The Fluffy Kittens of War

With a free weekend, my friend Matt came up for a game of good 'ol Warhammer 6th Edition.  His High Elves versus, for a change, my Dogs of War (which I had just rescued from the attic).  Unfortunately it seemed my whole army suffered from 'newly painted' syndrome (they're not newly painted, but this is only about their second outing on the table).  A combination of stupid mistakes on my part, good tactics on Matt's, and some truly awful dice rolls resulted in disaster!

My army was heavy on the infantry, with quite a few Regiments of Renown.  Matt's had quite a few small blocks of spear elves but, more worryingly, a lot of chariots (I hate chariots, as will become clear!).

 

Pikemen, Heavy Cavalry, Ricco's Republican Guard

  

The full battle line, light cavalry at the rear

 

Braganza's Besiegers and Halfling Hotpot! (Ogres just out of sight beyond) 

 

Marksman of Miragliano. Paymaster and bodyguard to rear

 

 Opening moves from Matt

 

 

 Elves at the pub!

 

We rolled up the 'meeting enagement' scenario.  This is where my first mistake came in.  Because of where I had put them in the list, my General (in the pike block) and Paymaster weren't close enough to provide mutual support, particularly re-rolls for break tests (as the paymaster acts like an army standard). 

 

My second big mistake came when I moved my duellists, armed with pistols, out of the woods to attack an advancing unit of spear elves.  I forgot that you can't move a full 8" and still shoot (in my defence, my Empire Pistoliers can, so that was a bad bit of 'muscle memory' at work).  Left stranded, they were then charged by the elves, fled, but rolled utterly appallingly on their flee roll.  This was to become a theme... 

 

My centre totally collapsed shortly after, largely a result of chariot strikes, resulting in the loss of my general, heavy cavalry and pike block.  With the Paymaster too far away, I didn't benefit from any re-rolls.  Ricco's Republican Guard lasted longer, but only slightly longer - despite rolling 20 dice for the pikes, plus 3 attacks for Ricco, I just could not land enough hits.  Matt had no such problem, and my rolling for break tests was terrible!

 

Matt also passed two fear tests to charge the ogres, who also couldn't hit anything and also failed their break test and ran! 

Things were now looking very dodgy.  All I had left were Braganza's Besiegers, a hotpot, and the light cavalry on the left; and the Marksmen of Miragliano and Paymaster's bodyguard on the right.

In the circumstances, they didn't do too bad.  Two units of spear elves were routed, a cauldron landed square on a chariot, Braganza's Besiegers managed to win a combat, and the Marksmen of Miragliano came off best in an archery duel with Elf bowmen (having already destroyed a unit of spears).  The light cavalry however lost a combat they shouldn't have lost and (guess what?) failed a break test and then got run down due to a terrible flee roll...

 

Shockingly, I won a round of combat here!

 

But the writing was not only on the wall by this point, it was also on the ceiling, floor, and every door and window.  The left wing inevitably crumbled - although war machine crews can't normally charge, we decided to let the halflings go out in a blaze of glory, charging a chariot in the flank with cleavers and spoons.  The result was inevitable...

 

  

All they needed was to cause one wound!  They didn't...

 

But some measure of glory was retained on the right, by the Paymaster's Bodyguard, who fought on for round after round, seeing off a chariot, and holding back two units of spears, until finally the Paymaster fell and, losing their 'Stubborn' attribute, the survivors decided to hotfoot it off the battlefield.

 

 

Feeling surrounded

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look!  The Chariot's gone!  

 

Moments later, the Paymaster bit the dust and it was all over

 

Well, that didn't go too well did it!  Would I take the DoW again after that?  Yes, I would.  Some of the problems were entirely down to me, like getting my duellists killed, and separating the general and paymaster.  But even with my terrible dice rolling, the Regiments of Renown were good - the fact they have a pretty tough character in each unit makes them pretty survivable compared to normal units in combat.  I think Matt was a bit shocked to be on the receiving end of BS4 crossbow bolts, and I like the 3+  save with the besiegers.  I think I would either drop the heavy cavalry though, or take a smaller unit of Vollands Venators, to get the character.

 

It did also remind me I hate High Elf chariots.  I don't think it's just sour grapes, and I have to give credit to Matt for how well he uses them (combining them with a spear unit that charges shortly after), but they're tough (T5), dominate the table with a 10" charge, their impact hits occur before the pikes can strike (which seems...odd), and they're quite cheap for all that.  OK, their impact hits can be very variable (D6), but if they roll high they are devastating to infantry.

 

It also got me thinking about one of the changes that has been suggested for the Old World.  The possible return of pushbacks from 2nd/3rd edition.   The current rules are tough on Ld 7 armies, as any break test will always be at 6 or less.  That one point shift down from the average on 2D6 of a '7', immediately pushes you immediately from 'slightly more likely to pass than not' to 'more than likely to fail'.  Interested to see how that might change.

 

Mortar this than meets the eye

So last weekend saw me sneak off to Boards and Swords in Derby for a day of gaming with Matt, starting out with a 2000 point pitched battle between my Empire and Matt's High Elves, using WFB 6th Edition.

I won't do a blow by blow or turn by turn account, but here are some edited highlights.  Rough army lists are further down, but broadly speaking I took an infantry list with some big state units, artillery and flagellants, whilst Matt had a mix of chariots, small infantry units, and eagles.

 

  

  

  

  

Empire forces arrayed for battle, with a lot of black powder weapons!

The battle really split quite neatly into three broad areas.  On my left, my artillery, supported by a pair of Engineers and a unit of handgunners, duked it out with an Eagle, Chariot and a unit of spear elves containing a mage.  A miscast on Matt's first turn saw the mage explode, taking out three of the spear elves, but miraculously leaving the mage unharmed (although I imagine his surviving neighbours shuffled away from the slightly smoking magic user).  Things exploding would turn out to be a theme of the day...

Further ignominy was heaped on the poor unit when my mortar dropped a shell right in the middle of them, wiping out a significant chunk of the remainder.  Again the Mage survived without a scratch.  This would prove to be significant, as my Long Rifle armed Engineer took a wound from him, which should have finished him off by rights, but of course wasn't enough on its own.  Matt's magic was on point otherwise - choosing law of life saw him able to turn the scenery against me, and I took more damage from trees than any of his shooting!

An attempt by one of Matt's eagles to take out my artillery was thwarted by the cannon crew and an Engineer wielding a repeating pistol.  One of his three chariots was more successful, overrunning the mortar before it could repeat it's success - only to then fall foul of the cannon, now free from the threat of the Death Chicken.

 

Polly want a face full of lead!

  

There used to be a mortar there! In the woods, handgunners flee after the mage (seen top left) turned the very trees on them! 

 

Bang, and the chariot is gone!

The remnants of the mortared spear elves attempted to take out the cannon (which had in the meantime managed a successful shot on another spear unit).  However a failed charge gave my crew time to wheel the heavy gun out of their charge arc, and open the opportunity for the remaining Engineer to let loose with his reloaded repeater pistol, finishing the unit off (the standard bearer fled, the only survivor).  Sadly another chariot sealed the fate of the cannon crew soon after.

   

Funnily enough, I didn't fire the cannon from this position...

Meanwhile, on my right, my unit of flagellants blocked the gap between hill and lake.  Over the course of the game, with a little help from a detachment of swordsmen and one handgunner (the last survivor of his detachment), managed to hold up an eagle, chariot and a large unit of White Lions led by a fully tooled up Lord - wiping out the eagle and chariot in the process.  They died to a man - so from their point of view it was a successful battle!

    

Matt and I seem to have a knack for complicated melees!

At the very end, the White Lions managed to break through, but too late to influence the battle in the centre, which was pretty much over by then, allowing my halberdiers and spearmen to reposition to another blocking position.

 

Turn 6 - too late!  

The Centre kicked off with a mass firing of handguns, which did... very little as it turned out.  

 

Well, it looked impressive!

My state unit's detachments took the brunt of the charges, and were largely wiped out in combat, fleeing, or through being attacked by angry forestry.  In hindsight I may have been better off fleeing with some of them and allowing the chariots and spear elves to break themselves on my large infantry units.  My spearmen saw off one unit of spear Elves, only to be broken in turn by a charge in the flank (but later rallying) by another unit of spears, who were themselves then destroyed.

 

  

  

 

You can see here that the swordsmen detachment chased off the chariot - next turn they would be obliterated by the woods next to them! 

Near the end of the game, Matt finally succeeded in casting 'Comet of Cassandora', which resulted in an unseemly scramble away from the centre by my remaining infantry.  despite building up to 4 tokens, the rock of doom never arrived - which was a stroke of luck for my spearmen and halberdiers, who were right in the danger zone at the game's end!

 

What's that big glowing thing in the sky sarge?

So how did things end up?  Although I felt like the game ended with me pretty much in control of the battlefield with some sizeable units, Matt actually had more victory points than me, although not enough to avoid the game being a draw.  In the end I had just sacrificed too many units: the artillery, Engineers, all my detachments and the flagellants (a very effective, but not cheap, speedbump).  Had Matt's mage taken a wound from that miscast or the mortar round, it all could have been very different - magic was the cause of a decent amount of my losses.

Thoughts?  With hindsight I should have protected by artillery better, perhaps with the unit of handgunners who got trounced by trees.  Blocking attacks by eagle and chariots would have depleted them pretty quickly, but it could have gained me an extra turn or two of shooting.

I don't regret not taking any magic users.  A couple of extra dispel dice probably wouldn't have made much difference.  Matt is convinced I should take warrior priest more often, but at 95 points unequipped, and most of their abilities unused against high elves (hatred of chaos for example), I remain unconvinced.  Whereas I wasn't too disappointed by the Engineers - the repeater handgun helped dispatch a giant eagle and a unit of spears, and the Long Rifle came within a hairs breadth of taking out a Mage.

I probably should have fled with my detachments more - their defeat was almost inevitable, giving away points, whereas they had a decent chance of rallying due to the presence of my general.

Did I really need infantry units that big (30 models)?  Maybe not - they ultimately didn't really get into combat much.  That said, there is a comfort in knowing they can take damage from shooting and magic, and still put up a decent combat resolution from ranks, outnumbering etc.  perhaps reduce them to units of 25 (and 20 for greatswords), and use the spare points for hunstmen or a small unit to protect the guns.

My list

30 Halberdiers, detachments of 10 handgunners and 10 swordsmen

30 Spearmen, , detachments of 10 handgunners and 10 swordsmen

10 Handgunners, marksman with Hochland Long Rifle

30 Greatswords, detachment of 10 handgunners

Cannon

Mortar

20 Flagellants

Elector Count, Captain with Battle Standard, Engineer with repeater pistol, Engineer with Hochland Long Rifle.

Matt's army

3 units of spears

1 unit White Lions

1 unit scouts

3 chariots

Bolt Thrower

2 eagles

Lord, Battle Standard, Mage

Warhammer! (Part 2)

Time for some photos and a quick summary of the second Warhammer game against Matt from the other weekend.

For this one, we rolled up a different scenario, getting 'breakthrough'.  I rolled to be attacker - but somehow an all cavalry army trying to breakthrough a wall of spears seemed a bit too obvious, so we switched roles.  Matt would need to get a specific points value of troops into my deployment zone by the end of turn six.

I would need to defend with a mobile force.  My battle plan was simple, advance hard and try to pin his troops away from my deployment zone until time ran out.  I deployed either side of the central temple and kept my two units of Pistoliers in reserve.

 

 

Matt's infantry advanced on my left, obscuring the view of his bolt thrower, a problem that would persist throughout the game (well, it was a problem for him)!

 

 

 

Matt's impact hit rolls were a bit better this time.  A charge from a chariot and the dragon princes saw my Knights Panther break, and the Dragon Princes overrun into the Reiksgard. 

The Pistoliers tried to buy time for the Panthers to rally.  They didn't last long.

 

This feels familiar... 

 

 

I ended up getting charged more than doing the charging, which is not good for cavalry. 

A series of unfortunate break tests and poor rolls for fleeing finally put paid to my chances.  Combined with a very stubborn eagle that took ages to die!

 

By turn six, there was just one lonely pistolier marksman flying the flag for the Empire, but even he couldn't stem the tide and bought it at the last minute

 

"Where'd all the humans go?"

 

Looks pretty bad doesn't it?  Not a great advert for using cavalry to fight a defense.  Well, yes and no.  While the result may be indisputable, Matt was only able to get sufficient scoring units into my deployment zone in the very last turn.  If the dice gods had smiled in my direction a bit more, if a couple of units had held for another combat turn, who knows? 

 

Don't get me wrong, Matt won fair and square by marshalling his forces well and keeping his eye on the objective, but that's how the best games of Warhammer should play out - tight until the very end. 

Will I try an all cavalry army again?  Probably, it was fun and presented some interesting challenges.  It was unusual facing high elves and having less units to activate for example!  It's also got me thinking about other interesting list combinations, and the role of magic in my army (the battle wizard did nothing, again).

Oh, and here's Matt's bolt thrower crew walking off in disgust at not even getting a single shot off ;-)