Bit late on this one, but my weekend's been hella busy with a new job so I've not had the time to write this up. In last week's episode our brave Seraphon heroes snatched a new Relic, the Grail of the Lady, which grants a D3 heal for the bearer and D3 allies within 6" in every Hero Phase. Combined with the Emperor's Stone which offers protection against spells and Mortal Wounds, and the bonus wounds we bought with our gold last week, our heroic Oldblood general was clearly not going to die any time soon. However, today we found ourselves worryingly matched against an enemy that held a significant tactical advantage over us. Stormcast Eternals. The army, led by a mounted Lord Celestant, consisted of two units of Retributors, two units of Judicators, two units of Liberators, two units of Prosecutors armed with hammers in the first unit and javelins in the second, a Lord Castellant, and a Lord Relictor. Of particular note were the Lords Celestant and Relictor, and the Retributors as both had the ability to deal Mortal Wounds which would break my defensive lines down. As defense was my main strength, this did not bode well. Furthermore the enemy had a large number of shooters with which to batter my rather un-shooty army from afar. Not only that, but the enemy's javelin-wielding Prosecutors were not deployed at the start of the battle, as the enemy had made use of the Thunderstrike Brotherhood battalion to be able to deploy these agile rangers via lightning strike. In addition to this range advantage that the enemy held, the No Man's Land of the battlefield was dotted with four terrain pieces. In order to complete our map to the Relic, we would have to find treasure in three of these four locations. As the enemy contained many shooters, this necessitated that I mobilise my entire army as a single unit in order to capture these locations within No Man's Land, as sending a single monster ahead of the rest of the army would result in it getting destroyed by ranged fire. Oh, and the enemy also had a converted Stormcast Carnosaur! Though it was a Lord Celestant atop the dinosaur, he was using the Oldblood Carnosaur warscroll for this conversion. In any other circumstance I would love this conversion, but right now it just intimidated me. Thankfully, we had extra Wounds for our limit this day, so I was able to deploy my full army as I did in episode 1. Along with Kroak, Astriloth, Starseer and Starpriest, Chameleons, and the Oldblood Carnosaur, this consisted of the Eternal and Thunderbeast Starhosts. The enemy took the first turn. Unsure of my defenses, they mainly looted some gold from terrain that they passed, sent their Prosecutors ahead as vanguards, and plinked away at my Temple Guard from afar with a volley of shots to no avail in order to test my defenses. However, I found it very noteworthy that their Retributors were at the front line, clearly to smash my defenses. This could not be allowed to happen. Right away, I opened with a Comet's Call to try to destroy the Retributors before they could reach me, causing one wound to the first unit and two wounds to the closer second unit. Then I ran my units forward, all together. In addition to my normal n-shaped formation, I also had my Stegadon and Engine of the Gods positioned at the rear of my formation, creating a solid box around my heroes in order to prevent any units from sneaking into the back of my formation. My Salamanders and Bastiladon acted as ranged support on the sides of the formation (Salamanders to the right of the box, Basi to the left,) the mighty Oldblood acted as the vanguard to run ahead of the formation, sticking to the side of the battlefield. Making use of his bonus movement speed and with a Starlight and Curse of Fates attached to him, the Oldblood sped ahead of the formation and charged the scouting Prosecutors who had now come in to range due to their speed. As luck would have it, they had attempted to come around a large tower, which now served to block the line of sight of any shooters who would do the Carnosaur harm. Very quickly and without sustaining any damage, the Carnosaur devoured all of the angels with a series of bites. Making the first move in the next turn, I marched my formation ahead into a murky forest. This forest was slap bang in the middle of No Man's Land and was a location where I could find a third of the map to the Relic. However, to my dismay, the enemy stole my Starseer's rerolls. To add insult to injury, I rolled another triple 6 on the Engine which would mark the third game in a row where I stopped time despite the low odds, only for my enemy to force me to reroll my Engine, preventing me from stopping time. Setting up a temporary camp in the forest of No Man's Land, we searched the forest for the map and were successful. In addition, the Oldblood too found a piece of the map in the tower where he fought the Prosecutors. With only one more third to find, we were in a good place. I did fail Comet's Call though, allowing that dangerous Retibutor to live. And the enemy had rerolls. The enemy advanced further. Burdened by a low movement and bad run and charge rolls, they did not reach our defensive line in the forest this turn, thankfully. However the Lord Relictor was able to dampen my spirits as he fully healed the injured Retributor with a Healing Storm. In addition, the javelin Prosecutors deplyed behind our line as expected, but were prevented from reaching our heroes due to the Stegadons acting as the rearguard. Instead they simply dealt two wounds to my Stegadon. At the same time, the enemy archers fired at my Bastiladon, dealing three wounds as we suffered some unlucky armour saves. However, my interest was peaked when something charged my Oldblood. It was the Stormcast Carnosaur, screaming round the corner to smash into the Oldblood's waiting lance. Though the Stormcast rider was able to deal three wounds to my Oldblood, we escaped being pinned as our beast evaded the enemy's claws thanks to Starlight, allowing him to evade every deadly bite attack. Upon our Carnosaur's counter-attack, although the Oldblood's spear did no damage, our Carnosaur pinned the enemy down and annihilated it with seven bites that all wounded, bringing the rival predator down. As the enemy took the first move, Retributors crashed into our line. We held and managed to slay two Retributors, but we lost six of the fourteen Temple Guard that made up our front line due to getting Blasted To Ashes, after losing a seventh from the Lord Celestant's Dracoth lightning breath. Things were a little grim. In our next turn, the Stegadon healed a wound and the Bastiladon healed all three due to the Thunderbeast Starhost while the Carnosaur also fully healed thanks to the Grail. However the enemy stole our rerolls again! We took our revenge by killing a Retributor and bringing the last down to one wound with a Comet's Call and the Engine's lightning bolt. Then we sent our Salamanders into a nearby swamp to try to find the final map piece. We were successful, and the Relic spawned. Rolling to see where the Relic would appear, it spawned right in my territory, inches away from my Stegadons. This was great... until the enemy used their stolen rerolls to force me to reroll that dice. As a result of the reroll, it spawned in a ruin in enemy territory. A ruin that currently housed a unit of Judicators! Thankfully we took the first move in the next turn, allowing Kroak to kill the final Retributor of this first unit quickly before planting our Astriloth and using its spell range boost to give the Oldblood, who was 20" from the ruin holding the relic, a Mystic Shield, Starlight, and Curse of Fates before having him run and charge into the Judicators occupying the ruins, while my Salamanders moved swiftly through the swamp to make it to the same destination. Thanks to some good rolls, effective Battleshock, and finally Bloodroar, the Judicators were totally driven out of the ruin. However this proved to be a dangerous move as the second unit of Retibutors, backed up by the second Judicator unit, all attacked the ruins now holding my Carnosaur while Liberators struck my front line to cut off reinforcements for my Carnosaur, while the Prosecutor's javelins brought my Stegadon down to only a single wound. Wounded by archers and Blasted to Ashes, the Oldblood survived only thanks to his Emperor's Stone which was able to absorb a number of the mortal wounds caused by the Retributors. However, due to the concentrated fire he was brought down to only six wounds, and was unable to defeat all of the Retributors. Things looked dire. However, help came in the next turn where, as I took the first move, the Salamanders rushed to the Oldblood's aid. As the Oldblood healed some of his injuries with the Grail, the Salamanders used their small unit size and high movement to slip past the Liberators and make it to the ruins too. Throwing Starlight on to the Judicators, as they were too far away for me to attack to prevent them from shooting at my relic hunters, my Salamanders roasted the Retributors alive with some brutal damage supported by a few shots from the Oldblood, finishing the enemy off with the few Mortal Wounds from the It Burns! rule. Right after the Retributors were destroyed, the Relic was found! By a single Skink Handler! It was at this point that the entire Stormcast army turned to face this little Skink Handler. Half of the Liberators broke off from the melee in the forest to make their way towards the Skink, while Judicators unleashed a storm of lightning-tipped arrows into the ruin to destroy the poor Handler. Thankfully Starlight severely weakened the effectiveness of this volley, and with some good luck, a cover save bonus, and rerolls, the Skink was able to take no damage. Taking the next move, I had to get the Skink out of there. Supplying him with Mystic Shield, Curse of Fates, and Starlight, the little Skink bolted out of the ruins and into the swamp like a bullet, out of range of the Judicators (who would surely pursue,) while the Salamanders and Oldblood moved to intercept the oncoming Judicators and Liberators respectively. However the Prosecutors chased the skink down, unleashing a series of javelins right at the Skink's face, and then again as the enemy took the first move next turn. It took Starlight, Mystic Shield, Curse of Fates, and the Starseers rerolls all together to stop the Prosecutors from bringing down the Skink. Not only that, but these Prosecutors were fast, should they steal the Relic then I would not be able to steal it back before they made their escape. The battle began swirling around this one Handler as javelins smashed around the darting, probably panicking skink. Liberators and heroes retreated from combat in order to try to cut the Skink off, only for the Temple Guard to break formation in order to cut off anyone who would try to fight the Skink. The Stegadon, though weakened heavily, slammed into the side of the Prosecutors. At his current weakened state, he wouldn't last, but he could stop the Prosecutors from charging the Skink. The Eternity Warden killed the Lord Relictor to prevent his Lightning Storm from being used on the Skink, but was himself slain by the Dracoth's lightning breath. The Skink darted back and forth through the raging maelstrom of crazed battle, often coming dangerously close to the enemy. The Dracoth fired lightning at the Skink, but failed to wound thanks to a forced reroll. Kroak charged into combat against the Dracoth, giving his life to bring the Lord Celestant down as both heroes died to each other, the Salamanders were torn apart by a hail of arrows, the Engine and Stegadon were slain by the Prosecutors they were distracting, the Bastiladon was absolutely fine, he's pretty much unkillable, but the Oldblood was surrounded by a horde of Liberators who were doing a great deal of damage to him thanks to his already weakened state and the Lay Low The Tyrants rule, DEATH AND DESTRUCTION EVERYWHERE TO SAVE THIS ONE LONE RELIC-BEARING SKINK!!! With a final great sprint, running a whole 6", the Skink made a last beeline for our safe zone and was able to fully secure the Relic thanks to the aid of the entire army, ending the game in a blaze of adrenaline and glory. The Daggers of the Deathmaster now belonged to the Seraphon. Crying in triumph, I declared to the shop that the Relic was now mine. As everyone else had finished their games and were packing away, I asked "there's one week left before all the Relics are claimed, is there anyone else who has three Relics or am I in the lead?" There was a hesitation, before one man at the back of the room raised his hand. A man who, like me, had claimed a Relic in every single game he had played. The Bow of the Everglades, the Sceptre of Goldtooth, and the Last Vial of Lustria all belonged to this one enemy, and right then we both knew that next week, one of us would end the other's winning streak. Just one final enemy. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!
It was, the whole skink bit was heart-pounding. But next week's going to be quite the challenge. It may be where I lose.
Wow that was stressful to read. I can just imagine that poor lone skink with a relic all bundled up darting to and fro running for his tiny little life. I loved every word of it! So much death and destruction! I'd be interested to see that Stormcast Carnosaur conversion too. I'm tempted to do something similar myself...
I was gripped and loved every word, wife is working this coming Saturday if she was not I would come over to watch the final game.
The skink picking up the relic was pretty funny, I didn't expect it. I had planned for my Oldblood to pick it up because with his high defenses and regen, he wouldn't be in too much danger. But we both just froze when the skink grabbed it, the silence was audible. It was pretty funny.
Hey I broke my hand in the middle of having to write this uni paper, I've had distractions! ...Fine, it'll be up this evening, my paper's finished and I've learned to type with the hand.