Thraundils battle log game 56: UB tournament Round One!

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Thraundil
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Thraundils battle log, game 50-55: National Finals!

Post by Thraundil »

Hey everyone! Here's a quick recap of this weekend. Written in the usual swift style, I will maybe try and find the time to illustrate one or two games. Probably the victories, as I really cant take much with my home from my losses from this weekend, you will soon see why if you read on ;)
To spoil everything from the get go: I finished on 9th place out of 20 participants, with a final BP score of 66. My goal was to end above 60 BP, which is the average score. Mission complete ;)

As per use, opponent lists are from memory, so there may be inaccuracies.

The list:
Dreadlord, 1+, dawnstone, cloak of twilight, dark pegasus, lance
Supreme Sorcerer, lvl 4 wizard, lore of death, obsidian lodestone, dispel scroll, dark steed
Master, BSB, 1+, charmed shield, talisman of preservation, dark pegasus, lance
Master, 1+, armor of destiny, dark pegasus, lance
Master, 1+, glittering scales, luckstone, ironcurse icon, cold one, lance
13 dark riders, musician, repeater crossbows, shields
3x10 witch elves uden noget
4 RBT
9 Cold One Knights, FC, banner of swiftness
5 shades


Game One: Warriors of Chaos

Decent matchup for me. Would probably rate it 60-40 in my favour after seeing my opponents list:
Lvl 4, 2+ armor, MR(3), scroll, mark of nurgle, lore of nurgle
Lvl 2 fire, skull of catam, ruby ring
Exalted hero on demonic mount, BSB, mark of nurgle, charmed shield, talisman of preservation, scaly skin, great weapon
17 warriors, mark of nurgle, halberds
2 nurgle chariots
1 slaanesh chariot
Chimera, flaming breath, regenerating flesh
4 skullcrushers, mus, gleaming pennant
3 skullcrushers, mus

I dont recall his spells, I dont believe his lvl 4 got rancid visitations though. I got all 3 sniper spells and doom and darkness, opting out of the sun. Deployment went exceptionally well: my knights stare down his center, and I get to place shades for a sneaky frenzy bait should I get turn 1. I manage to do so, having finished my deployment first, and I place the shades in front of his 4 crushers such that an overrun would bring them in a great charge position. I place my fliers accordingly, while the knights threaten the centre. Shooting kills a crushers off of the 3 man unit, and in the pagic phase I manage 2 wounds off his lvl 4 on carass, prompting him to throw all dice on dispelling spirit leech. This allows doom and darkness on the 4 crushers, who promptly fail 2 frenzy LD checks, and rage after my fleeing shades for a picture perfect scenario. My opponent spends a half hour deciding on his other movement, but at last decides he must pressure, and he advances full speed with everything. I charge his warrior block with knights in the front, my BSB in the flank, and also 5 witch elves in the front (he had magic'ed the other 5 away). I also charge his 4 skullcrushers with my lord, destinymaster, and the DR block with the lvl 4. In retrospect, the DR should not have been in, but I wanted to make certain that I would break steadfast, or I am chanceless. I then IF a doom and darkness on his nurgle warrior block.

Lord kills 1 skullcrusher singlehandedly and wounds another, whom the master finishes off. Dark riders manage nothing, lose I believe 5 or 6 of their number, but I win combat by a pretty nice margin and he runs off the table. I pursue with everything, as he has a chariot posed to countercharge. I need 7 to get out of the table, but only my lord manages this, with the DR pursuing a mocking 6" and the destiny master rolling triple 1!!!
In the knight combat, I decimate him. His lvl 4 takes the ticked, his BSB takes a wound, and 11 warriors of nurgle are impaled either on lances, or ripped to shreds by furious cold ones. He kills off the witch elves and a few cold one knights, but I win combat by so much that, with doom and darkness, he will need double 1. Which he promptly rolls. His countercharge breaks the knights, my BSB dies, and on the flank his chariot runs into my destiny master, breaks him, and overruns into my lvl 4 unit. Disaster is impending, but 10 witch elves kill the chariot and my lvl 4 survives. Absolute bloodbath! The rest of the game is a mop-up. He is too depleted to engage my lord in combat, but I can not pressure him either, and he advances on my backfield. Some highlights: a big fireball hits my lvl 4 who is solo after her dark riders die. She makes it through, and kills his firewizard. 2 crushers with a combined 5 wounds charge 10 witch elves, and I land so many wounds as to kill them outright. My lvl 4 2-dices caress on his BSB on turn 6, gets IF, manages no wounds. He asks to roll to wound on her (she has 1 wound left). He lands a 1! My last remaining bolt thrower then finishes the BSB off for good measure. But due to the massive slaugther, i win 11-9. I should have won at least 13-7 as him holding on snakeeyes is so irritating. My knights had probably been destroyed by his countercharges anyway, but my BSB could have survived for sure, and more of my backfield would then also have survived.




Game Two: Skaven

I get a skaven player for my game two. Not a big worry as he has no cannons!

Skaven list:
Grey seer, lvl 4 on screaming bell
Plague priest, lvl 1 on plague furnace
BSB, great weapon, 6+ ward
Chieftain, great weapon
Assassin, strength potion, d3 wounds
2x60 skaven slaves
44 stormvermin <-- bell and lord here
35 plague monks <-- furnace and priest here
Hellbit abomination
Doomwheel

At a glance, 2 unbreakable blocks, 2 slave tarpits, and couple of big monster targets. Hard to take points from, but he will not get many from my mobile list either.

I get the purple sun and a couple of snipes. I forgot his magic, it was not too terrifying. Deployment goes well as he hides his towers on a far flank. I even get to deploy first, meaning +1 for first turn which I get. I advance with caution, respecting the hellpit maybe a bit too much. Out of range for snipes, I try to sun it but he dispels. Shooting causes 4 wounds on the wheel, and he goes out of control off the board. Upon returning, he rams into his own plague monks, killing 5 of them :killed: he advances with caution, and his magic phase is not very eventful. I move up with witch elves blocking his hellpit, and hide characters behind them. I make one mistake: my lord joins a WE unit. He gets into it with the hellpit, kills 7 witches, which thankfully due to matching footprints means im steadfast. Next turn I flank the hellpit with other 10 witches, but for good measure I also purple sun it off the board (meaning he doesnt get to roll on the table, mwa ha ha!). By now, the doomwheel is also gone, so I start shooting the plague furnace, knowing the 4+ ward on the bell will make it difficult for me to get through. He continues to move forward with the towers, and I get stuck in a slave grind for a turn longer than I had hoped, making me sweat a bit. I manage to get my BSB in a great position though, and as he gets his plague tower ahead of his bell tower, I seize the moment and slams destiny master into his front, BSB into his flank, and 10 witches into his rear on the bell tower. Over several rounds of combat, I manage to kill the BSB, bring the lvl 4 down to 1 wound twice (he has the healing thingy from the skaven book), and the WE unit in the rear makes tremendous work while he cannot really harm them. His assassin appears but my destiny master takes it like a boss, grinding it out with him for 4 whole turns before succumbing to the many S4 armor piercing strikes. Nearing the end of the game, 2 surviving witches pass a frenzy test to block his plague tower, and the lord slams into the bell tower as well in an attempt to bring the stormverming below 25% to get 50% points. I succeed. I also finally manage to shoot the plague furnace down. My knights are his magic magnet for the entire game, but 3 knights + the master survives, yielding no points! I scoop up a 14-6 victory after some stable play by me and some movement errors by him.



Game Three: Dark Elves

I now start to draw the good players. This guy was on the danish ETC team this year, although with skaven. His list:

Lord on pegasus, similar to mine
Lvl 4 on foot, shadow, hotek, dispel scroll
BSB on pegasus, similar to mine
Master on steed, 1+, opal amulet
2x14 darkshards, one with flaming banner
3x5 dark riders, shields
4 RBT
Chariot
5 shades
Kharibyss
5 warlocks

At first glance, his list seems a lot softer than mine. He gets first turn, and advance at some speed. He actually makes a small (or maybe calculated, I dont know) error by joining his steedmaster and BSB onto a dark rider unit within 18" of my destiny master, with no immediate countercharge options. I know if I get the charge, I will eventually have my lord and BSB join in the fun and break him, so I declare the charge, but end up failing. Frustrating. But to add insult to injury, my lvl 4 rolls snakeeyes on her first casting attempt, hotek miscast, dimensional cascade, she dies along with half of the dark riders. From this point, its pretty much a dicerape. My BSB dies to the first singleshot, he charges the failing destiny master and grinds him down, and he starts shooting my knights. Example: 5 wounds on my knights, after 3+ armor save: 5 dead knights. I just couldnt catch a break, and I end up with a 0-20 defeat after exactly no dice roll goes in my favour. Frustrating to say the least! I had a good gameplan, but failing a roll which requires a below-average roll is just... Gah!



Game Four: Vampire Counts

Being suddenly slammed far down into the standings, I find myself against a vampire counts player. Who aparently decided to skip out on half of the tournament, and to this moment nobody really knows why. So I get a 20-0 walkover and a sitout. BORING!



Game Five: Orcs & Goblins

Onwards, then. With the walkover giving me what I believe is the "10 points" I probably should have had from game 3 anyway, I am again in the upper half of the bracket. I draw an orc player who won his first 2 games 20-0 but lost his game 3 0-20.

Savage orc warboss, great weapon, glittering scales
Savage orc shaman, lvl 4
Savage orc shaman, lvl 1
Black orc BSB, 4+ ward, great weapon
2 goblin heroes on wolf
Like 35 savage orc big 'uns, FC
5 spiders
20 night goblins with 2 fanatics
2 boar chariots
2 doom divers
2 rock lobbers
pump wagon
10 trolls
2 mangler squigs



Deployment goes absolutely well on my end. He corners up, which makes it easy to me to approach from one flank due to terrain. He also misplaces one doom diver, allowing me to scout my shades 12" from it. I get turn 1, and advance full speed, staying out of any charge threats. Magic doesnt do much, and 4 bolt throwers only manage 1 wound on a mangler squig... On his turn he shuffles, moves the squigs into position, and I burn my scroll on a boosted foot of gork. His shooting falls short, and doesnt do much damage. On my turn 2 I get some nice charges in, getting the shades into one doom diver and my BSB into a chariot. Destiny master draws out the fanatics for no damage in return, as his chariot is in the way. Hilarity ensures as a purple sun drags 6 trolls into the hole, and the vortex ends up right in the middle of his army. Disaster then strikes as 9 dark rider shots fails to wound the mangler squig sitting right in front of them, and I am forced to blow all bolt throwers through hard cover to get it down. This means his other mangler kills my destiny guy :( but his remaining doom diver misfires, and he blows his magic phase on removing the purple sun.
I am able to fly into great positions to take the last war machines out, while still denying him combat. Any further sun attempts are dispelled, but in my turn 5 I get my BSB in the flank and lord in the rear of his savage orc bunker - all that is left on the board. He cant dispel doom and darkness, and he makes an inaccurary with his make way! moves: both his BSB and general comes to my BSB, which means I call a challenge with the BSB and he accepts with his lord. This leaves his BSB unable to participate, as my lord is on the 'other side' of the rear rank. I go to work, win combat, but he makes his LD6 with the reroll. Meanwhile, 10 witch elves aim long for the flank of the remaining trolls, make it on an 8, and routs the unit (again thanks to LD6 bubble from the general). Over his turn 5, he takes my BSB down to 1 remaining wound, and on my turn 6 I get my cold one master into his flank, and my knights into his front. I aim a purple sun through his unit which he dispels, and I then get doom and darkness up again. In the challenge, he inflicts 3 wounds on me (insisting on rolling very well to hit), but my BSB makes the demon save on his armor. I kill his lvl 4 with the knights, and of course wins combat. He is still steadfast, but this time double LD6 is not enough and I run him off the table for a 20-0 victory.

After 5 games, I am 5th place overall.
Some trivia about which race was probably given too free reign in the restrictions: top 3? All wood elves.

Game Six: Wood Elves

So for game 6, I played on the finals table. Number 1, at the time ahead by a massive 11 BP to number 2, had already played against and defeated number 2, 3 and 4... So I get to play the strongest WE in denmark. Which probably wouldn't have happened if not for the walkover in game 4, so thanks again for skipping the tournament, jackass. Anyways.

His list:
Lvl 4 high, scroll, mr(3)
Lvl 4 metal, moonstone
BSB, charmed shield, hail of doom arrow
11, 11 and 10 GG, trueflight
5 glade riders
7 wild riders, shields, flaming banner
7 wild riders, shields
5 wild riders, shields
5 sisters of the thorn
2 eagles
14 waywatchers

Absolute nightmare list. Good job with the restrictions, guys !eek!

Deployment goes okay. I make a gamble advancing my entire force to the centre where only one wild rider unit is covering the field. I dedicate all my firepower to it, but 3 wild riders still stand... After 9 dark riders, 5 shades and 3 RBTs all aim for them. They charge my dark riders, tie up 2 fliers which had joined them for the magic res, kill my lvl 4. All this I was ready to accept, if I had only killed him back - but out of 8 attack rolls on 4+, I manage only one hit... Which kills one wild rider, but still. Not cool. IF I had killed them, I would have gotten the king reform, and could have charged. Now, I am tied up in my own phase, where I of course kill the last wild rider allowing him a full shooting phase. On my next turn I try a 12" charge with my lord, but fail. In hindsight, I should have called for a full retreat at this point, and he mauls my units and heroes from a distance. In the end I only manage to salvage my dreadlord for a 1-19 defeat.

What a horrible matchup. Especially vs that list. What does WE struggle against... armor? Oh, take a lvl 4 metal. Issue solved. He is guaranteed to win any shooting duel, so he doesnt have to advance. And because wild riders will defeat literally anything if they get the charge, he can just hang back and create deadzones where I cant advance into. I honestly dont know what to do in a game like this. He said that maybe, if I had advanced with everything, and let the fliers all be isolated, I could have maybe gotten one into combat on my next turn... and be challenged off by the champion, rear charged by wild riders, and died. Given a slightly more closed-off table, I may have been able to hide just see how many points he could have shot from me, but my end of the table was completely open.
If I were to repeat the game, I would simply corner up, run away, and see how much he can shoot if he has to advance on me first. Probably would have kept a lot more points that way.

But man. Wood elves... Ugh. Everybody hates on the dark pegasus list, but this is worse :P his list and playstyle reminds me of the shade star version II. He doesnt need any melee characters in it, because wild riders are sicko strong. And he doesnt have to worry about being caught due to moonstone. And he shoots like a boss with hand of glory. I mean, bloody hell. He went through the weekend with a clean record, defeating two other wood elves on the way along with 2 warriors, me, and I forgot his last opponent.

Here's how brutal his wood elves are: he was against a warrior list, BOTH his wizards die to miscasts on his own turn 2, and he wins the game 11-9 :badh:







Anyways. I am completely satisfied with my performance this weekend. I play 3 very stable games, unfortunately sit over one game (which effectively counts as a win for me as my opponent of course saw it coming, and forfeited for fear of my name :burns:), get diceraped one game (still pretty mad about that, but what the hell can you do when literally every single dice roll goes to your opponent), and then also gets stomped by the overall winner. I cannot be upset about the last game - I could have lost less severely, but there is not really a scenario in which I beat him. His list is designed to win big, every game. It is strong in every phase, has very few weaknesses, and he plays it extraordinarily well. And the guy is 17 :twisted:
And, I beat the guy who came 2 overall, and I beat two players who where good enough to qualify to the finals. I am happy, and next year I'll tune my list even more. And hopefully, people will realise that if you restrict the good choices in an army, you are left with an army which will sometimes struggle.
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Amboadine
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 50-55: National Finals!

Post by Amboadine »

NIce round up, I can feel the pain radiating from the post regarding WE restrictions. Possibly this will be tuned a little more with these results.

Well done on the wins and seems you were unlucky in some losses.
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Thraundil
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 50-55: National Finals!

Post by Thraundil »

The one loss was definitely a case of dice falling his way. The other loss, well. I've gone over that WE matchup in my mind a few times, and I genuinely cant see a scenario in which I can pick up a victory.

I think everybody during the weekend, even the WE players, agreed that the race had not been given enough "love" in the comp pack. Not to take anything away from them: all 3 have been playing wood elves forever, and performed well in tournaments with the old army book. They are terrific players and great guys. But then give them a toptuned army and watch them wreck havoc. Especially the army list of the winner is on the same power level as the 4x pegasus + 2x warlocks list, which everybody has been crying about for a half year :P
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Gidean
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 50-55: National Finals!

Post by Gidean »

Your game three. He had

2x14 darkshards, one with flaming banner
3x5 dark riders, shields
4 RBT
Chariot
5 shades

Shooty elf versus shooty elf...game always goes to he who gets first turn. Not much you can do about it. Now your game 6 was an exception because he outranged you.
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Thraundil
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56: UB tournament Round One!

Post by Thraundil »

Wow! Thread necromancy, almost. I've not gotten around to write any battle reports lately - even though I have easily played close to 30 games of warhammer this year.

Here comes the first report in a while, then! Thraundil vs Knighted in the Druchii.net UB Tournament, 2015 edition. No comp, all armies allowed.

Army Lists

Thraundil -

Spellweaver: Lvl 4 wizard, High magic, moonstone of the hidden ways, power scroll, army general, 295 pts
Spellweaver: Lvl 4 wizard, lore of metal, dispel scroll, ironcurse icon, obsidian lodestone, 295 pts
Glade Captain: Battle Standard, Charmed Shield, Hail of Doom Arrow, 132 pts
14 Glade Guard: Trueflight Arrows, musician, banner of eternal flame, 240 pts
13 Glade Guard: Trueflight arrows, musician, 205 pts
13 Glade Guard: Trueflight arrows, musician, 205 pts
5 Sisters of the Thorn, 130 pts
7 Wild Riders, shields, gleaming pennant, 211 pts
7 Wild Riders, shields, standard, 206 pts
7 Wild Riders, shields, 206 pts
18 Waywatchers, champion, 370 pts

Total score: 2498 pts.

Knighted –

Dread Lord (G) Peg (50), HA+SDC+Lance (6, 8, 7), Cloak (50), C. Shi. (5), Dawn (25) 291
S. Sorceress LV4 Life, Steed (20), Power Stone (20), Ring of Hotek (50) 310
S. Sorceress LV4 Death, Steed (20), Dispel Scroll (25), Talisman of Protection (15) 280
Heroes 463
Master BSB BSB (25), Steed (10), HA+SDC+Shi. (4+6+2), Ogre Blade (40), Luckstone (5) 162
Master on Peg Peg (50), SDC+Shi.+Lance (6, 2, 6), Armor of Destiny (50) 184
Master on Steed Steed (10), HA+SDC+Halberd (4+6+2), OTS (15), Dragonhelm (10) 117
Core 640
8 Dark Riders Standard (10), Musician (10), RBX (3), Shields (1) 180
5 Dark Riders Standard (10), Musician (10), RBX (3), Shields (1) 120
5 Dark Riders Standard (10), Musician (10), RBX (3), Shields (1) 120
5 Dark Riders Musician (10), RBX (3), Shields (1) 110
5 Dark Riders Musician (10), RBX (3), Shields (1) 110
Special 80
5 Shades 80
Rare 310
12 Warlocks Champ (10) 310
5 Warlocks 125
2499


The map was revealed beforehand:
Image

The scenario: earn 4 battle points by having a unit with a rank and a banner, not engaged in close combat, on top of the hill at the end of the game. Earn 3 if the unit does not have a banner. If noone claims the objective, both players would get 2 battle points.

At a glance, this put me in a rather nice space advantage early on. His army is super mobile - but is limited by movement value. I would have no such concerns! I was thus confident i would be able to keep our of the most nasty of charge arcs: I expected him to keep his fliers inside of units due to the threat of metal magic and waywatcher no-armorsave shots. Thus, the major fear for me was 6-diced boosted doombolts (the big unit of warlocks would reach +3 to cast and being lvl 2, that means the spell would go off on a dice roll of 19 - below average!) along with the dwellers below from the lore of life wizard. My primary focus from the get go was thus to brutally murder a maximum number of warlocks as soon as possible. I would then have a comfortable shooting advantage, with the primary fear being dwellers. The big hill was, however, annoying for my lines of fire!

For spells, we both had near-perfect rolls. His lvl 4 death did not manage a D&D, but did end up with soulblight and tripple snipes. His lvl 4 life got flesh to stone, throne of vines, regrowth and dwellers.
My lvl 4 high rolled up soul quench, hand of glory, walk between worlds and arcane unforging (I also had a 6, but chose to swap it for signature, since his bus would have 2+ vs fiery.) My lvl 4 metal then rolled up plague of rust, enchanted blades of aiban, gehennas golden hounds and final transmutation. Perfect!

Deployment carried a hidden factor: we both had the same number of drops, so whomever started first essentially gets +1 for first turn too. I was so lucky, and I started putting fast cav down in forests for that nice soft cover bonus. He replied with his own fast cav drops all over the place, and I quickly realised that in order to give my glade guard at least some targets for their shooting, I would have to deploy them on both flanks thus giving my opponent the chance to simply leave alone the flank with more woods and more glade guard. And he did. One GG went left, two went right; the moment he saw the last GG go to the right, he put his big warlock bus far left. In fact, I questioned this a bit at the time since, if i wanted to, I could've chilled on the right side of the board and won a shooting game. But much more fun to go all-in! He placed all characters in the warlock bus, filling the front rank with the two pegasus guys - their footprints of course match with 50x50 mm bases ruled in this tournament.

I crucially won the roll to palce scouts first, and I placed the waywatchers in the rightmost forest - within 10" of my characters for an optional moonstone on turn one. Vanguards saw him mostly vacate the right flank, as I had expected.

I landed a 6 on the roll-off for first turn, and thus the game began.

The orange forest on the map is my wood elf forest. Since there were already 3 woods on the map, I opted to simply place it far into the corner to give me a safe place to hide OR a nice base of firepower, should he deploy on that side.

Turn 1

Wood Elves

Vanguards had put a few units close to the only WR unit I didnt vanguard - and so I declared the charges, prompting a few flee moves. One on a DR unit which would flee through 5 warlocks - its above the central hill after the flee move. The warlocks passed their panic though. I redirected his shades, who ran as well (costing him some shots), and I failcharged.

The screenshot below is after the failcharge. We missed to take one after my movement, and all diagrams are actually courtesy of Knighted since I completely missed to take screenshots :P

Image

The rest of my moves was on the right flank. Waywatchers angled a little, sisters darted past them toward the DR's in the backfield, and WR shifted towards the hill. Gladeguard moved forward 5" each to get in range for shooting, and all 3 characters went into waywatchers. I then moonstoned into the forest on the top left, electing to go all in early, and dictate the game.

The magic phase was an omen of things to come: 6+4 and, I think, no channels either side. 2-dice BS hand of glory was dispelled with 3 dice, as was enchanted blades. I had 6 to none, and toss all of them on a final transmutation - buying either his scroll, or terrible damage. I come up with double 6, and we both hold our breath as I toss 1d6 for each of his SIX characters into the warlock bus! ............ Nothing. The warlock champion even lived. But 6 warlocks died to the destructive, world altering magic. The miscast was a magical feedback: my metal mage was left unharmed, the high wizard took a wound and 1 sister of the thorn died. Good trade on my end!

For the shooting phase I wanted to eliminate the big lock unit to prevent regrowths. I blew hail of doom arrow, went double shot with WW's and 36 shots resulted in 24 hits and a mind numbing 19 wounds! He distributed all he could to his pegasus guys, but the warlocks all died. I then got greedy and fired 13 trueflight shots on the unit, giving me 11 hits knowing some hits would be on the wizards. None of the shots wounded at all, though.


Dark Elves

The dark elf force shifted. On the right, he made the questionable choice to charge my sisters with 4 DR's. Stand and shoot kills one, dangerous terrain kills one. The rest of his movement was repositioning his characters into the small unit of 5 warlocks - who where understandably reluctant to act as meat shield! We forgot about stupidity from the final transmutation - but he rolled them in hindsight and came up clean.

Here's the board after his movement:

Image

My rightmost glade guard was effectively out of the game.

For winds of magic he rolled a 5+1 and channeled one, which I did not manage to. Gambling a bit, a spirit leech on one dice on my high mage came up on a natural 6. I thought to myself "2d6 to dispel is average", and roll 1+2. This was a massive blunder: i should have spent at least 3 dice on this, since its my darned general and moonstone keeper. I then roll a 1 and he rolls a 6. And I fail every 4+ ward save. Okay then, bye with the high mage! He proceeds to cast caress on one dice, again landing on a natural 6! I toss my remaining dice on dispelling this. He then casts a dwellers, and I am forced to scroll it.

In the shooting phase his bottom side dark riders puts 5 wounds on my wild riders, of which I save 4. This omened well for my dice rolls for the rest of the game.

In close combat, my sisters kill both his two dark riders, losing I think one sister? Maybe not even that.


Turn 2

Wood Elves

Sorry, no diagram here! However if you look at the end of his turn 1: my WR behind the hill can spot the rear models of his 8 man DR unit, and declare the charge. A roll of more than 10 for his flee move would take him off the board, whilst a roll of less than 10 would mean I would have a chance of catching him. His roll? 10 :) and so i failcharge.

I manage to edge out of the charge arc of his big bus. With skirmisher marches, this is hard to prevent for him, and it was pretty close. Glade guard on the right respositions a bit, as does the wild riders on the left.

Winds of magic was a 2+2 with me channeling one. I promptly cast final transmutation and he uses his dispel scroll.

The shooting phase was not as brutal as last turn. I manage to only kill 3 warlocks. Now I was starting to feel the heat, as his next magic phase could be decisive.

Dark Elves

I have made an inaccuracy, and allowed his dark riders to see my leftmost glade guard in the flank. He declares the charge and I flee - staying, in a forest, with 5 DR in the flank, was a sure way to lose them. He instead redirects into the WR unit - who is also in the forest, thus not able to be steadfast. The other DR unit also charges the same WR, hoping to break me. Questionable choice since I believe my figthing stats are superior - I had placed the WR to allow the charge, should he take it. Both DR units make it in.

He again shuffles his big unit (he cant reform and move, so he had to move and wheel a lot!) to force me to keep moving the waywatchers. His fleeing stuff rallies. His 5 shades COULD actually have charged the flank of my waywatchers... And with some luck, broken them. But he opted to cast magic instead - the right call. His 8 man DR block rallies and moves to shoot sisters.

Winds of magic was a big phase, 6+5 or something of the sort. I dispel all his snipes (he rolls very high again, 5+6 on spirit leech forcing 4 dispel dice). Soulbight goes through, followed by 6 dice dwellers against which I have no dice. This was the game turning event: he rolls 6, and 5 1's. Bloody hell - he could have really hampered my game here, but instead he fails the cast.

Shooting managed very little. He puts 2 wounds on wild riders and I roll double 5 - for the 2nd time in the game. his 8 DR manage a nice amount of hits on my sisters, but he only gets 3 wounds in and I save either all of them, or I just lose one and pass the panic check.

In close combat, his dark riders roll very poorly and kill just one wild rider. In return, the wild riders murder 3 man from both DR units, forcing them to break and flee. One DR unit had a banner who dies, the other unit runs. I of course pursue and fail a dangerous terrain - but save it on the 6+. Mewp! Satisfied with WR performance so far. I had expected a few more casualties, but I fully expected to win the combat with such a volume of 3+ attacks.


Turn 3

Wood Elves

This diagram is the board after turn 2:

Image

The 5 WR's in the graveyard charge the 2 fleeing DR's whom they did not manage to catch last turn. They flee onwards - failing a dangerous terrain and losing one. WR redirect his shades, who chooses to hold. I lose a WR to dangerous terrain on the way in, but this I am fine with. Other moves sees me again squeeze just past the front arc of his bus with the waywatcher division. The hillside WR take position behind his bus, the leftmost unit moves in position to countercharge stuff. On the right, i finally have a shooting target! But I also move slightly with the GG, toward the centre so I have units in place for the objective: the hill.

Also. The leftmost glade guard do not rally, and leave the table.

Magic is big again. 6-4 with a channel for me and two for him. I cast enchanted blades with 2 and he uses 2 to succesfully dispel. I would personally have kept all dispel dice for the final trans. I cast plague of rust on the big unit which he lets through. I then cast final transmutation on 6 dice (rolling, I think, 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 5), he tries to dispel with 6 dice but falls short. The spell goes through, and kills his lvl 4 death wizard. Crucially, his lvl 4 life stays alive. No other characters die, but I believe three warlocks bite it.

Shooting sees me unleash multishots again, but again not as good of a roll as in turn one. I do manage to put a wound on his pegasus guy I believe, but after all is said and done, there is still a single warlock alive.
On the other side of the board, the trueflight archers hits almost all their shots on the 8 dark riders. The two survivors panic and flee.


Dark Elves

He shuffles his bus, and place 2 dark riders - all he has left aside the bus - in front of the central wild riders.

For magic he gets a decent roll, and IF's dwellers below. I hold my breath and roll it - lvl 4 metal: makes it! BSB: makes it! Waywatcher champion is not so lucky, nor is TEN of his comrades who bite the cold hard ground. After a passed panic check, the dark elf sorceress cascades and falls into the hole to add to a series of unlucky dice rolls for my opponent. Every remaining dark elf character suffers a wound from the unleashed energies.

Here is the board after his turn 3:

Image


Turn 4 and onwards

He is ready to concede, but asks if we can play it on to see if he can get at least a few points with some long charges. I agree to it, having pretty much just won the game with two characters surviving dwellers. I shuffle out of his arc, avoid charging the two DRs, and instead place wild riders to be able to charge almost anywhere he would go. I also place the depleted 4 WR unit as 'charge bait', forgetting that he could overrun off the table, hehe. My 13 glade guard unit (without a banner, doh!) march toward the hill whilst the 14 guys WITH the banner move to shoot the last two dark riders dead.

Magic sees me cast gehennas golden hounds. With nothing left to dispel with, he fails to stop it and his BSB dies. Anther plague of rust is added to his unit, and the waywatchers - depleted as they are, dont do much. The 2 last DR's are shot dead though.

In his turn 4, the pegasus master charges the 4 WR's but fail to make the 9. He lands in a forest and promptly suffers a wound from the dangerous terrain test. His remaining unit shuffles, tries a soulblight on waywatchers which i let through. Then a doombolt is cast and I dispel it.

My turn 5 consisted of charging his bus (which now really consisted of one warlock, a steed master and the cloak of twilight lord) in the flank with 7 wild riders. Also i shot the pegasus master with no armor save arrows and he dies. He boxcars a fear test, the wild riders brutally murder his dreadlord, the steeds go on to murder the warlock, and the remaining steed master boxcars his break test. We proverbially shake hands.



Aside from my two critical mistakes: allowing my high wizard to die, and allowing him to charge my glade guard off the board, I played a super tight game. On top of this, many many dice rolls went in my favour - and in a matchup where his only really scary tool is the dwellers below, this adds up to a big win. If he had cast that dwellers in turn 2, it could have looked very differently, which was the big moment where the dice gods was with me. The other rolls across the board where I often killed one more dark rider than I should have done just added to the feeling that I played this game in a blessed state. Knighted took it like a true sir, though, and we had a pleasant game which, for the first two turns at the very least, was super exciting on my end.
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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Amboadine
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Re: Thraundils battle log, game 50-55: National Finals!

Post by Amboadine »

Great match to watch and played in good spirits even after some insane rolls.
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Knighted
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Re: Thraundils battle log game 56: UB tournament Round One!

Post by Knighted »

Great report. Very fairly done. Thanks for the great game!
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T.D.
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Re: 56: UB tournament Round One!

Post by T.D. »

Thraundil wrote:
Thraundil -
Spellweaver: Lvl 4 wizard, High magic, moonstone of the hidden ways, power scroll, army general, 295 pts
Spellweaver: Lvl 4 wizard, lore of metal, dispel scroll, ironcurse icon, obsidian lodestone, 295 pts
Glade Captain: Battle Standard, Charmed Shield, Hail of Doom Arrow, 132 pts
14 Glade Guard: Trueflight Arrows, musician, banner of eternal flame, 240 pts
13 Glade Guard: Trueflight arrows, musician, 205 pts
13 Glade Guard: Trueflight arrows, musician, 205 pts
5 Sisters of the Thorn, 130 pts
7 Wild Riders, shields, gleaming pennant, 211 pts
7 Wild Riders, shields, standard, 206 pts
7 Wild Riders, shields, 206 pts
18 Waywatchers, champion, 370 pts


This list seems familiar. Like I've seen it somewhere before... !lol!

- Thanks for the great write ups. I usually mind image-free reports, but yours are quick, to-the-point and entertaining.

Very refined play on both sides ...and wow, what a filthy Dark Elf list from Knighted :twisted:
But he had his work cut out against your tourney-proven monstrosity :P

Very cool all around 8)
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Thraundil
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Re: 56: UB tournament Round One!

Post by Thraundil »

T.D. wrote:This list seems familiar. Like I've seen it somewhere before... !lol!


I am not beyond admitting I shamelessly stole it. I played against it from DE point of view two times so I figured: either I'll lose to DE and learn "what to do" from the opposite end of the board, and know some of the army's weaknesses... Or, I'll wreck face. Save-or-die spells are definitely the biggest threat here, especially with no look out, sir.

Where've you seen the list played? :P
Name: Ladry (female)
Class: Mage (Pyromancer)
Equipment: Staff, longsword, dagger, 20 gold, insignia ring.
Skills: Power of Aqshy (2), defensive figthing
WS4, S2, T3, D4, I6.
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T.D.
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Re: 56: UB tournament Round One!

Post by T.D. »

Thraundil wrote:Where've you seen the list played? :P


Vs you in the battle report at the top of the page :P

But seriously, I like your "if I cant beat them I'll join them" strategy; it will make you a better player and it will give (and has) your UB opponents a tough test!

I like the look of this L4 High/Metal Woodies approach, and wouldn't be above stealing this stolen list from you myself :mrgreen:
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