1000 pts vs NEW High Elves

[Jvh792]

I got a chance to fight the revamped hated kin this past weekend.
Lemme tell you, they sound even scarier than before. They now fight at least 3 ranks deep and most of their units are cheaper now too.

High Elf list:
lvl 3 sorc
15 sword masters
24 spears
10 of their new archers with S4 flaming and armor piercing shots
1 shooty hero chick.

Dark Elf/Good guys list:
lvl 3 sorc with guiding eye
Master BSB with Dragon egg
20 spears+ shields and FC
24 RXB + shields and musician
Hydra

My strategy going in was to march my RXB unit into his best infantry, breath a dragon egg on them, make it so they can't charge, and shoot the living hell out of them for two turns with guiding eye and hydra breath attack.

Deployment:
I win the roll and decide to defer, since I didn't want the flaming shots across from my hydra.

He puts his flaming shots my left flank. Strange choice not to put them center and thus counter my hydra no matter where I put it.

I put my RXBs on the left flank hoping to shoot his small unit of shooters before they get at my hydra. Looking back, this was an oops. I should have set them against his swords masters.

He puts the spears down center field.

I mirror the move with my own spears.

He puts sword masters down on my right flank, but leaves a huge space on the table even further right.

I take advantage of his tight spacing by putting the hydra on the far far far right side of the table and far as possible from the flaming shots.

His mage goes into the sword masters and his shooty chick goes into the archers.

Both my characters go into the RXB.

Turn 1:
Movement: HE win the roll handily. Making me sad. He advances full tilt with all units. His spears are going into my crossbows and his sword masters are going for my spears.
Magic: I allow a BS buff to go onto his archers thinking, eh, d3 bs, maybe he rolls a 1 or 2. Its long distance, they moved, and its only 10. He rolls a +3 to BS... Oooooops. He blows up 6 archers with his new lore when I fluff on my dispel roll.
Shooting: He flames down another 5 archers. I pass panic.
Combat: None.
I'm beginning to get worried as much of my strategy is based on my RXB unit.

DE turn 1:
Since he is coming up so aggressively I decided to stat put and not put myself in a position for a turn 2 charge. Either charge against my units would go terrible for me.
Movement: The hydra moves up as far as possible and just out of the charge ark of the sword masters. I'm planning on flaming down most of the unit.
Magic: I manage to get off Miasma, and lower the archers' BS by 3. I also get off The Withering and lower the toughtness of the sword masters to 1.
Shooting. I shoot my RXB into the withered sword masters. I kill just two thanks to the new high elf Lore which gives one level of ward save per spell cast during their turn. He got off two, so he had a 5+ ward save on the sword masters.
Close Combat: None.

HE turn 2:
Movement: he keeps coming up fast. Spears toward my RXB and swords toward my spears. The archer ladies wheel and face my hyrda... gulp.
Magic: He fluffs his roll to buff his archers BS, and I easily dispel. He kills a few more RXB from the same spell as before.
Shooting: With the BS being lower by 3 and them having moved and it being long range, they whiff on every shot but one, which fails to wound. His hero just entirely misses.
Close combat: none.

DE turn 2:
I see that this is it, next turn he is charging in, so its now or never.
I swallow the guiding eye on my sorc.
My master eats his egg.

Movement: I move the hydra right up into the flank of the sword masters and hover the flame template over them to make sure I hit them all. I do. I move my Egg carrying master over to my spears to prepare to breath on the sword masters so they can't charge. I keep the RXB where they are since they have vision of everyone.
Magic: I go for a Mindrazor on my spears on 6 dice and roll 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 4. That's all folks.
Shooting: I flame the swords. Only the Sorc and 4 of his closest friends survive. I put my reroll miss RXB shots into whats left of the unit. Bye Bye swords and Sorc. I decide that I don't want the spears going into my RXB with my sorc in it There are only 10 models plus the sorc left, so they wouldn't last long. So I my master uses his egg breath on HE spears and kills 4 cause the LD test. They fail their leadership test and can't charge next turn.
Close combat: STILL... none.

HE turn 3:
My previously happy foe is now looking at the battle field in dismay. "Forgot about the hydra breath there for a second..." I give him a sad smile, "Oops..."

Movement: He backs the spears back behind to the fence for soft cover bonus. The archers stay put, facing the hydra still.
Magic: Nothing of concequence.
Shooting: Whiffs all his shots on Hydra again.
Close Combat: STILL. None.

DE turn 3:
I debate whether to sit back and enjoy my shooting advantage, or just clean up house now. I sense my advantage, and press it.

Movement: Charge declared by the hydra onto the spears. My spears also charge his spears.
Magic: Mindrazor got dispelled and I fluffed my Miasma attempt.
Shooting: I manage to knock off one archer from an insane shot by my RXB. Needed a 7 to hit. Roll of 6 followed by 4+.
Close Combat: Ugly. Very Very Ugly. For him. He issues a challenge. I accept with my master. His unit leader manages a wound on my master, but the master's armor saves him. Master over kills him by 2. The spears duke it out. He takes down 3, I somehow take down 4 even though I don't have the bonus rank attack because I charged. Beast masters take down 2. Hydra seals the deal by killing 7. They need insane courage, don't get it, flee and are promptly eaten as they run by a hydra and my spears. I crash into the archers on my pursuit.

My opponent smiles, shakes my hand and says, "Forgot about the breath weapon..."
We laugh and I apologize for taking a hydra, and he laughs and says, that's the whole reason he brought the flaming archers, so no need to worry.
It seems that my dice got hot at just the right time and my BS debuff came perfectly, preserving my hydra's breath weapon at S5.

HE points won: 0
DE points won: 1000
Flawless victory for the Dark Elves.

I won this game because I was able to avoid combat with the sword masters. Plain and simple. If they had been allowed to attack in 3 ranks, as the new HE rules allow, my hydra would have been sliced to ribbons. Along with any other unit that he charged. By staying out of undesirable combats I was able to dictate when and where the fights took place. My strategy worked to perfection.

[Daeron]

Interesting. A few questions:
- The Swordmasters had a 5+ WS, since they got 2 stacks from the high magic's lore attribute. I haven't read the book, but rumor has it that they have a 6+ WS against mundane shooting. The Lore attribute mentions the ward save stacks with other ward saves, so.. wouldn't they have a 4++?
- You decide to eat the black dragon egg when you notice the swordmasters are gone and want to take out the spears. But AFAIK the item describes that the egg should be consumed at the start of the player's turn, not the shooting phase. This makes the item a bit more of a gamble, but also a bit more fair.
- They need to pass a LD test to charge. From your report, I sense that the test was taken immediately.. I thought it should be taken at their charge phase. I'm not sure if it matters a lot, but it would be interesting to know.

As for the luck of the dice... Maybe there was a factor of luck involved, but I'm not so sure. A Hydra breathing into a unit is nothing to sneeze at. Its thunderstomp isn't either. The odd outcome on the spears isn't as "odd". When fighting S3 against T3 with low armor save on either side, and the hit rolls get a reroll, it can swing pretty much either way. I recall beating HE spears repeatedly with my spears with only a banner of murder. That's how tight of a match they are that this one banner makes a world of difference.

Your list is quite powerful at range. 2 rounds of shooting with a guiding eye, withering, miasma to lower his shooting, 2 breath attacks.. He had a boost to BS and 1 unit of shooting. Then there was offensive magic, sure, but that's always a bit fickle. So from the start you created more opportunities. And in a game of this size... one good roll can be enough to really punch a hole in his army. That's the power of a shooty army: your first 2 turns, you create a lot of opportunities and elves have a rough time against a shooty list, especially in a small game.

Good work and thanks a lot for the report.

[Jvh792]

Thanks for the reply Daeron. I don't know about the 6+ ward save. The guy who I played against ran the Gamesworkshop store, so I assume that if that was the case, he would have said something. But it was his first time playing, so maybe he just forgot, or didn't see.'
You're right about the black dragon egg... I'll fix that in an edit.
I wasn't sure about when to take the leadership test. But it didn't changed anything. It may change something in a real game based on whether or not i want to overrun into a unit.

As far as my surprise of the spears, I thought it was quite well deserved. His spears attack in 4 ranks and attack first with re-roll misses as well. I put 10 attacks into him and he put 20 into me (as his flank was attacking the hydra).

I've been thinking about taking this list to a league. Here is the link so the precise points per unit:
http://druchii.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=72235
I would love some feedback