torstai 27. joulukuuta 2018

Battle of Farscry Holdfast

Greetings!

Here we have a 2000 points non-campaign battlereport to wrap up the year, my Aelves against my friend's Blades of Khrone.

The scenario was generated from the new Battleplan Generator that comes with the Core Book, giving us a straight-up "kill 'em all" game where nothing but slain enemy models and their Wounds mattered.

Without further ado, here's the game!

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Lord Sundamar Blazeborn surveyed the green field that stretched out far below him, his tactician mind memorizing the buildings and ruins that dotted the scene. A'undtur, his great red dragon, growled approvingly as it carried its aelf companion through the clouds.
"Daemons," the ancient being mind-sang to its rider.
"Daemons of the Blood God, hungry for the lives of mortals."
"And barbarian tribesmen, too. I can smell them all the way up here," Lord Sundamar sang back as he watched the ant-sized dots forming up into hordes and warbands on the field.

Across the field from daemons and barbarians stood a glittering host in neat, arrayed ranks. This was Sundamar's force, drawn from the loyal members of the Order of the Moonserpent to reclaim the distant Farscry Holdfast that had been lost to Chaos a couple of months earlier. Their aim was to secure the holdfast and its surrounding area so that astronomers and loremasters could once again gain access to the holdfast's structural scrying engines.


torstai 6. joulukuuta 2018

Battle of Twinpoints

Seventh and final battle of the Twilight Prince campaign!

2000 points marking the zenith of the entire league, I know fielded most of my available Free Peoples collection. My army had to change their allegiance from Free Peoples to Order: Anvilgard in order to accommodate enough artillery and heroes for it to work, as my collection is based on the old Warhammer Fantasy Empire faction, after all. I got to play against Kuqry's amazind Dispossessed army, except that he also changed his allegiance to a more general level, taking Order: Hammerhal in order to fit in all his models.

So, it was 152 humans against 114 duardin, a total of 266 models on the board. Biggest game I've had in months! We played one of the scenarios in the Nighthaunt Battletome (customised to fit out campaign's theme) in which my Free Peoples march onto the field through a portal, facing a host of mountainfolk that didn't expect our sudden arrival. There were two objectives on the field, one on each end of the board. The rules were simple: if the Free Peoples controlled both of the objectives by the end of the game, they won, but if they controlled neither, they lost. Any other result was a draw, and as a suitably fluffy narrative spice the Dispossessed couldn't use Command Abilities on the first battleround due to, emmm, being surprised.

These two objectives mark the entrance to the dungeon housing the Slaaneshi daemon. Will Fersen and Rosengart be able to defeat the duardin, open the dungeon and defeat the daemon? On with the story!

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After a day's march Breuer's regiment had travelled across the Hyshian plains to arrive at the realmgate that would take them to the daemon's dungeon. With the arcane knowledge of Ernest Rosengart they were able to activate it and traverse into the shadowy Realm of Ulgu, to the Twinpoints, where the scholars assured the goal of their journey would await.

What awaited them was not only the dungeon they were after, but also an entire army of duardin camped right at the gates of the daemon's lair. General Breuer was among the first to ride through the realmgate, appearing at a lightly forested plain right in front of the mountainfolk army. The General couldn't believe his eyes.
"What? Wait, this can't be the location..." the stammered, turning to the rows of lieutenants and sergeants behind him.
"Where's Fersen? I must have words with him. Now."

The officers merely shook their heads, gazing around helplessly. Behind them the rest of the regiment was still marching in, rank after rank of heavily armed freeguilders appearing from the depths of the realmgate. The General saw there was no way to turn them back now.
"We need to rethink the plan. Cease the..."
"You'll do no such thing, General," Gunmaster Fersen interrupted, walking in from among the troops.
"The plan proceeds as we agreed. We need to gain entrance into the dungeon."



tiistai 4. joulukuuta 2018

The Final March

The field was silent, except for the low hiss of the comets as they lay in their craters of wet soil. All around the site there were huge piles of ash where the corpses from the recent battle had been burned, those of friend and foe alike. Yet now there were no armies fighting over this blood-soaked swamp, no clashing swords, no echoing gunfire.

Two men were standing beside one of the comets, with no signs of other living beings anywhere to be seen. One of the men was walking down to the celestial orb, while the other stood on the edge of the crater, keeping watch.
"Will one comet be enough?" Gunmaster Wolfgang Fersen called down.
"How much power can the artefact bear?"
"I... believe one will suffice, as... the structure of the key doesn't seem to... be meant for enormous amounts of arcane energies," Battlemage Ernest Rosengart replied as he carefully descended into the crater.

Upon reaching the bottom, he placed the ornate key on top of the glowing half-buried comet. The surface of the celestial orb began glowing with golden light under the touch of the artefact. Ernest took his grimoire from his belt and began reciting a spell. Fersen scratched the back of his neck with his repeater, gazing around the swamps around them. This was the critical moment in which the wizard could not be disturbed.

Puffington Marshal Emmerich Heilman inspecting the Breuer's Regiment before they march off to war