NAG Ard Boyz 2012 Tournament Army

Last month I took part in the NAG 2012 Ard Boyz tournament using an all Terminator Space Wolf list.
I was putting together an army of chaos terminator minis specially for this and luckily there was no painted requirement so I was able to get by with a largely WIP army!

The army did really well and I finished in 2nd place overall!

The 1750pt list I took was:

Logan Grimnar

10 Wolf Guard Terminators
2 w/ Combi-Meltas & Power Weapons
2 w/ Cyclone Missile Launchers, Storm Bolters & Power Weapons
6 w/ Storm Bolters & Power Weapons
(Logan joins this squad negating the need for a Powerfist here)

10 Wolf Guard Terminators
2 w/ Combi-Meltas & Power Weapons
2 w/ Cyclone Missle Launchers, Storm Bolters & Power Weapons
5 w/ Storm Bolters & Power Weapons
1 w/ Storm Bolter & Powerfist

10 Wolf Guard Terminators
2 w/ Combi-Meltas & Power Weapons
2 w/ Cyclone Missle Launchers, Storm Bolters & Power Weapons
5 w/ Storm Bolters & Power Weapons
1 w/ Storm Bolter & Powerfist

Lone Wolf Terminator
w/ Chainfist & Storm Shield

Lone Wolf Terminator
w/ Chainfist & Storm Shield

Lone Wolf Terminator
w/ Chainfist & Storm Shield

The general theme for the list in games was to use the Lone Wolves as a fire-magnet to cover the advance of the large terminator squads. Pointing them at valuable vehicles and forcing the enemy to engage them somehow sparing the squads unwanted attention as they moved into position to carry out the mission objectives. With the Cyclone Missile Launchers there was plenty of range to be able to sit back as required and with so many power weapons & counter-attack getting dragged into assaults was never a real concern.
Something to not be underestimated is the psychological impact of quite so many Terminators being deployed across the table and then the Lone Wolves did an exceptionally good job of passing their saves and Feel No Pain rolls to really add make it feel like an uphill struggle to make a dent on the army.

The tournament used special non-rulebook scenarios throughout which provided a fun and different challenge to the norm.

The scoring system was as follows:

Scoring
Base battle points should be determined by the chart below.
Result                   Winner    Loser
Massacre              20            0
Major Victory         17            3
Minor Victory         13            7
Draw                     10           10

Parameters to determine the base battle will be explicit in each scenario.
In addition, each scenario will have additional battle points possible. 

The battles...

40K Ard Boyz Scenario 1:
Kaptur da Flag!

Mission:The Warboss has planted a flag in the center of the table. It is your job to make sure it stays his.

Objective: Place an objective marker in the exact center of the board. At the end of the game the player with the most
scoring units with at least one member within six inches of the objective marker wins.

Deployment: Use Pitched Battle as per page 92 of the main rulebook.

Length of Game:Use random game length as per page 90 of the main rulebook, or until time is called. Do not begin another
game turn unless both players can finish their player turn.

Special Rules:
Infiltrate (page 92)
Deep Strike (page 95)
Outflank (Page 94)
Reserves (page 94)
Seize the Initiative (Page 92)

Massacre:
Have 5 more scoring units within six inches of the objective than your opponent.

Major Victory:
Have 3 more scoring units within six inches of the objective than your opponent.

Minor Victory:
Have 1 more scoring unit within six inches of the objective than your opponent.

Draw:
Both players have the same amount of scoring units within six inches of the center.

Battle Point Modifiers:
+1 If your most expensive HQ choice is within six inches of the objective.
+1 if you have none of your units completely or partially in your deployment zone at the end of the game.
+1 If you kill an enemy HQ
+1 If you control more terrain than your opponent. (To control you need a scoring unit fully within 3” of a piece
of terrain)

This one was played against an Eldar army. This scenario suited my Terminator army quite well and so the aim for the game was to pile as many Terminators into the crater in the centre of the table that ended up housing the objective and making as quick work as possible of anything that got too close. The Eldar Avatar caused some concerns when it survived a total of 24 Krak missiles and then two rounds of assault before it was finally toppled by my counts as Logan Grimnar! Otherwise the Cyclones made short work of the Eldar Falcons and Wave Serpents slowing the army right down and allowing me to deal with them piece-meal. Otherwise the Terminators had to survive the shooting of the Eldar Rangers whilst they waited for the Lone Wolves to catch up to them. I ended up with 20 tournament points from this first game to get me off to a great start!

40K Ard Boyz Scenario 2:
Head of Da Snake!

Mission:Destroy the Enemy HQ while keeping yours alive.

Objective:This scenario uses victory points.  See page 300 of the rulebook for victory points rules. Each player must nominate a single HQ choice to be your army general.  This choice is worth double victory points for this mission.

Deployment:
Dawn of War [table halves]

Length of Game: Use random game length as per page 90 of the main rulebook. Or until time is called, so that each player completes the same number of turns.

Special Rules:
Deep Strike (page 95)
Outflank (Page 94)
Reserves (Page 94)
Seize the Initiative (page 92)

Massacre:
1126 to 1750 victory points more than your opponent.

Major Victory:
751 to 1125 victory points more than your opponent.

Minor Victory:
376 to 750 victory points more than your opponent.

Draw:
Your total is within 375 victory points of your opponent.

Battle point modifiers:
+1 if you killed all of your opponents troop
+1 if your General is alive at the end of the game

This one was a tough game! My opponent was an experienced tournament and Dark Eldar player who went on to win the whole event. For this one I was really relying on the fact that it was going to take a lot of kills to collect the points on my expensive Terminator units. Things didn't quite go to plan when within the first few turns the ludicrous amount of Dark Lances and Splinter Cannons being fired at my Terminators managed to remove the best part of two squads leaving me with my Lone Wolves and Logan's squad as the only real combat elements. In this game the Lone Wolves really earned their keep. After one flank of the army collapsed it fell to the Lone Wolves to keep approximately 5 Venoms and their passengers busy for long enough that Logan and his squad could survive. It took the rest of the game for the Dark Eldar to shift the Lone Wolves having to eventually resort to throwing a squad of Wracks at the last Lone Wolf to remove him from play. Meanwhile Logan's squad got to work on trying to restore the balance. They didn't do a bad job, wiping out a couple of Ravagers and two Raiders. The Dark Eldar Archon and his squad of Wyches had made an attempt to close the gap with Logan's squad but quickly ducked down into cover after a barrage of shooting saw a chunk of the squad blown apart by some unerringly accurate Frag missile fire. 3 hits rolled and one a scatter of 3 inches ignored for their BS! The game finished as a Minor Victory to the Dark Eldar player. So I walked away from this one with an additional 8 tournament points and a valuable lesson learned about the danger of poisoned weapons!

40K Ard Boyz Scenario 3:
Total Domination!

Mission:Control table quarters while annihilating your opponent.

Objective:You must control more table quarters than your opponent. To control a table quarter you must have more scoring units inside the table quarter than your enemy in the same table quarter. No unit can control more than 1 table quarter at a time. If a unit is in more than 1 table quarter the unit cannot score any quarters.

Deployment:Use Spearhead as per page 92 of the main rulebook.

Length of game:Use random game length as per page 90 of the main rulebook, or until time is called so that each player completes the same number of turns.

Special Rules:
Infiltrate (page 92)
Deep Strike (page 95)
Outflank (Page 94)
Reserves (page 94
Seize the Initiative (Page 92)

Massacre:
If a player controls 3 more table quarters than his opponent.

Major Victory:
If a player controls 2 more table quarters than his opponent.

Minor Victory:
If a player controls 1 more table quarters than his opponent.

Draw:
If both players have the same number of table quarters then the game is a draw.

Battle point Modifiers:
+1 if you have at least 1 scoring unit completely in your enemy’s deployment zone.
+1 If you have destroyed all of your enemies scoring units.

 This was one I was quite concerned about going into the tournament. With only 3 troops squads I knew this was going to always be a difficult one to pull off. I ended up against a Vanilla Marines player. Seeing that he had a Vindicator, a Land Raider, two Razorbacks, a Predator and a squad of bikers I realised that it was going to be a tough job to chase them all down so I ended up deploying my army out of sight with the exception of Logan's squad who I deployed in a purposely aggressive position within my quarter to try and draw attention of the bigger tanks to take advantage of his ability to pass on the Tank Hunter rule to his squad. With second turn I was able to force the Vindicator to have to focus on relocating to be able to shoot in the next turn. Thankfully this was all the time I needed and the Vindicator was silenced with a few Krak missiles from the Cyclone Missile Launchers in Logan's squad. In the following turn the Land Raider raced aggressively towards Logan's squad and deployed a unit of Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield armed Terminators. Meanwhile a Drop Pod landed to dispatch a Dreadnought with a Multi-Melta into my midst. I was just grateful it wasn't armed with a Plasma Cannon!
The next turn Logan's squad fell back from the enemy terminators subjecting them to a barrage of botler shells and frag missiles to reduce the squad down to a manageable size. The Dreadnought was brought down by a Lone Wolf and another Lone Wolf finished off the Predator. In the next turn the Terminators assaulted Logan's squad but Logan took advantage of his higher initiative, the counter attack rule and his own The High King rule to throw a massive 7 attacks at the Terminators wiping them out before they had a chance to strike! The rest of the game was spent trying to mop up the small squads of Space Marines that had scattered across the board and then trying to take control of the table quarters. The battle ended up being a Major Victory to myself.

40K Ard Boyz Scenario 4:
 Red Rum!

Mission:Kill em all, Kill em good! Destroy your enemy while keeping your force alive.

Objective: Use the Annihilation scenario found on page 91 of the rulebook.

Deployment:Use Pitched Battle found on page 92 of the rulebook.

Length of Game:Use random game length as per page 90 of the main rulebook, or until time is called so that each player
completes the same number of turns.

Special Rules:
Infiltrate (page 92)
Deep Strike (page 95)
Outflank (Page 94)
Reserves (page 94)
Night Fight (Turn 1 only)
Seize the Initiative (Page 92)

Massacre:
If a player has 5 more kill points than his opponent.

Major Victory:
If a player has 3 more kill points than his opponent.

Minor Victory:
If a player has more kill points than his opponent.

Draw:
If both players have the same kill points.

Battle Point Modifiers:
+1 If you kill an enemy HQ
+1 If you control at least one piece of terrain. (To control you need a scoring unit completely within a piece of
terrain)
+1 If no enemy units are completely in your deployment zone.

Going into the tournament this had been the game I was looking forward to the most. Killpoints really favoured my army with only 4 up for grabs in my army although that was tempered slightly by the special Killpoints rules around the Lone Wolves. I ended up drawing a Draigo led Grey Knight Terminator army though and saw my main advantage countered before deployment! Still it promised to be a brutal match-up and in that respect it certainly didn't disappoint! There's less to report on this one as essentially the game consisted of the Lone Wolves charging forwards to sell their lives as dearly as possible whilst the Terminators kept as large a distance as they could between themselves and the Grey Knights whilst they popped the 'easy' kill points like the Dreadnought and Storm Raven on the table. Once the two armies got into assault range it turned into a bloodbath. So many Power Weapons made the Terminators largely insignificant. Logan put up a valiant last stand taking a squad of Grey Knights down with him as his own bodyguards were cut down. The assaults continued on in this theme and eventually the game ground out to hard fought draw of 3 killpoints a piece. The Paladins and the Grey Knight characters proved especially difficult to shift and in the end I was grateful the game ended when it did or it would have swung from a draw to a massacre against with an extra turn! The draw though proved enough to bag me second place!

The tournament was great fun and there were a lot of very tough armies on display and the top of the table was very, very close after first place who was comfortably ahead!

The final top 10 ended up being:

1: Dark Eldar, 69 points. (my opponent for game 2)
2: My Army! 56 points.
3: Dark Eldar, 53 points.
4: Grey Knights, 52 points. (my opponent for game 4)
5: Chaos Marines, 50 points.
6: Space Wolves, 48 points.
7: Space Marines, 45 points. (my opponent for game 3)
8: Chaos Marines, 44 points.
9: Imperial Guard, 40 points.
10: Space Marines, 38 Points.

10 Observations - The Devotees of Elazar vs. The Empire

Had a 3000pt game against an Empire army yesterday. I've gotten a little tired of writing battle reports as they're always quite a long haul thing and I'm starting to prefer doing an observations sort of post game assessment of things.
So, I wanted to come up with a format for these things. I decided 10 Observations would be a good way to do it, so here we go in no particular order...

1. Gaizka The Warped made a return to my army list and plans for this battle. Breaking convention for me a little I used him as a Sorcerer Lord with the Book of Secrets and Spell Familiar and left him unmarked. I picked the Lore of Death with him as I really like the lore. He also took the Black Tongue. He proved to be really effective. He took out a Captain on Pegasus, a Wizard Lord and countless troops as well as snatching a wound off of Kurt Hellborg with his spells. The Black Tongue also brought me some time to deal with the two lore of metal wizards in the Empire army. Combined with the Infernal Puppet I made the miscast roll (and a further one later in the game) a 6 so that I could get off a spell of my own. Both times I picked Ecstatic Seizures aimed at big blocks of troops. This forced my opponent to throw the power dice he would have used to try to melt my Warriors in their armour at stopping his own troops from writhing around on the ground in excruciating bliss as they tore themselves apart. The Lore of Death is also great combined with Slaanesh. Doom and Darkness! is such a wonderful spell to get off before Hellshriek and/or some other psychology tests. I think Gaizka may well find his way back into my plans using this build again.

2. Vela The Performer is living up to that title. In the three games I've used him he's been incredibly reliable and really helped my army out a great deal. The Puppet is always helpful both offensively and defensively, especially with a Hellcannon in the list as there's always a chance of that misfire! Luckily for me he's always rolled Ecstatic Seizures as one of his spells. With the Marionette rules for Conjoined Homuncus on him I regularly finish my magic phase with him casting Seizures on his 2 power dice and using 1 from the pool. He get's this off 9 times out of 10 it seems with the additional help of the +D3 to casting from the Marionette. This means my opponent has little to no dispel dice left to stop it or has let other spells go through or uses up a scroll. He was generally casting it on a 13 so it's quite hard to dispel at the best of times. He stripped a lot of static combat resolution off of the Empire infantry blocks.

3. Isidro Devante was the other sorcerer I used for this battle. I used him as a Slaaneshi Sorcerer Lord and whilst he did well until Mr. Hellborg came and lopped his head off I still don't think I've quite sussed out a reliable build for this guy. I took Rod of Torment and a Power Familiar for him so he was able to get a few spells off but compared to the other two sorcerers he was disappointing. This might be in part because the other two survived the whole battle without taking wounds... well Gaizka did but he used Steal Soul to recover them!

4. Magic Missles! I feel like I've been re-awakened to their usefulness. Using the Slaaneshi lore I only normally have the one and that one can sometimes be counter-productive to my army with the rule that any unit that takes casualties from Lash can't march. However, with the Lore of Death being used I suddenly had an extra 2 magic missiles plus the area of effect spell Drain Life which does a similar job just on a large scale. These really did the job for me and made up for my rather paltry shooting phase compared to the Empire army!

5. I also felt against the Empire that up until that game I'd be using my Marauder Horsemen all wrong or something. Both units managed to get into the flanks of the Empire army. One unit went up my right hand flank to get behind the Empire troops and took out the level 2 wizard with their throwing axes before being shot do death by the opposing fast cavalry and Hellblaster Volley Gun's combined shooting. The second unit took care of the mortar and cannon on the left flank before wheeling around to block the view of a unit of pistoliers on my already depleted unit of chaos knights. The Marauder Horsemen were wiped out in the shooting phase but in the following turn my Knights managed to make the charge losing 1 of their number to the stand and shoot charge reaction but the remaining 3 Knights had managed to turn the flank of the enemy which would prove to be a crucial point in the game. First time the Marauder Horsemen have really proved their worth in points to me.

6. The Hellcannon actually managed a couple of turns of shooting in this game! It managed one particularly spectacular shot into the middle of a nice big block of 25 Empire Spearmen that scored a direct hit, causing carnage! Also managed to kill a couple of Empire Knights with another shot. After that it got charged by the loathsome Steam Tank and was destroyed by the heinous amount of impact hits it scored! It had taken 2 wounds previously from a cannon ball too.

7. The Steam Tank, this was a thorn in my side throughout. It started off with a wildly overshot cannon ball (thanks to the scatter dice) managing to go into the flank of my unit of Chaos Knights with lances. Said cannon ball proceeded to murder each and every single Knight in the unit. Clearly this was the traditional first game thrashing that each new unit seems to get for my army. The tank then took out the Steam Tank before finishing off my Dragon Ogres who'd been on a tour of the battlefield. Luckily that was the last thing of any worth that it managed to do with the exception of capturing a table quarter. The Dragon Ogres may have been able to deal with it if they could have gotten the charge on it but I'd decided early in the game to use them for a few other jobs and by the time they encountered it there were only 5 wounds left on the unit and the impact hits wiped them out.

8. The Dragon Ogres did really well. They were given the mission at the start of the battle of helping wipe out the big block of Empire Knights and more importantly if they could get hold of him wipe out the Captain on the Pegasus. The Pegasus Captain had Aldred's Casket of Sorcery (I'd had a feeling he was going to be carrying it) and the last thing I wanted was that guy getting a chance to steal the spells from my Sorcerers. He managed to get Aura of Acquiescence but I could live without that one as it's not a spell I cast frequently. As it was the Dragon Ogres started by wiping out the dregs of a free company who they'd charged knowing that their overrun path would take them into the Captain on Pegasus before he got a chance to get away. In the magic phase before the combat Gaizka and Isidro managed to kill the captain with their combined spell casting so when they did overrun the Dragon Ogres were presented with a Pegasus to put out of its misery. After dealing with the Pegasus they hit a unit of Spearmen with a Warrior priest and bounced off of them fleeing back to the centre of my deployment zone near enough. Once they rallied they managed to get into the rear of Kurt Hellborg who'd charged the flank of my Warrior unit containing Neron the Battle Standard Bearer and Gaizka The Warped. The Dragon Ogres made very quick work of Kurt Hellborg which was just as well because with another turn of combat Hellborg could have gotten to the expensive characters and made a huge difference to the game. The Dragon Ogres then turned to go and occupy the Steam Tank, I figured if they went anywhere near it my opponent would have to deal with them as their S7 attacks could actually cause it some problems and I didn't want it focusing its attentions on the same Warrior unit the Dragon Ogres had just relieved. They sold their lives so that Gaizka and Neron could wipe out another detachment of Halberdiers and Gaizka could cause some more damage with his spellcasting.

9. The unit of Chaos Knights that went up the left flank as I mentioned previously managed to get the charge into a unit of pistoliers and this proved to be a turning point in the game. Up until then things had been going mostly in my opponent's favour with the Hellcannon, Isidro Devante and the unit of Knights with lances already having given up a great deal of VP. The Knights easily broke killed the Pistoliers and overran into the next unit and then again overran into the Hellblaster and crew before finally managing to overrun into a big block of infantry with a Captain Battle Standard Bearer. They managed to break the unti with a bit of poor dice rolling for my opponent and then chased them down in the final turn. They mowed their way through my opponent's army and the last unit they dealt with in particular helped make back a lot of lost VPs especially with the captured banners and battle standard. To top it off with three of them still alive they finished up contesting a table quarter that my opponent still had a fair amount of troops in.

10. The game finished at 2438 vs. 2192 VP in my favour. Not enough of a difference to make it a win but it was a really fun game against a great opponent. It was exceptionally brutal with a lot of casualties on each side. My opponent's Warrior Priest was his man of the match. He survived the course of the battle (although gave up half VP) despite the fact that his unit was battered with spells, especially Ecstatic Seizures. His prayers proved to be very useful on a few occassions and along with Kurt Hellborg he was a standout player. I'd have to toss a coin between Vela and Gaizka for me really but I think Gaizka would maybe just edge it as he really made his points back with some important character kills and generally kept my opponent on his toes.

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.

The Casualties of Elazar

Feels like an appropriate rename after the tournament on Sunday 2nd (Yes it's taken me this long to post this!)
It was the Eric Daley Memorial Tournament. Held in honour of a member of my gaming club who sadly passed away in May. Money raised went to the Freeman's Hospital so it was all for a very good cause.

Just going to do a quick run down of my three games as I don't have the patience to write full battle reports for all 3.

The army list I took was as follows:

Elazar The Glorified
Daemon Prince
Mark of Slaanesh
Level 4 Wizard
Fury of the Blood God
Diabolic Splendour

Endika Fleshtearer
Exalted Hero
Mark of Slaanesh
Steed of Slaanesh
Flail
Shield
Collar of Khorne
Bloodcurdling Roar

Gaizka The Warped
Sorcerer
Mark of Slaanesh
Level 2 Wizard
Talisman of Protection
Infernal Puppet
Conjoined Homunculus

10 Warriors
Mark of Slaanesh
Full Command
Rapturous Standard
Additional Hand Weapons

10 Warriors
Mark of Slaanesh
Full Command
Great Weapons

15 Marauders
Mark of Slaanesh
Full Command
Great Weapons
Shields
Light Armour

5 Marauder Horsemen
Mark of Slaanesh
Musician
Flails
Throwing Axes

5 Warhounds

5 Warhounds

6 Chaos Knights
Mark of Slaanesh
Musician & Standard Bearer
Blasted Standard

Hellcannon

Hellcannon

My first game of the day was against a Skarsnik led Night Goblin army. I knew it was going to be a hard day when my 1 of the Hellcannons, the Daemon Prince, the unit of Warriors with ADHW and Gaizka were delayed at the start of the battle by Skarsnik's special rule. This had quite an impact as it put both of my wizards out of range for all of the magic for the first turn and left the warriors with too much ground to cover against a static Night Goblin army. My opponent had 2 Spear Chuckas, 2 Rock Lobbas and 2 Doomdiver Catapults. There was a hill on my left flank that I sent my Marauder Horsemen and Endika around to try and flank the warmachines (and the army) and Elazar went this way too. The enemy 'artillery' did a very good job of neutralising my Hellcannons early on which dropped a lot of points. Endika got into the flank and took out 1 of each type of warmachine by himself. Elazar caused some widespread terror and panic checks and with Ecstatic Seizures was wiping out Night Goblins by the dozen but there were just too many of them and with Skarsnik's leadership they were proving hard to budge. The fanatics caused absolute carnage amongst my troops as well, these fanatics seemed cold and calculating, picking their targets and making sure they hit them! Eventually Elazar was taken out by the combined magic of the 3 shamans and the shooting of the remaining warmachines when they could catch sight of him. Endika died in a challenge with Skarsnik (only having 1 wound left by the time he reached him). Gaizka survived the whole battle. He didn't get a chance to do a great deal but he did manage to get Ecstatic Seizures off as the last action of the battle on a unit of 43 Night Goblins and Skarsnik. The carnage that caused was hillarious but nowhere near enough for me to salvage the game.

My second game was against a Empire cavalry army with an arch lector on the pope mobile at its head and a steam tank. My reporting on this battle will be as short as the battle itself. The combination of some downright awful dice rolling and some bold moves by my opponent saw my army get absolutely demolished. It started badly with Endika challenging the arch lector who had van Horstman's Speculum. An empire captain with that spell stealing casket (the name of which escapes me) stole both of Gaizka's spells before he'd had any real impact on the game. 1 Hellcannon got bogged down in an unwinnable combat against the Arch Lector who kept rehealing and the other rampaged into a unit of Knights, a Steam Tank and a mercenary giant!
My chaos Knights looked as if they might salvage something when they managed to get the charge on a unit of White Wolf Knights. I was outnumbered and the enemy had a rank and a battle standard so I lost the combat by 1 after causing a few wounds on them and rolled a double 6 for my breaktest followed by a 4 for my flee roll. Epic fail! Elazar did no better being shot to pieces by two units of pistoliers before doing anything of any real worth himself. A short, painful game. After this I knew I was just playing for pride in my final game.

My last game was against a Dark Elf army. I really enjoyed this battle and it proved to be a thoroughly brutal affair. The two Hellcannons really made up for the previously poor performances and took out a nice portion of the Dark Elf army between them. Elazar didn't do spectacularly, I overreached him a little and then a unit of shades rolled an unholy number of 6s when shooting at him so he ended up dying rather ingloriously. My chaos Knights spent most of the game feinting and weaving with the Dark Elf Cold One Knights and thanks to Endika and his Marauder Horsemen baiting the Dark Elves the Chaos Knights managed to get a flank charge. At this point the combat should have been a formality in my mind but the Dark Elves had an asf banner and a battle standard bearer to boot. The bsb was on the flank I'd charged and struck first causing 2 wounds and I rolled 2 1s for armour saves. This left me with 1 Knight to fight back and although he managed to cause a wound the advantage of the flank charge had been lost and the Dark Elves won the combat. Endika repositioned his horsemen and charged into the Dark Elf Knights' flank when they'd turned to face the chaos Knights but this didn't prove enough to tip the scales and the combat dragged on. Eventually I won it but it kept my two cavalry units tied up for a very long time. I got quite lucky with the 2 sorceresses miscasting a few times so Gaizka's puppet came in handy. I managed to kill 1 thanks to the puppet and a Hellcannon ate the other. The Dark Elf Hydra though proved to be a major player. He took out one Hellcannon then with the help of the dead Sorceress' pegasus and a unit of Black Guard took out my remaining Warriors. This battle saw me pick up the most points and I did a game against a tough opponent and with both of our troops hellbent on spilling blood!

So all in all, my army finished 13th out of 14 so very unspectacular but I had a really fun day and learnt a lot about my army to boot!

5000pts vs. Vampire Counts

Or, The July 5th Massacre

So, I had my large battle against Frankie's Vampire Counts. To say it was a disaster for me doesn't come close to describing it. In a comment on a previous post Noeste said the following "Although, my experience says that using an incoherently painted army, usually makes the Gods of Dice and Tabletop Gaming, turn their evil gaze upon you... And with borrowed minis aswell.." Turns out Noeste is a prophet! I have never rolled the dice as bad as I did yesterday. I know that sounds like an excuse, it isn't. I didn't play particularly well either and Frankie knew exactly what he wanted to do and did it. It was however a fun game and the way I was rolling double 5s and 6s for all my break tests became just made it funnier. My list was a hodge-podge of things I had and things I was able to borrow. If I'd have had 5000pts to make up from my own troops my army composition probably would have been very different. So will have to demand a rematch then!

I deployed first and my army was deployed with an infantry centre made up with a unit of chosen, a unit of warriors, and two 15 man units of marauders. Behind these were 2 warshrines and the Hellcannon. There was also a unit of Marauder Horsemen ready to overtake the infantry and screen them. On one flank there was a unit of marauder horsemen, a unit of knights with the warbanner and two units of warhounds. On the other flank I had a unit of knights with the banner of rage, another unit of marauder horsemen, a unit of warhounds and a Slaaneshi Giant. My Chaos Lord and Isidro Devante set up in the unit of Chosen. Gaizka and Neron in with the Warriors. Inigo in with the Banner of Rage carrying Knights and the 3 Slaaneshi Sorcerers deployed on their own in cover as I'd managed to roll Ecstatic Seizures on all 3 of them I wanted to keep them out of the way so they'd survive to use their spells and their dispel scrolls!
Frankie had 3 corpse carts one towards each flank and one in the centre. There were 3 units of Black Knights set out the same. Towards the centre he had a large unit of Blood Knights. 9 Blood Knights (including Kastellan), a Wight King BSB and a Vampire Lord. Then there was 5 large blocks of Skeletons across the width of the table. A large unit of Ghouls on my left, a Varghulf with them. 3 units of Dire Wolves, again one on each flank and one through the middle. A Coprse Cart in the centre and a Vampire Lord on what was a Dark Pegasus model but I'm assuming was a Winged Nightmare (this was Frankie's General and I never managed to get him into combat to find out much about him beyond his Necromantic magic).
Just a quick note. The table was set up with a river running through the middle and towards my table edge with a bridge across it in the centre of the table. There was a hill on my right flank, a forest towards the centre next to the curve of the river and a watchtower out on my left flank. Frankie's edge had a hill straight across from my watchtower and a forest across from my hill roughly.

Frankie got the first turn and basically marched his whole army forwards, using the mobility of his Vampire Lord on winged mount to help get his army moving as fast as possible. The Varghulf shot down my left flank towards the watch tower, supported by a unit of dire wolves and a unit of ghouls. A unit of Black Knights were further along the centre and moved right up to the river as did the other two units of the same across the board. The Blood Knights did the same, heading towards my Dragon Ogres and the Banner of Rage carrying Chaos Knights. The Skeletons marched forwards but were left behind by the fast moving elements of the Vampire Counts army. This was one thing that struck me about Frankie's Vampire Counts, how manouverable they are in comparison to Chaos. Especially with Dire Wolf fast cavalry, Ethereal movement, and Vanhel's Danse Macabre!
In the magic phase he started by casting Invocation of Nehek on one dice with his general and failed the casting so I played the Black Tongue which Isidro Devante forcing a miscast. With the aid of the Infernal Puppet I made him take a wound and lose that spell which was an ok result but not as devastating as I would have hoped for his forced miscast to be. The rest of his spells were dispelled by my wizards including his other Vampire Lord with the Lore of Metal trying to melt my Chaos Knights with their own armour! There was no shooting and no close combat so we moved to my first turn.

With the river making each of Frankie's units just out of my charge range I had to manouvre my army so that the combats would be of my choosing as there was no avoiding the charges that would follow next turn. One unit of Warhounds on the left flank surged forwards towards the Varghulf whilst the unit of Marauder Horsemen went around the watchtower to the beast's rear and readied their throwing axes. The other unit of Warhounds and the unit of Knights on this flank moved forwards to support them but were in no real position to do anything productive this turn. My infantry advanced slightly just to give the sorcerer's in the units better line of sight for their spells. In particular the unit of Chaos Warriors with Neron and Gaizka, they wheeled around slightly so that Gaizka and the unit standard bearer would have LOS on the advancing Blood Knights. The unit of Marauder Horsemen in the centre repositioned themselves so that they'd block the Blood Knights so they couldn't charge into the Dragon Ogres who'd repositioned to get a counter charge should the Marauder Horsemen defy the odds and survive the onslaught of the Blood Knights. The Chaos Knights wheeled around ready to take the flank of the Blood Knights and the unit of Warhounds on my right flank moved to protect the flank of my Chaos Knights now that it was exposed. The Giant headed towards the river and the flank of Frankie's army ready to cause some problems.
The magic phase started with Sunduru on the left of the army casting Ecstatic Seizures on a unit of Black Knights there. She miscast but I got a result of 12 so cast the spell with irresistable force but then forgot how to cast it again. This killed 4 of the 10 Black Knights. Vela tried to cast Ecstatic Seizures as well but failed. The Banner of Wrath from the unit of Warriors managed to kill one of the Blood Knights (who I had now learnt had the regen. banner) then Xante killed another when he managed to get off Ecstatic Seizures. Inigo tried failed to cast any of his Lore of Fire spells on the Blood Knights sadly. Gaizka did however manage to cast Pit of Shade on them but only 1 failed the initiative test! Isidro Devante recovered the wound he'd taken using the Black Tongue with Steal Soul on one of the Black Knights and then killed another with Dark Hand of Death. That was the end of the magic phase and it hadn't gone too bad.
In the shooting phase my Hellcannon went for the Black Coach, I guessed the range almost spot on but the shot scattered 8" away into open ground. One Warshrine rolled +1 Armour for my chosen (who'd gotten +1 attack on their pre-game roll) and the other rolled +1 Leadership for the Marauder Horsemen who were about to be charged by the Blood Knights. The Marauder Horsemen threw their axes at the Blood Knights and the Varghulf managing to cause a wound on the Varghulf but no damage to the Blood Knights.

Frankie's second turn started with a lot of declared charges. His Varghulf went after my Warhounds who failed their psychology test with a roll of double 5 and ran away off the table. The Dire Wolves charged my other unit of Warhounds and the Black Knights my unit of Marauder Horsemen who were hassling the Varghulf. The Blood Knights charged into the Marauder Horsemen and the Black Knights into the unit of Warhounds protecting my Chaos Knights. In the centre the Black Coach charged Neron's Warriors and just managed to make the distance and the other unit of Black Knights charged into Amador's chosen.
Frankie's infantry carried on advancing having now reached the river and showing a nice exposed flank of skeletons for my Giant to trample on when he got the chance. The Vampire Lord continued to float about the battlefield aiding the movement of his troops but avoiding the battle that had now been joined.
Frankie's magic phase was effective if unspectacular. He managed to recover the majority of the damage I'd caused with my magic and this would be a theme for the game. I had a much greater amount of power dice but with the one dice spell spamming of the Vampires I couldn't cause more damage than he could recover. He did also raise a unit of 5 zombies infront of the chaos giant.
In close combat the Black Knights destroyed the Marauder Horsemen and managed to overrrun into my chaos Knights before the Dire Wolves did the same, destroying the Warhounds and overrunning into my Chaos Knights. The Black Knights that had reached the Chosen proved to be absolutely devastating. Reducing the unit down to just Amador, Isidro Devante and the Chosen command group. I needed insane courage but with the Rapturous Standard I hoped they'd be ok. I rolled a 5 and a 6 and they fled, somehow evading the pursuing Black Knights. I completely forgot the BSB re-roll. A really stupid oversight on my part and one that I would go on to repeat again throughout the first few turns before I lost the BSB. The pursuing Black Knights managed to make contact with one of the Marauder regiments though. The Black Coach caused a couple of casualties on the charge against the Chaos Warriors but hadn't accounted for Neron's flail which pummelled it into dust. The Blood Knights did as was expected and made mincemeat of the Marauder Horsemen and managed to overrun into one of the units of Marauders next to Neron's Warriors who were now free to make a counter charge into the Blood Knights flank in my turn. The Black Knights made quick work of the Warhounds who'd blocked them from the flank of the Chaos Knights and got the overrun into the desired victims. It wasn't the best turn of close combat for me!

I started my turn by charging Neron's warriors into the Blood Knights. The Chaos Knights were blocking the Dragon Ogre's path to the Blood Knights so they were stranded. The Giant charged into the zombie's that blocked his path. Amador rallied and turned on the spot. The only survivng unit of Marauder Horsemen crossed the river and ran towards the flank of a unit of skeletons.
My magic phase proved to be inconsequential this turn. I managed to do very little of any worth and I certainly don't remember what my sorcerer's actually achieved this turn. The shooting phase saw the Hellcannon miss it's target (this time a Corpse cart with a block of skeleton's either side of it) thanks to a large scatter distance over the back of the approaching horde. The Warshrines gifted the unit of Marauders in combat with the Blood Knights +1 strength and the other got a result of 'The Eye is Closed'.
In close combat things went terribly. Neron's warriors struck first against the Blood Knights causing 1 casualty between them and the Exalted Hero leading them. The Blood Knights then threw their attacks into the Marauders (they counted as charging them from the overrun) and tore down 10 of them thanks in part to their horses. I lost the combat. I lost the combat by 4. The Marauders rolled double 6 and the Warriors rolled double 5 (again I stupidly forgot the BSB re-roll!!). The Blood Knights pursued the Warriors catching them, Neron and Gaizka. The Marauders managed to flee off the table. The Dire Wolves and Black Knights that had overran into the Chaos Knights on my left flank caused won the combat, causing a few casualties but with greater numbers they were always going to win. The Chaos Knights then rolled another 10 for their break test and fled but were cut down by the pursuing troops. The other unit of Chaos Knights ventured no better. The Black Knights killed the Knight on my flank stopping me from attacking back. I was outnumbered and flanked to boot so lost the combat by 3 I then proceeded to roll an 11 on my break test (can you see a theme emerging!). The Knights evaded their puruers by leaving the table. The Giant with his attacks and combat res. combined managed to kill 4 of the 5 zombies leaving him stuck in the combat and he had suffered a wound to the scrabbling hands of the undead. The Marauders and the Black Knights combat proved to be very one sided and the Black Knights broke the marauders (after I rolled a 9 when they needed 4 or less) and pursued into the Warshrine after cutting down the fleeing tribesmen.

Frankie's turn 3 saw the Black Knights (the ones who'd run down the Chaos Knights after charging the flank) charge into my Dragon Ogres. A unit of Skeletons turned to face the Marauder Horsemen (who'd killed a few with their throwing axes last turn, forgot that bit). Not a great deal else happened besides some repositioning of units, particularly now that my left flank had completely collapsed and only the giant remained on the right flank so Frankie was having to bring troops back from the flanks towards the centre of my deployment zone where my surviving troops were. The Blood Knights had their flank exposed to my Hellcannon and my unengaged Warhshrine so they turned about ready to receive the imminent charge.
Frankie's magic phase was starting to get more successful for him as I'd already lost 2 of my Wizard Lords now so was short of their support dispelling his spells. However, his magic was still failing to cause any damage to my army but was doing a stellar job of recovering all of his losses.
In close combat the Giant managed to finish the last zombie off, freeing himself up for a charge in the next turn. The Dragon Ogre champion bellowed a roar of challenge and the Wight King accompanying the Black Knights accepted. The Wight King managed to cause a wound on the Dragon Ogre champion. The beast attacked back hitting with all 4 of his attacks, wounding with 3 and then Frankie made 3 6+ saves! Unbelieveable! The Black Knights cut down one of the Dragon Ogres and the remaining Dragon Ogre only managed to fell a single Knight. The Dragon Ogres fled the combat with yet another roll of a 10 by me but evaded capture. The Warshrine managed to fight the Black Knights to a draw but lost by 1 thanks to their musician but managed to hold in combat. My first passed break test of the day!

I started turn 3 already very clear in the knowledge that I had lost the battle and it would be unlikely that I'd lose by anything other than a massacre now as well. So, caution was thrown to the wind. The Hellcannon and the Warshrine both charged into the Blood Knights and my Giant stormed across and charged into a unit of Skeletons. The Dragon Ogres rallied and turned to face their pursuers. Amador and Isidro Devante left the now depleted unit of chosen and moved over towards the enemy troops approaching from the left flank. Amador moved ahead of Isidro Devante so that any charges would have to come at him but left Isidro line of sight so that he could cause some damage with his spells. The chosen moved up to block the way from the Warshrine that was in combat with the Black Knights so that they couldn't overrun into Isidro.
In the magic phase I managed to cause some more damage with my spells. In particular, Isidro Devante cut down 8 of the Black Knights that would be able to charge Amador the next turn. This left a Wight King and a unit champion. I caused some more damage here and there but nothing on quite the same scale.
In close combat, the Warshrine lost to the Black Knights and was caught by the Black Knights as they hit the remaining few chosen. The Giant rolled swing with club and took out 6 skeletons winning the combat and crumbling a few more. The Skeletons had spears so caused a wound to the giant again. The Hellcannon and Warshrine didn't do a great deal to the Blood Knights, their armour and regen save making them night invincible. In return the Blood Knights did very little either and I lost the combat by a few but passed my 2nd break test for the Warshrine, the Hellcannon being unbreakable.

Turn 4 saw Frankie charge the Wight King and unit champion into Amador and the unit of Black Knights back into the Dragon Ogres. He also charged a unit of skeletons into the flank of the giant making it a potentially interesting combat.

Don't remember much of the magic phase this turn, it was much of the same if I remember. Frankie bringing back Skeletons and Knights mostly. Not getting any of the more damaging spells off.

In combat the Hellcannon and Warshrine managed to keep the relative stalemate with the Blood Knights going. The Chosen were cut down as expected but the Black Knights didn't have sufficient movement to reach anything of mine with their overrun. Amador issued a challenge which the Wight King accepted and as he had charged the Wight King went first. He failed to cause a wound on the Chaos Lord and was dispatched duly with all of his wounds and the full overkill bonus being taken destroying the unit champion with the sizeable combat resolution. The Giant decided to yell and ball winning the combat by 2 and taking 2 skeletons off of each unit with the combat resolution. The Dragon Ogres lost the combat again and this time were caught when they fled but they'd kep Frankie busier than most of my other units had managed!

For my Turn 4 I moved Amador around the rear of the Dire Wolves and the Varghulf that were heading towards the centre of my deployment zone moving from the left flank. Isidro Devante moved with him to support him with magic.

The magic phase was again much of the same. However, Isidro Devante took out one of the units of Dire Wolves leaving 1 unit and the Varghulf.

In close combat. The Warshrine finally got destroyed by the Blood Knights and then the Hellcannon suffered the same fate leaving the Chaos Dwarves to be run down once they fled from the combat. The Blood Knights pursued off of the table which I figured would be quite handy and keeping them out of my hair whilst I mopped up the small units that I could to try and get a few VP for myself! The Giant jumped up and down destroying a rank of skeletons and winning the combat again but not by enough to destroy both units he was up against.

Frankie didn't have a great deal he could do this turn but one of his units of Black Knights managed to charge Xante the Sorcerer and the other managed to get a charge on Sunduru. The Dire Wolves and the Varghulf turned on the spot to face towards Amador and the ghouls and one of the corpse carts crossed the river towards the Chaos Lord as well. He was going to be making his last stand very soon it would seem.

In the magic phase Frankie managed to get Curse of Years (I think that's the right one. Have to roll the dice on a 6 first time lose a wound, then a five next round etc) to go off on Vela. Frankie then proceeded to roll a 6 taking a wound from the sorcerer.

In combat the two units of Black Knights killed the sorcerer's they were up against and overran into positions where they'd play no further part in the game. The Giant won his combat again but again couldn't quite get enough combat res to finish things off so was bogged down for yet another round.

My turn 5 Amador charged into the unit of Dire Wolves, choosing to take them on instead of the Varghulf. Isidro Devante moved through the woods to move clear of his Lord and the mass of troops that were descending on him.

Isidro proved to be quite useful in what would prove to be his last magic phase. He managed to cast Drain Life causing a few wounds across the massed units and got off both magic missiles causing a few wounds on the Black Knights units that were nearby but not near enough to worry him. Vela was then killed by curse of years when Frankie rolled a 5.

In close combat Amador had to challenge the Doom Wolf and quickly dispatched the beast causing enough wounds to crumble the rest of the unit. He then overran clear of the Varghulf and the approaching horde and back towards Isidro Devante's position. The Giant finally defeated the Skeletons and looked around for his next target.

Frankie started turn 6 by moving his Blood Knights in a wheel so they had line of sight on Amador. Clearly he was hoping to get Vanhels Danse Macabre off to get them into combat with him. A few other things moved but it was an irrelevance in the end.

Frankie's magic phase proved to be devastating this turn. I was down to few dispel dice and no dispel scrolls left so what I'd managed to keep in check up until then suddenly broke the dam. Amador was torn apart by Spirit of the Forge cast with Irresistable Force and Isidro Devante lost a wound to another spell but not sure which one. This left Isidro very alone and very vulnerable Curse of Years was cast on the Giant but luckily Frankie failed to roll a 6 this time. Vanhels Danse Macabre went off and the Blood Knights charged into Isidro Devante looking forward to the easy kill.

In the combat phase as expected Isidro Devante was torn to pieces on the lance of the Blood Knight Kastellan.

My turn 6 was always going to be an irrelevance but the Giant managed to charge into a Corpse Cart. In combat with the Corpse cart he rolled Thump with Club and managed to kill the Necromancer and wound the corpse cart. Then the game ended.

It was an incredibly tough game for me. As I've said dice rolling went against me quite a lot but I was soundly beaten before the dice started letting me down. My army was penned into my deployment zone by the speed with which the 'lumbering' dead managed to descend on key points of my battle formation and the ethereal nature of the Black Knights in particular allowed them to get very close before I could do much about it. All of my attempts to try and stem the tide and filter units off to where I wanted them backfired on me as well and the number of times units got to pursue or overrun into another one of my units was frightening. More frightening was my stupidity in forgetting about Neron's Battle Standard! Might not have made a huge difference but could have seen the Warriors and the Marauders holding in their combat in particular and occupying the Blood Knights for a bit long allowing my Hellcannon and Warshrines to do something more productive other than holding them up for a turn or two! I was quite disappointed with my magic for the most part as well. Considering I went quite so magic heavy I would have hoped for it to make a bit more of a difference but sadly the strength of the vampire's magic cancelled my efforts out. Frankie won by 3981 VP I think it was. A clear cut massacre!

All in all though it was great fun playing a battle on this scale. Was great to see quite so many minis on the table going to war. My only regret in regards to that is that only a 1/4 of the minis on the table were actually mine!

My army list:

Amador

Chaos Lord

Mark of Slaanesh

Deamonic Mount

Shield

Rending Sword

Crimson Armour of Dargan

Collar of Khorne

Isidro Devante

Sorcerer Lord

Level 4 Wizard

Black Tongue

Spell Familiar

Bronze Armour

Power Stone

Conjoined Homonculus

Gaizka The Warped

Sorcer Lord

Level 4 Wizard

Power Familiar

Book of Secrets

Inigo The Majestic

Sorcerer Lord

Level 4 Wizard

Rod of Torment

Infernal Puppet

Power Stone

Chaos Steed

Vela

Sorcerer

Level 2 Wizard

Mark of Slaanesh

2 x Dispel Scrolls

Xante

Sorcerer

Level 2 Wizard

Mark of Slaanesh

2 x Dispel Scrolls

Sunduru

Sorcerer

Level 2 Wizard

Mark of Slaanesh

2 x Dispel Scrolls

Neron

Exalted Hero

Mark of Slaanesh

Battle Standard Bearer

Flail

Shield

Fury of the Blood God

10 Warriors

Mark of Slaanesh

Full Command

Banner of Wrath

Great Weapons

Shields

15 Marauders

Mark of Slaanesh

Full Command

Great Weapons

Light Armour

Shields

15 Marauders

Mark of Slaanesh

Full Command

Light Armour

Shields

5 Marauder Horsemen

Mark of Slaanesh

Musician

Flails

Throwing Axes

Light Armur

5 Marauder Horsemen

Mark of Slaanesh

Musician

Flails

Throwing Axes

Light Armour

5 Marauder Horsemen

Mark of Slaanesh

Musician

Flails

Throwing Axes

Light Armour

5 Warhounds

5 Warhounds

5 Warhounds

6 Chaos Knights

Mark of Slaanesh

Full Command

Warbanner

6 Chaos Knights

Mark of Slaanesh

Full Command

Banner of Rage

3 Dragon Ogres

Champion

Great Weapons

10 Chosen

Mark of Slaanesh

Full Command

Rapturous Standard

Favour of the Gods

Additional Hand Weapons

Shields

Dunixi
Giant

Mark of Slaanesh

Hellcannon

Warshrine

Mark of Slaanesh

Warshrine

Mark of Slaanesh

3000pts vs. Daemons of Chaos

Had an interesting 3000 point game against Daemons. I'd love to be able to say it was interesting for all the right reasons but sadly it was more because my opponent was hard work to play with. A constantly shifting perception of how the rules work to suit them was the biggest problem. Sadly when it came to working out victory points there was a definite smudging of numbers, it could have been a genuine mistake but with how the game went I'm sadly not inclined to believe that. I'm less concerned about the result of the game when I play as this is purely a hobby for me. My army is fluff driven and far from a WAAC style army and I'm certainly not that sort of player. So it was a shame that the game against Daemons was less fun and more of a chore just because of somebody's poor attitude towards the game (this wasn't a tournament game or anything so no real excuse in my mind).

Anyway, on to the interesting stuff.

I took the disappointing decision of marking my sorcerer's Tzeentch for this game as I figured the lore of Slaanesh wouldn't be of much use although for the most part I wish I hadn't bothered as the lore proved to be highly effective on the first turn of the game and did nothing more after that. Next time I'll stick to my principles and probably take Slaanesh as my spells wouldn't have been that much less effective the way I managed to roll for them!

The Daemon army was led by a Lord of Change and contained 3 Khorne Heralds and a Nurgle Herald. The Heralds went into 2 units of 20 Bloodletters, a unit of Bloodcrushers and a unit of 20 Plaguebearers respectively. There were also 2 units of 6 Flesh Hounds and a unit of 6 Flamers.

I deployed my Marauder Horsemen with a unit of Warhounds on one flank and my Giant with another unit of Warhounds on the other. My Knights were over on the right flank with my Dragon Ogres and a set up my infantry block on the left of the centre of the table. The Daemons had a unit of Flesh Hounds on each flank with the Flamers on the same Flank as I'd placed my Marauder Horsemen. There was a unit of Bloodletters and a unit of Plaguebearers opposite my infantry and opposite the Knights and Dragon Ogres were a unit of Bloodletters and the Bloodcrushers.

I rolled for the first turn and advanced my army with the forces on the flanks marching forward as fast as they could eager to try and outmanouvre the Daemons by outweighing them on the flanks. The centre of my army moved up more cautiously as I was happy to wait for the Daemons to close the ground and have to take a turn or 2 of magic missilesso I could try to thin their ranks. Magic didn't really work out that well for me my bound spells and magic missiles failing to cause any real damage to anything (across the whole game I took out 1 flamer, 1 Bloodletter, 1 Flesh Hound and 1 Plague Bearer so I'll not even bother mentioning my magic phase again after this!). My Sorcerer Lord did manage to cast Pandemonium though and it would be this event that would win me the game (well should have!). I had no shooting and there was no combat so my opponent took his first turn.

His Flesh Hounds on the flank with my giant charged the Warhounds infront of them who fled and left the Flesh Hounds in no mans land. His other unit of Flesh Hounds didn't charge and instead held their ground cautious over the positioning of my Marauder Horsemen who would be able to get a flank charge or go after the Flamers as to how they were positioned. His units all moved forward slowly none of them marching as he was clearly hoping for me to over-commit myself. The Lord of Change flew over the heads of my army and landed behind them clearly hoping on causing untold confusion in the name of its lord Tzeentch.
The magic phase started and ended ever so wonderously for me but not for my opponent. He started by casting Boon of Tzeentch which I let go through and then went to cast Bolt of Change on 3 dice. He rolled a double 5 and a 1 so with Pandemonium in play this was a miscast. He used his obligatory reroll on one of the dice that scored 5 only to roll a 5 again confirming his miscast. My sorcerer with the Infernal Puppet stood to attention waiting impatiently to find out the results and whether he could make them worse. Turned out he wasn't needed as my opponent rolled a double 1 blowing up his Lord of Change on the first turn and giving himself an awfully hard job to do!
The Flamers tried to atone for the Daemonic master's error and managed to take out all of the Marauder Horsemen in the shooting phase which panicked the nearby Warhounds sending them off of the table.

I started my second turn by declaring a charge with my Dragon Ogres into the Bloodcrushers and my Knights into the Bloodletters. The Knights managed to make their charge but the Dragon Ogres were just out of range so failed their charge and were left sitting ducks. My giant also charged into the Flesh Hounds of Khorne. The rest of the army advanced cautiously but were too far away to get the charge in but too close to not get charged so didn't move far hoping to make the most of the second magic phase to reduce the number of daemons that would get to charge into combat which sadly didn't happen.
In close combat the Giant swung his club at the Flesh Hounds scoring 1 wound and took 1 in reply he lost the combat but held his ground and kept his footing! The Knights and the Bloodletters enjoyed a rather brutal combat that would have greatly pleased Khorne despite its eventual result. One of my Sorcerer's was in the unit of Knights so had to challenge and this was accepted by a Herald of Khorne who he got exceptionally lucky against (thanks in part to his Chaos Steed) and managed to slay before the Daemon got to attack back. The Knights managed to kill 1 of the Daemons and they in return cut down 1 Knight. This led the combat to a draw, although this was one of the many silly rules disputes that my opponent brought up along the way claiming that the Warbanner didn't allow me to claim a total of +2 combat resolution (+1 for a standard and a further +1 for the warbanner) as you could only pick one to benefit from?! Eventually he backed down on this and the combat was resolved as a draw. Sadly this was a prime example of how the whole game went :(

My opponents second turn saw the Bloodcrushers charge into the Dragon Ogres, and a unit of Bloodletters charge into my Chaos Warriors led by Amador the Chaos Lord. The Plaguebearers didn't manage to make their charge against the other unit of Warriors and so were left prone in the open. The Flamers emerged from the woods they had been lurking at the edge of and the free unit of Flesh Hounds positioned themselves to the flank of my Marauders on foot.
My opponent didn't use any magic this turn and went straight into shooting where the Flamers did an unholy amount of damage to the Marauders taking out 11 of them.
In close combat the Bloodcrushers destroyed my Dragon Ogres and their Herald took 2 wounds from the Dragon Ogre champion without reply and so he fled but was chased down by the behemoths which left them stranded away from the main battle for a bit. The Knights and Bloodletters fought out another draw with the Sorcerer this time slaying a Bloodreaper in a challenge! The Giant swung his club again in close combat slaying 3 Flesh Hounds this time giving the beasts no attacks back and they were now outnumbered and popped on instability leaving the Giant free to move support the Knights in their stalemate contest or to go after the Bloodcrushers. Amador issued a challenge in the combat between the Bloodletters and his Warriors which the unit champion accepted, the Herald showing cowardice and sending it's lesser minion to fight its battles. The Champion was quickly despatched by Amador and he beckoned once more for the Herald to step forward knowing that he would have his chance to fight the Daemon of Khorne this time. The Warriors were a flurry of attacks against the Bloodletters but their enemies otherworldly nature saved them from a lot of damage but they still took a few casualties. The combat ended in a slight victory for the Warriors after the Bloodletters attacks and combat resolution and another Bloodletter was lost to instability.

Turn 3 for me saw my Great Weapon armed Warriors charge into the Plague Bearers. My Marauders turned to face the Flesh Hounds threatening their flank. There was no way they were going to be able to fight the beasts in combat but I wanted them to at least try when they were charged! The sorcerer in the unit left knowing that the imminent close combat would not end well. The Giant positioned himself so he could charge the flank of the bloodletters that were locked in combat with the Chaos Knights next turn.
Close combat was brutal again. The Knights and Sorcerer managed to fight yet another draw with the Bloodletters it was clear that the combat needed the intervention of the Giant to settle things. The Warriors with Great Weapons didn't fare well against the Plaguebearers. I can't remember exactly how the combat went but Neron and the Herald fought a challenge causing a wound each and the Warriors failed to score many wounds on the Plaguebearers thanks to their ward save and their regeneration save. The Plaguebearers managed to cause a few wounds and won the combat but my unit held thanks to the nearby presence of Amador their general.
Amador was busy fighting the Herald. In something of an anti-climax the servant of the God of Battle and a Chaos Lord both failed to make any real impression with Amador taking a single wound but failing to cause one thanks to the Herald's save. The Warriors continued to throw out a devastating amount of attacks and were starting to make a telling effect on the Bloodletters as their numbers dwindled. The combat was again won by the Warriors and another Bloodletter went to instability.

My opponent's turn 3 started with the expected charge of the Flesh Hounds into the Marauders and then his Bloodcrushers rushed to return to combat positioning themselves for a charge into the rear of my Chaos Knights locked in combat with the Bloodletters. The Flamers repositioned themselves clearly planning on taking out the Sorcerer who had broken off from the Marauder unit. Which is exactly what they did in the shooting phase bringing an ungodly number of saves for me to make which I was never going to manage so I lost one of the Sorcerers. In close combat the Flesh Hounds slaughtered the Marauders breaking them and running them down before charging into Amador's flank. The Flesh Hounds didn't get to take advantage of their charge as Amador was still locked in combat with the Herald so there was nothing for them to attack. Amador promptly finished the combat dishing out 4 wounds between himself and his horse, I did however completely forget my Eye of the Gods roll which was very silly of me! The Warriors continued to carve up the Bloodletters and despite the flank charge I comfortably won the combat killing 3 Flesh Hounds with the instability test they failed miserably and a further Bloodletter. Neron was slain by the Herald of Nurgle and so the unit champion entered into a challenge with him. This one didn't go well again and I needed to roll Insane Courage which I promptly did much to my surprise!

Turn 4 would wind up being the last turn as my opponent had arrived late so we didn't get to take the battle to the full 6 turns. My Giant charged into the flank of the Bloodletters engaged with the Knights and then we went straight to the close combat phase. The Giant swung his club swatting 4 Bloodletters and then the Knights wiped out the rest. Sadly they couldn't overrun etc. so were sitting ducks for the rear charge of the Bloodcrushers that was forthcoming. I restrained the Giant knowing that his assistance would be needed and if he had of overrun he would have wound up closer to the Flamers who had no targets in their turn 4. The combat involving The Great Weapon Warriors went a bit nicer this turn and my Warriors lost the combat by a small amount and held firm. Amador dispatched of another Flesh Hound and his Warriors wiped out the Bloodletters the instability check then killed off the remaining Flesh Hound leaving Amador's unit free to flank charge the Plaguebearers if we'd have gotten to turn 5.

My opponent started his last turn by charging the Bloodcrushers into the rear of the Knights and with the Flamers having nothing to shoot at we went straight to combat again. The Bloodcrushers defeated the Knights but the Herald failed to slay the Sorcerer who fled on his own evading his pursuers and remaining on the table. The Plaguebearers and the Warriors fought out another poor round of combat with very little damage caused either way.

So the game ended and we added up Victory Points. It was worked out as a draw by my opponent but once I got home I worked them out again and even when being generous to him and assuming he didn't have all of the gifts of chaos I'm confident he took I won by 515 points instead of losing by the 84 he claimed! This would have been a minor victory to me. If we could have carried on the game it would have gotten worse for the Daemons as on turn 5 I had a flank charge into the Plaguebearers with Amador's warriors who were still over half strength and a flank charge with the giant into the Bloodcrushers. I'd have had a good chance of rallying the Sorcerer as well saving me some lost victory points. Alas, it wasn't to be and as I've said I'm more disappointed by the nature of the game than the smudged result at the end but it will be the last time I play this particular opponent.

My army list just for the sake of completeness.

Amador
Chaos Lord
Mark of Slaanesh
Shield
Chaos Steed
Crimson Armour of Dargan
Rending Sword
Collor of Khorne
Favour of the Gods
Bloodcurdling Roar

Isidro Devante
Sorcerer Lord
Level 4 Wizard
Mark of Tzeentch
Bronze Armour of Zhrakk
Rod of Torment
Spell Familiar
Power Stone
Third Eye of Tzeentch

Gaizka The Warped
Sorcerer
Level 2 Wizard
Mark of Tzeentch
Power Familiar
Book of Secrets
Conjoined Homunculus

Inigo The Majestic
Sorcerer
Level 2 Wizard
Mark of Tzeentch
Infernal Puppet
Talisman of Protection
Chaos Steed

Neron The Destroyer
Exalted Hero
Battle Standard Bearer
Mark of Slaanesh
Flail
Shield
Crown of Everlasting Conquest

10 Chaos Warriors
Mark of Slaanesh
Full Command
Additional Hand Weapons
Shields
Rapturous Standard
- Amador led this unit

10 Chaos Warriors
Mark of Slaanesh
Full Command
Great Weapons
Shields
Banner of Wrath
- Neron and Isidro Devante led this unit

15 Marauders
Mark of Slaanesh
Full Command
Great Weapons
Light Armour
Shields
- Gaizka led this unit

5 Marauder Horsemen
Mark of Slaanesh
Musician
Flails
Throwing Axes
Light Armour

5 Warhounds

5 Warhounds

5 Chaos Knights
Mark of Slaanesh
Musician
Standard Bearer
Warbanner
- Inigo The Majestic led this unit

3 Dragon Ogres
Champion
Great Weapons

Dunixi
Chaos Giant
Mark of Slaanesh