Murph's Battle Log Game 2: High Elves 2500pts

[murph]

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my battle log! Just got back into fantasy after a 6 year hiatus. Left my dark elves, felt right only to start them again when I returned. Finally got the last unit built and managed to get a game in. Without further adieu here is the list I used.

Supreme Sorceress
-lvl 4, Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon, Lore of Life

Death Hag
-BSB, Cauldron
Khainite Assassin
-Manbane, Cloak of Twilight, 2 Hand Weapons

28 Witch Elves
-Command, Razor Standard
10 Darkshards
-Standard
5 Dark Riders
-Crossbows, Musician, Standard

29 Executioners
-Command, Standard of Discipline
Reaper Bolt Thrower
Reaper Bolt Thrower
Reaper Bolt Thrower
Hydra
-Breath Weapon

Kharibdyss
Medusa
5 Doomfire Warlocks

Total: 2498
10 Drops
7 Fortitude

His List:

Vermin Lord
-lvl 4.

Plague Priest
-Furnace, lvl 1
Chieftain
-BSB

25 Stormvermin
-Command, storm banner, warpfire thrower
30 Nightrunners
-Champ, Warpgrinder
20 Giant Rats

35 Plaguemonks
-Command, Plague Banner

Hellpit Abomination
Hellpit Abomination
Doomwheel

Game was was the standard vp mission. Battlefield was split in half by a huge watchtower and there were forests in each corner. The witch elves were deployed opposite of the plaguemonks for giggles. Also arranged against them was the doomwheel and giant rats. The other side of the watchtower has the hellpits and the verminlord against the rest of my army. Cav out front executioners behind. bolt throwers didnt need to be up front because of the large targets.

He got first turn and all his compulsory stuff moved like 15" straight towards me, everything else follows up behind for support. Plaguemonks stay out of charge range of the witch elves but do move up. Casts -1T on the darkshards and then IFs a plague against them killing 7 and fortunately it fails to jump. Miscast does nothing. Doomwheel kills a giant rat. lol.

My turn. He activates the storm banner. Doomfires charge one of the hellpits. The medusa and the 3 darkshards double block the verminlord (forgot the medusa was frenzied so no flee, woops). Dark riders block one of the helpits Monsters adjust to countercharge the hellpits. Magic, I cast +2 toughness on the doomfires, everything else is dispelled. Shooting drops 3 wounds from a helpit. Combat sees me lose two wounds and him lose 2 wounds.

His turn 2. Nightrunners come up into the executioners, was aiming for a bolthrower. Other helpit charges the darkriders (thought I could flee here, woops) Verminlord charges the medusa. Plague monks move up to breath weapon the witchelves. Stormvermin advance behind the monsters. Magic is all dispelled at the cost of my scroll. Shooting kills one witch elf from the doomwheel and the breath weapon kills 5 more. Combat, doomfires drop another 2 wounds from the helpit for nothing in return. Dark riders lose 2 models, do a wound in return and hold. Night runners kill 5 executioners, but get annihilated from the return attacks and flee off the board. Verminlord destroys the medusa overrunning into the darkshards.

My turn 2. Kharibdyss charges the helpit engaged with the dark riders, witch elves charge the plague monks. Hydra adjusts for to take an charge from the verminlord. Executioners are waiting for a good charge. Magic sees +2 toughness cast on the kharibdyss. Shooting does a wound to the doomwheel. Combat, doomfires drop the helpit. The dark riders die but the kharibdyss finishes off the other helpit. Darkshards die horribly to the verminlord. Witch elves do a total of 25 unsaved wounds to plaguemonks and the deathhag kills the plague priest, in return the plague monks kill 12 witchelves.

His turn 3. One helpit gets back up with 2 wounds and the other creates 2 ratswarms. Helpit charges the kharibdyss and the ratswarms charge the doomfires. Verminlord charges the hydra. Doomwheel and the giant rats charge into the witch elves. He reduces the T on the executioners by 1 and then plagues them, fortunately I only lose 10. His shooting does nothing. He kills the kharibdyss with impact hits (only had 2 wounds left) and overruns into my executioners. Doomfires kill a base of the swarms for one loss, now down to two models. Verminlord wiffs completely against the hydra and loses 3 wounds, fails his break test and gets run down! I pursue into the stormvermin. Witchelves finish off the furnace and the rest of the monks after losing 2 to toughness tests. The doomwheel and the giant rats kill 2 more, however it is not enough and the giant rats break but the doomwheel stays.

My turn 3: I regrow a couple of witch elves with magic. The doomfires finish off the rat swarm base. Hydra wins combat against the stormvermin but they hold. Assassin drops the helpit. Witch elves kill the doomwheel.

He calls it here. Dark elf victory. He rolled great to begin with but his dice turned really sour at the end.

Lessons:
-Doomfire warlocks are unreal. Wow what a unit. Great anti-monster: 4+ ward, poisoned attacks, asf, str 4. Plus extra channels. 125pts. Unreal.
-Plague hurts me so bad. Coupled with withering....yikes.
-My deployment is still bad, I have an idea what to do but positioning is still rough.
-Medusa is bunk, she cannot stay alive along enough to matter, will drop her and some stuff for either a lvl 1 with beasts or another doomfire warlock unit. Im leaning really heavily towards the doomfires. Rerolling to hit with poison is boss.

This is the tweak to the list Im considering:

Supreme Sorceress
-lvl 4, Powerstone, Talisman of Endurance, Life

Death Hag
-Cauldron, BSB
Sorceress
-Dispel Scroll, Beasts

28 Witch Elves
-Command, Razor Standard
10 Darkshards
-Standard
5 Dark Riders
-Standard, Musician, Crossbows

29 Executioners
-Command, Standard of Discipline
Hydra
-Flame Breath
Reaper Bolt Thrower
Reaper Bolt Thrower
Reaper Bolt Thrower

Kharibdyss
5 Doomfire Warlocks
5 Doomfire Warlocks

Total: 2496

I dropped the assassin because the doomfires really do his job as well. T3 sucks so having wissans is a nice bonus too. It allows me to get another sorceress and keep the third reaper.

Thoughts?

[Enkiel]

were the RBT really useful? i see no mention in your Batrep.

[murph]

not really. One knocked a wound off the doomwheel, another took 3 wounds off a helpit. The storm banner mitigated their use in the early game. Combat happened so fast that they really didnt have targets. and there were large targets in the way of everything that couldve been shot. Theyre there to deal with other chaff which his army really didnt have any.

[Harkonnen]

Interesting battlerep!
And i run quite a similar list, atleast the two big blocks, and that config of 28 witches with razor and couldron, seems to be verrry effective... The toughness buff from Life is so so good... And yeah locks rock.

[murph]

Game 2: High Elves

2500pts Blood and Glory

His army from memory:

Archmage: lvl 4, Book of Hoeth, High Magic
Noble: BSB, Steed, Barding, Dragon Armour, Ogre Blade, Shield

15 Silverhelms: Command
15 Archers: Banner
15 Archers: Banner

30 Swordmasters: Command, Banner of the World Dragon
8 Dragon Princes: Command
2x Tiranoc Chariot

2x Eagle
2x Bolt Thrower
Frostheart Phoenix

I ran with:

Supreme Sorceress: lvl 4, Powerstone, 5+ Ward, Life Magic
Death Hag: BSB, Cauldron, Banner of Swiftness
Sorceress: lvl 1, Dispel Scroll, Beasts

28 Witch Elves: Command, Razor Standard
10 Darkshards: Banner
5 Dark Riders: Standard, Musician, Rxb

28 Executioners: Command, Banner of Discipline
3x Bolt Thrower
Hydra: Flame Breath

Kharibdyss
2x 5 Doomfire Warlocks

List Comparison:

I liked my witch elves against anything he could throw at me in combat, so I felt I had the horde advantage. However, my executioners are next to useless against anything meaningful in his army without some life buffs. Gonna be an uphill battle, if I can get my monsters into his archers and chariots it should be a good day.

I rolled: Earthblood, Flesh to Stone, Throne of Vines, Regrowth and Wissans.
He rolled: Walk between Worlds, Fiery Convocation, Drain Magic and something else.

Deployment: Pretty symmetrical board with forests and buildings in opposing corners and a budding in the middle on the left.

He put down both chariots, an archer unit, an eagle and the sword masters against my executioners, hydra, doom fires and dark shards on the left. The middle had the witches lined up against the princes. The right had the silver helms, phoenix, eagle, archer unit #2 and eagle #2 up against the kharibdyss, dark riders and doom fires #2. Both os us just lined out board edge with the bolt throwers centrally.

I won first turn:

I do a general advance with the fast cab moving up to get in the way and deal with his chaff. I cast regen on the execs. I shoot down a silver helm and put a couple wounds on a chariot with a bolt thrower.

His turn 1:

On the left he charges the warlocks with the wounded chariot who flee and he redirects into the hydra who holds. On the right he charges the dark riders with the solver helms who flee and redirects into the kharibdyss who also flees. This bottlenecks his phoenix, preventing him from charging my warlocks. The eagles move up and block both hordes. The other chariot skirts the building and the the rest of the army stays put. Magic phase is brutal as he kills 20 executioners with an IF’d fiery convocation, however he loses wizard levels and the phase ends. Shooting does nothing. In combat the chariot puts a wound on the hydra but gets killed in return.

DE Turn 2:

No charges. Everything rallies. On the left the warlocks move into the middle to blast the eagle with a doom bolt. The sorceresses abandon the executioners to their fate and join the darkshards. The fast cav on the right move up to block the silverhelms again. The hydra moves up a little. The witch elves shuffle sideways to get a better angle on the units coming around the building on the right. Magic phase sees the eagle in front of the witches get blasted by a doom bolt and the remaining executioners die to the stupid spell. Shooting kills the other one and another silver helm drops. Bolt thrower kills one prince.

HE Turn 2:

He charges the dark riders again with the helms and I flee however, my crappy blocking leaves a space for him to get through my warlocks into the witch elves. Phoenix charges the warlocks who flee. Dragon Princes try to charge the witches as well but fail. Swordmasters try a long charge on the hydra and also fail. Magic phase has him IF Walk between worlds on his sword masters, but the spell kills him outright and 6 sword masters in the process. The spell moves the unit next to the dragon princes in the middle of the board. Shooting puts a couple wounds on the hydra and kills a warlock on the left. In combat the heroes challenge each other and each do a wound. The silver helms kill 7 and the witches kill 11 Silverhelms in return. People really underestimate this unit. SO killy. He holds though.

DE Turn 3

I try a long charge on the sword masters with the kharibdyss but fail. Everything rallies. The cav units on the right block the phoenix from charging the witch elves. Hydra moves up to threaten the flank of the sword masters or archer units down there on the left. Doomfires move up to threaten the backfield on the left as well. Magic I cast throne (heals the hag) and wissans on the witch elves, He dispels flesh to stone. Shooting drops a couple wounds from the phoenix and a couple wounds from the last chariot coming into my backfield. Combat I kill the noble in the challenge and the rest of the unit gets annihilated. Need to kill one more banner for the win.

HE Turn 3:

Chariot charges a bolt thrower and kills it. He charges the cav again with the phoenix then tries to redirect into a bolt thrower but fails. Backs up with his sword masters and princes. He dispels throne in his magic phase and manages to bring the hydra down to two wounds with shooting. He thought the breath weapons strength was based on wounds like the old edition.

DE Turn 4:

I try a long charge on the sword masters with the witches but fails. Hydra moves in to breath weapon the word masters. Everything rallies and resumes blocking. However I move one unit of warlocks right up to super doom bolt the princes off the board. In the magic phase I do just that and kill all 8 with 15 hits.

Game Over: DE Victory

Heroes
-Witches
-Warlocks
-Dark Riders

Zeros
-Bolt Throwers
-Executioners
-Darkshards
-Kharibdyss

Thinking about this for an upcoming game against either Warriors of Chaos, Bretonnians, or Lizardmen.

Supreme Sorceress
-lvl 4, Sac Dagger, Dark Magic
Death Hag
-BSB, Cauldon, Banner of Swiftness, Cry of War
Sorceress
-lvl 1, Beasts, Ironcurse Icon

28 Witch Elves
-Command, Razor Standard
14 Dark Shards
-Banner, Standard of Discipline
5 Dark Riders
-Banner, Musician, Rxb


29 Executioners
-Command
2x Bolt Thrower
Hydra
-Flame Breath

Kharibdyss
5 Doomfire Warlocks
5 Doomfire Warlocks

[murph]

Edit: Duplicate.

[Jabroniville]

Wow, nice stuff (though you repeated the last battle there). I haven't used the Warlocks yet, though people are now swearing by them and how great they are. It's also interesting how kill-y those Witch Elves are- I figured that S3 attacks weren't going to get through much (even with a Razor Standard)- my only battle with them involved a super-charge of three units into lightly-armored Marauders who were no match for what hit them (Dreadlord, Dragon, 20 Witches, 20 Black Guard, Master), but others are giving reports of these things taking down Cavalry and other highly-armoured units, just by sheer number of attacks. It reminds me of how deadly the Savage Orc Horde is for the Greenskins (those attacks are much stronger, but MUCH less likely to hit).

Do you find Kharibdyss' very effective? I used one in a Chaos battle, but his Hellfire Sword Lord on a Manticore charged it, and that's WAY out of our beast's league.

[T.D.]

Thanks for the write ups.

Warlocks have been good for me as well. Witches have always been good as long as they don't get shot up before combat! Execs seems to be real winners in this edition but against HE have their toughest match-up.

[murph]

@ Jabroniville

I would throw them at anything short of 1+ save cav units. Thats why I like having the beast sorceress in the army for a wissan's. Then that combat is a no brainer. 1+ save units is also why I have the kharibdyss for flanking and the executioners. That being said, until I run into some heavily armoured infantry I dont think the k-beast will give me positive returns. I am playing a WoC army and likely a lizardmen army in the coming week so we will see how it goes. If I were to take out the Kharibdyss, I would drop the third bolt thrower and throw in a couple of cold one chariots.

I love executioners, they keep on getting demolished by IF'd plagues and fiery convocations. Whatever they hit tends to disappear. This army is THE glass hammer, I love it.

[murph]

Ok I've gotten a few games in the last week, however Im entering a critical project time for school so these will be summaries.

Game 3: WoC 2000pts Pitched Battle

First game of Fantasy in a year for him and this was a new army for him.

Lord on Jugg
BSB on Jugg
Nurgle Sorc

18 Warriors
2x5 Horsemen
2x5 Hounds

2x3 Skullcrushers

I had:

SS with Dag and Dark Magic
HagBSB on Cauldron
Sorc with Metal

28 Witches w Razor Standard
5 Dark Riders
10 Bleakswords

20 Executioners
2 RBT

Kharibdyss
5 Doomfire Warlocks

Highlights:
-Metal wizard didnt do too much. Plague of rust got off on his BSBs unit a couple times.
-Baited his crushers into receiving flank charges from the execs and the witch elves destroying them.
-Kharibdyss rolled hot against the warriors and kept them pinned until the execs got through the crushers.
-SS didnt do much on my end. Kill a unit of horsemen.
-He total powered a couple of regens which was irritating.

I tabled him.

Game 4 WoC

I convinced him to switch his lord for a hero and make his sorc a sorc lord. That was about the only change.

Highlights:
-He dropped the witch hordes toughness down to 1 which I fail to dispel and then he total powers the rancid visitations killing 18 witches. I failed 12 T tests in a row.
-That depleted witch unit kills all 18 Warriors before they get to attack. Impact hits with the razor standard did a lot.
-My SS total powers word of pain into the knights. Only 3 dice were used, one of which was the sac dagged guy and it sucks her into the warp.
-Other Sorceress total powers a boosted searing doom which kills 2 guys and drops her level down to zero.
-Bolt throwers actually pull their weight here and kill a couple of crushers.
-He liked the sorc lord combo better.

I nearly table him but hes killed a ton of my stuff. Execs and witches are almost all gone as is my chaff.

Game 5 Skaven 2500

Same guy I played first. He dropped the vermin lord and took a grey seer on bell instead. I played with nearly the same list. Instead of the medusa I took a sorceress with metal again.

Highlights:
-He rolled like garbage throughout the game and I couldnt fail a charge.
-He didnt have a lot of chaff.
-SS killed one of his abombs
-Hydra and kharibdyss combo charge the bell and accompanying stormvermin, after breath weapon and thunderstomps hes lost 20 out of the 30 stormvermin.

He calls it after the witches kill the last abomb and my chaff are baiting his furnance around the table. Lots of bad luck on his part, his magic did nothing. The stormbanner shut down his own warmachines.



In other notes I've got a 1600pt tourney coming up at the end of January, thinking of running this.

SS with Scroll
Hag BSB on Cauldron

28 Witch Elves with Razor Standard
5 Dark Riders with command and crossbows

20 Executioners Command

Kharibdyss
5 Doomfire Warlocks

That or I drop the executioners and take a min unit of darkshards with a banner and a pair of bolt throwers.