It was friday night and instead of going out to erase my mind with some sweet sweet alcoholic beverages we decided to practice more for the tournament! I have fought Mike's army countless times and I knew going against four bolt throwers and a mean counter attack (swordmasters and white lions) was going to be tough.
Mike's List:
Caradryan
Mage w/ lvl 2 and annuli crystal
Mage w/ lvl 2 and ring of fury
Spearmen x21 w/ full command
White Lions x 20 w/ full command (Cara goes here)
Swordmasters x20 w/ full command and banner of sorcery
Archers x10
Dragon Princes x5
Repeater Bolt Thrower x4
spell wise Nimue received Word of Pain and Chillwind. Sameth rolled Steed of Shadows, Creeping Death and Pit of Shades. His two mages between them rolled on the high elf magic two spells that make them stubborn, 5+ ward and another spell he never cast.
Turn 1:
The gathering darkness made the dark elf army more sinister as they advanced upon the high elf lines. The high elves stood resolute veterans of thousands of battles their discipline glowed bright. The multitude of bolt throwers aimed at the crossbowmen shielding Geothe and the executioners. Leaving one very brave or rather foolish survivor in the midst of his troop.
Despite the inherent magical defenses of the high elves Nimue a bolt of energy against one of the bolt throwers freezing it's crew and warmachine. She glanced about herself and smiled as she blew a kiss to the other bolt thrower, the crew began to scream as blood poured freely from their eyes.
With blood being already shed on the field the harpies started to circle both armies looking for weak prey to feast on. Jotan himself used the harpies as a distraction darting through the dark skies on his dark pegasus waiting for the order of Goethe to strike.
As always the first turn in any game is spent jockeying for a good position from which to launch assualts. Jotan, a unit of harpies and some shades were positioned on the far left flank to deal with bolt throwers and archers.
Turn 2:
Jotan's laughter intertwined with the constant shrieking of the harpies chilled the hearts of the bolt thrower crew and archers who knew their demise would soon arrive. Like malicious shadows the shades crept from the darkness to unleash crossbow bolts into one of the bolt throwers slaying the brave defenders.
One flock of harpies flew into the remaining crewmen lifting him off the ground and tossing his body and the boulders below. They continued their rampage by attacking the high elf mage thinking him an easy target. With the grace that only an elf can possess he struck down one of the foolhardy harpies as they closed in. But the mage alone could not hope to defend himself for long as his pristine white rob was quickly turning crimson from a gaping wound.
Keeping the plan aggressive or at the very least annoying on the left flank I put the harpies and Jotan to distract the bolt thrower and archers. In a stroke of luck a unit of harpies went through a bolt thrower (admittedly only 1 crewmen the other died to chillwind last turn) then overran into the mage hiding behind the wood causing one wound but he didn't run the nerve!
Seeing his shooting gallery severely weakened Mike decided to move against my army and attempt to reach close combat. One chariot was going to go against the swordmasters, yes the chariot would die but I wanted to cause a bit of damage with the impact hits and was hoping to bring the unit down to half with the repeaters...
Turns 3-4:
The archers were helpless as Jotan came down like a lighting bolt from the sky atop his pegasus, the archers powerless to stop his rage when all was said and done not one archer was left alive. Feral instincts trumped martial prowess and finesse of the bolt thrower crew as the harpies quickly killed their opponents and feasted on the remains.
Despite losing their warmachines the high elves held their heads high and charges went all along the field. Noble dragon princes smashed a chariot and continued onto Goethe who was itching to whet his blade on their blood. They met stiff resistance in the corsairs who were fighting for the favor of Goethe who simply yawned as they dragged the princes off their horses. One prince thinking himself valiant attempted to attack who Goethe who easily side stepped his clumsy blow and sent his halberd tip through the middle of his chest ending the prince's heroics.
Nimue and Sameth tried their best to thin the ranks of the high elves but their magical blasts were held in check by the arcane protections of Caradryan protected the white lions from any real harm. Though many spearmen died frozen stiff when Nimue unleashed the chilling wind of Naggaroth upon their regiment.
The citizen levy of the spearmen encouraged by Caradryan's words repelled an attack from the corsairs with the tips of their spears. Running down the pirates and scaring off a unit of crossbowmen who decided it was not in their best interest to remain on the field to face the living legend.
The swordmasters advanced with the utmost discipline despite taking a few casualties from the chariot whose scythed wheels crushed a few of their number they continued. The dark elf bolt thrower crew could not load the machine fast enough as they spotted the swordmasters, despite their vicious salvo of fire they continued the march against them.
Seeing his comrade in danger the other elven mage charged the harpies and helped to stem the tide of the beasts. Things were almost looking up till the mage noticed the harpies were simply toying with their prey. Too late he realized it was a trap as Jotan drove his lance through the mage, the last thing he saw was his brother in arms dying of blood loss before his light was extinguished forever.
::no pictures.. apparently these two turns were vicious? and I forgot!:::
A very productive two turns though I wish I had remembered to snap more pics (doh!) the left flank had collapsed completely with the destruction of the dragon princes, archers and bolt thrower though the 'meat' of mike's army was all in the center and on my right flank.
One mage was determined not to die (having a 5+ ward i let him cast), this emboldened Mike to send another mage into combat thinking the harpies would be easily driven off. Unfortunately for him the two mages are apparently worse than one as one turn everyone whiffed or saved, the following turn Jotan just joined the combat and both mages died.
Caradryan's magical resistance made the white lions really hard to take out as bolt throwers were worried more about the swordmasters and i didn't have any really strong magical attacks that would kill them off.
Turns 5-6:
Seeing their doom the dark elves abandoned their weapon batteries instead of facing the highly skilled swordmasters in combat. Similarly the spearmen attempted to run from Caradryan and his white lion cohort, they would have gotten away for it not the cunning of wise general who had pushed his endurance to the limit and butchered them to a man with his white lions as Goethe looked on impassively.
The battlefield was slick with the blood of the dying as the vultures started to gather overhead. Caradryan called for a halt to tend to the dead and dying not wanting to let the vultures desecrate the bodies of his honored troops and with that the battle was over.
Overview:
"Goethe looked up at the sky and so flocks of vultures circling the dead when a warrior approached him. "Master should we clear the field of our dead?", Goethe swayed his head "No... Khaine is pleased with this sacrifice upon his alter.. mobolize the army we march south!"
So yes another hard fought game with a draw! lol I personally don't mind as we both enjoyed the game immensely, Mike surely didn't expect to lose his shooting superiority so early in the game. Nimue seemed to get the two most perfect spells against high elves both Chillwind and Word of Pain were instrumental early on in the game.
Going into the tournament I was pretty confident with the abilities of my troops I was getting a better handle on the army. The list itself isn't overly competitive it is quite balanced which throws people off just enough to give me an edge at certain points. One very important lesson I learned was that it is easier to bring units under half with shooting then to try and wipe them out in one be all end all round of close combat...
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