CHRIS’S Dark Elves vs RIK’s Orcs & Goblins, 1500 Points

Army Lists

Chris’s Dark Elves:

(rough list only)

CHARACTERS:

Hero on Elven Steed (General)

Great Weapon

Hero on Dark Pegasus

One use Magic Item that does a bunch of S3 hits but replaces CC attack.

Lv2 Mage on Elven Steed

2 Dispel Scrolls

UNITS:

6 Cold One Knights

Lance, lots of armour, Champion, Warbanner, Musician

5 Dark Riders (Fast Cav)

Spear, Repeater Crossbow

5 Dark Riders (Fast Cav)

Spear, Repeater Crossbow

5 Dark Riders (Fast Cav)

Spear, Repeater Crossbow

Cold One Chariot

Cold One Chariot

Repeater Bolt Thrower

6 Harpies

Rik’s Orcs & Goblins:

(Fluffiness Test scores from Avian’s great website :) )

		CHARACTERS:
Orc Big Boss “Ol’ SkragGit” (General Ld 8)			65	94
Choppa, Great Axe			4
Nibbla's Itty Ring			25
Orc Shaman “Naboo”			65	125
Level 2, Choppa			35
1 Dispel Scroll			25
Night Goblin Shaman “Bollo”			60	95
Level 2, Hand Weapon			35
		CORE UNITS:
20 Orc Big Uns			140	253
Spear, Choppa, Light Armour and Shield			60
Boss, Standard, Musician			28
Nogg's Banner of Butchery			25
25 Orc Boyz			125	178
Choppa, Light Armour and Shield			25
Boss, Standard, Musician			28
20 Orc Arrer Boyz			140	168
Bow, Choppa
Boss, Standard, Musician			28
30 Night Goblins			60	152
Hand Weapon and Short Bow			30
Standard, Musician			12
2 Fanatics			50
20 Night Goblins			40	69
Hand Weapon, Shield
Musician			4
1 Fanatic			25
5 Goblin Wolf Riders (Fast Cav)			50	66
Spear, Hand Weapon, Shield			10
Musician			6
		SPECIAL UNITS:
Goblin Spear Chukka				35
Goblin Spear Chukka				35
Orc Boar Chariot				80
Hand Weapons, Spears and Scythed Wheels
Goblin Rock Lobber				70
		RARE UNITS:
Goblin Doom Diver				80
				1500
Break Down
		%
Characters	314	21%
Core	886	59%
Special/Rare	300	20%
Total Unit Strength		101
Fluffiness Test
1.Characters	0
2.Core	2
3.Spec/Rare	0
4.Unit Strength	1	US Index	48
5.Core Chariots	0
6.Upgraded Units	0
Score:	3	"Quite Fluffy"

Pre-Battle

The table was 8’x4’ but with a foot roped off each side, so it was a normal 6’x4’ playing area, which should be ok, if a bit large for 1500 points. We set up the scenery, 1 piece each selected from what I had available until we were both happy, and then ‘scattered’ it randomly. We then agreed a couple of changes to balance the sides up as one starting zone had ended up with 2 hills in it and the other with none. Once we were both happy, we diced for sides, Rik won, and Rik chose the side with one hill. See the shot from setup below for the scenery layout.

Rik: Well it seemed pretty balanced either way, and although the other side had the extra hill which maybe handy for my warmachines and missile troops, it was also next to a wood which cut down its usefulness to me a lot. So I chose the side with the least scenery getting in the way of me setting up, and also advances and potentially killing random moving fanatics. I have a huge aversion to woods for these reasons ;)

Forgetting for a moment to roll for magic, we rolled to setup. Rik rolled highest, but chose to deploy first. We each had 9 ‘drop’s exactly.

Rik: We had shown each other our models (although not full lists) before the game and I was hoping for the +1 to get the first turn as it looked like I had a lot more shooting/magic than Chris did, whereas he had a lot of fast movement troops that would really take advantage of the first turn… or so I thought. We had a discussion about this and Chris reckoned despite that, the +1 is not enough of an improvement in odds to warrant the disadvantage of setting up first. I also pointed out that this setting up method still seemed very strange to me, as I was used to the “line of boxes across the table” method of hidden setup that I had used for years back in 4^th ed WFB. I still feel that totally hidden setup can be a lot more fun, although of course it wouldn’t work for tournament play very well as it is too easy to cheat – and the unit by unit method does in some ways produce more ‘realistic’ results too.

Army Set-Up

The first unit placed was by Rik, the Arrer Boyz coming down in a long line to the far right-hand side of the table.

The dice on the battlefield mark the 12” setup zone for Rik’s side of the table.

Having played this same army a couple of times now, I’d decided I must stick to my original plan which was missile-fire loaded to one flank and combat units to the other. I’d also seen how it was fairly easy to flank my force on these large tables, so I wanted to use a table edge to negate that if possible. While Arrer Boyz are much maligned for obvious reasons, against this army they would hopefully serve me well, as their bow fire would actually be a serious worry to the Dark Rider units, and I reckoned the unit was tough enough to take on many of the Dark Elf units head-on, even without lots of rank – but if anything dangerous decided to come after them, I would, as I always do, reform them into a proper fighting block. This is why the unit has full command; I treat it as a normal combat unit often in the later stages of the game – in an attempt to make Arrer Boyz actually useful. ;)

However at this point set-up was interupted as we realised we had better roll for spells. Rik rolled a Gaze of Mork and a Fists of Gork for his Orc Shaman.. not great, but ok, and rolled up Brain Bursta and Ere We Go for the Night Goblin Shaman. Chris had the swapped a roll for the default Dark Magic Str:3 magic missile spell that prevents shooting on a unit it damages, and the rather powerful but hard-to-cast Black Horror!

I don’t really like Ere We Go as it’s a very situational spell, nor do I like Fists of Gork for the same reason (too short range), but the Orc Shaman was stuck with it as I’d rolled a 1 for the other spell anyway. So I figured the Orc Shaman would be going with the ‘combat’ group of my army, and the Night Goblin Shaman may as well go with the ‘missile’ group, so Ere We Go would become even less useful, so I swapped Ere We Go for Gaze of Mork on the Goblin too. This meant both my Shaman’s had their basic magic missile attack which ought to be quite effective against the lighter parts of the DE force, and the Night Goblin also had the even more powerful magic missile. With 6 PD this would also give me a lot of options about how much I wanted to try to cast vs chances I wanted to take in the magic phase. I definitely felt much more confident with this set of spells than in any of my previous battles as I was getting a better feel for what Little Waaagh magic could offer me, and how the PD/DD stuff actually panned out during a game. I could go 2PD on 3 magic missiles, or 3PD, 2PD, 1PD or other combinations.

I was somewhat surprised Chris kept the Black Horror spell with only a lv2 wizard, as he could only throw 3 dice at it, he’d have a pretty iffy chance of even casting it each turn. However once the battle got underway I could see why he did it since my dispell dice outnumbered his casting dice anyway, he had to throw 3 dice at a spell to hope to get through or Irresitable Force it anyway. So it may as well be a spell worth throwing 3 dice at! He also had the Dark Elf +1 to cast which swung the odds more in his favour.

Back to setting up. Rik started by placing his main infantry blocks in the centre, in a straddled line with the Night Goblin ‘bait’ unit in front of the two Orc blocks.

I would’ve put both Night Goblin units forward, but I kept the other Night Goblin unit back so the Harpies couldn’t suicide into their fanatics in the 1^st turn.

Chris started by placing the highly mobile Harpies towards the middle of the table, and a set of Dark Riders opposite the Orc bows.

The eventual setup ended up looking like this (two angle shots):

The right side of the table. Note the Goblin Shaman next to the Goblin Bolt Thrower and the DE mage is next to the Cold Ones just on the hill, whilst the DE General is on horseback between the COKs and the near Dark Riders. The Orc Boar Chariot is squeezed between the BigUns and the Night Goblin bows.

The left side of the table. Note the two Dark Rider units on this flank. The Orc General can be seen from this angle centrally placed beside the BigUns, but able to get LOS with his magic ring. The Orc Shaman can just be seen next to the other Bolt Thrower on this side.

The last units I placed were my Chariot, which was centrally placed to support the infantry units and go either side of the tower in the middle of the battlefield as necessary, the tower also allowing it to hide from the DE Bolt Thrower and my Wolf Riders which were, at that point going to head either side of the rocks. However when Chris loaded the left side with a second unit of Dark Riders this threw a bit of a surprise to me too. With my warmachines I also deviated from the ‘plan’ somewhat. Seeing the powerful Cold One Knights and the fast Harpies all lined up on the right flank where my hill was, I didn’t want to give them too many soft targets in one place, having witnessed a unit of Chaos Furies take out all my warmachines on a hill one by one before – and I also wanted to be able to hit his Chariots with my Rock Lobber. So instead of placing all my warmachines on the hill I split them up so they could fire at their most appealing targets, and the Bolt Throwers would hopefully have some opportunities for flank shots also.

My Goblin Shaman was placed to support the Orc unit with his missile fire spells, and the Orc Shaman was placed alongside the Orc Boyz according to my earlier plans. As Chris had nothing that could ‘character snipe’ him, my general setup on his own, in between both my Orc combat units so he could decide to join either as the battlefield changed as I wasn’t really sure what Chris was going to do with that many fast units. To be honest, I’d never faced anything like this… His all-cavalry force didn’t even resemble an “army” to me. Oh well, that’s Warhammer for you I guess. ;)

Lastly the Dark Elf Hero on the flying Dark Pegasus was placed alongside the Cold One Chariots opposite the Orc Boyz, the Dark Elf wizard and general were both placed alongside the Cold One Knights, shunning the protection of joining a unit, but unable to be picked out by Bolt Throwers at this point.

Then battle was joined!

The Early Game

We rolled off and Chris won the first turn.

Well that’s score one on the anecdotal evidence for always setting up second! ;) But seriously I do actually think Chris is probably right in most circumstances. Chris uses the idea during set-up to place fast units down first, as they can most easily re-deploy, but with my army, I am almost the opposite as I really have to stick to my deployment plan pretty much, and place the majority of my slow infantry towards the centre of the board so they are harder to avoid. Its actually my faster units which I want to place in response to enemy deployments more eg: the Wolf Boyz and the Chariot. Although it can be devastating to get the Night Goblin fanatics in the right place against the right units also… (see the High Elf battle report).

Both flying units moved forward taking up positions to charge the Orc artillery crews on the next turn, the Harpies were partially covered beside the central tower. All the DE cavalry units moved forwards to about half way across the table. Both Chariots failed their stupidity tests and stumbled forward only 3.5”. Chris explained he always assumed these stupid units are going to do nothing – so that if they do anything he counts it as a bonus! The Dark Riders on the right side firing their repeater crossbows at one of the Goblin Bolt Thrower crews and killing one of them. The other units of Dark Riders also fired a lot of shots towards the Goblin Wolf Riders they could see, however their fire was woefully inaccurate and did no damage at all. The Repeater sent a flurry of bolts towards the Orc BigUns killing two of them. The Dark Elf magic was ineffective this turn.

The Orcs & Goblins responded with resounding fluidity and co-ordination, as only one of the central units failed its animosity check. The BigUns and Night Goblins in the centre held their positions as they sorted out their squabbles, the Night Goblins staying out in front of the BigUns. The other Orc infantry unit wheeled around to face the point where the Dark Rider’s would advance to when they got around the large rocks on the right side of the battlefield, but they did not march too far as they did not want to pass in front of the artillery positioned to their flank. The Orc Shaman, wanting to maintain his lines of sight also but not wanting to allow a potential charge from the Dark Pegasus rider, joined the Orc Boyz. The Orc BigBoss remained standing between the infantry units. The Wolf Riders moved forward into a position that blocked both Dark Riders units from advancing freely, and angled themselves to force either one that charged in the front to end up facing away from the Orc battleline.

Well I got off really lightly with the animosity there – if the units I really wanted to move, the bigger Night Goblins and the Wolf riders had failed animosity it could’ve been disastrous. My centre didn’t really have anything to advance to anyway! I realised there would be no stopping the Dark Riders with my wolf boyz – so my plan was just to delay them. As I find using units for blatant redirection like this a bit ‘iffy’ I discussed this positioning with Chris, but he was ok with this aspect of the game. He could probably get around the wolfs by using the fast cav reforms with one of the units, but it would be all but impossible to do it with both, as we were lined up against the rocks, with the Wolf Riders right next to his units. I did point out to him that the Wolf Riders did actually ‘fear’ his Dark Riders, which is why I hadn’t even attempted to charge them, even though they were in range and could probably win on the charge, Ld6 was too risky and I needed this unit to move than I needed to actually beat the Riders at this point I thought.

Continuing with movement, the large Night Goblin bowmen unit marched forward wheeling to get around the central tower. Once they had moved we then checked for fanatic ranges, and to Rik’s surprise, they were within 8” of the Harpies…

Well the fanatic rules aren’t really clear how you should play this (surprise surprise), but I always play it that both sides move normally, then you measure and ‘take back’ if necessary if the 8” point for fanatics was crossed – it seems the fairest. I hadn’t actually intended to release the fanatics at all this turn, I thought they were still at least an inch out. Doh. I was intending to use them to ‘stop’ the harpies movement and stop them charging the artillery on the hill. However a moment later I realised this wouldn’t have worked anyway as they would be able to continue moving, flying over the fanatics as long as they were charging. Flyers do seem to be excellent at spoiling fanatics, as long as they can do oblique charges like this.

Two fanatics span out from the Night Goblins. The first one was shoved towards the nearest Harpy…. Double 6! 12” movement from this lightning speed Fanatic took him right through the harpies. 6 hits… 6 wounds later and the poor Harpies were completely wiped out! The next fanatic only went 7” and was sent towards the Cold Ones which were much further away.

Well we were both astounded by the devastation wrought by that crazy ‘super 6’ rolling fanatic, who bowled a STRIKE on the harpies and knocked them all down. Chris was hoping he’d at least be left with 1 harpy as it could still possible have charged a warmachine and held it up for a turn, but it wasn’t to be.

Worse was to come however for the Dark Elves, as their noble Cold One Knights failed their panic test (even with the General’s leadership) due to the Harpies being wiped out, although they didn’t move far it placed them behind the general and the Dark Riders. The Orc Chariot moved alongside and behind the chittering Night Goblins.

Although I could try and charge the Cold One chariots with my Chariot, I wanted to try and track down one of the fast moving Elf characters with my Chariot, and going this way kept it protected from the DE Bolt Thrower. I was also concerned that with my fanatics out, had little on this side of the board that could penetrate the armour of the Cold One Knights unless the warmachines got some lucky hits.

The Goblinoid Shamen combined to send magic missiles towards the Dark Pegasus rider in the centre and the Dark Riders on the right flank, and the Orc warmachines and bowmen opened up. The Orc General tried to use his Itty Ring, but it was dispelled easily by the Elf wizard.

I can’t remember the exactly results of magic and what was shooting, but I believe Chris used up a scroll or I IF’d, but the magic combined with the Orc Arrer Boyz shooting wiped out the Dark Rider unit opposite them, and the Pegasus was wounded. The Doom Diver guessed fairly well but landed just short of the Cold Ones, whereas the Rock Lobber had a perfect range to land dead on one of the Cold One Chariots… I told Chris that my warmachines tend to either do fantastically well or misfire ridiculously and it always starts from the first turn & continues: And this was exactly what happened – the Doom Diver misfired and sent a goblin high into the stratosphere, whereas the Lobba showed the opposite end of my artillery luck as it hit and completely destroyed the Chariot. I was really pleased that my artillery range guessing was starting to get back to what it used to be, although I was slightly off with the Doom Diver anyway.

Finally one Bolt Thrower fired at the exposed Dark Elf General, and the other towards the Dark Pegasus, but both missed.

At the start of the Dark Elves next turn, the General had to take a panic test for the fleeing Knights behind him, and Chris prompted failed yet another Ld9 check. Technically, fleeing from the source of the panic would send him rushing somewhere towards the Orc lines, but as this seemed blatantly unfair and silly, we used the ‘vector’ idea and the ideas in the Fleeing commentary to send him sideways across the board, although this brought him closer to the Orc Arrers. The Cold One Knights did manage to rally however.

Despite the disastrous morale on the right side of the table, the left side assault went much better for the Druchii. One Dark Rider unit charged and killed all but one Wolf Rider, who unsurprisingly fled. As he would be unable to rally the Dark Riders restrained pursuit to stop them charging off into an empty area in the corner of the board. The other Dark Rider unit moved around to face the Orc Boyz and fired their repeater bows at the Bolt Thrower, killing a crewman. The Repeater Bolt Thrower joined in but did no damage. The Dark Pegasus rider charged the Goblin Rock Lobba, who’s crew fled. As he moved past the Night Goblins they released their fanatic toward him, but he did not reach him, and so he continued his charge and cut down the Lobba crew. The Dark Elf mage stood beside the toward and summoned the Black Horror on the BigUns, Ol’SkragGit and the Night Goblins, but this was stopped by a Dispel Scroll from the Orc Shaman. The remaining Cold One Chariot moved forward normally towards the Night Goblins, now the fanatic was clear.

This shows the situation at the end of the Dark Elves second turn.

The Mid Game

On the left side the Orc Boyz swung around to try to prevent the flank collapsing from the Dark Rider attack – the fanatic also moved around the rocks with them, killing a few. The Orc Shaman & Goblin fanatic with some ‘precise’ random movement managed to destroy one of the Dark Rider units with magic and fanatic hits, and the Dark Pegasus turned around to support the remaining Rider unit. The Orcs advanced towards them again however, and Chris was forced to frontal charge the Orc Boyz with both the Pegasus and the horses. The brave Orc Boss challenged the Pegasus rider to reduce casualties on the unit and to protect the Shaman, and the Dark Elves killed a number of Orcs whilst the Orcs did no damage in return – however their fully loaded static CR meant they won the combat by 1 anyway, and Chris failed both his Ld8 and Ld7 checks, rolling exactly one over each of them in turn. The Orc Boyz pursued but did not catch either unit, but then charged the Pegasus in their turn, sending him fleeing off the table.

In the centre of the battlefield the Cold One Chariot went stupid just when it could’ve charged and so the Night Goblins advanced and managed to charge it, despite the Fear check, as Ol’SkragGit gave them his Ld8. Although never wounding the Chariot, and a few Goblins dying to the Cold Ones and crew, it fled, rallied, and was then charged again by the Night Gobs (who this time passed a Ld5(!) to make the charge, deservedly so in my book as why would they fear something which is running away from them!?). The Orc General moved to join the BigUns as soon as he could, so he could get a Look Out Sir if hit by a nasty spell… which was exactly what happened as the Dark Elven mage managed to summon the Black Horror over the unit, killing enough to panic them for a turn although they would rally. However Ol’SkragGit and the BigUns would see no action for the whole battle, as there was no way they could catch the Wizard on horseback. The dark Elf Repeater let loose a few shots during these turns but did not do any significant damage.

Thank goodness, I’d had my general and this unit fail to rally on the last turn of the game the last time I played WFB, I didn’t particularly want to see it happen twice in a row! However one of my biggest mistakes was with my General this game – as has happened to me a few times, he didn’t really get to do much. He should’ve perhaps gone with the other Boyz unit, although at the time it looked like two Chariots could be trying to cave in my centre, and at least his Ld came in handy a few times. But in the end he was just an Itty Ring caddy – which wasn’t much use as Chris easily dispelled it most of the time, having little chance to dispel much else of my magic. Despite the risks I can definitely see the benefits of a TVI-esque mounting of this hero on a boar, even in infantry units.

On the right hand side of the table, despite a bit of trouble with animosity, the Orc Arrer boyz managed to reform as the Chariot moved over to support them. The Dark Elf general then rallied, and was hit and wounded by the Bolt Thrower on the hill, but was not killed. However by then he had then been setup for a combo charge by the Orc Boar Chariot and the now fully-ranked Arrer Boyz. Despite the horrible odds, he held, given that fleeing would send him off the board anyway, as Rik declared the first charger was the chariot. Remarkably he survived the Chariot’s impact hits, and the crew’s spears, but was sadly his luck ran out and he was impaled upon a Boar tusk to end his life ignominiously. The Doom Diver misfired once again, putting it out of action for two turns, and Bollo the Shaman joined the Bolt Thrower crew on the hill to prevent him possibly being picked off by the Dark Elf Bolt Thrower. Between the Goblin Bolt thrower and the Shaman a couple of Cold One Knights were killed, as the Night Goblin bowmen reformed into a long thin unit to maximise their ranks and minimise attacks against them, and the Elf Knights moved closer to assault them. One of the fanatics killed himself, whilst the other moved back and hit its parent unit but of course did not do enough casualties to worry the Goblins. The Orc Arrers and Chariot turned around after killing the DE General to flank the Cold One