Warwick Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Long is the rivalry between Elves and Dwarves. Old grudges and slights can turn a chance encounter into a battle without mercy asked for nor given. Tonight, yet again, the mettle of these old races was tested. Axe and hammer versus arrow and blade. Under the banner of the Protector's Doctrine, my army of six units and 27 models rode out to meet the grubby Dwarves. Daereth + Book of Tactics Vale Swordsman X2 Vale Archer x 5 Daereth Vale Swordsman X2 Vale Archer x 5 Daereth Vale Swordsman X2 Vale Archer x 5 Giant Eagle x 3 Across the ruins stood two good-sized units and two powerhouse solos. One of them was the unstoppable Stone Spirit. The other, the Griffon. There was no controlling their movements, as I had no mage. My best bet was to spread out, minimize the casualties, and wait for a moment to strike. My only hope was finding a way to bring down the Griffon in a hail of arrows. I had no hope against the Damage Reduction of the Stone Spirit. Not with a bunch of 1 attack models. Avoid him at all costs. I would use my soldiers as speed bumps, never attacking, holding the forces in check while arrows slaughtered their ranks. That was the plan. Similar to last battle. I spread out my forces in a blend of archers and soldiers, the eagles floating on thermals high in the clouds. First turn, I move three archers forward a few steps and launch an attack on a lone Piercer on a hill. Two arrows slam home and he falls. That's the start of some great rolling for me. Arrows all over the place landing with uncanny marksmanship. Then my skirmishing soldiers performed exactly as I wanted. My leaders got into the action and dropped the wounded Dwarves as they ran up, bleeding from arrow wounds. I can find no fault in my tactics nor most of my die rolls. I lost anyway. I lost by 72 points. I simply couldn't kill his solos. With staggering DV and DR, nothing would have mattered. Wildbill will say it was Freya - and I'll get to that - but it was his solos as soon as they hit the table. A bunch of 1 attack models can't fight big solos. Not in the configuration I had. Wildbill is too crafty to let me surround his solos, anyway. He's a veteran of many battles. That Stone Spirit isn't dying to Elves. Two other things come to mind that had an influence. Oh great balls of fire, are the Giant Eagles total pushovers. They work great when attacking soft targets like clerics or mages or straggler soldiers. Giant base and DV 11 makes them wet tissue paper after that. I doubt all three of them killed more than five dwarves. Really disappointing. And now...Freya. Do not heed my opponents cry of how she won the game. Sure, her points would make me win if I had killed her. But that can be said of any of his big models! The main difference between Freya and the solos...I fired a forest of arrows at Freya and missed every single time. More than once all five archers from a unit aimed at Freya and hit nothing. Like that scene from Predator. We hit nothing. I was dropping models left and right that needed 8+ to wound. Not a scratch on Freya. The Elves have a bitter pill to swallow this night. They did everything right and the dice gods were with them, and they still lost. Next Battle: Nefsokar vs Crusaders! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbill Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Back when we determined the tournament bracket, and then reviewed the lists we had created for each faction, I was EXTREMELY worried about this battle. Warwick throwing down with 15 archers was not a fun proposition to face. I honestly believed that I would lose this battle, despite having the Stone Spirit and Griffon. Anyways, here is my list: Freya Fangbreaker 4 Shieldmaidens 3 Warriors 1 Piercer Griffon Fulumbar Ironhammer 4 Berserkers 4 Mancatchers 1 Piercer Stone Spirit Luck Stone Totals: 999 Points, 4 Troops, 21 Models, 0 Tacticians, 0 Spies, Giant Slayer Doctrine Once Warwick landed those pesky eagles on the ground, my ground troops were thankfully able to make short work of them thanks to the Giant Slayer Doctrine. The eagles still got their licks in, but it could have easily been much more devastating. Speaking of devastating, those frickin' archers were insane last night. WOW. It felt like he almost never missed, except against Freya. She was shot at by at least 20 shots, and was in four rounds of melee combat and yet, despite all of that, she managed to survive to the end of the game with ZERO wounds. Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! I just pictured that she was one of the Spartans from "300" knocking all of the arrows out of her shield at the end of each turn. Because this is a tournament, and not a friendly game where we go to "last man standing", I had to think about conserving what few models I had left and run and hide. I despise doing that, but if I didn't, those stupid archers would have mowed me down. Yes, there was a chance my Griffon, Freya and Stone Spirit could have could killed enough archers that remained (there were 7!!!!) to make it more of a lopside victory for me. But there was also a chance he finally took down both Freya and the Griffon. My lone remaining Mancatcher was too far away to be useful so he was hiding behind a nice cushy stone pillar. At the end of the game, I had an unhurt Stone Spirit, Freya and Mancatcher. My Griffon had 2 wounds on it. Out of the 21 models in my list, 11 have Tough/x. 9 of those models had the opportunity of a lifetime to make those checks and stick around to join the last of my troops in Valhalla. But no, they declined the opportunity and instead were sent to Hel. Stupid failed Tough checks. Warwick failed everyone one of his Tough checks as well. That was amazing. He had 5 of his 6 models with Tough make checks and all fail. The next round for the Dwarves will be against the Sisters. They have less quantity of shooting, but better quality. And they have that stupid Angel with like Regen/8. Ugh. But, we are long ways from that battle. Next week I field the dusty horde of Nefsokar against the self-righteous fury of the Crusaders. Only time will tell if the dust will choke those do-gooders to death!! Wild Bill 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwick Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 I keep rethinking this battle! Most of my plan went off without a hitch. Was there a way to win? Go ten hunting on the Griffon? But then I would have to ignore a bunch of dwarves on the ground. Lure the Stone Spirit up and pour arrows into it? Never work, not even with my good rolls last night. DR 2 is just too darn high for Elves to punch through. It seems my army was destined to lose the battle. I'm going to enjoy killing this army with my Sisters. Revenge! Oh yes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbill Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 While you did have 15 archers, you only had them in bunches of 5. So, if you moved to shoot the Spirit, you would have needed 10s to hit, and then you would have needed 3 out of 5 to roll a 10 to do one wound. If you were able to focus, you would only need 9s. Still need 3 of them. The Sisters definitely have a lot of scariness going on. One thing in my favor with the Dwarves over the Reptus is I have more troops and more models. I'm hoping that translates into a victory for the Dwarves! Wild Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwick Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Keep hope alive. I think the Sisters are far more able to handle the Dwarves. Especially now that I played against them once. I know what needs to be done. But the same can be said for you vs the Sisters. You know them. It's going to be a war for the ages! Don't forget about my Luck Stones in a huge pile at my feet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbill Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Hahaha!! You had no Luck Stones last night. I could tell it bugged you. No arguments the Sisters were a formidable bunch of lasses. They shall not stand tall after getting chopped off at the knees by the world class Dwarves. Wild Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwick Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 I have a plan for next game. You will perish. The Elves get to be my cheerleaders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seej Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Great report, gents. I really appreciate being able to read both sides' commentary in the after action report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbill Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 You are quite welcome! We got together last night and were still talking about this game as well as next week's forthcoming match. Hopefully the Sisters winning was just a fluke thing and my factions can run the rest of the table. Wild Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warwick Posted September 11, 2015 Author Share Posted September 11, 2015 The fights are only getting tougher for you! So you beat the Elves? Your overconfidence shall be your undoing! We both know Sisters are much tougher. But that's not for many games. I have to kill some mummys first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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