Orcs vs. High Elves part 2

Then the Dragon Princes charged the savages in the rump and the archers charged the black orcs in the flank. The archmage casts flesh to stone on the phoenix guard. He regrew one phoenix guard from regrowth. And I failed to dispel throne fo vines. Finally, he failed dwellers below on three dice. The noble issues a challenge to the black orc big boss who (can't believe he's doing this) slips to the back of the unit. The savage orcs failed their test to reform again (do I have to do this?)
Even though the orc warboss had moved over to get into contact with the eagle, the horde still doesn't kill the thing. Bird vs. Horde, bird wins. They fail their break test because they no longer have steadfast because his phoenix guard has more ranks than me. (I thought hordes were steadfast but I couldn't find that rule.) The eagle runs the horde down. The black orcs barely escape. The savages finally reform to face the dragon princes.

I rally my fleeing black orcs and angle them so that I can waaagh into the archers and get out of range of the phoenix guard. I get waaagh off, roll 7 inches for my doom diver team to walk forward and then roll snake eyes for the forward movement of the black orcs. They're done.

On his turn he charges the archers and the phoenix guard into the black orcs. This time the bsbs fight it out and, as I imagined, the black orc got slaughtered before he was even able to decide on a choppa to use. The eagle flies over to kill my doom diver. And he regrows a whole bunch of dragon princes.

The savages are still able to kill the dragon princes but the doom diver machine, not crew, loses it's combat result (charge) and flees off the board?

In the final turn of the game, he casts dwellers below on my savage orcs. Irresistable force. Half of them die. They fail their panic check and flee. Game over.

Post game thoughts: 30 is not enough for horde formation. I had originally thought of going horde on the orcs when I had them at 45 strong. Reduced down to 30, the horde formation gives plenty of attacks but not enough combat resolution and doesn't give steadfast. I chose to lower the number of orcs in that unit in order to afford protection for my characters. Of course the armor for my lord never came into play.

The mage lords seem much more capable of putting out damage than the warlords. Up to this point I've been playing with the Slann who is a strong lord choice. The orc warboss felt extremely weak by comparison. I'd given him those magic items in order to protect him from a high elf who would be striking first and rerolling misses.

I really like those savage orcs. No wonder they were the basis for my army back in the day. I kept forgetting about the spears but it's just as well, having that extra strength in the first round of every combat was better. Should I ever try the spears again?

I avoided using goblins because of fear but I'll probably take them next time against elves because the fear test isn't that bad, so long as they are in the leadership bubble.

I love using life magic. I don't like having it used on me.

Those phoenix guard are tough! They cost 2 points more than my black orcs and they get a 4+ ward save, striking first and usually rerolling hits. What they lack is the extra points of toughness, strength, and attack that black orcs with 2 choppas would have. That ward save is tought to get through. I think I'm going to have to use a character with the other trickster's shard on them since I don't have magic that negates it.