The fanatics have destroyed the rest of the Silverhelms and have subsequently been shot down by the Elf archer line. The Elf General and Great Eagle are fleeing after being beaten in combat by the Night Goblins
Rob (High Elves) won the choice of table side and chose the side with the hill near the wood. Rik enquired why this was, and Rob explained it was down to sheer laziness and the fact he was standing that side of the table already ;)
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Rik: Well I had put out the scenery the night before and had designed it to be evenly balanced, which was easy considering I didn't have much scenery anyway and I did not want anything that would affect the game too much for our first game back. I'd put the rocks and woods jutting into the table to try and narrow the battlefield somewhat. At 6' wide I thought it might seem rather empty with only 1000 point forces on it if we didn't compress the battlefield with a bit of terrain. |
| Rik: Well I would rather play with proper models anyway, and at least now I had a small recompense for allowing Rob these units in that I had a useful bit of information about Rob's force going into the game. My own army was entirely comprised of the models I had managed to get painted up before the game so it didn't really have much in the way of tactical choices in it, although I had made the choice of my final unit of what to paint knowing I would be facing High Elves - and had gone for a small unit of Savage Orcs rather than some Wolf Riders that would Fear most Elf units due to their small numbers. Although unfortunately I hadn't quite managed to paint all the Savage Orcs before the battle, so paint wise, they were the disgrace of my army! |
CHARACTERS:
High Elf Prince (General Ld 9) - ??? points
Lance, Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield, 6+ Ward Save item?, Elven Steed
CORE UNITS:
7 Silver Helms - ??? points
Lance, Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Elven Steed
CHARACTERS:
Orc Big Boss (General Ld 8) - 99 points
Choppa, Great Axe, Drog's Dead 'Ard Armour (1+ armour save)
Night Goblin Shaman - 145 points
Lv 2, Hand Weapon, Dispell Scroll, Nibbla's 'Itty Ring (casts Eadbutt once in Magic Phase, 3 to dispell)
CORE UNITS:
40 Night Goblins - 207 points
Hand Weapon, Short Bow, Standard, Musician, 3 Fanatics
25 Orc Boyz - 178 points
Choppa, Light Armour, Shield, Boss, Standard, Musician
14 Savage Orc Boyz - 140 points
Choppa, Warpaint, Shield, Boss, Standard, Musician
Snotling Swarm - 75 points
3 bases
| Rik: One of my 'cunning plans' before the battle was to try and overwhelm the High Elves with Orcy magic. To this end, I had upgraded my NG Shaman to lv2 since I only expected one opposing Wizard I would immediately out-dice him. I also took Nibbla's Itty Ring to overwhelm the Elves dispell attempts further. Admittedly I normally would not like basing any kind of strategy around magic, but given that most of my force was decided by what models I actually had painted, this one pretty much played itself out for me once I read up the new Magic rules and needed to get my force up to 1000 points somehow! However to make this work I really needed two fairly easy-to-cast long-range spells to go along with the Itty Ring (double Eadbutt would be great!), so I could be attempting to cast 3 spells each offensive magic phase right from the start. Alas with these spells it wasn't quite to be but it still wasn't bad at all, so I was still hoping to surprise the Elves by going on a Magic offensive. Shortly before the battle began, I realised if my Shaman was casting a lot of spells, his head may well blow, and so the Itty Ring would be better on my Big Boss, but I couldn't do that and have him keep his decent Magic Armour, so I stuck with the risky plan, figuring I'd have to learn the hard way how this new Gobbo magic worked... |
Rob countered this obvious threat by placing his large Spearman unit almost opposite the Orcs. Rik then setup his Rock Lobba and Chariot next to the Orcs, with the Rock Lobba high on the hill, and a small swarm of Snotlings positioned hidden behind the Orc unit, while Rob brought on his Giant Eagle hiding behind the ridge of the hill in his setup zone to keep out of the way of the Rock Lobba's sight-lines and his Sword Masters of Hoeth to guard the flank of his Spearmen, and a line of Archers on the hill.
| Rik: Knowing Rob loves his 'Osses I was fairly certain Rob would have a unit of Knights and a
mounted Hero most likely with
them, especially now I knew that he only had one Wizard. I also expected that this unit would probably be loaded in points value - knowing how Rob usually designed armies, and the fact all of Rob's units so far had setup without Standards or even Musicians, and only one Champion, in the Sword Masters, seemed to be confirming he was saving points up for a some very nasty cavalry. How I dealth with this points-sink unit could potentially decide the game I though so I really wanted to wreck this unit before it got to my infantry lines. I had potential ways to do this with the Rock Lobba, my Snotlings, or a Chariot counter-charge but what I really wanted to do was drop my Night Goblins last, opposite his cavalry, and force the 'osses to face their Fanatics!
However I also needed to keep my Goblins away from his Great Eagle's possible attempts to suicide
divebomb my Night Goblins and cause them to release their payload early. This was one of the reasons I had setup first, because I thought Rob might try this with his Great Eagle, and finishing my setup first would increase my chance to get the first turn and at least get my Night Gobbos a march move away from my other troops before they released their fanatics into some crazed flying feathered assault. So I now knew where his Great Eagle would be... but at this point I was seriously regretting setting up first as I had no idea which flank his Cavalry would attack. So to force the issue, I positioned my Night Gobs next, on the right flank, away from his Eagle, despite knowing this meant Rob would very likely position any cavalry he had (if he had any sensible fear of fanatics) away from the Goblins. |
| Rik: Well no surprises there then! Rob did everything I had expected really, and as predicted
had taken a potentially lethal unit of Silver Helms with his Hero in it. The Savage Orcs Boyz were pretty
much designed in my list to advance and destroy a smallish Archer unit, which is why I had put them where
they were, opposite Rob's archers. However now Rob HAD placed his cavalry there though, the poor Savage lads
looked extremely vunerable to a cavalry charge. I was pleased Rob's Wizard had hidden in the archer
unit as it would hopefully make him easier to track down and kill with my slow infantry units, and
still wouldn't prevent me firing my 'Eatbutt and Fists of Gork at him if I got the chance! It was
pretty unlikely I would try and target him with the Rock Lobba as its still very difficult to
hit a single small model like this, but then again, I am sure I would've done what Rob had done in
the same situation too! Oh for our old house rules for "Look out Sir" eh Rob? My army was carefully compacted around the Orc Big Boss (my General) and he was positioned slightly to the right side of the Orc Boyz so every unit I had could benefit from his Ld at the start of the battle, even the Night Gobs. I had planned to have my Shaman join the unit of Night Goblins for a bit more protection, however a quick re-read of the Animosity rules made me keep him out of the unit, since if the unit failed its Animosity check, then he would not be able to cast spells. |
| Rik: Well the army setup hadn't really gone according to plan as mentioned earlier. However I HAD won the first turn (we both rolled 6's) so at least I would get to take advantage of it.. I hoped. |
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*SIGH* Well there goes the first turn advantage! I quickly remembered why I always used to base my big 4000 point forces of old around BLACK Orcs, not these unreliable fools! Even so, it wasn't as bad as it could've been - at least it wasn't the Night Goblins. I sent my brave Night Goblins marching forwards alone against the Elf force as fast as their little legs would carry them. I wanted to make sure that their fanatics were unleashed as close as possible to the center of the Elf line. With such a large unit it looked like they would be able to take on any of Rob's infantry units in the middle of the field anyway - especially if they had been weakened by their Shortbows and Fanatics first. I didn't think there would be any chance really of getting the cavalry with their fanatics now, although I did ponder attempting to advance the Goblins right across the front of my lines - but this would probably take too long and should the Elf infantry advance to attack the Goblins while they drifted over, they would be forced to release their fanatics into them anyway - so all this might accomplish would be to expose their flank to the Elf infantry. Thinking this through it became clear to me it was time for Plan B for dealing with Rob's cavalry: Snotling Delay Strategy! The Snotlings turned around in their snaking formation, and ran around behind the squabbling Orc Boyz so that they were behind the arguing Savage Boyz. I remembered a great comment in the 6th Ed Orc armybook about playing with Orcs that "sometimes the models know best" and although I wanted to advance my boyz an inch or so forward to make moving the Snotlings easier, it really wasn't too bad that my main line stayed still for now - the worst thing that could happen right now was the Savage Orcs being caved in by a lance charge from the Silver Helms - that, and the ensuing panic tests would probably lose me the game right away. Luckily this was exactly why I had those Snotlings and exactly why I had them in-column, ready to seriously slow down a cavalry charge as only two models could attack a base. However their column formation did have one bizarre disadvantage: I did not dare expose their front arc to a Bolt Thrower shot, as it could potentially wipe them all out in one hit like that thanks to the D3 wounds.
My Chariot slid in behind the Night Gobs, to protect it from any unwanted Bolt Thrower attention, and my Shaman advanced with them, making sure he had LOS to his potential spell targets - the Elf Mage, the Bolt Thrower crew, and the Elf infantry units. So onto our first WFB 6th Edition Magic phase! Well it all seemed a LOT simpler.. I rolled two dice only needing to get a 5 to cast Gaze of Mork, and of course promptly failed. :( Without this spell to draw out dispell dice, the Itty Ring was a real long shot, but I decided to fire it at Rob's Mage anyway - and it was of course promptly dispelled easily, although Rob strangely elected to roll only one dice (only failing on a 1 thanks to the High Elven +1 to dispell) rather than two dice (only failing on a double-one). I think he may have been confused by the Miscast rules, thinking he could miscast on a dispell attempt. Although the Eadbutt couldn't possibly kill his Mage yet, the idea was if I got him down to 1 wound, he would HAVE to save dispell dice each turn to stop the Eadbutt or potentially lose his Wizard, this in turn would free up my Shaman's other spells to get through to do some business. Well I really wasn’t too happy with how it was going so far. But I would at least get to shoot my Rock Lobba. Years of experience with these beauties meant I knew exactly what I was going for - the biggest unit of infantry in the enemy force - Rob's Spearmen. The easiest thing to hit, and plenty of possibility for deviating onto the units around them should I miss. I guessed the range, YEAH! no problem, I used to be great at this. I almost never missed back then, although I was used to having at least four Rock Lobbas and being able to 'adjust' multiple guesses, which is prevented nowadays by the new rules (a lot better) and the fact I only had a single Lobba. Well my Lobba was back a bit from the front line.. so I thought about it, and measured out the feet by touching the table with my fingers as best I could. Hmm.. 37, maybe 38.. nah.. I think it could be a bit farther. 39" I said confidently. Rob replied "That seems a bit far.." and I realised my mistake right away "oh.. well.." but Rob quite rightly wouldn't let me change my mind now I'd said it. The range was measured and my guess was so bad that the rock was going to land off the table! "Inches have grown bigger since we last played" said Rob wryly, and I agreed. Talking about this later in the game, we were both being misled with our range estimates by the fact we were so used to playing on a HUGE 9'x5' table, and because this was only a 6'x3.5' table, everything was actually closer than it appeared to our badly attuned eyes. I think that, psychologically, you partly judge ranges from the back edge of the table as much as the actual distance... I would need to correct my judgement from now on. Anyway.. given how my luck had gone so far this game, I fully expected to now roll a mis-fire, and Rob gleefully made me roll the misfire dice despite the off-table shot (as you should do). However instead of a misfire, the scatter dice was EXACTLY, and I mean, PERFECTLY PRECISELY EXACTLY back towards the Rock Lobba... and the misfire dice wasn't a misfire, but a 10!.. we measured it out and this meant the rock had landed slap bang in the rear of the Spearman unit I had originally been aiming for. Unreal. I couldn't believe my luck, Rob couldn't believe my luck. What was so stunning was how exact the scatter and distance was. Normally with a Scatter dice there is room for some debate about the exact angle to move along, due to where the dice lies too far away from the tape measure/landing point etc. But here it was so definitely crystal clear it was like it was just destiny that it would hit something.. |
| Almost half the spearman unit was under the template hit, and rolling out the hits and damage I managed to kill four. This meant a panic test as I'd killed exactly 1/4. Rob picked up his "lucky dice" that he had threatened to bring days before the battle, and promptly rolled a 10 or 11! Clearly Rob had forgotten his lucky dice always seemed to roll high. Rob stuck with his trusty dice though, and followed that up with another 10 or 11 for the flee move, and the Spearmen had run off the table before the battle had even begun. I was really stunned. What had started out so badly was suddenly going so well. I wasn't sure that it would affect the battle THAT much as I was confident I could deal with such a small (relative to my units!) spearmen unit, but to get luck like this was almost unheard of for me. It seems that 10 years off has powered up my luck reserves no end! Rob had to be gutted by this turn of events, but he was taking it really well by all accounts. |
| Rik: Oww! Well I was ready with a 3-dice dispell attempt if needs be, but I now realised that Flames spell was a REALLY nasty one if it hit my Night Gobs. However only being allowed to use 3 dice on it meant that Rob had to be a bit lucky to actually succeed in casting it. I am not sure I would've taken an 11-to-cast spell on a lowly lv2 Wizard myself, but then we were both new to these rules. I also only now realised I could've used 3 dice to try and cast my Gaze of Mork spell last turn. Doing this would all but guarantee I could cast it and make it harder to dispell, despite the increased odds of headbangin', given my 'spare' dice were useless right now as Fists of Gork only had an 8" range I decided I may as well go for that next turn. |
| Whew, it was only during my first turn we realised that the Repeater Bolt Thrower didn't actually penetrate ranks if it fired in repeating mode. At first I had thought it was like its old rules where it fired a single shot at S5, or two shots at S4, but both penetrated.. so when I heard it could now fire SIX shots a turn at S4 I was completely floored as to what to do, realised there was probably nothing I could do about it now, so just resolved to hope Rob didn't get lucky with it. But at some point during my movement phase last turn we'd realised that it actually didn't penetrate ranks anymore if it fired its six shots, so it is more like a 6man super long range hand gun unit now. Rob's tactics were confusing me here... at first he seemed to concentrate all his fire on the Goblins as if he was intent to try to panic them - but realising he needed to kill 10 in a turn to do that and this was now impossible, he seemed to give up on the idea. However it was going to take sustained firepower to panic this huge unit so I was quite happy for Rob to be splitting his fire like this.. the Savage Orcs could happily take quite a few hits and still do their job, and they also couldn't be panicked thanks to Frenzy, which was why I wasn't worried about their small unit size (and the reason I had taken them as an anti-archer unit rather than some Wolf Boyz), also with their Ward save they were my best defended unit to take the armour piercing bolt shots. |
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BLACK. ORCS. BLACK!... ORCS! Grrr... Suddenly I could see why Black Orc characters taking an extra Hero slot maybe wasn't so bad afterall. At least my Chariot could manoeuvre to the side of the Night Goblins to possibly charge out sideways, and my Shaman hid beside it and the Goblin Stikkas, reducing his sight lines but meaning his frontage being blocked enough so that the Great Eagle could not swoop in and charge him without charging the Chariot or the unit first. |
| Even without this move I am not sure the Helms could've got a charge off onto the Savage Orcs due to only being able to make a single wheel, and the distance seemed just about on the edge of their charge range.. however I did not want to cause any potential argument here around the precise wheeling/charging rules, so this retreat move made it awfully clear the Helms couldn't make it around the Snotlings and into another unit - at least not this turn. |
| I would've dearly loved to take out that Eagle as it was threatening to charge my Chariot, or even my Shaman and possibly unleash my fanatics wastefully too. So I concentrated everything I could on it, but it wasn't to be. Rob cannily asked for me to re-measure the range from my Shaman's spell to his Great Eagle after its damage had been resolved. I realised why he wanted to see this.. it proved that his Eagle wasn't quite in range to charge either my Chariot or my Shaman this turn. Whew. |
| Go Snotties! Wow I am starting to love these guys. I've never used Snotlings in fantasy before, the bases are slight re-paints of my old Ork Shokk-Attack gun from WH40K. I wasn't sure what Rob was up to here actually, especially with Sword Masters. I was worried his Hero in the Silverhelms would have some kind of decent Magic weapon that could chop up the Snotlings in seconds, but that clearly wasn't the case with the way Rob had played it. If he had charged them, there was a very high chance of the Helms being counter-charged by the Savage Orcs, especially if the Lings could hold for two rounds which was certainly possible given only a limited number of attacks on the front base. |
The Elf Archers stood still and rained shots down against the Night Goblins, cutting down 3 of them, although the ignorant group barely seemed to notice, as they dealt with their own internal strife. The Repeater Bolt Thrower once again sent its reaping shots far across the battlefield, cutting down another Savage Orc.
The Elf Archers stood still and rained shots down against the Night Goblins, cutting down 3 of them, although the ignorant group barely seemed to notice, as they dealt with their own internal strife. The Repeater Bolt Thrower once again shot its reaping shots right across the battlefield, cutting down a few of the Orc Boyz, who just jeered at those who got hit.
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Things were looking seriously up now. It appeared to me that if I could play my cards right and get my units into position, I could unleash my Fanatics into the heart of the High Elven army, and then get my Boyz and Chariot to get some Choppa and Impact-hitting charges and counter-charges in to completely crush these pansies! Thanks in part to me not being able to move for the start of the battle, I realised I'd nearly set up a classic hammer+anvil strategy without even meaning to do so. Like the book said "sometimes the models know best". ;) To do any of this though I'd have to pass a few animosity checks first, so I was really hoping I wouldn't fail one this turn - and indeed I didn't, so for the first time in the battle, the entire Orc horde swung into action. Next decision for me: Were the Snotlings in charge range of the Silverhelms? They probably weren't far off, but as my guessing had been getting a lot better by now, I decided they weren't, so declared no charges. We measured for march-block ranges, and the Snotlings were indeed about 1" outside 8" charge range. Rob breathed a sigh of relief too - he knew he was cutting it fine with the Silverhelms - a flank charge by the Snotlings would have been truely embarrassing for the High Elven finest and would've all but guaranteed their doom if the Orc boyz followed in. As it was, the Snotlings marched gleefully onwards instead, turning to follow the path of the Helms and blocking any possibility of charges against my Orc Boyz. This exposed their front rank to a potential near wipe-out Bolt Thrower shot if Rob got lucky, but I didn't really care now, the Snotlings had already succeeded beyond my expectations in their task - and to be honest were about to outlive their usefulness anyway. As long as they got in the way of any potential charges next turn that was good enough, and I might need them out of the way after that, so I would almost prefer them to be shot at now. My Orc boys surged forward behind the Snotling meat-shield, and the Savage Orcs also wheeled around behind them, positioning themselves to advance upon the Elven Archer position - finally starting the plan I'd wanted for them since before the battle even began. The Night Goblins just moved forwards slowly, not wanting to get within 8" in my movement phase of course, while Chariot backed up to support the Orc Boyz instead of the Goblins and remain covered from the bolt thrower by the big block of Goblins. The Shaman actually retreated towards the hill to get a better view of things.. and to make sure he was over 6" away from the Night Goblin Stikkas if they should be broken in melee, as he was very vunerable to panic possibly caused by them running away. Just when things were going so well, you knew something had to go wrong - and my Shaman was it! He miscast his attempted 3 dice Gaze, and was turned into a gibbering random moving wreck - who had to roll a 6 at the start of the turn to snap out of it. Ach well! I resigned myself to having lost my Shaman, but at least he still contributed dispell dice, and had got to use his scroll up, so it wasn't as bad as him actually being killed. In the shooting phase the front rank of Night Goblins unleashed the full fury of their Short Bows at the Sword Masters, killing none. Well if I could only kill 2 before they got to combat I would knock off their rank bonus at least... The Rock Lobba took aim at the Silverhelms and guessed a perfect range into the heart of their unit, but once again missed anyway. Clearly the only way my Rock Lobba could hit anything was to massively miss-guess the range. This was actually partly a bluff shot though! I did want to damage them, but even more, I wanted to make Rob think I was actually trying to stop the Silverhelms charging my Night Goblins .. when of course that was exactly what I did want. |
| I stopped Rob here and asked him to carefully declare his charges and what order they were in. I told him it 'could matter' and tried to bluff it was due to me deciding my Charge Reactions and the way the units would line up when they hit the unit. Which was of course actually true, but what I really cared about was how I could use the Fanatics! However I couldn't see this working out well for Rob no matter how it happened. I thought about fleeing.. and here an odd rule came up and I started to read the charge reaction rules carefully alongside the Fanatic rules (well I actually started reading them the turn before as I thought this could happen). The Charge Reaction vs multiple chargers seemed very ambiguous firstly. In the 6th Ed BRB there didn't seem to be anything to stop me Standing+Shooting one of the chargers, whilst Fleeing another! Then again there also didn't seem to be anything in the rules to stop me Standing+Shooting all three units which seemed patently ridiculous to allow, so we ruled that to be fair if I stand+shot vs one of the charging units, I would have to Hold vs the others, or if I fled, I must Flee all the charges. This seemed fair and I believe was clear in the rules in the old editions. But I still needed to consider which one to do - If I fled and got an average roll, it would leave the Helms and the Sword Masters with failed charges. The Helms would be left in a particularly vunerable spot, being able to be charged by, certainly the Snotlings and/or the Chariot in the flank or rear, and possibly even the Orc Boyz in the flank too, at least the turn later if not immediately. That would probably win me the game!.. however the Eagle would almost certainly catch the fleeing Night Goblins no matter what I rolled, so I had to check the fanatic rules.. there didn't seem to be anything that said a fleeing unit would NOT release their fanatics - so if I did this, the Eagle would almost certainly be killed if it continued to pursue them. However this was getting a bit iffy rules-wise and I wasn't sure of it, and it would also unleash the fanatics nearer my lines than his. So when Rob declared his charges in this order: Helms, then Eagle, then Sword Masters it became clear what to do - back once again to my plan from the start of the battle. Mash up that cavalry unit with some fungus crazed fanatic mayhem! |
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Rob: "Nooo! I forgot about the fanatics!" Rik: Umm. Whoops there Rob... I wasn't exactly going to complain at this point, but oddly I realised even at the time I would have actually rather I hadn't decimated the Silver Helms completely with fanatics like I did. It would've been better if they had been wacked by one fanatic, but left with one fanatic in front of them and were forced to pul up their charge, leaving them in the sweet spot (for me) to be finished off by the Snotling/Chariot/Orc Boyz choppa-charge combo as mentioned earlier, but with only the General left standing, I just couldn't block his charge completely with fanatics since he was now very manouvreable as a single model, so instead I sent the last one out towards the Sword Masters who, like Rob, I also thought were in range to charge the Gobbos to try to keep them at bay and give them second thoughts about continuing to charge. But no, they would've missed me anyway, so in retrospect this fanatic would've maybe been better off towards the Eagle. In any case this left the Goblins fighting only the Eagle and the Elf Hero, which is a fight I thought they could just win, if not by much. Rob had slightly cheesily ran his Hero and the Eagle right across to the far side of the front rank of the Goblin unit, so I started to discuss the evils of clipping with him - but it was clear that he was actually trying to keep them out of charge range of the Chariot rather than trying to clip on purpose, I didn't complain any further. It was only the difference between 4 Goblins fighting rather than 5 anyway, so it wasn't exactly a horrible clip. I still wish there was a "must take shortest path possible on a charge" rule though as that, and a few other rules, could totally clean up clipping in Warhammer without much trouble at all. |
The fanatics have destroyed the rest of the Silverhelms and have subsequently been shot down by the Elf archer line. The Elf General and Great Eagle are fleeing after being beaten in combat by the Night Goblins
| I believe its correct the Eagle took a Break AND a Panic test this round. With all the combatants fleeing from my mighty Night Goblins and their +5 CR (full ranks, outnumber, and standard) I was left in a bit of a quandry. As they would both run 3D6" I had little chance of catching them on a pursuit, and could end up fighting the Sword Masters if I was not careful, which I was not so confident the Gobbos could take on, as they had a rank and a Champion, and I'd now lost my back rank. So my Orc Boss bellowed to the Goblins to hold back their pursuit, which the little blighters gladly did, happy they were safely away from those close combat with the weird pointy eared ones, and could shoot their little bows at them instead. They prefer that. (they told me). |
| Alright Night Gobbos! That was some top fighting by them really - surely all that was left was a mop-up job for the Boyz. As if things could get any better, I promptly rolled a '6' for my Shaman (this was the first attempt) so he was back in business without even making a random move. I didn't have any charges to make though, even now, since the Savage Orcs had a long way to go to catch the Elf Archers and Frenzy would auto-charge the Savage Orcs if they got close enough anyway. With the Helms dying like that there wasn't anything left for the Snotlings to charge so they advanced towards the Sword Masters, trying to block any potential charge of the Night Gobs. For Compulsory moves it was time to move my one remaining fanatic... who added to Rob's fanatic woes, by ploughing straight towards his General and Great Eagle! Now the Eagle was clearly hit, whereas the mounted Prince was a very arguable scraping-of-the-base kind of situation, so given how lucky I was already getting with my fanatics I was more than happy to let that one slide. The fanatic did of course mow down the already wounded Eagle, in a horrific squarking mass of blood and feathers - however the Sword Masters passed their panic check. Behind this, the Orc Boyz piled forwards once again, and the Orc Boar Chariot lined up alongside them. The Savage Orcs also marched forwards towards their target. The Night Gobs shuffled backwards slightly and also reformed into a front-rank of 9 rather than 10, to give them a full 4 ranks once more should they be forced to engage anyone. Once again, everything was going great, and only one thing could mess this up. Yep! My Shaman was back at it again, I should've leart my lesson, but no, the moment he tried to cast another spell his head popped with a little 'splut' sound as the effort of chanelling any amount of Waargh energy was clearly too much for this little fella by this stage. Oops. The most annoying thing about this was I realised I'd just given a huge free gift of VPs to the High Elf army, he was one expensive Shaman with all his items and upgrades. :( Following that display of ineptitude the Rock Lobba fired towards the one remaining threat I didn't have an immediate answer to - the Sword Masters, once again a perfect guess slap in the middle of them, that once again deviated over their heads to land on nothing but grass. While moving the Night Gobs loosed a few more arrows towards the Hoeth Masters that did nothing. |
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Special Note: Having a clearer grasp of the WFB6th edition rules now I am not sure this rally test should actually have been allowed! This would've made a HUGE impact on the rest of the battle as you will see as you read on. The reason I am not sure about this is that Rallying rules on pg 75 state that a unit cannot rally unless it has at least 25% of its original number, even if it contains a character. However an individual character is 'his own unit' and so can rally even if alone. But this creates a discrepancy however you played it. The Character in question never voluntarily left the now-decimated Silver Helms unit and hadn't even had a single movement phase in which he wasn't under a compulsory movement rule where he COULD have left the unit (ie: the unit declared a charge with him so he could not leave it, then the 'unit' fled, so he could not leave a unit). So on one hand, it would seem unfair, as he was now alone, he shouldn't be allowed a rally as would another character, but on the other hand, if a single other Silver Helm had survived then he definitely would not have been allowed to rally by the rules, so it seems ridiculous that he benefits in morale from having lost more of the unit than less.
My interpretation of these rules in future would be that he (or any character in this situation) is indeed still 'part' of the now non-existant unit until he has a single non-compulsory movement phase to 'leave' it (including charging 'out' of the non-existant unit would be allowed) and so cannot not rally after a combat (or any other effect such as shooting, magic, or fanatics) in which the unit he is with is destroyed. I had not considered this issue when writing the rest of this battle report, so it won't be commented on again, but without a doubt it would've been a massacre if we'd done it how I believe is actually correct. |
The Sword Masters stood by their General, only moving slightly, knowing they were out of charge range of the Goblins for now, they seemed indecisive once again. Trying his best not to be outdone by the Goblin Shaman's ineptitude the Elf Mage once again failed to cast a 3-dice Flames of the Phoenix upon the clearly charmed Night Gobbo unit. Rik was so happy that they hadn't been hit by this spell again, that he hadn't even noticed that the Mage had also Miss-Cast with a double 1 on the dice until Rob pointed it out to him... The Wizard managed to fail his spell and did himself a Wound of damage in the process. He then once more failed to cast the Curse. It became clear to both of us, that we were looking at two of the worst Wizards to ever grace the battlefields of the Warhammer world. The archers ignored the tattooed Orcs rushing towards them and shot down two whole bases of Snotlings instead. The Bolt Thrower once more cut into the Orc Boyz, killing two more.
| This was getting rather complex for a mop-up job! My Orc Boyz failed their Animosity check AGAIN. I groaned as my chance to finish off these pansy Elves was once again ruined by my troops' own bickering. My Orc Boyz, my best unit, along with my Big Boss General, had now spent fully half of the battle arguing amongst themselves not even able to move. I had hoped to move them forward to attack the Sword Masters or Rob's General with the Chariot in support next turn.. but with only one turn left now I couldn't make it. The Night Goblins and fanatics had done the 'hammer' part, but my anvil now wasn't bothering to even fight! Partly in annoyance and also wanting to DO something, I declared a charge with my Chariot vs the Elf Prince. I knew it was a borderline case and I had second thoughts about this, given that the Orc Boyz couldn't advance in support now even if it was failed.. but I decided to go through with it. The Fanatic just span about harmlessly between the Elf Prince, the Bolt Thrower, and the Gobbos. The Chariot sadly failed its charge by a full inch, and was left out near the Night Goblins now. With the Snotlings reduced to only 1 base, they would likely die in one combat round vs the Swords and could not charge anything worthwhile or march. They could charge the Archers - but all that would do is give them a possible Stand+Shoot and even if the Snotties made it to combat, all it might do would help them for CR vs the Savage Orcs that were close to charging next turn so I wasn't sure what to do with the little Lings for once in the game, they just ambled about doing nothing much really. The Savage Orcs were out of charge range but advanced almost right up to the Elf Archers. They were so close that the Archers wouldn't even get a Stand+Shoot reaction should the Savage Orcs charge next turn. However given my Animosity checks this battle, it seemed far from a sure thing. I do think Animosity still should be revised to work differently for Savage Orcs really, as it seems daft that frenzied troops could just stop inches from their foes and not bother to attack. Standing still and loosing their shortbows the Night Gobs accuracy improved and they actually took down a Sword Master with their arrow hits. But better was to come. My Rock Lobba guess was once again smack onto the Sword Master unit, but again deviated, but this time landed on the side of the Archer unit, the area effect also catching the Wizard. I had four possible Str 4 hits on the unit, but first Rob rolled a "look out sir" roll for his Mage, and promptly got a 1. Given our Wizards' success to this point, it didn't seem that surprising to us that no-one was going to risk his neck for him! Of course, it being the Wizard, I rolled the hit and the wound successfully, killing him off along with another Archer. That was pretty darn handy really, but not *quite* as useful as it seemed, since I was all but certain my Savage Orcs would take out the Wizard along with the Archer unit next turn anyway. |
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Well it was obvious my Chariot stood little chance of winning this one, so I fled the charge. If I had held, even though the Chariot would have had the General's Ld 8 to take a break test and may not have broken, it just seemed too risky. The reason was, if it had been beaten (but not destroyed, oddly...) in combat and then broke and fled it could've panicked both my Orc Boyz and my Night Goblins, so I did not want to take any unecessary risks with Panic at this stage as it looked like that would be the only way I would lose the game. Also if it fled, it looked like it should get away, and leave the Elf General in a very dangerous position, hopefully right in front of my Orc Boyz. They might actually get to fight something after all! Unfortunately I rolled something really pathetic for the 3D6 flee move like a 6" move or something, so the Chariot was caught and destroyed, and worse, this meant the Elf moved his full 18" which put him right past the Orc Boyz and out of their charge arc for next rurn, and even set him up to charge my Warmachine next. Oh well, there was really nothing I could do about it all with only a turn left. If only I had a few more turns! |
| Well the Sword Masters were almost in charge range, everso nearly but really, I thought it was pretty clear they just failed the charge once they had wheeled. But as it was pretty close I let Rob roll a dice; I said if he scored 5+ he could make the flank charge, Rob was happy with this, but he didn't make the roll. I was just happy to be fighting with my Savage ladz, I didn't really care who charged who, I was fully confident in their abilities to take on these feeble Elves - although I was slightly miffed I had never got to use the new Choppa rules all game. |
| Nothing much to do here, and of course I passed all my Animosity checks when it didn't matter much anymore anyway. Doh. I wasn't sure about the characters-charging from unit rules anymore, but I was pretty sure my Orc General couldn't break from the units flank to charge High Elf General, even though he was positioned now right on that side. Even if he could charge, I couldn't be certain whether Rob had some other nasty magic item up his General's sleeves and without having read the High Elf book, I couldn't really assess the threat. In any case, it didn't seem worth charging alone (even if he could) and risking some bad luck, so I didn't check the rules and instead just advanced the Orc Boyz to make sure they were 6" away from the Warmachine crew's potential panic-range. There didn't seem to be anything I could do with the Snotlings other than to keep out of charge range of anything to force Rob to at least fire his Repeater at them to get their VPs. I considered trying a fluke-rock shot at the High Elf general that was about to crush my War Machine crew with in all likeliness, but the risk of deviating onto my Orcs and something going horribly wrong was too great again. |
ORCS & GOBLINS WIN BY 398 Victory Points for a 'Solid Victory'
| Well I was very happy with this result and even more happy with the fact it had been a very good fun, if rather odd game. I don't recall ever winning a game of WFB with such a melee-based army, without even getting into much close combat! The game had swung on positioning, threats, and the fanatics - there was only two meaningful melee's for the whole game. Both of our armies seemed quite fair and balanced as neither of us had really attempted to abuse our lists at all, and just took the models we could field. My one attempt to try to game any tactical advantage with my actual army selection, my Shaman and his 'Itty Ring, had hopelessly backfired on me in any case! The even weirder thing about an odd battle for me was that Rob and I seemed to have swapped our luck 'abilities'. Most of the time Rob rolled slightly below-average for almost all of his dice rolls this game, and also failed on most of the big 'swingy' dice rolls.. which was traditionally exactly MY kind of luck, not Rob's. I had got so used to this that I always based my strategies and risk-taking moves by anticipating "slightly below par" rolls, knowing thats what I'd get, and I always tried to avoid those "one-off, need to be a bit lucky" type of rolls wherever possible, as I knew I'd never make them (or get the benefit of them from my opponent). But this game was a really different case as that was exactly what happened to Rob, and instead my luck veered wildly from outrageously lucky (Rock Lobber's first shot, Fanatics) to absolutely dire. ie: Animosity checks in general, especially so on the Orc Boyz, every other shot my Rock Lobba made all game (I did not roll a single hit on a Scatter dice all game, yet I also had my most luck with these dice all game, given the Rock 'miss' on the 1st turn and my fanatic's random moves), and I need not even mention bad luck when it came to my Shaman. He didn't even get to eat his Magic Mushroom! Here's looking forward to the re-match. Hopefully on a proper wargames table with a fully painted army and some nice looking movement trays (no more skanky cardboard pieces I had to quickly knock up the night before). This week's hobby was the Warhammer Hobby, and there is always plenty of time to drink your weak lemon drink later! Oh and if the day could've got any better the Dolphins broke their three game losing streak with a win vs the Saints and I had great fantasy football days in both my leagues. ;) |