Background and Army Selection Overview
My opponent 'J' had slaughtered my High Elf army in the last battle winning a resounding massacre of a victory. Partly thanks to his Treeman, Glade Guard and Waywatchers and partly due to my almost total reliance on large rank and file units and the omission of one or more cavalry units from my forces.
I had learnt from this hard lesson and this time around I was out for revenge !
They key errors of the previous game would not be repeated. So to address my prior lack of maveuverability I took a unit of Dragon Princes of Caledor with a Drakemaster and Helm of Fortune (rerollable saves) and a Noble with a Reaver Bow (to target the Treeman and other nasties from afar and to hunt down those pesky archers, skirmishers and scouts.
My opponent brought along a similar force to last time (with a Treeman - again, grrrr...! Two units of Glade Guard, Dryads, Wild Riders, Glade Riders and a single level 1 spell caddy). Also, to my horror he brought 3 Treekin to add a bit more punch to his Teeman's advance (as if he needs any help !?!)
J also fielded an independent Highborn and an Independent Noble - these, I later found out were his mage assassins - he thought I might be going in heavy with magic and he was right because I fielded...
Teclis !
Yep, after a lot of humming and ha-ing I decided to give the new edition 7 Teclis a chance to show his mettle.
Terrain Placement
Somewhat contrary to the usual terrain positioning rules we allow terrain to be placed anywhere within your own half of the tabletop battlefield.
On this occassion we were fighting on a slightly reduced 8' x 4' board (it's usually more like 8' x 5'). This size board still gave us plenty of room for maneuver.
We selected a large even number of terrain pieces, plonked them on the board and began taking it in turns to select them. My enemy of course opted for woods, which he grouped up near the center of the battlefield. I managed to get myself a hill and some hard and soft cover (in the shape of stone walls and wooden fences) and a couple of building for effect :)
Deployment.
It soon became evident what the enemy's plan was as be placed his Treeman and Treekin near the center of his line, closely supported by Dryads and some following wardancers. The glade guard were positioned near the flanks and the characters dotted around the place a bit (mainly around the wood)
My enemy planned to send a hammer blow straight from the woods right through the center of my lines (where Teclis awaiting his doom !)
His archers were going to be used to harry my forces and protect his flanks with Wild riders and glade riders going for my repeater bolt throwers.
Having fewer units than my foe he got to see all my deployment phase first and managed to place his key units just where he wanted them without my getting in the way of his plans too much.
We rolled to start the battle....
The Woodies would be going 1st - bless their cotton socks and arcane bodkin arrows !
This was a fight I had to win having suffered twice at the hands of this enemy recently. While the enemy complained of me littering his glades... Teclis juggled mini fireballs and winked at the Treeman ;-)
The Battle Commences - titanic forces clash and the very ground is riven asunder !
It wasn't quite as dramatic as that but it almost was. The enemy's Highborn Alter sprang from the forest, strung an arrow to his bow and in less than the blink of an eye 10 Lothern Sea Guard - the whole personal body guard of Teclis, lay dead at his feet.
Ouch - what a start !
To be continued....
