Sheffield Slaughter, my biggest event with a triple-digit amount of players. For a Norwegian, that's rare. The only event I've been to that's been as big was the Swedish Championship last year (Norwegian Championship comes close-ish as well).
.::. Battle Report - Sheffield Slaughter #1 vs Host of the Eternity King (Russ Veal) .::.
Points Before the Game: 0/0
Lists:
Imrik, Crown Prince of Caledor: 810
Archmage on Elven Steed: Level 4, Lore of Metal, Dispel Scroll, 265
Noble on Barded Elven Steed: Battle Standard Bearer, Banner of the World Dragon, Spear, Shield, Heavy Armour, 168
Noble on Barded Elven Steed: Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield, Spear, Crown of Command, 131
Master on Dark Pegasus: Cloak of Twilight, Lance, Heavy Armour, Shield, Sea Dragon Cloak, 188
16 Silver Helms: Full Command Group, Shields, 398
10 Glade Guards: Hagbane Tips, Musician, 160
5 Deepwood Scouts: Hagbane Tips, 80
Army Total: 2200
Malekith the Eternity King (K) 1000
Noble (HE): Battle standard Bearer; Banner of the World Dragon; Heavy Armour, Shield 151
Mage (HE): Level 2 (High Magic); Ring of Fury; Dispel Scroll 170
Master (DE): Dark Pegasus; Cloak of Twilight; Sea Dragon Cloak; Shield; Lance; Heavy Armour 188
29 Dark shards (DE): Shields; Scarecrow Banner; Full Command 412
12 Witch Elves (DE): Standard Bearer, Banner of Eternal Flame 152
5 Doomfire Warlocks (DE) 125
2,198 points
Pre-battle thoughts and deployment:
Taking an L4 metal was largely due to cases like this: Malekith. In this meta, armour is the name of the game and few counters it as well as Metal. Furthermore Final Trans is a "ok let's just try" counter if I am completely out of options or get a ton of power dice.
The main problem here are the Darkshards. If he manages to establish a position where he can just keep spamming soulblight and withering and then let loose with shards, I'm kind of in a tough spot. I need to keep the game dynamic, create openings and zone his Darkshards while keeping the pressure up on Malekith. Easier said than done.
For spells I roll two doubles, blades and hounds. I want them both and end up taking Searing Doom + Glittering Robes. Skipping Final Trans might have been a mistake as it'll make a big dent in the Darkshards early on, but my thinking was that in a big phase I'd rather cast robes on Helms (doubling their survivability vs Darkshards in effect), Hounds + big Doom.
Deployment saw me get off square against Malekith. With my very low drop count I had +1 and managed to take T1.
:: Turn 1 ::
I move up to 22" from Malekith (mage 24" away in rank 2). I move the cloak away from the central building to block the most obvious path of his Darkshards: If he wants the central building I can keep out a lot easier because in that case he can't boost them 20" with Malekith.
I follow up with the Archers getting in range and the scouts moving up. Magic sees me put 6W on Malekith with IF Searing Doom, another 1W from Hagbane Tips brings him down to 3W. Game on!
In return his Darkshards take the central position I anticipated him to grab should he not go for the tower. His magic does nothing I believe, though I can't remember how that happened. He reveals a mistake I've made as his cloak peg manages to escape my cloak peg's Line of Sight just barely. Sloppy on my part. Shooting kills a couple of Helms.
:: Turn 2 ::
I reform the bus, back up, get Malekith within my sights again at a fair distance and move Imrik to the flank to threaten his Darkshards moving in too close. His Cloak peg will be a pain, but fleeing/zoning with my own will (hopefully) keep him in check. I'm trying to move the Archers to threaten Malekith if he wants to keep his "stone cover" in my T3 and the Scouts move up.
Magic is miserable, I roll up 5PD and know the odds very well: 70% to cast Searing Doom. While an IF would be nice as I'll likely kill him, it's just a bonus and even just drawing the scroll is good. I fail to cast however. Shooting sees 1 Scout poison him but he saves hit on the armour.
He responds by giving me a plethora of choices: Malekith moves close to the rock so that my bus is 18" away, Darkshards position 18" from imrik and the Cloak Peg goes far away to keep threatening my scouts + archers. This time he unforges my BOTWD and I have to think for a long while: It's a huge cast so I need to scroll it if I want to deal with it. Without the Banner Malekith will chew through the bus, but I have a few options here. I decide against it and let him have it. The banner goes away. His Darkshards kill 5 Glade Guards, I pass panic.
:: Turn 3 ::
3 choices: Charge Imrik into Darkshards. He has positioned Malekith to counter-charge, but has forgotten one very important thing - if I combat reform to give him my flank he can't see me. If he flees, I can take the Witchelves. Number 2: Send the bus into Malekith. It's a 50-50 charge and if I reach him, I can pin him down for Imrik. I can't tell 100% what distance Imrik will have to him, but it looks like 18" or 19". I'm fairly sure it isn't 20. Number 3, bide my time for one more turn and try to kill him with magic.
Number 1 is bad because if Imrik fails his charge, I have no way to zone him properly. With the Cloak Peg breathing down my neck, I can find myself getting swarmed too fast for my own good: Darkshards zoom past Imrik's arc and Malekith moves up, no good. Number 2 is good because if I fail, he can charge me, which I don't care too much about as he'll be stuck and Imrik can counter, but I can also keep throwing magic at him and shoot him. Number 3 is probably a good choice as well, but with the banner gone and his scroll intact it feels more risky.
So I go with number 2. This also sets up Imrik to flame the Darkshards. I hit everyone barring 1 and kill 10 after his 6+/6++, significantly reducing his ranged power. The bus into Malekith and I lose the champ.
In his turn the Darkshards back up 10" and shoots Imrik for 3 (!!) wounds. I was intending to scroll Arcane on Imrik seeing as I cannot deal with losing the star lance, but he IFs. Luckily, he destroys the Dragonhorn (!!!). Malekith eats the Stubborn Noble and I hold.
Imrik is positioned 180 degrees in the wrong direction because of hill + balance issues
:: Turn 3 ::
Yes. I fail the charge. I'm hoping the bus can hold out for long enough, but at this point in time I know I need some luck to get back into the game. Magic - can't even remember but I do believe his scroll is out at this point. I set up the cloak peg to zone his warlocks should he want to counter-charge me. Archers and Scouts move to set up as well, in case Malekith kills me in 2 rounds of combat.
Malekith eats another character (BSB I believe, wanted the scroll for his T3 and would rather risk LD10 steadfast than not having a scroll).
In his turn, Darkshards charge Imrik to pin me down until Malekith can arrive. He makes the charge. Magic sees my scroll come out, can't remember what but the L4 would die anyway. Cloak Peg and Warlocks charge the Helms and they just evaporate.
:: Turn 4 ::
My Cloak Peg charges his cloak peg and he flees. He flees short, but I still fail to catch him. Shooting is HUGE however as my 10 hagbane shots score 4W on Malekith. He saves the first and fails the 2 next. To make matters particularly exciting the last die ends up beneath a movement tray and my opponent says "Please, please don't tell me that is what I fear it is!". Carefully removing the movement tray, I see the most beautiful '2' I've seen in a long while. Malekith is down, the tables are most definitely turned.
Bearing in mind what just happened, Imrik is basically just chewing up 1000+ VP slowly but surely.
I brainfart a little as my cloakpeg doesn't charge his: I forget I'm immune to HKB so I run a very low risk of losing this. The Hagbanes bring the Warlocks down to 1 model, 50% points. The cloak + Witchelves survive and Imrik clears out the Darkshards.
Counting up points I'm ahead a little over 900 points, a
16-4 win to Imrik and thus I capped my points for game 1!
Evaluation
What a game. Crazy rolls, as expected, but the big MVPs were the humble shooters. True, Searing Doom bore the brunt of the charge with my T1 IF 6W pretty much defining the entire game but the Archers were the ones doing the decisive damage when I desperately needed it.
My T1 cloak-zone mistake was bad, really bad. The harasser in my flank made it hard to move the shooters around like I wanted them to, but in the end I got away cheap for said mistake. My own Cloak Peg managed to find some interesting positions and put pressure on his flank, but I was too afraid of the Darkshards (perhaps paranoid due to the sheer amount of 60 shots) to bring him to where he'd really make a difference.
The T2 options I were given were huge. Perhaps I should've gone with the passive approach, but the problem is the scroll + ranged power he has. Besides, locking down Malekith and flanking him with Imrik was my best shot at a big win - doubly so with Glittering Robes (essentially reducing Malekith's damage ouput significantly). 19" might've been a little too risky, but I'm not sure other options would've been better.
In the end though, I had a good start, got an opening (albeit a risky one), went for it, failed miserably and then lucked myself back to a victory. I think this matchup can go both ways and it's hard to evaluate who has the upper hand. Suffice is to say, it'll always be explosive.
Opponent`s Final Placing: 3/102
My Points: 16/16