Warmaster Game Day: Dark Elves vs. High Elves

  On Sunday 8th January, 2017, our local gaming club ran a little "Games Day" for Warmaster!

  The plan this year is to have about half a dozen such days - where we can run the games which interest us and we feel others might be willing to have a go at with a loaner army even if they don't have the models / rules themselves.

  My fellow club-member Denis wrote up the first match of the day from his perspective as I taught the rules to his son using a spare army I had brought along.

  Denis took some photos of the 2nd game of the day for us; his Dark Elves vs my High Elves.

  Denis's army is a work in progress as the models for DE are hard to get hold of, nowadays.  As a result, he plumped out his list with magic items, which don't normally give a very good return on investment in Warmaster.  Operative word there being "normally".  With a bit of luck and cunning they can be a decisive factor if you get the right unit in the right place!  The downside of this for Denis is that his break point is lower, meaning it should be easier to destroy enough units to defeat him...

Dark Elf Army, 1500 points
----------------------------------------------------------------
 230 -  3 Spearmen
     -  1 Battle Banner (50)
 125 -  1 Crossbowmen
     -  1 Banner of Shielding (50)
 345 -  3 Dark Riders
     -  1 Banner of Fortitude (50)
     -  1 Sword of Cleaving (10)
 290 -  2 Cold One Knights
     -  1 Banner of Steadfastness (30)
  55 -  1 Bolt Thrower
 255 -  1 General
     -  1 Crown of Command (100)
  90 -  1 Hero
     -  1 Sword of Destruction (10)
 110 -  1 Sorceress
     -  1 Ring of Magic (30)
----------------------------------------------------------------
1500 - 10/5

Denis deployed in the corner, concentrating his forces and forcing me to come to him.

High Elf Army, 1500 points
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 180 -  3 Spearmen
 225 -  3 Archers
 220 -  2 Silver Helms
 200 -  2 Reavers
 190 -  2 Chariots
  70 -  1 Giant Eagles
  65 -  1 Elven Bolt Thrower
 180 -  1 General
  80 -  1 Hero
  90 -  1 Wizard
----------------------------------------------------------------
1500 - 14/7

For myself, I deployed in a typical pattern - all infantry in the centre with cavalry on each far flank.

---


High Elf Turn 1

My first game against Denis's turn was characterised by my battle line barely even moving.  However, I was off to a strong enough start I thought, here.  The main block of infantry stubbornly refused to move, however, and more importantly, my elite Silver Helms cavalry dug their heels in too.


Dark Elf Turn 1

Denis's Dark Elves steered out to meet me.  I felt that I had a chance to bring things to a speedy conclusion...


High Elf Turn 2

Best laid plans of mice and uh... elves!  My chariot line shuffled forward into charging range... Then failed their command, even with the General's beedy eye on them!  All infantry failed to move and my elites shuffled forward towards enemy crossbows and spears but no furth.


Dark Elf Turn 2

Denis wasted no time in mashing his elite Cold One cavalry into my Chariots and Reavers, breaking the back of one of my flanks.  Shooting and magic confused some of my Silver Helms, putting paid to my hopes of a decisive blow with them.  Bolt Throwers wheeled closer to my infantry...


High Elf Turn 3

An attempt to claw back some kills ended very badly for my surviving cavalry on the left flank.  The Silver Helms that were still in order finally were unleashed, smashing into the DE infantry - as I planted my Giant Eagles behind as a threat to support them.  My infantry shuffled forward but there were no great marches, there.


Dark Elf Turn 3

The Dark Elves mopped up the last of the light cavalry - and made an attempt to rout the Giant Eagles and Silver Helms threatening them. 


High Elf Turn 4

Another appalling round of non-commands, nothing moving except on initiative as the Giant Eagles sacrifice themselves to shield the Silver Helms from an imminent hail of crossbow bolts.


Dark Elf Turn 4

Dark Elves reposition to mop up the Great Eagles but fail to maneouvre to crush the surviving cavalry...


High Elf Turn 5

 Finally!  Some forced marches seem to be happening!  Reserves of the previously confused/lazy Silver Helms move in for the kill and the infantry surge forward and spread out, splitting off to tidy up the loose ends of some surviving Cold Ones.  At this point, though it had been getting close - the successful commands pretty much guaranteed that the low Dark Elf breakpoint was going to be reached so we called it at that.

Something I thought was going to be a relatively easy, quick game with the High Elves having the advantage of numbers became something much more interesting - and a lesson for me on the strengths of the Cold Ones and of magic items...

Warmaster Battle Report: Chaos vs. Orcs

  I was invited to my friend Mark's house for a rematch of Warmaster!

We both decided to go for a 2000 point - a - side game, with Mark taking his customary Orc & Goblin list and Chaos for myself.

My army list was:

Chaos Army, 2000 points
Warmaster Armies
----------------------------------------------------------------
 300 -  2 Chaos Warriors
 180 -  3 Chaos Marauders
 270 -  3 Marauder Horsemen
 205 -  1 Chaos Knights
     -  1 Sword of Fate (5)
 120 -  4 Chaos Hounds
 285 -  3 Chaos Chariots
  65 -  1 Harpies
 110 -  1 Chaos Spawn
 125 -  1 General
 160 -  2 Hero
 180 -  2 Sorcerer
----------------------------------------------------------------
2000 - 18/9

EDIT: Mark has corrected me with the correct list:

Orc Army, 2000 points
Warmaster Armies
----------------------------------------------------------------
360 - 6 Orc Warriors
110 - 1 Black Orcs
150 - 5 Goblins
110 - 1 Trolls
330 - 3 Boar Riders
180 - 3 Wolf Riders
150 - 1 Giant
150 - 2 Rock Lobber
195 - 1 Orc General
- 1 Crown of Command (100)
160 - 2 Orc Hero
45 - 1 Orc Shaman
60 - 2 Goblin Shaman
----------------------------------------------------------------
2000 - 22/11 

I finally have not just a fully painted Chaos army, but enough units painted that I have different options to try out in my list.  For this one I went for almost the maximum light cavalry that I could have for the points, as Chaos command is expensive, with a minimum unit cost which is likewise a bit pricey.

I went for a terrain dense board as usual, I hadn't brought out my cliff / pass terrain for a while so I thought I'd put it down as a dominant feature in the centre.

My favourite way of setting up, as suggested in the rulebook, is to write down roughly where your brigades are on a piece of paper as your opponent does the same.  The scale of Warmaster means that even at 2000 points on a 6` by 4` table you can keep your forces entirely on one side of the table.  Rather than doing the "I place one unit, you place one" which usually ends up with everyone trying to counteract one another and spreading out in a thin line - this way usually ends up with more interesting games where opponents double guess one another then have to compensate for miscalculations.

Deployment

This is the initial setup, Mark's Orcs all cosied up on one side, cavalry on the flanks, artillery in the middle.  As for myself, I am pretty evenly spread out in infantry and cavalry brigades.

Orcs Turn 1

 Mark won initiative but didn't have much luck with his command rolls.  He made a bit of an error in putting his elite Black Orcs unit directly behind his Giant.  When a Giant fails an order you have to roll on the "Oh No, What's He Doing, Now?" chart.  In this case, he ran backwards, engaged the Black Orcs and crippled them!

He plugged some gaps  in the terrain with his cavalry but most everything else wasn't too interested in moving.  Orcs managed a nasty "Gerroff!" spell (the bane of my life) which broke my main cavalry formation and sent a Marauder Cavalry unit off the table.

Chaos Turn 1

 I had a lot of movement in my turn, all infantry marching forward to the hills, all cavalry moving up, as my Marauder Cavalry remained stubbornly off table.

Orcs Turn 2

  A much more aggressive turn, with a wall of goblin Wolf Riders crashing into my chariots, and a Giant clashing with my Chaos Warriors on the hill.  However, the Wolf Riders only managed a few wounds before withdrawing, allowing me to sweep in and destroy them all!  The Giant didn't do so well against me, and brimming with over-confidence, I attempted to pursue him and was taught a lesson in how tough monstrous creatures can be! I limped off with just one stand remaining, but the Giant was severely wounded and reduced to half strength.

Chaos Turn 2

 Harpies managed to get the drop at the rear of Mark's army, moving behind the remaining Black Orcs and Rock Lobber units near the centre.

My Chaos Chariots charge a brigade of Orc Boyz who had been following up the Wolf Riders and destroy them!

A foolhardy infantry group of mine attempt to charge some Boar Boyz, doing some damage but end up being crippled.

My Chaos Marauder Cavalry finally come back on the table and sweep to the left, hoping to maybe flank the Giant or move to threaten the artillery in the centre.

The elite cavalry including some Chaos Knights pushes forward from one piece of cover to another in order to challenge the Boar Boyz.

Orc Turn 3

The Giant attempts another movement, but can't get into combat, instead hurling a stone at a remaining Chaos Warrior stand which is driven back!

The enraged Boar Boyz crush the last of the Chaos infantry at the loss of one of its own units.

The artillery finally had some targets to shoot alongside goblins hiding in the treeline but failed to take out the remnants of the Chaos Chariot units on the left flank.

Chaos Turn 3

My cavalry move forward, destroying a surviving Boar Boyz unit and not doing a very good job of attacking a reserve brigade of Orc Boyz.

Everything else refused to move, but on initiative my Harpies rear charged the Black Orcs defending the artillery section and destroyed them, but did not do so decisively enough to have the momentum to move into the Rock Lobbers and destroy them as well.

Conclusion:

At this point in the game, I had lost a lot of stands, but Mark had lost more individual units.  He had lost:

3 Orc Boyz units
3 Wolf Rider units
2 Boar Boy units
1 Black Orc unit

But I had only lost:

1 Chaos Warrior unit
1 Chaos Marauder Infantry unit

At this point, he conceded.  I was definitely close to losing several units, but only needed to destroy a couple more of his to earn a victory.

I consistently complain about Orcs having cheap spellcasters in their games, but having a General who only has a command of 8 can be a pretty big impediment as I saw.  Mark attempts to counter act this by using the Crown of Command magic item.  It's powerful, to be sure, but it's 100 points, a big investment for any army.

Overall a good game which could have gone either way!

Frostgrave Game Day

I game at MADgamers most Friday nights:

http://madgamers.co.uk/

We're small in number but big in spirit and I have met some great people that way.  Over the years we have occasionally set up a small "Game Day" where we pick the current "Flavour of the Month" game that has been popular and most people play and set up to have a few of us spend a Saturday or Sunday morning and afternoon playing a couple of games.  Either in a tournament style or just for fun.  It's all good fun and we all chuck in a fiver to keep the Club piggy bank in good health!

We also do a memorial game to honour members no longer with us who have passed on.  Previous games have included Warmaster and SAGA.

This Sunday just passed (9th October 2016) we held a little Frostgrave game day; two games from the Thaw of the Lich Lord expansion book which is a series of linked scenarios.

We managed to get just two games in but that with with five players each time sizing each other up!  The games were quite lengthy, with monsters summoned every time we rolled a 1.  I didn't do a blow by blow because that would have taken page after page, but I took a few action shots just to give a nice overview:

Mark's forces move forward to steal the loot!

 The fluffy cotton balls are an easy way to show snow drifts as terrain, and the cardboard cut outs are ship wreckes in a frozen river.  A human servant of the Lich King is about to awake and two of my friends' warbands are bracing to take him down and steal his loot!

A wider shot showing the first scenario where an eclipse lowered visibility for models but allowed a single turn of huge bonuses for mages and their apprentices.

I am especially fond of this model, which my friend, Russ, modelled to show the "two fingered salute" of an archer, viz. Agincourt.

We're hoping to do a Warmaster game day at some point and I look forward to it!  I have quite a bit of terrain for it now and would be happy to make more.  Also, I have two armies painted now, so would be able to loan one!  I hope to have more painted in the coming months, as well.

Warmaster Battle Report: High Elves vs. Chaos

  I have, off and on, taken photos of many club nights or games that I have played.

They are rarely good, and by the time I remember to do them I realise that I have a very incomplete reference of a battle, usually half a turn in or at the very end when things are half tidied away!

This past Friday, however, I made the effort of taking them after each player's part of a turn, to give a clearer sense of movement and casualties.

It's hardly a 90s White Dwarf feature but I scribbled on the photos with Paint Tool Sai and I think it's pretty readable, with some narration...

Deployment

This was a game put on at the last minute using all my own terrain and models, painted, for the first time ever!  We had to settle at ~1300 points, a bit unusual but that's what I had to hand.  I believe the lists were:

High Elf Army, 1315 points
----------------------------------------------------------------

120 -  2 Spearmen

150 -  2 Archers

440 -  4 Silver Helms

190 -  2 Chariots

65 -  1 Elven Bolt Thrower

180 -  1 General

80 -  1 Hero

90 -  1 Wizard
----------------------------------------------------------------
1315 - 11/6

Vs.

Chaos Army, 1300 points
----------------------------------------------------------------

300 -  2 Chaos Warriors

120 -  2 Chaos Marauders

180 -  2 Marauder Horsemen

120 -  4 Chaos Hounds

285 -  3 Chaos Chariots

125 -  1 General

80 -  1 Hero

90 -  1 Sorcerer
----------------------------------------------------------------
1300 - 13/7

I was playing High Elves and my friend Mark was playing Chaos.  I went over the points limit slightly for High Elves, but Chaos were allowed 4 chaos hound units to compensate; something normally only allowed at the 2000 points level.

We both had a solid brigade of core infantry, but we knew that it would be the cavalry that would win or lose the battle, as is often the case in Warmaster.

Chaos Turn 1

  Mark's Chaos Horde (mostly) advanced with confidence, creating a battle line that looked quite solid from my side.  Only a couple of chaos hounds units on a flank failed to heed the call of Tzeentch.  Lacking in missile weaponry, he waited to see my opening moves.

High Elf Turn 1

 I decided to take a risk with my High Elves and split them, even as my infantry core failed to advance into position!  I put my Eagles right beside the Chaos chariots threatening to the right, in the hopes of forcing them to pull back or expose a flank to my own chariots.  Chaos Hounds threatened from the rear but I felt the Eagles worth sacrificing in order to sieze this side of the board.

My Silver Helm cavalry on the left split into two units of two, one blocking the way of the Chaos Marauder Cavalry, the other awaiting to see how Mark's core battle line would move.

My Bolt Thrower artillery crept forward just enough to get an enemy chariot unit in sight and, to my amazement, all 6 shots hit, and all 6 armour saves were failed, crippling the unit and pushing it back in a state of confusion, losing 2 out of its 3 stands!

Chaos Turn 2

  Enraged by my nasty elven habit of shooting poxy arrows from afar, Mark charged his Marauder cavalry through the wooded area on the left to meet my silver helms head on.  A tough struggle ensued, but Chaos fell back and were destroyed, allowing my Silver Helms to push forward in a combat reform and threaten his rear.

Mark moved his reserve Chariot unit to threaten my own reserve Silver Helms in the centre.

On the right hand side the Chaos Hounds were whipped into advancing but slavered and dug their heels before they could strike my Eagles.

High Elf Turn 2

 

  Fresh from defeating the Chaos Marauder Cavalry on the left flank, the remains of my Silver Helms crashed into two units of Chaos Hounds in the flank and rear, ensuring their doom.

A series of successful commands saw the remaining Silver Helms bypassing the intercepting Chaos Chariot unit and crashing into the brigade of Chaos infantry.

Meanwhile, my infantry were roused from their lethargy and pushed forward along with the bolt throwers, meaning that they could shoot at the lone Chaos Chariot unit, damaging it and putting it into confusion.

On the right hand side, my chariots crashed into Mark's Chaos forces, supported by the Eagles, destroying not just the two Chaos Chariots that had been worrying me, but also a Chaos Hound unit.

At this point, Mark had reached his breakpoint of seven units lost, so we called the match there before doing the Silver Helms on Chaos infantry combats.

RESULT:

Chaos: 7 units lost (Approx. 490 points)
High Elves: 0 units lost (Approx. 145 points)

Conclusion:

This was, I believe, the fastest game of Warmaster that I have ever played.  I also believe it is one of the very, very few times that I have won.  We played on a simple battlefield and our armies were just big enough to allow a range of units to use.  Mark's luck deserted him for a couple of crucial command and combat dice rolls, which paved the way for me to push him towards his breakpoint, by destroying his "glass cannon" units of light cavalry.