“Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.” Henry Adams

This Friday I fought a 1500 point game against Kiraya "the Reaper of souls and bringer of cakes".................

............ and my word, what a game!

My word my Lord. Thats a LOT of Demons!

Kiraya won deployment and elected to set up first. With three new units on the field I decided to keep my deployment simple. I set up all my new "shooty" units on the left flank to turn the empty ground in front of them into a killing field while I waited for the enemy units on my right to clear the forests to my front and open themselves up to the charge of my Knights and Demi Gryphs.

Having never played against a Demon host before so I decided to use magic from "the Lore of Light" as it was tailor made for fighting chaos.

Right lads forward march. We need to make room for all the rule books!

This way I figured I could at least rely on my right flank as it contained all the units I had experience using and if it all went wrong on the left I should be able to crash through the Kiraya's left flank and then sweep back through whatever was left of her forces contesting my left.

We will see.

Gorgeous........... just gorgeous

The majority of Kiraya's forces were unpainted but she had painted at least one figure in each unit to give us a taste of things to come. I think it is going to be a STUNNING army when finished but I can see it becoming a real labour of love as the level of subtle shading and the vibrant colours would take me an age to finish (as there is not a single hint of "Agax Earthshade" in her entire army)!

Right that chariot is far too pretty.......... pop it off boys!

The first of my new units was my cannon. I decided to concentrate on a single target with the Cannon to get the practise in. Unfortunately it turned out that single target would be Kiraya's beautifuly painted chariot.

I pushed my outriders forward using Vanguard which is one of the new things I have learnt and then proceeded to open up on the unit of Demons. Kiraya replied with killer demon magic.

Repeater rifles Vs magic templates........ the show down.

I continue to blast away with all my shooty units as I inch forward with my cavalry. I am curious to see if the Empire charge is just as devastating against Chaos.

Wait for it............... wait for it.

One of the first casualties is the chaos chariot, its a shame but it had to go! I made sure I got plenty of photos as I definately wanted to show it off on my blog.

With my exit from the battle at least I can catch up on my reading!

With the removal of the chariot, Kiraya's Greater Demon rounds the wood. Once again its a stunning figure and the shading and blending is amazing! I just hope it looks better then it performs on the field.

gorgeous!

gorgeous!!

gorgeous!!!

I decide that the unit of demons are close enough to chance the charge. The hope is I can run the unit down and over run into the unit behind.

Not wanting to leave the Gryphs stranded on their own, Custoras charges his second sons into Kirayas unit of Demonettes. Its then I realise the unit is 4 ranks deep. This could take a while!

Quick lads finish them off before they all turn out as pretty as the one in the second row!

Turns out the Demonettes generate a SHED LOAD of dice. I just thought they were there as eye candy. Turns out they can scrap as well.

Thats a lot of dice!

Thankfully casualties are minimal and I do enough to win the combat. Then I get my first surprise (of many), it turns out Chaos Demons do not flee! They just lose wounds for every point they fail the moral roll by. So much for my plan of crashing through the unit and distracting the Greater Demon away from my left flank.

Giant, bull headed, four armed, massive clawed, purple thing, heading our way....... That can't be good!

The Greater Demon tries to charge my outriders. With a movement of 10" I have ot figure it will make it. Dogstein shows his "experience" and elects to flee, thankfully the gunners pass their check and stand their ground. Lets see if they can inflict some damage on the Bull headed loony............................. no they can't.

Then my second (of many) surprises of the battle, for some reason Marcus turns into a pink thing (must ask someone about that next friday)!

Markus the new look does not suit you.

The Gyrphs smash through the blue shooty things and over charge into the unit behind. Then my third (of many) surprises of the night, not only do the pink things generate a MENTAL amount of attack die, for every one you kill TWO blue things turn up to attack you.

Playing Chaos is just plain cheating!

How many dice!

Thankfully the Gryphs are still nails and the hits are minimal!

phew!

Next up the Demonettes get to kick the shit out of my Knights. Once again I am flabbergasted by how many attack die it seems EVERY other unit in Warhammer seems to generate!

seriously.................. this is getting silly now!

Some how Sigmar is smiling on Custoras, as ALL those die fail to generate a single hit! Man I love barding!

I love barding!

My turn, I whale away but somehow my horses manage to kill more figures then my knights............ little embarrassing I'll admit.

"Come on boys the horses are killing more then we are!"

Now time to see if the Gryphs can do what they do best?

Right lets show the Knights how its done!

My Outriders fail to regroup and stop MILLIMETERS from the table edge, in order to stop the rot I am forced to stand and shoot with my handgunners other wise my cannon is next on the list, at least now my cannon is out of the Demons front arc and safe from spells.

oh shit! who's idea was it to stand and shoot?

Its no surprise that the Greater Demon rips through the unit like a hot knife through butter and the few survivors bolt clean off the table, followed by my Outriders, the only comfort is the Demon also exits the table and will be missing until next turn.

Now time to see what the Gryphs can do.

we are just nails!

Told you!

Turns out the Gryphs can shred a unit of 15 Pink Horrors in two turns. The Knights finally finish off the last of the Demonettes and the right flank is mine!

Kiraya plays one final surprise (finally!) and a unit of multi eyed blue flying things (with 360 LOS) fly over my unit and spray my Gryphs with fire!

When will it all end!

Well thats new........... 20" flying spray fire attacks!

Thankfully the Gryphs hold and Kirayas Greater Demon re-enters the field but is unable to activate. With both our left flanks decimated we cannot be bothered to count up the points left and declare the game a draw!

What an epic encounter. I am REALLY looking forward to watching this army blossom under the excellent painting skills of Kiraya.

LESSONS LEARNT

1) Fielding 3 new units at the same time is probably a mistake. To be honest I am none the wiser in how to use any of the new units then I was before the battle

2) Once again I forgot to use my Dispell scroll! Against an army as full of magic as Chaos it should have been at the forfront of my mind! There was at least two occasions where it would have saved me a world of hurt.

3) with regards to magic maybe I should have stuck with "Lore of Shadows" and used it to reduce the effectiveness of the Greater Demon. That figure really is a game changer!