REVENGE! - Battle Report Oct 27th - The Great Hunt vs. The Green Tide PART DEUX

Hello everyone, so as you know last week I had my first game against Orcs & Goblins in 8th edition.  As many of you already know, I got absolutely obliterated and conceded at the bottom of turn 2.  One would think that this type of how do you say ... posterior realignment by way of orcish sodomization would make someone hesitant to take on the same army again.  Well folks, what can I say?  I love a good challenge!  My philosophy is, if you lose and lose bad - you screwed up.  Your opponent was able to do EXACTLY what he wanted which means that you played his game and not yours.  Last week the wood elves said "Hey dude! We're gonna go ahead and lie down so that it takes less time for our bodies to hit the floor is that cool?"  This week... much better results.

Hopefully in the future I will be able to secure a video camera and just post battle report videos but in the meantime I'll be continuing to post picture and Battle Chronicler reports.  Moving forward I'll be taking a notepad and writing down everything as opposed to typing everything out from memory since I'm sure I am forgetting certain moves or events that were important.  That said, let's get down to business shall we?

My opponent Neil is a veteran wargamer and has been playing for about two decades.  He's played every army and last year his army for the OFCC was Wood Elves.  So he knows all the tricks that I would attempt to pull with my Wood Elves.  He made some small changes to his list from last week in the form of reducing his Black Orcs to 32 from 42 and changing the size of his Arrer Boyz units.  He downgraded his River Trolls to normal Trolls and added yet ANOTHER unit of 6 Trolls to the army.

Orcs have always been the bane of my existence.  For some reason they have always provided the most challenging fights for me and the first few times I engage them they absolutely kick my ass.  So I was very eager to take on Neil's orcs yet again and attempt to use what I learned from the last game in this game.

Neils' Green Tide v.2.0

Lord: Level 4 Orc Shaman
Hero: 5? Black Orc Heroes
Core: 5 units of 20 Arrer Boyz, 1 unit of 10 Arrer Boyz
Special: 32 Black Orcs, 3 Rock Lobbas
Rare: 2 units of 6 Trolls.

In the future I'll have my opponents email me their Army Builder roster so I can properly list their army.  I feel that if my opponent is going to take the time to play against me I should take the time to properly post his list. After all, that's their army and it should be displayed properly.  Ahem anyway.

Battle Scenario 2 - Dawn Attack
This scenario divides each deployment zone into 3 parts in which each player will roll a die to determine where their unit is placed.  Left, Right, or Center.  This is to represent the disorienting morning haze as the armies battle each other at the crack of dawn.  The victory conditions are straight up Victory Points and the player who wins the roll off sets up first and unless his opponent rolls a 6, the first player chooses who goes first.  Neil chose to go first this game.

Deployment

The deployment went fairly well, Neil was able to place most of his units where he wanted to and I didn't get screwed too badly.

Turn 1 - Orcs

The Orcs started off the game by moving forward and shooting at my Spellweaver Glade Guard with artillery.  I lost 4 models to his warmachines and my General took a wound from some Orc headbutt spell.   First blood to the Orcs!

Turn 1 - Wood Elves

The Wood Elf turn 1 went spectacularly well.
Movement Phase:  Moved to the right of the board with every unit and attempted to secure the right flank.
Magic Phase: Amber Spear was dispel scrolled, Wild Riders were augmented with Wyssan's Wildform and the nearest Trolls were hexed with Curse of Anraheir.
Shooting Phase: This is where the the turn shined.  I unloaded everything I could into the Troll unit that his general had joined.  I did enough wounds to cause a panic test which resulted in both Troll units panicking and running towards the edge of the board.

Turn 2 - Orcs

The orcs continue their slow advance unloading arrows into my Treekin and Glade Guard.  Neil charges his Arrer Boyz into my Wild Riders and manages to get a spell off that gives them Always Strike First.  Neil also causes two wounds on my Treekin from a Direct Damage spell from his Shaman.  I lose two more Glade Guard to his damn warmachines as well.

Turn 2 - Wood Elves

Turn 2 was very important since this was the point at which I conceded last game. Now this turn had some ups and some downs as you will see in the next following turns.
Movement: Treekin charge the Black Orcs, Glade Guard with Spellweaver fail their charge against the Black Orcs and the Dryads make their charge.
Magic: Black Orcs get Hexed with Curse of Anraheir, Wyssan's Wildform gets dispelled and Amber Spear fails to cast. meh...
Shooting: Again this is the highlight of the phase - I unload once again into the Troll unit with the shaman and do enough wounds to cause another panic test.  This time it causes both the Troll units to flee off the table edge as well as his General and 2 of his 3 Warmachines.  I was elated for a brief moment, then the close combat phase began.
Combat:  My Wild Riders kill the Arrer Boyz and chase them down.  The surviving members of that unit number 3.  Losing 7 Wild Riders to 20 basic Orcs should tell you how bad Orcs are to fight.  Now the annoying battle luck!  1 unit of Dryads, 1 unit of Treekin - the Black Orcs are hexed meaning they suffer a -1 to hit.  12 Dryads will yield 19 attacks (champion in unit) and 6 Treekin will yield 18 attacks + 3 stomp.  You would think with that onslaught of attacks the Black Orcs would fold right?
1 wound  - I did ONE WOUND.  So  I lose combat by 4 and the Treekin bolt, the Dryads being made of sterner stuff apparently stick in combat to continue fighting.

Turn 3 - Orcs

Turn 3 for the orcs opened with Neil charging the Dryads flank and maneuvering the rest of his archers into a better position.  His shooting phase resulted in 1 Glade Guard dying but the close combat phase is where he scored some victory points.  Dryads get wiped out and the Arrer Boyz catch them as they flee which brings them into contact with the Glade Guard.

Turn 3 - Wood Elves

The Great Eagle was also part of that previous combat in which the Treekin and Dryads were involved btw - it fled.  The Treekin rally and the rest of the Wood elves army that isnt engaged gets into better position as you can see from the movement arrows.  The Black Orcs have their numbers reduced by shooting.  The Glade Guard combat results in a draw due to the fact that I had buffed the unit with Wyssan's Wildform in the magic phase.

Turn 4 - Orcs

The Orcs advance further shooting at the Treekin and Waywatchers. The Black Orcs fail their charge against the Glade Guard.  The ensuing close combat phase results in the Spellweaver unit fleeing from combat and the Arrer Boyz only pursuing 4 inches.

Turn 4 - Wood Elves

The Treekin and Great Eagle charge the Arrer Boyz that did a number on the Glade Guard. The Warhawk Riders charge the remaining Warmachine and win. The Black Orcs take enough casualties to take a Panic test from all the shooting.  They break and flee from the Waywatchers and Glade Guard.  I attempt to cast Transofmration of Kadon only to have it dispelled.

Turn 5 - Orcs

The Arrer Boyz charge the Treekin and the Black Orcs rally.  The Treekin remain locked in combat with the Orcs.

Turn 5 - Wood Elves

The Wood Elves begin the phase by adding the Great Eagle into the mix, Sadly the Great Eagle also gets pulped by the Black Orc hero hanging out on the corner.  The Black Orcs take another brutal round of shooting. Treekin remain locked in combat.

Turn 6 - Final turn for the Orcs!

This turn could have been huge for the orcs had things worked out.  He needed to kill my Treekin and overrun into my Glade Guard as well as wipe out my Waywatchers in order to tie the game.  Neil fails the charge with this Black Orcs.  His Arrer Boyz rally however, and his 2nd unit of Arrer Boyz flank charge my Treekin.  The Treekin kill the unit and remain in combat with the now severly diminished Arrer boyz unit.

Turn 6 - Wood Elves, Retribution is at hand!

The Treekin manage to win combat and chase down the Arrer Boyz and the massed shooting destroys the last of the Black Orcs securing full victory points for that unit.

The Wood Elves are victorious!
Using the victory point rules I am estimating this VP total:
Wood Elves: 2100ish
Orks: 206


This game Neil suffered from the Leadership test bane.  I also was rolling very well but fortunately my strategy of flank attack and concentrating all my firepower into one unit worked.  While I doubt I'll win this big again against Ork, it felt good!  I was fortunate in that I never had any units except my Great Eagle and Dryads fully destroyed.  I had massive casualties in several units, only 2 units were at full strength but since you have to wipe out the entire unit to score the VP's - I was able to move the reduced units away and out of harms way.

Overall, it was a good game and I fully enjoyed it.

Thanks Neil!