If you got here expecting to see an epilogue, you'll need to go here, to the actual epilogue. Because this is a double post, both this post and the epilogue went up today.
Of course, whilst we here at Warhammer For Adults are ...well, adults, and therefore do not succumb to the base cravings of tournament play where points describe the outcome, we still thought it would help for readers who are still struggling to make that transition to include points. Dreamfish and I did set out some points and victory conditions... because ...er... probably because old habits die hard. But we're working on that.
Suffice to say, the elves lost.
Well, anyway, here are the scores. If you need that sort of thing.
Wood Elves Dwarfs
Captured Zones 0 2 * 50
Killed General's 0 50
Lost Units 328 877
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Total 328 1027
The Dwarves
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| The Dwarf Survivors |
It has been a while since the Dwarfs fought their last battle. Back in the 80's they used to fight the Orc's of my brother, losing every single battle. It left me with shelves full of Books of Grudges. How wonderful is it then to finally be able remove one.
Looking back I'm pretty happy with the result of the battle. I was able to perform all tactical decisions uninterrupted. With the Earthquaker smashing through the Elven ranks it prepared the way for the Firehammers and their retinue. The gyrocopter was a blast to fly with, a welcome diversion for a Dwarf player. By surviving the multiple assassination attempts it was able to bring the needed air support just there were the Dwarfs needed it the most. The Arrowheads at the defense performed their task brilliantly by raining down a hail of arrows onto the Elven chariot. As if expecting the outcome the Steelaxes stood ready with shields in place to welcome the out of control chariot and the somewhat diminished Wardancers. The Ironaxes at the offence took the beating while the Firehammers where able to sneak up close enough to finish the job by hand.
Some items like the Grenade, Magic Weapon and Spell Shield I equipped Borri with were not used. While making the army list I expected a great deal more of the wizard. I also didn't expect the Spectre would attack the Stone Thrower. Hell yes it did some damage but point wise it would have been better off attacking the Steelaxes. Some tweaking could have been done on the armour of the Ironaxes. I gave them Light Armour but they would have been better off with shields, allowing them to use some of the those special manoeuvres like the Tortoise.
The whole remote gaming experiment has been a blast. While there are obvious shortcomings while playing remotely I do think it has its charms. Time wise for example one can play whenever he's able to. It's takes roughly 30 minutes to process a phase. This includes taking the pictures and editing them. Having this time we were able to write this extensive battle report. Something that wouldn't be possible if we would play everything in one day. I really enjoyed having the time to think things over and carefully explore all possibilities within the rules. I hate it when playing a game of Warhammer just to discover at the end you missed out a couple of them. This happens a lot to me when playing everything in one go, especially when playing 3rd ed.
In the end I can say the experiment has been a success. While writing this we're already planning our next battle which will include some unseen miniatures (eerie music playing). This battle will be fought between our mystery guest from the USA and Gaj. I'll act as the host and GM of the game.
Finally, I would like to give thanks to everyone for the positive feedback and the encouragement. I’m glad to read that we inspire people. Hopefully you-all keep on reading and don’t forget to stay tuned for our upcoming engagement.
The Elves
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| The Elf Survivors |
From my point of view, the entire game was built around the scenario. By that I mean that I could have elected to have a much more tactically advantageous deployment than I did, but because I was playing the role of Gaymar, I really got into the reckless and arrogant thinking. I'm not for a second blaming my decisions on that, but it is something that competitive players might struggle to digest. I had the choice to bring both the wizard and the spectre on in turn 1 and I had the choice to deploy my troops in a much better way. I chose not to, because it fitted the scenario and immediately presented me with the challenge of arranging a force on the march to face a prepared and dug in foe.
One of the things that I didn't factor in, though, was just how much of Warhammer 3 I had forgotten. Somehow, in my mind, I had convinced myself that chariots were way tougher than what they are - I had basically forgotten that they need a lot of protection to be effective. I was really surprised when the horses bolted and ran off into the distance...
Dreamish refers to the use of points to calculate the value of having the spectre attack the stone thrower. Let's put that aside and consider my investment into a level 10 wizard, with only 5 magic points available, who arrived on turn 2 and only cast one spell in the entire game. I made a massive mistake here.: in Warhammer 3rd Edition, there are five levels of character (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25), but only four levels of magic (1, 2, 3 and 4). I kept on thinking that a level 10 wizard was on magic level 2, therefore having more magic points, which would have allowed me to bind the spectre for longer. In actual fact, both level 5 and level 10 wizards are at magic level 1 (and therefore only 10 magic points), meaning I could have spent less money on the wizard for exactly the same outcome and, I dunno, buy something useful somewhere else. When Dreamfish pointed out the error of my ways, I realised that I had just added another tactical challenge to my game.
My plan with the spectre was actually to hit the crossbowmen. The chariot was supposed to have survived and hit the Steelaxes, together with the Wardancers, who would then roll the dwarf line and press into the warmachine. That all fell apart when the chariot failed to hit. I thought I would redirect the spectre into the machine, because it was just absolutely annihilating my lines, and I thought that if I kept the elves alive for longer, they could just shoot the approaching dwarves down. But...I knew that wouldn't be very interesting, so when the fire proved to be ineffective, I decided to close and try a little close combat. In all fairness, I think the elves nearly pulled it off. Bear in mind they won their first combat rounds, but they had just failed to rout the dwarves.
Finally, regarding the dwarf warmachines - they were just devastating. Warhammer 8 players will look at the damage and shrug - I'm sure they wish warmachines were as soft and gentle as the ones on display here...but for WFB3? Devastating. Stone throwers don't misfire in 3rd edition, so the trick is to close on them or get out of their arc of fire. Or rely on them to miss, which they should have done more often.
This game has been a great entry into WFB3 and has really refreshed the ruleset in my mind. It was interesting for me to realise how many WFB6, 7 and 8 behaviours crept into my thinking. Both Dreamfish and I agree that this is a fantastic way to actually create a battle report - there is plenty of time in between rounds to do the images and write up the story. It was also great that we ourselves also experienced the tension that readers (hopefully) experienced - I also found myself on the edge of my seat during the Gaymar/Morgrim fight while I waited for results to come back from Dreamfish's side.
Our Heartfelt Thanks!
So, with that, we sadly draw to a conclusion the Battle for the Wyemm Seeyay. Both Dreamfish and I express our absolute heartfelt gratitude to all of you who tracked the project, posted supporting comments on the site and on forums, and generally encouraged us to continue. As we've alluded to already, we are busy with another one, hopefully a little bigger in size and possibly featuring different players.
Our Shameless Plug!
If, by any chance, reading this has compelled you to investigate Warhammer 3rd Edition, and you find yourself looking to find out more, I refer you to this link, where you can get in touch with me (and...if you're in The Netherlands, let me know anyway and you might be able to hook up with Dreamfish). You don't need old classic figures to play (or even GW figures - some great stuff in other ranges...), so don't let that hold you back.
Regards
Gaj
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Conclusion & Comments
A nice thoughtful recap guys...well done!
ReplyDeleteMr Blue - it was a pleasure. Of course, we're looking forward to the next one!
ReplyDeleteRegards
Gaj