In an attempt to carve more gaming time out of our respective family commitments, Owen and I have instigated 'WHednesdays', a fortnightly gaming evening. This was the first one, and the first time we've managed to play a game of Age of Sigmar right through to the end (okay, so it was only a 1500 point game, and we finished well after midnight, but the point is we finished)! I fancied fielding an 'all female' Nighthaunt list for a laugh (my Mourngul is/was female according to my background) so I went for Quicksilver Dead to make my Dreadscythe Harridans battleline. Owen opted for a wizard-heavy, smashing-down-out-of-the-heavens-heavy, elite Stormcast Eternal force (but he's a nice guy so he had about as much shooting as I did!). We liked the look of 'The Ritual' battleplan, which worked narratively with either army being the Ritualist, but we ended up we Lady Olynder and the Procession of the Foolish Martyrs trying to put a stop to the Gravewalkers' arcane shenanigans...
The banshee wails...
A sea of seething spirits surges forth
converging on the Numinous Occulum,
its ancient structure long ago defunct,
which now some interlopers would repair.
Olynder calls her ladies to herself:
"The hated dogs of Sigmar cast their spells.
The hubris of these Stormcast stokes our rage!
Come! Suffer not the Gravewalkers to live!"
The black-clad Stormcast see our host approach
and back away in effort to escape
the terror of our devastating charge,
protecting lesser sites of arcane power.
Only the Mourngul Abbess has the speed
to reach the centre of their sacred rite.
The Lord-Imperatant Caelon the Gray
does quail before her onslaught yet endures.
Meanwhile upon her flank the Dreadscythes charge
the Stormcast cavalry with shrieks of rage.
Those who in life with Abbess served,
in death must do the same forevermore.
The Gravewalkers rain heavy hammer blows
with eldritch light upon their gheistly foes.
Defiant Baerin comes to Caelon's aid
while gryph hound snaps and squawks about her skirt.
While Sigmar's finest fail, the bird-hound strikes
and sends the Mourgul back into her grave.
Yet now the Myrnmourn Banshees join the fray,
An arcane feast of magic to consume.
From heavens high Annihilators drop
in blinding light behind the Nighthaunt lines.
And though their charge is lumbering and slow
some reach their targets and their weapons swing.
Our Lady lifts her veil, unleashing grief
upon both mighty heroes in their turn:
First Caelon, then his Lord-Commander falls,
distraught by secret horrors now revealed.
The Nighthaunt now beset by mighty foes
begin to fail, but though they dwindle fast
Olynder all the Stormcasts' rites disrupts
and thwarts the hubris of their faithless god.
Their Lords confused, the Gravewalkers fight on,
but banshee song disrupts their discipline.
In time, even Olynder is undone
alone among the haughty Gravewalkers!
Yet though our great Procession now is gone...
their rite has failed!
Despite only having my Tomb Banshee general left on the table at the end of turn 5, I had managed to score a major victory by denying the Ritualists the victory points they required. (Arguably, this was largely down to some appalling VP rolls by Owen, but a win is a win!) I really loved that battleplan and am keen to try it again some time with my forces attempting the Ritual.
PS: Lady Olynder is amazing, Tomb Banshee was surprisingly effective, and Myrmourn Banshees are brilliant!
PPS (note to self): don't try and write a battle report in iambic pentameter again! Will I never learn?!
#97 BATTLE XIX - THE BLOOD RING OF THE FALSE APOSTLE
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