Half term has meant i've had time to get down to Games Workshop and get a game in. I played it yesterday against a mate who likes messing around with experimental lists and had been dying to try out a totally Khorne themed list with a Lord on a manticore and lots of Chariots.
He obviously didn't want to play against my Ogres as the last time he brought chariots to that party they were reduced to kindling rather quickly.
I initially wanted to do photos and video battle report but forgot my camera so i've used Battle Chronicler again but you may notice some units seem "out of place" or "idle for a turn" - this is due to me trying to remember what happened on exactly the right turn - safe to say, the end result of the battle is fine and only a few "snuffles" in the middle are probably out of place
As it's been a while since i've mentioned my actual list, i'll repost it seeing as i'll be listing his too!
Lists
High Elves:
L4 Life Archmage w/ Annulian Crystal
30 Spearmen
14 Archers w/ Banner of Eternal Flame
13 Archers
14 White Lions w/ FC and Other Tricksters Shard
14 Swordmasters w/ FC, banner of Swiftness and Ironcurse Icon
5 Dragon Princes
5 Dragon Princes
20 Pheonix Guard w/ FC and Banner of Saphery
4 Eagles
1 RBT
Warriors of Khorne:
Lord on Manticore (had an item that made it so any rolls of a "1" to hit are struck at the attacker! Also had a breath weapon!)
Exalted Hero of Khorne on Juggernaught- Not sure of equipment
24 Warriors of Chaos w/ FC, Halberd, Mark of Khorne
30 Mauraders w/ Great Weapons and MoK
6 Knights w/ FC (i think?) and MoK
3 Chariots w/ MoK
Hellcannon (damn this thing!!)
Deployment:
I dropped first so, L2R i have, 2 Eagles with a unit of Dragon Princes (Yellow) waiting behind. A unit of Dragon Princes (Red) ready to storm something? The Pheonix Guard deploy behind a Ghost fence.
In the centre, my White Lions deploy (once again!) in a Wood (turns out to be an Abyssal Wood). The RBT is just to the right of the wood with both archer squads (behind a blessed bulwark) - i figure their only job here will be to thin the maurader ranks! Behind them is another Eagle positioned to react to what ever really.
On the right flank i have my Swordmasters ready to mop up either the Mauraders or warriors - preferably both! Another Eagle for redirection duties and a big block of spears ready to soak up that damn MantiLord!
Facing me from left to right are the 3 Khorne Chariots. His Knights and Exalted Champion on a Juggernaught were next and as you'll see the the next slide i may have them the wrong way round here!
His Hellcannon set up wisely on the hill.
Working towards the left, we have his block of Khorne Warriors, his Mauraders (M2 - i dont know why?) and on the left flank, his Mantilord.
The Building on my right flank is an Altar of Khaine - granting Frenzy to all within 6"!!!
Warriors of Khorne - Turn 1
Quick turn really, everything moved forward!
The crippling - game-changing - woe-is-me moment was when his Hellcannon shot at my Archmage, scattered 2" but just clipped his unit, killing 1 and thus making them take a leadership test - which i double 6'd! They then ran 8" but due to the placement of the Eagle and Swordmasters, bounced through them and off the board! The Swordmasters also paniced die to having being fled through and also legged it ogg the board!!!
High Elves - Turn 1
Well, having considered throwing in the towel having started the game 710 points down without moving a damn model (except off the table!) - i thought i'd stck with it and see what could be done! Its amazing how differently i play when my mage dies and everything suddenly becomes "gung ho".
My Dragon Pricnes (red) got off a charge into his Exalted Champion. The Eagles on the left moved to be nothing more than a distraction. The Pheonix Guard moved to tempt the Knights to charge them - i felt they could take a charge and the White Lions would be able to mess them up in the flank so the WL's moved to the edge of the wood (by move, i mean they failed a charge which meant i had to adopt this tactic!)
The eagle behind the archers manouvered to better harras and potentially flank the Knights and teh Spearman, seeing their General leg it, suddenly felt inspired enough to charge the terror causing MantiLord.
In combat, the Dragon Princes actually butchered the Exalted Champion for no loss, but where i'd anticipated overrunning past his chariots charge arc - they overran to right infront!
The Spearmen champion accepted the Lords challenge and was promptly chopped down. It did however mean i won on combat res - but the damn thing held - ah well!
Warriors of Khorne - Turn 2
Chariot 3 charges the Eagle which flees but is caught and run down! Doh!
Chariot 1 charges the Dragon Princes (Red)
Chariot 2 manouvres...somewhere! (This is the one i'm unsure of it's movements until it plays a part later on!
I think the knight may have moved, but this might have been the turn he forgot to move them backwards!
Shooting: Hellcannon kill 5 Pheonix Guard!
Combat:
Spearmen are awesome and kill the manticore!!!...The Lord is more awesome unfortunately and kills lots of Spearmen! (breath weapon!!) The spears remain stubborn and hold for another round...also reforming at the same time to sacrifice ranks for a few extra attacks!
The chariot kills 3 Dragon Princes for no loss (or maybe one wound?)
High Elves - Turn 2
Dragon Princes (Yellow) gung-ho charge into the chariot infront of them!
The White Lions and Eagle double charge the knights.
An Eagle may have charged the rear of one of his chariots this turn or next i dont recall! (top left of picture!)
Shooting:
Archers kill a few more Mauraders, RBT kills another couple of WoK! I'm really liking the RBT this game. For you information, i seem to always fire the 6 S4 AP shots as opposed to the S6 rank penetrating shot..even against multi-wounds like ogres. The only time i recall firing the S6 is when i play my mates Lizzies and he runs a Stegadon!
Combat:
White Lions kill 4 knights who kill maybe one WL in return and fluff the attacks on the eagle. Break from combat and get run down by the Eagle. White Lions reform to face Chariot.
The Eagle in the rear of the chariot is swiftly reminded that riders of Chaos Chariots are still I5 and gets swiftly feathered before it can cluck!
Dragon Princes (Red) hold out (or maybe i jumped this combat a turn early in the report?)
Dragon Prince (Yellow) do a wound, receive a wound but the damn thing holds! (loses Frenzy though!)
Warriors of Khorne - Turn 3
Mauraders charge the Eagle which flees successfully!
II can't recall if the WoK charged and failed or just decided not to here...as clearly they surely would if they could so maybe i've got the distances wrong at some point!
Shooting: Hellcannon misses Pheonix Guard - phew!
Combat:
Chariot 1 Finishes off the Dragon Princes (Red) and overruns very nicely!
Chariot 3 and the Dragon Princes (Yellow) - I may have got ahead of myself here by a turn...its not going to work out for the Dragon Princes either way!!
High Elves - Turn 3
White Lions charge Chariot 1.
Pheonix Guard and Eagle move towards right side of table iun order to give support to the big blocks still left there!
Shooting: Usual (for this game) - Archers chip another couple of Mauraders away and the RBT kills a few more WoK
Combat:
Chariot 3 (bottom right) finally kills Dragon Princes (bet you didn't see that coming!)
Chaos Lord trims the Spears to 9 which finally break from Combat - he can't catch them though!!
White Lions reduce their Chariot opponent to kindling and over-run into the next! Nice!
Warriors of Khorne - Turn 4
WoK finally get to the Archers, only suffering a loss of one from the stand and shoot. Mauraders deal swift death to the Eagle!
Hellcannon misses again - resigned to the fact that it's definately done it's job this turn, I dont think my opponent will mind!
White Lions reduce Chariot to last wound and suffer a few casualties for their trouble! Damn the clipping from the overrun!
WoK massacre the Archers who flee off the board but the WoK flee just enough to offer a nice shot to the RBT next turn!
If you're wondering why the chariot in the bottom left didn't flank my White Lions its because it couldn't - i've cocked the timeline up at some point and it definately couldn't charge at this point - so it probably got held up by the Dragon Princes for an extra turn!
High Elves - Turn 4
Other than the Spears rallying and the Pheonix Guard moving over to get nearer the Maurarders nothing much moved. (because i had nothing much left!)
RBT fluffed its chance to kill some WoK and make them flee (later realised their still immune to panic!)
White Lions smashed their chariot to bits and reformed to face the last one!
Warriors of Khorne - Turn 5
Chariot charges White Lions and kills them with impact hits alone (D6 +2 S5 goddamit!)
Mauraders reform to face Pheonix Guard and Lord hides behind building - away from RBT's Line of sight!
High Elves - Turn 5
In a last ditch attempt to salvage some points, the Pheonix Guard Charge into Mauraders and kill about 9 (had frenzy), lose about 4 (good ol' ward save!) and they hold (ah well)
With 2 fellas waiting on the table, I threw in the towel at this point as there wasn't much i could do to win at this point!
WARRIORS OF KHORNE VICTORY!
Aftermath and thoughts:
I don't think i'll be facing this list again as it was very weak! there's fluff and then there's fluffy.
I think i did fairly well considering the Turn 1 deficit of 710 points!! With a lifemage in there and Swordmasters, i could have cut through that list!
Which leads to the ultimate question - how di i fit a BSB in my list? I'd need to drop something and obvious choice seems to be a unit of Dragon Princes but then i feel i'd lose some flexibility?
Stand outs in this game were the White Lions and the RBT. The RBT killed about 11 WoK - i'm not sure on the points of those, but had i had a combat capable unit nearby - that would've been more than an acceptable weakening. As such, i can't really expect 100pt RBT to single handedly wipe out a WoK squad to a man!
The White Lions though - WOW! Like, 400 points worth of knights, 300pts worth of Chariots - more than made their points back! I can see why people dare to run a horde of these buggers!
Still, disecting my list after playing this particular list is really like deciding if your 4x4 is worth it having reversed it down your drive! Need to get another couple of games with it against more "normal" lists before i change!
Very pleasant report! You are very brave to continue the battle in spite of the flight of your mage during the first turn.
ReplyDeleteDo you have photos of the battlefield?
I dont i'm afraid! I forgot to take my camera with me as i was rushing out the house!
ReplyDeleteI was very close to throwing the towel in - as it was, it was after my turn 2 when i realised just how many points had actually scarpered! I think if i'd have known i was 719 down i'd have likely restarted!