Edge of the Abyss

The Kings of War Global Campaign

Once More Unto The Forest - Elven Perspective

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Elves
Prince Ingemon
VS Goblins
King Smack-Git

Taken from the memoirs of Prince Ingemon, heir to House Enneiros, describing his final battle in the great war, commonly referred to as "The Edge of the Abyss Campaign":

Knowing that a larger goblin army would surely follow, we marched to face them. Alone with such a small force as ours, one might think that we marched to our doom. However, among the trees of Galahir, dear readers, one is never truly alone. No sooner had we set out from the glade when we were met with a contingent of our Sylvan kin. They had been tracking the goblin party that we had recently dispatched, and we gladly combined our strength. As the sun reached its zenith and in the shadows of Galahir, we engaged the goblin foe one last time.

Battlefield Overview

For our final battle in the campaign we invited another player at our FLGS to pitch in on the elf side and bring our game size up to 1600 points. As it isn't his main army, only his mage was painted (and it was lovely, but I forgot to get a good picture :( ), but we really appreciated him helping us out and giving the final clash between Ingemon and Smack-Git a bigger scale.

The scenario for this game was "Occupy", and the purple tokens in the above picture show their placement. The primary objectives are harder to spot, but the one on the goblin side is towards the left (behind the woods) and the one in the elf half is under the tallspears.

As you can see for deployment, the brunt of both armies was focused on the right side of the field, while on the left the goblin king Smack-Git hung out with the spitter horde with jar of four winds. As this was the first goblin drop, we denied it many targets and at the end of deployment placed the hunters of the wild regiment across from them (although behind the trees), looking to clear them out and end the game on the primary objective.

Elves won the roll for first turn and decided to take it.

Elves Turn 1

The elves began their advance, looking to get some good shooting in before the goblins could respond. The hunters of the wild, having vanguarded up, moved into the woods ready for a turn 2 charge on the spitter horde.

The archers on the far right put 1 damage on the mincer, while the bolt thrower took out the goblin sharpstick thrower in one shot.

Goblins Turn 1

The goblin advance was cautious, looking to maintain a threatening formation. The big rocks thrower hit the tallspears on the hill, dealing 6 damage. The spitters tried to halt the hunters of the wild, but the 2 damage was not enough.

Elves Turn 2: Hunters of the Wild charge the Spitters.

While the hunters engaged the spitters, one unit of tallspears moved to tempt a charge from the trolls, while palace guard and the other tallspears readied a counter charge. The sparkstone failed to disorder the trombone, but the archers on the right were able to waver the mincer. The wizard healed 3 points on the damaged tallspears. The bolt thrower targeted the big rocks thrower and went two for two, destroying it.

In combat the hunters put 7 damage on the spitters.

Goblin Turn 2

In a move I hadn't seen coming, the sharpsticks horde moved backwards, opening a charge lane for the giant to multi-charge the tallspears along with the trolls. The trombone targeted the mage on the hill, dealing 5 damage, while the wiz used his amulet of fire-heart to lightning and then bloodboil the unengaged tallspears, bringing them up to 9.

In combat the combined might of the giant and the trolls routed the tallspears.

Elves Turn 3

The remaining tallspear unit charged the flank of the rabble regiment, while the palace guard charged the trolls. The prince moved to unleash the kitty on the war trombone.

The bolt thrower targeted King Smack-Git (who had been helping the spitters counter-charge the hunters of the wild) and hit him for 1 damage. The archers on the hill targeted the giant, putting 3 damage on him, while the mage healed the tallspears by a mighty 5 points! The sabre-toothed kitty chased away the war trombone's crew, and presumably spent the rest of the battle licking itself on a tree branch. The archers on the far right, realising that the mincer was out of range for a charge next turn anyway, and that destroying it would only open a charge lane for the fleabag riders, focused fire on said riders and, with some help from the other mage's fireball, routed them.

In combat the palace guard dealt 4 damage to the trolls, while the tallspears scattered the rabble and turned to face the giant.

Goblins Turn 3

The trolls regenerated 1 damage and counter-charged. The giant charged the tallspears, and the mincer moved up at the double, ending some two inches from the elf archers. The mounted biggit and the wiz focused fire on the mage and took him out.

In the combats the goblins had much to celebrate, with both the trolls and the giant routing their foes.

Elves Turn 4

Things were looking very delicate now, and the elves could not afford to put a foot wrong. The prince moved to block the giant's charge lanes to the elf archers (i.e. precious scoring units) but did not charge, so as to allow another volley at him. On the right, with the mincer uninspired and on 3 damage, the mage sitting behind it would use fireball to clear it, and so the other archers either backed up or pivoted to target the trolls. Rather than continue targeting the goblin king, the bolt thrower turned to cover the primary objective next turn.

Shooting began with the remaining mage fireballing the mincer - 0 damage. Oh dear. In desperation, the only archer troop that could targeted the mincer, and despite needing 6s to hit and damage, manage 1 point, bringing it up to 4! Nerve was then rolled and... a 4. All that drama, and the mincer wasn't even wavered. The archers now facing (in one sense) an inevitable rear charge put 2 damage on the trolls, bringing them to 5 and wavering them! The shooting that focused on the giant dealt 4 in total, taking him to 7.

On the far side of the battlefield the hunters of the wild finally convinced the spitters to bugger off, and turned towards the primary objective, the path to which was blocked by King Smack-Git himself.

Goblins Turn 4: Mincer does some mincin'.

The trolls regenerated 1 and rolled their dwarven ale headstrong, passing it and advancing onto the primary objective. The giant charged the prince, while the wiz and biggit focused fire on an archer troop, dealing 2 damage.

The giant dealt 4 damage to Ingemon but (after a re-roll) only managed a waver. The mincer minced the archers, and turned to face the other.

Elves Turn 5

The angle of the mincer allowed the archer troop to move past it and out of the charge arc, looking to contest one of the central objectives on turn 6. One of the archers on the hill backed out of the sharpstick's charge range, as did the wavered prince so as to keep inspiring them. Shooting on the trolls brought them to 7 damage but couldn't waver them, while the giant on the other hand was brought up to 10 and successfully wavered.

In the only combat, the hunters of the wild dealt 6 damage to the goblin king, bringing him to 7 but after a re-roll only wavering him.

Goblin Turn 5

The goblins hastily moved their biggit and flaggit to inspire the trolls (who regenerated 3 points) and the giant respectively. The sharpstick horde moved onto one of the central objectives, and the mincer turned to face the rear of the nearest archer troop.

With shooting achieving little, it was time for potentially the last turn.

Elves Turn 6

One archer troop moved off the hill, out of the giant's arc of sight and onto a central objective, while the other turned to shoot the trolls. Further right, the other archers moved to contest the objective held by the sharpsticks. Prince Ingemon charged the wiz.

The mage redeemed herself somewhat by finally fireballing the mincer to death. Otherwise shooting was a bust, managing only 1 damage on the trolls (achieving nothing) and 1 on the giant, bringing him to 11 but, thanks to a poor nerve roll, failing to halt it.

Prince Ingemon dealt 3 damage to the wiz and wavered him. The hunters of the wild finally chased off King Smack-Git (typical goblin leadership eh?). If they rolled a 6 on the overrun, they would hold the primary objective. Rolling only a 2, a 7th turn would be needed to secure a win/draw.

Goblin Turn 6

Going into this turn the score was 2-1 to the goblins. The trolls regenerated 2 damage and turned to face the board centre. The sharpsticks charged the archer troop (forgot yellow-bellied!). The giant had the choice of a rear-charge on an archer troop, but fearing a turn 7 turnaround instead moved to contest the objective held by the archer troop. In combat the sharpsticks wavered the archer troop.

We rolled for turn 7, but it wasn't to be.

Goblin victory!

End of game positions.

From the Prince's memoirs:

We had fought valiantly but, in this part of the forest at least, our cause was lost. Devastation was all that could be seen in the wake of our foe, and despite our best efforts to halt its progression, evil itself moved through those woods. Spurred by shadow and flame.

Our survivors were now too few for us to continue. The journey back to Therennia Adar loomed. Though our hearts were heavy with sorrow for what we had witnessed, I write this account as a testimony to the courage of our Sea-Kindred, who fought in a distant land for a cause that rests close to the hearts of all our kin. As we mourn what was lost, may we ever kindle the fires of our righteous vengeance, and let forth this cry unto the darkness: the elves stand with the trees.

Army Lists Used In This Battle

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Goblins
King Smack-Git
Wins

2 Comments

  • PoisonTail says:

    That was an excellent write-up! Beautiful spear regiments you have there too – it looks excellent for Elves, even with non-crammed bases!

  • Keef Ditchards says:

    Noooo and the trees are sad. Well those gobbos have material for more extravagant warmachines now. Good for them and bad for everyone else. 🙂

    Thaks for these great reports!