Battle Brothers May 2014 - HE & TK

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Syleth
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 4:36 pm

Battle Brothers May 2014 - HE & TK

#1 Post by Syleth »

Last weekend I attended the Battle Brothers tournament at Warhammer World in Nottingham with a friend of mine. It was my first time being there and it was an awesome experience, great environment and very friendly people.

I also had the opportunity to go to the museum where the armies are exposed, and that was just A M A Z I N G. I will be looking forward to go there again for sure!

Going into the details of the battles and army lists, those were the rules:
- Alliance rules from rulebook are followed. Therefore, it would be rare to face Dark Elves & Skaven due to how badly it affects their magic phase.
- Each army of 1000pts. No restrictions of any kind, as long as the army list is valid
- 5 games to be played, based on rulebook scenarios to be decided at the time of play

During the tournament we also realised that we were not being paired was done based on the battle results. Therefore, you could be an experienced team and end up playing all battles against inexperienced teams, or the other way around. This may be to discourage competitive play, but unexperienced teams facing strong teams in all games...i am not sure if that helped them having the fun they were expecting.

But well...on to the army lists!
I was playing my one and only army, the High Elves, and my teammate wanted to remove the dust (or sand?) from his Tomb Kings. We brought:

Tomb Kings
Hierophant, Lvl 1, Dispell Scroll
10 Archers, Std
4 Chariots, Std, Banner of eternal Flame
2 Warsphinx, Fiery roar (Breath)
Casket of Souls

High Elves
Archmage, High Magic, 5++
7 Silverhelms, Std
5 Ellyrion Reavers, Bow, Spear
21 White Lions, Std, Champion, BoWD
2 Eagle Claw

Our army plan and design:
The Tomb kings army rules constrained our roster options, so there were some things we decided right from the start.
We would keep the Hierophant as cheap as possible (lvl1) and he would be carrying a dispel scroll. High elves would be bringing the magic and the elite infantry ranks. We want to go powerful on magic and Casket of souls is in, it is just THAT good.

We want to bring a strong infantry block and that will come from the HE. We don't have any combat characters, so we need something durable to hold enemy characters/monsters/strong enemy units, and warsphinxes are just awesome at that. Canons may be a problem, but we don't have other options for that role. If we bring warsphinxes, we go with 2; and roar, which is a steal for 20 points. Unfortunately, that leaves the Screaming scull catapult out of the equation.

Based on the TK list, we are missing board control elements. Therefore, 2 eagle claws and 1 ellyrion reavers are in. The Basic points will be filled with a medium unit of Silver Helms with banner. 2+ AS and M9 cavalry, nice range, nice punch and nice survivability. A great compliment to the list.

The two main questions:
- 18 PG with razor vs 21 WL with BoWD?
- what magic lore?

Our main problem is that the mage has to go into the elite infantry. I don't want to have to take archers to have a bunker and lose the silver helms.
If i take PG then i want to go shadow, but in that case archmage is sitting in front row with a 5++, which makes me nervous
If i take WL then the lore options are wider. Shadow, Heavens, High magic seem nice.
- Shadow is not optimal with WL and leaves me with no means of magic attacks (hex wraiths? oh dear..)
- Heavens: good in that list, nice combat buffs and magic damage. Same problem with the archmage though.
- High magic: excellent fit and solves my mage problem.Shadow

In the end i decide for WL + High Magic.
- WL are the best choice against high armour & high toughness. Stubborn is a nice plus. However they suffer specially against hordes and I5 enemies. High magic overcomes their limitations: excellent horde melting spell with fiery convocation, enhance movement, hand of glory, and the high magic ward save puts them on par with many otherwise unfavourable enemies. And at what High magic does not excel, the Casket spell does.

So those are the games we played:
Game 1: VC x2
Game 2: Beastmen + Orcs&Goblins
Game 3: Dark Elves + Skaven
Game 4: Lizardmen x2
Game 5: WoC + Orcs&Goblins

Game 1 in next post!
Syleth
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 4:36 pm

Re: Battle Brothers May 2014 - HE & TK

#2 Post by Syleth »

Game 1

So this game was against a double VC list commanded by two very friendly italian commanders. His list looked something like:

Master necromancer lvl4 (lord of vampires), scroll
Vampire Lord with ASF & S6 thanks to magic weapon (not sure if anything else)
Vampire hero with ASF weapon (not sure if anything else)
3x 20 Zombies
30 Grave guard
8 Black knights
3 Vargheists
2x 5 Dire wolves
2x Terrorgheists

Spells:
L1 vampires: Invocation of nehek
L4 vampires: invocation, Raise Dead, Curse of years, Gaze of Nagash
L4 High Magic: Soul Quench, Apotheosis, Hand of Glory, Fiery Convocation
L1 Hierophant: Signature (move)

Enemy analysis:
We see our enemy lists and we feel we are in trouble with the 2 Terrorgheists. There are not many monsters that pose a threat to the warsphinxs, but this is definatelly one of them. One scream and an average roll, and the sphinx is now dust.
On the other hand, the enemy has no unit that can beat our white lions. But he can try to feed them with chaff to deny us points.

Our plan: delay the engagement as much as possible and control the landing points of the terrorgheists. If they are going to kill our sphinxes, we need to make sure we have a countercharge that will kill them. Meanwhile, 6dicing casket to bring them down and eagle claws to put additional wounds

The scenario was meeting engagement and we had to deploy all our army first.

Deployment.
There is a hill in each side and we choose to deploy on that corner. We want to deploy packed, denying safe landing zones from the Terrors and deploying sphinxes more than 28" away from the Terrors. White lions, Chariots and Silverhelms a bit more advanced to threaten the enemy advance and to not allow him to rush forward. We want to place WL in the shorter end to force him deploy his Terrors & Black nights on the far end (gaining us time)

We throw dice to see which units arrive late and...disaster strucks!
The archmage and casket of souls are delayed!! (we had agreed to throw dice for characters independently than units). Because delayed units enter from the large end that means that now we need to place the WL close to that end to allow the archmage join them (she can't join any other unit...)
Also, the casket entering delayed means that we can't cast the casket spell that turn, which was our best weapon to counter the Terrorgheists. Suddenly the battle turns upside...

We place Silver helms and chariots in the shortest end (right side) in front of the hill, threatening enemy advance. Sphinxes behind, with space for charging if required. white lions on the left side of the hill with the other sphinx behind. Skeleton archers and hierophant in between all units.

After our deployment, the VC army is deployed. the two fight characters into the black knights and the necromancer in the zombies. They try to seize the initiative, but a roll of 5 means the HE&TK will be starting the battle.
This is the battle field at the beginning of turn 1 of HE&TK (archmage and casket in)

Image

Turn1 HE&TK
Archmage enters the field and joins the WL who cant move more. Casket enters but won't be able to cast. Chariots and silver helms move 1-2" forward as a threat.
Any possible landing spot for the Terrorgheists is covered by a good counter and sphinxes are out of their scream reach (28")

Magic: Big phase (9vs5) but nothing really in range. Hand of glory in eagle claw is dispelled. It hurts not being able to cast the casket spell, as that could have make them use their scroll early on...well on to shooting

Shooting: Both eagle claws shoot the leftmost terrorgheist (sphinx obstructing vision on the right one). I go for single bolts as doing just 1 wound is not worth it (he will recover it casting in his magic phase). I rather do nothing or go big. Result is that i do nothing.

Turn1 VC

Image

VC move forwards. On the right side less so, due to the Chariots and SilverHelms. They do a BIG mistake here, which is moving the left Terrorgheist out of the vampire's range. Than means next turn he is only moving 10" and not 20". They should have kept it close to vampire this turn and release him on the next one to scream one of the sphinxes, which wouldn't have been able to escape

Magic: Big phase, something like 9vs6, we stop double incantations and let through raise dead. He places a unit of 10 zombies in front of the right terrorgheist, angled. They think they are placing a trap, but for who? lets see...
no shooting and it's turn 2

Turn2 HE&TK
Image

The newly created zombies give us a good opportunity. It is an easy charge for the chariots and the Silver Helms are 18" away from the Terrorgheist. They have granted us an excellent option:
If the silver helms charge Terrorgheist and Chariost the zombies, we can do chariots combat first, overrun, multi combat against terrorgheist, win and overrun silver helms into knights keeping them busy next turn.
If silver helms don't make it..chariots will overrun into Terrorgheist after killing zombies, then get charged in the flank by zombies. Combat is not lost, Terrorgheist will be kept busy and some wounds would go through. Not that bad

We take our chances, and the Silverhelms go in!
Sphinx moves forward to get closer to the knights. Ellyrian reavers positioned to redirect when required in the right flank.
White lions advance. Careful positioning to not allow the left Terrorgheist land out of his sight. Their companion sphinx advances, out of the 18" range to be screamed

Magic: Casket draws the scroll and the rest is contained
Shooting: Skeleton archers do 3 wounds on dire wolves and 1 bolt thrower finishes them. We don't want them chaffing our sphinx now that combat approaches. The leftmost bolt thrower aims carefully towards the left terrorgheist... hits, wounds and deals 3 wounds! Great shooting phase.

Combat: Chariots destroy zombies and overrun into Terrorgheist, who is in combat with silver helms.
Note: when doing an overrun move, you may move as if you had declared a charge. That allowed us to get 3 chariots in contact with the Terrorgheist, instead of just 1 if we had overrun in straight line.
Combat agains terrorgheist is in our favour, and he pops-up for combat result. Silver helms overrun into Black knights and the combat will be fight next turn. Chariots reform to face zombies

Turn 2 VC
Image

Charges: both zombie units in front of the necromancer charge the chariots. That is another BIG mistake. they don't stand a chance against the chariots and both units will crumble. Better option would have been to charge only with one, then with another.

Movement: The wounded Terrorgheist can't land anywhere and they realise of their mistake not being able to march. They bring it close to the necromancer to get wounds back. The Vargheists move to block the sphinx path but its positioning is not good. the overrun direction is towards the necromancer and the distance is not big..

Magic: Something like 5vs4. Gaze of nagash gets through on the WL and we reveal the BoWD. The Terrorgheist gets 1W back.

Combat: both zombie units in combat lose, but not by large. Surprisingly, they wound chariots twice, and don't receive many wounds in return.
The silver helms focus attacks on the unit, and 4BK go down. Vampires reveal their weapons and leave only 2SH. the BK attacks wound twice and none is saved on 3+, so the unit is destroyed. A shame! The BK reform facing both the sphinx and Chariots

Turn 3 HE&TK
Image

Movements:
White lions charge the Grave guard and get it.
The left sphinx charges the vargheists and get's in
Ellyrian reavers block BK
Right sphinx positions herself within 9" of Ellyrian. At this time i know vampires are S6 or lower, so i don't mind getting charged, and it's time to push.

Magic:9vs5 4dice Casket on the Terrorgheist draws dispel dice and Fiery convocation is casted on the necromancer's unit which is within the archmage's arch. The zombies burn, and the unit goes down from 20 to 7 zombies

Shooting: The dire wolves unit is finished (previous turns of skeleton archers & elliryan had caused wounds). Both bolt throwers aim at the remaining terrorgheist and fail

Combat:
White lions kill a lot of Grave Guards and lose only 2 models in return. The archmage is wounded once but the ward save is passed, which is now 4+. After combat only 5 grave guard stand from the initial 30
The sphinx kills the vargheists, overruns 9" and reaches the necromancer's unit.
Chariots keep killing zombies and both units are very low on models now 5-7

Turn 3 VC
Image

The Terrorgheist can charge the sphinx, and may save his lord necromancer if rolling high on the scream. However, the Terrorgheist charges the white lions instead. I believe at this point he thought the necromancer was dead and was trying to get my mage to equal things.
Black knights charge the blocking ellyrion

Magic: this is the turn in which a big phase could allow him to raise models from his unit and nearby combats to try to gain some time. Instead he is facing a RIP fiery convocation and we still have the scroll. I don't remember whether he dispelled the convocation, or we stopped all his fase using the scroll. Either way, it makes little difference.

Combat:
the sphinx deletes the necromancer's unit and necromancer is gone.
In the white lions combat, the terrorgheist focuses attacks on the mage, 3 wounds are done, and two 4++ ward saves are passed. Grave guard is killed, some wounds go through the TG and he pops through combat resolution.
either he spent all dice dispelling Fiery convocation, or we stopped.
BK delete ellyrian reavers and try to overrun to the sphinx. They don't reach it and move 3" forward

Turn 4 HE&TK
Image

Sphinx on the front of the BK, clipping the vampires who are on the center. chariots on the side, and the characters won't be able to make way. Unit is killed and characters are killed by combat resolution.

battle is ended. VC have lost everything and HE have lost the Ellyrian reavers and silver helms unit. Massacre to the HE&TK

As it will become a norm in the next games, the hierophant has had a relaxing battle, siting on his picnic chair next to his "elite" archers guard and being required only to read "The Nehekarian Times" scroll.

After battle thoughts:
Things started difficult with casket and archmage out.
If the Terrorgheists had been played right, being kept next to the vampires/necromancer in the initial turns, and released to scream in turn 2 they could have killed our sphinxes and made life very difficult for us.
The bad placing of the raised zombies gave us the battle, allowing the multiple charge and bringing down on TG and half of the black knights unit

Hope you enjoyed the report, any feedback will be welcome. thoughts on the lists? anything you would have made different?

Will start writing the report of Game 2, which we faced a Beastmen and O&G team in the watchtower scenario

Edit: corrected image links. Yellow big circle are hills, green squares are forests
User avatar
Charles Rampant
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2014 12:23 pm

Re: Battle Brothers May 2014 - HE & TK

#3 Post by Charles Rampant »

Thanks for this report - it was clear and entertaining. Your diagrams are pleasantly pastel as well, I notice. Did you use a program for that, or is it custom work in photoshop?

As a Tomb King player, I heartily approve of your list. Good stuff. Vampires are usually a good matchup for Tombies, thanks to the Casket and Catapults kind of negating all their big toys, and you guys played it well. When I went to a team event with my Tomb Kings, we noticed the massive utility of using the casket to power the Warlocks in my ally's DE army.
"They won praises that never grow old, the most splendid of sepulchres – not the sepulchre in which their bodies are laid, but where their glory remains eternal in men’s minds, always there on the right occasion to stir others to speech or to action.”
- Pericles’ Funeral Oration, 431BC.
Iluvatar
Posts: 446
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2012 1:46 pm

Re: Battle Brothers May 2014 - HE & TK

#4 Post by Iluvatar »

Nice report, thanks for posting! I'll be looking forward to the following. Especially since I play both HE and TK! :wink:

Apart from this, you played the game very well, and your opponents made a few crucial mistakes. A win well deserved then, congratulations!
pk-ng
Posts: 2062
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:39 pm
Location: Cathy

Re: Battle Brothers May 2014 - HE & TK

#5 Post by pk-ng »

Nice report and good job!
ETC WHFB Team Singapore
2014 - Chaos Dwarfs & Most Favoured Enemy
2015 - High Elves & Top HE

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Syleth
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 4:36 pm

Re: Battle Brothers May 2014 - HE & TK

#6 Post by Syleth »

Charles Rampant wrote:Thanks for this report - it was clear and entertaining. Your diagrams are pleasantly pastel as well, I notice. Did you use a program for that, or is it custom work in photoshop?
Just powerpoint or equivalent (keynote). Report from game 2 on it's way, stay tuned
Syleth
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 4:36 pm

Re: Battle Brothers May 2014 - HE & TK

#7 Post by Syleth »

Game 2

So this time battle was against a Beastmen + Orcs&Goblins army

Beastlord with magic weapon (not sure other load out)
Sugtongue (death)
Bray-shaman (beasts)
18 Gor herd
18 Bestigor
5harpies
5harpies
5 ambushers (similar to harpies?)

Orcboss with magic weapon (not sure other load out)
30 goblins
18 savage orcs
2 trolls
goblin wolf chariot
goblin wolf chariot
Doom diver

For those of you that don't know Slugtongue's ability, at the start of the game each enemy unit within 36" rolls d6. 1-3 nothing happens, 4-5 unit takes 1d3 no-AS wounds, 6 takes 1d6 no-AS wounds.. pretty nasty if you roll well

scenario: watchtower

Pre-battle thoughts:
Looking at both armies we are worried of the savage orcs getting into the watchtower and sporting some sort of magic resistance. If so, we won't move them from there, but we can clear the rest. As for the rest, they don't have any reliable way to deal with our sphinxes and the white lions should be able to cut through any of their units with the appropriate magic support. We will need though some turns to make our magic work, hurt their units, and then rush

Magic:
Level4 high magic: Walk between worlds, Hand of glory, Fiery convocation, soul quench
Slugtongue: spirit leech, soul blight
Bray-shaman: wyssan's, savage beast
hierophant (of no relevance, sitting in the picnic chair)

Deployment:
Image

Yes, all this murdering that you see there is Slugtongue ability. Both bolt throwers and silver helms were out of reach. Out of 7 tests, in 4 he scored a 6, killing a sphinx outright, wounding the other, destroying 1 and a half chariots, killing 2 reavers and leaving the archers unit of the hierophant with only 5 members remaining.

We decide not to occupy the watchtower based on that the only basic unit that can ocuppy it are the skeleton archers.

To add insult to injury, he threw a dice to see where the ambushers appear from and he scored a 6, thus choosing were to deploy from. They appeared right behind the skeleton archers beginning turn 1, we were in trouble.

Reavers vanguarded right to help the harassed hierophant

BM-O&G turn 1
Image

Everything moves forward. In shooting the Doom diver misfires and won't shop neither this turn nor the following. Finally some good news!
big magic phase (5vs5) starts with a very high casting of spirit leech against the hierophant. We can't risk it and we scroll it. wyssan's is let through on the savage orcs

HE&TK turn 1
Image
Things have not started well, but nothing is set yet.
Ellyrian reavers block the ambushers, saving the hierophant some time. The rest backs up a bit, gaining time to try to get some magic through.

Big 12vs6 magic phase. Casket spell on the right flank chariots is dispelled, but that drains all dispel dice. The archmage gathers energy and sends a Soul quench towards the left side harpies evaporating them. Carried by the flurry of magic she looks towards the the beast lord unit and conjures some old words.... moments later the unit is engulfed in flames and only half of the original beasts stand still. The power of the spell is such that it backfires(miscast), skies open, and two lightnings fall from the sky targeting both her and the distracted hierophant. Even the Banner of the World Dragon can't protect the archmage getting wounded by such powerful strike!
The hierophant looks disoriented. Beasts ambushing from behind, and her friendly mage throwing lightnings at him...the world looks scary
(the miscast wounded both archmage and hierophant)

Shooting clears the back lines ambushers and finally things look more save. Now its time to push.

BM-O&G turn 2
Image
The Savage orcs go into the watchtower to claim its ownership. There is very little things that will be able to move them from there with 3 attacks each.
The rest of the army rushes forward. Probably they should have played more defensively at this point. The depleted bestigors were looking very weak with their reduced numbers.

On the right, three units move to claim the right flank. Only the silver helms are left to protect it...without magic support this flank will crumble.

No shooting is fired, as the Doom diver miscasted on the previous turn. In magic, the shaman gathers all his dice to dispel the flames burning the bestirs.

HE&TK turn 2
Image

Ellyrian reavers move forward to approach the goblins. The high elf mage makes them a signal and they stop before coming too close...she has a plan. Meanwhile, the whitelions push forward, now without a real opposition in front of them. The sphinx follows closely, but keeping distance from the beast lord, just in case he's got some high strength weapon.

More to the left, the flaming chariots keep trolls in check

Magic 6vs5: casket is attempted but again is dispelled with all the dices available. That leaves free way to the elf mage to cast walk between worlds on the reavers. They move forward as ethereal, one fanatic is released from the goblins and is automatically destroyed when they step on him, safe thanks to the magical ethereal protection.

Shooting sees the bolt throwers kill some a couple of bestigors

BM-O&G turn 3
Image

The goblins charge the ellyrion reavers, but they flee to safety.
The trolls see the chariots on the distance and attempt a very long charge (need 12), which doesn't happen.
The orcs decide its time for some fun and participate in the battle rather than watching from the tower. They leave the tower and get closer to the white lions. The gors unit takes the tower instead.

The bestigors with beast lord charge the white lions. The white lions look surprised at the unexpected move. They smile one to each other and raise their axes ready to strike. Seconds later only two bestirs remain still, and their lord sees his attacks all bounced by the banner magical protection. Needless to say they flee and are catcher in the pursue, which brings the white lions into combat with the orcs!

In shooting, the Doom diver misses his target. In magic soul blight on the white lions is dispelled and wyssans did go off on the bestigors.

HE&TK turn 3
Image

Chariots charge the trolls, who were now in the open. The Sphinx charges the savage orcs to aid white lions in contact.

Silver helms see a flaw in the opponents plan and decide to take advantage charging the harpies.
- If harpies flee, they can charge into the goblins flank and escape the right flank trap (at the expense of leaving the casket alone and vulnerable).
- If harpies hold, an overrun is possible into the chariots.
In the end, harpies reaction is to hold.

Reavers reposition to block goblins

Magic is weak 3vs1 and only 1 spell is cast (hand of glory in the lions). Shooting deals a wound to one of the chariots

In combat the chariots, with flaming attacks, kill a troll and win combat. Trolls flee and are unlikely to rally, so chariots reform instead of pursuing.
In the main combat, the white lions fail some attacks and do 5 wounds only, but orcs aren't brilliant either, killing few lions in return. The sphinx, however, kills a bunch of them and ensures combat is won. Orcs flee and are catched in pursue.

In the right flank, the silver helms kill the harpies and overrun into the wounded chariot. The other chariot fails panic test and runs from the board. Flank won!

At this time, time has run by and we get only one more turn to play

BM-O&G turn 4
Image

Goblins charge Elliryon reavers and they hold.

In magic soul blight is dispelled but soul blight on white lions goes through.
In combat Ellyrion reavers are killed and goblins overrun towards the skeleton archers, not reaching them.
Silver helms kill the chariot and reform to face the goblins flank

HE&TK turn 4
Image

The silver helms charge the goblins ensuring the Hierophant's safety (at least they think so....)

The elf mage instruct their bodyguard to hold their axes, as she's got a bigger plan. She gazes the unit standing in the building in front of them, and they start burning into ashes. Of the initial 18, only 3 remain after the slaughter, plus the two mages And again, the skies open to punish those who use magic winds in such a powerful manner (miscast, result 9). The Banner of World Dragon protects the archmage this time, but the lonely hierophant is suddenly turned into sand. Funny that he resisted the enemies attacks but was brought down by 'friendly fire'..

the tomb king's army tests, but they resist crumbling

*we didn't charge as we were unlikely to move the unit (stubborn in building). Instead we tried to deplete the unit and force panic tests.

In shooting the bolt throwers and archers try to finish off the unit in the watchtower, but the hard cover from the tower is enough to keep two of them alive.
In combat the silver helms win combat and goblins fail their Ld test and are run down in the pursue


This was the last turn and the game ends, with a crushing victory for the HE&TK, but the Beastment holding the watchtower. In the end, thanks to the watchtower extra victory points, the result is 1900 vs 1000 to the HE&TK.

Had we had a fifth turn, we would have walked in the tower, got the 500 VP and killed the unit plus the two characters. Good result after such a tough beginning!
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