Sorry to disappoint you folks, but this is not a thread about a sexual encounter. Clear those filthy thoughts from your mind and fill it with the good, wholesome images of slaughter instead. This was the game we played after the first 2 games detailed here:
http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,1277.0.htmland here:
http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,1278.0.htmlThe guilty
Left side starting at the front:
Chris (LordOfTheDead)
Rob (Wotanson hidden behind Chris' massive mellon)
Myself and my beer
Right side starting at the front:
Steve (Moose)
Tim (GoIndy)
Brook (gornhorror)
We decided on 2 teams of 3 players each with each player controlling 1500 points worth of units. So this is a 4500 point-per-side battle. We used hidden deployment for even more chaos.
Disclaimer: I don't remember many of the details of what happened on the far side of the board as I was concentrating on my little end of the world. Any participants of this game feel free to add anything they may remember!
Set upSadly I did not get a pic of the initial deployment. Hopefully you can get a general idea of how things started by observing a pic taken during one of the early turns. I'll do my best to list the armies. All you guys that played in this game feel free to correct my mistakes.
High Elves/Romans/High Elves to the left!High Elves 1 at top of pic controlled by Steve (Moose) - I'm guessing on a few of these
3 x Battle Squads
2 x Cygnets
2 x Bowriders
Romans in the middle controlled by Tim (GoIndy)
3 x Triarii (back em up! And we knock the snot out of Trike Herds!)
2 x Extraordinarii
1 x Veteran Principes
High Elves 2 at the bottom of the pic controlled by Brook (gornhorror)
2 x Battle Squads
1 x Elder BLade Battle Squad
2 x Chariots
1 x Knights (sorta like a giant lawn mower)
Undead/Elves of Ravenwood/Lizardmen to the right!Undead at the top of the pic controlled by Chris (LordOfTheDead)
3 x Ghouls
4 x Zombies
1 x Zombie Trolls
1 x Death Knights (why o why did you let us get pinched?)
Elves of Ravenwood in the middle controlled by Rob (Wotanson)
2 x Bear Pack
1 x Brownies (not so brave variety)
1 x Swordsmen
1 x Bowmen
1 x Bowmasters
Lizardmen at the bottom of the pic controlled by your humble narrator
3 x Swarmlings
1 x Hatchlings
1 x Trog Warriors
1 x Triceratops Herd
1 x Ancients (Can pick on lesser cavalry really well. Elite Cavalry? Not so much...)
I knew right off the bat that this set up would be trouble for us due to the Triarii coverage. We'd have to hit them hard on our initial charge and try to blast a few of their units off of the map early before our units got bogged down facing a bunch of lesser dudes who where benefiting from the extra attack dice. so it was up to the Bears, Death Knights, Triceratops Herd, and Ancients to do some serious smashination early on. I would have to be careful on my flank because of the incredible amount of cavalry that Brook had over there. I had one of my Swarmlings backing up a Ravenwood unit because so many of Robs points where invested into ranged fire.
The BeginningNothing fancy occurred with the standing orders. We basically ran at each other while the Elven Archery stayed at long range to pelt the enemy. A painful thing that occurred was that Chris forgot to cap the movement for his Death Knights at a lower movement class so they ran ahead and got themselves triple(!) pinched by Cygnets and 2 Battle Squads. While one of the Battle Squads Perished, the Death Knights where eliminated quickly. Rob was making steady progress with his ranged attacks but one of his Bears also ran ahead into a pinch (No Bear Kin!) so they eventually died as well before taking a low level line unit with them. Things where going well on my side as my Ancients did well against a Chariot unit by only taking 1 damage on the charge turn while putting the Chariots into the yellow. My Triceratops herd also flattened one of the Battle Squads and my Trogs where holding up OK against the Elder Blade Battle Squad. My outermost Swarmlings held up for a couple of turns against the second unit of Chariots and the Ancients where able to finish them after they dispatched their Chariot opponents with a flank attack. This was at the expense of the little guys, who died bravely. The dice clearly favored me early on. Over all things where not looking too bad from us aside from our best unit running off to get itself murdilized.
The End
This is where things went wrong for us. For starters, the attack dice that had favored me so much in the initial turns swung back the other way. Of course this is totally fair and I'm not complaining, just pointing it out. Brook's Knights had finally worked their way around to an attack position and charged head-on into my Ancients. The Ancients didn't cause any damage (gimme a break, they only hit on 1s on the Knight's charge) but got put into the red and what do you know? They failed their courage check despite me playing cold blooded on them. The Ancients fled and where dispatched on the next turn by the Knights. My second unit of Swarmlings where able to flank the Knights and all they had to do was hang in there for 1 turn and my Hatchlings would be able to pinch them from the rear (HA HA!). However it was not to be as the Swarmlings failed their courage check and died on the return attack. So the Hatchlings had to face the Knights on their own and they exploded upon impact. My Triceratops Herd only had taken 2-3 damage from the Battle Squad and charged merrily into the Triarii that had been backing them up. While the Triarii are technically Spearmen, I wasn't too worried as they only get 3 attack dice. Well, would you believe that the Trikes only did 1 damage while being put into the yellow and then failing their courage check? I rallied them, but the Triarii relentlessly persued and actually killed them off! In the middle my Trogs failed their courage check (seeing a pattern here?) the turn that they killed the Elder Blade Battle Squad and they died to Extraordinarii Pila. I believe that the same Extraordinarii unit also killed my last Swarmling unit.
Rob's Bear Packs got in a few kills, but died to Extraordinarii flank/pinch attacks. While the Elven Archery Battery was inflicting steady damage, they where running out of guys to screen them from the steadily advancing Romans. And while the Undead still had numbers, Steve's Bow RIders where out-maneuvering them and it was only a matter of time before they where all cleaned up. We graciously surrendered.
Survivors:Steve's High Elves: Almost all of them. I think he only lost a couple of Battle Squads
Romans: All 3 Triarii, 1 Extraordinarii, and the Veteran Principes
Brook's High Elves: the Knights and a Battle Squad unit that never saw combat
Undead: A few Zombies and a unit of Ghouls I think. Actually, I have no idea
Ravenwood: Archers (who where engaged and about to croak) and Bowmasters
Lizardmen: A pile of stinking Triceratops poo at the location of their failed courage check
Final ThoughtsThe deciding factors that negatively effected us where the early demise of the Death Knights and the disparity in the faiure of courage checks. I had 4 units fail courage checks (some multiple times!) while not a single unit I faced failed one. To further exasperate this, my opponents only failed 1 out of 6 Fear checks and that was the Triarii during the second time they engaged my Trikes when the game had already been decided. So I was clearly paying a price for suceeding all of my courage checks in my game against Tim - LOL I know Ravenwood had a few courage failures as well along with the required failures by a few Ghoul Packs. Remember kids, courage checks will always be the most important die rolls you will make!
To give credit to our opponents, the Triarii placement was superb. When Battle Squads start throwing 4 attack dice you know things are gonna get hairy. And the cavalry superiority in their overall army composition (over 1400 points in cavalry!) really played out well for them.
Winners:
Losers:
We may suck, but at least we're happy about it!
