Lost Colony vs. Ogre Kingdoms (1000)Lost Colonysupreme sorceress lvl 4, metal, ruby ring of rhuin: 245
master, dark pegasus, HA, SDC, cloak of twilight, lance, shield: 188
19 spearmen, FCG, standard of discipline: 216
10 witch elves, FCG, razor banner: 185
5 shades, AHW: 90
5 harpies: 75
Ogre KingdomsFirebelly lvl 2
7 ironguts (or six?)
3 mournfangs
stonehorn (or thundertusk? I will call it mammoth
anyway, it was the one with a harpoon on top)
This one was short. The initial battle plan was quite easy: witches destroy mammoth with their poison, mournfangs are the job of sorceress and/or master and then everything combo charges the ironguts. In deployment, it was able to wait till the big beast is placed and put the witches right across.
In the first turn, the firebelly is kills one harpy and some warriors with a fireball and burning head but blows himself up in the process and falls into the Realms of Chaos.
In my first turn, I manage to inflict six wounds on the mournfangs with one single searing doom and panic them. I redirect the mammoth into an impassable terrain with the harpies and prepare withches to countercharge. Shades are even able to get one wound off the beast.
In the Ogres second turn I realize that my placement of harpies was bad as they are outside of the generals bubble and so flee from the terror causing monster charging them. The mammoth redirected into the warriors but failed that charge (it had some 50% chance to achieve this). The remaining mournfang continues his flee.
In my second turn, I charge with everything. Witches into the mammoth's flank, shades in the back, master in the back of ironguts, warriors in their front. The big beast is poisoned to death, master inflicts only three wounds but warriors make up for that and the ogres do no damage at all in return. They flee and here we call the game.
Not much more to say about this. I should watch for terror as a LD of 6 is not that reliable.
Lost Colony vs. Warriors of ChaosFinally, we get the chance to trash our most hated enemy! And the minis were obviously excited about this opportunity as my rolls were sometimes insane.
The opponent was the same as in the previous battle against Ogres. The first match did not use a lot of time, after all.
Lost Colonysupreme sorceress lvl 4, metal, ruby ring of rhuin: 245
master, dark pegasus, HA, SDC, cloak of twilight, lance, shield: 188
19 spearmen, FCG, standard of discipline: 216
10 witch elves, FCG, razor banner: 185
5 shades, AHW: 90
5 harpies: 75
Warriors of Chaosexalted hero of Khorne on juggernaut, 1+ AS, 2++ against flaming attacks
20 chaos warriors, mark of Nurgle, halberds, 4+AS, standard of discipline (6 wide)
Chaos chariot, mark of Slaanesh
6x Forsaken, mark of Slaanesh (one wide line)
7x Forsaken, mark of Slaanesh (one wide line)
My opponent did not have his WoC army in the shop so he composed the list from what he could scrape somehow. This is how the exalted hero got in, even though normally he would only use him in a one one one hero match. The Forsaken were there in the role of chaff, which is a bit weird, too, given their frenzy - on the other hand I was using squads of five witches in this way and it worked, too. There were neither hounds nor hellstriders available at the place.
So there were a few things to be worried about. A charging chariot can be devastating, the warriors could not be fought to victory in these numbers and I had nothing that could hope to scratch the exalted hero save the master (and even he would have to be a bit lucky to wound and very lucky to kill).
On the other hand, my opponent had neither magic nor shooting which meant reducing his numbers before a fight would break out was not that unlikely. Lore of Metal is quite useful against an army this heavily armoured.
Magic: searing doom, plague of rust, glittering scales, final transmutation
DeploymentIn hindsight I really do not understand why I did it this way. Given that I had magic and some shooting on my side while he could only harm me in close combat, I should have delayed fighting as long as possible and to this end,deployment behind the impassable terrain would probably be the best way. I could not go through, it was too thin, but why would I want? And he could charge through with a chariot, hero or three-wide forsaken, but this is still far better than having to deal with his whole line.
Anyway, my two combat units stayed together to support each other.
For terrain, there was a marsh to my right and two impassable terrains with a gap some six inches wide - it was narrow enough so that five elves or four Chaos warriors could not go through outside of charging.
Lost Colony, Turn 1Harpies moved exactly at the maximum range from both the exalted hero and left forsaken; they were some fifteen inches from the chariot, but I thought I had to risk something if I wanted to delay the frenzied Chaos worshippers. The master flew to the side to threaten the whole flank and my sorceress left the warriors and went in range for searing doom on chariot and final transmutation on warriors. This moves I understand. What I do not get is why I have shuffled my combat units a bit forward. But it gave them a bit more space for maneuvering, at least, as they got further away from the rocks.
The winds of magic blew quite low. I sniped two wounds off the chariot and reduced the armour save of warriors by one, with 5+ remaining.
Shades tried to shoot at the chariot with no success. T5 is rough.
Warriors of Chaos, Turn 1The exalted hero passed his frenzy check but the forsaken did not and ended running astonishing two inches forwards. The chariot turned to face shades and the rest of the army raced forwards at full speed.
There was neither magic nor shooting and so the turn ended very quickly.
Lost Colony, Turn 2The witches were unable to charge, being blocked by my sorceress. This was probably a good thing as I would need a relatively high roll for the charge to succeed. Therefore, my center stepped back a bit, making all charges quite unlikely. The sorceress hid behind rocks. Harpies attempted a new frenzy bait; their movement is not shown in the diagram. Shades danced around the chariot and faced the forsaken.
In magic the armour save of warriors was once again reduced. Shades claimed three forsaken.
I was really worried about the exalted hero as the only thing in my army that could potentially scratch him was my pegasus master. There were two possibilities: either try to avoid him and hope his rampage proves not too costly (but with so many other threats to consider, this could be quite challenging), or to charge with the master and hope for the best. I decided for the latter; shortly after, the master failed his fear check, scored no wounds and found himself facing something like six S7 attacks which killed him outright. The Gods of Chaos smiled upon their champion and he was given... and extra attack! *facepalm*
Warriors of Chaos, Turn 2I am not sure what had failed its frenzy check, what charged intentionally and what just contented itself with a slight move for some tactical reason; anyway, the center blocks advanced, but the only unit marching at full speed were the left forsaken. The chariot continued its dance around shades.
Lost Colony, Turn 3Shades proceeded running around the chariot, harpies repositioned in case they were needed.
My centre was now pressured hard, with two units plus exalted hero in a threatening range and another forsaken unit nearing the gap between the impassable terrains. The witches decided to break through, attacking the forsaken and running out of the exalted hero's charge arc. The warriors swift reformed and moved backwards to the table edge.
The sorceress managed a new final transmutation on the warriors, killing four of them. Shades shot at the chariot and achieved nothing.
In combat, all but one forsaken were slain before they could strike, the remaining one scored no kill at all and was then caught on the flee. The pursuit move brought the witches right on top of the hill, in charge range of the chariot. As a bonus, chaos warriors failed their panic check and fled a bit away.
Warriors of Chaos, Turn 3Chariot tried a rather long charge on the witches and failed. The remaining forsaken went to the gap and reform to three-wide so that they could go through, and warriors rallied. The exalted hero only moved a little - I think he ended facing the sorceress, actually, but am not exactly sure anymore - it is the only good reason for moving a short distance this short I can think of, though.
Lost Colony, Turn 4Witches had a chance to attempt a charge on the chariot, but given that it would be quite a long distance, they decided to hide behind the hill instead and attack the warriors who were still too numerous for the spearmen alone. Sadly, the girls failed their swift reform test and ended offering their backs to another charge attempt. Warriors continued to flee the exalted hero with a successful swift reform. Sorceress escaped away from all charge arcs and shades moved to shoot some forsaken.
The sorceress managed to cast a new final transmutation on the warriors and this time she turned eight of them to gold (out of sixteen!). Shades managed to kill two forsaken.
Warriors of Chaos, Turn 4Chariot was now able to complete the charge against witch elves. Exalted hero finally passed his march block and as now very near my spearmen. Chaos warriors rallied again and forsaken circled around the rock.
Impact hits killed four witch elves. From their 12 attacks, the girls were then only able to inflict one single wound and the crew made short work with them. Only the champion fled and drowned in the marsh in my next turn.
Lost Colony, Turn 5The thirty seconds of harpy glory came as they moved to redirect the exalted hero. Spearmen wheeled to face the chaos warriors they were so long fleeing from, shades went to the center and sorceress continued her dance around rocks.
Chariot was slain with a searing doom. Shades managed to pick four chaos warriors (maybe with the help of a fireball or something, but as I have said my rolls were insane sometimes and there was no armour save on the chaos worshippers remaining).
Warriors of Chaos, Turn 5Exalted hero gloriously killed all five harpies and overran out of the board. Desperate chaos warriors attempted a charge at my spearmen but failed (all dangerous terrain tests passed). Forsaken circled around rocks, looking for an opportunity to kill the sorceress or generally annoy me.
Lost Colony, Turn 6
Sorceress escaped the forsaken once again. Spearmen charged the warriors of chaos, aided by glittering scales. Shades were unable to move out of the forsaken charge arc and so they just shot at them (I could have hidden them behind the hill probably, but with ten shots, then ten more in stand and shoot and ten close combat attacks before the forsaken could do anything I had a very good chance at killing them). The shots accomplished nothing, but spearmen slew all of the warriors (insane rolls, remember?)
Warriors of Chaos, Turn 6The remaining two forsaken charged shades and were both shot down. The exalted hero returned on board but was unable to save his army from defeat.
After-battle thoughts: First and foremost, I should start taking a camera. When more interesting things go on, it starts to be difficult to remember everything exactly. For example, there was a magic phase where I did not roll high enough for a searing doom on the chariot with three dice and so attempted a fireball with some all remaining dice which got dispelled, but I am unable to figure out when this could have happened.
As said before, I rolled quite well in this battle (my troops were obviously happy having the chance to finally slay some Chaos scum). On the other hand, I got quite unlucky with the witches: first a shorter overrun would leave them hidden behind the hill, then the failed swift reform and even in the fight they had a 78% chance to kill the chariot outright with their 12 attacks so the luck was not entirely one-sided. But the chaos warriors fleeing twice in a row despite having Ld9 was of a much bigger impact.
The exalted hero is very mean. Everything the cloak master cannot kill on the charge is.
Frenzy means he can get out of position easily, but one has to dedicate (and possibly sacrifice) a significant amount of resources to this end. Of course, a couple of bolt throwers would probably force him to hide behind a hill all game.
I think I should have deployed both witches and warriors as far from the enemy as possible and only the sorceress to the front. It could have given me an extra turn to prepare for combat. I am still not sure if I shoud have placed them separatedly - but probably not as there were enough units on the enemy side that could easily destroy any one of them.
I am not sure about the usage of shades, I should have probably tried to shoot some forsaken or warriors the whole time. It was a far safer bet to destroy the chariot through searing doom (and in the end shooting did nothing but magic saved the day, indeed). On the other hand, the sorceress cannot blast everything.