Campaign Day two

Alrighty,

Sorry for the delay - life (well, the Legend of Korra) got in the way. So naturally now it's Friday night = I can watch Conan the Barbarian (original) and type up battle reports. After a mixed bag day 1 (unsurprising thrashing by Skaven, giving it good to the Beastmen, and voluntarily giving 1000pts away last 2 turns and losing to Vamps - I'm still a little sore about that), I was determined to make amends day to and prove that the Woodies can mix it with everyone (except skaven).

GAME FOUR: vs Glen's Vamps Meeting Engagement.

So another game vs the Vamps. Glen's list is very different to Ryan's. He uses a flying Ghoulking in a skele bunker with the 3 wraiths and banner of swiftness. 2 Terrorgiests, lvl2 heavens dark aura vamp on hellsteed + a death lvl4...yeah you can guess what this list is built around. 5 terror causes, 2 superscreams and a potential -5 to Ldship. Basically I love Glen's take on the Vamps as it is not just about pushing a bus into combat.

I won the roll off and deployed first. Both Treemen and a unit of archers were off the board. my plan was to deploy a deep curve so if the terrorgiests wanted to go screaming they would wear arrows to the face. Glen counter deployed and had his lvl4 and lvl1 necro + a unit of zombies off the board.

I didnt vanguard my wildriders just in case I went first so I could still charge with them. Glen failed to steal the initiative, so I went first.

Turn 1:
This mission is made for turn 1 charges, so not to disappoint my wildriders charged some doggies on the right flank while the dryads charged some on the left. Hoping to do a better job with the shooting my archers open up on the (my) left terrorgiest. 5 FLIPPIN' WOUNDS (again). To make matters worse, the last 30 shots failed to take the final wound gar! Oh wellz. The wildriders and dryads both make short work of the doggies.

In response Glen's vargiests frenzy charge into the wildriders, while the unwounded terrorgiest and the dark aura vamp move to get some scream on.

 Whilst the other one went and hid in the corner (boo hiss!)...Glen is a closet Dwarf player :P

The lvl4 IF's Doom and Darkness on the wildriders. Small template kills 4 zombies and 1 skele. Scream is not that impressive with only 3 dying (dropped to ldship 5). To add to it, the Wildriders hold.

Turn 2:
 The central dryads charge into a unit of doggies seeing an overrun into the fellbats and a chance to hold up the zombies. The left dryads move to take the last wound from terrorgiest, the treemen run towards the combat.

Shooting is more about clearing chaff out the way. The Wildriders die in the combat, whilst the middle dryads beat the doggies and get the overrun.

Dryads then promptly get zombies in the front and flank...BRING IT ON! The vargiests fail a frenzy induced charge into 1 of the eagles (thank goodness!).

The terorgiest and vamp move to scream my bunker in the building. The lvl4 IFs Doom and Darkness (again) taking a wound, and wounding the Ghoul King in the process. Scream kills 9 archers and the dryads to enough wounds to negate the SCRes and win the combat by 1.

Turn 3:
The Dryads take the opportunity that is presented and flank the vargiests. In exchange for 1 wound on my lvl4 I IF Dwellers on the skele character bus killing 1 wraith and 23 skelles. My shooting phase gets the final wound on the terrorgiest, 3 wounds to the 2nd terrorgiest, and kill the lvl2 vamp.

In the combats Zombies vs Dryads = Dryads hold and the vargiests lose by 1.

A wraith charges the building...pass my -4ldship terror test boom! and the wriath takes a wound from my BSB's magic bow for the pleasure too. The terrorgiest also declares a charge on the building too. My eagle also passess a terror test from a wriath charge. I scroll Doom and Darkness. In the Combats I beat the vargiests by 2, do 2 wounds to the terrorgiest before the bunker is killed. Dryads kill enough zombies for a draw and the heroic eagle holds!

Turn 4:
The Treemen get into the zombies to rescue the dryads (not that they needed it, but a game without Treeman stomp is a wasted game!)

I Dwellers the bunker again (9 dead skeles - Ghoul King dodged it twice now...) and then get the archers into it (well, 1 unit finishes off the terrorgiest) and drop the unit to unit champ and Ghoul King on 1 wound (that champ passed a few too many armoursaves!). The Treemen have their fun and crumble the zombies (who remembers 7th ed where zombies were the best way to tie up treemen???). The vargiests are also beaten by the dryads. The now t6 Eagle also holds.

Not seeing any other options the Ghoul King tries to get to safely and declares a charge on a unit of glade guard...who prompty kill the Ghoul King with stand and shoot! The resulting crumble kills the remaining wraiths. The lvl4 not seeing many options IF's Purple sun at the Treemen...and thanks to the FAQ misses by an inch!

We call the game there with EVERYTHING looking at the lvl4 and his much diminished bunker.

End Result: Big win to the Woodies!

In the map phase I completely forgot to take one of Glen's territories. I was under the impression all his neighbouring land was in the mountains-clearly missed the one that wasnt!

GAME FIVE: vs  Cody's WoC Dawn Attack.

Alrighty my first game vs the new WoC. Not the Internetz chariot spam ftw list, but what I thought was a reasonably well put together "competes in all phases" and in all missions list. Tznch lvl4 Demon Prince with breath, 2+ armour, fly, 5 spells, 4++, 3rd eye lore of metal, Regen, breath chimera, Hellcannon, 9 Tznch knights with tznch BSB re-rolling 1+ armour, block of tznch board and sword warriors, lvl1 with fire, and 3 units of doggies.

I "deployed" first, but Cody stole the first turn...sneaky sneaky Lord of Change.

Turn 1:
Not really knowing how to handle 70+ shots/turn with split monsters Cody aggressively moves up the Demon Prince and Chimera.

This is then followed by a fluffed magic phase and the hell cannon missing the Ancient (phew!).
In return I move up to bypass the "just a little bit too close" Demon Prince with the Ancient and get my shooting on the Monsters while also blocking the Knights.

I then promptly shoot down the Chimera (gotta love flaming bow), kill a knight, and the 3rd eye was points very well spent as the Demon Prince survives on 1 wound.

Turn 2:
The Demon Prince then tries to get to safety with a charge on the a unit of archers who kill it with stand and shoot! The warriors fail a charge on the Ancient (3 died to strangle root stand and shoot) and the knights charge (and kill) the eagle speed bump. The Hellcannon scatters and kills a wildrider.

I move ANOTHER eagle speed bump in front of the knights, the Ancient charges the warriors. My lvl4 becomes a lvl3 IF'ing thorns on the ancient (nothing and does nothing). My shooting takes down 2 more knights and thanks to the champ Tznch warding everything the Ancient gets to thunderstomp all over the warriors and wins the combat.

Turn 3:
Everything goes according to plan and the BSB helm of many eyes induced stupidity test is failed! The Hell Cannon misses (man this is unlucky shooting!)  and the champ dies.
 Too add to the fun, by Treeman decides to join in thunderstomping all over the warriors. JUST to make sure, my bunker exits the building to get the BSB into range.

Shooting does a token wound to the Hellcannon and kills another knight. Good thing the BSB was in range as I have a crap round of combat, kill the sorcerer and hold.

Turn 4:
The knights aint stupid this time around as they charge into the eagle and kill it. My sneaky placement of everything means the overrun mises my 2 archer units and have to stop 1 inch short of my bunker. On another note, the Hellcannon misses.

My dryads flank into the warriors

My shooting is completely focused on the knights (except for the token unit shooting at the Hellcannon) and due to some fantastically crap rolling to wound ( s4 vs t4 8 hits, 1 wound...repeat sorta rolling) I only kill 2 knights including the unit champ. The Dryads and treemen win the combat easily (thank you t6 dryads)...now if I only had something that broke steadfast!

Turn 5:
With nothing else to do the knights charge the building and kill 5 Glade Guard. The Hellcannon also decides to join the combat in the middle of the board.

The dryads (even with t6) get smashed by the cannon and the warriors (sad face). The remaining dryads then flee while the Treemen's stubborn does them good. Only 4 warriors left...

After my shooting does NOTHING (seriously-how hard is it to roll a 4+ to wound?) my Treemen very efficently kill the remaining Warriors (1 hit from 10 attacks, then only 3 stomps...)

Turn 6:
Hellcannon charges archers (flee) then redirects into Treeman. Knights charge the building. Glade guard hold and the treeman combat is a draw. 


I then have 1 last go at killing the knights...ONE LEFT while the treeman/hellcannon combat goes nowhere.

Result: Comfortable win to the Woodies. Once again the lack of nettlings meant that I chose to shooting the knights instead of charging in the ancient who would have had a better chance of getting the points...but oh well.

IN the campaing I get my build on and build lots of stuff - aided by All or Nothing perk giving me 6 Empire points. I move to top of the middle group.

GAME SIX vs Ryan's Vamps watchtower
SO a repeat game. I spent all day 2 trying to call Will's Ogres to batte to no avial. However I was happy to be playing Ryan again as it gave me a chance to avenge my last game.

Ryan controlled the tower a plonked a unit of 20 zombies in it. We deploy and vanguard.

Turn 1:
Dryads charge the building, archers (all fall off their movement tray...) move to  get shots on stuff while the Treemen redeploy around to the right (avoiding the bus!)

And

Dwellers kills 18 Skeles and 2 wraith. I get all exciting when I see a unit of doggies in the forest so treesing twice and kill 4...Shooting does 4 wounds to the Terrorgiest...thins a few zombies and takes out 2 dog units. Dryads crumble the zombies down to 4...so far going to plan.

And so naturally zombies come back up and the Terrorgiest gains 2 wounds back. A unit of vargiests also moves to threaten my flank.

Turn 2: 
Wildriders charge vargiests to hopefully hold them up and dryads charge into building again.

Onthe other flank my Ancient line breaks to get some strangle action on the skeles and everything else moves to have fun with the very isolated unit of zombies.

Shooting kills a token black knight, some zombies, strangled a few skeles (dwellers scrolled), and the terrorgiest is back down to 1 wound. In the combats the Wildriders pull something out of nowhere doing enough wounds (and warding 4 out of 5 wounds in return) and crumble the vargiests! The dryads hoping to repeat the awesome crumble the zombies down to a single model GRRRRRRRR

Mr Eagle gets squished by Black knights (a unit of zombies failed to join in the fun), solo zombie exits and skeles enter watchtower. Doggies charge gladeguard to get out of the way of black knight overrun. The Terrorgiest also fails to charge a unit of dryads. The doggies crumble vs Glade guard failing to do a single wound and the lvl4 fails to cast first spell.

Turn 3:
Dryads charge building, Ancient charges the terrorgiest. Dryads also charge the solo zombies and on the (my) right flank Dryads flank, and gladeguard front charge  the unit of zombies.

I then channel my inner Joe Dixon and get all my archers out of the way (bottom unit swift reformed facing right 2 wide and moved 5 JUST out of charge arch boom!)

Ancient kills the Terrorgiest and misses the vargiests with the overrun (killed 1 with shooting) Dryads vs Skeles = win by 3. No wraiths came to the party.

Nothing of note happens in the vamp turn. Bus turns around and the vargiest unit moves down to say hi.

Turn 4:
So hindsight screw up-I didnt move the eagle to block 2nd unit of zombies. 1 unit gets sandwiched between Ancient and wildriders and the archers turn to say hi to the vargiests.

Killing zombies is so much fun!

...and so is killing skeles

I also kill 3 knights with shooting.

In the vamp turn the bus fails to swift reform, skeles exit building and zombies enter...Ancient and wildriders finish of the remaining 2 zombies.

Turn 5:
Dryads have to start all over again sigh. I decide to shoot the bus and the first volly from my bigger unit causes this (armour save rolls)

And rest of shooting does this:

...yup. Dead bus, dead hero vamp, and vamp lord on 1 wound!
Lots of zombies die.

Vamp lord then moves to "safety" and raises a few zombies back (regains a wound).

Turn 6:
Wildriders + Ancient engage the remaining skeles + wraiths. Ancient gets stuck in challenge (dead wriath). Unit crumbles down to 1 wraith on 1 wound. Shooting drops vamplord back to 1 wound. The 1 turn I fail to get flesh to stone on the dryads = 2 die.

I then shut down the magic phase and kill the wraith...game goes to turn 7...

Turn 7:
My shooting kills the vamplord...and the sole remaining unit (zombies in building + necro) pass their ldship test grrrrrrrr. I fail to crumble them completly and we call it there.

Result: I lost 1 wildrider, 2 dryads, and 1 eagle...Ryan lost EVERYTHING except 6 zombies and a necro = Ryan wins 11-9 due to watchtower. sigh.

Campaign: I was planning to expand into Ryan's territory with a win, but instead just consolidated in 4th place. Pete had the largest Empire, followed by Will's Ogres, then Ryan, then me.

The key is to get a decent win round 1 to take advantage of the cheaper land. That is what Pete, Will and Ryan did and it kept them good for the rest of the campaign.

A fantastically fun weekend...thanks heaps Pete for letting us all come play (and letting me use your jigsaw to make 40k area terrain...).

Thoughts on list:
I liked it. Throughout the weekend I had moments where I wanted to swap the wildriders for another unit of dryads, but overall the wildriders were really useful. They give my list speed and mobile s5. The one change I am making is to swap out the scroll for nettlings. Without nettlings I cant hold up combat characters = crucial.

I wasnt too impressed with the lore of life due to lack of treekin in list + if you dont roll dwellers I'm not really sure what to do during the magic phase except token t6 eagles/dryads. Shield of thorns was very useful and I only had throne of vines in one game. Re-grow is also not that useful as I either completely lost a unit, or didnt take enough casualties for me to care (not risking a misscast to get 1 dryad back!) However I'm not sure what beasts would add since dwellers was huge when I cast it. 8 s9 attacks from the ancient does sound nice though as does the curse. Better than dwellers though....I'll have to think that one over.