We had a slightly bigger than normal crowd for The Old World last week. A new guy showed up who was raising his Tomb Kings back from the dead of 7th Edition who wanted to play so we decided to do a 2 versus 2 battle with 1,000 points per player. I didn’t grab all the army lists this time so we will have to do an overview from pictures and memory!

Nurgle – Great Unclean One, Level 4 mage. 2 units of Plaguebearers, 1 unit of Rot Flies

Tomb Kings – Lich Priest, level 2. Tomb Prince. Unit of 19 archers, 20 Warriors with shields and spears, 3 chariots, 4 Ushabti, 20 Tomb Guard.

High Elves – Archmage, level 4 on Lion Chariot, Great Eagle, 7 Swordmasters, 24 Lothern Sea Guard

Wood Elves – Level 4 mage, Wardancer Hero, Great Eagle, 2 10 elf units of Archers, 7 Wardancers, 5 Glade Riders

The new players army wasn’t painted but you could tell he is getting some work done and we were happy to have another person join us. I made my list and then asked the Elf players if they had level 4 mages. I was going to drop my Great Unclean One down a few levels but they had level 4’s so I stuck with it. In the end he hardly dispelled anything all game and only got one spell off that mattered and at that point he was out of range of the enemy mages and rolled high so I would have been just as well off with the extra points!

With all the players I had a hard time keeping track of everything so if I’m a little light on details I’m blaming it on the fog of war!

The High Elves set up across from the Daemons of Nurgle while the Wood Elves set up opposite the Tomb Kings. With a few notable exceptions later in the battle most of the game was spent fighting across the board.

The opening positioning. Despite having more units the Forces of Evil rolled high enough to get the first turn.

The Ravening Hordes shambled forward to get to grips with their opponents of the Forces of Fantasy. The Great Unclean One cast the Summoning on the Unit of Lothern Sea Guard and killed six of them! They wavered slightly but with a 9 on the dice, and their BSB standing with them they maintained their position!

On the opposite side of the field the Undead Charioteers killed three Glade Riders causing them to panic and run! I guess they did not like being the victim of shooting for once!

On the High Elf side of the board the Swordmasters pushed up and the Eagle flapped around to find someone to annoy while the mage cast a fireball at the Rot Flies causing a wound.

On the Wood Elf flank the Glade Riders continued their hasty retreat while the Archers and mage put two wounds on the chariot and killed four Tomb Guard. Plague of Rust was cast liberally about the battlefield this game by the Wood Elf mage eliminating the Tomb Kings modest armor and causing my teammate much consternation!

The Tomb Kings pushed forward to try and get to grips with the Wood Elves hiding in the trees. Adding to the problems for the Tomb Kings the Wood Elf mage kept Tree Signing placing groups of trees in all sorts of inconvenient places!

The Wood Elf mage managed to cast a spell with Total Power before finding the other side of the dice and miscasting. She put a wound on herself and killed two archers, but the other units managed to avoid the blast!

Meanwhile the Lothern Sea Guard whittled away the block of Plague Bearers as the Great Unclean One got uncomfortably close!

The Sword Masters charged the Rot Flies and the Archmage on the Lion Chariot charged the now smaller unit of Plague Bearers to the right of the picture. Knowing the Great Unclean One wouldn’t be able to charge in to rescue the Plague Bearers the mage hoped to blast through the unit before the lumbering creature to turn and charge. On the other flank the Wood Elves finished off the Tomb King Chariots with their bow fire.

I forgot to take pictures this turn. During combat the Sword Masters put on a wound on to the Rot Flies but lost 6 of their number to the return attacks causing the champion to turn and flee. The Rot Flies pursued and ran down the Sword Master champion. Meanwhile the Archmage reduced the Plague Bearers down to five but I managed to roll a five so they stuck around!

The Rot Flies charged the Lothern Sea Guard on the Daemon/Tomb King turn. I forgot the Sea Guard can reform when charged so what went from a really tasty flank charge turned into a front on slow grind combat. Whoops! Meanwhile the Tomb Kings crossed over the imaginary divider between the two sides of the table and flank charged the Archmage and his Lion Chariot.

The Archmage cast Hammer Hand on himself and with the assistance of Plague of Rust on the Tomb Guard managed to win the combat despite being surrounded on all sides! The Tomb Guard had Indomitable so didn’t crumble and the Plague Bearers passed their test so didn’t crumble at all. With the Great Unclean One staring the Archmage down next turn was going to be ugly for the poor mage! Meanwhile one of the Great Eagles charged the Lich Priest and killed him. The Tomb King player was very fortunate throughout the game as he lost very few models to the resulting crumble tests.

As it turns out I didn’t take many pictures on the last two turns of the game. The Archmage managed to survive a turn of combat against the Great Unclean one and friends and killed a Plague Bearer and a pile of Tomb Guard. The Archmage actually won that combat, again with the help of the Plague of Rust and Hammer Hand. The Plague Bearers lost one of their number to a failed break test. The Wood Elves continued to plink at the Tomb King army further reducing the Ushabti.

In the next half of the turn the Forces of Evil finished off the Archmage and the Tomb Guard charged the flank of the Lothern Sea Guard as they continued to fight the Rot Flies. With their help the unit was cut down to the elf, leaving only the Battle Standard Bearer. He must have stretched before the battle so he was able to outrun his pursuers! On his turn he rallied and turned to face the solo Rot Fly. The War Dancers decided they should finally do something so they charged the Skeleton Warriors and killed off the entire unit! Focusing on bigger victory point targets they tried killing off the Ushabti and failed leaving the Plague Bearers to survive the game!

Down to only 1 wound the Rot Fly flew off back behind the Plague Bearers to preserve his victory points. The Great Unclean One tried casting the Summoning once again but was easily dispelled rolling only a 5! With that the game was over!

At the end once victory points were tallied the balance turned towards the force of evil, about 1,100 points to 700 points.

The Tomb King player had a good time and learned the importance of bringing a level 4 mage. He couldn’t fend off the Arch Mages magic, and my Great Unclean One was too far away to help. He had a good time though, and I’m hoping we have added another player to the group!

-Wachtmeister