HE vs Empire - 1000 points

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langbaobao
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2005 7:58 pm
Location: Rijeka, Croatia

HE vs Empire - 1000 points

#1 Post by langbaobao »

Decided to post a report of my last battle, to try out the battlemap software I found. Unfortunately I seem to have forgotten a few details of the fight since some time has passed, so I tried recreating it as best as I could.

Ok, so the story goes like this. I had a 1000 pts battle vs. Empire coming up against a friend of mine and I decided to take a leaf from ArchmageAlthos's book with a shooty HE force. I usually like to have a decent number of units so I can play with deployment, but unfortunately at 1000 pts this becomes a problem. In order to have enough units for my usual style of play I never take more then one RBT, since they're expensive, so I'm not able to field enough firepower to be at ease with some of the monsters other armies have been bringing to the table lately (Hydra comes to mind, which singlehandedly massacred half my 1000 pts army last time). This time I went with a small but shooty army which ArchmageAlthos piloted against the lizzies, according to his battle report.


Here's my list:

Mage lvl2, Seerstaff of Saphery, DS

10x Lothern Seaguard, shield

13x Swordmasters, full command, Banner of Sorcery, Skeinsliver

5x Dragon Princes, Banner of Ellyrion

2x RBT

4+d3 PD, 3 DD



And my opponent's list:

Warrior Priest, HA, GW, Barded Horse, Sigil of Sigmar

20x Swordsman, full command

9x Free company (detachment)

7x Archers (detachment)

10x Handgunners

6x Core Knights, standard, champ

9x Inner Circle Knights, full command, War Banner

1x Mortar

3 DD


Terrain and army deployment:

Coming in, I didn't know what exactly I would be facing, so I figured that the Seerstaff and scroll on the mage was a nice all around setup coupled with the BoS. This setup is really nice with High magic. Initially I went with 15 Swordmasters, but I changed it to 13 to be able to take the Banner of Ellyrion on the Princes since I knew we were going to have a big wooded terrain piece and also in the last game I greatly missed it. We set up the board by taking turns at placing terrain pieces. Fortunately I managed to win the roll and selected the wood as my first terrain piece, setting it somewhat in the middle in order to be able to force my opponent to go around it or deploy in a way that would let him avoid it. I on the other hand was planning on on exploting it fully with my Princes :). The rest of the terrain deployment went with me making sure I allowed some nice killzones for my RBTs where I could get my opponent's knights in a crossfire with hopefully a BBQ spit or two, while keeping them relatively safe. The final terrain and unit deployment was as follows.

Image

The wood terrain piece worked to my advantage and it forced my opponent to deploy to the right 2/3 of the table. He deployed his handgunners to guard his left flank from my DP, which was more then OK by me because it effectively put them out of the main fight since the DP were going to take the woodland route. Since I was going in with a small ammount of units the idea was to use the Skeinsliver and take advantage of the first turn of shooting to get rid of his support units so my Swordmasters could make short work his Swordsman. The RBTs were to guard their advance by killing off the the big knight unit or at least reducing it's ranks and by being a general nuisance to my opponent. He deployed his big knight unit with priest behind a wall, which IMO was a big mistake because it slowed them for a turn. I'm guessing he was afraid of my RBTs taking them down. In the end it happened, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy I guess... As for magic, I briefly considered Metal, but in the end I chose High Magic because, frankly the Curse of Arrow Attraction was mandatory with this setup. As for the second spell I chose Fury of Khaine.


Turn 1:

Since his IC Knight unit was behind the fence, I figured I had 2 turns to get rid of them, and even if they charged my Swordmasters I was confident they would be able to get rid of them if I took a rank off with shooting and magic. So I advanced forward with my Swordmasters, making sure they couldn't be charged by the big knights while bringing the mage within range to be able to cast spells. The Princes advanced trough the wood for the Mortar but were not in the position to charge in the next turn. Magic was golden this turn since I broke trough his magical defences and managed to cast a Fury first, killing all his skirmishing Archers and then I cursed the Free Company detachment. The RBTs killed off 8 of the freecompanyman, panicking the one that was left.

My opponent advanced with the Swordsman slightly, the smaller knight unit advanced on the right flank. The big knights moved forward but were slowed down by the wall and wouldn't be able to charge the Swordmasters this turn. The handgunners realized that they've been left out so they took a turn to reform and face the direction the DP would be coming out. The Mortar fired and although the predicted path led directly over the SM, the winds scattered the shell far away from them.

Image

Turn 2:

The mage moved out of the SM to the Seaguards, while the Swordmasters advanced just a bit more. the Princes manouvred in order to get a charge on the Mortar while being out of range of the Handgunners. This time my opponent decided to let the Fury pass on the knights. I didn't roll that well, and I managed to kill a knight. He countered the Curse. Still, the RBTs opened fire and managed to kill 4 more knights and panicking them and the priest. The Seaguard opened fire on the Swordsman unit killing 3 IIRC, and thus taking a rank off. By now things started looking extremely good.

Since his main unit was out of action my opponent stopped his advance on the centre while moving the small unit of knights on the flank. Unfortunately for him he couldn't charge the RBT on the left flank, but even if he could it had already done a fine job, more then paying for it's points. The Mortar fired once more but again the shot landed away from any of my units.

Image

Turn 3:

The Swordmasters charged the Swordsman who stood their ground. The DP charged the Mortar which fled off the field to force the DP to fail their charge and be exposed to the handunner's fire. In the meantime the Seaguard and Mage jumped over the fence to prevent them being caught by the knights on the persuit after they would kill the RBT. Just to be extra safe, the mage moved towards the building. The master of the magical winds rained the fury of the elven god of war on the knights again, making some 6-7 wounds but all were stopped by their armour. In response they got cursed to attract flying sharp objects. It was obvious the knight could laugh off the S4 attacks so the RBT near them fired off a single bolt and killed one. I was planning to make a nice BBQ spit with the other RBT, but unfortunately it didn't have line of sight. The Swordmasters made short work of the Swordsman, killing off their champion and another 6 man. The Swordman ran from the fight, were caught, and cut down by the sword masters from Saphery.

The enemy knights charged the RBT crew which valiently stood their ground. The handgunners opened fire on the Dragon Princes from long range and managed to kill one of the proud sons of Caledor. In combat the RBT crew fought valiently, using their elven agility to strike at the knights before them, but to no avail. They were felled down with extreme prejudice.

Image

Turn 4:

The Swordmasters turned around heading back to the heat of battle. The Dragon Princes wisely decided to use the forest once more and make a quick sweep of the main battlefield in the process. After all, the Handgunners weren't going anywhere. In the meantime the Seaguard reformed in two ranks getting ready for the impeding knight charge. I forgot to move the RBT :(. The mage moved slightly and tried to cast the Fury of Khaine on the insolent human knights, but the fickle winds of magic were not favorable.

The Knights charged the Seaguard which held. Because of the walled obstacle only 3 of the knights managed to get their way into combat. The clash was great and in the end one of the knights lay down on the ground, the skilled elven spears having found a chink in the armor. The knights and their horses in return killed one of the valiant Seaguard. In the end the Knights lost combat by 1, but passed their check.

Image

Turn 5:

The Swordmasters and the Princes moved further while the Seaguard held their ground. The RBT was moved in a better firing position. The Seaguard tried felling some more of the human knights but they failed to do so. The Knights in return killed 3 of Ulthuan's marines. The Seaguard broke from combat and was run down.

The Knights tried to charge the remaining RBT, but fortunately they could not reach it. The Handgunners advanced.

Image

Turn 6:

The DP charged the handgunners whose previous advance had put them in a perillious spot. Still, despite the panic of being charged and the cover offered by the woods, they managed to fell down two of the DP. Yet the Princes were too taken by the the fury of battle and did not falter in their charge. The Swordmasters followed the Knights. The Mage managed to the Curse as well as Fury on the Knights. Two of the knights were killed by Khaine's might and this broke their fighting spirit. They fled towards the stoic Swordmasters and were cut down. The charging Princes easily managed to break the shaken Handgunners, running them down.



Result: Massacre :twisted:
--
[b]Tholwë the Enforcer[/b]
Defenders of Ulthuan Mapmaker

[img]http://www.abload.de/img/cs6lk2j.gif[/img][img]http://www.abload.de/img/bg6fohh.gif[/img][img]http://www.abload.de/img/adjjyj.gif[/img]
[quote="harry"]fight in three ranks, eighteen ranks deep.[/quote]
Jimmy
Centurion
Posts: 3307
Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2004 12:55 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

#2 Post by Jimmy »

Nice report, that software makes the report much better to follow.

:-)
Nec Sorte Nec Fato - Neither By Chance Nor Fate

X-wing Blog
ArchmageAlthos
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:51 pm

#3 Post by ArchmageAlthos »

I think its natural to say thanks for reading my report and congratulations on the victory! I do like the added improvement of banner on the Dragon Princes. The two bolt throwers were kind of a thing I used years ago since I kept loosing small point games (I was a new back then).

I'm glad everything turned out for you and the software helped with everything visually.

For Asur!

(silly humans...)
langbaobao
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2005 7:58 pm
Location: Rijeka, Croatia

#4 Post by langbaobao »

ArchmageAlthos wrote:I do like the added improvement of banner on the Dragon Princes.
Well, in my previous games I used a vanilla unit of DP but I just missed the banner of ellyrion, it's just so good on the DP...
ArchmageAlthos wrote:For Asur!

(silly humans...)
Indeed, QFT. :D
--
[b]Tholwë the Enforcer[/b]
Defenders of Ulthuan Mapmaker

[img]http://www.abload.de/img/cs6lk2j.gif[/img][img]http://www.abload.de/img/bg6fohh.gif[/img][img]http://www.abload.de/img/adjjyj.gif[/img]
[quote="harry"]fight in three ranks, eighteen ranks deep.[/quote]
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