Well, not too extreme but a sideways step nonetheless. With the recent purchase of a complete Empire army I now have my sights set on entering FluffyCon with an altogether more dynamic, exciting, varied and psychologically fragile force. After no small amount of asking around various experts and posting a few lists on WAU (for those that at least consider themselves experts) I settled on the following list for a series of practice games starting with one at the City Guard today:
Arch Lector - Dawn Armour, Barded Warhorse, Biting Blade
Captain - BSB, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Sword of Might
Wizard - Level 2, Wizard's Staff, Dispel Scroll
20 Flagellents - Prophet of Doooom!
25 Spears - FC, Shields; Detachment - 9 Crossbowmen; Detachment - 9 Free Company
20 Swordsmen - FC, Shields; Detachment - 5 Crossbowmen; Detachment - 8 Spearmen (shields)
10 Handgunners
7 Knights - FC, Warbanner
5 Knights - Great Weapons, Musician
5 Pistoliers - Musician, Outrider Champ with Repeater Pistol
Great Cannon
Mortar
Helblaster Volley Gun
4PD + 2 bounds
5DD + 1 scroll
138 models
Comments back essentially describe it as a standard Empire army. FluffyCon is using the panel-judged, tiered-comp system and I'm told to expect the base score for Empire, possibly a +1 but not likely. The Arch-Lector setup is not optimal (no Speculum for example) but otherwise it's straight-forward. I'm ok with this as I see the army as a lot of fun on paper and today's game proved it was a lot of fun on the field.
Research and friendly passer-by commentary suggests that Empire have psychological issues (i.e. low leadership) and spend a lot of time running away or cowering in fear. This will undoubtedly prove challenging (and it did today!) but will also make things amusing and interesting so that's fine. The Imperial Banner is an option (rerolls for psychology tests including Panic) but I'd like to avoid that for FluffyCon at least.
Anyway, the game...
Tony contacted me by email requesting a game which was very flattering and of course I immediately had my suspicions why he'd chosen me :-) Turns out my suspicions were well-founded - Vod was trying out his Werewolf themed Warriors of Chaos list (as a potential FluffyCon list) and it was something to be feared. Vod was running:
Lord on Disk with 2+ armour and 3+ ward vs mundane attacks (5+ ward vs magic)
6 Nurgle Knights with Banner of Always Frenzied
4 Nurgle Ogres
3 Dragon Ogres
2 Spawn
Followed up closely (or preceeded by):
20 Slaanesh Marauders
12 Slaanesh Warriors
4 x 5 hounds
5 Marauder Horse with Spears
Hellcannon
So some fast scary (Fear-causing) hitty stuff with lots of chaff and some good anvils to boot.
This was a great game - here are the defining moments of what was a tight, cagey and well-played (by both of us I'm happy to say) battle:
Centrally deployed, the Helblaster unloaded on turn 2 on the only thing it could see - 5 damned annoying Marauder Horsemen. 6 shots on the first barrel, misfired on the second. Result? Remaining two barrels fire off 10 shots each and the Helblaster is consumed in a (self-inflicted) fiery inferno. The Marauder Cav are but a smear on the ground.
On the other flank, Vod's Hellcannon is not to be outdone. It's first shot results in a Chaos Dwarf crewman getting eaten. It's second shot sends it rampaging forward. It's third never happens - the Hellcannon fails it's leadership test at the start of the turn and rampages forward some more (into a forest). It spent the rest of the game in combat! (seeing off the GW Knights and in the last turn meeting up with the Arch-Lector and his mates - more on that later).
The left flank was a shambles - facing off against the recently deceased Marauder Horsemen and a subsequently panicking unit of Hounds the large Knight unit first failed a fear check charging against the Dragon Ogres, then fled their charge, then panicked as the intervening Pistoliers were cut down attempting to divert another charge from the Dragon Ogres. In the final turn the brave Knights managed to charge some Hounds (the ones who had panicked earlier) and run them down. Way to go lads - 226pts well spent :/
In the middle my glorious 25-strong unit of Spearmen were stuck behind 9 Crossbowmen (comments about deployment issues ringing in my ears). They spent most of the game shooting at Hounds and the Nurgle Ogres but panicked when the Flagellents (who had sacrificed themselves trying to slow down said Ogres) died to a man. The Spears took the Ogre charge, ably supported by their Free Company detachment but both units broke from combat after losing by 1 (the Free Company auto-breaking, the Spears fluffing their break test). The Spears failed to rally and fled the table.
Moving further to the right the 10 Handgunners took a serious toll on the Marauder block and killed one of the Spawn. They survived the game almost making them my MVPs...
but that award goes to the Swordsmen, Arch-Lector and BSB. Sighting an opportunity for glory (or at least, glorious sacrifice) they charged into the Nurgle Knights (who were baited by a 5-man Crossbow detachment). The Lector killed one in combat and one with Soulfire. Miraculously the Swords survived much of the return attack and even more miraculously the Knights broke and were run down! Ye-ah! In their rush the Swords ploughed into the reduced Marauder block behind. They took a flank charge from the Warriors but thanks to the Lector's prayers (making them Unbreakable) held nicely despite taking punishing casualties. Tony managed to dispel the unbreakability in my next magic phase but didn't stop the Wizard's Transmutation of Lead on the Warriors. Now hitting and wounding on 4s (!) they failed to cause ANY damage. The Marauders similarly fluffed! Thrashing around them mightily the Swords, Lector and BSB killed enough Marauders to win the combat by one! Thinking this would buy me a little time I was thrilled to see the cowardly Warriors break (yes!!!) and run far enough to impale themselves on the nearby Spearmen (who had not yet run away). The Swords were rear-charged by the flying Chaos General who failed to harm the Arch-Lector in their challenge. This broke the Marauders who failed to rally in the last turn. Thinking they saw the light at the end of the tunnel the Swordsmen waved their pom-poms as hard as they could, cheering on the Lector as he once more survived the feeble attacks of the Chaos Lord. The Lord (who had by this time taken 2 wounds from Soulfire - excellent) broke but escaped. Having come all this way, seeing off the Warriors, Knights, Marauders and Chaos General they took a charge in the final turn from the surviving Spawn and the wretched Hellcannon.
Having played a great game all the way through and looking at a draw (which against Tony I would have been very proud of) I lost the combat and promptly failed the break test and reroll. This panicked the nearby GW Knights (who had fled and rallied after fighting the Hellcannons earlier). 3 sucktastic dice rolls = 700+ point swing.
Glorious.
It was a great game and I really felt like, having done so well despite several failed fear checks and the disastrous break test at the end, I had somehow and somewhat proved my mettle as a Warhammer general. Do not fear gentle readers - I have a LONG way to go! But losing the game (by a bit less than 1000VPs) when until then it looked like a very minor loss against Vod and against that army... gosh it felt like a real achievement.
And as good as I might get one day, I don't think I'll ever be able to control the evil cubed arbiters of fate.
Games against Phil (yet another Phil!) and hopefully Aaron later in the week.
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