Battle Report: Revenge is a dish best served cold blooded!

Welcome back to the Border Princes Campaign, if you are new to it, check out the WFB Campaign button to the right, or this link, to start from the beginning.

If you have read the last battle you would know that the Elven Banner of Verdant Splendor had battled and won by the skin of their teeth to snatch some of the lizard controlled forests.  The lizards were not soundly beaten however and only retreated slightly.  In the following campaign turn they struck back attacking the very same forest in a ruthless counter attack.  The High Elves were caught before they could finish fortifying the territory so it would be an even fight.  Below you will find the report on the battle with the High Elf thoughts in blue, the Lizard thoughts in green, and the peanut gallery of the Dwarf general in red.

The Banner of Verdant Splendor:
1 Archmage Lani Sul, level 4, with Forliath's Robe, and Annulian Crystal.
1 Noble Keryth Kolindo, great weapon, battle standard, armor of Caledor, guardian phoenix

24 Spearmen, full command, Warbanner
24 Spearmen, full command

20 White Lions, full command, Standard of Sorcery
17 Swordmasters, full command, Razor Standard, Talisman of Loec on the Bladelord
1 Lion Chariot
2 Great Eagles

The set up on my Archmage makes her harder to kill, requiring magical attacks to do so, and gives her a very strong magical defense.  Lani is vulnerable to miscasting, but she uses lore of life which comes with a spell to help mitigate them.  I also gain an extra spell known from a special tile I control.  The major risk is she is my only mage so one failed spell ends the phase.  Additionally she goes in with the sword master unit giving them a regeneration save if her magic goes well, and has the neat trick of bringing back to life the champion over and over to protect her from challenges.

FOR ULTHUAN!

The Banner of Old Blood
1 Old Blood, Sword of Blood Shed, Enchanted Shield, Dawn Stone, Light Armor
1 Skink Priest, lvl 2, Engine of the Gods, Feedback scroll

10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
20 Saurus, full command
20 Saurus, full command

10 Cold Ones, full command, Skavenpelt Banner
2 Salamander Packs, extra handlers

3 Terradons

The Oldblood is very solid for his cost at only 245 pts you get a fairly survivable lord, with 8 attacks!  I was hoping the Feedback scroll would pick off the enemy Archmage in one shot, against non life mages it should do better.  I also was pleased with the Salamanders but I think in the future considering how melee heavy both my foes tend to field, I will bring Razordons instead.

FOR...dumpy frog guy?

As this battle would take place in the same area as the last battle, Loki (the Dwarf General), decided to set up our table mostly unchanged except for a simple wall the Elves were able to finish before the Lizard counter attack.

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  The High Elves and Lizardmen rolled off for which scenario would decide the victor and it ended up being the battle for the pass. We decided this must mean that the long table edges are tall stone walls that were being constructed but were not finished so the Lizards were able to battle us in a choke point.

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Both armies were set to fight, a mere stones throw from one another, atop ground not yet dried with the blood of the last encounter.  The atmosphere was electric as both knew this place was about to become hell on earth.  The Elven Host struck first eager to meet their foes in hand to claw combat.

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As Great Eagles soared ahead of the shining spear tips the Elven mage channeled power from the winds of magic, bending the elements of nature to her whim.  She was met with some disrupting force from the enemies priest riding atop some horrible beast.

I was able to cast Throne of Vines, as well as a skin to stone spell, and a regeneration spell, however the throne was dispelled via dice. 

The logic for me is that this will keep him risky, lacking miscast protection, and I know if he has plenty of other dice I will have at least kept all his other spells at a lesser power, so the throne is always a dispel attempt for me.

The Lizards advanced as well, their cold blooded nature un-shaken by the speed of the enemies advance.  The Terradon riders took note of the enemy mage and began a large semi circle flight path, in which they would attempt to silence her with surprise attacks from above.  The blow pipes of the skinks fired rapidly and were able to fell one of the great eagles harrying the armies advance, the Old Blood was pleased!  The other Eagle felt the burning power of the Engine of the Gods, as well as a mighty Thunderbolt from the priest, but the Archmage was able to easily reduce the bolt to nothing but a warm breeze.

I wasn't even thinking of it when I was doing it, but Zaszz pointed out to me that advancing my Salamanders toward the Swordmaster unit with regeneration was a perfect counter to the magical defenses.

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With the mighty Engine crashing down their flank, the Elven host decided to hold tight and consolidate slightly, preparing to defend it self as it's enemies moved just a little closer.  The great eagle however was in a blood rage at the loss of its brother and charged into the Salamander pack, able to inflict 2 wounds on a beast before being devoured.

In hind sight I should have kept my eagles together, but I think the result would have been the same here, they ate some shooting for my army before dying.  Again in hind sight I should have slid my line even closer together, to stay in range of my battle standard in the S2 spear group.  This list relies heavily on being near the standard, and the mage to give support to my fragile troops.

The Lizards sensed the hesitation in their foes and move like a predatory hunting pack, universally closing into charging ranges.  The salamanders unleashed a pair of fiery blasts onto the sword masters killing a few in a manner most gruesome.   The terradons were able to complete their strafing run slaying even more, but unable to wound the enemy mage.  Fearing the Lion Chariot would soon have skinks for lunch, they unfurled a hail of darts but were only able to slightly wound a rider.

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A great battle cry echoed out from an unlikly source, Lani Sul seemed shy to a fault at times of peace, but now boomed a cry that all her breathern followed.  The elven host surged forward into the enemies on all sides and smiled as many of the smaller units fled rather then face their doom.  The White Lions surged at incredible speed to engage the enemies Cold One riders, the riders took heavy losses as the great axes of cleaved rider and beast asunder.  The riders would not be outdone however, drawing power from their magical banner they attacked in a helacious frenzy.  When all was said and done 5 riders and 11 lions lay dead, the lions had a very rare lack of courage and fled the slaughter, dying to the man.  On the opposite flank the spears murdered many skinks, and chased the remaining away, leading into an overrun onto the saurus.  Unfortunatly Lani must have winded her self with her battle cry as she lost 2 wounds to the enemies feedback scroll, and then perhaps shaken by the loss of her lions, failed to cast a spell. 

This was a very bloody turn, with both sides losing tons of points in combat, which the lions probably would have won next turn by striking first.  Unfortunatly they failed their stubborn 8 test and fled.

Those Lions cause me trouble in every combat I face them, bad luck for Zaszz this game however. 

I dediced to ask Loki's opinion on what strategy to employ at this point, and he said "Easy, just flank them with your Hammer Head tank, and marker light them with some pathfinders, good game right there."

Pictured: Loki's Fantasy Strategy

Also hindsight here, I backed up my chariot so when the elves held on his turn it could charge, but I didn't need to back it up so far.

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The Saurus were singled minded, focused upon their foe, completely ignoring the fleeing and dying skinks in their path.  The terradons circled around and closed in with the saurus to Lani's regiment, while on the opposing flank a unit of Saurus face off against charging spears.  The spearmen fought with valor however the saurus unit tore through them with gusto, leaving behind a meager fifteen Elves and forcing them to break even with a battle standard near by, to make matters worse they were run down to the elf.

As always Loki had something to say about this Elf masacre.

You didn't bring enough Kroot.

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Things were really starting to look grim, so I charged my Lion Chariot into his Engine in the hopes of getting a lucky priest kill.  By our understanding, and we may be wrong here, I can allocate all the attacks against him as he is a character in base to base contact?  I decided that it wouldn't make sense for the lions to attack the crew, so I had my Elves run up his dinosaur and try to assassinate the priest while my lions remained below, they however failed, and died.  I will usually pick something that makes sense over what may be using the rules to their best, if it just doesn't make sense then I'm not going to do it.  I also positioned for a flank charge hoping to win back some victory points with my remaining units.

The combat between the Sword Masters of Hoeth and the Old Blood's Saurus was brutal.  The Old Blood challenged, and it was accepted by the Bladelord.  Activating the power of his magical talisman the Bladelord would try to slay the beast to protect his beautiful general, even at the cost of his own life.  With incredible speed the Sword Masters struck, taking the Old Blood to 1 wound, before dying, and his men inspired by his valor took a heavy toll on the saurus.  In the following turns, the rear Sword masters would dispatch the terradons charge with ease, but even with the flank charge of the spears the Old Blood would not die nor would his unit break, he even was able to kill Lani!

As the remaining Lizard forces closed in all around the Elves, they knew the battle was lost, but Keryth Kolindo would not back down, if they died they would die revenging the death of Lani Sul!  Keryth charged the wounded foe, and with lightning speed was cut the Old Blood down.  Standing atop the mighty foe, he looked around, only the standard bearer of his loyal spearmen unit still stood with him.  They dropped their weapons, and said a final curse to the denizens of Lustria, before they were ripped away to nothing.

Hell of a fun game, I think my list did well although I should have been more consolidated.  I definitely spread my line too thin, and got a little unlucky with my magic.  I think the main thing that happened here was Hater's Lizard army rolled brutally well to hit and really racked up the kills.  Still I won't use that as an excuse, there were a number of things I could have done differently, and failing to use my units properly cost me a number of missed opportunities.  Next time I will not fail you Lani!  Good game as usual friend!

I agree it was a VERY fun and VERY bloody game!  Also don't forget a great deal went poorly for you as soon as your Lions failed that stubborn 8, ouch!  I was also slightly surprised at how nasty my saurus were, obliterating your spears in one combat alone, they really dug deep for me!  As I said up at army list selection I think next time I will try Razordons instead of the Salamanders, as you guys tend to use so much melee, and their stand and shoot is very strong. Revenge is a dish best served cold blooded!   Good game friend!

Win or lose, I love a game of Warhammer!

Here is the updated Campaign map at the end of Turn 6.