Morrish Vs Green - The Might of the Sea Vs half Clad Celts
Pitting Mat's Berzerker heavy, historicals themed list against Elliot's Wave of Elemental fuelled Trident Realm. they're playing a 1495 point game of Kings of War 3ed ed and the scenario is invade
Lists
Mat's gone heavy on attacks and low defence with plenty of supporting fast cav chaff.
Elliot's put a whole heap of eggs into a surge based list with a Kraken for staying power.
With the surge shenanigans all over the place it'll be interesting to see how speed competes against sneakiness.
Deployment
As
the game started my vague plan was to let Elliot come into range, hold him off
with some chaff and then counter charge. That’s a lot of regenning def 5 to get
through though.
Turn 1
By
the end of the first turn both sides had moved a little, Elliot more than me,
and my wizard had firebolted one wound into the depth horrors. I’d tried to
place things at angles where, if things survived, I might get some flanks. At
this point Elliot helped me out, being the outstandingly spirting gent he is. I
thought my general could not move sideways as the hill would block his view of
the horrors, but Elliot pointed out the cavalry were not on the hill, so having
moved the general to the right and put him back, Elliot advised me to redo it.
Turn 2
As
Elliot's second turn ended, most of my chaff had died, but the plucky sergeants
on the right somehow survived. I was facing a bunch of charges, almost all of
which were hindered or ensnared.
The
lucky sergeants got out the way by flanking the foremost water elemental horde,
with the fanatic horde coming in for a hindered (by mm) front charge. The
guard, instigator and fanatics on the right ganged up on the greater elemental
and the general and (just) hindered sergeants on the left took on the depth
horrors. The remaining sergeants did their best to hold up another elemental
horde. Amazingly, all three melees killed the trident realm units.
At
this point I added up Unit Strength in my head, realising I had 17 and Elliot
had 7. I had a choice to make. 7 of that was very easy for me to get past the
trident realm army and safe if I abandoned all fighting and ran for Elliot’s
side. I just had to use my remaining 10 strength to kill one of his units or
get one more thing across. I could do this against one of the highest ranking
players in the U.K.!
I
didn’t get a photo for Elliot’s turn 4, but the outcome is easy to see. His
kraken put a single wound on the sergeants in front of him, the rear most
elementals killed the sergeants in front of them and the front most elementals
put 7 wounds on the fanatic horde.
Turn 3
I
stopped to think real hard here. I’d had some cracking luck, now to not throw
it away. I pushed the guard and the fanatics in the right up out of harms way and
into Elliot’s half for 6 potential victory points. I charged the surge casting
mage with the sergeants, doing a wound to stop any casting. The fanatic horde
did 9 wounds on the horde, which could have been enough, I just need a nerve
roll of 8... but didn’t. Still, if they could survive another turn they would
stand a good chance of finishing them off and I’d moved the standard to inspire
them. On the left I THOUGHT I’d moved the fanatic regiment past the kraken. In
my head I had a good chance at 10 vp, possibly more and might get Elliot down
to 4. I really really felt I had a chance! To loose I had to loose the fanatics
on the left, loose both the sergeants with them, loose the fanatic horde in one
turn (or not kill the elemental horde in return) and kill no more units. That
seemed unlikely...
Then
Elliot showed that he knows the rules to third edition, and more importantly is
an excellent player. The kraken disengaged 1” and THEN measured its charge arc
(I thought it was at the start of the turn). With that he rear charged and
routed the fanatics. Oh.
The
elementals at the back killed the sergeants in front of them, as expected.
The
elementals at the front did worse than last time however. Then put 5 wounds on
the inspired, fearless fanatic horde. Elliot needed to roll 10 twice. He roll
10. Damn. Then he rolled 12. Damn damn.
Turn 4
My
turn 4 started and it was slipping away from me. The sergeants in the left
looked trapped. My general could either help kill an elemental horde, OR gain 1
vp, but not reliably do both. Now either the sergeants had to survive, OR the
instigator and general had two turns to finish off the wounded elementals. The
instigator and general got into position. Then I moved the sergeants. I was
quite proud of the move too. The sidestepped 4.5” and pivoted behind the
kraken. The hill blocked them from the elementals. Now the kraken couldn’t see
them and they could keep doing this. The standard bearer had a go at the mage
in an attempt to disorder him. He almost got the 6 he needed to hit, but 5
wasn’t enough in the ensnaring mage. I could still do this!
Turn 5
Except
Elliot is good. Very good. And I miss things. Moving his left most elementals
into the hill, he moved both his surge casters into range. He needed a surge
roll of 8, with 12 dice. He rolled 9. Damn. They made short order of the last
of the cavalry and we were now tied on US.
My
chances of victory were dropping fast. I now needed the instigator in two
turns, possibly with the general for one of them, to finish off an elemental
horde. A regenerating elemental horde and not the damaged one (whose 9 damage
was now down to 3 anyway). He put 3 wounds on them. Not enough.
Turn 6
In
Elliot’s turn he did what was needed to ensure the draw. Casting weakness on
the general and bastion on one of the elemental hordes, he’d made the other
pretty safe.
In
my last turn I couldn’t risk the general. In his weakened state, against the
now -/18 horde with only 3 wounds on, he was more likely to fail to kill and
end up giving away his 1vp. If he’d done his average 3 wounds and the
instigator another 3, I’d have needed a nerve roll of 9 twice to win. The odds
were too long, so he hung back. It seemed the right choice after the instigator
whiffed his attacks and did one damage.
Turn
7 might have been enough, another turn for the instigator and possibly general
might have had it, but the odds were getting longer and longer. As it turned
out the dice roll saved us finding out.
The
game ended a very hard fought draw. A cracking game against a great opponent
who shows why you should never give up in this game and why the best generals
have an eye for those long charges and cunning manoeuvres.
7-7 DRAW
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