Waaagh Aeries VI: DoW vs. Wood Elves Battle Report (Round 2)

In what has seem to become too common an occurrence, the Coin Collectors were hired by a mysterious client to capture what appeared to be an abandoned tower near the edge of some ancient woods. The tower itself was unremarkable, something you would expect any eccentric with a limited budget to build. Still though, it was a job and the boys had already burned the gold they had collected from their recent encounter with the lizardmen.

“May I suggest sending the ogres in to capture the tower,” suggested Chase as he stood beside the Paymaster.

“That would require us spending a day oiling them up to get thru the front door,” sarcastically replied the Paymaster.

“Is this were you drop a line about having a skeleton key,” retorted Chase.

“This is where I drop you for being a smart ass,”

As the last word slipped from the Paymaster’s lips, Chase’s keen eyes caught the slightest movement from an open window towards the top of the tower. In response, he quickly raised his crossbow and fired a bolt. It shot forward, coming within a hair’s length of the window’s edge and striking something soft just behind in the shadows. That something became a beautiful elf female as she stepped into full view for just a moment before being pulled back into the shadows by unseen hands. Chase had proven once again to be a marksman without compare, though he would have preferred his target to have been a little uglier.

Having won my first game, I moved on to face my buddy Steve “Mr. Handsome” G. and his Wood Elves. Steve is a very skilled general and having played him before, I knew this was going to be a fun, but challenging match-up. I was also glad to see him playing Wood Elves as I wanted to see what they could do when under the leadership of someone who knows how to play them.

Steve's List:
Spell Weaver - Life, HoD arrow
Altar Noble
Altar Noble
20 Glade Guard
14 Glade Guard
10 Dryads
10 Wardancers
10 Wardancers
3 Treekin
Treeman
Eagle (aka Giant Chicken)



The Scenario
Our game was the basic Watchtower scenario with a restriction on the size of units that could capture the tower.

Early Turns
The game began with me pushing the ogres and Cursed Company forward towards the tower. Steve responded with his elves in the tower dwindling down the number of skeletons in the Cursed Company and moving his various elves and treekin forward to intercept. He also brought his one noble and giant chicken closer to the marksmen.

During the second turn, I moved Leonardo and the Captain from out of the Marksmen unit to create a protective bubble around my crossbowmen. I also attempted to charge the tower with what remained of the Cursed Company. While the bubble tactic would prove to work, my karma was balanced by the Cursed Company failing to capture the tower.


Middle Turns
The middle turn saw the giant chicken charging Leonardo in an effort to remove him and his prism from the game. Surprisingly, Leonardo was able to hold his ground for a turn of combat, thus allowing my marksmen to charge into the combat during the following turn and save him. While this was happening, one of Steve’s Altar Noble charged Mr. Madness and Vespero. The combat ended with Mr. Madness and Vespero breaking from combat.

Towards the center of the board, the ogres were trying to deal with the Treekin and Treeman, but they simply lacked the number of attacks needed to truly damage them. At this point as well, the Cursed Company was no more, so the elves clearly had control of the tower by mid-game.

Late Turns
The late turns of the game were mostly filled with Steve cleaning up the ogres and me trying to shoot down what remained of his larger unit of Glade Guard. His Altar Noble was able to charge Mr. Madness and Vespero again and finish them off on the second attempt. He was also able to eliminate my cannon, which was more of a mercy killing since the cannon failed to do anything during the game.

Conclusion
It was clear even before victory points were tabulated that Steve had won the game since I failed to capture the tower and most of my point heavy units were gone from the table. When it comes to the Watchtower scenario, I love playing it, but I admit to not having a very good strategy on how to win it. Also again, Steve is a great general and a fun person to play, so even though I lost, it was such a fun experience that the outcome didn’t matter to me (okay, maybe a little since it was a tournament).

Lesson’s Learned
1. Need to get more practice games in playing the Watchtower scenario. It is common enough that I should have a better understanding of how it plays with my armies.
2. I love you Cursed Company, but you are not worth the points.
3. While I wouldn’t call this a lesson learned, I did ponder after the game whether or not I should have gone with the Lore of Fire for Mr. Madness. If I can get the Flaming Sword off on the Marksmen, the +1 to wound roll along with flaming and magical would make for a vicious combo.