Adieu Games Workshop

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye...

In a blur of motion Valten signals his departure from GW gaming

So I have come out of my period of mourning for the game that has been the focus of most of my hobby endevours for the last decade or three. Like many a relationship it has come to a natural end. Though I have to say, that end was none of my doing or intent.

I loved the Warhammer World. I immersed myself in a world steeped in lore and history, once written and produced by gamers for gamers. It appealed to me for many reasons, the quality of the figures, the depth and width of the fluff, the sense of community...
The excitement of new releases that fit with my existing plethora of armies.

Yup, many of them have never seen the gaming table, and I spent many a dollar just on the joy of building and painting many a model, often to find that it was worthless as a game piece, or to see its worth destroyed by a change in the rules.

I played Warhammer Age of Reckoning online, adding another level of enjoyment to my experience of the Warhammer World. I bought novels that brought the fluff to life. I got my young son into the game.

Then all of it was sacrificed on the altar of profit.

To me, my experience of my relationship with GW had become more and more abusive over the decades. Like anybody trapped in a relationship with someone they loved; and believed that the other party loved them back, I stayed. I loved GW, but they did not love me back.

Then we got to the point where GW killed the Warhammer World. It rolled out the Age of the Sigmarine.  The End Times, (or is it End Crimes?) to me, now relates as a cynical move to squeeze a few more dollars out of those who still believed the game as we knew it may survive. Thank goodness I did not swallow the bait. Only a single End Times model taints my workbench. Gutrot Spume.

Some gamers took it to the extreme.

I too am a business man. I get the business aspects of it all.

But I am also a consumer of miniatures, a gamer, and possibly one with more disposable income than many. Surely there must have been a way forward that did not destroy the Warhammer world.

I (too) have decided to vote with my feet. AoS is not for me. GW is no longer for me.

I suppose my dollar does not count to GW in the greater scheme of things.
So be it.
Hope you attract lots of 8-year olds !

I for one will now leave GW and their Sigmarines to their own destiny.
So long, fare well.
I notice others doing the same.

Interesting post from Pete at Fields of Blood  on the corporate analyst take on the situation, and today announcing NZTCs switch to KoW.

So, where to from here ?  I've looked at the options:

1. Flogging on with 8th Ed in one form or another, (Read "continue as is; pre or post End-Crimes", 8th Ed the new Old Hammer, or call it (Out-in-the-cold Hammer?) or some fan-based machination - we all know how that is going to end);
2. Using my existing figures for another ruleset. (Late medieval/early renaissance gaming sans magic ?)
3). Selling the lot, and sticking with FoW only and
4) Switching to a skirmish based gameset eg Warmahordes

The latter did not appeal, as every figure I have painted is an unique work of art to my eyes.
I have toiled over them for days, weeks and months (oft to my other half's dismay).
They are like family.

So, I weighed 'em up...Pike and Shot, Blackpowder, Deus Vult, Warmahordes, Saga...
Invest in X-Wing ? A nice game or diversion, lots of guys have gone that way...but not what I'm after; I have a love of the Fantasy genre, already have FoW as a diversion anyhow, and alack,  no spare space in the Man Cave...

(Ahem...Huge delivery of Dark Elves bought as kickstarter from Raging Heroes on the horizon; and SAGA still preys on my mind - I may still go that way for a skirmish based game)

Came to a conclusion: Kings of War. 

Had quite an enjoyable game with Matt at the club the other night. Tournament coming at the end of the year. AND NOW NZTC IS GOING KOW

Fluff not quite there, Magic a bit weak, but out of all that is our there, I think Mantic's KoW is going to come up trumps. See one of the big tourneys in the US have also swopped over. And yesterday P
D announced that the NZTC will also switch rulesets.

With many, many WHFB players flocking their way I can see Mantic carrying the massed block based Fantasy Game banner in future. GWs loss is Mantic's gain.

Mantic must be grinning ear to ear.
Cheekily calling their book: The Game of Fantasy Battles. The King is dead, fell on his own sword. Long live the King!

My GW Undead, Empire and Dwarfs are now in the process of rebasing. Enough of them for both Abyssal and regular dwarf armies; and Human and Basilean Armies, each 2000 plus. May need a couple of Eloi for the latter, and some chicks on panthers. Or do I just use those riduculous (sigh) chickens?

Rebased Graveguard..ahem, Revenants

Empire almost there (15 000+ GW points woth) Almost done with the Vampires. (Wow do they kick ass in KoW!) and same with my Greenskins. Suddenly I have both a Goblin and an Orc army, compared to a 8000+ pt well but neigh useless WHFB greenskin army.

...and keep a few of my armies multi-purpose, ...should I ever decide to play 8th ed or one of its Lazarus incarnations which may or may not happen. (Looking verrrry unlikely at this stage) other than ETC (?)

So Druchii and Daemons will remain on their magnetised bases. As for killing off Slaanesh to attract the soccer mums. Bleh on you GW. I am so over it all, and the way you treated us.

Yay! I can use my Confrontation Wolfen now! 

As for the young Prince? Sad to say that GW's move has killed gaming for him. The Lizards and Ogres have gathered dust since the End Times (Well, what would you expect if both your armies suddely get written out of the story fluff) and I have doubts that he will return to gaming for the immediate future. But who knows? The news of NZTC switching may have galvanised him too.

A week ago I set about the mammoth task of rebasing my 15 000 pt + Empire Armies:

White Wolf Greathammers and Knights of Ulrich being transformed. 

Yup, some collector's items in that line-up!

Really 4 or 5  distinct armies sporting the livery of Talabheim, Talabecland, Nordland (Incorporating Kislev) and The Knights of Morr, and a small contingent of Knights of the White Wolf. Not that it matters any more, as in GW's own words "such things are obtuse"

I could actually not have anticipated the feeling of liberation that I got when I started gluing bases to movement trays! "Yes, yes! Never have to remove and restack you, you little bastard !"

Handgunners, Arquebussiers, 10 to a stand. Sooo easy.

Same with the XBows. 10 to a base. Simple. 

Sorry Chaos Army. 

You will have to wait for the rules to catch up with you. No doubt in the pipe-line.

Anyone with a horde army will appreciate what I am saying...
Couldn't wait to glue down those skeletons and zombies. Never will you fly all over the place again!
Not even speaking about night goblins!

Still have to think about the Vargulfs, but everything else seems transferable

 

Night of the Walking Dead

Skeletons, Zombies and ghouls surge forth. No longer shuffle or shamble. Undead are not slow in KoW. Change of Mindset. Oh yes, and then there is SURGE.

Still a huge amount of work to do on the aesthetics, but getting there slowly...

 

Rise of my Undead Legion (without Nagash) - WIP

(Nagashless) Stirrings of the Undead

So I have decided that the End Times are not for me. I trust that this is just going to be an expansion, and not the shape on 9th Ed. Still have my reservations, as the direction GW is taking seems to be bigger and more expensive models. 40K has gone this way, and I suspect 9th Ed will do the same.

So, never the less, ranting now long over, back to the (under-powered) Oldhammer VC army I had dusted off on anticipation of the coming of Nagash. Seems like Heinrich Kemmler will have to sustain their animation, or Vlad, or whichever of my gallery of GW and Non-GW Vampires. 

My concept with the VC Army is that of reanimated Talabheim and Khorne WoC troops, sticking to a black and white theme. The idea is to "compliment" my Talabheim/Talabecland Empire Army, reinforcing the concept of the Empire having to face both their fallen comrades and fallen enemy reanimated by unholy forces.

Fair bit of repainting and painting going on, to try and get a more uniform army look. Many of the pictures are really just WIPs as a result.

Harpy Thangs. Alternative Giant/Fell Bats. Lot of work still to do here

.My Giant Bats/Fell Bats have been replaced by these harpy-like creatures I bought off Sam Campbell during a foray into his hobby space at the end of a KWC Management meeting. 

I have never liked the $2 Store look of the GW Bats. The swarms are ok, but I have substituted the Bats w Harpy Things

I picked up a rather nice female necromancer off Trademe, along with Reaper's Monique de Noir. Painting these up as alternative Vamps/necromancers:

Lots more painting to do here too...

Dire Wolves lurch forward

Zombies rise from their graves

Grave guard are pretty much done bar their basing

Have been procrastinating on building this box of Ghouls for some time, but got these going, and same with painting my Vargeists and Vargulf. Finally got going on them. Has fizzled a bit due to my disappointment and sticker-shock (to use Pete's term) when it came to Nagash.

3rd base of Ghouls lusting for the paint-pot. Now numbering 30 or so...

Mounted characters, all Oldhammer, and an unusual Undead Giant Goat that

 I got from goodness knows where!

Characters afoot and winged, from various sources

Black Knights, Black Coach, Skellies, some w bows, 

obviously longing forward to  the Nehekaritic alliance that will not be

Vargheists and ethereals, some serious oldhammer Vamps

Speaking of oldhammer, also sprucing up the old Abyssal Terrors

This one's big enough to double as a  Terrorgheist

Vargulf getting his first licks of paint

More Oldhammer, a Strigoi Vamp, now having lost his Strigoiness, 

as the new Strigoi are modelled on the Crypt Horrors

Herr Kemmler, base coated and contemplating where to go from here

Likewise the Vargheists, complemented w a LOTR figure. Corpse Cart to the left, and more Oldhammer characters in front

The true price of Lore of the Undead ?

Lore of the Undead: The Price we'll pay

So here it comes. The rumoured Lore of Undeath. And enter THE TOKEN.
"...Now every wizard, mage and sorcerer can wield the fell magic from the Lore of Undeath."

$NZ 12 for a pack of magic cards:  OK, I could justify spending the money on a pack of cards. BUT how much is the game going to change over the next year? And what is the real price of this pack of cards going to be?

How much will the average VC or TK player have to spend to be able to "raise the dead" ?
What about armies that HAVE no undead?

And how will the TOKENS work? (Hello SAGA, can we borrow an arrow from your quiver?)
We'll only use it for magic, seeing as you don't have any in your game (sort of):

So a quick analysis of my current 8500 point VC army shows some gaps if I wanted to play this lore of Magic:
Errr...No Monstrous beasts in my army, not nearly enough Chariots (in fact none) , War machines and Monsters

Lore Attribute - Raise Dead
Place a counter on the battlefield every time a friendly Wizard successfully casts a spell from the Lore of Undeath. Any friendly Wizard who casts a summoning spell from the Lore of Undeath may choose, after having successfully cast the spell, to spend one or more counters. For every counter spent, he increases by 10 the amount of points that the spell may summon.

<Ok, can live with that>

Signature Spell: Call of the Grave (9+)
Call of the Grave is a summoning spell with a range of 12". Base spell summons a 50 point infantry unit from the Undead Legions list. Bigger versions summon a 100 point (13+) or 150 point (16+) unit.

<Ok, I'll be able to do both>

1. Dark Breath (6+)
Dark Breath is a blessing that targets a friendly unit with the Undead rule within 12" of the caster. The unit immediately regains 1D3+1 wounds. In addition, if the unit is not engaged in combat, it can perform a normal movement as if it were the Remaining Moves phase.

<Ok, can live with this>

2. Hand of Dust (7+)
Hand of Dust is a blessing that targets the caster. In combat, the wizard may choose to forego all of its normal attacks in order to perform a single attack with the Hand of Dust against a single miniature in base to base contact. If the attack roll hits, the enemy takes a wound with the Multiple Wounds (D6) rule with no armour saves allowed. If Hand of Dust kills an enemy character in a challenge, immediately gain D6 Raise Dead counters.
<Can certainly live with this>

3. Soul Stealer (8+)
Soul Stealer is a direct damage spell with a 12" range. Roll 2D6+2. For each point the result exceeds the target's Leadership, the target takes a wound with no armour saves allowed. If this spell causes at least one unsaved wound, gain D3 Raise Dead counters.

<Ok, this may be ok, Ld of my Wizard allowing>

4. Abyssal Swarm (10+)
Abyssal Swarm is a summoning spell with a range of 12". The caster summons a unit of War Beasts or Swarms from the Undead Legions list of up to 75 points. Caster may instead choose to summon a unit of Monstrous Beasts of up to 150 points, in which case the difficulty is 16+.

<O-o-ok, may just have enough bat swarms and dire wolves, depending on how I choose my army to start off with (at lower casting value); But...not too sure about the monstrous beasts... There are NONE in the current VC book: 
Vargulf is a MONSTER, and Vargeists and Crypt horrors Monstrous Infantry! So, will this mean that I have to buy Aghasts? Will they be monstrous beasts or infantry?
 Suspect the latter. Or invest in Sepulchurous stalkers? Just to enable my Wizards to cast the higher value spell. (...could do without, the monstrous beasts of course, but my regular opponents probably won't)>

5. The Herald (10+)
The Herald is a summoning spell with a range of 12". The caster summons a character of up to 65 points from the Undead Legions list. The caster may instead choose to summon a single Monster, Chariot or War Machine of up to 200 points, in which case the difficulty is 24+.
<Ok, I have a Vargulf (will need an extra one ("Ka-ching",  $73) , I have corpse cart and black coach, would have to invest in Mortis engine/coven throne ($113) , or turn to TK list (Don't have any TKs at all)>

6. Dark Riders (16+)
Dark Riders is a summoning spell with a range of 12". The caster summons a unit of Cavalry, Monstrous Cavalry or Chariots from the Undead Legions list of up to 150 points.
<Ok, I can do this, other than the Chariots>

So, looking at additional expense to field this Army, presuming I would need the new book and Nagash model:

$175 Nagash model
$165 books
$12 Magic cards
plus $216 if I wanted to add 6 Sepulchural Stalkers:
Total $568 before we've even started, just to make my current VC army playable with Nagash;
 if I add another Vargulf and a Mortis Engine/Throne, were talking $750 if I wanted to playing the End Times Expansion game. Or is it "just" an expansion?

Now...lets deal to every army in the WH World in a similar fashion ?
If we clump them together it may not be as noticable to the punters!

Is this really an expansion or the direction the game is taking for 9th ED ?
That is the real question.

Yes its just a game. Yes you've spent a massive amount of money investing in these toys.
Yes, they may become useless at the stroke of a pen. There is hope for you:

Sticks and stones, rage quitter...
 I'm still saying:
The King has no clothes. And his hands are very deep in your pockets. And he's not tickling you. You may think so. He's milking you. And its ok by me if you're happy with that.

A nagging rumour or aghast? Nagash is back!

The Boy is Back in town! Nagash surfaces!

Rumours running rife, and the first picture from the next White Dwarf surfaces. Nagash is back in town!
What will his stat line be? I note "phenominally powerful" and "terrifying in combat" is bandied about in the text. So the Darkness descends...

Absent for several decades, Nagash returns to a table-top near you! Second in what may be a string of bad attitude lords being re-released. Belakor came first, but flew under the radar for a great extent, as no new model was released, only the "Battlescroll"

Is this GWs attempt to stem the haemorrhage of players from WHFB to Warmachine ?
Are we to see a change in the game with the next edition that will allow you to field these "super-characters?

Will WHFB go the way of 40K? All monsters and overpowered lords? I sincerely hope not.

Have they considered cost and field-ability ? A 600 or 800 pt lord may be well neigh useless for most 2000-3000 pt games (Read 2400 comp). Or will this release indicate the start of the game changing ?

Can't say the first photo of the model rocks my boat. Judging from the only picture leaked, as above, I can see several spindly bits that will break off easily. The ghost toasties floating around him suggests that he's not made for ranking up, but I may be wrong on that account. Just a little too many echoes of Alien Brood Mother there for my liking. Or did he bump off some Tyranids along the way ?. Anyhow, no-one will be able to say he's spineless. He has at least 7 of those.

So, Nagash 101, boys and girls, for those of you who were not even a glint in your daddy's eye when he last walked the Warhammer World":

History:
Nagash is the First Necromancer and arguably the most evil character to ever curse the Warhammer Fantasy world. Ever. He is also a combat tank and will go in hand-to-hand combat with the likes of Sigmar.

(Nagash also happens to be the name of a town in Northern Ethiopia, Africa, sad, if that was your hometown. Blame GW, but then again they dreamed up a name like Heirich (ahem) Kemmler. Really? I know a lot of names are a it tongue-in-cheek, like Tik-Tak-To. But Kemmler's getting a bit close to the bone. But that's an aside...)

Background
Nagash started as a hierophant consecrated to the gods of Nehekhara while his brother was the priest-king of Khemri. This was because, in Nehekhara, the firstborn sons of the nobles were given to the temples as priests and the second sons became the kings. Miffed about this, he decided he to increase his magical power. Initially, his reasons also included that he thought his brother Thutep was a weak king, jealously over wanting Thutep's wife, and Nagash thought only he could make Khemri great again. Unfortunately for the Khemri, he got his hands on a Dark Elf sorceresses (or two) who'd been taken prisoner. She (they) spilled the beans.

From her(them)  he learned about the winds of magic and also figured out how to increase his own life expectancy and probably dabbled in magic much more evil than he initially intended. Regardless, when Nagash was done with the Druchii, he brutally killed them and consumed their souls. (When someone can out-evil and out-betray Dark Elves, you know they're pretty mean)(Well he didn't really out-evil them, he out-smarted them).

After many experiments which mostly demanded human sacrifice, and other sick stuff, Nagash created an elixir which allowed him to stay alive. This elixir would be the basis for the creation of the Vampire Counts.

Nagash killed his brother, and sorta mummified alive his wife and then started a war on Nehekhara which ended in the complete annihilation of all life there. Unfortunately for him the Skaven sabotaged his plans of world domination and he got chopped to pieces by the last king of his former nation. When Alcadizzar killed Nagash, it wasn't through any failing on Nagash's part. It was basically the ultimate sacrifice - killing Nagash cost Alcadizzar literally everything. His kingdom - the largest empire in the world - was killed to a man, his family died, his sanity was shattered and the weapon he needed to use to kill Nagash was so potent it killed the wielder as well. That weapon was created by the Skaven; the Council of Thirteen were so terrified of Nagash they stopped their in-fighting and co-operated (for the first time in Skaven history) to create it.

His story doesn't end here; he came back after a couple of centuries (the Skaven had vaporized his remains so it took a lot of time for him to reconstitute himself). After wiping out the Skaven who'd taken over his fortress, Nagash raised an army and attacked the newborn Empire of Man. During the final battle he fought in a duel with Sigmar and nearly defeated him. Sigmar, realizing what was at stake went on a holy rampage and finally crushed Nagash's skull with his hammer. The spirit of Nagash fled the battlefield and went back to his fortress were he recovered, having learned that the world now has powers capable to match his.

Even Sigmar at the height of his power only just managed to defeat Nagash, and even then only by wearing Nagash's own crown to protect him from Nagash's magic. A crown that had pretty much sent Sigmar insane the last time he wore it. No one knows for sure what's he gonna do next but considering his profile it won't be anything pretty.

Why Nagash is so evil

While most evil characters on the game have done their share of bad deeds Nagash has an special place amongst them, the following lists illustrates how sick this beggar is:

• Entombed his own brother alive and stole his wife.
• Turned said wife into an agony-ridden walking corpse and kept her that way for centuries. The process he used to accomplish this involved tricking her into drinking the blood of her murdered son; who also happened to be Nagash's nephew.
• Usurped Nehekhara's throne; then his reign was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people, and he nearly destroyed the kingdom's economy to build his Black Pyramid.
• Captured the spirits of his enemies and kept them in eternal torment.
• Started a war which destroyed most of the Nehekharan cities and killed even more of the population.
• Broke the covenant between the Nehekharan gods and their people, not only removing the divine powers of the Nehekharans but ensuring that after death they wouldn't be able to go to their gods and would have to stay in a nether dimension forever. Especially jarring if you remember that he used to be the High Priest of their religion.
• Indirectly corrupted some of the nobility of Nehekhara, who then became the first vampires.
• Turned a whole tribe of his followers into ghouls because they annoyed him several times by asking him to give them a promised reward.
• Used his loyal vassals as tools in a terrible incantation to make himself a magic set of armour and then, for the only time in any of his fluff, he does something nice for someone besides himself (he compliments them for exceeding his expectations). After complimenting them he devoured their souls as a thank-you..
• Started a new war against Nehekhara which cost thousands more lives.
• Used a horrible plague spell to annihilate the entire Nehekharan civilization after losing the war against them.
• Raised the Nehekharan dead, turning them into millions of undead minions with the idea of annihilating all life in the world.
• Almost destroyed the Empire and nearly crippled Sigmar in a duel by using a poisoned blade.
• Cursed the Vampires with a vulnerability to Sigmar's power after they were too self-absorbed during the war with the Empire to help Nagash out.
• Corrupted the dragon's graveyard and created the zombie dragons. (Are we to see the return of Zacharias too? Just askin')

While any of the deeds on this list could easily been performed by your average Skaven or Chaos Lord there is a basic difference between them and Nagash, the former usually do this either to advance their entire race, clan, tribe or to appease and/or promote their gods.

Nagash on the other hand doesn't care about anyone, despises the gods and has no empathy for his people. I suspect he gets this tendency from his Druchii teachers.

He corrupted his own nation and a large section of the world for his own personal gain and, so far as the fluff goes, he has never cared or done anything for anyone other than himself, with his ultimate plan being quite literally to turn everything into undead with no will under his command
(So he's basically the Emperor of the Dark side of the Warhammer Fantasy Universe) To be fair, he honestly and misguidedly believes this to be the best thing for the Warhammer world. And he might be right.
While Chaos has a hard time corrupting the undead, Nagash has already managed to steal one of Khorne's favoured champions (Krell).

Replacement Warhammer Fantasy Dark Lord?
All that said, Nagash is sometimes rumoured to be a knock off, attempting to one up the original Dark Lord, Drachenfels. He's not really evil, he's just trying too hard.

Drachenfels is much older than Nagash in the setting, while in real life, Drachenfels fluff dates back to 1989, Nagash's 1994. Nagash was introduced to supplant Drachenfels as the setting's 'dark lord' hence the trying to hard with his over the top evil. Though it may not be over-the-top evil to take Drachenfels out of focus.

You can have more than one 'dark lord' in a setting, otherwise why haven't any of the Everchosens of Chaos fought Nagash? Also, Drachenfels is a backseat kind of dark lord; a subtle manipulator out-living the opposition, going along, taking what he wants along the way. Nagash is intelligent, but also an aggressive, sociopathic control-freak who wants to rule the world.

Functionally, Nagash is Warhammer's big bad wolf to 40k's Abaddon. Except Nagash is notably more competent.
When Abaddon tried to conquer the galaxy, he tried 13 times and basically got nowhere read the lore, apparently the armless wonder had a plan and now all 12 crusades "achieved their goals" and the 13th is still ongoing).
When Nagash decided to conquer Nehekara, only one man survived, and even then it was because Nagash wanted him alive. When Nagash decided to raise up every person who had died in Nehekara over the past 1500 years, he succeeded.

In the Game (recent history)

Nagash was actually a special character back when it was just "Warhammer Armies: Undead" and all the dead boys were united in one armybook. Despite being described as "a pale shadow of his former self" he was an unholy rape-train - a statline with the lowest stats being 6's (init and attacks) and everything else being a 7. Add in a completely un-modifiable 4+ save against everything (including any and all spell effects), a sword that gives him +1 str and lets him use any wounds he causes to heal himself and being one of the most powerful mages in the game making him pretty much unstoppable. (Unless you threw a High Mage at him with Drain Magic and Banishment.)

No original statline easily accessible, but I found this:
Nagash :  650 pts.

M   WS   BS  S  T   W    I     A     L
4       7      4   7   7   4     6     6     10

If the stat-line remains the same, nothing short of the direct intervention of gods would stop him and even then, the world would be a graveyard (Nah, there are some who could arguably beat him: Sigmar, Kroak, arguably Morathi and Malekith, Aenerion; Teclis is described as being if not his equal, then close behind; First Spawning Slann would simply think Nagash out of existence, if they cared).

To keep that from happening, Games Workshop in the past chose to give him what might very well be the single most "derptastic" model to ever blight a tabletop with its presence, an unholy abomination of fail so ridiculous that it makes the Tyranid Biovore look like a towering monument of awe and might in comparison. Even the beardiest of cheesemongers thought twice before fielding it, knowing all too well that they would pay for it not only in army points, but in dignity and self-respect. (Vide supra)

The old Nagash had the nickname of the "Undead Clown" in some circles. His enormous hat, the shoulder flaps, boat like pointy shoes, uninspiring pose and the confused look on his face all contributed to this model not being particularly liked. Strange bthat this new model would appear to have a bit of the tyranid in its genepool...

(Pictures and text from blogs around the web, with some moderation and embelishment on my part. No copyright or such infringement intended. Happ to credit anyone. Just let me know)

Geheimnisnacht in the Empire

 Geheimnisnacht 2012

(From an Empire Perspective, retold from a first-hand account.)

A Reposted Fictionalised Battle report, first published in the Kapiti Wargames "News from the Front", based on a 6-player  Mega Game, 7500 points a side "Good" vs "Evil" earlier this year:

The twin moons of Morrslieb hung low in the sky. A low moan rose, as hundreds of undead skeleton warriors and zombies started throwing themselves against the outskirts of the village of Hazelnussdorf; which is somewhere between Gersdorf and Sabritz in Talabecland, towards the East of the Empire.

A Warrior Priest hurried peasants who had not yet heeded his warnings about Geheimnisnacht into buildings in the town centre. “Take cover, take cover!”

State troops from Talabheim had arrived, grim-faced veterans, hardened soldiers, assembled along the east side of the village stream; preparing for the task at hand. Twenty hot-headed young pistolier corps riders clattered down the cobbled street on their horses, whooping in delight about the battle to come, full of bravado. The grim warrior priest shook his head, and chanted a blessing of Sigmar over the disappearing riders; as he hurried down to join the assembled halberdiers and spearmen. This was no laughing matter.

Word had come that Emperor Karl Franz himself was at the head of a column of Reiksguard knights that were making good time from Altdorf to Talabecland, bringing with them a War Altar and the Arch Lector to see help off the Undead menace. A small mixed contingent of Middenheim spearmen and halberdiers had joined the ranks of the Talabec stalwarts. It did not appear that these were official reinforcements from Middenheim, but rather family members that had come to the aid of their kin. Certainly their low numbers did not suggest that their Elector Count was able to send full strength reinforcements, but had rather allowed members of his force with family in Talabecland leave to help defend their province.

With a roar the small stream bisecting the village erupted, the water starting to seethe and boil. Surely evil was a work here!  A group of elven archers arriving from the south barely made it up onto the hill above Hazelnussdorf, joining the mortar crew and repeater volley gun that was already tracking the advance of the undead horde streaming in from the north-west. The balance of the eleven force, mages, riders and swordsmen had to turn towards the north, as the boiling waters blocked their advance. They found themselves immediately face to face with a unit of vampiric blood knights that was bearing down on them.

The master engineer, overseeing the loading of the volley-gun, looked up as a cry of dismay rose from the edge of the forest at the east side of the village. “The Orcs! The Orcs! Grimgor is coming!”
His heart sank as he saw a stream of Orcs and goblins flowing down from the forest to the east. “Trust the greenskin hordes to capitalize on an Undead invasion”, he thought! Now the Talabeclanders had to face an attack on two fronts.

 The engineer prayed that the messenger he had sent to the Slann had made it through. Sigmar knows, they were going to need help! Then he noticed a Mortis Engine and a flurry of winged dank creatures rise into the air from the north-west. The undead were now stirring in earnest, necromancers and vampires animating the newly dead and long dead alike. As a unit of Lizardmen on cold ones burst from the forest grove, he saw a black coach and a corpse cart approach the entrance to the hamlet. “We are doomed”, he thought. “Where are the rest of the Lizardmen with their Slann ?”
" We will need strong magicks here today!"

With almighty Waagh! The Green horde stormed forward. Doom divers, at least 4 of them flew through the sky, and landed among the tightly packed defenders in the narrow streets of the hamlet, cutting down swathes of regular troops as they landed. A rock lobber threw a boulder high in the sky, hitting the group of mustering pistoliers, taking down several of their riders. “Stand firm lads!” the Talabec Officer on his horse said. “The Emperor will be her soon!”

Orc Arrows filled the air, raining down on the hapless pistoliers. Most arrows missing, or bouncing off their light armour, but the occasional arrow causing an impetuous young would-be knight to tumble from the saddle, his lifeblood draining onto the hard-baked Talabec soil. The crazed flagellants surged forward, stopped only by the presence of a rabble of irregular militia. “The end is nigh! Prepare to die!”  Shouted the Doom Prophet, flagellating himself with his whip. “I declare the Orc General to the East a heretic!” Shouted the Witch hunter, further stirring up the crazed flagellants.

With that, trumpets announced the arrival of the Emperor, Karl Franz, with Ludwig Schwartzhelm; carrying the Griffon Banner; by his side, with 20 Reiksguard Knights, resplendent in their gleaming armour and white shields carrying the cross of Sigmar. A cheer went up from the gathered troops, taking heart on the arrival of their Emperor. The War Altar of Sigmar with the Arch Lector Volkmar on board clattered to a halt behind the massed halberdiers. A few managed a wry smile at this sight. Now they stood a better chance!

However, the poorly disciplined milling mass of militia and crazed flagellants obscured the knight’s path. They had to wait patiently for these (most) irregular infantry to move out of the way. The trumpet sounded the advance. The pistoliers surged forward, as did the militia, halberdiers and spearmen of the empire. The Empire wizards of the Bright College attempted to cast spells, but the Winds of Magic were corrupted by the Geheimnisnacht energies, and the spells did not do much harm to the massed greenskin hordes.

The two volley guns erupted in a cavalcade of fire, raining injury on the Savage Orcs and Orc infantry. One barrel of the gun on the hill misfired, but was luckily cleared by the engineer. The two mortars failed to do much damage. The one near the wood exploded in a spectacular fashion, cracking down the middle and killing its crew outright. The other only hit a glancing shot on the front rank of the savage Orcs, its Str2 hits killing only one savage greenskin.

The Black Orcs screamed defiance, and charged forward. The handgunner detachment moved into position, took aim, and fired, only taking down one Black Orc in their volley. Their  movement had taken the handgunners into the small forest, which triggered a magic effect, unleashing ancient evil from trees on the unsuspecting handgunners, felling 3 of their number instantly. The pistoliers shot a few of the Orc arrow boys in their wild charge.

The Orc generals recognised the threat from the hot-headed youngblood pistoliers, and turned all their artillery on the pistoliers’ charge. Doom diver followed doom diver, rock lobber shot followed rock lobber shot, volleys of arrows tore into the riders, now caught in the open; until only the outrider and one pistolier were left. These were charged by both a wolf chariot and an Orc chariot. The defiant youngbloods shot from the saddle, killing one Orc chariot rider, before being shredded to a bloody pulp beneath the scythed blades, the chariots overcharging before grinding to a halt.

Savage Orcs and Black Orcs surged forward, the latter losing one blackskin to the forests evils, before clashing with the waiting halberds of the empire. The handgunner detachment could not get a bead on the horde in the narrow confines of the cobbled streets before Grimgor scythed his way through the empire ranks, followed by his jubilant horde. The gallant halberdiers hold their ground, encouraged by the warrior priest, who intilled in them hatred of the Black Orcs, but their defiance was short-lived, they were swept away,  killing both the  level 2 wizard and the  warrior priest in their ranks.  The black Orcs overran into a horde of spearmen, 4 ranks deep. These struck hard, but failed to make much impression on the heavily armoured black Orcs, Grimgor again slaying numbers with his superior skill, prowess and weaponry. The line held though, for the time being…

The Savage Orcs reformed and charged down the cobblestoned alleyway, finding them-selves opposed by not only the second detachment of handgunners, but also the unit of elven archers and the 9 barrels of the Volley gun, manned by the Master Engineer and a regular crew. During the shooting phase these took a toll, but this did not hinder the frenzied warriors in their bloodlust. Meanwhile, just across the boiling stream the Blood knights had hacked the elven swordsmen down to a single stubborn rank. The presence of a mage inspired the swordsmen to great heights, and they decisively turned the undead knights to undead crumbling dust.

Meanwhile the lizard riders were putting up a good fight against the hordes of undead. The winds of magic were very unkind, and the Chain of lightning spell failed to ignite time and time again. This may have had something to do with the absence of a Slann from their battle order. Maybe the great one was unable to stir from his deep contemplation to meddle in the affairs of mere men.

The narrow confines of the hamlet’s streets did work to the advantage of the lizard men, as the undead hordes were limited in how many could access the scaly warriors, and they were unable to drown the scaled ones in a tide of undead bodies, as clearly was the plan of the undead vampire generals and their necromancers.
 

Vargoyles and vargulfs had to shelter from the hail of arrows unleashed with deadly accuracy by the elves, and got slaughtered to the man (beast) by the defenders. However, slowly but surely the undead took possession of the village. The mortis engine exploded in a terrifying spray of undead body parts, the howling of undead souls draining away into the netherworlds deafening the defenders for a few minutes. Then it was gone…

The Orc Great Shaman cast Hand of Gork on the Goblin archers, setting them down in the enchanted forest, flanking the empire troops. This placement caused a small number of casualties from the forest’s effect, much to the amusement of the survivors. They then proceeded to shower the empire ranks with their poisoned arrows at short range, after releasing 3 fanatics which dealt incredible damage to the packed ranks of Empire defenders before being destroyed.

Not unusually, some of the greenskin artillery misfired, firing a doom diver right off the board, and also rendering some artillery pieces useless for several turns. The one goblin shaman cast with irresistible force, causing a miscast that dealt damage to every spell caster on the dark side. This particular shaman was the most popular wizard on the day (Not). Animosity did not seem play a great role in this battle, but is a constant fact in any greenskin army.

The remaining warrior priest in the ranks of the militia ordered them to charge the wolf chariot, wiping out goblin riders and wolves alike in their pent up hatred, overcharging into the Orc chariot. This proved a more difficult nut to crack, and they remained locked in combat to the end of the day. A unit of Trolls waded into the fray, gleefully killing some the poorly trained militiamen, but held back by the faith of the warrior priest, regenerating all wounds suffered bar one.

The flagellants charged forward, and into the fray, sacrificing 3 of their own as martyrs, but failing to cause many casualties. This finally made a way for Franz and the Reiksguard to gallop through into the open, and eventually making contact with the rank of Orc Big ‘Uns that were waiting. Franz and Ludwig killed several Orcs, but arrow and artillery fire caused the demise of several noble knights before they made contact with the Big ‘Uns, leaving the mob of Orcs locked in combat with the Reiksguard Knights when dawn broke.
Eventually daylight came.

The Undead and Orcs had pushed the empire defenders and their gallant allies to the outskirts of the town. The whole of the halberdier unit had been destroyed, with only a few of their handgunner detachment surviving the battle. The spearmen were clinging on for dear life, with their handgunner detachment and swordmen detachment annihilated. Undead had taken possession of a great many homes and buildings, ruthlessly slaying the terrified and helpless villagers, and feasting on their corpses.

Karl Franz and the Arch Lector decided to leave the contaminated village to the creatures of the night and their greenskin allies. The Witch hunter pronounced the village as unclean. The remaining empire troops withdrew to fight another day, after being ritually cleansed by the Arch Lector.

They left a great many the corpses of their comrades to the mercy of the undead. They slowly withdrew from the battlefield, knowing full well that they may have to face their fallen comrades when the twin moons of Morrslieb are full and the next Geheimnisnacht occurs…