OR wouldn't it be the perfect occasion for a wacky list? I just ran a Manticore + Hydra + Sacrifical Dagger list and won a tournament with it. It was pretty effective even though I had 2 units if Executioners with no Assassin, no Cauldron and no ASF banner. But man do Executioners die horribly if they are left to fight on their own
So wacky. Could I reach 200 Dark Elf models on the battle field? I have plenty painted but it won't leave much room for any toys. I figured I would have to get a little bit of boost for the hordes of spears I would have to field, and it would a great time to use my newly painted Assassin with a Handbow (it's crap, I know, I know) and BSB on a Dark Steed. I needed something fun as well. I wouldn't have any magic and pretty much no shooting so how about one of the most expensive banners in the game for my BSB... Banner of Naggarythe unfolds... Could work well in a MSU army. I also wanted to handicap my list with just using small max 15 man units and no command models. I was tempted to just play 14 man units so I couldn't even get 2 rank bonuses, but I settled for a mix of units with 15 down to 9 models. Not a single banner, lots os musicians and a lone Black Guard Champion with a big ring on his finger.
To the list. 194 warm bodies:
Dark Elves
Death Hag w Cauldron of Blood, naked
Master, Battle Standard, Heavy Armor, Seadragon Cloak, Shield, Dark Steed, Banner of Nagarythe
Assassin w Add hand weapon, Repeater Handbow, Touch of Death, Rune of Khaine
15 Warriors w shields, Musician
15 Warriors w shields, Musician
15 Warriors w shields, Musician
15 Warriors w shields, Musician
15 Warriors w shields, Musician
15 Warriors w shields, Musician
15 Warriors w shields, Musician
10 Warriors w shields, Musician
10 Warriors w shields, Musician
12 Corsairs, Musician
12 Corsairs, Musician
11 Corsairs with Handbows, Musician
10 Corsairs with Handbows, Musician
10 Corsairs with Handbows
9 Black Guard, Champion with Ring of Hotek
Warriors of Chaos
Chaos lord – Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Shield, Flail, Crimson armour of Dargan, Crown of everlasting conquest, Word of agony
Chaos sorcerer – Mark of Tzeentch, Lvl 2, Chaos steed, Book of Secrets, Dispel Scroll
Chaos sorcerer – Mark of Tzeentch, Lvl 2, Chaos steed, Infernal puppet, Spell familiar
Chaos sorcerer – Mark of Tzeentch, Lvl 2, Disc, Warrior familiar, Enchanted shield, Talisman of protection
10 Warriors of Chaos – Mark of Slaanesh, FC, Halberds, Shields, Banner of Wrath
5 Marauder horsemen – Mark of Slaanesh, Musician, Flails, Throwing axes
5 Marauder horsemen – Mark of Slaanesh, Musician, Spears, Throwing axes
5 Chaos hounds
5 Chaos knights – Mark of Nurgle, Standardbearer, Banner of rage
5 Chaos knights – Mark of Slaanesh, Musician
1 Hellcannon
So 42 models including the Hellcannon crew. I outnumber him with 4.5 to one
Lets see if I can make my numbers do the work. I am definitely outmatched in martial power. Most of my troops has a single S3 attack and 5+ armor. My biggest problem will probably be that the characters can't be engaged unless my opponent wants to and he had over 1000pts invested in them. I noticed that I had forgotten to give my BSB a weapon, great, a Lance could have helped in his support role, my opponent told me to play it as if he had one but I refused. If he forgot to bring it to battle he would have to manage without
The table had a forest, a diff, 2 hills and a large building to the side of the center. I basically spread out my troops across the board with 3 units on each side on flanking duty and the rest with the cauldron and BSB in the middle. My Black Guard deployed in the middle providing a nice 24" Hotek bubble. I would need it, he had rolled up 3 Flickering Fire and a Fireball... He stuck most of his stuff in the middle with 2 sorcerers with the warriors and Slaanesh knights on flanking mission with some Marauder cav.
Turn one
After my movement turn one.
He won the rolloff for turn one and gave me first turn... No stupidity, no magic, and only some 8" shooting made me finish my turn in about 3 minutes. I gave a unit of 12 Corsairs with my Assassin hiding in it 5+ ward with the Cauldron. I just moved forward and prepared for the Warrior rush. He had no chargers, I had stayed out of 14". No Hellcannon Rampage. He moved up a little bit, being cautious. Obviously planning on letting the Hellcannon and magic do the hard work. He calculated that he would have to kill 3 units a turn to wipe me out
And got started on it. Flickering killed a few models here and there, an attempt at my BG made him miscast and allowed me to cast a spell. Great, at least I knew now that he had the Puppet. The Hellcannon got a hit on my BG killing a few.
After his movement turn one. I like the look of all those Spears
Turn two
I charged a samll unit of spearmen at his Chaos Hounds that had moved up far to mess with my battle line. They fled. I shuffled forward setting up lots of bait and flee traps. Got to shoot some at his marauder cav on his flank and killed one. That took 3 minutes again. Corsairs get 5+ ward again by the way.
He revealed Banner of Rage on his Nurgle Cav and had to charge my warriors that charged the hounds. I fled to safety, passed a panic on a unit they ran through. He moved up really close to my handbows corsairs and chuck axes on them, kill one. Hellcannon rampages! But rolls low and run towards the middle of my army. His magic is devastating, everything targets my Black guard and rolls a double once which is puppeted to a S2 hit on the sorcerer that does not wound. The onslaught continues and a 6 hit S7 flickering wipes them out. 5 units nearby passes panics. Everyone obviously releaved that the BGare gone. They are scary even to fight alongside.
Turn three
A 15 man spearunit charge the Hellcannon. The assassin does a lone charge out of his unit into the flank of the Nurgle Knights with his general. They dont have a musician so I figure if I can kill 2 we tie and if I get lucky and kill 3 I will win the fight! Risky charge but could pay off. Some corsairs move up to bait the very same knights if the Assassin flunks. My problem right now are the amount of units I have. At some areas I have them stacked 3 deep! I widen my handbow unit to 9 wide and pepper his Marauder knights, and wipe them out! My assassin flunks his attacks of course. Did not do a single wound and the attacks back kill him easily. Great. My warriors fighting the Hellcannon do three wounds on his crew but they save 2 of them and the cannon kill 4 or 5 back. We stick in combat.
In his turn he has to charge my handbow corsairs that stand and shoot to no effect. His other knights are bored with my stalling on the right flank and move right ut to two of my spearunits. Magic flickers all over, I stop a fireball but elves burn everywhere. It's starting to pile up on the sidetable. He has killed around 40 elves now. I have killed about 5 models. Nurgle knights kill my handbows and overrun into more handbows that flee and get run down. Panics are passed. My Cauldron general must be quite intimidating. I have passed about 10 straight panic tests. Hellcannon kills a bunch, I do nothing back but hold.
Turn four
I give some spearmen killing blow that are facing the Slaanesh knights. Decisive turn. A trap springs. His Nurgle Knights get flanked on both sides by 12 corsairs and 15 Spearmen. I try to charge my killing blow spearmen together with another unit of spearmen, but both fail their Feartests! I charge 15 more spearmen into the Hellcannon. That cannon is hungry! More food is needed. My BSB charges out of his unit into his Sorcerer on a Disc, he decides to hold trusting his AS and WS, aaaand the fact that I will be slapping him with a pillow. I shuffle around a little, missing some units I had plans for but got fried. Combats go well. I actually win the combat vs his Nurgle knights with general, but he passed a break test on a 6! Barely. My BSB does nothing to his sorcerer and got the same treatment back. The BSB waves his Standard and win by one. He failed his Breah test and is run down. Hellcannon munches a few more.I do some wounds to the crew but they save all but one. Still no wounds scored on the Hellcannon in spite of tons of hits.
He charges his Slaanesh knights into my 2 spearmen units, one flee, the one with killing blow prepares to fight to the (quick) death. he flickers and flickers and wipe out two units, all panics passed. None shall flee. He moves his general into base contact with my poor troops and kill a bunch. I do a wound back on the other flank but loose combat, corsairs break and flee but the spearmen fighting the general hold. His slaanesh knights kill a bunch of Spearmen and I killing blow one or two back. I loose by one and fail a rerollable ld 8 breaktest. Flee and is run down. His kill tally is around 100 elves right now and I'm below ten!!! This is not going too well. By the way, the Hellcannon keep on munching troops. I pass my breaktests.
Turn five
I let the cauldron give my spearmen fighting his general killing blow. Who knows, he might leave one poor soul in base contact alive. I charge his warhounds and chase them off the board, Corsairs rally, Spearmen rally, I manouver around a little, basically staying away from his 2 by now completely in blood covered knight units. His General kills a few spearmen, they fail to killing blow him in return and break and are run down. More bodies added to the pile.
In his turn he shuffles around a little, moving towards my troops but are probably too far away with both his knight units to charge next turn. In his magic phase he miscasts and fail to puppet it past the "all in base contact" bomb, both sorcerers take a wound and 3 warriors melt. But manages to Flicker my BSB with a 7 hits S7 bolt. He melts. The Hellcannon keeps in munching on my spearmen, I think I've got about 25 hits on it but not a single 6 to wound. I've made a couple of more wounds on the crew but they have saved them all. One Chaos Dwarf remain.
Turn six
Not much to do, I move around a little, at least contesting all table quarters, making sure he can't charge anything last turn. The Hellcannon keeps on eating my troops. I think I might have charged another unit into the fight. Can't remember. In his turn he flickers a little, contests as many quarters as he can, but can only hold three.
We add it up and he is ahead of me with 500pts, I have a quarter more than him so he's got a win with 400pts. But man did he kill a lot of elves. I had a chance to pull out a win when I forced his general to take that break test... But this was a bad matchup for my 194 list.
The worst part was that it was reaaaaaally boring to play my list. I had nothing to do each turn. Just set up traps and wait to get charged. I had an Assassin just for fun but he died turn two... Thanks to the risky charge, but he didn't have much else to mess with, he could just was well try his luck with the knights.
It was a fun game though. Thanks Rikard, you played your list great... I got lucky that the Hellcannon rampaged and managed to lure your general away, otherwise it would have been a complete slaughter
So Evil Elves - 0 Bodybuilders from Hell 1. We will be back with more spears. Maybe.
Conclusion:
This is not a fun build for the Swedish Championships. A friendly game fine, but to set up the army up for 5-6 games would be a drag. Back to the drawing board. I should probably just play my Dogs... At least they look like Dark Elves
(they are all converted from Dark Elf miniatures).