We’re back with another Age of Sigmar battle report: Wood Elves vs. Stromcast Eternals! Check the Tactics Corner for more great battle reports.
Hey everyone, the battles rage on! Reecius’ Wood Elves take to the field against Pablo’s Stormcast Eternals, 25 wounds a piece. I changed my list up a bit this go around, I wanted to try the Waywatchers instead of Glade Guard and WOW, what a difference. Read on to see why!
Note: We’ve been using initiative as it is written in the book for most of the games (we’ve played about 7 games now in the league), rolling for it every turn but in this game Pablo and I totally forgot to do it and had a fixed initiative.
Wood Elves:
- Wayfinder Lord
- 11 Waywatchers
- 1 Warhawk Rider
- 5 Wardancers
Stormcast Eternals:
- Knight-Venator
- 5 Judicators: Bows, Shockbolt Bow x 1
- 5 Judicators: Crossbows, Thunderbolt Crossbow x 1
Yikes, Pablo went full force shooting, which in AoS is very powerful. This would be a tough game as he generally out-ranged me, meaning I’d have a tough time getting into position to actually fight. Objectives would be a big part of determining who won this game.
Mission:
ITC Scenario 3: Kill Points with Maelstrom and Slay the Warlord, King of the Hill and First Strike as bonus points.
Turn 1:
I won the roll to go first, and took it. Pablo deployed his Knight-Venator out of range (who by the way, WOW, 12″ move and 30″ range, hitting on 2’s?! haha, holy crap). I moved forward and managed to kill 2 of the Bowmen on the first turn with Hail of Doom Arrow and the handful of Waywatchers that could get into range. Their Precision Shots special rule is amazing, and really helped me out this game. My Warhawk fly over to grab a maelstrom point, once again proving how awesome it is to have both mobility and objectives in the game to make it fun.
In retaliation, Pablo’s Venator and Bowmen dropped a few of my Waywatchers who passed Battle Shock thanks to my Lord’s Bravery buffing aura. He also managed to pick up 2 Maelstrom points, bringing him to an early lead!
Score:
- Maelstrom: WE: 1, SE: 2
- Kill Points: WE: 0, SE: 0
- Bonus Points: We: 0, SE: 0
Turn 2:
Turn 2 I moved the Wardancers forward hoping to make an 8″ charge into one of the units of Judicators. The Waywatchers unleashed into the Crowssbowmen as they were the bigger threat to me with the multitude of shots and dropped 3 of them with some lucky Precision Shots…wow! My Wardancers unfortunately, failed their charge, leaving them in the open. Had they made it, that probably would have sealed the win for me. My Warhawk Rider picked up another Maelstrom Point, nice!
Pablo’s forces fell back, and unleashed another volley into me, dropping all but 1 Wardancer and some more of the Waywatchers…ouch! The Stormcast Eternals got no Maelstrom points this turn, tying us up there.
Score:
- Maelstrom: WE: 2, SE: 2
- Kill Points: WE: 0, SE: 0
- Bonus Points: We: 0, SE: 0
Turn 3:
I advanced up the field and between my Lord, the Waywatchers and the lone Wardancer (who barely passed Battle Shock again, thanks to my Lords Bravery aura) managed to take out the last 2 Crossbow armed Judicators giving me a Kill Point and taking Pablo off of his objective. For the third turn in a row, my Warhawk Rider picked up a Maelstrom point, too!
The Stormcast Eternals then counter attacked, throwing everything they had into the Waywatchers whose deadly arrows were dropping Stormcast Eternals left and right. They took a beating but 3 were left standing and passed their Battle Shock. The Stormcasts again, failed to grab any Maelstrom points as they had to keep falling back away from my warriors apart from the Venator who came forward that turn to deny me from taking another point on his objective 3.
Score:
- Maelstrom: WE: 3, SE: 2
- Kill Points: WE: 1, SE: 0
- Bonus Points: We: 0, SE: 0
Turn 4:
I moved up to take Obective 1 for a Maelstrom point and for King of Hill which would be coming up at end game! I had also taken the chance to pour everything I had into the Venator who with his crazy range and speed would be pretty much impossible to kill for me unless I could lure him close. I came oh so close to killing him, but he survived with 1 wound left, gah! He then fell back into the corner of the board and he and the remaining Judicators fired into the Waywatchers but in cover, they were pretty tough to hit and hurt due to their special bonuses, and they weathered the storm.
The Stormcast Eternals also managed to finish off the last Wardancer, giving them a Kill Point.
Both of us picked up a single Maelstrom point this turn, keeping the Wood Elves slightly in the lead.
Score:
- Maelstrom: WE: 4, SE: 3
- Kill Points: WE: 1, SE: 1
- Bonus Points: We: 0, SE: 0
Turn 5:
I decided that with my dwindling resources, I had to go for broke this turn! My Warhawk Rider was the only thing that had any chance against the Venator as he was the only unit that could reach him, so he flew right at the annoying angel wannabe! My Lord decided it was time to play smart and ran backwards towards an objective and out of LoS to avoid giving up a KP and Warlord. My Waywatchers similarly hid behind a small building but in range to get King of the Hill.
The Warhawk Rider went in hot and between his shooting and two rounds of combat, managed to take the last wound off of the Venator, giving me a KP and Warlord, huzzah! At this point we called it as Pablo had no viable targets in LoS and couldn’t get enough Maelstrom points to get back in the game. He was able to take out the Warhawk Rider, but it didn’t tip the scales.
Wood Elf Victory!
Final Score:
- Maelstrom: WE: 4, SE: 3
- Kill Points: WE: 2, SE: 2
- Bonus Points: We: 2, SE: 0
- Total Score: WE: 6, SE: 0
Fun game, again! That Knight-Venator is crazy good, wow! If it weren’t for the inclusion of Objectives, I never would have been able to even shoot him as he could just fall back and pepper me with shots. Objectives made the game a game, and so much more fun. The Waywatchers are incredibly good, much better than the Glade Guard. That is one of the funny things about AoS, some units that have the same number of wounds are simply not equal. They’re not usually as far separated in power as the internet makes it sound like (Glade Guard in a big unit for example, can be very powerful) but their is a discrepancy. Points would go a long way to providing balance, or something like points. Now I know the game wasn’t meant to be balanced with wounds, but in general it is a decent way to do so as far as we can tell at this stage. I can say though, that for me it will be all Waywatchers, all day going forward. They’re excellent!
Everyone in the studio is very much enjoying the game. It’s fast, fairly straightforward but with some depth in combos, movement and order of operations. We’re all very excited to add our next 25 points as the first round of games is nearly finished.
Thanks for reading and as always, Frontline Gaming sells Age of Sigmar product at up to 25% off, every day!