Battle Report

  Ok, been still making some widgets, so nothing really new of interest to note. I have the artillery back in the store and a new resin project in the works. So I wanted to share a story of gaming. And this time with interactive click able pictures! These actors are portraying real life emotions. The video sound is not safe for work, or really anyone with any sort of class.

  I was a big 3rd edition Warhammer player, and dropped out during 4-5 editions. A couple of guys at the local store got me back in to it when 6th edition was released. At this time a combined army book called Ravening Hordes was put in to a White Dwarf issue that contained all the armies in an abridged format. We played a league and had quite a good time. I have always hated the army books and what they do to the game.  Now I show up at a game and this is my reaction.

As you are stunned at what the drug addled morons at GW have allowed to be fielded. This has sent me and many others out of the hobby. It has passed ludicrous a long time ago. They really are not drug addled morons, they are marketing to a specific type of gamer and it works for them. What about the rest of us? What to do......

  So having wasted all of the money I should have put away for retirement on model soldiers it seems I have to cash in or use them. I sold a pretty good chunk off last year, but luckily have a bit left. The idea was to use these books.

Newest rules and 13 year old army lists.  There is an Army Builder file as well.

Here is what happened.

The host of Ulthuan is marching off to war. Lots of cavalry to pick from;

And some infantry as well;

Having decided to play at 1999 points I had to leave some of these fine troops in the box. A 1999 point game is so much more tactical than a 2000 point game as lords are not allowed and the special and rare choices are less.

Here is what I decided on;

 A 24 strong block of spear men, 20 Maiden Guard, 10 Silver Helms with barding, and a unit of 6 without barding, 18 archers with command and 10 without, and a unit of shadow warriors with command.

  The scenario rolled was morning battle so I had to roll for lost units. The spear men wound up stuck on the left flank while one block of silver helms got lost on the right. I quickly marched the silver helms back to the center and put the spear men in column to bring them around the rocky chaos shrine and back into action.

  Here is what I was facing;

Elliot and his pack of vermin. I really know little about skaven but how can such dirty little varmints stand a chance against elves? There seemed to be a lot of them though..................

Action began right away on the first turn. I deployed the shadow warriors using the scouting ability into the woods on my far left flank. A large block of his troops had also gotten off course during the deployment and they could interfere with my spear men being able to get back into line in the center.  By placing the skirmishers in the woods they would become stubborn and I actually thought they might best the skaven unit that charged them even though they were heavily outnumbered.

 A hidden assassin complicated matters.
  In the center the Maiden Guard and archers pounded away at a single unit and sent it running toward the rear.  The heavy unit of silver helms hit the skaven slaves and drove through them into the swarms in the rear. Other units kept approaching.

 At this point the center looked good, but it was not. The blue unit of silver helms was charged in the flank by a unit of censor bearers, which is the perfect unit to counter them. And the heavy unit of cav was stuck against an unbreakable swarm. Even though the swarm had little chance of doing damage they kept me stuck while some rats and skaven with whips closed in. At the top of the pic you can see my archers wheeling to the left, because they had to go and help the spear men.........

 

 

  For you see the skirmishers had broken and fled, leaving the spear men to face 2 large units. The only option was to hit one hard and break it and then do a combat reform to prepare to face the other. I chose to go after the rats who had bested my lads and captured their standard.  Opening a large can of whoop-ass, the spear men forced a massive break check upon the skaven. Who passed.  Uh-oh. So you see why the archers were desperately wheeling to the left........

 

 I was a bit unsettled at this point.

 

 

 

  And back to the center again;



  You can see the killing ground set up for the general and his pack of rat-men. Just walk on in and let me shoot you and then charge with cav and lots of violent but feminine elf girls.

  But it was not to be.

 

  The general instead wheeled to take out the unit of archers, while the plague monks added a flank charge to the spear men. Both units broke and fled and thus 2 more banners were captured. The cav both held however, and the blue unit passed its own impossible break test against the censor bearers. This allowed me to reform and fend them off. The heavy cav unit was able to inflict so many losses on the toughness 2 swarm that it won the combat and chased off the packmasters.

 

  And on the right, things stayed quiet thanks to this little Hougemont.

 

  A little unit of 10 archers garrisoned this building the entire game end exchanged missile fire with an enemy wizard and some poison globe throwing guys. Eventually breaking them and scoring some much needed points for the good guys.

 

  The skirmishers rallied and came back to try and recapture their standard, but were killed to the man.

 

  So it came down to this.

 

  The Maiden Guard had to best the skaven general and his ratmen. I only had one character and it was a level 2 wizard. I was facing the wrong way and not thinking I could win this, but........

 

 

  I did a reform and passed a leadership test to allow me to fire as well. I also cast a shield of thorns spell on the unit that would help in close combat, when it came. During the missile fire I took out a few rats, but on the last turn of the game the skaven charged. And I was able to stand and fire, doing just enough damage to cause a panic test which the general failed.

 

 This is Elliot's reaction;

 

 

 

 

 The game ended and we added up points.

 

  The elves managed to win with a 1238 to 878 point victory.   However, we calculated things if Elliot had not made that last turn charge and the skaven would have won by 878 to 874. There was no way for him to know how close things were and if he had made the charge and taken out my general and that extremely costly unit the outcome would have been much different.

 

  Overall a good game with little or no special rules. The game really pivoted on a few critical break tests and some good and bad tactical decisions. At no time did either of us feel that we were facing the hopeless situation of so many GW games when run using current army lists. We are going to try it again sometime and perhaps this winter my old campaign might see light again.