Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report, Empire vs Elves

Once again I do battle with my nemesis and co-conspirator in gaming Lou. We met the other night for a 1500 point battle of 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Lou did a good job slapping me about the table and reminding me why I haven't played WHFB in about 2-3 years. I have a love/hate relationship with the rules.

I love most things about the rules right up until battle time and the rock/paper/scissors, nature of the game. Anyway here's the Battle Report.

Empire Army 1500 points on the nose.
Regiment of Spearmen with Archer Detachment and Warrior Priest
Regiment of Swordsmen with Archer Detachment and Warrior Priest
Unit of Inner Circle Knights with Army General
Unit of Pistoleers
1 Great Cannon
1  Captain on a Pegasus w/ Army Standard
1 Unit of Crossbows
2nd Level Wizard(useless waste of lead and paint)


Wood Elf Army 1500 points or there abouts
2 Glade Riders Units
1 Dryad Unit
1 Wardancer Unit
2 Glade Guard bow units(apparently armed with MG42's)
1 Eternal Guard with sharp pointy sticks(I think)
1 Elf Wizard(as useless as mine)

I set up the table a head of time and when Lou showed up, we diced for sides. Lou won and picked the left. Then we diced for first move and Lou won again.

 Here's the initial deployment. So here comes the rock paper scissors. I went with abalanced force( I could go shooty too) But I'm facing a ridiculous amount of shooty. The Glade Guard are BS4 and Str 4 Longbows. I'm already at a huge disadvantage and we haven't moved a figure.

 Dryads

 Glade Riders and Wardancers.

 Glade Guard

 More Glade Guard with Eternal Guard in the back.

Glade Riders

 From my side of the table.

 My Battle Master Knights and Pistoliers

 Down the battle line

 My 2 Regiments of foot and a Captain on a Pegasus.

 I figured the crossbows and a Canon could hold up this flank, Not so much.

 The Elves start their move and the Glad Riders swing wide of the Xbows.

 In the center the Glade Guard just notch there arrows.

 On my left the Dryads, Glade Riders and Some Wardaners move forward. This is a problem since all 3 units I'm facing can skirmish. I should have take more missile troops.

First turn shooting results. The lone xbow dude passes panic test! My first cannon shot goes long.

 I move up cautiously to get my Pistoliers in range. I think I killed maybe one or none.

 Glade Riders slipping further to the flank.

 2nd Turn I kill a few more dryads. Oh I almost forgot. My wizard lost all his spells in a magic mishap this turn.

 My Archer detachment moves up the the tower. I kill one Dryad and 3 Glade Guard. The Glade Guard panic and flee, big break for me.

 So here's my 2nd cannon shot. First die is my first bounce, nailed it, skipped right through 2 Glade Riders. Kill them on anything but a 1.

                                
And here's my roll.

 Looks like I forgot to take some center pictures. Basically I moved forward and used skirmishing archers for cover. I got one archer detachment in the tower. Spear and Pegasus ready to charge Wardancers.

 The Dryads charge and I stand and shoot. I get wiped out to the man. I never got to swing.

 Gun over run on the right flank.

 My lone xbow dude charges the Glade Riders in the rear, they flee!

 I charge the Dryads with the knights, break them, and slam into the glade riders

 My Captain charges the wardancers and we lock. I should have been more aggressive with him.

My archers in the tower are starting to earn their pay and kill a few here and there. They killed 3 Glade Riders before my Knights hit them. This is where we had to call it. 3 or 4 turns.

The Elves were definitely winning but I was about to wipe out the Glade Riders and Dryads. The Wardancers were in a bit of trouble as My spearmen were going to pile into the fight. On the other hand, I lost 90% of a Crossbow unit. The sole survivor would be dead soon. The Cannon was gone. My Swordsmen reached the enemy line but now had to face The Eternal Guard and Glade guard alone.

Some thoughts on Warhammer. The biggest issue I have always had in Warhammer(and 40k) is the way "who strikes/shoots first". In the earlier versions it was who ever charged first. Now it's who has the highest Initiative. I hate that! It ruins the game for me. In years past I built my armies to mitigate what I hated most about the rules. Lots of shooty/Spears/Detachments/Skirmishers. All in an effort to avoid getting screwed by the rules mechanics, until I could charge. I like simultaneous combat. I really can't see it any other way. That is not to say I haven't had some fun along the way. I have, but that's probably more to gaming with good friends than the rules themselves.

I think Warhammer is going back on the shelf for a few more years. While I find a replacement. Kings of War is out, it suffers the same issue. Clash of Empires? War and Conquest? Write my own? Time will tell.

Xin/Jeff

Statues for Frostgrave

I recently made some statues for Frostgrave. From a flea market, I picked up 6 High Elves from the Combat Hex game. They are larger than 28mm figures so are good to be large statues.

With wire cutters the hex base comes apart very easy.

The spear on the figure is very flimsy and bendy. Actually it's glued in and with pliers I just ripped out the spear. I had left over spears from GW Skeletons that are large and fit nicely with the figure.

 Mounted to 7/8 inch fender washers.

 The pedestal is from Hunger Games Wizkids Collectable figures. The base is what the kids stand on when the game starts. I bought a bunch when the first movie came out, thinking the figures would be good for Zombie games, but really they are too big. Here's the funny thing, I tried to sell these off at the last Historicon Flea Market. The Hunger Game figs pop right off.

 The pedestal is glued to a few MDF round bases, to give it a little more height.

 Scale shot, next to a Frostgrave soldier.

 I wanted to figures to be able to animate, but not just fall of the pedestal. I drilled a 1/8 inch hole and inserted a rare earth magnet.

 A drop of glue, push it down flush with the base and we are good to go.

 Now the figure is fairly secure on the base

 It also can jump down and kill unsuspecting explorers in Frostgrave.

 All painted up.

 Fireforge and Frostgrave figures for scale

 It animates!

Ready to kill intruders in Frostgrave.

Every once in a while I try to clear my basement of junk. Those pedestals were in the clear pile, but they did not sell. The spears where left over from plastic sprues. Sometimes it's like magic, the pieces come together almost on their own. This is why I need a bigger basement. Sadly the wife doesn't understand...

Xin

Mordor vs Galadhrim, Battle Report

The title of this post should be "I am the worst general Mordor has ever seen".

Last night 2 friends came over for a game of LOTR. We use the Strategy Battle Game. Not all, but most of my group love the way it plays. I had recently painted up 6 Fell Wargs and The Warg Chieftain so I wanted to give them spin on the table.  So we did Orcs vs Elves at 700 points.

The Elves were 24 Galadhrim, 3 captains, a Storm Caller and maybe 12 or so Wood Elves as we ran out of Galadhrim.

The Orcs were 6 Wild Wargs, Warg Chieftain, 4 Warg riding Orc Captains and a Shaman, leading about 40+ Orcs. All spears and swords, no bows.

Establishing shot. Orcs in foreground, tree huggers on the farside of the table. set up 2 feet apart. The Elf General set up the table. Note the lack of cover.......

Closer shot of the Elf battle line. Wood Elves on the far end of the line. Galadhrim Archers Center, Spear and Sword in the ruins on the hill.

Back of Elf line looking towards the Orcs.

 Orc Left side of line. Front Rank, Shield and Sword, back rank Spears.

Orc right flank. Morannon Orcs in center, then more spear and shield guys. On the far right are my newly untried Wargs.

The terrain was wide open, he had bows, I didn't. My only choice was to go straight at him as quick as I could. I think I spent 3 turns marching under bow fire. Lost 9 or 10 orcs closing the gap.

Getting close now.

 Wargs rounding the hill.

 And we finally clash.

Not many Morannon Orcs left. At this point the combat got pretty hot, so I forgot to take pictures. I took a lot of losses  crossing the field but now I had some good numbers in contact.

I cleared the ruins and broke up his center section. On the far side it was back and forth with the wood elves. I did very well in the melee combats but I could not make up the damage done crossing the field. I broke at 29 dead and he was 3 away from breaking. It was a good fight and we had fun.

I'm not sure what I could have done differently. The ground was too open. I suppose I could have gone up the right side in the woods, but then he would have had all the time in the world to wheel his line to compensate.

The wargs were not the killing machines I had envisioned. Either I needed more or they would be better with riders. They were weak. I would have rather had a troll or something. They did help out flank the Elves in the ruins, but one on one, Elves were much better.

The one thing I think I did right was put all my Captains on Wargs. That made them very useful for smashing into the battle at critical moments. It might have helped if I rememberd the extra attack for charging cav.

Anyway, good fight, lessons learned and fun was had. I also got to put out my Scenic backdrops on the side of the battle table.

Xin