Riders of Slaanesh vs. Empire, impromptu 1k

I got a mounted Lord of Khorne model on ridiculous sale, so I put it together and half-painted it a few days ago (in my gold/silver/purple/black Slaanesh color scheme) so we decided that I could come up with 1k from what I had. It's a bit heavy on equipment and bonuses but oh well. 5 Warhounds 5 Warhounds 5 Marauder Horsemen, light armor, flails, throwing axes, MoS 5 Marauder Horsemen, same. 5 Knights, lances, full command, Blasted Standard, MoS Sorcerer, L2, MoS, Steed of Slaanesh, Armor of Morrslieb, Spell Familiar Exalted Hero, MoS, barded steed, Axe of Khorne, Favour of the Gods, Acidic Ichor Nick went with a balanced Empire list - Pistoliers, Knights, Hellblaster, block of halberds, block of spears, crossbow line. Heroes consisted of a captain and a warrior priest.

Terrain and Deployment

We did alternating deployment, which ended up with a hill and trees on mid-line left and right, a hill and pond in one deployment zone and a brushy area and a ruin in the other. He won choice of table sides and chose the side with the hill. His deployment was as listed above, from my left to right, with the priest in the halberd block, the captain in the spears, and the crossbows on the hill. I had one marauder group opposite the pistoliers, empire knights, and hiding behind the hill from the Hellblaster. Both hounds screened my knights with Hero in the center from the empire machine gun, while the other marauder group and the sorcerer took the flank with the crossbows. The sorcerer rolls Lash, Delusions, and the fear/terror Aura; not bad.

Turn 1

I go first; hounds and knights move up towards the Hellblaster and blocks; the left-flank marauders decide they don't want to try to take the pistoliers, nevermind pistoliers plus knights, so gallop towards board-center to support my knights. The other marauders move up and try to cast Delusions on the crossbows; you think I could roll 8+ on 3 dice but no, nor a lash on the last power die.

His knights and pistoliers gallop up behind the center hill and the pistols lay the smack down on one unit of hounds. The Hellblaster gets off one barrel into the slightly exposed knights before jamming for the next turn and one knight falls. The crossbows take out two of the marauders. The blocks stay put.

Turn 2

The left-flank Marauders take up a taunting position to try and draw out the empire knights or pistoliers. The decimated hounds rally, and the other hound unit moves out of the way of the knights. The knights position themselves for a charge next turn into the spear block, and the marauders/sorcerer foolishly charge the crossbows and get hit hard by a stand-and-shoot. They end up losing pretty badly in the ensuing combat and running for the border.

He shuffles his spears and halberds to prepare for the oncoming assault. His pistoliers shoot holes in the remaining hounds, while his knight take a non-commital move to the top of the hill. The crossbows take potshots at the fleeing marauder and sorcerer; now it's just the fleeing sorcerer...

Turn 3

Chaaaaaarge! The knights pile into the spear block, while the hounds try to take out the pistoliers but panic from the stand-and-shoot reaction and take off. The lone sorcerer rallies and the other marauder group fast-cavs its way to the side of the knights, flinging their throwing axes to not much effect. My Hero challenges, and his Captain hides behind the unit champion ("I pay you double! You'll be fine!"), who proceeds to get the beat down, followed by the humiliation of having his already dead body trampled by the chaos steed. The rest of the knights annihilate enough spearmen that they don't get to attack back, even from the second rank. Still, the Captain takes down another knight, and uses Rod of Command to hold.

Nick follows the hounds with the pistoliers and does some minor shuffling by the Empire to position for a counter-offensive against the Chaos Knights. The hellblaster pulls off an awesome set of rolls and obliterates the marauder cav to the man - now it's just the Knights, the Hero and Sorcerer on the chaos side, and the sorcerer takes a wound from the crossbows. The Hero and Captain meet in a challenge, and the Captain goes down, barely. Eye of the Gods time! I roll a 3, and with the Favour that could be Stupidity (yea right), +1 strength, or +1 toughness - I take the toughness to bring him up to S6 T5. The rest of the knights do just ok, but the spears break regardless and are caught by the knights just short of the board edge.

Turn 4

Things start going faster with so few units. The knights reform 180-degrees and then wheel slightly to aim at the halberd block, while the sorcerer moves out of firing arc of the crossbows and yet again unsuccessfully tries to Delusion them off into a corner.

His knights move to try to help with the impending Knight charge while the pistoliers finish off the hounds. The crossbows decide to ignore the sorcerer and pull a 180 and head towards the more-dangerous Chaos Knights. My investment in the Blasted Standard pays off as zero-misfire roll by the Hellblaster bounces ineffectively off of the knights.

Turn 5

Knight charge! They slam into the halberds. The sorcerer moves to put trees between her and the crossbows, and successfully casts Delusions on the empire knights! Finally! The Halberd Sergeant takes the Hero's challenge and promptly gets murderated. The three remaining knights do poorly, however, but take no damage in return. Combat is tied and nobody moves.

Titillating sights have the knights galloping off to an odd board corner. The hellblaster, pistoliers and crossbows have nobody to shoot at. The priest decides to take on the challenge instead of hiding in the back rank, and gets the indignity of being killing-blow'ed, taking another wound on top of that, and then being peed on by the horse. Eye of the Gods time again! Choices are +1 attack or +1 strength (+1 toughness already taken) so I choose +1 attack. The knights again roll decent but not great and despite losing by several points, the halberds hold.

Turn 6

The knights and hero kill every halberd except Steve the Banner Bearer, who somehow holds! The sorcerer lets the Delusions lapse but fails to Lash more than a single empire knight.

Steve falls to several thousand attacks while the knights look for table quarters. Rather than claiming a quarter, the Pistoliers take a shot at the sorcerer and kill her dead.

Final Score - draw. Despite me being down to 4 models (3 knights and a Hero) vs. his nearly-complete crossbows, Knights, Pistoliers, and Hellblaster, it's still a draw (in fact I was ahead by over 100 points). Go go expensive guys, I guess!

Thoughts

The melee hero was deadly and a blast to play; I finally got to roll on the Eye of the Gods table! He's definitely scary vs. other characters and I think I'll have fun with one on a Steed of Slaanesh later on. I shouldn't have charged the crossbows with the marauders and sorc. Stupid stand-and-shoot! They should have just circled them and peppered the opposing troops with axes and Lash - since the crossbows are move-or-shoot it makes them waste time spinning around. The ward save on the sorcerer and the knights was a butt-saver vs. crossbow bolts and hellblaster bullets. I think I'll have lots of fun at the 1k level.

Riders of Slaanesh 1k list, revised

Revised slightly from the last 1k list based on more experience with the 750 pt-er.

• Chaos Warhounds x5 - 30 pts - bait.
• Chaos Warhounds x5 - 30 pts - re-added a 2nd unit; they are really needed as shooting-cover, throwaway flank protection, and to tie up enemies for a turn or two in close combat.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, throwing axes, musician, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 96 pts - repurposed back to throwing annoyance - with the third unit of marauders and their Exalted Hero leader they need this more than flails.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, throwing axes, musician, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 96 pts - ditto.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, flails, musician, standard bearer, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 108 pts - new unit, Hero escort.
• Chaos Knights, full command, lances, Mark of Slaanesh x 5 - 285 pts - nothing's changed here. Can be sorcerer escort.
• Chaos Sorcerer, level 2, Mark of Slaanesh, Chaos Steed (barded) - 141 pts - 4 dice, 2 spells, 2+ armor save. Not bad for a wizard. Lost the Spell Familiar to save points for a second unit of hounds.
• Exalted Hero, Mark of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Armor of Morrslieb, Halberd, Battle Standard, shield, Favor of the Gods - 234 pts - hunter/killer. Dropped the gift (Soporific Musk) as it only really matters vs. other cav, and even then if he's with the marauders they get a reroll on pursuit. 5 extra points from losing that and the spell familiar means he can have both a shield and Favour. End result: Four WS7, S6 attacks; T4 and a 3+ armor save (2+ vs. shooting) plus a 4+ ward save vs. non-magical; on a movement 10 fast cav that causes fear (won't help that much 'cause it's just US2) and has a poisoned attack (a single WS3, woo). Still, he's probably as good as many other army's Lords, albeit at about the same price...

Now I just gotta get the models. Shopping list: Mounted Sorcerer (I've been borrowing one of Nick's mounted Empire Battle Wizards), Lord of Slaanesh (yes, the boob-worm - that part is disturbing but the model as a whole is awesome), another set of Marauder Horsemen (I have one with flails and one with axes already; I'll retrofit a standard onto the flail unit and construct the new one with axes), Slaanesh Icons (these are from 40k - I'm going to use them as banner- and staff-toppers).

I've yet to roll on the Eye of the Gods table...perhaps I will get a chance at 1k. Hope to face off against Nick's Tomb Kings, Empire, and Wood Elves again, as well as possibly Dwarfs and Ogre Kingdoms at some point too.

Riders of Slaanesh vs. Empire

750 pt battle to the death. Essentially the same list as last time for me. Nick's Empire mini-army consisted of a greatcannon with master engineer, a block of spears with warrior priest and detachment of swordsmen, a line of handgunners, and a unit of mounted pistoliers. One unit of Marauder Horsemen lined up to take out the cannon on the left flank; hounds were in front of the knights with sorcerer to shield them from gunfire; the other unit of hounds and marauders were ready to take on the pistoliers on the right flank. The knights and shielding hounds lost one each from a cannon shot before the marauders hit the cannon crew. The crew and master engineer held out for a surprising several turns before being overrun, thus keeping the marauders out of the rear of the spear block. The right flank hounds and marauders started a dance of pointlessness with the pistoliers as they were slowly whittled down by pistol fire while never getting the empire horsemen in charge arc. The shielding hounds declared a charge on the swords detachment to clear the path for the knights to hit the handgunners; the hounds cleared just fine but the knights were short, taking both a stand-and-shoot as well as standing right there for another volley the next turn, and being far enough away for yet another stand-and-shoot when they charged on my next turn. The sorcerer failed to get off any spells; either Lash of Slaanesh (standard magic missile) or Titillating Visions (hey, look over there, shiny!) would have been nice. Oh well. He has the same stats as a knight (minus the lance), which was handy as there were only two knights (standard bearer and champion) plus him left once they reached the handgunners. They broke the gunners and pursued, more to get out of the spear's charge arc than to catch the runners, who stayed on the table this turn but failed to rally the next and were chased off. Meanwhile, the fast cavalry duel was just eating marauders, so the flank hounds and horsemen ignored the empire riders and galloped (slowly, stupid marchblocking) back towards the main battle. The left flank horsemen finally broke the cannon crew and overran them. The remaining spear block put its rear to the nearby pond while its detachment was still held up by the last remaining hound. The left flank horsemen had juuuust enough range to charge the flank of the spear block, while the knights/sorcerer destroyed the swords detachment outright and overran into the front of the spears. With 5 high-strength attacks from the flank and 7 from the front, plus horses, the spear block folded and broke, running hopelessly from the marauders. Game conceeded at the bottom of the 4th.

Warriors of Chaos 1k Cavalry list

Moving up from a 750 pt list, the Riders of Slaanesh as follows:

• Chaos Warhounds x5 - 30 pts - bait.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, flails, musician, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 96 pts - lost the throwing axes, there just aren't enough of them to be worth 2 pt/model.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, flails, musician, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 96 pts - ditto.
• Marauder Horsemen, light armor, flails, musician, standard bearer, Mark of Slaanesh x5 - 108 pts - new unit, Hero escort.
• Chaos Knights, full command, lances, Mark of Slaanesh x 5 - 285 pts - nothing's changed here. Can be sorcerer escort.
• Chaos Sorcerer, level 2, Mark of Slaanesh, Chaos Steed (barded), Spell Familiar - 156 pts - 4 dice, 3 spells, 2+ armor save. Not bad for a wizard.
• Exalted Hero, Mark of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Soporific Musk, Armor of Morrslieb, Halberd, Battle Standard, Favor of the Gods - 229 pts - hunter/killer.

Debating whether to ditch the Favor of the Gods for a shield...hmmmm.

First foray of the Riders of Slaanesh

Last Saturday was the premiere of my Warriors of Chaos army, the Riders of Slaanesh. Starting at 750 pts and escalating from there. Quick list:

• 2 units of 5 warhounds for cheap blocking and bait.
• 2 units of 5 Marauder Horsemen with flails, light armor, and throwing axes for annoyance, charge-baiting, and flanking.
• 1 unit of 5 Chaos Knights with lances, for smashing things in the face.
• Sorceror on a barded Chaos Steed, with Book of Secrets and Power Familiar for 6 power dice and 3 spells. Woo!

Everything that can has the Mark of Slaanesh. It's the cheapest mark, gets rid of annoying fear, terror, and panic with no downsides, and the Lore of Slaanesh has plenty of spells that eff with the enemy.

Game was vs. Nick's all-fast-cavalry wood elves and was pretty much different than any other Warhammer game I've played (not that I've played that many).

Game 1

Symetrical deployment on both sides - Maraders, hounds, knights, hounds, maraders for me and two shooty-elf units in front and 2 stabby elf units behind for him. He places his free woods in the center and proceeds to gallop into it. I wait outside for him to come out, but my wizard manages to miscast on the first roll and blow himself and one of the knights away. Things don't get better from there - his army is so fast and maneuverable that I don't get a single charge and I'm pretty quickly destroyed.

Game 2

Similar deployment, except I put the sorcerer with a unit of Marauders. He does much better this time and manages not to miscast the whole battle, though it takes time for him to get within range of the enemy as on the first turn, the elves gallop off into a corner. I do manage to whittle down his numbers with magic missiles, and rout a unit with thrown axes, but thanks to being on the receiving end of charges at all times, and the World's Worst Dice Rolling Ever in the challenges between characters and unit champions, I am destroyed. Closer than last time, at least.

Thoughts

Fun, but wow, we galloped all over the board. Against (and with) fast cavalry, it's hard to keep the enemy in your charge arc. I don't think my current army list has much chance of reliably beating this army (good luck with a charge and break could do it) - it either needs to be massivly shooty (not WoC strong point at all) or have a big block of metal so nasty that it just dares them to attack.

Gonna try it against more traditional armies before bumping to 1k - Nick plans on drafting 750 pts of gunpowder- and crossbow-packing Empire. We'll see how it goes.