Tuesday 30 December 2014

Battle of the Dead Sorcerors

Last night I had a game of Warhammer against Vinny's undead lead by Ye Olde Nagash. Since Games Workshop's 8th Edition update all games are now End of Times, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to have 2 Slann Mage priests in a 2400 point army. This battle report needs some credits as this is very much a collaboration. Cheers to Stuart for his meticulous note taking (I will put his actual quotes in red for reference) Thanks also to Vinny who has sent me his army list and also showed up to kill a lot of Lizardmen. Lastly thanks to Phil for providing his home for the game as well as hexing some of my more pivotal dice rolls. Thank you one and all.

The Rosters

Vinny's Undead Legion

Lords (1000pts)

  • Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (1000pts)
    Arch-Necromancer, Death Magic Incarnate, Large Target, Supreme Lord of the Undead, Terror, Undead
    Alakanash, the Staff of Power, Lore of Undeath, Morikhane, the Black Armour, The Nine Books of Nagash, Wizard Level 5, Zefet-nebtar, the Mortis Blade

Heroes (206pts)

  • Vampire (206pts)
    The Hunger, Undead, Vampiric
    Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour (4pts), Lore of the Vampires, Master Strike (15pts) (*), Quickblood (30pts) (*), Shield (2pts), Wizard Level 1
    • Magic Items (50pts)
      BRB - Seed of Rebirth (10pts), BRB - Sword of Strife (40pts)

Core (600pts)

  • Crypt Ghouls (200pts)
    Poisoned Attacks, Undead
    20x Crypt Ghoul (200pts)
  • Dire Wolves (40pts)
    Slavering Charge, Swiftstride, Undead, Vanguard (FAQ'ed)
    5x Dire Wolf (40pts)
  • Dire Wolves (40pts)
    Slavering Charge, Swiftstride, Undead, Vanguard (FAQ'ed)
    5x Dire Wolf (40pts)
  • Skeleton Warriors (Vampire Counts) (130pts)
    Undead
    Musician (10pts), Skeleton Champion (10pts), Standard Bearer (10pts)
    • 20x Skeleton Warrior (100pts)
      20x Hand Weapons, 20x Light Armour, 20x Shield
  • Skeleton Warriors (Vampire Counts) (130pts)
    Undead
    Musician (10pts), Skeleton Champion (10pts), Standard Bearer (10pts)
    • 20x Skeleton Warrior (100pts)
      20x Hand Weapons, 20x Light Armour, 20x Shield, 20x Spears
  • Zombies (60pts)
    Always Strikes Last, The Newly Dead (AB-34), Undead
    20x Zombie (60pts)

Rare (250pts)

  • Terrorgheist (250pts)
    Fly, Large Target, Regeneration (6+), Terror, Thunderstomp, Undead
    Death Shriek (*), Infested (10pts) (*), Rancid Maw (15pts) (*)

Special (340pts)

  • Grave Guard (250pts)
    Killing Blow, Undead
    Musician (10pts), Seneschal (10pts), Standard Bearer (10pts)
    • 20x Grave Guard (220pts)
      20x Hand Weapon, 20x Heavy Armour, 20x Shield
  • Spirit Host (45pts)
    Ethereal, Skirmishers (FAQ'ed), Undead
    Hand Weapons, Spirt Host (45pts)
  • Spirit Host (45pts)
    Ethereal, Skirmishers (FAQ'ed), Undead
    Hand Weapons, Spirt Host (45pts)

Jason's Semi Undead Lizardmen

Lords (795pts)

  • Lord Kroak (400pts)
    Cold-Blooded, Eternity Guardians, Fear, First Generation Spawning, Flammable, Mage-Priest Palanquin, Magic, Supreme Shield of the Old Ones, The Spirit of Lord Kroak, Unbreakable
    AB - Golden Death Mask, Wizard Level 4
  • Slann Mage-Priest (395pts)
    Cold-Blooded, Mage-Priest Palanquin, Shield of the Old Ones, Telepathic Confabulation
    Lore of High Magic, Wizard Level 4
    • Disciplines of the Old Ones (60pts)
      Becalming Cogitation (25pts) (*), Focus of Mystery (35pts) (*)
    • Magic Items (35pts)
      BRB - Fencer's Blades (35pts)

Heroes (625pts)

  • Saurus Scar-Veteran (149pts)
    Cold-Blooded, Predatory Fighter, Scaly Skin (*)
    Battle Standard Bearer (25pts), Shield (4pts)
    • Magic Items (40pts)
      BRB - Glittering Scales (25pts), BRB - Gold Sigil Sword (15pts)
  • Skink Chief (346pts)
    Aquatic, Cold-Blooded, Scaly Skin (*)
    Light Armour (2pts), Lustrian Javelin (2pts), Shield (2pts)
    • Ancient Stegadon (260pts)
      • Ancient Stegadon (30pts)
        4x Crew, Two Giant Blowpipes
        • Ancient Stegadon (30pts)
          Cold-Blooded, Howdah Crew, Immune to Psychology, Impact Hits (D6+1) (FAQ'ed), Large Target, Scaly Skin (*), Stubborn, Terror, Thunderstomp
          Sharpened Horns (20pts) (*), Unstoppable Stampede (10pts) (Devastating Charge)
    • Magic Items (40pts)
      AB - The Egg of Quango (30pts), BRB - Relic Sword (10pts)
  • Skink Priest (130pts)
    Aquatic, Arcane Vassal, Cold-Blooded, Scaly Skin (*)
    Lore of Heavens, Wizard Level 2 (35pts)
    • Magic Items (30pts)
      AB - Cube of Darkness (30pts)

Core (750pts)

  • Saurus Warriors (360pts)
    Champion (10pts), Musician (10pts), 30x Saurus Warrior (330pts) (Cold-Blooded, Predatory Fighter, Scaly Skin (*)), Standard Bearer (10pts)
  • Saurus Warriors (250pts)
    Champion (10pts), Musician (10pts), Standard Bearer (10pts)
    • 20x Saurus Warrior (220pts)
      Cold-Blooded, Predatory Fighter, Scaly Skin (*)
      20x Spears
  • Skink Skirmishers (70pts)
    • 10x Skink Skirmisher (70pts)
      Aquatic, Cold-Blooded, Scaly Skin (*), Skirmishers (FAQ'ed)
      10x Blowpipe
  • Skink Skirmishers (70pts)
    • 10x Skink Skirmisher (70pts)
      Aquatic, Cold-Blooded, Scaly Skin (*), Skirmishers (FAQ'ed)
      10x Blowpipe

Rare (80pts)

  • Salamander Hunting Pack (80pts)
    • Salamander Hunting Pack (80pts)
      Aquatic, Cold-Blooded, Hunting Pack, Skirmishers (FAQ'ed)
      3x Handlers, Salamander (Spout Flames, Stomp, Swiftstride, Fear, Scaly Skin (*))

Special (150pts)

  • Bastiladon (150pts)
    Bastiladon (Impervious Defense, Thunderous Bludgeon, Always Strikes Last, Howdah Crew, Cold-Blooded, Large Target, Scaly Skin (*), Thunderstomp, Terror)
    • Crew with Solar Engine
      Solar Engine
      3x Crew

The Plan

The basic idea of my army was to present a solid block of saurus with various funky Lizardmen stuff around it whittling down the undead until my masterstroke of Lord Kroak repeatedly casting The deliverance of Itza on a ever decreasing pile of undead until the time was right to let the saurus off the least to smash what was left. Cunning, eh?


My proxied Bastiladon on the left, proxied Lord Kroak on the right/

Undead deployment

Lizardmen castle
After Vanguards (there wasn't any)

Turn One

What's that coming over the hill, is it a monster?
The forces of Undeath got first turn after there was a dearth of vanguarding. They shambled forward (as only zombies can). The magic phase was eventful as Nagash cast Hellish vigour irresistably! Rerolled his miscast (Vinny didn't like it much) and got a 7. Nagash then performed what seemed to me to be a very dodgy palming of power dice into his incredibly annoying staff. Shooting was non existant so the Undead turn ended with no Lizardmen casualties!

I decided that my saurus blocks weren't going to move forward (like a cowardly dwarf) as I had magical death to deal! Winds of magic gave me 6 dice, a 5 & a 1 so I went about blasting the undead. The Bastiladon was the first to fail - I only rolled one dice at it - and that was a two. Then I tried Arcane Unforging on the Vampire - this also failed. With my remaining dice I tried Deliverance of Itza - FAIL! This was going to be a feature of the game. My total shooting killed 2 Grave Guard & 2 Skinks who presumably looked pretty appetising to the Salamander. On balance a pretty small amount of carnage.

Nagashs first cast spell!

Turn Two

I think I was sold a lemon with regard to undead. I was of the impression that they were slow moving and generally not very outmaneuvery. Probably due to Nagash's large target - inspiring presense quite a lot of the undead were able to march, not, in my opinion a particularly great thing. So the ghouls charge my idiotically placed skink priest who legs it so they redirect into the Salamander instead. The Grave Guard charge a unit of skinks and fail to make it, losing two to blowpipe darts. Nagash then moves to get within inspiring presence of the Terrorgheist and Wolf pack. Nagash then casts Speed of Light on the ghouls and kills two saurus with Shem's Burning Gaze. Combat saw the ever-so speedy ghouls slay my beautiful salamander. The ghouls weren't that fast as they didn't manage to catch the fleeing handlers!
Two fleeing skinks
My turn saw a mini exodus of skinks from the ghouly side of the table (priest included). I got a bit proactive with my stegadon and spear armed saurus and charged the skeleton unit. I rolled a 5 + 5 magic phase which saw Hand of Glory  and Deliverance of Itza dispelled (twice for deliverance and one of those on a 23!) effectively ruining my magic phase. Three grave Guard were blowpiped back to death, as were two skeletons. Combat was enjoyably one-sided as the saurus and stegadon steamrollered the skeleton unit back to the grave.
skeletons get what for

Turn Three

The undead started this turn with lots of charges. Five undead hounds charged the skink skirmishers (the brave skinks killed one with their stand and shoot), One spirit host charged the unit containing Lord Kroak whilst the other charged my Bastiladon (this was very important/frustrating). The grave guard charged another unit of skink skirmishers whilst the terrorgheist charges my other block of saurus. The winds of magic blew strong this phase (6 and 4). Spirit Leech killed my beautiful (on the inside anyway) stegadon leaving a rather surprised skink chieftain sitting on a large pile of steaming dinosaur burger. The terrorgheist screams two saurus to death. close combat saw the skinks defeat then reform around the wolves, one spirit host evaporates to static death by Gold Sigil Sword and combat res, whilst the other fails to damage my Bastiladon, and he fails to find a magic weapon out of his howdah to damage it back. The grave guard skink fight on the other side didn't go so well with  Vampire & Co reducing them to a Damien Hirst piece of artwork.
My now Stegadonless cheiftain charged the terrorgheist in the flank, or at least he would've done but for a crap terror test. In the magic phase Deliverance of Itza did not get cast, rolled 1 and 2 for power dice. Close combat saw my rock hard skink skirmishers on the left flank kill the last wolf, the Bastiladon/Spirit host was a stalemate (Spirit Host and Bast flail) and the Saurus/Terrorgheist combat saw the Saurus win by 4 only to have Nagash save him.

Turn Four

Vinny's undead made little groaning noises as they charged (as they do in the Walking Dead). A unit of zombies charged my wolf killing skinks, the unit of skeletons and grave guard charged my saurus fighting the terrorgheist. The only plus point of this was the skinks stand and shoot killed 6 zombies. The magic phase saw Invocation & Vanhel's cast sucessfully whereas Hellish Vigour wasn't. The terrorgheists shooting attack failed.On to combat (Slann issues challenge champ accepts due to Ranidaphobic vampire who reconsiders due to mocking and fights a frog). The combat ended with the saurus fleeing 6"! the Bastiladon/Spirit Host combat continues (continue to slap harmlessly). The skink/zombie combat sees the skinks lose by 1 but hold!

Not looking good for my Saurii


In my turn my now Stegadonless skink chief charges the Terrorgheist. My Lord Kroak unit was the only one to remain motionless. Magic phase gifted me with a 1 + 2, tried to cast deliverance (failed). My skink cheif unleashed the power of The Egg Of The Quango only to find it was pretty much a dud, it caused a wound shortly before being gulped down by the big smelly bat thing. Other close combats resulted in a stalemate (Lasersteg and spirit host dick about) and the skink unit handing out some whupp ass on the zombies.



Turn Five

The undead couldn't declare charges on my largely unscathed Kroak unit (mainly due to geometry). Magic was 2 + 2 where Spirit leech was dispelled. Close combat saw the eternal war between the Bastiladon and the Spirit host drag on whilst the brave skinks win combat again (leaving one groaning zombie left).

Saved by some undead dogs blocking everything else


My turn consisted of Kroak saurus unit bracing for impact. Cast Deliverance but it got dispelled. The last zombie died to the remaining skinks. Yay!

Turn Six

The undead charge everything into Lord Kroaks unit. This was a Terrorgheist, Nagash, Grave guard unit and ghoul unit (eeeeek!). No magic was cast sucessfully. My saurus were defending a fence so both Terrorgheist and Nagash were at -2 to hit (thanks Kroak). My BSB with the glittering Scale challenged the vampire, and I targetted most of my attacks at the ghoul unit with the most ranks (Shit gets real.). To cut a long story short I kill enough ghouls to have more ranks and therefore stand my ground.

Shit just got real!
Real Shit from another angle


My final turn saw the skinks charge the flank of the spirit host (pointless as the +2 for a flank charge would be cancelled out by Nagash's crumble rule). The last close combat was inconclusive, yes the undead caused lots of casualties but my BSB twatted the vampire, therefore giving me the moral victory! I passed my steadfast roll and the game was finished. 


The damp squib that is the end of turn six

Conclussion

A rather solid win for the Undead.Where did it all go wrong? Two things stand out for me, giving Vinny a free skink priest due to poor deployment and letting the spirit host nullify the Bastiladon for nearly the entire game. On the plus side I like Kroak a lot and probably the magical battle was won by the narrowest of margins (Nagash is a level 5and dispelled Deliverance of Itza at least 3 times by equaling my casting roll). So another really fun game and many thanks to the lads in my gaming group. Thanks for reading!

















Thursday 4 December 2014

Tournament Absenteeism



Just a quick update on the tournament I was supposed to attend. I didn't. Due to a sick child on the morning of the tourney I had to cancel. This was a pity as I was really eager to show my tactical brilliance and superlative dice rolling. Ah well, I have now set my sights on Warpcon in January, fingers crossed I get there.

Friday 28 November 2014

My Daemon Crushing, Ogre Bashing, Wood Elf Juggernaut of Death!

Below is my Wood Elf list for Nordicon 3 , which is on tomorow. A full tournament report will hopefully follow.
I used Battlescribe and copied it from my email so this is the format which can either like it or lump it!

Wood Elves - Army Book (2014-5) -V8.8.0. (End Times) (2000pts)

  • Lords (581pts)

    • Glade Lord (301pts)

      (AB) Daith's Reaper (50pts), (AB) The Helm of the Hunt (20pts), (BRB) Talisman of Endurance (30pts), Asrai Longbow, Great Eagle (50pts), Hagbane Tips (3pts), Hand Weapon, Light Armor, Shield (3pts)
    • Spellweaver (280pts)

      (BRB) Dispel Scroll (25pts), (BRB) Talisman of Preservation (45pts), (BRB) Warrior Bane (5pts), Dark Magic, Elven Steed (20pts)
  • Heroes (321pts)

    • Branchwraith (75pts)

    • Glade Captain (156pts)

      (AB) Hail of Doom Arrow (30pts), (BRB) Enchanted Shield (5pts), (BRB) Tormentor Sword (5pts), Asrai Longbow, Asrai Spear (2pts), Battle Standard (25pts), Elven Steed (10pts), Light Armor, Starfire Shafts (4pts)
    • Waystalker (90pts)

      Always Strike First, Forest Stalker, Hawk-eyed Archer, Scout, Sniper
      NameMWSBSSTWIALDArmourSaveWardSaveMRType
      Waystalker567432718
  • Core (503pts)

    • Glade Guard (210pts)

      Always Strike First, Forest Stalker
      • 14x Glade Guard (210pts)

        14x Trueflight Arrows (42pts)
      NameMWSBSSTWIALDArmourSaveWardSaveMRTypeRef
      Glade Guard544331518InfantryAB
    • Glade Guard (160pts)

      Standard Bearer (10pts)
      Always Strike First, Forest Stalker
      • 10x Glade Guard (150pts)

        10x Hagbane Tips (30pts)
      NameMWSBSSTWIALDArmourSaveWardSaveMRTypeRef
      Glade Guard544331518InfantryAB
    • Glade Riders (133pts)

      7x Glade Riders (133pts)
  • Rare (160pts)

    • Waywatchers (160pts)

      8x Waywatchers (160pts)
      Always Strike First, Forest Stalker, Hawk-eyed Archer, Scout, Skirmisher
      NameMWSBSSTWIALDArmourSaveWardSaveMRType
      Waywatchers545331518
  • Special (435pts)

    • Sisters of the Thorn (130pts)

      5x Sisters of the Thorn (130pts)
      Always Strike First, Daughters of Eternity, Deepwood Coven, Fast Cavalry, Forest Stalker, Poisoned Attacks (riders only)
      NameMWSBSSTWIALDArmourSaveWardSaveMRTypeRef
      Sisters of the Thorn54533151964CavalryAB p46
      Steed of Isha930431415AB p46
    • Warhawk Riders (145pts)

      3x Warhawk Riders (135pts), Wind Rider (10pts)
      Always Strike First, Armour Piercing, Flying Cavalry, Forest Stalker, Predator's Descent
      NameMWSBSSTWIALDArmourSaveWardSaveMRType
      Warhawk140443525
      Warhawk Riders544331518Monstrous Cavalry
      Wind Rider544331528Monstrous Cavalry
    • Wild Riders (160pts)

      Champion (10pts), 5x Wild Riders (130pts)
      Always Strike First, Devastating Charge, Fast Cavalry, Fear, Forest Stalker, Frenzy, Talismanic Tattoos
      • Standard Bearer (20pts)

        (BRB) Banner of Eternal Flame (10pts)
      NameMWSBSSTWIALDArmourSaveWardSaveMRType
      Steed of Kurnos930431415
      Wild Hunter55443152956
      Wild Riders55443151956

Friday 7 November 2014

The start of something, er Nautical?

I have over the last while been interested in playing Warhammer on the high seas. As with my Athel Loren project (18 years, still in the planning stages) it will probably take a while. But I have made some progress! Still very much in the building stage are my skaven warp steamer and my elegant wood elf er, yacht. Observe:


Sludge Scraper

Below is the preliminary construction of my skaven ship Sludge Scraper. Made by spacing semi similar shapes between some other pieces of foam card then gluing some cardboardas the hull. Plenty of balsa and bits of card to represent metal plates and a warpstone boiler will hopefully make this baby come alive.
The good ship Sludge Scraper

Moon Dancer

This rather pretentious name has just come to me as it's the middle of the night and I can't think of anything better. My other boat was an ebay find that cost about 4 quid. It is in need of a couple of dowel masts and sails then it can happily swoosh along the rivers of the Old World doing the will of Ariel & Orion. so alongside some of the many other projects I currently have in progress, ship building is added to the list!

Four scouts out on a pleasure cruise

While some Saurus look on, feeling jealous
So I will hopefully be putting some more work on these in the near future. As long as some other awesomely important thing steals my attention away from them. 

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Some Empire Chavs

Some long term squatters on my to-be-painted table have finally made it off it! So in all their glory, some tiny soldiers to make me swear at dice on a table top. 

Witch Smeller Persuivant

Here is my witch hunter model that was part of a tag team in the old Dogs of War army. I can't recall either name at the minute but his buddy will so be conscripted into the army as a warrior priest. An internet high five if you recognise the name from an old British sitcom.

Witch Smeller Persuivant

Telekinetic Wyrd & Little Nug

My wyrd is now ready to ravage the underhive as is Little Nug, who I think is more of annoyance than an actual thug. Nug is an old plastic Gretchen model with the head of an Empire Light Acolyte squished on it. A greenstuff scarf gives him the look of a guy hiding the fact that someone tried to hang him at some point, but with little success.
.
Wyrd & Little Nug


Pukel, Pokel & Yokel

Three empire archers to go with the dozen or so I have already painted for my ad hoc Empire army. These guys are painting table veterans that have probably spent 18+ years waiting for brush love. now they've got it, they had better not flee at the first sign of a terror causing gribbly! I really like these models as they really give me the impression that they don't know much and say "B'ain't" a lot.

Pikel, Pokel & Yokel

 Gaspode, Gaston, Poulon & Mademoiselle Hot Lead

Finished this Brettonian organ gun some 20 years after they ceased to use gunpowder and moved into Trebuchets. Nothing says backward like Breton peasantry. Nice models these. I have another three artillery pieces to flesh out my Empire. Unfortunately it seems the only Warhammer race that now use organ guns are dwarfs so it will have to be proxied as a Hellblaster volley gun instead. This is actually my most dangerous model as I've been stabbed several times by the cocktail stick stakes! It ranks very highly in the psychotic goblin spearmen danger rating.



What's next on my painting pile is some wood Elf Glade Guard (more veterans of the Long War Against Undercoat), some Warhawk Riders, Wild Riders and Sisters of the Thorn. so hopefully in the next couple of weeks Ican have a very Elfy painting entry. Until then........

Sunday 26 October 2014

Skirmishing with the Empire

Last night I played two games of Warhammer, the first was a 900 point introductory game against a pleasant chap called Donal, the other was another gorefest against my regular sparring partner Stuart. Here's how the first one went;

Game One

I was recently contacted via the Wargaming Ireland Forum by a lad called Donal interested in playing Warhammer. Arrangements were made and to sum up we met up to play a 900 point games with my wood elves vs an Empire army, virtually straight out of the battalion box. My forces composed of a Shadowsinger (spells were the Withering and Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma), BSB and Waystalker, 12 trueflight Glade Guard, 10 naked Glade Guard, 5 Wardancers and 5 Waystalkers. Donal took 10 reiksguard knights, 30 halberdiers, 10 handgunners, a Beasts wizard (with Wyssan's Wildform and Curse of Anhreir) and a general mounted on a warhorse. I had advised Donal about the importance of a BSB but  he didn't put one in his list. A neutral party (Stuart) set up the terrain and we diced off for 1st turn. I won the roll.

Tactics?

I have been flailing around with a tactic of putting a unit of skirmishers in front of a unit of Trueflight Glade Guard as some kind of a castle. This game I put 5 Wardancers in front of the GG hoping they can fend off a charge from any Empire troops soaking up damage from their 3+ Ward save on the charge then killing blow their way out of it next turn. I think this is a valid tactic, especially in such a small point game as there is unlikely to be any uber units coming their way. Waywatchers were there to deal with any heavily armoured troops and a Waystalker was there to get rid of any pesky wizards. The emphasis of this army was to shoot off any combat unit before it got into my no save having squishy archers.

Deployment

The Game

As I said I won the first turn and started off with my Arrow of Kurnous, unfortunately the Empire general had sneakily deployed outside my 36" death zone so I couldn't give him a tickle with it. My turn consisted of no movement, Due to Stuart's disapproval of me taking Shadow magic against a first timer my shooting wasn't as agressive as it could have been. I Withered the big unit of halberdiers dropping their toughness down to 1! Some accurate shooting took about 10 off the unit, but they passed their panic test. Stu's aura of reproach stopped me from sniping his wizard with my Waystalker. The Reiksguard moved up on the flank, as did the now fragile halberdiers. The cannon shot at and killed maybe one glade guard due to an unfortunate bounce. Wither was dispelled and Wyssan's cast on the halberdiers (making my small unit of Wardancers uninterested in attacking them in the following turn).

Turn one


Next turn I continued my shooting policy at the halberdiers, killing a few more, I wasn't as successful this turn as the last due to the pesky Wyssan's and Wither running out. The waywatchers killed a knight or two and I maintained my non aggression policy with the wizard. The halberdiers advanced and the handgunners failed to hit my sneaky wardancers in the wood. Donal charged at my waywatchers this turn and they stood & shot, scoring 3 wounds. This prompted a panic test that routed the unit and the general off the board! The cannon killed 2 glade guard as well, I think.


Wood Elf turn two

Empire turn two

Turn three saw me charge out of the woods with my wardancers into the depleted halberdiers. I think I cast Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma on the halberds tooShooting wasn't spectacular. My wardancers won combat and broke the halberds. The halberdiers rallied in Donal's turn. An uninspiring shooting phase saw the elves remain largely unscathed.

wood Elf turn three

Empire turn three

Conclussion

With most of my force intact and Donal's combat units neutered we called the game. From my point of view an enjoyable game where my tactics worked well against a first timer. In my defense, the list was an all comers one that got very lucky shooting off the Reiksguard unit in turn two. From Donal's point of view a BSB would have probably stopped the fleeing knights and caused me a lot more problems.

Friday 10 October 2014

The Battle of Improbable Magical Activity

My latest battle for the quest of tactical greatness matched me up against Stuarts Daemons of Chaos. As I'm intending to go to a tournament later on in the year, it's a 2400 point all comers list. The title of this batrep is in reference to the large number of mysterious scenery items that seem to be prevalent in my games of Warhammer. In this battle we had: A magic circle (top left in the picture below), an Elven Waystone (the 40kish drop pod in the centre), a sinister statue (bottom right), Wizard's Tower (above & right of statue) and a Bane Stone to the bottom left of the picture - out of shot. Not forgetting some Ghost fences, a hill and a Venom Thicket in the middle.

My army consisted of 16 Glade Guard,10 Scouts,30 Dryads, a unit of Wild Riders, Sisters of the Thorn and a Treeman. a mounted BSB, 2 mouted mages and a Waystalker made up my force.
the Daemons of Chaos were led by a Great Unclean One, Plaguebearers and Beasts of Nurgle made up that pestilent contingent. Khorne was represented by a Skullcannon and some Bloodcrushers, Tzeentch was also present in the form of two units of horrors and the flying Tzeentchian chariot of doom!

I deployed with a fairly strong middle, the skirmishers out to the left, my fast cavalry to the right. I unsuccessfully hid my treeman from the the skullcannon, but due to my drops he placed it after the Treeman. His turns were numbered. My vanguarding Sisters of the Thorn got nice and comfy by the wizards tower whilst my Wild Riders came round the other side ready to chase off any thieving Horrors. The Daemons set up was pretty much based on racial tolerance, the Khorne contingent being the only group who wouldn't mix with their allies. The great Unclean One squatted between a Tzeentch chariot and unit of Horrors. In my day there was a thing called daemonic hatred where that sort of thing just wasn't done!
Wood Elf deployment after vanguard

Hazy Chaos Daemons

Less hazy Chaos Daemons

Turn One

The DoC got the first turn, with the usual amount of bowling forward at high speed. The GUO marched straight into the woods hoping (presumably) to blend in with all that greenery. Magic was fairly muted (can't remember much happening) and then the Skullcannon moved forward and killed my Treeman. So I'm down my best chance of neutralizing the GUO threat. No combat meant the Elves were looking for some payback!
I charged my Wild Riders into the unit of Beasts of Nurgle. Advanced my High Wizard into the woods, the other mage scooted round with the Sisters, mainly to avail of the magical knowledge in the Wizard's Tower. Magic saw me put some protection counters on the High Mage. My shooting was pretty cost effective, the Great Unclean One thought he could hid in the woods (with him being green and all) but my keen eyed archer saw through this ruse and peppered his poxy hide with arrows killing him. Interested question if a GUO falls in the woods is there still a smell of Gonorhea? Shooting over with we had combat, my Wild Riders absolutely annihilated the Beasts of Nurgle leaving me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside as they usually ruin whatever unit I charge into them. So end of turn one and Stu lost his GUO and BoN, I've lost a Treeman. All in all not a bad exchange.
The Cylon on the left is a sinister statue.


Dirty old Khorne!



The Great Unclean attempts to hide in the woods.


Shot to Death in the 1st turn Great Unclean One

Wild riders about face after trouncing Beasts of Nurgle 

The sisters keep magical control of the wizards tower (just)


Some Shit Dice rolling

Turn Two

Stuart was on the back foot but didn't look overly worried (he has seen me snatch defeat from certain victory many times before). A unit of Fleshhounds arrived at the back of my deployment zone .He charged his Skullcrushers at the Hagbane Scouts (whom, I thought I had placed cleverly enough so the overrun would take them off the board). The Tzeentchian chariot snuck round the back of the Dryads whilst the Plaguebearers turned to face an inevitable Wild Rider charge. Shooting saw the Skullcannon and Tzeentch chariot kill Dryads. The Scout/Skullcrusher tete a tete went predictably with the exception that both the pursuit and flee rolls were low enough to keep the servants of Khorne on the table! In my turn, I charged the wild riders, BSB and High Mage into the Plaguebearers and made two 9+ charge rolls into the bargain, the Sisters of the Thorn charged into the Horrors as the are probably the weakest combat unit on the table, and they have a 4+ ward save, so they were feeling pretty tough. I turned my waywatchers (who never feature prominently against Daemons) towards the Bloodcrushers and advanced the Dryads forward. Both combats were inconclusive (damn Nurgles -1 to hit) but with the advantage going to the Elves.
Sneaky Tzeentch chariot

Scouts bravely get obliterated 

The dead Daemons area

Plaguebearers get what for

As do the Horrors

Turn Three

Turn three was a bit unpleasant for some of my guys. One Fleshhound unit charged the Waystalker (who is generally useless against Daemons).The other Fleshhound unit appeared behind the cavalry in Stu's deployment zone. The Skullduggerymaster about faced to rape my Waywatchers in the following turn the chariot continued to swoop around, this time targetting the glade guard unit. Magic was minor, shooting saw the Waywatchers take some Daemonic grapeshot, making them flee, and the Glade Guard took some horrible casualties to warpflame. Combat saw my cavalry units both vanquish their daemonic opponents and reform. In my turn I charged into the Horrors unit with my depleated Wild riders, BSB and High Mage (who was now rocking 4 protection counters, feeling pretty invincible). I also rallied the Waywatchers. My shooting didn't have much to target, except for large high toughness Khorney units. Combat saw the cavalry destroy the Horrors, but with chaos there always a sting the tail. The blue horrors rule killed my last wild Rider, this would prove to be rather costly. The Waystalker was butchered and the remaining Fleshhounds bundled into the back of the Dryads.

Waywatchers are on borrowed time

Even sneakier Fleshhounds


I was pretty confident at this time.

Daemons of Tzeentch? Prepare to die!

Turn Four

Having only a skullcannon, a wounded Juggernaut ridery type thing, 2 thrice accursed Fleshhound unitsand a Tzeentch Chariot, I was pretty confident of a win. Then the Fleshhounds charged my BSB. The cannon killed a sister or two. The Fleshounds then killed my BSB who was on full wounds and had a 5+ then 4+ save. Even then, after they overran into my High Mage I wasn't panicky as he had 4 token and the fencers blades, what could go wrong? One failed break test saw him flee abysmally get get caught and effectively lose the game for me. The other combat saw my Dryads destroy the other fleshounds (I'm so mad I'm not even giving the a capital letter). In my turn I moved the Dryads to take a charge from the Skullcannon in the hope that they could withstand it and ultimately defeat it, all surviving units attempted to look inconspicuous (this is a valid battle plan).

Some sinister Flesh Hounds make an unwelcome appearance


Turn Five 

The wheels had definitely come off the Wood Elf bus, so now it was time for Stuart to turn the screw. The Hellcannon charged the Dryads and the Skullcrusher charged my remaining Glade Guard. The impact hits and all round nastiness of the chariot broke the dryads only to see them run down to the last vengeful spirit. The Skullcrusher also broke the Glade Guard but failed to catch the final two. My turn comprised of trying to get the hell out of dodge! In this I was marginally sucessful. The terrain played its part when the Sinister Statue decided he didn't like the look of the two fleeing elves and fried them, lazer bolt eye style!

Rear ended by Khorne

The Dryads,BSB & Elven Spellweaver are no more!

Turn Six

Turn six was a Skullcannon shooting and killing my wizard and my Sisters of the Thorn (now numbering 1) running round behind the wizard's tower hoping to find some sort of There, There It Was All A Dream Scroll or Wand of Going Home & Getting My Mum. The final result was fairly close, but certainly no cigar for the Wood Elves.

A lone sister

Bloody mongrels!

Conclusions

Well, both Stuart and I agreed that was one of the best games we had played against each other. At the back of turn 2 I really thought I had it but some unfortunate dice rolls and me over extending my thrust (as Sean Connery said to Christopher Lambert in Highlander) led to me being off balance and ultimately defeated. On a whiny note, I really do seem to have terrible difficulties dealing with Chariot/Cannons as a move and fire war machine is very hard to avoid. On a second even whinier note, it's about time one of Stuarts cannons misfired! I was also unimpressed with the plethora of mysterious terrain that stuck it's interfering noses in Wood Elf business! We both agreed to stop using mysterious terrain except for woods and rivers.

Thanks for reading.