Dawn Raid - Empire vs Chaos

Another title for this post might be 'Almost but not quite' or even 'If only I'd thought about it first'.

Another game of WHFB with Ian fielding his Chaos army for the first time, and myself a very slightly altered Sigmarite Empire army in a 2000pt battle.

We decided on a random scenario thrown for just before the game and it can up Dawn Raid which I of course threw high for to see who set up first and therefore the defender and the army which had a random generated deployment. (By the end of the game I had come to the conclusion that I should deploy my army this way every time).

One turn in and the forces converge

We got the armies on the table on a simple layout and Ian threw higher so had the initiative and went first.

In brief the forces converged, the Empire Pistoliers pretty much saw off the Chaos Light Cavalry destroying one unit and all but destroying the other (bar one figure which refused to die and caused all sorts of annoyance). My wizard did OK up to round 2 where he got off his devastating spell but miscast in the process and forgot all his spells and became a not very good swordsman. Ians Chaos Warriors throwing lots of 5's and 6's saving from instant death (which I've just realised actually meant they all died bar two who saved, not the other way round. Hey-ho).

The Halberdiers manfully stood up to a whole unit of Chaos Trolls plus 'Grog' and took out one of their number but were destroyed in the process (along with the now useless Wizard). The Trolls then didn't take any further part in the game mainly due to failing stupidity.

Turn 3 and the Empires
still hanging in

In the centre Ian did a load of damage, mainly to himself by miscasting in three turns in a row with successively worse results and taking out a good part of his Chaos Warriors and then his large Marauder unit along with finally his general and wizard. A good cannon shot took out one Chaos Chariot, and some grape shot did some damage to one of Ians cavalry units.

The Flaggellants for probably the first game ever reached the enemy line intact and destroyed his Chaos Warriors in the centre and then the other Chaos Chariot and went on to have a bash at the Chaos knights and managed to take one out before killing themselves.

The Swordsman unit with Warrior priest fared mediocrely against the Marauders but held their ground OK but after the explosion of magic taking out half their number (along with the enemy) this melee turned into a stalemate for the rest of the game where neither side managed to kill each other for three turns worth of combats (annoying on my part as there were only three of the buggers left).

The Militia out on the right flank took on the Chaos spawn and destroyed it with out loss (and indeed lasted to the end of the game completely intact).

With it all going actually quite well, and Ian thinking of throwing in the towel. the Empire launched it's killing blow, with the Greatswords and the Arch Lector charging the small unit of Chaos Warriors (with To Hit and To Wound Re-rolls). Surely it doesn't get much better.

Beginning Turn 4 and the Empires actually winning!

Of course it all went suddenly wrong and the Arch Lector and the Greatswords only managing to kill 3 of the nine enemy, but they managed to kill 7 of the Greatswords. And of course I failed the panic test and of course they didn't run far and were caught and destroyed. Dang!

The game went the full 6 rounds and at the end Ian managed a minor victory on points (900 to 700). A game full of surprises and probably the first game ever that's gone the full distance.

In hind sight I should have not bothered charging at the end and done something else and I even thought that at the time but the way I played the game probably made it more memorable than if I had done the 'right thing' and actually won (though that would have been nice too).

Anyway, another game to remember and one of several firsts for WHFB's and that certainly can't be bad.

Next game of WHFB will be against Andy's Dwarves and that will be a first too.