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The following is my first Battle Report, this is also the first in a series that details my games during the Shiloh Slaughter 2013. Coincidentally, the last games I will be playing with the old Warriors of Chaos book…
GAME 1 – ROBERT BAKER, DARK ELVES
I was still blinking sleep out of my eyes when I sat my board on the table across from Robert Baker and his Dark Elf infantry army. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this list, it was actually the first time I played against Dark Elves and I wasn’t accustomed to seeing an all infantry list, so he had the element of surprise going for him.
This was a very straight forward scenario, the only real tricks were blind deployment and terrain features. This particular terrain feature was a statue that would awaken on a roll of 5+ at the beginning of each players turn. Upon awakening it shoots a beam of light dealing wounds to every unit in 6 inches of it. This would be important later.
The blind deployment really took away my advantage in drops, my opponent only had a handful of units to deploy and two units of scouts. Also, he had a huge unit of Dark Elves as a bunker for a Sorceress on foot. I decided early on that I would break that unit to pieces if at all possible.
Dark Elves won the first turn, so begins the game…
Turn 1A Dark Elves
Baker moved his battle line forward in preparation for a grand melee in the center of the table. His Crossbowmen stayed behind to defend the flank which was under threat by Marauder Horsemen, Skullcrushers, and my 3 characters on Disks of Tzeentch who I had positioned atop a hill out of range.
Magic:
Dark Elves attempt to cast Final Transmutation on a unit of Warriors (the ones with the Banner of Eternal Flame). He succeeds, sort of.
5 of the Dark Elf horde die due to a miscast template while casting Final Transmutation. On my end, there were no casualties, that Mark of Tzeentch kept my Warriors safe. The unfortunate miscast ended the Dark Elf magic phase, and drew first blood. Unfortunately, it was all his.
Shooting:
Baker’s Scouts unloaded on the nearest chariot shooting it to pieces in short order.
Turn 1B Chaos
I began by marching my battle line forward to meet the soft ones, there was no maneuver here simply confidence in the powers of the Changer of Ways and the strength of my Warriors arms. Too far for a charge yet, but close enough to unleash the power of Tzeentch.
Magic:
I cast Treason of Tzeentch on the Sorceress bunker, 9 more Dark Elves die.
I attempted to cast Infernal Gateway, but was Scrolled. With no more dice, it was on to turn 2.
Turn 2A Dark Elves
This turn saw some mixed results for the Dark Elves, Baker pushed his forward units into my Battle line, managed to charge into some chaff. The magic phase paid off for him, the Dark Elves are in position and building momentum…
Magic:
Dark Elves cast Final Transmutation, I was just short of dispelling it and whiffed it on the saves. The result, I lost 6 Warriors.
Shooting:
I began moving my chariot toward his Scouts last turn to draw fire from my more valuable Warriors. Baker takes the bait and unloads, landing a single wound on the Chariot.
Combat:
The Warhounds fail to take a single Dark Elf with them, but they keep my bigger units from getting hit for a turn. We’re all in combat, but now the Dark Elves are without the benefit of the charge for CR.
Turn 2B Chaos
Some more maneuvering on the left flank, I’m positioning my hard cavalry units for getting a rear/flank charge on the Dark Elves that are already in combat, while also keeping the crossbowmen pinned down.
Magic:
I was set for a strong Magic Phase with am 11 on the Winds of Magic roll followed by a Channel.
I started with Pandaemonium with so many dice the Dark Elves were waiting for a bigger dispel target, so I gave them one.
Treason of Tzeentch went off dropping an additional 11 Dark Elves from the advancing bunker.
I kept the pressure on and Flickering Fire of Tzeentch accounted for 2 more Dark Elves in the general’s bunker.
The Dark Elves managed to Dispel my Gateway of Tzeentch, but the damage had been done.
Combat:
The Dark Elves learned the danger of facing my Warriors, the armor was enough for the majority of the attacks but the Mark of Tzeentch stopped the rest. Then my Warriors responded, 11 Black Guard died.
My opponent was obviously rethinking his strategy going into turn 3…
Turn 3A Dark Elves
Suddenly, the unthinkable (but statistically probable) thing happened, the Statue Awakened!
The statue emits a beam of light that deals 2d6 hits to everything in 6 inches, scary but didn’t do too much damage.
The Casualties:
5 Marauders
1 Skullcrusher
2 Dark Elves
The Dark Elf bunker fell back, the Warriors were getting closer and the Dark Elves were running low on manpower.
Magic:
In an attempt to knock out the Warriors the Dark Elves tried to cast Final Transmutation, unfortunately he forgot about Pandaemonium and miscast. The result was 11 more Dark Elves from the bunker die to a blast template and the magic phase ends.
Shooting:
The scouts account for 4 Marauder Horsemen, but fail to kill the unit.
Turn 3B Chaos
I continued putting on the pressure but had no viable charge options on the flanks.
Magic:
My Sorcerer was still well within range to put the hurt on the Dark Elf bunker, since they hadn’t gotten into combat I could still squeeze them a bit.
I led off with Flickering Fire and killed 5 more Dark Elves.
Treason of Tzeentch was less interesting as the number of models in the unit had fallen considerably, still 3 Dark Elves died.
Like last turn, Gateway was denied.
Combat:
The battle for the middle of the board was really heating up.
My Warriors accounted for 12 Blackguard, a single Warrior died in the ongoing combat.
The Marauders didn’t do quite as well, they killed 15 Dark Elves but lost 11 in return.
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Time was called, so we started calculating points. It was close, by the end of the game it was obvious that my Warriors were going through the Dark Elves like a hot knife through butter, but I had failed to completely kill the big units I had been focusing on. The Dark Elves on the other hand had killed a couple of units, but they were all throw aways, worth very few points. We were at 331 to 340 VP before I noticed how many points players gained from ending the game within 6 inches of the statue of death (150), which was enough to give me a minor victory.
What I Learned: Looking back, my single minded strategy of focusing on his biggest units actually may have hampered me a bit in this game. If I’d focused on the smaller units, in particular the Blackguard which had only 1 left alive at the end of the game, I could’ve scored a Major Win and possibly cleared the board. The target saturation and the aggressive deployment along the flank definitely helped though, it kept his crossbowmen pinned down at the far end of the field. And left me in a good position to engage fleeing units in later turns.
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