A damn close run thing! 1st competition report.

I took my Elves to the club first the 1st round match against Ian's Orcs. 

Both armies were 2000pts - my Elves had a Dragon, regiments of Guard,Stormwind Cavalry, Archers (2 of these), a horde of spears, 2 mages, 2 bolt-throwers and an Army standard plus a number of magical artifacts. 

Ian's Orcs consisted of 2 each of the following hordes of ax, regiments of gore riders, Godspeakers (with magical artifacts), Giants (yuk!) and a regiment of great ax and a Krugder. 

For the competition we picked a random terrian card - I liked this but not the card I picked! To much blocking stuff for my archery! Ian didn't have any shooty stuff!

The initial line up below - with the heavy cavalry facing each other!

The Orcs advance across the front - allowing a devastating charge by the Elves!

The Orcs advance some more .....

After losing one regiment of Gore Riders the Orcs get their revenge on the Elven Knights!

With the demise of the Knights - an arrow and flame attack takes out the last Gore Riders - almost leaving the flank open!

The Giants stomp up and down on the Archers!

The Elven Spears and Guard take on and destroy an Orc Horde! This was a vital combat as if the Orcs had held then the Spears would have had a Horde of Trolls in on their flank! 

But the win meant that they could turn to face!

The Trolls waver preventing the Orc Horde getting in the fight ....

The Giants finish off the Archers and a Bolt Shooter and then have a go at the army standard bearer .... Who holds on! The Spears kill off the Troll Horde!

On the other flank the Elves finished off the Troll regiment and are about to kill the Orc great ax regiment .... It was looking rosey apart from the shortage of time!

The final positions - the Giants and the Horde had finished of the last Elven units on the right flank - a standard bearer, a Mage and a bolt shooter hanging in there. The cavalry in the form of a dragon, Mage, Archers and some cavalry just couldn't  get there in time!

A really close battle 1040 pts to the Orcs and 1035 pts to the Elves - a draw in game terms 0.25% difference! A victory requires 10% difference by starting value (200pts for this game). 

I learnt a lot from this game - the light cavalry is very useful for getting around the flanks. The turning point for me was when one of my troops of light cavalry was routed with only 2 hits after getting around the flank! Not only was it worth 145pts to Ian, it would have probably killed a Godspeaker (100pts to me!). The heal spell can be effective - although my Mages weren't rolling well! In my last game the bolt-shooters were brilliant - this game against the Giants they were meh .... I really needed them not to be meh ....

The terrain made the game very challenging possibly better for the Orcs as their tactic was to get into melee ASAP. 

The same Elven army goes out again for the next battle in the competition. 

An enjoyable evenings distraction! Thanks for the game Ian. 

Morts