Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report: Wood Elves vs High Elves, 900pts

This week I played a Warhammer Fantasy game for our club's escalation league, against Jay and his High Elves. It was painting score week again, but sadly I wasn't able to finish anything, and as we only get points for fully painted and based stuff I didn't get any more painting points. However, I could still get some more playing points!

Lists

Jay

Loremaster of Hoeth
10 Sea Guard
10 Archers
20 White Lions

2 Repeater Bolt Throwers

Some good artillery and shooting, backed up by a tough combat block!

I would have to kill the bolt throwers fast before they could cut apart my infantry, and I needed to keep well away from the White Lions.

I was using:

Spellweaver, Level 4, Dispel Scroll, Obsidian Lodestone, Elven Steed
5 Sisters of the Thorn

15 Glade Guard, Trueflight Arrows, Musician

2x 5 Deepwood Scouts, Hagbane Tips

5 Waywatchers

Great Eagle

Magic: Jay's Loremaster had all 8 signature spells from the rulebook.

My spellweaver had Hand of Glory, Soul Quench, Drain Magic, and Walk Between Worlds. The Sisters had Curse of Anraheir and Shield of Thorns.

Deployment
Jay was deploying first, and set up his bolt throwers last to ensure they could see all my units. However after scout deployment and vanguard moves I felt a bit safer- the Waywatchers scouted in the corner, while both units of Hagbane scouts went on the other side. Jay won the roll off, took turn 1.

High Elves Turn 1
Jay pushes forward with the White Lions and Archers. One bolt thrower faces the Waywatchers, while the other looks to team up with the Sea Guard and shoot the Scouts. His shooting isn't great though, and he only manages to kill 2 Scouts due to the heavy modifiers. He also fails to wound with both the hits on my Waywatchers! The Winds of Magic are 3+1, so Jay puts all his dice into Wildform on the White Lions, and I succeed in putting all my dice to stop it.

Wood Elves Turn 1My Eagle lines up a charge on a Bolt Thrower, while the 8 remaining poison scouts do a wound to the other, The Waywatchers wound the one ready to face the eagle. The Trueflight arrows manage to pierce the Loremaster's armour twice, as he was on his own. My magic phase is similarly uneventful, with all 3 of my dice going into Soul Quench on the Archers, which is dispelled.

Wood Elves Turn 2 Onwards
In the High Elves turn, Jay reformed the archers to try and shoot the Waywatchers next turn (as they had no musician so couldn't perform a Swift Reform). The White Lions failed a 10" charge into my Trueflight Glade Guard, taking 2 casualties for their efforts. The Sea Guard tried to shoot the scouts, and killed one (needing 7s to hit!), and the 2 left panicked. One Bolt Thrower took 2 wounds from the Eagle, while the other was unable to hit my Scouts. Jay's magic phase was eventful- we had 9 vs 6, so he started with Wyssan's on the White lions, which I let go, followed by a 3 dice boosted Fireball on my Sisters. He managed to cast it irresistibly, but due to my 2+ Ward vs magic I was okay. On the resulting miscast, he suffered a Dimensional Cascade! Although he survived the Str 10 hit even with 1 wound remaining, he didn't survive being sucked into the warp!
In my turn, the scouts didn't rally. However the others killed a bolt thrower, which panicked the Sea Guard. I got a strong magic phase, 10 vs 5, and was able to cast Soul Quench on the Archers to kill 1, Hand of Glory on the Waywatchers who killed another 8 Archers, as well as Drain Magic and Curse of Anraheir on the White Lions. The Trueflights and Blackbriar Javelins killed 5 more White Lions. In other news, the Eagle charged the bolt thrower, and the remaining elf crewman hit and wounded, slaying the bird!

Unfortunately Jay had to leave early, so we decided not to start another turn. However Jay didn't have too much left due to some unfortunate rolls, so he conceded to the Wood Elves. Athel Loren 1, Ulthuan 0!

After Action Thoughts
I loved the Waywatchers this time, and Hand of Glory on them is awesome. I much preferred this list to last week's, and the poison scouts were solid too. The Eagle again wasn't great, I think I need more experience playing it. Jay left his Loremaster out of a Unit due to having rolled a Dimensional Cascade on his Wizard the last 4 weeks in a row, and unfortunately his paranoia was proved valid as it happened again!

Next week we're going up to 1200pts- I'm thinking another Eagle, and some more Trueflight Glade Guard to split the unit into 2x 10. I also want to try out a Branchwraith, with Lore of Undeath, for some shenanigans! With the remaining 90pts, I think I'll get a musician (or maybe a standard) for my Sisters and a 3rd unit of Hagbane Scouts.

That's it for the battle report. A quick apology- I'm sorry several of the games have had to end early recently, resulting in much shorter reports, and also that my picture-taking has been lax; I'm endeavoring to play a full game soon though! I also played a Warmachine/Hordes game last week that will be posted soon :)

Thanks again for reading!

SimonW

Returning to Fantasy

Hello! Today I'll be writing about starting Warhammer Fantasy, with Wood Elves, and I'll include a few battle reports from the start of our Escalation league.

Firstly, my apologies for the long delay since the previous post. I've recently started a new job, and have been working long hours so just haven't had much time to blog. However it's settled down now, so I've got more free time for hobby-related activities!

The Plan

So, why Warhammer Fantasy? I used to play back in 5th edition with a Skaven army, but I got bored fairly quickly and didn't enjoy the painting at all. So I sold the lot and focused on 40k. However recently a couple of players at my local club have started playing Fantasy, and it looked great fun. Add to that one of them had a load of Wood Elves for sale- an army whose aesthetic and playstyle has always appealed to me- and I was in. I prefer manoeuvrable, shooty armies to combat oriented ones (like my 40k Eldar), so the Wood Elves seemed a perfect fit. They also just got a new book released along with a couple of new kits, which made it seem like the perfect time.

From my initial games Wood Elves seemed pretty good, and after chatting with some more experienced players they agreed that the new book was considered quite strong. I had mixed feelings about this- on the one hand, it's good to know that an army you're going to spend money on is good and won't be frustrating to play as it frequently fights uphill, but on the other hand I was quite looking forward to more casual games of Fantasy and it was a shame that I was already playing a very strong faction. Luckily, many of the other guys who play have either High Elves, Warriors of Chaos or Undead Legion, all of which I'm assured are very strong too!

The League

Our Escalation league starts at 600pts, with a 300pt increase every 3 weeks to 1200pts maximum. All painted models get Hatred (Unpainted Models), which I think is a great idea. List changes are allowed as much as you like, but I decided to keep the same so I could get used to it.

My list was the following:

Spellsinger (Lore of Shadow)
Level 2
Dispel Scroll
Elven Steed
150

10 Glade Guard
Trueflight Arrows
Musician
160

5 Sisters of the Thorn
130

5 Deepwood Scouts
Hagbane Arrows
80

5 Deepwood Scouts
Hagbane Arrows
80

This comes to 600pts on the nose. The plan was to not have much to deploy, and hopefully get first turn with the +1 bonus for finishing first. The Glade Guard should sit behind my free wood, while the Scouts and Sisters harass as best they can. I made sure to bring plenty of magic, as I wanted to learn the mechanics behind it, and experiment with different spells!

The Games

This was the second week of our league, and I was able to get some photos for battle reports this time- previously I was pretty busy learning the mechanics, but now I'm more confident with them I had time to take photos. In every game, the large snow based wood was the "free" Wood Elves one. I always put it just inside my table half, in the centre of the board.

Game 1- Jay's High Elves

Jay brought more or less the following:

Mage
Level 2 (High Magic)
Mounted

5 Ellyrian Reavers

5 Sisters of Averlorn

5 Dragon Princes

5 Shadow Warriors

Jay went for both the High Magic signature spells on his Mage, Drain Magic and Soul Quench, while I got Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma and Okkam's Mindrazor on the Spellsinger.

Deployment and Wood Elves Turn 1

Deployment and Game Turn 1
The Trueflight Glade Guard line up behind the free wood and get ready to shoot through. The Sisters of the Thorn deploy on the left with the Spellweaver and use their Vanguard move to get up the middle. I put a unit of Scouts in each wood.
Jay deployed his Dragon Princes on the flank and his Reavers centrally, with the Sisters of Averlorn. His Shadow Warriors scouted on my right.
I won the roll off thanks to the +1 bonus and went first. The Trueflight Glade Guard wheeled and shot at the Shadow Warriors, reducing them to a single elf. My Sisters of the Thorn got behind Jay's Sisters of Averlorn. Their magic did little except cast Shield of Thorns on the middle Scouts and Miasma on the Reavers. However the javelins combined with 1 unit of Scouts and killed all but 1 Sister of Averlorn. Finally the other Scout unit killed 2 Reavers. Jay passed all his panic tests.

High Elves Turn 1, Wood Elves Turn 2Jay advances his Dragon Princes, and desperately charges his last shadow warrior into my Glade Guard. Unfortunately the 10 Trueflight arrows cut him down, ignoring all penalties.
In the magic phase, Jay removes Miasma and then casts Soul Quench on the central Scouts. However he miscasts and rolls a Dimensional Cascade, and he fails the 4+ and his mage is destroyed! He does kill 3 of the Scouts with the spell though, who flee. His Reavers also kill 2 Glade Guard.
In my turn I rally the scouts, who do nothing more. I wheel the Glade Guard and clip the Venom Thicket with them, before they shoot into the Reavers again, but this time for no damage. The left hand Scouts finish the last Sister of Averlorn, and the Sisters of the Thorn throw javelins at the Dragon Princes to no effect. Magic this turn has little effect except reducing the Reavers to BS3 with Miasma.

 High Elves Turn 2, Wood Elves Turn 3
Jay's Reavers try to shoot some Scouts, but they need 6s to hit and do nothing. His Dragon Princes line up a charge on the Glade Guard for next turn.

In my turn, the Glade Guard swiftly reform and walk backwards into the trees, aiming at the Dragon Princes along with the rallied Scouts. Between the magic arrows and Jay's terrible saves they manage to kill 4 out of 5, and the 5th Prince flees!
My other Scouts and Sisters kill off another 2 reavers.

High Elves Turn 3, Wood Elves Turn 4
Jay's Dragon Prince fails to rally and is almost off the board, while his final Reaver tries and fails to shoot a Sister of the Thorn. Miasma has been really good this game, neutering a lot of Jay's shooting.
In my final turn, I shoot down the Dragon Prince and charge the final Reaver; the Sisters get the job done and the game is over.

After Action Thoughts
That was fun! The list plays how I hoped- fast, manoeuvrable, and hard hitting. I think in small points games, the arc-dodging of the Wood Elves is very strong, so it remains to be seen how that will pan out as the points increase. I felt bad for Jay, as to lose a wizard to a miscast on only 3 dice, on the first turn, is such a shame, and from then I could dominate the magic phase.

Jay was a great opponent as always, and we've got a rematch arranged for as soon as possible!

Game 2- Andy's Brettonians
Andy is organising the Escalation league and has played lots of Warhammer Fantasy, and he was really helpful with the rules. He had the following list:

Battle Standard Hero
Mounted

Priestess
Level 1 (Beasts)

Cheap Lord
Mounted

8 Knights Errant
Lances/Shields/Command Group

10 Peasant Bowmen
Spikes

10 Peasant Bowmen
Spikes

For magic, Andy gets Curse of Anraheir on the Priestess, while I get Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma and Purple Sun.

Deployment and Game Turn 1
My set up was similar to before, but the scouts stuck together opposite the big unit of Knights. Andy won the roll off and went first, plowing towards my lines. His longbowmen moved up and killed 1 Glade Guard and 2 Scouts.
In my turn, I get quite a low Winds of Magic roll so cast Curse of Anraheir on the Knights and move around them with the Sisters. One unit of scouts discovered a Fungus Forest and wandered forward in a daze. My shooting wasn't very effective, killing just 1 knight.

Game Turn 2
 The Knights charge the Scouts and kill them all, but not before 4 of them die and the BSB, Wizard and Lord all take wounds through a combination of dangerous terrain, and my rerolls to hit and also rerolling wound rolls of 1. The other scout unit panics at the sight and flees from the board. The Longbowmen try to shoot at my sisters, but only kill 1.

My Glade Guard panic one unit of Longbowmen off the board, while the Sisters fail to Javelin anything. Curse of Anraheir is maintained on the Knights.

Game Turn 3
 The Knights break apart to make a hail mary move, the 2 Errants marching towards the Sisters while the characters surround my Glade Guard. The peasants swift reform and kill 2 Sisters, who then fail panic! It's not quite off the board, but I'm getting charged next turn.
Luckily I rally and get a strong magic roll, so I can cast a boosted Miasma on the Peasants, Anraheir on the Knights, and Shield of Thorns on the Glade Guard. The Glade Guard then shoot down the Battle Standard Bearer in a hail of Armour Piercing arrows.

Game Turn 4 Onwards
Andy charges the Glade Guard with his Lord, and passes Dangerous Terrain, then 2 saves from Shield of Thorns, then 3 more from my poisoned rerolling attacks. He kills 3 Glade Guard and runs down the rest, again passing Dangerous Terrain.  Andy also casts Anraheir on my Sisters and fails to dispel Shield of Thorns, which promptly kills the 2 Knights! The peasants have already marched though, so luckily can't shoot me.
Turn 5, Andy's Lord tries to leave the woods and trips over a tree, losing his last wound. His peasants shoot at my 2 remaining Sisters and Spellsinger, but only kill 1 and they pass panic. We thought this was turn 6, and so as I was winning on points I didn't move due to fear of Dangerous Terrain, and so that was another narrow win for the Wood Elves!

After Action Thoughts
What a close game, with some real swings at the end! It's a shame we only played 5 turns, as it would have been interesting to see what would have happened next, although I'd likely have braved the dangerous terrain tests and hidden in the corner of the board. That was a great game- I didn't manoeuvre quite so well this time, and I think I should have focussed on clearing the peasants first and then running around the Knight block all game and keeping Curse of Anraheir on them to attrition them down through Dangerous Terrain tests.


Finally, I played Andy's Dwarves straight after this game, as we still had plenty of time.

Game 3- Andy's Dwarves
Andy has several Fantasy armies, and brought 600pts of a few to help the Escalation get running. This time it was his Dwarves, with a gunline:

Thane

10 Thunderers

10 Thunderers

Organ Gun
+1 BS
Reroll misfire

For magic I got The Withering, and took Miasma as well.

 Deployment and Dwarves' Turn 1
Andy sets up in a line, as do I, out of range of the Organ gun with most things but in range to move and poison it. However he goes first and in a hail of bullets tears apart 6 Glade Guard! Fortunately they pass their panic test.

Game Turn 2 
In the Wood Elves' first turn, I move up, Anraheir the Organ Gun and Miasma one unit of Thunderers. Then my poison scouts try their best to kill the Organ Gun and only do 1 wound. However, my Trueflight arrows do 4 hits and 2 wounds, finishing it off!
Andy responds by marching both units straight forward, and then in my 2nd turn I Wither one unit and kill 3 with shooting. The other unit gets Miasma to reduce their BS.

Game Turn 3
Andy shoots at the Sisters, with both units, but they have soft cover and Miasma to protect them, and only 1 dies. In my turn I again get a good Wither into the weak unit, and their toughness 1 exposes them to my bows, killing another 5. The other unit is again Miasma'd, protecting me from retribution.

 Game Turn 4

Andy turns to face my Sisters and shoots them, but needs 9s to hit and does nothing. The Spellsinger again casts Withering, this time only reducing the Dwarves' Toughness by 1 and the following shooting phase is much less effective.

End of Game
So on my turn 5 I charged into combat to see what would happen... and it did not go well. I'm sure given time Andy's T6 Thane would have ground me down and broken or killed everything, But luckily the game finished while I still had enough points left for the win, although he was able to kill 4 Scouts, 2 Sisters and my Spellsinger!

After Action Thoughts
Another close game with Andy! I probably should have just shot his Thane and friends at the end of the game, but in the spirit of the league I tried to win via melee. Rerolls from Always Strike First are nice, but they only go so far against T6 and a 2+ save! The Organ Gun was brutal, but after it died so quickly I was able to mow down most of Andy's army as it crossed the board. The Withering was an amazing spell too- reducing his higher Toughness by 2-3 almost every turn was invaluable.

That's the end of this week's battle reports! I had a ton of fun, and it was great to play something different. Hopefully I'll have a couple of Warmahordes games in the next few weeks, so watch out for those battle reports as well. I've played a few practice games and I'm feeling more confident about the mechanics, if not the precise detail of the rules.

I hope you enjoyed the games even half as much as I did, and as always thanks for reading!

SimonW