The Battle of Paradise gulch- by the RGH

Hello All,

Saturday my friend Sean and I were able to play our first AOS game since the release of the general’s Handbook. We decided to go with 1500 points so Sean could field more units and see how they performed. This was his first attempt at using the Duardin in AOS.

Prior to revealing  our lists, my wife set up the table for us. Since she has no “Dog in this fight” we both figured it would be fair. We also decided to only choose certain terrain features to have special rules and we used no formations or special rules like time of war. Also we chose to have no summoning for this battle.

The Background for the battle is two chaos forces were about to duke it out in the wastelands, fighting over the ruins of a forgotten settlement when a group of Duardin chanced upon the location. After sighting the Daemons they prepared for battle. The forces of Nurgle and Khorne, irritated at being interrupted, did likewise. “Round one FIGHT!”

Here is lists of the armies we used

Duardin Army

Heroes
Warden King- Army General
Cogsmith
Runelord
Runelord

Battleline
Warriors x10
Longbeards x10

Artillery
Organ Gun
Cannon

Other
Ironbreakers x10
Hammerers x10
Thunderers x10
Gyrocopter x1

Daemon Army

Heroes
Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne- Army General
Great Unclean One (Big Papa Pump)- Hero/behemoth

Behemoth
Cockatrice

Battleline
Bloodletters X10
Bloodletters X10
Plagubearers of Nurgle X20

Other
Beasts of Nurgle X3
Bloodcrushers X3
Furies X5
Furies X5
Nurglings X3
Valkia the Bloody

We decided to randomly determine the mission for the game.  Sean rolled and we came up with Gifts from the heavens. A fun scenario that is even featured as the example battle in the General’s Handbook. After going over our armies with each other we rolled for deployment. Sean won the roll off (something repeated throughout the game) then we started deploying units.

Turn 1

My First Turn

I only had 2 units with abilities in the hero phase those being the Harold and the Great unclean one. The Harold used his inspiring presence on one of the bloodletter units. In this case it was the “insane Clown Posy” (I.C.P) named because each is wearing clown makeup. Big Papa cast Shield on the unit of plaguebearers.  

As expected I rushed most of my army forward. The left flank was the stronger looking side with all of the Bloodletters, Harold, Valkia, and 5 of the furies “ran” forward to close the gap between the armies.

In the center The Nurglings, 20 plaguebearers, 3 blood crushers and “Big Papa” (Great unclean one) also ran forward.

On the right The flank the Cockatrice, three beasts of Nurgle, and the other five furies moved forward cautiously as the old LOTR ruins came up “Deadly” when we rolled for scenery effects. The Furies took the tower of Bravery (The old Warhammer Tower was made “Inspiring” in the same process)

That was about all I could do so on to Sean’s first turn


Sean's Turn 1

Sean Used his hero phase to buff a bunch of his troops in case I could lock horns with him before he got another turn. Then he tightened up his lines and moved forward slightly to take advantage of the heavy terrain on the board.

In the shooting Phase he fired at me with both canon and organ gun killing 4 Plaguebearers and one of the Nurgling bases. As he chose to keep his distance the first turn ended quickly.

Turn 2

Sean’s second turn

We rolled for priority and wouldn’t you know it Sean won and elected to take another turn. (Didn’t see that coming # Sarcasm) So I got to stand there and take another round of shooting.

As part of the scenario in each player’s round 2 the “Gifts” fall from the sky and land on that player’s deployment side. In Sean’s case this was the center of section 1 right on top of the arcane ruins.

Sean moved his cannons up a little and cleaned up his lines in the movement phase. His thunderers fired into the I.C.P Bloodletters Killing 6 while his organ Gun blasted the 2 nurgling bases destroying another one.

 Lastly he was able to draw a line of site to the Blood crushers with his cannon and managed to destroy one of the three in the unit. In all a good round of shooting. Again there were no charges nor hand to hand. So….

My Turn 2

My gift fell in the section just across from Sean’s near the vortex. My Bloodcrushers would end up camping this spot for the rest of the game.

My turn 2 started out well. I was able to recast shield on the plaguebearers Then in the movement phase I was able to move units into charge range and making some really great 8” and 10” charges Then catastrophically failing a three-inch charge with Valkia the Bloody by rolling snake eyes! *Shakes head*

My remaining Plaguebearers managed to charge Sean’s Warriors and were in range of his Iron Breakers who were then successfully charged by the remaining Nurgle base. The Winged furies charged his Gyrocoptor while the Balloon riding furies made the Charge Valkia failed and engaged the Thunderers.  The remaining 4 members of the I.C.P charged the cannon.

Hand to hand was weak as very few models were slain from either side. The most notable was the death of three of the 4 remaining I.C.P Bloodletters vs. the cannon crew + Cogsmith (Hero)

Turn 3

Once again we rolled for priority and once again Sean won the roll. He decided to take the initiative and go first in turn 3.

Sean’s Turn 3

Sean’s hero phase was much the same as previous rounds buffing his troops and preparing for the long Melee to come.

His movement was simple – Pull the artillery forward so he could get a good shot on the incoming attackers.

In the shooting phase The Thunderers opened up on the incoming Furies killing 2 while the cannon shot Valkia in the face doing 8 wounds and killing her dead. The Organ gun managed to kill the last of the I.C.P Bloodletters making for another solid round of shooting.

Melee Went well for the Duardin as they manager to whittle down the plaguebearers and Balloon furies (but not destroying ether) and wiping out the winged furies and the last of the nurglings.

My Turn 3

Well. After taking three turns of beatings from the Duardin I was ready to give a little back. I started my hero Phase by attempting to shield my Plaguebearers again. This time it was dispelled. So the tar pit Plaguebearers got a little easier to kill. My general put his inspiring presence on the second unit of Bloodletters who got slowed down in a previous move phase with a bad run roll.

Movement- The loan surviving balloon fury fled from battle towards Sean’s objective and hid behind the monolith contesting the objective for the rest of the game. 

The Bloodletters and Blood Master moved to within 3 inches of the Thunderers. The Cockatrice and Beasts of Nurgle moved into charge range. Big Papa (Great Unclean one) also moved up but was still 10 inches away from the battle line. 

Shooting- Only the Cockatrice could use its gaze attack but failed the roll.

Charges- The Blood Master and Bloodletters charged the Thunderers. The Cockatrice and Beast of Nurgle charged the Duardin line and in an unexpected decision (“what the heck” since I thought this would be the last turn for the night) Big Papa decided to charge into the line as well and rolled an 11 for charge distance!

Melee- The Blood Master attacked first missing all 4 times but used his power to auto activate the unit of bloodletters who killed all but 4 of the Thunderers another would be lost to battleshock .

The Cockatrice did very poorly with his charge round only attacking 4 times on 2d6 attacks. And getting hit for 3 points of damage. The Beasts of Nurgle did better killing a few Duardin but mainly bolstering the lines and supporting Big Papa. The Plaguebearers managed to hold their own but by now were only a shadow of their former strength. Big Papa tore into the line with his nasty 6 attacks clearing a lot of space around him.

Turn 4 (Last turn of the game)

We rolled priority and once again Sean won.  This time, just to be different, He took his turn first.

Sean Turn 4

Hero- Sean had a bad run in turn 4 as some of his buffs did not go off.

Movement- Sean made the decision to swivel the cannon and Organ Gun around and fire into the Bloodletters and Blood master fighting the last of the Thunderers. The rest of the army moved forward to get engaged in the fight with the beasts and Big Papa. The Runelord charged Big Papa for a final showdown. The Gyrocoptor moved behind Big Papa to get a clean shot.

Shooting- The Cannon and organ gun killed 6 Bloodletters and wounded the Blood master. The Gyrocoptor wiffed against Big Papa.

Melee- The Plaguebearers were taken down to just 2 (Hero and horn blower) models. The Cockatrice was wounded 3 more time leaving it with only 2 wounds. One of the beast of Nurgle was wounded, but not enough to kill it. Big Papa was wounded but his special power caused the attacker to take a mortal wound instead.

My turn 4

Hero- Blood Master put inspiring presence on the remaining Bloodletters and Big Papa decided to use his Plague Wind spell (Dispel attempt failed) and was able to wound the army general and Runelord with 3 mortal wounds each.

Movement- My remaining army was in Melee but I decided to retreat the Cockatrice back to the tower just to get him out of the way. The Beasts of Nurgle were close enough to pile in.

Charge- None

Melee- Big Papa made short work of the remaining Duardin troops around him but missed three times against the Runelord.

The Beasts of Nurgle lost one of their own but still managed to kill most of the Hammerers. The Plaguebearers lost one more, but the champion lived to tell the tale and The Bloodletters and Blood master finished off the Thunderers

I'm still standing after all this time -Yea Yea Yea

We called the game at the end of turn 4 and tallied points.

So who won?

I received 9 Victory point for holding my objective from rounds 2-4. Sean received 2 Victory points for holding his objective in round 2. This was a Major Victory for the forces of Chaos.

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Awards (MVP and Punk awards)

Chaos (me)-My MVP goes to the lone survivor of the Balloon carrying unit of furies. This model denied Sean points for 2 full turns clenching me the victory. Way to go little guy!

My punk award has to go to Valkia the Bloody who failed a 3-inch charge then took a cannon ball to the face without getting to fight once. Khorne will be displeased with you. 

Duardin (Sean)- Thunderers held off the right flank for so long. They really were MVP. 

Punk- Ironbreakers were out of position and tied up with the Nurglings... so they were Punking it most of the game.
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Well that wraps up this report. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments, and I will try to answer them.

Thanks for reading

RGH