Warriors of Chaos v. Wood Elfs

Fresh off the Dwarf v. Wood Elf game, Liam and I decided to play another one. I had a ready made 1k WoC list, gave him an extra 2560 points and while he built his list I rolled up a magical, mystical field.

There were two Dwarf Ale houses, 3 sections of Ghost fence, an Altar of Sigmar, a Khainite shrine...plenty of terrain, a field built to look like someplace people would live.


My list is full of weaknesses, and on purpose. I have no magic defense, I put in some Chaos Warhounds...a unit I almost never take because they are so bad...and even a 10 man unit of marauders with full command and khorne.

That is a horrible build. They are there so I will have three units, so they should either have some of the guys from the larger block to give me two more reasonable sizes or else be bare of excess points.

But that sort of makes up for having Knights and a Lord level guy on a Juggernaut.


We rolled up Blood and Glory. I knew all I had to do to win was break his Glade Guard unit. He would have to break three of my units to win via scenario rules.

He had to set up a unit first and put it on my right flank. I put the dogs on my left flank, hoping to influence him to split his forces. He did not fall for it, putting his Dryads in the forest on my right flank. Inexplicably, I then put everything on the left anyway.

Battle plan: Marauders will sweep around the right using the houses for cover, then the small Marauder unit to absorb some bow fire, then get out of the way of the big Marauder unit.

Meanwhile the dogs would be a meat shield for the knights on the left, sweeping between the buildings. With any luck, the dogs would charge, get shot, flee, leaving my Knights a free shot at his Glade Guard.

Horrible deployment. I should have set up my Marauders on the left side of the right flank to head for the Dryads, allowing the dogs/Knights to head straight for the Glade Guard.


I forgot how slow infantry is and did not start my Marauders in time, having them hang out for a turn. I think I decided to go all or nothing, planning the Knight charge for the win or loss


The Marauders were first through the gap. In one turn he shot down 6 of the leading unit. The time lost getting them behind my other unit to save their points meant my Marauders did not have time to get to him even if I marched every turn. Time for plan B.

I sent the dogs on ahead. I kind of hoped he would flank them with the Dryads. He would win the combat easily, over-run, and perhaps the Dryads and Marauders could battle while I tried to withstand the inevitable hail of arrows.


He had no plans of leaving the steadfast-making confines of the forest, though. And he shot all 5 dogs down in one turn.

At this point both units of marauders were moving backwards. After he hit the unit with irresistible Dwellers, killing one Knight but not getting either character, it was obvious I could not reach him. I ran behind the building to avoid shooting.

He had set up a perfect situation. He had a wide open field of fire. If I did allow the Dryads to flank me, I would also be hit by the Treeman, who would be stubborn and re-rolling thanks to his BSB. That would keep me from combat reforming. It would also mean I could lose the battle but could not win it.

I turned and headed for the hills, having taken irresistible Dwellers twice (he receiving one wound each time).

I MIGHT have gone in if it were just the Dryads/Treeman. But with Dwellers in play as well...I retreated, giving him the 30 point advantage.

This was a short, entertaining and relatively bloodless battle. I probably should have made him charge with his Dryads and/or Treemen. Would have been interesting to see what happened. But..I did not.

I do think the Wood Elfs are a great army for Liam. He likes setting up defensively, which is near ideal for the Wood Elf army. So that was definitely a win for the day.

Campaign Round 1: Wood Elf Verse Goblins

First, a preface. We started a campaign where the attrition elements requires a different style of play. the further you get from home, the more each casualty will hurt. It is not enough to simply win a battle, it is imperative to minimize casualties.

Knowing that a casualty might not be with your army for the next battle means you sometimes need to be a bit more conservative in how you maneuver your army.

Fortunately, I am playing the Wood Elfs; an army that relies on maneuver to avoid combat and tries to win with massed missile fire.

Now, I also know there is a 5-in-6 chance I will be facing an army smaller than my own, and 750 points does not go far, so I want to have a force that is hard-hitting and can still deal damage if I lose a few troops as I move out.

Building the Army

I started with my hero. I could either go a Wood Elf Noble or a Spellsinger. The Noble is slightly cheaper, can provide some close combat punch, has a higher leadership, and for me, magic pretty much always is pointless. I went with the Noble.

I know I might run into some Vampire Counts, and if so, fear of Ethereal means I might need some magic so I made him a member of the Waywatcher Kindred and gave him the Spites of Luminescents and Shrikes, which means he and any unit he joins have their attacks count as Magic.

Thus Windstar will lead my War banner forth.

Since he has the Waywatcher kindred and can deploy with Waywatchers, kind of a no-brainer to take some, so I maxed out a unit at 10 of them. They should provide me some good shooting that can louse up an opponents' battle plan.

I still need 2 core units so I took 5 Glade Riders. Fast cavalry with 30" bows...I have a 48" reach, though they are only S3. Still, I should hit often enough to do some damage and, being Fast Cavalry, might even be able to go after War Machines.

Finally, I took a big unit of Glade Guard. Probably my favorite core unit in any army, they have great striking power, particularly from 15" in. With their ability to suffer no penalty for moving or firing, they are a fast, mobile, deadly fire base that, in emergency, can form into ranks and at least maybe take out an enemy or two on their way out the door. I took 19 since often I can either place them on a hill in 2 ranks or occasionally even go 19 wide and control the center of a field.

the set-up

When forces were rolled, it was determined I would be facing 500 points of Orcs and Goblins. Good news; most O&G fear Elfs, and I would have a 3-2 advantage in points.

We rolled scenario and drew Surprise attack. Since I had just 4 placements, placed first, and he had 5 placements, it meant I would get 2 4" moves besides.

I had hills on my left and center, a forest out of my deployment zone on my left flank, and on the right flank half-way across the table another forest (placed there via Wood Elf ability). The center of the field was open.

I started by lining up my Glade Guard 19 wide in front of the hill. The plan was to get within 15" as quick as possible and then retreat 2.5" per turn in a shooting retreat to maximize the number of turns I was wounding on a 4+. He lined up 20 bowmen wide opposite me...though I thought for some inexplicable reason they were spearmen.

Next I placed the Glade Riders on my Right planning to make for the forest and shoot him from there.

He lined up another 20 bowmen behind the first.

I placed my Waywatchers on my left, planning to head for that forest, giving me a horse-shoe to fire on him. I planned to concentrate my fire on one unit at a time.

He placed 10 Black orcs behind the bows on my right.

I put Windstar with the Waywatchers.

He placed a bunch of regular Orcs on my left behind the bows. I advanced the Waywatchers 4". He placed his Black Orc general with the Orcs and I got my Waywatchers into the forest.

I won the roll to go first.

Wood Elf Turn 1

Windstar led the Waywatchers to the edge of the forest, the Glade Guard advanced the full 5", the Glade Riders shot forward about 16" to enfilade the enemy. Time to do what Wood Elfs do best.

Twang! Twang! Twang!

No, not play banjos, fiddles, and country "music". They were shooting. And shooting. And shooting some more. Then, just for something different, they shot.

The Glade Guard shot down 6 Night Goblin bowmen. The Waywatchers then almost whiffed, shooting down just 1, and the Glade Riders could also do but 1 wound. Still, 8 Night Goblins down in one turn. This was promising.

Orc and Goblin Turn 1

All his units passed their animosity test, which I was happy about. I think the Orcs and Goblins MIGHT be playable if they did not have that rule. Well, his 12 bowmen open fire on the Glade Guard that tormented them so badly. They hit just once, but that one proceeded to kill a Glade Guard.

Why? What did he ever do to them? How do they know he was not one of the 11 guys who did no damage?

Anyway, about 7 or so guys from his 2nd unit of bowmen had line of sight on the Glade Riders and took pot shots on them. However, being goblins, they may have been imbibing in pot and the shot was rot, doing no damage.

You are welcome for the horrible poetry, by the way.

He also had no magic so the turns went pretty quick.

Wood Elf Turn 2

I moved the Glade Guard forward a couple inches to get within 15". The Glade Riders now proved their value, riding behind enemy lines. In some respects, this was a tactical error, but in others it was brilliant. More on that in a moment.

The Waywatchers were in perfect position. Time to shoot.

The Glade Guard again showed why they rock as a core choice, shooting down another 8 Night Goblin archers.

Okay, so the enemy is "just" Night goblins. Average T, not particularly dangerous...still, whacking 14 of them with 2 rounds of shooting is pretty awesome. Not a lot of units can do that.

The Waywatchers for whatever reason, instead of finishing that unit off, fire at the second line, killing 5, and the General kills another. This turn I remember his Pageant of Shikes, but it does no damage.

The Glade Riders also do well, hitting 4 times and killing one of the Black Orcs. At this point I am ecstatic with my shooting.

I mentioned a tactical error. I should have concentrated all my fire on individual units until they were gone. That had been my plan, and I randomly abandoned it on turn 2. Why?

Excellent question. On the bright side, it did put me behind his close combat monsters and march block them...which would matter. I accidentally learned the power of that maneuver and probably saved myself several casualties, though I think the outcome was pretty much determined already by point totals and a field quite favorable to me.

Orc and Goblin Turn 2

The Orcs promptly fail their animosity test. The General has an ability though where he whacks around his troops, and rolls just one. So one orc dies to the orc attack. He then tries to wheel towards the Waywatchers, only to be march-blocked by the Glade Riders, so he only goes 4".

His 4 man unit fires at the Glade Guard...and promptly do nothing useful. I still should have finished them off! His big unit of archers has a bunch of guys who can see me, but their shooting is ineffectual, killing just one.

Wood Elf turn 3

Time to start phase 2.

Glade Guard retreat 2.5 inches. You can call it a retrograde movement. Advancing to the rear. I call it lining up the shot...

Glade Riders move to keep both the orcs and Black Orcs march blocked.

Between the Glade Guard and Waywatchers, I finish off the second line of archers...leaving the 4 untouched. Pageant of Shrikes again fails to wound.

Glade Riders again fire at teh Black Orcs, hitting 4 times...and failing to wound even once. S3 versus T5 is bad news.

Orc and Goblin Turn 3

Lets see...what would be the WORST possible outcome for the Orc army? Oh, I know...both eligible units failing animosity.

So they did. Pathetic dice rolling.

The bowmen would simply stand and bicker. The Orc general was tired of the bickering, so this time he hits 5 of his guys, killing 2. He has done 3 casualties to his own unit, more than his entire army has done to me. Animosity is so horrible.

Anyway, the move towards the Waywatchers commences, Black Orcs can only advance 4" towards my Glade Guard, He splits off his General to go see what the Glade Riders are up to.

Wood Elf Turn 4

The retrograde advance continues, as I advance another 2.5" towards my edge of the battlefield, trying to keep distance between me and those nasty Black orcs. Everybody else is happy where they are.

Glade Guard now opens fire at the Black Orcs. They wound 4 of them...and all 4 promptly fail their saves and die.

The Glade Riders have a choice; shoot at the Orc general or at the 4 man archer unit. It seemed like I had shot at the Black Orcs three or four times without wounding (2 times for those who can count...which apparently is a category I do not fit in...) so thought firing at the General was a last-ditch resort. I shot at the 4 bowmen and 2 died. The other 2 broke and, being less than 25% of the starting size, would not rally.

Meanwhile, the Waywatchers were looking at a formidable group of Orcs. If I had to face them in close combat, it was very dangerous; if Windstar was killed, it would put my overall campaign strategy in a serious bind...as would taking any serious hit to my Waywatcher unit.

So they took their job seriously, and put down 3 orcs with some very accuragte fire (and some lucky Lethal Shot casualties).

Gobline Turn 4

The 2 archers run into the Glade Riders and die. The Black Orcs and Orcs both advance 4".

Later, he pointed out this is the turn he should have called the Wwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhh but did not. Good point.

Wood Elf Turn 5

I need to concentrate on the Orcs as they are close to my Waywatchers so I bounce the Glade Riders onto a hill in his deployment zone and open fire on the Orcs. I should have built a fire and had s'mores, it would have been equally effective and tasted better.

Fortunately, the Waywatchers killed 3 more and the Pageant of Shrikes did its first casualty of the game.

The Glade Guard wounded 6 black Orcs, but 3 saved. Uh-oh...

Goblin Turn 5

Ah, a great turn for the gobbos. The Orcs finally get to charge, though by now they are but 5 strong. Too little, too late. For the first time in the game, the Black Orcs get to march.

In close combat, the Orcs strike down a Waywatcher. With no save, he is squishy and easy to kill. My General is ineffective, but the Waywatchers do kill one orc. I outnumber, so win the combat but the last 2 orcs laugh and stand.

Wood Elf Turn 6

The Glade Guard continue their nice bow work, retreating 2.5"...I mean, making a retrograde advance...and wound 6 Black Orcs, killing 4. That once mighty unit breaks and flees.

The Glade Riders fire on the General and even with the minuses and needing a 6 to wound, they do wound him once...and he cannot save. Excellent.

I get to strike first. The Waywatchers kill one Orc and the General the other.

Orc and Goblin Turn 6

At this point, he has 3 models on the table; the 2 fleeing Black Orcs and his General. He calls the WWWWWWWWWWWaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhh and charges the Glade Riders...who slay him with their Stand and Shoot.

Post-game Wrap Up

With a 250 point advantage, I was a prohibitive favorite to not only win this game but win via massacre...which we knew going in. These games are just to provide a minimal obstacle to taking "free" territories and perhaps cause some attrition problems. As a result, my goal was 2-fold; first and foremost, win the game, obviously, so I get the territory.

2nd, minimize my casualties so I lose as few troops as possible.

I succeeded brilliantly, losing but 3 guys, all of whom made their rolls and proved to be minor casualties who will heal in time to move with the Banner.

As far as the game itself,I think I played pretty well. I used the Wood Elf mobility to get their troops where they needed to be and, except for changing targets with the Glade Riders, I more or less maximized my firing. By retreating 2.5" per turn, I stayed within the 15" to give me that viatl S4 with my bows and also, with him being march blocked, it meant he was only getting 1.5" closer to me each turn. All day I can take that trade as it will take him about 8 turns to catch me. Good luck with that.

I think it did concince me that I need to dedicate some troops in each army to being March-block hunters. They will have to be mobile but with punch to keep people from march-blocking me. It is so hard to win if you ar close-combat oriented and can never bring the enemy to contact.

This left him little option. In our post game discussion, he said he might have put the 2 units of bowmen side by each which may or may not have caused me more problems. As it was, they only lost a half turn of firing and were about as effective as Night Goblin archers can be against fast moving, tricksy elves.

Overall, a fun game with the desired outcome. And I get to add a rare choice to my War banner. I might go with a Treeman for those games where I cannot keep out of Close Combat...

My First tournament

Fair Warning: Long post ahead. Also, the upgrade to Blogger seems to have removed spell-check. I do not really pay attention as I am typing since I make a lot of typos, knowing I will catch them and correct them with spell-check...but not this time. So sorry about the typos...

Thursday night I did not get to bed until 6 in the morning. Friday got home about 9:30, by 9:40 had figured out the list I had built for today would not work since I could not get the Juggernaut assembled so back to square one. So I built the following:

Prince of tzeentch, level 4, tendrils of tzeentch.My thought process was this; he is an assembled, painted model that can fly around seeking out tough enemies. I should get off a charge with him. Why the points on level 4, tendrils and mark? Because he is only S5, T5 so he cannot really take on monsters without some help...

A walking level 1. Scroll caddy. The very definition.
Another walking level one with infernal puppet
A mounted level 2 with a Power Stone and another Scroll.

I wanted to build it around close combat guys but they needed mobility. Neither my flying tzeentch nor Juggernaut models were completed, and I was thinking I had no Walking Exalted heros so instead I went magic since I have had no success to speak of most of the time. So this would fit my own definition of a not-too-tough army.

Ironically, I have a painted and assembled Prince Sigvald and was told the modified Bret I have would have been acceptable for my overall Army Standard Bearer. So in retrospect, I would have built a vastly different army.

10 unaugmented Marauders twice. Fill 2/3rds of my Core requirements, easy for opponent to kill, no real useful function in this alignment.

12 Chaos Warriors with Shield, Full Command, War Banner. Meant to put khorne on them, inexplicably forgot, used the excess points I had at the end of putting the list together to add more Marauders...which I then turned out to not have the models for, so did not use. This was fatigue I will claim...


I took one 5 man Knight unit with nurgle, full command and the Banner of Rage to give them permanent Frenzy. They would be my front unit against shooting armies to be a bit harder to get rid of prior to getting into combat. Otherwise, I did not really care about the -1 to be hit.

Second 5 man Knight unit with khorne, full command, Banner of Rage to back up the other magic. would have been a better idea if I used it more than once. Should have put the War Banner on them and Banner of Wrath on the Warriors...not that it would have swung any games, but would have gotten me a couple more points overall...and that would have mattered.

Dragon Ogre Shaggoth with Great Weapon. He is my monster hunter. With 5 attacks at S8 where he should usually hit on a 3 and only rarely need a 4, he should do some real damage.


Then I went to print up my list. A week ago I purchased a printer but had not hooked it up since some people hereabouts might not conserve ink and paper. Just an educated guess....

Problem is, this plug and play printer took nearly 3 hours to install. I think the software installation disk was defective as eventually I had to uninstall everything, reboot the computer, go to the HP website, download the software from there to get it to work. But by then it was almost 2.

Did not get to sleep until about 3:45 or so and then some, ah, household events woke me up about 7. (Who makes cookies at 7 in the morning? Who sounds louder than front row seats in a rock conc ert to make cookies? these are the questions which man might ponder to the end of days...)

So now I am rolling a pseudo-strong goofy army (no skirmish screen, only 1 flyer)on about 10 hours sleep since Wednesday about noon. This could get ugly.

I had no idea what to expect at the tournament. I know how to guage my self against my regular opponents, but not total strangers. So I decided to play sledge-Hammer. Put my Knights as close to his units as possible and more or less charge them in tandem headlong into him. And I flat out told my first opponent that. I did not care if I lost so long as I got off a charge. He could redirect me into being double flank charged or whatever...I just wanted to get off a charge. My secondary goal was a draw or marginal loss. I would not complain if I got a Solid Loss or Marginal Victory. I just wanted to avoid Massacres either way.


Game 1, Versus Lizardmen

There were a lot of ironies here. Like, I told him I had nothing to guage it by and hoped my list was pretty mediocre. He looked at it, said the 10 power dice were an awful lot...and proceeded to have 14-16 power dice every turn. Is all good, I mostly thought it was funny.

I more or less set up in a line. I tried to hide my Marauders since I could tell early on they had no targets. They were too slow to catch his many, many, many skinks. They could not touch his Temple Guard. They could not catch his Terradons. And they had no chance whatsoever against the 2 (TWO) Engine Stegadons he brought. I put my Knights side by each in the center of the table opposite where his Stegadons and Temple Guard were. Then I had my first real decision.

Where to put Shaggy? (The Dragon Ogre) If I wanted to win, there was only one place; right between my Knights. He was probably the only thing I had that could touch the monstrous Stegadons. Or I could float him out on my left flank to pseudo-protect the Marauders that I did not care about.

So I floated him out to the left flank.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 1

I went first. No charges (obviously) and did not want him charging my Knights with those impact-causing Engine-dons. Slow move forward. He pretty much dispelled everything except a Hand of Death thrown at his skinks on my left flank which got 2 of them.


Lizardman Turn 1
He moved forward more or less in a line, flying hisTerradons over Shaggy. I blocked just one thing using one scroll, but he got like 4 or 5 spells through. I don't even remember what they all did, but two knights died and that is the main thing I remember. That hurt.

 His shooting was scary, putting 4 (4) wounds on Shaggy between the Terradon rock droppers and his Blowpipe poison. Ouch.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 2
Time to charge. Shaggy charged the skinks who promptly fled...but were caught and wiped out. This was not the unit I had slain a couple with my Magic Missile, so that was good.
Another choice. If I was going to try to win, I should concentrate everything on one Engine. I should charge both units of Knights at it and my Prince. Or I could charge the 3 Knights at his Temple Guard and the Prince and other Knights at his Engine if I cared more about massive charges. You can safely assume I did the latter.

Now, to be fair, I knew  his Engine was tough but was also fairly sure that having 25 S5 attacks with WS5, another 5 S5 attacks with WS8 and 16 S4 attacks with WS 4 could have done some real damage. I also knew if instead of doing that if I took 3 Knights at his Temple Guard, I would probably lose the combat but with 10 S5 attacks should do some damage. Plus I think I thought I had my army battle standard and would be stubborn, holding up his Temple Guard who probably could not hurt me either more than once every couple of turns. Still, I knew it was basically a suicide charge that would ensure I lost.

Let 'er rip. In I went.

And promptly had I think the three most pathetic charges I ever hope to see from Chaos. My Knights whiffed completely on his Temple Guard. They might have done 1 wound? Which means even before he attacked, I had lost the combat to Rank Bonus, 2 Standards, outnumbering...And of course I broke and fled.

Meanwhile, the Knights against the Stegadon saw my Prince challenge and his Skink Chief accept from atop the howdah. So I flailed away madly at his Stegadon.

I figured he was so tough it would take everything I had to bring him down and the skinks were not going to hurt me. Plus I had 5 Knights with Frenzy and a Wizard flailing away at him, not to mention the horses.

Of course, I failed to wound him even once.

They did, however, take a wound.

Fortunately, I was about to take out his Skink Chief and get rid of that super-powered Radiance thing they do. 5 attacks needing 3s to hit. 5 dice come up with no number higher than a 2 showing.

Now that...that was awesome.

Right about that moment I knew this would be a massacre.

Making it worse, when my Knights against the Temple Guard broke, because of how I had positioned my Prince to get everyone into combat, his Temple Guard hit my Champion...which meant he outnumbered me, had rank and banner bonuses, and I would need Insane Courage to not run.

Note that if I had my battle standard bearer, I still would have been fine. I would have been testing on an 8 with a re-roll, giving me an 89% chance to stay in the battle and damage him. I could have brought my Warriors around and flanked his Temple Guard and since his other Engine was out of position, it would have no bearing on this melee.

Amazing how much more powerful that one model would make this army.

Or not...my Stubborn Prince promptly failed his break test too. He would later rally and get into a challenge with the Skink Chief on the Engine that lasted for 9 rounds....but still...it hurt.  I know it is a risk...but he has broken I think 3 of the last 4 times he has had the chance to.

Conclusion
He spent the next few turns putting his Engines in position to double-whammy my stubborn Prince with their magic phase unblockable attack of doom, killing Shaggy with javelins and poison darts, and watching my WS8, S5 Prince do 1 (one) unsaved wound to his Skink Chief in 9 rounds of one-on-one challenge combat before being slain himself when the second Engine charged and did impact hits on him.

For what it is worth, I had the Chaos Warriors untouched and one unit of Marauders with 4 guys left. I also think he slightly eased up, because instead of coming to visit my Warriors, he used his Stegadons to go after 3 Marauders...

He lost 2 units of Skinks (Shaggy) and his Terradons (Shaggy).

My Magic was ineffectual, my close combat troops pathetic.

I did not really mind. I got off three charges. True, they were ineffectual...but they sure looked good charging in.

Result: Massacre

Reflections
Knowing what I now know, I would have played it differently. The other guys were all talking about what a vicious list it was to bring two Engines. They are all but impossible to kill, he had more Power Dice than anyone else and more Dispel Scrolls...none of which I mind, but it does mean playing soft as I did meant I was doomed.

Since no hill was in play (thought the field had 4 of them), I would use my Marauders to screen, put my Warriors and Shaggoth in the middle of the field, the Knights to the side, and bring full blunt force trauma to bear instead of splitting out my army, attacking piecemeal when I had the option of ganging up and flanking him, and I think I would at the least achieve a draw...though with the complete lack of success I had with the guys who did make it into combat, I might still get massacred. I doubt it. Shaggy with 5 attacks at S8 is going to give no save to the Engines and that will take them down pretty quick. I would also include my BSB with the Banner to make me stubborn.


Game 2: Warriors of Chaos
I will say up fron this kid might be my favorite game of all time. He was a wise cracking goof-ball...we had a lot of fun with our table chatter. Awesome.
His list is vastly different from mine. He has 2 large units of khorne Marauders, 3 units of khorne Chaos Warriors, and a single tzeentch wizard.

This game would have "echelon deployment" where the table is angled.

Neither of us was subtle in our deployment. Marauders on each flank, I had my Knights/Shaggoth/Knights Chaos Warriors in the middle, he had 3 Chaos Warrior units in the middle, and 4 Spawn off on my left.

His Warriors of Chaos Turn 1

I let him go first. He moved slightly forward, he tried Infernal Gateway, I used a Dispel Scroll. My Dispel dice blocked his uber-magic missile.

My Turn 1
Lets see, he moved a Spawn within 14" of a Frenzied unit of Knights...and his Warriors were within 14" of Frenzied Knights...I best be charging Shaggy. I did, and the Kngihts and the Knights and slightly moved my Warriors forward so he could not flank me without getting flanked.

Magic was brutal. I used Treason of tzeentch on his Maraduers on my left. They promptly offed like 8 of themselves. (Rules error; about turn 5 we realized he had Frenzy and so was immune to psychology. Oops...) I used Infernal Gateway to knock off some random troops.