Battle Report #5
2000pts vs Forces of the Abyss: Dominate
Narrative Intro:
The coven of Loremasters stood entranced around the Annulian crystal. Each one of them masters of their craft had fought for weeks to keep the Abyssal forces at bay. Channeling their energies through the crystal they’d blocked the portal between the two realms from growing, allowing only a trickle of energy to pass between the realms. Without their efforts the Abyssal Forces would have grown immeasurably.
Ba’el’s claws closed around the lower abyssal’s waist it’s life energy flowing into him as he crushed it with his grip. It was a just reward for interrupting him. The news it had brought, however, was interesting, a tower hidden close to the Elven city had been identified as the source of the great power which had been restricting the Abyssals since their arrival. Despite defeat after defeat the Elves had still held out against Ba’el’s incursion now he knew how. His wings unfurled as he took to the sky’s, his gathered forces seeing their master’s departure, quickly followed unwilling to risk his wrath.
Game Intro and Lists:
Well it’s back to fighting the Forces of the Abyss once again. This time Ben’s back in control but we’ve bumped things up to 2000pts.
We decided after all the Abyssal victories we should continue the flow of the narrative and play for control of an elven tower as the Abyssals increasingly pushed the elves back deeper into their territory. So we chose dominate as the mission and placed an elven tower at the centre of the board.
Elf List:
King (Paweldran): Horse, Shard blade, Blade of the Beast slayer: 170pts
Mage (Alenui): Inspiring Talisman, Bane Chant (2), Lightning Bolt (5): 135pts
Mage (Eldroth): Lightning Bolt (5), Boomstick: 125pts
King: Horse, Lifeleech (1): 145pts
Drakon horde (Amarynth and young Griffons): Sir Jesse’s boots of striding: 290pts
Stormwind Regiment: Potion of the Caterpillar: 235pts
Palace Guard regiment: 160pts
Palace Guard regiment: 160pts
Seaguard Horde: Chant of Hate: 290pts
Silverbreeze Regiment: 200pts
Bolt thrower: 90pts
I wanted to keep working on the Seaguard based list I‘d run versus Jeff. So with the tweaks added to the list I discussed after last game I was good to go.
Forces of the Abyss list:
Ba’el: 265pts
Abyssal Warlock: 90pts
Seductress: Blade of Slashing: 135pts
Abyssal Fiend: 175pts
Abyssal Fiend: 175pts
Abyssal Horsemen: Pathfinder: 260pts
Mollochs Horde: Healing Brew: 230pts
Tortured Souls Regiment: 120pts
Tortured Souls Regiment: 120pts
Tortured Souls Regiment: 120pts
Flamebearers Regiment: 155pts
Flamebearers Regiment: 155pts
Ben’s list was an extension of his 1500pts list from games 1 & 2. It’s a tough list nearly all of it was scoring most of it fast and the duellist individual could be problematic with my 4 individuals all being tempting targets.
Deployment and Scenario
The scenario was dominate.
Fairly typical approach for me on deployment with a refused centre. With Ben going fairly spread out with his shooting in the centre. I immediately felt better having a king available to work with the palace guard flank as with most of Ben’s heavy hitters facing off with the seaguard flank I’d need the Palace Guard flank to move up to start pressuring the centre.
Ben won the roll for first turn and gave it to me. I was fairly happy with this as I had several targets for shooting and it mean I could push forwards before Ben could take up positions to pressure me.
Elf Turn 1
The Elves taking the initiative pushed forwards rapidly on the right keen to engage the Abyssals shooting. On the left the advance was slower as shooters pulled up when in range.
Most shooting targeted the Abyssal Fiend in the open as it had no regen or life leech. When all the lightning, arrows and bolts has cleared 7 damage had been inflicted on the beast. The Silverbreeze also got a few arrows to hit their target of the Abyssal Horsemen.
Abyss Turn 1
The Seductress was unable to resist the allure of the dashing Elf cavalry and flew straight over to engage them in some casual flirting.
The rest of the army moved cautiously aware of the threat the elves posed. A few pot shots were fired at the Drakons and Seaguard wounding both.
Elf Turn 2
Wanting to block the Abyssal Cavalry from reaching the Silverbreeze King Paweldran charged the Abyssal horsemen. The remaining elf units advanced other than the Seaguard who held their ground to maximise the accuracy of their bowfire. This paid off as a unit of Flamebearers was removed with excess shooting able to target some Tortured Souls in the centre.
Abyss Turn 2
Unfortunately the Elves had failed to spot that the Tortured Souls and Ba’el were both in range to charge the Silverbreeze rendering King Paweldran’s blocking charge rather moot. As the seductress blocked the Drakons the Silverbreeze ran for the hills lacking in leadership with the King far away. To make things worse the king himself decided enough was enough and also bolted.
On the right the advancing Palace Guard found themselves in trouble as the Flamebearers unleashed 8 damage along with 3 from the Abyssal Fiend they wavered in the face of such an onslaught.
Elf Turn 3
The elves had got themselves in a real mess. Unsure what to do they tried to make the best of the situation. The Drakons went back into the Seductress aided by bane chant from the mage. On the right I tried to make thing difficult for Ben setting up various flank charges as counters to moves he might make. Also the king disrupted the Flamers.
Shooting targeted the Abyssal Horsemen but alas little damage was done and the nerve roll came up short. In combat the Seductress was slain as the Drakons didn’t much fancy her.
Abyss Turn 3
Fearful of the Drakons might the flank of the Seaguard was ignored as both Ba’el and the Tortured Souls charge in killing them. The Tortured souls up top killed the bolt thrower whilst on the right they circled round the rear of the palace guard.
Fireball from the Fiend killed the wounded Palace Guard whilst the other Fiend failed to impress the Stormwind Cavalry despite dispatching a few elven knights with its axe.
Elf Turn 4
Things were getting decidedly desperate. I needed a big swing this turn. Unfortunately the first part of my plan required the Abyssal Horsemen to die before they got back into inspiring range. Another poor round of shooting saw them only take a single wound and a high nerve roll was not forthcoming.
In the centre I got what I needed first killing one Abyssal Fiend with a flank and frontal attack from the Elves. Then needing at least a waver King Eataine slew the injured Fiend outright its head swept clean off by his newly gifted blade Sindarin.
Abyss Turn 4
In another error the Elves had exposed one of their mages to a charge from Ba’el. The Dark Lord comfortably broke Eldroth whilst his minions dispatched the Seaguard. The Tortured Souls managed sufficient damage on the Elven knights to break them in a hammer blow to the Elves chances of retaining enough unit strength to keep the battle going.
Elf Turn 5
Eager for revenge the Elven forces tried a few desperate charges and lightning bolts but the Abyssals were undeterred.
Abyss Turn 5
The Abyssals finished off the last Elven scoring unit as the Tortured Souls broke the Palace Guard. At that point we called it.
Narrative ending:
King Paweldran sat morose, sipping his wine, looking out at the ocean. The ocean held his only hope now. Ships had been sent out to every Elf kingdom and province pleading for aid. With the destruction of the Loremasters’ tower and with it the Annulian Crystal waves and waves of Abyssals had poured through the expanding portal and Tor Bel-Valdar was completely under siege.
Conclusions and Recriminations:
This is one of those defeats where you make a silly mistake early on and just can’t manage to recover. Ben’s a good player and he punished my error mercilessly.
Having the Silverbreeze as a regiment really shifted my thinking. No longer were they a chaff unit to be easily deployed early and something to be seen as expendable if required. They ended up deploying second to last or possibly even last. I was tempted to put them on the right flank but couldn’t get them in range for a first turn shot at the Tortured Souls. In hindsight this would have been a good place to go I should simply be more patient. In the wood to add to my first turn of shooting the Abyssal Fiend could also have worked well if risky as I’d be exposed to some retaliation shooting potentially.
Deployed as they were they should have at least held back from shooting first turn avoiding letting the Seductress into my lines (and then missing that I’d left several other of his units in range turn 2).
That whole corner was a mess everything was blocking each other rather than being in positions to support each other with counters to enemy charges. I think this is part of the issue with not having nimble (steady aim) available on the Seaguard any more. You need to get them in the right position when you do move and you need to prioritise moving over hitting on 5’s when you’re not in the right position.
That said I thought Ben’s army and his use of it was superb every unit felt it was doing something to me every turn and I quickly started to feel outnumbered despite my shooting being effective. Having so much inspire is really helpful to him and I contrasted this by screwing up my positioning of inspire leaving key units unprotected.
List Changes
When I lose like this I’m not overly concerned by the idea of list changes. One concern though is the Palace Guard Regiments they haven’t really done much for me so far and I’m struggling to see them as better value than a single horde would be. However, if I do that I’m moving away from what I felt my 2nd ed list was about and I’m not sure I’m that interested in going down that route as I am playing in trying out other lists. I do think Palace Guard Regiments getting a points increase in 3rd was unwarranted (doubly so as they now compete with Palace Guard Hordes) I’m even more of that opinion now that I’ve used them with 3rd ed rules which have shifted to favour hordes (charge measures from anywhere not just leader point etc).
I’ve got a few choices what to do next:
- I’ve got a Dragon list I ran last year I’ve been continuing to tinker with and trying some Seaguard in that would be interesting.
-I’ve also got the army list for my Red Era army which I’m painting (see painting blog Link in OP).
-I’m pondering if I could do something more combat based without mages (or at least double Lightning Bolt mages) maybe utilising some Stormwind Troops much as Ben uses his Tortured Souls.
-or I carry on with this list either in its current form or combining the Palace Guard units into a horde.
Decisions, decisions…