Warbands Report

[grubnards]

Being as it was a slow day today and that I was itching to play some WHF games after my drubbing last weekend at Simcon, I roped my son into playing a 500pt warbands game.

We kept it small and simple to ease him back into playing as the last time he played WHF was summer of 2010.

Rules: 500 pt list with no lords, wizards, or rare units. We allowed up to 1 special choice but none of us used them. This way we could focus on movement and close combat only.

I took the following:

Black Orc Big Boss with Enchanted Shield and Tailsman of Preservation (overall 3+/4+ ward saves)
10 Orc Boyz - Full command and extra weapon
10 Orc Boyz - Full command and extra weapon
20 Night Goblins - Full Command, Netters

He took:
Exalted Hero with Sword of Might and Dawnstone (+1 to strength and Reroll failed saves)
9 Chaos Warriors - Standard Bearer, Musician and Shields
10 Mauraders - Full command, Shields
10 Mauraders - Full command, Shields
5 Chaos Hounds

To keep it simple we decided to just do Pitched Battle.

Table Layout


Deployment

Turn 1.
Orcs: I won first turn and got no 1's for Animosity. All my units moved up towards the center of table.


Chaos:
He moves everything up slowly.


End of turn 1

Turn 2.
Orcs: Again, no animosity this round (whew). The Night Goblins and Grubnards unit both declare charges. I knew it was iffy as I would need to roll high to make them, but hey, it's Orcs. Conner elects to hold but it doesn't matter as I failed both charges. This leaves the Night Goblins sticking out farther than Grubnard's unit. The flanking unit moves up a bit and wheels for any potential flank charge.


My failed charge attempt


Chaos: The Warriors and Mauradres both declare charges against the Goblins and Grubnard's unit. Goblin unit elects to flee and moves back 10" (further than I had hoped). Grubnard's elects to hold and take the charge. The Mauraders redirect their charge onto Grubnards and successfully charge. The Warriors rolled too low and only move up 3 inches. The Mauraders hit on the flank. Both units end up killing 2 each. With bonuses added, Grubnard's side lost by 2 but I make a successful break test and combat stays locked.


After round 2

Turn 3:
Orcs: Animosity hits my flanking unit so I must charge the closest enemy unit, which is the Mauraders locked in combat. I roll high enough and end up charging on their rear. The Night Goblins do not rally (those gits) and end up fleeing off the board.


Fleeing Gobbos


Rear Charge against the Mauraders

Mauraders go first in combat and they kill 1 orc in the front unit and 1 in the back. Grubby and the other Orc in the flank end up killing 1 Maurader. The rear charging unit ends up killing 1. Equal kills but due to the rear charge bonus, dual banners and such, the Mauraders fail their break check and flee. They are easily over run. Both Grubnard's unit and the other Orc unit end up pursuing into combat with the chaos warriors.


Combat Round 2


Pursuing into the Chaos Warriors

Chaos:The remaining Maurader unit and hounds end up charging. The exalted hero must declare a challenge to grubnards and he accepts. In the resulting combat Grubnards takes 1 wound and inflicts 2 onto the exalted hero, killing him.


Chaos counter charges

Between the warriors, mauraders and hounds, they inflict 7 wounds on Grubnard's unit. The orcs only inflict 2 back onto the warriors.


Results after combat

The Orcs scored 5 points vs 12 for chaos, meaning Grubnards must pass a break test on double 1's.

I roll the dice and ....


Bye bye Orcs

Once again Grubnard's tastes defeat. We have a rematch schedule in the near future using my son's dark elves. This way we can introduce shooting in the game.

[grubnards]

On Sunday I was able to get in another Warbands game with my son but this time I played Warriors of Chaos against his Dark Elves. Since I will be gearing up for the CrossRoads GT in September, I want to get in as many games with the Warriors of Chaos over then next 6 months.

650 Point Lists

Dark Elves (648 pts)

Master: light Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Enchanted Shield, HeartSeeker (Re-roll failed To Hits and To Wounds)

12 Dark Elves Warriors: Spears, Shields, Full Command, Banner of Murder(Grants Armor Piercing)

10 Dark Elves Corsairs: 2xHand Weapons, Sea Dragon Cloak, Full Command, Sea Serpent Banner(Gives unit Frenzy)

10 Executioners: Full Command

Reaper Bolt Thrower


Warriors of Chaos
------------------
Exalted Hero: Enchanted Shield, Tailsman of Preservation (4+ Ward Save)

12 Chaos Warriors: Musician, Standard Bearer, Shields, War banner(+1 to Combat Resolution)

5 War hounds

15 Marauders: Full Command, Light Armor, Shields

10 Marauders: Full Command, Light Armor, Shields

We decided to play pitched battle again and this time we introduced a Bolt Thrower to work in a shooting phase.

Dark Elves win the roll off and he deploys first. He puts the corsairs and executioners in the middle and the spear men over on the right flank. He puts the bolt thrower in some ruins and finally the Master gets put in with the Corsairs. I place my Warriors and the 15 man marauder block in the center and I put the 10 man Marauder squad over on the right flank and the hounds on the left flank to harass the Bolt Thrower crew. The Exalted Hero goes in with the Warriors.


Deployment

Turn 1:
Dark Elves.
Movement: The Corsairs are too far away to declare a charge. (With Frenzy, a unit must declare a charge, if possible, towards the closest enemy unit). The Corsairs and executioners move up 5" and the spear men move up and angle a bit to threaten the war hounds and possibly setup for a future flank charge on the warriors.

Shooting:

The Bolt Thrower has line of sight to the hounds and the 15 man block of marauders. Conner chooses to fire a volley shot at the marauders. Since the shot is at strength 4 and is armor piercing, it negates the marauder's save. 1 dead marauder.

Chaos
Declare Charges: I do not declare any charges as I would need to roll at least a 10 in order to make the charges.
Movement: I move the hounds up 9" and reform along the edge. (Afterwards I realized they are not fast cavalry, thus cannot reform)
I move the 14 man block of marauders up 5" and the 10 man block up 8". I only move the warriors up 2", hoping that the elves charge the marauders and present me with a flank.


After turn 1

Turn 2:
Dark Elves
Declare Charges: Conner declares charges with all three units. I elect to hold. He fails all 3 charges.
Executioners need an 8" roll, he rolls a 5 and moves up 3"
Corsairs need a 8" roll, he rolls a 5 and moves up 4"
Warriors need a 9" roll, he rolls a 4 and moves up 2"

Shooting: Since I reformed (duh) the hounds to potentially flank the spear men, the bolt thrower now has a shot in my flank, giving him the potential to kill all 5 hounds with good rolls.
He rolls to hit and succeeds. The first hound dies to a S6 hit, the second hound dies to S5 and the third hound dies to S4 shot. The S3 shot fails. I need to make a panic check since I lost over 25% to shooting. I need a 5 or less to stay. I roll an 8 but with the "Will of the Gods" rule, they can re-roll failed panic tests. My second roll is a 5. They stay for now.

Chaos
Declare Charges: I declare the hounds to charge the bolt thrower I need a 10, roll a 7, move 4"
The 14 block of marauders declare a charge on the executioners. They elect to hold and I roll high enough to charge
The Warriors declare on the Corsairs. They elect to hold and I roll high enough to charge.

Movement: The 10 man block of marauders moves up 4" to hopefully assist the other marauders in another turn or so.


After Movement

Close Combat: The Exalted Hero must declare a challenge to the DE Master due to the Eye of the Gods rule. Conner accepts.
The Dark Elves Master will strike first at I7 and then my hero goes at I6. He gets 3 hits, 3 wounds and I fail 1 save, taking a wound.
My exalted hero causes 4 hits, 4 wounds and he saves all but 1. They will draw in CC.
The Corsairs will go first due to initiative. They get 18 attacks, 17 hits, 13 wounds and I fail 3 saves. (d**n the eternal hatred rule, giving them a re-roll to hit and wound on the first turn of combat)
My warriors get 13 attacks back, 8 hits, 2 wounds, and both fail their armor saves. In the end, chaos wins combat by 1 due to my war banner and a full second rank.

Executioners vs Marauders
My marauders will strike first because the executioners have great weapons, making them always strike last regardless of initiative.
My marauders make 11 attacks, 5 wounds, and he fails 2 saves.
The executioners have 9 attacks, 8 hits, 8 wounds and I fail 7 parry saves. (d**n great weapons and eternal hatred) I lose combat by a lot and I must flee. Conner elects to hold and passes his leadership test. I fall back 5".


After 1st round of combat

Turn 3:
Dark Elves
Declare Charges: The spear men declare a flank charge against my warriors. I am locked in combat with the corsairs so I cannot do anything about it. He rolls high enough to make the charge.
Movement: The executioners just pivot to face my 10 man block of marauders.


Spear men charge my warriors

Shooting: The bolt thrower attempts to do another volley fire on the hounds since there are only 2 left. He gets 6 hits, 4 wounds. My hounds are gone.

Close Combat: The DE Master and Exalted hero continue to go at it. He causes 0 wounds against me and I score 3 wounds. He fails his last save and his master falls.
The corsairs hit 11 times, causing 2 wounds. I fail 1 save.
The Spear men hit 8 times, causing 1 wound, I make my save. (We did forget that the spear men should have rerolled the failed hits and wounds due to their 1st turn of combat)
My warriors direct 10 attacks to the corsairs, wounding 9. He fails 4 saves.
A single warrior directs an attack at the spear men, causing 1 wound and he failed his save.

He loses CC but is still able to stay locked in due to great Ld rolls. I roll on the Eye of the Gods table since I killed his master and I roll a "7", No Effect. The only number that does not give a bonus and I roll it.

Chaos
Declare charges: My 10 man block declares a charge on the executioners and they elect to hold. I fail to roll high enough and only move forward 2 inches.

Movement: My fleeing marauders fail their rally test and move 9 more inches.

Close Combat: My Exalted hero goes first and attacks the spear men. 2 hits, 2 wounds, 2 dead spear men.
All other attacks are at the same time.
Corsairs into Warriors: 10 hits, 6 wounds, I fail 2 saves
Spear men into Warriors: 4 hits, 2 wounds, I make all my saves
Warriors into corsairs: 7 hits, 4 wounds, 4 failed saves. The corsairs are all dead.
Warrior into spear men: 1 hit, 1 wound, 1 failed save.
Elves lose 4 corsairs and 3 spear men to my 2 warriors. I win combat and the spear men fail their leadership. I elect to pursue and catch them. No more spear men.


After another turn of combat

Turn 4:

Dark Elves
Declare Charges: The executioners declare a charge on the 10 man marauder block. They hold (I should have elected to flee). The executioners make the charge.

Shooting: The bolt thrower lines up a flank shot on the warriors but misses.

Combat: The Marauders strike first: 11 attacks, 6 hits, 2 wounds, 1 dead executioner
The Executioners make 8 hits, 8 wounds and I fail 7 parry saves. Elves win CC by 7. My marauders fail and flee. The executioners try to restrain from pursuing but fail. Marauders roll high enough to escape. The executioners move up 7" behind the marauders.


Executioners make short work of my marauders

Chaos
Declare charges: None
Rally: My 7 man marauder unit makes its rally test and reforms.
My 3 man squad is under 25% so continue to flee. They flee off the board.

Movement: My warriors reform to face the bolt thrower.

Turn 5

Dark Elves
Declare Charges: None
Movement: Executioners reform to face the rallied marauders.

Shooting: The bolt thrower attempts a volley fire on the warriors. 3 hits, 2 wounds, 1 failed save.

Chaos
Declare charges: My 7 man marauders declare a charge against the executioners. They elect to hold. I fail to make the charge distance and move up 3 inches.
Warriors declare a charge against the bolt thrower. They elect to hold and I roll... snake eyes.


Last picture before the game ends

Turn 6

Dark Elves
Declare charges: Executioners declare against my marauders. I hold and they make the charge.

Shooting: Bolt Thrower does another volley. 4 hits, 1 wound and I make the save.

Combat: My marauders strike first: 8 attacks, 2 hits, both are saved.
Executioners: 8 attacks, 7 hits, 7 wounds, 6 dead marauders. (f#@*in eternal hatred)
Last marauder needs snake eyes and fails. he is overrun.

Chaos
Warriors attempt to charge the bolt thrower. They elect to flee. Game over.

Added up the victory points and we DRAW.

Very fun game. Much respect to the Dark Elves and their Eternal Hatred rule. The corsairs with Frenzy and Eternal hatred threw buckets of dice at me while the Executioners just kept laying down the pain.

Our next game should include wizards. We will probably keep the points similar or a bit larger to get him used to using magic.