2v1 1500 points a side

Big battle this weekend, 1500 points of John's Menoth versus 750 points of my Khador and 750 points of Richards Circle. Lasted about 5 hours, but we were playing pretty casually and relaxed so it wasnt too big a deal.

First things first, my army included:

Old Witch
^Scrapjack
^Destroyer

Full unit of IFP + UA
Yuri and the Manhunters
Gorman Di Wulfe
Greylord Ternion
Great Bears of Gallowswood
MoW Drakhun + Dismount
5 man unit of Mechaniks
Gudrun the Wanderer

Most of my army.

Richards Circle army had, among other things:

Kruegar
^Woldwarden x 2
^Woldwyrd
^Woldwatcher
^Warpwolf

Sentry and Shifting Stones (2 units of shifters)
Lord of the guffaws
Skarath and Dahlia

Most of Richards army.. kinda

John's army was MASSIVE, I cant remember everything although I will probably pull it off his blog at Stumpy Heaven but I do remember a few things, like 2 full units of Choirs, 3 Wracks, Feora and eKreoss, Unit of Knights Exemplar, full unit of Zealots + UA, full unit of Temple Flameguard, unit of Daughters of the flame, a bunch of 'Jacks including the Avatar of Menoth, Castigator, Reckoner, Redeemer, Devout, Revenger, and Fire of Salvation. Also, 2 Exemplar Seneschals and a Paladin of the Order of the Wall, which I didnt realise were so damn good.

Told you it was massive.

Some of John's Warjacks

We used pretty much the entire table, short deployment zone limited us a bit but not overly much, richard and my basic strategy was to have a huge block of troops and heavies move up the middle, and have harrassing elements come around either flank in a classic pincer movement. The contenders for the middle unit was, obviously, the elite Spartans of Khador - the Iron Fang Pikemen. The Great Bears set up behind them, their tactical supremacy or whatever would allow them to charge and attack through the IFP allowing them to have a powerful bodyguard and some crazy shenanigans later in the game. Drakhun was next to them, and a Woldwarden on the side of that. The Greylords were behind the IFP, to give support to the whole army with Ice Cages and Blizzards.

The Old Witch had a team of specialists on the left flank, which included her, the Wardog, Scrappy, the soul fodder... err I mean Mechaniks, Gorman di Wulfe and advanced deployed Yuri and a Manhunter. The right flank had Kruegar, along with most of his warbeasts and a solitary Manhunter, but also Skarath and Dahlia and Lord of the Feast.

On the opposite side, it was looking very daunting for our force. Masses of infantry and 4 Heavy Warjacks were lying in wait, along with 3 annoyingly good light warjacks and a whole bunch of diverse solos.

The game began, the first turn was mostly manouvering and involved little combat, except for a Destroyer shot, and some action between the various advance deployed units - namely the Daughters of the Flame versus Dahlia and Skarath, and a Manhunter versus the Knights Exemplar with Rhupert supporting them. The block of pikeman marched forward, shield walling and iron fleshed + the large AOE buff from Kruegar putting them to Def 20 / Arm 20 versus ranged attacks. All I needed now was Irusk to make them tough and they would be like the Spartans off 300 for sure! Gudrun the Wanderer charged the Reckoner and attempted to do some damage, which pathetically bounced off its armour.

Gudrun's mighty charge!

Second round, some potent attacks from Menoth killed a few of our troops. On the left flank, the Knights Exemplar killed the Manhunter, a barrage of shots from the Redeemer *just* killed one of the Pikemen, much to my disgust, and Gudrun the Wanderer went down for the first time. On the right flank, the Flamegaurd advanced towards Richards army, and the Daughters of the Flame unsuccessfully tried to damage Skarath.

Skarath taking on the Daughters of the Flame.

Some slightly odd manouvers from John put his elite unit of Julian Rhoven and his bodyguard running right in front of my army, and the Zealots ran also, getting rather close to my troops - but not invulnerable.

Our turn for the Second round, and this was going to hurt for John. Our Alpha strike models were able to charge this round, and probably gave us the advantage for the rest of the game. As a sidenote - it gets very tricky working out activation with 2 players and this many points each! Yuri the Axe charged the Exemplar Seneschal on the left flank and killed it, while the remaining Manhunter on the right flank killed her Seneschal as well. Lord of the Lols and Skarath tried to kill the Daughters of the Flame, killing about half the unit. (Lord of the Feast rolled for 3 attacks, and then rolled a 3 to hit for two of them!)

The IFP furiously charged at the 3 Warjack line of a Castigator, Reckoner and Devout (who had lost his defensive strike, but HAD killed Gudrun the Wanderer with it, damn it.) The 11 (10 of which who could attack) did a 2 man CMA each, successfully knocking down with crits both the Reckoner and Devout, and caused heavy damage to them all (around 35 damage total I think). They then Defensive Formationed and got their Shield Wall bonus back.

This ... Is ... KHADOOOOOOOORR!

The Destroyer pumped a massive shot into Julian Rhoven, killing him instantly. The Great Bears charged the remaining bodyguard, with Lightning Tendrils on them giving them 4" reach, and proceeded to slaughter both of them. On the right flank, Richard used his Woldwarden, Woldwatcher, Kruegar AND the Warpwolf to kill the Avatar of Menoth, who was a tough nut to crack. Also did some damage to the Temple Flameguys, whittling down the unit.

Turn 3, and it was Menoth's turn to bring down the hammer. Both Seneschals also expired on this turn. On the left flank, the Exemplars tried to kill Yuri the Axe, but failed due to his high defence in a forest. On the right flank, the DotF tried to kill Dahlia, but failed again missing their attacks. The 3 Warjacks fighting the Iron Fangs managed to only kill one of them due to high defence and armour, but worse was yet to come. In an incredible display of force Feora popped her feat, catching practically my entire army in the fire ball except for the Old Witch, the Greylords, the Mechaniks and the Wardog.

Feora brings the pain

She used Blazing Effigy on the Reckoner, which killed 5 of my Iron Fangs with its auto-hitting damage rolls. The Zealots got into position, but due to cloud cover and smoke bombs from Di Wulfe were not able to launch their grenades, but they did make themselves invincible. Feora was also quite vulnerable, as she moved up to do her feat, and had no focus on her.

On the right flank, richard was pretty much safe as the majority of Menoth forces were fighting Khador. The Flameguard tried to hit the Woldwatcher, causing a small amount of damage on it. The redeemer tried to shoot some stuff, but missed horribly. Kreoss advanced Fire of Salvation, and threw around a few spells including the big AOE one on the IFP, which didnt manage to kill anything.

Our turn 3, fire killed the majority of my army. Only one Iron Fang Pikeman survived, and all the squishier elements were killed. The Great Bears took some damage, but luckily avoided being killed or having to make a tough roll. NONE of the fires went out, so I knew I was on borrowed time before getting burnt again. Yuri the Axe did well on his flying steel, and killed three of the Knights Exemplar. Between all of the attacks on the right flank, Richard finished off the Temple Flameguard with the help of the lone Manhunter and the Choir with some well-placed lightning attacks. Kruegar popped his feat, catching Kreoss, Feora and a unit of choir in the AOE's. Did *some* damage to all of them, and killed the Paladin too. My Great Bears charged the Castigator, and killed it, hoping to get hits on Feora next round. The Destroyer landed a bomb on Feora, causing small amounts of damage. At this point, I was seriously running out of units. The Drakhun charged the Redeemer, and although only rolling one hit for flying steel totalled it. Then Fire of Salvation walked forward and smacked him off his horse.

The mechaniks wandered in front of the Old Witch, who started salivating. Running forward, she proceeded to gorge on their souls, killing four of them. She then popped her feat through Scrapjack, catching about 80% of John's army. This didnt do much though, and really only prevented the Zealots from moving in John's next round. A couple of things did move, including Feora, but the POW 14 hit didnt hurt her at all.

On Johns next turn, he finished off Yuri the Axe with his Knights, and bombed the bejeesus out of the Great Bears and the remaining Pikeman with the Zealots, who all survived. The Reckoner tried to kill the Pikeman as well, but failed. The Drakhun wasnt so lucky, and a Revenger, Devout and Fire of Salvation descended on him and sent him packing. Feora pummelled the Great Bears and the Pikeman with Flamethrowers, and finally killed the last Spartan. The Great Bears all took some damage, and were on their last legs now. Not sure what Kreoss was doing this whole time, but mucked around with Focus on his Jacks and cast a couple of spells. Old Witch was still fine, and Kruegar was happy as larry firing lightning off all over the place.

Our turn, and this was going to be the last round. Old Witch had glutted on souls, and teleported up towards Feora. She then charged her, and proceeded to spend 8 focus on boosts to kill her right down to her last lifepoint - last damage roll was at -5 and I needed to do one point of damage, and I rolled a 6. Feora then exploded, nearly killing the Old Witch!

Feora goes down, however a large unit of Zealots are very close to Old Witch...

It was then Richards turn, and he pummelled Kreoss with Lightning from his Woldwardens after knocking him down with a Tornado. Kreoss went down as well, to a well aimed burst of electricity.

Richard's assassination attempt succeeds.

Final score - 2 Warcaster kills to us, 0 to John.

Although the score makes it look one-sided, it was a closely fought match. John had thrown away a few units that he should have kept ahold of, like Julian Rhoven and the two Seneschals, but devastating use of his feat would have killed my entire army in another turn. Richard was still quite strong, with only slightly damaged warbeasts, but once both his warcasters turned their attention to him he would have been at a disadvantage.

Final battlefield

MVP: Great Bears of Gallowswood once again, Killing Julian Rhovens unit + the Castigator, seriously damaging the Reckoner and in position for a charge on Feora which would have finished her as well. Also, they withstood amazing punishment and just would not die.

Worst Player: The first Manhunter, charged forwards and missed his first axe, killing one Knight with his second attack and then dying horribly at the first sign of aggression.

Johns MVP: Feora, singlehandedly wiped out the majority of the IFP as well as most of my solos, and was still really hard to kill! Also, almost killed the Old Witch as well, if Richard hadnt finished Kreoss that round she would have been toast.