The Battle of Perloit
Prologue and Armies/Deployment
Though the screams of the human-things had long since turned to choked silence, and the billowing flame-smoke of the burning buildings had long since dwindled to faint whisps of grey against the early afternoon sun, Sokuth Longhorn grunted with contentment. His mighty horde had attacked at dawn and crushed the defenders of this small settlement - 'Per-loy' they called it? - beneath their hooves with great ease. Almost too great an ease, Sokuth thought, but his sword Goldentooth had been unsheathed and blooded for the first time in a long while, and the joy and blood-fire of both the battle itself and the carnage and destruction that followed would keep him content for some time to come. As he looked about, Gor and Bray, and even a few Minotaurs and scavanging Harpies, feasted upon what they could find in the wrack, while others prowled through the nearby forest, hunting down stragglers from the village. The mighty shaman Tortha and his assistants were carving glyphs on the village shrine, foul symbols of Chaos whose power Sokuth and the others would soon feel coursing through their veins during evening ritual-time. The great spawn-beast Zyl was on the bridge, messily devouring the corpse of a . . . he could not tell anymore whether it was man or beast in origin, but it mattered not at this point, Sokuth thought to himself with silent mirth.
A sudden disturbance jolted Sokuth from his thoughts. Several scrawny Bray were running back toward the village from the forest. They were carrying one of their own, with two arrows protruding from its unmoving chest. Sokuth grunted his displeasure - couldn't the scrawny things even deal with the few bow-firers that had fled into the woods earlier in the day? - and was about to turn away, when a flash of realization struck him. Narrowing his eyes and looking more closely . . . those black feathers and the light, almost green, shafts . . . these were not the arrows of the human-things! He turned as another harsh cry emerged from the woods, only to turn into a gutteral croak and then a silence. His eyes narrowed even further as he looked into the forest for a long moment, as if sheer will alone would allow his eyes to peirce the darkness between the wooden columns and identify the foe within. Then suddenly he turned back towards the village and bellowed his war-cry. Upon hearing his mighty roar, the horde all stopped and looked up from their various scavengings. There was a brief second of silence and motionlessness, then suddenly there was a pandemonium of barked commands and hurried movement as the Gor and Bray grabbed their weapons, formed up into fighting groups, or mounted their chariots. The Minotaurs were the first to wade through the chaos and form up in the nearby clearing, but they were soon joined by Sokuth and his guard, and then the others.
Across the wide clearing from the gathering Beastman horde stood a long line of strange figures - figures that did not seem to have emerged from the woods so much as the trees seemed to have peeled back around them, revealing them as the fog rolls off a lake in the early morning. They looked like human-things, but their green garb and inhuman precision and quickness of movement as they formed up marked them as otherwise. "Pointy-ears", thought Sokuth, as he glanced over the elves and their bows, spears, and strange mounts. Further movmement in the nearby forest told him that their advance patrols had nearly flanked his line already. He had fought elves a few times before, but never this many and never so organized. Though his troops had the advantage in numbers, the advantage was only slight. As he unsheathed Goldentooth for the second time that day and prepared to give the order to charge, he joyously though to himself "now THIS will be a battle to make the blood boil for days to come . . ."
The Armies:
Wood Elves:
An'nan Torval (General) - Unicorn, lance, longbow, shield, the Hail of Doom Arrow, Armour of Fortune - 296pts.
Battle Standard Bearer - light armour, shield, longbow, Banner of Wrath - 179pts.
Ornuir (Master Mage) - barded elven steed, lance, longbow, the Jade Amulet and the Rod of Power - 261pts.
Mage - warhawk, lance, longbow, Black Gem of Gnar - 109pts.
Mage - longbow, Dispel Scroll - 87pts.
Treeman - 280pts.
6 Wardancers + champion - Potion of Strength (champion) - 191pts.
5 Dryads - standard - 210pts.
19 Glade Guard + champion - light armour w/shield, standard & musician, Standard of Shielding, Charmed Shield (champion) - 333pts.
5 Glade Riders + champion - lance, light armour, shield, standard, War Banner - 291 pts.
4 Warhawk Riders+champion - spear, light armour, shield - 224pts.
9 Archers - 99pts.
9 Archers - 99pts.
9 Archers - 99pts.
7 Scouts - 112pts.
7 Waywatchers - 126pts.
Total: 2996pts.
Beastmen:
Sokuth Longhorn (General) - heavy armour, Blade of Leaping Gold, Helm of Many Eyes - 303pts.
14 Bestigors + champion (w/General) - heavy armour, halberds, standard & musician, Banner of Might - 403pts.
Battle Standard Bearer - heavy armour, Dread Banner - 178pts.
15 Gors (w Battle Standard) - halberds, shields, standard & musician - 221pts.
Tortha (Shaman Lord) - Chaos Armour, Sword of Swift Slaying, selected Dark Magic spells - 371pts.
14 Gors + champion (w/Shaman Lord) - halberds, shields, standard & musician, Banner of Sorcery - 296 pts.
Beastman Chief - chariot with scythed wheels and 1 crew (light armour and shield), spear, heavy armour - 225pts.
2 Chariots - scythed wheels, light armour and shield, two-handed weapons - 228pts.
4 Minotaurs + Hero - extra hand weapons, standard & musician, Armour of Meteoric Iron (hero) - 534pts.
7 Ungor - spears, shields, standard&musician - 49.5pts.
Zyl (Chaos Spawn) - 70pts.
8 Harpies - 120pts.
Total: 2298.5
Deployment:
- ("left" and "right" are from the Wood Elf perspective in both cases)
Terrain:
There was a very large group of Woods on the left side of the battlefield - about a foot wide and stretching from one deployment zone to the other. On the right side, stretching between the Beastman depolyment zone and about the center of the board, there was a small village consisting of about a half dozen buildings. This left a clearing in the center about 2-3 feet in width stretching from one end of the table to the other. There were several hills on the left side, but the only one that played any major role was the fairly large one placed just outside of both the forest and the Wood Elf depolyment zone. A small river (with a bridge across it) flowed near the village on the right side of the table, but this was far across on the Beastman side of the board and did not play any significant role in the battle that followed.
Wood Elves:
A battle Line was formed across the open clearing, consisting of my Glade Riders on the left near the woods, the Treeman and the Dryads in the center, and the Glade Guard on the right near the city. 2 Archer units formed up on each side of the Treeman/Dryads to set up a crossfire, while the 3rd archer unit set up to advance to the hill on the left. The scouts and waywatchers deployed "deep downfield" in the woods to the left, while the wardancers were on the far right, poised to occupy the village. The characters were deployed alongside the troops (An'nan, Ornuir, and the BSB were all near the center) and the flyers in the rear. The battle plan was a fairly straight-forward "stand and shoot" strategy, with the Glade Riders and Wardancers taking advantage of the terrain to envelop the enemy and the big characters all floating free to deal with any trouble spots/mismatches that came up during the fight. The Treeman, Dryads, and Glade Guard were all to hold the line, of course.
Beastmen:
The Chariots lined up on the left, across from archers and Glade Riders. The 3 main infantry blocks lined up in the center (from left to right - shaman, general, BSB), with the Spawn between the generals unit and the BSB's unit. The Minotaurs lined up near the village (they could either skirt it or enter it on the first turn), and the Ungor on the far right, almost within the village at the start. The Harpies deploy on a hill to the far left and rear. Typical Beastman battle plan - rush downfield and kill them all! - especially since the elves seemed to have brought a larger-than-normal share of stand-up melee troops.
Battle and Summary
The Beastmen rolled the dice to go first. We forgot to record exactly what happened with the Chaos Gifts, but they were few in number and nothing major occurred (no Nurgle's Rot on anyone, not Storm of Chaos on the Wardancers, no Eye of a God sucking the general away or anything like that) - at least not until the battle was underway, as we shall see.
The battle was set to last 5 turns. No special rules were used in the game, other than that Total Power was treated as a Power Scroll, while Drain Magic was treated as a Dispel Scroll (no roll for losing levels, either).
Turn 1:
Beastmen:
It was the standard "advance across the field" of Chaos. The harpies flew high, everything else marched downfield as fast as it could. The chariots actually held back a bit, out of fear of the superior charge range of the Glade Riders across from them. The Minotaurs chose to move through the village as they advanced, so they were forced to re-form so just the hero and one other minotaur were in the front rank in order to squeeze through the buildings!
The magic phase was low on cards - he attempted to cast Malediction of Nagash on my unit of Glade Riders, but it was dispelled with a scroll.
Wood Elves:
It was a mostly "stand and shoot" turn for my entire army. The 3rd unit of archers ascended the hill in front of them, the wardancers moved out into the village and the warhawks flew high, but that was about it. The Riders stayed more or less put, content for the moment to protect the archers now on the hill and to keep the chariots at bay (my thinking was that they could still threaten the flanks of the infantry as they closed in and got too far ahead of the chariots).
The general (Hail of Doom!) and several archers fired into the Bestigor, but few casualties were caused - he only lost one point of rank bonus. The scouts/waywatchers managed to kill a Tuskgor on one of the retinue chariots, slowing it up some. The hawkriders up high managed to kill 2 harpies (good dice rolling!), thereby negating their rank bonus. The magic phase was very uneventful.
Turn 2:
Beastmen:
The rolling advance continued, with the chariots now moving ahead as much as possible. The ungor moved to shield the minotaurs from my wardancers in the village.
The harpies charged Ornuir - who was over on the left side now - and the combat was a draw (no wounds on either side). His magic phase saw him successfully cast Malediction of Nagash on my Glade Riders! With these two events, my left flank was now in some jeapordy!
Wood Elves:
Seeing that the enemy was almost upon them, An'nan sounded his horn and the charges were on. The Dryads and the Treeman charged Sokuth's unit of Bestigor in the center, the warhawks charged the undamaged retinue chariot, the level 1 mage on the warhawk charged the chieftain's chariot (did NOT activate the gem - I had only taken it in case some mega-beastie had shown up, and a last second "fit of conscience" prevented me from activating it), and the Wardancers charged the Ungor.
An'nan himself intended to charge into the Gors with the BSB in them, alongside his noble Glade Guard, but then the unthinkable happened! The banner carried by the Beastman BSB carried a strange energy, an energy that found its way to An'nan's heart and froze it like a winter storm - he held his charge. Yes, thanks to the Dread Banner and the Allure of Slaneesh Chaos Gift, I failed my fear check to charge! This left the Glade Guard unsupported . . .
Little happened during the shooting phase - I whittled a few Gors from Tortha's unengaged Gor regiment, and wounded a Minotaur. Both the warhawks and the Glade Guard managed got draws out of their combats, not a good scenario for me as they were now vulnerable. The poor level one mage was obliterated after not activating his gem. The spirits of the forest won their battle against Sokuth and his guard, but the proud Bestigor did not break.
Ornuir managed to drive off - not break! -the harpies that had been pestering him, but even with his L.O.S. clear he did not manage to get a spell off. I DID manage to dispel the Malediction of Nagash from my Riders, and the Banner of Wrath finished off one of the Minotaurs (reducing them below 5 models, which was very important as they were poised to flank the Glade Guard!).
Turn 3:
Beastmen:
Those that weren't in combat proceeded to enter it, looking to chew up some of my more exposed combatants. Tortha's regiment charged the hawkriders, the persistent harpies charged Ornuir once again, and the Minotaurs charged into the flank of the Glade Guard.
With the aid of Tortha and his unit of Gor, the chariot managed to kill several hawkriders and break the few that remained. The cold, calculating Tortha held his pursuit, but the chariot crew, whooping and bellowing, rode down the last of the hawks and trampled them beneath their scythed wheels. Unfortunately for them, their momentum carried them right into the forest itself! With a great deal of smashing and crashing, the chariot ground to a halt in the woods - the charoit body itself severely damaged, but still intact. The unit of archers on the hill panicked upon seeing the demise of their winged companions, but no one else fled.
Nearby, Ornuir managed to defeat the harpies and break them! Angered by their constant harassment, his battle rage overcame his common sense (i.e. he failed his LD check to avoid pursuing) and he rode the fleeing harpies down. As he cut down the last one, however, he looked up and was surprised to see himself charging into the flank of Tortha's regiment of Gors! Ornuir was now in some serious trouble . . .
The Glade Guard fought valiantly, but the Minotaur Hero caused 3 wounds and this proved to be too much for the spearmen - they lost the combat by 1, and as they were now outnumbered by feared opponents (ah, the Dread Banner . . .), they broke and fled. They outran their pursuers, but the minotaurs crashed right into General An'nan himself, who was just recovering from his inner struggle from the round before . . .
Things were looking grim for the Wood Elves, but fortune smiled upon me when the Chaos Spawn rolled a "4" for movement and failed to engage the Dryads that were fighting with Sokuth and his guard. The spirits of the forest managed to win this combat and break the Bestigor! The Chaos gods did not totally abandon Sokuth in his moment of need, however - neither of the pursuers was able to catch him, and the Dryads got tangled up with the Spawn.
During the magic phase, Tortha cast Transfomation of Kadon, taking the form of a Manticore and leaving his regiment (note: this is probably not legal, but it is the way we did it at the time - he should have probably remained in the regiment and been placed alongside it - oh, well).
Wood Elves:
Attempting to cash in on opportunity, the Treeman charged the fleeing Sokuth, but the big guy paid the price for his slow steady pace the round before (rolling a 3 on pursuit) and was unable to catch them yet again. The Glade Riders, now free of their malediction, rushed into combat with the Gors on the left side to aid their fellow Ornuir.
The Glade Guard rallied just in time to witness the clash between the Minotaurs and Annan. Unfortunately, An'nan was broken and overrun by the beasties (poor fellow was not a combat titan), much to the shock and dismay of the elven army. Upon seeing this tragedy, Ornuir, the remaining level 1 mage, and the scouts all began to flee toward my side of the clearing. Because our game group has ruled that the panic test from the general's slaying takes place immediately, Ornuir was not available to help the riders in their fight . . .
. . . not that they needed it. The riders broke and destroyed the Tortha-less unit of Gors, and overran them on the pursiut. No panic ensued, and the rest of the phase was fairly uneventful. The Wardancers moved to threaten the flank of the BSB's unit of Gors, the Dryads beat up the Spawn but failed to kill it, and the archers fired at the chariot now marooned in the woods but failed to score any wounds. I suddenly found myself with no spells in the magic phase - I forgot about the Banner of Wrath, and about my poor BSB on foot who simply watched as both the Glade Guard and the Minotaurs blazed right on past him. J
Turn 4:
Beastmen:
Much to my amusement, Sokuth and his lads failed to rally! They were certainly out of the fight and safe at this point, but had only one more chance to rally. The minotaurs and the chariot-riding chieftain turned towards the center of the battlefield, preparing to charge in during the final round. The BSB Gors turned right to face the Wardancers emerging from the village.
The Tortha-Manticore charged one of my archer units. The courageous elves not only held their ground, but managed to pass their break test after losing a few of their number to the beasts' dreaded claws. The Dryads managed to finish off the Spawn.
Wood Elves:
The Wardancers and one of my archer units (flank!) charged the BSB Gors. The Wardancers slaughtered the BSB himself, and the Gors suffered many casualties. However, the remaining Gors rolled a "4", just barely passing their break test and resolutely holding on despite the fact that no reenforcements were nearby.
Both Ornuir and the scouts failed to rally, though the level 1 mage did. The remainder of my army maneuvered to prepare for the final "do or die" round of combat. The Riders moved alongside the Bestigor, ready to pounce if they rallied. The Treeman planted himself directly in front of the chieftain's chariot, as if daring him to charge and engage the titanic forest dweller. The Glade Guard wheeled to face the Minotaurs, eager to avenge An'nan and acquit themselves in the rematch. The Dryads maneuvered to get a rear charge on the Gors in the following round. The Tortha-Manticore was STILL unable to break the sturdy archers!
My lone mage cast Fireball at the minotaurs (no wound - my only non-bound spell of the day!), and my waywatchers/archers finished off one of the retinue chariots (the non-marooned one).
Turn 5:
Beastmen:
Sokuth and the Bestigor rallied (curse them!), and re-formed to make sure the riders would not get any flank/rear charges (curse them again! In the heat of battle, I let myself forget that they could reform to face any way they wanted if they rallied). The Minotaurs charged the Glade Guard and won the subsequent combat, but the resolute spearmen passed their check and hung on. The chieftain charged the treeman, but was beaten up soundly and forced to flee the towering behemoth. The Gors lost another fight with the Dancers/Archers, but still managed to hold on.
The Tortha-Manticore finally managed to kill enough archers to outnumber them (5 wound beastie), forcing them to break. The other nearby archer unit fled at the sight of their fellows being overrun by the terrible monster.
Wood Elves:
BR>
The Dryads charged into the massive combat with the Gors. With their assistance, the Gors were finally routed from the field. The Minotaurs and the Glade Guard again fought to a standstill (I still had 2 points of rank left at this point!).
The Riders refused to engage the Bestigor (from earlier in the game, I knew about the Helm of Many Eyes). Ornuir STILL failed to rally, and ran right off the edge of the board! The archers failed to rally as well. Fortunately, the scouts DID rally, just in time to claim a board quarter. The Waywatchers moved downfield to claim one more quarter.
At this point, the sun was nearly set and the battle ended.
Points:
Wood Elves - 1516
Beastmen - 1288
Because the margin of victory was not >10% of the army values, we called the battle a draw.
The Wood Elves had the field. The village of Perloit was clear, and the bridge that would have given their enemies much greater access to the forest of Loren was in good hands. But the cost was terrible - many, many elves lost their lives on the field of battle. An'nan lay dead, trampled under the hooves of the minotaurs, and Ornuir was nowhere to be found. There was likely to be no celebration after this battle.
Sokuth had been forced to yield the village to the elves. He had no working chariots and precious few infantry, and the remaing elves had the strategic position (i.e. more board quarters). But the elite core of his army - himself, Tortha, and the minotaurs - had survived. Back in the mountains, he would find new recruits . . . and revenge soon after that . . .
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Whew! What a battle. Momenteum seesawed back and forth, and there was lots of action in all phases and all turns (except for the later magic phases, when the mages were gone or transformed). The sizes/natures of the armies and the battlefield terrain made into a fairly "stand up" fight by the standards of my Wood Elves, which was almost my undoing. There were some mistakes made (both tactics and rules) on each side, but a great time was had by all. Some key points to take home from this fight:
- psychology matters! If An'nan had managed to pass his LD check and coordinate his attack with the Glade Guard on Turn 2, things might have been quite different - it is likely that the Gors would have been forced to take a break test with penalties. The right flank could have been a high point for me instead of nearly undoing my entire army like it did. One little fear check . . .
- 'Miscellaneous points' matter! 500 of the points my Wood Elves scored came from recovering standards and claiming board quarters. By contrast, the Beastmen netted only 200 misc. points (1 standard and killing the general).
- Don't over-use the Black Gem! I waffled a bit on it and decided at the last moment not to use it - net result, I routed the cheiftain's chariot later in the fight for a net gain of over 100pts. (Chieftain's cost minus my poor mage, who should have never charged in the first place since I wasn't sure I was going to use the gem). The gem is cool and all, but overuse can come back to cost you serious points
- You don't need big characters to have fun. Our guys were quite reasonable for a 3000pt. Fight. Tortha had perhaps the biggest impact on the game of any single character, but that was mostly because he had great luck drawing AND casting spells, and the cause was still decided by the troops in the field.
- Forest spirits rule! If they hadn't driven off Sokuth, the middle turns of the game would have probably been even worse for me, and the spirits would not have been available to net me points for the Gors/chieftain later in the game.
- Don't waste arrows on Beastman infantry. As before, a hail of both magic and mundane arrows into the Bestigor only netted me a few models. Sigh.
I could go on, but you have likely read enough already if you have gotten this far. Hope you enjoyed!