Original Air Date: April 26, 2011
You've seen a lot on this blog already, but what you haven't seen is me controlling my Elves against my Dwarves. You'll get that game today. :-) I haven't told many people this, but I really like my Wood Elves because they require a complicated strategy to work well. What I haven't told Gaius is that I really don't like playing with them on small maps and with small point values because the true colors of the army come out when you play a 500 point game. So...that's also what we have today, and here are the combatants...
Army of Erebor: 498 points
Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain - 125 points
Balin, son of Fundin with Durin's Axe - 95 points
Gimli, son of Gloin - 90 points
8 Dwarf Warriors with shields - 72 points
6 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows - 54 points
3 Dwarf Warriors with two-handed weapons - 24 points
1 Dwarf Warrior with banner - 38 points
21 units, 6 bows + 2 throwing axes, 3 heroes
The Might of Mirkwood: 500 points
Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood - 90 points
Gandalf the Grey - 170 points
8 Wood Elf Warriors with Elven blades - 80 points
8 Wood Elf Warriors with Wood Elf spears - 80 points
8 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows and Elven blades - 80 points
26 units, 8 bows + Legolas, 2 heroes
The scenario we will be playing is a Clash of Piquets game on a board that is 48" long by 48" wide. This battle is played until one side is broken and at the end of that turn, the army will flee the field (no questions asked). This simulates a skirmish where both sides are scouting with a contingent of a larger force, but have no need for the terrain that they are fighting over, so they will flee at the first sign of a fight gone wrong.
Both sides split their forces in half: half of the forces will begin deployed within 18" and 24" of their board edge, while the other half will come in throughout the game. At the end of each Move phase, each player will roll a dice for his remaining units: on a 1-2, the unit doesn't arrive. On a 3-4, the unit arrives at one of the corners of that player's side, while on a 5-6, the unit arrives anywhere on the board edge of that player.
The contingents of each army are as follows:
Starting Dwarf force:
Dain, Gimli, 4 shields, 1 two-handed weapon, 3 archers, banner
Dwarves off-table:
Balin, 4 shields,2 two-handed weapons, 3 archers
Starting Elven force:
Gandalf, Legolas, 1 archer, 5 swordsmen, 6 spearmen
Elves off-table:
7 archers, 3 swordsmen, 2 spearmen
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After rolling a dice, the Elves are forced to choose their placement first, while the Dwarves will have priority during the first round. The Elves select their board edge and line up at 18" away from their board edge (trying to avoid being hit by the Dwarves). Let the battle begin!
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As you can see, though, Dain is ready to charge with his Dwarves...and unfortunately, he (alone) will be in range of the Elves...bummer.
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Turn 1: Taking The Charge (Priority - Dwarves)
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The Dwarves begin the game and run through the fences towards the Elves. As Gimli charges, he kills an Elf with his throwing axe. The only Dwarf to engage an enemy this round was Dain (thanks to Gimli killing his target before he arrived to fight). The Elves responded in kind by selectively attacking the Dwarves with their units. During the Shoot phase, the Dwarves kill an Elf archer near Legolas. Legolas responds by killing the archer who killed his comrade (no Might points used, no automatic hit). During the Fight phase, the Dwarf on the left won his fight and killed one of the Elves he was fighting, while the other Dwarf lost his fight but lived.
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During the Dwarf deployment, all but 2 Dwarves deploy on the board: three deployed at Gaius' choosing, while five (including Balin) deployed at one of his corners (his choice).
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During the Elven deployment, the Elves also deployed all but 2 units. Three of their units were to arrive from one of their corners, but 7 arrived wherever I wanted them to. Most of these units were archers, so they arrived near the woods with the platforms. the other units arrived near the side with Gandalf.
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Also in the Fight phase, Gandalf paid a Might point to tie Dain and Gandalf won the roll off! Unfortunately, both Gandalf and the Elves assisting him failed miserably in the rolls to wound. In the other fight, the Dwarf with two-handed weapon beat the two Elves he was fighting and killed one.
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Kill count: Dwarves 3, Elves 1.
Turn 2: Routing The Scouts (P - Dwarves again)
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Gimli leads the round by throwing an axe and killing yet another Elf. He and the other two Dwarves with him are each able to attack an Elf. The rest of the Dwarves engage and the two final Dwarves decide to arrive (at one of the corners). The Elves respond by attempting to get their archers towards the front and Legolas moves to an advantageous spot to shoot at the Dwarf archer without any benefit of cover. The final two Elves also arrive, this time being placed as I want...which is on Gandalf's side of the board. Legolas spends 2 Might points in the Shoot phase, killing the Dwarf archer behind the wall. In the Fight phase, the Dwarf on the left loses but lives (barely), the Dwarf in the center lost to the Elf using his Elven blade as a two-handed weapon, who then won and killed him, and Gimli was forced to pay a Might point to win the fight against the Elf he was fighting and he promptly killed him.
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On the other side of the board, Gandalf paid his last 2 Might points and Dain paid 1 to contest another roll-off. This time, it was the King under the Mountain who won, slaying the Elf and burning through all of Gandalf's Fate points. In the other fights, the Dwarves lost all but the fight on the right, where the Dwarf killed his adversary. Unfortunately for me, none of the Elves killed their Dwarf targets.
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Kill count: Dwarves 8, Elves 3. To recap, the Dwarves need to kill 5 more units, while the Elves need to kill 8...uh-oh.
Turn 3: The Hammer Falls (P - D.W.A.R.V.E.S.!)
The Dwarves advance and successfully engage 5 units (one of which is Gandalf). The Elves form up as they can, but their reinforcements are too far to be of any use right now. Legolas keeps his resolve high and successfully kills 2 Dwarf archers in the marching reinforcements of Balin (paying his last Might point to do so). This may, though, be a bit too late.
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Gandalf loses his fight, but only suffers 1 Wound from the powerful Dwarf King Dain (using all 3 Fate points and rerolling those he failed the first time). The Elf in the middle successfully parries the attacks of his aggressors, but the other Elf is killed by both Dwarves he is fighting.
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Gimli kills his opponent easily, but his Dwarf companion is beaten by his adversary (not killed though).
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Kill count: Dwarves 10, Elves 5. The Elves are 3 from breaking, while the Dwarves are 6 from breaking.
Turn 4: A Final Blow, A Little Too Late (P - Elves!)
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Ok, finally getting priority is great. Gandalf is one of the first units to move and he carefully avoids the control zones of all the Dwarves around him until he is lined up with four Dwarves. Spending two Will points and his free one, he successfully casts "Sorcerous Blast," sending all four to the ground and killing the second from the left.
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Gimli and a Dwarf archer succeeded in killing 2 Elves with ranged weapons, which brings the Elves within 1 unit of losing the game. The Elves attempted a great deal of archery during this phase, but only managed to kill one Dwarf with shield.
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Legolas landed 2 hits during this round, but unfortunately failed to wound with any of his dice.
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In the Fight phase, Dain paid a Might point to win the fight, allowing both him and his companion to wound Gandalf: 4s and they would wound him. With each landing a wound, they succeeded in killing the Grey Pilgrim. Though this technically ended the game, I would like to mention that the Elf behind him (from the reinforcements) succeeded in beating his opponent, but didn't succeed in wounding him. Pity...
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Kill count: Dwarves 13, Elves 6.
Conclusion:
Assessment by Gaius:
Ok, winning priority almost every single round really kept this game from being interesting. Gandalf was helpless until the end of the game and really didn't assist his men much...big waste of points for the Elves. The Dwarves rolled right through, as expected, but I would have found taking on the vast amount of Elf archers a bit difficult as the game progressed, but thankfully, this game is about breaking one side...which I did rather well. Bonus points for trying Tiberius, and perhaps in the next game, priority will favor you more.
Assessment by Tiberius:
This game can rightly be blamed on priority. In general, the dice rolls were not much worse than they usually are, but not being able to avoid the crushing force of the hero-heavy Dwarf force will doom any army. At the end of the day, Legolas did pretty well, trying to bring his men closer to victory. Oh well...
Stellar unit for Wood Elves: Legolas?
There really wasn't any contest here. Legolas killed 4 of the 6 units, while the only other two kills belonged to Gandalf and a Wood Elf swordsman. Gandalf was eaten alive by Dain, while most of the Elven swordsmen died immediately to Gimli's throwing axes or to angry Dwarves in their first round of combat. Not much to say in this game except that priority would have been nice on the first turn of the game.
Stellar unit for Dwarves: Dwarf warriors with shields
I love how these guys can take a beating, but they're finally on my side! Though Strength 3 opponents are not any more likely to wound these fellows more than their other counterparts, their ability to not reduce their fight roll is critical when fighting opponents with a higher fight value. I do need to give credit to the Dwarf archers who killed a few Elves, to the two-handed weapon Dwarf who contributed to the deaths of 3 units (including Gandalf), and of course to the heroes who led their men to victory.
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