A call to arms

Finally, a glorious victory for the Order of the Raven.

1,400 points against Jay's High Elf army. He's taken an interesting approach to WHFB: large units. Very large units of troops. One of 35 spear, one of 16 archers and 16 heavy cavalry. Each led by a character.

Against him I had two units of Raven Knights, one upgraded to Inner Circle, led by Marcus himself (looking much better now he's mostly painted!). My usual unit of 20 spear, led by the Battle standard bearer and magician, with two hand gunner detachments. A unit of 20 swords, plus the cannon and volley gun.

With the speed of the cavalry, the Elves were close to my lines on their first move. In two ranks of 8, they were heading straight at the unit of spearmen in my centre. With one unit of knights on each flank (although with the Inner circle farther away on the other side of a wood) I was aiming to pincer the cavalry with my own. I advanced my Inner Circle knights and Outriders on the left flank, making sure I didn't block the view the cannon had at the flank of the Elven cavalry. On the right, I advanced the swordsmen and manoeuvred the knights there in preparation for a flank charge once the Elves arrived.

As against the Dwarves, magic against High Elves is pretty much a non-starter, and I wasn't able to successfully cast anything all game.

The cannon should have been able to bounce a round down the length of one rank, however the Dice Gods were not with me and the cannon misfired, killing the crew. The volley gun also managed to jam on the first barrel. My hand gunners were their usual useless selves and couldn't hit a thing.

Not a good start.

The Elven Cavalry charged my spearmen and one hand gunner units with both Hand gunner units standing and firing (but to no effect). My Wizard issued a challenge, which the General, laughing so hard he almost fell off his horse, allowed his champion to meet. Victor von Doom calmly revealed Van Horstman's Speculum. This rather sneaky, backstabbing and downright dirty little magic item swaps the fighters' Weapon Skill, Strength, toughness, initiative and number of attacks. As you can imagine, Wizards are not very good at any of these, whereas enemy champions and/or generals are pretty natty. Oh, and if the challenge is refused, the chickenshit has to skulk at the back of his unit, unable to fight or provide leadership. Alas, both managed to miss each other and not cause any wounds. However the rest of the Elves managed to kill 9 spearmen and hand gunners.

Both units broke, and were cut down by the Elves...who moved so far they left the field of battle completely. They would be returning on their next turn, in the same place the left.

The archers cut down several of my swordsmen, who broke and ran, panicking the hand gunners next to them. The knights, however, held their ground.

I prepared my revenge. The hand gunners and swordsmen rallied, and the knights manoeuvred to face the returning Elves. On my left, the Outriders fired at the approaching spearmen (spearelves?), killing a couple. More were killed by the volley gun, forcing a panic test which they passed.

In the Elven turn, the spearmen then charged the Outriders whom they wiped out in combat (not surprising, really, given the difference in numbers!). The knights turned returned from their tea and biscuits, and (unable to march) moved juuust far enough to be close to the knights, but outside the line of sight of the swordsmen.

My turn...and revenge is sweet. The Inner Circle Knights charged the spearmen flank. The Champion accepted the challenge from the character, and calmly took the blows on his armour. Meanwhile Marcus and the Knights butchered several elves. In a mirror of what had happened to the Empire on the previous turn, the spearmen broke, and were cut down by the cavalry.

The other unit of knights charged the Elven cavalry. The well-armoured knights were more of an even match (despite the numbers) and managed to win the combat, but the break test was passed by the Elves.

In the Elven turn, the knight combat remained again at a stalemate, both sides' armour proving too hard to cut through with hand weapons. The archers fired again, killing more of my hand gunners, who refused to break again. The volley gun crew were also wiped out by a spell.

Back to the Empire, and the swordsmen were able to charge the flank of the Elven knights. My Inner Circle knights reformed, ready to re-join the fray, and the hand gunners advanced on the archers.

The swordsmen were enough to swing the melee in my favour. The combat bonus from the flank charge, the ranks of troops and the additional unit standard were enough to reduce the Elves' leadership...coupled with a roll of 10. The remaining 14 Elven knights broke and ran from the field of battle.

This left the Elves with only the remaining archers. Taking a stand against the approaching Inner Circle knights, they were able to cut down one. The Inner Circle knights charged, losing another to the hail of arrows on the way in, but were able to butcher the entire unit, save the wizard. After a check to see if "Immune to Panic" also applied to "Your Unit was wiped out and you need to make a Break Test, bub" we decided the lone Elf should take a test. In the end, the issue was a moot point, as a double-6 was rolled and the pointy-eared one ran.

Marcus could have left the Elf alive, but he wasn't sure of the fate of Ulrik who had been leading the spearmen. Driven by anger, he spurred his warhorse forwards, and cut the Mages head off.

The field belonged to the Empire.




So...

I was left with the general and 3 Inner circle knights (from 5), 3 knights (from 5), most of the swordsmen, about six hand gunners. Not a lot, really.

Knights...Great! They more than made their points back in this game. They form the only hard-hitting units I can get (other than Great Swords). They held their own against superior numbers, and with Marcus to help out were not so much an effective fighting force but a natural disaster. Had I charged the front of the spear unit, things may not have gone so well (far more elves would have been able to fight back, and they would have received their full rank bonuses).

The pincer attack worked very well, however I should have swapped the two units of knights over. The Inner Circle and General would have been more effective against the Elven cavalry should things not have gone so well, and the 'basic' knights would still have been useful against the spearmen.

This tactic is something I'll be using again, especially against those Elves.

Hand gunners. I'm still not convinced these are of much use, but I am reluctant to retire them and leave me with no ranged foot troops. I think that in all the games I have played they have killed maybe 5 enemy, and have been wiped out in most games. In this game, I should have used the second unit to flank charge the Knights. This would have given me a +2 combat resolution, in addition to removing the Elven rank bonus. Perhaps enough to swing the result to a Leadership test that didn't require snake-eyes to pass. Had I fielded my usual unit of halberdiers, the strength bonus may have helped as well.

Artillery...well, some you win and some you lose. Have both the cannon and volley gun worked properly, they would have decimated the Cavalry charge, perhaps even wiping them out completely. The volley gun did redeem itself later in the game by killing several spearmen, then some of the archers. However these are clearly two items that I cannot reply on to win the game for me.

Spearmen...wiped out again! the Speculum was a great idea, just I was unlucky with the actual combat. Definitely something to use again. I'm tempted to go for a larger unit of 30 spearmen as my standard basic unit size. The additional four models in the combat will be useful. Keeping the Inner Circle knights closer, with the General's leadership, would also benefit the unit. I'm also tempted by the Griffon Banner, that doubles the rank bonus of the unit. Although it would leave Ulrik with no magic armour, or upgraded weapons, this would give a basic +8 combat resolution (2 standards, 3 ranks doubled). That would have meant my losing to the Elves by only 3. With the General's leadership of 8, and the re-roll from the Battle Standard, there is a fair chance the unit would have remained in play.

Swordsmen...these guys saved the day again. Despite panicking on the first turn, these guys helped kill the Elven cavalry and still had enough troops left to start advancing on the Elven archers! The shield/hand weapon bonuses are useful, and I think I'll be converting some of my left-over spearmen back into swordsmen.

Regiment size...The large units used by the Elves was an interesting idea, but it means when things go wrong, they *really* go wrong. I only killed maybe a dozen models in all the combats, yet wiped out the entire army as they broke and ran. The Empire can effectively employ similar numbers but are better off using the detachments for the flank counter charge.

Tactics...30 spearmen with Griffon standard and 10 hand gunners and 10 swordsmen detachment. Inner Circle Knights on opposite side of spears to the swordsmen. Spearmen get charged - the swordsmen flank charge. Wizard issue a challenge, using the Speculum and hopefully killing something nasty. The unit should be able to withstand the combat. On my next turn, the knights flank-charge, and should be able to cause enough additional casualties to win the combat. The two units of 5 knights can go a-hunting artillery and skirmishers. 20 swordsmen to cover the artillery and flank charge anything else coming at me.