Age Old Rivalry
So last week I managed to make it out to our local game shop for their league night. As it happened, I managed to draw a Dark Elf opponent. Pretty fitting, I suppose
Here's my list:
Archmage, Level 4, Forliath's Robes, Talisman of Protection, Silver Wand, Lore of Life - 360
Mage, Level 2, Annullian Crystal - 175
Noble, Great Weapon, BSB, Armour of Caledor, Dawnstone - 168
35 x Spearmen, Full Command - 340
14 x Archers, Musician - 159
11 x Archers, Musician - 126
18 x White Lions, Standard, Banner of Sorcery - 332
14 x Swordmasters, Standard, Banner of Eternal Flame - 232
14 x Swordmasters, Musician - 218
5 x Dragon Princes - 150
Lion Chariot - 140
2x Great Eagles - 100
2500 points on the money
His List:
Supreme Sorceress, Level 4, Pendant of Khaeleth, Black Dragon Egg, Focus Familiar, Dark Magic - 360
Sorceress, Level 2, Lifetaker, Tome of Furion, Lore of Metal - 180
Sorceress, Level 2, Guiding Eye, Dispel Scroll - 185
Dreadlord, Chillblade, Cloak of Hag Graef, Dawnstone, Dark Steed, Heavy Armour, Shield - 267
Assassin, Additional Hand Weapon, Rune of Khaine, Touch of Death - 151
Assassin, Additional Hand Weapon, Rune of Khaine, Touch of Death - 151
35 x Dark Elf Warriors, Full command, Banner of Murder - 285
12 x Crossbowmen, Musician - 125
12 x Crossbowmen, Musician - 125
12 x Crossbowmen, Musician - 125
6 x Shades - 96
6 x Shades - 96
Hydra - 175
Repeater Bolt Thrower - 100
Total: 2421 -- wft???
But that's not the only wtf. Before the match, he looks at my army and says "How many points is that?"
Me: 2500. Why how many is yours?
Him: I haven't worked it out in a while, I'm pretty sure that it's 2250.
Me: Oh... well do you want to add a bit?
Him: No, it's no big deal
Me: Oh, well here, I'll take out my lion chariot, that should even things up a bit.
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.................
Also, his lord choices are illegal - he's got 627 points worth of lords in (what I can only assume should be) a 2400 point list. Having said that, he was a really good sport during the game, and a fun guy to play with, so I'll forgive him these transgressions.
Spells are:
Archmage: Throne of Vines, Dwellers, Flesh to Stone, Awakening the Wood and Shield of Thorns
Mage: Pha's Protection, Net of Amyntok
Supreme Sorceress: Chillwind, Bladewind, Soulstealer, Black Horror
Sorceress: Fireball, Burning Head
Sorceress: Final Transmutation, Plague of Rust, Searing Doom
Deployment:
Based on the size of his force, I know he's got shades, so once again I pay special attention to denying him scout deployments behind my deployment zone. Because of his relatively low number of units as well, I manage to fool him with a couple of dummy drops into placing two of his key shooting units on the far flank. So far so good! My forces go heavy right, and the game begins.
Turn 1
Dark Elves
His shooting blocks move up, and his Dreadlord makes a b-line right for my unit of archers.
Forgive me for my tracking of the magic phase this game - it was a league night game, so I wasn't able to write anything down in the interest of time. However, in his magic phase, I caught on pretty quickly that power of darkness *must* be dispelled to keep their phase under control, so typically it was him casting this with each of his sorceresses first, and me doing my best to keep it shut down.
In the first turn, though, he did manage to kill my eagle with chillwind.
In the shooting phase, he manages to put 2 wounds on my left eagle, kill the right one, take out 7 swordmasters and 2 archers. Owie.
High Elves
At this point I'm wishing for a Light archmage and not a Life based one. I opted for Life as I wanted to get another game under my belt with my most familiar setup after my period of inactivity, but I can see the benefit that a powered up timewarp would bring right now - Turn 2 charges would have been nice.
Nevertheless, the Dragon Princes charge the Shades on the left, and one falls to the stand and shoot charge reaction. The rest of the forces move up, trying to keep behind the woods for cover. The eagle with one wound flies to a spot that will force the enemy to at least move to kill him, or else devote the repeater to it.
Magic is a low roll, I believe this one was 7 v 3. I manage to get off pha's protection on the right most unit of swordmasters, and manage to get throne up as well.
Shooting sees me put a couple wounds on his unit of xbows before they get charged by the Dreadlord.
In Combat, out pops the first assassin, who promptly gets three lucky killing blows on my dragon princes. Luckily, the Dragon Princes attack at the same time, and put all their attacks on the shades. The combat resolution is enough, and the cowardly assassin runs off the board. What? Did you expect anything less?
Turn 2
Dark Elves
Dreadlord charges my archers, who stand and shoot. His cloak halves the strength of their shooting, so nothing gets through that and his 2+ rerollable save. His right most troops back up a bit to save them a charge from the approaching swordmasters.
Magic and shooting see him put the pain on me again. Much of his attention goes towards the full unit of 14 swordmasters in the forest - he announces his reroll item and pops off his shots. Despite their minus 2 to hit (Pha's and in the woods), he still manages to take out 4 of them. He gets a black horror off on my unit of spearmen, clearing out 14 of them, and he manages only one more wound on my diminished unit of swordmasters with chillwind. He also gets a plague of rust off on my white lions, who up to this point are unscathed.
In combat, the dreadlord wins combat by charging and killing 4 archers, but the archers are steadfast. I reform them to 5 wide to buy me a couple more turns on that flank.
High Elves
He's left me a corner of those shades in the visible range of my swordmasters, so they charge in - pha's protection is still in play, which helps them vs. the stand and shoot. They only lose one more. The rest of my army moves up as far as possible, with the other unit of swordmasters moving in to a spot to prevent easy access of the hydra to my spearmen. I also move up the unit of archers containing the mage, with the intention of doing an aura pha's protection.
Magic is a decent phase this time - 10 v 6 I think. I manage to get off an aura pha's protection, but it's just a hair shy of getting my swordmasters fighting the shades. I also get off a flesh to stone on the unengaged swordmasters (throne is still up) with a miscast (protected by throne). He shuts down the rest of my spells.
In combat, surprise! Another Assassin. This time he's less successful and takes down 2 swordmasters, who take out the rest of the shades in turn. Once again, the Assassin turns tail and runs, and the swordmasters reform to punish any aggressive hydra tactics.
Things are looking pretty decent for me at this point!
Turn 3
Dark Elves
This is where things get ugly. His two units on the right reform and start making their way towards the white lions. His hydra moves up towards my archers, and the supreme sorceress stays safely hidden behind the tower.
Magic and Shooting - of course, he gets boxcars for this, the most critical phase. Most of his spell attention goes on the spearmen. He manages to get a Black horror on them, and takes the unit down to just 10 models left. He puts some shots on the western-most swordmasters (Toughness 7), and manages to take one down. Most horrifically, his hydra breathes on my unit of archers, passing his pha's test, and hitting every archer in the unit, killing them to a man. The repeater bolt thrower then mows down the now lone mage.
Combat, his dreadlord finally takes breaks my archers, and pursues them off the board.
High Elves
This is the turn where the action needs to happen, I just hope I have enough troops left to make it happen. My flaming banner swordmasters can see the back of the hydra, so that matchup is obvious. My swordmasters are close enough to the xbowmen that he can't stand and shoot, so they charge in, as well as the spearmen. Finally, my white lions charge in to the warriors.
Another important magic phase; it pulls through for me, with 11 v 4 (!!!). "Here's where it all goes bad" he says to me with a laugh. With this many dice advantage, and throne still up (he didn't start dispelling it till after this turn >:D) I put up a flesh to stone on my White Lions (irresistable, miscast saved by throne), shield of thorns (irresistable again, saved again) and get a dwellers attempt on his supreme sorceress dispelled (picture is a bit off, she was in the forward arc).
Combat goes well for me - the swordmasters take down the hydra in one turn with their flaming attacks (he had it on a custom base, which led to more attacks for me). The spears and swordmasters took out all but 2 of the crossbowmen - only the swordmasters pursued. Finally, the lions killed 14 between them and shield, but some lucky wound rolls saw the warriors kill 4 lions in return. The warriors held on steadfast.
Turn 4
Dark Elves
His two units of crossbowmen make their way east in an attempt to get into position if the white lions manage to take out the warriors, and his Dreadlord returns to the field.
Luckily, he rolls a poor phase, 5 v 4, and a plague of rust results in a miscast, with his sorceress getting sucked into the void. The rest of his spells are dispelled.
In combat, his warriors continue to struggle vs. the T7 lions, but remain steadfast despite their growing casualties.
High Elves
My BSB moves to a spot that provides him hard cover, and no line of sight for the bolt thrower, but allows him line of sight to the sorceress. The swordmasters in the north reform and move up to prevent the sorceress from retreating, as well as threaten a flank charge, should the lions need assistance.
Magic, I manage to get all my buffs off again on the white lions, and he finally dispells throne with his remaining dice.
In combat, I issue a challenge versus the champion, and the lions take his warriors down to 3 models.
Turn 5
Dark Elves
His crossbowmen continue their march east, with one unit breaking north in case my unit should pursue the warriors behind the hill. His sorceress moves up, around the BSB and chows down her black dragon egg. He says to me:
"Do you know what that does?"
"Yeah, I know what it does"
"Pretty annoying little thing" he says chuckling
"Your whole army is annoying, what else is new?" I say, chuckling harder.
We both stop chuckling and stare off.
Ok, so I made that last line up. Would have been awesome though.
With two of his mages down, I only take one spell from his magic phase - a bladewind on the easternmost swordmasters, but some horrifically bad rolling sees him do only two wounds. His black dragon egg kills another 5 spearmen, leaving only 5 left, and his Repeater takes the northern swordmasters down to two models. Before his phase ends, I end the Shield of thorns.
My lions kill the remaining two warriors, but the champion and my ethereal archmage remain locked in stalemate combat. It passes its break test.
I'm now in a really tight spot. One volley of crossbow fire, or one wayward spell could potentially give up a lot of victory points.
High Elves
I intend to take full advantage of this situation shaping up in the center. I charge my swordmasters in as well - if the warrior breaks due to combat resolution, then at least both units will hopefully pursue behind the hill, blocking line of sight to the crossbows.
In my magic phase, I get Flesh to Stone up on the lions again.
His warrior manages to roll a 4 for his break test, leaving the units safely locked in combat for another round.
Turn 6
Dark Elves
Not much movement on this, his final turn. My +5 to dispel proves extremely useful, and he doesn't manage any spells this round. None of his shooting units have any valid targets due to cover or combat, so we move to my turn
High Elves
Now, I forgot to put this in the picture, but I'll explain it nonetheless. At the beginning of this turn, I make a pretty big scene about how I think my BSB can take his Dreadlord. I insinuate that I might have some tricks up my sleeve, inferring that flesh to stone makes him extremely resilient to the chillblade. He nods approvingly at my plan, and I charge in.
Magic rolls around. It's 7 v 4. I toss 3 dice at flesh to stone on the BSB, and he smiles as he throws his 4 dice to dispel it. I then smile as I throw my remaining 4 dice at a shield of thorns, which mows down his unit champion which had been locked in combat.
The Dreadlord puts a wound on my BSB, who doesn't wound him back, however the combat is a tie.
The results are:
Dark Elves:
2 x Assassins
2 x Units of Shades
1 x Unit of Crossbowmen
1 x Unit of Warriors
2 x Sorcereses
1 x Hydra
vs.
High Elves:
2 x Units of Archers
Mage
2 x Eagles
1 x Unit of Dragon Princes.
A major (and oh so close...) victory for the High Elves!