Vengeance Rising - Battle 7 - Tomb Kings vs Beastmen - 26/4/12

By this stage I was really having a great time playing the Necropolis Knights and they were fast becoming my favourite unit in the Tomb Kings army. At the time I think they were the only monstrous cavalry units next to Mournfang Cavalry and Demigryph Knights to enter 8th edition Warhammer.

Battle for the Pass

My list:

Level 4 - Earthing Rod
Level 4 - Scroll (lore of light)
Necrotect - dragon bane gem, iron curse
20 Archers - Std
20 Archers
2 x 5 Horse Archers
4 chariots - Std, Mus
2 x 6 Necro Knights - FC
Casket
Hierotitan
2 x SSC

Opponents List (from memory)

Doombull - Ram Horn Helm, 1+ re-rollable
Level 4 Shadow - Scroll
2 x level 1 beasts - Herdstone
BSB - +1 Leadership

5 dogs
40 Gors - FC, XHW
3 tuskgor chariots
5 Ungor Raiders
25 Bestigor - FC
Razorgor Chariot
3 x Razorgor
4 Minotaurs - XHW

Spell selection

Hierophant - Smiting, Skullstorm, Protection, Wind
Level 4 - Light of Battle, Birona's, Pha's, Gaze

Great Bray-Shaman - Miasma, Withering, Steed of Shadows, Pit
2 x Shaman - Wissans Wildform

Deployment:

Opponent won the roll off and opted for the first turn.

Beastmen 1

Magic - 7 vs 3

Pit of shades is attempted onto the knights on the flank however this is dispelled. A single dice cast for steed of shadows to put the doombull into an annoying position is failed to cast thankfully. Miasma is cast on the Necroknights dropping their movement to 5.

TK 1

Magic - 12 vs 6

Light of death is cast at the doombull however after a re-roll with the BSB he takes no damage. Spirit leech is attempted on the same target however this is dispelled.

Shooting

Both SSC’s target the doombull as it’s the only chance I’ve got of taking him out. First one hits, wounds, and a single 1 only comes up for wounds.

The second shot scatters killing some Gor who fail their panic test after a re-roll and turn tail and run.

The archers combine their fire into the Razorgor killing one outright and putting a single wound on another. This causes a nearby chariot to panic.

Beastmen 2

Charges:

Razorgor Chariot, Doombull and chariot all charge into the Horse Archers. The flank chariot combines with the Razorgor to charge into the Knights.

The Gor and Chariot both rally.

Magic - 8 vs 5

Enfeebling Foe is cast on the Knights in combat which is dispelled. Once again Pit is attempted but fails to cast (thankfully!).

Shooting from the Ungor puts a single wound on a chariot.

Combat

The impact hits alone from the Razorgor Chariot turn the Horse archers into dust, this causes both chariots to overrun into the Necroknights however the

Doombull isn’t as quick.

Impact hits kill a snake and the unit takes a further 8 wounds. In retaliation the Knights drop the pig and the chariot in the flank, I do crumble a

further 2 wounds however leaving me with 3 models left.

TK 2

Chariots charge into the Ungor.

The Necropolis Knights smash into the flank of the Razorgor Chariot.

Magic – 12 vs 7

Light of death is attempted on the Doombull however this burns the opponents scroll. I then attempt Pha’s protection on the smaller unit of Knights

which fails to cast. Lastly I attempt to get a 5+ ward on them however this is easily dispelled.

Shooting

Accuracy in undeath proves itself as the SSC looses another volley at the doombull this time spilling his primitive brain matter across the battlefield into a pool of his own gore. This was the turning point for me. Now I had a chance to claw back this game.

The Archers wasted no time and killed 4 dogs panicking the other 11”. The second unit dropped 7 gor.

In combat the chariots killed the Ungor and overran 10” getting them free of a flank charge from the nearby Minotaurs.

In between all the Necroknights the chariots are destroyed and the units reform into ranks to face the oncoming threats.

Beastmen 3

No Charges

The lone dog continues to flee.

Magic – 12 vs 5

Pit is attempted on the larger unit of Necropolis Knights however I use my scroll to get rid of this. Miasma then drops their movement by 3. Lastly 2

attempted are made on Wissans wildform on the Gor one being dispelled and the other failing to cast.

TK 3

Slight re-shuffling in the magic phase. I figured here I’d happily sit back and bomb the enemy and hopefully he couldn’t take out any units with the pit

to claw back points. The horse archers continue to play around with the pig.

Magic - 8 vs 3

I cast protection on the archers as the Mino’s will hit me in combat. I manage to get Pha’s protection up as well followed by Smiting to increase some damage output.

Shooting

I lobbed a shot into the Mino’s however it scattered into my archers killing 7 however the ward save kicked in and only 3 were lost.

The Horse archers manage to wound the razorgor.

Beastmen 4

Charges

Minotaurs smash into the archers. The Tuskgor chariot slams into my chariots.

Magic – 7 vs 4

Pit goes off and I’m unable to dispel it. It targets my Necropolis knights but scatters wide taking out the lone light priest. Wissans wildform sneaks

through on the Gor.

Combat

The chariot easily dishes out 7 wounds to the unit and doing none in return is crumbles into dust. He reforms to take out these pesky Horse Archers.

The Mino’s dish out the hurt and leave 4 archers standing after the carnage. I think I did at least 5-6 wounds back here?

TK 4

Charges – Hierotitan into the flank of the Minotaurs.

Magic – 10 vs 4

Smiting and protection get through onto the archers again resurrecting 7 models into the unit.

3 Bestigor drop to shattered skull fragments as a SSC drifts off target.

In Combat the Minotaurs kill 3 archers only and I do 3 wounds back leaving one standing. The Hierotitan did no wounds.

Beastmen 5

The Razorgor declares a charge into the Horse archers however fails.

Lone dog rallies with BSB/general range or insane courage!

The Gor swift reform.

Magic – 10 vs 5

Pit goes off taking out a single knight and the Necrotect. Miasma goes off on the Knights also miscasting the level 4 who promptly forgets 3 spells and ironically enough is left with Pit.

In combat the Minotaur is finally taken down by the Hierotitan.

TK 5

Magic – 7 vs 2

I through 6 dice at Skullstorm hoping to cause some damage to his blocks however it’s not to be, a huge casting roll helps but my opponent rolls boxcars.

I then attempt desert wind on the archers however this fails to cast.

In the shooting phase the last dog is cleaned up by bow fire and 4 Gor drop to a screaming skull however no panic goes through the ranks.

Beastmen 6

The chariot and the pig charge into the Horse archers.

Magic – 11 vs 5

Everything is thrown at Pit onto the snakes once again, it goes off IF however scatters into the archers behind it taking out 13 of them. 4 Bestigor are roasted as a result of the miscast.

In combat the Horse archers manage to kill the pig as the chariot takes them out.

TK 6

As a parting gift I unleash more skulls into the unit of Gor killing another 6, this causes the unit to panic and they flee 10”, not quiet enough to get them off the board however.

Result -Tomb Kings Victory

Once again even though there wasn’t a great deal of combat in the game out of the 4 major combat units my opponent had, only 2 of them saw action. Once again the Knights came into play here purely for points denial, and secondly area denial. There was a huge danger zone in front of the knights and I
don’t think anyone would be keen to take a dual charge from units of Necropolis Knights. It’s a shame my light priest jumped in the pit, otherwise a Birona’s on the knights could have been a way to get rid of the Gor, however I did manage to kill the following:

Doombull
2 Tuskgor Chariots
Razorgor Chariots
2 Razorgor
Minotaurs
Dogs
5 x Ungor

Maybe a boring game with the mexican stand off between the knights and Gor/Bestigor however I didn't want to charge in, bounce and then eat a Bestigor flank the next turn. Without the Light Priest to get off some much needed buffs it was going to be a tough up hill battle so I figured I'd let it go as it would be very unlikely he'd be able to destory both units of snakes with Pit alone.


At the end of the game I’d lost:

Light Priest
2 x 5 Horse archers
Chariots

I was worried that the Minotaurs would just cleave through the archers and make their way into the back of the army but thankfully the magic paid off and the lowly S3 archers saved the army.

Scenery was a pain in the backside in this game. Perhaps I should have deployed a unit of Knights in a line next to the chariots to put pressure on the other flank of the Beastmen army?

Anyway, I’m thoroughly enjoying this army and the Knights are a real thorn in anyone’s side and take a lot of work to overwhelm and destroy them. Oh and that was the first game where my Hierophant didn’t die!

I am contemplating about dropping a unit of Knights and replacing them with two warsphinxes however they wouldn’t have the fiery breath option. One thing this army doesn’t deal well with is tooled up characters like the Doombull. It would be nice to have the flexibility to slap a warsphinx into a unit/character like that to hold him up. The loss of fiery breath would be annoying however it’s still a very functional unit with out that upgrade.