Warhammer 8th; Empire vs Chaos

A bit of a change for last weeks club game, with Ian and myself at a loose end and looking for a game I had proposed a game of Warhammer as I hadn't played WHFB in an age, well approximately three years, and had been toying with the idea of having a game of 6th edition. 6th Ed. being where I had enjoyed the game the most, and also because I had had most success with a roughly 50/50 success rate. (post 6th Ed I don't think I'd won a game).

As things turned out, neither myself or Ian could put our hands on the 6th Ed rules or Army books so we ended up playing 8th Edition instead.

We both threw together a 2000pt army and had at it with Ian getting the initiative and rocketed his forces on his left flank across the table.

Chaos goes first and romps across the field

The Empire followed suit and launched their forces towards the oncoming Chaos troops with their left flank circling wide to counter the Marauder cavalry circling there.

Ian launched his Khorne Berserker types at the centre of the Empire line and was met by a like number of Empire Flaggellants who true to type immolated half their own number and the other half got cut down without as much as a waving of a flail. The regiment of Swordsmen with Wizard in tow promptly failed a panic test and re-roll and fled from the field without as much as a wave good bye.

The Empire Knights with General commanding moved in to plug the gap. Meanwhile the Empire Pistoliers took the Marauder cavalry to bits  and the Chaos Knights took a while and circled round the far flank.

The wheel begins to turn as the lines begin to flip 90 degs

The Chaos horde approaches

Things began to get a bit more interesting from here on, with the Berserker types tackling the Empire Greatswords with Battle Standard and getting cut to shrebbins and the large unit of Chaos Warriors and a Chaos Spawn got locked into combat with the Empire Knights and the Knights got the better of the combat and took out the Chaos Spawn. The Pistoliers saw off the last of the Marauder Cavalry who as a last ditch attempt to slow the tide charged into the Greatswords and got cut to bits but stopped the Greatswords from joining the fight with the Chaos Warriors. The Regiment of Halberdiers with a Warrior Priest in the ranks charged into the large unit of Beastmen and this saw the Beasties breaking and running for the hills though they did rally and edge back into the fight. The Empie Cannon now also played its role and began to snipe at the unit of Chaos Ogres who had run over the Hundgunner detachment and were beginning to circle round behind the Empire lines followed by the Chaos Knights who had finally reached the other side of the field.

Through out the on going proceedings the Chaos Wizard threw some decent spells about and the Warrior Priest dispelled a fair few and beefed up the Halberdiers in return but the magic was reasonably low key through out the game but may have been different had not the Empire Wizard fled the field early doors.

Now both sides had some losses with the Chaos Ogres getting whittled away, The Empire Knights getting beaten in combat through resolution bonuses even though the forces of Chaos failed to dent their Full Plate armour save and even with the re-roll again the Empire Knights with General fled the field in one mighty gallop.

The Empire Halberdiers with Warrior Priest charged the Beastmen again and they broke and routed off the table and the Halberdiers  turned around to look for new enemies and the Chaos Warriors managed to charge the flank of the Greatswords with the surviving Chaos spawn but the stubborn greatswords held out heedless of their loses.

In the end we ran out of time with more than six turns played and no clear winner on the points view (though I think Ian may have had a slight advantage here) we declared the game a draw.

End Game

A fun game and certainly more evenly matched than most of the past WHFB I've played recently. We both missed a few special rules at critical points, mainly me with the Hold The Line rule for my Swordsmens panic test, but we played through regardless and didn't get too hung up on the niceties so probably the game was all the more enjoyable for that. We may dig out the 6th Ed rules for another go in the near future.