After allowing the Dwarf player (neutral party here), build us a forest with a small road on the edge, we rolled out our battle mission. We got the watch tower mission, so the central forest was replaced by our massive tower terrain feature. The rules allow one player to place a 20 man or less unit into the tower, since the Lizards had no unit small enough, they allowed the High Elf host to take it but he would get automatic first turn.
The army lists were roughly:
High Elf:
1 Archmage Lvl 4, Annulian Crystal, Forliath's Robe
1 Noble BSB, Great Weapon, Armor of Caledor
24 Spears w War banner, full command
24 Spears w full command (bsb here)
20 White Lions with full command, standard of sorcery
17 Sword masters with full command, razor standard (mage here)
1 Lion Chariot
2 Great Eagles
Lizardmen:
1 Old Blood on a cold one with some fighting gear
1 Scar Vet on a cold one with BSB
2 Skink Priests with some anti magic gear
25 Saurus with full command
25 Saurus with full command, and a standard that makes mages nearby stupid
1 Ancient Stegadon with giant blow pipes
After all deployment, the High Elf mage got all 5 support spells from the Lore of Life, and the 2 level 2 skinks each got the hex, and augments that allow re-rolls, chain lightning, and the comet of Casadora.
The Lizards had declined to own the tower, so they got first turn, after their movement the board looked like this:
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As you can see, the Sword Masters and Archmage are in the tower, while the main HE army is to the right. The White Lions are a fairly hard unit so they will take the left, and hopefully with mage support I can win both sides... or so I thought! The Lizardman player advanced, although his units were enormous and since the woods were all mysterious he didn't want to touch them unless he had to so he set up a defense to the right and waited for me to close in, while the left swung around clumsily. On his first turn for shooting a few sword masters died to blow pipe fire, while a comet token got thought my magic defense, he placed it in the path of the spear units to the right. A turn later I would be running from it and lose around 7 spears.
After HE turn 1 the board looked like this:
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For the Lizardman turn 2, they advanced a bit more and repositioned some more, swinging a mage to be pointing at both my Eagles, the lore of heavens attribute is quite effective against fliers! After his movement he blasted away my poor birds with magic, and also got off an augment spell on his cold ones that allows them some re-rolls. For his last bit this turn he shot 2 lions dead with blow pipe action.
Back on the HE turn 3 things were looking a bit grim, my soldiers would have to fight on without magic support, so I needed some big upsets from them to win this one! My white lions charged his saurus unit, my spears both failed to make a charge so they shuffled forward, and my lion chariot moved into a flanking position. Here is the board after that turn:
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During the combat here the white lions took a heavy toll on the saurus, fortunately they did have a parry save, I believe 9 were slain with only 6 white lions dying to the retaliation. Unfortunately he was stubborn as he had more ranks, and a stubborn cold blooded unit wouldn't budge.
During the Lizard turn 3 the Cold bloods charged my warbanner unit which held, while the stegadon charged into the lions front, and the remaining saurus unit charged into the BSB unit. This would be a deciding turn indeed! The white lions again took a heavy toll from the enemy but with the stegadon coming in they were wiped out to the last elf. The cold ones with their augment up were able to wreck the elf spear unit down to a mere 4 elves, who fled and were run down, they did manage to kill one knight however. The last battle managed to pull through in spades for me however, as I lost 1 elf to a large quantity of saurus, he ended up needing insane courage result on a single re-roll and failed to do so, they did manage to run away and rally next turn however
For the HE turn 3 there was not much to do but pray and move, I moved my Spear unit around to be behind his cold ones, while my lion chariot moved to flank it. The sword masters held tight with but 10 or so remaining.
After some careful thought for Lizard turn 4 he considered a long time with me weather his knights could pass between my chariot for some tricky movement, while it looked like he could not from my view point, the models got nudged and we decided it best to not bother. His knights ran forward to get away from the trap. For his remaining parts of the turn, the stegadon charged the tower, while the rest of his army moved around to get in positions to attack it. For the combat the sword masters revealed they still had some tricks with a blade master using the talisman of Loec, which allows him to die, but re-roll all his to hits, to wounds, and their armor saves for the round. He managed to wound the stegadon twice, while the remaining 14 or so attacks killed the entire skink crew. The stegadon did still get a single stomp attack, as the rules for the structure indicate it basically sticks its foot in a window and stomps one elf. Stomp indeed, after the heavy toll only 3 Elves remained but they were able to beat the stegadon mainly due to the structure denying it proper stomping and impact hits. The stegadon did one worse failing its stubborn 6, but it did pass its loss of riders test. The board before HE turn 4 looked like this:
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So due to some epic heroism and the protection afforded by the tower my army still had a hope, if the game would end quickly I might still pull this off. I decided it best to move the Sword Masters out as a delaying tactic, they would die for the cause, while my BSB spear unit would move into the tower, at 19 models they were now legal to do so. I figured what the heck, with my lion chariot and swung it around into the saurus, it was actually a bit farther back then in the picture there and had vision to it. My only combat was my suicidal chariot which did manage to kill a solid 6 lizards but they were able to strike back and destroy my toy. Poor cats, ah well they did their job threatening and helping me control the movement.
A tension went through the room as on a roll of a 6 the game ended right here! But alas we rolled a 3, how much longer could my elves delay a losing battle!
For the Lizard turn 5 he charged my remaining 3 sword masters wiping them to the last elf. He also had rallied his stegadon and moved all his units into charging range. As a final kicker for this turn he decided to start calling a comet right on the tower, since this is not a template attack it would cause full damage to my poor defenseless elves!
For Elf turn 5 there was nothing to do but sit tight and pray. The board looked grim:
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The die was cast...
And the result...
5! Hurray for elven victory! I imagine nothing short of Dragons flying in to finish off the Lizards and rescue the elves just in the nick of time, as a great way to imagine us winning in such a sudden fashion. Surely the sky darkened under shadows of massive wings and the High Elves rejoiced over the smell of burnt lizard on a stick. For Ulthuan for the Asur!
I hope you enjoyed the battle report. I should have a map up on the first post that you can follow for the campaign progress, and the future battles will be up here weekly! Thanks for reading!
Nice victory for the High Elves, with an epic ending. The Lizardman player's heart must have sunk when the dice came up to end the game.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I believe that if you miscast a spell, you still get to enjoy its effects first though, so the Archmage should have had the benefit of Throne of Vines to dodge the mis-cast.