Been about a week since we played, swamped with finals so can't remember either of our lists exactly. I will throw together a skeleton of what I had, but his list really came down to just 2 things: assassin and ring of hotec.
I had:
Level 4 Sorc Lord
Level 2 Sorc
2 x Exalted hero w/ one mounted
12 Warriors
12 Warriors
5 Marauder Horsemen
5 Marauder Horsemen
5 Knights
Chariot
Terrain was very rocky and hilly with only about 16" of actual open field in the center and VERY narrow 2-3" pathways winding through both the left and right flanks.
Dark Elf Turn 1: Reveals assassin in shades right near my line hiding in a rocky outcropping. At the beginning I am not worried till he both A) skips his magic phase and B) during shooting the assassin 1 shots my chariot with man-bane + throwing star giving it a S8 attack. He pretty much has consolidated all his warriors/guard/cold ones calvary in the center 16" with the dark riders on the flanks.
Chaos Turn 1: First I am in tears at the loss of my chariot, but I move forward and try to get into
CC as close as possible. I declare a charge from my exalted hero to the assassin (I forget I have a bound item that when we rolled found out would have killed the assassin) and the assassin stands and shoots and pulps my exalted hero. My horsemen approach the dark riders and my warrior blocks + knights advance toward his line but remain out of charge range. I am use magic missiles to try and thin down his dark riders off to the flank before they have a chance to shoot up my marauders.
Dark Elf Turn 2: Some of his riders survive, and they do some nasty wounds during shooting killing off most of my marauders. The assassin/shades sit in the rocky outcropping pretty much immune to anything I can do besides magic, but they are not in range to shoot anything else thankfully. Again he passes on a magic phase.
Chaos Turn 2: I just try to maximize how many units I can squeeze into our center gap, preparing for possible combat next turn. I use magic to try and pulp at the shades to thin their numbers down and succeed n a few. I also finish off one of the dark rider units.
Dark Elf Turn 3: I get charged by a cold one chariot, cold one knights, a hydra, and a manticore w/ rider. I have 2 blocks of warriors and knights in the combat. He again turns down magic phase, shooting nothing happens, and shades/assassin move out of rocks to try and charge flank next turn. During close combat my knights beat the hydra but only inflict 2 wounds, the manticore rider has
KB and with me being forced to challenge it pulps my champion. The chariot does a nasty amount of impact hits and between them and wounds I only get 3 or so warriors attacking back.
Chaos Turn 3: I fly my own sorcerer over to the right hill now that the dark riders are past. This gives me
LoS on his entire army and range for 90% of it. I decide to go for broke since I have infernal puppet, and throw 5 dice at an infernal gateway aimed at his blackguard who are not yet in combat. It goes off successfully, till I am informed I miss-casted on the roll of like double 4's or something. I completely forgot about the oh so underpowered items Dark Elves can take. Luckily I avoid any major damage since infernal puppet lets me modify it to a 5-6 and my opponent has no magic
. As for close combat, the knights kill the hydra but lose to the cold ones by 1 manage to break rolling 10 and 11 and flee. My first block of warriors when they flee from the manticore/cold ones but they are saved from being cut down since in their pursuit they ram into the manticore/chariot which completely destroyed the other warriors/exalted hero and pursued through before.
Dark Elf Turn 4: He pretty much owns the center with his Manticore, Chariot, Cold Ones, Warriors, and Blackguard. He also has shades/assassin left with 1 unit of dark riders about. For shooting nothing is in range as I moved my 2 sorcs well away from them and my knights are fleeing on the other side of the board. He uses this turn to just start breaking stuff out of the gridlock the last combat caused.
Chaos Turn 4: I rally the knights and sensing the need to preserve points / grab quarters I begin dashing into the rocky mountains on the top left quarter and out of
LoS of his manticore. I rally the warriors who are now basically waiting to be charged by the cold ones. My sorcs begin to throw magic missiles at the shades/assassin and are actually successful in killing a good deal. I also have the cold ones attack themselves but the spell doesnt effect the dreadlord who might have killed the entire unit :\
Dark Elf Turn 5: The cold ones charge the warriors, the chariot moves to get a flank charge next turn, the manticore and rest of the army just regroup in the center. The dark riders / shades move into position to shoot at my sorcs. Many shots toward them, no dice on any wounds or kills. Cold ones win combat but the warriors (what is left) remain.
Chaos Turn 5: I finish off the shades/assassin but don't have the ability to cast at the dark riders. Again saying what the heck I go for infernal gateway on the blackguard, get doubles and misscast. I modify it to a 12 forgetting the spell but allowing it to go off. I kill like 7 blackguard with it and hopefully next turn I can whittle them down for least half points. The warriors are destroyed in combat after being run down by the cold ones.
Dark Elf Turn 6: Other then some shooting at my sorc nothing big here. His units are too out of place to contend the quarter my knights ran off too and his units are only able to contend 2 quarters.
Chaos Turn 6: I decide to kill off the dark riders first and 2 magic missiles later they are gone. I go to cast my 3rd at the blackguard only to roll doubles with 2 dice and miss-cast, again I am able to modify it up to a 12 for the free cast but forget the spell (who cares its turn 6
), but I do not kill enough blackguard for half points.
All in all this isn't exactly what happened, but is pretty much the general flow of what did. I meant to post the monday after but just got all caught up in things. It was a real learning game for me against arguably our stores best player, but some of it was just newbie mistakes on my part. I forgot about my demonic gift that would have saved the exalted hero, and knowing he was running shades/assassin I should have deployed the knights/chariot behind the warriors away from the rocks. As for the ring, I wish I had picked up on it sooner but only played his dark elves like 1-2 times before and he never ran it
. The infernal puppet was at least useful in keeping my magic phase alive without fear of pulping my own sorcs. I think final points-wise he was just short of a massacre. The point depriving knights and sorc along with a quarter kept me from total defeat
