Original Air Date: April 26, 2011
After a sound defeat while using my Elves against my Dwarves last time, Gaius and I are playing another game where I use my Wood Elves and he uses my Dwarves. The units in today's game are as follows:
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
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 scenario we will be playing is a Take and Hold game on a board that is 24" long by 24" wide. This battle is played until one side is broken and at the end of that turn (and all subsequent turns), we roll a dice: on the roll of a 1-2, the game ends. When the game ends, each model that has its whole base within 3" of the center objective marker (in this case the treasure chest on the rock) scores a point for his army. The player with the most points wins the game.
At the end of each Move phase, each player will roll a dice for the units that have not yet arrived: on a 1-2, the unit doesn't arrive. On a 3-4, the unit arrives on any board edge chosen by the opposing player, while on a 5-6, the unit arrives anywhere on the board edge of the controlling player. We will be playing that units who arrive cannot shoot, cast magic, or charge (naturally) on the first turn in play. Units may also not be placed within 6" of an enemy unit (so no Elves can be placed within 6" of a Dwarf unit). With this in mind, here is the map:
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The map is largely open: a few trees litter the side of the board and there is a low hill in the center with a treasure chest on it. This will represent the place the armies are trying to "take and hold." At the start of the game no units are deployed, so we will simply see who chooses their side first and who has priority first.
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After rolling a dice, the Elves elect to choose their placement first, while the Dwarves are forced to have priority during the first round. The Elves select the southern board edge, while the Dwarves are left with the northern board edge.
Turn 1: The Forces Arrive (Priority - Dwarves)
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The Dwarves roll for their units and end their turn. The Dwarves place Dain, Balin, and 3 Dwarves on their board edge, while 7 Dwarves are placed on the board edge of the Elves' choosing. These 7 Dwarves are placed near a clump of trees. The final 9 don't show up at all (including Gimli).
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The Elves roll and 10 of their units (including Gandalf) are placed within 3" of their board edge. 7 are placed by Gaius, leaving 9 Elves to deploy later (including Legolas).
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Kill count: Elves 0/21, Dwarves 0/26
Turn 2: Missiles Fly (P - tied, Elves)
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The Elves now move their units and run for the defensive walls guarding the target location. Four Elves arrive to help (not Legolas), three of which were placed by me. Gandalf successfully casts "Cast Blinding Light" to protect the Elves within 6" from most enemy archery.
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The Dwarves respond in kind, trying to catch my Elves and whittle a few down with archery. Gimli and one Dwarf are placed by me, while 3 Dwarves are placed by Gaius. Four Dwarves failed to show. Nothing interesting happened in the Shoot phase.
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Kill count: Elves 0/21, Dwarves 0/26.
Turn 3: More Missiles Fly (P - Elves)
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The Elves continue to advance towards the center. Three Elves (including Legolas) are placed by me, while one is placed by Gaius. The final Elf archer has yet to arrive.
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The Dwarves get to place three of their four remaining units, leaving one archer to come later in the game (what's up with the archers not coming with everyone else?). All of the Dwarves move their full movement, leaving only Gimli to shoot in the Shoot phase. Nothing happened in that phase.
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Kill count: Elves 0/21, Dwarves 0/26.
Turn 4: First Blood! (P - Elves)
So, I'm really happy that priority is siding with me today. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures this round...sorry. Gandalf succeeds in casting "Terrifying Aura" and the rest of the Elves continue to advance and congregate around him. The Elves are allowed to place their final unit and they place him near Gimli's location to pepper him with arrows.
The Dwarves are tired of not having priority and continue to steam-roll towards the prize. The Elves, however, are allowed to place the final Dwarf unit and place this archer fittingly behind a rock. Gimli and 2 archers will be able to shoot this round.
During the Shoot phase, all of the Elven arrows only managed to kill one Dwarf with two-handed weapon. Pity that... The Dwarves responded by killing the lone Elf on the hill and killing an Elf archer (Gimli paid a Might point).
Kill count: Elves 1/21, Dwarves 2/26. The Elves need to kill 10 more units, while the Dwarves need to kill 12 more units.
Turn 5: Barrage of Steel (P - Elves)
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Gandalf leads the charge, as the Elves prepare to take up defensive positions against the Dwarves. Gandalf successfully casts "Immobilize" on Dain, but Dain resists it with 2 of his 3 Will points. The Dwarves respond by getting as close to the Elves as they can.
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During the Shoot phase, the Elves kill three Dwarves with shields (one from the west ridge, one from Gimli's surprise attack, and one in the front-and-center. The Elves also kill the banner-bearer. The Dwarves kill none.
Kill count: Elves 5/21, Dwarves 2/26. The Elves need to kill 6 more Dwarves, while the Dwarves need to kill 11 more Elves.
Turn 6: Tactical Maneuvers (P - Elves again)
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The Elves now back away as Gandalf again attempts to "immobilize" Dain. He pays a Might point to cast the spell, but Dain resists it, spending his last Will point. The Dwarves reform to stay out of range of the hail-storm of thrown daggers from the Elves.Unfortunately, they misjudged some of the distances and Dain is in range of 8 throwing daggers!
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During the Shoot phase, three Elf archers and Legolas shot at Gimli. Legolas managed to land a wound on Gimli, but he saved it with a Fate point. The three Elf archers in the tree with platforms managed to kill a Dwarf archer who was preparing to return fire. Despite attempts by 8 Elves with throwing daggers, none are able to wound their only available target: Dain. One Elf managed to get a 6 on his first wound dice, but failed to get a 5+ on his second. The Dwarves responded by killing two Elf spearmen.
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Kill count: Elves 6/21, Dwarves 4/26. The Elves need to kill 5 more Dwarves (probably a hero), while the Dwarves need to kill 9 more Elves. Remember though that the goal isn't to break the foe necessarily, it is for one force to break and the game to end while your force has more units than the other player.
Turn 7: Into the Frey! (P - DWARVES!)
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Finally, the Dwarves have priority again. Though they charged towards the Elves, Gandalf successfully cast "Command" (using his free Will point and one from his store) on Dain. Without any more Will points, the King Under the Mountain was forced to accept the spell.
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In the Shoot phase, the Dwarves failed to hit anyone...bummer. Legolas and two Elf archers fired at Gimli and Legolas paid 1 Might point to wound Gimli once, but this was also saved by his last Fate point. An Elf archer on the platform trees killed the Dwarf archer who had shot at him a moment earlier. Two Elves with throwing daggers threw them at Dain and one managed to hit him. Dain then proceeded to fail both of his Fate saves, so he took his first of three wounds. Gaius' response: shrug with a side dish of disbelief.
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In the Fight phase, Balin stands alone against 5 oppressors. He manages, however, to score a 6 on one of his dice, so he wins the fight and pays 2 Might points to kill 2 Elves he was fighting. Two Elves with blades kill a Dwarf with shield (after both used their blades as two-handed weapons) and two other Elves with blades nearby do the same against the Dwarf with two-handed axe. It is important to note that neither of these pairs actually needed their two-handed weapons to kill their targets. The final Dwarf with shield was beaten, but managed to not die (barely). In the northern fight, one Dwarf wins by shielding, while the other loses his fight but is not wounded.
Kill count: Elves 9/21, Dwarves 6/26. The Elves need to kill 2 more Dwarves, while the Dwarves need to kill 7 more Elves.
Turn 8: Picking Off The Foes (P - tied, Elves)
Gaius: "Not again...hmmm."
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I detect that there is a bit more to that thought right about now...BUT Dain and Gandalf both call heroic combats, in an attempt to avoid unnecessary wizardry. After three rolls to see who goes first, Gandalf wins it. He proceeds to attempt to immobilize Dain again, but must pay his final Might point to do so. During their charges, an Elf spearman succeeded in killing a Dwarf with shield, bringing the Elves one unit away from the game-winning blow. The Dwarves respond with moving their archers towards the enemy and spying out Legolas and his raiding archer band.
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In the Shoot phase, Legolas pays his final 2 Might points to cut down Gimli, the great warrior of the Dwarves. The Dwarf archers are angered at the death of their lord and manage to land a wound on Legolas, but this is saved by one of Legolas' 3 Fate points.
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In the Fight phase, Balin manages to win his fight, but fails to wound Gandalf. Dain loses his fight to win his fight, but his assailants fail to wound him. Two Elves near the bottom left kill their foe, while two Elves near the top kill a Dwarf with two-handed axe.
It was only after everything was done for this phase that we remembered that we had forgotten to test for the courage of the army at the beginning of the round. We will not forget this in the next few turns, though.
Kill Count: Elves 13/21, Dwarves 6/26. The Dwarf force is now broken, we will roll a dice to see if the game ends. The dice reads "5," so the game continues...
Turn 9: Fall Into Ruin (P - tied, Elves)
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Before anyone can move, Balin spends his final Might point calling a heroic move. Without any Might points to counter this move, the Dwarves who are left (read 3) begin to charge their opponents. The Elves respond by trapping most of their foes.
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In the Shoot phase, Legolas (behind the wall) managed to kill one Dwarf archer. The Dwarf archers replied by not hitting anything.
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In the Fight phase, Dain called a Heroic Combat, trying to kill all 3 of his foes. Though he won the fight, he only managed to kill 2 of his foes (paying his last Might point to do so). Balin lost his fight, but was not wounded (barely). In all of the other fights, the Elves won and killed their opponents, which adds 3 Dwarves to the dead pile.
Kill Count: Elves 17/21, Dwarves 8/26. With Dain's 2 kills, he ended a 2 turn streak of not killing any foes. At the end of the turn, a "1" was rolled, so the game ends.
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The final point score is Elves 3, Dwarves 1 (3 Elven units including Gandalf had their bases completely within 3" of the treasure chest, while only Dain was within 3"), giving the victory to the Wood Elves.
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Conclusion:
Assessment by Gaius:
Ok, from the get-go, the Elves did well in their rolls. I was banking on having a few more Dwarves around when we finally charged, but not only did we not get priority more than twice in nine rounds, but Dain was crippled before he even fought. At the end of the day, I'm disappointed in how the heroes worked, but that's the nature of a game where you're not sure when or where your units will begin. Very fun though...at times.
Assessment by Tiberius:
The Wood Elves did well: their throwing weapons killed a few Dwarves, they consistently won their fights, and when they lost, they eluded the slaying axes of the Dwarves. I'm rather pleased with how they managed here, only suffering 8 wounds against an army that consistently beats them when crossing open ground. I'm happy that Gandalf did more this game and I feel like I gave Gaius a taste of what the last game was like. All in all, I'm pleased.
Stellar unit for Wood Elves: Wood Elf Warrior with Elven Blade and Throwing Daggers
These guys cut through Dwarf after Dwarf with effortless ease, especially when facing of against two-handed weapon Dwarves. Usually, these Elves die quickly, but today they killed 9 of the enemy Dwarves (which is about half of them). This pays for their costs (thank you banner-bearer) and only one unit (also the banner-bearer) was killed at a distance.
Stellar unit for Dwarves: Dwarf Warrior with Dwarf Bow
It always surprises me when the archers are the most effective units against my Elves. Though archers shouldn't have too difficult a time against a low defense civilization like the Wood Elves, Gandalf is supposed to stop the archery of the enemy from having much effect. In this game, though, the Dwarf archers succeeded in killing a handful of Elves and wounded Legolas. All told, that's not bad, considering how few Elves were killed by the Dwarves.
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