Intro
Wood Elves had beaten the High Elves with a massacre in the 1st outing and there was a 'technical draw' in the 2nd battle - although given another turn the Wood Elves would most probably have secured a victory.
This battle saw a similar Wood Elf army as last time (see my precious post for the army list) but the High Elves army was very different this time.
In the last battle I had decided to experiment more with magic taking Teclis and 2 other mages from the magic colleges of Ulthuan. This meant that I completely dominated the magic phase but despite this magic was not enough to score me a victory - the heavy investment in spellcasters had left me too light in combat options.
For the 3rd battle I decided to remove spellcasters altogether from my battle plan. It was a risky option because I would be ignoring one of the High Elf Army's greatest strengths.
I thought it was a risk worth taking though for 2 reasons:-
- The threat of my spell casting abilities would probably mean that the enemy would be well 'tooled up' with dispel scrolls (thus using up points that he would not benefit from, if I didn't cast any spells) and
- I wanted to free up points to use against the inevitable Treeman (or Treemen, if he brought a Treeman Ancient aswell !) and possible Treekin.
I also took 3 repeating bolt throwers (eagle claws) this time and the same eagle riding hero with a revear bow (strength 5). I opted for these to:-
- help protect my table quarters from attack and
- in case plan A didn't work or I got the chance to deliver some bolts on the big tree beasts before I put plan A into action.
So, what's plan A.
Plan A (part 1) - eliminate enemy missile threats.
Take out enemy missile troops with cavalry (with the Ellyrian standard - to treat woods like open ground) and White Lions which should be capable of absorbing enemy longbow fire and still have the strength left when they made it to the enemy woods (which, being woodsmen,they can traverse through without penalty)
Killing the enemy missile troops would make the enemy Treeman and any Treekin come to me and face my bolthrowers and reaver bow if the rest of plan A did not work.
Plan A (part 2)
Unleash the fury of Tyrion with his flaming Sunfang magic sword and strength 7 attacks and reduce the enemy's tree shepherds to charcoal.
The Battlefield
We chose quite a lot of terrain again but this time I made what turned out to be an error of judgement. I chose some hard cover to protect 2 repeating bolt throwers. I knew this would come in handy against the expertise of the Wood Elf archers. The problem was, in doing so I allowed my opponent the luxury of 3 woods. The one he gets by default and the 2 other, one of which I could have taken.
Thus gave my enemy the whole center ground in his line protected by Woods which he gradually moved forward towards my lines throughout the battle.
As it happened, I need not have taken the hard cover. The enemy archers were far to pre-occupied trying to eliminate my White Lions and Dragon Princes and barely gave my bolt throwers a second thought (although maybe this was because of the -2 to hit modifier).
The Battle begins
The Wood Elves began the fighting (they started it Sir !). They had deployed all their forces within the 3 woods, their mage suceeded in moving one of the woods forward with Tree Singing while my army dispel dice prevented the Treeman from casting the same spell.
The only other movement had been by a lone brave (or fool hardy) noble who sprang from the forest and in a split second sent a hail of doom raining down on my Dragon Princes. It was brve of him but he felled only one of the cavalry unit and was not dangerously exposed to my bolt throwers.
Now came the inevitable long bow volleys from the Glade Guard and Waywatchers. My Dragon Princes of Caledor bore the brunt of the fire and despite their Dragon Armour another Dragon Prince fell. The White Lions also took hits but they fared better and the Wood Elf arrows were ineffective against their pelts.
The High Elves' White Lions and Dragon Princes continued their advance. The Dragon Princes were accompanied by a hero and none other than the legendary Tyrion himself. The hero was wearing the Helm of Fortune (reroll failed saves) and carried a Foe Blade (always wound on 2+ against enemies with 2 or more on their starting profile).
My plan was for the Dragon Princes to take out the enemy missile troops at the Woods edge, the hero to split from the unit and hold up the Treekin and Tyrion himself to split from the unit to hunt down the enemy Treeman.
The Eagle rider stayed out of range from the enemy missiles and waited in reserve. The Lion chariot protected an otherwise exposed flank (and a single bolt thrower) while the Sea Elf Lothern Guard were used as the personal bodyguard for the 2 bolt thrower battery (separate units but both positioned behind a wall on a hill)
I felt confident !
The following turn saw more withering fire from the Wood Elves. More Dragon Princes felled (although they had absorbed a lot of arrows)
The enemy also brought some mounted Glade Riders up from his line to block my Dragon Princes.
The first major blow to the enemy was dealt by my bolt throwers which 'pin cushioned' the Elf Noble who had tried to destroy my Dragon Princes with a single hail of doom arrow. He at least had been taught a lesson :)
My much depleted Dragon Princes crashed into the Wood Elf Glade Riders who chose to stand and fire and in doing so felled another Dragon Prince.
Tyrion, the noble and remaining Dragon Prince made mince meat of the Glade Riders but amazingly
the one remaining rider managed to stand his ground and gave his life to stall my plans a little.
Things begin to get a little hazy now obscured somewhat by the red haze of battle blood lust.
The glade guard and scouts continued to harry my White Lions and felled the on last remaining Dragon Prince. There were however enough White Lions to finish a glade guard unit although they tool a white lion with them.
The white lions in the center of the battlefield charged into a unit of dryads, as did Tyrion on the right flank. The unit facing Tyrion was quickly dispatched.
The bolt throwers and eagle rider saw to the wood elf waywatchers. Although the eagle rider was reduced to a single wound and may have fallen from his lofty mount had the way watchers remembered to target him rather than the approaching Lothern Sea Guard.
The left flank was a stalemate after a unit of Wild Riders ran down the remaining White Lions. The Wild Riders withdrew to the wood but dare not approach the White Lion chariot. These 2 units remained in a standoff for the remainder of the battle.
The Wood Elves continued to advance their forests with Tree singing but they had no ranged units to tackle the repeating bolt throwers who could now rain bolts down with impunity on anyone foolish enough to leave the woods.
To be continued....
including the valiant ride of Tyrion into the fury of the forest spirits (3 Treekin and a Treeman !)
