Louisville Wargaming.com Tamurkhan Campaign Battle Report

Transcription

1 Louisville Wargaming.com Tamurkhan Campaign Battle Report Upon the frozen wastes of the north, the alliance of elves, men, dwarves, and lizards struck out at Tamurkhan and the great chaos host, hoping to take them off guard before their invasion plans took them south into the empire. The alliance struck near the Sea of Chaos, where Tamurkhan and his warriors were battling against a great host of other chaos warlords, as well as other races vying for the power and glory bestowed of the gods for leading such a force. The battle quickly devolved into a stalemate, with both sides winning minor victories. It was here that the elven princess Mhari led her house up the center to do battle with one of Tamurkhan s vile priests a nameless and bulbous mutated creature with weeping sore and boiling pus dripping from his form. This was her battle.

2 For the Glory of the Asur The high elven army was representative of the elven princess Mhari s personal force, sent north by her father to aid in the rebuking of the chaos warlords as well as to satisfy an arrangement between the elves of old and the empire of man in times of need. The army was centered around mobility as opposed to the brute force of a lot of magic, and would have some ranged elements in it. It would mostly be attempting to out position the chaos leader and push him into a bad position. Mhari herself led the army, an elven princess armed with a great sword and bow, wearing the Armour of Caledor (2+ save, 6++ save) and the Talisman of Preservation (4++ save) coming in at 246 points, she would have a decent offensive configuration with the sword striking at S6 and a very good armor and ward. Second in command was the noble Barnible, granted the army standard and wearing the Armour of Silvered Steel for a 2+ armor save. He came in at 142 points. The last character was an elven fire mage riding atop a sun dragon. He wore dragon armor to give him a 4+ save, and carried a dispel scroll and the golden crown which gave him a 2++ against the first wound he took. This put him at 430 points the most expensive model in the army but a key component as he would be the primary line breaker responsible to keep chariots and light units at bay as well as to position for rear attacks and flank attacks where possible. Unit wise, the elven army broke down into two primary combat units. The first was a unit of 30 spear with full command and the standard of discipline (315 points). The second was a unit of 22 white lions bearing the blessed banner of Mathias Ward s World Dragon (366 points) The third unit was a unit of 16 archers responsible for supporting fire and thinning down any light infantry or cavalry. Artillery came in the form of two bolt throwers and a mobile sky cutter which sported a bolt thrower. On the flanks, a unit of 10 silver helms would patrol and work in tandem with a great eagle and a frost phoenix to attempt to divert and hammer any chaos knights that would for sure be lurking. All told, the army came in at 2,494 points.

3 Pus Glorious Pus! The disgusting delights we shall offer up to the elven army will make the father proud! Our chanting litanies have been going on for days, and the blessings of our dark plague father are surely in our favor! The army of nurgle was led by a nurgle sorcerer hero riding atop a warshrine. He bore a talisman of preservation (4++) and a familiar to boost his casting abilities (360 pts) The nurgle standard bearer was an exalted champion with scaled skin (171 pts) who was placed within a unit of 19 chosen warriors of nurgle. They would occupy the center of the battle line (504 pts). Next to them walked another unit of 20 nurgle chaos warriors (430 pts). On the far end of the army rode seven rot knights of nurgle with the wailing banner. Screening the unit were two units of 10 warhounds each and three nurgle chariots were sprinkled throughout to provide support. All in all the army clocked in at 2,495 points. The goal of the chaos priest was simple close the distance between his forces and the elven princess and corrupt them as soon as possible.

4 Scenario and Setup The battle took place on the northern chaos wastes on an eight foot by four foot table. A road cut across the chaos deployment, and on the left flank of the elves there sat an old arcane watch tower. Several hills and watery features dotted the landscape and a river wended its way to a falls off on the right flank. The scenario rolled was a standard battle line. These two armies would be gunning for each other for nothing more than victory points. The elven dragon fire mage generated flame storm and burning bolts. The nurgle priest generated Plague Wind and the Rancid Visitations Magic Missile perfect both for targeting the elven toughness of 3.

5 Deployment was fairly standard. The chaos army elects to box up in the center and control the middle of the table with their slower elements, hoping to screen with the hounds while the chariots push up and team up with the chosen and chaos warriors. The left flank is the heaviest for them with the Rot Knights. The elves have a lot of mobility on their side but know to not try and get into a punching contest with the chaos warriors too soon. Patience will be the key here, and nearly all of the units line up on the back table edge to prolong the chaos charge for as long as they can. With the princess leadership of 10 and the army banner protecting the center, they should be safe from bolting off of the back of the table. The right flank is uncontested and so there is where the dragon sat with his avenue of approach, while over on the left the powerful Rot Knights would be facing a counter unit of elven cavalry in the silver helms, a frost phoenix, the great eagle, and sky cutter. On to the action

6 Chaos Turn 1 There s nothing fancy going on here. The chaos forces are trying to get as much distance as they can across the table to the elven battle line as they possibly can. The hounds were able to vanguard, and were nearly on top of the elves by the end of their movement phase. The magic phase saw plague wind dispelled, and the altar go off, boosting the chosen champion with a 6+ ward save from the aura of chaos, as well as granting the nurgle sorcerer a boost to his ward save, giving him a 3++ now! The elves took this in stride, dealing with the threats as they were coming. The hounds and the rot knights were currently up on the plate.

7 High Elves Turn 1 The elves charged the hounds in front of them with the White Lions. This ultimately proved to be a massacre, with the white lions butchering all 10 of the hounds and wiping them out completely. The princess and her lions held the line and did not overrun. The dragon swooped in over on the right flank, keeping the chaos troops nervous. Over on the left, the eagle moved into redirection formation, angling out so that if the rot knights wanted to charge they d be exposing their flank to the silver helms, while the phoenix flew over to the flank of the rot knights and presented another threat. The magic phase was completely shut down and nothing good came of it. The shooting phase saw the archers light up 5 of the chaos hounds and cause them to run away 4. The sky cutter and one bolt thrower did not do much however the one on the far right flank managed to hit the flank of the knights and kill two of them and wound a third, causing the rot knights to also break and flee 6! This was huge as it stalled the early advance of the chaos army!

8 Chaos Turn 2 With the dragon on the right flank, the chaos forces in the center reformed to face the looming threat, thus slowing their advance down more. The hounds and the rot knights both rallied, though now were fairly well out of position this turn. The chariots moved forward to mid table. The magic phase saw Rancid Visitation cast quite well, but the elves dispelled it with a scroll to prevent the dragon mage from getting hit with a potential fatal dose of plague.

9 High Elf Turn 2 With chaos repositioning their lines, the dragon mage flew over the chosen and landed next to the warshrine and behind the warriors. The phoenix flew into the rear of the chaos battle line, and the eagle kept itself flying near the rot knights to present itself as a redirector where needed. The white lions simply backed back into the main battle line. The magic phase was again uneventful, though the shooting phase was fairly exciting. The archers killed the remaining hounds, and then the sky cutter and left most RBT opened up on the rot knights, killing two more of the blighters and leaving them with just three now less than half strength! The right most bolt thrower hit the closest chariot with a shot of six repeating bolts, managing to inflict a wound on it as well, as the chariots were now the biggest threat to the elves lines.

10 Chaos Turn 3 The dragon s tricks are becoming apparent now and the chaos warriors and altar swing back south and head toward the main elven battle line, while the chosen reform to again face the dragon. The Rot Knights charge after the eagle, who flees, and cause a failed charge. The Rot Knights are stranded out on the flank still. The remaining chariots push forward up the center of the line. Only the right most has taken any damage. The magic phase sees Rancid Visitations being cast and all three hits smack the dragon, but do no damage. Thus far it has been a frustrating battle for the nurgle sorcerer!

11 High Elves Turn 3 The eagle rallies in the middle of the table, while the phoenix lands atop the tower to give it a great vantage point. The dragon flies behind the advancing chaos warriors (and out of charge reach of the chosen), and the sky cutter angles itself in the middle to begin answering the threat of the chariots. The magic phase is again shut down and the elves move to shooting to do any ranged damage. The far right RBT knocks two more wounds off of the wounded chariot leaving it with one. The middle RBT misses its shot, and then the skycutter manages to drop the wounded chariot leaving just one!

12 Chaos Turn 4 Pushing his energies forward, the two chariots that are remaining are attempting to get something done. The left chariot charges the eagle, who again flees, and again gets out of charge range, forcing the chariot to stumble forward. The three remaining rot knights move forward and the twenty chaos warriors begin to also push forward, leaving the chosen who reform and then move to be within an inch of the dragon. The magic phase sees the Plague Wind cast by the sorcerer, only a bad roll puts the plague wind over the chariot in front of him and that chariot fails his toughness check and takes a wound. Rancid visitation manages to go off and do some serious damage the dragon takes three wounds after only taking one and then failing a toughness check! The elven wizard takes one wound and his armor saves him from the other two after suffering a total of 5 hits from two failed Toughness checks worth of damage (very weak considering that was 3D6) but the dragon and the wizard are now hurt pretty bad

13 High Elf Turn 4 The fourth turn for the elves begins by setting the pieces of their plan into action. The dragon mage charges into the rear of the chariot and the phoenix launches itself from the tower to nail the other chariot in the flank. The sky cutter flies toward the center of the table where it can get a good angle at the three remaining rot knights, and the silver helms finally move from their position to get a flanking position on them. The winds of magic was fairly anemic again, with seven dice going to either side as the chaos sorcerer managed to channel an additional. The phoenix, however, was able to get a +1 attack bonus from the magic phase which would come in handy. The only thing happening this turn was for the high elf mage to dispel the plague wind as it was too close to the elven lines for comfort and a good roll by the chaos side would easily hammer the white lions, which were not protected from those effects by the banner of mathias ward. The shooting phase was largely ineffective. The skycutter missed the rot knights, and the two remaining bolt throwers and sixteen archers targeted the unit of chaos warriors coming in managing to kill all of two of them leaving eighteen in the unit. Combat saw the dragon break the chariot and then run it down, putting him in front of the white lions (and in front of the chaos warriors). The phoenix inflicted two wounds on the chariot but the chariot stayed after making its break check.

14 Chaos Turn 5 Time was running out on the forces of chaos. The eighteen warriors saw their opportunity finally and charged into the dragon s rear. The wounded creature didn t put up much of a fight against the halberd wielding lawn mower of a unit, and it fell pretty quickly. With not much room between the dragon and the white lions the warriors gleefully overran into them. The rot knights tried to get into the spearmen but again failed their charge, sticking them in the middle of the table. The war altar lumbered forward while the chosen reformed to face the battleline, but for them the battle was over. The magic phase saw chaos with six dice (another poor roll) which they used to try to six dice plague wind into the elven line. The spell did in fact go off but a double 1 canceled out a double 6 for a miscast (campaign event special rule: double 1s override double 6s and count as miscasts but if the value is enough to go off the spell still succeeds). The altar took a big hit, taking a wound from the miscast, and the plague wind moved 8 forward and was unable to hit anything, though it ominously billowed and boiled in front of the elven line again. In combat, the phoenix chipped another wound off of the chariot, but again the chariot stayed its ground, and the dragon, as noted above was slain to give chaos its first taste of points.

15 High Elves Turn 5 The silver helms charged full tilt into the three rot knights flank, and they elected to flee. They were unable to distance themselves from the silver helms, and they were overtaken near the tower. The sky cutter turned to face the center of the table once again. All in all that was all of the elven movement. The magic phase saw the phoenix gain a point of strength, and the dispel attempt on the plague wind failed! This meant that it was going to be sitting very close to elven lines and a good roll by chaos could see some devastation Shooting directed at the war altar took off another three wounds via the bolt throwers. The archers contributed another wound to the shrine and the nurgle sorcerer took an elven arrow the side, clipping one of his two wounds off. In combat, the phoenix was able to finish off the chariot. The real kicker came with the warriors against the white lions. On paper these two units are a great set of opponents. With matching weapon skill and initiative, the white lions third rank of attacks boosted them whereas the warriors with 2 attacks apiece on the front line kept the number of attacks fairly even. The white lions were striking at S6 and the warriors striking at S5 so both were wounding on anything but a one.

16 The kicker here was that the white lions also sported the princess and the battle standard bearer. A challenge was issued by the chaos champion, which was accepted by the white lions champion. The chaos champion smashed two wounds onto the white lion, who responded with one of his own as the two killed each other. The princess dropped two warriors with her great sword, while the white lions came in and killed a whopping eight warriors of the eighteen! The warriors rolled horribly on their attacks, only managing to kill three of the white lions. The damage had been done the warriors had lost by six and the break check saw a roll of a 2 and a 1 a 3 total. Had the chaos army been led by a lord, this would have passed the check, but a leadership 8 sorcerer wasn t going to cut this and the warriors fled and were in turn cut down by the white lions. This was the backbreaker. End Game The two players elected to finish off the sixth turn. The chaos sorcerer s plague wind blew in the wrong direction and then he recast it and it went off again with another 8 enough to clip three white lions and kill a couple but not enough to matter. In return, the high elves greeted the sorcerer with a single bolt from an RBT that caught the sorcerer in the face, and he failed his 3++ ward save and died. Victory that day went to the elves overwhelmingly. Post Game Analysis Its easy after a game to point out all that went wrong when you have some time to analyze, whereas in the game itself you may miss a lot. That said, there were some things that could have played out a little differently. Looking at the army lists, I break them down as such: Mobility The movement phase was clearly won by the high elves in this match, and it proved to be quite deadly. The dragon earned its points back simply by keeping the chosen out of the game and stalling the other warrior unit. Killing a chariot was just gravy on top of that. Overall, the dragon mage did not technically earn its points back because it only managed to kill a chariot, but the psychological impact that it had in the game cannot be underestimated. A

17 key pivotal point in the game came when it swooped in on the right flank and the chaos line turned to face it. This is a sticking point here. Do you ignore a dragon on your flank or do you face it? Is there a right answer? I think it depends on your army and what do you have to deal with the dragon. In this case, the chaos army had no answer for the flying creatures and as such, had I been there, I would have walked forward and weathered the storm instead of facing the dragon. At that point it would only be able to charge my rear if it wanted, but chaos warriors are no slouch in combat, and a high elf mage is going to be killed in short order. The dragon at that point would have become a temporary pin to hold the unit back for a turn, something many players would be loath to sacrifice points on (but keeping the chosen out of combat was gold). The ability to keep the rot knights out of combat on the left flank was also due to redirection and mobility of the flyers set over there, with the silver helms in place to lower the boom at the right time. That s the key patience. If you noticed, the elven battle line stayed static until the time was right for it to move. Ranged Superiority This one was also won largely by the elves. Chaos had no shooting, and thus had to come at the elves. The elves had their bolt throwers and archers which did a fair chunk of damage and forced the chaos side to deal with it. Magical Superiority on paper this was fairly even. A pair of level 2s squaring off. In reality I give the edge to chaos as the plague wind had the potential to really rip apart the elves had it gone off. Bad luck rolling on distance kept it from crossing the elf line at all. Combat Superiority - really this one I think was in the hands of chaos, but they were largely kept OUT of combat and their chariots never got any impact hits in due to being struck first. When chaos did have the charge, they managed to charge the one unit they really didn t want to have to fight (the white lions) who are solidly on their level in martial prowess. Conclusion The battle was wrapped up and put Order in the lead by a game in the campaign. With campaign day looming, Order would have to put the pedal down to the floor and keep their advantage because you know chaos would regroup and come back the battle may have been won but the war is far from being over