#70: Age of Sigmar Battle Report 1000 points - Khorne Bloodbound Vs Duardin

With my wife braving the shops during the Boxing Day sales, it took little to no convincing at all to catch up with an old friend and throw some dice. My lead up to Christmas had been a hectic one, so this would be my first game of Sigmar in quite some time, but I was looking forward to stretching my legs! 

With my Death army is still in the early stages of construction, I grabbed a case and loaded up my ever-faithful Bloodbound to unleash their poorly-managed anger issues upon my foes. 

I really struggle to look past the Mighty Lord of Khorne for my general. He's just that good, and extraordinarily versatile. The rest of my force was basically everything I currently have painted, minus a few characters. Ten Blood Warriors and twenty Bloodreavers filled my battle line slots, while a Warshrine of Khorne backed up my Crushers and Wrathmongers in their roles of carnage and murder machines. 

Across the table, I was staring down a bearded challenge! A Dwarf Lord (on invisible shieldbearers while a cool conversion gets completed) was joined by a Runesmith and an Unforged. Ten Warriors, 10 Longbeards, 20 Quarrelers and 10 Irondrakes (yikes) filled out his force!

Then we rolled scenarios and got Three Places of Power. Great. My choice to bring a single hero was coming back to haunt me, as I was outnumbered on the character front. My only hope of winning the game was to push my Lord onto an objective, while using the rest of my army to protect the others! At least, that was the idea...

As it was a friendly game, we decided to just use terrain pieces instead of markers for the three central Places of Power. I deployed solidly across my entire battlefront, while my opponent castled in the right hand corner. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing in my mind. If I could launch past the middle line and slam into his lines, perhaps I could contain his army and tie up his heroes to prevent them settling in on an objective. "Perhaps" being the key word here. 

With some healthy run moves, I made good progress up the board, confident in my combat prowess if the Duardin made a long charge. 

My Wrathmongers made their way toward the main action, and my Lord flopped his run roll. No points this turn.

My opponent was a little more mobile than I originally thought. The Unforged long-bombed a charge into my pack of Bloodreavers...

...and butchered thirteen of them in cold blood! This... This was not a great start. To make things worse, I was taking some serious heat from the Dwarven firepower. 

The Irondrakes unleashed a flaming salvo into my Crushers, stripping four wounds off, while the Quarrellers unleashed absolute hell upon the Blood Warriors, five falling with crossbow bolts lodged in their necks. 

My infantry continued their slow advance forward, while the Skullcrushers knew that if I had any hope of winning this game, I had to shut down the shooting phase! After benefiting from the command ability on the Lord, and being blessed by the Shrine, they launched a devastating charge!

My Lord finally moved onto a Place of Power to start cranking up that tally!

The slaughter was bloody and quick. The Irondrakes fell under the thunderous hooves of the Juggernauts, but the nearby warriors and Runesmith were dragged into the fight. 

And they were not messing around! Things on my right flank were going poorly, to put it gently. 

I'd reached a pivotal point of the game. I was in a difficult position if I wanted to win. It was gonna need some solid forethought. I needed to keep my Lord alive, and I needed to stop the Unforged (currently racking up a pretty tally) from being alive anymore. The warriors pitched into the half-naked berserker and, thanks to another blessing from the Shrine, beheaded the dwarf where he stood.

The Wrathmongers finally made combat, and while my choice to kill the Unforged gave first swing to his Lord, it wasn't all bad. His runic hammer crushed the majority of the unit, but their aura of rage could not be resisted. The ancient dwarf King ended up slamming himself in the face as hard as he could (as well as his Shieldbearers putting a few boots in), leaving him staggering, but still standing on a single wound. 

My opponent knew that the key to victory was the death of my only points-scorer. A veritable hail of crossbow bolts slammed into him but I saved fifteen of the nineteen wounds, but it didn't end there. The warriors who survived the combat with the Crushers (and Wrathmongers) charged up the steps of the ruins, and in the most cinematic moment of the game, the sweeping Khornate axe slaughtered all but one who met his demise to the jaws of the Flesh Hounds. 

 The Blood Warriors were crushed beneath the onslaught of the wounded Lord, Runesmith and Longbeards, starting the tally once more! 

I was confident that I could scrape a win! I was ahead on the tally, and all I needed to do was win priority, and launch an assault with my full-wound Warshrine! His Lord was on a single wound, and the Runesmith was right behind him. If I could orchestrate this just right, I could kill the lord and perhaps even halt the tally by wiping out the Runesmith. That would leave me high and safe on the scoreboard, even if the Khorne Lord met his demise at the hands of the crossbow men next turn.

Alas, it was not to be. I lost priority, and the Dwarf Lord charged up the steps of the ruins, smiting down the Chaos champion in herioc fashion. The Longbeards joined the charge by pitching into the Shrine, but the deformed monsters holding it aloft weren't happy and smeared the veterans into the ground before someone could yell "Skulls for the Skull Throne!".

With my opponent passing me on the scoreboard and my only hero meeting a dastardly demise, the game was securely in the hands of the Duardin! Well played by my opponent. 

I had great fun in this game, and I think my biggest downfall came in listbuilding and deployment. A second character would have meant a much more aggressive final score. 

All in all, a great game and a good learning experience. 

Thanks for reading,

Gabe