@Rabidnid - I can see where you're coming from and how that can make sense in the right situation. However, leaving my Dragon in the open or charging anything here is simply poor play: I stand a very little chance of netting any more victory points and this is a league where we track winnings etc. According to the comp of the league his list could not have been a lot harder.
@pimousse771 - here you go:
Report up!
:: Veni, Vidi, Vici ::
My dragonlist:
Prince Saerith on Star Dragon - Vambraces of Defense, Great Weapon, Armour of Caledor, Talisman of Loec :: 622
Noble Naenor BSB on Great Eagle - Dragon Armour, Shield, Great Weapon, Helm of Fortune, The Other Trickster's Shard :: 216
High Mage Curu Olannon - Level 2, Annulian Crystal, Ironcurse Icon :: 180
Characters Total :: 1019
30 Archers, Full Command and Gleaming Pennant - 360
14 Archers, Musician - 159
10 Archers - 110
Core Total :: 629
30 White Lions, Full Command and Banner of Eternal Flame, Amulet of Light :: 505
5 Dragon Princes, Drakemaster with Skeinsliver :: 195
Special Total: 700
3 Great Eagles :: 150
Rare Total :: 150
Army total: 2498
His list:
Tzeentch Sorcerer Lord on Disc, 1+ armour save, 4+ ward
Khorne BSB on jugger, 1+ armour save, 4+ ward
40 Khorne Marauders, GW
38 Khorne Marauders, GW
24 Khorne Warriors, Halberd + Shield (ward save vs shooting banner)
15 Chosen, Halberd + Shield + full command (terror banner)
5 Warhounds
5 Warhounds
5 Warhounds
5 Warhounds
Warshrine
:: Pre-battle thoughts & deployment::
We have played eachother a couple of times before, of which 1 was with these exact lists. In our last encounter, I seriously out-deployed him in a refused flank manner to maximise my shooting potential. This time, he had learned his lesson with regards to this trick, though his lines were still rather spread out (as they need to be with his huge frontages. Magic saw me get Curse and Flames and I swapped Curse for Shield. He got neither Gateway nor Pandaemonium (!). Talk about a bad start for him! I was very relieved by this as my Dragon pretty much had a free playground.
I won the roll for sides and he had to deploy first. I chose to force him to either face the rock separating stuff or go through the woods (where he wouldn't be steadfast). He chose the first of these 2 and I knew I was to play a game I know very well
His Chosen receive +1S. With a +2 to start, I promptly rolled a '5' and got first turn!
:: High Elves Turn 1 ::
I place a number of dice 12" away from the Hellcannon, realizing that I can fly Saerith into the safe-zone. I promptly do it and spend an Eagle to deny the Warriors a charge on the Dragon. The rest move up fairly aggressively and I take care to ensure that my flyers and Dragon Princes cover a LOT of attractive Sorceror Lord spots. Magic is 7v3 after a channel on my part. The result sees Flames kill 23 (!) Marauders from his smaller unit and Lions receive Shield! A really good start for me.
The Archers follow up by killing a handful of hounds, which pass their panic tests due to BSB.
:: Warriors Turn 1 ::
The first that happens is that his Warriors fail their LD8 re-rollable frenzy test and this seriously ruins his plans. Unable to charge the Dragon, they go for the Eagle instead. This forces the Chosen-blocking Warhounds to try the same (his original plan was to wheel the Warriors Westwards to free up the Chosen). However, since he has to equilize the models fighting, the Warhounds now block the Chosen's path to Saerith (they were 12" away and he rolled double 5 for charge distance). He did however declare this charge + the Warshrine on the Dragon, while his last hounds charge the DP (to make way for the Shrine). The shrine however rolled very poor but the Hounds made the Princes.
So, net result: Eagle dual-charged by Warriors + Hounds, Chosen fail their charge, Warshrine fails its charge, Warhounds vs Dragon Princes. Not too bad, especially considering that the Warriors would have to overrun and be stuck against the stone for who-knows how long
Magic is 4v4 and he starts off with a flickering fire on the central Eagle, but a '1' for strength sees the bird escape any roast treatment. The last 2 go for Treason but I easily dispel with my 4D6. Flames kills off enough marauders to leave but 4 standing (they failed their free reform by the way so he gave up on them - hence the lack of flames dispel).
Note: I completely forgot that Flames only works in our own magic phases, at the beginning. Instead, I thought that it worked at the end of every magic phase.
His Hellcannon misses the Lions by a mighty 8" and kills 3 Hounds. The last 1 passes its panic test!
Combat sees the Eagle killed and the Princes make short work of the dogs. I reform them to gain 2" on the Chosen while mainting LoS. The Chosen get +1A.
:: High Elves Turn 2 ::
I consider whether to go for the big prize or not - the Dragon Princes are 15" away from the Chosen with Saerith and Naenor both having guaranteed charges. This is such a juicy charge because I can overrun into the Sorcerer Lord with Saerith and they haven't gotten the Ward yet. I check my math-hammer sheet and there's an 80% chance that my Princes will make it. I declare the charges and pray I don't get a repeat of my last match. The dice come up a '6', '4', '2' and I make it!
Magic is 11 v 6 which is big for me. I start off with a 2D6 Shield on the Dragon Princes which he is forced to dispel. As he comments, he has to have a chance to win this fight if he wants to have a chance at the game. I then follow up with a 6D6 Flames on his big Marauders which he tries (but fails) to dispel. Roughly half of them die. I fail to cast Drain with my remaining dice (poor roll).
The Archers pound on the Marauders some more and they're now down to a managable size.
The all-important combat sees the Drakemaster accept the challenge and slay the Chosen Champion with 2 unsaved wounds. The rest follow up and between the Elves, there are only 8 Chosen alive to hit back. They put 2W on Naenor, 3 on Faeria and kill all the Princes save for the Drakemaster (of course). After my Eagle fluffs its attacks, I cannot risk fluffing Faeria's 6 attacks so I declare breath fire - I promptly score 10 hits which results in -4 Chosen. After she's done attacking and thunderstomping there's 1 model left! He needs to roll fairly low, which he fails to do and auto-dies (banner). I reform Naenor, overrun Saerith into his Sorceror Lord and the Drakemaster stays still.
:: Warriors Turn 2 ::
His Warshrine charges Naenor. The Marauders charge the blocking Eagle. Hellcannon decides to try and shoot the Lions so it stays still (I could've challenged his Sorceror Lord out anyways).
Magic sees him get 5v5 and it all goes to Treason the Lions. I am powerless to defend against his +5 to cast, the result sees 14 noble Elves die to each-others axes. I pass panic. Some more Marauders die to Flames.
Shooting sees the Hellcannon misfire in a spectacular fashion! Everyone within 11" suffers D6 S5 hits - which kills Naenor, the Drakemaster, the Eagle as well as a couple of Marauders, a wound on Faeria and a wound on his Warshrine!
Combat sees Saerith kill the Lord and reform to face his Marauders with BSB.
After this, I charged the BSB and 1 remaining Marauder. I killed the BSB in a challenge and this left him with only the Warshrine and Warriors alive (I shot the rest of his dogs and Marauders). At this point he conceded!
:: Victory Points ::
A clear
massacre to the High Elves!
:: Evaluation ::
For sure, my opponent could not catch a break this game: he didn't get gateway, my crucial magic rolls were really good (flames had a high casting value both times, as well as winds being VERY favourable between double 3's with a channel etc), he didn't get ward save on the chosen, the frenzied warriors messed his plan up... I won't go as far as to say that luck won me the game, but I do feel that he was rather unlucky here.
The supreme movement of my flyers again allowed me to pick targets as I please, while denying the others a chance to intervene. I also realized this game just how powerful high magic is with this setup - it's almost impossible for me to get a poor spell combination. In this example, only the roll of Courage + Fury is rather poor, and even then I have some options to play around with by swapping one for Shield!
Despite the game lasting less than half its full potential, Faeria took 5W and Saerith 1W (Loec vs BSB). This just goes to show how powerful the Star Dragon is - I'm way more comfortable with it taking 5W than I would've been with a Sun Dragon (of course!). This model just tanks so much damage, and observing the mighty Carmine Dragon model wreaking havoc on a big scale warms a fantasy heart
A special shout-out goes to Brewmaster_D for encouraging High Risk, High Reward actions where appropriate. When I triple-charged the Chosen, I knew I could win the game there and then, barring obscene rolls. However, it could very well have turned out horribly if the Princes had failed their charge.
I must of course apologize for my mis-use of Flames. It's been a couple of games since I used it the last time and I had completely forgotten how it works! Fortunately, this hardly impacted the game at all, which I am very glad it didn't do!
Lastly, in spite of his bad luck my opponent was a very good sport here. It was an enjoyable game, although very fast, and I look forward to play him again. Again, I would appreciate input for him as well
I hope you liked this game! It's been a while since I had a short game, with most recent matchups drawing out to the full 6 turns. It's refreshing to know that when things go my way, I can completely obliterate an army in a few turns, even if that army consists of 100+ dedicated close combat models.
Regards,
~Olannon