09 Feb 2015
I am putting this report in its proper place. It can also be found in my hardest list you can think of thread here: http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=29626.0
So, in this trial run of end times elves, I was tasked with bringing the toughest list I could think up. Here is what I brought:
SM: level 4 Maw, great weapon, crown of command, dispel scroll, talisman of endurance
Bruiser: great weapon, BSB, runemaw
Firebelly: level 2, great weapon, hellheart
1 unit ironguts (13 models): full command, lookout, standard of disc
1 unit gnoblars: (10 models)
1 unit mournfang (2 models): heavy armor, ironfists, standard
1 unit mournfang (2 models): heavy armor, ironfists, standard
1 unit leadbelchers (4 models): bellower
1 unit leadbelchers (4 models): bellower
3x sabretusks
Ironblaster
Ironblaster
I went up against this:
(A) Alarielle
(B) BSB
(GG) 30 Glade Guard
(W1) 5 Warlocks
(W2) 5 Warlocks
(MoP) Master on Pegasus
(WR1) 7 Wild Riders
(WR2) 7 Wild Riders
(FP) Frost Phoenix
(DR) 5 Dark Riders
For magic, I had fireball and fire cloak (not that it ever mattered. I cast 1 fireball, it miscast, and did 3 hits), and the only 2 spells I ever tried to cast was bubbleguts and toothcracker. He was using the banner of the broken dragon, so casting on the glade guard was pretty pointless.
As for the game:
Deployment
----------
I deployed centrally, with everything staying in range of bubble cast maw spells.
He put his glade guard central, and everything else is set to move around all of the flanks. It is going to be a fast army with strong shooting. The glade guard have poison shots, and the master has the sea dragon cloak on.
The terrain was all hills. They didn't block movement, but did block line of sight.
Turn 1 - Alarielves
-------------------
Elves get the first turn. He vanguards the units on the right, but leaves the units on the left back. His dark riders shoot 3 of the gnoblars, who then panic and run through my entire line. Good thing no one cares. His only spell is throne of vines. His poison shots deal 7 wounds to the irongut block, but no big deal, there are more where that came from.
Turn 1 - Ogres
--------------
On my turn, I get a long charge off on the wild riders on the right. I move everything else forward, but keep everything within leadership and bubbleguts range. The gnoblars keep running. The two rightmost sabres move into chaffing position.
On magic I get bubbleguts off, and use my last 2 dice to dispel throne.
My first cannon explodes, so no more cannon on turn one. My second one hits the frost phoenix for 4 wounds, so the lucky bastard lives. The leadbelchers kill 2 dark riders and a warlock.
The mournfang take off 4 wild riders and win by 1, so no more frenzy. I did lose one in the process, though.
Turn 2 - Alarielves
-------------------
On his next turn, he moves the master up into flanking position. The dark riders and the warlocks plow through their respective sabretusks, but thats fine. The phoenix moves up to threaten the leadbelchers. The free wild riders slam into my mournfang.
Nothing exciting happened on magic. He casts throne, then both sets of warlocks try and fail to cast soul blight.
Shooting kills another irongut. The pillowfight between the mournfang and the neutered wild riders on the right continues, with him doing 1 wound and me killing 2 (1 left). The other wild riders completely demolish my mournfang (even with the 4+ regen) and overrun into my leadbelchers.
Turn 2 - Ogres
--------------
The ironguts charge the wild riders to help out the leadbelchers. The gnoblars reform, and the other sabre moves to flank the warlocks.
Magic was much the same as last time: bubbleguts and dispel throne.
Alarielle had healed the phoenix, so it was back at 1 wound. The cannon hits it again, and again misses killing it by 1 wound. The leadbelchers panic the dark riders of the table.
The pillowfight continues between the mournfang and the wild rider. No wounds made, but he makes his break test. The leadbelcher/irongut combo takes out all of the wild riders but 2, and they are run down. Here is where I lost the game. I was worried about a master in the flank, so I reformed to face him. Had I kept pressing forward toward the glade guard, I would be able to handle any flank charges with ease while getting closer and closer to hellheart range.
Turn 3 - Alarielves
-------------------
The warlocks charge the leadbelchers in the flank. The master charges the ironblaster and the frost phoenix charges the leadbelchers. Magic was pretty big. He rolled double 6s, and was able to both get throne and regrowth on the wild riders. I stopped flesh to stone, though. Shooting kills another irongut.
The warlocks kill a leadbelcher, but they hit back surprisingly well, taking out 3 of them. The phoenix doesn't do a single wound, but wins through the flank charge. He doesn't over run into the cannon, though. The master takes out the cannon easily. The pillowfight continues.
Turn 3 - Ogres
--------------
The ironguts charge the warlocks, and take them out with impact hits. Nothing happened for magic. I reform to face the glade guard.
The pillowfight continues.
Turn 4 - Alarielves
-------------------
The frost phoenix moves back to get healed up. Alarielle regrows more wild riders. The master moves around to get ready for charges later.
The warlocks finally seal the deal on the last mournfang, though I am quite proud of him for how long he lasted.
Turn 4 - Ogres
--------------
I don't have much left. I throw the sabre into the side of the glade guard, hoping I might get lucky and take out Alarielle or the BSB if they failed a fear check. No such luck, but I really wasn't expecting much. I move the ironguts forward toward the glade guard, which I should have been doing since turn 1. I'm finally in hellheart range, though, so that's good.
Turn 5 - Alarielves
-------------------
Everything charges. Firebelly gets taken out before he could breathe on them. I have my slaughtermaster and 3 ironguts left at the end of it, and we call it there.
My thoughts at the end of it:
The elf list was irritating, but I don't think it was broken. Alarielle's regen bubble is really annoying, but since she is infantry, she has to stay with the infantry. It either cuts down on the army's maneuverability if they want to stay in the bubble, or it forces them to sit back, in which case their most deadly units are not doing anything for several rounds. Also funny is that her healing bubble cannot work on cavalry units. Elves that take her really are setting themselves up for just using infantry, which negates a lot of their strongest units (especially wild riders and warlocks)
Runemaw definitely helped against the warlocks. No magic ever hit my ironguts.
I think that my biggest downfall was letting myself get distracted by the things on the flank. Looking back at it, I think I should have treated my units as flank guards protecting a spear driven straight into the elven heart. Without Alarielle, the whole army would have crumbled. The wild rider only lived because of regen and regrowth. There were many times that a unit would have failed a fear test without the reroll.
I think I should have done something more like this:
This lets my drive my ironguts forward quickly, while covering my flanks and still letting me address threats no matter where they are. If he brings eagles, I can either halt my advance and take them out with the mournfang or the ironguts, then continue pressing forward.
Finally, I made a mistake in shooting the phoenix, rather than the master. Even though the master has a 3+ ward vs shooting, I think that would have a better chance of taking him out. One failed ward save gives me a 2/3 chance of killing him, rather than the 1/3 chance I kept barely missing on the bird. Also, the master was WAY more disruptive to my strategy than the phoenix ever was, just due to positioning.
So, in this trial run of end times elves, I was tasked with bringing the toughest list I could think up. Here is what I brought:
SM: level 4 Maw, great weapon, crown of command, dispel scroll, talisman of endurance
Bruiser: great weapon, BSB, runemaw
Firebelly: level 2, great weapon, hellheart
1 unit ironguts (13 models): full command, lookout, standard of disc
1 unit gnoblars: (10 models)
1 unit mournfang (2 models): heavy armor, ironfists, standard
1 unit mournfang (2 models): heavy armor, ironfists, standard
1 unit leadbelchers (4 models): bellower
1 unit leadbelchers (4 models): bellower
3x sabretusks
Ironblaster
Ironblaster
I went up against this:
(A) Alarielle
(B) BSB
(GG) 30 Glade Guard
(W1) 5 Warlocks
(W2) 5 Warlocks
(MoP) Master on Pegasus
(WR1) 7 Wild Riders
(WR2) 7 Wild Riders
(FP) Frost Phoenix
(DR) 5 Dark Riders
For magic, I had fireball and fire cloak (not that it ever mattered. I cast 1 fireball, it miscast, and did 3 hits), and the only 2 spells I ever tried to cast was bubbleguts and toothcracker. He was using the banner of the broken dragon, so casting on the glade guard was pretty pointless.
As for the game:
Deployment
----------
I deployed centrally, with everything staying in range of bubble cast maw spells.
He put his glade guard central, and everything else is set to move around all of the flanks. It is going to be a fast army with strong shooting. The glade guard have poison shots, and the master has the sea dragon cloak on.
The terrain was all hills. They didn't block movement, but did block line of sight.
Turn 1 - Alarielves
-------------------
Elves get the first turn. He vanguards the units on the right, but leaves the units on the left back. His dark riders shoot 3 of the gnoblars, who then panic and run through my entire line. Good thing no one cares. His only spell is throne of vines. His poison shots deal 7 wounds to the irongut block, but no big deal, there are more where that came from.
Turn 1 - Ogres
--------------
On my turn, I get a long charge off on the wild riders on the right. I move everything else forward, but keep everything within leadership and bubbleguts range. The gnoblars keep running. The two rightmost sabres move into chaffing position.
On magic I get bubbleguts off, and use my last 2 dice to dispel throne.
My first cannon explodes, so no more cannon on turn one. My second one hits the frost phoenix for 4 wounds, so the lucky bastard lives. The leadbelchers kill 2 dark riders and a warlock.
The mournfang take off 4 wild riders and win by 1, so no more frenzy. I did lose one in the process, though.
Turn 2 - Alarielves
-------------------
On his next turn, he moves the master up into flanking position. The dark riders and the warlocks plow through their respective sabretusks, but thats fine. The phoenix moves up to threaten the leadbelchers. The free wild riders slam into my mournfang.
Nothing exciting happened on magic. He casts throne, then both sets of warlocks try and fail to cast soul blight.
Shooting kills another irongut. The pillowfight between the mournfang and the neutered wild riders on the right continues, with him doing 1 wound and me killing 2 (1 left). The other wild riders completely demolish my mournfang (even with the 4+ regen) and overrun into my leadbelchers.
Turn 2 - Ogres
--------------
The ironguts charge the wild riders to help out the leadbelchers. The gnoblars reform, and the other sabre moves to flank the warlocks.
Magic was much the same as last time: bubbleguts and dispel throne.
Alarielle had healed the phoenix, so it was back at 1 wound. The cannon hits it again, and again misses killing it by 1 wound. The leadbelchers panic the dark riders of the table.
The pillowfight continues between the mournfang and the wild rider. No wounds made, but he makes his break test. The leadbelcher/irongut combo takes out all of the wild riders but 2, and they are run down. Here is where I lost the game. I was worried about a master in the flank, so I reformed to face him. Had I kept pressing forward toward the glade guard, I would be able to handle any flank charges with ease while getting closer and closer to hellheart range.
Turn 3 - Alarielves
-------------------
The warlocks charge the leadbelchers in the flank. The master charges the ironblaster and the frost phoenix charges the leadbelchers. Magic was pretty big. He rolled double 6s, and was able to both get throne and regrowth on the wild riders. I stopped flesh to stone, though. Shooting kills another irongut.
The warlocks kill a leadbelcher, but they hit back surprisingly well, taking out 3 of them. The phoenix doesn't do a single wound, but wins through the flank charge. He doesn't over run into the cannon, though. The master takes out the cannon easily. The pillowfight continues.
Turn 3 - Ogres
--------------
The ironguts charge the warlocks, and take them out with impact hits. Nothing happened for magic. I reform to face the glade guard.
The pillowfight continues.
Turn 4 - Alarielves
-------------------
The frost phoenix moves back to get healed up. Alarielle regrows more wild riders. The master moves around to get ready for charges later.
The warlocks finally seal the deal on the last mournfang, though I am quite proud of him for how long he lasted.
Turn 4 - Ogres
--------------
I don't have much left. I throw the sabre into the side of the glade guard, hoping I might get lucky and take out Alarielle or the BSB if they failed a fear check. No such luck, but I really wasn't expecting much. I move the ironguts forward toward the glade guard, which I should have been doing since turn 1. I'm finally in hellheart range, though, so that's good.
Turn 5 - Alarielves
-------------------
Everything charges. Firebelly gets taken out before he could breathe on them. I have my slaughtermaster and 3 ironguts left at the end of it, and we call it there.
My thoughts at the end of it:
The elf list was irritating, but I don't think it was broken. Alarielle's regen bubble is really annoying, but since she is infantry, she has to stay with the infantry. It either cuts down on the army's maneuverability if they want to stay in the bubble, or it forces them to sit back, in which case their most deadly units are not doing anything for several rounds. Also funny is that her healing bubble cannot work on cavalry units. Elves that take her really are setting themselves up for just using infantry, which negates a lot of their strongest units (especially wild riders and warlocks)
Runemaw definitely helped against the warlocks. No magic ever hit my ironguts.
I think that my biggest downfall was letting myself get distracted by the things on the flank. Looking back at it, I think I should have treated my units as flank guards protecting a spear driven straight into the elven heart. Without Alarielle, the whole army would have crumbled. The wild rider only lived because of regen and regrowth. There were many times that a unit would have failed a fear test without the reroll.
I think I should have done something more like this:
This lets my drive my ironguts forward quickly, while covering my flanks and still letting me address threats no matter where they are. If he brings eagles, I can either halt my advance and take them out with the mournfang or the ironguts, then continue pressing forward.
Finally, I made a mistake in shooting the phoenix, rather than the master. Even though the master has a 3+ ward vs shooting, I think that would have a better chance of taking him out. One failed ward save gives me a 2/3 chance of killing him, rather than the 1/3 chance I kept barely missing on the bird. Also, the master was WAY more disruptive to my strategy than the phoenix ever was, just due to positioning.