My Army:
Dreadlord on Black Dragon (Ogre Blade & that 4+Ward Talisman that does extra damage if you save against enemy attacks in a Challenge)
Supreme Sorcererss (4+ Ward, Sacrificial Dagger, Lore of Life)
Master (Cold One, Crown of Command, 6+ Ward)
Master (Sword of Might, Dawnstone)
Death Hag (Cauldron of Blood, BSB, War Banner, Witch Brew)
Sorceress (Dispel Scroll, Lore of Dark Magic)
CORE:
25 Dreadspears
40 Corsairs (Horde)
5 Dark Riders
20 Witch Elves
18 Darkshards
SPECIAL:
20 Executioners
20 Black Guard (Armour Piercing Banner)
5 Cold One Knights
Cold One Chariot
2 Bolt Throwers
RARE:
Kharibdyss
Purpose: Maximizing Strength (the CoB goes with the Executioners to cut down heavy armoured troops), guarantees of taking charges decently (Crown of Command & Black Guard), good magic, charge redireting from the Dark Riders, and high-strength from the Kharibdyss. The Witch Elves almost sat back home, but I needed more core and figured they'd be handy against the Marauder Horde (who I knew I would see- it's his reliable Core), as they're lower-armour than the Chaos Knights & Warriors, who would DESTROY most of my army.
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Chaos Army:
Lord (Manticore, Hellfire Sword)
Lord (Daemonic Steed, 8 Attacks!!)
Sorceror (Lvl 2)
Sorceror (Lvl 2)
Exalted Champion (Daemonic Monstrous Cavalry thing)
Exalted Champion (causes Terror if causing Wounds)
CORE:
20 Chaos Warriors
40 Marauders (Horde)
10 Chaos Hounds
10 Chaos Hounds
SPECIAL:
Chariot (Khorne)
2 Chaos Spawn
RARE:
Gorebeast Chariot
Giant of Nurgle
10 Chaos Knights (Khorne, Flaming Attacks)
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DEPLOYMENT (objects separate most of the areas of the battlefield, though one is just a forest on my end):
LEFT FLANK:
5 Cold One Knights, Bolt Thrower, 40 Corsair Horde (w/ Crown of Command Master & Supreme Sorceress, 18 Darkshards
(VS)
10 Chaos Hounds, Gorebeast Chariot, 10 Chaos Knights, Chariot
CENTRE:
20 Witch Elves, 20 Black Guard (w/ Master), Dreadlord & Dragon, 20 Executioners (w/ Cauldron of Blood), Bolt Thrower
(VS)
40 Marauder Horde (Sorceror & Champion), Lord on Steed, 20 Chaos Warriors, Sorceror (behind the Warriors)
RIGHT FLANK:
25 Spearmen (Sorceress), Dark Riders, Kharibdyss, Cold One Chariot
(VS)
10 Chaos Hounds, Giant of Nurgle, Lord on Manticore, Hero on Daemonic Mount
-So I actually drastically outnumbered him (against certain armies, I always feel like I was cheating once deployment is done), and he had some stuff I'd forgotten about (I've played against him before, but in smaller games). I wanted the Sacrificial Dagger Lady to be in the Spearmen, but things didn't work out that way, as he went heavier on the other side, but Corsairs are as good as anything for that. He went REALLY heavy with characers on the Right Flank, which I didn't expect at all (putting in the characters right before my last turn to deploy). My Dragon was more centred because I wanted to surround the Horde coming at me, but I also wanted him to be there in case the right flank collapsed. The Executioners were there to take out either Knights or Warriors, since they're the heavy-hitters (that's why the Cauldron was with them- to ensure tons of attacks because the Hag had Witchbrew, while it could use it's Bound Spell elsewhere), with Stubborn Black Guard beside them to guarantee something hitting them getting stuck there.
His Centre is odd- the Marauders are facing a big building, and have to angle to move towards my Witch Elves & Black Guard, while the Warriors are held past 24" limit. I drastically outnumber him there, while his heavy hitters remain on each flank.
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TURN ONE:
Chaos, moving first, angles in on the Right Flank, but moves forward REALLY hesitantly elsewhere. I kill one Knight with the Bolt Thrower, but I discover that their 2+ save is too much for Darkshards to take out (Bretonnians never do that well against them). Magic is mostly uneventful.
TURN TWO:
-More hesitant Chaos movement, but his Regular Chariot charges the Corsair Horde while the Knights come up short- he holds, despite two rounds of combat going against him, since Corsairs SUCK at wounding such creatures. The Chariot runs off on my turn, and I never see it again (it rallies but can't get anywhere). I take out a TON of Marauders with shooting this time, killing twelve of them in a single round (Dragon's Fire- he ended up behind them, plus Darkshards). His Chaos Hounds charge my Dark Riders, but I kill off a bunch of them and capture them in the pursuit! Outnumbered and from a charge at that! Nice Fast Cav!
Alas, the Right Flank basically uber-dies, as the Kharibdyss goes down in a single turn to 6 wounds from the Hellfire Sword, and the Hero on Daemon thingie chases down the Cariot. Awwww, both new models died right away... Oddly, both units don't overrun and simply sit there facing my vulnerable Spearmen unit, who turns to face them, fearing the worst (an overrun would take the victor into the flank of the Executioners).
TURN THREE:
-Stuff gets uglier, as the Chaos Knights charge in and DESTROY a dozen Corsairs, who only hold thanks to the Steadfast rule! YIKES- seventeeen or so hits! I only saved some because I cast +2 Toughness on them. On my turn I do better, finally charging in the Cold One Knights (they failed Stupidity before and couldn't get close enough to charge, but DID effortlessly chase off the Chaos Hounds who charged them before), and the combined force drops a few more Knights, but the remaining three models STILL wipe out a ton of my troops, making me save with both units on Steadfast. My Sorceress moves in to boost the Corsairs with Toughness from the Lore of Life, but Miscasts on a 3-die roll and promptly Dimensional Cascades TEN CORSAIRS to death, and rolls "1" to wound the Chaos Knights beside her. Then I lose most of my remaining NINE Power Dice. Stupid magic phase
.His Marauders move forwards, but get absolutely CRUSHED in a massive squeeze between with Witch Elves, Black Guard & the Black Dragon Dreadlord (from behind). It doesn't even come down to Combat Res- I literally kill EVERY SINGLE MODEL IN THE UNIT (thirty guys!) before he gets to fight back! In the end, his Exalted Champion kills two Witch Elves after the attack carves up the unit around him, but the Dragon one-offs the Wizard using his attacks at the end, and Thunderstomps the sole Hero to death- the Dragon & Black Guard reform, while the Witch Elves overrun to a halt in front of the Dragon. Now THAT was a terrific win!
His Warriors still hold back a bit, while my Dark Riders run around behind his lines and wound nothing (stupid Nurgle Giant...). Oddly, his Hero & Lord don't go in for their charges on my flanks & backlines- instead the Manticore Lord goes flying off next to the Warriors. Um... okay.
TURN FOUR:
* At this time, my opponent pretty much has to leave to go to work (it was a potential occurence all day and we knew that), so we tried to hurry it along.
-The Gorebeast (who's been failing Frenzied Charges all day), finally hits the Cold One Knights on the flank, killing three in total before the day is done. My Corsairs fail to wound anything, and the Stubborn Crown of Command fails, as both units get run down. Ah well, they held off his heaviest-hitting stuff and fought them to a standstill- they're WAY out of position now. My Bolt Thrower actually kills off BOTH remaining Chaos Knights, wiping out the whole unit! 70 points of model did that!
The Chaos Warriors & Lord on Steed charge the Black Guard, but the Warriors (holding back all this time) fail their far-reaching charge, leaving the Lord to go solo... and kill off five models, taking MAYBE one wound in return. Yikes- good thing for Steadfast and the BSB being right behind them. My Black Dragon charges in and runs him down on the next turn off of a flank charge because the Black Guard of course held (thank the Heavens- Lore of Nurgle boosted him to TOUGHNESS 8 this turn, so hurting him was a NIGHTMARE- I thankfully made all of my saves against his ludicrous number of attacks thanks to my heavy-duty armour & Warding).
His Manticore Lord charges my Dark Riders but fails to catch them (I don't get why he did that- this thing could have easily angled a charge a different way in the last round). His two Chaos Spawn (who I've ignored the whole game, assuming I would go first and kill them) amble into the Executioner/Cauldron of Blood and I skoosh both of them before they get their attacks off (the Death Hag solos one, and three Frenzied Executioners (and 3 supporting attacks) is more than enough for the other.
My Spearmen charge the Giant in the flank, hoping for the best. Alas, he Jumps Up & Down, then Thunderstomps his way to victory (I don't do any wounds- I've only hurt him twice with a Bolt Thrower volley so far), and then runs down the unit, despite it being Steadfast. Oh well. In the last move of the game, the other Bolt Thrower turns around and one-offs his Hero on Daemonic Mount with a volley of bolts.
As my opponent packs up and leaves for work, the only things left on the table are his two chariots, 20 Chaos Warriors, Giant & Manticore Lord. I have 2 Bolt Throwers, a Dreadlord on a Dragon, and three nearly-full units of Witch Elves, Black Guard & Executioners on my side, so even if he trounces one, the others would probably mop up his guys. So it was pretty obviously going to be a win for me, unless I rolled SHOCKINGLY badly and lost everyone, so I didn't feel too bad about ending it early. His Warriors would likely have had to charge the Black Guard and been left open for the Witch Elves & Executioners had they won, and the Lord & Giant were facing away from people and so couldn't charge.
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It was a weird battle- his stuff was expectedly DEVASTATING early on, but his tactics were way off, which I chalk up to him not having played for a while, and a weird tendency to withhold troops from the frontlines and hold stuff in some kind of reserve, like it's a real military engagement. My units were designed entirely to at LEAST take a turn or two of losing damage before something can run in and flank, and he made that relatively easy by throwing things in piecemeal. At least two major combats (Corsair Horde/Chaos Knights and Black Guard/Lord on Steed) went completely differently because his units were too far back to score a clean charge, and so I survived an important extra turn or two. I don't know why his Lord & Hero didn't combo-charge my Spearmen (they were in a wood, but they could SEE them), as I would have been totally vulnerable and possibly would have broken (even with the BSB in the next unit over), setting up a massive Flank Eruption as he went down my lines. Instead, he chose to move the units elsewhere (his Hero just SAT THERE for a turn- he could have at LEAST charged a Bolt Thrower, which was defenseless!), which meant they were non-factors for the rest of the game.
So I think he did rather poor tactically, while my weak Right Flank could have spelled more disaster on my end- I would have been MUCH more hard-pressed to take out those Chaos Warriors, but instead they didn't see combat. His hesitation also meant that I had one more round of shooting than I should have (they could probably have charged or been charged by turn two instead of just sitting there eating another round of shooting), and his best Infantry unit never got to see combat.