Battle Breakdown Part 4

So here's the next part of the battle breakdown, hopefully just one more after this and I'll be caught up. I'll leave the preamble to a minimum and get straight down to it

Game 11

This was on the same day I played the Wood Elves this time against Jez and his Bretonnians this time in the Battle Line scenario, still at 1400pts. Can't remember the exact make up of his army something like, 2 units of realm knights of around 6 and 7 models. A unit of Errant Knights, 2 Trebuchet, about 4 small units of peasant archers, A general, Standard bearer and sorceress (I forget what level).

I messed up with my deployment with this one I think. There were some walls and fences in the middle of the board near my deployment. I figured these would make good defensible positions to receive the inevitable charges. Of cause he deployed his Knights on a flank with the intention of simply going round these fences. Pretty obvious really if I had thought about it. This wasn't too bad, but it did mean my Temple Guard struggled to get into the fight and failed a charge at a crucial moment. My Cold Ones managed to get a charge on one of his knight units and then survived a subsequent charge from his other realm unit. In my next turn both my Saurus units charged in. I believe the Saurus was in the front of the unit, but had the temple guard made it, their charge would have been in the flank. My Old blood was also in the Temple Guard unit.

The Temple guard eventually managed to charge but by that time the Errant unit had charged the flank of the Cold Ones and both they and the Saurus had fled by then and I'm pretty sure run down too. Can't remember now if my Temple Guard managed to finish off on unit of Knights, I think they may have run out of time.

My Skinks and Salamanders in the mean time were over on the opposite flank, racing down the board to take care of the Trebs and archers. In the first or second turn the Salamanders fired at a unit of archers. They didn't do many casualties but all casualties require a panic test, and with such poor leadership they ran. However, they didn't quite manage to reach the board edge and rallied. These peasants were the bane of my Sallies and Skinks. My Skinks ignored them and went for a Treb causing a couple of poisoned wounds on it but not killing it. These same peasants then charged the flank of my Skinks! I wasn't expecting that (possibly foolishly). I can't remember now what happened to the Skinks in the end but what I do remember is one of my Salamanders and all the handlers were shot to death. The remaining Salamander took his Monster Reaction test getting the RAAARGH! result giving him hatred and frenzy for the rest of the game. He chewed up the Peasants who by all rights should have been gone turn 2 and went on the finish off the Treb (I believe the other Treb blew up on a miss fire at some point).

This game was a loss, relatively large in Victory Points although it was pretty close and all rested on one big combat in the middle, which was very close and even but eventually went in his favour.

What I learnt: Well I guess take more care with deployment and try to anticipate more what my opponent is likely to do. This wasn't helped by him having so many small units of peasant archers, which basically meant I was putting down my important units before he placed his.

Its worth noting that for my first couple games with the Salamanders (including the next one) I ran my two Salamander packs in one unit. Over the course of these games it quickly became apparent that separating them into two units would be much more useful although I wanted to give them a go like this for a couple of games.

Games 12 & 13

These games were both against the same opponent, Kenny Goddard with his Dark Elves as part of the campaign in Poole, although they took place one week after the other. His army consisted of a level 4 Sorceress with Dark Magic, 3 or 4 units of 10 Crossbowmen, a unit of Spearmen, a unit of Cold One Knights, a Repeater Bolt Thrower and a Hydra.

The first game was battle for the pass so playing lengthways with a short frontage. I wanted to save putting my Temple Guard until last, so they could go after they Hydra (what with having the flaming banner and all). There was some terrain in the middle which effectively divided the battle in half although there was a gap to cross over. My Cold Ones and Salamanders went on the left opposite his Crossbowmen, Bolt Thrower and Spearmen, with his Sorceress in one of the Crossbow units. And my Saurus and Skinks went on the right opposite his Cold Ones, one unit of crossbowmen and Hydra nearer the centre of the board. My Temple Guard set up behind the Cold Ones with the plan to turn right and head towards the Hydra once the Cold Ones had moved ahead.

But then disaster, my Cold Ones fail their Stupidity test (I forgot I had the Gleaming Pennant) and so my Temple Guard were effectively boxed in. My Salamanders advanced anyway which was probably a mistake. As my Cold Ones were so far behind, the Salamanders were a little all on their own and became victim to pretty much all of the Dark Elves magic and shooting and were quickly dispatched (he may have had to shoot them with some things turn 2 but not much). The following turn the Cold Ones failed their Stupidity test again! This time I remembered the gleaming Pennant so re-rolled the test allowing them to move and allowing the Temple Guard to start moving over to the right flank. On the Third turn the Cold Ones once again failed their stupidity test, at this point I am reminded of all the people that have claimed Lizardmen don't need to worry about leadership tests. They did eventually manage to get into combat with the sorceresses unit, however they had suffered so much shooting by this point that they had little effect and a counter charge by the Spearmen block sealed their fate.

Over on the right the Hydra and Cold Ones managed a combined charge on my Saurus block before my Temple Guard could get there to support them and for the first time witnessed how devastating a Hydra can be. I managed to kill a couple of Dark Elf Cavalry (the Skinks had killed one before they got into combat as well I think) but it was the breath weapon in particular that sealed their fate even with my general in the unit. My unit fled and was run down.

I had very little on the board by this time and had done very little damage to the Dark Elves. I did finally manage to charge the Hydra with my Temple Guard who managed to take it out, a small consolation but over all a massive loss to me.

What I've learnt: I would like to blame the loss of this whole battle on stupidity tests, that first failure properly held up my battle line and allowed the enemy to take my army apart piecemeal. However I have to acknowledge my own errors. I probably shouldn't have placed my Temple Guard behind the Cold Ones to start with, I should have remember the Gleaming Pennant (it was the first stupidity test that cost me the most problems) and its the reason I take the item. When I failed the test I probably shouldn't have advanced the Salamanders so much and thus isolating them.

The following week however, in game 13 I got the opportunity for revenge. This time the scenario was meeting engagement. I believe Kenny kept the same army, I made a slight alteration splitting my salamanders into two units. Kenny suggested we played on the 4'x4' table that was available down the club, playing relatively small armies I didn't think this would be too much of a problem but as it turns out I think this may have severely hampered him and cost him the game, which I'll explain in a bit.

I got lucky when rolling to see what units were held back, only my Temple guard didn't start the game on the board. Kenny however had to start without his Hydra, Cold Ones and a unit of Crossbowmen. The reason the small table size cost him I think in this scenario is without his heavy hitters on a bigger table he could have set up further back meaning by the time I got to him his army would have regrouped. This wasn't helped by me getting the first turn, so even though his reinforcements didn't have far to go to get me my units were already on top of his.

My Saurus charged his Spears and with the help of my Cold Ones made short work of them, the Cold Ones running them down. On turn one my Skink Priest managed to cast Comet of Casandora which fell to the table just as his reinforcements arrived, I rolled well for the range, and again because of the table size his units were bunched up meaning all of his units bar a unit of Crossbowmen were hit (including the spears). The damage inflicted wasn't quite so impressive but was definitely helpful. One of my Salamanders was killed quickly by shooting, the other however, managed to line himself right along the line where his reinforcements were entering, causing some good damage to his crossbowmen and Cold Ones.

As my Cold Ones had pursued the Spears unfortunately the were right in the path of the Hydra and his Cold Ones who made short work of my unit. My Saurus block with General at this point were approaching the hill with the Dark Elf Crossbows and Sorceress. Kenny could see the charge coming so tried to move his wizard away to safety where my big block wouldn't fit. In my turn I cheated slightly. My Old Blood left the Saurus unit and charged the Sorceress solo. This was fine and I don't think Kenny was expecting it, the cheating came when I also charged the Saurus into a Crossbow unit. For those that don't know, a Character can charge independently out of a unit, however the unit he was in cannot charge in the same turn. A unit, however, cannot leave a character behind when it charges. I call it a slight cheat because it didn't make much difference, give the choice I was always going to charge the sorceress, the Crossbowmen were more just a bonus at that point. Unsurprisingly my Old Blood made short work of the Sorceress with his 6 Strength 6 attacks.

Kenny threw in the towel at this point, he had his Hydra left (although my Temple Guard were getting close to him and he was facing the wrong way to my units after pursuing the Cold Ones), 2 Cold One Knights, who again were facing the wrong way and miles from my troops, and a smattering of Crossbowmen here and there, all of whom were in positions to be taken out by my units in a turn. I had lost my Cold Ones and a Salamander pack, but I was obviously in the stronger positions and had plenty of turns to mop up the rest of his army. I can't remember now if that was at the start of his turn 3 or 4.

What I learnt: Playing on a 4'x4' table probably isn't a good idea, it has a much bigger effect than you might realise especially when you end up playing a scenario where deployment is a little unusual. Probably the biggest lesson I learnt, however, was...

...revenge is sweet!

Games 14

This week I played another campaign game against Dave and his Dwarfs again (see game 7). I lost that game previously so this was another opportunity for revenge. The scenario was Battle Line and the points 1400 again. His army was similar to last time, although he had bulked out his warriors unit which was deployed as a horde with his general and Battle Standard in. Again he had a unit of Iron Breakers with a Runesmith, a unit of Quarrellers a Bolt Thrower and Gyrocopter .

His deployment, my left to right, Gyrocopter , Iron Breakers, Warrior Horde, Quarrellers and Bolt Thrower. Mine was Salamander, Cold Ones, Temple Guard, Saurus with Old Blood, Salamander. My Skinks were also on the left behind the Cold Ones.

His army held back and waited for me to come to him, which I was happy to do shooting him with magic and Salamanders on the way. My Priest managed to cast chain lightning early one hit almost everyone of his units causing a little damage to each but most importantly killing 5 Iron Breakers. My Salamanders got on each flank and flamed down the length of his line, crucially killing another 5 Iron Breakers and a perfect shot on his Quarrellers killed half his unit and a few warriors. When I got close his Iron Breakers charged my Temple Guard and his warriors charged the Saurus which would have hit the Temple Guard as well. Luckily for me he failed his charge. In my turn, now that his Iron Breakers were out of the way, my Cold ones could charge the flank of the Warriors, with my Saurus charging the front. However, this time the Saurus failed their charge forcing the Cold Ones to go it alone.

The Dwarven Lord made way into contact with the Cold Ones and over two rounds of combat wiped them out effectively by himself. Meanwhile the Temple Guard were fighting the Iron Breakers in a re-match of their fight in the last game. Although my General was in the other unit this time, the Iron Breakers were only half the size they were before due to Salamander fire and magic earlier in the game. The Temple Guards high strength and attacks gave them the advantage on even numbers and eventual took out the Iron Breakers.

My Saurus finally managed to charge the Warriors. I can't remember now who challenged who, but our generals met in combat. I was wondering at this point if he remembered how I was armed from the last time we played. I later asked him and he said he thought I may have changed it. The Dwarf was armed with a great weapon so I went first with my 7 strength 7 attacks (his BSB was in the unit as well remember). I wish I had made a not of how the Dwarf was armed, I killed him easily enough. He definitely had a 1+ save but he wasn't set up as the unkillable Dwarf.

I can't remember exactly what happened next, I think he held for one turn at least, and I may have killed his BSB as well but within 2-3 rounds of combat he ran and I caught him at which point Dave called the game with only a few Crossbowmen, maybe his bolt thrower and the Gyrocopter still left. His Gyrocopter didn't do much by the way, think it killed a Temple Guard and a few Skinks. His Bolt Thrower killed one of my Salamanders. My Skinks tried to poison the Gyrocopter but didn't get quite enough wounds. I had forgotten about the lore attribute for heavens magic which causes an extra D6 Strength 4 hits on any enemy flying unit when another spell is cast on them. I probably would have tried to cast a cheap spell on it just to finish it off.

What I learnt: Not huge amounts I guess, you don't learn as much from a win I find. I should try to remember my lore attribute, its not often it comes up but could be handy. My Salamanders really shone this game, often they miss fire, get shot before they do much or simply miss, but this game I got some cracking shots. I suppose the lesson is more for opponents, you really need to include some small flexible units that can deal with these sorts of things, I'm going to be including more of these types of units as my army grows.

So that's games 11-14 and Part 4 of this battle breakdown done and dusted. Just one more part and 3 more battles to go. After that I want to do an overview of how I felt my army has performed so far and what lessons I'm taking into my 2400 build. After that I want to go into my 2400pt battles a little differently as I start to practice for the Weymouth Waaagh in July.

This post has been another long one, although I guess if you've read this far you don't mind. I'm getting quite a few views on this blog now, and a few followers. I've had a few comments, people saying they like the blog but just want to ask for more comments and criticisms, particularly about the style of blog, are these battle break downs too long winded?, do I need to proof read more (I have to admit I skip the proof reading when my post is this long)? does a lack of pictures detract from the reports (I keep meaning to take pictures, so far I either forget the camera, forget to take pictures, or like in my last game forget to charge the battery)? Does the general overview of the battle work or do you think more detail would be needed (I am admittedly writing some of the reports 5 weeks after they occur without any notes other than who I played, the scenario and whether I won or lost)?

Anyway you can post comments here (anonymously if you don't have an account), message me on Twitter or the various forums I'm on (particularly TWF) as Whispers of Chaos.

Till Next Time