warhammer fantasy battle tournament report :-
"The Demon Prince is too smart to take the Eagle bait, but he sends in the chariot."(this writer performs well in GW tournaments)
| source : warhammer.org.uk | credit : David L | 14-Feb-2009 |
High Elf Army List
Last Ride of the Silver Helms [Ed. again ;)]Archmage, Staff of Solidity, dispel scroll, Amulet of the Purifying Flame, Seer
Mage, Silver Wand, Ring of Corin
Commander, BSB, mounted, Helm of Fortune, Sword of Might
5 Silver Helms
5 Silver Helms
5 Silver Helms
11 Silver Helms, full command, Banner of Ellyrion
this will be called "the big unit" while the other 3 are just "silver helms"
6 Dragon Princes, full command, Banner of Sorcery
2 chariots
5 Shadow Warriors
9 Shadow Warriors (bodyguard for Mages)
2 Eagles
2 RBTs
Warriors of Chaos (Hordes of Chaos edition 6)
Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, ignore armour saves, re-roll first round hits, true ward save, master of mortals---Didn't I just kill this guy in game 3!?!
Undivided Sorceror on steed with power familiar
Undivided Sorceror on steed with scroll
5 chosen undivided knights, champion, war banner
5 Marauder horsemen with flails
5 Marauder horsemen with flails
Chaos chariot
Chaos chariot
5 warhounds
5 warhounds
3 Minotaurs with great weapons
7 Furies
3 dragon ogres
fiend of slaanesh
fiend of slaanesh
Mike's army looked incredible. I gave it my player's choice vote.The demon is monumental, so we sometimes used a dice box top to indicate its actual position, especially when it was near the table edge.
Scenario was a storm moving in from a table edge d3+2 per turn. Anything in the storm is affected by Mistress of the Marsh (including fliers), Howler Wind and Rain Lord. Non-characters points outside the storm at the end grant the bonus points. My conceptual plan was to get my wizards in the storm to provide them protection from the enemy. I didn't think through the 'keeping units dry' part very well, but that proved immaterial as keeping units ALIVE would be more of a challenge.
I had considered taking Lore of Metal just to snipe his wizards, but wasn't certain because I thought the chosen knights were centigors. Once I discovered they were chosen knights, Metal was a no-brainer. Character snipe, combat penalty, magic missile, knight nuke for the Archmage. Understudy takes Light to pound on the Daemon Prince, but rolls 1,2,3 so is only good for that magic missile. The Silver Wand failed me this time.
The Archmage finally gets to be the general!
His Daemon Prince rolls poorly for spells, getting the short range magic missile and something else (character attack unit?). The Death wizards, however, both get Drain Life and tack the big and little magic missiles onto that. This could hurt.
Deployment
The west side (storm side) of my deployment zone has a building and a forest, but with only about 4 inches in between them. This is annoying for my cavalry, so a Silver Helm unit goes 3 wide with the DPs behind them. Chariots, Mages, both shadow warriors go in the middle. Big unit with BSB further to the east. One RBT went in my western forest, but I couldn't find a good spot for the other one. It ends up behind a hill (hill outside deployment zone) on the table edge with limited fields of fire.
Starting from the west, Mike puts warhounds, Minotaurs, Marauder horsemen, Furies (in pond), both spawn, chariot, Dragon Ogres, Chosen Knights (all three characters behind), chariot and then horsemen screened by hounds on the eastern edge.
Turn 1
In win the roll to go first and wipe my brow in relief. I he went first, he'd be halfway across the table before I could do anything and I'd get trapped and slaughtered.
The storm moves d3+2 inch per turn, which for us would be 4 inches everytime but two.
My western cavalry advanced agressively, figuring warhounds were irrelevant. The eastern cavalry go up too, but not into marauder charge range. The Eagle go out to march block and the Mages move up just to get in range.
Mike dispels the Ring of Corin and scrolls Spirit of the Forge on the Dragon Princes. Archmage snipes a wound off the chariot (best armour save in range). My other magic does nothing, and shooting wipes out the western Marauder horsemen. I was really hoping to panic the minotaurs, but they passed.
Mike charges his western warhounds at Silver Helms, figuring they have no other use. Minotaurs at Eagle, and Furies at eastern Eagle. I hadn't thought before about the furies charging that Eagle, and I flee. I probably should have taken it in order to clog up movement of his real units.
My western Eagle flees the minotaur charge, but goes only 4 inches and is caught! Neither of us expected that, and it leaves the minotaurs well forward.
His spawn head for my wizards, one of them really sprinting. The rest of his army advances somewhat cautiously, splitting somewhat around the furies. One wizard joins the chosen knights and they form an exact line with the chariot and Daemon Prince (to protect the chariot).
His magic hits the eastern Silver Helms and panics them.
In combat, the warhounds seek to demonstrate their value, killing a Silver Helm for none in return. Yes, 2+ saves and more attacks and I still lose combat. At least the helms hold.
Turn 2
The spawn are far far too close for my taste, one even march blocking my Mages. But they are just spawn, so they should be killable. Right?
First I have to get rid of the minotaurs, so the Dragon Princes charge their flank and both chariots the front. Errr, just one chariot, as the other is a coward. Or perhaps smart, as the minotaurs flee, and are caught. The chariot that did charge then rams into the pond, giving up half points and effectively removing it from the game (no way can it move out safely). My central Silver Helms charge the speedy spawn, figuring they can at least tie it up. My big unit charges the furies, tactically wheeling for an overrun into the flank of the Dragon Ogres.
Eagle and eastern Silver Helms rally. Needing every shot on the spawn, my Mages leave their bodyguard. The Archmage goes forward some to get LOS on the dragon ogres, the level 2 just going west.
Archmage does Spirit of the Forge on the Dragon Ogres. Despite an impressive number of hits, most fail to wound and the dragon ogres take just 3. I needed to kill a model there, although that need reflects poor planning on my part. Magic missiles at the spawn do NOTHING. Shooting follows the path of the magic missile, as 14 longbow shots and 6 RBT shots do a total of ONE wound to the spawn. The second RBT has no useful targets, so has to shoot warhounds and also follows the trend - 1 irrelevant kill.
We go onto combat and my western Silver Helms also cannot wound anything. Then they fail another 2+ armour save, but again hold. Heavy cavalry are getting KILLED by warhounds?!?
My center Silver Helms put 2 wounds on their spawn, but can't kill it. At least they are wearing armour. Big unit pops the furies, but I decide against overrunning into the flank of the Dragon Ogres, as I would get chaos knights in the flank. I feel a flee reaction coming on my part ...
Overall this was a really bad turn for me. Nothing worked according to plan. Maybe the plan wasn't that good though.
Mike's turn 2 and my army is about to take it. Chariot and Dragon Ogres into Silver Helms fighting spawn. Chosen Knights and Daemon Prince at my big unit, which runs. Eastern warhounds at Eagle. Spawn rumbles towards my Archmage, and he flees.
With the Archmage fleeing, I have only 3 dispel dice and a scroll. Damage is not too bad though, as I lose 3 from the big unit and the eastern cowards are reduced to their last guy.
Combat sees the warhounds and Eagle whiff, with me breaking and escaping. The chariot and Dragon Ogres (only 1 can fight) kill 3 Silver Helms, and the last two miraculuously kill the spawn before autobreaking. Mike's pursuit rolls are 4 and 6 inches though, getting him nowhere. My western Silver Helms fighting warhounds finally make their armour saves! But they still cannot do a single wound, break and are run down. Pitiful.
Turn 3
Clearly spawn are immune to missile fire, so I send in the chariot. The last eastern Silver Helm, having nothing else to do, throws himself at horsemen.
My fleeing Archmage and cavalry rally, but the Eagle flaps off the table.
As the Archmage is in the front arc of the chariot, the bodyguard bravely stand in its path, putting an eastern guy forward so the chariot won't be able to reach the boss. The level 2 Mage walks up beside the chariot, safe that way. My scouts move north so they don't get pointless killed by the various enemy units nearby. The Dragon Princes turn around, but don't have much hope of getting away from the storm.
I hit the Dragon Ogres with magic, dealing 5 wounds and paniccing the last one. RBTs take 2 wounds off the center chariot and shots at the Daemon Prince are ineffective.
My chariot runs over his spawn, overrunning slightly to avoid the chaos chariot. The last eastern Silver Helm manages to kill a horsemen, but loses on the musician and breaks. The horsemen follow Mike's trend of pursuit rolls and barely move.
Like Bowman in game 3, Mike won't risk his Daemon Prince in combat alone. So he flies behind my big unit. The last Dragon Ogre rallies, the chariot runs over my shadow warriors, Mike's right flank advances. Lost only one model off the big unit from magic, perhaps because I used my scroll. I really shouldn't have used my scroll, as my big unit was doomed at this point.
hmmm, by the standards of this game, a boring turn.
Turn 4
Only way out for my big unit is to find something to kill and pursue away from the others. Charge the warhounds! They flee and die on the scouts. EitW into the Dragon Ogre! He flees, just missing the scouts. Oh well. In retrospect, perhaps I should have left the unit to die and run the BSB west on his own.
The last eastern Silver Helm declines to run off the table, but isn't going to get in the way of anything either.
My Mages and chariot come east, staying out of the Daemon's LOS arc. My Dragon Princes, now wet, give up on getting into the real fight, and turn west to kill those damn lucky warhounds. Mike makes a mistake and forgets about those warhounds, never moving them away. The Dragon Princes will kill them on turn 6, taking a table quarter.
Mike spends dispel dice protecting the Daemon Prince from magic missiles, which leaves Spirit of the Forge free. Bye bye chosen knights! Even better, the attached sorceror fails both his pysch tests and flees. He's half an inch from the table edge.
Marauder horsemen, chariot, and Daemon Prince charge my big unit. To avoid giving up points for banners, I flee. Daemon Prince of course catches them, but my slow flee roll means he can EitW into the chariot. It of course also flees.
The fleeing sorceror rallies, but the last dragon ogre does not. He'll get another chance though. Chariot turns towards RBT and other sorceror rides towards my Mages.
Turn 5
I pass my terror checks and the fleeing chariot rallies. Its odds of being able to charge the daemon next turn are gone though, because of the storm.
My Shadow Warriors pick a killable target, shooting the marauder horsemen. Two fall and they fail the panic check, running off the table. Go longbows!
Magic and RBTs throw everything at the Daemon Prince. Two more wounds, so he has one left. I either miscast on spirit of the forge or failed to wound the chariot with burning iron.
Mike's western chariot charges my RBT and kills it. The eastern chariot retires to the table edge in order to claim the objective (it will be the only thing dry at the end of the game). The Daemon Prince lands south of my wizards, making sure they cannot get away. The two sorcerors move into magic range.
He intelligently starts with the little magic missile at my little wizard. I wish I could stop it, but the Archmage is all that matters, so the little guy dies. Amulet of the Purifying Flame now comes into play (-3 to cast at Archmage) and the Archmage comes through untouched.
Turn 6
Its kill the Daemon or die, and the Daemon only has 1 wound left. Either I gain 350 VPs for finishing the Daemon Prince or Mike gains 540 VPs for killing my Archmage. I try to get Mike to waste dice, but he knows the situation and lets Spirit of the Forge blow apart a chaos sorceror.
5 dice for Molten Silver. I get 18.
Mike picks up all his dispel dice and rolls them. More than 18.
Wet RBT gives me one more prayer. It rolls a '3' to hit, missing exactly because of the storm. (single shot because multi-shot is -2, not -1)
Daemon Prince kills Archmage and we start adding up points.
I have the Dragon Princes, an injured chariot, an RBT, and the scouts alive. Mike has 5 models on the table - Daemon Prince with 1 wound left, chariot with 1 wound left, rallied dragon ogre, chariot, sorceror. I suspect I've lost, but then I realize I hold two table quarters since Mike doesn't have anything unit strength 5 anymore! The Dragon Princes get one on the west side and the scouts get one on the east. We add up the points (twice) and Mike wins by 2014 to 1722. That is 288, not 300, so its a draw. My 5 scouts wandered through the middle of the enemy army, never getting attacked, killing some marauder horsemen, and claiming a table quarter to salvage the draw. They didn't appear worth killing, so they survived.
An awesome game.
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