Warhammer Dark Elves v Daemons of Chaos

For Monday nights game we had decided to fight a Warhammer game for the first time in a few weeks. I decided to use my Dads Daemon army for a change and he used my Dark Elves army. The game was 2500pts and the mission we rolled was Dawn Attack which meant that we had to roll for each unit to see were on the battlefield they would be deployed.

On my right flank i had a unit of 20 Bloodletters with Herald and 5 Flamers of Tzeentch with a Herald of Tzeentch Lv 2 wizard, behind the burning barricade i had 5 furriers. In the center was 20 Horrors with the Changeling in the unit another 20 bloodletters and Skulltaker, 5 Flesh Hounds with Karanak leading them and also my Lord which was a Bloodthirster and finally on my left flank were 3 Juggernauts of Khorne. On my Dads left side were 5 Harpies and 9 Coldone Knights with a Master on a coldone leading them. In the centre were 20 Repeater crossbows and a Reaper Bolt thrower, these were deployed behind a Ghost wall meaning they cause fear while they are defending it. In the center were 2 horde units of 30 Spearmen with a Lv 2 Sorceress and Master with the Battle Standard and 30 Corsairs with a repeater handbow, a war hydra and 24 Black Guard ( we just used the executioner models to represent them ) and finally the army general, a Highborn mounted on a Manticore.
The monument on my right flank was a idol of Gork so if you were within 6" you could re roll failed charge moves. The deployment rolls had not worked out to badly for both sides however i would have liked the flamers and wizard in the center of the field to soften up those horde units, however the game plan was very simple.... get into combat asap before my units became porcupines with all those crossbow arrows pointing my way!
I failed to grab the first turn so the Dark Elves started...

The first turn saw the Dark Elves start to move forward their battleline, most shooting was out of range though the reaper bolt thrower felled to horrors. In the magic phase the Dark elves Sorceress rolled 3 dice to cast Black Horror and managed to roll two 6's causing a miscast. The roll on the miscast table let the Sorceress off lightly though 3 of the spearman she was with were blasted from the sudden surge in magic power. The result was that all my Bloodletters including skull taker had to pass a strength test, some good rolling meant i lost only 2 of their numbers though Skulltaker lost a wound too.

In my turn i advanced my army forward at full pace, the Flesh hounds passed through the forest and when i rolled to see what kind of forest it was it turned out to be normal. In my magic phase i cast the Flame of Tzeentch at the Harpies killing 4 of them, the resulting panic test saw the remaining Harpies scuttle to the skies and flee. The horrors unleashed the same spell at the Hydra but it was easy dispelled. The flamers had a shot at the Knights but failed to penetrate their armour.

The Dark elves line holds ready to receive the oncoming Daemon hordes. The Knights pulled back away from the flamers as did the War Hydra from the horrors and there flaming magic attack and the Harpies continued to flee. The shooting phase was much more effective for the Dark elves and a combined shot from the bolt thrower and crossbows killed 8 horrors. The magic phase came to nothing as the Bloodletters magic resistance helped them save the wounds that were inflicted on them.

I was now in charge range so i charged my Juggernauts and Bloodthirster at the Black Guard and the Flesh hounds charged the spearman horde. All the Dark Elves elected to stand so i rolled the hounds charge first, i rolled a charge distance of 14" when i needed 15" so they failed which meant they moved in front of the Juggernauts which meant in turn they could no longer charge... not good! i think i have lost the favours of the  Gods of Khorne! The Bloodthirster had no such problem and went crashing into the Black Guard on his own. Because of this i readdressed my lines ready for the counter charge in the following Dark elves turn. Magic saw the Dark Elves use a Scroll and it was onto the combat phase.  The Bloodthirster cut down 5 Guard and in return suffered a 1 wound winning the combat, however the Black Guard are Stubborn and passed there break test.

In turn 3 the Highborn charged into my Flesh hounds and the corsairs moved into shooting range of the horrors. The magic phase saw the sorceress cast the black horror again onto skulltaker and his bloodletters but taking no chances i dispelled it with a scroll. The combined shooting ( around 80 shots ) saw the Changeling killed and leave only 4 horrors alive. The combat was again won by the Bloodthirster thanks to his thunder stomp but the Black Guard stood firm. The Highborn killed Karanack and 3 flesh hounds who in return inflicted 2 wounds onto the manticore, however i rolled high on my instability test and disappeared back to the depths of were they came from. The Highborn overran into the forest out of my Juggernauts line of sight.

Skulltaker and his bloodletters charged into the spearmen and the remaining horrors moved in front of the corsairs to stop the from flanking my Lord in the following turn. The furries could now charge the Bolt thrower which they did and the other Bloodletter unit moved into a position to be able to charge the Knights if they were to fail their stupidity test next turn. The magic phase saw a Knight struck down. In the combat the Furries overran the bolt thrower into the flank of the crossbows, the Bloodthirster killed all but 3 of the black Guard but once again they held there ground. Skulltaker easy dispatched the unit champion in the challenge and the Bloodletters won the combat but the morale of the Dark Elves was good due to them been Steadfast and they held there ground.

The Knights passed there stupidity test and charged the Bloodletters and the War Hydra joined into the combat with the Black Guard and the Corsairs charged into the Horrors. In the magic phase the Sorceress cast Bladewind thinning the numbers of Bloodletters locked in combat with her.  No shooting meant straight to combat, The knights were beaten in the combat after a very poor charge and the combat between the master and herald saw them inflict one wound each, the Bloodletters won the combat but the remaining Knights held their ground. The Bloodthirster finally finished off the Black Guard and the Hydra inflicted 2 wounds onto the Bloodthirster meaning a stalemate. Skullcrusher once again issued a challenge which the hapless Sorceress excepted and was brutally chopped down, also a killing blow hit was made against the Master with the battle standard, he failed his ward save and was killed out right. The dark elves still held there ground and had reduced the Bloodletters down to only 3.

I moved moved my Juggernauts away from the Lord on the Manticore and with little else to do moved straight to the combat phase. Skulltaker and the Bloodletters fought to another standstill with the spearmen, the Bloodthirster inflicted 3 wounds on the hydra ( he had flaming attacks thanks to his magic weapon nullifying the hydras regeneration save ) and killed both handlers. The beast had now become unbreakable after the roll on the monster reaction chart but couldn't inflict a wound onto the Bloodthirster. The Bloodletters broke the Knights and caught them in there pursuit and the furries lost the combat with the crossbows by 1 who the changed formation to bring their ranks into play.

With time and men running out the Corsairs charged into the Bloodthirster to lend their weight to the Hydra and the Highborn and Manticore charged into the Bloodletters and Skulltaker who were locked in combat with the spearmen. The crossbowmen were held by the furries this round and the Bloodthirster killed the Hydra. With his successful thunder stomp on the Corsairs he won the combat but the steadfast corsairs held their ground. Skulltaker was killed in the challenge with the Highborn but he did manage to kill the manticore before he was felled. The spearmen finally destroyed the remaing Bloodletters. In my turn i charged my Bloodletter unit into the crossbowmen who were defeated and fled from the table in the combat round although they did manage to kill the remaining Furry before they fled. The Bloodthirster again defeated the Corsair's who refused to give ground but were unable to inflict any wounds on the Great Daemon.

Turn 6 saw another round of combat with the Bloodthirster and Corsairrs but even a charge into the flank with my Juggernauts could not break them and the game ended after a very brutal 6 turns.

After a quick calculation the final score was Daemons scored  1651 pts to the  Dark Elves 1085 pts. A difference of 566 pts saw the Daemons claim a very hard fought victory.