500pts - 1000pts - 2000pts campaign Battle report

Post Battle Reports here for bragging rights...

Moderator: The Dread Knights

Post Reply
User avatar
Daeron
Malekith's Best Friend
Posts: 3973
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2003 7:36 pm
Location: Belgium, Brussels
Contact:

500pts - 1000pts - 2000pts campaign Battle report

Post by Daeron »

Battle 1 - Daeron's charge
I fielded:
146 - Daeron - Master, BSB, CO, HA, SDC, Great Weapon, Dawnstone
110 - Dark Riders, Shields, RXBs, Mus
110 - Dark Riders, Shields, RXBs, Mus
115 - James and Johnson, Cold One Chariot

My opponent fielded:
84 - Aenuria - Heavy Armour, Warrior Bane, Enchanted Shield
126 - 14 Spearmen
100 - 10 Archers
70 - Tiranoc Chariot
70 - Bolt Thrower
50 - Great Eagle

The field offered a few scattered crystals, and an Arcane box in the middle. The crystals offered a little bit of cover, enough to normalize shooting but not enough to divide the battlefield into pieces. The small forces had little issue navigating the terrain.
I kept my Master in one of the DR units, preferring the re-rollable stupidity test over exposing my Master. My chariot was deployed in the centre to minimize the distance with the enemy. M7 is slow after all ;) The chariot was flanked by the Dark Riders and Master.

My opponent went for a shocking deployment strategy, fielding his archers next to his spearmen. Nobody could have expected that.
The bolt thrower reinforced the archer flank and then an eagle hid behind a few crystals, squeezing the chariot between itself and the bolt thrower, I think. Since I didn't have the edge in shooting, staying back didn't seem the best option. My DR's employed more like medium cavalry than fast cavalry, but it shows the versatility of the unit that it could do that. The Shields saved their skin on more than one roll.

Unfortunately the details are a bit hazy, so I'll focus on the outline of the battle. I got the all-important first turn and rode forward. I quickly moved my Master to go solo (turn 1 or 2), using some crystals as initial cover from the Bolt Thrower. In the subsequent turn, I would use my chariot and master to cover my flank from his eagle and chariot that threatened the flank. It was a classic move, I guess: a pincer movement on his part, a tough nut to counter it from my side.

The combined fire of my troops saw the archers suffer and rendered almost harmless, while the DRs took out the bolt thrower, scarcely surviving its first volley. The chariots and eagle duelled my Master and chariot respectively (or was it the other way around?) and I won both duels.
One of my DRs charged the spearmen, after they took a few casualties from shooting (I think). They won the combat, and broke them.

The opponent was tabled by turn 3 or 4 in a somewhat one-sided result. That said, it wasn't a one-sided fight until the end. Had my opponent had first turn and rolled slightly better on his bolt thrower, it could have gone the other way.

The victory awarded my a trickster shard, giving me some extra nasty-ness during my next battle's magic phase.

Battle 2 - Iquelle was quelled

I fielded:
146 - Daeron - Master, BSB, CO, HA, SDC, Great Weapon, Dawnstone
110 - Dark Riders, Shields, RXBs, Mus (proxied by Warlocks)
110 - Dark Riders, Shields, RXBs, Mus (proxied by Warlocks)
115 - James and Johnson, Cold One Chariot

Reinforced by:
140 - Iquelle - Sorceress, Level 2, Dispel Scroll
192 - 14 Darkshards, Shields, Mus
70 - Reaper Bolt Thrower
90 - 5 Shades, additional Handweapon


My opponent fielded:
235 - Verithian - Archmage, extra level, sceptre of stability - FIRE!!
105 - 5 Reavers, spear & bow, musician
170 - 15 Archers, mus & stand
70 - Tiranoc Chariot
300 - 17 Phoenix Guard, full command
50 - Great Eagle

This was going to be a tough fight. I was using two sub-lists of 500pts (part of the 2K army), while my opponent used a 1000pts focused sub-list (part of his 2K army). The table was picking sides too, leaving my opponent with no flanks to threaten and forcing us to play across the long side. My shorter range shooting wasn't going to be a big help, I feared.

My random magic lore gave me Lore of Beasts, which wasn't my preferred lore for this fight, but I got a handy -1 to hit hex and the signature strength and toughness boost.

The game would be decided by the number of units within 6" of the cube.

Deployment and vanguard:
Image

What you can't see, are the shades. The cube in the middle hides them in the picture, but they are behind a cluster of crystals, ready to have a go at the enemy reavers, chariot and archers.

I got first turn again, which was great, and I moved forward as much as I could. The reavers got blown away before making a move. I felt bad for my opponent but I simply had to remove that threat. I even moved my Bolt Thrower because... why not? ;)
Using magic more defensively than offensively may have saved a few dark riders at first, but in the end they got blown away by fire and arrows. My Shades were kept busy by fleeing from the eagle and I think the chariot later on. This kept them safe, but unable to deal their ranged damage (other than 1st turn).

Slowly, the Phoenix guard moved forward but it wasn't until turn 3 that I fired the first shots at them. My combined fire saw a few of them disappear but not as quickly as my troops were melting under the barrage of fire magic. To make matters worse, my Sorceress got sucked into the warp in round 3, taking away the dispel scroll with her.

It seemed like an uphill battle but the turns were ticking by quickly and the crushing defeat I could have suffered was delayed. My Cold One Chariot soaked quite a few shots, but the high toughness and armour kept it safe. My Master kept the pigeon at bay and got charged by the chariot. He won the combat and chased it. Unfortunately, that made him look the wrong way...

This what was left of my troops in turn 5, while my opponent still had his archers, bolt thrower and the troops you can see there.
Image

I added some fire on the phoenix and then, in my last turn, my Cold One Chariot went for it, won and ran them down. It was a mixture of luck and having dropped the unit just below that critical mass for it to remain effective. My opponent's mage had moved solo before, luckily, and managed to contest the objective with the cold one chariot.

It was a draw but my troops suffered dearly.

As a reward, my cold one chariot obtained the Wizarding hat, which made it a level 2 wizard. Yay!
But I also had to carry this for the remainder of the campaign:
Image
(Not showing pictures of that, sorry)

My opponent gained a folding fortress for the next game.


Battle 3 - Icani steps in

I fielded:
146 - Daeron - Master, BSB, CO, HA, SDC, Great Weapon, Dawnstone
110 - Dark Riders, Shields, RXBs, Mus
110 - Dark Riders, Shields, RXBs, Mus
115 - James and Johnson, Cold One Chariot
140 - Iquelle - Sorceress, Level 2, Dispel Scroll
192 - 14 Darkshards, Shields, Mus
70 - Reaper Bolt Thrower
90 - 5 Shades, additional Handweapon

Reinforced by:
265 - Icani - Sorceress, Level 4, 4++ ward
300 - 30 Dreadspears, full command
200 - 6 Cold One Knights, Champ, Mus
70 - Reaper Bolt Thrower
180 - Hydra, Breath Weapon


My opponent fielded:
275 - Verithian - Archmage, extra level, book of hoeth, FIRE!!!
134 - Aenuria, BSB, sword of might, shield of the merwyrm
255 - Althran, lance, heavy armour, enchanted shield, griffon (flappy), swiftsense
225 - 20 spearmen, full command
105 - 5 Reavers, spear & bow, musician
170 - 15 Archers, mus & stand
70 - Tiranoc Chariot
300 - 18 Phoenix Guard, full command
225 - Flamespyre Phoenix
140 - Bolt Thrower x 2
100 - Eagle x 2


We had to deploy diagonally across the battlefield. I was quite impressed and afraid of the monsters on his side, but I had a few tricks on my side so.. It seemed like a fun battle. This time, the magic was on my side with 8 levels vs 4. o.O
With my vanguard move, I managed to block his vanguard ... I'm glad we discussed such tactics on this forum ;)
It kind of cluttered his side where he had the most room, and that's always an advantage.

Our GM awarded us with a few storm of magic spells. He got some impressive re-roll on the wound rolls of all units, and a barrage of fireballs. I got something I can't remember, since it never played part ;)

My plan was to destroy his left flank asap and turn to face the right flank. I hoped I could weaken his force multipliers in the meantime. I deployed my RBTs somewhere in the centre at the rear, in hope that it would be hard to reach. This would turn out to pay off (as it usually does).

He used his folding fortress for his archers. I reckon he wanted to play his right flank (my left) as an anvil with the right (my left) as hammer. He certainly had the options, but I had deployed too much power on my left to allow that.

Image

I got first turn, again, and used it to surge forwards. The magic was disappointing, and the shooting mildly ineffective. In his turn, he moved his flyers over my battle line prepared to hammer my bolt throwers with 4 possible charges: reavers, eagle, phoenix, gryphon.

Then my memory starts to fade and I can remember only the outline of the remaining turns:

On my left flank, he took advantage of my cluttered deployment. He managed to charge his chariot into my spearmen as a "high damage diversion" I guess, while his spearmen charged my chariot with a clear path to overrun into both shades and crossbows. Ugh. His gryphon positioned to assist next turn. However.. his chariot held, and so did mine. This permitted a charge from my magically boosted dark riders on his chariot flank, killing it and overrunning into his spearmen where they got another round of combat. Yes!
The spears fled, but didn't get caught by either swiftstride unit! Somewhere along the way, that dark rider unit was removed and I'm guessing it's by magic.

My crossbows and spears had reformed to face the gryphon, failing to do any damage by shooting.
Subsequently, the enemy gryphon charged over this defensive line to my chariot. The Phoenix charged my Shades which fled behind the chariot. A failure to redirect gave it a failed charge.
In the fight that followed, the gryphon master died while my chariot lived.

In the centre, my hydra ate an eagle, I think and my cold ones charged the tower. The archers wouldn't break, though, and by turn 4 they were still fighting but their numbers were significantly reduced, removing their threat. Meanwhile the Hydra also ate a bolt thrower and managed to regen most of its wounds back when it turned to face the Phoenix Guard. One of the dark riders took out the other bolt thrower, and were down to 1 model.

The Bolt Throwers managed to panic the reavers and nearly kill an eagle (but not fully). In the subsequent turn, the phoenix charged and killed a bolt thrower, reforming to threaten my spears. But.. the eagle failed its charge with a triple 1!
My shooting managed to finish off that eagle, keeping a bolt thrower safe. It would later destroy the reavers and take out a few phoenix guard.

For magic, nothing but the expected buffs and debuffs happened.. I tried to play a "delay the pain" game where I dispelled early on, hoping my opponent would lose his magic phase. I think he lost concentration once, and a miscast on another turn... A bigger pay-off than I could have wished for.

On the right, the phoenix guard took a long time to crawl into the fight and I risked charging them with my hydra. Not the best move, but I found the alternative a lot more boring. Plus, there was a chance I'd do some significant damage.
Unfortunately, it didn't go so well in spite of the magic buffs. The Phoenix guard brought it down to a single wound before it could strike. I completely forgot about the handlers: my own damn fault for not putting the handlers on the base yet. So I fought without their attacks, and rolled my breaktest without their leadership. As a result, the Hydra fled, got overrun and my cold one knights were charged in the rear.

This was my turn 4 I think, after charges. Soon after, I'd be losing my hydra.
Image

Time constraints forced us to stop, and we called it a draw. It was going to be a weird end anyway. On the left, I was on the winning end, but that flame phoenix could still do a significant amount of damage. On the right, I was close to losing my BSB but he could still do a lot of damage before the end. Putting my enemy in combat made his magic very limited, while I had 8 levels to draw on still.
I still had enough fire power to hurt that phoenix guard unit should they have survived the combat with the cold ones.

The dice were in my favour.. I never got superb results but I had no critical failures where my opponent had a few. It was a close call during many phases of the game and a very demanding, exciting game.

It was one of the most fun table top games I've had till this date and it convinced I want to keep on playing 8th ;)
I love me a bowl of numbers to crunch for breakfast. If you need anything theoryhammered, I gladly take requests.

Furnace of Arcana, a warhammer blog with delusional grandeur.

"I move unseen. I hide in light and shadow. I move faster than a bird. No plate of armour ever stopped me. I strike recruits and veterans with equal ease. And all shiver at my coldest of whispers."
- The stiff breeze
Post Reply