Thursday, February 20, 2014

WaaaghPACA! – Round 3 – Chris Walker – Warriors of Chaos

Chris and I have crossed paths before, though I have no idea where.  Maybe if I looked back in my blog I’d find that we’d played before.

This game was in the back room, where there were only 3 tables.  I was in this room the previous year for the same mission.  This way everyone gets to hear me sing, yuck (my singing, not them hearing it).

Deployment: Blood and Glory
In addition, the player with the least facial hair deploys first and the game ends should either army reach the breaking point of 2.
Man of Intrigue: Remember the fortitude generation listed above.  A wizard in the MoI unit may enhance a cast or dispel by singing during the roll (enhanced changes all rolls of 1 to 6, which can cause irresistible force, roll twice and apply both results).  Singing must be 15 seconds or more and cannot be used on bound spells.  Should you have no wizard, the MoI’s unit can cast a signature spell from any of the 8 lores as if a level 1 wizard, but must sing to cast it and any irresistible force causes the unit to take d6, S10 its instead of miscasting.
Scenario Points:
                  4 Points – Your opponent’s fortitude was broken
                  3 points – Win by 100 points
                  2 Points – Tie (within 100 points)
                  1 point – Lost by more than 100 points
                  0 points – You were broken

Objective (1 point): Sing exactly three times.


The List
Daemon Prince, Daemonic Flight, Level 4, Mark of Nurgle, Lore of Death, Warrior Bane, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem, Soul Feeder, Scaled Skin

Exalted Hero, Mark/Disc/Third Eye of Tzeentch, BSB, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of Preservation

Chaos Chariot
Chaos Chariot
15 Warriors, mark of khorn, musician, banner, banner of rage (MoI)
5 Marauder Horseman, Mark of Slaanesh, musician, banner

4 Chaos Trolls

Hellcannon
3 Skullcrushers, musician, banner, ensorcelled weapons


Chris’s list has the same problem mine did.  With our only caster unable to go into our MoI unit, the only way we could score the bonus point was to have our caster die.  I offered pre-game to let him kill my wizard (but not the dragon) in exchange for him allowing me to kill his Prince so that we could both score.  He didn’t seem to interested and I can’t say I’d blame him.  I knew I needed to get into the warriors and take out that fortitude, and somehow figure out how to kill either the daemon price or the Skullcrushers (which I now knew was possible).

Also, since this was going to be a fortitude mission I knew that I needed to focus.  I wasn’t really worried about killing the warriors, but that BSB, Prince and Skullcrushers were going to give me problems.  I didn’t manage to kill Skullcrushers before, but I wasn’t positive I could do it again – and not with a daemon prince waiting to counter charge.  I decided first priority would be the warriors (and marauders of course) and that I would keep in mind fortuitous charges at the skullcrushers and BSB.

Magic
I took fireball and flaming sword.

Chris took Spirit Leech, Caress, Soul Blight and Doom and Darkness on his level 4.





Deployment
I went with my normal spread deployment on the fast cavalry.  I weighted the phoenix sort of on the left as they were across from my primary target of the warriors.  The dragon played the other side of the building to give him a second direction to look.

Chris played right in the center with only a little bit of chaff on the left flank.  He put his trolls in front of his warriors.

Turn 1 – Warriors of Chaos
Chis surprised me in the beginning by just marching up 12” with his trolls and 8” with his warriors.  Defiantly asking me to charge the trolls and overrun into the warriors.  I wasn’t really sure what to think.  The prince and the chariots were defiantly lining up for the counter charge should I take it.  Those warriors were a must have for me though, as they were worth 3 fortitude on their own.

Chris starts out with a 11/6 magic phase, and I know I’m in for a painful game.  A 3D caress is allowed on a phoenix and doesn’t do anything.  A 4D Doom and Darkness is dispelled.  A 2D irresistible forced spirit leech on a phoenix also does nothing and the miscast just takes the rest of the dice.


The hellcannon hits the right most phoenix and does 4 wounds.



Turn 1 – High Elves
My turn and I’m back to the dilemma of what to do with the warriors.  His spacing doesn’t allow me to fly over the trolls and the warriors, so I’m forced to either move around and effectively do nothing try to take the warriors head on.  Due to my only having to risk 2 fortitude in a chance to take 3 I decide to go for it.  I do make a mistake here.  What I should have done was charged 1 phoenix into the warriors to gain a second combat, but what I do is charge all three into the trolls.  Maybe at the time I considered it and decided the distance was too great, I can’t recall (24” automatically apart + 3-4” inches he deployed back -8” he moved forward means the warrior unit was probably 20ish inches away from phoenix).

I also try a long bomb by a reaver unit in the flank of a chariot.  I need a 12, but making it will lock the chariot out of the counter charge and the 5 pack wasn’t going to do anything else that turn but move.  The phoenixes all make it, but the reaver doesn’t.

I roll a 10/6 magic phase and thankfully get the 4+ wardsave as its going to be a rough game turn’s worth of combat.  I start with a 4D flaming sword onto reavers, which he allows and a 6D fireball which is dispelled.

In shooting I knock off the Prince’s charmed shield.


In combat my general only manages to do 1 wound, but then the phoenix do 6 wounds.  the trolls knock off my charmed shield and then get over run (with three phoenix overrunning into the warriors).



Turn 2 – Warriors of Chaos
Chris goes in with both chariots, but the one of the left fails.  He doesn’t go in with the Daemon Prince, probably because the right phoenix only has 1 wound left and he doesn’t want to reduce his magic.

An 11/6 magic phase justifies keeping the Prince free.  He starts with a 3D caress on the dragon rider, which I allow.  He does 4 hits and 2 wounds and kills my caster.  I sort of let this go off because I was looking for my wizard to die.  He wasn’t worth any points, and I still had the dragon.  What I wanted was to open my MoI unit to the mission and allow me to sing to cast signature spells and earn my +1 point.  What I didn’t expect was for the dragon to then fail its leadership and then roll unbreakable (and unable to move).  Not happy.  A 4D spirit leech is then dispelled and a 4D bubble soulblight fails.

The right phoenix dies to impact hits.  I then only kill 6 warriors and he holds on steadfast.

Turn 2 – High Elves
On the left I have two units of reavers tag team a chariot.

A magic phase of 8/4 has me 6D iceshard blizzard onto the warriors.  It is dispelled.  I sang “We didn’t start the fire…” by I think REM.

Shooting kills 1 of the fast cavalry.


In combat I wound and then chase down the chariot.  My general kills a warrior, the phoenixes only kill 1.  Each phoenix takes a wound and then I thunderstomp the unit to death.



Turn 3 – Warriors of Chaos
Left hanging back killing the warriors on my own turn, Chris goes in for the counter charges.  The Skullcrushers charge my general.  The last chariot and the Daemon Prince both charge the other phoenix but I flee to safety.  The chariot redirects to my general.  The marauder unit charges my MoI unit, and I flee.

A 7/5 magic phase sees a 3D irresistible soul blight on my general.  The miscast wounds the prince and takes 2 dice.  A 2D Doom and Darkness on the fleeing phoenix is dispelled.

Impact hits kill my rider (sad, now he can’t come back).  The phoenix is killed before getting to swing.


With 2 phoenix currently down I’m now 3/6 for come back.



Turn 3 – High Elves
My turn 3 and I’m hurting.  Thankfully, both of my fleeing units rally.

I sing my opponent happy birthday on a 5/4 magic phase and chuck all 5D at searing doom.  He dispels it.

I kill 1 marauder and put a wound on the last chariot during shooting.  I waste my breath weapon due to the hellcannon being in range and the monster table forcing me to use it.


Both Phoenix come back to life, the normal phoenix at full wounds and the general’s with 3.  Now 5/6 for come back.  Doesn’t recover me any fortitude though since the rider died before the mount.




Turn 4 – Warriors of Chaos
The hell cannon, which you may have noticed hadn’t been shooting, charges my dragon.  I don’t get this play.  The dragon couldn’t move and the cannon could have been trying to take out reavers, which had my fortitude.  A chariot charges reavers – I didn’t see this coming, because I didn’t see the hellcannon charging, so I guess I understand the WHY it charged, just not the why it moved up for 2 turns to be in the position to charge.  So I hold with the reavers, even though it means he will likely overrun into another.  He was still close enough to redirect so I didn’t want to flee both off the table.  Getting a turn may give me a chance to save myself.  The crushers hit a phoenix.

A 6/4 magic phase has him3D Spirit leech to kill a reaver.  I dispel caress on another.

The chariot blows through and goes into the other.  The phoenix takes 2 wounds and dies.  The dragon does a wound to tie the combat.


At the end of the turn the Phoenix comes back with 3 wounds to make me 6/7.


Turn 4 – High Elves
A phoenix charges the marauders in the rear, yay coming back!  I move around but don’t do much.

A 5/3 magic phase has me singing Smashing Pumpkins for a 5D Iceshard on the chariot, which he dispels.


Phoenix kills 2 marauders and the unit.  The chariot kills the dark riders and the cannon and dragon do nothing to each other.


Turn 5 – Warriors of Chaos
No charges, little movement.  A 7/5 magic phase has him throw two kills spells on a solo banner.  I dispel the first but the second gets through and kills the rider breaking me.

A great game.  Crazy that all three phoenix comes back.  If this had been a game for points I would have been up, but alas it wasn’t.  This is my fourth game with High Elves and only my first loss, so I was pleasantly surprised.  My goal going in was 2 wins, 2 losses and a draw (which is lower than my normal 3/2 goal).  I knew I was now out of anything (and probably was by not getting a 5 on round 1), but with the soft scores being so key, I knew I could easily place high – except that I still expected to lose 2 more games.

Sadly, I didn’t get to kill the daemon prince, and so Chris was only able to score a 4.  Though, if I had killed the prince I would have won so I guess Chris was ok with that.

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