Halpi's Rift - game 3

 For the third battle of the mini-campaign we were transported to a heavenly plane and home of the Angelic forces of Basilea. The Salamanders were replaced by Good Undead under the necromancer Jarvis. In this plane all of the channelled spells buff your own side rather than hurting the enemy. We played Control, where you score points for parts of the table you hold.

The Undead went for their customary strong centre, the high Unit Strength right of Wights / Skeletons, and a fast right of Werewolves. They planned to push across the table and challenge all sectors.  

I went with three distinct battle groups. The centre was Guards and a legion of Succubi Lavare backed by the Well of Soul - this would not attack but would seek to delay the Undead's main thrust. The left was Molochs and the right was the Succubi / Horsemen. Both the flanks would attack, aiming to give me a 4-3 win or better.   

On my left the Werewolves moved forward with early shooting wavering one of them, thus opening up the way for me to attack with the Molochs and start to win the unit trading on that side.

On the right I pushed forward through the cover and launched a strong attack against the units there. again I was able to win the trade and begin to dominate that flank as well.

Centrally I was lucky that powerful Undead units were cautious in their advance as they feared a trap. They then began to bleed away units to start to deal with the losses on the flanks. And so it was a depleted Undead line that finally hit my centre in turn 5.

As expected I was not able to hold them for more than a couple of turns, but that was enough to stop them from influencing the outcome of the battle. I actually sneaked a unit across the lines for a 5-2 win, so better than the 4-3 I was playing for.

The Undead are a slow army and in this case it cost them, although they could have arrived in turn 4 had they not delayed in the centre. Faster movement and more chaff would have made this a\ tougher day for the Abyss.

Some weekend gaming

 I've managed to get a couple of games in this week / weekend thanks to some stay-cation time. 

The first was a continuation of a Kings of War campaign featuring Good Undead (some complex magic / morals involved) vs the Demonic Forces forces of the Abyss. It was one of my favourite scenarios  - Smoke and Mirrors - where each player places 5 objectives ( 2 * 0 VP, 2 * 1VP, and 1 * 2VP) and then both flip one per turn. So lots of bluffing can be done. 

In this game it tuned-out we'd both gone for the centre / eastern-end for our scoring tokens. I made good headway initially and was able to dominate the eastern side of the table whilst the Undead were strong in the centre.     

In the end it was a 5-2 loss though. The greater numbers of the Undead hordes allowing them to get greater Unit Strength to a few of the high-scoring objective. I was not helped by my Arch Fiend spending most of the game pursued by several skeleton units and getting rear charged - which he survived but got bogged down.    

The second game was over in Fishponds where I played my first couple of games of Deadzone - a scifi skirmish typically involving about about a dozen models a sidec on an 8 x 8 gridded table. I was the Space Orks (aka Marauders) facing off against the Rebels.  

The games key feature is it uses "true line-of-sight" so you spend lots of time at hunched over trying to get a figures I view.   

Game 1 was pretty close as I lost 16-13 but the second was 16-9 as a I got a bit boxed in.  Given the right terrain the system could work well for any FIBUA-type games in a shattered city.   

      

And the graves were opened - a kings of war campaign

Many years ago the wizard Jarvis sought out the quiet of The Cracked Lands to pursue his studies of the ancient Ophidians magic's. Even though the necromancy they practised was dark his aims were noble, to mobilise the dead in the fight against evil.    

In the lonely Tower of Najash he toiled in solitude seeking the secrets of the Ophidians. In the end he was successful in learning the necromantic spells  for raising and controlling the dead.  But his efforts did not go unobserved, as in seeking solitude he had chosen a site near the Southern Rift and greedy eyes watched his progress from the Abyss.

From her torture chambers in Rifthold, the Succubus Queen Mau’ti-bu-su monitored his progress, determined to steal the secrets of the tower and raise her own army of the dead.

So at the moment of his triumph she struck, launching at attack from the Rift. Hurriedly Jarvis summoned his forces, and so the graves were opened and many bodies of the warriors which slept arose.

In this campaign we pit the Abyssals against the Good Undead forces under Jarvis in a struggle to control the Ophidian magic. Will Mau’ti-bu-su take the tower or will Jarvis destroy  Rifthold?

Game 1 - Raze

In the Raze scenario you must capture objectives in your opponents half and there is a central tie-breaker. The twist is that objectives are captured at any point you have more Unit Strength within 3' and not at the end of the game. So its capture and move on.    

The Undead deployed a very elite and therefore quite small force. The left was two werewolf hordes supported by a werewolf hero. Centrally was a big block with Mummies, Revenant skeletons, and Vampires on foot. The right was speedy with Revenant skeleton cavalry and Wights.     

I setup with my left (opposite the mounted) of an Archfiend, two Succubi units and some Gargoyles. The centre was the remaining infantry with Lower Abyssals, Molochs, Flamebearers and the Well of Souls. The left was just a single unit of Abyssal Horsmen.

My plan was to hide behind the hill on the right with the Horsemen, push forward in the middle  so the Molochs could engage and attack through the woods on the Succubi. Deployment was a worry though as i was outnumbered on both flanks and the left was where I had two of my objectives. 

Succubi and the might Archfiend

Move 1 the Succubi made it into the woods and with the Archfiend threatening the Revenants I was bale to draw them and the Wights into an unfavourable charge in the rough. The cavalry bounced andf were quickly gobbled-up but the Wights stuck about for much of the game.

On my right I made an error - I hoped to delay the Werewolves for much of the game or make them crest the rise and be charged. I forgot it was Raze though so they simply scampered up and claimed the objective. They in-turn made an error though of turning into the centre and allowing the Well of Souls to fly over the lines and flank them for 20 attacks.     

On my left the tide was now in my favour - the Archfiend was able to stomp the remaining cavalry while the Succubi finished off the Wights and turned inwards to attack some Mummies.

As we entered the last 2 moves things were in the Abyssals favour but not a done deal. I had 2-1 on objectives but 3 were still in play. The Well was able to fly into the backfield and make it 3-1 whilst the Undead consolidated their hold on the central one, making it  3-2.   As we finished the Undead were unable to claim either of their 2 remining objectives making it a 3-2 win for the Abyss.

Reflections

The Succubi performed well -they hit hard and from the front and/or in cover are tough to kill. They have the speed and threat to draw the enemy into unfavourable charges.  The Molochs are also good value but the monstrous sized base can be tough to manoeuvre in the congested mid-field. The Archfiend and Well of Souls are a work in progress - I've little experience of using big, costly, flying monsters and getting them wrong wastes a lot of points.