Well good evening ladies and gents- another installment of Relentless here, and this time? Pictures as promised.
Decided to take the exact same list as last time to get the kinks out. Didn’t know what I’d be facing, but Will was kind enough to take an all-comers list as well (meaning there were some wasted points on scrolls and the like).
I brought:
Lord w/
GW,
MR of Gromril, Rune of Resistance, Rune of Preservaton,
MR of Challenge
Thane w/
BSB, Strollaz Rune, Rune of Guarding
Runesmith w/shield,
GW, rune of stone, spellbreaker
Dragonslayer w/Rune of Striking, Rune of Fire
25 Warriors, shields, full command
25 Warriors, shields, full command
19 Longbeards, shields, full command, Rune of Courage
10 Rangers,
GWs, veteran, musician
6 Miners
11 Slayers
19 Hammerers, shields, full command
Bolt thrower, engineer, rune of burning
Bolt thrower, engineer, rune of penetrating
Gyrocopter
He brought… High Elves, that looked a lil’ something like this:
Archmage, Talisman of Saphery, Folariath’s robe, Staff of Solidity
Mage, Ring of Fury
Mage, probably some scrolls
Caradryan
10 Archers
10 Archers
20-ish White Lions w/Standard of Balance, Full command
20 Phoenix guard w/full command, Banner of Sorcery, champ w/Skeinsilver
3 Repeater Bolt throwers
1 Great Eagle
So- looked like I’d be running up the beaches, Omaha beach style into a withering hail of fire. The Archmage had an odd set-up, ignoring first miscast, and basically couldn’t be hurt in close combat. I wasn’t terribly worried about this- as if he ended up in combat I’d be happy enough. Just had to be careful with who he neutralized with a challenge. There were 10+D3 power dice and one bound. For once, Strollaz was going to be super-key.
You can see the board in the pics below. I felt pretty good about my deployment- as in order to take advantage of his hill on the far side, he had to drop the bolt throwers out wide. This let me put the hammerers and slayers out of shooting range to be sure they arrived something resembling intact.
The picture is after Strollaz movement. The blocks are (l to r) warriors, longbeards, warriors, hammerers, w/rangers leading the way up on to the hill. For some reason. You can see the slayer dart w/Dragonslayer zipping up the flank, and the burning bolt thrower is out of sight to the left, concealed from opposing bolt throwers.
His Phoenix guard are sheltering the Ring of Fury mage, and the mess in the middle is a 9 wide deployment of White Lions with Archmage and other mage.
His Archmage picked up Rule of Burning Iron, Transmutation of Lead, Law of Gold, and Molten Silver. His friend snagged Rule of Burning Iron, and… one of the other spells repeated… not sure. The mage in the Phoenix guard picked up Fireball and Conflagration.
Skeinsilver came up big and let him pick up first turn, and we were off.
Turn 1
Movement was minimal, with Phoenix guard getting out of
LOS from my
Str 7 bolt thrower. Shooting and magic saw a whole bunch of strength 3 and 4 blasting against my longbeards and warriors. I basically let everything through except Burning Irons on my characters. The result was a handful of dead warriors and longbeards, a runic banner nullified for one turn, and rangers panicked through my lines. This last piece could have been really bad if they’d rolled low enough to stop in front of my main battle line. As an unexpected freebie, the Great Eagle charged the slayers, hoping to assassinate the Dragonslayer. He’d forgotten the slayer toughness was 5, and whiffed. The dragonslayer in turn hit and wounded with every attack. Too effective! I didn’t get to pick up some pursuit movement, though I was certainly happy to have the redirector gone and a free 50 points.
In short, I got off really light, and it was over to me.
A quick look at the situation after casualties at the start of my first turn. Lookin OK!
The battle line advances and the gyro moves behind the central hill to hop forward next turn and blast units, set up for charging anything I expect to break, and otherwise prevent mages from roaming free. My Dwarf Lord stayed on the outside edge of the hammerers to make the Phoenix guard leery about a charge. He was also brandishing the
MR of Challenge. Out of sight in the picture, the slayer dart zips along. I have to push the bolt thrower over to make the phoenix guard uncomfortable, while my burning bolt thrower puts a wound on one of his repeaters.
Here’s the situation- look at that wave of Dwarfs! It’s like a tremendous, ponderous tidal wave of dubious effectiveness. Maybe he’ll wait around and I’ll get to fight!
Turn Two
The phoenix guard did a little more shuffling, trying to keep their mage safe, while the hammerers and slayers moved in. Magic phase went great, with the archmage burning up his free miscast and the rest of the shooting killing a few warriors and longbeards. I did take a wound on my lord from burning iron, and my
BSB lost his ward save for a turn.
Here’s a pic- if it looks like not much happened, that’s because it didn’t. Good news for me…
My miners decided to arrive, and left me with something of a puzzle. I ended up putting them over on the bolt thrower hill to the far left to try to get lucky and grab some points, or at the very least absorb enough shooting to help the combat blocks survive another turn. I considered coming on behind the White Lions to make any flee reactions really unpalatable. I’d been told the Standard of Balance wasn’t ItP, but simply immune to fear, terror, and panic, so I thought a flee choice was still viable. With the main force, I pushed forward again, dropping the gyro along the flank of the White Lions to try to blast as many off as I could before I (hypothetically) got to fight them.
I decided to hold my lord in the hammerers for another turn to stare down the phoenix guard. And wave his
MR of Challenge at them menacingly. Shooting had a bolt bounce of the pointy hat of a bolt thrower crewman, and the gyro blast 5 Lions, and it was on to…
Turn 3
Pic above is the start of his turn.
Miners did their job and absorbed a bunch of shooting, even surviving and passing panic to boot, though they were reduced to two. The Lions wheeled to face the phalanx, and all spell casters bailed out of their units. I dispelled a Brass casting on my gyro and saved a wound on the
BSB from Burning Iron. Otherwise, longbeards were reduced to 10, but things still looked good.
In my turn, I sent the miners into the bolt thrower (which resulted in total whiff on both sides, and me rolling an 8 to stay around thanks to his high ground), and pushed my warrior blocks into the face of the White Lions, with the Longbeards hanging back. The blocks were designed to force any charge from the Lions to hit both, but hopefully leave a good deal of the lions frontage stranded in the space between. The gyro backed off for a weaker shot, but forcing the mage to move or be charged. All my characters jumped into my largest remaining warrior unit, though I positioned somewhat carelessly (which would come back to bite me). The hammerers moved to threaten the phoenix guard, with the slayers coming from a different direction. I made a sketchy move here, and bailed the Dragonslayer out to try to corral the mage, exposing him to plenty of potential fire magic. Here’s a pic of the situation:
Turn 4
Time for some action! I
MR of Challenge the Mage into my Lord’s warriors. Backed up against the edge, he either risks fleeing off the table or goes in and brings the Lions with him (hoping that Lions hold on stubborn 8 allowing the mage to flee combat with a little more space to run). Going in solo will get me into his Lions anyways, so the mage steps up to the plate. The Lions are speared across both warrior units, with only 5 in contact. Magic is a little rougher, pulling my scroll on a Transumation of Lead, and wrecking the rangers who I inexplicably walked
op on to the hill. On the upside, a fireball failed to wound the Dragonslayer. On the downside, I forgot about the bound ring and he was reduced to ash shortly after I threw 2 dice at an 11 casting of molten silver (‘cause he’s out of dice, why not?).
He elects to declare no challenges- I issue a truly stupid challenge with my champion- which gets accepted by the mage, who apparently has cojones bigger than anyone else on the table. This took my
BSB out of the fight and made things tougher than they needed to be. I lost a warrior from each unit, Caradryan failed to hurt my king, and my king killed three Lions. The challenge was an epic slap fight of no one hurting anyone. The White Lions pass their stubborn check, and I forget to make the mage take a break check.
I’m showing this picture a little early, but it’s to make it easier to understand what’s happening with combat.
In my turn, the slayers spear into the phoenix guard, demonstrating the silliness of my formation when I contact 4, (one less attack, yes!) while hammerers move around to the flank. I forget to move anyone into combat to improve my already poor character positioning, and the rangers stagger off the hill.
My gyro sprays down a bolt thrower crew and kills one, and my bolt throwers bounce off or miss elves.
Combat proceeds similar to last- though my lord takes a wound from caradryan after double 2s on his save, and his mage kicks my veteran in the gonads and runs away laughing like a little girl. His lions actually roll a 9 on this break check, which I expected to break, but he seemed to think they were Ld9 and I didn’t have the book to check. Woops.
Turn 5
The Rambo mage rallies and spins around to send burning iron back into combat. Magic puts a wound on my runesmith from burning iron, and grounds my gyro with brass, while I stop Lead on my big warrior block. With my failure to move in characters, and my veterans embarrassing death at the hands of an elf mage, I’m stuck accepting a challenge from Caradryan with my Dwarf Lord. This is bad news, because if I kill him, I die, and if he gets one wound on me, I die. Cool as a cucumber, my Lord expertly whiffs, along with almost everyone else in combat for another passed stubborn check. Elsewhere, my miners finally kill the elf crew and line up on the next bolt thrower.
My turn. Looking like I’ve got a good chance to make this a draw or better now depending on how the big combat shakes out. It shakes out well- my miners kill off the other bolt thrower, and my hammerers flank and break the phoenix guard.
My Dwarf lord, continuing to pick the perfect moment to underperform, puts one and only one wound on Caradryan, breaks the Lions, runs them down, and pursues into the archmage and mage who flee.
At this point, Will conceded in (not unfounded) frustration over dice.
Conclusion: The first game where Strollaz was actually useful. Don’t think this would have been winnable without it. I was happy for the first time with magic phase management, though a mistake did kill my Dragonslayer.
List issues:
1) Runes on the dragonslayer’s weapons are kind of silly, though it gives me magical and flaming attacks that I might need in other games.
2) Lord needs shieldbearers! Time to get converting.
3) Bolt throwers were ineffectual, though I’ve only really brought them for shooting at monsters and knights. Not sure if I should have a grudgethrower instead.
4) Miners were kind of nice. At 66 points they’d be a good bargain if they weren’t a special choice. But that special slot really makes them sub-optimal.
Play issues:
1) Learn the books- I’d have been able to play a little different if I knew the Lions were ItP from their standard and thus couldn’t flee, and should have known they were only
Ld 8. Nothing malicious on my opponents part, just an oversight.
2) Remember when to conserve points. No point in putting the rangers on the hill again- it came close to wiping them out. 125 points I didn’t need to give away. For that matter, it was probably unwise to send them up the hill in the first place, as they almost blocked my whole line after panicking.
That’s it! Thanks for reading!
RZ
It would have taken a whole other turn without Strollaz.
I hear ya. I am hoping with that speed I can fix some of the problems I cause for myself. How was that 
3000
3000