I'd offered JP and Craig a demo of 7TV and so threw together a simple scenario using my old Warmammer Fantasy Battle armies where a Righteous Paladin of Bretonnia and his retinue must confront an incursion by the minions of a Vile Necromancer.
The heroic defenders of the village were:
Baron Jean-Paul - Righteous Paladin (Co-Star)
The Lady - Wise Mentor (Co-Star)
Patsy - Warhorse (Extra)
The Guards - Guard Captain, Guard Sergeant and 3 Guards (Extras)
Brother Repentia - Monk (Extra)
Pierre - Bowman (Extra)
Whilst the evil invaders were:
Rilkyna - Vile Necromancer (Star)
Wilhelm - Vampire (Extra)
The Shade - Wraith (Extra)
The Rattling Horde - Skeleton Champion and 9 Skeletons (Extras)
The aim with both casts was to try to show of a range of elements of the game: magic, unit activation, mounted units, etc., whilst keeping this fairly straight forward.
The scenario was 'The Battle' with just two objectives, and I left out Encounters or Macguffins to focus on the main game mechanics.
The defenders seized the initiative with the Lady leading the Guards into the centre of the village.
Meanwhile, the righteous Baron Jean-Paul mounted his faithful steed Patsy and rode towards the most direct route across the river from the graveyard.
He was right to do so as he was immediately confronted by a horde of Skeletons wading through the water, led by the floating apparition of the Shade.
Meanwhile, Rilkyna herself opted to avoid getting her dress wet and made her way across the bridge, rolling the bones as she went to summon a boney bodyguard.
To the knight's surprise, the restless dead suddenly surged forward (stealing the scene) and peppering the Baron with arrows from their short bows (which, in all honesty, I hadn't noticed on their profile, and so I was quite surprised when this happened too).
The noble steed succumbed to the onslaught of arrows, but his rider managed to avoid being unceremoniously dumped on the ground.
Meanwhile, the Guards found themselves assailed by the fearsome form of a Vampire, whose vampiric presence summoned one of them within reach of its deadly blade...and was quickly killed.
Now dismounted (and dressed less well due to my lack of knights on foot), Baron Jean-Paul was confronted by the Shade, which sought impale him with a Morbid Blade.
Fortunately, the knight used his mirrored shield to block the blow, impaling the Wraith on its own blade and briefly causing it to transfix itself.
Seeing their companion fall, the Guards charged the Vampire and brought a rain of blows down upon the foul creature.
Seeing the Guards struggling to bring down the undead fiend, the Lady opened a dimensional gate, bringing the men back to her, so that they could gather themselves to charge again (a cunning use of the spell combined with 'Stealing the Scene' to get more attacks).
The Sergeant charged in again and plunged his blade through the heart of the Vampire, turning it into smoke with a shriek.
Wilhelm's scream echoed across the village, the convulsive shock causing both the Shade and the Skeleton Champion to briefly fall to the floor.
Rising from the ground, the Shade became incorporeal and drift to attack the holy man in the distance, whilst the Skeletons swarmed the Baron.
This fight lasted for most of the game as both sides were constantly frustrated by each other's armour. The Baron did managed to bring down a Skeleton occasionally, with a couple more taken down by Pierre's arrows fired from across the river. We'll return to this fight later.
Suddenly, an eldritch flame engulfed both the Lady and the Baron, causing panic and preventing the defenders of the village from pressing their advantage (for reference, the 'Oiled For The Camera' Trilogy Card is horrific).
Brother Repentia bravely tried to banish the Shade but eventually succumbed to its Morbid Blade. However, the Shade was finally dispelled by an arrow fired by Pierre the Bowman.
The Lady was not for burning, and gathered the flames surrounding her and sent them flying as a fireball towards Rilkyna and the Skeletons she'd been raising by the bridge.
In a move heavy with irony, Rilkyna shook off the flames and then hurled the Holy Hand Grenade towards the Lady on the count of three. Not two, not four, and five was right out.
The Guards rushed towards Rilkyna in an increasingly desperate attempt to bring her down.
But the Sergeant was suddenly captured in a snapping cage of bones, and the other Guards were overwhelmed by the every rising tide of Skeletons.
Soon, only the Guard Captain was left fighting for his life.
Despite slowly hacking through the horde surrounding him, the Baron's seemingly impervious armour was finally penetrated by a rusted blade and he too fell.
Pierre looked on as Skeletons advanced and decided that with his lord dead, discretion was the better part of valour and fled to warn the next village of what was coming.
The final result was a crushing 7-1 victory to the undead, but more importantly, both JP and Craig enjoyed the game and could see how it would suit their own increasingly eclectic gaming collections.
I was pleased to see that the undead were appropriately relentless and it was interesting to see some spells used in ways I hadn't thought of.
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