First Warhammer Fantasy Battle not one for the record books

Well my first 1000 point battle for Warhammer Fantasy was played out Saturday at the Chicago Battle Bunker and while it was fun it was also quite the learning experience for a player formerly versed in just Warhammer 40k. First off to lead in my opponent (Jonny P from Zlurpcast) and I  were only playing a 1000 point battle with no deployment and just a straight up meeting engagement type mission.

What we decided to do since it was our very first game was simply plop the units down across from each other on the board (in deployment zones) let him have the first turn with his Beastmen and then just have at it. What we learned was a lot about hand to hand combat, the magic phase and tooling a list properly.

I brought some simple core units and one special unit along with a level 3 Archmage and a Noble with a Battle Standard Bearer that granted +1 movement. That was my first waste of points. I was not ready for the immense speed at which units now cross the table and get into the nitty gritty of it. I had Sword Masters of Hoeth and spearmen also.

As you can see below 1000 points does not buy a lot of troops for High Elves:





With that in mind I also had a few blunders. Mainly remembering key features of my army. For example for some weird reason I forgot that Swordmasters have two attacks. I also forgot that the special rule "always strikes first" allows them to reroll misses. With those features gone they got handed a lot of losses in turn 2 when combat was engaged. On the left side of the board my Archmage did quite well early on and so did my archers widdling down a 30 plus block of beastman to 15 or so before they got in close.



My Archmage took High Magic and ended up with Shield of Saphery, Fury of Khaine and flames of the Phoenix. I used Flames to set a beastman unit on fire and peppered my opponent with Fury of Khaine when I could and then my archers got off several shots that hit the mark. Still though moving, long range and cover can add up and I wasted a turn taking poor shots where I needed 6+ to hit.

My main problem was forgetting how awesome Swordmasters were on the right flank and they soon broke and fled due to my forgetting their attacks and such. Lesson learned I guess make sure to double check everything. I even had a printed roster too and totally missed that.

The end came quickly once the beastmen got within charge range and buffed themselves up with Primal Fury and the like. A learning game is a learning and this was certainly that.



Overall it was a fun battle even though we stumbled through the rules and had a lot of questions about saves and reforms and banner bonuses and the like. If I had to do it all over again I would drop the magic standard at 1000 points. And oh yeah....I would buy my noble armor....

I will redo my list and tighten it up a bit now that I know what to expect.

There were a lot of fantasy players out and about including a sweet Empire Army: