Okay lads, here is my 2nd Test for the Battle of Trantio:
High Elf invading army:
General β Prince on Ilthilmar Barded Elven Steed, Dragon Armor, Shield of Merwyrm, DawnStone, Orge Blade 267 pts
Archmage β Level 4, Death Magic, Book of Hoeth, Talisman of Preservation 320 pts
Noble Battle Standard Bearer on IBE Steed, Dragon Armor, Golden Crown of Atrazar,
Enchanted Shield, Sword of Anti-Heroes 165 pts
Core:
- 20 Lothern Seaguards with Musician and Standard bearer 260 pts
- 11 Silver Helms with Musician and Standard Bearer 251 pts
- 5 Ellyrian Reavers, spear, Musician 90 pts
Special:
- 13 Dragon Princes Full command, Banner of World Dragon 457 pts
- 23 Phoenix Guards Full command, Razor Banner 420 pts
- 2 Tiranoc chariots 70*2 pts
Rare:
- Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70 pts
- Eagle 50 pts
Total points: 2490 pts
Tilean (Dogs of War) Defender of Trantio:
Generalissimo Marco Colombo - 245 pts
+ Equipment: Crossbow, Light Armor, Hand weapon
+ Magic Items:
- Gem of Lustria: 4+ Ward Save
- Gourd of Lustrian Wine: One use only in one close combat phase, Gain D3 Strength
- Scroll of Araby: Declare when to use, Marco and his unit have 2+ Ward Save vs one spell each turn.
+ Special Rules:
- Navigator's Telescope: Marco has Sniper special rule. And no scout can deploy within 24β of him.
- Marksman: Marco ignores shooting penalty at long range and can reroll misses with missile weapon.
- The Best Money Can Buy: As the current Merchant Prince of the great city of Trantio, Marco allows one core, non-regiment of Renown unit to have a magic banner of maximum 50 pts.
Mercenary Wizard Lord β Level 4, Talisman of Endurance (5+ Ward), Staff of Fickle Fortune (Roll a D6 at the beginning of the wizard's magic phase, on 1, he suffers -D3 to the casting rolls for the whole phase; on 2, nothing happens; on 3-6, he adds D3 to his casting rolls in this phase) 265 pts
Leonardo da Miragliano: 100 pts
+ Special Rule β Genius:
- As long as Leonardo is within 3β of a war machine, it can reroll one Artillery Dice or Scatter Dice per turn.
- As long as Leonardo is with a unit armed with Crossbow, the unit can reroll all failed rolls of 1 in the shooting phase.
- One core unit in the Dow army may have Ambushers special rule.
+ Scientific Items:
Sphere of Alchemy: Can be thrown into enemy units, range 6β, Strength 3, Quick to Fire, Armor Piercing (-2)
Prism of Power: Once per game, Leo may remove D3 power dices from the opponent's pool after rolling for the wind of magic and channeling.
Paymaster: 154 pts
+ Equipment: Braces of Pistols, Heavy armor, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of Preservation
+ Paychest: Extending βHold your Groundβ to 18β, add 2 Str 5 attacks, and +1 Armor Save. However, if the the Paymaster flees for any reason, he dies. If the Paymaster is slain, all friendly units within 18β take a leadership test at the start of Dogs of war's next turn. If a unit fails the test, it will squabble and do nothing. If it rolls double 6, they will flee toward the nearest table edge. Units in Combat, Fleeing or Immune to psychology don't need to take the test. Also, all friendly units will hate the unit/model that killed the Paymaster henchforth.
Core:
- 36 Pikemen in Heavy Armor Full command, Razor Banner 291 pts
- 5 Light Cavalry with spear and musician 70 pts
- 6 Voland's Venators 225 pts
- 16 Marksmen of Miragliano including Maximilian Damark (the unit have BS 4 and ignore long range penalty) 252 pts
7 Vendetta Duallists including Vespero (5+ parry, Killing blow, Death Mask: models in base contact with Vespero lose 1 attack) 148 pts
Special:
- 19 Paymaster's Bodyguards with Halberd, Fullplate in Full Command (banner of Discipline), they are Stubborn as long as the paymaster is in the unit 254 pts
Rare:
- Bronzino's Galloper Gun (range 36 β, str 7, D3 wounds) 155 pts
- Mercenary Cannon (range 48β, Str 10, D6 wounds) 110 pts
- Tilean Mangonel (using the rule of Halfling Hotpot, small template, Str 2 (6), ignore armor save) 75 pts
- 3 Maneaters with extra handweapon, Stubborn, Swiftstride 156 pts
Total points: exactly 2500 pts
Magic spell rolls were pretty good for both sides with the Asur Death Mage got Spirit leech, Soul blight, Doom and darkness, The Purple Sun while the Tilean Life Wizard got Earth Blood, Flesh to Stone, Throne of Vines and the fearsome Dweller Below.
The battle of the Pass was rolled on, which quite suited the two armies as well, Tileans with lots of shooting and High Elves, who hoped they could overrun through arrays after arrays of the enemy with their massive hammer units.
Deployments of both side were like these:
Some notes: since my Metal classic Marksmen are somewhere in the Indian Ocean at the moment, I had to proxy them with some handgunners. Same with the eagle replaced by a griffon and, due to sheer laziness, the Winged lancers would have humbly paraded as the Light Cavalry.
Turn 1:
The Asurs as they had fewer units won the critical first move. Everyone naturally rushed forwards as hard as they could, except the Reavers who had a huge marsh in front of them and all gaps had been closed by the Maneaters and the light Cav. High Elves then got 10 dices from the Wind of Magic but lost 2 dices to the Prism of Leonardo. The Archmage tried to Spirit Leech on the paymaster but the latter beat him in Ld test. Purple Sun was successful dispelled. After that, The Eagle Claw showed off one of the greatest salvos in history by killing outright 2 Maneaters with 6 shots! The last dude barely passed his Panic.
In their turn, the Tileans had absolutely no interest in closing in with the mighty Asurs. The right wing including the Pike block and the Bodyguards shuffled back a little bit. Vespero's laddies hid firmly in the wood, watching the flank of their pike comrades. The Venators moved forward to entice the Dragon Princes to the other way while the lone Maneater and the Light cav rode back around the precious cannon.
(How Pretty they are...)
The high Elves seemed to be favored in the Magic phase with 5 PDs vs 5 DDs. But all the cheese from the Book of Hoeth could not stop the Dweller Below on the Dragon Princes. While only 4 Caledorians were dragged down under, unfortunately the Noble BSB had to join them too. Then out of the script, the whole unit with the Prince failed Ld test at 11 and fled 12''!!!
(...until they wag their tails and run...)
Tilean Shooting, alas, could not follow such a momentous success. The cannon hit but failed to wound the Bolt Thrower. Galloper Gun took a mere scratch off a chariot while the Hotpot, even with Leonardo nearby, utterly misdelivered its renown chicken soup on the heads of those rather unwilling Silver Helms. Those young Elf Nobles were surely on the book of Asuryan that day when they also escaped with just a casualty a withering fire from the greatest shooting unit in Warhammer world, The marksmen of Miragliano embedded with Marco Colombo and Leonardo.
Turn 2:
Now, it was the High Elves who were not keen to close in the ruckus. Apart from the fearless Phoenix Guards who moved straight in front of the pikemen, the other hammer units held and waited for the Dragon Princes to rally and some unexpected gaps to exploit in stead of rushing into the superior Tilean positions. The reavers went blocking the Voland's boys and put the knights in a difficult situation while the Eagle landed right before the Bodyguards.
The Archmage then decided his life moment had come and unleashed all the power accumulated in his thousands of years numbing his buttocks in the Tower of Hoeth's lecture halls. The Spirit Leach killed the Paymaster downright and an IF huge Purple SUN swept through Tilean lines. The whole units of Bodyguards and Marksmen were affected but mercifully, those lads were the most quick-witted among mankind and only 6 of the former and 5 of the latter were 'crystallized'. Marco failed his lookout, Sir but with Initiative of 6, he didn't give a tosh! His will strengthened his unit and they held. In contrast, the Bodyguards panicked and carried the Wizard lord with them in their craven stampede.
Oh well, to put final twist in this tale of twisty twists and turns, the Archmage exploded and joined papa Nurgle in the aftermath, taking with him five rather unwilling Phoenix Guards.
In the ensuing allround Panic checks, the cannon and the Hotpot failed, so couldn't shoot this turn. The Pikemen also failed, and stood exactly where they were, squabbling. The rest passed while the Bodyguards with Discipline banner had no problem rallying.
Brozino left his cute gun, hit on the eagle and broke it, while on the other side, the Venators crashed on the Reavers and annihilated them. They then steadied to brace for the Seaguards' charge next turn.
With a huge threat of a Purple Sun in action right in front of him, the rallying Tilean Wizard can only muster 2 dices in the Wind of Magic. But then with the help of Staff of Fickle Fortune, he improbably managed to dispel it.
In the shooting phase, the Marksmen killed 4 Phoenix Guards (which would definitely help in the long term).
Without Brozino, the Galloper Gun was an absolute junk and couldn't squat a fly of worth until the very last turn.
Turn 3:
With the whole battle plan being in a mess, the High Elves elected to go for glory and charged with all the units that could. One chariot and the Phoenix Guards hit the pikemen, the other chariot charged Bronzino, Seaguards locked horns with the Venators while the Silver Helms suicidally galloped at the cozy Marksmen on the hill. And they amazingly reached the lines of the Tileans through a torrent of bullets and alchemical grenades without a single knight unhorsed.
High Elf Magic had zilch to say so we moved straightly to a very short shooting phase with the Bolt Thrower finally sending the last Orge to the Great Maw.
Combat now had become the most exciting sequence of the game and it also swung just as hard as the former magic and shooting actions. First off, the Seaguards couldn't get pass the armor of the Voland's cavaliers and also lost one of their number. Still due to ranks and charge bonus, they forced the knights to break at 7 and those horseboys ran at triple 1s and got caught (obviously)! One Tiranoc scythed down Bronzino whereas its counterpart got skewered by zillions of poking pointy steelheads. The Phoenix guards somewhat salvaged the situation by hacking down 6 pikemen while losing only 2. Still the Elves lost and barely held. All the eyes then focused on the decisive engagement on the hill. The High Helm stepped forward to challenge the world most renowned human explorer Marco Colombo. Marco was a quintessential Tilean, that is he would never hesitate at any trick no matter how lowly to get ahead. Gulping the Gourd of Lustrian Wine stolen from the very Lord Kroak himself, the Prince of Trantio transformed into a mighty Kroxigor and ate the hapless Elf lordling. However, in an unprecedented show of martial prowess, 9 remaining knights avenged the death of their captain by killing 9 Marksmen and routing this greatest missile unit ever assembled in Tilean. Following their momentum, they crashed on the Bodyguard unit down the hill, who were kinda stunned at the capture of both Marco Colombo and Leonardo da Miragliano, the two grandest Tilean personalities of the age.
Now the defenders of Trantio had to act quickly to restore their advantage which they already had at the beginning. The Vendetta charged the flank of the Phoenix guards. Flesh to Stone successfully cast on the Bodyguards. Both the cannon and the Galloper Gun managed just a measly wound from the Eagle Claw. But the best shooting of the game was awarded to the Hotpot when one huge chicken soup landed on the Dragon Princes and chocked them to death with its evil smell (nah, actually the soup burnt them down instead!). There was a huge confusion here, as the Dragon Armor was supposed to withstand even the direst heat even from Dragon's Flame but as I checked all the Dogs of War edition, 5th, 6th and unofficial 8th, there wasn't a mention of Hotpot shot being Flame attacks. So yeah, the arrogant Princes died with the new knowledge that the some upstart cooks from the Moot could concoct a recipe that evaporated seven thousand years of martial tradition! Still, running away in the face of weird flying food would simply be out of the question to the gigantic pride of Caledor so they stayed put.
(right before the Hotpot lauches its delicacy...)
In the close combat phase, endowed with Flesh to stone, the bodyguards had no problem winning against the Silver Helms but the gallant Elven Knights refused to panic. Meanwhile, in the far side, the Seaguards, carrying the momentum from last turn, destroyed the light cav and overran very close at the cannon. The main action, however, saw the Phoenix Guards surrounded and routed by Vespero's duellists and the pike block. Vespero's boys chased far enough to hit the rallied Eagle.
Turn 4:
The Dragon Princes and the last chariot made the final hurrah and charged to depleted pikemen. Since both struck at the same time, the Tilean warriors managed to unhorse all 5 remaining Caledorians (leaving the Prince being the sole survivor of the much vaunted unit) and wounded the chariot once. Nine pikemen were trampled to death in return. They lost the combat by one and luckily stayed.
The bodyguards's tussle with the Silver Helms continued. They chopped down some and got smacked back, winning but the knights persevered.
The Seaguards dashed on the cannon on the left-side hill and liquidated it. They now owned the entire Tilean left flank.
In the latter's turn 4, Vespero's lads after roasting the Eagle and filling their belly charged the rear of the Elven Prince. The Merc Wizard decided that his Bodyguards unit were tough enough to deal with the Silver Helm, thus granting Flesh to Stone to the sorely pressed Pikemen. Just like a joke of fate, the 10 strong Guardsmen suddenly fluffed all their attacks and lost 3 men to the swords and hoofs of the Elven knights. They then broke even with the banner of discipline and ran off the board, dragging the much cursing Wizard with them.
The Silver Helms restrained and reformed to face both the Hotpot (who failed panic check) and the rear of the engaged Pikemen.
Well, engaged no more unfortunately, because despite losing 3 to the Prince's mighty arms, the Pikemen and the Vendetta still won by a decent margin due to bonus. The Prince ran at double 1s (so Tripple 1s this case) and got caught by Vespero's. Pikie boys restrained and reformed to face the Silver Helms (in a way that the latter could not escape them even if they overrun the Hotspot). The last chariot was running for the last two turns.
Turn 5-6:
The 4 elf strong Silver Helms charged and destroyed the hotspot. Considering that they couldn't overrun pass the pikemen's line of sight, the knights elected to reform and face the Tileans. The latter duly hit them on the hill on their turn and routed them.
The Seaguard spent the rest of the game moving, and potshoting the pikemen with no significant damage. The Bolt Thrower exchanged missiles with the Galloper Gun and the Tilean machine ended up eventual winner.
The Vespero's lads, after all heroics in the game, managed to get close to the rallied Chariot and finished the wounded riders off with a hail of deadly throwing knives.
Thus the most epicly twisty game of the age ended as a Pyrrhic victory to the defenders of Trantio with 3 surviving units of Pikemen, Vespero's Vendetta (intact), and the Galloper Gun. One sole remaining High Elf formation, Lothern Seaguards speedily exited the field to inform Asur High Command at Luccini news of this utterly disastrous battle (while managing to pluck berries improperly from the locals all the way!)