Shadows Over Nuln : Warhammer Fantasy Battles Tournament (2500 Points)

Last Saturday, we finally had our very first tournament of the 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WFB). I can't remember well the last time we had a WFB tournament, but it was somewhere in 2009 I think.

I entered this tournament with my army of Naggaroth, the wicked Dark Elves (DE). I only had 3 games of WFB since the new DE army book came out, so my gaming experience was sorely lacking. It took me quite a while to come up with a list that I felt confident to go with. Should I bring my favorite, the Shades OR the mounted armies of Cold Ones Knights OR the 40 Darkshards? Who should lead my army? So many interesting option in the new DE army book.

In the end, I decided to go with the list that had the least number of unpainted models. With only 4 days left until the tournament, I think that was the wisest decision. When I submitted the list below, I had only 17 models to paint (Hellebrone, 1 Battle Standard Bearer, 2 Black Guards, 2 Cauldron Crews, 1 Corsairs, 10 Dark Riders) compared to any other list with 20++ models unpainted.

THE LIST

Crone Hellebrone on Cauldron of Blood
Level 2 Sorceress - Dispell Scroll
Battle Standard Bearer - Full Body Armour + Cloak + Ring of Hotek
25 man Black Ark Corsairs - Full Command
25 man Darkspear Regiement - Full Command
5 man Dark Riders - Reaper Crossbow, Musician
5 man Dark Riders - Reaper Crossbow, Musician
5 man Cold One Knights - Full Command
20 man Black Guards - Full Command, Razor Standard
War Hydra - Flame Breath
War Hydra - Flame Breath

The list was very straight forward. Hellebrone, Battle Standard Bearer, Sorceress and the Black Guards formed a Deathstar. Everything else would support it with screening, harassing, redirecting, march blocking and whatever role I find needed during the game.

SHADOWS OVER NULN

1ST GAME : DARK ELVES VS WARRIORS OF TZEENTCH
SCENARIO : BATTLE LINE

My first opponent had strong control of magic with a Level 4 Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch and a Level 2 Sorcerer with Lore of Shadows. He also had 2 solid blocks of warriors, a full 10 man Chaos Knights and a Mutalith Vortex Beast (Toughness test!) to break my army with.

Warriors of Tzeentch making their first move

To fight this army, I needed to watch out for his large blocks and the Vortex Beast. I made use of the Tower and the large rock, marching my Black Guards between the two structures to deny enemy units any chance for a flank charge. This held back my opponent from sending his Knights charging in the second turn. He wanted to fight me in the open, where he would be able do counter my unit with simultaneous flank-charge using the Knights and 2nd Warrior block. Against such a high level magic user, I wouldn't want to prolong the time my Black Guards stay in the open, so I sent them to charge  the center block of Warriors. To our surprise, my Black Guards were just too strong they actually wiped out the whole block in a single charge.

The Dark Elves flankers getting closer

With the Black Guard's flank exposed, the Chaos Knights charged them to the flank. The Black Guards make way for Hellebrone and she killed 7 of the Knights before they can strike any blow. The remaining 3 Knights were brought down by the 3 Black Guards on the flank.

On the center, my Hydra and Darkspear destroyed the other Chaos Warrior blocks with a successful flank-charge. The Cold Ones Knights slain the Vortex beast, overran into the Level 2 Sorcerer and killed him.

With only one guy left on the table (the Lord), my opponent conceded. None of my units were pushed to below half strength. It was a pure massacre.

**********

2ND GAME : DARK ELVES VS TROLLS OF CHAOS
SCENARIO : MEETING ENGAGEMENT

Monsters of Chaos

This army was said to be one of the strongest in the tournament. It had a scary block of Trolls with 54 wounds, 3 more blocks of Trolls with 21 wounds each, a Giant, a Hellcannon and 3 Special Characters to lead the army.

We were to fight on the same table I fought in the 1st game. This allowed me to use the flank denial strategy and deal with the Troll deathstar while his army had to take time circling the Tower. To achieve best result, I deployed my Black Guards 12 men wide to match the width of the Troll Deathstar. As expected, the opponent deployed his Troll deathstar right in front of my Black Guards. Such confident.

The first turn was mine, and I wasted no time charging my Black Guards towards the Troll deathstar. However the charge failed by one inch. So I sent both of my War Hydras and a unit of Dark Riders to screen my Black Guards from the enemy. Having no choice, the enemy sent Scylla Affingrym to charge my War Hydra. That was a bad mistake because now his Troll wouldnt be able to charge my Black Guards and he was forced to move his Troll 3 inches sideway to clear the route. He then sent his Giant charging my Dark Riders (Reaction : Flee) before redirecting towards the Black Guards. Crone Hellebrone slain the Giant in a heartbeat.

Let the carnage begin!

Came my 2nd Turn, Black Guards charged the Troll deathstars, causing 24 unsaved wounds (8 kills) after the 4+ regeneration save. Even after that many kills, the Trolls still have 30 attacks hitting back on my Black Guards. Only 1/3rd of that was a hit and I lost only 4 models after saving throws. With that, my Black Guards defeated the Trolls and they ran off table. My Black Guards overran into Valkia The Bloody who happened to be standing right behind the Trolls. She didn't stand any chance fighting against Crone Hellebrone.

From there, my Black Guards swept to the left and destroyed the Hellcannon. They then circled around tower and destroyed the Troll King and his retinues before going in to destroy the remaining 2 Troll units.

The Trolls faced defeat for the first time

My Dark Elves won the game. Only one unit (a War Hydra) were lost to the enemy. Another massacre win.

**********

3RD GAME : DARK ELVES VS THE LIZARDMEN OF LUSTRIA
SCENARIO : BATTLE FOR THE PASS

The 3rd game was against a beautiful Lizardmen army of Lustria, led by a Slaan Mage Priest. This army also had a Skink Priest with Lore of Beast and a Stegadon. They would easily have control over the Magic Phase. Not only that, the amount of body they had are more than enough to back the spellcasters against any melee unit coming at them.

A very nice looking army

The table we fought were evenly divided by a river, something that would endanger my large blocks if they attempted to move through it. So I deployed everything on one side of the table, as close as possible to the enemy. My opponent (to my delight) reacted by deploying his army right across mine.

I didn't expect my shooting nor magic would do his army any harm. So for this game, the strategy was to charge straight ahead into the enemy whith all I had while the Cold One Knights closed in from the flank. And so it happened that all my front units successfully reached the Lizardmen battle line in the 2nd Turn.

The 2 Hydras charged the 15 man Saurus Warriors and destroyed the unit in 3 rounds of combat. The Black Ark Corsairs destroyed the Skinks in front of them. The Black Guards destroyed the whole block of 24 Saurus Warriors on the charge and left the Saurus Hero with only one wound. The combat were later joined by the Stegadon but Hellebrone simply killed it and the Saurus Hero in the 2 ensuing close combat round. The Black Guards then reformed to face the Temple Guards. On the left flank, the Cold One Knights destroyed both Salamander units and make a run towards the Temple Guards.

Saurus Cavalry charged my Corsairs in the 2nd turn, the combat lasted for 3 rounds when the Corsairs finally broken from combat and killed by the pursuing predators. Temple Guards attempted to charge the War Hydra, the first one succesfully fled away but the other one were captured and destroyed. But it was all part of the plan to bring them right in front of the Black Guards with their right flank exposed.

With a charge to the flank, my Black Guards destroyed the whole Temple Guards. Crone Hellebrone herself slain the Slaan Magepriest and with that, my opponent conceded the game.

In this game, I lost the Cold One Knights, a unit of Dark Riders, both War Hydras, and the Black Ark Corsairs. But it was still quite a huge win for my Dark Elves.

TOURNAMENT RESULT : 3 WINS

With 3 wins, my Dark Elves were at the top of the chart. They conquered Nuln and I was crowned The Best General of the tournament :-)

Seriously, I was surprised by the performance of the Hellebrone, Cauldron of Blood and the Black Guards. In the first game, I didn't realize that the Cauldron allow re-rolls on any failed rolls To Wound. So I only did re-rolls for failed To Wound rolls of 1 due to Murderous Prowess special rules. But still, they able to wipe out all enemy coming at them.

Hellebrone is a real monster with 8-10 Strength 10 Attacks at Initiative 9 and Always Strike First, giving her rerolls To Hit against almost all enemy and rerolls To Wound thanks to the Murderous Prowess and Cauldron of Blood. Throughout the Tournament, she killed 7 Chaos Knights, a Giant, a Stegadon, a Troll King, Valkia The Bloody, Slaan Magepriest, Saurus Hero and countless infantries be it human or trolls. Damn brutal lar this old hag.

Some people asked me how to defeat this army. The easiest way is using the War Machines, cannons of all kind, Stone Throwers or Bolt Throwers would easily be able to take out the Cauldron of Blood and Hellebrone. There was a Dwarf army in the tournament with 2 Volleyguns, 2 Cannons, and about 40 handgunners or something. I would definitely had difficulty fighting him. Thankfully, the Lizardmen defeated them in the 2nd Round and saved my DE from the trouble :-). Hellebrone could also be brought down easily in combat if you know how, but they have to find out how by themselves lah.

Okay.. That's all my report for the day. Thanks for reading through this till the end.
I wish you all happy gaming and have a nice day.