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Game 3: Anders (Stormcasts)


Sigwarus

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Scenario:

Blood and glory (claiming a major victory rendered 15-5 in tournament points but the mission had been altered so that it was enough to control 3 of the four objectives to win a major victory). The tournament score was then modified -/+ 5 due to the difference in point cost for killed units. The end score could be anything between 20-0 and 0-20 in tournament points. 

 

Anders army:

Anders is a nice guy that I've encountered before in a smaller tournament. His 2000p army consisted of: Lord Celestant on Drakoth, lord Castellant, lord Relictor, knight Vexillor, 2 Concussiors, 3x5 Judicators, 2x5 Liberators, 10 Retributors,

My army can be seen in the first post of this blog.


 

Pre-game thoughts: 

I absolutely love playing against Stormcast! It is often fun games with plenty of bloodshed on both sides. But to be honest, I have yet to lose a game against a Stormcast army. The key when battling Stormcast is handling the incoming teleports, often in the form of 10 armour-smashing Retributors. But Sylvaneth have many tools to handle the threat. My goal was to snipe the Vexillor before any teleportation were made. That is easier said than done. Vexillors have a good save and most generals like to place them in cover or unseen behind terrain. But with some help from the forest I was hoping to take the banner bearer out.

I got one acorn and the Verdant blessing spell so producing forests wouldn't be a problem in this game.


 

Terrain (described from my side of the board as always): 

At the left side of his deployment were a building with some small area terrain just next to it. At the center of his deployment was a large cemetery acting as an area terrain. At the right side of his deployment was a tall but not that large stone pillar (impassible). The center of the board had, just as in my second game, a large and tall stone formation (impassible). I placed my free Wyldwood just to the right of it. In my deployment zone I had a relatively large area terrain to my left and a ruin at my right side with nothing but barren land between them. 


Deployment 

Anders deployment from left to right: Concussiors (just by the building), Judicators, Liberators (in the central area terrain), Relictor (with liberators), judicators, lord on Drakoth, liberators, judicators, Castellant (behind the stone pillar), Vexillor (same), Retributors (near the board edge to the right)

My deployment: Branchwych alone to the left and the major part of the army in a half circle at the center with the intention of dropping a wood in my deployment zone. The 10 dryads were kept in the shadows and not deployed and the tree-revenants were placed at the far right side.


 

The battle begins:

As I deployed the whole army at once I decided the terms of the turns and choose to go first (do you see the pattern). I created a Wyldwood in my deployment zone and another one at the left side of the battlefield close to the building in his deployment zone. I then redeployed all my troops besides the branchwych and loremaster by walking the spirit path. The Treelord Ancient, The Spirit of Durthu and the Kurnoth hunters with scythes were deployed in that order into the free forest just right of the middle center of the board as close to the enemy as possible. Both the Kurnoth hunters and the Treelord Ancient got a 6 on their spirit path roll and could move even closer to the enemy. I then put the 2 units of Kurnoth hunters behind the other troops at the same forest. Before the teleportations the loremaster managed to buff Durthu with hand of glory. The Tree-revenants were placed at the right side of his deployment zone just by the board edge behind his troops to threaten the Vexillor and Castellant. The unit of 20 dryads were redeployed at the newly made forest to the left.

By placing the Kurnoth hunters with bows in the forest I had dramatically changed their line of fire. Thanks to the new angle I could target the no longer hidden Vexillor in the shooting phase. The arrows from the two units was just enough to slay him and, as a consequence, the Retributors were now stranded at the far right and had to rely on their not to impressive move of 4" to close the gap. The Spirit of Durthu and the Ancient proceeded to shoot down the Celestant on Drakoth thanks to the rerolls granted by the hand of glory spell. 

I charged with both Treemen, the hunters with schytes and the dryads to the left. All but the dryads made the charge. The Ancient engaged the Judicators in the middle and killed a few of them. The hunters attacked the Judicators to the right and the Spirit of Durthu killed the lord Celestant on foot. The Tree-revenants failed to engage the lord Castellant.

After that amazing first round my opponent retaliated. He charged the Ancient with his Concussiors and some liberators. He then charged the hunters with the other group of liberators. All his remaining shooting went into the hunters and in combination with the other attacks they were down to one guy. The Concussiors severely wounded the Ancient that was saved by having a mystic shield. The Retributors charged and killed the revenants (but this put them even more isolated to the right). 

My opponent then got the double turn and the Retributors ran closer to my troops. The hunters with scythes were now down to one wound.
The Concussiors finished of the Treelord Ancient. 

 

In my second turn I moved the big unit of dryads from the left forest to engage the enemy but did retain my bonus for being near the forest by stretching out the unit and retaining a few of them close by the forest. I then teleported the two units of Kurnoth Hunters with bows to the same forest. Unfortunately one of the units rolled a 1 and couldn´t shoot in the following shooting phase.

 

The Branchwych moved to control the objective at my left quarter of the board. The smaller unit of dryads abandoned their forest and run closer to the ruins at the right side of my deployment zone claiming another objective. The Loremaster moved closer to the action in the middle.

 

In the shooting phase the Spirit of Durthu shot at the Retributors killing 2 of them. The Kurnoth hunters severely wounded the remaining Concussior. The Dryads then charged the enemies in the area terrain at the center of my opponents deployments zone killing the Concussior and a Liberator. Durthu killed the remaining Judicators. The Kurnoth Hunter with scythe was eventually killed.

 

I´m not totally sure who won the role off for the third round but he eventually charged the Spirit of Durthu with the Retributors. The Treelord survived the onslaught thanks to his sturdy Oaken armour and killed a few Stormcasts in return. The Retributors later were decimated by combined bowfire even though they were protected by the light of the Lord Castellants lantern.

 

End game:

By the end of the forth battleround I had put the last Retributor to the ground and nailed the Lord Castellant with some arrows and roots. All Liberators were dead. My opponent was tabled and I used the last turn to seize the last objective. I now controlled all objectives and the major victory. The game ended in a 19-1 win in my favor and that was the end of gameday one.

Killing the Vexillor proved to be just as important to my gameplan as I had hoped for. The big unit of Retributors spended several battlerounds to get into the heat where they belong and they were not able to pick their fight. I had plenty of time picking the other units of.

The TO:s presented the matchups for the next day’s first game and I was more than happy to see that my next opponent ws another Stormcast player ;)

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Excelletn report! I really enjoy reading these as stormcast player and definately adds to my distaste of relying too much on the vexillor if playing a good opponent.

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Thanks!  The Wildwood sniping trick can often be avoided by deploying the Vexillor is correctly. The ability works nomatter where you deploy him and therefor he could be placed in a corner, and more importantly, more than 30" away from the free Wyldwood. The Retributors shouldn´t be placed in the center of the deployment zone rather than at a flank. Then you don´t have to spend several turns running to reach the enemy if the Vexillor is killed. 

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