Club Night June 15th

It was time for my second league game, this time against Duncan. The last few parts had arrived so my Razorgor chariots now have beasts to pull them and crew. Now they just need painting, but they can be seen below.

Duncan had a new Lizardman army that was lots of skink skirmishers and couple of big blocks, with a Slaan mage using a Skink priest as his range extender. We rolled up the battle for the pass which again was advantageous for my opponent as it meant there was a smaller line for the big units to hold with the skirmishers able to act as a screen. Meanwhile I could barely fit all the chariots across the valley! And with Chameleon skinks behind me it could be interesting.

I started by advancing all the force but a unit of hounds forward. I began to get peppered with blowpipes and magic missiles. In response my shamans could manage little except for more miscasts! My BSB had his chariot destroyed and the hounds sent after the Chameleon Skinks had suffered casualties. But by now I had closed the range and was able to start charging and wiping out the skirmish screens. I made hard work of the cold one riders but managed to get them and was also able to deal with the threat of the Terahdons.

Once I had dealt with the screen I was able to start on the big blocks and begin to whittle them down by charging everything I could from any direction possible. In the end I didn't manage to do quite enough. The Kroxigor with their great weapons had made a difference with one block and a failed charge meant that I was unable to finish off the few surviving Temple guard and almost certainly their charge, the Slaan, as well. Unfortunately the few survivors of these big blocks meant that the VPs did not reflect what was an incredibly close run game.

Club Night 25th May

A new Warhammer league has kicked off. Having finished 3rd last year I was looking forward to this and had decided to try something different after a silly conversation earlier in the year. After scouring e-bay I have bought most of the listed Beastmen chariots and am deploying a force with no less than 12 of them, including some Razorgor chariots. Not knowing if this was going to work I hoped at least it would be fun to play. To open the league I booked a game to play Luke's slayer heavy dwarfs with an Anvil of doom. Immediately the gods were not with me as we rolled the watchtower scenario with the Dwarfs starting in it. With only two screens for my Shamans able to attack it, it was going to stay in their hands, just depended what I could do to the rest of the army!

I swept forward around the tower trying to ignore the missile fire. As my spells failed to cast, and actually caused me more losses due to miscasts (by the end both shamans would be dead thanks to their inability to control their magic!). Fortunately the Anvil of Doom was proving equally ineffective.

As my chariots started to impact I started to realise how good this army could be. Attacking in groups of 3 the impact hits could be devastating, and the extra attacks from the Razorgors were proving really useful. Even if I didn't break units I was reducing them so far that it was almost even in subsequent rounds. Gradually I wore down the dwarfs, charging extra chariots in for more impact hits whenever one was killed and a gap created.

Meanwhile on the other flank my hounds and harpies were managing to hold the Thunderers until a chariot arrived to swing the combat. By the end of the game there was only the dwarfs in the tower left, surrounded by Beastmen chariots like some kind of fantasy waggon circle! A good start for the Beastmen Chariot army of doom!

Club Night 27th April

Woff is coming soon and I will make a return. As it is doubles I am being joined by Ed with his Chaos Warriors to fight alongside my Beastmen. We thought we ought to try and get at least one practice game in and Duncan and Mike agreed to take us on with Daemons and Ogres. Against this we had two really big blocks of Marauders, with a supporting unit of Chaos Warriors and a Hellcannon. My Beastmen to provided smaller supporting units for impact hits from the chariots and flank protectors and war machine killers with smaller units, warhounds and harpies.

It was a very good game, the armies worked exactly as hoped, we had a little luck and did serious damage to our opponents and won. This is quite an achievement as I can not remember the last time I beat Duncan at warhammer as he is a very astute player so hopefully this bodes well for the tournament.

Club Night 6th January

Luke and I played our rescheduled league game after last week. Generally I struggle against Dwarves thanks to their high toughness and my sucky luck, but after the game against Colin and Luke's luck in his last league game I felt slightly confident.

When we rolled up the terrain my confidence changed as we rolled two settlements, plus a bunch of extra buildings and walls, so looked good defensive terrain. However it turned out Luke had no warmachines or missile troops so was going to have to bring the fight to me, as much as I was going to need to close with him. Also the 8th edition rule make moving through obstacles with my chariots a lot easier. My magic also looked good as I got the spells from shadows that reduced the enemies toughness.

We both set up with the bulk of our forces quite centrally. I put my Giant and the Minotaurs on my left and my Ungors on the left against the Iron-Breakers. Both sides moved forward to get to grips. I moved the giant towards the middle, while the Minotaurs moved out further to circle around, while the dwarf warriors moved to face them. On the other flank the Iron-Breakers and the Ungors began a fight, that somehow the Ungors managed to keep losing, but having more ranks were stubborn and kept passing their break tests.

In the centre a general melee had broken out which I gradually got the upper hand in, and then finally broke through, particularly helped by my magic, reducing the enemies toughness and increasing the strength and attacks of my already quite obscene general on his chariot (one turn he was throwing out 14, strength 10 attacks!). Luke continuously failed to stop my magic, despite help from various runes.

Once I broke through the middle, and the Minotaurs swept round the flank, I finally managed to rescue my Ungors and get another victory against the dwarves.

Club Night 9th December

I had finally arranged another Warhammer league game, this time against Colin and his dwarves. With a mass of warmachines and some favourable terrain it looked like it could be tricky. However some gods somewhere were on my side, warmachines misfired and destroyed themselves, thunderers could not hit, even before I used the chalice of dark rain and all my spells went off. Seeing my general under the influence of Mantle of Ghorok chucking out over 10 attacks was an awesome sight! I think my luck was confirmed when they finally killed my giant and for the dirst time ever he fell over on top of the unit he as fighting and took some of them with him

In the end I achieved a good victory and moved up the league table. Whether I can catch Duncan and his Daemons is another issue though.

Club Night 23rd September

I arranged a league game against Laurence and his Dark Elves. We had to leave some forces in reserve and I found myself starting without one of my Shamans, the Minotaurs and the Giant. The rest of my force deployed on my right leaving space for the others to arrive.
I swept my line forward pivoting on the building to close with the Dark Elf line. I came under heavy bow fire and magic as I advanced and my charge rolls seriously let me down. My Bestigors charged forward twice and turned around and charged back after the Shades once, and never moved more than 3" for their failed charges!

However despite my chariots being shot up quite badly they charged into the corsairs and crossbowman and managed to break and chase down both of them. However the Gors got caught up and eventually cut down by the enemy sorcerer, angered by the nearby alter of Khaine and protected from harm by the pendant of Khaleth.

My General had his chariot shot from under him, but at least managed to kill the Shades so he made a slight contribution.On the other flank my reserves arrived and the Giant failed to charge the chariot while my Minotaurs also failed to charge. The Giant was charged by the chariot but survived and managed to crush it before charging in and inflicting heavy casualties on the cold one riders, who then brought him down. The spearmen and their assassin charged the Ungors I had positioned to cover the flank of the Minotaurs, discouraging anyone charging them previously with mind-razor so they where strength 7!

However without the spell to enhance them, they fled and failed to rally, leaving the table. The spearmen redirected into the Minotaurs and fought them to a draw, but with a musician they won, and the Minotaurs failed their break test, fled and also failed to rally, leaving the table very ignobly. Despite bombarding the spearmen with magic I could not break them and the game drew to a close.

I was defeated, and by more victory points than expected, but felt a lot closer and I was pleased with how my tactics worked, even if some key dice rolls let me down too badly to be able to compensate for.

Club Game Sunday 30th May

Mike has organised both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 leagues to run over the next 9 months. Since Chris D was off work and I was taking along weekend we decided to meet up for the inaugural game of the Warhammer league, pitting my Beastmen against Chris' Goblins.

And it was a struggle! Chris fielded a pair of giant spiders, but they actually were the least of my worries. He also had 4 units of 40 night goblin archers. And these caused me serious issues. Using volley fire they could chuck out 30 shots a turn, and if I tried to actually attack them, unleash 3 fanatics each.

And this was my downfall. My largely unarmed Beastmen suffered under unending missile fire. It may only be S3 against T4, but with the number of shots the odds were in the Gobbos favour. This was not helped by the unerring accuracy of their bolt shooters bringing down my giant, and failed charge rolls for my minotaurs exposing them to more fire so neither of my elite units even made it into combat.

Although my general on his chariot managed to cleave through a couple of units with some support the rest of my army fell. The only upside is the enemy shaman-general managed to blow himself up repeatedly and give away some valuable victory points. Hopefully the results for the rest of the league will improve!

Club Night 6th March

Duncan and I had a practice game for the upcoming club league. Duncan wanted some more practice of 8th edition and we both wanted to try out our armies, although the lists have been submitted already so we can't change them now.

We rolled up the battle of the pass so deployed our forces in a nice tight formation and I rushed forward. It was in this enthusiasm I made my first mistake, casting bestial surge I rushed forward, but opened up some gaps that enabled Duncan to move his fiends through and position them ready to attack the rear of my units.

I continued to charge forward, but my Minotaurs fell short, although my Gor and Ungor herds got in against the Daemonettes in what would be a prolonged combat as I desperately, and just about, held on turn after turn. The Minotaurs where charged by the Fleshhounds and the Horrors, who turned out to have the changeling leading them who is a horrible unit champion against unit like this. They promptly lost and fled only to rally in time to get wiped out by a second hound charge. My Giant had seen off one fiend and was now in combat with the hounds and had started jumping up and down on them

In the centre my shaman was desperately trying to avoid the other fiend, while on my left I had chased off the furies with one chariot and then attacked the other horror unit with all three and the Beastlord. They then turned and one engaged the fiend and the other two attacked and destroyed the bloodletters.

The giant had felled a number of the flesh hounds but this lack of armour bought him down. As my Beastlord in his chariot charged and despatched the enemy Battle Standard bearer on his disc he overran into the Daemonettes. And here he met his end, using the shadow spell mindrazor, Duncan made their strength equal to their leadership so they were striking at S8 and I was quickly chopped into bits ending the game.

It was a good game and Duncan's army is really tough. I made some mistakes, such as putting my general off to one side and not using my infantry blocks to support my chariots properly. I will need to learn from these error before the league roper starts.

Club Night 12th November

This Friday saw me join Colin to take on Mike and Steve H in Colin's invasion of the Empire campaign which is pitting Mike and Steve with the Empire against a series of players with their evil armies. I took my Beastmen and fought the appropriate battle for the pass. Having rolled up the terrain there was a number of good defensive items but they ended up in one half of the table, so once I won the roll for table halves I took the defensive side and ignored the terrain deploying in front of it.

Leading off with 5 Chariots followed by a horde of Bestigors, a unit of minotaurs and the giant with the flank screened by two herds the beasts surged at the empire lines. They responded by opening fire with their missile troops, artillery and magic and destroyed two of the chariots and damaged another.

The beasts continued to roll forward, this time covered from the shooting by the cover called down by the chalice of the dark rain. And as a bonus one of the volley guns was destroyed in a misfire. Two of the remaining chariots crashed into the flagellants and wiped out all but two of them, while the third was destroyed as it tried to charge the handgunners. On the other flank the outriders and pistoliers fled rather than face the herds and the giant.

Finally wiping out the flagellants for the loss of one more chariot the survivor charged at the archers who fled. With a roil of 3 6's the charge distance gave them enough to redirect into the flank of the empire general and his knights, a lucky break for the beasts, especially as they then broke and ran. Meanwhile the herd continued to push the fast cavalry back and the Bestigors charged and destroyed the remaining organ gun and overran into some crossbowmen.

The handgunners valiantly tried to come to the crossbowmens rescue but could not resist the might of the towering beastmen who cut them both down with ease. On the other flank the two units of light cavalry and the knights were desperately trying to reform as against the herds and the chariot charged causing yet more casualties.

Then came the decisive turn, the Bestigors crashed though a poisoned wood into the halberdiers and the giant and the minotaurs, spurred on by the power of the idol of mork in the middle of the battle field crashed into the adjacent spearmen. The tremendous might of these three units was too much for the empire men and they were swept away and broke and fell before the rampaging creatures of chaos. The empire army was smashed asunder and another pass into the Empire had fallen to the forces of darkness.

Club Night 15th October

Luke and I decided to do a little 2,000 point Warhammer, once again pitting my Beastmen against his Dwarves. I didn't get round to picking an army till the day so had to rush it and proceeded to leave out the Minotaurs and the Centigors, which I had wanted to give a try. However it all turned out quite well!

We played the watchtower scenario and I was fortunate enough to occupy it at the start, which I did with one of my herds of Gors. To the right i deployed my big unit of 36 Bestigors, led by my Beastlord and a Minotaur Hero so the unit was frenzied. To their right was another Gor herd and a chariot. On the other flank was a giant, warhounds and two more chariots. Behind the line lurked a couple of Shamans.

Against this, on my right, going to my left, was a pair of Gyro-copters, a unit of Ironbreakers, a large unit of Longbeards, a unit of Hammerers led by the general, then another big unit, this time of warriors, led by a runesmith. A pair of bolt shooters and an organ gun deployed strategically along the line completed the Dwarf army.

Both armies advanced quickly in fairly parrallel lines. On my left the chariots and hounds moved to out flank the line, while the gyro-copters did the same on my right. The bolt shooters took a dislike to my minotaur hero and opened up on him, reducing him to his last wound, while the organ gun began to ravage the watchtower and its occupants. The chalice of dark rain saved the minotaur for another turn, but every single charge failed to reach home, and most units only moved an inch or two in their failed charge moves. Behind all this my shamans had been ineffectively chucking some spells about, and had they been in a unit their miscast would have been far more dangerous.

The Dwarves finally bought down the minotaur hero, and their general led a charge against the watchtower, which held, but only just. This then opened them him and his hammerers up to a charge in the flank from the giant which they chose to flee from, ending behind the long beards. On the right the herd again failed to charge the iron breakers, but the chariot crashed in while the bestigors attacked the longbeards.

On the left the giant was charged by the warriors, and with support eventually from the chariots into the warriors flank, and ultimately rear, beat the warriors and began to close in on the dwarf armies flank, with the hounds circling wide.

On the right the chariot was broken and fled, but not before inflicting a fair number of casualties thanks to the presence of an Alter of Khaine. In the centre this was being similarly felt as two hordes, one of bestigors, and one of long-beards laid into each other in a frenzied anger, until finally the long beards broke, allowing the bestigors to pursue into the hammerers, which after another bloody, frenzied combat they also won.

In the very centre the watchtower was still under fire from the organ gun and the surviving gors finally broke and fled from the tower, but as the game came to an end the dwarves were more bloodied and the beasts were nearest the watchtower and claimed victory.

Despite my errors in army selection this army worked quite well, and I may have to tweak it and try it again. I finally manged to matched dwarves for both size of units, survivability and hitting power and I think all this contributed to my victory (along with a little luck, but we all need that sometimes!)

Club Sunday 1st August

Luke and I attended the monthly Sunday meet for the first time in a while to try out Warhammer 8th edition again. This time we upped the ante and played 4,200 points allowing me to field all my beastmen (including the recently re-based Ungors) and 1,000 points of Daemons. Against this Luke fielded his Dwarfs again, even feeling so confident with them to stop into our local GW on our way to buy the army book to replace the one he has mislaid!

The terrain we rolled up definitely favoured the Dwarfs, not only was there a lot, it included a large quantity of blessed bulwarks, and a Dwarven brew-house, among the many items that benefited the forces of order. Not to be discouraged we deployed, and I tried to ignore the large blocks of infantry opposing me.

With the Daemons on my right and my Centigors and hounds on my left the centre was filled with my blocks of Beastmen, with a unit of Daemonettes held behind as a mobile reserve and to deal with any miners that turned up uninvited. Winning the first turn I pushed my troops forward, knowing that as a primarily close combat army the Dwarfs would also advance and I would get the charges.

In the Dwarf turn the Chalice of Dark rain dampened their firing and all looked good, but then they sounded the rune of dismay and a lot of my unit failed their leadership test and were unable to charge, so I would have to face the fire from the enemy missile troops anyway.

On the right the Centigors charge the Ironbreakers and fought them valiantly for most of the rest of the game, their Drunken bravado making the stubborn being invaluable. When the hounds finally helped out, them were actually more of a hindrance than a benefit.

On the left the Daemons charged, but the Daemonettes failed their charge so the Seekers and Fiend went in alone and took heavy casualties being outnumbered before the Daemonettes caught up.

In the centre the Minotaurs and Giant charged the Hammerers and the Shield borne Lord in the shadow of the Brew-house. The sheer number of attacks the Minotaurs managed to put out, backed up by their stomp and the giants thunder stomp crunched through the Dwarfs, but the General held (mostly as I forgot their bloodgreed attacks), eventually chasing the monsters off, before being crushed by the rallied Giant.

Meanwhile the Beasts through themselves at the huge unit of slayers. With heavy magic support they began to carve through them, reduction of WS and T proving fatal for them. However the longbeards proved a tougher proposition.

On the right the Daemons had finally seem off the quarrellers and where now attacking the Dwarf warriors, but again the big unit made it hard work, until they finally were cut down and they moved on to the thunderers.

By the end of the game (we played about 8 or 9 turns, we stopped counting) the forces of Chaos had been wiped out, and the Dwarfs, albeit battered, and in smaller numbers than they started, held the field.

Again the new edition produced a fun game, and Luke really demonstrated the benefits of big units. His 30 strong units in three ranks were able to generate so may attacks that the smaller units of beastmen could just not match them. I think more Gors are in order. But for now I have my new seekers on order and plan to try and finish off and paint my Daemons as the Slaanesh Daemons could be a real force to reckon with in the new edition, and the many plastic Daemons now available means I can economically expand it to other pantheons if I desire.

Crawley Club 26th July - Warhammer 8th Edition

Luke and I headed up the club after work to finally try out Warhammer 8th Edition. Luke took his old Dwarves and I used my Beastmen. It was a very bloody, but exciting game, which the Dwarves narrowly won.

The new rules have made the combats far more viscous and the new charge rules make movement that little less predictable, and the Dwarves are now a feasible close-combat army, much to Luke's joy.

The magic is far more random and can not be relied on as a battle winner. However it is also possible to cast the most powerful spells with the lowest of Wizards. My level 1 Shaman managed to summon a giant to the fight.

The change will take some getting used to, but it looks like GW have been really successful in adding a new lease of life to Warhammer and opening up new challenges for players. And I have to say not a moment too soon, the tournaments were beginning to stagnate and become samey with the same armies winning and the same tricks being used. Now we are all back to learning tactics for our armies afresh.

WOFF XII

After the club AGM, which I won't bore you with the details here, it was off to Portsmouth for the latest WOFF (Wargamers out for fun) Warhammer tournament. After a great night at the Wedgewood rooms, Daz and I prepared to combat hangovers and all comers, and for me to try and learn a little from Daz and finish higher than bottom!

We took a Beastmen and Slaanesh Daemon army. With the Minotaurs and the Bestigors we had the hitting and the Fiends and Seekers gave us some speed. Our real trick was our herald with Great Icon of Despair and the Masque giving us a potential of -5Ld on a unit.

Day1

Game 1, vs Steve (Wood Elf) & Big Ron (Bretonnian) 2095 to 526

Steve has a Treeman and Ron blocks of knights. We were less worried by the knights than the Treeman as we had nothing with the hitting power to deal with. As it transpired we crashed through the centre with our main blocks and rolled up the flanks with fast troops, the Icon of Despair and Masque icon working perfectly. And in the end they put pay to the Treeman, the last unit alive we charged it from two directions, won the melee, but with a modified Ld of 3 being stubborn did not help it and we run it down for a decisive victory.

Game 2, vs Kev (Slaanesh Warriors of Chaos) & Colin (Dark Elf) 1554 to 1426With a centre piece of a chaos war shrine (unfortunately the picture didn't come out) and the cauldron of blood (above), Kev and Colin's army looked beautiful, and was going to cause us problems as they are very astute and capable players. However a hard fought game where we could not get to grips successfully with their chosen, while we protected out core and won the flanks, meant we had a draw at the end, a result I was very please with.

Game 3, vs Dave P (Dark Elf) & Dave H (Tzeentch Warriors of Chaos) 1190 to 1606

The final game of the day was against the two Daves. Dave P is a very smart player and Dave H has massive tournament experience so we would have to be careful. As it turned out the army played well and everything went to plan. With one exception... The hellcannon didn't fire a shot all game but did munch through a lot of our army while we could do little to slow it down, giving a victory to the Daves, but scoring a respectable tally for ourselves.

The evening was for the young people, Chris D and I could not keep the pace so had a quiet night with QI, but it meant I was refreshed and ready to go for Sunday.

Day 2

Game 4, vs Pete (Dark Elf) & Chris M (Vampire Counts) 1287 to 1290

Our first game was always going to be tough, again our opponents our top players who really know their armies. In addition I always struggle against Chris' undead. But again we maneuvered and avoid the units we could not manage, picked our fights and made sure we won then and again managed a high scoring draw.

Game 5, vs Jay (Ogres) & Dave S (Daemon) 2198 to 304

Our final game saw us take on Jay and Dave S with Ogres and Daemons. With a large unit of Fleshhounds this was going to be a tough proposition. Fortunately things went our way and we again used our speed to roll up the flanks, broke the Ogres and the big blocks of horrors, and then made hard work of the Fleshhounds but managed to grind our way through them rather than sweep them away.

Results

Finishing 2nd was my best result at a WOFF and I both enjoyed and learnt a lot form playing with Daz. Now I just need to make sure I remember it all.

Club Night 19th February

Finally got round to trying out the new Beastman army against Duncan's Empire. At 2,100 points I got to use a bit of everything and see how it all worked, while Duncan used a fairly typical army of his with some big infantry blocks, artillery, a small unit of knights and a Steam Tank and War Altar.
The Empire took the first turn and manoeuvred into position. The gun line then opened up. A mixed blessing as the Volley gun immediately misfired and destroyed itself, but not before unleashing 30 shots at the Bestigors who lost over half their number. In the Beastman first turn the horde surged forward, ready to charge the next turn. In the magic phase the lore of wilds was negated by a dispel scroll and the use of Steed of Shadows on my general also stopped. Duncan clearly suspected there was a reason I wanted to hurl my Beastlord in to combat
Duncan then charged the Minotaurs with his knights and continued to finish the deployment of the rest of his army. His fire was hampered by my use of the Chalice of Dark Rain, but in the combat things went badly for me. The Minotaurs underperformed and were ridden down by the Empire knights. In retaliation I charged the pistolliers with my Centigors and moved the rest of the army forward. My level 2 Shaman had been contacted by the knight so I tried to use Steed of Shadows to get him out of danger but Duncan was having none of it and dispelled it, leaving him to be cut down. Fortunately my Centigors managed to cut down their opponents and overrun to a spot behind the knights.

After another salvo of fire from the Empire the Steam tank charged the Bestigors, now led by the Beastlord. Despite the loss of all the Bestigiors, I revealed my Stonecrusher mace and inflicted heavy wounds on the tank, and rolled an insane Bravery for my General to keep him in the fight. In retaliation I launched my charges, Chariots impacting along the line, but unfortunately held everywhere. By weight of number on my left, and by the insane bravado of the flagellants on the right. In the centre my Beastlord finished off the steam tank, while on my left the chariot broke and was run down, opening up a unit of Gors to be charged by the swordsman, free-company and war altar. Ont eh right the other Gors got in against the handgunners, but the chariots where destroyed by a flank charge from the spearman, despite finally finishing off the flagellants. On the other flank the knights had destroyed the Centigors and turned around to return to the fray on the centre.

The finally play was as the Beastlord charged the Grand Theogenist on his War Altar. Once again using his Stonecrusher mace he destroyed the War Altar and dodge the return blow from the Mace of Helstrom. In the next turn the Beastlord again stuck first, and landed all 4 attacks on his target, now no longer protected by the power of the War Altar. But disaster struck, only 1 wound was inflicted (despite only needing 2+ to wound), and the return below hit home and crushed the mighty Beastlord.

A victory for the Empire, but still some practice needed with the Beastman and they are definitely a more competitive army than they have been for some time.

Beastmen and Blood Angels

This could be an expensive year for me. Games workshop newsletters came in over the weekend. The beastmen are up for pre-order, available on February 6th. I'll be getting the army book, but not sure about the rest as I already have plenty, although the razorgor looks good. I'm disappointed that they have put the Ungors back on 20mm square bases as I will know need to re-base them all for the second time which is very frustrating, I'm also not keen on them having bows, but it will be nice to have a complete army again which we have not had since Hordes of Chaos was discontinued.

And the next day I got a news letter confirming the rumour that the Blood Angels are coming in April. Now do I get my army all ready to go for the new Codex, or wait until there are lots of gorgeous new figures and upgrade packs...

Club Night 22nd August

I set up another Warhammer, this time against Simon and his Empire. I thought I would stick with what I know and take my Beastmen. A Wargor, Battle Standard Bearer, a Shaman, 3 Herds, some hounds, 2 units of Bestigors and 3 Chariots should give me enough to take on whatever simon laid down.
As it turned out Simon had some Knights, swordsman, spearman, crossbows, handgunners, flagellants, a volley gun and the essential cannon, all lead by a captain, with a warrior priest and a wizard on attendance. I won the roll for first turn and made the Empire go first as I was out of range of most of their shooting. The crossbowmen felled a couple of Ungors, while the cannon misfired and would be unable to shoot next turn.
I advanced across the table to meet him. Another turn of fire was weathered, and then I started making mistakes! While the chariots all crashed into the flagellants, I forgot to charge the swordsman with the herd on my left, and forgot about the dark heart so did not declare a charge with my Slaanigors against the knights. I tried to use the Wild Hunt from the Staff of Darkoth, but it met a dispel scroll. Although I had cut through a number of the teh craxed fanatics, my core unit if bestigors with my general was in front of the knights, and too close to even consider fleeing from the charge. The small ray of light was my Slaanesh spell I usually cast on y own troops to frenzy them, but instead I frenzied the handgunners so instead of firing they charged my other bestigors and got themselves killed!

On my left the Empire Captain on his Warhorse and the swordsman crashed into the herd containing my battle standard bearer, beat it and ran it down. The only advantage was the Empire general was now along way from where the rest of the fighting was going on. In the centre the knights charged and broke my bestigors, but luck was now on my side and they out ran their pursuers.

I rallied my Bestigors ready to face another charge from the knight and my ambushers arrived. The ambushers found the Empire artillery turned around and blew them away, but in the centre this time my Bestigors held and then turned the combat back against the knight and broke them and they fled, not to rally in the game. This was really the turning point, in the centre I had overrun into the volley gun crew, the Chariots had detroyed everything on my right flank, and my centre was turning to the Empire right.

The next couple of turns saw me break the remaining Empire units, the cannon destroy the volley gun by firing over its target unit and bouncing into the war machine, whose unlucky crew where being beaten by my herd. By the end of the game I had managed to pull back what looked like potentially a defeat to a victory as my forces closed in on the sole remaining Empire troops, the gun crew.

Away from the club I have finally finished building the BF110 for Colours, now I just need to get this mammoth model painted!