Well, this Saturday, Goblit's house was graced by my presence, and as well as a lot of other things (eating hotdogs in french bread) we managed to have a 500pts battle to test out the strengths and weaknesses of the new Wood Elves.
The background for the battle was a small goblin tribe attacking and sacking a small brettonian village just outside the borders of Athel Loren. The Wood Elves feel this is too close for comfort, and sally out to repel the invaders from their lands.
I took basically all that I'd painted. The glade guard aren't completely finished yet, and the eagle is from my high elves, but apart from that...
Athel Loren's defenders
Spellsinger - level 2
10 glade guard
8 drayds - branch nymph (had 13pts left, with no more dryad models, what else to do?)
8 dryads
1 eagle
The goblin "invaders"
Goblin shaman - level 2
Goblin big boss - great weapon, light armour
30 night goblins - spears, full command, 2 fanatics
5 wolf riders - shortbows
10 black 'Goblins'
The board, (from my perspective) had a hill on my left, a forest dead centre, a brettonian village in the far right corner, and a hill in the opposite corner. I got my free wood and whacked it down next to the other forest to create a very woody barrier that would hopefully benefit me greatly.
I deployed my glade guard on the hill on the left, with the spellsinger in the unit, and my dryads and eagle slightly to the side, but still keeping within the left side of the table.
Goblit deployed basically opposite me, with the wolf riders out on his left ready to sweep round my right, then the black orc.. goblins, then the night goblin unit (along with the timeless qoute, "does this unit outnumber your army?")
It did...
Rolling for spells gave me hidden path and twilight host. Hidden path would be a bit useless in this battle, so I swapped it for treesing. Goblit got gaze of mork (d6 str4) and 'ere we go for his shaman. With that, it was on to the battle!
Turn one
Wood Elves - despite taking longer to deploy, I managed to get first turn. First things first, the eagle powered across the board, landing in front of the black goblins and wolf riders (being careful to stay 8" away from the night goblin unit for now), and the dryads advanced to take up residence behind the two woods.
Magic garnered an irresistable force treesing on the leftmost wood, which moved it the maximum 4" towards the Night Goblin unit (with both characters in it). Shooting struck down a single black goblin. I'd wanted to stay on the hill to take advantage of two ranks, but perhaps I'd need to come down and get into close range to take advantage of the close range special rules.
Goblins - The wolf riders immediately declared a charge on the great eagle, managing to sweep in on it's flank arc. The rest of the army moved for the gap between the two forests, the night goblins slowing to keep pace with the march blocked black goblins.
The combat saw the wolf riders wound the eagle once, which snatched to riders from their saddles in return, before breaking before the viscous goblins and just escaping their ferocious pursuit. This flee move took it within 8" of the night goblins, and both fanatics smashed the feathered birdie into tiny pieces, also smashing 2 more wolf riders from the saddle leaving one remaning.
Turn 2
Wood Elves - I moved one dryad unit right into the wood that had been previously treesung, with the other one moving to the right to support it's brethren. The glade guard shuffled to the edge of their hill, drawing bowstrings back.
In the magic phase, 3 dice managed to force through "the twilight host" on the leftmost dryads. Ha ha! My plan worked, now goblits entire army was close enough to a unit of terror causers to test next turn! This could turn the game! Shooting once more struck down a black goblin, leaving 8.
Goblins - Well guess what, those 3 terror tests, the goblins passed them all <_< . With more than a little glee, Goblit declared charges on the troublesome dryads with both his black goblins and the night goblins. I grinned, now the tables had turned, my drayds would flee, leaving both units stuck in the forest. :D Except.. dryads.. can't flee. Bugger! Luckily, their fear stopped both units charging, that would have been imbarresing!
Magic saw his shaman fry two dryads with gaze of mork, taking the unit on my right down to 6. No more combat, so on to turn 3!
Turn 3
Wood Elves - The dryads in the wood retreated back through it, kicking themselves. Magic was dispelled, and shooting achieved nothing either :(.
Goblins - The goblin turned achieve little as well, little moving forward accompanied by no magic leading to quite a short turn.
Turn 4
Wood Elves - Poking out from behind the woods, the wolf rider was too tempting a target, and the leftmost dryads charged through the woods to cream it in short order. I decided not to overrun, being nicely on the night goblin units flank now. The 6 strong dryad unit moved up to the leftmost woods, ready to support their brethren, making sure not to actually go in the woods...
..because up next was treesing! It went through successfully, and managed to sing the wood onto the night goblin unit. Haha! Shooting got another kill this turn, taking the black goblin down to 7 and removing the rank.
Goblins - That wood, combined with the close proximity of the dryads, severely restricted the night goblin units movement this turn, having to be content with turning to face the dryad threat. Both characters left the unit, the big boss racing through the woods to threaten my 6 strong dryad unit, and the shaman moving towards the dryads, before frying two of them with gaze of mork. Immune to psych meant no panic, but with both my dryad units with just six models, my hold was beginning to loosen.
Turn 5
Wood Elves - First things first, the dryads charged the offensive shaman, who fled wildly before being cut down by the furious dryads, who then slammed straight into the front of the 30 strong, spear toting ranked unit with full command. Oh dear, well.. at least they're goblins. :unsure:
The other dryads toyed with the idea of charging the big boss, but decided against it. He was just within the woods, which meant if I could get treesinging through..
I did, and you could almost here the goblins shriek of terror as giant branches swept down to tear him limb from limb. Shooting went well also, two kills on the black goblins panicking the five remaining as they turned tail and fled. Two characters and panicking the black goblins in one turn? Lets hope my luck holds out in the combat phase.
The goblin champion issued a challenge, looking slightly dissapointed when it was answered by the fearsome branch-nymph. It duly butchered him, gaining two wounds from overkill towards the combat. The dryads nailed two more, one getting a goblin spear in the eye in return. They lost the combat but held in place.
Goblins - The black goblins were successful in their rally attempt, turning to face their opponents. They were too far away to have any more action on the battle, having to be content with swearing at the Asrai before them.
The combat phase saw 3 more goblins butchered by the dryads, but the ranks were enough to dissuade them, and the forest spirits turned tail and fled, outdistancing the goblins who were held back by the woods.
Turn 6
Wood Elves - Last turn now, first thing saw the dryads charging through the forest (they had LoS around it) into the goblins flank in the hope of finishing what their mates started. Treesing hits before them, branches whipping 2 goblins off their feet. The other dryad unit failed to rally unfortunately, and being the last turn, I removed them from the table (floor).
The dryads hit with plenty of attacks, but surprisingly had a hard time wounding. They succeeded in killing 3 and losing none in return, which, with the flank bonus, and with the goblins only having 2 additional ranks now, was only enough to draw. The goblins musician caused them to lose the combat, but the dryads held, intent on finishing the trespassers.
Goblins - Nothing to do now except resolve the final combat. Striking first were the Initiative 6 (!) dryads. They were an unstoppable force of the forest, butchering six goblins before they had a chance to strike, leaving goblit needing snake eyes to hold. Needless to say, they fled, and being the last turn, they too were retired to the shelves.
Victory points totting up saw the Asrai winning by rather a larger margin. The borders had been held, victory to the Wood Elves!!
Learning points:
1) Dryads can't flee. Dryads can't flee. Do NOT make plans around dryads fleeing.
2) Glade guard really need to be moving closer to their foes. I'd mostly forgotten about them until the shooting phase, meaning they were only ever shooting strength 3 arrows.
3)The twilight host is an awesome spell. Moving a dryad unit up through a wood then casting it on them is a good combo, and one I intend to use more in the future. Treesing was fantastic. If you can get your foes caught up in forests you can pick them off at your liesure. D6 str5 hits isn't too shabby either. :P
4) Dryads are vulnerable to magic. Especially with such small units, Goblit rolling a six for gaze of mork could have been disastrous at any stage, and with much more potent spells out their, I'll have to be careful.
5) Dryads really need to hit at the same time in order to maximise kills. Potracted combats are actually fine as long as nothing is there to counter charge them (use treesing to block them!), their superior initiave allowing them to rack up the kills quite easily.
I think that's about it. I really like the way the new wood elves play, even though I only got a small sample in this battle. I'm looking forward to playing larger games with the Asrai. Look out world!
Xarhain B)
nice one Xar B) I had the chance to see a friend try out his wood elves today against a chaos army of nurgle (800p). unfortunatly he lost the battle. learning points there were:
1) do not take to many archers. sure they are good but up close they are dead. also take advantage of the fact that you dont get any penalties for moving and shooting. the close range shots are very nice indeed.
2) one needs close combat troops. in small battles dryads will do the job but wardancers would go amiss either.
3) alway take starfire arrows on a character. itīs invaluable. panic tests will see the end of low Ld armies and one does not even have to exchange any blows :clap: these things caused a chaos warrior unit + hero to run for 3 or so turns. if you are up against immune to psycholgy armies, ignore this point.
that was the observations I saw today at least. well done xarhain, congrats on the victory B)
I'm not sure about starfire arrows. They do seem useful, but I think it depends on the character. A combat guy won't get many chances to have a go with it, a spellsinger only has BS4... It's still only a strength 3 arrow, and if it misses or doesn't wound or is saved, that's a real useless arrow :D. I can see it's use against frail opponents; goblins, elves and the like. Even then I'd take the Hail of Doom any day.
Anybody got any other comments on the battle?
