casual 1500 pts - HE vs DE

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Caparisoned for war
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:55 am

casual 1500 pts - HE vs DE

#1 Post by Caparisoned for war »

I played my second game against Dark Elves today, the first against the dreaded Ring of Hotek, a hydra and ASF Blackguard - and my boys did me proud, so I thought I'd share a brief battle report. Without pictures, unfortunately, but I hope it's interesting to read for fellow generals anyway.

My army (1499pts total):
Noble, barded mount, Reaver Bow, Dragon Armor, Shield //149pts
lvl2 Mage, Jewel of Dusk, Scroll (lore of Fire) //170pts
lvl2 Mage, Silver Wand, Scroll (lore of Fire) //165pts
15 Spears, Musician, Standard //150 pts
13 SM, full command, Banner of Ellyrion //240
5 DP //150
7 WL //105
7 WL //105
Tiranoc Chariot //85
5 Shadow Warriors //80
RBT //100

Dark Elf army (can't give all the details or exact point costs, sorry):
Noble, mag. weapon giving him ASF, +2 str, armor piercing, possible other stuff that he couldn't use
2 Assassins, both with +d3 attacks, one with throwing stars
about 17 BG, full command, ASF Banner, Ring of Hotek
10 Crossbows
5 Dark Riders with crossbows
5 Dark Riders with crossbows
War Hydra
6 Shades with crossbows and additional hand weapons
about 15 Corsairs, full command

Terrain had four pieces of Jungle with rubble, very roughly in the middle of each table quarter, a small hill on the far left in my deployment area and a hill slightly right of the middle of the board (seen from my perspective).

I deployed like this (left to right):
RBT on the hill; 7 WL next to it, with one Mage attached to them; DP; 15 Spears with Noble and 2nd mage; 7 WL; SM directly behind the forest on the right; Tiranoc chariot; my scouts on the far right behind a forest near his deployment zone

His deployment (left to right from my perspective):
5 Dark riders, Hydra (behind the woods), Shades in the forest on the left next to my deployment area, then a gap, then the bulk of his stuff to the right of the middle: the Crossbows; the BG with general, 5 dark riders, Corsairs

Turn 1:
He goes first, moves both dark riders up, right and left, the shades are joined by a throwing-star-assassin, and also enter firing position in the woods near my WL, everything else advances. On the left, his concentrated fire on the WL kills five of them, but they stay. On the right, some more concentrated fire on the other WL results in 2 kills and a failed panic test (incl. re-roll and general's leadership 9).
In my turn, my marchblocked DP cross over to the right, the 2 WL on the left move to cover the RBT, the mage joins the Spear block, which turns to face the Shades and the riders on the left. The other WL rally, the SM move up and end in the forest, threatening most of the middle area. Tiranoc and Shadow warriors move to shoot the Riders on the right. His left flank is outside the Hotek range, enabling me to burn the riders down. The RBT kills a shade, the shooting on the right flank kills one dark rider.

Turn 2:
The shades declare a charge on my 2 WL covering the RBT. They flee off the board, and the failed charge leaves the shades point blank in front of my RBT and my Spear block w/ two mages and noble with reaver bow. Unfortunately, the hydra moves right next to them. It breathes on my spears, some die. In the middle the BG claim the hill, the remaining dark riders advance to shoot my spears. The Corsairs, in which a second assassin has appeared, charge my Shadow Warriors, who flee and stop two inches from the edge. The Corsairs are now quite far from the main fight. The Xbows kill some SM.
My turn: Terror tests are passed. My two mages and the RBT eliminate the shades and the assassin and deal a wound to the hydra. The WL charge the riders, who can't flee because it would take them through my SM, the SM and the chariot combo-charge the BG and general in the front. The WL kill all four remaining riders. In the other fight my impact hits eliminate three BG. Some average rolling on both sides let me win big and the BG fail their stubborn check. Overrun ... things are beginning to look good.

Turn 3:

On the left flank there's still the hydra, opposing my decimated spear block with two mages and the general who has no protection besides his 2+ armor save. It charges, and I decide to flee, though I'm only sth like 8 inches from the edge – but taking the charge is likely to result in two dead mages and a difficult break test, maybe an autobreak ... I roll an 8, and stop millimetres from the edge. His xbows go berserk and kill 8 (!) SM. The Corsairs and remaining assassin make minced meat out of my shadow warriors and overrun off the board.
The good elves start the turn with a successful rally on my spears and the three attached heroes. I have to kill the hydra now, there's no place to run ... Just in case I reposition the DP to charge the hydra if things go south but two fireballs and one conflagration of doom finish off beast and handlers. The remaining three SM charge the xbows and get mowed down by stand and shoot (I thought I was too close for that – wrong by a quarter inch or so), but the chariot positions itself for a rear charge next turn.

Turn 4:
The dark elves have basically lost now, but are determined to go down fighting ... OK with me, as long as they DO go down :-) The xbows continue their streak of good luck and kill 4 White Lions that have almost reached the combat zone, the Corsairs return to the board but can't help anybody.
In my turn, the chariot utterly breaks the xbows, everything else moves towards the Corsairs.

Turns 5 and 6:
More or less just mopping up now, some DP die from the assassin, but I eliminate the remaining dark elves. Extra points for killing the opposing general etc. factored in, it's a massacre ... now who'd have thought that, considering how afraid I was of the Dark Elves nasty stuff before the game!

Afterthoughts:
The massacre notwithstanding, Hydra, Hotek, Black Guard and Shades are really great and hard to overcome. I've been lucky at two critical points in the game, first when the BG failed their stubborn roll, and second when my two mages and general didn't run off the board and rallied just in time to fry the hydra. And I think my opponent – relaxed and fair player, btw – made a mistake or two when he positioned some juicy targets outside the Ring's zone of influence and when he allowed me to charge his BG with a full unit of SM and a chariot at the same time. He also made/let me provoke too many failed charges (once with the shades+assassin, once with the 15 Corsairs+assassin, and once with the hydra, though that was risky on my part). In the end that left quite a few points of his stranded in the middle of nowhere or at point blank range right in front of two fire mages and an RBT.
Last edited by Caparisoned for war on Sun May 17, 2009 6:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
dabber
Tactician
Posts: 3037
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:21 pm
Location: USA

Re: casual 1500 pts - HE vs DE

#2 Post by dabber »

Nicely played sir! I agree that your opponent made mistakes, but you tempted him into most of those mistakes. Letting the Hydra wander off from the ring is the only one you don't seem to have really caused.
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