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Hi all, and welcome back to another installment of Relentless!

Today, the matchup was with Mike’s Wood Elves. He hasn’t been using the army long, but is gearing up for the Lonewolf coming up next month, so was looking to get some more 2250 in.

He’d brought his list which looked a little like this:

Lord w/Alter kindred, Bow of Loren, Arcane Bodkins, Amber pendant, GW, light armor
Lvl 1 Spellsinger, 2 scrolls
Lvl 1 Spellsinger, scroll, luminescents
Branchwraith, Lvl 1, Despairs and Radiants
12 gladeguard, musician
10 gladeguard, musician
5 glade riders, musician
3x8 dryads
7 scouts
Some Wardancers with musician and champ
9 waywatchers
Treeman

I believe his magic came up all tree-singings.

I had my usual list, as the lord on shieldbearers still isn’t complete.

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


So at first glance, I probably wasn’t going to get a whole lot of chances at combat until he was ready. The only things that would help me force the issue would be the MR of Challenge and gyro, with extremely limited help from miners. Strollaz might help bracket in a unit of glade guard or dryads that weren't paying attention. There wasn't so much shooting that I was overly worried. Early on, most of it would be strength 3, after all. In my favor, the only points I had vulnerable to shooting were the slayers, rangers, miners, and war machines some of which I hoped to mitigate with deployment.

You can see the board in the first shot below. As it happened we had a lot of woods on the table, as that was what happened to be there when we arrived.

I deployed the bulk of my blocks in the only spot open enough to fit them in, and poised to move across the field and up and over the hill. Strollaz should get me off my starting line fast enough to avoid getting bogged down by any tree-singing, and once on the hill, I’d be free from any trees. Breaking up my line that way.

So from right to left (or bottom to top in the picture) I had warriors, warriors, longbeards w/BSB, hammerers w/lord. The dragonslayer went in the wood to prevent waywatchers from setting up in there, with the intention of Strollaz-ing back in to the slayer block after deployment. Slayers were on the other side, with the plan to go hide behind woods once the advance was on. Rangers went even farther left to sandwich his waywatchers and give me a shot at picking up their points. My bolt throwers dropped behind my line, since the only thing they’d have an impact on was the treeman, which was a large target anyways. Then anyone who wanted their points would have to go through or around the blocks.

Note: It was interesting here, because I’d always thought you could drop scouts in your own deployment zone unrestricted. In fact, you may place them in full view of the enemy, but it seems you still have to be more than 10” away from the enemy. So the waywatchers disrupted my rangers even in my own deployment zone.

He had (from my right to left):

Gladeguard and spellsingers
Dryads with branchwraith
Glade riders
Alter highborn and treeman in the woods
Spellsinger in glade guard and two more clouds of dryads, with war dancers placed centrally
Waywatchers were partially in a wood and 1" off the flank of my slayers
Scouts were further left outside my rangers


And now, a quick deployment pic:



My plan was to use the slayers, rangers and gyro to drop the waywatchers, the return the gyro to the main line to try to stick the war dancers, a unit of gladeguard, or the gladeriders until a block could pick them up. The alter highborn was going to be vulnerable to the MR of Challenge with his enormous move and 360 vision, so I was going to try to peg him with it and hopefully pick up enough VPs for a minor victory even if everything else avoided me.

Report to follow hopefully later today!

RZ

C'mon, woodies! Can't wait for the report

Also- that's a heck of a lot of woods on the table. If I'd been your opponent, I would have volunteered to take some off the board. That's just unfair if he gets first turn, since he could possibly move his spellsingers and treeman into range to cast treesinging on them, and move them in front of that block that's deployed right next to it.

I was counting on doing this in my most recent game, where someone else set up the terrain for us- but unfortunately my opponent got first turn and was able to move up and past the trees, and then box them in with his units, so I wasn't able to impede his advancing blocks at all.

I'll be very interested to see how this turns out...

Yeah, including his free wood, there were 6 forests on the board. With the free Strollaz move I figured I could get 6" down the board before the first turn even was rolled for and avoid getting blocked out by the woods.

Rest coming up soonly I hope...

RZ

Ah, I didn't realize what that ability was. Good call, then! He probably should have deployed the woods a little farther forward (staying 12" from the center, of course) to try to keep them in front of you.

I'm also suprised by what looks like his free wood deployed deep in his own zone- normally people will put that thing smack dab in the middle (on their own side).

Looking forward to the rest

Strollaz sent my main line forward and my dragonslayer into the slayer block to help bracket in the waywatchers. I’d had a +1 to the roll for going first and pegged it. Definitely took first turn to get the pressure on right away.

Turn 1
I steamed forward, swinging slightly left to try to sweep across after anything that ran for it. Seeing an opportunity to get some kills, the gyro swooped over while the rangers and slayers moved to bracket in the waywatchers.

The runesmith, who’d been napping when the Strollaz rune was brandished started jogging to catch up with the main blocks, leaving the bolt thrower he deployed with.

A blast from the steam gun shredded 3 waywatchers, but they passed panic, and would continue to pester me. Both bolt throwers could see the glade riders but missed. With that exciting conclusion to my turn, I passed it over to Mike.

Things looked like this:



To my surprise, the 6 remaining waywatchers charged the flank of the rangers. I guess Mike didn’t fancy another blast from the steam gun, and didn’t think he could get away from the slayers & dragonslayer, rangers and gyro trying to cover all the exits.

Most of the rest of the army either dropped into woods singing “Surfin’ USA” or shifted for shots. I was heartened to see the combat elements move a little towards my phalanx of blocks. At least there’d be combat.

Shooting was pretty light, dropping a slayer and not much else. His Alter lord was shooting an impressive 5 shots with no armor saves, but at only strength 3, it was no big deal for my large units. Treesinging also surfed some woods of treemen and dryads forward.

Feeling out the magic phase, I decided I’d probably just hold the scroll for the despairs. The odds of failing a leadership check with any of my characters was pretty low, but I couldn’t afford to chance it.

In combat, the waywatchers killed a ranger, but with a rank, numbers, I broke the tie with a musician. He held, but I turned and expanded frontage to get some more attacks next turn.

I took two pics here, since the battlefield had become a big battle line on the right, and a little squabble on the left.
The right!

The left!


Turn 2

I headed up the hill, which was blocking up some of the treesinging nicely. The runesmith downed an energy gel and some gatorade tried to catch up with the blocks who were slowing slightly to wheel.

On the left, the dragonslayer moved out of the woods to charge the way watchers if they happened to still be around next turn. The gyro saw everything was in order, requested permission for a fly-by and made the runesmith spill his drink as he rocketed over to the main battle line to help run things down. Miners were on strike after pulling horrible duty against the last elves and waited for better benefits.

In combat, another ranger went down, but I dropped 2 way watchers in return, breaking, but not catching them. They fled right over the top of the dragonslayer who would get his chance to charge next turn. The rangers failed to pursue far enough into the woods to avoid shooting.

Both my bolt throwers missed again, and I again gave Mike the nod.

In a move he regretted during post-game, Mike charged dryads in the front and flank (including the branchwraith) of my hammerers. The wardancers moved to counter charge along with the Treeman if I broke through, and the rest positioned to shoot. I asked him about this afterwards and he said he was hoping for 4 or 5 kills on the charge and thought that would be enough to keep at least one of the dryad units in, and whittle down the hammerers enough to take them with other elements.

The way watchers rallied right before fleeing through the slayers, and so would get to go toe to toe with the dragonslayer next turn.

Some tree-surfing occurred, and I used a spellbreaker on the bound character killer.

Shooting took off a few more slayers and reduced another ranger, as well as several longbeards.

Combat was predictably bad for the dryads. The Branchwraith refused a challenge from my lord, and we traded a couple of kills back and forth. I won by 7, and both units fled. I considered for a moment whether to try to catch the branchwraith for her points, or steam ahead into the rest of his army, since I’d be going next. I was pretty sure that the blocks I had could easily handle the war dancers and glade guard, but much less sure about catching up to them if they’d learned the lesson of the dryads about engaging. So I went straight ahead and caught the dryads, sitting a few inches away from the wardancers.

No pictures at this juncture- as I forgot until turn 3.

Turn 3

The miners are still on strike, which is fine, as I have no real use for them at this point. I declare a charge on the wardancers who have to hold (take that ItP!) I also tactically wheel to put the gladeguard and spellsinger in the overrun. Elsewhere the waywatchers have to take a charge from the dragonslayer because fleeing will wipe them out against the trollslayers.

The runesmith is within an inch of the nearest block when it occurs to him that, really, all the fighting was done up here, and if he was back at the bolt throwers, they could claim a quarter, and really he was very thirsty, and judging by the accuracy on display, there must be a whole lot of ale back there… My gyro angles around to be able to charge the dryads and branchwraith if the fail to rally, and we’re on to the much feared Dwarf shooting phase.

The bolt throwers miss.

The wardancers try their ward save dance and my hammerers are shocked to discover that they not only got to charge two games in a row, but also can actually use their great weapons. Saturday Night Fever is no match for 3,000 lbs of weapons and armor at a dead run and the war dancers break, are caught, and the gladeguard and spellsinger go packing right off the table. Glade riders pass panic.

On the left the dragonslayer gets hit in the eye with a flying piece of waywatcher, takes a wound, and ties them with two left.

In the bottom of three, the treeman heads for the back of the hammerers and the alter lord shoots some more armor ignoring strength 3 at them. The branchwraith rallies, ruining the gyro’s day.

The dragonslayer slips on some spilled waywatcher, and knocks himself out against a tree to the relief of the last two. That is, until they see the finest scouts in Dwarfdom, have finally made it 1” away.

Here was the situation:



Turns 4-6

I stopped taking pictures after this, as it didn’t seem very nice, given how things were going. The rangers finally got rid of the way watchers, and both they and the slayers were reduced to half (the slayers to one single model who yelled “Hooray I’m a skirmisher!” And ran into the woods to hide, and hope any tree-singings were dispelled).

The glade riders shimmied out of the way to preserve their points, while the treeman went over to hammer on the dwarf lord. Some big armor saves went my way, and I chopped him down in the bottom of the 6th, only taking a wound in return. During this time, I also Challenged in the Alter Lord. A flee would have put him getting charged by the gyro while broken, so he went in and ran right back out after getting wounded twice.

The bolt throwers did eventually score one hit between the two of them, taking off a dryad.

Surfing dryads did make it all the way over to kick over bolt thrower in the bottom of 6, while the runesmith, in a state of delirious exhaustion sat and shook his head from the other bolt thrower crew.

After getting their contracts amended to guarantee no firestorm of shooting, the miners strolled into the far corner to contest it.

A quick count put it as a massacre for the Strolling Dwarfs.

Mike will be the first to say he made a lot of errors, but it’s all in the name of learning before the Lonewolf. He was a heck of a nice guy, and I hope he has a lot of fun up in Dallas.

Thanks for reading!

RZ

Nice battle report! The pictures help to really know what's going on . A few questions:

1) Did you let each other know of your magic items beforehand? It sounded like you knew he had the Despairs spite and were saving your magic defense for it. Also, this must have been a standard list for him, since it looks like he took the Radiants spite for an extra dispel dice (against dwarfs)?

2) Why didn't he use treesinging to try to kill your units in the forest, instead of "treesurfing"? The attack version of the spell can be used on a forest anywhere on the table (rather than 18" range like the movement version) according to the FAQ.

3) Do you have any ideas how he might have done better against you? It definitely looks like he should have tried to skirt around your massive block line, rather than coming at it.

We did know magic items beforehand. Open lists are the standard around here, which makes for a distinctly different dynamic. We were running all-comers lists as practice for tournament style play. All the points on anti-magic was a boon to me. If I'd customized my list, it certainly would have included an organ gun, and probably would have swapped the bolt throwers.

He actually did take some shots at killing units later in the game- but I managed to dispel them, or they failed to cast. There were several turns where those units were engaged in close combat as well, which helped.

Finally- as to how he could have done better- concentrated shooting on the hammerers could have ground them down, and a combo charge with the treeman in the front and wardancers in the flank would have been a much more effective play if he wanted to come after the points in the blocks. With a treeman in the front, I could have brought the longbeards in, but they'd have been trying to hurt the treeman. Then, if I managed to win, the wardancers could have fled more safely with the stubborn tree holding things down.

That's even if he wanted to engage, which he probably didn't have to do. It might have been hard to get past a draw there, but it would have been hard to lose as well.

RZ

Ah, interesting! Apparently the people around here also tend to play with open lists (at least at the closest GW, I'll find out about the next one over this Tuesday night ) which suprised me, but I guess it's pretty common!

I only asked because I'm thinking of swapping out a few upgrades that are more effective as a suprise/trick than anything else, so if I reveal them I should probably pick a different item.

You certainly made him pay for his mistakes! I've also made the mistake of charging in dryads to unit they can't harm... they do so well against some things that it's easy to forget how vulnerable they are against well armored units with CR.

Thanks for the insights

Congratz on the win.

I think Strollaz really paid off this game. I have a question about the way watchers and rangers combat though. Did you still get your rank bonus because they are skirmishers even though it was a flanck charge? Also was the hill blocking your LOS of the treeman with your bolt throwers? And another question, does pursueing count as moving for shooting purposes? I think I know all the answers, but I am definitely not an expert.

Thanks for the report.

Some real gems in there RZ, don't remember a dwarven report I enjoyed as much 'Grats on the win too, well done

- Salvage

@RiTides: Definitely something to keep in mind on the open vs. closed lists. In closed lists I'd be more likely to take the MR of Slowness, since it is far more effective as a surprise.

It also tends to drive me towards needing to armor up more, because if I leave a thane or Dwarf lord "soft" then the opponent can come and get him relatively easily.

@ Boogeyman: The waywatchers were in the flank, and at the end of the combat, were still US 5+ so received a +1 to combat res. They didn't break ranks though, as skirmishers aren't able to.

The hill was blocking LOS to the treeman. If things were true line of sight, he obviously would have been visible, but a common convention here (and I believe in general) is to play terrain as "infinitely tall"- so things can hide behind them.

Pursuit shouldn't have an impact on moving for shooting as it is conducted in the close combat phase, after shooting. If you pursued in the prior turn, it has no impact on the current turn. i.e. Empire handgunners could defeat something in combat, pursue, and next turn, so long as they didn't move in their movement phase, open fire.

I think that answers your question?

And Strollaz was key again. It's a tough, because against some armies it seems like a total waste, but it made the last two games winnable for sure. As long as I'm going with a walking Dwarf army, I think it's gotta stay in the list.

RZ

Thanks for the answers. Has Strollaz ever put you into a major disadvantage?

Oh yeah, I forgot to give you a big for the commentary, I enjoyed it.

@ Boogey & Boss: I tried to insert a little bit of that for fun commentary after I went back and read some of my earliest editions. I noticed that I was joking around a lot more in those, and thought I'd try to put it back. It's how I like to think of the more tournament oriented games.

Strollaz puts me at a disadvantage when I do something silly with it, like in the Beastman game. Also, it effectively makes my BSB more fragile and more expensive. For 10 less points, I could go for the tank set-up (MR of Gromril, Rune of Resistance, Rune of Preservation) and have magical attacks to boot. Not having magical or flaming attacks there has forced me to put a runic weapon on the dragonslayer which I don't much care for as I think it's inefficient. But there's not much way around it, as without an anvil, I need to be able to affect the movement phase as much as possible (hence my continued use of rangers, miners, and the MR of Challenge).

RZ

Yes, that bit about the energy gel and gatorade, and then having to turn the model back around to go the other way (for some ale...) priceless!