Hammerin’ Hangover
Deployment: Battleline
Special Rules: A scoring unit has a full rank with 1 command model or
character. Skirmishers have 5
models and 1 command or character.
Major Objective: Have a scoring unit in opponent’s deployment zone.
Minor Objective: Your opponent doesn’t have a scoring unit in your
deployment zone.
The List
Spellweaver, General, Level 4, Lore of Life, stone of rebirth, dispel
scroll, shrieking blade, iron curse icon
Noble, BSB, Asyendi’s Bane, Hail of Doom Arrow
8 Dryads, Champion
8 Dryads
8 Dryads
20 Glade Guard, musician, banner, banner of eternal flame
10 Glade Guard
10 Glade Guard
5 Wardancers
5 Wardancers
3 Treekin
3 Treekin
Treeman
Great Eagle
This list scared me a little.
I know I have beaten similar lists in the past, but dryads always give
me problems. He didn’t have
anything but the one unit of dryads to score with, so I just needed to focus on
killing the champion as I doubted the glade guard would make it across the
board.
Magic
His life wizard rolls up awakening, flesh to stone, throne and
dwellers.
I roll up enchanted blades (yay magic shooting) and searing doom on my
metal wizard (his game to shine!) and spirit leech, caress, doom and purple sun
on my death wizard.
Terrain
This tables terrain was much more boring… just normal forest, walls and
building.
Deployment
This time I don’t win the chance to choose sides, and he picks the
building side, and with the corner of the building barely in his deployment
zone, becomes able to reach his S4 shooting into my deployment zone. I dislike the rule where that counts as
part of his deployment zone, as it clearly expands his area of effect much
farther (for scouting, vanguarding, everything).
Having more drops than I, Dylan is able to control the deployment. He puts his dryads strong on the right
flank with the eagle and a unit of treekin. An archer unit goes into the building. The left gets the rest. I think he was trying to hide from my
metal wizard (fear me!)
I put down my normal deployment, including the metal wizard on the
right. I wanted to dance with the
dryads, magic the treekin and control the right flank while the hydras did the
heavy lifting with the elves and treeman (can you say magical, flaming, armor
piercing breath weapon on treeman?)
He didn’t have any vanguard or scouts. I put the shades in the forest to either take on the
building or be stubborn for the incoming dryads.
Having been hanging with my friend I had only had a single beer, so he
got the +1 to go first. He puts it
to good effect and takes the first turn.
Turn 1 – Wood Elves
With everything back, even the vanguards, Dylan has no charges to start
off his first turn.
He moves a little on the left and hard on the right and then goes onto
magic.
He rolls a 12/7 magic phase.
I allow him to cast throne of vines. Normally my policy is to never allow them to cast this spell
and make them eat the dwellers (and I eat all of the other spells). With this list I’m not as worried about
dwellers as my units are so small and I really didn’t want him increasing the T
of his most likely flaming unit.
So I allow the spell and dispel flesh. He then picks up 6 dice, double 6s dwellers (which he
ignores) and kills 4 dark riders.
I pass my panic and am happy with my choice.
The bows in the building take off a dark rider, and the rest of his
shooting takes off one more.
Turn 1 – Dark Elves
For my turn 1 I start off by declaring a charge with the harpies at the
building. I expect to lose the
harpies but hope to pull the stand and shoot so that they shades can
charge. He holds off, and I decide
not to charge with the shades but instead try to put some wounds on the dryads. The harpies make their charge.
I move the remaining 2 dark riders up in front of his big unit, hoping
to pull some shooting and otherwise threatening the BSB or general with an easy
charge. I also move up the other
unit of harpies to follow up with the same charge or draw shooting. I do this all in the hopes of allowing
my hydras to get into position without getting nuked by fire and the expected
doom fire arrow.
I roll a 10/5 magic phase (yay to strong magic this game, it
seems). I start off with a 2D Pod
but only get my 2 dice back (12/5).
I throw 2 dice to dispel throne and then the last 8 dice at a big
searing doom on the right treekin.
I figure I will either double 6 and nuke them or draw the scroll. No 6s so the scroll comes out… I think
a good use of my first phase as it opens things up for later.
In shooting I pop the eagle.
I put 1 wound on the right treekin and take 2 off of the small archers.
In combat my harpies get nuked but take out 4 archers in the process
severely limiting the threat of the S4 shooting at my dryads.
Turn 2 – Wood Elves
Dylan still has no charges and continues to move strong on the right
and dickering around on the left.
Only a 4/3 magic phase this time.
He throws half at tree singing, which I dispel and the other at
awakening at the little dark riders.
I think about it for a few minutes and decide to scroll the spell. Again, I wanted them to pull shooting
to give the hydra a chance to live, and looking at his spells I was fairly sure
that I wouldn’t be needing the scroll this game… maybe for a large T later on,
but I didn’t think so.
He uses the small shooting unit to pop the two dark riders, the treeman
to kill and panic the harpies and the flaming unit, building unit and doom
arrow to kill 1 hydra.
Turn 2 – Dark Elves
The shades charge the building, losing 1 to the stand and shoot. At this point making the charge should
have gotten them out of the treekin/dryad charge, and give them a good fire
position. They however fail the
charge but at least stay in the forest.
The harpies that got shot by the treeman rally.
I also use the egg and move up my BSB to shoot the non-building small
unit of elves.
I roll another huge magic phase, 12/6. The treekin/dryads had made a nice line and I decided what I
really wanted to get off was a purple sun. This would save the shades from a charge and maybe even kill
the champion I needed to worry about.
So with the scroll out I needed to remove his dispel dice. I start with a 3D enchanted blades on
my shades to give them magical attacks to shoot at and fight the incoming
treeman. I then 2d PoD with my
death wizard for +3 (15/6). I
throw a 3D spirit leech at his general, which doesn’t do anything as I don’t’
roll higher. Having allowed all my
spells so far, he final dispels a 3D caress at his general. I then 2D PoD with my metal wizard but
only get back my 2 dice (17/6). I
throw a small searing doom at the treekin, which he allows and get 4 wounds
(that’s after double). I then take
my last 2 dice, activate my power stone (19/6) and get off the purple sun… he
only has a few dispel dice left and can’t compete. And what do I get for all that effort? I get a misfire… but at least
live. I am not happy, it should
have been so wonderful, and maybe even enough dice back to cast doom and
darkness before I shot.
My breath weapon manages to only kill 3 archers and the general kills 2
wardances. Rest of my shooting
doesn’t do much.
Turn 3 – Wood Elves
The treekin and dryads (with champion) charge my shades. The dryads go into the flank. I cause 2 wounds to the treekin on the
stand and shoot so only 1 sees combat.
His characters bail out of the archer unit as its clearly going to be
getting charged. They swing to the
right corner.
I’m sure Dylan sees the 8/8 magic phase as disappointing, but I’m quite
happy with hit. I dispel his 3D throne
of vies, followed by dispelling Flesh to stone on the big archer unit. He then throws his remaining dice at a
treesinging on my shades but fails to wound.
My hydra this time armor saves the flaming wounds so he puts the
remaining shots into a dark rider unit, killing 3 and panicing them.
In combat, the Assassin kills the treekin unit off, I lose 3 but make
my stubborn. We reform some, but
because I reform second I can’t get into combat with the champion without
giving up my flanking and opening up more attacks.
Turn 3 – Dark Elves
So my plan for the turn was to charge the hydra at the small unit,
kill, reform and then charge the large unit (get the easy points, right?). Then the BSB would flank the archers,
which only have 1 rank so not a lot of static so I would likely hold until the
hydra could join. What do I
do? Declare the Hydra on the big
unit, oops (and then he fails). I
still put the BSB into the flank of the unit, and to make up for the stupidity,
I do something else that may have been dumb and charge the little unit with my
general (he makes his stand and shoot).
I figure his T4 and 4+ ward will keep him from dying and the S5 mount
will do the heavy lifting against only 7 elves (just need to kill 3 to break
steadfast).
Both the harpies and dark riders rally.
I roll a 6/4 magic phase.
I 2D PoD, but he dispels it.
I then 2D PoD with metal wizard for +4 (10/4). I 4D blades on the shades to try to keep them doing
damage. He then dispels Doom and
Darkness on the large archer unit.
My BSB kills 3, mount kills 2.
I roll a 1 for my charmed shield but still make all my saves. He holds and reforms to give himself
ranks (and makes the hydra be closer, hehe). My general flubs, but the mount doesn’t. I still lose, but hold. The assassin passes his fear test but
doesn’t do shit. The shades get
picked up and the assassin runs (ass isn’t skirmish and therefore not stubborn
on his own). I don’t think I even
killed 1 dryad off that unit.
Turn 4 – Wood Elves
Dylan doesn’t have any charges for the turn, things being out of
position. The dryad with the
champion moves back into my deployment zone (that champion is worth 450 points
while in my deployment zone!)
He rolls an 8/5 magic phase and double 6s throne, which allows him to
ignore the miscast. I then dispel
flesh on the archers.
Strangle root kills the harpies but the one bow unit doesn’t do
anything.
My general makes his saves, kills enough with mount to break steadfast
and holds as the archers run off the table. My BSB does 3, and he breaks and gets run down (and my BSB
runs towards the solo character).
Turn 4 – Dark Elves
My BSB charges his BSB. My
hydra is not out of position, and moves to be able to charge the building. My BSB is looking like he will kill the
BSB and then overrun into the general, but not before the strangle root and
snipe him out of the combat, so I move my death caster to take on the treeman.
I roll a mighty 11/6 magic phase.
I start off with a 3D caress on his general and pull all 6 dice because
I rolled high. This is what I
wanted since I was sure the general would die to combat and I wanted to be able
to focus on the treeman. I then 3D
DND on the BSB to make sure that he will run and kill himself. I 4D Spirit leech on the general but
don’t roll high enough (probably should have done the sun first but I wanted to
get my dice level down for what I was hoping would be a great sun). I 1D PoD for +3 (14/6) and 3D Purple
Sun which hits both the treeman and the treekin. He picks it all up, but I only get 1 die back (15/6). I then PoD with the metal wizard for +4
(19/6), which I 4D enchanted blades on 2 DR to try to kill some dryands.
I kill 1 wardancer with some dark riders. My general puts 1 wound onto his general. I also take off 2 wardancers on the other
unit.
My BSB does 1 wound to his BSB who dies and his general panics and runs
off the table allowing me to hold with my BSB.
Wow, this was a huge turn for me, killing general, BSB, Treeman and the
second unit of treekin. There are
still a few archers left, but now I need to focus on cleaning up and getting
that damn champion (but I am way out of position for it).
Turn 5 – Wood Elves
He bails out of the building and shoots 3 dark riders.
Turn 5 – Dark Elves
I try to move towards that champion… those that can’t make it stop on
the way to shoot wardancers in the hopes of cleaning up the weakened
units. My hydra moves around the
building to try to kill the last wardancer and the archers which have clumped
nicely to be flamed.
I only roll a 3/2 magic phase and 3D to give some dark riders magical
shooting. My death magic didn’t
get into range on this turn.
My flame fills to kill the wardanceer and leaves 2 elves which don’t
flee. There rest of my shooting
does nothing.
Turn 6 – Wood Elves
Doesn’t do anything but dance in my deployment zone to make it harder
for me to get that dang champion.
He also moves around to prevent my hydra from scoring up either of the
small units.
Turn 6 – Dark Elves
I move hard to try to get his champion.
I roll an 8/4 magic phase and throw magical shooting in the hopes of
pulling his dispel dice. I’m
hoping he doesn’t think that I would use my 500 point general (400+100 for
general) to try to kill his champion… but it’s a 450 point champion. I miscast through, and lose 2 more dice
allowing him to dispel my spirit leech.
But then he goes and fails his dispel anyways. Excited I roll to add to my leadership (at +1) but still
manage to not do a wound. My
shooting manages to kill a unit of wardancers and but there isn’t any way I can
kill 8 dryads.
I was really happy with the way I controlled the magic phase, and am
going to miss power of darkness.
It could have been so much better if that first purple sun had rolled
something that wasn’t a misfire.
In the end Dylan got 32 power dice to my 23 dispel dice (difference of
only 9 dice). I on the other hand
had 71 power dice to his 27 dispel dice (difference of 44 dice). If my spirit leeches and that purple
sun had gone off it would have felt way more effective.
