Spells were rolled up to start the match. The elven fire wizard came to the pitch knowing Fireball, the Burning Head, Piercing Bolts, and Flame Cage. The empire illusionist took Shadow Magic and knew the Withering, Mindrazor, Pit of Shades, and the Mystifying Miasma.
Over on the other end of the table, Skoulk the grey seer knew Skitterleap, Howling Warp, Warp lightning, and the Dreaded 13th spell... the chaos sorcerer knew Hellshriek and Aura of Acquiescence.
The elves and humans won the roll off to go first and gladly took it...
The elves call forth the march and the spear in the center and the swordmaster unit begin marching forward. An interesting proposition considering all of those gribbly nasties staring down at them. Swordmasters can never be underestimated, however. Their nastiness is legendary... even in Hell. The humans feel bolstered by this and march forward as well, essentially shifting all of the main battle line forward with the exception of the greatsword unit, who sees the heavy weighted left flank staring them hard in the face and decide that it may be best to soften those units up a little bit first.
The steam tank grinds into gear and begins churning towards the skaven in the middle and right flank; the commander has a look of glee on his face as black smoke is left in the hulking metal monstrosity's wake.
The magic phase is hopeful for the elves and humans, as they really need to put a dampening on their enemies in a hurry! The winds of magic blow weakly, however, and they only net six power dice to four dispel dice. Not a lot of offensive power to go off of. The illusionist decides the jezzails in the tower are a threat and tries to cast Miasma on them, but it is dispelled. She then tosses four dice out on pit of shades, hoping to suck the chaos warrior unit into oblivion, but that is also dispelled. The Lion breathes a sigh of relief at this and the shooting phase begins.
The right flank sees the seaguard let loose a volley of fire into the slaves covering the storm vermin. They drop five of them, leaving thirty-five standing.
The archers with the elven commander in the center of the hill open fire on the jezzails as well, but the hard cover prevails and the jezzails are still safe!
The second unit of archers and the human gunners tear into the clan rats. The added protection of the forest helps some, but six of the clan rats die to missile fire, leaving thirty-four standing.
The warmachines are now prepared to fire off... this is where things can get dodgy! The bolt thrower unleashes on the hound screen, trying to eliminate them so that the tastier warriors behind can be targeted, but the volley fire falls inaccurate. Only a single dog is hit, and that fails to wound! Next the steam tank opens fire with its cannon, right at the grey seer on his bell! The cannon ball directly hits it! Unfortunately it rolls a "1" to wound...
This is followed by the second cannon misfiring on the hill. Fortunately it's just a failed fuse so it can fire next turn, but the war engines failing to do any damage has thus far been CRIPPLING to the empire and high elves. They conclude with a rocket battery which direct hits the marauders with flails in the back, dropping seven of the thirty-two, and leaving just twenty-five standing.
All in all a disappointing first turn for the forces of Order, especially with their enemies licking their chops preparing to move in!
The forces of Destruction are feeling good right about now. They weathered a pretty good storm of shots and all of their main combat units were still at full strength. Now it was time to close the distance and bring the pain!
The left flank as you can see in the picture above moved forward. The horsemen used their free reforms to stick to the left table edge, while the hounds moved more toward the middle next to the chariot, which burst through the gate of the roadside inn! The plague monks behind moved forward, chittering madly to themselves and spitting and hissing as they drew closer to the plate armored warriors. The Lion and his men trotted up casually behind them on their horses.
The right side also moved forward, mindful of the steam tank that was sure to attempt to blast through their lines. The slaves would absorb the impact or so it was hoped! The bell had to reform to try to move around the hell cannon. This was annoying but there wasn't much else that could be done (curse you empire strategem!!)
The center lines also pushed forward, eager to engage the isolated elven units. The swordmasters would be nasty to deal with, there was no question. The chaos warriors led by Herxes, however, were more than up to the challenge. Their foes lacked any combat heroes to help turn the tide, and the warriors had Herxes and his damned armor which would help ensure he survived at least a couple of rounds. If the swordmasters and spear could be broken early, the center would fold quickly (as human swordsmen and missile troops were no match for even marauders one on one for the most part)
The clan rats moved up to the forest and were surprised to find out it was a Blood Forest. The trees began beating down the skaven, doing four more wounds and bringing their numbers down to thirty as their four friends were flung high into the air and left to free fall to their doom. What kind of farming village was this Kurt?
The magic phase saw the winds of magic blow poorly once again, with the same result as last time (six power dice to four dispel). The bell was able to toll and the result was that the screaming bell could move again, which was definitely a big help! Unfortunately the other spell attempts were shut down.
The shooting phase was quick, but lethal. The jezzails ripped up on the swordmasters, their high powered ammunition making short work of the fragile elves, killing four of their number and leaving just sixteen. They were now outnumbered by the chaos warriors...
The hellcannon opened up its maw and a great scarlet blast of energy arced up in the air and detonated right dead center of the great sword unit, blasting to death six of the bodyguard of the empire sorceress (leaving just fourteen).
While there was not much shooting overall, the damage to these two fragile units which made up a large bulwark of the combat force of the army was devastating.