Dark Elves Vs. Lizardmen @ 2500 Points

Did Lord Kroak just twitch? No, it couldn't be. The great toad had only been sleeping for a few centuries. It must have been a carrion beetle moving about underneath the ancient Slann's wrappings. But there it was again. Dreadlord Bait, one of the great lord's attendents looked intensly at the ancient undead being to see whether it would move again.




Slowly, the priest's mind began to fill with certain thoughts. The abominable dirtmen, sometimes called dark elves were once again trying to raid the jungles of Lustria. This would not do at all. DBait as the other priests called him for short (actually, it was hsssssss isss sss s, but the rough translation comes out DBait), quickly gave orders to the other priests to gather the cohort. "This is quite fortuitous" thought DBait. The new spawning of Saurus with their innate ability to ride cold ones need to be tested in battle. This should prove interesting.




Okay, with the fluff out of the way, lets get down to descriptions. I brought into this battle:




Lord Kroak
L2 Skink Priest w/2 Dispel Scrolls
L2 Skink Priest w/Cube of Darkness & Dragonfly of Quicksilver
Saurus Scar Veteran on Cold One
21 Saurus Warriors w/Spears, Champion, Standard Bearer
2x10 Skink Skirmishers w/Javelin & Shields
10 Temple Guard w/Champion, Standard Bearer w/War Banner
2xStegadon
8xCold One Cavalry w/Champion, Standard Bearer w/Sun Standard of Chotec




My plan was to put the Temple Guard in the middle with the Saurus to one side and a Steg or two to the other. I would use one of the Skink units to screen, and if possible use the other to harry the opponents troops. Then I placed the Saurus first and in the middle of the field, well that was silly. Especially since that meant they were smack dab in the middle of a patch of rough ground. That mistake would cost me dearly.



I put my Cold Ones on one flank so I could use the hill to shield them from missle fire. In retrospect I probably would have been better served to let them take fire since the Sun Standard makes them much more difficult to hit, and they have an impressive save. They took not one shot from a missle weapon all game. That was 40 wasted points. On the other hand, they were at full strength until their last battle, so maybe I played them exactly right.






Here is what the dark elf deploment looked like.






Here is what my setup ended up looking like.






Lizardmen Turn 1:



My magic phase was not spectacular. I managed to cast Portent of Far on one of my Stegadons. The other three spells I attempted failed to cast.




My skinks were out of range so they did not fire. Both Stegadons missed.








Dark Elf Turn 1:




His Hydra moved forward just far enough to be out of charge range, nothing else moved.




He did a lot of firing. He chewed through all 10 of my screening skink unit. He also killed 3 Saurus from my block of 21 leaving me with 18 and 1 less rank bonus.








Lizardmen Turn 2:
I again trudge forward slowly. My remaining skink unit spreads out to act as screen against the predictable hail of bolts from the dark elf line. The only other notable is my Cold Ones marching to within 3" of the enemy War Hydra. My Saurus Scar-Veteran Beday Pr'sntslay'r leading them. I realized after moving them there that "hey, that is the perfect spot to get smacked by some stanky Hydra-breath. Oh well, this was not the worst play I made all game and kept my Cold Ones out of the cross-hairs for most of the enemy army.




Magic is great this time around. I start off rolling 3 dice to cast the Lore of Heavens shield against shooting spell. I rolled snake eyes on 3 dice. Even with the other die added in I would not have made the total I would need for the spell, but the double 1s made that irrelevant. I roll an 8 on the miscast table and take a wound with one of my skink priests. The worst of it though is the magic phase ends when I still have 7 casting dice to use.





Shooting is no better than last turn. No skinks in range and I am not expecting to hit with my Stegadons needing 6s.









Dark Elf Turn 2:
He announces a charge against my Cold Ones with his War Hydra. After looking around to make sure his fellow Cold One Riders are game (aka taking a Fear test because Terror - Fear = Fear) Beday Pr'sntslay'r steadies himself and receives the charge.




On the other side of the field, the Master of Assasins appears in front of my Skinks, killing one immediately and forcing the rest to form up for combat, practically eliminating them as a shielding unit.

End of any attempt at real reporting

Unfortunately, I let this sit too long and do not recall well what actually happened in the battle. So from here on it is just going to be comments about particular details.


When the Hydra charged my Cold Ones the battle went like this: the hydra attacks hitting 3 or 4 times, wounding I think 2, and in the end all wounds were saved. The Beastmasters fared about the same. My Cavalry did a couple of wounds to the Hydra which he regenerated. In the end, one of my Cold Ones killed a Beastmaster. I outnumbered the Hydra, had a standard, and caused a wound. He lost the combat and broke. I pursued. I rolled first: WHAT!?! 3 on 3d6? Why me? Then I saw his roll: a 2 and a 1! That is ridiculous, I rolled nothing but ones and still caught his fleeing Hydra. The brief reference to a name for my Saurus Scar-Veteran above is a joke about this battle. The Hydra was a b-day gift from myself and another guy to Fixeddice. This is the first battle I played against him and I absolutely demolished it. To be fair, I had around 500 points in this battle to his 175, but it was still somewhat of a shock. Below is a picture of the dice from the pursuit roll.





This is a cool shot of my Cold Ones versus his Dreadlord on Manticore. I had broken off my Hero to try and get him into combat more quickly than the other Cold Ones were going to be able to. That turned out to be a mistake as his general charged, rolled a 6 to wound and had Killing Blow. He then overran into my Cold Ones.





This is the field at the end of the Dark Elf turn 2.



This is the field at the end of the Lizardmen turn 3.






My Cold Ones actually fared pretty well against his Dreadlord. I lost 3 in the first round, but held up because I only lost the combat by 1.





My Saurus that were in the middle who were supposed to be on the side got slaughtered. The broke and were overrun by his Cold Ones. It was not even close.





Following his overrun of my Saurus I charged his Cold Ones in the flank with my Stegadon. He ran not wanting to take the hit without the benefit of his shields.





I knew I couldn't wound his general, so I was directing my attacks at his Manticore. Had I remembered all of the rules, this would have been brilliant. As it was, it kept his general from being even more impactful.

I killed his manticore removing the part of his general that caused Terror. This meant that my Cold Ones causing Fear actually mattered. Since the general only had a unit strength of 1 and my Cold One Champion had a unit strength of 2 I outnumbered him. Since neither of us could get through the other's save, that was the only modifier on the combat resolution and I was winning the rounds of combat. Fear causes enemies you outnumber and beat in combat to auto-break barring a roll of insane courage. Barring another roll like the Hydra pursuit, my Cold One champion would have killed his general.







This is him breaking my Stegadon a turn later than he should have. (I tried to play the rules the way I thought they should be, but they would not let me. Oh well...) He caught steggy the next turn. He also finished off my last Cold One and killed a Skink priest.



Final Thoughts:

Rules:
We definitely still have a long way to go with knowing the relevant rules. I forgot at one point that any monster mount who's rider(s) is/are killed has to test using its own leadership. It took his Cold Ones an extra turn to break my Stegadon. I forgot about Fear against his general because his Manticore caused Terror effectively making it irrelevant... until I killed his Manty. I did not realize the power of rough ground until this battle.

Play:
I do not think I played particularly well or poorly in this battle. I definitely made some major mistakes like sending a lone Stegadon against a massive block of Cold Ones, but I also effectively protected my Cold Ones from fire, guessed the range I would need on Deliverance of Itza perfectly every time, and did an OK job of screening with my skinks.

MVP:
There is no question my MVP for this battle was Lord Kroak. He kept my Temple Guard from having to take a couple of panic tests, but he also leveled the enemy's firing line. He scored almost all of my points by himself. A spell that can hit everything on the field at S4 2d6 times is quite impressive, particularly against elves who all have T3. I will take Kroak any time I can against an Elven opponent.

Winner:
I lost by a marginal victory, but had I remembered a few key things I might have won by the same. If I did indeed kill his general, that is another 180+ for me, and 180 that he did not get for killing the last of my Cold Ones. Of course, had I remembered the Ridden Monster leadership thing, he could have taken down my Stegadon 1-2 turns sooner and maybe had time to take out my Temple Guard and Kroak.

All in all this was a very fun battle, and I am really looking forward to the next one, when hopefully I will do a better job.

Edit:
This is the image of Shadowblade that Fixeddice was referring to. I think this was one of my favorite parts of the battle. I got to show this pic around quite a bit and got many kudos. :)

Warhammer Wars for Saturday, June 13, 2009

Fellow Warmongers,
We shall once again engage in battle upon a field of battle, a "battle-field", if you will; on Saturday, June 13, 2009, at say.... 10 A.M. (so probably actually begin at 11, with the intent to finish before Tim's graduation party). It shall be at the Kennithian fields in Saint Helens, Oregon. Because it seems likely that the grudge-writing ownership-recording goodish people of Campaignsville will be absent, it will not likely be written in the campaign books. If that is the case, it shall be Fuller's Lizardmen of Green Pouponsville vs. the Proud and Wonderful, Honorable Dark Elves of Kennithia in a 2500 point battle to the pain. As should be the case, the taint of Chaos will be evident in a 2500 point battle ready army, as well as a possible smaller detachment if the case calls for it (perhaps a 1-1.5k battle if preferred by his opponent?). As for the Ogres of Snotsville, the Cristened Vampires of Crisonia, the non-hetero elves of Hookahsville, near Rick City, the Orcs and Gobbos of Whoeverwantstousethemismasichisticallyinsane, the Dwarves of Stumpy's Guns and Ammo at the Y, the Brettonians of Liam the Young, and whoever else I've forgotten, as for you all, please RSVP so we can accomodate your spot in concrete.
Signed,
his everlasting wonderfulness most powerful and benevolent kingship.....me.

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.

*****************************************************************

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.

***************************************

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. 

Warhammer Warbands: Chaos Versus the world

The Starving Crazed Weasels decided to try some Warbands Escalation. Starting with 200 point armies, we were going to try to run all the way up to 500. So I frantically painted but was unable to complete any Marauders so I would be using some proxies. 

In just 200 points I was going to have to use Marauders in order to fit in any Knights. Per the rules, I either had to have a character of no more than 150 points or else a unit Champion. However, to get a unit Champion, I had to have a LEGAL minimum size unit instead of a 2 Cavalry or 3 Infantry unit.

Since Chaos Warriors cost a minimum of 16 points apiece after their mandatory upgrade, if I took 10 of them and a Champion I am at 172 points, leaving 28...not enough to fit in the requires 2 Knights. Actually, I could not even fit in one of the 40 point buzzards. 

At the same time, part of my army-building philosophy is to never take units that can't do anything. For example, Chaos Marauders have the combination of traits I try to avoid. To keep them affordable they have no armor, a strength of 3 and a toughness of 3. That means they are easy to kill. With no ranged weapons in the Chaos Army they are likely to get shot down while crossing the field. That means they are worse than useless; not only are they unable to accomplish anything, they are basically free points for the opponent. I am better off taking nothing than taking Marauders.

Of course, you could argue I CAN tool them up; give them light armor and shields (Save 5+), maybe the Mark of Tzeentch (6+ Ward Save). Except now they are over half the cost of a Chaos Warrior and, in the group we play in, unlikely to have a save anyway: the Dark Elves have Armor Piercing on their Repeater Crossbows meaning the save is 6+, the Dwarf army has Armor Piercing on their strength 4 Weapons meaning no save, the Ogres have S4 Weapons meaning the save is at best 6+: in other words, the points spent on tooling them up are essentially wasted.

Well, what I REALLY wanted to do was put some Knights on the table. I had 5 of them painted to at least tabletop standard, though I still have some highlighting and shading to do. But I really, really, really wanted to get some Knights rolling. I would rather roll out 5 Knights and lose than no Knights and win. 

But the rules forced me to put some Marauders out there. If I am going to have to use pointless troops and get limited or no Knights then I want to win a little bit.

So I went for an army that would be well-balanced enough to have at least a fighting chance against Dark Elves, Ogres, Lizardmen, Dwarfs, Wood Elfs and possibly the Vampire Counts based on who I thought might show up.  As it turned out, the V.C. guy was out of town, the guy playing the Wood Elfs had to work, and the guys playing the Ogres and Lizardmen were only there for a game or two each.

I started with my General. Since the cheapest hero I have is the Chaos Sorcerer, in he went, 85 points, level one, Lore of Death or Fire (I chose Death). 

Then I needed two core units. Chaos Marauders at 4 points each mean if I go 3 of each, another 24 points, I am up to 109. Cool, that let me fit in two Knights, the only models I REALLY wanted to play. 280, we were letting people have up to 203 points so I bumped one unit of Marauders to 4 and the other to 5 guys. 201 points. 

Game one I drew Kev and his Ogres. Uh-oh...exactly one of the reasons I hate Marauders. 

Lets assume I get 100 attacks and Kev gets 100 attacks. I have a higher weapon skill so SHOULD hit about 66% of the time, so I will hit him 66 times. I then have a 1 in 3 chance of wounding so 22 wounds. He has a 5+ armor save so will save 1 in 3 so I will do about 14 wounds in 100 attacks if all goes strictly according to statistics. 

He will hit me 1 in 3 times, or about 33 times. He will wound 2 in 3, or 22 times. All of those will kill me.

So I am doing 14 wounds in 100 attacks, he is doing 22. Each wound I cause goes 1/3 of the way toward reducing the number of attacks he gets whereas each wound he does reduces the number of attacks I get. See the problem here? I need way more force in Marauders to equal his Bulls. 

So for this battle, my Marauders will basically try to maneuver out of his way and let the Knights do all the heavy lifting. That is where Kev has the problem.

He will still hit 1/3 of the time. However, he then wounds just 50% of the time, let's round up to 17. I am going to save 5 out of 6 of those, so he should do about 3 casualties in 100 attacks. 

Conversely, I will hit 66 times, wound 33 of those, and he will save just 1 in 6, so I should do 27-28 wounds in 100 attacks.

Of course, these are just basic statistical models and as any competent mathematician will tell you, a sample size of 100 is ridiculously small and inaccurate. These numbers will be born out of hundreds of thousands of rolls, not over a short time. On to the game.

Setup

We had a small village in the center of the table, a river basically closing off one corner, and a tower opposite the village. Plenty of obstacles to make maneuver important. I won the roll to go first. My mission was Hold Table Quarter.

Chaos Turn one

I march everyone forward planning to hide behind the village with the Marauders (and occupy a table quarter with each of them), get off a little bit of magic, and when they got close, charge the Knights.

I did try to cast my Magic Missile. I used both allowed dice, rolled a 5. Successful...but dispelled. What? Magic failed? I...I...I...I just don't believe it. This has never happened before except every other time I have tried to use magic...

Ogre Turn 1

His Gnoblars bickered, so they stood still. Everyone else advanced a march move. He also wanted to get into hand to hand since he had no magic and only his Gnoblars had range.

Chaos Turn 2

Walk forward with the 5 man Marauders, move my sorcerer to the left to get line of sight on his Bull, move my Knights further left to either give me a flank charge if he ignored me or just plain give me the charge if not. This time for Dark Hand of Death I roll a 6 and again he dispelled it. Ah, Magic, how I love thee. Like a superfluous second belly button you are. Not really good for much and not all that attractive.

Ogre Turn 2

He advanced everybody and had one charge. He charged the Marauders with 2 Bulls. Rules Error: We forgot he had to have 3 Bulls for the Bull charge and he killed one Marauder with a Bull Charge, killed 2 more in close combat, I broke 7", he pursued 5. 

Chaos Turn 3

His breaking of my guys meant I had no charge. Fortunately (?) my fleeing guys rallied. Of course, standing 2" in front of his Bulls...did it matter? I maneuvered my Knights to get a charge hopefully next turn. Oh, and in case you wondered...I rolled a 7 (getting HIGHER!) to cast and yeah, he dispelled it.

Ogre Turn 3

2 charges. He Bull Charged the 4 man Chaos, 1 Impact hit, 2 more in close combat, I actually do a wound (!) in return, needing a 5, I pass my break test...RULES ERROR;when outnumbered by someone you fear, you auto-break. 

He also charged the remainder of the 5 man, they lost the combat, ran 5", he over ran 7" and they were done. 

Chaos Turn 4

My Knights finally charge. Then, Magic phase. This time, to save time, I did not even cast it successfully. 

First we do the combat of my one remaining Marauder. He actually caused a wound! I am highly impressed. Just 9 Marauders somehow inflicted 2 wounds. Of course, he is then slain...still, 36 points of Marauders did 24 points worth of damage...or 24 points more than I figured they would. On the dark side, his fast-moving Ogres prevented me from hiding behind the buildings which meant I could not control a table quarter...

The Knights actually did what they were supposed to. They kill one of his Ogres outright and the suffer no wounds in return. The remaining Ogre breaks and runs just 6". I roll my 3D6 to pursue...and roll out triple 1s. 

Ogre Turn 4

He fails to rally, runs 11". Everyone moves towards my Knights but stay out of my line of sight. Because of the direction he fled I cannot even see the fleeing Ogre. Great turn for the Ogres. 

Chaos Turn 5

Move my Knights to follow the fleeing Ogre (and prevent him from getting a charge) and move my Sorcerer back to also avoid a charge. And something very, very exciting happened.

I rolled a 6 to cast Dark Hand of Death...and he rolled Snake Eyes! Finally! A SUCCESSFUL magic spell! I now get to do D6 hits at S6. So I roll for how many...1. Then I roll to see if the hit wounds...and roll a 1. 

Let me just save time; the rest of the day in games against the Dwarf army, Dark Elf Army twice, Lizardmen, I do not again get a spell cast successfully even though  three of those games I had a level 2 wizard and was rolling the maximum three dice. Magic on my behalf totally sucks. Worthless. Wasted points. So depressing. 

Ogre Turn 5

He does not much, can't catch me, and his Ogre finally rallies.

Chaos Turn 6

I charge his rallied Ogre, kill him. 

Ogre Turn 6. 

Grabs table quarter. That is all he can do.

Final Results

He killed 36 points of Marauders. We thought he got 100 points for table quarter, but  re-reading of the rules says no points for Table Quarter unless it is your objective. Meanwhile, that WAS my objective and it turns out the minimum unit size is only 2. Unfortunately, he controlled as many table quarters as I did. Actually, with his Gnoblars in one quarter and 2 1-bull units in the other, he out-controlled table quarters 2-1. I did, however, score 108 points of damage for a final tally of 108-36 (which is different than what we thought at the time).

72 points, Victory belongs to Chaos.

Game Two: Chaos Versus Dwarf Army

We fought on the same battlefield. Again I won the first turn. This game was pretty quick. I simply moved my Marauders behind two different buildings to grab two table quarters and started maneuvering my Knights to charge his Warriors. He had a gun line of Thunderers and I had no intention of allowing them to shoot at my Marauders and did not particularly want him shooting at my Knights, either.

Meanwhile, he was maneuvering his Warriors to get the charge, so we did some hide and seek before finally he had to leave me line of sight to them for turn 5

Chaos Turn 5

By the time we reached turn 5 we were maybe 6 minutes into the game...INCLUDING setup. I finally got the charge.  Planning to support them, I move my 5 man Chaos Unit forward knowing they would be covered by the battle and also thinking I was out of range of the Thunderers anyway. Plus I joined my Sorcerer to them. Space Monkey passed his Fear test, I did two casualties to him, he did none in return but he did not run.

Dwarf Turn 5

Oops. During turn 5...well, a couple of my Marauders were exposed. He shot and killed 2 of them. They broke. 

In hand to hand I killed 2 more of his guys but he killed one of my Knights. This time he broke and I followed, overrunning him and running clean off the table. 

Chaos Turn 6

My fleeing guys rally, I forgot to bring my other Knight back on...not that it would have mattered. I was out of the firing arc of his Thunderers and could not contest the table quarter.

Dwarf Turn 6

He had nothing to do, game.

Final Results

We mis-figured it again* thinking he got points for the table quarter. I actually held 2 table quarters to his one and had chosen Invade so his points were 40 points for killing the Knight. I scored 126 for killing his Thane and Warriors, nothing for Invade. It was an 86 point advantage for me, another Victory. 

*(We initially thought he got 100 for the table quarter + 40 for the Knight + 40 for achieving his objective giving him 180 points which would have been a victory for him)

Chaos Victory, 2-0.

Game Three:Chaos Versus Dark Elf

This time we would be on the other table that had been set up. He had a hill on his side of the table, I had a forest on mine. I hid two units behind the forest, one unit on the right planning to overwhelm that side of the field. But I forgot how fast Elf armies move...

Once more I rolled Capture a Standard so got to choose my own. I knew the only way to win was kill his Sorceress fast so I chose Assassinate.

Dark Elf Turn One

He advances everyone up onto the hill. I see my Marauders will get shot down next turn.

Chaos Turn One

I start moving my Marauders over to hide behind the Forest. I know his crossbows will get 3 turns of shooting at them so they are just casualties. I put the Knights in front and move towards him as much as possible but he is too close for me to march.

Dark Elf Turn Two

He successfully casts a magic spell that kills both of my Knights and shoots down a Marauder.

Rest of Game

I have no chance of getting to him before he can shoot and magic me down so I just move behind the forest and will not move again. There is no point to him moving either so the game is over at that point. 

I thought I had a table quarter...well, he had one too. So he scored 80 for the Knights, an 80 point Dark Elf Victory.

2-1

We bumped it up to 300 points and again it was Dark Elf versus Chaos. At this point we had stopped taking pictures and notes, so this is largely memory.

I now had a level 2 sorcerer, 3 Knights, and 10 Chaos Marauders. He had a Bolt Thrower, level 2 sorcerer, and a couple other units.

The field we rolled meant we would start about an inch apart. His Bolt Thrower was on the corner as were my Knights. Behind his Bolt Thrower were 3  Repeater Crossbows and down the hill behind a fence were his Sorceress with that same stupid 18" area of effect spell and a few warriors. I had 5 Marauders and my Sorcerer to my Knights' left and the other unit behind them.

I won the first turn.

Chaos Turn 1

"Charge!" My Knights and Marauders declare charge. His Bolt Thrower crew failed their fear test. Depending on point of view...that was HORRIBLE.

If he stands and I get into hand to hand I should easily defeat him and either kill him outright or else overrun right into his repeater crossbows. I could do lots of damage right off the bat. Instead, it became a failed charge. I mean, sure, I marched up the hill and destroyed the bolt thrower, but it put my Knights and Marauders in the open in front of his Crossbows and within 18" of the Sorceress.

Dark Elf Turn 2

His fleeing crew failed their rally test. Again, bad for me. I could have charged them with my Marauders on the left flank the next turn but this meant they got out of my range. Then he cast his magic.

First he rolled 2 dice on the one that adds D3 dice to his pool. Looking back at the game he thought he rolled a 9, I thought he rolled an 11. Either way, with only 3 Dispel dice, I wasn't going to try to stop it. So then he had 4 dice, rolled them all for the Area of Effect spell. I planned to Dispel it but he rolled Irresistible Force. 

2 of my 3 Knights died, the other one fled. 2 of my 5 Marauders died, the other 3 and the Sorcerer fled.

Chaos Turn 2

Everyone RALLIED. Yeah.

Dark Elf Turn 2

He moved his Crossbows forward to get line of sight. His shooting missed. Oh, some good news! His magic did no damage.

Chaos Turn 3

I get the charge on his Crossbows, kill them, get to the crest of the hill. 

Dark Elf Turn 3

Not much happened.

Chaos Turn 4

I advance down the hill, too far away to get the charge. My other Marauders also advance.

Dark Elf Turn 4

Again he gets Irresistible Force. My last Knight died, as did another Marauder. 

Chaos Turn 5

At this point it looked pretty bad for me. I had my Sorcerer (who remember had cast 1 (one) spell successfully all day, doing a total of zero casualties. He had a couple small units and his sorceress behind a fence which meant I could not really get any benefits from charging. However, I HAD to charge or else sit there and let him cast magic. So I did. I charged even with no expectations. 

But then something happened. My Marauders killed a couple guys. He did no return wounds. He failed his break test and ran. I could not catch him.

Dark Elf Turn 5

He failed his rally test. He fled the table. Game over.

What? He killed all my knights, over a third of my Marauders, twice cast successful spells and I crushed him? I am confused.

Sure, him losing 1/3rd of his army in the first moment hurt...but that still shocked me. It was the first points my Marauders earned all day in combat.

Final tally: He got 130 for Knights and Marauders (ironically, the highest total scored against me all day). I got 300 for his army plus 60 for achieving my Assasinate goal. A Massacre.

At this point I was 3-1 with one Massacre for me and one against me (both against the Dark Elf army.)

Game Five: Chaos Versus Lizardmen

Fullur came over with his Lizardmen, pointed out that we had been playing wrong. He pointed out that, depending on your reading of the rules, we could NOT, in fact, have characters worth more than 75 points. It was 150 points TOTAL, not each. 

In other words, I could not use any character in my entire army since the cheapest one is a mere 85 points...10 points over the maximum allowed. So I had to retool.

Well, there was no way I was going with a Marauder Champion so I went with Chaos Warriors, a unit I typically eschew because they are too expensive for a unit that is unlikely to ever actually get into combat. 10 guys at 15 points plus a mandatory upgrade plus a Champion, 172 points. 

3 Knights, another 120 points. 3 Marauders 304 points. Due to my victory, I was actually allowed 310 so I added a 4th Marauder.

Facing me would be I think 3 units of Skinks, one of which had a Kroxigor in it, and a Skink Priest.

Lots of shooting by him, lots of marching forward by me. Somewhere along the line I lost a Warrior to his shooting so no rank bonus for me. I got the charge with my Knights on one of his Skin units. Their Stand and Shoot killed a Knight, the other two rampaged through his unit.

Meanwhile, he outmaneuvered me on the other flank and got a flank charge on my Warriors but also charged them frontally with his Skinks. 

I made all my saves, did back five casualties (this is the moment Fullur was talking about  where he gave me an unneeded advantage. He let me make a lot of attacks that I should not have gotten. As a result, both his units broke and fled. From there it was just mop-up and the game became a massacre.

Eventually his Kroxigor and Skink rallied only to be charged by my Knights.

Oddly, he out-generaled me in the maneuver phase. I typically feel I win the maneuver phases, but not this time. He made just one mistake...charging my front. 

For the day I went 4-1. Much better than I thought I did and better than I wanted to do. Oh, well. It was all right.

Ultmiately looking at Warbands I am a bit disappointed. It forces you to use units that have little to no capability and does not let you use units that are actually fun to play or, if it does, they are disproportionately penalized by individual bad moments. 

My Knights did perform fairly well. They wrecked the Dwarf Warriors, killed a couple Ogre Bulls, their Fear caused a Bolt Thrower to get destroyed. On the other hand, they were much more fragile than I anticipated, taking casualties in every game except the Ogre game...which, by the way, was the one I thought they wer most likely to take a casualty in.

The Sorcerer was worse than ever. I am seriously considering taking no magic at all in future battles since it never does anything. However, in light of the need to stop stuff like the hyper destructive Dark Elf magic, I think I will probably have to take some low level guys with Dispel Scrolls. 

All in all, it was okay, but I would much rather play games where I can actually have enough Knights that I don't have to fear I won't get them into combat if they take even a single casualty.

Dark Elves vs Vampire Counts 750 points

Here's my first battle report! w00t w00t! Everybody dance now....!

It was April 11th, 2009. It was warm in the garage....too warm....I, kennyb, a noble druchii (dark elf), could sense a .....sense of dread. I could smell mold, like grave mold. I put on deoderant and the smell lessened. But then I could smell....mustard? I wiped my lip and the smell subsided, but that allowed me to smell the gas. Mustard gas? No..... Drew gas! Or Rick (Space Monkey) gas? The difference is minimal at most. Must be time for the battle!

Today it would be my 751 point Druchii force against the evil and ignoble Chris' 740 point Vampire Counts. I am going into this battle with a great fear knowing that only my "General Malus" and my Sorceress will be able to harm his ethereal units, and also Malus is most likely the only model in the army capable of taking out his characters in melee combat. That is a precarious and unenviable position to be in, let me tell you! My heart is racing before the battle begins and I'm perspiring furiously. Oh....nope. My nose was running and I wiped it inadvertantly on my arm, making it feel like perspiration until it dried, so I threw it at Chris. Ha! My weakness suddenly turned into a weapon, let's see how I do in the battle:

Here are the armies:

Chris's Grave Stenchy Ignoble Vampire Counts

10 Skeleton Warriors at 8 pts ea : 80/80 sub-total

10 Crypt Ghouls at 8 pts ea : 80/160 sub-total

3 Cairn Wraiths at 50 pts ea +Banshee upgrade at 25 pts : 175/335 sub-total

3 Cairn Wraiths at 50 pts ea +Banshee upgrade at 25 pts : 175/510 sub-total

1 Wight King at 75 pts : 75/585 sub-total

1 Vampire at 100 pts w/Lord of the Dead Ability at 15 pts, and Blood Drinker Magic Sword at 40 pts : 155/740 sub-total

For a grand total of 740 pts. Should have had another Skele there Chris!

kennyb's Noble Druchii Valorous Defenders of the Rightful King Malekith

13 Spearmen at 6 pts ea w/Shields at +1 pt per model : 91/91 sub-total

10 Crossbowmen at 10 pts ea : 100/191 sub-total

10 Crossbowmen at 10 pts ea : 100/291 sub-total

1 Malus Darkblade, Scion of Hag Graef : 275/566 sub-total

1 Lvl 2 Sorceress at 135 pts w/Sacrificial Dagger at 25 pts and the Pearl of Infinite Bleakness at 25 pts : 155/751 sub-total

So to open we rolled to see who would place the first piece of terrain. I won. I rolled a 9 for type which is a fence. I placed it towards closer to the side of the table I was standing on and near the table edge, hoping to use it for cover for my archers or sorceress. Chris rolled a river and placed it near the edge of the table to his left. I rolled another fence, and placed it next to the first fence leading further onto the battlefield. He passed. I rolled my final roll....a forest. Bleh. I placed it on the left table edge near me to try and keep it out of the battle basically. We rolled for terrain scatter and the items moved further into the field and a little bit more towards the side I was standing on. Nice.

Rolling for magic Chris rolled high for his spell (6 I think) and exchanged it for Raise Dead. I rolled a 1 and a 6, so it was decided for me completely! Luckily, I always end up with Chillwind anyway and Black Horror seemed like a good spell for this battle since he had some weak Strength units and it uses the large round template. Sweet! (Chillwind is a 24" D6 S4 Magic Missile that keeps a unit taking casualties from shooting in it's next turn {5+ to cast}, and Black Horror let's you place the large template anywhere within 18", and all models TOUCHED must pass a Strength test or suffer a wound, no armour saves allowed, and any unit suffering a casualty must take a panic test [no good against undead, but oh well!] {11+ to cast}. Thankfully, with the Power of Darkness spell, Druchii Sorcery (can use any amount of casting dice no matter what level the sorceress is), and my Sacrificial Dagger I figured I would get them both cast every magic phase, and he couldn't dispel that much power. We shall see.....

I won the roll to pick table edge first, so I chose the edge I was already standing on. The terrain placement gave me a good place to hole up my sorceress AND my archers behind fences, and the trees could actually shield Malus until the enemy got close enough for me to charge, at which point I planned on working my way out of the trees and flanking. I was hoping to riddle his troops with arrows as they advanced, from behind my fortified position, but I forgot about ethereals.

Chris won the roll to choose who placed first and chose to place the first unit. He placed his Wraith units in the front, followed by his Skeletons and Ghouls, then placed his Vampire with the Skele's and his Wight with his Ghouls.

In the meantime, I placed my x-bowmen, then my 2nd x-bowmen, then my spearmen, all in position to run up to the fences and blow him away. Then I placed my Sorceress with my Spearmen and Malus on my left flank in the trees, about 2" in.

We rolled to see who went first, me having a +1 from finishing my setup first (my 3 units + 2 characters to his 4 units + 2 characters). He rolled a....1 and I rolled a 6. Pretty decisive! I chose to go first, thinking I would advance as quickly as possible into x-bow range and hail him with black fetched bolts.

Dark Elf Turn 1

Movement Phase

I advance all 3 units straight ahead toward the enemy as a noble Druchii would, and it just so happens there was a defensive position directly in my path. Fate is kind to the true hearted. :)

Malus comes out of the trees so I am in a better position to charge when the time comes. I didn't want to get stuck in the trees at a critical moment.

Magic Phase

I get 4 power dice per turn, 2 for my lvl 2 Sorceress and 2 for my army pool. My first casting intent is to cast Black Horror on his approaching Wraiths. I roll 3 dice to cast and achieve a 10. Perfect! I love to kill my own troops so I do. I sacrifice a Spearman (6pts!) to roll an additional die and roll a 3 to bring the total to 13. That's sufficient so Chris rolls all 3 of his Dispel Dice. He rolls a 10. Success! I place the center of the template at 18" and it reaches....nothing! Oh well, it was close, and he used all his Dispel Dice. I cast Chillwind towards the same Wraith unit using my last Power Die. I roll a 3. Yes! I murder, I mean "Sacrifice", another Spearman and roll an additional 3 for a total of 6. Success! I roll a 3 for quantity of hits. 1 for each model in the unit. Fail the to Wound on the first Wraith. Success on the Banshee. Success on the second Wraith. Not bad. For 12 pts of sacrifice 2 spells that would have failed were successful, and ended up doing 2 wounds. I'll take that any day of the week!

Shooting Phase

I state my intent for all 40 of my Bolts (20 Repeater x-bows) to fire at the Wraith units. It is mentioned that I certainly may, but that THEY ARE ETHEREAL SO IT DOESN'T MATTER. Ouch. That's going to sting for a few turns! Half my army is useless until the Wraith Units are decimated. Oops. lol

Vampire Counts Turn 1

Movement Phase

Chris marched all of his army directly towards me.

Magic Phase

Chris attempts Invocation of Nehek with 2 Power Dice. Rolls a 4 (3+1). I roll 2 Dispel Dice and score a 5 (3+2). Great rolling from both of us. An average roll of 2.25 on a d6 (total of 9 rolled on 4 dice: 9/4=2.25). Chris attemps Raise Dead with his last Power Die and scores a...1. That brings our average rolls for this phase to a whopping 2. lol. Better his phase than mine!

Shooting Phase

Chris attempts to use his Banshee howl but is out of range.

Dark Elf Turn 2

The first thing I do is invoke Tz'Arkan with Malus. For the uninitiated, Malus is

M WS BS S T W I A Ld

5---6--5-4-3-2-7-3-9

Invoking Tz'Arkan gives +1 WS, +1S, +2T, +2I, +1 Ld, and Frenzy, with a result that looks like

M WS BS S T W I A Ld

5--7---5-5-5-2-9-4-10

A very nice stat line if I do say so myself. :)

The main reason I did it is for the Frenzy. I didn't want to fail a charge, and becoming frenzied lets the game take over that for me.

Movement Phase

Malus is within range (14" charge range on Cold One) of the left hand unit of Wraiths and so must charge them. Chris declares his reaction will be to stand and whimper (Banshee Wail). His wail is a 2d6+2 roll against my Ld of 10, with the difference being the # of wounds Malus will take with no armour save allowed. Potent indeed! He rolled a 7 I think, for a total of 9. No wounds! Im-potent perhaps...the poor Banshee must have had a sore throat or strained vocal cord...

I moved my archers on my left flank back 2 and 1/2" (turned 180, walked 2 1/2", and turned 180 back around) directly away from the Wraith unit and my right flank arhcers 3 3/4" (turn 180 and walk away) directly away from the other Wraith unit, hoping to stay out of reach of that horrible wail! I left my Sorceress where she was because I needed her on the offensive to have any hope of survival, seeing as her and Malus are my only models capable of even damaging the Wraiths in this army build.

Magic Phase

I roll 3d6 to attempt Black Horror again, and this time roll a 12 (6+5+1). I wanted to sacrifice another Spearman but since I rolled a 1 already, and the spell is successful, I didn't want to chance a miscast. So I let him live. But I did lurch at the intended winner (victim some might say) causing him to yelp in fear. The other Spearmen thought it was a Banshee Wail and almost ran him through, but caught themselves just in time. Chris rolled all 3 of his Dispel Dice and scored an 11 (5+4+2). Yes! The template covered his entire Wraith unit so all will suffer the wrath of the Black Horror! They only have Strength 3 so I figure 2 will wound meaning 1 should die! The first Wraith rolls a 5. Yes! 1 Wound. The Banshee rolls....a 3. No! It survives. But 1 more wound to the other Wraith would kill it... he rolls....another 3! NO! Oh well. 1 Wound is better than none!

I roll my final Power Die to cast Chillwind at the same unit again, and roll a 4. I sacrifice the wailing Spearman and roll a 6 to bring the total to 10. Success! I roll a 3 for the quanity of hits again, which is definitely acceptable. Roll to wound the first Wraith (needing 3's I think), a 5! Success. The first Wraith is DEAD! Roll to wound the Banshee...a 1. Epic fail. Roll to wound the last Wraith, a 3! Yes! 2 more wounds and 2 dead wraiths...2....dead....wraiths.....I'm sure there is a more "accurate" way of deading a dead, but hey, they are epic dead now! Unfortunately, the Banshee is the thing I'm most afraid of and the last man standing in the unit! Oh well. No complaint, just a healthy dose of fear!

Shooting Phase

1 unit of my x-bowmen fired 20 shots at his Skeletons that were exposed by the reduced size of the wraith unit. Needing 6's to hit, I rolled : 2 1's, 2 3's, 6 4's, 8 5's, and 2 (2!) 6's. Bleh. To wound, 2 4's. Both successful! He needs 6's to save and rolled...2 5's! Yes! 2 hits and 2 wounds. The to hit ratio wasn't great, but 100% hit-to-kill is awesome!

Close Combat

Malus rolls 4 attacks all against the Banshee (I really am scared of them!) needing 3's to hit. 2 hit. Re-rolled the 2 misses with Eternal Hatred and scored 1 more hit for a total of 3. 3 rolls to wound needing 2's = 2 successful. Re-roll failed to wound with Warpsword of Khaine and it's successful. He killed the Banshee! YES!! Go Malus! (I really, really, really, have high hopes for Malus and this is a great start for his career with me!)

Chris' Wraiths roll 6 attacks needing 5's to hit (WS3 vs WS7): no hits! Sweet! So Combat Result is he had 3 models at start giving him unit strength 3 to my 2, giving him +1. I got +2 for causing 2 wounds, winning by 1. 1 Wraith takes a wound.

Vampire Counts Turn 2

Movement Phase

Right Banshee moves 6" towards Sorceress. Right Skele's move in a wheel towards Malus's right flank. Vampire led unit on left wheels to move past the Wraith unit between them and Malus.

Magic Phase

Chris attempts Raise Dead with 2 Power Dice and scores a 7 (5+2). I roll all 3 of my Dispel Dice and score an 11 (6+3+2). Nice! He attemps Invocation of Nehek with his last Power Die and rolls....a 2! Awesome (for me)!!!

Shooting Phase

Cris's remaining Banshee draws a deep breath, aims at Malus, and...sneezed! She shouldn't have eaten that snake and maybe she wouldn't have sneezed Snake Eyes! Malus is INVINCIBLE!!

Close Combat

Malus's initiative trumps the Wraiths badly. I roll his 4 attacks and hit 2 needing only 3's. :(

I roll to wound needing 2's and roll a 1 and a 2. Re-roll failed roll to wound with Warpsword and score another 2. Good enough! 2 wounds kills 1 Wraith and wounds the other. 2nd Wraith hits me one time but does not wound. Wraiths lost the combat by 2 so the remaining Wraith dies! Malus Wins! Go Malus, go, go, go Malus!

I believe the battle is decided at this point. So far, I have done 275 pts to the Vampires' army with 2 characters, and my only losses are from the 3 sacrifices I made. I am in positon to flank the Skeleton unit containing the Vampire, my sorceress is free to go toe-to-toe with the final Banshee who is down to 1 wound, and my archers are going to unleash. However.... :

At this point we have another engagement to attend and so leave with the intent to come back and finish. I was unable to come back, but Rick (Space Monkcy) finished it out for me and won. Cris miscast with his Vampire and his head blew up, Malus finished off the remaining Banshee, and the x-bowmen and sorceress ate through the Skele's and Ghouls. My plan was to send Malus against the Vampire unit (he had a flank attack, so he had 4 attacks with re-rolls to hit and to wound, and his Cold One Spite had 2 attacks with re-rolls to hit, so I believe I would have squashed the unit single handedly and in a manner befitting the Which King's personal champion), have the sorceress finish off the Banshee and then move on to the Core units, and have the x-bowmen eat up anything they could see. Either way, I don't think Cris had a chance at this point.

A fun time for me, but Cris had been up all night working on his army and so came half asleep, and probably won't remember any of this. rofl