Warriors of Chaos Versus Vampire Counts

We were going to play 3K and I had a couple things I wanted to play...Prince Sigvald, since I had the model painted, and Wulfrik with a big band of Marauders.

In any game, I pretty much always take my BSB build with the Banner so I have stubborn units.


Knowing I would be facing the Vampire Counts, and fearing the Wind of Undeath, I needed some Dispel scrolls...4 sounded about right.

21 Chaos Warriors with full command and War Banner should have me taking on and crushing any big blocks of skeletons, ghouls, zombies, etc. he might have roaming around.

24 marauders with Light armor, shield, standard bearer and Mark of khorne coming on with Wulfrik should be able to go Vampire Hunting.

5 marauder Horsemen with throwing axes should allow more Vampire hunting.

10 Marauders could be home to my Scroll Caddies.

I also wanted to try out the Chaos Cannon and a big block of Knights..9 of them with my BSB gives me a rank bonus.

A Chaos Warshrine is something I always think costs far too many points for what it does and my beloved Great Weapon wielding Shaggoth rounded it out.

Then he changed the total to 3500.

So I added a Sorcerer Lord with 4 Dispel scrolls, changed one of my Scroll Caddies to dude with Infernal Puppet, and time to go.


He basically spread out in a line. His General was Mannfred on some flying mount or other. I did the same, except the Stone Thrower....err, cannon was up on a hill.


Warriors of Chaos Turn One
Wulfrik rolled on, and I brought him on behind the enemy. Perfect! They are all march-blocked and, if they do not turn, I will charge their rear and do lots of damage. If they do turn, Wulfrik and Co. Will do lots of damage.

I move everyone except the cannon forward, some very little...because Sigvald promptly fails his Stupidity test and moves forward 3". I want to keep everyone within range of the Banner so it limits my advance. On the bright side, the Cannon passes its test.

Magic goes better as my Sorcerer Lord gets Infernal Gateway off with Irresistible Force. Good start as I dial up 7 hits on his Blood Knights...but then they turn out to be only S3. He takes just 1.

Then I fire the cannon and I hit almost dead center on a unit. 16 are covered. 9 of them are slain but...the one directly under the hole somehow survives! The Warshrine, inspired by Sigvald's talent, managed to give me an "Eye is Closed" result.

Vampire Counts Turn 1
He makes no movement at all. Then comes time for the magic phase.

He raises back 8 of the Grave Guard I hit with the Cannon. He adds 6 Skeletons to a unit. I use a scroll to twice dispel Wind of undeath attempts. He then adds 3, 6, and another 3 Ghouls. Finally, one of his Corpse Carts brings back the last Grave Guard I had hurt. Then another 8 Ghouls pop up in the unit he had not been adding to.

So yeah...turn one I do 10 casualties, and after his first turn, he has 26 more models than he had when my turn started. This could become a problem.

Warriors of Chaos can cause a lot of casualties, but not so many that seeing your opponent raise 35+ models per turn is not going to cause some HUGE problems. It would be imperative to start whittling down his Power Dice ASAP.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 2
Sigvald and the Cannon both pass their tests this turn.

And now his not moving shows its flaw. Wulfrik's unit could not charge...but he could charge out of them!* So he charged Mannfred.

This presented him a problem. If Mannfred fled too far, he would be in my charge range next turn...or off the board completely. If he did not flee, he would face the fury of Wulfrik...which he elected to do.

For a second consecutive turn, I get Irresistible Force on Infernal Gateway, and this time 7 Blood Knights are wiped out, essentially rendering that unit a non-entity with just one member left.

The Warshrine is useful this time, adding +1S to the Knights.

The Cannon slays just 5 Grave Guard this time.

Since Mannfred was close to his Corpse Cart which had done the Miasma of Vigor or whatever it is called, he got to strike first. I saved one of 2 wounds, so Wulfrik still lived. Then I did 2 wounds to him and he died to Combat Resolution.


Game.

Conclusion
That removed something like NINE power dice from him. I had Marauders, Chaos Warriors, and Knights ready to charge his units, his Blood Knights were all but gone, and I now had more Dispel Dice than he had power dice.

Furthermore, he would be losing guys to the dead general thing every turn so we called it a game.

Lessons:
1) I made a HUGE mistake with Sigvald. I had a cramped deployment zone and, having taken Sigvald specifically to make use of any Difficult terrain, I then did NOT start him and his unit in the forest, leaving plenteous room for the rest of my army, I put him in the open, which forced me to deploy my Marauder Horsemen wide left, essentially out of the battle.

2) having no fear of Mis-cast due to Infernal Puppet is awesome.

3) I need to remember special rules...like Frenzy on units I do not normally put it on, remembering to roll on the Eye table when I win appropriate combats, etc.

4) The Stone Thrower is much better than I thought...it actually sticks a third of the time, not a sixth. I might try that again.

5) Regardless of it having been an illegal death for Mannfred, he was only going to live one more turn anyway. I had my Marauder Horsemen and Shaggoth deployed to where they could cover anyplace he could reach. The lesson here; if you have a key part of your army (like, for me, the BSB), put him in a unit that can protect him unless you are positive, positive, positive that you can protect him.

6) Wulfrik can be very powerful or very weak. When he works, he is worth the 185 he costs, maybe even 10 - 15 points more. When he doesn't, he is worth 40 or 45 points at most.


* As I typed this, I realized the Marauders had khorne...which means they were frenzied...which means they should have charged the rear of his Grave Guard. Which means Wulfrik could NOT have charged. Though I would actually have charged his Vamp who was off to the side. Oops.

Chaos Versus Ogres

I had not played the Ogres yet and was very excited about doing so. Well, okay, I played them in Warbands...but that doesn't count.

First off, Warbands is so limiting that you don't get a real feeling for what troops can do. For example, Tomb Kings desperately need mass Magic to be effective. In Warbands, the simply can't have it.

Second, armies that are small numbers are disproportionately punished in Warbands for bad rolls. If you only have 2 guys and one bad roll means one of them dies...well, every so often you are going to have a bad roll. There is no margin for error in Warbands.

So anyway, I was really looking forward to this game. Ogres have the strength to be a threat to Chaos, they have the toughness to take a lot of damage and with multiple wounds, they can strike back more frequently than a lot of armies. Plus, there is something vaguely disquieting about attacking a small unit of 4 models, wounding 16 times, and seeing half the unit stil standing there....

Of course, they also struggle to hit striking back due to their low weapon skill, they have such limited armor that they take wounds anytime they are wounded, and their missile range is pretty limited. (I mistakenly thought it was 12" except for the Hunter...turns out the Maneaters have 24" range).

So the potential is there for some epic close combat encounters.

I got a wild hair Friday night and decided to try gluing the Dragon Ogre Shaggoth without pinning, so a last-minute adjustment to my army was needed. Fortunately, Kev is an easy going guy, so the adjustment was simple; we each added 265 points to our armies which let me fit him in...well, okay, I gave him an extra hand weapon, so 275 points.

We rolled and I ended up with a 2000 point and he a 1500 point army. I think if it had been the reverse, I would have lived with it but A) the poor Ogres have yet to win a game and B) I did not want to Massacre him in a game where he had no chance which I probably would have done in that case...unless we altered the scenario to something like Ambush which actually just occurred to me when I typed that.

Oh well.

We really wanted to go a game under Lord-level characters, so we settled on 1750+265.

I went with the 1750 point list from this post and added the Shaggoth. Good times.

Goals:

1) Get off a charge with the Knights

2) Win a challenge that allows me to roll on the Eye table

3) Do some damage with the Shaggoth

THE SET-UP

The terrain was interesting. On both sides we had hills, a small stream entered and left the field about the center on one flank, and there was another stream in one deployment zone. He won the roll for table edge and took the side he was standing on. I had to deploy first.

I had a simple plan: group my units of Warriors in the center, my Knights on the flanks, and my Battle Standard Bearer in the center, ideally within 6" of all of them so my entire army would be Stubborn leadership 8, giving them an 89% chance of passing any test.

So the first unit I placed was a unit of Warriors in the valley between the hills. He placed his Leadbelchers opposite them. I placed my other unit of Warriors a bit to their right...and realized I had already made a mistake.

I would have at least 2 units outside of range of my Battle Standard Bearer if I put the Knights on the flanks as planned. And I knew he had a Gut Magic spell that forces me to take Leadership tests and a magic item he could take that made those tests -3. So that could really hurt.

Anyway, I put a unit of Knights outside each unit of Warriors and the Shaggoth in the hole between them. The Battle Standard Bearer went behind the Shaggoth and my General joined the Knights on the right since he was loading up his left flank with Bull units. He had Maneaters in teh center, Gnoblars everywhere and a Scraplauncher. I did NOT see that coming. Fortunately, I had Wulfrik, 16 Marauders and they could enter from any table edge at some point.

OGRE TURN 1

I won the roll and chose to have him go first. I thought the max range he had was the Leadbelchers at 12" and as a result, I thought the entire battle would be fought from 12" or less (except the Scraplauncher).

Well, if he is within 12",I am within charge range with my Knights and Shaggoth, and not far removed from the Warriors charging as well. Therefore, having him move first meant I might have a first-turn charge.

He moved about everyone forward.

He cast the Gut Magic Spell that added Regeneration to a unit of Bulls on my right flank. Not good. My Dispel failed.

He then tried some other random spell but failed to cast it.

Then came my first shock: His Maneaters had 24" range and were able to shoot at my Warriors. No damage done.

His Scraplauncher had no Line of Sight.

Chaos Turn 1

I had deployed over an inch behind my center line which meant I was out of charge range.On the bright (?) side, Wulfric rolled on!

I was not ready for him yet. I wanted him to come on when Kev was engaged in hand to hand so I could flank or rear charge him. Now I had a choice: I could come on my right flank under cover of the stream to threaten his flank. That, however, would mean I was across the field from his General, which was Wulfrik's target.

Alternatively, I could come on behind his Scraplauncher to take it out. Again...I would be BEHIND the General and moving 4-8" a turn, probably never catch him moving 6-12".

His Yehtees on the hill meant I was in danger if I came on that flank, but I thought I could protect against the flank charge so entered a little less than half way on my left flank which allowed me to threaten his General unit. (Is it just me, or do I sound like I have studied too many chess games? 'He moves B2 to K4, threatening p3-p4, Q-R8 check, Kk5-Q1, KB1-K1 Mate)

My Knights on the right performed a slight retrograde allowing them to face the 2 or 3 units of Bulls coming over the hill. My left flank Knights moved to charge the Yehtees should they charge my Marauders.

Ogre Turn 2

His rear-most Gnoblars bickered. No big deal, they were blocked out of the action. He moved his Bulls on my right flank up to the top of the hill, a unit behind them, and his Butcher to their flank.

I THINK this is the turn his Gorger arrived.

He advanced up the middle with other troops but the Yehtees proved too far away to charge.

His Maneaters opened fire but again failed to wound any Warriors.

Then came Episode 493 in Warhammer things I find funny. His most effective units got into the action as the Scraplauncher killed a Marauder. First blood to...the Gnoblars?

Seriously? I have Chaos Warrios, Chaos Knights, a Dragon Ogre Shaggoth, an Exalted Hero, Wulfrik...Kev has Maneaters, a Tyrant, Leadbelchers, Yehtees...and the GNOBLARS draw first blood? Whatever.

It was pretty funny.

His magic phase gave +1 Strength to the back-up unit of Bulls on his left (my right) flank.

Chaos Turn 2

My plan worked to perfection. He was in range of mass charges. My Wulfrik-led Marauders charged his Leadbelchers in the flank. My Knights on the right flank charged his Bulls on the hill. My Shaggoth charged his Maneaters. My Warriors charged some Gnoblars maybe?

Well...ALMOST perfection. He did the one thing I did not anticipate...he fled his Leadbelchers.

I actually agree with the decision. He got no stand and shoot, I had Wulfrik and 2 extran ranks of Marauders hitting him in the flank, the failed charge meant he would flank charge with the Yehtees and frontal charge me with his Tyrant and Ironguts. He would PROBABLY rally with the Leadbelchers in the center of the field.

Well, anyway I moved my Battle Standard on top of the left hill so he would be within 6" of the Marauders and turned my left Chaos Warriors to face his Gorger. My Knights moved to get out of the gorgers line of sight.

On the right flank, my Frenzied Knights went to work. 16 attacks needing 3s to hit and then 3 to wound. Sweet, 10 wounds! Nothing to complain about there!!!!

Until he Regenerated 6 of them. Wow, already his less than 100 point Wizard has been more valuable than entire magic-based armies I have used before with over 1000 points invested in making magic powerful.

He then had just 9 attacks back wounded me twice. Needing 2s to save...I failed one. Awesome. I need worse saves so I can save 60% :-)

I still won the battle handily: 4 wounds + outnumber + Battle Standard to 1 wound + he needs insane courage. He did not get it, but his flee bounced through the second unit of Bulls whom I then hit...bypassing his Butcher and I think yet another unit of Bulls who would have had a charge if I was still atop the hill. All in all, that combat went better than could have been drawn up for me.

My Shaggoth went to work. With 2 hand weapons, he had a massive 6 attacks. 5 hit. 3 wounded. A Maneater died. Then the other Maneater wounded me back 3 times. At first we thought it meant a drawn combat but then realized the Shaggoth had unit strength 6, not 3, so I outnumbered him. His Stubborn Maneater then failed his test, broke and ran.

I caught him...and ended up right in front of the fleeing Leadbelchers. Hmm.

I think this was when my Warriors charged in, devastated his Gnoblars, but I don't remember. All in all, awesome turn for me.

Ogre Turn 3

His Yehtees did indeed flank charge my Marauders and then he made what, in retrospect, might have been a mistake. He charged his Tyrant-led Ironguts into the front.

Which meant Wulfrik could fight. And could challenge his Tyrant who, per Hunter of Men, could not refuse.

His Gorger charged my Warriors.

His Leadbelchers rallied. His fleeing Bulls...on my Shaggoth's right, but out of line of sight....also rallied. Uh-oh...

The Yehtees were awesome, slaying 3 or 4 Marauders. The Bull Charge killed a couple more. His regular Bulls killed one or two.

And Wulfrik, who consistently has underperformed, dying without wounding, went to work on the Tyrant. He saved both wounds, then went and wounded the Tyrant 4 times...who could save just one and, having taken a wound for some armor prior to the battle, he one-turn killed him! Yes!

I instantly said, "I forfeit, Kev wins via Massacre." I was really excited. About time something I looked forward to playing performed to expectations.

I finally got to roll on the table! I got a +1 to my armor, making Wulfrik better yet.

Still, I lost the combat by a handful. Fortunately, I was within 6" of the Battle Standard Bearer and passed my test, being Stubborn thanks to the Banner of Chaos (my own slight renaming).

Over on the other flank, it was more of the same. I had the charge, slew a couple Bulls, took no damage in return, he fled, I pursued...right to a couple inches short of his freshly rallied Bulls.

Meanwhile, his Gorger benefited from my "must declare a challenge" rule. Since he was alone, he could not deny it. Therefore, instead of having 3 Frenzied guys attacking, I had one...who, after taking 2 wounds, did not get to attack at all.

I still won the combat with rank bonus, outnumbering, and banner, but since the Gorger is Unbreakable, it did not matter. I would have to actually slay him to win. Good luck with that, let me know how it turns out.

Chaos Turn 4

Okay, my priority here is pretty simple. I need to make sure my Shaggoth doesn't get shot. Simple solution? Remember the Gnoblars that bickered? Perfect charge target. Here I go!

My left flank Knights charged his Yehtees. My Battle Standard Bearer could rear-charge his Leadbelchers or flank-charge his Ironguts. Since I would be outnumbered and not remove his bonuses, I went after the Ironguts.

So that was an intriguing combat; My Battle Standard Bearer was flanking his Ironguts who were frontally committed against the Marauders who were flanked by the Yehtees who were facing the Knights. Awesome.

The Knights killed 2 Yehtees and hurt the third, a Marauder wounded a Bull, Wulfrik killed a Bull, the Battle Standard Bearer killed a Bull. He could only kill one Marauder in return, he broke all over the place, my Marauders ran down his Ironguts, my Knights ran down his Yehtees.

I also, being under Frenzy, had to charge his Bulls. I killed one or two, he fled, I over-ran not only him but the other fleeing unit of Bulls. I had now taken out that entire flank except one unit of Bulls and the Butcher with one unit of Knights bolstered by my Exalted Hero General.

The Shaggoth slew 5 Gnoblars, but their rank bonus and outnumbering meant it was a drawn combat. Whatever. Run, you little nits!

With a nice 9 attacks needing 3s, I flailed away at the Gorger. I did not wound him even once. He killed 2 Warriors. I won the combat with static combat resolution. He laughed and decided to stick around for another round.

Ogre Turn 4

His Scraplauncher charged my Warriors. His Bulls began crossing my deployment zone towards my Warriors hissy-fit fighting the Gorger, supported by his Butcher. His Leadbelchers advanced towards my rampaging Knights.

The scraplauncher slew a couple Warriors, but my BSB meant they were stubborn. I rolled a 9...but they were close enough to the BSB to re-roll and passed. Every roll going my way.

The Leadbelchers finally opened fire. Something like 18 or 20 shots. 4 wounds. 2 not saved. I lost 2 of my Knights, finally giving him over 50% for them.

I killed 5 more Gnoblars and this time they fled the Shaggoth who chose not to pursue.

Again, I swung 9 times and this time 6 hit. That is better. 6 hits needing 5s...should do a wound or two. But whiffed completely with not one roll over a 4. His Gorger killed another Warrior or so and was eating away at my advantage.

Chaos Turn 4

I turned my Knights to face his Leadbelchers, turned my Shaggoth to get behind them, moved my Marauders and BSB to pin them down.

My other Knights started heading towards his Gorger/Bulls.

Only one close combat right now: the famous Gorger. And something weird happened this turn; I got a wound on him!

It only took 27 rolls needing a 3 followed by 5. I should have done slightly less than 6 wounds by this point and had done one. Hmm.

He, of course, killed another Warrior.

Ogre Turn 5

His Leadbelchers charged my Exalted Hero/Knights on my right flank. His Bulls moved towards my engaged Warriors. His Butcher moved forward.

I won the combat. His Leadbelchers broke and died.

The Gorger slew another Warrior.

Chaos Turn 5

Not much to do but get the Knights on my left close enough to MAYBE save my Warriors and seize table quarters. Oh, and charge into his Scraplauncher with Wulfrik and company who promptly did enough wounds to cause his Scraplauncher to break and I over ran it.

No wounds by the Gorger this turn.

Ogre turn 6

His Bulls got the rear-charge. They were too close to Bull charge, but killed 2 warriors. And with the least attacks I had on him all game, my last 2 Warriors killed the Gorger at long last. Inspired by their great feat....they promptly failed their break test and fled off the table. He pursued right off the table which meant he had exactly one model left on the table.

Chaos Turn 6

I charged his Butcher with my Knights and BSB, a tremendously stupid move.

See, I MUST declare a challenge. If he rolls well and I roll poorly, he could kill by BSB and all the combat resolution in the world won't save me. Fortunately, my BSB won the duel and took bloody revenge for him hacking down my warriors. It was a decisive revenge.

ROUND-Up

Okay, the Knights ROCKED this battle. One unit punched up with an Exalted Hero single-handed wrecked an entire flank. I destroyed 2 units of Bulls and a Leadbelcher.

Furthermore, when I destroyed the units, it led to fortuitous movement that took me out of range of units he had well-set up to flank charge me if I were held up for even a single turn. So I was very fortunate in that regard.

Getting the charge on his Maneaters allowed the Shaggoth to win a combat he probaby would have lost otherwise since just one of them was able to wound him THREE times. Of course, the Maneaters had to have been disappointing to Kev as they took I believe 12 shots without ever doing a wound.

The Marauders were good at protecting Wulfrik ad letting him actually do what he does best. IN combination with a BSB keeping them in the fight regardless of casualties, they were able to survive 12 casualties to deliver my killing machine to the places he needed to be.

It was cool rolling on the table even though the result was one I ended up never taking advantage of...but that is okay I was super happy to roll on the table.

The Battle Standard Bearer w/Banner proved well worth his points, even if he did not "do" the points worth. He kept my Marauders and Wulfrik around long enough for my Knights to arrive and take care of the Yehtees. He kept my Warriors alive long enough for Wulfrik to arrive and slay the Scraplauncher. All in all, he contended with Wulfrk and my Knights for MVP.

The Shaggoth did everything I wanted him to. He got into combat, did some damage, and generally controlled the center of the field.

Only the Warriors did not meet or exceed expectations. Taking I believe it was 5 turns to kill the Gorger was really, really pathetic. Of course, I was playing them wrong.

I thought I took the version with Khorne and...I am not sure what. I played them with that Mark and no upgrades. They should have been striking last with no Frenzy but with Strength 6. Instead, I had them striking first with Frenzy and with S4...but no other upgrade. Oops.

Still, Math Hammer suggest 27 swings should be good for 17.82 hits. 17 hits needing 5s to hit is good for 5.88 wounds. In other words, 3 - 4 turns at the outside should have been plenty. The extra turns were tough and ended up costing them their lives.

I would say this battle confirms a couple things. Needing 4s to hit, it was just too hard for the Ogres to get damage through.

As for my goals:

1) Epic success. The right flank Knights charged almost every turn except the first and 5th I think. The Knights on the left only got off two charges, but both led to Ogre disaster.

2) Wulfrik did the deed and got the roll. I am happy now.

3) Oh, yeah, the Shaggoth rolled. He destroyed a unit of Maneaters and a unit of Gnoblars. He did 11 actual casualties...1 Maneater and 10 Gnoblars. This is the type of result I was hoping for.

He is a fun model and I look forward to painting him.

The traditional "We won and survived" Photo op.

Overall, it was a pretty fun game. I think some tactical choices by Kev slanted the battle in my favor; he knew my Knights would have Khorne, so with a bit of patience, he could have forced me to charge Gnoblars with my Knights and, knowing I was likely to overrun them, set up one unit of Bulls to accept the charge and another one (or two) to counter-charge my flanks. That would have given him a starting static combat resolution of +2 (+1 for flank, +1 for outnumber) while removing my Battle Standard bonus and given him at least a chance. He had enough units to do that on one flank.

Then again, that is a trap that takes a lot of patience to put together and with the hill placement, it might have taken 2 more turns to set up. With my Shaggoth and Warriors advancing up the middle and my left flank having spare Knights, he might not have had time.

The Scraplauncher only fired 1 time, the Leadbelchers did not fire until the game was over, and that worked out in my favor.

Chaos Versus Brettonia, 2000 points

I knew going in that Liam is pretty new to the game but, from what I have seen, a fast learner. So I tried to build an army that would be fun for me to play, have a chance to win, but hopefully draw or lose by Marginal Victory.

I set my goals early; 

1) Win a Challenge to roll on the Eye table

2) Get a charge with my Chaos Knights

3) Get some magic off

4) lose by Marginal Victory or achieve a draw.

I went with another unusual army for me. My well-known despising of Marauders is particularly hilarious in light of my taking a unit of 20 of them, all that I have...and in an even bigger departure from my typical army building, I used some left-over points to give them a standard bearer and musician. No champion, 2 points short of having enough.

The idea was for them to join Wulfric and go after the field Trebuchet I expected to see. Their entire purpose was to provide a +4 static combat resolution. Knowing I will pretty much always hit on a 4 and wound on at best a 4, I know the odds of me doing more than 1 wound per turn (assuming I go 5 wide to get the 3 rank bonus and include Wulfrik in the front rank, displacing a peon:I will thus have 4 attacks if I charge, I have WS4 which the only unit I have ever seen them have a better WS than is the Skinks...so as a general rule, they hit on 4s. With S3, facing T3 again, I need 4s. So if the opponent has no save, my 4 attacks figure to average one wound per turn in the long run. I am not going to count on them doing any damage since I have yet to run into a unit that has no save.

I also took an Exalted Hero with the Battle Standard and Banner of the gods. It makes him cause Terror and, more importantly, allows units within 6" of him to test as if Stubborn. Intending to more or less Castle and let my Chaos Warriors absorb the charge, figuring to have two shots to not break at 8-, I should break just about 11% of the time. That should handle anything but complete obliteration of my "anvil" units...2 12 man Chaos Warrior blocks with full commands. One I gave the Banner of Wrath, a Magic Missile I forgot all 6 turns, and the other the War Banner  to give them +1 combat resolution which I promptly forgot in the one combat they were involved in. Well-spent points, those banners....

I took one unit of Chaos Knights with full command and Banner of Rage to give them Frenzy.

That left me about 550 points and no way to deal with flying death machines. I wanted to put in a Dragon Ogre Shaggoth, a couple of Chaos Spawn and my Chaos Prince. The Prince was vital. I had the model, it looks awesome, he flies, and, being stubborn, should be able to handle any monster for at least a turn or two. 

Then I randomly decided to make him a Sorcerer of Tzeentch. I ramped him up to Level 4, gave him the mark, and there was 535 points. No room for the Shaggoth or Spawn. Since I was only putting the spawn in since I think they are sub-par, going with Magic which, as we all know, has hurt me far more than helped me, meant I would still be going sub-par and by not taking the Shaggoth, which I still believe will be an excellent troop choice, it gave me a small, compact, fragile army that could do some real damage. 

Having the Chaos Warriors and just 5 Knights meant I would have a slow-moving army. How the field looked would make a huge difference.

We ended up with a tower and  river blocking one edge, a village on the other, and another tower close to the village. The center of the field would be wide open. He won the roll for choosing side and took the more open side which meant I would have a very crowded deployment zone. He then won the roll to see who would set up first. 

I put my first unit of Chaos Warriors, the ones with the Banner of Wrath, on my left flank well forward in my deployment zone. I anchored their left flank against the village. He placed his Men at Arms (Fast Cavalry) in a screening formation at the front of his zone. I placed my other unit of Warriors with their right flank anchored on the tower on my right flank. He dropped Knights of the Realm on what would be my left flank behind the screen. I put my Knights slightly behind the rows of Warriors and in the center. I should be able to lure him in, use by BSB (Battle Standard Bearer) to make my anvils stubborn and use my Knights to flank him once he was engaged. He then placed his Grail Knights (GK) in the center of his army. I put my BSB in the Knights and the Prince behind my left-flank warriors. He placed another Knights of the Realm (KOR) on in the formation behind the screen and then his Pegasus knights and his general on Griffin on my extreme left flank.

Rules Error

We rolled for going first but still gave him the Blessing. Oops. Should have been auto-my turn. Oh well, no harm done.

I actually won the roll and debated for a few moments. I could already see from his army composition and  deployment that he has improved by leaps and bounds. That means if I let him get the charge with his GK on my Chaos Knights, I would never get to attack back and would lose by massacre. So I wanted him to advance. I gave him first turn.

Brettonian Turn 1

He flew his Pegasus Knights and Griffin-riding general up my left flank. Nothing else moved. No shooting, no magic.

Chaos Turn 1

Uh-oh. That means I will have him flying up my backside or flank if I advance. On the bright side, I rolled a "6" and Wulfrik arrived with his Marauders. I brought him in behind the General (who was his "victim" per Hunter of Men), turned my Warriors and Knights and moved them back to prevent the rear or flank charge. Then I flew my Prince on top of my left-flank tower. Time to open up a can of Magic. Cast Infernal Gateway, arguably the  most powerful spell in the game (though seeing what Fullur did next to me with whatever he was using...Ruination of Cities maybe? I might argue that one is far and away THE MOST POWERFUL SPELL IN THE GAME HANDS DOWN, its saving grace being two-fold:ridiculous casting cost and belonging only to one special character).

I cast it at his General. Really did not want that monster flying into my units. Did 5 hits at S9. Bwooohahaha, some good stuff happening here! 2 hits were assigned to the griffin and 3 to the General. General then used his 2+ Ward Save and re-roll failed Armor Saves combo to save all 3 of them. Rules Error. We later discovered that Ward Save was a 1-use only so it is possible had he used the 5+ Ward from the Blessing I might have done a wound or two. As it was, knowing his General had a 2+ Ward save, it really removed any interest I had in attacking his General since he was the definition of effectively unkillable. Why waste resources on something you cannot hurt?

On the bright side, the two assigned to the Griffin needed just 2s to wound...and I promptly rolled a 1. On the brighter side, he failed his 5+ Ward save so I did a wound to the Griffin. I was actually happy with that.  He then dispelled my Flickering Fire.

Brettonian Turn 2

He now flew his Flying Circus of 5 Pegasus Knights and (separate) his General to the back center of my deployment zone. Here is where he made his biggest mistake of the game. He again did not move his other units. Even if he gave me the charge, the best I could do would be hit his Men at Arms which would, even if they broke, mean I then charged his GK and KOR units. Since I could not start fighting them until the following turn, that would mean he could rear-charge me with his Terror causing Griffon. Not a place I want my Knights to be: outnumbered by units with a ++8 combat resolution with his un-touchable General and Griffin attacking before I could attack his GK.  Fortunately, he did not move them forward.

Chaos Turn 2

I turned my C-Warriors and Knights and moved them towards his Flying Circus, started rolling my Marauders around the tower to prepare to flank charge his castle whenever they started to move. 

I then Mis-Cast with Infernal Gateway. Playing error:I took the rather expensive but Powerful Chaos Gift Tendrils of Tzeentch which allows me to re-roll any one die which, per the description, can prevent a mis-cast. I should have picked up one of the 2 "1s" I rolled and had a 5 in 6 chance of casting the spell successfully. Fortunately, I rolled a 5 and the only harm was he could instantly cast a spell automatically. He had no spell casters. No real damage done.

Brettonian Turn 3

One turn too late, he began slowly advancing. He moved his flying circus to my far left flank, out of my charge arc.

Chaos Turn 3

This was becoming a battle of maneuver rather than combat. First huge mistake would probably win or lose it. I flew my Prince to the top of the left tower so I could charge his Flying Circus, moved my Warriors and Knights to support each other and protect their flanks. 

Infernal Gateway on the Grail Knights. Something like 7 hits with S 5 or 6. Hey, magic might be pretty good! He needed to save 5. 2 he saved with Armor save. No problem, 3 shots only needing to get past his 5+ Ward Save and I would remove his Rank Bonus if even one fell. Problem is...he rolled 2 5s and a 6. No damage. Grr. Stupid magic. 

Brettonian Turn 4

His General flew to the left flank behind the tower which would provide me an interesting choice. His castle formation did not move but for the first time in the game had range. He fired with his Men at Arms and shot down a Chaos Warrior. Stupid rolling 1s to save. Agh. By the way...this was the first casualty of the game. Yeah, I did one wound to the Griffin, but this was the first death. In turn 4. Hmm.

Chaos Turn 4

If his General did not have that stupid 2+ Ward Save, I would charge him with my Prince and Wulfrik would be on him next turn (assuming I could survive a round and pass my LD test). But knowing I had no chance to wound him, that seemed pointless. 

So I moved my Marauders forward thinking I would be out of L.O.S. of his General and other units.

Also, I wanted to play well but not great. So I announced, "I am going to deliberately make a mistake here." I then announced a charge on his Men at Arms with my Prince. That would give him the flank charge if his troops miraculously held or if I rolled poorly to pursue or if he fled.  I debated charging the KOR since I would only start at a -2 or -3, but I did not think I could kill 3+ KOR. 

Being Fast Cavalry he elected to flee but rolled poorly and I caught him and destroyed him. Since they are peasants, they caused none of the tests I thought they would force his KOR to take. Oops. 

Well, I had a choice; keep targeting the Grail Knights or try to reduce the force I was about to get hit with since two units of KOR had line of sight and probably charge arcs. So I cast Infernal Gateway at the closest KOR. Got a whopping 9 hits at S6. And I had one of those rolls you dream about...no 1s! Yes! Well, 2 of his 9 saved, then the Ward Save let 4 more save (yep, 50% saved needing 5s. Good times.) Still, I killed 3! The most damage I have accomplished with Magic. I was pretty happy with that, though not as happy as I would have been had he failed hi break test. As usual, he dispelled my Flickering Fire.

Brettonian Turn 5

Time to do what they do best. Charge! General charges the Marauders..being a Large Target he probably had L.O.S. I also let him use the Pegasus Knights (which were on the far side of the tower) to charge. I did not think they had LOS but I think it made the game more fun for him. Also, I pretty much figured my Marauders would be exiting soon anyway, why not make it spectacular?

His General accepted Wulfrik's Challenge. Uh...yay? I would be facing a guy re-rolling 2+ Ward Saves. 

Rules Error: Wulfrik was not legal to offer or accept a challenge. He was not in base to base contact with any enemy. *sigh* And it would matter. 

He also used the 2 KOR to charge my Prince. 

Wulfrik took one wound and in return did 3 wounds to the Griffin, killing it. (oops, he should not have been FIGHTING the Griffin....). 5 Marauders also died. Somehow, some way, I passed my break test.

Meanwhile, the Prince declared a challenge and the KOR champ accepted it. He was unable to hit the Prince who killed him in return. Yes, a kill in a challenge! Oh, wait...unit champ, no roll on the worthless Eye table. Being stubborn, I passed my test.

Chaos Turn 5

I moved into position to charge his Pegasus Knights with my Warriors and Knights on the left flank and my Warriors up to support the Prince on the right flank.

Infernal Gateway to the Grail Knights. Another mis-cast. This time I remembered the Tendrils and changed it to a pass. Actually killed 3 and another when Flickering Fire passed! Awesome. Far and away my best magic game. And it was doing some damage, but nothing game-breaking. Sweet. 

Prince struck another champion in a challenge, wounded 4 times and, needing 5+ to save...he saved all 4. Whatever. In return he wounded me once. Needing a 4+ to save...I took a wound. Time to add injury to insult...my Prince rolled a 10. He broke. He would be pursued by 2 units rolling 3d6. I rolled a rather pedestrian 8. His unit on my left rolled...a 6. Safe. His unit on my right rolled...an 11. Oh, smurf. Wait! He runs into my Chaos Warriors! My Prince lives!

On the other flank, Wulfrik can't get through the Ward Save (and can barely even get TO the Ward Save, wounding just once), Marauders die in droves, flee, chased down, wiped out. I said it after the first game; despite his great stat line, Wulfrik is not all that good. I stand by it. Then again...had we not been facing a stronger-than-reality Ward Save, he might have done better. Or had help in the form of the Prince. So maybe he is just having a rough patch, kind of like Dragon Ogre Shaggoths, Wardancers, and magic up until this game.

Brettonian Turn 6

Charge! His Grail Knights charge my Chaos Warriors. His General and Pegasus Knights had no LOS so pretty much did nothing except seize a table quarter. His KOR had to choose between charging my fleeing Prince, my Chaos Knights, or flank charging the Chaos Warriors. If they were not stubborn due to my BSB the Warriors might have been the right choice...but I suspect he should have charged my Prince. I only had a 2 or 3" lead on him, about 10-14" from the table edge...he was worth more than the Chaos Warriors. But that is from my standpoint so who knows what he should have done. I know I would have charged the Prince....but that is just me.

He did real well in the combat, killing 6 Warriors leaving me just 5. Being Stubborn did not help as much as the BSB being there close by to let them re-roll the failed Break test. They stood firm. 

On the other flank, my Warriors did much better; they did a casualty in the challenge without taking one in return. He had a rank bonus of 2, I. had rank bonus of 1. He had a standard as did I. I outnumbered him and had +1  from the War Banner. I broke his KOR. 

What? Finally, Warriors who performed as expected! They usually just die. I seldom do wounds with "the best infantry in the game". In fact, this game was the first one in quite some time  where they did a casualty and the first one in even longer since they did not break. Against the Dark Elf army they ran in one turn, against the Brets last game they ran in one turn...and both times I started with Rank Bonus of 3, a Battle Standard and musician. This time I started with a rank bonus of just 1. How ironic.

The only other close combat I have ever won in a real game (I don't count Warbands) with Chaos Warriors was one I should have auto-lost but my opponent made a mistake. He had the combat won automatically with a flank charge but accidentally front charged me with casualties...err, Skinks and I did so many casualties to them that I won a combat he would have won had he simply not entered the skinks. 

But this was a legitimate combat win against charging Knights of the Realm. I am extremely happy about that. I have been quite unimpressed with them up to this point. But that was impressive.

Chaos Turn 6

The Knights announced a flank charge on his KOR that were flank-charging my Chaos Warriors. My Prince....passed his test! He would live!

His KOR failed their Terror test. Sadly, that was about the worst outcome for me. I needed them there for my charge. I would more than likely kill several of them with my charge and Frenzied bundle of attacks. That would give me a long-shot chance to win the combat and break his Grail Knights. Obviously no guarantee, but that was my best chance. 

I cast Infernal Gateway at his Pegasus Knights but could do no damage. His Grail Knights and Battle Standard bearer, bereft of their S6 charge, hampered by the Mark of Nurgle, struggled to hit my Warriors and those they hit saved. I could not wound him back except for one Knight Errant. He won the combat, I passed my Break test, game over. Time to total the points.

Win or Lose?

Wulfrik is worth 185 points. The Marauders were worth 92 points. He did over half damage to my Stubborn Warrior unit for another 149. He had no table Quarters. 

He scored just 426 points, though actually, in a game of Maneuver, that is not bad. The game really only lasted 2 turns as the first 4 turns were spent battling for position.

Meanwhile, I killed his Griffon for 200 points. I killed his Men at Arms for 135 points. I killed a unit of Knights of the Realm for 193 points. I also owned 2 table quarters. I did not even do half damage to any other unit.

728 points. I won by 302 points, in a 2000 point game a Marginal Victory. Take away the table quarters and it would have been a draw.

Recap

So what happened? Several key moments decided this game. The first one was his not moving his formation forward in turn 2 to put me in a ticklish predicament where no matter what I would be facing a charge from the rear by Pegasus Knights and a Griffon-riding General or by 2 or 3 units of Knights of the Realm and Grail Knights. 

Second, not knowing the Ward Save only worked once seriously altered the game. I would have scored a couple wounds with the Infernal Gateway, known I could actually hurt him, attacked his General with my Prince which most likely would have allowed me to charge his General with my Marauders and Wulfrik.

With a Static Combat Resolution of +3 for rank, 1 for outnumbering, 1 for standard, I am starting ahead by 5. If Griffons have flanks and rear, add +1 or 2 to that. I might have broken his General and killed him, freeing up Wulfric and my own Prince to go after some of his fringe KOR units and frankly I am not worried about the skirmishing Pegasus Knights. I would let them alone get the charge on me so it would have been a much more combat-oriented game.

At the same time, illegally allowing Wulfric to fight his Griffin also had a serious impact. If he is still mobile thanks to his Griffin then his General could cause me a lot of issues. Not to mention saving him 200 points...which again puts us right back to a draw. 

Third, had he charged my Prince instead of charging the Warriors, I think he would have won a marginal victory. He would have scored another 535 points as there is probably about a 95% chance my Prince would have been caught or fled the table barring a roll like the one Fullur and Fixed Dice had...Fullur rolled 3 1s on 3d6 to pursue a Hydra...who promptly rolled a 2 and 1 to get caught. Epic fail, epicly hilarious. 

Anyway, he kills the Prince and most likely won't be in line of sight of my Knights, leaving only one charge possible; my BSB against the Pegasus Knights. This will also cost me a table quarter because my Knights then are in a contested quarter leaving only the quarter for my Warriors to take. Furthermore, that means I do NOT get the 193 for killing his KOR. 

Lets do a hypothetical figure there:

185 for Wulfrik

92 for Marauders

149 for Warriors

535 for Prince: 961 points

I score:

200 for Griffin

135 for the Men at Arms

100 for table quarter

535 points.

He wins by 426, a Marginal Victory...exactly what I was sort of hoping for. 

As we can see, seemingly minor decisions make huge impacts. Any number of things could have seriously altered the outcome of this battle. A roll here or there (like when he made me re-roll all my successful armor saves and instead of saving 4 of 5 needing 2s, I saved none of 5) could have made a huge difference as combats had the outcome reversed. His General might have died early. My Prince could have been (and would have been) over run had I not moved my Warriors forward the full 4".

I loved this battle. For most of it, it looked like he might be able to maneuver me into a corner and get charges on the units he wanted to hit, but I was able to work out of it and force him to hit the unit I wanted him to charge. 

And my intentional bad play of charging the Prince in front of his castle had as good an outcome as it possibly could. If I broke a turn earlier or he ran me down, the game is very, very different.

I said after our first game I expect some epic Bret-Chaos clashes. This game just accentuates that.

I also learned conclusively a couple things.

Seeing all his flying units, I probably should have done something different with my set-up. On the one hand, I like my use of the village and tower to anchor my flanks. On the dark side, I probably should have been more aggressive at inducing the charge from his Knights earlier. My Knights never did get an opportunity to get into combat in anything resembling a favorable position. 

Flying is so lethal to my armies that I essentially have no way to deal with it if it can get behind me. That will seriously affect my deployment and army composition in the future. Maybe I was spoiled by the maneuverability of the Wood Elf army but the Chaos army is just too slow. 

I would say the Spawn, being Unbreakable, would be one powerful answer. Except they are so fragile. The only possible save is Mark of Tzeentch, giving me a 16% chance to save. Not very good. Plus they have to move every turn, so they won't be where I want them to be. A Shaggoth could probably do a reasonable job of anchoring one flank, but the one time I have used one so far, he was pretty fragile as well. So flying units, shooting armies, magic, and monster-based armies are 4 armies that will start every battle with a better-than-average chance of defeating me quite handily. 

So lets see how I did on my goals.

1) Nope. Never won a challenge with anyone who could roll. In fact, the only challenge where I COULD roll saw Wulfrik summarily dismissed.

2) Well...sort of. They fled, so I never got into close combat which is what I actually meant so I will call this a fail, though not the Epic Fail that goal 1 was.

3) This was a massive success. Nothing game-changing..in fact, I did not score any points but I did actually get some spells cast successfully and did a few random casualties. Even though I did nowhere near the points value of the 175ish points I spent to give him Level 4 and the Mark of Tzeentch, it was fun actually getting spells cast and doing damage. The fact it had no real impact on the game is an added bonus. Call this one an epic success.

4) I am okay with a Marginal Victory, especially since if you remove the table quarters I seized on the last turn it was a draw. I could not help the one table quarter since my Warriors were so far from his Knights, but I could have avoided the other and wish I had. So call this a qualified success.

A very nice day.

Oh, the Humiliation:Chaos Warriors versus Dark Elves

Battle report below after the fluff. I will separate it with helpful asterisk lines for those of you who wish to skip the fluff.

Among our gaming group there is a general consensus the Chaos Warriors are under costed and over powered. Since I am well aware of their flaws, I am the primary dissenting voice. Of course, since I am also the one who PLAYS Chaos, there is naturally a pro-Chaos bias there. 

Still, though I DO like their stat line, I do NOT think they are under costed. I actually think a couple of their guys are over costed. But that is just me. 

I also think they are saddled with unbelievably worthless units. The Forsaken are worse than the core Chaos Warriors but do cost the same and take up a Special Slot. The Hellcannon works as a Stone Thrower. My history with stuff that can scatter is that it does and very seldom hits what it aims at. Maurauders and Warhounds are "I have nothing else to use the points on so I might as well waste some" units. Chaos Spawns are uncontrollable, hence of quite marginal use.

At the same time they have some fantastic units. Chaos Warriors, if a bit pricey, are still capable of dealing out a lot of damage. Chaos Knights are right there with the Grail Knights for best close combat unit in the game. The Dragon Ogre Shaggoth looks like fun. Their Hero-level characters have stat lines that make them legit threats to other armies' Lord level characters.

Well, with that in mind, I wanted to put a weaker-than-normal army out there and see how it would do. If it won via massacre, I would give serious thought to not playing Chaos. My intention was to lose but keep it a marginal victory. A Draw would be better, a Solid Victory for him acceptable. The only outcomes I did NOT want were being on the wrong end of a massacre or for me to win.

Not that I COULDN'T win...but if I did, it would mean they were right. Chaos is too good. If I can put out an army with intentional gaping flaws and still win...then either my opponent sucks or the army is too good. On the one hand, a Chaos Army will always have a punchers chance...well armored, hits hard, so they can win even if they have a huge points differential, much less simply taking sub-standard units but having equal points. They never should lose the game prior to entering the table, good rolls can overcome that. No doubt the Chaos army IS very solid and capable of winning any game. But there are games they are definite underdogs, and that is what I was shooting for.

See, there is no shooting in the Chaos Army so any shooting army has a distinct advantage. A nimble, maneuvering shooting army such as the Skink Skirmisher army of doom or the Wood Elf army will cause this build fits. Even a Dwarf gun line would have a good chance.

Second, I had nothing to deal with magic. I had the 2 basic Dispel dice and nothing else, so I was very, very susceptible to magic. I carried none myself...no bound spells, no wizards, nothing.

As it turned out, there was a third flaw...but I did not see that one until later.

Well, my plan was changed slightly. I was waiting for Fixed Dice to reply to my e-mail asking him how many points he wanted to play while he was waiting for my reply to his e-mail asking how many points I wanted to play. I never got his e-mail and he never got mine. So last night we talked on the phone and came up with something fun. 

We would each make 6 army lists; 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000, 4500, 5000. We would each roll a d6 so one might end up with 2500 while the other had 5000 or some such wacky combination. 

Then we would roll for scenario, and if one army was significantly larger, would adjust the chart in favor of Ambush or Last Stand type scenarios.

My main problem was I wanted to use as many actual figures without proxying as possible. So I bounced back and forth between putting the finishing touches on another 5 Knights and putting together army lists. 

Did not glue the Knights together, only got 3 lists together. Grabbed the camera, off I went to his place for the game.

We then wimped out on our plan and went with 2500 points. Awesome.

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The Army List (and the "thoughts" behind it.)

General

I initially went with a Daemon Prince. They can fly, have excellent WS and S, with the Mark of Teentch they have a 4+ Ward Save and they are the only model that can take the 2 best gifts of Chaos. Ironically, I then gave him Word of Agony, a much cheaper but potentially awesome Gift. I then reconsidered; I wanted this army to rely on its troops, so a single model pushing 400 points ran counter to that plan. Also, I wanted to put in another type of unit that he had the perfect base for, so I would use him for that instead. I tossed him out and started over.

I went with a basic Chaos Lord, gave him the Mark of Tzeentch, Talisman of Protection, and Sword of Change. He would have a 2+ save thanks to Chaos Armor and Enchanted Shield (1+ in close combat) and a 5+ Ward Save. The Sword of Change would give him a chance to defeat any opponent; they must make T test and if they fail it, become Chaos Spawn and are removed. That would give me a 17% chance per wound to defeat even a Dragon or some untouchable Lord character. Odds not great but that is what I wanted...a "punchers chance".

Wulfrik the Wanderer

I knew he would field Repeater Bolt Throwers. I suspected as many as 4 but knew there would be some. Wulfrik's ability to enter from any table edge gave me a chance to lessen their impact. At 100 points each, any conversation about units that are too cheap, to me Bolt Throwers are front and center. Hate them. Also, I figured he was my best chance to roll on the Eye of the Gods table.

Army Battle Standard Bearer

I wanted my units to be Stubborn so I gave him the Banner of the Gods which meant he caused Terror and all units within 6" tested as Stubborn. The plan was to put him between the Knights and Warriors up the gut of the field. As a general rule I don't take the Army Standard Bearer as they are relatively fragile and I have not found the banners exceptionally useful.

Exalted Hero

Gave him the Mark of Nurgle to make him harder to hit and gave him the Chaos Runesword which meant he had an awesome WS8, S6 and 5 attacks.

As you can see my heroes could all do serious damage in close combat. They were one of my goals for the game; roll on the Eye of the Gods table.

Core Units

2 identical units of 10 marauders. No upgrades. To keep with my theme of just one proxy, I could only take 10 each as I currently own only 20 Marauder models. When the unit is that small, points on Marks are basically extra free points for the opponent. Lt Armor and Shield is unbelievably worthless; the accursed and woefully under costed Repeater Crossbows of the Dark Elves have a minus 2 to armor save which means anything that wounds a Marauder removes its armor save so why take any upgrades to models that are virtually guaranteed to be casualties? (The irony of that line will be evident in post-battle mop-up)

(24) Chaos Warriors

I took a full command. I had been arguing they were not all that great with a high point cost and low mobility but still hearing they cost too little. So I decided to see if they could win a game. This would be the centerpiece of my army. I gave them the Mark of Khorne to give them Frenzy and the Blasted Standard to give them a 5+ Ward verse shooting. They could take some shooting on their way across the field but still get there with a rank bonus. 

(10) Chaos Warhounds

This is one of those units that I generally would not take. Like the Marauders they are virtually guaranteed to be casualties; low T, no save, low strength. But I planned to use them to go after the bolt throwers and soak up some shooting, plus they fit my idea of using units I typically would not use.

Special Units

I took just one, my beloved Chaos Knights. I have mentioned before this is my favorite unit to use. Knights. However, I decided to go a different route. I took 10 Knights, but instead of 2 5 man units as most people do (and should) take, I went with one 10 man unit. I really have no clue why I did that. I know they are going to take at least one casualty coming across the field which means they get no rank bonus and it means they cannot be in two places at once. Frankly, this was plain and simple a mistake, a brain cramp, a moment of stupidity. I have no explanation for that maneuver. 

Rare Units

I had purchased off E-bay a couple of painted Chaos Spawn. you can take 2 Spawn as a Rare Choice. As a general rule, expensive but fragile troops with a sub-par WS of 3 and no Save are an absolute no-no for me. Add the random nature of their movement and this is the type of unit that is so far from fitting my play-style they might as well be in a different army for as many times as I would play them. 

But they also fit my philosophies for this battle; with 2-7 attacks at S5 (Mark of Khorne) and being unbreakable, they could give me that punchers chance to take out even the toughest opponent.

Last but not least I took the one model I would proxy. This is why I did not use the Prince, so that model could be my Dragon Ogre Shaggoth. Fast, strong, tough, cause terror....they seem like a great model. With 6 wounds, S6, T5 and WS6 he should be able to at least get in a couple of wounds on a Dragon and take out pretty much anything else he came across.

Or not.

So my goals were four-fold:

1) Win a challenge and roll on Eye of the Gods table.

2) Watch the Dragon Ogre Shaggoth demonstrate his awesomeness.

3) See if any of the units like the Warhounds, Chaos Spawn, or Army Battle Standard Bearer would surprise me with their awesomeness

4) Achieve a Draw or lose via Marginal victory.

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The Setup

Here is where things started to go south. First, I noticed the Prince model was NOT, as I had thought, a Monster-sized base. So instead of the awesome Prince model, I went with an awesome but not as awesome primered Bone Giant model my brother was kind enough to let me borrow. *sigh*

I then noticed that my camera, which I had brought along to document the proceedings, was missing something. Namely, the battery sitting at home on the charger an hour drive each way away.

This, for those paying attention, is the moment I should have packed up and headed home. It was a portent of things to come. 

The field ended up being truly awful. (We roll on the 1995 Battle Book chart to see what is tabled). There were hills in both deployment zones and only deployment zone had a place for me to be out of sight of his Bolt Throwers while still providing me with the ability to move.

Roll to see who chose deployment zone. I rolled a massive 2. Sadly, that would prove to be one of my better rolls of the day. I hoped he would spack out and give me the side he was standing on. I could go to the far edge of the field from his Bolt Throwers and they would have at most one turn to shoot at me. Also, I could use the tower in the middle to protect one flank and the edge of the table to protect the other.

He rolled a 5 and did not, in fact, spack out so I got the bad side of the field.

He put some Repeater Crossbowmen on his left flank behind a fence. Great placement. I knew he would end up putting his Repeater Bolt Throwers on the hill on his right flank, so I put my Warhounds opposite that hill. 

He then put a second unit of the Crossbowmen in front of the hill. At this point I spacked out on my own. I had a hill to the right of my Warhounds, then trees, then space, then trees. For some yet to be explained purpose that made perfect sense when I did it yet for some reason I could not explain by the time it was my turn to place again...I put them in the space. Was I planning to put the Knights behind them and go up the middle of the field? Or the Warriors? Was I...well, i don't know. It was a stupid, stupid placement. They should have gone right behind the Warhounds because with those Repeater Crossbows out there, I would need a second screen.

He then put I think Cold One Knights on his left flank of the crossbows in front of the hill. I put a Chaos Spawn on top of my hill. He dropped a War Hydra on his extreme right, I put the other Chaos Spawn next to the first. His Repeater bolt Throwers went on top of the hill, my Shaggoth went behind the Warhounds. He placed his heroes, I put my Warriors behind the Shaggoth, a some point he put his Corsairs between the Cold Ones and the Crossbows behind the fence, I put the Knights by the hill behind the Warhounds. Wulfrik and a unit of Marauders would hopefully come on soon and hit the Bolt Throwers. I had high, high hopes for Wulfrik. I also named the General on Manticore with Hunter of Men.

We rolled to see who would go first. I rolled a massive 1. Yes, I managed to worsen my roll. On the bright side, it can only go downhill from here.  He rolled a natural 6 but elected to go second. Interesting...I would have thought he would want the extra turn of shooting. Perhaps it was because I was being a jerk and whining about "some day I will get to go first" since in my games I CONSISTENTLY lose the roll to pick table edge and go first. I suspect that is faulty memory...but it FEELS that way. I do feel bad about the whining, it was inexcusable and I hereby apologize for it.

Chaos Turn 1

I rolled a 2 to bring on Wulfrik. No problem, I only had  1 in 3 chance. I bounded the Warhounds forward the full 14", same with the Shaggoth, Knights, and Warriors. The Spawn moved a respectable 5 and 6" each. I cowardly turned my Marauders and moved backwards. No point standing there alone giving his orphan unit of crossbows a target. No shooting, no magic, go.

Dark Elf Turn 1

His dragon flew in from where it had hidden way off on his left flank. Uh-oh...I knew they moved fast, but this could cause problems! His orphan crossbows crossed the fence and started moving towards the battle, which would take place on my left flank.

His magic phase took as long as mine. His shooting, however, was deadly. His crossbows unleashed their hail. 10 crossbowmen killed 6 Warhounds. His bolt throwers did 3 wounds to the Shaggoth. His Dragon-riding dude wounded a Spawn. Ouch. That was a bad phase indeed. On the bright side, I accomplished a rarity...the Warhounds passed their break test. This would not happen again in the entire game.

Chaos Turn 2

I was tired of rolling high, so I rolled  1 to bring on Wulfrik. Then I started the key mistakes. We held quite a round-table debate about this later. It looked to me at the time like his dragon could get to my Knights in his turn which meant he would get the flank charge. I wanted to use the Spawn to protect my flank but did not know how far they would move...one reason I don't like or find useful random units that I don't control. Rules Error. I thought compulsory guys moved AFTER normal ones. And that is how I played it. 

I had to make a choice. I did not think I could get to his units before the dragon got to me. (Later post-game measurements indicate I probably was wrong...he probably would not get to me until the third turn. So I might have had one shot at his Cold One Knights before the dragon was upon me, though he probably would have gotten the charge. With S6 on the charge and my horrific rolling, I still might have gotten at least a few points. His decision to go second looks better and better)

So I moved my Knights and Warriors backwards, planning to use the table edge to protect my flank, my Warriors to protect my rear, and face the dragon charge. This would be a good test for another debate he and I have.

I believe unsupported heroes charging the front of units with advantages like Ranks and Standards can sometimes win but are more likely to lose the combat and flee. He believes heroes in that situation will, if not always, at least usually overcome even -4 or -5 deficits to win the combat. In this one, I would have a starting advantage of 4: +1 for rank, +1 for Standard, +1 for Battle Standard Bearer, and +1 for outnumbering. That would be worth postponing my full blown assault on his lines.

My Warhounds charged his Crossbows and my Shaggoth was out of range so moved towards his Hydra.

His stand and shoot killed the final 4 Warhounds so no close combat.

Dark Elf Turn 2

No charges. Orphan crossbows move closer, Dragon...flies BEHIND the Knights, a brilliant move. War Hydra breath, Repeater Crossbows and Repeater Bolt Throwers put more than the final 4 wounds needed on the Shaggoth. Cross #2 off my list of things to do in this game. 

This was a crushing blow to me. I really, really, really wanted to see him in action. Then again, units I really, really, really want to see in action have a history of disappointing me. Wardancers run off the field to Night Goblin Spearmen, Knights run off the field without taking wounds, Lever 4 Wizard Dragons (Galrauch) do more wounds to themselves than to the enemy...why should a Shaggoth be any different?

His General on Manticore put a second wound on a Spawn.

His Dragon breathed on the Warriors. His dragon has S4 breath to the S3 that my dragons get. Pouty face goes here. A couple of them died.

Chaos Turn 3

The game was essentially over at this point. If he kept flying his dragon around, I had 2 choices; keep maneuvering to avoid giving him the flank or rear charge or just give him the flank or rear charge and try to angle it so he did not pursue into my other unit(s). Either way, it meant I could never get to his peon units that were the ones I wanted to see if my units were truly super superior to. 

Remember the brain cramp where I took one unit of Knights instead of 2? Well, if I could have left one unit for him to charge and positioned it so either he charged that unit or, if my Stubborn unit held even to a flank charge (Battle Standard bearer was USEFUL!) then my Knights might have seen combat. Of course, 5 Knights into 16 bolstered by Malus is one of those things where I believe it is suicide and he believes it is an easy win for me...but I would have done it anyway even if he got the charge. 

On the bright side, Wulfrik did arrive this turn. I brought him on behind the Repeater Bolt Throwers. 

Meanwhile I moved my orphan Marauders into the trees. I would have one table quarter if he forgot about them. Pointless, but at this point I was really grasping at straws...and I had only lost 375 points completely, though a Spawn was close to dying. 

But I could already see he had the maneuver down perfectly. Fly from side to side breathing on me and keeping my Knights and Warriors out of action unless I wanted to give him the flank charge and follow-up into the other unit.

I did get the Spawn into close combat against his Crossbows, who easily passed their Fear test. And I rolled a mighty 5, giving me 6 attacks. Excellent!

Remember I said I seldom take guys with WS3? Well...2 of those mighty 6 attacks hit and, needing 2s to wound, did so. He did not or could not save. I had done 2 casualties! Excellent! He could not wound me back but did pass his break test.

Dark Elf Turn 3

Why charge when you can kill from a distance? He moved his War Hydra back to give him the flank breath, moved his dragon to breath on me, shot a lot, killed 5 Marauders with his Hydra breath and wounded my previously healthy Spawn with his General. On the bright side, his Bolt Thrower whiffed.

And I promptly rolled a 10 for my break test. Epic fail. But wait...Will of Chaos lets me re-roll Panic tests...is this one? Why yes...yes it is. And the re-roll....PASSES. Woo-hoo!

Meanwhile, the Spawn chips away, wounding another Crossbowmen or who outnumber him so the break test is manageable and they make it.

Chaos Turn 4

"Charge!" I actually have several charges. I had unattached my General and Exalted Hero from the Warriors a turn previous trying to position them to charge his dragon (I had also moved the Spawn into the mix. If that Unbreakable model could careen into his dragon, it could buy me some time to do stuff with my units) and the Battle Standard Bearer from the Knights. The Battle Standard and Exalted Hero got the charge on his Black Ark Corsairs. 

I declared a challenge, his Champion accepted. I killed his champ and got something like 2 or 3 overkill. My Exalted Hero had the best roll of the game for me. 5 attacks needing 3s...all 5 hit! Yes! I need just 2s to wound....and managed to roll 3 ones. Whatever. 

Add insult to injury; yes, I won a challenge...but Champions do not allow rolls on the Table.

We miscalculated and thought he had won the combat. I took a test...and failed it. Battle Standard Bearer was part of the combat, re-rolled...and passed. 

Even if we had correctly calculated it (he thought he had a rank bonus of 3 when he only had 2 and I forgot the +1 for Battle Standard...or ANY standard...)he would have been testing on a 9, so it really had no impact on the outcome.

Meanwhile the mighty Wulfrik, facing 2 hapless Repeater Bolt Thrower crewmen used his 4 attacks at WS8 and S5 to do a whopping....1 wound. I then had 5 Marauders attack and do....1 wound. 

Fortunately, he could not wound back. I did 2 wounds and out numbered him...break test at minus 3. I am feeling good. His first roll was for the one within 12" of the General...and that made the difference. He passed. Would have failed on his own. The other guy needed like a 5 and rolled...a 3. They both passed. 

I have to be honest. I thought Wulfrik was borderline broken. I thought he might be under costed at 185 points to have that great stat line and the ability to disrupt enemy war machines. Color me underwhelmed. He cannot even beat worse-than-average line troops when he has all the advantages. 

Dark Elf Turn 4

His general on Manticore charged on Marauder flank while the War Hydra charged the other. His dragon flew around breathing on the Knights while his rider shot the Spawn down. 

Wulfrik and the General entered a challenge. His Hydra killed the other 5 marauders. Wulfrik took no wounds. Awesome, here is where he could redeem himself. This was the challenge I set up with his Hunger of Men ability so I could re-roll to hit and had +2 Strength. I had 4 attacks needing 3s to hit and 2s to wound. 

Color me unimpressed by the zero wounds I did in the one hit (including re-rolls) that I got. 

And yes, I did fail the break test and run 2". And in one of those "rules so stupid they are unbelievable" things, with a Hydra on one side, a Manticore opposite him, a single Bolt Thrower crewmen on the third, do I run to the open spot which would lead them off the table, a happy occurrence for me since both the Manticore and Hydra would have to follow? No, I run "away from the highest unit strength" through the other...which should kill me, not allow me to pass through. That rule was idiotic when I benefited from it against the Brets and is idiotic this time when it...well, didn't really cost me since his Hydra and Manticore were done for this game, but the illogical nature of it annoys me.

Meanwhile his Dragon charged the rear of my two heroes. My Battle Standard bearer entered a challenge with him. Never lived long enough to strike back. My Exalted hero could not even wound his Corsairs. I fled...again, that retarded rule crushed me. Instead of fleeing to the open field to my right or left I fled "away from the highest unit strenght"...his corsairs. 

His Dragon had already moved. My Knights would not get flanked...unless, of course, my fleeing guy ran towards them. He was overrun by both the Corsairs and Dragon with the dragon easily hitting the Knights in the flank...the ONLY way that was going to happen. 

I finally broke his Crossbows with my Spawn and ran into one of his Bolt Throwers while they escaped.

Chaos Turn 5

 Lets see...Knights have been charged in the rear, Warriors are facing away from the Cod Ones who will charge next turn...okay, they reform, General joins them. 

Spawn kills Bolt Thrower, overruns into Crossbowmen, killing them, and ends up 1" from table edge. My first points of the game! Yay!

His Dragon easily dispatches my Knight Champion with lots of overkill, in a shock to nobody I break and flee the table. 

Dark Elf Turn 5

Cold Ones, Manticore, Dragon I think all charged the Warriors. Challenges ahoy. He wins them all, his Knights kill 4 Warriors, his General kills the Champion and in a major upset my General, with 5 attacks with the Sword of Change against his Dragon...does zero wounds. I flee, he pursues, I now have just the Spawn and Marauders on the table. 

Chaos Turn 6

Move the Spawn towards his other Repeater bolt Thrower. Need 6". Roll a 5.

Dark Elf Turn 6

His Hydra breathes on the Spawn or the Bolt thrower shot it or something.  Not much else to do.

End Game

I had 40 points left on the table so he killed 2460. He captured 2 regular standards and the Battle Standard, controlled 2 table quarters, killed my General. Somewhere well over 3000 points.

I controlled a table quarter, wiped out one Repeater Bolt Thrower, and killed 100 points of Crossbows. I got 300 points. 

Pretty clearly, I won this game handily...

Actually, he won because of these things; 

1) I had no way of coping with a flying unit that could get and use a flank charge. His Dragon alone was game-winning. 

2) I had no way of coping with either his Hydra or Manticore

3) He badly outmaneuvered me. His superior army composition combined with excellent tactical movement meant I never had an opportunity. He put his forces in position to be used at best advantage while preventing me from doing the same. 

He out-built my army and out-played me.

True, I suffered from a LOT of hideous rolls...the 3 1s needing 2s was not the only example, nor were things like his hitting 7 of 8 attacks needing 5s. He had some bad rolls as well.

The thing is, even if all those rolls were average for me, I still would have been massacred. His army and use of it were that much better than mine.

One huge mistake MIGHT have moved it to "only" a Sold Victory; had I properly moved my compulsory units first, I would have known how far to move my Knights. He would have had to charge the Unbreakable Spawn. He would have had to completely kill a unit with 3 wounds and T6 in one turn to flank charge my Knights. 

Had the Spawn held for even one turn, I would have at least had a chance to face his Cold Ones. However, if he got the charge it is unlikely I would have even been able to strike back as S6 means he would have killed many of my Knights. But perhaps not. And if I live even a single turn, I could conceivably do enough wounds to cause him some problems. 

Of course, with that said, he also would have had his General on Manticore available to charge so would I have survived that one turn? The Magic 8 ball just laughed.

I am actually happy with this game. It was very valuable from several angles.

1) We did a simulated battle between the General I first took and his Dragon. Had I taken that General, I could probably have staved off his Dragon for a turn or two. At the very least, my own flying super-dude would give me a way to counteract his flying around like that.

2) Yes, we are indeed in Hero-hammer. He who does not come prepared to deal with Monsters will lose every game, probably by massacre. 

3) Chaos is not over-powered in any way, shape or form. Their weaknesses are so huge that they might not be able to beat the Dark Elf army at all, they will struggle with the Wood Elf and Dwarf army, and should do very well against anyone else.

4) Though I know this will be controversial, I will say the most under costed unit in the game is the War Hydra, closely followed by Repeater bolt Throwers, Organ Guns, and Repeater Crossbows. 

5) I should NEVER, EVER, EVER under any circumstance get excited about playing a unit. I waited 15 years to watch the Wardancers suck giant hairy monkey underarm pit sweat,  watched "the best close combat unit in the game" run off the table without doing or taking a single casualty, watched my Power-Magic army get dominated by throw-away, out-level, out-powered wimp wizards, and watched my Shaggoth do nothing but die before getting a chance. That huge target drawback combined with hills always being in my opponents deployment zone means they are just too costly...not to mention the play-test battle we did between my Shaggoth and his Hydra. I outpointed him by over 100 and still lost the battle. Shaggpth; awesome concept, way over priced.Should not have gotten excited about it. I should know better.

But I will try the Shaggoth again. For that matter, I might even try a Chaos Spawn again.

Seeing the power of the flying unit, I think you may see the occasional Disc of Tzeentch in the near future. 

I am happy in that I am getting closer to my stated goal if 50% win rate. I am sorry that a game I wanted to lose caused me to react poorly. He deserved the win due to his build and play and it was extremely childish of me to react the way I did. I do sincerely apologize. I hope my attitude did not diminish your enjoyment of the game because you did a phenomenal job. I hope to see that army again because it should provide a good challenge for anyone and looked like great fun to play. 

Will I use Wulfrik again? Coin flip. Will I use 10 man units of Knights? Probably not. Will I use big Blocks of Chaos Warriors? Maybe in a GIANT game but otherwise probably not. Will I go back to using magic? Unlikely.