Caveat Emptor: This game was my first time using the
"Battle Chronicler" program which is a nifty little tool for making
your own battle reports. As such I didn't take as much care as I perhaps could
when initially placing units and moving them and this produced a slightly
inaccurate portrayal. In real terms the general gist of pictures are correct
although the unit positioning and movement may seem a little strange! This is
purely because I didn't take enough time and for future games I intend to avoid
this oversight!
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| Deployment |
Scenario: The scenario played was Meeting Engagement rolled
randomly from the Warhammer Rulebook. This meant each army had to roll for
every unit and character in its army on a D6. The roll of a 1 would mean that
the unit could not be deployed but instead was placed in reserves to arrive in
the remaining moves phase of a turn of the player's choosing from his long
table edge.
Deployment:
The Empire: The Empire army won the roll for deployment and
Sircyn placed all of his troops down first. The detachment of archers deployed
in the Northern wood which turned out to be an abysmal forest! All of the
Empire army arrived with the exception of the Arch Lector and Engineer 1. As
Sircyn won the roll and deployed first he would take the first turn unless the
Ogre player rolled a 6 after deployment.
Ogres: The Tyrant, Ironguts and Scraplauncher 2 did not
appear leaving the rest of the army to face off against the Empire line. I
rolled a dice and promptly produced a 6 which meant I was able to seize the
initiative! The first turn would go to the Ogres!
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| Ogre Turn 1 |
Ogre Turn 1
With the first turn in hand there was little for the Ogres
to do but to surge forwards as quickly as possible! All Ogre and Gnoblar units
marched towards the foe with the exception of one unit of Gnoblars (GF2) which
refused its orders to fight over who would get to keep the shiny things after
the humans wouldn't need them any more. The Bull unit (OB2) suffered two wounds
from venturing through the forest which turned out to be a wildwood!
The Ironguts (IG) and Tyrant arrive at the bottom of the
board and marched into a Fungus forest eager to assist in the promised fight
ahead!
In the Magic phase the Slaughtermaster found most of his
spells dispelled by the enemy wizards but was able to successfully cast Bullgorger
on the Bull unit he was with (OB2) granting them plus one strength. The cost of
this however was one of the Bulls suffered a wound as he slashed at one of them
with his Gruts Sickle to charge his power dice and avoid a failure. This killed
off one of the Ogres before the enemy had even had chance to open fire!
The Scraplauncher (SL1) fired a heap of debris towards the
Swordsmen (S2) but it scattered in between them and the Halberdiers (H) killing
only 3 from the former and two from the latter.
The Scraplauncer (SL2) fared better landing its shot dead on
target and felling an impressive 11 swordsmen (S2) with 4 deaths due to Killing
Blow alone.
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| Empire Turn 1 |
Empire Turn 1
The Empire turn began and the ordered ranks of the human
soldiery began to march and wheel themselves into a defensive posture. The Arch
Lector (AL) arrived and moved into position in front of the farmstead walls.
The second Archer Detachment (AD2) moved to block the Tyrant and the Iron Guts
and provide a speed bump for the rest of the army.
Sircyn collected his dice to begin damaging the mass of
Ogres before him but promptly rolled a double one on the winds of magic! With
his one power dice he attempted to cast Light of Battle on Crossbowmen (CB)
anticipating a charge being ahead but this failed.
Hoping to redeem himself with the shooting phase Sircyn drew
a line with his cannon (C) through the OB2 unit that would continue onwards to
damage one of the scraplaunchers (SL2). The shot however stuck in the ground
after bouncing through the unit but felled an Ogre in the process. The second
cannon (C2) failed to improve matters when it missed the Ogres and the cannon
ball stuck fast into the ground! The Mortar (M) fired a shell at the Gnoblars
(GF) but it scattered backwards onto a Scraplauncher (SL1) causing a wound! The
second mortar (M2) hit the Slaughtermaster's unit of Ogre Bulls (OB2) directly
killing 2! Having been led by example the Crossbowmen (CB) also opened fire on
the unit killing another of their number and leaving one teetering on the edge
with a single wound! The Ogres panicked from this mass damage but were steadied
by the nearby presence of the army battle standard.
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| Ogre Turn 2 |
Ogre Turn 2
After the Empire's first turn I had no intention of staying
out of combat for long! Even with a botched magic roll and less than expected
shooting my one unit of Bulls (OB2) had been mauled. I immediately declared a
series of charges. The Gnoblars (GF) and Ogre Bulls (OB2) charged against the
Halberdiers who elected t hold. The other unit of Bulls (OB) declared a charge
against the Crossbowmen (CB) who declared a flee reaction and fled to the
safety of their general near the farmstead. The bull unit maintained their
discipline however thanks to the Battle Standard Bearer and redirected their
charge against a nearby Cannon (C2). The Ironguts and Tyrant accepted the bait
presented by the Archer Detachment (AD2) and charged into combat. An Ogre
Gorger
The Slaughtermaster threw six dice at Trollguts and
successfully cast it onto his unit giving them regenerate which would prove
vital in the coming combat. In contrast to this success the Scraplauncher (SL2)
misfired cataclysmically and charged a unit of Ogre Bulls (OB) killing one of
them before itself being removed from play! Hurumph! To add final insult to
injury the other Scraplauncher (SL1) also misfired and was unable to shoot for
this turn.The unengaged unit of Gnoblars (GF) tried to show them how it was
done and killed 2 thinlings in the Free Company Detachment (FC) by throwing
broken bottles and irate hedgehogs at them. Take that!
The all important combat phase started with the last wound
being taken off an Ogre Bull (OB2) in their fight against the
Halberdiers (H). More wounds were caused
by thanks to regenerate cast by the Slaughtermaster most of the damage was
glanced aside. In return between the Gnoblars (GF) and the Ogre Bulls (OB2) the
huge unit of Halberdiers was smashed losing the combat by a difference of 5.
They promptly failed their break test as the Gnoblars denied them their
steadfast. They were cut down by the pursuing Gnoblars leaving the Ogres to
stumble dumb footed just 1" away from the Level 2 Empire mage (WL2). The
fight between the Ogre Bulls (OB) and the cannon crew (C2) was a predictably
one sided affair with the latter falling to the impact hits of the charging monstrous infantry. They continued their surge forwards overrunning into the
nearby mortar (M).
The speed bump Archer Detachment (AD2) proved to be little
more than a pothole for the Tyrant and his Iron Gut bodyguards and was
dispatched by a mixture of Impact hits and the Tyrants many attacks. A huge hole had appeared in Sircyn's line
with the loss of both his warrior priest and battle standard amongst the large
block of halberdiers presenting real danger for the start of Empire turn 2!
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| Empire Turn 2 |
Empire Turn 2
The Swordsmen (S2) declared a charge against the
Scraplauncher and the contraption held firm hoping to do enough damage to their
reduced numbers to hold them for a charge in the flank by the Iron Guts in the
next Ogre turn. The Crossbowmen (CB) quickly rallied in the sight of their
fearless General and turned to face the adversaries once more. On the Empire
right flank the Swordsmen (S) failed their test to march thanks to the presence
of the nearby Gorger and lumbered forwards four inches through the wood. The
Archer Detachment (AD) moved out of the wood to intercept the Ogre and prevent
it from tying the block up in combat during later turns.
In the magic phase Throne of Vines was cast with irresistible force but as such caused a miscast. All wizards took 1 wound except for the
Arch Lector who managed to escape this thanks to his ward save. In later turns
we realised Throne of Vines meant miscasts are ignored on a roll of a 2+ but we
didn't realise this until much later in the game and Sircyn decided to let the
negative effects stand rather than backtrack. I am certain this is something he
will remember next time! Sircyn then attempted to cast Flesh to stone on
the Swordsmen (S2) unit in combat with the Scraplauncher (SL1) but the Ogre's
successfully dispelled this with all three dispel dice allotted to them. Using
the remaining power dice to good effect now the chance to dispel was gone the
Level 4 Life Wizard (L4L) cast Awaken Wood on the Gorger (G) causing 2 wounds in addition
to the wound already suffered from Burning Gaze from the Level 2 (WL2).
To put an end to the threat once and for all in the shooting
phase the Cannon (C) fired grapeshot at
the Gorger (G) leaving a even worse stench where a smelly Ogre had previously
been along with a puddle of putrid flesh and ichor. The Mortar (M2) opened fire
on the Gnoblars (GF) that had defeated the Halberdiers enacting vengeance by
inflicting massive casualties that destroyed half the unit. Amazingly despite
being out of range of both the battle standard and the General the plucky
little Gnoblars (GF) passed their panic test on their own humble leadership of
5! The Hellblaster volley gun pivoted towards the nearby threat presented by
the Slaughtermaster and his Ogre Bull Retinue (OB2) and opened fire with loud
thuds from its many chambers. The nearby engineer was astonished to see chunks
ripped from the Ogres that seemingly re-knitted and healed in an instant thanks
to the magic properties imbued by the Slaughtermaster scoffing down Troll Guts
the previous turn.
In combat the Scraplauncher (SL1) fought aggressively
against the Swordsmen (S2) killing three for no damage in return but losing out
to their static combat resolution. Even the meagre difference of -2 made a big
difference to its base leadership of 5 and the warmachine fled its swiftstride
taking it 10" away from the swordsmen
that had defeated it. Sircyn knew there was little chance of catching the
machine but merely wanted to move out of the charge range of the Ironguts (IG)
(who were closer than pictured above) but fluffed his roll on double 1 for
pursuit! Things were not looking good for those not wearing gut plates...
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| Ogre Turn 3 |
Ogre Turn 3
The start of Ogre turn three left me in a favourable
position but Sircyn still far from out of the fight. I agonised over my next
moves as there were many potential charge targets open to me. The Iron Guts
(IG) and the large unit of Bulls (OB) started the turn next to each other both
had the potential to charge the Swordsmen (S2) who had defeated the
Scraplauncher (SL1) the previous turn as the charge distance was 7-8 for both
of them. Granted these were average rolls but I've learned to never trust the
law of averages to help me out in a pinch! Alternatively the Bull unit (OB)
could charge against the Crossbowmen (CB) or the Arch Lector (AL). Both of these seemingly had their merits as
silencing the Crossbowmen (CB) would be easy whilst charging the AL (AL) would
deny it impact hits and the +1 on a charge so valuable to chariots (now even
more so under the 8th edition rules). On the downside the Crossbowmen (CB) were
worth less than the Arch Lector in victory points, but would continue to accost
me in later turns if I avoided them. To flip flop on the issue again the Arch
Lector is a tough cookie to crack and if he was buffed up perhaps the Bull unit
wouldn't have the necessary strength to put it down.
While deliberating over
all this I decided the Iron Guts should declare a charge first as their only
target would be the Swordsmen (S2) and there was always the danger that they
might just flee anyway if I charged with the other bull unit (OB). Sure enough
I declared the charge with the Iron Guts and the Swordsmen responded with a
"flee like girls" reaction as Sircyn put it leaving the Iron Guts
stumbling forward on a failed charge (but still towards the enemy at least).
This narrowed down my targets to the Arch Lector (AL) and the Crossbowmen (CB)
once more and just as I was about to declare against the Arch Lector I noticed
a wizardy looking fellow standing next to the Crossbowmen (CB)! Upon asking
Sircyn "Is your Level 4 in that unit?" and seeing the reluctant nod
from him in return my mind was made up, the bulls (OB) would charge the
Crossbowmen! Naturally the reaction was one of "flee like even bigger
girls" until the dice gods bestowed Sircyn with yet another double one for
his flee roll. I had a choice now, continue to chase them down or redirect into
the chariot now they were fleeing. In the end I decided the opportunity of
killing off his level 4 caster off was too good to miss and pursue I did! The
Ogre bulls would be having roasted wizard (CB) for dinner that night!
After the lengthy decisions in the charges section the rest
of my moves were relatively easy. The other set of Bulls reformed to face the
hellblaster and the flank of the swordsmen (S2) who had just fled whilst the
Gnoblars (GF) wheeled round to get a shot against the cannon with their sharp
stuff! The magic phase saw Troll Guts successfully cast onto the Ogre Bulls
(OB) with the butcher inflicting another wound on an Ogre in his unit with his
Gruts Sickle to ensure the spell went off.
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| Empire Turn 3 |
Empire Turn 3
Turn three for the Empire rolled round and things had gone
from bad to worse for the humans. To turn things around the Arch Lector charged
against the Iron Guts whilst the Swordsmen (S) declared a charge against the
horde of Gnoblars (GF2). Unfortunately even though the swordsmen only needed an
average charge roll they found themselves stumbling forwards on a depressing
roll of 5 on two dice. Sircyn declared a face-palm as fortune railed against
his plans to turn things around. This left the Swordsmen (S) placing themselves in the perfect position to receive a flank charge from the reformed
and buffed up Ogre Bulls (OB2) next turn.
The magic phase was less impressive for the Empire with the
loss of the Level 4 and all attempts to cast were blocked by the
Slaughtermaster's dispel attempts. To even things out the shooting phase awoke
to the thudding of a Hellblaster volley gun which inflicted a whopping 7 wounds
onto the Bulls (OB2) killing only one Ogre with 5 regen saves keeping the rest
of the Ogres alive! The remaining Cannon (C) ignored the Gnoblars (GF) nearby
to fire off a shot into the same unit of bulls (OB2) in the hope of bringing
down another Ogre but were denied when the to wound roll of a one suggested the
cannonball bounced off a gut plate! The mortar (M2) came to the rescue of the
cannon (C) landing a shot firmly on target and slaying yet more Gnoblars (GF).
The Archers Detachement (AD) followed suit bringing down more of the greenskins
and forcing a panic check. To everyone's surprise the stubborn little blighters
passed their leadership five check again! Hero Gnoblars!
In combat the Arch Lector (AL) issued a challenge to the
Tyrant who declined retiring to the back of his unit. This aggrieved the Ogre
General but he had faced this human before and knew he had a tricksy item that
would swap his statline in a challenge! With the declined challenge the chariot
hit for 6 out of its D6 impact hits wounding with four of them! The Arch Lector
struck next adding another wound followed by the slaves that drew his chariot
adding six wounds to the combat and felling two of the elite Iron Guts! The
Ironguts returned a symmetrical six wounds to the chariot but three of these
bounced off its magical armour. The Arch Lector (AL) had alone managed to win
the combat against the Ironguts (IG) by a difference of 2 and managed to force
the Tyrant to the back of the unit so they could not benefit from his
leadership! They would be testing on leadership 6! The battle standard was out
of range so much was riding on this result. If the Ironguts (IG) broke then the
Arch Lector (AL) would be free to assist his army and nearly 700 points of Ogre
would be wiped out in one foul swoop! Further more the Tyrant would be dead
leaving the Ogre's to fight the rest of the battle without his leadership! With
nerves enough to induce a heart attack I rolled the dice and promptly produced
snake eyes! Not only had I passed but I had passed automatically on insane
courage! One thing was now very certain, today was going to be my day!
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| Ogre Turn 4 |
Ogre Turn 4
The start of the Ogre turn four was now full of promise. The
Gnoblars (GF2) charged the Free Company Detachment (FC) whilst the Ogre Bulls
(OB2) slammed into the Hellblaster that had been blasting at them in previous
turns. The smaller heroic band of Gnoblar fighters (GF) charged against the
Cannon in the hope of silencing another dastardly warmachine!
In the magic phase the Slaughtermaster placed toothcracker
on the larger unit of Bulls (OB) granting them +1 toughness and stubborn along
with their regeneration buff from Troll guts that had been cast last turn.
There was no shooting for the Ogres this time and everything
came down to combat. The Gnoblars (GF2) resolved their fight first and easily
beat the detachment into the dust with a mixture of attacks and static
resolution. Enthusiastically the malicious little greenskins surged onwards
overrunning into the flank of the Swordsmen (S2) and preventing them from
assisting any fighting above. The Ogre bulls (OB2) smashed the Hellblaster volleygun
(HBV) aside with childlike displays of glee before overrunning into what looked
to be a very doomed Engineer.
The Gnoblars (GF) failed to wound the Cannon (C) but
suffered no damage in return! Surely they would see the warmachine off thanks
to their static res! To everyone's surprise Sircyn produced his third double
one of the game but this time in his favour when the Cannon (C) passed on
insane courage! The Arch Lector continued to output damage to the Iron Guts but
was knocked squarely off his pedestal (quite literally!) as his chariot was
ripped apart from under him in return! Despite this the Arch Lector stood firm
passing his break test!
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| Empire Turn 4 |
Empire Turn 4
Things looked grim for the Empire in turn four but Sircyn
fought on tooth and nail making me feel like complacency might give him a
glorious comeback! The Swordsmen (S)who were largely untouched slammed into the
Gnoblars (GF2) who were already engaged against the damaged Swordsmen (S2)
unit. The Archers detachment (AD) sort to end the feud with the other Gnoblar
unit (GF) by declaring and charge and rushed into base contact with them.
Further more the Arch Lector despite losing his chariot was determined to lay
down the hurt and dropped several buffs on himself for the coming fight. The
Empire seemed to be preparing for one last hurrah!
The coming fight was bloody and brutal. The horde of
Gnoblars further mauled the Swordsmen (S2) while the fresh charging Swordsmen
(S) thinned out the Gnoblar (GF) numbers. It was all too much for the little
greenskins as this isn't what they showed up for! They were promised shiny
things! Out of range of the general and testing on insane courage they fled a
mighty 7" and were sure to be cut down! Alas for Sircyn both units of
swordsmen (S), (S2) only rolled 6" for their pursuit roll and were left
exposing their rear to the Bulls (OB2) and the flank of the smaller swordmen
unit (S2) to the other large unit waiting in the wings for a combat to join
(OB). The Gnoblar fighters (GF) lost one of their number but in returned killed
the cannon (C) and an archer winning the combat and ensuring they stayed there for another turn.
The Arch Lector (AL) caused two wounds against the Iron Guts
(IG) felling another model. Miraculously he suffered only one wound in return
thanks to his ward and armour and once again refused to yield passing his
leadership test modified to leadership 8!
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| Ogre Final Turn |
Ogre Final Turn
Ogre turn 5 saw the Ogre Bulls (OB2) charge the Swordsmen
(S) in the rear while the other Bull unit (OB) hit the flank of the smaller
swordsmen block (S2).
In the magic phase the Slaughtermaster sought to increase
the abilities of his fellow Ogre Bulls further by scoffing down the heart of a
bull greedily on six dice! Energy rippled from his fingers and his comrades were
imbued with magical strength but at a price! The power of the spell was too
much for him to handle and he miscast! Rolling a 2 on the miscast table he
suffered D6 wounds but managed to avoid the damage thanks to his ward save.
However his brain was addled by the attack and any knowledge of casting spells
was wiped from his mind for the remainder of the game!
Behind him the scraplauncher (SL1) rallied (denying any
victory point loss right on the edge of the board!) and lobbed scrap at the
mortar M2 killing a crewman with killing blow whilst the Gnoblars (GF2)
continued to flee away from all the sounds of fighting which escalated behind
them!
In the combat phase the Ogres chose to resolve the fight
between the Bulls unit (OB) unit and the Swordsmen (S2) first as it gave them
the opportunity of overrun! The Ogres promptly smashed apart the depleted
swordsman unit killing everyone except the standard bearer. The brave standard
bearer fought to the death to defend his banner but was crushed under the mass
of muscle, fat and metal. Buoyed by their success and encouraged by sight of
their army banner the OB unit overran and smashed into the flank of the
remaining swordsman unit (S). The humans
were overwhelmed from charges to both their flank and rear and a mass of casualties rolled in from the magically enhanced Ogres. Their resolve broke
and they fled to the base of the Wizard Tower nearby with the Ogres lagging
just a few inches behind.
The Gnoblars (GF) fought on against the Archers detachment
(AD), the ranged humans striking first but failing to hurt the sneaky
nuisances. The Gnoblars replied by killing an archer and breaking them running
them down from the field for their third combat of the game! Clearly these
Gnoblars were made of sterner stuff! The Tyrant made a note to himself to keep
some of them in his personal retinue of luck gnoblars after the battle.
Lastly the fight raged on with the Arch Lector against the Iron
Guts. Once again the Lector challenged the Tyrant but knowing that his own
strength would be turned against him the Ogre general declined. The Lector
struck out his magical buffs still giving him the ability to bring down yet
another Ogre but the Iron Guts replied by smashing their great weapons into him
and causing three wounds. All eyes hovered over the re-rollable 6+ saves to
come. The first three dice clattered and produced no 6's. The lucky armour
granted the Lector another chance and thus the save was re-rolled, but still no
save came. Lastly the ward saves were
rolled and all produced a fail! The mighty Arch Lector had finally fallen!
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| Empire Final Turn |
Empire Final Turn
In the final Empire turn the swordsmen had rallied. The game
had already been conceded by my opponent but I thought I would add this final
turn as he exclaimed that he merely wanted to "Kill those damn
Gnoblars". And thus the remaining five Gnoblars (GF) suffered the boosted
version of the Burning Gaze spell but managed to escape by only taking one
wound! As a last act of defiance the mortar fired its heavy payload in their
direction but promptly misfired and destroyed itself earning the mighty Gnoblar
unit another kill to their name in the last gasp of the game!
Last Word:
The Ogres earned themselves a massacre! The only Ogre
victory points conceded came from the scraplauncher (SL2) which misfired and
destroyed itself taking an Ogre with it. To put this into context however this
was quite the opposite to how my Ogre army have performed against Sircyn and
his Empire army prior to the start of this blog! It is happy circumstance that
I get to start with their only victory out of five games as the four previous
encounters left me broken and beaten! There are a number of reasons for this
such as:
1. Magic- I have tweaked and prodded my list over the course
of the games but for this battle it appears I finally made the best decision.
By removing the extra butcher and only running with a Slaughtermaster my magic
phase was actually more powerful than before. This may seem counter intuitive but against this particular Empire army casting spells is very difficult.
Sircyn gets a healthy 3 dispel dice before even picking up what the winds of
magic deal out and therefore is usually only 1 or 2 dice behind you even on
good rolls. When spreading the power dice across 2 casters this gives his Level
4 wizard an even easier time of locking down your magic phase. By concentrating
on one wizard I could throw more dice at one spell and have a better chance of
actually successfully casting it.
2. More Bodies - Another advantage to dropping the extra
Butcher was I obtained access to more points to spend on troops. I also only
ran one Gorger in this list which allowed me to take five additional Ogre
bulls, 2 Iron Guts and almost double the size of my Gnoblar units.
3. Less is More - I took bigger blocks of Ogres rather than
more smaller ones and this seemed to pay off. Even when damaged they remained
formidable against the thinlings as they had the bodies to take their lumps. In
addition I had less units to cast buffs on and therefore it was easier to
concentrate my power dice upon them and derive a bigger benefit. This also
means there was less need for another caster (as multiple instances of the same
spell, within the same phase was not really required).
4. Gnoblars are king! - In fairness my Gnoblars really shone
for me today and well above and beyond the call of duty you would expect.
Granted they did their job of removing the enemies steadfast (in opening and
important fight against the Halberdiers) and added their ranks to the
proceedings but as well as this the GF unit passed a string of tests on their
own leadership of 5. Now that's what I call heroic!
5. Luck - Those who play me will know that normally I have
some pretty terrible luck rolling the dice. Granted as I have said before to an
extent you make your own luck and as things go from bad to worse you take more
risks and therefore it can seem as the dice are against you when they are not.
Never the less many consider Sircyn to normally be super charged by the Luck
God as he often promptly pulls unlikely odds out of the bag when he most needs
it. Today the tables seemed to be turned somewhat and he was having some pretty
terrible rolls when they could do him the most damage. (Read through the report
again and count the double 1's!)
6. Positioning - My deployment was good this game but the
same cannot be said for Sircyn. As someone I play plenty of games against I can
see this was him being off form and a tactical misjudgement on his part as he
started far too close to my lines allowing me that early charge. As mentioned
above a luck didn't help with a fluffed magic phase and mediocre shooting but
had he deployed further back he might have had an extra turn to mitigate this.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed today's game and it was
wonderful for the Ogres to finally exercise their revenge on the Empire! Apart
from that I had a blast using the Battle Chronicler to capture it and while I
don't think I got everything right I think the general gist is captured and is
hopefully an entertaining read! For my next battle I intend to take more time
in setting the board up (in Battle Chronicler) and carefully measuring the
movement so as to capture the fight more accurately.
