Friday 14 October 2011

2400 Empire vs Dark Elves: Ode to the 4+ ward/regen


A show down between the Empire (revised list from 2 posts ago) vs Dark Elves consisting of:
Lvl4: stuff shadow
Lvl2: flame and scroll
Bsb cauldron
Hero on Pegasus with the dumb ward thingie
Block of spears
Block of frenzied 2hw corsairs
10 xbows
20 Bguard
Block of witch elves
2 units of shades
Hydra

Spells were rolled for, armies deployed and the battle commenced!

TURN 1

Empire:
stuff moves up=-mainly the stank and the chaff. Peg moves to block the cannons form the hunters.

The magic phase was rather uneventful with 1 harpie killed with the ruby ring and the shades by the cannons suffering -1 BS. Shooting was more eventful. Xbows shot 3 shades, archers killed 1 xbow and the Hydra regened 2 cannon hits sigh.

Dark Elves:
The harpies jump to in front of the peg

Rest of army avoids the flagellants and the stank except for a unit of harpies that landed in front of it to delay it for a turn (re: no overrun).
The magic phase is interesting. All dispel dice are used to stop a pit on the stank. The Stank is then withered to t8 and the archers running with the flagellants find themselves with -3 to the miasma’ed stats.
The shades then return fire at the xbows and kill 2. The xbows wipe out a unit of free company and the other shades fail to do anything to the cannon phew!

TURN 2

Empire:
The stank declares charge on the harpies who fail terror test and flee. Stank then redirects into the black guard...the plan all along! The Pegasus charges the harpies.

 Banishment kills 4 xbows. One cannon finally get past the regen and do 4 wounds to the hydra, the other fails to wound. In the peg combat the harpies lose and flee-peg reforms to face the shades.

The stank destroys the black guard killing 9. 1 wound is caused back in return.

Dark Elves:
1 unit of harpies rally, the other continues to flee. The Elf Peg decides to charge the flank of the flagellants. The 2 shades then flank charge the xbows.

The hydra moves through the forest, only for it to be dangerous, so refrains from marching. The left flank shades move to the flank of the empire xbows.
I let Power of darkness be cast. Flaming blades is then IF’ed on the bguard. The rest of the dice are lost and 5 spearelves die. The shades have a poor shooting phase bouncing off a cannon while the xbows kill 1 archer.
In the combat phase the 2 shades run down the xbows who fail a steadfast test. Burning blades fails to help the black guard and the Elf Pegasus wounds the flagellants who fail to reform to face.

TURN 3

Empire:
The Pegasus charges the shades.

My archers move to divert the hydra away from the flagellants inside the ldship 9/bsb bubble.

Magic is a big let down when the 2 flaming magic missiles are dispelled. The hydra then regens 2 cannon hits sigh. In combat, the empire Pegasus takes a wound failing a re-roll 1+ as. However the shades are still run. The stank kills 5 black guard-many surviving with a 5+ ward. 4 more flagellants die to the elf Pegasus.

Dark Elves:
Well, the best laid out plans can always fail as the archers flee in terror from the hydra who promptly redirects into the flagellants. The corsairs fail a frenzy charge on the waralter, 4 dying in the dangerous terrain.

The fleeing harpies on cannon side rally. Magic phase did nothing with mindrazor failing to cast on the blackguard. Shooting kills 1 free company and bounces off the waralter.
The flagellants are butchered down to 2...thankfully the waralter is looking at the flank of the hydra...

TURN 4

Empire:
Waralter runs over the hydra with impact hits and continues into the shades, last flagellants die to the elf Pegasus. 1 unit of halberds turn to protect battle line from any advancing witchelves who have been sitting back in a frenzy trap successfully restraining every turn. Lvl4 also leaves the unit for some reason I have forgotten (most likely to be looking in the right direction for pit on bsb).

Black guard almost dead (thank you 5+ ward)
The cannons then decide to bounce off the BSB (more 4+ saves grrr).

Dark Elves: (sorry forgot pics of this turn)
The Pegasus charges the lvl4 (left enough room for it to land-silly mistake). The lvl4 flees and the Pegasus stumbles forward into awkward position with halberds looking right at it. The corsairs then flank the waralter -7 dying on the charge (with KBlow blessing). The corsairs get flaming bladed and mindrazor is dispelled. Shooting kills 2 free company-they hold. In combat the shades are run over, the corsair champ declines challenge (boo hiss). In a crucial dice moment, the 1 Kblow inflicted is warded. PHEW.

TURN 5

Empire:
SO the lvl4 rally, the Pegasus moves back to protect it from the shades.

The halberds declare a charge on the elf Pegasus who flees and is run down woot!

The trap on the witch elves then gets personal as the free company move up real close.

So my next attempt to get rid of the cauldron fails when I fail to cast Pit. The Archlector IF’s soulfire and manages to kill 1 corsair...
The cannons continue their reign of terror when 1 fails to hit the cauldron and the other fails to wound...the archers on the other hand kill a single witch elf!
In this combat my 4+ ward skills fail me and the archlector dies. However thankfully the alter is unbreakable! Also the Stank finishes off the black guard.

Dark Elves:
Finally the harpies get a charge on the cannon and delete it, over running into the 2nd one.
With an exposed stank, the lvl4 decides to IF pit and suck it  up with a 1 inch scatter. The shooting then adds to the misery by finishing off the free company.

TURN 6

Empire:
Pegasus charges the harpies in Combat with the cannon and defeats then-saving the cannon!

My lvl4 then gets his chance to IF the pit and promptly misses the cauldron with a 5 inch scatter.

Dark Elves:
Mindrazor scrolled meaning the alter survives yay!

RESULT
Darkelves win by 120 points. A very close game that would have been mine had my IF pit hit the cauldron-but of course by the same small margin. My cannons failed to capitalise on anything really due to fantastic ward and regen rolling. This meant I swapped my flagellants for his hydra (and I suppose his peg man who was caught in the open). Not the best swap, but the best I could do given the circumstances. I was expecting the witchelves to be used a bit more offensively-but my opponent insisted that the halberds would have won the grind. I suppose he was correct given the frenzy trap I set (but with no way to capitalise on it...). 


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