WHFB – Beastmen vs Dark Elves

You join us once again to follow the amazing adventures of Captain Khazbar and the crew of the… wait no that’s a different genre.

After spending a week at the inlaws, we had a two day break before they then arrived at ours for a week, together with one of their (and my wife’s) Italian friends and her two children. Where am I going with this? Well my amazing wife realised I’d had a shit week at work and recognised that I’d had no space in the evenings to unwind, so told me to go to the club. So I managed to get an unexpected game in on Friday. Happy days!

As an extra bonus, I finally managed to get a game in vs Luke C and his dark elves. I’d seen Luke play a number of times but for some reason we’d never managed to get a game in.

Lists

Herd of Khazbar the Magnificent

Bashor the Bloody – Beastlord (General), ogre blade, armour of destiny, shield

Khazbar the Magnificent – Great Bray Shaman, level 4 – Lore of Beasts, Talisman of Protection, Brass Cleaver, jagged dagger

Zurrock the Mighty – Wargor (bsb), HA, shield, Beast Banner

Wazzock the Lame – Bray Shaman, level 1 – Lore of Shadow, dispel scroll

Cattleclysm – Doombull, Arabyan carpet, gold sigil sword, dragonbane gem, ramhorn helm, gnarled hide, HA, shield

48 Gor, FC, AHW

1 Tusgor chariot

1 Tusgor chariot

5 Ungor raiders

5 Ungor raiders

37 Bestigor, FC, Standard of Discipline

1 Razorgor

1Razorgor

5 Harpies

Dark Elves

I didn’t get a copy of Luke’s list but it was something like:

General – Dreadlord, LIght Armour, Shield, scaly cloak, coldone, black dragon egg, ogre blade

Level 4 Sorceress – power scroll, dark steed, possibly other stuff – Lore of Life

Level 1 Sorceress – Dispel scroll, Lore of beasts.

Death Hag – bsb, cauldron of blood, obsidian blade, the +D3 attack upgrade

5 Dark riders – Standard, musician, xbows

5 Dark riders – standard, musician, xbows

5 Dark riders – Standard, musician, xbows

29 Witch Elves – FC

30 Executioners

5 Doomfire Warlocks

9 Coldone Knights

Scenario

After a fair bit of testing at the club I had made some further amendments to the Wicked Woods scenario (scenario list here) and we played that to try the changes out. There were two big changes. The first was that units moving normally, did not take dangerous terrain checks. The second was that you gained 1 Scenario Victory point for each turn you held the woods from turn 2 (with a maximum of 10 points available).

Terrain and Pre-match rolls

We rolled map pack 4 which meant a river, 2 normal hills, 2 scree slopes and a forest.

After placing the terrain (including the additional wood from the scenario, it looked like this.

It terms of spell selection:

Khazbar ended up with: Savage Beast, Curse, Wyssans and Amber Spear.

Wazzock took Miasma

The DE Supreme Sorceress got: Throne, Flesh, Earthblood and awakening.

The Beast Sorceress rolled Curse as well.

Deployment

Deployment is as per battleline so alternate. I won the roll and so Luke placed the first unit and finished first. Although Luke had a number of units of chaff, my list far outstripped his of throwaway units and so I was able to place my big units after he had laid the Witches, Executioners and Cold One Knights. This allowed me to put the Besitigor opposite the Cold Ones, a match up he would not like. The Gor Horde went front and centre to capture the woods and the Doombull and accompanying harpies were placed on the far side of the river to perform a flanking maneuver, as the river would not impact their movement as they could all fly.

Due the the chatting and laughs I was having with Luke, as he regaled me with comic tournament stories, I allowed myself to get distracted and I did make the one blunder that as a Beastmen player you should never do, that of not having most of the army deployed within the bsb and generals range. Thankfully I wasn’t punished for that!

With a blatant disregard for their lives, the witch elves started on top of a scree slope ensuring a dangerous terrain test as soon as they moved

After his 4 vanguards, it looked like this.

Turn 1 – DE

Luke started off by giving me a punishing lesson in how to use Dark Riders. One unit advanced at the double and positioned themselves in front of the Bestigors but slightly set back in the flank of my Razorgor. This meant I couldn’t charge them and so effectively took them out of the game for my first turn.

The second unit also moved up to block the left unit Ungor Raiders. This in turn would limit the movement of the Gor horde in the following turn. Their cavalier attitude towards my units was helped by the boosted flesh to stone that was cast on them.

He then proceeded to show why the dark elves prefer combat by failing to kill a single thing with 30 repeater crossbow shots. This was backed up by both Curse and dwellers failing to cast.

The rest of his forces just generally advanced, with the warlocks and accompanying supreme Sorceress re-positioning from his left flank towards the right and the witches moving slightly into the wicked woods (where they promptly took 4 casualties).

Turn 1 – Beastmen

Taking a leaf out or Luke’s book my right most raider unit moved up to block the Cold One Knights. The supporting chariot moved up to counter should the raiders be killed.

The central chariot and Razorgor also moved to allow counter charges should the Bestigor be blocked again.

The Ungor raiders charged the T7 Dark riders in front of them, were quickly bested and legged it to safety through the nearby horde. Edit: not quite sure what I was thinking. Either that they might pin the riders in place or that they would at least be out of the way.

Across the river the Doombull and Harpies advanced at speed to threaten the flank of the witches.

On my first cast of magic in the game, a 3 dice roll of curse on the witches, resulted in  a miscast at irresistible force, followed by a further 2 sixes (power drain), followed by a final six. Apart from a an improbable set of rolls, the net result meant my level 4 Shaman was now a level 1 with just Wyssans remaining! On the positive side, at least Luke had been unable to dispel it and so his witches were effectively pinned for the next turn.

Turn 2 – DE

Seeing the danger posed by the flying circus, the Dark riders withdrew in order to cover the flank of the witchesand were again buffed with flesh to stone to give them a fighting chance should the raging Minotaur decide to target them. (Edit – yes I did originally write ‘ lock horns’ but took a step back, slapped myself and changed it). The warlocks moved more to the centre to ensure they were also out of the charge arc.

Meanwhile the central unit of riders advanced to impede the movement of the Gor horde (that had been hexed with Soulbight) and the executioners followed to provide support. The final unit of riders, not liking the attention they were receiving, skipped through the Beastmen lines so they were now positioned behind the Gor unit.

The woods continued to feed on the Witches and they lost another couple of the unit to its feeding frenzy.

The riders shooting improved dramatically but was still rather pathetic with a single Gor and harpy dying to the bolts.

Turn 2 – Beastmen

Seeing their opportunity to get rid of some of the pesky riders, the central chariot smashed into the unit in front of them. 3 of them were crushed beneath the Chariot and the others turned tail and fled with another losing his life in the wicked woods.

The doombull charged into the Dark riders and despite their boosted toughness promptly slaughtered one. Their faces took on a worried look as their attacks rebounded back onto them. The worry grew as the bull grew in stature, as it ripped their kinsman apart and fed on his blood.

On the other side of the map the stalemate continued with the Razorgor joining the chariot read to counter charge the Cold Ones. The Bestigor moved up ready to support the centre should it be required.

Magic involved miasma cast on the riders behind the Beastmen lines, reducing their movement by 3.

Turn 3 – DE

With a shout to Khaine the executioners charged the closest chariot, three of their number including the champion falling to the dangerous terrain. They quickly demolished the chariot and then piled into the side of the Gor horde.

The remaining dark rider rallied and moved to block the Gor unit.

With the expiration of their toughness buff, the doombull/riders combat was only going to go one way as in a frenzy of blows, his opponents exploded leaving a mist of blood and pile of gore.

Magic continued the way of the previous turns with doombolt failing to wound the Razorgor and Dwellers failing to cast.

The witches, finally free of the curse, moved into the woods and promptly lost another two of their number.

Now you see them

Now you don’t

Turn 3 – Beastmen

The Bestigors charged into the rear of the executioners only losing 5 or so of their number to the dangerous terrain. Another 4 were cut down by the druchii as were 13 of the Gor before they struck back killing 15 of the unit. The executioners broke and were run down by the Bestigor.

The Doombull turned ready to charge the rear of the Witches.

In a spectacular display of one up man ship, the ungor raiders showed the dark riders how it was done and shot down one of the cold one knights and in that one move made back their points.

Turn 4 – DE

With a 2 point lead at this point, Luke proved his pointy eared pedigree and in an underhanded tactic, moved all his remaining Dark riders and his Warlocks into conga formation to surround the witches and prevent any units making it into combat with them.

With the evening drawing to a close, I called the game at that point.

Result

After turn 3 it was 2-0 to Luke but if we had completed turn 4 it would have likely been 4-0.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed the game with Luke and was glad to finally play him. He had me in stitches many times, didn’t take anything too seriously and was just generally good fun to play against. All qualities I like in an opponent.

The updated scenario worked really well and that is definitely the rule set we’ll take forward into the competition.

Luke’s use of fast cav was very good and just damn right frustrating and bloody annoying. It was definitely a learning experience (one i’ll not necessarily rush to repeat) and opened my eyes to their use.

I did make a number of errors in the game and there are a number of things to learn from it. My deployment was again somewhat lacking. I blocked a number of my own units and allowed his riders to prevent my units moving in the first turn.

In match ups with fast cav, I need to ensure that some of my chaff hangs back to allow me to charge them if they block my frontline units. Possibly this could be done by the Doombull as not only would he mince them thus gaining extra attacks but with the lack of shooting in my list he is one of the few reliable counters to them.

I should have placed the razorgor in the woods to bait the witch elves, knowing a charge would have caused dangerous terrain checks.

Honestly, Khazbar should be ashamed at the amount of miscasts he throws out. Admittedly at least this time he spiced it up and didn’t take out half his unit. I should have expected that though as he was placed in that unit and the size bumped up just to cover that eventuality!

It’s funny but I always thought that players starting with chariots sideways to get the extra inch or so of movement was a bit gamey but after this battle I realised that if I had done it, it would have served a duel purpose and allowed me to actually discourage the blocking of the Bestigor. Something for me to think about if I’m screening the big blocks with raiders.

I also need to brush up on rules as the single dark rider should only have been able to rally on snake eyes as the unit was under 25% and may not have been there full stop as the standard should have been removed when they initially fled combat.