I promised in
my first post to take you through my test figure progress and introduce you to
a certain drunk gate-keeper; and I shall. But I hope you won’t mind me taking you
through today’s events. Why? Because today was the first day in over a decade
that my forces ventured onto the battlefields of the Old World!
Servants of the Dark God of Extasy
My
adversaries were another Joseph (the organiser of the “Bring Back the 6th” tournament) fielding his fierce Ogre army and Niklas (of “The Old World Lives” podcast
fame) with his dreaded Kislevite cavalry force. I could hardly have asked for
better qualified tutors to reacquaint me with the 6th edition
Warhammer Fantasy Battle rules.
I decided to
field my old Chaos Mortels army – which I had never actually tested in a proper
battle. Its theme is a wartribe from Norsca called the Sarls and dedicated to
the perverse god: Slaanesh! As I was really into Braveheart at the time, I applied
liberal doses of tartan and tattoos.
The setting was the steppes of Kislev, where a raiding Chaos wartribe happened to invade at the same time as a group of hired-sword Ogres decided to turn on their Kislevite paymasters.
Meet Hamish the Hairy
The setting was the steppes of Kislev, where a raiding Chaos wartribe happened to invade at the same time as a group of hired-sword Ogres decided to turn on their Kislevite paymasters.
We settled
for 1,000pts list. Mine looked more or less like this:
- Domnall the Deviant - Aspiring Champion of Chaos with Mark of Slaanesh (Immune to Psychology) and Battle Sword (+1 Attack)
- Fingal the Frisky - Level 2 Sorcerer of Slaanesh with Dispel Scroll, Familiar (knows 1 extra spell) and Mark of Slaanesh (Immune to Psychology)
- 20 Marauders with shields, light armour & full command
- 14 Marauders with shields, light armour & full command
- 5 Marauder horsemen with musician
- 3 Ogres
- Hamish the Hairy - Giant
Triumph & Treachery
As there
were 3 of us, Joseph suggested using the Triumph
and Treachery rules.
For those
who haven’t heard of it (which included me), it is a simple but fun add-on with
3 key aspects:
1. Trick
cards: each player gets given a set of cards to use. These can be played at any
time and allow you to do things like block an enemy unit from shooting or covering
part of the battlefield with oil, thus forcing everyone (including your own men)
to re-roll their dice to hit.
2. You can
only choose one enemy per phase and can’t attack the other.
3. To keep
track of victory points, you get tokens when you destroy an enemy unit or one
of your trick cards pays off.
First blood
To my left were Joseph's Ogres and in the middle of the opposite table side Niklas' cavalry rode onto the field. I definitely wasn't nervous about how many horses seemed to be pointed my way.
No one was going to gain victory points by standing around, so I split my force (I know! I know!), sending my riders, a marauder block and both heroes towards the Kislevite horsemen (OK - so maybe I was a little nervous). My reward came in the shape of an arrow taking out one of my riders.
I decided to give Niklas a taste of good old Chaos magic. Unfortunately, my sorceror bungled it and found himself on his back (appropriate for Slaanesh!) and unable to cast for the next turn.
A change in the winds of Chaos?
You may notice Bronzino and his cannon on that small hill at the back. Well... guess what happened next. Niklas' estimate was perfect and a cannonball hit the ground right in front of my sorcerer. Deep breath!
And how lucky was Fingal the Frisky?! The cannonball got stuck in the mud and didn't bounce! Final would live to try another spell.
It seemed Niklas had chosen to focus on one enemy at a time, leaving the Ogres to march as quickly as possible across a very large field.
The large block of Kislevite lancers tried to charge into my marauders, who at this point should have been wetting themselves. But my luck was about to turn. One of the cards I had been dealt was Caltrops, reducing the horsemen's charge distance by half. Failed charge! The look on Niklas' face was priceless. Finding yourself within charging distance of infantry when it's no longer your turn is every cavalryman's nightmare. I swiftly made the most and charged in with my Ogres and marauders.
To put the boot in, Fingal the Frisky cast Perverse Control on the unit, meaning they could not strike back. I won't go into detail. Instead, I'll let you make deductions on how lethal the combination was.
Before
After
Late to the party
Over on the other flank, the Ogres finally reached me. Joseph's Butcher, ogres and - incredibly - gnoblars all inflicted serious losses on my biggest marauder unit, which promptly fled the field. The Hamish the hairy giant swung his cleaver, but the ogres ducked and got out harm free.
There were too many details and fights to recount, but as our time was running out, we had to call it a day. This was the state of the battlefield at the end of it.
It's fair to say that both Joseph and Niklas suffered from some bad luck.
If Niklas hadn't chosen to go for me first and got bogged down on that end of the battlefield, Joseph might have stood a chance of scoring more points, as a number of his units didn't get to fight.
If I hadn't had the Caltrops card, I have no doubt that Niklas' lancers would have ridden down my marauders and torn a hole through my right flank, with spare units to mop up the rest of my men or to redirect his attacks towards Joseph.
The Final Score
As the shop was about to close and our turn 5 ended, we counted up the bodies.
Niklas had scored 5 tokens, Joseph got 7 and - to my surprise - I had amassed a whopping 12!
Suffice to say that, having gone into my first game in years hoping not to embarrass myself, I was thrilled to come away victorious.
Slaanesh, your humble servant honours you!
All that remains is for me to thank Joseph and Niklas for their patience in reteaching the rules to me and for giving me such a great game.
Now... Where did that pot of yellow paint go? I have a Talabecland army to paint!
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