CAMPAIGN: Phoenix campaign game 2

I've posted up my second battle report from the Phoenix campaign. This is another long write up as my Chaos Space Marines clash with Gary's Eldar in a Night Fight. Hopefully I'll get the third game played next week and then I can start painting my reinforcements over Christmas, now that my manflu is receding.

CAMPAIGN: Phoenix campaign first encounter

I've posted up the first battle in the Phoenix campaign on my Battle Reports blog. It's turned into quite an epic, and is replete with army lists, background, photo's and more. Check it out here.

I'm starting to pull myself together and recover from my manflu so I plan to get the second game posted tomorrow then I may even try to get some painting done. My half finished Plague Marines are calling me...

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Final thoughts

Like Ronnie Corbett, this campaign was short and not so sweet.

The actual mechanics worked perfectly well. That's because there were hardly any mechanics. When we began the campaign I was worried that it would stalemate with each side winning every other other game but three massacres later we had the shortest possible end to the campaign. I guess this is why playtesting is necessary; you never know what is going to happen.

So if the rules went right, what went wrong?

The problem was that neither of us really got into the campaign. I think this was because it was so short, that tabletop issues affected our enjoyment of the games and that the campaign rules didn't impact upon the tabletop games enough. In order for a campaign to feel special it has to make the tabletop battles different from one-off games. This difference could come in various ways, whether it be rules for troops gaining experience, altered missions and scenarios or unique models and characters. Each game in the campaign should feel different from the last so that the players seem to be actually getting somewhere. We had none of that.

Still this campaign did have one advantage over the the majority of campaigns I have played in the past; I finished it.

I'll take all these thoughts on board when I come up with my next set of campaign rules.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: The defence of Tor Thana

After some delay, here is my write-up of the third game in our Nemesis Crown campaign.

I had painted up the Marauders on foot to tabletop standard so I dropped a Sorcerer to fit them into the list. This meant I now only had one level one Sorcerer with just two dispel scrolls. I hoped Gary wouldn't have too much magic.

Gary picked a level four Sorceress with three level two underlings. Gulp! He had dropped most of his magic items and other extras to play with as many models on the board as possible.

This could be tough.

Armies 2000points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Lord on Daemonic Mount, Armour of Damnation, Berzerker Sword, Gaze of the Gods, shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, Enchanted Shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur Boda, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
• 12 Chosen Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
• 16 Marauders, full command, light armour and shields
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command, Warbanner
• 5 Marauder Horse, champion, musician, flails
• 5 War hounds
• 5 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Level 4 sorceress
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder
• Hydra
• Chariot
• Chariot

Terrain and deployment
You can see the layout of the terrain on the photo below. Again, Gary hadn't touched the board since our last game so I scattered the pieces randomly. It left a very wide open battlefield which would be ideal for shooting and magic heavy armies. Uh-oh.


I continued with the patented Volsung deployment technique - putting down my throw-away units in the centre till I had an idea where the pesky pointy-ears were deploying and then set up the rest of my army hard on one flank. In this case I had a very strong left flank and refused the right, which had the two Dark Elf chariots on it. I hoped to sweep the Knights around the rock spires and hit the squishy Elf centre hard with my Lord and the Warriors. In particular I felt Gary had put his spell casters in a very vulnerable position with only his shooty units near them for defence. Just one or two units in amongst them could disrupt his entire army.

The game
I won first turn despite the Dark Elves having the +1 bonus. I marched the hounds and Marauder horse up the centre to threaten the Repeater Bolt Throwers and all those Sorceresses. The warriors marched too, angling slightly into the centre. My Knights marched up the extreme left flank. My Marauder infantry moved up more cautiously and the furies went wide right behind a hill.

Gary had a unit of dark riders on each flank and marched each up to give my infantry units something to worry about. One of his chariots went stupid and stumbled forward and the other kept pace with it. On the right he moved the Hydra back to plug the gap behind the rocks.

Most of his action took place in the magic and shooting phases. He concentrated on my fast moving units in the centre and killed one whole unit of war hounds, two out of the second unit and three of my marauder horse, as well as drawing out both of my dispel scrolls.

The game looked like this after our first turns.


In my second turn I declared charges all over the place. My furies charge the dark riders on the right - they fled into the middle which left my furies out in front of the Dark Elf infantry and chariots. I think Gary expected me to charge with the marauders but I feared the counter charge from the chariots so I held the unit back instead.

On the right flank my smaller warrior unit charged the other dark riders. They fled too, but this time they stopped in front of another charging unit; my Lord on his daemonic mount who was going to charge out of the warriors and into the repeater crossbows. He went after the dark riders instead who were destroyed, but it did leave my Lord out in front of the rest of my army and feeling a little vulnerable.

I didn't need to worry. My marauder horse charged into the three sorceress who were rather conveniently lined up in a row. Of course I only wounded one, but I took no casualties in return. All the sorceresses passed their break tests. Boo!

Now my three hounds charged the level four sorceress. The repeater bolt thrower crew helped her out but their intervention was in vain. I killed one of the crew and took no wounds so I had won the combat. The sorceress, who was also the army general, failed her break test. She ran off the board. Both repeater bolt thrower crew failed their panic tests and ran too. Now the spearelves failed their panic test and ran off the board. This panicked the executioners who turned tail and ran. A charioteer took this as a bad sign and ran off the board as well.

By the end of the combat phase the dark elves had lost around half of their army. They had no realistic chance of winning the game so we called it another Chaos massacre.

So I had won the game and won the campaign. The forces of Sigurt Volsung were victorious and could now hunt for the Crown in peace while the Dark Elves slunk off to their Black Ark in shame. My warriors will be feasting on Cold One flesh tonight.

Honours

• Chaos - Those last three war hounds. 18 points of models caused well over 700 points of damage.
  
• Dark elves - Chariots for at least causing me to deploy in a certain way.

Thoughts

• Yet again, another perfect game for my Chaos army. Obviously it was helped by Gary rolling such appalling panic tests as the centre of his army crumbled, but I still think I had the superior deployment. I could bring my army to bear in strength on the left without much chance of anything getting in around my flanks. On the right Gary actually had the advantage, with two infantry blocks, two chariots and the dark riders facing off against my furies, the marauders on foot and my chaos chariot. He didn't press his advantage though, and all I needed to do was hold his army off the flanks of mine. Even had the battle continued I think I would have been in a better position come turn three or four. Gary's positioning of the sorceresses was baffling to me; they were such juicy targets I just had to go after them, and I knew I could threaten them with multiple units from turn two onwards. Gary's plan was to focus his magic and shooting in one tight area of the battlefield but it failed spectacularly.
• I would be surprised if I play against Gary's dark elf army again. Our campaign is now finished and we'll probably move on to other game systems for a while. I've never seen Gary so downbeat about an army before, or so angry during a game. It really makes it difficult for me to enjoy the game because if I am losing everything is okay with Gary (and I'm not happy) or I am winning and Gary is angry (and I'm not happy). It has been mounting up for weeks and weeks and came to a head during this battle. I think it is a combination of several things; it is a new set of rules for us and we are still getting things wrong, Gary is playing a finesse army when he normally plays more straightforward forces, we've been playing against just each other for almost a year. This last point is important. Gary and I are experienced players, having been involved in the Games Workshop 'hobby' for almost 20 years. We are both decent players and about the same skill level as each other. For a couple of years we played in out local gaming store against a variety of players, but over the past year (since Gary got a flat and his own table) we have just played against each other. Every game is a real test as we both know each other's games inside out and we know that any mistake we make will be ruthlessly seized upon. At the store it was different. We were strong players there, able to take on most armies and if not win, make a tough fight of it. For the first time in a long while, Gary is losing a lot of games and he doesn't like it. When I was losing against his dark elves in our early games I came up with a different game plan, I scoured the Internet for different ideas and I thought long and hard about the army I was facing. Gary isn't 'into' the games as much as me so he hasn't spent as much time addressing his problems as I did and it is showing. I think he'll get rid of the army rather than persevere with it. It's a shame because I think it is a real test of your gaming skill to succeed with different styles of army and he would become a more rounded gamer if he stuck with the pointy-ears. For myself, I think I could do with a break and/or play some games against different players.
  
• Phew! I was going to round up my thoughts on how the campaign ran here, but I've waffled on about so many other things I don't have space. I'll write them up in their own post in the future.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Game two analysis, part two

The comments have kept rolling in following the battle report so I thought I'd go through them before our next game. The first is from Zeb on the Warhammer Forum.

It seems like your friend is playing De the way you play Khorne... Except for the 8 levels of magic.

As others stated, he needs to slow down. Also to concentrate fire with his RBT's.

One thing that seems to have been wrong is that the lvl 4 can't be in a chariot, and that the four furies (in the pic they seem to be four) shouldn't have caused the Dark Riders to auto flee, since they still have Unit Strength 6 vs the Furies US 4 (or possibly 5).
Which also brings me to wonder about the first round of that combat, he did no wounds and you did one = a draw. But does he play Dark Riders without musician???! He needs to include that, just for the sake of rallying easier.

Good Luck, I know it takes time to learn the rules, I'm still learning 20 later...!

How come the lvl 4 can't be in the chariot? Is it something specific to DE?

As for the furies, there were 8 in the starting unit and they killed 1 dark rider for no casualties. That meant a draw. In the second round I think I killed another dark rider for no losses. That meant US 8 vs 6 and the Dark Riders auto fled. The furies pursued but didn't catch them and then got peppered by fire from the repeater bolt throwers and crossbows which took them down to four models.

I'll have to check if there was a musician in the unit - if not I'll recommend he includes one.

AndyP posts a lot of battle and campaign reports on the Warhammer forum. He has some strong views on the game and I am a fan because he plays warrior heavy Chaos lists. He wrote:

Characters can only ride in chariots if the unit entry in the army book (the bit with all the point costs) specifically allows them to ride in one. Compare the entries for the highborn and high sorceress. Neither of the DE sorceresses can ride in chariots.

Other than that, I like the pictures with arrows - it's very clear what's going on.

Regarding your friend's dismay with the dark elves. I would encourage him to keep at it - it takes a lot of practise to compete with DE. He shouldn't expect to win straight away. I would advise against making radical changes to the list. Keep practising with similar lists before trying something new - otherwise you're back to square one.

The rules queries regarding the chariots were a new one on me and I didn't even think to check with Gary during our game. I'll e-mail him these comments so he can make the relevant changes for our next game.

I think Andyp's thoughts on the Dark Elf army list are spot on. It's difficult to get to grips with a new game system, especially if you are playing an army that fights in a way that is outside your comfort zone. Gary's attempted solutions have been to put successively harder models on the board but these have all failed because fundamentally the Dark Elf army is not supposed to be played that way, and certainly not against Chaos. Whatever model Gary plays I can pick a harder version in my list. No, what he needs to do is press his own advantages which are manoeuvrability, magic and shooting while avoiding his weakness which is combat.

Chopping and changing the lists is not helping because he has no time to get used to how each unit works. My own experience has shown me that in Warhammer the way the army works as a whole is more important than how powerful each individual unit is, and that deployment is crucial. I think it would be more beneficial for Gary to concentrate on his tactics and deployment than tweaking his army list.

There was also an actual comment on the lone pilgrim blog itself. Glory be!

To Gary,

The Dark Elves are squishy. They should NOT be in combat earlier than turn 3. Turn 4 better. He needs to make you come to him (in the center) and then pounce your flanks.

He tends to throw the Dark Elves immediately forward, which really comes as a surprise..

The Dark Riders fled off the field? Perhaps musicians are needed specially since now a fast cav can MOVE after it rallies he can be just 10 inches away from the knights and since you have to charge him, he flees, rallies and then moves back to where he is denying you a march.

the Dark Riders that got charged by the hounds should never have been charged in the first placed.. Since either a) the riders have longer range. (14 inches for the hounds right?) and b) he could flee. He could have creeped the Dark Riders a bit first to ensure that he was in range but the hounds weren't.

Tag teaming units against one enemy is going to be needed.

And remember Chaos is a Large Hammer, the Dark elves are a Scalpel. The DE is a finesse army.

Good luck and good hunting.

btw did you make your fear/terror checks when you charged the hydra? if you pursued into it, did you make your checks

Looking at the last pic it looks like the Hydra went out alone. that's bad.. Treat it as a slower chariot .. One hitting a full unit in front cant win. It needs support. 2 chariots hitting at the same time though.. is another matter. :)

Hey archeteuthis,

We did make the relevant fear/terror tests - we tested at the start of my third turn because the hydra was within 6" of the chosen (with the lord) and chariot. Then we tested when both units charged.

I don't think I need to test when the hydra is fleeing as it's not quite so scary when it has it's tail between its legs.

Don't forget that my lord (on fear causing mount) was in the chosen so I had 9 LD with the re-roll for being Chaos Undivided.

Thanks for all the tactical insights, everyone. I'm passing them all on to Gary and I'm sure he'll put them into practice soon.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Tactical analysis game 2

I posted our second battle report up on The Warhammer Forum and it has drawn more responses. The first highlights a quirk in our army lists.

Lovely report! Just as the other!

Just one thing; What is it about you and your friend bringing four dispel scrolls? That's alot! I've never attended a tourny with more than two.

Well, that's a funny thing. My intention with the Chaos army was to go magic light and pick a low level caster or two just to hold up the enemy magic. As you can tell from my list it is quite hero heavy and I plan to drop one of the sorcerers when I add another unit. I guess I just was afraid of the Dark Elf magical barrage (these are my first games at 2000 points).

Gary has played more aggressive lists than I expected and has sometimes played very little or no magic. That has made my magic seem quite good and Gary is now afraid of it (especially steed of shadows). I was somewhat surprised to see four scrolls in his list, though.

Also, we're both rookie players so expect to see some weird stuff in our lists, tactics and games.

If your warriors are charging into a combat they want to, on turn two, he(the DE player) is doing something wrong. With that army, he should have been march blocking you, and shooting/magic you to death. Or at least until he could easily defeat the scattered remnants. Charging the warriors on turn two is not needed, and he would have been much better of letting you move forward at a slow speed and then engaging later when it was to his advantage.

Sounds like he need to slow down a little and not just rush into combat. DE doesn't work like that. Major Combats shouldn't start until turn 3 at the earliest really.

These are comments that were echoed after game one. I had real trouble in my early games versus the Dark Elf dark riders as they got around my flanks and march blocked me. I sat down with the Chaos army book and had a good think about my options. I added the furies, the banner of wrath, the book of secrets (to utilise steed of shadows) and totally changed my deployment style. I added speed, shooting and more supporting units. I have never looked back since and Gary has never managed to come to terms with my army.

Some recommendations for Gary.

Take the sorceresses out of the chariots. If the chariots are stupid, the mages can't cast. This is very bad if he's loading up on magic! Try mounting some of them on dark steeds, or maybe a pegasus. You'll be able to march block, and get in range faster to use your magic.

I'd make the executioner unit smaller (12-15) and the spears bigger (20). He might also want a second unit of 10 crossbows or 5 dark riders. The executioners shouldn't be running up and hitting things in the face, they should be getting into the flanks.

I noticed in both reports your hydra kept engaging Chaos to the front. That's a bad place for him. Try getting him to attack the flanks of the enemy. You'll cancel his rank bonus, and your flank will offset his outnumber. The best thing is to use him with the spearmen, so the spears hit the front, and the hydra hits the flank. If the enemy turns to face your hydra then run your spears into his flank.

Dark Elves v. Chaos is an uphill battle. Take advantage of your magic and shooting early on. and don't engage the enemy until you've thinned out their numbers a bit. Keep trying!

In our second game I think Gary did a good job of stripping my supporting units away (like the marauder horse and the war hounds) but he didn't manage to get in around the sides of my army to lever the flank charges. I was trying to encourage him to combi-charge my units rather than hope that one hard unit would do it alone.

I likened it to the days when we used to play 2nd edition 40k. Gary generally based his army around a supertough Chaos lord who could beat anyone on the board in single combat. My plan was to either slam two powerful heroes into him and take him down or use my superior mobility to avoid him and then beat up on the rest of his army. Just throwing my hardest fighter into combat with the lord wasn't enough because even he wasn't tough enough to take the lord out.

The Dark Elves are the same in that they just won't be able to stand up to my Chaos units one for one. They have to use more guile and either gang up on my units or avoid them and fight only a portion of my army.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn't suit Gary's playstyle. In 40k he plays Chaos with a Khorne slant, Dark Eldar, Tyranids and sometimes Necrons. In all those armies there are models that can pelt full tilt across the board and take on just about anything when they get to the enemy. I tend to favour the tricksy armies like Tau, IG and Daemonhunters who require more finesse because they don't have such big hitters.

Our roles have been reversed in Warhammer and I seem to have adapted quicker. All it will take is one or two battles where Gary works out the tactics and we'll be back on an equal footing again.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Battle of Gnarled Oak Grove

This was our second game of the campaign. The first was for the Solsister river and was won comprehensively by my horde of Chaos. That meant I captured location three and could now launch an attack on location two: Gnarled Oak Grove.

I had to tweak my list a little as some readers pointed out that I had illegal wargear on my Lord (he had two pieces of magical armour). So I dropped the enchanted shield for a mundane one and lost the sword of might. This left me enough points for a berzerker sword. I gave the enchanted shield to my exalted and dropped a level two sorcerer to a level one. With the spare points I bought throwing axes for the marauder horse. I now had a shooting phase. Who-hoo!

Gary had made rather more substantial changes following his mauling in our last game. He went out and bought two chariots. Eeek! He also dropped the highborn in favour of a level four sorceress. Oh-oh.

This would be a very different game.

Armies 2000points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Lord on Daemonic Mount, Armour of Damnation, Berzerker Sword, Gaze of the Gods, shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, Enchanted Shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
• Boda, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
  
• 12 Chosen Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command, Warbanner
• 5 Marauder Horse, musician, flails, throwing axes
  
• 5 War hounds
• 5 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Level 4 sorceress with extra power dice (Dark Hand of Death spell, Steal Soul, Doom and Darkness, Drain Life) in chariot
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell, Doom and Darkness)
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls (Wind of Death, Drain Life) in chariot
  
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder
• Hydra

Terrain and Deployment
Gary hadn't changed the terrain since our last game so we decided to roll a scatter die and move each piece 2d6 inches in each direction. I won the choice of deployment zone and picked the side with the rocky columns in it. This meant the wood (Gnarled Oak Grove?) was on the other side of the table but a bit further forward than the last game. I placed my units so that I could envelop the left flank and sweep my Knights around behind this wood to get at the pointy-ears rear.

Gary put his hardest hitting stuff near the middle, with a unit of Dark Riders on each flank. He now had more units so he could place his last chariot opposite my knights. Here is how it looked.

The game
I won first turn thanks to the +1 bonus for having the smaller army. I flew the Furies over to the extreme right, trying to tuck them in behind the hill. Everything in the centre marched forward. On my left I tried to be clever by putting the Warhounds in front of my knights to deflect the chariot away. The Dark Elves dispelled all but one of my magic spells without breaking sweat. A dark hand of death spell killed two spearelves.

I had miscalculated with the furies and the dark riders managed to charge them. Gary rolled appallingly and failed to kill a single daemon. I killed an elf in return and the rest of the unit held. The elf shooting wiped out both my first warhound unit and marauders entirely. Suddenly, my centre looked mighty vulnerable.

On my left, the chariot succumbed to stupidity and the sorceress hung on for dear life. The dark riders warily moved forward. The dark elf magic was shut down with the use of two of my dispel scrolls.

The table looked like this at the end of turn 1.


My furies pulled off an unlikely win against the dark riders on the right. The three survivors fled due to fear and the furies pursued but failed to catch them. I marched the rest of my warriors up the centre again. I was now close to charge range for the speedy elf units. Again, my magic was shut down with casual insouciance.

I charged the dark riders on the left with my warhounds. The riders held, confident in their prowess, but they obviously had the same rubber lances as their sister unit and only one casualty was caused on each side. Both units remained in place.

The dark elves began their turn positively by charging with the executioners against my regular warrior unit. I took the charge. The hydra marched up to flame the chosen warriors to no effect. On my right, the dark riders failed to rally and headed for the board edge. The repeater crossbows and a repeater bolt thrower killed four furies. The remaining bolt thrower missed my chariot.

On the left the sorceress in the chariot cast drain life. I let the spell through as I was desperate for the warhounds to be killed so that my knights could see some action. It was risky because I could potentially lose a knight or two. In the end it worked perfectly for me; all the hounds died while the knights all survived. I used my final dispel scrolls to hold the dark elf magic.

All eyes were now on the big scrap in the centre between the warriors and executioners. I issued a challenge with my exalted. The champion answered it and could possibly have killed my hero with a killing blow. He didn't, and my exalted caused two wounds. I saved the single wound the other executioners caused and caused two with my warriors. To add insult to injury, both of our magic users were facing each other. The sorceress rolled a 1 to hit while my sorcerer caused a wound on her. I had won the combat handily and the executioners broke. I rolled a 12 in my pursuit and ran the unit down. Ouch.

It was now my turn and I was in a very strong position to deliver the knockout blow. I charged the victorious warriors into the spearelves, the chosen warriors and chariot into the hydra, the furies into a bolt thrower and the knights into the dark riders. Everything worked in my favour.

The furies killed a crewman who broke. The repeater crossbows stayed, but the sorceress was panicked into fleeing off the board! Sigurt and the chosen took three wounds off the hydra and my chariot took off two wounds - the beast turned to run but was hacked to pieces by both units. My warriors barrelled into the spearelves and forced them off the battlefield. Finally, the dark riders fled but my knights just managed to catch them and run them down.

I caused so much carnage in just this one turn that the dark elf army was too shattered to carry on.

Honours

• Chaos - Thaer the exalted and the warriors who met the charge of the executioners and then went on to defeat the spearelves.
• Dark elves - repeater crossbows who wiped out the marauders in one turn of shooting.

Thoughts

• Another bad defeat for the dark elves which left Gary distraught again. He had completely overhauled his list and added the chariots and so seemed optimistic. That feeling continued in the first two turns as the dark elf magic battered my chaos army and I had to use all four dispel scrolls. My attacks up each flank had faltered and my supporting units were killed in the centre. Obviously, the turning point was the defeat of the executioners. My exalted was the difference, with the elf lack of ranks hindering them too. The sorceress running off the board was the final kick in the teeth for Gary. He just doesn't know which way to go from here and was even talking about scrapping the entire army and getting something else.
• On my own side of the table, it was business as usual for my Chaos Horde. Again I deployed in an effort to envelop one flank while largely refusing the right. I thought Gary's army was more of a threat in this game and was closer to what I expected to play against. My success lies in the fact that I am bringing my warriors into combat by turn 2 or 3 and so far nothing has been able to stand before them. I am sure that if Gary perseveres he will learn how to counter in time.
  

REVIEW: Mighty Empires

Mighty Empires is Games Workshop's latest campaign supplement for Warhamer Fantasy Battle. It costs £30. The box is minimalist indeed; it contains just six chunky sprues and a rules booklet. Each sprue holds eight tiles, making for 48 in total. They come in several varieties including mountains, rivers, forests, farmland and others. They are bigger than I expected at around 2.5" each. The tiles are double sided and are constructed with interlocking lugs, so that maps can be built and taken apart easily. Making the map itself is one of the most enjoyable things you can do with this set, regardless of playing games with it.

Each sprue also contains several markers. There are 72 pennant banners, 24 castle bits, 12 city bits and 12 mine bits. These are pegged into slots on the tiles so the map could conceivably be hung vertically on a wall.

All the bits come unpainted and would really benefit from a lick of paint. The booklet shows some suggested paint schemes which look quite tasty.

The booklet is somewhat disappointing. It looks promisingly thick but that is only because it is printed in several languages. The English version is only 5 pages long. Older gamers will go misty eyed at the memory of the original Mighty Empires game but most will agree that the campaign rules were a game in themselves and overshadowed the battles that they were supposed to support. At least this shorter version revolves around the battles. The basic idea is that you play games to gather empire points. These points can then be spent to capture tiles, build cities and expand and improve the empire. Events keep the players on their toes.

As I said, the rules are very short and simple but brevity is the soul of wit, so they say, and I'm willing to try them out before condemning them. Games Workshop have stated they want players to use Mighty Empires as a starting point for developing their own campaign rules. I'd like to give this a shot using my Chaos Horde against Gary's Dark Elves once I get the tiles painted. Hmm, which scheme to go for - Naggaroth or Norsca?

I give Mighty Empires a provisional 7 out of 10. I may revisit this score when I have painted the pieces and used the rules in a campaign.

Scores

All of my reviews end in a score out of ten for the product. The table below explains what that score means.

• 10/10 Perfect, absolutely nothing better
• 9/10 Excellent, highly recommended
• 8/10 Very good, recommended
• 7/10 Good
• 6/10 Above average, some problems
• 5/10 Average, some good points some bad points
• 4/10 Below average, some redeeming features
• 3/10 Poor, major flaws
• 2/10 Very poor, avoid if possible
• 1/10 Absolutely appalling

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Game one analysis

I posted a version of this battle report on the Warhammer Forum and it drew a few responses. I've reproduced some of them here. The first batch are some suggestions for Gary's Dark Elves. I've sent them on to him.

The dark elf player needs to bait the chaos more with dark riders and never flee from flyers unless your absolutely certain that he will not reach ( 20 inches is a pain).

More units to combine themselves to attack the brute force of the enemy.

An executioner unit against chaos warriors is not good. Supporting it with a dark rider charge to the flank will turn the tables.

Bad luck on the chariot misses though. Target priority would make you go after the hounds (take away the fast units for the dark riders to work their magic) and shoot up the warriors. Splitting up the bolt throwers (or making them be deployed LAST) allows one to see the fire lanes and forces one to choose which bolt thrower to silence.

Don't let him give up hope. The Dark elves need skill and patience and yes expect to have a lot of losses before you get it right.

Encouraging words.

Gary made a couple of mistakes and with DE's it is costly. I think he will have learned a few lessons.

DE magic is reliable and they should have at least 2 level 2's using death. His army has no punch he needs some Cold One Chariots as they are a steal at 95 points and some harpies because they do exactly what it says the tin.

cheers rob

he should look at www.druchii.net and get some help

I have had a quick skim of the website mentioned above and there look to be some solid ideas there.

When I played Dark Elves, I had a couple of rules that I always abode by.

Never try to be in combat before turn 4. While this rule wasn't always strict, you see how Gary's turn one charge turned out? Use shooting and magic to remove support units, then envelope and engage in later turns. Most armies I play benefit from this strategy.

Targeting priority. I would not have shot at that chariot with hounds/marauders/furies on the board. Expensive Chaos units can still take a panic check when a 30 point hound unit is wiped out.

Crafty Deployment. Deploy fast units first that can redeploy and shooters first, then load a flank with combat units.

Support. Never almost ever charge alone. Minimally infantry should always charge with chariot/hydra/ADDITIONAL character support.

Good basic advice, I think.

Regarding Gary's prospects on a rematch:

I'd say your armies match up pretty well, though I think yours has a slight advantage.

Here's my advice to Gary:
1) Don't receive charges from the chaos infantry. You have enough shooting to make them come toward you. Your elf infantry have 2" of charge reach on them. With the banner of murder, you've got even more. You still might lose some fights charging executioners into chosen, but you'll do better than the other way 'round.
2) Don't charge hounds unless they are right in front of something you actually want to charge and not angled such that your pursuit will carry you off funny. Hounds can't fight. Shoot them or ignore them, but don't charge them.
3) Play so that your bolt throwers get to shoot at the Chosen Knights. That's pretty much the only thing in your list that will deal with them, and boy, will they.
4) Since Chaos lacks shooting, get your Dark Riders out there to bait and flee the hard hitting stuff. should make it so you don't have to receive those nasty charges.
5) If you can change your list, take either more magic or less magic. 2 level 2s doesn't get that much done; 1 lvl 1 caddy is a much cheaper low magic.

With a little practice and some better feel for his more maneuverable army, Gary should be able to give you some better games that you'll both enjoy more.

More good advice. This poster also pointed out a rules error in our game.

Great batrep! Particularly like the pictures and the arrows and stuff.

In fact, one of the pictures makes one of those quirky little rules mistakes more obvious. I'm not trying to be mean, I just want to help you guys with the rules. This one went against Gary, so maybe that will give him some hope.

In Gary's turn 1, his executioners charge the warhounds, who flee. Even with his 6 on the banner of murder, they end up just shy of the Chosen warriors. The executioners should then move a failed charge move which is half the distance they could have covered for a charge. Your pictures pretty clearly have them moving the whole distance. Embarrassed

Had they moved a proper failed charge, they would have either a) been entirely out of range of the counter-charge by your chosen warriors the next turn or at least b) sufficiently far away that when they fled they would have escaped with the possibility of rallying. This could have made quite a different in the early progress of the game.

Ooops! All the more annoying because we had played the rule correctly in other battles. We probably just got too excited by the banner of murder. It wasn't our only mistake.

Unfortunately you have two pieces of magic armor on your Lord; you'll have to drop one. Armor of Damnation is too sweet, so just swap the enchanted shield out for a regular one.

Ooops again! I'm switching his wargear around for our next game.

Our battle report also got some comments on the blog itself. Check them out on the post below.

Let's see if Gary can turn things around in the second game of the campaign.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Clash at Solsister valley

The clash at Solsister valley was our first game of the Nemesis campaign. The outcome of this game would determine which player won location three, the Solsister river.

Armies 2000points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Lord on Daemonic Mount, Armour of Damnation, Sword of Might, Gaze of the Gods, Enchanted Shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur, Lvl 2 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Unseen Lurker, Crown of Taidron spells)
• Boda, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
  
• 12 Chosen Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command, Warbanner
• 5 Marauder Horse, musician, flails
  
• 5 War hounds
• 5 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Highborn on Cold One, Executioners axe, 1+ save
• Noble, Strength six sword
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls
  
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder
• Hydra

Terrain and deployment
The Dark Elves won the choice of table edge and placed the first unit, his repeater bolt throwers right in the middle of his deployment zone. I put down both warhound units, the chariot and marauder horse in my centre, largely ignoring the Dark Elf deployment. Only when I could see where his units of dark riders, the executioners and his hydra were did I decide whether to envelop the right or left flank.

I initially favoured my right, because the left had a wood in the Dark Elf deployment zone but Gary had deployed both units of dark riders on this flank. I wanted to restrict their mobility so I went for the left flank. I put both warrior units and the furies here. My last deployment was the knights. Normally I would put them on the flank of the warriors and completely refuse the opposite flank, but I was worried about how congested things would get on the left and that wood could hamper my attack. After some deliberation I put them on the extreme right. This meant they were unsupported but I felt confident they could handle the spearelves and repeater crossbows that faced them.

The dark elves had the highborn on my left flank, both sorceress' in the executioners unit and the noble in the spearelf unit. I had Sigurt, my lord, in the chosen warriors along with Angur, while the other sorcerer and Thaer were added to the regular warriors.

Here's how the board looked.

Turn 1
I won first turn. There wasn't much subtlety, as you would expect from a Chaos general, as I pushed my units down the dark elves throat. Only my furies hung back on my left to respond to sneaky dark elf manoeuvres. My magic did nothing.

The dark elf response was to charge with the executioners. My warhounds fled. Gary hoped to trigger a collapse of the centre of my army but I had ensured the lord was in a good position to contribute his 9 leadership. None of my units panicked. The executioners fell just short of the chosen warriors containing my lord (even though the banner of murder scored added six inches). The dark riders repositioned for later charges and baits. Both repeater bolt throwers shot at and missed the chariot. The spearelves shuffled back, and turned to face my chosen knights. The repeater crossbows killed four marauder horsemen. I used two dispel scrolls to shut down the elf magic phase.

Here's how the action looked at the end of the first turn.

Turn 2
My chosen warriors, containing Sigurt, and the chariot charged the executioners. They tried to flee but were easily caught. That meant I had also killed both elf magic users. My furies charged the dark riders in front of the wood who also fled. The daemons caught the cavalry and killed them. I flew Thaer out of the warrior unit and behind the highborn and last dark riders. On the right, my chosen knights slammed into the spearelves who lost the combat spectacularly and were overrun. This was a disastrous turn for the pointy-ears as they lost units all over the battlefield. The one ray of light for them was the repeater crossbows who saw off a whole warhound unit by standing and shooting then beat the last marauder in combat without taking a casualty.

The dark elves were down but not entirely out. Then Gary flunked the stupidity test for his highborn. Now he really was in all sorts of trouble. Instead of getting a flank charge into my warriors (with the sorcerer Boda in a vulnerable position) he just stumbled forward. The hydra charged my chosen warriors. It caused one kill while I cut down both handlers. The enraged beast became unbreakable as it stood over the broken bodies of it's masters. The last unit of dark riders pushed up my left flank, away from Thaer, and turned to shoot at the furies but they only killed one of the flyers. The repeater bolt throwers decided to hit something this turn and took three wounds from my chariot.

This is a snapshot from the end of the second turn.

Turn 3
I was now in a very comfortable position. The chosen knights moved up behind the repeater crossbows (I think we forgot to use their overrun in the previous turn). My furies charged the second unit of dark riders who fled off the board. Sigurt repositioned himself in the chosen warriors so he could lop some heads of the hydra. My regular warriors charged into the beast too. Thaer flew over the wood to threaten the repeater bolt throwers. The chariot moved up so it could charge next turn, if it survived.

The bolt throwers both missed the chariot, and the crossbows did nothing either. The dark elf general turned his cold one to face the rear of my warriors who were hacking into the hydra. In the ongoing combat the hydra finally went down under Sigurt's blows.

The battlefield looked like this at the end of turn 3.


Turn 4
My chariot charged one bolt thrower while my exalted charged the other. All the crew were butchered. My chosen charged the crossbows and trampled them into the dirt. Now came the coup de grace. My chosen warriors reformed to face the highborn. Angur cast unseen lurker on the unit and they charged into the dark elf general. The two generals faced off in single combat. Sigurt went first and hit with every attack. He then wounded with every blow. The highborn was smashed out of the saddle and killed.


The game ended with a Chaos massacre.

Honours

• Chaos - chosen warriors (including Sigurt) for seeing off the executioners, the hydra and the highborn
• Dark elves - repeater crossbows for killing the warhounds and marauder horse

Thoughts

• From the Chaos side of the board this game was as close to perfect as I'll ever see. I lost about 200 points of my army for the total destruction of the dark elf army. From deployment to winning first turn to the dice rolls, everything went right for me. The dark elves were the complete opposite when their deployment didn't work and their dice rolls were poor.
• I had expected to face a magical barrage in this, my first 2000 point game, with the dark elves able to choose a level four sorceress, but Gary chose a fighty leader instead. His own magic was reduced to just two scroll caddies.
  
• I have never seen Gary so despondent after a game. He is really at a loss as to how to win a game against my Chaos army. I think his list has the edge in mobility, shooting, magic and ranked units if he picks the right list and uses it cleverly, but my list has more brute force. Gary is almost at the point of giving up on them altogether. If anyone has any ideas let me know and I will pass them on to him.
  

CAMPAIGN: Nemesis Crown - Introduction

This is the first post in a whole series which will cover the Warhammer campaign Gary and I are playing against the backdrop of the Nemesis campaign. He will be using his Dark Elves while I will be fielding my Horde of Chaos. The campaign will be played using the simple location rules I posted a while back, with 2000 points armies.

We'll be using the time limit special rule with our campaign ending on 6th August 2007. There are only 6 weeks or so to play, we decided to stick with the basic five locations. The games are set in the Barren Hills and we've named the locations thus.

1. The ruins of Tor Thana
2. Gnarled oak grove
3. Solsister river
4. Dun hills
5. Marchens Henge

The Dark Elves are camped out near Tor Thana so their base is location one. My Chaos horde is based at Marchens Henge which is location five. If you check out this map you will notice that the intervening terrain features match the ones above. It's almost like I did that on purpose!

Our first battle will be near the Solsister river in location three. I'll post the first battle report tomorrow.

CAMPAIGNS: Location campaign

I think that campaigns are the pinnacle of miniature gaming. They add context, drama and excitement to games. Knowing that a city, world or sub-sector rests on the outcome of your battle adds greatly to the game. Heroes can be made as they lead their troops to victory and units develop their own stories, good or bad. This is the stuff that makes playing games a much richer and deeper experience than playing a regular board game.

Campaigns can also inspire you. To build terrain, write background histories for your armies, invent worlds and test special rules. They also create a game around the game, encouraging more 'realistic' gameplay from players. In a one-off game you might sacrifice a unit to win the game, but would you do the same in a 10 game campaign? Heavy losses might be acceptable when your troops magically raise themselves back from the dead in time for the next battle; in a campaign the casualties cannot be so easily replaced and your losses could hurt you later on. You might win the battle but lose the war.

Like many players, I suspect, I like the idea of campaigns but rarely play them. This is largely due to time constraints and the amount of work the campaign creator has to put into the campaign, and the commitment required of the players. I hope to change that over the coming months and years.

My first attempt will be low-key and short. I think this is the best way to start and will give me the maximum chance of finishing the campaign. I want to run it alongside the Games Workshop Nemesis Crown worldwide campaign over the next four or five weeks. Here are the rules I have developed.

Location campaign rules
A location campaign is played between two players. It uses a very simple 'map' to regulate the games.

The basic rules use five locations. Each player has a base at the opposite ends of the line (location one and location five). The first game is played at location three. The winner of this game captures that location and can advance one location towards his opponents base and fight another battle. If the battle is a draw, play another game at the same location. Continue playing games and advancing locations until a player wins a game at his opponent's base location - the winner has destroyed his opponent's base and won the entire campaign.

Example Colin has Dark Elves and has the base at location one. Owen has a Hordes of Chaos army and owns location five as his base. They play the first game of the campaign at location three. Owen wins the game and his Chaos army captures location three. His army marches on to location two and Owen and Colin fight another battle. Again the Hordes of Chaos are victorious and his army captures location two. The next battle will take place at location one. Again the armies deploy, but this time the Dark Elves managed to hold the Chaos attack. The game is a draw, so no location is captured. Instead a further battle must be played for location one. The Chaos army outmanoeuvres the Dark Elves and win the game. Owen captures location one, and because it is the Dark Elf base he wins the entire game.

Those are the entire rules. See, I told you it was simple!

Optional rules
You can use some of the optional rules below to change the campaign rules to suit your gaming group.

• Change the number of locations. I would recommend five locations as a good number which will give the right number of games during the campaign. The minimum number of games would be three and the average will probably be around six games. However, you may want a shorter campaign in which case you could reduce the locations to just three (you should always have an odd number so that the first game is in the middle and doesn't favour one player over another). Alternatively, you may want a longer campaign and you could increase the number of locations to seven or even nine. Be aware that with two players of roughly equal skill, these campaigns could take a long time to complete.
• Set a time limit. If you know you only have a certain amount of time to play the campaign, or you can only play a set number of games, you might want to set a deadline. This could either be a date (e.g. six weeks time) or after, say, six games. It is possible that no player will have captured their opponent's base by the end of the campaign, so you will need to change the victory conditions. If a base is captured that player has won a major victory. Otherwise, check the locations captured by each player. If one player has captured more locations he has won a minor victory. If the players are in the central location and have captured equal locations the campaign is a draw.
• Use scenarios. You could assign a scenario to each location. For example, you could decide that any battle fought in a base location (one or five in the example above) will use the last stand scenario from the Warhammer rulebook (pg 249) with the player who owns the base as the defender.
  
• Name and describe the locations. This will add to the character and flavour of the campaign immensely without much effort. In the above example we might imagine that the campaign is being fought in Norsca as a Dark Elf raiding force lands on the coast seeking slaves. Norscan and Kurgan tribesmen band together to repel the Dark Elves. Location one will be the Ridge beach where the Dark Elf Black Ark is drawn up. Location two will be a little inland, in a marshy river valley known as the Blackmoor Fens. Location three is a the Gorwell bridge, a vital crossing over the river Teld. Location four is the haunted woodland of the Ironwood. Location five, the Chaos base, is the township of Volsung where the women and children are kept safe. So the Dark Elves are trying to push inland to pillage the township while the Chaos army is trying to drive them back to the Black Ark. The names could influence your choice of board and terrain for each game and will give you lots of scope to expand the narrative of your games.
  

Notes
I plan to play this campaign over the next few weeks as part of the Nemesis Crown campaign with me using my Horde of Chaos army against Gary's Dark Elves. I'll post the battle reports and campaign progress as I go.