1500 Point Battle Report; Khorne vs Stormcast

[Agent of Chaos]

Played my first game with the new Khorne abilities last night. 1500 points against Stormcast playing the Gift from the Heavens scenario (an objective aka meteor lands in each half in the second turn hero phase). Below are the forces and my thoughts / experiences for anyone interested (note* my opponent is very inexperienced and I'm inexperienced with AOS so some of our decisions may not have been the best);

My Force;

Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster (Immense Power; +1 dmg to melee wpns)

2 x Bloodsecrators (yes we played them as stacking)

1 x Bloodstoker (Talisman of Burning Blood; +1" to run&charge within 8")

20 x Bloodletters

20 x Bloodreavers

5 x Blood warriors

2 x 5 Flesh hounds

1 x Skull Cannon

Stormcast Force:

Lord celestant (General, luckstone)

Lord Celestant on Dracoth (5+ ward save)

Lord Castellant (luckstone)

3 x Units of 5 liberators

3 x units of 5 Paladins

1 x Prosecutors with javelins

Hammerstrike Battalion

 

Stormcast took the first turn and flew the prosecutors straight to the middle of the table with one unit of Paladins using the hammerstike ability to deploy in my face immediately and charged my fleshounds. I had set up a unit of 5 hounds directly opposite the prosecutors, hoping he would give me first turn and the opportunity to get a first turn charge and wipe them out, thus meaning his paladins would have to land 9" away. Sadly it wasnt to be and the flesh hounds were instantly smooshed. My Skull Cannon manged to hit and wound the Prosecutors but he made the 6 up save! :-( I charged the paladins with my bloodletters and reavers while the Bloodthirster charged and destroyed the prosecutors with a single swipe of his axe. In return the Paladins killed 9 Bloodletters! That extra damage from the battalion is nuts! One Paladin survived combat and rolled a 1 for battleshock. The bloodletter horn kicked in and he had to reroll, failed and fled! :-) 

Turn 2 I won initiative and my comet (objective) landed on my left side. Unfortunately the rest of the stormcast force had hung right back, waiting to see where the objectives landed. Although I had the double turn there was no one to charge so my force advanced to hold the centre ground while the remaining 5 hounds and the bloodstoker guarded my objective. The skullcannon fired at and missed the Lord Celestant. In Stormcast turn 2 his meteor objective landed to his left (diagonally opposite mine) right next to a unit of liberators. He dropped another unit of paladins on the corner where my objective was but fortunately they failed their charge and so couldnt contest it. One unit of liberators made its way up the stormcast right flank while another unit of liberators and the remaining paladins charged the bloodletters. Many were killed but the unit held (thanks to the Bloodsecrators; I was tempted to roll anyway in the hopes of rolling a 1 but decided it was better not to risk it and left them there tieing up the paladins in case he won initiative next turn).

Turn 3 I won initiative again and used blood tithe for the first time ever. I had 6 points by this stage so used them on the brass skull meteor thingy. All 3 of his heros were hiding at the back in close proximity. Unfortunately I only caused 1 wound on the Celestant and failed to hit the other two heroes (actually rolled 3 x 1's so that was a fail...). The Bloodthirster used his breath on the nearby Paladins and the Skull Cannon managed to take out one as well. The Bloodthirster then charged the unit of liberators in the centre while the reavers charged the Paladins.  Over at my objective on the left flank I elected to move further away from the paladins who had jumped down last turn, thus ensuring I would have an uncontested objective for another turn and potentially giving them a hard charge next turn. On the right flank the skull cannon and blood warriors continued their advance towards the Stormcast meteor. Stormcast turn 3 saw the flanking liberator units move forward. Round 3 combat saw the Bloodthirster wipe out the liberators, the paladins finish off the bloodletters before the reavers cut down the remaining paladins.

Turn 4 saw Stormcast win initiative. The 3 heroes came forward with the Celestant on foot and Castellant charging the Reavers while the Celestant on Dracoth charged the Bloodthirster. The Paladins in the corner made their charge, engaging the hounds and bloodstoker at once. The Stormcast heroes performed poorly, failing to wound the Bloodthirster and only killing a few Reavers. The Bloodthirster killed the Dracoth while the Reavers took the Celestant down to 1 wound and the Castellant to 2.  The Paladins killed the Bloodstoker but the hounds survived meaning he couldnt claim both objectives. In my turn my blood warriors and skull cannon were still out of range of the stormcast objective on my right flank and the skull cannon missed another shot at the Celestant. The Bloodthirster charged and destroyed the liberator unit on my left flank while the paladins finish off the hounds. At the end of round 4 the Stormcast were down to 2 heroes and 2 units, but their units were in the right position to claim an objective this round while I was not.

Turn 5 saw Stormcast win initiative again but I used 3 Blood Tithe points in order for my Bloodthirster to charge the Paladins guarding my objective... charge failed. The Liberators guarding his objective charged my skull cannon but failed to wound it. In return the gnashing maw actually caused a wound and I got to shoot in the combat phase! (naturally the shot missed). The Paladins ended up charging the Bloodthirster anyway and took him down to 5 wounds; he slaughtered all but one in return. The Celestant and Castellant survived another round with the Reavers but would both be cut down in my turn. My turn 5 started and at this point he had 9 Victory Points to my 5 however If I could secure one of the objectives by the end of my turn then I would win. Sadly as the bloodthirster was still engaged with the single paladin he couldnt claim my objective. My only shot was to kill off the remaining 2 liberators attacking my skull cannon and I would claim his objective. My 5 x Blood Warriors needed to make a 6" charge to join the combat and would surely have killed the surviving lib's but I rolled 4. This left it all up to the skull cannon but its shot missed, the maw missed and the bloodletters only managed 1 wound. The Liberators survived to contest the objective and despite them being the only Stormcast left on the table, Khorne was "technically" defeated.

SUMMARY

Should have moved those blood warriors forward in my first turn. By holding them back a turn cost me a charge (they should have made it anyway but meh..). The Skull cannon was frustrating early (although can't blame the cannon when my opponent makes a 6 up save). Having the Gnashing Maw effect go off was a bonus, even if the subsequent shot missed. I had intended to take 30 marauders instead of the cannon, which probably would have been more useful in this battle, but hadn't built them all yet. The bloodsecrators sat at the back of the board doing nothing all game; very boring but the attack and battleshock immunity buffs are too good not to have. The Bloodthirster was immense, single handedly slaying 10 x liberators, 4 x paladins, 3 x prosecutors and a Lord Celestant on Dracoth, and he survived the battle!

Overall a fun and somewhat unpredictable game. Any thoughts / comments / questions on the army lists or tactics welcome! :-)

Thanks for reading!

[RuneBrush]

Really interesting read through.  Stormcast are a really tough nut to crack, their armour save is really impressive and we don't have a massive amount of rend available.  I've found my Skull Cannon to be very "hit and miss" and either reaps a bloody toll or is really ineffective.  Having just a single shot means there are three dice rolls for it to fail and against Stormcast I've found they tend to save more often than not (against models with a 5+ save it becomes more reliable).  I quite like to field a Slaughterpriest - Blood Boil is a great alternative for character sniping.