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Warriors Of Chaos Vs Wood Elves 2000 Points

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#1 ·
2000 Points Warriors Of Chaos Vs Wood Elves

My first ever battle against wood elves saw me facing a fairly new player to the army, and I was feeling a little as though it was not going to be an especially fair contest as I could see my warrior units simply marching through the massed firepower with virtually no casualties and butchering everything in sight. Having said that, I had nothing that could really deal with the treeman effectively and the spellweaver had the ever nasty lore of life which I anticipated to be healing any wounds I might sneak past the treemans huge toughness so it was really going to come down to how well I could deal with those two threats which would determine my fate.


Warriors Of Chaos

Sorcerer Lord (LVL 4 shadow, Necrotic Phylactry, infernal puppet, charmed shield, conjoined homonucleus)
Spells: Miasma, Enfeebling, Pit Of shades, Mindrazor

Exaulted Hero ( tzeentch, disc, Golden Eye of Tzeentch, Dragonhelm, biting blade, shield, stream of corruption)

Exaulted Hero (tzeentch, Battle Standard Bearer, book of secrets, great weapon)
Spells: Miasma

17 Warriors (halberds, mark of nurgle, standard, musician, banner of rage)

16 warriors (shields, mark of tzeentch, standard, musician, blasted standard)

40 marauders (shields, mark of tzeentch, standard, musician)

5 Knights (khorne)

5 warhounds

5 warhounds

Wood Elves:

Spellweaver(lvl4 life, wand of wych elm, amarthine broach)
Spells: awakening of the wood, Stoneskin, Throne Of Vines, Dwellers Below

Spellsinger (lvl2 wood elf lore, starfire arrows)
Spells: Ariels Blessing, Fury Of The Forest

20 Glade Guard (full command, possibly flaming banner?)

20 Glade Guard (Full command)

20 Dryads

10 Glade Riders

10 Glade Riders

Treeman


Deployment:

A large hill obscured the centre of the battlefield, which suited me quite fine, and so I put the knights out on the far left accompanied by a meat shield of warhounds then my marauders with sorcerer lord. The tzeentch warriors took up the centre duty to try and withstand the tree creatures, while the khorne warriors made their way up the far right flank with the BSB leading the way.
He put a wood, containing one of the glade guard and spellsinger on the left, the treeman and dryads to take the centre andhis other glade guard on the right flank. The glade riders also sat on the left and right flanks.


Turn 1: Wood Elves

A full retreat, right from the start, as every unit edged backwards slightly (apart from the treeman and dryads who took root in their position). Magic was uneventful, as the throne of vines failed to cast and therefore effectively ending the magic phase, as the level 2 wizard had no spells which were of any use. The Shooting phase, however, was to prove far more successful.....
It began with a volley of arrows aimed at my nurgle warriors, but their insectoid companions (the cloud of flies) absorbed a great many shots and even those that found their way through left a mere one warrior dead - the natrual resilliance and tough armour of the warriors shielding them from the rest - and leaving me rather pleased that I had spent the extra 30 points for mark of nurgle and the banner of rage instead of the cheaper mark of khorne.
On the left flank the hapless warhounds were picked as a target, my opponent knowing that such targets would die in a more streightforward fashion and perhaps boost the morale of his men. As expected, two died, and I rolled the panic test but got a 10 and then 11. This was not enough, even with the general barking at them to hold, and they turned tail and fled. The marauders then took their test and failed, but with the will of chaos I was sure that another faliure in a row was virtually inconceivable.... and you can probably guess what happened next, yes thats right they failed and ran off the board - taking my general with them - and giving me another famous story of appaling bad luck to lament with other warhammer players.
Anyway, the knights took a bit of a volley after that but shrugged it off effortlessly.

Chaos Turn 1:

That could have gone better, I felt, but I was still optimistic that the hardened combat core of my army was still well alive and in fairness I really didnt need the shadow hexes to help chaos warriors beat up such weak opponents in hand to hand combat, so set directly forward to that very goal - careful not to cross the brow of the hill just yet as the treeman was still alive (not down a pit of shades, which is where I would have had him if not for those cowardly hounds...) and dangerously lurking ready to squish the befouling chaos men who dared enter his realm - ready to receive such an 'honour' were the good old hounds who had not yet deserted me. Disc rider also landed on the hill, eyeing up the juicy glade guard units.
Magic was minimal - I did roll up 7 dice but was not willing to risk a miscast and blow a huge hole in my warriors, so only thew 4 for a miasma but unsurprisingly this was dispelled.

Wood Elf Turn 2:

The tree decided he would like to play fetch with the dogs - declaring a charge. Not willing to risk a successful terror test at this inappropriate moment (it would have propelled the treeman directly into one of my warrior units after he won combat), I elected to flee the hounds and kept him at arms length for one turn longer. The two glade riders moved around the flanks to shoot at my untis from safety - the ones attacking the knights ran out of movement and were unfortunately still within charge range)
Magic was again a bit of a disaster, the level 4 mage failing to cast throne of vines again (thats right - a level 4 mage failing to cast an 8+ spell for two turns running -almost as unlucky as somebody failing four leadership tests in a row.....nah, that would never happen...) and the level 2 not having anything useful to bring to the party (although his attempt to cast regeneration on the glade riders was dispelled with impunity).
A knight was toppled from his steed by a well placed arrow from the combined efforts of the glade riders and glade guard. On the other flank, the nurgle warriors continued to be annoyed by masses of small weak arrows in their path - another one of the rotten madman being pierced through.

Chaos Turn 2:

The knights declared a charge on the glade riders, who rightfully fled the unholy power of these fearsome killers, and escaped right into the path of the tzeentch warriors who advanced to the top of the hill and used them as a human shield to protect them against the treemans ill will (blocking his charge path) The nurgle warriors also took their full movement to bring them within range of the glade guard and their wizard leader.
Disc rider had a more direct plan, flying and landing on the flank of the glade guard unit...
Magic was pretty dire, with three dice rolled, and a miasma simply outclassed by the wood elf master wizards dispelling prowess.
Shooting, however, was not so bad at all. The disc rider spewed the full contents of his stomach, and then some more for good measure, all over the glade guard - 9 being overwhelmed by the stream of corruption.

Wood Elf Turn 3:

The treeman decided on a change of attack, and set off at full pelt towards my knights, but his rooty legs were just not quite up to the sprint and he had to once again settle for a failed charge. The dryads taught their big brother a lesson in speed, and easily completed their charge on the tzeentch warriors who were now in range.
The glade riders on the run continued their flee move, as they failed to rally, and landed in the worst position possible - directly in front of my nurgle warriors and leading towards his glade guard.
The glade guard turned on the spot, intending to teach the disc rider a damn good lesson for his appaling table manners!
Magic was begun with an irresistable force dwellers below on the disc rider (although I could never really see the logic to this spell on a flyer - surely he could just hover out of range of those naughty grabbing hands coming out of the ground?) but the chaos hero was having none of such shenanigans and gave the 'dwellers' a damn good kicking back down to where they belonged (although, taking a strength test when he is s5, I was never especially worried). The two wood elf wizards then took a magical backlash and a wound each from the miscast. throne of vines was dispelled and so was awakening of the wood.
Targets were becoming scarce - the knights effortlssly absorbed the arrows raining down on them, with no loses taken, while the nurgle warriors lost one more from amongst their ranks.
The disc rider got pelted full on - with a whole 6 wounds to have to try and save. 5 of them were dealt with by his armour, and the final one was wardsaved away (let this be a lesson to you too, readers, stop trying to shoot lone characters!).
The combat between the dryads and tzeentch warriors saw the warriors fare well against the dryads awesome initiative - their armour holding all but one man from death - and a good few wounds given back to win the combat but not break their foes.

Chaos Turn 3:

The knights, feeling that there was really nobody else man enough for the job (and also not especially keen to continue to be made into pincushions by the glade guard) charged the treeman. The nugle warriors declared a charge on the glade riders, who had to flee, but this took them into the prize they had coveted so long - the glade guard with the level 4 wizard. Disc rider also saw fit to join in the festivities and charged in himself.
Magic.... what magic?
The combat between the glade guard and their combined opressors was as brutal as expected - a large number of elves lost their lives with no return damage and they fled, never to be seen again.
The treeman combat was pretty knife edge stuff - the knights managing to inflict three wounds through its tough hide, but two of them were saved (I have subsequently discovered that the 'ward save' it was getting should have been negated by the knights magical attacks so it might well have died). He lashed back with some heavy branches and swatted a knight from his saddle - losing by one but stubbornly refusing to yield.
The dryads were again totally rebuffed by the warriors thick iron hides, and this time decided that discretion was the better part of valour so fled the combat.

Wood Elf Turn 4:
The dryads rallied and reformed. Magic was minimal, with ariels blessing dispelled and the other spell out of range. A few more arrows were losed in the direction of the nurgle warriors, but this time none penetrated.
In the treeman combat, another couple of wounds were wardsaved but he was now down to three and I was down to two knights as yet another met with a branchy end. I was feeling quite optimistic that even though I might not deal the killing blows to this oaken behemoth, the knights would have crippled him sufficiently to be sure he posed no real threat to my warriors.

Chaos turn 4:
The dryads took a charge from the disc rider and tzeentch warriors, and he decided to conceed - I had two more turns to march the nurgleites accross to try and kill his final glade guard unit, and the treeman was close enough to death that the knights sacrifice would not have been in vain even if he did kill them all.



Although there were some freak bad luck rolls for both our forces, I felt as though my solid list was going to be heavy favourite right from the start.
With hindsight I probably should have squared the nurgle warriors off against the treeman as the BSB had a great weapon which could have chopped him down, but I was concerned that he might direct all its attacks on him, and it was not hard to kill him with 2's to wound and only a 6+ ward save to fall back on. Perhaps he could have used the glade riders more cunningly, in order to misdirect or to force me into failing charges, as they would have been odds on favourites to escape a charge from my warriors, and therefore buying him extra rounds of shooting against me. Also, the treeman was best employed against the warriors as he could have thunderstomped them as well as lashed them with his attacks. so changing targets from the knights to the warriors was probably a mistake - the glade guard would have had half a chance of whittling them down before they actually arrived + also they were going to have to charge through a wood and take dangerous terrain tests to make it to them.
Other then that, I think it shows why it pays to be optimistic in warhammer - even though i was upset to lose 500+ points of my army to the effects of a few arrows I had faith that the warriors would still get the job done and they did not dissapoint.
 
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#3 ·
Hey man. I've been thinking of doing Lores like you do but I'm curious...why both shadow? I know one is book of secrets and Shadow have an awesome signature spell to take but why on your L4 sorc lord too? I'm still learning and feeling around with Lores to take so just curious why you choose shadow over the other awesome choices like Heavens and character assassination with death?

Also what do you normally Miasma? When I took shadow I found myself having a hard time picking what to Miasma. It seemed like our Warriors outclass other units so much that Miasma never really makes any drastic changes that turn the tides of battle.

Another question with your Disc Exalted. (I started running one because of your battle reps! Great inspiration) How do you keep him alive? Do you normally run him on one of the farthest table edges? What turn do you usually get a charge with him? With smart counter-deployment doesn't that just make your Disc Exalted vulnerable to counter/flank assaults?

Since you have awesome WoC batreps and I love your advice, could you advise me on how to deal with shooting? It seems to me like we are average in our magic phase, lose in the shooting phase and excel in the combat phase. However shooting seems to scare me so much since we don't really have anything to combat it? Should I just not be afraid of getting shot and just truck on forward?
 
#4 ·
Hey man. I've been thinking of doing Lores like you do but I'm curious...why both shadow? I know one is book of secrets and Shadow have an awesome signature spell to take but why on your L4 sorc lord too? I'm still learning and feeling around with Lores to take so just curious why you choose shadow over the other awesome choices like Heavens and character assassination with death?
The reason I tend to play with shadow is because every spell in the lore is useful -
the sig spell is great for all sorts of things (and very cheap to cast)
stead of shadows can be useful to fly a hero somewhere around (or even your own sorcerer if he is stuck in an ill fated combat)
enfeebling is good against monsters or elite units to prevent them damaging the warriors or if against regular infantry it makes them virtually useless
withering is good against anything with toughness higher then 3 (especially if somebody with lore of life has just boosted up their troops)
pendulum is good at smashing enemy war machines or big monsters with low initiative
pit of shades is also great against low initiative stuff (even more so then pendulum as it is instant death if you fail) but dont cast it at its highest value as it scatters too far
mindrazor can turn the tide in your favour better then any of the other spells in the lore - you are wounding almost everything on 2's with this baby cast, so even big monsters or the most heavily armoured foes will be toasted in a single round.

Death, yes it has some handy spells - soulblight is good at its boosted casting, there are three character assassination spells and the dreaded purple sun. The trouble is that it is short range and less effective against certain armies, so is not always the best lore to be taking against all comers.

Heavens has a few nice spells - the sig spell is good, but then misama from shadows can do the same thing cheaper in most cases, harmonic convergence is good for chaos too. The damage dealing spells are the biggest let down here - most people have big units these days which are really not overly bothered about the odd magic missile (or even comet) so you are really taking a big gamble when you take this lore that you will get anything useful.

Also what do you normally Miasma? When I took shadow I found myself having a hard time picking what to Miasma. It seemed like our Warriors outclass other units so much that Miasma never really makes any drastic changes that turn the tides of battle.
It can be used defensively as well as offensively - for example, my list does not really include any 'death star' type units, and I am often relying on getting flank attacks with my knights or warriors in order to succeed. Therefore, if somebody were to drop something extremely scary I would be trying to miasma them and slow them down so they never got into combat until very late in the game, by which time I would have hoped to have picked off the easier elements of his army and set myself up to be attacking with several units simultaniously.

Other then that, I would miasma the ballistic skill of any missile units or war machines, to help reduce their effectiveness as I crossed over no mans land.

Lastly, use it on a combat that you really want to win - against high elf swordmasters is one of the best times, as they are reduced from getting rerollable 3's to hit to simply 4's with no rerolls - it will often see you able to strike first and the enemy retalliation only hitting on 5's against the warriors high weapon skill.

Another question with your Disc Exalted. (I started running one because of your battle reps! Great inspiration) How do you keep him alive? Do you normally run him on one of the farthest table edges? What turn do you usually get a charge with him? With smart counter-deployment doesn't that just make your Disc Exalted vulnerable to counter/flank assaults?
The exaulted I run is pretty hard to kill with shooting - he took about 40 arrows this battle and didnt take a single wound. He has a 1+ armour save and a 3+ ward save (which reduces to 2+ if the enemy uses flaming attacks) so I am quite confident to line him up with either a powerful war machine or archer unit with a bunkered mage and know he is going to be killing them on turn 2. Also, part of the reason I have the two warhound units is so I can wait till the very end to place him, and then I can put him wherever I want.
Plus, at the end of the day, he is a pretty damn hard fighter in his own right - it would take a powerful monster or lord level hero to actually kill him one on one.

Since you have awesome WoC batreps and I love your advice, could you advise me on how to deal with shooting? It seems to me like we are average in our magic phase, lose in the shooting phase and excel in the combat phase. However shooting seems to scare me so much since we don't really have anything to combat it? Should I just not be afraid of getting shot and just truck on forward?
Exactly that - truck on forward. I probably took over 200 arrows to my army in this very battle and, as you saw, it really didnt get hurt too badly.
Paint your tzeentch models to look especially fearsome and march them right up the centre of the board into the thickest of the fire - with the blasted standard and their 3+ armour saves they are almost unkillable by enemy firepower. The only models that are really at risk to shooting are marauders, marauder horsemen or warhounds (but if they are being shot at then there was a better target elsewhere that has been saved the bother).
Cannons and bolt throwers will kill some warriors, but probably only 2-3 at best (provided you dont put them in a position where they can be shot in the flank) because the units are so small, stone throwers often miss completely, arrows tend to just bounce off, and blackpowder weapons will sting a bit but they are only wielded by armies with weak ballistic skill so you will not have too many hits on you - and with a well placed miasma, almost none at all.
 
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