Game 2 of my birthday slaughter!
Drinking beer out of the Iron Maiden pint glass never got old this night.
More dice where rolled and it was determined that I would be running the big army at 4000 points with Brook and Rob getting 2000 points. Again we used a 10 unit wide deployment zone and hidden deployment because it’s hella cool. Please forgive me in advance for missing out on many of the details from this game because I waited a week to start working on it and I was a bit tipsy by midnight, which is about the time the game started. Thankfully I’ve got a lot of pics for you fine folks and I hope they can somewhat speak for themselves.
Like in the first game, we where going to try out Brook’s Smash Hit house rule for Large units, so no fancy stuff. The discussion for the Smash Hit starts on this page:
http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,5085.45.htmlSmash Hits in a nutshell – To remedy the issue of Large expensive units having average offensive skill and being vulnerable to being held up indefinitely by moderately priced units with high offensive skill, Brook cooked up this house rule for Large units. It would replace the Trample rule (+1 attack die on the charge turn for any unit engaging something with a smaller size class than itself). The rule says that during an attack the player controlling the Large unit may choose to use the Smash Hit. That unit gets -2 attack dice for this attack, but gains the equivalent of an impact hit. A Smash Hit cannot be performed on the charge turn. So a full strength Skeleton Troll unit using a Smash Hit would have a (3) 5/7 attack that turn with an impact hit. The thinking behind this is that even a moderately poor die roll from a Large unit can mean zero damage being caused to something like Ravenwood Swordsmen or a High Elven Battle Squad and that strikes us as being silly since Large units are such potent combatants and normally cost so much more. The Large unit can trade dice to achieve at least a point of damage for the turn it chooses to use the Smash Hit.
Set Up
Elves fighting for the powers of goodBrook had Ravenwood, Rob had High Elves
Top to bottom:
2 Treants (dear God I’m screwed!)
Ravenwood Swordsmen backed by Archers
Ravenwood Swordsmen
Ravenwood Swordsmen backed by Brownies (really backing both Swordsmen)
Battle Squad backed by Battle Squad
Elder Blade Battle Squad backed by Battle Squad
HE Spearmen backed by Battle Squad with Scorpions way in the back
HE Chariots backed by… you guessed it! Another Battle Squad!
Brownies
Elves fighting for the powers of not-so-goodDark Elves controlled by Yours truly
Top to bottom:
Halfblood Levy backed by Dusk Lancers
2 Slave Warriors
3 Higblood Blades with 2 Coven’s behind the bottom 2
Blade Dancers
Highblood Blades
Highblood Duskblades backed by Drake Riders
Halfblood Levy backed by Halfblood Slave Takers
1 point of premeditation
Now I know all you Dark Elf lovers are trying not to vomit into a bucket at my build here. My reasoning for this very un-Dark Elven display was to see if the Dark Elves could succeed conventionally. Meaning I would not use Lashmistresses, Lords of Dusk, or floods of Slave Warrior units. I’ve tried this in the past with mixed to poor results but I still find myself intrigued by the thought of a more standard combined arms approach with these cats. Looking at the heavier line units on an individual basis, you’d think they would excel there. Even the mid-level units like the Highblood Blades and the grievously under used Halfblood Levies are fine units for their cost when taken out of the context of what constitutes standard Dark Elven play. Having the luxury of 4000 points certainly made this even more appealing. If only my plan wasn’t ruined by a pair of walking trees on the same flank…
Standing OrdersMost units where on close. My Halfblood Levy at the top of the pic had a hold objective halfway between itself and the Treant. One of my Covens was targeting the Ravenwood Swordsmen closest to the center of the line while the other was Targeting the Battle Squad next to them. I’m an equal opportunity hater. The Ravenwood Archers where firing on one of my Slave Warriors. Ah the sad life of a slave… I’ll be damned if I can remember which of my line units the Scorpions where firing at, but I believe it was Halfblood Levy. You can’t see it in the pic, but my Drake Riders where set to close on a terrain objective that I had set next to the Scorpions. I wanted those guys dead very quick-like.
Early Turns
The forces move towards each other and our ranged units are all pretty lame early on. My Coven attacks are Midnight’s Chill. Note that the Drake Riders are in the air and the Chariots are actually gunning for my Dusk Blades.
Oh! There’s that dubious Iron Maiden pint glass again!
From top to bottom:
Beneath Brook’s hand I used Direct control at one point to delay my Dusk Lancers from final rushing a Treant. The left side of my line (top of pic) wasn’t doing so hot as 1 of my Slave Warriors routed. Even more embarrassing was a unit of Highblood Blades actually getting owned by Ravenwood Swordsmen. Both units routed from each other, but the Swordsmen where only in the yellow while my Blades where in the red! Ay Carumba! Things where more stable in the middle while the battle was shaping up well for me on my right (bottom of pic) where the Brownies where blown up by the Halfblood Levy/Slave Taker double-team. The Levy was then able to pinch the Chariots into oblivion and a Battle Squad steps up to fill the void and face the Dusk Blades. The Scorpion crews are crapping themselves right about now…
Mid Turns
Top to Bottom:
I screwed up my charge turn by playing a Might on the Dusk Lancers when they charged the Treant when I had the Pain Touch box checked off. I should have let the pain touch do it’s thing and use the Might on the next attack. I still got a respectable 3-4 damage on the Treant, but I wound up regretting the way that played out. Small amount of difference it would make because the Halfblood Levy routed away from the other Treant and the Dusk Blades would wind up getting Tree-pinched. The rest of my left flank collapsed with the exception of the grindfest between Brownies and Slave Warriors. As before, the middle of the line was stable. I did kick myself when I realized I had forgotten to mark off the Blade Dancer boxes for a couple of turns. Doh! I started sliding my remaining Lowblood Levy to their left so I could send them behind my line because it was looking like I would need some help on the Ravenwood side. The Slave Takers pinched a Battle Squad and ugly things happened. Speaking of ugly, the Drake Riders have just charged the Scorpions and we are about to roll the attacks.
Dusk Lancers may be awesome, but they are not awesome enough to survive this. Nobody is awesome enough to survive this. Playing Arrogant Spite to get in a cheap point of damage made it feel slightly better.
Endgame 
So now we have a problem. My left flank is gone, the middle has almost evaporated, but I’ve got a ton of rather beat up guys way over there on my right flank miles away from where I’d want them to be. In hindsight I should have started retrograding the Covens towards that area, but I wasn’t seeing it at the time (which was about 1:30 am at this point). I had 2 angry Treants bearing down on me and a bunch of Ravenwood infantry guys. 1 of my Covens is about to be flanked by Ravenwood Swordsmen, which is never a goods thing. Unless you are the Ravenwood player. 1 of my Highblood Blades in the middle got pinched to death while the one next to it ran off from… Well I can’t remember why it was running but it was running from something. My Blade Dancers fell to a pinch, but at least the Drake Riders had finished chowing down on the Scorpions and they where working back towards the line. I was happy to get the pinch on the Spearmen because those guys where really messing up the Blades that where taking them on. The High Elves on my right where collapsing which was great for me, but would it be enough?
Well, apparently not. The good news is that I was able to totally kill off the High Elves. The bad news was that most of my remaining units where in poor shape and my last Coven got flanked right after this was taken. I surrendered shortly after.
Final Thoughts As in the first game The Smash Hit house rule worked just as we expected it to. It didn’t really add much damage if any at all, but it allowed the Treants to get that 1 point of damage when they needed it. My poor Dusk Lancers suffered greatly from this, but there was also a pinch involved and suffering was on the menu anyways.
My Covens really didn’t inflict that much damage all game. I really didn’t get much benefit from Midnight’s Chill and I had switched over to the Evil Eye attack halfway through the game. Little good that did me because the Ravenwood core units where getting a bucket load of net hits. I continue to have issues with this faction when trying to play it as a straight up infantry line. Where I playing this game again, there are a ton of things I’d do differently. This wasn’t exactly my finest hour, but I was in it for the fun
While Robs’ forces where completely wiped out, they did their job by keeping me occupied for so long in the middle and allowing Ravenwood to get in there and do grievous harm.
Heroes of the GameRavenwood
Almost all of the Swordsmen did really well. Beating up on Highblood Blades is no small task for these guys, but that’s what they did! Ravenwood Swordsmen also accounted for both of my Covens.
High Elves
Nobody really stood out, but the Spearmen had me worried.
Dark Elves
Again, nobody really stood out. I did get a lot of quality use out of the Slavetakers, so I’ll go with them.
