Our army lists:
Warriors of Chaos
Chaos Sorcerer, Mark of Nurgle, Level 2 wizard, Chaos Familiar, Talisman of Preservation, Ironcurse Icon.21 Chaos Warriors, Full command, Shields, Mark of Nurgle, Standard of Discipline
15 Chosen Warriors, Full command, Shields, Mark of Nurgle
3 Dragon(rat) Ogres
Skaven
Plague Priest, Level 2 wizard, Warplock Pistol, Talisman of Protection, Dispel ScrollWarlock Engineer, Doomrocket
34 Stormvermin, Full command, Shields, Gleaming Pennant, Poisoned Wind Mortar
24 Skavenslaves, Musician, Shields
20 Plague Monks, Full command, Plague Banner
6 Gutter Runners, Slings, Poisoned Weapons, Extra Hand Weapons
Doomwheel
Warp Lightning Cannon
A few pictures of our armies and the display board:
Round 1 - Ogre Kingdoms & Dark Elves
Firebelly, Sword of Swift Slaying, Level 2 wizard, Lore of Fire
5 Ironguts, Standard, Musician, Standard of Discipline
11 Leadbelchers, Musician
10 Gnoblars
3x Sabertusk (single model units)
Ironblaster
Sorceress, Level 2 wizard, Dispel Scroll, Guiding Eye, Lore of Metal
Noble, BSB, Banner of Eternal Flame
35 Repeater Crossbowmen, Musician, Standard
5 Harpies
5 Harpies
3x Reaper Bolt Thrower
5 Shades
Mission: There's a 18" square zone marked in the middle of the board. At the end of the game if you have units of Core Troops and your Generals in the box you score bonus Battle Points.
The battle lines form up with a lot of Ogres staring at us, but we charge forward none the less. If they're bigger that means there's just that much room for plague to corrupt them. Turn one saw their Ironblaster 1-shot my Doomwheel. My Warp Lighting Cannon got revenge by 1-shotting their Ironblaster in the bottom half of the turn.
A look down the battle line of the enemy.
Call me crazy if you want, but units of 1 model as a core troop used as nothing but charge redirectors is possibly one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of. I don't blame the players. I blame GW for making such stupidness to begin with.
The massed fire from all of the Leadbelchers and the repeater crossbows was too much to handle for the warriors. Reduced to just 1 model and the Sorcerer they decided not to charge in. The Stormvermin and Plague Priest were smart enough to use the Chaos allies as pawns to protect them.
In the end we had both of the wizards in range of their Sorceress/BSB/Archer unit. We successfully reduced their toughness to 2. I attempt to plague them which should have killed most if not all - needed an 11 on 3 dice. Rolled the 10. Fluffy Bunny tried his spell do d6 str 5 hits, over and over if they failed Toughness checks. He missed by 2. We lose by a relatively small margin. Having 2 Core units and both Generals in the scoring box though gives us 12 Battle Points, which is almost the points of a Draw.
Round 2 - Warriors of Chaos & Lizardmen - Chumphammer
Exalted Hero of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch, Talisman of Preservation, Potion of Foolhardiness, Third Eye of Tzeentch
20 Chaos Warriors, Musician, Standard, Mark of Nurgle, Great Weapons, Gleaming Pennant
5 Marauder Horseman, Mark of Slaneesh
2x Chariot, Mark of Slaneesh
3 Skullcrushers of Khorne, Musician, Standard, Standard of Discipline
Saurus Scar Veteran, BSB, Charmed Shield, Cold One, Dawnstone, Light Armor, Sword of Might
Skink Priest, Level 2 Wizard, Plaque of Tepok
10 Saurus Warriors, Standard
3x 10 Skink Skirmishers, Javelin and Shield
20 Temple Guard, Musician, Standard, Razor Standard
2x Salamander Hunting Pack
Mission: Singing Forest. There's a dangerous terrain forest in the middle of the table. At end of game if you have more models in it than the opponent you get bonuses to your victory points.
Both armies started rushing together to get to some melee hack and slash action.
The initial shot from the Doomrocket landed right between the Skullcrushers and the Warriors. Took out 8 warriors in the first blow of the game. The first shot from the Mortar took out 4 of the 5 Marauder Horseman. Skaven shooting at it's finest. (We'll forget about the Warp Lightning Cannon's misfire, as that rolled a 6 and didn't have catastrophic effects.)
Their Champion of Tzeentch charged the Dragon(rat) Ogres along with the Templeguard. Sadly, the Templeguard failed their charge roll. A 3+ ward save? Reroll 1's? "I'm safe" he says. Then rolls triple 2's for ward saves... Still one of the prettiest combats we had all day.
In the following turn, the Dragon(rat) Ogres and the Plague Monks combine to wipe the timid Templeguard off the table. Plague Banner HO!
The left side melees begin. Skullcrushers verses the Stormvermin. They will roll 1's eventually. I'm sure of it. Question is do I have enough rats to get to the 1's? And the Chosen hold against a double chariot charge like champs. (See what I did there?) To the far left (not pictured) the Slaves charge through and destroy a unit of skinks (losing the Engineer to a javelin in the process). The Slaves eventually break and run from shooting, but are still on the table at the end of the game.
The game is going well. A strength 2 Warp Lightning shot wings the Skink Shaman and takes him out. The Tzeentch Champion has been run down along with the Templeguard. The game looks to be all but in the bag for the forces of disease. As a few last spells are tossed out to speed up the inevitable... what is this? The Plague Priest miscasts! Dimensional Cascade! The Horror!
I didn't have the heart to take another picture, but not 30 seconds after the Plague Priest blows himself into the warp, along with all but 3 of his bodyguard, the Chaos Sorcerer winds up a spell. And miscasts... And ANOTHER DIMENSIONAL CASCADE!!! In order, that's boxcars, snake eyes, boxcars, snake eyes. The Chaos Sorcerer also gets pulled into the warp along with most of the warriors of his bodyguard. These 4 sequential dice rolls cost us over 400 points in the two characters, 200 points in general kills, about 500 points in unit losses for the bodyguard units, and stopped us from killing the enemy Skullcrushers for over 250 points. Oh, and it allowed the Chumphammer boys to get the forest controlled for a bonus 400 points or so. In effect, roughly a 1750 point swing.
Dice... Hate... Us...
Round 3 - Tomb Kings & Vampire Counts - Lincoln and Josh
Necromancer, Level 2 wizard
45 Zombies
50 Zombies, Musician, Standard
50 Skeletons, Full command, Flaming Banner
50 Ghouls, Champion
Liche Priest
25 Skeleton Archers, Standard
25 Skeleton Archers, Standard
30 Skeleton Warriors, Standard, Champion
Khemrian Warsphinx
2x Casket of Souls
2x Tomb Scorpions
The Warp lightning cannon never did too much this game. Two shots at the Caskets before they leadership test the cannon to death. Both shots roll short and do no damage. Confounded 2's!
The Doomwheel appears to be taking care of these undead scum nicely... until it misfires and deals 4 wounds to itself. Did I mention the dice hate us?
At 5:45pm, in a show of team unity with ASSUME THE POSITION Trivia team up in Stevens Point, Wi, participating in the world's largest Trivia contest, we all join in (4 minutes early, but that's pretty close) with the rest of the team in a group shot of Kessler. Our opponents join in with us. (with water chasers? really?)
Just the way the game was going, and how congenial the game was... The bottle didn't last the next 2 game turns. Three rounds total polished it off and we were all feeling a bit better.
In the end, highlights of game 3 include the Chosen Champion winning 2 challenges, and along with the initial start of game "Eye of the Gods" effect, got boosted up to Toughness 7. Gutter Runners make their first entrance by reserves and blast a Casket for 5 wounds - which promptly makes 2 of it's 6+ saves and then turns and blasts them into oblivion. Over 75% of the enemy models were dead, but due to current scoring mechanics, no points are scored unless entire units are wiped. Rather difficult to do to such large blocks of undead. We end up losing by quite a bit.
And just to add insult to injury, the final dice roll of the game is a check to see if the Plague Priest and his Stormvermin can escape being run down. They fail by 1. These dice are so completely fired.
