Another tournament is done and dusted. This time it's the second running of Snake Eyes, a team event with 4 players per team. Last year it was 3. Goodness knows what it will look like next year.
Army selection was a bit different from normal. The previous year there had been a cap on magic levels across the whole team. That was gone this time, but in addition to using the Grand Melee and Combined Arms limits, the following rules applied:
- Each player must use a different race
- All magic items (including extremely common) are unique and may not be taken
- more than once across the entire team
- Characters capped at 33%
- Flying and Ethereal units combined capped at 33%
- Undead cannot take Battle Standard Bearers
- No more than 2 of the same war machine from Special, and no duplicates from Rare
- No duplicate Behemoths (not counting mounts)
This all added up to make the army and list selection slightly headache-inducing, but eventually I decided I could field a semi-capable Wood Elf army with a couple of levers to pull, depending on what I found myself facing.
Wood Elf Grand Army (2000 points)
- Glade Lord (General) on Great Stag with Light armour, Shield, Orion's Favour, Dragon Slaying Sword, Sword of Might, An Annoyance of Netlings, Wild Rider Kindred
- Spellweaver (Level 4, Lore of the Wilds) on Unicorn with Heartwood Pendant, Oaken Stave, Potion of Foolhardiness, Glamour Weave Kindred
- 23 Glade Guard with Fire & Flee, Swiftshiver Shards, Full Command, Razor Standard
- 12 Dryads with Nymph
- 10 Deepwood Scouts with Arcane Bodkins
- 5 Sisters of the Thorn with Handmaiden of the Thorn, Standard bearer
- 5 Wild Riders with Hunting spears, Light armour, Shields, Full Command
- 4 Warhawk Riders with Trueflight Arrows
- Treeman with A Befuddlement of Mischiefs
No doubt this is far from the perfect Wood Elf army I could have chosen, but it included a few elements that amused me. Firstly, I liked the look of the Spellweaver. The Oaken Stave gave me some serious anti-magic ability, but her main party trick was going to be getting Dhurthu's Wrath and wailing on unsuspecting units that tried to get past her forest. That was the plan, anyway. Maybe not a perfect plan...
My general was also a bit of a question mark. I decided I needed the ability to kill something hard like a dragon, and he was my only hope. Of course, he was frenzied with 360 degree vision, so trying to steer him in the right direction could be a problem. I'd deal with that when it came up.
The heart of the army was the Glade Guard with multiple shots and the Razor Standard. They'd be rolling a ton of dice, and could potentially put a lot of hurt on something. That was exciting. The Scouts offered a little backup in terms of firepower, but it was going to be mainly about the Glade Guard.
Overall, I was a bit concerned that this army might end up needing a bit of finesse to use properly, and I really didn't have much in the way of practice with it. This was not a great combination, but it was the situation I had put myself in.
Each round, our team of 4 would be lined up against one of the other teams of 4. Then an some sort of intricate mating dance would take place in order to determine which army was facing which. Only 2 of the 4 tables had a scenario and objectives in play - the others were just playing Upon the Field of Glory.
Game 1 - The Order of Questionable Chivalry
Matthew Soltys-Klein - High Elves
Upon the Field of Glory
- Prince (General) on Star Dragon with Full plate armour, Shield, Opal Amulet, Seed of Rebirth, Sword of Might, Blood of Caledor
- Archmage (Level 3 Battle Magic) with Silvery Wand, Sea Guard
- 6 Silver Helms with Lances, Heavy armour, Barding, Shields, Full Command, Ring of Fury
- 6 Elven Archers with Longbows
- 21 Lothern Sea Guard with Thrusting spears, Warbows, Light armour, Shields, Full Command
- 8 Dragon Princes with Lances, Full plate armour, Shields, Barding, Full Command, The Loremaster's Cloak
- 9 Sisters of Avelorn with Bows of Avelorn, Light armour, High Sister, Ruby Ring of Ruin
- 10 Sisters of Avelorn with Bows of Avelorn, Light armour, High Sister, Bow of the Seafarer
- Lothern Skycutter with Cavalry spears, Shortbows
Too much of my attention during deployment was spent on trying to work out how to address the threat of the Sisters of Avelorn. I had to finish deployment before my opponent, and made the mistake of putting my Glade Lord pretty hard on the right flank. Naturally Matthew then placed his Star Dragon far, far away. I would get the first turn, but my ability to threaten the Star Dragon would be very limited.
