Twins of Khorne verse the 4 Horsemen: Battle Report

I got to fight a battle last weekend against a very cool army idea. It is based on the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. It was a chaos undivided mortals list.

Undivided = Death
Khorne = War
Slaanesh = Famine
Nurgle = Pestilence.

My army, Twins of Khorne:
Exalted of Khorne, Sword of Might, gaze of gods, chaos steed, shield, general
Exalted of Khorne, Rending sword, enchanted shield, chaos steed

4 units of 5 Knights of Khorne, standard, mus
4 units of 5 Marauder Horsemen, Flails, throw axes, mus
2 units of 6 Centigors, LA, Shield, Spear, throw axes, mus
2 units of 5 Dogs of War, Bow, shields, mus

My opponents army:
Exalted Hero undivided, Sword of Might, Gaze of gods, chaos steed, shield, general
(death)
Exalted of Khorne, Helm of strike first, flail, shield, chaos steed
(war)
Exalted of Slaanesh, Whip of +1A ASF, chaos steed, shield
(famine)
Exalted of Nurgle, Blade of Blood, enchanted shield, chaos steed
(pestilence)

5 Chosen Knights of Chaos undivided, full command
5 Knights of Khorne, full command, blood rage banner
5 Knights of Slaanesh, full command
5 Knights of Nurgle, full command

4 Spawn (1 undivided, 1 Khorne, 1 Nurgle, 1 slaanesh)
4 units of 6 chaos warhounds.

Here is the initial setup: (Click on the images to Enlarge)


He had his Famine troops on the far left, his Death with hounds on the far right.
In the middle he had all 4 spawn with the Nurgle behind them and Khorne to the right of them.

Of my troops, the blue ones are the Marauder Horsemen. The pink are my Dogs of War fast cav. The brown with the arrows are the centigors. The other 4 units are knights of Khorne. The red guys are the heroes. The stars are the generals.

Turn 1: He moves up a little everywhere. He has no magic and no shooting. So just move and fight.



My turn 1: Centigors on left cannot hold their liquor and become mean drunks. They charge and hit the Famine Knights. Only to have the hero swing first, and kill 3 of them. They do take one down but they are completely wiped out. (shown by the skulls and 'X')
On the right my marauders charged the hounds. The hounds flee through the knights and actually hit both other hound units as well. Hoping for a ton of panics, he passes every roll.
I then should have stopped the marauders before they hit the knights, but like an idiot I have them hit, hoping to kill a knight and tie them up for a bit. No, instead they are just completely wiped out. Ouch!!

I move everyone else as shown. throwing axes at the Pestilence Spawn does 2 wounds at it, and more axes at the War knights and kill 1. Sweet. My arrows kill 1 hound.



His Turn 2: On the left, he just moves up a bit with his Famine knights and does not take the fast cav bait. He moves his hero to the end getting ready for my knight charge.

On the right his wounded hounds charge my Centigors. The centigors stand and throw their axes, killing 2 more. The hounds pass their panic, hit the centigors. Both sides whiff in the combat, but the hounds are outnumbered, break and flee. The Centigors catch them, wiping them out and overrun into the hounds behind them.

the fleeing hounds from last turn, fail to rally and run off the board.
He moves his last hounds up to bait my knights.

In the middle, his Death Spawn moves 5" and hits my marauders. The Pestilence spawn moves only 3" and fails to hit them. I wanted to be able to throw at them in hopes of killing it. Instead I stand (again another dumb move) and shoot at the Death spawn. I do nothing, and he kills 4 in combat. Needing snake eyes not to break, I make it. WOW!! But was that a good thing?

His War knights charge my marauders who flee and get away. But his knights are in a bad spot until the Famine spawn jumps out 16" and gets in the way. The War spawn moves up baiting my hero and knights.



My Turn 2: On the left, I just maneuver my guys a bit trying to get to the Famine knights flank. Throw axes and kill 1 knight. He knows he can't screw around.

On the right, my far right DoW and chaos knights both charge the hounds. The hounds flee a long way, get away from the knights, but the DoW fast cav gets to move straight up and catch them, wiping them out. Hoping for a panic on his general's unit, he passes.
Other DoW move up to block him off from his charge he wanted to make. Oh so sad!!
Centigors kill all but 1 hound who flees off the board, Centigors restrain.

Now the middle. My knights with hero charge the War Spawn in the center. The hero with Rending sword does 4 wounds before I even get to roll for the extra wounds. 1 dead spawn.
I overrun and I hit both the death spawn and wounded pestilence spawn at the same time. So we set everything up. Fight a new combat, kill the pestilence spawn. But cannot kill the death one. Manage a wound on it. But am stuck.

And finally the biggest combat of the turn. My khorne knights charge the famine spawn. If I can do 3 wounds to it, and overrun I can block the upcoming flank charge on my hero. Or even hit his unit and get the initiative.

I roll and only manage 2 wounds. Ugghhh!! So I'm stuck there.
The fleeing marauders rallied.



His turn 3: On the left he decides he cannot put it off any longer. He charges and the marauders run and get away, actually running through my recently rallied horsemen. Pass their panic. I was hoping he would go far enough to get the rear. We will have to check next turn, it is close.

On the right, his hero charges out of the knights and into my knights. Kills 2, but I do a wound back to him despite his 1+ save and 4+ ward. I win by 1 and he holds.

In the middle. Nurgle knights into my knights with hero front. Khorne knights into knights with hero flank. Ouch.

I challenge and the Nurgle hero accepts. We both have Enchanted shield. He has the blade of blood to my Rending sword. With 0+ armor save he manages 2 wounds and I pass both of them. Then on my turn, 4 hits, 0 wounds!! Uggh!!
His knights then completely kill every knight I have. My marauder is killed by the spawn. My exalted needs insane courage but cannot get it, is broken and run down.
When his khorne knights spin to pursue, they overlap my khorne knights that just killed his famine spawn and pursue into my knights.



My turn 3: On the left my knights charge his Famine knights. We measure it and I'm in the flank. He swings first but only kills 1 knight. I get 2 wounds on the Famine hero killing her, breaking the unit and running them down.

On the right my hero moves over to join combat. He challenges and I accept. I go first and kill his hero and general!!

Centigors turn around and them and 10 Dogs of war all shoot at the death knights killing 1.

In the middle. I try to charge the flank of the War knights fighting my knights. His pestilence knights are in the way and I fail the charge. I rally the other horsemen, who run around a bit.

In combat, both sides armor holds up very well. We each kill 1 guy. Combat is a draw.



His turn 4:
On the left he has nothing. On the right the knights decide they might as well take their chances, they charge the Dogs of War in front of them who flee. My general and his unit are smacking their lips.

In the middle his death spawn spins and charges my knights in the flank on the left side. We both fail to do any wounds. I win combat so I turn my knights to be in a line facing him.
His pestilence knights charge my marauders who flee. Then enemy in the way the next horsemen who flee. He catches the first set.

In combat, his hero goes nuts and I lose the rest of my khorne knights.



My turn 4: My general and unit charge the Death knights in the flank. His champion is on that side, so that is all I can kill. He holds.

Combat in the middle again no wounds, I win with numbers and banner and expand my frontage.
The Centigors turn around and move towards the center. Both Dogs of War cav move to the center.
The horsemen rally, and move up and throw at the pestilence knights doing nothing.



His turn 5: With his army quickly crumbling he makes the worst possible dice roll in the game. His khorne hero goes stupid because of the helm of many eyes. And they move up 3.5".
his pestilence knights charge the horsemen who flee again. Almost off the table, but not quiet.

The death knights are no match for my general as he chops down 2. The last one runs off the table with my general in hot pursuit.



My turn 5: This is a huge turn. I declare no charges and measure from my Khorne knights that just defeated his death spawn and it is just under 14". So they plow into the flank of the knights that had gone stupid just the turn before. If not for the stupid roll, he moves or turns or something.

So I slam into the flank. And in an outstanding display of armor saves, neither of us takes a wound. I win by 1, and he holds. His banner of eternal frenzy keeps him frenzied.

For the rest of my army, the horsemen rallied and run to the flank of the pestilence knights. Dogs of War move up. Lots of missile shots at the pestilence knights but again a flurry of armor saves keeps him alive.

I move my general and his knights up to capture the top right table quarter.
Centigors decide they are not really needed, get drunk and then stupid.



His turn 6: His Hero swaps place with the champion so he is in combat with my knights. His pestilence knights turn to face my fast cav.

He gets to go first, and in a continuing barrage of great armor saving throws he kills none.
My knights with their 8 attacks do a wound to the mighty hero of war. And then my chaos steeds, drag him down and killing him.

I win combat by 4, so he needs a 4 or less to stay and he gets it!!



My turn 6. I don't do a lot. My Centigors go from stupid drunks to mean drunks but because they cannot see out of the woods cannot charge.

The rest of the cav moves around to capture table quarters and line up their shooting.

A hail of 10 arrows and 5 axes and more great armor saves and I don't kill any again.
That is one set of tough knights.

Finally in combat I get to swing first. With my 8 knight attacks I manage 4 wounds and he fails 2 saves. So only the champion is left. My Chaos steeds then manage 1 wound. So needing a 3+ he rolls the 1 and the unit is destroyed.

Here is the final positions of all the units:



Overall a great game. I was up by several hundred points as he only had about 400-450 points on the board while I still had over 1100 points left. Not to mention I had captured 3 banners to his 1, killed his general and had 3 extra table quarters, giving me a total of a 1300 point massacre.

My fast cav units worked fantastic. I still made a couple mistakes with them when I charged his knights with them, and let the spawn charge me.
My centigors did me no favors, going frenzy on turn 1 for the front charge on the slaanesh knights and hero. And then going stupid hurt them. But the knights, Dog of War fast cav and that 1 unit of marauders really tore up, harassed and tied up units just the way they are supposed to.

Fast cav with the ability to flee a charge, rally, move and still shoot is almost sick. I never failed a single rally test and they were worth their weight in gold.

I think what gave me the massacre was his Khorne Knights and hero going stupid on turn 5. That set me up for a great flank charge. He drug it out a couple rounds but in the end the flankers prevailed.

If you read this far, I hope you enjoyed it.

Until next time...