WHFB - Shadows stir in Tristhafen

Recently the other lads I game with have cottoned on to Fantasy. I have thoroughly enjoyed 8th ed for a while now and have also been lucky enough to have had some very good weekends in Wellington playing with the local crowd which I can happily thank Pete Dunn for. I think now the other Levin guys have a good grasp of the rules and Cody is now making his foray into buying some Empire models while Stu rebases his Daemons from 40k to Fantasy! So I thought lets take a break from the 2400 point games and have some more fun narrative ones with the total 2400 point force being the goal while they build up their collections.

I thought 600 points would be a good place to start. Quarter of the 2400 goal yet enough for people to get some models painted(themselves) over a month or two. The games will be fast and easy to build a narrative with. So with Cody definitley taking the new Empire we set it in the Border Princes/Badlands and after not accepting his suggestion of New Tristram (wonder what hes been playing) as his campaign town we have the town of Tristhafen.

Now with Cody's initial force comprising of a level 2 Light Wizard, block of Halbediers, a Hellblaster Volley gun and a trio of Demigryphs we know that there is a variety of miliary forces in the region. Stu playing Daemons is easy enough to work in - bad men do bad things and summon Daemons. I am toying around with a couple different things, I have plenty of Vampire Counts though that wouldn't really encourage me too much to build a new force though I can always add to the collection. An awful lot of Orcs and Goblins sitting in boxes, then there are High Elves and Warriors of Chaos. Well have to see where the story goes.

So Monday night with D&D postponed for a week(public holidays means a couple guys can't always make it) we had some games.

Game 1 - Empire vs Daemons - Meeting Engagment
After locals had seen strange lights and heard disturbing sounds coming from the old ruined tower(cliched I know), the local Wizard set off with a contingent of troops to investigate. Upon reaching the ruins, Daemonic forces amassed under the control of a fel spellcaster formed up to destroy the mortal interlopers. Hellblaster fire and Light magic whittled down the bloodletters advancing on the Empires lines. Flamers of Tzeentch bounded from the tower and hurled fel fires at the state troops forcing them back. The trio of Demigryph knights of the Order of the Griffon crashed into the worn khornate unit and tore them apart with talon and lance and followed suit by destroying the Herald and his Horror coven. Alas the Light Wizard was badly injured but his surviving troops lead by the Knights carried him back to Tristhafen in victory.

Game 2 - Daemons vs Goblins - Dawn Attack
Following the defeat at the tower, the scattered forces of the Tzeentchian Herald moved to the nearby hills to summon more of their kind. There they ran across an encampment of Night Goblins, heading down the foothills to pillage the outlying farmsteads. The Shaman leading the raiding party screamed at his diminutive raiders to form up as the Daemons rushed out of the woods to attack them. Flamers made short work of the Spider Riders and as the pair of Night Goblin units hesitantly moved to face the Bloodletters the early morning assault showed its effects. Some of the worst fantatic performances shortly showed as the bewildered goblins stumbled towards the daemons at a less than impressive speed. As the Bloodletters navigated about them, the fungus addled fanatics either crashed into each other or whirled off away from the fight towards the woods! The pitiful morale of the goblins quickly became apparent as under magical and flaming attack the spearmen blocks fled or were ground under the cloven hooves of the bloodletters. The one Rocklobber which after some of its earlier accurate success had been undone by the Heralds adept control of Life magics, saw it fit to abandon the field also as the little trio crewing the machine ended up being the only things standing after the assault.

Game 3 - Vampire Counts vs Empire - Dawn Attack
Having recuperated from his encounter with the Daemons, the Light Wizard(who Cody can name!) saw fot to set to work cleansing the rest of the local area of dark forces. A local recluse academic of poor social standing had been seen frequenting the local graveyard. The townsfolk were concerned and with good reason! As the towns military arrived at the old Garden of Morr they found the scholar finishing his depraved work and had raised undead forces including several monstrous creatures of stitched flesh. The revealed Necromancer gathered his skeletal bodyguard about him and read from his Cursed Book, spurring a shambling mob of Zombies and his Crypt Horrors towards the men. The Light Wizard used the same magics which were so effective against the Daemons against these foul creatures too with great effect, immolating thier forms with blessed light. The Necromancer countered reading from his book, casting waves of dark magics to destroy the morale of the state troops and refilling the ranks of his dead charges. The Crypt Horrors lunged across the graveyard with suprising speed crashing into the Demigryphs and became embroiled in melee. The battle looked like it was favouring the dead as fell bats swept across the field to assault the artilery crew, but as the Necromancer called forth his most powerful magics from his tome he lost control! A Wind of Death burst forth from his gnarled grasp sweeping through the halbediers, but the winds of magic were too much for this novice and the knowledge was seared from his mind. Bewildered and unable to animate his forces the Necromancer grew panicked as the Knights wore down the Undead Horrors. Shortly the Order of the Griffon claimed another evil spellcaster and the Empire succeeded in protecting its townsfolk again.

So a fun start to the campaign. Serious gaming they are not with some entertaining comments thrown across the table and 6 dice on spells being thrown at every opportunity just to see if you can make a mage explode. I do now have a goal to actually model this town of Tristhafen and have it as the heart of the campaign. Characters can be named and grudges developed and while the players are not bound to use the same list every game I can see units coming back for more and hopefully modelled and painted to reflect the story.

So if you're in the area and want to come join in at any stage let me know, the more the merrier!