Orc Turn 1Movement: All the orcish units kept their discipline and failed (as I saw it), to succumb to any animosity. The boar boyz and giant moved forward apace on my left while the rest of Gnashrak's infantry came on in an unbroken line. The chariots sheltered behind them, covered nicely against the sharp eyes of the elven archers readying their bows on the lower slopes of their hill.
Magic: The great shaman drew upon a respectable amount of dice, threw up Gork's hex on the 14 archers, clouding their senses, but failed to throw the Bad Moon at my lines. He scratched his head and wondered if he'd got the incantation right...
The Big 'Uns and 2-'Eaded 'Arry thunder forward, all fighting-mean and filthy.
The hordes advance.High Elf Turn 1Movement: The prince's cavalry had two choices as to how best to encircle the orc battle-line. They could either march straight forward around the outside of the house to their front, or move up to the house itself, stop and face into the centre of the field. They chose the latter course for two reasons. Firstly, if the knights moved up on the outside, the orc spears would, inevitably, move to cover the rear of their army. My knights would chop through them in a couple of turns (if the orcs held on steadfast 7 for the first round), but the orcs would be free to position themselves in such a way as to draw my knights away from the rest of the fighting when they finally broke. The second, crucial point was that by parking his knights by the house, Seredain would threaten the flank of the Warboss's unit as they advanced. The spears would therefore
have to advance in order to cover him, thereby leaving open the back door to the rear of the orcish army..
Seredain feints towards the centre of the field, drawing the orc spears forward to protect their master's flank.To give time for their lord's plans to come to fruition, the Elean Champions moved back slightly- awaiting their opportunity, while the swordmasters advanced and turned to begin the overlap of the orcs' right flank. All the elven troops on and around the hill stood firm, but the great eagle swooped forward into the farmstead below. Upon seeing this the eager night goblins released their ubiquitous fanatics. One, heading for the eagle, smashed into a farm building while the other two were pushed straight forward towards the far-flung elves- an unimpressive 4 and 6 inches respectively.
Magic: Lecalion had decent luck with power dice but none with actual casting: Throne of Vines was dispelled and a long-range Dwellers thrown against the great orc horde failed altogether.
Shooting: Even as they chuckled at the prospect of those ridiculous fanatics holding up their own advance, the elf archers let loose, dropping 5 night goblins and wounding the wolf chariot on my right, despite the cover provided by enemy troops. The bolt throwers, though, had the more serious task of trying to save this vulnerable flank from the orcish cavalry. They quietly took aim and unleashed a hail of bolts... Three boar riders crashed to the ground and tumbled backward through their own ranks before the other orcs lost their heads, panicked and fled away as fast as they could! A huge cheer rose from the elven lines as the orcish elites turned tale. On the far side of the field, the elven prince whispered a prayer of thanks to the gods.
The High Elves unleash hell...
...and the boar boyz can't stand the heat.Orc Turn 2As the boar boyz finally began to rally, wondering why they hadn't brought a gleaming pennant with them, the night goblin fanatics made a nuisance of themselves. One careered towards the High Elf archers, but not very far, while the other spun right infront of his Warboss's black orcs. Stumped and unable to advance further for fear of being smashed apart, the furious black orcs started muttering dark threats about
them ****ing goblins and a practical instruction in the use of
proper weapons. All other units were free to advance, however, duly passed their animosity tests and came on, including the orc spears, who marched up to the house and angled slightly so that their front was presented towards the swordmasters. The boar chariot moved around the black orcs toward the orc spears, while the wolf chariots lined up to shoot the errant fanatic. The giant marched as fast as he could toward the archers hoping to put the 'shooty fings' out of action.
Magic, and once again the great shaman hexed the 14 archers, but didn't manage anything else, trying at a big Bad Moon but failing to cast. More head-scratching seemed to be the only solution.
As for shooting, the wolf chariot crews weren't on good form, thudding a few shafts into the ground around the still gleefully spinning fanatic.
High Elf Turn 2Having drawn the spear-orcs forward as planned, the silver helms quickly reformed to the sound of a blaring horn, turned and moved around the outside of the house on my left flank. To prevent the orc spears from simply turning around to cover my move, the swordmasters and champions moved forward, just close enough to tempt the orcs into an unlikely long-range charge against the swords and certainly close enough for the champions to threaten a charge on them in my following turn. The chariot moved up slightly to cover the advancing boar chariot. The white lions and spears moved forward very slightly to protect Lecalion's archers from a charge by the oncoming horde, but otherwise they just gritted their teeth and awaited the inevitable onslaught.
The High Elven archmage had other ideas, however. Lecalion raised himself up on a Throne of Vines before using all his available power to cast Dwellers Below against the orc horde. The frantic goblin shaman could do nothing to stop the sheer force of elemental magic, the earth erupted, and 19 orcs
and their battle standard bearer were dragged to their deaths. A desperate attempt to bring the elf mage down with the feedback scroll ended in only one wound being inflicted. The elf lines erupted with vengeful shouts of triumph.
Elf archery aimed to add to the success, but the right-hand wolf chariot made a miraculous number of saves to fend of the hits they managed. The repeaters did better, however, thudding a shower of darts into the giant's chest and wounding him three times.
Orc Turn 3The errant fanatic found himself truly blessed by Loec, for he added to the trauma being suffered by the horde of choppa orcs by chaotically bludgeoning his way through their unit! More orcs fell. The other fanatic continued to drift his way toward the High Elf bolt throwers, but only moved about 5".
The orc commander decided that he had to act before his army melted away. The giant charged the 14 archers, but they fled to safety beyond the steadfast spearelves, leaving the giant to stumble forward infront of the repeaters. What was left of the orc choppa horde charged successfully into the front of the spearelves but the 30 orc spears, on my left, failed to close with the swordmasters and just moved forward 4". The boar chariot responded by maintaining its place in the gap between the spears and the black orcs, who now marched as far forward as they could to make up for the previous turn they'd spent standing still. The orc commander, fearing the large block of elven knights moving around the flank of his army, setup a counter by moving his wolf chariots directly behind his black orc unit, covering the rear.
While all this was going on, greenskin discipline failed on their left flank. The boar boyz, perhaps unwilling to close with those deadly bolt throwers, started a fight with themselves so they'd have something less dangerous to do. The night goblins, too, decided that fighting amongst themselves was easier than fighting the High Elves, and so condemned their great shaman to a turn spent rucking rather than casting any spells.
The formerly solid orc battleline ruptures as High Elven magical power and greenskin indiscipline take their toll.
We've made a slight mistake here - the night goblins have made a march move in this picture (landing on the errant fanatic and suffering some casualties) but, when the orc player realised he'd forgotten animosity, he moved them back and replaced the lost goblins and fanatic too. The goblins then tested for animosity, failed and are actually stood back beyond the farm building.Combat saw the spearelves thrust hard into the oncoming orcs, skewering five. Four elves were killed in reply, but their strong formation held firm and they pushed hard with their shields, first dislodging the orcs from the hill and then driving them onto the plain, where the elves finally broke ranks and coldly butchered the remainder.
The elven phalanx holds firm...
...and then drives the enemy from the crest of the hill.
High Elf Turn 3While the 14 archers rallied, the rest of the High Elven forces decided to exploit their good position by declaring a full attack all along the line. The Swordmasters and Elean Champions surged forward and smashed into the orcish spears while, alongside, the chariot charged the boar chariot to pin it and prevent it from counter-charging my knights the following turn if the enemy spears held. On my right, the spears found themselves exposed out in the field. Fanatics now surrounded them on two sides but, worse, both the giant (pearing over the trees to their right) and the black orcs would be able to charge their flanks next turn. The spears had two options: to move in such a way as to best defend themselves (ie by moving away from the black orcs and towards the giant), or to charge the night goblins. This would mean landing on top of a fanatic and taking 2d6 hits, but would put them out of reach of both the giant and black orcs while providing me with the best opportunity of killing the great shaman. Casting fear aside, they declared their charge and, despite taking three or four casualties from the dying fanatic, crashed home successfully into the fearful night goblins. The eagle joined them, swooping in with a charge on the goblins' right flank.
As all these charges hit home, the white lions withdrew a little to keep the Black Orcs at just under maximum charge-range, again hoping to encourage the enemy to try and fail a charge. Lecalion, by contrast, left his archer bodyguard and marched straight forward 10" to get away from the giant, out of the charge-arc of the black orcs and closer to more targets for his spells. Seredain and his knights completed their move around the building and into the back-field of the enemy army, fearless of the chariots arrayed against them. As I saw it, an average of 7 impact hits was not enough to turn the tables here - in any case, my characters would smash those chariots once they'd hit home.
And that was if elven shooting had nothing to do with it. Keen-eyed archers were, despite the distance and interposing black orcs, able to manage enough hits on 6's to finally claim the right-hand wolf chariot. The bolt throwers had a naff round, however, aiming big bolts as the giant closed in but missing with one and failing to wound successfully with the other. Next turn would bring the pain for them. Magic was all but an aside this round - few dice were rolled and no spells got through for the elves, though Lecalion did still have his throne up.
As the elven spears crash into goblin ranks...
...the swordmasters, champions and chariot thunder into combat...
...and the door of the trap begins to swing shut. Combat on the right flank ended in stalemate as the eagle and spearelves triumphed in combat but were unable to inflict more than a wound on the great shaman or break his steadfast night goblins, despite their break test being rolled against a rather rickety Ld 6. Likewise the elf and orc chariots only managed to wound each other once, the latter holding. The combat on the left flank, though, was a different matter. The swordmasters and champions drove their charge home and did bloody work against the orc spears, killing 17 and reducing the unit to just 13 models. The shell-shocked orcs could only manage 2 kills in reply, easily broke formation and were cut to pieces, the champion cavalry riding hard to finish them before smashing into the side of the engaged boar chariot. The swordmasters, for their part, stood their ground when the killing was done, reforming to face the black orcs.
As the rival spear columns struggle against each other...
...the orcish flank collapses under the terrible assault of the elven elites.
The Black Orcs begin to cut a lonely figure as the White Lions look on.Orc Turn 4My opponent tried to get his general's unit out of trouble by declaring a charge against the white lions, but the distance was too great and the charge failed. The remaining wolf chariot, however, made it into my silver helms and the giant charged my right-hand repeater bolt thrower. The boar boyz marched up again on my right flank, managing to get about as far as they'd managed on Turn 1.
Magic, and the night goblin shaman was clearly praying for lots of power to save his own neck, since he rolled a mighty 10 dice. He then proceeded to spend all of them trying to buff his unit and curse the spearelves. The goblins were indeed successfully buffed with both poisonous and armour-piercing attacks, but Gork'll Fix It on the spearelves was scrolled. A successful casting of Bad Moon killed a few elves, but, despite the beating they'd taken during the course of the battle, they still had more than 20 of their number left (I think 23 or 24?), enough for a full set of attacks in the coming fight.
Combat saw the giant take the simple option and yell and bawl at the stunned repeater crew, who nonetheless decided to tough it out and stay put. On the the other side of the field, however, the charging wolf chariot was smashed to pieces by the furious elf prince, without taking so much as a knight with it. The combat between the spearelves and the goblins was more brutal. Now that they were fighting in 4 ranks, the spearelves and the eagle butchered a good number of goblins and, crucially, also killed their great shaman. With the shaman's last buffs still raging the gobbos (who'd passed their fear test again), managed a fair number of wounds back but, in the end, the elves were too fierce and the goblins broke on an even more rickety steadfast Ld 5. The eagle set about hunting them down and the 20 remaining spears reformed to face the impending combat in the centre. My entire army was now bearing down upon the orcs' Warboss and his bodyguard. Surely there was no escape.
The spears give one last push, slaying the great shaman and forcing his minions from the field.
The advancing High Elves prepare for the killer blow.High Elf Turn 4Every unit around the black orcs charged home: white lions in the front, swordmasters and chariot in the flank, champions and silver helms in the rear: probably the best combo-charge I've ever pulled off!
The High Elves bring swift death to their enemiesOther movement saw my archers wheel round together to form a line facing the giant, ready for when he was disengaged from combat. In the magic phase, Lecalion threw up shield of thorns on the silver helms for good measure.
But it wasn't needed. The slaughter was total. In all, the elves who were able to fight inflicted enough wounds to kill
40 black orcs. Presumably the 16 which actually stood there were utterly cut to pieces. As for the Warboss Gnashrak, Seredain pushed through the carnage to tackle him personally (much against his better judgment!). As the great heroes clashed the elf prince prayed to Loec to guide his blade. He cleaved the great orc twice though was unable, frustratingly, to land the killer blow. In reply the orc swung his immense sword (Str 8!) and smashed the elf prince, likewise, twice. If both wounds penetrated then Seredain would die... Odds-on he'd save one and live but, in the end and with the blessing of the gods, I rolled one 6 on the first two AS rolls and then the other, saving both wounds! As for the crippled orc warlord, he was utterly overwhelmed by the level of his defeat. Even as he broke and ran Seredain smashed him to the ground.
The giant once again proved inefficient at demolition, headbutting the repeater he was fighting and inflicting only the single wound. The crew, for their part, taught him a lesson and stabbed him in the head, putting him down to 2 wounds.
The victorious elves surround a mountain of orc dead.Orc Turn 5It was all over but, at this stage, the orc player had received no victory points at all and he was determined to get some! The boars were out of it so it was down to the giant to do something. He finally got his act together, realised that his club had a purpose and smashed the repeater to bits.
High Elf Turn 5Unfortunately this is exactly what the elven archers and the other repeater, now at point-blank range, had been waiting for. They unleashed a storm of arrows and the giant crashed to the ground.
Thud!The result was a total victory for the High Elves - truly crushing. As they realised the scale of their achievement, the air trembled as the most enormous battle cry erupted from the whole elven army. This day was truly worthy of song.
Victory to the High Elves!
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. Convinced me to buy the helm box. I also tried the prince in 7 dp's (deployed wide) and an infantry bsb. Sheer mayhem ensued, but they did die faster.
Spearelves in the front for example 
