322 Empire vs High Elves Warhammer Fantasy battle report

Game 3 of Grail Quest 2013- My Empire Council of Light against High Elves in a 2500 point Warhammer Fantasy battle report. Played Oct 2013. See my links below for new ways to follow my wargaming hobby.
OnceBitten360 Facebook
/ oncebitten360
OnceBitten360 Twitter
/ oncebitten360
My rarely-updated blog: oncebitten360.b...
Royalty-free music: "Five Armies" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
"Image courtesy of voraorn/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net"
"Image courtesy of sattva/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net"

[@justinjones3571]

I watched this video earlier today. I play in Dayton over at Epic Loot, but am currently in Jacksonville. I stopped by the local GW shop to pick up a few things, and your opponent was there having a friendly game with his wife! It was a very surreal experience, but a lot of fun to discuss the tournament with him. He was a very nice guy. I always enjoy your videos, keep posting!

[@OnceBitten360]

Yeah, he is a great guy.

[@Centaur255]

Wow, that was a brutal game. I'm also glad there are other players who struggle with knowing all of the special characters (gets me all the time). Thanks for posting!

[@DazAkaLordy]

brilliant reports! I agree with you on special characters in tournaments, even if they are not broken, they have so many rules and tricks it becomes difficult to learn and remember them all.

[@Woopywomp]

Solid tactical approach, God I love this game.

[@phierlihy1]

That was one of the most entertaining bat reps you've posted. And you handled it quite well I think. I'd definitely take a draw against that. Nicely done!!

[@alexanderflink4509]

Well played OB. Very tactical game where realizing you had to play for a draw or small loss at best might give you a top placing in the end.

[@Campaigner82]

High Elves WON!?? OMG!! That was a cool deathstar. Love to see cool special characters.

[@PhilDocIan]

Yes, Ward authored the current army of pointy-eared perfection.

[@MexicanNinja007]

Good point, I didn't think about that. This makes the games between my Dark Elves and my regular High Elf opponent (uses a horde of swordmasters) even more interesting. Well, yeah, I would have to agree that since they cancel out you would get your re-rolls.

[@OnceBitten360]

I totally agree. If it was on the right base, I could've allocated attacks against one of the wizards - killing it.

[@OnceBitten360]

It's seems to be down. I'm checking into it.

[@PhilDocIan]

Fighting over the old Battlemasters watchtower! Love it!

[@belairstrum]

What is that model you are using for the Giant Chaos Spined Beast? It looks sooo sooo cool and cant find it anywhere (e.g. on games workshop site). Great videos. I am really new to Warhammer fantasy and have yet to even have a game so your videos really help me grasp the rules! Subscribed.

[@Anvilarm07]

Great batrep. Very strategic. You made the right call on avoiding the death star. You could have tried to snipe the characters with cannons while the great spined beast went after the RBTS and the Sliver Helms. One unlucky look out sir roll and you bag a lot of points for those special characters. Otherwise only Dwellers, non-magical templates and the HE spell that kills magic items can help. I use little sticky notes and the magic spell cards to track what is cast and any side effects.

[@MrNosreme70]

I'm with you on special characters. I never use them and hate playing against them. Most them are just too cheap for what they can do. +8 to casting magic is simply ridiculous. Hopefully, this tournament was using some sort of grading composition score system!

[@StygianBeach]

Thanks for the report.

[@shagmetz]

Nice game. Great tactics vs a very tough list.

[@RacazaHD]

Okey but what model is the giant?

[@OnceBitten360]

I'm not sure. I found him at a game store. I think he's from some D&D related game. He was purple; I repainted him.

[@lschantz64]

The banner of the World dragon does not allow a 2+ ward vs miscast. A miscast is not considered magic spell or an attack according to the FaQ.

[@Anvilarm07]

Regarding ASF vs ASF and rerolls for high I, my understanding is that in such cases there is no reroll regardless of I.

[@MexicanNinja007]

I have a question about your fight/comment about your spined beast being Initiative 10 and ASF. According to page 66 MRB if a model with ASF is fighting an emeny with ASF the attacks are made simultaneously and neither model benefits from the re-rolls normally granted by ASF. Is there an FAQ I missed which would allow your spined beast with Initiative 10 to re-roll misses against an ASF model with lower Initiative?

[@SigmarHammer]

Cool game, thanks OB360. I'm watching the live version now, never seen a tourney game in action so to speak. You're spot about about his army, it looks really good but yours also looks quite neat (shame about the plastic castle in the middle of the board :-(. ) Looking forward to the next game.

[@OnceBitten360]

My understanding is that the white lions are treated as if they don't have ASF because they are also ASL. Actually, this opponent is the one who explained it to me this way.

[@brianbrown799]

That was a Huge block of elf cheese 2 named characters stacked in the stubborn world dragon unit ....what was that guys Swiss comp ?

[@RacazaHD]

Hey! What giant is that? And can a empire army have ginats in 8th?

[@OnceBitten360]

This is from a tournament where we were allowed Storm of Magic monsters. I'm using the giant as a Giant Chaos Spined Beast.

[@StromboliSP]

why would you throw your giant solo at the deathstar?

[@jasons9748]

Using special monsters also goes with special characters. I noticed your spined beast was on an even smaller base than our game (which in our game it was still on the wrong base). I can't find the live game but did he get max attacks against it? Also if he knew it was on a 100x100 would he had reformed his white lions to five man front? Anytime someone uses something funky like special characters or the spined beast there can be a lack of knowledge or accidental misuse of rules.

[@lschantz64]

It does he pointed out a rule that i has missed.

[@tinylittledragon9412]

Why not post a direct link in the descrip, where we can copy/paste it?

[@OnceBitten360]

Too funny. I am a little ocd about keeping the table clear of anything except models and terrain. It looks so much nicer. :)

[@SigmarHammer]

Watching the live game, I actually prefer the look of your army OB360.

[@VoltanIgnatio]

Thanks for the report! Good game :)

[@OnceBitten360]

I checked into it - and it's gone. :(

[@UnitedWarGamers]

Tough break but you did keep it close. I'm looking forward to watching you live so I know how to beat you lol.

[@christsuke873]

@3:15 the FBomb-? my only complaint about grail quest was not making it a requirement to have comp scores above 5-7. This was a 0 list right ? Beautiful army though

[@shimmergloom74]

I don't think Mr. Miyagi would approve of that list.

[@GIGroundNPound]

OB said the F bomb!?!!?!?! Holy Cow I would have never have guessed haha.

[@WilliamPageCN]

The FAQ I have on file states miscast hits are treated as magical attacks.

[@nightstaber2010]

I like simple special characters but special characters that have rules that could break the mechanics of the game if mis read I don't like specIal characters can be fun but when they go overboard it can be confusing there should be a limit on how many you can take to cut down on confusion

[@FrozenMuts]

i can't find the live game anywhere on their profile :/

[@robertbrandon3917]

Nice game. That's a tough army, and you got 13 out of him, so good work. I'm a fan of special characters but after seeing how poorly the rules were applied in this game, you might have convinced me to reconsider..

[@timnordin3091]

If you decide to pick such a hard list with special characters id say the least you can do is keep track on the rules and inform ur opponent.

[@christsuke873]

Wow the world dragon banner!

[@OnceBitten360]

In fairness, he's really is not a shifty player. Like I said in the report, I blame all the weird newness that special characters bring.

[@rakharo89]

Very nice game. The best thing to kill or at least weaken this deathstar would be fire templates or big hits with stonethrowers. I'm often playing against my brothers Lizardmen and this unit wouldn't live long after a few salamanders and skirmishing skinks that are picking on them.

[@OnceBitten360]

I don't think he intentionally misused any rules.

[@PIRATER0B0TNINJA]

I really enjoy special characters, as I think they add an interesting element to the army (though I must say I'm slightly biased as a TK player, since our characters are simply required to make certain builds even *playable*). That said, if you ARE running a special character I feel that sportsmanship requires that you a) know the character's rules like the back of your hand and b) tell your opponent exactly what that character does.

[@OnceBitten360]

The url keeps changing - somehow. Currently I can't even find the game.

[@SjogrenChristoffer]

He was very lucky to get away with so much shenanigans tbh... so him being frustrated about anything... Geez, If you'd both got all the rules right you might as well have won that game :P If you hadn't lost that spined beast so horribly and him stealing your caster away from you... You never know... A real bummer anyway! Really enjoyed the game with your tactics and all. Really impressed with your ability to make up a game plan even though not knowing what you're facing that well.

[@Marhakesh]

Hey! I like how you first approached the game. I think the charge on the deathstar was never going to turn out well for you. With his spells, he can beaf up his unit to insane crazyness and both your tank and your block was unlikely to complete the charge. The Beast on its own was sure to stand no chance. I think he actually did cast a high magic spell. Wasn't that the turn of firey convocation?

[@OnceBitten360]

No. I watched the live game; that's how I knew he didn't cast anything that turn. He rolled 3 on winds of magic, and then failed to cast.

[@Kayosiv]

That's pretty much the cheesiest high elf list in existance, and considering your empire army has no deathstars, no special characters, and is generally balanced, you did a fantastic job. I think it was a mistake to take the spined beast into the unit as you could have been just killing bolt throwers with it and kept shooting cannons at the deathstar in an attempt to whittle it down for a turn 6 combined charge. Still, you had a great showing considering the terrible luck with the demigryphs.

[@lschantz64]

I stand correct sir, thanks for pointing that out. I was looking at a different rule. Also it as a hard match and i agree I am not a fan of playing special characters either. They just change the game way to much and then to place 2 of them in the game and the same unit to me is kind of crappy.

[@shimmergloom74]

yeah the games don't stay up long and if they do they move all over the place. Same thing happened after Brawler's.

[@hughhalligan5433]

Any luck with finding the URL? I would be really interested in watching the live batte!

[@FarseerRK]

very true although her page is just a mass of special rules and loads of them only come into play in certain circumstances. but still i agree especially when it works out in your favour

[@Persufflation]

That was a hard list...but thats what ure gonna find playing table 1 eh? did your spine beast align to the bolt thrower somehow changing his angle? (as for the unlucky overrun) He should have known more about the guys he was running and especially had markers indicating ward save levels...alternately he could have given a copy of the rules for each SC to you at the beginning and you could have easily called him on some stuff...a bit unlucky but you handled that list expertly...well done!

[@Jihon83]

Then the list, especially with the special character and super banner/standard, makes a lot of sense. Sad sense. Ward's, hmm, Mary Sue approach to creating armies is a big part of why I gave up on playing 40K again; so it's not good to see that he is mucking up Fantasy Battle, too.

[@stefanhaffner]

It's pretty unforgivable to not know the rules for your own characters, especially when you misuse them to your advantage.

[@dchustler81]

OB You are correct.

[@liddantheone]

I absolutely agree. Should give a 0-25 loss tbh.

[@mx3mx3freak]

nice as ever thx

[@imsevimse78]

Dont blame the player guys. That just shows you shouldnt be in a competitive environment. This was not a friendly store game. This was essentially a "no comp" tournament where winning might give you a spot in the invitational tournament against the "best of the best". That said, not knowing your own special characters like the back of your hand is just horrible.

[@OnceBitten360]

It's gone. :(

[@liddantheone]

Absolutely disgusting list. This guy deserves neither friends, fun or the victory. This is why playing with special characters in fantasy is ridiculous. Some armies (empire) have none worth using and some have this kind of entries. Also this kind of abuse is why adding banner of the world dragon was a huge mistake by GW. Well played mate, You played way better than this fool and I'm sorry you didn't get the victory but well done, excellent showing from a tactical point of view.

[@Woopywomp]

Man...I was hoping that double charge worked out. Plus I don't know why people bitch, not like he used a Phoenix guard star. ;)

[@TheObliviJohn]

Missing archive. Did they take it down? Did I type it wrong? Next time, pls make a link in the description so I can just click it like the lazy bum I am :)

[@MrNosreme70]

The mother of all deathstars? Well, I kind of feel a unit of phoenix guard with a lvl 2 and the high magic lore is better than anything. A 3+ ward vs everything, and they cause fear. That's much less points than what that guy fielded and requires no special characters or items or combos. No doubt the lions are hard to shoot or magic, but you can often beat them in melee. I am curious why you thought the steam tank was so vulnerable to his deathstar. I think you would just squish a bunch of elves and he would do very little in return unless I'm missing something? Just FYI, the speed of light does not grant ASF, just initiative 10. What this means is you do not get rerolls, but now neither does he.

[@MexicanNinja007]

That's all fine and dandy...then they get hit with dreaded thirteenth, don't get that 2+ ward save, and lose 4D6 models. Yeah, it's good, but it can be dealt with. You can also target it with 2 trebs, lobba's, stone throwers, helblasters, and mass shooting. Also, Dark Elves win that match up in melee. White lions loose ASF, Dark Elves have Hatred, and should kill more models.

[@WilliamPageCN]

Smart!

[@christsuke873]

Lol wierd mannerism 1) ocd over dice 2) random debris on models is a nono

[@OnceBitten360]

His comp was a zero.

[@Jihon83]

Wow, a cheesy list and shifty play with the rules. Though seeing your opponent's list makes me wonder if Matt Ward was the author of the High Elves army book.

[@BobWolf006]

Special Characters broke the game. I never play with them.

[@warhammer1104]

That 0 komp list is pure bullshit :)

[@RFischer]

Haha... What does the F/U Unit stand for? *wink wink*

[@danbrown7438]

man showing up to a tournament and not knowing your rules?? sorry not knowing all the rule book rules or opponents rules reasonable but not knowing your own list?

[@newtpondskipper]

At least you had fun? Not to be a douche to your opp but after looking at his list I have no compassion that he didn't kill your steamtank. Ugh that type of list is what killed fantasy in this area, too much over the top stuff. If it's in the book it's legal to me but damn that is an unfun list to play against.