I got a practice game in against a good friend of mine, to allow me a chance to try out my list for the fanatic tournament next month. Following the restrictions for the tourny, the Dark Elves were only allowed 2050 points with the Pendant of Khaleth (reverse ward save) counting as a hero choice, along with some other restrictions that didn't really matter for this. You can read my list here, and his list included:
Supreme Sorceress, level 4
Sorceress, level 2
Master on Manticore
2x 10 Repeater Crossbowmen
15 Warriors with spears
10 Black Ark Corsairs
2x 18 Black Guards
2x Cold One Chariots
War Hydra
He deployed his chariots and the hydra on the right flank, and the black guards on each side of the center joined by the sorceresses. I deployed more or less the way I planned out in my previous post. And so the battle was on, with the Dark Elves going first.
Round 1-2
Manticore flies up the left flank in all its terror-causing glory, scaring the spider riders away from the battle, while the goblin block runs away to rally. The goblin big boss on the chariot – within barking distance of the warboss – passes his terror test and charges his chariot right into the dark elf master and his pet. The squig hoppers, too stupid and unable to stop – charges in as well. The Master is carrying the reverse ward save ring, but the goblin removes it with his trinket and kills him with the one hit wunda, meanwhile the squig hoppers takes the manticore down to one wound. The beast goes into a frenzy and in return bites the head off the goblin big boss with a killing blow, before breaking and flying far up the hill with the goblins not quite reaching it. The chariot in return is then charged by the corsairs, but flees to spare the squig hoppers from a potential overrun, and fittingly crashes in a spectacular mess as it reaches the forest. In the middle, the left-most black guards charges and destroys the snotlings who had moved up to block their way, while the hydra does the same with the snotlings on the right side. Both of them end up overrunning right in front of the orc blocks, and the ones lead by the BSB charges into the hydra. Despite its many biting heads, the hydra is defeated and broken, but even though the big boss tried his hardest to restrain the pursue, the ensuing chase has the boyz eagerly charge right into the black guards as the hydra escapes through their ranks! Their over-eagerness would prove costly.
On the right flank, the savage orcs boar boyz squabble for two straight turns and the cold one chariots move forward into positions. They're delayed, however, by the wolf riders and night goblins who run up close to block their passage. The Dark Elves hesitate to charge them, however, since if they break and pursue, they'll end up right in front of the giant and the boar boyz for a counter charge.
The Sorceresses focus most of their spells on the warboss' unit of orc boyz, while my war machines take out a few black guards, corsairs and one of the hydra's heads (which grew back).
Round 3-4
On the left flank, the crossbow elves get one chance to rid themselves of the pesky squig hoppers before they turn their faces into piles of blood and gore. Faced with such pressure, they botch their shots and the squig hoppers run them down along with the frenzied manticore behind them. In the middle, the orc boyz and the black orcs both charge the other black guard unit from the front and the flank, which results in combat that would continue for most of the battle; the black guards constantly losing numbers, but never breaking. Things were not looking as green for the boyz and the bsb though, locked in combat with the other black guard unit and the supreme sorceress, as they are then charged by the spear elves with the sorceress, in the flank to add to the misery.
Things would get even worse quickly, as one of the cold one chariots found an opening through the night goblin blocking to declare a charge against the wolf riders occupying the second chariot, which charges as well. The wolf riders chose to flee, but as bad luck had it, they decided the flanking chariot was of greater concern which made them flee left straight into combat, destroying them while allowing one of the chariots to overrun into the already engaged block of boyz!
Faced against such overwhelming odds, the orcs naturally break, dropping their banners (along with my magic defense) and running away. Fortunately, a few artillery shots had decimated the black guard's numbers and along with a few casualties in combat, made the spear elves superior in unit strength and so the orcs ran right and were chased down by the chariot just in front of the savage orc boar boyz and the giant.
My artillery continued to fire against the hydra and the corsairs, reducing them to half strength while taking a wound of the big beast without it regenerating. Meanwhile, the crossbow elves in the middle manage to take a wound from the savage orc on the chariot, who's itching to get into combat but constantly finds himself out of position and range for the charge.
Round 5-6
On the right flank, the savage orc boar boyz finally stop squabbling and charges into the overrunning chariot, alongside the giant, which completely annihilates the elven crew. The overrun takes the boyz directly into the second chariot, which is being charged by the night goblins, while the giant holds back in waiting for the rallying hydra. The second chariot is similarly destroyed by the big un's and they, together with the night goblins, overrun for a second time into the spear elves and the sorceress, which suffers the same fate as the elves before them. Completing the spectacular slaughter, the night goblins overrun into the flank of the crossbow elves, who flee from the charge but are eventually hopped down by the squig hoppers. Such slaughter!The savage orc chariot, who's been out of position throughout the battle, sets up to charge the black guards and the supreme sorceress, but gets half an inch too close to the swift moving elves, who charge the orc instead. Still, it matters little to the frenzied orc and his dangerous sword, which he uses to chop up the supreme sorceress and even without the impact hits, the chariot defeats the black guards, who breaks from combat and are run over by the overly eager savage.
What remains of the corsairs decides to charge the black orcs, currently busy chopping up black guards, in the rear in hopes of turning the tide. Unfortunately, one too many corsairs are cut down by the black orcs great weapons (enough to rid them of the rear charge bonus) which sets them running until they're gone from the battle. Meanwhile, the Warboss and his boyz eventually chops down the final black guard, who stood firm until the bitter end.
The hydra is the last thing standing for the dark elves, and seeks to cause as much havoc as possible before the orcs get to it. With a roar of built up anger, it charges and destroys the rock lobber, then proceeds to breathe fire on a nearby spear chukka. As the rest of the war machines scramble to get away, the Warboss rides out of his decimated unit in order to get the beasts attention. The hydra charges in, and the black orcs along with the giant prepare to move in for the kill from both sides.
Result: Win by Massacre for the Greenskins. The Dark Elves suffered a lot from deploying quite poorly, basically tying up his two chariots for three rounds until they could charge anything, and once they did they got counter-charged and destroyed in the following turn. Of course, it didn't help matters that the Master on Manticore was killed off in the first turn by the suicide goblin. Even though the manticore did scare off the spider riders and disabled the goblin block for the rest of the battle, it certainly did not get its points back. That was really the general theme for the dark elves, as the supreme sorceress – while fairly successful casting her spells – focused perhaps too much on the warboss' block of orcs. It's not a horrible target, since the dark magic can maximize its destruction on large units, but spending several rounds decimating them to only a few models remaining still means having a 250 point general get 80 points back for half the unit dead. It was a nice move taking out the BSB and his unit though, but it managed to set up the most spectacular charge and overrun I've ever completed in Warhammer, when the savage orcs took out their entire flank.
All in all, a fun game that taught me a lot about how to fight the elves. I'm sure I'll probably not do as well in the actual tournament, but at least I'm not nearly as nervous going up against better armies than my own. I'll have some more thoughts on what worked and what did not in my list at a later date.
No comments:
Post a Comment