Pre-game
So this was a game against Marcin from the new gaming club I joined, he played ogre kingdoms and was also trying stuff out for London’s Burning. My list was the same as the previous report thread and his list follows here:
Skrag the Slaughterer
Slaughtermaster – level 4 beast, 4+ ward
BSB – unknown
11 Ogres – full command
6 Ogres – full command
10 gnoblars
10 gnoblars
6 Man Eaters – Brace of pistols, poison, stubborn
3x1 thundertusk (EDIT: These are sabretusks!)
2 Iron Blasters
For spells we had:
Skrag: bonecrusher 2d6 S2 magic missile, bubble toughness, bubble regen, stubborn spell
Slaughtermaster: Flock of doom, curse of anreheir, wyssan, think the last one was a character boost
Druid: wyssan (from flock), pans pelt, amber spear and curse (rolling 1,2,3,4 is not what I want in this list!)
Diviner: Comet, chain lightning, harmonic convergence, blizzard
Deployment
From left to right we have a swamp that counts as dangerous terrain, an impassible statue, my venom thicket, a normal forest and a huge building.
I basically had no idea where his main stuff would go, so I deployed centrally with the EG with wild riders on each side. I decided to put the GG on the left, as they had better line of sight there.
My scouts were deployed to shoot some man eaters and the waywatchers to threaten his iron blasters and chaff. WR1 vanguards left to add some protection to the glade guard and WR2 just vanguards up a bit.
I had the +1 to go first and took the first turn.
Wood Elves Turn 1
Movement: Wild riders and eternal guards move up towards his main units. One group of waywatchers move so that they can see his one iron blaster. The back scouts are on a hill, so both can see.
Magic: 6v4 – I think he dispels curse on the big unit and then lets a comet through (marked by blue).
Shooting: All glade guard and scouts do 9 wounds to the man-eaters,but he manages to roll 7 sixes for armour saves needing sixes. One unit of waywatchers manage a measly 1 wound on the gnobblars, was hoping to panic them away. The other waywatchers put a single wound on his iron blaster.
Ogres Turn 1
Movement: Everything moves up full speed, except a gnoblar unit that wishes to shoot. A thundertusk blocks the wild riders from charging the big ogre unit in the flank. Skrag takes a wound from dangerous terrain.
Magic: 9v5 – The comet gets another counter. He curses WR1 with 3 dice, I let it go as I plan to wait one turn before charging anyway. He casts flock of doom on GG1 with 3 dice, I let him have it but probably should have dispelled it. 3 die, but I pass the panic. He then cast bubble toughess, rolls 3 sixes and does a little explosion. Skrag takes a wound, but heals the wound from dangerous terrain.
Shooting: Man eaters kill 5 glade guard, I now realize that the heavens mage is left without a look-out-sir. One iron blaster misses, but the other one hits the mage but luckily does only 2 wounds. Gnobblars fail to shoot waywatchers.
Wood Elves Turn 2
Movement: WR1 decides to charge the man-eaters without my contempt, losing 2 to dangerous terrain. WR2 charges the gnoblars. Eternal guard move into charge range of the big unit, they feel sad that the wild riders charged before they were ready. The heavens mage hurry to move into GG2!
Magic: 5v3 – The comet gets another counter. He dispels blizzard on the man-eaters with all his dice and I fail to cast curse on the big unit as I roll double 1. I do get harmonic convergence on the waywatchers with my last dice though. Maybe I should have gone for another comet at this point?
Shooting: The glade guard and scouts do some wounds to the big bunker. Waywatchers take off a thundertusk and do some wounds to the ogres behind. I left those ogres with a flank charge to my EG, but they needed 9 or 10 to reach them.
Combat: The wild riders do a bunch of wounds to the man-eaters but take 4 in return, I save 2 so that two wild riders remain. The ogres pass their steadfast break test. The other wild riders easily destroy the gnobblars and overrun.
Ogres Turn 2
Movement: The big unit charges the two wild riders in the flank. The small ogres roll double six for their charge into the eternal guard… great. A thundertusk moves in front of the wild riders, not really sure why.
Magic: 11+1v6 – Comet gets yet another counter. He uses 3 dice on curse of anreheir on my EG, I let it go as I have rerolls against the ogres anyway. He uses another 3 dice on bubble toughness, I let it go as that battle is lost already and all my archers have poison. Finally he casts wyssan on the small unit of ogres, this one I dispel.
Shooting: Iron blaster 1 misfires and cannot shoot next turn. The other iron blaster hits all wild riders, but I pass a single ward save. Gnobblars fail to shoot waywatchers.
Combat: The big combat goes as expected, wild riders do a wound or two to the man-eaters and are destroyed. The big unit reforms to face the eternal guard. In the combat between ogres and eternal guard he rolls 9 impact hits, but at least only does 5 wounds. After I strike at him there are 3 ogres alive, he puts 9 attacks on my BSB and they all miss or fail to wound! He also puts 4 attacks on the unit and kill a few eternal guard. I think I win combat, but due to his reform in the earlier combat he is within general and BSB so he passes. I reform to face him.
Wood Elves Turn 3 aka The Turn of Big Explosions
Movement: I charge the lone wild rider into the thundertusk. The two glade guard march up to block his big unit, buying some time for the eternal guard. The heavens mage and his unit back away, so that he cannot overrun into them if he charges the other glade guard.
Magic: 12v6+1 The mighty comet finally strikes, and I roll 9 for the radius of impact. At strength 8 it destroy the man-eater unit and does 9 wounds to the big ogre unit. I use 3 dice to cast wyssan on my eternal guard and he fails to dispel it or let it go. I use two dice for harmonic convergence on the glade guard which he lets go. I then use 3 dice to curse his big unit, but they come up as 3 sixes. A dimensional cascade occur, killing all but 4 eternal guard and sucking my beast mage into the void. Drat.
Shooting: I put 3 more wounds on his iron blaster with waywatchers, and do some wounds on his big unit with poison.
Combat: The wild rider hits the thundertusk 3 times, but only manages 1 wound. The deer also fails to wound it and the dog kills the wild rider! What a disgrace! In the EG combat he challenges, I accept with a shadowdancer and destroy the rest of the unit. The reform is a bit tricky though, as I cannot allow to give my flank to his iron blasters. In the end I point them towards his big unit, so I am facing him in case he charges with skrag out of the unit.
Ogres Turn 3
Movement: He charges the 2 GG, and also charges the waywatchers in the rear with gnobblars. One thundertusk moves up to block the eternal guard and the remaining units just move closer to me.
Magic: 10+1v6 – I dispel curse on my eternal guard and the rest of his power dice are used to buff his main unit to amazing heights.
Shooting: He takes aim at my BSB with his one iron blaster that can still shoot, luckily he misses.
Combat: The two glade guard are destroyed, he reforms to face my eternal guard. The waywatchers only do 3 wounds to his gnoblars, and actually lose combat by 1 (banner I think). However, they are stubborn in the woods and I reform to be 7 wide as I should have done earlier if I hadn’t been too lazy.
Wood Elves Turn 4
Movement: A shadowdancer jumps out to block his big unit and the BSB jumps out to join the waywatchers. Though it is not clear on this diagram, the iron blaster could not charge the blocking shadowdancer. The last shadowdancer is stuck in the unit because of the dog, and the whole unit moves backwards. The heavens mage also back away, in case things get hairy later on.
Magic: 4v2 – I cast convergence on the waywatchers that are out of combat but fail to cast blizzard on the left ironblaster.
Shooting: Waywatchers kill the right iron blaster and scouts do a wound to the other one.
Combat: The waywatchers wipe the floor with the gnobblars in the forest and reform to face the battle.
Ogres Turn 4
Movement: My blocking shadow dancer drinks his potion of strength, come get some! His big unit is so intimidated by this that they swift reforms into a single line and moves a bit down. Both dogs move forward and so does the iron blaster.
Magic: 6v4 – he casts bone crusher on the waywatchers with the BSB, I let it go. He only gets 3 hits but does 2 wounds, both are saved due to MR3. He uses his last 3 dice on flock of doom on the glade guard with the mage, gets IF and scores 10 hits which does 5 wounds! Luckily just enough for a look-out-sir. The miscast deals a strength 6 to all mages.
Shooting: The iron blaster decides to do a grapeshot on the lone wardancer. With 8 shots hitting on 7+ he gets 4 hits and 3 wounds, but I save 2 of them on my 6+ ward! Crazy crazy.
Wood Elves Turn 5
Movement: I am not really sure how to save my heavens mage at this point. I decide to make a run for it and hope that I can down his iron blaster this turn. I was afraid that he would charge with his slaughtermaster, as I was quite close to him. Waywatchers move into position. EG runs away as fast as they can!
Magic: 9v5 – I use 2 dice on harmonic conversion on waywatchers, he fails to dispel. I then fail to cast comet, but really should have cast blizzard on the iron blaster! Stupid mistake.
Shooting: Only manage two wounds on the iron blaster, 2 to go. Uh oh.
Ogres Turn 5
Movement: He swift reform again and moves closer to me. The dogs move up, one takes a wound in my venom forest.
Magic: 9v5 – He casts bonecrusher against my mage but I dispel it with dice. He then cast flock of doom at the mage, but I dispel it with my scroll.
Shooting: The iron blaster kills my mage, boohoo.
Wood Elves Turn 6
Movement: The lone shadow dancer makes sure to get out of charge arc of the iron blaster, I don’t march as a dangerous terrain test could kill him. The eternal guard continue to run, but the shadow dancer leaves them to taunt a thundertusk into attacking him.
Shooting: The waywatchers only manage a single wound, but at least the scouts manage to finish of the blasted iron blaster.
Ogres Turn 6
Movement: Both dogs charge my remaining glade guard, I stand as I would rather run from the block (diagram is a bit off, but that made the most sense). Both of them sadly pass their dangerous terrain test, they are both at 1 wound remaining.
Magic: 8v5 – he 4 dices bonecrusher on the eternal guard but rolls really low, so I take the chance to dispel it. The last four dice end up with flock of doom on the eternal guard, but only one eternal guard die. Even pass their panic.
Combat: I manage to kill a dog with my single glade guard attack, in return he fails to kill anything. He still wins by 1, I flee but he doesn’t catch me.
Post-game
Phew, what a game. So many crazy things went on, we rolled so many sixes and ones that it was beyond belief. In the end he had 152 victory points more than me, so a slight victory at 11-9 to him.
I felt that my list did really well, considering that I lost a unit of wild riders on a suicide charge and my whole EG block plus my mage to a miscast. Sadly the earthing rod would take her 5 points over her magic item allowance, and the risk of dying in close combat is higher than dimensional cascade in my opinion. However, I must remember to use that power stone from now on! Also, the disgraceful wild rider dying to a dog. I did have some good luck at other times though, namely the heavens mage surviving a cannonball and the BSB avoiding a cannonball in the first place.
Again the small size of the glade guard unit turned into a bit of a problem, so I am again tempted to merge them into a bigger unit. I will probably try that for my next fight and see how it goes.
Had I been able to get my wild riders and eternal guard into his big bunker, then I am convinced that I had a real good chance of breaking him (especially with a few -1 to hit spells). Since he had 2 iron blasters I knew he didn’t have the crown. Ah well, as it was I couldn’t really touch his bunker and had to kill everything else.
All in all it was a very enjoyable game and I hope that you enjoyed reading it as well. Next weekend will be dedicated to my dear wife, so it will be a couple of weeks before I can get another game in. Thank you for reading and commenting!
