last updated:
21.08.08 | 19:43 gmt
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written by:
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A Slave to Darkness
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First of all, a disclaimer: apologies to my opponents if have any details wrong, this is how I remember things and I have a selective memory! Back to the plot. This was to be my first tournament that wasn't a Games Workshop one, and I was looking forward to it, hoping it would be as good as people were telling me. It was, and I look forward to attending lots of Dragon Slayer or, indeed, other tournaments in the future!
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organiser:
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venue:
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city:
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country:
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Sheffield
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United Kingdom
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system:
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event rules:
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Warhammer 6th
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My Slaves
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I first started playing Chaos with Slaves to Darkness back in the late eighties and have always come back to them (after forays with Lizardmen, Dwarfs, Bretonnians and Undead). I absolutely love converting and Chaos allows me to do this as much as I want.. which is a lot! Recently though, I took a Tzeentch army to the
GW UKGT Heat 2 and did well; except for the addition of the Dragon Ogres and the Drake, the army was looking similar to that one until a club game with
Rob Lane a few weeks beforehand. In that game I miscast a lot and proved to myself once and for all that magic can't be relied upon, and with Tzeentch a lot of points are invested in magic, so I changed my Sorcerers to just a level one for the obligatory dispel scrolls. A week before the
Sheffield Slaughter I modelled and painted the army standard, four Chaos Knights and the Ogres.
The army as it stands now is intended to be as fast as possible (the only way to play Chaos – charge, bash, game over!) and is pretty standard. One unusual unit is the four Knights; I took these in preference to Marauder Horse because although they are not quite as fast they are much harder and protect my flanks really well. The Sorcerer is in the chariot because once his scrolls are used he serves no purpose, so making the chariot Unit Strength 5 and saving sixteen points on a horse seemed a good idea. I had never used a Chaos Army Standard until I got rid of the Tzeentchy bits and I find he's brilliant - he's very pricey but he means I can have a stubborn Drake, Chosen Knights, Dragon Ogres and so on, with a reroll! They don't run even when horribly outnumbered and Rubber Axe Syndrome rears it's ugly head!
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characters:
1 x Undivided Chaos Lord with Great weapon and Gaze of the Gods; rides a barded steed
1 x Khornate Exalted Champion with Great weapon; rides in a Khornate chariot
1 x Undivided Aspiring Champion with Banner of the Gods; rides a barded steed
1 x Undivided Sorcerer with two Dispel Scrolls; rides in a chariot
core units:
5 x Undivided Chosen Chaos Knights with full command and War Banner
4 x Chaos Knights with musician
1 x Undivided Warrior Chariot
1 x Khornate Warrior Chariot
8 x Chaos Warhounds
5 x Chaos Warhounds
special units:
3 x Ogres with extra handweapons, shields and light armour
5 x Screamers
5 x Furies
rare units:
1 x Dragon Ogre Drake with Great weapon, heavy armour and shield
3 x Dragon Ogres with Great weapons and light armour
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opponent:
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army:
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Jonas Grohmann
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Chaos
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Jonas had travelled all the way from Germany to play in the Slaughter! He is a nice bloke and had an army similar to mine - all Undivided with Chosen Knights and Army Standard, more Knights with an Exalted Champion general, a unit of Beastmen and two Bray-Shamans. Dragon Ogres, chariots, Marauder Horse, Warhounds and a Giant completed the mix.
The terrain we generated ended up towards the edges, except for a wood that was in the middle of the board and slightly to my left. The chariots and Marauder Horse were on my left opposite the Ogres and the small unit of Knights. Separated by the wood (where he had his Beastmen) was the main fight between the Giant, Chaos Knights and Dragon Ogres against my Knights, Chariots, Dragon Ogres and Drake. The Screamers went around to the right while the Dragon Ogres faced off against each other.
Two fast cavalry-heavy armies meant this was sure to be over quick, and it was. The Khorne chariot manoeuvred around the right flank, while everybody slowly advanced. I positioned my Ogres to tempt the Marauder Horse and he charged them, as well as placing the Beastmen in the wood and cautiously moving everyone else. My Ogres lost a couple of wounds to the Marauder Horse, but killed them all in return, overrunning far enough to be ready to charge both his chariots next turn. Very importantly, his Beastmen failed their panic test and fled to right in front of his Giant - I seized my opportunity and moved my Chosen Knights so they could charge the Beastmen next turn. My Dragon Ogres charged his Dragon Ogres and won easily, but the Ogres were beaten up by his chariot crew and ran away. Most importantly, the Drake stood right in front of both enemy Knight units, ready to be charged - and the Army Standard just behind him meant he was stubborn! Sure enough, the Drake was charged, lost a couple of wounds, lost combat by loads but thanks to being Stubborn held easily!
The Beastmen rallied, so my Knights charged them next turn; they killed loads and pursued into the Giant, who'd lost two wounds thanks to a Screamer slash. I only did three wounds on the Giant and was nervous, but thankfuly the big fella didn't kill anyone. Next turn the chosen had him. Timber!! My Khorne chariot with the Exalted now charged Jonas' Chaos Knights, who'd been held up on the flank: I wiped out the Knights and my Drake battered the army standard. I won the resulting combat by a lot and ran the Chosen and his general down. After that I only had to wipe up the mess.
A great start, only losing the Ogres and half of the wounds on the Drake... but, rather ominously, the dice were going well - too well! How long would it last?
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Chaos:
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Chaos:
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3,000 points
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488 points
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opponent:
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army:
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Pete Plinston
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Lizardmen
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Lizardmen, hmmm... I played them for years and know their strengths very well. They have a lot of them! It was the Hidden Deployment scenario, so out came the maps; I guessed where Pete would deploy much of his troops (in the left corner, away from any scenery) and so our forces were almost opposite. Mine was slightly more towards the centre. He deployed four Salamanders, so I was very grateful I'd deployed the fliers in front to take any hits from these lethal knight killers. He also had a Slann, two ten-lizard Saurus units, two big saurus units (one led by a Hero), some Saurus cavalry, a few Terradons and a smattering of Skinks (including a Shaman).
Luckily I got to go first and moved my troops as fast as they would go towards him, staying as much as possible behind the screen. He shuffled a bit, bracing for impact, his magic did nothing and spat at me. Two wounds on the Dragon Ogres and the Drake was the result - not too bad at all! On the far left, one small unit of Saurus had shown me their flank, so the Ogres charged, auto-broke them and pursued off the table. The Furies and Screamers charged two Salamanders and both killed one; the Screamers panicked the Saurus cavalry off the table and pursued the Salamander's Skink Runners into the Terradons (lucky me). The Drake charged some Skinks in front of the army, who ran away (I wonder why)? Everybody else ran forward - the Army Standard again stood behind the Drake, with the Chosen ready to charge anything that charged him.
The fleeing Saurus cavalry caused a huge problem for Pete; my Chosen could charge the other small unit of Saurus and overrun into the flank of the large Saurus unit containing the Hero and Slann. The tight formation of his units meant he couldn't deflect the charge; if he turned to face the Knights he'd get the Drake in the flank! Not good for him! He decided to charge the Slann at the Drake and try to take the Chosen's charge, but the Slann did nothing; my Chosen battered the Saurus and overran, the Khorne chariot charged the Slann and ran him over, overrunning into the other Saurus' flank... game over.
At the end of turn three only the Chameleon Skinks remained!
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Chaos:
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Lizardmen:
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3,000 points
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412 points
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opponent:
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army:
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Matt Oakley
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Wood Elves
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Game three and things were going great - and I was drawn against Mr Matt Oakley, the self-proclaimed "Dragon Slayers Slayer" from the Troll Slayers club. He had a very nice-looking army that had had loads of time spent on it, with some stunning paint jobs! It consisted of three or four units of Glade Riders, three units of Archers, two units of Dryads, some Wardancers, a Treeman, two Eagles, four Dogs of War Ogres, a Hero and three mages. Nasty!
This scenario meant we both had an Assassin, and after we'd set up the scenery, I was very worried: I was playing Wood Elves and there were four pieces of terrain in the middle of the board, with gaps between them so small my chariots wouldn't even fit through. "Bugger!" thought I. I needed a cunning plan! I decided that I'd split my army in three, a force around each flank and the chariots in the middle, the idea being to flush out the tricksy Elveses with the chariots stopping them escaping. Because they had no rock-hard combat units and manoeuvrability was the key, my general left the Chosen - they could kill stuff without him (or so I thought). The Knights, large unit of Warhounds and Chosen took the right flank, the Ogres, Dragon Ogres and small unit of Warhounds the left.
In the first turn I lost two Knights, so I moved them to where the Wardancers could "just" see them. Oh dear, what a mistake - the Wardancers duly charged and out popped my Assassin, who won me the combat so I could run down the Wardancers. Great! In the middle, the Dryads and the Treeman attempted to charge the chariots; the Dryads were out with a 4+ roll (it was very close because the actual position of my troops was difficult to determine due to the woods) but the Treeman charged my general. With him at 4+ to hit and me with a 4+ ward and three wounds, I thought I could survive the tree whack... I was wrong! The Khorne chariot charged through the Dryads, hacking them to pieces, and rode into a wood that contained three Sorcerers. I flushed one out without damaging the chariot!
On the left, my Ogres tempted the Glade Riders and hero; the Ogres held after missing spectacularly, thanks to being stubborn, leaving the Dragon Ogres to charge the Eagle and overrun into the side of the hero... after the Ogres held again! Squish! My dogs had distracted the Dogs of War Ogres by this time and my Drake charged the other Dryads. Not a good idea - in the first three rounds he killed two and was very lucky not to break, but the Army Standard re-roll and the Lucky Seven rule kept him in it. In the fourth round, as the Treeman was about to charge me, the Drake woke up, auto-broke the Dryads and ran them down. On the right, my Knights were eventually able to charge an Eagle and some Archers, both of whom ran, leaving some Glade Riders to their flank. It was looking bad for Matt by this point, and I ran around finishing off small units until in turn six the Khorne chariot did the Dogs of War Ogres.
My Drake could have charged the treeman but didn't; he only had a couple of wounds left. Matt's Glade Riders that I thought I wasn't bothered about charged the Chosen in the flank - easy, I said to myself. Unfortunately the woodies had the War Banner and the Assassin, and broke my Chosen, running them down. Ooops! A highlight of the game was my single level one Sorcerer zapping Matt's level two Mage without Irresistible Force - my Sorcerer also won the most surreal moment of the event when he miscast with a double one, rolled another double one (meaning he and the chariot took strength ten hits) and I then rolled double one to wound - weird! By the end of the game Matt had a Treeman, a level four Mage, three Glade Riders and the Assassin. A substantial amount, but I'd still won - three victories to me!
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Chaos:
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Wood Elves:
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2,833 points
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1,138 points
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That Night
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Andy Smith took me back down to Nottingham. I needed my beauty sleep too - well, the missus told me I needed it!
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opponent:
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army:
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Jon Pegg
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Chaos
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Sunday morning and I was now on table one, against another Troll Slayer with a mean-looking Chaos army - Jon Pegg! He had a Chaos Lord, an Exalted and Aspiring of Tzeentch, another Exalted, all mounted, all on their own; Slaanesh and Undivided Knights; Screamers, Furies, Hounds, two or three units of Marauder Horse, two units of Gor and some Dragon Ogres. The scenery ended up with a wood just to my left, a wall to my right and some impassable rocks in the middle. The scenario, Stone of Power, had an objective (300 victory points for controlling it at the end of game) in the middle of the board. I set up with my Ogres and Warhounds on the left flank, the Chosen, Drake, Dragon Ogres, Furies and Khorne Chariot in the middle and Warhounds, Knights and Screamers on the right.
Jon went first and proceeded to shuffle forwards. I did the same; there were some small skirmishes on the flanks as one unit of his Beastmen ran towards the wood. My Khorne chariot was forced to charge through the difficult terrain and smashed itself to pieces, wounding the Exalted in the process. Not a good start!
My Drake got into combat with the Slaanesh Knights, but the Rapturous Standard and bad rolls - then a counter-charge from his Dragon Ogres - meant the Drake was killed. The Sorcerer on the chariot was charged in the rear by some Marauder Horse and managed (somehow) to win the combat, only to be charged by the Beastmen that had been lurking in the wood. While this was going on the Ogres were sneaking around the flank. My small Knights were charged by the Undivided Exalted with a Rending Sword, but his Strength five couldn't pierce the Knight's armour and he broke, being run down.
My Chosen chased after the Dragon Ogres (who'd run down the Drake) and eventually charged on the far left corner of the board. Unfortunately the Knights Rubber Axed and lost four of their mates, drawing the combat. This left them open to a counter from the Warhounds in the flank and the Aspiring and Lord in the rear (ouch)! My Dragon Ogres charged the Knight unit - who were on the objective - but they fled, rallying the next turn. The Army Standard joined the small Knight unit and sped off towards the objective. They were positioned so that the Beastmen could charge but only one or two could get in.
At the start of Jon's turn six I was down by several hundred victory points and things looked bad, but then my fortune changed. On turn six the Beastman charged my Knights on the objective, along with the Screamers in the flank against the Army Standard. Again the Knights' armour protected them and they won the combat easily, 'popping' the Screamers and running down the Beastmen. This meant that, in my turn, the Knights could charge the other Beastman unit - they did and ran them down.
Elsewhere, Jon's Chaos Lord - who hadn't yet made it into combat - spurred his horse ready to charge my Chosen in the rear... but, unfortunately for him, the conflicting images of the Helm of Many Eyes were too much and he failed his Stupidity test. This saved the Chosen. My Lord challenged his Aspiring and killed him, the Dragon Ogres only caused two wounds to my remaining Knight but he saved them both on 5+ - this meant that, again, the combat was drawn! In my turn I finally killed a Dragon Ogre, the other two wounded the Knight and Lord but, again, both were saved. I'd won the combat easily, broke the Dragon Ogres and ran them down. This left Jon swearing and cursing his Dragon Ogres - and his "stupid" Lord - for all eternity!
Finally, my Ogres had moved six inches around the flank every turn, never got into combat and walked onto the objective, claiming 300 victory points. I had managed a 1,000 point swing in the last turn, grabbing a major victory and four wins out of four. Fortune favours the... er, fortunate!
Looking around at the armies near the top, there were a few I didn't relish fighting. A super-shooty and magic Skaven army was one, the other was our own
Paul Corcoran and his nasty Chaos army, complete with Bloodthirster. I got the Bloodthirster!
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Chaos:
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Chaos:
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2,554 points
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1,250 points
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The final game and me still on the top table, but drawn against another Dragon Slayer - as it should be -
Paul Corcoran! Being new to the club I hadn't played Corky before and was looking forward to a good game. I wasn't disappointed, it was easily the best of the tournament. If you've read Paul's report
Blood for the Blood God then you already know what he thought happened - here's my version of events!
This game had no magic and no shooting - only lots of rock hard combat units. Paul had a Bloodthirster, a Drake, some Chosen Knights of Khorne, some Knights of khorne, two units of Fleshounds, two units of Bloodletters, some Furies, a Tuskgor chariot and a Bray-Shaman (who was anti-magic only). We both agreed this game would be very tactical. I had a hill (on my left) and a wood (in the middle), both at the edge of my deployment zone. I decided I would use these to hide troops and protect myself from the Bloodthirster, attempting to charge him on my terms when I could (a word of advice - when you have a plan, stick with it...) My Chosen, Dragon Ogres, Drake and Sorcerer's chariot were all behind the hill, the Ogres, Warhounds and Furies were in the middle, and my Knights and Screamers were on my right flank. One unit of Fleshounds, Bloodletters and Furies were on the right, and everything else was facing the hill.
Paul went first and moved cautiously, staying out of my charge range. His Bloodthirster faced the wrong way so he wouldn't have to charge. My Chosen ran around so they were facing along his battleline, and one unit of Warhounds ran up to all the Khornate stuff. Everybody else got ready!
The Bloodthirster and Drake went and hid behind my Chosen and Paul's Bloodletters, Fleshounds and Chosen all had to charge the Warhounds. They died, obviously, and everybody overran. It became really complicated at this point! Paul's Furies charged my Screamers, and my dice were awful, but luckily the Screamers didn't pop. In my turn I charged his Chosen, broke them and ran them down. Unfortunately I clipped the chariot, stopping my pursuit in front of Paul's Drake (bugger). My Knights charged the Furies - I expected to pop them and overrun into some Fleshounds - but this didn't happen and I was counter-charged by the Fleshounds and Bloodletters. The Knights were run down by the last remaining Fury! They had a charmed game and no mistake. Also, my Sorcerer performed a suicide charge, amazingly knocking two wounds off the Bloodthirster before being ripped to pieces.
Paul's Fleshounds had charged my Dragon Ogres and the combat was drawn for three rounds running (Paul passed nine out of nine Daemonic saves). My Drake charged some Bloodletters in the side, won by loads but they didn't pop (damn) and I then got a Bloodthirster in the flank. He immediately dropped the Drake and overran into the Dragon Ogres (who had finally defeated the Fleshounds). With no chance of winning - he outnumbered me and caused fear - the Dragon Ogres ran and were cut down. My Chosen finally killed Paul's Drake, with help from the Furies in the flank, but not before he'd killed my Lord and several Knights.
The game was winding down and I could see I'd lost heavily. As an act of revenge my remaining two Chosen charged the Bloodthirster in an attempt to knock him to below half wounds - 325 victory points were mine if I did so - but it didn't work. Ah well - well done to Paul!
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Chaos:
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Chaos:
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1,000 points
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2,925 points
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Taking Stock
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Well, I'd played five and won four, not bad at all! With most of the other players around the top drawing their last games, I'd managed third place, with Jon Pegg coming second. Of course,
Paul Corcoran won! An excellent result for my first non-Games Workshop tournament, and as I said earlier I look forward to a lot more in the future!
As a final note,
Paul Corcoran and I had a rematch at the club the following Tuesday... this time I stuck with my tactics and won convincingly - only his Sorcerer in a wood remained alive!
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tournament report:
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Sheffield Slaughter 2003
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<< Previous Dragon Slayer Tournament
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Next Dragon Slayer Tournament >>
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Thursday, 20 November 2008
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