Daemons of Chaos vs Wood Elves 1750 points

warhammer fantasy battle report :-

"The exalted was charging and chose to charge the Dryads with my General, who promptly issued a challenge. " (a close fought tournament battle)

source : asrai.org

credit : domus

20-Jan-2009

I recently attended a 1750 pt. RTT this past weekend with my WE. It was a fun experience for me and I got to game with a bunch of guys I have never played with but know through the internet.

Wood Elves Army list (writer's army)

Branchwraith - Lvl 1- General - Annoyance / Murder
Branchwraith - Lvl 1 - Cluster of Radiants
Alter Noble -LA / GW / Shield / Hail of Doom Arrow / Helm of the Hunt
5 x 8 Dryads
2 x 4 Treekin
Treeman

Chaos Daemons Army List (6th Edition)

Exalted - Khorne - Armor of Khorne - Diabolic Splendour
Herald BSB - Spellbreaker
2 x 12 Bloodletters with Champ
14 Bloodletters - Full Command with Unholy Icon
3 x 6 Flesh Hounds
3 Bloodcrushers



Scenario used diagonal deployments and there was a fair amount of terrain on the board (Plus my free forest).

Extra BP for capturing Normal Table Quarters - Your Primary Quarter was worth 1, the adjacent 2 quarters were worth 3 and
your opponents primary was worth 7 points. TQ were not worth any standard VP though.

This was the one matchup I had feared the most as Khorne Demons are pretty serious antithesis to my army. No ward saves, High WS, High Str,numerous attacks, and lots of dispel power meant I had to win in the movement phase.

I basically deployed as I normally do, Dyrads out on the flanks until I can see where the threats are for my hard hitters.

The threats here being the Bloodcrushers.

All of my punch ended up in the center of my battle line and my alter was out on my right flank to pop out, shoot his arrow and hopefully bunch up some frenzied units.


Turn 1

Jim got the 1st turn and used it to advance, albeit cautiously.



My first turn saw me move a dryad unit into position so his dogs & Bloodcrushers would have to charge it and set my treekin unit up to roll the flanks of those units after that.

My alter advanced out, shot his humongous 4 HoDA's and killed 2 bloodletters. He was right in front of the rocks to inspire the dogs to double charge. The other treekin advanced forward, giving 1 unit of fleshhounds 2 targets and I advanced all of my dryads to threaten the fleshhounds.

The treeman hopped from the big forest to my free forest in the center of the table (yet out of LoS of anyone) trying to set up for a turn 3/4 flank-rear charge.


Turn 2

His left most unit of hounds charge my dryads (Durn it - I thought I was out of range) did lots of wounds which caused me to break and get run down. Luckily those dogs ran off of the table.

His center hounds charged the central unit of treekin, the dogs lost combat but stuck around to talk about it.

His hounds & bloodcrushers charged the dryads as I intended, wiped em out and overran - the hounds & crushers hitting a waiting unit of dryads with Cluster BW. This also exposed the flank of the dogs to the treekin, and I would soon be hitting the flank of the crushers.

The rest of his units advanced up - Jim was doing a pretty good job of keeping both his herald and exalteds LoS blocked so I could not pull them out of their units with the alter.


Turn 2 to me

Dryads with the general charged the flank of the hounds engaging the treekin in the center to provide some much needed extra wounds. This proved to be the end of that unit of dogs and the dryads chose to overrun hoping to get fully into my free forest (which they did not).

Treekin flanked the hounds on my left near the lake. The hounds+1 Bloodcrusher killed 5 Dryads, but the treekin killed 5 dogs. The dogs popped seeing my treekin overrun into the flank of the Bloodcrushers.

The dryad unit with Branchwraith was now alive and out of combat (Only US4 though). This unit started heading for a forest to hide there and be ineffective for the rest of the game.



The alter moved around to threaten a rear charge on the general or a flank charge into the BSB.

The treeman moved out of his woods to charge bloodletters next turn. He managed to strangleroot 5 of em in the big unit.

Turn 3



Top View



The exalted was charging and chose to charge the Dryads with my General, who promptly issued a challenge.

The bloodletters in danger of being flanked by the treeman turned to face him.

His hounds moved back on the table and moved into position to rear charge my alter.

The rest of his troops simply moved on up.
Close combat saw his general whiff (Annoyance is so awesome). My dryad put a wound on him, but the general decided to stick around anyway.

My treekin on my left started whittling away at the Bloodcrushers unit, simply hoping to win combat each round to prevent any turning.


WE turn 3

Treeman Charged the Bloodletters to the front.

Dryads moved into position to rear charge the hounds to my right.

The Alter charged into the flank of the big bloodletter unit, hoping to take out the herald BSB. He issued a challenge and Jim accepted trying to stay true to his Khornish nature.

Dryads charged the hounds in the rear.

My treekin shifted over to face the coming wave of bloodletters since they could not charge the flank of the exalted.

Close combat saw the juggers lose combat again, but stick around.

General could not hit the Annoyance Branchwraith (thusly deserving its name), took another wound and was removed from the table due to combat resolution.

Big Mistake on my part here - I did not pay enough attention to the hounds. So, when my alter whiffed his attacks and did not die, he fled through the hounds. At least I pulled his big unit pretty significantly out of position.

Treeman whooped up on some bloodletters (3-4), but took a couple of wounds himself(2). Rolling a 12 for the first break test, the Bloodletters stuck around thanks to the herald BSB and his re-roll.


Turn 4

Jim moved his last unit of 12 Bloodletters up just a little bit and reformed his big unit of bloodletters with Herald to face the treekin again.

The hounds turned to face a coming charge from some dryads.

The Juggernauts again proved to be unbreakable. The treekin did manage to win the combat and keep em flanked though!

The bloodletters put another 2 wounds on the treeman, but lost another 3-4 of their number. Easily passed another break test with the BSB around for re-rolls. (*I kept forgetting to allocate attacks to the unit champ)


Wood Elves Turn 4

My generals unit charged into the flank of the bloodletters engaged with the treeman.

The dryads charged the hounds and wiped them down to 1 model. Combat resolution took care of the last one so they overran towards the flank of the big unit.

My general challenged the Unit champ of the Bloodletters, who had to accept with no place to hide. Dryads took the unit down to 3 models remaining, 2 of those were in B2B with the treeman which proved more than enough to kill him. :-( The bloodletters were to 3 models and made a break test with that BSB around.

My unengaged treekin chose NOT to move.

I finally managed to eradicate the Bloodcrushers and only lost 1 treekin model.



Turn 5

Jim charged the flank of my dryads engaged with the 2 bloodcletters with the unit of 12 Bloodletters. (*He should have charged with both, but I messed up a rules issue (Frenzy Screening) and Jim being a true sportsman rolled a dice to see if
the back unit would charge and it did not.

His big unit of bloodletters advanced towards the unengaged treekin.

His bloodletters broke the unit of dryads with my general and pursued and caught them. Neither roll was very far, leaving the flank of the bloodletters exposed to the treekin.


Wood Elves Turn 5

My treekin charged the flank of the bloodletters.

My treekin on my far left simply moved up and around the lake to ensure I got that Table Quarter.

My dryads on my far right chose not to charge the flank of the bloodletters (That would be suicide - they have a 4+ WS) and instead moved to capture Jims primary table quarter which was worth 7 Battle Points to me.

The treekin stacked some pretty serious CR against the bloodletters, and even with the BSB around the letters either popped or crumbled due to Demonic Instability.

I overran out of the LoS of the big unit.


Turn 6

Jim moved his last remaining unit up just enough to ensure he could grab my primary table quarter and net himself +7 Battle Points.


My Turn 6

My dryads claimed the TQ.

I had done some quick math in Turn 5 and saw that we stood exactly at a draw (about 280 pts in my favor).

Knowing this, I flank charged the bloodletters with the treekin - Even if I lost them we would stay a draw.

The treekin whiffed and broke and fled, but did not get caught by the Bloodletters.

Game ended up by VP as a pure draw (I think it was 20 pts in my favor), but I had 3 more battle points than Jim due to capturing 2 total Table quarters.



This was a great game and I would love to play Jim again - he is a great player and a top notch sportsman.

My Most Valuable Points (MVP) - the Annoyance Branchwraith

Jims MVP - In my eyes the BSB - he kept everyone around just like he is supposed. And due to Jim being smart enough to keep him from being pulled out of a unit (He is faster than a bloodletter), I had one solid chance to kill him and whiffed.