Ogre Battle Report

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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...

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.