Third game and last game of day 1 saw me draw Skaven yet again. This time however it was a completely different flavour: Huge units of Slaves, more Warlocks than I can count, double Grey Seers with 4++/5++ (warlocks having MR2 and MR3 for maximum snipe-protection), double WLCs, doomwheel, Hellpit... The good news is that the only threat to my cavalry here, unlike vs bell-lists, is the HPA. If that is dealt with, the Helms can pretty much do as they please. Oh, and Plague spells can hurt me.
.::. Battle Report - Invasion #3 vs Skaven (uncomped) .::.
Points Before the Game: 40/40
Lists:
Prince on Star Dragon: Dragonhelm, Star Lance, Crown of Atrazar, The Other Trickster`s Shard, Shield = 598
Noble Battle Standard Bearer on Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed, Banner of the World Dragon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance = 172
Noble on Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed, Enchanted Shield, Heavy Armour, Ogre Blade = 134
High Mage Level 2 on Elven Steed, Scroll = 155
High Mage Level 2 on Elven Steed, Ironcurse Icon = 135
Heroes = 596, Characters = 1194
17 Silver Helms, Full Command & Shields = 421
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows, Standard Bearer = 95
5 Silver Helms, Shields, Champion, Standard Bearer = 135
Core = 651
3x1 Repeater Bolt Thrower = 210
Frostheart Phoenix = 240
2x1 Great Eagle = 100
Rare = 550
Army Total = 2395
Grey Seer, 4++, scroll
Grey Seer, 5++
Warlock, MR2
Warlock, MR3
Warlock, Brass Orb
Warlock, Doom Rocket
Warlock
Warlock
Warlock
BSB, Storm Banner
Clanratblock
4 big Slave blocks
3x5 Gutter Runners
HPA
Doomwheel
2x WLC
Pre-battle thoughts and deployment:
This game had an interesting scenario: Centered in the middle of the table is a 24" wide and 12" long rectangle. Whoever has the most core units` worth of points within this rectangle claims an additional +750VP. With my Helms being near-indestructible (see below), this would be good for me. Lore of Plague has a spell that really threatens my Helms: Wither. At the ETC this year, the Swedish HE player experienced losing his entire bus to this spell. Basically he let it through once in the early game, failed to dispel it with a very low roll T4 or T5 and his opponent got IF T6 I believe for the sweet result of insta-killing all Elves. For this reason I was not intending to push him too hard early on, but rather force out some of his toys, establish central control and munch down on him mid-game with a combo-charge late-game.
Deployment went very well, his HPA and Doomwheel were on opposite sides so I got to choose the Dragon`s matchup, which is an easy choice here seeing as it`ll devastate the HPA whereas the Doomwheel is disastrous for it. Furthermore the bus got in-between the Dragon and the Doomwheel so that it would be very hard for said toy to make a difference in this game.
I was very happy with the deployment and even managed to grab cover for both monsters. Spells unfortunately gave me 0 doubles and no Fiery, which would`ve been crucial this game. I had Walk, Heal, Tempest and Hand of Glory. He had <insert nastiness from Skaven spells>.
He managed to grab T1.
SK T1
So right off the bat I had a feeling this would be a long game. He spends a lot of time completing his movement phase and when we get to shooting, he wants to target my cav 4" from the back of the front model, conveniently enough likely to hit the Phoenix behind the hill. I firmly point out that the tournament uses ETC rules where they don`t contradict the rulebook, to prevent worst plays like deliberately over-guessing, fanatic slingshots etc. He agrees, but it feels like it`s more because he doesn´t want to take a fight. In Norway this is considered worst play almost regardless of what tournament you attend and most make sure to ban it by playing with ETC rules (i.e. FAQ and Worst Play) just to make it 100% clear.
So anyway, moving on then he skitterleaped his Warlock Engineer next to my monsters but missed by a mile. I made a mistake here as I thought it fired like a Stone Thrower and thus had to be centered on a model while he claimed he could place it anywhere. As he couldn`t/didn`t produce a reference we played it like a stone thrower but the scatter made it not matter anyway. I tried to stop Howling Warpgale which would`ve allowed my Phoenix to put some pressure on him and the Eagles to move towards artillery, but I rolled miserably.
HE T1
Time to call the Union Pacific! Helmdart moves up to force his HPA, rest advance cautiously. Dragon makes sure to have vision for said HPA unless he rolls very, very well. Magic sees me cast Hand on the Dragon for M9. Shooting does nothing of value.
SK T2
HPA moved straight up and quite a long way as well, into Dragon`s arc. Rest was cautious. Magic: Again I fail to stop Howling Warpgale. Arrived Gutter Runners kill my RBT in the Western corner (super-risky move to place them here in my opinion seeing as failing to kill it allows for counter-charges and shooting). One WLC blows up.
HE T2
So basically I had a perfect situation now. HPA is isolated, all my important elements are intact, my scroll hasn`t been spent, Brass Orb did nothing and my monsters are on full wounds. Furthermore I can start being a bit more aggressive with the bus seeing as Wither only has 12" of range and I have last turn. Consider the following:
Blue line shows that the Doomwheel cannot get to where it`s needed. Red lines show corner-possibilites for the Dragon.
My Dragon can charge corner-to-corner on either side of the HPA. The back corner results in Slaves needing 6 to charge, the front meaning they`ll need 10. I went for the first, the reasoning being that if the Slaves charge, I can combat-reform and counter-charge with the bus. Phoenix turns around and Eagle turns towards gutter runners. Bus moves up. Magic: Can`t remember, might`ve drawn his scroll with Arcane. In combat the SD does what it does best yet again and kills off the HPA.
SK T3
Slaves charge Dragon. Magic sees howling warpgale go through my defenses yet again. Shooting sees the remaining WLC target the Dragon. He hits 2 Slaves and the Dragon, randomize comes up 2 hits on me. HPA had removed the Crown and with a strength of 8, the shot insta-kills both the rider and the Dragon. Again the issue of 10 from the back was brought up but his first bounce was short, hence 2 Slaves being hit. The expendable rule is just about balanced, considering Slaves cost an entire 2 points per model... Helmdart panics.
HE T3
The Dragon dying is obviously a huge blow, but not all is lost. The Phoenix is still intact and the bus is now free to do as it pleases. With only 3 turns left it will be impossible for him to wither me thrice. I charge Slaves and bird moves up. Helmdart keeps fleeing. Hand of Glory goes on bird for next turn. Slaves hold on steadfast.
SK T4
This turn took half an hour to complete (I know this because of timestamp on the pictures) and this largely boils down to a single event: His Doomwheel flank-charged my Helms. Magic and shooting was uneventful, so let`s skip to combat. Impact hits kill one or two and then I start massacring Slaves. He loses badly but is steadfast by one model. This is huge, as him losing one more here would allow me to reform 2 or 3 wide and engage his bunker, deep within his lines. However the Doomwheel had such an angle that it would flee through his own gutter runners and off the table (at least it would be very close). At first he wanted to flee directly backwards (what?) and I was about to open the rulebook when he conceded. Then he simply started moving said Doomwheel but in the wrong direction, steering clear of the Gutter Runners. Luckily its position was easy to establish due to it being 50mm wide and having maximised contact so I moved it back and we started measuring. It was extremely close and I was about to call a judge (who had already been around at our table because I claimed his characters moved over 2x M during their movement phase when he wanted to shuffle them quite long. At which point he claimed "You are only being difficult with me now because you`re losing. Come on, man, I just want to have fun!" Fun? As in 220 Slaves Skaven army of doom fun? I didn`t even know what to say, besides I wasn`t losing due to the scenario which I felt I was in control of. The judge agreed with me by the way), but he simply moved it and claimed it didn`t go off the table. I was getting tired and it was getting very late and we were short on time so I didn`t pursue the issue further (though I should have).
HE T4
Helmdart rallied. Reavers charged Gutter Runners and redirected into Doomwheel but failed to catch. Magic was unimportant. I killed Slaves and reformed the bus.
SK T5
At this point the time was almost up and we were no-where near done. He moved up units to block my bus and rallied Doomwheel. Magic saw my scroll come out to stop Plague. Shooting can`t remember.
HE T5
I was so tired at this point that I made a huge blunder. The Helms, whom I had intended to stay behind the impassable on the right flank, simply walked up to have vision beyond it instead. It was late, the match was on overtime and I just brainfarted. Magic saw me blow up a mage. Reavers tried a desperate charge on the Doomwheel (I had a standard due to scenarios so was up on static if he didn`t kill me), it failed. Phoenix moved up.
SK T6
Doomwheel into Frostheart. He moves Grey Seer with Warp Lightning within front arc of my Helmdart. The crucial magic phase sees Warp Lightning go off, score 6 hits and kill all remaining Helms. With that, my hopes of winning went down the drain. The Frostheart held vs Doomwheel, but I was locked and couldn`t help out in the central combat.
I would have to kill an obscene amount of rats to kill off the Slaves (which would`ve given me the objective and thus a VP difference of 1500) which I failed to do. Although the Frostheart killed the Doomwheel, it was by far not enough. He scored the objective, giving him +750VP, which was a lot seeing as he was already up. A couple of mistakes, one of them huge, cost me the game and in the end the loss was
4-16 for the High Elves.
Evaluation
2 Mistakes stand out: The Star Dragon choosing the wrong corner and the Helms not hiding behind the impassable (if I had claimed the objective I would`ve tied the game). The first was largely a strategical mistake seeing as I was feeling the pressure when I shouldn`t have: There was plenty of time, Doomwheel was too far away and one WLC was down. A bad call, so to speak. The Helmdart mistake was just terrible though, I specifically thought of Warp Lightning the turn before and then forgot literally right before I moved them.
Playing against an opponent constantly trying sneaky(read: illegal) moves and getting away with "that extra inch" etc all the time is exhausting. I don`t think I have encountered this before, so in that sense this is a good experience as I know how I`ll handle it next time. I was wrong with regards to the brass orb and for that, I apologize, but he could`ve simply shown me the rules and I would`ve resigned.
I should also note that we finished this game 30 minutes on overtime. This is the first tournament game I`ve ever had that has even been close to maxing the time, so it was a very long day (I arrived 9.30 and this game finished 20:15 roughly) which helps explain why I messed up the Helmdart. Still though, lesson hopefully learned.
Going into day 2 I knew I`d have to make every point possible to have a chance. My opponent was now sitting at 53 points, 9 ahead of me. Even with 2x 20-0 I would need help.
Opponent`s Final Placing: TBA
My Points: 44/60