HORDES OF CHAOS versus Dark Elves

That's magic! You'll like it...not a lot.

Game: Warhammer Fantasy Battle 7th edition
Opponent: Gary
Armies: 1250 points

I brought my Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Exalted Champion with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon and shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Lvl 2 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scroll (Dark hand of Death and Drain Life spells)
• 12 Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
  
• 5 Knights full command
• 6 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

Gary brought Dark Elves with:

• Lordling on Cold One with Sword of twatting you at strength six
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• War Hydra
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder

Terrain and deployment
See the picture below for the table layout. It was taken on turn 2.

While the Dark Elves were deploying, I realised they were castling behind the large wood on my right, presumably to bottle me up as I attacked. My first thought was to refuse the bait, place my two hardest units on each flank, and slaughter whatever emerged, hoping that the Elves themselves would trip over each other as they repositioned. If they stayed put, they would simply lose by three table quarters to one.

However, I had waited a long time for a game, and I was Chaos after all, so I didn't want to win in a bloodless battle. I took the bait and charged in.

The Game
The Dark Elves won first turn. The Dark Riders ran 18" forward. His magic was out of range. My units moved toward the Druchii corner. The Banner of Wrath killed two Dark Riders, then the Exalted cast Steed of Shadows to charge and wipe out the rest. They had to hold because a Sorceress was just behind and possibly within range. Excellent. My bogey unit dead on turn 1.

Then things started to go downhill.

My Sorcerer tried to cast Dark hand of Death and miscast on a double one. He then rolled a double one on the miscast table and was annihilated, along with three Warriors. Okey dokey.

Dark Elf shooting and magic took a wound off the Exalted. The Cold One Lord and Hydra repositioned next to the wood to charge the Knights if they moved forward. The Sorceress in the rocks moved away from the Exalted and the Furies.

I moved in again, risking the charge with the Knights. I swept the Furies round the left flank to face the Sorceress and the flank of the Executioners. I moved the War hounds back out to the right flank. My Exalted then rolled a double one for Steed of Shadows and had to roll twice on the miscast table. Great. On the upside, he survived but a Knight was killed when the Dark Elves got a bonus spell.

The Cold One Lord went stupid and stumbled out in front of the Knights, blocking the Hydra. Superb timing! The Hydra came around behind the Lord to counter charge the Knights if they took on the Druchii general. The Sorceress pulled back again and killed three Furies with magic.

The Furies charged the Sorceress and forced her to flee. She outran them and survived. Rats. How do you form up the Furies against a lone model? We had them in a conga line of five single file models, which seemed correct according to the rules but looked ridiculous!

The Knights charged the Cold One Lord. She challenged and and killed the Champion. She also passed her break test to remain in combat. The Hydra charged into the Knights.

My Exalted stood in front of the Executioners, a calculated gamble to tempt them out and present a flank to my Warriors. The unit charged him, caused no wounds, he killed two in return but still broke and ran a full twelve inches up behind my Knights. The Executioners successfully held.

The Cold One Lord skewered another Knight and the Hydra bit the head off another. The two survivors fled. The Cold One Lord pursued but failed to catch the Knights. He did hit the Exalted who fled again, this time behind the Warriors and Chariot. Does the Exalted auto-flee again or is he destroyed automatically?

My Furies were reduced to a single model by magic and the Repeater Crossbows. The Hydra and Cold One Lord were now facing off against the Warriors and Chariot. And I had the charge. Bring it on!

The Chariot failed it's terror test and ran. Eeep! My Knights continued to flee. The Warriors were made of sterner stuff and crunched into the many-headed monster. My Exalted rallied and cast Steed of Shadows to charge the Cold One Lord. Can he use Steed of Shadows to charge on the turn he rallied?

My last Fury charged the Sorceress again. Everything went to plan. My Exalted chopped the Cold One Lord into itty bitty pieces, the Warriors broke the Hydra and the Fury ran the Sorceress down. Nice.

The Executioners charged into the Warriors front and my armoured behemoths held. My second unit of Warriors was hemmed in by the rocks so couldn't join in. Instead I shuffled them back into a different table quarter. The Hydra rallied. Can the Hydra use it's breath weapon on the turn it rallies?

The Repeater Crossbows pin-cushioned the Exalted.

My Chariot rallied after the Executioners wiped out the first Warrior unit. As they crashed into the second unit the Chariot hit their flank but it only killed two models. The Executioners held on their break test. Flippity-flip. I would have won the game if they'd broken.

Result: Marginal loss
Chaos 800.5 vps
DE 993.5 vps

Honours

• Chaos - my exalted champion who caused mayhem all over the battlefield
• Dark Elves - the executioners for driving off the exalted and killing the warriors
  

Thoughts

• I'm still struggling with the tactics of the movement phase. The problem is that I have a proactive army that needs to be used aggressively and forces my game plan on the enemy but I am usually a much more reactive player. I need to be less sporting and develop my killer instinct. The Chaos Gods demand it!
• At last I dealt with the Dark Riders easily. My bound spell, magic missile spell, Steed of Shadows and the Furies meant I had a range of answers to them. It helped that Gary moved them into the centre of the table, too.
• The army is starting to develop the way I had imagined. We're playing with enough points to have a Sorcerer and a general and a range of units. My next model will be an Exalted on a Daemonic Mount which should take me up to about 1500 points. I have no idea what to do to take the army up to 2000 points.