H&H Fantasy Game 2 - Barbarians v Dark Elves

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Paul K
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H&H Fantasy Game 2 - Barbarians v Dark Elves

Post by Paul K »

Played under 'eased' Covid restrictions.

In this second H&H Fantasy game we pitted a Barbarian army against a Dark Elf army, both at 200 points with 2 generals and a wizard each. We let the dice decide which players had which armies which resulted in Tony and Chris taking the Barbarians and Tim and I the Dark Elves.
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The dice roll for choice of first or second deployment went to Tim and I which gave us the advantage of responding to the Barbarian deployment with our units organised to deliver a specific game plan. However, with one player from each side in a remote location it is impossible to discuss battle plans without communicating this to your opponents as well!
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Opening moves were tentative for both sides, the ‘aggressive’ Barbarian hordes massed on the right wing would automatically charge if an enemy unit came within charge range and both sides awareness of this would impact any game plan. The Dark Elf plan was to use the ‘A’ class infantry units comprising spears and crossbows, to out-flank and defeat the Barbarian hordes of their right, then co-ordinate with the giants and raptor riders to attack the barbarian centre comprised mainly of ‘C’ class archers and a unit of 3 ballistea. The very useful Dark Elf cavalry were positioned on our right wing to ‘psychologically pin’ the opposing Barbarian cavalry and chariots in position against them, and hopefully deter them from coming across to support the hordes on the opposite wing.
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All looked good to go with our Dark Elves in control of the central 4 hex hill and ready to take possession of the 8 hex hill on our left from where our crossbows could inflict misery upon the Barbarian hordes compelled to attack. Then, Chris picked up 3xD12 shooting dice to roll for his ballistea for the first time and the result was just a taster for what was to come! Two Dark Elf units were forced to recoil and one was disrupted. At the same time our wizard failed in his second attempt to evoke a fire elemental.
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Against our right wing three Barbarian hordes and a general charged home against our line of Dark Elf spears and crossbows. Any odds would predict that this line would hold – but they didn’t! The crossbow shooting was poor and the hand-to-hand combat results were disasterous for the Dark Elves. Within 2 combat phases three Barbarian hordes had effectively neutralised 5 units of ‘A’ class Dark Elf infantry, and ended all our plans to out-flank the Barbarian left.
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In the centre my wizard again failed to evoke a fire elemental and in response Chris landed 4 hits with his ballistae which was demonstrating the accuracy of a modern ground to air missile launcher as rolls of 11 or 12 on a D12 dice were becoming the norm!
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As both sides were now engaged in hand-to-hand combat in the centre and left it was becoming increasing obvious that on this evening Chris was ‘on a roll’ with the dice as he inflicted defeat after defeat upon our Dark Elves despite the fact that the combat factors were mostly against his Barbarians. All I could do was to repeatedly apologise to Tim for my increasingly awful set of dice rolls which could be described as a form of self harm.
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Tony now started to move his Barbarian chariots and cavalry forward and left me with little choice but to commit the Dark Elf cavalry into a do or die charge to in response. They were the last hope for a change in fortune for the Dark Elves as the situation in the centre and left was already mostly beyond rescue. My wizard failed for the 8th time to evoke an elemental in the centre and as a result the Dark Elf cavalry were soon out-flanked by the Barbarians despite some initial success.
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Tim, from his distant vantage point then witnessed the disintegration of the Dark Elf army as I struggled and ultimately failed to try and form a final defensive line. The Dark Elf crossbows did finally find their targets and despatch a 6 stand Barbarian horde with their general, but it was too little too late and we were already well beaten.



Game analysis

What can I say – From first contact with the Barbarians it was all bad news for the Dark Elves. We had terrain advantages, a balanced deployment and plenty of opportunities, but the shooting and combat performance as dictated by my absolutely abysmal dice rolls undermined our game plan. I think Tim deserves a written apology!
Kind regards
Paul

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