Dark Elves race against Tomb Kings for a coveted treasure guarded by a terrible monster: The Cockatrice.

The Cockatrice guards a precious treasure on the upper platform of an arcane ruin.

600 point warbands of Tomb Kings and Dark Elves line up on the edges of the battlefield. Their objective is to retrieve the treasure and bring it across their starting edge of the battlefield. The team to meet this objective wins the scenario regardless of any other results.

For the Dark Elves, we have one Elf Master, who wears medium armor, and The Trickster’s Helm which gives an extra armor save, and successful To Wound Rolls must be re-rolled. He is accompanied on his right by a unit of 20 Bleakswords who carry the War Banner, which affords +1 combat resolution. On his left, he has a small unit of 5 Harpies with the Fly special rule. On his far right, there is a unit of 20 Dreadspears with the Standard of Discipline which gives them +1 Leadership.

For the Tomb Kings, we have a Tomb Herald who carries The Blade of Antarhak, that allows him to regain a previously lost wound when he inflicts a wound. He also carries an additional hand weapon. On his right, there is a unit of 20 Skeleton Warriors with spears. On his far right, a Hierotitan towers over the battlefield. It carries the Icon of Ptra, Bound with Shem’s Burning Gaze (Lore of Light), and he wears the Scales of Usirian, bound with Spirit Leech (Lore of Death). On the left of the Tomb Herald, a Level 2 Liche Priest knows Spells 1 and 3 from the Lore of Nehekhara. On the far left, he has a unit of 20 Skeleton Warriors with hand weapons.

The battlefield contains an arcane ruin, with a stairway that leads up to the landing where the Cockatrice is perched to protect the treasure. On the far end of the landing, a large tower reaches to the sky. There are two small regular forests on both sides of the ruins. Some regular fences are scattered around the battlefield. A Bane Stone sits at the bottom of the tall tower on the side of the Tomb Kings. Any unit within 6 inches of the Bane Stone is +1 easier To Wound.

Warning: This is not tournament play. We use rules from The Warhammer Armies Project, supplement with 8th Edition Rules for clarity, and also have a number of house rules to spice things up. You’ve been warned. Proceed at your own risk.

The Dark Elves start first, and all units move forward into the battlefield. The Harpies get off the ground and into the air. (House rules for Flying).

The Tomb Kings also move forward to claim the prize.

The Hierotitan takes a long range attempt to hit the Cockatrice with its Icon of Ptra (Shem’s Burning Gaze). The shot is successful and deals the first wound to the Cockatrice.

On its turn, the wounded Cockatrice pivots toward the Tomb Kings and hunkers down in protective mode, gaining the Unbreakable rule. The treasure is still safe under its watch, for now.

On their turn, the Dark Elves close in. The Master Elf moves toward the entrance to the ruins. The Dreadspears move to the rear of the ruins. The harpies soar (march) full speed ahead. The Bleakswords try to side-step behind a long fence.

The Tomb Kings all close in. The Hierotitan now aims his Icon of Ptra at the Master Elf, but the elf dispels it. All Tomb King magic is unsuccessful this turn.

On its turn, the Cockatrice pivots right again, and leaps on top of the tower. It threateningly gazes down upon the warriors below. It now has the Stupidity rule. (All Cockatrice movement and actions are randomly generated and based upon a combination of Warhammer Armies Project Rules and some extra house rules.)

The Dark Elves proceed. The Harpies close in on the Hierotitan, but remain safely in the air. The Master Elf gets closer to the ruins entrance. The Bleakwords side-step again behind the fence. The Dreadspears move forward toward the skeletons.

The Harpies threaten the Hierotitan.

The Tomb Kings move forward as well. The Hierotitan avoids the Harpies by moving underneath them away from their front arc. (They are out of his reach while in the air.) Now he stands safely on their rear flank. The Herald and both units of warriors move forward. The Liche Priest finds the sweet spot between both units so he can cast spells on both of them.

On its turn, the Cockatrice leaps down from the tower and lands at the base of the tower onto the battlefield. Then it promptly charges into the closest unit it can find, which happens to be the Dreadspears. With Hatred and Frenzy, the wounded monster makes the attack. With the Standard of Discipline, the spearmen pass their fear test, and with quick initiative, deal the monster its second and final wound. Thus ends the terror of the Cockatrice.

Successful, and proud, the unit gains a leadership bonus (house rule.) The Dreadspear Lordling and his deadly troops gain greater confidence in each other.

With the Cockatrice dead, the Bleakswords leap forward over the fence toward the unguarded treasure. However, three elves are not as nimble as the rest as they become casualties during the maneuver. The Master Elf also races toward the prize.

Annoyed, the Harpies reform to face the rear of the Hierotitan. They are fixated on their target.

In another clever move, the Hierotitan avoids the Harpies again by stepping backwards (at 1/2 movement.) He stands again safely on the rear flank of the Harpies. All other Tomb Kings move forward, except for the Liche Priest maintaining its sweet spot between the warriors.

The Skeletons anticipate a charge from the Dreadspears and put themselves into a calculated position in regards to the Bane Stone.

On their next turn, the proud Cockatrice-killing Dreadspears predictably charge into the skeletons. Afflicted by the Bane Stone, and the skeletons having been augmented with the Killing Blow, they are evenly matched in wounds dealt.

But, having charged, the elves win Combat Resolution by 1, and force an extra Unstable wound upon the skeletons. For losing combat, the skeletons take a Leadership penalty (house rule.)

On the other side of the battlefield: The Master Elf has leaped over the fence and is currently the closest to the treasure. The Harpies and Hierotitan have continued their evasive maneuvers. The Harpies reformed in order to attack the Hierotitan in a subsequent turn. But, the Hierotitan avoids them for the third time by stepping forward and underneath them before they could swoop down on him. Again, he stands safely on their rear flank. All other units have continued their previous trajectories. The Tomb Herald will be on the heels of the Master Elf as he climbs the stairs.

The Harpies finally decide to give up chasing the Hierotitan and swoop down for an aerial attack upon the flank of the Skeleton Spearmen.

Their swooping attack carries them 6 inches beyond the original flank. They deal only one wound to the skeletons. But, in return, two Harpies are killed. One Harpy corpse crashes onto the small fence to the rear of the skeletons, and the other lands with a thud at the flank’s edge. (Once again, House rules for Flying.)

Meanwhile, the Dreadspears are taking wounds, but doing heavier damage to the Skeleton Warriors.

The Master Elf enters the ruins and starts heading up the steps toward the treasure. This is as far as the Master Elf gets, and is never seen again. The Hierotitan attacks the Elf with its Spirit Leech magic and deals him 4 unsaved wounds. The Elf never saw it coming and is now another corpse to haunt the ruins.

The Liche Priest augments the warriors in battle with extra attacks and a big regeneration score. This evens the odds again between the two opponents. Yet, both sides take heavy casualties in the next combat phase.

With the Master Elf evaporated, the Harpies forget about their initial targets and soar up to an inch of the treasure. However, they are still in the air and must land to obtain it.

Close combat is still evenly matched on the other side.

The Tomb Herald enters the ruins and hopes to catch the Harpies before they fly off with the treasure. Will he catch them in time? Once they take off, there is almost no way to catch them.

Next, combat has taken a toll for the worse for the Dreadspears. The skeletons were augmented again with extra attacks, and had another successful regeneration. The results were deadly for the elves. However, they proved their discipline again and continued fighting the skeletons.

Over on the ruins, the Harpies have landed and grabbed the treasure. Now they just have to get airborne on their next turn and they can soar toward victory.

But, it’s too late. The Tomb King Herald is able to finish his dash up the stairs and charges into the rear flank of the Harpies. He easily beats them in weapon skills and quickly deals death to two of them.

In panic, the lone surviving Harpy flees on the ground with the treasure a pathetic two inches–literally the edge of the tower. The Herald has no trouble pursuing his prey and puts an end to its miserable flight. The Herald now has the treasure.

While on the other side of the tower, the Dreadspears have completely fallen to the terrible Skeleton Warriors, thanks to the augmenting magic of the Liche Priest. Between the Harpies and the Dreadspears, the luck of the Dark Elves has gone sour.

Victory is in the hands of the Tomb Kings. The Bleakswords do what they can with inspired, or maybe foolish, leadership. The Bleakswords move forward in a hopeless attempt to intercept the Herald. You can see that the Liche Priest carries a wound from an earlier spell that erupted with irresistible force.

But, the Skeleton Spearmen make sure the Bleakswords cannot get in the way of the Herald. With another successful augmentation, the skeletons do heavy damage to the Bleakswords. The Herald has a clear path for victory.

The Bleakswords can only watch in anguish as their numbers dwindle and the Herald runs off with the treasure.

The Bleakswords suffer another terrible round of combat and are reduced to two warriors. They flee in panic and outrun the skeletons, initially.

But, they cannot outrun their pursuers for long. They are soon smitten down in their flight. The Tomb Kings victory is now complete, as the Herald carries the coveted treasure back to the Kingdom of the Undead.

I hope you liked this battle report. We really had a lot of fun playing it. We made up the scenario on our own, and really liked the outcome. It was fun having a treasure guardian monster. The dramatic ending with the Tomb Herald catching the Harpies before they flew off will be talked about for a long time in our club. Everybody had a lot of fun. I recommend you trying it.