Determining Interest Level

I am not a big fan of the Warhammer fluff. As a result, I have given a lot of thought to somewhat altering the naming conventions for the armies I play, specifically the Warriors of Chaos since they are about 75% there towards being the type of army I like to play.

However, a careful perusal of the Games Workshop website suggests they would frown upon that, even for a semi-private gaming group that does not play on the tournament scene or anything like that.

However, they encourage people to make their own army lists such as the Chaos Dwarf lists or Forest Goblin lists. So my interest turned somewhat in that direction as I have in the past created games as diverse as Baseball Card baseball in which you could play entire seasons of Baseball with 2 6-sided dice, paper for score keeping, a pen, and baseball cards and a futuristic role-playing game set in a post-apocalyptic age. Both were pretty well received by my friends growing up and received fairly heavy play, so I feel I have the experience and ability to do so.

My own interests lie more in a historical range and I have found a group that fits in quite well. The Greeks in general or Spartans in particular would provide excellent source material.

Overall, the Greeks as a whole people might be superior as it would allow access to their rich mythology with Minotaurs, Gorgons, Medusas, Harpies, Sirens, and so forth as well as numerous heroes along the lines of Theseus, Jason and the Argonauts, Hercules, and so forth.

The Spartans would also be intriguing as you could fit in some of those elements but it would be a much narrower field with which to work as you would need to work in the factionalism of their Helots and so forth, but it would allow some very cool specialized units such as the Crypteia.

The Crypteia was sort of a Spartan KGB. Their role as secret police included the ritualized murder of Helots. Their roles as scouts and assassins could be a really fun unit.

Anyway, over the past couple weeks I have been developing some ideas for special rules such as Greek Citizen, Sing the Paean, "The Oracle at Delphi, Form the Phalanx and so forth while developing units such as the Peltasts, Hoplites, Skiritai and so forth.

I have been playing with a variety of stat lines and trying to accurately cost them so they would be very well-balanced, able to win or lose any game.

To this point it has all been theory and comparison shopping against the current books that are out.

Is there anyone who plays Warhammer that has an interest in history that would like to be part of the project?

2,000pt Skaven VS Lizardmen

Not so much a battle report as a brief recapof the major moments.

The battle started off poorly for me. The terrain placement made it so I had to separate my forces in a way I had not intended to. Ironically, every piece of terrain he placed scattered some, but every piece I placed stayed exactly where it had been placed.

I won the roll for turn and decided to have him go first. I walked the forces on my right flank forward, and attempted to charge with my Cold One Knights on the left flank. The (I was going to use an acronym to represent the Cold One Knights, but that just looks dirty.) Cold Ones failed their charge by 1/2". I guess that 50 point banner that increases your charge distance by D6" once per game would actually have been worthwhile this game. In my shooting phase I took out enough from his pack of Giant Rats to cause a break test which they failed. If they failed the recovery test, (which at Ld5 is very likely) they would be almost guaranteed to run off the table.

On his second turn he charged my Cold Ones and my Stegadon. The Stegadon performed badly, but would have been crushed anyway. The Stegadon is stubborn, so I tested on an unmodified Ld6. Sadly with two 6's and a 3, there is no way to get your total under 6 on two dice. The Stegadon ran, and his unit pursued into my 4 Kroxigor. On the other flank my knights crushed the unit that had charged them, but if I remember correctly they were unbreakable.

Warhammer 1K:Wood Elf versus Tomb Kings

We have recently instituted the "Warhammer 1000". Sunday afternoons we try to get in a 1000 point game. Smaller than our typical game, it allows us to try out some different armies and combinations.

I had not played the Wood Elf army in a while so thought it would be fun to give them a go. Meanwhile, Fixed Dice was going to roll out the tomb kings again.

Locally, there is a feeling the Tomb Kings are...well..under-powered. Weak core troops, weak shooting, and marginal magic is the general feeling. Of course, this would only be their second game and would again be just a small one.

Knowing they are a weaker army, I went an interesting way. I decided to go a heavily close combat army. I took 12 Dryads (all I have), 10 Wardancers (all I have), took 10 Waywatchers because they are cool. I was facing a Magic-heavy army so I took a Spellsinger with 2 Dispel Scrolls. I still needed one core unit so I took Glade Guard. I had about 270 points to spend or so and so went with a massive 20 man unit with Standard Bearer and the Banner of Aenach.

Sometimes you realize very shortly you are stupid. Aenach is only 25 points and allows a Stand and Shoot. Tomb Kings cannot march. They are never going to close with my mobile Elf army anyway unless I decide to let them, and in that case I can maneuever to ensure they are getting shot on the way in anyway. Not that 30ish points for Bearer and Banner is a big deal...but little errors can become big ones.

My hapless opponent went with a couple 10 man Skeleton units, a big block of Tomb Guard, the Casket of Souls and the requisite 3 heroes, all tooled up in some way or the other.

By the way, my army composition is very unusual for me; limited shooting, only one hero, and that hero not expected to do anything but Dispel. I specifically wanted to try a close combat oriented army.

The field had 3 (THREE) forests, some rough ground on my left flank and a deep lake on the right. I put my 20 Glade Guard in a line across the center of the field, the Wardancers to my left, and the Dryads to my right. The Dryads would have to ford the river and sweep along the flank...but that was better than stacking behind the Wardancers (?).

He put his Casket of Souls on the ever-present hill in opponents deployment zone that is the bane of my existence, the Tomb Guard to its right (from my point of view) and the two Skeleton units side by each in front of the Tomb Guard and open space.

That meant my Waywatchers could take advantage of their awesome deployment rules to set up on his flank in his deployment zone.

The roll for first turn would be critical and I won it. We each rolled a 4 but I had set up first and the bonus +1 for that gave me the choice. I elected to go first.


Wood Elf Turn 1
My Wardancers moved forwards out of the woods into the rough ground, stopping just short of the fence. On the right flank, my Dryads all made it across the ford and into the forest. My Glade Guard and Waywatchers took advantage of the "Asrai archery" rule to move, knowing it would not affect their "to-hit" roll, but might get into half range, putting into effect S4 for the Glade Guard and Killing Blow for the Waywatchers.

Magic Phase:
I had a choice pre-battle between the marginally useful Tree-Singing and the awesome but unlikely to happen Ariel's Blessing. I went the high-risk, high-reward route and took the Ariel, not realizing he would make me -1 to cast, meaning I needed a 10. Since I already figured I would need Irresistible Force to successfully get it off anyway, that probably would not have altered my decision. I could only cast once per turn and figured either spell would meet Dispel Scrolls unless Irresistible so why not try to give someone Regeneration?

I will save time. I successfully met the required "10" just once all game, he used a scroll.

Shooting:
This is the Wood Elf strength. Whereas for my beloved Warriors of Chaos, shooting phases are short and don't do much, they make or break the game for the Wood Elfs. Mobility and firepower are the watchwords.

And fire they did. My Waywatchers opened a can of whoop-smurf on the closest unit of Skeletons, killing 7 of them. The Glade Guard would have killed 5 more if there had been more than 3 left. The upshot was, turn one saw me wipe an entire unit off the board.

It was at this point Fixed Dice stated the game had a predetermined outcome. He could not come to grips with my guys unless I chose to allow it and could shoot him down completely before the game ended without him ever touching me.

Tomb King Turn 1
Still, he moved his other Skeleton unit in a wheel to try to cover the Tomb Guard from my Waywatchers and moved forward. Since they can not march, the ungainly maneuver meant they would still all be able to see my Glade Guard.

Magic Phase:
With their "always successful", my defense was at a premium. I only had 3 Dispel Dice. The Casket being on a hill meant every model I had could see it so I simply had to save my Dispel Dice for that. Which meant he got off a free shooting phast, killing 2 Glade Guard, and some movement. Then I did Dispel the Casket.

Shooting Phase
This slew just one more Glade Guard. Clearly, even taking two turns of shooting, the Tomb Kings are not going to win a shoot-out with the Wood Elf army.

Wood Elf Turn 2
I moved my Dryads forward, moved my Waywatchers and Glade Guard...and inexplicably completely forgot to move my Wardancers. I have no explanation. I planned to advance them about 3" which would have put me approximately 9" from his Tomb Guard...outside their charge range, inside mine. And then I...didn't.

Shooting: See turn one. Waywatchers were slightly less effective despite having Killing Blow but this time 8 Glade Guard were within half range so the carnage was terrible and all 10 Skeletons died. He was now down to the Casket and the Tomb Guard bolstered by a Hierophant and Liche priest...I think.

I now had a new plan. Anyone who could see the Casket was going to shoot at it. My Wardancers and Dryads would work on his Tomb Kings. My plan for the battle had been to see my Colse Combat machines in combat so why shoot up their only target?

Besides, even if close combat went poorly, with still 27 shots per turn, all either S4 or Killing Blow, his unit would fall like Skeletons before Chaos Knights...so even if they won Close Combat, maneuverability and firepower would carry the field. At least, so I thought...

Tomb King Turn 2
He had to choose who to face: my Wardancers, the Dryads approaching the flank, the deadly Waywatchers or the 17 strong Glade Guard.He elected to do a partial wheel to face the closest unit, the Wardancers. magic not particularly memorable, I dispelled the Casket. I was quite afraid of it.

Wood Elf Turn 3
Here we go. The mighty, awesome, fearsome, deadly Wardancers charge. The Dryads also charge.

Shooting: My Waywatchers, heretofore deadly marksmen with unerring aim, cover the sky with 10 arrows, all of which either miss entirely or hit the Casket.

And I somehow, until typing this report, completely forgot my Glade Guard could have seen the Casket since it was on a hill. I did not fire them at it even once. That was a mistake.

Close combat:
I knew for this round I had S4 and 2 attacks apiece. I decided to perform the Whirling Death to get Killing Blow. My Champion challenged and his...Hierophant? accepted. I rolled my 3 attacks...I wounded once that was not saved. 2 Wardancers attacked his Champion...and whiffed completely. My other Wardancers struck with fury...just not with talent or success, felling maybe 2 skeltons?

But the Dryads can still save the combat. Here come their mighty 6 attacks. Great...not one wound gets through.

He strikes back, kills my Champion though no other Wardancer. He has ranks and since the Dryads are Skirmishers, they cannot negate the rank bonus. He has a banner. Fortunately, I outnumber him and win the combat by 1.

Bad news...once again, my "elite" hand to hand units charge in with about every advantage they can muster and more or less are defeated. At this point, it will take a minotr miracle for me to win this combat.

Tomb King Turn 3
He has no movement. His magic lets him get off a free attack. One Dryad and two Wardancers die. He uses a bound spell to bring his unit back to full strength.

Close Combat phase: another Dryad becomes kindling, a couple Wardancers become mulch. I flail away ineffectually in return, doing one wound to his Liche Priest and nothing to anyone that matters. I lose the combat, my Wardancers break and flee fully 12".

I have ranted about how bad the Wardancers suck every time I have used them. I am not going to do that this time. I am going to talk about how awesome the model I purchased way back in 1994 and painted way back then still looks as compared to the awful paint jobs on the ones I bought off E-Bay. He looked fantastic as he advanced to the rear at a high rate of speed.

Wood Elf Turn 4
Good news. The Wardancers rallied. Bad news. It will take them until turn 6 to get back to the combat; rally this turn, march in turn 5, charge in turn 6. There are just 4 left. Is it worth it?

I forget to move my Spellsinger out of line of sight of the Casket (if I had done so, I would have used my Dispel Dice to block the 2nd attack instead of saving them for the Casket), repositioned the Glade Guard so they could shoot up the soon to be ultimately triumphant Tomb Guard, advanced the Waywatchers so they all were inside half range, and opened fire on the Casket. I put one wound on the General and shot down one of the two guards. Pretty good phase I must admit.

Close Combat: More of the same. I might have put down a Guard or two, and I think I actually killed his Liche Priest. Unfortunately, at this point even doing that meant I was losing the combat...BEFORE HE EVEN ATTACKED BACK. He had 2 ranks, outnumbering, and a Standard giving him +4 and I did just 3 wounds. He killed another Dryad or two, I miraculously passed my break test (needing a 6, I rolled a 5. So that was good).

Tomb King Turn 4
He healed the wound on his General, brought the Guard back to full strength, and got in an extra attack in his Magic phase. I think he also Magic Missiled down a Glade Guard or two. In close combat he broke me. I fled, he could not catch me.

Wood Elf Turn 5
This turn would be tricky. I rallied my Dryads, moved the Wardances into the protective cover of the forest they started in, moved my Spellsinger into the same forest, and then had a tough choice.

My fear was he would use his movement to reform his Tomb Guard, catch my Waywatchers in their sight, and use his movement spell to pick off that juicy target. So I tried to move far enough that he could not reach them. Just in case I advanced the Glade Guard and let the bowstrings twang.

The Tomb Guard felt the full force of my fury and something like 4 of them fell. They were proving to be a very tough unit. The Casket escaped unscathed.

Tomb King Turn 5
He saw the same thing regarding the Waywatchers but for some reason elected to go after the Dryads. I think he forgot how much Static Combat Resolution advantage he had. I would have been down by 4 to start any combat, and if the Waywatchers broke...which they most likely would....they were just a couple inches from table edge. I think that is the target I would have chosen. He already had half points for the Dryads.

But that is part of the beauty of this game. Though it is what I might have done, that does not mean it was necessarily correct. Everyone has their own strategies and different people play the same situation different ways.

He elected to go after the Dryads. This time he rolled just a "1" to move again which would have given him the charge. I used one of my precious Dispel Dice to block it. He used a Magic Missile to shoot down another Glade Guard and then brought the Tomb Guard back to full health.

Wood Elf Turn 6
I actually was quite sceptical of the outcome at this point. Yes, in the firat two turns I had shot down his skeletons. Whoopee. At 80 points a unit, I only scored 160. Meanwhile, he had half points for both my Wardancers and Dryads...97 and 72 points respectively. I had also slain his Liche Priest...probably les than 100 points I would assume...and he was likely to wipe out my dryads next turn. So it was probably a draw at this point.

I took some time pondering my options. I could shoot everything I had at the Tomb Kings and try to get half points for them...or I could unleash the Waywatchers at the Casket hoping against hope to put down his King. (Forgetting again my Glade Guard actually could see the Casket...)

I ran the numbers and ultimately decided to go high risk, high reward. I shot at the Casket. And wonder of wonders...I did three wounds to his Tomb King, putting him down for good. That decided the game.

Meanwhile, the Glade Guard put a bunch of holes in the Tomb Guard, 6 or 7 casualties if I recall correctly.

Tomb Kings Turn 6
His choice was easy, now. With just a Hierophant, his magic was weak, his options limited. He charged the Dryads, trying for that last 72 points. I blocked his magic since I no longer needed to fear the Casket.

Close Combat: I lost no further Dryads and, since he could not regenerate with all the lost magic, I was only down 2 (outnumber, standard) and passed my break test. Game.

Total points were something like 650-170 or in that neighborhood. We did not figure it exactly because it was obviously a Massacre.

What Went Right
The Waywatchers are simply awesome, easily worth the whopping 24 points apiece. Starting out hitting stuff on a "2", they are going to hit lots of things and even with just S3, they are going to do some damage.

The Glade Guard are also pretty spectacular. Cheap enough to risk not having a place to deploy 20, they are mobile, good at hitting what they shoot at, and from 15" in hit on S4 so they are going to cause some casualties as well. They are, in my humble yet accurate opinion, one of the absolutely best Core choices in the game.

What went wrong
The Wood Elf close combat army simply does not fit my play style. Being skirmishers means they cannot rank up, cannot remove the opponent's rank bonus, and start every combat behind by 2 or 3. They are simply not good enough fighters to overcome that. they fail miserably every. stinking. time for me.

I hear of other people having great success with them. Good for those people. I keep using them because I think the concept is awesome, but they are the type of troop that would NEVER see the table top for me if I was in a highly competitive environment where I wanted to win.

The Dryads did okay but have the same limitations. Their ability to cause Fear might be all right against someone like the Skaven or Goblins or Brettonians...but against Undead it is no benefit at all and their limited combat ability does not offset that.

I am still likely to take one or the other to be War Machine or Mage hunters, but the Wood Elf army in close combat against even Skeletons is something that you will only see when I am badly outmaneuevered or hemmed in by terrain. They are just no good at it.

In the end, a fortunate barrage of "6s" meant I did enough wounds to his King to win the game. All the way through, it felt like I was winning...my arrows took out 20 Skeletons in two turns, I took out probably a dozen more in close combat...but he kept regenerating them and until the last turn, I was barely scratching out a draw.

Overall, it was a fun game with an Army I hope to play a bit more. I might try some other fun units like a Treeman (the Wood Elf version of a Shaggoth), Treekin....maybe even a Great Eagle or two. I do like the army and, against all odds, LOVE my cheesy paint job. Designed to look like Autumn, the bright Orange and Jade Green really pop on the battlefield.

Fleeing Flyers

From page 68 of the 7th edition rulebook:

Flyers always choose to fly when fleeing, and so the distance flyers flee is based on their flying move rather than their ground move. The normal flee distance for flyers is therefore 3D6" in common with all models whose move is more than 6".

Flyers can flee over interposing terrain and units, but if their move ends inside impassible terrain (including woods) or non-fleeing enemies, they are destroyed as normal.

So the odd sounding event that Darth described where the fleeing flyers went over the Bretonnian knights was in line with the rules.

The Might of Chaos Verse the Wimps of the Vampire Counts

Prologue:







I put together several army lists for my 3K point game against the Vampire counts. When putting the lists together, there were several things I wanted to try out or ensure were in the lists.



1) I had 3 painted units of 5 Knights apiece.

2) My Dragon Ogre Shaggoth

3) I wanted to work in a Chaos Warshrine

4) I wanted to try some new stuff with the Chaos Spawn



That meant points were at a premium. This also caused some internal debate.



See, the Vampire Counts armies played hereabouts center around tough Close Combat fighting Vampires and mass quantities of magic accompanying them.



So I needed to deal with close combat monsters and with magic.



That meant I would need to put a premium on mobility for my heroes. I considered Wulfrik the Wanderer and a squad of 20ish Marauders to come on behind or on the flanks of the VC and go after their tough heroes.



I also considered going with something like Galrauch and a Prince, both of whom fly, have excellent WS, S and T scores. Of course, they are also both magic users so that would pretty much mean I was going a magic heavy army with lots of low-level sorcerers to carry Dispel Scrolls, Infernal Puppet, the Black Tongue, etc.



So at one point I had a completely close-combat oriented army with lots of Exalted heroes to go after the Vampires and slay them in one on one combat.



I also had a magic heavy army where every hero was a Wizard, the Banner of Wrath was in attendance, and I would have a long magic phase.



But then I settled on a combination; Galrauch and the Prince would give me 10 total power dice and just 6 Dispel Dice...which would leave a nice magic defense hole for him to potentially exploit while giving me a rather questionable opportunity to do some magic damage of my own.



These would also be my only two heroes, meaning they would be the Vampire Hunters.



It meant for core units I was reduced to 4 units of Marauders at 10 guys apiece, no upgrades to allow me to fit in the other stuff I wanted. This game would be won or lost by the Knights and 2 heroes.



Set-Up

My set-up was pretty basic. I put two units of Marauders on either flank. Their sole duty in this battle would be to contest table quarters. Inside of each of them I placed a Chaos Spawn. My plan was to advance my Knights whatever distance the Spawn advanced to protect my flanks. The Spawn would try to keep any spare units of Skeletons, Ghouls, or what have you from flanking my Knights if they got into a "tar pit" type battle.

My three Knightly units were in the center in a pure blunt force trauma, here I come, stop me if I can deployment.

Behind them were my two flying heroes and my Warshrine.

Facing me would be a rather unusual VC build. He had 4 units of Skeletons...but each unit had just 10 of the buggers. He had one large unit of Blood Knights, a Vamp riding a dragon, a flying mounted Vamp, 2 Vamps on foot, and a unit of Wraiths.

Turn One

I won the roll and elected to have him go first. He marched everyone he could, though the Skels on my left flank were out of range of Vamps and thus could only walk forward. His Magic Phase then started, and it would be key.

He used a bound item to Danse Macabre some skeletons closer to me. He cast Curse of Years on a unit of Knights gaining a "9" to cast. Decision time: I have just 6 Dispel Dice. He has about 10 power dice left at this point and has "Wind of Undeath", one of the two or three most potent spells in the entire game. I figure the dice to average rolls of about 3.5 which means I need 4 dice to reasonably expect to dispel Curse of Years.

There is an 18% chance of losing a Knight or two to Curse. But I can dispel it on my turn perhaps...I let it go. He rolls 5 dice...and no 6s. My gamble paid off.

He then casts Wind of undeath...and miscasts! Rolls on the chart...an 11. He loses the spell, loses a level, and takes a hit which goes through, wounding him. Whew! Breath of relief from me.

But he still has more dice and after I dispel some random spell from one guy, he gets irresistible force and casts Danse Macabre on his Dragon...which propels it into my Dragon Ogre Shaggoth.

This was unexpected. He got all the way across the board in one turn and attacked my favorite model. I was about to see it go down in flames without doing a thing for the second time in three tires. What is it, a great unit or more Wardancers?

(I have used the Wardancers 4 times. 3 times they have gotten the charge, including twice with a coinciding flank charge by another unit. 4 times they have broken and run. Wardancers suck.)

Well, he has some ability where I must pass a LD test at a minus or he can re-roll to wound. I need a 6 but roll a 7. Bad news.

His Vampire goes nuts with his Frost Blade but misses completely. He has Hatred so re-rolls. 2 hits, no wounds. Then his Dragon wounds three times.

I allocate my return strikes against his Vampire and wound him twice. I lose the combat but, being close to my Battle Standard Bearer (BSB) who has the Banner of Chaos, he is Stubborn and has a re-roll which he passes easily.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 1

Galrauch passes his test (as he will do every turn) and declares a charge on his Dragon and that Spawn makes it into contact as well. My right flank Knights, who have the Mark of khorne, charge his Skeletons that advanced via Danse Macabre.

Meanwhile, my Marauders must test for Panic because they are within 6" of his Terror causing dragon. They test on a 9 since Galrauch is right there. They have a re-roll due to Will of Chaos. They proceed to run anyway...2". Whatever.

Magic: this phase has typically been my downfall, doing little good and massive harm to me. This game will be different as evidenced by his mis-cast in turn one.

I now cast Infernal Gateway at his Zombie Dragon. Uh-oh...mis-cast. Fortunately, I gave Tendrils of tzeentch to the Prince (who I was casting it with) and the re-roll gives me Irresistible Force. I end up killing his Vampire and wounding the Dragon once.

I then use 3 dice I saved to Dispel his Curse of Years so I have limited stuff to cast and on to Close Combat.

My Shooting Phase was the best I have ever had; I used the Chaos Warshrine on my left-most unit of Knights so they could go after the Dragon if needed and gave them an additional attack. This meant the line guys, with that bonus and Frenzy, would have 4 attacks and the Champion would have 5. Look out world!

The Spawn gets about 4 or 5 attacks but misses them all. The mighty Galrauch can only manage one wound in his 6 attacks. The Dragon then attacks the Shaggoth, putting a 4th wound on him. But then it is the Shaggoths turn.

I had planned the Shaggoth to go after the Vamps and gave him a great weapon which meant he had a S8 on his attacks...and he hit 5 times. He wounded 4 of them and the Zombie Dragon was dead in one turn.

There is a lesson here: no matter how powerful a unit is, if it charges alone into the enemy line, it is going to be a casualty sooner rather than later.

Anyway, the other combat went even more my way. My Knights killed 9 Skeletons with their Frenzied charge and the 10th crumbled to Combat Resolution which allowed me to over-run into his flying Vampire...a character he did not want in combat.

Vampire Counts Turn 2

His Blood Knights were able to flank charge my Knights who had charged his Flying Vampire. His Wraiths charge my Knights who had received the additional attack.

Magic: I Dispel his first attempt to advance Konrad but he then does it with the bound spell. He makes what I think is a mistake, charging my un-engaged Knights instead of joining the Wraiths in their assault. He is counting on Konrad being great in Hand to Hand.

Unfortunately, I start ahead by 2 for Banner and Outnumber and with an Armor save of 0+, he will be hard pressed to do 3 wounds.But we will see what happens.

I have to save Dispel Dice for his inevitable Wind of Death so allow Curse of Years, which he casts at Galrauch successfully but fails to wound. He then fails to cast Wind of Death.

Shooting: His Banshee screams and kills one Knight. I have to dispatch her ASAP as that scream could do a LOT of damage.

On the right flank, my Knights do three wounds to the flying Vampire hero and kill him, but the Blood Knights exact bloody revenge by slaying all 5 of them. Hmm...I killed one unit of Skeletons and a Vampire Hero but got slain...believe it or not, I am happy. Mostly because I got off two charges.

Konrad, being alone, must accept the challenge from my Chaos Knight Champion. He hits 3 times, all three wound, but I save all 3. My Champion has 4 attacks, 3 hit, all wound, Konrad dies.Because the Shrine is on the table, I get to roll on the Eye of Chaos table and he gains +1 Strength.

Meanwhile, the Banshee is also forced to accept a challenge: she cannot wound me. My Champ has a mighty 5 attacks needing just 3s to hit. I get overkill. The Wraiths fail to wound the Knights and take 5 wounds in return meaning they crumble to CR and I over-run into the unit of Skeletons holding his General.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 2

The game is more or less over at this point. I can bring overwhelming force to bear against every one of his units. I have achieved the classic "divide and conquer" and my superior movement means I can concentrate on each unit in turn and wipe them out.

Still, he gets points this turn as I (illegally) test for my Marauders on the Generals 9 to rally...fail...and here is the illegal part, use the BSB to re-roll needing a 9. And fail again. 4 tests needing 9 or below, all failed and they flee the table. Awesome.

I charge my Shaggoth into the unit holding his General, fly Galrauch behind his skels on my left flank intending to breathe on them, and move my Marauders forward to engage in close combat with his skels, figuring to give him a chance to do a few casualties.

I cast Infernal Gateway on the Blood Knights and do 12 S6 hits. All 12 wound. He armor saves just 3, but then Regenerates 5 so "just" 4 die. Those Blood Knights are TOUGH!

My champion wounds his General once, takes none in return. The Knights kill only 4 skeletons, and a horse kills another, The Shaggoth wipes out 4 more, I win the combat by something like 11, the General and last skel crumble to C.R.

Vampire Counts Turn 3

He has no vamps left. Not much to do:turn his Blood Knights to face my Knights, his Skels to face the Dragon...whom I forgot to breathe with. Bwoohahahah.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 3

Charge, yadda yadda yadda.

Infernal Gateway takes care of 6 skeletons.

In the challenge, I do 3 wounds to his champ, he saves two and regenerates the other. He wounds back 4 times, I save all 4.

My Knights do 5 wounds, he saves 2 and regenerates 2 so I do just one casualty. The Spawn wounds twice but only one slays. The Blood Knights respond by killing two Knights. Then their horses go to work and kill 2 more...I lost the combat!

Meanwhile, Galrauch kills 3 Skeletons, wins the combat by one, one Skeleton crumbles.

VAMPIRE COUNTS TURN 4

The skeletons on my left flank charge into the Spawn. I am not too worried...their low WS and S combine with my high T to mean I should be in great shape.

But then something strange happens...they hit the Spawn 4 times and wound him twice! He rolls up 4 attacks back...and whiffs completely. Fortunately he is Unbreakable but still...

Galrauch meanwhile can kill but one Skeleton with his 6 attacks. Fortunately, he is not wounded in return and between the wound and outnumbering, he kills 2 more with Combat Resolution.

Meanwhile, my last champion facing the Blood Knights can only wound one time and that one is Regenerated. My Spawn can do no damage. On the bright side, the Blood Knights do no damage either. On the dark side, they have rank and standard...and my Knight Champion breaks. Being down to 20% of unit start, that means he is done for the battle. Fortunately, the Unbreakable Spawn holds the Knights where they are.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 4

I charge him with my fresh Knights from the front, my Prince charges from behind, and the Shaggoth charges the skeletons on my left flank that wounded the Spawn last turn.

My Warshrine might as well try again since the unit with bonus attacks has now been wiped out. So it gives the Knights facing the Blood Knights something pretty worthless...+1 to their armor save. In close combat they already have a 0+ and it cannot improve the save past that. Oh, well.

Galrauch tires of toying with the unit he has been working on and kills tha last three.

The Shaggoth manages but 3 kills...against a Dragon he can wound 4 times but against Skeletons 2 or 3 at a go? Whatever... and the Spawn kills the last one. All the VC have left is their Blood Knights.

My Prince challenges his unit champ who accepts. I do 3 wounds, he saves one and Regenerates one, so one wound on him. The Knights meanwhile do 6 wounds, only to see 3 saved by armor and two more to Regeneration. The Horses wound 3, one saved by armor and one by Regeneration. He can only do 2 wounds in return, both of which I save and then the Spawn wounds just one...but it kills.

So I did a massive 4 kills and his last two fall to Combat Resolution. The VC are done in 4 turns.

Recap

First, what went right?

My Shaggoth was a terror, surviving an attack from a Zombie Dragon riding Vampire with th Killing-Blow type power equipped Frost blade that, had it done a single wound, would have slain the Shaggoth outright. Instead, he slew the Dragon with a little help, then rampaged around killing skeletons when no better target appeared.

His mobility, striking power with a great weapon, and ruggedness were awesome. Quickly becoming one of my favorite units.

The Spawn were awesome as well, pinning down units so I could attack them at my leisure with the appropriate amounts of force. They did little damage but they kept him where I wanted him.

The Knights, as always, were stunningly awesome. Especially when they got the +1 attack from the Warshrine. His Wraiths were easy meat for them, they rampaged through his General like a tuba blast through crisp mountain air and even did a bit of damage to the Blood Knights on their way out the door.

Other units of Knights were equally destructive. Love those Knights!

The Warshrine was a fun toy. Ultimately, I think the best feature was letting my Unit Champ roll on the Table, always one of my goals for the game.

And Galrauch and the Prince were simply awesome, dominating the magic phase and controlling the field through their superior mobility.

What went wrong?

Very little. The main thing that went wrong is I think the build is a little bit cheesy. Taking 10 Marauders with no upgrades just to fill a core slot seems a bit weasel-like to me. The problem is, my other troops are so expensive that i can do little else. I could take 2 small units of Chaos Warriors and just one unit of Knights...but that army would be excessively weak. Knights are easy to outnumber and defeat with static combat resolution. There is a happy medium somewhere.

For my hapless opponent, what went right?

His Blood Knights being punched up with two heroes including their Battle Standard Bearer and having Regeneration were a tough, tough nut to crack.

What went wrong?

Everything else. The brutal mis-cast on turn one, for example.

I tend to think he made tactical errors with the Danse Macabres as well. It was great getting the Dragon into combat on turn one and moving Konrad into combat when I was not prepared for him.

However, they were unsupported. That meant they were easy prey as I was easily able to bring vastly superior force to bear on each one in turn and wipe them out before turning my attention to the weaker troops. By spreading out all across the field, he made it so I determined when, how, and who would have combat which led to easy victories for me except in the one combat where Frenzy Forced me to charge his Flying vampire and allow him the flank charge with his Blood Knights.

And even there, being able to take out one of his spell-casters was well worth losing the unit to me.

Overall, this was a great game for Chaos...and I feel sort of bad about what I did to the VC. But hopefully fun was had by all.

Ruling on Irresistable Force

I need a ruling on irresistable force before I play as the Lizardmen again.

I have come to the realization that the question is only relevant for maybe two armies. There are no generic spells that cost more than 12 base, so if you roll irresistable force (2x6=12) you have met the casting value of the spell. So the argument is almost pointless. However, there is at least one army with a spell that require at least a 15 to cast. There may be some with a 13+ requirment, but that is irrelevant as well because you would have to roll 3 dice, meaning you would meet the value if you rolled IF ((2x6)+1=13).

However, it will affect the way I play the Lizardmen because of Lord Kroak, so I need a ruling.