Breakthrough! Beastmen vs. High Elves 2,000 point 6th Ed. Battle Report

[Just Tony]

It’s that time again!!!

So we met to finish taking out the paint curse on our units by having another game. We chose High Elves vs. Beastmen because the entire High Elf army got touch ups done to it, and there was a Spawn and Giant that Ashley wanted me to run. It’d have been nice if I’d have remembered that when I made the list.

We settled on Breakthrough rather quickly as we didn’t really want to do Pitched Battle too many times. We rolled off on who was the Attacker, and it wound up being the Elves.

On to the lists…

BEASTMEN

Lord: Beast Lord (Level 4) – Mark of Tzeentch, Chaos Armor, Shield, Great Fang, Crown of Horns – 328 points
Hero: Wargor (Level 2) – Mark of Tzeentch, Heavy Armor, Beast Banner – 219 points
Hero: Bray-shaman (Level 2) – Staff of Darkoth, Dispel Scroll – 160 points
Core: Beast Herd (6+12) – Full Command, Shields on Ungors, two hand weapons on Gors – 137 points
Core: Beast Herd (6+12) – Full Command, Shields on Ungors, two hand weapons on Gors – 137 points
Core: Beast Herd (6+11) – Full Command, Shields on Ungors, two hand weapons on Gors – 132 points
Core: Bestigors (19) – Mark of Tzeentch, Full Command, Flesh Banner – 328 points
Core: Bestigors (19) – Mark of Tzeentch, Full Command – 278 points
Core: Bestigors (19) – Mark of Tzeentch, Full Command – 278 points

TOTAL: 1,997 points

For spells my Bray-shaman wound up with Steed of Shadows and Pelt of Midnight from the Lore of Shadows, my Battle Standard Bearer wound up with Red Fire and Green Fire, while my Lord wound up with Red, Orange, Yellow, and Green Fire.

HIGH ELVES

Lord: Prince – Dragon, Dragon Armor, Lance, Vambraces of Defense, Enchanted Shield, Ring of Fury – 554 points
Hero: Mage (Level 2) – Annulian Crystal – 170 points
Core: Archers (10) – 120 points
Core: Archers (10) – 120 points
Core: Silver Helms (12) – Full Command, Shields, Heavy Armor – 311 points
Special: Reavers (6) – Musician, Standard – 165 points
Rare: Repeater Bolt Thrower – 100 points
Rare, Hero, Hero: Asarnil the Dragon Lord – 460 points

TOTAL: 2,000 points

Yep, you read that right. Two dragons in 2,000 points. Against an army where the highest Leadership is an 8 on my Lord.

For spells the Mage rolled up Curse of Arrow Attraction and Vaul’s Unmaking on top of the Drain Magic spell that comes with taking High Magic.

The board was a bit unique as we had a water feature in the center with a bridge going through. We chose sides and set up as so…

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I had elected to keep all my Herds in Ambush, which was probably the most critical mistake I made. Rolling to see who goes first, I get choice and choose to get it over with. Probably the second most critical mistake.

TURN 1 BEASTMEN

I wheel my Bestigors on the flanks to get into position to goad some charges while also moving my center Bestigor unit up as well, mainly to prevent running off the table at the beginning of the next turn if I get terror bombed too bad.

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My Magic phase sees Pelt of Midnight successfully cast on the Lord’s Bestigors, while the Battle Standard Bearer (heretofore BSB ) miscasts while attempting Red Fire, earning himself 1 wound. The Lord then attempts to cast Red fire on the Reavers, but it is dispelled as is the attempt at Yellow Fire.

TURN 1 HIGH ELVES

The non-shooting units edge forward pensively, but Asarnil moves to the flank of the Right flank Bestigors to line up a breath shot.

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Drain Magic draws out my 1 Scroll, while Curse of Arrow Attraction on the Right flank Bestigors fails to cast.

In the shooting phase the hot flames of the Dragon only manage to kill 1 Bestigor and land a single wound on the Bray-shaman. The Bolt Thrower follows up with 1 kill on the same unit, but the Right flank Archers cannot land a wound.

The Left flank Archers and Reavers combined only manage to kill 1 Bestigor each from the BSB’s unit

TURN 2 BEASTMEN

I start my turn with a Terror test, which I promptly fail sending my Bray-shaman's Bestigors 5" directly away from Asarnil.

Both of my remaining Bestigor units reform. The three Herds ambush in, one behind the Bolt Thrower who does not scatter, and the two in my table edge who DO scatter, sending one all the way to the right flank table edge. They move on at top speed, desperate to close the gap.

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The BSB starts the Magic phase by miscasting Green Fire on the Reavers which results in him being unable to cast for the rest of the turn. The Lord casts Green Fire on the Silver Helms, but it is dispelled. Lastly, the Lord successfully casts Yellow Fire.

TURN 2 HIGH ELVES

Arsenil charges the fleeing Bestigor unit which flees 11" and out of range, the Reavers charge the BSB's Bestigors who hold in response, and lastly the Prince flies his Dragon between the newly arrived Beast Herd and the now engaged Bestigors. None of the shooting units move and the Silver Helms also refuse to come forward.

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The Magic phase is rather uneventful as Drain Magic and the Ring of Fury on the Dragon Prince are dispelled and Curse of Arrow Attraction fails to cast.

Shooting fairs MUCH better as 5 Ungors fall to the flames of the Prince's Dragon, yet stubbornly refuse to Panic. The Right flank Archers fail to wound against the Lord's Bestigors, but the Beast Herd behind the Bolt thrower loses 2 Ungors to the war machine along with 5 more Ungors from the Left flank Archers. Panicking, the Herd flees 7" which is enough to take them off the board.

Directed attacks from the Reavers finish off the BSB with the rest of the unit killing 2 Bestigors. The return attack kills 2 Reavers but does not manage to Break them.

TURN 3 BEASTMEN

The Beast Lord's Bestigors and Center Herd both pass their Terror tests. Panic on the Herd is another story, due to the proximity of the fleeing Bray-shaman's Bestigors, which sees the Beast Herd flee (Gee, it'd be nice if Ashley had jotted down the distance...). The Bray-Shaman's Bestigors then rally, followed by the Right flank Beast Herd moving toward the Dragon at top speed.

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Wild Call finally gets passed from the Staff of Darkoth as the dispel attempt fails!!!!!!! What's that? Fear test? Oh. Yeah. I failed it, which means no charge anyway.

The Lord casts Green Fire on the Silver Helms with Irresistible Force, and manages to get 1 killed. Undismayed, he then casts Red Fire on the Silver Helms killing 3 of them. Elven resolve sees them through the Panic test.

Finally, the Reavers direct attacks on the Bestigor Champ, killing him, 2 more Reavers die in return, and somehow they STILL pass their damn Break test. Oy...

I think this may be the moment I realize there's no way in Hell I'm going to win this. I check off a few quick "moral victory" goals and overall improve my mood before seeing what other absurdity awaited me.

TURN 3 HIGH ELVES

The Prince on Dragon declares a charge on the fleeing Herd which sends both of them off the board. Asarnil declares a charge on the Bray-shaman's Bestigor unit's flank, who hold but fail their Fear test meaning they will hit on 6's next turn.

The Left flank Archers do an about face to point back towards the main battle line as there was no more Herd in the back field to worry about. Nobody else moves.

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Curse of Arrow Attraction on the Beast Lord's unit was out of range, and Drain Magic was dispelled.

The Left flank Archers attempt to repeat their success from earlier as they take aim at the Lord's unit, but fail to wound a single model. The Bolt Thrower chases that performance with a single wound on the same unit.

The Reavers continue their competition for "Unit of the Game" by killing another Bestigor, but are finally killed to a man in this round. The Bestigors can do nothing except wait for next turn to maneuver anywhere.

Asarnil and his Dragon kill 6 (!) Bestigors who cannot answer back at all. Breaking horribly, the unit flees 12" with Asarnil rolling 13" to pursue, wiping the unit out.

TURN 4 BEASTMEN

The Left flank Bestigors reform to face the threat of the dual Dragons. The Lord's Bestigors move forward to the bridge, hoping to finally goad a charge from the Silver Helms, and the Right flank Beast Herd again moves at top speed toward the main battle line.

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Green Fire from the Lord is miscast, rolling a 7 on the chart and ending the phase. Ending the TURN, for that matter...

TURN 4 HIGH ELVES

The Silver Helms finally come off the bridge to charge something as my Lord's Bestigors choose to Hold to receive the charge.

The Dragons reposition to both burn the Left flank Bestigors. Yep, missile troops don't move.

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Curse of Arrow Attraction on the remaining Herd is dispelled, as is the Ring of Fury. Level 1 Drain Magic makes it through, as Ashley notes it's his first successful spell of the game.

The Prince's Dragon burns 6 Bestigors, but 3 make their saves, and Asarnil burns 3 more. Panic does the rest and the Bestigors flee 9". Meanwhile all three missile units each manage to kill 1 Ungor from the Beast Herd.

Both of us blurt out the word "CHALLENGE!!!!" simultaneously, his Silver Helm Champion leveling his lance toward my Beast Lord. Despite a formidable armor/ward save combo, the Champion manages to do a wound. In return, however, the Lord does 3 with no armor saves allowed. The combat around them sees the Silver Helms focus on killing the Bestigor Champion while the remaining Bestigors manage to only kill 1 of the noble Knights. Combat resolution sees the Helms losing and they promptly fail their Break test, fleeing 12". I enthusiastically scoop up my dice preparing to defy the odds and roll 3" for pursuit.

I gotta tell you, I was so pumped for this fight. Here we had that all star winning Knight unit that supposedly obliterated everything in its path against a unit that was really not built to take that charge AT ALL. I was hoping we'd see that net hyperbole result I'm always assured would happen, but no.

You know, I'm starting to think that Knight thing is a myth...

TURN 5 BEASTMEN

I start the turn by failing to rally my fleeing Bestigors who flee 5".

The Lord reforms his Bestigors to face the Dragons, hoping against for a charge. Meanwhile the final Beast Herd makes its way at top speed toward the Dragons.

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I land ANOTHER miscast this turn and roll an 8, ending the phase and the turn outright.

TURN 5 HIGH ELVES

The Silver Helms start the turn off by failing to rally and fleeing 16" off the board.

The Dragons move up to burn the Bestigor unit while the rest of the army unsurprisingly stands still.

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Curse of Arrow Attraction fails to cast, but is followed by an Irresistible Force roll on the Level 2 Drain Magic (Second High Elf spell successfully cast this game) leaving plenty of dice to dispel the Ring of Fury.

The Dragons burn 3 Bestigors to the ground. The Archers combined kill 3 Bestigors while the Bolt Thrower kills 3 more. Panic is passed.

TURN 6 BEASTMEN

My fleeing Bestigor unit finally rallies. The Lord's unit stays put while the Herd fails Unruly and heads at top speed toward the Dragons...



… which is where I intended to send them in the first place. I'm really not seeing Unruly as any sort of negative here.

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Green Fire is cast with Irresistible Force on the Left flank Arch... Oh, wait. Right, Drain Magic. Damn it. Red Fire is successful on the Bolt Thrower but the hits all land on the war machine and don't have a high enough strength to even wound it.

Damn...

TURN 6 HIGH ELVES

So I set up charges to get as many units in as possible, giving the Dragons multiple options. Where do they go? Yep, both into the Beast Herd. Terror is passed and I Hold in the vain hope I might have a few Spear attacks left after the initial onslaught.

The only other movement is the Mage leaving the Archers.

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Curse of Arrow Attraction is the only spell attempted and is dispelled easily.

All the shooting units combine shots on the Lord's Bestigors, with the Right flank Archers killing 2, the Left flank Archers killing 2, and the Bolt Thrower killing 1. Despite the barrage of death the unit passes its Panic test.

Knowing that my only shot of surviving this combat is to have enough alive to actually fight, my Herd Champion issues a challenge, which is accepted by the Prince who kills the Champ with ease and earns 4 Overkill points. Asarnil kills 4 Gors, and the Ungors left attacking wind up doing 1 wound to Asarnil! (Damn, moral victory right there...)

However, I think we all know where this fight is heading. The Herd flees 7" with the Prince pursuing 13" and Asarnil pursuing 11".

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And that's game. He obviously got the required amount of points in the deployment zone and secured the victory. Just as well, I didn't catch until I was typing this up that in the excitement of figuring out that I could keep all 3 characters on the board and send all 3 Herds in ambush I forgot that the Bray-shaman isn't allowed to join the Bestigors because they are marked. THAT's a black eye I won't live down anytime soon. Oh, well. I've been entertaining the thought of going Markless and this may be the motivation I need.

I really wish the victory conditions would have been "most miscasts and failed Psychology tests", I would have won with ease. That reminds me, there's a poster on dakka that dismissed my Dwarfs 6.5 concerns about Longbeards by saying "Immune to Panic isn't that big of a deal." Immune to Panic may very well have saved my entire game if I had access to it.

[Jonathan E]

You, er. Thread title. There's a significant lack of lizards in this one. I say that, but there's two whacking great ones right there...

Honestly, you did well to make into round three before needing the Moral Victory Anti-Tilt Mechanism. I would have found it hard not to clock out around the time I saw the army list, had I been in your shoes.

As a matter of interest, what did that points calculation for his win look like? I struggle to recall what does or doesn't count for Breakthrough and as such am having trouble gaming that scenario, figuring out what can actually win in a given engagement.

There's a poster on Dakka for any stupid "post less, play more" opinion that can be mustered. I don't put any stock in them. Not having to take Panic tests is great and anyone who can't see that needs to spend a decade playing armies that don't take them and then switch back. Harrumph, etcetera.

On a similar note, I genuinely wonder how much of the "amagurrd you guys cavalry is the borken" discourse has some edition smudging at its heart. Fifth had more genuinely brutal cavalry units (Cold One Knights spring immediately to mind) and I do find that a lot of people's memories have gone a long time unrefreshed, if you catch my drift. It's a rare player indeed who can recall even anecdotal data accurately some twenty to thirty years after the fact. I know the Facebook group throws up a lot of posts which have me chewing the table because I actually check which edition is being discussed and what the actual words in the books say instead of just gobbing off based on what I half remember through a decade's not-thinking-about-Warhammer-at-all fog...

This has gotten away from your battle somewhat, hasn't it? One more thing, it's about images: I'm surprised you don't use IMG tags and directly copy the URLs from Flickr, which I think would solve your problems with them all ending up clustered as attachments at the end.

[Just Tony]

You, er. Thread title. There's a significant lack of lizards in this one. I say that, but there's two whacking great ones right there...

Ooof. Fixed. Apparently I made that mistake when I posted it to the other classichammer site originally...

Honestly, you did well to make into round three before needing the Moral Victory Anti-Tilt Mechanism. I would have found it hard not to clock out around the time I saw the army list, had I been in your shoes.

Honestly? I view tough matches as a challenge to be tried at the very least. Objectivitis was also a BIG issue this game.

As a matter of interest, what did that points calculation for his win look like? I struggle to recall what does or doesn't count for Breakthrough and as such am having trouble gaming that scenario, figuring out what can actually win in a given engagement.

I don't have the rulebook on me currently, I'll footnote to edit once I get home...

There's a poster on Dakka for any stupid "post less, play more" opinion that can be mustered. I don't put any stock in them. Not having to take Panic tests is great and anyone who can't see that needs to spend a decade playing armies that don't take them and then switch back. Harrumph, etcetera.

Yeah, I added that footnote because it was fresh at the time. The comment was in response to my incessant bitching about the Dwarfs 6.5 book, and being told the Longbeard issues from that book weren't issues because ItP wasn't that pivotal a rule, especially on Dwarfs. My argument is that you don't realize how much you fail Panic tests until you actually have to TAKE them.

On a similar note, I genuinely wonder how much of the "amagurrd you guys cavalry is the borken" discourse has some edition smudging at its heart. Fifth had more genuinely brutal cavalry units (Cold One Knights spring immediately to mind) and I do find that a lot of people's memories have gone a long time unrefreshed, if you catch my drift. It's a rare player indeed who can recall even anecdotal data accurately some twenty to thirty years after the fact. I know the Facebook group throws up a lot of posts which have me chewing the table because I actually check which edition is being discussed and what the actual words in the books say instead of just gobbing off based on what I half remember through a decade's not-thinking-about-Warhammer-at-all fog...

Not only that but the 6th Ed. Combat Resolution rules punish cav a bit more than it does ranked infantry.

And yeah, there's been more than a few times where I've had someone guff up something due to cross-edition mistakes. I also have people repeat stuff like "You can consolidate 2D6" into another combat in 3rd!!!" which is demonstrably false.

This has gotten away from your battle somewhat, hasn't it? One more thing, it's about images: I'm surprised you don't use IMG tags and directly copy the URLs from Flickr, which I think would solve your problems with them all ending up clustered as attachments at the end.

All f ixed now. My goal is to stop using Flickr entirely. The issue this time was uploading all my pics at once and saving so I could move from one computer to another here at work.

[Jonathan E]

Honestly? I view tough matches as a challenge to be tried at the very least. Objectivitis was also a BIG issue this game.

That's fair. I think this is the biggest difference between me and the majority of sixth ed. revivalists: I consider games as a playful, pastime activity and I'm far more concerned with the vibe around the table than with the challenge aspect or "gittin gud". Mostly I'm playing to make things happen, and those things might well be my NPCs falling over like dominos as the Dragons run rampant. I hope I'd be able to share my opponent's joy in that at least, and I'm much more likely to reach that if I divest myself from the matter of trying to win.

[Just Tony]

Innit great when you catch a glaring mistake long afterward? It seems you can only mark 1 Bestigor unit which means my other 2 marked units were illegal. Ooooof.

[Alarantalara]

I have another mistake for you.

You won.

Characters and monsters don't count towards scoring for the attacker. The Silver Helms were off the board and the reavers wiped out and I can see the archers and bolt thrower still in the attacker's deployment zone in the images for the last turn. Since that covers all the units, the attackers scored 0 of the required 667 victory points to win.

At the end of the battle, each attacking unit in the defender's deployment zone is worth its points value in Victory points. Units that are fleeing, monsters and characters do not count towards this total.

I suspect avoiding games like this is exactly why that clause is there.

[Just Tony]

...



Son of a bitch...



Okay, I think it's time to bring the books to work and have some SERIOUS rereading time, complete with taking notes about observations.

[TinyLegions]

That was a good review. I don't have the rulebook out but it looks like Ashley's army could have only barely won the game assuming that he got minimal casualties. I am relying on Jonathon's calculation but he only has 716 points worth of troops that could realistically get into your deployment zone. Not impossible, but very hard to do.