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(Note: There was a pseudo-episode zero for this project, but ]it didn’t have any pictures. Should be able to check it out here.)

Although I'm super excited to see the new Dwarfs coming down the line, I've finally made enough progress on my little alternative project to post a little something. There's an embarrassing lack of paint on this project, and for that I sincerely apologize and hope to steadily remedy for future installments.

This project came about as a desire to play around with movement and to a much lesser degree, magic after grinding along with my dwarfs. As a result, the list is hardly optimized, though it is pretty intensely themed. Plans are in the works to expand up to 2, 2.4, and 2.5K, but for now 1K is here to keep my motivation up and (as you will see) show me just how little I know about what to do with things that move more than 6" in a turn.

The Shrieking Requiem (1,000 pt version)

Sorcerer Level 2 upgrade <Cacophonic choir, Acquiescence, Hysterical Frenzy), mark of slaanesh, steed of slaanesh, spell familiar, ruby ring of ruin, enchanted shield, luckstone, ALL OF THE ITEMS -235 pts

5 Marauder cav Flails, musician, standard, mark of slaanesh -105 pts
5 Marauder cav Spears, javelins, shields, musician, mark of slaanesh -100 pts
5 warhounds vanguard -40 pts
5 warhounds vanguard -40 pts
Chaos chariot mark of slaanesh, appallingly unfinished -115 pts

5 hellstriders hellscourge, musician -110 pts
5 chaos knights mark of slaanesh, musician, ensorcelled weapons, standard, musician, gleaming pennant -245 pts

990 pts total (whoops! forgot to spend 10!)


The valiant opposition, ably guided by Brian

Wizard lord ><Lore of Light- Shem's, Speed of Light, Timewarp>

6 knights musician
6 knights musician
11 crossbows
11 crossbows

3 demigryphs some upgrades?
15-ish greatswords quite likely full command?


Brian and I are both quite rusty neither of us getting much game time in of late. We threw together a table, and I won the roll-off for choice. I picked a side heavy with woods, with the thought that I didn't want to get my cav hung up in the trees when charging, but it gave him a building... In retrospect I might have reversed the choice, but I thought the lines of engagement would be drawn in his half of the field, and I wanted to see if I could get up to any building shenanigans with all my speedy stuff. Weirdly, it didn't occur to me that it might be really hard to dig the empire out of said building...

My main concern at a glance was that Shem’s and the crossbows were all well positioned to do work on all my light units. In return, the only things I had that could really get any work done against armor were the knights, chariot and Choir castings. That being said, the only real tough nut to crack looked to be those demigryphs. If I had a chance to pre-empt the charge from the regular knights, they’d be pretty ineffective. My plan was to start with a spread, then use my greater number of deployments and vanguard to zip over to one side, punch through it and roll through targets of opportunity from there.

After deployment, I promptly forgot that 26 of the 32 models in my army had vanguard, but Brian was a gentleman and let me take the moves. With the plus 1 to go first, Brian got the first crack and away we went. Note: Deployment pic not taken, but you'll get a good sense in a minute.

First turn

The empire knights on my extreme left charged a unit of cav who gleefully fled, as I was determined to enjoy the benefits of fast cav. In this case, it actually made some sense, though. The knights duly failed their charge.

Otherwise movement was limited, besides the wizard lord & co establishing Fort Awesome in the building. Somehow, I hadn’t thought about what I would do in this case



Years of yearning for more maneuverability, and my first act is to push it all forward? Weak sauce.

For magic, I only needed to shut down Shem’s which I happily did. Crossbow shooting was awful, with one unit failing to score a single hit at long range, and the other killing only a single hound.


In my turn, I boldly proceeded with the original “push it all forward, but only at one part of his army”. I threw in some suave formation changes because they were free. They also let me pack in to a tighter space.

Magic! How exciting! The sorcerer leapt up on the back of his steed, produced a guitar and played some super hot licks that made one of the demi-gryphs swoon. The sorcerer himself cried a single she-manly tear and vowed not to play something so blisteringly juicy for the rest of the evening. (That is to say, a 4 dice casting of Cacophonic Choir on the demis produced 4 wounds and a miscast that lost both wizard levels).

With the deadly throwing spears well out of range, there was no devastating Warriors shooting phase to be had.

Turn 2

This turn started off with the knights on my left again attempting to charge the spear marauders who fled, though this time I’d manage to set it up so that they would flee closer to where my forces were already stacked,



The spear cav don’t have much of a poker face.


Brian was a little jammed up- his knights had a screen of hounds, his Demigryph were still random move D6 (courtesy of choir) and the crossbows had plenty of targets but only one shooting phase to take action.

To my surprise, the crossbows charged my sorcerer and flail marauders- with access to combat buffs and given the fragile nature of my marauder cav this was actually a decent move. Looking at the picture now, I think I could have probably fled to safety without much risk of being caught, but in the game I decided to hold instead.

The near knights charged my hounds, and the demigryphs wandered forward, absently humming their new favorite song.

I believe Brian made have made a game changing error in this magic phase- the dice dropped with enough for his level 3 to cast two spells. He elected to Shem’s the Hellstriders and throw a buff into combat. I had enough dice to more or less guarantee one dispel. I was able to let the hellstriders take their hit (losing a merciful two) and shut down the combat buff. If Brian had thrown for both buffs, he might have gotten one through which could have tipped the combat.

Instead, the combat phase rolled round and while the sorcerer decided to gesticulate rudely instead of actually taking part in the combat, his escort killed enough to win the combat by one (though the empire troops held).

In a more bizarre turn of events, the charging knights killed only a single hound while the other four held on a 6. Errrm….



In my turn two, pretty much everything charged- the hellstriders went in to run off the crossbows, my knights were barely able to sneak a charge into the flank of the knights who attacked the dogs (though I needed to clip to do so) and the chariot hit the flank of the same. The hounds screening the demigryphs needed to charge to clear the lane, so went to sacrifice themselves on the ‘gryphs.



Picture taken part way through the ‘gryphs vs. hounds combat, because that’s a good time to take a picture, right?

I had a scary moment when I fought the hound combat first, and the demis had to kill the last hound with a stomp- if he’d somehow survived to flee, I’d have taken a demigryph charge in the flank of my chariot, and wouldn’t that be horrible… FORESHADOWING!!!!

The light cav units left only a single survivor in the crossbows, and let him flee away, so that I could help elsewhere if needed.

The crushing charge of 5 chaos knights (though only one in contact) and a chariot into the flank of 6 empire knights had some of its glory stolen by the fact that there were still plenty of dogs for the knights to kill. Also by the fact that my chariot wasn’t even fully assembled, much less painted. Also by the fact that I killed exactly zero with 6 WS5 Str 5 swings and 4 Str 5 impact hits. Ruh roh. Now that the empire knights didn’t need to waste time with those awful lances, they remembered how to kill dogs, and hacked up three of them. The last one promptly gnawed a knight to death, completely embarrassing my heavy hitters. This last valiant bite won me the combat, but the knights held, leaving my chariot open for a bit of a flank charge from the demigryphs…

Turn 3

In go the gryphs! The other knights hit a charge from way downtown to try to help (though this probably was more of a hindrance as it let 4 more chaos knights fight). Nothing was accomplished in the magic phase- thanks to a whiffed casting on awful dice on Brian’s part.

The decisive combat of the game then took place. Apparently, this was some kind of mysterious charging-is-terrible vortex, because… a couple knightly orders were cut down, the charging knights failed to score any kills, and the demigryph cav didn’t cause a single wound on the flank of the chaos chariot. Slaanesh wins by the loneliest number and the demigryphs flee to hid their shame. This turns out to be very poor timing.



hahaho Slaanesh jokes

The Hellstriders charge the ‘gryphs off the board, then redirect into the last crossbowman, whose soul is apparently super primo, because they power up when they catch him.

The empire knights have had enough and make a run for it- one unit is caught and the other takes the chaos knights over to the other empire shooters.

At this point, the game is pretty much a wrap- a scary point arises when a boosted shem’s takes a wound off my sorcerer and I realize that I can’t get far enough away to avoid another hit (and no longer have any units at 5+), but the empire wizard obliging forgets the spell on his miscast.

I spend the rest of the game sprinting in circles around the building, lobbing spears and ruby ring fireballs into the building for fun, while the chaos knights clean up the rest of the stragglers.

Result: ~625-185 for a Slaanesh victory!

Very entertaining read, especially about your mistakes . Despite the tone of your reports, you always seem to play quite well! Looking forward to your having the mobility to play with, although your new magic phase was short lived

I think the link in the first line of your post is broken, just FYI.

Magic! How exciting! The sorcerer leapt up on the back of his steed, produced a guitar and played some super hot licks that made one of the demi-gryphs swoon. The sorcerer himself cried a single she-manly tear and vowed not to play something so blisteringly juicy for the rest of the evening. (That is to say, a 4 dice casting of Cacophonic Choir on the demis produced 4 wounds and a miscast that lost both wizard levels).

This ... is a thing of beauty

Stupendous wee report, and just when I clicked down for something to read Also Victory!

- Salvage

@RT:

Thanks! I think I can make some good decisions in the moment, but especially with the new army, I'm having a hard time thinking much beyond the immediate turn. I also kinda diced Brian up here more than doing anything terribly clever.

Also, link fixed!

@ Boss: Thank you, sir! Was inspired to get back on the report train with the Coruscating reports out there.



------

Quick hit after-action thoughts:

I quite like the sorcerer build- even at level 2, with the ring and familiar, he gets access to 4 spells. He does need to switch from an enchanted shield to a charmed shield, though. With the small unit sizes (especially at 1K) he's going to be exposed to a lot more heavy hits from ranged threats. With his speed, he can safely pick his fights for the combat phase.

So far the chariot doesn't seem *too* slow, but I do worry that it will always be lagging a bit too far behind the rest. I guess it'll be nice for covering rear & flanks of units that have pushed forward.

Armor is tough to crack as the list stands- as the army grows, characters and razor standard are going to need to enter the mix for a little more help in that department. Came close to losing this one on the strength of passed 1+ saves.

I didn't get a chance to try it, but I'm not sure what would have happened if I'd laid a random move spell on the unit in the building?

But bottom line- that speed is fun!

Have not read the report yet, but before I do I wanted to throw "Requiem for a Scream" in the ring as title for this and future threads

EDIT: Read the report. Good times! I think it is interesting for you to be switching from the slowest infantry (3") to the fastest cavalry (10") in the game! Will probably be pretty unwieldy for a few games. As for the "thinking beyond one turn" dilemma, this game was probably a case of "too much cavalry" on the table haha. Both you and your opponent were using a lot of fast units, so the game became a slap-fest quickly.

I love the build on your sorcerer though! I like that you have 4 spells to throw around at low points levels. Can't recall the points, but anyway to squeeze a power stone in there? The extra dice might come in handy on a low winds roll.... and is excessive in the most slaanesh-y way.

Did you consider play testing lances on the knights for added armor penetration at lower games? Even without the AP banner, str 6 takes off half of the 1+ save.

Keep the reports coming! Great read.

Pervertdhermit wrote:

I love the build on your sorcerer though! I like that you have 4 spells to throw around at low points levels. Can't recall the points, but anyway to squeeze a power stone in there? The extra dice might come in handy on a low winds roll.... and is excessive in the most slaanesh-y way.

Would be sweet, but unfortunately the Familiar is not just a gift, but also counts as an arcane item.

Did you consider play testing lances on the knights for added armor penetration at lower games? Even without the AP banner, str 6 takes off half of the 1+ save.

Definitely. At 2000+ I'm debating between 9 knights with ensorcelled and razor standard, or 6 w/razor standard and lances, 6 w/flaming ensorcelled. The latter option is substantially more expensive, but it also isn't carrying a sign that says "wipe this unit out ftw".

Definitely like the 6 and 6 plan, especially with your mobile msu theme in my mind.

I am of the opinion that knights should never be grinding other units, so if 6+ a charge can't wipe or route what you hit, then I doubt 9 would.

Shame about the familiar, forgot it was "arcane." Enough shenanigans for one character though!

Poor brian, those dice were not kind to him, Also for your warhounds, would you consider poisoned attacks?

I have considered it- and would have tried it out if I realized I was 10 pts short. My only concern is that it drives the dog units all the way up to 45 pts apiece. Which is still pretty expendable I suppose.

The other consideration is whether its just giving me more ability to deal with stuff I can already manage.

Any chance you'll be using this army in a league, or shooting for an event to have it ready for? Just curious if there is an over-arching plan / goal or if you are more on your own motivation this time

It's not part of a league, but I'd like to work my way to 2400/2500 pts for either Northstar GT (Twin Cities) or Alamo GT (San Antonio) in November of this year. Maybe some stuff on the way in (certainly small in-town stuff). I think I'll need the motivation to be able to make time for it.

Awesome report. I've had an army very similar to that 1 quarter built for aaaaaaages, and never got round to finishing it because I ran out of motivation to paint horses.

Looks like it plays somewhat as I expected it might. Excited to see what it does against large blocks at higher point levels!

Goodnight averland lolololol. Brilliant bat rep, very funny

So I've played a few games but they weren't necessarily worthy of full reports- all armies involved are nascent and/or WIP. As a result, they aren't really visually great, but I thought I'd post some comments on the the progression of practice games.

1000 points vs. VC - Watchtower (Ruh Roh...)

The immediate assessment on this when we rolled up was that I was in trouble- to control the watchtower, I had exactly 2 units that could garrison- my 2 packs of warhounds. My list was as presented above, though the hounds had been given poison to eat up the last 10 points and the enchanted shield was swapped for a charmed shield. The VC had:

Vampire, level 2, Summon Creatures of the night, unknown equipment [Invocation, Wind of Death]
Necromancer [Invocation]
2 big blocks of zombies, standard & musician
20-ish ghouls, ghast
2 packs of 5 direwolves
5 hexwraiths
3 vargeists

I had the same spell set-up: Acquiescence, Hysterical Frenzy, Cacophonic. My priority was going to be on getting rid of the hexwraiths so that the knights could operate freely, assaulting the building on foot if it became necessary. Otherwise, it would be sacrifice everything to keep dogs in the tower.

I made some mistakes- not seeing some double charges and giving up a couple pieces of chaff too cheaply. I managed to shred up the hexwraiths with magic, though it took the better part of 4 magic phases. I *did* feel like I had 4 spells that were effective/threatening almost every turn which was great, especially since they were relatively cheap. I also caught the Vargheists with an Acquiescence and then ripped 'em up with knights. For the enemy, I went all in trying to stop wind of death, since there were more zombies than I could reasonably kill anyway. Unfortunately, 2 Winds of Death got through and had my sorcerer hanging on one wound, and just a couple of knights left.

The dogs got in the tower Turn 4, stayed through Turn 5, but the game continued through both. Knights and cav kept one block of zombies and the ghouls from getting in. My valiant, shabby chariot tanked (and amazingly chopped through) an entire block of zombies solo to give me a chance, but I left an opening, and 10 skeletons managed to get in and kill all 5 hounds on the bottom of 6, after which the game promptly ended!

Result: Loss for the Requiem! I had opportunities and the game winning charge was just able to squeak through a gap I hadn't expected after another unit charged out of the way. I could have pretty easily blocked this off, if I'd spotted it, though I'd have risked a panic check on the dogs at Ld 8.

Next up- a blurb report for Ogre Kingdoms...

Next up was a tangle with 1000 pt Dawn attack vs. Ogre Kingdoms:

Eric was newer to the game, so this was pretty relaxed.

Firebelly, fencer's blades, (other stuff?) [Fireball]
11 Ironguts, standard, banner of swiftness
2 x solo sabretusks
4 x leadbelchers
2 x Mournfang, standard, dragonhide banner

I decided to start flipping 50/50 for lore so I could get some practice with Shadow vs. Slaanesh and this one came up Shadow. 1,1,6 converted to Miasma, Enfeeble, Mindrazor. I could've taken Pit instead of Enfeeble, but liked the idea of 3 combat buffs to push through.

I was able to pretty easily correct deployment issues with vanguard and first turn movement, though I accidentally left my sorcerer to take a full salvo of leadbelcher shot. A scary moment, but he merged without injury. The ogres moved first- between that and my vanguards, we ended up in combat on the bottom of turn one. I ran a bunch of high reward, moderate risk gambles that paid off-

1- Hellstriders shredded a sabretusk that would have them fighting the mournfang on the overun, but it paid off by panicking the mournfang away (who didn't rally).
2- A complicated combo charge ended up putting the chariot into the flank of the guts on its own, but with the help of enfeebling, the chariot won the combat and broke the guts, catching them.

That was pretty much the game. I did get a bit of practice setting up some fail-safes in case the charges didn't go well, but they turned out to be unnecessary since the Ogres failed all the important leadership checks. We played the end out, but the leadbelchers couldn't pull off the Disney comeback, and the fatties were tabled for no VPs lost in return.

Result: Requiem victory

I wasn't trying for the crushing win like this, given that Eric was new, but leadership woes decided the game. I recommended he swap in the Gleaming Pennant on the guts for a little insurance on the big block. He also learned some of the liabilities associated with the otherwise wonderfully priced tusks, so I don't expect to see that again.

Shadow might be a less offensive lore than Slaanesh with this list- getting shadow to work means that I have to commit to combats in order to win. Lore of Slaanesh means I might try to take the game by dancing the whole time...

Wow, having a single chariot take out the ironguts is great. But it looks like he was just running them pretty minimally, rather than the gut-stars with 3+ characters in them (obviously not real points for that at this level)

It seems like your list perfomed a lot better with Shadow, and when you go up in points you can do the neat swapping characters trick (or at least, when you go up in points). I like it

Against a real gut star, I'd have to avoid it, pit it (shadow), or stall it with Slaanesh lores.

The shadow magic seems like it would be less frustrating for opponents, since it needs me to get into combat to really benefit. And movement shenanigans would be super fun!

Shadow would allow your shooting to be more effective too, but as this consists of 5 javelins it probably isnt worth mentioning

Shadow does give some of your combat units a bit of a buff that they seem to need, but as you say it needs you to get into combat really which gives your opponent a turn or so free where they know they dont need to use their scroll...movement shenanigans with a choppy exalted/lord? Deal! Can you do the shadow swap wioth a DP? That seems like it could be fun(/evil)

You can do the swap... but it has to be of the same unit type. So you could only swap a monster with a monster. Not so bueno.

Aw nuts!

Wasnt sure of the wording...Still, would be great way of getting your sorc out of a challenge situation (not an actual challenge, just a circumstance where one might occur in case anyone jumps on that ). I imagine you will go down an unkillable Exalted BSB route eventually?

Any idea on when you will expand up to 1500? or 2k for that matter...excited to see the additions

Great to see you enjoying your warhams again Zeke, i know you were a little burned out on the stunties a while back.

@Reiko: Thanks for the thoughts! I'm definitely excited to pull off something fun with the shadow attribute.

I have about 90% of what I need for 2000-2200. I'm planning on building it out to get a feel for things while I finish painting. I hope to hit 2K in the next couple months, and get the first 1K painted in that same time frame. Hopefully, I'd be able to take the whole thing to The Northstar GT in early November.

By unkillable exalted, do you mean- Demonic Steed + Ward save/armor re-rolls? I'll definitely be on a Steed of Slaanesh. I have two builds to experiment with when I bump up again:

This guy would be in a list with the level 4:

Exalted, BSB, Mark of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Shield, Dragonhelm, Biting blade, Dawnstone, Poisonous slime, Soulfeeder

This guy would be in a list with a Lord and a Level 2:

Exalted, BSB, Mark of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Shield,
Ruby Ring, Luckstone, Dragonhelm, Tormentor Blade?

The latter isn't as exciting but needs to be a little more budget/generalist.

I managed to get another game in today and will do another blurb report tomorrow (hopefully). It was against another OK (3 times vs. OK and three different players) who was running a list very very similar to the last. I randomized on to Lore of Slaanesh, so it was interesting to compare. More to follow!

I played yet another 1000 point game against Ogre Kingdoms last night. Believe it or not, these have been against 3 different players.

We were playing Battle for the Pass:

Aaron had:

Firebelly, potion of speed, other stuff? <Fireball>
5 Ironguts, full command, standard of discipline
3 Mournfang, ironfists
Ironblaster
3 leadbelchers, bellower
Sabretusk
Sabretusk

This was similar to my last opponent, but I thought it was a bit stronger- the threats were more spread out which made it less clear how to dance around it. For this game, I randomized on to Lore of Slaanesh. As a reminder, I had:

Sorcerer Level 2 upgrade <Acquiescence, Hysterical Frenzy, Phantasmagoria>, mark of slaanesh, steed of slaanesh, spell familiar, ruby ring of ruin, charmed shield, luckstone, ALL OF THE ITEMS -235 pts

5 Marauder cav Flails, musician, standard, mark of slaanesh -105 pts
5 Marauder cav Spears, javelins, shields, musician, mark of slaanesh -100 pts
5 warhounds vanguard, poison -45 pts
5 warhounds vanguard, poison -45 pts
Chaos chariot mark of slaanesh, slightly less unfinished -115 pts

5 hellstriders hellscourge, musician -110 pts
5 chaos knights mark of slaanesh, musician, ensorcelled weapons, standard, musician, gleaming pennant -245 pts


My spell roll was 3, 5, 5, which, given that signature was pretty trash here, meant Phantasmagoria, Frenzy and one other. I went for Acquiescence, but almost immediately regretted not picking up choir when I realized I didn't have a lot of tools for the Mournfang.

As for the scenario- Battle for the Pass had me a little worried about having enough room to maneuver, but it also meant that I had a better chance of creating panic problems in the tighter confines.

Highlights:

- I noticed a tusk that had strayed too close to the mournfang and tried to kill it with javelins and magic. Unfortunately, a 6,1 magic phase (plus Ogre channel) meant we were dice vs. dice and nothing got through. Then the stand and shoot with javelins killed the tusk and panicked the mournfang who were escorted off the board. Success!

- Between vanguard and first turn move, hellstriders shot right past the sabretusk on their side and looked at the flank of all the ogre units. They went into the flank of the ironblaster, caused no wounds lost one in return (to the gnoblar!) won by one, and ran it down the the help of phantasmagoria.

- Exactly one spell was cast in this game. We each dispelled everything on Turn one with dice vs. dice, I miscast phantasmagoria and forgot all my spells (totally worth it, see above), and the firebelly was in combat the rest of the game.

- A double flee, and then sacrificing the flails let the chariot and knights combo charge the guts and firebelly. In typical fashion the knights did lots of damage, but got killed in one round by 3 guts and the firebelly. Fortunately, the ogres continued to fail all leadership checks and were run down by the chariot.

Result: Requiem victory! This was another tabling- I was the beneficiary of some pretty poor leadership checks from the ogres- and if the guts had held things might have gone sideways. This was also my first casting of Phantasmagoria, and it was sweet (though 1K vs. Ogres who can't afford a BSB is probably an ideal environment).

 Red_Zeke wrote:
@Reiko: Thanks for the thoughts! I'm definitely excited to pull off something fun with the shadow attribute.

I have about 90% of what I need for 2000-2200. I'm planning on building it out to get a feel for things while I finish painting. I hope to hit 2K in the next couple months, and get the first 1K painted in that same time frame. Hopefully, I'd be able to take the whole thing to The Northstar GT in early November.

By unkillable exalted, do you mean- Demonic Steed + Ward save/armor re-rolls? I'll definitely be on a Steed of Slaanesh. I have two builds to experiment with when I bump up again:

This guy would be in a list with the level 4:

Exalted, BSB, Mark of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Shield, Dragonhelm, Biting blade, Dawnstone, Poisonous slime, Soulfeeder

This guy would be in a list with a Lord and a Level 2:

Exalted, BSB, Mark of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Shield,
Ruby Ring, Luckstone, Dragonhelm, Tormentor Blade?

The latter isn't as exciting but needs to be a little more budget/generalist.

I managed to get another game in today and will do another blurb report tomorrow (hopefully). It was against another OK (3 times vs. OK and three different players) who was running a list very very similar to the last. I randomized on to Lore of Slaanesh, so it was interesting to compare. More to follow!

No problem

yeah those look like the builds i was thinking of. Interesting second build there, a little cheaper obviously, but i like the inclusion of the ruby ring!

looking forward to hearing more from you as the games ramp up does this mean its only a month till some pretty painted minis hit my optic nerves? pleasepleaseplease...

@Reiko: Yup, pictures should be forthcoming in 1-2 months I'm thinking. At least at the 1K level.


So... for the fourth time in the first 6 games with the Screaming Requiem, I ran up against Ogre Kingdoms. His list looked like:

Firebelly Level 2, unknown equipment <Flaming sword, flame cage>
9 ironguts Bellower, standard bearer, banner of discipline
2 Mournfang Standard, musician, banner of swiftness
2 solo sabretusks
2 gorgers

My list remained unchanged. I randomized on to lore of Slaanesh. The roll came up 2, 3, 4 and since Lash is pretty pants against Ogres, that's what I stuck with. (That's Pavanne, Hysterical Frenzy, and Slicing Shards for those not in the know). I think this might have been the weakest possible 3 spell set I could roll up against Ogres, but more on that later.

There was no way I could get the guts unless they were seriously depleted first- I've learned that it only takes a few living to chop up knights pretty bad. I also only had one combat buff (Frenzy) so committing to a borderline combat was going to be really dicey. I thought I should be able get everything else, though the mournfang needed to be charged with the knights rather than vice-versa. I decided to try to whittle the guts all game with damage spells (i.e. all of my spells!) and pick off everything else.

Eric was hoping to see how gorgers might play out- we initially rolled up Battle for the Pass, but given its restrictions for ambushers, we re-rolled into a Dawn Attack- same as the first time we tangled...

Deployment: Dawn attack led to a bizarre setup where most of my army, including my slowest elements got jammed in the far left while most of the Ogres were over in the opposite corner. We both had a lot of speed to adapt, and it made for a real interesting lead up to the decisive turns.

Highlights: I tried to slow the Ogres while I maneuvered for position, but I hadn't quite set my double flees right, and did so at the cost of my flail cav and one pack of hounds for not a lot of gain. On top of that both gorgers arrived and wisely chose to pressure my two slower elements.

- Things were looking dire when the chariot was busy "dog-fighting" for position with one gorger and the other managed to grab the knights and kill two before he was put down. Fortunately, my other units were able to harry the two mainline ogre units into a positioning mistake and the remaining knights and chariot made a 7 and 8 on their charge dice respectively to double up on the mournfang and wipe them out.

- An entire game of chipping away with throwing spears, magic, and an ogre miscast slowly ground the guts down to about half strength. Then a top of turn 6 dimensional cascade (firebelly dodged the pit) left the unit small enough that the knights and chariot were able to finish the job.

- The sorcerer managed to miscast three times despite never rolling more than 4 dice at anything. This was a perhaps a problem with needing casting lots of smaller spells, none of which were decisive (and thus, strictly speaking, "worth" the miscast). The final miscast occurred when the sorcerer was on his last wound, which made for a pretty cold-sweat moment.

Result: 1150-220 Requiem victory! That looks much, much more one sided than the game actually was. Up to the end of Turn 4 the game was very, very much in the balance, and the last 700 or so points were picked up in the bottom of 6 (guts & banner, firebelly & general bonus).

Cheers for the blurbs RZ, and 'grats on the killing spree versus ogres after ogres after ogres Quite excited to see you move into larger points ... and face another army

- Salvage

Nice reports Zeke! Glad to see the Northmen carving a little kingdom out of Ogre lands! If you are planning on being down here for any texas tournaments, hit me up ahead of time!

Agree with Salvage. I think your list versus an army with more ranks will be interesting.

Small, fast Cav units vs. Steadfast is always the real pain.

Thanks for the brief write ups!

Boss Salvage wrote:...excited to see you move into larger points ... and face another army

You and me both!

Kiwidru wrote:Nice reports Zeke! Glad to see the Northmen carving a little kingdom out of Ogre lands! If you are planning on being down here for any texas tournaments, hit me up ahead of time!

Absolutely! I'd like to get back to Alamo or Bayou this year or next, but there's a lot of stuff in flux just yet. Using Chaos knights reminds me of our games- really prone to wildly different dice changes.

Pervertdhermit wrote:I think your list versus an army with more ranks will be interesting.

I agree! And by "interesting" I would mean potentially way harder. I think at higher levels I'll have less room to boogie out of the way of things, and the other units will be filled up with more ranks and such. I definitely think I'm at an advantage in these small games.

Thanks for the comments guys!

Good report! Keep it up.

I think your ability to dodge/ remove chaff quickly (or even counter-chaff) the opponent is going to be essential.

Looking forward to some more reports! Really like the style of the list so far.