we had our annual Christmas Warhammer 8th edition game this Saturday.
We played a special Triumph and Treachery scenario that was supposed to take place in a forgotten necropolis below the earth - so the underground battle rules from “Blood in the Badlands” applied as well (but no squigs and trolls moving around randomly). There were three burial grounds (containing ancient treasures, of course) that added 250 VP to your total at the end of the game if you controlled them. But the burial grounds also caused panic tests and made 1w6 strength 3 magical attacks at the end of each movement phase if your unit was touching them.
We were 5 players, me playing Chaos Dwarfs, the others playing Dwarfs, Empire, Skaven (Clan Pestilens) and Skaven (Clan Mors).
So… that’s the setting. I’ll tell you more about the game in my next posting, so wait for part 2…
Sounds cool! Haven't really played any big multiplayer battles for a few years myself. Thats on the to do list for 2020 I guess... Looking forward to see how it went and some beautiful photos! :hat off
tjub
I don't know if my photos are beautiful... but at least there are photos...;) I'll upload some at a later date.
Each army was 1700 points. My Chaos Dwarf army consisted of three characters (Level 4 Sorcerer-Prophet, Level 1 Daemon Smith, Infernal Castallan as ASB ), 26 Infernal Guard with great weapons, 3 Bull Centaurs with additional hand weapons and 2 Hell Cannons.
I don't know the details of the other armies as much as I know my own, but the Empire army had a Steam Tank, a lot of Halbardiers in horde formation, a Helblaster Volley Gun and some Demigryphs. Dwarfs had 3 infantry units (one of them were Irondrakes) and among the characters was a Lord with Shield Bearers. No artillery. Clan Mors had Queek Headtaker, Storm Vermins, a Doomwheel, a Hell Pit Abomination and some minor stuff. Clans Pestilens had lots of Plague Monks, 3 Jezzails, a Doomwheel, a Hell Pit abomination and minor stuff as well.
The battle field was a 6’x4’ game mat, so four players started in the corners and the fifth player started in the middle of one of the long edges.
My Chaos Dwarfs were in one of the corners, and my “close neighbours” (via the short edge) were the Dwarfs, and my not-so-close neighbour was the Empire. From the Empire’s view, the enemy in the close corner was Clan Pestilens. Clan Mors was sitting right between the corners of the Dwarfs and Clans Pestilens.
Turn 1 In the first turn, Clan Mors Skaven went for the Dwarfs with most of their stuff. Their Hell Pit Abomination went for Clan Pestilens or the Empire (it wasn’t very clear). Against the Dwarfs, the Doomwheel got out of control and went into the wrong direction. The Dwarfs did a little bit of shooting and moving… one of their three infantry regiments, however, marched towards the Chaos Dwarfs. Clan Pestilens had kept a Doomwheel in reserve. Most of their army went for the Empire, their Hell Pit Abomination, however, was left behing to keep Clan Mors in check. I didn’t move my Chaos Dwarfs. My Bull Centaurs started the game in reserve, my two Hell Cannons protected the flanks of the big Chaos Dwarf block that contained all my characters. My Sorcerer-Prophet casted Ash Storm against the Dwarf unit that was heading toward the Chaos Dwarfs. My shooting did nothing. The Empire marchend against Clan Pestilens, but no combat took place. One of the Hell Pit Abominations got wounded, but I don’t know if it was caused by magic or the Steam Tank. Nothing of importance happened, no army got any VP, so at the end of turn 1 everyone still got 100 VP (because you start the game with 100 VP).
The Skaven Clan Mors Doomwheel exploded because of a misfire - unfortunately, that made it the most useless unit in this game. And their Warlock Engineer completely missed with the Brass Orb… Gutter Runners appeared behind the Dwarfen lines. The big Dwarf infantry block with the general charged Clan Mors’ Storm Vermins. Queek Headtaker challenged the Dwarf Lord. The Lord reduced Queek to one wound, Queek brought the Dwarf Lord down to one wound… and then Queek was killed by the Shield Bearers. The Storm Vermin lost the battle (and their general), but they held. The Doomwheel of Clan Pestilens entered the board. Clanrats occupied a small building (an old temple) in front of them. Then Clan Pestilens hit the Empire’s Halberdiers really hard with a Doomrocket, killing lots of models. Then the Hell Pit Abominations of Clan Pestilens and Clans Mors, respectively, met in mortal combat. Alhough one of them had only 2 wounds left and the other only 1 wound when the combat started, none of them got killed. The Bull Centaurs that I had held in reserve entered the board. I tried to charge the Longbeards that were sent after the Chaos Dwarfs with my Infernal Guard and one of the Hell Cannons. The Hell Cannon didn’t make it, but the Guard did. Then I did 7 wounds, and he did 4 wounds - I won because of my 3 characters, they all did 1 wound each. But I a also got combat res bonusses from charging and the ASB… the Longbeards broke, and the Infernal Guard ran them down. The Empire charged the Slaves of Clan Pestilens with their Halberdiers. I don’t remember who won that fight, but in anyway it was close, and no one broke. (Obviously, some other minor stuff also happened, but I don’t remember everything.)
Victory Points at the end of Turn 2 Chaos Dwarfs 650 Dwarfs 450 Skaven Clan Pestilens 350 Empire 300 Skaven Clan Mors 100
Clan Mors: A unit of Clanrats charged into the Dwarf Irondrakes, while the Gutter Runners charged into the Irondrakes’ back. A Doom-Flayer charged into the Dwarf unit that fought the Storm Vermin. In the shooting phase, Clan Mors killed the Jezzails of Clan Pestilens. In the combat phase, both the Clanrats and the Gutter Runners fighting the Irondrakes broke and fled. The Clanrats were run down. The Storm Vermin lost their combat (and the Doom-Flayer) against the Dwarf general’s unit, but did not break. In the Dwarfs’ turn, the Irondrakes shot at the Chaos Dwarf Infernal Guard, killing 2 models. The Storm Vermin finally broke and were run down. The Clan Pestilens player managed to kill some Empire models with his Poisoned Wind Mortar. His Doomwheel charged into Clan Mors Skaven unit. During combat phase, he chose the Clan Mors player to be his enemy, which effectively interrupted the combat between the Skaven Slaves and the Empire Halberdiers. Clan Pestilens Hell Pit Abomination killed Clan Mors Hell Pit Abomination. Doomwheel killed many Mors Skaven, but they didn’t break. Chaos Dwarfs: I moved my Infernal Guard away from the Irondrakes (first I thought about charging them, but then I realized I had given my Infernal Guard the Flaming Banner, and Iron Drakes have a 2+ ward save against flaming attacks… so no good idea). Then I shuffled around my Bull Centaurs and Hell Cannons a little bit. The Empire Halberdiers charged the Clan Pestilens Skaven Slaves again, so the interruped combat restarted from anew. Again, the Slaves lost but hold. The Demigryphons charged a unit of Clan Pestilens Clanrats and wiped them out. The Steam Tank shot at the Hell Pit Abomination but didn’t wound it.
Victory Points at the end of Turn 3: Dwarfs: 1500 Chaos Dwarfs: 650 Empire: 500 Skaven Clan Pestilens: 450 Skaven Clan Mors: 200
Cool! Is that the Russian Alternative Bull Centaurs on the last photo btw?
tjub
No, they are from Norba Miniatures, but with GW bases.
A few things I would like to mention before turn 4:
- In this special Triumph and Treachery scenario there was no random player turn order determined by the draw of cards. The player turn order was always Skaven Clan Mors - Dwarfs - Skaven Clan Pestilens - Chaos Dwarfs - Empire.
- Correction: I wrote in my last posting that the Irondrakes killed 2 models from the Infernal Guard with their shooting. As you can see on the picture, it was 3 models.
- Clan Pestilens had 350 VP at the end of turn 2, and 450 VP at the end of turn 3. I just wondered why he only got 100 VP in turn 3 although he killed the Hell Pit Abomination of Clan Mors. There are two possible explanations: maybe he spent some VP for using certain cards... or I made a mistake when taking notes, and in reality he already killed the HPA in turn 2 (which would partially explain why he goes from 100 VP in turn 1 to 450 VP in turn 2)...
Clan Mors Gutter Runners shot at the Irondrakes and did little or no damage… but their Clanrats broke the Clan Pestilens Doomwheel (which fled off the board on a later turn).
The Dwarfs general and his entourage decided to charge the Clans Pestilens Hell Pit Abomination (and it had only 2 wounds left). In what was a major upset, the HPA won this combat. The Dwarfs failed their leadership test (despite of having leadership 10) and fled! At that moment the Empire player offered the Dwarf player to use a card that would half the HPA’s movement… if the Dwarf player paid 2 copper coins (= 100 VP) for that favour. The Dwarf Player agreed. The Dwarfs rolled an 8 for fleeing, the HPA rolled an 8 for pursuing… but it was halved to 4. So the Empire’s intervention saved the Dwarf lord and his unit.
Clan Pestilens decided to charge his Plague Monks into the flank of the Imperial Halberdiers that were pinned by the Skaven Slaves. The Hell Pit Abomination showed no interest in pursuing the Dwarfs any further - it turned around and charged into the Demigryphs. It killed all the Demigryphs except one which fled (we later realized that this one is the standard bearer, so it’s dead too). The Halberdiers suffered heavy losses, but held. Again, Poisoned Wind Mortar killed some Empire models.
One of the Hell Cannons occupied the burial ground that was near the Chaos Dwarfs’ deployment zone (the Hell Cannon would not suffer from panic tests, and it was highly unlikely that the burial ground’s puny attacks would damage it… so it seemed that the 250 VP for this burial ground would go to the Chaos Dwarfs at the end of the game). Other Chaos Dwarf units just changed position. Again, I accomplished nothing with my magic and/or shooting.
The Steam Tank shot at the HPA but didn’t wound it. I think the Volley Gun did a little damage to a Clanrat unit. And if I’m not wrong, the Halberdiers survived another round of combat.
Victory Points at the end of Turn 4 Skaven Clan Pestilens 1600 Dwarfs 1400 Chaos Dwarfs 650 Empire 600 Skaven Clan Mors 250
The Clan Mors player moved his Rat Swarm (3 bases strong; it was created when his HPA died) a little bit towards the burial ground located on the Empire/Clan Pestilens side of the board. He then moved his Gutter Runners around the Irondrakes in order to shoot at the fleeing Dwarf Lord’s unit. I think the Clanrat unit that had defeated the Clan Pestilens Doomwheel last turn contained a wizard who targeted the Dwarf Lord’s unit with a spell. From shooting and magic that fleeing Dwarf unit lost enough models so that it now needed double ones to rally.
So it didn’t rally in the Dwarf player’s turn. The Irondrakes shot at the Infernal Guard and killed two models.
Clan Pestilens occupied a burial ground with Clanrats. The Imperial Halberdiers unit was wiped out by the Slaves and the Plague Monks, along with the characters it contained.
One of the Hell Cannons stayed at the “Chaos Dwarf burial ground” and lost one wound for doing so. Again, it missed when it shot. The other Hell Cannon occupied the burial ground near the Dwarfs’ deployment zone. The Infernal Guard and the Bull Centaurs went to positions that would enable them to charge the fleeing Dwarf Lord next turn.
The Empire’s Volley Gun exploded when it misfired - despite being allowed to reroll because of a Master Engineer. The Master Engineer panicked and fled off the board. Now the Steam Tank was the only thing left of the Empire army. The tank finally killed the Clan Pestilens Hell Pit Abomination by shooting it down. A Rat Swam, one base strong, was created for Clan Pestilens on the burial ground.
Victory Points at the end of Turn 5: Skaven Clan Pestilens 2100 Dwarfs 1400 Empire 800 Chaos Dwarfs 650 Skaven Clan Mors 300
(Actually, this photo does not show the end of turn 5, but was taken after the Dwarfs moved a character from the Irondrakes to the burial ground and killed the Gutter Runners in turn 6, because they are nowhere to be seen…)
The Clan Mors Rat Swarm tried to reach the burial ground that was occupied by Clan Pestilens via charging those units, but failed. Clan Mors then tried to kill the Dwarf Lord’s unit with a spell, but I intervened by playing a card that allowed me to redirect the spell to another unit - and I chose the Irondrakes, where the spell did little damage. Again, the Gutter Runners directed their shooting against the Dwarf Lord’s unit. They nearly killed the last remaining “normal” model in the unit - that would have only left the characters Dwarf Lord and Runesmith behind, who now would have been allowed to rally using their normal Leadership, as they would have been no longer part of a unit that is below 25%… but alas, it did not happen. That last model passed its armour save.
Accordingly, that Dwarf unit failed again to rally. Grimm Burloksson left the Irondrakes unit and went for the burial ground near their deployment zone, which he now shared with the Chaos Dwarf Hell Cannon. The Irondrakes killed the Gutter Runners with their shooting.
Clan Pestilens player moved his units around a little bit… tried to cast magic, I believe, but it didn’t do anything.
I charged the fleeing Dwarf Lord and his unit with my Bull Centaurs and with two characters in my Infernal Guard unit. The Bull Centaurs got them which meant a lot of VP. The Hell Cannon on the burial ground near the Dwarf deployment zone charged Grimm Burloksson. A Daemonsmith left my Infernal Guard unit and moved to the burial ground near my deployment zone, where the other Hell Cannon already was. That Hell Cannon shot against the Clan Mors Clanrats, scored a direct hit and killed some models. In the combat phase, my other Hell Cannon took one wound from Grimm Burloksson, but then it stomped him to death. I now controlled two burial grounds… which would mean additional 500 VP at the end of the game.
At this point it was clear that the Empire player couldn’t win the game any more, but he could decide who else would win it. If he moved his Steam Tank to the burial ground that was occupied by Clan Pestilens in order to deny them those 250 VP, the Chaos Dwarfs would win. If he wouldn’t do that, Clan Pestilens would win. The Empire player decided to go for that burial ground - the Steam Tank broke the Clanrats and drove them away. That burial ground was now occupied by the Empire’s Steam Tank and the Clan Pestilens Rat Swarm, which meant that no one would get those 250 VP.
So it was clear that the Chaos Dwarfs would get 500 VP for their two burial grounds and win the game. At this point, however, a little Skaven scheme happened…
Since the game would end with 2200 VP for Chaos Dwarfs and 2100 VP for Clan Pestilens, the Clan Pestilens player told me that he would now make a little arrangement with his fellow Skaven from Clan Mors… by giving them all the VP he has! This is allowed in Triumph and Treachery, the VP are portrayed by coins that can be given away. By doing so, Clan Mors would have 2400 VP and win the game! “With this, the victory would at least belong to a Skaven army”, the Clan Pestilens player told me.
I said: "But I can make sure that it will be YOUR Skaven army. Listen, don’t give all your VP to Clan Mors. Instead, I give you 50 VP. That will drop my total to 2150, and your new total will be 2150 too. We will be co-winners…"
And so it was done.
A little bit strange, but I find it okay. The Clan Pestilens player found a flaw in the Triumph & Treachery rules… the fact that you can give VP to another player allows you to blackmail the potential winner in the last turn! That is very clever, so he deserved that reward. However, we agreed that we will invent a house rule for future games that makes sure it won’t happen again… otherwise every T&T-game will end this way. But for this game, I can live with it.
Victory Points at the end of the game: 1. Chaos Dwarfs and Skaven Clan Pestilens 2150 each 2. vacant 3. Dwarfs 1500 4. Empire 900 5. Skaven Clan Mors 300
Sounds like a great battle! Thanks for sharing… The T&T games I had back in WFB-days are such fond memories, they were always a blast. As far as I can remember we never encountered the “broken” situation, I guess most of our generals had more pride than that Skaven… Haha. :hat off
This was our fifth T&T-game, and until now no one came up with that idea… but I’d say without adding a house rule, T&T is broken. Theoretically, after our little deal that resulted in both the Chaos Dwarfs and Clan Pestilens having 2150 VP, the Clan Mors player could have said: “And now I give 50 VP to Clan Pestilens, so that he is the only winner…” Luckily for me, that didn’t happen.
And although I’m one of the winners, I didn’t like very much how I became it. The game rewards “shooting cripples”, like the situation when I got lots of VP for chasing down the fleeing Dwarfs, after they got beaten up by someone else. You can fix it, of course, by writing your own T&T-scenarios where VPs are only scored for holding objectives, and not for killing units.
But don’t get me wrong, there were also many things about this game that were a lot of fun. And I think what should be next is a battle between the Chaos Dwarfs and Clan Pestilens… the Dawi Zhar grudgingly paid the Skaven, but now they are out for revenge…
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