Escalation League Game, 1000 points
Wood Elves of Athel Tharnlui vs. Dwarfs of Clan Na’Daz
Ba’Dul’s legs were tired from the long march. But you couldn’t just let any of Settra’s bootlicks near your hold, or they’d be back, claiming you stole their treasure. As if the quality of Araby gold was remotely worthy of Clan Na’daz. Ba’Dul wiped some ash off of a gold scarab brooch, inlad with emeralds and rubies. Actually… it wasn’t too bad to look at, and it could always be melted down into something more tasteful.
The runesmith of Na’Daz grunted as he walked right into a gromril-clad ironbreaker. He quickly tucked the finery away and marched to the front of the formation. They were nearly home. This halt was uncalled for. Ba’Dul glanced up. Where he should have seen the stone faces of Karak Azhor, he saw only a thick forest.
“It nay could disappear in just four days? Cannae?” a longbeard asked hotly.
“You’re daft! It’s the trees blocking the way,” an ironbread reasoned.
“You expect me to believe that a fully-grown oak sprouted up overnight? It takes up to fifty years for one to reach maturity alone!”
“Sounds like dirty elgi talk to me!”
Ba’Dul knew what this was. Elven magic of the most heinous arboreal variety. He called his irondrakes to the front and ignored the grumbling of his longbeards.
“Burn it all down, lads. Don’t worry, we’ll be home before supper.”
Magma spewed from their guns and dozens of trees and shrub withered under the intense blaze, fading even faster than they had appeared. The trees were thick, and their roots unusually deep. But the dwarfs kept at it and soon a clearing was made. An hour in, Ba’Dul heard a whistling and glanced around. One of his warriors was napping on the job! He knelt down to scream some sense at the young dawi, but saw a fletched shaft extending up and out of his chainmail hauberk.
“We’re under attack! Regroup on me!” Ba’dul sauntered up as fast as his short legs would allow. He inspected the tip of the arrow. It was finely crafted, and glistening with poison. This was no goblin raid, but more elf trickery.
Introduction
Alright, we’re into another escalation game of Warhammer, the Old World! My opponent and I are playing the basic pitched battle mission at 1,000 points. I’m starting to get a handle on the rules, and we got most things right this game. One exception being FBIGO is treating as fleeing and you thus pop out of friendly units and can then reform. We treated it as not being able to move, so you hold instead. We’ll definitely see some interesting ways to abuse that!
Deployment
The dwarfs deployed central, with warriors to the left and irondrakes eyeing the hill with their flaming projectiles and trollhammer torpedo. They have a large unit of ironbreakers holding their runesmith, a 10-man unit of
gw longboards, and 10-man sab warriors. Also 10 irondrakes with the torpedo cannon.
The wood elves are led by a Treeman ancient with hammerhand, pillar of fire, arcane urgency, and oaken shield. They have a small unit of full command glade guard with hagbane tips, 15 dryads, 3 treekin with an elder, and 5 wild rilders fc. Wood Elf forest spirits deploy centrally, with treelord hanging toward back and out of range of the torpedo. Glade guard deploy in the dwarven hold’s balcony and Wild Riders on the far right flank.
Turn 1
Turn 1 begins with a dwarven advance. Irondrakes climb the hill. Dryads and Treekin march to the right of the tower. Wild riders gallop up the right flank. Glade guard send a warning shot into a dwarf warrior. The treeman ancient gets his ward spell off, but fails his movement spell.
Turn 2
Turn 2 and the dwarves advance more, facing the expected wood elf advance. The torpedo wounds the treeman ancient, whose armor and regen saves are ignored, but he makes his 5++ ward save from Oaken shield. This is unfortunately the only torpedo to hit all game. Wild riders gallop over to the dwarf deployment and the rest just shuffle around, trying to avoid the irondrake’s fire guns. The treeman gets his ward back and fails his movement spell again, spending his turn awkwardly trying to get away from the irondrakes and into a better position.
Turn 3
Turn 3 sees the dwarf warriors charge the wild riders (they actually had stuck their toe into the forest to grant the dawi vision of them, picture was not quite up-to-date), who promptly countercharge. Iron breakers march up, and the irondrake champ fires another torpedo which misses. The tree kin move up 1” in front of the ironbreakers and the dryads continue their march up the flank, avoiding forests. The treeman continues to struggle around the dwarf hold. I think at this point he’s just watering the flowers. He casts a pillar of fire, which will be a minor nuisance for the dwarf’s right flank (my left) for the rest of the game. In melee the glade riders slay 5 warriors with no retaliation and the dwarf shieldwall holds, their tatoos proving extra lucky.
Turn 4
In Turn 4 the Ironbreakers slam into the tree kin. The pillar of fire shoots left and barbeques one dwarf. In melee, the wild riders and the warriors miss completely. The wild riders hold onto their frenzy because of the righteous blowing of their musician. Treekin whack a couple of dwarves, but ironbreakers win out with a wound and excellent static combat res from ranks and banner. Tree kin give ground. In Wood elf turn 4, the dryads charge the longbeards with great weapons. Neither of these units is going into an ideal melee so it’ll be interesting to see who takes it. Dwarves continue to pass all their fear tests. Treeman continues to hobble around.
Turn 5
It's Turn 5 and I forgot to take pictures.
I mean... the Dark Elves stole them!
Curse them and so forth! The dwarves are properly stuck in now. The runesmith goes down to a treewhack and a stomp, as do a couple of ironbreakers. But they hold, doing what dwarves do best and only giving ground. The dwarf warriors actually kill a wild rider and the wild riders do nothing in return, losing combat and their frenzy! The dryads kill a couple longbeards but take heavy casualties and fall back in good order.
Turn 6
Turn 6 is the final turn and I think the men and treefolk know it! The ironbreakers win combat by static resolution alone and drive the tree kin back, catching them and busting them up before they can retreat behind Tree Daddy’s branches. The wild riders, having lost all bonus attacks now decide to give it their all… and wound with nearly all of their meager attacks, killing the rest of the dwarfs. Uh… okay? The dryads also decide to go hard on the long beards and wipe them out as well. Dwarf die rolling was certainly well below average here. Wood elf dice felt pretty average, except for the last melee where the dryads and wilders cranked it up to eleven.
Conclusion
In the end the treekin have been hacked apart. Dwarf losses total the warriors, longbeards, and the runesmith and a couple of banners. We didn’t tally up points but seems like a minor victory for the dauntlelss Asrai. It certainly could have been a lot bloodier. I (tree-hugging pointy-eared hippy) spent a lot of energy avoiding the irondrakes and get my squishy soft skins a nice fight. The tree forests performed well, except for the failed
Ld 10 break check on the treekin. But these are the risks you take when you leave the
BSB at home. I think at 1K I’m overdoing it with the forest spirits. I might see about dropping the treeman ancient to a treeman, dropping the treekin for some deepwood scouts, and using a spellsinger on foot. Magic for me has been somewhat unimportant. However magic defense in theory is extremely important, because any list with multiple magic missiles is going to eat my doe-eyed, leafy haired lads for breakfast.
Thanks for reading! Stay unbreakable my friends!
*Rides out on the worldroots with an epic lute solo* 
Duilleoga Fuilteacha knelt, allowing the glade guard to scamper over his boughs back to the safety of the woods. While crouched, he inspected the hillside of Karak Ahzor. The wildflowers were coming in splendidly, their crimson and sapphire resplendence beginning to sprout through the rocks and carpet the steep slopes. It had been a worthwhile trip.
Runesmith Ba’Dul staggered to his feet. Save for the hacked braches before him, the elves and spirits had vanished without a trace. He inspected his gromril helmet. It had been dented in several places, but nothing dawi artifice could not fix, or even improve. He hiked up the slopes to Karak Ahzor slowly, careful not to put pressure on his many bruises. When he entered the hall at last, he collapsed on the stone floor. He frowned and sniffed. It was remarkably clean. The moss on the walls was greener than usual. What were these foul elgi playing at?
