Abecedar:
I definitely agree with that
Malorndk:
Almost two months has passed and I owe you guys a battle report! Sorry for the long delay.
I recently lost a loved one in the near family which hit rather hard, but I want to do this. To lessen the work I will make it in multiple parts, and uploads throughout December. One update a day would be nice, but I’m not sure I can manage that but I’ll try. Like a Christmas calendar kinda thing 
I want it to be finished before Christmas eve.
Each post will cover a player turn (For example “Team Undead - Turn 3”)
I’ll bomb you guys with pictures and enough text to understand whats going on. Lots of close up, but also big scale battlefield pictures.
I will have some tactical reflections, from both teams perspective.
The amount and quality of the pictures will decrease with the natural light and sleepiness of the photographer.
Feel free to comment as you like. This is a community project and I will gladly answer questions along the way 
Malorndk:
[size=xx-large]LEGENDARY BATTLE REPORT
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Re-hype and short reintroduction
This thread has lain dormant for a couple of months now, and I fully understand if you aren�?Tt about to reread the thread. This is a short recap of what has already been said:
14K Undead Legion vs 14K Grand Legion of the Everchosen + Legion of Azgorh fighting a huge legendary battle over a weekend, using 8th edition Warhammer rules, with a huge scenario pack containing objectives and rule changes to fit the experience. A lot of terrain has been made and the ingame setting is the transition from the rocky wasteland before the World Edge Mountains leading into the Nehekharan desert and the city of Quatar, which has been under siege from the Chaos Dwarf, who has spent every available resource to build the Obsidian Wall. This wall has effectively divided Eastern and Western Khemri, and forced Nagash�?Ts Legion back south, with Archaon hot on their track.
Deployment
Deployment was completed under a time constraint and pressure Tuesday before game start that weekend. Team Undead outplayed us massively with their deployment strategy and Team Chaos has to spent many turns to regain the ground lost solely due to deployment. In short, Team Undead had 4 blocks with different roles. One block was sacrificial rabble in the desert; another was the chariots in the desert whose footprint was too big to effectively manoeuvre around. The main block was Nagash surrounded by all the units that normally could not have marched without him and which had all been equipped with enough characters an potential spell comboes, so that they could actually fight well against Team Chaos. They last block was their flanking units, which all had high movement or fly, along with the Vampiric Special Rule, allowing them to March. This Flank force was luckily deployed somewhat confined, and some of the units stood in each others way for a long period of time. 
Team Chaos had spread out rather evenly across the board, but didn�?Tt have enough power invested in the rocky board that held 2/3 of the Undead points. At least we manage to deploy around the Khalida hordes shooting range, and only give them high armoured targets to shoot at. On the middle board, Team Chaos somewhat stranded with important and expensive units like the Trolls, Skull Crushers, Archaon, Glottkin and the Ogres. Many points, which did not have a lot of impact on the game.
The Glottkin thinks those undead should have been deployed much closer to his delightful being. That will be a long and slow march through the desert�?�
Malorndk:
Before game start
With deployment being done 4 days before, we didn�?Tt have much to do before we could begin moving miniatures around, but we still needed to generate spells and roll some other dice. I have decided not to explain this fully to preserve space, as both sides had an extraordinaire amounts of wizard levels. The Darkforge weapons on the Sorceror Prophets didn�?Tt have any impact, so I won�?Tt waste your time on that but the Champion in the unit of Chosen was rewarded for his service right from the start, and turned into a magnificent Daemon Prince (we used the much hated Scyla Anfingrimm model to represent him!) <3
Team Chaos had the entire Lore of Hashut, with Ashstorm on the expendable Sorceror Prophet Hruz the Unbend a top of Ta�?TInroth, his trusted Bale Taurus. Drazhoath the Ashen rocked Flames of Azgorh. The Lammasu and Archaon Everchosen covered the entire Lore of Shadows, while the Lammasu riding Sorceror Prophet Zanklai�?TOtory the Deathsinger wielded all the relevant Lore of Death spells and left the unnecessary ones in the hands of the Daemonsmith Zhataras the Bloody. The remaining Daemonsmith; Yzkiloth Firebreath got the Flamming Swords of Rhuin and Fireball, while the Glottkin the important Nurgle spells that focusses on the enemies Toughness statistic (Signature, Curse of the Leper, Rancid Visistations and Fleshy Abundance. It�?Ts impossible to remember all of this, so for the most part of the game, we wanted to set up a Purple Sun, lower stats (fx Ballistic Skill on Khalida�?Ts Horde or Toughness on Nagash) and always spend the last 6 dice in an attempt to get Ashstorm through on Nagash.
From the left: Hruz the Unbend on Ta�?TInroth (Lore of Hashut with Ashstorm), Drazhoath the Ashen on Cinderbreath (Lore of Hashut) and last the almost MVP of the game: Zanklai�?TOtory the Deathsinger (Lore of Death) on his Lammasu Uzroth�?TKulon (Lore of Shadows)
Team Undead had 13 casters, many being level 3-5 special characters. So they had absolutely everything available to them: The entire Lore of Undeath on Nagash. Lore of Light with a light council boosting Banishment to Strenght 7. Lore of the Vampire, with multiple Invocation of Nehek spread across the battle field. Lore of Death on the flying menace Mannfred von Carstein. Lore of Nehekhara on the backline to boost from afar and a handful of spells from the Lore of Shadows if I remember correctly. Aside from this, they brought all the Magic Phase empowering units, which the Undead Legion has access too: Hiero Titan, Casket of Soul, Mortis Engine and a Corpse Cart. Nagash summoning insane amounts of points would be devastating, but most of their models where on the table, so he should not be able to go all out in turn 1 and 2. Team Chaos knew they would lose the Magic Phase but we could not fathom exactly how insane it would be.
Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (Lore of Death). This is the 5th edition metal zombie dragon with the red duke as its rider. We decided early on not to buy the Mortarch kit 3 times for Mannfred, Neferata and Arkhan, but instead use some of our already painted models to reduce the feeling of repetitiveness amongst the important, narrative special characters. Team Undead deployed him on the desert base which surprised us, but his purpose soon became clear!!! #cliffhanger
Unzul:
welcome back!!
I’m very excited at the idea of reading a good br
Malorndk:
[size=xx-large]Team Undead �?" Turn 1[/size]
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In the dessert, the big blocks of cheap skelleton and zombie bus�?T marched forward with Arkhans help to claim the Effigy of Usekph and the Arcane Ruins. Both of these would aid them massively in the power generating part of the magic phase.
The chariots could not manoeuvre much and moved a little forward. The sheer size of this unit was ridiculous and Settra II, Mortarch of Eternity packs quite a bit punch as well and could not be ignored.
In the packed corner, a lot of things happened. Nagash pushed aggressively forward in an attempt to get to close combat by turn 2 (thereby avoiding targeting from shooting). 
Nagash was assisted by The Knights of the Black Grail, and had the Grave Guard unit packed with Vlad von Carstein, Krell, a Necrotect and the Battle Standard Bearer right behind him, along with the Hiero Titan, Corpse Cart and Mortis Engine. The back line consisted primarily of bunker units for the Light Council.
Khalida and her Archer-horde with 3 Banshees garrisoned the Obsidian Fortress, which created some space in the tightly packed deployment zone
The Skeleton bus with the ethereal front rank consisting 5 Cairn Wraiths moved a little forward to defend the bulwark next to the Obsidian Fortress.
The vampiric strike force used Vargheist and Vargulfs to pressure, but also to bait us into charging and thus opening up for a counter charge from Neferata, Mortarch of Blood, who is an absolute beast in close combat and must be avoided for as long as possible. By the way, the actual wall (as well as its troops and war machines) is considered the table edge, and will offer no ingame benefits. It is just there to add to the setting.
Luckily, the Horsemen and Blood Knights were somewhat colliding each other�?Ts movement, and could not move much.
Magic Phase[/size]
When everything was added from objectives, Casket of Souls, channelling, Winds of Magic, magic items and special rules, Team Undead wields the full possible pool of 24 dice, while Team Chaos only had 14 dispel dice this magic phase. This meant something would get through, even with Chalice and Dispel Scroll. We began to rationalize which would hurt us the most, and what we needed to let through.
Keep in mind, that their magic heavy centre around Nagash had both a Hiero Titan (+D3 to cast attempts) and a Mortis Engine (+2 to cast attempts on Lore of the Vampire). This meant that almost every single spell attempted succeeded and had a high casting value, even though few dice were used, which drastically reduced the chance of irresistible Force (and the associated miscast roll).
I have not noted all cast and dispel attempts, just what got through and what was stopped. Team Undead started out with Pha�?Ts Protection, which we decided to dispel, as it reduced our chance of shooting Nagash in our own turn one (optimistic but possible). We dispelled the Pha�?Ts Protection.
Nagash�?Ts first spell was Ryze the Gravecaller which is the signature spell in Lore of Undeath. It summons an infantry unit, and can be cast at 3 different casting values like a Fireball. Weak is 50 points infantry, Medium is a 100 points infantry and strong is 150 points of monstrous infantry. Normally the range is 12�?� on all summonings, but Nagash�?Ts special rules triples both the range AND the point cost allowance. Right of the bat Nagash went for the strong version, which means 450 points of monstrous infantry placed within 36�?� of Nagash who just moved aggressively forward. On the plus side, we know which models each other owns. The undead player (My brother) had painted a Vargulf, 7 Bloodknights and his Battle Standard Bearer in the busy months leading up to the event. We had had hyped phone conversations nearly everyday when he was on his way to work, but his workload was so big that he always said he had to get some work done on his 20 minute commute in the intercity train. He had not had painting time to surprise us further, which meant that we were almost certain, that this spell was a bluff. A sneaky way to make us waste dice on the dispel attempt. If we let it through, we anticipated 3 Vargheists or 2 Morghast Archai. Both would be troublesome, but nowhere near as devastating as the 10 Hexwraiths we knew would follow later in the magic phase. We reached an agreement and decided to let it go�?�
!!!BIG MISTAKE!!!
The poker face melted! Menacing laughter erupted! The bluff was over! Months of misguidance let into this spell. From bags unseen they appeared�?� 11 newly painted Crypt Horrors, which my crazy brother had assembled and painted on his commute to work by train every day for a month. He had not had extra work, just a grim determination to summon an unremovable, killy anvil of Crypt Horrors. He had been sitting in bumby train carts, without tables or prober support, as the laughing stock of Mr. and Mrs. Denmark, stubbornly for an entire month to achieve this. This dedication made me terrified and proud at the same time. My brother is such a beast <3
Team Chaos were shaken! But Nagash did not relent. He cast the Abyssal Swarm, and summoned 5 Spirit Hosts ready to charge the Daemonsmith Yzkiloth Firebreath, who has joined the Dreadquake Mortar; Ye Olde Rumbler �?" Finest of the First Age. If the ethereal swarm succeeded, they would overrun into the Hellcanon; Ashcannoth �?" the Blue Beast. Since the Daemonsmith; Yzkiloth Firebreath carried our Dispel Scroll, we decided to use it against the Dark Riders, which would have summoned 10 Hexwraiths.
We managed to stop the Light Council�?Ts Banishment, but Casket of Souls got 3 Chaos Knights from The Sword of Chaos; Archaons elite knight unit, which where both Unbreakable and had a hatred towards everything.
The Sword of Chaos was one of the two unit that did not get finished in time (The other was the Skullcrushers). We had to use proxy Marauder Horsemen to resemble the back line. This annoyed us a fair bit, but the unit did not last long, so it will not haunt a lot of pictures at the very least
Nagash was not finished yet, with his last power, he cast The Harbringer, and summoned a lone Vampire on foot with at total point allowance of 195 points. She had the Vampiric Power Red Fury, and perhaps some additional magic items and equipment, that my notes does not reveal. She faces a Hellbound Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher on our backline.
That ladies and gentlemen, was one magic phase�?� 11 Crypt Horrors, 5 Spirit Hosts, 1 Lone Vampire, a used Dispel Scroll, and a barely dispelled Banishment and Pha�?Ts Protection. We knew it would be bad, but we could not anticipate this amount of impact in advance, as we had never tried anything like this before.
Shooting Phase[/size]
Due to Scenario Special Rules, we could not focus fire the special characters. Up to two warmachines could attempt to hit the same character each shooting phase. 2 of Team Undeads 4 Scream Skull Catapults aimed at Archaon Everchosen. Both hit! But Archaon came through with his 3+ ward save.
The remaining Screaming Skulls killed another Chaos Knight from the Sword of Chaos and 4 Knorne Warriors from The Slaugtherer�?Ts of the Far North, which was led by Valkia the Gore Queen herself, and had one simple goal this game: Destroy Khalida and her archer-horde in the Obsidian Fortress!
In the outer ruins of Quatar, the Light Horsemen loosened their arrows against the 11 Wolf Raiders; The Raiders of Da East, which was kept in line by the Khan; Aizhul on top of his mighty wolf Bokk! The raiders glory was shortlived. 3 fell to the arrows, and Aizhul chose to retreat though the more disciplined rank, so the he and his remaining raiders could live to fight another day.
Team Undead�?Ts first turn had ended�?�
Carcearion:
Argghh! a huge sprint out of the gate for the dead!
I’m still waving my spikey banner for team chaos to put a dent in their lead in our shooting phase, we have Dawi Zharr artillary after all.
Malorndk:
[size=xx-large]Team Chaos �?" Turn 1[/size]
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We only had one charge this round. With a heavy hard we sacrificed the Sword of Chaos to hold up the Crypt Horrors. We were not prepared to deal with these guys but needed to keep them away from Valkia the Gore Queen and her Khorne Warriors, who had to take down Khalida and her archer-horde in the Fortress. We knew the knights would not win, but we hoped they would buys us some time.
The Exalted Bullspawns of Hashut suffered from the same limitations as the Chariots. Their units moveprint was simply too big. This was our last turn to move them out of our way and use them as a rather expensive bait for Nagash and/or the Knights of the Black Grail. Their Tauruk; Baizrack chose to leave the unit, and align with the advancing Chaos Knights of Khorne; The Unrelenting Hammer, led by the mighty Chaos Lord Grogos the Demolisher. 
While the Skullcanon shielded itself behind the Obsidian Watchtower and the Bullspawns of Hashut, Drazhoath ordered his magic heavy Sorceror-Prophets into safety behind the bulls. Not being in charge range from two Vargulfs and Neferata seemed reasonable.
To deal with the vampiric flank, we positioned the Hobgoblin Archers; Da Cheapshots in a way, that charging beasts would not overrun into important things.
As we expected the Bull Centaurs to get crushed, we kept the Black Orcs and Chosens ready to counter charge the following turn. The newly changed Daemonprince positioned his Line of Sight so that he could rear charge the summoned Spirit Hosts when they were locked in combat next turn.
The crammed corner did not look good. Team Chaos was fighting an uphill battle preserving most of its points, while slowing the undead advance. The corner looked fragile but controllable after the movement phase.
In the Outer Ruins of Quatar, the situation was not as dire. Team Chaos had more elite troops present, like the Red Legion of the Blood Realm, led by the Herald; Kodihr the Violent. During this final battle for the fate of world, the chaos god Khorne was ascendant, making his daemons Unbreakable instead of somewhat unstable. These bad boys went straight ahead, prepared to grind bone to dust soon.
On the other side of the Nehekharan Sphynx the Dawi Zharr marched relentlessly but slowly through the dessert. This unit of great weapon wielding Infernal Guards called themselves The Infernal Fist of Fire, and was led by the alliance�?Ts Battle Standard Bearer; Uzemilar Firefist. The fiercest Khans the Dark Lands had to offer reinforced their front rank, and we had hoped to throw this brick of a unit (1100 points) into the midst of Nagash�?Ts centre. Unfortunately, that blasted deployment phase had stranded them here in the desert, with the Chariots as their only realistic target. On the bright side, this unit could withstand the 4D6 S6 charge, and destroy 700 points of chariots, so along they went. The even got an objective on the way!
5 Khans - Vnar, Bashiuk, Ghrasha, Korc�?Tbai, Izit and finally the Infernal Castellan Battle Standard Bearer; Uzemilar Firefist! [/i]
In the desert corner we advance our hobgoblin bus; The Expendables, with the K�?Tdaii Destroyer on one side and 18 Khorne Warriors on the other. The pictures will not show it, but we had two Beasts of Nurgle hugging the table edge, prepared to lock down whatever made it through.
Now the middle of the board held some of our strongest units, but no worthwhile enemies, and a big Obsidian Fortress blocking any reasonable assault on Nagash�?Ts elite centre. Archaon pushed his Skullcrushers forward, ready to make an attempt in turn 2-
[/i]
The Glottkin felt stranded, and made his way towards the Nehekharan desert, while the Nurgle Ogres slowly trotted behind Archaon Everchosen.
We also had The Terror from the Wastes. Eight mean chaos trolls, led by Throgg the Troll King and a fully kittet Nurgle Doombull; Maltrax the Foul who wields the Beastmen magic item Blackened Plated that grants the unit a 4+ ward save against flaming attacks. Combined with the trolls natural Regeneration save, this unit is extremely tanky, fast and hard hitting. This unit marched forward but did not have a clear-cut target yet. We wheeled them a little towards the chariots, to force them out.
Lastly, the Fireglaives wielding Infernal Guards; The Pride of the Black Fortress, led by the castellan; Anzar the Deadly made a swift reform to face the summoned vampire who threatened the Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher.
Magic Phase[/size]
Grand Legion of the Everchosen gets an improved Reign of Chaos table, which has a chance to damage multiple units in different ways each Chaos magic phase. This time around we got Khornes Wrath, which did not do anything, except take four important wounds off of the Terrorgheist, thus decreasing its damage potential drastically, as its ghostly howl is based upon remaining wounds. We had hoped for a bigger impact but we could not complain about 4 wounds on the Terrorgheist!
The final dice distribution ended in 19 power dice to Team Chaos and 17 dispel dice Team Undead. Team Undead had one single priority. They let everything through that did not target Nagash. Tried to dispel everything that DID target Nagash, except for Ashstorm, which they Dispel Scrolled.
To guest readers who are not familiar with the Lore of Hashut in 8th edition: Ashstorm is a completely broken 24�?� hex spell, that locks a unit down rather severely, hindrering movement, spellcasting, to hit rolls in and out of combat, and lastly, it makes its target Flammable, so that the flaming artillery from the Hellcannons will deal twice the normal amount of damage. If this spell had gotten through on Nagash, our chances of killing him would have been higher, and even if we did not, he would be basicly be a useless brick on the battlefield for Team Undeads turn 2. But alas, it got scrolled.
At the end of the magic phase, we had taken Khalida and her Archer Horde to a ballistic skill of 1 via Miasma and reduced the toughness of the summoned Crypt Horrors with 3 via the Withering. Not extremely important, and definitely a disappointing magic phase compared to the ungodly presence Nagash had had in their first magic phase.
Shooting Phase[/size]
The Pride of the Black Fortress aimed at the summoned vampire aaaand�?�. Missed�?�
Zhataras the Bloody and his machines took down 2 Chariots
The Skullcannon aimed through the Black Knights, Corpse Cart and Hiero Titan, but did not achieve anything worthwhile.
And finally! Yzkiloth Firebreath commanded the Blue Beast and Ye Olde Rumbler to decimate the Surpreme Lord of the Undead! Decent dice roll secured us 5 out of his 7 wounds, which would have been pretty cool if he could not just heal them all back up in his own magic phase. At least it reduced the amount of other spells Team Undead could force through, but over all, our first turn had been and uphill battle without many opportunities and less than expected impact during the magic phase and shooting phase.
Close Combat Phase[/size]
The Sword of Chaos did some wounds against the Crypt Horrors, who only let 3 Knights survive the ordeal. Less than stellar performance, but they did hold the Crypt Horrors locked up for a turn.
Team Chaos first turn had ended. It did note bode well for what was about to come�?� We surely had learned to fear their magic phase!
Fuggit Khan:
Yes! WhooHoo! Go Khans! :h :hashut
The fiercest Khans the Dark Lands had to offer reinforced their front rank
5 Khans - Vnar, Bashiuk, Ghrasha, Korc�?Tbai, Izit!
Malorndk
The Pride of the Black Fortress aimed at the summoned vampire aaaand�?�. Missed�?�Doh...of course.
Malorndk
Great pictures and a very well written turn by turn narrative so far...I'm really enjoying this :hat off
Carcearion:
Really riviting! looking forward to more, and still waving said spikey banner that Chaos will prevail! For The Dark Gods!!! :hashut
Helblindi:
Yesss! An update! Sorry to hear about your loss and about pushing for an update in that condition, I didn’t know 
Great pics, great story-telling, I’m thrilled for the next bit
Malorndk:
@Unzul: Hope you like it!
@Carcearion: Keep the banner high. Its a rough start for Team Chaos but we get some luck in the later half of the game <3
@Fuggit: Those 5 Khans will soon go ham. I made the names rather quickly before the game, so I had not realized that pronouncing Korc’bai was waaaay more intimidating than I had envisioned xD
@Helblindi: No harm done! I’m just happy that I can share my passion with more than 5 friends. Feels rewarding <3
Malorndk:
[size=xx-large]Team Undead �?" Turn 2[/size]
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This turn had zero action on the middle of the board, and so little happened in the desert, that I will get it out of the way first, so we can focus on the craziness happening in the rocky corner. First things first, 3 Necroknights appeared from beneath the sands and prepared a charge on Zhataras the Bloody and his Dreadquake Mortar.
The infantry units did not move much, but Mannfred von Carstein charged the Hobgoblin bus; the Expendables. After the game, Team Undead revealed their intentions with Mannfred von Carsteins presence on the desert board: Mannfred carries the Sword of Unholy Power, which allows him to generate power and dispel dice by doing wounds to opponents in close combat. With his vampire lord stats and combined profile with a thunder-stomping monster, Mannfred would boost Team Undeads dispel pool tremendously by thrashing hobgoblins for many turns. The hobgoblin had tons of ranks, so they were steadfast, even if Mannfred killed 10 a turn. 
Now, this did not happen! In order to complete the charge, two Fell Bats had to get out of his charge path. Team Undead sacrificed them on the nearby Khorne Warriors, which was the first real mistake Team Undead did. 
In the close combat phase the Hobgoblin Khan; Zhin-budar challenged Mannfred, got extremely demolished, and the Expendables lost his 1 point in leadership, failed their stubborn test by 1, and fled. Mannfred pursued but rolled low. Team undead had forgotten about the free reform after a won combat! The 18 Khorne Warriors destroyed the Fell Bats, reformed, and had the perfect flank charge on Mannfred! 
This was an actual mistake by Team Undead. Their first. We recognised it, acted on it, and now had decent chance to remove a huge thread, get 650 victory points, and at the very least lock him up for many turns. I would like to be able to boast that I intentionally challenged with the Khan to reduce my own units leadership in order to set up this flank opportunity, but to be completely honest, I did not forsee the possibilities, tried to reduce the damage to the Expendables, and did the one thing that got them wiped out�?� Nevertheless, I can conceal my own stupidity because it played to my favour <3
Nothing else important happened in the desert this turn, so we will take a turn based look on the rocky corner by the Obsidian Wall-
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On the flank, the 3 Vargheists charged Da Cheapshots, who took a wound off of a Vargheist with their throwing knives.
Nagash wanted to get into combat to avoid the following shooting phase, but joining the Knights of the Black Grail against the Bullspawns of Hashut seemed like overkill.
To Nagash�?Ts left, and within easy charge range, he had 5 Knights and a Chaos Lord. If he broke them, he would overrun into the Warshrine. Now a fully kittet Chaos Lord is not to be taken lightly, but Nagash should be able to trample him!
The Knights of the Black Grail had a clear target. Being animated from the corpses of Duke Theodorics defenders from La Maisontaal in Brettonia did not affect their minds, but their skills in the lance formation still prevailed.
Neferata had nothing to achieve on the flank, and with Nagash being locked in combat next turn, she would be a prime target from warmachines. She decided the good old �?oPlease just charge me bro�?� tactic was the wise choice, and flew to the middle of the mayhem.
The summoned Spirit Hosts engaged Yzkiloth Firebreath and the crew of Ye Olde Rumble �?" Finest of the First Age, while the summoned vampire smashed into the Deathshrieker Rocket Launcer on the back of our table edge.
Aside from the charges, the Terrorgheist repositioned in range of the wizard to get healed up. The Vargulfs ran down towards our backline to flank in turn 3 or 4. The elite centre with the Grave Guards, Light Council, Corpse Cart and Hiero Titan stayed in range of Nagash, which set up another rough magic phase.
Magic Phase[/size]
I forgot to write down the dice distribution, but I think you can imagine it when you see the impact Team Undead was able to make. This was the phase where we realised, just how many Invocation of Nehek (Heal undeads) our opponents had in range of Nagash, Mortis Engine and Hiero Titan. We tried our best to dispel them, and keep Nagash low on wounds so the Chaos Lord; Grogor the Demolisher could live up to his name in the ensuing close combat phase. But we were overwhelmed. With a +3-5 to every Invocation of Nehek cast without even adding the wizard levels, Nagash was fully healed to 7 wounds while we depleted our dispel pool. Afterwards, Team Undead still had enough power, to make the Knights of the Black Grail reroll their to hit and to wound rolls (Hellish Vigor+Vanhel�?Ts Dance Macabre) against the bull centaurs. And lastly, the unmarked Chaos Warriors closing in on the Crypt Horrors got a Curse of Years on them as well. Everything we had achieved in turn 1 had come undone, but at least we did not have additional summonings to worry about this turn.
Shooting Phase[/size]
It�?Ts important to remember context here. In the first turn, Team Undead fired 4 Screaming Skull Catapults, had gotten 4 HITs on the scatter dice and no Missfire on the Artillery dice. When they aimed their first Catapult on top of Archaon Everchosen and got their fifth HIT in a row, we were beginning to get somewhat sour. He failed his 3+ wardsave, and the damned thing made the full 6 on the Multiple Wounds, taking our strongest fighter worth 865 points to 1 wound�?� Luckily they lost the next catapult to a misfire and the last two did not have much impact. The 3 Banshees in the Obsidian Fortress screamed away the remaining knights in the Sword of Chaos.
It felt like 1500 points of Chaos Dwarf artillery and engineers were being out gunned by 500 points of Catapults and some Banshees. Ughhh�?�
Close Combat Phase[/size]
The Knight of the Black Grail had the close combat round of a century, doing 10 wounds against the Bullspawns of Hashut. 6 enraged Bull Centaurs with great axes retaliated against the resurrected Brettonian, killing exactly 1 of them. This was too much! The proud creatures sworn to Hashut tried to run, but they did not make it… #RIPbullcentaurs #whywontyoueverperform
The Vargheist killed 7 Hobgolin Archers, who held due to being steadfast.
Nagash went into a fierce challenge with Grogor the Demolisher, who actually manage to take two wounds off of Nagash�?�
�?� however the Great Necromancer does not play games (badum tsssh) and ripped him to pieces, broke his unit, ran them down and engaged the Warshrine, thus avoiding shooting in our next magic phase.
The summoned Vampire destroyed the Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher and the summoned Spirit Hosts made short work on Yzkiloth Firbreath and the crew of Ye Olde Rumbler. They overran into Ashcannoth �?" the Blue Beast, who has magical attacks and a desire to feast on damned souls.
This was the end of Undead Turn 2. Aside from the Mannfred flank charge opportunity, it felt like everything was working out for them. Their comboes, builds and tactics kept us hard pressed, and with very few possibilities of retribution. The 6 wounds on Archaon felt particularly unfair, especially because Nagash had just regained 6 wounds in a magic phase and we knew we could not do that. We had played 6 hours straight, and the sheer punishment was hard to take. To lighten the mood here at the end I give you some troll buttocks! 
PS: The picture quality and amount is faltering already and will never be as good as the first two turns again. Around turn four, the natural light of day helps a bit, but the next couple of updates will not be as good. I have quite a schedule tomorrow and cannot imagine that I will update the Battle Report tomorrow.
Darkmeer:
I cannot say I really want to break up this batrep, but this is beyond epic. I’ve never played any battles on this scale in any game I play. This is a good read through and I think it helps me scale down some tactics. Thank you for posting this, and I’m looking forward to more!
Admiral:
Sorry about your loss. Hope the grief isn’t too hard. To do the battle report in such a situation must demand its fair share of determination. At least it could distract.
As for the battle report, this is one magnificient beast that is almost as over the top as it gets (it would only have needed something in the magnitude of an Undead character surfing on a giant skull and a Chaos Dwarf surfing on a lava wave to top it all off). Good photography and great flowing commentary with a nice story going so far. The obsidian wall chokepoint is a particularly clever narrative ploy. Menacing magic from the Undead side, but what a neat turnout that the death and flight of the measly Hobgoblins could lead to Chaos gaining the upper hand at one spot! :h
This does not look good for Team Chaos. Outdeployed, outgunned, outhealed, outfought, outmagicked. Bull Centaurs trampled underhoof, the Swords of Chaos annihilated and the failing Dawi Zharr artillery getting eaten.
Spiky banner raised for a comeback in the eye of the gods! :hashut
Carcearion:
Arrghh! I can feel the despair! but its only turn two, and if anyone can comback now that CC is joined its Chaos! Death to The Dead! For The Dark Gods! For Zharr-Naggrund! :hashut
Malorndk:
@Darkmeer: Feel free to commentate all that you want. It keeps me going 
@Admiral: Glad that you like. I considered photoshopping a lava surfing CD vs giant skull surfing liche just to please you, but figured you would probably rather have another update <3
Thanks for the feedback, and yeah the hobgoblins role in this game was a narrative correct depiction of their role in the Dawi Zharr empire.
@Carcearion: The Despair will linger a while longer, but as you can see in the next update, our close combat is winable or at least even.
Malorndk:
[size=xx-large]Team Chaos �?" Turn 2[/size]
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While the middle and rocky board did interact with the desert board, it was at a small enough scale to justify my separation of the turn based report when handling the events in the desert, solely for the sake of the narrative.
The K�?Tdaii backed up to avoid the inevitable Spirit Host block, while the Khorne Warriors hit Mannfred�?Ts flank. The Warriors lost the combat due to dice rolls below average, and Mannfred being a pretty beastly fighter. Luckily they held and did not run.
�?�Quality photo�?�
The Red Legion of the Blood Realm charged the Horse-Archers and with their Herald; Kodihr the Violent, the smashed the undead to pieces and overran close to the big spear horde.
The Infernal Fist of Fire and the Terror of the Waste slowly but surely encircled the chariots, and pretty much forced them to charge their following turn. Using every advantage we could, Zhataras the Bloody aimed our remaining Dreadquake Mortar into the chariot unit, killing 2 and made the earth rumble, which would force a dangerous terrain test on the chariots if they moved the following turn. A dangerous terrain test isn�?Tt a big deal, but against 10 chariots it could be incredibly dangerous, as the machines easily break.
A quick word on Arkhan the Black. This special character is an absolute joy to read about and rules wise he is decent as an army�?Ts primary spell caster. His special rules allows him to summon twice the normal amount of points (Nagash summons 3 times the normal limit), so he is in effect a mini Nagash. In this game however, he was unimpressive as neither he nor Nagash are Loremasters, which means each Lore of Undead spell can only be known once and that is on Nagash. Arkhan could still do some decent damage in close combat, but to risk his 650 points for that would be subpar. Team Undead played him defensively and away from harm, as they should do.
While still technically being on the middle board, Archaon Everchosen pressed his Skullcrushers hard to get away from banshees, shooting and threats. Being on one wound is a sinking feeling, when your general costs 865 points. He charged and overran a Spirit Host. Anyway back to the rocky board!
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This was the turn where everything charged! To charge on turn two would usually be Warriors of Chaos dream scenario, but we had taken such a beating already and the rocky corner had all the good undead units, so victory was far from given. On the contrary, these charges were not ideal, but absolutely necessary with the way the game was going.
Drazhoath the Ashen called out to his troops and demanded glory. With a heavy heart Team Chaos charged Neferatam with not only Drazhoath, but also Hruz the Unbend AND Zanklai�?TOtory. The goal with this was not necessarily to kill Neferata (Though that would be great!) but to lock her in combatwhile in the middle of the board, forcing the units behind her to waste time. What we should have done was to charge with Drazhoath and maybe Zanklai�?TOtory, but locking up 2000 points of sorcerers on monsters in a combat where Drazhoath will challenge was unwise and forced us to do some pretty spectacular things in the following turns to not get completely crushed. This manoeuvre was not a mistake, and we had some good ideas with it, but it surely was not ideal either.
For any gaming purpose, we consider the bases aligned, but due to huge miniatures we place them like this. [/i]
The Black Orcs and the Chosen both got a spectacular flank charge of on the Knights of the Black Grail. This should play to our advantage!
The lone Tauruk; Baizrack charged a lone Spirit Host, killed it and reformed to face the Grave Guards. I do not have any pictures of this though, but close by, the unmarked warriors charged the Crypt Horrors. These warriors should just hold them, while the warriors themselves slowly died to Curse of Years.
Keeping the Crypt Horrors locked up would allow Valkia and her Khorne Warriors to go bananas on Khalida�?Ts Archer-horde.
The Daemon Prince charged the summoned Spirit Hosts to save Ashcannoth �?" The Blue Beast.
The Glottkin did not charge, but marched in between the Necroknights and the Dreadquake Mortar. This concluded our movement phase.
Magic Phase[/size]
We got 19 power dice to Team Undead�?Ts 18 dispel dice.
Zanklai�?TOtory the Deathsinger tried a big Soulblight, but it was blocked…
Archaon Everchosen failed a Miasma to reduce the Ballistic Skill of Khalida�?Ts archers�?�
Hruz the Unbend got of an Ashstorm, but it was dispelled�?�.
Then it happened! Zanklai�?TOtory made the magnificent Purple Sun through and hit Neferata, the Corpse Cart, the side of the Grave Guards and Light Council bunker and lastly; the Hiero Titan! For people who do not now, this vortex spell is like a moving Pit of Shades. Every model under must take an initiative test or die outright. In a game based on D6 dice, where one of the rolls always fails no matter what, we had at least 16,7% chance to kill Neferata, even though she had initiative 8. Now the Hiero Titan had initiative 1, so we had approximately 83% chance to get it off the table, and thereby remove its aura of spell enhancement. This was our first real chance aside from last turns shooting phase, which did not have a lasting impact. We were so hyped!
Neferata passed has save which was fine and fair.
The Corpse Cart was destroyed, which removed the Always Strike First aura.
6 Grave Guards evaporated.
And then the Hiero Titan rolled a one�?� That felt so damn bad, but the 16,7% chance works for both you and your opponent.
This showed itself beautifully, when the Light Council�?Ts corner was hit and the level 4 Liche High Priest on Lore of Nehekhara failed his look-out sir roll and was destroyed by the Purple Sun.
That concluded our magic phase. The end result where decent, while the potential result had been high due to the fantastic positioning of Zanklai�?TOtory for the Purple Sun. The sun ended in the middle of Team Undead�?Ts centre, which could prove important later on.
While we do use the Storm of Magic 3D vortex (5�?�) the actual Purple Sun is only 3�?�. This means that this 3D template includes the 1�?� apart on both sides an allows us to manoeuvre more easily around it (And it looks way cooler, which is an important part of the Warhammer experience).[/i]
Shooting Phase[/size]
Short and pictureless: The Fireglaives shot the summoned Vampire and the Skullcannon took 2 wounds of the Hiero Titan.
Close Combat Phase[/size]
The Last of the Obsidian Slaves and the Sons of Rage absolutely butchered the Knights of the Black Grail. 
The Black Orcs then reformed and faced the Vargheist, who should be coming their way.
Exactly as expected, the Vargheist sent the Hobgoblins running and pursued into the front of the Obsidian Slaves.
Drazhoath ended up in a challenge with Neferata, which Neferata should win in the long end. Neferata is quite a fighter, and carries a vicious Magic Weapon: Akhmet-kar �?" the Dagger of Jet, which would reduce Drazhoath�?Ts strength, toughness and attack by one if she wounded him. But finally, after five years of playing chaos dwarfs, I could gleefully inform my opponent, that since Neferata was in base contact with the Lammasu Uzroth�?Tkulon, the Dagger of Jet lost all its magical properties for now. The reason this felt extra good to me, is due to how objectively bad the Lammasu has always been. Expensive, inferior stats, no armour save and only Magic Resistance instead of a ward save. With a spellcasting, traditionally mediocre fighter atop, the ability to remove both your own and the opponents Magic Weapon did not really make a difference. Now however, this special rule hurt Neferata a lot, without putting the Lammasu in harms way, and without really affecting Drazhoath. Felt good! 
Drazhoath did two wounds on Neferata without suffering any himself. It was decent, but I had somehow expected a lot more.
While I still cannot fathom how it happened, the Warshrine somehow survived a round of combat against Nagash and did not break. Did our luck begin to turn? Was the dark gods with us?
The Daemon Prince and the Hellcanon; Ashcannoth obliterated the summoned Spirit Hosts. The Daemon Prince reformed and faced our last Deathshrieker Rocket Launcer who would soon be charged by an emerged Tomb Scorpion.
The unmarked Warriors held the Crypt Horrors and awaited their doom, either to old age due to the Curse of Years or to the maws of the Crypt Horrors.
Atop the Obsidian Fortress, High Queen Khalida watched in horror, as Valkia the Gore Queen and nine of her Khorne Warriors annihilated 28 of the skeleton archers without taking a casualty! Impressive performance!!! The dead doesn�?Tt flee though, and Valkia�?Ts unit was pushed an inch away from the building and prepared themselves for yet another magic and shooting face.
This was Team Chaos second turn. Not good, but not horrendous either. It still felt like an uphill battle, and Nagash still was not dead.
PS: We ate a quick pizza after turn 2, and decided to take turn 3 as well, before we were allowed to sleep. Turn 3 was played without any natural light and the pictures suffered from this.
Carcearion:
Haha! A resurgence! I can see the beginning of hope for the forces of chaos.
I can foresee something great coming from the Purple Sun Vortex, may the Dark Gods guide its path.
TheHoodedMan:
I just scrolled through the pics. Truly magnificent! This will need some time to read through this and I`ll do this at the weekend. Thank you very much :cheers.