A flurry of posts today! Not only will I be writing this installment of Game Night!, I will also put up posts with specific Campaign info, like bits about each of the players and their armies, a page to keep track of the relics, and a FAQ document for our campaign. I can link to those posts from the Blood in the Badlands page I made so that most all info will be accessible and easy to find. Of course, I’d been meaning to do this ever since we started the campaign, but meh… you know how it goes!
So apologies for those people who have Thunderstomp! in their blog-roll; I’ll be swamping your roll with posts today! Lazy Sunday my hiney…
In this installment of Game Night! I’ll focus exclusively on the first turn of our Blood in the Badlands campaign. A lot has happened already. Some players lost their army, capitals were sacked and lucrative mines switched hands. Read on to find out what happened!
Turn 1 Recap
 |
| Turn |
A lot has happened this turn already. The Vampire Counts and Ogres especially took it out on each other, fighting 2 battles. After a long day of battling, the Vampire Counts took control of Stormhenge and just managed to repel the Ogres from their Capital. The Ogres did manage to sack the city and make off with a captured General (right?). Also, the Ogres took control of Tile 41.
The Vampire Counts also fought the Beastmen for possession of Tile 17 up North. Details of the skirmish are sketchy, but the undead drove off the goats and claimed the tile for their own.
Down South an infiltration force of Beastmen (ninja goats?) had taken control of a High Elf mine. After a hard fought battle the Beastmen were thrown out and, being so far away from home, decided to scatter and flee. Beastmen are down one banner.
 |
| One |
That leaves just the Warriors of Chaos and Lizardmen. It’s been a while since I did a Thunderstomp! style battle report. Seems like a good time to do another one. Let’s see if I remember how I used to do these.
This was a battle between myself and Balephon, who is using his Lizardmen force. He uses empire models converted to look like a expeditionary force, and they look really cool. I’d show you pics, but he hasn’t painted anything yet. I’ll show you as soon as he’s painted something (hinthint).
Since neither Balephon nor myself could challenge anyone in the first campaign turn we decided to play a game vs. each other. We randomly rolled which army we would be using (both used army 2) and decided to have a 3000 pts battle. Since we weren’t actually fighting over a tile we didn’t have that much to gain, but we wanted to fight a battle anyway. I mean, the worst that could happen would be that one of us would lose an army banner for the rest of the season. And how likely was that?Armies:
(note to self: keep better notes of opponent’s army so that I still remember what I fought against)Lizardmen:
Björn der Metzger, Saurus Oldblood.Mount: Hœnir (Carnosaur)
Items: Halberd, Armour of Destiny, Dawnstone, Venom of the Firefly Frog.
Slann, using Life magic and with Becalming Cogitation and something else.
Scar Veteran on Cold One, Great WeaponSkink Priest on Stegadon
20ish Saurus
24 Skinks & 3 Kroxigor3-4x 10 Skink Skirmishers
2x5 Chameleon Skinks
3 Terradons
Stegadon
2x Salamander
9 Cold One Riders
I think that was it…
Warriors of Chaos:
Master Borazel, High Priest of the Moon. Sorcerer Lord.
Mount: Disc of Tzeentch.Magic: Level 4 (Lore of Tzeentch)
Items: Spell Familiar, Talisman of Preservation, Healing Potion, Enchanted Shield.
Misc.: Mark of Tzeentch, Stream of Corruption, Bloodcurdling Roar.
Valen the All-Seeing, Ogre Seer of the Faceless, Battle Standard Bearer.
Mount: Disc of TzeentchMagic: Level 1 (Lore of Fire)
Items: Sword of Might, Book of Secrets (Fire), Talisman of Endurance <FREE>, shield.
Sorcerer, Death, dispel scroll, charmed shield, sword of Striking
Sorcerer, Mark of Nurgle, puppet, steed2x40 Maraurders, Mark of Khorne, flail, full command
2x6 Marauder Horsemen, Mark of Khorne, flail, la, c5 hounds
6 Ogres, Mark of Nurgle, great weapon, chaos armour, Standard
5 Knights, Mark of Nurgle, StandardGiant, Mark of Slaanesh
Shaggoth, great weapon
And I had 10% of Skaven mercenaries:
Irik Shadoweye, Clan Eshin Assassin Master of the third level. Skaven Assassin.Items: Warpstone Stars
Red Pack, 5 Gutter Runners
Slings, Poisoned AttacksField Trial G34.T, 5 Poisoned Wind Globadiers
Memorable Occurences:
>Note to self: read the scenarios better. I was completely convinced I could deploy my Ogres inside the Watchtower should we roll that scenario and I had to be the defender. Turns out, I was wrong. Only a unit of up to 20 of CORE infantry. Le sigh. So we ended up with an undefended tower since I didn’t have anything to deploy there. > We had a special house rule for this scenario that allowed units to enter buildings even when marching. No really, this was a conscious choice and very much not because neither Balephon or I remember this was in fact not allowed…
> I do not like Skink Skirmishers, and hold a special place of contempt in my chaotic heart for Chameleon Skinks. Darn bastards shot and killed my giant T1, who then decided the Poison Wind Globadiers deployed next to it might cushion its fall somewhat. They didn’t. Three globadiers died when the Giant fell on them, they ran, and never regrouped. Consider Experiment G34.T failed. The other Skink Skirmishers proved to be a thorn in my side the entire battle, with my unable to devote enough attention to those units to kill them off. Nearly lost the battle to a unit making a dash for the tower in the final turn, too.
> Chaos Ogres in the tower actually make for a pretty good occupation force. They held out for quite a while vs. the saurus and, occasionally, the carnosaur.
>The best way to get rid of Chaos Ogres in a building? An Engine of the Gods doing s4 hits with no armour saves allowed. Killed an Ogre per attempt, that thing.
>I had a cunning plan to use Spirit Leech on the carnosaur and kill it asap. It didn’t really work, but I got 3 wounds off it. Wasn’t until the last turn I finally killed it completely though.
> Moment of the Match: after finally killing all the Ogres in the Tower, the saurus and the slann occupied the tower instead. By that time I didn’t really have enough forces left to move them out, so all I had was a Hail Mary of sorts in Infernal Gateway. Remember the Slann had Becalming Cogitation, so I would have to get the spell off without rolling 6s and then roll high enough to displace the entire unit. Pretty steep odds, that.
Of course, let’s not forget we are talking about the great Master Borazel of the Order of the Moon, grandest and bluest Greenskin to have ever lived, the bane of Balephon’s Dwarfs and winner of many great victories in ages past. If anyone could do it, it was Borazel.
A couple of dice rolls later and the entire unit of Saurus and Slann had been sucked into the Warp, with Balephon looking on with an extremely sour face, and Thalenchar doing a (premature, it turned out) victory dance, including the famous solo-wave.
> As it turned out, we had to go to Victory Points to determine the winner. Neither of us had any models inside the tower when the game ended, and both of us had models 1” away from it. I’d lost more than Balephon, so he won the game. Bugger!
Afterthoughts:
>I lost my banner after the battle! Bloody *grumbles*… > It was great fun playing the game though. We both had to get used to playing with our respective forces; I haven’t played with Warriors of Chaos since about 6th, and Balephon has never really played more with Lizzies than the occasional battle. So it was mostly a learning experience for both of us.
> I now know to give great weapons to my marauders. Flails are nice because they allow you to strike at I4, but when one of my units of 40 was engaged in combat vs. 2 stegadons, I sorely missed S5 after the first round of combat.
> My skaven assassin (and his Warpstone Stars) proved exceptionally adept at hitting the riders every time it shot. Next time, aim for the darn monsters! That why you have the stars, for god’s sake.
>We had a little trash talk going leading up to the game, with Balephon promising to kill Master Borazel and me in turn promising to end the life of the Carnosaur. In the end we ended up with one very dead giant lizard and a completely unharmed Chaos Sorcerer. Moral Victory to the Order of the Moon!
>Balephon rolled a Hero of Legend on his Spoils of War roll, turning that into a named BSB. I rolled that I lost a Regiment of Renown, but since I hadn’t any yet, I got off lightly. Well, as lightly as you can get while losing a whole banner for the rest of the season…
After all the battles were fought, tiles were claimed and buildings were build. I built a Wizard’s Tower up north so that I could influence the Random Events chart a bit. No other buildings were built (I think :p)
Turn 2 Preview
And so we were ready to start turn 2. Both the Warriors of Chaos and the Beastmen only had 2 banners left, so would have to be a bit careful with how they maneuvered. Neither wanted to play two games and risk losing both banners, leaving none for the final season turn!
Here’s the random events everyone rolled:
Balephon 61: Treasure map, Extra mine and 1 Relic
Shalen 42: Dawn Attack, Influence opponent’s deployment next turnApophis 56: Blood Sacrifice, can force opponent to reroll characters’ injury roll.
Bra’tac 55: Secret Tunnels, can challenge any opponent next turn.
Thalenchar 61: Treasure Chest, extra 3 Relics.
Jerroii 36: Extra Regiment of Renown
After declaring our moves and rolling for them we have the following battles lined up:
High Elves and Lizardmen have gone all-out, each invading the other, with especially the High Elves going right for the throat. High Elves attacking the Lizzies’ Capital and Palude di Sangue, the tile that awards the lizards with Empire mercenaries. The lizardmen in turn have attacked the Elves’ mine in an attempt to recapture that.
The Ogres used their secret tunnels to attack the Beastmen up north. This battle won’t be for a tile, but armies can still be lost if you lose the battle! Imagine the beastman only having one banner left next turn!
The Warriors of Chaos will battle the Vampire Counts. Again, this is not for a tile so should not affect the map too much. Personally, I really, really do not want to lose this game. It will be Lord Thalenchar himself battling Caratacus the Savage. The foul Ghoul King will fall before the might of the Order! Or at the very least his Terrorgheist! I will not lose this battle!
Ok, and that’s it for today! Most battles have been planned and I’ll keep you updated of the outcomes.
Have a good one!
http://majesticchicken.deviantart.com/art/Skaven-Assassin-170089172http://www.elfwood.com/~emerson/The-Stegadon.2719944.html
