Second game saw me draw another Empire list. Although a completely different beast from last game, it still sported double STanks and Dwellers... Furthermore, it was in the very capable hands of the former French ETC Captain, Sylvain Jaber, who together with a number of friends had taken the trip to NM to provide us with some serious challenges.
.::. Battle Report - Norwegian Master`s #2 vs Empire (uncomped) .::.
Points Before the Game: 14/20
Lists:
Teclis, 450 points
Lothern Sea Helm: BSB, Reaver Bow, Shield of the Merwyrm, Ironcurse Icon, 170 points
Mage: Shadow, Forbidden Rod, 120 points
30 Archers, FCG, 330 points
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows (Swap), 85 points
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows (Swap), 85 points
36 White Lions, FCG, Banner of the World Dragon, 548 points
1 Repeater Bolt Thrower, 70 points
1 Repeater Bolt Thrower, 70 points
1 Repeater Bolt Thrower, 70 points
Total: 1998 points
Arch Lector, general, Fozzrik`s folding fortress 200
Wizard Lord, level 4, lore of life, obsidian lodestone, sceptre of stability 260
Captain, BSB, standard of dicipline 100
Wizard, level 1, lore of light, 65
Wizard, level 1, lore of light, dispel scroll 90
Wizard, level 1, lore of light, scroll of shielding 80
Wizard, level 2, lore of light, power stone 120
10 archers 70
10 archers 70
10 archers 70
10 archers 70
10 archers 70
25 handgunners, musician 235
Steam Tank 250
Steam Tank 250
Total: 2000
Pre-battle thoughts and deployment:
Upon seeing this list, the one important thing to realize is that my list cannot push here. Very few lists can push here, the list is deceptively hard to grab any points whatsoever from. With the Folding Fortress and a number of Skirmishing units backed up by 2 Steam Tanks, pushing is basically a nightmare if anything goes wrong. With Life-support for the STanks, Dwellers and 5 levels of Light magic, you basically cannot do this. Fighting this list essentially boils down to trading small points and taking opportunities that might present themselves. Luckily for me, Teclis is perfectly suited to doing just this.
The thing is though that he will *always* get off Dwellers first here. He can basically slingshot the wizard out ~15" with ease, maybe even 20" or so, without setting up anything and risking anything. To do this, he basically just deploys at the very backfield and congalines one unit of Archers towards the middle of the table. This means I have to bide my time and see if my magic can accomplish anything, if I push too early there´s too much risk involved: 2 STanks can try their luck against Teclis` LoS endlessly and if I go down to Dwellers, the STanks can counter-push for a 20-0.
Anyway, let`s get into the game. I picked Sun, Comet, Dwellers and Searing Doom. The latter should probably have been Final Transmutation for added pressure. From fire, I took Flaming Sword of Rhuin. Basically I feel he has to stop Comet all the time and Flaming Sword ensures my Archers can really put the hurt on him, plus it doubly powerful vs the Folding Fortress as it basically negates the effects of hard cover.
The following pictures show the deployment and first turn:
Despite my +1, he went first. I think this is fine for me, as it increases my chances of doing wacky stuff late game and this will be slow anyways. He gets IF Banishment and kills an RBT. For his efforts, his L2 loses both levels, so the Banishment threat is gone. In my turn he dispels Comet and I rain Flaming Arrows on the Folding Fortress. Reavers move to safety.
As predicted his characters hang out at the back field with Skirmishers all over the place further up for all manner of shenanigans. I place my Lions and Archers to counter any aggression for him and I`m content with playing for the small points as a push is impossible. I place the Lions so that I can go into the house if needed.
Probably the most boring turn of the tournament, as you can tell from the pictures above nothing major happened. Or did it? In my T3, he burnt his scroll on a very high cast of comet. This is an interesting turn of events as I can suddenly put pressure on him: With the Scroll out he`s down to IF luck to have an advantage in the Dwellers duel. As such, he decides to go for the Life Wizard slingshot and get the first cast:
So the conga comes out and the Life wizard predictably jumps in. His Winds are low however and he fails to meet the casting value. I repay the favour after moving the Lions into the house and although a LOT of Archers die, the Wizard survives (I cannot seem to kill enemy wizards with Dwellers!). My shooting leaves me with some sense of hope, my Archers score a lot of hits on them and he has to allocate 2 on the wizard, who had already taken a wound from a miscast. I pray, but am not lucky enough as only 1 of them wound. I then proceed to fire upon the single 1W Wizard with 5 Reavers, managing 1 hit... LoS! fails... and I wound!! The push is real!
He immediately retreats to reduce my odds of catching anything important.
Retarded building rules allow me to slingshot Lions WAY into his area. I get off Dwellers on his bunker with an L1 Wizard, BSB and Arch Lector, but only the L1 goes down. He passes panic.
He retreats with everything and tries to stank-snipe Teclis. I pass Look Out, Sir! and we go into my last phase of the game.
Teclis sets up so that a 4+ will hit one stank, 6+ will hit both STanks (artillery dice, purple sun). I roll big for winds and start off with Miasma from my support wizard on the first STank. He lets it through and it`s now I1. I`m getting a decent cast of Purple Sun and with Teclis` +5 to cast and him only having +1 to dispel, he`s basically looking for double 6`s to stop the spell, which he annoyingly gets. With +500 VP (both Stanks, not too unlikely) this would be a healthy win for me, as it turned out it was just an
11-9 victory for the High Elves with me being just ~280 or so VP ahead.
Evaluation
A highly tactical game with little action where it was all about reducing risk, putting pressure on your opponent and playing for the counter-moves (e.g. setting up Archers to deny him an advance, him spreading out skirmishers to bounce around like crazy). I cast a ton of spells on 2-3D6 on Teclis, avoiding miscast risks as much as I could. I am having trouble understanding why he chose such a list for solo play, because in my opinion skilled players should realize that you simply cannot push against this. Clearly, I am wrong (he got 84 battle points and with him having only 9 against me, this is saying something about how hard the pushes he faced failed later on) and he ended up getting a great placement in the end. What I don`t understand is why people even try and push, but I can of course empathise with trying your best to get points, even if the chances of such a push going well are slim. No doubt, Sylvain is a skilled player as well, which is of course a big deal when playing an army like this
Final Transmutation would possibly have allowed me to put some pressure on him and Searing Doom`s limited range meant I could never use it anyway, so not picking this was a mistake that I learned from. The rest of the spells were fine, with Net of Amyntok usually forcing him into prioritizing it vs Comet, with Savage Beast as a wild card in a Dwellers duel.
I think his timing was a bit off with the Dwellers gambit. I don`t see why he`d do it -after- his scroll is gone. I would either wait another turn (possibly forcing me to chill for a bit longer) or go earlier, if trying for a big win. The way I see it, he basically risked a 20-0 loss with his timing: I got Dwellers through on his bunker and only luck saved him losing big points here (true, I`d have to be lucky to get all the major characters but it can happen, furthermore the lack of BSB/general would make a big difference in LD tests in such a tight formation). Also, the T6 Purple Sun could also have taken loads of points and with a big phase I could`ve gone Dwellers here as well. Anyway, the gambit didn`t pay off but he walked away with a very small loss, given the circumstances.
I asked my opponent specifically about his choice of army for a singles event as its completely inability to push makes it very vulnerable to opponents refusing to fight or simply outranging him (though I suppose the latter are uncommon). By vulnerable, I don`t mean that it`ll lose big, but that it`ll be unable to grab big points. He basically said that this is his preferred playstyle as he despises losing more than he enjoys winning. A somewhat odd attitude to have for a singles event in my opinion, but it definitely worked out well for him
I think the deceptive nature of his list works in his favour here because semi-experienced opponents can often be lured by the apparent weakness of the Archers and push, which is of course a terrible idea. A more obvious list that you cannot touch, Teclis and 36 White Lions for a completely random comparison, is easier to understand that you can`t touch and thus let be alone.
To have the French people come and boost the average skill level was in my opinion a great addition to NM as it made for a lot of tough enemies to face and some different army ideas around than what we´re used to seeing. I felt lucky to meet one of them and despite the static nature of the game we had, it was an interesting encounter. Sylvain, if you`re reading this, thanks for a good game
Opponent`s Final Placing: 2/58
My Points: 25/40