A tale of Ellyrion: A 1st Tournament win. Game 3 report.

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Findolfin
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Re: Findolfin's Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 09-05-12 HE vs VC report

#61 Post by Findolfin »

dabber wrote:On Vampire turn 3, the Blood knights (with attached Vampire hero) charge the front of your Dragon Princes. The Vampire Lord also charges out of his unit into the DP flank. They completely wipe out the Dragon Princes and overrun. Except by rule they cannot overrun usefully. Overrun direction is always straight, which for the Vampire Lord is southeast. There is no way for him to overrun into your Silver Helms, which are north. The Blood Knights could theoretically overrun into the Silver Helms, but it is extremely likely the Vampire Lord would block them, even if he does his overrun move first.
I used the term overrun but there was a single survivor in the fight, the Drakemaster who was in duel with a blood knight and had charmed shield and luckstone. He did get cut down after he broke. So it was technically a pursuit move which was away from blood knights.
dabber wrote:The root problem with that combat was assuming the Dragon Princes would not be obliterated. Even assuming you were correct on the blood knights only having 2 attacks each total, you lose that fight. You have basically zero damage output from the Dragon Princes - 0.45 wounds, plus 0.3 from the champion. Your BSB cannot be expected to kill the vampire hero. The Blood Knights alone, with just 10 attacks, average 3.5 wounds on you and their horses are worth another half a wound, for about 4 total. They win by 3 and your aren't Steadfast unless you get super lucky and kill 2 of them. I feel you clearly overestimated the combat ability of non-charging Dragon Princes.
The root of the problem is that I did not saw that flying flank charge of the general coming. Without him in the equation, I tought I could lock his vampire in duel with my champion drakemaster equipped to survive a round, not knowing blood knight could accept duels. My BsB would also been normally ASF and s6 and killing bloodknights, not his hero. My BsB did not get the chance to swing. While I was not expecting to win the CR, I expected to kill at least 2 blood knights and keep my front rank while he would lose his, for steadfast. With Prince in range and the BsB, they had a good chance to hold. His general flying flank charge and aura did put an end to all that. It was not assuming Dps could hold the Blood knights. His General alone would have probably done it all the same.
Last edited by Findolfin on Thu May 10, 2012 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Findolfin's Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 09-05-12 HE vs VC report

#62 Post by Findolfin »

Swordmaster of Hoeth wrote:HI Findolfin,

Thanks for the reports! I really like them, especially the second one when you pulled off quite an impressive win! Your prince is a true hero! :)

As to the games it looks like you should not tease lady luck by exposing flank to RBT shot. LA had some proper advantage in mobility with his Dragon but you could have reached his softer flank faster. I am wondering it was not a better choice to attack it first instead of being held by Lions and then finished by Dragon. Also, you might have tried to shoot at his dragon with your RBT too! It always makes people nervous :)

In the second game it was indeed harsh lesson but you emerged victorious. I agree you had a lot of luck but it also shows that you should never give up :) There were a lot of interesting moments and I am sure you have learned a lot. It was good call not to charge Zombies to prevent the charge of more powerful enemy unit. You learned how dangerous lone characters can be and that you should always pay attention to opportunities for them to bolt away. It seems Black Knights are more delivery system here :) You also learned how powerful CR can be against undead and that ranked core infantry can do what some elites cannot. 3+ ranks on the flank is deadly even to Vampire Lord :)

Oh, and last but not least, you should have played with your son as the team :) He would be "rolling dice" and offering tactical advice :)

Cheers!
Thanks for the technical advices, I will look into that next time :)

And yes, at first I tought vampire were way overpowered but now that I saw what CR does to them, I understand why they are so. I guess they are really needing to come on top every fight, or else they crumble. So I'd say rank and files probably shine the most against them or any unit that can hold them back without taking too much casualties.

For shooting at dragon, all my shooting was against it that game. RBT and seaguard did nothing.

As for my son, he is still too young to understand and stay put. But I do let him throw dices when we play during the day :)
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Findolfin's Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 09-05-12 HE vs VC report

#63 Post by Findolfin »

So, I had a game against BrewmasterD last night. As I am trying to learn enemies I never played against, he showed me the ropes against his skavens. Dirty rats...

The game was very late at night, both were too tired in the end and I did not kept notes as I wish I had do. But still, here is what I got and remembers:

My list saw some changes, trying to have a better range support. The lore was Heaven and had a double harmonic / comet.

Prince, same build
BsB 2+ rerollable and 5+ ward
Archmage lvl4, silver wand, harmonic, comet, chain lghtning, curse and wind blast
Mage lvl2, seerstaff harmonic/comet
26 seaguard fc, eternal flames
11 archers, mu
11 archers, mu
9 silver helms, mu
9 dragon prince, mu, sb sorcery banner
5 reavers, mu, bow
1 Tiranoc
2 RBTs

His list was so numerous I lost count

Grey seer, 3 tokens, pestilent breath, bless with filth, cloud of corruption, 13th
Priest on furnace
Engineer, doom rockets and stuff
BsB
2 slaves hordes
1 clan rat horde
1 big horde of plague monks, furnace
20 clan rats
5 giants rats
6 runner gutters
1 doom wheel
1 Abobination
2 mortars
2 warp canons

Deployment after vanguard.
Image

I don't have knowledge at that point but i am devoting my General, Dragon Princes and reavers to take out the machines while I castle on the hills.

I roll 1 and goes second as usual.

Skaven turn 1:
I lack images of the first turn.

His doom wheel almost reach my lines as we start. Everything march on. Magic is uneventful. His 4 war machines pretty much destroy half
of my heavy cavalry. Not only his canons shoot canon ball, but they also have templates like the mortars. All of theses is no armor saves, empire guns are a joke compared to this. But it's too late at that point to change anything

High elf turn 1.
Remant of the silver helm and BsB have the doomwheel flank and charge it, destroying it. I should have overrunned off the board but forgot I could do that, so reformed.
Reavers march past the runner gutter while shooting and missing.

Magic was unenventful except for a comet in front of the advancing ennemy.
Shooting was useless as always, except 5 wounds on abo and clearing his giant rats chaff. Knowing what I know now, I should have focussed everything into his general unit. I tought he needed to use his unmodified LD but turns out slaves were testing from 5 to a 10, not 7...
Probably still would not have accomplished anything though due to their sheer numbers. Other high priority would have be to take out the two mortars, but I tought they had 3 wounds and a high toughness like most machines.

Skaven turn 2:

Image

His plague monks charge the silver helms, who hold since they will flee off the table anyways. They are destroyed and fail to even kill the priest. However, plague monks overrun off the board.
Dragon Princes are annilihated and General also die. 2 Reavers die from runner gutters counter fire.
Seaguard see their toughness reduce by 1
Comet lands, taking out about 15 rats between both his units.

Situation looks like this at the end of the turn.
Image

High elves turn 2:
Image

The 3 remaining DPs charge the 20 rats to overrun into cannon. They flee off the board. They redirect to finish abo, which also flees.
Seaguard and chariot charge, seeking refuge from machines in combat.
Reavers make it to the warp canon.

Magic only see a comet on right canon, all the rest is dispelled or scrolled, including 2 attempts at harmonic and a curse.

I now inquiry on the mortars stats, having seeing them move and fire earlier, it has to be weak. And it is, pointing me that I should have cleared them turn 1...

I open up with reavers, they miss. Archers, they miss. First RBT, multiple shots. All miss. Last RBT barely manage to kill the left mortar. At least the other fails panic, so they both gone.
Remaining archers fails to finish abo.

Elves win CC but they cannot kill general hiding in second rank, and fail to kill bsb. They hold. Engineer goes down at least, so Greyseer step forward.

Skaven turn 3:
No image.
Warp canon kill a single dragon Prince
Gutters shoot and destroy remaining reavers and last hope to take out the canon.
Corruption cloud goes off on seaguard as I am informed he can use it in CC. His unit also suffer however. Still, on T2, more than half the seaguard dies.
Comet lands on canon and dont do even 1 wound.
Chariot flees
Seaguard hold despite 6 remaining, managing to kill both BsB and Greyseer.

High elves turn 3:
Image
It's 2AM in the morning, and we call it a day. I finish my turn as best I can.
Despite both Generals and BsBs dead, he still have a full plague monk unit.
So DPs fails a long charge on canon.
Chain Lighnting, Wind Blast, remaining archers don't do a single wound on furnace. But at least wind blast push them 4 inch away ( not shown ) for some respite.
RBTs manage to finish Abobination
Seaguard dies.
Chariot rally.

He mentionned my tally was 1200. I am unsure if he counted the 200 for BsB and General.

His tally is, after I calculate today, 1172. Add to this a standard captured in cc, killing General and BsB. 225 if i am not mistaken, so around 1400 total.

So victory for skavens.

Considering the match up, my lack of skaven knowledge, I did better than I tought. His machines were simply too accurate and pretty much destroyed me right from turn 1.
Admitedly there was some bad target prioritizing on my part but the ensuing poor shooting rolls would have still made it very mediocre as I was barely even able to take out his 2 mortars with everything I had.

Overall, I was as usual pretty much disatisfied with RBTs and elven shooting. I have said it often, but now it is final: RBTs are out.
I will keep the minimum I need to take out chaffs, but that will be it.

Heaven lore was disapointing. I expected more from harmonic in tandem with shooting. Comets were often cited as excellent to take out war machines. I did not see that. It did not pass the test and I don't think I will look back. Whats left to try is Light, Shadow, fire and Death. That or stay with Beast which was actually good.

So that is all until I make another round of tweaks to the list.

Thanks to DrewmasterB for the game :)

EDIT: I felt naked without my reavers, they will be back.
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Brewmaster_D
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 15-05-12 HE vs BrewmasterD Skavens

#64 Post by Brewmaster_D »

Hey Fin!

Thanks again for the game. I can help patch in a few things here that got overlooked/worded wrong due to our sleep deprived delerium:

Skaven

Grey Seer, Earthing Rod
Engineer, Doomrocket, Warp Energy Condenser
Plague Priest, Flail, Scroll, Furnace
Cheiftain, Foul Pendant, Halbred

50 x Slaves, Musician
50 x Slaves, Musician
50 x Clanrats, HW+S, Full Command, Poison Wind Mortar
20 x Clanrats, HW+S, Poison Wind Mortar
5 x Giant Rats, Packmaster

40 x Plague Monks, Full Command, Plague Banner
6 x Gutter Runners, Poison, Slings

Abomination, Warpstone Shards
Doomwheel
2 x Warp Lightning Cannons

Turn 1 - like a weiner here, I moved my slaves up 12" accidentally, and later fixed it. Doomwheel moves directly forward and rolls a massive 15" on 3D6, leaving it open to an early charge. That engineer was probably going to betray me later, so no biggie.

I have a really good round with the warp lightning cannons this turn - when these things work right, they're absolutely spectacular. Unfortunately, they're also a cavalry army's worst nightmare, as was the case here.

Comets aren't quite so scary when you've got units of 50, hence me letting it go off - I view skaven as my "relaxation" army. I don't have to be on edge quite so much about things like that.

Turn 2 - Monks activated the plague banner here to make sure they finish off the knights. My move wasn't great here though - I should have just marched the unit up and breathed on it. I forgot about frenzy having to overrun (not used to having do deal with the other side of the equation :P), and that unit would have been better off not going off the board.

Poison wind mortars have a good round this turn on the Dragon Princes - one misfire (wouldn't be skaven without one!) and one direct hit. This dropped his unit below 5 models, and took away his look out sir allowing me to snipe him with a cannon.

Turn 3 - It was actually Plague that I cast on the combat. With the seaguard now at T2, I expected significantly more relative casualties on your part than mine. You rolled pretty well though, and I failed both the Seer and the BSB's T4 tests (!!), putting wounds on both. Again, wouldn't be skaven if I didn't get to mutilate my own troops.



Thoughts:

Keep in mind this game wasn't near over when we called it - Turn 3 is hardly conclusive either way. Having said that, the next turn would have seen some action on my side - slaves and clanrats into the Lvl 2 bunker and the furnace unit would be up as far as it could go towards the bolt throwers and archers.

Did my best to explain all the rules before the match, but skaven is one of those armies you just need to play against before you can get a good handle on them. Having said that, I think you did a great job in your first match vs. them. You took a brutal first round, and managed to pull it back from the brink.

Including the General and BSB bonus points, you scored 1327, so technically this was a draw.

Some tactics or possible list changes:

- You know this now, but always shoot/magic missile the weapons teams. They're just T3 1 wound, with a 4+ ward if they're near their parent unit.
- The furnace unit is a steamroller, nothing short of a deathstar can usually stop it. Divert it, try to pop the furnace or whittle the unit down with shooting before you think of engaging it.
- I'm not sure doubling up spells on heavens is the way to go - the effects of the buff you've doubled up don't stack, and comet just isn't that scary with its unpredictable nature. I like to just walk through it, as it usually disrupts my enemy's plans because they expect me to react to it.
- You really had a tough gig in this matchup with all of your armour. Skaven has *so* many anti-armour options it's not even funny. Poison wind mortars, plague furnace toughness tests, Plague (the spell), warp lightning cannons, Doomwheels - hats off to you for weathering that storm!
- I think eagles really would have served you well. Your list lacked the ability to redirect some of my nastier stuff, so instead you had to commit combat units to it.

We'll definitely have to hook up a rematch now that you've got one game vs. them under your belt!

D
[i]There is nothing do fear but fear itself... well, that and Toughness tests. [/i]

Check out my Army Blog for tactics, battle reports and general ramblings: [url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=35454]Brewmaster D's Coven of Light Army List Blog[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=35478]The Art of Deployment[/url]
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Findolfin
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 15-05-12 HE vs BrewmasterD Skavens

#65 Post by Findolfin »

Well BrewmasterD, the game at least got me thinking :). I had mentionned having trouble with flying units and big monsters or strong builds like a vampire general, or a combination of it all. The abobination, doomwheel and furnace ( I never realised it was a mount :P ) were part of this theme. I also wanted to have ranged power to adress war machines.

My idea with the heaven lore was that the extra damage vs flying would help deal with the above, and the long range of comet would deal with canons. Lsg, Archers and RBT on harmonics would wreck long range havoc. It did not worked out at all. The initial several wounds on abo were only thanks to LSG flame banner. So the range magic power / shooting set up shoudl have been dedicated toward your rank and files. I still feel it would have barely softened it up. While I can keep this in mind and use it that way in a next game, that's not what I want of my magic and shooting.

"I have become Death..."

BSB Barded steed, GW, Helm of fortune, Trickster Shard and 6+ ward
Prince Barded steed, GW, RGOH lore of death, Jewel of dusk, T. gauntlets, luckstone.
Archmage level 4, Death lore, silver wand.
Mage level 1, Metal Lore, Anulian Crystal

20 spears, FC
20 LSG, FC, eternal flame
10 LSG, mu, no shield ( mainly a pretext to field my maiden guards :P )

9 silver helms
8 silver helms
5 dragon princes, Banner of sorcery
5 spears-reavers
5 spears-reavers
5 bow-reavers , mu
5 bow-reavers , mu

I think it's time for a more drastic approach and there is really only one lore to do it: Death. Backed up by sorcery banner and jewel, with a nice spammable list of spells. Hopefully it will put an end to most of the tricky nasties that have plagued me lately or at least keep them humble. I also squeezed in a crystal caddy, which will have metal lore to kill armored threats.

The added MSU provides me with chaff I crucially needed. Guess I'm slowly getting from MMU to MSU against what I initially thought was best. A step in the good direction? We will see.
The 2 spears units are what they are, support for the helm busses. Chariot is gone, I felt it was not adding much at this point. LSG can defend itself against small threats and make use of the flame banner. I figure that with the 24" range of death spells, they will be a correct bunker, especially giving me a pretext to use my maiden guards :).

We have discussed the RGOH earlier, but my experience is even the Prince tougher build rarely can match the monstruousities out there. Granted it did work against vampires, but I cannot count on rolling that amount of ward save every games. As a matter of fact, he died in 2 of my last 3 games. With this in mind, I'd rather have him kill before being killed. With LD10, I don't need to recap the use of spirit leech. If Doom and Darkness gets trough prior to it, even better. He still sport a GW, 2+ save, with a single reroll and a 5+ ward. So he is not that squishy. His jewel and extra channeling provide power dices. If he kills with his spell, he might generate some more. More to the point, I will have a better time at being patient.

Let me elaborate on that last point, I had a tough time to force the ennemy within my charge range. Both because my lack of chaffs to control the flow but also because I felt impatient and needing to charge. While I can work on the patience side, with him sniping threats, I can bid my time more easily. So as I mention above, the idea is to use the Death Lore to take out the nasties. The -3 leadership curse will also help my cavalry breaking stubborn/steadfast units.

I think the list feels at least more scary than the last overall.
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
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Elessehta of Yvresse
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 15-05-12 HE vs BrewmasterD Skavens

#66 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Your Mage Knight, I'll be running a build much like that against my mates Empire, I'm going for two spells rather than the extra dice this time because he'll be only caster in the game.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
[quote="Narrin’Tim"]These may be the last days of the Asur, but if we are to leave this world let us do it as the heroes of old, sword raised against evil![/quote]
cptcosmic
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 15-05-12 HE vs BrewmasterD Skavens

#67 Post by cptcosmic »

I saw that you ran larger reaver units in the past. have you ever thought about running beast magic with such a setup? the lore is actually underrated and very flexible, imho the only bad spell it has is the transformation. I use beast lore alot, it has a cheap missile to threaten soft chaff, a strong missile to threaten monsters, it has a multi purpose curse with great range (penalize charge/march, protection in close combat and from ballistic skill based shooting), buffs for your prince/noble bsb and a large reaver unit would benefit from wyssans alot.
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 15-05-12 HE vs BrewmasterD Skavens

#68 Post by Findolfin »

cptcosmic wrote:I saw that you ran larger reaver units in the past. have you ever thought about running beast magic with such a setup?
Hi there and thanks for the interest. :)

I actually did run such a setup with beast magic, you can see the report against vampire counts. It worked ok but wyssan was not enough in itself to make reavers able to beat his vargheists. They however did hold their ground. Savage beast was hard to get off on Prince but I eventually did in the end and yes, it was strong. Still, the list felt overall lacking outside theses 2 spells. I might still run a lvl2 with theses 2 spells in the futur tough.

Elessehta, I am unsure if a Mage Knight can be viable as the only caster but let me know how it worked out :P

Latest news is that I painted a lot of minis last 2 weeks in preparation for tomorrow's tourney. My friend choked on me so I'll go alone. Hopefully will have a chance to meet with BrewmasterD who will be also attending from what news i have. :D
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 15-05-12 HE vs BrewmasterD Skavens

#69 Post by Findolfin »

Well, a quick update.

Prior to tourney I had a game with Jwg20 vampire counts on UB and he did win his rematch. He is supposed to make the battle report sometimes ahead. The game was made in 3 sessions and saw me forget to dispel curse of years 2 times in between them which ended up in decimating both of my helms bus. Also, my AM managed to fail his 2 first casts, one on triples 1s and the other on two 1's and a 2. This happened between my 2 first magic phases were I had 12 power dices... This coupled with a last effort charge saw my helms run over along with my general. It was a poor show on my part and a decisive victory for my opponent who made sure to exploit my errors as any good player would do :) .

So, I finally went to tourney hoping that the real feel of the table would put me back on my feet. The tables, terrain and buildings were simply splendid. You could tell a lot of effort was put in organizing that tourney. I also met with BrewmasterD who was also attending. He is a very nice gentlemen and we got to discuss a bit, he might have very well convinced me to use some eagles. Indeed, due to lack of time, 10 of my helms were still out of action so I ended up fielding Eltharion the Grim on Stormwing.

BrewmasterD: Did you consider at least expirimenting with eagles on UB?
Me: No, I don't like chickens.
BrewmasterD: What is that if not a chicken!? ( pointing at Stormwing )
Me: It's a Glorified half-Chicken. It's not the same thing...
BrewmasterD: ...
Me: Alright, I'll give it a thought...

So, anyways, I had a good time except my first game which was a bit rough against a 19 years experienced player who ended up 2nd. He was playing empire and was very competitive, we did not really talked much outside of the battle. I did hold my own and was actually giving him some troubles until his Hellblaster managed a spectacular row of rolls trough long range and covers. I also had really underestimated the fanatics.
Overall, I did ok in the tourney, with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. It seems I am so far condemned to play as an average 500 with my cav list opposed to how easy I had it with my initial infantry list. I still think there is room for improvment, so I won't give up yet :)

I'll get the reports up soon.
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 04-06-12 Tourney news

#70 Post by Findolfin »

Took me some time to get the will to write the first of thoses tourney report. So here it is, finally.

My list for the tourney used Eltharion on Stormwing, both an attempt at using a Griffin list and mainly justified by the
destruction of my second unit of high helms at the hands of my son. The list was put together and semi painted at the last minute. I did at least get 3 base colors on most my models and some more. I wanted to try the combination of 3 terror causing units in combination with doom and terror spell and a spirit leech Ld10 prince, lvl 2 on top of it.

Eltharion on Stormwind, lvl 2 Death
Lvl 1 Death mage, Annulian crystal
Lvl 2 Beast mage, Jewel of dusk
BSB, barded horse, GW, helm of fortune, guardian phoenix

10 LSG, mu ( maiden guard )
20 LSG, fc, banner of eternal flame
20 spears, fc

5 Dragon Prince, mu, SB, Wailing banner
5 dragon Prince, FC, Banner of sorcery, Terror mask
9 Silver Helms, mu
5 reavers spears
5 reavers spears


Tourney game 1, High elf against the Empire: A Bridge too far...

Empire list was a very beautifully painted army, and actually won best painted:

Arch Lector on War Altar ( Banishment chariot ), white cloak, charmed shield, sword of might
Captain of the empire BSB, enchanted shield, luckstone, iron curse, Hold the line.
Light Wizard Lord, power stone
Shadow battle wizard, lvl2, dispel scroll

30 Halberdiers State troops, mu, sb
15 Free company
23 Greatswords
24 Flagellants, flail
6 Reiksguard knights, mu, sb, eternal flame
6 Knights of the inner circle, mu, sb, gleaming pennant

Great canon
Hell blaster
Hell blaster

PROLOGUE:
"It was a stormy day when the High elves arrived near the town of Tormund. Scouts had found it's location a day ahead,
rumours had it that a potent elven artifact had been found, and it was'nt long before Eltharion himself had set sails
there. Unfortunately, the empire garrison commander had no intention on giving up his new found treasure.

The Empire had chosen the most defensive position behind the large river, ambushing the High elf landing force on the sea shore under heavy artillery. High elves were thus forced to rush their force forward, initially without most of their heavy cavalry."


Scenario rules were that both players rolled for each unit prior to his deployment. On a 6, that unit was delayed 1 round. Table was divided from corner to corner diagonally ( preventing me from deploying on other side of river ). First player deployed his whole army, choosing his side of table and +1 to roll to see who was going first. Second player then deployed.

Things really did not start well by losing the first deployment. This meant his artillery and light coven would have a field day. That map had a 9 inch wide river, could not march in it and forced a difficult terrain test. This effectively meant my heavy cavalry would have to take 2 turns to cross it, leaving mainly the bridge as a crossing point... As if it could get worst, my Silver helm bus and one of the Dragon Princes unit holding my sorcery banner were delayed, forcing my hand in deploying my BsB with the second Dragon Princes since he had a canon. I really was not ready for such a scenario and was nervous since I was facing last year tourney champion, a player with 19 years experience in warhammer...

I do not recall his spells outside that he had double banishment and mostly only ever got one spell off in the game.
Myself had an ok selection, Doom&Terror and savage beast among others with of course double death signature.
spells.

EMPIRE went first.

Luckily I was able to shut down his magic phase throughout the game, thanks to 3 channelling rolls and AC. His canon ended up delayed to my relief, and now enter the field, while Hell blasters were out of range and repositioned. His right wing knights moved to cover the bridge while his left wing advanced to reposition itself along the river.

HE TURN 1
Left reavers rushed toward the river banks, they at least could cross it in one turn, and I figured if I could slip them behind ennemy lines, I would stand a chance at taking out artillery. Dragon Prince march toward the bridge, Eltharion on Stormwing did the same, dangerously exposing them to canon fire but at least protected from the hell blaster due to bridge height. Spears rushed forward, Mages and maidens advanced as well.

On my right right wing, the Lothern guard moved up and shot 3 fanatics flagellants while 2nd DP's finally arrived to help them and reavers prepared an attempt at getting to the cannon.

Despite a powerful phase, magic only sees doom&terror get trough on ennemy knights near bridge.

The left flank after turn 1
Image

The right flank after turn 1
Image

EMPIRE TURN 2

Only the left wing advance, the War altar and knights struggles to make it on the other side of the river ,
supported by their BsB, greatswords and fanatics.

The knights protecting the bridge fall back out of the Dragon Princes with Wailing banner charge range. It's a heavy blow... I was expecting them to fall back for an unlikely long charge but not totally out of range hoping on wailing banner terror charge despite the almost impossible range to get his unit running out of the map with the minus 3 to LD.
- Scared? I taunted
- I'm not taking a terror charge, he smiled. My own smile faded...
It's closed lists. My ennemy anticipated my unit was sporting that banner... Downright scary...

I shut down his magic, again. But now comes the canon ball, missing Eltharion.

HE TURN 2

BSB left the dragon princes and joined his helms units who were forced to enter at the end of the last turn. Dragon Princes did not chance just now venturing on the dangerously exposed bridge. Spears, followed by maidens, marched up, barely out of range of hell blasters but this time protecting the Dragon Princes flank by making a canon shot somewhat harder to make. Elatharion now flew across the river, determined to make it on the empire flank. Reavers elect to wait, crossing just now would just get them shot by hell blaster. My reasoning is that when I advance within it's shooting range, I will do so with multiple units.

Magic sees only spirit leech from Eltharion getting off, taking out a single knight, lacking any other target. Seaguard take out some more fanatics but not nearly enough. Empire manage to dispel doom and terror.

High elves consolidate as they prepare to cross the bridge:
Image


EMPIRE TURN 3

Empire left wing advance in force, now all units are on the High elf side of the field while 3 of them are within charge range of the High elf right wing.

MAGIC: Empire magic phase is shut down until he has 4 dices vs my 6 dispel dices. Banishment is cast from the altar and I
manage to roll five 1s to dispel it. He promptly roll double 6 for hits. The maiden guard (LSG )is incinerated, only the musician and both mages remains, yet they are too stunned to panic. The canon take out the last maiden, as part of secondary objective to anhilate the enemy core and producing a panic check all around. But all HE units pass it with BsB nearby.

I did not see that coming.

HE TURN 3

Spears charge the war altar before they get charged. The 2 now lone mages plunges into the icy water to get cover behind the bridge pillars. The horn sounds and the Dragon Princes agressively march across the bridge right in front of the hell blaster and knights, silver helms also march on the bridge. Reavers now cross the river without losses, and are out of the water thanks to their 9 inchs movement and Eltharion also gets within Hell Blaster range range.

Right wing Reavers manage to slip past flagellants, now behind ennemy lines. Dragon Princes attempt to follow them but spectacularly fails their LD test... placing them in a very akward position as they angle to face fanatics.

Magic sees doom and terror from Eltharion get trough again on the hell blaster crew and his spirit leech also gets trough, unfortunately drawing the ennemy scroll. It's bad news... LSG shoot one last time at the fanatics, taking a few more but it won't be enough.

Close combat sees the spear win dealing 1 wound but War altar holds on stubborn...
Image

DPs are left in an akward position:
Image

EMPIRE TURN 4

Ennemy greatsword advance toward the LSG. Flagellants make their charge on Dragon Princes who have no choice but to hold. Reiksguard Knights turn tail to try intercept reavers. On the High elf right wing, Knights charge the Dragon Princes.

Magic is shut down, but shooting is lethal as the Hellblaster fire at Eltharion. Despite long range, a huge number of hits comes up and manage to get trough the 8 wounds between rider and mount, and all that despite the 5+ ward for both models as I promptly fail ALL saves with another string of 1s and 2s... Great Canon find it's mark on the silver helms on top of the bridge and take out 4 of them.

The High elf general is slain... Soon after that, the flagellants destroy the dragon Princes after 10 fluffed attacks but they at least overrun out of the map. 3 more Dragon Princes are killed by the knights but kill 1 of them. They manage to hold thanks to nearby BsB. Spears win again but are unable to inflict a wound. War Altar holds again on stubborn.

Knights charge the Dragon Princes:
Image

Dragon barely hold, 4 helms decapited by a canon ball and Eltharion is no more... :
Image

HE TURN 4

My moral is shaken. Only one thing is left to do, so the Helms makes a counter charge against his knights trough difficult terrain as horses jump over the bridge balcony, supporting remaining princes.

Failing their LD test to try get past the nearby Greatsword, the LSG is forced to "backpedal" and shoot at them, also getting the space for a last stand & shoot. Both reavers units press forward toward their targets.

Hidden behind the bridge, Beast mage manages to gets savage beast trough for my BsB despite the sorcery banner loss.

Close combat sees 3 Empire Knights miraculously survive the onslaught, still they break, losing banner with the remaining dragon princes in hot pursuit. The nearby hellblaster fails it`s panic test so the helms reform to face the halberds, leaving the task of mopping up to the reavers. Spears again win but it's no use...

Elven cavalry finally break trough:
Image


EMPIRE TURN 5

Reiksguard Knights rush back to defend the canon they are too far. Greatsword make their charge against the LSG, losing 2 to stand and shoot. Free company decide to not charge the silver helms due to savage beast. Swordsmen gets into the fray and charge the spears. The 2 knights rally...

Canon attempt to kill a dragon Prince but miss, almost shooting his own knights.

LSG and Spears both lose combat but not by much, both managing to hold their ground but it's clear they are now losing.

Reiksguard attempt to intercept reavers, greatsword press forward, flagellants come back on the battlefield:
Image

HE TURN 5

Dragon Prince charge the rallied knights, this time they finish them for good. Both reavers make their charge and finnally take out their target, Hell blaster and canon are destroyed, but it's late. Helms charge the free company detachment and thanks to another savage beast cast, run them trough, overruning into the halberds.

Spears and LSG fought bravely but the greatsword with BsB and the fresh sowrdsmen unit proven too much for them as both are overran, unfortunately completing the ennemy secondary objective.

The situation is grim for the elven infantry:
Image


So ends the battle as time ran out. I could not see myself changing the course of the battle anyways at this point. At least my opponent told me I gave him a run for his money.

From his perspective, I should have been more patient with Eltharion and charged him against the war Altar with the spears. I think so too but wanting to use his spells and terror combo to clear that flank appeared a good idea at the time. Also, he said, trying to slip the dragon princes past the flank was not needed, I should have also been more patient and kept them with the LSG. I'm not too sure about that last one, I doubt the LSG and DPs could have been any match against his greatsword, knights and flagellants. Maybe with Eltharion in the center taking out the War Altar.

On terror, I was left with a poor opinion on Terror despite the combo and it won't change trough next 2 reports of that tourney. It is something I will not be trying again for various reasons, the main one being the sheer number of units out there that can litterally ignore it.

Overall, considering It was my first tourney game ever and that I was facing last year champion ( and this year second place ) and such an expirimented player, I am not too ashamed of myself. Crossing that bridge was a feat in itself and once again, silver helms proven with how much gallantry they could do it. The game gave me enough insight as to do way better on following games that day, reports to come later :)
Last edited by Findolfin on Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 04-07-12 Tourney Game1 report

#71 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Nice try Findolfin, better luck next time. You did pretty well for an army without a lot of ranks. That Spear unit really needs to be a touch bigger I think.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 04-07-12 Tourney Game1 report

#72 Post by Findolfin »

Thanks Elessehta,

My core is supposed to provide mainly ranks to my cavalry charges, they were never meant to fight on their own. So you are right here in seeing a problem, I litterally did not use them in combination with my cavalry, which was a mistake on my part. I think what led to it was combination of several things: For one, my heavy cavalry was delayed, which disrupted my deployment and battle formation. Secondly, he completely outgunned me, with artillery and dual banishments while my spells and shooting had only 24", which meant I had to press forward. Thirdly, the only point of crossing for my heavy cavalry was the bridge...

My decision was then a bit forced to use infantry to bait him on the right side, delay him and use my fast elements on the left side, once they entered the map, to cross the river asap and try to outflank him. It worked to some degree, the bulk of his force took the bait, but the unlucky loss of my Prince to the hellblaster ended my hopes. Had he survived, or kill the hell blaster outright with the spirit leech, he would have been able to come to the spears help in time.

For my List , I should have kept the Dragon Princes in a second bus with an hero. Heavy cav in wings of 5 are suboptimal. Also, both their banner and terror gimmicks were an immense points sink. As I mention earlier, the 3 terror charge combo with death lore appeared good on paper, but in practice it does not. Death lore did not deliver either that day either.

On the bright side, reavers were outstanding for the whole tourney. Also, the Griffin performed correctly in view of the whole tourney ( You'll see in next reports ) and I think he would do good supported by a dual cav bus. I'll post such a list pretty soon too. :)
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 04-07-12 Tourney Game1 report

#73 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Terror isn't what it used to be, and Death is a decent support lore. Eltharion is quite good with it, but your other level two would have been better off running beasts as well I think.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 04-07-12 Tourney Game1 report

#74 Post by Findolfin »

Elessehta of Yvresse wrote:Terror isn't what it used to be, and Death is a decent support lore. Eltharion is quite good with it, but your other level two would have been better off running beasts as well I think.
Sorry for the late reply and I do agree with you :)

On the flip side, it did helped to prevent many fear tests we High elves tend to have to deal with more often than we would like to. While the wailing banner probably cost too much, the mask of eee! was not such a bad investment for a unit champion.
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 04-07-12 Tourney Game1 report

#75 Post by Findolfin »

Well, here it is. It was a long overdue report of tourney game 2:

I don`t have the list he used with me, so bare with me and look at real life pictures :)
Mostly was a friendly list, at least I think it was:

- Black Orc Warboss
- BsB mounted on boar ( this one was tough as nail )
- lvl 4 great shaman
- lvl 2 shaman
- Goblin hero on spider (P)

35 night goblins (G1)
40 night goblins (G2)
5 wolf riders (H1)
5 wolf riders (H2)
5 wolf riders (H3)

19 Black orcs FC (BG)
6 Trolls (M1)
1 Mangler Squig (M2)
3 war machines ( mix of catapults/doom divers)
Araknoc Spider

On my side, it was the same list as in last report.
My spells:
Eltharion Lvl 2 : Death signature, doom & darkness
Lvl 2: Beast signature and savage beast of horros
Lvl 1: Death signature

Deployment

Image here shows the map had some topography that made it hard to physically deploy the units, so some High elves units seems to be deployed past the line. Since I was going first anyways, we simply measured from that line in following moves ( see tactical view ):

Image

Zoom on the Orcs deployment:
Image

Tacical view:
Image

TURN 1 - High elves

The mist had covered the riders advance until they all lined up on the crest of the gentle slope, giving them a clear view of the goblins camp. High elves advanced as one, keeping their line bristling with the cold steel tips of their lances, but keeping a slow pace.

Lothern guard is first to open hostilities, concentrating fire on the giant squig and ennemy wolf riders patrol, inflicting some wounds. Magic sees both spirit leech attempts thwarted despite getting trough the enemy defenses. It does however make clear to the ennemy that they can`t sit back while their leaders and BsB are targetted.

Image

Elves elect to forsake vanguard moves and wait for an opening. Looking back, I am unsure why I did not use the option. I think I wanted to keep a full battle line and make sure reavers would not end up fleeing counter charges and mess my own charge lines. As seen there, my battle line was at around 15-16 inchs from the orcs, which meant mostly the orcs needed 11-12 on 2d6 for their infantry while my swift stride cavalry would have no troubles, needing 6 or 7s on 3d6.
Image

TURN 1- Orcs and Goblins

It does not take long for the ennemy black orc leader to whip his boyz into action and raise the alarm into the camp. The chaotic ennemy formation advance amidst some confusion as they realize many high elves units are already in charge range while they can`t counter charge properly.

The orcs left flank spurs into action led by the mighty Araknoc , followed closely by the Giant squig and powerful Trolls, while most of the battle line answer the high elves with an echelon formation, hoping to disrupt the High elves tight front line.

Catapults throw their first stones and manage to knock 4 spears elves witha grazing hit while other shots fail their mark. Magic is easily countered by the High elves.
Image

Image

TURN 2- High elves

The enemy main unit , the Black orcs, seems unimpressed and over confident facing the dragon princes and Eltharion. While their BsB is mostly at safe distance, themselves are not and misjudge the danger in which they are.

Eltharion`s eyes darkens as he sees an opportunity. The intent is clear, aim at the ennemy General and his boyz. Horns are sounded as the charge is ordered by the elven Prince. Thunder is heard leagues away under the tramplings of the horses hooves. The Dragon Princes make their charge as well as Eltharion.

Nearby goblins had a nasty surprise however and Stormwing is has to fly trough chain balls thrown at him. It`s not enough to stop the beast, protected by it`s rider special ward. Meanwhile, right flank dragon prince and left flank reavers break trough ennemy line to threaten war machines.

Jewel of dusk and banner of sorcery ensure a powerful 12-6 magic phase and sees Wyssan succesfully cast on the dragon Princes while Doom and Darkness hits the Black Orcs. Lothern Guard finish both it`s target, as the Giant squig squirms on the ground and last wolf riders are taken out.

The combat is short and brutal as horses and Griffon crashes into the green tide. The Drakemaster issue a challenge and slays the ennemy champion. At least a dozen orcs are slain outright before they can even swing their great weapons, some are stomped by Stormwing. Eltharion slays the ennemy general before he can even blink but one rider is felled before the ennemy unit is ran down, after failing their test.

Image

Stormwing is wounded but breaks trough:
Image

TURN 2- Orcs and Goblins

It`s a heavy blow for the orcs, but the BSB refuse to surrender after his new promotion as first in command. He spot the ellyrian reavers who are about to get to the catapult and spurs his boar and wolf riders escort into a charge the elves must accept. Despite 3 wolf riders taken down, they are overwhelmed and flee the battlefield.

Araknoc spider charge the ellyrian blocking their way, which flees, then succesfully redirect into spears but fail the charge.

Trolls attempt a long charge on the LSG, who stand and shoot. Unfortunately for the trolls, they`ve choosen to charge the flaming banner and are surprised as one troll get shot down. But still, they manage to reach the elves who were`nt expecting it that soon. Despite flaming attacks, elves only manage 5 wounds and take 10 in return. Luckily, they are still steadfast and stand their ground thanks to nearby BsB.

Magic is uneventful but war machines start to find their target. Grazing hits take out 3 silver helms and manage to wound Stormwing who is starting to feel it. Goblins first block advance toward the elves while the second one tries to face the units that broke trough the lines. Spider rider and first unit of wolf riders put some pressure on the flanks.

Image
Image

TURN 3 - High Elves

Reavers fail to rally. Right wing Dragon Princes finally hit the war machines. Silver Helms sound the charge and hit the trolls hard in the flank. While they are in a bad position and despite bunkering two elven mages, the small LSG unit decides to charge the goblin block who also host the enemy casters in an average risk bid.

The spears move out of the way so Silver helms can possibly overrun into the massive spider. Griffon and Dragon Princes manoeuver in the enemy deployment zone.

Magic is strong and 6 dices thrown at a bubble version of beast of horros, which goes trough without miscast. Since both mages and BsB would be in the area of effect, the bid was to wreck havoc in the enemy casters and trolls unit with an overall 14 high strength attacks. There was also a distinct possibility the goblins would fail their fear test, which they actually did and mitigated return attacks. All trolls, lots of goblins and both enemy casters died, while they failed to inflict much casualties.

Unfortunately, despite all going according to plan, the goblins still passed their steadfast LD 6. Also, the Silver Helms overrun failed to reach the monstrous spider.
Image


TURN 3 - Orcs and Goblins

I am unsure of the decision of my opponent here, but he did decides to redirect-charge the Araknoc spider into the Helms after scaring away the depleted LSG. He mentioned that he could not move out of reach of the helms and taking the lance charge was as worst as taking the still augmented BsB attacks who might get the augment again in next round anyways, seeing as all his casters were now dead and he could hardly dispel anything. If he could soak the BsB hits, he was confident he would shrug off the strength 3 hits and overrun to help his goblins crush my engaged mages.

I don`t know about that. Maybe that spider was done for in any cases, all I know is that few st3 did get trough and Sir Lorik, the BsB, merrily hacked it apart. Meanwhile, still augmented mages also joyfully hacked goblins to pieces but unfortunately, the lvl 1 death mage was killed in action before the goblins were finally driven away despite their BsB best attempts. Another war machine crumbled under the dragon princes assault. Spider Rider having tried to position himself behind them, now gets full attention of free reforming helms.
Image
Image

TURN 4

Reavers rally. High elves encircle the remnants and chase away some units. Goblins tries to mount a last stand and block the elven spears block, yet can`t prevent the double dragon princes charge. LSG fires at wolf riders.
Image

Orcs mount a last ditch attempt to position themselves but it`s too late:
Image

TURN 5

Dragon Princes have a field day, running down the fleeing goblins. Spears kills off the chaff while Eltharion manage his only successful snipe of the tourney on the BsB with spirit leech. LSG unit let loose on the wolf riders unit, finishing them off while remnant of the other LSG kills 3 goblins. Silver helms chase the spider rider off the board. Remnants of the last goblin unit panic and it`s over.

Image

Massacre to the High elves!
I`ll give my views later on, hope you enjoyed the report and thanks for reading!
Feel free to comment :)
Last edited by Findolfin on Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 20-12-12 Tourney Game2 report

#76 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Eltharion is a monster, nice work.
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 20-12-12 Tourney Game2 report

#77 Post by Avicii »

Great win Findolfin! I really enjoyed the read.
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 20-12-12 Tourney Game2 report

#78 Post by Findolfin »

Thanks guys,
and yea Elessehta, I like Eltharion but also Stormwing. He is the only monster we can field with a ward ( +5 ) and he is very tough with 5 wounds, improved WS, Ld and Initiative. I know I can`t base an army around a named character but it was still a great choice to test a flying monster.

My impressions on that game:

Shooting: I did not have much fire power here and no magic missiles unless you count spiritleech. With a heavy cavalry list, I did not felt I needed more. It confirms my theory that HE shooting should only be used to clear chaffs and as a secondary weapon. The LSG is perfect for this.

Beast Lore: I was lucky enough to roll double to choose my beast mage spells. While I was only able to cast once instance of the signature and savage beasts, they both were cast at a decisive point. In all the games that day, it eclipsed the death lore in efficiency. I`ve tried light lore lately and it was so so. After giving most lore a fair try, I find myself drawn back to beast lore and it is very probable next year will be based around it.

Magic with Lvl 2 dispel and multiple mages: I was surprised as it went fairly well, never found myself having too much trouble shutting down ennemy phases and I was less worried about miscasts or losing one of them. Channelling was more consistent. Also enabled more arcane item, annulian crystal and jewel of dusk really had an impact point wise. More importantly, I defintely think I can get away without an AM.

Flying Monster riding character: I clearly saw the potential of having that tool at my disposal and probably will try to field him as an expandable eagle noble to try take advantage of the new rules for monstrous cavalry applying to them.

Core choice: Having units of 20 models, especially the spear unit, to add static res for my cavalry seemed a good idea on paper. However, getting that combo charge is nowhere as granted as it seems. I was lucky the seaguard did not break on that troll charge, only their stand & shoot and flaming banner saved them from being anihilated. It was certainly not their static res that helped the helms after that. As for my spears, they took one catapult hit and were already crippled. I would strongly advise anyone reading this to NOT EVER use this core choice. I also have strong doubts after a while that the whole min 625 pts of core deal is the way to choose your core.

Ellyrian reavers: I feel I did not use them correctly this game. I could have stalled the Araknoc spider sooner and more effectively. On the other side, I`ve tried too much to place them within charge range of the warmachine and completely forgot about giving them an escape route should the orc BSB charge. I could have placed them behind the spider rider in a single line, protecting them and enabling that charge, since even a single line would have worked to take out the machine. Still, even badly used, they pulled their weight around.

Small Dragon Prince units: Theses were ok but I keep feeling they were overcosted and both banners had no real impact. Yes they broke the black orcs but I`m pretty sure a unit of 10 reavers for less points would have done it same, backed by Eltharion. I do like the DPs, just unsure how I`ll use them in the future.
Charge distance: I`ve been getting this better and better, and while I never played the 7th edition, the principle still apply. A heavy cavalry list still enjoy a huge advantage here in denying the enemy to get the charge. The sweet spot to be is to place yourself where they need 11-12 on 2 dices which force very difficult decisions on them.

What`s next?

Image


I have an upcoming game against the Empire in the holidays, I`ll try force myself writing a report since I honestly did not find the will in my latest games.

Basically will be going with beast lore, an eagle noble, a heavy spear core. I will also try to squeeze in bows for my reavers. More importantly, I will revert back to my staple Double Silver helm bus but with a new twist. I have read a lot on the Bretonian forums lately, and tried a couple of time a new way to tackle my rank problem.

Seeing people have been investing over 600 points in star dragons lately, I deem around 450 points on a unit being acceptable theses days. So yes, including character model, I will be running 15 strong silver helm bus. Not the first time I try it but after lots of trials and errors, I have a feeling that the Bretonians have the gits of it with their 3 ranks. While we certainly don`t have their 3 wide lances advantage, our ASF, lords and nobles seems to make our cavalry bus superior in many ways. It`s a great gambit that would break with the idea that sees the bus mostly as a character delivery system.

We will see next year, as I update my list. Hope you guys help me on it when I post first drafts :)
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Tarval
Posts: 439
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2011 12:24 am

Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 20-12-12 Tourney Game2 report

#79 Post by Tarval »

Enjoyed your battle reports as well as the picturebecause they add so much more to the report. D talked about eagle which IMO they would really assist you army in that. They are small fast and can be used to redirect the enemy.in one game I have a unit of orges nine strong held at bay by one eagle. It just a matter of direction that keep him from charging the eagle. That and the five lc waiting on the other side.

I would like to say that you should look into your core more. What do you want out of it as far as roles. Mine is set up for MC, WM,chaff, burning units down, etc depending on what's on the other side. As well its set up for character movement.

Just some simple high lights. AM with foralaith robe use spear and archer core to grab a huge movement bonus to be set up to chase down a steam tank and lock him up. I have used this combo a few times with eagles as well to lock up none magical units while I run the other units over with 6x lion chariots....mahhahhh

Tuff to reply via phone uggg
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 20-12-12 Tourney Game2 report

#80 Post by Findolfin »

Well, I had a game against my friend`s Empire but due to a severe winter storm, he arrived a bit late and we kinda cut corners as far as setup goes. So there was no terrain and we decided to play a battle for the pass scenario on my 6 x 4 table. This was kinda fair as I had almost no shooting versus 3 war machines and a mix of x-bows / hand gunners of around 60 models. My apologies for the blend pictures.

It was a time to try my new theories for:
- stronger cavalry units based on bretonian tacticas I`ve read.
- horde for my core, going for point denial and speed.
- Beast Lore
- Lvl 2/lvl 1 mages
- Reintegrating bows on reavers
- Enforcing my staple dual heavy cavalry bus
- Removing a list limitation by fielding one unit of white lions ( I was not yet ready to fit in a noble on eagle, I think I should have kept my list pure )

HE list
- Prince Malrik, Beast Mage Knight: GW, BS, DA, T.Guantlets, Radiant Gem, Jewel of Dusk, luckstone
- BSB Sir Lorik: GW, BS, DA, helm of fortune, guardian phoenix.
- Lady Laetitia lvl 2 Beast Lore: silverwand
50 spears, FC, banner of swiftness
11 archers, mu, champ
14 silver helms, mu
14 dragon princes, mu, champ, iron curse
14 White lions, FC, amulet of light, gleaming pennant
5 reavers bow swap, mu
5 reavers bows wap, mu

HE Spells: wyssan, wyssan, pan pelt, curse of anraheir.

Empire list:
Mounted Lord with runefang
Mounted BSB
2 Priests GW
2 lvl 2 mages
1 engineer
25 Halberds FC
12 spears
12 spears
30 x-bowmens
30 hand gunners
25 Greatswords FC
10 inner circle knights
2 Great cannons
1 mortar

Empire Spells: miasma, miasma, steed of shadows, pendulum

Deployment:

Empire deployment was a bit messy and while he countered my core, first heavy cavalry unit with his own cavalry, halberd and greatsword, I was able to get him to misdeploy his x-bows. Also, my Dragon Princes were in good position while my white lions would be able to avoid most missiles fire and play a reserve role.

Empire cannons crew get ready to pound the enemy:
Image
High Elves forces are ready for battle:
Image
Tacical view:
Image
Image

TURN 1 - Empire
The snowstorm had led the High elves forces to advance blindly into the snowy pass in their tracking of the foul evil Lord Masuro and his shadowmancers. It took all the discipline of the High elves to keep their lines together as explosions and canon balls projected snow and trees in all directions.

Reavers were the first to first hear the imperial battle drums and spot the colored banners gradually becoming visible trough smoke and icy mist as the evil force advanced steadily.
empire on the move:

Image

Magic saw miasma of shadows hit the reavers, rendering their bows useless. Then a lone bullet from a sniper killed a rider on the right outright while a canon ball decapited another one soon after. Casulaties mounted up as mortar exploded in front of Dragon Princes while another shot took out two silver helms.

Image

TURN 1- High Elves
Elven riders held on despite the onslaught and reavers attempted the somewhat long charge against the canon ( since HE did not go first ), making it. Second riders tries to exploit the same gap.

Despite having deployed further back to avoid x-bow fire, the Spear formation surprise the empire when it advance 12 inch thanks to it`s banner, taking care to make sure to not expose it`s flank to the enemy knights. Similarly, the silver helms advance cautiously, exploiting their small charge range advantage over the heavier knights.

Magic and arrows are lost to the snowy winds, dispel scroll prevent curse of anraheir unto the knights, and despite reavers best attempts to kill a lone wizard, the shadowmancer is only wounded once as a nearby pikemen plunges to save him.
Image
Image

TURN 2- Empire
The Knights follow their Lord and BsB in a long range charge, mostly at maximum distance, and fail it by 3 inches against the confident elven Prince. However, the silver helms are suddenly taken by surprise when the cursed enemy banner glow darkly. The empire had a charge banner, adding d3 inches to their charge range...

Of course, a 3 promptly followed, and despite the best effort of the elven prince to kill the enemy lord, he survived and wounded him back with a runefang. Some elven steeds fell and riders were crushed under the weight. One too many riders fell as the helms saw their third rank killed and second rank down to 4, just enough to lose steadfast and get overrun as they broke. A hard blow, Lord Malrik had fallen, severely wounded...

Greatswords and halberds charged spears, but halberds failed on snake eyes. Cannon opened fire but misfired, disabled for another turn. Mortar hit 8 Dragon Princes, yet between their armor saves and the iron curse, none went down. First good news of the day, as Sir Lorik the BsB took command and rallied the shaken elves. Still, the earlier failed attempt on the shadowmancer life would ensure more elven casualties when hand-gunners transformed reavers into swiss cheese.

Remaining reavers finnally put down the empire canon crew. In the centerfield, despite Miasma hitting the spears, the combat is a bloody stalemate between them and greatswords. At last, Sir Lorik spot an opportunity to turn the tide. Ordering a spear reform to seven wide, the elves are able to free him and his dragon princes the space he will need...

After a successful miasma on HE spears, the wounded mage exchanged place with it`s counterpart , who had the steed of shadow spell to also get out of harm way. Firmly decided to prevent his escape, Lady Laetitia dispelled the attempt, leaving the evil mage stranded.

Image
Image

TURN 2- High elves

As the screening spear elves reformed, the gap was suddenly opened. Halberdiers eyes widened as the Dragon armored train charged into their rank. Their last hope disapeared when their spear detachment was prevented envelopment by the white lions. Reavers charged the mage and ran him down as he fled, ovveruning into the mortar.

Magic is average but finally sees wyssan getting trough for the spears and curse of anraheir on handgunners. Shooting sees archers able to take out 2 knights point blank as they moved out of x-bow range, leaving them again out of targets.

All combat are won by high elves this time, priests are killed and while greatswords still hold, first empire spear detachment is slaughtered to the last men by white lions as the second detachment is about to meet the same fate. Halberds are litterally massacred and this time, the full third rank does pay off when steadfast is broken and they are routed.

Image

At this point Sir Lorik makes a critical decision. Hand-gunners are awaiting him ahead, and the perspective of taking lead bullets both next turn and in the stand&shoot looks like a bloody business to him. By restraining pursuit, halberds would provide hard cover for his unit and gain him time to close the distance, knowing the last canon is still disabled. If by any luck they would rally, white lions might be able to pin them in place. The disciplined elves restrained pursuit.

Image

TURN 3 - Empire

All priests dead and down to one caster, the empire magic phase is successfully contained. Knights and officers desesperatly try to come back in the battle, frustrated x-bow mens try to finally get into proper position.

Halberds rally against the wish of their commander, forcing poor shots for many of the cursed hand-gunners who fail to take out any riders. ( Picture is not as clear as I`d want, about two thirds hand gunners were screened). The halberds, already making the situation bad, manage to do even worst when the white lions butcher their second spear detachment and continue their overrun into their flank. What had been a good decision from Sir Lorik now became a great one since Halberds just had lost any fleeing possibility...

Despair became even more palpable when reavers killed the mortar crew, yet greatsword were making a determined stand against the still ``wyssan` augmented spears.
Image

TURN 3 - High Elves

Sir Lorik did not hesitate, dragon princes crashed into the pinned and helpless halberdiers. The riders did not even stop when they crashed in them, overrunning into the surprised hand-gunners, who could not even stand&shoot, joining the reavers into the fray. The mens did not stood a chance and again, the cavalry unit was able to break the ennemy steadfast ranks. Countless of corpses littered the field and red pools stained the ground were the snow had melted.

A curse was placed on x-bows for good measure. Archers managed to take out another knight.

Image

TURN 4

At this point, the empire had lost any hope. Their last canon crew fled the field against the reaver overrun and the headlong deseperate charge of the Knights and officers were met by heavy resistance from the spears who actually won the exchange by a small margin, locking both units. Cursed X-bowmens managed to kill 2 white lions.

Image

On the High elves turn, archers lend help to spears to break the knights. Only Lord flees alive but wounded. Reavers shoot down the last mage while other units encircle the x-bowmens, dragon princes staying out of the firing arc range and aiming for the formation flank.

Image

TURN 5

Empire Lord rallies, x-bowmens face a last decision. Either they shoot the white lions or they reform to protect their flank in hope their stand & shoot is enough. The battle is already done both ways. Ensuing fire do take out several white lions but they hold their ground thank to gleaming pennant.

Image

The Spears and archers charge the ennemy lord who has no choice but hold or flee the field. Archers fails their charge but spears make it thanks to movement banner, chasing the Lord off the field. White lions elect to not take a stand&shoot and wait for the Dragon Princes to deal the last blow. This time around, they can`t break steadfast despite horredous losses but without their lord, they still fail their poor Ld 7 test.

Image

Massacre to the High elves!
Image

Post-game analysis:

Several things went well, a few not quite so. Firstly, I`d say my heavy cavalry finally felt the way I want to use it:
- Able to deliver shock and awe, breaking enemy steadfast on the charge thanks to a better balance between killing power and ranks needed.
- Able to disrupt ranks
- Still enough maneuverability
- Able to take war machines hits and still be functional
- Do give your opponent something to fear

Of course, I was surprised by his magic banner and it was actually a pretty powerful enemy cavalry unit that hit my helms. Good move on his part too, did not saw it coming. Despite bad rolls on armor saves (1 less casualty and I would still had remained steadfast ), it still showed me the unit can be resilient. Cutting banners and a champ might hurt a little however as my Prince was forced to accept duel. Fielding Dragon Princes was more due to having models freshly painted and wanting to test both cavalry types in such formations. Probably would be more sound to go all silver helms but I did liked the extra 6 attacks and iron curse on champ. I`ll evaluate.

- Magic was so so, beast lore was maybe too tough for my lvl 2 to cast properly. Still got some spells trough and frankly I try to not rely too much on magic. Still some tweeking to do but minor ones.

- Same goes with shooting, it did what I wanted and I found that bows on reavers actually helped put some pressure while complementing my archer/bunker unit.

- Spear Horde and swiftness banner. I really loved it, it did make for a solid center and reliable unit. With all the valuable units around, it was mostly unscathed and underestimated until wyssan landed. The speed increase was actually noticeable as it moved 6 inch vs the empire infantry 4 inchs. Also, point wise, it enabled me for a small archer bunker.

- White Lions, well, they worked of course. They were intimidating removed some focus from other units. The high strength attacks meant I had a backup plan if cavalry was bogged down by an unbreakable/ stubborn unit. They probably have their place.

- Prince and lvl 2 mage OR Noble and Archmage OR Noble and lvl 2 mage... maybe the next question for me to find points to tweek this out.

Hope you enjoyed, as always comments are appreciated :)
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
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Re: Riders of Ulthuan Blog. 20-12-12 Tourney Game2 report

#81 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

That was awesome Findolfin!
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
[quote="Narrin’Tim"]These may be the last days of the Asur, but if we are to leave this world let us do it as the heroes of old, sword raised against evil![/quote]
Findolfin
Posts: 349
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Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Riders of Ulthuan, a new beginning

#82 Post by Findolfin »

A NEW BEGINNING

As all armies of Ulthuan are now getting ready for a new chapter in the history, so are Lord Malrik and his faithful riders.

Well, I am very excited about the new changes, especially for the following reasons:

- Silver Helm and Reavers now in core! This means an ALL cavalry army is now possible.
- Martial Prowess means that my double 15 strong heavy cavalry busses will now be even more deadlier. My main reason after succesful trials was to break steadfast and give the unit some resiliency, but now you get also the attacks of the 3rd rank, simply sealing the deal. I can see theses become a staple in several armies now.
- Dragon Princes gets a 6+ ward on top of the 2+ ward and the command cost seems reduced. Also, magic items/banner allowance was increased.
- I can see Reavers units of 6 instead of 5, for a 2 wide by 3 deep formation minimise even more the return attacks in flank charges of combined assault with heavy cavalry.
- Tiranocs, I have one of theses, seems I might use it again.
- Griffin. I am thinking about it now more than before with noble able to ride him. I could see myself risking it for my BsB with the enchanted shield and new crown, need to verify if you get 18" inch presence.

What I less like:
- Our characters lost survivability the way I see it. I might look at the alternative of fielding several expandable characters instead of trying to giving them 100 pts of gear. I had such a list in the work back then. We will see.
- Loremaster, sea helm, maiden, Anointed looks nice but none of them can ride. This poses a problem. They seems also to be very pricy compared to Prince, AM and noble. The Annointed comes however with the 4+ ward and can ride a Phoenix, so I might jump in the band wagon I guess.

A FIRST DRAFT

The Expandables

Prince on Steed, should be able to get his magicitem allowance
Prince on Steed, mostly mundane and dragon armor
Archmage on Steed, Book of Hoeth and High magic or Beast Lore
Noble on Steed, mostly mundane and dragon armor
Noble on Steed, mostly mundane and dragon armor
Noble on Steed, mostly mundane and dragon armor
BsB on Steed, geared

6 Reavers S&B, mu
6 Reavers S&B, mu
6 Reavers S&B, mu
13 helms, FC

12, DPs, FC, Botwd
13, DPs, FC, Banner
Tiranoc chariot

I might still have points , I`ll be looking into fitting the crown of command somewhere and magic trinkets/weapons here and there,
especially to make the Dps champs stronger or give the characters some love.

--------------------------------------

So there is alot of change here, I do not have units to hold the line per say. On the other hand, there is no real line. This army is mobile and with a very Lethal dmg output from every bus having 2 characters which happen to be mostly expandable bar the Lord, BsB and AM. I could see them simply smash anything in front of them, especially combined with reavers flank charges and Tiranoc impact hits ( I`d like to fit more of theses, since like reavers, they provide chaff clearance ).

What makes me sad however, is that I won`t be using the new characters and phoenixes with that list. Of course, I will look into making another more competitive list infantry based in the future. Anyways, that`s it for now, must leave for work. :)
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: A tale of Ellyrion, new beginnings

#83 Post by Findolfin »

Been inactive for a while now, had to find a new job, etc. Few moments I had, I concentrated on family and painting some models. As far as the “Expandables” idea, I do not have enough cav models yet to bring it forth.

Anyways, this new list is mostly as the list I ran before the new book, having already good success with my dual big bus, it just got better with martial prowess. Given my limited play time, I’d rather make more limited changes.


Archmage lvl 4, Book of Hoeth
BSB Ithilmar, Dragon armor, GW
Noble Ithilmar, Dragon armor, GW

5 Reavers, mu, B&S
5 Reavers, mu, B&S
14 helms, FC
14 helms, FC

15 White Lions, FC
24 Phoenix Guards, FC
1 Tiranoc Chariot

5 Maiden Guards
5 Maiden Guards
RBT
RBT
Around 120 points left.


Changes are mostly following:
- The DPs bus was swapped for a silver helm bus, freeing core points.
- Spears horde is swapped for a PG block, which should be able to act as a more dynamic anvil.
- 2 RBTS and 2 Maiden Guards small units added with the freed points. This I think is the real kicker, giving my army some ranged power it really lacked.

Now the help I am looking for is how to spend the 120 points or so. Some of my ideas:
- Give the BsB the BWOD
- Give the Noble some trinkets: iron curse, MR item and maybe Star Lance
- Maybe swap Archmage for a ”Loremistress”, place her in Lions instead of PGs
- Discipline / Eternal flame banners for PG/WL units
- Choice of lore ?

Between the PG ward save, Archmage possible high or life magic wards, BOTWD and hopefully some protective item, I’d like to make sure all 4 main units will be as resilient as possible.

Thanks in advance for advices :)
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: A tale of Ellyrion, Fantasy Fest XVI, Escalation Tournament

#84 Post by Findolfin »

Well, it was time for me to get back into competition, at least the local one :P

So here I was, enrolling for the Fantasy Fest 16th edition which is an escalation tournament ( 1500, 2000, 2500 ) played as a team of 4 people in 3 rounds.
We got to play with a different partner in each round since games are 2 vs 2, so 3 games each on 6 games for the team.

There was a good turn out since there was almost 40 peoples. I will not have detailed list of other players to provide unfortunately, time was a rare ressource,
especially at the end, but I will try give a good overview and you should be able to know from the pictures.

My first list at 1500 was:

Archmage lvl4, Lore of Light, Book of Hoeth, 4+ ward tali
Battle Standard Bearer, dragon armor, Ithilmar barded steed, sword of might , enchanted shield, dawnstone

9 Silver helms, FC, shields
5 reavers bow and spears, mu
5 reavers bow and spears, mu

5 Dragon Princes, FC, Gleaming Pennant, Ogre Blade, charmed shield
1 Tiranoc Chariot
14 white lions, FC, BOTWD

So a pretty compact and fast hitting list, still sporting a dual heavy cav units. I was happy to have it painted in time despite a base or two I was`nt able to complete. There was some breakage along
the way however but nothing irreparable.



First scenario deployment zone was a random arrival, each player entering on a different side of the table. My ally was the Empire ( played by Etienne) and we faced the tomb king and
warriors of chaos. Both opponents were fun to play against and overall nice guys.

Spells:
Image

DEPLOYMENT:
Image

Image

Image

I feel the tomb king deployment is a bit far from his ally, but in his defense, he wanted to use the hill to protect himself from the Empire warmachines and ''laser''
chariot. I did not like my odds facing the Chaos warriors army, and my list had few ranks against an unbreakable undead foe but I had at least the right lore
with the right spells on my archmage.

VANGUARD:

Image
               
Enemy scouts, deploy behind empire lines and try to put pressure on the left flank.  Reavers do not pay them attention, surging ahead for the left gap toward
war machines and using building as hard cover from archers.
 
TOMB KINGS 1th turn:
                Tomb kings realise how isolated they suddenly are and shift their line to shield themselves behind the hill from the Empire warmachines. They also
spot the ellyrian reavers and shift a considerable force to tackle them. Choas warriors step forward for the long march.
 
                Between the carrions, the chariot bows and the Chaos fast cavalry bearing down on the reavers, the catapult itself launch a flaming skull at them ( at
least I think it was something like that ). After smoke cleared out, only a single rider remains but he rides on, sounding his musician horn to give himself
courage.

Image

The Casket unleash it`s terrible magic but Archmage Laetitia manages to dispel it.

Image



HIGH ELVES turn 1
 
                Lone musician try a long charge in the catapult but his horse is too wounded to make it , Irendil clench his jaw and gently caress his horse friend, as
dozens of evil eyes look upon them. The other ellyrians elect a charge through the carrions, confident they can crumble them and overrun in the second catapult.
Silver helms aggressively move to set a charge and white lions march ahead. Dragon Princes don’t fancy their chance against the whole chaos army and withdraw
to support the white lions and the chariot.

 Image

                Magic sees a dispel scroll drawn to stop banishment but elven Archmage manages to cast Pha’s bubble.
 
                The first good news is the sound of the imperial canon taking the offered flank shot on the undead chariots unit, destroying 2 of them but failing to
get the third.
 
In combat, reavers rubber lanced against the carrions, only crumbling 2, getting stuck and now dangerously exposed to the remaining chariot.
 
Image

TOMB KINGS turn 2
 
                Chaos fast cav charges lone reaver who have no choice but to hold. Irendil could only watch helplessly as his brothers were smashed by the undead
chariot while himself braced for the inevitable.

The Casket ( or whatever this infernal device is ) sends it’s cursed spirits irresistibly unto the silver helms, killing a few of them, then jumping on the
charioteers throats leaving it to crash into the woods. As the white lions turns comes to have the horrors set upon them, they finally hit the world dragon banner
wall.  Meanwhile the other catapult lobs another deadly projectile which destroy the Empire hellblaster and kills a few men.

In combat, the remaining reavers are trampled by the chariot, which reforms, but not before the last carrion bird is slain. On his side, Irendil stand and shoot,
killing a horsemen and then plunges his spear in another heart while his horse body protect him from a fatal blow. Determined to die were he stand, he hold on.

Image

Chaos forces march on as only Irendil still stands in their path:
Image


HIGH ELVES turn 2:
Allied forces holds on despite heavy losses.

The silver helms charges the skeletons archers while the empire small regiment attempt to charge the flank of the tomb king bunker. The idea is that it will allow
the helms a second round of combat once they are through the archers. Unfortunately, only the Helms manage their charge. Rest of the forces moves up.

Magic is a powerful phase of 12 dices. Banishment is stopped by the enemy but Pha`s protection is cast as a bubble which this time covers most of the allies and
shems burn a few undead. Another important spell gets through which is light of battle on the silver helm bus. Imperial canon shoot at remaining chariot but
the ball don`t bounce...

Image

Silver helms charges the archers:
Image

Against all odds, Irendil still holds but fail to kill any enemy. Silver Helms pulverizes the archers and overrun into the tomb king main unit.

TOMB KINGS turn 3:

The damned surviving chariot once again proves to be a pain as it now charges the silver helms flank. A scout riders unit try to overrun the small halberdiers
detachment in hopes of getting to the canon, but they won`t survive the attempt.

Chaos army march but some units slow a little bit to adopt a line formation rather than to get just now in the imperial canon range, notably the disc lord.

Magic sees another host sent irrisistably against the dragon princes this time, slaying 2 of them and then again being denied their whitle lion blood feast by the
dragon banner. Catapults fire on the canon again since Pha`s deny most targets. A grazing hit deliver no wound.

In CC, Irendil start to feel exhausted, now noticing deep wounds on his side, yet he still manage to kill another foe. His brave horse gives a last kick that bash
in another marauder jaw before his own battered body collapsed to the ground, trapping Irendill under it as he lost consciouness from a heavy blow.

Knowing the enemy is too numerous, and that the light of battle is with them, the silver helms decide to try to assassinate their ennemy commanders rather the
unit. Impact hits take out 2 riders before they can react but the other riders lances, still using the overrun momentum, drive through the hieorophant dry heart
while the helmed champion destroyed his foot-slugger counterpart in duel. The Battle standard bearer, Sir Lorik, and the rest of the unit, killed some undead hero
with his whip while managing 2 wounds on the lord including a fluffy horse bite.

Fortunately, sir Lorik was`nt in direct contact with that Mummy as it started a flurry of attacks including killing blows which between chariot, the unit and him left
only 2 helms and the BsB standing. Thanks to light of battle however, the survivors weren`t going anywere.


Image

Image

Crumbles starts but only a catapult is destroyed., while some wounds happens.

HIGH ELVES TURN 3

Dragon Princes makes a counter charge on the chariot while one of the empire skirmisher unit finnally meet the enemy main unit in the flank. Greatsword attempt
long charge but fail.

White Lions and Halberdiers with imperial BsB take position to halt the chaos warrior southern wing.

With no opposing casters, magic sees a couple of spells get through, notably speed of light and a shem burning missile on the troll unit. Yet, the imperial canon
miss again.

In CC, Sir Lorik is able to kill the ennemy Lord in duel by delivering the last wound. Most of the bunker unit crumbles as a result.

Image


TURN 4

The game is mostly sealed. With time running short, a fast turn 4 is done were the skeleton unit is finnally crumbled and I think the catapult crumbled.

Disc Lord and a fast undead cav attempt a last long charge followed by counter charges from White lions and Halberds which all fail. Most other units did not
move since it was last turn.

Magic almost take out the Archmage but luckily , only the dice pool is drained and no lion dies thanks to banner. A scary reminder to not cast spells when they
aren`t needed....

Image

High elves losses: 2 reavers unit and a chariot while the empire lost a hellblaster.
Tomb king losses: Almost everthing

After counting the points, it is a decisive allied victory!

I`ll post my analysis later, in the meantime all comments are welcomed as always until second report of that day :)
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: A tale of Ellyrion, Fantasy Fest Escalation Tourney Report

#85 Post by Findolfin »

1st Battle overview:

While we both had a little pressure and interference from the other players, the battle was actually mostly between High Elves and the Tomb Kings.

I feel he made a couple of mistakes, which I would list as following:
- Diverting too much power to stop the Elleryan reavers. He did stop them, mind you, yet the reavers drew out bows and catapult fire, took out his carrions, crippled a unit of marauders horsemens and pulled out his chariots for a flank shot. The last one was the only unit that actually had enough threat projection to prevent the silver helms setting up the ideal charge.

- Having lost his carrions, he still could have angled his archers so to prevent an easy overrun. In his defense, maybe he wanted that situation to set the counter flank charge with his last chariot. He did not saw the light of battle that would come in play and prevent a break test.

- Hiorophant in 1 st rank, almost no protection. About the same for his other characters except the 4+ ward on his Lord. I understand there was lot of killing blows power in there, the characters gave Frenzy and WS6 to his unit, etc. Yet, it did not looked like a good setup against an always strike first opponent. He should have seen his characters being assassinated that way, since there was no way for me to break that unit on the charge or to get enough CR to even try anything else. He was actually lucky the Empire unit never made it, since the helms would have got to fight again in the same round.

- Both his scout riders units. Well, I dunno. They seemed useless, all they did was to plink arrows against my dragon princes and an empire hand gunner unit, to no effect. They could have put pressure with charge arcs or at least earn their place by redirecting. We simply ignored them.

On my side:
- Ellyrian Reavers, well, there is little you can do vs bulls eye template fire. The initial fan out to the left took the opponent by surprise, especially when he learned they had an 18’’ march range. As I mentioned, the reshuffling of his battle line and the attention they received was a success in itself. Less so was the charge against carrions but it was a dice fluff, I’d still do it the same. If Catapult had missed and carrions been overran, theses guys could have won the battle right there. I feel they did more than their job despite disaster.

- Helms/BsB bus. As usual, a reliable unit that get the job done. It is durable, hit hard on the charge and get to bring the fight to the enemy on round 2. Rapid movement enabled me to exploit my opponent fault against reavers.

- Tiranoc Chariot: Well, losing it this way really was unlucky. I rolled too high on the LD test and casket ate it. It’s a shame because this guy job was to actually protect the Helm flank against flank charges, hence why you see helms swing to it’s right. You will see how important this role is in the next games.

- Dragon Princes: I honestly do not like running these guys in 5 elves unit. But escalation rules meant I needed them to build upon. They still did what I expected, as a nice reserve unit, they delivered the coup de grace.

- White Lions: The unit did not see combat. It was meant to be a bunker and reserve unit. I felt at some point I would have rather had a Sea guard unit who gets to shoot in that role. I could not justify them was not of the ability to sport the banner and soak up magic and missile fire. Which they did, losing no model, which what matters in the end when it comes to your Archmage protection.

All in all, the small size would actually prove to be the right one in all 3 games. Because I was spot on not spending too much, I never felt the unit was a liability, was in danger or had to earn it’s point back. At same time, it was not getting too much attention, yet could not be ignored, could not be tackled by chaffs, etc.

- Archmage: As always, I keep being dissatisfied with magic vs invested points. It was certainly overkill in a 1500 points but as a team, you need at least a lvl 4. The Empire only had a lvl 2. Yet there is no way to dispel irristible casket spells every freakin round. A lvl 2 would have been plenty enough.

So the game was pretty straight forward, I feel I committed the right troops at the right place at the right moment. There was a time incentive here as I recognized it had to be over before the chaos warriors got in. The Tomb kings static units and slow reactions certainly helped, coupled in an overconfidence in his characters when in reality they were totally exposed.
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: A tale of Ellyrion, Fantasy Fest Escalation Tourney Report

#86 Post by Findolfin »

Well, did not intend to sell the punch yet but thought I might get more replies by changing the title :)

Yes, our Team finished first for Best Generals and I ended being the only player at the event having won 3 Decisive battles by a
1000+ points margin each game, on around 40 players. Even though it was not singles, it felt great to at last get a first
tournament win! :D

And now, on to to game 2 report:


GAME 2

The scenario was in the badlands, where defending army was gathered around the Idol of Gork ( giving any unit within 6’’ a reroll
for charge distances ) and attacking army could deploy anywhere on both ends of the table.

This time High elves were paired to Tomb Kings in a more shaky alliance ( although those guys are neutral ). They were up against
a chaos and beastmen army, reminding me of a past battle with friends.

The Game was played at 2000 points, again there was a concern for painted models so here was my escalated list, using the 1 unit
substraction rule to remove silver helms and the possibility to upgrade a Lord choice to a special character of the same type:

Alarielle (Archmage upgrade to special character)
Sir Lorik the BsB – same build
Lord Malrik , being wounded and unable to ride, donned the Armor of Caledor and took an old family Halberd ( Noble on foot)

29 spears, FC, banner of MR+1 – Lord Malrik goes here
5 reavers, mu, bow & spears
5 reavers, mu, bow & spears

14 Dragon Princes, FC, Standard of Discipline, Ogre Blade, charmed shield
14 White Lions, FC, Botwd
1 Tiranoc chariot
5 sisters of Avelorn

Spells: Thrones of vine, awakening of the wood, regrowth and Speed of light

DEPLOYMENT:

Due to sheer number of enemy shaft, we almost got completely outdeployed, forcing high elves to go against the chaos warrior shock
troops. My ally army had unfortunately not enough ranks to face the hordes of Gors and Bestigors facing them
( I only had the spear unit myself ) while he commited too much forces to deal with potential rear threats. He did have some big constructs
that could wreck havoc, or so I thought…

Image

So here we were, our fast hitting army squared against seemingly impossible odds marching through swamps which meant many difficult
terrain test to come. Worst, they enjoyed a Hell Cannon and a Cygor for war machines but at least we got first turn.

Vanguard sees Reavers moves toward the 3 enemy chariots and the other reaver unit moves to back up the sisters task force
against the enemy fast cav closing on the rear.

Allies battle line:
Image

High elves dragon princes have some though match ups, facing tzeench chosens, Throgg`s troll unit and heavy chariots:
Image

Enemy behind the lines:
Image


HIGH ELVES turn 1

High elves advance to set up some charges arc but they keep a tight formation while tomb kings seems to do the same. Reavers finish
their manoeuver to imped the chaos chariots

Image

Magic sees a few spell go through for the tomb King lord. All chariots and reavers open up on chaffs units while the sisters inflict only 1
wound on the cygor.


CHAOS turn 1

A chariot declare a long charge, reavers stand and shoot for 1 wound, but a second chariot also declare a charge and this time reavers opt to
flee. Unfortunately, both chariots succeed diffcult terrain while the reavers roll too high and their manoeuvers around the mountain manage to
cost them 2 horses…

The remaing marauder horsemens attempted to charge the sisters who also stood and shoot. It seems my opponent took the sisters too
lightly as no marauder made it to cc, arrows piercing their hearts.

Hounds attempt to redirect spearmens and bait dragon princes. The hordes march on:
Image

Allies manage to contain the magic phase barely, as a pit of shades misses tomb kings, but shooting from the Hell Cannon is devastating as
it destroy the Sphinx right away. That loss seems to really shake my ally, I`m thinking he was really counting on that beast. The Cygor lobs
a rock that wrecks some troops.

Ungor reinforcement appear in the elven lines!
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HIGH ELVES turn 2

Without their Sphinx, tomb kings don`t want to attempt a charge despite the Idol rerolls. I see he still have 2 bone golems but don`t have
much time to argue, he knows tomb kings better than I do and I have problems of my own. High elves are in a bad posture, between the ungor
behind them and the hounds bogging down the spear unit, there is trolls, chosens and chariots.

I do not want to tie my spears dealing with chaffs and the ungors. If I don`t charge my heavy cavalry, I`ll be forced to retreat with two enemy
units already in my line. If I do charge the chaos warriors are likely to hold steafast and I`ll get the trolls in the side not mentionning the diffcult
terrain tests. Looking at the trolls, however, I can see myself punching through them, especially comitting the chariot since the overrun would
put it right in the corner of the chaos warriors, tieing them for a round or two with a little bit of luck and some magic.


The battle standard shouted: ``Sires, the Queen is watching us, let us show her how the Princes of Caledor fight! With me! Charge!!!``
And so I commit the charges into the trolls, DPs and Chariot confidently making them both without the need of the Idol reroll.

Image

Reavers rally and quickly moves in to block the ungors while other reavers moves into their rear. Spears march on to fill the gap.
My ally starts a long retreat while slowly cornering the Cygor.

Image

Magic gets a speed of light bubble to cover WL, spears, reavers and also Dps, Tiranoc who are at the time still in range before CC. Shooting
sees a hound unit destroyed while sisters puts another wound in the Cygor.

In CC, Throgg issue a challenge which the Drakemaster accept. The champion manages to inflict 2 wounds on the beast and is hit back 3 times.
The charmed shield deflect 1 hit, but both other hits wounds him. Throgg immense strenght means no armor saves for the battered champ but his
dragon armor runes flares up, promptly box cars! The BsB and the rest of the unit go to town, slaying 2 beast. Only the acid vomit manages to kill
2 knights as the beasts are slain in pursuit.

However, the dragon princes end up in the animosity range of the Hell canon, which pivot toward them and charges head on! Meanwhile the chariot
continue it`s course as planned right into the chaos warriors corner, killing 3 on the impact. At that point my opponent argued that I had to wheel
and maximise like any overrun. Looks like it on page 58, bugs me out however how much time I got forced by some UB players to do exactly
the contrary. Anyways, rant aside, it looked more like a tactical blunder now and my chariot fate looked grim, but I still had speed of light thanks
to being over cautious.


CHAOS turn 2

Ungor charges reavers. All 3 enemy chariots declare long charges into the spears. They all make it... My line looks about to be broken.
With Dragon Princes unexpectedly stuck against the unbreakable Hell Cannon, I might see flank charges coming pretty fast. Not to mention
my ally retreating.

Image

Beastmens continue to advance toward the tomb kings, magic only sees miasma get through on DPs but it has little effect against speed of light.

In CC, reavers are still routed despite the high weapon skill, returning 1 wound. As the 3 chariots smashed through the spears, dozens of them
fly into the air. Between impact hits and axes cleaving skulls, no less than 26 elves dies... Yet, they hold, as Lord Malrik is wounded in a duel
with the chariot mounted chaos mage shout to them to hold their ground. Dragon Princes manages around 4-5 wounds thanks in good part to
sir Lorik the BsB and the Drakemaster Ogre Blade while only 1 knight goes down. Against all odds, the tiranoc chariot holds on with one
last wound.

Image

HIGH ELVES turn 3

Alarielle and the White Lions charges in to support the spears. This was somewhat a blunder. My noble was in duel with that chariot, so it
meant white lions would not be able to hit and be stuck there. On the other side, a pit of shade almost went through on the white lions and a
cygor rock barely missed them. They also provided 2 ranks, a banner and a charge.
Image

Reavers and sisters moves or reform to harass ungor and hounds units. Tomb kings continue the long retreat while clumsily trying to corner
the Cygor who plays cat and mouse. Tomb kings reinforcement finally arrives and the new big snake unit position to box in the Cygor. I was a bit
demoralised by all that, could have used them where the battle was going on...
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Sisters shooting take out the pesky hounds at long range while reavers slowly reduces the ungor numbers. Magic sees Alarielle awaken the
spawn beast with a 5 hits / str 6 long wood shaft through the eye, while healing Lord Malrik. Regrowth also gets through on the spears, bringing
6 of them back. This did not looked to be a great move either on my part, as they would just end up bleeding CR but on the other side, if the
spears disapeared in my turn, that would leave 2 chariots out of combat to flank charge the Lions.

Image

And so the spears bled again... all in all, only 4 elves + Malrik remained. Enough to hold on steadfast, as I needed to gain time. Unfortunately,
the Tiranoc chariot went down, and chaos warriors reformed to face the DPs flank. Despite miasma now in full effect, DPs managed the last
wound and also reformed to face the chosen chaos warriors of tzeentch. Still, it was Chaos turn now...

CHAOS turn 3

Image

Of course, the chaos warriors charge the DPs. Now, I`m looking at the odds and I don`t fancy the Chaos combat Lord with that many
bodyguards. I also spot that skirmisher unit still behind me and see that I have to roll about 5+ on 3 dices to flee over it, which will place
them between us. I flee, making it easily.

Image

Oddly, the skirmishing unit decides to stay there and shoot at the DPs to no effect. I`m guessing the Chosen figured they were too far to
get a new charge on turn 4. Frustrated beastmens push forward as fast they can. Cygor continue to play cat and mouse but this time fail
it`s leadership roll to march. Ungors reform again to try to intimidate the reavers.

HIGH ELVES turn 4

Big snakes finnally charge and run down the fleeing and wounded Cygor. DPs rally and reform, tomb kings withdraws again, reforming their
chariots and using a movement spell.

Image
*Note that the Chaos warriors were a bit closer to DPs but it did not changed anything, they played no more part from that point.

Sisters and reavers manages to cause a panic test in the ungors but they unfortunately pass it. Tomb Kings shoots lots of arrows into the
remaining marauders who are turned into a pin cushion.

In CC, the 4 last spears are killed but they manage a wound while Lord Malrik manages 2. With 2 chariots are out of combat, the one stuck
in duel however fail to pass the break test and is caught by the White Lions. Lord Malrik safely moves ahead but is stricken with grief at the
sight of all his dead unit.

CHAOS turn 4

It`s the last turn as time ran out. At this point the game is pretty much played out anyways but Bestigor tries one last long charge while
skirmisher units try to shoot the last wound off Lord Malrik to no avail.
Image

Not having the exact count as I did not do the maths, I had only lost the tiranoc chariot and the spears while Tomb Kings lost his Sphinx.
They had lost a lot more, enough for another Decisive Victory!
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
Findolfin
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:06 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: A tale of Ellyrion: A 1st Tournament win. Game 2 report.

#87 Post by Findolfin »

Took me a while to get the motivation to finish the third and last game report, writing theses kind of made me feel like a raving lunatic talking to himself.
But eh, hopefully it will be useful forsomeone along the way , maybe even to myself. Been a while, so I apologize in advance for some lack of details.
Let’s get on with the show!

The Third game saw us escalating to 2500 points, which would enable me to field my beloved dual cavalry bus (Althought reduced to 10 strong).
So same army as in earlier report, adding 10 helms + noble with a few more sisters.

My ally this time was my friend and his Empire army, same one you saw in a couple of earlier reports. He is improving, and this time around surprised me by bringing
a solid 40 strong greatswords unit and more chaffs than he usually do.

Empire( what I can remember) : 1 Lord on foot, 1 lvl2 mage, BsB, priest, 40 greatswords, peg captain, 1 canon + ing, 1 hellblasters + ing, 4x 20 state troops, 2x 14 riffles, 20 riffles, 8 horse pistoliers.

Facing us would be a High elf and Dwarves alliance. A strange battle, with no forces of destruction in sight. Hard to come up with a epic prologue here.
Let’s say that this unholy alliance was seeking to marry an elven princess to a dwarf, keen on getting her family gold, and none of us wanted such an heresy. Ya…

Our enemy:
Elves: Archmage, BsB on foot, 20 PG, 2x 5 DPs, 2x 14 swordmasters, 17 silverhelms, 2 eagles, 2 RBTs and 30 LSG
Dwarves: Rune Lord, Thane, BsB, 35 hammerers, 40 warriors 2H, 35 miners 2H, 2 canons, 1 catapult ( most had runes and fire )


DEPLOYMENT

Deployment did not involve much strategy, as it was hidden from each opponent. We knew we were badly, I mean very badly, outgunned.
Our expectation was that the dwarves would somehow castle in the left corner with the high elves screening them and harassing our flank should we assault it.
Image

We still deployed center with heavy infantry, my dragon Princes and chariot, aiming to crush the high elves first.
2 empire detachments and missiles troops backed up by the silver helms bus made our left flank. Our right flank was made up of our fast cavalary with the goal of
sweeping back behind enemy lines in a pincer movement.
Image

Our opponents deployment did not looked anything like we thought it would be. No castle in sight, their deployment looked pretty much like a standard battle line
with heavy artillery backing it. I was not too happy at first, since it meant we could not isolate the high elf player from his more static dwarf ally.
Our left flank looked in trouble and It would also be a though deal to try to break their center. Our lack of firepower meant we had to go in. There was some hope for our fast cavalry however.
Image

We rolled spells, I can’t even remember what we had, but as you guessed: magic would be almost inexistent for us, having to face dwarves and a High Archmage.
I had some solace knowing that Alarielle passive abilities would still get to work. Besides my Ally did not have a lvl 4, so she would at least be able to dispel.
However, I still could not help during all tourney to feel I’d rather have an extra elite unit than 350 points sank in disappointing magic phases. The ennemy Archmage had High magic, including fiery convocation.

HIGH ELVES TURN 1

Anyways, we were lucky enough to get turn 1. On the left, we decided to wait, the helms made a cautious advance while insuring a wide charge arc,
covered by the pyramid ( I also moved the noble on the outside of that unit ). In center, I saw some matchups for my units but it would all depend on getting the charge turn 2.
I could see my spears taking on the High elf swordmasters and I reckoned my dragon princes bus probably could break the seaguard in two close combat phases.
Throwing in the chariot should help with that. I marched aggressively into charge range, counting on my ally greatswords to keep the stunties in check. The White Lions stayed in reserve.
Image

On the right, all our fast cavalry spurred into action backed by the Pegasus captain. However, the Empire advance got confused, greatsword losting precious time while
rifles tried to get into firing positions.
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Our Magic was uneventful, as expected. Empire Artilley and missiles units were plagued by misfires and bad positioning. However, the sisters magical shooting
proved murderous to the swordmaster in front of them, inflicting heavy casualties. Light cavalry shooting did not do much against the armored stunties.
Image

DWARVES TURN 1

The enemy High elves seemed constricted by their slow moving ally from the get go, and opted for a static defense. I would have expected at least 1 of the
eagles messing my charge lines but our opponents opted to set up pretty obvious traps, confident in the fact that we had to get in or be reduced to pulp by
their war machines. They also were counting killing enough dragon princes to dent the charge. It was not totally false. I had to charge the seaguard and take
a flank charge with the dwarves main battle unit, or stay under heavy fire. The empire greatswords would not get in there in time and I certainly did not intent to get shot to pieces.
Image

Worth noting, the phoenix guard and a dragon prince unit pressed forward against our weaker left flank and one of the two blocks of dwarves broke the battle line to
face our light cavalry on the right wing. What in the nine hells did the dwarf hoped to do?

Magic saw the Anvil ring… and ya, that hammerer unit got to free charge our light cav, forcing akward flee actions. High elf also got fiery convocation to hit my helms,
not cool. Then artillery opened fire. A magical stone hit the white lions, to no effect thanks to the BOWD. He now knew it was not on the Dragon Princes but we also
got to know their machines were also flaming, which pretty much meant my dragon cavalry was safe. The next shot dropped on the greatswords, killing a score.
Then the Seaguard and high elf bolters took out some sisters with a few Dragon Princes.

HE TURN 2

Looking at the situation, I was still in a good shape but that left flank worried me while our light cav had failed to make an impression on the right flank.
This game would be played in the center, and it implied that I broke their line with a direct “shock and awe” cavalry charge. Nothing guaranteed with already some casualties sustained.

However, It really looked like the High elf thought his swordmasters could take on my spears but having played some High elf civil war scenarios, I was quite aware of the contrary.
I probed him, asking if the rough terrain would disrupt my ranks, and he said yep with a grin. Not that I cared, I expected enough losses for it to not matter but I now had the info I needed.
Still a risky medium charge range. On the other hand all my charge lines were clear.

On the left flank, with my helm bus in danger of melting with fiery convocation, I decided to commit them on a long charge against his own helms. Once they made it,
they would be out of the PG charge arc, yet still exposed to the remaining swordmasters ( which I planned to shoot again ).

I waited and started by calling the dragon princes charge, to which he elected to stand and shoot. Then I charged the chariot. Now, my idea here was to help that charge CR with that chariot ,
but more importantly, place it between my bus and the stunties if I failed to break the seaguard. The spears now charged the swordmasters. It was an all out attack.

The trumpets sounded as the whole massive charge went home!
Image

Fiery convocation was dispelled with our scroll, sisters took out another score of swordmasters but yet, with all that black powder, the empire did not made a big impression.
Making that matter worse was that the hellblaster was still out of position despite it’s crew effort to haul the thing. Yet, the Empire battle line was starting to look better now.
Greatswords and white lions marched forward, the left wing empire companies did the same to threathen the Phoenix Guard and enemy Dragon princes.
Image

I was not too keen on my ally move, I did not see how his 2 state troops unit could win theses match-ups on the left flank. On the right wing, Light cavalry units
tried to march past the stunties but most failed their test, except for my unit of reavers who pushed toward the warmachine. I noticed too late how badly my empire
ally had left 2 of his light units so close to the table edge.

Image

And then came the onslaught. My helms took almost no casualties but the charge went poorly, failing to break steadfast. The Dragon Princes and chariot crashed
into the seaguard, killing droves but barely just not enough to remove steadfast. This was semi-expected, It was actually doable to break them on the charge
and my actual wish, but I did had planned to be stuck in that second round of cc.
Image

The Spears fared way better, killing a lot of swordmasters. The Hoeth elites returned the favor by felling 1 spear elf for each of their fallen,
but they were still badly losing as the spears ranks weren’t disrupted anymore.

Spears break trough!
Image

Forced to flee under the pressure of the Phalanx, they got overrun by the spears who ended their pursuit in an assault against the RBT.

DWARVES TURN 2

The dwarves attempted to salvage his elven ally crumbling in the center, charging the chariot flank to get into that battle. I was still a bit worried, with his ranks,
charge, flank, two things were needed. The one I had planned for, the other one through brute force. More on that later.
Image

High elves still reeling, aggressively charged the empire detachments on the left wing. Remaining swordmasters charged the flank of my helms.
Image

Warriors reformed to face the Empire light cav, and you guessed, the Anvil rang again, enabling a free charge on the doomed empire Peg captain and pistoliers.
Dwarf canon manages to destroy our only canon. All remaining war machines focussed on the greatswords, killing a lot of them.
Image

Close combat saw all 3 compromised empire units wiped off… however the helms were unable to scratch each others, while I dedicated all my noble
attacks against the swordmasters before they could strike. Remaining ones failed to kill him. Yet, the grind was still on.

In the center, brute force did happen but I would have needed to kill all remaining seaguard. A few were still standing despite horrendous losses.
My bus was still stuck in that combat. Now the second thing I hoped for was for the bloodthirst of that dwarf. Should the dwarves not commit enough to kill the chariot,
they would get to add all that CR plus any wounds. But with both his Lord and BsB against that chariot wide flank, I was pretty sure it would die. And it did. Why I wanted that?
Because it left the stunties out of that combat stuck between greatswords, white lions and my Dragon Princes that now got free reign to run down the LSG remnants.
Image

HE TURN 3

Spears, having taken out the RBT went in against the catapult and reavers went against a canon, making a medium charge.
Remaining reavers charged the eagle. In the center, white lions attempted an easy charge but rolled snake eyes... leaving greatsword alone to fight it out.
Image

Dragon Princes lost a bit of momentum and reformed to prepare for a rear charge on the main stunties unit.

Magic was lackluster, but a few buffs from the warpriest made it on the greatswords. Sisters and handgunners fired away on the Phoenix Guard that had
pursued and catched the hopeless free company, but barely scratched it with a 3+ ward.
Image

CC saw helms still locked in a wet noodle duel while the last swordmasters were slain by the Noble. In face of the stubborness of the dwarves machine handlers,
the noble leading the spears had to destroy the catapult himself while the the reavers were tied in a bloody affair with the canon crew.
The eagle was chased from the battlefield while a free company was slowly winning against the remnants of the enemy dragon princes lance.
More importantly, the main battle dwarf unit of hammerers was actually matched blow for blow by the greatswords, infused by the warpriest power, while some hardfought duels were going on.

DWARVES TURN 3

High elves Dragon Princes and Phoenix Guard both attempt a long charge on the hand gunners, met by failure and a lead shower.
Warriors try their best to get back into the action. Remaining eagle move to block the spears from charging the helms rear.
Image

Already In a dire situation, the Hammerers are about to charged from all side. A glimmer of hope suddenly comes as Miners reinforcement appear behind
my dragon princes. Soon , the cursed Anvil ring again and the miners attempt a charge which force the surprised riders of Caledor to flee. Despite easily outrunning
the short legged beardies, matters are only made worse as they end up blocking the White lions charge line...
Image

Shooting sees something rare, the remaining dwarf canon misfire, losing next turn.

In CC, Hammerers and Greatswords drop left and right with the battle hinging on duels having already claimed champions, BsBs and priest alike.

HIGH ELF TURN 4

Shaken by the sudden turn of events, High elves forces are frustrated as they can`t find a way to support ongoing combats.
Image

Only Sir Lorik, still bloodied and wounded from 3 close combat, is able to spot an opening as he charge out alone right past the Eagle blocking his troops,
ending in the enemy silver helms back lines.
Image

White Lions reform 3 wide to enable a wheel on the Dragon Princes flank, with the goal of preventing miners from a clean charge. Rest of the Empire army tries to advance,
too little too late while reavers and hand gunners harass the dwarf warriors.

Magic does see a good score of miners killed by a powered up soul quench, enough to give the unit something to think abou, yet they are still a menace.
Alarielle, now in range of the empire lord, healed him up a bit, to the dwarves despair.

Big combat in center is not yet decided, I am not sure what was going on but it was pretty intense as now both Lords were locked in a last duel
among fallen heros. Ennemy Helms were starting to fall here and there between both nobles. Unfortunately, they still held on steadfast, barely.

DWARVES TURN 4

PG and Princes on the left were too far off, warriors attempted to charge reavers then redirect in hand gunners only to get shot. Yet they still held their grudge.
In a last bid, hoping to win the center battle, miners and eagle moved up to block all High elves units. Repeater Bolter tried to finish off the sisters but lacked accuracy.

In CC, the helms were finally disbanded and the runelord, upon who the battle still hinged, finally fell under the Empire General repeated blows.

With him, the remnants of the stunties were routed and all hopes lost.
Image

Decisive victory for The Elven-Empire alliance!
A tale of Ellyrion, cavalry army blog:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=749457#p749457
Painting log:
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=816029#p816029
"We ride until the sun sets..."
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RE.Lee
Posts: 2618
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 9:22 pm
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Re: A tale of Ellyrion: A 1st Tournament win. Game 3 report.

#88 Post by RE.Lee »

A pretty epic battle, and a great report! I just love when there's so much pictures to illustrate whats going on :) Congrats on the win and I'm looking forward to even more news from your battles. :)
cheers, Lee

Elven Field Surgeon, Department of Intensive Care, Resuscitation and Necromancy
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