Turn 1: Chaos Motley Crew
All the Chaos reserves moved onto the board. The Slannesh mage joined his escort and the Daemon Prince moved to support the two Chimera's. Looked like my right flank was going to have a bad day! He moved up everything else, using his dog's to tempt my Knight units and Pegi. Tzeentch knights moved up but kept out of Hellblaster range.
He rolled pretty well for magic and started with Searing Doom on my Demi-gryphs with three dice... two six's, this could be interesting. A demi-gryph died but he rolled 3 for the miscast... killing 3 Knights before the Sorcerer gets sucked into the warp. Clearly the fickle Chaos gods didn't approve of a divided army (every mark on the board!). To make things worse the last two knights failed the panic test.
I was feeling pretty confident until my Demi-gryph's failed there own panic test, running to the edge of the board.
Turn 1: Stirland's Finest
Knights 1 have no choice but to charge the Chaos dogs. Whilst the Pegasus opts to jump over the dog unit and take on the Marauder horsemen, long range but makes it easily. Steam Tank generates four steam points and Greatswords enter the field on my right flank.
Now my Demi-gryphs fail to rally and run off the field... cowardly chickens! All of a sudden my left flank is looking pretty sick
To help plug the gap on my far left I move the first Archer detachment across. This leaves the Handgunner / Wizard bunker open to charge, so the IC Knights move up to close the gap (more than I showed on the map). Which has the added advantage of opening a lane to Chimera 1 from my Cannon. Steam tank lines up for a shot through the fleeing Knights and into the Chariot. The second archers move up to block the Chaos dogs.
I roll okay for magic and start with boosted Burning Gaze on the 2nd Chariot. On three dice I roll 15+Lvl4 and he lets it go but soon regrets it... dead chariot! He dispels everything else.
Shooting starts with the tank which squashes his last two Knights (afterward we realised he completely forgot the 6+ Ward but don't think it would have mattered). Handgunners and Archers open up on the middle dog unit, killing all but one which miraculously passes it's last man standing! Hellblaster aims for Chaos Dogs 4 and despite rolling a missfire wipes them out. The cannon takes aim at the Chimera .... missfire... kaboom!
In combat the Knights kill four dogs without loss. The last runs and I try to restrain but fail and end up staring at a chariot... oh goody! The pegasus captain fluffs his attacks, only kills one and takes a wound. He passes the break test, hopefully I'll do better next turn.
So far it's been pretty spectacular... lots of very good or very bad rolls. Left flank looks grim but overall I'm on top
Turn 2: Chaos Motley Crew
Chariot charges Knights 1 and Dog's charge Archers 1 as expected - fingers crossed they can hold out. For reference the Daemon Prince couldn't see my Pegi Captain (out of front arc I think).
The Slannesh Knights move up, but stay out of Hellblaster range. The Chimera's and Daemon Prince all decide to play hide and seek... cowering behind buildings! (not very 'chaotic' is it!). The last dog in the middle unit runs in front of my IC Knights.
Personally I think he made a mistake here. This dog, now with narrow frontage could have charged the wizard bunker, which in all likelihood is about to get over run charged!Magic is uneventful, I dispel everything he casts, so I'll move straight on combat. The Chaos Chariot impact and warrior attacks only kill one of my Knights but the horse kill a second (lethal horses as usual!). I fail to wound in reply, fail my break test and he runs me down, not a great start! The Chaos dogs rip two archer apart, who turn tail and run. The dogs over run into the flank of my Wizard bunker. This all looks pretty grim. The Pegi Captain improves things, killing three Marauders and running down the last (tried to restrain but no luck).
So Chaos are clawing out an advantage on my left flank
Turn 2: Stirland's Finest
He's done a good job of hiding his units, so the only charge is my IC Knights into the lone Chaos hound. The running Archers fail to rally and run a bit further (after the initial break, do they run to my table edge or in a straight line?). Steam Tank generates three steam.
The Hellblaster is out of range so moves up slightly. Steam Tank lines up for the corner of his remaining Knights. My 2nd Knight unit and Greatswords wheel to face threats of Daemon Prince and Chimera's. The Archers shuffle backwards to leave no space for a charge from Daemon Prince on the Knights. The Pegasus flies round behind the Slannesh Knights for rear charge the following turn. I thought about a redirect / blocking move but decided I could take the charge with my IC Knights and keep better board position.
In magic he dispels all my prayers and Timewarp but I get Pha's protection on the Handgunners which is useful (in hind site, Speed of Light would have done the same plus help my own attacks). In shooting the Steam Tank smashes two Knights from their saddles! Hellblaster moved and the Archers just provoke the Daemon Prince with arrows!
Combat with the IC Knights is predictable... dead dog! Combat with the Handgunners goes well, he fails to wound and I kill one so drawn combat.
Definitely looking good for me at the moment, but I foresee multiple breath weapons looming!
Turn 3: Chaos Motley Crew
The Slanneshi Knights charge my IC Knights, otherwise he can't see anything to charge. The Chariot rumbles around into my back field which is a bit of a worry (actually he marched, which I forgot isn't allowed). Meanwhile all his winged beasties jumped over the buildings to belch all over me!
My level 4's dominance continues as I dispel all his spells but now he unleashes the breath weapons. The Daemon Prince and Chimera 2 combined kill 2 Hellblaster crew and knock a wound off the Steam tank. The other Chimera hits Several Archers and most of my Knights but fortunately only an Archer dies. Could have been worse but predictably the Hellblaster panics and runs off!
Personally I would have chucked most of this at my Greatswords... ranked up with toughness 3 / 4+ saveWe start combat with the Chaos hounds, who manage to kill a handgunner but loose another in return. I loose my rank bank so loose combat but stay put. Now on to the big Knight stand off... I immediately declare Luthor's party trick and roll a 6... this should be good! He goes first and kills three of my Knights but then Luthor kills all three Chaos Knights and the IC Knights take a wound off the Sorcerer. He passes the break test but I'm confident I'll finish him next turn. (Got to say 5 Ws8 Str9 attacks with re-rolls to hit is cool!).
Turn 3: Stirland's Finest
I'm lucky with charge arc's this turn, Archers 2 can see the flank of his Chimera which leaves the Knights to charge his front (correct me if I'm wrong but I can see the models through and over my skirmishers so it's legal?). Meanwhile the Pegasus charges the rear of the Slannesh Sorcerer and Steam Tank generates 3 steam points.
I can't quite decide what to do with the Tank. I suppose cannon ball is more likely to kill outright, but I'm only 5" away so I use one dice to pivot / aim, I might hit him by accident anyway. I decide near guaranteed D6+3D3 impact hits, plus tying up a nasty combat unit is a better prospect (Stank experts... what would you do?). So with a bit of reservation I slam into the Daemon Prince. Greatswords wheel to face the fray
Magic is uneventful, everything gets dispelled (he used up a scroll as the Sorcerer looked doomed). No shooting
In combat the handgunners do well, killing two and only loosing one despite lack of Pha's protection. We draw combat and I reform to increase attacks. The Captain and IC Knights finish off his Sorcerer and reform to face new targets (fortunately the IC Knights aren't in the Chariots front arc).
The combat with the Chimera is less encouraging, he kills all four remaining Archers and negates my flank bonus. Then the Knights suffer from severe rubber lance syndrome and fluff at 4 attacks (horse wounds but regen saved!). I loose combat and run but he doesn't catch me or collide with my Greatswords. Finally we moved to the Steam Tank and I rolled 11 impacts hits, wounding with 5... all of which he saved on a 4+
He failed to wound in return but that was hardly a good result.
So I have him on the back foot now but he still has several units that are tough to deal with.
Turn 4: Chaos Motley Crew
He charges a Chimera in to support his Daemon Prince. The remaining Chariot attempts a long charge on the Steam Tank but rolls very short and meanwhile the second Chimera moves up to redirect my Greatswords.
Magic is entertaining, for the hell of it he rolls five dice on the Nurgle signature spell (Steam of Corruption?)... 4 six's and a five! Won't be dispelling that then! The spell fails to affect the Steam Tank and fortunately for him the miscast is uneventful.
In combat my Handgunners finish off the Chaos Hounds (good work for rubbish gunners!). They reform to create space for the IC Knights. The Chimera and Daemon Prince combine to knock a hefty 5 wounds off my Steam Tank (rolls on armour save), but at least it's unbreakable and should hold them for a bit longer.
Turn 4: Stirland
My IC Knights could just see his remaining Chariot so charged into his flank. The Greatswords charge the pesky Chimera, time to see how tough they really are. I thought about charging the Pegi Captain in to support the Steam Tank, but figured he'd be easy prey for a tooled up Daemon Prince (I also thought the Tank should survive another round with a bit more luck on armour saves). Minor boiler leak didn't exactly help... no steam points to grind with.
I rolled pretty low for magic, but still managed to get Hammer of Sigmar through on the Greatswords (forgot about Soulfire negating Regen).
In combat the IC Knights dealt nicely with the Chaos Chariot without loss (didn't even need the horses!). The Greatswords lost three guys but easily finished off the Chimera. My ill luck with Steam Tank saving throws continued and he destroyed it with ease (I failed a total of 10 out 11 4+ armour saves
)
Turn 5: Chaos Motley Crew
He's running out of guys, the Chimera charges my Knights and the Daemon Prince charges the Greatswords (he he... not sure you wanted to do that!)
I dispel his only cast, so straight onto combat. The Chimera kills two Knights but they hold with aid of the BSB re-roll and general's leadership. Onto the big guy and I declare my challenge
We swap stats and I roll five attacks, but at ws4 vs 9 plus the Nurgle -1 to hit, I need 6's. Even with my Hatred re-roll I fail to hit... bugger. Worse still he sneaks a wound in reply... double bugger. Fortunately my two ranks and standards win combat, although he's unbreakable.
Turn 5: Stirland's Finest
I declare multiple charges on the Chimera and he ends up surrounded by Knights and the Pegi Captain. The Wizard and his escort move up as far as possible.
Magic is helpful, he throws most of his dice at dispelling Timewarp on the IC Knights but still fails and leaving me relatively free to cast Hammer of Sigmar and Soulfire. So I gain the all important Flaming attacks and the direct damage does a wound... bonus!
Combat goes well, lack of regen save makes it easy to finish him off, everything reforms to face the lone Chaos Daemon The Arch Lector / Daemon challenge is a stand off, but at least he doesn't wound me and I know have a plan!
Turn 6: Chaos Motley Crew
As you can imagine, this didn't take very long!
His last vague chance pull back some points was magic. He cast the signature spell on the Greatswords, no irresistable and I fail to dispel (completely forgot the Dispel scroll!). 18 of the Emperors finest warriors were engulf by his foul spray and 8 fell (could have been worse). I made the panic test and we moved onto combat... stalemate.
Turn 6: Stirland's Finest
Time to see if I can bring down the devil!!!
We decide you couldn't charge into a combat that only involved a challenge, so everything wheel to face him. More importantly the Wizard move up to within 12" of the Greatswords.
I rolled really well on the winds of magic.. 5+3 plus 2 channels. First I sneaked Timewarp through with three dice and Hammer of Sigmar on two. Leaving me 5 dice for much need Speed of Light which he failed to dispel.
Now my Arch Lector, with combination of Van Horstmans, Biting Blade, Speed of Light, Birona's Timewarp and Hammer of Sigmar has 6 ASF attacks @ ws10, str 5 armour piercing with re-roll's to hit (because I'm now Int 10) and wound!
He looses 3 wounds...
Technically that's the end of the game and I have victory, but we played Chaos Turn 7 and the Daemon Prince died!
Good solid victory to Stirland and I have retribution!
Nick
