The game so epic I don't remember most of it

 Biiig game this weekend. It took 14 hours to do including setting up, so yeah, big game. I didn't take any notes, so this will probably just devolve into a "highlights" battle report. And also mainly from my end of the board.
2500 points each 2v2: Daemons and Vampires vs. Warriors and High Elves, we played on an 8x4 board to fit everyone on.

For environment we rolled a tornado which freaked out at the start of every player turn because we re-rolled for size on a direct hit as well as a misfire; I think we should just go with the direction of the tiny arrow on the direct hit.

Terrain was the most unusual I've ever seen, with no forests in 8 rolls. We got an Earthblood Mere, Mist-wreathed Swamp, Mystery river, Sphinx, Brewhouse, Elven Waystone, Grail Chapel and a Tower of Blood.

 In deployment I learned that you shouldn't just let your ally take the whole centre, otherwise your guys will all be crammed together on one side and tripping over each other. As you can see I went with a very Nurgle build, using Plaguebearers, Nurglings, a Great Unclean One, Epidemius and a Beast. They were joined by Boobs the Fiend, some Flamers, Furies, some Horrors and a Tzeentch Herald with Lore of Shadows.

Vampires had some fun models, with a Mortis Engine, a Wight King (I think) on a Terrorgheist, Banshee, Hexwraiths, Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls, Chorrors, Bat Swarms, Grave Guard and a Necromancer (again, I think).
High Elves got 3 Eagles, a few sets of Swordmasters, Phoenix Guard, a big pack of Spearelves, Archers, Mage, Archmage and some BSB guy.
Warriors got a mounted Wizard, Hellcannon, a Chariot, some GODDAMN Knights, and 2 packs of Warriors.

For magic I rolled from Nurgle: Miasma, Pit of Slime and Plague Wind :)
Vampires got some Invocations and one other spell I don't remember.
High Elves got the entire Lore of Light except for Net of Amyntok.
Warriors got.. well it doesn't matter what he rolled, he got the magic of everyone he could see. New LoS rules make that a bit insane.

The tornado moved in front of the Phoenix Guard and they walked right into it like a boss, losing a couple. They got first turn and did the usual shuffling forward.Magic phase was very uneventful with nothing getting through, and the Hellcannon did nothing.
Tornado moved off the Phoenix Guard and killed a couple more. Our turn had our own shuffling, putting the Chorrors in the Tower. Furies charged an Eagle and the Mortis Engine double-sixed, taking a wound. Magic had plenty getting through, but also 2 miscasts, killing 16 Grave Guard in exchange for an Invocation, and I lost a Horror to get the Withering on the Spearelves. Shooting killed a couple of Spears and wounded the Chariot, while combat was a draw between the Furies and Eagle.

Tornado did nothing at the start of turn 2, but the Chariot charged the Flamers, Knights charged Furies and Swordmasters charged Boobs. Magic once again did very little, I think they hurt some Zombies and the Hellcannon did nothing again. All of my forces were annihilated in combat and the Knights reformed to face my Nurglings.
Tornado looked intimidating again but did nothing. Beast charged spears (a very bad move) and Nurglings charged Knights (also bad). Zombies charged the Phoenix Guard over the river of Light and got ASF. Chorrors left the tower.  Magic did nothing much, but the shooting from the Undead took out a few Warriors and the Flamers damaged some Swordmasters. Beast and Nurglings died horribly, but the Zombies fared very well against the Phoenix Guard, who lost and only just managed not to flee, which would've been a domino effect that wiped out the Elves. If we'd remembered that the tower gave the Zombies hatred and frenzy the Phoenix Guard would've lost by more and fled. Big mistake forgetting that.

 Tornado moves menacingly toward the Hellcannon.
Knights charge Plaguebearers as the Eagle flies behind. People move up to prepare charges and the Warriors Sorcerer explodes during magic. Hellcannon takes out a few Skeletons while the Archers shoot with a little effectiveness at the Terrorgheist. I missed my chance to do Miasma on my Nurgle BSB, and he died in a challenge with the Knight Champion. Phoenix Guard won this time, shrinking the Zombies slightly. We called it a day there and came back the following morning.

Our turn had the tornado move into empty space as the Terrorgheist charged the Archers, who fled in terror and were overrun. Ghouls and Mortis Engine charged a pack of Warriors and my guys sat around waiting for me to actually carry out the only one of my plans that I followed through on.
And so in the magic phase I 6-diced Plague Wind on the Spearelves, who never had the Withering removed for some reason. Each hero took a wound and the vast majority of the T1 Elves turned into 10 Nurgling bases in a flash. The miscast made the Necromancer take a wound, and that was all.

In shooting, the Undead screamed at the Warriors while the Flamers shot at the rest of the Spears, leaving us to consider whether it is still considered a unit of Spearelves when it is made up of only 3 characters. After another round of combat the Zombies were reduced to a single rank while the Mortis Engine exploded to surprisingly little effect. Chorrors cut through the remaining Warriors in one unit.
Despite now poisoning on a 4+, the Plaguebearers were torn down a bit more.



The tornado moved into the edge of the board and pretty much stayed there until the end of the game.
Warriors left their house, while the Hellcannon frenzied at the sight of the Hexwraiths, charging a couple of inches. Giant charged Chorrors. The shock of losing all of the Spears led to the Elf characters scattering as the Eagle moved to get in the way of the Nurgling swarm.The Archmage made a Pha Bubble. In combat the Zombies were torn down to a single rank and the Plaguebearers were left with only the champion and Laverne, while a Chorror sidestepped the Giant's club and bopped him on the head, causing him to fall over and cause a wound on a Chorror.

GUO charged the Phoenix Guard and Nurglings charged the last Eagle. Chorrors lined themselves up with the Warriors. Not much magic went down but I picked on the Dragon Princes a bit. Flamers shot at the Archmage, but did nothing. The last of the Plaguebearers died and the Knights turned to face the GUO, who took 5 wounds from the combat res thanks to the Zombies dying (it was this turn that we remembered frenzy and hatred). On the upside, the Eagle died and the Nurglings reformed to face the Knights.

5 Archmage joined the Swordmasters and the Knights charged the GUO. Elf mage toasted my Flamers, leaving only the champion alive. 3 Ghouls were left after combat and the Warriors tried to reform to face the Chorrors, leading to arguments over whether you could reform to put someone on your flank, among other things.

Chorrors charged the Warriors. Archmage Swordmasters fled from the Nurgings, who redirected into the other SM unit. Hexwraiths flew over the Hellcannon to little effect. In magic my Horrors pulled off their first Flickering Fire ever, killing the Elf BSB. I forgot to move the Flamer, so he just sat around. Nurglings did some damage to the Swordmasters, and the Ghouls were finished off. Warriors reformed to face the Chorrors. GUO also died and the Knights reformed to face the Nurglings.

Hellcannon charged Terrorgheist and Knights charged Nurglings. SMs rallied. Not much magic again and no shooting; the Hellcannon died in combat.Nurglings were reduced but took some SMs with them, Chorrors died out after rolling terribly:

Hm, there are only 11 dice in that photo. Anyway, Terrorgheist didn't reform after winning, so he couldn't charge the last Warriors. Flamer moved up to attack the Archmage, but he fled after the SMs were cut down by more Horror Fire and left the board. Nurglings were finished off and the Warriors survived shooting.

After adding everything up, we lost by 214 points (initially we thought it was just 164, but the 10-block of Nurglings was worth a whopping 50 points). I made huge mistakes during deployment and across the game, so what did we learn?

Spread out your army. Don't get anywhere near Chaos Knights.
Withering and Plague Wind work very well together.
New LoS rules make 3rd Eye of Tzeentch very good.
Horrors take a miscast very well.
Grave Guard do not.
Use Miasma before it's too late.
Mortis Engines are large and scary, even when they're not complete and falling over all the time.

Not as bad as I thought. Might be a few less posts over the next weeks; with 50 hour working weeks I have to choose between posting and painting each night, and I really want to make some progress. Hopefully have something up on the weekend.

"That's ridiculous."
         -Pretty much everyone at some point in the game