Chaos Brawl Stars: Chaos vs Chaos

 

Kas hadn't tried The Old World yet!

In some ways, I can't blame him. His armies are Vampire Counts, Ogre Kingdoms, High Elves and Dark Elves. As he pointed out himself, the new edition did feel akin to a slap in the face. Knowing that your collection will be unsupported going forwards, well, why bother?

On the other hand, my counter-argument is that you've already got everything you need! No pressure on your wallet and no increasing lead pile. Not like me, with my only Warriors of Chaos cupboard. Speaking of which...

A Few Bad Men

Once I'd persuaded him to give it a go, he asked for a Khorne list (he usually runs World Eaters at the moment). Our lists were going to be roughly similar anyway, so having a loose theme helped tell them apart a bit. 

He got two infantry blocks, a chariot and a giant, led by a sorcerer and a champion. Not much in the way of whistles or bells - best to keep it simple in early games, and I'm certainly not off book with the rules yet!

His unexpectedly Tzeentchian Sorcerer was packing Battle Magic - Hammerhand and Storm of Fire, if I remember right, so some long range punch with some melee blasts.

 

Warriors of Chaos 

• General - Exalted Champion, Mark of Khorne, hand weapon, heavy armour, shield
• Exalted Sorcerer, level 2 Battle Magic, Mark of Tzeentch, Earthing Rod
• 12 Chaos Warriors, Mark of Khorne, full command, hand weapons and shields
• 20 Chaos Marauders, full command, Mark of Khorne, hand weapons and shields
• Chaos Chariot with Mark of Khorne
• Chaos Giant with Club, light armour and regeneration

A Few Bad Men More

My lot have mostly stuck with Chaos Undivided. It's pretty much the same list, swapping out the Giant for some mixed cavalry, and my leader is a slightly more powerful sorcerer at the expense of a slightly weaker second in command. 

I've also taken a small unit of the more expensive but harder hitting Chaos Chosen. Great weapons is probably a bad plan (they'll always go last) but if they do get to hit, they'll leave a nasty dent. It's also what the models have, which is always vital!

Dark Magic gives me Infernal Gateway, a teleport unit spell, plus a couple of combat blasts - Stream of Corruption and Souleater. Good when I get to melee, but I'd have liked a magic missile or two. Ah well! A Chaos army is never going to rely on shooting to get the job done!

More Warriors of Chaos

• General - Sorcerer Lord on Chaos Steed, level 3 Dark Magic, Mark of Chaos Undivided
• Aspiring Champion - Two hand weapons, heavy armour, Mark of Chaos Undivided
• 20 Chaos Marauders - Mark of Chaos Undivided, full command, flails
• 10 Marauder Horsemen - Mark of Chaos Undivided, full command, light armour, shields and cavalry spears
• 4 Chaos Knights - Mark of Chaos Undivided, lances, shields, heavy armour, full command
• 5 Chaos Chosen - Mark of Chaos Undivided, great weapons, full plate, Drilled, full command
• Gorebeast Chariot - Mark of Tzeentch

Battlefield 

No point building all those nice houses unless you use them, so we're fighting over a pleasant peasant place tonight. 

Pleasant but also on the edge of the world, hence the waterfall.

Keeping it super-simple, so a straightforward scrap to see who can kill the most of the opponent's army. After setting up, we're looking like this:

And Kas, who finished setting up first, takes the first turn!

Fight!

Kas rumbles his line forwards, putting the Giant and Chariot out front. The Marauders are behind, with the Sorcerer ambling next to them. On the other side of the river, his Warrior unit heads angrily towards my Chosen. 

Similarly, my turn is lots of awkward shuffling about in the deployment zone and not much else. Although I do throw the Marauder Horse forwards using Infernal Gateway, setting up for flank attacks on anything squeezing between the cottages. 

Kas doesn't so much squeeze through as spurt - the Chariot makes a long, frenzied charge into the Horsemen. I can't back off, I'm too close to the edge of the board. This is a problem, because I utterly lose the combat, fail the break test significantly and run away home. The Chariot rushes after me, but I won't have seen the last of it. 

Nor is this my only problem - the Giant also manages a long charge, the devil, and gleefully belly-flops on to the Gorebeast. That doesn't achieve much, luckily, and my charioteers quickly put a good handful of wounds back on the big lug. His thunderstomps even the score a bit, but he refuses to yield, meaning we're now stuck fighting in front of the Marauder block so it can't move (the map is a bit out). 

At least some good has come of all this - the Champion on the left has prayed a bit too hard to his Gods and is now Stupid, leading his Warrior unit slowly forward towards the Chosen. Can I nobble them?

Well, I make the charge in, which is something! My Aspiring Champion challenges and Kas's unit champ accepts. He loses, pretty heavily, but in the meantime Kas's Exalted rips the front of my line apart, leaving just one standing after some rotten armour saves. At least he's a champ himself, and takes out a couple of the opposing Warriors, but it's too little - I've lost my banner and he's got the ranks, so off we go. To be caught and trampled seconds later. 

Meanwhile the Chariot keeps trying to take the last wound off the Giant, but fails against his regeneration save! The Giant picks this moment to swing his club, mashing my Chariot in half, then romps merrily into the Marauders behind. Uh-oh. 

Kas's Chariot returns to the field, now facing down my Knights. They're looking like my last best chance for peace, especially as the Giant headbutts, stamps and hollers his way to victory, clobbering an entire rank of the Marauders with stomps before chasing them off the battlefield too. 

The Knights charge the Chariot well enough, beating the Frenzy off it with a wound or two, but it's not going anywhere. In fact, it just gets driven back enough for Kas's Marauders to eye up a nice flank charge, although they decide not to and manouvre for the rear. 

That proves a good choice - his Sorcerer has been having a terrible game (currently triple stupid on the Gaze of the Gods), but slips a Firestorm past my Sorcerer and roasts all four knights in one fell swoop! My guy runs a draw with the Chariot, but is looking distinctly like the filling in a Marauder buttie now. 

So indeed it proves - they make the rear charge, I make none of the requisite armour saves, and that's a nice clean sweep for Kas!

Result - Khorne for the win!

Locker Room

Oof! Just like the good old days - getting tabled by Kas without apparent effort. Clearly nothing has changed!

Good fun all the same. I should have held the Horsemen back, or better still, split them into two small units to misdirect and throw things. Losing them early might have been bad luck, but sometimes those long charges just hit you from nowhere. 

Surprisingly, it felt like a nice balanced game, despite the result! I could easily have turned it round if I'd made first contact, I think. The Gorebeast, for example, could probably have beaten the Giant on the charge. The Chosen got what they deserved, though, that was not the right fight to throw them into. Probably too small a unit overall, but they're certainly tough and nasty if they could nearly draw a fight even after losing most of them. 

Both teams will doubtless be back in time. Wonder if I can tempt Kas to break out his armies for a scrap sometime while they wait?