Empire v Chaos battle report

[Swiftblade]

Ok, so I've taken on board what Mortis has suggested and I thought I'd give it another go.

Since last game I've bought a 6 x 4 board with a Battle Mat to give more playing area and a better surface to play on. I'm introducing another friend and have decided that 3000 points might be more manageable for now!

So, the story so far.

"The Empire has recently suffered a massive civil war. Those areas who follow Sigmar and those who followed Ulric pitted against each other following the death of the Emperor Karl Franz, then the bizarre discovery that his heir was a mutant! Both factions blamed the other and a conflict was the inevitable result.

Finally, after many months of war between the factions a resolution is reached when the Hammer of Sigmar is rediscovered and Graf Heinrich Todbringer is revealed to be a direct descendant of Sigmar, which unites both factions and restores peace.

The capital is moved to Middenheim and the rebuilding work begins. However, the enemies of the Empire have not been sat idle and a cunning Demon Prince of Undivided Chaos seizes his chance and invades from the Border Princes, having secretly been establishing a base there. With the Empire still in Chaos and the armies in array, the new Elector Count of Altdorf rises to the challenge. Gathering what forces he can from neighbouring city states he marches south to halt the incursion.

On a cold, damp morning battle is met, will the invaders be repelled or will Altdorf be sacked before a better resistance can be formed?"

So, I'm playing Empire. I knew that chaos doesn't have much ranged so wanted to take advantage of that and dominate the ranged game, so took plenty of missile troops and artillery. I also wanted to hold my own magically so made sure I had a couple of wizards. The priest was an obvious choice against chaos. I also wanted to be able to hold my own, so brought 2 big units to try and hold a line, with some smaller units to try and get flanking advantage. I knew he'd have alot of cavalry and that mine wouldn't be able to match his, so I bought 1 small shock unit and the Empire War Wagon. Finally I couldn't resist a steam tank.

For his part, this is his first ever battle game so he struggled a little to work out how to balance an army. He quickly worked out how expensive chaos are and didn't want to put all his eggs in one basket by spending too much on a few units and potentially losing them to cannon fire. He decided to get 3 small mounted knight units to reach me quickly, knowing his range disadvantage he decided to give them all magic banners with bound magic missile spells so at least he could take out some of my range advantage. He left all his chaos warriors as undivided, not wanted to spend points on marks for the 4 chaos gods.

Not wanting all his troops to be pricey, he bulked out his army with 3 units of foot warriors with nothing extra spent on them. Finally he wanted some demons to utilise some of his prince's gifts and bought plaguebearers who's noxious breath could make a difference against defended obstacles.

Hero wise, he bought a Tzeentch Lord since he got the best of both worlds, lvl 4 magic and great close combat. Being Tzeentch he could also stick him on a disc, giving flexibility and speed. Wanting to dominate magically he bought 2 more sorcerors, which (with his demon price being a lvl 4 mage) gave him far more magic than I have.

So, there you have it. Will be playing tomorrow and will do another report afterwards. Hopefully it'll be more like you're looking for. Here's pictures of the armies on a tray, this is obviously before deployment and before the battlefield is set up. As before, they should be looked at in reverse chronological order. My friend painted the chaos army, the crappy painting on the Empire was my own efforts :) http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a185/feathersswiftblade/Empire%20v%20Chaos/

[Swiftblade]

So, the Chaos army march into Kartoffelkopft, the empire army marches to defend it.

here's the report (in reverse order). feedback appreciated. http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a185/feathersswiftblade/Empire%20v%20Chaos/

(Was my friend's first game of WFB).

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Your friend's Chaos Army looks good, some simple but interesting conversions in there.

I see you empire army is based around the Battle Masters figures and I also spotted The Disciples of the Red Redemption being used as Flagellants and the old Citadel Cleric makes for a nice Warrior Priest too

Were you playing 6th? which rules did you use for the War Wagon in the end?

[Swiftblade]

Well, its my Chaos army, but a friend did do conversions etc.

Certainly some of the Empire army is old battle masters, well spotted on the flagellants!

We played 6th ed, I took the war wagon out of the 4th edition rules, then used the crew member stats from the 2002 annual which has them on a steam tank platform. I used the 4th edition cost of 150 points.

Going to be picking up some "Dogs of War" stuff hopefully this weekend, so might use them instead of Empire next time, some of the stuff is transferable.

In terms of a battle report, was it interesting to read or a waste of time? I don't mind either way, just worth knowing if its worth doing.

This coming Monday my wife  has challenged me to 3000 points Dwarves v Chaos so could do another report if people want.