Sunday, February 5, 2017

Daemons of Chaos vs Beastmen, 04.02.2017

Points: 1000


Deployment: Watchtower


Lists:

Daemons of Chaos:

  • Herald of Nurgle, general, level 1 wizard: Stream of Corruption
  • Herald of Nurgle, level 1 wizard: Plague Wind
  • 17-man Plaguebearers, full command
  • Beast of Nurgle
  • 5-man Chaos Furies
  • 3-man Screamers of Tzeentch
  • 5-man Seekers of Slaanesh
  • 5-man Flesh Hounds
This is a polar opposite of my last list. Instead of a killy combat block and a Daemon Prince, I instead included lots and lots of chaff to redirect and surround, and two wizards.

Beastmen:

  • Beastlord: additional hand weapon, general
  • Bray-Shaman, level 2, lore of beasts: Wyssan's Wildform, The Amber Spear
  • Bray-Shaman, level 1, lore of beasts: Wyssan's Wildform
  • Wargor, Battle Standard Bearer
  • 25-man Gor Herd, full command, additional hand weapons
  • 25-man Gor Herd, full command, additional hand weapons
  • 2x 1-boar Razorgor Herd 
Similar list as last time, but this time with two wizards. Two blocks of very killy infantry (lots and lots of attacks) and two Razorgors as chaff.

Deployment


I won the deployment roll-off, and placed my Plaguebearers with the two Heralds inside the watchtower. Everything else deployed in a neat line. The Beastmen deployed their two blocks in the middle, with the Razorgors on the sides.


Beastmen, turn 1


The center block (containing the level 1 Shaman and the BSB) charged the watchtower. A couple of models died on each side. Everything else advanced. The Amber Spear did 1 wound to a Flesh Hound.


Daemons, turn 1


I took a very aggressive stance. The Screamers went for a 10-inch charge and made it into combat. The Flesh Hounds advanced on the left flank, intent on engaging the other Razorgor. The Seekers and Furies took full advantage of flying/fast cavalry movement and encircled the Gor block. The Beast of Nurgle also advanced.
I rolled 10 on the Warp Storm table, but forgot to apply the +1 Ward Save this turn. Shame! At least I managed to get off a Stream of Corruption and killed a few Gors in the block attacking me.


Beastmen, turn 2


The center block again charged the watchtower, but was repelled. Alas, I had so few Plaguebearers that I could no longer send a 10-man assault party. The other block turned to face the incoming melee. The Razorgor charged the Flesh Hounds and fought them to a standstill.
In the magic phase, the center block was Wildformed.



Daemons, turn 2


This is the turn that I charge the center block and annihilate them! Hah, just kidding. I rolled terribly. I won combat, but took great losses.

Beastmen, turn 3

What's in the photo below is basically what I have left from the previous turn. Not much. The big block charged in. The small block was again Wildformed.


Not much to say here. The Seekers were annihilated by the attacks of the Beastlord alone. Whatever didn't die phased out due to instability.
The Hounds and the Razorgor continued to caress each other, inflicting no wounds.
All in all, things seemed pretty much lost.

Daemons, turn 3


I managed to kill the Razorgor. Yeah.

Beastmen, turn 4


The eternal combat: Wildformed Gors against Plaguebearers. Can't remember why the big block didn't charge the Watchtower.


Daemons, turn 4


And when all seemed lost, an excellent magic phase turned the tables again. I got off both a Stream of Corruption and a small Plague Wind. The first one wasn't denied and the second one miscasted, causing one wound to the wizard. I killed a lot of Gors, targeting the large unit which wasn't Wildformed, and got a lot of Plaguebearers back. In fact, the point here was that I had more models inside now, and could hold on almost indefinitely. 
Another lucky die roll was the Flesh Hound passing their march block test. I placed them so that the second block couldn't charge the watchtower.


Beastmen, turn 5


The Beastlord charged out of the unit, assaulting the watchtower with the remainder of the small Gor block. At this point I consulted the building assault rules again and decided to target the characters. I managed to kill off the BSB, although it didn't matter much at this point. And yes, I forgot to place my spell-summoned Plaguebearers at this point. But they'll be there in the next picture...


Daemons, turn 5


I had the Flesh Hounds take advantage of the Beastlord not being in the unit, and charged. They munched through, but the champion (single remaining model) rolled insane courage and held fast. I managed to cast some spells, but the Wildformed T5 Gors didn't fail any toughness tests.


And at the end of the round, I rolled a 5 on the variable game length and won, holding the watchtower.

Final words

  • A very, very close game with lots of back-and-forth. There were several moments for both of us when we saw sure victory or defeat.
  • The Lore of Beasts performed well in both games. Wildform is an excellent spell.
  • One good magic phase can turn the game around. This happened in both games; but today, it happened in my favor.
  • Beastmen are frequently bashed for being weak. I guess they would perform badly against heavy armor; but against my 5+ saved Daemons, they wreck face. When I charged the center block with 4 units, I expected them to die. They didn't.

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