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Author Topic: Warmaster Battle Report - The Sorcerer's Tower  (Read 1943 times)

Offline Pugwash_NZ

  • Schoolboy
  • Posts: 5
    • Warmaster Downunder - My Armies, Painting and Battle Reports.
Warmaster Battle Report - The Sorcerer's Tower
« on: June 12, 2021, 09:38:33 AM »
I thought people might be interested in some old-school Warmaster - here's a report of my latest game (cross-posted from the Specialist Games forum).

A sorcerer has dabbled in forces that he shouldn't, and unleashed a horde of Daemons upon the Old World.  The High Elves muster a force to put down this unnatural menace before the threat can grow.

Here follows an account of a 2-player, 2,000 point battle between Chaos Daemons and High Elves. We played using standard pitched battle rules with the original Warmaster rules, where one army withdraws once it has suffered 50% of its units as casualties. 

The High Elves

The High Elves took a fairly standard list featuring a large number of fast moving cavalry.

High Elf, 2000 points

Warmaster Armies
--------------------------------
240 - 4 Spearmen
225 - 2 Archers
440 - 4 Silver Helms
300 - 3 Reavers
285 - 3 Chariots
70  - 1 Giant Eagles
180 - 1 General
80  - 1 Hero
180 - 2 Wizards
--------------------------------
2000 - 18/9


The Daemons

This was my first outing with the Daemons, and I wanted to try a list with a lot of spellcasting characters to bolster my forces when they were depleted using the Summon Daemons spell.

Daemon, 2000 points
Warmaster Armies
--------------------------------
 450 - 6 Daemon Hordes
  90 - 2 Daemon Swarm
 440 - 4 Daemon Cavalry
 180 - 2 Daemon Hounds
 220 - 1 Daemon Beasts
 160 - 2 Daemon Flyers
 160 - 1 Daemon Overlord
     - 1 Wizard (25)
 300 - 3 Daemon Lord Wizard
--------------------------------
2000 - 17/9


Deployment
The High Elves deployed in neat formations (as always) infantry on one flank facing down the daemon infantry with archers in front, and spears behind.  The armoured punch of the elf force was ordered into neat brigades beside them, with the Chariots and lightly armoured Reaver Knights on the flank and Silver Helms in the centre. 



The Daemons clustered together near the tower.  Two brigades each made up of 3 Hordes and a Daemon swarm screen comprised the main infantry battle-line.  On the flank the cavalry were formed into two brigades, each with 2 Daemon Cavalry and a single unit of Hell-Hounds.  The fearsome Daemon Beasts and flyers were at the rear as a reserve.



Manoeuvre
The Elf advance was orderly with the archers spreading out into a screen and moving ever closer to get the Daemon Hordes within their range.  The Chariots and Reaver knights moved forward on the flank while the Spear-elves, Silver Helms and Eagles remained in place.



The Daemon advance was (appropriately) much more chaotic.  One infantry brigade surged forward wile the other remained in place ignoring the bellowed commands of their Daemon Overlord. One cavalry brigade advanced and the other stubbornly refused.



Battle
Slowly the Daemon advance closed in on the high elves, shrugging off the initial volleys of arrows.   The High Elves were quick to pounce on such disorganisation, and a brave unit of chariots plunged into the Daemon flank, hoping to cut through the Daemon Cavalry before it could attack the nearby archers. 



However, the bravery of the chariot crew was not matched by their skill at arms, and they were initially repelled and then cut down by the Daemons.  However, having successfully drawn the Daemon cavalry from the more vulnerable archers, more High Elf Machines ploughed forward into the Daemons as Reaver horse archers felled unengaged daemons with well placed arrows.



On the other flank, a unit of hell hounds bounded forward to tear through the elf archers, destroying one unit as the others fell back, firing as they retreated.  Had the Daemon infantry been able to follow up this attack the elves would have suffered greatly, but the Daemon infantry still refused to charge as the elves hastily re-assembled their battle line as instability claimed the injured hounds.



On the plain before the tower the elf chariot attacks, combined with fickle daemonic instability, wiped out almost all of the Daemon Cavalry, although not before they had inflicted heavy losses on the elves.  The Elf Chariots were destroyed and a ferocious Daemon counter-attack as a unit of Daemon Beasts lurched forward and tore through the Reaver Knights, slaughtering them.

The elves sensed the moment was now.  Both sides had lost an almost equal number of units, but the Daemons (who had less cavalry to begin with) were now reduced to just one unit of cavalry, a single unit of hounds and two surviving Daemon beasts.  If the elves could destroy these remaining units, the day would be theirs.



The Eagles swooped down on the hounds, and supported by the surviving Reaver Knights, they slew them swiftly.



The Elf Speamen charged forward, and cut their way through the twitching daemon swarm and destroyed a Daemon Horde.  However, now finally stirred to action the remaining Daemon infantry stirred to life and cut down the elves.



Now the Elf General ordered forward the Silver Helm Knights, and two units swept around the tower to charge the remaining daemons.  The elves sensed victory.  But the terrible Daemon Beasts repelled the elves and forced them back.



The Daemon Overlord and his wizards channelled all their magic, summoning fresh Damon Beasts and cavalry into the melee.  The Damon counter charge smashed through the Silver Helms and wiped out the elven knights.  Seeing the cream of their army destroyed with such violence the High Elf army was broken, and withdrew, leaving the Daemons to wreck havoc across the Old World.

Postscript: An extremely close game and a good first outing for the Daemons (the Daemons were just 2 units away from breaking when they broke the elves)  The elf command dice were great, but their combat rolls were average, whereas the Daemons sucked at orders, but did well in the fighting.  Losing 3 units to Daemonic Instability and having another confused was a bit of an eye opener to how much variability this list affords but the Daemon Beasts really saved the day.

Offline Pictors Studio

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1074
    • Pictors Studio
Re: Warmaster Battle Report - The Sorcerer's Tower
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2021, 10:48:48 AM »
Very cool looking game. Warmaster is the best miniatures game GW has made. I was thinking about pulling it out again to teach a couple of friends how to play. Your post has renewed that line of thought.

Offline Elk101

  • Moderator
  • Elder God
  • *
  • Posts: 10510
Re: Warmaster Battle Report - The Sorcerer's Tower
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2021, 11:35:44 AM »
Great to see a bit of 10mm Fantasy. Great armies you have there. I really like that tower too.

Offline Chief Lackey Rich

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1462
Re: Warmaster Battle Report - The Sorcerer's Tower
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2021, 12:01:31 PM »
Nice to see some Warmaster getting played.  One of GW's better efforts at rules writing IMO.


Offline pieface paul

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 34
  • International man of mystery
    • Pauls Wargames Blog
Re: Warmaster Battle Report - The Sorcerer's Tower
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2021, 04:47:13 PM »
Great report, I love a bit of Warmaster.
Enough of this talking, let's get on.

Offline Gibby

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2352
Re: Warmaster Battle Report - The Sorcerer's Tower
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2021, 08:09:50 PM »
Great battle report. I love seeing some Warmaster. Hope you post more of these!

Offline Cubs

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4914
  • "I simply cannot survive without beauty ..."
Re: Warmaster Battle Report - The Sorcerer's Tower
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2021, 09:13:22 AM »
What a great bit of old school lovely. More of this required.
'Sir John ejaculated explosively, sitting up in his chair.' ... 'The Black Gang'.

Paul Cubbin Miniature Painter

Offline Pugwash_NZ

  • Schoolboy
  • Posts: 5
    • Warmaster Downunder - My Armies, Painting and Battle Reports.
Re: Warmaster Battle Report - The Sorcerer's Tower
« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2021, 08:52:19 AM »
Thanks for the kind words.  We have a big 2-day demo game coming up on 3-4 July (Covid permitting) so I'll look to post the report here (probably across several posts).  If you want to see any previous games (or slightly larger versions of the pictures) my blog (linked in my profile) has reports of some of our previous outings.

 

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