OGC Tournament 2003 3rd Place Consolation battle   3 rd Place Consolation            2003                   Andy Townley’s High Elves Vs James Brown’s Tomb Kings + + Tuesday 9th AUGUST  .PM – Thursday 11th august pm OGC Tournament 2003 3rd Place Consolation battle OGC Tournament 2003 3rd Place Consolation battle Deployment The High Elves had come to these lands in search of a lost artifact from the War of the Beard, but instead the Dwarves had seized it, after driving off an Empire force trying to stop the movements of their armies through their lands. Now the Elves found themselves trapped in the desert on the borders of the Border Princes, fighting for survival against an irate Tomb King, who would be rid of the invaders forever, for bringing the Empire and Dwarven forces to his lands where so much had been lost. Tomb Kings Turn 1 With a silent howl, and point of his finger, the Tomb King signals the assault on the elves, the hierophant muttering silent incantations and willing the army forward at an alarming pace. The elven archers looked on, and spied the ancient priest holding up an ancient staff, the leader of the unit muttered something and threw himself to the floor but as he stood back up 7 elven bodies lay in the sand a cloud of scarabs disappearing in a cloud in the sky, filled now with elven flesh. Across the battle line the horror continued as with lightning speed the catapult let loose two salvoes of skulls, which descended from the bright sky slamming into a unit of Silver Helms, killing 5 of the gallant elves and wounding the battle standard bearer. The elves looked on in horror, some already questioning having any chance of survival at all, when a dim light rose from the Tomb King lines, there upon a grim altar an ancient liche priest opened a strange casket revealing thousands of screaming souls who quickly returned to their prison, the lives of 3 archers and a shadow warrior claimed.  High Elf Turn 1 The High Elves wasted no time in reacting the onslaught of the Nehekaran army as the prince riding the mighty dragon swooped down the right flank through the abandoned farm, closely followed by the full strength Silver Helm unit. Meanwhile, the army standard bearer gripped his banner tight, the thought only of vengeance in his mind as he launched the depleted Silver helm unit into combat with the skeleton cavalry. As this happened the elven archery opened up, with the bolt thrower, guided by some unknown power striking the hierophant, but despite suffering a grievous wound, the hierophant still stood, as the bolt continued to smash through the ranks of skeletons. The Tomb King’s chariot unit also felt the brunt, as one chariot lay smashed into the sand, leaving only the lethal arrows above the surface. The Silver Helm’s in combat with the skeleton cavalry cut down half the unit, but the ancient warriors are unflinching as the combat continues. The Elves were fighting a desperate fight, but with seemingly no hope of escape what was there to lose?  OGC Tournament 2003 3rd Place Consolation battle Tomb Kings Turn 2 Clutching the wound that had shattered half of his chest, the hierophant spied the elves upon the hill; a dry smile came to his withered lips. He raised both of his hands and muttered something in the ancient tongue, and then lowered them, sensing something was wrong. The swarms he had summoned were some distance away, to far to reach the battlefield, and then pain wracked through his head and he felt the panic of two ancient but fallen priests as the animated scorpions that carried them scrabbled through quicksand. Their struggle was to be a vain as both scorpions and the entombed priests were buried into the sand, this time truly for eternity. Unaware of this chilling fate, the Tomb King spurs his chariots into a unit of archers, their responsive fire doing nothing as they are crushed below wheels of bone and skewered upon spears. Picking a new target the catapult fires but something goes wrong, and the crew stand motionless, until ancient knowledge floods back to them and they fix the problem. The Silver Helms in combat stare at each other smugly but there faces soon drop as a combat they looked sure to win see its balance changed, the fallen cavalry rising back from the sand. Seeing this the Silver Helm’s flee the field and the ancient skeleton captain reaches down for the standard, how glorious it would look in the Kings private collection. High Elf Turn 2 Out of sight of the massacre taking place, the prince sweeps his force around the rear of the farm into a position behind the Tomb King lines. Meanwhile the beleaguered High Elf line continues its reign of fire on the Tomb Kings, aiming at the hierophant’s unit in the aim of breaking the magic that bound the army together, more skeletons fell, some burning from the elven magic. Tomb Kings Turn 3 The chariots continue their slaughter I the elven lines, breaking apart the bolt thrower which earlier struck the hierophant. A crack then resides across the battlefield, some of the elves turning their head to the sky suspecting thunder, but the shining sun led the noise another source. The catapult lay sinking into the sand as its ancient mechanism had snapped, destroying the machine. Again the liche priest opened up the casket this time, it claimed even more souls to join those trapped inside the contraption as the mage, the remains of depleted archer unit and three more shadow warriors drop lifelessly to the ground. High Elf Turn 3 Feeling the battle is won, the hierophant suddenly feels the ancient feeling of fear as with a terrible screech the dragon descends upon the unit shooting gouts of flame. 9 skeletons burn and drop silently to the ground however the hierophant passes with far less grace, his screaming body staggering around unable to prevent its doom as its leathery flesh catches and disintegrates.  With this, the before doomed elves feel a spot of deliverance as across the battlefield the magic binding the undead together begins to unwind. OGC Tournament 2003 3rd Place Consolation battle Tomb Kings Turn 4 Angered by the death of his hierophant the Tomb King spurred his chariots around and calling upon a powerful incantation, willed the unit into combat with the Silver Helms lurking at the rear of the Tomb Kings army. The combat was short and bloody, and the Silver Helms fled under this onslaught. The remaining priest manning (undeading?) the casket cast a spell of vengeance upon the dragon’s rider, wounding him, but the cursed elf still lived. He then wrenched back the lid of the ancient casket and 3 more Lothern Sea Guard had their souls sucked into eternal damnation. High Elf Turn 4 Fearing too even look back upon the pursuing Tomb King and his young prince, the Silver Helms fled the table never to look at the world in a sane way again. Ignoring the commands of its rider the dragon spits gouts of flame at the Tomb King and his chariots setting alight the King, but the flames are quickly beaten out, the King however is badly wounded. The remnants of the High Elf army have little to do but grit their teeth and try to ward off their attackers with light showers of arrows. Tomb Kings Turn 5 As smoke rose of his ancient wrapping, the Tomb King levelled his eyes to make contact with the Elven Prince, and then in the blink of an eye Skeletons, Chariots and Ushabti surrounded the stranded dragon. The King attacked in an unrelenting fury slaying the rider and reducing the dragon to its within an inch of its life, the dragon however responded in kind and the King slumped back in the chariot barely holding on to his natural life. The desperate dragon looked for a place to escape and spying some nearby sand dunes he aimed to escape where he could not be pursued. The dragon-shattered wings however failed him and the young Tomb King prince ordered the chariots in pursuit while his father just about managed to send his chariot in the same direction. The dragon was crushed beneath the wheel, but so close to death already its pain was mercifully short, although with its dying thought it felt panic stricken at the thought of being raised into the dread necromancers ranks. The over enthusiastic pursuit sent the chariots into the dunes however and the Prince and King wee both thrown from their chariots and into the sites of the surviving shadow warriors in the abandoned farmhouse.    OGC Tournament 2003 3rd Place Consolation battle High Elf Turn 5 Less than a dozen of the elf host now remained, the Lothern Sea Guard ignoring the rest of the Tomb King army and covering their eyes to prevent having to see the dreaded casket again, which had already claimed many of their brothers. Meanwhile back at the farm, the shadow warriors levelled their arrows at the Tomb King and let fly, but the King still held some of his reflexes despite his injuries and deflected the arrows with a turn of his sword. The shadow warriors moved to roof of the house to get a better shot…. Tomb Kings Turn 6 The death of the hierophant began to tell on the Tomb King army as one Ushabti fell into the sand, being quickly covered as it returned to the earth. The skeleton cavalry begin to see minor bones dropping from them but they hang in mid-air, unable to be unbound as their leader held aloft the banner of Undying Legion. The shadow warriors on the roof freeze, realising their mistake as they watch hundreds of screaming souls come surging towards them from the casket, and their bodies roll lifelessly from the ruined roof. High Elf Turn 6 With nothing left of their army, the half dozen Lothern Sea Guard give up their arrows, the Tomb King army ignoring them anyway as the King began to comprehend the death of the hierophant. FINAL SCORE Andy Townley’s High Elves         792 2207 James Browns’ Tomb Kings MASSACRE! OGC Tournament 2003 3rd Place Consolation battle Only third……. Ah, third place… what the bloody @#*? Granted I had a good battle (not to mention that enchanted artillery dice) and third is better than forth and I would have died from humiliation if I’d come last, but I’m still disappointed not to have made the top two, um, well, next year!!! The massacred…. Bloody Silver Helms! What’s the point spending years in training, rising up through the ranks of Archer and Spearmen, only to still be outperformed by the dumb mule your riding! Oh well, another groundbreaking achievement for the elves, the Tomb Kings own mishaps causing more casualties on their side than my brave elves managed – much to my amusement! My main flaw was splitting the force in two, the dragon and Silver Helms flank manoeuvre took longer than expected and the defensive force didn’t hold up the Tomb Kings for as long as I’d hoped. Mind you a single line of un-armoured elven archers wearing skirts will never hold much up, I don’t know what the thinking behind that one was!  On the whole an enjoyable battle, that’s the point of it all I suppose, spoken like a true loser! The Tomb King crawled through the desert, his army and son had collapsed as their magic unbound them, without the hierophant, what were his troops anyway. He fell face into the sand, never to walk the earth in any form again.  In the elf court, no word had been received from the army sent to retrieve the lost artifact, upon a scroll their quest was completed with a phrase at its base, missing, presumed lost. The Elector Count returned with his report, the armies in the border princes had been driven, the count was applauded as a true hero of the Empire and his men gifted with all the wine, meat and women they could want, as long as no-one mentioned that the half the armies annihilated each other and the dwarves returned to there stronghold….   In the great dwarven halls a feast took place and the Lord held up the shining staff, “We havt delivered this ancient arti-thing back its true owners!” and with that a hundred tankards were raised and a cheer rose up as the feast continued.