The small loss to the Daemons set me back a little, moving me down from table 3 to table 5, where I was set to go up against High Elves. The scenario demanded us to break the enemy morale, by claiming as many banners as possible and taking down their general. If you managed to break the enemy by bringing their morale points down to 3 or less you would get 2 points, and if your own army was unbroken by the end of the game, you would get 2 more points. The remaining 16 points would be settled in familiar fashion. It was a slightly strange army of elves that I would go up against, with a surprising amount of cavalry. The elves were led by a mounted Prince and his Noble Battle Standard, both of them joining a unit of 8 Silver Helms. Next to them was a small troop of 5 Dragon Princes. An Archmage of the Lore of Life led two regiments of 30 Spear Elves into battle, joined by 10 Archers who togeter made up the core troops, while 14 Swordmasters and 10 White Lions rounded off the force and two Bolt Throwers protected both flanks.
The High Elves got the initiative but moved very little, and since the Archmage elected for more augment spells rather than go for Dwellers Below against my high strength troops, there was very little for me to dispel. The arrows bounced off my tough troops and the charmed shield kept my Warboss safe from a single bolt. In response, the Horde marched forward, with the Trolls and Savage Orcs pushing up the western flank against a spear unit, Dragon Princes and Swordmasters, while the Night Gobbos and the Giant held back on the right flank where more spears waited next to the Silver Helms. To the dismay of the elves, after spending all their dispel powers to prevent a Foot of Gork, a 'Eadbutt struck the Archmage, who turned out to be Ethereal and without a ward save, inflicting three wounds and killing him in round two.
That set the elves in motion, with the Swordmasters and Dragon Princes declaring long charges against the Savage Orcs and both making it in. The same could not be said for the Silver Helms who combo-charged next to Lion Chariot into the Black Orcs but failed to make it there in time, leaving the Chariot alone against the great weapons of the Black Orcs. An 'Ere We Go spell was active on the 'ard boyz, allowing them to re-roll their misses, but ten Savage Orcs died to the combined might of the Swordmasters and Dragon Princes. In return, the Big 'Uns slaughtered 12 of the 14 Swordmasters and 3 of the 5 Dragon Princes, sending both packing and chasing down the Swordmasters. After that, they overran into a unit of Spearelves and were joined by the Warboss on Wyvern which wiped out the entire unit as the Dragon Princes left the field and rode to safety. The Black Orcs took the impact hits of the chariot on their shield, then smashed the wood into splinters before charging into the Archers and slaughtered them as well. Meanwhile the Trolls were playing around with the crew of one of the Bolt Throwers.
Sensing doom incoming, the Silver Helms finally made their charge into the Black Orcs and were joined by the White Lions, with the combined might of the Nobles crushing the Black Orcs and chasing them down. Although that made a hole in the Greenskin line, things were still looking good and it was time for the Gobbos and Giant to bash some faces. So together they charged into the second unit of Spears, and their Shaman implored Gork to fix things by forcing 6's to be re-rolled, making it extremely difficult for the S3 elves to hurt the big Giant jumping ontop of them. So they lost elves in droves and fled after two rounds of combat, allowing the Gobbos to overrun into the second bolt thrower while the Giant reformed and chased after the Silver Helms. Although he was hurt by the Prince swinging the Giant's Blade (although the warpaint protected him from two of the wounds) he kept the Riders in place as the rest of the Horde swung around for the charge.
The Trolls and the Wyvern charged into the rear and the flank of the Silver Helms while the Savages charged into the single rank of White Lions that were still moving around. The Trolls vomitted all over the elves, slaughtering all of them, while the Warboss made up for chickening out against the Bloodthirsters by chopping the Prince down in a challenge and chasing him down. And so the last of the elves fell, clearing the entire battlefield of enemies for the Greenskins to bash, their morale broken and their General chased off.
Result: Greenskins win 20-0.
Quite the uneven engagement, especially after the High Elves lost their Archmage early and were unable to be boosted for combat. In general though, High Elves can do well against the Greenskins but they probably need larger regiments of troops, 10-15 elite troops and 25-30 core spearelves just won't cut it. Perhaps the added toughness of the Lore of Life would have made a difference, but since he opted not to go for Dwellers I really didn't feel threatened by his magic phase and could just throw all dice at dispelling Throne of Vines each time. That being said, my opponent was a great sport and a joy to face (sadly I can't remember his name now) and this was probably my favourite game of the tournament even though it was quite one-sided. We just both had a great time and talked a lot afterwards as well.
