We met the next day at one of the local game stores (Chico is blessed with 4 different good game stores--not bad for a population of 60,000!), and set up the terrain (some brought by me (always prepared), and some supplied by the game store. We ended up with quite a bit of terrain on the sides, and a fairly big open space in the middle. The center of the board further became the focus of the battle when we placed a single "Standing Stone" there and decided it would be the only terrain objective--worth 5 VPs!
Both armies were fairly experimental, as we tried out new troop types and characters. His looked something like:
Orion with 9 Hounds
A Master Mage on Giant Eagle (Guessing--Black Amulet, Skull Wand, Hungry Maw Scroll; took 3 Jade spells)
Naieth the Prophetess (Orthu the Owl and Rod of Divination; took an Amber spell)--she was in the Spearmen unit
Another Master Mage (Dispel Scroll, Mystic Shield, ?; took 3 Amber spells)--in Glade Rider unit
Scarloc (Hail of Doom)--in the Scout unit
Wychwethyl the Wild (Drum of Orcskin)
A Mage (Ruby Chalice; took 1 Amber spell); in Spearman unit
A unit of 8 Wardancers, with Champion
A unit of 33 Spearmen, with Banner of Defiance, Mage, Naieth (I allowed him to put her in the middle of the unit), and Champion (with Shrieking Blade--attempted to give the unit Fear with this--I allowed it for the friendly game)
A unit of 5 Scouts (w/Scarloc)
A unit of 5 Waywatchers
A unit of 9 Archers
A unit of 9 Archers
A unit of 7 Glade Riders, with Banner (?) and Master Mage
A unit of 8 Dryads
My army was something like this:
Generic General (Black Amulet, Sword of Heroes, Armour of Protection) on Warhawk
Mage Lord (Book of Ashur, Bufo's Hex Scroll, Dispel Scroll, Golden Helm {we agreed to roll for the BoA at the end of the battle, and also to not combine Skull Staff and BoA...otherwise he would've had Skull Staff and Spell Familiar, and no BoA or Hex Scroll}; took 1 High and 4 Grey Spells--got Apotheosis, Pit of Tarnus, Radiance of Ptolos, Grey Wings, and Stormcall), in Glade Rider unit
Master Mage (Mystic Shield, Dispel Scroll, Magic War Paint; took 1 Jade and 2 Grey--got Cloak of Dain, Dark Steed, and Bridge of Shadows), in Archer unit
Hero (Power and Battle Stones of LeMarquis), in Glade Rider unit
Scarloc (Hail of Doom), in Scout unit
Dryad Drycha, in Dryad unit
Treeman
6 Dryads (only have 7 Dryad models painted)
10 Wardancers
15 Archers, with Firestorm Icon, Musician, and Master Mage
6 Glade Riders (Lances and Longbows), with Battle Banner, Mage Lord, and Hero
6 Scouts, with Scarloc
Griffon
Brettonian Allies--12 Halflings w/Bows (no restrictions were placed on allies, BTW...)
The Battle
---------- I won the roll to choose sides, but he got to go first. We wrote down army placement, and then placed Scouts/Waywatchers. There were plenty of woods on the board (as it should be! ;) ), so I ended up having an infiltrating unit on each flank, and he had one right in front of Orion and his Glade Riders.
He went first, and did some shooting damage to my archer unit. For the Winds of Magic he rolled a "3", so got 3 cards (2 + 1 for Naieth), to my one (I got Rebound). He cast Peace on my Scouts, and I dispelled it with the Mystic Shield. I used the Firestorm Icon and took out 1 Archer (he failed to dispel it), then tried the Piercing Song from my Dryad Champ, but everyone was out of range! :( . My turn.
I moved all of my units up, and attempted to charge his scouts with my Wardancers. He fled just out of my range, and my Wardancers stopped right in front of the Halflings, blocking their fire (dang! If only I'd taken the Wardancer champion! I'd only needed another 2" to overtake him!). My Griffon flew High, but the General stayed on the board, moving behind the screen of Wardancers (might as well use their position to my advantage!). I shot at his archers with my archers and Glade Riders, killing most of them, but they refused to Panic! My Scouts turned and fired at his Glade Riders (including Scarloc's Hail of Doom)--4 Glade Riders were killed, and the rest ran away (taking 1 Master Mage off the board with them!). I rolled an 9 for the Winds of Magic, and ended up getting 2 Dispels and Mental Duel (along with my 2 Power) for my trouble! The Firestomr Icon killed 2 more Archers, and my General got sent via the Grey Wings into Orion. He failed to dispel the Grey Wings, and chose not to use any permanent items to stop it! Yes! I dispelled his spells except for Peace, which he cast to rally his Scouts. I took Flesh of Stone with Mental Duel. I also cast Radiance of Ptolos on my Archers, which he failed to dispel.
His turn 2. He moved his troops forward toward the objective. His archers shot at my Dryads, and 1 was wounded and failed to save. His Scouts got the benefit of the magic owl this turn, and fired at the Wardancers (including Scarloc's Hail of Doom!)...3 Wardancers were killed, which meant there were plenty to wipe out his Scouts next turn! There was only one HTH--my General against Orion. Though it saddened him greatly to do it, my General cut Orion down without suffering a wound in the process (the player failed all of the saves with the Cloak against the three hits my General scored, and they ended up turning into 7 wounds)...the Hounds fled, of course. Unfortunately, the rest of Orion's warhost couldn't care less whether he was present or not (no Panic tests were failed). The Winds of Magic were fairly strong--11, giving me 5 and him 7 magic cards! Fortunately for me, 2 of my 5 turned out to be Total Power and Drain Magic...
He cast Peace on my Wardancers, which I let go. I killed another Archer with the Firestorm Icon, leaving one (who refused to Panic...idiot ;) ). He then cast Tangling Thorn on my Dryads, which I failed to dispel, and so let go. I cast Grey Wings on my General again (which he still didn't want to use a permanent item to dispel, figuring I had something worse up my sleeve), who was moved into contact with his remaining Master Mage. I let him react to the charge by fleeing (forgot the ruling on that, actually), which he did. He had nothing else to cast, and passed. The Siren's Song was dispelled. I cast Cloak of Dain on my Mage Lord,trying to dig out those dispel items, but no luck. I then used Total Power to cast Pit of Tarnus on his Spearmen unit, sucking 7 in (and energizing the Ruby Chalice)...they didn't Panic.
My turn 2. I charged my General at his Master Mage, running him down. My Wardancers and Treeman charged his Scouts, and 1 Wardancer was killed by the Stand and Fire. My Glade Riders charged the Spearmen. The Griffon charged the Dryads. The last archer was shot to death in that unit (yay!). The HTH was bloody. My Wardancers and Treeman killed, routed, and ran over the Scouts. My Glade riders (aided by the magic Stones carried by my hero) killed 7 Spearmen, while suffering no casualties themselves (1 wound, and a 6 was rolled to save!). The results were 7 for him (doubled ranks and standard--allowed him to count it even though the front rank was wiped out of RnF), and 14 for me (7 wounds, standard, and another 6 rolled for the Battle Banner!)...he failed the Break test, and the unit was cut down. Meanwhile, my Griffon did a miserable 1 wound to his Oaken Dryads, and he did the same to me; since he had a rank on me, the Griffon fled also (though to far to catch)!
At this point, my opponent chose to concede the battle. He had no more mages left, no general, and 2 of his main units were wiped out; all I had lost was the Griffon, who would most likely rally before he got off the board...it was time to call it a day!
Lessons Learned
--------------- It was, as I expected, a great learning experience for both of us. Orion was (again, as I expected) taken out easily by a "generic" Wood Elf General, who cost 100 points less. I would take Orion for flavor, or if I expected my opponent to have the Sword of Destruction (better stats), but "generic" is better overall. Freedom to choose magic items is very important! My opponent had more mages, but he chose to take from pretty weak schools of magic (his Master Mages could've chosen other schools), and that (combined with my higher level mages) weakened him in the magic phases, even though he consistently had 1 or 2 more cards from the magic deck than I did. We both probably took too many archers (or just placed too much terrain on the board). Naieth is a good bargain, as is Scarloc, as is Drycha (her ability did not work once, but she's still a Dryad champion...). I will have to try out the Beastmasters some time. The dryads are pretty good, but if my Griffon had rolled just a little better, he would have beaten (and possibly routed) them, and all for 150 points versus their 280...
It remains to be seen, of course, how the Wood Elves will do against a different foe...
Questions? Comments? Please send them! But please don't quote the whole report in your replies...
-Elfholme
