The scene is set. We embarked on this massive game of nostalgia, but with renewed vigor. I must admit, it took me a little bit of time to get my head around making an army list for 5th, plus a lot of the magic cards were most certainly a trip down nostalgia lane. At the time I played Skaven, and my main opponent was Chaos, who would regularly thump me. So I had to be sneaky and use items like van Hostmans, and shards that lock them in time. Great times. Still, It was quite nice, plus I was looking forward to using the White Lions special rules, which I was very keen to do.
So without further ado, the first part of the battle!
The armies
High Elves 2000pts 5th Edition army book, items and Magic
Eltharion on Stormwing
The Fangsword of Eltharion
The Helm of Yvresse
Talisman of Hoeth
Thronduin Lv 3 Mage
Black Amulet
Chalice of Sorcery
Skull Staff
4 units of 5 archers with longbows and light armour
20 Spearelves with a standard with the Banner of Defiance and musican
18 Swordmasters with full command and the Ruby Chalice (-2 to shooting, -1 to hit in close combat after first casualty) on the Champion.
15 White Lions with standard and musician with the Banner of Might ( +1 to hit)
Repeater Bolt Thrower
Goblin Hoard of Grom 2000 pts 5th Edition army book, items and Magic
Grom the Paunch
Grom's Axe
Horn of Urgok
Goblin Master Shaman on Wyvern (Blacktoof)
Staff of lightning
Wolf rider Goblin Big Boss with the Crown of Command
2 x Goblin Big Bosses with Great Weapons
2 x 20 goblin archers
10 goblin archers
2 x 24 goblin spears, shields, standard and musician
6 x river trolls
Giant
Bolt thrower
catapult
The battle
The scene is set in the ancient village of Maugthrond. Thronduin is glad they made it back to his ancestral estates to ensure it wasn't despoiled by the loathsome goblins. He feels very confident that they will not come, especially as this place is quite far off the beaten track. Still, to play it safe, there are archers in each of the watch towers, plus a repeater bolt thrower in tower facing east. The elves, have there breakfast, confident the sharp eyes of the lookouts will warn them of any encroaching dangers.
The spearelves, White Lions and Thronduin's Guard of Swordmasters, break camp and have their delectable breakfast. We couldn't decide whether it was Lembas bread or Magic Jelly.
The goblin hoard deployed in the mist, to get close to the village.
With the mists rolling off the Annulii, being dispersed before the cruel
goblin hoard of Grom, the goblins catch the elves of guard and have the first turn and move forward, making as little noise as they can. Despite the orders from Grom, one of the goblin units starts arguing over who has the pointiest spear for killing elves.
Elves Turn 1
The goblins take the elves completely off guard. The archers, leave the protection of the tower, with one of their number attempting to light the signal fire, which would warn Thronduin and the other watchtowers. Alas, the wood is too wet, and doesn't take the flame.
The repeater bolt thrower lines up a shot on the giant and does 3 wounds, while the archers do another 2 wounds.
Goblins Turn 2
The rest of the goblins move up. Blacktoof arrives on the field, and flies close to the waystone, ready to sap its energy. The injured giant charges the watch tower.
The giant smashes one of the elves, while his comrade, not used to such violence legs it.
Nothing happens in magic.
The elves are still happily and jovially having their magic jelly.
The end of the Goblin turn sees the goblins get closer, with the elves failing to warn their kin.
Elves Turn 2
With the warning not been given, the elf turn is very quick. Only the 5 archers can do anything.
The archers, line up their shots on the giant, hoping to remove its last wound. However, the tough hide of the monster holds.
Goblins Turn 3
The giant, charges into the archers, who despite getting a few hits, cannot penetrate its tough hide to take the beast down.
The trolls make a charge against the Swordmasters, clipping the last model. The combat sees the elves suffer too many losses, especially when enjoying their magic jelly. They break and are run down! Thronduin, using the escape card from the magic phase to jump into a portal and deploy elsewhere on the field.
Elves Turn 3
The elf spirits are very low! It was only a moment ago that Thronduin and his Swordmaster guard were enjoying their breakfast, the next they were beaten and eaten by trolls! No one knew the fate of Thronduin himself, so they cast aside their magic jelly and formed ranks to oppose the trolls.
The last remnant of the bolt thrower, rallies and steals himself to take out a giant but the hill.
And in he charges! He only has to do 1 wound, and he reclaims his glory!
The elves form ranks, ready to face the trolls.
Thronduin himself, casts some magic, to teleport to the rock lobber, and dispatches the crew in short order.
Alas, the brave elf meets his end, and gets picked up and thrown into the signal fire. At least now its lit.
Goblin Turn 4
The trolls, line up and charge into the elves, with the hoards of goblins not far behind, ready to burn the ancient home.
Grom, seeing his chance to get into combat, goes for a long charge into the spearelves. Needing at least an 11, he gets a 12 for a charge!
The elves, sandwiched between the trolls and Grom, prepare to sell their lives dearly.
Blacktoof, moves up to the waystone and steals its magic, thus scoring 10 victory points!
The charge takes a terrible toll in lives. With the elves failing their fear checks making little mark on the trolls or Grom.
Unsurprising they flee, with the brave White Lions being run down. The spearelves just make it away.
The battlefield at the end of the Goblin turn. The elves only have 1 unit left, and it is fleeing.
Elves Turn 4
The elves get reinforcements from the other watch towers, who appear at the north, west and south table edges. The spearelves, rally in the face of Grom and the deplorable trolls.
The elves coming from the south, charge into the goblins, ready to spill goblin blood! While the archers from the north and west, line up and attempt to slay the one wound giant, to no avail!
The elves from the south watchtower, slaughter the goblins, run them down, and panic off the goblin unit behind them.
This concludes part one of the Battle fot Maugthrong Pass. Stay tuned for part 2, coming soon!
Will the elves come back from the precipice of defeat? Will Eltharion be able to make enough of an impact to save the day?
Thanks for looking!
I ran Grom's goblin hordes, although I made a few tweaks to my goblin list than the Elves got to theirs.
ReplyDeleteI suspect Blacktoof was an Orc shaman mainly because that was the model available at the time. Since I don't have a mounted shaman it made sense to change Blacktoof to a goblin.
I had a similarly difficult time with the Magic Items. The staggering selection of items available gave me a bit of choice paralysis, in the end I opted to go with just the Crown of Command on the Big Boss that was babysitting the Trolls.
Using the 5th ed army books proved to be fairly interesting. Armies have far less special rules to deal with which was nice, but with Champions being actual characters and the massive magic item list it felt a bit like it balanced out.