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 Raid of Proxxi Tower.

Had my first game of WFB using the new Wood Elf army book last week. I was in uncharted territory as I was playing Chaos Dwarfs (never played against them before), with a new army book (with only the internet for guidance), playing the Watchtower scenario (for the first time). Here's how I got on.

My 2000 point army consisted of:
Level 4 Spellweaver (shadow) Earthing Rod, Spells Melkoths Mystifying Miasma, Enfeebling Foe, The Withering, Mindrazor.

Elven Hero on Eagle, Dragonhelm, Charmed Shield.

Elven BSB with H.O.D arrow

Branchwraith Earth Blood

15 Glade Guard full command Moonfire shafts

10 Glade Guard full command Trueflight arrows

19 Dryads

8 Wardancers musician and Bladedancer

10 Deepwood Scouts full command Hagbane arrows

10 Waywatchers

2 Eagles

As this was my first outing with the new book I just took things I have some experience in to judge them afresh. The overall tactical plan for the army was weaken the army with bow-fire, utilise the woods to create favourable combats, use the Dryads as an anvil for anyone coming too close, use the Wardancers in tandem with them to negate ranks, and hopefully win/break units. Then we rolled for the scenario and my plans went a bit awry, it was Watchtower!  The Chaos Dwarfs got the watchtower basically making me have to try to get him out of it, so much for letting him come to me!

 Up against me, was my opponent Phil who took a Chaos Dwarf army. To say there were quite a few proxies is an a bit of an understatement. What he took was:

Level 2 Dwarf Sorceror, Chalice of Blood & Darkness (otherwise known as the magic item of horrible magic phases) Lore of Fire, Spells: Fireball & Piercing Bolts of Burning.

2 units of twenty Chaos Dwarf Blunderbussiers full command (probably)

2 units of three Bull Centaurs full command

K'Daii Destroyer!!!

Deployment

A large unit of Chaos Dwarf Blunderbusses were ensconced in the tower with the other unit to the right of it. A unit of Bull Centaurs either side of the tower with the Destroyer centrally placed to mess my elves up bigtime. My eagles were deployed on each flank and both the scouts and waywatchers were positioned on the left to hopefully destroy the nearest unit of centaurs. My Dryads were directly in front of the tower with archer and wardancer support around them. My Arrow of Kurnous took a wound off the Daemonsmith which was a nice start and got my hopes up for the game.

Turn One

I got first turn and immediately advanced the Dryads to assault the tower in turn two. Sent my eagles to distract the centaurs and started my shooting. What? No magic phase? The Chalice of Blood & Darkness basically shut down my magic phase, stealing 2 or 3 power dice from me (this was to become a common feature of the game).  Shooting killed some Dwarfs in the tower (rerolling wounds helped a bit with this) unfortunately shooting the Bull Centaurs wasn't so fruitful causing a single wound on their 3+ armoured hides! The Chaos Dwarf's turn consisted of moving up and the blunderbusses killing about 10 or more Dryads. Yikes! Magic may have killed a few more elves to fireball but due to the Bastard Chalice - my new name for it not many spells were going to be successfully cast this game.

Turn Two

I charged the now very much depleted Dryads into the watchtower hoping that hatred would see me through the barrage of Chaos Dwarf shrapnel and start beating the snot out of them. I also probably should've tried to charge the K'Dai with my eagle rider, but instead opted to take charges from the safe side of the Khemrian quicksand. Maneuvered the eagles for flank charges in turn 3. The Blunderbuss stand & shoot was devastating, leaving me with 5 or 6 Dryads to assault the building. My shooting once again proved ineffective against the Centaurs. To add insult to injury close combat saw the Chaos Dwarfs kick the piss out of the Dryads effectively ruling them out as an assault unit. The Chaos Dwarf centaurs pulled off two long charges on my Wardancer unit (which I had conveniently angled to allow any possible overrun into the Glade Guard flank), and my Eagle rider by the quicksand. I wasn't overly worried as I thought with ASF and a 3+ ward save, they could probably hold their own enough for me maneuver around them. 5 out of 8 failed ward saves later saw the Bull Centaurs crash into the side of the Glade Guards. The Eagle Rider challenged but lost the combat, didn't run though. The only ray of light in this turn was the Destroyer took a couple of wounds from internal combustion.

The K'Dai Destroyer proxy

My Eagle Rider hides behind a marsh ready to pulp the K'Dai

'Where did everybody go?'

Turn Three

Turn three saw me desperately try to salvage something from the game. I moved both eagles to reasonable charge distances to the Bull Centaurs, and advanced my scout and waywatchers to get more involved in the shooting of Chas Dwarfs. My battle standard bearer barged (if a wood elf is even capable of barging) his way into combat with the bull centaurs, meanwhile the units capable of shooting did so with limited effect. I managed to cast Enfeebling Foe which enable me to draw combat with the glade guard and centaurs, sadly my eagle rider lost the combat and fled with the pursuing centaurs overrunning into my mage's unit! when will I ever learn to move units out of the possible charge routes? Also I stupidly let my eagles into shooting range of the blunderbusses. Two dead eagles. Amazingly the K Dai failed his secong toughness test and expired! Without even getting into combat. Shoddy Chaos Dwarven Daemonsmithery! Some good rolling saw my Glade Guard route a unit of (read one) Bull Centaurs, whereas the other unit routed my other unit of Glade Guard after squishing the BSB in combat. On a plus note the sorceror blew up with an Irresistible Forced fireball. Thank Odin for Arrow of Kurnous!

Turns Four & Five

The last two turns were essentially me trying to shoot the Chaos Dwarfs out of the Tower whilst avoiding the amorous advances of the Bull Centaurs. In this I was only partially successful. The scouts and waywatchers survived but so did the rather smug Chaos Dwarfs in the tower. Victory to the Bastards of Hashut!

Some smug Chaos Dwarfs

Conclusions

I think the main reason I did so badly in the game was my own perceptions of how to win. I thought, charge in, kick the Dwarfs out, then jelly & ice cream for the Dryads. Had I taken a more measured approach I could've ignored the enemy in the tower and concentrated on everyone else. Due to a lack of forethought I let my eagles and Dryads into the abysmally short range of the blunderbusses, who are absolutely lethal when they do shoot. If I had not tried to assault the tower until the 4th turn I perhaps could have dealt with at least one unit of Bull Centaurs and the outcome may have been different. Another consideration is my choice of magic lore, admittedly The Chalice of Blood & Darkness is my least favourite magic item (at the moment anyway), which severely hampered my magic phases. I think High Magic has more versatility and I will be experimenting with that for a while.

Final thought is that Chaos Dwarfs are a resilient army that are hard to dislodge from buildings, but had I gotten to garrison the tower, the blunderbusses short range weapons would have ensured a closer fought battle.