The Great Green Rout

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. I've been busier than normal, but hopefully I'll get back into a rhythm soon.

A bit over a week ago, a friend (Benji) and I decided to play a slightly larger game at the club than usual. A couple of SMS messages shot back and forth, and we came to the conclusion that 6,000 points could be done comfortably in an afternoon, so we settled on that. This was all decided the day before the game, and he then had to hurry out and buy the new Warriors of Chaos book so that he would have a current army list with which to play. Apparently he finished making his army list at about 4am on the day, before going to bed for a token amount of sleep. We are all about the organisation, here.

Having used the Empire so much recently, I decided to do something different and fielded an army of Orcs and Goblins. My Orcs are hamstrung by a lack of painted fancy toys like Mangler Squigs and Arachnaroks, but with 6,000 points you still get to field a lot of greenskins, so I was happy enough. Below is the list that I used.

• Grimgor Ironhide
• 60 Immortulz with full command, Razor Standard
• Savage Orc Great Shaman (Level 4) with Lucky Shrunken Head, Fencer's Blades, Obsidian Trinket
• Savage Orc Warboss on Wyvern with Great Weapon, Shield, Armour of Gork
• Black Orc Warboss on Wyvern with Spear, Heavy Armour, Shield, Trickster's Helm, Talisman of Endurance, The Other Tricksters Shard
• Savage Orc Big Boss (BSB) with Great Weapon, Armour of Silvered Steel, Luckstone
• Night Goblin Shaman (L2) with Feedback Scroll
• Goblin Shaman (L2) with Dispel Scroll
• 60 Orc Boyz with Light Armour, Shield, full command
• 60 Orc Boyz with Light Armour, Shield, full command
• 34 Savage Orc Big'Uns with 2 Choppas, full command
• 8 Trolls
• 40 Night Goblins with Shields, full command, Netters, 2 Fanatics
• 39 Night Goblins with Shields, full command, Netters, 2 Fanatics
• 10 Goblin Wolf Riders with Spears, Light Armour, Shields, full command
• 5 Forest Goblin Spider Riders with Spears, Shields, Musician
• Orc Boar Chariot
• Orc Boar Chariot
• Orc Boar Chariot
• Rock Lobber
• Rock Lobber
• Doom Diver
• Doom Diver
• Giant
• Giant

I don't have a copy of Benji's list on hand, and if I did it would be in his usual illegible scrawl on a screwed up piece of paper, so it wouldn't do me much good. His list was something like:

• Chaos Lord of Tzeentch with 3+ ward save, Crown of Command, Great Weapon
• Daemon Prince of Khorne with Helm of Many Eyes, rerollable 2+ armour save (I think), flying, breath weapon
• Daemon Prince of Nurgle (Level 1) with Glittering Scales, soul feeder thing, Familiar?
• Chaos Lord of Slaanesh on Chaos Steed with Slaaneshi pendant thing, solid armour and weapon
• Exalted Hero of Tzeentch (BSB) with 3+ ward save
• Sorcerer of Nurgle (Level 2) with the talisman that turns you into a Daemon Prince
• Sorcerer of Tzeentch (Level 2)
• Sorcerer (Level 2 Shadow) with Feedback Scroll
• 30 Warriors of Tzeentch with Blasted Standard, Halberds, full command
• 30 Warriors of Nurgle with Halberds, full command
• Chaos Chariot
• Chaos Chariot
• Chaos Chariot
• Chaos Chariot
• 10 Chaos Ogres of Khorne with Great Weapons, full command
• 13 Knights of Slaanesh with Ensorcelled Weapons, full command
• 4 Chaos Trolls
• Chimera with regeneration, breath weapon
• Warshrine
• Shaggoth with Great Weapon
• Hellcannon

Obviously that list is a bit rough, but it was something like that. Anyway, I took some pictures during the game in case it turned out to be interesting, but unfortunately it didn't end up being the most even of contests. I'll explain what happened through he power of captions (yay, captions!)...

Success! We both manage to deploy within a couple of hours of our arrival at the club. 

The Chaos left flank (so my right) saw the Slaanesh Lord and his entourage of Chaos Knights take the flank, with a couple of Daemon Princes lurking behind the hill. It didn't cover them completely from line of sight of the Rock Lobbers, but it was close. The Nurgle Warriors and Sorcerer were toward the centre.

The Tzeentch Warriors in the centre contained 2 Sorcerers, the BSB and the Tzeentch Lord (who was the army general, and making the unit stubborn). Nice death star, Benji. 

The Chaos right flank was rather sparse, with a few Chariots and a Shaggoth. 

My right flank. My deployment ended up rather cramped on a standard 4x6 table, but that was OK. The Rock Lobbers managed to find a hill, so they were happy. The main strength on the flank was the Black Orc Warboss on his Wyvern and a regiment of 60 Orcs.

The centre naturally contained Grimgor and 60 of his best mates. The Savage Orcs next to them included the BSB and Shaman Lord. The use of units 10" wide proved to be a bit of a problem for me, as BSBs and Generals have trouble affecting more than a couple of units. I didn't deploy especially well. The Trolls found a mushroom forest and added stupidity to their stupidity. Dumb and Dumberer...

I may have stacked my left flank a little. The other Wyvern, 2 Giants, 3 Boar Chariots, 60 Orcs and some Night Gobins facing off against a couple of Chariots and a Shaggoth sounded pretty good to me. The hill got in the way a bit, though. At least the Giants could see over it.

Turn 1: I managed to win the roll-off for first turn, which was a nice surprise. I celebrated by failing animosity with my Shaman Lord and BSB's unit. Then I fired both Rock Lobbers at the head of the Khorne Daemon Prince. One failed to wound and the other misfired and didn't shoot. I managed to kill 1 Chaos Knight with the Doom Divers. Impressive...

On the other flank, I had some issues trying to address the problem of the enemy being faster than me (Chaos Chariots move 8" now) and having a hill blocking half my lines of sight. The Giant ran forward as bait, since the Night Goblins refused to move due to animosity. Next to them, the Trolls failed stupidity on Ld 9 and shambled in shambolic fashion.

You gots nothin': In a show of contempt for pretty much everything in my army, the Nurgle Daemon Prince lands right in front of my units and starts doing Fat Bastard impersonations.

The Spider Riders were given bait duty, and the Chaos forces obliged with style. Turns out 5 Goblins can't take 2 lords and a large unit of Chaos Knights. Unlucky, guys. On a better day you could have had them.

The Daemon Prince had gone in with an eye to overrunning into the Wyvern, but it was a bit far and he didn't make it.

Benji's miniature Chimera flew forward in the first turn and made a token breath attack on Grimgor's lads. Clearly it was hoping that its diminutive size would help it escape the notice of the Savage Orcs nearby.

The foremost Giant on the left realised he had gone a bit far when 2 Chaos Chariots looked like they were going to make their charges against him. Making a tactical withdrawal, he travelled a bit far and passed through the Night Goblins who had been busily squabbling near the back line. They duly panicked and departed the field, taking my Feedback Scroll with them. Nooo, come back!!

Turn 2: Grimgor leads his friends in a glorious charge against the Tzeentch Warriors. Having only half paid attention when Benji was listing his army, I hadn't noticed that the unit would be stubborn. That meant they held their ground, even as half the unit was chopped into itty bitty pieces. Of course, there had been more Black Orcs at the start of the combat too.

At this point Benji learned the rule that stupid units were not permitted to flee from a charge (being immune to psychology). His unit of 4 Trolls paid the price for their lack of common sense and were pummelled down by my unit which was twice the size. The Wyvern had tried and failed to charge in alongside Grimgor's unit, so wasted its turn doing little of note.

The Nurgle Daemon Prince's taunting proved too much for my Orc regiment, and they failed animosity and charged the fiend rather than letting me do bad things to him with artillery. Discipline, eh? What is it good for? I managed to send 2 Fanatics through the combat, but only half killed the Daemon. I did do one more wound in the first round of combat, but after that he just started bloating back up again thanks to his soul feeder rule. Nearby, the Black Orc on the Wyvern had no more success against the other Daemon Prince. Charging in at Strength 7, he did only a single wound which was saved, and never came close again...

Inspired by the regiment next to them, my Savage Orcs also failed animosity again. This time they had spotted the skulking Chimera and would not tolerate its presence. On the way in, the unit champion and Shaman Lord both tripped and fell in the swamp, taking wounds (fatally for the champion). Then in the magic phase my Shaman got excited and cast boosted Foot of Gork, mashing 7 out of the 10 Khorne Ogres into a pulp as Gork tap-danced on their regiment. Unfortunately, Benji decided to let the spell through and used his Feedback Scroll (just to rub in the fact that mine had fled the table, I suppose). I had used 5 dice to cast the spell and he rolled 3 5+ results. I only saved 1 of them, meaning the remaining 2 finished off the Shaman after his failed snorkelling attempt earlier in the turn. No more fun magic for me... :( Oh, and with approximately 120,000 attacks from the Savage Orc Big'Uns, I managed to do 1 solitary wound to the Chimera and didn't even break it. Now I would get pounded by the Nurgle Warriors. Yay.

As his regiment charges the Savage Orcs and rescues the Chimera from their choppas, the Nurgle Sorcerer uses his talisman thingy, rolls a 6, passes his Leadership test and turns into a Daemon Prince. Oh, goody. Now there are 3 of them...

My Savage Orc Warboss demonstrates how not to win at Warhammer. First, he gets hit with 5 Strength 2 hits from Blue Fire of Tzeentch. This proves enough to evade his Toughness of 7 (from Armour of Gork), his 3+ armour and 6+ ward, and do a wound. Then he fails his Toughness test and takes another wound from Warpflame. Then, as a final insult, Benji's Chariot arrives. It kills the Wyvern outright with impact hits, whilst the crew managed to cut down their Toughness 8 opponent without ever giving him a chance to strike. Boo yeah!

After making short work of the Savage Orcs (and my BSB), the Nurgle Warriors swung around into the flank of my Orcs fighting the Nurgle Daemon Prince. This proved too much for them, and they failed their steadfast break test and fled.

At least they got away... Alas, that Wyvern died shortly after this photo was taken. Its rider fled the field, wishing to grieve in private.

Turn 3: Having been rescued from the Savage Orcs, the Chimera goes in search of less dangerous prey. They broke and ran in admirable fashion.

Having scared one Chariot off the table, the Giant comes to grips with the Shaggoth... But can't hit it with his rhythm stick. Turns out the Shaggoth was too dodgy. Stupid dodgy Shaggoths.

Although they gave a good account of themselves in the first round, Grimgor's lads found themselves fighting a losing battle. Da Boss himself spent several turns wading through unit champions and minor Sorcereres as he bellowed for a more worthy opponent. Meanwhile the Chaos Warriors and their leaders carved a bloody swathe through Grimgor's entourage, aided by their dropping to WS4 thanks to Miasma of Pestilence. The casualties after the 3rd or 4th round of combat looked like this. Bits of Black Orcs everywhere.

Nearby, the Trolls were one of the few units enjoying some success. After chowing down on their fellow Trolls, they ran into the remnant of the Chaos Ogres who put up practically no resistance after the pounding Gork's feet had given them. Unfortunately they couldn't get to Grimgor's combat in time...

Realising there were precious few Immortulz left, Grimgor eventually acknowledged the inevitable and broke from combat, being run down down in the process. The game was all but over...

And the one truly great success of the battle came at its conclusion. 8 Wolf Riders charged a Chaos Chariot, saving all wounds dealt to them by the crew and steeds, and then poked it for a couple of wounds themselves. It was all too much for the Chaos worshippers and they turned and run, although they didn't get far. Clearly I needed fewer Orc Warbosses on Wyverns and more Goblin Wolf Riders. Priorities, man!

Well, that was about the sum of it. After 3 turns my army had been well and truly snotted by a Chaos army that ended the game with more Daemon Princes than it had started with. Gork and Mork will not be pleased with my feeble efforts. I think next time I want to see a larger game, I may hand the dice to someone else.