The Tomb Kings hit the road again and within no time had come across a Dwarven expeditionary force headed up by Stuart.
Stuarts army was almost entirely warriors supplemented with a unit of Slayers, a unit of Longbeards, and then the obligatory Cannon and Gyrocopter.
The table terrain ended up splitting the table in two and the battle ended up taking place on one half entirely.
We both advanced our forces across the table for a fight in the middle. Stuarts cannon proceeded to try and thin my ranks whilst at the same time inadvertently taking pot shots at his Gyrocopter with bounce throughs.
Stuart brought his gyrocopter behind my forces and proceeded to engage my archer unit at the rear for the remainder of the battle. (The gyrocopter ended up spending the remainder of the battle engaging the archers before eventually trying to tackle the Liche Priest in the last turn).
My troops engaged the Dwarven line with my chariots catching the Slayers in the flank. As the first round of combat came top a close I had broken through the Dwarven line with my cavalry and another Dwarven unit was in flight. The undead chariots and slayers ended up fighting to the end of the battle with 3 slayers remaining at the end (I had recovered all of the chariots through magic).
My other Skeleton Infantry fought a slow grinding battle against the Dwarves summoning back reinforcements as my units succumbed to the Dwarven axes. Enventually the Dwarves brought units into my flanks and proceeded to destroy my main combat unit of skeletons but not before I had flanked the Long Beards with the other infantry and brought the cavalry into their rear. Cue the demise of the Longbeards.
By the end of the battle there were few Dwarves remaining other than the Cannon, the Gyrocopter and one slightly dimished unit of Warriors. I had however by then lost my Tomb Prince general and his associated unit.
A close win to the Tomb Kings but it will likely be more difficult next time.
Lessons learnt.
#1 – The Tomb King Army need to fight combats with two units in combination, on different facings so that at least one unit is to a flank or rear to remove the enemys rank bonus. Should the Tomb King units be flanked themselves then the units dissolve rapidly and this is deadly to any characters associated to the units.
#2 – My Tomb Guard are only a little more expensive at 2 points more than my Warriors armed with spear, shield and light armour. The Tomb Guard have better stats and a better weapon. Must get my Tomb Guard painted to replace one of the Warrior units