Thought I would try this a couple days ago - a bit of a different approach.
The Asrai and the Beastmen of Chaos*
(*from the Wood Elf perspective)
This game was destined to be interesting, I knew that, but boy
did General Lee (my opponent from our Guild) reveal just how intersting
things could become!
I decided to use only Elves this time from my Wood Elf army - that is, no Forest Spirits at all like Dryads or Treekin, not even a Treeman! I also did not bring in any Special Characters, though I almost decided to bring in Orion, Lord of the Forest. I wanted to try out the Elf-side and see what they were made of,as I had not really used them to any extent yet, and I was not sure what they could do. Well, apparently, one thing they can do quite readily is bleed...
Asrai Army:
1995 pts.
Wood Elf Lord on Elven Steed, rode with Wild Riders unit
Spellsinger, Level 2 Mage (on Elven Steed) - rode alone
15 Glade Guard, Full Command (archers)
10 Glade Guard, F.C.
10 Glade Guard, F.C.
10 Glade Riders, F.C.
6 Wild Riders of Kurnous, F.C.
30 Eternal Guard, F.C.
10 Wardancers, F.C.
TOTAL: 93 models in army = the biggest army I have ever fielded!!!
Beastmen of Chaos Army:
(2003 pts.)
Lord
Shaman, Level 2 with Bat-head
Shaman Level 2
Herd1, with Lord, Full Command (20 models?)
Herd2, F.C. (20?)
Herd3, F.C. (20?)
Nurgle Swarmy-toad-turds x3
Chariot
4 Bestigors(?)
6 Ogres, F.C.
Chaos Puppies x5
Chaos Puppies x5
Asrai Deployment:
Right, so we deployed and all things seemed great. I placed my largest unit of Glade Guard on my far left, then another Glade Guard unit to the right of them on the inside left, then the Glade Riders in the dead centre with the Eternal Guard behind them. On the inside right were the Wild Riders with the Lord, behind them were the Wardancers, and on the far right were my last unit of Glade Guard.
Beastmen Deployment:
Lee placed his Shaman on his left with the Nurgle Turds. In the centre he lead with a unit of Puppies, his Ogre unit and his chariot, followed closely by Herd1. On his right was Herd2 and the Shaman Bat-head. The rest came on later as per the old "Ambush" rule...
The Game:
I was sure that he was going to come at me right off the start with numerous models, though not heavily armoured mdesl, which I could sit back and shoot at. So, my first turn saw me advance along my entire line to each unit's full limit in order to bring into range as much of the enemy as possible. Not suffering penalties for moving and shooting, my archers threatended to be very effective, which at first, it seemed it would be. The unit of Puppies was destroyed and some Ogre wounds were the result of the first volley.
Lee also moved all of his units forward and used some magic which did little at this time.
Just as Turn 2 was gooing to get underway, lee announced that he had some units to place on the table now as per his "Ambush" rule (the cowardly Beasts!), so on his left there emerged his Bestigors just in front of his Shaman and Nurgle-turds, and behind my largest Glade Guard unit he placed his Herd3, and then the other Puppies emerged also on his left in front of the Bestigors.
YIKES!
Well, the next round I advanced again, placing the enemy all within the my short range, and shot up the second Puppy unit to bits, the remaining Puppy fled away, as it could not "regroup". The Herd3 was shot up by the Glade Guard unit there that turned and fired away, but was in the end charged by them. The Ogres felt some arrow pains but nothing too serious, as did Herd2. My WIld RIders charged the Bestigors and destroyed them as they fled. His Herd1 branched off to his left towards my right (Wardancers and Wild Riders).
Herd1 then seemed the next thing to deal with on my right flank, as tings were basically appearing to be all wrapped up over there for me, so in they went, Lord on Lord, Asrai on Beastman...because I charged I attacked first, and my Lord had a cool item or two that gave him a sword that could really do some damage, as long as I did not roll any "1's" on the Wound chart...well, all 5 die turned up a one, can you believe it?! ^%$^%$@^@&%^$&#@*& Well, that sucked, to put it simply. His Lord struck back and killed my Lord, and 3 Wild Riders also died from the Beastman attacks. Not the way I hope it would go. I also had to worry about the chariot and Ogres in the middle, and I had hoped to steer the Wild Riders over there once I had finished off the Herd1. Oh well...
My Glade Riders were charged by the Ogres (I allowed this as I had hoped to send in my Wild Riders in the rear or flank...) and killed all but 4 of them. My Wardancers weer already moving around to the left of the Eternal Guard to offer a supporting flank strike. Howevfer, the left flank Glade Guard unit of 15 was whittled down to almost noithing, failed its combat resolution, fled, and was caught and destroyed. As a result I had to swing my Eternal Guard to the left to meet the Herd3 there, which I managed to send running. The Etenal Guard unit then prepared to meet the Ogres as they came in after having destroyed the unsupported Glade Riders.
As the turns progressed, I really felt that it was a fair fight - no-one was disadvantaged because of the terrain...until I lost my General (Lord) and the bulk of the Wild Riders. I even started to feel that, after having sent his Herd2 to the edge of the table in a flee move that all was looking very good for me, but somehow they rallied at the last minute, and came back for revenge! Aaaaaah!
Let's just say that I killed only about 1300 points of the Beastman army, and my Asrai army was completely destroyed, down to the last Elf. The last combat saw my 3 remaining Wild Riders swoop in and charge Herd2, as the Eternal Guard were at eternal rest having been charged by the Ogres and the Chariot...Yuck!
Really, a great battle. I felt like I had nothing tough enough to stand up against the enemy with. And the Beastmen in the Herds were basically like Dryads.
I cannot help but wonder if things would have been different if I had played my other, Treeman-Treekin-Dryad army... Archery in this game, and magic, too, was nothing special at all, not even worth mentioning. All of the Glade Guards have no armour saves, only T3 and S3, which is not much of a challenge for the average WS4 S4 T4 AS5+ Beastman. I was lucky in that the Ambush was not really a concern...this time....but it could have been much worse in that way.
Winner, by a long shot: General Lee (they don't call him "General" for nothing!), with over 700 points left alive, compared to my...um...well, nothing.
Great game, worthy, I hope, of a re-match some day...maybe some Dryads...?
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