Clash in the Pass (Battle Report)

 

Duel of the ages.

The Bob and I met up at The Outpost in Johnson City for another game of Warhammer: The Old World. We agreed to play the Mountain Pass scenario from the main rulebook. What's really interesting about this scenario is the Bottleneck rule, which make both the long edges count as Impassable Terrain. This is to represent that those long edges are representing very shear cliffs and the battle field itself is a pass through a narrow valley. So the High Elves are making their way through this pass and find the ruins of an ancient settlement. These ruins are in fact Khemri in origin and the deceased denizens have risen to protect their domain and rid the pass of these Elven trespassers. 

Deployment map for the Mountain Pass.

Here are the armies:

Tomb Kings of Khemri

===

Tomb Kings of Khemri [1245 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, Tomb Kings of Khemri, Open War

===

++ Characters [417 pts] ++

Tomb King [222 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Heavy armour

- Shield

- General

- On foot

- Talisman of Protection

- Giant Blade

Royal Herald [85 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Light armour

- Battle Standard Bearer

- On foot

Mortuary Priest [55 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Wizard [Level 1 Wizard]

- On foot

- Necromancy

Mortuary Priest [55 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Wizard [Level 1 Wizard]

- On foot

- Necromancy

++ Core Units [514 pts] ++

15 Skeleton Warriors [90 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Shields

- Master of Arms (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

15 Skeleton Warriors [90 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Shields

- Master of Arms (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

12 Skeleton Archers [75 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Warbows

- Master of Arrows (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

3 Skeleton Chariots [141 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Cavalry spears

- Warbows

- 4+

- Master Charioteer (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

10 Tomb Guard [118 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Shields

- Tomb Captain (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Special Units [154 pts] ++

3 Ushabti [154 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Ritual blades

- Heavy armour

- Ancient (champion)

++ Rare Units [160 pts] ++

Necrolith Colossus [160 pts] 

- Paired great khopeshes

- Heavy armour

---

Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com]

High Elves.

===

The Masters of Hoeth [1249 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, High Elf Realms, Open War

===

++ Characters [286 pts] ++

Noble [156 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Sword of Hoeth

- Full plate armour

- General

- On foot

- The Loremaster's Cloak

- Seed of Rebirth

- Loremaster

Mage [130 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Wizard [Level 2 Wizard]

- On foot

- Seed of Rebirth

- High Magic

++ Core Units [316 pts] ++

14 Elven Archers [208 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Longbows

- Light armour

- Veteran

- Sentinel (champion)

- Standard bearer [The Blazing Banner]

- Musician

5 Ellyrian Reavers [108 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Cavalry spears

- Light armour

- Shortbows

- Skirmishers

- Harbinger (champion) [Burning Blade]

++ Special Units [487 pts] ++

10 Swordmasters of Hoeth [173 pts] 

- Swords of Hoeth

- Heavy armour

- Drilled

- Bladelord [Burning Blade]

- Standard bearer

- Musician

8 Shadow Warriors [146 pts] 

- Longbows

- Light armour

- Feigned Flight

- Shadow Walker [Seed of Rebirth]

10 Swordmasters of Hoeth [168 pts] 

- Swords of Hoeth

- Heavy armour

- Drilled

- Bladelord

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Rare Units [160 pts] ++

Eagle-Claw Bolt Thrower [80 pts] 

Eagle-Claw Bolt Thrower [80 pts] 

- Repeater Bolt Thrower

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

---

Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com]

Tomb Kings set up. 

High Elf set-up. 

Turn 1

Tomb Kings win the roll off and go first. Nothing too exciting happened in the first round on either player turn, just a lot of arrow trading. The High Elves peppered the undead with a lot arrow and brought down a small number of rank and file skellies. 

Turn 2 Tomb Kings

....and those rank and file skellies were almost all resurrected at the start of Turn 2. The chariots charged into the Ellyrian Reavers. The Reavers took out one of the chariots but the rest of them did enough damage, and had the combat res (they one by 1 point), to force a Break Test which the Reavers failed epically. The Chariots caught them and destroyed them. The chariots ended up next to the archers on the hill, who were more than a little nervous about their proximity. . 

Chariots run down the Reavers. 

Bottom of Turn 2

Turn 2 High Elves

The Archers reformed to dump all their shots into the chariots, and even with the blazing banner to aide them the chariots were unharmed. The mage failed to get Fiery Convocation to go either. It was a lame round of shooting for the High Elves actually, however the Shadow Warriors were the exception as that managed to plink 3 Wounds off of the Bone Giant. 

The run down.

TURN 3 Tomb Kings. 

After more arrow trading, the Tomb Guard unit, which had been joined by the Tomb King and Royal Herald with the army battle standard since the beginning of the battle, charged into the Swordmasters which had been joined by the Noble Loremaster. This Tomb Guard unit had been riddle with bolts from both Bolt throwers for the previous two turns, and most, if not all, of the casualties had already been raised back. So this unit came sweeping in like a tidal wave. Thanks to the faster Initiative of the High Elves they were able to strike first. The Tomb King challenged the Loremaster. but in the end their fight was a draw. Despite killing morem the Tomb Guard was able to beat the Swordmasters by 1 CR. and rolled a 12 on their Break Test. Oops. They fell back in good order, and I thought for sure I was about to get wiped out the I rolled a '5' on the fallback. Well, Isha smiled on them in that instant as the Tomb Guard rolled a '2' on their pursuit roll! 

The first engagement.

TURN 3 High Elves. 

The Swordmaster with the Loremaster Rally and Reform, bracing themselves for the Tomb Guard's inevitable assault. The mage cast Shield of Saphery on the other unit of Swordmasters giving them a 5+ ward Save (remember this). That unit of Swordmasters charged the bone giant, which seemed like the best tactic they had to chose from. On the shooting phase, the Shadow Warriors take out three Tomb Guard with their longbows. Weirdly, neither the Bone Giant now the Swordmaster caused any wounds, but the Bone Giant lost a Wound due to the cr difference of '1'.

The odds stack.

TURN 4 Tomb Kings

The sneaky Liche Priests had moved up enough to try to cast some nasty spells on the High Elves and they successfully cast Incantation of Desiccation on the Swordmasters engaged with the Bone Giant (remember this). As predicted the Tomb Guard slammed into the Sword Master unit with the Loremaster. The Loremaster and the Tomb King we fighting in a challenge once again , and this time the Loremaster was starting to fight back a bit harder, as did the Swordmaster who won the combat this time which only caused a few more Tomb Guard to sink back into the ground due to the difference in Combat Resolution. . 

Duel of the ages (wide angle (wide angle view)

On the other side of the table the other Swordmasters were tangling with the Necrolith Colossus (aka: Bone Giant) when the Ushabti and the nearby unit of skeletons both charged into them. Focusing their attacks on the Bone Giant, they felled it, However Bob won the roll-off anc got to choose which way it fell. it fell and squished two Swordmasters. Then the Ushabti went. They killed the seven remaining Swordmasters! 

Remember when I said to remember those two spells? Well, we wouldn't remember them until the next turn! LOL. It is what is, and we decided it was too far along to try to revise history. 

Ushabti right before the charge. 

TURN 4 High Elves

On the High Elf shooting phase the Shadow Warriors made a break from the woods and tried to shoot one of the Liche Priests but their effort failed. The two Bolt Throwers tried to take out the chariots but also failed. Only in the Combat phase did the High Elves see a glimmer of hope as they wiped out the Tomb Guard and the Royal Harold!

Felling of the Royal Harold

TURN 5 Tomb Kings

The Tomb Kings Turn five was mostly just maneuvers and shooting, but no real achievements were gained. However Another group of skeletons charged in to attempt to finish off the Swordmasters. And they got close to making it happen! Meanwhile the two army leaders were slowly whittling each other down. 

Reinforcements. 

TURN 5 High Elves

Desperate, the achers managed to eliminate one of the Ushabti. After witnessing what they did to the Swordmasters you can bet they were now a target priority. Those two chariots were rumbling down toward the Bolt Throwers. They had been moving at their regular Movement so that could get shots off and had knocked one of the Bolt Throwers down to a single Wound. The Bolt Thrower crew must have been rattled or something as most of their shots missed, the chariots shrugged off the two hits that did wound. 

Desperate defense.

Over on the other flank the fight continued on, with the Loremaster and Tomb King continuing to play paddy cake. The Swordmasters themselves were now down to a single guy, the Bladelord (Champion), who was continuing to wipe out skeletons with his flaming sword. 

The final fight. 

The battle ends (Right flank). 

And with that we declared the game over. It was getting late and things were looking like they were about to reach a natural conclusion. 

The battle ends (left flank)

We tallied it up the points and secondaries and this is how it all shock down:

 

High Elves:  463

Tomb Kings of Khemri: 390

Essentially, that surviving Swordmaster Champ would have made the TK score 569 (Swordmasters+ Banner) had he not survived that last round. 

>phew< 

A technical win, but the High Elves are happy to take it! 

But wow, what a grind! I had no idea I had won until the VPs were tallied. in fact, I wasn't even aware that it was such a close game. This was our first time using Tomb Kings. Bob ran them very well, and took full advantage of their ability to raise the dead. It made the feeling of attrition and futility feel very real to me as my glass hammer of an army was shattering against all the odds. Who is to say how round 6 or 7 would go had we continued on. We can theory-hammer this to death but our dice were both being fickle in the end. Although, once again, Bob's ability to roll 6's when he needs to is uncanny, But I had a few instances of surprising luck as well). All-in all, it was a good game, and a very challenging one! I look forward to seeing how Bob continues to grow this Tomb King army. Yes, some mistakes happened, but in the spirit of play we just pushed past them and learned from them.  

Party on the hill. 

Stormweaver on Unicon (Part 1)

I was excited when GW put up this old classic Marauder Miniatures era High Elf Mage on Unicorn for Made-to-Order last year. So much so that I bit the bullet and ordered it, thinking in regards to it's scarcity and value on the secondary market. Yes, I caved to FOMO.. This particular release was to coincide with the Higb Elves Arcane Journal and this particular fellow on the unicorn  being rebranded as a Stormweaver. 

 

Then it arrived half a year later, I was quite bummed by how sloppy this thing was actually produced. Mould lines everywhere, flash, bumps along the joins, and a leg that I had to bend back into place. It was the physical manifestation of nearly everything that could go wrong with metal casting. After a half a year of waiting, this was a disappointment. 

Flash, ah-ahhh

The flash and mold lines on the rider are going to require some time to work out. When it comes to connecting his two halves together I will definitely be drilling and pinning him for a stronger connection. 

It looks so simple too...

After a lot of scraping, filing, sanding, swearing, and leg bending, I was able to super glue this thing together. There is not joins to guide with connecting the two haves together, you got to just eye it and feel it. Once I got it together I used a rubberband  to apply some pressure to maximize the bond and help keep it together. I already know that the next step will be filling in the gaps with greenstuff, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

Wound up and bound up so tight

The unicorn from this kit was sold separately for many years. Here in the USA it sold at least through '98 in stand alone blisters. So I am curious to know if anyone reading this recalls getting this miniature back then and if they recall the clean-up being as extreme as what I am going through with this piece. 

From thw GW US 1997 Fantasy catalog.

Hopefully whenever I post part 2, I'll have made significant progress on this thing and not gone mad in the process of doing so.

Classic Eagle's Claw Repeater Bolt Thrower #2

 

I needed a second Bolt Thrower for an upcoming battle, so I whipped this thing out of the Neverness Archive and got it ready. Sorry I didn't have time to take any work-in-progress pics.

Oddly, I have way more crew models than I have Elven warmachines, so I was able to pick out a crew that was totally different to the one that mans Bolt Thrower #1. 

On this one I stuck onto the base  a bolt rack from the plastic Bolt Thrower kit.  I think this works surprisingly well with this original model. I did not notice though, that on both sides of the rack there are two bumps from where the piece was separated from the sprue. It would have a challenge, and time consuming as well, to attempt to remove them . So I had the bright idea to just paint them like gem stones. Why not? Elves stick those things all over every surface they can find! 

Alright, well that's another High Elf unit done for the year, what to tackle next? 

Classic High Elf Archers (Part 3)

 I guess this isn't a standard post for me? Since I rare have posts about standard bearers specifically,  this one will be a bit more fun. Ok, so last year I found a pdf online of the 4th Edition High Elves army book. I never owned it, and when I dug into it I was thrilled with how well it was written and how awesome the artwork in it is. I started to look at some of the isolated spot illustrations throughout the book and thought they might make better banners than the examples banners provided in the book. On in particular struck me, and that was the compass rose on the map of Ulthuan.

Area plotted.

I reduced it to 90% on my printer. I took the copy paper over to my drawing tap and drew a triangle around the compass rose, but I flipped the image so it would fit better. Two of the example banners in the 4th ed High Elf Armies book are triangles and prior to finding them I was concerned about how a proper rectangular banner would cover up standard bearer and the unit Champion. A triangle will definitely reduce this LOS issue. 

Coloring stage.

I painted the banner using watered down Leviathan Purple Contrast Paint. The top of the banner was painted using thinned down Ultramarines BlueContrast Paint. The emblem was painted using yellow ink.

Banner attached .

The backside was painted black. All of the coloring was done before the banner was cut out.

Back banner.

And there we have it, the whole unit of sixteen miniatures is now done. I think they turned out good, despite my own criticisms regarding their faces. It's really the old plastics I have reservations about; they're just so crude that to make the. Look really good would require more time than. I want to currently invest in them. En masse however, they look good enough. 

Ta-da, done!

Alright, we'll see how well they look on the tabletop today, as they are scheduledfor a game this evening. Hopefully they' ll  perform even better than last ti.me. Dice gods willing that is.

"Give them arrows, give them death!"

Phoenix Guard Color Test

While digging  through my small collection of loose unpainted High Elf metal miniatures, I came across this lonely Phoenix Guard.

Primed and ready. 

I was very pleased with how some of the techniques I tried out on the Swordmasters turned out, and I wanted to see if I could replicate some of that success onto this model's color scheme. All the areas intended to become white were painted using Space Wolves Gray Contrast Paint as a basecoat. The non-gold metals was basecoated using Ultramarines Blue Contrast Piant. The gold areas, the main color for these guys, was basecoated using Aggarros Dunes Contrast Paint.  And the flesh of his face was coated with Guilliman Fleshwash. 

Contrast Paint Basecoats.

Next Retributor Gold was painted over the Aggarros Dunes.  I really like how well this seems to work. 

Here is a better view of where Space Wolves Grey Contrast Paint was spread all over the areas that I intend to make white. This is a good base for this scheme and it's a lot faster than the traditional Shadow Grey base that I would've used otherwise.

Space Wolves Grey cloak.

After that I used Ulthuan Grey on all the areas that are going to be white. 

Ulthuan Grey layer.

Polished Blue and Stormhost Silver were added onto the halberd. Stormhost Silver was also the highlight on the Retributor Gold areas also. White Scar was finally added to the white areas and it was done in a few layers. 

After procrastinating forever on how to do the flames in the back of his cloak I finally just took the plunge and knocked it out. The first step, and this was an important one in my opinion, was to use a fine tipped red Micron to draw the outline of the flames.

Micron outline. 

Next, I used Baal Red Contrast Paint to color in the whole thing. 

Baal Red.

Then I brightened it up in layers starting with Wild Rider Red, Fire Dragon Bright and Yriel Yellow. I was very pleased with this process and the results of it. 

"Dance into the fire"

For the final touches I added a few miniature leaves to the base. That with that, this single test model is now finished! 

Finished!

I am pleased with how this guy turned out and I'm looking forward now to building and painting a whole unit of Phoenix Guard. When? Who knows!

Classic High Elf Archers (Part 2)

 I have made some progress with thiese miniatures since Part 1 was written. In fact they're finished now. Well, mostly, but I'll discuss that at the end of this post. 

Before I finished the first ten models of this unit, I took stock in how many more of these 4th Edition WFB era mono-pose Archers I had left and finding only six of them, I decided to just paint them up also. 

Oddly, I finished them first. I then worked on all their gems together before adding the leaves and tufts. Individually, none of these guys are going to get an award for 'Best Paintjob' any time soon, but as a collective they look pretty good I think.  If there was one area I think could be better, it is their faces. Those crude faces are tough to make unfuggly.

Okay, so what's not done? Well, look front and literally center and you'll see the problem: that's right, the standard bearer hasn't got a standard! He's just running around with a big stick!

In part three we'll let that flag unfurl. Come back then and witness that process, as I think I got a neat standard picked out for him.