First WH game in 19 months

How to beat those cowardly High Elves?

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Goricexii
Noble
Posts: 462
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 5:46 am
Location: Flapping around scaring people

First WH game in 19 months

Post by Goricexii »

I finally got my starter forces into action in a couple of very small (600point) actions against goblins. They were my first games in almost 2 years, since my last army fell victim to a burglary (alone with most of everything else I owned, but never mind) I made all sorts of silly beginner type mistakes, like forgetting my shooting phase once and being completely up in the air when it came to estimating ranges. I also rolled quite badly. In fact in no combat or shooting phase in either game did I even get a statistical average number of wounds on my opponent. I'm mentioning this now to save b---hing about it later. It was not the first time I've played with the DE, but the first I've played with the army book list as opposed to the RH one.

My force was: 1 noble on Dark Steed with HA,SDC,Sh,Lance
14 Spears with shields and full command
12 Xbows with shields
6 Dark Riders with xbows, standard and musician

My opponent had: 1 Goblin big boss (general) on foot
1 Goblin big boss (battlestandard) on foot
38 Goblins, spears, LA, shield, full command(characters)
22 (or 24) Goblins, short bows, shields
20 Night goblins, shields
3 Fanatics in Night Goblins
1 Doom Diver
2 Spear Chuckers

The first game I'd like to forget about. I made a stupid error and deployed the DR first, where I thought I'd give them the best chance of getting to his war machines. He, of course, deployed his Night Goblins square in their way. My general died to a fanatic, the Dark Riders were wiped out by 2 hits from the Doom Diver, my spears took gruelling losses from the chuckers as they advanced, charged the goblin archers, failed to kill more than 1 while losing 3 of their own, and broke. My Xbows couldn't wound anything but kinda sorta almost maybe redeemed my honour by standing up to the big goblin unit for a round in combat. Yay.

The second game was subtly more frustrating. I got a draw, although my luck hadn't actually got any better. My steed noble got in amongst the war machines and wiped them out (not before they had killed 3 DR, 5 Spears, and 2 Xbows), my Spears outmanuvered the main goblin unit and charged the archers. They beat them in 2 rounds of combat but the goblins refused to break. Eventually a fanatic came spinning through and wiped out both units. My remaining 3 DR actually got a rear charge on the main Goblin Spear block, won by 2, but the goblins passed their break test, and, because he'd managed to kill a rider to bring my unit strength down to 4, drove me off next turn. I made 1 break and 1 panic test in the entire game. Both were boxcars. He didn't fail a single break test, and only 1 panic test. It was like fighting Lizardmen or undead or something.

So what did I learn? What do I think?

I wasn't afraid of his numbers. It doesn't matter if someone outnumbers you by 1 or 31, hit them in the flank and they're in trouble. I was horribly unprepared for the damage done by the war machines. The Doom Diver pretty much won that first battle on it's own and the Spear chuckers were really nasty for their points. Since he's just going to keep NG units with fanatics next to his war machines I can't really think of a reliable way to deal with this.

I am rethinking getting a Reaper for my first 1000points. I don't see how they can compete with the sort of firepower he demostrated. I might be better off getting Harpies or another unit of DR, and keep the rare slot free for a Hydra or something.

Of course, he does own Chaos warriors as well.
Hmmmm...two cold ones in a chariot drawn by dark elves. That's never a good sign...
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Ezeraal
Corsair
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2002 8:12 am
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by Ezeraal »

Welcome back to the fold, and a fellow kiwi too!

Unfortunately, not a lot i can say to help here. Jut think yourself lucky he didn't field goblin chariots :? If it helps any, in low point battles goblins actually perform very, very well because they are cheap, can field big units and still access cheap, effective items such as warmachines, fanatics etc. A friend of mine once lost an 800pt battle with bretonians against goblins by being completely wiped out and not inflicting a single casualty (chariots again!).

A couple of things i can think of, if he places his night goblins near his war machines, thenmove to within 8" of the night goblins when the warmachines are between your dark riders and his night goblin unit. This means he has to release them through his own warmachines :lol:

And in this size battle, there are choices which will pay back the outlay better than others. Corsairs would work a lot better than spearmen, what with a 4+ save against his bowfire, and 2 attacks per base on the charge as well as on defence. Also, although they can have a high rate of fire, i would not field any rxb troops in a battle this small. Well, maybe to shoot fanatics. Otherwise, hth is where you are most likely to break him,considering the enormous size of his units! I'd go for more dark riders, or a second corsair unit. Or maybe witch elves if you had the models, and points for at least ten of them.

Hope this helps.
The darkness is here and you will fall...
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Walkerd
Warrior
Posts: 67
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2002 1:39 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by Walkerd »

Just some quick ideas.

If you are playing the same opponent with the same style of army that I would suggest the following for the 100opt games.

Against goblins the best troop choices might be;

2 units of 5 Dark Riders
1 unit of 5 Shades
2 units of 16 Warriors with full command and rxb's
Beastmaster on Manticore

A little more risky is reducing the Warriors to 10 or 12 adding a unit and fielding only musicians. Another option is giving Dark Riders musicians and/or standards.

The idea is to make him take panic tests / terror tests. A lot depends on the type of terrain deployment methods you use. The beastmaster is vulnerable to missile fire, however the terror and the ability to negate rank bonus is usefull. Not easy to use but effective.

Shades can be used to attack warmachines and to draw out the fanatics. Just remember that fanatics can be released in any direction. They do not have to be released toward the triggering unit.

(from memory) Goblins fear elves they do not outnumber 2 to 1. With the slightly larger units they will have to take fear tests in order to charge you. They will also have to take fear test if you charge, failure means they hit on '6's only. Units of 20 -24 goblins only require 5 or 6 shooting casulties before they must take a break test.

Remeber you can always flee from a combat you feel you might loose.

A unit of Dark Riders with a standard that hits an enemy unit starts with equal combat resolution. A rear attack starts you at +1. You then hope your superior WS and additional horse attacks will give you more casulties then they do to you.

What makes the goblin army difficult is the artillery and the fanatics. Luck with either will make your day a very bad one. You will be so much smaller that a single set of bad luck can destroy a fair chunk of your army. That is what shades and manticore are for.

Of course all this advise goes out the window if you are fighting Chaos.
"Video melior protoque, deteriora sequor"

Though I see what the better things are, even so I follow the worse.
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