Tavern Blitz- Empire vs. Wood Elves 3k

A planned 6k battle with the forces of the Empire and Wood Elves allied against Chaos and the Vampire Counts falls apart. The would-be allies become enemies fighting for control of an area near the edges of town.

by Felix Flauta/malfred

For the Empire! And our Tavern!

The messenger kneeled before the field throne of the Emperor Karl Franz. "What news from the Elves?" the Emperor finally asked. "Your highness. The lay claim that the forces of Evil would not battle us this day due to our overwhelming strength and numbers." "Very good. And does that mean they would be leaving our borders?" The messenger swallowed before he replied. "Your highness. Their answer is no. They also claim that the evil has not abandoned the land." "Oh? They question our presence and our own show of force? They stay to "protect" us?" "No, your highness. They would like to stay and..." his voice trailed off. Emperor Karl Franz waited. Clearly the news was dire. "They say they'd like to visit our spirits!" "What? Desecrate our graveyard with their magics? We did not bring our army against the undead and the unclean only to have them raised by Elves. Summon the troops!"

My Empire opponent was John of plasticlegions. We played on an 8 foot table in his basement.

We agreed to try an objective points based game and afterwards we compared the results with a regular pitched battle. Our primary objectives were cross table. The Wood Elves gained points for holding a tavern in the corner (the place of the "spirits" they thought they'd visit), while the Empire attempted to lay claim to the hill where the enemy was encamped. A Neutral objective that gained points for either side was the Watchtower in the middle of the table.

The idea was to try out rolling objective points. Both of us could score for holding the center tower, while he could only score on his turn for my hill and I could only score for holding his tavern.

That meant I had to push into his corner and try to hold wide to score on the tower while he tried to barrel up the center to take my hill while defending his flank from a push. The objectives had an interesting effect on the game. We weren't just focusing on killing, quarters, and turns, but suddenly had to consider how to put models into superior positions. I feel that Wood Elves have great mobility compared to Empire, but it might count for nothing if I couldn't keep my units at US 5.

Armies

Empire

The Emperor Karl Franz- 401 ghal maraz, silver seal, warhorse

Captain of Empire- BSB - 183 Imperial Banner

The Emperor Karl Franz walked with the Swordsman and the Captain of Empire Battle Standard Bearer with the Imperial Banner.

General of Empire- 168 sword of might, enchanted shield, icon of magnus

The General of Empire rode with the small Knights unit.

Luthor Huss 180

Luthor Huss accompanied the Knights of the Inner Circle

Warrior Priest- 119 armor of metoric iron, great weapon, Lore of Fire: Flaming Sword and Fireball

Greatswords followed the Warrior Priest into battle.

Battle Wizard- 150 Dispel Scroll x 2

Handgunners protected the Battle Wizard on the field.

CORE

27 Swordsmen , FC w/ War Banner ,detachment 9 Free Company ,detachment 9 Free Company

10 Handgunners Marksman w/ HLR

10 Handgunners Marksman w/ HLR

5 Knights w/ Musician

SPECIAL

11 Knights of the Inner Circle, FC ,Banner of Valor

19 Greatswords, FC

Great Cannon

Great Cannon

5 Pistoliers, w/ Musician ,Champion w/ Repeater Pistol

RARE

Helblaster Volley Gun

Helstorm Rocket Battery

2991 points

Wood Elves

3000 Pts - Wood Elves Roster - Unnamed

Highborn General, Hand Weapon, Longbow, Great Weapon, Shield, The Oaken Armor, Amber Pendant

Noble Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Battle Standard Bearer, Talisman of Protection, Gwytherc's Horn

The Highborn brought his Eternal Guard complement to make them both Core troop choices and stubborn. His Battle Standard Bearer was on hand to blow Gwytherc's Horn should any Terror causing unit arrive on the battlefield.

Treeman Ancient A Cluster of Radiants, An Annoyance of Netlings

An Annoyance of Netlings forces the enemy to roll 6s to hit the Treeman during Challenges. It's a tremendous tarpit and one I didn't bring lightly. I planned it originally for the 6k legendary battle game, but since that was canceled I decided to include it only because of the 3k instead of 2250 point game.

Noble Alter Kindred; Hand Weapon; Longbow; Great Weapon; Light Armour; Shield, The Helm of the Hunt, Hail of Doom Arrow

The Hail of Doom delivery system and Instant Combat Resolution supporter. As a solo model, he charges like a skirmisher, and can hit a flank once key models are engaged. His Great Weapon means that he'll actually wound something, and the Alter Kindred bonus gives him insane combat abilities in both movement and number of attacks.

Spellsinger, Level 2 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Longbow, Calaingor's Stave, Dispel Scroll, Tree Singing, Fury of the Forest

My first Spellsinger had use of both recasting Tree Singing due to Calaingor's Stave and the offensive Athel Loren spell Fury of the Forest. If the Ancient Treeman's spells didn't go off (they weren't key to my plan), then I could use the multiple Tree Singing spells to move up the board (cast twice on two dice just to make sure). If not, then look for those lovely untargeted unengaged units that are nearby.

Spellsinger Level 2 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Longbow; Dispel Scroll ; 1 Dispel Scroll ; Tree Singing ; The Call of the Hunt

My second caster received Call of the Hunt, which meant that each magic phase I had to decide if I needed direct damage, multiple Tree Sings, or the Call. Tree Singing would be most important, especially if the troops come after me in the woods (HIGHLY unlikely). It would also be useful for repositioning. Otherwise, I'd use two or three dice for Fury and three dice for The Call of the Hunt.

CORE

10 Glade Guard

10 Glade Guard

24 Eternal Guard Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Eternal

5 Glade Riders Musician

12 Dryads

12 Dryads

SPECIAL

6 Wardancers Musician Mus; Bladesinger

6 Wardancers Musician Mus; Bladesinger

7 Wild Riders of Kurnous Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; War Banner

3 Warhawk Riders

RARE

5 Waywatchers

Total Roster Cost: 2990

Battle

Deployment

At the end of deployment, John has his Inner Circle Knight hammer unit completely on his flank supported by his pistolier fast cavalry. At about 500 points, the Knights represent about 1/6 of his army, and I never deal with them well. While they aren't ideal targets for expensive Waywatchers to shoot at (only about 1 in 6 shots end up being Lethal shots and so it should take about two rounds of solid fire to kill anything), I put them out there to leave my side of the battlefield clear for my units. John deploys so that I have no chance to draw a bead on his war machine crews.

The Empire Center is an impressive battery of war machines overlooking the main combat resolution block. Karl Franz and his battle standard bearer with the Imperial Banner extend LD 10 rolls out to 12" and allow re-rolls to both failed Psychology and break tests. As a few components of my army cause Fear or Terror, this is key. It's also expensive (100 pts just for the Imperial Banner).

Of course, this block of soldier represents another huge chunk of army points due to the inclusion of the Emperor. It's probably even more points than Luthor Huss and the Inner Circle Knights.

Finally the protectors of the Spirits. The handgunners have a nice deterrent to counter fire in the placement of the wall, and it's unlikely the Greatswords will get flanked with the addition of a screening set of archers. The Knights provide a nice counter-charge element to an otherwise static portion of John's army.

This is the group that will try to take the Tavern and commune with the spirits. In the course of deployment, I end up with a good portion of my army on this flank. The Treeman Ancient and my Eternal Guard block are massive points investments (about 1/3 of my army) so my intention is to hold them in reserve for as long as I can get away with it. The Dryads are meant to soak up fire and threaten the board further up while my Wardancers and Warhawk Riders maneuver for possible charges.

I reserve a tiny force to hold my center. The hill gives me two stacking fire lines and with a clear center table (I had placed both forests on either flank since he got to set up the town). It's the closest thing I have to match the war machines facing me in terms of range.

I intend for the Glade Riders to re-direct charges and March block, and overall buy me time for my flanking maneuver on the right to go into effect. They will, of course, die in this role, but I imagine its how I field them that will determine if their deaths are meaningful or not.

And almost ridiculously by themselves, the Wild Riders threaten a countercharge on my left flank. There is no way I will be giving or receiving a frontal charge against the Inner Circle Knights, but the presence of Waywatchers up the board and fast moving Glade Riders nearby mean that I probably will have more control on how the Wild Riders end up in combat.

Opening moves

Because he completes deployment first, John receives +1 to his starting roll. Of course I roll a 2 which means that anything he rolls wins. He rolls a 1, and we roll off again.

I'm pretty much used to finishing deployment last. Because he has war machines and Free Company detachments, large portions of his army field simultaneously and I usually end up finishing last. I usually plan my deployments around going second when playing John.

The Greatswords sneak out of their pocket, but not far. John wants to be able to winnow down my numbers advantage on the right flank with shooting if he can do it. That means both Handgunner units won't move for the entire game as they fire volley after volley into my units.

John's really gotten the hang of using his Handgunners. He doesn't waste time on redployments or formation changes. He knows exactly how and where he wants them and deploys them to full effect. When we first started to play his infantry blocks and shooting blocks used to collide and that doesn't seem to be the case here at all.

The Emperor's line advances cautiously as well, which means that his General and Knights keep pace rather than range ahead.

The Inner Circle marches boldly to the tower and claims it for the Empire, and I'm left wondering if I shouldn't have just deployed the Waywatchers into the building (I think that would have been legal).

The Pistoliers stay in reserve and out of LOS. If the Waywatchers open up on them, the Pistoliers are more likely to panic and flee off the table than the Knights.

Fire! I said fire?

What are the chances? Three of John's four war machines misfire (the fourth Helblaster Volley Gun is out of range of anything this early in the game) and so my army has an open advance up the field.

With the Handgunners also out of range, only the Free Company archers have any kind of ranged shot at all, and they opt to fire at the Warhawk Riders. They actually hit despite their penalties (-1 for moving, -1 for range and -1 for skirmishers) and cause two wounds.

Bait and flee

My Wild Riders get a charge at the Inner Circle Knights' profile. I was hoping that STR 5 hits in the flank would be enough to kill at least two Knights.

Wild Rider CR: 2 kills, standard, war banner, flanking = 5 Knights CR: outnumber, standard, war banner = 3

If the Wild Riders win the combat, it's even odds as to whether or not I would catch the knights in pursuit.

However, the Inner Circle flees, which hopefully puts them in range of Karl Franz for a rally.

The Wood Elf advance

I keep my Eternal Guard and Treeman Ancient in the woods and out of sight. I'm not completely in the woods yet, so Treesinging isn't an option yet, but it also makes them safe from war machine and handgunner targeting.

The Dryads and Wardancers march forward, along with the Warhawk Riders. The Alter Noble hides behind the lines, still uncommitted and very much a threat. John's probably aware by now that he wields the Hail of Doom arrow in this battle.

The center Dryads try to cover the Eternal Guard's left flank and perhaps tempt a Knightly charge.

Loose arrows!

The Waywatchers, without a target on the Pistoliers, take long shots at the Inner Circle Knights and cause a single wound.

With clear LOS due to the elevation, I use the two Glade Guard units to fire at John's main swordsman block. Each turn I fire two volleys of arrows, hoping that enough focused fire will turn the tide for when I commit the Eternal Guard to combat. Through the course of the game I end up causing at least one panic check, but with Karl Franz and the Imperial Banner, I know the game won't end on that kind of leadership check.

The Empire's response

The knights canter forward, feeling themselves safe from a flanking charge from the Eternal Guard due to the LOS blocking forest.

The Handgunners start to focus their guns on the Dryads, along with the Volley gun. The Dryads prove amazingly resilient. With the working cannons and rockets, he tries to fire into my flank with little effect.

You can see his main block start to turn here to face my waiting Eternal Guard and Treeman Ancient.

The Great Swords are nearly out, with their Detachment trying to fire. They're less accurate this time around (even though they're much closer).

The Glade Riders disappear under a hail of pistol fire. The musician alone remains, and he flees.

Let's try this again, Wood Elves. Charge?

The Warhawk Riders charge the Free Company, who opt to flee and bounce through the Greatswords and nearly run off the table. The Warhawk Riders' charge is enough to take them into the Greatswords, which was an unfortunate consequence.

The way I modeled my Warhawk Riders makes them line up funny like that.

The Wardancers get LOS from inside their forest and charge the Pistoliers. They have just enough movement to get to them, but the Pistoliers flee as a reaction so the charge fails and the Wardancers end up 5" from their start point.

You can see in the picture that the Inner Circle Knights rallied on the previous turn, and now menace my exposed Wardancers.

I try to line up a charge with the Wild Riders even as the Waywatchers start to advance slowly up the table, firing arrows as they go.

I don't declare any charges at the Imperial lines due to the prevalence of countercharge elements from both the detachments as well as the spare Swordsman block.

The Dryads continue to march up the field toward the gunfire, covering the advance of the Alter Lord.

The Wardancers maneuver right to try to redirect any charges the Greatswords will have because I know that the already wounded Warhawk Riders may not survive their encounter with the enemy.

My Spellsinger pulls off Fury of the Forest, that manages to claim a single Knight.

The arrows continue to fall on the Swordsmen, causing a Panic check this turn (easily passed).

A lone Warhawk Rider survives with a single wound left, and uses Hit & Run to get away.

The Empire Charges Back

Well, after a bit of running at least.

The Pistoliers fail their rally check and continue to run, which probably puts them into a better position, but doesn't help out John this turn.

The charge goes into the Wardancers and I try to dance my improved Ward save dance against the Lance charge.

I can't remember, I think I went for the Ward dance here as well to try to hold out until my Alter Noble can enter the fray.

The Dryads beat off more bullets. I'm glad to have fielded them in units of 12 this game, as they are much more resilient and I'm more willing to put them in the line of fire.

I wish it was the name of a neat Wardancer trick. They break, run, and get caught.

The Dryads on my left flank take a charge, and the Knights overcome their Fear. Neither unit breaks nor causes much damage. I lose 2 Dryads, but still make my break test.

My right flank holds a little better than the poor Wardancers by the tower. They manage to take out some Greatswords and last for the next combat, making their break test. It's uncertain how much longer they can last, though, as the CR will continue to build up against them.

Incoming Wood Elves

The Inner Circle Knights flee from the Wild Riders once more, unwilling to take a charge in the flank (with good reason, too!). Even though I lose the matchup with bad or average dice, the points leverage between my single Wild Rider unit vs. his 11 upgraded knights with special character means that I'm more threatening than I really am. There's too much risk involved.

Having field to use the Hail of Doom arrow to good effect (it fired a bunch of arrows into the General's Knights and failed to wound a single time), the Alter Noble takes his great weapon, his 4 attacks, and charges into the flank of the Greatswords.

The Treeman Ancient doesn't charge anything. He moves into the center of the Imperial forces, behind the Knights, and puts Strangling roots into the Swordsmen. Karl Franz keeps his troops in line, but their fighting numbers are much reduced from before.

The volleys are reduced due to a couple cannon shots getting through, but the Imperial Rockets have not been able to land accurately onto the Glade Guard. However, this time they do very little damage to the Swordsmen, and in truth, I probably should have turn their fire to the Free Company Detachment on my left.

The Alter Noble and the dwindling supply of Wardancers get to work tying down the Greatswords. I continue to lose Wardancers and the combat itself, but the Highborne is still near enough to help my Break check. In the meantime, the Greatswords continue to die.

The Warhawk Rider opts not to participate in the melee, having been spanked before, and turns his bow and sights on the war machine crews.

After failing to wound the Knights, the Dryads break. In truth, they weren't expected to kill anything at all, so holding for two rounds of combat against Knights wasn't a bad thing.

In addition, the Break happens near enough to the table edge and lined up just so that the Knights can't pursue into my Glade Guard lines as the Knights run off the table. I will have one more round to shoot at something before I'll have to move the Glade Guard. The Empire won't get any objective points for my hill this turn.

In a charge against the Handgunners, the troops try to stand and shoot, but fail to take out any Dryads at all. Suddenly the fire wizard wishes he had his sword of flame, though John dismissed it to cast a Fireball earlier.

The Free Company never stands a chance. Two men survive and my unit holds.

Earlier, the Emperor charged out of his unit to attack the Treeman Ancient, with the Free Company Detachment in its flank. That the Treeman took no wounds from the Ghal Maraz is a tribute to the challenge taking place on this side of the table.

When The Emperor charges without his unit, he loses the opportunity to put up his unit champion or even his battle standard bearer up for the challenge that I issue. The Treeman Ancient's Annoyance of Netlings means that the Emperor hits only on 6s, but in that first round of combat neither combat monster does any damage.

Attrition

I start to lose interest in taking pictures of the battle as the combats extend and there's less happening in the other phases of the game. A few key combat extend the match.

My Noble and wardancer unit continue to stand against the Greatswords. I've been cycling between Killing blow and multi-attack dances for my Wardancers, but the real killer here has to be the Alter Noble. I think this combat is the first one I don't lose outright.

The Pistoliers rally just an inch from the going off the table, turn around, and remove 4 of my 5 Waywatchers with pistol shots. My Waywatchers are no longer a scoring threat for the neutral Tower objective.

The Inner Circle Knights manage to maneuver into view of the Wild Riders, holding the Tower and preventing a charge or march.

As the Knights return to the table, they wheel to open up a charge on the Glade Guard for the following turn. Their own lines almost hit them with a Rocket battery.

Karl Franz manages to hit the Treeman causing two wounds with Ghal Maraz. I forget that the Treeman has Forest Spirit Ward Saves.

This time, The Emperor takes the Treeman down to 1 wound with two more d3 hits, but the Treeman Ancient hits the Emperor with a wound as well, getting past both the armor and ward saves.

More Greatswords disappear, unable to respond to the Alter Noble's attacks.

The Glade Guard wheel to try to concentrate their STR 4 Glade Guard Bows on the advancing Knights. For some reason, I roll far more poorly than I did firing across the table at the Swordsmen. It's like they're panicking or something.

The Treeman Ancient finishes off the Emperor and the Free Company is free to attack. I think we forget to roll a LD check for them. The Treeman continues to lose combats, but suddenly I remember the Ward saves and he survives everything from then on.

The Alter Noble is now winning CR and gets ready to end things for the STubborn Greatswords. In the background, the Dryads have redirected their efforts to claiming the Tavern objective for the Wood Elves.

It takes two rounds of combat to break them, but without the Emperor on the table, the Swordsmen break in the second round. I manage to eliminate the champions with directed attacks, but it takes two rounds to eliminate the Battle Standard Bearer.

I can't stand and shoot against the Knights since they are so close, so I opt to flee, which is almost a mistake as the Knights almost charge into my second line of Glade Guard who are the only other unit contesting the objective.

My lone Warhawk Rider flank charges the Handgunners, who run over the course of several rounds off the table.

The Treeman Ancient strikes last and loses combat every round, but his stubbornness keeps him on the table.

The Alter Noble pursues the Greatswords, picking up their banner and goes to defend the objective with the Dryads, who are already trying to discover where the Imperial "spirits" are kept.

The Swordsmen break, and I end up chasing them halfway around the table, always 2" short of wherever they are.

And I feel kinda dirty playing him in the game.

Post-battle

Objectives Scoring

( using rolling objective method from the legendary battle rules)

Round 1- Empire 1 Wood Elves 1

Round 2- Empire 1 Wood Elves 3

Round 3- Empire 4 Wood Elves 6

Round 4 Empire 4 Wood Elves 10

Round 5 Empire 9 Wood Elves 15

Round 6 Empire 15 Wood Elves 21

Battle Objectives

Empire - 0

Wood Elves

Table Quarters- 2

General- 3

Banners- 1

Final Score- Wood Elves 27- Empire 15

Victory Points Scoring

Wood Elves

1965 kills

table quarters 200

Banner 100

General slain 100

2365 total

Empire

995 kills

995 total

1370 for a Solid Wood Elf Victory

Categories: Empire Battle Report  | Wood Elves Battle Report