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My army (toned down for the narrative campaign), this report was written for another forum so a few items etc had to be explained etc.

Undivided lord
Wargor BSB
2 x Tzeentch wargor

2 x 9:10 FC herds (with 2 characters in each)
1 x 5:8 with Foe and Mu
2 x Chariot
5 Hounds

4 Minos
5 Marauder Horse
8 Furies
5 Screamers

Giant

His Army

Lord on Dragon with vambraces and Lv1 mage item
2 x Lv2 mage. Jewel, 1 scroll, ring of corin, ring of fury.

10 archers
10 archers
8 silverhelms
1 Chariot
6 Dragon Princes - banner of sorcery.
2 eagles
2 RBT


The beastmasters cautiously emerged from the caves around the sea front, the ungor scouts had reported pointy ears in the area and many of the patrols had not come back at all. There was a funny smell in the air, something all together more ancient than even the reek of elven perfume couldn't mask from the keen senses of chaos' chosen children.

The beastmen approached the foothills of Caragio, trailing the elven column. It was a much smaller force than the warherd trailing it, and with the ambush planned up ahead to take out their war machines Nethrag sounded the call to attack!

As the beasts formed up into their battle line the well drilled elves reacted the quicker, one advantage of having the smaller force. The right flank unit of silver helmed cavalry trotting forwards whilst the left flank unit of dragon crested riders marched right up around the flank. The elven warmachines quickly taking up position on the central hill with archers to either flank. With such a small force arrayed against him Nethrag felt fully confident of victory.

Suddenly a black dot appeared on the horizon, as it grew bigger two smaller forms could be seen beside it. As it got closer, and bigger the source of the strange smell became apparent, a gigantic dragon descended from the sky to land right infront of the daemonic furies on the left flank. The two smaller forms coalesced into great eagles, each dwarved by the huge beast and veered off during the descent to the right flank. The sides had certainly evened, though what a trophy that great dragons head would make around the herdstone!

The beastmasters had lined up strongly on either flank with a weak centre attempting to try and pincer the archery banks.

The dragon moved 20" forwards into position to flame some furies screening the minotaurs on the left flank. With the knights moving up to support further on the left. The chariot on that flank moved up slightly to get in charge range whilst over on the right flank the silverhelms trotted forwards and the 2 great eagles edged forwards keeping out of the marauder horsemens charge range.

Then the other reason for the small opposing force became apparent as the high elf mages opened up. The dragon rider had managed to learn a basic fireball, probably through the strong link he held with his dragon, this targeted the furies burning 2 to a crisp. The other 2 mages, their powers enhanced by the jewel of dusk and the banner of sorcery (which rolled 3 extra dice this turn). managed to cast a further 3 spells with the woods coming alive to batter the screamers and the sinister death mage sending more back to the warp. Having exhausted the meagre resources available for dispel attempts (4DD, all used to dispel 1 spell on a 9 which still failed to dispel, lol) the elven mages then revealed 2 further bound spells. The dreaded rings of fury and corin (2d6 S4 hits and cancels one enemy magic item casters choice respectively). Nethrag had no choice but to order his mages to use both their dispel scrolls, he had a surprise for the dragon rider and he meant to keep it...
(aside: this was NOT good! decided to use a scroll on ring of fury to keep the remaining screamers alive thinking that'd leave me with one, then he pulls out the ring of corin as well! meaning I HAVE to use my last scroll to stop that)

In the shooting phase the dragon took a huge gulp of air and blew out on the furies, catching a few of the minotaurs in the blast. One of the two furies enveloped succumbed to the flames with the minotaurs thick hides protecting them. The archers and bolt throwers opened up on the furies, screamers and generals beastherd, thanks to the skirmishing nature of these creatures many of the bolts that would have otherwise struck missed their mark.

When the dust settled the two flying daemon unts had been severely reduced in strength (3 furies and 2 screamers [1 taken a wound] left from their initial 8 and 5) and a few ungor were lying in the mud. What was worse the beasts now only had 4DD magic defence to last the rest of the battle...

One good thing about the death of so many furies, the minotaurs had LoS to the dragon and declared a charge with the furies themselves charging out of the way first against the tiranoc chariot. The chariot held and passed its fear check whereas the proud dragonrider realising his error dug his heels into his mounts flanks and fled (as an aside this was a little risky (but so was holding to 4 GW wielding minos lol) as the dragons about 1/4 of richards army, he was prob about 14-15inches away from the table edge, he said "I think I want about an 11", guess what he rolled lol). The dragon princes managed to keep their steeds in check, surprised at having a real dragon flee through them. Minotaurs moved up to fail charge distance.

The hounds, (having passed their terror check at the start of the turn thanks to the nearby general) now moved forward to divert the dragon princes away. The giant moved up to threaten the chariot and protect the flank of the minotaurs should the furies fail to hold up the elf chariot.

The generals beastherd went to take control of the central wood with the drastically reduced screamers flying to "threaten" the bolt throwers and mages. The marauder horsemen moved up next to the hill, the wood on their left flank protecting them from getting double charged by the great eagles (only 1 could fit as they cant fly into woods)

The right hand herd moved into position inside the right flank wood, daring the silverhelms to charge (with 2 wargors in here I was pretty confident of being able to take a charge).

The two chariots moved up and left, seperating themselves from each other to threaten the silverhelms further.

In the beastmasters magic phase the wargor attempted to cast blue fire on the silverhelms, and promptly miscast, suffering a wound and ending the magic phase...

With no shooting, we moved onto the combat between fury and chariot.
The three furies managed to scrape deep gouges in the chariot frame with their talons but lost one of their number to a spear thrust, losing the combat to outnumber never the less they passed their daemonic instability and held the chariot in place.

With no further combat we all waited with baited breath to see if the elf lord could regain control of the fleeing dragon...


He did. Boooooo!

After some deliberation and checking up on the new redirection rules (i.e. the lack of them) and the direction of flee rules. The elves charged into the hounds with the dragon princes, the hounds held.

The two great eagles declared a charge on my furthest left chariot with the silverhelms charging the other closer to the woods. It then became clear that one of the eagles didn't have LoS to the chariot and when measuring for range the other was about 3" out of range too and so moved its flight move and landed infront of the chariot (not an enviable position!). My other chariot fled from the silverhelms leaving them stranded infront of the wood with my herd + characters.

The magic phase was again painful as I was determined to keep my surprise hidden from richards ring of corin and so he was free to cast most of his other spells with impunity. The screamers vanished in a puff of blue smoke whilst both herds took casualties (neither enough for a panic check though - thankfully master of the woods and stone are now only 1d6 :->) The right flank archery took aim at the chariot and took a wound off it, whereas the left flank archery took aim at the giant but couldn't pierce his thick hide. The bolt throwers took careful aim and released a single shot each at the lumbering giant, one bolt went wide of the mark and the other was knocked out of the air by a sweep of the giants axe as he bellowed in rage eager to get to grips with the enemy.

Combat saw the unsurprising demise of the hounds and the dragon princes were forced to pursue to escape the rage of the nearby minotaurs. The furies failed to damage the chariot and it likewise failed to wound the flapping furies, the sheer bulk of the chariot swung the combat in its favour and the furies fragile hold on the material world vansihed.

The beastmasters turn saw the ambush herd come on as planned right behind the elven warmachines whilst the generals herd marched out from the safety of their wood to threaten the boltthrowers and mages from the front.

The giant charged into the chariot which deciding discretion was the better part of valour fled away to fight another day. The chariot charged the great eagle who held, the herd charged the silverhelms (turned out it was in the flank) who held and the marauder horsemen charged the other eagle who held.

The magic phase saw the staff of darkoth (on the central herd) dispelled with a scroll and the bears anger dispelled ending the magic phase.

Combat, up until now the elves had been having things all their own way, now it was the beasts time to shine with what they did best - hitting things biggrin.gif

It started badly with the marauder horsemen getting their flails tangled up with eachother and fluffing their attacks on the eagle, thankfully the eagle was too busy dodging out of the way to hit anything itself too. The numbers of the horsemen carried the day and as the eagle turned to take flight it was battered to the ground and trampled by the victorious pursuit of the marauder ship crew. Nethrag rolled his eyes, no wonder the humans had been such easy pickings if they were unable to wound a bird. (I should mention here for the herdstone that my army has captured a marauder ship and forced them to sail for the pirate island of saratosa where this campaign is being run)

Taking full advantage of the new rules I decided (as it was my turn) that the chariot combat was to be decided next. This allowed it to destroy the eagle and overrun into the silverhelms. As this combat had yet to be fought the chariot was now able to fight again this round! Taking 2 knights out from their saddles before the herd even got to strike. The 2 wargors in the herd took a heavy toll on the knights, and after the attacks from the rest of the herd there were only 2 left standing. These attempted to flee but were run down by the chariot with the herd in close pursuit.

The fleeing elf chariot rallied, turning to face the giant once more. No charges were declared by the elves, the dragon declining the frontal charge on the minotaur unit preferring to fly over the wood to land by the generals herd. The dragon princes move forwards to the edge of the board and turned, out of the charge range of the minotaurs for the moment. The mages moved closer to the ambushing herd.

The magic phase was again extremely painful with all 13 members of the ambushing herd being wiped out along with a few ungor from the generals herd. Again the dice were saved for the ring of corin and the surprise was kept safe.

Shooting saw the archers (who had shuffled back out of range of the giant) take a wound off the behemoth whilst the other unit took out a few ungor from the 2 wargor led herd. The dragons breath and the 2 boltthrowers reaked havoc with the gererals herd killing all of the remaining ungor and a couple of the gor. This was enough for a panic check - thankfully the BSB had the gorebanner which enabled them to reroll failed attempts and they passed.

This was it, what all those ungor had paid their lives to defend and keep secret. The beastlord bellowed out a mighty roar as the remainder of his herd charged into the dragon. The terror check was passed and Nethrag breathed a sigh of relief.

The wargor led herd charged the right flank archer unit who fled, while the giant moved up right infront of the elf chariot blocking any potential help it could have been to the its lord. The minotaurs moved up infront of the dragon princes ready to recieve the charge. The chariots moved up the board and the marauder horsemen in a feat of horsemanship (go fast cav!) moved into the flank of the now fleeing archers ready to charge either the archers should they rally or the bolt throwers.

The magic phase saw the beastmasters first spell success of the game so far. Blue fire was cast on the left machine, dealing enough wounds to kill both crew, the other called upon the staff of darkoth to unleash the wild call spell which propelled the wargor led herd into the remaining bolt thrower, the crew deciding to flee with the herd (new rule for 7th if I remembered it right?) deciding to complete their charge onto the bolt thrower and attempt to destroy it.

Onto combat and the wargors managed 2 wounds on the warmachine leaving it still standing.

Now the main event, The beastlord issued a challange to the elf lord who had no choice but to accept. The mightly beastmaster then locked his iron will with that of the dragons and with the help of his magical amulet (the rune of the true beast!) forced it to submit to him he now only had to worry about the weakling elf on top.

(aside, rune of the true beast is a magic item which means that mosnters [ridden or otherwise] cannot attack the wearer, this is why the ring or corin (which would have nulled this item) had to be dispelled, its the only thing I had in the army capable of beating the dragon)

The concentration required had obviously distracted the beastlord though as he failed to wound the elf prince and even recieved one in return! No matter, the herds numbers and standard still meant they won the combat, the dragon held (I've just realised that I completely forgot about the new BSB also adds 1 to combat! n'mind).

Desperate to come to his lords aid the chariot overcame his terror of the giant and charged into combat with it. The archers similarly passing their terror check and the archers and the fleeing bolt thrower crew all rallied. The iron discipline of the elves was holding firm, that is until the dragon princes refused to charge into the minotaurs - obviously overcome by the ability of the beastlord to control the patron creature of their order biggrin.gif

The magic phase was quieter now that most of the beasts army was in combat, quieter but still deadly. In desperation the ring of corin was again cast at the beastlord but the bound item did not have the power to cut through the defences the tzeentch wargors weaved around their general. The closest chariot was reduced to a smoking wreck but the marauder horsemen were saved from the nearby trees coming alive. The chariot impact hits and crews attacks managed to take 2 further wounds off the giant whilst the giant obviously a bit confused decided to headbutt the chariot putting a crack in the axle and shaking the crew about. The combat was a draw.
The main event. The elf lord, not being weighed down by a great weapon struck first but this time the magical armour of the beastlord protected him from harm (AoD - in the first turn he did 4 hits, and then rerolled them for 4 hits!). The beastlord struck back and this time was able to put a wound on the elf. The press of weight of the herd and the standard caused the combat to be won by 3 and the elf fearing for his life fled from the herd.
He travelled much further and faster than his pursuers and looking back he threw an insult over his shoulder. The beastlord started to run after him but suddenly stopped, a smile spreading across his face. He pointed forwards of the elf lord and waved goodbye?
Whipping his head around the elf lord saw that it was already too late. The wood that he had flown over to breath fire on the beastlord was now in his flight path. The dragon still overcome by the power of the beastlords amulet had not risen high enough in his flight and was now hurtling towards the trees infront of him. The elf lord closed his eyes and offered a silent prayer to his uncaring Gods. As the dragon hit the forest the impact drove great branches thicker than any lance into its body. The elf prince was thrown far out of his saddle into the air until his body impacted on an unyielding tree and fell to the floor limp.

The beasts had won the day, but the cost in ungor life had been high....good job there were plenty more where they came from. biggrin.gif