#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  

#173: Championship Heat 1 Battle Report - Game 4: Legion of Azgorh Vs. Blades of Khorne

Coming into Day 2 undefeated, I knew I was going to be in the thick of it from start to finish, so, armed with an iced coffee and a decent night's sleep, I launched headlong into Game 4 against James and probably the best looking Khorne army I've ever seen in my life!

Allegiance: Khorne
Slaughterhost: The Bloodlords

Heroes:
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (General, Slaughterer's Thirst, Halo of Blood)
Bloodsecrator (Banner of Wrath)
Slaughterpriest
Slaughterpriest
Slaughterpriest

Units:
10 Blood Warriors (Battleline)
10 Blood Warriors (Battleline)
10 Blood Reavers (Battleline)
10 Flesh Hounds (Battleline)
5 Wrathmongers
5 Skullreapers

Warscroll Battalions:
Gore Pilgrims

Endless Spells/Judgements:
Bleeding Icon
Wrath-Axe
Hexgorger Skulls

This was going to be a challenge and a half! I knew just how much carnage the Bloodthirster could inflict, and I knew that the mortal wound output from Triple Priest/Triple Judgement was just something I was going to have to take on the chin.

The scenario was Gift From The Heavens, so in Turn 2, each of us would have an objective drop in one of three locations in our territory. This meant that Turn 1 has the potential to be a bit of a standoff, but with Khorne, I wasn't expecting any part of his army to be standing off!

Knowing full well that there would be very little damage incoming, and possibly setting himself up for a double turn, James gave me first turn. With most of my army being out of range, and not wanting to over-commit against a combat beast like Khorne, I made a few shuffles, pushed forward my screens, and waited. I tried to cast Daemoinc Power on my K'Daai, but the Slaughterpriests were having no part of that!

On the other side of the board, my Warhounds pushed up with the Taur'ruk poised for a counter-attack should the Bloodthirster charge on in. I cast Ash Storm on the Bloodthirster with my Daemonsmith, slapping him with a -1 To Hit and preventing him from running, but with +4 to his move and a re-rollable charge from his command trait, it wasn't going to stop him from having an easy shot at the dogs. The Magma Cannon shuffled forward 3" and, thanks to the nearby Daemonsmith, fired a long shot at the Bloodthirster, clipping three mortal wounds off him.

All three of my Fireglaive units were poised on the three possible sites where the objective would land. Now, to weather the storm that Khorne was about to unleash.

While most of James' prayers were purely buffing at this stage of the game, he did throw out two Judgements toward my K'Daai and Sorcerer Lord. The Warhounds did cop a Blood Boil, but took minimal casualties.  While most of the Khorne army ran up the board, the Bloodthirster careened across the table...

...and failed a 6" re-rollable charge. 

This failed charge single-handedly saved my right flank, but James went straight of of Turn 1 with a double into Turn 2! 

With his objective landing on the left side of the table, his Wrathmongers (who had moved up behind the pack of Flesh Hounds) were forced to march backward, as the Flesh Hounds had a dogfight with my Warhounds, ending predictably in James' favour. The Bloodthirster made it into combat, but with another low charge roll, which prevented him from leaping over the hounds into more valuable targets. A unit of Blood Warriors joined the fight as well, charging the other end of the hounds, and tagging the K'daai in combat. 

The Bloodthirster attacked first, thanks to his artefact, but his axe only exploded once, putting two mortal wounds on the Taur'ruk, the Fireglaives and the Magma Cannon (the third mortal wound was ignored by Blackshard on each unit. His conventional attacks suffered heavily from Ash Storm, and after saves and Battleshock (a convenient 1), a single dog was left standing. This left the Blood Warriors with few options, and they suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Fire Brigade, though not without kicking out some damage back with their No Respite attacks. To get those attacks though, James had to remove the closest models, and this left the K'Daai outside of 3" and free to move about going into my turn. 

I chose not to cast any spells with my Sorcerer Lord for fear of the Hexgorger Skulls blowing his brains out, so the K'Daai were gifted with Oracular Visions instead. The Skullcracker charged into the Flesh Hounds and mashed them to a pulp, while my K'Daai and big Fireglaive unit in the centre moved to my left flank, to stack the freshly landed objective. 

The single warhound fighting the Bloodthirster retreated 16" to conserve the Blood Tithe points! 

The fact that both objectives landed at one end of the board was very fortunate, as it was on my strong side and far from the Bloodthirster's furious gaze. 

 After having survived the Khorne double turn with minimal casualties, I got a double turn of my own from Turn 2 into 3, and I pressed the advantage. The Skullreapers, finding themselves far from the objectives, were the target of Ash Storm, preventing them from running. The Magma Cannon and the 20 Fireglaives unleashed round after round into the full strength Blood Warriors, taking a heavy toll on the unit.

The double turn also completely saved my right flank from the Bloodthirster, giving the Cannon and Fireglaives two full rounds of shooting into the already-wounded Bloodthirster. The barrage of firepower was enough to smite the Greater Daemon from existence, and leave only 10 Reavers opposing the Dawi Zharr, who had begun the slow move across my territory toward the objectives. 

The Skullcracker and K'Daai made short work of the Wrathmongers and one of the Slaughterpriests, but took a fair dish of mortal wounds in return.

With Ash Storm on the Skullreapers, James burnt his Tithe pool to move them in the hero phase, leaving them close enough to charge in and start punching on with the fire daemons. With some assistance from an absolute avalanche of mortal wounds from the Slaughterpriests, only three K'Daai were left standing. That Wrath-Axe is no joke! 

Going into turn four, I managed to win priority again, and the rampage of the Skullcracker continued! Once again, the K'Daai casualties had left them just outside of combat, so leaving the Skullreapers to deal with the unstoppable Skullcracker, the fire daemons swarmed the second Slaughterpriest, laying him low in a flood of attacks. With the demise of those two units, I'd well and truly secured both objectives.

Across the rest of the board, guns blazed and bodies fell. The Magma Cannon and big unit of Fireglaives finished off the Blood Warriors in the centre...

...while on my right flank, the remaining riflemen and cannon finished off the Reavers. 

With only a Bloodsecrator and the third Slaughterpriest left on the board, James used the double turn into Turn 5 to run them as far away from danger as possible. With no guns in range, and no combat elements fast enough to catch them, I finished my Turn 5 and the game came to an end. 

I landed a fourth major win, with approximately 1500 kill points. I missed the two characters, the Battalion that they were a part of, and the Judgements.

This game came down to dice going my way. There were three moments that swayed the course of the battle. The Bloodthirster failing his charge in turn one saved that entire flank from utter destruction. Both objectives landing on the one side of the board allowed me to stack the left flank, and shoot incoming threats. And getting the double turn into three was a big deal. James' entire army was on my doorstep, and if he'd won that priority, I would have lost a lot of models! 

As it was, Lady Luck smiled upon me, and things went my way at the right times. 

James was an absolute delight to play, and his army is absolutely stunning! It cleaned up Best Painted in a landslide, and you can tell, just by looking at it, that a ton of time and effort has gone into every single model! 

This was my first game against the new Khorne heat, and I'll tell you what... that trio of Slaughterpriests kicked out a truly obscene number of mortal wounds! With no defence against prayers, you're at the mercy of the dice a little bit, and they can be absolutely punishing. The turn the Skullreapers ran in, I lost seven K'Daai like they were marshmallows! 

Having landed four major victories, I knew that only one other player was in the same bracket as I was. Mick and his Blisterskin Flesh Eater Courts! It was going to be the toughest game of all, and I knew that Mick was going to come out swinging. 

Check back in soon for Game 5! 

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

#116 Tinyhammer Event Overview Part 1

Typically, when I go to a tournament, I'll break it down into three (or four or five, depending on the tournament) Battle Reports and then do a wrap up post to finish off the series, but for Tinyhammer (a 1000 point tournament at one of the local Warhammer stores), I've opted instead to publish two posts to recap the event, one covering the pre-event lead up, as well as a post covering the event itself . This is for several reasons, but I'll let you read on.

As with any tournament, I had to decide what force I would be taking with me. For me, this decision is largely influenced by the Player Pack, as some of the armies in my collection perform much better in certain environments than others do. In this particular case, the Player Pack stated that your army would be given a painting score out of twenty and that score would be multiplied by the number of games. This is obviously a huge deal, as over a four game tournament, four major wins with all secondary event-specific objectives, would bag me 80 tournament points. Painting scores offered up to an additional 80 tournament points for the day! So, I knew if I wanted to drag any kind of success out of the bag, I had to take a fully painted and based army.

This rounded down my options to Clan Pestilens and Khorne Bloodbound, being the two fully painted armies that I was completely comfortable with, and had an abundance of options to play around with. I toyed with running either a mini-Murderhost, or even a combo Letter Bomb, which consisted of a Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster, a Stoker, and as many Letters as I could fit, but alas... All of my Bloodletters were on 25mm bases, where they're meant to be on 32mm's. Usually, people are willing to give a little lee-way, even at a tournament (if its not too bonkers), but Bloodletters on 25mm's have a significant advantage over 32mm bases, as their 1" weapons can reach through a rank, allowing for tons more potentially devastating attacks to be pushed through. As I knew that it would (at the very least) be frowned upon, and as I didn't have it in me to rebase sixty Bloodletters, I opted away from that option.

I also had some ideas for utilising the Bloodbound side of Blades of Khorne. I toyed with a Reaver horde, a Juggernaught-heavy cavalry list; the idea even crossed my mind to use a unit of six Khorgoraths! But, after sitting and pondering each list, I managed to get inside my own head and convince myself they wouldn't perform well in the meta. Would they have? Who knows...

Then my attention turned to my pet project of last year, the countless swarms of crazy religious zealot rats that make up Clan Pestilens. This fit into my New Year's Resolutions perfectly. Take Pestilens, put up a decent performance, and perhaps get into the upper end of the roster to get some of those tasty ranking points that everyone currently so desires. So I went to work to find out what I could fit into 1000 points. As it turns out, with horde armies, you can fit a metric ton of bodies on the table.

The first decision I had to make was whether I wanted a Corruptor or a Plague Furnace as my general, and I gotta say, it was an easy decision. In 1000 points, a Plague Furnace with the Liber Bubonica is something to be feared. It hands out buffs with impunity, and is no slouch in combat, with its noxious aura and foggy, furious wrecking ball of the flu! I backed up the Furnace with two Priests, knowing full well that I needed to knuckle down and get as many prayers off each turn as I could. With Heroes sorted, this left me to fill Battleline... and fill it I did!

Two units of forty and a unit of twenty Plague Monks took my model count over a hundred, and sat within the points limit allowed! I veered away from Plagueclaws, as I think one is unreliable, and two is by far too large a portion of my army. I know what Monks can do, and I know that on a 4'x4' table, a hundred bodies is gonna take some work to get through!

So, there it was. I'd settled on a list that I already had fully painted, that I was comfortable with, and that could play the scenario in most situations pretty convincingly. I then sent it out to a few people for feedback, and there in lay my unravelling. Most people were horrified by the idea of facing the list. Sure, monks die to a particularly stern glance, but most armies just didn't have the damage output to thin the horde before it hit. Most armies.

It quickly became apparent that Disciples of Tzeentch would be at the tournament in force, and I knew full well that if a Gaunt Summoner got on a Balewind (but, who puts a GS on a Balewind... right, guys? Right?), he would burn through my hordes and have my army for lunch. With that notion alone, I started scrambling. Instead of doing what a logical person would do, and tweak the list to mitigate the possibility of a bad match up, I was like a deer in the headlights of the idea of "the worst matchup". I can say this now, but I feel I should have dropped the small unit of Monks out and swapped an allied Skaven unit in. Jezzails or an Arch-Warlock might not solve all my problems, but they would have given me that ever-so-valuable long-range damage output that would have given the rest of my army some covering fire. But did I think logically? Absolutely not.

I spent several hours studying warscrolls and engineering combos, trying to find that perfect list. And I looked at every possible option. I thought about taking Chaos Dwarves, but alas, Forgeworld was not permitted at the event. I thought about taking Stormcast, but they just didn't inspire me at the time. I even considered ppurchasing and painting a Kharadron Overlord mini-Clown-Car, piling as many Balloon Bros as I could onto a Barak-Zilfin Frigate. This was the mindset I was in; just all over the place. Then a mate of mine sent me a list that caught my eye.

Lord Kroak
Skink Starpriest
10 Skinks
10 Skinks
2 Razordons
3 Salamanders
150 points in reinforcements.

Basically, the whole list was built around Lord Kroak teleporting into the centre of the board, jumping up on a Balewind and then going apocalyptic with his magical arsenal. And while he and his Balewind weigh in at a horrifying 550 points, it was hard to deny his sheer destructive capabilities and tenacity with his bizarre wound mechanic. With Mystic Shield and Starlight (from the priest), he sits pretty at a 2+ save atop the balewind, with -1 to Hit. Many armies simply don't have the tools to deal with him at 1000 points. The other advantage is that he can Unbind spells board-wide. This means that he can sit outside of 18" of enemy wizards, completely dampen their magic phase and then cast at his leisure, uncontested.

The skinks were in there, because not only are they fantastically cheap and infuriating to pin down in combat, but they are FAST!

Razordons offered some consistent shooting to trim down larger units, or blitz a character who might find himself unguarded. They also have a natural 4+, so with some buffs, they can pose a real roadblock!

This leaves the Salamanders. Typically, I would use my turn one Seraphon Teleport on Kroak, but turn two, I'd slingshot these guys at the biggest, scariest unit I can see, and try and Fireball them to death. And this is where the cheeky 50 points of summoning comes into it. When a Seraphon unit teleports, they must be 9" away, and can't move unless the dice comes up as a 6. With their shooting attack only being 8" range, this obviously poses a slight... reliability problem. That's where Skink Handlers shine. They are 40 points for 3, can be summoned on a 4+ (also 9" away from enemies, but Salamanders within 3" extend the range of their shooting attack to 12". This means that, if I roll a 6 for their teleport, they can safely move into range in the movement phase, but if they don't, I can use one of Kroak's four casting attempts to summon some cheeky handlers and burninate the countryside!

While all that sounds scary on paper, the real sting of the list comes from Kroak's command ablilty, which allows him to generate an "Insight" for every 4+ rolled on 3 dice. These Insights can then be used to re-roll any dice until my next hero phase (with the exception of the Priority Roll, as per Rule of One). Any dice. A casting attempt, a botched teleport roll, a damage roll for a spell or shooting attack... Powerful, right? But then I thought... Any Dice? My opponent's dice? Enemy charges, successful casting attempts, reserve rolls for Stormcast. Destiny Dice? DESTINY DICE!

After much studying, debate and deliberation, we came to the understanding (and if you can disprove this, please do so, because it seems pretty amazing), that when a Destiny Dice is used in one of its many ways, I can force my opponent to re-roll that dice. Substitute in a 6 to push through a spell? Sub in a 1 on a Battleshock test for your Pink Horrors? Nah, how about a re-roll!

It completely changes the dynamic of your opponent's turn because they know that the 'moment' they need to happen can be affected by something other than pure probability. Success is a further reach. If I possibly could, I would keep an Insight in the bag for my opponent's turn, sometimes even forgoing an opportunity in my own turn, just to keep that psychological edge, and to have a very large spanner to throw in the works if needed.

Now, it's not all rainbows and lolliipops. This list has two blinding weaknesses. Model count and hordes. With my whole army being solely dependant on a single model, this fell very heavily into the "All Eggs in One Basket" area; something I usually avoid like the Plague (unless I'm playing... wait for it... Pestilens! That was a bad one, I'm sorry). This means that if I either lose him, or he is ignored, the rest of my army is going to eat dirt in a heartbeat. The other issue that I had was the apparent inability to handle massive regiments. Kroak excels at nuking elite, MSU-style armies (Stormcast and Tzeentch spring to mind), but throw 40 Skeletons at him, and there's not a lot he's going to do. Scenarios and match ups would make or break this tournament for me.

With the list settled upon, I made short work of painting it, managing to crank out the entire army in under a week. This was an incredibly important element, as Paint Scores played such a large part of the player pack. I knew if I wanted to do well, I'd need to crank out a cohesive.  And I even managed to fit in two practice games in, both against Disciples of Tzeentch. The first was right down to the wire, and I managed to win Duality of Death 1-0. The second, was quite the opposite, as I rolled the hottest dice of my life, and managed to nuke my opponent off the table in two turns.

These two games gave me the confidence that this list had legs, and might actually get me over the line. Two games against great match ups? What could go wrong!

Check back in on Sunday for my overview of the tournament itself!

What's your go-to 1000 point list?

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 

#86: Blades of Khorne Overview - "RAAAMPAAAGE!!"

I held off tackling this overview directly after release, purely because I hadn't had a chance to properly read through the packed pages of the mighty Tome! But, boy oh boy, have GW given Bloodbound and Khorne Daemon players their fair share of toys!

So, before we look at what's new, lets look at whats old.

Bloodreavers went up by 10 points per 10 models to a total of 70. This is pretty reasonable, however, as they also received a 6+ save! While a 6+ is altogether underwhelming, it can benefit from terrain and Mystic Shield (if you're willing to disgrace Khorne by stooping to Sorcery), which is more than they could do before.

Khorgoraths went up 20 points to a total of 100, and remained almost completely the same; except for one small detail. All of their close combat attacks doubled in damage! Suddenly, Khorgoraths went from steaming hot flesh bags of garbage (my personal opinion, of course) to pretty decent beatsticks! One of my favourite things about Khorgoraths is their weight class. There is a sweet spot for combat mashers, who are sturdy enough that they have a solid bank of wounds, but sit just under the threshold of diminishing power, where a model such as a monster gets weaker as they take damage. A Khorgorath can be on full wounds or one wound, but thats not going to stop him forcibly encouraging people to become less… alive.

The third big change is Bloodsecrators. As much as I'm disappointed that this change has happened, it was necessary. Banners no longer stack… Banners now have an aura called Rage of Khorne. This gives you an extra attack and makes you immune to battleshock; an absolute necessity in any self-respecting Bloodbound force. However, where you used to be able to overlap banner auras and give your entire army two or three extra attacks, its now pretty clear that you are either affected by Rage of Khorne or you are not, regardless of how many sources you can receive it from. I was initially pretty disappointed by this, but I know why GW has done it.

Alright, so now that we've got that covered…

Khorne players have now got tons of Artefacts to pick from; 12 for Daemons, 6 for Mortal and Bloodbound, 6 just for Bloodbound and 3 Banners.

I honestly don't see myself ever using the banners. They're useful in their own way, but the only model who can carry them is a Bloodsecrator, and while you want his 18" Banner planted in the ground, nice and stationary, the Artefact banners only have an 8" range… You see my dilemma.

The Daemon artefacts are very solid, with six dedicated weapons designed to perform different methods to the same end; unmitigated slaughter.

The Bloodbound Artefacts are much more varied and versatile. I have a couple of favourites here. Gorecleaver is a neat weapon that adds 1 Rend to one of your weapons, while on a 6 to wound, the damage changes to Mortal Wounds. The Brazen Rune gives the bearer a 2+ against Magic damage, while they can burn the rune to auto-unbind a spell anywhere on the board. This is an incredible Artefact, especially for an army with no wizards of their own. The third one, and probably my favourite, is the Talisman of Burning Blood. The bearer of the Talisman emits an 8" bubble of +1 to Run and Charge for all Khorne units. The more buffs, the better!

Slaughterpriests now get a full set of Prayers to choose from. They are still volatile in their reliability, but the new Prayers are rock solid! There are no auto-takes. Every Prayer has its use! This is no Stormcast army that says "There are prayers other than Lightning Chariot?".

And to top it off, new Command Traits give a whole extra level of tactical flexibility. Whether you want out of sequence charges, auras or to simply up the damage output efficiency of your General.

The beauty of this book is really in the Warscroll Battalions. There are tons, and all of them have the most metal names ever! While some are alright, and one or two are actively counterproductive (Red Headsmen, you could have been the chosen one!), the majority of these are incredibly powerful.

The Murderhost (1 Bloodletter Hero & 3-8 Letters, Hounds, Crushers or Cannons) is a solid choice for Daemon players, with a measly cost of 20 points. This is a steal, and does exactly what Khorne Players want for their armies; accelerating the process of making it to combat and sinking some Hellblades into the vulnerable points in the enemy armour commonly know as faces.

The Council of Blood gives you bulk Bloodthirsters, and makes them bigger, better and angrier!

And if you love the idea of hair-trigger cannons firing non-stop all game in every possible phase, the Gorethunder Battery is for you! This formation increases the reliability and efficiency of Skull Cannons, and offers a quick far-reaching way to rack up those precious Blood Tithes!

Khorne Daemons got an absolute ton of Battalions, but they weren't the only ones to get some love. Bloodbound were also spoilt. Favourites are back, such as the Brass Stampede, while there are platy of newcomers. Regardless of your sledgehammer unit of choice, there is a Battalion for you! Love Skullreapers, Skulltake will scratch that bloodshedding itch. Dark Feast will give you the satisfaction of flooding the board with Reavers,

Two of my favourite formations in the new book are Bloodforged and Gore Pilgrims.

Bloodforged is probably the bluntest instrument in the Battalion arsenal. Every member of this formation ignores Rend 1, and most importantly, the Wrathmongers share their ability to impose self destructive tendencies upon whoever happens to be standing within earshot.

Gore Pilgrims takes the most fundamental elements of a Bloodbound army, with compulsory Battleline choices, a Bloodsecrator with a significantly increased range on his banner, and the newly empowered Slaughterpriests are far more reliable! I believe this will be a very common sight in Bloodbound armies! I know I'll be using it!

There are so many combos and layers and synergies in this book, that I've really only washed over the most superficial levels of the book! I can't wait to work through several different lists! Things are gonna get bloody…

Thanks for reading!
Gabe