I’m sorry this one’s so late, I thought I’d already posted it. Alas, the internet toys with us all. Here is the account of the rather strange, although extremely fun, warhammer game I promised last time.
The most fitting background that we could conceive of was that the wood elves had been corrupted by the insidious whispering of Chaos. The unthinkable had happened: members of the elder race had fallen to the ruinous powers! News of this treachery swept through the lands of the Old World and folk trembled behind closed doors at the thought of such a terrible army as was now sweeping through the Empire.
Empire troops were in short supply with Greenskin and Chaos incursions elsewhere and a rampaging army of the dead massing in the south. The only force which could be mobilised to counter this heretical horde was a brave army of dwarves who issued forth from their mountain stronghold to give battle.
Dwarves: lord with some upgrades, 20 thunderers, 2 cannons with engineers (one of which was a master), flame cannon, 10 long beards, 8 assorted slayers, 10 rangers, 9 miners, tooled up thane.
Wood Elves: 2X 10 glade guard, 8 glade riders, 10 dryads, 6 way watchers, level 2 spell singer, Noble on horse with shiny things.
Hordes of Chaos: aspiring champion on barded steed with toys, 9 chosen knights, chariot, 10 warriors, 15 marauders, 12 hounds of chaos.
This was the first in our new team gaming season. We are coming to appreciate the level of enjoyment which scenarios and missions add to our games. Due to the rules and restrictions for these missions though they are not easy to adapt for multi-player gaming. To resolve this we have started teaming up. This game saw 1000 points of my Hordes of Chaos ally with 1000 points of Johnny’s Wood Elves to fight 2000 points of Olly’s dwarves.
We had more units so were able to keep our best for deployment until last. We were also lucky that the boarded was quite thickly wooded on our side meaning that the tricksy elveses could sneak into effective range without movement restrictions. The knights were able to put a great deal of nice high terrain between themselves and the cannons and the sheer speed of the elves allowed us to run rings around the dwarves.
I had recently read about the “weighted flank tactic of warhammer where one end of the army is comprised of fast assault troops. The other flank should be strong enough to hold up the enemy but this should be a delaying tactic only. The rest of the forces will be deployed in the centre to assist where needed. I thought we should try this out. We deployed the knights with the chaos champion and the elf cavalry on the right flank (and what a sight it was to). The warriors, chariot, glade guard, sorcerer and elf lord made up the centre while the nice cheap marauders and fast but inexpensive hounds made up the left flank. The dryads advanced through a large wood which extended far into the board on the left side.
With the miners burrowing and the rangers infiltrating the dwarves had little to set up. Their war machines all set up at the same time with the two cannons covering either side of the large wood and the flame cannon ominously scanning the centre. The thunderers deployed behind a hill on our weighted flank (dramatically underestimating the speed of our cavalry). The longbeards and slayers held the centre.
Winning the roll for first turn we sent almost everything barreling forward with the spell singer skulking in the ruined building to do his mojo and some of the glade guard pacing themselves to get some shooting in. The way watchers, which had infiltrated, moved out in front of the cannons and let loose with their bows. Their shooting was quite limited with only one dwarf crewman falling victim to the hail of arrows. With noticeably browner trousers they waited to be obliterated by the dwarf guns. The dwarf retaliation was below par. The first cannon fired a wall of grape shot at the way watchers. 4 were hit but only 2 were seriously injured by the scything shrapnel. The second cannon, reloaded too quickly to take care of the nearby threat, misfired and was then unable to fire either that turn or the next. The flame cannon did slightly better by landing a gout of fire on the now visible chaos hounds. Three were incinerated and the rest turned tail and ran but were able to regroup shortly afterwards. The thunderers, choosing to shoot with several of their number rather than moving onto the hill, sent shots towards the galloping knights. Needless to say, they clanged harmlessly from their armour.
Turn 2 saw combat joined. The knights hammered home into the thunderers where the chaos champion and dwarf lord dueled for a turn or two before the lord’s extra wound prevailed and he felled the champion of chaos. Immediately another knight took his place however and the lord was cut down by the chosen warrior’s already blood-slicked blade. The sheer size of the thunderer unit helped the dwarves as the knights were bogged down for several turns allowing the dwarves combat troops to stump about grimly unhindered.
I’m afraid that the turns become a little blurred after this however. The way watchers proved quite limited with their shooting again but the dryads soon reached the cannons and tore their crews to pieces. The flame cannon was destroyed by glade guard arrows and the chariot charged and dispatched the whole unit of longbeards (although their great axes did some terrible damage to its paintwork).
The game did not all go right for chaos. The glade riders executed a flee reaction to a charge by the slayers. Confidently we decided that this was the best course of action. After all, the table edge behind them was quite far enough away… It turned out to be 16 inches away which was quite irrelevant to the elven cavalry which rolled a massive 17 inches for their fall back. The slayers ended up in combat with the chaos warriors and, much to the chagrin of the unholy warriors, beat them. The ensuing flight saw the warriors skulk behind a unit of glade guard who were charged by the berserk slayers. Unfortunately, the knights were free by then and they charged the flank of the depleted slayer unit. The frenzied dwarves were soon destroyed.
The game ended with the miners, the last dwarf unit, being slowly whittled down by elven archery and magic. Their truly terrifying weapons load out saw the entire chaos army desperately trying not to get into combat with them. Desperate to escape the hail of arrows, the few survivors moved into a wood. They were literally surrounded with the knights, chariot, warriors, hounds, marauders, dryads and at least 1 unit of glade guard still above half strength. In the end though wild magicks proved their undoing and the very cover they sought rose against them and smote them down. A fantastic round of elven magic.
Well that was a truly great game. The dwarves had some appalling luck with their usually devastating missile troops proving almost entirely useless in the long turn. The terrain was also extremely favourable for the chaos/elf alliance with woods, hills and buildings offering cover from the thunderers particularly. In the end though it comes down to the power of our alliance. The awesome combat prowess of the hordes of chaos combined with the mobility and firepower of the wood elves makes for a formidable army which I for one would greatly fear to face. After saying that, I did agree to play 2000 points of orks and goblins against an alliance of elves and dwarves. They’ll be picking up the pieces from that one for a long time!
Our next planned session will see a return of Warhammer Fantasy Role-play. I wonder what Sophia and Heini will get up to this time? In the meantime, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Commander Portman
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3 comments:
I always find it amusing reading your discriptions of the games you play.
Wow! That was a long and complex one! :)
That's battle reports for you. The bigger they are the more difficult they are to write. Any feedback on the style would be welcome: do we want more game mechanics, more detailed descriptions of moves or more story lines and fiction? please let me know.
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