did I know) so instead I sit back and taunt his Tomb Guard and Ushbati. In the magic phase, I threw two Hammers of Sigmar, the first producing a dispel scroll, the second producing 2 dispel dice. I casted soulfire at his archer unit and that too was dispelled. I cast Burning Gaze with the Golden Griffon and this gets dispelled likewise, but I get another one off with the non-sigil wizard, and manage to inflict 5 wounds on his carrion unit, reducing it to one half-wound model. Finally, he lets the doomfire ring go through, saying I can only shoot it straight through or else I hit my own models. I killed an archer. I rolled a 1 on the rod of power and lost the dice.

In the shooting phase, I taunted Khalida's unit by shooting pistols at them, inflicting 3 dead tomb guard. I fired the Steam Tank's cannon, and in a fit of bad luck, I landed the cannonball on one chariot, but it did not bounce through (which was a shame as it was such a perfect alignment...). So I killed one chariot with a cannonball, rather than the 3+ I hoped...oh well. I killed another chariot with an outrider unit firing, while another outrider unit wiped out the last Carrion; the other one managed to inflict a wound on the Bone Giant. Finally, I wounded his other Liche priest with Long Rifle fire.

In the assault phase, since I had left my 5 man unit of knights in reserve, I only had the large knight unit to fight stuff. Between the horses, hatred-buffed knights, and warrior-priest with great weapon, I killed 9 of his models and he killed none in turn. Due to the CR, me having the War Banner, he ended up losing another 10 models.

Tomb Kings Turn 2: This hurt...quite a bit. My opponent pulled out It Came From Below and popped out his Tomb Scorpion. Meanwhile, he charged with his Chariots against one of my units of knights, which held. The other unit was charged by the Scorpion AND bone giant and held as their reaction check. He charged the Ushabati and Tomb Guard at the pistoliers, who chose to flee. Meanwhile, he advanced his horsemen towards my outriders. So I only had 6 dispel-dice.

Between that and close combat, my opponent forgot his shooting and magic phases outright. Which I said "wait, we can go back" and he's like "nah, forget it..." Due to fear/terror/etc, he manages to run down and kill both my vanilla knight units. However, due to the way his pursuit works, his chariots and bone giant are facing away from my outriders and I'm basically able to shoot them in the ass for the next turn. Against his other unit, his Icon bearer kills a knight with Killing Blow, but the rest of my unit kills another 3 archers, winning combat again and killing another 2 through CR. He's down to about 3 archers, the Liche Priest, and Icon Bearer.

Empire Turn 3: I rally for the Pistoliers (who being in range of the Arch-lector, are rolling at Ld 10), and move them in between the Tomb Scorpion and Bone Giant (whos back is to them), and build up 4 steam points with which to charge the Steam Tank against Khalida's tomb guard. I also charge his Heavy Horsemen with the War Altar. Finally, I run up a unit of Outriders to close the gap between me and the Screaming Skull.

For magic, I fired off several burning gazes, one which he dispels, another which gets cast on irresistable force, inflicting 2 wounds on his Tomb Scorpion. I cast another soulfire on the archer unit, which he dispels. I cast 2 soulfires and a cleansing flare, wiping out his heavy cavalry unit, and leaving my Arch-lector stranded and in charge range of the skeletal spears.

For shooting, my pistoliers kill the Tomb Scorpion off, and the outriders inflict another wound on the Bone Giant. Additionally, I kill off another chariot.

In close combat, I roll 5d3 for 12 impact hits for the Steam Tank. Of these, only one fails to wound. 11 Tomb Guard find themselves squished into a bloody pulp, and Khalida's attacks fail to wound in turn. The resulting combat resolution kills off the unit (I basically imagine Khalida going "squish") and the Curse fails to hit the Steam Tank. After this, my opponent conceded.

Comments: My opponent was just terrorized by the Outriders. He's like "they're better than Dwarfs; how are they getting so many shots? I can't do anything!" I told him that they have paper-thin armor in return and he's like "but when I target, you get that 2+ save..." I mentioned he was shooting at the knights which are hard as nails. I in turn was surprised at the lethality that being run down could result in. It was still a good game though the TK player said "next time if I'm going to lose, I'll play Goblins so I lose in style..." We then talked about unit use and the local-game store owner said he used his casters out of units so they couldn't be targeted...the Tomb King player said "but his sniper rifles can!" I really think the sniper rifles scared him just because its Tomb Kings...

Next time I play, I'll probably bring the FAQ to clarify that "yes, I can steal your Incantations."
« Last Edit: April 19, 2009, 10:15:39 PM by MagicJuggler »

Offline Calus Drakin

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Re: My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2009, 10:59:46 PM »
Not bad. Your opponent missing both shooting and magic in his second turn hurt him quite a bit.

Tomb Kings is one of those armies that will seriously fear the sniper units that you're running. Take out the heirophant ( toughness 3 with 2 wounds and no save ) and the entire army falls apart pretty quickly. Did he point out which liche priest that was to you ?

Sounds like it was really a pretty good game going into the third turn, pity it turned out so short.

Considering my chosen armies are Vampire Counts and Night Lords, yes, I think "Back from the dead" is probably the most accurate description of my return.

Vampire Counts
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Offline Changeyname

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Re: My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2009, 11:16:51 PM »
We then talked about unit use and the local-game store owner said he used his casters out of units so they couldn't be targeted...the Tomb King player said "but his sniper rifles can!" I really think the sniper rifles scared him just because its Tomb Kings...
just a note in case you decide to listen to this, he's wrong ;)
he got it backwards lol

when inside a unit of 5+ rank and file, a character cannot be targeted unless specified otherwise (like hoochlands and certain other bits and spells etc do )
however a lone character outside of a unit is a legitimate target just like any other unit
page 74 of the BRB if you wanna look it up yourself

anywho a great report and a fantastic win, congratz and "Long Live the Empire"
The Blackest Night falls from the skies,
The darkness grows as all light dies,
We crave your hearts and your demise,
By my black hand--The dead shall rise!

Offline MagicJuggler

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Re: My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2009, 11:36:12 PM »
Not bad. Your opponent missing both shooting and magic in his second turn hurt him quite a bit.

Tomb Kings is one of those armies that will seriously fear the sniper units that you're running. Take out the heirophant ( toughness 3 with 2 wounds and no save ) and the entire army falls apart pretty quickly. Did he point out which liche priest that was to you ?

Sounds like it was really a pretty good game going into the third turn, pity it turned out so short.

To be honest, the only magic he was legitimately able to pull off was:

Righteous Smiting on the archers who were locked in close combat...
Casting Urgency on his cavalry (which I had reserved dispels for...granted I only had 6 dice)
Staff of Ravening on my Pistoliers.

As for shooting, he could've attempted to shoot the steam tank a second time...So...eh.

He didn't actually post which one was the Heirophant. It really doesn't matter either way as by the end of that turn, I was still out of charge range, and assuming he attempted to move forward/away, I would have withdrawn my War Altar to the Outriders and snipe his remaining Liche Priest...at any rate, what really killed him was losing his Tomb Guard and Khalida to the Steam Tank ramming into them.

Offline Calus Drakin

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Re: My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2009, 11:59:14 PM »
Well, he should have gotten off at least 2 Incantations of Smiting, as he was running Khalida and she casts that automatically and it can't be dispelled.

And the Steam Tank is a beast, to be sure, although it's not as good as it used to be, thankfully.
Considering my chosen armies are Vampire Counts and Night Lords, yes, I think "Back from the dead" is probably the most accurate description of my return.

Vampire Counts
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Offline MagicJuggler

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Re: My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2009, 12:35:34 AM »
It says once per phase; as far as I'm aware, she also isn't capable of using My Will Be Done...eh.

Offline Calus Drakin

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Re: My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2009, 12:47:39 AM »
Yeah, once per phase, two turns means he would have gotten it off twice if he hadn't forgotten his phases in turn 2, ah well, my bad.
Considering my chosen armies are Vampire Counts and Night Lords, yes, I think "Back from the dead" is probably the most accurate description of my return.

Vampire Counts
     1 / 1 / 1

Offline MagicJuggler

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Re: My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2009, 01:06:08 AM »
Right. He did get it successfully off in turn 1; I had to remind him that since he was using Khalida that he got the ability off automatically. Honestly, I think he was rusty with the game as well.

The thing that caused the most confusion was when the Tomb Scorpion and Knight charged...at first we wanted to know what a charge was vs. a failed charge, etc...that ultimately I decided to hold the knights, knowing that although they would be slaughetered, if I was able to kill the Tomb Scorpion, his Bone Giant would be unable to charge due to not being able to see anything. Meanwhile, the pistoliers were lucky to be in range of the general where they could rally from ld 10 instead of 8.

On another note, I realize I forgot to use the repeater pistol on my steam tank, as minor a detail as that is, and undercounted how many units I actually was able to shoot with, etc...oh well. Burning Gaze really tore a number on his smaller units such as the Carrion/etc.

Offline Perihelion

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Re: My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2009, 06:30:42 PM »
Wow, a lord level game for your first time. Good job, but one thing to note:

11 Tomb Guard find themselves squished into a bloody pulp,

No blood or flesh left on those guys.

Way to jump right into the thick of it.
"The strength of your force may be calculated by multiplying its weight by its velocity. Strive always to maximize both and victory shall be yours."
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Hell, get some personality and get something other than a Fireknife...

Offline MagicJuggler

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Re: My first victory: Empire vs. Tomb Kings.
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2009, 09:00:40 PM »
Wow, a lord level game for your first time. Good job, but one thing to note:

11 Tomb Guard find themselves squished into a bloody pulp,

No blood or flesh left on those guys.

Way to jump right into the thick of it.

I dunno, I always imagined scarabs and other insects nesting inside the undead warriors, and they squish rather well no?

As for the army, I ended up doing an insane amount of proxying. I had some Old Glory Byzantine cataphracts about which I used as my Knights, and used several cav bases with gunners mounted on them to represent the outriders. (I used to play Mordheim a lot). I have plans to actually model the force as a Finnish-style army, with the cavalry being huntsmen/commandos on skis, etc.

The guy was somewhat still stuck in 6th-ed mindset, and hadn't faced Empire up until this point. I had a vague idea on how Tomb Kings worked from reading up in advance, and while I intended this army to be take-all-comers, I used the Rod of Power in a more defensive manner than I normally would have.

I'm still working on generating the images to show.

 


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