Eternity King Elves vs Karl Franz Ascendent

[Ladril Caledor]

My first attempt at a battle report, I apologize for the lack of pictures or maps. I'll try and explain things as best as I can through text. I took notes after each phase and wrote up the report afterwards.

This was played with full End Times rules, with what seems to be the agreed interpretation of the new magic...that you can keep casting the same spell even if it is dispelled, as long as you make your casting rolls. You can see the full argument about this interpretation on the ET: Army Lists Speculation thread in the general Warhammer Fantasy section of Ulthuan.

The two 'hills' that I refer to in the middle of the table (one left of centre, one right of centre) were actually rectangular boxes, which is why the infantry and cavalry were able to use them to hide from missile fire, but Karl Franz couldn't as he was too big.

My Army (Host of the Eternity King):
Master with Ogre Blade, Dawnstone, heavy armour/sheild/cloak on Dark Steed
Noble with Reaver Bow, Potion of Strength, Dragon Armour, shield and lance
Noble BSB with Banner of the World Dragon, Dragon Armour, shield and lance
Lvl 4 High Archmage with Book of Hoeth and golden crown
Lvl 3 Metal Archmage with Dispel Scroll and dragonbane gem
10 Silver Helms with full command
(3x5 formation, mages and BSB in the middle of second rank)

21 White Lions with standard (3x7)

24 Darkshards with full command (3x8)

2 Eagle Claw Bolt Throwers

2 Great Eagles

Frostheart Phoenix



His Army:
Karl Franz Ascendant

Captain BSB with plate armour on barded warhorse
11 Inner Circle Knights with lances and shields, champion and standard

Lvl 4 Fire Mage with talisman of preservation
49 spearmen

4 Demigryph Knights, champion and standard

2 Great Cannons

1 Hellblaster Volley Gun

Deployment:

His cannons went in opposite corners. Then from my left to right - his demigryphs, volley gun, spears (with wizard), inner circle knights, Karl Franz.

I put my bolt throwers central with White Lions left of centre, darkshards right of centre, eagles on extreme edges, and Silver Helm bus placed last directly opposite Karl Franz. I knew this Helmbus was my best chance against Karl, it has a good chance in combat because of Banner of the World Dragon nerfing Karls magic attacks.

I placed my central units carefully so the corner cannons couldn't hit most of my units, they were blocked by the two 'hills' (cardboard boxes) which were left and right of the middle of the board, although each cannon had a beeline on an eagle, and the right cannon had line of sight on my Helmbus.

Empire Turn 1:
Empire wins first turn.
Karl Franz moved just behind the central right hill, the demigryphs move behind the left central hill, the knights moved forward, the spears move forward into the centre. He's set up nice angles for ranged attacks, now the right cannon can shoot my Helmbus, the fire mage can burn my White Lions's, and Karl can lightning attack with a choice of several units. I was afraid of getting slaughtered before I had a chance to hit back.

Winds of magic are low, he has 9 dice to my 7. KF gets five dice for Lightning and rolls them all, attacking the Silver Helm bus. I only get one dice to dispel so I don't roll it. I'm worried as this is the first turn, any other turn I'm likely to have a 3+ ward, but now they are vulnerable. He gets four hits, I make one 5+ armour save so 3 are dead. He then makes his 3+ for further lightning, inflicting two more kills, he then makes his 5+ roll for even more lightning, but I'm lucky enough to armour save the two hits. They pass their panic test. I now have 7 dispel dice to his 4 power dice, he manages to use all 4 on fireball, but I dispel it easily.

The cannon fires at the Helmbus but misfires, rolling Do Not Shoot on the misfire chart. The other cannon fires at the Eagle, his only target, but it doen't bounce and the eagle is safe. I feel I got off lightly, things could have been much worse.

Elf Turn One:

In my turn I strongly consider charging KF with my Silver Helm bus, its long but makeable and they have a 2+ ward against his magic attacks. But I resist the temptation, as if they fail to kill or drive off Karl, he can charge both sides of my bus next turn with Demigryphs and Inner Circles knights, and I'd be toast.

I instead decide to hang back and hit KF as hard as I can with shooting and magic.

I fly both eagles along the two board edges, directly towards the corner cannons. He will have to kill them in his next turn or get charged, which at least should stop his cannons from shooting anything else.

I move the WL's behind the hill, they are safe from his artillery, and the phoenix moves behind them. The darkshards hold still to maximise accuracy. I don't move the Helmbus, as they have line of sight and are within range for my magic missiles.

Magic phase and I roll 17 dice to his 10...nice. I manage to get 5 dice for Deadlock and get it off, great start, he now can't use his wizard to dispel or cast until my next phase. I then get off searing doom, he doesn't have enough dice to attempt a dispel, but i roll badly and only kill two knights. I then 3 dice Arcane Unforging on KF and get 12+5 for 17, he gets 6 dice to dispel and rolls them all...and fails. He takes a wound and loses the silver seal. He's lost his ward save and magic resistance and I smell blood...6 dice left to his 4 and I spam Soul Quench 6 times in a row. He dispels the first but the other five go through (each one dice attempt is 3+ rerollable). 41 hits in total, but I roll terribly and only manage eight 5+ rolls to wound, he then armour saves half of them and takes only 4 wounds.

Still, he now has no ward save and I still have my darkshards and bolt throwers to hit him with. Darkshards fire 48 bolts, wounding on 6's with him saving on 4's. I expected about 4 wounds but I only managed 2. Bolt Throwers then have a tough choice, he has 3 wounds left, do I get 12 shots hitting on 3's and wounding on 5's with a 5+ save, or 2 shots hitting on 3's and wounding
on 3's with no save and D3 wounds? The odds seemed pretty even either way, so I went with 2 bolts. Both hit, but only one wounded and managed only 1 wound. My opponent breathed a sigh of relief, the Emperor was very lucky to survive that turn.

Empire Turn 2:

My opponent considered his options. If he charges KF into the Helmbus or White Lions, he is going to get killed without his ward save. He could charge the darkshards and drive them off, but then I could double charge and kill him next turn. So he does the smart move and flies back, central and deep in his own deployment zone. His spearmen move behind the central right hill, with the knights behind them, staying out of sight of my missile fire.

The magic phase is a non event as his mage is deadlocked. His cannons shoot my Eagles, killing the one on the right and putting the one on the left down to 1 wound. He has played this smart, resisting the temptation to charge and staying back. I'm going to have to go to him now, into the teeth of his artillery and counter charges.

Elf Turn 2:

I charge the cannon on the left with my Eagle. The Helmbus are 18" from the Knights, a bit far to attempt charge, so I move them right in front, an inch away, which means the cannon on the right can't shoot them and I can hit them with searing doom again. I move all my other units behind the central right hill, out of sight of his artillery, and in a better position to support my Helmbus.

Magic phase is 14 vs 9. I only get 4 dice for Deadlock and decide not to risk it, using only one dice for the deliberate fail. I then use 3 dice on Searing Doom, and he dispels it with 4 dice. I get through Arcane Unforging on 3 dice and he dispels it with 4. He only has one dice left, I have 7. Again he dispels the first but I keep one dice spamming, killing the Emperor with my fifth Soul Quench of the phase.

The bolt throwers both six shot the volley gun, the only thing they can see, causing one wound.

Onto combat and the Eagle causes one wound, suffering none in return. The cannon crew lose combat by two and flee off the board, while the Eagle reforms to face the volley gun.

Empire Turn 3:

With Karl Franz gone and my army almost intact, my opponent is in trouble, but the battle is far from over. He moves the knights and spears out of charge arc of the Helmbus, which also opens up the Helms to the remaining cannon and the volley gun.

His magic phase is 21 vs 12, and he spam two dice casts fireball ten times in a row at my white lions. I manage to dispel half of the attempts, but the others get through and kill 9 WL's. They pass their panic test.

The cannon and hellblaster volley gun both fire at the Helmbus. I expected serious damage but the 3+ ward from Shield of Saphery works wonders, and I only lose a single Helm.

Elf Turn 3:

In my turn I move the Darkshards and Helms either side of the Spearmen, trapping them between the hills on both sides. I fly the Phoenix into the face of the cannon, just one inch away, where it shouldn't be able to hit my frostie. The Eagle makes a long charge into the volley gun.

Magic phase is 15 vs 8. I manage to Deadlock the enemy mage again. I get a couple of Hand of Glory BS buffs off on the darkshards as well, to ensure they hit on 2+ in the shooting phase. The rest of the phase is all soul quench, seven times in a row. He manages to dispel four of them, but the remainder hit him 22 times, killing 12 spearmen.

In the shooting phase my 48 darkshard shots hit 42 times on 2+, killing 21, then the reaver bow kills another two. The spears pass their panic test.

The eagle somehow fails to wound the volley gun crew, and they fail to wound in return. The eagle still wins by 1 thanks to the charge, but the crew pass their panic check.

Empire Turn 4:

In his phase the spears are trapped between the darkshards and Helmbus, so he decides to charge the darkshards rather than face a double charge the following turn. The demigryphs also charge the darkshards and the knights move behind the white lions.

The wizard is deadlocked again, so we move on to shooting. The frostheart is too close for the cannon to hit, so he aims at the silver helms again, but the 3+ ward saves them from any losses

In combat the Eagle manages to kill one of the volley gun crew, and they break and flee off the board. The darkshards focus all their attacks on the spears, managing 20 hits and killing 13. The spears kill 3 in return and the demigryphs kills 5, and both empire units break from combat. The spears flee into the silver helm bus and get wiped out. The darkshards reform to face the knights.

Elf Turn 4:

In my turn I charge the cannon with my Frostheart, then charge my remaining White Lions into the Knights. The cannon crew fails its terror test and flees off the board. I manage to get Meteoric Ironclad off on the White Lions, and searing doom off on the fleeing demigryphs, killing one and taking two wounds off another.

The White Lions kill 8 of the Knights, suffering no wounds in return thanks to Meteoric Ironclad, causing the knights to break. The White Lions pursue and cut them down. With only three fleeing demigryphs remaining and most of the Elf army intact, my opponent concedes.


Post-game analysis:

I'm loving my End Times High and Metal combo more and more with each game, this is their third crushing victory in a row. I feel this particular win was largely down to Arcane Unforging taking out the Emperors silver seal. With the silver seal he was almost invulnerable to my magic missiles and would have been very difficult to kill. My opponent wished he had a dispel scroll to use against unforging, but even if he used that I would have just unforged again and got it through sooner or later. Very potent spell against super characters.

Hope this gives you some insight into the new Khaine magic rules. I'm not sure how I feel about them, I think if you couldn't use a spell again after it is dispelled, it would be much better. I hope that's how they FAQ the rules. If you can keep spamming even after dispels, you get situations like this game, where I used Soul Quench thirteen times in the first two turns. As effective as that was, it just didn't feel right.

[John Rainbow]

Interesting report. Thanks for the talk about ET magic. As I understand it, if you choose to army dispel you are not limited to rolling a d6 to see how many dice you can use. RAW it only says when a wizard decides to dispel (IIRC). Just something to bear in mind if you really want to stop a spell but can't risk doing it with a wizard due to the limitations.

[Ladril Caledor]

Thanks John, I didn't know that. Good to have that extra option. Can you roll the D6 for dispel dice limit first, then if you don't like the limit, decide to do an army dispel with more dice?

[Ferny]

Thanks for the ET update - nice read.

[John Rainbow]

Thanks John, I didn't know that. Good to have that extra option. Can you roll the D6 for dispel dice limit first, then if you don't like the limit, decide to do an army dispel with more dice?

I don't think you can roll first and then decide. I think if you choose to do that you have to use them.