Battle Report - Dark Elves vs. Empire: Battle Two

The forces ready themselves for battle

As promised in my last battle report there is another battle we did on our "Warhammer Battleday". As said, Labschi had only one army list ready, so we decided to give it another try and didn't change our setup for the gaming table. I just picked up my second list and we fielded our armies. This time I had some minor changes and swapped the Cold Ones against the Black Guard.
The Empire stood much better after deployment so I had to think a bit what to do this time. For magic I again was very lucky and had some strong spells. My Shades deployed in the small village, just outside reach and sight to get a fast charge on the cannon and my Dark Riders were setup on the far left to flank the empire army.

The game lies some days in the past so I have to try to remember everything with my pictures. It could be possible that I miss one small thing or another, but in the big scheme it should be alright. That is why I decided to not do a turnwise report but to give a bigger summary of the battle this time.

Battle Two - Forces clashing again

Again I was very lucky and got the first turn. My thoughts were to charge the cannon in the first turn, block the bihanders (with priest) and the swordsmen with my harpies and form a small kettle where I could make a flank charge in the center of the battle line.
My Dark Riders did their job at flanking the battlefield and did some miserable shooting as did my Shades (I messed up 2 charges with them).
Magic did little in my first round as did shooting with the rest of my army.

Labschi charged my Harpies (as expected) moved a bit forward with the rest and started the artillery shooting. Lucky for me the casualties were not as much as feared and his magic brought some protective spells on his units. In close combat my Harpies where completely killed but not without taking one or two bihanders with them. A fair trade I think :)

I then moved my forces a bit, Spearmen straight forward, Black Guard into flanking position and hexed and shot a bit onto his units. My Shades who messed up their charge again stood dumb in the village and ran against the walls of the buildings or something. My Dark Riders played  tag with the knights who were by this completely out of game. Therefore no close combat this turn.

Labschi moved full forward, trying to charge my Dark Riders which fled and continued to play tag. His shooting brought a misfire to the mortar (which exploded but caused no panic this time) and some dead Dark Elves (my mage jumped out of the way with a successful "Lookout Sir!"). Magic brought again some protective spell onto the Swordsmen (I think the thorn thingy which causes hits on attacking units) which would really harm my toughness 3 elves.

At this point I decided to wait for his units and shoot them into the ground. The only charge where the Shades (which now really did it!) and the rally of my Riders on the far left flank. Magic brought an irresistible force which caused every mage to loose a wound and lots of dead swordsmen. My shooting did the rest and reduced them to only the army standard and one trooper (which held on snake eyes I think). Close combat brought a dead cannon and we looked then at the rest of the forces on the field and called it a day.

Again an undisputed victory for the Dark Elves!

Conclusio

This match was much tougher than the first one, Labschi concentrated his forces and tried to build a small bunker. I think the only error he did was to place his knights on the flank and not use them as a fast and heavy counter attack force. Therefore I was in the comfortable position to wait for his units and with more shooting power this was a pretty tough one for him. For fun we did some dicing at the end and tested how the different units would fight. For the first time my Black Guard did really wipe the enemy unit out in one turn.
It was a really cool gaming day, we did learn a lot (be it core rules or how to play our armies) and I know that next time there will be demigriphons (I saw them glued on his hobby table) and maybe some other stuff.

We then also discussed the comp and we are both pretty happy with it. Since we are not as rule save as we should be, the small point size allows faster battles and for this the comp cuts out the worst pikes (e.g. I don't want to play against an Empire laser army) but leaves you with some choices to theme your army down. Although it seems a bit different, magic is also cut down I was lucky as hell to get the spells which caused so much havoc in the swordsmen. Only a level 2 sorcerer allowed means most of the heavy hitters are not in game.

Hope you enjoyed the second (and last for that day) battle report and could understand a bit how the battle went.


So long,
Paradox0n