Battle Report: Slaughter at the River Settlement of Dypvann

Morrslieb hung low in the sky this time as Sven leaned with an elbow on one knee, foot propped up on a rock, and stared down at the sleepy river settlement of Dypvann, named after the river that the village clung to. Below he heard cheers and drunkenly sung ballads from the local tavern. His unnaturally enhanced vision picked out dogs chasing each other by moonlight and even from half a league away he could hear the breath of children sleeping in their cribs.

He itched to slaughter them all but he knew all too well that they were worth more to him alive than dead, for they were the inhabitants of this land and knew it better than a foreigner like him ever could.

He was about to give the order to advance when he heard a great clarion cry that could only come from a great horn being blown somewhere off down the valley. The villagers scrambled to man the wooden walls that surrounded their village. Off in the distance the unmistakable howling of orcs came and Sven almost let go a sigh of relief, for Khorne’s blood lust was upon him strongly tonight and he was not sure if even his iron-will could resist the slaughter of the villagers. The orcs though, had been charitable enough to provide to sacrifice themselves to his murder-greed.

***

None but Svens strongest warriors had made the march to the battlegrounds quick enough. His chosen retinue of khornate disciples marched alongside him on foot, while his knights rode out on his flanks. Ahead of him, he saw the Orc hordes. Savage beasts whose naked bodies didn’t even shiver in the midst of the harsh winter. Sven yearned to carve them to pieces  with his blade and with little else in his mind, he quickened his pace towards his foe.

 

For this battle we played 1,750 points. My army list was this:

Sven (Exalted Hero), Mark of Khorne, Scaly Skin daemonic gift, the sword of anti-heroes, charmed shield

20 Chaos Warriors, full command, Mark of Khorne, halberds, the Banner of Swiftness

3 sets of 5 Warhounds

2 sets of 5 Chaos Knights with Mark of Khorne

Hellcannon

 

The Hellcannon was a bit of an afterthought and ended up doing almost nothing at all through the game. Certainly not worth bending the theme of my army for but I felt like I had to have some kind of range and I think it had a psychological effect on Alex…

For heroes, all I had was Sven and I hadn’t even spent all of his magical items allowance. I wish I’d had more to spend on characters but I’ve always gone for troops over characters and in this game I deliberately  didn’t take a BSB for the extra challenge. I wanted to see if I could position well enough that even a failed frenzy test would not ruin my battle plans. This partially worked.

The Chaos warriors are the inevitable core. Banner of swiftness on a movement 4 infantry unit is always, always awesome. If you have no idea what else to give an expensive infantry unit, I heartily recommend it.

The Chaos Knights were cheap but the most tactically flexible part of my army. A must have.

Alex’s list was something like (approximately):

Savage Orc lord with ASF sword and 2+ armour save

Savage Orc BSB with initiative 10 sword

Level 2 Shaman with shrunken head

 

About 30 something savage orc bigguns with extra hand weapons

About 30 something non-bigguns

2 sets of 8 savage boar boyz

 

Deployment: I deployed with warriors in the middle and knights on the flanks and Hellcannon at the back in the centre.

Alex deployed in the corner with both infantry blocks and deployed the boar boyz in the centre and in the opposite corner.

Turn 1: Alex marched everything forwards and I dispelled his magic. One set of his boar boyz stood frostily opposite one unit of knights which Alex carefully stayed a fair distance from, not wanting to give the Chaos knights an easy charge. I dispelled his magic.

In my turn I marched forward as well. Shoved the warhounds towards the non-bigguns and angled them so if the non-bigguns charged, their overrun would either send them off the board or give  their flank to the Chaos Knights. Either way, I wouldn’t have to worry about that unit for a couple of turns.

On the left, I shoved my Chaos Knights right in front of the boar boyz. My mathammer told me that the Chaos Knights would probably be able to decimate the boar boyz easily.

In the centre I marched the warhounds closer to the other set of boar boyz in the centre and the Chaos warriors behind them.

Turn 2: Alex’s non-bigguns charged the warhounds and did go off the table.

His boar boyz on the left did charge the knights and 7 out of 8 were cut down before they could strike. They killed no knights in return.

In my turn 2 my knights that were supposed to flank charge  the non-bigguns failed their frenzy test and charged the bigguns unit with all Alex’s characters in. They were dead meat but ended up killing Alex’s wizard and his unit champion which became very important later on.

In the centre was the only interesting maneuvering I did all game. I charged the 2 sets of 5 warhounds into the boar boyz and marched the Chaos Warriors up behind them. I left the Chaos warriors angled to face the right, towards the bigguns. I hoped that the boar boyz would slaughter the warhounds but wouldn’t be able to kill all 10 of them. Their frenzy would force them to chase the warhounds and therefore overrun into the Chaos Warriors. Next turn, the Chaos Warriors would beat the boar boyz up and chase them into the bigguns. At that moment, the bigguns were currently showing their flank to the Chaos Warriors so it was all very exciting. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.

The boar boyz killed 8 out of 10 of the warhounds and did chase them into the warriors. However, my frenzied charge with the knights into the bigguns meant they managed to wipe the knights out and so there was no longer that distraction. The bigguns turned to face the Chaos Warriors. In Alex’s turn, the Chaos Warriors wiped out the boar boyz and it came down to a straight charge of the warriors straight into the front of the bigguns. Where Sven would face the BSB and the Orc Lord and Sven’s 20 Chaos Warriors would face 30 horded Savage Orc bigguns, each with 3 strength 5 attacks each! *gulp*

***

After the slaughter of the boar boyz, the bloodlust of Sven’s warriors had been unleashed. Before them the gigantic orcs bayed and howled at them, shaking massive, jagged stone bladed weapons at them. Sven didn’t need to say a word for he could hardly keep his warriors from chagrining even if he’d wanted to. Nevertheless he raised  his gleaming magical blade into the air and in an earth-shakingly booming voice shouted his order to charge.

Both sides thundered towards each other and met in a titanic smash of bodies. The Chaos warriors showed their berserker nature as they plunged their halberds into stomachs and through hearts, lopped of heads and amputated limbs. They were fast and before the orcs could bring their clumsy weapons to bear, the warriors had killed almost a dozen of them. The return strike however, was brutal and Sven saw fully half of his warriors beaten to a blood pulp by the gargantuan strength of the orcs in but a few heartbeats. Sven himself wished to maim and slaughter but he felt the tingling of a greater prize nearby.

His eyes searched around frantically until he spotted the orc boss cresting a hill of the dead. He and the battle around him almost seemed to be moving in slow motion as Sven’s mind raced and adrenaline flooded his veins. The orc was a monolithic slab of muscle, scars and tattoos. There seemed to be little else. Sven knew that while mighty, he was still on an early stage of his path to greatness and for a single, fleeting moment he wondered whether he could truly best such a brute. One look at the tree trunk-sized biceps of the savage and the monstrous club he hefted with them told Sven that the creature was the deadliest foe he had yet faced in single combat.

“Aszh ma karagh!” Sven barked as a formal challenge in the language of his native tribe. In reply the orc bellowed and leapt off the pile of dead bodies. The light glinted on the beast’s eyes and as quick as lightning, Sven’s magical blade sliced through the air. The next few moments passed quicker than mortal sight but when the orcs flight ended he came crashing down, his body carved into a number of bloody chunks. In appreciation of his efforts, Sven was engulfed in a crimson column of light that shot out of the heavens. The eyes of the gods were upon him.

***

The combat ended  with the Chaos warriors killing the BSB and Sven killing the Orc lord. The bigguns had done themselves proud and seriously messed up the Chaos warriors but in the end it wasn’t enough and the warriors ran them down. A few turns later, the non-bigguns met the same fate.

Sven got to roll on the eye of the gods table 3 times, getting +1 ward save twice and +1 attack once. Truly a great boon.

In the end, the day belonged to Chaos.

 

Aftermath:

The game went well for me in the end. Alex lamented the performance of his boar boyz which was understandable, but in this  game it was a terrible match up for them. There were no targets on the table who were lightly armoured enough, low initiative enough or unkilly enough for the boar boyz to shine against. I think finding good targets for them is always going to be a toughy.

Likewise, the Hellcannon was garbage. Garbage, garbage, garbage. I’m not sure if I’ll be taking any again the future.

A khorne hero with the sword of anti-heroes is pretty beasty as well and next time I’ll probably field Sven as a Chaos Lord with that and the helm of many eyes. I think he’s earned it. The scaly skin demonic gift is also really great because it becomes that much more viable to field those wonderful non-mounted Chaos character models, whereas before it was sometimes hard to justify taking them when you could just put them on a horse just for the sake of barding.

It was also fun playing without a BSB in an all-frenzied army as it meant I really had to think of contingencies. If you ever feel like you’re going a bit brain-dead from playing games that are too easy (a bit like playing vampires, daemons or dark elves back in 7^th edition), try playing without a BSB and with lots of frenzy. It really makes you think!

The Campaign Map at the end of turn 1

The Battle for Lost Dwarf Kingdom of Karak Vlag

 Mad Shaggadz listened to the wolf rider tell of Grimgrot Grotsnapper's battle against the Black Stunties. 'U did what?' he said.  'You lost?!' Mad Shaggadz's guards stood outside and listened to the squeals of the wolf rider, and then the sound of bones being snapped, as the creature was devoured.  'Damned snotlings!' Mad Shaggadz said, and swung his great war axe in the air at an imaginary foe. It hit one the guards in the head, and the Stoneaxe fell to the floor: skull stoved in. 'I will show dem!' Mad Shaggadz said. The size of his tusks made him hard to understand at times.  He open handed a gaping Stoneaxe.  'I said we fight!'

 

 Da Plan
I kept a similar army to the week before, dropping the trolls, putting the two chariots into one unit, and adding my night goblins as fodder.  But the aim remained the same: to use cheap disposable units to thin the enemy down, so by the time my orc infantry came along, they'd be able to sweep up the survivors and steal all the glory over the dead bodies of the goblins.

Additions were a pair of mangler squigs, the savage orc shaman with a shrunken head, and two units of 20 night goblin archers with two fanatics apeice, and a column of 50 night goblins with spears, full command and a grizzly night goblin war boss with a great axe.  Oh yeah, and two rock lobbers...!


The Battle
Jeremy had gone for a solid combat army of two white lion hordes on either side of a hill, where 60-odd Lothern Sea Guard sheltered a lvl 4 mage with the book of Hoeth.

I got to go first, and charged forward, only one animosity roll being failed - a unit of goblin archers fighting over a rabbit while the savage orcs chaffed behind them.

The first couple of turns my giant ran behind the bsb lions, a mangler squig was killed by bowshots, and the last got into contact, and managed to sweep through all three enemy units. 

The goblins also came up and released their fanatics into the W Lions where Korhil sheltered, killing many.

The mangler squig being able to run down the line forced the elves forward, and Korhil's surviving white lions ran into the goblin column, while the sea guard used mindrazor to destroy a unit of goblins, overrun into the boar boars, who were promptly skewered and all 16 killed to a man.

Korhil killed the nightgoblin warboss, but his unit was hit in the flank by two chariots, and more fanatics, which left him standing alone - and he broke and fled and was cut down by a snickering horde of night goblins.

The crucial combat was the spearmen overrunning into the savage orcs, who were enfeebled to str 1, and were facing mindrazored spearmen. 

The 5+ ward proved indispensable, and a couple of rounds of combat, and a unlucky magic phase let the spearmen down. 

The mage was killed in combat, and the surviving spearmen were run down.

The end of the game came with the chariots, giant and savage orcs all charging into the bsb's white lion unit. 

A ferocious battle ensued, which ended in turn 6, with the last white lion standard bearer still courageously fighting on. 

Afterthoughts
A fun and crazy game, which was closer than it looked at the end.  The mage only got a couple of spells off, but his shrunken skull saved the game, keeping my combat unit in the fight, when mindrazor and enfeebling foe were hamstringing them.

Mindrazor turned my boar boys into kebabs, and the savage orcs were lucky with their saves  - rolling well on their 5+ wards. 

The rock lobbers were fairly useless: hitting only once, and both crews managing to destroy their war machines by turn 3. 

The manglers and fanatics did a great job whittling down the enemy. 

Aftermath
Mad Shaggadz came out of the dwarf gateway.  Fires were still burning.  The smell of elf meat cooking mixed with the mushroom brews that the night goblins were busy stirring. 

'Itz not dere!' he said and clobbered a few gobbos who were stupid enough to get in his way.  'Up!  Up!  We move on!'

Crown of Aeschere Campaign - End of Turn Zero

 

The Battle for Zhar

Grimgrot Grotsnapper

Mad Shaggaz slipped down from his war boar.  His choppa slapped against his leg as he stumped over to Grimgrot Grotsnappper. 
'Hold deeze hillz,' Shaggaz said.  'I go down to the planez.  I find big ax I dreamd uv.'
Grimgrot nodded.  He was a monster of an orc: broad as a ogre, ugly as a ogre, and as angry as a rhinox.  He didn't like being left behind to hold the rear.  He made that clear as he chewed the leg of a goblin who had made a joke about Grimgot that morning.
'I cum bak with ax make yu big chief!'
Grimgrot nodded.  You go and when you come back I cut your throat and take big axe you dreamed of. 
 
Mad Shaggaz left as the snow was starting to fall.  Grimgrot pulled his manskin cloak about him.  Not enough fat on these men, he thought.  All he had were some boar boyz and trollz who had found a mountain lake and were busy wallowing in the mud and eating all the fish. 
His mood cheered up when some stragglers came along.  A party of Stoneaxes who stood naked as the day they were spawned, chewing thier bones and scratching at their warpaint, and some wolf riders who had gone off raiding and only just caught up with the rest.
Grimgrot killed the biggest of them to show them all a lesson.  He was about to kill the next biggest when one of the boar boyz came up.
'Stunties!' he said.  'Clambering up the slopz behind us!  Got stunty machines!'
Grimgrot dropped the gobbo and as the thing sprawled on the floor and gasped for breath he bent over it.  'Fight good or I'll feed you to your warg!' Grimgrot told him. 
At that moment a giant stomped down from the mountainside. 
Grimgrot had no idea if it was on his side or not, but he waved his battleaxe, and shouted - 'Dey iz over dere!'
The giant turned and saw the dwarves.  A demon headed giant was coming up the hill.  It seemed as though they knew each other.   Both giants let out a great roar and charged. 
Behind him Grimgrot joined the Stoneaxes, blew his warhorn and led his forces forward. 
 
Bat rep:

Orc battlelines charge
 
 

Sam had his Infernal Guard about 4 ranks deep, with a warmachine either side, and a giant on his right wing. 
I lined up opposite him, with boar boys and trolls on the right, two chariots in the middle, the giant on the left, with the wolf riders, and my general with 30 savage orcs coming up the middle. 
The giants were the first to meet and they had 3 rounds of combat, in which I looked like loosing straight off, when my giant was hit by the siege giant's club, and he took 5 wounds in the first round.  In return, he took a great swing, which Sam's giant sidestepped.  This fight continued for three rounds of combat: Sam's giant kept sidestepping the club, and in the end my giant headbutted the other, meaning he couldn't attack next turn.  And stunned and bleeding, the headbutted giant was easy prey for a thump with the club, which killed him straight off.
Unfortunately, he fell onto my giant and killed him.
 
Meanwhile Sam's warmachines had panicked my wolf riders off the table. 
My boar boys and chariots and savage orcs all survived the shooting, and kept moving onwards.  One chariot got a charge off on the Dreadquake mortar, and killed the crew.  The other was destroyed by the flames of the hellcanon. 
 
The boar boyz failed their animosity roll and charged into the front of the infernal guard, and fluffed their wound rolls.  Fluffing wound rolls felt like the story of the game. 
My trolls followed and were run down.  And finally my savage orcs - who combined their charge with a chariot into the side of the infernal guard.  But to wound rolls did not go well, and lost the first round of combat, and unfrenzied were unable to hold their own.

I managed to cut down the dwarf sorcerer in the last turn, but failed my break test and Grimgrot Grotsnapper fled off table to eat goblins and worry about Mad Shaggaz being angry when he returned.  Or, if he returned. 
 
Afterthoughts: was eager to get into combat asap in order to stop being shot at.  Under appreciated how tough the infernal guard were with their save and 6+ ward.  Very rusty on rules, so forgot to call Waaagh, which may well have tipped some of the tighter combats in my favour. 
 
Should have delayed the trolls another round so they could have gone into the infernal guard with the savage orcs.  Also the critical point was my boar boys failing animosity and charging into the front of the dwarves, rather than sweeping through the warmachines and allowing both chariots to charge the dwarves.  But not entirely sure, how badly they were rolling their wounds, they wound have done enough. 
 
Should also have upped the Savage orc horde to 40, and stuck in a mage with the shrunken head.  Felt the lack of a magic phase and shooting phase: so will be fixing this next time.
 
Thoughts on Chaos Dwarves: tough and solid as non chaos dwarves, with the addition of magic and very effective warmachines. 
 

Battle Report: Ogres vs Chaos Warriors

The land was cold, bleak – the jagged stone mountains cut into the overcast clouds like teeth and hither and tither small rays of light broke through to shine on the sparkling snow that lay deep enough for a man to sink up  to the knees in. Men, such as those that dwelt in the weakling Empire of Man would die within an hour in such conditions. Sven Orffson felt nothing except the fires of his own fury which seemed to manifest in the foggy breaths that vented from the grille of his skull-faced helm.

He had travelled to this place, not so different from the regions where he was bred, in search of the prize that had intruded, unbidden, into his dreams. He recalled the visions he had had in his sleep; a pair of cruel, hooked axes cast of black meteoric metal. The aura the blades exuded was unmistakable: limitless power, unending glory, and the strength to carve out a kingdom that spanned the world as surely as Sven could tear a man in two with his bare hands.

Others he had spoken to had had similar visions but the prize was always different; a wand, a horned crown, a massive black shield, even a crow with eyes filled with balefire. But all of them made the same unspoken promises.

Sven looked down into the valley. This was the trail, the trail that lead to his destiny. He had seen others treading it from afar. Grand hosts and small raiding parties, but something told him they all moved with the same purpose of finding the prize. He was not great leader, not yet. The group of crimson armoured Chaos warriors that followed him did so because he was the strongest, the most brutal, the spirit of murder made flesh. Now below him, he spied a group of ogres.

The grunting bipedal beasts hawed and spat into the wilderness as they trudged along. Silently,  Sven hefted his axe and began to march down the hillside and without a word, his warriors followed him.

***

A standstill – the ogres had formed up in uncharacteristic patience behind a treacherously frozen lake while a huge cannon fired great balls of steel at Sven’s warriors. A group of goblin-like things grinned evilly at the Chaos warriors and Sven knew that but a few feet away, the ground was laden with traps that would maim his small force if they were foolhardy enough. Bit by bit, the wild Norscans that had joined Sven’s company, mounted on their swift steeds, charged towards the ogres’ lines and hurled their axes, cutting down the gnoblars and showing great restraint not to sate their battle lust and engage the ogres in combat.

Sven knew that time was against him. The rhinox-drawn cannon had thus far drawn a petty toll on his warriors but it could not last forever. Eventually his warriors would feel the sting of the ogres’ firepower.

Then he cursed. The marauders had finally succumb to Khorne’s call and charged the cannon. The beast reared fiercely but before it could dash the marauders to pieces, their hefty flails beat it to the ground and left it for dead with its skull crushed in. They overran it, fresh from their victory and Sven thought they would be butchered by the ogres, only to see the ogres turn tail and flee.

Victory! And so soon…! Seizing on it, Sven charged after his marauders, only to find the ogres turn about face suddenly. A feint! The ogres came charging down and smashed into Sven and his warriors. Their champion met the ogre bruiser face to face but was crushed in a single blow from a giant hammer. Sven himself hacked and hewed at the ogres but could not kill more than one at a time, for their bulk was astounding. A half-dozen blows from the ogres’ great weapons came down with the force of an avalanche but Sven dodged all but one. He brought his shield up with lightning reflexes but the enormous club smashed through it and shattered his arm. The blow almost carried through to compact his entire skeleton into the rocky ground but just at that moment, the old amulet he had worn around his neck since he was a boy flared brightly and the force of the blow dissipated until it was no more than a mighty thud that knocked the wind out of him.

As Sven got back his footing he looked around. His warriors had slashed and cut at the ogres but all around him his warriors were being massacred. The ground was sodden with blood, brains and cracked breastplates. He tried to shout for them to hold but the lungs in his battered chest merely heaved in protest. The rout was impossible to stop and the battle was over.

Sven did not swear vengeance that day, for he had been bested and was glad of the lesson. He merely swore that he would not be defeated again by any creature that walked on two legs, no matter how big it might be.

Barrt the Fierce waits for the ogres....

In the months of seiqe, where the ogres have declined to attack, Barrt the Fierce has had the chance to almost get fully painted.

Latest portrait shots here: courtesy of Tilean Court Painter, Leonardo da Vanchai