The matchups were sorted out by a randomly determined winner nominates one general of their own, while loser nominates two generals of theirs from which the winner then gets to select whom to face. All games were played under Battleline rules (pitched battles) and all victory points were added to a total team score for each matchup.
1st game - Warriors of Chaos
For the first game I was picked to go up against Warriors of Chaos. Meanwhile, my Skaven friend was pitting his Abomination against an Empire gunline, while two Lizardmen opponents were facing off against our Daemons and High Elves.
Across from me stood 15 Tzeentch Warriors, 12 Khorne Warriors, 35 Tzeentch Marauders, 5 Knights and two small units of hounds. They were led by a Sorcerer wielding Death Magic and an Exalted Battle Standard Bearer with a book that gave him a spell from the lore of Shadow. Normally, I'd want to shoot at his army for three rounds to soften up, before I engage them, but that approach changed the moment he rolled up the Purple Sun as one of his two spells. As such, I had to force the issue and meet him in the middle early on.
Things of note:
- Shieldgobbos - I had them set up for a nice combo-charge on the Tzeentch Warriors, alongside the Giant. Ten ranks of gobbos and a giant at corner-to-corner would be hard for even the fabled Chaos Warriors to defeat. Unfortunately, I rolled a 3 with two dice when I had to roll a 5, so the gobbos failed their charge, leaving the Giant on his own against the Warriors.
- Giant - Took out a third of the Warriors on his own without taking a wound in return. But since they were steadfast against him, they held on. Next round my opponent threw a Purple Sun through his own unit which killed the big guy but only one or two Warriors.
- Squig Herd - Next round I had a second combo-charge lined up against the depleted Tzeentch Warriors, but this time the Squig Herd rolled a 4 when they had to roll a 6. They failed to hit the side of the Warriors while my Shieldgobbos went in on their own. They weren't able to break the Warriors alone, of course, and next round lost 30 of their numbers to another Purple Sun cast through his own unit.
- Doom Diver - Did surprisingly well, taking out the Knights early and bringing the Khorne Warriors down to only 3 bodies by the end of the game.
If you haven't guessed it already, the outcome of his game was pretty straightforward. I actually threw more dice at dispelling the Purple Sun than my opponent did at casting it, and he still got it through 3 of the first 4 rounds, without even wounding his Sorcerer. It really is a disgusting spell that can turn a battle upside down. Combine that with my inability to roll even an average charge distance when I had combo-charges lined up, and there was very little my gobbos could do when they went up in one-on-one combats with Chaos Warriors.
I lost this one by about 1200 points. Sadly, the other games had gone even worse for my teammates. The Skavens had been blasted into the Warp by the Empire's finest artillery, and the High Elves had failed two straight panic tests at leadership 10, making two of his three big units (including the General) flee of the table on turn 2. Only the Daemons had been able to get a moderate victory by slaughtering some lizards. We were staring at a 2-18 VP hole to start out the tournament.
