This is the second part of my account of the recent one day tournament at Gaming Arena. You can find the previous part here.
Game 2 - King of the Hill
Lachie Mulcahy - High Elves
- Prince on Star Dragon with Full plate armour, Shield, Sword of Might, Seed of Rebirth (maybe...)
- Archmage (Level 4, Elementalism)
- 30 Lothern Sea Guard with Thrusting spears, Warbows, Light armour, Shields, Full Command, Razor Standard
- 5 Silver Helms with Lances, Heavy armour, Barding, Shields, High Helm
- 6 Dragon Princes with Lances, Full plate armour, Shields, Barding, Full Command
- 21 White Lions of Chrace with Chracian great blades, Heavy armour, Full Command, The Loremaster's Cloak
- 10 Sisters of Avelorn with Bows of Avelorn, Light armour, High Sister (Bow of the Seafarer)
Lachie stacked the fast nasty stuff over on his illegal flank. The Dragon was a problem. I knew I couldn't threaten it with what I had in my army. The only thing I had that might beat it in combat was the Prince in the Spearmen, and I think he knew that.
My Silver Helms also deployed in the illegal wide zone. I put them there before all the other better stuff appeared on the other side. To begin with it was just identical Silver Helm units staring at each other. I had real space issues due to my wide infantry units and the impassable terrain. The Swordmasters were doing their best with Drilled, but it was not good.
I got the first turn, which was nice. I immediately flung my right flank forward at full speed, trying to get to the Sisters before they ruined my army. The Spearmen stepped up and grabbed control of the hill. The Dragon Princes had Glittering Robe, which might help them ride out a volley on their way in.
My Sisters shuffled out and fired as best they could at the enemy Silver Helms, but they were never likely to panic.
Taking cover and basically hoping to bait the Dragon in to fight my Spearmen was... close to my whole plan.
Unfortunately Lachie managed to cast Plague of Rust on the Dragon Princes, which meant the shooting that followed was unpleasant. At least the Sea Guard had to move to (nearly) challenge my control of the hill. But I still lost half the Dragon Princes, and they would remain cursed for any Stand and Shoot reactions...
The Dragon flew up to lurk behind the terrain. The Silver Helms hung back, content to let the Dragon Princes take care of business. The White Lions didn't mess around, moving quickly across the centre.
So... This was what I had been trying to achieve. Just... It didn't go to plan, and partly because we collectively failed at Warhammer. The Dragon Princes managed to charge the Sea Guard without taking any further casualties, which was great. The Griffon got to the Sisters (who were the ones who really messed up the Dragon Princes), and the small number of them that could actually see me managed to knock off 4 of his 5 wounds with Stand and Shoot. Then the High Sister challenged, and striking first, she managed to kill me before I could attack (my rider had a great weapon, so was slower than the Sister). Now that was all rather disastrous, but it's made worse when you realise that 3 of the 4 wounds I took from shooting were from the Bow of the Seafarer, which can't Stand and Shoot. Also, the High Sister used 2 mighty Strength 3 attacks to kill me, but I realised later that she only has one (I think Lachie mixed her up with the Sea Guard champion). So a grievous error had been made, and neither of us realised (given we were both playing High Elves, both had Sisters, and both had the Bow of the Seafarer, you'd think (or hope) that one of us would have twigged)...
With the shooting units engaged, I had felt free to move the Spearmen up into a more tempting position atop the hill. I was asserting dominance. I like to imagine they were making tempting "come hither" gestures to the Star Dragon.
The Sisters stepped out to get a line on the Dragon Princes, putting as much distance between them as possible. The enemy could charge them, but only with a maximum roll. I think we managed to shoot one of them off as we moved.
Unfortunately the glorious charge of the Dragon Princes looked a lot less glorious once my dice were involved. We killed some of them, but not enough to win the combat thanks to Plague of Rust and the Razor Standard combining in a nasty fashion to negate our armour. I really probably needed to cast Spectral Doppelganger to hammer away the return attacks, but failed to cast it. We lost, gave ground, and the enemy held their ground and pulled out their bows instead of spears... The telltale creak of bowstrings from the Sisters (who were meant to be busy) was also not encouraging.
I had formed my lines up as best I could to avoid giving the Dragon a flank charge and prepare for the approaching enemy. The Dragon responded by breathing on the Swordmasters, which was unsporting. The Dragon Princes did try to charge my Sisters, failed to make the distance, and lost 2 more of their number to Stand and Shoot. Let's face it, I probably killed one via illegal use of the Bow of the Seafarer (I don't actually know for sure).
The shooting over here was depressing. The Dragon Princes and Archmage were finished off, and a significant dent was made in the Spearmen, who had been minding their own business.
I don't have a good photo to really show this, but I found myself with an awkward decision. The Spearmen could have flanked the White Lions, and obviously I had a lot of other troops within reach too (including the Swordmasters on the other flank). But Lachie had managed to cast Courage of Aenarion on them, so they were Unbreakable. With no prospect of actually breaking them, there was no point in risking most of what was left of my army against their axes (and the predations of the Dragon). In truth I had no options, but without the spell I might have found some. Instead the Swordmasters backed up to prevent the Dragon pulling them into a double charge, and we waited for the inevitable.
Having abandoned the poisonous dream of charging unbreakable White Lions, the Spearmen turned to focus on the only threat to their dominance of the hill. But there was a lot of shooting waiting there.
Apparently Lachie wasn't interested in offering mercy. I had thought I might be able to flee the White Lion charge, but not when the Dragon was coming in too. There was no hope there.
Oh good, Plague of Rust again. Look, I'm sure this will be fine...
No more Sea Guard, and the Swordmasters are not long for this world.
So after a round of shooting, I no longer had control of the hill (actually technically I did get it again, because my 10 Archers swung around and grabbed it for a bit). But the Spearmen had been wiped out by shooting.
None of it had gone very well. The Prince ran off down the hill and started whacking at the Sea Guard, but that was pointless. The Sisters had seen off the threat on the flank, but the 2 remaining Dragon Princes went and hid behind the ruin where the Dragon had been lurking earlier. My army was basically gone, and the 500 odd victory points I had amassed from controlling the hill were not going to count for much. The game was over and I had lost again.
It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if we hadn't stuffed up the Griffon vs the Sisters. Honestly the Dragon Princes took too much of a pounding as well, but the Spearmen would have held up a lot better and I might have been able to make more of a game of it. Ah well, these mistakes happen.
I have made a resolution that the next time I attend one of Lachie's one dayers, I will ensure I had something to kill a Star Dragon. I'm not going in empty-handed a third time...
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