By Daemons...be driven! Wood elves vs. Daemons of Chaos

Friday night yielded two rather fun games of Warhammer Fantasy for me.  I had the chance to take on a rather unconventional but fun Daemons of Chaos list.  We had decided to play at 3000 points with no grand army rules.  I've always had a bit of trepidation going up against Daemons since they are incredibly tough and have the uncanny knack of killing everything they go up against.  I had originally planned on using my Beastmen since I wanted to get more practice with them but I couldn't create a list at 3k that I was happy with (oh the joys of making "the list") so I chose to use my Wood elves.
So... here are the two lists brought.

Chaos United 

General - Daemon Prince - unmarked w/ ASF power and no armor saves power.

20 Bloodletters w/ full command

Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut 

3 Bloodcrushers w/ Standard bearer/mus

Herald of Tzentch w/ Loremaster? of Beasts power, Level 2

20 Pink Horrors w/ full command

Herald of Nurgle on Paliquin? Level 1 - annoying Miasma spell and Always strike last power - seriously F Nurgle.

20 Plaguebearers

Herald of Slaanesh - Level 1 

20 Daemonettes w/ full command

6 Flamers of Tzeentch

5 Nurglings

5 Seekers of Slaanesh

5 Chaos Furies

Opponent:  Derek

3000 Pts - Wood Elves Roster - The Great Hunt, War Host of Athel Loren

Waywatcher Lord Sylvos Greystorm the Huntsman, Ranger General of Athel Loren (1#, 244 pts)

1 ×Wood Elf Highborn, 244 pts (General; Scout Kindred; Hand Weapon; Longbow; Extra Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Extra Attack)

1 The Bow of Loren

1 Enchanted Shield

1 Arcane Bodkins

The Stalkers of the Silent Path (10#, 240 pts)

10 Waywatchers, 240 pts (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Longbow; Extra Attack; Scouts; Skirmishers)

The Farstriders of Lady Dreamsinger (14#, 196 pts)

14 Glade Guard, 196 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Longbow)

1 Banner of Eternal Flame

The Twilight Host (14#, 186 pts)

14 Glade Guard, 186 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Longbow)

The Handmaidens of Durthu, the Verdant Rage (10#, 132 pts)

9 Dryads, 132 pts (Causes Fear; Skirmishers)

1 Branch Nymph

Archdruidess Nysa Greystorm the Storm Maiden, Hierophant of Athel Loren (2#, 330 pts)

1 Spellweaver, 330 pts (Level 4 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Longbow)

1 Great Eagle (Flyer; Stomp)

1 Glamorweave

Lady Nepenthia Dreamsinger, Stormsinger of Athel Loren (1#, 125 pts)

1 Wood Elf Noble (Battle Standard Bearer), 125 pts (Hand Weapon; Battle Standard Bearer)

1 Armour of Fortune

The Spears of Loren, Storm Wardens of Coeth-Mara (19#, 303 pts)

18 Eternal Guard, 303 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std)

1 Guardian

1 Razor Standard

The Wolfkin, Feral Knights of Durthu (6#, 390 pts)

6 Tree Kin, 390 pts (Causes Fear; Flammable; Scaly Skin)

The Outriders of Twilight, Huntsmen of Kurnous (10#, 296 pts)

9 Wild Riders of Kurnous, 296 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Spear; Light Armour; Fast Cavalry; Magic Resistance (1))

1 Wild Hunter (Spear; Light Armour)

10 Elven Steed

Scryah, the Last Shadow (1#, 50 pts)

1 Great Eagle, 50 pts (Flyer)

Gwynador, the Scion of the Sethayla (1#, 50 pts)

1 Great Eagle, 50 pts (Flyer)

Dornatha the Verdant Rage (1#, 285 pts)

1 Treeman, 285 pts (Causes Terror; Flammable; Large Target; Scaly Skin; Stubborn; Thunder Stomp)

Cyre Winterwolf, the Storm Lord of Athel Loren (2#, 171 pts)

1 Wood Elf Noble, 171 pts (Hand Weapon; Longbow; Spear; Light Armour; Shield)

1 Great Eagle (Flyer; Stomp)

1 Dragonhelm

1 Stone of the Crystal Mere

Total Roster Cost: 2998

We played two games - the first one ended in a draw but at around turn 4 I realized I hadn't been keeping track of what happened per turn so I asked if we were going to play another and was told "hell yes".  So...we have a battle report for 1 game!

Game type: Battle Mission 1 - Battle Line
Deployment: 12" from long board edge
Mysterious Terrain - 2 Forests

Deployment:

As you can see the Daemons chose to consolidate their strength in the center and placed their fast moving units on the left side.  The Wood Elves chose to lean a little more to their left as well but with all the flying units in the army my opponent knew I could pick and choose what flank I wanted per turn.  I chose to keep my Waywatchers nearby this game for fear of his Flamers of Tzeench.  I however forgot three very important things - skirmishers, 6" move and 18" range shots.  Meh...anyway.  Daemon's got first turn which was unfortunate...

Turn 1 - Daemons of Chaos

The Daemon's first turn went pretty well.  the Flamers reduced the Waywatchers down to 3 models from 10 but they held their ground after a successful leadership test.  The Nurglings moved right in front of my line to serve as a speed bump so that Derek could maneuver his units better.  The Magic phase went pretty well for the Daemons: Wyssan's Wildform was cast on the Daemonettes, Phantasmagoria went off (I seriously hate that damn spell), Amber Spear and Miasma were dispelled.

Turn 1 - Wood Elves

The Great Hunt decided to do a little switcheroo here.  The Treeman and Eternal Guard charged the Nurglings, crushed them in combat and the Eternal Guard overran into the Bloodcrushers.  The Glade Guard with the Flaming banner killed a Bloodcrusher.  The rest of the army as you can see moved to the far right side of my opponent's flank while my Dryads moved up to prevent a flank charge on my Treekin.  Magic phase went well for me, I was able to get Throne of Vines off and hit my Eternal Guard with Regeneration and my Treekin with +4 Toughness making them T9.  Regrowth was dispelled on the Waywatchers =(

Turn 2 - Daemons

Here is where I began to sweat bullets a bit.  The Daemonettes and Bloodletters charge my Treekin.  The Plaguebearers charge my Treeman.  The Furies and the Seekers manage to swing up on my flank and rear.  The Magic phase fortunately was hugely favorable to me, the Herald of Tzeentch miscast Wyssan's Wildform on the Daemonettes and lost 4 or so Horrors to the explosion and lost the rest of their magic dice. The Flamers of Tzeentch absolutely vaporized the Dryads which was ...lame.  The Treekin, Eternal Guard and Treemen won their combats but the Daemon's held with minimal losses.  I began to respect the Monsters and Monstrous Infantry of the Wood Elves more and more.

Turn 2 - Wood Elves

This turn went well for the Wood Elves as far as shooting went.  I multicharged the hell out of the Plaguebearers with my Eagles and Hero.  I rear charged the Bloodcrushers with the Wild Riders.  The Spellweaver still had Throne of Vines up cast Regrowth on the Waywatchers restoring 4.  Regeneration was dispelled on the Eternal Guard but I still got Toughness off on the Treekin making them T9 once again.  The Treekin lost combat by 1 but still held with a 6.  The Plaguebearers and their multicombat didn't really do much and the Plaguebearers lost by 2 and were fine.  The Bloodcrushers weathered the storm well against the Eternal Guard and won the combat by 1 but both Wild Riders and Eternal Guard held.

Turn 3 - Daemons

The Daemons managed to get a pretty good magic phase going - Miasma was cast and nerfed the hell out of my Treeman.  Phantasmagoria was cast again which screwed my Glade Guard but we'll talk about that in a minute.  Flickering Fires of Tzeentch was cast inflicting 2 Str 6 shots on my Glade Guard.  The Flamers of Tzeench still on their unholy rampage inflicted enough casualties to make my Glade Guard run.  I rolled like a  2, 6 and 5 which meant I was running (thx phantasmagoria) and I failed my BSB reroll as well.  Lovely.  The nerfed Treeman and Eagles still manage to obliterate the Plaguebearers finally.  Here is where we screwed up and the Eagles and Treemen should have just reformed after winning but we overran a D6.  I think we were tired but that's ok it didn't impact the game much at if at all.

Turn 3 - Wood Elves

The Wood elf eagles flew behind the Treekin combat while the Treeman did his lumbering beast thing.  The Spellweaver had Regrowth and Throne of Vines dispelled as well as Flesh to Stone.  She did manage to get Regeneration off on the Eternal Guard.  The close combats continued to grind out, each side holding or only losing 1 or 2 models after disruption.  The Glade Guard that were fleeing ran off the table while the other archers put some hurt on the Flamers of Tzeentch.

Turn 4 - Daemons

Turn 4 went pretty well for the Daemons.  Bolt of change and Flamers reduced my recently regrown Waywatchers down to just my General.  The Daemonettes were boosted with Wyssan's Wildform and the Treekin were hexed with Curse of Anwhatever.  The Treekin ended up dying in close combat finally and the Daemonettes and Bloodletters reformed to face the two Eagles in their rear.  The Bloodcrushers died against the Eternal Guard, Wild Riders and Hero...finally..


Turn 4 - Wood Elves

This round went well I think.  I charged the Bloodletter block with both Great eagles and the Hero hoping to  do enough wounds to slow them down.  The Spellweaver got absolutely nothing off this turn since she rolled a 2 and a 1 for power dice.  The General joined the Glade Guard and killed the remaining Flamer (yay!)  After my charges were resolved I immediately realized my mistake in that I should have charged the Bloodletters with my Eternal Guard or Wildriders and not the Hero but oh well.

Turn 5 - Daemons

I began to get tired cause I dont really remember where he moved his Pink Horrors but I do know that I was pretty effective at dispelling his casting except for Phantasmagoria got off AGAIN.  The Eagles and Hero were slaughtered and the Bloodletters slammed into the flank of my Treemen that was engaged with the Daemonettes when the Bloodletters caught a fleeing eagle.  The Treeman however still held!

Turn 5 - Wood Elves

The Wild Riders rear charged the Bloodletters block while the Eternal Guard flank charged the Pink Horrors.  The unit champion of the Eternal Guard was slaughtered by the herald of Tzeentch.  The Bloodletters and Daemon Prince were killed by the Treeman and Wild Riders.  The Daemonettes were still holding tough however.  The Pink Horrors lost by a lot and lost a rank of models but managed to combat reform.  The Spellweaver was able to cast Regeneration on the Eternal Guard but Throne of Vines, Regrowth and Flesh to Stone were dispelled.

Turn 6 - Daemons

Not much happened this turn other than the Daemonettes reducing the Treeman down to 1 wound and the Pink Horrors holding firm against the Eternal Guard.  The Treeman whiffed on his attacks against the Herald and once again Phantasmagoria was cast  and the Treeman held!  Glean magic was cast which stole Regrowth and replenished some of the Horrors lost in the previous round.  Grr...

Turn 6 - Wood Elves

This round went well but almost went badly.  I managed to get Throne of Vines, Regrowth and Flesh to Stone off on the Eternal Guard.  The Wild Riders did a valiant charge to assist the ailing Treeman.  I had hoped that the 6 Wild Riders left would be able to turn the tide and kill the Daemonettes.  I was wrong.  The Daemonettes chewed through the Treeman and the Wild Riders, killing both units.  The Eternal Guard managed to wipe out the Pink Horrors and secured the win.

The Wood Elves win against Daemons of Chaos.

I made some tactical errors that game as far as charges and placement of certain units.  Over all however I liked that this game was just brutal.  I will continue to use the Spellweaver and Hero on Great Eagles.  That worked out very well for me and I'm sure that in time they will be shot off their mounts but I'll just have to exercise caution around warmachines.

MVP's for Daemons - Flamers of Tzeentch - killed 3 units that are very essential to the Wood Elf army.
MVP for Wood Elves - Treekin - holding out that long against 2 melee blocks which allowed me to get into position = huge.

I really enjoyed this army.  Props to Derek for using a Daemon Prince and all 4 heralds for his theme.  I think that having all 4 powers present lead by an unaligned really gave me pause since I wasn't sure how to prioritize targets well.  This army was also deceptively brutal.  Loremaster Beasts meant that he could at any time turn into a Dragon or augment every character with +3 str/attacks.  Frightening synergy with Heralds/Daemons.  Great game Derek, thank you!

Hope this wasn't too long of a read, I'll be working on a method to shorten the Battle Reports and make them a little better.  I'll also be going over this battle and the draw I had on the new Podcast called
The Deployment Zone . (Also located on iTunes).

Thanks!

Can you keep a secret? Slaanesh can...

This will be a brief update/battle report - next few weeks I'll have some fully detailed reports/posts.

I decided to change things up this week and get a game going with my Beastmen as opposed to battling it out with my Wood Elves (plus I haven't finished painting my Eternal Guard yet and I want to field the entire army painted).

 vs. 

Anyway - I decided to throw Rorg and his bestial herd against the daemonic legions of Slaanesh.  I really wish I had brought my camera with me since Neil managed to bring some of his new Chaos/Storm of Magic terrain. He really had a fantastic looking table, I'll have to make sure I bring it next go around.

Neil is collecting/painting a monotheistic daemon army of Slaanesh.  Now it's funny - here's some background information about me.  I absolutely despise Slaanesh.  I think it stems from the fact that I play Eldar in 40k and the fluff has tainted my perception of the Chaos gods.  That said, I enjoy playing Neil regardless so I readily agreed to take on his army of pink and purple sluts.

I've gone through several permutations of my Beastmen list and will probably go through a few more as we begin to scale up to 3k.  I'm considering using 4 chariots and a Razorgor chariot with a character mounted on it at 3k.  Either way - I'll post up my list later in the week.  I mainly had my standard BSB w/ Beastbanner and 2+ armor save and my doombull and his ASF sword, a l2 beasts brayshaman, few wargors sprinkled about and your standard assortment of Gors, Minotaurs, Chariots, Bestigors and Ghorgons.

Now when you go single daemon god, you tend to only use the models that they "say" belong to that god.  i.e. Khorne = Bloodthrister, Bloodletters, Bloodcrushers, Flesh Hounds,etc...  Neil decided to follow suite and use 4 sets of Daemonettes with several Heralds sprinkled about and a pretty bad ass Keeper of Secrets, he also had some Fiends and the Mounted Slaanesh daemons.  I've spent a few hours going over what I fought last night and I have to say, it was a pretty solid list.  Most of the army having Always Strike First and a ward save makes it pretty hard to take down easily.  I think he'll have issues against armies that have decent range and strong magic but the list is solid enough and has enough bodies to handle just about anything.

The battle went all six turns and ended up with his Keeper of Secrets and his 3 remaining Furies killing off my Tuskgor chariot at the bottom of Turn 6.  This game also reinforced my belief that Bloodgreed really is stupid broken.  My Doombull had 13 attacks and his 4 Minotaurs had 12 each.  If I hadn't sacked out against his Keeper at the bottom of the 5th turn I would have tabled him.

5 models throwing out 61 attacks (48 at Str 5 and 13 at Str6) is broken. Period.  

Thsi game also reinforced that I should really bring more than one caster if I am not going to be strong in the shooting phase.

Game changing effects during our battle:
1.  Wyssan's Wildform making Gors (with Beast banner) S5/T5 is ridiculous.
2.  Phantasmagoria totally wrecked my army.  I failed several critical leadership tests - F U NEIL!
3.  Bloodgreed is the core power behind Beastman's offensive might.
4.  Primal Fury is still so incredibly helpful when you have to deal with high WS opponents.

I totally look forward to repeating this game at 3k points.  I'll do a Battle Chronicler report next go around and include images.

Thanks!

By Demons be Driven

This Wednesday I had a game against my buddy Larry and his Daemons of Chaos.  The previous week I had asked him to bring his Bloodthirster list so that I could test out my Wood Elves.  Going into the battle I had no illusions of victory, I wanted to play a good game and really see how well my "balanced" list could do and also get some pretty critical experience against this army.
My only experience with Daemons of Chaos before had been in Warhammer 40k where DoC are not that strong.  Sure, you can build a crazy list in 40k with DoC but against my Eldar they aren't that formidable.
Larry's list was built to really just beat ass, I'll list what I can remember from his Army Builder print out below so you can get an idea as to what I faced.
Bloodthirster w/ Flaming Sword (+1 str), Obsidian Armor, Spellbreaker (Dispel scroll)
Herald of Khrone on Juggernaut with Armor of Khorne
Herald of Khorne, BSB, Flaming Sword
Herald of Tzeentch - dont remember what else
19 Bloodletters w/ full command
20 Bloodletters w/ full command
20 Pink Horrors w/ full command and Changeling (f this guy!)
6 Flamers of Tzeentch
3 Bloodcrushers
6 Fleshhounds of Khorne

Here are some of the issues I had to contend with being Wood Elves (You can reference my list in a previous post for 2500 points)
1. The entire army has a Ward Save so there is no autoremoval of models (i.e. Waywatchers Lethal Shot, Barrage of Str 4 arrows, my General's Bow of Athel Loren/Arcane Bodkins combo)
2. The entire army is Tough 4-5 and immune to psychology
3. The entire army gets magical attacks so I don't get my 5+ ward saves against them
4. Bloodthirsters are pretty god damn mean, especially with their stat line.
5. No warmachines and their entire army is just brutal
6. Changeling in close combat can pretty much ruin your day

Based on Larry's previous lists for Warriors of Chaos and his love of Nurgle, I had been expected to play against a Khorne/Nurgle hybrid daemon list.  Seeing Tzeentch completely threw me off.

Going into the battle I had had some pre-game strategies and goals to pull off:
1. Turn 1 - Unload as much magic as I could into the Bloodthirster to hurt him. i.e. Amber Spear
2. Turn 1 - Shoot Bloodthirster as much as I could with my archers to remove him from the table then maneuver onto his RnF units flanks.
3. Focus fire onto 1 unit and annihilate it then charge another unit with multiple units next turn.

Needless to say, not much of that happened this game.  =)  The two pictures I took of the game (because I got really wrapped up in it and forgot to take battle rep photos) didn't actually turn out very well i.e. blurry =( so I shall narrate what happened from memory.

Game Type - Battle Mission 1 Pitched Battle
Larry won the roll to go first.
Daemons Turn 1 - His entire army moves forward and kills 3 waywatchers via Flamers of Tzeentch.  I manage to dispel all his magic.
Wood Elves Turn 1 - I declare a charge against his Flesh Hounds of Khorne with Wild Riders, roll double 1's during my first spell in the magic phase therefore ending what could have been an awesome Amber Spear =(. Shooting was also rather abyssmal in that the DoC took a grand total of 7 wounds from almost 50 shots.
Close combat - Wild Riders kill 1 Flesh Hound and stay dug into combat

Daemons Turn 2 - Larry charges with his Bloodthrister into the Wild Riders, Charges his Bloodcrushers w/ Herald into my Glade Guard w/ Spellweaver, Charges his Bloodletters w/ Herald into my Treekin and then charges my Dryads with his other unit of Bloodletters.  I shut down all his spells but 1 which gives his Bloodletters w/ Herald +2 toughness.  Shooting, Flamers of Tzeentch kill all the waywatchers leaving the general hanging out saying "sup?"
Close Combat - Wild Riders declare a challenge against Bloodthirster and combat against hounds results in Wild Riders losing by 2 and they stay in combat.  Glade Guard lose combat to Bloodcrushers and roll double 1's to stay in it!  Treekin get rolled by the flaming attacks by the Herald and lose combat and flee.  Dryads hit a shit ton and do 3 wounds which 1 didn't save and lose combat  but stay put.
Wood Elves turn 2 - Both Eagles charge the Flamers, one dies to stand and shoot. I whittle down the victorious bloodletters down to 2 + Herald via shooting with Glade Guard.  Spellweaver turns into a Great Fire Dragon via Transformation of Kadon
Close Combat - Wild Riders finally fold against the combined might of 1 Flesh Hound and the Bloodthirster.  Glade Guard unit is wiped out but Spellweaver now Dragon kills all the Bloodcrushers.  Dryads are beaten in close combat because they can't seem to wound at all even though they score almost all hits which result in the Bloodletters (now depleted) overruning into the Warhawk Riders. Eagle slays the Flamers and turns around.

Daemons Turn 3 - Bloodthirster moves into position, Horrors declare charge against the back of the remaining Glade Guard unit. Dragon form is dispelled and Spellweaver returns to her normal form.
Close Combat - Changeling swaps stats with my BSB and the Glade Guard suffer a lot of casualties but stick with it.  Warhawk Riders are wiped out by the bloodletters.
Wood Elves Turn 3 - Spellweaver moves out of charge arc, and attempts to cast Amber Spear. She does with irresistible force and doesnt die to miscast.  I roll a 1 to wound on the bloodthirster....sigh .
Close Combat - Glade Guard get wiped out because they can't seem to actually wound a Tough 3 unit...

Daemons Turn 4 - Bloodthirster charges and kills my general taking a wound from stand and shoot.
I shut down his magic once again
Wood elves turn 4 - Great Eagle charges bloodletters w/ BSB and dies... Spellweaver looks around and says "wtf?" since now she can't evade being charged by the Bloodthirster or the BSB unit.

Daemons Turn 5 - Spellweaver charged, I pick her up =)

Daemons of Chaos at end of the game had these models remaining on table:
1 Bloodthirster w/ 4 wounds left
2 Bloodletters and Herald BSB of Khorne
7 Bloodletters w/ full command
1 Fleshhound of Khorne
14 Pink Horrors and Changeling

Overall, I have to say I was pleased with how my Wood Elves did.  I lost and badly but the amount of carnage I inflicted (even with some seriously SHITTY dice rolls) made me feel pretty confident in my list.  I asked Larry what he thought about the list and how it was played and he remarked "Very Solid list, very tough and well played".  That pleases me greatly.  This is the list I will be playing in 8th edition at 2500 points. I have no desire or plans to change it and I feel with more games under my belt I'll begin to master the Wood Elves like I have my Eldar.

Things I could have done differently:
1. Positioned Waywatchers better, losing my favorite unit so quickly was bad.
2. Deployed archers further back and moved them into one corner allowing me to focus fire a single unit and gain an additional turn of shooting due to charge distances.
3. Kept my Wild Riders back to counter-charge a unit on my Glade Guard
4. Not rolled so terribly, I blame dice karma.  You can't expect to roll awesomely all the time.
5. Killed off the entire unit of Horrors first instead of the BSB unit.  That would have split his army and allowed me to maneuver to the right essentially running from his Bloodthirster.

Doing all of this probably wouldn't have changed the final outcome but I think it would have made it a lot closer in the end.  Needless to say, I had an utter blast.  You know you've had a great game when you are laughing and smiling at the end of a 2 hour game and you are excited to play another soon.
Next week I go up against Larry's Nurgle Warriors of Chaos.  There shall be blood! (and pictures I promise)