Captain Nick's Equinox Elves

Captain Soft Scores lined me up last night to be his first victim on his newly created table and I was happy to oblige. Nick (this is Nick Irvine from the City Guard) has earned the title "Captain Soft Scores" for a good reason - his composition, sportsmanship and painting are frequently exeedingly high. He's a fantastic opponent and great fun to play.

Nick's been playing Wood Elves since... forever, and has started to get quite experimental with his lists. The current incarnation is focused around trying to solve the immense problem Wood Elves have facing down big scary beasties like Dragons, Greater Daemons and so on. The foundation principal here is a L4 mage with Lore of Beasts (trying for Beasts Cowers and/or Wolf hunts) accompanied by 6 Wild Riders with Warbanner. The Mage Cowers the badness and/or propels the Cavalry into combat with Wolf Hunts, accepts challenge and deflects hits with the Annoyance (hit on a '6' in challenges), saving them with the Crystal Mere (3+ ward save until the save is failed). The static 3 Wild Riders shout encouragment of get stuck into any rank and file that are handy and in spear range. It's definitely an interesting combination!


For this game I tried a slightly different and more concise thought process of categorising enemy units into various groups. This leads quickly to a plan of attack for the game. I've read a bit about this online but really tried hard to put it into practice in this game. I've always had trouble with Wood Elves (elusive little buggers that they are) - the key is always to pin them in the right and most favourable combat. So for this game I identified:

- the Hammer unit (Wild Riders)
- the Anvil (Treeman)
- the Redirectors (Glade Riders)
- the Ranged threat (2 units fo Glade Guard)
- the Assassins (2 units of Wardancers)
- the Magic threat (L4 Mage with Hunters Spear - a magical bolt thrower! - and Wolf Hunts - 2D6" move towards an enemy unit; can be used on monsters and cav - and the L2 Mage with Treesinging and Fury of the Forest - D6 str 4 or str5 if within 6" of a forest magical attacks!)


I think subconsciously all (or most) players do this in a game. I felt that actively identifying these threats and units and keeping this description in mind was extremely helpful.

Previous experience against Wood Elves tells me that their shooting can melt a unit per turn if you aren't careful, that the Tree is difficult to deal with for Vampires without flaming attacks, that Wardancers have a silly number of attacks, that the whole army is VERY mobile, and that there is a LOT of magical attacks in the army. Running forward and trying to get into combat just doesn't work - you've got to give the Elf player a reason to advance. Of course with a poorer comp score the pressure is really always on me (playing Vampires) to hunt the points.


Nick spread his force across the board with 2 units of Glade Guard holding the centre, the Wild Riders on his left and everything else spread across the right. I deployed with a strong left hook, the centre held by the Grave Guard (who would cope best with the ranged threat - high toughness and armour - and also any flank charge trickiness from the Wild Riders) a Skellies block accompanied by the VC general. I knew Nick could easily redeploy his army but with a forest blocking shooting to almost everything except the Grave Guard (who could obviously be raised back as easily as everything else) he would have to move to find the points.

I held in the centre and pushed up on the left but the Tree was giving me a headache. I couldn't roll it in one turn (unless the banshee got really lucky and screamed 3 or 4 wounds off it) so I spent some time getting the Zombies into position to tie it down. A lucky Book of Arkhan casting propelled them into combat and while I didn't break the damn thing he was at least tied down by 33 Zombies. Next turn some Wardancers charged in - leaving me with 3 Zombies after that round of combat! Fortunately this left room for some Knights and by General to combo charge the Wardancers. The general was in turn counter-charged by the second unit of Wardancers. This went on for quite a while but eventually the Tree was left unengaged and at the end of the game with no good charging options (and misfired trying to Strangleroot some Knights in the last turn) and Wardancer units both broke and were run down. Next to this combat the Varghulf was epic failing to wound some Dryads so the Wraiths charged in (not ideal as Dryads have magical attacks). It took some time (and cost me the Banshee) but I eventually got through them. On this flank Nick was left with the Treeman and his BSB in a forest against 5 Unbarded Knights, a Skellies block, the Varghulf, and 5 Wolves. In the centre the other Skellie block charged a unit fo Glade Guard (with a banner). The Skellies were getting dealt to until the Knights that had run down the Wardancers hit the Glade Guard in the flank and auto-broke them with outnumber by fear-causers.


The Wild Riders glorious sweep around my flank looking for a magical rear-charge on the Grave Guard in turn 4 or 5 was rudely interrupted by 5 Dire Wolves. The Wolves were quickly dealt with but Nick tired of this little game when a second unit of Wolves got in their way again. The potential of an 80pt return for a 600pt unit didn't thrill Nick so he backed off and looked for another option. Unfortunately he found it the wrong way. Instead of using a Scroll to stop a Book of Arkhan charge he gambled a one dice roll supported by a one-use reroll for a dispel attempt granted by some of his General's kit. The gamble failed and the Grave Guard charged the Wild Riders! Being Immune to Psychology the Elves had to hold. In a show of ineptitude the Grave Guard only killed the Wild Rider Champion and lost one in return. They broke the Wild Riders who of course escaped.


I should mention Nick's Alter Noble at this point. This clever little git earlier charged the flank of the Skellie unit with the VC general in it. He was never going to hold but with Hatred on the VC general I had to pursue. The Alter escaped and now pulled the same trick on the Grave Guard, rear-charging them, breaking and I failed to restrain pursuit on Ld7 so instead of charging the Wild Riders again I was now facing the wrong way!


Nevertheless I reformed to face the Wild Riders. Nick rallied the unit and moved as far away as possible but it turned out he couln't get far enough away to avoid a solo charge from my BSB in the last turn. Deftly avoiding the damned Mage with her Annoyance the BSB skewered a Wild Rider and with his standard and Walking Death won combat by 2! (the Wild Riders had lost their banner/Warbanner when they were broken by the Grave Guard earlier in the game). Incredibly the Wild Riders broke - a 600pt unit and a now uncontested table quarter! Surely a big swing at the end of the game.


So in the end Nick had the Treeman, BSB, Alter Noble (grrr!) and a unit of Glade Guard. I'd lost 1/2 a Skellie block, 1/2 the barded Knights, a unit of Wolves and the Zombies. I had two banners (Glade Guard and Wild Riders), the Wood Elf General (the L4 Mage) and a two quarters. Nick had one quarter and the last one (with the Treeman) was contested.

This was a win to me by just over 1400VPs. Gut feel was a 15-5 win after the comp kicked in which I was very pleased with.


Cheers for the game Nick - a little bit of vengeance for that 20-0 thrashing you gave me at FluffyCon this year :)