Introduction
Due to a quirk in the challenge procedures, Chris and Rossi were matched up again, revisiting the round one game wherein the forces of Basilea were stymied by the spirits of the forest in their attempt to secure the town of Windy Hills for the Hegemony. After the battle, Yuil Drassil, the Tree Herder leader of Rossi’s realm, encouraged Gnaeus Sallustis to campaign against the dark swamp to the south in order to cleanse the area of the Hag and her Nightstalker followers.
With that victory sealed in Round 2, Gnaeus Sallustis left the Legion in the hands of Dictator Christos and departed the region. The Dictator never trusted the tree spirits’ motives, and in Round 4 he sends his forces back to Windy Hills in search of revenge.
We decided to play Control as the Dictator is attempting to establish control over the town, and we’re relatively unimaginative.
Chris’s List and Thoughts
Army: Basileans
Points: 2300
Unit Strength: 25
250, Ogre Palace Guard Horde
— Dwarven Ale
250, Ogre Palace Guard Horde
— Chalice of Wrath
235, Paladin Knight Regiment
— Maccwar’s Potion of the Caterpillar
— Aegis Fragment
245, Paladin Knight Regiment
— Brew of Strength
— Aegis Fragment
155, Paladin Foot Guard Regiment
— Aegis Fragment
155, Paladin Foot Guard Regiment
— Aegis Fragment
155, Paladin Foot Guard Regiment
— Aegis Fragment
315, Jullius, Dragon of Heaven
205, Ur-Elohi
— Blade of Slashing
115, Ogre Palace Guard Captain
115, Ogre Palace Guard Captain
105, Priest
— Shroud of the Saint
(Made with goodarmylists.com)
I know, I know, I started this campaign saying I wouldn’t take Elohi, including characters, but that was also before v3 dropped, and I’ve been itching to try out the new Jullius and his lesser Ur Elohi brothers and sisters. What better time than in the quest for revenge!?
My list is intended to be classic hammer and anvil, but where the anvil hits back. The knights are intended to be the fast, hard-hitting hammers of the list, while the Paladin Foot Guard and Ogre Palace Guard make up a tough, resilient anvil — though the Ogres can deal a good amount of pain. I plan for Jullius and the Ur Elohi to keep with the knights, moving behind enemy lines or simply combo charging to ensure I have the wounds necessary to break units in a go where possible. The Ogre Palace Guard Captains are my chaff+ units — they’re pretty maneuverable and will function as chaff, but they can take a hit with De5 13/15 and are pretty threatening in flanks and rears.
Mike’s List and Thoughts
Yuil Drassil, Tree Herder
— Boomstick
Horde of Forest Shamblers
Regiment of Forest Shamblers
Regiment of Forest Shamblers
Regiment of Centaur Hunters
Regiment of Centaur Hunters
Centaur Chief
— Bow
Horde Salamander Primes
— Aegis of the Elohi
Regiment of Salamander Primes
Regiment of Salamander Primes
Salamander Vet
— Guiding Flame
Horde Fire Elementals
Horde Air Elementals
Druid
— Bane Chant
This wasn’t the best list, but I wanted to try using Salamanders as a solid main line. The thought was to use the trees to vanguard up a flank and use Yuil to bolster the other flank. The Centaurs would provide some harassing shots and some mobile unit strength for the scenario.
Chris Turn 1
Chris: The pond in the center of the map is a problem for Control when your opponent has Pathfinder on 90% of his units, but as I wanted to seize the center of Rossi’s deployment area for those juicy 2 VPs, and I liked the buildings as they were to help protect my flank there, I went for the center with my anvil, placing the knights and Elohi on the flank. I would have preferred the left-most knight unit to be closer to the center of the board, but the wall and forest made that difficult as that regiment had Brew of Strength rather than Pathfinder or Strider. I intended for the buildings to my right flank to cut the board off so that we would essentially only be playing on 2/3 of the table, but I forgot about Scout (Vanguard)…
Rossi Turn 1
Rossi: After deployment I was feeling pretty good. I had put some pressure on the right flank, and I had a regiment of Shamblers as a screen on the left. I moved Yuil up and had the Air Elementals available to scream up the flank or lock up a regiment of knights. I placed Yuil close enough to have the Ur-Elohi and Jullius charge him, but not the knights. I figured I could handle the two flyers and then collapse on them.
Chris Turn 2
Rossi: Essentially I made a mistake. I had accidentally placed Yuil a quarter inch too close to the unit of knights on the left. I had measured it, too, but I didn’t zoom in on my iPad to make sure. During Chris’ turn he made me pay by charging Yuil with the knights and Jullius. In the ensuing melee, I lost Yuil and that flank was doomed. (I like to think that Yuil was dismissive of the Basileans because of his earlier victory. Face to face with Julius he was overwhelmed with the holy fires of his belief.) He also locked up my Salamander horde with an Ogre Palace Guard hero. (Those guys are dynamite!).
Chris: To be fair, I didn’t fully realize that Yuil was placed where he was — in charge distance of the Brew of Strength knights and Jullius — due to Rossi playing on an iPad (who does that?)… When he first said he made a mistake, I thought he meant just that he didn’t check, or that he thought the knights couldn’t make it past the Shamblers to contact Yuil (it was close). Now I feel a little dirty, because it was a pretty decisive moment. Yuil was the anchor on this flank.
What helps me sleep at night is that it wasn’t a sure thing. The knights and Jullius, even with Strength, would average less than 12 wounds to the De6 Tree Herder, and while that definitely puts him at breaking distance, with Inspiring it wasn’t fantastic odds. To give myself the time to work through the De6, I held up the Air Elementals with the Ur-Elohi, the Salamander regiment with the other knights, and tossed an Ogre Captain at the Salamander horde. The knights went off, though, and Yuil got smashed the same way he smashed my poor Abbess in Round 1 of the campaign. Justice.
Elsewhere, I redeployed an Ogre Captain to prevent Rossi from getting around the buildings into the flank of my anvil, and otherwise just moved up.
Rossi Turn 2
Rossi: I continued pushing on the right, trying to get my unit strength into Chris’ backfield. In the middle I formed a line to face Chris’ infantry. Maybe if I could grind them down, I could win on scenario.
Chris: Also, the Ogre Captain absolutely SHINED. The horde of Salamanders — with Elite from the Sally Prime — only wavered our hero, gifting me with an additional turn to mop up the flank with my knights and Elohi. Mike (Ogre heroes are really good!….Dammit!)
Chris Turn 3
Chris: The Elohi and knights split off 2 and 2 against the Salamander regiment and the Air Elementals, taking both out and setting me up to go into the Salamander horde on the following turn.
I probably got all the luck I was allotted in the left-side Ogre Captain, as the right one went into the regiment of Shamblers and completely whiffed — not a single wound. I really felt that I had the edge there against the regiment since Rossi couldn’t spare any Inspiring, and I had Brutal with CS2, but I missed a good opportunity to put the first wounds out.
Mike Turn 3
Rossi: OK, it’s go time. I threw my line into Chris’ infantry, but some poor rolling led to some anemic damage. My flanking force got held up by another ogre hero. (Did I mention those guys are great?) On the left, Chris’ alpha strike force continued to remove my units, but my Salamander Prime was holding up a knight regiment.
Chris Turn 4
Chris: I knew I wasn’t going to get the charge in the center with my Paladin Foot Guard, so I had just tried to set things up such that I could get flanks or send my Ogres in afterward. Unfortunately, I’m bad at that, and the building I was anchoring my flank on ended up blocking one horde from getting in. I did manage to get the other into a Salamander regiment and take them out, and I chose to offer my flank to the Salamander horde to give Rossi a choice whether to take that hindered charge — not a sure thing, though certainly good odds — and abandon the left, or turn to face my knights and Elohi.
The Ogre Captain on the right went back into the Shamblers and once more crapped the bed; no wounds over 2 turns!
Mike Turn 4
Chris: We don’t have a picture of Mike’s 4, but he took the hindered charge into the Ogre Palace Guard horde. I had forgotten about Bane Chant, and the Druid successfully casting that made that a lot less risky of a charge. Still, it did abandon the flank. Elsewhere he continued to maneuver the Centaur archers into my center’s rear, and kept beating on my Paladin Foot Guard, who all continued to hold.
Chris Turn 5
Chris: A regiment of knights and Jullius went into the Salamander horde, one of them in the flank I believe, and took them out. I also dragged down some Centaurs in the center, but I chose not to reform to face the Centaur archers, giving them the rear charge if they could break the Priest. I figured that Rossi would have a hard time doing that, because come on, they’re archers!
The right Ogre hero decided he wasn’t going to make any progress banging away at the Shamblers, so he nimble pivoted out of that combat, intending to go for the top-right quadrant for scenario.
Rossi Turn 5
Rossi: I sent the Centaur regiment into the rear of the infantry line, killing the Priest and following up by removing the center infantry regiment. Pretty good stuff! The issue is the horde of Ogre Palace Guard that are lurking nearby.
Chris Turn 6
Chris: I really didn’t think he’d be able to kill the Priest. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve charged an Individual, usually with a proper melee unit, when it would then allow me to get a juicy flank or rear, only to realize I’d grossly miscalculated my odds. I even made a comment to Rossi about how the odds weren’t great, but that was about as useless as reminding the South-East US region that War Engines don’t score. “All in!” Mike: What did I have to lose? 🙂
Still, I was in a good position to take out multiple other units, and did. The knights finally finished off the Sally Prime, ensuring that I would hold that quadrant, and the Fire Elementals and Centaur regiment both went down in the center, leaving Rossi with an out-of-place Shambler regiment and one Shambler horde as scoring units.
Rossi Turn 6
Rossi: My left was in ruins, but I could still win if I could remove the Ogre horde. I sent in my horde and regiment of trees for a final charge. My horde proceeded to do zero wounds, and my hopes were extinguished.
Chris: Like the Fire Elementals. Doused. Extinguished. Up in smoke.
End of Game
Rossi Final Thoughts
So it was a tough loss. I hate losing on a mistake like that. Yuil and his leadership and Radiance of Life was the key to holding the left flank, and having him removed like that allowed Chris’ more mobile units to run free for the rest of the game. That being said, Chris took a great list and played it really well, from deployment to the end. And I guess I was due for a loss 😉
Chris Final Thoughts
I promise, I didn’t realize Rossi was playing on a tablet til halfway through the game when his daughter Facetimed and he lost the screen! Still, it was risky enough, and Rossi smashed the Legion so badly in our last matchup, that I’ll live with myself. I suspect our next matchup will be in person, and we’ll get to decide the series properly!
Final Fluff
Dictator Christos is content with re-establishing control of Windy Hills. The trees can go back to the forest where they belong, and the Legion will turn its attention to the last general in the region to face its wrath — Burger Stoneheart, Alex Chaves’ on-table Dwarf persona.
