Weekend at Burnies Old World - Tomb Kings vs High Elves

 My first Old World event!

After five years of 40k events, the Weekend at Burnies team have embraced the future, which is to say, the past, and gone into The Old World!

The Khemrical Brothers - Tomb Kings

I've gone for a balance of skeleton hordes and desert creatures (although I think it's a rule of Old World that, no matter how big your army is, there's never enough room for everything).

To accommodate some of my newest models, and spread the threats around my army, I demoted my Tomb King to a pair of Tomb Princes, one on chariot and the other leading a block of Skeleton Warriors (his blades of justice give him extra attacks per enemy rank, so could be a blender against other infantry).

I also added a Necrotect, who gives a fantastic (if never guaranteed) boost to my infantry's fighting skills, plenty of Skirmishers, Swarms and Scorpions to ambush, and a Casket of Souls, which is the closest I have to some long range artillery.

• Tomb Prince (General)
  Skeleton Chariot, Cavalry spear, Light armour
  Phakth's Blades of Justice
• Tomb Prince (General)
  Skeleton Chariot, Cavalry spear, Light armour, Shield
  Icon of Rulership
• High Priest (Hierophant)
  Level 4 Wizard
  Serpent Staff, Hieratic Jar
  Elementalism: Usekhp's Incantation of Desiccation, Summon Elemental Spirit, Wind Blast, Travel Mystical Pathway
• Necrotect
  Whip, Light armour
• 24 x Skeleton Warriors
  Command Group. Thrusting spears, Light armour, Shields
• 23 x Skeleton Warriors
  Command Group. Thrusting spears, Light armour, Shields
• 10 x Skeleton Skirmishers
  Warbows, Ambushers
• 3 x Skeleton Chariots
  Cavalry spears, Warbows, Master Charioteer, Standard bearer, Musician
• 3 x Sepulchral Stalkers
  Halberds, Writhing Tail, Petrifying Gaze, Heavy armour
• 3 x Carrion
  Beaks and talons
• Tomb Scorpion
  Decapitating Claws, Envenomed Sting, Heavy armour, Ambushers
• 3 x Tomb Swarms
  Venomous bites and stings, Ambushers
• 3 x Tomb Swarms
  Venomous bites and stings, Ambushers
• Khemrian Warsphinx
  Wicked claws, Fiery Roar, Cavalry spears, Shortbows, 2 extra Tomb Guard
• Casket of Souls
  Great weapons, Light armour

Game 1: High Elves

For my first game, I was facing oldhammernerd's High Elves. As his name implies, his army was a wealth of old lead (my personal favourite was Eltharion the Grim on his Griffon), painted up in the classic style.

What I faced was a fairly elite list (even for elves) with heroes on a dragon (the not-Prince Imrik) and griffon (the not-Eltharion), with some Dragon Princes, Silver Helms and Swordmasters of Hoeth. Regular spearmen and archers rounded off the list.

The opening scenario was the standard Open Battle, and we were assigned a very thematic (for me, at least) Egyptian table.

The High Elves went central, with their flyers on the flanks. The cavalry was arrayed in a column, which prevented the impetuous Dragon Princes from charging too soon. 

The Tomb Kings placed their infantry blocks in the middle, with chariots out on the right flank and constructs over to the left. All the ambushers went under the sand.

We started off exchanging opening salvoes of magic and arrows respectively. The skeleton warriors took a bit of a battering, but were all resurrected by the High Priest. The Carrion got shot to pieces by the closest group of archers and the final one flapped into combat only to crumble.

The Silver Helms didn't fare so well, and ended up fleeing through the Dragon Prince and Swordmasters, arriving at the rear in time to meet the Tomb Scorpion and get snipped to pieces.

The Dragon Lord slammed into the Sepulchral Stalkers, destroying them utterly and overrunning into the corner.

The Casket of Souls spent the game failing to have an impact, due to the high leadership of the elves, but it's buffing aura was helping the High Priest to dominate the magic battle.

The big push in the centre came when the Dragon Princes and Griffon Lord hit the Tomb Prince's unit and Warsphinx at the same time. In addition to the mass of attacks these elite units were kicking out, the Dragon Princes also had Walk Between Worlds cast on them, making them invulnerable to ordinary weapons.

The First Charge ability of the Dragon Princes also meant that I couldn't count rank bonus in addition to the wounds I hadn't inflicted. The Warsphinx crumbled immediately, and the ranks of skeletons hung on long enough for the Dragon Lord to cave in their flank, wiping out my army's centre.

On the other side of the table, things were looking rosier: my chariots had completed their long march around the flank, and were joined by the High Priest's unit (who had been leaping across the board using Travel Mystical Pathway. In the final turn of the game, they managed to charge both the spearmen and archers, running them down.

However, that proved a sideshow as the main damage had already been done. The High Elves romped to victory 935: 271 VPs.

I've always found High Elves a tough prospect, and these were no exception. A wiser general might have used his numerous units to screen and misdirect the inevitable charge, because there was no way the undead were winning that head-on collision. Great fun to play though, and lovely to see some of those lead models I'd previously only seen in old White Dwarfs.