Ah, High Elves. How I loathe their printine white robes and perfect sparkling teeth. Phil (not Star Dragon Phil) asked for a game last week so I picked up the gauntlet and we faced off on Sunday at the club. Phil is a great guy - a wonderful opponent and, as this battle was to demonstrate, an exemplary sport. His good humour and capacity for sheer cheerfulness is super-human and it's an attitude that is very much inspiring.
Anyway...
In short, Phil was almost mercilessly pummelled flat. My nickname jumped into sharp relief as I made a ridiculous number of armour and ward saves (so many 6s...). One unit of 6 Realms took a charge from 6 Silver Helms and their attached Hero friend and held for three turns until my Errant bus and BSB were ready to charge them into the ground. Phil was failing Panic and Terror and break tests all over the place. Four Mounted Yeoman broke 14 or so Lothern Seaguard (winning by one) which caused a nearby Spear block to panic.
The key moment came when the Errants wth BSB charged 18 Swordmasters and the Elf General in the front. Thinking they might need some help the Brettonian Lord on Hippogryph hit their flank and the Pegs hit the other. Despite losing 4 Knights and a wound off the Pegs (damn ASF! Mind you, the Elf General failed to kill off the Errant Champion in their challenge) the noble Brettonians butchered 10 Elves, comprehensively smashing them. All 3 units pursued, the Elves run down and the Pegs capturing the first of what would eventually be 3 banners (the Errants capturing another from the Silver Helms late in the game).
My truly dirty luck was confirmed when the Pegs charged the Dragon Princes in the front and beat them silly, the Hippo boss charged the Lothern Seaguard who failed their Terror check and fled, and the Yeoman took no casualties from an Eagle's charge, turned around in their saddles, and beat it silly in the same round of combat (3 wounds from the 6 attacks they had).
In the end I had lost a unit of Yeoman, the 6-man Realms and a smattering of other Realms and Errants. Due to my ineptitude the Grails never even saw combat!
Phil had just awful luck throughout the game. His magic was almost completely ineffective, his combat troops were cut down by the lance strike of skilled knights and (fortunate) peasants, and his leadership tests were pants. At the end of the game he was quite convinced he'd had a lot of fun. Damn but he's a good sport! The weekend before I took a harsh beating from Scott and felt every lost unit keenly (and showed it I'm sorry to say - sorry Scott). Phil on the other hand just couldn't have the smile wiped from his face no matter how bad things got - even on my fifth consecutive "ward save on a 6" he was going strong.
Phil's the man!
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