Round 1: Night-stalkers vs John Douglass’ Empire of Dust.
Dominate at 2300 points
Night-stalkers:
Scarecrow Regiment
Scarecrow Horde
Doppelgangers
Shadow Hounds Regiment
Butchers Horde
Butchers Horde
Soulflayers Regiment
Soulflayers Regiment
Terror
Shadow-hulk
Dread-fiend
Void Lurker
Shade
The plan with this army is to use the butchers, terror and shadow-hulk as an aggressive hammer. While that happens the faster elements delay the enemy on one flank and put pressure on the other. The shade and dread-fiend are there to disrupt shooters and add dread to fights.
Empire of Dust:
Revenants Regiment -Casket of the Damned
Revenants Regiment -Casket of the Damned
Revenants Horde -Casket of the Damned
Mummies Regiment -Casket of the Damned
Mummies Regiment -Casket of the Damned
Desert Swarm Regiment
Desert Swarm Regiment
Enslaved Guardian Archers
Monolith
Soul Snare
Ahmunite Pharaoh - Eternal Guard
Revenant on Undead Great Burrowing Wyrm - Poison Breath
Apaphys, Champion of Death
A solid core with a strong offensive (but slow) battle group in the pharaoh and mummies. A lot of surge capability, so I need to be careful with my flanks. The amount of surge also means that I should be mindful of the extra threat range, but I learn that the hard way in this game. Apaphys is a beast that will put down my void lurker in a straight fight, so I need to have other units support that.
Deployment:
Both armies put a solid core in the centre, because the scenario is dominate.
Nigh-stalkers put my titans on the left (their right flank) while the mummies are on the other flank.
The nigh-stalkers titans are meant to support the butchers from the left (hopefully smashing through Apaphys) while the dread-fiend stops the shooting and the shadow hounds and soulflayers keep the mummies busy.
Night-Stalkers turn 1
The centre moves up slowly and the scarecrow horde gets left behind to fall to the second line.
My flanks are aggressive though, the void lurker gets right into position. The left soulflayers are unopposed, so go to threaten the rear later. The dread-fiend gets in range to charge the enslaved guardian archers. The right soulflayers and shadow hounds move to call the attention of the mummies away from the centre.
Empire of Dust turn 1
The shadow hounds did get their attention, but more than they bargained for. Mummies surge right in there, with a poor roll at that. The desert swarm don’t get to surge into the dread-fiend’s flank because the monolith had to surge the mummies too. The shadow hounds wanted to avoid fighting till turn 2 or 3, because their mission is to keep units away from the centre, so this is not ideal. It is reckless of the Empire of Dust though, mummies would do an average of 5 damage to my De 4+ on average, so would then need an 11 on nerve to not get flanked by soulflayers.
The enslaved guardian archers waver the dread-fiend, so that plan is put to a stop too.
The rest of the army shuffles to face the threat coming down the left flank.
Night-Stalkers turn 2
The mummies get flanked and killed as expected. My scarecrows charge the desert swarm so that the nigh-stalkers get to be the army with chaff in the centre-right.
The butchers not move short because of the surge potential just displayed, but forget to make sure that they can actually charge something next turn. So much for “aggressive hammer”.
The mobile forces on the left move into position while the void lurker starts his stand off just out of Apaphys’ charge range.
The shade does what seems like a good idea at the time, but then realises that it can’t see much to charge and the monolith doesn’t get disordered.
Empire of Dust turn 2
The fight on the right flank gets going (again, much earlier in the game than I should let it), but the mummies don’t get in! With 23 surge dice fed into them, the mummies go 5 inches. This denies the desert swarm their surge again, so the scarecrow regiment only gets shot at.
I took this screen shot a little early. The soul snare does 6 damage to the terror with drain life and the left desert swarm gets surged just the wrong amount and end up just out of contact with the terror, but not in the shadow-hulk’ sway
Night-Stalkers turn 3
The terror regenerate 3 damage and stomps on the desert swarm, while the shadow hulk gets rid of the soul snare. The left soulflayers and dread-fiend charge in to keep the enemy in place while “aggressive hammer” get ready to charge.
On the right flank the shadow hounds keep grinding (they regenerate some damage) and the soulflayers abandon the plan for a flank charge, with a little help from the shade.
Empire of Dust turn 3
The Empire of Dust wins the right flank. Shadow hounds go down and surge actually works! Mummies hit the rear of the soulflayers and devastate them, but roll a double 1. Guardians stomp on a shade.
In the centre, Apaphys goes to support the right while the dread-fiend gets munched and the soulflayers get wavered.
Night-Stalkers turn 4
Now that the game is half way done, my “aggressive hammer” finally charges. The revenants get hit hard but hold. The wavered soulflayers back up to let the terror in and the titan accomplish their mission.
The devastated soulflayers do 0 damage.
Empire of Dust turn 4
The revenant horde hit the right butchers and the fight flank gets cleared up.
This is actually a threat to me, the units on the right are good units and also a lot of US with not much stopping them. while my successful flank is cramped against the building and my own units are in the way of them scoring. Thankfully I have a second line.
Night-Stalkers turn 5
The nigh-stalkers win the centre. Butchers turn to face the next wave. Sure would have been nice if that flank got delayed instead of fighting in the first turn.
Empire of Dust turn 5
The Empire of Dust start their late offensive, they need to push through the damaged units to score.
There is a respectable amount of unit strength facing the middle while the night-stalkers trip over themselves.
The butchers hold though, nerve roll of 3 saves them (needed a 5)
Night-Stalkers turn 6
Doppelgangers get in the fight and fail to destroy the mummies (the mummies regenerate all 5 of those wounds). The soulflayers find that they are a little too far to score, which makes a draw a real possibility.
If the doppelgangers, right butchers and void lurker are killed then we both have 2 unit strength 3 units scoring.
My titans get into fights with his titans to keep them busy, while my void lurker sneakily scores and pulls the wyrm out of scoring
Empire of Dust turn 6
My doppelgangers hang in there, but Pharaoh himself finishes off the butchers. Leaving the game in my favour.
Just outside of scoring titanic monsters are locked in combat!
We get turn 7.
Night-Stalkers turn 7
I use my borrowed time I shove units into the scoring bubble!
The terror stops giving the monolith tentacle hugs and goes to score a point, while the soulflayers help to put the last revenants down.
Most importantly: the shadow-hulk defeats the CHAMPION OF DEATH proving that shadow and The Void are to be feared more that Death.
Empire of Dust turn 7
The game ends on a vengeful note.
With victory firmly out of his grasp the Ahumite Pharaoh shows Death who the champion is by destroying more butchers and having his enslaved guardians shoot (yes the stealthy things) off the soulflayers.
The mummies seems unable to come to grips with the weirdness that is doppelgangers.
Scores:
The end has 4 night-stalker units for 8 US to the Empire of Dust’s one unit for 3 US.
I certainly underestimated the surge potential of this opponent and the right flank did not go as planned. The rest of the battle field was mine to dictate though. My opponent stayed on the back foot after I put pressure on his army and I won through. I am not sure how I would have dealt with Apaphys if he was more aggressive, rather than standing off. The right flank could have been a much larger problem if Apaphys was there to deal with. I couldn’t even stall Sp 5 infantry, never mind a flyer.
It got messy after the attack with the impassable terrain and difficult (grey square) restricting me, but that terrain was the reason that there was so little opposition there. My titans attacked through that terrain with strider.
Thank you for reading!
I will post my round 2 game in this topic too.