It has been a long time since I have posted a battle report for The Old World, but sadly that’s because it has been a long time since I have played a game of The Old World! This battle has been waiting to be written about since February and here I am at the end of June finally getting around to writing it! As such my memory is a little fuzzy and I definitely won’t be able to get my buddies army list, but hopefully the pictures speak for themselves where my recollection doesn’t!
We played the scenario in which the deployment zones were opposite corners of the board, in this case the High Elves selected to take a defensive position in the top left while the forces of Nurgle were stuck trying to maneuver through the difficult terrain in the bottom right. The shrine in the middle would offer the controlling troops various random benefits, but also helped to divide the Demons axis of attack. Both forces put their scouts in the area of the bottom left quadrent.
The Nurgle Daemons starting position.
The High Elves defensive position. Archers on a hill? How creative… (says the guy who’s only tactic is to trundle forward!)
Speaking of trundling forward, that’s exactly what the forces of Nurgle did on their first turn. The only exception was the Plague Drones redirected to their left flank rather than risk being charged by the Battle Standard Bearer on his Griffon.
The Nurglings chittered joyfully towards the Elven skirmishers.
The High Elves moved forward to face the Nurgle threat with the bulk of their troops, but their Sisters of Averlorn feel back so as not to be charged by the Nurglings and the Battle Standard Bearer on his Griffon moved to help defend the elven right flank.
The forces of Nurgle continued their advance on the Elven lines.
The Nurglings took two wounds from the Sisters of Averlorn in the Elven turn and advanced in an attempt to bring them to bay.
The Lord on his dragon charged the Plaguebearers on the right flank of the deamons lines.
Meanwhile the archers started whittling down the other unit of Plaguebearers killing three of them with bow fire!
Thanks to a heroic Plaguebearer champion who sacrificed himself to the elven lord the Plaguebearers lost combat, but were only pushed back by the scaled beast for no additional losses!
Tempting fate the Plaguebearers and the Beasts of Nurgle charged the dragon and his noble rider hoping to tie him up for another turn!
Unfortunately for the forces of Nurgle the elven mage was able to get off the Miasmic Mirage on the already slow Great Unclean One. This would have dire consequences for the rest of the battle as the rotund one was about to charge into the Swordmasters with the help of the Plaguebearers next to him!
The Nurglings failed their charged and took two wounds to the archers fire!
Both units made it into contact with the Dragon while the rest of the army moved up. The Plague Drones were getting close to doing what the Nurglings couldn’t, move into charge range of those pesky Sisters of Averlorn!
The Dragon easily won combat by destroying one of the Beasts of Nurgle and pushed its enemies back. Rather than follow up it stayed free to have options in the following turn.
Oh. Would you look at that. Miasmic Mirage is back. How wonderful….
The Dragon decided the Plaguebearers had to be running out of luck and charged the unit. Without having a champion to absorb wounds this turn should go much better for the winged monster and his noble rider!
The High Elf spearmen turn to face the Plague Drones as do the archers on the hill and the Sisters of Averlorn.
Remember when I said this combat should go better for the Dragon? Well, it did. The unit standard looks on in confusion as the dragon turns away after destroying the rest of the unit! Meanwhile the Battle Standard Bearer on the Griffon took a long charge into the remaining Beast of Nurgle and put three wounds on it!
Charges were launched across the board. The Plague Drones declared a charge on the archers on the hill which fled, while the Furies, Plaguebearers, and Beasts of Nurgle all charged the Swordmasters.
The Plague Drones were able to redirect their charge into the Sisters of Averlorn, but the Swordmasters continued to live their charmed life as the Plaguebearers failed their charge!
The Great Uncelan One was able to make up a little lost of the ground lost due to the High Elven sorcery with some magic of his own and advanced around the Swordmaster melee to set up a charge on the rear of the Swordmasters or the Spearmen in the next turn.
With only one wound left it was no surprise that the remaining Beast of Nurgle fell to the elven hero and his griffon steed. (In the background you can see the archers fail to rally and flee off the board!)
The dice continued to fail the forces of Nurgle as the fearsome Plague Drone unit couldn’t even kill five measly elven skirmishers, but at least they forced them to retreat!
The Swordmasters cut apart the Furies and a Beast of Nurgle but were stuck in place due to the unit of Plaguebearers behind the beasts.
In the movement phase the Daemon Prince moved to the flank of the Spearmen to support any forces of Nurlge that would make it into the block. He didn’t survived thousands of years to think he could take that block of troops on his own!
In the elven turn the Dragon charged the flank of the surviving Plaguebearers.
This would allow the Swordmasters to finish off the Beast of Nurgle and overrun into the combat and support their lord. Even with the support the Demons of Nurgle stuck around, finally finding the high sides of their dice, and not only survived the combat but were able to kill three Swordmasters! On top of that the elven mage took a wound from the Herald!
In the Demon turn the Plaguedrones were able to make a long charge into the rear of the Swordmasters while the Nurglings finally got to charge something, albeit it was the Spearmen.
In the swirling melee near the house the Plaguedrones were able to kill five Swordmasters, but more importantly the Nurgle Herald and his palanquin were able to finish off the High Elf mage. It wasn’t all in Nurgles favor as the entire unit of Plaguebearers were destroyed by the elven attacks!
It turned out to be a bad decision for the Nurglings to charge the Spearmen because when the Spearmen won the combat they were able to get a free reform and turn to face the center of the board. This helped cut down the Daemons opportunities to charge where they wanted to picking on smaller units. The Griffon decided to put himself between the Great Unclean One and the Swordmasters hoping to save the unit from destruction. The Daemon Prince had landed just outside of the Dragons charge arc, again showing why he managed to survive as long as he had.
The Great Unclean One charged the Griffon on his last turn and managed to kill him! Just slightly off camera the Daemon Prince charged the second unit of Sisters of Averlorn and wiped them out, overrunning into the remaining unit of archers!
Deciding discretion was the better part of valor the elves opted to not charge the Great Unclean One and his flail with it’s D3 wounds and while the Daemon Prince didn’t finish off the archers they didn’t manage to kill him either. With that it was all over except the Victory Points!
In the end the High Elves earned 1,094 points to the Nurgle Daemons 1,204 points, so all of that fighting for a tie!
As of writing this post in the end of June this was our most recent game of The Old World and it was way back in February. Interestingly enough the day after I started to write this battle report Games Workshop announced a flurry of new Warhammer The Old World releases which I’m hoping rekindle my groups interest in the game. I have been enjoying Star Wars Legion as you can probably tell, but I’d really like to get back to The Old World!
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 