In the darkness of the night

we all like to play special scenarios (well i do at least, i know some people who would like every game to be battle line so they don't have to muddy their meta build with break points and such) but none of the basic ones, the ones to be found at the back of the rule book, really tell a story. in the old army books (were looking at 5th-6th edition here) many of the army books themselves would have special scenarios to tell a story, like the wood elf ambush and the beastmen raid. well about a month ago Herman and i were chatting at the local gaming group, rueing the loss of these story driven scenarios. we decided we would make our own special scenario for a one off battle. after a week of back and forth deliberation on the final rules we have devised "In the darkness of the night", a Dark Elf Hackseer raid on an unsuspecting empire township, which will be played out this Thursday night at the Kapiti Wargaming Club.

here is the rules set that will be used:

In the darkness of the night

The empires coastline is vulnerable to attack at any time from raider’s intent on enslaving its population. Hargendorf is just one of the small towns along the northern coast that must be prepared for an attack at any time, but with the recent invasion of chaos by Archaon any able bodied troops are being shepherded to Middenheim for the defense. In the middle of a dark and misty night a Hackseer cruise, the rite of passage for all highborn Dark Elves, has tried to exploit this fact to make a raid on what should have been an undefended township; ready to take its entire population prisoner. As they move off the beach towards the township a piercing horns wail sounds from the old watchtower, rending the still night. The town is defended after all, as troops passing through on the road to Middenheim have decided to billet themselves in the town overnight. Cursing themselves fiercely and too far from their ships, the Highborn decides to try to take advantage of the defenders disarray. If he succeeds   he will have plenty of slaves and much prestige to bank on his return. If he fails, well he just hoped he could get to the boats again in time…

Terrain setup

Set up terrain as displayed in the scenario picture (see above) with the sea taking up 12” of the right hand side of the field.

Armies

The game is set up as a Dark Elves Vs Empire raid; armies should be no more than 2000 points. (2400 points)

Deployment

Neither army deploys any troops at the start of the game, bar the lookouts the empire player deploys in the watchtower.

First turn

The attacking player (in this case the Dark Elves) will always have the first turn.

Victory conditions

Victory points are used to calculate the winner with the following change, the general is not worth 100, but 300 additional victory points, either representing the loss of the Highborn or the capture of an exceptional slave.

Special rules

The Watchtower: 

one unit of up to 20 archers or ten crossbowmen or hand gunners may be deployed in the watchtower before the game starts.

Scouting the land:  

units of shades do not enter play at the waters edge. instead they enter play as reinforcements from the short table edge when the rest of the force deploys on the sea shore

Water borne assault:

none of the dark elves are deployed on the board; (other than the shades)  instead they will automatically enter play as reinforcements from the edge of the sea. This means no charges can be declared in the first turn of the game. If a Dark Elf unit is forced to flee for whatever reason it must do so directly towards the sea board edge. Bolt-throwers are deployed folded up for transport, and cannot be fired in the first round after entering.. This depicts their being set up and readied for fighting. They can be moved from the point of (folded) deployment, but the crew are at -1 to their movement for being encumbered. If a units flee move would take it over the sea area, it is deemed to have escaped to the ships and is destroyed. (This does not apply to feigned flight from fast cavalry as a charge or shooting reaction), who may attempt to recover from such flight.  If a unit pursues into the sea it is instead stopped one inch from the edge of the water. 

Awoken to slaughter:

from turn two on-wards the Empire player may start to role for reserves. Role a dice for each unit and character not yet deployed on the field. On turn two the unit enters play from its billets on a 4+, on a 3+ on turn three, and automatically on turn 4 (see the billets special rule below for instructions on where you may deploy troops from). Artillery crews must move as quickly as possible towards their machines when they enter play. As they are unattended any artillery piece contacted by an enemy when there is no crewman attached is instantly destroyed. You must role separately for all characters, and these may not be deployed in units as they come into play.

Billets: 

the empire army has been caught off guard, so are still in their billets as the dark elves attack. Specific units will always be billeted in certain buildings as follows:

-          All infantry, baring warrior priests and flagellants, may enter play from any building but the keep and watchtower

-          All cavalry must enter play from the keep

-          Warrior priests, arch lectors and flagellants must enter play from the Sigmarite shrine

-          Artillery crews must be billeted in the Blacksmiths building, their artillery pieces are to be placed anywhere within 4” of the building.

Restrictions:

because of the unexpected nature of the attack, and the problems of transporting weapons of war on small attack craft, there are a few restrictions on both armies:

Dark Elves: no Supreme Sorceress’s, Cold One Chariots, Cauldrons of Blood, Hydras, Cold One Knights,  or Dark Pegasus may be used. shades are a 0-2 choice and Dark Riders are 0-1. This is because raids are either below their station (supreme sorceress’s), or too hard or dangerous to transport and deploy from small attack craft in numbers (or at all). in addition, all units of Corsairs may be upgraded to have grapling hooks and climbing spikes. this is a 1pt upgrade and grants the wall crawler special rule to the unit

Empire: no Demigryph knights, Reiksgaurd Knights, Wizard Lords, luminarcs, celestial hurricanum, war altars or steam tanks may be taken in the army, and Knightly Orders, Inner Circle Knights, Pistoleirs and Outriders are at 0-1.