Topic: Chaos Ambush - Empire vs Chaos battlereport

[Gunman006]

Chaos Ambush - Empire vs Chaos battlereport

This was my first battle, and this is my first attempt at a battlereport. I don't remember everything that happened in all the rounds, so I will rather give a description of how the battle unfolded. if something doesnt make sense its because I forgot how they actually got their during the battle. Criticism and feedback is welcome

Empire:
40+ Halberds (witch hunter)(wizard)(bsb)
8 Knights
10 crossbows
1 cannon
1 general mounted on pegasus

Warriors of Chaos:
10+ warriors of chaos (sorceror)(champion+bsb)
5 chaos knights
5 warhounds
5 warhounds
1 dragon ogre shaggoth

Note: we forgot the rule that the dragon ogre shaggoth causes fear, so I was playing with a handicap

Background:
Viceroy Boussy of House La Valette (my own fictional army in the setting) patroling the border princes at order of Karl Franz is ambushed by chaos remnant forces led by a terrible Dragon Ogre Shaggoth.

The battle force of House La Valette is ambushed near a forgotten keep in the border princes, quickly unlimbering their imperial cannon and crossbow scouts taking position on a hilltop they stand ready to repel the invaders.



The Empire begins with the knights gallopping forward and halberdiers moving into a better position followed by a opening shot from the cannon aimed a the host of chaos warriors, but the shot misses the target. The crossbow men opens fire against the dragon ogre but the bolts have no effect against his hardened skin and armor. The enemy army moves in closer with the chaos knights taking the lead ready to charge the halberds regiment, the dragon ogre moving around the manor to take cover from the cannon and subsequently destroy it and the knights in the following turns, a chaos sorcerer casts a buff spell on the chaos knights giving them increased toughness (I dont remember the spell lol).

The imperial knights turns to face the chaos warhounds which flees the battle, but they fail to charge the chaos ogre, halberds still hold firms their position as they are too far away from charging the knights. Crossbows and cannon upon fire but are unable to do any damage at all. The imperial General Boussy on his pegasus decides to fly over the enemy landing behind the chaos warriors. The witch hunter in the halberd regiment see the warhounds charging towards the manor to take out the cannon and uses his magic ring and scorches them all too cinders having a nice barbeque. Chaos then takes advantage of the situation and the chaos knights charges into the halberds regiment slaughtering the conscripts at will, the halberdmen fight back with bravery landing blows but none are able to penetrate the chaos armor. The imperial wizard is slain, gutted by a chaos knight while witch hunter is skillfully beheaded by a twisted chaos blade. The dragon ogre Shaggoth sees the knights and charges at them, the knights chooses to flee their right somehow ending up near the keep on the other side of the battle. The chaos warriors move in closer but are unable to march effectively so they are still relatively far from the actual battle, the sorceror continues to cast spells aiding the chaos warrior making them tough beyond belief (I think they had +7 toughness at this point).

The halberd regiment is unable to do any damage to the ferocious chaos knights and after several lines of men is slaughtered these reikland men lose heart and flee the battle with the chaos kights in pursuit. The Imperial knights regroups and turn to face the manor while crossbows and cannon fire against the ogre but the ruinous Gods watch over him and he somehow unnaturally blocks the cannon ball with his two hand weapons while bolts bounces off him. Boussy makes a gallant charge against the rear of the enemy, smashing into it, but the chaos armor proves too tough for his and pegasus attacks, when the chaos warriors counter attack he gracefully evades the blows but cowardly choosing life over valor (failed his leadership test after losing combat) uses his pegasus to fly completely off the battlefield, leaving the poor remaining troops to their fate.

The ogre shaggoth smashed into the imperial cannon placement with such speed the crew is caught off guard and is brutally slaughtered. The chaos knights return to the battlemap after chasing off the halberdmens only to be charged by the empire knights, the lances of the knights surprisingly tears through three of the chaos knights armor killing the knights and causing the remaining to flee. Their joy is shortlived however as the Dragon Ogre Shaggoth again smashes into the side of the knights killing two knights in the blow, the remaining knights flee but are unable to escape the dragon ogres wrath and are teared limb from limb.

The remaining crossbowmen see the bloodshed and make a quiet escape.

And so concludes the battle with Warriors of Chaos are victorious, and the army of Viceroy Boussy is lost.

[librisrouge]

A piece of advice. In such small pointed battles place your cannon sharply on one flank. Yeah, it'll be harder to defend but it should also be farther from the enemy and it'll have a much easier time getting flank shots on the enemy blocks if it isn't right in front of them. Plus, since only two of the hounds (iirc) can attack it, your crew might be able to fight off anything but a tougher unit, and if they want to bug out of the main fight long enough to kill a single cannon then let them.

[Realjuan]

I liked reading it, but maybe a few more pictures and maybe an army list?

[Gunman006]

A piece of advice. In such small pointed battles place your cannon sharply on one flank. Yeah, it'll be harder to defend but it should also be farther from the enemy and it'll have a much easier time getting flank shots on the enemy blocks if it isn't right in front of them. Plus, since only two of the hounds (iirc) can attack it, your crew might be able to fight off anything but a tougher unit, and if they want to bug out of the main fight long enough to kill a single cannon then let them.

Thanks, that's a good tip. I was actually thinking of giving up on the cannon in favor of demigryph knights or something, but I will try it more out with that in mind 

I liked reading it, but maybe a few more pictures and maybe an army list?

I'm happy you liked reading it, I will remember to write down the army list next time, and take some more pictures of the actual battle instead of just a blurry overview one 

[Shadespyre]

That's a fun read - I liked the story telling style rather than all dry facts and numbers.

I find it really hard to do battle reports - turn one you write notes, takes pics and scribble diagrams, but once the dice start flying you forget all about it! My idea for my next game is to take ONE battlefield picture at the end of each player's turn, that way I know when the picture was just by counting them. No notes needed?

From your game... don't forget that a cannon can fire grapeshot. It's not that great (an artillery dice of S5 shots, rolling to hit at BS3) but it might be enough to save your cannon from a small unit - especially if you can force a panic test on a low Ld unit which has run ahead of its general / BSB bubble, like Chaos Hounds or Harpies often do.

[Lord Solar Plexus]

How did your General lose his fight? He was at +3 (charge + rear) against one rank and perhaps a standard - if no side caused any wounds, he should have won by 1.

I find it helps me a lot to take a second to look at how terrain can support my plan. In this case, it seems the house prevented the Warriors from moving to a better spot. In such cases, you need to have your guys work together and create 1:1 situations. The Halberdiers will be steadfast for a long time against his Knights, plenty of time to counter them with your knights. If he in return can bring in support or occupy your Knights for a while, it becomes more difficult again.