The Half-Griffon versus Dark Elves Hordes @ 2500
My Dark Elf nemesis, my adult son whose handle is “The Unholy Hand Grenade,” is trying out some new things. A long time practitioner of MSU, he is taking a few pages from my Empire playbook to see what he can do if he “hordes it up” a little more while maintaining lots of diverters.
He has two hordes, Corsairs (frenzied!) and Executioners (with AP!), to my one. He can potentially go buff-for-buff against me with a power-dice crazy Shadow bitch backed by a Cauldron of Blood. He has more diverters than I do, and they can fly. Needless to say, I am worried about pulling out a victory in this one- I have seen him shred VC, Beastmen, and Chaos with this type of list.
Without spoiling the ending, this one was also truly quick and violent…
The Good Guys: Ulric’s OwnArch Lector Dominus Snow (Gen)
WAltar with Horn of Sig Sword of Might, Charmed Shield, White Cloak of Ulric, OTS 14 Inner Circle Knights “Gold Banner” FC, Lances Warrior Priest Hector Snow Dragonhelm48 Teutogen Guard (Greatswords) “Ulric’s Own” FC, Standard of Discipline 18 Swordsmen Detachment Warrior Priest Blane Bonham Ironcurse Icon Captain Viktor Rommel (BSB)
Sword of Battle, Enchanted Shield, Luckstone10 Archers “Rommel’s Rangers” Musician 5 Archer Detachment10 Archers “Rommel’s Rearguard” Standard Bearer Lars Fredericksen Lvl 4 Heavens Wizard, Dispel Scroll Steam Tank “Leonardo III” Bartimus “Bullseye” Smith (Engineer Commander)
My Spells: Heavens-
Harmonic Convergence, Curse of the Midnight Wind, Comet of Casandra, Chain LightningThe Bad Guys: Killing Blow47 Corsairs EHW, FC, Sea Serpent Standard Dreadlord (Gen)
Executioner’s Axe, Dragonhelm, Luckstone, Ironcurse Icon Noble (BSB)
Banner of Hag Graef Sorceress Lvl 2 Death Mage, Dispel Scroll40 Har Ganeth Executioners FC, Banner of Murder17 Spearmen Standard, Musician Supreme Sorceress Lvl 4 Shadow Mage, Sac Dagger, Seal of GrondCauldron of Blood Death Hag with Rune of Khaine4x 5 Harpies His spells: Shadow-
Miasma, The Withering, Pit of Shades, Mindrazor Death-
Spirit Leech, Purple SunDeploymentWe rolled random terrain and random placement (
we moved a few pieces around to give the terrain better spacing and have tactical significance)
A tower was in the center with a Magic Circle 6 inches away- providing inhabitants and encroachers some MR. Another piece of strategic terrain was a Blazing Barricade near the Tower separating the two forces. Staying with an “evil” theme, we put the Wyrding Well near the lake and called it a “Blood Well.” Otherwise, a ruined house, forest, and another wall rounded out the terrain.
As far as deployment, my opponent got to pick sides and chose the one with the Blood Well to keep it away from me. I rolled to deploy first and dropped down my archers. By the time he finished dropping his ridiculous amount of Harpies, I had already formed the Half-Griffon in the center of the board and put my STank next to it. He put his Corsairs opposite the Griffon and his Executioners opposite my Knights- a bad matchup for the Knights of course. Here is what it looked like before the first turn:
Turn 1 Killing Blow:Movement: My opponent got the first turn (he was lucky on all the early rolls). He moved forward almost as far as he could, but he stayed a little back to avoid a long charge movement by the Tank. Harpies, Cauldron, Wizard bunker move up in support positions.
MagicHe gets 4 Power Dice to my 3 Dispel Dice. He goes for a 2-dice Powers O Darkness from his Death Mage and, to avoid his power dice from growing out of control, I throw my 3 dice to dispel it. He throws his remaining 2 dice at Spirit Leech and gets it off. It was really tempting to Dispel Scroll it but I let it go- I would probably be really happy I still had the scroll later. He beats me by 3 points and the tank takes 3 wounds.
But despite my attempt to shut down his magic phase early- the pain is not over. He channels 2 power dice via Death Magic from the 3 wounds he caused! One Powers of Darkness spell (with a sacrificed DE Warrior) later, his Shadow Sorc now has 5 dice. He tosses all of it on a Pit of Shades spell center mass on the poor STank. He gets the spell off, but it scatters 3” and just misses the tank by a griffon feather. Whew.
Turn 1 Ulric’s Own:Start of Turn:Tank doesn’t want to start. I roll a 5 on the mishap, loses 2 Steam out of the 4 I generated.
Movement:I move my Knights slightly forward on the right flank just to tease my opponent. I split my archers to the side and move up the Greatsword and detachment- inviting my opponent to charge in with his Corsairs.
I decide not to move my tank because he is already lined up for a cannon shot against the Cauldron- about a 2 Steam Point shot.
Magic & Shooting:I generate a respectable 7 Power Dice on a 5 & 2, but then my sneak Dark Elf opponent channels 2 extra and gets 1 for Seal of Grond. So… I have 7 dice and he has 8. Sigh.
Deciding to play it a little bit defensive this round, I toss a 3 dice Curse of the Midnight Wind to see what he would do. He doesn’t get a chance to decide anything- I roll IF. Damn it. Well, at least they won’t be getting Killing Blow from the Cauldron now…! Wizard doesn’t suffer a wound from the backlash, but two Archers next to him get melted. Only a few dice left, he easily dispels my next attempt.
But now for shooting…of course, my Archers don’t kill anything but the tank gets off his cannonball on the Cauldron. Hits, wounds, no save…I roll a 5 for number of wounds. Bye-bye.
It was such a short battle, I am going to skip the fluff this time. 
Turn Two: Killing BlowMovement:The “cursed” Corsairs hold in place- but the Executioners move full speed toward my Knights. In order to cover the Executioner’s flank, his Harpies drop in from the sky to jam my Greatswords, tank, and WAltar behind the archers. Nice moves.
Magic & Shooting:What is it with the lopsided magic phases? He gets 9 PD to my 6 DD. He tosses 2 dice on PoD and I toss 2 to dispel it. He really wants the tank dead (notice the trend here…?) so he tosses 6 dice at Spirit Leech. Again I think long and hard about Dispel Scrollin’ it and decide against it. Ouch. Tank’s lubricant gets sucked out of it into the spiritual world by getting a 6 wound Leech on it. Tank only has 1 wound left! He gains a few PD from it, but I easily dispel his next spell with my DD pool.
Turn 2 Ulric’s Own:Start of Turn:Well. Poor tank. I go for 3 Steam points, of course the tank suffers a mishap, but all that happens- I lose 2 steam. One is all I need to hit those damn Harpies!
Movement:Time to clear out some chaff. My Greatsword and detachment charge their Harpies, my Archers charge the one in front of them, and the tank hits his.
My wizard leaves his bunker so it can slide over and get in the path of the Executioners while my Knights slide back a little bit to get some distance.
Magic & Shooting:I get a decent start to the magic phase this time 10 PD to 5 DD. I toss 4 dice at Chain Lightning on his unengaged Harpy unit. He lets it go. I only get 2 Str 6 hits, plus 3 Str 4 bonus hits against the fliers. Unfortunately, I only kill 3 of them. They don’t Panic.
I roll the remaining 6 dice on a boosted version of Harmonic Convergence. I get a high number and my opponent decides not to chance it- he Dispel Scrolls it.
My Archers actually kill a couple of Executioners!
Combat:The Greatswords and tank make short work of their Harpies. The Greatswords and detachment reform to face the Corsairs. The Archers and Harpies trade 4 wounds, but with my charge they attempt a Break test and fail. They Flee 11 inches and my Archers chase them 9. The nice thing about this- my Archers are now in the way of his Corsairs.
Turn 3 Killing Blow:Movement:Now it is time for him to clear out my diverters/chaff. His Corsairs and Executioners charge my Archer units. He moves his last set of Harpies to get in the way of the wounded tank in case he lives through another magic phase.
Magic:This time the distribution is fairly even: 7 PD to 6 DD. After getting off PoD and adding a couple of extra PD, he tosses a 6 dice Spirit Leech to finish off the tank. Again, I let it go. Bye bye tank. He tries to toss The Withering on my Greatswords, but I easily dispel it with my 6 DD.
Combat:My Archers don’t stand a chance and die a valiant death in the service of Ulric. The frenzied Corsairs have to overrun and don’t quite reach my Greatsword block…about an inch and a half away!
Turn 3 Ulric’s Own:Movement:Since the Knights can't delay anymore from a battle with the Executioners, I charge in to get the extra Str from my lances. Now it is also time to party with the Corsairs- I charge in with my WAltar, Greatswords, and detachment.
Magic & Shooting:I net a nice 7 PD to his 5 DD. I go for a boosted version of Harmonic C with 4 dice. He doesn’t want any of that- so he tosses all 5 DD at it…and rolls really crappy and fails. With the 3 dice left, I get off a 5+ Ward with 2 dice, and try for Hammers of Ulric with the last die, but fail. Overall, my boys in blue and white are buffed up and ready to kick some ass!!!
My Archers light up the remaining Harpies but only kill 1 of the 2 remaining.
Combat:My Knights kill 9 of the Executioners before they get to swing, but he still has a third row of 8 in his horde to allocate his max attacks back. Damn, it was brutal. All 14 die- only the WP lives because he didn’t allocate any attacks to him (a mistake my opponent soon realizes…). I lose combat by 6, but my WP makes a Break test on a 3! Woot!
His Dreadlord issues a challenge. I decide to accept with my AL on the Altar. He will probably die, but the Greatswords won’t be weakened by the Executioner’s axe at least.
The summary:
Only 1 impact hit from the chariot. An Executioner dies.
Dreadlord on the AL: 3 hits (1 taken away by the Charmed Shield), but only 1 wound (he rolled 2 ones…!). I failed my 5++ WS, but he rolled yet another 1 on the D3 wounds the wicked axe causes. AL still alive and kicking!
AL on the Dreadlord: 2 hits, 2 wounds, 1 save. Dreadlord also only takes a wound.
BSB on the Greatswords: -1 to hit from the Cloak nets him 2 hits. 2 wounds, 1 save. A GS dies.
Sorc fails to wound anything.
Corsairs on Greatswords: 15 wounds, I make 7 AS and 1 WS = 7 dead GS.
Corsairs on Swordsmen: 5 wounds, no AS, 1 WS = 4 dead Swordsmen.
WP against the Corsairs: 1 wound, no saves = 1 dead Corsair.
BSB against the Corsairs: 4 wounds, 1 save = 3 dead Corsairs.
Greatswords against the Noble BSB and Sorc: I keep allocating attacks to them until they die.
Greatswords against the Corsairs: my remaining attacks net 15 wounds with no chance of saves. Of course = 15 dead Corsairs!
Swordsmen to Corsairs: 4 wounds, 1 save = 3 dead Corsairs.
Net result: he loses combat by a lot. He doesn’t roll Insane Courage and Flees! I have my WAltar and Greatswords pursue… He only rolls a 4 on his roll to run (his luck has left the building!) My WAltar gets a 10 and hits his rallied Harpies, but the Greatswords go 9 and hit his mage bunker.
The resulting combat goes ugly for him of course, and he concedes the game. What it looked like at the end:
After Action:1. As I have mentioned in other posts, getting the big charge off on your turn is key. At the start of the game, his buffs were probably nastier than mine (Withering, Mindrazor, Cauldron…) He never had a clean shot at my Greatsword horde without them being buffed and he never concentrated on buffing his troops because he was busy nuking the tank. My combo-charge already put his Corsairs at a disadvantage, but with Hatred, Harmonic C, and a 5+ Ward save across the line- it was really no contest. Had he been able to manage it- it could have easily gone the other way- his Corsairs could have been buffed with +1 Attack, ASF, and Mindrazor. Ouch. I think the battle really came down to who could maneuver and time it right to get their forces in the right place, at the right time, with the right buffs. In this case, it was me.
2. A horde of Executioners is probably unconventional, but with the Armour piercing banner those guys will cut through anything with ease. I knew my Knights were going to be toast, but seeing 14 of them removed in seconds was a sight to behold.
3. I am 8 wins and 0 losses with the various Griffon Formations at 2500 points. Still waiting on some other battles to be finished in my Escalation League, but since the Lizzie beat the WoC at 1500, my growing Empire list is at the top of the charts with a 4/2 record! Hopefully my next battle in the League will be Battle Report worthy and I will post it. I am thinking about running a Cav list with 2 Helblasters supported by a Griffon Wing soon too- something a little different that will hopefully produce another great battle.
If you haven't checked them out yet, please visit the
Tacticas I set up in the child
Tactica Board Forum. I have set up different categories for Empire Generals to post some of their thoughts/ideas and "Tricks of the Trade." Don't be shy- we need more posts! So far, Calisson and I have posted in:
--
Building Balanced Lists & War Preparation --
Strategies, Theories & Math-Hammer --
Formations and Unit SynergyAnyway, until next time- keep your blades sharp, the forges hot, and the prayers rolling!
HHG
