Fantasy Friday - GLWL Game 3 - Dark Elves vs Warriors of Chaos

This past week was round 3 for the Great Lakes Warhammer League. I played my scheduled game against Jeremy and his Warriors of Chaos. Due to the league rules, Jeremy was still using the 7th edition army book, not the newest version that just came out. Jeremy's army is beautifully painted and looks great on the tabletop. I couldn't wait to unleash my Dark Elves hatred against it.

I had played Jeremy's WoC once before during a recent tournament. It was a really close and fun game and he edged out a win at that time. I was looking forward to playing him again for the GLWL.

So we rolled up a mission and followed the league rules for placing terrain. Jeremy seemed to favor terrain out of the way of his CC/Frenzy army, while I positioned some around to try and get clear shooting lanes. I won the roll to go first and placed my whole army. My Blackguard unit was forced to start in reserve, which turned out to be pretty critical.

Armies Placed - Round 1 Start

I don't have the fancy battle chronicler skills of Michael yet, so I am just going to point out some highlights. The first turn I got one of my three charges to hit. My General and Cold One Knights made it to combat with his cavalry and General. The Hydra failed its charge as did the Witch Elves.

I was trying to be smart with my magic phase and went with a low level debuff spell.   Turns out the dice were not in my favor and my level 4 sorceress miscast and lost levels.   My level 2 with Metal Lore did a bit better and got off Final Transmutation against his crushers.   Turns out, this wasn't the best use of that spell since they had multiple wounds.   I managed to only turn one into gold.

Despite the miscast, the debuff on his cavalry was devastating.    I won a challenge with my General against his and won the combat.   His cavalry fled and I made a poor decision to follow which ended up having my cavalry leave the board for a turn instead of reforming like I should have.

On Jeremy's turn, he got a long range charge off with his Marauders against the flank side of the Hydra.   He made his frenzy check with the crushers to not charge the harpies and moved them to position against my returning cavalry.   His Khorne warriors made their charge against my Witch Elves.   His magic phase wasn't too eventful.

The Marauders lost combat against the Hydra but stayed due to steadfast.   The Witch Elves lost combat and broke and the Warriors chased behind.

Despite things going very well in the first turn for me, things started quickly going downhill.   My Witch Elves did rally and reform but they were going to be a speed bump for the charging Warriors.   I made another crucial error in positioning my Blackguard from reserve for a counter attack.   The Warriors overran the Witch Elves and out of my charge arc for the Blackguard.    This turn also featured another miscast for my level four sorceress.   This time she finished the job and blew herself completely up and out of the game.

On his turn his Warriors swept through the Witch Elves and positioned to start mowing through my lines.    The Crushers took out the rest of the Cold One Knights but I kept my "unkillable" General alive through a challenge with his champion.

The next couple of turns went quickly as I feebly tried to shoot his Warriors with my crossbowmen and position my Blackguard for a charge.    My Hydra ended up winning combat against the Marauders and charged his Chaos Shrine.    I won combat with the charge and chased it down destroying it.    Unfortunately though his Crusher champion kept hitting my General with Strength 4 attacks (the bane of the unkillable general) and eventually she died.

End of the Game - I had more models on the table, but he had more points

Jeremy is a good and experienced player, but I felt I let this one get away.   Even with my sorceress killing herself on repeated miscasts, I could have pulled out a win.    But positioning my Blackguard poorly and deciding to pursue with my Cold One Knights off the table cost me big.   I ended up losing by ~300 points (Jeremy got the league painting bonus, I did not).

Thanks for reading!