2250 HE v Emp, friendly

[Rikitikitavi]

Hello,

This is my first time using the Battle Report Program as well as my first post. So please forgive any newbie errors.

2250 points, friendly match between my High Elves and my brother-in-law’s Empire. I am still unfamiliar with the Empire army but I will try to recall all the details as best I can but generally I do not know the appropriate unit names. Additionally I would like to clarify that this was, if anything, a learning experience for me. Finally, I wrote down as much as I could remember from the battle (05/23/200 the morning after it happened and was then unable to write this post until now so there are undoubtedly holes in my memory.

As I am using the Battle Report Program I’ve color coded the units.

Empire

General on Griffon (green)
Bound item with the ‘Burning Head’
Magic Armor and Weapon (of little consequence as you will soon see)

Fire Mage (green)
Level 2

2 units of 25 swordsmen each with: (light blue)
Detachment of 3x3 (9) Free Company (grey)
Detachment of 10 Guns (purple)
War Priest (green)

2 units of 10 Guns with champions with Hochland Long Rifles (purple with green champs)

2 units of 5 ‘Nilla’ Knights (blue)

15 Pistoleers (the mounted gun wielding fast cavalry) (purple)

2 Cannons (purple)

1 Mortar (purple)

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High Elf

Archmage (with Phoenix Guard) (pink)
Level 4 – using Shadow Magic
Silver Wand
Ring of Fury
Guardian Phoenix

Mage (with Spear Guard) (pink)
Level 2 – using Fire Magic
Skeinsilver
Jewel of Dusk
Talisman of Protection

Mage (with Archers) (pink)
Level 1 – using High Magic
2x Dispel Scrolls

Noble (with White Lions) (pink)
Armor of Caledor
Great Weapon
Battle Standard

10 Archers (yellow)
19 Spear Guard with Full Command (FC) (yellow)

14 White Lions with FC (red)
19 Phoenix Guard with FC (red)
2 units of 5 Dragon Princes with Musicians (red)

2 Repeater Bolt Throwers (RBT) (and with pride I use the old models) (brown)
1 Great Eagle (brown)

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Set Up
Empire Gunline vs. High Elf Magic


Empire – left to right
Blue knights, purple cannon, purple pistoleers, purple guns with hochlands, green fire mage, purple mortar, purple gun detachment, light blue swords with green warpriest and grey free company, blue knights, green block general, purple cannon

High Elf – left to right
Red Dragon Princes, red Phoenix Guard with pink Archmage, yellow spear guard with pink lvl 2 mage, yellow archers with pink lvl 1 mage, 2 brown RBT, red White Lions with pink Noble, red dragon princes

Turn 1


You’ll notice the grey units next to the movement arrows are to allow you to see where the unit was when the turn started.

High Elf
Movement: All non-ranged units marched forward.
Magic: F - Archmage miscast
G - lvl 2 tried to fireball but to no effect
H - lvl 1 cast ‘Shield of Saphery’ on the Spear Guard
Shooting: D - Archers shot at gun detachment, 2 guns fell
E – RBT shot at gun detachment (12 shots), 1 gun fell
Combat:

Empire
Movement: Knights, Pistoleers and General move forward
Magic: Warpriest and Fire Mage’s spells/prayers are dispelled
I – General’s bound item dispelled
Shooting: A – Pistoleers shot at Dragon Princes, all save
B/C – Guns fire on Phoenix Guard, 2 fall
All other shooting misses
Combat:

Rather uneventful first Turn.

Turn 2


High Elf
Movement: Dragon Princes on left charge Pistoleers who flee out of range
Dragon Princes on right charge Knights but fall short
All other non-ranged units move forward
Magic: I – Archmage fails to cast lurker, casts ‘Creeping Death’ and kills two Pistoleers
Lvl 2 ‘Irresistible’ casts ‘Conflagration of Doom’ and kills no one
Shooting: H (wrong color sorry) – RBT wound Griffon twice
D – Archers fail to wound mortar
Combat:

Empire
Movement: Knights on left fail to charge Dragon Princes
Pistoleers rally and reform
Knights on right and General charge Dragon Princes who hold
Magic: High Elf Mages dispel all magic
Shooting: A/B – Guns fail to kill any Phoenix Guard, Hochlands take two wounds off Archmage!
C – Mortar lands a shot on Phoenix Guard but none die
F – Guns kill 2 White Lions
Combat: Knights kill on Dragon Prince, Princes fail to inflict any wounds but hold

Turn 3
I seem to have misjudged the position that the units should have been on the battlefield, sorry.


High Elf
Movement: Spear Guard charge swords, Free Company and Guns countercharge
White Lions charge swords, Free Company and Guns countercharge
Dragon Princes charge Pistoleers, who stand and shoot… the Dragon Princes are no more
Magic: Archmage miscasts on two dice, the rest of the power dice are used to dispel the counter spell from the fire mage as a result…
Shooting: RBT, Archers fire at Mortar and kill off one crew…
Combat: Dragon Princes wound one Knight and wound the Griffon once, General wounds one Dragon Prince, Dragon Princes hold
Spear Guard and White Lions lose combat but hold the line

Empire
Movement: Knights on left and Pistoleers move towards the Phoenix Guard
Magic: High Elves don’t let anything get through
Shooting: Mortar lands a shot right in the middle of the Phoenix Guard and kills 5, they roll a 12 for a panic test and start running
Guns shoot and kill the Great Eagle after the Phoenix Guard screen leaves the poor thing stranded
Did I mention the Left Dragon Princes were killed while charging the Pistoleers?
Combat: Spear Guard and White Lions lose combat again but hold
No one gets hurt in the epic battle between Knights, Dragon Princes and Empire General on a Griffon…

Turn 4


High Elf
Movement: Phoenix Guard fail to rally and run some more
Magic: All mages running or in combat
Shooting: Archers and RBT fire at Mortar and Guns, minimal casualties occur
Combat: Spear Guard and White Lions inflict many casualties but static combat resolution saves the day for the Empire
Dragon Princes hold their own again

Empire
Movement: Left Knight and Pistoleers move towards the fleeing Phoenix Guard
Magic: High Elf Mages halt all magic and prayers
Shooting: Guns and Mortar kill 2 archers, a RBT and 2 crew
Combat: Spear Guard, White Lions and Dragon Princes are defeated, Empire units move forward

At this time the level 1 mage assumes command as the Archmage is still running. This junior mage decides that discretion is the better part of valor and raises the white flag praying that the General of the Empire Army is feeling merciful today.

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After the battle we were joined by our friends Harper and Miller to discuss what just happened. So far this is what I’ve noticed:

1. Choose your targets: my archers and RBT shot at all the wrong targets starting out. The Griffon and the
artillery should be my first targets. Likewise I should keep my distance from the Pistoleers and let my own
artillery/magic deal with them. Likewise I should kill off the Free Company to avoid the obvious ruination of
my static combat resolution from a flank charge.

2. My expensive block of Phoenix Guard never saw combat.

3. The White Lions, despite their Lion Cloak, had a difficult time dealing with the guns and their -2 to Armor
Saves. By the time they saw combat I had been whittled away.

4. I should have flown the Great Eagle out in front. If the Empire is shooting at some random target then it isn’t
shooting at my expensive and fragile troops.

5. What happened to magic? Granted I had some of the worst magic rolls ever but even in previous battles I felt
that my opponent is only taking mages to dispel my own mages and I am only taking mages to counter my
opponent’s mages. What happened to the edition of magic where it had its own box set? Granted I did not go
into much detail about the magic phase because nothing happened. Everything was dispelled or fizzled out.

Typical Magic Phase: I open with the ‘Ring of Fury’ which is dispelled on one dice. I follow with ‘Lurker’ to get a free move, which is dispelled, I follow with ‘Pit of Shades’ or the ‘Creeper’ which either fizzle out or, in the case of the ‘Creeper’ out of 3D6 I rolled 15 and failed to wound on any of them… My fire magic performed just as mediocre. The only useful spell cast over the course of the game was the ‘Shield of Saphery’ on my Spear Guard.

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Well that wraps it up.

Our next battle is a 3000 point battle with scenery and with special characters. I’ll be sure to take more detailed notes next time and have a more accurate representation of the battle without all of the little errors. As I mentioned before this battle is a little hazy.

Finally, I’d love your pointers on how I could make better reports, how to fight a gunline and generally what I could do better next time.

Thanks!

[kithre]

I think that against an army containing so much firepower, High Elves are always going to suffer, I would have been tempted to actually field a Dragon or Griffon, and a couple more blocks of cavalry - the enemy would have to decide whether to knock wounds off the turkey rider, else see his front line hit by the rock-hard Elven cavalry. I also think that he seems to have destroyed your army piecemeal..was there any terrain on the board?

I would strongly advocate being able to judge 16" accurately, I've read three battle reports where the HE army was destroyed due to failed charges.

[[CATz] Betrayal]

lol evidently i have been reading the same reports as him as i keep seeing his avatar at the side of messages


but i agree with what he said and also tis a shame about the pheonix guard they could have done something with that ward save helping against the firing line