Classichammer

Originally posted on 4-28-2021

SHEER HEROISM!!!!!!!

Best name for a scenario ever.

This one has been a long time coming. We’ve talked about making it happen, put it off to try new builds or freshly painted armies, and we’d decided our next match up no matter what was going to be this scenario because someone on dakkadakka.com started a thread asking specifically about anyone playing this scenario.

Pretty straightforward. Balanced terrain, 2,000 points, not much to add except I was going for a primarily swarm army and Ashley went for a primarily mounted army to get it as close to the historical match up as our model collection would allow.

The armies were as follows:

HIGH ELVES

Lord: Prince on Dragon – Blade of Leaping Gold, Armor of Protection, Shield, Pure of Heart – 548 points
Lord: Prince on Griffon – Vambraces of Defense, Blade of Sea Gold, Dragon Armor, Shield – 431 points
Hero: Asarnil The Dragon Lord (Additional Hero, and 2 Rare slots) – 460 points
Hero: Dragon Prince Commander – Barded Steed, Dragon Armor, Shield, Lance, Lion Cloak, Long Bow – 154 points
Hero: Dragon Champ Commander – Barded Steed, Sword of Battle, Golden Shield, Dragon Armor – 133 points
Hero: Old Tyrion Commander – Barded Steed, Sword of Might, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of Protection, Dragon Armor – 128 points
Hero: Reaver Commander – Barded Steed, Dragon Armor, Shield, Foe Bane, Helm of Fortune – 145 points

TOTAL: 1,999 points

In case it isn’t obvious, I named them as such so as to match them with models used, and also to make the report MUCH less confusing.

BEASTMEN

Lord: Beastlord – Chaos Armor, Shield, Crown of Horns – 138 points
Hero: Wargor – Battle Standard, Heavy Armor, Beast Banner – 149 points
Hero: painted Brayshaman (Level 2) – Dispel Scrolls – 160 points
Hero: primed Brayshaman (Level 2) – Dispel Scroll, Staff of Darkoth – 160 points
Core: Beast Herd (6 Gors, 12 Ungors) – Full Command – 143 points
Core: Beast Herd (6 Gors, 12 Ungors) – Full Command – 143 points
Core: Beast Herd (6 Gors, 12 Ungors) – Full Command – 143 points
Core: Bestigors (19) – Full Command – 258 points
Core: Bestigors (19) – Full Command – 258 points
Core: Bestigors (19) – Full Command – 258 points
Special: Minotaurs (4) – Great Weapons – 184 points

TOTAL: 1,994 points

Damn good thing I took scrolls as he didn’t run a single freaking Mage…

I chose Lore of Beasts for both Brayshamans, getting/swapping for The Oxen Stands and The Eagle’s Cry for the painted BS, and The Oxen Stands and The Beast Cowers on the primed BS.

We deployed as such:
And as per the scenario rules, character army goes first.

TURN 1 HIGH ELVES

All head mostly full, just a few inches shy here or there in order to avoid wobbly model or bad Line of Sight.
The one Longbow in the army whiffs its shot.

Wow, fast turn.

TURN 1 Beastmen

With no charges to declare I pass all my Unruly tests and move the entire army forward its whole march move.
Looks like someone needs to get used to taking pics in the new basement…

In the Magic Phase I successfully cast Eagle’s Cry on the Griffon Rider, He passes his Leadership so is stuck with a 12” flight move next turn. I then successfully cast Wild Call, flinging the BSB’s Bestigors into Asarnil after they pass their Terror test.
Hehn? See that? Creative use of an empty tray to mark space on an awkward terrain piece!

In the Combat Phase Asarnil issues a challenge, which my Champion accepts. The Champion manages to wound Asarnil once, but is slain with 3 Overkill wounds in return.Despite the slaughter, Resolution sees Asarnil lose combat by 1 point resulting in a failed break test, fleeing 11” with my Bestigors pursuing 6”. Interesting result to say the least…

TURN 2 HIGH ELVES

The Reaver Commander charges the Minotaurs while both Dragon Prince Heroes charge the left flank/painted Brayshaman’s Bestigors, both units opting to Hold. Meanwhile Asaral rallies. All other units move to either set up later charges or to flame units.
The blue Dragon the primed Brayshaman’s Herd, killing 3 Ungors. Not enough to force a panic.

The Reaver Commander manages to kill 1 Minotaur outright (!) while the unit does 1 wound back in return, with the Minotaurs passing their Break test.

The Dragon Prince Champ Commander (Dear Tzeentch, that’s a mouthful…) challenges the Brayshaman who accepts. BIG mistake. The DPCC does exactly enough to kill the Brayshaman outright. The other Dragon Prince Commander kills 2 Bestigors with his lance while suffering 1 wound in return. The lance armed Commander passes his Break test while the Champ Commander fails and flees 12” with the Bestigors obviously being unable to pursue.

TURN 2 BEASTMEN

The proximity of the blue Dragon sets off a Terror bomb on both mixed Herds on the right side of the board. The primed Brayshaman’s Herd passes its test, but the rightmost unit fails and flees 10” off the board.

The BSB’s Bestigors fail their Fear test to charge Asarnal, but the primed Brayshaman’s unit passes ITS Fear test to charge the Dragon Rider (Yeah, I’m playing it the exact same way I did in that one controversial match. I’m confident it was the right way to play it, and I’ll keep doing it that way until the game’s designer tells me otherwise.) and charges in. On the other side of the field the left flank Mixed Herd flank charges the Champ Commander who was already engaged with the left flank Bestigors. All units hold. The Beastlord’s Bestigors march up and start wheeling around the woods to hunt them some Griffin meat…
Both Wild Call and Beast Cowers fail to cast.

The left flank Herd does the last wound needed to kill the Dragon Prince Commander, no Overrun is possible so they sit waiting to move next turn.

The blue Dragon Rider issues a challenge, which the Foe-render accepts. The Foe-render fails to wound at all, but the Prince and Dragon manage to do four wounds total, wiping the hapless champion out. The Prince loses combat by 1 but passes his Break test.

The Reaver Commander does 2 wounds to a Minotaur, and is wounded 4 times with Great Weapons in return, but saves ALL of them. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) The Minotaurs break and flee 8” with the Commander pursuing 10, wiping them out.

TURN 3 HIGH ELVES

No charges declared as units reposition to line up charges and furtherTerror bombs. The Champ Commander fails to rally and flees a further 11”.
Asarnil burns the BSB’s Bestigors for 3 more wounds, but that isn’t enough to force a Panic test.

The blue Dragon Rider wounds the primed Brayshaman 3 times, more than enough to dispatch him, and the Dragon sees 3 Gors to the ground as well. No wounds are done in return. The Herd breaks and flees 5” with the Dragon Rider pursuing 11” wiping them out.

TURN 3 BEASTMEN

I start my turn by failing my Terror test on my left flank Bestigors and watching them flee 4” off the board. All other Terror tests are passed. The left flak Herd are now motivated to charge the Thunderchicken (Griffin Rider), and pass their Fear test while the Griffon holds. All other units reform.
The Thunderchicken issues a challenge which the Foe-render accepts, and promptly whiffs all his attacks. In response the the Thunderchicken hits with ALL 8 OF ITS ATTACKS, landing 6 wounds for a dead Foe-render and the maximum Overkill bonus. (Outlier, I know, but still…) The Herd loses by 2 and breaks, fleeing 2”…

2”…

If the Thunderchicken rolled all 1’s it’d STILL be enough. That said, 13” definitely does it.

TURN 4 HIGH ELVES

This turn is a bunch of repositioning and the Dragon Prince Commander rallyiing.
The Dragons team up to burn the BSB’s Bestigors, resulting in 7 dead and a wound on the BSB himself. Panic is passed, however, which leads to next turn…

TURN 4 BEASTMEN

Both units reform to face enemy units, with the BSB’s Bestigors getting the roughest deal of it. In fact, they reform so fast it almost looks like a blur…
TURN 5 HIGH ELVES

To the surprise of absolutely NOBODY all 4 characters pointed at the BSB’s Bestigors charge in, which I hold as there’s no reason to give VPs without a fight. The Thunderchicken charges the Beastlord’s Bestigors who pass their Fear test and hold. This is followed by the Champ Commander marching at top speed toward the Thunderchicken fight.
Asarnil again challenges, which is accepted by the BSB. The result was the 1 wound needed to polish off the BSB and two Overkill wounds. Not-Tyrion and the Reaver Commander each kill 2 Bestigors, and the blue Dragon Rider wipes out the rest.

The Thunderchicken challenges again, with the Beastlord accepting. The Thunderchicken whiffs all attacks but the Prince wounds the Beastlord twice, and the Beastlord returns the favor by scoring a wound on the Thunderchicken itself! The wound must have been on its wing as it only fled 6” after failing its break test, with the Bestigors pursuing 6”, wiping the Thunderchicken out.

TURN 5 BEASTMEN

The last remaining unit, the Beastlord’s Bestigors, charges the lone Champ Commander who holds in response.
A challenge is issued by the Beastlord, and the Commander accepts. The Beastlord whiffs his attacks, and the Commander does the 1 wound necessary to finish the Beastlord off. The Commander crowns this by passing his Break test.

Game is over at this point, but we’re already here so I decide we’re rolling it out…

TURN 6 HIGH ELVES

Yeah, I didn’t bother taking pictures for the next two turns as Ashley decided to play points denial with the four unengaged characters resulting in no real Movement phase at all.

The Commander kills the Bestigor Champ and 1 more Bestigor, and then passes his break test.

TURN 6 BEASTMEN

No moves, obviously…

The Commander kills 2 more Bestigors but is wounded once in return. This time the Commander breaks and flees 7” with the Bestigors pursuing 8”. D. E. D. DED.



And that was most assuredly game. Two very unfortunate Terror fails along with challenges I couldn’t win made this a rather brutal battle report. I think next time I’ll run Dwarfs or Chaos Warriors as the standard army of the scenario, bet it’d turn out MUCH different then…

YEAAAAH someone did it!

I've always wondered if anyone plays this one "straight", though. Your table had two flying terror causing monsters. My dream table has two Vampire Lords and six castings of Invocation of Nehek every turn. Has anyone ever played a handful of fairly tame heroes against a horde of regular troops and seen how long they've lasted?

Honestly if you're trying to match points you're going to wind up running a ground pretty quick. I think that's why he went for two dragons and a Griffin in that battle, so that he could actually get up to the same points value as me.


Now if you were going to throw nothing but dwarf characters down against an army, now that would be an interesting match-up.

I'd do it the other way around. Start by building the heroes called for by The Narrative, then points match opposition to suit. Doesn't feel like walking a regular 2000 point pick-up list into this is the Right Way at all.

Jonathan E wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2023 2:30 am I'd do it the other way around. Start by building the heroes called for by The Narrative, then points match opposition to suit. Doesn't feel like walking a regular 2000 point pick-up list into this is the Right Way at all.

I'll second this and it's more than just points matching. We once considered playing a game with a bunch of dwarf heroes then realized that if we just followed the scenario as written, it was possible to deploy such that the dwarfs just moved forward for 6 turns, getting shot at for as much as they were visible, with no other events. Chance for the dwarfs to win was zero, so there was no point and we abandoned the idea. It would have been okay on a smaller table or against an army that had no shooting (and no infinite range spells) though, not that I had enough models to do that at the time.

For those who care about the math behind the dwarfs' odds, consider that the scenario diagram specifies an 18" deep deployment zone and 24" between deployment zones. So long as there is space, that lets the opponent set up 37" away from any dwarf and they move 6" per turn and there are only 6 turns.

There's always concessions to be made in games, it seems like. The "Hold The Line" scenario from Storm of Chaos, I think it was, made it impossible for Dwarfs to win as the attacker.