Warmaster Revolution Battle Report: Chaos v. High Elves

For a variety of reasons that need not detain us here I have not played a game of Warmaster since Wormaster waaay back in May. So this was a welcome return to the giddy heights of Alan's Adult Attick for a game. 

I bought the Chaos because they seem quite easy to use and Alan took his four dragon (yes, you read that correctly FOUR FRIKKIN' DRAGONS) High Elf list. 

He's off to a tournament next month that is insisting on use the foolish optional "Slow" rule and so is experimenting with ways to win without using any cavalry. This feels like the law of unforeseen consequences that the person who added the pointless and foolish optional "Slow" rule to the system should pay attention to. 

I don't like the foolish "Slow" rule, can you tell?

My Chaos infantry pushed up, and then got lost in the woods for a few turns.   

The General led a mounted brigade forward.

And another mounted brigade plodded into a field.

The Dragon Ogres decided to go and have a look at a tower.

The High Elf infantry stood firm. Checking their makeup and combing their long, blonde tresses.

Some of them went gambolling through the woods.

The Chaos General pushed his brigade out onto the left flank

And the Wizard drove his tropps on.

The Warriors were still stumbling about among the trees.

Swift moving Chariots and a Dragon crashed into the Chaos cavalry

The General weighed up a charge of his own.

Lots of arrows (some bigger than others) began to be flung about.

Still stuck.

The Chaos charge went in but, hampered by a muddy field the horsemen were thrown back.

Archers picked on poor, helpless flying flatfish

The Elf troops enjoyed the dappled sunlight coming through the trees 

Dragon Ogres prepared to charge.

On the left a whirling melee broke out with Dragons, Knights, Eagles and more involved.

Two Dragons!

The Hippogriff is *also* actually a Dragon!

Aha, out of the woods! Follow the grey brick road!

Chariots dead. Wood a long way away.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the grey brick road.

Tricksy Elf behaviour with one set of bolt throwers blocking the line of sight of another set.

One of the many Dragons attempting to kill some Knights

The flying fish got in the way, so some re-ordering was necessary to bypass them.

The knights somehow survived.

But victory went to the High Elves. Who waved their handbags in celebration!

Great fun to get the Warmaster models on the table. The four dragons wasn't quite as terrifying as they maybe appeared. The flyer rules are quite restrictive and they're a bit brittle when unaccompanied. Chaos are tough though. I didn't play well, but four wounds and four attacks goes a long way to evening things up!

Wormaster 2026 - Game Two: Kislev v Chaos

 Ok, time has very much moved on and my memory is growing dim, but here's the pictures and what little I can remember from game two.

After my unexpected success in round one I found myself at the dizzy heights of table ten where i was to face Connor and his Chaos.

We were in the desert. of course we were, Where else would Kislev be most likely to fight Chaos, eh?

My light horse crested a hill - there was something special about the hill, hence the card underneath it, but I have no idea what.

Chaos and Kislev soon came to blows beneath a towering pyramid.

Dogs versus horse on a sandy plain - the classic trope.

Nice and warm in their floor length, fur-lined, crimson coats the red guard stood...erm...guard.

It wasn't all just sand. there was a field too. Presumably irrigated in some way.

Mostly the Chaos men stood about in the ruins. Their shiny heavy all encompassing armour making it a very pleasant experience no doubt.

The dogs and the horse archers were chasing one another around the Spinx.

The field proved a useful defence against the first wave of Chaos attack.

Less so against the second

In the shadow of the Sphinx the last winged lancer tumbled to a sandy demise

A pretty comprehensive loss this one. Outplayed and outfought.

Great fun though.

Warmaster Revolution Video: Kislev v Chaos

This is the game from earlier but in video form - for the yoof mainly

Like and subscribe as I believe the hipsters say, Dadio!

Warmaster Campaign Game One: Kislev v Chaos

My first game in the Warmaster campaign was a rematch from the recent Winter Warmer - fighting old Chum Matt and his Chaos.

I tried to film this but the camera is playing up - I'll see what can be salvaged at a later date

I won the scouting I was hoping to hold the woods and ruins with infantry, have my light cavalry run around on interference and then smash some stuff with bears and Winged Lancers.

Horse archers on the flank

More cavalry on the other wing.

The hordes of Chaos

Dragon! Yikes!

The Dragon popped into the graveyard

Chaos, true to form, came racing up.

The Chaos general darted out ahead, I took advantage and landed on him with some horse archers making him pull back. Unfortunately this rather hung the horse out to dry.

I managed some shooting on the big block of Chaos which confused the front rank

More shooting and magic also blunted the Chaos horse

I'd got the wagons set up nicely to dominate the centre.

Unfortunately the hero on my right failed to get the woods occupied.

As a result the Chaos horse caught archers in the open.

This ended as expected for the horse archers.

Meanwhile the Chaos foot assaulted the infantry in the ruins

I was quite confident until more infantry slammed into the flank.

Dragon Ogres too charged home. The General joined them!

Having cleaved through the horse archers the knights were on my flank!

Surprisingly the general and Dragon Ogres bounced! They did take a unit of Horse Archers with them!

It was at this point I noticed the film camera was broken, so after some fettling and swearing we resumed the game but i forgot to take any pictures for a bit.

The Chaos Infantry cleared the ruins, but were in return charged by the bears - who they just about held off. 

The Knights pummeling my flank pulled back - which was something fo a let off.

Oh, and I killed the Chaos General.

We hadn't agreed if we were playing "King is Dead!" rules before we began, but as that's the usual default we agreed we were and so with the roll of a seven the Dragon Rider took over in charge.

Meanwhile back in the ruins the bears in turn found themselves charged.

The infantry were now in the woods and causing all manner of command problems for the Knight brigade.

Having killed a unit of Chaos marauders with a flank charge the Horse archers rather unwisely followed up into another unit. Bounced and were in turn charged. - The spawn would be able to follow up.

In the ruins the bears once more went on the offensive - and were blostered by a Wizard turning herself into an Even Bigger Bear!

The Winged Lancers finally crashed home.

I maybe should have tried to maximise charging the spawn for easy break point killing

The Red Guard tried to help things by shooting. With little effect.

Unfortunately the bears bounced off and the knights who had positioned themselves to kill the retreating warriors were in turn charged in the rear!

The Dragon felt unnecessary.

With this combat the Kislev forces reached break point and the field belonged to Chaos!

On the count up of points it was closer than appeared. And a couple of luckier rolls on my side for command may have made all the difference.

I do think Two War Wagons, whilst looking cool is very sub-optimal. Most players will only ever charge a war wagon once - and then in other games simply ignore it.

I've got more Winged Lancers on the painting table now - just need them finished for the next game!