The irony is...I added stuff I would not have included otherwise that I only included because I had the proper models and they were painted...
Well, this tie I corrected that. I dropped the (worse than) worthless Wolf Riders, a troll, a couple of spider riders and a night goblin. We went to play.
We rolled up battleline. I started deploying my army from memory...and completely forgot a couple minor units. Like Deathnarok..the Mangler Squig...the troll, my Doom Diver...so I ended up with an abominable setup.
Fortunately, his was no better as, just as I failed to keep key units within range of Gorbad, he clogged up key units.
EMPIRE TURN !
Marius promptly fails his test...and gains Frenzy until he fails another test. Which he would not for the duration...
The Steam Tank generates 4 Steam Points...and misfires, doing an emergency vent to take it down to 2 SP. A good start. He also takes 2d6 S2 hits, ends up being 5, and 1 wound goes through. Sweet, I have done nothing and the tank is already damaged!
His scouts occupy the building in the center. They will be a minor annoyance. Ican shoot them to death with my 100-strong night goblin archer horde, charge them with either my 20 or 30 man Savage Orcs...just need to do it quickly.
His knight on my far right flank move on in to the blood forest.
The Winds blow weakly, with 4+1...and he promptly channels 3 for 3. It is really bad luck..because at some point when he can cast meaningful magic he is unlikely to channel. On this turn he will have nothing worth casting.
His only useful firing is the tank cannon-balling 3 Savage Orcs to death.
O&G turn1
My Spider Riders fail their Animosity test. Fortunately, Gorbads rule turns their "3" into a 6 and they move forward toward his Knights. I like this as it will let me do some extra marching.
The winds are weak...I get 4 dice. I give poison to the Spider riders. They miss, the night goblins do nothing, I completely forget about the Doom Diver.
He again generates 4 sp for the tank.Marius passes...as he will every turn for the rest of the game.
His knights declare a charge on the spider riders. I debate for a couple second...he will wipe them out, then reform to face my charge or, if he is not thinking, probably over-run and be stopped by the building. My 30-strong Savage Orcs will then hit his Knights...and I am not sure they will do well against his knights.
If I flee my Spider Riders I probably get away, thus avoiding giving up the free points that "chaff" units represent (which is one reason I seldom use them)and I force him into a tough choice; try to redirect in a lon-shot against either my 30 man Savage Orcs or the Boar Riders. Either way I think he is a long-shot to succeeed...and I will be in excellent shape to combo-charge him and get his most dangerous unit off the board. Barring that, my Mangler Squig can probably smack into him.
I flee, he redirects to the boar riders. I really do not want to get smacked on the charge...and fortunately, he fails by a half inch.
He rolls 4+2 for winds and channels.
He throws the ward at his knights. I need to roll a 2 to dispel...I want to stop wyssans, so take my 5-in-6 chance of stopping him, and roll one die...and it is a 1. He wards the knights. I dispel his wyssans with my scroll figuring this might be the key turn.
His Organ Gun kills just one of my 30 Savage Orcs. His rifleman kill a couple more, his Hochland does another one...they are getting whittled down fast...the cannon lands 1" short...his scouts are ineffectual.
Meanwhile his other gunmen put down 3 more of my 20 man Savage orcs. His shooting is taking a mighty toll on me.
ORC Turn 2
My Boars charge his Knights...he flees, wanting to preserve their strength bonus.
My troll fails his stupidty test again, shambles forward a bit.
The 20 man savage orcs charge the building and reach it easily (they failed animosity and had moved closer at the beginning of the turn)
The winds are a mighty 3, and I channel 2, he channels 1. I hex the scouts in the building, then all my shooting whiffs.
His Marcus Fellheart kills my champ in a challenge. My regular guys then ht 20 times in 30 attempts, and all 20 wound. Unfortunately, Marcus is stubborn and refuses to leave the building...which will be costly.
EMPIRE TURN 3
His Steam Tank mis-fires, losing a steam point. His fleeing Knights easily rally.
The Steam Tank charges into the 20 man savage orcs.
I stop Wyssans, do not care about anything else.
His Master Engineer proves to be points well spent, turning an Organ Gun misfire into 6 shots, but another misfire means it only get 4 shots at my Mangler; all 4 hit, all 4 wound, tand the Mangler leaves having done exactly nothing. Oh, and for those keeping score, he now is ahead 65-0.
His riflemen then shoot down 5 spider riders.
My troll regenerates the only wound his other gunners put on it.
The Steam Tank ends up doing 13 impact hits..out of 15 possible. 8 dead Savage Orcs later I get a tiny bit of revenge, putting a wound on the tank, but then I am fleeing with my last 3. That unit is done for the game as they will not rally. He is ahead 320 - 0.
ORC TURN 3
Well, lets take stock. My shooting has done not one wound. My magic has done nothing. My Mangler left having been impotent. My 20 man savage orcs got shot to pieces and ground to sausage. My short bow horde of Night Goblins are out of position to do ANYTHING. My Troll is probably going to be stupid every turn for the rest of the game until he walks straight into the 15ish gunmen and gets shot to doll rags. Things look bleak.
CHARGE!
Deathnarok charges his Organ Gun. Spider Riders charge his center-field riflemen (mostly to limit his stand and shoot against my 30 man Savage orcs) who follow up with a charge into the same unit.My horde enters the building. And releases the fanatics into the tank.The limited stand & shoot gets just 5 shots...but kills 3 Savage Orcs. Grr.
Winds give me 4+2. I Gork'll Fix it his gunners. Gorks Foot then wounds 8 of his...Great Swords? Yes! Magic damage!
Doom Diver mis-fires again, the horde misses everything...
The Fanatics do massive damage, putting a whopping 6 wounds on the tank. It now has 8 wounds...it is in deep trouble.
Deathnarok puts one wound on his machine, he wounds deathnarok back, a goblin kills a guy. He stands. That charge was a miserable failure. I have higher hopes for the spider-rider/savage orc combo charge.
The impact hits from the Big Stabba does zero damage (impact hits do nothing for me, but always wreck me when they hit. That rule is NOT my friend.)
The shaman accepts his champions challenge, and both attacks hit and wound. His regular guys are ineffective.
My Savage Orcs do 5 wounds, a spider does another, and a rider does still another. He flees, I run him down and over-run into his units behind. Much better.
EMPIRE TURN 4
His steam tank does its next to last wound to itself (he wound it up trying to make it explode...but it stubbornly refused to do so when he could have done lots of damage).
So he ends it charging into the 30-man savage orcs. His Knights flank the Deathnarok. Stupid strider banner....
Low winds, I stop Wyssans.
With nothing else to shoot at, his men hiding behind the river shoot the fleeing orcs, reducing them from 3 to 2.
Marcus shoots the troll, who can neither use his stone skin or regen to stop either wound. I would say I miss my Warriors of Chaos...but I failed all their armor saves too...so really no different.
Marcus hits Deathnarok all 3 times which means 3 wounds more. Deathnarok does a bit better than last round, killing 3 knights...but the other knights hit 7 of 8 tries and wound him 5 times...one dead Arachnarok.
For those keeping score at home, it is now 610-120ish. He is WRECKING me. Deathnarok and the Mangler did nothing, the 20 man savage orcs did little more...my Boar Riders are out of position...my spider riders are going to die this turn...oh, and on the over-run, his knights get to fight again.
This time the Stabba actually does a wound with its impact hits. Yay!
My joy is short lived as the steam tank again does...wait for it...13 impact hits to the Savage Orcs. 12 wound...but I save 5 (3 thanks to the Lucky Shrunken Head). It is sad when you feel good about "only" losing 7 orcs to impact hits...
Marius does 3 more wounds..I wound him back....the Savae Orcs do 4 wounds, he kills 2 of my guys back, he kills the last two spiders...
Fortunately I have the stubborn hat on the Savage Orc shaman, so they are not going anywhere.
ORCS TURN 4
The Boar Riders get the flank on his knights. I foot of Gork his Demigryph Knights...it only hits one after the scatter, no wounds, and on the re-stomp it scatters off. Grr.
The horde of Night Goblins shoots Marcus dead. POINTS!
Gorbad puts down 2 knights, Marius hits 3 times, but I save 2 (one via shrunken head, the other straight warpaint. Score more for Ward saves!)
The Savage Orcs Boar Riders open a can of whoop-smurf, hitting 11 times, 9 of them wounding...and only 4 saves! The boars kill another one. He only has heroes left.
I kill a couple Great Weapons guys, they do one back, he flees, I overrun.
So here is where we stand; we are close to even on points, his steam tank most likely blows itself upat the start of his turn, I should wreck his war machine with my Savage orcs on his turn and overrun into the demigryphs....so that looks good for me.
I will also finish off his support unit, but his great swords are going to damage my Savage orcs...his hand gunners are out of the battle, my night goblins are out of the battle...this game can go either way.
But we ran out of time and could not finish. This bums me out as it was a fantastic game.
We both set up poorly, though in his case I get what he was trying to do...my quibble is that Knights are based on mobility and he hemmed his demigryphs in.
I hemmed everything in. I would have been fine if I had remembered all my units...instead I let stuff get out of range, then took too long to get my boar riders into position.
I also though Deathnarok should make short work of his war machine. When he proved unable to wipe it out it wrecked my plans to open that flank up for my boars to come in.
I was also somewhat sorry to see his Steam Tank do 26 of a possible 30 impact hits while my shooting did...well...nothing. Of course, I only had 116 short bow shots and a Doom Diver...and he never had to even make a save against any of it.
Whoops...they did shoot down Marcus in the last turn.
Gorbad is...okay in combat. But he is GREAT at what I want him for...18" bsb, three units of Big Uns, turning animosity from crippling to advantageous...
I need to stop running solo trolls "just because I have the model painted", and use the points for a second Mangler.
And get rid of the spider riders and Night Goblins in favor of more boar riders and savage orcs.
On the other hand, the Lucky Shrunken Head might be the best 50 points ever spent. I must have made a dozen saves thanks to the Shrunken Head.
Fun game, hope to get in more Savage Orc goodness soon
And hope to, miracle of miracles...finish the game. Because it could go either way!
