Dark Elves vs. High Elves

Terrain was randomized as BRB 8th page 142. We replaced any magical structure with impassable stones. I won the first placement and the order was following:

- Mysterious Pond (on the right)

- Mysterious Pond (on the left)

- Building (on the left)

- Impassable stone

- Hill

- Swamp

- Fence

- Fence

- Small house

- Impassable stone

I won the table side roll and deployment roll. Deployment order was following:

- Reavers ( on the right)

- Warlocks (on the right)

- Reavers (on the left)

- Warlock (on the left)

- Archers (on the right)

- Corsairs

- White Lions

- Witch Elves

- Reavers (in the middle)

- Black Guard

- Phoenix Guard

- War machines

- Archers

- Delf characters

- Rest of the Helfs.

My opponent Level 4 uses Lore of Life and generated ( 4 -> flesh to stone , 4 -> throne of vines, 4 , 6 )

His level 2 generated ( 3 -> power of darknes, 5 )

My archmage rolled ( 1 , 2 , 4 -> drain magic, 5 -> soul quench)

My opponent won vanguard roll. He moved warlocks on the left first, I moved reavers on right, then worlokcs on right and reavers in left.

I won the roll for first turn.

Lore: Battle of Gaunthill

Loriel's army marched with great pride after decicive victory against Empire forces. They noticed a small town, where a group of dark elves resides. Without any fear or better judgement Loriel ordered his forces engage the enemy right on. Sadly for him it wasn't a small war band but a full army...

Magic: WoM 5 + 1 + 1 PD

- Drain magic 2 pd ( 15 )

- Apotheosis 1 PD ( 10 )

- Hand of Glory (movement for white lions) 1 PD ( 11 ) 2 dd dispel

- Soul Quench 2 PD ( 11 rr ) 3 DD dispel

- Fury ring 1 PD ( 4 ) 2 black guards down

Shooting:

- Archers killed two warlocks on the left. No other significant casualties.

- Warlocks on the right saved all ward saves against shots from Archers and raevers.

TURN analyze:

- I really forgot my bows during the movement. I natureally should placed my frenzy bait reavers towards warlocks and the other reavers to different angle so they could have shot those warlocks.

Witch elves passed frenzy test. (we realized at the end of game that we forgot the witch brews -3 LD, but I don't think that mattered here.) He first declared charge against reavers with corsairs in which I decided to flee then he bounced the reavers behin my lines

Magic: 6 + 4 + 1 PD

- Throne of Vines 3 PD ( 16 )

- Shield of Thorns 2 PD ( 11 ) to corsairs

- Dwellers from below to White Lions 5 PD, Dispelled

Shooting:

- Reaper bolt thrower multishotted and killed each of my reavers on the right flank. The other did some wounds to archers.

I rallied the reavers and moved them to block witch elves. ( I realized that I wans't allowed to feighned flight because I had involunteery flee due warlock charge. In this situation it wouldn't matter much because I could have used the reavers on the left to do the same redirecting. (there was little more room in between the bulding / warlock and stone than in the picture. So atleast that wasn't to bad cheating :D)

My redirection with reavers was so that witch elves couldn't wheel past it to charge phoenix guard, and their overrun would have taken them right past white lions. This time I remembered to turn my shooting towards

Magic: WoM 3 + 2

- Drain magic 2 PD ( 16 rr ) dispel scroll (would have negated both shield of thorns and throne of vines)

- Apotheosis 1 PD ( 9 ) passed

- Hand of Glory 1 PD ( 8 ) ws to phoenix guard

- Fury ring 1 PD ( 5 ) dispelled

No damage from shield of thorns.

Shooting:

- Combined shots from reavers and archers killed the remaining warlocks. And my luck turned when the archers 3 managed to kill 5 warlocks that didn't pass any saves.

Close Combat:

- I didn't take notes of the close combat with phoenix and corsairs, but Phoenix didn't take any damage and corsairs recevied something like 6? they managed to reform.

TURN ANALYZE:

- Now that I made the report I remembered that I didn't remember the hand of glory in the next turn (not that it mattered much) But I think it would have being far better choice to shoot soul quench to BG rather than upgrading phoenix guards ws so that they could hit on 3+ insted of 4+.

- Now I also think that I should have definately turned my phoenix guards little angle so that the black guard rear would have made witch elves movement little harder. Naturally I might have feared the warlocks on the hill not todo that, but even slight turn would made little diffirence here.

- My game plan here with the frostie was that It could have clear corsairs in 4 rounds.

My opponent passed frenzy test (again not with -3 ld, but we recalled with Glimbze that he would have passed the roll. ) He decided simply to move closer.

Magic: WoM 5 + 2

- Power of Darkness 2 PD natural failure

- Flesh to Stone for BG 2 PD ( natural failure )

- I dispelled both throne of vines and shield of thorns

Shooting:

- Reavers shot archers and... did couple damage.

Close Combat:

Phoenix guard vs. Black Guard

- My champion challenged and his dreadlord took it. Dread lord bounded the champion.

- I redirected all my attacks that could strike the Sorceror Lord to it. They managed to score 2 wounds

- My opponent rolled really well on the attacks, but so did I with the ward saves. Only 4 dead guards. I also killed couple of his fighters. and the battle was tie. (Oh I missed the rerolls to hit! and those bloody delf had so much rerolls :D )

- As mentioned in the last turn I forgot the hand of glory. It might have caused couple extra wounds, force my opponent to make break test for lucki results. :D

Frostie

- Frostie received a wound.

Turn Analyze:

- Magic really follied my oppnent. It was clear that the Sorceror Lord trembled as the fearless dreadlord ordered a Charge against the dead silent Phoenix Guard

- My opponent forgot that the cauldron had spells to cast. It would forced me to divide my dispel dices differently, so probably I could only dispel shield of thorns.

Magic: 5 + 5

- Drain Magic 2 PD ( 14 )

- Soul Quench to reaper 2 PD ( 15 rr ) no damage

- Apotheosis 2 PD ( 13 ) My phoenix was 18,5 inches away (with a slight better placement that woudl allowed me to heal it)

- Upgraded Hand of Glory to phoenix guard 3 PD ( 10 )! dispelled (at this moment I don't know what I was thinking, extra initiative wouldn't done anything and almost failed the roll because I rolled 1 , 2 , 2.)

Shooting:

- Archers caused one wound on reaper and rest shooting caused couple wounds on witch elves.

Close Combat:

- Frost phoenix continued his long grind. If my memory serves me right there was 9 models left in the unit this turn.

Phoenix guard vs. Black Guard

- Dreadlord issued a challenge and I though that my BSB has better chance surviving there than alone as he could have allocated more attacks to it. I was wrong, all of the Lords attacks wounds and I failed to save none with my 4+ parry, so two overkill instead.

- Again I directed attacks to the sorceror lord and managed to kill it, sadly couple wounds wasted.

- In the actual fight my opponent scored decent ammount of wounds, I didn't do badly either. Still with the added effect of losing BSB and overkill I lost the combat and broke. My first impression was YEAH! I managed to survive as he didn't caught me but the joy was early as it was upcoming Dark Elf turn!

Turn Analyze:

- I was fairly ok with the odds that Phoenix Guards could hold one more turn. I also had possibility to pull of double flee trick, but at this moment I wanted to steer the Witch Elves away from the action.

- Another thin is that I should have moved my other reaver unit little closer...

Naturally phoenix guards fled and with rather ok flee roll. But Black guard catched them. And due the odd rules were allowed to reform. At this moment I really felt my day coming. I had a decent chance to make Phoenix + White Lion charge against the witch elves, not that I really wanted to have my phoenix fighting poisoned bastards, but still the best possible option out there.

Magic: 6 + 1 + 1 DD

- Power of Darkness 3 PD , dispelled with 3 DD

- Soul Stealer 4 PD, dispelled with 4 DD

Shooting:

- His reapers shot something. Prolly archers?

Close Combat:

- Those epic reavers managed to score one wound of Death Hag before they were most brutally slain.

- Frosthearth phoenix foiled to do much damage this turn and 5 models remained, and the unit was steadfast and they hold.

TURN ANALYZE:

- This was the turn (as well as the last turn) that had me going up and down and up and down. Especially the fact that Phoenix failed to break the corsairs really had me struc with discontent.

My reaver unit was just like 1 inch too far away to redirect black guard. I simple wasn't able to place them so that black guards overrun wouldn't hit Lions rear. So reavers took positin to block witch elves reform so that they will lose 4 attacks after reform.

Magic: WoM 4 + 1

- Upgraded apotheosis to Phoenix 2 PD ( 14 ) Phoenix had 2 wounds and I only healed 1.

- Drain magic 1 PD ( 8 ) dispelled with 2 PD

- Upgraded Hand of Glory 2 PD ( 11 ) Dispelled with 2 Dice

Shooting:

- Combined shots from archers and reavers killed 7 blackguards, reducing their numebrs to only 7 model. This really made my day.

Close Combat:

Frostie

- I redirected attacks to sorceror and killed it. Stomps took care of the 4 remaining fighters and Phoenix reformed.

White Lions vs. Witch Elves

- His champion issued a challenge and I took it with Annointed (on retrospective I don't know why I did it...) I killed the champion and annointed survived without a harm.

- His flank position had 16 attacks against me and killed 8 White Lions (sadly I only had 6+ 5+ saves this fight)

- I foiled my attacks and killed only 6 witch elves total , and against all odds I lost the combat. ( I think I actually won the combat but I didn't remember disruption! goddamit!!)

TURN ANALYZE:

- Failing to get Hand of Glory was really big dissapointment. Should I rolled little better on the cast and get it past, It would have had superior effect. +1 ward save would have saved 4 of my lions that battle (3+ ward save would saved another 1 (took notes on the ward save results) That would guarenteed victory and witch elves wouldn't have being steadfast and with little luck broke. Another thing should they not broke lost combat -> lose frenzy and without rerolls subsequent round (having lesse initiative than my lions) would certainly helped me alot!).

- Only little further advace with the reavers in last turn would allowed me to redirect Black Guards from my Lions rear. On bright side casualties that I took made them little farther away for some hail mary results for the next turn.

Magic: Didn't take notes

- Frenzy spell for Black Guard ( IF )

Shooting:

- Both Reapers shot multiple shots to Phoenix. First one didn't do damage, second one did FOUR! wounds and killed the bird! That result was hearth breaking!

Close Combat:

- Slaughtering left two lions and the heroes standing. Both my characters saved all the wounds that was directed to them. On the bright side my champion + banner bearer killed the hag on top of cauldron

Turn Analyze:

- I was in bad situation, but I had glimpse of hope since my characters could soak some damage, and next turn Banner of the World dragon would really help me against dreadlord. I still have option to do flank charge with Archers and only 2 BG can strike it. BSB was killed and with any astonisihng luck I could possible survive!

I tried rear charge to Black Guard and flank charge with archers. On retrospective rear charge with archers 3 probably would generated more cr than given. Especially since the Dreadlord would have gained possibility to strike

Magic: 6 + 4

- Drain Magic 2 PD ( 13 ) Failed dispel (frenzy was taken away from BG)

- Apotheosis 4 PD ( 21 )

- Upgraded hand of glory 4 PD ( 19 ) failed dispell.

Shooting:

- Reavers couldn't lucky shot the 1 wound reaper.

Close Combat

- I managed to kill couple black guards and witch elves. My Annointed surived the attakcs without a scract and Archmage only suffered one wound! Both lions were beaten and those bloody flank black guards did 4 wounds. Well with eternal hatred, rerolls to wound it was probably rather probably results. I lost the combat only by 4 (the archers generated 5 (flank, rank, charge 2 wounds) So it was net effective. Both my archers and characters broke the combat and I decided to yield at this moment when the characters were caught.

GAME ANALYZE:

- I really liked to play agains Glimbze, first of all this was our second encounter. I encountered him first with my Tomb Kings 31 (no bat rep sorry ;) ) And lost it. He used almost the same list except took different lore and couple minor tweaks. Glimbze has shown to be really good player eventhough he has played this game only couple times.

- I need to keep more attention to small details. Something like remembering the Hand of Glory might have made a huge different as well as the -3 ld frenzy test.)

- It looked really bad for my opponent when the sorceror lord died and I though the game was turning to my favor, especially as my opponent decided to be rather inactive with the witch elves. It again surprised me how tremendously effective that unit is even when flank charge. Come on 16 attacks. :D On retrospective if I would shooted little more to it the rear rank would have being taken away and only 12 attacks would be taken in that battle.

- Another course of action I considered to do after the game would simple ignore the WE block, turn my Lions towards his black guard, try to lucky shoot one wound reaper off and use reavers to further redirect those Witch Elves. Then feed them with my Archers and try to block their actions for the rest of the battle. That would most likely secured a victory for me as I would have my Lion block with characters and the other archer unit in the last turn. But Still I think the flank charge with good chance of actually breaking the Witch Elves block was still rather viable option. I did little number crunching and witch elves would have roughly 5 wounds in the given situation and I would have made roughly 9,7 wounds. That would caused combat resolution of ( flank, banner, 2 ranks, charge, 10 vs. bsb, banner, 5 wounds -> 8 so insane courage with reroll).... DAMNATION... But with a game of dices everything can happend and I am still really happy for the game. I think my opponent really deserved the battle.