Centaurs of Cath-Tong BR part 1

The Centaurs of Cath-Tong grew tired of the wilderness, the cold of the chaos wastes. They dreamed of grass fields to run in. Orm'ete grew weary of the endless battles the chaos gods forced them to fight in. It was time for a change. He laughed for a minute at that thought of that word. It was Tzeentch who had "blessed" him months earlier. Changed him and his clan from marauders and warriors to centaurs. He had blessed him with his mark that gave him extraordinary speed but at what costs. The females of his clan soon discovered, any male children were born as centaurs and the mother never survived. The women fled, and now Orm'ete's clan must capture slaves to maintain his clan. He was sure Tzeentch and Slaanesh found the whole situation amusing.

So Orm'ete gathered his clan of centaurs, and headed South. That was the only direction you could go from Cath-Tong. So far into the chaos wastes you could smell the warpstone in the very air you breathed. Their final destination was unknown. But stories of the green fields of the Empire, and plentiful amount of women sounded appealing. And so the herd of Centaurs with younglings and slave women in tow, they headed towards warmer climates and one day peace.

But the gods of chaos do not let one leave their direct control so easily. They had barely started to start their journey when Slaanesh ordered one of its beastial armies to drive them back to Cath-Tong.

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Army setup and lists. Its easiest to see the first picture here:
As always click on a picture to enlarge it.



This picture shows the main part of the battle field after I moved for turn 1. I won the right to choose and due to his heavy magic I decided it was best to go first.

Battlefield: The circle of stones was an Ancient Idol that counted as difficult and whoever controlled it at the end of the battle got 100 vp.
On the bottom center is a small hill.
Center top is a graveyard. We simply counted the entire area as Difficult terrain.
On the right bottom is a wood, and right top is another hill.

Deployment: Mine was fairly simple. Left flank had 2 marauder units with Light armor, Flails and Throwing axes. I also put my Tzeentch Lvl 1 sorcerer with 2 dispel scrolls. Behind them was a unit of chaos knights.

In the Center I put 2 units of marauders with spears, shields and throwing spears and behind them 5 chaos knights, Rapture banner, my exalted hero/general with mark of Tzeentch, collar of khorne and blade of putrification. Next him also rode my Nurgle Sorcerer level 1 with the infernal puppet.

On the right I put 2 more marauder horsemen units with Light armor, flails and throwing axes. (you can only see one, and the corner of the other.
Behind them, not in pic are 2 units of chaos knights. One basic and one with the banner of fury and a Nurgle Exalted hero with flail, bronze armor, Blasphemous amulet and the favor of the gods.

The beastmen in front of me were from left to right:
Beastherd 6 gors, 12 ungors full command
Behind them two spawn of slaanesh.
5 chaos hounds
Behind them 3 Minotaurs of slaanesh, gr.weapons.
Another beastherd 6/12, FC.
Behind them 3 beast chariots undivided.
Another unit of chaos hounds.
Behind them were 12 Slaangors, great weapons, and in the unit were:
Level 4 shaman with staff of Darkoth, crown of thorns, Mark of Slaanesh, d.scroll and power stone.
Level 2 shaman with braystaff, d.scroll, power stone
Level 2 shaman the same.
He then put down another beast herd, 6/12, FC.
Behind them 2 more units of 3 Minotaurs of slaanesh, gr.weapons.
Finally on the far right was another unit of hounds not shown.

Turn 1a: I raced everything up, some further than others. In magic he dispelled both my spells and everything was out of range for shooting.

Turn 1b: His only charge was his hounds in the center into my marauders in the middle with spears. I decided to stand and shoot, killing none and they made contact.
The rest of his army moved up or positioned.

In magic he casts frenzy on his hounds, which I dispel. He then casts freeze/no attack on my marauders. Not wanting them to stand there I decided to burn a scroll. Bad mistake that I'd regret later.

As it turned out the hounds whiffed their attacks, the marauders killed 3 and the hounds missed their break test and they got away.
here is a pic before the start of my turn 2:



Here you can more clearly see the units on the far right end of the battlefield.

Turn 2a: I charged the chaos knights at the chaos hounds on the far right and they fled off the board.
My 2 marauder units on the right double charged his herd over there, and everyone else moved up, trying to set up some next turn charges.
Here is a pic after movement:



Magic was shut down, shooting resulted in a total of 1 hound being killed on the far left flank.
Combat had me kill off several Gors and ungors while he killed 3 marauders.
He lost combat by 1 or 2, broke and the unit of 2 chased him down and captured the standard. But stopped right in front of his 2 chariots.

Turn 2b: He has several charges this turn, sending all 3 chariots into different marauder horse units. One on the left side of the graveyard, 2 on the right.
The far left beastherd did a surprise charge into the flank of my marauders in front of my knights on the left. They held, but all 3 fled from the chariot charges.
He inches up a bit more, but not much.

In magic He casts his 12" magic missile at my marauders on the right in front of the unit with the banner of fury, killing only 1. And taking that unit out of range for the rest of their MM's.
He then casts for my Str 7 character to attack his unit with his 5 attacks. He rolls rediculous, so I burn my last scroll.
He then casts titillating delusions on my general's unit in the middle of the field. I forgot completely about my MR(2) but still threw 4 dice at it and rolled snake eyes, so they were affected.

In combat, the herd easily kills off the marauders and they flee into the graveyard an into the waiting blades of the other beastherd. They ones in combat, restrain pursuit.

Here is the picture at the end of his turn 2:



The beads represent where my unit has to head towards. Ugghhh!!

Turn 3a: Time to get things moving.
Knight unit on left charges the beast herd. Marauders on right with 4 guys left charge one of the chariots to prevent them double killing me.
Everthing rallies and moves back to guard flanks, and irritate people.
Knights on the right wheel around and get up on the hill.
Tzeentch wizard leaves the confines of his unit to keep from getting tied up into hand to hand.
My general's unit can march and does a huge wheel to move towards the mark. Leaving my flank wide open for the chariot. I do get a flash of brilliance and move my general to the left flank. So the chariot alone can only do 2 wounds max and auto-losses combat.

Magic, Tzeentch wizard miscasts and rolls a 7, Strength 2 hit, and he rolls a '6' and I take a wound. Uggh.
Nurgle wizard does nothing.
Shooting kills one more hound on the left and they panic and run.

Here is the situation after movement:



In combat my knights easily slaughter the lowly beast herds, and run them down capturing their banner. But leaving their flank open for his spawn.
My Marauders did 2 str 3 wounds and a str 5 wound to his chariot. He fails all 3 saves, breaks but gets away. I use my master horsemen rule to re-roll my pursuit and run him down.
Leading us to this situation:



Things are looking good for the Centaurs now, but battles are like a river, always flowing and changing. This battle would prove to be no different.

Turn 3b: Revenge shall be mine.
Charge!!! Spawn closest to the knights move up and into my marauders. They stand and shoot and do a wound.
2nd spawn moves into my knights.
Chariot charges the horsemen next to the graveyard, and they only run a few inches and are run down. If not for the Will of the Gods, the Tzeentch wizard would have run off as well.
Chariot passes its fear test and slams into my general in the flank.
Herd in the graveyard charge the flank of the marauders. (I hold, if I flee I run off the board.)
Minotaurs right behind the hill charge the small group of 2 horsemen to get them out of the way, they flee.

In movement he pulls his 3 shamans out of his beastigors and moves them up.
Minotaurs on left move up, Minos on right move back.
Hounds that were fleeing on far left, rally and stay in the corner for the rest of the battle.

In magic, he casts frenzy on the beastigors, I let it go.
He then casts freeze spell on my general's unit. I'm thinking of letting it go, and we are talking about it when he realizes its a remains in play. So asks if I'd let him switch that to the wild call spell instead to charge the Beastigors into my general's unit.
I'm the nice guy and let him switch the spell, as what he rolled was enough to cast either. I try to dispel it with my 4 dice and again fail. And the beastigors run on in.

Finally, his Slaanesh Level 4 Lord casts Freeze on my General's unit. All I have are my 2 MR dice to deal with it. Not good. He rolls his casting dice and gets a miscast!! Oh, I so needed that.

He then rolls on the miscast table and rolls a 5. (result, I get to cast a spell.)
Hmmm, so I use my Infernal Puppet. I roll a 3 on a d3. This allows me to modify the roll on the miscast chart by up to that number. So I can move it upwards to 6, 7 or 8, or move it down to 4, 3 or 2. I change it to 2.

The heavens open and the very claw of Tzeentch reaches down from the sky above. A booming voice bellows out, "How dare you try to stop the combat we have been waiting to see." And with that, the slaanesh lord was ripped from the battlefield, nothing but a small crater, where the shaman once stood.

On combat, the spawn kills 2 marauder horsemen and the flee off the board.
The other spawn does nothing to my knights who also cannot wound the spawn, but we turn to face the spawn.
The beastherd kills 1 of the horsemen, and they fail their break test and run off the board.
Finally in the large combat, the slaanigor champion challenges and my Lord accepts.
With his multiple frenzied attacks with his great weapon he sneaks 2 wounds in. I fail both armor saves. Finally my 5+ ward save, and I make one. Whew, so my general is wounded. I slay the champion back, but the gods scoff at such an easy challenge.
"You must slay a character."
Orm'ete screams back that the cowardly wizards won't come fight me.

The chariot kills one knight with its impact hits and the Beastigors slay another.
My attacks are extremely weak and I only manage to kill 2 beastigors back.

So losing by 2, I need a 6 to hold. I also have the Rapture banner so any doubles or any '1' on either dice is auto pass.
I roll a '4' and I'm safe for one turn.



So with half the game gone by, the battle has been bloody and looking to get worse. I still have all 4 knight units, both heroes, both wizards and 2 units of horsemen left.
Meanwhile he is down to just his 2 level 2's, his minotaurs, 2 chariots, 2 spawn and a herd. Can it be enough?

Only time will tell.

This ends part 1 of this chaotic battle. Stay tuned for part II and the climatic exciting end.

Until next time...