Vengeance Rising - Battle 18 - Tomb Kings vs Warriors of Chaos - Battle Line

11/5/23

So a little introduction is probably warranted to this army. I believe a gentleman by the name of Mark Wildman had just performed really well by running dual snakes on the UK scene. I loved the models and they had the best armour save in the Tomb Kings army (still to this day!). Better yet, they turned into absolute blenders when backed up by the right magic spells. I eventually went on to run this list over a dozen times and it soon became a favourite.
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Ok I lost all the data from the latest battle but I think I should have enough to make a very rough battle report on what happened. Hope you enjoy!

Rolled for the scenario and got a battle line. Here we go! 

Lists:

Hierophant - Scroll

HLP - Book of Ashur, Ironcurse
20 Archers - Std, Mus
20 Archers - Std, Mus
25 Archers - Std
3 x 5 Horse Archers
2 x 6 Necropolis Knights - FC
Hierotitan
Casket of Souls
2 x SSC's

On lists, I decided to drop the Necrotect as he's too easy to target if I run him out to join the Knights with warmachines and sniping. Secondly the Necropolis Knights as my fast elements and that can change if a M4 unit joins them.

Warriors of Chaos:

Sorcerer Lord on Disc
Sorcerer
BSB
20 Warriors of Khorne - FC, XHW
20 Warriors of Khorne - FC, GW
19 Chosen of Slaanesh - FC
2 x Warshrines of Tzeentch
Hellcannon

WOC won the deployment with so little units. Warshrine gives Chosen +1AS.

Spell selection (from memory):

Sorcerer Lord - Flickering Fire, Baneful Transformorgation, Call to Glory, Treason
Level 2 - Flickering Fire, Pandemonium
Hierophant - Cursed Blades, Smiting, Vengeance, Desiccation
LHP - Bironas, Speed of Light, Net, Pha's

Deployment:

WOC 1

Everything advanced keen to get into combat ASAP.

Magic sees flickering fire drop some Horse Archers to a single model.

Hellcannon scatters. Bloodcurlding Roar does 2 wounds onto the Casket of Souls.

TK1

Horse Archers drop back to threaten Sorcerer Lord. Lone Horse archer advances to cause trouble on Chosen.

In the magic phase the only notable thing I can remember is getting off Vengeance on the Warriors of Chaos which slows them down to movement 2.

SSC lands smack on the Hellcannon dishing out 5 wounds and taking it out of the game. Bowfire drops a few warriors from the Frenzied troops. A pretty good start.

WOC 2

No charges due to Vengeance in play.

Flickering Fire does a single casualty to the Horse Archers.

Bloodcurdling Roar takes out the casket which doens't detonate!

TK2

I declare a charge with the Horse Archers onto the Sorcerer Lord who holds.

In magic I manage to cast Net on the Chosen and Pha's protection on the Horse archers.

Shooting drops a few casualties mainly from the Warriors of Khorne.

In combat I'm left with 3 Horse archers who are doing the job of holding him up.

WOC 3

Chosen declare a charge against the lone horse archer however fail the strength test.

Warriors of Khorne charge into Horse archers.

Horse archers drop like flies and Khorne warriors overrun a few inches.

Sorcerer Lord drops Horse archers to a lone model.

TK 3

Necropolis Knights declare a charge into the Warriors of Khorne and the second unit slams into the flank of the Warshrine.

Magic sees me get off a powered up Smiting allowing me to regain the Horse Archers up to full strength.

Shooting drops a few warriors from the Chosen.

In combat I lose one Knight to the Warriors and proceed to demolish them leaving on the Sorcerer who flees. I opt to reform to face the Chosen.

The second unit of Knights doesn't have any luck destroying the Warshrine which passes its break test on a 3.

The Sorcerer lord is still held up however will make it out next turn!

WOC 4

Chosen Charge into the lone Horse Archer.

The Level 2 Sorcerer fails to rally and flees from the battlefield.

In combat the Horse archer is smashed and the chosen reform to face the incoming knights.

The Sorcerer lord finally drops the last Horse archer to make his run to the gun line.

The Warshrine finally splinter and buckles as the Necroknights destroy it reforming to the flank of the Chosen.

TK4

Both units of Necropolis Knight as well as the Hierotitan charge into the Chosen slamming into the front and flank. This was the make or break for me, I had to cause enough casualties, drop the unit and be able to Overrun enough taking the knights out of danger of being hit in the flank by the great weapon warriors lurking nearby.

I reform my larger archer block to cover the oncoming destruction of the SSC should the Sorcerer lord decide to charge or shoot.

Magic sees me get desiccation through on the chosen.

The SSC comes through again dropping the Sorcerer Lord!

In combat it goes my way with a KB taking out the BSB and sheer volume of attacks taking out the T3 Chosen (with a 1+ AS at this stage!). Add stomps and Thunderstomps and they flee, I do manage to catch however my Knights certainly don't go as far as I would have liked!! 

WOC 5

Warshrine slams into the flank of the Knights and the Khorne warriors follow suit.

In combat I weather the storm from the Warshrine and manage to reform. Against the Khorne warriors I make way with my champion so only damage can be allocated onto him. A snake crumbles in the process and my opponent reforms to bring more bodies into combat and I follow suite.

TK 5

I reform the archers to face whatever comes out first to open fire.

In the magic phase I get off Smiting onto the Knights against the Warriors healing my champion back to a single wound.

In combat I wound the Warshrine however he passes his break test.

The Warriors of Khorne take a lot of casualties but ultimately dismantle the Knights with their S6 and 4 attacks a piece and reform to face the flank of the other unit.

WOC 6

The Khorne warriors obviously warn out by their last combat fail to charge only rolling a 3!

The combat with the Warshrine continues to be uneventful.

TK 6

With nothing left to do all of the archers face the Khorne warriors and unleash, combined with the SSC's only 4 frenzied warriors remain.

The combat still remains tied with neither side claiming victory.

Result - Tomb Kings Victory.

Conclusion:

What a great battle. Text book shot turn one onto the Hellcannon giving me dominance on the right flank and allowing my Necropolis Knights to get into prime position and sweep the battle field.

As soon as my opponent put his blocks down it was probably the best outcome for me as both his S4 blocks were leading the assault whilst the S6 Warriors were at the rear giving me plenty of time to deal with the other threats. I think my opponent should have put the Great weapon warriors in front to get them into combat ASAP.

Obviously I didn't go into detail with magic here but I got a lot more spells off than what I've written down but I just can't remember all the details. Book of Ashur was great and I will certainly be trying this again. I cast Pha's protection and it ended up going off on a 15 with all of the additions (I rolled a 6 and a 1 + 5 for the book and +3 from the Hierotitan) and my opponent was just left facing an unrelentless phase and could at best hope to stop 1-2 spells out of 4-5 if I planned it correctly. At the right moment the powered up smiting is fantastic. Not only did it heal the Horse Archers allowing them to hold up the Sorcerer Lord which went a long way to me winning the game, it also allowed the snakes to decimate the Warriors of Khorne.

The single horse archer was put to good use against the Chosen and I was so happy with Net and will be looking out for that one in future games. Net combined with Desiccation is a sure way to stuff up some enemy plans that's for sure!

Surprisingly shooting did account for a lot of casualties in this game. Hellcannon and Sorcerer Lord are the obvious ones however the archers dropped at least 12-15 Warriors in various states so I was pretty happy with them.

Very happy with this list and I look forward to any comments.

Vengeance Rising - Battle 17 - Tomb Kings vs Empire 1500 points

Different list same scenario.

Level 4
2 x 20 archers - std
2 x 5 horse archers
6 Knights - std, mus
3 stalkers
casket
2 x SSC

Empire

Waraltar
BSB - Pegasus
Engineer
5 Knights - Std, Mus
40 Halberdiers
4 Demigryph Knights
Cannon
Helblaster

Spells:

Desiccation, Veng, Smiting, Protection

Deployment:

Empire 1

Cannon kills one snake.

TK 1

LOD kills BSB, Smiting went off powered up.

SSC kills Helblaster. Shooting kills 2 DMK.

Empire 2

Knights charge into HA further north.

DMK charge into archers - fail.

Halberdiers get re-roll to wounds in combat.

Cannon takes back another snake rider.

Knights kill archers but take a wound in return.

TK2

No charges.

Stalkers arrive.

powered up smiting goes off.

Stalkers kill cannon.

Empire 3

Demi knights/War Altar/Halberdiers charge into Knights.
Knights into Horse archers.
Engineer charges Stalkers
Re-roll wounds goes through. As I fail to dispel.

Stalkers kill engineer.

Horse Archers go poof.

Necro Knights Killing Blow Arch Lector. Demi knight breaks. 3 Necro Knights left.

Tk3

Smiting off on Knights, Desiccation off on Halberdiers. LOD does nothing to knights.

SSC kill one knight. Shooting puts the Demi knight on one wound.

Knights kill 13 Halberdiers, take no damage in return. Hold.

Emp 4




Knights move into position to take on NK.

NK take single wound, dish out 13 in return. Break Halberdiers winning the game.

Result - Tomb Kings Victory

Conclusion:

Well its been 4 days since this battle so I've had a fair bit of time to reflect and debrief in my own head about the battle.

Firstly on timing and luck, from the first turn it seemed I was going to have lady luck on my side all game, taking out the helblaster with a shot from the SSC was fantastic and allowed my Knights to get into combat at full strength basically. If that didn't happen I would have been forced to push back further to force the warmachine to move again and giving me a chance of getting my stalkers to take it down.

How rock hard are Necropolis Knights?? As soon as the buffs start rolling they're truly a devastating unit, normally they're dishing out 5 attacks per model and when smited that jumps up to 7 which is extremely potent.

On Demigryph Knights, sure they're got a 1+ save but at toughness 3 I think you just need volume of dice, they'll eventually roll those ones and sure enough that happened this game.

I didn't miss the chariots at all this game and the extra shooting and horse archers I think played a key role in moving a unit away from the fight.

Well there was a campaign at 1500 points coming up but due to some other committments I've had to opt out this time. So back to 2500 point games for a while and I'm really keen to get back to my dual snake list for a while with a few modifications.

Vengeance Rising - Battle 16 - 1500 TK vs Empire - B&G - Game 2

 Was keen to make this list work so a re-match was in order!

Blood & Glory Game 2

Tomb Kings

Level 4
32 Archers
4 Chariots - flaming
2 x Warsphinx
Necrosphinx
Casket

Empire

Waraltar
BSB - Pegasus
Engineer
5 Knights - Std, Mus
40 Halberdiers
4 Demigryph Knights
Cannon
Helblaster

Deployment:

Spell selection:

Level 4 - Smiting, Cursed Blades, Desiccation, protection

Emp 1

Banishment on east Warsphinx does a single wound.

TK 1

LOD does nothing. Cursed blades on Necrosphinx.

DGK take 2 wounds from shooting.

Emp 2

BSB charges chariots.

Archlector casts re-roll wounds within 6" of him.

Helblaster shoots western sphinx and does 1 wound. Cannon misfires.

In combat the BSB does 2 wounds and a further chariot crumbles.

TK 2

Warsphinx fails to charge knights.

Cursed blades onto chariots and heals.

Archers kill a DMK.

Combat I crumble another chariot.

Emp 3

DMK charge into NS.

Re-rolls to wound goes off IF.

Helblaster kills 1 archer.

Necrosphinx is on one wound after doing a single one.

Lose another chariot.

TK 3

Warsphinx chargers Archlector and the other into knights.

LOD does nothing. Cursed blades onto the Warsphinx against Archlector, powered up smiting

goes off regening some wounds here and there.

9 halberdiers drop to archers. Fail panic and run off the board.

Warsphinx kills 3 knights and breaks them, I reform to face BSB general direction.

Chariots do FA and crumble 1 more.

NS drops. Demiknights face archers.

Archlector wounds Warsphinx. I do nothing back.

Emp3

DMK charge archers.

Warsphinx does no damage. BSB kills remaining chariots. Demiknights slot my general winning the day for the Empire.

Result - Empire Victory.

Conclusion:

Where to start. Maybe I'm playing too aggressively with the Sphinx list but in essence they aren't that difficult to take out of the equation. 6's to wound anything is the bane here and for the next game I'm keen to swap them out for another configuration (unit of knights and a unit of stalkers and enter in two SSC for some ranged support). I think those additions would suit my playstyle a lot better. Oh and I also think I'm going to get rid of the chariots for a few games and bring in more archers. They just don't suit my playstyle and I'd rather be sitting back unloading S3 goodness into the enemy than scooting around flanks playing tag.

Those Demigryph knights are the premium infantry blenders, just amazing and very cheap for what they do! There achilles heel though however - toughness 3. Sure they've got a 1+ armour save however if you put enough firepower into them those 1's will surely come up. Drop a nice desiccation into them as well and our arrows start wounding them on 3's which is something to be mindful of.

My opponent was talking about dropping his Archlector and adding in another unit of Demigryph knights, what a head ache that would be if he did this!!

I'm my own worst enemy in this game. I think I rush a little too much in regards to making snap decisions and running with it without fully analysing what my opponent will do. I should have repositioned my Eastern warsphinx on turn 1 to cover the flank of the chariots rather than move it out of position, this could have swung everything but it was not to be.

Hopefully next game I would have my much needed revenge against the Empire which I'm yet to get a win against in the new edition!