Battle Report; Khorne vs Stormcast

[Agent of Chaos]

3000 Point Battle Report; Khorne vs Stormcast

We decided to have a go at the second siege scenario from GHB17 (slightly modified), then promptly forgot to apply the pre-battle siege rules! Oh well…

A fairly traditional Stormcast force (lots of liberators, retributors, judicators, prosecutors, etc) led by Vandus Hammerhand attempted to defend a fortified ruin against my horde of Khorne (mix of Slaves to Darkness, Bloodbound and Daemonic troops).

The scenario had about 1/3 of the Stormcast force in reserve (consisting of prosecutors, liberators and some heroes).

Rather than come on with a 5+ role we allowed the Stormcast reserves to use Scions of the Storm to deploy instead.

The Khorne force needed to secure both objectives in order to win, with the Stormcast winning a minor victory if they held one of the two objectives after 5 turns (major victory if they held both).

The table was 6ft long but only 3ft wide with the battlefield set up as a narrow corridor so adaptation would be required to account for this.

 

As you can see from the photos the Stormcast set up in two rows; a screen of liberators and retributors as close to the enemy territory as possible with a second line of Vandus, Judicators and Vanguard Raptors sitting in behind. The first objective was between the two lines with the second objective 9” off the back, in the middle of some large ruins.

The Khorne horde used two screening units of bloodreavers on each flank with a block of 10 chaos knight in the centre, supported by a chaos lord on daemonic mount and bloodstoker.

30 Bloodletters sat on the left flank, supported by 5 Wrathmongers, a Bloodmaster, 2 Slaughterpriests, Bloodsecrator, Skullcannon and a Wraith of Khorne Bloodthirster.

On the right flank sat 5 Skullreapers, 10 Bloodwarriors, a Khorgorath and 3 Bloodcrushers.

3 units of 5 flesh hounds were deployed at the rear to basically prevent any stormcast units dropping in behind and slowing the advance.

 

TURN 1

Stormcast took the first turn, shot the skullcannon to bits (didn’t even get a chance to miss this game!) and then immediately charged with their front line. The bloodreavers on the right were wiped out but only about half of the reavers on the left.

This suited me fine as it cleared the way for the bloodletters to charge the stormcast frontlines and ho boy were they vicious! Supported as they were they had 3 attacks each, hitting on 2’s (rerolling 1’s), mortal wounds and extra attacks on 4+… whatever they touched was deleted off the board and it was glorious.

I also used a bloodtithe point so my chaos lord could use his command ability on the knights (reroll charge and +1 to hit) and with the bloodstoker wipping them the chaos knights plowed through the centre while the skullreapers and korgoraths became a bit stalled on the right flank.

 

TURN 2

Devastatingly (for my opponent) I won the priority role and so the carnage continued.

The bloodthirster's command ability to run & charge allowed the bloodletters to charge Vandus and that was the end of him, claiming the first objective in the process.

The knights, skullreapers & Khorgorath mopped up the rest of the stormcast frontline, clearing the way for a 3^rd turn charge.

In reply the stormcast ranged troops pulled back to cover and started to thin out the bloodletters.

The majority of stormcast reserves came down and formed a second line of defence on the flanks.

 

TURN 3

I again won priority which resulted in the Khorne forces advancing further forward to engage the recently dropped reserve troops.

Due to different movement speeds and narrowness of the battlefield the horde had started to spread out and momentum was stalling.

The Bloodcrushers, Bloodwarriors and Wrathmongers found their path blocked by the advance units while the slaughter priests and flesh hounds had been left far behind.

For the first time it was looking like I might run out of time to claim the last objective.

In the stormcast turn I used bloodtithe to heal wounds across the board and rolled a series of 1’s.... standard...

The bloodletters were shot off the board and the remaining combats were short and brutal as the stormcast reserves wilted under the onslaught, however their job of holding up the advance for a turn was done.

 

TURN 4

Another priority won by Khorne but crucially the chaos knights did not have enough movement or physical space to get around the lone Lord Relictor blocking their path to the ruins.

They charged and killed him but it meant there was only one turn left to try and reach the final objective.

By now the skullreapers had made it most of the way there but had to scale the sides of the ruins and couldn’t get enough models into combat to threaten the defending retributors.

The Bloodthirster had surged forward on the left flank and killed whatever was in front of him but was losing wounds (and therefore movement) in the process.

The Stormcast shooting took the bloodthirster down and prepared themselves for the final push.

 

TURN 5

Priority won again for Khorne and the chaos lord charged and wiped out the vanguard raptors.

The chaos knights charged and killed the remaining unit of Judicators while the skullreapers continued to battle with the retributors.

A couple of Stormcast heroes and retributors remained on the ruins securing the second objective and held out for the minor victory!

Oh well… Khorne cares not!

 

 

THOUGHTS & LEARNINGS

Just one more turn!

In all seriousness this was always going to be tough for the stormcast given the proximity at the start and the number of troops in reserve.

I didn’t give enough thought to reaching that final objective by turn 5 and in hindsight should not have used my fastest troops, the flesh hounds, as backfield deployment negaters.

Could also have been more tactical with bloodtithe instead of using it to heal back up I should have been using it to move units in the hero phase.

Although he won the minor I think in hindsight my opponent might have set up a little further back to prevent a first turn charge and he will definitely focus fire on the bloodletters next time!

A good reminder that AOS is foremost an objective based game and my opponent deserves credit for hanging in there after the carnage of the first 2 turns.

Buffed up bloodletters are that good I’m scared GW will nurf them in the next round of Q&A. Until then let the blood flow!

And I definitely need to get myself a 6’ x 4’ table!

 

[Gillbilly]

Great to seeing such large armies clashing. Very thematic battle.

how do you find skull reapers now the points have gone up?

[Agent of Chaos]

I havent used them much. They feel like a luxury unit and would probably lean towards Wrathmongers if I had to choose.