I've decided to name my empire force the McDonald City Guard (the color scheme gives the reason for the name), and adopt Red Zeke's batrep numbering scheme....
This is actually my 4th 8th ed game, but is the second batrep under 8th edition for my empire army (hence 8.2)....
I played versus Mark's dark elves. This was his first game formally under 8th edition rules.
My army comprised the following
Lord
Arch Lector Fernando on a War Altar, Dawn Armor, Great weapon
Heroes
Captain Sherard:
BSB with Armor of Meteoric Iron, Biting blade
Brother Shawn: Warrior Priest with Heavy Armor and shield, Dragonhelm, Hammer of Might
Magus Sylvester: Lifemage, Level 2, Staff of Sorcery (Awakening of the wood, Regrowth)
Master Engineer Sherwin
Core
Halberds of Sigmar: 35 halberdiers, full command
det of 15 Free company
Spears of Sigmar: 30 spearmen, standard + musician
det of 9 xbows
The Bronze Pikemen: 25 spearmen, std + musician
det of 10 xbows
Swordsmen of Sigmar: 15 swordsmen (det for Greatswords)
Special
Greatswords of Sigmar: 30 Greatswords, full command
Youth of Sigmar: 6 pistoliers with outrider
McDonald Artillery detachment: 1 cannon, 2 mortars
Rare
Steam Tank "Big Mac"
Mark's
DE raiding force
Lord
Dreadlord on cold one, Crimson death, Armor of Darkness, Pendant of Khaeleth
Heroes
Sorceress level 1 (lifeleech), with feedback scroll
Death hag:
BSB with cauldron of Blood
Troops
2 x 20 repeater xbowmen (lt armor+shield, musician)
30
DE spearmen, Std + Musician
2 x Dark riders w/ repeater xbow
Special
14 Blackguard: full command, ring of hotek, banner of murder
11 Cold one knights, Standard (war banner), musician
Rare
2 x War hydras
The mission was Dawn attack. My Empire force was sent to repulse a dark elf raid on the outskirts of the city, with a dwarven brewhouse. After rolling for the deployment zones, the field looked like this (after vanguard moves..my pistoliers decided not to do their move as most likely Mark will go first and simply shoot them down)
Mark rolls the dice, and I fail to get initiative...
DE turn 1
- The cauldron bestows the COK with a 5+
WS while everything moves forward. Magic phase is uneventful. The extreme range ensures that only a xbowman and a halberdier fall to repeater shots.
Empire turn 1
- the pistoliers and "Big Mac" move to deal with the dark riders. The War altar moves to flank the
DE line. the Free company and Greatswords move slightly forward.
- Magic phase is uneventful as the
DE dispel everything, except that Mark allows Hammer of Sigmar to be cast on the
AL.
- Empire shooting is extremely successful, as both dark rider units are wiped out, and
DE xbow unit 2 takes a full hit from a mortar and lose more than 1/3 of their number. The other mortar misses Xbow unit 1, while a cannonball buries itself right in front of hydra 1. The
DE units all pass their panic tests.
DE 2
- The Cauldron continues to give the COK a 5+
WS. as the main
DE combat units continue to move forward, while rep xbow1 moves into range, and rep xbow 2 stays put to shoot
- magic sees Spirit Leech cast on the "Big Mac', to no avail
- The Pistoliers are wiped out in a vollow of bolts from xbow 2, and another xbowman falls to rep xbow1's bolts.
Empire turn 2
- The halberdiers charge the COK, while the War Altar charges the War Hydra 1 (BIG mistake!). Some detachments maneuver to block off the charges of the other
DE combat units. The Bronze Pikemen go through the river, and gets rewarded with Pha's Protection on them, as the river turns out to be a River of Light. The Steam Tanks chugs forward into steamgun range of
DE xbow unit 2. The Lifemage moves and joins the Greatsword unit.
- The Magic phase reveals most casting rolls are low, and the sorceress dispels all spells easily, with the exception of a successful Soulfire cast by the WP on the COK, which kills 2 knights.
- Empire shooting is again successful. Crossbow bolts and a mortar shell hit
DE xbow1, who then turn tail and flee off board. With the help of the engineer, another mortar shell lands right in the middle of the
DE spearmen, who lose several models, but they do not panic. The steam gun boils a few elves from
DE xbow 2, while the cannon jams and is unable to fire this turn.
- Close combat however proves to be disastrous. The Hydra regenerates all wounds caused by the
AL and War altar, and in turn destroys the chariot. The
AL subsequently gets run down. The COK lose 3 more from the halberdiers, but kill more in return. The Halberds are steadfast and hold.
DE turn 3
- The 2 hydras and
DE spearmen charge the detachments facing them (who pass their terror checks vs the hydras). The Black Guard fail their charge versus the other spearman unit. The Cauldron of Blood moves closer in order to influence the battle, after giving the COK +1 attack. The
DE xbows move in order to block the path of the Stank, while the sorceress moves all the way to the back (she ceases to be a offensive threat for the rest of the game).
- Shooting sees all xbow bolts bounce off "Big Mac"
- Combat sees the hydras wipe out/slaughter their targets (although the xbows manage to get a wound in, and they overrun forward). The Free company manage to hold versus the
DE spearmen, while the Halberdiers and WP fight on!
Empire turn 3
- The Greatswords and Spearmen charge the Black Guard. The River changes it's tone and casts Net of Amyntok vs the Bronze spearmen, who then proceed to lose 3 of their number. "Big Mac" moves around the
DE xbows.
- Magic is again uneventful, due to low casting rolls.
- Shooting sees the mortars, steamtank, and xbows reduce the
DE xbowmen to just 3 models, who do not panic. Grapeshot from the cannon causes 1 wound on Hydra 1, who regenerate everything else (damn tough b@#$%d!!!)....
- Combat sees 1 rank of Black Guard wiped out, after killing a spearman and several greatswords. The survivors hold. The COK cause carnage versus the halberdiers, as the WP and Dreadlord are locked in combat. The halberds manage to roll insane courage, and hold!!! The
DE spearmen win combat and cause the Free company to break and run, but instead of pursuing they reform to face "Big Mac"
DE turn 4
- The Cauldron gives +1 attack on the Black Guard
- Hydra 2 turns around to stare at the rear of the Greatswords, while Hydra 1 turns in preparation to charge the cannon next turn. The victorious
DE spearmen move forward to block the charge path of the Stank. The last 3
DE xbow move a bit farther away.
- Nothing happens in the magic phase. Shooting sees a bronze pikeman fall.
- The COK kill all the halberdiers, leaving just the WP in challenge down to 1 wound. He legs it and gets run down, and the COK overrun into the Greatswords and get to fight another round of combat!
- The ensuing combat sees a lot of Black Guard and a COK die. However, the lifemage is killed in challenge and several Greatswords fall, but the empire troops refuse to run!
Empire turn 4
- The Bronze spearmen charge the
DE xbows, who flee away safely. The Free company rallies and turns around, while "Big Mac" moves around the spearmen.
- With no more spellcasters, it was straight to shooting.
DE spearmen die due to the mortar and the Stank, but they do not panic. The hydra gets a bucketload of shot, but AGAIN regenerate all wounds!!! (!@#$% again!).
- Combat sees the Black Guard wiped out. The COK lose, but this time Mark rolls a double 1 on the break test, and they hold due to insane courage!!! The spearmen reform to face the hydra
- Brace for impact!!!
DE turn 5
- The cauldron moves again, and buffs the COK with a 5+ ward save.
- The hydras charge the cannon and the Greatsword rear respectively. The cannon passes its terror check. The last xbows continue to flee. while the spearmen do a swift reform and turn around.
- Magic is nada. Combat sees the
BSB and dreadlord doing nothing to each other in challenge, but the hydras does carnage. The Greatswords are stubborn and continue to hold.
- The cannon is destroyed, and the hydra overruns into the engineer.
Empire turn 5
- The bronze spears charge and force the
DE xbows off board. The spearmen charge the hydra's flank. the Free company are forced to charge the spearmen in order to make room for the Stanks charge. However, DISASTER ensues as the engineer causes too much pressure, and "Big Mac" malfunctions!!!
- Shooting sees the mortars distracted by the hydra, and they miss the cauldron completely.
- Combat sees the free company lose and get run down. The greatswords are wiped out, but the
BSB valaintly locks the dreadlord in challenge, and refuses to flee.
After this, we thought we had played 6 turns, and so the game ended. The score was
DE 1612 Empire 1410..so a difference of 202 points..Victory to the
DE!!!
What a fantastic and nailbiting game! Decided on the last turn, they way
WHFB should be!
My postgame thoughts later on....
Great game Mark! It was a blast!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Post game afterthoughts:
- In retrospect I think I did the right things, with the exception on that foolish charge of the War Altar on the hydra. I needed the Lore of Light buffs so I just blew it by committing the War altar too early and unsupported.
- I could have also waited and not committed the pistoliers, as they could have been used to redirect the hydra. In addition, I should have had my left spearman unit move to support the main forces from turn 1 on, as well as let my mage rove around solo, as the dark elves had really no shooting at that stage which could have picked off my wizard.
- The steam tank and the mortars did very well, although the last turn malfunction of the stank cost me the game, as we ran a simulation assuming it was able to charge, and it wiped out the hydra due to impact hits. Anyway, that's what you get for relying on confangled contraptions!
- More carnage in 8th ed is still more fun!!!
Empire units of the match
- Mortars = killed the most dark elves in this game
- The
BSB = Singlehandedly kept the dreadlord in check without losing a single wound
The uh-oh..
-
AL and War Altar - my fault really
- cannon = only caused a single wound in the entire game before being eaten
DE units of the match
- Hydras = tough b@#$%s..nuff said...wish I had some dwarven runes of flame
- the COK and Dreadlord = It did it's job..
- Cauldron = Unit buffs worked, and it was the reroll that caused the COK to get insane courage
DE meh units
- Sorceress: didn't do a damn thing
4 games into 8th ed, I still keep forgetting to:
- roll for Fear per round
- channel
practice makes perfect!
65/4/6, 
10/2/1, 
10/3/0, 
2/0/1, 
0/1/1
1/0/0
