HOTT 52 - Week 50 - Ceidonia vs The White Witch

I'm into the last few weeks of HOTT 52!

For this week's game I thought I would get out the Ceidonians, since the army technically belongs to, and is named after, my son. Since they are a rather generic human army I wanted a suitably inhuman opponent for them, and the first one I laid my hands on was the Narnian army of the White Witch, which is as good an assortment of monsters as you could hope for.

The White Witch defended. I randomly determined the makeup of the Ceidonians and they ended up with two blades (one the general), two knights, two shooters and six spears.

The spears formed the Ceidonian centre, with shooters on the right flank and the blades and knights on the left.

The White Witch held herself in reserve, with her flyers. Some beasts occupied the woods on her left, the behemoths were in the centre and a mass of hordes made up the rest of the line.

The Narnians were content to sit and defence, as were the Ceidonians. One army had to break the stalemate, so I diced for it. It was the Ceidonians. They started their advance, whilst the White Witch's army made a few adjustments to their line.

The Ceidonian archers opened fire on the White Witch's beasts , but they had the cover of the woods to protect them. They would have to be ousted by the sword, not the arrow.

The Witch's aerials took to the sky and swooped into the Ceidonian rear. 

The Ceidonians charged.

And had mostly success along the line. Their knights and spears carved their way through the hordes and the shooters forced the beasts back in the woods. Only in the centre did the Witch's behemoths hold the attack.

But now the White Witch launched her counter-attack, bringing her flyers in on the rear of the attacking knights.

Both of the Ceidonian knights fought combats, and both combats ended with the destruction of the knights.This left a single isolated blade as the sole Ceidonian element on their left.

The Ceidonians continued to press forward in the centre. The Witch was holding her line close to the stronghold, and if the spear-blocks could drive them back just a short distance then they had a chance to take it.

But the loss of the knights had now left the Ceidonian general exposed. The flyers moved in again.

And the general was lost.

The Ceidonians were still strong in the centre, but the loss of their general was enough to cause them to break off the attack.

The White Witch was gambling a little holding so close to the stronghold, since a couple of rounds of good combats for the Ceidonians could have seen her army pushed back into it. In addition her line was held together with hordes, and with them gone there were gaps an overlaps the solid Ceidonian line could exploit. But enough PIPs to use the flyers helped, as did a sterling defence by the hordes on the right. With hindsight the Ceidonian general would have been better deployed in the middle of the spear-block, so as to not be so exposed. Initially he did have another blade on his flank, but during the advance it was switched over to the fer left to oppose the Witch herself and cover the knights.