HORDES OF CHAOS versus Dark Elves

I just know he will die horribly...

Game: Warhammer Fantasy Battle 7th edition
Opponent: Gary

I was really up for this game.

We were bumping the battle up to 1500 points apiece and this meant our armies did look like armies rather than small skirmishing war bands. We're now getting closer to our final target of 2000 point forces.

The main reason I could include the extra 250 points was finishing my Exalted on Daemonic Mount. He weighed in at a hefty 190 points on his own. As well as a centrepiece model for my army he should be fairly powerful on the tabletop, but his true significance is that he represents Sigurt Volsung, the ruler of my whole horde of Chaos.

I just know he will die horribly...

Armies: 1500 points
My Chaos Undivided mortals:

• Sigurt Volsung, Exalted on Daemonic Mount, Gaze of the Gods, Enchanted Shield
  
• Thaer, Exalted with Book of Secrets, extra hand weapon, shield (Steed of Shadows spell)
• Angur Boda, Lvl 2 Sorcerer with 2 Dispel Scrolls (Dark hand of Death, Doom and Darkness)
• 12 Warriors full command
• 10 Warriors full command Banner of Wrath
  
• 5 Chosen Knights full command
• 6 War hounds
• Chariot
• 8 Furies

The Dark Elves had:

• Noble on Cold One, Sword of what save?, 1+ save
  
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• Lvl 2 Sorceress
• 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
  
• 10 Repeater Crossbows
• 16 Spearelves full command
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 5 Dark Riders Repeater Crossbows
• 19 Executioners full command Banner of Murder

Terrain and deployment
I had a wood on my extreme left just outside my deployment zone. There was a patch of rocky ground ahead of this on the fringe of the Dark Elf deployment zone. I had some ruined buildings in my centre right deployment zone and there was a hill in the middle of the board just ahead of them. The Dark Elves won the choice of table edge yet again (they have won this roll for virtually all of our games so far).

I refused the left flank, not wanting to get involved with the rocky ground which didn't affect line of sight much but counted as difficult terrain. Instead, my plan was to envelop the right flank by sweeping around the hill on the right with my Knights, supported by the Warriors.

I put the Furies out behind the wood on my right early on to keep my opponent guessing. From the centre I had War hounds, Chariot, 10 Warriors (with the Sorcerer and Exalted on foot), 12 Warriors (with Sigurt) then the Knights. The Dark Elves were more spread out with the Dark Riders, Repeater Bolt Thrower, Repeater Crossbows, Sorceress, Repeater Bolt Thrower, Sorceress, Executioners, Spearelves, Dark Riders and the Noble.



The game
The Dark Elves won first turn. The Dark Riders on the left manoeuvred to shoot at my Furies but did nothing. I reckoned they were out of charge range so I flew the Furies to my right and surrendered the whole left flank completely. The second Dark Rider unit moved up behind the hill on my right.

I raced the Knights up the right flank. Everything else marched forward too. My magic did nothing.

The first Dark Rider unit galloped down my empty left flank behind the wood. They stayed put for the whole game and claimed the table quarter. The second Dark Rider squad charged my War hounds who fled. They never rallied and eventually ran off the battlefield. This now left the Dark Riders exposed to a charge from the Chariot and 10 Warriors (we only just realised that if the opponent fled it counted as a failed charge for the chargers - Gary was expecting the Dark Riders to move the full 18"). Oops. Combined shooting and magic only killed 3 Furies.

The survivors charged a Sorceress and she ran off the table in fear. The Chariot and Warriors charged the Dark Riders in the centre. They chose to flee straight through 3 units who were all hugging the board edge. The second Sorceress, Executioners and Repeater Bolt Thrower crew all passed their panic tests. Boo!

My Knights pressed on up the extreme right flank and angled in to receive the Noble charge. I moved the 12 Warriors so that Sigurt could charge out of the unit and begin some general on general carnage if the Knights held.

The Noble hit the knights and challenged and killed the champion. I won the combat, though, but the the Noble passed his break check. Dark Elf magic and shooting took my Furies down to two models and removed three wounds from my Chariot. The Dark Riders rallied right on the edge of the battlefield. All in all a decent turn for the pointy ears.

Thaer got his Steed of Shadows off and chased the other Sorceress off the board. My other magic did nothing. The Furies charged and ran down the Repeater Bolt Thrower crew. This meant they crashed into the Executioners. Uh-huh. Sigurt slammed into the flank of the Noble. In the subsequent challenge both generals lost a wound.

The Dark Riders sallied out to try and angle the 10 Warriors away from the Executioners who were fending off the pursuing Furies. The Repeater Crossbows stripped the last wound from my Chariot. The Executioners...executed the Furies. Both generals swung at each other again...and killed each other. This left my Knights free, facing the Spearelves (they've faced off against this unit in virtually every game we have played).

One bone crunching charge later and the elves were reduced to a fleeing rabble. My 10 Warriors charged the Dark Riders who fled off the battlefield. This meant the Executioners got a juicy flank charge in. Eep! Gary rolled appallingly and killed nothing while I killed an Executioner. nice. My Warriors passed their break test.

This meant my 12 Warriors could now charge the flank of the Executioners. I hadn't seen such bad dice rolling since...the last combat phase. No-one died and everyone remained as they were. Thaer returned to the battlefield, wiping Sorceress blood from his axe. He was immediately speared by a bolt. 180!

My Knights came up and obviously focused the minds of my Warriors so much that they finally killed some Executioners. The survivors ran off the table. I repositioned my three units to capture two table quarters.

I was well ahead but decided to be greedy and cast that one last spell to wipe out the Repeater Crossbows. Angur Boda miscast and rolled a double one on the chart. He disappeared in a blinding flash of light and took three Warriors with him, reducing the unit below half strength in the process. Meh.

Result Marginal Victory
Chaos 1389 vps
DE 1097 vps

Thoughts

1. Magic. Never cast that one last spell - I lost over 250 vps in the subsequent explosion. The Dark Elf magic was poor once again. The range on their spells isn't great and they really depend upon two good phases early in the game. From turn three onward I am in amongst the Dark Elf army and putting pressure on the casters. Gary either needs to revise his magic strategy or invest in some better dice.
2. This was a tighter game than the previous two, largely due to losing the first turn, but also because of the Noble on a Cold One. My envelop the flank, refuse the other tactic is still working - I wonder how long it will be before Gary learns how to counter it? Maybe I should change to something else?
3. My mounted Exalted worked okay I guess. I hadn't considered giving him any offensive weaponry as I was hoping his raw stats would do the business. I hadn't considered the Noble who ended up with a 3+ save from my general. Perhaps the Biting Blade could be a good investment? Gary really didn't like me putting Sigurt in the foot unit. I was fairly certain that I could do this because the mount doesn't fly but I promised to check it out before our next game. What do you think?