Empire vs Wood Elves

Empire (Me) Vs Wood Elves (Grizz)

Game Size: 1000 points

Scenario: Meeting Engagement

Restrictions: Pre-Picked Lists - Opponent Chooses

Edition: Warhammer The Old World 1.0

Month and Year: Apr 2024

Event: New Player Intro

With a slew of escalation games played in the prior few weeks a significant amount of interest was drawn up from some other gaming friends. One of my buddies that normally plays 40k, Grizz (Matt) wanted to try out Old World. In comparison to normal games where each player builds a list - I built two lists from available models and let Grizz choose which side he wanted to run. This has an interesting effect on the lists as I wanted to have balanced lists but was also heavily constrained by which models we had that were assembled and based. Grizz would end up selecting the Wood Elf list.

Empire:

General w/ Great Weapon, Pistol, and Full Plate
Captain with Full Plate and Battle Standard
5 Empire Knights with Command
30 Halberdiers with Command
10 Free Company as Detachment
14 Empire Greatswords with Command
Great Cannon
5 Outriders with Marksman with Blunderbuss

Wood Elves

Glade Lord with Great Weapon
8 Deepwood Scouts with Hagbane Tips
10 Glade Guard with Swiftshiver Shards
17 Eternal Guard with Command
8 Wardancers with Bladesinger
Treeman

I tried to create balanced lists with the big exception that I had no ready Wood Elf cavalry models - with that in mind I figured the Treeman would be a good add and give me the option of adding in a cannon for Empire counterplay. Another pretty big decision I made was to eliminate magic and not provide a Wizard or magic items to either side - this would simplify the game and make it play a bit faster.

Deployment

We ended up with Meeting Engagement as the game scenario and setup a wooded hilly area for terrain - it seems dumb to play Wood Elves on a board without many woods. All units arrived on time with none delayed. I started to deploy my army in a line while Grizz stacked his entire army in the nearby wooded area. Overall I think this was great play by Grizz - as the light cover would help his small elite force negate at least my Outriders from decimating them with shooting. It also made me realize that a Mortar or Rocket Launcher in my lists could take this deployment option away in future games I play - something that I would need to file away for future consideration.

Grizz has wisely deployed his entire army in the Woods in his deployment to reduce my shooting effectiveness. Unfortunately I have limited counterplay in my list (no mortars or vortexes) to force him out.

The Game

Turn One

With deployment out of the way I won the roll off for first turn and advanced up the board - the Wood Elves had a shooting advantage with two high Ballistic skill shooting units - so I needed to come to grips with them as soon as possible. The biggest things that happened were:

My cannon missed the Treeman . . . because of course it would - rolling 10 for its overshot and overshooting him (I guessed 8" from the front).
Grizz's Wood Elves shifter around laterally to get better shots - his shooting would panic the outriders and also take out a few Halberdiers.

Greatswords starting down a treeman . . . and the cannon didn't even hit it in the first turn.

Turn Two

In turn two I've moved up slightly hoping that Grizz will fail his charge with his eternal guard, my Outriders rallied and moved up the board. My cannon - again did nothing of note . . . I think it misfired but did not blow itself up. The Outriders, even with all the minuses to hit did kill a few Eternal guard though.

Lines are about to meet!

Mid Game

Grizz's turn two was quite a bit more eventful - and a whole lot happened:

His archers managed to kill two Knights and force them to panic and Fall Back in Good Order.
In an absolutely devastating blow to my army - my Halberdier block with two characters would be defeated, break, and subsequently be run down and scattered - I failed two break tests at 9 . . . and was really on my backfoot.
The Greatswords would be charged by the Treeman, they would be beaten but fell back in good order (due to Stubborn) and expanded their frontage - they also managed to cause a wound.

This really felt like the game was blown wide open - and I went from playing for a win to playing for a draw.

Disaster in the middle of the board!

The Empire Strikes Back

The out of position Eternal Guard were then shot by everything I had - Cannon grapeshot, Outriders, and Free Company throwing weapons would almost delete the entire unit and force them below 25% - this in turn caused a panic check which the Elves failed! Being below 25% they could only ever rally on double ones (insane courage). That was a huge win turnaround for me . . . and was clearly showing how much psychology affects a Warhammer Fantasy game . . . as opposed to Warhammer 40k where it is an afterthought. We did permit Grizz to roll two attempts to rally the Elves each turn (one for Rally Cry and one for standard Rally Fleeing Troops) - Rally cry doesn't specify it can't be used when fleeing and thematic makes a ton of sense. However it would not matter as insane courage wasn't rolled the rest of the game.

Elves in the open against Empire guns?!!? Myrmidia smiles upon us - the favored sons of the Empire!

Late Game

More critical psychology would effect turn 3 - Elven shooting would destroy my Outriders unit, while my Knights would fail to rally and eventually flee off the board. Grizz's eternal guard were again unable to rally and in a crazy twist of fate - the Greatswords managed to win a combat against the Treeman. The Treeman was stubborn so Grizz had the opportunity to Fall Back in Good Order instead of test - however he rolled a 11 and fled! The Greatswords managed to catch him in pursuit and run him down . . . I should name them the "Lumberjacks." Elsewhere Grizz again failed to rally the Eternal Guard and the Wardancers charged the Free Company in the flank.

Ooof - Elf shooting still giving me problems late game.

The End is Near

During the last turn of the game the Wardancers would wipe out the Free Company and overrun into the cannon crew. With both of those units defeated we decided to call the game there - only the three greatswords survived the battle on the Empire Side (and the three Knights who fled off the board - hah!).

Although some of the Wardancers were eliminated - not enough were killed to score the unit.

End Game Summary and Lessons Learned

Although this was not a close game - it was a fun one with failed leadership and break tests all over the place - in reality we failed many more than we passed on both sides.

Wood Elf shooting is no joke - even with only two units - the superior range and good Ballistic Skill made them a feared option which killed off all my cavalry without too much trouble.
I really need a Mortar or Helstorm Rocket Launcher - increasingly I think not controlling the tempo with superior shooting makes playing with Empire very very tough. In past editions I always brought heavy artillery and infantry armies, this edition I've brought much more cavalry (as a percentage of my army lists).

Men of the Match

Greatswords! This unit managed the unlikely and defeated a Treeman - it may have been luck - but it is better to be lucky than good!

Final Tally

Empire VP: Treeman, 50% of Enemy General, 75% of Eternal Guard
Daemon VP: Enemy General Killed, Banner Captured, Knights, Outriders, Halberdiers, Cannon, Free Company, 25% of Greatswords

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