Kings of War - Elimination

Last weekend I visited Fishponds for the penultimate battle in our Kings of War campaign between my fantasy Persian's and the Dark Elves (Kin). The scenario was an Elimination battle set around a small watering hole. 1 VP is awarded for routing each of the enemies most expensive units with an additional VP for the loot marker in the centre.

 I was tempted to reclassify the Mamakil as an elephant horde, but with the scenario focused on the enemies most costly units this seemed to be asking for trouble. So instead I went for 2 Hordes of Kingsguard to make them and the Flying Carpets my most expensive units. This left my Knights as an attacking force I could afford to loose.

The Elves fielded some Herd units for additional speed/ mobility and also a battery of three artillery in anticipation of the Elephant Hordes. Next time perhaps....  

Table from my left flank 

Table from my right

I opted for a simple plan; I would hold in the centre where my target units were, refuse the right flank, and assault on the left with my cavalry. The centre had the bulk of my shooting units to protect the infantry Hordes.

Cavalry ready to attack

Kings guard and archers hold the centre

The refused right

The Dark Elves decided on a similar plan but were strong on their right and weak on their left. So this meant our main attacks were squared off against each other, with the Elves probably having the stronger force.

Elves right

The weak elves left

Elves centre

Sticking with my plan I immediately attacked with my cavalry, seeking to closedown the space available to the enemy and get my Scouts in their faces to limit their room for manoeuvre. Seeing little opposition on my refused right I also advanced here, seeking to flank any attack from the Elves on my centre.

My horse attack against the odds

My right wheels into a flanking position

On my left I quickly became somewhat bogged-down against the greater Elvish numbers and my Knights suffered heavy casualties from accurate artillery fire. In the centre though I enjoyed much more success killing the deadly lizard-mounted elvish knights with my infantry Horde and moving to the flanks to the main line.  

Heavy traffic on my left

Blackguards ready to roll-up the line

In a move that would grace any Armati battle they proceeded to roll-up a unit of Dark Elf spearmen and munch through a third unit to capture the central hill and its victory marker.

Looking bad for the elves

Flanked - Armati style!

On my left things were rocky for the cavalry as they got pushed back across the line and broken one by one. However they bought the time needed for my Jinn to launch a flank attack into one of the Elvish units with a bounty. They did nt kill them but brought them to the edge of routing.

My horse are almost spent

Blackguards zero in on the hill

Jinn attacks the flanks at the top

With the game entering the final moves I unleashed the flying carpets into the flank of the remaining Elvish spears to clear the centre and my Hero's attack was enough to finally rout the badly damaged bounty unit. In the final act of the game the Elves were able to flank and rout my unengaged infantry Horde.

Flying carpets on the move

My horde is taken in the flank

So the game ended 3-1 to the Persians. Unit of the day was certainly the Kings Guard Horde (Black Guards). They routed three enemy units and accounted for 2 of my 3 VPs.

All very peaceful now