(a long and detailed battle report written by the two opposing generals which provides a nice insight into the thinking on both sides. slightly blurry maps /photos which is a shame)
| source : warhammer.org.uk | credit : Marcoos14 | 01-Jun-2009 |
By Marcoos:
I've been looking for the chance to play a larger game than normal using the full might of my Beasts army, and on Sunday AndyP accepted my challenge for a game. The twist in the tail is that we're going to give a blow by blow account of the battle here giving our thoughts on the events that unfolded (and no doubt grinding and gnashing our teeth about how lady luck, the gods and the dice betrayed us each in turn).
Hopefully if I can work it out, there will be several maps and photos charting the progress of the game. Fingers crossed anyway :D
We didn't talk much about the armies we'd be using, other than picking the races we wanted and talking about going troop (as opposed to character) heavy. I suspected Andy would find the lure of fielding a leadership 9 general, along with an Annointed, too much so I decided to match fire with fire and take a Beastlord and a Great Bray Shamen, backed up by a Level 2 Mage and a BSB. I then fielded basically every unit I have painted, just dropping Gor and Ungor to get to the magic 3000pt level.
Beastmen Army 3000pts list
Beastlord - GW, Shield, Armour of Reroll Hits (yawn :roll: ) and Crown of HornsGreat Bray - Lv4, Braystaff, Power Familiar, Scroll
Bray - Lv2, Staff of Darkoth, Scroll
Wargor BSB - Chaos Armour, Sword of Might
16 Bestigor - Full Command, Warbanner
Herd - 8 Gor/9 Ungor Full Command
Herd - 8 Gor/9 Ungor Full Command
Herd - 7 Gor/6 Ungor Champ, Musician
Herd - 6 Gor/5 Ungor Musician
4 Tuskgor Chariots
5 Dogs
5 Dogs
5 Centigor - LA, Sh, Sp, HW Champ, Musician
10 Furies
4 Minotaurs - Great Weapons
4 Minotaurs - Great Weapons
1 Spawn (no marks... really, not even Slaanesh)
1 Giant
1 Shaggoth - GW, LA
Everything that could be was undivided, and everything is Beastly (except the Furies but I have modelled some fur on them, honest guv ;)
By AndyP:
As Marcus says, I couldn't resist actually having a leadership 9 general (high elf players don't know how lucky they are - at least they get a chance that their general isn't a level 2 wizard). Weary of going too magic heavy, I tried to keep character levels low and troop levels high, I also tried to get some variety into the army and include as many different units as I could. I went for a generic army, rather than one tailored to beat beasts.
Dark Elves & Hordes of Chaos (edition 6)
Level 4 Slaaneshi Sorceress: Darkstar Bra, HorseAnnointed: Level 2, strike first, blood armour, avatar of Slaanesh
Level 2 Sorcerer: Tome of Furion, Scroll
Aspiring Champion: GW, Enchanted Shield, Book of Secrets
21 Warriors: Spears, Shields, Banner, Musician
15 Devoted: FC, Extra charge banner
12 Crossbows: Banner and Musician
10 Crossbows: Musician
15 Marauders: Light Armour, Hand Weapon and Shield
5 Shades
12 Chaos Warriors: Shields, Halberds, FC, War Banner
5 Cold One Knights: Soul Shadows Standard
5 Dark Riders: Musician
5 Dark Riders: Crossbows, Musician
5 Furies
1 RBT
2 Spawn
Marcoos: Okay, this should be a couple of photos of the armies ready for action.
Marcoos' Beasts:
Andy's Cult of the Lizard:
We set up the terrain as shown below, basically there was a large forest and a large piece of long grass (basically an anti Wood Elf wood ) towards the centre of the table, a hill in the centre of one deployment zone and three pieces of ruinous/rocky ground of varying qualities on the other side.
For magic, I rolled some really good spells:
The Level 4 had Shadows: Steed, Crown, Shades and Lurker
The Level 2 had Beasts: Bears Anger and Wolf Hunts (+ the staff)
With 9 dice on 4 movement spells I was sure I'd give Andy some worries.
However, Andy's magic deck wasn't too shabby either, he had:
Level 4 Slaanesh: Magic Missile, Frenzy, Titdel and Hit
Annointed had Dark: Word of Pain and Dominion
Level 2 had Shadow: Steed, Creeping Death and Lurker
Aspiring had Shadow: Steed
11 Dice on Slaaneshi and Movement spells would be painful. I needed to kill mages and kill them fast!
Winning the roll for deployment, I chose the edge with the hill for 2 reasons; a) it would deny the defendable hill to an army that could out shoot and out magic me, and b) the rocky ground might deploy Andy's set up with 4 ranked units.
Whilst it was tempting for me to set up with 2 strong flanks, I decided to deny the right flank, and instead concentrated on the other side of the board. I'd use a large herd plus my Beastlord to secure the long grass, and pivot a strong flanking force around it hopefully into the flank of Andy's advancing blocks. A beast herd, chariot and minotaurs would provide the flanking force and should have enough strength to take out anything Andy placed left of the Ruins.
If my flanking force was to be the hammer, then my anvil would be made up out of the Bestigor, the 2nd unit of minotaurs and 2 more chariots. I also set up the Shaggoth and Giant behind the wood, so that they could reinforce the centre or move swiftly around the wood to threaten a second flanking attack if the opportunity was there. The centigor would clear out any shades going in the wood, and some light forces were to provide a diversion on my right flank. The herd with Foerender and Musician went into ambush.
I'm sure Andy will give details of his cunning and fiendish plan (TM), but from my perspective Andy set up with his smaller unit of RXBs to the left of the ruins, Furies hidden out of sight behind the ruin, Marauders, COKs and both spawn to block the gap between the ruin and long grass (and presumably to get into the grass if required). His centre featured the larger RXBs, both Dark Rider units, the Devoted and Chaos Warriors. The RBT was in the difficult terrain, with the Spearelfs hoding the left flank. The shades went into the wood.
I ws quite happy with deployment (having about 7 extra deployments really helped here) as I was able to shield all of my expensive troops, especially the 2 big guys from the RBT. I felt confident the Spear Elves would not get into the game, that I could deal quickly with the Shades, and that my left flank could get through the Maruders and RXB warriors in short order.
However, I hadn't worked out how to deal with the Annointed, Devoted, Chaos Warriors or the amount of decent magic on display. Never mind, I always thought the best plans were developed on the hoof
Here's the map for deployment:
AndyP:
Well, I might as well make the first mistake of the game as early as possible.
During terrain placement, I foolishly allowed Marcus to set up both the forest and long grass in perfect positions to aid his army. To make matters worse they didn't scatter either, leaving me with a very awkward battlefield to play on.
When Marcus won the roll off for table edges and denied me the hill, I knew my deployment was going to be hard to get right. With so many more placements than me and also a lot of similar choices - I had no idea where Marcus' main attack was going to come from. Weighting either flank would not have worked for me, as the terrain would be too tight, allowing Marcus' nimble units to pick off my units whilst my support was tripping over itself and the terrain. To this end I decided to weight slightly to the eastern flank, but not too far.
With 3000 points on the table, two terrain pieces in the middle of the table blocking LoS and no hills, I knew that the RBT wasn't going to get many shots in. I ended up deploying it in the difficult ground on the east in order to dissuade either of the big guys from wandering too far into the middle. They hadn't been placed yet, but I was sure that Marcus wasn't going to let me get a clear shot at either the giant or the shaggoth.
I had a cunning plan for the spear elves, deployed out there on the far eastern flank. Their job was to make Marcus think twice about any heavy troop placements there. Later in the game they would simply move into the forest, denying it to Marcus and protecting the flank of my tough units.
My Western flank was purely diversionary or sacrificial. The CoKs, Dark Riders and Furies would re-deploy to threaten the centre, whilst the spawn, marauders and small crossbow unit would gallantly give their lives to draw away some of Marcus's troops. Likewise I didn't give the shades a long lifetime, but it was their job to delay some of the beastly advance to give me some time to shoot up some chariots.
After Marcus had finished deploying, I did worry a bit. I had no way of getting to his characters quickly. I was especially worried about his casters and all that movement magic . I may have had a nastier magic phase, but his was pretty potent too - nothing in my force would be safe until I could silence those shamen. The trouble was that I didn't have anything that could get at them quickly (if at all).
I won the roll-off for choice of first turn and took a while to think about it. If I went first, I would be able to get my dark riders right up into Marcus' face and delay his centre advance, giving me more time to shoot. Also, first turn would allow me to move some of my combat units to block some avenues of advance for Marcus' support units. Alternatively, going second would give me the precious last turn and would also mean that my missile units wouldn't have to move, making my missile fire more effective.
I decided that I couldn't afford to let the beasts get even more strength in dictating the flow of the battle, so I took the first turn, to give Marcus something to react to. My initial moves were as follows.
As expected, the cold one knights failed their stupidity check and ambled forwards. I had forseen this though and placed the knights behind the spawn. I moved the spawn's compulsory move first, so nobody got tangled up.
I moved the centre units forward together (but not too fast), with the spears moving so as to be able to charge anything that tried to get round the forest to the east. Both units of dark riders galloped into marchblock range of the meatshield herd. If Marcus charged me with the herd, then the units behind would be limited by the herd's failed charge movement.
The shades moved to marchblock/bait the beast units behind the forest.
In my magic phase, I managed to frenzy the furies which should hopefully start thinning them out with the D6 strength 3 hits every turn. I don't think I managed to cast anything else.
As the chariots were a primary target, I fired the western crossbows at their opposing beastwagon. Sadly, no damage was done. With nothing better to shoot at, the centre crossbows shot at the meatshield beastherd. If I could get them to run, then that would be a lot of panic tests for Marcus. I didn't cause a single casualty.
The dark riders and shades shot at the giant, managing to do a couple of wounds to the brute. Finally, the RBT, with nothing better to shoot at, killed three hounds on the eastern flank and panicked them.
Overall, I wasn't feeling too confident about this battle, as I felt I didn't really have much sense of purpose or plan - but then I rarely do.
Picture of the battle after my first turn.
Marcoos:
Beasts Turn 1
Well, I'm not really sure how it happened but I managed to get away very lightly from Andy's first turn, although I wasn't prepared to use a scroll to prevent the Frenzy on my Furies, which would eventually seal their doom. I got lucky with no effects in my turn, but their frenzied state, along with a ‘6’ on my drunken Centigors meant a few charges would be going off whether I wanted to or not!
I decided to put both frenzied units into the Shades, and charges from my meat shield Beast Herd and a Chariot forced both units of Riders and the Shades away from my lines. A long flee move from the Shades meant they escaped, and it was no surprise that the Riders did too.
The rest of my army advanced as fast as their little legs could carry them, although my centre was held up by the Herd’s failed charge. Fearing the potential effects on a frenzied character, I jumped both my Beastlord and Greatbray into the Herd heading for the long grass, although my level 2 stayed out of any units to play chicken with Andy’s Level 4 (trying to bring her too far forward so I could get in close and dirty with her – ).
My magic phase was pleasantly surprising. With seemingly nothing of effect to do, I cast Fear onto the remaining hounds which Andy let go. I then cast Wolf Hunts, which Andy failed to dispel with dice, and charged the dogs into Andy’s Furies beating and popping them, and overrunning into the Marauders behind. In hindsight I should have held my ground, as Andy would have been forced to charge into range of the Minotaurs to actually engage the dogs, but it’s always worth starting to make small mistakes early otherwise there is a tendency to have a big super-mistake later in the game!
Here’s the map at the end of the turn:
And here’s a photo:
AndyP:
Another turn, mostly of shuffling units and trying to get into the best position for the inevitable clash. Here's a map of the actions I took:
The shades rallied, but, despite their athletic fleeing prowess, they were still in charge range and LoS of the frenzied furies (who, for the second turn in a row, took no casualties from the frenzy). I knew that given the choice, Marcus would re-charge the shades rather than throw the furies into the front of the spears. To this end, I positioned the spears so that if the tail end of the furies would be caught by my charge next turn. Hopefully, I was also out of charge range of the chariot.
Both dark rider units rallied, with the non-shooting unit returning to bait the beasts whilst the unit with crossbows hung around to blast the giant, along with the central crossbow unit. Together these units managed to put another two wounds on the giant pincushion.
One spawn put on a burst of speed to go perform a random spawn mission in the centre of the battlefield. At the time I had no idea what this mission was, but I'm sure it would come to me. My hitty units hung back to see what Marcus would do regarding the spawn - any overruns could lead to nasty counter-charges.
The other spawn reversed direction and went back to guard against ambushers.
My western crossbows scored an impressive four wounds on the minotaurs, but they passed their panic check (the flee direction would have been nice if they had failed). To aggravate the minotaurs some more, the chaos hounds broke from the marauders and finished their flee move just in front of the cow-men.
I'm not sure what happened in the magic phase, nothing of interest - I may have drawn out a scroll from Marcus.
Picture from the end of my turn:
Marcoos:
Beasts Turn 2
Well, I’d gotten off quite lightly again in Andy’s second turn, although the Giant was now bleeding profusely from un-counted numbers of crossbow bolts, and the chariot to the right of my Bestigor was pinned in place by Dominion.
My Furies again survived without taking any damage, and decided that charging the shades would be far more sensible than going into the front of a ranked unit of Spearelves. My Beastlord failed to lone charge the Spawn, and the meat shield again tried to charge the Dark Riders. Andy’s dice decided they’d had enough of all this running away and took matters into their own twisted little hands, with the Riders being cut down by the Herd (who swarmed around rather than into the Spawn!).
The Shades, who must have been exhausted from the huge flee distance they managed in turn 1, only fled 3” and were torn to pieces by the Furies. Worse was to come for Andy, as the Spearelves took one look at this massacre and decided that they had a pressing engagement just off the right hand table edge!
The rest of my units continued their advance, at varying speeds and with a little jockeying for position, with the exception of the spawn who exercised a tactical “no free overruns” withdrawal, and the giant who decided that hiding behind trees was preferable to being the #1 shooting target in town. After a nice dollop of good fortune the board looked like this:
My magic phase was completely uneventful, so instead of slamming a chariot, or my lord, into the Spawn I sat their waiting for the inevitable charges.
Another photo showing the huge advances I had made this turn:
AndyP:
Bobo, as Marcus said, that would have been one very dead spawn if it had advanced too far.
Ah yes, I'd forgotten about the dominion on the chariot. With the chariot pinned, the giant buggering off behind the wood and my commando-mission spawn able to pin the other centre chariot, now was the time to press my attack.
My attack spawn duly rolled enough to take it into the chariot and even managed to cause two wounds and win the combat. Sadly, it didn't break from combat. The other spawn tried to reach the small herd that had just ambushed behind my lines, but was just out.
The marauders turned around and, together with the dark riders, moved to protect the level four from the ambushers. Meanwhile the cold one knights moved to threaten the centre.
I declared a charge on the dominion-ed chariot with the devoted and anointed, which naturally fled. I then declared EitW onto the bestigor. Realising there was a chance I had the extra charge banner, Marcus took the chance and declared to hold. It was a good call by him, as I rolled a one for the extra charge distance and was less than an inch short! So close! Anything else would have seriously swung the game in my favour (assuming that charging devoted + anointed beats bestigor + BSB).
Of course, Marcus saved all his dispel abilities to stop me casting unseen lurker and allowing the unit to complete the charge. This did let me cast steed of shadows on the Aspiring champion though, who had left his unit to go fury-hunting. He killed a few and the rest popped, saving me from a whole host of trouble. Those furies could really have been troublesome behind my lines - they were the reason that I had moved both my casters over to the West.
In other news, the RBT took out three of the centigor, reducing the flanking risk they posed, the centre crossbows took out quite a few of thee meat shield herd (I may have crow's feasted a few too) and the Western crossbows tried to save themselves from the advancing herd but were unable to kill enough to cause a panic-check.
In summary, that turn could have been a really decisive point in the battle, but it was not to be. In fact, the failed charge gave Marcus time to react to my failed attack.
picture at the end of my turn 3
Beasts Turn 3
Well the loss of the Furies before they dealt with the RBT was a pain, but probably overdue, and I had some good fortune when Andy’s reserve Spawn failed to reach my ambushing herd and the Devoted failed to roll above a 1 to charge my Bestigor. I was convinced they would have had the Soul Shadows standard, so the Banner of Murder nearly caught me out a treat!
However, it wasn’t all good fortune, as the meat shield had fled from a shooting panic test after I stupidly took off all the models within 12” of my general, and had run back in front of my Bestigor and Minotaurs. This blocked their respective charges on the Devoted and the stupid COKs, which meant that all I could do with the units was shuffle backwards and deny the Devoted an EITW if they charged through my rallied meat shield. My Shaggoth had also been Dominioned – protecting the Devoted from a nasty flank charge.
Before that, my left hand herd had finally got to grips with the RXBs, making short work of them. The ambush herd and my general’s herd had forced the COKS and RXB Riders to perform complex dodge and weave escape patterns, and my left hand chariot had caused Andy to change his underwear after a failed charge by ½” on his Level 4. Damn. The COKS then revealed the Soul Shadows Standard and reformed to scare the bejeesus out of my ambushing herd.
In my magic phase, I had several great options for magical movement, but failed to reach the casting roll on anything. Good grief, this level 4 is well worth it :roll:
Here’s the map after my turn:
And another photo:
Druchii Turn 4
Ah yes, I'd forgotten that I'd dominioned the Shaggoth - it's so hard to remember everything from a 3000 point battle.
Well, the dominion had helped stave off Marcus' revenge, but I was still in a bit of a pickle. If my devoted and anointed charged the shaggoth, it would flee and leave me open to a bestigor flank charge*, vice versa if I charged the bestigor. Not wanting to back off (as being boring has no place in a game of Warhammer), I took a gamble and charged the anointed on her own into the newly-rallied herd.
* At the time I didn't realise that the shaggoth was immune to psychology. Obviously, if I'd known this I would have charged the shaggoth.
In the magic phase, I threw away a perfectly good unseen lurker to try and also charge the devoted into the now-pinned herd. As anybody who followed my cult battle reports will know, I am the world's worst user of unseen lurker and all I did was end up wasting a very powerful spell by declaring a charge I had no chance of making (due to the positioning of the units and wheeling issues). Please somebody shoot me now.
Naturally the anointed did just fine without her unit. She went straight through the herd and into the minotaurs behind - safe from a counter-charge from the bestigor.
My defensive spawn and the cold one knights charged the ambushing herd and saw them off.
I really wanted to get my level 4 moving away from the dangerous western flank, now that the eastern flank was looking a bit safer. I couldn't move her this turn though, as the centigor were still around (although the RBT did finish them off later in the turn). I'd been very lucky that the three attempts per turn Marcus was making to try and get her with magical movement were either failing or I was managing to dispel. Whilst she was hanging around near the nasty beast units though, she made the most of it by frenzying the level 2 beast shaman.
I had been hoping that my attack spawn would have finished off the chariot and been free to run around in the beasts backfield (having the frenzied shaman charging it would have been fun), but the piggies from the chariot really leapt into action and rolled sixes to hit followed by sixes to wound. The bestigor calmly finished off the job.
Finally my aspiring champion moved to start threatening the chariot that was nearby.
Marcoos:
Beasts Turn 4
Well Andy’s magic phase was still biting… an irresistible frenzy on my Level 2 forced the mage to hide in the centre of the long grass until the damage took her out, but I had stopped Dominion this turn, and Andy was kind enough to waste his Lurker
Free from the Assault Spawn (3 wounds in one turn – way to go lads) my chariot charged the Dark Riders, who fled through the RXBs causing them to also turn tail and flee. My Shaggoth hit the flank of the Devoted, and my left hand chariot got his range right and ploughed into the Marauders. It was at this point that Andy muttered something about not believing all 4 of my chariots were still alive…
My Bestigor had been hoping to flank the Annointed, but by maximising the small base size was hidden from my lads, so they moved into a position to lend their weight to the Devoted/Shaggoth fight if required. Free from the threat of 24 RXB shots, the giant once again poked his nose around the wood.
My two remaining herds moved to keep the pressure on the centre, and surely this turn I’d get a spell off. My movement ended like this:
Well, unbelievably I failed to cast any spells again, so Andy’s mages were still safe, and combat was a damp squib. The Marauders took 5 casualties but held, the Shaggoth caused two wounds and was held, and the Annointed caused 3 wounds, took one back and the Minotaurs held. Sadly, the Shaggoth was about to be flanked by a large and angry unit of Chaos Warriors with Halberds.
The turn finished looking like this:
AndyP:
Druchii Turn 5
Before we started this turn, we took a little break which gave us time to discuss how the battle was going.. We both agreed that the impending charge from the chaos warriors into the flank of the shaggoth would be crucial. If I broke him and got a good pursuit, then the bestigor could be in trouble too.
Of course, the chaos warriors went into the flank swinging away. I had hoped to cast frenzy on them, to get 6 strength 5 attacks and hopefully notch up a few more wounds on the shaggoth, to increase his chances of breaking. Marcus dispelled this though.
I did win the combat, but thanks to the BSB nearby the shaggoth just passed it's break test - meaning that next turn could be painful for both my devoted and chaos warriors.
The anointed beat the minotaurs by one point again, but this time they failed their test and ran away, escaping the turbo-nutter lady.
My level 4 joined the dark riders, so she would be able to flee when Marcus eventually managed to cast a movement spell. The dark riders expertly took the last wound off the chariot that had killed the spawn.
The aspiring champion moved to make sure the chariot definitely couldn't wiggle away from him next turn. Meanwhile the RBT put two wounds on the same chariot, mainly because it had nothing better to shoot at.
The spawn and cold one combo went to work on another herd, breaking and running down that too. The marauder and chariot combat was a stalemate.
In the centre, the large crossbow unit rallied and went back onto giant guard mode.
Whilst I was doing okay on some areas of the battlefield, I was very worried about Marcus' next turn. I was probably looking at losing my two big units and the anointed was staring at two angry pigs with a chariot behind them.
Marcoos:
Beasts Turn 5
Well I was fortunate that the Shaggoth held – I think I had a rerollable 5 test, but the damn Minotaurs had run after losing by 1 again, this time failing to wound the Annointed. I knew I was unlikely to do 2 wounds, but I had the chance to get the Annointed below half wounds, so charged the recently rallied chariot on my hill into the lady. My giant went into the warriors flank, and the Bestigor finally committed into their front.
Picture of the combat before rolling any dice:
I also charged my Lord’s herd at the Riders, now containing the level 4. They fled . The rest of my movement looked like this (note, the Spawn was now just in danger of blocking my charges so I sent it on mission to just get the hell out of dodge):
Once again, I failed to cast a single spell... despite only 5 dispel dice to worry about :roll: .
In combat, the COKs and Spawn beat and ran down my herd, after I had held the charge last turn, whilst the Maruaders finished off the chariot they had been fighting, running it down and pursuing into my dogs. The chariot into the Annointed caused 6 wounds, but all were armour saved, and a big pile of scrap wood soon followed.
In the big scrap, the giant swallowed the Warrior Champion, and the rest of my guys did enough wounds to win combat by lots. The Warriors fled and were run down by both Giant and the Bestigor, but disaster struck as the Devoted rolled Insane Courage! The Annointed was comfortably in charge range of my Shaggoth, so I was expecting a world of hurt in the not too distant future!
Here's the state of play now, notice the rapidly emptying battlefield!
AndyP:
Druchi Turn Six
Well, I was going to wait until tomorrow, but one mustn't keep one's public waiting, mustn't one luvvie?
This was my last chance to try and claw back some points after the losses of last turn. With a bit of luck and some assistance from the anointed, the devoted would be able to break the shaggoth and pursue away from the impeding flank charge from the beastlord's herd. I duly charged the anointed in to give the big lummox a good hiding.
Given a choice of charging or being charged by the minotaurs, the marauders passed their fear check and went cow-hunting. The spawn failed to roll high enough to help them out.
I was unable to charge the aspiring champion at the last remaining chariot, as the flee move would send it into the dark riders and I couldn't afford to risk the damage. Instead he skulked off to go see if there were any wood elves hanging around the forest.
With the frenzy damage finishing off the level 2 bray shaman, I was hoping my final magic phase might enable me to make sure the beastlord's unit or the bestigor were kept out of harms way for their last turn. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy when the dark riders with level 4 failed to rally and ran off the table.
Cr'p.
Still, my magic phase did come to something and the level 2 shadow wizard blew apart the remaining chariot with a creeping death.
The crossbow unit finished off the job they started and took the final two wounds off the giant, as he tried in vain to hide behind a sapling in the forest. It was a bit much to hope for, but the bestigor didn't panic.
The marauders stupidly heroic charge turned out to be half-accurate, the heroic bit didn't happen and they were cut to ribbons.
In the big fight, the anointed got a bit carried away, taking all four wounds off the shaggoth, who probably had no idea what hit him. This outright kill though meant I got no pursuit move and the devoted were left stranded with their flank towards the beastlord's unit.
Marcoos:
Beasts Turn 6
Well that was a painful turn for both of us – the bait and flee tactic really bit Andy in the a$$ when the Riders failed their first rally attempt with the level 4 sat in the unit, but I had lost 700pts myself in 3 models, so the game was still in the balance.
With little to do, I finally got a charge off with my Beastlord’s herd, into the flank of the Devoted, and repositioned the rest of my troops. The Bestigor reformed facing the Level 2, hoping against hope that they could finally get a magical charge off, whilst one unit of Minotaurs claimed an empty table quarter. Fittingly, the Spawn minced about doing very little… again
The map after movement:
With an almighty shock, my Bestigor actually got an Unseen Lurker off and careered into the Level 2, killing her outright! My Lord and his herd also made short work of the Devoted, and ran them down.
The game ended with my Lord locked in combat with the Annointed, and the Bestigor in hand to hand with the RXBs, but our time was up and the game ended. So it was time to count up the cost, and see who had won.
Final map:
And photo:
zz@@
Marcoos:
Final Results
Well the final reckoning was severe on both sides, with Andy claiming my Level 2, one herd plus banner, both smaller herds, both units of dogs, all 4 chariots (despite all being alive on turn 4!), the Centigor, Furies, Gain and Shaggoth for a whopping 1729pts.
In return, I had killed (or watched flee from the battle despite no obvious danger to themselves – typical Druchii behaviour ) the Level 4 plus General bonus, the Level 2, Devoted plus their banner, Spears, smaller RXBs, Marauders, Shades, Chaos Warriors plus their banner, both Dark Riders, the Furies and a Spawn, plus I had an extra table quarter for a slightly more whopping 2284pts.
So, a victory of 555pts - Beasts of Chaos beat Dark Elves.
Marcoos Battle thoughts:
Well some random musings from me on the game...
First off, it was a great game. Thanks to Andy for heading down to mine – no mean feat in itself – and taking part in an epic game that seemed to last all day (starting at 10.30am, we had managed to get to the end of turn 1 by 1pm!). It was highly enjoyable to be able to field such a large army for a change, and both forces looked suitably impressive at the start of the battle.
It seemed that lady luck alternated kicking each one of us the knackers. My magic phase saw consistently awful dice rolling, so much so that I failed to achieve a casting roll for 3 turns! However, I didn’t have a single unruly herd, and very few failed psychology tests which contrasted sharply with Andy’s fleeing Spearelves, and more crucially the failed rally on his Level 4. I guess the biggest turn around was the roll of a 1 on Andy’s Banner of Murder – what can I say other than played for and got *cough* .
I think my own deployment was slightly flawed – I had too much stuff to try and get through the centre, and not enough to make use of the woods on my right. I was trying to keep all the herds within range of my general which worked to a point, but denied me full use of that key terrain feature. Andy did well to slow my advance, but made a couple of crucial mistakes (the turn 4 use of Lurker being the most critical), but I’m not really sure what I would have done differently.
I guess I would have held back a little more to take advantage of the shooting and magic advantage, but then that would certainly have been less exciting, so I’m glad Andy chose to make it a fist fight. The report may not show it fully, but the big central scrap was a nailbiter for both of us, where we both committed forces knowing it was breakthrough or get broken. Fortunately for me, the Shaggoth held for that one crucial turn allowing the Bestigor and Shaggoth to swing the game my way.
Anyways, enough of my ramblings. Until next time
AndyP's Battle thoughts:
Loser's comments
I agree with Marcus that it was a really good game. The armies looked excellent arrayed against each other, it was just a pity taking all my elves back off the table in such a short time
Deployment-wise I think I did okay. When fighting anybody more manoeuvrable than myself (which is everyone) I always try to keep my force compact and mutually supporting, otherwise I'm condemned to chasing shadows through the forests.
During the game, I wasn't quite as adept. Obviously the idiotic unseen lurker was a real braindead moment, but on a more subtle level I should have been more careful with my wizards and getting them so close ot Marcus' magic powerbase. There were numerous instances where a successful casting by Marcus would have resulted in me losing my level 4. It was probably Karmic balance that caused her to flee the board. She should really have been tucked safely between my combat units.
Obviously during the game we both had examples of crazy dice that served to balance each other out, which is good, as it's never nice when all the good/bad dice go to one player. As Marcus says, there were quite a few nailbiter moments during the game - which always adds to the excitement.
