The Mission
Deployment: Blood and Glory (Oops – we did Battleline deployment)Special Rule: Alternate Victory Conditions
·
10 points for breaking opponents army
·
5 points for not being broken
·
3 points for capturing more table quarters
(having any unit with no enemy units in corner)
·
1 point for capturing more banners
·
1 point if your General survives
Spellweaver, Level 4, Lore of Life, Elven Steed, dispel scroll, ironcurse icon
Noble, Elven Steed, BSB, Dragonbane gem, hail of doom arrow
13 Glade Guard, full command, banner of eternal flame
11 Glade Guard, musician6 Glade Riders, musician
8 Dryads
8 Dryads
4 Treekin
3 Warhawk Riders3 Warhawk Riders
Treeman
Treeman
I really like Jon’s list, both conceptually and as a good match. Back on my first table, we agreed that the
lowest level of the hills was not impassible, but that levels 2 and 3 would be. I decided that I really wanted the 3 bonus
points, and so would deploy on one half of the board, and hope to lure him
over. I could then drop the shades on
the other side to clear out whatever he put down and claim speed to hold. I also knew that with the Hydra I would
either have to push fast and kill the flame unit, or put the hydra on the other
side. Not wanting his desire to kill
hydra to cause him to split the treeman, I chose to risk the hydra (since he
wasn’t actually worth points in this mission) and run him at the flame unit (which
was worth a banner). With that in mind I
knew I needed to strike quickly. The
warhawk riders needed to be top priority, as they could get to my
characters. After that it was the
archers and glade riders as they could shoot and were worth the points. I would devote my magic to the treeman as
metal magic was huge. I would avoid and
ignore the treekin and deal with the dryads because I would have to.
For magic, Jon’s life wizard rolled Earth Blood, Throne, Flesh to Stone
and Regrowth. I had no fear of his
magic, and with the exception of Regrowth didn’t see why I would even
care. Earth Blood and Flesh to Stone
would make specific targets harder to kill, but I could easily just refocus for
a round. True, splitting shooting versus
clearing off a target is much less efficient, but with small units like Jon’s
that shouldn’t matter much. Without
being able to spam dwellers, I saw no reason to even care about throne – see
comments on the other three spells.
For magic I took Gehenna’s Golden Hounds and Searing Doom on the metal
caster – my only real way of fighting the bigger trees, treekin and
treeman. My death caster took spirit
leech, carass, soul blight and doom and darkness. I figured spirit leech to take on monsters,
maybe, and soulblight to help me take out the dryads.
The first thing you’ll notice is that we did not deploy under the Blood
and Glory rules. I didn’t even realize
we hadn’t until I was typing up the mission.
I don’t think it would have changed the result of the game, since we did
correctly play the win condition. Being
closer may have given him another round with his Treeman strangle roots.
For deployment, from left to right, Jon deployed a unit of warhawk riders, unit of dryads, his flame unit, a treeman with the cavalry behind, the treekin, the ancient (with the sac), another treeman and his other unit of archers. On the right flank was the other unit of dryads and warhawk riders. So I was successful in getting him to focus on the left flank.
For my deployment I put dark riders on the left, the hydra and
characters went heavy on the left flank in order to make that lure strong. The harpies and another dark rider unit went for
support. The center got a dark rider
unit, and then the right side got just a token dark rider unit – the hopes
would be that it would be enough to pull something small for the shades to take
out while also earning me the quarters.
The bolt throwers went on the left as well to help with the struggle. I then drop both the shades on the right as
planned.
Jon got the first vanguard, and moved his left warhawk riders up and
the left unit into the center. I chose
not to vanguard with everyone, as his vanguards made some charges possible on
the left.
We roll off and I got the first turn (I did have the +1).
Turn 1 – Dark Elves
Taking advantage of his aggressive vanguard moves, I took 2 charges on
my first turn. First a dark rider unit
charged the left unit of warhawk riders.
He held, for fleeing would put him off the table. A unit of harpies also had a flank charge on
the now center unit of warhawk riders.
He fled back towards his board edge.
I also push the harpies on the left up to block the dryads to allow the
hydra to go up fully with no risk of being charged.
Starting off with a 9/6 magic phase, I fail to cast spirit leech with 3
dice – go needing an 8. In then chuck
four at searing doom, figuring I could chuck 2 at GGH but irresistiblely cast it…
and only the small version. I target his
ancient, as with all the trees on his line, the one with more points and the
18” leadership bubble seemed the best option.
I get lucky and roll a 3 for hits, following by 3 3+s. There were then a few movements of shock as
Jon processed that I just punked his treeman ancient. My caster takes a wound and loses enough dice
to end my phase.
In shooting I kill 3 dryads on the right and blow the fleeing warhawk
riders off the table. I also kill 2
archers on the flame unit, but fail to wound a treeman with the bolt throwers.
The dark riders do 3 wounds to the warhawk riders, taking 1 and pursue
to the board edge while the warhawks run off.
Turn 1 – Wood Elves
Starting his turn down both warhawk units and his treeman ancient and
general, Jon takes a quick look and charges with both dryad units. On the left he takes the harpy charge. On the right, the dryads lose their entire
remaining 5 models to the stand and shoot and some very bad ward save
rolling. His leftmost treeman moves to
shoot the hydra and the other advances.
The fast cav walks into the forest to get some shooting protection.
In magic, Jon rolls a crippling 2/1 phase and adds +2 toughness to the
dryads in combat with the harpies. Not
sure why, perhaps afraid of a hydra counter charge? That was not my intention with the hydra, so
I let it go (not that I could have stopped it with 1 die).
In shooting, the flaming archers put a wound on the hydra, but the
treeman fails follow up with a wound.
The other treeman kills 4 shades.
His fast cavalry kills 2 dark riders in the center.
In combat, the dryads only kill 4 of the harpies, and then I roll the
snakes to hold. Jon tells me this is bad
for him as his dryads don’t move towards my line. I counter with it being bad for me because it
means on my turn he is going to reform and on his turn charge whatever
direction he wants. He agrees is worse
for me.
Turn 2 – Dark Elves
With no charges for the turn, and keeping the dryads in mind, I move a
dark rider unit around behind the dryads to play clean up on the flame unit as
they hydra marches up to blow them a kiss.
This also gives Jon the option of reforming and charging the dark
riders, hoping to run off the board to flee the hydra or flank the hydra,
getting a hill bonus for his trouble. I
move up to maximize shooting on the left, keeping it in mind I don’t want to
actually lure him to that side of the table as I currently control 3 quarters
and I really want to keep him penned in.
I also move the BSB up to blow kisses at the archers – perhaps making me
able to break them on this turn and score those 10 points.
With an 8/4 magic phase, I start by pulling the scroll on a mighty 3
die 18 spirit leech. He then allows me
to put soul blight on the flame archers (putting them at T2 and my flame
template back to wounding on 2s). I
decide not to roll my last 2 dice as he was still holding 4.
In shooting the Egg kills 5 of the riders, and then my caster snipes
out the last and wounds the BSB. The
dark riders then join in, killing the BSB and putting a wound on the caster
(score 10 points!). Both throwers then
clean off the caster and put 2 wounds on the left most treeman. The shades on the left put 6 wounds on the
archer, which flees out of range of some of the units I had set up to shoot
them. Even after running I’m still able
to knock the unit down to 1 model. The
hydra leaves 3 flame archers behind, to be cleaned up with dark rider shooting.
The solo harpy dies, and he turns to face the dark riders.
Turn 2 – Wood Elves
The dryads charge the dark riders, which get a wound through on the
stand and shoot. The solo archer keeps
running nearly parallel to the board edge.
A 4/3 magic phase sees some treesinging to move the forest and extend
the solo archer’s run. It makes no
difference to the game, as I’ve scored all points I can except for most
banners, and points don’t make a difference.
The thing he could do was to break me, and I was keeping my general and
2 units of dark riders in my back field, freely throwing away the rest. I knew I couldn’t get “more” banners at this
point, since I had shot them all off the table on my turn 2, so the maximum I
could get was 19 anyways.
The strangle root again fails to wound the hydra, but the other kills 1
dark rider. In combat he kills 4 dark
riders, and I hold.
Turn 3 – Dark Elves
Knowing that with the bolt throwers, general and 2 dark rider units I
could hold 19 points (not break and 3 quarters), I decided to keep playing the
game with everything else. So to flee
the treeman, I put the hydra into the dryads.
They had reformed to face the treeman and give the dark rider the
rear. I also push the solo archer
towards the board edge with the harpies.
In magic I take my turn with a 4/3 magic phase. He fails to dispel searing doom and I take
off a treeman. I end the phase as GGH is
out of range and I was no longer playing with my general.
In shooting I put another wound on the treeman.
In combat, the dark rider dies, the hydra fails his saves horribly and
takes 2 but wipes out the dryads on the thunderstomp. I have to decide to overrun (flee from
treeman) or turn around. Knowing the
treeman will catch me anyways, I overrun to leave my rear open and allowing the
hydra to die. Killing the banner gives
Jon “more” captured banners and the 1 point.
Turn 3 – Wood Elves
Jon starts his turn by charging the treeman in the rear of the
hydra. Archer doesn’t rally. A 3/2 magic phase has me dispelling
treesinging. The treeman takes 2 wounds
from the hydra and fails to wound, still winning, the hydra runs off the table.
Turn 4 – Dark Elves
My BSB charges the solo archer off the table.
A 7/4 magic phase has him dispelling my searing doom on the
treekin. I don’t bother with the rest of
my dice.
I manage to get 5 wounds onto the treekin with massed shooting.
Turn 4 – Wood Elves
Seeing just half a treekin unit and a wounded treeman on the table, Jon acknowledges he won’t be able to get any more points and concedes the game.
This was a rough game for Jon. The loss of his 2 fast units and his general first turn left him reeling, and my turn 2 destruction of 2 archer unit, the glade riders and both his elf characters was crippling.
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