Southern Escalation Kicks Off! Part 1

So the Escalation League I'm running kicked off last Sunday. That's right Valentines Day. I didn't even think about it at the time, as my girlfriend is generally with her family around this time of year so we don't celebrate it too often. So in the end we had 8 players come down and play some Age of Sigmar for a couple of hours, which was a stand out effort.
Everyone seemed to have a ton of fun and seemed keen for more, so hopefully we get this many again for the next session in a months time. Since there was an almost even split between Order and Chaos, it led to some good matchups of Good versus Evil. In fact, for the second game of the day, all the Chaos players were on one side of the table, and the Order players were on the other! Talk about good setup!

For this post, I'll delve into the details of the first game. The Shadowborn were up against the Duardin in this game.

The Setting
The two armies were facing off, and both were intent on capturing the ruined building in the middle of the board. The ruined building was Mystical terrain, so obviously held some secrets that both forces wanted to claim for themselves.

The Armies
Under the first month rules, players would have lists of 9 points, but only deploy 6.
The Shadowborn
Chaos Lord (Marked Khorne because Undivided doesn't help)
10 Chaos Warriors
5 Chaos Knights
5 Marauder Horsemen
10 Chosen (In Reserve)

The Duardin
Dwarf Lord on Shieldbearers
Dragonslayer with Greataxe
10 Hammerers
5 Irondrakes
15 Slayers

Deployment
Since we had 12x4 feet of board (Each game was played on a 4x4), I decided to keep deployment simple with a basic split through the middle of the board. My Warriors went into the forest with my Chaos Lord and everything else remained nearby. The Duardin spread out a bit more, with the Irondrakes sitting up on the hill and the Slayers on the left flank.

Deployment - The Iron Drakes are on the hill with Hammerers in the Centre

The Slayers are on the Left side of the board

Battle Round 1
Since the Shadowborn finished deployment first, I gave my opponent the initiative while everything was out of range. His forces move up sounding the advance to march at double pace with the Hammerers moving up to the building.

The Hammerers and Lord move up to the building

The Slayers move towards the Gap in the buildings

The Shadowborn also march up outside of the cover. Most forces move towards the Slayers, with the Marauder Horsemen covering the flank while remaining outside of range from the Irondrakes.
Battle Round 2
The Shadowborn seize the initiative, the Chaos Lord inspiring the Chaos Warriors with his presence. The Warriors, Lord and Knights move up the left side of the board, keen to engage the Slayers while the Horsemen ride to the Right, to harass the Hammerers. In shooting, only 2 are in range and their javelins kill a Hammerer. The Duardin swear retribution.

Chaos surges forwards with the Marauder Horsemen killing a Hammerer

In the Charge Phase, both the Knights and Chaos Warriors are able to make it into the Slayers, although they don't really have enough movement to fully engage the enemy forces. The Knights strikes first, with their Glaives slaying 4 Slayers and the death blows of the Slayers cannot make it past the Chaos Runeshields.

The Knights brutally cut down four Slayers

The Slayers retaliate, launching themsleves into the frey. They manage to severely wound the Chaos Warriors cutting down 3 straight away but cannot manage to bring down any of the Knights.

3 Warriors are slain by the axes of the Slayers

The remaining Warriors lap around the Slayers, getting almost all into striking range. The punishment they dish out is severe, but the death blows of the Slayers manage to fell another Chaos Warrior.

The Casualties are piling up on both sides

This attracked the attention of the Dragon Slayer nearby, who launched himself into the fight. With his Gigantic Slayer Axe, he lops the heads off 2 Chaos Warriors immediately, leaving only 4 remaining.

The Warriors endure more punishment from the Dragon Slayer

Luckily for the Warriors, the Generals Inspiring Presence ensured they held the line.
In the Duardin turn, the Hammerers were quite upset that the Marauder Horsemen had felled one of their number. With a grunt, they marched around the building looking to engage the Horsemen while the Duardin Lord climbed into the building to get a better look at the battle below.

The Duardin Hammerers round the building

In shooting, the Irondrakes unleash a volley of hot lead on the Horsemen, felling one before the Hammerers engage.

The Horsemen are about to feel the might of the Duardin Finest

And as it so happens, the Horsemen are cut down to the man, the Hammerers deal enough damage to slay the lot of them.

Harsh punishment indeed for those who dare slay the Duardin

In the fight between the Chaos and the Slayers, the Slayers were severely depleted by the Chaos Knights. Another Warrior succumbed to the Dragon Slayer, but they dished out a wound back.
Battle Round 3
The Duardin took the initiative, with the Dwarf Lord leaping over to another section of the ruined building. The Hammerers moved into the building as well, while the Irondrakes turned towards the left flank but could not land any shots.
In the combat, the Slayers were finally cut down while the Dragon Slayer succumbed to another wound.
Things were not looking good for the Chaos forces, as the right flank had collapsed, and the Chaos Warriors were sorely depleted.  The Lord order the Warriors to retreat to the nearby ruins, while the Knights and Chaos Lord look to engage on the Dragon Slayer.

The Knights round to face the Dragon Slayer

And retribution against the Dragon Slayer was swift, as the Knights Glaives strike down the Slayer Lord.

The Dragon Slayer is cut down

Battle Round 4
The Duardin lord launches himself down from the building, engaging the remaining Chaos forces in epic combat. With quick and swift motion with his Axe, he instantly dealt a grievous blow to the Chaos Lord while the Shieldbearers finished the job, the Chaos Armour not able to withstand the assault upon the armour.

The Chaos Lord is cut down!

The Knights are unable to muster much force, as they are drawn into the combat and unable to effectively lever their Glaives against the Lord.
In the Chaos turn, with the Lord down there is not much left to do. The Warriors decide to engage the Irondrakes in combat, looking to take them out potentially while the Knights continued to engage the Lord.
Unfortunately for the Chaos forces, luck was not on their side. The Knights are unable to do much harm to the Lord, while 2 are cut down.

2 Knights are cut down by the Lord

The Chaos Warriors with so few remaining are unable to get past the Gromril armour of the Irondrakes, and in return the Irondrakes are unable to get past the Chaos Armour.

With it being the fourth battle round, the roll was made and the game would not continue for a fifth. The forces of the Duardin had prevailed, with the Hammerers in control of the mystical building.

Duardin Victory!

Game Thoughts
Slayers are pretty good against my army. Since everything has multiple wounds, it does make them very good at landing blows upon my guys.  I can't remember specifically what round I finished them off (2 or 3), but their deathblows managed to get through my Chaos Runeshields more than I would like and then the Dwarf Lord just jumped in to finish everything off.
The Knights while good, just don't deal too much damage if I can't bring their numbers to bear and if I can't get the charge.
I think it was a mistake to send the Horsemen so close, I should've measured as there's no real incentive for me to get in if I can't launch Javelins with all my guys. When I measured the range, I found my back guys were out of range. Throwing away the unit probably didn't cost me the game, but certainly I could've made better use of them.