Battle Report - 2506 High Elves vs 2750 EmpireSpellsFor his shadow Wizard Lord, my opponent rolled Miasma, Pendulum, Pit of Shades, Mindrazor. On the Lvl 2 he got Spirit Leech and Doom and Darkness.
Edit: The Wizard Lord actually had a Destroy Scroll (or whatever the equivalent is), not the Rod of Power.
I didn't even roll for metal magic- just chose Searing Doom on my level 1, Acheron. Lecalion did very nicely: he rolled Throne, Stone, Regrowth and Dwellers, but swapped Dwellers out for Earth Blood (there were no massive infantry units and I wanted the healing on the spears).
The BoardIn placing terrain, I'd again been a little more ruthless than usual by deploying both woods almost directly infront of the only hill we'd managed to roll. If my opponent wanted the hill, he'd have to make do with a drastically reduced arc of fire. He won the roll to choose sides and took the other side, which had a burning barricade, an earthblood mere (the rocky patch of terrain) and a building.
The scenario we rolled was Dawn Attack: my opponent got to set up first and, in the end, I wasn't able to roll the required 6 to steal the first turn.
Deployment
My opponent wanted his handgunners deployed in the centre, but he came aground of the scenario and two of the three units had to be deployed on his left flank. All the knights got to deploy centrally, however, so my opponent ended up with an okayish setup where he had a solid fighting core flanked by guns. To get the best of the flanking gunners, however, he'd have to move them up sharpish to get into a good firing position, and hope that I wanted to play
Charge of the Light Brigade.
Since my list didn't much rely on rigid deployment, I felt more comfortable with the scenario. In the end, a couple of units were a little out of it- the white lions and the green archers out on my right flank, but the rest of my army managed to build a pretty good formation and, with it, a pretty good plan. Ahead of Seredain's knights lay the Wizard Lord's handgunners, a mortar and a unit of 5 knights (disguised as Kislev horse- every empire cavalry trooper wields a great weapon regardless of appearances). Riding alongside were the dragon princes and the chariot, with both eagles to the left ready to leap upon the Empire guns. I would use this strike force to hammer this soft part of the empire army and annihilate the greater part of its magic phase by killing the Wizard Lord. To the right of my strike force, my infantry- spears, swordmasters and white lions- would occupy the big knight blocks to prevent them flanking my fast attack until it was ready to deal with them. Magical assistance would be needed here; either defensive or destructive. With his troops fast assembling in the morning light and the plan hastily passed to his commanders, the High Elf prince gestured and sounded the advance.
Empire Left Flank
Empire Centre(two cannons are deployed to the left of the picture on the Empire right flank)
High Elf Right Flank
High Elf Centre and LeftEmpire Turn 1Before the elf army could surge into the field the Empire guns opened up. The human army had held its position with every unit, pausing only to befuddle the spearelves with
Miasma and scare the swordmasters with
Doom and Darkness (which I failed to dispel), before the cannons let rip. The humans were clearly blinking in the morning sun, however, since their artillery did not perform well. One cannon overshot its target (the silver helms) and the other misfired (though not fatally). The mortars faired little better: one misfired (aha!) and had to have its fuse reset; one merely pinged the swordmasters with its shot, killing one (a second elf actually managed to roll a 6 to save), while the third, having managed to hit 2 silver helms with a scattering shot, saw the well-armoured cataphracts shrug off the fire and come on in good order. A good start for the elves.
High Elves Turn 1The knights, eagles and chariot came on at a quick pace, with the DPs riding up to the wall ahead of them to take cover from the next round of cannon fire (they had to hop over the wall anyway- I may as well use it). The eagles, partly to make themselves more attractive targets, went further forward to provide sure-fire charges against the cannons next turn. The infantry, to the right, came on quickly too but naturally (since they were slower), hung back from the line of advance drawn by the cavalry. The white lions wheeled left and moved into the nearby (and ordinary) wood, to both provide assistance to the swordmasters and to take cover from all the handgunners. To their left marched Acheron, who came far into the wood to bring himself within range of Kurt Helborg's knights...
I drew 7 power dice from the winds of magic (6 + 1 for Acheron's jewel), against my opponent's 3 dispel dice, and immediately threw 6 of them at a 20+
Searing Doom aimed against the Empire general's knights. The spell went off irresistibly and absolutely blasted them apart: eight knights exploded in a matter of seconds. Ahahaha! Acheron lost a wizard level and gained a massive headache, but I figured it was worth it. With my single remaining dice, Lecalion casually dispelled
Doom and Darkness.
BOOM!Arrows filled the air alongside all the cheers and fell hard among their targets. The blue archers took out 3 handgunners (fine), but it was the green archers on the right flank who really excelled themselves. In only one volley they killed the nearest mortar outright. Haha! Even better, the nearby handgunner unit totally bricked it and fled off the table, carrying their level 2 wizard with them. Leadership 7 blows, eh?
See that handgunner unit next to the mortar-shaped gap? They're about to run away. Well done, boys.
End of Turn 1
Empire Turn 2The remaining empire knights largely advanced toward my infantry centre, with the remaining large unit coming to with 11" of my white lions and 12" of the swordmasters. Even this advance saw another small disaster when the white wolves tried to hop over the burning barricade and lost three of their number! The hand gunners all stood their ground and readied their firearms. On the Empire right flank, the unit of 5 knights tried to protect their wizard lord and his handgunner companions by advancing infront of them. A mistake from my opponent, here: he may have prevented my silver helms from charging straight into the WL handgunners, but he'd angled the knights in such a way that, if I managed to kill them all, I could simply overrun into the handgunners instead. I intended to do just that.
Magic. A decent chunk of dice saw my opponent try and throw Miasma on the silver helms (dispelled- I presumed he was looking to follow up with the pit or the pendulum) and then successfully throw
Mindrazor up on the WL handgunners. At least now they could fight if they had to.
Shooting. One cannon did well and killed four swordmasters, the other sucked and hit, but failed to wound, the chariot. Arf. The two remaining mortars also managed wildly differing outcomes: the first simply exploded (nice), but the second blasted a hole in the spearelf column, killing nine of them. Lecalion, still practicing how to cast Earth Blood, looked shifty. Meanwhile, a panicked volley from the WL handgunners couldn't get past the silver helms' armour with the one or two successful hits they made.
High Elves Turn 2The two eagles both charged a cannon each and the dragon princes, chariot and silver helms thundered into the nearby knights- the princes vaulting effortlessly over the stone wall before them. Except for one, who fell off his horse. Rather than risk a successful redirect into his handgunners, my opponent chose to hold with his cavalry and hope for the best. In the centre of the field, I figured I'd try and seize the initiative by charging both the white lions and the swordmasters out at the big knight block. Both made it in- huzzah! In other movement, Lecalion exited the spears rather than face Kurt's magical sword- hopefully a mortar would try and shoot him.
Charge!Magic. I didn't get many dice- 3 rolled +1 to my opponent's 2 dispel dice. First I went for
Throne of Vines on 2 dice, only for my opponent to successfully wipe it from Lecalion's mind with his destroy scroll. No matter-
Flesh to Stone went up on the white lions and made them a bit harder to kill.
Shooting. Not much doing: the green archers pinged two or three handgunners on my right flank while the blue archers, distracted by all the action taking place in front of them, didn't wound a thing.
Combat! Unsurprisingly, Seredain, Caradath and their companions demolished their enemy and overran toward the waiting, now startled, handgunners. The princes and chariot made it in but the silver helms, annoyingly, were short by only 1". In the centre, the swordmasters and white lions truly showed their quality and absolutely went to town on the captain's knight block, cutting down seven of them. 3 swordmasters and 1 white lion were killed in reply- not enough- but the knights managed to hold on a 2nd break test roll of 3. Damn.
Empire Turn 3Things were beginning to unravel pretty quickly for Kurt Helborg. The elves had surged forward, more or less unharmed, and were now cutting his army to pieces. Unfortunately, since both the swordmasters and silver helms were both out of his charge arc (tee hee), he had little choice but to charge the spearelves. They held and prepared to do their steadfast work. The two remaining white wolf knights, seeing their brothers in urgent need of assistance, charged the white lions.
The badly damaged Empire units launch their counter-attack.In the magic phase, my opponent got miasma up on the spearelves (for only 1 point of effect- fine), but couldn't get Mindrazor up on the handguns again because I scrolled it.
In the shooting phase, the flanking handgunners put a few kills on the green archers, who passed their panic check. The last mortar, meanwhile, took the bait and aimed a shot at Lecalion, who looked up to the sky and spread his arms wide, only for the shot to land some inches away. His robe remained incognito.
Combat saw the chariot and one dragon prince in base contact put a few kills on the handgunners, though none (annoyingly) on the Wizard Lord, who made all the ward saves he was required to take. Bastard. The handgunners held on their steadfast leadership and prepared to fight on, even with the elven lord and his bodyguard bearing down on them... To my right, the elites continued their fine work: killing all the remaining knights (blue and red variety), and leaving only the captain left. He fled and, while their brother lions reformed to face the flank of Helborg's knights, the fleet-footed swordmasters chased him down and cut off his head. While all this was going on, the spearelves were doing their bit and struggling to hold Kurt at bay. They lost several of their number to the Empire characters, but there was no question of their letting the humans escape and they firmly held their ground.
High Elves Turn 3Time to close the noose. The white lions charged Kurt Helborg in the flank and the silver helms finally thundered into the handgunners. The swordmasters hurried to the nearby mortar to put it out of action before the smelly weapon blew itself up and did them some harm.
Magic and shooting were both duds- I got very little power and managed to do nothing with it, then I managed to shoot not very much with the green archers. No biggie.
Combat; and my cavalry wing brutally demolished the handgunners- killing them to a man. The princes and chariot ran over the Wizard Lord, while Seredain and his companions reformed to face the combat raging in the centre...
The spears skewered a knight but were again subjected to a serious level of pain, even as the white lions tried to unhorse the furious Empire general. One landed a good blow and took a wound, but Kurt made 2 successful saves to preserve his mortal life for the time being. The combat raged on. The swordmasters effortlessly dispatched the mortar crew and started wiping their blades clean- their work seemed done for one day.
I admit, things are looking pretty good.Empire Turn 4The humans could find nothing to do other than struggle on. The last unit of handgunners shot a couple more archers. In combat, the spearelves brought down their last knight- to much rejoicing- and the white lions, finally getting their act together, cleaved the head off Kurt Helborg's horse then dragged him to the ground and, cleanly, severed his head and limbs.
High Elves Turn 4Seredain and his knights rode up to last remaining Empire horseman- a captain desperately clinging on to his shattered army's banner. As they closed, Lecalion got to work casting regrowth on the depleted swordmaster unit.
The elf lord issued his challenge, as was the brave man's due, then cut him down. The army reformed to face their last target- the unit of handgunners cowering in the far corner of the field.
The elf commander makes a mental note to re-glue Seredain to his horse.The remainder of the battle can be best described in photographs:
A colossal volley from the Empire gunners is not enough to save them.
The enemy army is tabled, for the loss of no elf units.Victory to the High Elves!
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