SAWS – Round 1 – Mark Crow – Warriors of Chaos

Bonus Objective: Kill Half Models

Deployment: Battle for the Pass

The List

Daemon Prince, mark of Slannesh, level 4, lore of slannesh, chaos armor, flight, charmed shield, dragonbane gem

Exalted Hero, mark/third eye of Tzeentch, BSB, shield, daemonic mount, talisman of preservation, potion of foolhardiness

Chaos Chariot, slannesh

Chaos Chariot, slannesh

Chaos Chariot, slannesh

Chaos Chariot, slannesh

5 Horsemen, slannesh, flail

5 Horsemen, slannesh, flail

5 Chaos Warhounds, vanguard

5 Chaos Warhounds, vanguard

Chimera, breath weapon, regeneration

Chimera, breath weapon, regeneration

Hellcannon

4 Skullcrushers, musician, banner, gleaming pennant

I take a look at his list and what I see is a lot of Slannash with a dose of BSB with wardsave reroll.  Ugh.  Going to be a hard match.  Also, with the use of Battle for the Pass, I am going to have a limited frontage.  But I do see that his total army model count is only 33, meaning if I kill 3 units of the core I only need a handful of extra models.  Killing all of the core, which is T3 with no saves, scores me the half model objective.  I choose it, knowing this is one of my top two hardest matches but securing my objective will keep me from falling too far.

Magic

I roll up wildform, flock of doom, amber spear and savage beasts of horros.

Mark Crow takes Acquiescence, slicing shards, hysterical frenzy and cacophonic choir.  This set up is horrid for my chances at even being able to play as three of his spells can shut down my choices and the other is sufficient to decimate a unit of dark riders.

Deployment

I deploy with the hydras weighted towards the close edge with the witches.  The center gets my bunker and the dark riders get spread weighted on the right.  My hopes are to get the witches into the chariots and core on the close edge where the can do the most damage.  I want to keep the hydras and the bunker away from the daemon prince and BSB.

Mark deploys with this weight on the far edge of the table, and some holding core close up.  I assume his plan is to push with the chimeras and daemon prince while delaying on the close edge in the hopes of pinning me into a cacophonic bubble that he can then clean up all at once.

I get first vanguard and first turn.  We both play safe with the vanguards.

Turn 1 – Dark Elves

I start the turn with a super long charge with the close hydra at the marauders.  A lucky roll would see that hydra get into the line to act as bait to the chariots, which is where I would want him.  He doesn’t make it.

I move onto the close side, hoping to be able to push through the core delay and get away from the prince.  Clustering is a risky move, but I have my handy scroll which I bank will spare me a daemon prince rush.

I roll a 7/6 magic phase.  My first 3D doom bolt fails.  A 2D amber spear is dispelled.  I then 1D flock of doom but doesn’t do anything.  A 1D wild form fails.

In shooting I kill a under of marauders and panic a unit of dogs off the table.  Operation half models going well.  The bolt throwers both fail to do anything to the prince, but my shooting did remove his charmed shield.

Turn 1 – Warriors of Chaos

Mark started by advancing on the far side but not accepting any of the silly long charges I left for him.

He rolled a strong 11/6 magic phase.  I allowed a 3D hysterical frenzy and a 4D slicing shards, which only killed 1 dark rider.  I then dispelled a 4D acquiesce.  I lose an additional model at the end of the phase to the frenzy.

His cannon hits straight on the large unit of doom fire warlocks, wounding 7.  I then proceed to lose all 7 4++ ward saves.  This rocked me, and alters the game by destroying my combat potential and leaving most of my points extremely vulnerable.  But that’s why we roll dice.  A Chimera breath weapon ends the turn by killing 4 dark riders.

Turn 2 – Dark Elves

To start my turn I go for a long charge on the close edge to get a hydra into a chariot.  I fail.

I move around, trying to get myself into a better position given the poor turn of events from last turn.

I roll a 5/2 magic phase, and then roll a 2D irresistible savage beasts on my general to discourage charges.  I take wounds on 2 of the masters and the wizard, ouch.  At the end of the phase hysterical frenzy does a wound to the caster.

For shooting I throw a bolt thrower at the daemon prince and manage to score 3 wounds.  Amazed, I proceed to thrower the second bolt thrower and every other piece of shooting at the prince and can’t even roll a 6 to wound.  With shooting that can’t go on the prince I manage a wound on the chariot.  Scoring that prince would have gone a long way to making me feel better about the doom fire warlocks as I expected the next turn to be cac-bombed and cleared on turn 3, just like what happened at 2013 Adepticon.

Turn 2 – Warriors of Chaos

Mark starts his turn by failing his check with the hellcannon.  Not a big deal, since its already paid its points.

Mark then begins his charging phase.  Daemon Prince charges a unit of dark riders.  I flee.  The Daemon prince, now failing charge is in the way, so Mark redirects and charges the far bolt thrower (the one that shot him and did 3 wounds).  A chariot then charges the flank of a hydra and I flee again.  Marauders charge a dark riders and I take 2 out with the stand and shoot.  A chariot then goes to join the marauder cavalry.  Another chariot charges the front of the second hydra.  The chimera and the far chariot both fail, but the fleeing hydra gets caught.

A 8/6 magic phase has me dispelling a 4D cacophonic choir.  Mark then rolls 4 dice on his next spell and rolls irresistible.  He then determines that there actually wasn’t an appropriate target and so we wash the spell and throw the dice away instead of making him take the miscast for nothing.  Disappointing as I was really hoping the prince would self-destruct.  But oh well, wouldn’t have been fair to make him roll the miscast on his mistake.

In combat I kill the marauders off, since the chariot failed to join.  The hydra takes 3 and does 1 to the chariot and holds.  The bolt thrower than swings at the daemon prince and BAM! down goes the daemon prince.  Champion clan rat manning (ratting?) that bolt thrower.  Just like that, things aren’t looking so bad… bad, but not so bad.  Now I just need a solid turn and shut down a few more units.

Turn 3 – Dark Elves

I use both potions and charge the crushers.  Witches charge the chariot.  The dark riders rally.

A 7/5 magic phase has me 2D Horros on my general.  I then 2D wildform my witches and he dispels a 3D soulblight on the chariot.

For shooting I put 1 wound on a chimera.

In combat the hydra dies.  The witches do nothing, lose 3 and hold thanks to the BSB.  The Skullcrushers get obliterated.

Not the turn I was hoping for, but not horrible.

Turn 3 – Warriors of Chaos

Mark counters by charging the super bolt thrower with the Chimera.  He charges the other one into the witches.  2 chariots charge the doom fire warlocks.

The hell cannon rolls a hit (that’s 2 hits and 1 failed leadership test) and kill 5 dark riders.  The last one panics.

In combat the witches do 2 wounds to the chariot and kill the chimera.  The chariot flees but gets away.  In the doom fire warlock combat, the impact hits kill the wizard, the unit and a master.  I then kill 1 chariot and put a wound on the other.  I then lose my BSB to attacks.  What remains holds.  Had the unit been not shot to shit (failing 7 of 7 4++s I would have had more attacks before he fought and probably would have killed before losing even more… also wizard wouldn’t have died.  Ouch)

Turn 4 – Dark Elves

My turn and the witches charge the fleeing chariot.  My solo dark rider actually rallies.

In shooting I put 3 wounds on a chariot.

Turn 4 – Warriors of Chaos

Cannon fails another leadership and charges the witches.  The BSB charges my general.  A chariot charges dark riders.

Dark riders die to impact hits, witches do 1 wound to cannon before getting run down and the general takes a wound and holds.

Turn 5 – Dark Elves

In my turn I have no charges, fail to do any wounds in shooting and also in combat.

Turn 5 – Warriors of Chaos

The chimera charges another bolt thrower.  Cannon again fails its leadership test (that’s 3 fails and 2 hits).  In combat the BT dies, my general takes a wound and flees off the table.

Turn 6 – Dark Elves

I fail to kill what I have a chance of killing (a chariot)

Turn 6 – Warriors of Chaos

Cannon misses.

Game ends, I get a small loss with objective.  Mark will go on to take 3^rd general.