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400pts Wood Elves vs Zombies (Narrative) - 06/06/13

Started by Cammerz, June 07, 2013, 01:00:37 AM

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Cammerz

It was perpetual twilight in the depths of Athel Loren but the Shadow Brothers were all too familiar with the darkness to care a great deal and there were far greater troubles on the borders of the Wildwood. Daechanar crept softly forwards through the undergrowth, even just outside the Wildwood the trees could not be wholly trusted to not harm any passing Asrai. He slipped silently into a small glade and it was there he sensed it, not a sight or sound or smell, just a feeling, a feeling that something was wrong with this place. He closed his eyes and slowly spun around in a circle. The forest looked different, as if he had travelled a great distance whilst standing still. The forest was still dark but it was clearly night and up ahead the trees seemed to thin as if he had travelled to the very edge of the Meadow Glades. This did not faze Daechanar, the forest was often like this and the Shadow Brothers had found this path many months ago. The feeling was stronger here, there was evil nearby, evil and magic.

Rufus grinned broadly as the words in the ancient book began to glow with an unearthly power. The words had worked, now came the result he had been working long and hard for. A great battle had swept the land not four months ago between rival Bretonnian Lords and the grounds was soaked with corpses from here all the way to the Elf-wood. And now they rose, slowly but surely they rose, an army. His army.

Lumornel, She in the Shade of the Trees, she ruled this piece of the forest. Many had called her crazy to reside this close to the Wildwood, others called her brave for protecting the realm from the dark spirits of the forest. Her kinband were the Shadow Brothers and clearly they were needed. One of her brothers had reported the surge in dark magic which threatened the realm and it was up to her to decide just what to do about it. As usual Faervel, her second, insisted on riding out to meet them in glorious combat. Faervel was the Horsemaster, leader of the Shadow Riders, which sounded impressive but for the fact that the entire kinband contained fewer than a score of elves and at last count the Riders numbered a mere five. But she did have a point, the realm was in danger, and they were tasked to defend it.





This is my first Fantasy battle in quite some time, I enjoy making army lists and a fun challenge is to make legal 400pt fantasy lists, usually a hero as the general plus three additional units. The Hero may cost no more than 100pts, at least 100 must be spent on Core, up to 200 on Special and no more than 100 on Rare. Of the army lists I created the Wood Elf one was my favourite so I decided to purchase the models and make it a reality. One of my friends is known at our gaming club as Undead Steve because of his large collection of zombies (he has about 300 I think), so I challenged him to a couple of games. The following report details the first game in narrative format (you have been warned) and I'll briefly mention the second at the end.
So now the army lists:

Wood Elves
Noble (Lumornel) – The Hunter's Talon (a longbow for sniping individual models from within units, ignores 'Look Out Sir')
10 Glade Guard (Shadow Brothers)
5 Glade Riders (Shadow Riders) – Horsemaster (Faervel)
Great Eagle (Dinalagosson, The Silent Storm)

Vampire Counts
Necromancer (Rufus) – Level 2 Wizard
3 Hordes of Zombies (There are around 30 in each horde, overall there are just under 100 and each horde has a standard bearer)

Pitched Battle – Blood and Glory
Necromancer's Spells – Invocation of Nehek, Raise Dead



My Deployment zone was dominated on the left flank by a mighty river. There was one bit of forest to the left of the river and as a Wood Elf player I was able to place a second one in the centre of my zone. There was a hill over to the right and two more on the other side, one to each side. In the very centre of the map lay a small building which was very good at blocking LoS and frustrating the movement of large units. There was also a hedge and a wall.

The Zombie hordes lined up in my opponent's deployment zone with the Necromancer in the central unit. I deployed my Glade Guard over on the left behind the river, the Riders went in the central forest (Fungus Forest as it turned out to be) and the Eagle was back to the right of that. Lumornel deployed with the Glade Guard.

The Zombie Horde went first...




Rufus was a mighty captain, no a general, maybe even a king, yeah that sounds good, King Rufus. The corpses had started off as just a trickle which swiftly grew into a flood, a great tide of the undead and they were his to command. All he needed now was an enemy. There was a small settlement near the forest, maybe if he let some peasants escape they'd lure a proper foe right into his grasp and their corpses could swell his army even more. But as Rufus and his shambling horde approached the buildings it became clear that they had been long abandoned. The sole building was boarded up and there was only a small section of wall left to show that others had been there at all. Rufus was about to break into a rage and turn his army around when the cavalry burst from the trees.

Lumornel froze when she saw the assembled mass of undead humans staggering towards her home, moaning as they marched. A quick scan of their ranks brought her attention to their summoner, the only one amongst them who wasn't rotting (with the possible exception of his soul). She drew back her longbow and was just about to put an arrow in the man's black heart when Faervel and her Riders burst from the trees causing Lumornel to swear quite violently. That was not the plan, curse that elf's impatience.

As the elves appeared from the forest, Rufus began to cast again, and more corpses rose from the ground over on his left flank to deal with those troublesome horses. He ordered his horde to move towards the forest, so there were no humans here to kill, who cares, elves would do nicely.

Spoiler
In the first or second turn (I don't quite remember which), the Necromancer raised a total of about 50 new zombies split between the three existing hordes and an entirely new unit over on his far left flank.
Faervel and the Shadow Riders flew out to the right at great speed, aiming to outflank corpses. Lumornel was putting too much faith in just taking out the leader, it was a stupid plan, taking them in the flank or rear would see them break in no time, it was simple military strategy. Her smile widened as Dinalagosson swooped low above her head, even the great Eagle agreed with her plan. Faervel slowed and brought her longbow to bear as the foe stumbled towards her, it was then that she became aware of the true nature of this enemy.
Spoiler
The zombie horde charged, I decided that if I could flee and then rally it would be better, it didn't quite work, I failed to rally when I tested in the next movement phase and my cavalry fled the field.
Lumornel gazed in horror across the river as the undead mass rose from the ground itself and the riders of her kinband bottled and fled. The Silent Storm was much braver and more fierce however and the mighty Eagle glided down, claws extended, at a newly risen body of corpses. But now was not the time to watch her dear friend fight on the far side of the battlefield, there was a more important task. She left the Shadow Brothers to fire volleys into the nearest zombies and positioned herself so nothing but a bit of hedge blocked her view of the villainous human sorcerer. She drew back and released.

Rufus was knocked back by the force of the arrow, it cut deep into his side, spinning him around slightly and he would have fallen were it not for his soldiers massing behind him. Stick me all you want elves, I'm made of much stronger stuff. He made to place the single remaining building between himself and the incoming arrows. The troops on his left flank had scattered the pitiful cavalry and he noticed another unit engaged with a huge bird. But the right flank was what interested him, that was where he needed to go, or rather where his army needed to go. He cast again and yet more zombies pulled their way from the soil and made to cross the river into the Elf-wood. The magic even slowed his blood loss and the wound slowly sealed itself. It takes more than a poxy arrow to slay King Rufus.

Spoiler
Lumornel successfully used her Hunter's Talon and picked the Necromancer out of his unit, no 'Look out Sir' saves for you. Sadly he simple cast another spell and regenerated the wound. Also the Great Eagle went a couple of rounds with the zombies but was overwhelmed by their numbers. He took two wounds before breaking and leaving the field.
Lumornel was getting worried, Dinalagosson had finally had enough of trying to destroy the ever-growing undead swarm and was returning at great speed to his eerie whilst the corpses crossing the river had already begun to transform the once clear water into a foul necrotic ooze, at least it slowed the creatures enough for her kinband to keep up a steady stream of arrows. Suddenly she felt it, the explosion. Elves were always particularly sensitive to changes in the winds of magic and this was more than just a slight change. The human dwelling in the centre of the battlefield was half destroyed and burning with an unnatural flame. Creatures half-risen from the soil were stalling and collapsing back into the ground. But the tide kept on coming.
Spoiler
Very fortunately, whilst casting 'Raise Dead' to make a fifth (or maybe even sixth) unit of zombies, the Necromancer miscast and then rolled a 3 which killed him. The explosion was too small to hit any nearby zombies but at least their numbers were now going to start shrinking instead of growing.
The tide was shrinking, the cursed power that animated them was failing, but they kept on coming, ever diminishing but still a threat, and the arrows kept on flying. Daechanar was down to his last few arrows and some of them had crossed the river. Their eyes were the worst, they were empty of any emotion, empty of life itself, but when the eyes found them the Brothers' resolve grew. As their arrows lessened their accuracy increased and soon more corpses were falling than arrows were being fired. The elves had been slowly backing away but now it was time for the stand, with an unexpected burst of speed the zombies charged. Daechanar let loose the arrow he had drawn and almost immediately his bow was gone, replaced by his twin knives which moved in a blur and found themselves embedded in one of the corpses. But then everything felt cold. A corpse stood before him, an ancient, rusted sword in its decomposing hands, and the blade was embedded in his stomach. Then everything went dark.

Lumornel hacked and slashed and soon the corpses before them were just that, and fortunately inanimate this time. They had lost one brother, she couldn't tell which, but the zombies were all but gone. One last corpse holding a hideous banner stood alone in the foul river and four arrows quickly sent it down below the surface. It was done, it had been hard fought but it was done. They had lost but a single elf and the field was littered with countless dead, and the flies had already gathered. Her realm was safe, for now. The elves near her lifted their fallen brother, and slipped back in to the trees, vanishing into the gloom.





And there you have it. He actually only killed a single one of my models but the Glade Riders fled very early on, it was as a charge reaction but they failed to rally afterwards. The Great Eagle took two wounds overall before fleeing combat, fortunately not to be overrun. The river certainly helped protect my firebase from the shambling horde but really it was all down to the Necromancer miscasting and blowing himself to pieces. I had originally hoped to just snipe him out of the unit with Lumornel but it turns out every time he successfully casts a spell he can regain a wound that he previously lost, so that didn't work out so well.

I was lucky more than anything, the Necromancer died at just the right time and most of the horde never made it across the river into Athel Loren, and the river itself killed a few of them which was nice (Athel Loren protects itself).

In the end we played nine turns because we wanted to see how it would end, but we paused after the sixth to work out who would have won if that was as far as we were going. The answer is I would have won because I'd wiped out one entire horde (finishing it in combat so I could steal the banner) and his general was dead which gave me an additional 100VPs over his original 100pt cost.

Afterwards we had another battle, we swapped ends and I put my main firebase (as well as my piece of woodland) on top of a hill but despite my much better dispelling rolls (in the second game he never once cast Invocation) he still wiped the table clean of my army. In that game Lumornel seemed to forget how her longbow worked because she kept rolling 1s. All of my units saw close combat in the second game and none of them emerged victorious, partially because the necromancer's other spell in that game was 'Danse Macabre' or something along those lines.

But these were a fun couple of games, I'm glad I got to try out some more fantasy as it has been a while. And of course the main lesson gathered from the whole experience, at low points values, zombies are brutal so kill that damn Necromancer.

BigToof

I liked this one!

I really did.  Although for some reason, I think I liked Rufus more than Lumornel, if only for the former's irritation at being shot by an arrow :)

Your skills are really getting better, and I can tell it's compelling because you made me want to try Fantasy again!

Looking forward to the next one!

Best,
-BT
BigToof Points:

Cammerz: 8
Waaaghpower: 1
The Man They Call Jayne: 3
Mabbz: 6
Archon Sharrek: 3

Arguleon-veq

I like little games like this, they are always interesting.

Cool lists too, the undead list looks like it cant do any damage but in such a small game they are a nightmare, almost impossible to get rid of and they will overwhelm another armies small units at this points value. I think small games like this are probably the only kind of fantasy game that can really show overwhelming zombies like this which is very cool. In bigger games peoples big elite units will just smash zombie hordes no matter how big.

Obviously a miscast and necromancer hunting are the big drawbacks did you not try to hunt him with the eagle? I think thats the best bet in a game like this or try to get the riders into his unit. He can just put his necro in a 'safe bunker' behind the other two hordes so close that theres no space to charge but I think the eagles and riders would be able to get around it and once they are in the necro will have to make way to the front of the combat were you can assign attacks to him to finish him off.

Looking forward to more.
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