Dark Elves v Orcs n Goblins 2500 pts

Our weekend game saw a return to the world of fantasy with a battle between my Dark elves and my dads orcs and goblins. With games workshop now operating on a different planet...and i don't mean 40k either :-)......and releasing more products books rules figures add ons expansions etc etc in a week than I have collected in over a life time we have somewhat fallen away in recent months from playing Warhammer which is a shame as we have a wonderful collection of models in our armies. So figures dusted down we set about having a good old set too. All terrain features at the end of the game if controlled by one of your units would add D3, 3 been 300 points bonus to your end victory total.

The set up, our main battle lines were pretty much lined up in front of each other, my Dark riders used their vanguard move to steal a move towards the Doom diver and giant. The monstrous spider ( its name I can't remember ) was deployed opposite my Knights along with a mangler Squig!  

The War hydra advances along with the rest of the Dark elves force protecting their flank, my cold one knights couldn't control the mounts as a result if of a -1 to my leadership for been near the charnel pit and stumbled forward stupid towards to monsters.

The Scourgerunner unleashes its bolt thrower at the unit of trolls inflicting a couple of wounds.

The Dark riders move to the flank of the giant but inflict no wounds with their shooting.

The result of the the first and last doom diver shot! A misfire result saw the doom diver snap a rope and send an unfortunate Goblin flying into a tree, the doom diver collapsed into a heap on the floor, I have a feeling a nearby unit of orcs may have tampered with the machine for a laugh before it fired, the Orc bully went to retrieve the unfortunate individual from the tree, probably to use in a stew later on! 

The rest of the Orc line behaved impeccably and moved forward as one battle line over coming the animosity phase with no problems, in there next turn animosity free again ( yep an Orc army following orders ) the entire line charged into my Dark elves apart from the savage orcs who failed to cover the distance, far to busy still applying there war paint to fight!

The Giant spider winning the combat by one thanks to charging and flank bonus after it inflicted 0 wounds and my high beast master and manticore replying with a wound ran down my General and Manticore after they failed there break test and fled, thanks again to that charnel pit and its dammed -1 to leadership. The goblin fanatics were released, one of them smashing through my Darkshards before the Night Goblins spears charged in. I won the combat over a couple of rounds but the Gobbo's held on thanks to the near by Grimgor Ironside and the fact I forgot I had a strength bonus because of a magic spell I had cast, which would have allowed the gobbles no saves! The Dark elf spears fought well and due to stead fast held their ground against the Trolls, however they had a rather large spider looming on their flank which did not bode well!

The Black orcs and Grimgor broke the sisters of slaughter after a couple of rounds of fighting and my Medusa was easily dispatched by the spider which crashed into the flank of the the poor Elf Spearmen still engaged with the trolls. Seen the destruction of Medusa my scrounge chariot turn tail and fled of the table, yep once again the minus 1 to leadership from that cursed charnel pit proved very costly!

  

The results of the mangler Squig crashing through my Knights, 7 dead leving only my command group left, things were not looking to good at this point.

The Spider crushes Medusa with a venomous tail strike.

My Executioners and Master preform a lot better and beat the orcs in the first round although the orcs hold their ground. My master fresh from dispatching the unit champion bellows out a challenge to the Orc War boss battle banner bearer and dispatches him in the challenge, the War hydra joins the fight in flank of the Orc boyz who are easily massacred in The pursing round of combat and ran down.

With the Spider joining the combat its thunder stomp proves the difference and the Spearmen are slain to the last along with the Sorceress.

 

After my hydra had flamed all but one savage Orc to death, who in turn was shot down by the near by dark riders the Giant bellowing charged into the hydra. The remaining executioners after been stomped from a foot of Gork braved themselves for the impact of the Monstrous Spider. After surviving the initial round of combat the master and remaining executioners great weapons slayed the giant beast, my dark elves were beginning to make a fist of it at long last.

The giant at first head butted my hydra stunning it so I couldn't strike back, but clearly not bothered to have to lay the nut onto the other 4 heads of the Hydra he decided to just thump it with its club inflicting 5 wounds killing the Hydra, no fuss!

The Mangler Squig now running wild moved uncontrollably  into the misty marsh were it failed its initiative test and was dragged below by what ever was lurking beneath.

With that the last turn saw the both of us claim the odd objective here and there with what little we had left and my executioners did the honourable thing and fled away from the giant charging into the flank and escaped out of its charge range. My remaining couple of Cold one knights chased the goblin spider riders from the table after the Gobbo's suffered abit of animosity and decided it was a good idea to charge into the knights, maybe they fancied their chances after the mangler Squig had weakened the knights so badly, but been Goblins they were wrong. 

 

Well that was a bloodbath, despite been battered in the first half the game, my Dark elves and especially my Executioners fought back well. Both armies had taken massive losses but my Force had almost been completely annihilated bar a few survives here and there. A quick tot up of all the victory points saw the orcs score 2260 to the Dark Elves 1577. With a difference of 683 points it wasn't double the victory points so the game ended with the orcs claiming a marginal victory.

The Dark Monoliths of Zhulgozar

We played a scenario from the WH rule book the other day with 2500 pts Vampire Counts v Deamons of Chaos. The scenario saw us battle for control of the Ancient Ruins on top of the most central hill. The Ruins granted various magical benefits for the Wizards in control of the ruins. With hind sight the game would have been better suited to be played with Two different forces as neither side have to take break tests so it was always likely that we would have troops still remaining at the end of the game to contest the objective. Still it was a feisty scrap and for most of the game my Vampires held their own in combat,although in the latter stages with the benefits given to the Plague Bearers from that cursed Epidemius (I will take great pleasure in slaying him one of these days) my core warriors were disappearing a lot quicker than I could raise them! In the end facing defeat I had to play for a draw in the last turn and just consolidate contesting the objective. Here are a few snaps of the game, including my recently purchased unit of Blood Knights which Collin kindly sold to me thanks :-), they preformed admirably in their first outing. 

 a couple of moves in and our two armies have positioned themselves ready to give and receive charges.

The Beasts of Nurgle take early control of the ruins as the undead forces advance.

The Vampire Lord and Blood Knights ready for the charge along side the roaming Banshee who screamed and howled with particular intent in this game!

Some freshly raised Zombies are about to be barbecued very very soon

The Greater daemon of Nurgle faces off against the Zombie Dragon riding Vampire Lord.

The Plague drones charge into the Blood knights but find that they have met their match and fail to do any serious damage, the Blood Knights lose the combat by one , but in their following turn one of the two fallen knights simply rose back from the dead and returned to his saddle of his Hellstead. The Banshee kindly lent her voice to the combat dispatching of a plague drone.

The skeleton horde got a little hasty and charged a beast of Nurgle atop of the hill, failing to kill it they were counted charged by a Plague bearers unit, the Greater Deamon and in the flank by another beast of Nurgle which had earlier disposed of the bat swarms, my 50 Skeleton horde was reduced to 10, ouch but at least they were still there on the plus side. I did have a unit of Varghiests  in the combat flanking the Greater Daemon, but they disappeared as quick as they had arrived thanks to the unstable rule.

After defeating the Plague drones  the Blood knights charged into the Deamonettes who had been dying steadily to the Vampire Lord over the last couple of turns, these extra attacks sent the Daemons back to the realms of chaos.

The Black Knights having been out the game for to long finally found a charge against the Furries who they dispatched with ease.

The Necromancer on the Corpse cart readies the Gouls and Black Knights for one final charge onto the hill and into the unit of Plague Bearers, well that was the plan but the Plague bearers had other ideas and charged down from the hill into the Gouls destroying all but two of their numbers.

The Vampire lord positions himself ready to contest the objective in his final turn.

A Mexican stand off going into the final turn.

The Banshee gives one more final scream, screeching loud enough to fill even a Beast of Nurgle with dread  making it quit the game, however there were still plenty more daemons presently close enough to contest the objective.

Without a shadow of a doubt a couple more turns would have seen the Daemon hordes claim the Ancient ruins,but turn 6 had passed so I managed to hold on to the draw, it was still another useful game for me using my Vampire Counts army and I am starting to understand their strengths and weaknesses better, next up for us will be a game of Hail Caesar with my new Macedonian army against my dads new Indian army, good times :-)

Dark Elves v Plague Daemons 2500 points game

 I fancied having a go with my Dark Elves for the second time since the release of the new book. I changed the army quite abit from last time and opted away from any mounted troops in favour of some solid infantry blocks supported by a couple of war hydras.

Thanks enlarge to the sale of my Skaven army I had treat myself to a few new models for my Dark Elves to go with the Army book and i would be using some of them in tonight's game.

 First up is the massive Cauldron of model with the character options you get in the box set. It would be to get its first outing in tonight's game.

I managed to get a further 10 fine cast Executioners thanks to EBay at a bargain price, making my unit a much healthy 28 strong.

And finally of quite ready for tonight's game are my Black Guard, not cheap on the pocket (thank you Games workshop) but a lovely model I must say. It's the first time in all the years I have had a Dark Elves army I have owned a unit and when they are completed i will have a twenty man (elf) unit. 

Anyway here are some pictures of our Warhammer  game between the Dark Elves and Plague daemon army. The Dark elves claimed a victory with the Cauldron of Blood and Witchelves combining into a very destructive unit, and the Daemons faired poorly all game with the dice gods, fickle things these Chaos Gods!

We rolled meeting engagement as our scenario, straight away the dice started playing havoc with the Daemons,  3 units of Daemons failed to arrive for deployment and would enter play from the first turn onwards from the table edge. All the Dark Elves were curtious enough to be on time.

The Hordes of the Great Unclean One

The Dark elves battle line.

Plague Bearers clash into the Corsairs with a Beast if Nurgle. The Corsairs lose but hold their ground as a War Hydra moves into position to charge into thevDaemons flank.

All kinds of rotting, plague bearing, unclean green skinned Daemons head towards the fighting.

The Death Hag on top the Cauldron of Blood  seeks her prey and sets her sights on a unit of plague Bearers near the forest.

The Hydra crashes into the Beast of Nurgle and destroys it, however the Plague Bearers remain and in the next round of combat break and destroy the horde of Corsairs, and the skulking Battle Standard bearer in he rear rank.

The Darkshards and bolt thrower destroy what remains of the Plagur Bearers who had just overrun the Corsairs with a hail of arrow fire.

The lurking hydra finished off the nurgleings with relative ease and after a couple of rounds of combat the Witch elves and cauldron destroyed the Plague Bearers unit. In the final turn the Witch elves and Cauldron make a successful charge and comfortably destroy a unit of plague drones. The God of Khaine would be most pleased.....

After surviving 2 miscasts but in the process losing all her magic levels, the Sorceress takes haven in the watchtower to have a birds eye view of the carnage on the battlefield.

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.