Halpi's Rift - Ethereal Plane

Game 4 of the Abyssals vs Trident Realm Halpi's Rift campaign yesterday, this time in the Ethereal Plane. This features hindering and enabling magical effects rather than more destructive or restorative ones.  Both of us also went heavier on the magic this time.

Trident Realm

• 2 Riverguard Treeleaper Regiments
• 2 Riverguard Treeleaper Troops
• 2 Depth Horror Hordes
• 2 Tidal Swarms
• Riverguard Dambuster Horde with Dwarven Ale
• Aquamage with Knowledgable, Icy Breath 10, Weakness 2, Barkskin 5, Host Shadowbeast 10, Rising Tides
• Riverguard Sentinel with Poison Frog
• Riverguard Dambuster Sentinel with Poison Frog
• Ektar

Abyssals

• 2 Succubi Regiments
• Abyssal Guard Regiment with Fire Oil
• 2 Gargoyle Troops
• 2 Moloch Hordes with Champions
• 2 Abyssal Warlocks with Drain Life
• 1 Abyssla Harbringer with Lute of Darkness
• 2 Efreets, one with Diadem of Dragonkind, one with Boots of Levitation
• Chroneas

Game

Here's the setup, scenario is Salt the Earth (where you can destroy objectives if you control them at the end of your turn), with me going first.  In the centre and right are two Abyssal Efreets which I want to neutralise if at all possible. One has Fireball 21, and the other Fireball 15 plus Levitation Boots allowing it to double move and still blast things. This plus firebolts from the Warlocks will annihilate my low defence Riverguard if I'm not careful, especially the Treeleapers and Depth Horrors.

I advance up cautiosly, with the Sentinel and Ektar heading towards the central Efreet, who I have cast the Power Drain channeling spell on to reduce the range of his 21 dice fireball to 6", and I have just stayed out of range of his attacks this turn.

On the right I have lots of frogs hiding in the Dark Forest (extra cover vs range attacks!). Barkskin 5 is cast on the Swarm giving them five extra damage for a turn! However this doesn't matter, the Abyssal Efreet on this flank advances and fireballs the Swarm into oblivion anyway doing an impressive 10 damage with his fireball...

Turn 2 and I charge home against the Molochs doing 10 damage, and 3 to the central Efreet wavering and disordering but not killing these units. The Riverguard Sentinel changes direction and heads off towards the Efreet on my right flank, and Ektar routs a Gargoyle troop with his Krakenmaw Windblast in the centre.

On the right I get stuck in against the Succubi, with all the ensaring units at -1 to hit each other meaning this fight may be protracted...

Abyssals turn two, and the Chroneas, Molochs and Warlock ensure my Swarm and Dambusters are both routed, and the Molochs recover 8 of their 10 damage thanks to their regeneration and the Warlocks Drain Life.

The battle on the right continues, with Channeling Table Spells granting Life Leech to my Treeleapers and then to the Succubi.

I get the upper hand routing a Succubi unit, and wavering the other one (though it has Fury so can still fight), and my Aquamage uses his Icy Breath to waver the Efreet stopping his horrible Fireball 15 for a turn!

Ektar desperately fights a horde of Molochs in the centre, Depth Horrors kill Chroneas, my Dambuster Sentinel kills the central Efreet, and my Sentinel is killed by the Warlock's magic on my right.

Dambuster Sentinel Sticky Tongue attacks and wavers the Gargoyles.

Efreet survives another Icy Breath and he and Aquamage engage in an Icy Breath vs Fireball dual...

But there can be only one, the Aquamage is vanquished...

Molochs in the centre are routed by my Depth Horrors and Treeleapers... and I finish off the Succubi on my right but am immediately shot down by the Efreet and Harbringer.

Turn 6 and it will be a win to the Abyssals unless we go to turn 7, which it does.

The Efreet fireballs and kills yet another unit - this time a Treeleaper Troop.

To win the game the Efreet summons one last fireball to smash the Depth Horrors, but it is not quite enough to do so.

Abyssal Warlock and Riverguard Dambuster Sentinel battle over the last objective, but neither can gain the upper hand in time. The game is a draw!

Conclusion 

Another close battle, that was a hairs breadth from being an Abyssal Victory at several moments near the end, with my Trident Realm forces just managing to hold on to turn it into a draw.

Lessons experimenting with new toys were learned though. In particular my Aquamage was very suboptimal with too many expensive spells and ones that were hard to use well. Particularly Host Shadowbeast which I was planning to cast on the Sentinel or Ektar giving extra attacks (doubling these with the Dualist ability on Sentinel too vs enemy individuals like the damn Efreets!). But with the short 12" range of this it was never going to happen without exposing my Mage to huge danger. His dual with the Efreet was a miserable end to his incompetent existence in this first game...  I think Celestial Restoration in a list with more regenerating and surging units (i.e. Water Elementals) would be a much better use of him.

Meanwhile the Efreet with Boots of Levitation must be most valued unit this time, racing around blasting away multiple units, and the Diadem Efreet would have also done solid work if he had escaped the Power Drain effect and being hunted. Molochs comboed with Warlocks were also very solid wrecking my units, though Ektar again saved the day, retreating into difficult ground and just managing to hold up the central Moloch unit until he could be rescued by a combo charge. And I finally managed to use Sticky Tongue to good effect.

Anyway another great game and we will play the final 3000 point clash in the Astral Plane once Vaughan paints up a few more units! :)

Halpi's Rift - Empyrean Plane

Third game in Halpi's Rift Campaign - the Empyrean Plane. This is the "good" plane with forests that heal units in them, and chapels that inspire your nearby units (so allowing them to reroll break tests if they don't already have inspire). Plus the channeling table helps and heals your units. The magic is a bit weird in this one as your spellcasters heal if they are in the opponents half of the board, but they take damage equal to the turn number, and increase their spells by a level if on your side of the board.

I continued using my Trident Realms and Vaughan his Abyssals, though with changes to lists. My Trident Realms brought along some Orc allies, given I'd just painted them and was keen to use them!  The Abyssals took a Warlock and more magic than last time.

Trident Realm and Orcs

• 2 Depth Horror Hordes
• Riverguard Dambuster Horde
• 2 Kraken
• Depth Horror Eternal
• Riverguard Sentinel
• Kyroqsh the Hunter
• 2 Orc Gore Rider Regiments 
• Orc Godspeaker
• Orc Flagger

Abyssals 

• 2 Succubi Regiments
• Abyssal Guard Regiment
• 2 Flamebearer Troops
• 2 Hellhound Troops
• 2 Gargoyle Troops
• Moloch Horde
• Efreet
• Warlock
• Abyssal Archfiend
• Succubi

The Game

Scenario was control, so the table divided into six 2 foot square sectors, and whoever controls the most at end of the game wins. The central sector of the opponents deployment zone is worth two points to you if you hold it, and other sectors are worth one point each.

With a smaller more punchy army I vacillate over deployment, but eventually put my Depth Horrors behind the Orc Gore Riders to help protect them from shooting, and to be a second wave to hopefully smash through the centre and capture this more valuable sector.

I win first turn and advance to charge range.

My big formation of death in the centre!

The Abyssals charge and position themselves to flanking or support positions.

Hellhounds do five damage in melee to my left Gore Riders, and fireballs and firebolts do six to my other Gore Riders. Luckily I have a Flagger here to help boost morale though!

My turn, and I kill the Hellhounds with the first Gorerider Regiment, and the second Gore Rider Regiment charges and damage the Molochs. My Depth Horrors charge through the forest and kill a Flamebearer troop. On the right, my Sentinel charges and destroys a flanking  Gargoyle Troop.

Magic rockets back and forth. My Orc Godspeaker fireballs and wavers the Efreet, but then the Warlock blasts and kills him in turn.  

On the left my Kraken and Kyroqsh have got themselves into an unfortunate position and are surrounded, and the first Kraken is killed.

The Abyssal Guard in the centre waver my Gore Riders and my Depth Horrors behind have to spend a turn sidestepping to their left to get into position to charge. 

Molochs kill my other Goreriders, but are then finished off by my Depth Horrors, who have managed to survive a flank charge from the Hellhounds.

My other Kraken and Kyroqsh manage to kill the archfiend but then go down fighting attacked both flanks.

In the centre, the Warlock has blasted away a Depth Horror unit, and then been killed by my Dambusters, which join the other Depth Horror unit in attacking the Abyssal Guard. But a double one for the break test and the Guard stand firm and regenerate about a dozen wounds in their turn 5!

And turn six, and the game ends. I finish off the Abyssal Guard, but it is not enough. The Abyssals have captured both left sectors, and the bottom right in photo below. I have the bottom central sector and top right, and the central top sector is contested. Score is 3-2 to Abyssals!

Halpi's Rift - Abyssal Plane

Vaughan and I played our second Halpi's Rift game today, with his Abyssals taking on my Riverguard on the Abyssal Plane. See this previous post for the first battle in the Material Plane.

I don't really have any super demonic evil looking Abyssal terrain, so making do I flipped over the mat and added cotton wool some steam to the lakes, and evil tree in the middle of the forests, and some old magical vortices to represent the magical obelisks. :) 

The Hellfire lakes give -1 to Waver and rout values of any unit touching them.

The Magical Vortices are blocking terrain, and any unit within 6" gets the Brutal +1 for each vortex within that range. (I.e. +1 to nerve checks when trying to rout enemy units).

The Channeling Table results for the Abyssal Plane tend towards destructive effects!

Armies used were similar to last time but changed up a bit.   My list was:

• 2 Riverguard Treeleaper Regiments
• Riverguard Dambuster Horde with Brew of Sharpness
• 2 Kraken (Froghemoth)
• Water Elemental Horde
• Greater Water Elemental
• Riverguard Sentinel with Tome of Darkness
• Riverguard Dambuster Sentinel with Blade of Slashing
• Ecktar

Vaughans list was:

• Abyssal Guard Regiment
• 2 Succubi Regiments
• 2 Moloch Hordes
• Gargoyle Troop
• 2 Hellhound Troops
• Abyssal Harbringer
• Seductresss with Bane Chant
• Chroneas
• Archfiend of the Abyss

The Game

Here's the terrain. I used Epic Dwarf Map generator, but replaced buildings and hills with magical vortices, and difficult ground for the hellfire lakes. Mission is Loot, with the three treasure chests to pick up and hold across the centre line.

First turn, Abyssals win and move first with me following. My units are mostly faster, so I move up to within strike range of the Abyssals in centre and on right, but out of their charge range except for the Archfiend which will be able to charge if it wants.

Turn 2 and the Abyssals charge the Archfiend into the Dambusters and move up with the Succubi to support.

The Fiend gets luckyish and wavers the Dambusters which is rather disastrous for me! 

My turn and on the channeling table I get the "Abyssal Vengeance" magical effect, which means I chooose a unit to explodes when it dies, doing D6 Piercing 2 hits to any unit in combat against it. Naturally I choose the Dambusters and put a big explodey marker next to them to remind the Abyssals what will happen if they mess with them...

In the centre the Abyssals had thrown their Gargoyles forward to block my Krakens and Greater Water Elemental.  The Gargoyles also had a Cloak of Death Channeling Table result on them which did a point of damage to four of my units, though two of them healed this with regeneration. Not seeing any better option I charge the Gargoyles down and overrrun, and get ready to face the return charges from the  Abyssals. On my left the Treeleapers kill a Hound unit.

I charge into the Succubi on my right flank but fail to do much to them.

Turn three for the Abyssals and they care not about the exploding Dambusters and the Archfiend and Succubi finish them off taking three and two damage respectively from them. Treeleapers are finished off on my other flank too. Both my flanks have caved in, and I also lose a Kraken in the centre to Molochs thanks to the Magical Vortices either side of them... My Riverguard Sentinel who had jumped over Chroneas to hunt down the Abyssal Harbringer, is unfortunately wavered by firebolts shot by the Harbringer. Things are going... poorly...

My turn three and I kill off the Abyssal Guard which had tried a cunning flanking move on the Water Elemental, and I also manage to finish off Chroneas with the Water Elementals thanks to a Channeling Table result of "Fiendish Frenzy" (grants Elite so reroll ones to hit).

Turn four and the Abssyals smash through my flank units...

Leaving me with just a Kraken, my Water Elementals and two characters.

I counterattack and do a lot of damage but not enough to break any Abyssal unit...

Turn 5 my centre units are killed off but Ektar charges and kills the Molochs, causing them to drop the central treasure chest. Individuals can't carry these loot tokens but it stops the Abyssals having it! Also on my right my Water Elementals have survived against the first Succubi regiment and kill them with help of a Channeling Table result of "Fiendish Fury" yet again!

Turn 6, and the Succubus tries to stop the Water Elementals but fails. They pass through him and finish off the wounded second Succubi unit, grabbbing the chest from them. In the centre the Archfiend kills the Riverguard Sentinel, and Ektar charges him back but fails to do anything.

And the game ends turn 6. We both have a single Treasure Chest each, so the game surprisingly ends in another draw (though it would be a win to the Abyssals on killpoints!).

Conclusion

All the extra Abyssal Plane effects means battles here will be bloody! It was looking very grim for the Riverguard until Turn 5 when I got a slim chance for achieving a draw. The Abyssals had a chance to multi-charge my Water Elementals with two Succubi Regiments but favoured doing it with just the one Banechanted unit, that came to within one point of destroying them, but ultimately let them live and regenerate and fight back, killing the two Succubi regiments and snatching a chest for the draw. The Archfiend killed the Sentinel who was aiming for the Hellhounds holding the left side treasure chest, but this also meant it failed to reclaim the central chest.

Another fun game and more learning for both of us and we will be onto the Empyrean Plane (Good) for the third battle!