Battle of the Innocuous Forest of Peril

Y'mca the Chaos Sorceror had received dreams from father Nurgle to journey to a spring at the edge of the forest of Arden to despoil it for his patron. having already defeated the force of local Brettonian Duke, he felt his quest was a righteous one. Dose, his ally and rival for Nurgle's favour was always near ready to question any order, and as he had the larger number of warriors in his warband, respect had to be afforded him before he found a more malleable second in command. His band had so far escaped detection from his enemies only by entering into a blood pact with a band of beastmen. The leader of the beastmen now spoke at the evening campfire meal, as he intermittently gnawed at a human forearm "Scouts have not come back. Dead, most likely. This forest stinks of elves!". A voice like the whispering gasp of an old man on his death bed, yet carrying to all around the camp stated; "The Piscine de la Fadeur lies half a days march from here, I long to bathe in it and spread Father Nurgle's blessing among the backward villagers hereabouts. I fear some might take arms to stop that. WILL WE LET THAT HAPPEN?". A massive noise of various hoots, bellows and clashing of weapons on shields was his answer. "TOMORROW  WE SLAY FOR THE GODS!".

 Hi all, after several years of me sulking about GW's abandoning of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Neil (a member of my gaming group) made a few inquiries about playing a game and I got interested in playing again. We settled on a 1500 point Wood Elf vs Warriors of chaos fracas. It proved to be a highly eventful roller-coaster of a game. This is the story of that day at the amusements. 

The Glorious Wood Elf Host

Lords;

Spellweaver Mizzard Wodel:  Dispel Scroll, Lore of Shadow, The enfeebling foe, the withering, Okkam's mind Razor, Wizard Level 3. Elven Steed

Heroes ;

Branchwraith Regrowth.

Glade Captain : (BRB) Armour of Fortune, Battle Standard, Hand Weapon. Elven Steed

Core;

Dryads : 10x Dryads

Glade Guard: Champion. 10x Glade Guard: 10x Hagbane Tips

Glade Riders : Glade Knight, Standard Bearer. 5x Glade Riders: 5x Trueflight Arrows

Special;

Sisters of the Thorn : 5x Sisters of the Thorn

Wardancers : Bladesinger, 8x Wardancer

Wild Riders : Champion, Standard Bearer, 8x Wild Riders

Rare;

Waywatchers : 8x Waywatchers

Total: [1,498pts] 

As this was my first game in many years I had decided to go for mobile force. As Wood Elves don't really have the capability to stand toe toe with chaos without magical help a block of infantry would likely come off worse against tooled up (or down) Chaos Warriors. My wild riders would be my sledgehammer unit and mostly everything else would be shooting or dodging around. My archers would hopefully kill enough to spark  panic tests and the Wardancers job was to hang around in a wood and be a stubborn roadblock. I have quite a bit of magic in this army too with three units that can channel which might (but not very likely) give me magical continuity during the times when the winds of magic are being a dick. I have found that Shadow magic works well with  Wood elves so that was what my main caster would be pinging around. Before the game I told Neil I wanted the following spells ; The enfeebling foe, the withering, Okkam's mind Razor.  That's what I got. Things might work out well. 

The Not So Glorious Force Of Y'mca

Heroes;

Chaos Sorcerer Y'mca : Lore of Death, Caress of Laniph, Fate of Bjuna, Mark of Nurgle, Wizard Level 2. Magic Items: WoC - Skull of Katam

Exalted Hero Dose: Mark of Nurgle. Magic Items: WoC - Filth Mace

Core;

Chaos Warriors : Champion, 11x Chaos Warrior, Musician, Standard Bearer

Chaos Warriors : Champion, Standard Bearer. 17x Chaos Warrior: 17x Halberds, 17x Shields

Special;

Bestigor Herd: 20x Bestigor, Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

Chaos Knights : Champion, Standard Bearer. 6x Chaos Knight: 6x Lances

Chaos Ogres . 3x Chaos Ogre: 3x Great weapons

++ Total: [1,495pts] ++

Y'mca himself, performing his pre battle war dance.

Those experts reading might notice Neil's force contains a unit of Beastmen in it. Neil has a painted up block of the Beastmen even though GW decided to make some extra cash by putting the three armies of chaos into three separate books and make chaos allsorts a thing of the past. I didn't think putting a block of Bestigor in his army would be overly harmful or unfluffy so we went with his fully painted army. Neil took the lore of Death, presumably to wipe out my characters with ease and also make out maneuvering a bit more important, but the spells he got were both short range so I needed to keep him at arms length (which was what I had already intended). He tooktwo magic items in his army the skull of Katam and the Filth Mace. Two items I don't have much experience against so I would let the joy of discovery envelop me when they got used.   

The Venue

We played at Neil's abode and the table was a 5' x 3' table. this was fine as the deployment zones were were reduced to allow for a 24" gap between our forces. I brought along some woods and hills as terrain and we placed a central area of difficult ground made up of rocks and a dried out cactus (which looked so good, I immediately wanted to go out buy some cacti and kill them for my tabletop). We Chose Battleline scenario as it was the most simple. Sides were chosen, and my Wood Elf special rules allowed me to lug a venom thicket onto the battlefield and in the words of Rick Sanchez "AND AWAY WE GO!".

 

A bird's eye view (I didn't manage to fit any into the game).

Some evil doers ready to do more.

Not very chaotic, cravenly hiding behind a hill.

The Game

I remembered to shoot at the enemy general with the Arrow of Kurnous special rule. This as it so often is the case, led to an arrow sticking out of a Champion of Chaos without causing so much as a whimper of pain. Neil won the roll for first turn so he moved his forces up (his Chaos Knights and Ogres had cowered behind the hill to avoid good honest elven bowfire). His Beastmen spent their turn infighting so no advancing towards my Wild Riders. That was the end of his turn and my first turn was my Dryads and Wild Riders moving forwards and the Waywatchers legging it out of the Wyldwood they has mistaken for a friendlier oily massage wood. So shooting resulted in a few casualties but not many.

My Waywatchers deployed, to their horror in a Wyldwood. They had to scarper out of it quick before the end of their movement phase.

Chaos saunters forward.

Knights and Ogres get ready to rumble.

My Dryads walk into an innocent looking wood while my centre remains calm.

Turn two was when all the drama started happening. The Beastmen spent another turn infighting! Then the Knights led by Phlakes (an out of work rodeo clown turned prospective destroyer of worlds) charged my Dryads in the wood. They made their long charge only to lose 3 of their number to low hanging branches and badger sets, The resulting panic test ended the charge as they turned tail and fled towards the bemused chaos ogres. Y'mca used the Skull of Katam to get himself two extra power dice (and reduce his Ld by 2 into the bargain). My BSB was then magicked to death by the Caress of Laniph. I had intended to scroll it as soon as he declared the target but a double six ended that hope. The resulting power drain blasted all knowledge of magic from Y'mca giving me magical superiority at the cost of my BSB.

The forest claims it's first victims.

My turn two was when I started to try to chop up some of the followers of the ruinous powers. My glade Riders made a not very dramatic entrance on the Chaos back line ready to cause minor mayhem.I declared two charges, a long charge from my Wardancers into a block of Chaos Warriors and a short charge from my Dryads into the fleeing Knights. I was surprised to get my Wardancers into combat and equally surprised that the woods struck again! Three Dryads died to branch-rash or galloping woodworm causing them to fail a panic test and flee away from the knights who in turn ran through the Ogres but didn't spook them in turn. The Wild Riders held their position to cover the Beastmen and possibly charge the Chaos centre. In the magic phase I managed to enfeeble the Chaos Warriors down to strength 1, but failed to wither them, this left my rather small Wardancer unit in a precarious position. The Shadow's Coil coupled with their low strength meant I only lost my champion to Neil's hero - Dose. A passed break test meant the next combat round would be vital.

Eight Wardancers ponder a long charge into some nasties,

The Knights decide that the woods are far too dangerous for them, as do the Dryads.

The venom thicket seems to be a much safer place than the 'normal' forest.

Neil's turn and the Knights rallied. The Beastmen finally moved. The Ogres moved towards the Sisters of the Thorn unit and Glade Guard. Y'mca's unit moved forward to assist the unit battling the Wardancers.This close combat round the Wardancers used Whirling Death, killing Dose and enough Chaos Warriors to break them and wipe them out! This in turn panicked Y'mca's unit. Truly I have never seen such a watery bunch of Chaos followers in many battles against the ruinous powers!

I can't remember if this ogre casualty was caused by the wood or arrows. but they passed their panic test in any case.

A large number of Beastmen glare at my now exposed Wild Rider flank.

In their panic a Chaos Warrior falls over and probably ends up crying his eyes out.

I think the game was going very well and this led to a few errors on my part.The wood elves' dander was up so the Glade Riders declared a charge on the fleeing Chaos unit, making them flee towards the Wild Riders. They, in turn declared a charge only to fail a 7 or more charge to wipe them out. both failed charges left the flanks of both units exposed. I mitigated the Glade riders somewhat by interposing my Wardancers to hopefully block the knights and save the day. The Dryads rallied. My general with his Sisters entourage moved out of the woods to rain magical fire on the knights. Magic was a bit of a damp squib, I only managed to cast enfeebling foe on the Beastmen reducing their toughness by 1. I'd hoped to cast curse of Anrhair or the withering on the knights but the winds of magic (and my dice rolling) were shite.

Five Wardancers can easily see off some Chaos Knights, can't they?

Phlakes and his two buddies are confident that no trees will attack them this turn.

Chaos turn four was a make or break one. Three charges were attempted, Beastmen into the flank of the Wild Riders, Knights into the wardancers and Ogres into the glade guard at the back. All were made! On the plus side Y'mca and his unit made an impressive set of high numbers, first to not rally and second to flee 11" off the board! 

My funky laser line tool shows just how much trouble the Wild riders are in. The Waywatchers who have been pretty anonymous this game attempt to distract the Beastmen. They had up to this moment accounted for the two missing Beastmen in the unit above.

Sadly they decided to charge the Wild Riders.

Chaos Ogres vs Glade guard

A large block of beastmen flank charge the Wild riders, this was not in the plan.

The game got a bit swingy from now on in. The Beastman combat went totally unexpectedly, firstly my wild Rider issued a challenge and completely chopped up the Bestigor champion, giving me a very healthy overkill bonus. Then the Bestigor whiffed their attacks back, winning combat but failing to break the Wild Riders. I then failed a combat reform! The Knights were more successful, they routed the Wardancers despite the shadows coil and pursued into the flank of the Glade Riders. The Ogres fought the Glade guard to a draw losing 3 wounds in the process. So at the end of Neil's turn he had all his units in combat and possibly the attention of the Chaos gods.

Now the Waywatchers join the fracas.

In my turn there were a series of rash decisions made that make me wonder whether I'm really cut out for tabletop war-gaming. Mistake number one; to assist the Glade guard a rear charge into the Knights, i thought might save the day. The only other charge was the Waywatchers into the rear of the Beastmen. The wardancers rallied. The Dryads hedged their bets and angled towards both the solitary ogre on 1 wound and the bundle in the centre of the board involving my Sisters of the Thorn.The magic phase was spectacular in that I cast the withering on the Beastmen with irresistable force reducing their toughness by a whoping -3 to 1. This caused a detonation and the end of the magic phase, failing to do any damage. With the beastmen down to toughness 1 they were butchered by the Waywatchers and Wild Riders, with only a few critters left they fled and were chased down and killed by the archers. The Glade guard killed the reamaining ogre. Mistake number two; Phlakes, Chaos Knight champion issued a challenge and my general foolishly accepted. I reasoned that with 3 wounds remaining he was unlikely to kill Mizzard Wodel outright, I was mistaken. He killed my general and rolled a 12 on the eye of the gods table. Daemonhood! A passed leadership test and that would probably be the game over. Luckily fate once more glanced at the table to ensure Neil didn't pass an average dice roll. The upshot of the combat was the Glade riders fled the table and the Sisters fled back towards my lines, only to be caught and chopped up Phlakes and his mate the standard bearer. 

This picture may well be confusing, but that's what you get against Chaos - chaos!

The final turn of the game was mercifully short and sweet. The Knights failed a charge on the Dryads. In return the Dryads charged the Knights. The Branchwrith IFed Regrowth, kiling then growing back 3 Dryads and healing the wound he just caused on himself (herself?). The Dryads then killed Stan the standard bearer and the Branchwraith killed Phlakes. Victory (of sorts) to the Wood Elves. 

The Dryads are ready to actually do something! The sisters of the Thorn are just casualties that I was too lazy to put away for this picture.

The last of the vile chaos invaders are put down.

Y'mca brooded over the remains of his force. I was much depleted but as the elves had been been more concerned with aiding their own wounded many had escaped an elven blade to end their misery. The route to the spring had been blocked and even now he suspected more enemies of the ruinous powers would be making their way to reinforce those already here. Phlakes the leader of the Chaos Knights who had almost granted the gift of daemonhood, stood belligerently before him. "We should regroup and immediatly attack!".

"Patience Phlakes the Denied, we will instead recruit some more allies and return to make these unbelievers pay!".

Post Match Thoughts

I haven't played WFB in quite a few years (mainly been playing 40K) and I had completely forgotten how the dearth of rerolls makes every decision count. There is also more planning ahead as charges are the first action of each turn. Magic can be game winning but not putting enough dice into a minor spell can end a magic phase (as can putting too many die in). The game in general went well but a few mistakes should have cost me a lot more. Shadow magic really helped my army in a couple of key areas and the Wardancers performed better than they usually do. Some of Neil's dice rolls were appalling and really helped to add massive drama to the game. A couple of things were forgotten, I had completely forgotten to move the Wild rider into base to base with the Beastmen, and also forgot to attempt a combat reform at the start of my next turn, forgot that Dryads are immune to psychology. I think my list relied too much on the Wild Riders to be my main offensive unit and in the end flukey dice saved them. Neil's army is in desperate need of a BSB and I think if all the Chaos warriors were in a single unit they would have caused me a much bigger problem. So all that's left is for me to thank Neil for a great game and start planning my next fantasy outing.