A Day Out on the Beach

Once again I am roped into writing another battle report for other members of *C.L.A.W. As the gaming group is getting pretty big ( not quite gaming club size - but getting there) we had 3 games of 1500 point a side Warhammer games - Goblins vs Skaven , Wood Elves vs Warriors of Chaos and this game - Goblins against Warriors of Chaos. This game is between Donal & Aaron . I haven't got a copy of Donal's list but it did compose of 2 large units of Night Goblins, a chariot, Bolt Thrower, Rock lobber, Arachnarock and Spider Riders. An interesting all goblin army. Arrayed against him was Aaron's rather unpleasant Chaos Warrior army which is led by Filthmaster Cheeserank and has been unpleasant to my Lizardman army recently. The rather unusual title of this post is mainly because the two tone nature of this table reminds me a bit of a sandy beach. Donal's level two shaman had the spells Gift of the Spider God & Curse of the Bad moon. Cheeserank's spells were Blades of Putrification, Rancid Visitation, Fleshy abundance & Plague Wind.

In the picture below you can see (from left to right) Arachnarock, Goblin Archers, Stone thrower, Goblin Spears, chariot and Bolt Thrower. The Spider riders were ambushers. Opposite them were Chaos Warriors (with BSB), Chariot, Skullcrushers, Filthmaster Cheeserank & the other unit of Chaos Warriors.

So without further preamble here is the story of what happened when Donal took his goblins out to the seaside, and some Warriors of Chaos kicked sand in their faces.

Set Up

Turn One

Donal won the first turn. The wizards unit fails animosity and squabbles (probably due to who gets the first ride on the donkey), doing nothing else this turn. This was annoying for Donal as he couldn't cast spells. The artillery manage to inflict no damage at all so the DP is pretty much unscathed.

The chaos force moves forward. The only successful spell is Fleshy Abundance on the chariot (I like writing up about chaos as I usually get to skip the shooting phase).

Chaos relentless march forward

Turn Two

The Goblin ambushers don't show up (probably having ice creams). The speary Goblin advance up to the fence.A weak 3 + 2 magic phase has no spells cast (level 2 vs level 4 can be like that). One chaos Warrior dies to a cloud of arrows. The artillery is crap again.

The Skullcrushers charge the Goblin Spears, as does the Chariot. Due to the unit being behind the fence both fanatics are pushed out to the side one towards the Warriors on the right, the other out to the left. The Chaos Warriors march through the fanatic - and due to a combination toughness 4 and Donal's spacky rolling - they lose one model.  The Daemon Prince flaps round so a flank charge on the goblin stickas or rock lobber is easy.  He ignores the bolt thrower completely (will he regret this decision?).Rancid visitation kills four goblins, but the toughness test is passed to avoid further dead 2 point models. Due to the barrier the close combat is drawn. 

beginning of goblin turn 3

What Fanatic?

Turn Three

The Goblin Spider Riders finish their ice creams and arrive on the Chaos Warriors left flank ready to creep out the BSB. The Goblin Chariot charges the flank of the Skullcrushers, doing no damage! Then in the magic phase Curse of the Bad moon kills 2 Warriors. It's not going terribly well for the forces of Goblindom at this point. In close combat the goblins lose, causing the chariot to flee through the Chaos warriors on the right (there should be an accidental chariot damage chart when they go through units I think). The main goblin unit remain steadfast.

Cheeserank goes for the tradesmans entrance

The Chaos Warriors charge the flank of the Gobboes, The Daemon Prince charges the Rock Lobber setting off two fanatics who bounce off him. The river also turns out to be a river light that tries to Ney of Amyntok Cheeserank, but he's having none of it. The Chaos Warriors on the left decide to march through the other fanatic as they saw their buddies on the left do (sadly for them they lost 5 pustulent Warriors). Then Aaron rolls a 12 for the magic phase and breaks his concentration first spell! The main goblin unit has both the general and BSB kerb stomped along with quite a lot of weedy goblins, so they flee only to be caught by the rampaging buggers. The Daemon Prince dismantles the Rock lobber and reforms to do some more dismantling next turn.

Impact Hits?

Chariot leaves early to beat the traffic.

The end is pretty nigh

Turn Four

The Goblin Spider Riders charge the flank of the Chaos Warriors. The chariot rallies. At this point you may be wondering whether in the army list for the goblins, the Arachnarock was a typo. No it wasn't and neither was it a piece of terrain. I am not really sure what the problem with it was, but judging how spiders behave when dipped in water the River of Light may have been the thing that kept it transfixed. If, in my notes I neglected to write down what it did, I apologise. I'd like to say that in turn 4 it exploded into action, but it didn't. It just turned to face the Filthmaster. The goblin archers turned to fill the DP with tiny arrows. Close combat and the Chaos Warriors defeat the Spider Riders, amazingly they hold, especially as Snaggla refuses a challenge and hides round the back.

Squishy spiders

This turn the Daemon Prince charges the Arachnarock, the Chaos Warriors charge the bolt thrower. Long story short - Bolt Thrower destroyed, Spider Riders dissected and Arachnarock flees like a frightened child! Resounding Chaos victory. On the plus side the archers may have gone home on the bus despite the probably huge lines of traffic due to a broken down pumpwagon on the World's Edge Bypass.

Chariots play chicken

Conclusion

As arse kickings go this was a doozy. As I had no part in the tactics or army set ups I can be fairly objective. Firstly Donals list wasn't optimal, at least a level 4 goblin mage, they're cheap as chips aren't they? Also 3 fanatic per unit, is what I would go for. No mangler squigs or doom divers - two staples in any self respecting Goblin warlord (if they even have any). Admittedly Donal is only starting out with the greenskins so I can't fault him for that. My two main criticisms though were his use of fanatics and Arachnarock. when you use fanatics, make sure that there is no terrain for them to mash themselves into. Its possible that if the Skullcrushers/Chariot charge on the goblin unit would have been severely dented by 2d6 St 5 hits. unfortunately he couldn't push them out due to the fence. Also advancing the goblins into 8" of the BSBs Warrior unit could have changed the game somewhat. The Arachnarock also should have been attacking the Warriors, nothing beats a good thunderstomp! All thing considered though it was a bad matchup for Donal.
Aaron's list on the other hand is pretty **optimal (some, myself included would say filthy). The only things I would've changed was to probably place the BSB more centrally and not walk through fanatics, he got lucky the first time but the second not so much. Everything seemed to go right for him as it conversely went wrong for Donal.
Summing up, it wasn't so much an uneven fight, more like a UFC fighter going into a school playground and taking on the school bully, an uneven fight definitely, but not one that needed me as the playground supervisor to interfere with.

Thanks for reading.



*Cavan Longford Assorted Wargamers - still a working title.
**So optimal, in fact that he has now been banned from using it.

My 100th Post - Rumble in the Forest

Here's another battle report vs Aaron's rather filthy Warriors of Chaos. after a sound drubbing of my Lizardmen army I decided to change the army I have the most experience with - Wood Elves.

For those who haven't read the previous battle, why not? Here is Aaron's list;

Warriors of Chaos

Filthmaster Cheeserank  

Daemon Prince, Chaos Armor, Mark Of Nurgle, Flight, Level 4 (Lore Of Nurgle), Scaley Skin (5+), Soul Feeder, Charmed Shield

Ech Rottenhand 

Aspiring Champion, BSB, Chaos Armor, Shield, Halberd, Mark Of Nurgle

The Maurauders of the Encrusted Beard 

15x Warriors Of Chaos. Shields, Banner, Mark Of Nurgle

The Stank Of Warriors Past 

14x Warriors Of Chaos. Shields, Banner, Mark Of Nurgle

The Courier Service Of Pain 

Chaos Chariot, Mark Of Khorne

The Bonemashers

3x Skullcrushers, ensorcelled weapons, banner, Mark Of Khorne

My list was like this:

Wood Elves

Killvain the Witty

Glade Lord, Armour of Fortune, Obsidian Amulet, Sword of Anti Heroes, Longbow, Elven Steed, Shield.

Gargamel The Swift

Glade Captain, Battle Standard Bearer, Hail of Doom Arrow, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem, Longbow, Spear, Great Eagle called Swooping Death.

Glitterbane The Fey
Spellsinger, Scroll of Shielding, Talisman of Endurance, Level 2 Lore of Metal

The Kindred of Average Arrows
12 x Glade Guard, Champion, Musician, Standard

The Swift Avengers
8 x Glade Riders, Glade Knight, Musician, Standard Bearer, Hagbane Tips.

Killervain's Bodyguard
6 x Wild Riders, Champion.

The Glade Slayers
5 x Wild Riders, Champion

The Silent Barbs

6 x Waywatchers

Army Composition & Tictacs

 1500 points again so I'm forced into taking a pretty competitive list as there is no room for passengers! I really wanted to take my dragon but if I did there would be bugger all else in the army. All I did know was a static army against Aaron's mobile highly destructive units. I've recently been using 2 units of Wild Riders and they can be highly effective as they can get charge in, cause lots of damage and hopefully break any small unit, as luck would have it this Warriors of Chaos army is nothing but small units. One thing I learned from our last battle is that a model with a 1+ save is very difficult to deal with so I went with Metal magic and a unit of Waywatchers as well. I didn't have enough points to equip the Glade Guard with magic arrows, but I think in a smaller game it's a case of quantity over quality.

Pre Game Jiggery Pokery

I got to pick the table edge so I went with the one with the forest on my right , then placed my free forest to the left of that, hopefully creating a deterrent for the chariot so he/it/they would have to advance around either the swamp or the fences. aaron placed his forces from left to right in the picture below Daemon Prince, Skullcrushers, chaos Warriors with BSB, Chariot then the other unit of Chaos Warriors. My deployment was Wild Riders with my general, Wild Riders, Spellsinger, BSB on eagle and Glade Guard. I placed my Waywatchers approximately 14" from the Chaos Warriors the other side of the swamp. I was going to (hopefully) torment Aaron into attacking them and then play the running away game with them. Killvain the Witty released his Arrow of Kurnous into Filthmaster Cheeserank (doing absolutely no damage) and the game began.

Set Up

Turn One

I won the roll for first turn and it wasn't the spectacular slaughterfest I was hoping for.  I advanced central unit of Wild Riders to within long charge range of the Skullcrushers in the hope of a failed charge making my job easier. The archers, Eagle Rider and mage stayed well out of harms way. Some lackluster magic and shooting left 2 Chaos Warriors on the left dead from fine Waywatcher archery.

Aaron declares (and fails) a charge on the Waywatcher unit who stand and shoot killing naff all. skullcrushers move up towards the wild riders and the DP flies to a more central position. The chaos magic phase sees Curse of The Leper on the BSB unit (augment) and makes a hash of Plague Wind merely casting it on himself, making Plague Wind more like an embarrassing expellation of Daemon gas.

End of Chaos Turn 1

Turn Two

The Wild Riders charge the Skullcrushers who are the ideal unit for them - small and frenzied - so they can't flee. My Glade riders appeared on the right flank ready to shoot and hopefully not get into combat with any highly aggressive Chaos models. I cast Enchanted Blades on the Wild Riders just to give them an even better edge. Shooting was a bit meh. Plinked a few Chaos Warriors. Close was good the Skullcrushers couldn't live with the Wild riders and were routed,caught and slaughtered, nicely taking them out of the DP's charge arc into the bargain.

End of WE turn 2

The Chaos Warriors on the left charged the Waywatchers, failed and took a wound or two to stand and shooting. The other unit marched up towards the elves minding the fence. The Daemon Prince was clearly rattled as his first spell ended up with me gleefully writing down BROKEN CONCENTRATION! With no combats the Chaos Warriors must have been feeling a bit antsy. Good.

Turn Three

No charges for me but I move my units round so that there will be soon! I scoot the Wild Riders covered in Skullcrusher remains to end up very close Cheeserank hoping Aaron will turn round and get stuck in a dangerous combat with them. The Glade Riders & generals unit are circling the slow moving Warriors. The Waywatchers move back, maintaining a healthy distance between them and the Warriors. Enchanted Blades was cast on the BSB, also I cast an irresistible Searing Doom on the Daemon Prince causing 3 wounds on him and a calamitous detonation on the caster. Luckily I failed to wound myself (dice, eh?). Shot the chariot with the Glade Riders and the BSB (using the trusty Hail of doom Arrow) wrecking it and giving me a warm fuzzy feeling inside as well. I would give this turn a 7 or 8 out of 10.

End of WE movement turn 3

Same turn different view

Chaos army sans Chariot

Both units of Chaos Warriors fail charges against their tormentors, losing a few models to arrows and in the case of the swamp trotting Warriors - death by mud into the bargain! The DP flew to the flank of the Glade Riders (I had a nasty feeling about this). Plague Wind was cast killing 3 Glade Riders and a Wild Rider (I used the Scroll of Shielding to save them) and put a wound on my general.

End of chaos Warriors movement turn 3

Turn Four

The Wild Riders charge the rear of the Chaos Warriors losing none in the swamp. I also get a bit gung ho and charge the other Chaos Warriors with both the Glade Guard and BSB, thinking CR will see me through (I had a plan to deal with the Mark of Nurgle). The Glade Riders move around the Daemon Prince and the Waywatchers move round to hopefully get a few shots on him as well. Unfortunately I also move my second unit of wild riders to give the Daemon Prince cover from their stupid faces! A boosted Searing Doom plinks another would off the DP (he should be dead by now). I also cast Enchanted Blades on the Glade Guard (see, I told you I had a plan). Due to my inept postioning of the Wild riders the DP doesn't receive and load of no save arrow death!The Chaos BSB issues a challenge and the Glade Guard champion accepts. By the end of the combat my Eagle rider has taken 2 wounds but the Glade Guard champion hasn't! The combat is drawn. The Wild Riders in the swamp destroy the Chaos Warriors losing one to a failed DT test.

End of WE movement turn 4

Exalted Champion of Chaos bottles challenge with a gimp

The Daemon Prince scoots around the Glade riders so he can catch them with horrible smelly Nurgle magic. He casts Plague Wind irrisiatibly killing the unit without hurting himself. The Chaos BSB kills the Glade Guard champion earning himself another attack from the interfering Gods of Chaos. The combat starts to go a bit pear shaped as the Glade Guard can't get through Chaos armour. My BSB kills one or two Warriors but I get the sinking feeling that even with Enchanted Blades this combat is going to turn into a massive clusterfuck. I lost the combat but stayed around but I was certain it wouldn't be for long!

Turn Five

No pictures this turn (not sure why). I had no charges, just moved units around to shoot the DP and get into combat with the Chaos Warriors. My Mage had been mooching around in the woods all game availing herself of the +1 to cast in from Blessings of the Ancients, sadly a boosted Searing Doom was dispelled (I don't think Aaron is a fan of that spell), but he let me cast Enchanted Blade on herself (she had wandered to far from her preferred targets - the BSB and Glade Guard. Shooting didn't do anything as the DP was miles away (figuratively at least) from the Waywatchers. In combat the BSB dance off ended up with yet another dead elf, and a +1 strength bonus to Ech Rottenhand. The remaining Warriors chopped up my Glade Guard rather well and reformed to face the Wild Riders (oops).

Unsurprisingly the Chaos Warriors charged my Wild Riders, but thankfully by this time they weren't too big a unit for me to hand (or so I hoped anyway). The feebleminded Daemon Prince must have failed his first attempt at casting as in my notes it states NO MAGIC. The only BSB in the village then issued a challenge which my Wild Rider champion accepted, and duly died to. The Eye Opened which meant Rottenhand didn't get any beefier this turn. The Wild Riders lose combat but having a leadership 10 models counts for something now and again, they don't flee.

Turn Six

I moved my units to hopefully kill the DP which after a swift mental calculation should put me in a favourable position points wise as long as Rottenhands doesn't end my general. In the magic phase I finally Searing Doom the slippery Filthmaster Cheeserank to death earning me some nice victory points. In combat Ech challenged Killvain The Witty to duel the night away. Killvain had to accept. The combat was inconclusive - neither could land a telling blow. The grunts in both units also didn't do very much, the combat was drawn. 

As the last remaining chaos unit was in combat Aaron needed to destroy this unit. Sadly for him and happily for me the combat ground on with neither unit sufficiently inflicting enough damage to rout the other. The game ends with Killvain The Witty making two ward saves to get the win.

Just to confuse this picture is taken from the opposite table edge turn 6

Victory to the Wood Elves!

Conclusion

Well that was a tough game. The list is pretty good for my MSU style army. Only the two units of Chaos Warriors have anything like the numbers to tie down my units in combat. My Waywatchers were great this game, taking wounds off the Chaos Warriors without getting into combat themselves, although in fairness the swamp was a big help. My biggest error was when got cocky and charged my BSB and Glade guard into the Chaos Warrior unit with his BSB. With my fragile T3 models combat really isn't an option with them, unless they get buffed. I was happy with my general movement as denying the Daemon Prince targets to charge was very helpful as there really isn't anything in my army that can take it. Was a bit unlucky that it took 3 boosted Searing Doom's to finish him off as the mage could have been put to other duties a turn earlier I reckon with better rolls. All in all an enjoyable game that was challenging tactically. Thanks to Aaron for playing.

Thanks to you for reading.

Filthmongery

Following Aaron's successful crushing of Stuart's Ogre Kingdoms army . It was my turn to feel the filth. As I had been observing the carnage of the game before I started formulating a plan to hopefully minimise damage from the army, my army was essentially the same one as my battle with the Daemons of Khorne with the High Magic Loremaster addition to my force at the cost of a few Saurus I think. To my way of thinking I would hit the WoC army with a few High magic spells then change to a more specialised lore using the Lizardmen Lore attribute. 

Tactical (if any) Considerations

Aaron's army has 3 units that are very fast and very hard hitting - Daemon Prince, Chariot and Skullcrushers, abetted by 2 units of Nurgle Chaos Warriors - slow but highly effective infantry. Mercifully no missile troops. What my game against Daemons of khorne taught me at this size game is Saurus and Temple Guard are both pretty durable units just as long as I don't get multiple charges, I may be able to weather the storm and numbers might help. Of course the army list I made for this game was not optimal - especially as I had very little (read nest to nothing) that could deal with a 1+ armour save Daemon Prince. With this in mind I had to go for Magical Daemon Murder as my #1 plan. Failing that, I'd be in trouble.

As already stated I had a High magic Loremaster backed up by a level 1 Beasts Skink Priest who had Wyssan's which is just a peach of a spell when cast on Saurus. The 1+ Armour Save Daemon Prince was luckily (not for me) a level 4 mage too with Blades of Putrification, Rancid Visitations, Plague Wind & Curse of the Leper. As I find myself fighting Stuart's Nurgley Daemons army I know exactly how much fun Nurgle magic is, none. Aaron won table side (and first turn) so my dice rolling started badly. Would it improve?

Set Up

Turn One

The notes for the Chaos Warriors 1st turn is mercifully brief: Magic - 3 - 2, no channels. Curse of the Leper (doesn't even say who was the target), cast on a 15. Plague Wind failed. There was some moving towards my army as well.

Chaos Movement turn 1

Again the notes were brief, apart from moving the skinks forward and angling the Saurus towards the Skullcrushers there was little movement, mainly bacause I wanted to use the swamp as a buffer that hopefully the chariot would fall into. In the magic phase I managed to cast Fiery Convocation on the Chaos Warriors on my right. Unfortunately it only killed 2 models, but with luck it would keep on burning the bastards! I reasoned that as it has such a high casting value it would be hard for Aaron to dispel so I exchanged it for Searing Doom to try to deal with the horrible Daemon Prince. Arcane Unforging was dispelled and that was pretty much all I did that turn.

Lizardmen movement turn 1

Turn Two

The Skullcrushers try a long charge on the Saurus and fail, managing to stroll forward 2". The Warriors on the left charge the skinks who decide they don't fancy the combat and flee! The Warriors move forward 4". We then get an 8 dice each magic phase (I channel twice). Rancid Visitation is cast on a 24 and I fail to dipel it, to add insult to injury Fiery Convocation is dispelled before it can do damage this turn as well. So my plan of gradually cooking a unit of Chaos Warriors has gone awry.

Chaos movement turn 2

Not being in any particular hurry to get my arse kicked I didn't advance any units other than the Salamander and turn around the now fully rallied skinks. I got a 12 dice magic phase so in my head I made a sinister snigger and announced that the followers of the Dark gods would pay! With that I cast the boosted version of Searing Doom on the Daemon Prince. I rolled so successfully that the slann Mage priest lost 3 magic levels. Sadly when I needed to roll high for 2d6 hits on the Daemon Prince, I didn't. Caused only 2 wounds and caused irreparable damage to the Mage Priests self esteem. Also failed to cast both Walk Between Worlds and Apotheosis. The Salamander fails to hit the Warriors with it's halitosis. All I needed was a 4 or more on the artillery dice and I could've got some preemptive payback, but no, it wasn't to be.

Lizardmen turn 2

Turn Three (Shit Gets Real)

The Chaos Warriors charge the skinks (again), who flee (again), and they only manage a 4" move (again) so Operation Irritate is coming along nicely. The Chariot charges the Salamander (who flees), then redirects into the Temple Guard (uh oh). The Daemon Prince charges the Temple Guard (uh oh X2). The Skullcrushers again fail a charge on the Saurus. the magic phase is 1 + 3 and Aaron manages to cast Blades of Putrification on a 20! Needless to say my now addled Mage Priest fails to dispel. In combat 8 wounds are caused on the Temple Guard for only 1 in return but they don't run.

Chaos  turn 3

The skinks and Salamander rally. The Saurus fail a vital charge on the Skullcrushers, thus bringing them nice and close to the Chaos Warriors and aforementioned unmentionables. Wyssan's is cast on the Saurus unit. The Temple Guard and Mage Priest are destroyed to a lizard. Reforms point the chariot towards the Salamander and the DP towards the flank of the Saurus unit. As if it needed to, the shit was to get even realer!

Lizardmen turn 3

Turn Four  (Realness Goes Up To 11)

The Chariot charges the Salamander. The Daemon Prince, Juggernauts and other unit of Chaos Warriors all make their charges into the Saurus unit. Big magic phase 6 + 5.  Curse of The Leper and Blades of Putrification both successfully cast. In combat the Chariot wipes out the Salamander and his entourage, overrunning into the skinks. The Saurus take a huge number of casualties 7 alone from the Skullcrushers. They flee, neatly concluding the game half way through turn four.

The hands of a defeated man!

Conclusion

Probably my biggest mistake was assuming the game was a 'friendly, learning about the game type list' when Stuart had written a very tough list from a very tough army book. Actual errors I could have done something about was perhaps targeting the Chariot instead of the DP with Searing Doom (it may have been destroyed in the combat) and also fleeing with the Salamander. If the Chariot had done it's horrid bloody thing on it from the front it would have routed the Sally and possibly overran off the table giving me ore time to deal with that other monstrous mound of cack - the Daemon Prince. Once again I was left bemoaning my failed charge from the Saurus unit I'm fairly confident they would have routed the Skullcrushers on the charge, thus giving me some satisfaction. Despite my whinging I did enjoy the game, and as importantly so did Aaron. What it did do was give me a burning desire to get my revenge on them in our next battle. Find out how that went in a week or so.

Thanks for reading.

Explosive Ogre Charges & Sidekicking Chaos Horses - Beardhammer!

In my capacity as Warhammeraphile and all round nice guy I have agreed to (been roped into) writing a Battle Report where I didn't get to roll any dice!!! The game was a 1500 point game between Aaron's Warriors of Chaos vs Stuart's Ogre Kingdoms army. It was entertaining and quite and eye opener for me also. This was Aaron's second game of WFB and Stu took a fun Ogre army. The armies are as follows:

Warriors of Chaos

Filthmaster Cheeserank  

Daemon Prince, Chaos Armor, Mark Of Nurgle, Flight, Level 4 (Lore Of Nurgle), Scaley Skin (5+), Soul Feeder, Charmed Shield

Ech Rottenhand 

Aspiring Champion, BSB, Chaos Armor, Shield, Halberd, Mark Of Nurgle

The Maurauders of the Encrusted Beard 

15x Warriors Of Chaos. Shields, Banner, Mark Of Nurgle

The Stank Of Warriors Past 

14x Warriors Of Chaos. Shields, Banner, Mark Of Nurgle

The Courier Service Of Pain 

Chaos Chariot, Mark Of Khorne

The Bonemashers

3x Skullcrushers, ensorcelled weapons, banner, Mark Of Khorne

As you can see it is quite an unpleasant list. Stuart in his infinite widom decided to help Aaron creating the above filth.

Big Papa Mawgo's Congregation

Big Papa Mawgo 

Slaughhtermaster, level 4, lore of the great maw, iron fist, glittering scales, fencers blades

Clem 

Cheiftan, BSB, great weapon, armor of destiny (?)

8x Ogres, banner, iron fists

6x ogres, banner, iron fists

3x Leadbelchers

3x Leadbelchers

Big Stampy Bill 

Stonehorn

Pre Game Set Up & Miscelania

Stuart won the roll for deployment, The DP spells were : Miasma of Pestilence, Blades of Putrification, Curse of The Leper and Rancid Visitation. Stuart's Ogre's spells were : Toothcracker, Bullgorger, Trollguts and Spinemarrow. The swamp that a unit of Ogres were standing in was a Mist wreathed Swamp. Aaron won the roll for who goes first and chose second like a dirty Brettonian would! The Chaos army was, from left to right (even though the picture below is from up to down) Daemon Prince, Chaos Warriors, chariot, chaos Warriors with BSB and Skullcrushers. The Ogres were : Stonehorn, Leadbelchers, Ogres (6), Ogres (8), Leadbelchers.

Set Up

Turn One

The Ogres march forward eager to get away from the scary Fimir in the swamp. A 3 + 3 magic phase sees Toothcracker and Spinemarrow both successfully cast (the DP must have been picking his scabs in the magic phase instead of dispelling), a total of 27 shots from the Leadbelchers manage to kill 1 Chaos Warrior (not like good elven archery). End of Ogre turn.

End of Ogre Turn One

The Skullcrushers fail a long charge on the Leadbelchers but the ensuing stand and shoot (if even there was one) did no harm. The rest of the Chaos army decided on a rather unusual tactic of not advancing to confuse the Ogres despite advice to the contrary. A 6 + 6 magic phase had Miasma cast on Skullcrushers, Blades of Putrification cast on the central Ogre unit and Curse of the Leper was dispelled (presumably Leprosy isn't all that popular with Ogres at the moment. No shooting or combat.

End of Warriors Turn One

Turn Two (or How A Simple Rule Misread Can Result in Karmic Imbalance)

The Stonehorn charges the leftmost Chaos Warriors whilst the 8 ogre unit make a 10"+ charge on the Warriors cowering behind the wall. The magic phase was 2 + 2 which saw Trollguts miscast making the Butcher lose 3 levels and spells, leaving Bullgorger in his now semi vacant head. The Leadbelchers cause a wound on the chariot whilst the other Leadbelchers fail to penetrate Skullcrusher armour. Then we come to the phase that set the Karmic wheel a turnin' instead of the Ogres doing d3 hits for their impact hits d6 were caused, =18 impact hits. a simple mistake anyone could make. No biggie though, 12 out of 14 Chaos Warriors were killed but after their previous efforts couldn't manage an overrun into the grumpy looking Daemon Prince. The Stonehorn only manages to kill 7 Chaos Warriors who don't run.

Ogre charges

The Daemon Prince & the chariot both charged the unit of Ogres mere inches away. The Skullcruchers charged the Leadbelchers on the right flank. A 6 + 4 magic phase came next. Miasma was cast on the Chaos Warriors fighting the Stonehorn, blades of Putrification was cast on Filthmaster Cheeserank (over egging the pudding if you ask me). Big Stampy Bill lives up to his name and beats the Chaos warriors on the left a thunderstomping they won't forget in a hurry, forcing them to flee and get subsequently trampled to death. the chariot and Daemon Prince only manage a measly 3 wounds and the dumb brutes hold due to steadfast. The Skullcrushers do their skullcrushing on the Leadbelchers leaving one Leadbelcher on one wound. Stu rolls a double one and he remains in the fight.

Turn Three (or How Karmic Imbalance Reasserts Itself)

The unengaged Leadbelcher unit decided to get engaged to the Chaos Chariot. The Stonehorn aligned himself to either aid the ogres fighting or avenge them. Bullgorger was cast on everyone. The Juggernaut riders killed the final Leadbelcher then reformed to bring pain to the Ogre general's unit. It was at this point that Stuart remembers that a 10" charge only causes d3 hits instead of d6. After a lengthy discussion about how the previous combats went (my notes weren't copious enough to record the actual dice rolled), it was decided that the game was to continue and the Leadbelchers charging the chariot didn't get impact hits. The upshot of this was the Deamon Prince and Chariot defeat the 2 units of Ogres but not by enough to make them run away. 

End of Ogre movement

Unstoppable force

Crap Daemon Prince

Stuff happening

The Skullcrushers charge into the flank of the Ogre general unit. In the magic phase Filthmaster Cheeserank attempts to cast Miasma on the Butchers unit but wasn't feeling it at the time and failed to cast. The Khornates win combat by a lot but steadfast allows the Ogres to reform. The large ruckus in the Chaos deployment zone ended in a draw. This was probably aided by the Chaos Chariot horses attacking the Leadbelchers to the side when - after checking later - they could only attack to the front.

Skullcrushers charge

Slaughtermaster unit reforms

Turn Four

The Stonehorn charges the Daemon Prince causing 3d3 impact hits. The Slaughtermaster casts Bullgorger (it's all he can remember) and gains a wound. Two Ogres are killed in the combat and the Skullcrushers win again but still they ogres stubbornly stay in the combat. The DP finally gets his kill on and causes enough damage to rout the Stonehorn. The rest of the Ogres remain.

Ogres lack staying power

This turn spelled the doom of the Ogre army. The Skullcrushers destroy the Slaughtermaster unit. The chaos Chariot kills off the Leadbelchers and the last remaining ogre unit takes a bit of a pounding. Stuart gracefully concedes and Aaron gets the win. aaron also gets the last cupcake (pictured below). Who said Chaos armies are all about the skulls?

The Trophy

Conclusion

Well as I was about to play against Aaron next I was a bit unnerved by the display. Fast moving, with some very tasty combat troops meant my lizardmen would be on the defensive from the outset. The game itself was interesting from the point of view that despite some heavy casualties they kept on going. from Stuarts point of view I don't think there was that much he did wrong (except for the impact hits faux pas). In fact the worst thing he did that day was help Aaron create that horrible list. As my next batrep will show, I had plenty of reasons to curse it. 

Until next time.

Thanks for reading!