Empire in Flames Report

I was gonna write up a detailed Bat Rep for Empire in Flames but got bored halfway through, (I think I have issues with writing far too much detail) so slightly abbreviated one will have to do instead.

The gangs all here!

Game 1: My NZ ETC Brettonian replacement, Mark

This was Turn 2. As you can see the Knights are still way to close to the wrong board edge...

Mark was way to defensive for reasons unknown to anyone, as he would have ran over me if he went for it. Mass S3 bow shots vs armour is fail. I sat back like any good Elf Gunline does and picked up points where I could while using the White Lions as a deterrent (Mark was way too scared of them so I used that to my advantage) We traded about 300 odd points each but I got a comp boost at the end to give me the win. Playing the system baby!

Result: 10 all 
Comp Result: 11.5 -8.5

Game 2: Locky with TK/Dark Elf alliance

At the top you can see my silly White Lions trying to run off the table

I was a bit worried about this as the Casket could be a problem and TK shooting is bad for naked elves. I set myself the goal of shooting up the Heirophants bunker as fast as possible. It took a while but I got him T5. Sadly I lost a lot on the way, with Chariots cleaning out my Level 4/BSB bunker on Turn 5 as I had to leave them in range to get the Heirophant. My White Lions also had their first fail, panicking from some Dryads and costing me what would have been a game Destroying Flank sweep through Lockys army. I picked up the Break point first though and the 1000pts gave me the win.

Ouch...

Game Result: 15-5
Comp Result: 13.5-6.5

Game 3: Brendan with VC/Goblin Alliance

Brendan wasnt fast enough to avoid my ninja camera skills!

Brendan had an infantry heavy army with some Ethereal back up and Goblin toys. Unfortunately this just isn't fast enough to get to my army, and meant I could focus fire all the fast stuff first before moving onto the next wave. And thats pretty much what happened, though my stupid HoDA wasn't too helpful only killing one Hexwraith... Flame of the Phoenix nuked the Ghoul Horde, and I cleaned up everything but the GG with Vamp Lord and Night Goblin mass for a 15-5 win.

The Goblins were too dumb to know they should have run off.

Game Result: 15-5
Comp Result: 14-6

So a pretty good first day all in all but my list was struggling to get the big wins, as I couldn't really finish off things quickly like a heavy combat army. If this could continue, I'd do alright! It wouldn't though...

Game 4: Greg Johnson's Empire/Ogre Alliance

Gregs lovely Wolf themed army, including the amazing Mournewolf Cavalry he built in a week!

It all started well enough...

 Gregs written up this horrible debacle over at http://hoodlinghole.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/empire-in-flames-2013-report-part-2.html, so you can read it in all its gorey detail. Needless to say, with the Demi/Mournfang double team and all the armour on the table, I was pushing the boulder up hill to begin with and then my White Lion block decided the weight of expectations was too much and gapped it off the table Turn 3 with my Level 4 and BSB, and that was game...

And then there were none....

Game Result: 17-3
Comp Result: 16-4

Game 5: Andrew with Empire/Lizardmen Alliance

The Saurus have left the building!

I got away with this one by the skin of my teeth. I managed to panic Andrews Saurus out the building T1 (It does actually happen!) and snuck my Dryads in to the building and held everything off as best I could. My Level 4 cascaded T1, and the White Lions again sucked the big one, charging 3 Demis only to fail their fear test and do 1 wound before getting smashed up in return. I was pretty much up shit creek running out of ways to protect the building when the game ended on T4 and utterly robbing Andrew of the win that would have come had he 1-2 more turns. Score! (its a stupid way to end the game imo, but I'll take it. I'll discuss my thoughts on missions at a later date.)

How to finish a game in style! Its all skill, honest!

Game Result: 14-6
Comp Result: 14-6

Game 6: Daniel Bird with a beautiful Wood Elf/Empire army (My vote for best painted)

Operation: Stay Far Away from the Helblaster, in action.

Daniel had a fairly Tree heavy Wood Elf list alongside some Demis and a Volleyball Gun. I stayed outside the 24" bubble of Volleyball death and shot up the Wood Elf Bunker killing the BSB and Level 4 turn 3. Sadly the Demis cleaned out my Back Line, but the White Lions finally didn't disgrace themselves killing the Treekin. Was a bit messy but with my Characters and White Lions alive I got the win.


Game Result: 13-7
Comp Result: 13.5-6.5


So in the end I picked up 5 wins to 1 loss, for about 70 Battle Points. This put me into 6th place overall which I'm very happy with, considering I faced a combined 13 Demigryphs, 3 Mournfang and about 3 armies worth of Knights with my S3 shooting spam and White Lions of Fail. Its also a pretty good start my tournament gaming in Australia; Masters here I come? ;-)

As for the list, I think it worked nicely but really does leave you short against armour. Just a few overall thoughts

Winners:
High Magic was amazing all weekend (assuming she was still on the table...) and I've really fallen in love with it now. Hopefully it gets even better in a month! Just have to remember the short range of the spells which means you occasionally waste the first turn of magic.
Glade Guard are so god damn good. Just being able to move and shoot is a god send, and if High Elf archers get the same, life will be good.
Swordmasters. I love these guys 127 pts of win, talk about terror causing. They pretty much always kill more than there worth, and watching players consider whether putting a full bus into them is a good idea, is amazing

Losers:
White Lions. Supposedly the most bent thing in any High Elf army... I'm sorry but my White Lions are the biggest failure on a alarmingly regular basis. I think they're cursed, or I'm the exception that proves the rule or something. I know the terror they cause in opponents helps alot, but I'm honestly gonna be leaving them on the bench until the new book as they drive me nuts...
Hail of Doom Arrow. Again a supposedly awesome item, which did basically nothing in every game. I'm not sure I got the targets horribly wrong either, but it just fluffed every time. The highlight being it causing just 1 wound to the Hexwraiths, leaving me seriously short on ways to deal with them... Not sure I could ever justify dropping it for anything else though, at 25pts its crazy.


Anyway that's all for now. Next post, I shall discuss the sexy new High Elf pictures that have taken over the interwebs today.