Return of the Relics

A Wood Elf vs Beastmen 1000 points battlereport - 8th edition

So the time has finally come, the very first Warhammer battle in years. Opposing (and hosting) is my nemesis, long time gamebuddy, allround cheery `Guy`.

His force didn`t require restoration, just a decent dust off, and he brought the following to battle: a unit Bestigor with his hero level general, a unit gor with a level 2 shaman, a unit ungor with spears, a tuskgor chariot and 2 small units of hounds.



I used the army list I published here earlier...

Both forces deploy, a very thin greenline versus a massive furry battlehost. Needles to say, he won both deployment and first turn rolls




Beastmen Turn 1 didn`t see much action as he didn`t have charges, no missile troops, and his spells out of range. He had Devolve, and the thing with the Breath Attack, while I had Treesinging and Fury of the Forest.
The wood elf first turn saw the wizard unresistably miscasting Fury, and a war dancer and two Dryads where blown to smithereens by the arcane explosion that caused. Fortunatly, so was the Tuskgor chariot as the spell caused 5 hits, 5 wounds, and only 1 saved...



In the shooting phase, the Glade Guard containing my general and the Waywatchers halved the Ungor unit, but they passed the resulting Panic test.



Turn 2 was more action packed, as a unit of hounds charged my Dryads, and the Ungors thundered into the Waywatchers. Both combats where very bloody for one side, my waywatchers reduced to one man, who failed his break test... and managed to actually get away. On the other side, the Dryads broke the hounds for no loss themselves, ligning up to charge the second warhound unit.




The second wood elf turn also saw various charges, the Dryads and Eagle charging into the second warhound unit, while the War Dancers charged the gor unit with the shaman... who went into a Frenzy... oh boy...



The shooting phase was the coup de grace for the Beastmen, and in essence the battle had ended here. Unleashing the Hail of Doom Arrow on the Bestigors, the shaft split into 14 arrows of which 13 hit and 6 wounded. 6 Dead Bestigor and then the Glade Guards themselves opened up with their 15 shots. Causing a further 7 hits, these wounded 6 times and the Bestigor decided that it was cosier in their own deployment zone. Being under 25% meant they could only rally on snake eyes, but more importantly they dragged the Beastmen general along...




Close combat was a blessing for the Asrai host, as for some miraculous reason, the War Dancers only lost 3 of their number and passed the -1 Break test with ease, keeping the Gors locked. The Dryads made short work of the second hound unit, even before the Eagle had a chance to strike.




Beastmen turn three only had the combat, and the Gors managed to strike down 3 further war Dancers, however at a loss of 6 of their number, and failing the breaktest they got away... and also would only be able to rally on double 1.



The game was over, but we did the last Wood Elf turn as well, which saw some charges to make the fleeing units run ever farther, and a combination of Fury of the Forest striking down 5 ungor and panicking them, only to be shot down in their flight by the glade guard.






Thus ended the very first battle for both of us in about 5 - 6 years. I nominate the Spellsinger as lass of the match, managing to channel almost each and every dispel phase and keeping the Beastmen magic more or less in check, while succeeding in casting and causing a fair amount of damage with her Fury of the Forest in two out of three casting phases...




Conclusion of the game? WFB8 plays a lot more fluently then we where used to, with all the looking up, chat breaks, and all taking slightly over 2 hours (including deployment) to fight out this engagement of old timers.