First game of AoS, DE vs Warriors of Chaos

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First game of AoS, DE vs Warriors of Chaos

Post by Icon hack »

Thanks to Barking Agatha for inspiring me to write this all out.

For our first game of AoS we decided to put together a couple basic forces that would give us a taste of how the new rules work. By chance we ended up with exactly 75 models per side, though Chaos ended up with a slight advantage in total Wounds (148 vs 138). All in all, I think it was a pretty evenly matched game.

DE Warscrolls: (75 models, 138 Wounds)

Dreadlord on Cold One
Dark Elf Sorceress
Master with Battlestandard on Dark Steed
Death Hag

8x Cold One Knights
6x Dark Riders
6x Dark Riders
5x Doomfire Warlocks
Hydra
20x Black Guard
18x Witch Elves
5x Sisters of Slaughter
2x RBT


Chaos Warscrolls (75 Models, 148 Wnds)

Chaos Lord, Nurgle
Chaos Sorcerer Lord
Exalted Hero with Battle Standard

7x Chaos Knights
20x Warriors of Chaos (referred to below as ChW1)
10x Chosen
24x Marauders of Chaos
5x Chaos Trolls
6x Chaos Warhounds

Chaos finished deploying first and elected to go second on turn 1.

1Start of Turn 1.jpg



Turn 1
DE Advanced across the board and fired missile weapons. One unit of Dark Riders killed two Chaos Knights, the concentrated firepower of both Reaper Bolt Throwers killed 6 Marauders and 3 more fled the field.

Chaos Lord calls reinforcements in along DE side of table (second unit of Chaos Warriors, hereafter referred to as ChW2). Chaos Sorcerer summons a Nurgle Daemon Prince. Chaos Knights charge DR's, killing 4 Dark Riders, and lose 1 Knight. ChW2 charge RBT wiping out the warmachine and crew.

The attachment 2Chaos Warriors2.jpg is no longer available

Turn 2
Dark Elves win initiative and continue to advance in movement phase.

3DE turn2.jpg

DE Dreadlord uses command ability to bolster COK, who charge Chosen. Witch Elves drink Death Hag's brew and charge ChW1. Hydra breathes on Warhounds, then charges Marauders. Second RBT kills 2 Chaos Warriors in rear, then Sisters of Slaughter charge them and kill 1 more. When ChW2 attacks back, they kill 2 Sisters, but lose 2 more against bladed bucklers. WE kill 7 ChW1 and lose 7, COK kill 2 Chosen and lose 3, Hydra kills 8 Marauders. DE Dreadlord enters fight with ChW1 but does no damage, Chaos Lord enters fight with COK and kills one. Both Chaos Warrior units and the Marauders lose a few more during Battleshock phase.
4Hydra1.jpg

Chaos: Chaos Exalted Hero plants Battle Standard, Chaos Knights wheel around to threaten the DE Sorceress and Daemon Prince positions to charge Hydra but fails charge (snake eyes). Trolls vomit on second DR unit, then charge them, killing 1. Chaos Warhounds charge Warlocks but do no damage. Chosen grind out 2 more kills on COK and COK kill 1 chosen. WE and Dreadlord combine for 5 kills on ChW1, WE lose 2 girls in return. Hydra kills 2 more Marauders and the rest exit the field in the Battleshock phase. Chaos Knights charge DE Sorceress leaving nothing but a bloody stain on the grass.

5Shelfodeath_Start of Turn3.jpg

6Start of Turn 3.jpg

Turn 3
DE's win initiative roll again.
DE turn: Master w BS hold banner aloft. Death Hag drinks brew herself (combat has swept the
WE's out of range). Hydra regenerates 2 wnds. Hydra positions to breath on and charge Chaos Sorcerer. Warlocks move to intercept
Chaos Daemon. Black Guard wheel to left and march towards center of battlefield. RBT fires on Chaos Knights
and kills 1. Hydra breathes fire on the Chaos Sorcerer and kills him, then charges into the ChW1 unit, but
Dreadlord and WE combine to kill all but 1 Chaos Warrior, preventing the Hydra from being able to pile into them,
and one lone Warrior holds out in Battleshock phase.

7Hydra2.jpg

COK's miss the Chosen, and suffer 2 kills in return, wiping them out. Chosen also pile onto the Death Hag and
wound her twice. Trolls fail to regenerate, completely miss DR's and suffer another wound from them resulting in a
kill. The trolls then roll horribly in the Battleshock phase and two more trolls leave the field. ChW2 finish off Sisters of Slaughter.
Chaos turn: Chaos Lord charges DR's to help last Troll, killing 2 of them, but the D's kill off the last Troll. WE fail to
kill last ChW1, just wounding him, but he doesn't hurt them either. Chaos Knights charge the Master w Battle
Standard, doing 2 wounds, and suffering 1 wound. Chosen utterly disassemble Death Hag. Nurgle Daemon Prince charges
Warlocks killing 1. ChW2 charges second RBT, but only causes 1 wound.

8Nurgle Daemon.jpg

Chaos wins Turn 4 initiative roll.
9Start of Turn 4.jpg

Turn 4
Things are not looking very good for Chaos at this point. Most units are gone or heavily depleted and DE Black Guard
and Hydra are still 100% and the Witch Elves are only down to about 50%. The Daemon Prince is bogged down in combat,
the Chaos Knights are down to 3 models and Chosen are the only unit left that are still strong. There weren't really any catastrophic dice failures (except perhapts the Troll's Battleshock test), but there were a lot of small dice advantages for the DE's that added up. Chaos Lord fails his Unending Legion roll. It was getting late anyway, so Chaos resigns.

We had a great time, but it's a different game for sure. In previous editions, the strategy was all about army list composition and meticulously moving and positioning units to maximize combat resolution modifiers. I think for people who loved that, they will be disappointed with AoS. Now, the strategy focuses on positioning troops in the right places to gain synergistic bonuses, and picking the order of your attacks during the combat phase to either create more synergistic bonus, or maximize an enemy unit's losses before they can attack. "Getting the charge" still has it's advantages, but it's not nearly the all-important factor that it used to be.
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Re: First game of AoS, DE vs Warriors of Chaos

Post by Barking Agatha »

Icon hack wrote:Thanks to Barking Agatha for inspiring me to write this all out.


Thanks right back! :)
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Re: First game of AoS, DE vs Warriors of Chaos

Post by Icon hack »

Dalamar wrote:From all the reports I've read so far it looks like AoS is an expensive card game with miniatures instead of cards.

You build your "deck" based on synergies and then make them work in game. Difference being you start with all your "cards" available to you and don't need to count on luck of the draw.

If I wanted to play card games I'd play Hearthstone (which I do)

That's an interesting analogy and I do think it captures one dimension of the game perfectly. Yes, having a Death Hag with Witch Elves is an important tactical factor when choosing what to put on the table. That's not really much different from previous editions, though, is it?

But I think there are other dimensions to the game as well, that differentiate the feel of AoS from the feel of a card game. For example, at one point in this game I failed to realize that piling in would cause my Witch Elf unit to become separated from the Death Hag by more than 3" which prevented me from being able to take full advantage of that synergistic relationship. That's a tactical error of a different kind.

Also, as you state, I'm laying all my cards on the table to start, well so is your opponent. In a game like Hearthstone or MtG, I never know what my opponent is going to play to instantly change the landscape of the game but in WH and AoS all the cards are pretty much on the table to start and you can make tactical decisions differently.
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Re: First game of AoS, DE vs Warriors of Chaos

Post by Icon hack »

Killerk wrote:Iąm sorry but there is no tactical any thing in this game, you just push everything forward.... but you don't really need to do that as who ever has more elite models wins. I didn't want to write this earlier, as you took time to make this report, but all the AoS reports I read so far sound the same:
We pushed forward I lost there but rolled well and won there, in the end ... won the game. There is strategy in every game, but AoS destroyed that with deployment rules.
!lol! lol

No need to apologize, Killerk. I've seen you express your frustration with the changes in AoS in some of the other threads, and I happen to think it's completely understandable. AoS is absolutely a different game. As I mentioned in my write up, the days of spending three game turns painstakingly positioning units on the field so as to be able to get the charge and maximize combat res are gone. That's not part of this ruleset, period, and if that's what you loved about the game, I can see why it would be so upsetting for these new rules to come along and sweep that away. Some of the guys I game with feel the same way and don't want to try AoS, either. Ultimately do dice decide the victor? Yes, no doubt. Just like every other release from GW, the best laid plans can completely fall apart if you roll like shiz or your opponent rolls like a god. That aspect is the same as previous editions.

Personally, I got tired of the way GW kept regurgitating more or less the same system over and over with power creep in each army release to drive sales, and I put my figures away a few years ago and never even bothered to give 8th ed. a try. <shrug> It's a matter of personal taste, I think. But if you think tactics are absent, I don't think you could be more wrong. They've just changed, that's all and if you have no interest in adapting to the changes and moving forward (and again, I completely understand that point of view), then by all means, keep playing 8th ed.


@Barking Agatha: Some nice examples of tactics in planning charges, thanks for sharing. The more I looked at the game being played, the more I saw how much more flexible this aspect of the game has become, and how much more thought and planning that can go into it.
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Re: First game of AoS, DE vs Warriors of Chaos

Post by Red... »

Icon Hack wrote:"Getting the charge" still has it's advantages, but it's not nearly the all-important factor that it used to be.

Icon Hack wrote: I put my figures away a few years ago and never even bothered to give 8th ed. a try.


Yeah, I wondered if that might be the case. Getting the charge in 8th edition was not particularly important either. In 7th edition and before it meant you struck first and there was no stepping up or steadfast, so it really mattered hugely. In 8th edition, though, it had no impact upon who struck first (which was decided by initiative or special rules) and stepping up and steadfast meant that striking first was less important (although it still mattered). Charging in 8th edition did give you +1 combat res (and +2 strength if you had a lance), but other than that the only real advantage was getting to pick who you fought against, which sounds fairly similar to AoS. I think that the charging mechanic change is a much bigger alternation from 7th edition to AoS than from 8th edition to AoS.
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Re: First game of AoS, DE vs Warriors of Chaos

Post by Calisson »

Moderator's note.
As Barking Agatha has taken the time to develop an interesting post about charges, I feel it deserved its own thread.
It has been moved there: Charge tactics in AoS
Thank you.
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Re: First game of AoS, DE vs Warriors of Chaos

Post by Icon hack »

Makes a lot of sense to me, Red. Thanks for pointing this out to me.
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Re: First game of AoS, DE vs Warriors of Chaos

Post by Dalamar »

Red... wrote:
Icon Hack wrote:"Getting the charge" still has it's advantages, but it's not nearly the all-important factor that it used to be.

Icon Hack wrote: I put my figures away a few years ago and never even bothered to give 8th ed. a try.


Yeah, I wondered if that might be the case. Getting the charge in 8th edition was not particularly important either. In 7th edition and before it meant you struck first and there was no stepping up or steadfast, so it really mattered hugely. In 8th edition, though, it had no impact upon who struck first (which was decided by initiative or special rules) and stepping up and steadfast meant that striking first was less important (although it still mattered). Charging in 8th edition did give you +1 combat res (and +2 strength if you had a lance), but other than that the only real advantage was getting to pick who you fought against, which sounds fairly similar to AoS. I think that the charging mechanic change is a much bigger alternation from 7th edition to AoS than from 8th edition to AoS.


Getting the charge meant a lot more than that though. Positioning is the key in WFB and leading the charge allows you to use the rest of your movement phase to coordinate, redirect enemy units and support the charger. Then you still have the magic phase to support your unit in combat which you won't get if you get charged, it is often crucial if your magic is important to your troops.

In AoS it's not as much who gets the charge first, but how many charges are performed. You should aim to charge with a single unit, and receive charges with tight clusters of multiple units. That way on your turn, you only have to activate the unit that charged, and on your opponent's turn you get to activate multiple units close together.
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