DE vs WoC retried
Now presenting: The battle report…
Fade to black
Curtain opens on a nerd on a pale dewy morning
Deep in the bowels of the Black Mesa Research Labs, a decommissioned missile base; a top-secret wargame is underway. Information about the project is strictly on a “need-to-know” basis, and as a low level gaming associate you “need to know” very little. Each morning you ride the dark elf magic train to work from the slave pits, you pull out your green velvet dice bag, you enter the gaming arena, and you roll random tests on whatever spell lore that has been chosen from the big red bible resting in the Black Mesa compound.
Curtain falls as dice turn up snake eyes
I wanted to make a list without magic to see if it can work. I feel like magic is becoming my crutch in these 500 point games. If I had a reaper bolt thrower that would be my crutch, I know. So I guess no matter what I’m going to have a crutch. Anyway, my army was:
6 dark elf executioners with Tullaris, and musician and assassin with extra hand weapon
3 dark riders with repeater xbows (driders)
2 driders
7 warriors with spears
Cold one chariot (coc)
The Professor’s WoC army:
3 warhounds with scaly skin
3 warhounds with scaly skin
4 warhounds with scaly skin
6 warriors of chaos with hw and shield
3 knights of chaos
1 exalted hero on a steed with flail, hw, shield.
14 marauders with champ and gw’s
The scaly skin on the wolves was done because he revamped his list at the last second and left a model or two at home. It wasn’t done for tactical reasons, as the scales are virtually useless…except against driders.
We rolled map D for deployment and it was strange. I took the split setup and deployed the 3 driders and the coc on the left. On the right it went from left to right: warriors, executioners (execs) with the 2 driders in front of the execs.
The Professor’s deployment was from left to right viewed from my side of the table… chaos warriors, dogs in front, chaos knights and exalted, dogs in front, marauders, dogs in front.
We had almost no terrain except for 2 small rocks.
I hope this explanation helps. Every time I read what someone else wrote about deployment, it can’t make heads or tails of it.
I won the first turn and went…first for a change.
O draconian devil…..
Working my dark elf mojo, I went with gusto. I moved the driders in all sorts of semi-aggressive patterns forward with redirects on their lips. The 3 on the left shot at the hounds and killed 1. Nothing panicked and I forgot to shoot with the chariot. The chariot and warriors didn’t move at all.
The Professor went and moved things around. His knights moved forward some, I think his warhounds charged my 2 driders which fled. The marauders moved a little forward as well as the chaos warriors. His other 2 warhound units moved in all sorts of clever positions to prevent my driders from looping behind his army and to open my chariots flank should it charge. Magic was uneventful, as he didn’t have any. Shooting was even more uneventful.
My 2nd turn was very turn-like and followed the order that the GW rules dictate despite my roundabout typing of the turn. Forgetting stupidity again…I moved the coc turned a little to anticipate the knights being someplace else. The 3 driders declared a charge on the knights flank, which decided to flee rather than fight. The Professor had “new hero can’t let him die” syndrome. My executioners charged the marauders. My warriors moved up a lil bit. The chariot shot at some warhounds and failed to do anything. I am beginning to think the xbows on the coc are useless. The executioners and assassin killed a whopping 5 guys including the champ (Beardigans returns for revenge!!). He killed 1. I won combat but he refused to break.
As I tried to stand the assassin model next to the executioners, I kept fumbling like an idiot and The Professor and another friend just sat there watching me for about a minute. It was mentioned how the fumbling was similar to the scientists in half life when you shot a gun over their heads in the beginning and they would hide in a corner waving their arms around for 40 minutes screaming “don’t shoot”. Yeah, it was just like that. I was scripted.
With screeching chaos murmurings, The Professor rallied his knights. Warhounds charged my 3 driders, Cw’s moved forward, other warhounds played redirect with my chariot. Close combat saw the driders lose 1 to the warhounds and run. They managed to stay on the table with my huge run move of 6. I seem to average a pursuit move of about 5 inches every time I pursue or flee. It’s ridiculous insanity. Somehow my executioners, assassin and tullaris only managed to kill 1 marauder. The marauders using great weapons, tore my executioners up, killing tullaris, leaving only the musician, his friend, and the assassin in the unit. They broke and fled managing to evade capture by an inch.
Top of Turn 3….I forget stupidity again! I rally the execs, I rally the driders who are down to 2 members. I move the warriors up a little and the chariot a little more biding my time. The chariot shoots at some warhounds and I think does more nothing.
Crap. My memory is going on this. This is why its important to write these reports immediately. To conclude the show, I shall give a summary of what happened based on what I remember.
-The warhounds and the driders got into combat again. The stupid 6+ scaly save saved them from 2 wounds! However, in the following turn it wasn’t meant to be (foil me once, shame on you) and the hounds lost combat and fled off the table.
-The chaos warriors did nothing most of the game as I don’t want to fight them and stay away from them. I know I have nothing in my army that can punch through their armour effectively, except executioners. So I avoid them.
-I finally remembered stupidity with the chariot on turn 5 but not 6.
-The executioners lost combat to the marauders and fled to rally and be charged again. Except this time its a new combat and the executioners get to reroll hit rolls. This led them killing all of the marauders, I think. That hatred reroll is dynamite. Without it, they are rather wimpy.
-The knights tried to charge the warriors who fled. The knights were then charged by the chariot and fled. Then the knights rallied and charged the executioners standing in the middle of the table (the assassin left the unit the previous turn) who promptly fled.
In the last turn of mine, the chariot charged the knights and the assassin charged the knights. The chariot caused 1 wound through all that infernal armour. The Exalted challenged the Assassin to combat….The assassin went first hit with 4 attacks, 1 poison and wounded with another 1. The exalted had to make 2 saves at 2+…The Professor rolls snake-eyes!!! That’s a gambling term…and an animal term too. The exalted bit it!!! It was a long shot in the dark for that assassin but he managed it. The knights broke and fled only to be run down. The final turn for the chaos warriors after that was a mournful one.
I ended up winning the game with that final knight combat. Otherwise it would have been a draw. My objective was to kill that exalted and through sheer luck alone, I managed it. Chaos knights and warriors are hardcore and it’s a chore to wound through all that armour.
Playing dark elves means a lot of bait, switch, flee, redirect, flee, combo charge, flee, flee, rally, flee, combo charge, etc. It’s like being passive aggressive 90% of the time. Its kinda like playing with beasts except I have no throwaway units and I can pass leadership tests. I don’t consider this a real solid win because the game was lost for me until a 1 in 36 chance event occurred. The game was lost on a 1/36 dice roll. Anything rolled other than that was a win for the Warriors. Kudos to the Professor for playing a great game.
