Battle report: Sylvaneth vs. Cities of Sigmar (1000 pts)

Last week, I played my first game of AoS after a long pause (I became a dad recently), against my friend Vuk. We both had new battletomes for our armies, so we were really excited to try our new stuff. Both armies went a bit over 1000 points and we decided to use one of the Meeting Engagement scenarios and ME rules for deployment and terrain/objective placement, since we played on a smaller board (in all other aspects, it was a standard game). I was playing Gnarlroot list. My main plan was to try to use support spells (like Regrowth and Verdurous Harmony) to keep my main hitting units (Kurnoth Hunters) or my Treelord Acient alive and win by attrition. Summoning Dryads and then returning models to the summoned unit with Verdurous Harmony is also one neat thing that you can do - so they an tie up important units or contest objectives.  Here are the lists:

SYLVANETH - Gnarlroot glade

Branchwych (Deepwod lore: Regrowth)
Branchwraith - general (Deepwood lore: Verdurous Harmony)
Treelord Ancient (Deepwood lore: Regrowth)
2 x Tree-Revenants
Kurnoth Hunters (bows)
Kurnoth Hunters (scythes)

Endless spells: 
Gladewyrm
Spiteswarm Hive

CITIES OF SIGMAR - HALLOWHEART

Battlemage x 3 (Whitefire Retinue battalion)
Freeguild General on Griffon
Demigryph knights
Freeguild guard
Freeguild Handgunners

I deployed Hunters with bows and Branchwych on left flank, one unit of Tree-Revenants on the right flank and everything else in the middle.

Hallowheart army goes first: wizards put up some defensive spells on General and then both he and Demigryph knights run forward, while the rest of the army cautiously advances. I use Treelord Ancient to place another Wyldwood on the table and then summon 10 Dryads and Spiteswarm hive. My army moves forward just a bit, trying to stay mostly outside of enemy charge ranges. Kurnoth Hunters with bows shoot at the General and put 6 wounds on him.

Hallowheart wins the priority for the second turn. General is healed for 3hp, then Wizards place spell that gives enemy units -1 to attack rolls against that unit (Pha's protection). Demigryph knights fail their charge on Dryads, but the General rolls 12 for charge distance and after charging and piling in, he is able to engage my Branchwraith (ouch!). However, this also brings him in combat with my Kurnoth Hunters with scythes and one unit of Tree-Revenants. General on Griffon divides his attacks between the Branchwraith and Kurnoth Hunters: he kills the Branchwraith, but scores only one wound on Hunters. In return, Kurnoth hunters and Tree-Revenants manage to put just enough wounds on General to kill him, despite having -1 to hit.  In my turn, I heal Kurnoth Hunters and fail to summon Gladewyrm. Treelord Ancient shoots at the Demygryph Knights, but fails to wound. Hunters with bows also shoot at Demigryph knights and score just a single wound. Dryds run forward and Hunters with scythes charge at the Demigryph Knights (with a huge boost from the Hive). I roll poorly and manage to kill only a single knight and put two wounds on another. However, I start leading in victory points.

Hallowheart wins the priority for the third time. Wizards fumble some spells, but they heal the Demigryph Knights and take out one of the Hunters with scythes. Handgunners shoot at Dryads and manage to kill two. Knights attack, kill the second Hunter and leave the last one with only one wound. In return, that Hunter kills one of the Knights. In my turn, I shoot with Treelord Ancient at the Demigryph knights and kill the last remaining Knight, and Hunters with bows start thinning out ranks of Handgunners.

I win the priority roll for the last turn (yay, double turn!). Gladewyrm is finally summoned and it heals the last surviving Hunter with scythe. Hunters with bows kill some more Handgunners. Both units of Tree-Revenants "jump" on the other side of the board, but despite their ability to reroll dice, I fail all their charges. Dryads charge Handgunners and wipe them out, while the Hunter with scythe charges one of the Battlemages and kills him. I control my opponent's objective as well at this point. During his turn, my opponent does not manage to clear the Dryads with his Battlemages and Freeguild guard manages to score a single wound on a lonely Hunter with scythe. In return, the Hunter wipes out half of the unit. 

SYLVANETH VICTORY!

Some observations from this game:

• Branchwraith as Gnarlroot general is a very powerful combination. Nurtured by Magic ability works great with Regrowth spell and Chalice of Nectar artifact will help you greatly with summoning Dryads and casting Verdurous Harmony. However, my Branchwraith was the first casualty of the game, so I was not able to test this theory :D
• Kurnoth Hunters with scythes were probably my best unit. They had a key role in taking out General on a Griffon, they killed two of the Demigyph Knights, one Battlemage and half unit of Freeguild guard. Regrowth or any healing ability helps a lot, because it keeps them on the table much longer. 
• Hunters with bows were also very good - they were basically artillery, always dealing some damage from far away. 
• Hallowheart can be very powerful, especially if they have access to lots of Endless spells. However, my opponent could do some things very differently and he made several bad choices during the game. For example, he could put much more defensive spells or buffs on his General, making him very hard to deal with.
• Battalions should be used carefully in 1000 point games or smaller - they eat a huge chunk of available points and may not be worth the price.