The Battle of Improbable Magical Activity

My latest battle for the quest of tactical greatness matched me up against Stuarts Daemons of Chaos. As I'm intending to go to a tournament later on in the year, it's a 2400 point all comers list. The title of this batrep is in reference to the large number of mysterious scenery items that seem to be prevalent in my games of Warhammer. In this battle we had: A magic circle (top left in the picture below), an Elven Waystone (the 40kish drop pod in the centre), a sinister statue (bottom right), Wizard's Tower (above & right of statue) and a Bane Stone to the bottom left of the picture - out of shot. Not forgetting some Ghost fences, a hill and a Venom Thicket in the middle.

My army consisted of 16 Glade Guard,10 Scouts,30 Dryads, a unit of Wild Riders, Sisters of the Thorn and a Treeman. a mounted BSB, 2 mouted mages and a Waystalker made up my force.

the Daemons of Chaos were led by a Great Unclean One, Plaguebearers and Beasts of Nurgle made up that pestilent contingent. Khorne was represented by a Skullcannon and some Bloodcrushers, Tzeentch was also present in the form of two units of horrors and the flying Tzeentchian chariot of doom!

I deployed with a fairly strong middle, the skirmishers out to the left, my fast cavalry to the right. I unsuccessfully hid my treeman from the the skullcannon, but due to my drops he placed it after the Treeman. His turns were numbered. My vanguarding Sisters of the Thorn got nice and comfy by the wizards tower whilst my Wild Riders came round the other side ready to chase off any thieving Horrors. The Daemons set up was pretty much based on racial tolerance, the Khorne contingent being the only group who wouldn't mix with their allies. The great Unclean One squatted between a Tzeentch chariot and unit of Horrors. In my day there was a thing called daemonic hatred where that sort of thing just wasn't done!

Wood Elf deployment after vanguard

Hazy Chaos Daemons

Less hazy Chaos Daemons

Turn One

The DoC got the first turn, with the usual amount of bowling forward at high speed. The GUO marched straight into the woods hoping (presumably) to blend in with all that greenery. Magic was fairly muted (can't remember much happening) and then the Skullcannon moved forward and killed my Treeman. So I'm down my best chance of neutralizing the GUO threat. No combat meant the Elves were looking for some payback!
I charged my Wild Riders into the unit of Beasts of Nurgle. Advanced my High Wizard into the woods, the other mage scooted round with the Sisters, mainly to avail of the magical knowledge in the Wizard's Tower. Magic saw me put some protection counters on the High Mage. My shooting was pretty cost effective, the Great Unclean One thought he could hid in the woods (with him being green and all) but my keen eyed archer saw through this ruse and peppered his poxy hide with arrows killing him. Interested question if a GUO falls in the woods is there still a smell of Gonorhea? Shooting over with we had combat, my Wild Riders absolutely annihilated the Beasts of Nurgle leaving me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside as they usually ruin whatever unit I charge into them. So end of turn one and Stu lost his GUO and BoN, I've lost a Treeman. All in all not a bad exchange.

The Cylon on the left is a sinister statue.

Dirty old Khorne!

The Great Unclean attempts to hide in the woods.

Shot to Death in the 1st turn Great Unclean One

Wild riders about face after trouncing Beasts of Nurgle 

The sisters keep magical control of the wizards tower (just)

Some Shit Dice rolling

Turn Two

Stuart was on the back foot but didn't look overly worried (he has seen me snatch defeat from certain victory many times before). A unit of Fleshhounds arrived at the back of my deployment zone .He charged his Skullcrushers at the Hagbane Scouts (whom, I thought I had placed cleverly enough so the overrun would take them off the board). The Tzeentchian chariot snuck round the back of the Dryads whilst the Plaguebearers turned to face an inevitable Wild Rider charge. Shooting saw the Skullcannon and Tzeentch chariot kill Dryads. The Scout/Skullcrusher tete a tete went predictably with the exception that both the pursuit and flee rolls were low enough to keep the servants of Khorne on the table! In my turn, I charged the wild riders, BSB and High Mage into the Plaguebearers and made two 9+ charge rolls into the bargain, the Sisters of the Thorn charged into the Horrors as the are probably the weakest combat unit on the table, and they have a 4+ ward save, so they were feeling pretty tough. I turned my waywatchers (who never feature prominently against Daemons) towards the Bloodcrushers and advanced the Dryads forward. Both combats were inconclusive (damn Nurgles -1 to hit) but with the advantage going to the Elves.

Sneaky Tzeentch chariot

Scouts bravely get obliterated 

The dead Daemons area

Plaguebearers get what for

As do the Horrors

Turn Three

Turn three was a bit unpleasant for some of my guys. One Fleshhound unit charged the Waystalker (who is generally useless against Daemons).The other Fleshhound unit appeared behind the cavalry in Stu's deployment zone. The Skullduggerymaster about faced to rape my Waywatchers in the following turn the chariot continued to swoop around, this time targetting the glade guard unit. Magic was minor, shooting saw the Waywatchers take some Daemonic grapeshot, making them flee, and the Glade Guard took some horrible casualties to warpflame. Combat saw my cavalry units both vanquish their daemonic opponents and reform. In my turn I charged into the Horrors unit with my depleated Wild riders, BSB and High Mage (who was now rocking 4 protection counters, feeling pretty invincible). I also rallied the Waywatchers. My shooting didn't have much to target, except for large high toughness Khorney units. Combat saw the cavalry destroy the Horrors, but with chaos there always a sting the tail. The blue horrors rule killed my last wild Rider, this would prove to be rather costly. The Waystalker was butchered and the remaining Fleshhounds bundled into the back of the Dryads.

Waywatchers are on borrowed time

Even sneakier Fleshhounds

I was pretty confident at this time.

Daemons of Tzeentch? Prepare to die!

Turn Four

Having only a skullcannon, a wounded Juggernaut ridery type thing, 2 thrice accursed Fleshhound unitsand a Tzeentch Chariot, I was pretty confident of a win. Then the Fleshhounds charged my BSB. The cannon killed a sister or two. The Fleshounds then killed my BSB who was on full wounds and had a 5+ then 4+ save. Even then, after they overran into my High Mage I wasn't panicky as he had 4 token and the fencers blades, what could go wrong? One failed break test saw him flee abysmally get get caught and effectively lose the game for me. The other combat saw my Dryads destroy the other fleshounds (I'm so mad I'm not even giving the a capital letter). In my turn I moved the Dryads to take a charge from the Skullcannon in the hope that they could withstand it and ultimately defeat it, all surviving units attempted to look inconspicuous (this is a valid battle plan).

Some sinister Flesh Hounds make an unwelcome appearance

Turn Five 

The wheels had definitely come off the Wood Elf bus, so now it was time for Stuart to turn the screw. The Hellcannon charged the Dryads and the Skullcrusher charged my remaining Glade Guard. The impact hits and all round nastiness of the chariot broke the dryads only to see them run down to the last vengeful spirit. The Skullcrusher also broke the Glade Guard but failed to catch the final two. My turn comprised of trying to get the hell out of dodge! In this I was marginally sucessful. The terrain played its part when the Sinister Statue decided he didn't like the look of the two fleeing elves and fried them, lazer bolt eye style!

Rear ended by Khorne

The Dryads,BSB & Elven Spellweaver are no more!

Turn Six

Turn six was a Skullcannon shooting and killing my wizard and my Sisters of the Thorn (now numbering 1) running round behind the wizard's tower hoping to find some sort of There, There It Was All A Dream Scroll or Wand of Going Home & Getting My Mum. The final result was fairly close, but certainly no cigar for the Wood Elves.

A lone sister

Bloody mongrels!

Conclusions

Well, both Stuart and I agreed that was one of the best games we had played against each other. At the back of turn 2 I really thought I had it but some unfortunate dice rolls and me over extending my thrust (as Sean Connery said to Christopher Lambert in Highlander) led to me being off balance and ultimately defeated. On a whiny note, I really do seem to have terrible difficulties dealing with Chariot/Cannons as a move and fire war machine is very hard to avoid. On a second even whinier note, it's about time one of Stuarts cannons misfired! I was also unimpressed with the plethora of mysterious terrain that stuck it's interfering noses in Wood Elf business! We both agreed to stop using mysterious terrain except for woods and rivers.

Thanks for reading.

Triumph & Treachery in Cavan Town 18/09/2014

We had a game of T&T last night that was immense fun. There was 5 players Phil,Stu,Vinny Uilliam and myself, fielding Chaos Dwarfs, DoC, Vamps, Brets and my incompetent Woodies. The scenario was capture the artefact.

My army consisted of high spellsinger, bsb, branchwraith and a Waystalker, troops were 15 trueflight GG, 10 Starfire GG, 15 Dryads, 6 Waywatchers. My Merc contingent was a skink hero riding Steg with OTS. Basic plan was shoot anyone coming near me then smash with the Steg. Here’s what happened

Vinny's Undead/Lizardmen alliance

The battlefield

My Woodies and Uilliams massive archer unit

Turn one

Uilliam went first with his Bret force consisting of General on a Griffon, Hero on something with wings too, the Green Knight, 2 level 2 damsels Beasts and I can’t recall the other lore. Sixty peasant bowmen in a unit and the mercs were a goblin shamen with a Giant. As the objective is capture the artefact Uilliams flying contingent flew towards the centre with the Green Knight moving menacingly towards my lines and the Giant advancing towards the undead to Uilliams right. His shooting was a bit off as 27 shots produced 1 hit (and wound) on my Wardancer unit.

Vinny moved next, his force was a Blender Lord in a unit of Grave Guard, a unit of Ghuols, skelly spears, zombies, plague cart with various undead hangers on: Banshees and Etherial Hosts. His mercs were a unit of Lizardmen  and blowpipe skinks. His zombie unit moved towards the Giant. The remainder of the army advanced towards the centre.

Next was Phil, he charged his K’Daii Destroyer into the Bret General and advanced his Chaos Dwarf unit towards the artefact. His mercs were a unit of Daemons of Slaanesh of Steeds who moved towards Stu’s DoC to his immediate left.  Ash Storm on the Bret Gen. Unsurprisingly Uilliam hadn’t the dispel dice to stop him. Close combat saw a large collection of ones meaning the combat was drawn.

 Stu was next his army had two Daemon Princes! Yes Two!!!!! One Khorne one Tzeentch. Tzeentch chariot, three Beasts of Nurgle, Plaguebearers  and unit of Horrors. He didn’t have any mercs, presumably the Realm of Chaos currency of souls doesn’t convert very well  with gold in the eyes of most mercenary captains. His turn consisted of advancing towards both the undead and chaos dwarf forces. The chariot did it warpflame spewing over some of Vinnys force killing some, giving regen to others. Infernal Gateway fried some skelly’s then it was my turn.

As the deployment zone was a 24” diameter semi circle my set up was a bit clogged by the wide fronted archer units which would probably contribute to my manoeuvring woes in later turns. I even added to that by forgetting to move my stegadon at all! My magic phase was going to consist of me buffing my general Wardancer unit with high magic lore attribute then Walk Between Worlds my Stegadon so I could smash some Chaos/Brettonian/Undead face. Sadly my first spell failed so the traffic jam got worse. Shooting saw all my archer units shoot the Green Knight taking one wound off him (the Waywatchers didn’t bother due to his etherealness). Waystalker tried to snipe a mage (two hits, no wounds). It was was time to bring out the big guns (and by that I mean the Hail of Doom Arrow). The BSB shot and killed The Green Knight leaving me 250 gold richer.

The centre ground

60 fecking archers

The battle was more about sweets than anything else

Brettonian general vs K'Daii Destroyer

We have custom made spell markers

Carnage in 10, 9, 8,......

The Green Knight on 1 wound

Turn Two

Due to the inherent randomness of T&T it was Vinny’s turn next . The ghouls charged a solitary Beast of Nurgle . Everything else moved towards the centre, except the zombies who had to shuffle back from the combat with the giant due to a hastily waved white flag or something. Magic consisted of undead buffs that Stu didn’t really manage to dispel, the skinks took 3 wounds of the Tzeentch Daemon Prince, and in combat the BoN was beaten and destroyed by the ghouls, who overran into the Plaguebearers.

Around this time Uilliam’s army was packed up due to him having to leave early and no one trusting any of the others to control his army in an unbiased manner.

Phil was next I think. Marched his Dwarfs to the artefact and left his Mounts quivering with excitement waiting for some one on one action with Daemons of Nurgle. The Destroyer moved towards my army with the intent to destroy!!! Phil had taken the Chalice of Blood and Broken which basically messes up opponents magic phases, and essentially ruined whoever he declared as his enemy for that phase.

Stu was next, his Two Beasts of Nurgle and Daemon Prince of Khorne charge the Mounts only to be thwarted by Caltrops placed strategically in front of them. Both Beasts made it in, but poor old Blodskul, the Blodskulliest Bloodskull-Slaughterer of Khorne got a boo boo in his foot and pulled up complaining of a hamstring injury. The Horrors wandered into the big tower.  I think this was the turn the Stu found out how horrible a magic phase is against Phil’s spoilsport Sorceror. Shooting saw some more undead gain regeneration. Combat saw both Beasts of Nurgle lose 2 wounds each but neither were destroyed I think.

Undead and Daemons get unfriendly

The Giant/Zombie fight was just a misunderstanding

I was left out in the boonies with no enemy near me except the Destroyer. I had to charge the destroyer with a GG unit so I could get my Stegadon wrecking ball into combat with it, for extra insurance I put my Waystalker with the Dragonbane Gem in the way of the Destroyer as well (I figured if nothing else his 2+ ward would keep them in combat for a couple of turns). Unfortunately the GG failed to charge leaving the Stegadon unable to get round them to do damage!  A couple of spells put two ward counters on my generals unit and shooting was largely regrettable.

'YOU SHALL NOT PASS!'

the fog of battle

As you can see the battlefield gets clogged with debris (and technology)

Plaguebearers getting what for.

A towers eye view of Chaos Dwarfs (disguised as Imperial guard).

Nurgle vs Slaanesh

Peanuts have now made it onto the table

Turn Three

Inconveniently I got to go first this time! I say that as I was hoping Phil would go before me, charge the waystalker and set himself up for a good hard Stegadonning! This wasn’t to be so I charged with my waystalker and Glade Guard (the stupid mo’fo of a skink pilot still couldn’t get into him). The ensuing death of the GG should’ve allowed me to get him next time. It was at this time I decided to cut my losses with this inconvenient beastie and started marching my so far unscathed Dryads, Wardancers, Waywatchers  and Glade Guard towards the large artefact on the hill. A 1 & 1 magic roll meant I didn’t get up to much else. Close combat saw the Glade Guard unit and Waystalker both die (he failed to saves on the thunderstomp) and the destroyer overran just outside of the Stegs charge arc!

The rest of the turn consisted of me advising Phil to go after some Saurus (rather than my stuff), overrunning into the Plague Cart, He also marches his completly broken Destroyer in a dance round to the back of my Dryads. The Tzeentchian Daemon routed the skinks in the wood. Skeleton spears charged the Daemon Prince of Knorr and the Ghouls got into combat with the big daemon of Tzeentch. The riders of Slaanesh wander round to the front of the battlefield having seen off the Basts of Nurgle. Also the flying chariot gets embroiled in a combat with a spirit host and a banshee.

A big scrap in the middle of the table

Turn Four

Again I get first turn. Some good shooting gets the Destroyer down to 1 wound. Magic is negligible. Just couldn’t get the last wound off the Destroyer leaving 300+ gold tantalisingly near but still too far. My combat units now make a dash for the centre of the table in an attempt to grab the artefact. Meanwhile there was quite a few skirmishes ongoing all over the battlefield. The banshee and spirit host were killed by the chariot. The Daemon Prince of Khorne kicked the lard out of the skeletons. The Tzeentchian Daemons Prince was killed by the ghouls. The remainder of the undead circled the chaos dwarfs unit like big ungainly sharks.

The Chaos Dwarfs have outfoxed the undead by marching through their deployment zone

Turn Five

I charged a spirit host, tried to shoot the Destroyer. Killed the undead, failed to wound the big ugly heap of lava (incidentally Phil passed 4 toughness tests to keep the walking chimney going which was very inconsiderate).  The Daemons of Chaos were unable to affect the battle in the Undead deployment zone. The undead disengaged from the daemons and went full on at the Chaos Dwarfs.  Attacked from  flank and rear by a vampire with Grave Guard, unit of zombies and Banshee it wasn’t going to end well for them. Phil then started throwing out Treachery cards like they were sweeties, so the Undead were then subject to an oil slick, gas bombs and the unnerving suspicion that someone was behind them! Vinny countered with Inspire Fury and the combat was well and truly on! An unusual conflict of rules presented themselves as the Vampire Lord who had ASF also had to reroll his successful to hit rolls. Basically he had to reroll both successful and  unsuccessful hot hit rolls so Vinny had to roll his first set of attack dice (completely ignore them) then roll them again. The final round of combat saw the Chaos Dwarfs rout off the table and the chav-like Vampire Lord pick up the artefact and grab the cash.

Now the undead have gotten over their initial surprise & are getting stuck in

My valiant Elves defeat a spirit host

Chaos Dwarfs are in a bad way!

Final scores were

Undead 1000+ gold

Chaos Dwarfs 500+ gold

Daemons of Chaos 400+ish gold

Wood Elves 250 gold

Bettonians DNF

All in all a brilliant laugh but it unfortunately extends my not winning run to very nearly double figures!

Thanks for reading!

The state of play so far.

Since I've gotten back into gaming regularly, I've been recording my progress on a website called Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I would recommend it for any WFB player. It's a great site for recording my own games plus finding many battle reports to get ideas from. Here is a quick graphic of my successes(?) so far:

Tactical geniuii!

20 games played,8 wins, 3 draws and 9 losses. Room to improve I think you'll find! Now I have to go about creating some dastardly wicked army lists to improve my stats!

Low Hanging Fruit

The rather bizarre title of this post is a reference to my half finished painting pile and how the easiest way to get them off my lost interest table and into my bulging painted cabinet is to finish their asses. So I've painted up the remains of my Black Tree Design Sci-Fi models. I think they will mainly be used as Law Enforcer bods for any Necromundaish escapades I may indulge in.

Group Shot

Uzi Malone & Shotgun Pete

Minigun Masher & Skulky Autogun

 The other item I finished was an old Citadel Earth Elemental. Very simple paint scheme, grey with highlights. This model has been sitting on my painting table for a lot of years, but it mainly got overlooked due to his lack of tabletop uses. With my discovery of 8th Ed Warhammer I discovered the delights of sinister statues (to be more accurate on the 2 occasions I've had sinister statues in my games, they took offense to my troops being anywhere near them leading to quite a lot of eye death bolts). So I decided to colour in my figure. All I need to do now is convince my gaming buddies to let me use it as some kind of greater daemon of rock for my wood elf armies and I'm all set!

Minister Sinister

So now that these fellers are finished it's time for some Wood Elf troops to shuffle their way to the front of the painting queue. Until next time.