Dr. The Viking

Warhammer Battle Report: Dark Omens III


Finally, after MONTHS of not getting this one done, we have now arrived at the next installment in our Warhammer Fantasy mini-campaign. Will the brave Vampire Erlic von Bachmann manage to brave the Dwarfs and get his warpstone? I hope these 19 pages of Old School love will answer that question.

Here’s a link to the PDF:

doiii-final-300-dpiDownload

If you want to read the old reports they’re available here:

Part I

Part II

5 comments

  1. Love to see a new Dark Omens game!

    In a word: oof.

    Herohammer Undead really struggle to come back from a dodgy deployment, and you ALMOST managed it, but for a Dwarf Lord finally getting into axe to face distance! At least it’s a dramatic ending, made for a good report, and leads into a nice “besiege the vampire’s castle” game, so… that actually turned out for the best?

    I generally endorse Skeletons with ranged weaponry (they’re so slow, they may as well contribute something every turn instead of trudge, die, trudge, die, get raised, trudge, die lots) but Dwarfs are always a tough prospect for mediocre archers with ordinary bows. Toughness 4 and good saves across the board make for long odds.

    There aren’t many firms making them (Warmonger and Iron Wind, neither of them particularly cheap, are the only ones I’ve found), but the crossbow is absolutely my favourite weapon for a Skeleton. Good enough range that they don’t need to move, good enough S that every hit can count.

    My kudos to your Dwarf colleague: good list, tight game, and the challenge of counter-attacking with Dwarfs successfully met! One note on the Hammerers. If I remember rightly, they (like Greatswords in the Empire) are one of those units which finally received special rules aligned to their background in sixth edition, specifically Stubborn when led by a Lord – but aren’t they just “regular Dwarf with a minor stat increase” here? I’m trying to think what I’d have left to guard the observatory. Crossbowdwarfs maybe? Hard to argue with results though…

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    • Thanks man! I mean, of all the work put in to this, someone actually reading and commenting in depth like you makes it all worth the effort!!!

      I have a strong tendency to get caught up in too much when playing… Point in case, in this game I had two “ideas” that I wanted to try out – the Carrion and the Mummies initially screening the catapult. In a normal game where we’d deploy in lines, that probably could have made a lot of sense. But here, I got my plans mixed up and ended up using the line-style deployment ideas on the wrong turf, stranding my Mummies far from the action.

      We will definitely continue the campaign with a siege now. The hold ups have been many, but I certainly expect that the siege will be sometime later this year. I need to contruct the ruined wall sections before we can play the Siege, so that is the current hold up. I have the castle and everything.

      I’ll give the shooty skellies a bit more game time in the future. They would actually come in handy in a siege as defenders I think.

      Meanwhile we have started a new campaign that focuses on some hundred years before this one. It is essentially a map-campaign – you can see the link to it in the top menu “Khardon Island”. There are two reasons for this – firstly we have found yet another Dwarf player who will join the action, and also we have switched to Warhammer Renaissance rules, that are aaaaalmost 4th edition, but with a few smoothings.

      All the best,

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      • I know how much work goes into a good report (and I don’t even do PDF layout!) so I make a point of commenting on other people’s if they’re still live when I get to them. Glad to know it’s appreciated. I’d like your eyes on The Maven & The Witch if you have time: third game should be happening in the next few days.
        If it’s any consolation, your play with the Carrion was on point. I do hear you with ref. the Mummies, they’re so difficult to get use out of given that high cost and appalling M stat and no marching. Putting them even slightly out of place essentially means they do nothing.
        Looking forward to the siege, as and when. And I’ll check out Khardon Island now!

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      • I see you have seen!

        Also: props on Khardon Island, it’s exactly what I think a small campaign should be. No logistics, no map systems, led by actual games of Warhammer, just context and impetus for battles that would be fought anyway. Give them stunties a good kicking for me, back in the sea with them!

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