The Great Hunt, War Host of Athel Loren vs. Jeremy's Ogre Kingdoms (2250)

Today I went up against Jeremy's extremely tough and durable Ogre Kingdoms army (which henceforth we will call the Raging Bulls).  The first two games I played against his Ogres ended up in Massacres where I was scrambling after turn 4 to just get away.  Today however I decided to try a different tactic and deployment which paid off.
If you are unfamiliar with the Ogre Kingdoms army allow me a moment to describe just how difficult they are to defeat.   The entire army starts out with a Toughness of 4, Unit Strength of 3 each and all of them have 3 wounds on their basic guys (sans Gnoblars but ...yeah).  In addition to being walking slabs of meat they also have a movement of 6.  To 40k players this is nothing big, since everyone moves 6" in 40k.  To Fantasy players this is problematic because the average movement rate is 4 in Fantasy.  Not to mention also when Ogres charge into combat they inflict Impact Hits which also count towards Combat Resolution.  So you end up having an army of multiple multi-wound models that move 6 (charge 12), that cause Fear, Impact Hits and have a good strength coming across the field at you.  Definitely a strong psychological impact on the opposing player. You can also throw in that Ogre magic is very frustrating since it takes an absolute truckload of Dispel dice to counteract their multiple casting.  So, it's safe to say they are not a powderpuff army that folds easily.  Jeremy's list was also very tough and well put together.  Man-eaters, Bulls, Iron-guts, Butchers, and Lead Beltchers peppered the field.

When you compare this list to the Wood Elves, you now have what I like to call polar opposites.  The entire Wood Elf army is Toughness 3, Movement 5, and for the most part Strength 3.  My army is primarily an archery army that fills it's ranks with Treekin, Dryads and Fast Calvary.  My entire list is built around my Waywatchers.  When I decided to jump into Fantasy I read the Wood Elf army book and fell in love with the concept of Waywatchers.  The nerdy roleplayer in me came screaming to the forefront and demanded I make an army that was filled with elves shooting bows and angry tree-people rending and tearing.  So... here is my 2250 list for Fantasy.

The Great Hunt, War Host of Athel Loren
2250 Wood Elf Fantasy Army List

The Forest Stalkers of Athel Loren -
Lord: Waywatcher Lord Sylvos Callandor the Huntsman, Ranger-general of Athel Loren
* Highborn, Waywatcher Kindred, Extra hand weapon, The Bow of Athel Loren, Arcane Bodkins
- 256
Rare: 10 Waywatchers - 240
Core: 10 Glade Guard - 120
Core: 10 Glade Guard - 120
Core: 7 Glade Guard Scouts, Musician -125 (may be swapped out for 5 Glade Riders at some point)

The Wrath of Durthu
Hero: Branchwraith Ce'Nedra, Handmaiden of Durthu
* Branchwraith, Level 1 Wizard, A Cluster of Radiants
- 140
Core: 8 Dryads, Branch Nymph - 108
Core: 8 Dryads - 96
Special: 3 Treekin - 195
Rare: Treeman Dornatha the Verdant Rage - (just a treeman) - 285

The Outriders of Orion
Hero: Huntmaster Lloric Tanelsan, Lord of the Hunt
* Noble, Wild Rider Kindred, Great Stag, Hail of Doom Arrow
Special: 6 Wild Riders of Kurnous, Musician, Standard Bearer - 174
Special: 10 Wardancers, Musician, Bladesinger - 201

Total: 2250

This is the playing field we set up for the match.

Deployment of our forces - note the line of archers on the Wood Elf side with everything behind them.  This is important later!

Beginning of the game, Jeremy went first and marched his entire army forward.  I looked on with a stoic expression on my face.  I will attempt to make this a brief description since most of our turns involved me shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting until he hit my line.

Once Jeremy's Ogres declared their charges against the line of Scouts and Glade Guard I had in front of my melee troops, I decided to flee instead of standing and shooting which caused him to fail his charges.  Also, keep in mind that my units behind my archers are Immune to Psychology so they do not panic when a friendly unit flees through them.  This tactic I like to call the Archer Screen worked out very well.   Jeremy did an excellent job however of making sure he was close enough to hit one of my squads of Druids set to receive his charge.

This was the scene at the top of Turn 6, I ended up charging with my Wild Riders and killing his unit of Ironguts as well as obliterating his Standard Bearer.  I could not for the life of me finish off his General that had only 1 wound left.  He made 9 Ward Saves after my Waywatchers and General unloaded on him and still managed to hold out til the game ended.  Dead General DENIED!

In the end I managed to actually pull out a Victory because I ended up having 1060 points left on the board at the end of the game to his 528.  I would like to point out that this General of Jeremy's and it's unit took out my Treeman, 3 Treekin, 8 Dryads and a unit of Glade Guard (that's 696 points btw). 

Jeremy calls his General by some name but I call him DeNiro, the Raging Bull!




In the end I had a great time, and being able to finally beat Jeremy's Ogres instills me with confidence that my Wood Elves don't totally suck!
Wood Elf Archer Screen tactic - success!

Waywatcher Lord Sylvos Callandor the Huntsman, Ranger-general of Athel Loren

Branchwraith Ce'Nedra, Handmaiden of Durthu

Huntmaster Lloric Tanelsan, Lord of the Hunt
(who will probably be repainted soon)

Treeman Dornatha the Verdant Rage
(nothing really special about him, I just like the model)











Hope you enjoyed reading my wall of self-indulgent text!  More updates to come!