Vs Phil's High Elves (but not that Phil)

I was pleasantly surprised to catch a game against a High Elf army at the club today - fortuitous given my arranged grudge match against them for Round One at FoB. Even better there was a Phil at the helm - not the Phil I would actually be facing but surely this was fate! I'd not played Phil before though he's been appearing at the club infrequently for the last 6 months or more.

Having only played High Elves once before (and with Dwarfs no less) I was very keen to see how the Lizards would fare. Phil is a cagey chap and wasn't too keen to divulge exactly what his Elfy lads were actually equipped with. This made is difficult to gauge how I should deploy to the best effect. As far as High Elves go the army also looked HUGE - big Spear block, big Lothern Seaguard block, big Swordmasters block, Dragon Princes, Silver Helms, Lion Chariot, 2 bolties, 2 mages, character on horse with Dragon Princes and sneaky boss hidden (in plain sight) in Swordmasters. A nasty magic phase including the Rings of Fury and Corin, a mage with Seer choosing Shades of Death and Pit of Shades and the boss had a book that stole one of my pool dice. Grrr!

Phil went first and prompty very nearly wiped my Saurus block off the face of the board with Pit of Shades and the bolt throwers. Damn but I hate Pit of Shades. The Dragon Princes were up in my face and it was all on straight away!

Skinks bravely threw themselves into the path of the oncoming Dragon Princes as a Lion Chariot slammed into the remainder of the Saurus who took the charge and beat the chariot by 1 (it held). Magic was a damp squib barring Doom and Darkness on the Spear block who subsequently failed a Terror test thanks to Mr Stegadon and fled across the board, taking their Mage with them. These were later charged by the Salamanders and Jag-Vet from opposition sides, the Jag-Vet cutting them down in front of the Seaguard on a hill in Phil's deployment zone.

On the other flank the Silver Helms were carefully escorted towards my board edge by two Skink units, unable to march or charge they were kept out of the battle in the centre. They survived by were unable to lend a hand to their comrades.

With the Spears taken care of Phil's magic phase was starting to show holes and mine was coming into its own. The Steg charged into a bolt thrower crew who elected to flee allowing him to hit the Seaguard in the flank. Winning by 5 he broke them and ran them down. The Sallies set to on the Swordmasters leaving 9 alive. These charged into some Krox, killing 1 and taking 2 wounds from another (from 9 attacks in total - damn!) but they killed 3 Swordmasters in return and held with the Slann nearby.

At that point Phil called the game.