Battle in the Desert Report game 2

Thanks so far guys. Game 2: vs Wood Elves.

This board is dominated by a huge pyramid, dead center of the field. It is about 1 foot square and impassable. There is also a sphynx on the left side, impassable. 2 hills on the left in the enemy deployment as well as a large wood on the right in his deployment zone. A small group of 3 hills are on the far right, 1 in my deployment zone.

Scenario is Historical land mark. Whoever controls the pyramid, gains 100 extra victory points like a table quarter. But 1 unit cannot control the pyramid and a table quarter.

His army looked like this:
On far left he placed 2 units of 7 wardancers with champions.
On the hill he put 10 archers in 2 ranks.
then 10 more archers in one rank.
Then 10 more archers in one rank with wizard. (2 d.scrolls, Lvl 1)

behind the pyramid he had a hero general on warhawk eagle with biting blade and hail of doom arrow.
8 dryads with Lvl 1 dryad hero, +1 dispel dice and 6's to hit in challenge.
3 Treekin
8 drayds
5 Wildriders with full command, warbanner, hero wildrider with dawn spear
7 scouts went in the woods (no where else to put them)
Eagle
6 Glade Riders

This was 1 beautiful army. OMG!! It was easily the best painted army there. And the player was a very good sport and a good general to boot.
He got the first turn.

Turn 1a: He runs the wardancers behind the sphynx. He runs the units behind the pyramid up to it. He moves everything on the right flank.

Shooting on the right with the glade riders and scouts doesn't do much. But the 30 shots on the left side wipe out 2 hound units and force panic checks all around. My herd on the far left fail. So I'm running sideways and I'm only 4" from the table edge. I roll 3" and stop before the edge. Wow!!

turn 1b: No charges and herd rallies. Everything moves up a bit. On the right I run the last hound unit right up in the face of the wildriders, so they either have to charge them or no one.
spawns move up. One in the middle by the pyramid. Other on the far left towards the wardancers. It moves too far and is up past the spynx by the wardancers.
furies hide behind the pyramid.

Turn 2a: wardancers charge the spawn, kill it and don't overrun.
Hero on eagle flies behind my lines and shoots Hail of doom at the furies, but only manages to kill 4. His Wild riders and glade riders shift around a bit. Not much going on there.
Archers this turn only manage a couple wounds on Ratspawns unit.
He flies eagle behind my right flank lines.

Turn 2b: On far right 3 Minotaurs charge into glade riders. If he flees he is off the table, so he stands and shoots. Does 2 wounds. I'm thinking dead glade riders. Nope, I whiff badly killing only 1 with 9 attacks. He does 2 wounds back, wins combat, I hold on a 6.
Last spawn rolls 15" and hits an archer unit. They flee and get away.
Hounds move up in wildriders face again. It is really annoying him.
I charged herd in middle at the eagle but was just out of range.
I turn chariot around to face hero on eagle.

Cast Wind of death on eagle. Miscast, take str 6 hit. ouch.
Cast the beast movement spell on chariot to charge hero on eagle. Miscast, take str 4 hit and but I'm not wounded. Magic ends.

Turn 3a: Dryads with hero charge spawn on left.
Dryads charge annoying hounds. Hounds flee and get away.
Hero charges lone fury, kill him.

shooting takes out 2 Minotaurs out of Ratspawns unit. Makes panic test.
In his magic phase, on 2 dice his dryad hero miscasts. And suffers a wound.

In combat, the dryads fail to wound the spawn who kills a dryad and the hero.
Glade riders kill a 2nd minotaur, I kill 1 glade rider and I break. Glade riders run me down and are on a hill in my back right corner.

Turn 3b: Do or Die time. 4 Minotaurs along with chariot hit the dryads on the right.
Herd into the eagle. The eagle flees and flies 17" right off the board.
Ratspawn and Co into a unit of wardancers. It was right at the 12" range. And I mean exactly. I could tell he wanted to say I was out, but it was there. So in I go.
Should have moved the other unit of 4 around from behind the sphynx, my screw up there.

Backup chariot to again try the charge spell on the hero with eagle.
With only 3 DD now, and 1 scroll left he is in trouble. I do the charge spell and he scrolls it. I cast wind of death on the glade riders, he fails to dispel by 1, and glade riders go poof.

In combat, the chariot and 4 Minotaurs kill off all but 1 dryad. Sweet. He fails his insane courage and runs right towards the wild riders. Both my units pursue. Minotaurs go 15", chariot 13" and both slam into the wild riders. They were in the woods except for one small part that was hanging out. Chariot was lined up perfectly for that and missed the woods.

Ratspawn gets challenged and even with the 4+ ward dance I kill the champ with an overkill and a couple more wardancers go down. He does a couple wounds back, but loses by 4. Needing a 4 to stay. HE MAKES IT!! NOOOO!!!

This one really hurt. If he fails that, I'm in great position. If I stay, oh is it bad.

Oh yea, dryads fail to wound the spawn again and I do 2 wounds back. He again holds.

Turn 4a: Wardancers into front of Ratspawn and archers in 2 ranks down the hill and into my flank. Hero on eagle charges chariot.

Shooting doesn't do much.
Combat, Wardancers again challenge. He fails to wound Ratspawn and I kill the champ with 1 overkill again. But the rest kill 2 minotaurs and only 2 wardancers dead. I lose by 5. Needing a 4 to stay, I fail and run into the sphyx to die.

Dryads finally after 2 rounds of doing no wounds on the spawn, do 3 wounds in one round of combat.
In Wild riders combat, the chariot plows through the wild riders with 6 impact hits and the 4 attacks kills all 5 wild riders. His Hero is all that is left and facing 2 minotaurs, we chop him down. Chariot for some reason overruns, through the woods and takes a wound doing that. Brain fart I thought it was his turn next.

Hero on eagle charge the chariot, and in a display of ineptitude manage 2 wounds on the chariot, and I save 1. I go after the general and with 4 attacks, manage to kill him. The eagle loses and flees. chariot pursues but doesn't catch him.

Turn 4b: Chariot charges fleeing eagle, who doesn't fly very far and I catch him. I move the 4 minotaurs up with the chariot. We are going to kill something.
Magic kills a few archers in 1 unit and does a wound on the treekin.
Chariot runs around woods, 4 Minotaurs turn around.
3 Minotaurs move up to face the treekin.

Turn 5a: He moves around some, backs up some. Moves dryads up by the pyramid.
Then in a display of archery, puts 11 wounds on the 4 minotaurs. The last one makes his panic check.

Turn 5b: Chariot charges wardancer unit. Chariot charges scout archers.
I was going to have herd go after dryads by pyramid, but fails unruly and runs towards treekin. Not good.

Magic kills off more in same archer unit, they are down to 3 and panic and run.
Wind of death gives me 8 hits on the treekin with no wounds.
chariot plows down archers killing them all.
Chariot kills all but 1 wardancer even with his 4+ ward. He looses by 3, so needing a 5 not to break, he gets it. If he fails, I wipe him out and run off the board to safety.

Turn 6a: Wardancers charge flank of chariot, wipe it out. Archers shoot herd, but only kill a couple.
Treekin won't take the bait and back up.

Turn 6b: Everyone is out of range, so I capture table quarters, and pyramid and set up for double magic missile's on archer unit with mage. I do 5 wounds and he makes his panic check.

End of the game. We add it up and I have 2060 points to his 1880 points. It is a bloody, bloody battle that ends in a draw.

The turn 3 charges should have won me the game, but his wardancers holding on a 4, then holding on turn 5 with a 5 kept him in it. If he fails either of those, I win the game.

Ton of fun, with a beautiful army that was played very well.

Result was a draw so 1-0-1 going into the final round.
We find out only one player is 2-0 and 4 of us are at 1-0-1.

Game 3 coming soon.

Until then...