So I got a lot of hobby done yesterday. A few days ago while I was busy, Doom and Darkness posted a call out to see whether anyone was available on Sunday for a game. I finally got around to replying, but indicated that I was only available on Saturday afternoon. He checked with the wife, no go, so figured, fine, I'll just get on with my Slaves to Darkness. Since I'm in a bit of a rut with the Chosen at the moment, I decided to get out the Marauder Cavalry and Chaos Knights to get them into shape, as that plus my Chaos Lord will round out my army for the first month of Escalation.
Later that night of course, Mrs Doom and Darkness has a change of mind, and we've got a game scheduled for 8pm. Doom wants to play a slightly bigger game, I play around in Warscroll Builder and give the OK for a 15 point game. I scramble to get dinner cooked, my Chaos Knights based (since the game originally wasn't going to go on, I had taken them off the bases but hadn't put them on), table set up, and the game was good to go with time to spare when he arrived.
If you want to see an alternate take on this battle (or prefer Youtube reports), you can see Doom and Darkness' Report for this battle.
Army Lists
Both armies were chosen using the Independent AoS Pool Choices document, to a limit of 15 points. Not that summoning occurred during the game, but we were fairly relaxed with it and it doesn't come into play during the game.
My List - Slaves to Darkness
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount - Zagul Darksoul
Chaos Sorcerer Lord
10 Chaos Warriors with Hand Weapon and Shield
10 Chaos Chosen
5 Chaos Knights with Lances
5 Marauder Cavalry with Javelins and Shields
Chaos Giant
Great Taurus
Doom's List - Beastmen Warherd
Doombull with Doombull Great Axe
Great Bray Shaman
6 Minotaurs with 2 Minotaur Axes
3 Minotaurs with Minotaur Great Axes
Chaos Spawn
Ghorgon
Cygor
My list had the numbers advantage and wounds advantage but the Minotaurs could potentially rip the Chaos to shreds. Almost every attack in the army is doing multiple damage, killing Chaos Warriors with any blow that makes it past armour.
Deployment
The two warbands met on the battlefield, searching for the fabled treasure that was said to lie within the area. There were 3 sites where prospective treasure was waiting, but one of them was full of fake treasure, and nothing of real worth. The Warherd assembled on the battlefield with the Minotaurs stomping around in the centre, while the Ghorgon and Cygor strided around to the other side of the ruined tower. On the opposite side of the field, the Chaos Warriors and Chosen stood on the hill, while the mounted forces of the Shadowborn were looking to swoop in from the side.
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| Deployment |
The battle got off to a slow start, as both armies moved forwards but neither making a move. The Chaos Warriors went into the Forest, and the Chaos Sorcerer fore-warned them that the Minotaur stampede was incoming with his Oracular Visions, and cast the Mystic Shield on them. Zagul had strayed too far from the Warriors, so had to Inspire the Marauder Horsemen instead.
The Warherd also strode up, but were fairly cautions to not go too far forwards.
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| The Forces move up for the inevitable fight |
The Warherd wins the initiative, and the Doombull inspires all the Minotaurs with his Slaughters Call ability. The Bray Shaman lurking behind, casts the Mystic Shield on the Minotaurs with 2 axes. The Minotaurs and Doombull surge forwards into the Chaos Warriors in the forest, while the Cygor misses the Chosen when hurling the boulder. The Great Axe Minotaurs were more cautious, and only slightly progressed towards the battle line. In combat, the Minotaurs and Doombull managed to slay a grand total of 2 Chaos Warriors thanks to the foresight offered by the Chaos Sorcerer, in return the Warriors managed to deal 3 wounds to the Minotaurs, but vitally hold up the advance. Not it was time for the Shadowborn to take the iniatitive in this fight. Zagul urges his Knights onwards towards the Great Axe Minotaurs, using his Knights of Chaos command ability. The mage continues to warn the Warriors of threats ahead with his visions, and casts Mystic Shield on them again. Otherwise the Horsemen and Bale Taurus both also move forwards towards the Great Axe Minotaurs and harass them from afar, dealing a few wounds.
In the combat phase, almost the entire Chaos army swarms into combat. The Knights swoop in first, dealing absolute carnage to the minotaurs and leave 1 standing on a single wound. The 2 Axe Minotaurs retaliate by slaying a few of the Chosen, who in return finish off a Minotaur, leading the rest of the army in slaughter. Thanks to the Slaughter Leader ability of the Chosen, the Chaos Lord manages to deal a few wounds to the Doombull, the Warriors and Giant tear down another Minotaur or two.
Battle Round 3
The Warherd win the initiative for the 3rd round in a row, but things are looking a little shaky for the herd with the monsters out of position while the Minotaurs are taking a beating. The Minotaur with Great Axe retreats out of combat, while the Bray Shaman arcane bolts the Great Taurus that had been harassing it and the Spawn before retreating from the combat. The Doombull urges on the Minotaurs again with it's Slaughters Call ability, with the Minotaurs attacking first and killing a few of the Chosen. The Giant goes next and kills the Doombull before he strikes, while the Chosen and Warriors finish off another Minotaur and another flees, leaving the unit looking quite depleted. However, a Chosen flees the field, after the unit had taken a battering from the Minotaurs.
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| The Giant finishes the Doombull |
At the end of this round, it was found that the treasure that the Ghorgon and Cygor had been guarding was fake! The Ghorgon would need to get on the move.
Battle Round 4
Again, the depleted Warherd seize the initiative with the Ghorgon smashing into the Giant, slaughtering him before he could fight. However, to their misfortune the Giant toppled onto both the monsters, dragging the Cygor down to 4 wounds and wounding the Ghorgon.
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| The Giant falls onto the Monsters |
Zagul decided it was time to end this, and urged all the might of his Chaos Riders to bear in on the two monsters while the Warriors went to run down the fleeing Minotaur. The Chaos Sorcerer tries to soften up the Ghorgon with an Arcane Bolt, but the Cygor dispels the attempt. Between the Javelins of the Marauders, and the Belching Breath of the Great Taurus, the Cygor was left with a single wound before the combat begun. The Chaos Knights go in for the kill on the Ghorgon, but fail at the sight of the monstrosity and whiff all their attacks. The Ghorgon cuts down Zagul from his steed, while the Cygor falls to the Horns and Teeth of the Great Taurus.
Battle Round 5
The final round, with Zagul gone the Sorcerer takes command of the warband. Ordering the Warriors back to the treasure after they finished off the Minotaur. He also sent the Marauder Horsemen onto the other treasure, while the Chosen went to guard the Baleful Realmgate in case one of the monsters decided to move through. The Great Taurus belched fire at the Ghorgon, but nothing happened and the confused Taurus refused to join the combat. The Knights attack and cannot do any harm with their Glaives, but the Chaos steeds are bred strong, and do a huge amount of damage to the Ghorgon, bringing it down to 4 wounds. The Ghorgon tries to attack back, but cannot get past the armour of the Knights.
In the final turn, the Ghorgon sees that the nearest treasure will be impossible, and travels through the Realmgate to the one on the other side. But seeing the field, and the Chaos army in full control, decides not to charge and to lumber off back into the forests nearby. The Shadowborn had won, claiming the treasure for their own.
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| The end of the game - the Ghorgon refuses to charge |
So some general thoughts on the game.
Definitely apparent in hindsight, but his monsters were just kept too far away from the area where the fight was happening. It took them too long to get into the battle, and it didn't help that the Cygor basically missed every single time when it tried to hurl boulders.
I was very happy when the Minotaurs went into the Chaos Warriors and basically bounced (killing only 2 Warriors). This played into exactly what I wanted, I could combo charge in a bunch of stuff, while my faster units could go harass others before collapsing in on the Monsters later on the in game. I felt that the two Beastmen monsters spent too much time lumbering around, not getting much done and too far away from the fight to be any real cause for concern.
The Great Taurus was fairly useless. I may have forgotten to use its ranged attacks once or twice in combat, but it just didn't seem to do much. It's 'decent' is 1 attack, 4+,3+ and then does D3 damage at -1 rend. Slightly better on the charge in that it can re-roll failed wounds. Most of the game it just flat out missed.
I probably should've protected the Chosen a bit better, maybe instead of casting Mystic Shield on the Warriors to make them tank up, I should've paid a bit more attention to the Chosen. Those were the killy guys, so he's going to go after them first and the Warriors had the protection of the forest as well.
Not sure if charging the Giant into the Cygor was a good or bad move. I thought I had the game fairly in control, so decided to go for something more cinematic and fun. I think in hindsight it probably was a mistake, I could've bought more of my army to force if I had made the monsters come to me where there was more space. When the Knights went into the Ghorgon, I could only bring 3 into range to attack.
The final mistake, was in the last battle round I finally won initiative for the first time in the game. I should've just let him go first. Ultimately it would've resulted in a similar move, jump through the portal, go for the left-most objective. But in that case, I would clearly have 1, and could bring more of my force to contest the other with my fast moving cavalry. I might not even have to combat if I can get within 3" of the objective as well. As it came out, due to this mistake he could've turned it into a draw if he had made the charge into the Horsemen and somehow managed to wipe them out.
I also didn't quite know how the Realmgates worked, so didn't realise you could re-appear within 6" of one. So the placement of my Chosen just ends up being stupid, I should've used them to screen the Horsemen, or at least be nearby so if the Ghorgon made it in, they could fight as well.
Overall, it was a pretty interesting game. With the way the game went, I was unsure if we really needed an extra 5 pool choices of models or not for the game to feel a bit more interesting and close for contesting. As it stands, due to a big of poor luck on my opponents rolling in some cases, and perhaps some ill-timed assaults, I only had 2 units killed (General and Giant), and 1 unit severely depleted (Chosen), while all he had left was a Ghorgon. Perhaps with more pool choices, there would've been more contesting over the objectives at the end of the game, more blocking to keep units away, etc. The objectives though certainly added to the game, rather than detract from it.
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