Battle Review (2)
Gwydion wrote:Another possibilty would be the 2+ ward (lizardmen army book) against any kind of ranged attacks. So the slann should be safe from cannons and every spell which does direct damage (even death magic) or magic missiles. In that case you don´t need the bunker and have a lot of free points. Additional salamaders or scar-vets are allways handy against high elves.
Certainly if it worked against literally anything that had a 'range', including spells, it would be pretty amazing. I'm not very familiar with this ability but,
if it works like the engine, you're looking at the 2+ ward only working against actual missiles (ie shooting phase missiles), rather than spells. Worth a look.
SpellArcher wrote:Seredain wrote:3 - Much as my archmage does, the Life slann makes up for the weakness of his own unit. With regrowth, regeneration and flesh to stone available, a slann can often make do with a relatively small bodyguard. This keeps the TG benefits (basically unbreakable, immune to psychology, extra wounds protecting you most important model), but limits some TG weaknesses by allowing points to be spent elsewhere.
Whenever I put a list together I'm a bit wary of stuff that
needs buffing to do it's job. Firstly, that's a spell you aren't casting on your combat units and secondly if your opponent can shut the phase down (+5 and scroll?) he can really cause some pain. I guess Life is the right Lore for this approach though.
That's well said. Of course, when protected by a well-deployed front line, the TG's won't need buffing, but it's good to know that Life Lore is there as a backup. Regeneration is always a spell to get up if you've got the dice to spare, either as a last resort for combat or if you just want to allow your little bodyguard to be a bit more missile-proof. Flaming white lions make a good counter in this context, though...
Cython wrote:The way you adapted to Mallas' tactics...
For me, the game was dominated by two events: Mallas' 1st turn moves and, of course, the irresistible Flesh to Stone on the saurus warriors.
Redeployment – non-elves can do it to!
The first was an excellent move by Mal which straight away made the game more competitive. Had he followed his (presumed) original plan and committed his steg and cavalry around the ruined building on my right, I could have blocked off that advance with relative ease, using the building as a charge-blocker, harassing with eagles and, latterly, the blue archers, and using the building as a launch-pad to put the white lions through the gap in lizardman lines. Meanwhile, I could have simply bulldozed forward with the rest of my troops much quicker and gone to work against the two infantry blocks with my right flank secure. That Mallas decided to turn inward with his fast units was a shrewd move: it held my spear column and white lions back in order to cover the centre of the board, reducing the frontage of my attack to a a degree with which his Life magic was more easily able to deal, and preventing an overrun of the slann's position. This 'delaying' tactic may have given me more time to keep casting Dwellers - a stand-off would have been in my favour with a series of good magic phases - but, as turned out here, magic is unreliable and troops are not: the Turn 1 shift in tactics was a good play from Mal. As Swordmaster put it:
Swordmaster of Hoeth wrote:I think he is definitely better with his rock solid battle line and the way he keeps denying you that flank attack is excellent. What is also great about his approach so far is that often changing the formation is asking for trouble. He manages to keep his units together, pushes nice pressure on your regiments and blocks easy ways of setting combo-charges.
The High Elf centre holds back from the threat of monsters, so makes do with covering the left flank as it advances.
In the end, I was able to make the new situation work for me. Sure, my spears and white lions were both held back but, as they stood, they were able to prevent, with the threat of counter-charges, an advance by the lizardmen elites and stegadon across to my attacking left flank. The surviving eagle, in the end, was likewise able to pin the lizardman centre in place so that, by turn 4, I had secured a charge on against the saurus horde with my swordmasters (T7 from
Throne and
Stone), helm hammer and, sheltering safely between the two, dragon princes). Without the toughness buff, the unit was dead and three of my most powerful units would be in the rear of the lizardman army. With a dispel scroll in my hand, I felt very, very confident.
A 7-dice Slann casts Flesh to Stone: High Elves nearly lose
That things didn't work out is as planned had as much to do with over-confidence as with luck. In the end, I got greedy. In my defence, if Dwellers had gone off and killed the Slann that turn, we'd all be saying "well of course you went for Dwellers - why wouldn't you?" And if I had scrolled Flesh, as was likely, we'd all (rightly) be praising the game-changing potential of this cheap little item. Technically speaking, it is not likely that Mallas would roll an irresistible force on a 7-dice cast of
Flesh to Stone. Any other case would have been scrolled and those saurus would have been toast.
But it wasn't that unlikely: there are very few better chances to get irresistible force than chucking 7 dice at a spell. Mal was no fool - he knew he needed that spell to save his saurus warriors - and I knew it too- but I was too keen to Dwellers away rather than secure my defence. For those of you facing similar situations in future (you've got Throne up; so does your opponent; you have a massive charge on), here's what I should have aimed to do:
1 - Dispelled the slann's throne of vines with power dice in my turn.
2 - Dispelled the casting of throne of vines on the slann's turn.
3 - Scrolled Flesh to Stone.
Without Throne up already, the slann has to cast it again and has fewer dice available for
Stone and
Comet. Either it becomes far more likely that I can successfully scroll Stone and kill the saurus or, if it does go off irresistibly the saurus only get T6 and the slann suffers a miscast. In either situation, with 2 or 3 fewer dice for chucking at big spells, the comet likely doesn't go off at all (by killing almost half the unit it led directly to the death of the swordmasters). By throwing all my power dice at Dwellers, I left Throne up and basically allowed the Lizardmen as much power as they needed to cast their best spells with impunity (albeit they got a big load of dice), and completely hammer me with magic the following turn.
The Problem with Dwellers – Army Synergy and the Magic Phase
Now in normal circumstances, I'd still often go for Dwellers, but the lesson here can be best summarised by a what a wise friend said to me when I told him this little story. He thought for a bit and said:
"You've built an army that's full of weapons. First off, your magic needs to make sure they can do their job, not just act as yet another weapon." This was something that I forgot this game: magic is there to work
with your army, not independently from it. In this battle, I engineered the best possible horde-smashing combo-charge but, being greedy for the quick kill, I used my magic irresponsibly and critically undermined it against a magic-heavy opponent who knew what he was doing.
Moral of the story: if you've got a killing strike in the bag, focus your efforts and make it count - don't go for another killing strike. In this case I went for two strikes neither worked, and it nearly cost me the game. Sometimes it's good to remember that I chose Life primarily for its healing abilities. Lesson (re)learned!
A charge this good doesn't need Dwellers Below.