2000 Points v. Dogs of War
Scenario: Fog of War! This horribly dangerous scenario for Wood Elves involves a massive cloudbank that has fallen across the battlefield. All missile ranges are reduced to a 12" (AAARRRGGGHHH!!), and all flyers that are flying high that try to return to the battlefield or strike glancing blows can only do so on a 4+ (1-3 means they do nothing for the turn). Fortunately, all charge ranges are reduced to 12" as well. This means I won't be crushed from across the battlefield before I get a chance to fire. Magical spells are unaffected by the range limitations, including line of sight spells. Deployment and victory conditions are as normal. The game lasts five turns.
Armies: I had my usual army, consisting of:
1 General with Hail of Doom Arrow
4 Units of 8 Scouts
2 Units of 9 Glade Riders
2 Pegasi
6 Units of 8 Archers
1 Unit of 7 Archers
His Army consisted of (and some of this may be a bit off):
1 General with heavy armor, barded steed, and that sorta thing (with heavy cavalry).
12 or so Marksmen of Miraglio
Bronzino and one of his galluping guns
Voland's Venators (10 or so models)
Lupo and his leopardish pikeman unit (25 or so models)
Alcatani Fellowship (25 or so models)
A Paymaster and Money Lender (fielded with Lupo's Unit)
Rico's Republican Guard
Terrain: Can't Remember!
The Game: I honestly don't remember much about this game. What I do remember is from the few notes I took during the game.
From my first glance at the board, I figured the game would be an easy victory for me. I was up against an army that had essentially no missile fire, mostly rank-and-fire, and relatively few fast-moving troops.
Yet the game didn't go all that well for a few reasons. For starters, about halfway through the game we had a disagreement about what turn we were on. I argued we had another turn, he argued it was a turn ahead of my count. We'll never know who was right (although I'm sure it was me!), but the lesson there was that one should ALWAYS make an accurate count of the game.
Another problem was a minor error. At one point, I advanced a unit of scouts out of the charge arc of one of his units. I ended my movement phase with them specifically out of his arc. I opened fire, and blew away about another 10 or so members of the Alcatani Fellowship. Unfortunately, he picked up the unit (and the dead models), removed the base, and set the remaining models back down. But when he did so, the angle had changed so that he was now able to charge my scouts. I didn't catch this until he went to charge me next turn. I was quite annoyed, but there wasn't much I could do about it. As a result I lost a scout unit.
At another point I lost a glade rider unit. That fault was my own - I had moved them a tad too close to his unit (and into his charge range), and when he charged it never occurred to me to either flee or use feign flight. I was too wrapped up with what my archers were doing. So that unit wound up being killed.
Speaking of archers though, the REAL reason the game ended in a draw rather than a victory was because we weren't quite able to kill his units. Of his army, at the end he had:
His General and Voland's Venators - That's fine. With a 2+ save we barely targeted them. I think we killed one.
The Alcatani Fellowship. Down to less than 20% of their original size.
Lupo's Leopard guys - Down to Lupo, the standard, the paymaster, and the money lender. All that decimation (over 20 models killed), yet I didn't get any victory points from them.
Bronzino - With one wound left. His gun was long destroyed. No points there either.
Rico's Republican Guard - Down to less than 20% of their original size.
Marksmen of Miraglio - Two guys left, including their captain.
Meanwhile, he only killed a pegasus, a scout unit, and a glade rider unit. (Two of which he shouldn't have been able to kill).
I would have won this game if I had played slightly better and concentrated my firepower more. I overestimated the ease with which I'd wipe out his units, and accordingly, didn't kill any. Thank goodness for terrain points or I'd have lost this game. Embarrassing, eh?
Of course, the fog of war didn't help any. I lost about half of my archer fire during the game because of that. Without the fog, we'd have easily decimated his entire army.
Moral of the story: Kill an ENTIRE unit, then worry about the next one. Or better yet, don't fight in a fog bank.