He was led by quite a strange unit made up entirely of characters: three Exalted Heroes were riding Juggernaughts, including the Battle Standard Bearer. His Sorcerer Lord was schooled in Shadow, which I think is a dubious lore for them; you really don't need the hexes and the augments of the lore for your Chaos Warriors. Two 15-20 strong units of Chaos Warriors made up the core of his army, one of them being of Khorne and carrying Halberds while the other were blessed by Tzeentch and carrying hand weapons. A small unit of hounds and three(!) units of Marauder Horsemen made up the swiftstriding part, while in the backfield two Warshrines and a Hellcannon were deployed.
Early on, he was able to get the gift of Chaos Glory on his Tzeentch Warriors, granting them a 3+ ward save and Stubborn, so I figured I'd have to wait before engaging them. Meanwhile, I deployed my Trolls early and he countered with the Khorne Warriors and the Sorcerer Lord straight across from them, so I knew they were carrying flaming weapons. Therefore I held off with my center of Night Goblins and Trolls, forcing the Warriors to march my way while my Black Orcs and Savage Orcs were sweeping across from the opposite side.
Things of note:
- Wyvern Warboss - As the Chaos Warriors walked forward, the Warboss flew above their heads and charged into the Hellcannon, inflicting three wounds on the big monster without taking a single on in return. The monster wasn't going anywhere willingly though, so in my opponent's round he quaffed his Strength Potion and chopped off the last limbs of the beast as it died. Noticing then that the Tzeentch Warriors had reformed and turned towards him, Chaos Glory and all, the cunning Warboss instead decided to charge into a nearby Warshrine while barking out the Waaagh!, before swooping in and sending the Shrine scrambling for cover, away from the battle never to return.
- Trolls - By now, there was little doubt of the Khorne Warriors carrying fire, as they went so far as to give up their flank to my Trolls while threatening the Savage Orcs. That was a mistake though, as 8 Trolls actually will leave a dent in the chaos armor if you don't maximize your attacks against them. So in went the Trolls, and aided by a timely Gift of the Spider God from the Goblin Shaman, was able to kill enough Warriors to leave less than a rank standing, which sent them packing along with the Sorcerer Lord. The Trolls would have none of it though and chased them down. The pursue forced them to overrun into a unit of warhounds, which opened up the opportunity for the Juggernaught crew to counter-charge into the rear of the Trolls. Another dubious decision from Robin's part, I must say, since although the Exalted Heroes were carrying impressive armor, the Trolls just decided to vomit on them, which killed off half of them, while stomping the Warhounds into pulps. That was enough to keep the Trolls in place, still fighting, and after another round of vomit, all the Exalted Heroes were slain, and the two trolls remaining were free to move again.
With both the Sorcerer Lord general and the Exalted Battle Standard either slain or missing in action, there wasn't much left do for Chaos. The Tzeentch Warriors were still standing and had managed to hold the objective for a single round. Meanwhile, neither my Savages or my Black Orcs had gotten a chance to fight proper yet, instead spending their time chasing Marauder Horsemen. One of the Horsemen gave flight too far though, as that brought them crashing through the Tzeentch Warriors, who in turn failed their panic test and ran off. The rest of the game was spent trying to either chase them off the board or swamp them with hard hitting mobs and kill them off if they managed to rally. They did, sadly, and so the Wyvern, a Boar Chariot and the Night Goblins charged into them, killing off several with a round of Thunderstomp, but thanks to the Rapturous Standard Tzeentch's finest managed to hold me off as the game came to an end. Before that though, my tiny mob of Wolf Riders failed their animosity check and were forced to charge into the flank of a Warshrine. Their crew missed all their strikes while a wolf managed scratch the surface of the Shrine with its teeth. That was enough to win combat, and with another stroke of poor luck for Robin, the second Warshrine fled and was chased down by the Wolf Riders, thereby putting a merciful end to the stomping.
Result: WIN 19-1
