Skirmishing with the Empire

Last night I played two games of Warhammer, the first was a 900 point introductory game against a pleasant chap called Donal, the other was another gorefest against my regular sparring partner Stuart. Here's how the first one went;

Game One

I was recently contacted via the Wargaming Ireland Forum by a lad called Donal interested in playing Warhammer. Arrangements were made and to sum up we met up to play a 900 point games with my wood elves vs an Empire army, virtually straight out of the battalion box. My forces composed of a Shadowsinger (spells were the Withering and Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma), BSB and Waystalker, 12 trueflight Glade Guard, 10 naked Glade Guard, 5 Wardancers and 5 Waystalkers. Donal took 10 reiksguard knights, 30 halberdiers, 10 handgunners, a Beasts wizard (with Wyssan's Wildform and Curse of Anhreir) and a general mounted on a warhorse. I had advised Donal about the importance of a BSB but  he didn't put one in his list. A neutral party (Stuart) set up the terrain and we diced off for 1st turn. I won the roll.

Tactics?

I have been flailing around with a tactic of putting a unit of skirmishers in front of a unit of Trueflight Glade Guard as some kind of a castle. This game I put 5 Wardancers in front of the GG hoping they can fend off a charge from any Empire troops soaking up damage from their 3+ Ward save on the charge then killing blow their way out of it next turn. I think this is a valid tactic, especially in such a small point game as there is unlikely to be any uber units coming their way. Waywatchers were there to deal with any heavily armoured troops and a Waystalker was there to get rid of any pesky wizards. The emphasis of this army was to shoot off any combat unit before it got into my no save having squishy archers.

Deployment

The Game

As I said I won the first turn and started off with my Arrow of Kurnous, unfortunately the Empire general had sneakily deployed outside my 36" death zone so I couldn't give him a tickle with it. My turn consisted of no movement, Due to Stuart's disapproval of me taking Shadow magic against a first timer my shooting wasn't as agressive as it could have been. I Withered the big unit of halberdiers dropping their toughness down to 1! Some accurate shooting took about 10 off the unit, but they passed their panic test. Stu's aura of reproach stopped me from sniping his wizard with my Waystalker. The Reiksguard moved up on the flank, as did the now fragile halberdiers. The cannon shot at and killed maybe one glade guard due to an unfortunate bounce. Wither was dispelled and Wyssan's cast on the halberdiers (making my small unit of Wardancers uninterested in attacking them in the following turn).

Turn one

Next turn I continued my shooting policy at the halberdiers, killing a few more, I wasn't as successful this turn as the last due to the pesky Wyssan's and Wither running out. The waywatchers killed a knight or two and I maintained my non aggression policy with the wizard. The halberdiers advanced and the handgunners failed to hit my sneaky wardancers in the wood. Donal charged at my waywatchers this turn and they stood & shot, scoring 3 wounds. This prompted a panic test that routed the unit and the general off the board! The cannon killed 2 glade guard as well, I think.

Wood Elf turn two

Empire turn two

Turn three saw me charge out of the woods with my wardancers into the depleted halberdiers. I think I cast Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma on the halberds too. Shooting wasn't spectacular. My wardancers won combat and broke the halberds. The halberdiers rallied in Donal's turn. An uninspiring shooting phase saw the elves remain largely unscathed.

wood Elf turn three

Empire turn three

Conclussion

With most of my force intact and Donal's combat units neutered we called the game. From my point of view an enjoyable game where my tactics worked well against a first timer. In my defense, the list was an all comers one that got very lucky shooting off the Reiksguard unit in turn two. From Donal's point of view a BSB would have probably stopped the fleeing knights and caused me a lot more problems.