Beasts of Chaos vs Warriors of Chaos 2000 pt battle

warhammer fantasy league battle report :-

"The dogs all die appropriately, Bloodgreed rule preventing the minotaurs from overrunning. Good doggies!" [Ed. not a dog lover then ? ;) ]

(with some nice game setting pre-amble)

source : warhammer.org.uk

credit : David L

04-Mar-2009

Been a while since I've done this (early November with Alamo), and I need the practice before doing the Lonewolf GT report.

League Game. I usually play Dwarfs these days. But with no comp scores and no extra limitations on the power armies in the league, I decided playing Dwarfs in the league was pointless. I'd want to bring a gunline to half the games, and I don't have the models for a gunline. Plus the league restrictions are hell for Dwarfs - I could never field my Texas GT army if I won every game with max territory points. So I acquired an old chaos army from a friend and started slapping paint on it. I utterly suck at painting, and it takes me forever to produce crappy looking models, so basically I'm getting the minimum required 3 colors and fielding it. Only matters for 1 combat resolution, so I'm saved from painting warhounds.

My first opponent is running a Beastmen army. Beastmen are horribly nerfed these days, right? Nope, because the old Beastmen power army still works just fine - Minotaurs. And that's what Royce runs. It isn't a real "power army" by current standards, but its easily the best concept Beastmen army, especially under current conditions. Facing a whole bunch of strength 6 frenzied minotaurs, I kinda need to charge. Even Chaos knights will get hurt by charging minotaurs and the mark of Nurgle is no protection against weaponskill 4. So I kept adding more and more knights to my army. Ended up with too many, probably. I'm restricted to 2 characters, 150 pts of magic items (including character marks, but I can mark units at will), 3 specials, and 1 rare. My opponent only had one character, 2 specials, but both rares. 150 magic item limit was meaningless to him as he took no magic items anyway!!

Beasts of Chaos 2000 point army

(everything khorne that can be) [Ed. lol]
Doombull, great weapon
4 Minotaurs, champion and banner
4 Minotaurs, champion and banner
3 Minotaurs, champion and banner
3 Minotaurs, champion and banner
chariot
chariot
beast herd, 5/5 with champ
beast herd, 5/5 with champ
5 Centigors
3 Dragon Ogres
Shaggoth

His army looks awesome:

Warriors of Chaos 2000 point army

Chaos Lord, steed, shield, Tzeentch, Talisman of Protection, Hellfire Sword, Favour of the Gods
BSB, steed, shield, Tzeentch

6 Khorne horsemen with flails
5 horsemen with musician
12 warriors of khorne with shields, banner, champion
5x6 warhounds

8 knights, banner, champion, Tzeentch, Banner of Rage
8 knights, banner, champion, Khorne
7 knights, Khorne

I see little reason to field warriors of chaos under most circumstances, but especially against Khorne minotaurs. But I need a third core and cannot dump more points into knights, so I had to fill points with something.

Deployment

We roll for some terrain and put it down, but it isn't going to mean a whole lot. My army just wants to get to the killing.

Warhounds screens in front, frenzied horsemen on the east flank after his chariots go there, infantry idiots near building. General is the lone model slightly west, BSB lone slightly east. No banner knights on west, Tzeentch knights on east. Unseen unit of dogs to the west. I intentionally put one knight in the second rank of each unit, in case of flank charges.

East side:



West side:



Turn 1

I win the roll to go first and advance. I'm hoping to bait shaggoth/dragon ogre charge to the west. In the east, I'm baiting both chariots so I can flank with my frenzied horsemen. With his beast herd screen in front, I cannot bait the minotaurs, so I'm keeping my dogs there safe by advancing cautiously.

End of Knights turn 1, east:



End of Knights turn 1, west:



His chariots charge, my dogs run and escape. Perfect.

Without frenzy forcing him, he doesn't take the bait on the west and instead marches into my face. Not perfect.

Middle advances a bit, the herd continuing to screen. His eastern-most minotaurs wheel to go east around the building instead of staying in the middle.

End of Minotaur turn 1, east:



End of Minotaur turn 1, west:



Turn 2

Displaying great bravery, both the hounds and horsemen in the west pass Terror from the Shaggoth. Guess he isn't that scary and I shouldn't be concerned about him. And the fleeing dogs in the east rally.

My frenzied horsemen flank charge and obliterate one chariot, pursuing into the other. But I will get flanked immediately by the minotaurs that didn't go up the middle.

On the west, horsemen back up and the dogs shift to get beside the Shaggoth (turn, add frontage, turn).

In the center, my solo BSB charges the screening herd, which flees. I do not EitW at any Minotaurs. With his screen gone, hound units move up to force frenzied charges. My general joins the center knights.

End of Knights turn 2, east:



End of Knights turn 2, west:



His center minotaurs (with Doombull) must charge my BSB, who flees. But he rolls terribly and doesn't jump the knight units, now blocking the charge of the Tzeentch knights. Minotaurs have to EitW at hounds, who hold. Other minotaurs charge other hounds. Centigors roll frenzy on their drunk test and charge horsemen, who flee away. Shaggoth turns to get rid of the dogs that are march blocking him and the dragon ogres.

In the east, my horsemen are charging with initiative 4 and his minotaurs are charging with initiative 4. He wins the roll off and kills the horsemen. No second chariot for them. :(

The dogs all die appropriately, Bloodgreed rule preventing the minotaurs from overrunning. Good doggies!

End of Minotaur turn 2, east:



End of Minotaur turn 2, west. Hound models on their side show where units died:



Turn 3

My center knights drag my general along into a charge on his general. Western knights flank the centigors in order to get an overrun into the dragon ogres. Eastern knights cannot charge because of my BSB, who rallies, so I have them back up slightly anticipating another charge on the BSB, who will flee and strand the minotaurs.

Stupid infantry think they are safe and wheel to face east, while dogs flank charge the chariot. Horsemen rally and go out to the west to march block the Shaggoth.

Dogs fail to wound and lose two to chariot crew attacks, which produces a draw. That means I will make his eastern flank spend another turn doing nothing (killing dogs counts as "nothing"). Western knights kill the centigors and easily overrun into the dragon ogres.

My general challenges and is handed the unit champion. I only wound twice, but Hellfire sword and horse give me 7 wounds on him anyway. Doesn't matter, since two knights and 3 horses kill the Doombull and the rest of the knights wipe out the entire minotaur unit! Overrun towards the best herd, which flees again.

End of Knights turn 3, east:



End of Knights turn 3, west:



I discover I've screwed up horribly with the infantry and the minotaurs can reach them, instead of having to charge the BSB. Western minotaurs and beast herd flank charge the knights that are hitting the dragon ogres. Shaggoth charges and kills dogs.
As expected, warriors suck against Minotaurs and are autobroken and run down.

My western knights are charging and have higher initiative than the guys flanking me, so I swing first. Two flank knights drop the Minotaur champion before he swings and the 5 other knights and their horses kill two entire dragon ogres. I lose a couple guys in return, but I'm up by like 10 kills and all three enemies break. I pursue the minotaurs and herd, but roll a pitiful distance and only catch the minotaurs. We may have forgotten to rally the last dragon ogre and simply removed him as a casualty. Oops.

End of Minotaur turn 3, east:



End of Minotaur turn 3, west:



End game on the west side

The center knights chase one herd off the table while the other herd drags my western knights through the woods. The knights claim the table quarters on his side of the table. My general leaves the knights and kills the herd on turn 6. The horsemen play tag with the Shaggoth, keeping him from getting anywhere and keeping themselves alive.


East side

The east side actually has combat, so I'll continue...

I'm confident I've won the game at this point (overconfident), so I start thinking about bonus points. You buy off restrictions in the league by earning bonus points each game. One of them is for controlling two table quarters. To get that, I need to take out more minotaurs on the east side. So my BSB joins the Tzeentch Knights and they reform to face east.

End of Knights turn 4:



Royce sees how stupid I've been and sets me up for the kill. His forward unit will have to die, losing their captured banner, but he can produce a flank charge with a chariot and the other minotaurs.

End of Minotaur turn 4:



I have to charge. I foolishly challenge with my BSB and fail to kill his champion, who wounds the BSB in return. Easily wipe out the rest of the unit and overrun. Uh oh.

End of Knights turn 5:



He charges. With neither character nor champion on the corner, I cannot attenuate his damage at all. He kills 4 or 5 and I don't roll insane courage. Unit is run down.

The Minotaurs take the east:

Victory for the Knights of Chaos! By about 600 points.

Battle Conclusions

As long as I charged, I won. Hounds let me get the charge. In concept, I would have liked to roll the dice on taking a frontal charge from Minotaurs with frenzied knights. The units were so big so they could win that fight, but it isn't the instant-win that getting the charge produces.

God khorne knights are gross!!! I don't think I'll be fielding 23 frenzied knights ever again.

And chaos warriors are just as poor as expected. Even without the flank charge, he would have autobroken me. A big enough unit to prevent getting their bottom kicked in combat (aka 2 or 3 rank bonus) costs so much its pointless.