Here come the Elves!

 It was bound to happen. Elves, and in particular, Wood Elves have always been my favourite Fantasy race. So, no surprises then when I decided to paint and collect a Wood Elf army in 15mm for use with our favourite 'Fantastic Battles 'rules. I may have overdone the buying of elves as what you see below cannot be far from 1,000pts yet I must still have about 200 little elves left to paint. The elf figures are mainly from Demonworld and the Mighty Army Wylde Elves from Rebel Miniatures.  

I already have a Dark Elf/Ice Elf army so for my Wood Elves I really wanted to come up with quite a different feel. The Forester trait was an obvious one for much of the army but I also went for Warbeasts for the main infantry unit, hence the wolves on their bases. It looks like a very useful trait and I am going to try out 600 points of Wood Elves in the scenario below...

The Edge of the Wylde

15mm Fantastic Battles, Orcs v a Gnomes of Dingly Dell and Wood Elf Alliance.

1200 pts per side.

Banners fluttering in the wind the Gnome army stood watching the approaching Orc horde. There were thousands of Orcs heading their way. Where were the Elves who had promised to come to the Gnomes aid?

Then...faint laughter and a hint of song on the breeze. A hail of arrows shot towards the Orcs as the Wood Elves emerged from the trees. To battle they cried!

Set the table randomly with a good scattering of woods and area’s of marsh or rough ground. This scenery represents the edge of the Wylde, a fearsome and dangerous place.

Once the table has been set up, dice for who is the attacker and defender and who has which table edge as per usual.

Scenario, Special Rule: Any unit who enters a wood, rough ground or marsh must dice. On a score of 4+ the unit will be stuck there next turn, unable to move. (a slight variant of the Entangle spell). Units must make this throw every turn they are in the terrain.  

So the dice decided that Phil and his Orcs were the defenders and therefore had to deploy first. Ian's Gnomes and my Elves took full advantage of this by deploying most of our troops on the left as Phil had spread his forces fairly evenly over the table. We had also placed quite a lot of woods and rough terrain on the board plus a small lake. This deployment was to really help us in the battle as we could bring lots of troops into battle and outnumber the orcs. 

The Orcs were also badly affected by Mishaps with several units moving forwards or backwards.  

Some of Ian's troops from Dingly Dell including his homemade 'Shrooms' 

The first few turns were largely about getting into position. 

On turn 5 the Orc Warlord Ba'arn Dor was killed leaving his Orc Boar riders impetuous

Some of my mounted Elf Skirmishers and Ian's Green Dragon went on a flanker, tying some of Phils bigger Orc units in knots on the right side. 

The left side of the table is top heavy with battling units whilst the right flank is largely unopposed orc units. This photo also shows how terrain heavy the table was and many units on both sides got entangled in the woods and rough terrain.  

The elf skirmishers and the green dragon kept three large units of orcs busy. 

Can you spot the dragon?

The gnome's Freemen supported by the Shrooms gang up on the orc boar riders. 

My newly painted elite elf infantry with the the Warbeast trait (each base a wolf on it to depict the warbeast aspect) crash into some orc infantry. The 'warbeast' trait proved to be a real beast of a trait, especially as the elves were also 'empowered'. 

Look all the orcs have gone and in one massive hit!

The orcs manage to catch the elf rangers on the edge of a wood. 

Phil's second unit of Orc Boar riders get Shroomed (and flanked on both sides). 

A view down the table, with only the orc units at the top left, but soon enough orcs were destroyed to make the remaining few run off. Overall, an easy win for the Gnome/Elf Alliance through being able to take advantage of their greater numbers on the left flank. 

Another great game but poor Phil was hampered by some truly shockingly bad dice throws as well being out deployed.