Well I thought since I have a proper battle report to write about it was about time I started up an on-going thread in case I have more reports to post in future, rather than just leaving them dotted around the forum as I have in the past. :)

This first report features me using the new DoC rules we have been working on for ages (see here). I had agreed to play a 2,500pt game against someone at our club, Scott, who knew in advance I would be using completely unofficial experimental rules.

My list using the experimental rules looked like this:
GUO – level 4, Blade of Entropy (models wounded lose all remaining wounds on a 4+), Trappings of Nurgle
Spells: Miasma of Pestilence, Stream of Corruption, Shrivelling Pox, Blessing of Nurgle
Herald of Khorne – BSB, Armour of Khorne, Bloodlust of Khorne (frenzy), Magic Hater (all spells cast within 6” miscast on double 1’s)
Herald of Tzeentch – Arcane Knowledge (+1 spell), Attuned to Oblivion (+1 to channel), Radiance of Dark Glory (lose 1 less wound when failing an Instability test)
Spells: Boon of Tzeentch, Gift of Chaos, Bolt of Tzeentch
28 Bloodletters – Full Command
19 Pink Horrors – Standard, Musician, Banner of Change (enemy units in b2b take D6 SD6 hits each magic phase)
Spells: Flickering Fire, Gift of Chaos
3 Plague Toads
Blood Chariot – Fury of Khorne (Devastating Charge)
3 Bloodcrushers – Musician
2 Screamers
Beast of Nurgle – Playful (Stubborn and Stupidity)
Eye of Tzeentch (new monster unit)

I didn’t get to see Scott’s army list but from what I remember it looked like this:
Chaos Lord – Mark of Tzeentch, Daemonic Steed, Rending Sword, Chaos Runeshield, Luckstone
Exalted Champion – BSB, barded Chaos steed, Shield, Biting Blade
Sorceror – level 2 (Fire), Infernal Puppet
Spells: Flaming Swords, Fulminating Flame Cage
Sorceror – level 2 (Death), Third Eye of Tzeentch
Spells: Caress of Laniph, Doom & Darkness
18 Chaos Warriors – shields, Full Command, Mark of Tzeentch
18 Chaos Warriors – shields, Full Command, Mark of Tzeentch
5 Chaos Warhounds
5 Chaos Warhounds
10 Chaos Knights – Full Command, Mark of Tzeentch
6 Chaos Ogres – Chaos armour, great weapons, Full Command, Mark of Tzeentch
Chaos Spawn – Mark of Tzeentch

We rolled up for terrain as normal and got 9 pieces. Because of the large amount we re-rolled any results of 2 or 12. We also avoided any terrain that could unbalance the game too much, such as Towers of Blood. Once it had been placed we rolled for scenario and got Meeting Engagement (we initially got Watchtower, but I thought that it could make playtesting the rules a bit tricky). The Warriors won the roll for table side and deployed first, and none of their units got delayed by the scenario. I rolled for my units and found the Horrors and Eye of Tzeentch would be forced to come on turn 1. The armies and terrain were set up as in the photo below:


The terrain from top to bottom was: Altar of Khaine, Haunted Mansion (large building), Building, Mist-wreathed swamp, Arcane Ruins, Temple of Skulls, Fence, Forest and Bane Stone. The WoC army (top to bottom) was: Ogres, Warrios + Fire Sorceror, Knights with BSB and General, Warriors + Death Sorceror, Hounds, Spawn and more Hounds. I deployed the Beast next to the mansion and to its left: Crushers, GUO, Blood Chariot, Bloodletters + BSB (with HoT hiding behind them), Plague Toads and Screamers on the far flank. Unsurprisingly, the Warriors got the first turn.

TURN 1
Both units of Hounds declared a charge against the Plague Toads. The unit behind the woods moved first and made it in, but this left no room for the other unit due to the arcane ruins blocking their path so they made a failed charge of 5”. The Spawn stumbled 4” towards the Toads as well. The rest of his army advanced forwards, the Knights holding back a bit. The Ogres moved around the far side of the Haunted Mansion to try and get in my flank/rear later on.

In the magic phase Scott rolled a double 3. I failed to channel but the Death Sorceror took full advantage of the arcane ruins and channelled 3 times, suffering a miscast in the process. The miscast result caused an S6 hit on both his Sorcerers, but only the Death one was wounded. He also lost 3 dice from his pool – all the ones he’d just channelled! He cast Flame Cage on my Bloodletters which I failed to dispel, killing 3. He then followed it up by casting Doom & Darkness on them unopposed. The ghosts haunting the Mansion did a wound to the Ogres but no damage to the Daemons. In the combat phase the Hounds failed their fear test and promptly got wiped out by the Toads.

In my turn I charged the other War hound unit with the Toads, and the Warriors near the Mansion with the Crushers and Beast. The Bloodletters opted to stay put because of the Flame Cage (I should have taken an Ld test to hold though due to my BSB being frenzied, but forgot this. I also forgot the Stupidity test for the Beast – doh!). The GUO and Chariot just shuffled sideways a bit, not willing to get too close to the Chaos Knights. The Screamers flew over the Spawn, doing a wound.


Finally the Eye of Tzeentch and Horrors arrived, the Eye finishing next to the house where it could shoot the Ogres and the Horrors turning up behind the arcane ruins, where they were promptly joined by the Herald of Tzeentch.


In my magic phase the Horrors cast a boosted Flickering Fire (which adds an additional +1 to the number of hits and the Strength) at the Spawn and incinerated it with 6 S8 hits. Unfortunately I forgot the new lore attributes, which I would continue to do for the rest of the game. The GUO attempted to cast Blessing of Nurgle (enemy must re-roll successful to wound rolls) on the Warriors fighting the Crushers but it was dispelled. In the shooting phase the Eye fired its Bolt of Tzeentch (S8, D3 wounds per hit) at the Ogres, but only caused one wound. The ghosts left everyone alone this turn. In combat the Crushers and Beast killed 3 Warriors and the Fire Sorceror between them, with the Warriors doing one wound back. Even though I forgot the stomps I still won the combat but the Warriors were steadfast and held. The Toads wiped out the other unit of Warhounds, stomping on those who survived their main attacks, and reformed to face the nearest Warriors. There were now no Warrior units on my left flank.

TURN 2
Scott started his turn by having his Knights charged into the flank of the Crushers (I should have seen that coming):


The Ogres continued their advance around the mansion, while the unengaged Warriors stayed put. In the magic phase his Sorceror used his Third Eye to peer into the mind of the GUO so he could use his spells. He attempted to cast Blessing of Nurgle on the Bloodletter but it was dispelled. The ghosts in the Mansion left the Ogres unharmed.


In the combat phase the Chaos Lord, Exalted Champion, Knights and Warriors just about wiped out the Crushers before they could attack. The Beast killed one Warrior in return, but took a wound itself. Thanks to being Stubborn with the GUO nearby it passed its instability test though. The Warriors reformed to get as many in combat with the Beast as possible, while the Knights reformed to face the GUO again.

In my turn I declared a charge with the GUO and the Blood Chariot against the Knights. The GUO failed to reach by 1 (ironically, we had reduced his Move by 1 in the re-write and the current GUO would have made the charge) while the Blood chariot unfortunately ended up going in solo. The Bloodletters rolled a 12 and easily reached the Warriors near the arcane ruins, with the Plague Toads charging into their flank. The Horrors and HoT moved to within range of the arcane ruins so they could channel more dice. With little better to do the Screamers they flew onto the Temple of Skulls, ready to swoop on any units who were fleeing next turn. The Eye moved closer to the Mansion and the rest of my army.


In the magic phase I hardly channelled any dice between but the Horrors successfully cast Gift of Chaos on the Bloodletters. This is now an augment that gives +1 ward save and a random other characteristic buff. The random benefit turned out to be +1T – very useful. I also managed to cast Blessing of Nurgle on the Knights, hoping that might save my Chariot. In the shooting phase the ghosts left the Ogres alone again, while the Eye failed to wound them with its Bolt.


In combat the Herald of Khorne killed the unit Champ in a challenge, while the Bloodletters killed 2 more and Warriors and the Death Sorceror for the loss of 3 Bloodletters and an already wounded Plague Toad. The Warriors were well beaten and fled, pursued and run down by both the Toads and the Bloodletters. I would have preferred to hold with the Khorne Daemons but couldn’t because the Herald was still frenzied. Even hampered by the Blessing of Nurgle the Knights still managed to destroy the Chariot before the Jugger could attack, losing one Knight in the process. They reformed to face the flank of my Bloodletters. The remaining Warriors did a wound to the Beast for no loss, and it suffered another due to instability.

TURN 3
The Knights wasted no time in charging the Bloodletters in the flank.


The Chaos Ogres were now frenzied due to the nearby Altar of Khaine, and with the Eye of Tzeentch just in range they were forced to charge. Scott tried to restrain them but failed the test and they advanced just 2”.


With no magic we went straight to shooting. The ghosts left the Ogres alone again, but inflicted a wound on the Eye which had strayed just too close. In combat the Warriors finished off the Beast and reformed to face the Daemon army.


In the combat between the Knights and Bloodletters, the Chaos Lord issued a challenge, which was duly accepted by the Bloodreaper. Even hampered as he was by enemy magic the Lord still cut the Daemon down, but failed to achieve any overkill. The Knights and Exalted Champ killed a solitary Bloodletter between them, while the Herald of Khorne and his unit downed 3 Knights, in spite of getting no supporting attacks. The Bloodletters had won the combat but the Knights held, so the Daemons reformed to face their attackers.

In my turn 3, the GUO flank charged the Knights. The Screamers flew past to harass the Warriors later on, while the Toads moved to a position where they could make a supporting charge if the combat with the Knights dragged on for a while. The Eye of Tzeentch backed off from the Ogres to form a battleline with the Horrors.


The winds blew strong in the magic phase and I started by casting Flickering Fire at the Ogres, using the Eye as a conduit to extend the range of the Horrors spell. It just did 3 S2 hits though and no damage was caused. The Horrors then cast Gift of Chaos on the Bloodletters again, this time rolling up a ‘choose’ result on the random benefit table. I decided to go for +2 Initiative this time so I would strike before the Knights. The GUO then attempted to cast Stream of Corruption on himself so he could make a breath attack on the Knights, but he failed the casting roll by one and lost concentration. With my last 2 dice I cast Boon of Tzeentch with the Herald, hoping to get enough power dice to make another casting attempt at Gift of Chaos if I got enough dice back, but it was dispelled. In the shooting phase the Eye hit the Ogres again and caused another wound, finishing off the Ogre that had been wounded for ages. The ghosts attacked again to no effect.

In the combat phase the Chaos Lord issued a challenge to the GUO, which was duly accepted. In spite of the Trappings the Lord managed to cause 2 wounds on the GUO. In return, the GUO caused a single wound on the Lord after saves. I rolled for the Blade of Entropy to see if it had any effect and the dice came up a 5, killing the Tzeentch Lord outright. The Bloodletters and Herald hit with nearly all their attacks, but only managed to wound with 5 of them. Two of these were killing blows though and 3 Knights fell from their saddles in total. Thanks to some excellent saves on my part (even without the bonus from Gift of Chaos) the remaining Knights and Exalted Champion only caused 3 wounds and the Knights lost the combat badly. They fled and were caught by the Bloodletters, whilst the GUO reformed to face the Warriors.


TURN 4
The Warriors tried to march but failed their Ld test, so reformed instead and passed their swift reform test, backing off a bit. The Chaos Ogres managed to restrain themselves from charging, and marched towards the Eye of Tzeentch. In the shooting phase the ghosts returned with a vengeance, wounding an Ogre.

In my turn I wanted to charge the Warriors with the Bloodletters, but the Screamers were now blocking their path. I flew the Screamers over the Warriors instead, but they passed both their ward saves from the hits inflicted. The Bloodletters advance on the Warriors with the Plague Toads in support. The GUO decided to leave them to it and headed towards the Ogres instead.


Meanwhile, the Eye had declared a charge on the Ogres and made it in, its blades spinning in anticipation. The Horrors held back to take advantage of the arcane ruins.


In the magic phase the Horrors cast Gift of Chaos on the Eye with irresistible force, granted the Eye +1WS in the process. Five Horrors died in the miscast, losing a magic level and the Gift of Chaos spell as a result. I also cast Blessing of Nurgle on the Ogres with the GUO. The ghosts attacked the GUO and took a wound off him. In combat the Ogres failed their fear test and the Eye struck with the maximum 7 attacks, hitting with 6 of them. Only one managed to wound however, but Scott failed his saves. The Ogres struck back, but they caught themselves on the spinning blades of the Eye and took another 2 wounds. Worse still, between the Blessing of Nurgle and the Eye’s ward save they failed to cause any damage. The Ogres were steadfast though and passed their break test.

TURN 5
The Warriors decided attack was the best form of defence and charged the Bloodletters.


The combat went well for the Warriors, who killed 2 Bloodletters, while the only thing they achieved was for the Herald to kill the Champion in a challenge. The Warriors won combat by one and being no longer steadfast the Bloodletters lost another model. The Eye fared better and killed an Ogre without suffering any damage, and they failed their break test in spite of being steadfast and were run down.


In the Daemon turn the Plague toads flank charged the Chaos Warriors, whilst the rest of the Daemons closed in, hungry for the kill.


Magic saw Gift of Chaos being cast on the Bloodletters again, this time from the Herald. They were once more granted with +2 Initiative, meaning they would strike before the Warriors. The GUO tried Blessing of Nurgle again, but failed to reach the casting total by 1 and leaving me with nothing worth attempting with my last 2 power dice. Even the ghosts in the Haunted Mansion had gone quiet now.

The Warriors failed their fear test but the Bloodletters rolled badly again to hit, although still killing a few. The Plague Toads were more impressive considering there were only 2 of them, causing just as many wounds. Obviously shaken, the Warriors failed to land a telling blow and lost the combat badly, being chased down by the Plague Toads and Bloodletters. The Chaos Warrior army had been annihilated!


The final total was a win of about 2,300pts in the Daemons favour.

Overall I’m happy with how the army performed, although it has to be acknowledged that Scott’s generally poor dice made things difficult for him – only some really excellent ward saves allowed him to hang in there at times. There were one or two things he queried, but when I told him the points cost or casting value he seemed to think it was all reasonable. I’m rather annoyed that I forgot two important Ld tests on turn one that could have made a big difference in the early stages (although I’m not sure it would have affected the final result that much) as well as the new Lore attributes, which were half the reasons I took them in the first place.

I was particularly impressed with the Plague Toads, for just 72pts they probably made the best return on my investment. They made for a really great supporting unit which is strong enough to deal with enemy chaff with little trouble and having swiftstride made them good at chasing down fleeing units. Plus stomps are always nice to have. For magic Gift of Chaos was a really fun spell and combo’d with Blessing of Nurgle (or any other Hex) can really swing combats your way. Having a boosted version of Flickering Fire was nice too.

Hopefully I’ll get to try out the re-write again at some point.

That was a cool report. A little funny just how many Fear tests your opponent failed though!

Thanks Noisy! A lot of the tests he failed were on Hounds and Ogres who don't have such good Ld, but yes he was rolling well above odds on them throughout the game. It seems to happen to him a lot, to the point where I'm starting to wonder if its some sort of karmic punishment for abandoning his TK army in favour of Warriors......

I played in a 1500pt, 3 game tournament last weekend, using a list I had posted up on the forum a while back (click here to see list discussion and a text-only batrep). If you haven't seen it already the list looked like this:

Herald of Tzeentch (General) - Master of Sorcery (Metal), Spellbreaker
Herald of Nurgle - BSB, Stream of Bile
21 Plaguebearers - Full Command, Standard of Seeping Decay
29 Pink Horrors - Full Command
3 Nurglings
3 Flamers
3 Flamers
3 Fiends of Slaanesh
Total = 1495pts

To save time I just took photos of the deployments, although I wish I had taken some photos at the end as well so you could see the final positions. The first game was Battleline and I had been drawn against one of my mates, Tim, who was using Empire (and was actually his first game with the new rulebook). His army looked a bit like this:
Volkmar the Grim on War Altar
Warrior Priest - heavy armour, shield, Biting Blade
Captain - Plate armour, BSB, Shrieking Blade
Wizard - lvl 1 (Light) Shem's Burning Gaze
Wizard - lvl 1 (Death) Fate of Bjuana
20 Swordsmen - Full Command
10 Swordsmen
5 Knights - Full Command
2 Cannons
Mortar
Hellblaster Volley Gun

His deployment looked like this:

The Death Wizard was in the small Swordsmen unit, while all the other characters apart from Volkmar were in the bigger unit. On the left you can see where my Nurglings were deployed, whilst on the right you can just see a fence, which has a building on the end just out of shot.

This was my deployment:

My Plaguebearers were more or less opposite his main Swordsmen block, and you can probably just make out a unit of Flamers in the woods next to them. The Empire got the first turn.

TURN 1
The Knights moved up to the edge of the hedge, while the 10 Swordsmen turned to face the Nurglings. The rest of his army stayed put. In his magic phase Volkmar gave himself and the Swordsmen a 5+ ward save, whilst Tim's Light Wizard just failed to cast a boosted Shem's Burning Gaze at my Horrors. In his shooting phase the Mortar turned to face my Nurglings, and promptly exploded! His next shot went a lot better though, as a cannon hit and killed my Nurgle Herald, along with a couple of Plaguebearers. I was not happy to say the least. His second cannon aimed at my Tzeentch Herald, but this time I passed the Look out Sir! roll and only lost a Horror.

In my turn I declared a charge with the Nurglings against the 10 Swordsmen but they fell short. The Fiends also attempted a charge against the Knights, but also fell just short and advanced 5" instead. The Horrors, Plaguebearers and Flamers on my right advanced forwards as fast as possible. The Flamers next to the Horrors bounced into the woods opposite the Knights so they would be stubborn and force dangerous terrain tests if charged. In my magic phase I rolled up 12 dice! I decided to start by using 2 to cast a simple Plague of Rust on the Knights to help the Flamers deal with them, but rolled a total of 3 and failed to cast the spell. With the Empire deployed so far back all the Horrors spells were out of range, my magic phase was effectively over and the remaining 10 dice wasted (I was getting more unhappy and it was only turn 1). The Flamers fired at the Knights and managed to kill one, which cheered me up slightly.

TURN 2
The Knights charged the Flamers in the wood, surviving the stand and shoot and terrain tests without a scratch. The 10 Swordsmen advanced to provide a buffer between the Nurglings and the war machines. The rest of his army remained still. In the magic phase I let the ward save go again and dispelled Shem's Burning Gaze. His cannon aimed at my HoT again, and this time I failed the Look out Sir! roll and he was killed too (cue much swearing from me regarding my poor luck so far), along with three Horrors. The second cannon aimed at the Fiends, but overshot. The Hellblaster opened fire at the Horrors but in spite of getting 22 shots was quite inaccurate, only killing a couple more. By this point the Horrors were down to Level 2 though. Combat cheered me up a lot though as the Knights failed their fear test and due to some poor saves lost 2 before they could strike (including the musician) while the remaining Knights bounced off my ward saves. The combat ended up a draw with the Knights displaying their flank invitingly to the Fiends.

The Fiends charged the Knights and the Nurglings charged the Swordsmen, while the Horrors, Plaguebearers and Flamers advanced further, the Flamers taking cover behind the fence and hoping the War Alter wouldn't charge. In my magic phase Gift of Chaos was dispelled, but Flickering Fire took 2 wounds off the War Altar. The Flamers then added to the pain by taking a wound off Volkmar. In combat the Fiends killed a Knight for no loss and along with the Flamers ran down the survivor, closing on the war machines in the process. The Swordsmen fighting the Nurglings failed to cause any wounds. In return the Nurglings completely failed to harm the Death Wizard and thanks to good saves only killed one soldier, but this was enough to win the combat and in spite of being steadfast the Empire troops broke and were run down. The Nurglings stopping less than 2" short of the nearest cannon. Things were starting to look up for me.

TURN 3
The cannons rotated to face the Nurglings bearing down on them, whilst the Light Wizard stepped out of the Swordsmen to give himself more freedom of fire. In the magic phase I dispelled Banishment cast on the Plaguebearers by the War Altar, but the Light Wizard got off a boosted Shem's Burning Gaze with Irresistable Force, annihilating the Flamers that had just killed the Knights. The miscast did an S6 hit on all his Priests and Wizard, but only the Wizard himself was wounded. He also lost his 3 remaining power dice. In the shooting phase his cannons both attempted to grapeshot the Nurglings, but only did 2 wounds between them. The Hellblaster fired 26 shots at the Fiends, killing one of them.

I started my turn by charging the Nurglings into the nearest cannon and the Fiends into the Hellblaster. The surviving Flamer unit hopped into the building next to them where they would be safer from the War Altar, while the Plaguebearers advanced straight towards the Swordsmen with the Horrors just to their side in support. In the magic phase I unleashed Gift of Chaos, hitting his entire army but only killing one Hellblaster crewman and a couple of Swordsmen. Flickering fire at the War Altar was dispelled. The Flamers also targeted the War Altar, but it passed its saves. The Fiends and Nurglings easily defeated the War machines in combat, both overrunning into the remaining cannon.

TURN 4
The Swordsmen and Volkmar finally made a move, both charging the Plaguebearers. Little happened in the magic phase so we went straight to combat. The Fiends tore apart the cannon crew, reforming to face the rear of the Swordsmen. This panicked the Light Wizard who fled away from the Fiends and Nurglings. The War Altar got one impact hit which failed to wound, but Volkmar, the Warrior Priest and the Captain killed a few Plaguebearers between them. The Swordsmen hit with all their attacks thanks to hatred, but failed all their to wound rolls. In reply the Plaguebearers killed a single Empire trooper. I lost combat by quite a bit and 5 Plaguebearers died due to instability, leaving just 10.

In reply, the Horrors charged the Swordsmen in the flank and the Fiends into the rear, while the Nurglings advanced towards the fleeing Wizard. The Flamers exited the house they were hiding in and positioned themselves for a later flank charge on Volkmar if the combat dragged on, and to shoot the Wizard. The magic phase saw me cast Gift of Chaos with Irresistable Force, killing the Light Wizard and a pair of Swordsmen but once more failing to do any damage to the War Altar. Three Horrors died to the miscast, which cost me a point of rank bonus. With nothing left to shoot at we went straight to combat. The Empire troops and characters killed 4 Plaguebearers, but failed to cause any other damage. I killed the same amount and won combat by a lot due to my numerous combat bonuses and the fact he was disrupted. Thanks to the BSB he passed his break tests though.

Turns 5 & 6
With the large multiple combat the only thing happening the last couple of tunrs went very quickly. In combat the Swordsmen and Volkmar were beaten again, the Swordsmen being run down by their pursuers but Volkmar ran into the building and therefore bounced out the other side to safety. The War Altar failed its dangerous terrain test but passed its ward save to avoid the damage. In my next turn I was unable to charge due to the building being in the way (and I didn't want the 4 remaining Plaguebearers to risk it anyway), and the Flamer's shooting and Horror's magic bounced off the War Altar. He rallied the War Altar in his last turn, and I dispelled his attempt at Banishment. In my last turn I killed Volkmar with Flickering Fire from the Horrors, but again failed to damage the WAltar with the Flamers.

I won the game by about 800pts, since all he had left was the WAltar and all he had wiped out were my Heralds and a unit of Flamers. I was quite pleased with how I had managed to come back from the early set backs of losing my Heralds, helped a bit by my opponents dice rolls getting worse and worse as the game went on (apart from his saving throws, which got better and better).

Next up, game 2.

Game 2 of the tournament was Dawn Attack, and I found myself up against the following High Elf army:
Archmage - level 4 (Fire), Talisman of Preservation
Spells: Fireball, Cascading Fire Cloak, Flaming Swords, Fulminating Flame Cage
Noble - Dragon armour, BSB, Banner of Sorcery
3x 20 Spearmen - Full Command
17 White Lions - Full Command
2 Great Eagles

I won the roll off for choice of table edge and chose the edge nearest the building to stop him hiding in it. The random deployment left my army quite spread out as you can see in the photo below.

It wasn't too bad, but I would have preferred the Horrors more central.

My opponent also ended up fairly spread out, but with flyers and more block units he seemed to be in a slightly better position than I was. His BSB was in the White Lions, while his Archmage was in the middle unit of Spearmen. You can also see where my Nurglings were deployed.


Thanks to deploying first, I got the first turn.

TURN 1
My entire army pretty much advanced straight forwards as fast as it could, just holding back with the Fiends and Flamers in the centre a bit to avoid getting charged straight away. The Nurglings advanced into my opponents deployment zone, hoping to get strike in the flank later on. My magic phase gave me a moderate amount of dice, and I attempted to cast a boosted Final Transmutation on the Spearmen with Archmage, but fell a bit short of the casting value (should have put at least one more dice into it). The Horrors attempted Bolt of Change on the Spearmen in the wood opposite them (the only unit in range) but the Archmage dispelled it. In the shooting phse the Flamers on my extreme right were just out of range of the Great Eagle opposite them, while the Flamers near the building killed 2 Spearmen from the Archmage's unit.

In his turn the units in the woods advanced straight forwards, while the two units of Spearmen in the centre advanced a bit more cautiously. The Great Eagle behind the woods flew behind his lines towards the Nurglings, while the other Eagle moved away from the Flamers slightly and positioned itself to threaten the rear of the Nurglings. In his magic phase he cast Flame Cage on my Plaguebearers, which I dispelled, and tried to do a 3D6 hit Fireball on the nearest Flamer unit, which I countered with my Spellbreaker. He finished off by casting Flaming Swords on his Archmage's unit.

TURN 2
I declared a charge on the nearest Spearmen unit with my Plaguebearers, but they fell a bit short and just advanced 4". The Fiends successfully charged the Spearmen in the woods however. The Nurglings weren't really in a position to attempt a charge with any degree of success, and failed their march test so just moved a bit closer to the Spearmen. The Flamers on the right advanced towards the Great Eagle as fast as possible, while the other unit backed off slightly from the Archmage, keeping them in firing range. The Horrors shuffled forwards a bit to get within spell range of the Archmage's unit. In the magic phase I rolled a double 1, but managed to channel while my opponent didn't. The Herald attempted Plague of Rust on the White Lions, but rolled a double 2 and failed to cast by 1. I used my last dice to throw a Flickering Fire at the White Lions, which killed 2. In the shooting phase I killed a few more of the Archmage's Spearmen with one unit of Flamers, while the other took a wound off the nearest Great Eagle. In combat the Spearmen in the woods did 4 wounds to the Fiends, which I saved 2 of, and between attacks and stomps I killed an impressive 10 Spearmen. I won combat by 8 and thanks to the fact he was in a forest he couldn't claim to be steadfast, the Spearmen fled and were run down thanks to the Soporific Musk.

In the High Elf turn the White Lions charged my Horrors, the Spearmen without Archmage charged the Plaguebearers and the Great Eagles both charged the Nurglings (one in the front and one in the rear). His Archmage and Spearmen just advanced forwards a bit. In the magic phase he unleashed a 2D6 Fireball at the Flamers which I let go as I was expecting more nastiness in a moment. The Fireball did 6 hits but only one wound. As expected, he then attempted to cast Flaming Swords on the Spearmen fighting the Plaguebearers. Throwing 6 dice into it, he got the IF and it went through, but rolled a 4 on the miscast table. His Spearmen unit was reduced to 5 models in the explosion, and his Archmage got dragged into the warp. To make matters worse his Spearmen failed their panic test and fled away from the Fiends (the closest enemy unit), leaving them behind the charging Spearmen. In combat the Great Eagles did 2 wounds to the Nurglings, and I completely failed to do any back. I rolled a terrible instability test and they all disappeared. The Spearmen did a horrific 7 wounds to the Plaguebearers as I failed all my ward saves. I killed two with my regular attacks, and used the Stream of Bile too but only got 4 hits, resulting in 2 more kills. I lost the combat by 3 and even with the BSB re-roll I still lost another 3 to instability. The White Lions did a wound to my Herald and killed a few more Horrors. I was steadfast though and passed my test. The White Lions expanded their frontage to get an extra file each side.

TURN 3
The game had been pretty brutal already and it was only turn 3! My Flamers moved to target the wounded Eagle and the fleeing Spearmen, whilst the Fiends reformed to face the rear of the White Lions, hoping the Horrors would last long enough to make it worth rescuing them. I was hoping a decent magic phase would help me but I only got 6 dice and then once again rolled double 2 on my first spell attempting to cast Plague of Rust on the White Lions! Gift of Chaos from the Horrors was dispelled. The Flamers shooting at the fleeing Spearmen rolled a decent number of shots, but they all failed to hit or wound from close range so the Spearmen would be able to rally on their normal Ld next turn. The other Flamers killed the wounded Great Eagle, panicking the other Eagle which fled back towards the woods. In combat more Plaguebearers died to the flaming spears, but I did a bit more damage in return this time and so lost combat by less, losing only two more to Instability but still leaving me with just the command group plus Herald. At least the flaming attacks had ended now. The combat between the White Lions and Horrors saw the Herald killed and more Horrors, but I killed a couple of Elves this time. I lost combat but was still steadfast, but promptly rolled a 12 for my Instability test and another 5 Horrors disappeared.

In his turn the Spearmen rallied but the Eagle continued to flee, entering the woods but passing its dangerous terrain test. With no magic we skipped straight to combat. Appropriately enough, the Spearmen failed their fear test now they didn't have the advantage of flaming attacks. Even so, they still killed the standard and musician The Herald and Champ killed more though and won the combat, but there was still a full rank of Spearmen left and they held due to steadfast. The Horrors put up a good fight against the White Lions, but still lost by a lot and I rolled 9 for the instability test, enough to wipe out the remaining 7 models. The White Lions reformed to face the Fiends.

TURN 4
With no chance of a rear charge on the White Lions now, and just too far away to move past them and get out of sight, the Fiends simply backed off 5". The Flamers in the centre moved to the White Lions flank to try and soften them up in case they caught the Fiends. The other Flamer unit moved to target the just-rallied Spearmen. In the shooting phase the Flamers did no damage to the White Lions thanks to their cloaks, while the other unit killed 4 Spearmen, leaving just the champion who passed his panic test. In combat the Spearmen finished off the last Plaguebearer, but the Herald killed 2 Elves. The Spearmen were no longer steadfast and broke, escaping the pusuing Herald.

In the High Elf turn the Eagle fled again, ending up on the other side of the forest near the table edge. Now at less than 25%, the Spearmen continued to flee from the Herald. The lone Champion was too far away from the building to reach it this turn, so just moved closer hoping he could hide in there later if he survived. The White Lions marched into the forest towards the Fiends.

TURN 5
Even though he was only just in range, I declared a charge with the Herald of Nurgle on the fleeing Spearmen, hoping to push them off the table edge to deny them a last chance of rallying. The Spearmen fled just 4", staying on the table but easily escaping the Herald as he tripped over his own feet. The Flamer that had shot the White Lions last turn turned their attention to the fleeing Great Eagle, burning it out of the sky. The other Flamers targeted the Champion who had escaped them last turn, easily immolating him.

In the High Elf turn the White Lions caught up with the Fiends, while the remaining Spearelves fled the battlefield. In combat the White Lions did 7 wounds on the Fiends, and I obliged my opponent by failing all my ward saves again so they were wiped out before they could strike back. The White Lions overran to try and get off the table edge and escape the Flamers, but moved just 2".

TURN 6
With little else to do the Herald wandered around the centre of the battlefield, while both units of Flamers moved to target the White Lions. The first unit killed just one, but the second managed to kill 3, forcing a panic test with the Elves just inches from the table edge. Sadly for me, they passed.

With his White Lions facing his own table edge and no enemy in sight, and no shooting or magic, the game was over. All I had left was my BSB and Flamers, all he had was his BSB and helf a White Lion unit. Totalling up the points he had 1270 to my 1170, so I had lost the game by a single point! :blink: :sick: (A few days later, I realised we forgot to add in the standard for the Spearmen who fled from the Herald, becuase he didn't catch them, so it should have been a draw. :( )

I made a few mistakes in this game really, namely I probably should have backed the Horrors away turn 2 rather than advancing into range of the Archmage's unit, as it probably would have put off the charge of the White Lions for another turn. I would have liked it if they could have reached the tower in the middle, but I think they were just a bit too far away and the White Lions would have caught up with them first. Also, in turn 5 I may have been able to move the Fiends past the White Lions like I wanted to in turn 4, but didn't check to see whether they could have and just defaulted to backing off instead. Other than that, I'm not sure what else I could have done with the dice and deployment I ended up with.

Game 3, coming soon. :)

As promised, game 3. this was the last game of the event and the sceario was Blood & Glory. I found myself up against a rather nicely painted Warriors of Chaos army whose list looked a bit like this:
Exalted Champion (General) - Shield, Sword of Might
Sorceror - Level 1 (Fire), Dispel Scroll (Spell: Fireball)
15 Chaos Warriors - Shields, Full command, Mark of Slaanesh
2x 30 Marauders - Flails, Full Command, Mark of Slaanesh
5 Chaos Knights - Mark of Slaanesh
Chaos Chariot - Mark of Slaanesh
Hellcannon

I forgot to take a photo of the deployments, but the photo below should give an indication of how we were set up. My opponent had deployed his Sorceror in the Marauders next to the Hellcannon, and his General in the unit of Chaos Warriors in the centre. I knew if I could take out that unit I would win the game, just as I would instantly lose if my HoT and Horrors got wiped. The Nurglings had scouted near the Hellcannon, hoping to distract it or maybe even tie it up. but I got the first turn.

TURN 1
Here is how it was at the end of my first movement phase (note that there is a forest in the middle of his deloyment zone, but he removed the trees from the base to make placing his units easier):

In my first movement phase I moved up the most of my army to positions where they could be charged, but my opponent would need to roll above average to reach them. The Flamers kept their distance, just inside maximum firing range of the Marauders with Sorceror. In my magic phase I got a moderate amount of dice, and started by attempting to cast Plague of Rust with 2 dice on the Warriors. Just as with the last 2 games I failed to reach the casting total again and my Herald was unable to cast for the rest of the phase. :angry: I then cast Flickering Fire at the Marauders which killed 2, and then Bolt of Change at the Warriors but this was dispelled. In my shooting phase both Flamer units fired at the Marauders but only killed 3 between them.

In his turn the Hellcannon behaved itself and he declared charges with most of his army. The Chariot attempted to charge the Fiends, but failed, while his Warriors attempted to charge the Plaguebearers but only went 4". The Marauders next to them also tried and fell short, while the Knights were in position for a long-distance flank charge on the Nurgle Daemons but failed and wheeled 5". The Sorceror's unit just walked forwards a bit to keep pace. In the magic phase my opponent got 9 dice and threw 6 of them into a 3D6 Fireball at the Horrors. It went off with Irresistable Force, not generating very many hits but my saves were terrible and I lost 5 Horrors. Just like the last game, my ooponent suffered a Dimensional Cascade on the miscast table, killing 8 Marauders in the explosion and wounding his Sorceror and Chariot. Unlike my last opponent though he passed the 4+ roll which meant that his Sorceror remained on the table. In the shooting phase his Hellcannon landed a direct hit on my Horrors and he wounded 9 times. This time though my ward saves were awesome and only 2 died.

TURN 2
I started my turn declaring charges with the Fiends on the Chariot and, more importantly, the Plaguebearers on the Warriors. Both units made it in. the Horrors reforemd to face the Marauder and Knights on my right flank, and then passed their swift reform test to back off 2". The Flamers shuffelled around a bit to keep their distance but also block the other Marauders from charging the Horrors. The Nurglings were rather nervous about taking on the Hellcannon, so continued to move around the back of it towards the Marauders. In my magic phase I got 6 dice and this time used 3 to cast Plague of Rust on the Warriors. I reached the casting total at last (Hurrah!!!) and my opponent failed to dispel it. My HoT had finally cast his first spell of the tournament!!!! Overjoyed at this minor success, I cast Enchanted Blades of Aiban on the Plaguebearers, but the Sorceror counterred it with a Dispel scroll. The Flamers fired at the Marauders again, doing a lot better this time but thanks to the Mark of Slaanesh no panic test was needed. In combat the Fiends and Chariot did a wound to each other, but I won thanks to charge bonus and the Chariot was destroyed in the pursuit, the Fiends overrunning into the Marauders and Sorceror. In the main combat though his General issued a challenge, which my champion accepted. He was killed, but only just. Thanks to some great regen saves I only lost one other Plaguebearer. My Herald killed one, and I also used my Stream of Bile but out of 6 hits only one wounded and he passed his save. The Plaguebearers themselves though rolled a staggering number of 6's to hit, causing another 3 Warriors to fall to the ground. The Warriors lost combat by 4 and failed their break test by 2, running 11" with the Plaguebearers pursuing 6". The unit standard had died but his General was still alive, so he hadn't lost yet.

His turn 2 started with him declaring charges on the Horrors with both the Marauders and the Chaos Knights. If he could make it in and wipe them out before I charged his General again then he could win the game. Unfortunately for him, they both needed above average rolls and they both failed to make it in. He then rolled to rally his General, but failed the test on Ld 9 and then fled another 9", exiting the table. With his General fled and only 2 standards left my opponent had lost the game.

We both agreed it was a bit of a shame as it was a poor way for the game to end, but that's just how Blood & Glory goes sometimes. I don't think the game had taken much more than half an hour in total. To make matters worse, about 20 minutes after he had packed up my opponent suddenly remembered he had the Flaming Banner on his Warrior unit, which could have made a really big difference. :(

He had some really nice painted stuff in his army, particularly banners, so here are a few photos I took of it:






Somehow I managed to come 2nd, not quite sure how. It maybe because of the amount of VP's I scored which add directly to the total, or it could be the organisers made a mistake. Haven't seen a spreadsheet of the results yet to see how it all came together. That said, given I should have drawn the second game, I feel the second place is probably deserved. The winner was the only person to win all his games as far as I know, and the only player I saw using an Ogre army (and the only player using unpainted models when the tournament pack said that all armies should be painted......).

Now now JonathanC.. Be nice..! :D

This was an excellent read man. You really should have taken a few more pics, and I'm not saying you should take as many as I usually do (I overdo it, I know) but like you said at the start 'a few more' really wouldn't have hurt. As much as a try follow what happened in those battles it becomes abstract very quickly when there's nothing to go by except Text.

Congrats on the second place (once more) and I'm sure you deserved it.

Those chicks that guy had painted on his WoC-banners were pretty damn awesome I agree. I little bit 'unserious' perhaps, but that never killed anyone I suppose.

And to tell you the truth I think it's a perfectly valid comment your making on behalf of that unpainted Ogre Army winning the whole thing. Especially if it was said beforehand that Armies should be painted. Oh well.. I guess that makes you the 'real' winner! :lol:
- Although since you were fielding those filthy broken cheesy Daemons I guess that could be argued about as well.. <_< B) :D

Cheers!

Nobody seemed too bothered about facing my Daemons actually, I think it may be because people don't face them that often these days. There were 31 people at this tournament and I was the only Daemon player, that would have been unheard of a few years ago. Empire and VC were the most popular armies at this event, not too surprising given they are the 2 most recent releases.

As for the first place army being partly unpainted, I saw that was the case but it didn't really click for some reason that they should have been. It was only when one of my friends (who played against that army in round 2) pointed it out to me at the end that I realised it was a bit naughty of him. Some players put a lot of effort into getting their armies painted in time after all (my first opponent had been up until 1am the night before working on his Empire).

Anyway, thanks for the comments on the reports, I was writing them very late at night so I had to keep editing the bits that didn't make sense! Next time I will make sure I take a least a couple more photos, its just I didn't want to run out of time for the game because I was distracted. Also, my trials with photobucket when doing the last report put me off a bit. :lol: ;)

*ugh* Photobucket..

it's really annoying how 'edits' you make to pictures don't show up where you're posting them until like the next day..
I know what you mean.. I think we were sitting there tearing our hair pretty much simultaneously. haha

Great batrep. Very interesting to read. Congrats on placing second.

A belated 'thanks' to you, deathphoenix. Hopefully I'll go one better next time. :)

I played another game this week using a list I posted on this forum some months ago which I like to call my "List of the Damned!!!!" (click the link to see list discussion and a battle report). I was using the 2,400pt version of the army which looks like this:

Daemon Prince - lvl2 (Shadow), Many arms, Unnatural swiftness
Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma, Pit of Shades
HoK - Jugger, Firestorm blade, Armour of Khorne (General)
HoS - Many arms
HoT - MoS (Heavens), BSB
30 Daemonettes - Full command
10 Horrors - musician, standard (pink)
10 Horrors (blue)
5 Furies
3 Screamers
6 Seekers
5 Bloodcrushers - standard, musician
Beast of Nurgle

My opponent, Andy, has only recently got back into the game after a few years out and was using a Vampire Counts army that looked a bit like this:

Count Mannfred von Carstein - barded Nightmare
Loremaster Death & Vampires
Vampire - Lvl2 (Vampires), heavy armour, shield, Red Fury, BSB, War Banner
Invocation of Nehek, Vanhels Danse Macabre
Wight King - heavy armour, shield, Sword of Striking
Tomb Banshee
41 Skeletons - Full Command
35 Crypt Ghouls
30 Zombies - standard, musician
10 Dire Wolves - Doom Wolf
31 Grave Guard - Full command
5 Fell Bats
Black Coach

We rolled for scenario as normal and got Battle for the Pass. Terrain was generated randomly, granting us 2 Mysterious forests and 3 Buildings - quite mundane by 8th ed standards. The (rather blurry) picture below shows the terrain and army set up, post Vanguard moves.

The VC army from top of picture to bottom was: Skellies, Ghouls + Wight King, Fell Bats, Grave Guard + Vampire & Banshee, Mannfred, Zombies, Dire Wolves, Coach. Most of his army wasn't deployed as far forwards as it could have been. My Daemons from top to bottom were: Screamers, pink Horrors + HoT, Beast, Crushers + HoK, furies, Nettes + HoS, blue Horrors in forest (which turned out to be a Venom thicket - damn!), Prince and Seekers, which Vanguarded forwards but remained just out of maximum charge range of the Coach. The Vampires got the first turn.

TURN 1
The Vampire army advanced cautiously, with only the Fell Bats and Mannfred doing any serious redeploying. Andy rolled 12 for his magic phase, and the Coach absorbed some of this power to gain scythes and +1 strength. Even though I had 4 wizards I failed to channel at all. Mannfred started by casting Invocation of Nehek, which I let go and his army was swelled with 5 more Dire Wolves, 3 Fell Bats and 7 Zombies (it would have been more, but he ran out of space to place them all). He then cast Raise Dead, which I tried to dispel but failed, and 14 Zombies clawed their way out of the earth to face the Seekers. Mannfred then fired off a Purple Sun of Xereus at my army, which I decided to risk passing most of my Initiative tests, but it only went 6" anyway (green template in picture below).


Finally, Mannfred used the last of his power to unleash a Wind of Death against my army too. This time I tried to dispel it but again failed, and the vortex travelled 30", passing through the Daemonettes, Crushers and Furies. Eight Daemonettes and a Crusher were killed, but the Furies must have been flying high as they escaped unscathed (grey template in photo).


In my turn I considered charging the Black Coach with the Seekers, but didn't think they would hold it up for long enough to make it worthwhile, so they advanced around its flank instead.


The rest of my army advanced more agressively, or as agressive as I could with terrain creating an effective bottleneck. The Crushers advanced around the building in front of them as fast as possible, with the Daemonettes following behind, slowed a bit by the Crushers in their way and not wanting to go into the Venom thicket. the Furies styed behind them, waiting for an opportunity to be useful. The Screamers stayed behind the wood, not wanting to risk landing in it and not wanting to be on the other side where they would be in easy charge range of the Skeletons. The Beast of Nurgle wasn't so worried, advancing straight into the wood which turned out to be a Fungus forest. The pink Horrors advanced in support, whilst the blue Horrors stayed put, not wanting to risk dangerous terrain tests for the whole unit from the venom thicket. The Daemon Prince advanced around the forest, using the newly summoned Zombies to block the Coach from charging him.


The winds of magic were a lot weaker in my turn, granting me just 5 dice. The Purple sun moved 4" back towards Mannfred, so he decided to end the spell before anything went wrong. The Wind of Death moved further away from my army, which it would continue to do for the rest of the game. I cast Pit of Shades on the Black Coach with my Daemon Prince, which Mannfred failed to dispel but the Coach passed its test anyway. With my last dice I cast Melkoth's Miasma on the Zombies, reducing their movement by 2 to slow his flank down.

TURN 2
The Ghoul horde and Wight King charged my Crushers, whilst the Skeletons decided to ignore the Beast and Screamers and move towards the Crushers too. The Banshee left the Grave Guard, heading towards the house near the middle. The Black Coach moved around the Zombies to give itself the chance of charging next turn, whilst the Dire Wolves and Fell Bats moved to try and trap the Seekers. Finally the Zombies, Grave Guard and Mannfred shuffled forwards to create a second wave behind the Ghouls.

In the magic phase Andy rolled snake-eyes this time, but used Mannfred's Master of the Black Arts ability to re-roll one of them turning it into a 3. He also channelled, giving him 5 in total (I failed to channel again). The Coach absorbed more power, getting killing blow, MR2 and Strider. Mannfred started by casting a boosted Vanhells Danse, but I threw all my dice into dispelling it and succeeded this time. The Vampire tried to cast Vanhels on the Ghouls with one dice but didn't roll high enough, so with his last dice Mannfred managed to cast Hellish Vigour on the Ghouls to help them out.

With the Banshee out of range we went straight to combat. The Herald of Khorne went first and killed 2 Ghouls and landed a killing blow on the Wight King, slaying him outright. Several more of the deformed creatures were hacked down by the Bloodletters before the Ghouls fought back, dragging down one Crusher and wounding another. They even managed to sneak a wound through on my General. The Juggers made them pay for this and trampled on another 6. The Bloodcrushers won combat by a large margin and after crumbling there were just twelve Ghouls left.


In my turn the Beast of Nurgle passed its stupidity test for the fungus forest and charged the Banshee that had strayed too close, while the Daemonettes charged the summoned Zombies in the flank, avoiding the perils of the venom thicket. The Daemon Prince attempted to charge the Black Coach but rolled terribly and only went 2". I flew the Furies over him to screen the Prince from being counter-charged by the Coach itself. The Screamers flew over the fungus forest, landing in the Skeletons flank. The Pink Horrors were just too far away to get into the building, so just moved closer to it and the Crushers, whilst the blue Horrors stayed put to avoid being poisoned by the woods. Lastly, the Seekers declined the opportunity to charge the Dire Wolves and moved around their flank instead.


In my magic phase I rolled up 10 dice and channelled another 2 for the maximum 12! I started by having the Prince fail to cast Pit of Shades again on the Coach, leaving him unable to use Miasma. The Herald cast Iceshard Blizzard on the Grave Guard, who I could see causing me problems next turn, but Mannfred dispelled it. I then rolled badly again and failed to reach the casting roll for Harmonic Convergence on the Crushers, and with no targets in range or line of sight of my Horrors I had nothing to use my last 3 power dice on. :angry:

In combat, the Crushers easily wiped out the remaining Ghouls, although the wounded one was killed in the process. Unable to overrun, they just stayed where they were and dared the Grave Guard to charge them.

The Daemonettes easily chopped down the most the Zombies with the rest crumbling, but not before they had the temerity to cause a wound on the Slaanesh Herald. The Daemonettes overran into the large Zombie block. The Beast fluffed most of its attacks against the Banshee, but the one that hit did wound and the Banshee crumbled too with a wail. I was going to reform the Beast to face the approaching Skeletons, but my opponent pointed out he could overrun into Mannfred so I did so, hoping to get lucky in the next combat phase.



TURN 3
The Grave Guard and Vampire wasted no time in charging the Crushers, easily making it in, while the Black Coach ignored the Furies in favour of a flank chanrge on the Daemonettes. The Fell Bats were unable to charge the Seekers as they were too close to the Dire Wolves and had declared a charge on the Furies instead. However, once the Black Coach was in combat there was not enough room to fit the Fell Bats between the Coach and the table edge, so their chage failed and with the Dire Wolves right in front of them they didn't move at all. The Wolves themselves backed off 5" so the Seekers would be in their front rather than side arc. The only other movement was from the Skeletons who continued their slow advance towards the Crushers.

The magic phase was a lot less eventful this time, with the only spell getting through being Soulblight on the Bloodcrushers as I dispelled another boosted Vanhels Danse from Mannfred. In the combat phase the Coach crushed 2 Daemonettes and another 2 more were killed by the Wraith and Nightmares. The Daemonettes ripped several Zombies to shreds, but could only scratch the woodwork of the Coach. The Zombies themselves failed to cause any damage and the Undead lost by 3, reduced to 2 for both units because of his BSB. The Beast of Nurgle couldn't really threaten Mannfred, who thanks to some good regen rolls was limited to causing one wound. The Beast won on combat resolution but the BSB stopped Mannfred from taking any wounds and he reformed to face the loathsome Beast.

In the battle between the Crushers and the Grave Guard I issued a challenge with the Herald of Khorne to stop him being ganged up on. The Champion accepted and the Herald did 3 wounds to him, but of course his mount didn't get to fight. The Vampire just did one wound thanks to some good saves, but the effects of Soulblight limited how much I could do in return and saved the Vampire from harm. The Grave Guard piled in but all they could do was finish of the wounded Crusher. The Jugger attacked the Vampire BSB and manged to land a killing blow, which he failed to parry and the Vampire was dead. Thanks to killing blows and overkill I had only lost the combat by 3 in the end, not as much as I feared I would, but I still needed the BSB re-roll to make sure I didn't take any more damage.


In the Daemon turn the Furies could see the Dire Wolves flank past the Coach and Seekers, so declared a charges and made it in. The Seekers went into the front to back them up. I could have ignored them and danced the Seekers around for another turn at least proabably, but I wanted to see what they could acheive and sensed they probably wouldn't get a better opportunity. The Prince was in the perfect position to flank charge the Black Coach, but with the Daemonettes winning the last round of combat I felt they could handle it solo now so the Daemon Prince passed its enemy sighted test and marched between the swirling combats straight towards Mannfred himself, planning to land a decisive blow next turn if things went his way. In order to facilitate this plan the Pink Horrors advanced as much as they could to ensure the Beast was in range of my BSB. The Screamers flew over the Skeletons, killing 3, and landed behind the Beast of Nurgle to help close the trap on Count von Carstein. Finally, the blue Horrors decided it was time to offer support and advanced through the venom thicket, one of them dying to the poisonous vines.

Aided by some channelling the magic phase went much better and although Iceshard Blizzard on the Grave Guard was dispelled I did manage to cast Curse of the Midnight Wind on them plus Harmonic Convergence on the Bloodcrushers. Even in their depleted state it was looking like they stood a chance now against the Grave Guard. In the combat phase the Furies and Seekers killed 6 Dire Wolves between them, but the Wolves killed 2 Seekers in return. The Daemons easily won the combat and another 6 Wolves fell apart, the Furies reforming to get as many of their number in as possible. The Daemonettes continued to slice the Zombies limb from limb, and even managed to damage the Coach. Three Daemons were killed by the Wraith driver and Zombies but it wasn't enough to save the Coach which crumbled, along with a few more Zombies.

Mannfred continued his duel with the Beast of Nurgle, easily outclassing it and causing 2 wounds. Crucially though, the Beast remained on the table thanks to the presence of the nearby BSB and General. With all the hexes and augments affecting the combat, the naturally superior Bloodcrushers were able to compensate for their lack of numbers and beat the Grave Guard, although the Crusher standard bearer took a wound in the fighting. Things were starting to look bad for the Undead now.


TURN 4
The Fell Bats charged the Seekers. We had to dice off to see if it was the flank or rear and it turned out to be the rear, which suited me fine as it meant more Seekers could attack them. The Skeletons wanted to charge the Crushers but their wasn't enough space for them to fit between the Grave Guard and the house, so they wheeled to face the Screamers and Daemon Prince, hoping to help out Mannfred. Andy got a decent number of power dice, but rolled terribly for his first spell, a boosted Hellish Vigour, just failing to meet the casting roll, and leaving his army in real trouble.

In combat the Daemonettes easily finished off the remaining Zombies for no loss and after pondering I decided to reform to face Mannfred rather than the Grave Guard. The Seekers killed 2 Fell Bats whilst the Furies killed 2 Dire Wolves. In reply the Doom Wolf killed a Fury whilst the Fell Bats beat down a Seeker with their flapping wings. Another Fell Bat and the Doom Wolf crumbled due to unstable, the Seekers turning around to face their new attackers whilst the Furies reformed to face the rest of the army. Unaffected by the Soulblight now, the Bloodcrushers smashed down several Grave Guard and took no wounds in return, more wights returning to dust as the magic holding them together disapated. Mannfred finally felled the plague beast he had been engaged with and defiantly turned to face the Daemon Prince bearing down on him.


In my turn, the Prince wasted no time in declaring a charge on Mannfred and was close enough that he couldn't fail to make it. This left room for the Daemonettes to declare a charge too and they also made it in, the Herald of Slaanesh moving to attack Mannfred directly. The Pink Horrors entered the nearby building to keep themselves safe in case things went wrong, whilst the Furies lined up a flank charge on the Fell Bats for next turn. Finally, the Screamers flew over the Skeletons again, smashing another 3.

In the magic phase the Herald of Tzeentch managed to cast Iceshard Blizzard on Mannfred, but I failed to meet the casting roll for Harmonic Convergence on the Crushers. In the combat phase this failure cost me as my General was toppled from his mount at last, although I somehow still won the combat just about with the remaining Bloodcrusher. Before he could attack Mannfred was set upon by the Daemon Prince and Herald of Slaanesh, who did 2 wounds and 1 wound respectively. Hampered by the blizzard Mannfred failed to cause any damage at all and he was overwhelmed by the Daemonic forces opposing him, his physical form crumbling to dust.


With that, my opponent realised he had little chance of doing any significant damage with what was left of his army and offered me his hand, leaving me with a fairly convincing win.

I didn't get to see everything in Andy's list but I think he could have tweaked it a bit in places (I don't think his BSB had a very good combo of magic items and Vampiric powers). He didn't know he would be playing against Daemons, just as my list wasn't written with Undead in mind. Generally he played OK and didn't make any terrible mistakes, but I think turn 3 his Grave Guard should have flank charged the Daemonettes rather than going after the Crushers so that he could overwhelm them in one round of combat with any luck. Either that, or he should have just left the Zombies to it and not charged the Black Coach in the flank, as even taking into account it maybe could have done better it was still signing its death sentence really. Also, he didn't really try to prop up his wounded stuff with Invocation of Nehek, focussing on the augments instead. Maybe replacing the dead Grave Guard would have helped them beat the Crushers.

As for my list, I have to say I enjoyed using it again as its nice to play with an army that is a bit more tactically challenging (by Daemons standards) and also good to see how units like Beasts, Seekers, Screamers and the Daemon Prince can do when you give them a chance. After so much negativity about them on the forum at times its almost a surprise when they acheive anything at all. :lol:

A Victory for the List of Doom!
- The Collection of our Book's ugly step-Children, as you say.
It was a good read and there's very Little I can add to your analysis toward the end really.
Had Andy known he'd be facing Daemons he could easily have made a tougher list probably - but then you're not really supposed to know those kinds of details..

It's indeed rare to see a Daemon Prince survive the course of a whole game, I'll say.. :D

Thanks DaemonReign. Its the first time in ages I have had a Daemon Prince survive the game, but I was very careful with him this time making sure he was well protected from the Black Coach (which could easily have run him down on the charge) and making sure he only engaged in combat on favourable terms.

As to my opponent, he was actually getting so annoyed with his army at the end, particularly his Grave Guard's inability to kill off my Crushers, that he was talking about selling his VC's (he's already started work on Ogres) but I hope he will keep them and just put them on the back-burner for a while.

Well I certainly feel like a damn vulture now and this is gonna present you with some conflicts if interest too...
But if Andy is serious about selling his VC stuff you could tell him that you know a crazy Swede who'd pay him good money for that stuff he's got.. Particularly the painted stuff.. And this is merely based on what little I derive from your pics in this batrep.

Sorry. Almost seems like a rude proposition. People should never sell their armies really. But if he's serious about it (and sold them to me) his models would get a new home in a (soon-to-be) 10k legal VC Army..

But yeah... Maybe you shouldn't encourage him.. :) At any rate, had he upgraded those GG's with Great Weapons they should have had an easier time with those Crushers.. I think it's always a gamble to not bring Great Weapons for Grave Guard (even against Daemons appearantly!)

I actually prefer hand weapon and shield Grave Guard in my own VC army, but I have to agree that against Bloodcrushers specifically they probably would have been better off with great weapons.

Anyway, when I turned up to the club this week I discovered he had already sold them and that someone else at our club was using them in a game. Apparently the frustration with them had got too much for Andy and he's now an Ogre player, which I hope he will enjoy a lot more. As for the guy who bought the army, he won his first game with them and said it made a nice change from his Empire.

So I may end up facing that VC army again in the future, just not with the same person using it......

OK, this batrep is of my first game using the new 6th ed 40k rules, so there are bound to be some rules mistakes! I had agreed to play a 1750pt game against Dave B at our club, with neither of us knowing in advance what army the other player was using. I had bought my Daemons whilst my opponent had decided to leave his usual Grey Knights at home (thank God!) in favour of resurrecting his old Tau army (which have been boosted a bit in the new rules). The army lists looked a bit like this:

Chaos Daemons
Lord of Change - Breath of Chaos, Master of Sorcery
Herald of Slaanesh - Soporific Musk, Unholy Might, Transfixing Gaze
5 Bloodcrushers - Fury of Khorne
3 Fiends - Unholy Might
3 Flamers
15 Bloodletters - Fury of Khorne, Chaos Icon
18 Daemonettes - Transfixing Gaze, Chaos Icon
7 Plaguebearers
9 Pink Horrors - Bolt of Tzeentch, The Changeling
Daemon Prince - Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch

Tau Empire (as far as I can remember, didn't see army list)
Shas'O Commander - Plasma rifle, Fusion gun, Shield generator, Multi-tracker, Stimulant injector
2 Battlesuit Bodyguards - both with Plasma rifle, Fusion gun, Shield Generator, Multi-tracker, Targetting array
XV8 Crisis Battlesuit - Shas'vre with Fusion gun, Plasma rifle, Shield generator, Multi-tracker and Targetting array
5 Stealth Suits - Targetting arrays
6 Stealth Suits - targetting arrays
3x 11 Fire Warriors - all have Shas'ui with Bonding Knife and Markerlight
8 Pathfinders in Devilfish transport with Smart Missile System, Multi-tracker and Targetting array
2x Hammerhead Gunship - Railgun, Burst Cannons, Multi-tracker, Disruption pod

We ignored the usual terrain set-up rules (as I hadn't read that part of the book yet) and just set up a suitable amount of typical 40k terrain in a pleasing manner. I then rolled for mission and got 'Purge the Alien' (i.e. kill the enemy - nice and straightforward). The deployment type was 'Hammer and Anvil' so we would be playing down the length of the table. I think this probably favoured the Tau slightly more than the Daemons, as he could concentrate his forces and make it difficult for me to appear in his deployment zone. Dave won the roll for choosing deployment zones and sensibly went for the zone with more area terrain to hide in and less terrain that blocked line of sight completely.

We then rolled for Warlord traits. Dave chose the strategic table and got Night Attacker (can force Turn 1 to be under Night Fighting conditions) for his Shas'O, whilst my Lord of Change got Intimidating Presence (all enemy units within 12" use lowest Ld in unit instead of highest) which I was pretty happy about. I then won the roll off to determine who deployed first and naturally chose for the Tau to deploy first so they would get the first turn. He set up his army as in the photo below, which includes his Scout redeployment for the Devilfish and infiltrating Stealth suit teams.

I, of course, deployed nothing. ;)

Turn 1
Dave decided to have Night Fight on turn 1 to get it out of the way, so I couldn't beneift from it later. Unsure of where the enemy were coming from, the Tau army spread out to get into better firing positions. The Pathfinders got out of their Devilfish and climbed the ruins next to them, while the lone XV8 Crisis Suit moved to their position in support. The Commander and his Bodyguards moved to the top of the big hill, flanked by one of the Hammerheads.

In the warp, the Lord of Change observed proceedings as they played out exactly how he had forseen them. Accompanied by the tortured screams of a million lost souls, the Daemon army burst through the tear in reality into realspace. I decided to put all my preffered units into my first wave, whilst still leaving myself a chance if things didn't go to plan. With a cry of "come on Tzeentch!" I rolled the dice and got the half of the army I wanted. I deep-striked the Lord of Change first and he landed on target near the enemy Warlord. I then tried to land the Bloodletters in the middle of the Tau deployment zone but they scattered to within an inch of the Fire Warriors by the wrecked Chimera. The result on the mishap table sent them back into Ongoing reserves. The Plaguebearers went for the same spot and also scattered, but in a more favourable direction so they easily deployed. The Horrors tried to land in support of the Lord of Change but scattered badly, just staying on the table. Finally I went for a slightly safer option with the Crushers due to their large footprint, but they landed on target anyway. This was all pretty good, just disappointing that the one unit that failed to turn up was the one with the Chaos Icon, so I would have to risk the vagaries of Deep Strike again next turn.

In the shooting phase the Lord of Change unleashed a Bolt which killed one of the Tau Commander's Bogyguards, but his Gaze of Chaos failed to do anything. The Bloodcrushers ran an inch to spread out as much as they could.


The Horrors then unleashed their Warpfire against the Fire Warriors in the ruins closest to them, and in spite of the cover managed to kill 5 of them. The rest failed their morale check and began to retreat.


Turn 2
The fleeing Fire Warriors quickly regained their wits and regrouped, moving towards the Horrors that attacked them. The Tau Commander and his Bodyguard moved off the hill away from the Crushers, whilst both Hammerheads locked their weapons on the Lord of Change. The XV8 Shas'vre glided forwards to target the Bloodcrushers through the central ruins, whilst the Devilfish manouvered to bring its weapons to bear on the Plaguebearers.

The shooting phase started with the Pathfinders targeting the Crushers with their markerlights, but only scoring 2 hits. The Stealth team in the central ruins used one of these to increase their accuracy, but still only managed to kill one Daemon. The other Stealth team did much better and killed 2 of the Crushers. The XV8 Shas'vre lent his weight of fire too but was at long range, only managing to score a wound with his more powerful weapons. The Fire Warriors that had just regrouped fired at the nearby Horrors, but failed to score a single hit with their snap shots. With the threat averted for now, the Changeling turned his attention to the enemy Commander and successfully laid a glamour on him. Convinced the nearby Hammerhead was an enemy vehicle, the Shas'O and his Bodyguard unleashed their weapons against it. Only the Bodyguard mangaged to score a damaging hit, stunning the Hammerhead with his Fusion blaster. This was enough to put the tank crews aim off and all their shots missed the Lord of Change completely. The other Hammerhead also fired at the Greater Daemon, but the solid railgun shot bounced off its shimmering aura.

Finally, the air lit up with Pulse and missile fire as the Plaguebearers were targeted by the nearby Fire Warriors and Devilfish. When the smoke cleared though 2 of the hardy Daemons still stood.
Picture below shows the situation at the end of the Tau turn (including Jet pack moves).


In my turn, the Bloodletters arrived this time landing more or less where I had wanted them to turn 1. The Fiends landed near the ruins the Pathfinders were in, whilst the Daemon Prince tried to arrive near the Crushers but scattered straight towards the table edge, avoiding a mishap by 3/4 of an inch! The Daemonettes with Herald and Flamers remained in reserve. The Horrors spread out, advancing towards the Fire Warriors they had targeted last turn, whilst the surviving Plaguebearers moved towards the Fire Warriors hiding in the ruins in the corner, away from the bulk of the Tau army. The Bloodcrushers advanced towards the closest Stealth team on top of one of the green ruined buildings, and the Lord of Change glided forward to land right next to the Tau Commander.


The Daemon shooting phase started with the Horrors unleashing their Warpfire against the Fire Warriors nearby again, killing 3 and causing the rest to flee the battlefield. First Blood to the Daemons! The Daemon Prince had a perfect shot at the rear of a Hammerhead Gunship, but missed completely.


The Lord of Change unleashed his Gaze of Chaos on the Tau Commander and his Bodyguard, which was deflected off their Shield generators. His Bolt got through though and the remaining Bodyguard was blasted apart (the Commander passed his morale check). I then ran the Bloodletters and Fiends in order to spread them out and get them closer to the enemy.

In the assault phase the Bloodcrushers charged the Stealth team, their overwatch fire and attacks bouncing off the Crushers iron hides as they were slaughtered to a man. The Crushers consolidated 6" towards the other Stealth team. The 2 remaining Plaguebearers charged the Fire Warriors in the ruins, shrugging off the overwatch fire and attacks of the Tau soldiers and killing 3 with their Plagueswords. The Fire Warriors retreated and the Plaguebearers consolidated into the ruins to try and remain out of sight.


The Lord of Change cackled as it lept forwards to strike at the Tau Commander. The Shas'O tried to ward off its attacks as the staff crashed off his energy shield. One blow made it through though and cleaved straight through his battlesuit with its monstrous strength, instantly killing him. The Lord of Change screeched in triumph as the enemy Warlord was slain, exactly as he had forseen it.


Turn 3
Obviously sensing that the battle was going badly for them, the Fire Warriors that had escaped the Plaguebearers continued to flee and retreated from the immediate warzone. The XV8 Shas've locked his weapons on the fast-approaching Fiends. The remaining Tau army turned their attention to the newly arrived Bloodletters, calculating they posed the biggest threat. The exception was the Hammerhead that had survived being shot at by the Daemon Prince, which aimed at the Lord of Change in front of it, hoping to avenge their honourable Commander's death. Most of its guns were deflected by the multi-coloured aura surrounding the Daemon, but a startled roar of pain signified that one shot had got through and wounded the unnatural creature.

The Shas'vre unleashed the fury of its energy weapons on the Fiends, but was only able to wound one of them. The Pathfinders used their markerlights on the Bloodletters, increasing the accuracy of the rest of the Tau army targeting them. When the storm of gunfire ceased and the smoke cleared, 13 Bloodletters had been banished back to the warp, including the Icon bearer.
End of Tau turn 3 (I've no idea why photobucket wouldn't let me rotate the picture):


In the Daemon turn both the Flamers and the Daemonettes with Herald arrived from reserve near the Pathfinders, but the Flamers scattered 12" off the table, ending up in ongoing reserves, while the Daemonettes scattered into one of the green ruins, 2 of them dying from the dangerous terrain. The Plaguebearers, Bloodletters and Horrors advanced towards the last Fire Warrior squad hiding behiind the wrecked Chimera. The Fiends licked the air and advanced towards the XV8 Shas'vre, Devilfish and Pathfinders, whilst the Crushers closed on the ruins sheltering the remaining Stealth team. The Daemon Prince advanced straight towards the Hammerhead that had escaped him last turn, and the Lord of Change swooped across the battlefield to land behind the other Hammerhead, performing a vector strike as he did so which failed to scratch the gunship. He then unleashed his Breath of Chaos on it to no effect, before a Bolt of Tzeentch to the rear caused the tank to explode, killing a Fire Warrior and a Plaguebearer. The Daemon Prince also unleashed a Bolt of Tzeentch into the side of the other Hammerhead, which likewise penetrated right through the armour and it exploded too.

The Horrors unleashed their arcane fire against the Fire Warriors again, slaying four. Attacked from all sides, the Tau soldiers fled, ending up in the crater where one of the Tau tanks used to be. The Crushers continued their advance as they ran into the ruins in the centre of the battlefield, taking cover from the Stealth team above them. The Daemonettes fanned out, moving towards the Pathfinders. In the assault phase both the Bloodletters and remaining Plaguebearer made it into combat with the fleeing Fire Warriors, who successfully regrouped. It didn't save them as they were slaughtered by the combined attacks of the Khorne and Nurgle Daemons. both units consolidated into the nearest cover available.


The Fiends tried to assault the Pathfinders, Shas'vre and Devilfish, but rolled poorly only making it into the latter two units. Fortunately they came through the overwatch fire unscathed. In combat both units proved to be very lacklustre, with the only damage being caused was the Devilfish losing a hull point. The Shas'vre passed his morale check though so the Fiends would be safe from reprisals.


Turn 4
It was fair to say things were looking bleak for the Tau, as they had yet to score a Victory Point, but they carried on regardless. The Devilfish moved away from the Fiends attacking it, whilst the Pathfinders moved further up the ruins to keep their distance also. They opened fire on the Daemonettes as they went, scoring some markerlight hits and killing a few with their Pulse carbines. The Stealth team took advantage of the markerlights again to increase the accuracy of their Burst cannons and when the dust settled their were just 4 Daemonettes and the Herald left. The last act of the shooting phase came from the Devilfish, which finished off the last 2 Bloodletters with its smart missile system. Meanwhile, the Shas'vre was quickly torn limb from limb by the Fiends, who consolidated towards the Stealth team.

The Flamers finally arrived for the Daemons, using the Chaos Icon carried by the Daemonettes to make sure they arrived where they wanted to near the Pathfinders. Bathing the nearest Tau in coruscating warpflame, 5 Pathfinders melted into puddles of unrecognisable goo. The remaining 3 fled, but could only get as far as the ground floor. This bought them into assault range of the Daemonettes who cut them down before they could flee any further.


The Lord of Change flew over the Devilfish and unleashed a Bolt into its rear armour plating, causing it to explode like the other other Tau vehicles. The Horrors targeted the Stealth team with their Warpfire, killing 2 in spite of most of them being out of range and the stealthsuits advanced camoflage systems. The Stealth teams nerve held, but it did them little good as they were soon set upon by the Fiends and remaining Bloodcrushers. The Fiends were wounded again by the overwatch fire, but this distraction just allowed the Crushers to slaughter them where they stood.


The Tau army had been completely annihilated, making the Daemons winners by 14VP to 1VP.

Stuff I forgot
Because it was the first game of a new edition we were bound to get some stuff wrong or forget a few things, so here most of them are which may help put the result into a different context.
*Completely forgot about the rules for assaulting into terrain (apart from the Initiative penalty).
*No Fear tests were taken by the Tau during the game.
*Forgot to use the Fleet rule to re-roll the Fiends first charge, so they might have made it into the Pathfinders after all.
*Forgot that Fiends only have 2 wounds in 40k, rather than 3 like they do in Warhammer (means I would have had one killed by overwatch fire in the last turn, but otherwise wouldn't have affected the result).
*The Hammerhead that got shot at by its own side should have kept the stunned penalty for another turn.
*After the first time I used him, I completely forgot about the Changeling's special ability for the rest of the game.

I would also say that Dave's Ld tests were very poor throughout the game, and his cover saves weren't that great either. My invulnerable saves were really good, although my feel no pain rolls and armour saves were below par for most of the game. I think Dave should have concentrated a bit harder on finishing units off, although if he had done so that probably would have meant that either the Bloodletters or Daemonettes would have got through fairly unscathed and been free to wreak havoc, so I'm not sure it would have been enough to save him, just made the game closer.

Fantastic read Jon. It's eerie seeing your awesome Daemon Prince conversion simply because I had a very similar idea a couple of months ago to use the Deceiver as a base as well. The only major difference I had was that I wanted to use wings, but not wings like anything GW has done atm but wings more like the Angels from the Diablo series (although I have no idea how I could do this). Where did you get the hand holding the skull from?

Edit: run on sentences are very lame.

Your last comment has me baffled..... :blink:

Anyway, glad you enjoyed it! Haven't done a 40k report for a while and its a bit different from doing a WFB one where a single combat is more likely to last several turns and units get increasingly caught up in their own mini-battles. Just wish I'd taken one or two more photos of turn 3-4.

As for the Daemon Prince, he's not actually a conversion. He is an Unbound Daemonhost from GW's Inquisitor range that has had no real modifications done. This is why some of his proportions (like the mangled torso on his base and the skull he's holding) are a bit off compared to normal 40k models. Sadly, he's one of a number of Inquisitor models that you can't get any more as they cut the available range almost in half several years ago. A real disappointment in my opinion, not just for him but for all the other classic models and bitz service they stopped doing around the same time. :(

Very well-presented report JonathanC! I throuroughly enjoyed Reading it and hope to treat you back in a few weeks with some more 'playtesting' in ridiculous scale!

As you are very well aware I am an eternal novice when it comes to 40k but your Writing actually made it possible for me to follow this battle none-the-less.

I also thought the Daemon Prince was a conversion from one of those Necron swirling spirit models whatever they are called. Too bad it's no longer being produced I would have liked to have one of those. :(

And man... If 8th Ed Warhammer is 'chaotic' that's nothing compared to playing 40k with Daemons evidently. I'd probably panic from not being able to define an actual 'frontline'. haha

Cheers!

oh, I made my edit when I realised that I didn't have any punctuation in my post lol, was very hard to read.

Ah, I thought it might have been something like that. :)

@DaemonReign - glad you enjoyed it. Since I know most of the reports posted in this section are WFB ones I tried to write it in such a way that those who don't play 40k could still follow it. I remember when I started reading White Dwarf in the early 90's a lot of the batreps were written as if they were a story and thats what made them enjoyable, since you could follow them even if you didn't play WFB or Epic (which I didn't back then) and still understand what was happening. Also, it makes it easier to fudge over certain details I can't remember, like how many Fire Warriors were killed by Horrors in a particular shooting phase cause I didn't take a photo of it!

As for the chaotic-ness of 40k Daemons, its one of the things that I like so much about them as they play completely differently to any other army in the game.

Its been a little while but thought it was about time I posted some sort of update. Not really a battle report this (and it doesn't actually involve any Daemons either), but a few weeks ago we hired out our club venue for a whole day to play one huge mega-battle - a refight of the Istvaan V massacre from the Horus Heresy!!

For those of you who don't know the original story, this is the battle where Horus reveals all the forces he secretly controls, not just the Sons of Horus, World Eater, Emperor's Children and Death Guard legions that rebelled with him, but also that the Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors, Word Bearers and Night Lords (which were sent to Istvaan V with the orders to defeat Horus) had secretly allied with him to. Together they all-but destroyed 3 legions still loyal to the Emperor that were the first to launch the attack, namely the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders.

Since they were the first army I started collecting, I took command of the Salamanders (green armoured marines for those of you who don't know, nearest army in the first picture). I also bought along a large amount of World Eaters (over 80 Berserkers), a very small Death Guard contingent and a slightly bigger Night Lords force. Unfortunately the Night Lords and Death Guard players weren't able to make it, so that left those forces a little light. The Raven Guard and World Eaters (someone else bought along 5k of them to add to mine) were the largest armies, but fortunately the plan had been for those legions to deploy opposite each other anyway. Without many Emperor's Children either, the Sons of Horus (painted as Black Legion) ended up covering most of the defenders instead of just acting as back-up.

Deployment and scout moves










The Loyalists start the assault




The second wave of "Allies" arrives




The initial attacks by the Loyalists go well






More Traitor forces emerge from the fortress




The "Reinforcements" reveal their true allegiances, with the Iron Warriors and Alpha Legion crushing the Raven Guard stragglers


While the rest of them target the Raven Guard and Salamanders rearguard




Iron Hands and Salamanders continue to push forwards


But the rear of the Loyalists starts to become bogged down by their former allies and outflanking World Eaters




Night Lord and Word Bearers on the attack


Increasing World Eater, Sons of Horus and Emperor's Children reinforcements cause the Loyalists advance to stall


But a lone Salamander Veteran is determined to make the Traitors pay for their disloyalty


More Traitors pour forwards into the meatgrinder


Bloodied but unbowed, the Iron Hands refuse to be swept aside by superior numbers


The Raven Guard are increasingly trapped, but the Salamanders show the Alpha Legion and World Eaters they aren't going down without a fight


The battle stopped soon after that, around turn 5 or 6. The plan was to play for an extra hour (which would have been enough time for another turn each) but the GM and some others couldn't stay. Still, did pretty well for a game that was about 25,000pts per side.

The different legions all scored points individually, with the Sons of Horus and Salamanders being joint winners! The Iron Hands (who lost badly in the original story) came second, with the Word Bearers also doing very well. Perhaps because they lacked a direct representative, the Death Guard and Night Lords finished bottom, with Mortarion declared dead and Night Haunter missing for the purposes of our campaign. Overall it was a lot of fun had by everyone and we'll probably be doing the Battle for Prospero (Space Wolves vs Thousand Sons) in a few months time. :)

Next time I'll make sure my report contains some Daemons.... ;)

Awesome Jonathan..
Absolute carnage. It's all alive to my inner Eye! The chaos, the mayhem.. Don't worry about there not being any Daemons, this Was a great share regardless.

These mega-battles almost Always take much longer time than anticipated. I notice in the pics that your buddies are all standing up around the table, which I have realized is exhausting.. *haha* I've started to make it a point to always 'sit down' to save energy whenever there's no real reason for standing up.. I have my friends remind me to sit down as well, which could appear rather strange to an outsider I guess.. :D

Neat! Cool to see that freakin' many models on the table, although I bet the few unpainted minis in there may have gotten a bit confusing.

Thanks Noisy. Ideally we would have liked everything at least base coated but there wasn't enough time. Apart from a few marines and tanks all of my main army was painted green, but I simply didn't have the time to paint World Eaters, Night Lords and Death Guard too. We did have each legion assigned to specific deployment zones which helped a lot though, since it meant most people's forces weren't split up and spread across the board, and apart from me and one other person everyone just bought and used one army. You'll also notice that one of the armies (the Iron Warriors) had stickers on their bases to stop them getting mixed up.

@DaemonReign - I knew you'd appreciate a really huge battle! ;) This was probably the equivalent of 30k a side in fantasy terms. A lot of the pictures where you see people standing were in the first 2-3 turns, most of us took every opportunity to sit down after that! :lol:

Last weekend a friend and I went to the Warhammer Doubles tournament at Warhammer World. This would be 5 games over 2 days, with a 1,000pts per player using the usual ally rules to see how well they worked together. Each game would be played using the standard scenarios (rolled for by the event's team), with a different one being used for each game. I took my Daemons of course whilst my doubles partner - Dave - took Warriors of Chaos. For reasons mostly related to Dave's army we were competing under the name "Team Stupid". :lol:

My army featured:
Herald of Tzeentch - Master of Sorcery (Light), Spellbreaker
40 Bloodletters - Full Command, Icon of Endless War
3 Screamers
Fiend
Fiend
Bloodcrusher

And it looked a bit like this:

That is 40 OOP axe-wielding metal Bloodletters you can see! In fact, the entire army was metal apart from the tail of one of the Screamers (take that metal haterz!!!!!1!!! :P ).

Dave's Warriors of Chaos army looked like this:
The Troll King Throgg
5 Chaos Trolls
6 Chaos Trolls
5 Marauder Horsemen - light armour, javelins, Standard bearer, musician
Chaos Warshrine
Scyla Afingrimm



The lighting meant there was a lot of shadows, but this really was a fantastically painted army as I hope you can get some indication of from the photos. It attracted a lot of attention from passing gamers. The old Troll model riding another Troll is actually Throgg himself (he's getting old and needs help getting around was Dave's explanation).

Another part of the tournament rules was that each team could bring a terrain piece with them to be placed 12" away from the enemy's deplyment zone before setting up. It could be anything you wanted, including specific mysterious terrain pieces. We opted for an Idol of Gork (or possibly Mork) to help the Trolls make it into combat.

There were also special mission cards, which would get to pick 3 each of before each game and our opponents would pick one at random for us to try and complete. They had no effect on the result of the game itself, but gave bonus tournament points towards your final score. All the special missions had 2 levels of difficulty you could potentially complete them to, Lord and Hero.

GAME 1
I meant to take photos of the set-ups at the start of each game and pictures at the end, but with time limited and 2 opponents to talk to I forgot it for most of the games. :( Anyway, our first opponents were a Dark Elf/Bretonnian combo competing under the name "I'm not your buddy, Guy". I did get photos of their armies after the game.

The Dark Elves consisted of: Dreadlord on dark pegasus with 1+ save, Pendant (of course) and cheap magic weapon, BSB on Cold One with Ring of Hotek, 5 Dark Riders & 6 Dark Riders, both with repeater crossbows, spears and standards, 9 Cold One Knights with full command and ASF banner.

The Bretonnian army included a Lord with Heroic Killing Blow virtue, BSB, Hero on pegasus with cheap magic weapon, Charmed shield and luckstone, 2 units of 8 Knights of the Realm with full command (one with Banner of Eternal Flame) and 10 Archers (their only infantry). Their terrain piece was a Wyrding Well.

The first scenario rolled up was Watchtower, which gave us a distinct advantage since they had hardly any infantry. We started in control of the tower (although we had no units to place inside it) and got the first turn because the Bretonnians prayed to the Lady.

Turn 1
We advanced the Bloodletters (ranked deep) to just within 5" of the watchtower, with Throgg and the 5 Trolls next to them. I ran my Fiends and Crusher forwards in the hope of blocking the path of the Knights and Dreadlord to the Bloodletters so they could get in the tower unobstructed next turn. The Horsemen and Screamers moved to cover the Dark Riders and Cold One Knights on one flank, whilst the Trolls ambled fowards next to Scyla on the other, covering the bulk of the Brets and other Dark Riders. My HoT stayed in a building in our deployment zone as I was worried about the shooting. I got a lot of magic dice but Banishment bounced off the Dreadlord, whilst I got Light of Battle off on Throgg's unit and Pha's Protection on the Bloodcrusher (to make it harder for the Dreadlord to just run right through him).

In their turn the Dreadlord flew over the units in their way and charged the Bloodletters directly, therefore pinning them in place. The Bretonnian Lord charged out of his unit at Scyla, and the other Knights charged the Fiend in front of them. The Dark Riders danced around the Marauders and killed one, whilst the others targeted my HoT but did nothing. In combat my Bloodletter champ had to accept the challenge from the Dreadlord due to the presence of the Warshrine and was killed. I still won by 2 but the Elf held. The Knights and Fiend did 2 wounds to each other, the Fiend dying to instability but stopping the Knights from overrunning. Finally, the Bret Lord took down Scyla with a Heroic Killing Blow (boo!!).

Turn 2
With the Bloodletters pinned in place, we moved Throgg and his unit into the watchtower instead. The other Trolls went stupid and stumbled 4" forwards, leaving them in danger of being charged by the Knights. The other Knights were charged by the remaining Fiend and Bloodcrusher. The Screamers slashed the Dark Riders and killed one and another was killed by the Marauder Horsemen. Magic was shocking as I failed to reach the casting total for Banishment against the Dark Riders attacking my HoT in spite of throwing 3 dice at it, leaving me unable to use my remaining 4 dice. In combat the Dreadlord killed several Bloodletters. I got a killing blow through his Pendant (yay!), but being monstrous cav he was immune (boo!). In spite of being steadfast I lost 2 more Bloodletters. The Fiend and Crusher beat the Knights, killing 3, but they were still steadfast and didn't run (being in lance formation meant they only needed 3 models for a rank).

In their turn the Cold Ones flank charged the Bloodletters whilst the Bret Knights and BSB charged the Trolls. The Dark Riders that I'd failed to cast Banishment on charged my HoT in the building. They failed their fear test but still did 2 wounds and I failed both saves - very disappointing. The Bret Knights had the flaming banner so easily cut down one Troll, the others fleeing and bouncing through other units and buildings to end up on the table edge. The Knights reformed to face watchtower. The other Dark riders targeted the Marauders, killing 2. The Cold Ones hammered the Bloodletters, although took a couple of casualties in return, and I failed to scratch the Dreadlord. I rolled another 10 for the break test and lost a couple more. The Fiend, Crusher and Knights failed to damage each other and I lost on standard, the Crusher taking a wound to instability.

Turn 3
With one flank gone, we moved the Warshrine to block a direct charge to the watchtower from the Bret Lord. The Screamers performed a long range charge on the rear of the Cold One Knights, whilst the Marauders continued to dance around the Dark Riders. Throgg and his unit obviously stayed put. In combat the Screamers dragged down a Cold One for the loss of one wound, whilst a couple more were killed by Bloodletters. I still lost and a Screamer died from instability. The Bloodletters reformed to face the Cold Ones. In the other combat I killed 2 Knights for no loss but the Champion held. Their response was to charge the Bret Pegasus Hero (which hadn't done much up till now) into the rear of the Fiend, whilst the Bret Lord rejoined the unit with flaming banner. Both Dark Rider units moved towards our deployment zone, firing at the Marauders and Warshine but achieving nothing. In the ongoing grind the Screamers were wiped out but I killed 3 Cold One Knights, including the standard. The Dark Elves lost but held. The Pegasus Hero did 2 wounds to the Fiend, and I did 1 back to him, whilst the Crusher killed the last Knight. I still lost and the Crusher died to instability.

Turn 4
With only the Warshrine free (and not much we could do with it) we went straight into combat. The Fiend did another wound to the Bret hero but got killed, whilst the Bloodletters finished off the Dark Elf BSB and Cold One champion, reforming to face the Dreadlord again who held (I only had about 10 left by this point). The Bret Hero then charged the Warshrine in the flank (we thought he couldn't see it past the watchtower but turned out he could), but was killed by it, whilst the remaing Knights charged the Watchtower. Throgg and the Bret Lord fought out a challenge, but even with re-rolls to wound from the flaming attacks he couldn't land a wounding hit on Throgg, who failed to do any damage in return with his vomit. Two Trolls and a Knight were killed, but Throgg and his unit held. The Dreadlord continued to grind down the Bloodletters and in spite of being steadfast I lost 2 more. We rolled for the game to end but it continued.

Turn 5
In the last 2 turns the Bloodletters were finally wiped out by the Dreadlord, the Marauder Horsemen and Dark Riders continued to dance around and shoot at each other, with 2 elves and 1 human left at the end, whilst most important of all the Bret Knights charged in again, killing a Troll but crucially the Lord failed to land a wounding hit on Throgg again, much less a Heroic Killing Blow, and the Trolls held (thanks to Throgg's ability to re-roll failed break tests). The time limit for the game was up and although we only had Throgg, 2 Trolls and 1 Marauder left we had won the game. They completed one of their special missions (getting units in our deployment zone) but we failed to acheive ours as Throgg was tied up in the watchtower busy winning the game for us.
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It was an OK game but their army made it a bit frustrating at times since 2 magic items basically took two of our best combat units out of the game quite easily, whilst losing the HoT so easily before he really acheived anything was very annoying. I could have reformed the Bloodletters into a conga line turn 1 and then easily got into the Watchtower straight away (providing I passed my test on Ld8) but I thought that was too cheesy. I also didn't realise I was as close to the Dreadlord as I was (he needed a 9 to make it in, not too difficult when you have swiftstride).

Game 2, coming soon.

GAME 2
We had started on table 5, but without picking up any bonus points from the last game we dropped to table 27. Our opponents were competing under the odd name of "Tree, brocolli, boat and sword" and were a Wood Elf/Goblin combo, with a Haunted Mansion as their terrain piece. Their army lists were something like this:

Wood Elves
Wardancer Lord
Branchwraith with lvl1 upgrade and +1 dispel dice sprite.
2 x 12 Dryads
3 Treekin
9 Wardancers

Goblins
Night Goblin Warboss
Lvl 4 Night Goblin Great Shaman with dispel scroll
Night Goblin Big Boss BSB
50 Night Gobilns with spears, Full command and 3 Fanatics
2 x 5 Goblin Wolf Riders with short bows
2 Mangler Squigs
Doom diver

The scenario was Battleline (which suited us nicely) and one of our special missions drawn was an Insane Heroism one. These had to be declared before the game and you also had to decide whether to attempt Lord or Hero level in advance. This one gave you bonus points if your characters survived, but D3 or D6 of them (depending on level) had to start outside of units and couldn't join any units during the game! With only 2 characters in our army (one of which couldn't join most units anyway) we went for the Lord level, resulting in both of our characters being forced to spend all game outside of units. If we completed it though, we would get 3 bouns points, a significant bonus when you consider it was 10pts for a win and 5 for a draw. For my mission I had to get at least one unit of 5 models into the enemy deployment zone, which would have to be the Bloodletters as they were the only unit large enough in my army (some missions were for one force, others were for the combined army).

Deployment (post vanguard moves) looked like this:



The black tower on the slope was the Haunted Mansion.



Turn 1
The Goblins and Wood Elves got the first turn and moved their Wolf riders into awkward position blocking our army, whilst the Manglers advanced as quickly as possible. The Wardancers moved out of the building they were in into the walled area in front, whilst the rest of the army advanced straight forwards in a line, the central Dryad unit reforming into one rank. In the magic phase the Branchwraith cast Tree Singing to move one of the forests into the way of the Bloodletters, but all other spells were stopped. The Wolf Ridres acheived little in the shooting phase, just a wound on Scyla, but the Doom Diver landed 5 hits on my HoT. Fortunately I managed to Look out Sir! most of them onto the Bloodletters and rolled some good saves, just taking one wound on the HoT and one on the Bloodletters.

In our first turn the purple Trolls went stupid and stumbled forwards, whilst the brown Trolls passed their test. The Bloodletters charged the nearby Wolf Rider who held, whilst Scyla moved into the other unit. The Bloodcrusher moved around the back of the Wolf Riders, ready to charge in if things went wrong. The Screamers advanced up the left flank, hoping to reach the Doom Diver next turn. The Fiend to the right of the Bloodletters advanced up the flank, staying out of charge arc of the Wardancers, whilst the other sat on the nearest Mangler to kill it. The Marauder Horsemen did the same with the Mangler on the other side. Naturally both units were killed, but it was worth it to take out the Manglers. In the magic phase I managed to cast Light of Battle on the brown Trolls with the few power dice I had. One unit of Wolf Riders were ripped apart by the Bloodletters, who reformed to avoid an awkward overrun (this also allowed me to get in range of the Idol of Gork). Scyla ripped 4 Wolf Riders apart and let the last one go since he bled through the building and was unlikely to rally. He reformed to face the Dryads.

Turn 2
Turn 2 began with the Treekin and Dryads declaring a charge against the brown Trolls, both units making it in. The other Dryad unit charged Scyla. The lone Wolf Rider continued to flee, whilst the Wardancers continued to work their way around the flank. In the magic phase the Shaman cast a boosted Curse of the Bad Moon on irresistable force, sending it into the Bloodletters. He chose Toughness as the test and the vortex finished in the middle of the unit, killing about 6. The miscast result just killed a couple of goblins and cost them some power dice. The last spell attempt was dispelled. The Doom Diver aimed at the HoT again but missed this time. In combat the Wood Elves beat the Trolls easily for little damage in return, but the Trolls automatically passed their break test as they were still under the effects of Light of Battle. The other Dryads killed Scyla but didn't overrun very far, leaving them vulnerable to a counterattack.

In our turn the purple Trolls passed their stupidity test this time and flank charged the Dryads that had killed Scyla, with the Bloodcrusher joining in on the other flank. The Screamers attempted to charge the Doom Diver, but it was a high roll needed and they failed, just going 3". Throgg charged the Dryads in combat with the Trolls from last turn. Finally, aided by the Idol of Gork, the Bloodletters charged the Wardancers. The remaining Fiend advanced to within 8" of the Night Goblins, triggering the Fanatics, but none of them made contact with any units (the Fiend itself was safe behind a wall). In the magic phase I managed to get Speed of Light off on the Trolls in combat with the Treekin, and Pha's Protection on the Bloodletters. In combat the Dryads fighting the Crusher and Trolls were trounced and run down by the Khornate Daemon, whilst the Trolls reformed. Throgg and the other Trolls failed to incflict much damage on the forest spirits, who didn't do much either. The Treekin held whilst the Dryads fled and were run down by Throgg, who overran into the Night Goblin horde. The Wardancers and Lord opted for the 4+ ward save dance, and struck first against the Bloodletters. Pha's Protection limited how much damage they could cause, and in spite of their agility 6 fell to the return attacks. The elves fled and were run down.

Turn 3
Turn 3 started with the fanatics whirling around, going close but not hitting anything. Magic was limited with half the dice going to the Wood Elves (who no longer had a wizard) so it was all dispelled. The Doom Diver aimed at the HoT again but fortunately missed. In combat Throgg had to issue a challenge which was accepted by the Night Goblin Boss. He was easily dispatched but Throgg didn't get much overkill. He lost combat quite badly and was run down. The brown Trolls failed to make much impact on the Treekin and they were also driven off, but at least they escaped. In our turn the two remaining brown Trolls rallied and the purple Trolls charged the Treekin (they were able to use the Ld of my HoT fortunately). The Screamers finally made it into the Doom Diver. I was tempted to turn the Bloodletters back towards the centre, but was worried they would just get ground down by the Night Goblin horde if things went wrong (I had less than 30 by now, compared to 50 of them still), so they headed towards the enemy deployment zone so we could acheive our special mission. The Fiend ran along the back lines to try and march-block the Night goblins. I forgot to move the Crusher as it was in the middle of the dead pile. In the magic phase the only spell I got off was Net of Amyntok on the Night Goblins. The Treekin and Trolls fought each other to a standstill, whilst the Screamers killed the Doom Diver and reformed to face the Treekin.

Turn 4
The Night Goblins charged the brown Trolls (Net of Amyntok not bothering them at all) whilst the Fanatics continued to whirl around aimlessly and the last Wolf Rider finally fled the table. The Shaman attempted to cast Gift of the Spider God on his unit but I dispelled it. The Trolls were easily beaten by the massed ranks of the Night Goblins, who were unable to pursue as the Idol of Gork was right in front of them, and the Treekin and purple Trolls fought out another draw. I charged the Screamers into the rear of the Treekin, whilst the brown Trolls fled the table as they were out of range of the HoT. The Bloodcrusher remembered to move this time, positioning itself in the Treekin's flank, whilst the rest of the army made sure it was in the Night Goblins side or rear and the HoT backed off a bit more. The Bloodletters continued their advance into the enemy deployment zone. Magic saw me blast a couple of gobbos with Shem's burning Gaze before casting Speed of Light on the purple Trolls. Combat saw a Treekin finally felled but they did some damage to the Screamers and passed their break test.

Turn 5
This was going to be last turn as we were running out of time. The Night Goblins reformed to face my HoT and moved towards him, whilst one of the Fanatics finally collapsed from exhaustion. In the magic phase the Shaman threw all his dice at a boosted Vindictive Glare against my HoT, but fortunately for me his bonus mushroom dice came up a 1 and the spell failed. In combat the Treekin lost again and this time broke, just escaping the pursuing Trolls and Screamers. Our Wood Elf opponent just took the Treekin off as it was obvoius they'd get run down next turn. In our last turn we considered throwing the Warshrine, Fiend and Bloodcrusher into combat with the Night Goblins, but decided it wasn't worth the risk so with that the game ended.
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Thats how it ended with respect to what was left, although I may be remembering some of it a bit wrong (not sure how long those Treekin were engaged for, but it was a while). Was a pretty good game but there were a few nigly arguments about some stuff which spoiled things a bit. In the end we won by about 700pts. The HoT staying alive made a big diference to us as it meant we acheived our Insane Heroism! special mission and got 4 bonus points in total, which made up a lot for the previous game. With 2 wins out 2 (and one of our most difficult special missions and scenarios out of the way), things were going well. :)

Next up, Game 3.

GAME 3
We were now up to table 3 and found ourselves facing a dual Skaven army called "Zap & Sneak". As the name implied, one force was Clan Skyre themed and the other was Clan Eshin. The scenario rolled was Meeting Engagement. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures at all of this game.

Their armies looked a bit like this:
Skyre Warlord - 2+ save, great weapon
Cheiftan BSB
Level 1 Warlock Engineer - dispel scroll
50 Clanrats - full command plus attached Plague wind mortar
50 Slaves
Warp Lightning Cannon
Doomwheel
Eshin Warlord
Cheiftan BSB
50 Clanrats - Full command plus Assasin with Other Trickster's Shard hiding in unit
20 Night Runners - tunnellers, Warp Grinder
2 x 8 Gutter Runners - slings, poisoned attacks

Their terrain piece was a Wyrding Well.

We won the roll for table side and I made sure we had the tower on our side so they wouldn't be able to hide in it, and the only terrain we had to negotiate was a forest in the centre. I placed the Idol of Gork as close to the centre as I could, whilst they placed their well at the back of their deployment zone near the far corner from us. They rolled for all their units and they all turned up apart from both the 50-strong Clanrat units (which was a problem for the Eshin player as he had no other units to put his characters in). All the Daemon units turned up, but the purple Trolls were delayed (which was a problem for us as we wanted Throgg to go in that unit as it offered more protection from the cannon and Doomwheel).

We set up our army as far forwards as possible, but kept Throgg within 12" of the table edge for when the other Trolls arrived. A Fiend was on his right near the corner, with Bloodletters, a Fiend, Scyla, Bloodcrusher, Marauder Horsemen and Screamers going out in that order to Throgg's left. The HoT and Warshrine were deployed behind. The Skaven deployed the Slaves with Skyre characters, Warp Lightning Cannon and Doomwheel near the well, the Eshin Warlord and BSB in the opposite corner just out of sight of the Screamers, and the 2 Gutter Runner units scouting into our back corner near the tower. We vanguarded the Horsemen backwards towards the Gutter Runners to keep them occupied, and our opponents failed to steal the first turn.

Turn 1
The game started with Throgg and his Trolls failing their stupidity test and advancing 6" forwards. With nothing else to go for, Scyla turned round and headed for the Gutter Runners, whilst the Screamers flew back and slashed the sneaky rats, killing one. The other Trolls turned up behind Throgg and advanced straight forwards, whilst the Bloodletters also advanced forwards keeping their back edge within 6" of the Idol. The Fiend near Throgg advanced up the right board edge, keeping its distance from the Doomwheel. The other Fiend and Crusher moved into the no-mans land of the centre to try and cover wherever the Clanrats might turn up. In the magic phase I rolled a double 1 but managed to cast Light of Battle on Throggs unit so they wouldn't go stupid again next turn. The Horsemen threw javelins at the Gutter Runners but all missed.

The Skaven turn started by testing to see if the alliance held, which it did. The Eshin Clanrats turned up near their characters, who promptly joined their unit, whilst the Skyre Clanrats turned up next to the Wyrding Well, the characters leaving the Slaves to join them. The Doomwheel rolled really high for its random move and charged straight into my Fiend on the table side. At the end of the movement phase the Skyre Clarats and Slaves both drank from the well, both units becoming unbreakable and stupid (urghhhh). Magic was non-existant and in the shooting phase the Gutter Runners caused a wound on Scyla and the Screamers with their poisoned slings. The Doomwheel killed the Fiend it had run into with warp lightning, and also killed a Troll from Throgg's unit. Finally the Warp Lightning Cannon fired a S8 blast right into the middle of Throgg's unit. The Trolls all passed their regen saves but Throgg failed. Fortunately for us the blast only caused 2 wounds, leaving Throgg badly wounded but alive. Because they regenerated 2 wounds the Trolls gained +1 Ld.

Turn 2
In our turn 2 the Trolls passed their stupidity tests. Throgg's unit attempted to charge the Doomwheel but failed, and Scyla fell short of the Gutter Runners. The Screamers made it into the other unit of Gutter Runners, avoiding damage from the forest they were hiding in. The Bloodcrusher moved away from the Eshin clanrats and the remaining Fiend moved onto the Skaven board edge between the 2 Clanrat units but out of sight of both, facing the newly arrived Poison Wind Mortar. Finally the Bloodletters advanced up the centre flanked by the purple Trolls, the HoT and Warshrine behind them. The Bloodletters advanced partly into the forest, which turned out to be a fungus forest therefore making them stupid (our team name increasingly appropriate it seemed). In the magic phase I got a whole 3 dice this time and just failed an attempt at casting a boosted Pha's Protection. In the shooting phase the Warshrine granted a near-useless benefit to Throgg's unit, whilst the Horsemen killed a Gutter Runner. The Gutter Runners fighting the Screamers rolled about six poisoned hits, but I made most my saves and only lost one. My return attacks were terrible though and I only killed one, so the combat was a draw. By this point I was pretty down about how things were going as our opponents were rolling so well and was almost ready to give up, something that almost never happens to me.

In a drastic change from last turn, the two Skaven armies went from trusted to desparate allies. The Doomwheel pivoted to move past Throgg's unit, keeping itself out of sight of him. The Skyre Clanrats advanced slightly so that the Mortar could hide behind their unit. The Slaves moved up into the Bloodletters face to stop them getting to the Clanrats. The Eshin Clanrats advanced towards the Bloodcrusher and our main flank. The Gutter Runners out of combat failed their march test and couldn't get away from the Horsemen and Scyla. In the magic phase they rolled low, but this suited them as they only had Warp Lightning to cast and I only had two dice to stop it. Naturally it went off but some good saves kept the Bloodcrusher alive. The Crusher was also targeted by the Poison Wind Mortar, but it misfired and scattered way off target. The Doomwheel killed another Troll with its lightning, but the Warp Lightning cannon promptly misfired and blew up, which cheered me up a bit. Finally, the Gutter Runners failed to take out Scyla. In combat another shed-load of poisoned attacks from the other Gutter Runners meant the Screamers quickly disappeared.

Turn 3
We started turn 3 by passing all our stupidity tests and then declaring charges with everything but the HoT and Throgg. The Marauder Horsemen charged the Gutter Runners in the rear, the Bloodletters charged the Slaves in the front with the purple Trolls in the side. The Warshrine charged the Doomwheel to hopefully tie it up for a while. The Fiend wanted to charge the Poison wind Mortar, but the gap between the Clanrats and the board edge was too small so it charged the Clanrats in the flank instead as his Warlock Engineer was on that corner (and one of our special missions was to kill characters). The Bloodcrusher attempted a long-range charge into the front of the same unit, but fell well short and only went 2", ending up in the forest. Scyla then went into the front of the Gutter Runners fighting the Horsemen. Throgg passed his march test and advanced 12" straight towards the Wyrding Well. In the magic phase I got 5 dice and decided to not mess around and threw all of them into Briona's Timewarp on the Bloodletters, reasoning if I didn't do something to help them they would be stuck fighting the now-unbreakable Slaves for most of the game. It went off with Irresistable Force, the miscast causing me to lose all my magic levels. It was annoying, but under the circumstances I considered that an acceptable trade. The Warshrine then used the Eye of the Gods to grant the Purple Trolls +1 attack, exactly what we needed. In combat the Bloodletters tore through the Slaves, killing 20 in spite of only 18 getting in combat. Between their normal attacks and stomps the Trolls weren't far behind. The slaves lost horrendously but weren't going anywhere. The Fiend killed the Warlock Engineer but took a couple of wounds in reply. I rolled a 3 for my break test and it held though, tying up the unit for a turn at least. The Doomwheel did a wound to the Warshrine and the combat ended a draw. In the other combat the Gutter Runners were beaten and run down by Scyla and the Horsemen.

The Skaven started their turn by charging the Bloodcrusher with the Eshin Clanrats. The Night Runners finally arrived from their tunnel, scattering far from any meaningful combats. The Gutter Runners that had killed the Screamers turned their attention to Scyla, killing the wounded spawn. The Warshrine was blasted with lightning from the Doomwheel but it failed to wound. In combat the Assasin popped up to attack the Crusher. Between armour and ward I passed all my saves, but then the Other Trickster's Shard was revealed and I failed my re-roll. Mysteriously the Clanrats turned away from the Bloodletters with their reform towards the Marauder Horsemen. The Bloodletters tore the remaining Slaves apart before the Trolls could attack, both units reforming to face the Skyre Clanrats. The Fiend killed another 2 Clanrats but still lost badly and died from instability. In spite of this I was feeling a lot happier about how the game was going now.

Turn 4
Throgg started our turn 4 by failing his stupidity test, ambling towards the well. The other Trolls passed though and successfully charged the Clanrats, along with the Bloodletters. Unable to cast magic, the HoT headed towards the well too and away from the Doomwheel. Throgg and his unit drank from the well, becoming stupid and unbreakable. The Marauder Horsemen threw more javelins at the Gutter Runners, killing one. In combat the Bloodletters and Trolls mashed the Clanrats and killed their BSB, but took some casulaties in return. The Trolls regenerated gaining a 6+ scaly skin save. The Warshrine took another wound from the Doomwheel but passed its break test. In the Skaven turn the Eshin Clanrats and Night Runners continued to head towards our deployment zone, whilst the Gutter Runners faced off against the Marauder Horsemen, killing one. The Doomwheel hit the Warshrine with 3 S8 shots, but they all either failed to wound or were stopped by its ward save. Combat betwen the 2 was a draw. The Bloodletters and Trolls continued to inflict far more casulaties than they received, but the unbreakable Clanrats weren't going anywhere. Two of the Trolls had tried to kill the Warlord but his armour was too good. The Trolls regenerated 2 wounds again, this time getting the benefit of +1 Strength.

Turn 5
We could have charged the Horsemen into the Gutter Runners this turn, but I advised Dave it was unlikely to work and safer to dance around them for another turn at least. The HoT moved up to the well and drank, also becoming stupid and unbreakable. In the shooting phase the Horsemen did nothing to the Gutter Runners. With their boosted strength the Trolls were easily able to finish off the Warlord, and by the end of the combat there were only 2 Clanrats left. The Warshrine's attacks again bounced off the Doomwheel (Dave hadn't even rolled a single 6 to wound in 25 attacks) and it again took a wound from the Skaven machine, but passed its break test. In the Skaven turn the Night Runners advanced towards the Horsemen and between them and the Gutter Runners they finished off the Marauder Horsemen at last with their shooting. The Doomwheel's lightning proved harmless to the Warshrine again, but its luck finally ran out in the combat phase as it was killed (even though it finally got a wound through on the 'Wheel). Lastly, the 2 remaining Clanrats were wiped out by the Bloodletters.
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We ran out of time there with 5 turns gone, but since their army was on our side of the table and ours was on their side I can't see how anything could have changed in the last turn. Counting up the VP's it turned out we had won by about 400pts. We also got 2 points from our special missions (captured one table quarter and killed at least one hero) whilst they acheived at least one of theirs (capture table quarters, which explained what the Eshin Clanrats were up to). I can't remember what their other one was. I found most of the first 2 turns pretty unenjoyable, but that was mainly down to some outrageous dice on their part rather than our opponents fault as such. It got a bit better when the actual fighting started.

Things were going well, suspiciously well. End of day 1 and we had 3 wins out of 3 and 6 bonus points. I was starting to get the crazy idea we may have an outside chance of winning this, or more likely get in the top 3. :D

Later that day they put the best army lists in a display case for us to look at. At these tournaments there is a bonus award for the best or most imaginatively presented army list, and as you can see from the photos below there were some pretty impressive ones for the judges to choose from. :)





And the winner was the one on the left in the last photo, which was probably just a bit better presented than the Daemon head. I did like the screaming book as well.

I'll be back tomorrow hopefully to let you know how we got on day 2. :)

Great reports, fun to read but more pics would be appreciated :D

Also after the tournament, do you think that the HoT was a better choice than going for a HoK ?

Thanks Virgill. I really wanted to take more pics (it would have made the write-ups easier) but with just 2.5 hrs per game and twice as many people involved in every rules dispute/tactics discussion it was easy to forget in the rush to get the game to a meaningful conclusion. I really need to find an easy way of drawing simple maps on my computer to act as a substitute.

As for the HoT vs HoK debate, I was wondering a bit after the first game but as you'll see from the next battle especially I don't think we'd have done as well without him. I also can't think of any situations where the Bloodletters died and having an HoK would have made much of a difference to the result, and if they managed without him then he obviously wasn't needed.
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GAME 4
We were now up to the dizzying heights of table 4, meaning we were currently in the top 8 overall. Our opponents were the team "What, Animosity Again?" who unsurprisingly were both using Orcs & Goblins. Their army list looked like this:

Savage Orc Warboss - extra choppa
Savage Orc Big Boss - BSB, extra choppa, Banner of Eternal Flame
Savage Orc Shaman (Lvl 1) - Lucky Shrunken Head
30 Savage Orc Big 'Uns - Full command, extra choppas
20 Orc Big 'Uns - Full command, shields
4 Mangler Squigs
4 Pump Wagons with various upgrades
Goblin Great shaman - Lvl 4, dispel scroll
20 Night Goblins - Full command, bows
20 Night Goblins - Full command, 3 Fanatics
Spear Chukka

Their terrain piece was also an Idol of Gork (or possibly Mork).

The scenario rolled by the events team was Dawn Attack and we won the roll for deployment. Most of our units ended up in the middle (including all the Trolls which was the most important thing). Our set up looked like this (after a couple of opening moves):


Apart from not getting the Manglers a bit more central I think they got most their army roughly where they wanted it to be, it looked like this:


TURN 1
They failed to snatch the first turn so we started the game by failing the Stupidity test for Throgg's Trolls. Scyla advanced towards the Pump Wagons as seen in the photo, and the Bloodcrusher moved around him to hug that board side and try and keep out of easy charge range from the Pump Wagons. The Screamers went up the other flank hugging the table side again and tempting the Pump Wagon on that flank to charge them. The Fiend next to the Trolls advanced to just in front of the forest near the enemy Idol. The Marauder Horsemen and other Fiend emerged from the shadow of the tall tower but didn't advance too far as they didn't want to be caught by the Manglers. The purple Trolls advanced to within range of the enemy Idol. I realised our Idol was going to be in the way of Bloodletters for getting to the Savage Orcs, so they mostly just wheeled to try and get past it into the centre. In the magic phase Banishment against the nearest Mangler was dispelled, but I got Light of Battle off on Throgg's unit.

In the Orc & Goblin turn both the Savage Orcs and the Night Goblins behind them failed their animosity tests. The Orcs attempted a charge on the Trolls but fell way short, whilst the Night Goblins were unable to charge so squabbled. One Pump Wagon fell short of the Bloodcrusher, but the one near the Screamers made a long-range charge into the flank of the Fiend. In order to reach it had to go through the forest, and took 2 wounds from the dangerous terrain. The other 2 advanced a moderate distance forwards, along with the 3 Manglers on our right flank. The remaining Mangler moved past the building ending up between the Trolls and Savage Orcs. The other units just advanced a bit to follow the Manglers and Wagons. In the magic phase only the Savage Orc Shaman was able to cast since the other was in a squabbling unit, and tried Foot of Gork against the Bloodletters. They rolled quite high so I used my Spellbreaker to stop it - I didn't want to lose about 10 Bloodletters straight away. In the shooting phase the Spear Chukka missed. The Pump Wagon did 2 wounds to the Fiend with its impact hits, but was killed by the Fiend in return.

TURN 2
We started our turn by declaring charges with the purple Trolls against the Savage Orcs (I was rather dubious of this, but thought we may be able to soften them up for later and at least it created more space in the centre) and the Bloodcrusher against the further away of the 2 Pump Wagons it was facing. Both made it in, although the Trolls needed the help of the Idol. Scyla went for the Pump Wagon the Crusher ignored but fell a few inches short. The Trolls were able to wheel past the Mangler and still maximise, so I sent the Fiend that had survived the Pump Wagon charge to sit on it, killing both. The Marauder Horsemen advanced towards another Mangler, triggering the Fanatics. They all missed though and the Horsemen were able to reform and hit the Mangler while the other Fiends hit the Mangler closest to the Bloodletters. All 4 units were destroyed. Throgg moved up ready to charge the Savage Orcs should the other Trolls hold, and the Bloodletters continued to make their way past the Idol. The Warshrine and HoT manouvered to use the Bloodletters as a barrier. Finaly the Screamers moved up close to the building on the hill, ready to fly over the Night goblin archers next turn. In the magic phase I got 12 dice. Banishment against the remaining Mangler was dispelled, before I cast Light of Battle on Throgg's unit with irresistable force (in spite of just using 3 dice). The miscast result caused me to lose 1 magic level and that spell, and left me with 6 dice my HoT was unable to use when I was really hoping to cast Speed of Light/Pha's Protection on the purple Trolls (drat!). In the shooting phase the Warshrine attempted to give a benefit to Throgg's unit but it wasn't anything useful. In combat the Bloodcrusher easily destroyed the Pump Wagon (although took a wound in the process) and overran to get away from the Fanatics and Mangler. The Trolls discovered the Savage Orcs had flaming attacks and 5 of them were torn apart. The last one attacked the Boss in an attempt to get him out of the way for later, but he passed his ward save thanks to the Lucky Shrunken Head. The last Troll failed his test and ran, escaping the pursuing Orcs.

The Orcs & Goblins passed their animosity tests and charged the fleeing Troll with the Savage Orcs. It had to flee and they passed their test to redirect into Throgg's unit. Their wheel bought them into contact with the fleeing Troll and he was removed from play (we spent a lot of time arguing this - I argued that they couldn't just clip him like that since they'd already redirected, while they argued it was a multi-charge and they could. In the end I let it go since it was actually to our immediate advantage that the Troll was out of the way since he was blocking the path of the Bloodletters). The Pump Wagon nearest Syla ran into him, while the other went forwards to get around the back of the Bloodletters. The Orc Big 'Unz advanced into the forest next to our Idol to threaten the Bloodletters flank (which turned out to be an Abyssal Wood) while the Night Goblin Archers and Great Shaman moved into the building. The last Mangler went for Scyla but missed, while the Fanatics travelled a lot but didn't connect with anything. In the magic phase Curse of da Bad Moon was cast against the Screamers, which wounded one, and in spite of throwing all my dice at it I failed to dispel Itchy Nuisance on the Bloodletters, which reduced their Move and Initiative down to 1 each. The Spear chukka missed the Bloodcrusher, and the Night goblin archers killed the wounded Screamer. Scyla was wounded by the Pump Wagon, but crushed it with his attacks in return. Like last turn the Trolls were annihilated by the Savage Orcs, but Throgg was safe because he was in a challenge with the Boss, whom he killed (but took a wound in the process). Thanks to Light of Battle he automatically passed his break test, which took our opponents by surprise a bit. Seeing the Bloodletters were about to charge them, they reformed to be 5 ranks deep and put their BSB on the other side of the unit so he couldn't be attacked.

TURN 3
The Bloodletters charged the Savage Orcs in the flank, the Idol stopping them from fully maximising so only half were in. The Screamers charged the Night Goblins in the building. The Bloodcrusher advanced towards the Spear chukka, while Scyla tried to get away from the Mangler. The Warshrine positioned itself to stop the Orc Big 'Unz getting to the Bloodletter's rear, while the HoT retreated from the last Pump Wagon. The winds of magic granted me 5 dice and rather than take any chances I used them all for Briona's Timewarp on the Bloodletters. It went off with irresistable force and the HoT took a wound. The Warshrine then gifted the Bloodletters with +1 Strength. In combat the Screamers killed 2 gobbos for no loss but they passed their break test. Throgg issued another challenge which was accepted by the Warboss, who cut Throgg down before he could fight back (boo!). The Bloodletters tore chunks out of the Orcs however, even though they took a few casualties in return. The Daemons won by 4 but thanks to the BSB they passed their break test and reformed into a horde again, facing the Bloodletters.

The Orc Big' Unz failed their animosity check and charged the Warshrine. The last Mangler caught up with Scyla and devoured him. The last Pump Wagon tried to get the HoT but fell well short. The fanatics continued to whirl around, failing to connect. In the magic phase the Screamers took a wound from Vindictive Glare, and Itchy Nuisance was cast on the Bloodletters with irresistable force, reducing their Initiative by 2. The miscast killed a single gobbo. In the shooting phase the Night Goblins failed to harm the Screamers with their short bows, but the Spear Chukka hit the Bloodcrusher. However, I passed my ward save. In combat the Orc Big 'Unz failed to harm the Warshrine and took 2 casualties in return, the Warshrine passing its break test. In the fight between the Bloodletters and Savage Orcs, I now got re-rolls to hit against the basic boyz (and they had lost their frenzy). My Bloodreaper was killed by the Warboss in a challenge, but the Bloodletters made mincemeat of the Savages and killed the BSB and Shaman too. I failed nearly all my ward saves from the return attacks and lost 7 Daemons, but still won by a large margin. This time they failed their test and were run down, the Bloodletters stopping just short of the enemy Idol. It looked like we were starting to pull the game back.

TURN 4
With time running short we just stuck to the stuff that mattered. The Screamers charged the building again, hoping to drive off the Great Shaman and his unit. The Bloodcrusher charged the Spear chukka, and my HoT moved further away from the Pump Wagon and out of short bow range of the Night goblins. Magic saw me try to blast the Pump Wagon but it was once more dispelled. In combat the Warshrine held again vs the Orcs, whilst the Bloodcrusher killed one Goblin crewman and but got stabbed to death in return! Finally the Screamers and Goblins did 2 wounds each and the combat ended a draw. In the Greenskin turn I insisted the Mangler and Fanatics attempted to move in case they hit anything important, and was rewarded with the sight of the last Mangler Squig rolling a tripple 1 and collapsing on the spot! The Fanatics all went 11" but didn't hit anything. The Pump Wagon gave up on the HoT and flank charged the Warshrine instead. In the magic phase the Great Shaman unleashed a boosted Vindictive Glare against the HoT with irresistable force. I passed most my saves but he still died. The archers fired at the last Screamer but did nothing. In the final combat the Warshrine neither took or caused any wounds, but lost combat by a lot and failed its break test, fleeing 2" and easily being run down. With that the game was over.
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After counting it up twice they were only 86pts ahead of us so the game was a draw. We acheived one of our missions to the Hero level (killing characters) and would have completed it to the Lord level (kill ALL characters) if we could have just got that Great shaman. We failed to acheive the other one, whatever that was. Can't remember what their's were but I think they completed both to the Hero level. There were a lot of things that could have swung this game either way on the VP's - the Mangler looks like the key event as it was the last piece of bad luck, but if the Crusher hadn't died to the Spear Chukka that would have been irrelevant. The Warshrine being caught was another late swing (it could have easily outran its persuers), as was the Screamers surviving and the HoT being killed (a 265pt swing as they got a bonus 100pts for him being my General, even though Throgg counted as the General for that game). I could have left my HoT out of range of Vindictive Glare and not sure why I took the chance, although the Screamers would have been targeted instead and the game would still have ended up a draw.

Ultimately what cost us from potentially winning I think was that we got too crowded at the beginning and couldn't bring our main combat units to bear until some of them were dead and out of the way. I could have sent the Bloodletters the other way around the Idol to attack the Orc Big 'Unz and Night Goblins with fanatics, and I'm sure in spite of taking casualties they would have beaten those units, but we wouldn't have picked up enough VP's from those units and would have lost the game as a result.

Our chance of winning was pretty much gone, but could we make the top 3? Stay tuned to find out. ;)

GAME 5
This was the last game of the tournament. With our draw from last round we had dropped down to table 5 (where we started!) and were on the same table as our last opponents! After speaking to the judges, they randomly allocated us to one of the adjoining tables, so we ended up back on table 4 again, this time facing a team called "Squig Sauce" who were another Orc & Goblin double act. The last scenario had a 50/50 chance of being Battle for the Pass or Blood & Glory, and we were very relieved when it turned out to be the former of the two. Their lists looked like this:

Orc Shaman - level 2
Orc Big Boss - BSB, extra choppa, Banner of Eternal Flame (not again!) :sick:
34 Orc Big 'Unz - shields, Full Command, Banner of Discipline
Night Goblin Warboss
Night Goblin Big Boss - BSB
Night Goblin Great Shaman (lvl 3) - Channeling staff
Night Goblin Shaman - lvl 2, Dispel Scroll
60 Night Goblins - spears, netters, Full command, 3 Fanatics
Squig Herd - 12 Squigs, 6 Handlers
2 x Trolls
2 x Mangler Squigs
3 x Pump Wagons
2 x Doom Divers

Their terrain piece was a Tower of Blood (units within 6" from Forces of Destruction get Hatred and Frenzy). We won the roll for table edge and chose the side with more forests so they wouldn't get in the way when attacking. We placed the Idol of Gork in the centre of the board, whilst they deployed their Tower in the centre of their deployment zone (since we were playing on the same board from the last game, this meant they had the side with the large round tower and fences). We set our army with Throgg and his Trolls in the centre, purple Trolls and Bloodletters either side and the Marauder Horsemen, Fiends, Scyla and Screamers on the flanks. They deplyed the Orcs in horde formation in front of the Tower of Blood, with the Night Goblins to their left and just behind - also in range of the Tower. The Squigs were to the Orcs right and the Manglers and Trolls went in front of them and the Night Goblins. One Pump Wagon went on the flank near the round tower, while the other 2 went on the other flank. Unfortunately with the last minute switch around and hurry to set up, I forgot to take any pictures again. :(

Turn 1
We got the first turn but realised we had forgotten to vanguard the Horsemen. Fortunately our opponents allowed us to do it anyway which was good of them. The purple Trolls failed their stupidity test and stumbled 6" forwards. Throgg's unit passed and moved up in support, while the Bloodletters went straight for the Night Goblins. Thanks to their vanguard move, the Marauder Horsemen were able to reach the nearest Mangler and killed it, wiping themselves out in the process (this move should have triggered the Fanatics though, but that got overlooked at the time). Scyla went straight forwards, but not very quickly, and the Crusher moved up just in front of him, trying to keep out of range of the Pump Wagons, as did the Fiend and Screamers on that flank. The Fiend on the other flank advanced, also keeping its distance from the Pump Wagon. In the magic phase I cast a boosted Pha's Protection but also miscast and took a wound on my HoT. In the shooting phase the Eye of the Gods turned its gaze on Throgg and his Trolls, granting them all +1Ld.

The Greenskin turn started with the Night Goblins failing their animosity check. There was nothing in charge range so they squabbled. Their Trolls passed their stupidity test and advanced to block our Trolls and the Bloodletters. The Pump Wagon on our right didn't want to get closer to the Fiend, so turned to face the tower and stopped moving almost immediately. On the other flank one Pump Wagon went for the other Fiend, but fell a bit short, and the other made contact with the Bloodcrusher. Finally the Mangler advanced towards the purple Trolls, falling a bit short but ending up in a very awkward position. With the Night Goblins squabbling only the Orc Shaman could cast anything. Eadbutt was cast but turned the range wasn't high enough to get the HoT, and he just failed to cast Hand of Gork. The Doom Divers both fired at the HoT, one missing and the other misfiring and being unable to shoot for 2 turns. In combat the Pump Wagon and the Bloodcrusher did a wound each and the Daemon died to instability, the crazed Snotlings overrunning into the Screamers (this shouldn't have happened due to the new FAQ but I forgot).

Turn 2
Both Troll units passed their stupidity tests. We were a bit stuck since if Throgg charged he would block the path for the purple Trolls, but if the purple Trolls charged they would land on the Mangler Squig. We charged in the purple Trolls. They squished the Mangler of course but Dave's regen rolls were terrible and they lost 8 wounds! Scyla ran into the Pump Wagon that had charged the Screamers, and confident he would destroy it and overrun into the other one the nearby Fiend ignored it and advanced to face the Squig herd's flank. The other Fiend attempted to charge the Pump Wagon that had deliberately run into the tower but didn't get close. Finally the Bloodletters charged the other Troll blocking their way. Although it wasn't within 8" of the Night goblins, their massive wheel to close the door bought them in range and 3 Fanatics were released. They all fell an inch short but completing the charge meant the Bloodletters finished on top of the Fanatics, causing 6D6 S5 hits on them! Fortunately the number of hits was below average and my saves were OK so I only lost 9. They also went into the forest in the middle, which turned out to be an Abyssal Wood (appropriate enough, as it was the exact same forest Abyssal wood as last game). Throgg moved past the combat involving the other Trolls, and the HoT joined the unit to avoid being hit by the Doom Diver.

The magic phase was pretty ineffectual and we were happy with Throgg being Ld9 so went straight to combat. The Bloodletters slaughtered the Troll and reformed slightly, facing off the Orcs and Night Goblins. The purple Trolls failed to kill the lone enemy Troll, and waht was worse took a wound which resulted in another Troll dying. With a flank charge it was easily beaten through so ran off, and the Trolls reformed to face the Squig herd. The Pump wagon killed a Screamer with impact hits, but got torn aprt by the Daemons and Scyla who overran into the other Pump Wagon on our left table edge.

In the Orc & Goblin turn we dared them to charge the Squigs into the purple Trolls, which they did and made it in. The Pump Wagon near the round tower decided to attempt a charge this time, but fell short of the Fiend by 2". The other units passed their animosity and frenzy restraining tests and held their ground, whilst the fleeing Troll rallied and turned to face Throgg. In the magic phase a boosted Curse of Da Bad Moon was attempted against the Bloodletters, but I used my Spellbreaker to stop it. In combat Scyla ripped apart the other Pump Wagon on that flank, but was wounded in the process, whilst the Squigs ran rampant over the purple Trolls killing 2 (more terrible saves), who could only kill one in return. They broke and were run down by the hungry Cave Squigs, a shame as if the Trolls had held they would have been T5 next round.

Turn 3
Again we were stuck a bit with units being in awkward positions. I wanted the Bloodletters to charge just one of the 2 hordes facing them, but the Night Goblins were boxed in by the buildings and Orcs so charging them solo was impossible due to my wider frontage and them being too deep to wheel without hitting the Orcs. I couldn't charge the Orcs because I would hit the gobbos with my wheel before getting close. In the end, I decided I had no choice but to charge both and hope for the best. Throgg and his unit charged the recently rallied Troll to show 'im who wuz boss. The Fiend that was flanking the Squigs charged the Doom Diver in the Tower of Blood, while the other Fiend charged the remaining Pump Wagon. Scyla moved into the Squig herd's flank, and the Screamers failed to march so glided forwards and turned to cover the Squigs and Orcs. This just left the Warshine, which moved up to the Idol ready to charge in next turn.

In the magic phase I didn't get many dice so went for Briona's Timewarp on the Bloodletters which they failed to dispel. In combat Scyla took a wound but did more damage to the Squigs who failed their break test. The Squigs were removed and Scyla took another wound from the rampaging balls of teeth, and the Trolls took two. Throgg tried to assert his dominance over the enemy Troll, but it regenerated all the damage and wounded Throgg in reply. Throgg's buddies finished it off and they overran, but fell well short of the Orcs. The Fiend wounded the Pump Wagon and it died from unstable, the Fiend overrunning a few inches towards the Doom Diver (another mistake like earlier with the Bloodcrusher). The other Fiend, now affected by the Tower of Blood, easily tore apart the Doom Diver crew and reformed to face the rear of the Orcs. Finally we resolved the combat involving the Bloodletters. The Night Goblins successfully netted them reducing their Strength to 4. Because of this the damage was limited to about 5 Orcs and 10 gobbos, although I did also kill the Orc Shaman, Night Goblin Great Shaman and the Night Goblin Boss (last one in a challenge with the Bloodreaper) With both units being in horde formation and having hatred and frenzy from the Tower of Blood (plus a Night Goblin Big Boss and Warboss I had forgotted to target) the Bloodletters took heavy casualties and lost the combat by 6, another 7 dying to instability. Six Khorne Deamons were left to pin both units in place.

In the Orc & Goblin turn they had very little to do since the only unit not pinned in combat was the Doom Diver. It tried to target the nearby Fiend but was way off. Magic was non-existant as the last Shaman had nothing he could cast into combat. In combat the Bloodletters were netted again. The Bloodreaper killed the Orc Boss in a challenge, and I took out a few gobbos too. I also targeted both Night Goblin characters, but failed to land a killing blow on either of them. Four Daemons were killed in return and I didn't lose as badly this time, but the last 2 Bloodletters still died.

Turn 4
Rather than charge a frenzied horde of Big 'Unz we wanted to move Throgg up and kill several with his breath weapon. This was scuppered however when the frenzied Fiend failed to restrain itself and charged the Orcs in the rear, so we decided to go all in and charged them in the front with Throgg and his Trolls (plus Herald who was still with the unit), the Screamers and the Warshrine. The remaining Fiend charged the tower with the last Doom diver in. In the magic phase Speed of Light on the Trolls was dispelled, but I managed to get Briona's Timewarp off on them (I would have preferred it the other way round though). In the shooting phase we decided to swap the Warshine's current benefit for something more offensive, but rolled up Magic Resistance (3) instead. In combat Throgg issued a challenge and the only character left was the BSB, who declined. Throgg killed a couple of Orcs with his attacks and used his breath weapon, but only got 5 hits killing a couple more. Lots more Orcs were killed by the combined attacks of the Fiend, Screamers and Warshrine. In reply the Screamers were wounded, a Troll was killed and the Orcs threw everything they could at Throgg and did 3 wounds, killing him (no regen as they had flaming attacks). The Herald had also killed an Orc, but got dragged down in return. We won combat by a massive margin but the Orcs were still steadfast by a single model and held (we realised afterwards we'd forgotten to stomp). The other Fiend killed a goblin crewman but took a wound in return so the combat was a draw, the Fiend being pushed away from the tower.

In their turn the Night Goblins charged the Warshrine and netted it. The Orc BSB returned to the front rank and was wounded by the Screamers but still lived (and still granted flaming attacks to his unit). In reply he killed a Screamer. The Fiend and Trolls killed a whole bunch more Orcs before they could strike, but with S3 now the Warshrine failed to inflict any damage. Another Troll was killed by the Orcs, but their attacks bounced off the Warshrine and the Fiend also escaped unscathed. We lost combat by a bit and the remaining Trolls and Warshrine fled, the shrine being run down by the Night Goblins. The Screamers died from instability, but the Fiend held, stopping the Orcs from persuing the Trolls.

With that time was up and the game over. We didn't bother to count VP's since with both their main units left it was obvious the Greenskins had won. We managed to complete one of our special mission too (none of Dave's units fled the battlefield) but I failed to complete mine (mainly because I misunderstood it and picked the wrong one). It was a pretty good game, possibly the best of the weekend, and it was a shame I didn't get any actual photos of it.
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In the end we finished a decent 21st out of 113 teams, with our opponents from round 4 finishing 3rd so we'd obviously done well to hold them to a draw. The winners were a dual-Steam Tank Empire team that I reckon we would have stood a chance against if we'd faced them. If either of the last 2 armies hadn't had flaming banners we also might have done a bit better. I think we saw more flaming banners than we did regenerating units, so I have to wonder if people were overly paranoid about it - I imagine in most of their games it had no effect at all and left their BSB's quite vulnerable. In our area its not used so often as people are worried they will run into Dragonhelm characters and the like which will be nigh impossible for the unit to kill. It was a good event and I'm hoping we will be able to attend it again next year. :)

Rather than post up my poor photos of the best armies I'll just include this link to the Warhammer World facebook page which has over 100 photos of the event (you don't need to be a member to view it): doubles photos

And finally I couldn't go to Warhammer World without getting the following picture:

:D

Jesus JonathanC.. I Think you just stole the title of 'King o' Textwalling' away from me.
I'll be cracking a beer (or two) later tonight and digest it all, so far I've only had time to read the first parts about that doubles tournment.
Oh, and just this one thing, you mentioned scoring a Killing Blow on a Pendant wearing PegLord and he would certainly have died from that since [as per the FAQ] if a model would have been infantry when not mounted he can get KB'd. :)

I look forward to reading your comments DaemonReign. :)

I tried to break up the textwalling a bit, but I didn't get many photos as you can see so it ended up quite word-heavy.

Just looked up the killing blow thing and you're completely right - p8 of the FAQ. Since that Dreadlord held up my Bloodletters for the entire game it made a big difference! I'll have to let Dave my team-mate know next time I see him.

Finally done Reading through it all. Never got room to do it last night as it turned out.
It appears to have been a great event all-in-all. Those Special missions and every team bringing a terrain-piece of their own was a truly nice touch - although that Skaven-team bringing a friggin' Wyrding Well is a bit on the South side of cheese if you ask me.. *haha*
Forgetting to Stomp in that last game might have lost you guys the game, but I'm actually glad you allowed over-runs 'cause that FAQ is something I wish people would just ignore en masse. ;)

Damn it. Just a great read. Thanks for letting us (or at any rate me!) get this sneak-peak into it. If I wasn't so tremendously anti-social I'd really like to attend something like this [yeah the 'crowdiness' on some of those pics kind of scares me tbh..] - but then here in Sweden I'm guessing there'd be like 20 teams instead of over 100 and it'd be all comped etcetera.. <_<

Just one final question.. Are you running your Screamers on 50mm bases? Or is it just the Picture that makes it look that way?

Either way, many cheers for posting all this man!

Its probably just the picture making their bases look bigger, they are definitely on 40mm ones. Probably because I haven't green-edged them yet like the Herald and Fiends and they blendinto the black movement tray a bit (in fact, a large part of the army was painted in the 3 days before the event, which is why I didn't take any close-ups of my models!).

The special missions I liked, but I would have preferred something a little bit simpler just to make picking the missions quicker and easier. Having a special terrain piece was quite nice (ours definitely helped in a few games) but led to some cheesy combos as you saw. From what I could tell Wyrding Wells, Wizards Towers and Anvil's of Vaul were all pretty popular. Without them though, all the terrain would have been basic apart from the mysterious forests, and I rather like the terrain rules (mainly because hardcore competitive players don't :lol: ). According to the rulespack for next year both the special missions and themed terrain aren't in it anymore. I can take or leave the terrain but I'll miss the missions as I think they add an extra dimension to the game. <_<

Anyway, thanks for your comments and glad you enjoyed it. :) It was pretty packed, but it was only really a problem in games 2 and 3 where our table was at the end of the row up against the 'castle' wall (as you should be able to see in the photos). The tables were set up in rows of 3 so it was a lot easier to get around than it has been in the past when they were set up in much longer rows. Also you end up a bit dehydrated if you aren't careful as with 4 people involved in every game you end up talking near-constantly. To make up for that, Bugman's adjoins the gaming hall and one of the staff comes round to take drink orders from you mid-game so you don't have to stop gaming, which is nice. By the end of the weekend you do end up pretty exhausted but I'd still recommend it to anyone who likes some friendly competition against new opponents. :)