Batrep Dwarves/Dark Elves vs Wood Elves

Saturday saw everyone gathered again at Daniel's place for a dose of Fantasy after a looooong break. We were playing Dwarf/DE vs new book Wood Elves at 2.5k per player. Pictures are already up, so without further ado, let's discuss the battle.
My 2.5k army. On the small side to squeeze in my Pegasus Lord. 

1 24x Witchelves block with Cauldron of Blood in its midst, 
2 RxB units of 10 each. 
2 units of Warlocks at the back. 
3 RBTs cos of points,
a lvl 4 Supreme and a lvl 2 Sorc both Life lore.
1 Hydra and 1 Khardibyss rounds up my small elite army.
Daniel's Dwarves. Big on infantry blocks with a few war machines.

2 blocks of 30 warriors, 
1 block of 20 hammerers
1 block of 25 ironbreakers
1 block of 20 miners
2 units of crossbows
1 cannon
2 bolt throwers
1 Gyrocopter
1 Gyrobomber.

Daniel and I decided to push heavily down the left flank and this flank has all our heavies. All 5 infantry blocks are lined up on the left with a Hydra, Warlocks, 1 RBT, Cannon, Crossbows and Bolt Thrower as support. Behind my Hydra was a RxB unit holding both my Sorceress.

The plan was simple. We will push straight down the left and centre (as our battleline was just that long) and then once we steamrolled over the left and centre, we will swing to the right and clear it up. Facing us was the bulk of Sam's army which had his 4 dryad blocks and his archers and treeman ancient.

On the right flank, the Gyrocopter, Gyrobomber, my Pegasus lord, Khardibyss, 1 RxB, 1 Crossbows, 1 Bolt Thrower, 2 RBT and 1 Warlock unit awaits. Our idea was to use the village in the centre to shelter our fliers for one turn and then we'll go for targets of opportunity, especially the archers. The Warlocks will try to harass the enemy lines while the Khardibyss soaks up some dmg in the centre and basically it is a refused flank. Facing us was the bulk of Youcai's army which had his main archers and his 2 Eternal Guard units which held the bulk of his army and heroes.

We were content to allow Youcai to move forward with his Eternal Guards and we'll try to hold him off long enuf for our units to hook him on the left.

They got the first turn and the battle started.

As expected the Warlocks moved up first but they started to suffer under the withering fire of the Archers, both Sam's and Youcai's. With their special items, Sam's archers were firing at 3+ to hit with no penalty and this proved to be very damaging as they were shooting at T3 warlocks. Even a 4+ ward save did nothing as I rolled quite badly. The warlocks melted away very fast.

On the left, Sam remained very static while Daniel and I pushed as far foward as we could. However, with Sam being static, it was a long slog forward. Luckily, as I had chosen Life lore, I could add toughness to the Witchelves and only 10+ witchelves died whenever the Flesh to Stone spell could not get through. Daniel's cannon proved to be another MVP in this game. Cannonball to the face for both the Treeman Ancient and Sam's lvl 4 wizard is not a very nice sight for the Wood Elves to behold.

On the right, Youcai aggressively pushed one Eternal Guard unit forward to entice us to engage early while the 2nd waited to flank whichever unit we commited. Eternal Guard excels in the anvil role as it has a lot of ranks to fight in and has armour-piercing spears. More on them later. Taking the bait, my Pegasus lord and my Khardibyss charged into the flank of the Eternal Guards while Daniel's Gryobomber did a bombing run on the Eternal Guard poised to flank charge.

What happened changed the game on the right flank. ASF meant that the Eternal Guards went first and with the named character Lord, they killed the Khardibyss before I got to strike. Youcai managed to roll enough 5 and 6s to deal 7 wounds to the Khardibyss and I promptly failed all my armour saves. The Pegasus lord overkilled the champion in the challenge and passed his break test on a 7. Then began the long grind where the Eternal Guards and my Pegasus lord slogged it out with his low strength unable to pierce my high armour saves and they were stubborn on a 10. Which meant they had to be cut down to the single elf.

Meanwhile, Daniel's Gyrobomber was fully on target and bombed the hell out of the 2nd Eternal Guard unit.. with the Gyrocopter's steam gun, a total of 25 Eternal Guards died in a single turn, wiping out 5 ranks. Even Sam's Dwellers Below that killed 3 ranks of dwarves did not top that single bombing run. Youcai and Sam promptly focused all their fire on the Gyrobomber and it did not survive the next Shooting phase.

Back to the left, my Hydra broke through 2 of Sam's Dryad units while the other 2 failed to slow the dwarves down. We broke through the centre and left and managed to engage 2 of Sam's archers units and sending them packing. The ironbreakers shifted to the right to support the Pegasus lord and together, they whittled the Eternal Guards down and killed them all. The Rangers tried to rear charge my Pegasus lord and failed to pierce my armour and were wiped clean by her in return. With the last of the Wood Elven infantry blocks stomped into the dust, the smoke over the battlefield cleared and the Dwarves and Dark Elves had won the day.

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Dryads....oh how they have fallen. Once they were good skirmish screeners...now they are crap. Their saving grace is their T4 and 2 attacks which allows them to deal with most ikan bilis that tries to get through the lines. But a nerf to Strength 3 made them useless in engaging high toughness like my Hydra. Once, they could stand up toe to toe to my Hydra and take it down with some good rolling. Now, my Hydra lost a single wound while taking down 2 units of them. Huge nerf here.

Eternal Guard looks good as a anvil unit. They fight in extra ranks in forest, which means they get 4 ranks fighting with spears which are armour-piercing. They are stubborn and so you'll need to kill them all too in order to get rid of them. Coupled with ASF, they can take on any low toughness and low armour save infantry blocks and win. However, the same weakness against high armour saves targets plague them. A knight unit in their flank will see the 2 locked in combat until the cows come home. And they will be whittled down. They are useless as flankers though. Not enough strength means they will be locked in combat until another Monster comes in to thunderstomp them down.

The new look Wood Elves is not perfectly showcased here. None of the new units made it to the battlefield. Sam's old Dryad MSU list could not hold the line long enough. Youcai's could but he got stuck by my Pegasus lord (whom I love very very very much) and Youcai's list was actually not killy enough. Not enough strength to pierce high armour saves targets.

MVP of the game belongs to Daniel's war machines. Who would have guessed? A shock and awe performance by the Gyrobomber seared its unfaltering large blast template bomb into our minds. His cannon is unwavering in its ability to snipe high value targets (with Sam failing look out sir!). I would not have wanted to take the field against Daniel's war machines. My Cauldron of Blood learnt from the last battle that his cannons will always take it out by the first turn (lol).