Another game for the Deathtrain, this time against Bretonnia. I know this army as very strong in capable hands, with double trebuchets, double scrolls and units that are hard to take points from so I was eager to play this matchup.
.::. Battle Report - 2400 vs Bretonnia (ETC comp) .::. Death Archmage L4 Steed, Power Stone, Crown of Command, Dragonbane Gem = 300
Prince on Barded Steed, Giant Blade, Dragon Armour, Dawnstone, Enchanted Shield, Ironcurse Icon = 282
Lords = 582
Noble BSB on Barded Steed, BOTWD, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance = 172
Noble on Barded Steed, Heavy Armour, Shield, Ogre Blade, Dragonhelm = 141
Noble on Barded Steed, Heavy Armour, Shield, Luckstone, The Other Trickster`s Shard, Sword of Anti-Heroes = 141
High Mage Steed, Dispel Scroll, Ring of Fury = 145
Heroes = 599
18 Silver Helms, Full Command, Shields = 444
5 Reavers, bows = 85
5 Reavers, bows = 85
Core = 614
5 Shadow Warriors, Champion = 80
1 Frostheart Phoenix = 240
4 Repeater Bolt Throwers = 280
Special & Rare = 600
Army Total = 2395
His list:
Lord on Peg with 2+ re-rollable, ASF Sword, Fireward, HKB
L4 on Steed, Heavens, Silver Mirror MR2
BSB 1+ re-rollable
L1 on Steed, Beasts, Scroll
2 lances of Realmknights
3x3 Pegknights
1 unit of Grailknights
2 mandatory trebuchets
// Pre-battle thoughts and deployment //The main problem going into this game is my inability to point the bus at something meaningful, combined with the no-fly item denying my phoenix anything even resembling a threat projection against hus busses and lastly, death magic being largely inefficient here with his MR.
The map was also weird with a central lake and wall greatly limiting my options. He had many more drops than me so he could avoid committing until my bus was down, so I put it where I could advance fairly safe with blocking at least one treb for a turn and maybe get control of that part of the map. This meant he got a refused flank but there was little I could do about it.
Spells saw me grab Spirit Leech, Caress, Soulblight and Purple Fun. He took Iceshard, Convergence, Curse of the Midnight Wind and Thunderbolt. L1s took Apotheosis and Wyssan`s.
With him praying, I went first.
// HE T1 //Frostheart moves up towards his blocks. He reminds me of the item because he doesn`t want to get such a huge advantage from such a stupid mistake (let`s be honest: how often do we face Bretonnians?) so I put it behind the hill instead. Hopefully won`t make that mistake again, but I would`ve remembered it better if he had let me pay for it.
Bus moved up centrally with the Peg Knights in their front arc. They denied me an approach to the trebuchet in the corner so I was hoping Spirit Leech and/or Soulblight would help me clear them out. Magic however saw him dispel ring of fury and I followed up with not meeting the cast value on a 3D6 Spirit Leech (95% to go through).
Shooting saw 2 RBTs try flank shots on his Pegs: Skirmishers are FAQed to only counting as not having ranks in combat so a bolt would penetrate. Both missed. The other 2 didn`t do much either, can`t remember what I shot at. Reavers and Shadow Warriors also didn`t do much.
// BR T1 //He moves the lances up. Pegknights on the right keep on protecting the treb, zoning my SWs out. Magic is lacklustre, he gets Iceshard on my bus and I dispel Thunderbolt on Reavers.
Shooting saw 1 treb try an indirect shot on the Helms. He missed, barely. The other landed a hit but misfired, no ill effect.
Forgot to take a picture, sorry!// HE T2 //With his speed I can`t keep chasing his treb + pegknights, so my bus swings centrally instead. I take care to force one lance to need 10+ to charge, making a double-charge unlikely to hit home. Phoenix realizes it has to stay far away from the busses so it moves up to help in treb duty. Magic sees my L4 fail to cast boosted Caress on 4D6. I then IF apotheosis, miscast contained by BOTWD.
Shooting is way better this time around, I think I obliterated an entire unit of Pegknights with the RBTs, even the SWs contributed.
// BR T2 //RBT charges incoming. Busses split up: one reforms and moves away from me, the other moves towards RBTs for more charges. Magic however is truly disastrous for him: he miscasts and loses enough models to force a panic test, which he fails. He then runs towards me because of the Western units, in his own turn. This is really bad because he doesn`t get to do anything about my movement next turn and the best he can hope for is to keep fleeing or something to get out of my charge arc.
Oh and the Grail Knights pretty much spent the entire game trying to keep my Western reavers at bay. With flaming, magical attacks (they had BOEF) they are quite useless in this matchup.
Trebs did some damage to Helms, but Apotheosis granted me a 6++ which I duly thanked for by passing 4/5 6++ saves against one of the hits, preventing disaster.
// HE T3 //Western Reavers finally get around the GK and move 1" away from the treb, making it impossible for him to reform and protect it. Bus moves up to give his L4 bus problems next turn. Phoenix moves past Pegknights to charge Treb next turn.
Magic, Archmage this time miscasts on Spirit Leech going for his treb. I lose 2 levels, along with it Spirit Leech and Soulblight. Adding insult to injury I roll a `1` for the SL result, he rolls a 3 so no effect. Shooting does nothing almost as the RBTs are being compromised and I`m lacking good targets.
// BR T3 //Lord charges out at an RBT. Bus rallies. Lone mage barely has enough movement to block my Helms. Incredibly stupid mistake and adding insult to injury, my Prince is on that corner so I cannot charge him past either. Magic can`t remember, can`t have been significant. Shooting sees his last treb shots kill 4 Helms or so.
// HE T4 //One Noble (Sword of Anti-Heroes dude) has a charge past his mage and takes it. I have to lock him down. Reavers rear-charge the mage. Frosty charges treb. SWs are boxed in, so I move them in front of the impassable. This gives my Phoenix a possible charge on his Pegknights if he wants to kill me. Magic sees Archmage IF Purple Sun. I hit 3 Helms, but nearly all of his remaining knights in the L4 bunker as well (only 1 was out of its way). I pass 2 out of 3 tests, however he passes ALL of his (on I3!).
In combat the Sword of Anti-Heroes dude gets bogged down by a champion. I fail to hurt him but hold regardless. I reform to have my flank vs his, which denies him a combat reform to face my front, unless he goes super-wide (he has 3 models in contact with me of which 2 are non-command models, to keep this he needs to go 6 wide with a reform for it to be legal).
Reavers killed the L1. Frostie killed Treb and reformed towards SWs. Other Reavers killed last Treb.
// BR T4 //Pegknights charge RBT and SWs. Magic is contained with my scroll. Combat sees my Noble lose big (again I deal no wounds) but I hold because of BSB + LD10.
// HE T5 //Bus charges his cav behind the Noble. He declares no-fly so Phoenix doesn`t reach the Pegknights who beat my SWs. Magic is more miscasts, more contained by BOTWD. At this point I have next to no spells left.
In combat the Helms kill enough cav to disconnect from combat. This is very awkward as he still has 3 left and is thus steadfast. He holds and I can`t reform meaningfully, nor can I see anything if more stuff dies.
// BR T5 //The Reavers who blocked for the Noble elect to flee. Other Reavers flee as well, but roll high and are off the table. Pegknights move away from frostheart. He directs his second bus (with BSB) into my Noble instead. Magic - can`t remember. In combat I lose big, but kill the champ (with BSB in base contact I now get +1A, +1S) and barely hold.
// HE T6 //I reform Helms to face him. I have the bound ring left along with Apotheosis. He lets me have the ring on the pegs but I roll low and deal no wounds. Apotheosis on the Noble goes off with IF, again it`s contained. He passes both fear tests though and despite being S6 A5 due to L4 being in base contact as well now, I can`t hurt his BSB. I lose, but hold.
In his last turn of the game he gets Curse on my Noble. Again I fail to hurt his BSB. This time however I fail my breaktest and he runs me down.
Counting up VPs I have lost surprisingly little, somewhere in the vicinity of 600 points. He "only" gets my RBTs, 1 unit of reavers, Shadow Warriors and a Noble. I get a bus, both trebs, one unit of pegknights and his L1. I`m thus ~200 points ahead, which is an
11-9 victory to the High Elves!// Evaluation //This was a very enjoyable game, highly challenging with lots of clutch moments. The pictures are unfortunately too bad to convey a lot of what was going on, but I hope you get the big picture anyway.
There`s lots to analyze here, but I don`t have time now so I`ll revisit this later. In the meantime, feel free to drop your own analysis here
EDIT: analysis now up here -
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=45081&p=881137#p881137
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