In the dark shadows of Athel Loren...

A Friend of mine, who has recently started a wood elf force, pointed out that so far I had not yet done any battle reports on a battle including wood elves. So one Tuesday, in the cafe of the sports centre, his wood elf army clashed with my greenskin hordes.

Wood elves

• Highborn
• 16 glade guard
• 16 glade guard
• 20 eternal guard
• 3 treekin
• 1 treeman

Orcs

• Grimgor Ironhide
• Nigel da squig farmer, Lvl 2 savage orc shaman on war boar with lucky shrunken head
• 15 Orc boyz with full command, shields and additional hand weapons
• 5 wolf riders with full command, bows, spears and shields
• 5 spider riders with full command, bows, spears and shields
• 10 da immortulz, Grimgor's black orcs with shields
• 5 savage orc boar boy big uns, additional hand weapons, full command and battle standard.
• mangler squigs

As the horde of orcs advanced, the glade guard opened up on the Mangler squigs hurtling straight for the Eternal guard. The arrows filled the mangler squigs like pins in a pin cushion, sticking them too the ground.

The other arrows targeted the orc boyz and took out three of them, penetrating the wooden shields and leather armour.

Grimgor and da Immortulz, not able to restrain themselves anymore, hurled themselves upon the unit of three treekin. The axe arms of the black orcs flashed through the air with chop after chop of the sharp iron heads, wood flew every where and soon the orcish armour was sticky with tree sap and all of the treekin lay in a pile of kindling. However the bodies of four orcs lay covered in shavings and smashed to a pulp.
Grimgor then overan with his unit into the ranks of the glade guard archers, his axe still waving madly through the air.

As the Savage orc boar boyz thundered towards the eternal guard, Nigel embued his hands with the strength of Mork himseld. He and the big un orcs crashed into the ranks of wood elves, the highborn calling out his challenge to Nigel.

Nigel used his fists of Mork to pummel a wound off the elven lord, however he also took a wound himself. His unit of boar riders tore apart four of  the elven guards with the jaw bones clasped in their hands, however two of their own number also fell to the elven spears.

The turn ended with all the Goblins having been slaughtered by the glade guard and Treeman, but ther orcs too were making progress, having massacred all the treekin and severly smashed up the glade guard and highborn.

It was now the turn of the wood elves. This turn saw the Giant animated treeman flank charge straight into the orc boar boyz and smash them high into the air before beating the life out of them. Nigel cut down the highborn, before he too was squished by the huge tree, however the orcs did manage to take down another five eternal guardsmen before they fell.
Another five orcs were also cut down by the arrows of the glade guard, but the other glade guard were cut down to a man by Grimgor and his remaining four black orcs.

The final turn, before we left the Cafe to go and play badminton, saw Grimgor and his black orcs, plus the remaining ten orc boyz, charge into combat with the Giant treeman. Grimgor smashed him down to two wounds, but lost the rest of his unit of black orcs. The Orc Boyz now lashed out at the Treeman hacking its bark with their great rusty blades and dispatching its last two wounds leavung just eleven eternal guards men left to counter them.

The battle was declared an orc victory by just 50 vps. Though not very Astheticly pleasing (allot of my orcs are barely painted and rather crude and old models, and there was no terrain, not to mention the bad photography) the battle was no less fun to play and great to face an army i have never played before with an army i rarely bring to the field

War in Wattonford: battle of the Scrolls of binding

This was one of those very special games where strange things happen and naught is as it seems. Each player was allowed up to one wizard and three monsters (from their own or the storm of magic rulesbook), in the end it turned out that there were two teams of two wizards and four monsters each guarding an arcane fulcrum. Half way through the game the Daemons (lead by Kairos) entered play from the throne of skulls in the corner.
Having been working the projector and monitors at my church for the easter holiday club all week I was in a bit of a rush to get the bus to my local Games workshop and stupidly forgot my camera (for those of you who have read http://warformiddleearth.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/1912-chinese-campaign-29th-jan-1912.html you will understand why I could not use my phone...), this was a terrible shame as it was an amazingly pretty battle and would have looked great on camera but some pictures of the models we used as wizard generals and some others from previous games with detailed commentory on the battle will have to do (photos from Games Workshop).

The armies were as follows:

From the North they come
Aelfric Cyenwulf, Lvl 4 Chaos Sorcerer lord on disc of tzeentch with channeling staff, power familiar and warrior familiar.
Yoda, Lvl 4 Goblin great shaman with dispel scroll.
Ancient Stegadon
Chaos Giant
Frost dragon
Cygor

The old pact is renewed
Melchior star gazer, Lvl 4 Arch mage
Lvl 4 Liche high priest with dispel scroll
Hell pit abomination
Griffon
Giant
Tomb scorpion

For the glory of Tzeentch
Kairos fate weaver
blood crusher of khorne
blood crusher of khorne

Turn one went to the forces of chaos with Aelfric and the dragon spearheading the attack on the enemy fulcrum from the left while the Giant and Cygor took the right. The Stegadon and Gobbo held back to guard the fulcrum. The magic phase saw the greenskins summon a unit of fifteen "imaginary" orc boyz in the centre facing the skeletal priest on his fulcrum. Aelfric then tried to cast pandemonium (characters may never confer their LD, additionaly any roll of a double automatically miscasts) but the High priest threw up his dispel scroll to parry it, a slightly wasteful use of a dispel scroll so early on especially as it was only cast on an 8+ so could easily be dispelled next turn. Aelfric then cast flickring fire of tzeentch on the hell pit and took it down to two wounds, aslo setting it on fire in the process.

It was then the froces of order's first turn and it started off with the hell pit charging straight into the dragon. Melchior then lept upon the high priest's fulcrum, swapping places with him. The griffon flew round the flanks of the orc boyz and stegadon and the giant (disguised as father christmas) made a strike out for the chaos giant and cygor. In the magic phase they were rather buisy and created an extra fulcrum for the high priest before trying to nulify ours, which brought our greenish dispel scroll.

In the combat the frost dragon accidentaly caught fire from the hell pit and smashed the ratty thing up, such was the ball of flame that it was dead and there was no coming back, the dragon meanwhile took a wound.

Our next turn soon came round and we started drastic action! The frost dragon charged Melchior while the cygor charged into the father christmas giant. The orcs then turned to face the griffon and Aelfric decided to sit in between the opposing fulcrums. In the magic phase we cast pandemonium, and this time no ammount of dispelling could stop it. The rest of my spells were dispelled but the gobbo imbued his stegadon with as many powers as he could. The frost dragon breathed on Melchior and wounded him before failing to wound the dragon, but forstie was forced to step down as he had failed to squish the elf. The cygor then wounded the giant twice, taking but one wound, however it was an eadbutt and he was stunned for a while.

The forces of order then reacted to our assualt, th griffon assailed the chaos giant in the rear while the giant continued to pound the cygor. The magic phase went terribly, forgeting about pandemonium Melchior decided to summon something big (300pts size) but failed to cast and in the process also triggered the pandemonium miscast. The elf suddenly turned into a lvl 3 wizard before his fulcrum sent out a wave of magic turning all four wizards into frogs (the "imaginary" orcs chuckled to themselves that they couldn't tell the differnece in the case of their wizard). This spell apeared to have rather back fired on Tzeentch's sorcerer lord but it drew the magic phase to a swift close.

The christmas giant then smashed a wound off the cygor that was just standing there dazed. The chaos giant then swung his club at the griffon which had wounded him twice, but the griffon dodged it.

Our turn then came round again. The dragon charged back into combat with Melchior while the boyz all went headlong into the rear of the elven griffon as the giant was turning to face it. Aelfric failed his roll and remained a frog on a disc of tzeentch with two puzzeled familiars while the Gobbo managed to change back. So the orcs did a few orcy spells and all was over for that magic phase. The fighting saw the cygor-giant battle continue, while the griffon caused another wound to the giant before it yelled and balled. The griffon fled and the boyz and the chaos giant ran it down, almost hitting the fighting father christmas giant. Next turn the Chaos giant lept into the giant mash up and over two turns managed to smash up the giant, however the cygor was also taken down in the frey. The frost dragon had by now assualted Melchior three or more times and the mage was only on one wound,  but the high priest was in combat with the chaos giant and had just been wounded. However then the Elf cast unbind on my dragon and rolled a 5... This not Dragon's home, dragon go home... oh dear I had lost my dragon. Meanwhile Aelfric had turned back into a "real boy", But before anymore could happen the Daemons arrived.

Kairos fateweaver stepped down from the throne of skulls to cries of "look they are winning help us" from the high priest and "We are all one under Tzeentch" from Aelfric, but the lord of change lost no time in blasting off his spells at everyone, reducing the chaos giant to one wound (from five as he had eaten a bit of the other giant) and the orc boyz to five men. Our turn then came round and we tried to work out how we could counter this. We started with Pandemonium, which cast, before going on to cast infernal gateway at the fate weaver... in away we were so go back the way you came, but we did inflict two wounds on him. The dragon the bit off Melchior's head, however this looked like it might have back fired as Kairos could easily fly onto the pinacle of power and we would all be drawing.

It was then the tomb king's turn and they made quick of triggering pandemonium as the high priest cast the seven sigils of summoning. Gaspar, a lvl 2 high elf mage suddenly appeared on the un occupied fulcrum. The high priest then sent off his miscast, wounding himself and Aelfric before triggering his fulcrum which again leeched power (probably of a long dead bretonnnian maiden) which turned all the wizards (including kairos) into frogs again. The tomb scorpion then appeared next to the greenskin fulcrum.

The game was rapidly coming to an end, but in storm of magic this is the most rapid and exciting part of the game as everyone flings all they have at the fulcrums.

Everyone but the goblin then changed back into themselves and the blood crushers went haring into the remaining orcs and giant who they both slew. The tomb scorpion assualted the goblin mage (or should I say frog) atop our fulcrum not damaging him atall, before the ancient stegadon rear charged it and slew it. Now the elf and the high priest were left without a single servant... so they played dirty. Gaspar managed to nulify our fulcrum putting them 2-0 ahead of everyone. It was then the daemons turn and as always it was pretty nasty... Kairos blasted off a spell at Gaspar and the poor eleven mage threw all three of his dispel dice at the spell (us nasties held onto our four and refused to let them use them). The little elf was balsted into smitherines by the spell before Kairos then tried to cast transgar's transportation (you move to the nearestun occupied fulcrum) on himself but we dispelled it.

One of the blood crushers then squished the High liche priest flat before we put in our master stroke.

It was the last turn, there was little anyone could do to stop us. The goblin was now standing on a working fulcrum while Aelfric  flew up to the orginal elven one upon his disc of Tzeentch, where he pronounced victory in the name of tzeentch and teh Aeslings.

Wow, an incredibly fun game of storm of magic. These  "special" games that the stores hold are always great, and I do encourage everyone to go on Facebook and search their local store's events to see what is on. This also give me an extra 1000 campaign point (I have no idea whether this puts me joint first place with the ogres (who's general was commanding daemons today) or just below), the last storm of magic game was just like this, with myself winning the fulcrum with just seconds to go... but in storm of magic anything can happen and troops really make little difference... so why not go without as we did.

Storm in the north

So today (as well as advance ordering the new empire army book) I played storm of magic with my orcs against my freind's skaven at his place (on his mat with my fulcrums) it was 1000pts with 250pts of storm of magic (one monster each). It was meant to be fought between the scone hunters and clan nord in the wastes of norsca.
I'm afraid it was rather a last minute afair so apologies for the lack of commentary etc.
The lists were as follows

Clan Nord
Warlord
Warlock warp lock pistol
Warlock doom fire rocket
Warlock
19 stormvermin with poisoned wind mortar
40 skaven slaves
6 giant rats with master
ancient stegadon

Da scone hunters
Nigel da squig farmer, savage orc great shaman
Gelada, goblin shaman
Black orc big boss
10 black orcs
5 wolf riders
5 savage orc boar boy big uns
mangler squig
doom diver catapult
Carnosoar

The set up was at so with the fulcrums unfortunatly out of reach of each other. The orcs positioned the fulcrums behind the mysterious shrine and the black orcs. While the skaven just placed their two main units bang in front of their fulcrums.

With a catastrophic ammount of irresistable forces and fulcrum disaster the clock began to channel its power into Nigel and he summoned a great green hand to pick up both the mangler squigs and the black orcs and smack them down in front of the skaven slaves ready for the slaughter!

 With the awful miscasts in turn one the skaven player had managed to blow up two of his warlock engineers (one was killed by the doom wheel) and move my two destructive units right up close and personal, he had managed to summon up a bemused high elf mage from some where but had run out of power dice to negate my fulcrums with.

It was then my turn and I flung the mangler squigs through the stegadon and slaves, it put the stegadon down to one wound and killed five of the skaven.
My Shamans were so much more sucessful. I managed to summon a Storm Dragon in the magic phase, but otherwise it was uneventful and all got dispelled.
In the shooting phase the storm dragon let loose its lightning bolt and killed the ancient stegadon while the doom diver landed on the newly summoned high elf wizard, crushing him and two storm vermin flat. What a suprise for the elf!

 The black orcs then smashed up seven of the skaven slaves but took two casualties in return. The skaven then passed their ld2 test, something I have never seen done before!

The giant rats then proceeded to kill three wolf riders to only one casualty but both sides still held. But these minor combats would have little effect on the out cme of the game. It was the wizards who would decide that.

The skaven turn then saw the last remaining warlock engineer summon onto the battlefield another one of his class to try and take the other fulcrum, everything else was dispelled. The doom wheel then crashed into the savage orcs and systematically blew them all up. The poisoned wind mortar then misfired for the second time this time scattering into the slaves and killing four.

 With my big expensive unit of boar riders blown to smitherines it was looking bad but, on the fulcrum front I still stood dominant.

 The Black orcs then smashed up the skaven slaves some more and they fled the field of battle. The warlock enginner then opened fire with his pistol on the mangler squigs and wouded them.

 My turn was very mixed. The dragon attacked the doom wheel and failed to do anthing to it however I summoned an even more bemused high elf mage who promptly blew up the Fulcrum directly in front of him. Now the skaven had no Fulcrums. The elf then summoned up an arachnarok spider. My black orc big boss then ran at the Warlock who had just fallen from his fulcrum and crushed him. The doom diver then hit the last warlock and wounded him once, but not enough to stop him summoning a freind. My carnosaur then charged the storm vermin, attacked the warlord, failed to wound him, took two wounds and fled.

If this was a proper battle i would be badly losing but as it was storm of magic, Nigel was standing triumhant with his pet monkey and Elven recruit at his side.

Next turn went rather badly. The storm dragon wounded the doom wheel once, and it almost fled but unfortunatly didn't.  The slaves and giant rats then fled the field

The storm vermin then went charging on after the carnosaur, and it fled further sending the arachnarok spider into panic. All the summoned monsters were fleeing (except the dragon which was in a deadlock) and the shamans were looking on in horror.

And with that it was turn three and the Orcs had won. With one last spell the high elf mage had destroyed the remaining fulcrum. The Orcs had three wizards two of whom were standing atop high pinacles of magic while there was just one warlock remaining with no fulcrum within reach. The carnosaur had rallied and the doom wheel was seriously damaged. Two - nill victory to the Orcs of Scone, now they could fruitlessly search Norsca for the stone of scones (which soem orcs blieve preduces endless scones while others believe it will give endless power) before returning to their home on the Isles of Ona, Linda's Farm and Floor off northern Albion to plan their next search...

Searching Sylvania for scones

Searching Sylvania

This is one of the few outings that my Orcs ever make, so snap it up while you can! For those of you who havn't read the background to my Orc army, They are the waaaagh of Robbie da brute and are formed from Clans of Talllanders and Shortlanders from Northern Albion. They managed to breech the northern coastal defences of Bretonnia and are now ravaging the old world, popping up all over the place and skipping from here to there in their quest for the stone of scones (some orcs believe it will give them domination over the whole world, Robbie believes it will give unity, whilst others believe it will produce endless scones!). Along the way Robbie da brute was overthrown by Grimgor and is now naught but his puppet (Grimgor believes that the stone is just a stone that looks like a scone, but he has come along because of the fighting envolved!)
We used 1500pts each with the Objective of Braking your opponent (standards each count as 1 point, general counts as 2. Once you are on 2 or less pts you are broken). The game ends when the first force is broken.
We counted up our points and I was on 8 while the vampires were on 5.

Obsidian Guard
Raspartine (konrad von carstein)
Necromancer
Necromancer
29 skeletons
30 zombies
18 crypt ghouls
5 dire wolves
20 grave guard
corpse cart
Flitch (varghulf)

Da Scone Hunters
Grimgor Ironhide
Black orc Army battle standard
Murker (goblin boss) on Gigantic spider
Nigel da Squig Farmer (Savage orc shman) on boar
15 boyz
5 spider riders
5 wolf riders
5 savage orc boar boy big uns
10 Black orcs (Da immortulz)
mangler squig
doom diver
Kholec Bonecrusher (Savage orc Giant)

This was the starting positions with konrad facing off Grimgor, Two killers in their own right.

Vanguards
The dire wolves made for the Goblin wolf riders, forcing them in turn to vanguard out of the way.
Murker's spider riders then charged straight for the tower, scalling the walls and holding it.

Vampire turn 1
The undead horde of Raspartine then rose up from behind the dry stone walls, climbing over them and advancing towards the Greenskin host.
Vampire Magic
with their hordendous magical powers the two necromancers raised up twelve more zombies in the zombie unit. They also blasted off at Grimgor, killing one Immortul

Greenskins 8 - 5 Vampires

Greenskin turn 1

Grimgor's band then made their move. The Boyz and Wolf riders lead, under the army's battle standard charged into the vanguarding dire wolves.

Murker on his gigantic spider then climbed up over the tower, dislodiging the other spiders and moveing them and himself onto the flanks of the undead horde.

Grimgor and the Immortulz held themselves back advancing towards Raspartine and the crypt ghouls but staying out of charge range.

The rest of the army advanced slowly towards the undead, whilst Kholec ran as fast as he could to get round the tower. We now had the Undead encircled with hard nuts in their centre and lighter beasts on their flanks.

Green skin Shooting

The doom diver let loose a skydiving gobbo at Raspartine, but the Gobbo failed to kock him or his tough troops, only managing to kill two crypt ghouls.

Greenskin combat

In the combat the wolf riders and boyz ripped to shreds the Dire wolves, only taking one goblin casualty. Both units then overran towards Raspartine and the ghouls.

Greenskins 8 - 5 Vampires

Vampire turn 2
In the movement the Zombies and Flitch both charged the Talllander boar boyz facing off against them. Raspartine and his Guard also charged the Boyz lead by the Immortul with the battle standard. The crypt ghouls tried a charge at Grimgor, but ended it within the lake, which claimed another ghoul.
Vampire Magic
The necromancer's then started blasting more up with their magic, channeling gaze of Nagash into Nigel, blasting the Shaman back and forbiding me the chance to stamp all over the skeletons and zombies with foot of gork. They also raised up a skeleton
Vampire Combat.
In the devestating combat Flitch the ever crazed lived up to his reputation in the Empire of being able to slay regiments. With all of his Five attacks Flitch struck down all five of the Boar boyz single handedly before they could move. He then Overan straight for the doom diver

Greenskins 5 - 5 Vampires

Unsuprisingly Raspartine wiped out ten of the orcs on his own and left the others and the Black orc to his guard who only took two casualties. But he was unable to control himself and overran terribly, putting himself in direct target for a charge by Grimgor!

Greenskin turn 2
The mangler squig then burst its bonds, hurtling and bouncing through the zombies and then off Flitch's head before coming to rest in front of him. They took down three zombies and wounded Flitch twice. Then the chargers started with Grimgor and Da Immortulz crashing into Raspartine and his guard. Also the Wolf riders flank charged the Ghouls and Murker charged the Corpse cart.
Kholec then came slowly lumbering up as usual, doubhtful wether the orcs would "let him have a go"
Greenskin shooting
The Doom diver let off, hoping to hit Flitch in the back, but the doom diver went giding off onto the Skeletons killing two.
Greenskins 5- 5 Vampires

Greenskin combat
Grimgor and Da Immortulz hacked their way through fifteen grave guard, Grimgor challenging Raspartine (who wisely refused and was forced to slink away to the back) and only taking two casualties, but with the Grave guard still standing Grimgor looked set for a long hard slog as the zombies where perched on their rear.
The wolf riders did particularly well carving through eight ghouls whilst only taking one casualty.
Murker then smashed his way through the corpse cart, hacking it to bits and overrunning straight into the Skeletal flank. This would have been worrying if I had not had the spider riders perched on their rear. However even then it looked difficult

Vampire turn 3
Unsuprisingly the Zombies rear charged Grimgor's unit and Flitch charged the doom diver and crew.

Vampire combat
Grimgor again challenged Raspartine, but the cowardly vampiric general failed to meet his counter part in single combat and again refused. In that round of combat Grimgor and his men only magnaged to kill two Grave guard and lost two casualties to the skeletal guards, only just passing a LD test to stop them fleeing.
The wolf riders had bette luck, striking down five ghouls to no casualties them selves.
Mean while Murker and the spiders tore apart seven skeletons, taking none in return.
The now blood crazed Flitch set about dissembouling the Gobbo doom divers and eventually smashed up the machine.

Greenskins 5 - 5 Vampires

Greenskin turn 3
In an amazing stroke of luck the Squigs went the only direction that they could of done effectivly, leaping throught the Zombies and destroying five. My spiders then flank charged the skeltons.

Greenskins 4 - 4 Vampires

Greenskin combat
The cowardly Raspartine again cowered away from the enthusiastic Grimgor, letting the rest of his guard be hacked to bits by the crazed Orcs who only took but one casualty in return.
The Wolf riders killed one Ghoul, but lost two gobbos plus their standard, things were getting close.
Murker and his Gunger gobbos then set about disassembling the Skeletons, smashing up fourteen skeletons to only two spiders killed, however murker's mount was wounded twice.

Vampire turn 4
Flitch tried a charge for Grimgor, desperate to save his master form shame and defeat, but stumbled juping over the wall and failed the charge.

Vampire Combat
Grimgor now enraged that all the skeletons were gone turned his wrath on the cowering Raspartine, hurling his axe through the retreating vampire's skull! He and his men the turned on the zombies hacking up five of them, but taking two casualties, including the banner!
The Frenzied crypt ghoul then struck down the last gobbo, ripping apart his wolf.

Greenskins 3 - 1 Vampires

Up with Murker the Spiders and goblins smashed up all of the skeletons but the champion (including the necromancer) and leaving the banner for the Gunger Gobbos to capture.

The battle had ended, with the Obsidian guard leaving with just the zombies' banner left and the Orcs leaving with their General and Goblin standard flying! It was a close game but a good victory and since I had more than half my army left (including the practically useless Giant) Grimgor was very much the victor.... But did the stone show? NO!

Greenskins 3 - 1 Vampires

Monster of the Match The Vampires man of the match was definatly Flitch the evercrazed Varghulf. He had smashed all five Savage orc Boar boy big uns with 6+ ward saves into the mud on his own and in one turn before taking out the Doom diver and almost charging Grimgor, this last action (had he rolled but one more inch) would almost certainly have won this famous Varghulf the game.

Gobbo of the Match Playing with an army that contained Grimgor I would always say he was man of the match, however I don't want to bore you all with weapon skill 8, strength 8, attacks 5, always strike first, re-roll to hit, immune to psychology, 1+ armour save and 5+ ward save so i've chosen Murker on his Gigantic spider (which I got from burger king many years ago...). With the sword of might (and seed of Rebirth which did actually save him once) he was an impressive strength 5, which is higher than most orc heroes and as strong as Grimgor's base strength. He tore his way thorough 19 skeletons and corpse cart and a necromancer, finally taking down the last standard of the Vampires.