GENERAL: The battle at the end of the world

If you read the ninth battle report of my Destroy the Gargant campaign yesterday you will have discovered that it was the last game of the campaign. You can read my round-up post here, where I talk about my thoughts on how the campaign went.

And that's it! All of my battle reports have now been ported over to my battle reports blog. The only things to be added to it from now on will be current games, as and when I play them.

As I'm a geeky nerd I may return to my battle reports and work out some stats. How many time have I won? Or lost? How many times have I been crushed by Gary? How many times have I beaten him? What is my win/loss record like with Tau, or Blood Angels, or Daemonhunters? These are all questions that no-one wants answered except me!

Still, I'll only have to calculate the stats once and then keep adding them as I play more games. Maybe I'll add the stats as a column on the battle reports blog. Hmmm...

The good news for this blog is that I will now have more time to dedicate to other things, like painting, modelling, reviewing products and maybe working on some background material, instead of editing battle reports.

Hurrah!

GENERAL: A new wave of battle reports

I'm starting another push to get more battle reports posted on my second blog, cunningly entitled Battle Reports. There are about fifteen Chaos Space Marine battles dating all the way back to third edition. I'll concentrate on getting these games up first since I'm back playing my Exigators (Chaos Space Marines).

I've posted the first of these here. The rest will follow shortly.

Meanwhile, I have another day off work today so I'll be trying to get the last three units of Chaos models ready to paint. First up are the Plague Bearers.

MODELLING: They're 'armless

As I'm writing this I can see bats circling outside my window in the the twilight, hunting moths. Very cool but not conducive to updating my blog. Back to work.

More Blood Angels are flocking to my banner. My progress today is four more legs glued to bases and five torsos attached to legs. Here is a photo.

I have just realised that I only have five sets of arms with bolters, while the other five pair of arms have bolt pistols and chainswords. I'm not sure why this is the case. I bought this tactical squad for about £9 on e-bay (unboxed) and I have never bought any of these type of Marines direct from Games Workshop, so I don't know if this is how they are supposed to be equipped. I can't believe that they come this way new, so I can only think I didn't get quite as good a deal as I thought I did at first.

My problem is what to do now. While I was digging around in my bitsbox for extra marine parts I found some old assault marines I bought and stripped but never re-assembled, so I might save the arms for them. It still leaves me with five armless marines, though. I think I'll continue to build the first five and then worry about the rest later.

I have posted two 'new' battle reports on my sister site here. They aren't totally new as they have appeared on this blog in the distant past, but I thought I better transfer every battle report from this blog onto the dedicated pages too. They are the earliest games I played with my Warhammer Hordes of Chaos army against Gary's Dark Elves. The rest of my Warhammer games will follow shortly.

MODELLING: Blood Angels Tactical squad two

Just a small amount of progress in this post. I've put six sets of legs on bases for my second Tactical squad. Here's the proof.


You can see a lot of bits and bobs from the Battle for MaCragge set behind the marines. I could use these for Cityfight strategems or just simply for terrain. Like the other MaCragge models, they were lousy with mould lines which was a particular problem with the fiendishly shaped field generators. I still have two more of these buggers to clean up. I may tackle them tomorrow as well as building more marines.

I have posted my first battle report up here. Appropriately enough it involves an earlier incarnation of my Blood Angels. It'll take a while before I fill the site up with reports and all the fancy links and stuff in the side bar.

See you tomorrow.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: The defence of Tor Thana

After some delay, here is my write-up of the third game in our Nemesis Crown campaign.

I had painted up the Marauders on foot to tabletop standard so I dropped a Sorcerer to fit them into the list. This meant I now only had one level one Sorcerer with just two dispel scrolls. I hoped Gary wouldn't have too much magic.

Gary picked a level four Sorceress with three level two underlings. Gulp! He had dropped most of his magic items and other extras to play with as many models on the board as possible.

This could be tough.

Armies 2000points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Lord on Daemonic Mount, Armour of Damnation, Berzerker Sword, Gaze of the Gods, shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, Enchanted Shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur Boda, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
• 12 Chosen Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
• 16 Marauders, full command, light armour and shields
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command, Warbanner
• 5 Marauder Horse, champion, musician, flails
• 5 War hounds
• 5 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Level 4 sorceress
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder
• Hydra
• Chariot
• Chariot

Terrain and deployment
You can see the layout of the terrain on the photo below. Again, Gary hadn't touched the board since our last game so I scattered the pieces randomly. It left a very wide open battlefield which would be ideal for shooting and magic heavy armies. Uh-oh.


I continued with the patented Volsung deployment technique - putting down my throw-away units in the centre till I had an idea where the pesky pointy-ears were deploying and then set up the rest of my army hard on one flank. In this case I had a very strong left flank and refused the right, which had the two Dark Elf chariots on it. I hoped to sweep the Knights around the rock spires and hit the squishy Elf centre hard with my Lord and the Warriors. In particular I felt Gary had put his spell casters in a very vulnerable position with only his shooty units near them for defence. Just one or two units in amongst them could disrupt his entire army.

The game
I won first turn despite the Dark Elves having the +1 bonus. I marched the hounds and Marauder horse up the centre to threaten the Repeater Bolt Throwers and all those Sorceresses. The warriors marched too, angling slightly into the centre. My Knights marched up the extreme left flank. My Marauder infantry moved up more cautiously and the furies went wide right behind a hill.

Gary had a unit of dark riders on each flank and marched each up to give my infantry units something to worry about. One of his chariots went stupid and stumbled forward and the other kept pace with it. On the right he moved the Hydra back to plug the gap behind the rocks.

Most of his action took place in the magic and shooting phases. He concentrated on my fast moving units in the centre and killed one whole unit of war hounds, two out of the second unit and three of my marauder horse, as well as drawing out both of my dispel scrolls.

The game looked like this after our first turns.


In my second turn I declared charges all over the place. My furies charge the dark riders on the right - they fled into the middle which left my furies out in front of the Dark Elf infantry and chariots. I think Gary expected me to charge with the marauders but I feared the counter charge from the chariots so I held the unit back instead.

On the right flank my smaller warrior unit charged the other dark riders. They fled too, but this time they stopped in front of another charging unit; my Lord on his daemonic mount who was going to charge out of the warriors and into the repeater crossbows. He went after the dark riders instead who were destroyed, but it did leave my Lord out in front of the rest of my army and feeling a little vulnerable.

I didn't need to worry. My marauder horse charged into the three sorceress who were rather conveniently lined up in a row. Of course I only wounded one, but I took no casualties in return. All the sorceresses passed their break tests. Boo!

Now my three hounds charged the level four sorceress. The repeater bolt thrower crew helped her out but their intervention was in vain. I killed one of the crew and took no wounds so I had won the combat. The sorceress, who was also the army general, failed her break test. She ran off the board. Both repeater bolt thrower crew failed their panic tests and ran too. Now the spearelves failed their panic test and ran off the board. This panicked the executioners who turned tail and ran. A charioteer took this as a bad sign and ran off the board as well.

By the end of the combat phase the dark elves had lost around half of their army. They had no realistic chance of winning the game so we called it another Chaos massacre.

So I had won the game and won the campaign. The forces of Sigurt Volsung were victorious and could now hunt for the Crown in peace while the Dark Elves slunk off to their Black Ark in shame. My warriors will be feasting on Cold One flesh tonight.

Honours

• Chaos - Those last three war hounds. 18 points of models caused well over 700 points of damage.
  
• Dark elves - Chariots for at least causing me to deploy in a certain way.

Thoughts

• Yet again, another perfect game for my Chaos army. Obviously it was helped by Gary rolling such appalling panic tests as the centre of his army crumbled, but I still think I had the superior deployment. I could bring my army to bear in strength on the left without much chance of anything getting in around my flanks. On the right Gary actually had the advantage, with two infantry blocks, two chariots and the dark riders facing off against my furies, the marauders on foot and my chaos chariot. He didn't press his advantage though, and all I needed to do was hold his army off the flanks of mine. Even had the battle continued I think I would have been in a better position come turn three or four. Gary's positioning of the sorceresses was baffling to me; they were such juicy targets I just had to go after them, and I knew I could threaten them with multiple units from turn two onwards. Gary's plan was to focus his magic and shooting in one tight area of the battlefield but it failed spectacularly.
• I would be surprised if I play against Gary's dark elf army again. Our campaign is now finished and we'll probably move on to other game systems for a while. I've never seen Gary so downbeat about an army before, or so angry during a game. It really makes it difficult for me to enjoy the game because if I am losing everything is okay with Gary (and I'm not happy) or I am winning and Gary is angry (and I'm not happy). It has been mounting up for weeks and weeks and came to a head during this battle. I think it is a combination of several things; it is a new set of rules for us and we are still getting things wrong, Gary is playing a finesse army when he normally plays more straightforward forces, we've been playing against just each other for almost a year. This last point is important. Gary and I are experienced players, having been involved in the Games Workshop 'hobby' for almost 20 years. We are both decent players and about the same skill level as each other. For a couple of years we played in out local gaming store against a variety of players, but over the past year (since Gary got a flat and his own table) we have just played against each other. Every game is a real test as we both know each other's games inside out and we know that any mistake we make will be ruthlessly seized upon. At the store it was different. We were strong players there, able to take on most armies and if not win, make a tough fight of it. For the first time in a long while, Gary is losing a lot of games and he doesn't like it. When I was losing against his dark elves in our early games I came up with a different game plan, I scoured the Internet for different ideas and I thought long and hard about the army I was facing. Gary isn't 'into' the games as much as me so he hasn't spent as much time addressing his problems as I did and it is showing. I think he'll get rid of the army rather than persevere with it. It's a shame because I think it is a real test of your gaming skill to succeed with different styles of army and he would become a more rounded gamer if he stuck with the pointy-ears. For myself, I think I could do with a break and/or play some games against different players.
  
• Phew! I was going to round up my thoughts on how the campaign ran here, but I've waffled on about so many other things I don't have space. I'll write them up in their own post in the future.

BATTLE REPORT: Tyranids vs Black Templars

First things first; an apology for no post yesterday. I was working all day, then I hit the shops on the way home, picked up something to eat and then spoke to my girlfriend on the phone for ages (she's down in Gloucestershire at the moment where the worst of the floods are). After that I was so whacked I went straight to bed. And I had so many plans for the weekend...

Anyhoo, my post today will be short and sweet as I have tons do do and a wet girlfriend to pick up from the station. Rather than do all the hard work myself I thought I'd point you in the direction of a battle report with a twist. It is hosted by Blue Table Painting, a miniature painting service based in Utah in the US of A. The twist is that it isn't a text or picture battle report it is a video battle report.


So if you have a decent broadband connection and half an hour of free time I recommend you check it out. The easiest way to view the battle is to start with this thread on Warseer. Otherwise, you can head on over to YouTube and have a rifle through the rest of their vids.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Game two analysis, part two

The comments have kept rolling in following the battle report so I thought I'd go through them before our next game. The first is from Zeb on the Warhammer Forum.

It seems like your friend is playing De the way you play Khorne... Except for the 8 levels of magic.

As others stated, he needs to slow down. Also to concentrate fire with his RBT's.

One thing that seems to have been wrong is that the lvl 4 can't be in a chariot, and that the four furies (in the pic they seem to be four) shouldn't have caused the Dark Riders to auto flee, since they still have Unit Strength 6 vs the Furies US 4 (or possibly 5).
Which also brings me to wonder about the first round of that combat, he did no wounds and you did one = a draw. But does he play Dark Riders without musician???! He needs to include that, just for the sake of rallying easier.

Good Luck, I know it takes time to learn the rules, I'm still learning 20 later...!

How come the lvl 4 can't be in the chariot? Is it something specific to DE?

As for the furies, there were 8 in the starting unit and they killed 1 dark rider for no casualties. That meant a draw. In the second round I think I killed another dark rider for no losses. That meant US 8 vs 6 and the Dark Riders auto fled. The furies pursued but didn't catch them and then got peppered by fire from the repeater bolt throwers and crossbows which took them down to four models.

I'll have to check if there was a musician in the unit - if not I'll recommend he includes one.

AndyP posts a lot of battle and campaign reports on the Warhammer forum. He has some strong views on the game and I am a fan because he plays warrior heavy Chaos lists. He wrote:

Characters can only ride in chariots if the unit entry in the army book (the bit with all the point costs) specifically allows them to ride in one. Compare the entries for the highborn and high sorceress. Neither of the DE sorceresses can ride in chariots.

Other than that, I like the pictures with arrows - it's very clear what's going on.

Regarding your friend's dismay with the dark elves. I would encourage him to keep at it - it takes a lot of practise to compete with DE. He shouldn't expect to win straight away. I would advise against making radical changes to the list. Keep practising with similar lists before trying something new - otherwise you're back to square one.

The rules queries regarding the chariots were a new one on me and I didn't even think to check with Gary during our game. I'll e-mail him these comments so he can make the relevant changes for our next game.

I think Andyp's thoughts on the Dark Elf army list are spot on. It's difficult to get to grips with a new game system, especially if you are playing an army that fights in a way that is outside your comfort zone. Gary's attempted solutions have been to put successively harder models on the board but these have all failed because fundamentally the Dark Elf army is not supposed to be played that way, and certainly not against Chaos. Whatever model Gary plays I can pick a harder version in my list. No, what he needs to do is press his own advantages which are manoeuvrability, magic and shooting while avoiding his weakness which is combat.

Chopping and changing the lists is not helping because he has no time to get used to how each unit works. My own experience has shown me that in Warhammer the way the army works as a whole is more important than how powerful each individual unit is, and that deployment is crucial. I think it would be more beneficial for Gary to concentrate on his tactics and deployment than tweaking his army list.

There was also an actual comment on the lone pilgrim blog itself. Glory be!

To Gary,

The Dark Elves are squishy. They should NOT be in combat earlier than turn 3. Turn 4 better. He needs to make you come to him (in the center) and then pounce your flanks.

He tends to throw the Dark Elves immediately forward, which really comes as a surprise..

The Dark Riders fled off the field? Perhaps musicians are needed specially since now a fast cav can MOVE after it rallies he can be just 10 inches away from the knights and since you have to charge him, he flees, rallies and then moves back to where he is denying you a march.

the Dark Riders that got charged by the hounds should never have been charged in the first placed.. Since either a) the riders have longer range. (14 inches for the hounds right?) and b) he could flee. He could have creeped the Dark Riders a bit first to ensure that he was in range but the hounds weren't.

Tag teaming units against one enemy is going to be needed.

And remember Chaos is a Large Hammer, the Dark elves are a Scalpel. The DE is a finesse army.

Good luck and good hunting.

btw did you make your fear/terror checks when you charged the hydra? if you pursued into it, did you make your checks

Looking at the last pic it looks like the Hydra went out alone. that's bad.. Treat it as a slower chariot .. One hitting a full unit in front cant win. It needs support. 2 chariots hitting at the same time though.. is another matter. :)

Hey archeteuthis,

We did make the relevant fear/terror tests - we tested at the start of my third turn because the hydra was within 6" of the chosen (with the lord) and chariot. Then we tested when both units charged.

I don't think I need to test when the hydra is fleeing as it's not quite so scary when it has it's tail between its legs.

Don't forget that my lord (on fear causing mount) was in the chosen so I had 9 LD with the re-roll for being Chaos Undivided.

Thanks for all the tactical insights, everyone. I'm passing them all on to Gary and I'm sure he'll put them into practice soon.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Tactical analysis game 2

I posted our second battle report up on The Warhammer Forum and it has drawn more responses. The first highlights a quirk in our army lists.

Lovely report! Just as the other!

Just one thing; What is it about you and your friend bringing four dispel scrolls? That's alot! I've never attended a tourny with more than two.

Well, that's a funny thing. My intention with the Chaos army was to go magic light and pick a low level caster or two just to hold up the enemy magic. As you can tell from my list it is quite hero heavy and I plan to drop one of the sorcerers when I add another unit. I guess I just was afraid of the Dark Elf magical barrage (these are my first games at 2000 points).

Gary has played more aggressive lists than I expected and has sometimes played very little or no magic. That has made my magic seem quite good and Gary is now afraid of it (especially steed of shadows). I was somewhat surprised to see four scrolls in his list, though.

Also, we're both rookie players so expect to see some weird stuff in our lists, tactics and games.

If your warriors are charging into a combat they want to, on turn two, he(the DE player) is doing something wrong. With that army, he should have been march blocking you, and shooting/magic you to death. Or at least until he could easily defeat the scattered remnants. Charging the warriors on turn two is not needed, and he would have been much better of letting you move forward at a slow speed and then engaging later when it was to his advantage.

Sounds like he need to slow down a little and not just rush into combat. DE doesn't work like that. Major Combats shouldn't start until turn 3 at the earliest really.

These are comments that were echoed after game one. I had real trouble in my early games versus the Dark Elf dark riders as they got around my flanks and march blocked me. I sat down with the Chaos army book and had a good think about my options. I added the furies, the banner of wrath, the book of secrets (to utilise steed of shadows) and totally changed my deployment style. I added speed, shooting and more supporting units. I have never looked back since and Gary has never managed to come to terms with my army.

Some recommendations for Gary.

Take the sorceresses out of the chariots. If the chariots are stupid, the mages can't cast. This is very bad if he's loading up on magic! Try mounting some of them on dark steeds, or maybe a pegasus. You'll be able to march block, and get in range faster to use your magic.

I'd make the executioner unit smaller (12-15) and the spears bigger (20). He might also want a second unit of 10 crossbows or 5 dark riders. The executioners shouldn't be running up and hitting things in the face, they should be getting into the flanks.

I noticed in both reports your hydra kept engaging Chaos to the front. That's a bad place for him. Try getting him to attack the flanks of the enemy. You'll cancel his rank bonus, and your flank will offset his outnumber. The best thing is to use him with the spearmen, so the spears hit the front, and the hydra hits the flank. If the enemy turns to face your hydra then run your spears into his flank.

Dark Elves v. Chaos is an uphill battle. Take advantage of your magic and shooting early on. and don't engage the enemy until you've thinned out their numbers a bit. Keep trying!

In our second game I think Gary did a good job of stripping my supporting units away (like the marauder horse and the war hounds) but he didn't manage to get in around the sides of my army to lever the flank charges. I was trying to encourage him to combi-charge my units rather than hope that one hard unit would do it alone.

I likened it to the days when we used to play 2nd edition 40k. Gary generally based his army around a supertough Chaos lord who could beat anyone on the board in single combat. My plan was to either slam two powerful heroes into him and take him down or use my superior mobility to avoid him and then beat up on the rest of his army. Just throwing my hardest fighter into combat with the lord wasn't enough because even he wasn't tough enough to take the lord out.

The Dark Elves are the same in that they just won't be able to stand up to my Chaos units one for one. They have to use more guile and either gang up on my units or avoid them and fight only a portion of my army.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn't suit Gary's playstyle. In 40k he plays Chaos with a Khorne slant, Dark Eldar, Tyranids and sometimes Necrons. In all those armies there are models that can pelt full tilt across the board and take on just about anything when they get to the enemy. I tend to favour the tricksy armies like Tau, IG and Daemonhunters who require more finesse because they don't have such big hitters.

Our roles have been reversed in Warhammer and I seem to have adapted quicker. All it will take is one or two battles where Gary works out the tactics and we'll be back on an equal footing again.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Battle of Gnarled Oak Grove

This was our second game of the campaign. The first was for the Solsister river and was won comprehensively by my horde of Chaos. That meant I captured location three and could now launch an attack on location two: Gnarled Oak Grove.

I had to tweak my list a little as some readers pointed out that I had illegal wargear on my Lord (he had two pieces of magical armour). So I dropped the enchanted shield for a mundane one and lost the sword of might. This left me enough points for a berzerker sword. I gave the enchanted shield to my exalted and dropped a level two sorcerer to a level one. With the spare points I bought throwing axes for the marauder horse. I now had a shooting phase. Who-hoo!

Gary had made rather more substantial changes following his mauling in our last game. He went out and bought two chariots. Eeek! He also dropped the highborn in favour of a level four sorceress. Oh-oh.

This would be a very different game.

Armies 2000points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Lord on Daemonic Mount, Armour of Damnation, Berzerker Sword, Gaze of the Gods, shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, Enchanted Shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
• Boda, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
  
• 12 Chosen Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command, Warbanner
• 5 Marauder Horse, musician, flails, throwing axes
  
• 5 War hounds
• 5 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Level 4 sorceress with extra power dice (Dark Hand of Death spell, Steal Soul, Doom and Darkness, Drain Life) in chariot
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell, Doom and Darkness)
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls (Wind of Death, Drain Life) in chariot
  
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 5 Dark Riders
  
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder
• Hydra

Terrain and Deployment
Gary hadn't changed the terrain since our last game so we decided to roll a scatter die and move each piece 2d6 inches in each direction. I won the choice of deployment zone and picked the side with the rocky columns in it. This meant the wood (Gnarled Oak Grove?) was on the other side of the table but a bit further forward than the last game. I placed my units so that I could envelop the left flank and sweep my Knights around behind this wood to get at the pointy-ears rear.

Gary put his hardest hitting stuff near the middle, with a unit of Dark Riders on each flank. He now had more units so he could place his last chariot opposite my knights. Here is how it looked.

The game
I won first turn thanks to the +1 bonus for having the smaller army. I flew the Furies over to the extreme right, trying to tuck them in behind the hill. Everything in the centre marched forward. On my left I tried to be clever by putting the Warhounds in front of my knights to deflect the chariot away. The Dark Elves dispelled all but one of my magic spells without breaking sweat. A dark hand of death spell killed two spearelves.

I had miscalculated with the furies and the dark riders managed to charge them. Gary rolled appallingly and failed to kill a single daemon. I killed an elf in return and the rest of the unit held. The elf shooting wiped out both my first warhound unit and marauders entirely. Suddenly, my centre looked mighty vulnerable.

On my left, the chariot succumbed to stupidity and the sorceress hung on for dear life. The dark riders warily moved forward. The dark elf magic was shut down with the use of two of my dispel scrolls.

The table looked like this at the end of turn 1.


My furies pulled off an unlikely win against the dark riders on the right. The three survivors fled due to fear and the furies pursued but failed to catch them. I marched the rest of my warriors up the centre again. I was now close to charge range for the speedy elf units. Again, my magic was shut down with casual insouciance.

I charged the dark riders on the left with my warhounds. The riders held, confident in their prowess, but they obviously had the same rubber lances as their sister unit and only one casualty was caused on each side. Both units remained in place.

The dark elves began their turn positively by charging with the executioners against my regular warrior unit. I took the charge. The hydra marched up to flame the chosen warriors to no effect. On my right, the dark riders failed to rally and headed for the board edge. The repeater crossbows and a repeater bolt thrower killed four furies. The remaining bolt thrower missed my chariot.

On the left the sorceress in the chariot cast drain life. I let the spell through as I was desperate for the warhounds to be killed so that my knights could see some action. It was risky because I could potentially lose a knight or two. In the end it worked perfectly for me; all the hounds died while the knights all survived. I used my final dispel scrolls to hold the dark elf magic.

All eyes were now on the big scrap in the centre between the warriors and executioners. I issued a challenge with my exalted. The champion answered it and could possibly have killed my hero with a killing blow. He didn't, and my exalted caused two wounds. I saved the single wound the other executioners caused and caused two with my warriors. To add insult to injury, both of our magic users were facing each other. The sorceress rolled a 1 to hit while my sorcerer caused a wound on her. I had won the combat handily and the executioners broke. I rolled a 12 in my pursuit and ran the unit down. Ouch.

It was now my turn and I was in a very strong position to deliver the knockout blow. I charged the victorious warriors into the spearelves, the chosen warriors and chariot into the hydra, the furies into a bolt thrower and the knights into the dark riders. Everything worked in my favour.

The furies killed a crewman who broke. The repeater crossbows stayed, but the sorceress was panicked into fleeing off the board! Sigurt and the chosen took three wounds off the hydra and my chariot took off two wounds - the beast turned to run but was hacked to pieces by both units. My warriors barrelled into the spearelves and forced them off the battlefield. Finally, the dark riders fled but my knights just managed to catch them and run them down.

I caused so much carnage in just this one turn that the dark elf army was too shattered to carry on.

Honours

• Chaos - Thaer the exalted and the warriors who met the charge of the executioners and then went on to defeat the spearelves.
• Dark elves - repeater crossbows who wiped out the marauders in one turn of shooting.

Thoughts

• Another bad defeat for the dark elves which left Gary distraught again. He had completely overhauled his list and added the chariots and so seemed optimistic. That feeling continued in the first two turns as the dark elf magic battered my chaos army and I had to use all four dispel scrolls. My attacks up each flank had faltered and my supporting units were killed in the centre. Obviously, the turning point was the defeat of the executioners. My exalted was the difference, with the elf lack of ranks hindering them too. The sorceress running off the board was the final kick in the teeth for Gary. He just doesn't know which way to go from here and was even talking about scrapping the entire army and getting something else.
• On my own side of the table, it was business as usual for my Chaos Horde. Again I deployed in an effort to envelop one flank while largely refusing the right. I thought Gary's army was more of a threat in this game and was closer to what I expected to play against. My success lies in the fact that I am bringing my warriors into combat by turn 2 or 3 and so far nothing has been able to stand before them. I am sure that if Gary perseveres he will learn how to counter in time.
  

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Game one analysis

I posted a version of this battle report on the Warhammer Forum and it drew a few responses. I've reproduced some of them here. The first batch are some suggestions for Gary's Dark Elves. I've sent them on to him.

The dark elf player needs to bait the chaos more with dark riders and never flee from flyers unless your absolutely certain that he will not reach ( 20 inches is a pain).

More units to combine themselves to attack the brute force of the enemy.

An executioner unit against chaos warriors is not good. Supporting it with a dark rider charge to the flank will turn the tables.

Bad luck on the chariot misses though. Target priority would make you go after the hounds (take away the fast units for the dark riders to work their magic) and shoot up the warriors. Splitting up the bolt throwers (or making them be deployed LAST) allows one to see the fire lanes and forces one to choose which bolt thrower to silence.

Don't let him give up hope. The Dark elves need skill and patience and yes expect to have a lot of losses before you get it right.

Encouraging words.

Gary made a couple of mistakes and with DE's it is costly. I think he will have learned a few lessons.

DE magic is reliable and they should have at least 2 level 2's using death. His army has no punch he needs some Cold One Chariots as they are a steal at 95 points and some harpies because they do exactly what it says the tin.

cheers rob

he should look at www.druchii.net and get some help

I have had a quick skim of the website mentioned above and there look to be some solid ideas there.

When I played Dark Elves, I had a couple of rules that I always abode by.

Never try to be in combat before turn 4. While this rule wasn't always strict, you see how Gary's turn one charge turned out? Use shooting and magic to remove support units, then envelope and engage in later turns. Most armies I play benefit from this strategy.

Targeting priority. I would not have shot at that chariot with hounds/marauders/furies on the board. Expensive Chaos units can still take a panic check when a 30 point hound unit is wiped out.

Crafty Deployment. Deploy fast units first that can redeploy and shooters first, then load a flank with combat units.

Support. Never almost ever charge alone. Minimally infantry should always charge with chariot/hydra/ADDITIONAL character support.

Good basic advice, I think.

Regarding Gary's prospects on a rematch:

I'd say your armies match up pretty well, though I think yours has a slight advantage.

Here's my advice to Gary:
1) Don't receive charges from the chaos infantry. You have enough shooting to make them come toward you. Your elf infantry have 2" of charge reach on them. With the banner of murder, you've got even more. You still might lose some fights charging executioners into chosen, but you'll do better than the other way 'round.
2) Don't charge hounds unless they are right in front of something you actually want to charge and not angled such that your pursuit will carry you off funny. Hounds can't fight. Shoot them or ignore them, but don't charge them.
3) Play so that your bolt throwers get to shoot at the Chosen Knights. That's pretty much the only thing in your list that will deal with them, and boy, will they.
4) Since Chaos lacks shooting, get your Dark Riders out there to bait and flee the hard hitting stuff. should make it so you don't have to receive those nasty charges.
5) If you can change your list, take either more magic or less magic. 2 level 2s doesn't get that much done; 1 lvl 1 caddy is a much cheaper low magic.

With a little practice and some better feel for his more maneuverable army, Gary should be able to give you some better games that you'll both enjoy more.

More good advice. This poster also pointed out a rules error in our game.

Great batrep! Particularly like the pictures and the arrows and stuff.

In fact, one of the pictures makes one of those quirky little rules mistakes more obvious. I'm not trying to be mean, I just want to help you guys with the rules. This one went against Gary, so maybe that will give him some hope.

In Gary's turn 1, his executioners charge the warhounds, who flee. Even with his 6 on the banner of murder, they end up just shy of the Chosen warriors. The executioners should then move a failed charge move which is half the distance they could have covered for a charge. Your pictures pretty clearly have them moving the whole distance. Embarrassed

Had they moved a proper failed charge, they would have either a) been entirely out of range of the counter-charge by your chosen warriors the next turn or at least b) sufficiently far away that when they fled they would have escaped with the possibility of rallying. This could have made quite a different in the early progress of the game.

Ooops! All the more annoying because we had played the rule correctly in other battles. We probably just got too excited by the banner of murder. It wasn't our only mistake.

Unfortunately you have two pieces of magic armor on your Lord; you'll have to drop one. Armor of Damnation is too sweet, so just swap the enchanted shield out for a regular one.

Ooops again! I'm switching his wargear around for our next game.

Our battle report also got some comments on the blog itself. Check them out on the post below.

Let's see if Gary can turn things around in the second game of the campaign.

NEMESIS CAMPAIGN: Clash at Solsister valley

The clash at Solsister valley was our first game of the Nemesis campaign. The outcome of this game would determine which player won location three, the Solsister river.

Armies 2000points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Lord on Daemonic Mount, Armour of Damnation, Sword of Might, Gaze of the Gods, Enchanted Shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur, Lvl 2 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Unseen Lurker, Crown of Taidron spells)
• Boda, Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark Hand of Death spell)
  
• 12 Chosen Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command, Warbanner
• 5 Marauder Horse, musician, flails
  
• 5 War hounds
• 5 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Highborn on Cold One, Executioners axe, 1+ save
• Noble, Strength six sword
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress, 2 dispel scrolls
  
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder
• Hydra

Terrain and deployment
The Dark Elves won the choice of table edge and placed the first unit, his repeater bolt throwers right in the middle of his deployment zone. I put down both warhound units, the chariot and marauder horse in my centre, largely ignoring the Dark Elf deployment. Only when I could see where his units of dark riders, the executioners and his hydra were did I decide whether to envelop the right or left flank.

I initially favoured my right, because the left had a wood in the Dark Elf deployment zone but Gary had deployed both units of dark riders on this flank. I wanted to restrict their mobility so I went for the left flank. I put both warrior units and the furies here. My last deployment was the knights. Normally I would put them on the flank of the warriors and completely refuse the opposite flank, but I was worried about how congested things would get on the left and that wood could hamper my attack. After some deliberation I put them on the extreme right. This meant they were unsupported but I felt confident they could handle the spearelves and repeater crossbows that faced them.

The dark elves had the highborn on my left flank, both sorceress' in the executioners unit and the noble in the spearelf unit. I had Sigurt, my lord, in the chosen warriors along with Angur, while the other sorcerer and Thaer were added to the regular warriors.

Here's how the board looked.

Turn 1
I won first turn. There wasn't much subtlety, as you would expect from a Chaos general, as I pushed my units down the dark elves throat. Only my furies hung back on my left to respond to sneaky dark elf manoeuvres. My magic did nothing.

The dark elf response was to charge with the executioners. My warhounds fled. Gary hoped to trigger a collapse of the centre of my army but I had ensured the lord was in a good position to contribute his 9 leadership. None of my units panicked. The executioners fell just short of the chosen warriors containing my lord (even though the banner of murder scored added six inches). The dark riders repositioned for later charges and baits. Both repeater bolt throwers shot at and missed the chariot. The spearelves shuffled back, and turned to face my chosen knights. The repeater crossbows killed four marauder horsemen. I used two dispel scrolls to shut down the elf magic phase.

Here's how the action looked at the end of the first turn.

Turn 2
My chosen warriors, containing Sigurt, and the chariot charged the executioners. They tried to flee but were easily caught. That meant I had also killed both elf magic users. My furies charged the dark riders in front of the wood who also fled. The daemons caught the cavalry and killed them. I flew Thaer out of the warrior unit and behind the highborn and last dark riders. On the right, my chosen knights slammed into the spearelves who lost the combat spectacularly and were overrun. This was a disastrous turn for the pointy-ears as they lost units all over the battlefield. The one ray of light for them was the repeater crossbows who saw off a whole warhound unit by standing and shooting then beat the last marauder in combat without taking a casualty.

The dark elves were down but not entirely out. Then Gary flunked the stupidity test for his highborn. Now he really was in all sorts of trouble. Instead of getting a flank charge into my warriors (with the sorcerer Boda in a vulnerable position) he just stumbled forward. The hydra charged my chosen warriors. It caused one kill while I cut down both handlers. The enraged beast became unbreakable as it stood over the broken bodies of it's masters. The last unit of dark riders pushed up my left flank, away from Thaer, and turned to shoot at the furies but they only killed one of the flyers. The repeater bolt throwers decided to hit something this turn and took three wounds from my chariot.

This is a snapshot from the end of the second turn.

Turn 3
I was now in a very comfortable position. The chosen knights moved up behind the repeater crossbows (I think we forgot to use their overrun in the previous turn). My furies charged the second unit of dark riders who fled off the board. Sigurt repositioned himself in the chosen warriors so he could lop some heads of the hydra. My regular warriors charged into the beast too. Thaer flew over the wood to threaten the repeater bolt throwers. The chariot moved up so it could charge next turn, if it survived.

The bolt throwers both missed the chariot, and the crossbows did nothing either. The dark elf general turned his cold one to face the rear of my warriors who were hacking into the hydra. In the ongoing combat the hydra finally went down under Sigurt's blows.

The battlefield looked like this at the end of turn 3.


Turn 4
My chariot charged one bolt thrower while my exalted charged the other. All the crew were butchered. My chosen charged the crossbows and trampled them into the dirt. Now came the coup de grace. My chosen warriors reformed to face the highborn. Angur cast unseen lurker on the unit and they charged into the dark elf general. The two generals faced off in single combat. Sigurt went first and hit with every attack. He then wounded with every blow. The highborn was smashed out of the saddle and killed.


The game ended with a Chaos massacre.

Honours

• Chaos - chosen warriors (including Sigurt) for seeing off the executioners, the hydra and the highborn
• Dark elves - repeater crossbows for killing the warhounds and marauder horse

Thoughts

• From the Chaos side of the board this game was as close to perfect as I'll ever see. I lost about 200 points of my army for the total destruction of the dark elf army. From deployment to winning first turn to the dice rolls, everything went right for me. The dark elves were the complete opposite when their deployment didn't work and their dice rolls were poor.
• I had expected to face a magical barrage in this, my first 2000 point game, with the dark elves able to choose a level four sorceress, but Gary chose a fighty leader instead. His own magic was reduced to just two scroll caddies.
  
• I have never seen Gary so despondent after a game. He is really at a loss as to how to win a game against my Chaos army. I think his list has the edge in mobility, shooting, magic and ranked units if he picks the right list and uses it cleverly, but my list has more brute force. Gary is almost at the point of giving up on them altogether. If anyone has any ideas let me know and I will pass them on to him.
  

BATTLE REPORT: Chaos Space Marines vs Necrons

We had played a couple of games with Gary's Necrons and he was really enjoying the change. He had won one game and drawn another and we both wondered how they would fare against a more competitive Chaos list - I had been experimenting with alternative lists (dropping staple units such as the speed Prince, Obliterators and heavy bolter havocs). This time I picked a list to specifically take out the 'bots.

Points value: 950
Army 1: Chaos Space Marines
Army 2: Necrons
Mission: Recon
Level: Gamma
First turn: Necrons

Chaos Space Marines

• Lieutenant on Bike, Lightning Claw, Daemonic armour
• Lord, Daemonic stature, Daemonic speed, Daemonic resilience, Daemonic armour
  
• 8 Havocs, 2 autocannon, missile launcher
  
• 8 Marines, plasma gun, lascannon
  
• 8 Marines, infiltrate, flamer, plasma pistol, Aspiring champion with powerfist
  
• 6 Furies
  
• 6 Daemonettes

Necrons

• 10 Warriors
• 10 Warriors
• 4 Destroyers
• Heavy Destroyer
• Heavy Destroyer
• Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb and Nightmare veil
• 6 Scarab bases

Terrain and Deployment
This was a heavily terrained board. There were two area three line of sight blockers in the middle of the table - one ruined building on my left and a wood on my right. I also had some level two ruins in my central deployment zone. I refused the right flank, only putting the biker lieutenant out there. I had the las/plas squad and speed prince behind the large ruin and the havoc squad in the smaller ruins. I infiltrated the close combat squad behind the wood.

The destroyers all cowered behind the wood. One warrior squad began on each flank.

The game
The Necrons took first turn. The Lord teleported the warrior squad on my left, way over the board to my extreme right. Their shooting stripped a wound off my biker lieutenant. He charged in and clawed four of them. One stood back up then the Lord teleported them a few inches back. Again they shot the lieutenant and they removed his last wound.

Meanwhile, the destroyers killed three havocs. I pushed the infiltrators through the wood and their meltaguns dropped a heavy destroyer. My Havocs tried to kill the other but failed their target priority test and hit the scarabs instead. That meant the heavy destroyer came back online.

All the time I was pushing the speed prince and las/plas squad through the large ruin. All the destroyers turbo boosted into the far right corner, obviously worried about my advance and the prospect of the daemons. The scarabs formed up in front of the flyers as a screen.

I got my daemonettes. They summoned from the infiltrators and they had just enough movement to hit the scarabs. I continued to push up on the now deserted left flank.

The daemonettes took the scarabs down to a single base. The Necron lord tried to teleport in next to the second warrior squad to rescue them from the advancing daemons but he scattered off the board. The destroyers were now hemmed into the corner.

The daemonettes finished off the scarabs and just contacted the warriors. The Furies were summoned and also hit the warriors. Unsurprisingly the warriors were slaughtered and the two survivors ran. It meant both units of daemons were sitting targets for the destroyers, though.

I passed four out of six saves on the daemonettes and only one fury went down. That sealed the fate of the destroyers. On the last turn the daemonettes assaulted the destroyers, the furies assaulted the heavy destroyers and the speed prince caught the last warriors. The Necrons phased out.

Commendations
Exigators - Daemonettes
Necrons - Lord and teleporting warriors

Turning point
The lord scattering off the table.

Learning points

• This was a much tougher Chaos list, specifically designed to beat the 'bots. Although there were fewer units they could actually project more force onto the Necrons through their speed, weapon range, special deployment and summoning. I also boosted the squads up to eight models so that they could withstand a round of shooting without losing key models.
• The teleporting warrior squad is a powerful but risky unit. It paid off when they killed the lieutenant but backfired when the lord scattered off the table.
  

BATTLE REPORT: Chaos Space MArines vs Necrons

Again I turned up with a 1500 point army and again I played a much smaller game against Necrons. Gary had enjoyed his run out with the over-excited toasters so much he went out and bought some Heavy Destroyers to add to his army. I simply added a Predator to my previous list.

Points value: 950
Army 1: Chaos Space Marines
Army 2: Necrons
Mission: Seek and Destroy
Level: Alpha
First turn: Chaos

Chaos Space Marines

• Lieutenant on Bike, Lightning Claw
• 5 Marines, meltagun, heavy bolter
  
• 5 Marines, plasma gun, heavy bolter
• 5 Marines, plasma gun, lascannon
  
• 5 Marines, flamer, plasma pistol, Aspiring champion with powerfist
  
• 5 Marines, plasma gun, missile launcher
• 6 Daemonettes
• Dreadnought, twin lascannon
• Predator, twin Lascannon and Heavy Bolter sponsons
  

Necrons

• 10 Warriors
• 10 Warriors
• 4 Destroyers
• Heavy Destroyer
• Heavy Destroyer
• Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb and Nightmare veil
• 6 Scarab bases

Deployment and Terrain
The photograph below shows the terrain and deployment after the end of the first turn.


The Game
Gary won the choice of first turn but gave it to me. I moved up around the right of the pivotal wood. Long range lascannon fire dropped two Warriors.

The Necrons swept around the left of the wood. My Daemonettes summoned into the wood but failed to contact the Destroyers. The Scarabs charged in and killed them all. This in turn left them vulnerable to a charge from my close assault squad and the aspiring champion began to swat them with his powerfist.

Meanwhile, the Lord teleported and scattered to my left. I killed four Necrons and the survivors broke. They didn't run far, though, and decent We'll be Back rolls meant the squad rallied. I lost an entire squad to Destroyer fire.

The Destroyer took out the Dreadnought, too, with two sixes on the glancing chart. My Lieutenant whizzed out around the back of the woods to threaten the trailing, and so far untouched, Warrior squad. He wasn't required, though, as my close assault squad finished off the scarabs and slaughtered the Warriors in a single shattering charge.

The Necron Lord teleported right into my lines and killed several marines. They took light casualties before zipping off and reappearing behind the Predator. The vehicle exploded in another glancing 6. A las/plas squad stepped up to deliver the hurt, but they failed to do any real damage and the Lord punished them for their failure.

I now went after the Heavy Destroyers, trying to reduce the Necron scoring units. One fell to a lascannon shot then my melta gun squad flubbed its rolls to kill the other. The Lieutenant dropped him instead with some lucky combi-bolter shots.

The Lord and his Warriors shot up another of my units, while the Destroyers killed my Lieutenant. We both had a single scoring unit left at the end of the game.

Commendations
Necrons - teleporting Lord
Chaos - close assault marines

Turning point
The Necron WBB and rally rolls to save the Lord's teleporting unit.

Learning points

• Gary played this game very sportingly which allowed me to draw the game. We both enjoyed the wild swings of fortune during the battle.
• The Necrons have the edge in mobility and firepower. The CSM have an assault advantage but no real way to engage in the combat. Even the Lieutenant, who had an 18" assault move, didn't get into a single scrap.
  

BATTLE REPORT: Chaos Space Marines vs Necrons

After a couple of 'of the cuff' games against Gary's Dark Eldar I decided to sit down and write a decent army list to take on the pointy-ears. Unfortunately, on the day I didn't have enough time to play a 1500 point game so Gary suggested we play a smaller game using his Necrons. He used everything he had and the army totalled 820 points. I used loads of my units plucked out of my original lists as I didn't want to be too 'cheesy' and pick units especially good against the 'bots.

Points value: 820
Army 1: Chaos Space Marines
Army 2: Necrons
Mission: Recon
Level: Gamma
First turn: Chaos

Chaos Space Marines

• Lieutenant on Bike, Lightning Claw
• 5 Marines, meltagun, heavy bolter
  
• 5 Marines, plasma gun, heavy bolter
• 5 Marines, plasma gun, lascannon
  
• 6 Marines, flamer, plasma pistol, Aspiring champion with powerfist
  
• 5 Marines, plasma gun, missile launcher
• 6 Daemonettes
  
• Dreadnought, twin lascannon
  

Necrons

• 10 Warriors
• 10 Warriors
• 2 Destroyers
• 2 Destroyers
• Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb and Nightmare veil
• 6 Scarab bases

Terrain and Deployment
We played on a 6x4 foot table. Gary had laid out the terrain in advance. We had two low hills in the centre, rocky columns and a ruined shrine on the right, and some rubble and a wood on the left. Both Warrior units began in and behind the wood with the Lord amongst them. The Scarabs started in the middle and both Destroyer units were on my wide right.

I deployed my Chaos army predominantly in the centre and left, refusing the right flank.

The Game
I won first turn. My Dreadnought rolled fire frenzy. I had a nervous moment until I realised I could just see two Warriors deep in the wood, otherwise I would have been targeting my own troops! My shooting came to nothing anyway but I managed to move four squads forward.

Both Destroyers units stayed tight on my right flank and shot at the Dread but failed to hurt it. One Warrior squad walked up through the wood but the other used the Veil to deep strike on the right flank. They deviated close to my lines. They slaughtered a las/plas squad with rapid firing.

My Daemonettes were summoned from the other las/plas squad in prime assault range of the Lord and Warriors. They charged, as did the Dreadnought. I killed eight models and the two survivors were run down by the daemons. A twenty minute discussion then ensued regarding the Resurrection Orb and whether it allowed units to re-animate outside of 6" of a similar model. In the end we said the squad was dead. The Dreadnought moved into the Lord.

I pushed the models forward on the left again and scattered fire took out a couple of Warriors in the wood. I zoomed the biker lieutenant from the left to right to help out against the Scarabs and Destroyers.

The Scarabs charged the Daemonettes, killing three for the loss of a base. The las/plas squad charged in. The biker lord tried to crash the party but fell short. The Lord teleported out of combat with the Dread over to the left flank. The Destroyers felled the Dreadnought. Awesome Necron shooting and some appalling armour saves meant I lost my assault squad with the aspiring champion, too.

Moving from the ridiculous to the sublime I passed six armour saves on my lord. That allowed him to contact the Scarabs who were overwhelmed and destroyed, though they did take the Daemonettes out with them.

On the left the Lord and Warriors won a war of attrition with my last squad and I was short of phasing the 'bots out by two models. I couldn't catch the Destroyers or shoot them due to dusk falling, so I threw a las/plas squad into the Necron deployment zone. Both Destroyer units made it into the Chaos deployment zone.

Result: Loss

Commendations

• Chaos - Daemonettes
  
• Necrons - Destroyers
  

Turning point
Failing the armour saves on the squad with the powerfist. If I had achieved combat the Necrons would almost certainly have phased out.

Learning points

• This Necron army is quick. On a large board with a small armies I just couldn't get anywhere near the Destroyers. It's another example of why I think 40k is now a game of mobile firepower.
• Have the FAQ for your codex to hand at all times. We wasted 20 minutes while we argued about the Veil during the game. Afterwards we checked the FAQ on the website and it clarified the rules (we had played it right). If we'd had the rules at the time then we could have moved on more quickly.
• Gary made some noises about playing a campaign. It's something I'm really interested in doing to get a bit more depth from out games. The only problem is the extra time and effort it takes to run one. Still, I'll start mulling things over...

BATTLE REPORT: Chaos Space Marines vs Dark Eldar

Following my drubbing in the last game I decided to put together a completely different army; one that might actually work! Out went the small number of tough models and in came a raft of smaller, cheaper models. I flooded the board with 54 Marines and some supporting Daemons, as well as the Predator. I was getting fairly close to maxing out the force organisation chart which is usually tricky with Marines! In order to do that I had to drop each unit down to six models, even the Thousand Sons. It was a shame I didn't have any Slaaneshi units in the army. My opponent stuck with the same Dark Eldar list as it had done very well for him first time around.

We initially rolled up another Seek and Destroy mission but decided to re-roll rather than play the same mission twice. The second roll came up Take and Hold at Alpha level. Some players seem to think that Alpha missions are for beginners or somehow boring, but I strongly disagree. Including Alpha missions along with Gamma and Omega missions ensures that one-trick pony armies that rely entirely on special rules don't get their own way all the time. Anything that encourages players to include a wide range of units and tactics has to be a good thing. I wish that Alpha missions would be included in the Grand Tournaments. I feel sure that we would start to see a wider variety of army lists.

Anyway, enough of the rant and on to the game.

Army 1: Chaos Space Marines
Army 2: Dark Eldar
Mission: Take and Hold
Level: Alpha
First turn: Dark Eldar

Chaos Space Marines

• Lieutenant on Bike, Lightning Claw
• 6 Thousand Sons
• 6 Raptors, two flamers
• 6 Furies
  
• 6 Marines, meltagun, heavy bolter
  
• 6 Marines, plasma gun, heavy bolter
• 6 Marines, plasma gun, heavy bolter
• 6 Marines, plasma gun, autocannon
  
• 6 Marines, flamer, autocannon
  
• 6 Marines, meltagun, missile launcher
• 5 Possessed with daemonic talons
  
• Predator, twin lascannon, 2 Heavy Bolters

Dark Eldar

• 10 Warriors, 2 Dark Lances
• 10 Warriors, 2 Dark Lances
• 8 Wyches, Raider
• 8 Wyches, Raider
• 8 Wyches, Raider
• Ravager, Night Shield
• Ravager, Night Shield
• Talos
• Warp Beasts
• Archon
• Drachite

Terrain and Deployment
Gary hadn't changed the set-up from our last battle. The table had two distinct types of terrain. On my right flank I had some bunkers and ruined buildings surrounded by low walls and barricades. We classified this as area three terrain to give Gary a sporting chance. In the middle and on my left there were two large woods which we called area level three, and lots and lots of scattered rock columns which were impassable.

Due to the mission I began with the majority of my units in a central position, behind the wood which had to be taken. I had the Raptors out wide left and the Thousand Sons anchoring my right. The Dark Eldar favoured my left flank, taking as much cover as they could from the woods and rocky columns. We both knew that if Chaos won first turn it would be an extremely difficult game for the Dark Eldar as I would be able to shoot down the Raiders while they were stationary.

The Game
Gary won first turn, much to his relief. He brought most of his force up behind the central wood with a Wych squad zooming up each flank. His shooting was poor - my Predator shrugged off several Dark Lance shots only becoming immobilised, while just 3 marines died.

I pushed the possessed toward the middle wood and the Raptors behind the wood on my left. The Thousand Sons came up to bring the wyches near the objective into sight. My shooting was also sub-par - I destroyed a Ravager and killed a few wyches.

The Dark Eldar launched their assault. The wyches on my right hit the Thousand Sons but the automatons held. The depleted wyches in the middle got to the possessed and wiped out the entire squad. The warp beasts bounded past them to attack a marine unit. In an appalling show of dice the squad caused no wounds and took three in return. The survivors broke and fled. The third wych squad got tangled up in the woods and failed to contact the Raptors.

The Raptors flamed the wyches out of existence. Combined small arms fire obliterated the wyches in the centre and the last wych squad was overwhelmed in combat when I pitched two more units of marines into the fight. I had beaten off the first wave.

Now the second wave arrived. The combat on the right had left my units slightly exposed which meant the Archon could reach them. The Drachite sprinted through the woods and tied up a squad in the centre.

I summoned my Furies but they deviated 10" away from the action. That meant I had to throw the biker lord into the Drachite, but she slaughtered him. The Archon finished off the first squad of marines then charged the second. The Drachite fluffed her attacks meaning she was stuck in combat when the Furies arrived. They ripped her to pieces. The two marine survivors moved out to intercept the Archon and slow her down. Together with the Furies they prevented her from getting anywhere near the objective.

My predator finally succumbed to a dark lance shot. The Thousand Sons had pushed on up the right flank and were trading fire with a warrior squad. The warriors were taken down below half strength but so were the Thousand Sons.

On the left, my Raptors had jumped over the wood and incinerated the other warrior squad. Three Raptors died to ravager fire and the survivors jumped back behind the wood.

We took stock.

Gary had that ravager and the talos near the objective. I had one marine squad and the Raptors to contest the objective but both were down to half strength. Any casualties and they wouldn't be scoring.

I had to zoom the Raptors out into the open to get near the objective. The ravager killed one and took them to non-scoring status. I had manged to work a squad up the left into the woods and their fire shot the ravager out of the sky. One scoring unit left on each side.

I shot everything I could at the talos, but despite getting loads of lucky sixes, Gary saved all but one of them. My last shots of the game were with my final scoring squad. If the plasma gunner took a wound off the talos and survived I would win the game. If I failed to wound the talos and the plasma gun killed its firer I would lose the game. Otherwise it would be a draw.

I hit the talos and the other shot overheated. My shot wounded the talos...and the overheat killed the marine!

Just for fun I threw the last two Raptors into combat with the talos and destroyed it.

Fantastic game.

Result: Draw

Commendations

• Chaos - Predator (soaking up four turns of dark lance fire)
  
• Dark Eldar - Archon (killed 14 marines)
  

Turning point
That last plasma gun shot. Games don't come any closer.

Learning points

• Alpha level games are surprisingly tactical. Armies lose all their special deployment rules and the mission becomes even more vital.
• Multiple small units work better against the Dark Eldar than single expensive models or units.
• The biker lieutenant is pants against Dark Eldar heroes. He just gets blatted before he has a chance to swing. If I'm going to persevere with him I need to spend a lot more points to toughen him up. Otherwise it would be better to just take a cheap leader and use him against other parts of the Dark Eldar army.
  

BATTLE REPORT: Chaos Space Marines vs Dark Eldar

I was struggling to build and paint models for our escalating points Warhammer games so Gary and I decided to play some 40k for a while. This would give me some breathing space to finish the last few units in my Warhammer army. When the Nemesis Crown campaign begins we'll switch back to Warhammer with full 2000 point armies.

I played my Exigators Chaos Space Marines quite competitively last year before and during the Grand Tournament, so I wanted to move away from that and use some of the 'nice' but 'not so powerful' models in my collection. Out went the Obliterators, Daemon Prince, las/plas squads and Havocs and in came the Predator, Dreadnought, Great Unclean One, Raptors and Thousand Sons.

Unfortunately for me Gary is on the hunt for his next tournament army and is trying out his most competitive builds. This week he's experimenting with Dark Eldar, but he also has Eldar, Necrons and Khorne forces to play with.

Here is how our game went.

Army 1: Chaos Space Marines
Army 2: Dark Eldar
Mission: Seek and Destroy
Level: Omega
First turn: Dark Eldar

Chaos Space Marines

• Great Unclean One
• Lieutenant on Bike, Lightning Claw
• 9 Thousand Sons
• 6 Raptors, two flamers
• 8 Furies
  
• 6 infiltrating Marines, 2 meltaguns
• 6 infiltrating Marines, 2 plasma guns, Daemonhost
• Predator, twin lascannon, 2 Heavy Bolters
• Dreadnought, twin lascannon

Dark Eldar

• 10 Warriors, 2 Dark Lances
• 10 Warriors, 2 Dark Lances
• 8 Wyches, Raider
• 8 Wyches, Raider
• 8 Wyches, Raider
• Ravager, Night Shield
• Ravager, Night Shield
• Talos
• Warp Beasts
• Archon
• Drachite

Terrain and Deployment
The table had two distinct types of terrain. On my right flank I had some bunkers and ruined buildings surrounded by low walls and barricades. We classified this as area two terrain. On my left there were two large woods which we called area level three, and lots and lots of scattered rock columns which were impassable.

I began with the two infiltrating squads in the woods nearest the middle of the table and the Thousand Sons behind the wood on the far left. The Dark Eldar had the two Warrior squads near the bunker on my right.

The game
The Dark Eldar won first turn and took it so that they would have a chance to slaughter my infiltrators before the Daemons arrived. It worked, as he got second turn charges on both squads in the central wood. The Wych squad and Archon killed them all, only for the Great Unclean One to emerge to kill them. He was unstable, though, and lost four wounds over the next couple of turns. He was also stranded in the middle of the board as the faster Eldar avoided him.

Meanwhile my Thousand Sons took the other wood and became embroiled in a fight with the other two Wych squads and the Warp Beasts. The Dreadnought steamed in and the Dark Eldar were destroyed.

On the right I was pummelled. A dark lance immobilised my Predator which was eventually destroyed on turn five. My biker Lieutenant assaulted a Warrior squad which held and then the Drachite sliced and diced him. The Raptors arrived on turn four but were blasted off the board by a Ravager. I couldn't summon the Furies because all the icons were lost.

Result: Loss

Commendations

• Chaos - Thousand Sons
• Dark Eldar - Ravager

Turning point
The Dark Eldar winning first turn but then getting a large chunk of their reserves late in the game. This gave them the best of both worlds; they had enough to kill my infiltrators and disrupt my daemons but then could deploy against the arrival of my own reserves.

Learning points

• This list was junk. Especially regarding the icons. I didn't realise that marked units couldn't summon 'Undivided' daemons. That meant the Thousand Sons and Great Unclean One couldn't summon the Furies and I had only three icons on the table. Two of those were killed before I had a chance to summon and the other, on the Raptors, didn't show up until turn four and was then killed in one turn.
• Escalation helped the Dark Eldar much more than me. Their movement is just so much better.
• In fact, the Dark Eldar had the beatdown in every department; speed, firepower and assault.

Battle stat attack

I felt the calling of my inner geek yesterday so I sat down to work out the statistics for the Warhammer games I've reported on this blog.

I have played 11 games in total, winning six of them, losing four and drawing one. I have won the first turn five times, that same number as Gary (one game is unrecorded).

I'm not too bothered about my win/loss ratio for these games as I view them as knockabout fun while learning the game, but I do think that I will become a better player if I assess my performances.

Overall, then I'm doing okay. I have won my last three games on the trot. Is it luck or skill?

I guess I'll find out over the next 11 games...

I just know he will die horribly...

I was really up for this game.

We were bumping the battle up to 1500 points apiece and this meant our armies did look like armies rather than small skirmishing war bands. We're now getting closer to our final target of 2000 point forces.

The main reason I could include the extra 250 points was finishing my Exalted on Daemonic Mount. He weighed in at a hefty 190 points on his own. As well as a centrepiece model for my army he should be fairly powerful on the tabletop, but his true significance is that he represents Sigurt Volsung, the ruler of my whole horde of Chaos.

I just know he will die horribly...

Armies 1500 points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Exalted on Daemonic Mount, Gaze of the Gods, Enchanted Shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur Boda, Lvl 2 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark hand of Death, Doom and Darkness)
• 12 Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command
• 6 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Noble on Cold One, Sword of what save?, 1+ save
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder

Terrain and deployment
I had a wood on my extreme left just outside my deployment zone. There was a patch of rocky ground ahead of this on the fringe of the Dark Elf deployment zone. I had some ruined buildings in my centre right deployment zone and there was a hill in the middle of the board just ahead of them. The Dark Elves won the choice of table edge yet again (they have won this roll for virtually all of our games so far).

I refused the left flank, not wanting to get involved with the rocky ground which didn't affect line of sight much but counted as difficult terrain. Instead, my plan was to envelop the right flank by sweeping around the hill on the right with my Knights, supported by the Warriors.

I put the Furies out behind the wood on my right early on to keep my opponent guessing. From the centre I had War hounds, Chariot, 10 Warriors (with the Sorcerer and Exalted on foot), 12 Warriors (with Sigurt) then the Knights. The Dark Elves were more spread out with the Dark Riders, Repeater Bolt Thrower, Repeater Crossbows, Sorceress, Repeater Bolt Thrower, Sorceress, Executioners, Spearelves, Dark Riders and the Noble.



The game
The Dark Elves won first turn. The Dark Riders on the left manoeuvred to shoot at my Furies but did nothing. I reckoned they were out of charge range so I flew the Furies to my right and surrendered the whole left flank completely. The second Dark Rider unit moved up behind the hill on my right.

I raced the Knights up the right flank. Everything else marched forward too. My magic did nothing.

The first Dark Rider unit galloped down my empty left flank behind the wood. They stayed put for the whole game and claimed the table quarter. The second Dark Rider squad charged my War hounds who fled. They never rallied and eventually ran off the battlefield. This now left the Dark Riders exposed to a charge from the Chariot and 10 Warriors (we only just realised that if the opponent fled it counted as a failed charge for the chargers - Gary was expecting the Dark Riders to move the full 18"). Oops. Combined shooting and magic only killed 3 Furies.

The survivors charged a Sorceress and she ran off the table in fear. The Chariot and Warriors charged the Dark Riders in the centre. They chose to flee straight through 3 units who were all hugging the board edge. The second Sorceress, Executioners and Repeater Bolt Thrower crew all passed their panic tests. Boo!

My Knights pressed on up the extreme right flank and angled in to receive the Noble charge. I moved the 12 Warriors so that Sigurt could charge out of the unit and begin some general on general carnage if the Knights held.

The Noble hit the knights and challenged and killed the champion. I won the combat, though, but the the Noble passed his break check. Dark Elf magic and shooting took my Furies down to two models and removed three wounds from my Chariot. The Dark Riders rallied right on the edge of the battlefield. All in all a decent turn for the pointy ears.

Thaer got his Steed of Shadows off and chased the other Sorceress off the board. My other magic did nothing. The Furies charged and ran down the Repeater Bolt Thrower crew. This meant they crashed into the Executioners. Uh-huh. Sigurt slammed into the flank of the Noble. In the subsequent challenge both generals lost a wound.

The Dark Riders sallied out to try and angle the 10 Warriors away from the Executioners who were fending off the pursuing Furies. The Repeater Crossbows stripped the last wound from my Chariot. The Executioners...executed the Furies. Both generals swung at each other again...and killed each other. This left my Knights free, facing the Spearelves (they've faced off against this unit in virtually every game we have played).

One bone crunching charge later and the elves were reduced to a fleeing rabble. My 10 Warriors charged the Dark Riders who fled off the battlefield. This meant the Executioners got a juicy flank charge in. Eep! Gary rolled appallingly and killed nothing while I killed an Executioner. nice. My Warriors passed their break test.

This meant my 12 Warriors could now charge the flank of the Executioners. I hadn't seen such bad dice rolling since...the last combat phase. No-one died and everyone remained as they were. Thaer returned to the battlefield, wiping Sorceress blood from his axe. He was immediately speared by a bolt. 180!

My Knights came up and obviously focused the minds of my Warriors so much that they finally killed some Executioners. The survivors ran off the table. I repositioned my three units to capture two table quarters.

I was well ahead but decided to be greedy and cast that one last spell to wipe of the Repeater Crossbows. Angur Boda miscast and rolled a double one on the chart. He disappeared in a blinding flash of light and took three Warriors with him, reducing the unit below half strength in the process. Meh.

Result Marginal Victory
Chaos 1389 vps
DE 1097 vps

Thoughts

1. Magic. Never cast that one last spell - I lost over 250 vps in the subsequent explosion. The Dark Elf magic was poor once again. The range on their spells isn't great and they really depend upon two good phases early in the game. From turn three onward I am in amongst the Dark Elf army and putting pressure on the casters. Gary either needs to revise his magic strategy or invest in some better dice.
2. This was a tighter game than the previous two, largely due to losing the first turn, but also because of the Noble on a Cold One. My envelop the flank, refuse the other tactic is still working - I wonder how long it will be before Gary learns how to counter it? Maybe I should change to something else?
3. My mounted Exalted worked okay I guess. I hadn't considered giving him any offensive weaponry as I was hoping his raw stats would do the business. I hadn't considered the Noble who ended up with a 3+ save from my general. Perhaps the Biting Blade could be a good investment? Gary really didn't like me putting Sigurt in the foot unit. I was fairly certain that I could do this because the mount doesn't fly but I promised to check it out before our next game. What do you think?
   

The Saga of Sigurt Volsung part two

Following my last battle I had three more verses of The Saga of Sigurt Volsung to write up. Those of a nervous disposition and those with an aversion to bad poetry should look away now.

The armies opposed across the Ford of Arnod,
dark riders were cornered and flung to the stony ground.
The Banner of Wrath spat forth it's venom,
and the Lordling Elf died an ignoble death.

The cowardly Elves hid behind rock and bush,
our brave warriors showed them the virtue of honour.
Daemonic furies breathed down their neck,
but the Gods struck down Angur Boda for his dark pact.

The Druchii darkened the skies with bolts,
while hounds and furies were slaughtered.
Kurgan Knights swept the flank,
and the Dark Elves were pushed back to the sea.

Okay, back to painting my army...

Deploy for victory

I still hadn't completed my Daemonic Mount so we agreed to play at 1250 points again. While I had no changes to my last (winning) list, Gary had a surprise for me. Two in fact.

He dropped his Hydra in favour of two Repeater Bolt Throwers. I knew it would only be a matter of time. Gary hadn't wanted to buy these initially, instead relying on his magic and combat ability to battle my Horde but he was having trouble dealing with my Knights. To make things worse I'd upgraded them to Chosen in the last couple of games. Enter the Bolt throwers.

The Dark Elves also dropped their Noble in favour of an extra Sorceress and added Repeater Crossbows to the Dark Riders.

How would the changes affect the game?

Armies 1250 points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Aspiring Champion with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Lvl 1 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark hand of Death)
• 12 Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command
• 6 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder

Deployment
The Dark Elves won the choice of table edge and took the one with the hill. I had two woods clogging up my left middle and a hill on my right middle. I also had two ruined buildings in the centre of my deployment zone.

I deferred my choice of refused flank by putting my War hounds, Furies and Chariot smack bang in the middle of my table edge. By this stage, the Dark Elves had their Spear block on my right with a unit of Dark Riders nearby. I decided to deploy the rest of my army on the right and refuse the left.

Gary split the rest of his army evenly across his board edge.

The game
I won first turn. I marched the Knights up the extreme right toward the two Dark Rider units. Both Warrior units tramped up, one either side of the hill. I pushed my War Hounds into the centre of the battlefield and flew the Furies up behind them. I was hoping that if either was wiped out, the survivors would be able to threaten the Repeater Bolt Thrower on the hill.

The Executioners got six inches on their Banner of Murder and managed to charge the War Hounds. Obviously the lone survivor fled and the Furies panicked. The murderous Druchii ploughed on trying to run past the charge arc of my Chariot. I was in serious trouble on my left flank.

The Dark Riders did their thing. One unit got in the face of my Warriors with the Banner of Wrath, while the others ran up behind the hill. Combined pointy-eared shooting killed four Warriors from my larger unit. Their magic was less successful - a miscast ending the phase and wounding a Sorceress.

I charged the Knights at the Spearelves and failed due to range, but it did leave my unit nicely behind the Dark Riders who now had to receive the charge from my Warriors. My Chariot managed to hit the Executioners flank. I moved my Aspiring Champion out of the Warrior squad and up onto the hill. He swept down the hill and into the flank of the second Dark Rider unit with Steed of Shadows. He killed two but the survivors held. The other Riders were butchered by my Warriors. The Chariot killed four Executioners who held. Although I'd suffered some early casualties I was involved in several different combats by the second turn so I thought I was in control. Both of the Dark Rider units were neutralised too, my traditional bogey units.

I lost three more Warriors from the larger unit due to shooting but the Dark Elf magic was lousy and achieved nothing. My Chariot killed four more Executioners but the Elves held. My Knights now got to slam into the Spearelves and duly killed five. The survivors foolishly remained. My depleted Warriors charged the last of the Dark Riders still battling the Aspiring Champion - unsurprisingly they were destroyed. Both Repeater Bolt Throwers missed. My Knights killed seven more Spearelves and this time the rest ran away off the table. My Chariot broke and ran down the Executioners.

My Knights charged the Repeater Bolt Thrower. The crew fled and my horsemen broke up the war machine. My Sorcerer and the War Banner combined to panic the Repeater Crossbows. My Aspiring Champ got Steed of Shadows off again and forced the Sorceress to flee. My Chariot moved up to threaten the Bolt Thrower on the hill. It had one last sting in the tail though - it put a bolt through the chest of my Aspiring Champion. I ran it down with the Chariot for it's impudence. It was sometime around here that I used my first dispel scroll!

My Sorcerer shot down the last Sorceress with Dark Hand of Death, completely wiping out the Dark Elf army in the process.

Result massacre
Chaos 1850 vps
DE 545 vps

Thoughts

1. My deployment worked well for the second week running. Again I tried to envelop a single flank, refusing the other. This kept my army nice and compact, negating the Dark Elf speed advantage. Of course the Bolt Throwers meant the Dark Elves were actually more static! Gary's more conventional deployment meant that battle could actually be joined this time around.
2. I totally cocked up the Furies. My original plan was to fly them left up behind a wood or right behind the hill depending on where I chose to attack. I don't know what I was thinking. Fortunately, the Chariot saved the day. I will have to watch out for that banner, though.
3. Magic was fickle again. With two level two's Gary could have rightly expected to dominate my two level one's. However, I managed to get off at least four spells and only needed one dispel scroll. Who'd have thunk?
4. Gary is unsure what to do next. He is especially worried about the Knights and the Bolt Throwers just didn't work in this game. Nor did the magic. I thought adding some depth to the ranked units might help, allowing a flanking unit to counter charge. Gary favoured a more direct approach by firing his Sorceresses and hiring some fighty Nobles. I think the only sure thing is that I won't fight the same army twice.