This is the final part of my report of a recent 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.
Game 5 - Finish The War
Adam Wonderley - Wood Elves
- Spellweaver (Level 3, Lore of Life) with Moonstone of the Hidden Ways, Dispel Scroll
- Spellsinger (Level 2, Lore of Athel Loren) with Dispel Scroll
- Alter Kindred Noble with Great Weapon, Hail of Doom Arrow, Helm of the Hunt
- 12 Glade Guard
- 10 Glade Guard
- 10 Glade Guard
- 8 Dryads
- 8 Dryads
- 5 Glade Riders with Musician
- 5 Wardancers
- 3 Warhawk Riders
- 5 Wild Riders with Full Command
- Great Eagle
- Treeman
This felt like things coming full circle. When I used the forest spirit army at Cancon maybe 19 years ago, I played Adam with his Wood Elves. It was a draw. And here we were again, this time on the top table in the final round. We had a bit of an audience as a few people who knew us both pulled up chairs to watch the clash that might decide the fate of the tournament. I declared that whatever happened, this time it would not be a draw... The scenario was a normal battle - the bonus points were for standards and table quarters etc instead of them just being worth 100 victory points.
So from left, we have 10 Glade Guard led by the Spellweaver, Glade Riders, Dryads, Great Eagle, then on the other side of the forest, Wardancers led by the Spellsinger, the Alter Kindred Noble behind them, and the Warhawk Riders (all of whom had snapped off their bases over the course of the event)
On the other side of the river we had the Treeman, the remaining 2 units of Glade Guard, the other Dryads and the Wild Riders.
I was slightly out-deployed, given I had fewer units. I also elected to keep one of the Dryad units in reserve again, which meant I was done well before Adam. I did what I could. The Wild Riders went wide, with a view to try to get to the Glade Guard. The Treeman and Treekin setup behind my BYO surfing forest. Then it was a sea of Dryads (including Drycha) all the way across the river.
Having finished deployment first, I got the bonus for the first turn roll-off. I won that, which felt quite important given all the archers Adam had. We proceeded to advance in cover. In the case of the Treekin and Treeman, this was more a case of the cover advancing and bringing them with it.
So much Treesinging. It got to the point where Adam actually used a dispel scroll to stop one of them, because I was gaining so much ground. The line of Dryads is back where we probably should have been, before the magic phase.
And the Glade Guard were already within reach!
The other flank was a lot harder to decide. Adam had more units stacked over there. We used the cover as best we could, and tried to close in on the enemy lines before they could start to take a toll on us.
In my head, the Dryads would get cover there. But only in my head. We were not up against the wall.
The enemy Wild Riders swept around behind my unit, whilst the Dryads kept out of sight and in range to cause trouble if we continued our advance.
The Treeman stepped up as the Glade Guard took aim at the Wild Riders.
Things moved around a fair bit on the left. The Dryads and Eagle advanced, the Wardancers stepped behind the forest (as did the Spellsinger, although Adam made the point that he was not actually in the unit now), and the Glade Riders and Alter Kindred hero shuffled across.
I don't think I had enough on the left here. The Glade Guard were left to hold the fort against the single unit of Dryads, and everyone else was leaving...
So. Uh... The Spellweaver cast Master of Stone on the Treekin, but only managed 2 wounds. She also miscast and lost all ability to cast spells for the remainder of the battle. That was pretty great for me... Then the Treeman used Strangleroot and removed the other 7 wounds from the Treekin unit. Just wiped them out, easy as that. The Glade Guard made much harder work of removing the Wild Riders thanks to their cover, thankfully. But the loss of the Treekin was a real blow to my plans on that flank.
The Alter Kindred hero let loose with his Hail of Doom Arrow, and removed the whole Wild Rider unit with ease (they had moved around the building to cover their advance from the Glade Guard). This was also a bummer. My forces on the left were looking even thinner now. The Dryads trying to hide over in the pigsty fared better, only losing one of their number to the volley from the Glade Guard.
It was now my second turn, and my reinforcement Dryads successfully arrived. I was then left with a bit of a conundrum. I could plant them in the forest in the middle of Adam's lines, but he was ready for that. The Dryads were right there, the Alter Kindred guy was around, the Spellsinger had even stated he was leaving the Wardancers so they could charge... But I needed a distraction to break up the lines to buy time for me to get my main line into his. I didn't have a better plan, so decided I would have to expend the Dryads for the cause.
My lines advance with the newly arrived Dryads all alone, deep in the enemy lines.
It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it. The best thing about this plan was that it would realistically take 2 units to make sure they dealt with mine.
It was at about this point that a terrible plan occurred to me, and I got the giggles. People demanded to know what it was, and I said "I'll tell you later". That went down really well - apparently that was not the response they wanted. I then decided that it was a foolish plan that I would not follow, so I explained it to everyone, including my opponent.
Then I changed my mind, decided I would do it after all, and announced it to everyone. After having already revealed my diabolical master plan. The plan even involved me having to cast a spell, when Adam still had a dispel scroll. This was truly some of the dumbest behaviour I've witnessed, and I knew it even as I did it... But I did it anyway.
Step 1 of my fiendish plan was for my Spellsinger to giddy up and ride as quickly as possible toward the newly arrived unit of Dryads. That meant sitting her here on this bridge, in the open, in front of an Alter Kindred noble and a unit of Warhawks. We in the business call this maneuver "suicide"...
Over on the right, the Wild Riders decided it was up to them given the Treekin were gone... They lost another of their number to stand-and-shoot, but maybe 3 of them would be enough. The enemy Dryads were right there, though... And the Treeman was a fraction of an inch out of Strangleroot range, having been march blocked by the enemy Treeman.
At this point I enacted Stage 2 of my master plan. With everyone at the table fully aware of what I was about to do, I picked up 3 dice and cast The Twilight Host on the newly arrived Dryads in the middle of Adam's lines. This would upgrade their Fear to Terror, and terror-bomb half of Adam's army, including the Spellweaver and the Spellsinger who had left the safety of the Wardancers...
I rolled a double 6 and the spell was cast with irresistible force. It was an outrageous piece of luck, and meant that my plan might actually work despite Adam sitting on a dispel scroll. A smarter man might have kept his plan a secret, and first cast Ariel's Blessing on the Dryads to give them regeneration. Adam would almost certainly have scrolled that, unaware of what was coming. Anyway, I didn't do things that way...
Anyway, the start of Adam's turn would now be important.
On the other flank, the Wild Riders managed to narrowly defeat the Glade Guard, they broke, and we all ran off the table, out of range of the nasty Dryads. It was very professional. I think Adam was starting to feel that this was not going to be his day.
The start of Adam's second turn arrived, and he had many terror tests to take. The Glade Guard with his Spellweaver, the Spellsinger, the Glade Riders and the Great Eagle... The Spellsinger and Glade Riders were OK, but the others were less OK. The Great Eagle turned and fled right at me, straight over my Treekin. The Glade Guard and Spellweaver turned and fled straight off the side of the table. It felt like the ultimate example of "played for and got" - it was exactly what I was trying to achieve - it just was not at all earned, given how I went about it.
Presumably upset at the stunt they had just pulled, the Dryads found themselves sandwiched in a charge from both the enemy Dryads and the Wardancers.
The terrain was getting in the way, but the Warhawk Riders charged the Spellsinger as she sat gloating on the bridge. The Treeman stepped across and tried largely unsuccessfully to Strangleroot some Dryads.
The Dryads and Wild Riders thought about charging the Treeman, but in the end they thought better of it.
Considering the circumstances, my Dryads did quite well. They lost 6 of their 8 models, then killed 3 Wardancers in return, and somehow outran everyone before rallying next to the table edge.
Rather shockingly the Warhawks wounded but failed to break the Spellsinger, which meant Dryads went in to help.
I did make a mistake here at this point. I spent much of the game concerned for Drycha and not wanting her to get caught by something like a Treeman, so her unit charged the fleeing Eagle that was sitting next to them. Of course it got away (and then failed to rally once before recovering right on the table edge). It meant Drycha and her friends were no longer heading for the enemy back lines, where the Spellsinger and the battered Wardancers were to be found. It meant I had slightly squandered the advantage I had bought with the terrifying Dryad maneuver - a small group of Dryads and a unit of Treekin were all that was still advancing, and the Treekin couldn't march that turn.
Over on the right, the Treeman declared a charge on the remaining Glade Guard. I think they failed a terror test, but maybe they actually chose to flee. My Wild Riders would move back onto the table and try to block the escape of the Glade Riders, but to no avail.
My Dryads broke but failed to catch the Warhawk Riders, who managed to finish off the Spellsinger before they went. The Treeman then hit those Dryads. The Wild Riders were coming around behind my line, which was a bit of a worry. They never got to charge, though. I think I used Treesinging to swing the forest around in front of them and block their line of sight. The Glade Riders rallied, but did so with a Treeman looking at them and my Wild Riders in their flank.
My Wild Riders broke and wiped out the remaining Glade Guard, and the Treeman eventually broke the Dryads he was trying to wade through. The Warhawks rallied, and I was never able to get to grips with them again.
The Treeman was spending his time march blocked, and unable to find a relevant charge target. Strangleroot was having little impact on the Dryads.
We're getting late in the piece here. The Dryads (somewhat damaged, but not enough) hit the flank of the Wild Riders as they cleaned up the fleeing Glade Guard. We broke and were run down, with the Dryads travelling a fraction of an inch too far for the Treeman to charge them and finish them off. On the bright side, he found something else to do. The Glade Riders came too close behind him, and he blasted the whole unit off with Strangleroots. Not bad, given the rest of his game had been pretty frustrating.
In the end things fizzled a little because nothing could force a fight without getting smashed on the enemy's terms. As I say, had Drycha and co been up in Adam's back line, things might have been different - there were points to be had there, but I had the wrong units in place. I suffered late game for not having any ability to shoot at (or quickly chase) vulnerable targets. I had lost a unit of Treekin, both Wild Rider units, my Spellsinger, and a unit and a half of Dryads. Adam had lost all his Glade Guard, the Spellweaver, the Glade Riders and half the Wardancers. After my grand statement about how this time it would not be a draw, it was a draw.
Result: 13-13 Draw (10-10 before bonuses)
Realising we had fought out a draw, we looked around at the next couple of tables and realised that they also had ended up as draws. It meant that nobody had actually caught us in terms of points, so we finished the event first and second anyway. The top 7 tables were entirely populated with Wood Elves and Vampire Counts. Having units that are immune to psychology remains one of the decisive factors in 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy.
I had definitely ridden my luck during this event. Even without the bogus irresistible force spell in the last game, Drycha had made a habit of breaking and escaping her pursuers during the tournament, which was worth an awful lot of points. The dice had been relatively kind.
Thanks to the organisers for putting on a great event, thanks to all of my opponents, and thank you for reading!
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