I'd mentioned to Matt the night before of the dirtyness of bringing a level 4 to a 1.5 k game, at which he sheepishly replied that I wouldn't like his list. It turned out I would, as Matt brought with him:
20 swordmaster
25 spearmen
2x 5 shadow warriors
10 archers
Lv 1 mage with high magic and...
Lv4 archmage with Lore of Light!
Oh dear. Game was again pitched battle. Banner of sundering is an interesting banner, as it makes all spells from the lore of light miscast on a double 1, 2 or 3 as well as 6. I know light isn't that common but the damage it does to daemon armies makes the banner just worth taking, just in case. So I took the -2 modifier to high magic, knowing light would be nerfed sufficiently.
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| My fiends mincing behind a big hard thing |
So, with this in mind, Matt began his magic phase with a tentative 3 dice cast and rolled two 3s. Then two 2s on the miscast chart - interdimensional cascade! One large blast template of st 10 later he was down one wizard and 7 spearmen. I was a bit disspaointed, as I hope the wizard would have blown holes in is army every turn rather than heroically blow himself up for the greater good in his turn 1! His first turn wasn't all bad, his bolt throwers shredding my seekers to death on my right flank.
I marched my huge block of demonettes forward, hoping to capitalise on this horrid luck! He decided to charge me three ways with his spearmen, swordmasters to my front and his shadow hunters on my flank - can't fault him for that. My daemonettes held, just, losing combat by about 5 due to my 3+ ranks and, being steadfast with a reroll, I wasn't going anywhere. My fiends minced up the right flank tentatively, respectfully keeping their arses behind a big hill after seeing the car crash that had been the seekers that lay nearby. I lost one to the bolt thrower, the other saved by terrain.
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| Melee! |
The advantage of my daemonettes being surrounded was that they count dish out attacks on all sides - With hoard rank bonus I could chuck out enough attacks at the units infront of my that I could spare the side daemonettes to attack the small unit of shadow warriors to my flank. I ground out a win and with no BSB and no general, the elves had had enough and fled. My fiends had also got into combat with one bolt thrower, eating it in one but about to take a bolt to the face. The Flamers and archers had a fire fight, the flamers taking no casualties and the archers fleeing. At this point we called it.
Matt was a great sport even though his dice rolling was abysmal. His dice rolling didn't improve in his game with Max - his archmage once again miscasting turn one and leaving a large blast template shaped crater, the spearmen then failing their panic check as a spirit host wiped a nearby unit of shadow warriors, and Max cruelly ressurected 5 zombies and van hanselling them into combat, wiping the unit. He then failed every fear check he was required to make, meaning most of his combats were at weapon skill 1!
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| My mincing fiends, yet again hiding |
My daemonettes and BSB ended up on the right flank, with eerything else on the left. Matt was more central, with only his bolt throwers on his left. This suited me fine, as I scooted my left flank forward and shuffled my daemonettes centrally. I brought my bloodcrushers too far forward, within charge range of his swordmasters, who promptly charged them, and over ran into my fiends. His spearmen marched up a hill and was met by my flamers, wo gave them two withering salvos before being charged. The stand and shoot reaction was one casualty short of making him panic - something I fancied trying to make him do with his current dice luck!
His swordmasters, even hexed with withering and enfeebling foe, still popped my fiends, and they then reformed and charged my wizard, who I'd positioned too close to the front line.
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| A reminder of what we all fight for. Booze. |
My daemonettes on my right also had troubles of their own. Matt positioned his dragon on their flank, just behind the very nice house, who I chose to ignore and march towards the proper fight. Unfortunately, I couldn't pass a march test for toffee due to the dragon being within 8inches, so I just pottered on 6in a go. The archers were taking pot shots, so I cast siren song on them, hoping he'd accept due to their proximity to his board edge, and I'd hopefully wipe and chase them down, gaining a few sneaky inches towards his lines. He instead chose to flee, then rolled a double 6 - off the board they went! 25pts well spent!
Matt had enough of this, and charged his dragon into the nette's flank. I immediately issued a challenge with my herald, and cut down the rider. His dragon overkilled the herald, and we drew combat. I had an instrument and therefore won by 1! His dragon fled, I reformed, then charged the dragon as it fled, wiping it out. I probably would have been better throwing my unit champion into the challenge rather than my herald, but I wanted to kill the rider dead and her superior WS and Strength insured that.
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| Who puts a briar patch next to a ruined temple dedicated to chaos? |
I finally got to his swordmasters and spearmen, but we worked out it was turn 7 when I got in! So we stopped there, tallied up - and Matt sneaked a 150 VP victory! It was a very good, tight game which went right to the wire!
So, all in all, a nice weekend gaming with good company. Aplogies for the eratic photos - but when your gaming you don't always think to keep taking photos!
Thanks for posting, I really like the reports you've written.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your friend should consider putting a BSB in his list instead of the second mage.