Father and son go at it. My son (17) likes to run Chaos, he likes the powerful stuff. In the last few games I have run Empire or Kislev -and he gets shot to pieces (he hasn’t learned screening with expendables yet). So this time I went with Norsca, because there were no shooters, so Kyle could get his melee units in combat at full strength (for once). Archers wouldn’t do much against Chaos Armor anyway. I also decided to go with a couple of deep units (5x10) so I could still hit hard after taking big losses. My guys needed can-openers to fight off Chaos armor, so everyone who can has 2 handed axes.
Norse leaders are cheap, so I have two “kings” in my 3000 point army. The king is called “Ragnar the Unlucky” as his luck is terrible, even by my standards. In his last couple of battles he has failed in a rather unheroic fashion. The other is Queen Lagertha “The Dragon-slayer” for obvious reasons. I switched some of their kit around hoping to bolster Ragnar.
3000 points – Battle for the Pass (4'x6' table)
The Set up: Chaos on top, Norsca on bottom
The Norse:
King Ragnar: Beserker sword, girdle of might (221)
Queen Lagertha: Obsidian blade, Armor of Destiny (228)
Raven Banner (159)
Ragnar’s Skald (119)
Level II Seer (125) – dispel scroll
Jora & Bjorn the Bear (245)
Ragnar’s Ruffians: 48 Marauders w/ 2hand axe (356)
Lagertha’s Lionhearts: 49 Marauders w/ 2hand axe (353)
10 Beserkers (170)
8 Half-Giants (390)
5 Norse Horse (70)
5 Valkyries (335)
1 Ice Drake (225)
The Norse Host:
Ragnar's skald, Ragnar, Raven Banner, Seer
A unit of Beserkers
Lagertha's Lionhearts. The legend on the flag says "Chicken from the Sea" in Finnish
Ragnar's Ruffians
Ice Drake - Jora & Bjorn the Bear
Odin watches over his children
And the Valkyries
And last the Norse Horse
Chaos: (I don’t have the point totals):
Lord General on dragon
3 Skullcrushers of Khorne on juggernauts
12 Knights of Khorne
15 Chaos Warriors
14 Marauder Horse
14 Marauder Horse
14 Marauder Foot
10 Chaos warhounds
.
Turn #1
Both sides advance – not much happens
I should have switched Ragnar & Lagertha so that Ragnar was facing the dragon, but unfortunately didn’t think of it until it was too late. Dad made a mistake here -
Turn 2 – Dad’s Norsca
Lot’s of charges – from right to left
Lagertha and her unit charge the warrior knights and the dragon.
The half-giants join in Lagertha’s charge – much to their later regret.
• Lagertha kills 3 and her skald gets one. The rest of her unit got 6
• Half Giants kill seven,
• Chaos warriors kill 13 of Lagertha’s troops
• The dragon killed 8 (1/2 by stomp) and his rider got 3 more
• The Norse lose by 3, Lagertha and her warriors pass morale and stay
• The half-giants fail their morale by rolling an 11 and a 10. That’s what they get for being the unit next to Ragnar the Unlucky. They route.
Ragnar and his unit charge the Chaos knights before they can charge them
• Ragnar got 4, his skald got 1 and the rest of his unit got 5 more.
• The knights managed to kill 15 and win the fight
• Ragnar needed an 8 to stay in the fight and had two chances. Earning his nickname again, he rolled a 12 and a 9.
• At this point, I remembered that he should have gone first, not last, so we decided to let him stay as a compromise. (He killed enough that he woud have won combat had he gone first)
The beserkers burst out of the forest and charge light cavalry unit #1
• Both sides kill 4, but light cav wins by 1; Beserkers stick it out (they should have done better)
The Ice Drake – tries to charge but is totally unmotivated (charge roll = snake eyes)
Jora & the Bear = same deal as above, Bjorn the Bear takes a wound anyway.
The Norse Horse skirmish with the wolves and kill one
My wizard cast a spell on enemy dragon, but it didn’t help enough
Turn 2 – Kyle’s Chaos
Two new charges – and a couple of continuing fights
Unit of wolves charge the Norse Horse – they lose 1 fig to stand and shoot
• The Norse Horse kill 4 more, the Wolves get 1, they route but escape
Chaos chariot decides to charge Ragnar’s unit in flank. I thought this was a mistake – I think he should have charged the routing half-giants.
Kyle’s light cav kills my bear – Jora (his girlfriend) is upset.
As for the ongoing fights:
Beserkers v Chaos light horse
• The light horse win by one and route the beserkers – they are overrun
• That’s what the beserkers get for being on the flank of Ragnar.
Ragnar v 2 surviving Chaos knights and chariot on the flank
• The chariots kill 3 on Impact
• Ragnar moves to take on the chariot, while his men finish off the knights. There are no Chaos survivors.
Lagertha v Chaos foot knights and the dragon
• Lagertha slays the dragon rider (in retrospect – should have sent her after dragon)
• Lagertha’s troops do enough damage to eliminate the foot knights, but the dragon stays. She fails to reform.
Turn 3 – Dad’s Norse
The Norse Horse pursue the fleeing wolves and overtake them. The Chaos light horse decide it’s time to get out of Dodge and also break and flee.
Valkyrie maneuvered to check the light horse who have pursued into a light wood (not dangerous terrain)
Half-giants rally
Lagertha v Dragon
• Lagertha continues to fight it out. She must be getting tired (1/4 hits on a 3+).
• The Dragon is slowly whittling down her force
Turn 3 – Kyle’s Chaos
Mostly maneuvering
Lagertha v Dragon
• For the 2nd turn in a row, Lagertha rolls ¼ hits on a 3+
• Lagertha has had enough, her unit flees. Fortunately, the dragon does not pursue as it is too busy morning the loss of its rider.
Turn 4 – Dad’s Norse
Norse realize that the dragon is grieving for his dead master and refuses to leave his body. They can just ignore him for rest of battle. Even as she flees, Lagertha decides to call this another dragon slayed, “It still counts!”
The Norse wizard lays a double whammy on the Juggernauts, they suffer -3 to their strength and -2 to their toughness.
The Norse Horse charge the routing light horse, they escape but are out of the fight.
Jora and the Ice Drake charge a unit of Chaos Marauders
• Jora gets 1, the Ice Drake gets 4 and the marauders give the drake 1wound
• The marauders break and are over-run by Jora
The Valkyries finally get in the fight and charge the light horse who beat the beserkers
• The Valkyries take the entire unit to Valhalla (8 kills, no survivors)
Turn 4 – Kyle’s Chaos
Kyle pins his hopes on being able to dispel the damaging spells on his juggernauts and decides to charge Ragnar’s unit.
Chaos wizard dispels anti-strength spell but fails to dispel the anti-toughness spell. That will have huge repercussions in the battle to come.
The Juggernauts charge Ragnar
• The Juggernauts and their riders kill 9 Norsemen
• Ragnar kills 2, his skald fails, his standard bearer gets 1 and the rest get 3
• The Juggernauts win by 3, but Ragnar hangs tough for once
With only 1 juggernaut surviving – and sure to be killed by Ragnar (he would have been – we rolled it) – and no other troops left on board – Chaos concedes.
Funny, most expensive units (Valkyries and half giants) didn’t do much. The cheap guys – and there were a lot of them – did all the damage. With help from Ragnar & Lagertha of course.
Norse Chaos
King Ragnar
Ragnar’s Skald
Ragnar’s Army standard
Queen Lagertha – fleeing
Seer
Jora
Bjorn the Bear – KIA
5 Norse Horse (4)
5 Valkyries (5)
1 Ice Drake (1)
48 Ragnar’s Marauders (17)
49 Lagertha’s Marauders (12-fleeing)
10 Beserkers (0)
8 Half Giants (8) Lord General – KIA
Dragon Mount
3 Skullcrushers of Khorne (1)
12 Knights of Khorne (0)
15 Chaos Warriors (0)
14 Marauder Horse (0)
14 Marauder Horse (14 – fleeing)
14 Marauder Foot (0)
10 Chaos warhounds (0)
First number is strength at start, Number in parins is the survivors
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