First blood of 2018. 1800 point WHF throw down

Last Sunday saw Lano and I throw down with 1800 points of WHF in preparation for Riotville LIVE 2018!

This would see Lano field 1800 points of Wood Elves against my Ogres.

Now this is not my force for Riotville LIVE 2018! as I still need to buy all the required bits.

The forces are deployed.

Lano's left flank.

Centre.

and right flank.

Here is the 1800 points as a whole.

I go with an Ogre gunny list with lots of black powder goodness!

I have a real good magic phase and feel really pleased with my self for getting 'troll guts' off on 6 dice without blowing the head off my Slaughtermaster.

The problem is I THEN used my 'rock eye' to check the items in the Elf block of archers . . . . .YEP they have the banner of eternal flame.

Lano could not help but smile when he disclosed this !!

My shooters advance on the left and start whittling away the 'Dryads (pun intended ;0)).

My Ironblaster has a misfire in the first round.

To add to my woes the Elven fast cav shoot round behind my forces.

In the centre my Ogre bulls advance into the Elven volleys. As Lano pointed out what I should have done was used the wall as cover!

On my left the Maneaters and Leadbelchers crash into the Dryads and smash them to kindling!

As I hoped the over run brings them nice and close to the Elven flank.

Having recovered from the first round my Ironblaster pivots and enfilades the Elf Cavalry!

Three Elfs drop but the unit is frenzied so ignored the injuries :0(

The Ogre centre continues to advance but Lano has done a great job of setting up flanking forces to smash me on the counter charge.

My hope had been to destroy these forces by this point with my flanking 'blasty' units but unfortunately this had failed to materialise.

The Dryads advance to direct me away from the Arches if I charge.

The second unit of Elf cav are re-directed to take care of my flanking forces.

How the battle stands at the midway point.

With 'walk between worlds' cast on the Dryads they reappear behind my meatbus of Ogres.

I decide I have to pull the trigger now while I still have a viable unit of Ogres. . . . .

Unfortunately only the Gnobblers are game and the Ogres fall short on the charge!

Both units of flankers fail their reform or fail to hit the side of a barn!

This allows the Elf Cav to charge and my word what a charge!!

The Gnobblers are massacred and the Woodelves are no slouches in melee. The stand and shoot reaction against my Ogres also ramps up the casualties!

The Dryads fail their frenzy check and crash into the rear of my Ogres.

Thankfully this means Lano is unable to shoot into the melee and my Ogres make short work of the Dryads!

Having smashed through the Leadbelchers without breaking a sweat the Elf cav overrun into my Maneaters.

I figure my Maneaters will have a fighting chance but it turns out not when the Elven cav are on the charge and they chew through my Maneaters!!!

What's left of my 'Meatbus' finally makes contact with the Elf hoard.

Unlike the High Elves the Woodies do not get a 'ward save' when they cast spells but they do get 'life tokens' which they can burn off rather then lose casualties!!

To make matters worse Lano can decide WHEN they are used !

To add salt to the wounds my Ironblaster then decides to blow himself up!!

My Ogres do some damage but it is too little to late to really dent the horde of archers!!

An easy victory for Lano.

So what did I learn;
1) I need to do something to drop the Elf BS or make much better use of terrain!
2) The Dryads will need to be in bigger units to be anything other then a speedbump.
3) The Elf Cavalry are 'glass cannons' and must not be allowed to charge!
4) Anything I can do to stop the Elves using magic is a bonus. Lano made great use of casting a plethora of low cost spells to rack up the 'life tokens'.
5) Riotville LIVE 2018!! is going to be brilliant!!!!!!!!!!