CTA Practice Vs Undead

So for this Thursdays gaming night I decided it would be best to do some practice games for Call to Arms. My first game was against Nick Jebson and his Undead horde. In my list I had:

1 Treeman Ancient w/ Annoyance of Nettlings
1 Level 4 life Mage
1 BSB noble w/ Hail of Doom Arrow
1 Level 2 mage w/ Lore of Athel Loren, Dispel Scroll and Rudy Ring of Ruin
2x10 Glade Guard w/ Musician
1x12 Glade Guard w/ Musician
1x14 Glade Guard w/ Musician
1x16 Glade Guard w/ Musician
9 Dryads
2 Treemen


Mr Jebson had in his list:


1 vamp lord (lvl 1, Lore of the Vampires) on zombie dragon w/ lance, heavy Armour, shield, the night-shroud, talisman of preservation, quick blood
2 level 2 Necromancers w/ lore of vampires  1w/ dispel scroll and  1w/ Channelling Staff

1 Wight king Battle Standard Bearer w/ great weapon, Armour of fortune, iron-curse icon

30 zombies w/ full command
29 zombies w/ full command
50 Skeletons w/ full command
1 Black Coach
2x2 Fell bat swarms
2x9 Dire Wolf packs
2x9 Hexwraiths w/ full command

The Battle Field looked like this.

 

Deployment for me was a case of trying to counter my opponents, which I didn’t do a very good job of. At one point in the game I commented that I have tactics for every phase but the deployment phase.

 

Wood Elf deployment

Undead deployment

Nick deployed his 3 big blocks in the center, with fell bat swarm 1 and the black coach on the right flank, and the vampire lord, both units of dire wolves and hex wraiths and the last fell bat swarm on the left flank.  The photo above also shows Nick’s vanguard moves on the left flank. 

And then the game began. This was a though game for me, as the pictures will revel I was on the back foot with Undead closing in on all flanks. The Hexwraiths ethereal made them a huge pain as my only magic shooting attack was the Hail of doom arrow which only killed 5 from a unit of 9

 

The Hexwraiths take over the left flank

The Treemen preformed wonderfully. My deployment split them up and the lone Treeman on the right flank held up 50 skeletons and a increasingly powerful black coach for two turns. This meant that the usually lethal black coach only fought one of the toughest units in my army.

Who thought a Tree could hold up so many troops

The archers did what was required of them and shot things. Together all of them accounted for shooting off all Nick’s chaff (dire wolves and bats), and killing about 15 zombies. The terrain made shooting an issue as it blocked clear LOS meaning that on top of long range modifiers the archers had to contend with soft and hard cover for most of the game.

The terrain kept the archers damage down

The Magic part of the army won me this game, hands down. Lore of life should be the only lore a Wood elf level 3 or 4 takes. In this game it boosted unit toughness to make them able to take being run over by Hexwraiths. It Dwellered off a far chunk of the skeleton block. But most of all it kept the Treeman Ancient alive due to the lore attribute. 

The shield of thorns spell on the Treeman proved effective

 

In Nicks turn 2 he charged his Vampire Lord on zombie dragon into the Treeman Ancient, who I had positioned facing the Vampire. This was the combat that I had wanted from the deployment phase. Treeman are tough and with the Annoyance of Nettlings causing opponents to hit only on 6’s in challenges the Ancient was ready for a fight.

Shockingly that large base is the vamp lord, who knew....

This combat went on for 2 turns, and I would have lost it if my life mage hadn't hung around and restored the Treeman's wounds with the lore attribute. The combat took a routine feeling, Nick went first and, thanks to the Annoyance of nettling's, hit about once or twice and wounded about that much due to the treemans high toughness, armour save and 5 up ward save. The Treeman would then have a similar performance and get one wound though the vamp’s defenses.

The fight that decided the game

If it wasn’t for the life mage I would have lost, a Treeman may be tough but it can only do so much against a vamp lord and zombie dragon. On top of that while the generals fought my line was crumbling, having no way to deal with the Hexwraiths (who were causing the left flank to collapse) or the 3 big blocks on the right flank my army was slowing walking backwards to the edge of the board.

And then the Treeman struck the killing blow against the vampire lord, which caused the 4 Hexwraiths in one of my units flanks to pop, along with: 5 Hexwraiths from the other unit, the zombie dragon, all but 10 of the skeletons, about 15 zombies and 2 wounds from the black coach. On top of that one of my other Treemen had killed one of Nicks level 2 Necromancers meaning his army general was waaay out on the right flank after his zombie unit ate 12 glade guard.

The vampire lord dies

 

 

And the Undead crumble

With his army out of position and severally damaged Nick graciously conceded the game to me. It was  a very hard fought game where victory really did seem a long way off. But I won it. Victory number one for the Wood Elves.

Until Next time
Rex