Mollesvinet - 2016-06-27 - Call to War 2016 List

[Mollesvinet]

Pre-game
This game was against Adam and his lizardmen. This would turn out to be the most wacky game of them all! His list was as follows:

Slann – level 4 light, d3 magic res, 3 channels, ?
Old-blood – cold-one, piranha blade, 1+ rerollable
Old-blood – cold-one, great weapon, armour of destiny, other tricksters shard
Old-blood - cold-one, great weapon, ?
Skink priest – level 1 heavens, dispel scroll
25 skinks and 3 kroxigors – command?
25 skinks and 3 kroxigors – command?
30 temple guard – full command, movement banner
3x5 chameleon skinks

Spells:
Slann – shems, banishment, light of battle and net
Skink – comet
Druid – Spear, curse of anreheir, wys and savage beast
Diviner – comet, chain lightning, blizzard and curse of midnight

I was very happy that he didn’t get speed of light or timewarp, that was a huge bonus. I really wanted curse of anreheir for the TG, which meant that spear was more useful for some reason even if there wasn’t any good targets for it. On to deployment: 


Deployment
The middle forest is my venom-thicket. There are 2 buildings, 2 hills, a wall and a pond. His deployment was so quick, just 4 drops including characters. The skinks behind the hills were out of line of sight of WR2. I put down my scouts on the left to make sure his chameleons couldn’t get on my side. He gets +1 to go first and takes first turn! 


Lizardmen Turn 1
Movement: Everything moves forwards!

Magic: 7+1v4 – I dispel banishment on my waywatchers and to his surprise I let him have comet. I was considering the scroll but opted not to use it.

Shooting: My eagle takes 2 wounds from posion and lives. WR2 shrugs off the poisonous darts.


Wood Elves Turn 1
Movement: I charge WR2 into his skinks, they flee but I catch them. The eagle charges the skinks as they can’t stand and shoot, hoping to overrun into the other skinks. This is a mistake, i should have saved the eagle for a redirect and just shot the skinks. WR1 moves into position to help out the eternal guard, who in turn occupy the venom-thicket. The glade guard enter the building in an attempt to avoid the comet.

Magic: 8v5 – the comet strikes, killing just 2 eternal guard due to magic resistance and 5 glade guard. I cast my own comet in front of his temple guard, but miscast and do a small explosion. I only roll one hit, so just the mage takes a wound.

Shooting:For some reason I shoot off some temple guard and I even forgot to fire my glade guard at all. Should have shot the chameleon skinks!

Combat: The eagle kills two skinks but dies in return. 


Lizardmen Turn 2
Movement: Another forward move. He tries to box in my WR1 with skinks and pinning my waywatchers with skinks and kroxigors.

Magic: 8+1v5 – He casts banishment on WR2 with 3 dice but roll pretty low, so I attempt to dispel with 3 dice as well but roll even lower! This takes out my wild riders, and it was very stupid of me as I was hoping to get wild riders into each flank of the TG at some point. He casts net on my glade guard that I don’t dispel, and finally he casts another comet that I fail to dispel. He puts the marker in the building which I am not sure is allowed, but that is how it was.

Shooting: Skinks fail to do anything.


Wood Elves Turn 2
Movement: Waywatchers move out of the charge arc of the skinks and kroxies. Wild riders shuffle a bit to keep distance to the other skink and kroxies.

Magic:6+1v5 – First of all my comet strikes, killing 5 temple guard (slann rolled MR1). This magic phase I play very poorly. I want to draw out dispel dice so that I can cast curse of anraheir, but I do so with a comet that he lets go. The position of the comet is also stupid, as we will see later. I then cast savage beast on a shadowdancer, but it fails to go off as I roll 3 on two dice. Rest is dispelled.

Shooting: The glade guard take out the top 5 chameleon skinks and the bottom waywatchers just manage to kill the remaining 3 skinks in front of the wild riders.


Lizardmen Turn 3
Movement: The temple guard make their charge, and he barely loses anything to dangerous terrain. The slann actually roll a 1, but gets to reroll due to palanquin. The skinks to the left swift reform to pin my waywatchers on the hill (they actually move even closer) and the other skinks move up.

Magic: 6v3 - My comet fail to strike but his comes down and kills 5GG, 3EG and 3TG (MR2). He casts banishment through the skink priest on WR1 and I scroll it, having learnt my bitter lesson. Rest is dispelled.

Shooting: Two waywatchers die to skink shooting, didn’t even know they could shoot.

Combat:I mess up this combat. He challenges with his champ, and I ask whether challenges are before make way or not. We misunderstand each other, and I think the old-bloods won’t move so I accept with my own champion. He then wants to make way (even displacing the slann which I am not sure is allowed), and instead of making a debate I let him do it and also don’t ask to change the challenge. Should have accepted with my mage to keep her safe. He manages to kill a bunch of EG and my mage (he did 5 wounds, I save 4 but have to reroll because of other tricksters shard). I actually manage a wound on an old-blood with rerollable 1 armour, so that was impressive. Also kill some TG. I lose but don’t break and he reforms to be wider to avoid some wild riders. 


Wood Elves Turn 3
Movement: Now I see the folly of my comet placement, as when I charge with WR2 they end up just in the blast zone. My waywatchers fail their march test and can’t evade the skinks. Instead I move away so that I can stand and shoot at least. The diviner leaves the building, having learnt her lesson from the skaven game.

Magic: 6v4+2 – my comet comes down (of course), killing skinks, a lot of TG and all my wild riders. Now that I don’t have my druid, I basically just have blizzard, curse of midnight and comet. I start with comet on 3 dice but gets IF, a dimensional cascade kills all but 3 GG and leaves my mage at 1 wound remaining. I put the counter right on the battle, as I am expecting to lose and want to wipe out some characters and the remaining TG.
Shooting: Shoot some skinks and kroxies.

Combat: Combat gets ugly! I challenge with the shadowdancer (who still forgot his potion of strength) and tell him that I use my killing blow dance. Surprisingly he accepts with his Slaan! I score 3 hits (and a poison) and roll a single 6 to wound, he fails his ward and the slann bites the bullet! The old-bloods go mad though, and the only other survivor is a single eternal guard. I pass my break test. 


Lizardmen Turn 4
Movement: I use my potion of strength. Skinks charge my waywatchers, I kill some on stand and shoot.

Magic:My comet doesn’t strike and I dispel his attempt to cast a comet of his own.

Combat: I challenge again, and he accepts with an old-blood. I use the extra attacks dance and do about 4 wounds, he fails all armour and 3 ward saves! My eternal guard dies, but now the temple guard are not stubborn and they break! I pursue with my shadowdancer, but fail to catch them. They flee through the building though, which sucks. 


Wood Elves Turn 4
Movement: I march the shadowdancer up so that he can charge the TG off the board if they don’t quite run off, or charge them if they rally and hope for a miracle. Every living archer takes aim at skinks in the middle.

Magic: I don’t cast any spells in fear of miscast. I won’t cast any from now on. The comet strikes but doesn’t hit anyone, so I forgot to add it to the diagram.

Shooting: Kill a bunch of skinks.


Lizardmen Turn 5
Movement: The TG fails to roll the double 1, even with cold-blooded, and runs off. Skinks move away from my main archery force.

Magic: I dispel comet.


Wood Elves Turn 5
Movement: I hide my shadowdancer and moves archers closer to his skinks.

Shooting: shoot some more skinks.


Lizardmen Turn 6
Movement: I don’t think he charges, probably don’t want me to stand and shoot.

Magic: I dispel comet.


Wood Elves Turn 6
Movement: Move archers.

Shooting:I get two hits on his skink priest, but only one wounds.

In the end I got 1999 points and he got 1405, but since he was broken and I wasn’t it ended up 17-3.
 
Post-game
Alright, that was a crazy game. Dozens of comets. A shadowdancer named Rambo taking care of 3 old-bloods, a slann and a unit of temple guard... I did so many mistakes in the beginning of the game, that I thought I would lose 20-0 for sure. His main mistake was the challenges, he should never have accepted with his slann against killing blow and in the second challenge he could have just declined. I would still have killed an old blood but I would have died hideously in return.

In the end I gave him my best sports, he took the huge swing in the battle really well.

Thanks for reading all these tournament reports, it was a pleasure to write play and write them. Also a thanks to all my opponents, let me know if I was being unjust. Comments and questions always welcome. I only took a single picture from this game, but I added a few pictures of others elves at the event.

Pictures
The Druid and The diviner face the lizardmen
The wild hunt is on! Another wood elves player with 24 wild riders
The Dark Elf hordes (on the tray of teleportation)
High Elves from the frozen wastes

Coming up
This weekend I won’t play, but next weekend I will have an interesting game. Two of my friends are training for a double tournament and asked me to be their opponent for training. I will borrow one of their dwarf armies, so it will be 1300 points of dwarves and 1300 points of wood elves for me. They will probably play empire and orcs.

[Phil Rossiter]

That was indeed a bonkers game!

Your opponent's spells looked pretty helpful to me Thomas, albeit not frightening. Comet was obviously a good roll on his part and the missiles are good vs elves. I can see what you mean about the spells he didn't get though. Surprising to see such a combat-focused list!

Presumably you felt you should have scrolled the Banishment on the first WR's? It's a difficult call but on a low roll I don't think going for the dice was such a bad call. At some point the scroll is going to be very useful anyway and he was lucky to kill all the Riders. Yeah, hard to believe he accepted the challenge with the Slann!

I was wondering how many WE players would go berserk on Wild Riders, considering the shooting restrictions!

[Mollesvinet]

I wouldn't have used scroll, but I should have used more dice to dispel the first banishment instead of aiming for average. I used 3 out of 5 dice, but the last 2 dice wasn't enough anyway.

[NonnoSte]

Ehy Mollesvinet,
great games and awesome writeups!
Thanks for all of this work.

I'm sorry I can't post and comment more regularly, but I'm almost without PC due to a complete lack of time in RL and I'm late on too many things that can't be done on the phone.

I just wanted you to know I'm following eagerly all the D&D deeds and I'm really liking how this army plays out.
So far, it's probably one of the best balanced army I've seen around here on the forum.
Beast + Heavens is something I would definitely want try out as soon as possible, but I have too much things to do and too little time to do them. For now I'll make do with enjoying your battles with a bit of envy.

A quick note and a couple of questions on the tournament.
I've noticed you looked almost impatient to engage with your EG. Was it due to limited time in the matches or for fear of excessive ranged attentions from enemy shooters?
How much have you felt the tiredness influencing your last games? (I know all too well the effects of 4h nights before long days of brain activities)

[Aezeal]

Not sure he deserved your best sports thingie: as you describe it he did a few questionable things really. Seems like you where a much better sport than he was.

When I looked at the last picture I saw only a few small blue points and some huge blocks of red I thought you'd have lost the game.. but you had 1900 vs 1400 points nice.

[Mollesvinet]

So far, it's probably one of the best balanced army I've seen around here on the forum.
Beast + Heavens is something I would definitely want try out as soon as possible, but I have too much things to do and too little time to do them. For now I'll make do with enjoying your battles with a bit of envy.

Hi NonnoSte, thanks for all your compliments. The only thing unbalanced in this army is all the characters in one unit. I played with a ranger + lifeweaver army, and only needing a single character in a unit not only makes it easier to play but also safer against many things.

A quick note and a couple of questions on the tournament.
I've noticed you looked almost impatient to engage with your EG. Was it due to limited time in the matches or for fear of excessive ranged attentions from enemy shooters?
How much have you felt the tiredness influencing your last games? (I know all too well the effects of 4h nights before long days of brain activities)

Not sure if impatient is the right word (but maybe!). Often I needed to get within 24" of something to cast amber spear, which meant moving up the EG. Other times close combat is simply safer, for example against the empire who had dwellers and 500 magic missiles. A single dwellers could potentially ruin that game, so I moved up and braced for impact.

Tiredness was only a real problem in game 3 against skaven, especially with all the chaos going on around us at the same time. Had I removed the glade guard and heaven mage from the building I could have gotten at least a draw. Another thing in this battle was playing against unknown enemy models. As Sun Tzu says:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

Not sure he deserved your best sports thingie: as you describe it he did a few questionable things really. Seems like you where a much better sport than he was.

When I looked at the last picture I saw only a few small blue points and some huge blocks of red I thought you'd have lost the game.. but you had 1900 vs 1400 points nice.

My first idea was giving the best sports to the warriors, I suppose I could have gone along with that (altough bringing 2 nurgle DP is a bit mean!). Killing the Slann netted me around 900 points (600 for slann and 300 for objectives), it was crazy! Basically my 2GG and heavens mage is saving 600 points plus objectives, that is why I wasn't casting anymore spells.

[Mollesvinet]

Pre-Game
So because on the thread about wildwood rangers in horde formation I thought I would try it out. The thread can be found here:

WWR horde thread

Previously I found that a close combat life mage goes really well with these guys, as survivability is what they lack the most. I wanted to combine that with another lore, and decided that dark would have quite a lot of synergies. Word of pain is excellent for the wildwood rangers, as it not only reduces opponents chances to wound but potentially also to hit. Combined with earthblood and stoneskin I would have 3 defensive spells, which is the closest to a guaranteed spell you can have. Word of pain also works well offensively, as it reduces both strength and initiative. This means that both dwellers and bladewind becomes deadly! I put dark mage in the unit as well because of power of darkness, but after the game I think the dark mage is better of with doom bolt and staying out of combat. The list:

Spellweaver - level 4 life, talisman of 5++, dispel scroll, crown of command
Spellweaver - level 4 dark, talisman of 4++, earthing rod
Shadowdancer - potion of strength
12 glade guard – musician, trueshot arrows
10 glade guard – musician, trueshot arrows
10 glade guard – musician, trueshot arrows
6 wild riders – standard, banner of eternal flames, shields
30 wildwood rangers – full command, gleaming pennant
5 waywatchers
6 waywatchers

My opponent was the manager of the Kensington games-workshop. He played empire, mainly based around a horde of halberdiers with support:

Mage Lord – level 4 light, ??
Combat Lord – 1++, ???
BSB - ??
Mage hero – Level 1 beast, dispel scroll
40 halberdiers – full command, razor standard
20 swordsmen
2x10 archer detachments
2 cannons
1 hellblaster
Hurricanum
4 demigryphs

Spells
Dark – power of darkness, word of pain, bladewind and shroud
Life – Earthblood, throne, dwellers, flesh to stone
Light – timewarp, speed of light, banishment, phas
Beast – wyssan

I had a hard time to pick spells, especially whether I should pick soulsteal, bladewind or doombolt. As mentioned before, I think a dark mage outside the unit would be better so that I don’t need to worry about power of darkness. Now on to deployment.
 


Deployment
So we have three buildings, one on a big hill. There is an impassable statue in the middle as well. Sadly there was already a forest in the middle, so my fear-wood is the one right in front of my rangers. The other two woods are normal woods. I didn’t really know what was in his army before we finished deploying (customers keeping my opponent busy), otherwise I would probably have put my forest further back and let him come to me. Other than that deployment is pretty straight forward and i vanguard my wild riders but make sure they are out of range for the hellblaster. I got the +1 to go first but he stole first turn anyway. 


Empire Turn 1
Movement: Archers man the ramparts. All other units move forward. I think the swordmen were actually on the left of the hellblaster, but it matters little.

Magic: 5+2v4 – I let him cast timewarp on the halberdiers and dispel banishment on GG2 with dice.

Shooting: The first cannon takes out 3 wildwood rangers. Second cannon hit my lifeweaver and I fail my look-out-sir. I roll 3 on my wardsave and she gets taken off. Bad start. His archers fail to wound anyone.


Wood Elves Turn 1
Movement: Wild riders charge the building, but fails to roll 9 on swiftstride. At least they took no damage from stand and shoot. My wildwood rangers move out of the demigryphs charge-arc. All my archers shuffle around for the best positions.

Magic: 8v6 – He dispels a big word of pain and scrolls bladewind. I do get power of darkness and luckily don’t roll 3 for dice generated.

Shooting: GG1 and GG2 kill the hellblaster, saving the wild riders. GG3 kills 6 archers in the building and they flee. The waywatchers take of a demigryph.


Empire Turn 2
Movement: The halberdiers charge my rangers, but fail even with their double movement. Demigryphs charge GG3 and I flee, he didn’t redirect, fearing the stand and shoot from waywatchers, so they fail their charge. Hurricanum and swordmen move up and the four archers rally.

Magic: 8+3v5 – I let him have timewarp but fail to roll 7 on 3 dice to dispel speed of (making him almost immune to bladewind). He casts banishment on my glade guard, but only get 2 hits (both wound though). Lucky! He also fails to cast wyssan on his last 2 dice.

Shooting: The cannons have used up their mojo and both explode. Lucky again!


Wood Elves Turn 2
Movement: Wild riders charge the swordmen who flee, I redirect into the archers and lose 1 rider to stand and shoo. I move up my wildwood rangers to get in range for shroud of corruption, would probably have been smarter to stay back! One unit of waywatchers move up as they can get out of the charge arc of the gryphs.

Magic: 10v6 – I use two dice on power of darkness. Roll double 6. A small explosion takes out 5 rangers and 5 power dice, but get 2 power dice back. I cast a big word of pain on the halberdiers with the remaining 5 dice, but he just manage to dispel it!

Shooting: The waywathcers do around 4 wounds to the demigryphs and the remaining two models flee in panic. Rest of my shooting goes at the hurricanum, but I fail to roll a single 6 to wound.

Combat: Wild riders dismount and kill 6 archers with no casualties in return, the archers run away. 


Empire Turn 3
Movement: Halberdiers charge my wildwood rangers and make it this time. Archers and swordmen on the left rally. Archers on the right enter the building again and the hurricanum moves up (he forgot to charge it).

Magic: 10+1v6 – I dispel pha and give him timewarp as he rolls really high. I dispel speed of light to make sure he doesn’t get rerolls (forgot he had hatred) nad he gets hammer of sigmar on IF although I have no dice left anyway.

Shooting: Empire archers do not impress wood elves.

Combat: I forgot he had hatred, and thus he has rerolls on both to hit and to wound rolls. He challenges with his lord and I accept with the shadowdancer. I forgot the potion, so I did the ward save dance to stall. I didn’t roll any 6’s to wound, so glad I didn’t do the killing blow dance but he saves all damage. He does 3 wounds to me and I fail all 3 ward saves... The halberdiers then proceed to kill the wildwood rangers to a man, leaving only the mage. She is stubborn in a wood though, so she stays around. 


Wood Elves Turn 3
Movement: Did some random moves here, but it didn’t matter as we were out of time and this would be the last turn.

Magic: 9v5 – I manage to cast word of pain (little to late, but still) and reduce his stats by 3. He dispels bladestorm on the swordmen.

Shooting: Fail to kill the demigryphs, may have killed some archers.

Combat: The mage survives and doesn’t break. Having people roll 6’s to wound elves feels good.

 
Post-game
In the end I lost around 600 points plus general and a banner. I took out his warmachines for almost 400 points. It was just a matter of time before my mage would have died though, giving him another 300. I could probably have killed his demigryphs and archers, but I would not be able to lay a hand on his big bunker at this point. The wild riders may or may not have been able to deal with the swordsmen, or at least the mage therein. Question would be how long time I had to shoot before he catches me or banishes me.

It was a good game, although it was horribly unlucky to lose my life mage in the first turn. After she died, I should probably have tried to make distance between the halberdiers and wildwood rangers until I had the chance to shoot some of the off to even the odds. I was dying to see what the horde could (and couldn’t) do, so I went for it anyway.

The combo of Dark and Life is really nice. If the enemy does not have hordes, then bladewind can be changed for doombolt and dwellers for regrowth. I am not really convinced by power of darkness, inflicting wounds on your own mage seems like a bad idea. Without it though, there aren’t really any way to improve the damage of the rangers. Not losing models does help on the final break test, and shroud of corruption can really increase the chance of your opponent breaking.

The wildwood rangers didn’t do anything this game, but it wasn’t really their fault. Yes they were against a super buffed unit, but without defensive boosts they are going to lose a lot of bodies to just about anything. I like the idea of this list and may try it out again with some tweaks. Also, I just made it from the reserve list into the player list in the ill blood III – unbroken tournament in the end of june, so maybe this kind of list can make it there. If you guys have suggestions for other kinds of lists, then I am all ears.


Pictures
The Empire and their fearsome general!
The right flank
The wildwood rangers stand their ground
The grim outcome

[Aezeal]

I agree you can't blame the WWR for the loss of that battle.. magic was against you. Loosing the life mage is nasty (proves my point about warmachines being nasty from another topic though - Phil). Seems a nice idea to get a rematch vs this army, could be interesting.

[Mollesvinet]

Pre-game
So I had prepared a dwarf and a wood elves list to help my buddies train for their doubles tournament. When I showed up it turned out that we had a communication breakdown, so another guy had also shown up with two armies to play against them. In the end we took one of our armies each and formed an alliance, wood elves and ogres (he also had vampires, but would have been an untrustworthy alliance). This meant that the armies on our sides were not really designed to work together, for example, none of us had a scroll of dispel. Our lists were as follows:

Wood Elves Vanguard
Spellweaver – level 4 dark, earthing rod, talismand of preservation
Glade Captain – BSB, Hail of Doom Arrow
10 Glade Guard – musician, trueshot arrows
11 Glade Guard – musician, trueshot arrows
9 wild riders – banner, lichebone pennant, shields
6 wild riders – banner, banner of eternal flame, shields
Great Eagle

Ogre Punishers
Butcher – level 4 great maw, Hellheart, ???
BSB – Banner of redirect spells
9 Ironguts – full command, great weapons
3 mournfang cavalry – banner, dragonhide banner
2 sabretusks

Corrupt Empire Nobles
Mage Lord – Level 4 metal, ???
Witch Hunter - ??? (why is this guy working together with undead?)
BSB - ???
30 halbardiers – full command
11 handgunners
War Altar
3 cannons

Foul Undead
Vampire end times special character on dragon – could change 3 attacks to power dice or vice versa
10 knights – 2+ armour, ethereal when moving
Spirit host
Black Coach
Casket of souls

We played with the end times rules, so no need to list spells. The vampire special character had both undeath, vampire and tomb king magic! 


Deployment
There were 3 buildings on the battlefield, the top right building has a battlements on it that could apparently house the cannon on the top floor and the handgunners with the metal mage on the lower floors. The lower central forest is my venom thicket, three of his ogres started inside it as i thought his unit was only 2 deep but he had 3 more models waiting to be attached to it. Finally there is a statue on the right. Overall the deployment went okay, though I think we should have swapped the wild riders and mournfang cavalry. They had more drops than us though, so it was hard to predict. We got the +1 to go first and rolled higher. 


Elves and Ogres Turn 1
Movement: WR2 moves up to engage the cannon as it has flank shots to the ogre block. WR1 moves into range of the halberdier block to cast bladewind and word of pain. Everythin else moves forward, and 2 out of 3 ironguts take a wound on dangerous terrain.

Magic: 12v7 – A big word of pain is dispelled on the halberdiers. My ogre companion then uses 2 dice on the toughness spell (should have cast regeneration vs cannons) and gets IF. He blow up in a small template and drain 5 dice from out pool. I manage to get off bladewind on the halberdiers with the last dice, killing 8 of them.

Shooting: GG1 only does 3 out of 4 wounds to the spirit host. I decide to finish it off with GG2.


Empire and Undead Turn 1
Movement: Halberdiers are scared and move backwards. Handgunners and mage enter the building and the undead hordes approach on the east. I thought they were pretty brave to face a charge from mournfang.

Magic: 14+1v10 – All their magic phases had a lot of dice as the vampire could reroll one of the wind of magic dice. The coach gets 4 power due to the abnormal number of power dice in the game. He tries to raise some stuff with 3 dice but rolls low and we dispel with 2 dice. He rolls double 1 on another summoning spell. He raises again and this time we roll really low and fail to dispel it, zombies now block the mournfang. He cast spirit leech on a mournfang but it fails to do damage as inspiring presence can now be used. We fail to dispel a small searing doom on mournfang but it only does 1 wound. My ogre buddy decides to let another searing doom through, but this one deals 6 wounds. We dispel another raise dead and the vampire converts 3 attacks to 3 power dice that he uses for gaze of nagash, killing the last mournfang.

Shooting: The top left cannon uses grapeshot on my wild riders, a big mistake in my opinion. He does manage to kill 1 wild rider, but a flank shot at the ogres would have been better for them. The two other cannons take off some iron guts but the handgunners fail to do anything.


Elves and Ogres Turn 2
Movement: Wild riders easily charge the cannon. Ironguts move to threaten the undead while my other wild riders move into doombolt range of his metal mage and threaten the halberdiers in case they got more brave. Eagle move to threaten a cannon and saber tusks also move up the flanks.

Magic: 10v6+1 – I cast a small doombolt on the handgunners but fail to roll high enough on 3 dice. I do cast chillwind on them, but the spell sucks and only kills 1. Rest of our spells are dispelled.

Shooting: All shooting goes into handgunners, and only 1 survive.


Empire and Undead Turn 2
Movement: The newly summoned zombies were blocking his knights, so only the coach can charge the ogres. Zombies move out of the way so that the knights can threaten my glade guard with the bsb. The vampire mage move back to protect the halberdiers who shuffle a bit to the side.

Magic: 15+4v9 – The eagle gets killed by the casket. He fails like a million spells due to his power dice allowance roll. In the end he gets curse of ages on my wild riders killing 1 and gets to summon some zombies in front of my wild riders. Also the coach becomes ethereal, big trouble for the ironguts.

Shooting: The top right cannon misfires and can’t shot this or next turn. The other cannon kills a wild rider I think.

Combat:The black coach rips some ogres apart with impact hits, but they are steadfast and stay around. 


Elves and Ogres Turn 3
Movement: The top left sabretusk charges the war alter in the flank. Wild riders come back onto the table and follow the action. The other wild riders move around to doombolt his knights. My bsb leaves the unit of glade guard and moves to the flank of the knights while the glade guard move out of the forest to remain steadfast. We forget about the last sabretusk at this point.

Magic: 10v8 – I get a doombolt onto his knights dealing 6 hits but he only fails 1 armour save. I re-cast it for another 10 hits plus 2 from the counter, I do 10 wounds and he only fails a couple of armour saves! We also got off toughness on the ogres, but forgot about curse of ages and lose another wild rider.

Shooting: With the combined shooting of 21 glade guard and 15 shots on the hail of doom i get the knights down to 3 remaining models.

Combat: The black coach fails to do any damage and takes 3 wounds from rank and 2 banners. 


Empire and Undead Turn 3
Movement: Knights charges my glade guard. The vampire on dragon moves to the flank of my big wild rider unit.

Magic: 15+4v9 – I can’t even remember all the spells being cast, but I know he failed a bunch again from rolling low on power dice allowance or low on casting value. The main event in this rounds magic was two gaze of nagash on my wild riders, the final one resulting in a dimensional cascade. The vampire managed to remain on the board, but only 1 wild rider survived.

Shooting: The cannon aimed at my mage, but missed.

Combat: The coach did 3 wounds, but loses to musician and dies. Ogres reform towards the the zombies on the left. The knights kill about 3 glade guard but take no damage in return, i pass on steadfast 9 and reform to 5 wide. 


Elves and Ogres Turn 4
Movement: My BSB charges into the flank of the death knights. The ironguts charges the zombies and need 9 for the overrun into the vampire guy. My mage joins the other wild riders that ride down to pick her up. The lone wild rider hides behind the building.

Magic: 16v11 – I get a big word of pain onto the vamp, mainly in order to weaken him against the possible ogre overrun but also to make him susceptible to the vortex. But due to stupid end times rules I can’t use enough dice to cast vortex. The ogres get off a bunch of buffs on themselves though.

Shooting: I kill the handgunner as this will be the last turn, but actually roll 3 sixes to wound so I could have killed the cannon.

Combat: A death knight bites the dust, but it is either a draw or a small loss to me. No one breaks. The zombies are destroyed, but the overrun is only 8 so the ogres stop right in front of the vampire. 


Empire and Undead Turn 4
Movement: The halberdiers go for the charge on the ogres, but fail to make the distance. Metal mage moves out of hiding and the vampire moves behind the ogres.

Magic: 17+2v10 – purple sun is cast at the ogres, but a single irongut and both characters survive. The metal mage casts two searing doom on them, but both are redirected to my wild riders. A single wild rider survive. The last searing doom is cast with irresistible force and another dimensional cascade rocks the battlefield, but again their mage stay in this realm.

Shooting: One cannon puts a shot on my mage, but she pass her ward save. The last cannon can’t see the mage and shoots at the wild rider below the building. The rider is killed but could have been saved if I had placed him better.

Combat: I fail to kill any knights and end up losing by 3, but both my BSB and the glade guard stay around. 

Post-game
In the end we got 595 from them and they got 619 from us. Very close draw, though I am pretty sure they would have won by a large margin had the game continued for two more turns.

I must say I highly dislike the end times magic. With the amount of dice it takes a million years to get through, and while the random power/dispel dice is good for not allowing 6-dicing then it is really destructive for planning ahead. Didn’t help that our opponents generated between 5 and 7 dice per turn on top of it. The rules mainly hurt them to be honest, they failed a lot of spells due to only being allowed a single die.

I think both sides played okay, but being two generals on each side of the table is not really for me. It already takes me a long time to decide my moves, having to discuss them with a co-general takes even longer. It also adds some confusion sometimes to where the game is going and what the plans are. That being said, it was a very fun game and I always enjoy playing with these guys.

As said earlier, I think my wild riders would be better on the other side versus the knights and the coach. But on the other hand, my mage had really good spells against the horde of halberdiers. The main mistake of our opponents were probably being too careful with the halberdiers and the vampire. A double charge with halberdiers and vampire on dragon could easily break the ogres.

Thanks for reading the game. The next game will probably be a practice game for Ill Blood III – unbroken. Just bought some sisters of the thorn and I am working on restoring my dragon!

Pictures
Left Flank
Right Flank
Wood Elves and Ogres advance
Zombies appear!

[Billthesurly]

That's part of the fun of playing with allies. You are never quite sure of what he is thinking and vice versa.
Cannons on the top floor of a fortified position are a bitch but as they say; if they can see you, you can see them.

Seems like you were kind of hesitant to get stuck in with your large WR unit. IMO those guys always have to pick a target and smack it early or they will get whittled down by either shooting or magic - which is what happened. They are way too fighty to use as a bunker. If they aren't charging somebody on turn two then something has gone wrong.

Undead and Empire? Really? Methinks I'm not too cool with the whole End Times thing.
(unless that was just a luck-of-the-draw alliance battle)

[Mollesvinet]

Yeah you are right, I often get too scared of losing the wild riders. I once charged temple guard in the front due to a failed frenzy test, ended up wiping almost the whole unit! I didn't expect him to move backwards with the halberdiers though, and after that I was pretty much blocked with zombies. Should have been in range of a charge on turn 2 though. The list was supposed to have wild riders following a block of vanguarding dwarves, so they were supposed to have more support than they did.


Also, dark mage in wild riders was an experiment. Probably won't redo that anytime soon

[Aezeal]

Nice report. It was fun reading it. I don't have the rules here..can you move the turn you get back on the table after overrunning off it?

[Billthesurly]

Nice report. It was fun reading it. I don't have the rules here..can you move the turn you get back on the table after overrunning off it?

You can move but you can't march or charge.

[chickenbane]

That was an interesting game alright. seems like Undead are very dependent on end times magic phases being kind to them. I played once against Nagash and it took forever!

Nice report. It was fun reading it. I don't have the rules here..can you move the turn you get back on the table after overrunning off it?

Yes you can make a single ordinary move (no marching). I had been playing it wrong for 2 years until a new member of our group actually read the rules. Crazy, right?

[Mollesvinet]

Yeah, just did a normal move. The black coach is really insane with end times magic, when you roll 14 power dice per turn instead of 7 it really racks up a lot of counters fast!

[Mollesvinet]

Pre-game
Today I was trying to practice my tournament draft list, but as I didn’t know who I was playing the conditions changed a bit. Basically the game turned out to be 2k instead of 2400 and we used the end times magic rules (oh joy). The list I used was as follows:

Glade Lord – Dragon, talisman of 4++, charmed shield, anti-heroes, other tricksters shard
BSB – Steed, hail of doom, spear
Spellsinger – level 2 death, dispel scroll, steed
3x10 glade guard – musician, trueshot arrows
6 wild riders – flaming banner, NO shields
7 sisters of the thorn – banner, lichebone pennant
8 waywatchers
6 waywatchers

Basically I stripped another level 2 death mage with hex scroll, as I could already spam spirit leech with end times magic. I also removed 5 glade riders with champion and hagbane and 6 waywatchers (1 too much I notice now, but hardly matters). My opponent for today was luke, coincidently I played his undead list with a similar list last time I was up against him. His list was:

Tomb King – sword of heroic killing blow (uh oh, you know what is going to happen), dragonbane gem
Hierophant – level 4 tomb king lore, dispel scroll, probably 4++ ward
Mage hero – level 2 lore of vamps, ??
50 skeletons – board and sword
3 necropolis knights
2 morghasts
Hierotitan
Casket of souls
Warsphinx
5 dogs

As it was end times we had all spells. I rolled first deployment. 


Deployment
The table had 3 buildings, an impassable statue, 2 forests in the middle and a dangerous terrains ruin on the right. The lower forest is my venom thicket. He deployed extremely central due to all of his bubble augment spells. His casket was strangely isolated in one corner though. I scattered my glade guard and let the sisters go for the casket, backed up by the dragon. I got +1 and took first turn. 


Wood Elves Turn 1
Movement: With both vanguard and movement I was able to get up close to the casket. Glade guard took over the buildings and wild riders moved up a little bit to threaten.

Magic: 12v7 – I cast a big amber spear on the casket with 6 dice (just to make sure), but roll a 1 to wound. The rest of my spell are dispelled, as he has many more dice than me now.

Shooting: Sisters, hail of doom and GG1 take out the casket. GG2 takes out the middle spirit host but I think I forgot to fire GG3. Waywatchers do 3 wounds to the knights and remove a model.


Undead Turn 1
Movement: The dogs charge the building, but lose 2 models to stand and shoot and another one to a dangerous terrain and fail the charge. Rest of his army moves up, except morghasts who cleverly set up a counter charge if I go in with wild riders.

Magic: 14v11 – He rolls really high on the bubble movement spell and I let him have it. He then casts a fulcrum with his level 2 mage and I fail to dispel it as I can only use 1 dice. He then casts a bubble dance macabre, but I fail to dispel as I could only use 2 dice. This moves his units out of my dragons charge arc and robs me from charging his spirit host and overrunning into hierotitan. I dispel one gaze on the wild riders and he fails another one due to 1 power dice allowance. He also fails killing blow on the knights and I finally dispel a buble protection spell.


Wood Elves Turn 2
Movement: Remembering Bills advice about wild riders I charge them into knights, due to his angling I have an overrun into the flank of his warsphinx. Dragon moves to the back and sisters move to the side of the skeletons. Waywatchers stay safe.

Magic: 11+1v8+1 – I try for purple sun, get 4 dice allowance but fail the cast. I then cast spirit leech on his level 4, dimensionally cascading which costs me 2 sisters and a wound on the singer but she stays in the realm. I learn that the tomb king general is LD10 and fail to wound the mage.

Shooting: I kill the second spirit host with GG1. GG2 and GG3 shoot for the mage on the fulcrum, but he survives on 1 wound. Waywatchers try for the warsphinx I think, but fail to wound.

Combat: Even though the knights were back to full strength due to his spells, they still die to the wild riders. I overrun into the sphinx. 


Undead Turn 2
Movement: He charges the wild riders in the rear. Dogs charge again but are removed to trueflight arrows. Rest moves up.

Magic: 16+1v7 – I give him buble reroll to hit, as I expect the wild riders to be toast anyway. He then casts bubble +1 attack, but I consider charging his big unit with sisters and dragon so I scroll it. He gets a soulblight kind of spell on my wild riders as I can only dispel with 1 dice. I dispel the rest, except 5+ ward on skeletons as my general has other tricksters shard.

Combat: The wild riders do 3 wounds to the morghasts, but fail to remove a model. Even with rerolls, the morghasts manage to miss with most of their attacks and I ward save 1 out of 3 wounds. The sphinx do two wounds, but I save another one and actually pass my break test on a 3. 


Wood Elves Turn 3
Movement: I go for the double charge, but the sisters fail by 1 (needed 7).

Magic: 16+2v10+1 – I get flesh to stone on the dragon, mainly to heal my singer. After several dispelled attempts I get of soulblight on the skeletons. I also fail a purple sun I think.

Shooting: Two units of glade guard take out the mage in the hurricanum. The rest shoots at the hierotitan and it takes 3 out of 5 wounds.

Combat: The wild riders are destroyed and he reforms sphinx towards my general and morghasts towards GG3. In the big combat he does not challenge which I find odd, but makes way with his general. I put all 5 anti-hero attacks on him and do 4 wounds but he saves 2 of them on 6+ armour save. In return he attacks my dragon and kill Gregory with one fell swoop of heroic killing blow! Even though I lose combat by 5 my general is pissed and stays! 


Undead Turn 3
Movement: Sphinx charge my general. Hierotitan charges GG2 and they flee in terror, I felt they stood a good chance with stand and shoot and poison but it was not to be. Morghasts charge GG3 but fails to close the distance (needed 8).

Magic: 14v11 – I let him cast the movement spell on the hierotitan, healing it in the process. I dispel improved killing blow bubble, but let him have the second one as he simply rolled too high for me. He failed bubble smite, bubble protection and the soulblight kind of spell. Finally he cast a vortex towards my waywatchers and I fail to dispel it due to dispel dice allowance, but the vortex misfires and kills 4 skeletons.

Combat: My general again puts all attacks on his general, again I do two wounds but one of his spells healed the general and apparently he has 4 wounds so he survives! On the other hand my general saves a bunch of ward saves and only takes 1 wound, although he does break this time. The sphinx pursues, but I get away! The skeletons reform towards sisters. 


Wood Elves Turn 4
Movement: I move up the sisters to give my general reroll to his rally test. Waywatchers move out of charge arcs.

Magic: 13v8 – I cast soulblight on the skeletons with 3 dice but roll 3 sixes, another dimensional cascade claims my spellsinger. With spirit leech out the window to save my general I try for dwellers on the skeletons. Luckily I get a 6 dice allowance and get the IF (he saved his scroll for this, but what can you do). Because of soulblight, dwellers claim his mage and 31 skeletons. In return I only have 1 sister left.

Shooting: One unit of waywatchers shoot at the hierotitan for no avail and I realize I would be much better of trying to take off his skeletons and general! The of my shooting goes onto them and he is down to about 10 skeletons.


Undead Turn 4
Movement: He charges with everything!

Combat:Morghasts kill 4 glade guard and I flee out the building while he reforms to look the other way. My general valiantly deals 2 wounds to the sphinx but he is finally killed in battle. Sadly he opts not to take his general into the building, so I put all my attack on the skeletons but lose 5 glade guard mainly to the hierotitan. They pass their break test though. 


Wood Elves Turn 5
Movement: GG3 rally on a 9 thanks to their musician. The sister and BSB moves far away from the sphinx as I learn it has a breath weapon. GG1 leaves the building and waywatchers move to get skeletons into sight or get out of morghast charge arc.

Magic: 15v10 – I first cast throne of vines to avoid miscasts, but with 2 dice allowed I fail it. I then cast regrowth which is dispelled, but second regrowth bring back 2 sisters. I cast a big amber spear on the hierotitan and get IF, I do wound but only deal 2 wounds leaving it a single wound. I lose a sister, taking me down to 2 sisters. My final dice go into another regrowth and I get IF again, I regrow 1 sister but lose 2 so that was a bad deal and it leaves me at a single sister again.

Shooting: All shooting goes into skeletons and a single skeleton survives.


Undead Turn 5
Movement: The sphinx can’t reach the sister and BSB, but instead it goes to my waywatchers. Morghasts move up to threaten and hierotitan runs for the hills! The tomb king and his skeleton enters the building.

Shooting: Flames hit all the waywatchers and half of them die. They are cool though and don’t panic.


Wood Elves Turn 6
Movement: Sister and BSB chase the hierotitan. My shooting moves into range of his general. The 4 waywatcher may be cool, but they still failed their march test and I place them so at least they will flee through the building.

Magic: 15v9 – I start out with 3 dice throne of vines and he lets me have it. He then dispels 2 or 3 awakening of the wood on the hierotitan and I fail the last one. I have two dice left and he has none, so I cast a single die at flock of doom (in case of no sixes) and it goes off killing the hierotitan.

Shooting: I kill the last skeleton, but sadly the general saves all of the shots directed at him!


Undead Turn 6
Movement: Morghasts charge and it turns out my measurements were a bit off so he can still chase me, but I roll 12 for fleeing and get away.
 
Post-game
It was a great and very close game. After the dust settled I had reaped about 1350 points and he had gotten around 1150 from me. Big lesson to be learnt from this game: Tomb Kings can get heroic killing blow!! I should have never charged the block, instead the dragon should have engaged the morghasts or even the sphinx and the sisters should have kept casting spells at the block. In the tournament I won’t have dwellers, but a big purple sun would have done almost the same damage (although the mage would probably have survived).

He quickly realized that he had mis-deployed his casket, which allowed me to take it out quick. I really hate that thing, so I felt it was worth it to spend the hail of doom on it even when wounding on 6’s. Apart from that, I think he played the game really well. Especially the magic phase was good for him, as he got a lot of spells through. Guess I still have to adapt more to the end times.

It was difficult to deal with the sphinx, had it been outside general leadership I could have spirit leeched it but I suppose I could have put doom and darkness on the general first. The dragon is a lot of fun, but I am not sure if it is worth the hefty price. If I dropped the dragon I would have to fuse my two level 2 spellsingers into a level 4 as LD8 spirit leech isn’t all that great. This would also remove the hex scroll which I really like, unless I add a caddie (could do miasma together with purple sun). It would enable me to get MR2 and another banner for the sisters. Without the dragon I would probably get more wild riders and possibly some scouts. How about the BSB, do you guys think he is worth it in this list?

Pictures
The awesome hierotitan is being summoned!
Left flank and TOME of magic
Right flank
Wild riders in a wee bit of trouble

[NonnoSte]

Ehi Mollesvinet,
Great report as usual and a very close game.
I'd say it's a pity you couldn't pin the sphinx turn 2 with an eagle or some Dancers, or else you would have bashed his line in with a single WR charge.
Last turn you had a great Flock of Doom too. See? I said it's a super powerful spell!!

As you mentioned, you could have used the Dragon to chase other things than the big block from the start, otherwise very good played. You had terrible luck in a couple of situation tough and it looks like he took the most from ET magic.
I'm finding out that some armies (ie those who relies on small buffs spam) can really take a big advantage from the khaine magic. Especially if they can field multiple cheap mages (Night Goblin being the perfect example).

About your list, if you take outhe the Dragon, I'd take the caddy on shadow or even death as well to help spell selection. Then, once the MR problem is adressed, the Banner of Discipline gives you an Ld10 Spirit Leech (or two) even without the Lord.

[Mollesvinet]

Hi NonnoSte,

thanks for the comment. I had to shave 400 points off the list, but I guess the glade riders could have been used as blockers if need be in the full list. I am not sure if the banner works for leadership, as it is the unmodified leadership (with the exception of inspiring presence due to FAQ). I guess the mage lord would use her own LD9 but the baby-mage could use the mage lords inspiring presence at LD10? Weird situation in any case!


I am tempted to lose the dragon, but I think the list will get a bit boring without it to be honest. Then all I have in close combat is wild riders. Luckily I still have some practice runs, so I will probably try out both. What I will do though is to ditch the sword of antiheroes and just go for the +1 strength or something, this makes the general much more useful against tough units without characters and it is not that often that the dragon will be in base contact with more than two characters anyway (so sad it is characters in base contact, not characters in the unit).

[Aezeal]

How about sisters on dragon instead of the lord?
Against this army HB would probably have been a big advantage too.

Personally I don't see why a lot of shooting is boring perse... you really need to do your movement correct to keep the points since GG are easy kills.

[Mollesvinet]

Was actually thinking to make the center GG unit hagbane, since they will be closer to more targets than the others. Will try that next time.

Don't have the sisters, only a glade lord on dragon. I suppose I could look into converting some out of other models.


I like a lot of shooting, and this list already has much more than my previous EG lists which is nice. I am definitely gonna try with a dragonless version, just to see how it works out. It will probably be stronger, as there are no cannon or magic targets.

[NonnoSte]

I've always found pretty confusing both the rule wording and the FAQ about Spirit Leech.
I guess they just wanted to avoid the nasty combo with D&D.
That being said, with the right countermeasures, I don't think it's much more deadlier than the Terrorgheist Scream or even the Slaanesh effect on the Realms of Chaos table. It just happens to be in the same lore.

Anyway an Ld9 plus an Ld10 Leeches are not bad at all. (personally I would allow both to be Ld10. It just doesn't make sense that my general inspires a leadership higher than the one she's allowed to use)

If you maintain the Dragon I'm also not convinced by the Sword of Antiheroes. As you said, a dragon doesn't have much of a base size compared to a whole unit.
Up to now the best Dragon Builds I've seen are the Phazael's one with 4++ armour and Obsidian Blade or the Phil's one with 4++, Ogre Blade and OTS.

[Aezeal]

I think obsidian blade might be a good idea. If the AS is so high the dragon still has problems with it then this will really help.. if it's high T and high AS.. nothing will help except tons of hits.. and that we cannot get in melee.

Does it say somewhere that the general is not affected by his/her own inspiring presence btw? Not sure about the wording.. but if it's something like.. '" all friendly troops within 12" benifit from etc"then the general would qualify too.

[Mollesvinet]

Thanks for the input guys. I think i will go for Phils build. Will be scary without the charmed shield, but I guess I just have to be extra careful!

I don't feel overly convinced about paying 50pts for the obsidian blade while being at S4. Most low toughness high armour save targets can be taken out with my waywatchers except for characters hiding in units (hey, i got death magic for those right?). Against T4 1+ armour save it will be just about the same whether you go S6 or S4 no armour save, but with Phils build I force them to reroll ward saves if they have any.

[Aezeal]

Thanks for the input guys. I think i will go for Phils build. Will be scary without the charmed shield, but I guess I just have to be extra careful!

I don't feel overly convinced about paying 50pts for the obsidian blade while being at S4. Most low toughness high armour save targets can be taken out with my waywatchers except for characters hiding in units (hey, i got death magic for those right?). Against T4 1+ armour save it will be just about the same whether you go S6 or S4 no armour save, but with Phils build I force them to reroll ward saves if they have any.

You are probably making the right choice. How would you use this dragon lord btw. What targets would you dare engage and which not?

[NonnoSte]

Obsidian Blade becomes hilarious against BotWD Helms bus. I think YOUR Dragon too gains Stubborn in proximity of the banner and with the Blade you cut through the rerollable 1+ of the Prince (yeah, you still have 2++ from the banner, but the same stands true with the Ogre Blade, after a rerollable 4+ AS)
The no armour sword comes really at hand when you have rerollable AS.

I'd say it's great against Dark Elves busses, Empire Steel Walls and Bretonnian Paladin spam (our bretonnian player has recently found out how effective are Paladins point-wise). Otherwise you're right, if you face more Ogres, Chaos or Undead then the Ogre Blade gives you that boost to wound them in first place.
I remember Phazael's reasoning was about the Dragon providing the Str6 and the Lord cutting through armour.
I'd say the real advantage lays in the Shard. With it you can stomp to death even Phoenix Guards (from the rear/flank or you have a dead Dragon in just a blink) or Plaguebearers.
Probably it's just up to what your meta is full of.