went down the store and found a gamer who played high elves. I had never played him, nor high elves before so I was excited. So excited that I wrote this novel of a battle report for your monday morning enjoyment!

His list: Mage lord, Mage L2, BSB. Phoenix Gaurd (uber infantry unit for the elves), Spearmen, 3 bolt throwers, archers, 2 chariots, Dragon Princes and an eagle

My list: Shaman orc lord, shaman orc L2, 2 night gobbo shamans L2. lots of garbage (small units of orcs, 3 fast cavs, 2 units of snotlings, 2 units of night gobbos with fanatic each) and war machines (chukkas, doom diver, lobba) and then for some heavy hitting support a big unit of Black Orcs and a Giant.

I had a hill in my deployment zone on my left, a forest on the right deployment zone, and an impassable terrain piece in the mid/right. He had a hill on my right in his deployment, and a forest on my left in his deployment.

He deployed 2 bolt throwers on the hill, one in the forest. Chariots deployed together on my left, nearby his spearmen block. Phoenix Gaurd in the center, Dragon princes and archers on the center/right. nothing far right.

I deployed heavily to the left ... two chukkas & a doom diver on the hill, with lots of protection surrounding the hill ... gobbo archers in front of the hill, squig hoppers on the right of the hill, along with some spider riders, black orcs and another unit of spider riders to the left of the hill, and another unit of orcs and snotlings in front of them. This left a unit of wolf riders, the other unit of gobbos, a unit of snots, and a unit of orcs over towards the center /right. Also the Giant deployed so that he'd be behind the impassable terrain and out of sight of all his magic and shooting.

For my magic, I managed to roll so that NONE of my 4 mages got the key Foot of Gork / Gork Warpath spell that does not require LOS. As a result, I had to deploy my mages with units rather than in a forest or behind terrain out of harms way. This would of course cause issues later ...

He got turn 1 - moved his eagle up to threaten the hill of war machines .... moved his Phonex gaurd with the mages up far enough to get some magic going, and moved his chariots and dragon princes up (his dragon princes moved all the way up to the far side of the impassable terrain). He got off one missile spell with irresistable, killing enough spider riders to have them panic off the board. His bolt thrower opened up on the wolf riders and sent them to the same fate.

My Turn 1 - I moved bunch of stuff up, most notably the giant behind the impassable terrain, making it impossible for his dragon princes to advance without taking a charge from the Giant. I'd be satisfied to leave my giant there for the next 2 turns while he let his dragon princes sit on the other side stuck there. Magic and shooting phase had nothing serious to speak of although I did use my chukkas to kill his Eagle!

Elves Turn 2 - He continued to whittle me down with shooting an magic - those freaking bolt throwers are nasty! He caused by gobbo unit on the right (which had a shaman in it!) to panic and flee off the table before they could even dump off their fanatic into the Dragon princes! I also lost the key bound item (horn or urgok).

Orc turn 2 - I move up my other unit of gobbos and deposit the other fanatic towards his chariots - score a direct hit on one but somehow roll bad enough to cause zero wounds leaving them unharmed! I had managed to charge the 2nd chariot with a unit of snotlings just hoping to tie it up enough to get some other stuff into position. These snotlings were the men of the match! they not only tied up the chariot for 2 turns, they almost defeated it and caused 2 wounds on it! If not for the BSB being in range they would have caused it to flee. My magic and shooting also continue to try to whittle away at his units - i manage to kill 2 of his 5 d-princes, but even though i am getting direct hits with my diver and lobba on the Phonex gaurd they are making all their saves (they get a 4+ ward!!!) I realize too late that this effort to panic the Phoenix is futile and I should have focused my shooting elsewhere. Oh well, live and learn.

Elves turn 3 - he charges his chariot towards some of my garbage units and they flee, leaving his chariot exposed - my bolt throwers finish it off in the following turn. His magic misfires, as I had got off the "gork'll fix it spell" causing his 6's to turn into 1's! this is my new favorite spell against magic heavy armies, as this caused his magic phase to immediately end as well as take a wound on the mage! He also moves forward with his d-princes, hoping to get off a magic movement spell, but since he misfired they are left in prime position for my Giant to gobble them up!

Orc Turn 3 - My giant makes short work of the d-princes and over-runs towards his phoenix gaurd. but he is gonna have to take a round of shooting as he is left exposed to the bolt throwers! Meanwhile my Black Orcs are making their way across the board to challenge his spearmen, and I continue to try to whittle away with magic and warmachines to no avail (scatter rolls work against me and magic does take down a few guys here and there but his magic defense is pretty good). He also finally gets rid of the snotlings leaving his chariot open for the next turn ...

Elf Turn 4 - he charges his chariot into the flank of my Black orcs but does only 1 wound, I do one back and win the combat, he flees into the Squigs but does more damage to them with his impact hits while fleeing! Both the chariot and the squigs die. We continue to go back and forth with magic and shooting, he does 3 wounds on my giant - not enough to stop him!

Orc Turn 4 - My wifecalled me as this turn began and said I had to meet her at the car dealer right away, so this has to be the last turn (word to you young guys: odon't get married!) I go balls to the wall and declare a WAAAGHHH and charge my Black Orcs (with my shaman lord) into his spearmen, and my giant into his Phoneix gaurd. My giant rolls JUMP UP AND DOWN on his Mage lord, and grinds him into pulp!!! woohhoooo!! In return however, his BSB kills my shaman lord by using his Always Strikes first to take him down quickly. I miss all my ward saves on 3 wounds, and now we are both down a general. His spearmen cause enough wounds on my Blorcs with their ASF rule to cause them to flee in the resulting combat res and get cut down.

We decide the game to be a Draw, as I still have enough magic to cause some good damage to him, as well as all my war machines in tact, and my Giant is about to Jump up and down all over his Phoenix gaurd, but he still has enough points on the board to make it very close.

A good game overall! Very much back and forth. With two magic-heavy armies, the game was rather slow as it takes alot of thinking to decide when to try to dispel something or let it go thru, and we both were deliberating over these decisions.

I learned not to bother shooting at a unit that has 4+ ward saves! I should have focused my war machines on other targets - it's just that his big block of Phoenix made such asn easy target to hit! I guess that is the point - to use that unit to try to absorb all the magic and shooting attacks. I will know not to bother next time I face those guys and look for better targets.

He was a good player although if I were to critisize anything I think his deployment of the chariots and the D-princes could have been more optimal ... I guess since I had at least 5 more drops than him it was easy for me to out-deploy him.

High elf magic is nasty - they get D3 extra power dice every turn, so even though he only had two mages, he was getting 9 to 11 P-dice every turn! they also have a nasty spell to Drain Magic that he used effectively at the end of each of his turns, to impact my ability to do offensive magic.

Can't wait til the tourney next weekend, I feel like I definitely learned quite a bit with this list and am ready for a rematch!

Optimistic please feel free to add any notes or observations you had as well, and thanks for a great game! Sorry I had to cut it short, thanks for your understanding.

-Erik