Tuesday 2 February 2021

Nemesis Crown Turn 1 Battle 1 - Empire vs. Greenskins at The Barren Hills

 Laura and I have started a little Warhammer Fantasy campaign which doesn't have a lot of plot for when we fancy a game without a lot of planning beforehand.

We decided to run a map based campaign using the Nemesis Crown booklet as a source. The plot is very thin but is essentially about an ancient magical artefact being unearthed in a region of the Empire which many different factions are desperate to get their hands on. The evil factions are generally interested in taking it for their own end, and the good factions are generally interested in seeing it destroyed, as it's a very powerful artefact and could spell certain doom for the world.

The Nemesis Crown map

We're using Warhammer Fantasy Battles 5th edition for the campaign, but with the army books I have at hand. This means the 4th edition Wood Elf book, 5th edition Bretonnian and 6th edition Empire & Greenskins (but with 5th edition core rules and magic rules).

We chose two factions each to take part in the campaign, and depending on where we chose to move to on the map we could either encounter the army of one of the other factions or a randomly rolled neutral army.

I made the four armies at 500pts each, and they will gain an additional 50pts per additional territory they hold. In addition to this, the victor of a battle will also receive a single random magic item from the Warhammer: Magic box.

The winner would be whichever faction eventually holds all 9 territories.

We chose a starting 'corner' of the map for each of our factions. Then declared some hidden movement to an adjacent region for each of our factions by writing down where we would move to on pieces of paper, then revealing them all at once.

The starting regions for the factions. 

  • Wood Elves hold the Draken Downs
  • Empire hold The Talabec Border
  • Bretonnia holds The Reik's Marches
  • Greenskins hold The Taalford Lowlands

We committed our moves and two battles against each other's factions would result from the first campaign turn!
Campaign movement for Turn 1.

We decided to start with the Empire vs. Greenskins battle.

The Empire army ("Reinhardt's Reikland Patrol") consisted of:

Captain Otto Reinhardt
Reiksguard Knights (4)
Mounted Pistoliers (3)
Greatswords (10)
Archers (10)

The Greenskin army ("Grizzlesnot's Gang") consisted of:

Grizzlesnot, Night Goblin Warlord
Goblin Wolf Riders (10)
Black Orcs (5)
Orc Archers (10)
Night Goblins w/Spears (20)
Night goblins w/Bows (20)
Troll (1)

As we were fighting over the Barren Hills we tried to make the terrain look like a blasted landscape of ruins. Unfortunately it still looks quite verdant due to my liberal application of flock & static grass on my Realm of Battle boards.

The armies deployed.








The pistoliers move around the ruins, trying to evade the wolf-riders.

Orc archer rabble opens fire on the humans.

The pistoliers shoot wildly at the wolf-riders, hoping to scare them off.

Reiksguard knights prepare to charge the foul greenskins.



Goblin archers launch their crude arrows at the Greatswords.


The troll lumbers forwards stupidly.

The pistoliers take out a few of the goblin wolf-riders.





The wolf-riders charge the pistoliers flank - which was carelessly exposed!

The black orcs manage to charge the Reiksguard knights.


Furious combat ensues, but the armour of each elite unit keeps them safe from harm.

The Greatswords join Captain Reinhardt in combat against the goblin hordes.



Having dispatched the pistoliers with minimal losses, the wolf-riders join in the melee against the Reiksguard.

The troll continues stumbling around trying to reach the combat.


With the Black Orcs finally slain, the Reiksguard turn to face the goblin threat.

The goblins win the battle against the greatswords, and proceed to chase the survivor across the field!



Meanwhile, Captain Reinhardt moves on from his victory against Grizzlesnot and takes on the troll!

The troll is defeated by the heroic Otto.


The Reiksguard are victorious as the wolf-riders flee in terror. Only one knight has been slain - such a display of invincibility is too much for the goblins.

The wolf-riders are run down by the Reiksguard, slaughtered to a man.

The goblin spearmen catch up with the last greatsword and cut him down. The Empire archers look on in terror.


The Reiksguard turn about face and prepare to engage the Orc archers.

The orcs immediately break at such a terrifying sight.

Captain Reinhardt moves in to avenge the fallen Greatswords.

It doesn't go well.

The goblins gloat and jeer over the fallen captain.

The Reiksguard charge the goblins in blind fury! Unfortunately one is cut down by the sneaky greenskins.



Goblin archers pepper the Empire archers with more filthy arrows.

The Empire archers are battered, but hold fast.

End of turn 6.

At the end of turn 6 there are more points worth of Empire on the various board quarters than there are goblins, so it's a victory for the Empire! (but only just)

Reinhardt's Reikland patrol takes control of The Barren Hills, and the captain finds a Sword of Slicing (-1 on enemy armour saves) amongst the ruins.

I decided to spend the 50pts for the additional territory on some more regular infantry. I purchased 5 swordsmen with light armour and shields for future engagements.

7 comments:

  1. Nifty!

    I must admit to an instinctive twinge at the idea of running sixth edition books into fourth/fifth ones – the characters are noticeably more tame in sixth, numbers shorn off across the statline – but I want to be wrong in this respect so I'm really looking forward to a cross-edition match-up. Have you done anything to the army selection rules to ease the process or does it not really matter in games this small?

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    1. Thanks for the comment!

      I've had a look at the 4th edition Empire rules and it seems to lack the technological edge I feel is fitting for the Empire of Man. The heroes are more powerful in 4th, but the regiments are really bog-standard. The Greatswords - supposedly the elite of the Empire - have the same stats as any other soldier. Also they can only wear light armour, which makes them die before they can even get into combat - the addition of Full Plate really makes a difference to the Empire's survivability. So while the heroes are a lot less powerful in the 6th army book, I feel like the increased effectiveness of the regiments balances it out somewhat.

      As you say this might become an issue in games with more points per side - especially if someone outfits their hero with 50% of the points and ludicrous magic items! But it's a casual campaign so I don't think there's much danger of that. We've restricted magic item purchases (no magic items allowed in initial army lists - they can only be purchased with additional points from captured territories or by getting them as a reward).

      The exception to this appears to be the Wood Elf army book, which is incredibly effective, even though it was released in 4th edition. The heroes are of course very powerful, but so are the regular soldiers! Even their archers are quite good in melee. I'm sure there's some disadvantage to them somewhere, but I've had them fight against my 6th Edition Empire before and my Empire got utterly destroyed. Possibly the takeaway from this is that GW doesn't create very balanced games - but I'm here for the narrative so that's okay.

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    2. That's very fair! I've only ever been on the receiving end of an Empire army myself and only once in fifth: what I noticed was mainly the amount of terror tests they failed.

      Wood Elves have always been a bit like that – I remember them doing very well at tournaments in the late 1990s, definitely a competitor's choice! As a newly minted Wood Elf player the thing that gives me pause is armour – low strength attacks and generally terrible armour saves on most of the troops. They may get the first shot in but they need to avoid any return fire at all, and things like mortars that outrange them seem to be a bit of a problem. Not sure how much help that is in an infantry-focused small scale campaign though...

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    3. Yeah I think a mortar would definitely help against the Wood Elves! I elected to go for more infantry but I think some extra firepower might've been a better choice. We'll see how it pans out later in the campaign. I've uploaded the next battle AAR just now, which features the Wood Elves again if you want to read about them destroying all my hopes and dreams as usual!

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  2. I found your blog from the Lead Adventure Forum and it's a cracker. It is really nice to see your Warhammer campaigns, I am currently using my old collection for Oathmark but have had a yen to play some Warhammer too.
    If you could put a follow widget on it I would like to follow you.
    Regards,
    Paul.

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    1. Hi, thanks for your comment! I've added a subscribe via email gadget at the bottom of the page (under the comments) - I'll see if I can add some nicer widgets too.

      Oathmark does look good, I'm very tempted to try it, but need to read a few more reviews first I think.

      Cheers,
      Tom.

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