Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Dark Elves Moving Forward

Moving forward into 2013 I think it going to be interesting. I enjoyed Waaagh!PACA so much I’m seriously thinking of shelving my Skaven and sticking with the Dark Elves moving forward. If I’m to do that I’m going to need to find a 2500 point list that works. Originally when I built this list I built the 2000 points I played at Waaagh!PACA, shown below for summary:

As a reminder my list can be found here:

http://theverminlord.blogspot.com/2013/01/eshin-scouting-party.html?m=1

Sorceress, Death Magic, Level 4, Dark Pegasus, Tome of Furion, Pendant of Khaeleth, Lifetaker
Sorceress, Metal Magic, Level 2, Dark Pegasus, Dispel Scroll, Terrifying Mask of EEE!
Master, Dark Pegasus, Battle Standard Bearer, Repeating Crossbow, Heavy Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Charmed Shield, Warrior Bane, Dragon Bane Gem, Black Dragon Egg
4 units of 6 Dark Riders, Musician, Standard Bearer, Repeating Crossbows
2 units of 6 Shades
2 Hydras

To this I added a Dreadlord, second Master and another unit of Dark Riders to make 2500. The magic items on the BSB went to the other Master, and the BSB picked up the Banner of Eternal Flame, and the Dreadlord picked up the reverse wardsave along with stubborn and the rest of the unkillable lord build, leaving my Sorcerers as a Level 3 (still with +1 spell) and a 4+ ward save.

What I’ve learned at Waaagh!PACA and through the 2000 point preparations is that I don’t need the Banner of Eternal Flame and I want the charmed shield on my BSB. So scratch the second master. Next I learned that the Death caster is a requirement, more so than a leadership 10 general, so scratch the dreadlord. So keeping the fifth unit of dark riders that leaves me with a lot of points.

What I’m thinking of adding are more tools, like the Metal caster, to take on the stronger targets. Great Weapons on shades allows them to charge warmachines or slower monsters. Instead of GW I'm considering XHW and 6+ armer. I’m also thinking that Assassins might bring a good oomph to the list. Manbane and throwing stars allows for up to Strength 7 shooting, but most importantly wounding warmachines on 3 and pushing through tougher monstrous cavalry (wound Mournfang/Juggernauts/chocobos on 2s and give-3 or -4 to armor).

2500 would be something like this:

Sorceress, Death Magic, Level 4, Dark Pegasus, Tome of Furion, Pendant of Khaeleth, Lifetaker
Sorceress, Metal Magic, Level 2, Dark Pegasus, Dispel Scroll, Terrifying Mask of EEE!
Master, Dark Pegasus, Battle Standard Bearer, Repeating Crossbow, Heavy Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Charmed Shield, Warrior Bane, Dragon Bane Gem, Black Dragon Egg
4 units of 6 Dark Riders, Musician, Standard Bearer, Repeating Crossbows
2 units of 6 Shades, XHW
2 Hydras
Assassin, extra hand weapon, manbane, rending stars, cloak of twilight
Assassin, extra hand weapon, manbane, rending stars, hand of khain

This does drive the points of the shades up over 100, and while the Assassins are in the list to almost 300. But as I can always dive or shoot the Assassin out of the unit, I think it’s a risk worth taking. If my opponent is playing lots of shooting it makes them choose between another high priority target. If their list doesn’t have shooting, than it won’t matter if the unit cost is higher. I also can use my skaven Assassins, so it fits the theme nicely.

Extra Hand Weapons doubles their attacks does give them a better chance of doing something before dying. 28 points is so much easier to spend in a skaven army. There just isn’t anything that cheap in the Dark Elf book.







Looking Back at 2012

For 2012 I played a twin towers skaven list. It was my heavy hitter, which made all my top scores for the year. The events where I didn’t place well, I didn’t play this list (except for QCR where soft scores, comp and paint, killed my 4-1 and Alamo, where I had a strong but not great showing, follow up by paint). Here is the list as it finished out the year (2500 points):

Grey Seer, Screaming Bell, Skalm, Dispel Scroll, 3 Plague/1 Ruin

Chieftain, Battle Standard Bearer, Storm Banner, Shield

Plague Priest, Plague Furnace, Level 2, Flail, Poison, Dragon Bane Gem, Scrying Stone, Warplock Pistol

44 Stormvermin, Full Command, Warplock Pistol, Flame Banner, Doom Flayer

2 units of 45 Slaves, Shields, Musician

5 units of 5 Giant Rats, 1 Packmaster

45 Plague Monks, Full Command, Plague Banner

10 Gutter Runners, Slings, Poison

Abomination, Spikes





















































WaaaghPACA Conclusion

As I said before, my overall opinion of this event was top notches all the way across. Some of the tables were lightly covered in terrain, but it all looked wonderful. I and a few others in my group had cut up knuckles from the gravel on the boards, but we’ve all bled for our hobby at one point so I’m not too worried.

The big disappointment I referred to before came in on my paint score. Now, I’m not a great painter, nor will I ever claim to be one (though I have won 3 painting awards at smaller events). My paint holds me back in the overall and I’ve not won events (2012 SAWS) because of it. But I feel that the 12 I was given was lower than what I should have gotten. I feel like I deserved a 15 based on the check list and such a score would have placed me tied for fourth. The three points I didn’t get but felt I should have been given:

Do the character models stand out?
Does this army display a high level of technical modeling skill?
Does this army them extend beyond paint to include modeling, basing, display board and actual unit selection?

After contacting Rodge I was informed that I did deserve the points but that a change in score would not be made. Oh well.



Round 5 - Dave Bednarek – Wood Elves

As a reminder my list can be found here:

http://theverminlord.blogspot.com/2013/01/eshin-scouting-party.html?m=1

Dave has a beautiful snow themed wood elf army. I love the snow owls. His list (not in appearance) was very similar to my friend Justin’s wood elf list, or at least a list I played against him a month before at his local shop. In the game with Justin I was playing 250 points down (took my Waaagh!PACA list to a 2250 event), and while I lost it was by less than 250 points. That left me feeling fairly confident going in. Dave’s list is as follows:

Spellweaver, long bow, level 4, lore of life, The Rhymer’s Harp, Dispel Scroll
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, Armor of silvered Steel, Luckstone (which I think he forgot to use)
Noble, longbow, great weapon, an annoyance of netlings
Noble, great eagle, charmed shield, stone of rebirth
17 Eternal Guard, musician, banner, razor standard
19 Glade Guard, musician, banner, banner of eternal flame
2 units of 10 glade guard, musician, banner
3 Treekin
5 Wild Riders, musician, spear
2 Great Eagles

Mission #5:
Victory Condition – 100 Victory Points
Bonus Point – Destroy MOI unit – Lose a point if your MOI unit is destroyed
Deployment – Battleline
Man of Intrigue – River Strider to unit
Objective Marker – Nothing
Table Sides – Normal
Go First – Normal

The Board:
This board was khorn themed. It consisted of 5 pools, a river cutting the board in half on the short way, a 6” round Khorn symbol in the center and a large impassible rock on the right side of a deployment zone. Both the pools and river were dangerous terrain, and a unit caused fear if it had been inside at any point during a turn. The center symbol caused any unit with 6” to be frenzied and a player with units in the most of the pools could expand it to 12”, deciding at the beginning of each player turn (which we never did).

I rolled to deploy first, and with less drops and 100 percent positive the 19 man had the flame banner (thanks Justin!), I made sure to utilize the impassible to block off line of site without restricting future movement. I deployed both Hydras behind the center piece, prepared to run one up each side. My caster and BSB hid behind it, with the fast cavalry spread out, one on each flank (the MOI on the side with the large rock) and two centerish, but not behind the cover. Dave bunkered into the corner on my left side, with an archer unit on the edge, then his Eternal guard, the 19 man and the last 10 man (and eagle behind). The BSB and other Eagle and the treekin spread out to block off the rest of the board. I scouted a unit of shades right in front of the left most 10 man and the other more center.

I vanguarded up to move into shooting range so I wouldn’t have to eat the additional -1 during my turn, but also to not allow him the strength 4 without moving. We rolled and I got to go first, making the event prefect – 4 firsts and a second on the round I wanted it.

I moved the left shades right in front of the 10 man archers in the hopes of distracting them from supporting the flame unit as I shoved both hydras up 10 inches. I also moved my BSB up 20 inches to get into position to threaten the flame unit as his 2+/2+ would allow him to distract well. I put 2 wounds on each eagle Dave shot at the shades (killing 4) but otherwise focused on the hydra but only did 1 wound, moved up the treekin and wild riders and hid one eagle behind the eternal guard.

On my turn 2 I moved the hydra up to flame the eternal guard, killing off the eagle as well. The BSB popped the Dragon Egg and nuked the -1 toughness flame unit to just enough for ballistic skill to finish off. I also picked off the last eagle. The second hydra failed to wound with his template on the treekin. On Dave’s turn he charged the rear of the second hydra with the wild riders, losing them all, charged his BSB into combat with a unit of wild riders, losing 1 wound but holding and whiffing on his attacks. More shooting as well. Attempted to heal with life, but was dispelled.

On turn 3 I charged the eternal guard with the hydra and the BSB (on flank). That combat would go for a while, eventually losing me the BSB but picking up everything else. The unit of 10 on the left dies as well. The BSB dies to the dark riders. On his turn 3 the treekin come in and kill the dark riders in revenge.

Turn 4 through 6 consists of the eternal guard dying, the last 10 man archer unit fleeing from charges, getting shot at and rallying (to eventually die) and the treekin being shot down to one model.

Day closes with another solid victory, and ending with 18 of 20 battle – tied for second highest battle score.

I gave Dave my favorite opponent (he had almost earned my best painted for the lovely snow owls before I knew who he was). Part of it was because he laughed through the entire game. The kicker, which put him over the top of my other two great games was due to the ‘breaking’ of a model. Dave uses the large red printed casino dice, and at one point a die slipped from his hand and knocked over a hydra. A packmaster had fallen off, but was covered. He expressed concern and apologized and said he was glad he didn’t break it. When we picked it up, I saw the packmaster was separated, and teased him for ‘breaking’ my model. He fell for it, and we had a good laugh once I revealed that they were in fact magnetized to the hydra’s base. A good, fun game, and one I would play again any time. I think a big factor was going first, and would like to have seen what would have happened if I had gone second and had to suffer another round of shooting.









Round 4 – Dale Bartz – Two Time and Current Northstar Champion - OgreKingdoms

As a reminder my list can be found here:

http://theverminlord.blogspot.com/2013/01/eshin-scouting-party.html?m=1

Dale and I had played at Northstar on his path to the top. Our round 3 game consisted of me on top when the game ended turn three but him on the objective just due to where the combat was taking place (mournfang in the rear of stormvermin). Another turn and more stormvermin would have died, pulling the mournfang off the objective and giving me the win. Long term I think we would have won. But we only got 3 turns. Objective was worth 300 points and squeaked him into the win. Dale is a great player, a great competitor and a great sport. He plays a beautiful orc themed ogre army. At Northstar I gave him both my favorite opponent vote and my favorite army vote. This weekend he just earned my favorite army vote but after our game was barely up for opponent. It was close between him and Nicol. Dale is a top tier player and like Nicol every turn consisted of the passing of the arcs and lots of forward thinking. His list was as follows:

Slaughtermaster, general, warrior bane, dispel scroll, talisman of endurance, crown of command, level 4, lore of death
Butcher, level 2, extra hand weapon, lore of the great maw, hellheart
Bruiser, BSB, Tormentor Sword, Obsidian Amulet, Rock Eye
5 Ogres, Banner
5 Ironguts, Standard of Discipline, full command, look out gnoblar
7 units of 10 gnoblars
4 Mournfang Cavalry, banner, heavy armor, ironfist
2 Mournfang Cavalry, banner, heavy armor, ironfist
3 units of 1 Sabertusks
Ironblaster

I didn’t know about many of these items until checking his list to type this post. Besides the standard, dispel scroll, hellheart and rock eye none of his items came into play.

Mission #4:
Victory Condition – 100 Victory Points
Bonus Point – More Fortitude within 12” of the objective
Deployment – Blood and Glory
Man of Intrigue – D6 Dangerous Terrain when charging (never came into play)
Objective Marker – 2 Fortitude
Table Sides – Most facial hair chooses
Go First – Normal

The Board:
I don’t recall any of the terrain having anything to do with the game. Like my second board it was just all ice with a few clear spots. The clear spots were mysterious normal forests, though the one in the center was rolled normal – and the only one entered. With a mission like this, I was surprised they had put so much in the center. The 6” impassible from my second game would have made getting any points in almost impossible unless you just moved your unit to face the impassible.

This was the first mission where both players couldn’t get the objective, and where they field started to split amongst the top field. I think there were only 2 people who came out of this mission with full points, while 7 went in. Those two played at the top and ended up with 19s. This was also the first mission I wanted to go second on. Going first would mean Dale would have a chance to counter any last grab for the objective, in his case it would have been charging forward and killing off my army (or flee pushing them out of the circle). I chose sides, though they were the same, and was done deploying my army before he was done deploying his gnoblars. He had deployed his kitties first, but it wouldn’t have mattered as I only had 7 drops.

Dale was my first opponent of the weekend to actually pre-measure to make sure my shades didn’t get back field. I’m not sure the vampire cared, the warrior didn’t have the units to cover the board and I think Ryan mean to, but didn’t measure and ended up leaving me a 1 man wide space on his flank.

He deployed the kitties along the back in the hopes they wouldn’t cause panic, his seven gnoblars in the center in 2 columns for his flee/rally tricks, one unit of ogres on each side and one unit of mournfang on each side. The ironguts got the general and BSB and were next to the 4 man mournfang, while the ogre unit was outside of general/BSB range and got the level 2, the small mournfang unit and the Ironblaster (behind the mournfang). I split my fast cavalry on flanks, but characters in the center with the hydras and put both shades on the left flank.

I used my vanguard to begin the encirclement. Dale used his first turn to move up and Rock Eye my wizard. Seeing my reverse ward save he decided to pop my BSB with the cannon and knocked off Charmed Shield. The kitty on my left moved to march block the shades and the 2 pack of mournfang moved to face them. Dale was careful to keep me from getting around the flank on my right.

On my turn 1 one of the shades failed its march block so couldn’t get out of the charge of the 2 pack. One hydra moved up to try to push off some gnoblars with its breath weapon (dropping 2 units to 3 models), while the other moved up to counter charge when the ogres/level 2 went in. I kept my wizards back from his, not knowing which had the Hellheart. My general was within a 5/6 hellheart of his level 2, while my level 2 was within 6 on the hellheart from his general. Turns out the level 2 had the hellheart and once I rolled 9 power dice Dale decided it was time to use it. One roll and his tournament reroll later and my General was missed. I then proceeded to roll 2 6’s followed by a 1 and 2. I used my reroll on the 1 and rolled another 1. Luckily my general rolled his 4+ and then a 1 to wound and a 1 on power dice, leaving me basically untouched and effectively having rolled one extra die on the spell (can’t remember which, but it wasn’t important). My level 2 than took off 1 mournfang from the 4 pack, but he didn’t fail his panic. I put 2 wounds on the 2 pack and 1 on the march blocking kitty.

On his turn 2, he charged my hydra, which would do some wounds before dying. He also charged a unit of dark riders with his march blocking kitty. The kitty would die before attacking. The last mournfang in the 2 pack charged the shades, but panicked when one died to my stand and shoot. The ironblaster killed my BSB. On my turn I took out the ironblaster, counter charged with my hydra into the ogres and took out more kitties and gnoblars. I also pushed the last mournfang farther down the board.

Turn 3 and we realized we had somehow spent 2 hours on screwing around. I’m not sure how it happened. I was having a great time though. Due to the time restriction, Dale moves his iron guts into the center to try to claim the objective. The single mournfang rallies more ogres die to the hydra.

My turn 3 and I move in for the kill. I’m maybe 300 points down (small loss), but the game is set up for the swing. By moving his iron guts the way he did, he’s provided me a line that would pick up his level 2, the last ogre, a full unit of gnoblars, and the entire irongut/general unit. I line up for the purple sun, knowing the wounds should give me enough dice to boost searing doom on the last 3 of the mournfang and hopefully push them off the table with a single leadership 7 roll. Alas, it was not meant to be, as with a successful casting of purple sun, I proceed to roll a misfire followed by a 6 and disappeared my wizard. I should have rolled for his three wounds to see if I got dice back, but now I was down so many points that I couldn’t make it up. Medium loss for me, but I had grabbed the objective for a 2. Sad, as I was primed to take it.

As noted before, this round level 2 people with 19s. Either of these lists would have caused me some heartache, either skaven with stormbanner or fast cavalry warriors. Both of which were being played by top tier players. It would have been a hard fought battle either way. But not meant to be.









Round 3 – Jesse Thomas – Vampire Counts

As a reminder my list can be found here:

http://theverminlord.blogspot.com/2013/01/eshin-scouting-party.html?m=1

Jesse was part of Club Autobreak. Thy had decided they would offer a contest of their own. 7 of their members (and I think they brought 10) all played the exact same list. Their contest was to offer a prize to the person who killed the most zombies, and they brought a lot of zombies. I was concerned for vampires, as my testing against terrorgeists had not gone well (though I was playing down 250 points and lost by less than that).

Strigoi Ghoul King, General, Dragon Bane Gem, Potion of Strength, Skabscrath, Flying Horror, Red Fury, Level 1 Vampire
Vampire, BSB, Level 1 Vampire, Lance, heavy armor, shield, aura of dark majesty, hellstead
Necromancer, Level 1 lore of vampires, Scepter of Stability
Necromancer, Level 1 lore of vampires, Dispel Scroll
Cairn Wraith
5 units of 30 zombies
3 Vargheists, champion
2 Fellbats
2 Terrorgeists

Mission #3:
Victory Condition – None – Each player earned points independent of opponent based on victory points scored
Bonus Point – Sing 3 times (singing boosted casting and/or dispelling)
Deployment – Meeting Engagement
Man of Intrigue – The unit that triggers singing
Objective Marker – Nothing
Table Sides – Least facial hair chooses (and deploys first)
Go First – Normal

The Board:
1 level 1 building that granted bonus to GOOD armies (therefore N/A)
River – Ice river going across at the same angle of our center line. Ice didn’t allow for rerolls on march blocking
1 level 3 building
Both buildings were basically along the center line (at the same angle), leaving two open deployment zones and a center line broken into 3 sections.

So looking at the mission now, and thinking back, I think Jesse and I made an error. I clearly remember setting up my army first and going first – but I don’t remember him having more facile hair than me. Well, either way, I deployed my entire army first. Before I did though I rolled to see what wouldn’t deploy and rolled 1s for all three of my characters and a hydra. I wasn’t happy, but I think it actually worked out for the best.

I deployed my fast cavalry on the line, with the single hydra just over 28 inches from his line; so that he couldn’t jump out and scream at me turn 1.

I thought he had this mission easily. If I was playing his army I would have easily crush me. But back to rule 1 of my list – I win because people don’t know what to do. He deployed his blocks all in a line, on the line, 5 wide (he rolled a 1 on a terrorgeist, a necromancer and the fell bats and left me plenty of space behind for my shades). He put the one terrorgeist in the middle of the line and the vargeists on my right flank. If I were him, I would have strung those blocks out, one of my right, two in the center and two on the left. That would have blocked out all the space. Use the flyers, behind the zombies to nab anything that jumps over and then slowly push me back with the blocks. By turn 6 he’d have me pinned in the corner and it would be game over. If I managed to push into a zombie unit with the hydras the screams would decimate them. But he didn’t and that made a much better game for me out of it.

My vanguard was to pull back with all by the one on the left that could move around the small building.

I went first, move my general within 24 of the terrorgeist and the hydra just outside 28 behind. Shades came up behind and the shooters moved within range (if they weren’t) of either the terrorgeist or the vargeists. Managed to put 2 wounds on him and kill a vargeist. On his turn 1 the necromancer moves up to hide in a unit, the bats join the vargiests (who move up) and the terrorgeist comes on the back, with his buddy moving back so that each can tag a unit of shades. His general flies out with the BSB to -1 Leadership scream at my lord. He kills 2 shades in one unit that’s wounded and 4 in the other. The general rolls double 1s and my lord lives.

My turn two and a unit of fast cavalry hid behind the vargeists and I bail on that flank otherwise. My general moves out of line of site of his general. One unit of fast cavalry moves into the hole made by terrorgeist in his line and the other two move to shoot the general. The hydra kills the bsb in combat, lord death snipes full terrorgeist and shooting puts 3 more wounds on terrorgeist leaving him with 1. With shooting I put a wound on the general.

On his turn two the general counter chargers and kills the hydra, using his potion to get through the -1 Strength I put on him. The hydra with 1 wound charges and kills the 4 shades and the vargeists and bats pin my fast cavalry in the corner.

Turn 3 I kill his general with shooting, along with the last terrorgeist. Wipe out the vargeists as well. The general dying dropped the bats to 1 model and killed some zombies. So after turn 3 I’ve killed everything but the zombies, 1 bat and the two necromancers…. Basically everything that could hurt me was dead turn 3. I’ve also made my 1200 points and it latterly doesn’t matter what happens for the rest of the game as I’ve sung my three songs for bonus point. I’ve lost just over 200 points. From then on I’m focused on killing zombies no matter the risk – the bonus being my opponent is getting some battle points as well.

As the game doesn’t matter, I’ll skip to all but the fun part. I rolled 11 dice, without a miscast to launch a large purple sun, which I roll a 10 on and drive through all 5 zombie units. I pick up 89 zombies, kill the last hydra and one dark rider… yup, 95 wounds. It was awesome. I managed to get my opponent 777 points dead, for 2 battle points (plus his objective, giving him a 3). I killed almost 200 zombies, but I started too late in the game and killed them too fast for him to resurrect them back up and as I never saw another of the contest I didn’t stand a chance. [Note – there was also a prize for least killed, but I couldn’t have even tried for that – one opponent conceded when his caster ran off the table turn 1 and didn’t kill any. If I were them I wouldn’t count a concession, but it was there game and they did].

So end of day 1 and I was maxed at 12 battle points – and full sports (yay!). Things were looking good going into Day 2.

The evening activities consisted of the facial hair contest, which for me was standing around and doing nothing for a sports point (yay points!). Than I was dragged out of my room to play in a doubles game, but my brain was so toast at that point, that it wasn’t any fun. Things didn’t go well for Hengl and me.





Round 2 – Joe Gero – Chaos Warriors

As a reminder my list can be found here:

http://theverminlord.blogspot.com/2013/01/eshin-scouting-party.html?m=1

Joe let me know that he didn’t know he was playing until the last week, so he wasn’t as prepared as he would have liked to have been. This included not having an actual army list, which he said he had prepared the night before and couldn’t provide as the printer at the hotel wasn’t working. I didn’t mind as all his models were clear. We decided to play open list, so I wrote his list down and handed him a copy of mine. I didn’t check his points at that point, nor have I, nor will I. I also don’t have all the technical names of items, just his descriptions. His list was as follows:

Chaos Lord, Halberd, Helm of many eyes, +1 Toughness and mark of Tzeentch
Chaos Sorcerer, Level 2, Fire, ITP, immune to poison and killing blow and dispel scroll, horse
Battle Standard Bearer, mark of Tzeentch, halberd, Banner of Rage
5 Marauder cavalry, mark of slannash, spears, throwing axes
30 Warriors, mark of Khorn, halberd, Banner of Eternal Flame, Full command
16 Chosen, mark of Tzeentch, halberd, Wailing Banner, Full command, favor of the g-ds
2 Warshrines

It seems that while round 1 was the only round where I didn’t have an army list, it was also the only round where I took pictures of the board. Sorry.

Mission #2:
Victory Condition – Control more table quarters with fortitude
Bonus Point – Have your marker in opponent’s deployment zone
Deployment – Battle Line
Man of Intrigue – Causes march block on friendly units
Objective Marker – worth 2 fortitude
Table Sides – Least fortitude chooses
Go First – Normal

The Board:
1 6” or so impassible terrain in the center
Ice – 90% of the board was ice, all but the corners. Ice didn’t allow for rerolls on march blocking
Forests – No rules and we never went in them to have to decide if they needed a mysterious roll.

When I was planning my list and reviewing everything, I had decided that this second mission was my mission. I came to the table with 7 fortitude, 4 on fast cavalry and 3 in flying characters. When I saw my opponent walk up (before even knowing his list), I had to walk away to keep from jumping for joy in front of my opponent. He had 5 fortitude starting, 4 of which were in the chosen unit and 1 in the Khorn, and only a wizard and 1 unit of fast cavarly to challenge my board dominance.

I deployed one unit of fast cavalry on the right side of the board, my characters behind the impassible, the hydras both to the right of the impassible, but close enough to swing to the left, the MOI unit on the far right, away from my army and the rest in the rightish side.

He split his army, with the Khorn coming up on my strong side and the rest on the left. His first roll on the table gave the Chosen +1 Toughness.

I vanguarded my MOI up the side line, and then (going first), boosted him 18” more down the board to be already in his deployment zone. I took out his fast cavalry with shooting and death snipped his caster. At this point I knew I had the game, as I could contest whatever quarter the khorn were in, and take the other two. This would allow me to ignore his chosen-star. But we kept playing.

He moved up it all up 8 on his first turn and gave his chosen-star both +3 wardsave and MR 3 (i.e., 2+ versus my death magic). Now I was defiantly not going to bother with the chosen-star, and would just pick off any characters that came out.

My turn 2 and I didn’t do much. Some shooting, conserving my death caster, though some metal magic at the khorn unit. I dropped my objective in the deep corner on the right flank; ensure that he wouldn’t be able to get to it before turn 6. His turn 2 and he moved up some more.

My turn 3 and I was primed to triple charge his khorn unit with both hydras and the bsb. I was feeling a little bad that he wasn’t rolling any dice but armor saves, and offered to make the charge so we could roll some dice. He told me to do what was strategically best for me. So instead of charging I just moved up both hydras to optimal distanced (placed so that he could wheel and only charge once, but would have to charge both), and dropped the bsb on the flank. I dropped the unit to 7 after shooting and magic that turn. His turn 3 and he charged both hydras did one unit to each and then his unit died.

30 minutes in and after turn 3 he conceded. I offered to keep playing since we had so much time, but indicated that none of my fortitude would get anywhere near him unless he popped characters out but that I would shove some hydras into the chosen so we could see how it resulted (4+ armor, 3+ ward, T5 chosen). He declined and we ended the game. I was concerned due to his dower attitude, but I checked in with him during the next three rounds and it seems that was just his way.

So two games down and full points.