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| source :warhammer.org.uk | credit : David L | 04-Oct-2009 |
I'm running Warriors of Chaos, my third opponent has Wood Elves, and I believe he runs lots of Dryads. Probably good for me, as Chaos Knights eat Dryads for dinner. But Treemen are another story.
I'm restricted to 2 characters, 250 pts of magic items (including character marks, but I can mark units at will), 3 specials, and 1 rare. After last game, I increased my magic item limit by 100, which helps a lot.
He has 3 characters, 2 specials, and both rares.
I want to be certain he cannot spam-treesinging at me, so I need some magic defense. Buboes will plink at a big tree and Quagmire might insta-kill one, so I take a level 4 Nurgle. Wardancers are the biggest no-big-tree threat, so marks of Nurgle should help there. I also take an immune to killing blow character who should be able to fight alone against anything in the WE army.
Nurgle and Khorne Chaos Army list
Exalted Sorceror of Nurgle, steed, Puppet, Enchanted Shield, Rod of TormetChampion of Khorne, BSB, juggernaut, Armour of Zhrakk, Sword of Might, Favour of the Gods
(immune to psych and killing blow with a 0+ armour save gives him a legit chance against everything)
2x5 horsemen with flails and musician
6x5 warhounds
14 warriors of khorne with shields, FC, Banner of Wrath (5 wide)
7 knights of Nurgle, Banner of Rage, champion
6 knights of Nurgle
6 knights of Nurgle
Wood Elves 2000 point army list
Wardancer Lord, Amber Pendant, Nettlings, Blades of LoecAlter Kindred with regen
Alter Kindred with ?
4x15 Dryads (nope, I don't understand why above size 8)
2x12 Wardancers, champion, musician (he only has 2 specials, so these big units I understand)
Treeman
6 Waywatchers
Deployment
Terrain gave me a "peasant farmstead" I put in one corner and a pond I foolishly put not in a corner. He got a ruin and 2 forests. Scenario was angled deployment with extra points for the general, but it counted as pitched battle so he got a third forest. His side of the table is YUCKY!
I stick one unit of dogs in the peasant farmstead. A horsemen unit goes nearby facing behind my troops to prevent waywatcher deployment.
No-banner Knights go a bit west and east. Warriors with Sorceror and Rage knights (screened by 3 hounds) in the middle. Rage knights have one guy in the second rank in the hopes that will beat off any dryad flank charge. Horsemen to the west since they can get around the ruin. BSB joins a dog unit a bit to the east.
His dryads go in front all over with wardancers behind them towards the middle. Treeman and both Alters hide in eastern forest, waywatchers scout in western forest.
My Sorceror rolls 1, 2, 5, 6. No quagmire, but no silly spell number 3 either.
On a silly note, my Nurgle Sorceror joined a Khorne unit. He carries a somewhat Slaanesh item (Rod of Torment) while the unit carries a somewhat Tzeentch item (Banner of Wrath). Silly GW.
east side of deployment
west side of deployment
Turn 1
I win the first turn and seriously consider giving it up, but decide to take it. I couldn't afford to let him get into that huge ruin on the west side, the three forests were going to be bad enough.
My army advances. Facing almost no enemy shooting and almost nothing that can flee a charge, I leave just one warhound screen in front of the frenzied knights. The BSB goes on his own, expecting to start killing Dryads.
Opponent rolls one dice against the Rod of Torment and fails to stop it. It kills 3 Waywatchers and they fail panic. Otherwise I kill a couple Dryads.
end of Chaos 1
Waywatchers fail to rally and flee off the table. Guess the overpriced Rod was worth having!
Far eastern Dryads run up the table edge. Second eastern dryads advance towards my frenzied knights. Lord's Wardancers back up. He's playing this very conservative, which is fine with me.
end of Wood Elf 1
Turn 2
Crazed BSB charges Dryads, eastern knights charge dryads. I fear the knights might not make it, but they've got an inch to spare.
Western knights move into forest, because I have to get through somehow. Horsemen are in NW table corner.
In the middle, I send dogs between some forests hoping to get his dryads to charge and pull him to my side of the triple forest line. (in retrospect, there were several flaws with my thinking here).
Magic plinks some more Dryads and his center unit is down to a more reasonable size.
Eastern knights slaughter dryads and pursue off the table. BSB only kills 3 Dryads and they hold.
end of Chaos 2
Center Dryads charge hounds. I have the hounds hold, so I can get him to pursue into my chaos warriors. If I flee, I think he'll fail charge and I think the wheel will prevent my warriors from charging him.
Wardancers come up behind them slightly while the western dryads head west. The Lord's Wardancers go east behind the forest, apparently wanting nothing to do with my Rage Knights. The Treeman emerges and moves SE, but the two Alters stay in the trees. Perhaps they are monkey-kindred?
Hounds die to Dryads. He overruns. Horsemen choose to flee the overrun and the Dryads hit the warriors. Here we discover the first flaw in this section of my 'plan'. The Dryads are not clearly in my front arc. We roll to see where they are and its flank.
BSB kills 3 more Dryads, but they again hold. He was supposed to rip right through those things.
end of Wood Elf 2
Turn 3
My horsemen fail to rally and roll 17 to barely flee off the table! 15 would have lived, 16 might have.
Western knights finish slogging through the forest. Their supporting horsemen, march blocked and in the corner of the table, move as much as possible towards the middle. They should be able to flee the dryads without running off the west table edge.
Hopefully. Eastern knights return but are in that foolishly placed pond.
Knowing there are wardancers on both sides of the forest gap to their front, my Rage knights back up. We'll let the big wizard convince those elves to come out and play!
Now we discover the second flaw in my 'plan'. My casters are in close combat, so both bound spells are unusuable and I don't have LOS to anything to hit with Buboes. Rot, Glorious Rot eats a few wardancers and dryads while I grant Regeneration to the BSB.
The flank doesn't help them, as the Dryads bounce off chaos armour. Frenzied warriors don't bounce off dryads and the forest spirits break. He rolls boxcars for his flee move, which barely dies on my knights. I roll an 11 for my pursuit, which takes me way further than I would like.
My BSB only kills 2 Dryads this time and fails a 0+ armour save when they swing back. Good thing I cast regeneration on him, as he passes that! The juggernaut finally kills a Dryad. This time, when I want them to hold, the Dryads break and die. The BSB produces the only average pursuit roll I get all game with a 10, which is awful. 12 would have gotten past the Treeman, a short roll would leave the Treeman in my front.
end of Chaos 3
Treeman flanks my BSB, Wardancers flank my Warriors with Exalted Sorceror. Western Dryads charge horsemen, who flee. Turns out fleeing off the table is not a concern, but getting caught is! A 7 inch flee barely escapes the Dryads.
Wardancer Lord and his boys come through the east side of the forest, while the two Alter Kindred back out of it. Guess they aren't "monkey-kindred", but perhaps they are "chicken-kindred"!
My Exalted Sorceror has to challenge (flank means my champion is not in contact) and his wardancer champion accepts. He does the killing blow dance. My BSB is immune to killing blow. But this is the Sorceror Lord, not the BSB, so guess what happens? The final and most critical part of why getting dryads in combat with Warriors was a bad bad idea. Wardancer champ rolls a 6 and my opponent earns 800 victory points (400 odd cost for the lord, plus 400 bonus from scenario). Uh oh. The 3 combat res from that is enough to draw the combat.
Charging Treeman gets 2 wounds past my net 3+ armour save, but I make both regen saves. At least the last act of the Sorceror Lord did help. Angered by needing help from another God, Khorne whoops up on the Treeman, inflicting two wounds. I win the combat, but the stubborn tree holds. I turn to face.
forgot the picture
Turn 4
Fleeing horsemen rally in the ruins. They won't be getting anywhere. Western knights charge Dryads.
Eastern knights escape the pond and look to charge the Treeman next turn, assuming my BSB can survive. Rage knights decide they will soon have a plethora of targets and send the hounds away. Hounds go looking for the alter-kindred. "Beef, its whats for dinner?"
Western Knights crush Dryads but pursue some pitiful distance and don't get off the table. This leaves them facing the table edge from a couple inches away, so they won't get anywhere next turn.
Without the killing blow dance and 3 wound lord to drop, the wardancers cannot generate much combat resolution. Warrior attacks back get 2 past the ward save save dance and the wardancers break. But after pursuing an annoying 11 to get in this position, now the warriors pursue 3 to not catch the elves.
My BSB is unable to hurt the Treeman, then fails a save to take a wound. Thankfully the other virtue of the Armour of Zhrakk is being Immune to Psych, so I don't autobreak despite losing Frenzy.
end of Chaos 4
Fleeing Wardancers fail to rally! But stay on the table. Wardancer Lord and his buddies flank charge my BSB.
The Alter Kindreds don't want to be dinner for the warhounds and move further away. Definitely looks like "chicken kindred". (Seriously, if an Alter charges the dogs, the Rage Knights kill the Alter)
To my surprise, his Wardancer Lord accepts my challenge. Despite his hitting on 4s and my net 2+ save, my BSB goes down. I think I failed more than half of his 0+ armour saves this game, but he was 3 for 3 on the temporary regen. Wardancers cannot overrun because of the Treeman.
end Wood Elf 4
Turn 5
I may have him where I want him now. The Rage Knights charge the Wardancers while the eastern knights rear charge the Treeman. Hounds try to charge the Alter, but he's out of range.
Western Knights turn east to engage the currently fleeing Wardancers after they rally.
8 attacks from knights put an impressive 3 wounds on the Treeman and he knocks down a knight in return. With only one wound remaining, the Treeman stubbornly holds.
Challenge from my Rage Champion is accepted by his Lord (nettlings). Despite getting charged, he does the Killing Blow dance. But the Wardancer Lord exhausted his good rolls against my BSB and cannot kill the knight champion. The other Wardancers don't get to attack much as the knights kill 5 of them first (which is terrible chaos performance since I had 25 attacks). The Wardancers are overwhelmed, but the knights pursue just 6 inches to give them another chance.
end of Chaos 5
In the middle, the fleeing Wardancers AGAIN fail to rally and run off the table. The Wardancer Lord does rally.
The two Alter Kindreds, insulted by the warhounds "chasing" them, charge the hounds. Hounds flee and are caught.
Needing just one wound to finish the Treeman, my knights cannot produce. 2 knights go down in return for a draw.
Turn 6
Rage Knights charge the Wardancer Lord and friends again.
Other warhounds have heard the rumors of beef and charge an Alter Kindred.
Turns out to be the regenerating Alter, which saves the one wound I inflict. Still, the dogs hold for a round and have to be killed by the second Alter in the bottom of 6.
Knights again fail to get the last wound from the Treeman, but he also fails to get a knight and finally gives in to the inevitable. This time my pitiful pursuit distance is enough to take out the tree.
Finally, the Rage Knights hit the Wardancer Lord and his retinue again. This time the elves do the ward save dance, but this time my 25 attacks don't roll terribly. The elves are slaughtered and the Wardancer Lord crushed underfoot.
How to beat Wood Elves with Chaos Warriors !
Conclusions
* I need to figure out how to better keep Chaos wizards out of close combat.
* Playing Dwarfs normally, my characters always go on the corners of units. I need to remember that wizards should not go on the corner.
* If his Dryads had been in 7 units instead of 4, they would have done better. The size of a Dryad unit never mattered. It might not have made a difference, but my knights would have needed more rounds of combat to kill all the dryads, which would mean they weren't doing something else.
* My pursuit rolls were consistently awful, but he failed 3 rally tests.
