BR: Beasts vs Wood Elves part 3

Ratspawn could feel the victory within his grasp. His Doom Glaive had just sliced through three of the mechanical dryads like they were made of butter.
But the Wood Dwarf general wasn't finished yet.

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Here was the setup when we left off:


Turn 4a: Get away from Ratspawn
I was really expecting him to turn his general's unit to face ratspawn. His stubborn eternal guard would have the general who could challenge with the annoyance, as well as the hill and US on me. Not sure I would have wanted to make that charge.

But instead he charges down the hill with his eternal guard into my Rat Ogres.
The wardancers charge the chariot, who flees off of the table. If I hold, he kills it or wins combat and he gets to pursue off the table.

In magic I easily stop his last spell, tree sing.
Shooting has everything at the unit of 3 Rat Ogres on the far left. He kills 1 and does 2 more wounds. But they pass their panic test.

In combat, Ratspawn challenges and the wardancer champion steps up to the plate. I get 3 hits and 2 wounds. He saves one. But then explodes into 5 more wounds, giving me max overkill. Damn I love that sword when it works.
The other 10 attacks nets another 4 wardancers dead. They manage a couple wounds back, but still need insane courage and fail. Ratspawn and company run them down and end up behind the archers who are now facing left on the table.

The wardancers on the spawn actually fail to wound and I kill another one.

Finally in the big combat, his general and unit kill off a couple Rat Ogres. The Rat Ogres whiff and run.
the Eternal guard restrain, not wanting to open their flank to the unit of Rat Ogres on their right. But the dryads chase them down.

So here was the setup at the beginning of my turn 4:


Turn 4b: Its time to put this one away.
Ratspawn and company into the rear of the archers.
Unit with 2 of 3 Rat Ogres left into the scouts.
Unit of 3 Rat Ogres into the unit of 4 dryads.
Beastherd on the hill into the wardancers in combat with the spawn.
Beastherd with Setrad, into the wardancers by my temple structure.
Giant Rats also charge the same group of wardancers.

The scouts stand and shoot, doing 1 wound and killing the 2nd Rat Ogre in the unit. The last one makes his panic and plows into the scouts.
The big archer block with wizard, flees from Ratspawn.
Everything else holds.
My Giant rats would have to go through a little difficult terrain around my temple structure and failed their charge.
The 5 fleeing hounds, failed their 2nd attempt to rally and fled off the board. 10 more US points gone.

For magic I do drain life on a wardancer which he uses his last scroll on. And then dispels my bears anger spell.

In combat, The lone Rat Ogre kills 1 archer. They fail to wound and it is a draw.

With the spawn, my shaman and Foe Render with 5 attacks, manage only a single wound. He then puts a wound on the shaman and kills the spawn doing 2 wounds with 4 attacks. ugghhh!!
I still win by 2 and he breaks and I chase him down with the herd.

Now onto the big combats. Rat Ogres in the Dryads. I don't really want to kill them all. I want to leave 1, so he can break and I can pursue into the wardancers fighting the herd. This is where bloodgreed sucks.

Anyway with 9 attacks, needing 4's and 2's, I blast away. 5 hits, all wound. Ouch, maybe too much. But with his 5+ ward, he saves 2. Perfect. He fails to do anything. So with the Temple structure, I win by 5. He needs a 5 to hold and rolls a 4. UGGGhhhhhh!!! The worst possible outcome.

I then do the herd attacks on the wardancers. I challenge with the wargor. His champion accepts. My thoughts are, I'll prove a wargor is worth his mere 64 points.
Needing 4's to hit, I get 2 hits and 2 wounds. The wardancer with his 4+ ward dance, saves both of them. Then with 3 attacks back, he gets 2 hits. Then needing a 5 to wound, gets 2 wounds and kills my Wargor. Now this sucks!!
Luckily the rest of the herd was on target and killed off 3 dancers. The attacks back only killed 1 gor. So I win by 4. Rank, banner, US and temple structure.
He breaks, I restrain and he is cutdown by the hounds behind them that had failed their charge.

If I pursue here, then my herd is in the overerun path of the Eternal guard which I want to avoid.

Here is the setup at the beginning of turn 5:


Turn 5a: Keep your eye on the goal: Setrad.
The Eternal guard charge into the flank of the 3 Rat Ogres. I can do nothing but stand there.
He rallies his big archer block.

He casts tree sing again, but I dispel it.

In combat, My lone Rat Ogre kills off 2 of the archers who whiff, I win combat but he holds.
In the bigger combat, he kills 2 Rat Ogres. I get 3 attacks on the lone dryad. I whiff with all 3.
The Rat Ogre breaks and runs. The Eternal guard restrains, but the lone dryad runs him down.
The unit of Giant Rats panics and runs off the table as well.
The herd makes its panic check.

Here is the setup for the beginning of turn 5b:


Turn 5b: I fail my stupidity test.
With the game still in the balance I know I need to get a few more points. So Ratspawn into the big block of archers. But not wanting to give up the standard, they flee and are cut down by the block of 4 Rat Ogres.

Then in a moment of idiocy I charge the dryad with the herd. Huh????
I then promptly fail my fear test and am stuck there.

The much smarter move is to just move the herd down by the dryad, out of charge range of the big block and set up a turn 6 charge on the dryad. Buttt NNNnooooooo!!

I then cast dark hand on his Eternal guard trying to draw out dispel dice. It goes off and I kill 1 Eternal dwarf guard. I then try to cast wild call on Setrads herd. But now being lvl 1, I can only use 2 dice and need a 9. I get a 7.

In combat, my Rat Ogre kills another archer, they fail to wound again and its a draw.

So short turn 5.


Turn 6a: You gotta go for it.
Charge!!! Eternal guard and lone dryad into the beast herd.

If I take it, I will surely get slaughtered and lose a banner and probably get run down by one of the units. So, I flee.

I know I need to run a long way since the dryad can cut me off.
Remember the unit is worth 108 points, but Setrad is worth 160 points and is the objective: 400 points. So 668 victory points are riding on this roll.

I roll an 11!!!! Unbeleavable. Even with Dryads 10" charge he falls a 1/2" short. If I only run 10 inches, I'm dead.

In combat, his scouts whiff again and my Rat Ogre kills 2. Needing insane courage, as I finally outnumber him, he runs off the board.

And here is the setup at the beginning of turn 6b:


Turn 6b: It comes down to a 2nd dice roll.

Boy is it close. I've never lost to this player, but I'm looking at that big hunk of points sitting in the middle of the table and I'm just not sure I have enough.

I start looking at my US numbers and I have failed to reach my objective. I needed to still have US 70 left on the board, but even if I rally my herd, I'm only at around 60.

No charges.

Rally time. Needing an 8 to rally, luckily he didn't aim at my Herd Champion in the previous combat, I pick up the dice.

I toss the dice and immediately one drops on a '5'.

The other is bouncing horribly long...

And comes to rest on a '3'. I pass the test. Whew!!!

Ok, so I just managed to somehow save 668 victory points from running off the board.

I moved my herd as far as they would go towards the dryad. I cast dark hand of death.

It goes off, he fails to dispel it. I measure range and its 27" out.

I then have one last shot to get that dryad. Wild call with the Staff of Darkoth. Needing a 9 on 2d6. Were the dice still with me. No. I roll a 7.

So that is the game. Nothing else moved, so no final picture.

It was time to add it up. This was NOT a pitched battle, so no table quarters. Neither of us got the objectives, so it came down to strictly victory points.

When the number crunching was done, He had just over 1000 victory points.

And I had just over 1400.

so a minor victory in the 400-450 point range.

A very tough, very hard fought victory, that I enjoyed a lot. I hope you enjoyed it.

Wrap up and thoughts coming soon.

Until next time...