#179: Battle Report - BrisVegas Open Game 2 - Legion of Azgorh Vs. Blades of Khorne

Coming off a major win in round one against Nurgle, I found myself facing another deity from the Pantheon; Khorne, commanded by fellow club-mate, Gammie.

Allegiance: Khorne

Leaders:
Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut (General, Violent Urgency, Gorecleaver)
Slaughterpriest (Talisman of Burning Blood)
Slaughterpriest

Battleline:
6 Mighty Skullcrushers
6 Mighty Skullcrushers
6 Mighty Skullcrushers
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds

Units:
Chaos Warshrine

Battalions: 
Brass Stampede

Judgements:
Wrath-Axe

2000 Points
1 Command Point
142 Wounds

Looking at that, I knew I had my work cut out for me. The Juggers, Priests and Wrath-Axe can dish out a horrific amount of damage. The scenario was Shifting Objectives, which is great for Khorne, because they can stay in a compact formation and just steamroll things. I was genuinely expecting this to be a pretty quick game. But oh, how wrong I was!

With our battlelines drawn, I felt like I was staring down the barrel a little bit, but my army was not without it's tricks! Unsurprisingly, given that my guns were out of range, and the Khorne had nothing to charge, Gammie gave me first turn.

Knowing that whatever moved onto the objectives would be the first thing to die, my Warhounds were (once again) pushed forward as the sacrificial screen, making sure that there was at least one body just within 6" of each objective. I knew that it was going to be a hard fought battle, and that I would need every point I could get, so an easy 5-point turn straight up was crucial. I did make a mistake, however, in that Gammie didn't need to commit to combat to take those objectives off me. He could simply push up with units and get two bodies in range to steal it. I should have flooded each objective with at least 6 bodies, forcing him to commit on all three objectives if he wanted the points. 

And that is exactly what he did. Seeing no need to over-commit in the face of my guns, the Khorne force shuffled forward on each flank, while six Crushers pushed into the middle. the central unit of Crushers found themselves bottlenecked between the ship and Skull Altar, as Ash Storm had crippled their mobility. The Warhounds on the right hand side took some damage from Blood Boil, and thanks to their mediocre Bravery 4, saw all but two either killed or run off the board. Gammie capped all three objectives in return, and prepared for priority. 

Much to my dismay, I lost priority in a turn where I could have really dropped the hammer on multiple units. But it wasn't to be. In a catastrophic swing of events, Blood Boils and the left Crushers' charge damage wiped out all the remaining dogs, which meant that the Crushers on the centre objective were free to slam into both the Taur'uk and the K'Daai with impunity. With the unit being 6 or more models, and the Brass Stampede guaranteeing the trigger, the impact hits did 6D3 mortal wounds to the Taur'uk and killed him in a spray of blood, along with more than a couple of Fireglaives! The Crushers on the left used their pile in to punch on with ten more Fireglaives, but with pitiful results that would come back to haunt them later. 

I was now in a very precarious position. While I had the right hand objective held with numbers to spare, the other two (one of which was worth 3 points) were just being bulldozed by the Khorne. Going second each turn left me with the opportunity for a double turn, but every time there was a window for me to counterpunch and control the flow of battle, the turn went Gammie's way. Some games, that's just how it goes. While I was only on the receiving end of one double turn, I didn't get one back, which made it tricky to force my way back in. 

My K'Daai were caught out of position in a combat where only half the unit could attack, and I was very hesitant to retreat, as losing a priority roll would just mean taking another beating at the hands of the Juggernauts' brutal charge. But I wasn't about to go down without a fight.

Seeing a gap, my Skullcracker decided it was time to unleash some carnage. He charged into the full unit of Skullcrushers that had spent the battle so far suffering the effects of an Ash Storm. The plan was to get in there and drop them below six models, while also blocking them out from the objective. This turned out to be in vain, as I was just short on my charge, giving them room around the ship side of the infernal colossus to pile in around him and within 6" of the objective. The embattled unit of Crushers fighting my K'Daai were slowly being ground down. Bronzed Flesh made them almost impossible to wound, but whatever attacks did get through were doing D3 wounds, which had taken its toll in the battle of attrition. 

On my left objective, the survivors from my 20-strong unit, now free of the central combat, moved to assist their Fireglaive comrades, making sure that it would be several turns before the solitary Warshrine could kill it's way through to a numerical advantage. The shooting from the two units was pretty lacklustre, but at least they were chipping off wounds here and there. 

Thanks to the horrific power of the Magma Cannons, Fireglaives and the Daemonsmith's grenades, against all the odds, the riflemen outlived the Juggernauts on the left objective, now only having to handle some measly Flesh Hounds. 

It should be said around now that between Blackshard Armour (one of the most underrated allegiance abilities in the game!) and some of the luckiest rolling in the world, my army just refused to die. There were multiple instances where killing a single rifleman would have lost me an objective, I'd be facing four wounds at rend 1, pop three fives on the dice, and ignore the last with Blackshard. 

Much to my dismay, Gammie won priority again, and kept a huge amount of pressure on all three objectives. Blood Boils wiped out the full-strength Fireglaive unit on the right, while the Warshrine charged in to try (but not succeed! Huzzah!) and kill the survivors of my big unit. Realising that the Warshrine was going to need some help, one of the Priests began the march over to lend his martial support. 

But elsewhere on the battlefield, things were a little more dire. The Wrath-Axe finally went off, and wasted no time in cleaving the slightly damaged Skullcracker in half! 

On the left flank, my ridiculous saves were keeping me on the objective...

...but Gammie dropped the hammer with full force. Free from being locked in combat with the recently nuked Skullcracker, the still-full-strength unit of Juggernauts slammed into the K'Daai, shattering their strength, and finally breaking the unit down. The Lord on Juggernaut was forced to commit to the combat between the Fireglaives and Flesh Hounds, but thanks to some bad rolls on Gammie's behalf, and some truly insane ones on my behalf, the riflemen held. 

Much to the disgust of Khorne, the remaining Fireglaives on the right objective absolutely refused to die, even in the face of the Warshrine and Slaughterpriest. Could they kill three riflemen to claim the objective?

No. 

Despite my most resolute efforts, and after the Fireglaives and Flesh Hounds took each other down in a cinematic moment of mutually assured destruction (with some help from a grenade from the Daemonsmith), the Skullcrushers proved why they're so mighty and crashed into my artillery. In the face of such an onslaught, the Cannons were all but doomed and, with a pathetic 3" move, found themselves unable to even retreat from combat. The Daeomsmith and Sorcerer Lord were dragged down, and with that, the game was lost. I gave away almost my entire army to try and claim a win, and while I was in the thick of it from turn one, Gammie ran away on the scoreboard in the last turn and a half to claim a major win for Khorne.

For a game that I was expecting to be over in two turns, it turned out to be fought on a knife's edge. Any one of several priority rolls could have completely shifted the flow of battle, but the dice are fickle, and there's no point getting hung up over rolls that neither player can influence. In this game, I just got outplayed. Gammie didn't make any mistakes and never let the pressure off, and it showed. I made a few movement errors, like stringing my K'Daai out too much and giving away my Taur'ruk too cheaply, but I can't be too upset. With three turns of truly godlike save rolls, I was in the game far longer than I was expecting. 

After losing to Khorne, this left me on 1-1 going into game three. I was alright with this, as it left me squarely in the middle of the pack with three games still to play. In a pool of 90+ players, I was at the mercy of the draw to a degree, so I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn't be hitting one of the many, many FEC players too early in the weekend. 

As luck would have it, my game three opponent was playing Gloomspite Gitz, an army that I hadn't faced before, but was very keen to play! But I'm getting ahead of myself. More on that in the next battle report! 

As always, thanks for reading,

Gabe  

#163: CanCon Game 1 Battle Report - Beasts of Chaos VS. Blades of Khorne

Well, the day had finally arrived. CanCon was upon us, and I was ready to begin my meteoric rise through the ranks. Hopefully...

But probably not...

To throw a complete curveball at me round one, the random draw pitched my Beasts of Chaos against none other than Vorgaroth the Scarred and his mighty dragon, Skalok, the Skull Host of Khorne.

The big...

Khorne...

Dragon.

I'd had some experience facing those big hammer pieces like Skarbrand and such, but Vorgaroth is truly in a league of his own! 1200 points of unbridled aggression and unresolved issues regarding self-control and moderation. The scenario was Three Places of Power, and after quickly assessing my options, I came up with only two.

#1: Throw my entire army at the Dragon and try to kill it.

#2: Ignore the Dragon as much as I could, steamroll as many of his little units as I could, and try and live long enough to get ahead on objectives.

And since I enjoy pretending my problems don't exist as much as the next person, I went with option two. I had a huge number of cheap disposable units, and given how immense the base of this model was, I was confident in zoning him into a position where he couldn't really spread his wings (pun fully intended) and go for what he wanted.

My opponent, Michael, was running this list.

Allegiance: Khorne
Mortal Realm: Ulgu

Leaders
Vorgaroth the Scarred & Skalok the Skull Host of Khorne (1200)
Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut (140) - General - Trait: Violent Urgency - Artefact: Talisman of the Watcher
Slaughterpriest (100)
Slaughterpriest with Hackblade and Wrathhammer (100)
Bloodstoker (80)

Units
10 x Bloodreavers (70) - Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (70) - Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (70) - Reaver Blades
1 x Chaos Warshrine (160)

1990

As you can see, he'd built the army with one goal, and one goal only. Buff up the Dragon and send it into a planet's worth of people to rack up that kill count.

Knowing that my whole army was on borrowed time, and having the decision of first turn, I chose to go first, and get points on the board as quickly as I could. I knew if the dragon got onto an objective, there would be no getting him off. The Tzaangor Shaman took up residence on the right objective, the Doombull on the left, and the Shaggoth took up residence on the central objective. Unfortunateley for me, I didn't quite get the run rolls I was hoping for with the Bestigor, and couldn't get a screen around him, but it was going to have to do! 

Having capped all three objectives, all I could do was hope for the best. But the sheer power of the dragon quickly became apparent. Between Blood Boils from the Priests and the White-Hot Balefire from the Dragon, my Shaggoth (along with the Aetherquartz Broach) dissolved into oblivion, but I did manage to pop a Spawn out of him, and tag the Dragon in combat, preventing him from charging where he wanted. Despite this cheeky move, he still managed to pile in around the newly created Spawn and kill all 30 Bestigor in one round of combat!

While the damage to my army in the initial clash had been catastrophic, I was not out of the fight yet!

In a stroke of pure luck, I won priority going into turn two, and I knew I had to make the most of it! 

I was coming into a play style that I absolutely love playing. I was facing an impossible task, with the tiniest glimpse of hope, and I had to shift into a gear I like to call "All Losses Are Acceptable Losses".

With the central objective vacant, my Bray Shaman left the relative safety of the Herdstone to make a massive run onto the objective. His accompanying Ungor, originally destined for the charcoal barbeque lit under the Herdstone, gladly embraced the new career trajectory of being a meat shield between their frail overlord and an angry dragon the size of a small building! 

My 20-Strong Bestigors decided that the best defence was a good offence, and careened into the two units of Reavers on my left side. Bestigor did what they were designed to do and butchered everyone in sight. It fed my opponent Blood Tithes, but possible victory comes at a price. On the other side of the table, my Enlightened flew into Michael's back lines, pulverising the other 10 Reavers, leaving him with nothing but a Warshrine and Heroes. 

From this point on, my sole focus was to screen and block. With the Dragon's base being as large as it was, all I was trying to do was give it nowhere to jump, and to force it into charging and fighting things like Spawn and Ungor, rather than my hammer units, or (more importantly) my Heroes on the objectives. 

 For the next two turns, this is exactly what I did. Over time, the Bestigor fell, as did the Tzaangor Shaman and Great Bray-Shaman, but not before they had established a lead on the scoreboard. The Enlightened had been largely uncontested, but when they turned their attention to the Warshrine, they in turn attracted the ire of some raging lunatics. Once again, Blood Boils and Balefire took their toll and wiped out the Tzeentchian birdpersons.

At this point in the game, I had one chance at a win. Because of the mayhem that had unfolded on the right side of the board, my Doombull had largely avoided any conflict and stood on full wounds, racking up a hefty score. With Khorne now holding two objectives, my only hope was to keep the Bull alive for the entire game, which would give me a final score that could not be surpassed by my opponent. With that in mind, I placed Spawn and Ungor in such a way that the Khorne Dragon would not have the movement to get over the top of my line, and wouldn't have the range on his Balefire to hit the Doombull.

Seeing an opportunity to put the Beasts down for good, he enacted a tactically savvy play...

Popping his Blood Tithe to move his Lord on Juggernaut in the Hero Phase, he managed to weave between my screens, before using his normal move to get to within a reasonable charge distance of my Doombull. He was buffed up to the nines by the Stoker and the Priests, and while they took the fight to the three remaining Ungor, the Lord of Khorne was after a mightier skull for his trophy rack! 

I was optimistic about the impending combat, as there was a good chance the Lord wouldn't cut through 8 wounds in a phase, (and the Mutating Gnarlblade would have a fair crack at killing him back) but stranger things have happened, and it was quite possible. Alas, we would never find out, as he failed the charge, finding himself out of combat and off the objective. 

In my final turn, I retreated with the two Ungor that had somehow survived combat with the Khorne Heroes, (in no small part thanks to the now-immense aura emitted by the Herdstone that allowed me to ignore Battleshock) and launched an assault on the Jugger-Lord with some newly summoned Bestigor. In retaliation, the dying moments of the game led to the deaths of all of my models bar the Doombull, who stood battered but triumphant on three measly wounds. 

A Major Victory, but paid for with blood. 

I was stoked to be starting my CanCon campaign out with a big win. I didn't get much in the way of kill points, claiming only three units of Reavers and a Jugger Lord, but I knew going in that I wasn't going to have a huge tally, as such a huge portion of Michael's army was tied up in one model. 

In the end, I think my movement phase and the favour of Lady Luck won the game for me. I was able to restrict the Dragon's movement down to one half of the board, and strongly encourage it to fight insignificant units while I racked up a healthy lead on the scoreboard. It was a very close game, however, and at any time, it could have turned on its head and become a catastrophic loss. 

But regardless of the outcome, it was great to finally play against the Khorne Dragon, and we had countless people stop past the table just to bask in the sheer magnitude of the model!  

My opponent, Michael, was an absolute gentleman, and we both laughed off the Game One nerves to have a really tactical game! 

In Game Two, I face another Michael and his Grand Host of Nagash, so keep an eye out for that on the Facebook Page! 

Until then, thanks for reading.

Gabe

#96: BCGT Game 3 - Age of Sigmar Battle Report - Blades of Khorne Vs. Stormcast Eternals 2000 Points

 After catapulting back into the centre of the player pool, I was drawn against a good friend of mine with his very well thought-out Stormcast Eternals army. It had devastating shooting potential with a massive 9-strong Longstrike Raptor unit, some really tough elements in the form of a 10-strong Liberator unit augmented by a Lord-Castellant, and some crazy movement tricks in the form of a Lord-Aquilor and a Vanguard Wing! Here's the list.

Lord-Aquilor (General) - Staunch Defender, Mirror Shield, Wind Runner
Lord-Castellant - Mirror Shield, Lantern of the Tempest
Knight-Azyros
10 Liberators
5 Judicators
5 Vanguard Hunters
2 Fulminators
3 Prosecutors w/Javelins
3 Prosecutors w/Javelins
3 Prosecutors w/Javelins
9 Vanguard Raptors w/Longstrike Crossbows
Vanguard Wing

So, it goes without saying that I had some major concerns when it comes to the well-being of my heroes. With the Aquilor able to teleport to table edges accompanied by the Raptors, and the Liberator wall able to jump between Prosecutor units, I was going to be seriously outmanoeuvred. This left me with a difficult dilemma. How do I catch an army in combat that is so fast, so evasive, and so devastating at range?

Going against this army forced me to think outside the box. Where my opponent had the ability to react to any moves I made, my only hope of winning was to give him a move so extreme, that he would have no other choice than react to it and it alone.

The scenario was Take and Hold, which means at any point from the start of Turn 3, if someone holds both objectives, its a major win. That was my glimmer of hope. My deployment was split into two halves. The whole Bloodbound contingent of my army will be dedicated to protecting my objective (represented by the white counter), while my Murderhost and Bloodthirster had a very specific job in mind. Slaughter their way to the enemy objective and claim the instant win. 

Knowing full well the possible carnage that could be inflicted if the Letter Bomb made it into the Stormcast lines, my opponent castled in one corner, having the ability to leap around the board later in the game. The movement tricks made deployment an easy task for him, leaving a unit of Judicators just within range of a long bomb by the Bloodletters. 

Elsewhere on the board, he dropped two units of Prosecutors on the back board edge to give him some more options for movement shenanigans. As you can see, behind the left-hand realm gate, his objective counter was completely unoccupied...

I made a 10" push with my Letterbomb, and whipped my Hounds and Skullmaster behind them to keep out of their way and allow them to launch unimpeded across the board. Then I made the decision to give my opponent first turn. There were two reasons for this; firstly, I wanted the option of double turning with the Letter Bomb and at this early stage of the game, there was only one unit within reach that would have exposed me horribly against a potential double turn back. Secondly, there wasn't a great deal of danger to my army from the Stormcast. All of his really scary ranged units were well out of range, and he wasn't about to expose his General and Raptors to a turn one death by launching within range of my juicy targets and in turn within range of my raging, murderous war host. 

This turned out to be the right choice. While he was able to get all of his buffs off, he was indeed out of range of a lot of his shooting, and much to my opponent's dismay, his Knight-Azyros decided that now was a great time to shine his light brightly, and drop in a little earlier than planned. He landed on my left flank in an attempt to draw my small unit of letters away from the horde and exterminating them. Beside that, his turn one was largely uneventful.

There was a small shuffle down the flank, and a hail of bolts, but I was able to avoid any high-value losses. The 10-man Bloodletter unit got mowed down, to protect the well-being of the nearby Azyros; a wise move. The only real major move he made was shuffling his Fulminators forward and sideways, a decision he would quickly regret.

Given a far more attractive target, my Letter Bomb did what it did, and broke the sound barrier crossing the board to punch on with the Dracothian cavalry. Unfortunately, my Slaughterpriest had a wee mental breakdown trying to give them +1 To Hit, and suffered three mortal wounds; not ideal, but Damned Terrain and numbers still gave them a Mortal wound trigger on a 4+. Even with all of this, I was only able to kill one and mildly wound the other. I'd like to quickly note here as well, that this tournament, I played the letter bomb at a disadvantage to accommodate the fact that their official base size has been changed to 32mm which obviously affects how many models can reach their foes and in turn, their damage output.

On my objective, I dropped the Bloodsecrator, and then bubble-wrapped all of my heroes in Blood Warriors and Reavers. The Bloodstoker was the only one to venture forward to whip the Thirster.

Then came my big play. I got the double turn, and my relatively healthy Letter Bomb retreated from combat (much to their disgrace in the eyes of Khorne) and retreated to flood the objective. They were joined by the Hounds and the Skullmaster (who had last turn pushed straight up the centre of the board. My Thirster, a shameful disappointment so far, pulled his finger out and decided that he could manage six wounds to kill the nearby Prosecuters, preventing any surprise Liberator arrivals. 

It was at this point that my opponent realised what a precarious position I had managed to put him in. I had successfully applied so much pressure to his objective, that he had no choice but to dedicate his entire army to prevent an instant defeat if I won priority on turn three. And he didn't pull out any stops. The Aquilor/Raptor pairing shuffled back into their corner to get in range of everyone, the Vanguard Hunters entered the board, Judicators moved into range, and the Azyros began his sprint to aid his brothers. 

In his scramble to prevent a loss, my opponent was desperately looking for a way to get bodies onto the objective in time. I'd managed to push all of his "board edge" tricks far away from being able to contest it, but in a casual comment (knowing that neither of us were going to reach the podium, and in the spirit of not tricking him out of a win, I pointed out that he could move his far-right Prosecutors toward the centre, then use the Vanguard Wing ability to daisy chain buffed up Liberators into the heat of the battle. He then capitalised on the move by using every shooting attack possible against the remaining Bloodletters, neutralising a huge threat, and opening up a path for his army to march onto the objective.

If luck permitted, of course. 

To only add to the intensity of the game, with everything on the line, my Thirster, Hounds and Skullmaster all piled into the resolute defenders of Sigmar, and unleashed absolute hell upon them. The Bloodthirster finally decided that his deep-seated fury would overflow in a whirlwind of murder and bloodshed. The Liberators were absolutely butchered, and only managed to wound a single hound. This was another nail-biting moment, as I still needed five models and no nearby models to hold the objective. If he'd killed three hounds it would have been game over. But alas, he now faced a horribly vital Battleshock test. If he rolled a 4+, the Liberators would be slain, and a major victory would be mine! With a small audience at this point, the tension was palpable. 

The dice launched into the air.

It bounced across the battlefield.

A two.

Heartbreak. 

Having escaped a sudden and brutal demise, the Stormcast retaliated with the fury of Sigmar's hammer. The Bloodthirster drew the unfortunate attention of the Vanguard-Raptors and was turned into a punctured ballon by the ruthless snipers. The rest of the army dedicated all of its attention to slaying the Hounds and Skullmaster, reclaiming the objective for their Chamber. 

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to chew his way to my objective, and with the knowledge that with one objective each, the minor victory would be decided by victory points, The Aquilor/Longstrike pairing jumped to my back board edge and spent the rest of the game picking off high-cost targets such as my Bloodbound heroes. 

The game ended in a minor victory to my opponent based off Victory Points.

I'm actually really satisfied with how I played this game. I made a lot of right decisions, pulled out a double turn to force immense pressure onto my opponent. I knew that if I had any hope of winning, I couldn't let him control the board, despite his plethora of movement tricks. So I gave him threats that he simply could not ignore, dictating where he had to move, rather than where he could move. 

In the end, I played for the scenario, and almost got him. It came down to a single Battleshock with 50/50 odds in an absolute nail biter! I have no regrets regarding the comments about the Liberators being able to move, as I don't think it would have been very sportsmanlike to try and hide that, and it only delayed possible defeat, rather than negating the possibility. 

My opponent was a good friend, and as always, the game was entertaining and exciting from start to finish. I walked away from the game with no regrets on how I played. I did all I could, and Lady Luck denied me. 

I ended up finishing around 20-24th, with a Major Loss, a Major Win and a Minor Loss. I wasn't able to get many Hero Kills, which really, really hurt my end result. All in all, it was a fantastic event with a very high quality of players, and I recommend Brisbane City Grand Tournament to anyone who is able to attend in the future!

Thanks for reading,

Gabe

#95: BCGT Game 2 - Age of Sigmar Battle Report - Blades of Khorne Vs. Seraphon 2000 points.

After the utter defeat suffered at the hands of Tzeentch and his fickle minions, I found myself second from the bottom of the leader board; not somewhere I really wanted to be. But the day was young and there were chances for redemption yet.

My Round Two opponent was playing Seraphon, almost exclusively comprised of Skinks, with a handful of Kroxigors and Salamanders thrown in for good measure. The scenario was Three Places of Power (one of my personal favourites), and while two of his Heroes rode atop Engines of the Gods, his other two (a Priest and a Starseer) were horribly vulnerable with only four wounds apiece. I was confident that I could win the scenario, and with the abundance of units in my opponent's army, the Blood Tithes would surely be flowing!

Unfortunately, some of the images from pre-game and my opponents first turn have been lost, but I will summarise it very quickly for you. He deployed a refused flank as seen below, with a unit of Skinks holding the woods in the centre (see right side of photo) and a single unit of Skinks in the other far corner, posing no threat to anyone. I think my opponent made some significant errors in deployment, based on the single fact that he deployed all four of his Heroes (the crucial scoring elements of the scenario) all within a 6" radius of each other. At this point, I became satisfied that I would not be losing this game, purely based on objectives, and that two of them were likely to be wholly uncontested by my foes.

While I won the choice of first or second player turn, I chose to give first turn to my opponent. His shooting was incredibly short ranged, and he was a little too far away for my Letter Bomb to get a convincing multi-charge. As I was not too worried about any severe Battleshock checks or getting into combat, I was also not too worried about planting the Bloodsecrator's banner yet.

My opponent's first turn was pretty uneventful. The Engines of the Gods achieved nothing of note, both rolling abilities that were outside range of my units, and every buff available went onto the unit of Kroxigors on the far left flank. Other than that, he pushed forward toward the left objective, falling just short of being able to claim it with his green Stegadon. His only other move was to pop two units of five Chameleons up into combat with my two Slaughterpriests, Bloodstoker and Bloodsecrator in an attempt to disrupt my key combos. They did very little, but thanks to their bonuses in cover, suffered fewer casualties in return than I would have liked.

Then came my first turn. The usual plethora of buffs and bonuses were placed upon my Letter Bomb, which launched up the battlefield at an alarming rate. My Bloodthirster was also keen for a piece of the action, lining up the Engines of the Gods for a cheeky double charge, to not only lock them in combat and deny them any charge bonuses, but also to pin them in place off the objective and put the Thirster to work tallying up some points.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the Murderhost was putting miles in. The Hounds loped up the centre of the board to clear the unit of Skinks lurking in the trees, while my Skullmaster claimed my right hand objective with no intention of moving anytime soon. The Bloodletters beside him had ill-willed intentions for the Skinks in the back corner of the board and began their long march to do battle with them. One of my Slaughterpriests left the combat in the forest to eventually lay claim to the central objective, protected from harm largely by the wall of Khornate Daemons before him. 

I decided (perhaps foolishly) to charge in with my Blood Warriors into the Kroxigors (while sneaking the Gorglaive into the blue Steg). With all of their buffs and re-rolls, I had little hope for the Blood Warriors survival, but knew that not only would they be able to punch out some Mortal wounds thanks to Gorefists, but that they would all be able to pile in and attack, regardless of whether they lived or died. The Krox unit has the potential to be terrifying and I didn't want it rampaging around a few turns later unchecked and undamaged. 

The Bloodletters made a cataclysmic charge, managing to draw nine units into combat with it! This was perfect, as several of these units were Skink Handlers which consist of only three one-wound models. Blood Tithes for the taking, skulls for the reaping! I even managed to drag the green Steg into combat, which was perfect, as he would later bottleneck that part of the battlefield and block other charges against my Bloodthirster, who backed up his abysmally awful game one performance by failing a 6" charge. 

The Flesh Hounds easily made it into combat...

…while my two units of Reavers charged into the woods to clean up the Chameleon threat that had presented itself to my Heroes. 

In a fairly predictable outcome, my Warriors got butchered by the Kroxigors after I chose the Bloodletters to strike first, who single handedly claimed five Blood Tithes from one round of combat! The Hounds absolutely murdered the Skinks in the centre, and while my Bloodletters took several wounds in return from pile ins, they were still very much a threat! On my own turf, the Reavers and heroes made short work of the Chameleons.

My opponent spent his turn moving onto the objective with both of the Engines, and managed to strip eight wounds off my Bloodthirster with an Engine and a cheeky Arcane Bolt. His Kroxigors then charged into my remaining Bloodletters and obliterated them with a flood of attacks. 

And this, right here is where I made a significant mistake. While the Kroxigors were definitely a threat, I really should have pitched my Bloodthirster into the Stegadon. The green one was holding the objective, and was already damaged by my Hellfire Breath from last turn, and was worth an extra two Tournament Points for being a hero over 10 wounds killed. Instead, I charged the Kroxigors. 

Left to their own devilish devices, my Hounds pounced on the isolated Handlers, survivors of the Letter Bomb's fury. They did not survive the raging dogs of slaughter! 

On the other side of the Battlefield, my Bloodletters (who I forgot to move for a turn, go me!) finally made it into the Skinks in the back corner with predictable results. 

On the hot side of the battlefield, things were getting scrappy. The green, wounded Steg, remained on its objective, while the blue Steg had made a dash for my Slaughterpriest. He was intercepted by my remaining unit of Blood Warriors, who were blessed with Bronzed Flesh. My Hounds also continued their killing spree, bounding into the last remaining Kroxigor after my Thirster finally went down to the giant lizards. 

The Blood Warriors did what Blood Warriors so love to do! After being challenged by the Stegadon, my Priest in the centre decided it was a good time to blow the Engine's face off with a full strength Blood Boil, and the Warriors just mopped up, claiming me two oh-so-tasty Hero Kill points. 

The game ended with my Blood Warriors attempting to slay the second Steg, and I got him to within three wounds of death when the game ended. A very convincing and bloody (the way it should be) major win to the Blades of Khorne. 

My opponent was a gentleman throughout the game. He had attended the tournament to play three games and have fun, and had mentioned that he wasn't expecting to win the event. He'd pulled an old Fantasy army out of retirement for a run, and by all accounts, he had a great day. There's no doubt that with some tuning, Seraphon can be absolutely brutal, but I don't think his list included enough durability or damage output to counter the threats in my army. His shooting didn't really get a chance to shine, and the Kroxigors were the only real combat threat that had me worried (and rightly so, they killed the 10 Blood Warriors, five Flesh Hounds, Letterbomb and Bloodthirster, claiming responsibility for 960 victory points!). I think that his army would benefit hugely from picking up one or two more serious heavy-hitters. A carnosaur, perhaps? I don't know the Serpahon particularly well, but I can tell you that I would have been sweating bullets if he'd included a Bastiladon in his list!  

I think that when he deployed all of his heroes on the one flank, he put himself in a position that made it very hard to compete for the scenario. I had two objectives to myself for the majority of the game, and the scoreboard reflected that.

All in all, I was happy with the result, and I returned to the middle of the scoreboard after round two. This matched me against a truly, truly terrifying Stormcast list. Check in for the next battle report and event wrap up!

Thanks for reading. 

Gabe 

#94: BCGT Game 1 - Battle Report - Blades of Khorne Vs Disciples of Tzeentch "Duck Shoot"

After all the planning, build up and frantic painting (40 Bloodletters base coloured and 5 hounds fully painted in six days!), the morning of the tournament had finally arrived. To start the day off well, I decided it would be a great idea to drop my Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster on the road in front of my house and shatter it into six different pieces… Great. Tzeentch was already at work! Fortunately, my round one opponent hadn't left home yet and had a Bloodthirster that I was able to use in place of my pile of broken plastic! (Im exaggerating a little; he is definitely fixable, but considering the time restraints, I was very thankful for mates helping me out! The only other change to my list was to swap out a ten-man Bloodletter unit from my Murderhost and replace it with five Flesh Hounds. This was almost exclusively decided by how much time I had compared to how many models I had to paint! In hindsight, the Hounds turned out to be a great utility unit.

So, with iced coffee in hand, we kicked off round one, and it was Escalation. And here's what I was facing…

Allegiance: Disciples of Tzeentch

Lord of Change (General)
Tzaangor Shaman
Tzaangor Shaman
10 Marauders of Tzeentch
10 Marauders of Tzeentch
10 Marauders of Tzeentch
9 Skyfires
9 Skyfires
6 Skyfires

Yep. It was a pretty baller Tzeentch list. And usually, I'd be concerned, if it weren't for the fact that I was guaranteed first turn and every unit in my army aside from Heroes is Battleline, meaning I'm deploying right on the doorstep of my opponents army! Despite the challenges I would face, my adversary for equally terrified of the brute force and sheer numbers my army represented.

My deployment was pretty straight forward. The Murderhost took centre stage, flanked on either side by Blood Warriors, while the small Reaver units sat in the corners to park on objectives and force my opponent to dedicate elite shooting units to cleansing objectives of half naked barbarians! My Bloodthirster was forced to deploy in my backfield (being a Behemoth), while all five of my other characters deployed in the woods on the hill, poised to buff the necessary units. 

My opponent's deployment was a little more restrictive. His front line consisted of overlapping Marauders, with his wall of Skyfires lurking behind them. Lastly, the Lord of Change towered over the battlefield, ready to cause havoc and carnage with a turn of his wrist. The table was set, the armies were arrayed in all their glory and it was time for a titanic clash between might and magic. 

Before we got too carried away, I made my pre-game Murderhost rush. My small unit of Bloodletters and Hounds only moved 6", but the 30-strong Letter Bomb was making sure Tzeentch knew what was about to go down, launching a whopping 10" before the game had even started. I was very carful to leave a tail on the unit to daisy chain back and remain within range of those juicy buffs. In a decision that shocked absolutely nobody, I then chose to take first turn. 

With the Thirster's "Run and Charge" command ability, the Bloodstoker's whip, the Talisman of Burning Blood, a Portal of Skulls and a cheeky +1 To Hit from the Slaughterpriest's prayers, this unit of Bloodletters was ready for business. I knew that if I had any hope of winning this game, I was going to need to scrap for the scenario, and in a situation where numbers talk, I needed to remove as many boots on the ground as possible. This would also expose his damage dealers for the rest of my army to start punching on. 

Elsewhere on the board, I was beginning to make moves to assert dominance of the battlefield. I knew that my opponent was very mobile, and while my focus was almost completely dedicated to the other two objectives, the Reavers would force my opponent to isolate a unit of Skyfires to clear them off. They were also daisy chained back to within range of my Bloodsecrator, making them immune to Battleshock. If my opponent wanted that objective, he would have to clear it to the man. 

Backing up the main offensive, my Skullmaster and Blood Warriors raced up to lay claim to the central objective. The Bloodthirster rampaged forward as fast as he could to apply pressure and pose a deadly threat to any interlopers near either of my two prioritised objectives. The remaining Daemons pushed up, while the second unit of Blood Warriors put themselves between the enemy and my other unit of Reavers lurking on the farthest objective. 

My first Blood Tithes came very easily. Thirty Marauders were obliterated in a single round of combat. This was perfectly to plan, as now every wound I caused for the rest of the game would be on high value targets, and there was nothing to protect them. I'd gotten maximum possible Tithe's considering my opponents clever deployment, and all of my units were immune to Battleshock. 

Having seen his expendable minions butchered in a storm of violence, the Lord of Change chuckled to itself and prepared to enact its perfectly complex plan. In my bravado, I chose not to auto-dispel Infernal Gateway, as I was confident that the Bloodletter unit could take it on the chin. What I failed to take into consideration was the fact that both Tzaangor Shamans had damage spells too, and could down their potions (probably decaf… they seem like the type to drink decaf) to double-cast. All of a sudden, I was pushed under that oh-so-important 20 strong mark. The Skyfires wasted no time in launching across the board and drawing back their eldritch longbows. 

The shooting phase was not as horrific as what I was expecting! That's not to say that it didn't do anything, but I only lost 5 Blood Warriors from the centre unit (still terrifying in combat!) and 8 wounds off my Bloodthirster. Several more Bloodletters from the Bomb were slain at the hands of the bestial marksmen. That stung a bit, but the units were still standing. The Thirster's combat effectiveness diminishes very slowly, so I was happy with the fact that he was still alive, and still capable of unspeakable damage. 

I learnt the hard way just how powerful Skyfires were in combat! Charging in and activating with the central unit first, they blended the Blood Warriors, who dragged down a disc with their dying breath. The Skullmaster proved his worth, being ground down to a single wound by the Tzaangors, but the D3 damage threatened by the discs were proven unworthy of slaying a champion of Khorne, as he managed to pass all seven 5+ saves. He wasn't done reaping skulls just yet… In the top left, the Lord of Change charged into the battered remnants of the Letter Bomb, and pasted five more, leaving four stragglers alive. I chose to take casualties from the front rank, removing the unit from combat and allowing them to move and charge freely next turn should I win priority. 

On my right flank, the rest of the Murderhost were on the receiving end of another unit of Skyfires. My Bloodletters got the first swing after activations in the central combat, stripping this unit of their crazy re-rolls, and killing two discs and wounding a third within an inch of its life. In return, the Bloodletters were wiped out with unrelenting discretion. 

Continuing to prove just how good these "ranged" unit are at combat (against Reavers… so the bar was set pretty low, but they got the job done), the smallest unit of Skyfires wasted no time in claiming the bottom left objective. It was unlikely I was going to get that back, but the Reavers served their purpose. They were an expendable unit that i wanted to draw as many units as I could away from my two priority objectives… Which, coincidentally were in dire trouble.

With five attacks each, the Flesh Hounds sunk their teeth into the badly hurt Skyfires, another chicken-archer hitting the dirt. With the Blood Warriors preparing to plough into the lethal bowmen, I was confident of clearing the right flank. With two of the three Skyfire units locked in combat, and a nice bank of Tithe points, I was getting ready to send in the second wave!

I won priority, much to my opponents dismay, as my Bloodthirster gripped his axe and began swinging his Bloodflail in anticipation. Thankfully all of my buff pieces were still in place, and both Priests got their prayers off. The Thirster was ready to rumble, and I wasted no time in slingshotting into the Skyfires, choosing to hit the end of the row to minimise return damage. The Bloodletters chose to be restrained, and instead of launching into combat, I moved within 6" of the objective in an attempt to either deny my opponent or claim it should combat go well. The Blood Warriors charged in to assist the hounds, while I forgot to push the Bloodstoker up to the objective as well. This wasn't necessarily bad, as each Hero killed would be an extra victory point (models over 10 wounds, i.e. Bloodthirster) would surrender an extra two points. 

I had the option to go after the Lord of Change with a long run-and-charge with the Bloodthirster, but I'm a firm believer in playing for the objective, and when objectives are held by the most models within 6", he still only counts as a single model. The Skyfires needed to die. 

My Bloodthister didn't wound with his Flail, did a single Mortal wound with his Hellfire Breath, and then inflicted a grand total of two wounds from his seven D3 damage attacks. If ever a Greater Daemon choked under pressure…  What a disgrace. Thanks to Bronzed Flesh, he took no damage in return but the Skullmaster was finally laid low by the twitching, erratic bird men. 

On the other side of the board, the disc-riders activated directly after the Thirster's woeful display of "Slaughter", and I was pleasantly surprised to tank the damage. I lost four hounds and a single Blood Warrior, and in return, gutted three archers. I was really hoping to wipe them out entirely, but it wasn't to be. At least I still held the right objective. I was losing bodies fast, and the ones that survived weren't pulling their weight all that convincingly… 

With the end of my turn, I knew that I hadn't done enough damage. So when my opponent started his Hero Phase, I was all too eager to spend my Blood Tithe and pile in with my Thirster; one more chance to redeem himself! Aaaaaaand...

The choke! Two rounds of combat, two pile ins, fourteen attacks with a Mighty Axe of Khorne, and I managed to inflict four wounds… Four. What a disappointment! My opponent then took things nuclear, sending the Bloodthirster, the last Flesh Hound, the Bloodstoker and Bloodstoker to oblivion. To top it off, he Folded Reality and replenished another four discs to the right hand unit, while his entire shooting phase and combat phase was dedicated to slaying the Blood Warriors still engaged in combat. The centre of the board was firmly in the control of the Disciples. 

There really wasn't much more left for me to do. My last ditch play was to try and smoke the Shaman in the central Dais with two cracks at Blood Boil, and claim a cheeky victory point for killing a Hero, but it wasn't to be. The mop up was swift and concise, with the Lord of Change making quick work of the lonely Reavers, while my two Priests spent the dying moments of the game head butting arrows. My opponent has wiped me off the board, bested me on the scoreboard, and got seven bonus points for the hero kills. With no hero kills, and only 180 points of Marauders killed, I was sitting tidy in second last place going into round two. 

That's not to take anything away from this game. There was a lot of hype around the grudge matches and this was no different. It was a testament to the match up that both of us were genuinely terrified of the other's army, but we both knew it was going to be a cracker of a game. At the end of turn one, it was so up in the air and it genuinely could have gone either way. I shattered the first layer of the army with brutal efficiency, and quickly put a huge amount of pressure on, while my opponent skewered more than a few models in their flight around the board. Regardless of the outcome, I was pretty gutted about the Bloodthirster. Both myself and my opponent were in complete shock at his performance. Six rolls to wound on a 3+ re-rolling 1's, Rend 2, Damage D3, and I roll five 2's… I can't even be upset because there's nothing I can do against that kind of luck. I'm also not planning to hide behind that as an excuse for my loss. My opponent played flawlessly, and was thinking two turns ahead; and it showed in the final result. He went on to win the tournament in style (see below; I wasn't kidding about the style), and in a time of year where everyone is making their final push to qualify for the Australian Masters, this win will hopefully launch him into that Top 16 in Australia! 

One game in, I'm very happy with my list. The Bloodletter Bomb is truly terrifying, and going into Round 2, I was confident I could pull out a win. My goal for the GT was to finish in the top half of the player pool and kill more enemy heroes than I lost. So far, things were not going to plan…

As always, thanks for reading. Your support is very much appreciated! 

Gabe