Warhammer Escalation League, Round 2 - Game 3

My Third and final game of the month was against Shaun and his Orcs and Goblins.


His list looked a little bit like this:

Black Orc Boss (Hero)
Goblin Shaman (Level 2)
20 Night Goblins with Spears, 3 Fanatics
20 Orcs with Spears
20 Orcs with 2 Hand Weapons
5 Snotling Bases
1 Boar Chariot
Goblin Doom Diver

The Goblin Shaman was not in a unit at the beginning of the game, the Black Orc was in the Unit with two hand weapons.

I won the roll to go first, so took the advanatages that I could.

Turn 1

I marched my 10 Man unit of Dwarf Warriors towards the enemy line in the hope of getting the fanatics in the open as early as possible.

The Longbeards and the Dwarf Lord moved along behind them. My two cannons shooting was a spectacular failure, with the one shooting at the DoomDiver overshooting, and the one shooting at the Black Orc undershooting and landing on 1 Goblin. I then preceded to roll a 1 to wound... good times.

In Shauns turn he moved all of his units forward except for the Doom Diver (obviously), his Shaman moved up along side his units, and the Snotlings moved directly towards my 10 man unit of Dwarves.

His Magic was no big problem, with a bit of extra movement on his Goblins which I let through and his foot of Gork which I dispelled.

The Doomdiver targeted one of my Cannons and missed dramatically.

Turn 2
This time I had a chance to test out the new charge of the Dwarfs... I declared one with my Warriors on the Snotlings, aware that the Night Goblins were exactly 8" behind the front of the Snotling bases... I really wanted those Fanatics out of the way early.

I made the charge after the Snotlings elected to stand and take it. 1 Fanatic fell short of reaching the Snotlings, the other two hit both units.

2D6, Strength 5, Armour Piercing wounds on each unit... this didnt go well. In the end Shaun lost 3 bases of Snotlings which wasnt an issue as they are Immune to Psycholgy, I also lost 9 out of 10 Dwarves, leaving just my Standard standing. He fortunately passed his panic check!

My Shooting phase was once again ineffective, with a shot at the Orc Warboss once again overshooting and the same on the Doomdiver.

In Combat the snotlings all missed their attacks against the Standard bearer. In response he hit them, but didnt wound them. This meant... I won combat by 2, 1 for the Standard and 1 for Charging. The Snotlings failed their test and broke, and I pursued them, catching them and wiping them out 2" in front of the Goblins.

In Shauns second turn the Goblins failed their Anomosity test, which meant both units of Orcs stuck behind them were unable to do anything else this turn. The Dwarf Standard bearer was at this point chomping on the bit to get at more greenskins.

His two fantics collided in front of my Longbeards killing each other, while the third spun towards his Boar Chariot.

Again the Magic and shooting where ineffective with only 3 Longbeards dying to a Foot of Gork I let through, to stop the Hand of Gork (if i get the names wrong I am sorry) from making the Goblins Charge.

His Doom Diver once again targetted one of my Cannons and missed again.
Turn 3:

My turn... and more movement from me Dwarfs (an unsual thing for me). The Longbeards moving up, and the lone Dwarf Standard declaring a Charge on the... Goblin Shaman who elected to flee rather than stand and take it. I didnt manage to catch him tho.

This time my Shooting again proved useless... one cannon misfiring and having to mis a turns shooting, the other once again failing to do anything.

In the Orc n Goblin turn 3, he charged his Warboss at the Dwarf Standard... I fled and he caught me (pretty sure it was a bad idea either way), but at least the Warboss was out of the unit.

The Shaman rallied before hitting the boardedge which was unfortunate.

His Night Goblins advanced on my Longbeards, while both units of Orcs and the Chariot moved towards my lone unit. The one remaining fantic kept spinning towards the Chariot.

In his Magic phase, I failed to stop his foot of Gork on my Cannon and it took 3 Wounds off me, while his hand of Gork got an irresistable and made the Goblins charge my Longbeards. The Goblin gained Frenzy and Stupidity as a result of the miscast.

Once again the Doom diver did nothing in the shooting phase.

In combat, the Night Goblins and Longbeards fought like wild animals such was their hatred. The end result... 13+ dead Night Goblins to no deaths for the Longbeards. They promptly fled to be chased down by the angry Dwarves!

Turn 4:

My Turn 4 rolled on (as it generally does). I declared a Charge against the Orc Spear unit with my Longbeards.

My shooting phase I had the Orc Warboss in my sights and managed to score a hit this time! My second attempt to roll a wound got me a... 1... again. So the warboss lived.

The Combat phase when the same way as the last one against the Goblins. Turns out that Longbeards are remarkably good at killing Orcs. Another massacre in Combat res left the orces needing a double 1 to pass which they failed.

At this point I had a decision to make. In my Zest and Orc killing rage I had left this unit between the Orc Boyz with two Hand Weapons, and the Chariot. No Way I could get them both in my Front. I had my free reform if I didnt pursue, so I had 3 Choices.

1. Pursue and hope I rolled more than 5" so I was out of both their Charge Arcs.
2. Reform to face one of them (the Orc Boys) in my Horde Formation.
3. Reform into a 5 wide formation for steadfast, well hopefuly steadfast.

I chose option 2, present my rear to the Chariot. I knew the Oathstone would help here, and was relatively confident either way as the last two combats had gone so well.

Shaun's turn 4, he delcared charges with the Chariot, Orcs and his Boss. I stood and took it, placing the Oathstone in the process.

His Magic phase was subdued as his Shaman was obviously being driven into a Frenzy of Stupidity or something. His shooting phase had a Misfire with the Doom Diver taking a wound from the failure and not being allowed to shoot next turn.

In Combat, his Chariot killed 5 Dwarves with its impact hits. The Dwarf Lord challenge the Orc Boss who accepted. The blow struck were tremendous, with the Lord taking a wound and the Black Orc dying under the blows he recieved... a small victory this round.

The rest of the combat went badly with me losing the combat by 8... then failing my leadership test and being run down by the chariot! A lot of points gone, and me being reduce to just two cannons now.

Turn 5:

With no movement left I knew I needed a mircale to slavage the game.

My shooting proved ok this time, with one cannon overshooting the oncoming boys and destroying the Chariot behind them. They failed their panic check and fled.

The other cannon once again did nothing of note, missing the Doom Diver.

The Orcs turn consisted in him Rallying his boys and preparing for another advance on me.

The Magic phase once again proved a bust for him, and his Doom Diver couldnt shoot this turn.

Turn 6:

My Cannons knew they couldnt be charged this turn.. however they still managed to do 0 damage.

In Shauns turn he managed to draw the game for me. If he had done nothing he had the win... however he decided that an Orc (or Goblin) wouldnt sit idly by when so close to victory.

His Shaman tried to cast foot of Grok on the Cannon with one wound remaming... he miscast, caused no wounds with the spell and had his Shamans head explode!

The Doom Diver then tried the same thing, misfired and destroyed itself.

In Summary:

As the dust settled and we counted the cost of the game it turned out Shaun had won by 95 points... 5 short of the required 100 to win the game?!!

The last turn swung it back to me, after my suicidal use of the Longbeards had thrown away the advantage.

My Unit of the Game has to be the Dwarf Warriors, running down the Snotlings got me their points back, and pulling the Fantics out away from my forces was crucial. The bonus that the caused the Shaman to flee was just pure awesome, and their unfortunate end at the hands of the Black Orc boss was less than ideal, but overall they did a damn good job against the odds.

Comments

RTGamer said…
That is just like the Orcs (and Goblin)... to mess things up on the last turn.

Anything you would change to your list?
Kraggi said…
I would have changed the Dwarf 10 man unit in hindsight.

However not sure what too as it endedup serving a purpose in two of the games, this one and the Dark Elves.

Will be more interesting when I start to figure out my 1250 point list for the next round. Have a few ideas what that 250 points is going on.

I take it my recounting of the game matched Shauns telling?