Battle Report: WHFB Daemons vs Orcs and Goblins

Turn 1

I can't remember the last time I played a game at my own house, I usually go round to a friend's for my Friday night action. When my son Ben offered me a game, I jumped at the chance. A 4x4 battle mat on a table tennis table in the garage was set up with a small selection of scenery, a few woods on the fringes, a swamp on my left and arcane ruins just off centre of my right. The ruins were declared the objective of the game, whichever side was in control at the end of the game would be the winner.

I added up my painted daemons and it came to around 1600 points, so I scribbled down a similar sized list of my painted greenskins. I went for fairly easy-going armies - each had a lord to lead them, and small magic support. The daemons had a Tzeentch herald on a disc plus two units of horrors, while the greenskins had an orc shaman and a night goblin shaman.

Turn 2

The game started with the daemons electing to take first turn. A swarm of nurglings had been enjoying an afternoon frolic in the swamp, their fun interrupted by a vanguarding unit of wolf riders. The nurglings charged in and easily despatched the wolf riders for the cost of just one wound - you can see the tiny orange dice marking this in the first picture above. Sweeping forward they threatened the spear chukkas, picture right. Supported by screamers, it already looked a little tricky for the greenskin left flank. A spear chukka shot wounded a beast of Nurgle, and poisoned arrows from the night goblin archers took down one screamer, but it was not enough to prevent the daemonic advance. The centre stalled as the trolls went stupid and ambled forward a little. The right flank showed some promise, as a pair of wolf riders survived daemon flames to make a surprise charge on a Tzeentch herald on disc, but they were easily fought off.

Turn 3

The main action was in the centre of the board. A single beast of Nurgle held up the trolls, while the daemonettes survived a defeat and then slowly gained the upper hand against the orcs. The screamers slashed the night goblin shaman, but amazingly he took just one wound from the 5 or 6 hits, only to gobble down a poisoned mushroom in the next turn! The screamers then crashed into the rear of the night goblin archers, defeated them easily and pursued into the back of the trolls. With two beasts of Nurgle to the front and screamers in the rear, the trolls too were easily overcome. The nurglings steadily swarmed over the spear chukkas, the greenskin left flank was in tatters, the right flank was ineffective as the squig herd moved up under fire from flamers and pink horrors, slowly whittling down the ranks.

The picture above shows the scene just before it all went horribly wrong for the greenskins. The trolls are just about to be surrounded and destroyed, while the orcs are about to be flanked by the Daemon Prince. His three kills and a good round from the daemonettes saw the orcs destroyed (despite my forgetting his thunderstomp rule), the daemonettes then pursuing into the black orcs. Things might not have been that bad if the orc warlord had survived. He was engulfed by blue fire of Tzeentch, I had overlooked the horrors lurking by the ruins, the single wound from the spell augmented by the warpflame toughness test was too much for the poor orc to endure. Adding insult to injury, the daemonettes then easily defeated the black orcs in combat and ran them down. We fought one last combat between the herald of Tzeentch with his super-charged wand of whimsy and the orc shaman with his glowing green fists of gork, but it was a bad day to be green and the orc shaman was killed. With just half a unit of goblin spearmen and a depleted herd of squigs remaining, I conceded defeat.

The dead daemons, all 6 of them

A fine victory for the daemons, their casualties (right) were virtually none, while the bulk of the greenskins had been destroyed. A surprising result for a fun afternoon with plenty of drama, a few laughs and a good smattering of random events. At one point, Nurgle himself intervened but did not harm a single one of the five Tzeentch units on the board, but did manage to take out some black orcs and a fanatic. The daemons also benefitted from an enhanced save in one turn, so the reign of chaos rolls helped rather than hindered the daemon cause. On the other hand, warpflame gave about half of the greenskin units a regeneration save, which made the warlord episode particularly funny as his toughness 5 meant he would have gained regeneration on any roll but a 6, so I promptly rolled the 6 to kill him off! A classic dice roll very fitting in a game of random carnage.

A final note. We were playing a slightly modified version of 8th edition rules, in case you are bemused by the small size of the regiments. I took out the supporting attack rule and I also allowed just the front rank to fire missiles. The result is slightly less carnage in shooting and combat, but otherwise the game plays pretty much the same as the full-on version, only without the need for regiments the size of house bricks. Much easier on the eye, in my view.