KoW Twilight Kin vs Salamanders [TAKE AND HOLD - 1500]

Hello once more dinosaur enthusiasts,

The game I bring you today is a prep game for a 1500 tournament that will be up soon, but first this. My usual opponent/punching bag wanted to try Take and Hold (second scenario from the tournament) so we did in one of the tables layed for it. His army looks like this:

- Horde of Spearmen with Helm of Confidence
- Horde of Crossbowmen with Piercing
- Regiment of Blade Dancers with Hammer
- Regiment of Dark Knights with Pathfinder
- Troop of Reaper Guard
- Troop of Gargoyles
- Bolt Thrower
- Dark Lord on Pegasus
- Priestess with Bane-Chant

My List is as follows:

- Horde of FE with Nimble
- Horde of Tyrants with Staying Stone
- Horde of Ancients on Rhinosaur with Aegis of the Elohi
- Horde of Skyriders with Jar
- Lekelidon
- Mounted Battle-Captain
- Skylord with Blade of the Beast-Slayer
- Mage-priest with Surge, Martyr's Prayer and Inspiring

DEPLOYMENT



TURN 1

He wins the initiative roll and decides to go for it, and as always I'm glad for that. He makes a general advance with everything except the Bolt Thrower and moves the Knights aggressively to take the right flank. His crossbows soot my Tyrants doing a fair bit of damage but his Bolt Thrower misses.

I start with my plan and move my Skyraiders in a way to see his Blade Dancers and stay away from the arc of his knights, I advance with the rest hard, giving him a charge with his Spears into the Ancients and position my Lekelidon in the difficult terrain and in range of his units.

My shooting goes really well and the combined firepower of the Skyraiders and Lekelidon takes out the Blade Dancers even in cover and I cannot be happier, they are scary. My Mage-Priest heals some wounds from the Tyrants as well.



KIN TURN 2

He takes the bait and charges the Spears into the Ancients, my thought was to prevent him from shooting them and I know I will win in a grind against them. Then charges the Gargoyles into the Lekelidon which I didn't saw to be honest and positions the Knights to face my whole flank. He also jumps the Pegasus in between my Mage-Priest and the Ancients.

His shooting is not very significant and the combat, apart from the Spears doing extremely high damage to the Ancients, is also not impressive.



SALAMANDERS TURN 2

I take the chances when they are presented to me so nicely, so I turn my FE to face the Pegasus and charge both the Lekelidon and Tyrants into the Gargoyles, if I kill them I can reform and face the Knights. The Ancients go into the Spears and the Battle-Captain into the Crossbowmen to shut them down.

My Skyraiders position themselves outside the arc of the Knights again so If they go into the Tyrants I will have their rear. My Skylord has the Priestess in sight and goes for her.

The glorious Skyraiders put four wounds into the Knights and WAVER them, I love this unit. The Mage-Priest surges the FE into the flank of a very soon deceased Pegasus.

The Gargoyles disintegrate and the Tyrants move forwards while the Lekelidon reforms to face the Knights for another round of shooting. The brave Skylord manages to kill the Priestess with ease and the Battle-Captain puts a wound into the Crossbowmen.

Ancients do their work putting 11 wounds on the Spears but failing to waver or kill them and the FE leave the Pegasus in double one figures and I roll a damn double one!



KIN TURN 3

With the Knights wavered, the Priestess dead, the Pegasus 1 wound away from dying and most of his shooting shut down things are not looking great for him, but he soldiers on and charges again the Spears into the Ancients and the Crossbowmen into the Battle-Captain.

His Bolt Thrower targets the Tyrants, doing three points of damage and rolling extremely high on the Nerve test the are routed! Ouch, that was unexpected.

The Crossbowmen do a couple of points of damage and WAVER the Battle-Captain and the Spearmen that seem to roll 5+ better than 2+ do another amazing amount of damage and manage to kill the Ancients!



SALAMANDERS TURN 3

That last turn was truly devastating for my army, loosing two key units to lucky rolls hurt my extremely Elite army a lot but I still have enough units to finish the work if I don't mess it up.

I start by turning the FE to face the Spears and prepare for a Surge charge into them to finish them off once and for all. The Skylord can see the rear of the Crossbowmen and I just cannot let that pass, so I take it.

Shooting goes great and between the Lekelidon and the Skyraiders the Knights are killed, it's a good start.

The Skylord does really well in combat too, putting 8 wounds into the Crossbowmen but not wavering them sadly. The FE do really put an effort and take the Spears to 20 wounds but the DAMNED double one strike again!

 

KIN TURN 4

The Spears, surprised to be alive counter charge the FE as do the Crossbowmen with the Skylord. The Pegasus storms to capture the centre objective.

The deadly Bolt Thrower shoots at the Lekelidon and kills it, it really has made it's point back the damn thing.

Combat goes better for me with both units failing to kill or waver mine.



SALAMANDERS TURN 4

Most of his units are in the brim of destruction now and I hope not to roll any more snake eyes.

I charge the Spears once again, and put both heroes into the Crossbowmen. Move the Skyraiders to capture the right flank objective and position to shoot something.

I make a mistake and shoot the Bolt Thrower with my Mage-Priest and the Pegasus with the Skyraiders, should have done it the other way around. Luckily the Bolt Thrower gets wavered and the Pegasus killed.

My heroes also manage to waver the shooting Horde and the FE easily kill the Spearmen.

This turn has been key for me and with almost everything out of combat the game suddenly looks much better.

Current score: 1-1



TURN 5

His turn is very short, only thing he can do is Charge his fresh Reaper Guard into my FE. I'm just hoping they hold but at this point I can still win with ease even if they don't. The FE hold and the battle looks almost settled.

My turn is also quick, I need to take an advantage in scenario points so I move my Skylord to capture the left flank objective and move the Skyraiders to the middle one while my Battle-Captain and FE charge the obvious units in front of them.

Skyraiders do what they do best and kill the Bolt Thrower and the Mage-Priest Heal the FE just in case something goes horribly wrong.

It doesn't, the FE do short work of the Reaper Guard and they get routed, the Battle-Captain on the other hand rolls terribly bad in both his attacks and Nerve roll and doesn't even manage to waver the Crossbowmen again. Still the game at this point is already a win.

Score: 3-1 to the Salamanders



TURN 6

I will make this entry a short one, the Crossbowmen counter-charge the Battle-Captain but fail to kill him, getting rear charged by the Skyraiders that seal their destiny once and for all. With no units left for the Kin the game ends on turn 6.

Score: 5-1 to the Salamanders



Don't trust your eyes, those Crossbowmen are very dead.

SALAMANDER VICTORY!