Brother C here,
Fantasy Battle Report this time. So for the Shadowbane
Escalation League, I played my 1500 point match this past week against Alex and
his High Elves.
I’ll be honest. I thought he would have me here. He knew
exactly what I was bringing, and he brought counters for them. He had a lvl 4
high magic mage, a lvl 2 shadow wizard (joy, pit of shades and drain magic) a
block of sword masters, a block of phoenix guard, 2x spearmen blocks (1 mage
hid in each) and a unit of dragon princes with noble with BSB (I believe)
I brought my slaan, 2x blocks of saurus, 4x groups of skink
skirmishers, a salamander pack, and a terradon pack. We played the mission with
the ‘no mans land’ going diagonally across the center of the table, and this
area was also deemed a stinky swamp that caused dangerous terrain tests in
order to pass through it. (it was chosen for fluffy reason and to help people
learn about dangerous terrain and to make the mission more of a challenge)
I deployed everything first as the mission states, as far
forward as I could. I wanted to be in range of dwellers as well as my slaan’s
innate abilities. I only had to put two units of skirmishers in reserve. I had
the terradons ready for a vanguard move.
He deployed along his back table edge, he was trying to lure
me into an ambush and then hit me with all his blocks at once. He went for the
mindrazor with lore of shadow instead of pit (whew). He had to put both his
spearmen blocks in reserve which really got him out of his strategy. He did not
know what to do with the mages without those blocks.
I vanguard my terradons safely across the swamp, fly over
his lines and drop rocks on his swordmasters on turn 1. killing 4 of the 8. I
land safely out of harms way beside the calvary, but out of front arc.
Everything else just sorta shimmies into the swamp. (thank you aquatic) I take
some losses here and there on the saurus. I stop short of crossing because I
want to try to entice him to come into the swamp, and take the dangerous
terrain tests. I have numbers on him, so, some free kills would be even better.
My goal was to wait until later turns and then move just enough guys across the
river to capture it, while still having a unit or two in my deployment zone to
capture it. I figured if I brought the fight to him, he would have to be on the
defensive and forget about capturing my side.
HE turn one he charged his swordmasters into a skink
skirmisher unit I had and took some heavy losses to terrain tests and stand and
shooting, I think he only had 1-2 left when he came in, but that was enough to
wipe the skirmishers out. Javelins from the terradons would later finish them
off. The dragon princes and phoenix
guard missed their charges. His mages were still out of range for any of their
good spells, so he just dispelled a bunch of my remains in play. (hiding back
in the corner awaiting their spearmen escort)
Turn 2 I shot my salamanders at his calvary, killed 1-2 of
them. Moved my skirmishers up along the flank, trying to entice him to assault
me off the table. Slaan got 2 augument spells, but miscast on both (both on
just 3 dice) and ended up making me a lvl 1 mage instead and taking a str 10
hit, which I later healed back up. I did manage to get dwellers off on his
phoenix guard and took down a slew of them.
His turn 2 had his spearmen move up, calvary charges the
salamanders. This combat would go on for a few turns which saw my salamanders
finally beat down the calvary, after I fled and regrouped and came back for
more. The stomps really came through in the end. Regrowth really helped me keep
that squad alive during the match as well.
Slaan attempted dwellers again, worked again, and took down
more phoenix guard which I think got blow piped down to finish them off.
HE turn 3 he again moved his spears up. He was throwing
magic into my saurus and taking them down, but there were just too many bodies.
Turn 4, I move up again and start putting shots into his
flanks of his spearmen block, taking down a ton.
High elves finally assault into the saurus blocks. He
assaults both into the main one and we actually tied combat. He did however
make a HUGE mistake by charging those two units into my block. He left the 2
mages all by their lonesome with 2 groups of skirmishers and a terradon unit
nearby. Now they were hiding in terrain, and he saw it afterwards, and knew it
was a bonehead move.
My turn 5, I was able to actually get a flank charge on his
one block of spearmen locked in combat with the other saurus block (go go good
positioning) and that was when the hammer came down. I was also able to blow
pipe his lvl 2 mage down, and take 2 wounds off the lvl 4, but not quite finish
him off. The spearmen ran like crazy from the saurus, I was just completely
overwhelming him. I was able to catch on the blocks, but the other blocks got
away. And the game ended.
I had most of my entire army on his side of the table. But I
had the slaan over there and that sealed the deal. I had just one unit of
skirmishers sitting on my end behind a house and that was enough to hold both
table halves and earn the victory for me.
Alex had declared earlier that his general was the mounted
noble BSB, so even though I did not finish off his lvl 4 mage, I still go the
bonus points for taking down his general, and all the banners.
It was a pretty brutal fight. I apologize for not having
pictures. I know it is a long read without some eye candy.
I really threw him for a loop with my skirmishers. He just
did not deal with them well. In fact, I don’t think he really had a strategy to
fend them off, he more or less tried to just ignore them, which is always a bad
idea when there are 30 of them running around your flanks picking off your
expensive units, and of course always a threat to those lone casters in the
back.
I wish we had a better magic duel. Dropping down to lvl 1 on
turn 2 was a bummer. Hurt me a lot. But having the ability that my opponent
ignores all 6s he rolls for casting really really hurt him. It basically
completely shut down his magic for the majority of the game (I later showed him
how to maneuver so he would be out of the range for his own casting and keep
forcing me to maneuver to stay in range)
It was a fun match, Alex was on a hot streak, he thought he
would challenge an opponent above him and try to narrow the gap, which is what
he should have done, but he was not fully prepared for this fight. We will play
again soon, and he’ll be ready for the 2k round for sure.
