8th Ed. 1200 points vs Warriors of Chaos (nice photos!)

Hello everyone! I played a very pleasant game of Warhammer fantasy 8th edition recently with my good friend running his Warriors of Chaos. His army and terrain are beautiful, and we're on the same wavelength in terms of enjoying tactically engaging but uncompetitive games.

We both have recently become fathers, and this was our first attempt to play while looking after our smol babies. So we decided on a modest 1200 points. My list was:



+ 1200 lizardBois +

Chopzalotl the Oldblood- sword of bloodshed, armour of fortune, potion of speed, shield.

Skink Priest- level 2 lore of beasts.

Saurus x23- full command.
Saurus x18- full command.

Skink Skirmishers x10.
Skink Skirmishers x10.

Troglodon.



I was excited for the debut of Chopzalotl, the last model I painted before becoming a dad and having less hobby time.

My friend took the following Chaos list:



+ 1200 Chaos boyes +

Chaos Sorceror: Level 2 Wizard; Lore of Nurgle; Enchanted Shield; Sword of Might; Talisman of Protection; Chaos Familiar.

20 Chaos Warriors: Aspiring Champion; musician; standard bearer; shields.

20 Chaos Marauders: Marauder Chieftain; musician; standard bearer; shields.

10 Chaos Marauders: great weapons.

5 Marauder Horsemen: musician; standard bearer; shield; spears.

6 Chaos Ogres: Ogre Mutant; musician; standard bearer; Mark of Nurgle; great weapons.



An interesting little force. I was curious to see if the small 10 man great weapon Marauder unit would be of much use.

My friend is organising an upcoming gaming event in Sydney, Australia. So we tested some of his proposed systems. We generated a mission and special battle conditions using a custom chart.

For this game we got "kill enemy units" as primary mission, "gain points for successfully casting and dispelling magic" as a secondary, and a deployment in which units have a chance to be reserves. We also had a few points of interest to explore (represented by gems on certain terrain pieces) with minor game effects.



Full battle report to follow! (Hope it doesn't take me too long to write )

 

My lizards deploy with a skirmish screen of Skinks up front, with Oldblood Chopzalotl's main Saurus block on the left. The smaller Saurus unit and Troglodon start in reserve, marching on from turn one.

The Chaos forces focus on opposing the main Saurus unit with Marauders and Chaos Warriors. The custom scenario forced a unit to deploy near the centre of the field, the Chaos general chose his Nurgle Ogres. His small unit of Marauders with great weapons started on the Chaos left, and his Horsemen were in reserve.


In the opening moments of the battle, the Skinks bravely advance and kill one of the loathsome Ogres with a shower of javelins.


The Skink Priest summons a flock of crows to peck a single Marauder to death. Underwhelming!


The Chaos Ogres charge at the right side unit of Skinks, who flee.


However the Ogres manage to charge a crazy distance, catching the poor Skinks!


The big Saurus unit advances toward the enemy infantry units. However the Nurgle Sorcerer lurking in the Chaos Warriors callously annihilates the little Skinks with the awful Rancid Visitations spell.


Horrified by the fate of his Skink friends, Chopzalotl and his unit panics and flees!

Not the best start...

 

With the Saurus fleeing, the Nurgle Ogres rampaging through our lines, and no Skinks left (besides the Priest on the far left) things are looking grim for the Lizardmen. If the battle can be turned around, decisive action is required!


The main Saurus block led by Chopzalotl rallies. The smaller second unit turns to guard their general's flank from the Ogres.


On the right flank, the Troglodon gallops into a long charge against the small unit of Marauders with great weapons. If he doesn't kill enough with his bites and stomps, their WS4 S5 return attacks could hurt him. Fortunately, he rips three apart with his heavy jaws, and stomps down FIVE more, terribly shredding them with his fearsome claws. The two survivors try to flee, but are thoroughly chomped!


Preparing for a confrontation with Chopzalotl and his unit, the Chaos Warriors reform into a narrower formation to fit between a rock pillar and the Marauders. The Chaos Sorcerer kills some Saurus with awful Nurgle spells, while the Skink Priest slays some Marauders with his own magic.


Chopzalotl roars! He and his unit charge into the Chaos Warriors, undaunted by their fearsome reputation. There is an audible, crunch of impact as the two units meet, hell-forged iron against tough reptilian muscle and scale.


While the Saurus fight the Chaos Warriors, the victorious Troglodon manoeuvres behind enemy lines. The secondary Saurus block prepares to engage the approaching Nurgle Ogres.


The servants of the dark gods defend themselves well, and despite his enthusiasm (and eight attacks!) Chopzalotl only kills one. His Saurus press into the Chaos shield wall, hacking with their jagged stone weapons. The Chaos Warriors stab back with their steel swords. After moderate losses on both sides, the Sorcerer can see the forward pressure of the lizards is too great to resist indefinitely, so orders his men with to withdraw and regroup.


The safe retreat of the Chaos Warriors is secure, as the pursuing Saurus hit the corner of the nearby Marauders. This will surely be a bad time for the Marauders... But the Chaos Sorcerer doesn't mind sacrificing his mortal followers. With the Lizardmen making some solid gains, the battle hangs in the balance!

 

The Nurgle-marked Chaos Ogres finally charge the unit of 18 Saurus lined up to meet them. With the main block of Saurus led by Chopzalotl engaged with the Marauders, these good lizard boys will have to fend for themselves.


The Saurus unfortunately struggle to hit their opponents due to the Mark of Nurgle imposing a -1 to hit penalty. In return the Ogres reap a devastating toll with their rusty great weapons. Strength six attacks really hurt Saurus! The few survivors flee, with the Ogres chasing them.


Towards the middle of the battlefield, the other unit of Saurus face an easier foe in the Marauders. Chopzalotl strides out to meet them, raising his ancient stone relic-blade (representing the Sword of Bloodshed, granting him eight attacks!)


The Chaos-worshipping warmbloods hack at the Oldblood. But Chopzalotl ignores their blows, which glance harmlessly off his iron-hard scales. In a heartbeat he is among them. His mystical blade splits shields and carves flesh with effortless sweeps, sending heads and limbs tumbling to the ground in red ruin. Chopzalotl also whips his heavy tail around, cracking into men with bone-shattering force. After killing six all by himself, the other Saurus attacking is a mere formality. The remnants of the Marauder unit flees, chased by the lizards.


With the main Saurus unit pursuing the Marauders, and the second unit fleeing from the Ogres, only the lurking Troglodon is free to deal with the rallied Chaos Warriors. The reptilian beast charges them!


Despite the brutal damage dealt to them before, the small Saurus unit rallies, turning to face the Ogres once more. To support his Troglodon friend's reckless charge into the fearsome block of Chaos Warriors, the Skink Priest focuses all his magical prowess into casting Wyssan's Wildform. He manages to get the spell off with irresistible force, losing his wizard levels in the miscast result.


The Skink Priest has boosted the strength and toughness of the Troglodon to six, at the cost of draining all his magical energy for the rest of the battle. Was it worth it? The Chaos Warriors brace their shields and ready their weapons. The invigorated Troglodon opens his jaws...

 

In an incredible display of reptilian ferocity, the Wyssan's Wildform enhanced Troglodon used his S6 bites and Thunderstomp attacks to crush six Chaos Warriors. He threshed them to pieces with his front claws, and picked up one in his jaws, shaking him to death like a hound killing a rat.


The Warriors' S4 attacks did little in return, so they lost the combat by enough to flee. The Troglodon enthusiastically ran them down, killing and scattering the whole unit. This was a delightful outcome for the Lizardmen, removing the most threatening Chaos unit and general, but it left the Troggo in a position to be flanked by Marauder Horsemen.


The Chaos light cavalry charge. With the Skink Priest drained of all magic power, he's unable to repeat the trick of boosting the strength and toughness of his Troglodon friend. The Marauders managed to hurt the Troglodon with their spears, and as he's unable to Stomp cavalry, he loses combat and runs away, just escaping.


As the sun sets on the battle, the staunch but outmatched Saurus take another charge from the Chaos Ogres. Chopzalotl and his full strength unit would happily destroy these NurgleBois, but they're on the other side of the field, having overran the Marauder block...


Once more the Ogres' S6 strikes reap a terrible toll, leaving only the command group fighting to the end. Alas, they too are finally overwhelmed ( ._.)


In the final moments of the engagement, the Troglodon rallies, only to be once more charged by the Marauder Horse. Again the impetus of their attack drives off the Troglodon, who perhaps tired from massacring the Chaos Warriors, is unable to hold his ground.

Both armies are in tatters. Only Chopzalotl, his unit, and the Skink Priest remains for the lizards. The Chaos force only has the Ogres and Marauder horsemen. We tally up the victory points from our custom mission. We somewhat matched in number of units destroyed, but the Lizardmen had an edge in the secondary objective of points earned for each successful spell cast and dispelled. Minor victory to the lizardBois!


A wonderful game against my good friend. It's a always nice to have a fully painted battle on beautiful terrain, with another player who shares your non-competitive attitude and takes an interesting list. The game took quite a while as we had continual breaks to look after our babies! But we got it done in the end. Dinosaur of the match definitely goes to the Troglodon. I never thought in my wildest dreams such an underwhelming monster could rout a unit of 21 Chaos Warriors. But it just shows you what a cheeky Wyssan's Wildform can do.

Thanks for reading!

 

Fantastic! You should come check out this thread here.

Hello! Always fantastic to have another Knight of the Eight share!

That's fantastic that you have a buddy who's great to play with. I've always said that they 8th is the Gentleman's game. Right @NIGHTBRINGER ?

Nice! Congratulations!

Looking forwards to it!!!

 

Well, what happened? Did the Trog manage to defy expectations yet again and scare off the Chaos Warriors?

 

+1

 

I've yet to write the last installment, and organise the pictures. But don't worry, you won't have to wait too long!

 

Okay the entire battle report is now complete. Enjoy! And please let me know your thoughts about it.

 

I certainly did, thank you!

It was so satisfying to see the normally maligned Troglodon continue his rampage and take out those Chaos Warriors, earning some real glory for himself for once. Wyssan's Wildform certainly deserves its place at the top of my ranking of the Lore of Beasts spells. Shame to see he wasn't quite so effective against the Marauder horsemen, but he did his job enough that if the battle had been resolved to the death, it certainly looked as if it would have been a Lizardman victory without needing to count the secondary objective.

Great battle report, and great-looking models on both sides!

 

Thanks! And yeah it's enjoyable to see a less popular choice like the Troglodon thrive. Obviously it was very specific circumstances, but hopefully encourages people to add them to lists, especially as the model is so nice. In this game I totally forgot to use his Primeval Roar ability. Oh well!

I'll have a look at your Lore of Beasts rankings.

 

To be honest it wouldn't have mattered much, because restricting it to once per battle makes it far too weak to make much of a difference. It should really have allowed units in range to make Predatory Fighter rolls on a 5 or 6 every turn rather than once per battle, especially given that the Troglodon in lore would roar whenever he'd feel like it, rather than saving it for a special occasion. That I think would make him worth taking as a support piece at least.

I think you'll find it an enjoyable read! That thread is a participation thread as well, where 8 forumites get the chance to perform an in-depth analysis of one lore from the main rulebook, and I chose the Lore of Beasts because, as a Beastman and Lizardman player, I knew I would be using it a lot. The lores of Life and Light are both still lacking a champion, so if you fancy treating us to an essay on the uses of either of those lores, by all means have a go, and let us know of your choice!

 

Thank you mate! It was definitely a fun game. As for the terrain, all credit is due to my friend, the Warriors of Chaos player. He's a skilled hobbyist, and works very hard at making beautiful tables.

You should all follow him on Instagram to see his work: @thewhisperheads


Hopefully when I have time I'll post other battle reports here.

 

I realise it's the 21st century and everyone should have awesome internet, but please scale down your image sizes a tad next time for those of us on regional Australian internet ._.

A really great report, and gorgeous minis!

(Since it looks like you're also an Aussie please check out the Oz Tabletop Gaming forums, a somewhat successor to the old WargamerAu forums!)

 

Thanks for the feedback mate! I'm doing the report entirely off my phone, so I haven't paid attention to the large image sizes... But I'll definitely try to figure out how to make them smaller, it'll help the page load better.

I might check out that forum. I'm Sydney based and we have a small but dedicated 8th ed WHFB group here (check out Mournival Events on fb). Is there much 8th ed around where you are?

 

This are some amazingly painted Lizardmen, the detail is phenomenal and the colors really shine on the battlefield!
Great battle report.

Grrr, !mrahil

 

Thanks

Thanks so much for your kind words. Glad you enjoyed the report!

I'll add more reports from my games, but they do take a little time. They're fun to write though, it's a way of reliving the game for me, which is nice as I don't get as many actual games in as I'd like.

All credit for terrain is all due to my friend, follow his awesome projects on Instagram @thewhisperheads

 

Look like a great game! The pictures were also pretty nice, you both have pretty armies, and the ammount of pictures made it actually a lot easier to follow what was actually going on. The Troglodon really did some work, which does not happen often! I guess he counters the Marauders pretty well, especially in small units. Nice writeup!