Dead on Dead Action – Vampire Counts (1000pts) vs Tomb Kings (1000pts)

As our Fantasy Battling continues, and with the end in sight for our campaign, we’ve been expanding into new army territory- with the usual fumbling and incompetence that that involves.  Aramoro has been exploring the freshly extended world of Vampire Counts, while Furycat has taken the brave jump into not-Egypt and taken up Tomb Kings.  To try things out, they fought a titanic 1000pt battle to try and the hang of their new/expanded armies.

There is the slight problem that 100pts isn’t quite enough to make Fantasy work, but everyone suffers the same amount, right?  Right?

Tomb Kings Army–
Liche High Priest
+Heirophant
+Lore of Nehekhara
+Incantation of Protection, Incantation of the Desert Wind, Pta’s Righteous Smiting

Tomb Prince
+Chariot
+Armour of Silvered Steel, Dragonbane Gem

19 Skeleton Archers
+Musician, Standard Bearer

3 Skeleton Chariots
+Musician, Standard Bearer
+Banner of Eternal Flame

Casket of Souls

10 Skeleton Horse Archers
+Musician, Standard Bearer

The Tomb King plan is for the Liche is to use the Archers as an ex-human shield to ensure the undead remain un-dead, while the Tomb Prince will roll around in his pimped out ride with the other chariots.  The Horse Archers intend to annoy people with their dinky little bows, while the Casket will do that Indiana Jones thing to anyone looking too close.
All set to crush the living beneath their bony heels, the Tomb Kings are ready to rock.

Vampire Counts Army-
Vampire
+Avatar of Death
+Black Periapt
+Summon Ghouls

Necromancer
+Invocation of Nehek, Vanhel’s Dance Macabre

30 Crypt Ghouls

30 Crypt Ghouls

Corpse Cart

Terrorgheist

The Vampire’s plan is simpler- the Vampire will join one of the Ghoul hordes, and then the two hordes will beat the hell out of any delicious meaty morsels they encounter.  Meanwhile, the Necromancer will roll around on his pimped out (with parts of real pimp) Corpse Cart supporting them.  The Terrorgheist will flap around, shrieking at things- at least it doesn’t have to worry about cannons, which is a nice change.

With the two armies of shuffling corpses assembled by their dread overlords, they set out to crush the living.  Sadly, they run into each other before encountering anything living.  The high-fiving team-up (and argument about whose knucklebones are who’s) is spoiled by the not-Egyptian’s perception of the Vampires as race-traitors, what with having a still-breathing Necromancer in their forces, literally riding on the backs of dead men.

The Vampires decide to do unto others before it can be done unto them, making the brave (if unusual) decision to launch a Dawn Attack on the Tomb Kings.  The terrain is it’s usual out-of-place mess- the forces of evil have decided to fight it out over a Sigmarite Shrine and some Blessed Bulwarks, no less than 3 Mysterious Forests, some Arcane Ruins, an Earthblood Mere, an Anvil of Vaul and an Elven Waystone.

The Vampire eyes the impending dawn, sure that there’s something he should remember about it.  Lost in thought, the Tomb Kings take the initiative and the first turn, with only a small amount of rule-checking needed.
The Skeleton Horse Archers decide their Scout deployment wasn’t quite right, and make a little shuffle.  They’ve got that Arrows of Asaph rule, and they’re going to use it, damn it.  The Skeleton Chariots advance, as do the Archers and all-important Heirophant.  One of the Forests turns out to be extra-mysterious, being normal – a freak occurrence, I’m sure you’ll agree.
A solid magic roll (5+4), boosted by the Casket of Souls, puts a whole stack of power dice in the bony hands of the Tomb Kings.  Problem- Furycat’s magical performances thus far have not gone to plan.  Given that his caster is the thing that holds his army together, can he not screw it up?
An Incantation of the Desert Wind moves the Skeleton Archers forward, but an attempt to Righteously Smite fails.  The Casket tries to do it’s thing to the Terrorgheist, but the Vampire dispels it.  Nothing catastrophic happens, which is surely good.  Right?
The various Skeletons with bows open fire on one of the Ghoul hordes, and manage to kill four of them.  Nothing huge, but it’s a start.

Still sure that something’s wrong here, the Vampire urges his lackeys onwards.  Both Ghoul units ignore the Skeleton Horsemen, pressing toward the Tomb Prince and his Chariot escort, while the Corpse Cart manoeuvres itself into some kind of cover.  The Terrorgheist flies ahead, all set to shout something to re-death before the Casket zaps it to re-death.
Average (5+3) magic for the Vampires, but all of their stuff is low casting value and spammable, so they’re not exactly suffering.  Vanhel’s is dispelled on the first attempt, then fails on the second.  Summon Ghouls works just fine, undoing the Tomb King’s shooting efforts and actually making the unit bigger.  The last dice is stashed in the Vampire’s Periapt, to try and mitigate the effects of the Casket.
The Terrorgheist’s shouting terrifies the Skeleton Chariots, killing one of them and wounding another with it’s terrifying cry of booga-booga-boo!

The Tomb Prince runs away from the Terrorgheist, charging into the weakened-and-then-strengthened Crypt Ghouls.  The Skeleton Horse Archers try to charge into the Ghoul’s flank, but manage to botch it.  Maybe there are problems when your horse is made only of bones, it’s not overly practical.  The Skeleton Archers shuffle around to take some more pot-shots at the other Ghoul unit, and make sure the Heirophant is within magic buff range.
A weak magic roll (3+1) doesn’t look promising, and the Casket doesn’t really help out.  The Vampire manages to channel, and pulls the dice out of his Periapt for an even 5pd vs 5dd.  An Invocation of Protection works on the Chariots,  and the broken one is brought back.  The remaining dice are thrown into the Casket, aiming it at the Terrorgheist again- the Vampire dispels it again, and stashes a spare dice in the Periapt again.
The Skeleton Archers plunk at the Terrorgheist hopefully, and manage to put a wound onto it.  Only five more to go.
There’s another bit of rules and FAQ checking as the risen Chariot screws around with impact hits, and eventually six Ghouls are run over.  The remainder of the Ghoul horde attacks, and their million poisoned swings murder the Chariots to leave only an unescorted, and very angry, Tomb Prince.  He shanks a single Ghoul, managing to lose the combat by one.

The Terrorgheist decides to go and terrify the Heirophant and his bodyguard, while the other Ghoul horde tries to get into a useful position and the Corpse Cart shuffles itself around again, to get both Ghoul units into it’s buff range.
Average magic again (6+1), and the Vampire channels again.  An Invocation of Nehek fixes up the Terrorgheist, but the Corpse Cart’s Miasma of Vigour is dispelled.  Another Invocation gets four of the un-undeaded Ghouls back up again, and then the other unit is shifted closer using Vanhel’s Danse Macabre.
The Terrorgheist’s shrieking and gibbering is ignored by the Heirophant, who’s clearly made of sterner stuff than the Chariots.  Saddened, the Terrorgheist stamps six of the Skeleton Archers to death, and forces another six to crumble.  The Ghouls swing ineffectively at the Tomb Prince, while he stabs three of the them abck down again, making them un-un-undead.

The Horse Archers try charging the Ghouls again, and manage to connect (only a turn late).  With everything else busy, it’s onto the Magic phase- and it’s a biggie (6+5).  Considering the options with 12pd, the Liche tries a 4d boosted Incantation of Protection… and miscasts.  Well, at least he’ll get the ward save.  And he raises 3 archers, and fixes the Tomb Prince’s Chariot.  Maybe this will work out okay.  Sadly, he causes a Dimensional Cascade and re-kills five of the Skeleton Archers and wounds the Terrorgheist.  At least the Heirophant doesn’t fall out of reality.  With only a couple of dice left after the resulting power drain, the Casket is dispelled again.
The Terrorgheist happily continues stamping on Skeletons, ward save doing them no good, leaving only the Heirophant standing.  The Ghouls shift their attentions to the Tomb Prince’s Chariot, beating a couple of wounds off it, and re-killing a couple of Horse Archers, too.  The Archers respond in kind, as does the Prince, crumbling a couple more Ghouls.

The Vampire finally cracks, reforming his Ghoul bodyguard to fit between the building and the other Ghoul unit to actually charge something.  The Corpse Cart continues it’s manoeuvring, and the Vampire rolls up his sleeves, ready for a magic trick or two.
(6+5), and the Vampire leads off with an Invocation that raises five Ghouls into the tar-pit the Prince and Horse Archers are stuck in- and the Tomb Kings concede, unable to break their unbreakable counterparts.
(The Terrorgheist scared the Heirophant to death– we thought we’d roll it anyway).

Still, at least that’s some idea what Tomb Kings can do, and their magic.  It’s a learning process, and all that, and next time will be a glorious triumph!

 

No Bro Fist – Newcrons vs Blood Angels (1500pts)

Noticing that-
a) we’ve got a crapload of toy spacemen around
b) there’s a new Necron book out
and
c) most of these posts are about WFB
-myself and Aramoro decided to put our toy spacemen to use playing a 40K game.   I blew the dust off my Necrons and tried to figure out what the hell I was doing with the new book, and he went off and did something with Blood Angels.

It’s unlikely we will put our spacemen down and they’ll bro-fisting, so I had to bring some guns along, just in case.

Newcrons-
Anrakyr the Traveller
+Catacomb Command Barge
+Tesla Cannon

Royal Court
+Cryptek
++Harbinger of Destruction, Eldritch Lance
+Cryptek
++Harbinger of Destruction, Eldritch Lance
+Cryptek
++Harbinger of Destruction, Eldritch Lance

9 Necron Warriors
+Ghost Ark

9 Necron Warriors
+Ghost Ark

9 Necron Warriors
+Ghost Ark

Doom Scythe

4 Canoptik Scarabs

4 Canoptik Scarabs

3 Necron Destroyers
+2 Heavy Destroyer Upgrade

Okay, it’s a little repetitive.  I was trying to see what the new book does at a base level before going crazy with Praetorians and C’Tan and Deathmarks and whatnot.
Anyway.  the Royal Court splits up and joins the Warrior units in their bitchin’ new dedicated transports, the Scarabs chew armour off vehicles, Anrakyr is going to fly around and act like a dick, the Doom Scythe is going to Death Ray something, and the Destroyers will do… something.
I don’t really have a plan for my loopy space robots, to be honest.  I just want to know what they can do.

Bro Angels
Commander Dante

5 Sanguinary Guard
+Powerfist

Stormraven
+Assault Cannon
+Multimelta
+Extra Armour

9 Death Company
+Bolters
+2 Powerfists

10 Assault Marines
+2 Meltaguns
+Powerfist

10 Assault Marines
+2 Meltaguns
+Powerfist

2 Sanguinary Priests
+Jump Packs

Oh, dear.  Fast assault troops.  That’s not something you want to see with Necrons, whichever army book you’re using.  Maybe codex creep will see me through, and let me crush them (no, they’re going to beat the shit out of my guys).

There’s a pause as we try to find the rulebook so we can find out what the hell we do now, and oh god how does this game work again?  Eventually, we determine that we’re fighting the Annihilation mission using Pitched Battle deployment.  Definitely no bro fist, then.  The Blood Angels win the roll off, setting up first and going first.

The Death Company jump into the Stormraven, the Assault Marines spread out on foot, and D-Banger hangs out in reserve, waiting to Deep Strike and melt something.

The Warriors and Crypteks perch themselves in their Ghost Arks, Anrakyr polishes the safety rail on his Command Barge as he waits, the Scarabs scuttle forwards, the Doom Scythe doom-parks behind a doom-building, and the Destroyers shake their fists, booming DESTROY in their tiny metal voices.

None of the Blood Angels freak out and succumb to the Red Thirst, and we’re off!

The Assault Marines jump forward, the Stormraven advancing more slowly, turning ominously towards Anrakyr as he works the chrome and metal of his Command Barge up into a perfect shine.
Four Bloodstrike missiles, a multimelta and assault cannon later, he picks himself up out of a crater.  Oh, so it’s like -that-, is it?

Anrakyr adavnces on the Stormraven, furious.  It’s just wrong to fuck with a man’s ride.  The Doom Scythe doom-moves past the building, doom-wheeling to doom-face the Assault Marine over the doom-river.  It was nice of them to line up like that.  Perfect for it’s Death Ray.  The Ghost Arks move forward carefully, keeping to combat speed so that the embarked Warriors can shoot, too.  They can’t exactly run away from jump infantry, so they’ll have to try and shoot their way out of trouble.  The Scarabs scuttle forwards for operation metal shield, while the Destroyers just chill, enjoying their fine arcs of fire.
Anrakyr’s robot brain commandeers the Stormraven, and he directs it’s assault cannon and multimelta at the nearby Assault Marines.  Disappointingly, it only vaporizes one of them.  That done, he uses his Tachyon Arrow and blows the Stormraven out of the sky, much to the annoyance of the Death Company (and the fatal annoyance of one of them).
The Doom Scythe tries Death Raying the Assault Marines, firing it’s Tesla Cannon for good measure.  I can tell you that they’re hilariously satisfying to fire, and surprisingly effective.
The Destroyers get in on the Assault Marine killing action and perish another pair, thinning out the squad nicely.
The Ghost Arks have more trouble- 3+ armour saves and Feel no Pain are resistant to their terrible guns, and despite a ridiculous number of shots, they only manage to kill a couple of Marines in the second Assault squad.
With nothing else to do and no useful way to stall the Assault Marines, the Scarabs take a chance and assault them.  Needless to say, they are obliterated by a powerfist after achieving nothing.

Dante and his Sanguinary arrive, landing behind the Ghost Arks all ready to melt them.  The Assault Marines advance towards the Arks on both sides, while the furious Death Company move towards Anrakyr.  Their bolters do nothing to the Necron Overlord, although if they reach him they’ll demolish him.
The surviving Assault Marines use their meltaguns to explode the Ghost Ark on the left, killing one of the Necrons inside- temporarily, anyway.  On the right flank, Dante’s Infernus Pistol blows up another Ark.  Four Necrons go down and stay down, but they might just be faking it to avoid the impending beating.  The other Assault marines manage to whiff both their Meltagun shots, leaving the last Ghost Ark intact.
Not content with this, they assault it, letting the sergeant Powerfist it out of the sky- and beating the other squad of Warriors to death while they’re at it.
The pared down Assault Marines manage to beat up 3 death robots, which break and run – and somehow don’t get caught by a sweeping advance.

The fleeing Necrons realize that they are in fact mindless ancient death robots, and so shouldn’t be running away like little girls, rallying and aiming their zap guns at the Assault Marines.  The Doom Scythe nips over the doom river, lurking behind the doom wall to Death Ray some Death Company to their doom.  Or something.  The other Necrons try to put off their inevitable demise in an assault, but their little robot legs won’t get them away from the jump packing Blood Angels.
One of the Sanguinary Guard is picked off by a Destroyer shot, and the Warriors gauss weaponry pick off another Assault Marine.  The Doom Scythe’s Death Ray vaporizes another three of the Death Company, and Anrakyr bravely tries to stall the advancing Marines by giving them the bums rush.  Actually, I’m not sure if it’s brave when you’re a)a robot and b)bonkers.
Whatever, he manages to shank one Marine, taking a couple of wounds but staying put.

The furious Death Company can’t resist the nearby Warriors, ignoring the Doom Scythe behind them.  The Assault Marines and Sanguinary Guard advance, peppering the Scarabs and Warriors with shots before pounding into them for some one-sided assaults.
Both Necron units are wiped out by the assault troops, but Anrakyr tries to make up for it.  His Warscythe cuts two more Marines down before a powerfist smashes him down, but his Reanimation Protocols kick in and he stands back up, ready to try again.

The Doom Scythe continues it’s leisurely pursuit of the Dying Company, while the Destroyers opt to destroy from a distance.  The surviving Warriors continue running as fast as their ancient metal legs will carry them; it’s not looking good for the ancient death robots at this point.
The Death Ray cuts down even more of the Death Company, leaving only a psychopath with a powerfist still standing, while the Destroyer’s shots are foiled by cover saves.
Anrakyr piles back into the triumphant Assault Marines, killing the Sanguinary Priest before being powerfisted to death for a second time.  Sadly, he doesn’t reanimate a second time.

The last of one Assault Marine squad dives into cover, trying to preserve his precious kill point, while the other jumpers advance on the unfortunate Warriors.  The last of the Death Company rages toward the Doom Scythe, hoping to swat it out of the sky with his powerfist.
Dante and his Sanguinary Guard assault the Warriors, and I doubt it will surprise anyone to find out that the Necrons get bodied.  The Death Company Marine’s powerfist gets a Shaken result on the Doom Scythe, stopping it moving or firing next turn… until it makes it’s Living Metal roll, and ignores the result.

Flashing a robotic finger at the Death Company, the Doom Scythe skims away from him, bringing it’s weapons to bear on the nicely lined up Assault Marines instead.  The Destroyers hop back over the river, forcing Dante and his bodyguard to make difficult and dangerous terrain rolls to try and assault them; with the other death robots lying low for now, the Necron turns are getting quicker.
The Doom Scythe exterminates the sole survivor from one of the Assault Marine squads with it’s Death Ray, killing another two from the second squad for good measure.  The Destroyers manage to botch their shooting, doing nothing to Dante or his Sanguinary Guard.  Hopefully, they’ll really screw up the dangerous terrain test…

They don’t, and beat two of the Destroyers down.  The Assault Marines finally kill the Doom Scythe with their meltaguns, and it’s pretty much over…  OR IS IT.  The destroyed Destroyers both reanimate, ready to enact an unholy vengeance…

…actually, they don’t.  They’re still no match for Dante and the Sanguinary Guard, and get killed, again.  The Blood Angels win through a wipeout, but the Necrons are actually a ton of fun now that they are ancient space assholes.

 

Border Princes Battle Report- High Elves (2000pts) vs Empire (2000pts)

Another turn, another grinding battle against the Empire.  That’s how things are going in our Border Princes campaign just now.

This time around it was High Elves with some Beastman support up against a lone Empire army- and with the thought of ‘fuck it’, I went with double Archmages and a Dragon Mage.  I’m going to get wrecked by war machines whatever I do, so it doesn’t really matter.

High Elf forces-
Archmage
+Silver Wand
+Lore of Life
+Awakening of  the Wood, Flesh to Stone, Dwellers Below, Regrowth

Archmage
+Jewel of the Dusk
+Lore of Death
+Spirit Leech, Caress of Laniph, Purple Sun of Xerxes

+Dragon Mage
+Lore of Fire
+Fulminating Flame Cage, Flaming Sword of Rhuin

25 Spearmen
+Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

25 Spearmen
+Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

15 Phoenix Guard
+Champion, Standard Bearer
+Banner of Sorcery

21 White Lions

25 Spearmen
+Champion, Standard Bearer

Beastman allies-
20 Gors
+Standard Bearer
+Additional Hand Weapons

5 Raiders

Empire forces-
Arch Lector
+War Altar
+Dawn Armour

Wizard Lord
+Level 4 Upgrade
+Dispel Scroll
+Lore of Shadows
+Melkoth’s Mystifying Miasma, Enfeebling Foe, Withering, Pit of Shades

Captain of the Empire
+Battle Standard Bearer
+Armour of Meteoric Iron, Dawnstone

Captain of the Empire
+Pegasus
+Dragonhelm, Aldred’s Casket of Sorcery

Master Engineer
+Pigeon Bombs

30 Swordsmen
+Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

30 Swordsmen
+Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

20 Crossbowmen
+Standard Bearer

Mortar

Mortar

Mortar

10 Outriders
+Musician

5 Pistoliers

In a surprising turn of events, we don’t end up with a Watchtower scenario.  Instead, it’s a Battleline.  In fact, it’s a Battleline with the maximum 10 terrain features- a hill, a couple of buildings, a mystery death forest, a magic circle, a tower of blood, an anvil of Vaul, some ghost fences, some blessed bulwarks… and a settlement of Order, giving another building, some more ghost fences, then some blazing barricades, and a wizard’s tower.  So.  Thirteen out of ten possible terrain pieces.  Huh.

The Empire end up holed up in the west, while the High Elves and their Beastmen buds end up spread out by the scenery, with the Empire forces getting the first turn.

The Empire make their Vanguard moves, and then it’s on to their first turn.  The Pistoliers race around the flank, while the Captain flaps around on his Pegasus… and that’s about it, because the Empire don’t move, they just stand around and shoot.
It’s an inauspicious start for the Empire casters, botching both Armour of Contempt and Melkoth’s Miasma, but they’re not really the concern.  The Empire Outriders who gun down 5 Gors and break them are a concern, as are the Pistoliers who shoot 2 of the White Lions.  Two of the mortars miss, at least, so the Phoenix Guard only take 13 hits.

The Elves watch the Gors flee with a collective sigh, and start their long, pointless walk towards the Empire guns.  The White Lions duck into the forest, discovering that it’s filled with Venomous death.  Being Forest Striders, they ignore it and carry on.  The Dragon Mage heads for the Empire flank, hoping to do some damage before being dragged off his mount and battered, as usual, while the other Elves try to fit through the clogged terrain in the centre of the board.
Being Elves with a Banner of Sorcery, they casually produce 12 power dice, but aren’t able to achieve much with them- Caress of Laniph is dispelled, as are Regrowth and Fulminating Flame Cage.  Flesh to Stone works, buffing the Phoenix Guard, but that just means the Empire mortars will aim elsewhere.
The Raiders manage to miss all of their shots at the Pistoliers, leaving the fast cavalry unmolested and free to do their thing.

The Pistoliers run away from the ineffective raiders to harass some Spearelves, and the Pegasus Captain flies suspiciously close.  Anyone would think he had some kind of bullshit box with him.  The Arch Lector moves up to try and stall the White Lion advance, while the Captain fumbles with the catches on the bullshit box he is, in fact, carrying, failing to steal anything out of the Death Archmage’s brain.
A better magic phase for the Empire this time around- the Wizard Lord gets buffed by Armour of Contempt, and a bodged dispel lets a Withering take effect on the White Lions, giving them -3 Toughness.  Oh dear.  Enfeebling Foe and a bound Net of Amyntok from the Jade Griffon are both dispelled, at least.
The Outriders take advantage of the Withered state of the White Lions, shooting 10 of them dead, the Crossbowmen killing another couple.  the Pistoliers ride-by kills 3 Spearelves, while all three mortars miss this time around.  The Master Engineer unleashes one of his pigeon bombs, and is disappointed to find out that that particular bomb was attached to a homing pigeon  Still, at least it doesn’t wound him.

The battered White Lions charge into the Outriders, determined to kick the shit out of something- a stand and shoot reaction puts down 2 of the axe-wielding Elves, but the last handful reach their target.  The Raiders decide that their bows aren’t up to much, and pile into the rear of the Pistoliers.  The Dragon Mage flaps ever closer to his doom, while the other Elves stumble hopelessly forwards.
12 power dice again for the Elves, and another failure to capitalize on it- a 6 dice Purple Sun is stopped by a Dispel Scroll, Regrowth fails, and Fulminating Flame Cage is easily dispelled again.
The remaining Beastmen manage to beat one of the Pistoliers down, losing 2 Raiders in the process, but thanks to their charge into the rear of the horsemen, they succeed in breaking them.  Another Pistolier perishes as he flees, trying to get his horse through a unit of Spearelves.  The Raiders hold, reforming to face the Pegasus Captain and try to inconvenience him in later turns.
The White Lions obliterate 5 of the Outriders with no loss, breaking them easily- they then fail to restrain themselves and fail to overrun far enough to leave the board, ending up in the open and facing the wrong way.

The Empire forces engage in a magnificent display of shuffling around as they try to meet or deny Elf charges and make room for their mortars to fire, while the Pistoliers rally and turn themselves around.  at the end of all this, the Captains bullshit box steals Dwellers Below from the Life Archmage’s brain.  Well, he wasn’t going to use it anyway.
The magic phase sees a Net of Amyntok being thrown over the Phoenix Guard and a Withering tossed at the Dragon Mage.  The Wizard Lord’s Armour of Contempt is dispelled, and it’s on to the shooting phase.
The Crossbowmen finish of the last of the White Lions, and then the mortars open fire.  One misses, the second misses and hits two units instead of one, and the third misses and lands bang in the middle of another unit entirely.  The Engineer separates his homing pigeons from his not-homing pigeons, and delivers a bomb to the Phoenix Guard that’s more damaging to them than the mortars were, killing 3.

The Dragon Mage tries to get a charge at the Wizard Lord, who decides discretion is the better part of valour and runs.  The Mage then botches his attempts to redirect his charge, ending up parked in front of the Swordsmen.  The other Elves continue bumbling forwards, the unbreakable Arch Lector standing in their way.
A 12 dice magic phase leads to absolutely nothing, again, every spell either failing it’s casting roll by 1 or being dispelled.
The shooting phase is marginally more effective, as the Dragon Mage’s scaly steed incinerates 5 Swordsmen, and the Raiders perforate another Pistolier, breaking them again.

The Pistoliers keep on running, while the Swordsmen pile into the flank of the Dragon Mage.  the Wizard Lord rallies, annoyingly, while the other Empire troops dick around.
A weak magic phase sees only an attempt by the Pegasus Captain to use his stolen Dwellers
Below dispelled, nothing more.
The Crossbowmen take some hopeful pot-shots at the Spearelves in the wood, achieving nothing, and then mortars fire again.  Once misses, while the other two blow more Elves into pieces.  A follow-up pigeon bomb from the Engineer takes out more of the Phoenix Guard, leaving barely more than half a dozen Elves in the unit.
The Dragon Mage surprisingly manages to kill two of the Swordsmen- unsurprisingly, he’s then dragged off his dragon and beaten into paste.  The dragon crushes a couple of Swordsmen, but static combat resolution is too much for it, and it flees despite being unhurt.  Then, of course, it hurts itself landing in a Venom Thicket.

The fleeing Dragon rallies, turning to face the Pegasus Captain; the Spearelves in the Venom Thicket charge, the various poisonous things killing a couple of them in the way in.  The surviving Phoenix Guard are almost at their enemies, and the other Spearelf block moves to block the Swordsmen.  The Raiders pile into the flank of the Pegasus Captain to try and take a wound off him.  It’s unlikely, but they don’t really have anything else they can do.
Magic sees a dispelled Purple Sun, but a Caress of Laniph on the Empire Standard Bearer works- then produces no hits.  Oh, well.  A failed Spirit Leech doesn’t exactly come as a surprise in this game.
The Raiders are perished by the Pegasus and Captain, while the Swordsmen and Spearelves grind each other down but stay in combat.

With the battered Elves finally in spitting distance, the Arch Lector charges into the Phoenix Guard.  The unengaged Swordsmen charge the unengaged Spearelves, and the Pegasus Captain piles into the freshly rallied Dragon.
The Arch Lector gets things off to a painful start in the Magic phase, killing 2 Phoenix Guard with Soulfire.  A Melkoth’s Miasma and Enfeebling Foe follow from the Wizard Lord, weakening the Elves in the Venom Thicket, but there’s an unfortunate miscasting incident involved.  It doesn’t do anything major, but it drains some power dice.  The last dice are used to try a Withering on the Dragon, but that’s dispelled.
The Dragon and Pegasus whiff all of their attacks against each other, and the Dragon promptly breaks and is run down.  Stupid Dragon.  The magically weakened Spearelves somehow manage to beat the Swordsmen, killing two of the humans without loss; their non-hexed comrades manage to put a few Swordsmen down, and
then break anyway.  Ah, well.  The Arch Lector’s War Altar wounds both Archmages with it’s impact hits, before the Lector and horses finish the job off- not entirely surprising after the beating the Elves took crossing the battlefield.