The Dice Odyssey vs The Imperial Patrol

Today i decided to journey up north in order to get more practice in with my NZTC wood elves and empire army. My opponent was Jayden Howel (of Imperial Patrol), before we began we agreed that i would handle the Wood Elf battle report and he would handle the Empire on Empire report, if you want to see that report you can find it here.

I used my NZTC list, which included:

2400 Pts - Wood Elves Roster

Total Roster Cost: 2399

Treeman Ancient (1#, 350 pts)
   1 Treeman Ancient, 325 pts
      1 An Annoyance of Netlings, 25 pts

Spellweaver (1#, 250 pts)
   1 Spellweaver, 250 pts = (base cost 215 + Level 4 Upgrade 35)

Noble (1#, 132 pts)
   1 Wood Elf Noble (Battle Standard Bearer), 92 pts = (base cost 75 + Light Armour 2 + Battle Standard Bearer 15)
      1 Opal Amulet, 15 pts
      1 A Resplendence of Luminescents, 25 pts

Noble (1#, 160 pts)
   1 Wood Elf Noble, 110 pts = (base cost 75 + Waywatcher Kindred 35)
      1 Sword of Might, 20 pts
      1 Hail of Doom Arrow, 30 pts

Glade Guard (15#, 214 pts)
   14 Glade Guard, 186 pts = 14 * 12 (base cost 12) + Musician Mus 6 + Standard Bearer Std 12
      1 Lord's Bowman, 18 pts
      1 Banner of Eternal Flame, 10 pts

Glade Guard (15#, 192 pts)
   14 Glade Guard, 174 pts = 14 * 12 (base cost 12) + Musician Mus 6
      1 Lord's Bowman, 18 pts

Glade Guard (15#, 192 pts)
   14 Glade Guard, 174 pts = 14 * 12 (base cost 12) + Musician Mus 6
      1 Lord's Bowman, 18 pts

Glade Guard (15#, 192 pts)
   14 Glade Guard, 174 pts = 14 * 12 (base cost 12) + Musician Mus 6
      1 Lord's Bowman, 18 pts

Wardancers (7#, 147 pts)
   6 Wardancers, 115 pts = 6 * 18 (base cost 18) + Musician Mus 7
      1 Bladesinger, 32 pts

Treeman (1#, 285 pts)
   1 Treeman, 285 pts

Treeman (1#, 285 pts)
   1 Treeman, 285 pts

He used his standard list which looked like:

1 General of the Empire with a rune-fang.

1 Level 4 Master Wizard (lore of heavens)

1 Level 2 Battle Mage on horse (lore of Light)

1 Master Engineer 

6 Units of 10 Handgunners

24 Halberdiers

24 Inner Circle Knights with Great Weapons. 

3 Great Cannon

1 Hellblaster Volley Gun



The battle field had 2 hills in his deployment zone, a few scatted copses of trees and a hill in my deployment zone. I deployed my Glade Guard in a line with the BSB unit on my single hill. The wardacners, 2 Treemen and level 4 wizard took the left flank, and due to a miscommunication the Ancient took the centre (which probably contributed to the end result).

He deployed all his artillery (aside from one cannon) on his big hill, with the knights on the left flank (facing the Treemen and co), 4 units of handgunners started at the base of said big hill along with the Halberdiers and Heroes. Finally 2 units of Handgunners and a cannon took the right flank....alongside a sneaky scout noble with the Hail of Doom Arrow. 

Unfortunately there are no pictures of deployment, but there are of the first turn, which i won.

The Left Flank

The Treeman Ancient makes the most of his poor deployment

The "Sneaky" Waywatcher Hero and his victims

The Arrowline

My opening move was to move the Waywatcher right up behind the handgunners and to unleash the HODA into the cannon, removing a single crewmen (i really need to get better at picking targets with that thing). The rest of the movement phase saw the Treeman advance along with the Wardancers and the archers held put. Magic was dull but the shooting phase saw many dead Empire and the removal of the final 2 crew of the cannon that had been the target of the HODA. 

Knight V.S Treeman action

The right Empire Flank

The Ancient attracts cannon fire

The left flank also attracts fire

The Empire turn was all about shooting and magic, there was little movement of note, aside from the Knight charging the Treeman. Magic wise the charged Treeman got debuffed with Midnight wind and the knights got buffed with the Timewarp. Helblaster fire murdered some Wardancers and gunfire knocked off a few wounds from the unengaged Treeman and Ancient. Combat was painful, seeing the Treeman hold but be reduced to 3 wounds in the process.

The Ancient advances

The Arrowline follows suit, note the Waywatcher rear charges the Handgunners

A combat gone wrong, so wrong that it caused the picture to blur

Turn 2 was the turn of failure for me. It started good, with the 2nd Treemen charging the knights in the flank and the Waywatcher charging the Handgunners in the rear. The Ancient stumbled forward and the Archers shuffled about. In the magic phase i hit the knights with the Curse of Anraheir and in the shooting phase killed few assorted Empire troops. The combat pahse was not all bad, the Waywatcher hero managed to beat the Handgunners he had charged forcing them to flee but coping a wound in return. An then it was the Treeman fight, i dont want to talk about it its painful. No wounds and the Treeman fled. Sad.

Empire Turn 2

The result of the Waywatcher's handy work

The Empire's second turn didnt have as many pictures, i apologize but i got caught up in the game and forgot to take pictures. In the movement phase the fleeing Handgunners rallied, the Knights remained where they were due to the Curse of Arnaheir. In the shooting phase the artillery concentrated fire on the Treeman, killing the Ancient and wounding the fleeing Treeman.

The railed Handgunners meet a pointy end

Before the combo charge

The reshuffled Arrowline

Turn 3 saw the Flee!man rally and the Wardancers position themselves to the rear of the Knights, it also saw the Arrowline reshuffle and Waywatcher Hero turn to face the none fleeing Handgunner unit. In the magic phase the level 4 Beastweaver gathered all his might and threw the Curse of Anraheir at the knights to scare jayden into keeping them where they were. Unfortunately he dropped 2 levels and the Curse for his troubles. The shooting phase the Arrowline wiped out the recently rallied Handgunner unit and continued to whittle down the other units.

There were no pictures of Empire turn 3. Sorry but Wood Elves sometimes have issues with " Technology".......and cannons. In the movement phase the Empire Halberdiers moved up to the small square of door mat/field. Elsewhere magic buffed the Knights and debuffed the Treeman (same spells as before), and the cannons caused several panic tests amongst the Archers, who all held. 

Pictures!! Only one though, this one is of what happened after the combo charge.

Turn 4 and here was when i thought i would win back the game that was rapidly slipping though my grasp. I charged the Treeman and Wardancers into the Knights with savage glee. In the magic phase i did something dumb. Jayden had been very good at dispelling my magic, and to ensure that the knight combat went according to plan i decided to 4 dice Wyssan's Wildform and Savage Beast of Horrors, Wildform on the Treeman and Beast on the wizard, well i irresistibly cast Wildform, lost the last 2 levels, the plan and the combat. The Treeman was wiped out, the Wardancers wiped out and the former Beastweaver fled. The Knights restrained pursuit in fear of the Curse. Oh there was some shooting, but after the magic and combat phase it didn't warrant mentioning. 

The Knights celebrate not being cursed by charging a unit of Glade Guard, who fled.

Now you see em.......

......Now you dont

Empire turn 4 was the turn i mistook for turn 6, the price of not having a proper turn counter, but i didnt matter much in the end. It began badly with the Knights causing a unit of Glade Guard to flee by charging them. It then got worse in the magic phase when all the units on the Arrowline got ZZAAPPED!!! by chain lighting, and reached its height of badness when the Helblaster did a magic trick with a glade guard unit and caused it to vanish, poof. Oh and the Beastweaver got shot by something that killed him.

At this point we thought it was game over, tallied up the points and found out that Jayden had won 15-5, it was well played by him even with the dice rolling in my favor more than once. There now exists a friendly competitive atmosphere between me and Jayden that will see us clash many more times. This game was close (it all hinged on the knight combat) and i hope all our games are as close and enjoyable. until next time.
Rex