Weekend at Burnies Old World - Tomb Kings vs Troll Horde

Trolls!

The second game of Weekend at Burnies, and my opponent, The Captain, was fielding the kind of madcap army that you'd have loved to see in Fantasy Battle days, but the rules couldn't quite manage it. Luckily, The Old World is more accommodating - so here come the Trolls!

The Khemrical Brothers - Tomb Kings

I was running the same army as before, with some apprehension about what I would be facing, but I was more confident about my leadership-based spells having an effect. I didn't think my monsters would make much impression on the behemoths they would be facing, and the poisonous scarabs were probably my best bet.

• 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, Plague of Rust, 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

Orcs & Goblins - Troll Horde

This was very impressive - and slightly terrifying - army. A greenskin army containing only a single orc (a rather eccentric shaman), with the rest comprised of trolls, ogres, giants and even bigger giants. Rank bonus won't factor, stupidity tests abound and, of course, vomit. Lots of vomit. This should be a hoot.

• Ogdruz Swampdigga (general)
  Bog-wood Staff, Trollhide Shawl and Lore Familiar
  Lv 3: Lore of Troll Magic
• Troll Hag
  Gnarled stump, Troll Vomit, Swamp Breath and Scaly Skin
  Lv 1: Lore of Troll Magic
  
• 6 x River Trolls
  Great weapons, Troll Vomit and Calloused Hides
• 4 x Stone Trolls
  Great weapons, Troll Vomit and Calloused Hides
• 3 x Stone Trolls
  Great weapons, Troll Vomit and Calloused Hides
• 3 x Badlands Ogre Bulls
  Great weapons, Light Armour
• 1 x Giant
  Giant's Club, Light Armour
• 1 x Giant
  Giant's Club, Light Armour
• 1 x Bonegrinder Giant
  Bonegrinder Giant's Club, Light Armour

Game 2: Troll Horde

The second battle was Flank Attack, where you have to secretly deploy one-third of your army along one flank. As we both chose the same flank, it basically worked out to be a normal battle in three-quarters of the table. Still, it gave us spare room to put our rulebooks.

In the centre was the large mob of River Trolls, flanked by a Bonegrinder Giant and regular Giant. Ogdruz was in the middle of all this, to keep order and hand out regeneration rerolls.

On the hill (ice floe?) next to was another Giant and a unit of Stone Trolls.

The flank attack was comprised of the Badlands Ogres, more Stone Trolls and the Troll Hag.

In the Tomb Kings centre were Swarms, Sepulchral Stalkers and the Casket of Souls. Followed by the High Priest and his Skeleton Warriors, more Swarms, then finally the Tomb Prince and his Skeleton Warriors.

I kept the Swarms out of ambush this time, as I reckoned their poison attacks might be useful, but I placed the Tomb Scorpion and Skeleton Skirmishers beneath the snow.

My flank attack was the Tomb Prince and his Skeleton Chariots, Warsphinx and (squeezed against the wall) Carrion.

The game began as you'd expect - with some Trolls failing their stupidity tests. But most of the army barrelled across the field. Not many aggressive spells were cast, but most of the ones that protected against regeneration or stupidity made it.

The Tomb Kings responded equally aggressively. The Sepulchral Stalkers managed a long charge across to the River Trolls. This proved to be a very bad move for several reasons: firstly, the trolls smashed up the constructs without much bother. Secondly, those same trolls did nothing all battle but fail their Stupidity tests and wander about, so I'd have done better to leave them alone.

The Casket of Souls was once again failing to make an impression, as even the Trolls were passing their leadership tests, but it was at least boosting my High Priest's casting rolls. He kept using the Travel Mystical Pathway to stay out of range / charge arc of the trolls, which seemed the best survival method.

While the Troll Hag and Giant moved to protect their flank, the Tomb Prince on foot led his Skeleton Warriors into the Stone Trolls and, despite taking losses, made them give ground.

The Tomb Prince smashed his Chariots into the other Stone Trolls, with their flanks screened by the Carrion. The Stone Trolls were quickly run down, and while the Carrion were efficiently plucked by the Badlands Ogres, they overran into the Warsphinx, who mauled them badly and chased them off the table.

Things were approaching crunch point in the centre: the Bonegrinder Giant reached the Casket of Souls and booted it off the battlefield. The stupid River Trolls were still trying to chase the Swarms, while the other Giant was playing chase with the constantly-teleporting High Priest.

On the flank, the Trolls' reinforcements were having an impact: the Troll Hag hit the Skeleton Warriors, and was cuddling many of them into fragments. It was the Swarms who save the day (again) by scuttling into the flank and bringing her down with poisoned attacks.

Meanwhile the Giant had engaged the Chariots, smashing them all but the Tomb Prince, resulting in a very lopsided duel.

As the game wound to a close, my ambushers finally arrived. The Skeleton Skirmishers didn't have much to shoot at, but the Tomb Scorpion made a rear charge to the Stone Trolls, and made great use of his Monstrous Killing Blow to instantly decapitate two of them with its claws!

The big monsters were definitely in control of the field but, points-wise, things were pretty close. The decisive moment came when the Giant battered the Tomb Prince's chariot, then overran into the Warsphinx (who had just returned from chasing Ogres, and really should have stayed away). 

The construct was also smashed up, and that wrapped up the battle - victory to the Troll Horde 973:829!

Thanks to The Captain - that was a brilliant list to face, and a real puzzle to unpick. On one hand, the Troll Horde is a very elite list of a small number of very dangerous models. On the other, it's unreliable and unpredictable - the very opposite of elite! It's brilliant to face an army where even the commanding general doesn't know what will happen.

Again, I felt my all-round Tomb Kings list was missing some monster-killing ability (until I can get that Casket of Souls working properly), but having large amounts of throwaway chaff and ambushing units was great fun.