Heyhey, after my first article on Warhammer Renaissance I got some feedback.

Three prongs to this feedback-fork:
1.) “Oh, another Warhammer fan project. Now that GW got The Old World out I’ll stick to that.” (Discord, The Old World channels)
2.) “You should add magic to get the full experience. It makes a difference.” (Facebook, Warhammer Renaissance group)
2.) “This is great, you are great, this is all amazing, you are Number One.” (everybody else, possibly not true)

So instantly I was egged on to do another one, this time with magic. Initially I planned to increase the points to 1250 as well. Turns out, magic users are expensive, and it so happened that I managed to get more Empire units done over the summer: A whole lot of (35) Halberdiers I got off ebay many years ago. The usual fare – assembled, painted to some degree, mold lines still on there. Luckily there weren’t too many halberds to fix; only 5 or so. 5th edition figures with the plastic command figures they added later on.

These guys are just fun to paint and work with in general. Only when I painted the drums, I noticed that one of them had been glued on upside-down by the previous owner.

 

Then I went on to do two units of models I’d owned for almost as long – Halfling cavalry on giant roosters! One unit of 6 mounted archers, one unit of lancers. The intention is to use them as proxys for Kislevite horse archers and Winged (get it?) Lancers.

 

 

Great figures, originally commissioned by White Knight Miniatures for their excellent Marauder Miniatures tribute range, most of which (including the chaps pictured) are available through The Assault Group now. Highly recommended.

Since the lancers should come with shields, I added some kite shields from Wargames Atlantic’s Foot Knights box to the figures when they were finished.

Meanwhile, the Dark Elves got a very slight rehaul as well, in that I finally put some more highlights on the Cold Ones’ scales, making them look even more rad.

 

 

The Forces

 

Dark Elves

Kalimbrimbor – Hero on Dark Pegasus with Armour of Resilience, shield, lance – General
Tawsha – Sorcerer Champion (lvl2)

19 Warriors with light armour, shields, spears

20 Witch Elves with light armour, poison, Banner of Missile Protection – Frenzy

7 Cold One Knights with heavy armour, lance, shield – Fear, Stupidity

5 Dark Riders with light armour, repeating crossbows, spears – Vanguard, Skirmish

20 Black Arc Corsairs with additional hand weapons, sea drake cloaks (unmodified 5+ armour save)

Cold One Chariot with 2 crew with spears and repeating crossbows

Repeater Bolt Thrower with 2 crew

1500 points

 

 

Empire

Baron Boguslav von Reinecke – Hero on Warhorse with barding, full plate armour, shield, Gromril Blade, Talisman of Luck – General, attached to the knights

Hermann Holzauge – Hero with Hochland Long Rifle – attached to the crossbowmen

Magister Zordus Magnifico – Wizard Champion (lvl2) with Destroy Magic Scroll

18 Spearmen with light armour, shields, spears

16 Handgunners with muskets. Detachment to the Spearmen

35 Halberdiers

12 Crossbowmen with crossbows. – Detachment to the Halberdiers

20 Greatswords with light armour, two-handed weapons and the Carroburg Standard

6 Knights of the White Wolf on warhorses with barding, full plate armour, two-handed weapons, White Wolf Standard

6 Halflings on Giant Roosters – Horse archers. Bows, Fast Cavalry, Skirmish

1 Mortar

1500 points

 

 

The Game

The scenario is pretty simple – I just went about it as per the rulebook. Rolled for objective, rolled for deployment, rolled for terrain. There’s a magic landmark in the centre of the table which is the objective of the game. The player with a regiment next to it at the end of the battle gets a whole chunk of victory points. Also: The first wizard to get in contact with the objective receives another 2d6 Winds of Magic cards for that turn’s magic phase.

 

Each year at summer solstice an unknown entitiy places a bundle of magical flowers at the foot of the statue. These are said to hold great magic powers and highly coveted by the Old World’s magic-users.

So I deployed the figures. In a solo game of course that’s a bit tricky, and undermines one of my favourite aspects of the game – the secret deployment. So instead I just rolled for the general position of some of the key units (knights, units with wizards, war machines).

I did not get the big boards out, so the battlefield was a bit narrow. Still, the minimal distance of 24″ between the opposing armies was adhered to.

Then my brother dropped by for a visit. “What’s that there? Good old Warhammer?”. He agreed to take on the role of the Dark Elves general. Which proved to be a great boon. Not only is it more fun, but also way less exhausting than solo play.

 

Turn 1

The Dark Elves get to move first this time. The dreaded Dark Riders take their Vanguard special move to rush down the left flank and straight towards the halfling light cavary.

The cocksure halflings stand their ground and fire at the elven horsemen. Unfortunately their arrows miss their marks and the dark elven raiders charge home.

“Newly painted unit” syndrome befalls the halflings and they flee off the table as the rest of the Dark Elves army advances (and the dark pegasus carries the general high up into the skies) .The repeater bolt thrower opens fire at the Knights of the White Wolf; one of whom is taken out. Their magnificent armour could just as well be made of paper in the face of the elven war machine.

Tawsha, the sorceress, leads her unit of spearman right towards the magic landmark. Eyes widened by the magnificent cosmic energies unleashed by ingesting the magical poppy seeds, Tawsha commences the first magic phase of the game with 18 Winds of Magic cards.

Keen-eyed people who are smarter than I am at this point probably realize that I made a little error there: Each magic phase you roll 2d6 for the Winds of Magic cards. I’d assumed that’s the number each player got (which seemed a bit much, unless each side got multiple wizards). Turns out, it’s supposed to be the total number of Winds of Magic cards, divided up between the players. 😀 Oh well. I made up for the lack of magic in the first game with an extra dollop thereof!

Tawsha immediately goes ahead, attempts to hurl a Soul Drain at the handgunners on the hill, but the imperial wizard gets out his Destroy Magic Scroll, feeds all his power into banning the spell and manages to destroy it! Unphazed, Tawsha unleashes an even more powerful spell. The sorceress emerges from the ranks of her armoured spearmen, raises her hand aloft and unleashes…

…The Transformation of Khadon!

Both men and elves are aghast as the sorceress turns into a gigantic and terrifying Chimera!

Yes, of course I own a Chimera model. In fact, the best chimera in the world. It’s just not assembled or painted yet. 😛 We were considering a bunch of models, but in the end went with a.) what’s painted and b. ) what’s got the correct base size and shape.

 

The Empire are more cautious in their advance and rely on their handsome fire power to whittle down the elves before melée commences proper.

They position their left flank to charge the enemy next turn, and then open fire. The crossbowmen take out a Cold One Knight. The troops on top of the hill are less successful –  the handgunners fail to wound the horrifying creature and the mortar shell goes way off and – apart from a crater in the ground – fails to leave an impression.

During the magic phase the wizard casts a Curse upon the Cold One Knights unopposed, since Tawsha can’t use her magic proper in Chimera form.

 

Turn 2

Now the Dark Elves get going.

First, the Cold One Knights charge the crossbowmen. Their defensive fire takes out another two of the heavily armoured elven nobles, but they still hit like a bag of bricks and the remaining crossbowmen flee ALMOST off the table.

In an equal fashion, the elven general Kalimbrimbor plunges down upon the mortar crew. All crewmen are wiped out in the ensuing combat and with his Overrun move the elven lord crushes into the fleeing crossbowmen, finally sending them off the table.

In the centre, Tawsha the chimera spews sulphurous flame towards the spearmen, roasting one of them alive.

Hopped up on hairspray fumes and a natural bloodlust, the Witch Elves charge towards the greatswords who receive the charge, safe in the knowledge that their comrades will flank-charge the heck out of these feisty furies.

Unfortunately, the Knights of the White Wolf with Baron Boguslav in tow lose two more men to the bolt thrower and decide it’s time to flee…

The first phase of combat between greatswords and Witch Elves goes as to be expected. The deadly daughters of Khaine fare better than the dependable Doppelsöldners of Karl-Franz, but the men hold their ground for now.

The imperial wizard (only Empire character left on the table at this point) cooks up a decisive magic phase, managing to ban Tawsha’s transformation spell.

On top of that, he casts magical blessings upon the handgunners on the hill.

Time for the Empire‘s turn.

Not much movement on the Empire’s side: The big block of halberdiers turn to hold the flank against all that enemy cavalry, and the spearmen charge the flank of the Witch Elves.

During the shooting phase, the handgunners basically execute Tawsha. The gunfire just almost drown out her blasphemous curses.

Despite the fact that the spearmen catch the Witch Elves in the flank, the blade-wielding beauties cause so much carnage among the imperial ranks that the spearmen break and flee.

Abandoned by their comrades, the remaining handful of greatswords gather around the Carroburg Standard for their last stand.

 

Turn 3

The Dark Elves press on.

 

While the Cold One Knights move out of charge range, the Dark Riders move up next to the halberdiers, putting the imperial soldiers into a deadly cross-fire between them and the bolt thrower.

The Dark Elven general charges the handgunners on the hill in the flank, but fails to take out a single soldier from the Hochland regiment. They win by means of having a rank, and Kalimbrimbor the Dreadful is forced to retreat!

Enraged by the death of their mistress, the Dark Elves spearmen aid the chariot in charging the imperial spearmen who just in time managed to rally to take the charge.

To no avail though.

They remaining men try to flee, but are cut down, and the chariot drives on up the hill and into the handgunners!

 

With choices severely limited, the Empire‘s turn consists soley of the halberdiers trying to charge Kalimbrimbor.

He has no interest in any of that, and yet again flees! This time his dark pegasus takes him off the table.

The chariot absolutely batters the handgunners in close combat. They flee off the table.

 

Turn 4

Dark Elves seal the deal.

The Black Arc Corsairs move in to take the objective as Dark Riders and Bolt Thrower keep firing at the halberdiers. The Dark Riders don’t do much, but the bolt thrower shaves a whole file off the unit. Meanwhile, the rest of the elven army turns toward the one remaining enemy unit.

At this point I threw the towel.

Victory Points:

Dark Elves: 1835
Empire: 275

It’s an Ultimate Victory for the Dark Elves.

Conclusion

Yeah, magic does add an element. For one, heavily armoured foes become a bit less menacing, because each army gets a few magic tools to do horrible things to them. In general, magic adds an exciting and unpredictable element to the whole thing. From what I’ve read, magic in Warhammer Renaissance has been toned down a bit compared to the 4th edition, with teleportation spells in particular being reworked, but the author has been careful to leave most of the spells as they are. It’s a bit of a shame that I only have the magic box for the 5th edition, so the imperial wizards only have combat magic at their disposal and not the more colorful individual schools of magic. Maybe next time.

This particular game of course has been a bit unfortunate for the Empire in terms of deployment (knights right in front of the bolt thrower), but ultimately, their performance was mighty underwhelming anyway.

Maybe I’ve been a bit too conservative about unit sizes before. 20 Witch Elves can take a bit of punishment and still do horrendous things to T3 infantry. Likewise, a unit of 35 halberdiers is pretty solid and most units will think twice before charging such a block. Just sucks if they are outmaneuvered! Dang, this is old-stylee tercios all over again!

Anyway, it was good fun, it looked really nice. Despite my horrible lighting set-up- The additional lamps do make the table brighter, but that’s not necessarily all good. I may have to tinker with that. Either way, it was cool to see Witch Elves be horrible, to see the chariot on the table, the chicken riders and the big block of halberdiers. Also, I got more rules correct this time! The little bit about the Winds of Magic cards was a mistake which won’t happen again. You live, you learn. :p

Thanks to my opponent for playing. Certainly works better than solo play even though it’s strange how the other guy always rolls so much better while in solo games rolls tend to be equally good or bad for both sides. 😉

As far as Warhammers go, Renaissance just clicks for me so far. The sort of people who are born later will think of it as unnecessary, people who played a lot of 4th/5th edition may consider it to veer too far from the true game, but for me (old, but never been really-really into Warhammer Fantasy) it works. It’s that typical thing of fans  taking a GW game and just making it work better by means of little tweaks. It’s the sorta stuff that kept BloodBowl, Mortheim, Epic and others alive and help them thrive.

 

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the article and the photos!