Malus, a Hero, or a Zero?

[Carrelio]

So, I rushed myself over to Games Workshop for a quick game.
My friend had his new troll army and I had my dark elves.

MY list

Hero:
Malus Darkblade

Core:
10 Corsairs full command with sea serpent banner
15 spearmen full command
16 crossbowmen

Special:
5 coldone knights

Rare:
War hydra

His list

(I dunno what is what)

Trol king
3 trolls
3 trolls
3 khorne ogers
1 Giant of slannesh
5 dogs
5 dogs

I got the first move, so I spent it moving places!
Dark Elves Turn 1:
Everything that needed to moved, moved! This was everything but the crossbowmen, who had a nice possition up on a hill.

Troll/Chaos Turn 1:
Everything tried to charge... and everything failed!

Dark Elves Turn 2:
The Cold ones knights declared a charge on the nearest pack of dogs... which paniced and fled.
The corsairs in their frenzied state charged the giant... little did they know it was a giant of slannesh and thus attacked first... eating one...
The hydra calmly walked over to the frezied ogers and breathed on them.
The spearmen walked around hiding behind the hydra and preventing it from being flanked.
The crossbowmen rained death on the second group of dogs, killing them all.

Trolls/Chaos Turn 2:
The giant smashed its club on the ground killing 1 corsair, but the corsairs overwhelmed it and chased him down (yes... 8 corsairs killed a giant in 1 round of combat... everyone watching shook their heads and murmered when this happened)!
The dogs rallied... just in time to have the corsairs overrun into them...
One group of trolls attacked the hydra, which easily beat them back, causing them to retreat, but failing to catch them. As it was, the hydra ran directly into the troll king and his unit of trolls...
The khorne ogers attacked the spearmen, who ran a short distance.

Dark Elves turn 3:
The crosairs finished off the dogs they had charged into.
The coldone knights, now out of all the action started to make their long walk across the field
The hydra killed the troll king, overrunning his unit and catching the previously running unit... killing everyone!
The spearmen held their ground turning to look at their foes...

Trolls/Chaos Turn 3:
The khorne ogers charged the spearmen, killing them, running through them and off the board...
For a brief second everything was quiet...

Dark Elves Turn 4:
The entire dark elf army turned to the board edge the last 3 khorne ogers were going to come from...

Troll Turn 4:
The 3 Khorne ogers appeared from the edge of the board, charging the hydra... they were promptly killed.

Victory to the Dark Elves! But this begged the question... why would I even take Malus... why would I even take the cold one knights? This is the second battle I've used Malus, and the second battle this has happened. So I ask you, is Malus simply such an inspiring figure that he makes the army amazing without him needing to fight... or is the army amazing... and malus is just unlucky about getting into combat... maybe it's both?

[Gideon_Not_Ravenor]

Very well fought Carrelio!

As for your Malus question, sorry, I don't know my way around fantasy much.

[Carrelio]

I should probably also add that this makes 2 battles that the 10 corsairs have done the impossible. Last time they killed a unit of 15 chosen chaos warriors, and this time they finished off the stubborn giant of slannesh in a turn.

[Rabidnid]

Your corsairs have been very lucky. The knights are very effective and malus makes them reliable. If you want to spend 275 points for that. You can get a lot of other stuff the price of a named character. Besides, it wasn't malus' fault he was out of position, you put him there :)

In a lot of games you will see a single unit stand around and not contribute, look at how you are deploying and what you can do to ensure it has a job in your next game.

[Carrelio]

In my defense, there was plenty of stuff around... until everyone else killed it.