Pop Khorne!

We had arranged a 4 person 1500 point each game of Warhammer, but unfortunately things got in the way, and two halves of the group couldn't make it. Hence a rather smaller scale battle report, but it was certainly an emotional roller coaster.

Armies & Deployment

My list was a Slann Mage Priest (Light magic), BSB with Gold Sigil Sword and Glittering Scales, Skink Beast Priest, 30 saurus, 20 Temple Guard, 11 skink skirmishers and a Salamander. Arrayed against me was a Bloodthirster (!!!!!!), Soul Grinder, 2 units of Bloodletters, Blood Crushers and Flesh Hounds.
I deployed my big units of saurus & Temple Guard behind the fences hoping to weather some overly frenzied attacking. The skinks were a decoy on the other side of the table and the Salamander was a flanking amphibian death machine.

A rather strong Khornite left flank.

Stuart got first turn and did what all Khornate armies do - marched forward to start knocking on doors selling copies of the Watchtower. No copies were sold in the first turn but next turn probably.
In my turn I slunk my Salamander forward. Both infantry models behind the fences stayed where they were. The skinks decided to advance into the swamp as they'd be silly not to. I think both my shooting and magic phase achieved very little. Brace for impact I suppose!

Overkill by Motorhead keeps playing in my head.

The Bloodthirster (being the insufferable bully that he is) charged my salamander. I think the Soul Grinder tried to as well (for shits and giggles) but failed. As if things weren't bad enough the Flesh Hounds appeared behing the skinks in the swamp. The Bloodcrushems totally ignored the skinks and advanced towards the Temple Guard. There was no magic (there is some benefits to playing mono Khorne ) and shooting was the Soul Grinder not shooting because he failed a charge. Close combat was unsurprisingly one sided. The salamander got his arse kicked and he died leaving some skinks to flee (or also be killed in combat - I forget which).

Two rather innocuous charges

The start of my turn two was one of those times I feel that Warhammer is a prick of a game! I had two charges to declare one from the Saurus on the Bloodletters unit #1 and one from the Temple Guard on Bloodletter unit #2. Both were pretty short distances 9" and 10" I think and pretty important if I wanted to avoid charges from a testosteroned up Bloodthirster and Soul Grinder. Both were failed leaving me so far up Shit Creek that I was probably perched up on Shit Mountain waiting for Shit Avalanche to bludgeon me into Shit Niagra Falls. I caused  a few wounds on the Bloodcrutchers with Shem's Burning Gaze. I shot ineffectually with the skinks.

Bloodcrushers ignore the skinks

So near and yet so far!

In turn 3 a veritable crapfest of close combat troops desended on my Saurus, the Bloodthirster, Soul Grinder and Bloodletter unit #1 atacked them whereas the Temple guard got off lightly with Bloodletter unit #2 and the Bloodcrushers failing a charge. Flesh Hounds made a long charge into the skinks as well. The only unit I had not in combat was my Skink Shaman. The Close combat phase was fairly unsurprising - Saurus lost 20 models, fled through the Temple Guard. The Bloodthirster pursued into the Temple Guard luckily not leaving enough room for the Soul Grinder or Bloodletters. Small Mercies I suppose. The Temple Guard didn't win their combat but neither did they run (stubborn is good). The Flesh Hounds routed the skinks and caught them, probably throwing their bloody carcasses up in the air like playful Labradors.

In the backgound the dead saurus  (20 or more) can be seen. 

In my turn the Saurus rallied. The Slann mage Priest buffed his Temple guard up with Speed of Light I seem to recall. Mr Bloodthirster pummelled the Temple Guard, but they still gave a good account of themselves.

The Skink Shaman does his best to look like a blade of grass

The army of Khorne was well and truly in the driving seat. The Bloodcrocheters charged my now ok saurus. The soul Grinder due to it's ridiculous sized base (well done GW) had to maneuver it's way round to shoot the skink shaman as there was nothing else it could do. The Flesh Hounds after finishing playing with the skink carcasses ambled back towards the main fight. The magic phase was fun as even though nothing would happen Stu rolled anyway. It was at this time Slaanesh (my favourite chaos power) decided that he didn't like what Khorne was achieving on the battlefield and threw, well, whatever it is he lobs onto the battlefield. The only recipient of Slaanesh's stuff was the Soul Grinder. Whatever it is it caused 3 or 4 wounds on it dropping it down to 1 wound! Now all I need is it to misfire when it shoots my shaman, and it did! BOOM! No more Soul Grinder! Close combat went pretty well for the Saurus and not too bad for the Temple Guard either. The former actually won the combat whereas the latter just kept chopping.

Soulgrinder takes aim, fires!

AND BLOWS UP!

The turns were now getting mercifully short. My only movement was to ensure no one could charge the shaman (who is getting a nice new paint job for his heroics). I cast Savage Beast on the Slann and that was about it. The Saurus finally killed off the Bloodcrushers and (rather unsportingly I thought) the Bloodthirster directed all his attacks on the Slann killing him before his now magically roided body could kick his arse! We called the called as in the next turn the saurus would be once again on the receiving end of a triple charge and I really didn't think a Savage Beast of Horros skink would turn the tide. I did enjoy the Soul Grinder blowing up though.

The scene from Alien reenacted

Conclusion

The list I had wasn't the toughest I could have made but it was an all comers(ish) one that had a lot of magical defenses (MR on the Slann, Hex Scroll and Dispel Scroll). All of these were useless against a mono Khorne army. it was actually a refreshing change for Stuart not to dispel as much as usual.  I daresay putting an Old Blood on a Carnosaur would have been more effective, and fun, especially with my skink defeating the Soul Grinder! Of course what lost me the game (or at least tabled me the game) was the two combat units failing charges - if I'd rolled average dice I'm sure the game would have had a more balanced look to it at the end. 

Thanks for reading, and may you always get your average dice when you need them!

All Aboard The Daemonic Skylark!

This is the battle report for my 2400 point battle vs Stuart's ever willing Daemons of Chaos. Stu had painted up some new toys since our last game, namely a Exhalted Daemon of Slaanesh on a seeker chariot. Stuart is the head of photography at *C.L.A.W. and as owner of the good camera he gets to crop the crotches out of pictures and write the captions for the pictures, he's a lucky guy! He has actually given me his full army list and will be adding some comments on the game at the end.

The Glorious Elven Host

This game I decided to have a Jedi/Sith theme going on with a High Spellweaver and Mizzard Wodel as a Dark Spellweaver. A Waystalker and a mounted BSB. 16 Trueflight Glade Guard, 2 units of Wild Riders, 3 units of  5 Glade Riders, a unit of Warhawks, Waywatchers and Sisters of the Thorn. Lastly a Great Eagle. 

The Degenerate Erotic Horde

Keeper Of Secrets, level 2, lore of slaanesh (Aquiecense, slicing shards), 2x greater gifts

Daemon Prince, level 4, lore of nurgle (rancid visitations, miasma of pestilence, plague wind, curse of the leper), exalted gift

Herald of Slaanesh, exalted chariots, locus of swiftness (ASF)

10x Pink Horrors (Glean magic)

10x Pink Horrors (Infernal Gateway)

25x plaguebearers, standard

3x beasts of nurgle

Skullcannnon

Pre Game Warm Up & Stretches

The presents the Chaos gods bestowed on the greater daemons were Unbreakable Skin and Unholy Fury of the Slaanesh whilst the Daemon Prince of Nurgle got Impenetrable Hide. My broad strategy was to skirt round the enemy and attack from flanks and rear whilst picking off the bigger threats with arrows. I wanted to take the table edge with the river but Stuart picked that end out of spite. Unsurprisingly my Arrow of Kurnous failed to wound the Keeper of Secrets. I normally put Wild Riders on the flanks but for a change I decided to put the main unit in the centre.  

Set up after vangard daemon left flank

set up after vangard daemon right flank

Turn One

I won the roll for the first turn which was a nice change, as I seem to lose this roll a lot. My Waywatchers entered a building on the far left. I moved my right flanking Wild Riders forward for a reasonably long charge next turn, held my central Wild Rider unit and advanced with my mobile stuff on the left (Sisters, Warhawks, Great Eagle). I don't like the Skullcannon (mobile cannons are a terrible imposition) so I scooted round to make shooting them difficult. The magic phase was surprising as I rolled a 12! This was somewhat off putting and it spooked me into casting (and failing) Black Horror, so that was the end of Dark Magic this turn. My High Spellweaver also failed to cast on her first attempt. I Curse of Anhrared the KoS and that was the end of my magic phase. Typical! shooting was pretty poor with one Horror taking an early bath and the KoS taking a wound (not too bad considering his 2+ armour save). The picture below was the first set of Waywatcher shots!

The moment I realise I'm never going to Las Vegas

Brave Wood Elves shooting daemons from a house they have so tastefully decorated

The Daemon choppy chariot charged the Great Eagle, he wisely fled - 2d6 St 5 hits is most unpleasant. The rest of the daemon army advanced. The magic phase caused a Storm of fire but as far as I know no one died. Acquiescence was cast on my central Wild Rider unit. The horror unit on the right cast Infernal Gateway killing 7 Glade Guard (but also giving them 6+ regeneration - thanks Tzeentch). The Skullcannon attempted to shoot but the skull tube got blocked so it did nowt this turn.

Daemons discover that eagles are cowardly creatures

Daemons are afraid of getting their feet wet

This flank basically did nothing all game

End of turn 1 

Turn Two

My Glade Riders appeared on the back table edge (they seem to like arriving on time). I declared a charge on the Horrors (who after killing 7 Glade Guard - went quite high up on my to kill list) and failed. Another 7 on 3d6 cock up. They ambled forward setting themselves up for all sorts of pain in the daemon turn. My Eagle rallied, ready for more swooping. The bewitched Wild riders in the centre strolled forward 5" presenting the Daemon Prince of Nurgle with a nice handy charge too. I Arcanely Unforged the KoS armour which was a relief. However the resulting miscast put a wound on Mizard Wodel and a SoTT. I managed to inflict 4 wounds on the now armourless KoS but the tart saved them all with her ward saves.

ambushers turn up to be a pain in the arse

Elves keep harassing the poor useless horrors

Both the DP and KoS got their slaughter on by charging a unit of Wild riders each. The Beasts of Nurgle failed, but in fairness they were superfluous as it turned out. The hellish chariot of doom angles itself towards my Glade Riders. In Stu's magic phase all I have written down is 'scrolled something nasty' so I'm sure it was fairly uneventful. Close combat ended in two units of Wild Riders - my main weapon in destroying the big unpleasant daemons - getting destroyed so I had to revert to plan B. The Skullcannon overshot the Great Eagle so he wasn't in the daemon 'zone' yet. Good!

Not  pictured, dead Wild Riders

Turn Three

My Warhawks & Great Eagle charge the leftmost unit of Horrors. the Glade Riders march through the river to the flank of the chariot taking two fatalities to cold water (rather than annihilation from the chariot). My Sisters unit crests the hill hoping to not draw the attention of the cannon. I cast Soul stealer on the Plaguebearers bringing Mizard up to 4 wounds but the resulting miscast kills 2 sisters and takes the extra wound back! I think the Waywatchers kill one or two Plaguebearers but the KoS won't accept arrows as a new pleasant experience so remains unscathed. The horrors are destroyed by my feathered friends and they subsequently overrun into the Skullcannon.

wood Elf movement turn 3

wood Elf movement turn 3 right flank

The Beasts of Nurgle and Plaguebearers are presented with nothing to charge as is the chariot and big daemons. Ha! Superior Elven moving about! Daemonic magic phase, Tzeentch sticks his nose in official Elven business and kills 2 more sisters and takes a wound off Mizard. The KoS slicing shards a unit of Glade Riders to death (took three attempts, so it was more like death by a thousand cuts - very Slaanesh). The DP miscasts Plague Wind and wounds the KoS with the miscast. In combat the warhawks destroy the Skullcannon and earn themselves a huzzar for their troubles.

Things start to happen on the boring flank

Everyone hesitates as the warhawks kill the Skull Cannon, one elf is so shocked she falls off her stag!

Turn Four

No charges, just some scooting round to get out of daemonic charge arcs.The only unit I left in danger was the Glade Guard whom were trying to avoid receiving a rear charge from the Daemon Prince of Nurgle with neither antiseptic or lube. This magic phase is where I think I majorly cocked up. I had a nice big magic phase, 9 or 10 dice, I cast Soul Stealer on the Plaguebearers getting a wound from them for my Darkweaver. Unfortunately it was cast Irresistibly! This caused a the wound being taken back from the wizard who had worked so hard to get it, and to add insult to injury took all my remaining magic dice to boot! The reason it was such a bad idea was I had a clear Soul Quench spell ready for the Keeper of Secrets (who by this stage was on 1 wound). In the shooting phase accurate elven archery couln't land that final wound on the Keeper but I did manage to wreck the Seeker chariot that was on 5 wounds with the Hail of doom arrow.

Everyone gangs up on the poor defenseless keeper of secrets

Stuart moved his depleted Plaguebearers towards my Waywatchers in the house. The Daemon Prince failed to charge the Glade Guard. Various other daemonic entities maneuvered to hopefully catch static elves off guard. The only spell cast was Slicing Shards on the Glade Guard (killing 3).

Plaguebearers notice they've been getting arrows shot at them

Turn Five

As I'm getting right into annoying your opponent without engaging him unnecessarily I made another mistake. I moved my warhawks and great eagle to the rear of the horrors without charging them, I would end up regretting it! Another poor decision was not to vacate the building with the Waywatchers in it, after all , all I needed to do was leave out the back door and the building would act as an impassable barrier for a turn. D'oh! my magic phase consisted of me casting Curse of Anhrar on the Plaguebearers (hoping this would stop them kicking the crap out of the Waywatchers). I had a pathetic shooting phase trying to get the last wound off the Keeper (many ward saves). No combat, but that was about to change.

Nurgle Daemon Prince about to reach cartoon levels of ineptitude 

Stuart's turn was rather more eventful. The Plaguebearers charged the Waywatchers & the Daemon Prince charged the glade guard in the rear. In the magic phase Khorne himself lobbed some skulls but his aim was off. The horrors then proceeded to nuke my warhawk unit (who until a short while ago were on my shortlist for MVP awards) and adding insult to injury summoned 2 screamers in the subsequent pyrotechnic display. The Plaguebearers killed 5 Waywatchers but the brave elf archers didn't flee! The Daemon Prince revealed himself as pretty rubbish by only causing 1 wound and that was by stomping an elf. Steadfast saves the day.

Plaguebearers chase the Waywatchers out of the building like diseased government officials 

Turn Six

Sometimes  in a game you can get so focused on a particular course of action that may not be the correct one, I decided the best course for my Highweaver was to scoot back into the woods and Soul Quench the Keeper to death (or at least back to the Realm of Chaos) so this I did. Hindsight being the wonderful thing it is, now tells me a double charge from both Highweaver and Waystalker would probably be enough to take his last wound and give me a hefty pile of VP's. Sadly I took the wimps option and it came to nothing, no Keeper of secrets shot to death, no Waywatcher unit making a last ditch escape from the building, in fact looking at my notes, no successful attacks on the board at all!
I did roll 12 dice for magic - cast Soul Stealer irresistibly (again!) gaining a wound on the mage but killing 3 sisters into the bargain! Soul Quench was dispelled and my chance for assassination was too.

If I had to choose the theme music for the game it would be the Benny Hill theme

Stuart's last turn was a lot more clinical. I thought I'd positioned my elf Highweaver far enough away from the Keeper to not get charged but a long charge got the hag in. I still didn't worry overmuch as putting her in the wood made her stubborn (and with 3 wound tokens) and unlikely to get killed. The Plaguebearers charged the Waywatchers once more and the freebie Screamers flew over the Waystalker showering him with some sort of daemonic goo that killed him. There was no magic to speak of and no shooting. Close combat - Plaguebearers unsurprisingly wiped out the Waywatchers. The Daemon Prince finished toying with the Glade Guard, but by this time everybody was going home. Then it came down to the generals tete a tete. The Keeper caused no damage thanks to the counters, and neither did I - thanks to piss poor rolling. Sadly, for me my dice decided to make up for my previous low dice rolling to give me a big fat rout to finish with. My only crumb of consolation was the Keeper of Secrets failed to catch her. Small mercies I suppose. On the subject of small mercies this was the first battle I remember having a live Great Eagle at the end, not a huge moral victory but enough to stop the rumors in the figure case about Kichener syndrome. After totting up VPs the Daemons won by the cost of a routed general Highweaver on a Unicorn, give or take.

14-6.

Conclusion

Usually I whinge a bit about dice rolls, Stuart cheating (when he clearly hasn't) and how terribly under powered my army is. I definitely won't be doing that this time as I can pinpoint three mistakes I made that cost me the game. 

Mistake #1 In turn 4 instead of faffing around casting Soul Stealer I should have gone all out for Soul Quench, had I got this off chances are the Keeper would be gone and my Unicorn rider free to frolic around the battlefield willy nilly. Worth 250ish points.

Mistake #2 Not charging the Horrors with the Warhawks and Eagle, they may not have destroyed the unit (but probably would have), but they would have stopped them casting Infernal Gateway, thus saving me at the least the Waystalker and possibly the Warhawks too. Worth 95 - 240 points.

Mistake #3 Not vacating the building with my Waywatchers in the last turn. Leave the building, save the unit. Simple as that. Worth 160 points.

Mistake #4 Not double charging the Keeper of Secrets. Again, not a guaranteed win but with a flank charge and 3 wound counters, a good chance of taking the last wound off he/she/it. Worth 250 - 600 points.

Mistake #4 Only counter 3 mistakes at the start of the paragraph.

So summing up a really good game that could have given me a win had I chosen a different path but as often happens Stuart's nous towards the end game snatches victory from the jaws of defeat.

A Word From the Victorious Coach

Stu kindly wrote down some of his thoughts about the game (probably so as he doesn't have to write a full report for his own blog). 

I generally ignore the internet wisdom when it comes to daemons. I think the book has a lot more to offer than Nurgle spam and generally everything has value. I'd just gotten the Exalted chariot and the Keeper of Secrets model so this list was written specifically to give them a go. I chose to keep my Keeper level 2 for reasons I forgot. I think it was mainly because most people expect the daemons level 4 to be the greater daemon by default, so I wanted to change that up and see how it went.

People generally consider the Exalted Chariot a waste. Even more so with the herald, but I'm not convinced. 8 wounds is a lot, especially when the opponent has two big scary daemon princes to deal with as well, and it can put out  alot of damage (2d6+1 impact hits, 10 daemonette attacks, 4 steed attacks). I tried to fit a magic level on her because 5 channeling dice is fun

Beasts and skullcannon were included because making up the rest of the points was fairly tough. The skullcannon and beasts are cheap as hell, so after taking up over 1000pts in lords, 300-odd in heroes and 600-odd in core, I needed to fit as much effectiveness in as I could for as few points as possible.

Opponents thoughts:

So interesting game, overall. Jason seems to have nailed the annoyance of playing silly buggers with fast cavalry movement.

I got lucky with saves in this game, like, a lot and Jason got unlucky with the initial charge on his wild riders against the pink horrors. Aquiecense on  the wild riders was pretty funny but that's alway a funny spell to put on something that relies on being fast.

What really saved me in this game was magic, even though my Winds rolls were generally awful. Not being able to charge anything was frustrating but Slicing Shards and Infernal Gateway pretty much kept the game going. I messed up towards the end when I should have cast Rancid Visitations instead of Slicing Shards as its the same spell but with T instead of Ld, and hoping elves fail a Ld test is a bit of a long shot.

I regret how I used my exalted chariot.  I should have just put it in the river and hoped for the best rather than dithering about and trying to play it safe. It's a lot of points, so I should have concentrated on getting it into combat, though thats easier said than done with wood elves.

The Battle of Improbable Magical Activity

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

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

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

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

Wood Elf deployment after vanguard

Hazy Chaos Daemons

Less hazy Chaos Daemons

Turn One

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

The Cylon on the left is a sinister statue.

Dirty old Khorne!

The Great Unclean attempts to hide in the woods.

Shot to Death in the 1st turn Great Unclean One

Wild riders about face after trouncing Beasts of Nurgle 

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

Some Shit Dice rolling

Turn Two

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

Sneaky Tzeentch chariot

Scouts bravely get obliterated 

The dead Daemons area

Plaguebearers get what for

As do the Horrors

Turn Three

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

Waywatchers are on borrowed time

Even sneakier Fleshhounds

I was pretty confident at this time.

Daemons of Tzeentch? Prepare to die!

Turn Four

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

Some sinister Flesh Hounds make an unwelcome appearance

Turn Five 

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

Rear ended by Khorne

The Dryads,BSB & Elven Spellweaver are no more!

Turn Six

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

A lone sister

Bloody mongrels!

Conclusions

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

Thanks for reading.