The Norwegian ETC team had its first meeting today and as such I wasn´t really intending to go to the club to play, but when offered to face a new challenge it´s hard to resist throwing around some dice. Thus it was that I found myself playing Wood Elves, a dreaded list with lots of counters to my Elves. As my opponent is preparing for a tournament abroad (London Calling I believe), I scaled my list up a little bit and we played no-comp (although with SLoS, a small compromise). Read on to see how this encounter played out!
.::. Battle Report - 2500 vs Wood Elves (uncomped) .::.
Lists:
Prince on Star Dragon: General, Dragonhelm, Star Lance, Golden Crown of Atrazar, The Other Trickster`s Shard, Shield, 598 (+heavy armour +lion cloak)
Noble on Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed: Battle Standard Bearer, Banner of the World Dragon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance, 172 (+dragon armour)
Noble on Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed: Enchanted Shield, Heavy Armour, Ogre Blade, 134 (+dragon armour)
Mage on Elven Steed: Level 2, Lore of High Magic, Dispel Scroll, 155
Mage on Elven Steed: Level 2, Lore of High Magic, Ironcurse Icon, 135
17 Silver Helms: FCG, Shields, 421 (+1 Helm)
5 Ellyrian Reavers: Champion, Bows (Swap), 95
5 Silver Helms: Champion, Musician, Shields, 135 (-musician)
3x 1 Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower: 3x 70 (+1 ECBT)
Frostheart Phoenix: 240
2x 1 Great Eagle: 2x 50
Army Total = 2395 (+100 ish)
Level 4 Highsinger, General, Lodestone, Dispel Scroll
Level 4 Shadowsinger, Moonstone, Power Stone
BSB, HoDA
3x Waystalkers
1x Waystalker, Bow of Loren
11 Glade Guard, Hagbane
15 Glade Guard, Trueflight
12 Glade Guard, Trueflight
5 Scouts, Trueflight
6 Wild Riders, Musician, Standard with Gleaming Pennant
6 Wild Riders, Musician, Standard with Eternal Flame
9 Waywatchers
2x 1 Great Eagle
2500 points
Pre-Battle Thoughts
With 8 drops each, getting +1 for first turn would be a big deal. I managed to grab this, but he picked a side which already had 2 woods, giving him 3 in total. This is pretty hard to push against considering he has the moonstone, but not pushing is not an option here. Thus I committed the bus in a central position with the majority of its footprint in cover from a hill. The Star Dragon and Frostheart both hid behind the same hill. He split his army in two, most of the elements in front of me. I took care to put my bus so that I would be able to walk up to an obstacle T1. This would force his characters (and waystalkers) to moonstone away to be safe, hopefully preserving my own heroes.
For spells, he got Hand, Walk, Arcane and Drain along with Miasma, Enfeebling, Withering, Pit. I grabbed hand, fiery (had to keep it to ensure better selection on the 2nd mage, otherwise I´d prefer soul quench) and apotheosis, walk for the 2nd mage.
The following pictures show the deployment and early game:
As it were, I didn´t get first turn so he seized the initiative and blew my BSB right away with his Waystalkers. This was a big blow because it allowed his core Archers to put some pressure on my bus T1. He also reduced the bus´ M by 2, meaning I wouldn´t be able to reach the obstacle T1. I pushed up hard regardless, intent on putting some pressure on him as well. I lost 2 RBTs before I had even moved, so my ability to hurt him at a distance was mediocre. Furthermore my magic phase gave me big winds, but I had to try and stretch the dice which meant my first cast (5D6 Fiery Convocation, ~70% chance of success) failed, enabling him to contain the rest of my phase. Thus, while my T1 put some pressure on him, it failed to do much else. At the very least I panicked his Trueflight Archers on the East.
His characters formed a unit and moonstone´d away. The rest were caught, however. He pinned the bus down with an Eagle and killed off the Dispel Scroll mage with his remaining 2 Waystalkers (placed in the middle with his Archers there). He also barely blew away my small Helms, relieving his Scouts from some of the pressure.
In my turn the Phoenix charged the Waywalkers, needing 9+ and rolling three 1´s. They passed their terror test so I was stuck. One of my Eagles charged his Eagle in the flank, the other his Scouts in the flank. Bus reformed and moved away from his central unit. Shooting did little, magic was scrolled. Scouts broke in combat, down to a single man I restrained. The Eagle-Eagle combat kept going.
He kept his characters away and I couldn´t touch his central Archers, so the rest of the game was me mopping up the corner and him sniping away as much as he could. I managed to dispel withering in a crucial turn and he cleaned up the last 2 characters, but failed to kill half the Helms.
Counting up points, he was a little over 300 ahead, an
8-12 loss for the High Elves.
// Evaluation //
After the game we discussed what High Elves can do here. While losing first turn is big, it happens frequently and can´t be counted on. With the speed and sheer amount of resilience in my army, pushing through should be feasible.
The problem in this game was that I was unable to put pressure on the center of his deployment zone, enabling him to wheel the big unit of Trueflight Archers around and pound the bus relentlessly. Basically, the Dragon could´ve zoned the Wild Riders (which I was intending for the Frostheart to do seeing as they are devastating to Helms) which would´ve left the Frostheart free to do other work. An issue with sending it to the center though is its vulnerability to Shadow: Both Pit and Withering can easily see it killed in a single turn. I´m still not decided as to whether I believe this can be done or not, but I know for sure that applying pressure on the center is crucial to gaining an upper hand in this matchup.
Waystalkers are absolutely brutal for us Elves. The only way we can really control them is by forcing them away from our important units. Sure, he´ll eventually kill off all of my heroes, but if I can force him to risk his own characters in doing so, it might just be worth it. Without all the power this list has available though, I´m not sure how they can effectively be handled by High Elves.