2300 Points v. Khorne Daemons
Game 4: Wood Elves vs. Khorne Daemons
The Scenario: The Messengers
Before the battle begins, both sides must nominate three models to be their messengers. These models mus tbe rank and file troopers from three different units. The messengers are removed from their units and are treated as independent characters for the rest of the game. Note: Messengers will have the following profile, M8 WS4 BS4 S4 T4 W2 I4 A2 Ld9 Sv4+ unmodified, and always ignore terrain penalties. The messengers may not move more than 8". While they cannot rejoin any unit during the game, they are immune to the effects of psychology.
Your messengers must try to escape the battlefield via any table edge but your own. Models that are chased or driven from the field count as escaping as long as they weren't destroyed in the process. Each messenger is dutry bound to go in a different direction, so each one must leave the table via a different table edge. To escape on the side edges, the messenger must escape in the 12" furthest away from your deployment zone.
There are a few other rules to this scenario as well.
- Troops may be deployed 18" in.
- Dwarven armies may be deployed 24" in.
- Each messenger that escapes is worth 300 points.
Translation: Got all that? Basically, pick three troopers from three different units. They become messengers with those stats. You have to get 1 off the enemy's back edge, one off each of the side edges in the 12" by the opponent's edge. It's not easy to do this, but you'll get a ton o' points for every guy that can manage.
Extra Points: We were allowed to use our extra 300 points of troops for this game, as it was the final game of the day.
Armies: Having won this scenario handily in my last tournament, I was well-prepared for at least the messenger part of this battle.
1 General w/ Hail of Doom Arrow
2 Units of 9 Glade Riders
4 Units of 8 Scouts (2 with musicians)
6 Units of 9 Archers
2 Units of 8 Archers
1 Unit of 7 Archers
2 Pegasi
3 Messengers (stats described above)
His Army Consisted of:
1 Daemon Prince of Khorne (w/ no rewards)
15 Bloodletters (no command stuff)
3 Units of 8 Flesh Hounds
3 Units of 7 Flesh Hounds
3 Messengers
Terrain: Having some experience at this battle, I knew to put as much terrain on the sides of the field as possible. I wanted my messengers to be able to zoom around the terrain as they advanced, to avoid being charged and to get off the enemy's table edge.
Accordingly, the left side of the battlefield had a hill and a house, while the right side had another hill and a wood. The center of the table (but slightly on his side of the table) wound up having two woods in it next to each other.
Deployment: His deployment was simple. Three units of Flesh Hounds on the left side of the field, up as far as they could be. Three more units on the right side. His bloodletters went on the left side of the field next to the forest. His Daemon Prince was set back next to his table edge, to keep it away from my archers. He set two messengers on the left side of the table, and one on the right.
My deployment was pretty close to my Orion's Spear formation, with a line of archers across the back (with general and pegasus), 3 Scout Units next to their right deployment zone, and 1 Scout unit in the center of the battlefield in the forests. My glade riders decided to gamble a bit, and set up in one giant mass in the center of my field. I wanted to draw some of those flesh hounds into charging me, and later feign flight them out of position where they could go after my archers. I knew I was in major trouble this game, and I needed as much luck as I could get.
After surveying the board, I realized I had made a mistake. I couldn't start any messengers in the terrain on the left. No matter where I started one on the left, he'd get charged by the Flesh Hounds (and presumably killed horribly) on turn 1. Unless I set him up way back, in which case he wouldn't be able to get to the 12" he had to reach. Hmm!
So I decided to put all three on the right side of the field, with one starting with all the glade riders, and 2 starting next to the hill on the right side of the field just outside his charge arc. I'd given up any hope of reaching the left edge, so decided to have messengers double-up to make sure at least 2 could get off the table.
Spells: There was no magic in this battle.
Hail of Doom Arrow: We discussed it at the beginning of the game, and decided that it couldn't hurt the Flesh Hounds because its hit count as magical. So I knew in advance I'd be using it on the Bloodletters.
Die Roll: We tossed, and he won the game. Obviously, he elected to go first.
Chaos-1: The Chaos movement was obvious - he marched everything that could marched, and moved the rest forward. The Daemon Prince flew high, obviously intended to charge my general in the next round. The right-most flesh hounds moved in such a way as to threaten my two messengers.
Wood Elf-1: Seeing our doom approaching fast, the archers raised their bows and prepared to fire. The two messengers on the right moved their 8" in a neat little circle around the threatening unit. (Overconfident at his Flesh Hound's movement, he was surprised at how easily a bit of maneuverability overcame their speed). The messenger in the middle moved 8" forward through the forest.
The glade riders all moved forward into the center of the battlefield, turning to the sides to fire at the nearby Flesh Hounds.
Missilefire was mildly successful. We managed to slay 11 Bloodletters, 1 messenger (the one on the right), and 2 Flesh Hounds in the left-center unit. To my surprise, they panicked and fled!
Chaos-2: Our missilefire was obviously not enough to remotely slow them. The panicked Flesh Hounds easily rallied, while their daemon prince and five Flesh Hounds charged my main battle line. The archers stood and fired, praying for a miracle that never came. The general, seeing his own death approaching on dark wings, fled in terror and ran off the board. (Probably the best thing that could have happened to me actually, as it saved me a line of panic tests up my army).
My battle line was obviously massacred. Every single archer unit was routed from the board, leaving a massive trail of empty plains where the units used to me. My opponent elected to have his units pursue all of their broken units off the board (I'm not sure why though - I thought that was a tactical mistake).
Both of my pegasi panicked as well, although their position relative to the nearest combat meant they panicked onto the field rather than off it.
In the meantime, his two surviving messengers continue to advance across the board, with the leftmost messenger rapidly nearing its escape point.
Wood Elf-2: Seeing the destruction of much of the army, the scouts and glade riders begin an elaborate game of "cat and mouse" with their vastly superior foe. They maneuver in such a way as to throw as much firepower at the messengers as possible. A few scouts, unable to fire at the messengers, shoot into the massed bloodletters. Meanwhile the messengers continue to advance as rapidly as possible.
To my surprise, one of my pegasi even manages to rally, while the other turns and flies towards our table edge.
Shooting is as successful as can be expected, considering I'm only shooting at a total of 6 models. One of the messengers (the one near the edge) falls over dead, while the next one takes a wound. The bloodletters are similarly killed as well.
Chaos-3: The enemy brings back the Flesh Hound units onto the table. The Daemon Prince, knowing the messengers are rapidly approaching their exit points, elects to fly high.
The only Flesh Hound unit able to move marches around the forest into a position to threaten one of the messengers on the right.
Wood Elf-3: Our skirmishing units, knowing what the enemy can do if he gets the charge, pull back into the forests in the middle and the right sides of the field. The center messenger elects to strategically sacrifice himself to draw the daemon prince away from the other two messengers. Accordingly he moves 8" towards the far table edge, ending his turn in an obvious position to move off next turn.
Unfortunately, his remaining messenger manages to avoid being killed by our archer fire (curses!).
The fleeing pegasus rallies just before it would have flown off the table.
The two right messengers ponder the immediate threat - they can't move far enough to get into the forest and out of the line of sight of the Flesh Hounds that are threatening them. So they move sideways away from their exit points, but at least out of the charge arc of the Flesh Hounds. This way next turn they'll be able to zoom into the forest. (Note: My opponent was pretty surprised at this move. For some reason he thought I was going to sacrifice one of the messengers to let the other get farther away).
Chaos-4: One of the Flesh Hound units immediately charges the new pegasus, while another charges the one from last turn (I forgot to move him). The right Flesh Hounds all scoot onto the table as much as possible (in search of terrain points). The left Flesh Hound units all move into protective formation around the Messenger. The messenger isn't in their unit, but has a very small circle of space around him with Flesh Hounds on all sides.
Both pegasi fail their fear tests and flee while his daemon prince charges my central messenger and eats him alive (ouch!).
The right-most Flesh Hound unit, counfounded as how to stop the messengers, turns in place to face them.
Wood-Elf 4: The messengers on the right easily avoid the Flesh Hounds (haha!) and move into the forest and out of the enemy's line of sight. One of them is even able to move directly off the board (+300 points - yaaayy!). My central Skirmishers avoid being in their charge arcs, and do what little they can to fire at the Flesh Hounds in search of those elusive panic tests. The test never comes.
Chaos-5: Their messenger moves off the board sealing my fate.
Wood Elf-5: Our messenger escapes turning a major rout only into a moderate one.
Final Result: Chaos Wins.
Score:
We get:
600 - Messengers
300 - Bloodletters
For a total of 900.
They get:
100 - Pegasi
869 - Archers
300 - Messenger
287 - General and Bonus
Their total is 1556.
Analysis:
Ack! This was BAD!
In reality though, it wasn't unexpected. It was one of the most difficult possible enemies for an Archery Army to fight. Their movement was extremely high, they got to go first, they have T4 W2 and Sv4+, and the fact they cause fear means I won't say in combat after they kill 1 or 2 of my archers. It also means my pegasi strategy can't be used against them.
In short, they have an unbeatable army when it comes to an Archery-based army.
Of course, the upside is that their army is extremely rare on the field. Let's face it, they'd probably have a tough time against big masses of ranked troops. They only have 1 attack each, and would need to flank a unit in order to even have a prayer of beating it. But still, I admit they're essentially impossible to beat with my army. Unless you get a scenario that allows you to pick up masses of points elsewhere.
Like this one! It certainly wouldn't have been impossible for us to get all 3 messengers off. If I hadn't screwed up on the left, that is. I'm so used to putting my guys in normal formation, that it never occurred to me to accept that my line was doomed, and to use the archers as a shield to get a messenger off.
For example, imagine if on the left I put an archer unit pretty far forward. Directly behind them I put another archer unit. Behind them I put the messenger and the general.
Any enemy who charges the first archer unit on turn 1 would beat it, but then crash through into the second archer unit. The general nearby could make sure they probably don't panic (Ld10 - 91% chance of passing, y'know!). While the Flesh Hounds are momentarily bogged down, the messenger can zoom around the side and move onward towards the house and the hill.
It's no guarantee that he'd have ever made it. But certainly it's a lot better of a chance that not putting anyone on that flank at all!
Anyway, I should have also worked harder towards keeping my pegasi alive. They're essentially useless in this scenario beacuse of their low leadership, but at least the enemy wouldn't have received their points. Even if I had managed to kill Chaos's final messenger he'd have still own by 356 points. 350 or less is a draw - that's the difference the peagsi would have made. So I should have kept them safer.
Alternately, I could have used the pegasi to shield the messenger on the left. I didn't do that because I knew they'd flee from the fear-causing Flesh Hounds. But if the general had been nearby to keep them from fleeing. And then the general could have tried to zoom into some of that terrain with the messenger. Hmm, he might have even gotten away. And if he had gotten into the house so the enemy would need 6's to hit him...
Well, we'll never know what would have happened. The point is that the game went badly, although a few better tactics on my part may have saved the day.
That's why I write these battle reports - to analyize what I could have done differently to increase the effectiveness of my troops.
BTW - you'll find a small section in my massive archery article tactics addendum I just wrote about fighting Flesh Hound armies like this. Watch for Machiara to post it in a few days. I'd love your input on how an archery army could fight 'em.
Next Up: Game 5 - Fog of War... vs. Dwarves!