Journey to the Dark Side - Game 3 - Goblins + Warriors

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NonnoSte
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Joined: 07 Oct 2013, 14:59
Armies I play: All kind of Elves.
Location: Turin, Italy.

Journey to the Dark Side - Game 3 - Goblins + Warriors

Post by NonnoSte »

So, it finally took place.

As I spoiled some days ago, I was up to go to my first “real” tournament (you know, the one outside your gaming group, with strangers ready to use any mean, justified just by the end of winning and blah, blah, blah...).
Last week end I actually attended it and I found it most enjoyable and really pleasant, althought a bit demanding in terms of physical endurance.

I would have dreamed to start my tournament “career” with my beloved Wood Elves and give a good show of awesomeness with a sub-par army in a super competitive environment.
I was dreaming of Wild Riders zooming around the battlefield, Scouts running away in small corridors through charge arcs and some fluffiness like an Eagle Lord spreading panic on the battlefield.
All grand and magnificent dreams, if they weren’t destined to never become true.
The tournament was a Battle Brother, so I needed a partner to team with at the very least.

A quick search among my club mates and the only one interested in attending a “real” tournament turned out to be my usual Chaos opponent.
Let me spend a few words on him.
He used to play exclusively 40k Daemons or Chaos Marines until the last year when we convinced him to try his Daemons in Fantasy. Since then, he liked WHFB more and more, up to the point he set aside all his 40k stuff and, with the pretext of End of Time, he finally bought models from both Warriors of Chaos and Beastmen to complete his army.
He’s a weird person: extremely competitive player, very competent and precise but, most of all, very quick to rage against his own luck, dice, models, chairs, walls (and anyhting around him, actually). I honestly think that at home he worships Khorne for real and his mind goes on repeating “Kill, Burn, Mayhem”.

The whole thing was starting to shape out really funny and interesting.

The only problem up to now was the fact that TOs did not allowed desperate alliances to take part at the event (or alliances took from the same AB, but I guess that was pretty much given).
Since my mate had nothing bar Chaos armies and was quite categorical about not wanting to run my High Elves along my army, I had to accept the worst compromise possible.
I would have attended the tournament with my wife’s Dark Elves.

To be honest, it was also a good thing, because the armies were going to be evalued on painting quality and my Wood Elves are not really at their best. Suffice to say that I rather use Dark Elves instead of presenting my army to a painting judge.

Once we settled for the alliance, we needed to find out the two armylists to submit, so we started playtesting.
The tournament was not comped at all, allowing any kind of silliness or special characters/rules. Even Forgeworld and End of Time add-ons were allowed as long as they were presented with original models and relative ruleset, but we were still limited by what we had ready to play.

The really interesting thing in all of this was that the first two classified received an invitation for the regional tournament held in the end of this summer, so we were motivated to perform really well and the scoring system being 20-0, meant we had to include something able to push for big wins as well as somthing that did not bleed points.
This was the first thing upon which we had divergent ideas.

First we tried a classic MSU Daemons army (Horrors, Beasts and Cannons) along a Black Dragon with two Steed Masters in a Dark Riders bus and a couple of RBTs, with magic covered by Horrors while shooting and combat were my job.
I really liked it. He did not liked the Dragon.
He feared cannons, doubted the Dragon effectiveness, accused a lack of models and so on.
He was clearly missing the point of kicking asses with a f**king Dragon!!
Too bad.
As a second step (thanks to Phil’s suggestions), I convinced him to go Nurgle and we were planning to have a block of Plaguebearers, some Beasts, 3 Flies and the ever-present Skillcannon along a mounted Sorceress on Beasts in a big Dark Riders pack, 2 x 5 Brolocks, RBTs and a Pegmaster.
It was pure murder.
We tabled every opponent we tested against and we started to feel really confident with the two lists.
We were ready to submit them, when we found out a little rule about alliances and Dark Elves in particular. In any alliance where Druchii start as trusted ally, you have to roll a D6 at the beginning of each turn, on a roll of 4+ your alliance moves to suspect and up to desperate.
It meant that by turn 4 on average we would have been forced to split Power Dice and Dispel Dice other than a lot of other smaller inconvenient. With our respective luck we knew it would have been turn 2 in almost any match.

At this point the time was starting to wear off and we were starting to go mad on list building.
We were changing lists several times to try and fit some sort of magic in both of them to avoid wasting too many dice. We even came up to the point where I would have had to run a Warriors filthiness (Disc Sorcerer, Daemonic BSB, Blasted Warriors blocks, Hellcannon) along his Daemons.
I’m glad we didn’t have to go that far.

In the end (which means the night before the submission term) we decided to ignore anyhting completely and just run whatever we felt to.
Last edited by NonnoSte on 02 Jun 2015, 09:33, edited 3 times in total.
NonnoSte
Bladesinger
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Posts: 904
Joined: 07 Oct 2013, 14:59
Armies I play: All kind of Elves.
Location: Turin, Italy.

Re: Journey to the Dark Side - The Journey begins

Post by NonnoSte »

The Steel Phalanx

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Tzeentch Sorcerer L4 (Metal), Armour of Fortune, Obsidian Lodenstone, Power Stone, Third Eye of Tzeentch, Scally Skin.
17 Tzeentch Warriors, shields, cahampion, Blasted Standard
3 x 5 Khorne Chosens, champions
War Shrine


Raiders of the Twilight

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Master on Dark Pegasus, heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, shield, lance, Cloak of Twilight.
Master on Dark Pegasus BSB, heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, lance, Talisman of Preservation, Charmed Shield.
3 x 5 Dark Riders, shields, repeater crossbows, 2 x standards (due to scenarios).
4 x Reaper Bolt Throwers.
2 x 5 Doomfire Warlocks



The whole Dark Force

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(sorry for blurry pictures. They were taken at 9 AM, at the arrival to the event and my hand was anything but firm enough to take a clear shot. I also found out the photo is completely different once it’s moved from the phone to a pc)

He decided to take Warriors because he was very interested in the painting prize and he did a masterpiece out of his War Shrine, and he put some real effort in painting warriors in general.
Anyway we needed them to work, so the idea behind the two armies was to have a big point denial block in the form of the Warriors with the Sorcerer (we’re talking about nearly 900 points almost untouchable from range, which can grind down anyhing that manges to get to them) that could control field zones as well as working like an anchor for the rest of the army, composed by some MSU annoyance units and a battery of 4 RBTs to control the movement and 2 fast hard hitters to go and pick the favourable targets, possibly supported by a couple of Daemon Princes popped out from the Chosen.
Most important, both of us had some magic in case we would have been forced to split dice.

Let’s see what we had:

Tzeentch Sorcerer:
He’s the classic Chaos character with a little twist. We decided to use him more to support his unit rather then to be a solo star.
Still, he’s a tough nut to crack, protected by a 1+/4++ reroll 1s. He also provides MR(3) to the whole unit, which combined with mark of Tzeentch means the unit has a 3++ ward save against Magic Missiles and Direct Damage. It was important because in case we had split Dispel Dice, we could let damage spells go off on the unit with no real worry.
The Magic Resistance was also an insurance against Death snipes for my two Peg Masters in the first turns of the game, providing them a 2++ against them.
Investing so much in defence, meant he had no offensive boost to offer to his unit, placing him slightly over the level of a regular champion with 4 attacks at WS 6 and Str4. Anyway we felt we had tools enough to deal damage to selected target and no savy opponents would have ever engaged the Warriors unit with ease. The Power Stone was the arcane item of choice exactly in case we found ourselves forced to split dice ehile we needed the specific Metal spell to go off.

Tzeentch Warriors:
With T4, 3+ AS and a 5++ parry save they’re one of the toughest units in the game, contending the first place to Temple Guards and Plague Bearers. Being core it’s unvaluable and once we decided they role was to hold the ground in a given position and bunker the Sorcerer to keep a lot of points safe from our opponents, all they needed was the insurance thay would have not been whittled down and then engaged at unfavourable conditions. Thus the MR(3) for the 3++ against spells and the Blasted Standard.
The Tzeentch Standard works wonders against shooting: on a 2+ it halves the Str of any shooting attack aiming at the unit. On a roll of 1, tough, the Str of the attack is doubled. It’s really great as a countermeasure against Cannons, since Str10 can’t be doubled anyway and we intended to use it at his maximum to protect the two Peg Masters too in case we faced several war machines. The Drawback is almost negligible unless in the unlucky situation you face multiple Stone Throwers fired by players with serious dice rolling abilities. Still, I guess any opponent wouldn’t be happy to waste shots on a units which has more than 80% of chance to shrug off the hit as if it were nothing.

Khorne Chosen:
Chosen are the best warriors of the entire wharhammer at the steep point cost of 23 ppm with mark of Khorne (frenzy) and haleberds (+1 Str) they unleash 15 attacks at WS6 and Str5 for each unit. The interesting part is that at the beginning of the game each unit of Chosen rolls on the Chaos Gifts table with a dice more, discarding one at choice and the whole unit gains the reward for the whole game, which can be +1T, +1Str, +1A, +1 to AS, +1 to Ward and so on.
Unless you roll double 6.
In that case, the champion of the unit has to pass an unmodified Ld test (wit no Inspiring Presence or Hold your Ground) to turn into a Daemon Prince. Yes, a free Daemon Prince at the start of the game. (actually you can also turn into a Choas Spawn if you roll double 1, but it’s quite unlikely)
The Daemon Prince will maintain his chaotic allignement as well as any previous equipment. From our Khorne Chosen, we were going to get Khorne Daemon Princes with Chaos Armour and Haleberds.
Surely the ability to have free monsters is huge, but the other rewards are not to be underestimated. +1A brings them at 21 attacks on a 5 model frontage, while +1 Str puts them at the level of a serious threat even for heavy cavalries. Both the +1T and the +1 AS turn a speed-bump unit into a potential roadblocker and a decent grinder.

War Shrine:
This model is largely useless if not as a cannon bait/screen.
It’s slow, it doesn’t have a serious damage output and a regular chaos chariot is stronger under any aspect.
The only thing it does is to add an additional die to the roll on the Chaos Gifts table for each character/unit rolling on it within 12”. Even on the pre-match roll of the Chosen.
Yeah, that’s right. A double 6 on 3 rolls of 4 dice is much more reliable than a casual one when your champion/character wins a challenge. 1 on 3 match should see us start with a Daemon Prince. Or at least we can choose the reward we need the most according to the situation.
It also has a bound spell which forces a roll on the table to champions/characters within his range.

Peg Masters:
If anyone ever played against one of them, I’m sure he’ll remember.
They’re as tough as an Elven character can get. T4, 3W, 1+ and various sorts of save makes them the envy of other elven races. The lance also gives them Str6 on the charge and the Pegasus itself charges at Str5.
I decided to take the common build with Cloak of Twilight for a 3++ save against shooting and spells and the bonus of KB and Multiple Wounds (D3) on the first CC turn as my General, with the option to send him in only when necessary, while providing IP from distance and the more standard 4++ and Charmed Shield build as BSB since the +1CR could get handy more often than not in combat.
They’re our hard hitters and when used together or combined with other units they’re able to wreck entire units on their own (in the test we used one of them along a Skullcannon and most of the time we wanted the cannon in combat as soon as possible because of their effectiveness).

Dark Riders:
Classic elven fast cavalry, but with a decent 4+ armour save and Repeated Crossbow to grant both resiliance and small fire enough to concern opponents chaffs or light troops. They’re much more versatile than their cheaper HE counterpart or our Glade Riders because they can charge some softer stuff without risking to give free CR to light troops or they can stay out of harm and unleash a real load of shots (multiple shots on mobile units are really good).
I took banners instead of musicians because of Blood and Glory. I wanted to avoid an autoloss in case we lost the General, but I lacked the +1 to rally once and it took a unit out of the match for 3 whole turns. Next time I’ll try to squeeze in both.

Reaper Bolt Throwers:
They’re our only way to threaten powerful solo models like chariots, monsters and superheroes and to put some pressure on regular and monstruous Cavalry.
Anyway, the incredible ability of elven bolt throwers to switch to multi-shot, ensured that they’re never useless even against infantries or MSU armies. Putting 24 Str4 shots could worry any unit and delete completely smaller regiments.

Doomfire Warlocks:
The same thing true for Peg Masters is doubly true for Warlocks.
If you played against them, you’ll remember them.
They can be brutal. 4D6 Str5 hits can be brutal. -1S/-1T in a 24” bubble can be brutal.
And on top of being exceptional casters wihich ignore miscast on two of the strongest spells of the game, they’re fast cav, with 2 poisoned Str4 attacks each and a built in 4++ ward save.
They can cover any role. Mobile shooters through magic, warmachines hunters extremely hard to stop, boosters for both your combat and ranged damage.
They were my “part” of magic and, since a non-boosted Soulblight has decent change to go off with just 2 dice, they could be useful and dangerous even with split power dice.
I remember when the Dark Elves book came out on BolS someone said that no good players would have ever done a list without 2 units of 5 Warlocks.
I guess he was right.

I know the Dark Elves list is really cheesy, but neither of us ever really run them (althought I face them weekly) so we wanted to be sure to take units plain and simple to put at good use.

I still wanted my Dragon.
NonnoSte
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - The Journey begins

Post by NonnoSte »

The night before the tournament I was at work until 3AM and my mind refused completely to hear the alarm 4 hours later, so it was with no surprise that at 8:30 AM me and my mate found ourselves stuck in a traffic jam on the road to the tournament location with at least half an hour of delay on the schedule. In all, it was still bearable.
We got there exactly at 9 AM for a quick coffe at the hotel bar before we had to register.
One of the couple forfait the tournament leaving 15 couples of players (in the meanwhile in another hall there were 22-24 couples playing 40k), but two of the TOs decided to take their place just to even the numbers.

Unsurprisingly we found out the most represented army was Warriors of Chaos and Daemons, followed by High Elves and Lizardmen (this last was a bit surprising to be honest). Apparently, the “favoured” couple had a Warrior + Daemons netlist (if we can claim such a thing exists for Battle Brother tournaments) nicely painted, revolving around a Tzeentch Warriors block and a Plaguebearers one.
TOs asked to display all the armies on the tables to take pics and evaluate the painting scores, which would have been up to 10 points each (20 per couple), added to the result of the 3 matches played in the day to differentiate the scores of the various players.
There were a couple of Asrai armies. One was a Sisters High bus and Swiftshiver Glade Guards block along an High Elves BotWD Helm bus run by our club mates, while the other was run by the TO himself along some Dwarves, but since they were not in competition for the painting challenge, they were not displayed.

We just had to wait for pairings at that point and I put those last minutes to good use taking another coffe. My head was starting to move from the sleep dumbness to the morning pain.

Needless to say, we were paired against the Warriors + Daemons army in our first match.
NonnoSte
Bladesinger
Bladesinger
Posts: 904
Joined: 07 Oct 2013, 14:59
Armies I play: All kind of Elves.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by NonnoSte »

Game 1 – Warriors + Daemons – Battle for the Pass


As soon as we saw the first pairing, we knew the match would have been uphill from the start.
Warriors + Daemons is strong no matter what and our opponents were also the favoured winners of the event.
What’s more, they had all the best choices from both armies:

Warriors of Chaos

Tzeentch Sorcerer L4 (Metal) on Disc, Third Eye of Tzeentch, Chaos Familiar, Talisman of Preservation, Sword of Might, Enchanted Shield, Ruby Ring of Ruin.
Tzeentch BSB on Barded Demonic Mount, great weapon, Scaled Skin, Armour of Destiny.
23 Tzeentch Warriors, full command
3 x 5 War Hounds, 2 x Vanguard

Daemons of Chaos

Herald of Nurgle on Palenquin, Lesser gifts, Greater Locus of Fecundity
23 Plague Bearers, full command
Beast of Nurgle
5 Chaos Furies
3 Flamers of Tzeentch
5 Flesh Hounds
Skullcannon
3 Plague Drones
, standard

There are two unkillable Chaos characters, two unshiftable blocks and loads of chaff.
On the Sorcerer they decided to go with the classic flying build, with Sword of Might to help him kill some lighter stuff in lose combat and the Ruby Ring to complement Searing Doom against unarmoured troops, but it looked pretty bad news anyway. The Familiar is a great choice for the Arcane Item allownace on Chaos Sorcerers, since at 25 pts it lets your caster to know a spell more and to channel on 5+. We did not included it because we really wanted the ability to cast a big spell even if our alliance turned desperate and we had to split dice.
Our general plan was to slow down the two blocks with fast cavs and ignore completely the Disc Lord, in the meanwhile our shooting would have took care of their chaff, protected by our Warriors. Our morning mental status didn't really help to execute it properly tough.

Magic

Our Sorcerer:Transmutation of Lead, Enchanted Blades, Glittering Robes, Searing Doom.
Their Sorcerer: Final Transmutation, Transmutation of Lead, Enchantede Blades, Plague of Rust, Searing Doom.

With almost the same spell selection, their sorcerer had quite an edge over ours thanks to the extra spell from the Familiar and the added Fireball, so that they could almost choose whatever they wanted. A double was changed for Final Trans and Glittering Robes was switched for Searing Doom.
For our caster, we didn't rolled Final Trans or any double, so Searing Doom took the place of Plague of Rust.

Deployment and Vanguard

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All the battlefield were pretty simple, but terrain pieces had a high level of detail and were very elaborated, so the general resul was of a crawded table with difficult lines of sight and lots of narrow zones where to manouver in if you wanted to avoid terrains completely.
Here there were a couple of buildings (2 stories tall) and two towers (3 stories tall), two normal forests in the middle and a lot of small impassable terrains scattered around, the bigger one in the north-east.
Scenarios were rolled once by the TOs for all the games in the turn, so first turn was Battle for the Pass on all the tables.
Our opponents won the roll to choose the side and decided to leave us on the right since there were less places where to hide my Pegasi and the big rock on the north covered the line of sight from the hill behind on a good portion of the field.
We committed the Tzeentch block pretty early to force their deplyoment on the north, so that we had a southern flank light enough to be controlled by my fast cavalries. Pegasi went down behind the only shelter they could find and Chosens with the Shrine hid behind the central wood.
They clustered all around their two blocks on the north, with all the flyers on the edge of the battlefield to get to our RBTs as soon as possible, leaving the southern flank to the Beast and the Skullcannon, covered by Flamers fire (so much for the light flank).

They won the roll for vanguard as well and simply moved their dogs in front of the infantry blocks, while I advanced aggressively on the south and opened the flank on the north.
Chosen rolled for their rewards and the first two unit could choose to have +1A (packing 21 Str5 attacks per unit at I5 and WS6) while on the third roll the awaited double 6 showed up. We started the match with a free Daemon Prince.
Our opponents faces started to look grim. Yay!

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They had the +1 to start and the first turn went to them.


Warriors + Daemons Turn 1

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They started pivoting around the Plaguebearers to push us down, closing all the gaps so that I couldn’t sneak my fast cavs behind his lines. This also brought their flyers in charge range for our RBTs in the next turn and left their general quite exposed.
In fact, his only concern was to throw as many dice as possible on a Final Transmutation towards our Warriors block. We failed to dispel with all our dice, but luckily he killed just 3 of them, not even enough to panic the unit. His last two dice were thrown at a Searing Doom on the Daemon Prince descended by the realm of chaos, but with only 4+ armour and the save afterward, no wound was scored.
Skullcannon gave a second try at killing the monster, but missed completely. On the other hand, Flamers found a much better aim and killed two Dark Riders, who couldn’t keep their nerves and fled, spreading the fear into Warlocks hearts near behind. So much for moving far from the BSB.


Dark Force Turn 1

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We forgot about the side effect of Final Transmutations and apparently my elves were more greedy then expected. Dark Riders and two RBTs out of Three failed their Stupidity test and were useless for the rest of the turn (again, a nearby BSB would have been priceless).
At least the Daemon Prince spotted a good opportunity thanks an incautious placement of a unit of Dogs with an easy overrun into Tzeentch Warriors. He charged the Hounds and feast with them, smashing on the face of the Chaos BSB to start a bloody fight in the next turn.
Everything else rushed forward with Warlocks flanking the Skullcannon. Dark Riders and the other Warlocks unit rallied with ease with he BSB nearby, but them too could not participate to the battle yet.
Magic was uneventful, either with me failing a Doombolt on the Cannon or my mate failing a Searing Doom on the Sorcerer and our opponents dispelling the reast with no effort.
The two working RBTs at least sent the central unit of Dogs running in the middle of their lines.


Warriors + Daemons Turn 2

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Furies charged the nearest RBT and then it was our time to pay for sloppy units placement. Our opponents managed to get a charge with Drones on the flank of one unit of Chosen, while the Beast, after a flee of Dark Riders, pinned down the other unit standing in the path of the overrun. The earliest hours of the morning were taking their tolls on both teams since we made a misteke after the other in these first two turns.
In the end we evaluated this would have brought Flies in charge range of my Peg Masters, helping them to get closer to the action too, so we where not that desperate to lose those two units. In the meanwhile, in the southern flank, Flamers moved towards my Warlocks and the Cannon pivoted to recieve their charge on the front, as well as looking for a good shot on my characters. Flesh Hounds decided not to show up.
The Disc Lord flew behind our Infantry block and then we realized our worst mistake.
6 dice were rolled again on a Final Transmutation and once again we failed to dispel it.
This time six warriors fell and the panic test was... double 6.

At this point I witnessed an astounding show of face morphing.

Our opponents’ eyes started to glow and gleam, with a grin spreading slowly on their faces, bright with satisfaction.
But my mate.
Oh, my mate was an entirely different level of awesomeness.
A vein started to pulse on his neck and I clarly saw each of his tendons snapping on his foreharms as he closed his fists. His eyes narrowed and the mouth shut so firmly that the lips were gradually fading into white. He maintained a stony face, but his gaze could have burnt and melt the whole table if he just fixed it for a while.
We discussed it befor the event and we agreed that it wasn’t advisable to let some rage burst ruin a game and our possible performance, so he was saying nothing.
But I was dying with laughters inside and I could not resist. With all the nonchalance and carelessness of the world I let go casually: “See, I told you a BSB could have been useful in your army too”.
I think he never sweared so much before and all I was able to do was just laughing. Our opponents started to stare at us quite embarassed actually and I think at some point they even felt sorry for me or for him. Or for both.
The point is that he’s a Daemon player. So no panic, no fear, no terror, no break test that cause the flee of a key unit. He’s simply not used to the BSB.
After he burned out all the rage, he wore a mask of seriousness and determination which was unbelievable if confronted with his recent face.

He rolled for flee distance and even managed to stay on the board. Then Flamers claimed a single Warlocks, The cannon ball was bounced by the Charmed Shield on my BSB so couldnt it the General behind. Lastly, the two combat with Chosens ended in a very unexpected way. Flies managed to leave the champion alive who fled of incredible 2 inches, so quite before the other unit.
To avoid being stuck in the woods with Chosen on the flank he restrained and reformed towards them. The other combat was even more unbelievable, with Chosen scoring two wounds on the Beast and losing a single model.

Apparently Khorne decided to even the scores with Tzeentch, after the terrific luck he sent us.

Even the RBT crew killed a Fury with no harm back.
The only luckluster combat for us remained the Daemon Prince who, even charging at Str8 (+1 Haleberd, +1 thanks to Khorne), could not even scratch the opposing BSB behind all his magical protections. In return he did not suffered any wound either and, being unbreakable, stuck around, blocking his entire unit.


Dark Force Turn 2

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This turn just one RBT was Stupid, so it was our time to charge.
Warlocks went for the Skillcannon, the two Peg Masters charged respectively the flanks of Flamers and Beast and meawshile, in the north, Flies received Chosen on front and Dark Riders on the flank. Everything else shuffled a bit, with the Shrine moving to clear the furies.
At this point we had to rally the Sorcerer unit.
Tzeentch was cruel again and another double 6 appeared (now I’m starting to think they were the fee for the free Daemon Prince we got this match), but apparently my mate had run out of foreign languages to curse properly his luck. At least we had nice charges this turn.
Since our alliance wasn’t desperate yet and we had no other magic, I used all the 6 dice to cast a Doombolt on their Disc Lord, failing by one. Our shooting also revealed to be uneffective on him, with an RBT shot failing to wound and the other one being saved.
All the Daemons vapoured either under the combined Elven and Warriors’ attacks or called back by the realms of Chaos. All except the Skullcannon which took three wounds from the Warlocks and manage to kill only one, but at this point he rolled a double 1 for his demonic instability.
Their Exhalted Hero in the meanwhile scored a wound on the Daemon Prince who was chasing mosquitos with his attacks. Basically nothing changed there, as it will be the entire match.
The 3 surviving Furies killed the elves and were ready to charge the next bolt thrower.

Warriors + Daemons Turn 3

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Furies leapt onto the second warmachine and the Disc Lord, a bit worried by the potential firepower he could have faced, decided to charge too, hitting the back of the Chosen who stopped against Dogs. Dogs and Plaguebearers advanced towards the center to avoid me to try and flank the Warriors unit. Hounds appeared behind the lone RBT.
An astounding 12 dice magic phase brought a unit of Plaguebearer behind the last RBT and pushed a Plague of Rust through on the Dark Riders nearby (we focused on dispelling the buffs/debuffs in the Daemon Prince fight).
The chosen champion challenged the Disc Lord just to be slained, while his companion butchered the Dogs for a nice Draw. In the meanwhile two furies fell under the blows of RBT attendants, achieving nothing. The Exalthed Hero and the Daemon Prince traded a wound each for nothing to be changed yet. Skullcannon and Warlocks did the same.


Dark Force Turn 3

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The Shrine decided to take care of the Dogs and caught them after their really poor flight. All the other units surrounded Plaguebearers setting a trap for a multiple charge the next turn.
A low magic phase drew the scroll on a Soulblight towards Plaguebearer and saw a Doombolt hit them. I followed with all the fire power I still had at disposal and in the end less than 4 ranks remained.
The Disc Lord did a quick job of the Chosen, as well as the Fury with the RBT crew and, unfortunately, theSkullcannon with the last two Warlocks. At least the Daemon Prince scored a second wound on their BSB.


Warriors + Daemons Turn 4

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TOs went to said to pair (I don’t know if it’s the correct term in English. It could be simply “even”) the turn and end the game with this fourth one, since we all played quite slowly and didn’t noticed we were short on the two and a half hours time at disposal.
Hounds and the newborn Plaguebearers charged their RBTs, but the Disc Lord, instead of risking to remain exposed for the last turn simply hid behind Warriors with LoS on my Peg Masters. Plaguebearers with the Herald simply reformed to take most of the charges on the front and the last Fury hid too. The Skullcannon, finally free to move, spotted the back of my BSB.
Magic was uneventful, since we dispelled the big Searing Doom on my BSB and anything else was pretty useless by now. They even attempted a desperate Final Transmutation on my Warlocks, but killed just one.
The cannon, to even the score, hit the BSB with irreproachable precision and with the same certainty with which I failed my 4++ and the 3 on the wounds die popped out smiling.
Obviously my General nearby failed his Ld9 no-more-rerollable test and fled across the battlefield.
At this point our opponents (which were very kind, actually) started to feel sorry for real about the absurd turn of the events in the match and admitted a lot of the last happenings were unlikely due to their generalship.
Long story short, RBTs went down and the BSB scored another wound on the uneffective Daemon Prince.


Dark Force Turn 4

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So this was the last turn and we also turned out to be desperate ally.
So, instead of facing a possible big all in against his block of Plague Bearers, my units chased the last Fury to rack up those last 70 points.
With split Power Dice my Doombolt had to be the small one and they dispelled it easily, so the match ended there.


After match thoughts

The match ended with around 1000 VP of advantage for them, so it was an utterly 16-4.
Everything was down to that Skullcannon-Warlocks fight which would have netted us 250 VP alone, plus the 200 VP of a living BSB and around 500 VP of the Plaguebearers block with the Herald.
We could have aimed for a draw even with the bad opening of Chaos Warriors.At least that one was completely our fault.
In the first steps of the match we did pretty stupid mistakes like vanguarding so close to flamers without BSB in range or allowing his Drones a potential overrun through all our Chosen.
We also lost a lot of shooting because of failed Stupidity test and we wasted another lot aiming at the Sorcerer (this at least forced him to hide in close combat).
In all, we lacked the presence of BSB in too many situations. I should have deployed more gathered around him and I’m sure my mate won’t be willing to run something other than Daemons without the Banner.

The Battle For the Pass didn’t helped yet, since we had a pretty aggressive amry and we wanted to get in combat as soon as possible with our Warriors. Maybe deploying our Tzeentch block further aback with Chosen and fast cavs in front of them in two lines could have saved us a lot of points, but his cannon would have had a lot of time to aim and kill both Masters and the Shrine, while the Disc Lord could have closed the gap and cast the same Final Transmutation, being sure we would have run for the back edge.

I wonder if we had to rematch them (they proposed a rematch in the near future, living quite close to us) what we could try to do to limit more their Sorcerer and to clear quicker their chaff.
Last edited by NonnoSte on 27 May 2015, 16:34, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by Mollesvinet »

EDIT: wow, the match showed up after I posted this. Will read it and edit this post accordingly!
Last edited by Mollesvinet on 27 May 2015, 17:34, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by razorfate »

It is very exiting to read:)
What happened then?

Edit: Exactly happened to me i wrote the response before the batrep. But the tension was great.
Hope your luck would have swing during the tournament.
Last edited by razorfate on 27 May 2015, 20:48, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by NonnoSte »

Thanks Mollesvinet, I have all the BC diagrams ready and I'm now writing the reports in almost-proper english.
I'm trying to write some quick review of the performance of some units too and a bit of description of the fact happened during the whole day.

My mate also just sent me the Deployment pic, so I already put it up after the deployment diagram.
It looks like from memory I misplaced the Dogs on the north (they should have been both in the front line, with Warriors near behind) and inverted the Flamers and the Dogs on the south.
Anyway the flow of the battle is correct if not for maybe a couple of inches more or less after some movements (Warriors could have been a bit more behind and Flamers could have moved a bit further before shooting to Warlocks).
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

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Such bad luck! Even though you did a few mistakes that cost you, the main losses were simply due to bad luck. You didn't get transformation, you failed most of your important spells, the cannon would be dead if it wasn't for double 1 break test and half the chaos army ran off. It was lucky to get a daemon prince, but I am a bit surprised it didn't die earlier from a WoC BSB with great weapon and only 4+ 5++ as defense. The equipment is really what makes the daemon princes awesome.

About the chaos disc guy, there really isn't a lot of sensible things to do about him. He dies quite easily to combat res, but without other tricksters shard there just isn't another good way of taking him out. If you can charge him with a unit that can survive to rounds of combat with him, then you can set him up for a charge from a ranked unit. Otherwise in the future I would try to split up the bolt throwers so he can only get a few of them and then simply ignore him until the rest of the army is dealt with.

Hope you have better luck in your next games (and perhaps advance a bit more carefully)!
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by NonnoSte »

"To him the morning was the worst part of the day, which he feared and never brought him any good. He had never been content in any morning of his life, never did anything good before midday, never had a good idea."

Thankfully after noon we played much better and had a bit better luck as well.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

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It was a hilarious tale about your friends face though!
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

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Yes, indeed:)
Where is the rest of the story if i may ask?
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by NonnoSte »

You can't imagine what a show it was in first person.

What are you asking for, Razorfate?
Do you want the detailed report of all his injuries against the Chaos Gods or are you just asking for the rest of the tournament reports? I'm afraid for the latter you'll have to wait another couple of days (second one almost ready), in the other case, I can arrange a quick sum-up by PM (they're not really suitable for pubblic forums :p ).
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by Aezeal »

NonnoSte wrote:You can't imagine what a show it was in first person.

What are you asking for, Razorfate?
Do you want the detailed report of all his injuries against the Chaos Gods or are you just asking for the rest of the tournament reports? I'm afraid for the latter you'll have to wait another couple of days (second one almost ready), in the other case, I can arrange a quick sum-up by PM (they're not really suitable for pubblic forums :p ).
For me making a report takes about as long as playing a game.... it's a pretty time consuming business.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by Mollesvinet »

I am a lot faster at writing reports now than when I began, but it still takes quite a while and requires some effort. It is a good exercise though, and going through the game will let you notice a lot of mistakes and correct them for further games.


Looking forward for the next game NonnoSte :D
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

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As Phil does greatly on his own army blog on Ulthuan, I wanted to give some feedback on the unit we played in the tournament, underlining the most evident strength and weakness during the matches.
I know our armies has nothing to do with Asrai, but if we're really going to team up permanently with other elves the Druchii part of the army could interest someone.
Anyway I think it's alway good to know stregth and weakness even of units from other armies and general tactics can never hurt.

Mind that I don't rate myself good enough to teach anything, nor I'm an experienced player enought to provide years of testing and comparing, so these will be just my personal thoughts about two armies that I never played before (and I will unlikely play again).

Peg Masters:

They were the real MVPs in all the matches, even if I played somewhat defensively with them and I generally used them to pick softer targets. They cleared Warmachines, shooters, chaff, lone characters and even routed the main bunker twice during the tournament.
It’s a real shame that the last combo charge on Plaguebearers in the first match didn’t go off, since I was really curious to find out what they would have really achieved.

1+ armour makes them almost immune to BS shooting and the multiple wards you can give them grant a good protection against warmachines. It’s great that they can join units to discard some small shooting in the first turns, without crippling the unit movement.
Two of them teaming up controlled battlefield zones with an incredible ease and the long charge range meant that the opponent had really to watch out for what he let alone in the open.
Being able to threaten juicy targets from 18” away means they give the same board control a shooting unit can.
The most value during the tournament was the ability to join them to the Warriors unit to gain the effects of the Blasted Standard, but Warriors players already know how powerul that combination is. We could effectively use the Warriors as a launch pad for them until they got in range of some suitable target (ie nothing with more than two ranks)
Anyway, even without the standard their survivability is damn good and they’re killers once they hit comobat.
Nothing to compare to the Dragon damage potential, but no Monsters or Chariots or Character can freely enter they active zone with ease.


Doomfire Warlocks:

They’re plain good. Period.
Seriously, they are a steal for their point cost (as well as Sisters of the Thorn, if you ask me) even when they weren’t able to contribute in the magic phase.
I cast a single Doombolt the whole day with them, either because I tried and failed the boosted version or because I drew the scroll or just because L2 in casting is easily matched by L4 in dispelling, but they were always feared. Still, a Doombolt dispelled sometimes meant a Glittering Robe on Warriors for 1+ AS or Enchanted Blades on Chosen for a real slaughter machine.
Soulblight is similarly dangerous and no opponent wants it on his main unit when it’s going to receive 24 bolt shots and 30 crossbow darts. Obviously when you’ve set multiple charges and parked a unit of warlocks in the middle of them, the boosted version can change the match entirely.

Their strength tough is being a fast cav with 4++. They just don’t die (or do it really slowly) and you can afford to send them into tougher stuff to keep it on the spot. I wouldn’t hesitate a minute to charge an heavy cavalry bus with a unit of 5 Warlocks and laugh as they struggle to get rid of the annyance they pose.
The poisoned attacks are just the ace on the cake. 8 rerollable Poisoned attack on a frontage of 4 mean they have excellent chances to place 2 or 3 wounds on tougher stuff like monsters and chariots.
Oh, did I mentioned they’re a fast cav with 4++? Try to send them chasing warmachines. An Hellblaster Volleygun or an Organ Gun will struggle to delete the whole unit in the turn you have to let them exposed before the charge (they’d need 10 wounds which, if you’re clever and placed them at least 13” away, are 30 shots) and they hit with lots of rerolling attacks.

They fall second in my evaluation, just because they were countered with any mean by the opponents and couldn't really express all their effectiveness.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by NonnoSte »

Back on the tournament now.

After the first match, our mood was pretty low as we stopped by the bar to order some sandwiches and pizzas, along with an artisan beer which I wanted to taste from long time (I never expected to find it there, but there it was) and by which I was disappointed almost like by our recent game.

We had plenty of time before the next match so after a good coffe and a much deserved cigarette we started to wander around the playing room to see the armies present.
One of them caught our eyes since it was a giant horde of Gors, a Bray Shaman, a BSB and a Slaguetongue. Nothing more. That horde looked huge.
The Beastmen player paired up with a Forest Goblin army, which had an Aragnarok, some Goblin Bosses on Gigantic Spiders, a bunch of Spider Riders and several Night Goblins unit, with Fanatics swinging around cows, pigs, chickens and all sort of animals, pretty thematic as far as other armies go.

After an hour or so, the pairings were out and we were on the next to last table.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

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NonnoSte wrote:You can't imagine what a show it was in first person.

What are you asking for, Razorfate?
Do you want the detailed report of all his injuries against the Chaos Gods or are you just asking for the rest of the tournament reports? I'm afraid for the latter you'll have to wait another couple of days (second one almost ready), in the other case, I can arrange a quick sum-up by PM (they're not really suitable for pubblic forums :p ).
I was asking for the rest of batreps in the same style ofc:) Please do not make spoilers of the events so we can read with the same enthusiasm:)

We have a guy in our club same as your friend. Great guy to hang on with but he can rage for same kind of dice failures. In our last game he lost his ogrestar to a purple sun and i was afraid for one second. Then he buried his rage within:)

P.S.: What is the nick of Phil on Ulthuan, is it SpellArcher?
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by NonnoSte »

Game 2 – Asrai + Dwarves – Attack at Dawn

Once we got there, we found the TO himself, with an Asrai and Dwarves alliance. He was playing alone since it was a last minute enrollment and he never played Dwarves before (to be honest it was at least an year since he played Asrai too or at least some units, since he had in mind some old stats and couldn’t capacitate Dryads had been nerfed that bad), but in the middle of our game he was joined by a friend who went to watch the tournament (he played Dwarves regularly at least)
Here is what he played:

Asrai

Glade Lord, great weapon, Armour of Destiny, Bow of Loren, HoDA.
Highweaver L4, Talisman of Preservation, Dispel Scroll.
10 Glade Guards, musician, TFA.
15 Dryads.
12 Wardancers.
10 Waywatchers


Dwarves


Runesmith, great weapon, 2 x Rune of Spellbreaking.
24 Longbeards, great weapons, full command.
20 Iron Drakes, mus, std, [/i]Strollaz Rune[/i]
3 x Cannon 1x reroll misfires, 1x reroll misfires+flaming.

The Asrai list looked quite unusual, as much as the Dwarven one was straight and simple.
We knew he would have castled in a corner, throwing anything towards us and using Dryads and Longbeards to intercept our lighter troops (my fast cavs essentially).
For this match we thought to use the Warriors unit as a delivery system for my Peg Riders who, once among their lines, shouldn’t have any problem to deal with anything bar the Longbeards.
Once there, Tzeentch Warriors should be no match for either Dwarves or Dryads, so all we had to do was to annoy during the slow advance of the infantry block and then sand anything in for some late charges.
All good plans set aside by the announcement of the current turn scenario: Attack at Dawn

Magic

Highweaver: Soul Quench, Drain Magic, Hand of Glory and Arcane Unforging
Metal Sorcerer: Enchanted Blades, Glittering Robes, Transmutation of Lead and Final Transmutation.

This time we had the best spell selection possible for the matchup, since we had something to deal with his bunkers, a good hex and two great buffs to tip combats entirely in our favour.
On the other hand he had Unforging which could have been troublesome for our characters, as well for the Blasted Standard, but he luckily didn’t roll Walk which could have made the whole chase completely useless. He decided to swap for both signatures in place of Apotheosis and Convocation. Quite sensible.

Deployment and Vanguard

Image

The table had a big hill in the middle with some ruins on top of it, which actually obscured the line of sight for half of the field from both sides, another big hill was on the left flank and this one had a huge statue on top, that made a small carridor near the table edge and a third smaller one stand in the opposite corner. There was a forest near this last hill, a small building near the central one and a bigger construction with some fences in the free corner.
We had to pick the side and chose the one with more covers (it turned out really bad for our RBTs, since I Deployed them really bad and our opponent could make them useless for the most part of the game) since we were not at ease in running towards them in the open, then we started to deploy.
The Tzeentch Warriors with the two Peg Masters inside ended up on the right, with two of the RBTs and two fast cav units. The Chosen group with the shrine was forced on the left by the first Chosen unit and the rest of my troops were evenly divided between left and centre (I think we could choose to place just a single unit of Chosens).
On the other side, He had everything central or on his right (our left) flank, so he could somewhat castle in the left corner, as far as possible from our Warriors. This was bad news.
His Waywatchers ended the deployment phase in front of his Wardancers bunker, sheltered by his Venom Thicket.
Unexplainably, our RBTs had line of sight almost only on his cannons, while them could see each of our units with no problem.at all (actaully, he took care to deploy in such a way this was possible)

I had to start the Vanguard moves and I immediately limited the advance of his Iron Drakes with a unit of Dark Riders hidden behind the small building, just to advance with anything else on both flanks to put some early pressure.

Image

The Chosen roleld for the Eye of the God table and, agian, a double 6 popped out, but this time the champion failed the Ld test, for just a +1Ld on the unit. The other two units received +1Str (KC1) and +1T (KC2).
Finally, he tried to steal the first turn but the 6 didn’t show up, so we started the game.


Dark Force Turn 1

Image

First roll of the game was a bad one with our alliance moving frum “trusty” to “suspect”.
We generally advanced at full speed with anything, sanding Chosen to take care of the comabt units and my fast cavs, along the Blasted Warriors with my Characters, to clear the artillery.
In the magic phase I tried a boosted Doombolt on his Wardancers bunker, just to see no double 6 and have it eaten by the Spellbreaking rune, which deleted it from a unit of Warlocks (DW2).
Shooting was ineffective too, with three RBT out of targets and the last one that teamed up with two units of Dark Riders for just three Iron Drakes dead.


Asrai + Dwarves Turn 1

Image

He declared the charge with Dryads on my Dark Riders who promptly fled and moved his shooters and the Wardancers to be in range for magic and shooting, while Longbeards just kept up with the Dryads advance.
In the magic phase we let an Unforging to kill a Dark Riders (the only viable target for it) and managed to dispel both Hand on Waywatchers and Soulquench on the nearest Warlocks.
Little helped the Warlock that he focused 10 Waywatchers, 10 TFA and 5 Bow of Loren Shots from the Lord all on them, killing all the unit to the last elf. All panic passed with ease (BSB and General within 12” this time), but this meant no more Doombolts for the whole game.
Cannons were brutal too, splintering both an RBT on the hill and the Shrine with a sniper precision. They were going to be next to useless, so it was not a big deal in the end, but still.
Iron Drakes claimed just a couple of Chosen.(long range and hard cover from the building), reducing the unit enough to let it charge next turn around the building.


Dark Force Turn 2

Image

The +1Ld Chosen failed their frenzy check and leapt on Iron Drakes from behind the house, avoiding all the stand and shoot fire (those dwarves couldn’t’t really hit a thing), so we decided to send the +1Str unit in too. He tought about fleeing this second charge, but it would have brought him in charge range of the Warlock which would have probably bounced them out of the table.
On the other side Dark Riders charged the first cannon.
The fleeing Dark Riders did not rally and stopped few inches from the table edge and the remaining units advanced, with Warlocks moving closer to the Chosen fight and the last Dark Riders hiding behind the hill.
Magic saw a Final Trans scrolled, a Transmutation of Lead on Waywatchers dispelled and a Soulblight on Iron Drakes sneaking through a very poor dispel attempt.
This time two RBTs had viable targets and they killed a couple of Dryads and a couple of Dancers.
Combat was just brutal. 10 Str5 and 16 Str6 attacks were enough to leave just a couple of dwarves standing (who claimed their victim anway) and Chosen were faster then those shortlegged warriors enough to chase them down at the edge of the Venom Thicket.
Dark Riders just bounced on the dwarven thick skin, losing a knight in the process.


Asrai + Dwarves Turn 2

Image

By now the Dwarves player step in, but his army was half destroyed already.
Dryads and Longbeards decided to get into the fight and charged the last unit of Chosen, but dwarves fell short (no jokes on their legs here. Maybe a bit) of some inches. The other units started to withdraw in their corner.
We dispelled Unforging on my General and let them have Hand of Glory on Waywatchers.
Moving, range and cover from Chosen, tough meant that my Warlocks were still being hit on 6s and survived performing some 4++. Disheartened, Glade Guards took down one of the Chosen units. One cannon missed and the other misfired, rerolled, misfired again and rolled 6, suffering no real harm.
Dark Riders and the third Cannon traded a wound each, while our opponent discovered how poorly Dryads perform in combat. Hitting on rerollable 4+ and wounding on 6 meant 2 Chosen dead after the armour save, but half a dozen of the forest spirits were cut down to splinters by the Khorne warriors. Anyway they were steadfast and held.


Dark Force Turn 3

Image

Still on the “suspect” side of the alliance, we had the chance for some good magic as we closed onto them. Dark Riders rallied and anything else moved up.
In magic tough I attempted a Soulblight on Longbeards, which was dispelled and my mate failed a Final Transmutation on 4 dice.
With shooting almost out of the match we proceeded into combat, with Dark Riders scoring another wound on the cannon and Chosen champion routing and chasing down Dryads.


Asrai + Dwarves Turn 3

Image

Longbeards charged the lone champion in the open field and the other units continued to retreat.
This time the Unforging went off and while I saved the wound on 2++, the spell destroyed the Cloak of Twilight.
This time just a Chosen died to bowfire, but both his cannons aimed for my general. The first cannon hit the unit, the Blasted Standard rolled a 1, so the hit was still Str10. It killed a warrior, but then rolled 1 to wound my Master. The second one landed precisely on the Master, but this time the Standard activated and I saved the Str5 hit on 3+ armour save. Yay!
Dark Riders killed the last dwarf on the cannon at last and, unbelievably, the Longbeards champion accepted the Chosen challenge. He performed 3 overkill after the wound, so he lost combat just by two and passed his Ld6 test.


Dark Force Turn 4

Image

Crucial turn here.
We turned into “desperate” allies, so I charged my BSB out of the unit into the nearest cannon, with Warlocks pinning down the bunker unit for the Master overrun. The Glade Lord stand and shoot with the HoDA against Warlocks, but a bit of luck on my part see none of them falling.
The no-more-Cloak Master hid behind the big central hill and averything else started to surround Longbeards.
We drew dispel dice with a Soulblight on his bunker and an Enchanted Blades on my Master, just to place a Glittering Robe on Warlocks. Shooting was still largely useless once again.
The Peg Master run through the cannon crew as expected and hit the flank of Wardencers. Here the Glade Lord challenged to intercept the Master, in the meanwhile Dancers performed the 3++ dance.
With some counters gathered, a single wound landed on the Lord and one on the Dancers, but their elves couldn’t wound my troops at all, so I won the combat by 5 and with no BSB he fled off the table. Galde Guards nearby were disheartened at their leaders fall and they decided to leave the battle too. My Master reformed to face Waywatchers and Warlocks overrun into the last cannon.
The Chosen champion in the meanwhile slaughtered other 4 dwarves before dying under their blades.


Asrai + Dwarves Turn 4

Image

Dwarves tried to charge the Chosen in front of them, but couldn’t reach their prey once again.
Waywatchers just moved further back to try and save their points.


Dark Force Turn 5

Image

Chosen failed their frenzy and run towards Longbeards, where the champion kileld the Runesmith and the other warriors took down an handful of dwarves
Warlocks screened the BSB for a last turn charge into Waywatchers. Warriors got in range of the scouts too and the Sorcerer performed a Final Transmutation on them, killing 5 but not causing any panic.


Asrai + Dwarves Turn 5

Image

Waywatchers failed the Stupidity test and stumbled of few inches ahead. Longbeards finished the Chosen champion.

Dark Force Turn 6

Image

My BSB charged Waywatchers who couldn’t hit him behind Warlocks and all the other units charged Longbeards on all sides. A Soulbligh sealed the deal and the game ended with a complete massacre of the Asrai and Dwarves force.


After match thoughts

An entire wipe out was all we needed to recover from the cold shower of the first match, so that my mate was giggling and smiling with unusual wide grins from turn 4 on.
Anyway a solid 20-0 brought us back in the upper half of the rankings.
My screwed up deployment of RBTs apart, I think we played with no major mistakes, even if some occasions favoured us (their shooting more then once was underperforming and the fight outcomes between Chosen and Dwarves were quite unexpected)
I think our opponent(s) really suffered not being familiar with the army and it showed up in many situations.
He fell into too many baits with his combat blocks, while exposing uslessly his Irondrakes to Chosen (who would have thought 8 Chosen could have caused such an havoc?).
On the other side, he should have tried to unforge the Blasted Standard First, so that he could have tried to whittle Tzeentch Warriors with bow fire and force some panic test without BSB re-rolls. Then he just withdrew too slowly to avoid our advance, without using Longbeards as roadblockers/bodyguards. I wouldn’t have dared to get close with the Peg BSB if there were 25 Dwarves wielding great weapons nearby.
Last turns he found his mobile unit cornered and the slower one exposed in the open for us to surround.

From a Wood Elf perspective, I also found their list pretty incomplete. They wanted to create a sort of Gun/Bowline with two combat protective blocks, but I whink this isn’t really suited for Asrai.
If I had to run such an alliance, I’d think about a Dwarven combat core and some harassers from our AB.
Longbeards + Hammerers with some cannons, along Wild Riders and TFA Glade Guards/Scouts would have been quite a deadly combination for example.
Anyway I was intrigued by the Shooty Glade Lord and his role of caster babysitter, which he executed greatly (until desperate conditions, but I would have won that combat 10 times if he wasn’t even there).
I think I’ll work around something like a Wardancers bunker moving around a Glade Lord and a Spellweaver probably on Heavens (two Deathsingers can have some mileage too if I didn’t hate Death Lore so much).
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by NonnoSte »

razorfate wrote: We have a guy in our club same as your friend. Great guy to hang on with but he can rage for same kind of dice failures. In our last game he lost his ogrestar to a purple sun and i was afraid for one second. Then he buried his rage within:)

P.S.: What is the nick of Phil on Ulthuan, is it SpellArcher?
I've seen Andrea (my partner in the tournament obviously) throwing his round templates around more than once, as well as hitting his fist on tables so hard that he knocked off several models other than breaking some portion of tables (he made his tables of plywood for this specific reason).
It was worst when he played 40k, we're slowly bringing him to human levels.

The curious thing is that in RL he is a professional surveyor and shows an enviable composure.
He's the classic person which change face once he's out of work. I'll let you guess what he's capable of when he get drunk.

Anyway yes, Phil is SpellArcher. In his signature you should find the link to his blog.
It's very insightful and one of the few there which are not too much pretentious (all really useful from a learning perspective, but sometimes the enjoyable aspect is a bit set aside IMO).
I'd advice to anyone to wander a bit there and follow some of the oldest blogs anyway. You can find really precious and interesting advices.
I started from Seredain's Cavalry Prince, which convinced me to start High Elves as well, then I discovered Swordmaster's MSU army which helped more my Asrai playstyle than my Asur one. Then I just looked for anything that cought my eyes. Thetlis, Fenry, Mal, Curu and lots of other users have active blogs and all of them have a lot of info and teachings. Some are more competition oriented and others are more experimental, but I think they're all worth the effort.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by Mollesvinet »

Great battle with a lot of nice manoeuvres from you guys.

I think I would have put the warriors straight in the middle, that way they could have gone either way around the obstacle depending on the enemy deployment. The fast cav could be on the sides, as they are easier to redeploy.

You played really well and caught your opponent unaware, good job!
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by Aezeal »

The +1Ld Chosen failed their frenzy check and leapt on Iron Drakes from behind the house, avoiding all the stand and shoot fire (those dwarves couldn’t’t really hit a thing), so we decided to send the +1Str unit in too. He tought about fleeing this second charge, but it would have brought him in charge range of the Warlock which would have probably bounced them out of the table.
I either don't understand the situation or I do not understand the rules.

If you have declared a charge and you made it and then another charges the same unit... can that unit (now engaged in combat) still choose a charge reaction? (could they really flee? could they stand and shoot?)

For the rest it was a nice game. I don't really get the deployment at all.. but that is probably because I didnt'see the separate drops. The way you mopped up all the chaff and then worked on the big block of beards was good. The charge on the cannon with the master was a good move too.

What was the reason for the masters to be in the warriors unit. Does it have to do with that standard? (I don't know its rules really).
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Mollesvinet
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by Mollesvinet »

Azeal I think the first charge was declared from the flank and the dwarves held, then they decided to charge in the second unit from the front which would give the dwarves another reaction. (Not that it helped them a lot) The actual charge distances are rolled after all declarations and reactions have been made.

As for the banner, 5/6 of incoming shots have their strength halved while 1/6 shots have their strength doubled! It can actually be bad for warriors sometimes if the volume of shots are large enough, as it will ignore armour save when the shots are suddenly S6 or S8! Halving the strength of a cannonball makes it very possible to save it on armour though.


Sorry to steal your thunder NonnoSte, I know you are busy so I took the liberty of answering. Hope I got it right! Looking forward for that next report!
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by Aezeal »

Mollesvinet wrote:Azeal I think the first charge was declared from the flank and the dwarves held, then they decided to charge in the second unit from the front which would give the dwarves another reaction. (Not that it helped them a lot) The actual charge distances are rolled after all declarations and reactions have been made.

As for the banner, 5/6 of incoming shots have their strength halved while 1/6 shots have their strength doubled! It can actually be bad for warriors sometimes if the volume of shots are large enough, as it will ignore armour save when the shots are suddenly S6 or S8! Halving the strength of a cannonball makes it very possible to save it on armour though.


Sorry to steal your thunder NonnoSte, I know you are busy so I took the liberty of answering. Hope I got it right! Looking forward for that next report!

Of course, declaring first then rolling... in his story it looked like he only decided on the 2nd charge after the first succeeded.. but you are right that is not possible. Thx.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 1 - Warriors + Daemons

Post by NonnoSte »

Mollesvinet wrote:Great battle with a lot of nice manoeuvres from you guys.

I think I would have put the warriors straight in the middle, that way they could have gone either way around the obstacle depending on the enemy deployment. The fast cav could be on the sides, as they are easier to redeploy.

You played really well and caught your opponent unaware, good job!
Thanks, Mollesvinet,
The game went on really smoothly for us and apart those two early cannonballs our opponents never posed real threats to us (I have to admit that 1 on the blasted standard once the Cloak of Twilight was gone scared te crap out of me). Unfortunately I'm afraid it was because of some lacking in their armies. their list was really one-dimensional and our Blasted Tzeentch block ensured that aspect of the game was not a real issue for us.
I would have liked to have them central and all the cavs on both flanks, but the game was a Dawn Attack (I'm not sure it's the right name in english), the one when your units are deployed according to a die roll. we rolled a lot of 2s, soour right flank was pretty heavy.
We decided to deploy Pegasi inside Warriors already to benefit from the standard from the beginning. Considering at some poinnt we couldn't have joined them at all, I think it was the best option, even if it meant they had to move slowly until either Dark Riders took care of cannons or they were in range of charge.
My mate insisted to march them out already from turn 2, but I preffered this safer solution. I think it payed off.

@Aezeal:
The first unit of Warriors failed frenzy and declared the frontal charge, Stand and shoot did nothing, then we decided to charge the flank with the other unit (who had passed the frenzy check before) and he could have fled, but Dark Riders would have bounced them out of the table then.

About the Blasted Standard Mollesvinet gave the exact explaination.
It must be noted that you have to roll 2+ on EACH succesful hit, so a bow/crossbow volley is pretty dicey. On 20 shot on average you'll face 3 Str 6/8 hits and the other 17 at Str 2. Clearly a cannonball can't be at Str 20, so it's a win/win (actually win/whatever).

I'm sorry I wasn't clear on the game scenario and on the Irondrakes combat dynamics. Lately I'm having more and more troubles to express myself in English, since aside here on the forum I don't get to practice much.
It's time for a decent England journey, I guess.
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Re: Journey to the Dark Side - Game 2 Asrai + Dwarves

Post by Mollesvinet »

Bring your army to London and we can have a game :D
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