ME Campaign 2 - Turn 7 - Empire vs Orcs

The dwarfs are busy fingting the undead, so their allies from the Empire are called to defend from a greenskin attack. Two gyrocopters are sent to help in the engagement (that is, the Empire got the "Allied reinforcements" event. The orcs used Diplomacy to avoid getting attacked by the daemons).

Deployment - Empire

30 Flagellants often prove to be a decent flank guard and the empire general deploys them in this fashion this time around as well. Beside them is a block of 20 greatswords with a warrior priest. The core of the army consists of 40 trusty halberdiers with a BSB carrying the Griffon banner. A small detachments of handgunners screens them. The army is led by a arch lector riding the war altar. We also have a helstorm rocket battery further back.

To the right of the general is a unit of handgunners, a gyrocopter, five outriders, some crossbowmen, a cannon and some knights led by some daft character.

Deployment - Orcs

From the right to the left this time: A bolt thrower, six drooling trolls, a rock lobba, a block of Big'unz with a black orc warboss...

...a big unit of savage boar boyz, a doom diver, a wolf chariot and a pack of squigs, herded by night goblins with pointy sticks.

Turn 1

The gyrocopters move up to go around the flank of the orcs, but one of them gets charged by squigs and have to flee. The squigs on the other hand are now quite likely to get charged by the knights. The outriders are fleeing for some dumb reason. Can't figure out why, they haven't lost a single guy. Mayhaps they made an unnessecarily long Vanguard move before the battle and got charged by something, maybe the wolf chariot.

The rest of the orc army close in on the 'umies while getting shot up a bit. A few boar boys bite the dust. It turned out the forest the crossbowmen deployed in was inhabited by rabid squirrels, so they spend their turn getting out in the open.

Turn 2

The orc general declares the Waaagh! of the day and his unit reaches the flagellants. The trolls charge the crossbowmen, who decide to flee back through the squirrel infested woods. The boar boys fail to reach combat this turn. The arch lector bravely hides behind a stable, waiting for something to flank.

On the other flank, the knights have stomped the squigs into the ground, but lost half their numbers in the process. The gyrocopters take off on warmachine hunting duty.

Turn 3

The big'unz clobber the flagellants up pretty badly but fail to kill all of them, so they get flanked by the greatswords. They probably should have charged the greatswords instead; they were fewer in number and actually breakable. The boar boys find themselves charged by halberdiers. Due to the handgunners being in the way, the boar boys had to wheel to "close the door", which probably is why the arch lector couldn't charge as the piggy riders were still obscured by the stables.

Turn 4

The trolls reach the flagellants and totally annihilate them. The orc general and his big'unz are doing decently against the greatswords, but risk getting flanked by the halberdiers, who just reformed after killing the boar boys. The arch lector likes hiding behind stuff, and stays where he is.

Turn 5

The halberdiers seal the deal by flanking the big'unz. The greatswords run them down while the halberdiers pursuit into fresh enemy (or, in the case of trolls, not too fresh). A massacre win for the empire and the orcish invasion is once again thwarted.

ME Campaign 2 - Turn 7 - Dark elves vs Daemons

The daemons march upon the dark elven capital and clash with the defenders outside its walls (we don't have any darn walls so we can't play siege games. Not that there are any actual rules for it in 8th edition anyway...). This is a 4500 points game.

Deployment - Daemons

A unit of Khorne dogs are running up the daemons' right flank and damn, that's a huge Bloodthirster! Beside him is a unit of Flamers, and then we have Daemonettes and a horde of 50 Bloodletters.

To the right of that Bloodletter horde is a Fat smelly fellow and more Flamers on the bridge.

On the other side of the river we have another unit of Daemonettes and a Tzeentch herald on a Disc. Further away are units of Flamers, Bloodcrushers and Flesh hounds.

Deployment - Dark elves

The defending Dark elf army, from left to right: Dark riders, Corsairs, a horde of Executioners (with quite a few surrogate models in it), a Reaper bolt thrower, a throng of Spearmen acting as sacrificial fodder for the lvl4 Sorceress...

...a Couldron of Bleoud, a Master on a Dark pegasus, a big block of Witch elves (those Black guard in the rear ranks are just proxies), a Reaper bolt thrower, quite a lot of Crossbowmen, a damn Dragon, a War hydra and some Cold one knights.

Turn 1

The daemons casually move forwards a bit, while the dark elves surge across the battlefield. Someone probably got the Tactical result of "extend your deployment zone with 6"" because they really arrive quickly. Either that, or this is actually turn 2. Anyway, the dragon lands behind enemy lines while the Witch elves charge the daemonettes and kill quite a few of them.

The bloodcrushers have been drastically reduced by dark elven shooting. The executioners are not in a hurry to engage the daemonic left flank.

Turn 2

The witch elves are doing pretty well against the daemonettes, but things are getting more complicated as the bloodletter horde charges the spearmen, kills their sorceress and breaks them, and pursuits into the flank of the witches.

The Bloodthirster and Dragon are jumping around, not wanting to engage anywhere just yet. Meanwhile, the hydra and dark riders charge one of the flamer units.

Turn 3

The flamers seem to have killed the dark rider unit before they went back into the warp. The hydra gets stuck behind a woodcutter's hut and fails to overrun into the Tzeentch herald. The witch elves are still hanging around, having killed all of the daemonettes par their herald.

You'd think flamers don't fancy water very much... anyway, some of them are fighting what I think is an assassin with flying boots. The remaining daemonette unit has reached the executioners but are not doing terribly well at the moment.

Turn 4

The executioners decide to leg it when a unit of flamers flank them, and the flamers and daemonettes run them down. The two remaining bloodcrushers have been busy chasing down some dark riders.

The cold one knights don't seem to have accomplished much. Their lizards probably failed their Stupidity rolls more than once. The Spearmen throng have rallied and prepare to engage the bloodletters again.

(insert epic music here)

The bloodletters are calculating their chances to reach the spearmen before they get a hydra up their asses. The flying assassin is still keeping the flamers busy in the river.

Turn 5

The bloodletters obviously failed their charge and are getting surrounded by all sorts of nastiness. No pictures of the battle between the Bloodthirster and the dragon, I'm afraid, but it seems the drägon won.

The flamers and bloodcrushers have crossed the river and attack the cauldron. The flamers in the river seem to be needing some help against the assassin and the daemonettes aim to please.

Turn 6

The bloodletters get charged by spearmen, cold one knights, dragon and hydra. This ought to be good...

Not good enough, however. Lots of bloodletters die, but not enough to wipe them out. So the dark elves get no points for them. The cold one knights fall to the man on the other hand, so the daemons actually benefitted from this. The witch hag keeps defending her cauldron, killing both of the bloodcrushers.

The assassin finally gets dragged down under the surface and grants the daemon player some more points. The battle was close, but with the 8th edition rules for Victory points, the daemons score a solid victory. The dark elven capitol is burned to the ground.