Artefacts of Kyron Campaign Battle #6

Battle #6 saw the two sides clash in an Eliminate game as they sought to gain an upper hand before the climactic clash in battle #7 at the Gates of Kyron. Eliminate games involve placing a bounty on each of your three most expensive non-individual units, 1 VP is gained for killing an opponent's unit with a bounty in melee, no VP's for killing them with ranged fire. A bonus objective worth 1 VP is place in the centre of the table.
With the final battle in mind my plan going into the game was to make the capture of at least one of the Artifacts held by the Human forces my priority and then the capture of the bounties as a bonus if possible.
The battle saw the sides increase to 2,500 points with my Twilight Kin adding some more Herd allies in the shape of  Beast Packs and some long range punch with Twilight Bolt Throwers. The Humans opted to make sure the bounties where not placed on all their fastest units by fielding two Hordes of Foot Guards.

The forces of Men

The initial setup was favourable to my plan as the two artifacts where quite close together and one was placed on the squishy flying carpet unit. The other was on a Foot Guard Horde which would be a tough nut to crack but I felt should go down to concentrated fire.

The forces of the Twilight Kin ( and Herd )

After the deployment was completed my brother remembered that possession of an Artifact reduced a units movement to 5" and he asked to move the Banner to another unit as he had put it on a speed 10 flying unit. I couldn't really say no as that would reveal my plan and as these are very much friendly games I took the setback as best I could. The banner did not go far but did end up behind the gigantic Oliphant ( chariot horde stand-in) and not directly faced by any of my units.

The bounties for my forces where placed on my Herd Lycans, my Shadows Regiment and my faithful Dark Knights. I think the Dark Knights have so far been my best performers, they have wiped out more units than any other part of my force and tend to take a lot of killing.

After the roll off Stuart won the right to choose first turn and asked me to go first. I made a general advance with units being careful to stay out of charge range of the plentiful cavalry on the wings and pushed further forwards towards the centre.

My artillery battery opened up on a unit of Human Knights and did some damage but not enough to worry them.

Battery Hill bottom right

The Humans then held the centre and pushed the wings forward, as the Gargoyles and Beast Pack out ranged their cavalry they opted to push forwards quickly in the hope to hem my troops in.

On the Kin left the combined fire of several units wiped out a Beast Pack Regiment (allowing me to get rid of some unpainted stand-ins).

The imposing Oliphant towers over the field

On the second turn I launched the Dark Knights into the Oliphant in the hopes they could wipe them out and then carry on to take a shot at the Berserkers carrying the Banner token, the Gargoyles moved to engage the archer cavalry and in hindsight they may have been better off moving to cover the right flank of the Knights.

Stuart checks for a flank charge

 The Knights wiped out the Oliphant for the third time out of the four battle it has fought in and the rest of the forces pushed up in the middle.

Centre Objective siezed

The artillery battery managed a great round of fire and wiped out a Knight Regiment and the right flank descended into a bloody melee with many units being committed to the fight.

It gets tasty on the right flank

On the left the Dark Knights went down to a charge by a Foot Guard Horde and the Flying Carpets and the Gargoyles and Horse Archers continued to trade blows. The ability of the Gargoyles to regen meant they had the advantage in this fight.

In the centre a nerve roll of double 1 meant that the archers covering the Foot Guard Horde with the Sword Artifact stayed in place but the artillery started to chip away at there nerve.

On the right my Kin had already wiped out the other unit of Horse Archers and in reply lost a Regiment of Buccaneers and the other Beast Pack. The Human Knight Regiment opted to advance to try and avoid a flank charge but got carried away and managed to line themselves up for another unit to be able to charge them.

During the next Kin turn things cleared up on my right as several charges cleared out some of the cavalry but I made a mistake by not turning my Shadows to face the Air Elemental lurking in the bottom right corner. In the centre a nerve roll of double 1 meant that the archers covering the Foot Guard Horde with the Sword Artifact stayed in place but the artillery started to chip away at their nerve.

This allowed it a flank charge which almost routed the Shadows and left them wavered.

In the centre the Humans started to double up on the Kin infantry managing to wipe out a Reaper Guard Regiment.

On the right Stuart sent the Berserkers to help out the Horse Archers who had been wavered by the Gargoyles.

The next Kin turn saw the Air Elemental wiped out in one furious Lycan charge and the blocking Archer Regiment finally dispatched. With a Regiment of Buccaneers on the hill ready to sacrifice themselves I followed up my Reaper Guard charge on the blocking Archers in the centre and moved another Regiment and the Dark Lord on Pegasus into flanking positions for the Human Foot Guard Horde with carried the Sword Artifact. 

The right flank was looking pretty clear at this point and the Artillery continued to add damage to the crucial Human Horde.

During the Human turn the much maligned non-inspiring Hero managed to get a wound off on the Shadows and they failed the nerve check giving the Humans a second bounty. They also charged the hill and took the bonus token so had a 3-0 VP lead.

The Uninspiring Hero wins the day

As time was once again pressing on we agreed that the only move that now mattered was if my forces had enough to wipe out the Foot Guard Horde and claim a token so we worked out only that combat.

Artifact seized

Between them my last Reaper Guard Regiment and the Dark Lord had enough to wipe out the Guards and claim a bounty and more importantly the Sword Artifact. 

So another victory for the Human's (3-1) and another bloody affair which could have gone either way perhaps had I not made a couple of mistakes. But such is the life of an armchair general.

So next is the last battle in the Campaign as the two sides seek to unlock the full potential of the Artifacts whilst preventing the other side from doing so. My aim to carry the majority of the Artifacts into this battle worked out so perhaps a victory is in sight ?