Had a game vs new Wood Elves today! An interesting encounter indeed
.::. Battle Report - 2400 vs Wood Elves (ETC comp) .::.
My list:
High 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, Ogre Blade, Dragonhelm, Dragon Armour, Shield = 147
Noble on Barded Steed, Lance, Dragon Armour, Charmed Shield, Luckstone, Potion of Strength = 131
High Mage Steed, Dispel Scroll, Ring of Fury = 145
Heroes = 595
18 Silver Helms, Full Command, Shields = 444
5 Reavers, bows = 85
5 Reavers, bows = 85
Core = 614
5 Shadow Warriors, Champion = 85
1 Frostheart Phoenix = 240
4 Repeater Bolt Throwers = 280
Special & Rare = 605
Army total = 2396
His list:
L4 Death, steed, mr2, power stone, moonstone
L1 Shadow, steed, scroll
BSB Hail of Doom, Bow of Loren, steed
10 Archers poison
12 Archers trueflight
19 Archers trueflight
7 Sisters, muso & champ
7 Wild Riders
7 Wild Riders
12 Waywatchers
12 Waywatchers
2 Eagles
// Pre-battle thoughts and deployment //
I needed to close with him fast and provide as much cover as I can. I deploy close to the table edge so that if he wants to deploy opposite me, there`s nowhere to run. Magic sees me roll a pretty bad combo, and I`m left with Hand, Soul Quench, WBW, Fiery Convocation. L1 took Soul Quench, I needed to be able to spam this. He got Spirit Leech, Caress, Soulblight and Purple Sun, L1 took Miasma.
One problem for me was the combination of exposed RBTs and Wild Riders: if they could take them out quickly and wheel around, they could easily be strong enough to be a big threat for my bus later on. I was just hoping the RBTs would be capable of holding their own, at least partially.
He won the roll for choosing sides, and our table (randomly drawn) wasn`t heavy on terrain. He chose the side with ruins (which I wanted so badly for my cav to deploy in!) so I had to go pretty open. Adding insult to injury, he took T1 as well, despite my +1 (this list has VERY few drops).
// WE T1 //
Things move into position, wildriders move up towards RBTs. Magic sees me let Spirit Leech through on the Frostheart, he wins by 1 point but I`m 1LD ahead so no effect. He lands Curse on the bus as well. Shooting sees poison Archers target Frostheart, but no effect after I roll a ward save or two. Small accurate Archers target Shadow Warriors, 3 die. Waywatchers kill a handful of Knights (move, long, most had cover).
// HE T1 //
Bus moves up 9". I`m not in range of any Waywatchers with Soul Quench, but the small accurate Archers are within 18". Frostheart moves to grant hard cover along with Shadow Warriors.
Magic sees a boosted Soul Quench land on the Archers. He loses most, but panic is passed. I boost the closest RBT`s BS to 8.
Shooting sees all 4 RBTs target the nearest Wild Riders, but 1 survives.
// WE T2 //
Wild Riders charge 2x RBTs. Magic sees scroll come out to stop a Purple Sun needing 8 or 10 to reach the Frostheart. If it dies, I could very well lose. My last magic phase had a `6`, so the Frostheart was well protected, or so I thought: shooting opens up and the 10 poison Archers manage 3W on the Frostie. I can`t pass a single ward save. Upon seeing this opportunity his BSB uses HoDA and manages to score 2 wounds. I can`t pass any of these 4++ either so the Frostie goes down. Panic passed. The remaining 3 accurate Archers kill my 2 Shadow Warriors, so now all WW are free to shoot without cover. Luckily I got 2 spells through last turn, so the 5++ saves a few, but I still lose a significant amount.
Wild Riders kill RBTs, the single model fails to make his overrun into another.
// HE T2 //
Silver Helms charge small Archers. Stand and shoot does nothing. I skip magic: I don`t want to cast fiery because the only target is WW whom I want to run into, WBW has no targets and I don`t want to risk a miscast for Hand of Glory. Shooting sees the 1 Wild Rider go down and the RBT kills a poison-Archer.
In combat I kill the Archers and overrun into WWs. Wild Riders kill a third RBT and run off the table (a mistake on his part as he forgot it was his turn when he placed them, angle-wise).
// WE T3 //
He uses moonstone to move to "my" woods. Shooting kills Reavers, panic passed. Magic saw him land curse on Helms, I stopped Purple Sun because I had a big plan.
In combat the WWs break, I restrain. They run off the table. I reform 2-wide and face his bunker, the reform granting me lots of inches. With the Reavers behind, he can`t flee either!
// HE T3 //
Cavalry charges his bunker. DT tests see me fail a few, including a wound on the L1 mage. Magic sees me skip again, no worthwhile targets. Shooting: RBT panicked, so not much to do here. Reavers fail to impress Wild Riders. In combat, I win big and he needs snake eyes. He fails to get it and I run him down. More SH + L1 mage die in the process, but it`s worth it. The question is, can my remaining cavalry take 3 rounds of shooting from Waywatchers?
// WE T4 //
Wild Riders charge last RBT. Magic is nothing. Shooting sees the Waywatchers open up, but as I`m down to 4 RnF, I can allocate. I put as many on multi-wound characters as I can, and with moving + long + cover + this allocation he fails to kill any Helms. A couple of wounds go on multi-wound characters, no biggie.
// HE T4 //
I reform to face his shooters, knowing full well that I have to put some serious pressure on them. Magic is 8v5 and I start with 5D6 boosted Soul Quench on Waywatchers. The total is 25, but he rolls double 6s to dispel. I power stone through Fiery Convocation, which kills 5/12. Panic is passed.
// WE T5 //
Wild Riders come onto the table again, in my rear. Magic sees him roll huge and he dispels Fiery Convocation. Shooting sees the same thing happen as last time: no wounds are dealt to Helms. Taking them down to 7 really helped!
// HE T5 //
I reform to face Wild Riders, intent on destroying them to neutralize what I consider to be the worst threat. I forgot for a moment that I have the crown of command, but regardless this is a scary bunch with 3 S5 AP attacks per model, especially considering my multi-wound models have been tanking Waywatcher hits.
In magic I get 4v2 which is pretty good and I boost Soul Quench and this time he can`t find the 6s needed. 4 Wild Riders go down and they`re much more manageable now.
// T6 //
His last turn in the game, and yet again the WWs open up, dealing no significant damage. In my final turn, he gets 5DD but is powerless to stop a 5D6 boosted Soul Quench, which just manages to kill the remaining 7 Waywatchers. With that, the game is over! Counting up VPs, I`m roughly 550 ahead (which was way less than I thought I`d be) - a
13-7 victory to the High Elves!
// Evaluation //
This matchup is a bit harder than I thought it would be. Now granted the ETC comp has yet to come in place for Wood Elves and I believe few players will end up having more than 20 Waywatchers, but still: the various threats are hard to cope with given their superior mobility and firepower. What cost me the most in this game was being unable to help the RBT. I should`ve sacrificed Reavers for this purpose, with the Wild Riders being frenzy it`s not very hard to send them off whereever I want, or force him not to get a charge off. The Reavers can`t do much else useful anyways.
The Frostie going down so quickly was bad luck, but that`s what you get sometimes. Poison can often do nothing, but suddenly it deals a world of pain to you. If it had been alive with just 1W the Waywatchers would`ve had a much harder time killing my knights.
Overall I really like what they`ve done to WE. It`s hard to how powerful they are just yet, but I like the way the army plays and it`s definitely deadly to face for other Elves (well, High Elves anyway. Dark Reaper keeps telling me I`m a noob because he 20-0`d WE in his first game vs them as DE). It should be said though that in this game, if I had gotten first turn everything would`ve looked way different. Deploying opposite with powerful units is a huge risk and with me getting T1 he would`ve eaten multiple soul quenches way sooner.
Curse of Anraheir is a terrific spell for Sisters. It`s so good for WE to have an easily accessible spell which counters deathstars and busses. While I caught his bunker off-guard and this won me the game, it cost me my L1 and a fighter hero (both failed 2 DTs in a row). Losing the L1 greatly reduced my flexibility as my offensive spells were effectively halved from 3x Soul Quench + Fiery to 1x SQ + Fiery.
Looking forward to my next game with this list already. Feels good to play