Reecius continues to learn Age of Sigmar with his Wood Elves vs. a veteran AoS gamer: Scott and his awesome looking Death Warband in a special scenario: The Watch Tower!
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Scott's 50 Wound List:
- 1 Vampire lord on mount
- 1 Necromancer
- 1 Morris Engine
- 6 Hexwraiths
- 2 units of 3 Spirit host
Reecius' 50 Wound Wood Elf list:
- Durthu
- 8 Dryads
- 5 Waywatchers
- 5 Waywatchers
- 5 Glade Riders
- Waywatcher Lord
- Spellsinger
Deployment: The Wood Elves would be the attacker in the Scenario, starting all units within 8" of either short table edge.
The Wood Elves deploy along a broad front, ready to advance! Important to note, we were using the craters as Sylvaneth Wyldwoods as mine are not yet painted.
Death was defending the Watch Tower, with a unit of Spirit Host and a Necromancer on it, all other forces coming in from the opposite short table edge turn 1!
Turn 1: Initiative: Wood Elves
Glade Riders with their speedy 14" moved go up the flank, loosing arrows into the Spirit Hosts. Durthu advanced to within 3" of a Wyldwood to utilize his teleportation ability next turn. The Dryads and Waywatchers ran forward and the Waywatcher Lord moved forward and let fly some of his own arrows into the Spirit Hosts.
The Glade Riders benefit from Mystic Shield from the Spellsinger as I planned on having them rush into melee next turn. The Spellsinger decided not to run forward which would turn out to be a big goof on my part.
The forces of Death came in from reserves to support their spirit bros in the Watch Tower. He also adds Mystic Shield to the Spirit Host in the tower, giving them a huge save bonus!
Spooky Ghosts advancing! Turn 2: Initiative: Wood Elves
Durthu used the Spirit Paths to teleport up into the Wyldwood near the Watch Tower, and the rest of my forces advanced. The archers all let lose with arrows but the 2+ ignores rend save on the Spirit Hosts means they're tough to hurt. The Dryads ran forward to get into melee next turn.
In combat, Durthu made the 9" charge but then bounced off of the incredible defense of the Spirit Hosts...doh! Had I ran the Spellsinger on turn 1, he would have been able to automatically dispell the Mystic Shield that made them so hard to hurt and any successful wound from Durthu would have done 6 wounds! Similarly, the Glade Riders did very little damage. Lesson learned: I should have had all my archers go after the much more vulnerable Necromancer to take away those buffs and been patient.
Death counter attacks! The Hexwraiths take Mystic Shield from the Necromancer and then charged Durthu. The Mortis Engine flew up the table and blasted my Glade Riders with 4 mortal wounds, ouch! The Vampire Lord and Spirit Host ran forward. In Melee, the Spirit Hosts get Stomped by Durthu and lose their ability to cause Mortal Wounds which was super useful. Durthu swung before the Hexwraiths and only 1 wound got through but as it auto caused 6 wounds, 3 of them exploded! He then took a wound in return.
Turn 3: Initiative: Death
The dreaded double turn! Death won the initiative and I was sweating bullets. The Vampire Lord came in hot to attack Durthu! He along with the Hexwraiths dropped him down to 7 wounds, ouch! But in return, Durthu wiped out the rest of the Hexwraiths. The Stomp again prevented the Spirit Hosts from doing Mortal Wounds (they need to roll a 6 to cause them, Groundshaking Stomp is -1 to hit) which really helped me out.
The Mortis Engine flew up, unleashed his once per game mortal wound AoE attack and wasted a bunch of my Dryads and last Glade Guard...yikes. It then charged into the Dryads and the Waywatchers. Previously, by instinct, we'd be charging as in 40k: going the shortest distance. However, in AoS you simply move your charge distance and must end within 1/2" of the target unit. Any units within 3" are then engaged. This is a big difference! It allows a single model to engage multiple units which can be very useful and opens the door to a lot of strategies we missed at first. The Mortis Engine then beat up on some of my Waywatchers and Dryads =(
In my turn, I focused all of my ranged fire on the Necromancer as its spell allowing the Spirit Hosts to attack twice was brutal! Between my Waywatchers and lord, I did drop the Wizard, but only just! My Spellsinger moved over to support the Waywatchers stuck in melee, bringing some of them back to life with his spell. Had he been further up field, I could have been trying to unbind spells all game and used his once per game auto-unbind ability which is so good. Bad positioning bit me in the butt on this one.
In melee, Durthu and the Vampire Lord beat on one another. As Durthu no longer did 6 auto wounds and had a debuff spell cast on him lowering his attacks, he didn't slay the Vampire Lord outright, but did take a big chunk out of him! The Spirit Hosts, once again, were unable to Mortally Wound Durthu thanks to his Groundshaking Stomp ability. This really saved my bacon all game. The Mortis Engine smoked some more Waywatchers and smacked my Spellsinger, too! He now only had 2 wounds left and I quickly realized going into melee with him was a terrible idea, haha.
Turn 4: Initiative: Wood Elves
Double turn for me! My Lord and unengaged unit of Waywatchers loose arrows into the Vampire Lord and with their 2 damage shots, managed to slay him! Huzzah! Shooting into and out of combat at full effect is a bit much, I have to say. There should be some penalty, but I digress. Stake to the heart, Vampire Lord!
In melee, Durthu finished off the last Spirit Host in the Watch Tower, claiming it for the Wood Elves! The Mortis Engine continued to take a beating from my Dryads and Wanderers, but finished off the last Waywatchers it was engaged with.
Death, now running low on units, continued to try and go for the Watch Tower. The last unit of Spirit Hosts assaulted Durthu!
Unfortunately, Durthu once again Stomped the Spirit Hosts preventing them from doing Mortal Wounds and effectively stopping them from hurting him. He in turn, slew two of them in combat.
The Mortis Engine killed my Spellsinger who had no business in melee in the first place, lol, but the last of the Dryads held firm, passing their Battleshock test and taking another wound off the ghostly carriage.
We rolled to see if the game would go on another turn, but it did not. Thus, the game ended with Durthu--bloodied but still standing--locked in combat with the last Spirit Host on the Watch Tower meaning neither of us held it. I had slain the Vampire Lord and the Necromancer, earning me two bonus points, but I had not gotten into Scott's third of the table leaving me with a grand total of 2 bonus points.
Death had failed to achieve any of their mission objectives so in the end, Wood Elves win! Scott quickly realized that had he simply retreated from combat with his Mortis Engine, he could have gotten on to the Watch Tower and won the game, having two models on it to my one, but he got caught up in trying to beat me in combat. Lesson learned!
It was a very fun game and the scenario was great. This was my first time playing against these Death units and Scott's army was much different than Brandon's Zombie themed army I have been playing against. Once again, Durthu carried my army. His Stomp essentially won me the game as it prevented those deadly mortal wounds from taking him out much earlier. The Spirit Hosts have a ton of attacks which when doubled by the Necromancer, are crazy! So many chances to roll that 6 to hit and score a mortal wound would have taken Durthu out early but I kept rolling a 4+ on them to apply that -1 to hit.
In retrospect, I would have killed that Necromancer much earlier and waited a bit to attack the tower as with my superior shooting, there was no reason to rush in so quickly. I could have blasted him with arrows and then charged in the last turn or two after I softened him up. Either way though, super fun game. Age of Sigmar is growing on us all in a big way. While simple to learn, there is so much depth to the game and with the General's Handbook coming out bringing points and some structure to the game, I think it is going to really take off!
Thank you for reading and as always, Frontline Gaming sells Age of Sigmar product at up to 25% off, every day! You can also pick up some cheap used Age of Sigmar models in our Second Hand Shop!
