Seawood Elves clash with Hogwild Beastmen

Another installment of the GOB-15 Diaries.

Last night it so happened that Duncan and I had ourselves a small game of GOB-15 once more; it was a first outing for a lot of his newly painted miniatures as well as a first outing for my Wood Elf army as well which meant a lot of lessons to be learned.

Our initial deployment of forces, as provided to you by State-Of-The-Art-Special-Effects

One of the first things I noted right away was how much of a point drain a unit of Chosen can become for the Seawood Elves in these small 36 point affairs. While they most certainly pack a punch, they are more easily outflanked in these lesser affairs. They are quite an investment, not only in points but also in deployment as you really need to have a better plan than my: "... Erh, right, they'll... uhm.... attack... that one!".

The Seawood Elf Gloryboys!

The game itself was great - as all of our GOB15 games have been - with some half-hearted opening moves from ranged attacks and the scuffle of light troops as the main battle lines slowly drew to a close. Then there were heated exchange of swords and wounds followed by the inevitable collapse of any higher plan other than 'Get 'em!' It was great fun and lovely to see that Duncan had painted up a host of new models for his army.

 Herdlord with his Brutes - alongside with a, what turned out to be of the Heavy sort, Chariot and another unit of Brutes

Duncan's Monster of the Deep Woods (counts as a Minotaur)

I find myself completely enamoured with how much fun and tactical thinking is to be found in such a simple and elegant design as this. Jake Thornton has really pulled a rather magnificent stunt here - albeit I'd wish that it wasn't as locked to Foundry's ill-fated miniature line. While manageable (as you can plainly see from our armies) it would be great for it to encompass many more races and factions which would make it easier to tailor it to other available miniatures... but that's neither here nor there.

The game itself ended in a sound defeat for my Seawood Elves. The Chosen unit overextended itself on the weaker of my two flanks, leavning it open to a sound thrashing in the flank(!) by the Ravagers. It was short and ugly as they minced their way through the Seawood's finest. The loss of the Seekers and Merwolves as they fought to prevent the Ravagers from pillaging their camp sealed the deal and the Seawood Elves broke tail and ran off...

What I learned from this battle was that I should consider going for the 'lesser' units from the list rather than relying on a single block of troops to carry the day. While the Chosen are an effective unit, I was most definitely blindsided by their prowess in battle that I forgot about the key aspect of all warfare - manouver.
Naturally I've already taken this to heart and have begun painting up the next batch of Marines for the army; I'm hoping to employ 3 units of Marines and then 2 units of Seekers in my next battle and see whether my gut-feeling of using the army in a more hit'n'run manner will bear fruit.

Quote of the Game -
"So... Is that a heavy chariot?" (moments before it got peppered by bolts in the flank as - indeed - it was a heavy chariot.)