The Liche Wizard's Revenge!

Not been in the mood to paint this past week so no updates for you on that, but I did manage to get in a game of Dragon Rampant in with my boy.

Bit of cheap narrative for you and then some pics of the game with the odd descriptor. :)

“And lo, the lands were awash with death. Crops withered, livestock took ill and the very life within the soil leeched away. Evil magic pollutes the very air and some say that the bodies of those recently laid to rest in the furthest-most settlements have risen from their graves, even attacking their own family members.

The Liche Wizard Roogarbito has escaped his 200 year imprisonment beneath Mount Pickle and has gathered a great undead host to wreck vengeance upon the descendants of those who left his body to rot. He marches with his unliving host toward the last great human city of Hook after already defeating the gathered armies of the nation of man.

Last remaining Lord of Man, Prince Erik, has received a report from his few remaining scouts that the evil Liche travels at the rear of his army and could be vulnerable to attack by a determined small strike force. Should he be brought down, then Prince Erik’s seers assure him that the dark magics holding together the massive undead host shall surely disappear and the threat to the living be vanquished!”

My son played the Liche and his Undead bodyguards – a unit of Skeleton Soldiers, Zombies (Held off table to be summoned in-game) and some Armoured Wights (Using Vampire rules).

I in turn played the humans using the “Northmen” army listings. Prince Erik (Chieftain), Two units of Thegns (Bellicose foot) and a Giant, who we decided was a merc of sorts that the Prince had convinced to help him out with promises of loot.

Enjoy the pics (And apologies if they come out huge, for some reason my cruddy home laptop had no way to reduce their size. I think I need to invest in MS Office :( )!

The setup - the Prince's forces know that the Liche will head towards the cross roads and array in an even spread to account for whatever the dastardly Wizard might bring to bear.

Skeletons on the road and flying armoured Wights in the trees (As they aren't affected by movement penalties)

Brave men of Hook. And a stinky giant.

Zombies held off table waiting to be magically summoned by their evil master.

Middle and Left flank units advance. My Boys on the right were cowards and spent two turns doing bugger all at the back.

Wights fly through the trees and Skeletons and Liche advance.

My son summons the zombies to deal with my left-most warriors.

Yikes, looks rather intimidating from here!

Meat, the Giant is ready to pound bones into dust!

The Evil Liche urges his zombies forward...

... to which my warriors bravely step up and bear combat!

And do a fine job of cutting down all but two of the undead rotters!

With only two  of their band left, the magic holding the zombies together dissipates and the last two crumble into fleshy puddles.

The Liche manages to shoot the Giant with a bolt of dark energy!

Enraged, the giant charges the Skeleton Shield Wall!

Back in those trees, those Wights spend three turns trying to untangle their floaty robes from tree branches. :)

The Meat swings his massive club and crushes bones, but in turn is poked and slashed at with rusty weapons....

And after yet another blast of dark energy decides that no amount of treasure is worth dying (And being added to the undead ranks) and so promtly runs orf. Sod.

The humans are now without their big hitter, but still have two large units of warriors and their Prince, they still have a chance, surely?

Prince Erik, angry at seeing his Giant bugger off, takes his fury out against the skeletons...

... and he forces them back after smashing a handful!

"Get off my Land!"

The Wights swoop down near the rightmost warriors and they charge them in kind. 

A fierce engagement ensues seeing the warriors push the ghastly unit back into the trees!

The left-most unit of warriors have a bead on the sorcerer! All they have to do is get to grips with the dead thing and they could end this madness! But no, the Sorcerer sends yet another bolt of dark energy out, blasting two of them and cause the rest to shit their pants and run for the hills! >_<

On the right, the fight becomes one of attrition.

Neither side do much damage.

The Prince tries to get to grips with the Liche, but he too suffers dark blasts.

The remaining warriors are tired and losing faith. Their prince is not able to close the gap and is being punished from afar for his efforts. 

With a final push, the Wights see off the warriors....

... and then move toward the prince to aid their dark master. (The Prince is on his last wound!)

At last! The Prince is able to rush the Liche and bring his axe of justice, could this be the moment of victory!!??

Wights move in from behind, knowing that should they reach the duel, they will easily turn the tide.

But no, the Great Liche Wizard Roogarbito has not spent all those 200 years plotting his revenge only to be thwarted by the likes of this bearded whippersnapper! With a barking laugh, the Liche takes off his horned helm and crashes it down on the head of his would-be assassin. This champion of Man will make a fine addition to his undead Horde.

My son played the game very well. He expected the zombies to do better, but really zombies are just a speed bump in this rules set. Keeping the Liche back and using his ranged attack just about every turn was perfect tactics and my humans suffered by not having any ranged attacks to shoot themselves. (He managed to roll the 7+ activation roll to shoot 9 turns in a row!!!)

Next game we play, he has decided that he wants to play the part of the humans, so now I'll have to get painting on some new fantasy figs!