Battle Report Huzzah RTT

[Smurfalypse]

This was my first game at the Huzzah Hobbies March RTT.

 

VS Eldar/Dark Eldar (Beast-Star). My opponent was Matt Schuchman, who is an outstanding player and person. This is basically the same list Chip Boyd knocked me out with the previous month, so I knew it was going to be an uphill battle. The critical rolls went my way and in the end that decided the game, also a large amount of luck.

 

Primary mission was Relic and secondary was four corner objectives.

Deployment was Vanguard.

Matt won the roll to choose table sides, then the roll to decide who would play first, he decided to go first to power up his buffs. I do not remember everything he had power wise but it included Fortune.

 

 

Warlord Trait rolled up - Scoring (Personal traits, my opponent rolled it up too so we both had scoring Warlords).

Sorcerer Powers - Invisibility, Endurance, Prescience (does it really get much better than that???). 

Lord's Gift - +1 Wound

Sorcerer's Gift - Instant Death (ehh. . . Already got a Force Axe but could be worse I guess).

Herald of Khorne's Gift - Axe of Khorne

 

My list.

 

Chaos Lord

  **Blade of the Relentless/The Slaughterer's Horns/Daemonheart/Bike/MoN/Melta-Bombs/Blight Grenades/Gift of Mutation/Sigil

 

Sorcerer

  **Balestar of Mannon/Bike/Melta-Bombs/Gift of Mutation/Sigil

 

Herald of Khorne

  **Juggernaught/Lesser Gift (Axe of Khorne)

 

Cultists x10

Cultists x10

 

Horrors x19

Plaguebearers x19

 

CSM Bikers x8

  **MoN/Champ w/Melta-Bombs/Power Axe

 

Heldrake

  **Baleflamer

 

Heldrake

  **Baleflamer

 

Flesh Hounds of Khorne x19

 

His list was a pretty standard Beast-Star list, cept instead of two Farseers he ran Eldrad (Eldrad was not the Warlord however).

 

Baron of course

x20 Beasts

x6 Birds

x5 Beastmasters

(something like that)

 

A few units of x3 man Eldar Jetbikers

x2 Wraithknights

 

A single Inquisitor with x3 Servo Skulls (Bastard!)

Skyshield Landing Pad

 

There is some more but that is the jist of it. I had forgotten to charge my phone so was unable to take pics of each turn so this is a verbal only Battle Report. I apologize as I know these are harder to understand than one with pics and such so I will make it quick.

Without further adieu!

 

He won the roll and chose to go first, he also had the Servo Skulls placed pretty much so I could not scout. His aim was obviously to grab the Relic with his Warlord turn 1 and try to hold it all game (a good shot of doing it too).

 

 

DEPLOYMENT

He deployed directly center of the Relic and 12" away with his Warlord and the Beast-Star. His Skyshield was right behind them with the two Wraithknights camped on top. His Inquisitor was underneath the Skyshield and pretty much out of line of site from anything. 

 

I deployed opposite him as this was going to be a fight over the Relic and his Warlord was scoring this mission. Hounds were about 14" away from the Relic and the Bikers were 12" away. Hounds had fleet and I wanted both of my units to hit it on the charge to kill as many of the models as possible on the first engagement. I needed it down to a manageable number or I was going to lose big time.

Horrors deployed in some area terrain on my back edge that had one of the corner objectives on it. Cultists stayed off the board, Plaguebearers reserved for Deep Strike, Heldrakes do what they do.

 

HIS TURN 1

He as predicted buffed up and then moved onto the Relic with his Warlord and claimed it at the end of his move phase. He moved his Wraithknights to the front edge of his Skyshield and threw a few shots on dogs and such, I did not lose a model and pretty much this was going to be a game decided on if I could kill the Beast-Star or not (Friggin' Relic).

 

MY TURN 1

I buffed the Hounds with Invisibility and the Bikers with Endurance and moved up as far as I could. I moved the Horrors into a long line both along my long table edge and the short table edge to my left. Wanted to make sure that I could fire at any Jetbikers he may decide to throw around the table late in the game, to get a bit further I ran this turn and had a very large conga line going about 1/3rd down the long edge and about halfway up the short edge.

 

I then went to assault phase and he did his piddly overwatch. Bikers went first as they do not have Fleet so no reroll in case they flubbed it and wanted to make room for some Hammer of Wrath attacks. Rolled reasonably well and they made it in. Hounds then did their thing and ended up getting a ten or eleven inch charge, though there was some terrain they had to go through and thus were I1 for the turn. He accepted a challenge from my Champion with his Warlord.

 

*I started things off with my Hammer of Wrath attacks and killed three beasts.

*He had a pile of I6 stuff and did his attacks killing a few Hounds and doing a single wound to the Chaos Lord (flubbed a 2+ save)

*Champion died as he oft does to his Warlord.

*We then went to my I5 Lord who had A6 on the charge with Rage and was S5 due to Furious Charge. Lord hit with everything and wounded everything, he failed five of the rerollable 4++ and the Lord chalked up five killed models for the Blade of the Relentless, it was now +1Str and AP2. 

*Moved to I4 and my Bikers killed like two of his Beasts (typical crappy turn for the Bikers, but cant complain after what the Lord just did).

*Came down to the rest of his stuff and they killed two more dogs, the Chaos Lord soaked wounds for his unit like a boss. Most of his stuff could only attack my Hounds as they pretty much blanketed 3/4th of the unit.

*Eventually we got to I1 and my Sorcerer killed one and then the Herald killed one, the Hounds inflicted 36 wounds to the unit (not hits. . . wounds). He rolled those saves and ended up only having 8 Beasts left at the end of the combat, also three Birds, Baron lost his Invuln when he tried to soak some hits from the Hounds. 

 

All in all I could not ask for much better of an assault. 

He chose to Hit&Run out of combat this turn (duh) and parked himself eight or so inches away from my units. I then consolidated but rolled a two for both rolls on the Bikers and Hounds. 

 

At the end I then rolled IWND on my Lord and he regained the wound lost in close combat (woohoo)

 

HIS TURN 2

He rebuffed first making use of Scrier's Gaze to keep a good portion of his small scoring units off of the table, but two had to come on. He then positioned himself for an assault and moved both Wraithknights up to hit the Hounds. He placed his Bikers on his board edge in the corner away from anything of mine and out of reach of a Heldrake. He did some shooting but to little effect as I still had Invis and Endurance up on my units.

 

Beast-Star led off the assault against the Hounds but he rolled really high and ended up blocking off one of the Wraithknights from the assault. The second Wraithknight made it in with the Hounds as well.  

The Hounds were invis'd so he did need 5s to hit them but managed to win combat with the Wraithknights smash attacks instant killing my puppies. There was a tense moment when the Herald of Khorne took his attacks against the Wraithknight and hit four times, needing 6's to kill it outright with the Axe of Khorne. Nada however :P

He ended up winning combat by 8 and I made my instability check (still had around 8-12 Hounds left at this point) and rolled double sixes. Hounds and Herald all went byebye. . . This was a kick to the jimmy.

 

MY TURN 2

He consolidated a few inches and then I readied up for my turn. I did not think I had enough left in the tank to kill this Beast-Star now that about 320pts of my army just decided to go home :P

 

Buffed up with Invis and Endurance on the Biker Squad. Rolled reserves and got on both Drakes, both Cultists, and the Plaguebearers. This was good or me as his Beast-Star and both Wraithknights were within Heldrake range (about the middle of the table). Moved Horrors further away from my deployment area, I was now halfway down the long edge and about three quarters of the way down the small edge, they could cover half the map in shooting if I needed it. Plaguebearers deep strike'd back on his now empty landing pad, Cultists moved on to an objective on the far right hand side of my long table edge, they ran onto some hills there. Both Drakes flew over one of the Wraithknights and ended up doing five wounds to it somehow. . .

 

 

Bikers were 1" away from the Beast-Star and one of the Wraithknights and unloaded their Bolters into the Beast-Star and killed a Beast and a Bird.  Horrors shot at the Beast-Star to no effect as he used his Runes to Deny the Witch. Heldrakes both shot their flamers into the wounded Wraithknight and clipped a few from the Beast-Star as well, used the Daemon Forge before I shot and ended up dropping that Wraithknight but the Beasts all made their invulns this turn.

 

Launched my assault with my buffed up Bikers into his Beast-Star and remaining Wraithknight, this was a questionable play as I lost a ton of attacks from the disorderly charge but I would lock the Wraithknight into CC and not allow him to use those Prescienced str10 guns on my Heldrakes. The idea was that even if I could not take the Relic from him I could kill all of his other scoring units and at least draw the game out (secondary mission was worth as much as the primary VP wise, then you added in First Blood, Warlord, Linebreaker). Basically it was a gamble that my Bikers could kill the Wraithknight and the Bikers could hold up vs the Beast-Star with Invis/FnP up. 

 

When I charged I had moved my Lord/Sorcerer to the back of the line so they were not in challenge range and we went immediately to I10 with my Hammer of Wrath, these inflicted a few wounds but he made all of his 4++ rerollable saves on the Beasts. He did his attacks and Eldrad moved up a bit and ended up killed a Biker with an Instant Death attack, Farseer killed one as well, Beasts killed one. This was bad.

Lord went at I5 and rolled up three precision strikes with his four attacks (three base, one for off-hand), I placed these on Baron as he only had one wound left and no save vs the AP2 attacks anymore. Lord killed two Beasts and Baron with these attacks bringing his total up to 8 and giving him yet another +1 str. I then rolled on my Gift table and ended up getting Instant Death. Sorcerer attacked and he made all of his Invulns/rerolls, the regular Bikers did nothing as well. In all of this the Lord took two wounds from the Wraithknight.

 

End of turn and we rolled for the Beast-Star Soul Blaze and they made their invulns again. Lord regained a wound so he was back to 3 left :P

He Hit&Run and just setup for another charge to try and finish off the crippled Biker Squad. 

I consolidated around the Wraithknight with my Lord, Sorcerer, and two Nurgle Bikers (I think it was two, wasn't much. . .)

 

Lord got back a wound and now had three left :P

 

HIS TURN 3

He buffed up with all the fixin's, rolled reserves and tried to keep stuff out but most of it came on at this point (Scrier's Gaze), a few things stayed off however.

 

He had no shooting that I can remember and setup to charge the last stand of the Bikers.

Charge was successful.

I immediately issued a challenge with my Chaos Lord who was str6, AP2, Instant Death :P. . . He wisely declined and I did not allow Eldrad to fight in the combat as his AP3 smokes my unit.

 

His I6 stuff all went first and killed the last two Bikers, the I5 Wraithknight went and put a wound on the Lord (apparently it doesn't matter since I always grow them back anyhow :P), my Lord placed all of his attacks on the Beast-Star squad and I got a few precision and placed them on the Warlord who was still holding the Relic, he had to Look Out Sir! them but the next closest model was Eldrad and Eldrad failed a save and was removed. Rolled on my Gift chart and got Shred. Birds went and did not inflict any wounds (5s to hit, 6s to wound). My I1 Sorcerer went and off'd the Wraithknight with a Force Axe activation. 

 

All in all this was a terrible turn for him as he was hoping to kill the entire squad. He knew he could have moved away 6" and then turbo-boosted 6" more but with my Lord and Sorcerer both having ID that Wraithknight was a dead man walking and I would have consolidated and then just charged him on my turn and had A6 with my Lord. He wanted none of that :P It was the right play but it was a bad turn and I was getting hot with my invulns.

 

MY TURN 3

Buffed up (probably for the last time) and started my turn.

Plaguebearers moved off the Landing Pad toward the Beast-Star (it would be a 9" charge through difficult terrain, so unlikely but it made it would save the Sorcerer probably and allow me to soak some wounds for the Lord, had to try).

Horrors moved a little to get in range to shoot a 3 man Jetbike Squad.

One Drake flew over a unit and Vector Strike'd them down.

The second Drake landed and flew back toward my edge to make sure I would have a good run at wherever I wanted to go next turn.

 

Drake shot and killed two from a unit, it broke. SHOOTING DONE!!!

 

Assault phase came and I launched an assault with the Plaguebearers who failed miserably (think I got three total inches).

Lord Issued a challenge to start this part and he accepted this time. This was the last turn with him having Fortune so he needed to make it count. No choice here and his weapon was Instant Death in a challenge so this was a dangerous fight.

His I6 stuff went and killed the Sorcerer. He rended twice with his Warlord but I made both my invulns.

My Lord threw back at I5 and was able to wound him four times but he made all of his 4++ rerollable saves on his Warlord (This is what a challenge should be about in the game, it was tense and we both knew the game hinged on this, the first to fail an invuln would most likely lose). 

 

HIS TURN 4

He prescienced himself and was done buffing.

All of his reserves came on and moved around to try and not be in range of either of my Drakes or Horrors (impossible, they had the board pretty well covered at this point). I knew I would probably lose primary and Warlord in this round but I would cover the secondary and get as many points as I could.

 

He shuffled the stuff around and we went to the assault phase pretty quickly.

 

He did not have enough models for rerolls so he needed 4s to hit and 6s to rend/wound/instant kill with a force weapon. 

He wounded me twice again and I made both of my armor saves.

I think attacked and wounded him twice and he made both of his invulns. He was not happy about this and knew now the Plaguebearers may end up rescuing the Lord or at least finishing him off in close combat as there were a full squad of 19.

 

MY TURN 4

 

Cultists moved onto the objective and in terrain.

Horrors shuffled to shoot at a Jetbiker squad.

Plaguebearer moved within 4" of what was left of the Beast-Star.

Heldrakes flew off and Vector Strike'd on the way out killing a unit of Jetbikers.

 

Shooting was decent. 

Horrors did some work on a Jetbiker squad.

Think at this point he only had two scoring units left and my Drakes were both coming on next turn.

 

Assault phase went as we both expected. The Plaguebearers made it into combat with a decent rolls

He did his I6 attacks and killed a few Plaguebearers with the couple of Beasts left.

The Warlord attacked my Lord and he wounded me again with that force weapon. . . Made my invuln /yay!

The Chaos Lord attacked back and he made ALL of his saves. This was turning out to be a crazy fight between these two characters.

The Plaguebearers wiped out the remains of the Beast-Star and now surrounded the Farseer carrying the Relic. I would have 3 rerolls from now on, this was a big deal.

 

Lord then rolled to get back his last taken wound and was up at full power again at W4 :P

This was a terrible turn of events for him.

 

HIS TURN 5

 

He moved and turbo-boosted/ran his remaining scoring units onto objectives in my deployment zone and his deployment zone.

 

We then went to assault.

His guy did his attacks and wounded me twice again with the rending. I made failed BOTH invulns this time but had my three rerolls and used them both. . . Saved both the second time around :P

Bunch of Plaguebearers rooting on their badass Nurgle Biker Lord. . . Just seemed so fitting somehow.

My Lord then attacked and used my third reroll on a miss, ended up hitting with all four attacks and then wounded on three of them. He failed one save and died from the Instant Death I had rolled up on the Gift chart. 

 

This gave me Slay the Warlord and the Primary as on my turn my Lord would take his hard won prize!

 

MY TURN 5

I just played clean up this turn.

Drakes came on and cleaned out a few Biker Squads.

Horrors shot at an Inquisitor and killed it (it had been hiding all game, but I was still pissed about those Servo Skulls).

 

The Chaos Lord picked up HIS Relic.

 

As Matt said at the end of the game "I know the Nurgle Biker Lord with the Black Mace is decent and all, but this guy is just someone I never want to accept a challenge against. He is just too mean.".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[the jeske]

after the baron died who was giving his beast star hit and run ?

[minionboy]

That sounds fun and all, but I still don't rate that weapon very highly... It helps when your opponent fails 5/6 of their 4+ re-rollable saves, but that's not something I'd rely on.

[Brother Ambroz]

I don't get why they didn't give it the d6 for a daemon weapon because it sounds like it should I think. That would put it up there with AoBF though that point is debatable too.

[Smurfalypse]

after the baron died who was giving his beast star hit and run ?

 

Not sure, maybe he did it by accident. I am not him :P

[Smurfalypse]

That sounds fun and all, but I still don't rate that weapon very highly... It helps when your opponent fails 5/6 of their 4+ re-rollable saves, but that's not something I'd rely on.

 

The weapon was 50x better than the Black Mace, I cant even begin to tell you how good it was over the course of the game.

Even if he kills three, it still is +1str AP2, already better than the Black Mace, three kills is not very hard to get with AP3, Furious Charge, Rage. Also it is like 15pts cheaper. 

[RolandTHTG]

I don't get why they didn't give it the d6 for a daemon weapon because it sounds like it should I think. That would put it up there with AoBF though that point is debatable too.

I think that the decision was part of the "new guys on the block" aspect. Since they've entered the warp, their stuff has been mutating, and the blade has been getting a hunger for souls, but it doesn't have the power/awareness yet to be a demon weapon.

 

Glad to see the new stuff is working!

[Hellrender]

the bikers performed rather poorly though, which is also my experience. do you think the troop possessed would be better? 

[the jeske]

Nope . too slow . And the bikers did not perform poorly.

[Hellrender]

Well they got the lord into combat and soaked wounds. Just wondering if there is a better or cheaper escort. Seems a no from you then. ;-)

[Smurfalypse]

Well they got the lord into combat and soaked wounds. Just wondering if there is a better or cheaper escort. Seems a no from you then. ;-)

 

Jeske is right and wrong in this case. Over the course of the three games the Bikers died in each and every one to a man, they rarely do much damage output, and they obviously do not score. Though, they did get the Lord/Sorcerer into close combat every game so they did their job.

 

I am probably going to drop the Bikers and try out some Nurgle Spawn as it is more wounds and I will not lose a random dude here and there due to dangerous terrain tests. Also they are significantly cheaper. The change to the list that I have been muddling over is basically drop the Bikers, add a Hound, a Plaguebearer, A horror, Greater Gift for Herald, a leader for the Horrors (if he does all the shooting then I can use him and Precision Shots when I roll a 6, maybe try to snipe out weapons and such), and x5 Nurgle Spawn.

 

Possessed are way way too slow for this type of list, if they auto got beasts then I would think about it.

[Zhukov]

Thanks for writing this battle report, there aren't many CSM reports with good lists on both sides.

 

Spawn are more reliable than Bikers I'd say. You pay in the end with bikers for T6 3+, which gets ignored by quite some stuff in the game.

[King Jackal]

Nice read Smurfalypse, thanks for posting.

 

Spawn definitely benefit this list I think

 

-What greater reward would you be shooting for with the Herald of Nurgle? In my experience G.R's on Herald are wasted unless they are your warlord or is your goal the Balesword?

-You seem to use your plaguebearers aggressively, have you tried/considered daemonettes for the same role?

-A herald would be great in those horrors, a second makes them devastating, would you consider replacing the additional hound, bearer, horror and gift for another?

[Iron_Within]

I've always liked my Spawn over my Bikers, and now my bikers get left at home for precisely the reason that was in this battle report - they die and do little damage. I run 3 Nurgle Spawn that comes in at just over 100 points, they are often ignored in preference for the scarier targets like the Maulerfiends and Daemon Princes however they always manage to make a mess. They have enough wounds to soak up damage and they can generate a lot of hits on the charge (when you roll a "6" for number of attacks and inform your opponent they have 24 attacks it's just brilliant). 

5 Spawn might be pushing it but I want to try it out, though at 180 points they cannot just be a distraction unit.

[elphilo]

Nice read Smurfalypse, thanks for posting.

 

Spawn definitely benefit this list I think

 

-What greater reward would you be shooting for with the Herald of Nurgle? In my experience G.R's on Herald are wasted unless they are your warlord or is your goal the Balesword?

-You seem to use your plaguebearers aggressively, have you tried/considered daemonettes for the same role?

-A herald would be great in those horrors, a second makes them devastating, would you consider replacing the additional hound, bearer, horror and gift for another?

 

Before I start let me just say I'm the dude Smurfalypse converted to Chaos recently and I also played in this RTT with his list, but I took the Black Mace instead of the CS supplement. So let me respond for him in this case, since he's probably at work with slow internet :P

 

There isn't any greater reward we were thinking of getting for the Herald of Khorne. Pretty much all are useful for him to a degree. If we got one we felt wouldn't be needed (like the lance shooting weapon) then we'd drop it for the Blade of Blood and since the Herald auto takes the Axe of Khorne it would give him an offhand attack with that.

 

I don't think we've considered daemonettes mainly because the plaguebearers tend to be more survivable after the deep strike in terrain. Though this is some food for thought here.

 

Unfortunately we take Daemons as an ally so we can only have one herald. :(

[King Jackal]

Unfortunately we take Daemons as an ally so we can only have one herald.

Fully. Derp

Also, completely imagined the Herald of Nurgle thus making the Balesword comment irrelevant

[Smurfalypse]

Nice read Smurfalypse, thanks for posting.

 

Spawn definitely benefit this list I think

 

-What greater reward would you be shooting for with the Herald of Nurgle? In my experience G.R's on Herald are wasted unless they are your warlord or is your goal the Balesword?

-You seem to use your plaguebearers aggressively, have you tried/considered daemonettes for the same role?

-A herald would be great in those horrors, a second makes them devastating, would you consider replacing the additional hound, bearer, horror and gift for another?

 

Thanks.

 

-Herald of Khorne. This would give him a few things that are possibly useful. He seems to take a wound or two every game due to just dangerous terrain so any of the defensive abilities is a big thing for him. Also getting the shooting attack means he can try to snipe a tank with BS7, then Fleshbane/Armorbane means he can kill anything in the game with relative ease. The chance of more tank kill for me is always a good thing as it is my obvious weak spot.

 

-Plaguebearers were used aggressively this game, though I do not always do it. I try to deepstrike them in terrain to make use of their cover and lose a few to dangerous terrain everytime :P. Sometimes they just come in and try to hold an objective (Relic), this game I absolutely needed them to help out in close combat so I used them that way. Daemonettes die a little to easily for what I need out one of my two large scoring units.

 

-I am CSM primary, so I am only allowed one Herald. At NOVA last year I ran a blob of Horrors with two Heralds of Tz and their output was staggering at times. They struggle against Death-Stars however because they usually only need 4s to Deny the Witch them, that is why in this game I spread them across the two board edges so I would be able to shoot/kill any of his small Jetbike squads that came on turn 5 to snake objectives.

 

Thanks for writing this battle report, there aren't many CSM reports with good lists on both sides.

 

Spawn are more reliable than Bikers I'd say. You pay in the end with bikers for T6 3+, which gets ignored by quite some stuff in the game.

 

I agree with you. I asked all of my opponents (all very good) and they all agreed Spawn were a better and cheaper option for what I need out of them.

Gonna try it out a few games and see how it feels.

[Zhukov]

I agree with you. I asked all of my opponents (all very good) and they all agreed Spawn were a better and cheaper option for what I need out of them.

Gonna try it out a few games and see how it feels.

I'm pretty sure you'll end up preferring them, so that's good. It's weird having to play with Bike HQ's with Spawn though who are obviously beasts.

[Smurfalypse]

 

I agree with you. I asked all of my opponents (all very good) and they all agreed Spawn were a better and cheaper option for what I need out of them.

Gonna try it out a few games and see how it feels.

I'm pretty sure you'll end up preferring them, so that's good. It's weird having to play with Bike HQ's with Spawn though who are obviously beasts.

 

lol yeah, that is gonna take some getting used too. Since I am now short the Black Mace which used to clear blob units with ease, the Spawn should add a bit more clearing punch from the unit so that they do not get too bogged down.

[the jeske]

if bikers are a delivery unit then they worked . Spawn aren't scoring and while they can be more resilient [the mon ones at least] we lack hit and run to actualy use them for multi charging and what is important spawns do not have sacrificial champions and while the nurgle lord is the awesome , sometimes you will not want him to do challanges and doing challanges with a sorc is always tricky . one lost peril wound and suddenly the sorc becomes a hard to use unit.

[Zhukov]

if bikers are a delivery unit then they worked . Spawn aren't scoring and while they can be more resilient [the mon ones at least] we lack hit and run to actualy use them for multi charging and what is important spawns do not have sacrificial champions and while the nurgle lord is the awesome , sometimes you will not want him to do challanges and doing challanges with a sorc is always tricky . one lost peril wound and suddenly the sorc becomes a hard to use unit.

Yeah, it sucks that you have no Champ to take/issue a challenge with sometimes, good point. Overall I guess that stricly speaking regarding a delivery unit... then Bikes are better. But you gotta wonder how much points you are willing to invest in order to let the Lord work as good as possible.