The King & Queen in the Woods vs The Lord & Lady of Death

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LadyLoec
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The King & Queen in the Woods vs The Lord & Lady of Death

Post by LadyLoec »

As the season neared it's end, Orion could feel his blood begin to slow. In these times of unending war, he had always died in battle, which was as it should be. Now the leaves had begun to fall, the Wild Hunt had begun the return journey to Athel Loren, but where usually he was borne wounded and dying to the Oak of Ages, this time he had remained unharmed. It was as if death was not ready for him yet, and the only thing worse than the inevitability of his imminent death was the thought that it might be in vain.

As this thought began to darken his mind, the skies above him turned unnaturally dark, and looking skyward he saw that the sky was blanketed with a writhing swarm of bats. His beautiful queen swooped down from the skies, her vast wings displacing hundreds of the screeching creatures. She gestured towards a clearing, where even at a great distance, two fearsome pairs of red eyes glowed in the darkness.

He smiled in greeting - it would appear death had come for him after all.


Battleline 3000pts

Vampire Counts:
Vlad von Carstein
Isabella von Carstein
Wight King BSB - War Banner
Necromancer (Lv2 Lore of Vampires) - Talisman of Protection, Master of the Dead
2 units of 5 dire wolves
40 Crypt Ghouls
28 Zombies - Musician and Standard
50 Skeletons - FC, spears
40 Grave Guard - great weapons
5 Hexwraiths
Mortis Engine
Terrorgheist

Wood Elves:
Ariel (using these rules)
Orion
Shadowdancer (Lv1) - Sword of Might
20 Glade Guard - Hagbane
20 Glade Guard - Arcane Bodkins
10 Dryads
29 Wildwood Rangers - FC, Standard of Discipline
7 Wardancers
7 Waywatchers
8 Wild Riders, Standard - Banner of Swiftness
8 Sisters of the Thorn - Standard, Lichebone Pennant

Pre-Game:
We roll Watchtower, but opt for Battleline instead as we couldn't see royalty squabbling over a building.

We roll the maximum amount of scenery. One table side has an Altar of Khaine, a Magic Circle, and 2 forests. The other has 2 buildings, a river, and a wall. Centre of the board has a forest and a Nehekharan Sphinx.

Spells:
Ariel is Loremaster (Life). Can't remember what spell I rolled for my Shadowdancer, but it wasn't Okkams, so I switch for Miasma.
He gets Invocation, Van Hels, and Raise Dead on Vlad. Necromancer gets Invocation and Raise Dead. Isabella has Gaze of Nagash.

Deployment:
He chooses the side with the 2 forests to deny me access. I place my free wood between the river and the wall.

I deploy my 2 archer units in the buildings, Rangers between the buildings, Wardancers in front of one building, and Orion and Ariel behind. The dryads go down in the river (which turns out to be a boiling flood, eurgh) opposite his Hexwraiths, with the two units of fast cav on the flanks (Sisters on the left, Riders on the right). My Waywatchers enter at his right flank, behind the Altar of Khaine.

Vanguard: I move my riders and the sisters up. He puts one unit of the wolves facing the scouts, and moved the other unit forwards a little.

Wood Elves Turn 1
Movement
Wardancers and Wildwood Rangers marched up, Orion keeping pace behind.
Wild Riders moved between Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths
Dryads moved out of the boiling flood
Sisters of the Thorn and Waywatchers moved up
Waywatchers move up to within half range of the Mortis Engine
Ariel moved into the forest and teleported to the forest behind the vampire line, hoping to get Dwellers Below on the character bunker

Magic
I roll a 1 and a 2 for the winds of magic, and fail to channel. With a +5 to cast from being in a forest, I give Dwellers a shot, but fail.

Shooting
Orion kills 3 Hexwraiths, Sisters kill 2 Dire Wolves, Glade Guard are out of range of anything good, so knock off 3 Skeletons and 3 Ghouls

No combat

Vampires Turn 1
Movement
Dire Wolves charge Dryads. (I didn't clock that he'd vanguarded until I started writing up the battle post-game, so this was illegal). We argue a little over whether the sphinx was impassable or not, and dice it. Irritatingly, he gets his way and they're in my flank.
Dire Wolves charge the sisters
Hexwraiths soul stride over the Wild Riders, killing 1
Terrorgheist moves to face Ariel
Zombies reform to try and block Waywatchers
Everything else shambles forwards

Magic
He gets 11 dice to my 6, but I channel 2!
Curse of Years kills three Wild Riders
Necromancer miscasts on Raise Dead for 11 Zombies, which he puts in front of the rangers. He then explodes in a small blast, wounding himself and killing about 10 skeletons I think.

Shooting
This was pivotal. I rather stupidly didn't think the Terrorgheist scream was magical, but it is... Terrorgheist screams at Ariel, doing 3 wounds

Combat
Dire Wolves die before getting to attack the sisters
Dire Wolves kill the Dryads and overrun. No casualties to them because I fluffed my to hit rolls.

Wood Elves Turn 2
Movement
Wildwood Rangers charge the Zombies (if they can't mince 11 in a turn, they deserve to die)
Sisters charge the flank of the Skeleton unit
Wild Riders charge the Dire Wolves
Waywatchers are within 6" of the Altar of Khaine and fail their frenzy check! They charge the Zombies
Orion moves into the gap between the Wardancers and the Rangers

Magic
Another really low phase: 4 dice to 2. He channels one, so 4 to 3. I need to get some wounds back on Ariel, so I cast flesh to stone on the sisters. He dispels with his 3 dice. I then use the remaining 2 for awakening the wood on the Terrorgheist, and roll snake eyes!
1 Wild Rider falls to curse of years.

Shooting
Glade guard all shoot at the Mortis Engine, leaving it with 1 wound left
Orion shot the Ghouls, but failed to wound despite being obscenely high strength

Combat
Sisters and mounts kill 8 or so Skeletons, to one wound in return. We win combat by 5, so 4 crumble (because of BSB within 12"). He then passes his leadership check on a 4 to reform.
Wildwood Rangers kill the Zombies and reform to face the forest
Waywatchers kill a healthy number of Zombies, losing 1 to the retaliation attacks.
Dire Wolves are massacred, but the wild riders overrun, exposing their flank to the ghouls.

Vampires Turn 2
Movement
Ghouls charge Wild Riders
Terrorgheist flew into the forest, facing Ariel
Forwards for everyone else

Magic
Invocation of Nehek gets some Ghouls back and Mortis Engine up to 2 wounds, healing the 1 wound back on the Necromancer. Skeletons get Vanhels, putting the engine at 3 wounds, and I dispel a bigger Invocation.
Curse of Years doesn't wound any wild riders.

Shooting
Terrorgheist scream kills Ariel!

Combat
Wild riders lose combat and flee.
Skeletons kill all but one Sister, who flees
Waywatchers kill more Zombies, losing one of their number before combat resolution crumbles the rest.

Wood Elves Turn 3
Movement
Rangers and Orion charge in to avenge their fallen queen. Wardancers charge the Ghouls to soften them up.

Magic
With Ariel dead and my secondary caster fleeing, he dispels an attempt at Miasma, and I use the rest of my dice to dispel curse of years.

Shooting
Despite pouring everything in, I only do 1 wound to the Mortis Engine. It has 2 left.

Combat
Rangers and Orion do 5 wounds to the Terrorgheist, Orion takes 1 wound and Rangers take 5 from thunderstomp. It crumbles, and we overrun into the skeletons. Orion only goes forward 3”, so doesn’t make it.
Wardancers kill 11 ghouls, but all but one die to return attacks. Despite this, the wardancers win combat by a small margin, so hold the ghouls up.

Vampires Turn 3
Movement
Mortis Engine charges Orion. Stand and shoot kills it, resulting explosion doing 2d6 strength 3 hits to everything (friend or foe) within 15”. This kills the remaining Wardancer, a Skeleton, 3 Grave Guard, some Ghouls, and all but one Waywatcher (who panics and flees). Orion doesn't take any wounds thanks to 5++ and MR2.

Magic
Invocation gets some Ghouls back. I dispel Curse of Years on the Rangers.

No shooting

Combat
Rangers massacre the Skellies (4 attacks apiece from Orion's devastating charge effect, Skellies being fear-causing, and being within 6" of the Altar of Khaine!). They overrun into the flank of the Grave Guard, still within 6" of Orion, so retaining devastating charge.

Wood Elves Turn 4
Movement
Orion charges the Ghouls (fluff-wise, I didn't think he would restrain having seen Ariel fall).
Riders, Sister, and Waywatcher all run off the board.

Magic
I miscast Miasma on the Grave Guard unit, doing a strength 6 hit to my Shadowdancer. I reduce their WS by 3.

Shooting
I kill the remaining 2 Hexwraiths. Everything else is in combat.

Combat
Orion Kills all bar 10 Ghouls for one wound in return.
Vlad challenges, and I accept with my unit champion. Shadowdancer kills Isabella, but dies herself. Rangers lose 4 of their number, but kill significantly more. They only lose by 1 because of the overkill from Vlad and the War Banner BSB. He fails his leadership test to reform, and concedes there, as he feels that even if he managed to survive the ranger combat and kill Orion, he wouldn't survive the shooting from the 2 buildings with what remained of his units.

Wood Elf Victory

Orion watched as the army before him floated away like ashes on the breeze, the wild-eyed Lordling and the corpse of his beloved nowhere to be seen. He had no doubt that the vile creature would raise the female again in the same deformed caricature of life.

Life... his queen had exuded the purest form of it from every pore, and now that the battle was ended, to see her lie still quieted even his undying rage. It was supposed to have been him. And yet, he fancied the forest floor where she fell was more full and lush than that which surrounded it. There was still hope.

The way a clumsy child might pick a delicate flower, the living embodiment of war and rage took Ariel's body with surprising tenderness and care through the hidden paths to the Oak of Ages. Winter was almost upon them, and they would endure it as they always had: Together.


Post-game thoughts:

I made two big mistakes early on which cost me dearly. The first was with Ariel, basically giving away 400pts and my only real mage. I was fixated on getting Dwellers on the Grave Guard, which would've given me a shot at the BSB, Vlad and Isabella all in one go, and seemed too tempting to pass up. However, 2 low magic phases and a snake eyes roll for a 6+ spell just did her in. So much for my talk of using her cautiously...

The second was allowing the turn 1 charge after he'd vanguarded the Dire Wolves. I got so wrapped up in arguing whether the sphinx was impassable or not (still think it should be), that I didn't even notice the charge wasn't legal in the first place. D'oh. A 10-man unit of dryads would've come in handy!

Orion pleasantly surprised me - devastating charge is huge for rangers and Wardancers - but he is so fragile, he's literally only useful out of combat, which really makes him a walking contradiction. We knew all this before, of course, but it only really hits home once you actually get him on the table.

I took the Wild Riders and Sisters because I felt any army containing Orion and Ariel should have them. However, the Riders don't benefit from Orion, and I'd rather have Wyssans than Curse/Shield in a combat force, so I would rather have had another unit of Wardancers and a Beasts Singer than the fast cav. Alas, I'm a sucker for fluff, so the Sisters and Riders stay, but if I ever want to field a Wardancer-heavy list, Orion is definitely tagging along!

My model for Ariel only arrived on Saturday, so unfortunately only managed to get her built, not painted. Will definitely give the royal couple another outing in the future though, so will have her painted for that!
Etheneus
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Re: The King & Queen in the Woods vs The Lord & Lady of Deat

Post by Etheneus »

The direwolf charge seems legal to me, I agree on the impassable sphinx, but a vanguard move only forbid you from charging if you have the first turn. So you were not allowed but he was since he was going second. That's why I almost always vanguard my wild riders if only an inch because than I don't need to do the frenzy test if I go first.

I really enjoy your reports and the fluff you put behind them is inspiring.
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Mollesvinet
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Re: The King & Queen in the Woods vs The Lord & Lady of Deat

Post by Mollesvinet »

Etheneus already pointed out the vanguarding business. I agree with both of you that a sphinx should be impassable terrain, its a huge freaking statue after all.

It was too bad that Ariel got taken down by the screaming, but had you been aware that it was magical you would probably have taken more care.

I loved the turbocharged rangers, 4 attacks each! Ouch. I do agree with your assessment that wild riders does not gain as much from Orion, but maybe they are still useful on the flanks and ranger and sisters or dryads near Orion.

Wyssans wild form is very good, especially as you already have a lot of spells. Curse is better in low magic armies I feel, as it can be used both inside and outside of combat.

Even with the sphinx shenanigans and losing Ariel you still took the victory, so well played to you. Looking forward for the next game as well.
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LadyLoec
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Re: The King & Queen in the Woods vs The Lord & Lady of Deat

Post by LadyLoec »

Ah, never knew that RE: Vanguard, but then I'm normally lining up for later charges T1, or getting behind the lines, so the situation wouldn't come up much. Thanks for the feedback. The rangers were absolutely incredible - I only got to attack with 15 or so of the horde and the skellies were already wiped out! I should have 3++ danced with the wardancers, rather than going for max output, but you live and learn.
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Re: The King & Queen in the Woods vs The Lord & Lady of Deat

Post by Gwill_of_the_Woods »

Well done, even though it sounds like the Dice Gods were against you.

I love the fluff. I'm such a sucker for that escapism and immersion. I like to "be there". Haha!

Yeah, its kind of funny how Orion's buddies don't benefit from his rule, but I guess it's nice that they have that rule independently. I used to like keeping him close to my Wild Wood Rangers and Waywatchers.

I was all about the Hagbane Arrows too. I never used to take the Arcane Bodkins. For me they never seemed worth it. But I guess I was facing Monsters and high toughness over armour.

Shadow Dancer with the Ruby ring was a favourite of mine.

Past tense as we've been using AoS rules.
Long live the King in the Woods!!!
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