Civil war in the Old World? Surely not. Everybody there gets on so well together.
I, Kraken, have about five thousand points worth of Warriors of Chaos in the cupboard, and they haven't seen the light of day for ages. Not since they were last used for Age of Sigmar, in fact, six years ago. High time I got them back on the board.
If I lack a house army to field them against, I have at least got Stylus to call in and field them against themselves. Chaos Duel!
I've wholly embraced the Ruinous Powers since last playing Warhammer Fantasy and so I, Stylus, am well up for Chaos in the Old World!
Chaos Warriors
Kraken generously gave me first pick of his army, so naturally I exploited this and went for all the choice cuts!
In fairness, this is a replica of the kind of Chaos army I can replicate at home, so I wanted to give it a run-out. Very much centred around small, elite units: Chaos Warriors, Knights, Chariot and a Chimera.
Leading them will be an Exalted Champion (the cheapest I could afford, but there are no bad options there) and a Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Lv4, naturally - I learned my lesson from our last game).
Of course, having so few models does mean that a couple of bad dice rolls could send me perilously close to my breaking point, so the mission might even things out.
- Exalted Champion (General)
Chaos Steed, Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Shield, Mark of Slaanesh
Sword of Striking - Sorcerer Lord
Chaos Steed, Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Mark of Slaanesh
Wizard Level 4 - Dark Magic
Infernal Puppet (this is an anti-wizard item, so I may as well have left it at home)
Doombolt, Word of Pain, Stream of Corruption, Phantasmagoria - 10 x Chaos Warriors
Command group. Halberds, Heavy armour, Shields, Mark of Slaanesh - 5 x Chaos Knights
Command group. Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Mark of Slaanesh
Favour of the Gods - Chaos Chariot
Hand weapons, Halberds, Mark of Slaanesh - Chimera
Claws and Fangs, Scaly Skin, Flaming Breath, Fiend Tail, Regeneration (5+), Poisoned Attacks
Chaotic Warriors
I’ve got the unwashed hordes side of my Chaos army - the marauders. Two big packs of pseudovikings, one raging with flails, the other cowering with shields. Three smaller units of horsemen to cover their advance, hopefully being jolly annoying while they do it, and an Exalted Khorne Champion to lead.
No magic, for the purposes of not upsetting the Blood God, but everything else gets a look in. Chaos Undecided, you might say. My wild card is a pack of Nurgle Ogres, played tonight by Putrid Blightkings - could maybe upset an applecarr somewhere. Otherwise I’m looking to weight of numbers to win this for me, the quality of my troops is no match for the enemy!
- Exalted Champion (General)
Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Shield, Mark of Khorne
Armour of the Damned, Burning Blade - 30 x Chaos Marauders
Command group. Flails, Light armour, Mark of Khorne - 30 x Chaos Marauders
Command group. Hand weapons, Light armour, Shields, Mark of Tzeentch - 5 x Marauder Horsemen
Command group. Throwing axes, Light armour, Shields, Mark of Slaanesh - 5 x Marauder Horsemen
Hand weapons, Javelins, Light armour, Shields, Mark of Undivided - 5 x Marauder Horsemen
Flails, Throwing axes, Light armour, Shields, Mark of Undivided - 5 x Chaos Ogres
Command group. Great weapons, Heavy armour, Mark of Nurgle
Battlefield and Deployment
Tonight we're playing Break Point. No turn limit on the games, we keep going until one of us kills enough of the other to shatter their army. That's reckoned by 25% unit strength, and the relative sizes of our armies make this pretty disparate.
The big Marauder blocks mean my lot go home when there's only 27 left; Stylus's more select crew need to be reduced to 8. No easy task for either of us, especially when we'll be fighting over a massive swamp.
Pretty much the entire centre of the table is difficult terrain, which will slow us and reduce the impact of charges. I won't get much in the way of rank bonuses, either (my big units are disrupted in the mud), but the mobility of my skirmishing horsemen might help balance this out a bit. We'll see!
Deployment leaves us something like this:
I keep the Chaos Warriors as the rock of my centre, with the faster units - Chimera on the left, Chariot and Knights on the right - ready to race around the flanks (and avoid that swamp!).
The Sorcerer Lord stays with the Warriors and the Exalted Champion joins the Knights.
So I've got a massive pile of models crammed into my zone, with the Khorne Flail unit in a column looking to march round to the left.
Even with the bigger and more cumbersome army, I manage to get first turn. Head for the deepest bits, boys, there's more cover.
Marauders - Turn 1
A quick and quiet first turn, obviously - everything wades into the waters, the sole exception being the Khorne Marauders, who stamp off to one flank and keep their boots dry. We're all marching, so there's no shooting, and I have eschewed magic this time round.
Hopefully Stylus won't see me coming, and I can jump out of the reeds unscathed in turn two.
Warriors - Turn 1
It's a cautious start for me too - the Warriors and Sorcerer edge towards the lip of the swamp, while the Chariot and Knights begin their long sweep around the flanks.
The Chimera does attempt an ambitious charge at the Tzeentch Marauders (his flying ability making it quite fast and not slowed down by the swamp. The charge falls short, but I was only really doing it to invoke a bit of Terror in them.
The real damage comes from my Sorcerer Lord, who hits the Tzeentch Marauders with Word of Pain (dropping their Toughness), then blasts them with a Doombolt that fells six of them.
Only about fifty more to go...
Marauders - Turn 2
The Mark of Khorne grants a unit frenzy, and when you're frenzied, you try to make charges if its at all possible. No worries for my flail-armed Marauder Horsemen, who leap on the chariot, screaming.
Warriors - Turn 2
My Sorcerer Lord and Exalted Champion are also making regular rolls on the Gaze of the Gods table, which doesn't turn out so well for the Sorcerer Lord as he will also be affected by Stupidity. He demonstrates this by immediately failing his test and wandering out into the middle of the swamp, away from his Warrior bodyguard.
The Chimera has a better charge attempt - although still fails to connect with anything. It begins by charging the Horsemen, who fire and flee, chopping off a couple of wounds with their throwing axes as they do so.
Denied a target, the Chimera redirects into the Tzeentch Marauders, who fail their Terror test and flee - directly through the Chaos Ogres, who also fail their Panic test and fall back in good order.
So that's the Marauder centre nicely disrupted, although I would have preferred to feed some of them to my beastie.
On the flank, the Knights continue trot along, while the Chariot makes heavy weather of trying to deal with the remaining Horsemen. Indeed, it does so badly, it loses two wounds and is forced to give ground.
Those Horsemen are fast becoming a threat to both my flanks, which just leaves me with a small infantry unit in the centre and a Sorcerer who is not currently on speaking terms with his own wits.
Marauders - Turn 3
My middle is in disarray! The Ogres and Tzeentchians regroup at the back, whilst the Khorne Marauders spend a turn reforming into battle order. Whilst still in a frenzy, of course, which must be a sight to see.
The axe-throwing horsemen keep up with the Chimera and lob some more blades at it, but to no avail. And their flail-armed chums finally get beaten away by the Chariot. As they flee, they panic the Ogres again, who back off far enough to leave space for the Chariot to catch the horses, who are wiped out in front of them. At least they can't panic again, but it does rather leave them staring down the business end of the Chariot.
Warriors - Turn 3
At least we're getting somewhere! (unless you're a Chaos Knight, in which case, you continue the long march around the flank). The Warriors and Sorcerer Lord redress the ranks, ready for the charge of the Khornite Marauders, and the Sorcerer Lord recovers his senses long enough to hit the unfortunate Tzeentch Marauders with Word of Pain.
It's a particularly bad time to be low on Toughness, as the Chimera appears on the flank and breathes fire all over them. What remains of the smouldering Marauders then panics and, being less than half strength, turns and flees.
The Chariot easily charges into the Ogres, but whiffs its Impacts Hits rather badly, and both sides get stuck into another slogging match.
Turn 4
Combined turn here, my mapping got a bit confused.
As the map above shows, Stylus then threw the Chimera at the Tzeentchian Marauders, who finally gave up the ghost and ran straight off the table. Which meant the Chimera could slam into the Ogres flank.
Ogres like being hit in the flank about as much as you'd expect. The Chimera bit, tail-whipped and stomped two of them down, although the stomps didn't hit until late so I got a reasonable bit of fighting back.
Alas, it was almost useless - I did crush the Chariot, but despite four solid hits from the Ogre Bull on the Chimera, I scored no wounds at all. Aghast at this uselessness, the Ogres break and get run down and eaten up by their three-headed nemesis.
That doesn't leave me much...
Marauders - Turn 5
During the previous turn, Stylus's Sorcerer has left a whirling great Phantasmagoria right in front of the Khorne Marauders. That's not just difficult but dangerous terrain, but seeing as I might make the charge into the Chaos Warriors on the other side, I'm going to have to run through it regardless.
Now to get charged in the face by the heavy infantry.
Warriors - Turn 5
My Chaos Warriors are severely whittled down, but they're charging in anyway. I've got enough in the Chimera (apparently indestructible) and Chaos Knights (so unscathed, you'd think they played no part in the battle) to keep my break point.
The final few Horsemen may prove a nuisance, but I'm confident I've got the drop on the Khorne Marauders, however the combat goes.
As it happens, it goes pretty well for me. Though I lose the challenge with the enemy general, the Chaos Warriors manage to dish out enough punishment to draw the combat and keep the Marauders nicely pinned in place. Even the Sorcerer Lord (who's having another of his funny turns) is up for charging them next turn.
Marauders - Turn 6
Well, they did very well to get this far. The Horsemen are now screening my flank, ready to redirect the Knights or Chimera out of the way if it comes to it, but I rather suspect this turn's combat will be decisive.
And so it is - although I outnumber the Warriors, I fail to kill any of them at all when my General achieves an impressive zero out of five rolls to wound. Wet, dejected and no longer frenzied, the Khorne Boys run and are run down in turn.
That's Break Point!
Result: Victory to the Warriors of Chaos!
Locker Room
Well, they'll be fishing my bones out of that swamp for years.
Despite the limitations, I really liked the novelty of having such a large piece of difficult terrain across the battlefield. It obviously caused problems for everyone, and gave a real sense of bitter enemies hacking away, knee-deep in mud.
Oof - I really could have used a sorcerer. I took a right magical beating throughout the game, and given that my Exalted General was as much use as a pogo stick in a marsh, I wish I'd swapped him for some sort of magician instead. That's hindsight though, and where I really lost this was (as ever) the movement.
I do wonder if we need to start instigating a gentleman's agreement about having spellcasters of the same level - when you have nothing to stop the free reign of magic, it can seem rough.
All that panic that cost me the centre could have been mitigated if I'd kept the units together, instead of trying an elaborate flanking attempt. Stylus learned that with his low-Ld Goblins last time, and I failed to pick up on it. That and possibly not having much of a game plan to deal with the Chimera?
I loved the menace of the Chimera (and it's a model that I've got!) - although it doesn't have many wounds and wasn't invulnerable to missile fire. I was concerned about losing it, and so was keen to stuck in right away. That's another thing I'm enjoying about The Old World - everything seems killable.
All the same - the Marauders may be rubbish, but there's so many of them that they will leave a mark when they hit home. The Horsemen are great too, hard to pin down and quite good (if I'm not rolling, anyway) at chipping away at things and being a nuisance.
The Horsemen were easily the best part of the army. A great screening force, especially if you're planning to overwhelm the enemy with large blocks.
Lots more to explore in the Chaos lists here, so expect more internecine Marauder slaughter at some point in the future!
With all the mud and magic, my vote for the title was 'Somme Enchanted Evening'.
ReplyDeleteVery good! I would also have accepted any of 'Bog Day Afternoon', 'Peat of Clay' or 'A-Swamp-bop-a-loo-bop, a-swamp-bam-boom'.
DeleteGreat game! I have to say I love seeing the swampy terrain in use
ReplyDelete