The Devotees of Elazar vs. Woc - 4000pts

Now I was going to do a battle report, but I forgot to take pictures or make many notes and to be honest I don't think it'd be that interesting as a battle report so instead I'm going to make a summary of a few points from the battle and a couple of things I have learnt. The Devotees lost, it was a solid victory for my opponent. Hopefully the below will explain why.

Theoryhammer, mathammer, etc. I've never put any stock in them. I know probability is a science and all but I'm kind of like the northmen I play. I'm superstitious and lady luck is the biggest killer in Warhammer which is what makes the game fun. I rarely pick my army to match the advice given in all the tacticas (I guess this is a given because I play mono-Slaanesh!). My army is built around cool models and a theme I like.

A case in point of the above is Chaos Warrior units. Halberds are the preferred weapon of choice. I personally prefer my warriors with additional hand weapons. I had a unit of each in this game (and another unit with Great Weapons). Both came up against identical blocks of Tzeentch warriors 15 strong with hand weapons and shields. The Halberdiers basically bounced right off whereas my Warriors with additional hand weapons slowly whittled the opposing unit down until they fled. Now this isn't theoryhammer or anything else. I'm not saying that makes them better before people comment arguing the point. I'm just saying my experiences always go against the theory it seems!

Luck really does play a massive part in all of this. This is best shown with the Additional Hand Weapon Warriors. I cast Hysterical Frenzy on them once they'd charged into the opposing Warrior unit. This gave my front rank a whopping 24 attacks! Awesome I thought, 4s to hit and 4s to wound, I fancy my odds of forcing a good few armour saves. My amazing dice rolling abilities saw me hit with 4 out of 24 attacks. Not my to wound roll. My to hit roll. Of these two wounded. My opponent failed his armour saves with both which was quite funny but one was saved by his ward save. The Warriors stayed in combat and then got the upper hand in the next turn but on the charge with frenzy I'd expected them to have at least forced a difficult break test. However, this was still better than my Halberdiers who were woefully ineffective against a unit the same.

My opponent had a Chaos Lord on a Dragon. Not sure why he put a chaos lord on as he seemed unwilling to enter into combat with it until the end of the game. I'd have gone for a Sorcerer Lord so at least it could have been earning some of its points back in the mean time. The breath weapons seemed largely ineffective against the mass armour of my army. I didn't really have a great deal to throw at the Dragon. My Dragon Ogres might have fared well against the beast but they never got near it. They were taken out by a unit of 6 Nurgle Ogres with an Exalted BSB with the banner of rage. Very brutal! Anyway, back to the Dragon. It killed a unit of Warhounds (I kept it busy with them for a turn after my warhounds passed their terror test and charged it) caused another unit to flee with terror. It killed 2 Marauder Horsemen, 2 Knights and at the very end of the game took out Endika Fleshtearer in a challenge. (Endika was already wounded from fighting Wulfrik so didn't stand much chance in this one).

My Hellcannons would actually have been the perfect weapons for bombarding the dragon. Sadly as indicated already I have an ongoing grudge with the Dice Gods. My Hellcannons failed the majority of the Rampage checks and spent the game caught up behind my other units or in pointless long drawn out combats with units of Forsaken. I got two shots off with 1 Hellcannon but the Dragon was well out of sight when I got these so used them against another unit of Tzeentch Warriors that failed its panic test, fled, failed to rally and got to within a few millimetres of the table edge before they rallied and turned around. They got shot again but didn't flee the next time. Was disappointed with the Hellcannons really, but that's the way of them, they're a gamble and when they do work out (which with Ld9 on the Dwarfs should be more often than what happens for me!) they're brilliant.

Endika Fleshtearer was a monster! He led the army in Amador's absence. He absolutely brutalized Wulfrik in a challenge (and Endika was Wulfrik's chosen enemy or whatever the rule is). After that he moved onto Scylla the Khorne Spawn and took him out in a challenge, his Steed of Slaanesh scoring the final wound with a 6 to hit for its poisoned attack. He then got charged by the Dragon Lord and met his match but he was invaluable against some heavy hitters and helped take out a couple of annoying Marauder Horsemen units in between as well as his leadership proving very helpful on a few occasions to boot.

Vela also rocked the socks in this battle. He was my only Sorcerer to make it to the end (him and Neron the BSB were the only characters to survive) and his two spells proved quite useful. The puppet wasn't brilliant as my opponent had one too so it was always cancelled out but more than anything Vela was using up my opponent's dispel dice, with Conjoined Homunculus he's a reliable caster and his casting was allowing my Sorcerer Lord and other Sorcerer to get their spells off. He also managed to cast Hellshriek with Irresistible Force. This was the last act of the last turn of the game and led to some very tense (but with Will of Chaos very safe) panic tests for two units of Warriors and a Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch on a disc!

I saved dispel scrolls for Infernal Gateway for the first few turns. Another turn my opponents sorcerer was stupid and failed to cast it on another. He did get it to go off once and aimed it at the Hellcannon. He only rolled strength 4 for it though so the Hellcannon was completely unfazed. It's a brilliant psychological weapon the Gateway. But I found dispel scrolls were as well! My opponent was very frustrated as I managed to keep his magic phase mostly locked down with my dispel dice for the rest of his spells.

The Daemon Prince.... what can I say. This guy owes me a good performance. He failed to cast Titillating Delusions in my first turn and my opponent used the Black Tongue to force a miscast. I promptly rolled a double 1. My puppet allowed me to add 2 but my opponent got 3 on his puppet so the Daemon Prince got sucked back to whence he came. 520 VP gone just like that before he'd had a chance to do anything! Very disappointing. I wasn't going to take this guy. But I didn't finish making the other unit of Marauders so they were left out leaving me to shuffle out a Sorcerer Lord and the Daemon Prince was shuffled in, in his place. Won't be rushing to do that again. I think I need to wait for the new Daemon Prince model so that Elazar can have a proper representative on the battlefield that might serve him better!

I think that's all the points I want to make. I really cannot stress enough how broken my dice are though! I want some more of the Space Hulk ones. I seem to roll extremely well for Space Hulk with those dice (and they have a lovely complimenting colour scheme to the Devotees!). Might have to take them with me next week....

My next game is 3000pts vs. Dark Elves. I hate Dark Elves. I have a lot of losses against their kin to avenge...

P.S. Vela won the fantasy category of the painting competition. Was really pleased with that. I'll get some better pictures taken of him if it brightens up any here and then will post a little story extract and updated background etc. for him.