Adepticon Singles – Round 5 – Alex DeRosa – High ElvesAdepticon Singles – Round 5 – Alex DeRosa – High Elves

Round 5 and I know I’m out of it.  At this point I’m hoping for top 25 with my strong losses (don’t make it, but that’s because favorite sports votes are worth so much).  Alex and I agree that we are just playing for fun, no competition to be considered.

The Mission:

Deployment – Battleline
Special rules – Watchtower (for rolling to end only) and an 18” square box in the center of the table.
Victory – 100 or more points
Bonus Battle – 3 points for having the most fortitude in the box, 1 point each for each fortitude in the box.
Bonus Objective – 1 point for each enemy character killed in a challenge

I was not provided with a copy of his list, so I have done my best to recreate it here.  The points worked out correctly, so I figure I got it fairly close to correct.  Someone had the +1 to go first item, but I didn’t make note of whom.

Prince, General, Vambraces of Defense, Great Eagle, great weapon, dragon armor, shield

Archmage, level 4, lore of heavens, jewel of the dusk

Mage, Level 2, lore of heavens, the seerstaff of saphery

Mage, Level 1, lore of heavens, sigil of asuryan
Noble, BSB, Radiant Gem of Hoeth, charmed shield

20 Archers, full command, banner of eternal flame

10 Archers
10 Archers
10 Archers

5 Dragon Princes, Potion of Strength

30 White Lions, full command, banner of sorcery

Great Eagle

For magic, Alex’s light council rolled or chose:

Level 4 – Shems burning gaze, pha’s protection, banishment and timewarp
Level 2 – Pha’s protection and banishment (chosen to allow doubles)
Level 1 – Speed of Light
BSB – Net

For deployment Alex took his left corner, with his dragon princes on the left with a unit of 10 archers behind.  Then the flaming archers, the white lions and the other units of archers with the eagle taking the right side.  The level 2 went with the left archers and the rest when in the 20 man unit.  The prince deployed next to the princes.

I deployed a hydra on the left to try to draw the fire of the flaming archers while the other one went off to flame the white lions.  If he focused on the other, then the left one could hunt the character bunker.  Then I put 2 units of dark riders across from his 20 man unit, the other hydra and then the other units of dark riders.  The shades went into his deployment zone to begin rolling back his archers and I vanguarded hard, but assuming that the white lions may have the movement banner.  I assumed that there were two banners, movement (on lions only), and then either flaming or sorcery.

I rolled a massive 1 to go first, and with us both getting a +1 there was little chance to win the roll… and I didn’t.  So 2 of 8 games I got to go first.  Rocken’.

For Alex’s first turn I’m not sure he moved at all.  Perhaps some angling of the bowman, but not much.  For his first magic phase, with his D3+1 bonus dice each turn he got a 10/5 magic phase.  He then bowls 2 6s on big banishment on my general, doing 2 wounds after the rerolls were said and done.  His level 4 then sucks himself into the warp, knocking off 11 archers out of the 20 man unit.  The miscast also pings off the charmed shield on the bsb.  In shooting he kills 1 shade and then 2 more on the other unit.  Also kills 1 Dark rider.

I move to maximize my shooting.  I roll a 2/1 magic phase and then channel twice, getting  a4/1 phase.  To rub it in I power of darkness for +2 dice.  In then caress on his general for 4 wounds but he saves them all.  I fail to cast enchanted blades.  In shooting I kill 6 out of the left archer unit, which flee and move in front of the white lions.  I kill 4 white lions and put 1 wound on the eagle.  I then take 4 off the flame unit.

On Alex’s turn 2, the archers rally to block the white lions (yay!).  The eagle flanks a unit of dark riders.  He rolls an 8/2 magic phase (now only +D3 dice).  I scroll banishment on my general.  I fail to dispel boosted Pha’s protection, but it leaves the now right most 10 man archer unit unprotected.  In shooting he kills 1 DR off center unit and a shade.  The eagle kills 1 dark rider before dying to a mount.

My turn 2 and I consider but decide not to charge.  I roll a 4/3 magic phase and fail to get extra dice off of power of darkness.  I caress his general who makes his saves and the same with spirit leech.  In shooting I take off 5 white lions and 8 archers on the left unprotected unit – leaving 2 which pass its test.  This entire time the left hydra and the princes have been having a staring contest.

Alex’s turn 3 and he rotates to face me.  The dragon princes abandon their post and move to over the flank of the white lions.  In a 5/4 magic phase I dispel Pha’s after banishment killing my general.  He shoots 1 shade dead.  With the dragon princes gone he finally opens up on the left flank hydra, though the flaming fails to wound and the regeneration saves from the other unit.

On my turn 3 I declare my dragon egg.  The BSB then goes to the far side of his white lions while a hydra advances into the center on the other side.  A shade unit charges the 2 man archer unit while the dark riders charge the 3 man – both on the flank.  The other shade unit squeezes along the back edge.  With my general dead and my level 2 just holding 2 terrain features for objective points I decide to skip my magic phase (and for the rest of the game).  The hydra flames and kills 9 white lions and then the egg kills 3 more.  2 white lions die from dark riders, the assassin kills 3 and his unit sweeps the unit off the board.  I then kill both archer units in combat.

Turn 4 and he closes his trap to make the hydra pay.  The general hits the flank and the princes hit the front.  An 8/5 magic phase sees me dispelling banishment and then him failing to cast pha’s protection and then speed of light.  2 Dark riders die to shooting.  The general does 1 wound to hydra, the horses do 3.  I kill 4 knights.  The general restrains the pursuit and the hydra gets away from the dragon princes.

My turn 4 and the hydra rallies.  I skip magic and move in to gun down the remaining archers.  I leave the flaming unit with just 1 archer and the BSB.  I put a wound on the caster. The left flank hydra flames the 10 man unit, leaving just the character (who runs into the flame archers)

 

We roll, and the game continues.

On Alex’s turn 5 the gernal takes a wound from stand and shoot at the shades.  The last night dies to a stand and shoot.  A 5/3 magic phase sees me dispelling banishment on my BSB.  He casts Pha’s protection on the general.  In the combat I challenge with the assassin and he dies.  The unit holds.

On my turn 5 both charges with hydras fail.  I skip magic.  I kill off the characters in the flaming unit and the last banner.  Shades lose 3 and get away.

We roll, and the game continues.

Turn 6 and the general pushes the fleeing shades off the board.  For fun Alex has me surround and kill his general.  Tabled opponent and full points for the last game.



Adepticon Singles – Round 4 – Lee Horn – Orcs and Goblins

Day 2 and I was not doing well.  We had gone out to a movie right after the rounds ended the previous night, and then I had gone back to my room.  No dinner.  I did eat some fruit I had in the room.  In the morning I showed up at 20 to 8, thinking I would have time to go grab food as on Saturday we hadn’t started until 9.  But they had the first round starting at 8, so straight to my table I went.  My hands were shaking as I tried to measure out the angled deployment zone.  Next to that, I was playing Lee Horn, a friend from the California scene (lived in LA) before he moved to the west coast.  Normally he plays Elves, but he told me he was getting practice with the Orcs because that is what he was taking to ETC this year.  Yes, my second ETC member for the event – Lee being both past and current.  So another top notch player.

The Mission:

Deployment – Meeting Engagement
Special rules – Roll once for each power and dispel dice after all generation.  On a 6, your opponent adds a die to their pool to match (doesn’t take away your own die)
Victory – 100 or more points
Bonus Battle – 3 points for killing a wizard and 1 point for each standard in your opponent’s zone to a maximum of 2.

Savage Orc Warboss, Sword of Anti Heroes, Obsidian Trinket

Great Savage Orc Shaman, Level 4, Lore of the Big Waaagh, Lucky Shrunken Head

Black Orc Big Boss, BSB, Enchanted Shield, Crown of Command

Goblin Big Boss, spear, giant wolf
Night Goblin Shaman, level 1, Lore of the Little Waaagh, dispel scroll

35 Savage Orc Big’Uns, extra hand weapon, full command

20 Night Goblins, 2 fanatics
5 Wolf Riders, spear
5 Wolf Riders, spear

Goblin Chariot

Goblin Chariot
Goblin Chariot
1 Troll
1 Troll
10 Trolls

Doom Diver

Doom Diver
Rock Lobber
Rock Lobber
Mangler Squig
Mangler Squig

This list is particularly nasty for me, what with the 4 warmachines and my low wound units.  I knew I would have to crack the army open and get into its gooey center as quickly as possible.  Once those warmachines were taken care of, I would have the time to deal with the blocks at my leisure.  This was also the worst mission, besides perhaps battle for the pass, for me to play this army, as it gave him a corner to close up in.

For spells Lee rolled Gaze of Mork, Brain Busta, Headbutt and ‘Ere we go; his level 1 took cure of the bad moon.  I took Doom and Darkness, Spirit Leech, Caress, Purple sun and Fate.  My level 2 never cast so it didn’t matter.

We rolled off and Lee won to deploy first.  His goblins, one stone thrower and a chariot didn’t come deploy. He then bunkered into the corner, with both chariots, then the ogres and trolls and lastly the manglers blocking off the left corner.  I didn’t have any units not come on, put my dark riders heavy towards ‘center’ of his line, with one hydra and my level 2 hanging out on the right near his board edge.  I deploy almost to the line, while he deploys farthing back.  I both scout and vanguard as close as I can without being in good charge range.

I roll, and get the 6 to go first.  [Intersting note, I went with 5 friends and in 3 of those 6 games the first turn was siezed, 2 by us and 1 to us.  Not close to 1/6.]

On my first turn, I advance, carefully for counter charges.  One of my Dark Rider unit charges and pushes back the wolf riders.  I drop my bsb behind the building on the left to try to sneak him into the backfield quickly.  I move my level 2 to his board side.  Even though the points are bad, I’m hoping he will bring the goblins out to kill my wizard with the fanatics.  If I were him I would have held them in reserve until the BSB was killing warmachines – then bring them on and kill him.  With a 6/3 magic phase he scrolls doom, dispels Power and I fail to cast Spirit leech.  I put a wound on one of the troll redirectors, and kill 3 of the wolf riders.  Also kill the solo cavalry character.

On Lee’s turn 1, I pop my black dragon egg to discourage his chariots charging my BSB.  Instead one of them charges the Dark Rider unit that’s out of position due to the wolves.  Because of the long charge I hold but he makes it in.  The wolves then run off the table.  The fanatics take the bait and kill my level 2.  The manglers begin the long walk right towards the hydra and goblins.  In an 8/7 phase I let off gaze of mork which kills 2 shades and 2 dark riders.  I then dispel brain bursta on my general.  Head butt fails.  In shooting the rocklobba fails to wound.  1 hit with a doom diver on my bsb is cancelled with charmed shield.  Other diver misses.  The chariot kills the dark riders on impact hits.

On my turn 2 the hydra pushes back the chariot on the left and the other hydra pushes back the other unit of fast cav.  I move some shades into the building. The BSB moves next to the front diver roll a 3/2 phase and he dispels spirit leech.  I kill the solo troll and the fleeing chariot (which fled into my way as I tried to move up the field – just like the wolves the previous turn).

On Lee’s turn 2 and the savages charge shades.  A chariot charges dark riders and the trolls charge some dark riders, which flee.  Fanatic does 1 wound to both a hydra and the mangler.  A 6/4 magic phase sees me allowing brain busta to do a wound to an assassin.  I then fail to dispel head but on the general but it fails to wound.  Warmachines are ineffective, but the goblins put a wound on the hydra with their bows.  I kill 4 orcs in combat but all the shades die with 1 wound on the assassin, which holds.

On my turn 3 and a Dark rider charges a chariot that then flees off the table.  BSB charges doom diver, skipping the closest warmachine.  Some Dark Riders fail to rally and run off the table.  The assassin pops out of the building and tries to hide (turns out I didn’t do a good job of it, needing to shift him to make a gap for a unit to move through).  I roll a disappointing 5/5 magic phase.  I +2 dice off of power of darkness, he dispels doom and darkness, spirit leech fails to do anything as does caress.  Hydra moves and flames the goblins, which run off the table.  I would have moved him farther, but I failed the march test because of the mangler.  The other hydra only kills 2 orcs.  I shoot down the single level 2.  The BSB kills his machine and overruns into a lobba.

On Lee’s turn three the assassin flees from the trolls (bad hiding), one mangler turns around and kills a unit of dark riders, missing the trolls due to the failed charge.  The other mangler fails to wound the hydra, but goes crazy.  He rolls a 6/3 magic phase where he brain busta’s the 1 wound assassin to kill him.  Head butt’s general but fails to wound thanks to pendant.  The BSB kills the stone thrower.

 

On my turn 4 the BSB charges and catches a chariot when it flees.  The shades charge the single troll and the hydra goes into the savage orcs.  At this point I know I’ve lost.  I had to give up to many points to open up the back field and no longer had what I needed to get through the trolls and orcs – which was where his points where.  At this point I was hoping to get lucky and keep him in the corner so I could clean up some of the terrain.  I roll an 8/4 magic phase and throw them all at purple sun in the hopes of blowing up the orcs so the hydra can clean them up.  I roll a 24 instead of a 25 and watch that hope go down the toilet.  The troll passes 5 of 6 regens against the shades and kills 2 to tie combat.  The hydra whiffs pathetically and then loses but holds.

 

On Lee’s turn 4 and he doesn’t have much left to do.  The trolls turn around to face my wizard in his backfield.  Brain busta kills a Dark Rider and then he fails ‘ere we go with a 6/5 magic phase.  Hydra whiffs again and this time flees, as he over runs into a unit of dark riders.  The shades kill the troll.

My turn 5 and I put the shades into the rear of the orcs, hoping for a flub.  I roll a 6/4 magic phase, caress the last warmachine and put doom and darkness on the orcs.  Shades fail to preform, and he fails to whiff and he wins the last combat.  His orcs chase the shades as the dark riders to live to flee.

His turn 5 and he is no facing and close enough to charge my general (who is on the back edge).  Since fleeing puts me off the table I hold.  General dies in combat.

My turn 6 and I move to maximize my bonus points.  He fails to take any away from me on turn 6.  Once again I get a loss, but once again it’s a strong loss with 6 bonus points, putting me high even with a 2-2 record.  I don’t feel like I played well, and Lee didn’t seem to make a mistake.



Adepticon Singles – Round 3 – Brian Moyer – Warriors of Chaos

Brian is a nice guy.  We haven’t played before but we first met at WaaaghPACA where he and I both temped as LD2 for the weekend.  He has been on the USA European Team Championships and we talked about it then and at Adepticon as I had previously been in discussion about joining the 2013 team (I won’t be).  Brian is also a former 1^st place RankingsHQ fantasy player before the dissolution.

Besides the team event the day before I hadn’t really seen the new Chaos warrior book, and with the exception of the spell list I don’t feel it effected the game.  I was vaguely familiar with how the Daemon Prince and Chimeras worked and everything else I assumed was the same – and they are for the most part.

The Mission:

Deployment – Blood & Glory
Special rules – One core fortitude unit gains vanguard, and allow the characters inside to vanguard.
Victory – Blood & Glory
Bonus Battle – 2 points for destroying the vanguarding unit, 1 point for each fortitude you kill.

This mission didn’t have a big deal for us.  All of the units we could nominate already vanguarded, Brian said his characters either couldn’t join a unit (monster) or already vanguarded (steed of slannash) and I didn’t want to put my characters into a unit to get the vanguard and risk them getting forced to panic turn 1 from a lucky hell cannon shot killing dark riders.

Daemon Prince, general, Magic Level 3, Lore of Death, Mark of Nurgle, Chaos Armor, Daemonic Flight, Warrior Bane, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem, Scaled Skin, Flaming Breath, Soul Feeder

Sorcerer, level 2, lore of slannash, mark of slannash, steed of slannash, enchanted shield, chaos familiar

Exalted Hero, bsb, steed of slannash, dragonhelm, dawnstone, ironcurse icon

8 Marauder Horsemen, musician, standard bearer, mark of slannash, flail, and javelin

8 Marauder Horsemen, musician, standard bearer, mark of slannash, flail, and javelin

8 Marauder Horsemen, musician, standard bearer, mark of slannash, flail, and javelin

5 Warhounds, poisoned attacks, vanguard

5 Warhounds, vanguard

Chimera, flaming breath, regenerating flesh

Chimera, flaming breath, regenerating flesh

6 Hellstriders of slannash, musician, standard bearer

Hellcannon

 

At first glance I didn’t think this list would give me problems.  Low model count, low toughness and the lack of need in killing the monsters for points due to Blood and Glory.  I figured I just needed to do 30 wounds to T3/5+ Armor to win as I got to ignore both the general and the BSB.  I wish he had champions as that would have knocked of 4 wounds.  We also had the same amount of fortitude, and with his 3 units of 8 he had 3 more wounds on his units (but worse shooting).

For Spells the daemon prince got Doom and Darkness, Spirit Leech and Soulblight.  His Level 2 with familiar took Hysterical Frenzy, Cacophonic Choir and Phantasmagoria.  I rolled up Searing Doom and Blades of Albian on my level 2 and my general took Spirit Leech, Caress, Soulblight, Doom and Darkness and Purple Sun (for if I really needed to kill the Chimeras and because it’s better than Aspect).

For deployment Brian fairly clustered in the right flank, or at least as much as he could with terrain and area restriction.  He put a unit of Dogs and Horseman on the left, and the rest on the right, horseman, hellstriders, horseman with the price and chimeras behind.  The hellcannon when in the right-ish corner and both the characters on horse went into the hellstriders.  The Slannash number is 6 and these were 8 (even the hellstriders after characters).  This hurt me in my fluffy bone.

For my deployment I went will my standard deployment, hydras center and the dark riders spread out.  I put a unit of shades hard on the right and another back center.  We then traded off with the vanguarding, though he didn’t move much on the right (just shifting the dogs).

We rolled off and I finally got the first turn.

I advance strongly, but being sure to stay out of charge range of the chimeras.  I do move the shades on the right into range of the daemon prince charge.  I was willing to see what the assassin could do with a stand shoot and an always strikes first.  I open up with a strong 10/7 magic phase.  I put enchanted blades on the shades and a Doom and Darkness on a unit of horseman.  At this point, due to closed lists, I didn’t know if they were slannash.  I knew they didn’t have either of the slannash looking characters and that the Prince was nurgle (based on appearance) so it wasn’t mono g-d.  I didn’t look at their banners or I would have known.  Anyways, I put doom on them looking for a panic.  I then drop the left unit to 1 model. And the right unit to 2 and blow away the center unit.  I also shoot the dogs on the right, which panic and flee.  So drop the horseman from 24 models to 3 models.  That leaves me 9 models from win.

On Brain’s turn 1 the dogs on the right run off the table.  His units back off except for the 3 monsters which move up to drop their flames, chimeras on the shades and the prince on a dark rider unit.  He tries to hid his remaining horseman.  His 8/5 magic phase sees me scrolling a spirit leech on my general.  He fails to cast soulblight and ends his phase.  He kills 3 dark riders in the center with the flame and they pass their test.  On the left he kills 6 shades, they then panic and move through the terrain, taking enough dangerous terrain tests to drop the unit to needing snakes to rally.  On the right he also kills 6 shades but I hold.  The hell cannon hits my general, who passes his save.

On my turn 2 the left hydra fails to charge the chimera.  I move into shooting position.  In a 6/5 magic phase Brian fails to dispel PoD but I don’t gain any extra dice.  I then cast searing doom and knock 2 wounds onto the right chimera.  He dispels soulblight.  I then 1 die PoD on level 4, and then cast Spirit leech, but on a unit out of my arch (oops!).  I kill off the left rider unit and 2 hell striders.  5 models to go.

On Brian’s turn 2 and he goes for a hail mary.  He hides the last banner only horseman behind the hellcannon on the right.  His hellstrider unit with characters moves up hard into the center of the board and my army.  He charges a unit of shades with the hellcannon, and I flee also panicing a unit of dark riders.  On a 4/3 magic phase he rolls all his dice at the bubbled Cacophonic Choir.  I fail to dispel and my jaw drops.  So far I have lost 3 models of 24 needed to break (assuming he kills my units).  The one spell kills off the fleeing assassin and shades, 3 dark rider unit, does 1 wound to my BSB, kills my general and does a wound to my center hydra.  So already he has gotten 3 of the 4 fortitude needed.  I look at the table and see that his Prince and chimera had moved around my army.  Not moves that would normally have bothered me as I would have just moved out of the line of sight.  But the Cacophonic Choir removing my ability to move, also removed my ability to not have my characters die on Brian’s turn 2.  I saw that I had basically been level 6’d spell, in that I was about to lose the game just because of the casting of 1 spell.  Suffice it to say, I was not happy.

On my turn 3 and I saw one chance to win.  I needed to pick up the solo horseman and kill 4 hellstriders.  The Hydra needed a 2 on his random movement to charge the hellstriders.  Unfortunatly it would be into the flank and the unit had the BSB on flank.  That was fine, it was a tougher target, but if I could kill him it would be the same as killing the unit.  Or if I could get the hellstriders to break I could get 2 points.  Or if I could kill the riders with the breath weapon and pick up the horseman.  I wasn’t out of the game yet.  I roll a 9/6 magic phase, and not wanting to risk it, roll it all on a large searing doom at that last horseman.  The spell goes without miscast and I kill him (thankfully he didn’t roll a miscast – I would have preferred one as the caster wasn’t worth any points).  The other hydra flames 3 dogs in order to take some terrain pieces.  The hydra combat goes, I put only 1 wound on the BSB and the breath weapon (after taking a wound is only strength 3) only kills 1 hellsteed.  He passes his test as I killed one less than I needed to cancel steadfast.  I am short either 1 wound on the bsb or 3 hellsteeds.

On his turn 3 I pop my egg in the hopes that my BSB may survive the charge from the Prince (in the rear) as I knew he would do his combat first and the BSB wouldn’t kill the Prince.  He picks of a Dark rider unit which is forced to flee from a terror test to the left chimera and roll poorly for their flee.  He rolls a 6/5 magic phase and rolls them all at the Cacophonic Choir which then kills the BSB.  We roll the combat anyways, and the BSB dies to the prince.  They hydra then whiffs sealing that even I couldn’t have won this turn.  A rough loss that was so close to being mine.  I strongly dislike things that remove your opponent’s ability to make choices – even bad choices (like charging chaff 1 inch away).

But if was to lose this weekend, losing to Brian was a good one to lose.  Brian would go on to win it all, making the loss even ‘better.’  I also got all 5 of the bonus battle points and 1 objective point, making my 5 point loss into an 11 point loss – and with 10 points base for a draw, I figured that was pretty good.

Adepticon Singles – Round 2 - Blake – Dark Elves

The Mission:

Deployment – Battleline
Special rules – Give your opponent one of your core models and he gives you one of his
Victory – 100 or more points
Bonus Battle – 3 points for getting your traded model into their deployment zone at the end of the game, 2 points for killing your shared model.

I thought this mission sounded like a lot of fun, though I wasn’t happy with having to give up the fast dark rider model and only getting back a corsair that didn’t even have a hand bow.  I tried to convince my opponent that giving me a hydra would have been more fun, but he didn’t go for it.

Supreme Sorceress, General, Level 4, Lore of Shadow, Sacrificial Dagger

Death Hag, BSB, Cauldron of Blood

Sorceress, Tome of Furion, Level 2, Lore of Metal

5 Dark riders, musician, crossbows

12 Repeater Crossbowmen, Musician
12 Repeater Crossbowmen
20 Corsairs, musician, standard bearer, extra hand weapon, sea serpent standard

20 Black Guard, musician, standard bearer, banner of murder

26 Executioners
5 Shades, extra hand weapon
5 Shades, extra hand weapon

War Hydra

War Hydra

So ironically, the first thing I thought when seeing this army was ‘how do I kill one hydra, much less two?’  That was followed by ‘shit, that’s a lot of crossbows.’

Blake rolled Searing doom, glittering robe and blades of albian on his level 2, with pendulum, withering, miasma and enfeebling foe on his general.  I rolled searing doom and final transmutation, along with spirit leech, caress, soulblight, doom and purple sun on my general.  Based on my guesses on his list, I guessed all the magic items but the banner of murder (which didn’t matter for our game).

For deployment I broke out of my standard.  After dropping my dark rider units per normal (right, left and 2 in the center to block scouts), I deployed a hydra on the left flank.  I figured I could use this guy to escort my corsair to the finish line.  He matched my hydra with his own, so I paired off my other hydra on that flank and then later my shades.  Due to this I matched my characters on the left, though I put my level 2 on the right.  Next to his hydra he placed his corsairs, with a unit of shades.  He put a unit of crossbows with his general slightly behind, then his dark riders and both blocks, hoarded.  On the right he put down his other unit of shooters.  He placed this last unit early, and I was surprised since it put them across from the building.  He also placed my dark rider on the right.  I vanguarded aggressively on the right with the building to protect me, and in the center just behind the shades.

 Once again I didn’t get the first turn (had I yet this weekend? I think not).

Blake started his turn out softly with only some small movements forward on the left and hard movement on the right; he does try to sneak the left flank hydra up the line.  He then went and rolled a 3PD/2DD for his magic phase.  I dispelled the first Power of Darkness and the second failed to cast.  For shooting he killed 5 shades off the center unit and 1 from the left unit.

I figure the best chance I have to kill that hydra is a double charge, putting both my hydra and my BSB (using the egg) into the hydra.  I also charge a unit of dark riders and shades into the corsairs, getting the dark riders to flee before the redirection.  I also charge DR into the center units of shades.  In a strong 11/6 magic phase I get Doom on general, metal powers.  He dispels searing doom on the center hydra and then I fail to cast SL on 4 dice.  I roll lots of 1s in shooting but kill 2 cross bows.  In combat the assassin kills the level 2 caster, but lose combat and the shades get run down.  Corsairs then over run into the other unit of shades.  They hydra dies, doing a few wounds to my own hydra.  Solves the hydra issue.

On Blake’s turn 2 he doesn’t charge.  The shades rally but the dark riders run off the table.  He roles a 3/3 magic phase but doesn’t do anything.  My shades do some wounds and die against the corsairs leaving just the assassin.  His shades fail to wound dark riders and hold.

On my turn 2 by hydra charges the crossbows with his general, which flees.  My BSB then charges them and escorts them off the table.  My hydra they redirects into the shades (his) and my BSB goes into the corsairs.  My Dark rider fails to rally and dies in a forest.  A 4/2 magic phase has be boost +2 dice off power of darkness.  I then spirit leech 1 wound on his remaining hydra and searing doom 3 more wounds, leaving it with 1.  In combat his corsairs whiff and die and the shades fail to hold up to the hydra.  His hydra panics off the combat.

Having pushed back his army, on his turn 3 he reforms towards center, after the hydra rallies and kills 3 dark riders in shooting.

My turn 3 and the BSB takes 1 wound from a stand and shoot at his shades.  I move around to mess up his right flank.  On a 5/2 magic phase I Power of darkness on my metal wizard to add a die and then searing doom away the hydra.  I then power of darkness with my death caster for +2 dice, doom the executioners then hydra flame them to 3 models, at which point they panic.  I shoot down his borrowed dark rider and kill the shades in combat on the over run.  He concedes to me as I’ve earned full points and he only has a few crossbows left.

He conceded, having scored 813 points, and I would have scored easily all but the cauldron and perhaps the black guard.