So, the unthinkable has happened! I am no longer undefeated with dark elves this year!
This week (last week that is) i played 3 games in total, and i actually lost one. I won vs Dwarfs and Bretonnians but i lost by about 500 VPs to my brothers ogres… Needless to say he has been very keen to remind me of this… Details to follow. My armylist was the same as before.
GAME 1: Dark elves VS Dwarfs
This was not a very fun game tbh, and I won mainly due to our poorly placed terrain. We had a big pile of stone in the centre (impassible) and that forced my opponent to deploy all on one side. Since his army is tiny he had to deploy all of it before I put down any real units, and I could easily focus all the attention on one unit at a time, starting from the centre of the board. Two hits with black horror took care of one horde of warriors (who had to retreat) and a S5 breath attack from the flank killed half of the hammerer unit. This was the first time I have ever managed to kill all the hammerers in combat (hydra in rear, executioners in flank and RXB(!) in the front). He had one warrior unit left standing at the end, and I had lost some fast units, and a unit of RXB (the ones who brought down the hammerers got flanked by said warrior horde
). Not much fun (ok, a little fun
) or excitement.
GAME 2: Dark elves VS Bretonnians
This one was much more fun and exciting, though I didn’t take notes, so I cant remember the details. My opponent deployed roughly as follows (from my left to my right).
Men at arms horde (with lvl 1), 2x skirmish archers and trebuchet, KoTR (with bsb), Trebuchet, KoTR (with combat lord and lvl 4), Grail knights, Skirmish archers, mounted yeowmen.
I deployed something like this (again, from my left to my right)
DRs, Shades, RXB, RXB, Harpies, Flying master, Witches, CoB, Warrior bus, RBT, sorceress(in woods), Executioners, hydra, harpies.
I start out clever by moving up with my sorceress to cast black horror on his knights. I am not too afraid of shooting due to the pendant and poor BS of his archers. However, I neglect to remember that his grail knights can actually charge pretty far… He charges, I “cleverly” elect to hold (2+ save from the pendant you know) he does no wounds, but still win by 4… she flees, and he catches her and charges in to the executioners behind (who hold due to stubborn from the cauldron). Brilliant
On the left flank I move up with DRs and shades and start causing havoc among his archers. I think one unit panics and causes panic checks on other units while fleeing through them. Nothing flees off the board, but his left flank is in disarray. On the right I am more passive (first round). I also move up with the archers and start shooting at the men at arms. If I can whittle it down to around 30, the witches will have no trouble in dispatching the rest.
Turn 2 I am in crisis mode. I have lost my general and only mage due to a “clever” move, but he has exposed his grail knights. I flank charge with hydra and the warrior bus and quickly dispatch them. Only like 4 executioners remain, but we are on more equal footing. He flees and I pursue (out to the right) with hydra and executioners, but I reform with the warriors bus to receive the KoTR. On the left flank I keep causing trouble for his archers and trebuchet (they do NOT like panic tests
). He moves up with his Men at arms, and slowly moves up with his knights. My master has charged his left trebuchet and kills it, and then elects to reform to face the knights flank. I manage to contain his magic phase by letting throne of vines go through but dispelling flesh to stone with all the dice I had. Phew…
In turn 3 (well, I think) I charged the left KoTR with my master to stall them. I dispatch the remaining “rabble” with shades and DRs and his shooting was neutralized and only about 5-10 witches were lost (bad scattering). His men at arms are looking less formidable, and I will have at least one more round of shooting at them. The master keeps the knights in place, but then flees in his round, and he charges the witches with KoTR. KB blessing helps me and I cause 13 wounds and 3 KBs… ONE knight dies. Witches stand fast, but are heavily diminished. On the right flank he fights the hydra with his KoTR, and somehow (I honestly cant remember) I manage to lose the hydra but I have my warrior bus in the rear of the knights. They stay one round (the knights) but then flee towards my table edge. They manage to kill the final executioner too before they leave (bah, who cares). His winds of magic remain weak for the rest of the battle (thank god) and he only manages to get off flesh to stone (and one regrowth, healing one knight) Oh, and my executioners managed to KB his general to death before they were killed. That was nice of them
In the remainder of the game, I manage to send off his men at arms by panic, but they rally before the end. His left KotR finishes off the witches and after being reduced to only the champion and BSB charges one unit of RXB, who stand though. On the right side I manage to chase off and catch the knights with my warrior bus thanks to KB (and finally some more humane ward save rolls from my opponent
) It was exciting till the very last turn, but thanks to me chasing off the knights and catching them, in addition to managing to kill the last knight of the left KotR unit (giving me full VPs for it) turned it in to a massacre in my favour.
GAME 3: Dark elves VS Ogres
Ok, so this one sucked
It was a fair win, but I did hang on to the very end, and I could have managed a draw at the very least, and a win if I had been really lucky. I made a few real blunders and my brother did none. However, the dice gods were so massively against me that it was laughable. But as I said it was a fair win.
Instead of a step by step battle report I will tell you some “highlights”. I started off just like against bretonnians and lost my sorceress on turn one due to stupidity. Note to self: pendant does NOT make her immortal… I botched my magic phase by rolling a 3 and she was then killed by a magic missile (cant remember the name, 2d6 S2 hits) and a unit of led bealchers. Stupid stupid me… I was way too greedy.
Another highlight was me getting my harpies march blocked, so they could not reach to redirect the mournfangs away from the witch elves. My the skin of my teeth I managed to pull my master from way off and get him in the way of them by half an inch. Then in the shooting phase I proceeded to shoot at the mournfangs killing one. Guess wich one he removed? The blocked one ofc. The mournfangs happily charged the witches leaving my master behind in a cloud of dust. The retribution was that witches are NASTY even if they cant use KB against ogres. I did 7 wounds, killing 2 MFs before they got to strike. Still I lost combat, and without frenzy it took them a good while to finish off the remaining champion.
Another fun part was me charging the hydra and warriors in to 7 bulls with a BSB. The warriors needed a 4 to reach (we have houseruled charge distances for infantry, so that you roll 2 dice and pick the highest rather than both. I can very much recommend this as it allows for much more maneuvering) anyway, they rolled a double 1, and failed to reach. Also they with the tiny wheel managed to expose the flank to another unit of bulls (with skragg…). The hydra then proceeded to cause a mighty 2 wounds (double 1s on the breath attack. Yay), and lost by 1. Naturally it fled, got caught and he overran in to the executioners behind, who (naturally) died to a man.
Luckily the warriors faied charge was so short that they were protected by a house on their left, forcing skragg and his bulls to “clip” them, and they stood their ground for several rounds (we have houseruled that a unit that is “disrupted” will halve its Ld for steadfast, so this was hard to manage, even with a nearby BSB). When the warriors eventually fled, they manage to get out of the sight arc of the other bull unit, while skragg got trapped by said unit. They managed to survive with half their number remaining, and without them it would really have been a massacre.
In the final round I managed to shoot one of his cannons down to 1 wound (booo) and I charged the other one with my master, knocking it down to 1 wound as well. Unfortunately my master lost the following round by 1 and promptly fled. Had I killed those cannons, and/or not lost my master I could have managed a draw.
On my left flank, a unit of 10 gnoblars managed to hold my DRs in combat for 4 rounds. Who said you needed a general? Ld 5 works just fine :/
On my right flank, a single sabretusk managed to keep 10 archers busy for 3 rounds by moving around them, and they failing their Ld tests for swift reform. Sigh. I got it in the end though.
The final thing that happened was skragg casting “the maw” on my remaining warriors, but it scattered on top of his ogres, killing 2 and causing a panic check. I felt a glimmer of hope, but it was not to be. They passed.
Overall, it was a fun game, but I really have to be more careful with mu sorceress. Having no presence in the magic phase is a huge handicap, not to mention the lack of dispelling. Ill get him next time
Also, I will try to change the executioners for BG. I know it is a bit boring, and 14 BG might not seem to great, but those executioners have preformed miracles (14 executioners killing 17 dwarfs in one round, lol) and BG are simply better in smaller numbers. I do not want to diminish the witches, and I cant afford a big unit of executioners, so I went with a small one (14), but the ASL is simply too much of a gimp in most cases. I will try BG instead. They are so great all-round, it cant be bad ^^
That’s all for me. Cya next week, perhaps.