Once again my buddy and I pit his High Elves against my Daemons of Nurgle. Let’s dive right into the army lists!
High Elves
Prince on Tiranoc chariot, full plate, GW, Talisman of Protection, Opal Amulet, Seed of Rebirth, General
Noble BSB, full plate, GW, Reaver bow
L4 Mage, Battle Magic, Sigil of Asuryan, Silver Wand
2x 5 Archers
5 Reavers
20 Sea Guard
6 Silver Helms
13 Swordmasters
8 White Lions
Great Eagle
Frost Phoenix
5 Sisters of Avelorn, champ with Bow of the Seafarer
Daemons of Chaos – GUO – [1992pts]
## Characters [956pts]
Daemon Prince [356pts]: Ensorcelled weapon, Hand Weapon, Daemon of Nurgle, Wizard Level 4, Battle Magic, Heavy Armour, Fly (9)
Great Unclean One [355pts]: Hand Weapon, General, Wizard Level 1, Battle Magic, Plagueflail
Herald of Nurgle [245pts]: Plaguesword, Daemonic Locus, Trappings Of Nurgle, Totem Of Eternal War, Palanquin Of Nurgle (Hand Weapon), Death’s Heads
## Core [500pts]
16 Plaguebearers Of Nurgle [226pts] with full command
15 Plaguebearers Of Nurgle [213pts] with full command
5 Furies of Nurgle [60]
## Special [537pts]
3 Beasts Of Nurgle [186pts]:
3 Nurglings [135pts]
3 Plague Drones Of Nurgle [216pts]: Rot Fly, Venom sting with full command
• 3x Plaguebearer [63pts]: Death’s Heads, Plaguesword
The two armies arrayed themselves across their respective table edges.
The Daemons make a general advance across the board and the Daemon Prince cast the Pillar of Fire in front of the Elven line.
In the High Elf Turn the Pillar of Fire moved through the Reavers and the Frostheart Phoenix only killing one of the mounted Elves but putting two wounds on their winged support next to them! The Frostheart flew up to slow the advance of the Beasts of Nurgle while the elven archers killed four of the five Furies.
The Elven spell moved through the Plaguebearers killing three of them before being dispelled while the Beasts of Nurgle charged their feathered friend. The Plague Flies killed a Reaver with their Deaths Heads, and the Daemon Prince flew behind the Elven lines to cause trouble for them in later turns. The Beasts of Nurgle only put one wound on the Frostheart while it put two wounds on them winning the combat and pushing them back two inches. The Frostheart opted to not pursue looking to get in a fight more advantageous to it on its own turn.
The Silver Helms charged the Nurglings, and he Frostheart and the Reavers combo charged the Plague Flies. The Great Eagle moved up to slow down the Great Unclean One who had started to feel the ire of the Elven ranged attacks. The Elven Archers on the hill turned to face the Daemon Prince behind their lines and managed to put a wound on him. The Silver Helms beat back the carped of Nurglings putting a total of 6 wounds on them, including combat resolution. The fight against the Plague Flies did not go as well for the High Elves. The good guys only managed to put one wound on the Plague Flies which in turn put two wounds on the Frostheart Phoenix and destroyed the Reavers to their rear. The Elves had hoped the +2 combat resolution from the rear charge would help them win the fight, but instead they gave a +4 resolution to the Flies. The Flies held their ground and allowed the Phoenix to fall back 2″ to keep their options open for next turn.
This would be a busy turn with lots of action. It started off with the Plaguebearers losing another two daemons to the Elven vortex, but after that it was (mostly) all Daemon. The Plaguebearers closest to the Swordmasters and the Beasts of Nurgle joint charged the famed Adepts of Saphery while the Plague Flies decided they wanted to charge the Frostheart Phoenix. The Great Unclean One charged the Great Eagle. The Plague Flies killed the Phoenix and overran to get closer to the action. The Silver Helms put a serious beating on the poor Nurglings (they just want to be friends!) and dropped the last stand to three wounds. Not surprisingly the Great Unclean One reduced the Great Eagle to little more than feathers. While the Swordmasters were able to kill two Plaguebearers and put two wounds on the Herald they were not able to save themselves from being cut down to the elf. The Daemons opted to over run, even though it put them in a dangerous spot by setting the Sea Guard up for a flank charge next turn.
Bravely marching forward to redirect the Great Unclean Ones the Elven steel themselves to sell their lives for some precious time. The Silver Helms continued their battle with the Nurglings
The Great Unclean One charged the Elven Archers that were slowing him down while the Plaguebearers and Nurglings decided to stare at their opponents. (The Plaguebearers were waiting for their support to arrive and the Nurglings were continuing their delaying action, keeping the Silver Helms away from more valuable targets.) The Daemon Prince cast Pillar of Fire in front of the Archmage and the White Lions. The Great Unclean One killed off all the Archers but disaster struck. Not only did he fail his roll to restrain from overrunning with an 11 he then rolled an 11 on his overrun distance which effectively took him out of the game! My buddy always says “This is why we roll the dice” and in this case it certainly caused an unexpected and unwelcome result! For me anyway….
The Pillar of Fire flew through the Archmage causing two wounds (dark oaken shield!) and killing three White Lions. Down three of their number the White Lions decided to move towards the safety of the woods along with the Sisters of Averlorn and the Archmage. The Silver Helms finally killed off the last of the Nurglings and turned to face the Plaguebearers which had been standing around looking for something to do all game.
In the previous turn the Plague Flies declined to charge the small unit of archers on the hill in an attempt to find worthier opponents somewhere else. Unfortunately for the forces of Nurgle they failed their march test and were unable to get very far. As such they charged the only thing they were within range of, the same Archers they tried ignoring last turn. Of course being an additional 9″ away allowed the Archers to easily flee! The Plaguebearer unit facing the Silver Helms was unable to reach the gore splattered Elven cavalry missing by an inch. The Sea Guard were charged by the Beasts of Nurgle, Daemon Prince and the unit of Plaguebearers and their Herald. The disciplined Sea Guard let lose a volley of bow fire into the Plaguebearers and managed to kill three of them on the way in! This combat resolution, along with some poor rolling by the Beasts and the Daemon Prince (who only managed to kill one Elf!) allowed the Elves to win combat by 1 which pushed the foul Daemons back in good order!
In the final turn of the game the Elves shot what they could in an attempt to finish off the Great Unclean One but were unable to drop the beast below half wounds.
All that was left was the counting of victory points! In the end the Daemons won, but only just winning by about 250 Victory Points. The Elven players played a smart game slowing the Great Unclean One down with throw away units and getting in the way of my units with their fast troops. If I had won that big combat by even a point in the last Nurgle turn I probably would have been able to finish it off in the Elven turn but getting thrown back really hurt. Then again so did the Great Unclean One failing to hold from overrunning then overrunning straight past where he was needed! The Archmage managed to get lucky, in one turn he miscast but rolled a 1 to wound himself, had he failed that he would have been dead when my Pillar of Fire moved over him! I’ll take the victory though, after all a win is a win!
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 