Dwarf Verse Chaos Game 2

Immediately following my complete humiliation, we refought the battle. This time he won the roll for set-up and had me set up first. So I put my smaller 10 man unit behind the ruin in the center. He placed his Thunderer unit identical to the first game. My 12 Made Men then went on my right, his Warriors opposite, and my General/Sorcerer once more joined the larger unit. I won the roll to go first. This time I have Flickering Fire, Pandemonium, and Infernal Gateway.

Chaos Mafia Turn One

I advance 8", veering my 10 man unit to the right, away from the Thunderers. 

Infernal Gateway requires  15: I roll a 13. But wait...I use Blood of Tzeentch to re-roll one die which gets me to 15, and the Homonculus adds 3. He fails to Dispel it!

I get 10 hits at S4. 6 hit. 3 Dwarf Warriors make their way through Deaths Door. The Banner of Wrath then hits unopposed since he used all his Dispel Dice on Infernal. Another Warrior dies. I have already done 300% more casualties than I did the entire first game! Woo-Hoo!

Awesome Magic my old friend

Grace me with your presence once again

Dwarf Turn One

Warriors move forward a moderate 3". His Longbeard Scouts about face so they will be able to flank me when I clear the building. Only 2 of his Thunderers have Line of Sight, take a couple pot shots, one hits, no wounds. This game is going my way!

Chaos Mafia Turn Two

This time I remember his scouts and know I can't march, even though I desperately want to. Instead, I only walk forward 4". Infernal Gateway never reaches the needed total of 15. With him having 4 dice, my Bound Spell of 4 is doomed as long as he can at least avoid double ones.

Pointless magic my old friend...

Dwarf Turn Two

Apparently tired of playing well, Space Monkey advances his Rangers into L.O.S. of my small unit and wheels his Warriors to better get in position to face my larger Made Men unit. This presents both flanks to me and I am excited. 

Since it closes off his shooting lanes, he retreats his Thunderers an inch and a half to buy more time should I win the combat. I thought he might be better served to wheel them instead, thus allowing ten guys to fire, but since I just lost a game by 1250 points when we started with 750, why would anyone find value in any advice I could offer? 

(Space Monkey would have listened, to be fair).

Chaos Mafia Turn Three

I unattached my Sorcerer/Don just in case there was a repeat of last game. Both units charged. My smaller Made Men took his Rangers in the flank and my larger ones hit his Warriors head on. I had sent my rule book home with Chad for him to learn the game, so could not remember if the flanked unit aligned to face me or not. 

Meanwhile, with both enemy units involved in combat, my only option for a spell was Pandemonium. Uh...yay? It was successful, which just meant instead of using the Thane's leadership of 9, the units had to use their own leadership of just 9.

Yes, that is sarcasm.

I finally get a spell off successfully...and what is the result?

Pointless magic my old friend...

On the bright side, it was time to try close combat again. Turning the flank to meet me or not did not matter.

As it turned out, I hit him 4 times, wounded 2, killed just one. He did nothing back, broke, and was overrun. (Forgot the Old Grumblers rule. D'oh! Doesn't matter...with me hitting him in the flank, having a rank bonus, and wounding him 1-0, he had a healthy -4 to his save, so he needed I think a 5 or less).

In the other combat, 9 of my 13 dice were good for hits. Needing 3s to hit, or 67%, that is actually about right. I wounded 4 (again, needing 4s, or 50%, that is about right, ever so slightly on the low side) and he saved 1 (real close to right; he needed 5s to save, so 33% chance:1 or 2 would have been right). Hey, when the percentages play out, I do real well!

His Thane managed to hit with all three attacks, but did just 1 wound and that was saved. His Warrior Champ could do no better. 

He broke and ran. I overran him. It is all rolling my way, now.

Dwarf Turn Three

His choice to make a retrograde movement meant even with a generous interpretation of the field of fire, he had but 3 guys firing. Of course, in those three he got 2 hits, and one of them killed a Chaos Made Man. After the first game debacle, this was my first game 2 casualty. Just for fun he dispelled Pandemonium. No real effect, but hey...it was something accomplished.

Chaos Mafia Turn 4

Charge!

 Only had my 10...okay, 9 man unit of Made Men, but that SHOULD be enough. Dedicated instruments of death and destruction against weak Close Combat troops. He Stand and Shoots, hitting twice, killing one more.

I roll 11 dice in Hand to Hand. With a higher Weapon Skill, I need a 3 to hit. I should hit 7 to 8 times. I hit twice. I did kill one Dwarf...uh...yay? Pathetic. He cannot wound back. I have his flank, I have rank bonus, I have running Dwarfs, I overrun, I smashed him nearly as bad as he smashed me.

In game one, I did one casualty. In game 2, he did two.

I actually managed some more appalling dice rolling as I could barely do any Close Combat damage, even needing 3s to hit as opposed to him needing 5s (Mark of Nurgle), needing 4s to wound and him needing 5s to save. Magic was a little better, actually doing 4 casualties this game. 

Final Tally? Magic did 5 casualties in 8 rounds. Not even a casualty per round. Was it worth 35 points to upgrade to level 2, 65 points more in Gifts and Magic Items? Uh...no. Did nowhere near 100 points. 

Oh well. Regardless, the combined outcomes was very cool. Very evenly matched armies overall, even if the outcomes were each complete annihilation's. Fun games, and a perfect .500 record. 

A Chaos Proxy game

Wanted to get Chad a little more experience moving guys around the field and Rick also wanted to get a small game in so I made up 3 small armies. Okay, in truth I made 8, but we used 3. 

Basically what I did was make up 500 point armies for the Dwarfs, Wood Elfs, Vampire Counts and Chaos. My initial plan was to use the Vampire Counts to see what they could do, but then I thought it might be fun to proxy a bit of Chaos and see if I would like it. I also made 750 point armies for the above.

We decided to start with the smaller, 500 point games. Chad would be the Wood Elf army. I gave them 6 Glade riders (Fast cavalry which allows them to march and shoot, M 9, BS 4, S 3 Longbows with 30" range) , a unit of 14 Glade Guard with Aenach (M5, BS5, 30 Longbows with S3 over 1/2 range and S4 inside 15"), and a Wood Elf Noble on Steed with a Hail of Doom Arrow (one use, 3d6 S4 shots).  It is designed to be a fast moving force that can essentially skirmish in line. The fast moving Glade Riders have essentially a 48" field of fire every turn and can quickly move to prevent march moves by the enemy while still shooting every turn. 

Due to space constrictions, we (illegally per Warhammer rules) allowed Chad to split the 14 Glade Guard into two 7 man units. More on that in a bit.

Rick wanted to try out the Vampire Counts. They had 25 Skeletons with full command (M4, WS2, S3) and 14 Crypt Ghouls (Poison Attacks, T4) to go with Konrad. His stats don't matter as we will see shortly. 

Meanwhile, I took Chaos. To the untrained eye my guys looked like a Wood Elf General on Steed and 8 Night Goblin Spider Riders, but to those of us who could see Tzeentch change illusion magic, they were clearly a Mounted Exalted Champion with Mark of Tzeentch (M7, Ws7, S4, Armor Save 2+, level 2 Wizard w/Red Fire and Indigo Fire) and 2 each 4-man units of Chaos Knights (M7, WS5, S5, T4, Armor Save 2+). Yep, Rick had 40 models, Chad had 21, and I had 9. All is once more right with the world. 

The field had trees and ruined buildings essentially flanking the 4 corners of the set-up zone. To maintain the 24" separation, Chad and Rick each had 12"x12" set-up zones on one side of the table and I had a 12"by 12" setup zone at the apex of the triangle away from them.

I tried to get Chad to put the Glade Riders in front as this would take advantage of their tremendous range and harrying ability, while giving him still plenty of room for his Glade Guard to use their deadly bows. Instead he placed one 7 man unit facing towards the V.C. and another at a 45 degree angle across his zone facing me, blocking in his Glade Riders on the back line. I thought about changing it for him, but then decided it would be better if he learned why since my explanation had not been very clear apparently so I let him keep the badly flawed set-up. 

Rick meanwhile had a building between his set-up zone and mine so he wisely placed his large skeleton unit facing towards me with the building protecting their flank from Wood Elf shooting and put his Crypt Ghouls next to them against his baseline, also facing me, with Konrad in their unit. 

I have sometimes been critical of some of Rick's set-ups, but that was certainly not the case here. I believe he maximized the protective capabilities of his forces while minimizing their weaknesses.

I, meanwhile, had a pretty basic set-up. With no screening forces and no shooting, my army desperately needed to get into close combat as quickly as possible so I lined them up a full 12" into the table and in a line, 4 to the left, general in the center, 4 to the right. My left wing would just barely clear the forest and my right wing would barely clear the building.

I won the right to go first and off I went. I moved the unit on the right and my General up towards the corner of a ruined building towards the Wood Elf army and the other unit up past the woods on my left to get in position for a charge on his skeletons or Crypt Ghouls.

Now, some of you will note the tactical error here. With such a tiny force, I should never divide my forces. Instead, I should try to wipe out one army or the other with all my force, then go after the other.

However, with two inexperienced opponents, I did not want to "pick on" anyone and this game was more about seeing how movement, shooting, and magic worked. Speaking of Magic...

Not only was my general a level 2 wizard, I gave both units the Mark of Tzeentch which meant they each added a power die to my magic pool giving me a whopping 5 power dice in a 500 point game. Pure brute force would insure I got in some effective magic.

First I threw Red Fire (30", d6 S6 hits) at the Wood Elf Glade Guard on 2 dice, but Chad wisely rolled both Dispel Dice he had and, much to the surprise of nobody, Dispelled it. Ah yes, pointless Magic my old friend, You've come to mock me once again (read the last line to the tune and rhythm of the Beatles song The Sound of Silence), specifically the part that goes "Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again" and you will see the kind of twisted thoughts and humor that is constantly passing through my mind).

Then I cast Indigo fire at the Skeletons. Lo and Behold...I rolled 2 6s! It was Irresistible Force, I got one off! So I rolled against his 25 skeletons with S2 against T3, so needing 4s on 25 Dice, I promptly hit 5 of them and he saved 2. So 3 Skeletons died and 3 Horrors of Tzeentch were created in combat with them. Bwoohahaha a 6 model swing! Magic is NOT pointless!

See, by that happening, his skeletons were locked in combat and his Ghouls would be unable to march move. *Twiddles thumbs a la Mr. Burns* EEEEEEExxxxxxxxxccccccceeeeeeellllllllleeeennnnnnnnntttttttt.

Combat was not so good as I failed to wound but he killed one of my Horrors.. Fortunately, I passed my combat resolution test so lost none of the little buggers.

Then Rick went. First, he had to test for Stupidity for Konrad. With a weak LD of 6, it figured Konrad would fail once or twice (remember, I designed that army for ME to play...I wanted some very real flaws in it). And he promptly failed. 

I then mis-remembered the rules and said he had to separate from the unit. WRONG! He should have stayed with it. Not the last rules mistake I would make in this battle. SO old Konrad rambled forward 5" which did allow the Ghouls to move up 4" behind him. 

Rules mistake #2. In the same turn, no less. Though suffering from Stupidity, I thought Konrad could cast magic. Of course, I dispelled his Raise Dead as I did not really want him either restoring the Skeletons or bringing in some Zombies to slow my Knights. And he failed the Lore of Nehetek so his magic...well...hello magic my old friend, you've come to mock me once again.

Combat was again not so good; this time neither of us wounded and I passed my test. On the bright side, I was holding up the Skeletons. On the dark side...I was holding up the skeletons.

Then Chad went. Now the realization dawned on him that he had blocked in his key unit. So he wanted to march the unit of Glade Guard closest to me to get them behind a building (which they could not do in less than 2 turns and I would be charging them before the second turn) which would keep them from firing. I convinced him the march was not needed and would keep him from shooting. He finally elected to march the other unit of Glade Guard towards the Skeletons and move the unit just 5". He then sent his Glade Riders also towards the Skeletons. A screen of Forest protected them from my Knights, so probably a good move.

Chad had no magic phase so on to shooting. First, his Glade Guard. They were just outside 15" from me so S3. Maybe 2 hits, but I easily saved both. If by easily saved I mean, rolled a 6 and one...which means I just lost a quarter of my unit and had to take a break test! Ouch. I passed. Then he shot down a Crypt Ghoul with his Glade Riders. Nice! At this point, I had lost 38 points, Rick had lost about 20, and Chad was unharmed. Time to change that.

I could not quite come to grips with 

My second turn. I had the charge on Chad's Glade Guard but needed to maneuver to avoid Rick's Crypt Ghouls, so just the one charge. Since I was on Chad's flank (he had 7 guys in line) he got no Stand and Shoot. 

Magic was cool as, though my Red Fire at Chad was again Dispelled, the Indigo Fire again was successful, this time at the ghouls. And it even did a casualty! Excellent, now I had both his units pinned with Horrors. 

Of course, in the CC phase, he won both, though both Horrors remaining passed their tests. 

Meanwhile, on the other flank I killed 6 (SIX!) of his Glade Guard. Ah, yes. Drooling a little bit. Finally, I have a close combat unit that, you know, can actually DO SOMETHING in close combat! The 7th broke and I overran off the table, mostly to stay out of Chad's bow fire for another phase since his 1 Glade Guard could not have rallied.

Rick's Konrad, for a third turn, tried to be Frenzied as opposed to stupid. For a third turn in a row he failed. Stupid Konrad kept wandering, his magic again was dispelled or did nothing, and in close combat he won both despite losing another skeleton. This time the Horror facing the skeleton failed its stability test and was destroyed. 

Chad shot down one of my Knights on the left flank. This was not going well for me! 

My turn, I charge the skeletons and brought my other Knights back towards Chad's Glade Guard.  Fortunately, he had moved them forward and was facing away.

I thought magic could not be used in close combat, so directly into that phase. I wracked up 6 skeletons. Unbelievably, they PASSED their break test! Of course, they had a 3 rank rank bonus and I, due to points, did not have a banner. So they only lost by 1. Still, they needed a 5 or below. I knew the way Rick was failing 6+ LD tests for Konrad that I could do a few more...but no. Still, he was now down to just 1 rank bonus.

Unfortunately, on the other battle, hit Ghouls killed my Horror. Which means...

Rick's turn. Do I even need to tell you Konrad failed his test and continued shuffling aimlessly away from the action? This time I remembered Stupidity does not allow magic. But his Ghouls charged my Knights. Already engaged, the flank charge by Fear-causing enemies...they broke. And were promptly slain when they ran into Chad's Glade Riders in their fleeing. Fortunately, General, who was not attached, who ALSO failed his test, was clear of the Riders and escaped. Unfortunately, the ghouls charged right into the Glade Riders. Things were getting messy.

And I lost track of events, but more or less they went like this:

Chad did a lot of damage to the ghouls and actually ended up doing a couple casualties. My knights took another casualty when he stood and shot at them coming in to his Glade Guard but then wiped out the Glade Guard. His General shot at mine with Hail of Doom, missed, charged in and finished off the Ghouls. 

My Knights charged in and finished off the Skeletons. His Glade Guard charged my Knights (!) even though I explained to him how bad an idea it was. His General joined the fray. My Knights and General broke his Riders and General and slew them. Rick failed another Stupidity test. We extended the game to have Konrad on Chaos hand to hand and he FINALLY passed his test...twice. We got into hand to hand, my general killed his, and I "won". 

I think we all won because it was a great learning experience and I think everyone had fun. 

Why Chaos?

We recently picked up two more people for our little gaming group. It is now a pretty impressive array of players for being nothing but a group of life-long friends with just a couple exceptions. We also have a nice cross-section of armies, which brings me to the point.

One of the recent additions wants to play the Wood Elves, the army I am currently running. That is very exciting for me because I have been looking with envious eyes at some other armies but having a hard time leaving behind the army I am playing to just sit on the shelf.

The Wood Elf experiment was a qualified success. I did not lose with them...actually, I never even came close to losing. They are an easy army to play and pretty fun...except they win in ways that are tough for me. That was the other part of the experiment...to play with an army that is not my normal style.

I typically like very small, well-armored armies with a nice mix of shooting, magic, and close combat with an emphasis on the close combat. My all time favorite army was a Bretonnian army running a general on a dragon, a powerful wizardess, a handful of bowmen, maybe a block of 20 I think? and 10 Grail Knights (back when that line-up was legal).

By contrast, the Wood elves have essentially no armor, they have no close-combat oriented troops and their magic is weak at best.


They stand at a distance and shoot people to ribbons. That is it. The Wardancers suck as a close-combat unit and have no ranged weapons. The Dryads are fun but any unit you stick out there more or less alone, even a fear-causing one such as the Dryads, is at a disadvantage and liable to get smacked around. Of course, they seldom NEED to get into close combat because the shooting is so good. The Glade Guard are a phenomenal unit and are core. But they are boring, too...they shoot, shoot, shoot...that was usually my turn. "No movement. Wizard tries spell X. (failed or dispelled) Glade Guard rolls 20 dice at unit X. Go." Rinse. Repeat.

Even worse, the Wood Elf magic is 2 things:pointless and pathetic. At this point I take Wizards pretty much to just roam around with Dispel scrolls and don't really use them for anything else. No point to it.

So in short, the Wood Elf is GREAT at moving, MARVELOUS at shooting, and horrible at close combat and magic.

Roll call:what are my favorite elements of the game? 100 points if you said dragons, close combat and magic or magic, dragons and close combat.

Elements I like but don't love? Shooting just because it can whittle down vicious enemies before they can get to you or wound elusive enemies who cannot be brought to grips in hand to hand.



Elements that I can take or leave?

Maneuvering. Just trying to get myself into position for close combat and magic. It is something to get out of the way so I can get to the fun parts of the game. I don't particularly like it or dislike it. Just want to get it over with so I can get to the meat of the game. Recognize the importance of it...just don't want to spend a lot of time on it.

Panic and psychology tests. Don't really want to win with them and don't want to lose to them. Would much rather win or lose by sticking the right troops in the right situation.

In other words, the Wood Elves are great at one thing I like and a couple things I either dislike or don't care about and are HORRIFIC at my two favorite phases.

So while they were admittedly fun to play, I had been casting covetous eyes at a couple of armies that are much more suited to my playing style from an enjoyment standpoint.

First I considered the Dwarf army; I already have the models, they will be unused shortly, good shooting (Thunderers) and some fun hand-to-hand guys like the Slayers, Hammerers and so forth. Yeah, I know...the Ironbreakers are the Dwarf All-Stars. They also are not what I wanted to play. Also, I really, really wanted to do a Grand Battery a la Napoleon with like 6 regular cannons, a Flame Cannon and Organ Gun, though the points requirements to do that would mean like a 6000 point game, so it was never gonna happen.

But they are so slow that they would never get into hand to hand, at least not in any advantageous position. And the capricious nature of the cannons is far too chancy for me. I don't like weapons that can blow up in your face, chance of Mis-casts notwithstanding. So no Dwarf army for me. I don't have the patience.

I was looking then at my beloved Bretonnians, but I more or less promised not to play them. They really are my ultimate army in many ways; small, tough force with just enough shooting to keep the opponent honest. Easy to maneuver, get into combat very, very fast, and do a great job once they get there. But I have done that, looking for something new.

I did look long and hard at the Empire. The Steam Tank looks like so much fun that I would play them just for that even with the potential to blow up. On top of that, I LOVE the detachment system. It provides so many tactical options and turns cannon fodder like the State Troops into actually usable units with some actual point to owning.

They can be a shooting army, a hand-to-hand army, a war machine army...they are flexible. They have my beloved Knights. I love knights. It is so hard for me to be in a game involving Knights but not play an army that uses Knights.

I grew up reading books like Ivanhoe and the Arthurian legends. The idea of a Knightly charge, banners fluttering, lances lowered, horse hooves driving...oh, it gives me goosebumps. And to play a game where that can be replicated without being able to use that unit myself? Horrible.

The Empire is a strong, strong candidate. Not only that, they have reasonably decent magic abilities. I can definitely see myself as an Empire guy. The main drawbacks are threefold:

1) Their weak strength means units like the Ogres would be no fun to play against because I know that no matter how many times I hit them I can't wound them.

2) They are expensive to build.

3) Between their war machines tendency to blow themselves up and the distaste people have mentioned about facing the Steam Tank, someone would be frustrated every game, thus removing the element of fun that is the main reason to play.

Other candidates included the Lizardmen and High Elves. I was wavering between those two before landing on the Wood Elf army when my brother snapped up the Lizardmen and my good friend went High Elves. Well, no need to duplicate efforts, so I will pass on both of them.

So it was pretty much going to be the Empire. But I was hesitating because at least one person in our group wanted to face neither the Steam Tanks nor their best Knights. If it were just one issue, I would do it but since there were two...well, I don't want to make it no fun for others just so I can have fun. We are not power gamers here...we actively try to make sure EVERYONE is competitive and has fun, even if that means building weaker armies.

So I was idly paging through some of the codexes and suddenly one caught my eye. I have always played armies with a penchant for being "good guys" like the Bretonnians, Lizardmen, Wood Elf, Dwarf armies...all of which I have played. This one was distinctly not. It was Chaos.

At first it was the daemon units that caught my eye. Their attacks count as magical. Having just watched the ethereal Vampire units wipe out three times their value in Ogres, that could be important. (Ironically, the Wood Elf Dryads would be the right troop choice to face this unit...) But then I looked again.

If I took a Mortal general I could give them all the Mark of Tzeentch. I could field an almost exclusively Knightly army. In fact, an army with an Exalted Champion mounted on a dragon (my favorite single unit of any type to play), a couple units of Knights, and a couple Aspiring Champions. All of them are hard, hard units with good saves and excellent close combat abilities.

By giving them all the Mark of Tzeentch, I would have one 4th level and 2 2nd level Wizards, +3 Power dice, and guys who could get into close combat across the board.

At the same time, there are some HUGE weaknesses: I will have something like 38 guys on the field in a 2250 point battle. I have NO shooting. I did not include any guys for a screen against shooting so the Wood Elf army, the Skink shooting army of doom, and the 75 shot per turn Dark Elf armies would all have a good shot at taking out several of my guys. The Ogres are beasts in close combat. (And my brother showed me a Dark Elf unit that could give them a run for the money). The Vampires have great magic. In other words, I would have a good chance of being about 50-50 winning, which is my target. Being me, I would like to land slightly on the high side...maybe 55-45, no better than 60-40.

The army has almost everything I want; small numbers, good armor, great hand to hand, the chance for effective magic, and a dragon.

Even better, it seems to be a version of the army nobody else plays. Most people I see play Khorne or Nurgle with a little bit of Slaanesh. Nobody seems to like Tzeentch. Plus, I am using no daemons or anything like that...pure Mortal army with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. No plans (currently) to use the Flamers or Screamers or Horrors. Just Knights. And a heavy dose of Magic.

So I am playing a style of army I love and not one being played by people in the Warhammer sphere as near as I can tell.

I am sold. I am going chaos.

Now the mission is to make sure they are as exploitable as I think they are, that they will still be fun to play against. So a few test runs are in order. More on that shortly.

Dwarf versus Wood Elf battle

Chad had never played, so after the Lizardman game was over, he and I set up to play. He wanted to try the Wood Elf army, so I grabbed the Dwarf army Rick had just played. I ripped out 2 cannons and replaced them with the Organ Gun just because I wanted to try it out.

On the right side of the field was a small ziggurat, on my left was the King's Wall, on his side of the field was a small building on his right (my left) and a forest on his left (my right). A small stream guarded the edge of the field, essentially meaning my left flank was protected. I put a unit of Thunderers (move or fire, 24" range, s4 guns, 150 points) behind the King's wall on my left, the Organ gun behind and to their right to control the center of the field, the cannon on my baseline to it's right, the second Thunderer unit (same as first) to its right but up towards the edge of my deployment zone, and a 17 man Warrior unit with the Thane in it behind them to protect their flank. 

I explained to Chad how to set up. It took some convincing, but finally I got him to put the 23 Glade Guard (30" range on their bows, no penalty to move or fire, BS 4)  in a line from the building over to the Woods. Behind them he put 12 dryads (2 attacks, cause fear, 156 points) and 7 wardancers (2 attacks, Shadow Dances), their General supporting them, and then planted the Waywatchers behind the ziggurat.

He won the roll for first turn. The Waywatchers came up over the Ziggurat, everyone else advanced straight ahead. He opened fire. Effectively. The Waywatchers shot down 3 Thunderers  on my right while the Glade Guard shot down three more. 

I knew how the Dwarf army was designed and kept my turn short; no movement and then I returned fire with pretty good results. The Organ gun flamed to life, killing 7 Waywatchers, forcing them to break. The Thunderers both shot at the Glade Guard, combining to kill just 2 or 3 of them. The Cannon killed a Glade Guard, a Dryad, and even got a wound on the General. 

His next turn saw him fail to rally the Waywatchers and everyone else advance. He decided to open fire on the Thunderers to my left, killing 3 despite them being behind the King's Wall.

Again I moved nobody and this time the Organ Gun fired on the  Glade Guard, killing 5. The Thunderers also shot pretty well, taking him down to about 10 Glade Guard. It was looking good....except his Dryads and Wardancers were untouched and almost ready to charge. He kept trying to take them out from behind the screen and I kept convincing him it was a bad idea. When facing a shooting army, let your screen do its job; absorb the damage until you are ready to charge. Unfortunately, the cannon ball simply stuck in the mud, failing to do any damage.

His next turn saw the Wardancers cross the ziggurat and everyone else move forward. This time he shot down 3 of the last 4 Thunderers on my right. 

Now I moved. My Warriors, who all game were hanging out defending my right flank (actually, I had moved them slightly each turn to deal with the Waywatcher threat, then the approaching Wardancer threat, so they were out on the extended right wing), got the charge on the Wardancers. Time to shoot.

First, the Cannon. I had his last 4 Glade Guard lined up, the cannonball would wipe them all out...except the cannon mis-fired. Then I opened up with the Organ Gun on the Dryads...only to watch it mis-fire and blow up, taking the Master Engineer with it. 200 points gone, just like that. But it DID do a lot of damage; I got 1/2 the Waywatcher points (147 cut in half) and 1/2 the Glade Guard points in exchange for 200. Costly.  My Thunderers could not even kill a single Dryad. I did win the hand-to-hand, but his Wardancers would not flee. 

The Dryads charged home against the Thunderers behind the King's Wall. The General unleashed the Hail of Doom arrow against the cannon, killing one crewmen. The Dryads killed about 5 Thunderers. The Wardancers lost a couple more.

I now had 4 Thunderers behind the King's Wall locked in combat with Dryads, 2 guys standing behind a useless cannon as they were charged by his Glade Guard, and 16 warriors battling Wardancers. After this turn I had 16 Warriors and my Thane. He had 3 Waywatchers, 2 Glade Guard, and all his Dryads, and his General. 

We totaled the points. We each controlled a table quarter. I did in half his Waywatchers and half his Glade Guard, 5 guys from having over 600 points, instead I had I think 3 hundred and some. Meanwhile, he killed 2 units of Thunderers (150 each), a cannon (90), and my Organ Gun/Engineer blow-up for 200 points gave him about a 220 point win, a solid victory. 

Oh, the pain...had his Waywatchers not fled I would have killed them all and had at worst a draw. Had my cannon not misfired I would have wiped out his Glade Guard instead of leaving 2 alive and had at worst a draw. Or had my Organ Gun not blown up (on turn THREE) I would have had at worst a draw. 3 dice rolls that went against me. *sigh*

On the bright side, Chad is hooked and fun was had by all. I think. And I did get a game in after all, so that was a good thing.

Wood Elves Verse Orcs

Josh wanted to stick with the Goblin/Orc army. We bounced the point totals up to 2250 per army, this would allow Lord-level characters. The battles would be as follows:

Drew & Wood Elves versus Josh and the Orcs (proxying goblin figures for Orcs). We matched the points pretty well...2118 for the Orcs, 2112 for the Wood Elves!

Kenneth & the Dark Elves versus Rick and the Dwarfs. Using every Dwarf figure I have, we got the total for the Dwarfs up to 2188.

Phillip and the Lizardmen versus Chris/Kevin and the Vampire Counts. The Vampire Count army is interesting looking; We loaded them with Vlad Von Carstein, Isabella, Konrad, and Mannfred the Acolyte; the latter three are mere Hero level. Plus, we gave them Varghulf. All of them are Vampires which means at the minimum level one Wizards...though Mannfred the Acolyte is a level 2 and Vlad is a level 3. That means they had at worst a whopping 9 power dice! Magic ahoy. 

 Pictured from front right to back right: Vlad Von Karstein, Isabella Von Carstein, Konrad, Mannfred the Acolyte, 12 Crypt Guard (?), 15 skeletons, 15 skeletons, then on the left Varghulf, 24 Grave Guard, 25 Grave Guard.

Not that the Lizardmen were slouches in that department. Phillip had a 2nd generation Slann and 2 Skink Shamans. However, with somewhere around a million skinks, he also had plenty of firepower and with Temple Guard, a large Saurus unit, and 3 Kroxigor (I know, one cleverly disguised as a Minotaur...but whatcha gonna do, right?) he also seemed like a powerhous in every phase...shooting, close combat, magic.

Of course, the Vampire units were...well..wimpy. Other than causing Fear they pretty much blow chunks. Low ws, low strength, low toughness. Cheap, of course...but horrifically bad. As near as I can tell, their best use is protection and numerical support for getting the hand to hand monsters like Conrad and Vlad into close combat. Experimentation might prove that wrong, but it looked to me like throwing Vlad in with the 25 Crypt Guard, having him enter challenges and letting his overkill give huge cmbat resolution bonuses could really do some damage. Then again, I thought charging Wardancers into close combat was a good use of them...uh, no. So maybe (read "probably") I have no clue how to run the Vampire army.

Of course, one could argue I don't know how to run any army. This day would prove that further. The Goose and I went to Taken last night (review to be posted shortly) with Liam Neeson. Good flick, but I had planned that time to finish painting and gluing. Instead, I was trying to do that this morning. 

As a result, I was a bit rushed getting prepped for the Warhammer and later Texas Hold 'Em games and forgot some stuff...like, a pen to keep notes. So we will see how memory serves.

We were going with Victory Points and a different terrain set-up:minimum 4 pieces, alternate placement by rolling on the 1995 Battle Book terrain chart, then after everything placed, roll scatter dice and 3d6 to see where it moved before rolling for sides.

Josh initially ran the river all the way across the board, but that would have meant I could concentrate all my archers on the 2 fords which means the battle would be over before it began, so we agreed to change it to the alignment seen below where it entered and left the same table edge. 

He deployed his Orc Board Riders (which to the untrained eye might bear a suspicious resemblance to Goblin Spider Riders...), Black Orcs with their Special Character...Grimgor? the one that rocks the Black Orcs, giving them Hatred and so forth..., Orc Arrer Boys, Orc Big Uns and Black Orcs (?) if memory serves. He planted his shaman behind the bowmen and his Stone Troll over on his right flank.

It worked well for me as I was outside 12" and was able to put my scouts behind the ziggurat. This would be great for me. I also took advantage of the Waywatcher ability to plant in the open to guard the ford with some great shooting troops. As if "Wood Elf" is not the definition of "great shooting troops".

Meanwhile, I put 20 Glade Guard in the Forest more or less at the edge of the River with my 6 Wardancers behind them, my 10 man unit of Glade Guard on the Hill with the Dryad s behind them and my Wild Riders of Kuornos ready to back up the Waywatchers with some mobile shooting.

My plan was simple; shoot the Orcs as they advanced, retreat before they could charge me, shoot some more, shoot some more, and then, when I had shot as much as possible...shoot some more.

Of course, locking myself behind the river seriously reduced my mobility. D'oh!

WOOD ELF TURN 1

We had to roll 4 times to determine who would go first because we kept tying. Finally I won. Kenneth had pointed out that Fast Cavalry can march and still shoot so I got the Wild Riders up front in a hurry, getting them into range to fire on turn one. Meanwhile, my Scouts climbed the Ziggurat and unleashed a hail of arrows while my other 10 man Glade Guard got ready to fire. 

When you shoot 47 arrows, something is bound to go down and Orcs were dying in droves. It was mostly his Black Orcs taking damage.  

He was out of range of Magic so my first turn consisted of lots of shooting and lots of "Okay, your turn."

+

ORC TURN 1 

March forward except the Arrer boys so they could fire. He elected to ignore the small unit of scouts that shot at him. I probably would have sent the 12 Big 'Uns after them...but eh, whatever. I certainly can't fault him trying to get into my battle line as quick as possible. It is no secret Orcs rock at close combat while Wood Elves are not so good at it. If he could break my Glade Guard, I would be taking a LOT of Panic tests.

In his magic phase he rolled like a 15 for Gaze or Gork. I used a Dispel scroll rather than rolling against such a high score. Magic is pretty much worthless so far...

WOOD ELF TURN 2

Stop me if you have heard this one before; Not much movement, just minor tweaking to maximize my firing. Then shooting, shooting some more, and closing out by shooting...oh, and watching my Magic get dispelled...

But this time the shooting was much less effective as he saved virtually every wound. I think out of 47 shots I did like 1 casualty? Maybe even none. It was brutal. Especially after the Orc turn...

ORC TURN 2

Stop me if you have heard this one before...pass animosity except where it was beneficial, his Troll would not fail Stupidity all game, he did "fail" aniomosity with a unit he wanted to move forward quickly. 

Boom, the Close Combat is looming too soon as he moved forward rapidly.

At this point he looked to be charging my Waywatchers the next turn and my Glade Guard the following turn. THe Orc army was working well. This time I Dispelled his Gaze of Gork by rolling.

His shooting was pretty pointless, fortunately for me. 

WOOD ELF TURN 3

What to do? Oh, I know...back off my Waywatchers to get one more turn of Shooting. Magic? Ha, he dispelled both attempts. I shot and shot and shot with decent success. He lost rank bonuses with two separate units. 

Key was my pesky Scout unit, plinking away from the back at his exposed units.

ORC TURN 3

Ah, animosity, how I despise thee. His Black Orcs's Waaghed their way into charge range. I decided to flee my Waywatchers. He did not follow very far. My flee and shoot routine was working beautifully. The river was slowing him down, too.

Meanwhile, his Troll charged my Dryads unsupported. His troll suffered a wound for his audacity (after failing all 3 saves but Regenerating 2 of the 3).

Gaze was Dispelled again. See a pattern? Actually, late in the game my Spellweaver...a level 4 Wizard taken at the expense of being led by a Lord, a decision that would be disastrous when my Wardancers rolled one under the number needed on their break test...a test they would have passed if only I had the Lord general...my Spellweaver did get 1 (ONE) spell successfully cast after the Shaman died. And did kill 1 (ONE) Orc, about 12 points. SO I essentially spent 600+ points to kill a 12 point model. Magic is as good as the Orcs.

Wood Elf Turn 4

For the first time in several games, Magic mattered as I got irresistible force and struck down a few Black Orcs.

Shooting was also great as my pesky Scouts shot down his Shaman which he had left alone behind the lines. I also took out a few more Black Orcs.

 And then it happened

Ah, joy of joy...I FINALLY, after over a decade of wanting to, I finally, finally, FINALLY got to send in the Wardancers. WS 6, 2 attacks apiece, +1 thanks to the Shadow dance, S4 for charging...I was going to open a can of whoop-tushy on their candy smurfs. 

So yeah, 19 attacks unleashed. No wounds. Zip. Zero. Nada. Nothing. I did, however, manage to lose a couple and the break test, fleeing.

Yup, that above is my beloved, anxiously awaited Wardancers dancing back through their just-reformed Waywatchers. *Sigh*. That was...uh...not really worth the wait? I think that is a fair assessment.

Fortunately, the Dryads restored some fun as they crushed the Troll by causing another wound (he once again failed 3 Scaly Skin saves only to save 2 of  3 with his Ward save). This time he broke, I overran and charged into his much-reduced Boar Boys, forgetting to force a Panic Test since my Dryads cause Fear. No worries. I had shot 5 of the 10 dead with Glade Guard.

 

ORC TURN 4

His Black Orcs finally charged. Using Aenach, I decided to Stand & Shoot, taking out a couple more, including reducing his Rank bonus.

He also kept the pressure on my right flank, advancing across the river.

And just passing through to go after my Waywatchers.

Close combat, as you might expect between the Orcs and Wood Elves...uh..went the Wood Elf way as his Boar Boyz fled

After chasing them down, a turn or so later I turned my Dryads on his hapless Arrer boyz...good shooters, bad in close combat. Of his 7 remaining guys, I slew 5. Josh said, "no problem, the last two will each kill one." Which, needing 5s to hit and wound, they did. I, needing 5s to save, rolled 4s. So he went 2 for 2. But he still ran.

On his fifth turn, his last remaining unit chose to charge the Glade Guard. They, unsurprisingly, elected to stand and shoot. They shot down 4 of the 16 charging Orcs, just enough to force a break test, which...they failed. 

See the Orcs.

See the Orcs run.

 Dragon model not included...

His turn 6 he rallied which kept me from winning that table quarter, but that ended the game. 

This was a complete and total rout. He eliminated my 9 man Waywatchers and my 6 man Wardancers, which gave him their points + we gave him captured standards for them even though neither unit had Standard Bearers. That gave him about 600 victory points, give or take a handful of points.

Meanwhile, I killed almost 2000 points of his, slew the general, controlled 3 table quarters, captured several unit standards...I won by over 2400 points.

At this point, I am pretty much giving up on the Orcs and Goblins. They are worthless. They cannot win even when they have stronger, tougher warriors against poor (theoretically) hand to hand warriors. My Glade Guard held off and then defeated his toughest, strongest close combat unit. 

Face it, the Orcs stink badly. I really don't know what else Josh could have done. I suppose his trailing 12 Big Uns could have charged my Scouts on the Ziggurat and prevented a few casualties. Maybe. But that would not have turned the battle. I really thought the turn he charged all his hand to hand units in would be the end of the Wood Elf army but instead it crushed the Orcs.

I recommend that when the High Elf army Rick purchased arrive Josh either switch to the Dwarf army or to the Wood Elf army in which case I will go Dwarf. Goblins and Orcs? Done.

Warhammer; The Elf and Lizardmen's First Appearance

It was a mighty host that gathered. Doltsneeze smiled as he looked at his host. On the right wing he had put the Elven Glade Guard, 15 elfs strong. They had been the ones who had warned him of the approaching Goblin horde. 

Apparently, they had been tracking some strange lizardmen. When the lizardmen joined the Goblin host, the Elfs scrambled for any help they could find. The nearest help was the Dwarf stronghold of Lumpyerhead. 

Behind the Glade Guard he had placed his Warriors, a dozen of them all he could muster on such short notice. Pintwerp the Dragon Slayer had shown up and, as was his wont, went where he jolly well felt like. In this case, that was next to the warriors. Doltsneeze huffed in upset. He wanted Pintwerp to guard the mighty cannon in the center, but Pintwerp had a mind of his own.

To the left of the cannon Doltsneeze placed his Thunderers. Anyone coming towards the Dwarf army would face a lot of firepower. Doltsneeze looked on the horizon for the advent of the approaching Goblins. he was confident the Dwarfs would take them with ease.

His smile disappeared when he saw the size of his enemies. There were hundreds of them! They advanced towards him. Well, all except a group on the Goblin left flank that started fighting among themselves and went nowhere. A hail of arrows from goblin archers tore through the ranks of his Thunderers. Doltsneeze stopped smiling when he saw two of them playing pincushion for the Goblins. In response he signaled the Glade Guard and Warriors to advance.

Several of the small Lizard men fell to the accurate arrows of the Elf archers, but still their numbers were limitless.

The Goblin army continued to advance, firing as they came.

Doltsneeze saw several Elf deaths, but thought little of it. After all, they were only allies. It was the whereabouts of his Miner kin and Rangers he was worried about. He needed them to show up. He moved to the side, allowing the Elf Archers to deal with the Skinks while he prepared to take advantage of the King's Wall in case the approaching Spider Riders should charge. Suddenly he heard a mighty roar from the Goblin army. He turned to see a unit of Night Goblin Spearmen, inspired by the power of the Waaagh, charge into his Thunderers, chasing them from the field. 

This was a disaster of epic proportions. Though his mighty cannon had fired thrice, killing a couple Spider Riders and 5 Night Goblins, he needed the Thunderers to do some damage, not flee in terror. Enraged, he led his Warriors in a furious charge against the Skinks. When they fled, his unit followed, hewing them to the ground to a man. Unfortunately, they bypassed the Goblin general, leaving him unmolested.

 

He found himself facing the strange lizardmen who called themselves Saurus. The Suarus proved unable to withstand the fury of Doltsneeze and his men and fled, only to be run down and slain.

At the same time, Pintwerp charged the Goblin General and began hewing away at him. For quite some time they danced their deadly duel of death, neither able to penetrate the other's defenses. And more Skinks suddenly arrived on the battlefield, coming in behind the Elf forces.

Fortunately, the Miners showed up as well. They had a chance at saving the cannon if they hurried.

 Unfortunately, the Goblins killed the cannon crew and, even with the fearsome Miners behind them, refused to flee. Meanwhile, the goblin horde massed to take down the Thane and his Ranger force.

While they massed, the mighty Pintwerp finally took down the Goblin General. As it turned out, that was a bad move.

The Skniks, seeing a target, promptly slew him. Meanwhile, the Elves took out another force of Night Goblin Spearmen, the Miners took out their enemy Spearmen, and the Thane and his Rangers moved forward, ready to fight the Night Goblin Netters. 

The Netters proved no match for the enraged Doltsneeze. He and his Rangers promptly got ready to engage the Night Goblin Archers.

The Archers soon fled. The Skinks shot down a couple of Miners, but the Miners had their vengeance by slaying the remaining Skinks. Then the Spider Riders over-ran the remaining Elves. Bothe armies turned to see who was left.

Of the once-mighty Goblin Horde, only a few Spider Riders remined. The Thane and his Rangers saw only three Miners besides themselves. The Spider Riders moved towards the Thane's unit but were no match and soon became mulch...plant food...extinct.

In the end, there were just a few survivors. The Thane, untouched. Seven Rangers. Three Miners. The rest were dead. But the Dwarfs are a hearty folk, unfazed by disasters and they will take the field again some day soon.

In