SAWS – Round 2 – Josh Young – Wood Elves

The Mission: Magic Flux

My Objective: Have more non-fleeing units in your enemy’s deployment zone at the end of the game than they have in yours

Highborn, crown of command, glittering scales, rageth’s wildfire blades, stone of rebirth

Spell Weaver, amaranthine brooch, dispel scroll, lore of beasts, level 4

Noble, additional hand weapon, dragonbane gem, wardancer

Noble, additional hand weapon, an annoyance of netlings, wardancer
Noble, biting blade, dragonhelm, great eagle, light armor, shield, stone of the crystal mere
Noble, armor of silvered steel, BSB, luckstone

8 Dryads

10 Gladeguard, musician, banner
10 Gladeguard, musician, banner
19 Gladeguard, musician, banner, banner of eternal flame

14 Wardancers, musician

7 Wardancers

Great Eagle

Treeman

Going into the event I said there were two lists I thought I could beat.  Wood Elves without trees (but only wood elves as hatred and ASF means I couldn’t win) and Dwarves if they restricted the majority of their shooting to warmachines (so I could kill the warmachines and then run away).  This list didn’t quite meet my requirements, but I still felt I had an ok shot.

For spells Josh rolled Wildform, Flock of Doom, Savage Beasts and Transmutation of Kahdon.

For deployment Josh bunkered his army, with archers watching the front and sides, the caster bunker and flyers in the center and the treeman, big unit of wardancers with characters and the dryads watching the corners.  I deployed my general behind some impassible terrain, out of sight of the archers and will room to run should the flyers come after him.

Once again I rolled to go first.  On Josh’s turn 1 he moved his wardancers around to get a better view of my deployment areas.  On a 9/4 magic phase I dispel wildform and the treeman tree sings a small forest around.

On my turn 2, 3 Night runner units come on and all charge, the one of the left taking enough wounds to panic and run off the table, taking its weapons team with it.  The other charge, 1 in the front and 1 in the right flank into archers.  All three gutter runners come on as well, one unit to hold the place of the fled off night runners and the other two to begin the hard work of taking down the treeman.  In shooting I put 7 wounds on, but he saves 5, taking 2.  I then kill 3 elves on the unengaged archer unit and it panics off the table being outside both the general and BSB bubbles.  In the combats I manage to win both, but he holds on both as well.  A weapons team does die, along with a few rats.

The holding was key, and on Josh’s turn 2 he counter charges.  In the center the wardancers flank the combat.  The treeman terror panics off a weapon team and then redirects into gutter runners which pass their test and put another wound onto the treeman on the stand and shoot.  On the left, the dryads charge the gutter runners.  The eagle joints the combat on the right, taking a corner.  A 5PD/6DD magic phase (yay magic flux) has me dispelling wildform and him failing to cast savage beasts.  In combat the damn treeman passes all of his saves and kills 6 gutter runners.  I roll double 1s to hold.  The assassin kills 2 dryads and the unit kills another.  I then lose combat, but survive thanks to smoke bombs.  In the center combat I kill 5 archers, and fail to do more than one wound thanks to the 6+ ward of the wardancers.  The unit does escape after losing (just 4 models though, very choppy wardancers).  On the right the night runners kill 4 elves but lose 3 and the combat.  They make their save.

On my turn 3 no more units come on.  The left gutter runners rally.  In combat the gutter runners fear the treeman, losing the assassin but doing the fourth wound to the treeman.  The gutter runners then die.  In the elf combat I do kill off the elves, leaving just the eagle.

On Josh’s turn 3 the treeman rears the night runners in an attempt to keep my night runners from killing the eagle and opening up the wizard bunker.  The dryads recharge the gutter runners, losing 2 to the stand and shoot.  A 10/5 magic phase has me allowing wild form on the wardancers.  I dispel flock of doom.  In shooting the center archers put 2 wounds onto the final 4 fleeing night runners.  The gutter runners on the left fail their fear, killing only 1 dryad, losing one and then getting run down (fing dryads!).  In the combat I put the fifth wound on the treeman and 2 wounds on the eagle.  1 night runner lives through the combat, and then escapes.

On my turn 4 two units come on.  The center night runners charge the center archers, which after having reformed in the previous turn flee, hoping to land on the other side of the eagle rider, and safety.  Unfortunately for Josh the eagle rider fails his test and runs off the table.  This opens the archers up for a second charge from the weapons team, pushing them off the table.  The night runners redirect into the 1 wound eagle, which flees off the tableJosh and I both agree that this may have put me back into the game – though still behind.  The other unit comes on and charges the rear of the two man unit of dryads.  None of my fleeing units rally.  In shooting the last gutter runner unit drops the treeman.  The night runners fail their fear test and kills 1 dryad.  Josh fails his test to turn around but doesn’t run away.

On Josh’s turn 4 I kill 3 wardancers on the stand and shoot with the gutter runners.  A 7/6 magic phase has me allowing wildform as I want to stop the savage beasts.  I fail to dispel though, jacking 3 characters up +3A and +3S.  On the left the dryads die off after killing 3 more night runners.  With the supped up wardancers (going +1 attack dance), Josh batters the unit taking very few (1 to a few characters).  The gutter runners pop smoke and he restrains pursuit.

On my turn 5 I don’t have any rallies.  My last unit comes on and flanks the wardancer bunker unit.  In combat they go 4+ ward save and then fail to wound.  Josh then fails all his ward saves, taking 3 wounds (3 ranks, flank, charge).  He fails his hold test and I run him down.  Because of the pursuit, I get out of the weapon team’s range and he dies.

 

Josh’s turn 5 and he moves to face with the wardancers

My turn 6 and I put 80 shots into the wardancers from 2 units, needing 7s and 8s.  I manage to kill 8 wardancers.

On Josh’s turn 6 he considers charging the wardancers into the night runners unit.  We talk and decide to figure out the points to see if he needs them.  He ends up being up 123 points and so we call the game with him taking a minor victory.  We then decide to find out what would have happened… first in the stand and shoot I would kill 2 characters and all but the last model in the unit.  I would then kill off the unit, leaving the general and the BSB only but lose the combat and flee off the table.  The swing in points through would have at least made it a draw if not put me up.

Good fun game, and with Josh not even getting out of his deployment zone I easily pick up my objective.