ExtraBushyBeards: Local League: Final Judgement

Greetings everyone!

This is the last league report for this event, a 2000p special scenario which I attended with a fully painted army! It took a few late nights of hectic painting but I pulled through it with sheer force of will (and a handful of ignored essays...).

Here is the army I brought to the final battle in all its painted glory:

My Aelves couldn't hope to reach the point total without help, so the recently finished Scarlet Sentinels descended from the Azyr to lend some aid!

1x High Warden
1x Archmage
20x Spireguard
5x Reavers
10x Swordmasters
[Guardians of the Dawnspire] -warscroll battalion
1x Lord-Celestant on Dracoth
1x Lord-Castellant
1x Gryph-hound
1x Knight-Vexillor
5x Liberators
5x Liberators
3x Prosecutors
5x Decimators

With this mixed and varied list I faced my opponent, a Beastclaw Raiders player I hadn't yet played against in the league.

The scenario was quite simple: both sides had a tower in their deployment zone with 15 Wounds and a 3+ Save. Ranged attacks only wounded the tower on 6s and even mortal wounds only went through by rolling a 5+. The game would end as soon as either player's tower was completely demolished!

My opponent had a Frostlord on Thundertusk, two Stonehorns with Beastmasters, two Sabrecats and six Mournfang riders. He also had a battalion which I do not recall.

The Beastclaw Raiders got the first turn and advanced boldly to the midfield, his Thundertusk wiping out a unit of Liberators (3 slain by the breath, 2 fled) and one of his Stonehorns ramming into my Reavers and killing them to a man.

The pain was unbearable.

Having lost two full units before even touching my models after deployment, I considered my options. With a Thundertusk in the middle and two Stonehorns rushing towards my already obliterated lines I had little choice but to try and halt his advance.
The Spireguard poured a total of 40 arrows at the Thundertusk (20 with the battalion ability, 20 in the shooting phase) but only managed to inflict a single wound (which the monster regenerated as soon as it got a chance). Even my Prosecutors lobbed their javelins at the creature but their missiles merely bounced off its hide.

Depressed at my inability to harm the 14-Wound enemy general, I formed my remaining Liberators, Spireguard and Lord-Castellant around my tower and cast an Elemental Shield over them with my Archmage for some protection.
My High Warden used his speed to fly around the enemy flank in a desperate attempt to reach the enemy tower. Meanwhile my Lord-Celestant and the Knight-Vexillor hid behind a rocky spire to escape the Thundertusk's attentions.

At least my brave Swordmasters charged into the closest Mournfang unit and managed to kill off one and wound the other rider badly with minimal aelf casualties. Yay!

The Beastclaw Raiders were relentless, however, and slaughtered two of my Prosecutors, breathed 6 Swordmasters off the table (Thundertusk...) with the rest fleeing and grinding half of my Liberators to paste. His other Stonehorn even crushed my hapless Lord-Castellant under an enormous fist, causing the Gryph-hound to lose its mind and actually inflicting a wound on the rampaging monster!

My High Warden glided in to attack the enemy tower and the Lord-Celestant was also teleported there by Knight-Vexillor's once-per-game ability even as my remaining infantry formed up around my own tower to shield it with their bodies. My two heroes managed to beat the enemy building from 15 to 7 Wounds in one combat round and things started to look bright for the Order Alliance.

Alas, it was not to last. His Thundertusk breathed 6 wounds off my High Warden and charged in to skewer the poor soul, leaving only my Lord-Celestant in combat with the enemy building. His Stonehorns killed my Liberators to a man and started grinding away my Decimators and Spireguard that died away in handfuls.

My last Prosecutor inflicted 2 wounds on the enemy building with his javelins and charged in to aid the Lord-Celestant. Together they reduced the enemy tower down to a single wound!
Unfortunately one of his Stonehorns manage to edge close enough while piling in that it started taking chunks out of my building, completely impervious to the arrows and spears my desperate aelves were lobbing at it to fend it away.

With his tower at 1 Wound and mine at 5, everything depended on who got the first turn of the fourth battle round...

As is my typical luck, I lost the roll and his models charged in. My tower was reduced to wreckage with a couple of heavy swings from a Stonehorn and the day was lost.

A major victory for the Beastclaw Raiders.

All I'd have needed was a single swing at his tower and the alliance of Order would've triumphed! But that was not to be, not this day, so I packed my belongings and sat down to see how the other players were faring.
The Skaven player that led the league (one point ahead of me) lost majorly to a Destruction player with a mixed army of Grots, Orruks and Ogors, the end of their battle ushering in the dreaded time of Final League Point Calculation that would determine the final scores of each player.

This league was quite heavily hobby-oriented so there were extra League Points available for painting Warscrolls, having a completely painted army and having all of your models on round bases. I scored the maximum 6 "hobby points" which brought me to a total of 13 League Points, exactly the same total as the Skaven player.

The league organizer brought us dice to break the stalemate; the one who rolled highest would be the winner of the whole league. I silently accepted my defeat already (I roll terribly whenever the stakes are high) and thought that second place isn't bad at all when the Skaven player suddenly turned away from the dice and asked the organizer:
"Which of us had the most hobby points?"
"The Aelf player," was the reply.

The Skaven player then turned to me and held out his hand.
"Congratulations on your league victory!"
I was stunned. I simply couldn't believe what was happening.
He explained that this league was a hobby-heavy one and it was only right that the victory should go to the one who had scored more in painting and modelling .

So it was that I walked out of the league holding the first place on the lists and some valuable loot in my backpack: the Quest for Ghal Maraz campaign book, Khorne Bloodbound Battletome and a 50€ gift-card to the local gaming store! Hooray!

The league was an absolute blast, we had a great group that shared tips and compliments on each other's progress throughout the league and the battles we played were executed in a fun and gentlemanly way. Many were the nights I spent painting my aelves while participating in long hobby discussions on our group chat. I have never finished an army that fast!

With my Aelves now battle-tested I'll be starting a new army which I'll fund with the loot I acquired: Bonesplitterz!
I'll also start looking for the next opportunity to produce a new Narrative Battle Report as those have been in a bit of a decline in the blog with me focused solely on the league. I'll also post a Finished Army -album of my Spire of Dawn Aelves, so lots of varied content to come now that the league is over!

Here are a few close-up shots from the game. Thank you for following my Aelves along their perilous journey!