Adepticon Singles – Round 2 - Blake – Dark Elves

The Mission:

Deployment – Battleline
Special rules – Give your opponent one of your core models and he gives you one of his
Victory – 100 or more points
Bonus Battle – 3 points for getting your traded model into their deployment zone at the end of the game, 2 points for killing your shared model.

I thought this mission sounded like a lot of fun, though I wasn’t happy with having to give up the fast dark rider model and only getting back a corsair that didn’t even have a hand bow.  I tried to convince my opponent that giving me a hydra would have been more fun, but he didn’t go for it.

Supreme Sorceress, General, Level 4, Lore of Shadow, Sacrificial Dagger

Death Hag, BSB, Cauldron of Blood

Sorceress, Tome of Furion, Level 2, Lore of Metal

5 Dark riders, musician, crossbows

12 Repeater Crossbowmen, Musician
12 Repeater Crossbowmen
20 Corsairs, musician, standard bearer, extra hand weapon, sea serpent standard

20 Black Guard, musician, standard bearer, banner of murder

26 Executioners
5 Shades, extra hand weapon
5 Shades, extra hand weapon

War Hydra

War Hydra

So ironically, the first thing I thought when seeing this army was ‘how do I kill one hydra, much less two?’  That was followed by ‘shit, that’s a lot of crossbows.’

Blake rolled Searing doom, glittering robe and blades of albian on his level 2, with pendulum, withering, miasma and enfeebling foe on his general.  I rolled searing doom and final transmutation, along with spirit leech, caress, soulblight, doom and purple sun on my general.  Based on my guesses on his list, I guessed all the magic items but the banner of murder (which didn’t matter for our game).

For deployment I broke out of my standard.  After dropping my dark rider units per normal (right, left and 2 in the center to block scouts), I deployed a hydra on the left flank.  I figured I could use this guy to escort my corsair to the finish line.  He matched my hydra with his own, so I paired off my other hydra on that flank and then later my shades.  Due to this I matched my characters on the left, though I put my level 2 on the right.  Next to his hydra he placed his corsairs, with a unit of shades.  He put a unit of crossbows with his general slightly behind, then his dark riders and both blocks, hoarded.  On the right he put down his other unit of shooters.  He placed this last unit early, and I was surprised since it put them across from the building.  He also placed my dark rider on the right.  I vanguarded aggressively on the right with the building to protect me, and in the center just behind the shades.

 Once again I didn’t get the first turn (had I yet this weekend? I think not).

Blake started his turn out softly with only some small movements forward on the left and hard movement on the right; he does try to sneak the left flank hydra up the line.  He then went and rolled a 3PD/2DD for his magic phase.  I dispelled the first Power of Darkness and the second failed to cast.  For shooting he killed 5 shades off the center unit and 1 from the left unit.

I figure the best chance I have to kill that hydra is a double charge, putting both my hydra and my BSB (using the egg) into the hydra.  I also charge a unit of dark riders and shades into the corsairs, getting the dark riders to flee before the redirection.  I also charge DR into the center units of shades.  In a strong 11/6 magic phase I get Doom on general, metal powers.  He dispels searing doom on the center hydra and then I fail to cast SL on 4 dice.  I roll lots of 1s in shooting but kill 2 cross bows.  In combat the assassin kills the level 2 caster, but lose combat and the shades get run down.  Corsairs then over run into the other unit of shades.  They hydra dies, doing a few wounds to my own hydra.  Solves the hydra issue.

On Blake’s turn 2 he doesn’t charge.  The shades rally but the dark riders run off the table.  He roles a 3/3 magic phase but doesn’t do anything.  My shades do some wounds and die against the corsairs leaving just the assassin.  His shades fail to wound dark riders and hold.

On my turn 2 by hydra charges the crossbows with his general, which flees.  My BSB then charges them and escorts them off the table.  My hydra they redirects into the shades (his) and my BSB goes into the corsairs.  My Dark rider fails to rally and dies in a forest.  A 4/2 magic phase has be boost +2 dice off power of darkness.  I then spirit leech 1 wound on his remaining hydra and searing doom 3 more wounds, leaving it with 1.  In combat his corsairs whiff and die and the shades fail to hold up to the hydra.  His hydra panics off the combat.

Having pushed back his army, on his turn 3 he reforms towards center, after the hydra rallies and kills 3 dark riders in shooting.

My turn 3 and the BSB takes 1 wound from a stand and shoot at his shades.  I move around to mess up his right flank.  On a 5/2 magic phase I Power of darkness on my metal wizard to add a die and then searing doom away the hydra.  I then power of darkness with my death caster for +2 dice, doom the executioners then hydra flame them to 3 models, at which point they panic.  I shoot down his borrowed dark rider and kill the shades in combat on the over run.  He concedes to me as I’ve earned full points and he only has a few crossbows left.

He conceded, having scored 813 points, and I would have scored easily all but the cauldron and perhaps the black guard.