This battle report comes with a bit of a delay but better late than never. Next round of the KoW and tied for the third place this battle was very important, a win could easily put me in second place! So lets go with it, first of all the armies: FORCES OF NATURE - Horde of Naiad Ensnarers with Brew of Strength - Horde of Forest Shamblers with Diadem of Dragon-Kind - Troop of Naiad Heartpierciers - Troop of Hunters of the Wild with Elite - Troop of Centaur Bray-Striders - Beast of Nature with Fly, Vicious and 7 Attacks - Forest warden - Tree Herder with Regeneration I know I'm missing some magic items, because as far as I can remember every single thing had one but can't remember them all. SALAMANDERS - Horde of Fire Elementals with Elite - Horde of Tyrants with Brew of Sharpness - Regiment of Ghekkotah Warriors with Fire Oil - Troop of Ghekkotah Hunters - GFE - Ankylodon - Mounted Herald with Healing Charm - Mage-Priest with Surge and Inspiring - Skylord with Blade of the Beast Slayer This a slight change from my usual list, the reasoning for the changes can be found HERE Before we start we were playing with a chess cloack and some pictures were taken late as I was very concerned with time constrains. DEPLOYMENT The picture was taken after the Vanguard Moves and just as I had moved my Skylord up, so yes I got first turn. My idea was to disrupt those nasty heartpiercers with my Skylord while I hold the four objectives in the center with my Hordes and heavy hitters, simple. SALAMANDERS TURN 1 I advance my Skylord out of line of sight of his shooters while I push with everything up in the centre staying out of his charge range with almost everything, I bait him with two units my Hunters on his Centaurs and my GFE on his Tree Herder. I know my GFE can stand a charge easily and then I had a really juicy counter charge in place plus a CS4 menace on the front, nice. A couple of shoots make wounds here and there but nothing significant. FON TURN 1 He starts by turning his Heartpiercers to shoot my Skylord, OK with that really. That means that he won't be shooting anything important. He also turns his Beast to face him. On the centre he takes the bait and goes in with both his Centaurs and Tree Herder, the rest of his army advances giving me two easy charges, I'm OK with that!. On the shooting phase he makes two wounds on the Skylord and he obviously holds, great! Also the shamblers were able to put 6 wounds on my poor Warriors, that was a really good roll. The combats don't go as I had planed though, the Herder puts a massive SIX wounds on my poor GFE, six wounds with seven attacks! He holds of course with a Nerve of 18 and Inspiring but I know starting with 6 wounds he will have a hard time surviving the game. The Centaurs on the other hand charge the Hunters and do just 1 wound and not even wavering them, not that I'm complaining but I would change the results in a heartbeat. SALAMANDERS TURN 2 This are looking really good for me now, I have a really nice countercharge on the Herder that will surely kill him in one turn and a nice charge with my FE on his Shamblers, with CS2 and Elite I know I will win that combat in two turns easily. I make a big mistake here, as I turn my Hunters 180 degrees on the spot and move them over my Tyrants to make the space for their charge on the Herders flank, that is an illegal move actually as each 90 degree pivot must end clear of any unit and this wasn't really the case. Neither me or my opponent realised that but I've given this a thought and even without that move I could made the charge, I had two possibilities, sidestep onto the right or charge the Centaurs with the Hunters so even if he had pointed the illegal move out I could still multicharge the Herder. Onto legal moves again, I charge my FE on his Shamblers and my Ankylodon multicharge the Ensnarers with my warriors, not the best match-up really but that will hold them up away from an objective for a very long time. I face a very difficult decision with my Skylord, I could charge the Heartpiercers disrupting them and if I'm REALLY lucky kill them (disordered charge means I could make one or two wounds) but anyway he will surely be killed by the best next turn or I could run away from them both and position myself for a rear charge next turn into something juicy, only menace is the Heartpiercers shooting at him but that shouldn't make more than 3 wounds on average so I'm OK with that. Combats go extremely well for me, I kill the tree Herder that was brought into double one figures and amazingly I also rout the Shamblers with an amazing combat. I think I manage to make 6 wounds on the Ensnarers, nothing really interesting. Board is looking really good for me now FON TURN 2 I forgot to take a picture of his turn 2, but it was quite simple. His Centaurs flank charge my FE, I knew this could happen but I didn't really care. My FE can take that charge easily. He countercharges his big horde into my Warriors and moves his Beast to the right flank to try win that flank. Meanwhile his Warden has been advancing unopposed on the left and will surely be joinning the fight soon. He reforms the Heartpiercers to shoot my Skylord again, -1 to hit sounds good to me. He then makes one hell of a roll and puts 6 wounds on him. That was 8 attacks hitting on 5s and wounding on 3, nasty, nasty roll. He sadly dies without being able to kill anything. The Centaurs also roll quite well and manage to put 7 wounds on my FE, hurts but I'm hoping that my Herald can take care of those. His big horde completely destroys my Warriors as expected and reform to face my right flank. SALAMANDERS TURN 3 Loosing my Skylords really hurts my plans as now I don't have anything to shut his shooting, rear charging or going after an objective last turn. I'm a sad Salamander. I still have a huge advantage on the centre and I now have 3 Objectives on my sight, he only has one so I will call that a nice prospect. I know that pesky Naiad horde has to go down if I want to ensure myself a victory and I also have to take care of the damn Beast that is flying all around being annoying but I have a plan for that. He didn't realised my GFE could be surged into it, It won't be a flank sadly but at least I could shut it down for a while. So I turn it and advance towards the beast. My FE decide to charge the Horde with my Ankylodon and my tyrants rear charge the Centaurs that will be chopped to bits. My Hunters sit on the objective on the back pretty confortable there. The combat goes quite well, I put a lot of wounds into the Ensnarers and waver them, the Centaurs get turned into a very fine mist. The GFE even with the Breath-Surge combo completely fails to do anything substantial, I doesn't seem to be his game. FON TURN 3 I once again forgot to take the damn picture, but with his horde wavered there is not much to do. He charges his warden into my Ankylodon and shoots my FE with the Heartpierces, at this moment and thanks to my Healing they are in good health. The Beast has another amazing roll and routs my poor GFE even with the Inspiring reroll. The warden manages to make 3 wounds on the Ankylodon of I remembered correctly, that goes down to 2 thanks to Iron Resolve.
SALAMANDERS TURN 4 The damn Naiad Horde is extremely tough, Regeneration 4+ means that he is taking back 6-7 wounds back every turn, I HATE those things with all my heart. So instead of dealing with the pesky Warden I charge again into them hoping to finally kill them and start to collect objectives. The Tyrants reform to face the Beast and my mage-Priest moves out of sight to fireball it. Right now I hold 3 objectives, one under my Hunters, one under my Tyrants and the other one with my FE, while he only has one with the Heartpiercers. I know I can't really take that one but he can use the Beast to take the one and the troop of Hunters of the Wild that has been stuck behind the Naiads to take the one on the far left. That will be a draw, I need to kill the horde or otherwise I won't have enough time to move on the objectives, that damn unit is sitting like a road block in the middle of the field. Combat time comes and I do a ton of wounds again, I think I need like a 7 to kill the damn thing, and of course I roll just to waver them, GREAT at least it wasn't a double 1. FON TURN 4 He is starting to get tactical now, and decides to go for the mission, moves the Hunters to the left to go after the lonely objective and the Beast to his deployment zone to menace some flanks, my Herald and make me nervous. The warden goes back into the Ankylodon and the shooter target my Tyrants this turn. Warden makes 3 wounds again (damn) but not much else. Again no picture, sorry but that damn clock make me nervous. SALAMANDERS TURN 5 That horde can't possibly hold for another turn, so I charge again with both units ignoring the Warden and once again my tyrants play the facing game with the Beast. My Herald meanwhile moves away from the Beast arc, crucial mistake as I inadvertently moved him away of inspiring range from my Ankylodon.... Herald is healing like a boss, and know the FE have only 4 wounds. Combat goes well again, tons of wounds and once again needing like a 5 to rout I get once again another 4, wavered again, and I'm still stuck there. FON TURN 5 He makes the final moves to try and tie the game, he knows I'm sure that winning is not an option really but he will try nonetheless. Positions his Hunters on the objective, and charges his Beast into my troop of Hunters sitting on the objective, if he kills them I will be having a bad time winning. He keeps shooting my Tyrants with those nasty Heartpiercers and charges the Warden again into the Ankylodon that has 4 wounds now. The Beast somehow manages not to do anything to my Hunters, that seem like they have turned into steel by the looks of it, nothing seems to be able to wound them. The warden on the other hand makes another 2 wounds on the Ankylodon, leaving him with 6, usually I always have inspiring nearby but due to a mistake last turn I don't have any more, he needs an 11 to rout it. Trust me I was sweating heavily, if he kills it that would be game changing. He rolled a 10. Poop came out. SALAMANDERS TURN 6 Well it seems that horde is unkillable, and I almost lost my Ankylodon to a mere Forest Warden that had been shot by the Hunters but just won't die. I relentlessly charge both units again into the horde again and advance my Mage-Priest into Fireball range of the Warden. Herald keeps healing like a madman, I love that thing. Mage-Priest must have been really pissed off because he obliterated the Warden with a Fireball into his face. Combat came into a double 1 situation, I kid you not I was fearing those snake eyes but gladly they didn't came and the horrible horde of Ensnarers finally died, 4 turns of combat to kill that damn thing. I reform everything to face the Beast. That was a mistake too, instead of going for the objective I was infused with blood lust. Should have reformed to face the lonely objective with the Ankylodon looking for a possible turn 7, ALWAYS go for the objective. FON TURN 6 I think my enemy here didn't play well, he had victory in his hands. If he managed to kill the Hunters he will be controlling 3 objectives to my 2 and even if the game went to turn 7 and I kill his beast I still would control only 2 as I would have to move away from one objective to fight him. He decided to secure a draw moving the beast to the only objective unclaimed. Right now I can only hope for a turn 7 and a very good round of shooting as the Beats is out of charge arc from everything. TURN 7 I roll for a turn 7 and get it, so I turn my Ankylodon, move the Mage-Priest and the Hunters into position and shoot at the Beast, sadly I don't do enough wounds and it survives. Final result: DRAW (3-3) ENDING Who knows what purpose Natures actions have, Itepixcauh wasn't so fool as to consider himself to know it. Nature only cared for itself, you cannot claim pure Entropy as your ally, maybe you will be swim in favour of that swirling current for a while but only the unwary take it for granted. He wasn't expecting the attack everything was ready for the ritual but it was more than clear that the path he was taking wasn't an option any more, he knows a clear warning when he sees it. Of course he isn't going to change his plans but he will have to look for a different location, one can throw stones at the waves and think is winning but the tide will rise regardless of your efforts. No, he wasn't expecting Natures actions but no one ever does.
Thanks! I really enjoy writing them specially the ending part as I get to little by little tell a small story. Just keep reading!
Looks like a good battle! I know what you mean about the clock making pictures seem far less important!