Having used Secondary Objectives in our last game my friend and I decided to use one of the new scenarios and randomly rolled Drawn Battlelines. In this scenario the Deployment Zones are triangles with the base running the long side of the board, 24″ up the side of the board with the angle connecting the two. The Scenario Special Rules were fairly basic, each player had to roll a d6 at the beginning of the game, if either player rolled a 1 they would have to keep a single infantry or cavalry unit in reserve that could come on either of their board edges starting on turn 2. I rolled a 1 and decided to put my Furies in reserve. We opted to use the Secondary Objective (3) as an options objective and decided to play a six turn limit. After last game with our first attempt at using the FAQ I dropped my Daemon Prince to a level 3. I also dropped a few Plaguebearers and one of the Furies so was able to get an extra Beast of Nurgle which I ran in two units of two. My list ran to 1,987 points.
331 – Daemon Prince, Heavy Armour, Fly (9), Daemon of Nurgle, Wizard Level 3, Battle Magic
355 – Great Unclean One, Plagueflail, General, Wizard Level 1, Battle Magic
235 – Herald of Nurgle, Daemonic Locus, Totem Of Eternal War, Palanquin Of Nurgle, Trappings Of Nurgle
60 – 5 Chaos Furies
135 – 3 Nurglings
213 – 15 Plaguebearers Of Nurgle, Plagueridden, Standard Bearer, Musician
200 – 14 Plaguebearers Of Nurgle, Plagueridden, Standard Bearer, Musician
124 – 2 Beasts Of Nurgle
124 – 2 Beasts Of Nurgle
210 – 3 Plague Drones Of Nurgle, Rot Fly, Plagueridden, Standard Bearer, Musician
This was the starting line up. The forces of Nurgle set up on the diagonal front line as if it was business as usual while the High Elves set up some units flush to the line and other resolutly setting up straight on the table as if the battleline was a typical rectangle. There were two players on the High Elf side, and three on the Nurgle side. With deployment out of the way it was time for the battle to start!
The forces of Nurgle had one less unit so got a +1 to choose to go first which helped them win the roll. Figuring it was better to get into combat to get out of bow shots Nurgle took the first turn and advanced across the board claiming two objectives in the process.
The elven turn wasn’t much more exciting but they did manage to put a wound on the Great Unclean One with bow fire! They also reordered their lines and the Lord on his faithful Griffon flew onto the Nurgle side of the board to set up later charge options.
The Daemon Prince opted to fly out of the charge arc of the Lord and his feathered friend while the rest of the army advanced. On the opposite side of the table the Plague Drones set themselves up for a position to charge the flank or rear of the advancing Dragon Princes.
In the Elven turn the Silver Helms, the chariot, and the Lord charged a Beast of Nurgle Unit while the Silver Helms charged the other unit of Beasts. The Sisters of Averlorn and their Bow of the Seafarer wielding champion put four wounds on one of the units of Plaguebearers. In combat the Silver Helms and Griffon tore into the Beasts of Nurgle. In part due to my uncanny ability to roll saves I thought the Beasts might survive but in part to a poor instability test roll the Beasts were sent back to the immaterium! They did manage to put two wounds on the chariot and kill the Silver Helms champion though! The chariot overran into the unit of Nurglings while the other units held their ground. The Dragon Princes killed one Beast and pushed the survivor back and while overrunning they clipped the Plaguebearers dragging them into combat. Because they hit the Plaguebearers in the flank and the Demonic Herald on his living carpet of Nurglings was next to the Plaguebearers the unit was unable to align so we were stuck in this odd angle fight.
It was now the Daemons to launch their own charge as the flies took advantage of their 360 degree line of site and charged the rear of the Dragon Princes. The Furies flew in from reserve (I completely forgot to bring them on last turn), the unengaged unit of Plaguebearers reformed to face the fast elven units bearing down on them and the Great Unclean One steadfastly advanced on the long line of Swordmasters arrayed against him. In the shooting phase the Daemon Prince was able to unleash a devastating Fireball which killed the remaining Silver Helms! This wasn’t to be the only disaster befalling the haughty High Elves as the Swordmasters panicked and fled at the sight of the immolated Elven cavalry! The charging chariot was able to force the Nurglings back but decided to reform to find better targets elsewhere. In the only other close combat of the turn the Plague Flies managed to kill two of the Dragon Princes but despite being surrounded and out numbered by static combat resolution stuck around. Surrounded on all sides though they could not fall back and so they remained stuck in combat.
The Lord on his Griffon flew to a position to charge the rear of the engaged Plaguebearers while the chariot charged the Furies and destroyed them. Man, am I bad at using units of Furies! The Swordmasters rallied and reformed into a more compact formation. The Spear Elves moved up to support the Dragon Princes who were stuck in combat. It was looking like they might not get into the fight in time as another two Dragon Princes were pulled from their saddle, and yet the remaining Prince and the Noble with the Battle Standard Bearer stood in the fight. Perhaps they would get rescued after all!
The Daemonic Herald felt rather alone with the Lord and his griffon flapping nearby so he lumbered over to the Plaguebearers who no longer facing a threat from the Silver Helms and the Chariot turned to face the center of the battlefield. Hearing the screeches of his winged followers getting mowed down by the chariot the Daemon Prince turned and charged the offending machine. It was too close to the board edge to risk fleeing so it had to hope the Daemon Prince would fail it’s charge, alas for the Tiranoc charioteers it made the charge and put the final wounds turning it into nothing more than kindling. The Nurglings charged the Great Eagle that flew between them and the Lord. This ended up working to the Nurglings advantage as they were able to kill the Eagle and overrun into the unengaged Griffon. Sure they would probably die next turn but they were able to lock the beast in combat for a turn preventing him from attacking a higher value target!
In the elven turn the Spear elves charged the Plague Drones in the rear and the Swordmasters advanced. The Sisters of Averlorn killed three Plaguebearers with the champion taking advantage of the juicy flank shot with her Bow of the Seafarer. To the surprise of approximately nobody the Elven Lord killed a stand of Nurglings and pushed them back. The Plague Flies tired of trying to chomp the armor encased knight turned their attacks backwards to the lightly armored Spear Elves. Despite bringing +7 combat resolution to the fight the Spear Elves failed to cause any wounds on the Flies and lost a rank of elves and so were pushed back from the fight, but once again the Battle Standard Bearer stood his ground!
I thought I got lucky and turned the Great Unclean One enough to get a charge against the Elven Lord but I missed it by about a quarter inch forcing the Plaguebearers and their attached Herald to charge in without his support. At the angle the two Nurgle units were facing the Griffon it would have been an either or situation anyway but it would have been nice to get the Great Unclean One in combat after the Swordmasters panic prevented him from getting into combat! The cool thing was my buddies were saying the Plaguebearers couldn’t make the wheel because the back of the base would get hung up on the Great Unclean One and I remembered the rule that allows the back of the base to pass through friendly models. I’m not normally the one to remember rules so this was a massive win! I also sent the Nurglings into the Griffon’s flank. Normally this would be easy combat resolution but I figured I’d be pinning the monsters attacks with either a challenge from the champion or the Herald so the +1 combat resolution was pretty much a no brainer! In the magic phase the Herald failed to cast Fireball so he threw out a Pillar of Fire in a blind rage. I actually didn’t have a plan for it so I just dumped it in the middle of the field to see where it drifted. The Elven Noble who was heroically holding aloft his armies standard all game finally gave up the fight as he now truly fought alone and fled the combat. In his haste to flee he ran right on top of the Pillar of Fire which immolated him where he ran!
Meanwhile in the combat against the Lord the Plaguebearer champion heroically stepped up to challenge the Elf Lord. (He might have been pushed up by the Herald, but the point is he stepped up!) As I picked up my attack dice it was pointed out the Lord got to attack first. I confidently stated “That’s fine, he’s going to live to make his attacks” and he promptly saved all the wounds the Lord put on him with his ward save! He failed to cause any wounds back but then survived all the Griffon’s wounds on his ward save as well! That was a total of 5 ward saves! Because they were all ward saves the Lord didn’t get any combat resolution and lost by 5. Everyone held their breath as the break test was rolled and on a 6 he turned and ran, failing by 1! The cheeky flank charge by the Nurglings tipped the combat results to the forces of Nurgle! Overwhelmed with joy the little buggers were actually able to run down the flying monster, despite needing to crawl through the difficult terrain!
As we approached the Elven half of turn 5 we had to decide between grabbing dinner or not and with just two infantry blocks and the Sisters of Averlorn left the Elven player opted for the later so we called the game. Looking at the final layout it seemed almost certain the Swordmastrs were in trouble with the Great Unclean One staring them down. One of the Elven players pointed out the Spear Elves got their butts kicked by the Plague Drones from the attacking the nasty flies from the rear, but the Plague Drones got extremely lucky in their attacks so I doubt it would have been as one sided as he feared, but again in the choice between dinner and a forlorn hope I think we made the right call!
We didn’t do Victory Points but looking at what we had left I’m guessing we ended up with a Massacre. He got 184 points from me, and I got around 1,300 from him for casualties, plus bonuses for killing the General and Battle Standard Bearer. He had his Spear Elves and his Swordmasters left, as well as the mage which was in the Spearelves and the Sisters of Averlorn. The forces of Nurgle ended up collecting 270 points of secondary objectives and the High Elves got 30. We both only had two units at the beginning of the game that could collect Secondary Objectives and when his Silver Helms were dropped to only 4 models early on they couldn’t help in this aspect. So in this game it looks like the extra block of infantry helped push this from a Decisive Victory to a probable Massacre.
Elf of the Match: While he died ingloriously in the end the Elf of the Match was the Battle Standard Bearer. He held his cool while surrounded by Nurgles minions to the front and rear without flight. It wasn’t until he was completely alone without the help of the Dragon Prince Standard Bearer and the War Banner he carried that he broke and ran. He managed to hold up a good chunk of points from going elsewhere for quite a few turns!
Daemons of the Match: The Daemons of the match were clearly the Nurglings. They killed the Great Eagle, stopped the Griffon from charging or flying away to a more advantageous position, charged in and gave the extra point of combat resolution that caused the Griffon to break and run, and then ran him down! I guess a close second would have to be the heroic Plaguebearer Champion who save all 5 of the wounds the Lord and his feathered friend put on him!
I’d imagine my buddy is tired of my Daemons so I’ll be seeing the Dragon again real soon. It was a good run, I’ll let you all know how that game goes when we have it!
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 