Half A Game Of AoS

So 8th edition Warhammer is gone! Well sort of. The general consensus in my gaming group is that AoS is a pile of simplistic shit that 'is the anal rape of the fluff' or something like that. I said from the start I'm not going to judge it until I've had a couple of games to ascertain it's worth. I downloaded the battlescrolls for my Lizardmen and Wood Elf army. I saw lots of fun things in both armies but I decided on Lizardmen as the Slann seems to now be the pre-eminent casters in the game (of course until GW invent a new copy writable uber wizard). Plus I had a blast last game with the aforementioned so I thought I will take a pretty similar force. My opponent Pat, brought his Warriors of Chaos to do battle. Now a lot of the time I add some prose to the battle report to give it a place within my own mental fluff masterpiece as to provide a narrative. Unfortunately I haven't read any of  about the new world(s) so I'm at a loss to come up with something.  

The Armies

Another staple of the battle report is the army list. As GW have decided to do, apart from the anal raping, was toss the salad of points values. This was, at first I thought aimed at tournament play and the destruction of it, but then I thought it was more about a friendly atmos than a fairly balanced game. So here's what I used: Slann Mage Priest, Scar Vet BSB, Skink Priest, 2 x 20 Saurus units, Kroq gar on Carnosaur and 2 units of 10 skinks. For what it's worth a grand total of 87 wounds. Pat took a Sorceror Lord, BSB, Lord on Daemonic Mount, 3 chariots, 3 Skullcrushers and 20 chaos warriors. 97 wounds in total. So by the rules pamphlet my 64 models gave Pat the sudden death option, but he decided not to use it as a we thought we'd see how the game played without trying too many rules. This is also why we didn't use the rules for mysterious landscapes as having to note down every piece of scenery and it's abilities seemed like hard work.

My Simple Plan

Not knowing how the game would play, all I had in mind was keep the Slann at the back summon some extra models and see what damage I could do. As the Seraphon (??!!??) army is now effectively good daemons I can summon all game. This was cool as it was the first game in The Palace of Righteous Justice which is what I'm calling my garage at the moment. This meant I had all my Lizardmen models handy so (in theory at least) I could summon my entire army! another nice touch was Pat brought round a printed battlemat  that really made the battle field come to life. It certainly beats the blue of my table tennis table! 

Le Battlefield Sans Armies

Le Battlefield Avec Armies

I deployed  Saurus unit #1 unit to the left with Skink Priest, Skink unit #1, Saurus unit #2, Slann, BSB , Skink unit #2 and Kroq Gar on the far right. Pat's deployment was chariot #1, chariot #2, Sorceror, BSB, Chaos Warriors, Chaos Lord, Skullcrushers and finally chariot #3.

Ready for the off!

Turn One

Pat won the first turn and in his hero phase cast Mystic Shield (+1 Armour Save) on the Chaos Warriors. the Gift of Foresight (Rerolling saves of a 1) was also given to them from the Sorceror Lord and the Chaos Lord used his command ability The Knights of Chaos (rerolling charge distances and +1 to hit in combat) on Chariot #3. Then the entire Chaos army advanced forward.

Chaos Turn 1

In my hero phase the BSB plants his standard into the ground giving the Slann standing next to him +1 to all his casting rolls. I summon a Saurus Oldblood on a Cold One, and then fail to summon both a Stegadon and an Ancient Stegadon. Good job really as if i'd gotten all those spells off it would've been pretty tough for Pat. I advanced my Skinks up to shoot some followers of the ruinous powers only to find that Skink unit #2 didn't have the range *. Skink unit #1 just proved to be inept. Then I went all out for the assault phase by declaring charges by Saurus unit #1 (failed) on chariot #1, Skink unit #1 (suceeded) on chariot #2 and Kroq Gar (failed) on the Chaos lord. the only reason I charged with the skinks was to deny a charge from the Chariot. So the assault phase saw 4 skinks die. it was then I found out that the Seraphon army is pretty much immune to BATTLESHOCK  **. They have a bravery of 10 so they need to lose 5 models before they even think about running. It was at this point that I realised I really, really needed to win initiative for the next turn or there was going to be a lot of frothing chaos maniacs chopping up Kroq Gar.

The Seraphon aka Lizardmen turn 1

Turn Two

There was a bit of drama at the start of turn 2 when the roll for initiative was at first drawn (leading me to hope I win the second roll), then Pat getting first turn again. In the hero phase his BSB planted his Battle standard, giving some rather tasty benefits (any SLAVES TO DARKNESS within 20" reroll charge dice and get +2 bravery). The Sorceror casts Daemonic Power on chariot #1. All the units that could advanced forward making a lot of short charges. Then the assault phase arrived and there were lots of charges. Chariot #1 charges Saurus unit #1, the sorceror charges into the skinks fighting chariot #2, the Chaos Warriors charges into the other skink unit, and the icing on the cake was the Chaos Lord, Skullcrushers & Chaos Chariot #3 all bundle into Kroq Gar. 

Things are not looking rosy for my Lizardmen

More chaos Death!

The skinks have a job to do - DIE!

One thing I will say for chaos chariots in AoS, they are nowhere near as deadly as in 8th ed. There are no impact hits. This goes a lot way to explain Kroq Gar survival in the ensuing close combat phase. Admittedly the whole combats went the way they would in 8th, but without the running away. The numbers break down like this :
 Chaos Chariot 4 - Saurus Unit 5,
 Chaos Chariot & Sorceror 5 - Skinks 0
 Chaos Warriors 6 - Skinks 0
 Chaos Lord, Skullcrushers & Chariot 5 - Kroq Gar 2.
Now the above numbers would suggest a rout test for the Chariot, both units of skinks (due to charge bonuses) and Kroq Gar. What did happen was none of my units lost anyone to BATTLESHOCK, Carnosaurs have this ability called Bloodroar that causes any unit within 8" that has lost models in the turn can lose another d3 after a roll off. I had directed my attacks on the Skullcrushers and I won the roll - 2 frothing maniacs of Khorne flee like goblins!

The as yet unnamed Slann watches impassively

In my turn we rolled for Celestial Configuration (something I forgot in the first turn) which basically meant all the SERAPHON units added +1 to running and charge rolls (what I could have done with last turn, D'Oh!).  The BSB didn't bother pulling his standard out as it was doing a good job and the Slann summoned another Oldblood on Cold One. The Skink Priest (whom I had positioned appallingly badly for the first turn - making him unable to shoot or have spells cast through him) shot a wound off the Sorceror fighting Skink unit #1. Kroq Gar shoots a wound off the Chaos Lord. in the assault phase Saurus unit #2 charged into the flank of the Chaos Warriors (not that flanks matter anymore) and Oldblood on Cold One #1 (or OboCO#1) jumps in to cause death and destruction on them too.  I have 33 Saurus attacks on Chariot #1 and fail to take either of it's wounds off it! This is actually harder than it looks as at least half those attacks were hitting and wounding on 4+. Chariot #2 aided by the Sorceror finish off the skinks in the centre.  The large scrum in the centre is a pretty ineffectual slapfest with the Chaos Warriors proving to be hard as nails. I direct all Kroq Gar's attacks on the Chaos lord only to fail to wound the bugger. Kroq Gar is chopped up forthwith.

33 attacks vs 9

I must glue my cold One Rider to his steed

The End is Nigh for Skinkdom

End of Lizardman turn 2

Turn Three

Once again Pat wins initiative. The Sorceror casts Daemonic Power on the Chaos Warriors, making them even harder to deal with! The BSB, seeing how my BSB did nothing for two turns and got away with it also leaves his standard in the ground and lights up a cigar. The Chaos lord uses his command ability on Chariot #3. Both chariot use their Don't spare The Lash rule to get uncomfortably close to the Slann. The Chaos Lord also tries to get within kissing distance but his Daemonic Mount doesn't respond to slaps as well as chariot horsies. Both chariots assault the Slann but the Chaos Lord fails. This would normally be a death sentance for good Ole Slanny but after all their attacks it's a 4 - 4 draw (Slann are WAY harder in AoS). A wound is inflicted on Chariot #1 meaning it remains alive. The large fight in the middle continues with a couple of casualties on both sides and no one fleeing to BATTLESHOCK. 

End of Chaos Turn 3

As time is getting on we have agreed that turn three will be the last one. In the hero phase I cast Arcane Bolt at the annoying Chaos Sorceror killing him (the skinks, in fairness had taken a few wounds off him already). My other two Slann spells were summoning a unit of Skinks and a Bastiladon. The Oldblood on Cold One #2 and the BSB charged the Chariot to the right of the Slann (had I a bit more foresight in the previous turn I would have directed my Slann's attacks on the left hand chariot instead). Due to the rules for positioning summoned units I couldn't get the Bastiladon close enough to shoot either the Chaos Lord or Chaos Warriors. so both it and the skinks shot up the nearest chariot taking a few wounds off it. In combat  Saurus unit #1 finally ended the chariot #1. The large fight in the middle ground on. without any sign of a result. chariot #3 was mangled by the double teaming Saurus hero charge and the Slann got chariot #2 down to 1 wound.

Summoning Shenanigans

Last image of the game

Models were totted up and unsurprisingly it was a victory for Pat filthy Chaos. If the game had gone on then I think I could have swung it a bit more in my favour. That said after reading the Daemons of Chaos battlescrolls then the Chaos Sorceror could've been summoning daemons all game as well.

Conclusion

Well, after one game it's hard to give a definitive opinion on AoS but it's certainly better than I had originally thought. We hadn't played with many of the rules: sudden death, mysterious terrain, but I thought there was plenty of tactical options for spells, command abilites and unit rules. The piling in and 360 degree charge arcs will take getting used to but I'm sure it will become clearer. Shooting into and out of combat didn't do very much but that's probably more to do with the armies involved. The amount of terrain certainly did affect the amount of clear lines of sight for shooting too. One thing I did notice is pretty much everything can dish out damage. I had taken the Skink Priest as a spell extension but had I properly read his rules then he would've been played a lot differently. I also think my next game with lizardmen will use a few different battlescrolls as I'm now clearer as to how the game plays. Next game of AoS I intend using my Wood Elves, to see what they have to offer. At the moment one of the best things about  AoS is how the points values has eliminated the use of the word optimal*** on gaming forums. Many, many armchair generals spend more time trying to break a system**** than actually play for the craic. So summing up, I think I will play AoS again, but not at the total expense of 8th ed Warhammer. Ultimately is more about who you play with rather than what.  

* We decided that as we hadn't really studied the weapon options on some of the models that we'd count all models as armed with the first one listed on the battlescroll so as to eliminate confusion.

** BATTLESHOCK is without doubt the thing I dislike the most about AoS so far. It's a stupid (imo) term that is presumably put in the game as a trademarkable bullshit word, that makes rout tests a thing of the past.

*** Optimal-Schmoptimal. Fluffy is fun, although I have no idea about fluff in the new Bust-A-Move universe.

**** Yes you can take Kairos Fateweaver and a Screaming Bell to get you an instant win, but then you're just a cunt if you do.

Fun & Games With a Carnosaur

This battle report is an unusual one as I've started writing before it happens. Crazy time travelling, eh? Well Not so much time travelling rather I'm putting my army list and general tactics up before the event. As it stands I will be having a 3000 point games vs Vinny (1500 points of undead) and Pat (1500 points of Warriors of Chaos). I had the pleasure of watching the aforementioned opponents playing out a 1500 point a side game using said armies a fortnight ago so I have a fair idea what to expect - some rather fast moving elite combat troops backed up with cheap as chips immune to psychology undead. Best of both worlds or a hideous abomination of playing styles? The advantage of playing tag team is the benefit of a second opinion as the game progresses. The disadvantages can be the sharing of a magic dice pool, and the sacrifice of units you'd rather not sacrifice. From my point of view the advantages for me is an undiluted battle plan from it's list creation. Disadvantages is brainfarts. No nagging outer voice telling me 6 dicing Fireball isn't a good idea. So anyway, here's my list:

The Enduring Gathering of Gwanolobbi

Saurus Oldblood called Ick
Carnosaur

• Bloodroar, Loping Stride
•  Dragonhelm, Obsidian Amulet, Sword of Anti-Heroes

Slann Mage-Priest I think I will name him Munki Gwanolobbi
Disciplines of the Old Ones and other crap:
Lore of High Magic, Wizard Level 4
Becalming Cogitation, Focus of Mystery, Unfathomable Presence
 Fencer's Blades,  - Obsidian Trinket,  - Power Scroll


Saurus Scar-Veteran - Chupa Wotl
Magic Items

• Battle Standard Bearer, Shield
  
  • BRB - Dragonbane Gem, BRB - Glittering Scales, BRB - Gold Sigil Sword

Saurus Scar-Veteran - Chocka Wocka
Cold One
Magic Items : Obsidian Lodestone,  Tormentor Sword
Light Armour, Shield,  Cold One


Skink Priest called Itzi Weeni
Magic Items

• Lore of Beasts, Wizard Level 2
  
  • BRB - Dispel Scroll

Skink Priest named Ickl Bitti
Magic Items

• Lore of Beasts, Wizard Level 1
  
  • AB - Cube of Darkness

Saurus Warriors x 26, full command
Saurus Warriors x 25 full command
Skink Skirmishers x 10 javelins
Skink Skirmishers x10 javelins

Ancient Stegadon named Gack The Honourable Skewer
 Engine of the Gods, Sharpened Horns, Unstoppable Stampede

Bastiladon entitled Blastiboom Of The Radient Effervescence 
  Solar Engine

Cold One Riders x 9 full command. Known as the Entramplers

LIZARDMEN ARE SO COOL!

The Horrible Alliance of Terror AKA H.A.T.

As usual I don't have my opponents army lists but as such I will name them willy nilly in the hope that they may be more forthcoming in the future. 

The Spikey End of H.A.T.

Globbule The Ballsy Chaos Lord (?) of Tzeentch on a Disk

Thighchafe of The Splayed Knees  Chaos BSB on Daemonic Mount

2 x Chaos Chariots

Chimera

3 x Dragon Ogres

2 x 5 Chaos Warhounds

Chaos Spawn

The Dead End of H.A.T.

Knoblbly Nees Master Necromancer, Invocation of Nehek, Vanhel's Dance Macabre, Gaze of Nagash, Raise Dead.

Undead Mike Wight King BSB

30 Ghouls

20 Grave Guard

30 Skellingtons 

Mortis Engine

Spirit Host

30 Zombies

3 Crypt Horrors

Tactical Burbling

Deployment (exludes chaos chariot & Spirit Host)

The last game I had against Pat was vs my Wood Elves and to give him a different enemy I thought I bring my Lizardmen. I decided to just bring stuff I like so that consisted of my two large units of saurus with skink javelins with as many monsters I could fit in the army. As Vinny was tag teaming with him I thought the monsters would be useful against his mainly infantry army (stomps). I also took my Oldblood on a Carnosaur as I like the model and I really think it can do a job on those heavily armoured Chaos Warriors and chariots. two beast skinks meant I would be Wyssaning my way around the battlefield and a unit of Saurus cavalry would hopefully be lawnmowering their way through anything that got in their path. Another consideration I had was having the Bastiladon and Ancient stegadon with their bound spells, to winkle out dispel dice off of my opponents before I cast my high magic spells to get other spells using the ever so useful lore attribute. During set up I went for the old deploy-like-I'm-going-to-deploy-normally-but-then-go-mainly-on-the-right trick. Unfortunately the only units that were deployed on my left were a spirit Host and a Chariot. At least the spirit Host was at least 3 turns away from my Bastiladon leaving me free from reliving the most pointless combat in Warhammer history. I won the dice for picking sides and for going first so all boded well for the upcoming game!

Turn One

Most of my units remained still like a crocodile waiting for a wildebeest to take a drink, ready to pounce. All except my Carnosaur who blundered into a blood forest (ffs). I then realised I'd made an error in placing my Cold Ones. Stuck behind the skinks and possibly having to traverse a river with the inherent DT tests I hindsighted that over to the left of my Carnosaur would have been precious. Anyway, I had a decent magic roll only to curse the Chimera and nothing else. The Bastiladon proved to be a worthwhile addition as the beam of chotek spell caused a rather interesting debate as to whether it should be dispelled. It was dispelled.but if there is something that can put the willes up your opponent, it's the possibility of 2D6 St 6 hits. I then declared I was going to cast Fiery Convocation on the Grave Guard using the Power Scroll so it was a very castable 10 but then Stuart stuck his nose in telling me how the power scroll didn't do what I thought it did but instead something else and rather than argue it out did something else, unsucessfully I might add. 2 minutes later Stuart guiltily confirmed my original proposition after checking it on the errata. As an aside I think I might see that item again in the hands of Stuart's Grey Seer who has a lot of trouble casting Curse of The Horned Rat a fair bit.  No shooting and no combat, my end of turn one.

The Mighty Mustering of Gwanolobbi Advance!

The zombie unit found it was standing in a wildwood (careless). Whilst some of the faster moving chaos units found the river was made of blood. Apt really but it didn't really effect the game much. The Chariot on the left advanced to within a reasonable charge distant of my Carnosaur and the Spirit Host started meandering towards the battlefield's centre. The zombies failed to get out of the wood so it kicked the shit out of 4 of them. In the magic phase they were brought back to life so by the end of the turn it was a case of as you were. Globbule The Ballsy flew his disk to within a rather easy charge range of Stagadon and large Saurus unit. I had heard about unkillable Tzeentch lords and I was soon to find out just how unkillable. I scrolled raise dead as I don't like units popping up all over the place interfering with my cunning reptilian plans.

Globbule The Ballsy laughs in the face of Ancient Stegadons

Turn Two

I declared a charge on the chariot who fled (not very chaosy if you ask me) so I had the choice of redirecting into skeletons or Grave Guard. I picked the grave guard as I had a point to prove with my Carnosaur. The ancient stegadon and saurus unit charged Globule. Wyssan's is cast on the Stegadon to buff his St & T to an impressive 7.  I make a mistake by not casting either beam of Chotek  to target one of the many unpleasant things arrayed before me! My skinks take two wounds off of the chariot shootingwise. Close combat with the Tzeentch Lord was surprising as I rolled one impact hit against him but Pat failed his save. Sharpened horns made 1 wound 3 so he died rather anticlimactically impaled on the face of my dinosaur. The Carnosaur combat was a win for me but certainly not enough to crumble the unit and there were undead units ominously lurking on both of my T Rex  Carnosaurs rather long flanks.

End of Lizardmen movement

The Marauders and Chaos Dags charge a unit of skinks (and due to my ineptitude or Pat's tactical genius, only got 3 shots of which none did any damage). The ghoul unit and Skellington unit charge the Carnosaur. The Chaos Spawn wanders into the other skinks. In the magic phase Invocation is cast on the Grave Guard and Vanhel's is cast on all three units in combat with the Carnosaur. The Chimera halitosises 3 Saurus to death. Pat was going to use his Spawn's breath attack on the Skinks but me (trying to impart my tactical nous upon him thought such an attack would be overkill as "that Spawn will rout those Skinks"). My Skinks then obviously outraged by my flippant disregard for them proceeded to inflict two wounds on the Spawn drawing the combat! In the Carnosaur combat I issued a challenge and Vinny accepted with some Grave Guard champion, and perhaps I was being a bit gammy by challenging but by accepting he totally negated his massively superior number of attacks on me! A fairly hefty overkill on the armoured skellington meant that even with all of Vinny's massive combat res I could stay in combat on a 4 or less. All I can say about that is thank Odin for the cold blooded rule! I actually think that being sandwiched between the Ghouls and Skellys counteracted each others rank bonuses. or something.

End of H.A.T. s movement phase

Turn Three

I'd like to from now on refer to this turn as The Turn of Predatory Fighter Rape. Not very catchy but apt. So I send one unit of Saurus to attempt to save the Carnosaur who in my opinion, wasn't going to get away with another challenge con. I also decided to send in the cavalry, into the BSB skulking around my back line. I also aligned both the ancient Stegadon and other Saurus unit to receive charges from the chariot and Chimera respectively. I manage to cast Wyssan's on the cavalry. That was all I managed to cast (I think I forgot my two bound dinosaur spells again). The Cavalry against the BSB wasn't fun. Pat pulled the challenge stunt that I had against Vinny last turn. I thought I'd see how tough a 1+ save Saurus Scar veteran is. Not very it turned out. I failed to crack the armour and ward saves of the BSB and he twatted the Scar Vet with his big bloody great weapon, killing him! The cavalry didn't run but now I knew I needed combat res to rout this bugger. On the other side of the table my Saurus infantry did a number on the ghouls. Out of the 11 front rank attacks I rolled 8 6's. Coupled with the second rank I managed to inflict awful damage on the Ghouls flank. The Old blood and Carnosaur directed their attacks on the now largest enemy unit - Skeletons and I managed to take a lot of them off thanks to a rather sweet thunderstomp. I was also very lucky Vinny's attacks back as the Grave Guard didn't inflict much damage and neither did the skellys. The Ghouls did wound the Carnosaur but he was at the end of the combat still on a wound. When the combat resolution was totted up I had won combat by 15! The exact number I needed to pop all three units! Yay Predatory Fighter!

End of Lizardmen Movement

Horrible Mess

A Better View of the Horrible Mess

The forces of H.A.T. wanted revenge! The Chaos Chariot and Crypt Horrors charged the Ancient Stegadon and the Chimera charged the Saurus unit containing the Mage Priest. The Spirit Host failed a long charge on the Old Blood backside (that could've been embarrassing). The Mortis Engine did something horrible that killed a Skink Priest who was labouring under the impression that he was safe, along with some Bastiladon and Stegadon crew. A low magic Phase (2 +  2) didn't help the forces of evil. The Stegadon weathers the chariot charge well and only takes a single wound from the Crypt Horrors. Gack sticks around because he's stubborn. The chimera inflicts 8 wounds on the Saurus but steadfast saves the day. The cavalry against the Chaos BSB results in another challenge. This time the Daemonic Beast causes 1 wound on my champion meaning the dude with the great weapon can't attack. He causes 1 wound and I win by 1 with static combat res. Pat wouldn't oblige me by failing his break test twice though. We call the game at the end of turn 3 as time constraints meant another turn wasn't possible. A swift bit of calculating results in a win for the Forces of Order.

Apply Saurus

Remove Undead

Conclusion

I think there is definitely an advantage to playing 2 vs 1 from the perspective of the single player as a single battle plan is probably better than two different ones, especially if the armies involved rely on different methods to win a battle. From my point of view once again the Mage Priest was a waste of points. Dispel-wise he stopped a lot getting through, But I completely forgot my Arcane Vassal rule. Had I remembered that I could've been casting spells through the Skink Priests. My planned single dice bound spell barrage was pretty much forgotten about after the first turn but it is a valid tactic.  My other big mistake was the deployment of my Saurus Cold One cavalry. Had I placed them to the left of the Carnosaur as support and general lawnmowing duties I think they would have achieved more. If I had though, who knows what damage the BSB would've done? I also think another turn or two would have been interesting. My Carnosaur was poised to charge the zombie unit with Necromancer in it and I think the Saurus would've gotten back into the fray as well. Of course it has to be said Pat's crap luck with his general helped my case immeasurably. Vinny's uncertainty regarding challenges was also a factor, one that I'm sure won't be again.

Cheaphammer

€2.35 well spent

So I was in Spain on holiday and found a packet of plastic dinosaurs in the toy section. After a bit of umming and ahhing I decided my holiday funds could stretch to the €2.35 required. 

Thank you cheap Chinese shop in Spain

So part of my sticking it to the man plan is to proxy at least two of these models with a greenstuff makeover. The green Anklosaurus can be my Bastilodon. The pink Allosaurus (?) can be my Troglodon.

So arriving back to Ireland I measured my models to check the scale.

He's not going to stay pink

First off the Troglodon looks comparable with the old GW Carnosaur.

Neither will this guy stay so green!

The Bastilodon looks pretty close to the old Stegadon so it looks like I'm all set to spend the next few months trying to save myself €100+ ! With the added uncertainty about Age Of Sigmar I think €2.35 vs €100 is a worthwhile gamble.

Of course ability might not equal ambition but we will see.

The War Against Chaos Continues

Glitterbane The Fey stared at the amassing Chaos Warband. For the second time this month a foul Chaos Warband had encroached on the borders of Athel Loren. The previous one now lay in a pit thrice purified by spellsingers and warded by glyphs of confusion. The previous interlopers were followers of Nurgle, foul polluted creatures born of nightmares, these (though no less vile) were followers of Tzeentch the changer of the ways. They would be no less deadly. Glitterbane, signaled to the surrounding elven force to advance forward. Glancing towards her second in command Gargamel The Swift she used her kinband's hand signals to tell him "No quarter, these like the previous group seemed intent on searching for something. The only thing they will find, is death".

The winds of Chaos are blowing strong in Cavan at the moment as we have a new member of our gaming group - Pat - and he is another follower of the ruinous powers. This time Tzeentch. Pat is new to Warhammer and contacted me through the Wargaming Ireland forum. A few texts were exchanged, a telephone call and lo! Another gamer enters the fold. So following my game against Aaron I tweaked my list a little bit (but with 1500 points there isn't much tweaking to be done). Got rid of the Elven Lord and exchanged for a Spellweaver with Metal magic. An extra unit of Waywatchers and a few cosmetic changes. I skimped on the BSB's equipment as I decided I wasn't going to risk his hide in combat - just a Hail of Doom arrow for him.
My Army consisted of:
Unicorn Spellweaver Lore of Metal 4++ Ward Save and *Scroll of Shielding, Plague Of Rust, Searing Doom, Glittering Robe
BSB Eagle HoD Arrow
**Branchwraith, Shield of Thorns.
8 Glade Riders Hagbane
13 Glade Guard
2 x 5 Wild Riders
2 x 6 Waywatchers

From memory Pat's army was
Level 4 Mage on foot, Tzeentch, Blue Fire of Tzeentch, Pink fire of Tzeentch, Bolt Of Change, Treason of Tzeentch.
BSB also on foot, Tzeentch
20 chaos warriors of Tzeentch
3 x 5 Chaos hounds
3 Dragon Ogres
5 Chaos Knights
5 chaos marauder horse

Not sure what (if any) magic items were on the characters but I'm sure they weren't pleasant.

Technical Ineptitude and Tactical Preamble

The technical ineptitude comes in the form of the soopadoopa camera that Stuart lets us use for photographic evidence didn't have its SD card in it at the start so some of my best ever camera work has disappeared into the ether. This was noticed some time in turn two when Stu noticed the card in his bag or about his person. As far as set up was concerned, Pat went for a strong centre (Chaos Warriors and Knights) with units of Hounds splattered along the table. The Dragon Ogres skulked the far side of a forest on my right side. I placed my free (Venom Thicket) right next to another wood to give my Elves a sense that Athel Loren was near.  My set up was both units of Wild riders on opposing flanks, the Glade Guard, Unicorn Weaver, BSB and Branchwraith were loitering around the forest just right of the centre. Once Pat had finished deploying I placed my Waywatcher units either side of the central group (the set of Waywatchers on my right started inside a mysterious wood which turned out to be a Blood Forest). I won the roll for starting turn so that gave me an extra round of shooting before combat. I vangarded my left hand Wild Riders up around 9" forward (relatively close to the Chaos Knights) and the ones on the right (opposite the Dragon Ogres) a more respectful 7" or 8". Got an ineffective Arrow of Kurnous off and the game began.

Set Up

Turn One

With the utter nastiness of some of the WoC units I was reluctant to go bowling up to them giving Pat the benefits of a charge and thusly giving myself the penalties of being charged. Also it's generally a good idea to get as many turns firing at the enemy as possible before the inherent squishyness of the Wood Elves becomes evident. I hardly moved forward at all except for the Wild Riders on both flanks. Magic was a non event. Shooting was better. I got both the central and right Chaos Hound units down to one each but neither fled. I considered using my HoD on one or other unit but felt it was a waste of a decent 30 point item. In my head I shook my fist at both Warhounds and muttered ' Your days are numbered sonny!'. Hopefully Pat wasn't watching my internal utterings (it was, after all the first time we met). My Waywatchers killed two Chaos Knights as well. All in all a satisfactory turn.

Wood Elf Turn 1

Pat then started some movement jiggery pokery that I wasn't overly pleased with, he marched his two lone Chaos Warhounds to foil my plans. One Warhound was placed within easy charge range of the Wild Riders whilst at the same time he angled his Dragon Ogres to flank said Wild Riders even with an overrun. The other Warhound got all up in the face of the Waywatchers.  The Marauders moved towards the Waywatchers, using the single Warhound as a canine shield. The unmolested Warhounds on my left moved to block any charge from my Wild Rider unit in the Knights, whilst angling them away so an overrun would be annoying. The rest of his army moved forward. In the magic phase Pat got off a Bolt of Change on the flank of the Wild Riders on my left. I pulled out a Scroll of Shielding only to find out it was a dud! 4 dead Wild Riders! He also cast another Treason of Tzeentch at the Waywatchers (who had foolishly decided to deploy in a blood forest) managing to kill just the one when the woods got all funny. Maybe they knew what they were doing anyway. Then the forest ambled forward to envelop the Wild Riders.

Chaos Turn 1

For some unknown reason Battle Chronicler (the program I used for the above picture) decided to make the marauders into single file unit even though they weren't. Sorry for the confusion. Also I didn't manage to figure out how to move terrain mid game. No if you can all imagine a Disneyesqe cutaway where the cartoon images somehow transform into real life - a bit like the movie Enhanted - thanks.

Turn Two

The single Wild Rider on the left charges the Warhounds ahead of  him as I was certain I'd a) win the combat and b) overrun out of the charge arc of the Chaos Knights. My Glade Riders arrived and deployed directly behind the Dragon Ogres. The Wild Rider unit on the right was a different kettle of fish. Rather than charge the single Chaos Warhound, destroy it, overrun and get flanked by the Dragon Ogres I thought amble back a few inches would be preferable.Overcoming their surprise at the forest wandering into their midst they passed their Ld test and away from the snarly dog they defiantly go. Very little else in my army moves - probably something to do with the split infinitive in the previous sentence. Cast Plague of rust on Chaos Warriors, then cast Searing Doom on the same unit (total brainfart). Shooting kills 2 lone dogs. The Glade Riders take wound off Dragon Ogres. The  Wild Rider routs dogs on left then catches them.

End of  my turn 2

In Pat's turn the Marauders charge the Waywatchers who double tap them to death. The Chaos Knights charge into the Waywatchers on the other side. The large unit of Chaos Warriors also declare a charge but fail it marginally. The Dragon Ogres realising their Wild Rider trap wasn't going to work attempted to march forward, failing to pass their Ld test due to the glade riders being up their jackseys. Magic was uneventful (according to my notes anyway). Now onto close combat.  This was a worry for me as in my lack of a plan with the Eagle riding BSB I had stupidly placed him directly behind the Waywatchers, just as the Chaos Knights crashed in. Knight actually as stand and shoot had picked off another two. All I needed now was Pat to fluff his attack dice and I'd be fine. Now, as regular readers of my battle reports may have noticed I complain about poxy luck ruining my carefully wrought plans. Seemingly, Lady Luck, having read a few of my battle reports took pity on me. the Waywatchers dutifully attacked their virtually impervious enemy 4s to hit, 5s to wound 2+ armour save. I managed two wounding hits on the Knight and Pat (very generously I thought), failed a save making the Waywatchers early contenders for MVPs of the game. 

My poorly placed BSB

The Chaos Warriors failed charge was significant

Turn Three

There were no charges for me to declare, just keeping out of charge arcs. I did however put my BSB within a possible, but rather improbable charge of the Dragon Ogres (I think a 10 or 11 was needed). Everything else just made sure it was nice and safe. The slayers of the Chaos Knights went and hid in the tower. We had a 12 dice magic phase. Plague of Rust was cast on the Warriors again (armour save was now 5+). Shooting kills a Dragon Ogre. The Hail of Doom arrow is fired at the Warriors and due to some crap rolling to wound I only kill one. A 30 point item causes 16 points of damage.  Oh well.

Elusive Elven troops #dickmoves

In Pat's turn the Dragon Ogres fail their charge on the BSB and the Chaos Warriors continue their march into painful arrow death. The magic phase didn't do much - a single Waywatcher was killed.

Turn Four

The only charge I had to declare was the wild riders into the flank of the Dragon Ogres. The magic phase was nice to me I cast Glittering Robe on the Glade Guard and Plague of Rust on the Chaos Warriors. Now that the Chaos Warriors effectively had a 6+ ward save and nothing else, my archery did horrible things to them. I think I took off  half a dozen models from shooting. Close combat was brutal, the wild riders wiped out the Dragon Ogres causing 12 unsaved wounds. They overran and were halted 1" away from the Glade Riders.

The Dragon Ogres receive some flanking Wild Rider love

Yes my Wild Rider could have charged. #dickmovenumbertwo

Pat's army now consisted of a unit of Chaos Warriors with only the whims of Tzeentch as protection. Undaunted he declared a charge on my Glade Guard in the woods. Lady Luck was indeed on my side today as they failed their charge roll. I killed another few to stand and shooting so the unit was down to 8 models. The game was called as another round of shooting would have pretty much done for the virtually naked followers of Chaos. We didn't count VPs but it was a pretty solid victory for the Elves.

The End is Nigh for Tzeentch

Conclusion

The margin of my victory was I think, misleading. Had we played another turn I'm confident there would be possibly the BSB and General left at best. I think Pat's army was ideal for me to fight as it consisted of lots of small, easily picked off units. There was also the matter of Pat's craptacular luck in this game. Failed charges notwithstanding (I had deliberately left long charges to tempt him), the Chaos Knight would 9 times out of 10 routed the Waywatchers (pursuing into the BSB) which could have netted quite a few points and the Dragon Ogres failing their march test gave me the time to deal with the other threats. All in all I think (hope) Pat enjoyed the game and I know from experience he learnt from this defeat to designed a much more unpleasant army list.

*This turned out to be a worthless item.
** Not one mention of the Branchwraith in my notes. 75 points well spent I guess.

Glitterbane The Fey watched the remaining followers of Chaos skulk away from the battlefield. Casualties had been light and the enemy thwarted. Whatever these foul minions of the ruinous powers were after, the weren't successful this time. She was sure though, they would return.........