In this game my Bretonnians faced Edmund´s High Elves. The game was at 1,000 points, but being a campaign games, point values change with the territories at our disposal.
Bretonnians. From left to right: Pegasus, 2x Knights of the Realm, General (Sword of Might), 3x Peasants (one unit with grail reliquae), Trebuchet, Archers, Sorceress, 2x Men at Arms, Archers, Hero (Sword of Destiny), 2x Squires. Total: 1165 points.
High Elf. From left to right: Guardians, 3x Silver helms, Mage, Archers, Bolt Thrower, Archers, General, Giant eagles, 3x Spearmen, Archers. Total: 1220 points.
TURN 1. High Elf.
I made a mistake deploying pegasus separate from cavalry, an error I paid with a nice eagles charge...
The remaining troops advance. No shots. The characters interchange positions: Commander will give orders to cavalry and sorcerer to infantry.
Due to a bad attack roll and a very good salvation one of pegasus, eagles do get only three hits despite of their 12 attacks. My pegasus riders however, manage to make 5 hits with only 6 attack dice. The eagles are killed in the pursuit and my deployment mistake, that could have cost me one of the two units of knights that I can lose before disbanding the army (and already in the first turn), is settled with the loss of a single base and the first enemy unit destroyed. Good!
TURN 1. Bretonnians.
The squires decide to reject the left flank (they have nothing to do against the Silver Helms charge). The remaining troops advanced. The trebuchet impacts on a unit of archers, eliminating a base and also disordering the unit.
TURN 2. High Elf.
Cavalry advanced on the flank, but the wizard fails to give orders to infantry. He goes ahead of the troops to cast a spell on bretonnian cavalry, but fails.
TURN 2. Bretonnia.
The infantry advance (though the sorceress is still not able to give an order to the archers). The squires move to fire at close range on the archers, but even get disorganize. General fails to give an order to the knights.
The sorceress moves foward in order to try to force the squires charge magically, but fails. The trebuchet and archers combined shots only get an impact on the Silvers helm, but their drive back movement disorganize the guardians.
TURN 3. High Elf.
The mage moved away too much and is not able to send his orders to the infantry. Luckily for the elves, a spearmen unit is able to charge by initiative a squire unit flank, while the other squire unit is riddled with missile fire (but a base survives). The spearmen get to remove a base, but could not pursue the cavalry so they reorganized with the archers.
The general gives an order to the Silver helms brigade: a unit charged the men at arms while other charged the archers. In a second order, the third Silver Helms unit charged peasants by flank. The commander moves back to command the infantry and the mage approaches the cavalry combat and casts Light of Battle, but the spell is dispersed by a scroll of bretonnian Sorceress (Cheat! I thought I had that scroll, but I did not put it in the final list...).
Men at arms are completely annihilated without offering the slightest resistance.It only survives a single base of archers (pure luck). The third Silver Helms unit eliminates the first unit of peasants without receiving a single impact (despite of their defense with 9 attacks).
In their advance they annihilate the second unit, but pilgrims fiercely defend the reliquae and eliminate a cavalry base.
Final appearance of the table at the end of the high elves phase. Where is the Bretonnian infantry?
It´s time to totting up points... I´ve almost lost six full units.
However, the elves...
The game doesn´t look good. Fortunately for Bretonnians, only knight units are counted towards Break Point. That gives me some scope... Time to charge!
TURN 3. Bretonnia.
The squires charged by initiative: one unit against the archers (and receive three impacts by shotting, ouch!) and the remaining base of the second unit charged the Silver helms... From the rear! The hero manages to convince farmers to charge (joining the combat) and further complicate the situation of elven knights.
The general ordered a total attack and so pegasus and knights charged the elves. The general joins a unit and also does the sorceress, who tries to cast a spell of protection, but fails.
The trebuchet eliminates a base of Silver helms. Peasants and squires are able to avenge their comrades killing the other unit of Silver helms.
I decide to continue the fight with the other squire unit. That was a mistake because, despite of killing two bases of archers, they were annihilated and that allows the remaining archers stand to advance and charge the flank of the Pegasus unit. Pegasus riders lose another base and only survive thanks to the infantry can not pursue them.
The knights crushed the archers first and then a unit of spearmen. General´s unit loses a base.
TURN 4. High Elf.
In desperation, a unit of spearmen charged the Bretonnian knights. They are destroyed, but get to kill another stand of commander´s unit (uff. ..). The other spearmen unit and archers stand charged the pegasus riders stand and kill them.
At this point, both armies are one unit left to reach Break Point, but it does not look good for the elves, because it's Bretonnian´s turn... However, point recount is fairly tight.
TURN 4. Bretonnia.
Two charges by initiative, both against archers (worth more points), and General joins the other unit of knights. The trebuchet eliminates another stand of Silver helms and reduce the unit to a single base (55 points, great!).
Once I kill a unit the game will be over, so I´ll start with the two bases one. Despite needing two rounds of combat, archers are annihilated.
It's a shame that the game ends immediately, having been able to complete the turn is likely to have gotten more points, advancing on the flank and rear of spearmen and bolt thrower units. The point totting up is as count is as tight as expected:
High Elves: 525 points
Bretonnian: 545 points
Bretonnian victory (a pyrrhic one) . However, since I used a magic item that had not actually buy we decided to leave it in a draw.
Great game, tension persisted till the end!
Nos vemos!
