For my first game on day 2 I was facing my good friend Dark Reaper, with a Dark Elf army I`ve helped create. We were on table 2 at this point, but the VC player I faced game 1 had taken a massive lead so the only way to get high up would be to score a big win.
.::. Battle Report - Indian Summer #4 vs Dark Elves (ETC comp) .::. Points Before the Game: 46/60
Lists:
Prince on Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed: Giant Blade, Dawnstone, Enchanted Shield, Ironcurse Icon, Heavy Armour = 268
Loremaster of Hoeth: Book of Hoeth, Talisman of Preservation = 330
Lords = 598
Noble BSB on Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed: Heavy Armour, Shield, Spear, Banner of the World Dragon = 168
Noble on Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed: Ogre Blade, Golden Crown of Atrazar, Heavy Armour, Shield = 141
Noble: Shield of the Merwyrm, Warrior Bane, Obsidian Amulet, Dragon Armour = 130
High Mage: Level 2, Dispel Scroll = 145
Heroes = 588
17 Silver Helms: Shields, Full Command = 421
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows (swap), Champion = 95
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows (swap) = 85
Core = 601
22 Phoenix Guard, Full Command, Razor Standard = 405
3 Repeater Bolt Throwers = 210
Special & Rare = 615
Army Total = 2398
Dreadlord, General, Light Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Dark Steed, Enchanted Shield, Giant Blade, Dawnstone - 258pts
Supreme Sorceress, lvl4 Death, Dispel Scroll, Ring of Hotek - 295pts
Master, Dark Pegasus, Heavy Armour, Lance, Sea Dragon Cloak, Shield Cloak of Twilight - 188pts
Master, Dark Pegasus, Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Lance, Armour of Destiny - 184pts
Master, Dark Pegasus, Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Charmed Shield, Lance, Talisman of Preservation, BSB - 211pts
Characters = 1136pts
25 Darkshards, Guardmaster, Musician, Standard Bearer, Banner of Eternal Flame - 340pts
9 Dark Riders, Shields, Repeater Crossbows - 180pts
5 Dark Riders - 80pts
Core = 600pts
Reaper Bolt Thrower - 70pts
Reaper Bolt Thrower - 70pts
Reaper Bolt Thrower - 70pts
Reaper Bolt Thrower - 70pts
5 Harpies - 75pts
5 Shades - 80pts
Special = 435pts
9 Doomfire Warlocks - 225pts
Rare = 225pts
Army Total = 2396pts
Pre-battle thoughts and deploymentA very similar list to the one I faced last @SM. It`s ironic I should be playing this type of list again, as half the point behind creating my current list was to be able to push against something like this. Now I would be put to the test, could I finally manage to win a game vs 8th ed. Dark Elves or would this be yet another tournament stopper?
The table was good for me with a central hill on his deployment zone quite far ahead, meaning that he`d be very exposed if he`d go for it. Furthermore, I had lots of open terrain for my bus and the PG had an obstacle they could use T1 to reduce the damage of incoming fire. Lastly I got some good spells: Walk Between Worlds and Soul Quench. He rolled Soulblight, DnD, Purple Sun, Spirit Leech. When deployment was done I was very happy with my position: his chaff was exposed, Warlocks had the lake which made them very predictable while his center was open and hard to defend against my solid units. He hits hard on the charge but his list cannot grind at all, so a cluster**** would likely see PG emerge victorious.

With +1, I went first.
HE T1PG move to the fence, cavalry move up hard with Reavers behind. I wanted to shield the latter from most of his firepower, knowing how important mid/lategame chaffing can be in this matchup. Magic saw the scroll come out when I got a huge cast at boosted WBW on the PG (which would`ve allowed me to put the entire unit 1" away from his Darkshards pretty much). I got off Miasma -2BS on the Darkshards. Shooting killed an RBT on the hill. I realized at this point that taking Soul Quench was likely inferior to Drain Magic here, given the need to cast spells in combat, disable Soulblight and the speed with which I wanted to engage: having more missiles was simply too redundant.
DE T1Dark Riders moved to block the bus. Flyers stood still. Magic saw soulblight land on the Helms. Shooting killed an RBT and a Helm or two I believe, nothing major...

A big mistake on Dark Reapers` part was not actually blocking my Helmbus, I measured it up and I had more than 5" from the corner of the Prince to his unit, allowing me to wheel past given a charge - which I just so happened to have on the exposed RBT. Consider the following picture:

Basically the red line shows my alignment to his RBT. When aligning with it, there are 3 possible scenarios: I can reform and be charged by everything (bad), I can overrun into the first Master (blue arrow, very short overrun distance needed) or I can overrun into the second Master with the Cloak of Twilight (pink arrow, longer distance but it means he won`t get a killing blow charge). Purple arrows indicate possible counter-charges. Note that he still has big Dark Riders and Harpies at full strength.
HE T2So I go for the charge, and I align to hit the closest Master. I can`t remember the distance to hit the one with the cloak (and I`m not 100% sure the angle would`ve worked out with the Dark Riders blocking part of my wheel if I want to go that far) but I decided on the shorter one to ensure actually getting the overrun. If he counter-charges with the killing blow Master and fails to kill the Prince, the game is over right there and then most likely a 20-0 to me. Quick math: 3 attacks hitting on 3/4 = 9/4 hits, which translates to a little over one third to killing blowing my Prince. I usually say that if you want to win a tournament, you need to average 15 points and have a bit of luck in one or two games to push you north of 80 battle points. I saw this as a chance for the big kill, all I needed was for the Prince to survive.
PG moved up as well to support and I did my best with magic to hurt Harpies, but being behind the hill I couldn`t missile them (only Iceshard, which wasn`t enough) so they survived. My firepower couldn`t kill the 5-strong Dark Riders either, so this could turn real ugly if I got stuck as he could potentially chaff my PG for ages.
In combat I killed the RBT and overran into the Master... Now, Dark Reaper, your move.
DE T2Counter-charging with the Darkshards is a risky proposition: His Lord has a magic weapon and thus my bus is largely immune to him and his L4 is in the front rank. Instead he opted for charging the BSB out of the unit, along with the Cloak of Twilight-Master and the Warlocks. Magic saw him force through Soulblight on the Helms. I knew it wouldn`t decide the game so I saved my scroll. Shooting killed an RBT and some Reavers.
In combat, he lands the crucial killing blow. Adding insult to injury, 2(!!) Warlocks manage to kill the Ogre Blade Noble with me rolling 1`s no end for his saves, including the Crown. This was not how I envisaged this combat to work out. Luckily however, he killed enough Helms for my PG to be able to overrun into his BSB when they killed his Harpies. Partly an oversight on Dark Reapers` part, partly lucky for me.
HE T3The PG went into the fray. 2 Reavers charged an RBT, the other flanked his small Dark Riders. Magic - can`t remember, but he dispelled Iceshard on his General`s unit. In combat I won big due to the PG helping out. He lost by 4 and had to take 4 tests on LD6. 2 of them failed (the single Pegs) but crucially, the BSB and Warlocks held. One Peg ran off the table, the other stopped just at the edge. I forgot to combat reform the PG...
DE T3...which Dark Reaper took advantage of as he charged his Lord B2B with my Loremaster. Such a terrible mistake, and such a poor timing as well! Magic saw the scroll come out but I believe he still landed soulblight on the Helms. In combat the Loremaster was brutally cut down. The mage had to step up: this time however I combat reformed him away from the Lord, B2B with his 1W BSB.
HE T4My Reavers had killed his Dark Riders so I moved them closer to the PG for a little trick. Magic came up with enough dice to 5-dice WBW, which I did with IF! This provided a 3++ for my PG but crucially, I got models in B2B S10 hit, so his BSB died(!). This disconnected the PG-fight from the Helmfight, leaving the Helms alone vs Warlocks. In combat, I challenged out the Lord with my 3++ Champ, who made all his wards masterfully. Despite my large static (banner + 3 ranks) he passed his break test. I would`ve wanted to reform here to give his Darkshards my front, but his Lord was B2B with multiple command models, so it would be impossible.
DE T4Darkshards flank the PG and we`re now truly past the point of playing safe

The Cloak re-charges my BSB, having rallied last turn. Soulblight again lands on me. He fails to shoot my Reavers, I have 1 left which passes panic, crucial! In combat he wins vs PG, I hold on steadfast. The Helms` Champion challenge out the Cloak dude to avoid another killing blow disaster.
HE T5The last Reaver moves to the PG again and I manage yet another IF WBW! 3++ keeping me in the game! I make way with the Noble with the PG because he`s reformed deep so I need to get lucky with kills to remain steadfast. It pays off as I barely kill enough to keep a rank more than him and I hold. I catch a break as the Helms win as well and his cloak dude flees again, this time off the table.
DE T5With everything focused on the central combat not much else happens here. Soulblight on PG again. Helms kill remaining Warlocks and I reform them towards the central combat. PG lose but are still steadfast, the champ is finally killed by his Lord. I hold.
HE T6BSB + last remaining SH rear-charge his Dreadlord. I still have 2++ vs him so I`m confident this is a strong play. I finally fail to cast WBW so PG are "only" 4++. It proves solid however, he loses big and is not steadfast: the Lord fails but the Darkshards hold. My BSB catches his lord. The PG reform to maximise attacks on the Darkshards, with mage and Noble on 1W each having to enter the fray...

In the very last turn of the game, his remaining 2 RBT kill the Helm + BSB (400VP), the mage dies (145VP) and the Noble goes down (130VP). In return however he breaks and I catch him, getting massive points for the Darkshards + L4. Counting up the tattered remains, it is the most bloody game I`ve had in quite a while with over 2000VP for both sides, in the end I was ahead by ~160 points though so finally I took a game off of the Dark Elves, an
11-9 victory to the High Elves!EvaluationMy one biggest mistake in this game was not combat reforming the Loremaster to safety. Despite both my cavalry grinders going down early I never felt I was far behind in this game (well, it was close when my PG got flanked and he combat reformed) and if I could`ve had the Loremaster around I probably would`ve scored a big win. Silly mistake. Another mistake was picking soul quench. Lesson learned: get Drain Magic for an easy-to-cast spell to increase my ward save. It`s also good vs DnD and Soulblight.
Lastly my choice to overrun into the closest Master rather than risk not reaching the other one (I think it was 7", might have been 8") is up for debate.
Oh and despite the terrible beating they took, I still had 8 or 9 PG remaining at the end. These guys are insane!Opponent`s Final Placing: 13/36Points: 57/80