Game 3 – Warriors + Orcs and Goblins – Battle Line
(EDIT: I'm sorry, it looks like I left the main title the same of the previous battle. fixed now)
At the table our opponent were already waiting for us (My fault. Sometimes I cannot live without a coffe and a cigarette, even if I have already taken another dozen of them during the day) and in front of our eyes was diplayed what looked like a Troll Feast:
Warriors
Throgg
Everpresent Disc Sorcerer Lord, L4 (Metal)
Ogre Blade, Talisman of Preservation, Other Trickster Shard, Third Eye of Tzeentch, Chaos Familiar
10 Chaos Troll
Hellcannon
Orcs and Goblins
Goblin Warboss on giant wolf, shield, great weapon,
Armor of Destiny, Crown of Command
Goblin Big Boss on giant wolf, shield, great weapon,
Armor of Fortune, Obsidian Trinket
Night Goblin Shaman L1 (Little Whaaag!),
Dispel Scroll
20 Night Goblin, short bows,
3 Fanatics
3 x 5 Wolf Riders, shields, spears, musician, banner
6 Trolls
2 x Doom Divers Catapults
2 x Mangler Squigs
The thing we discussed the most about the last draft of our armies was whether or not we should have taken the Banner of Eternal Flame. My mate insisted we did not.
Good Khaine! This would have surely been bloody.
17 Trolls including Throgg! I had no clue about what we could do to stop this army. The Disc Sorcerer was a common pattern among any Warriors list present at the event bar ours. The King of the Trolls on the other hand was a scary news for us, since it meant all his Trolls could benefit from his Ld8 for Stupidity test even outside the Inspiring presence of the Sorcerer. And he alone packed 5 Str8 attacks and a Breath Weapon at Str5, no armour.
Those two blocks supported by highly mobile and board controlling units such as Mangler Squigs and Wolf Riders plus a powerful shooting phase were to be feared for sure.
Magic
Our Sorcerer: Searing Doom, Enchanted Blades, Scaled Skin, Final Transmutation
Their Sorcerer: Searing Doom, Enchanted Blades, Ghenna Golden Hounds, Transmuaton of Lead, Final Transmutation
Night Shaman Vindicative Glare
Once again the superior spell selection granted by the Chaos Familiar was important, since their caster had all the tools to deal with our Warriors and Peg Masters.
This time tough, our Metal Spells were completely useless. Trolls are immune to Searing Doom and even Final Transmutation can take out maybe one with a lucky roll per turn. Not very reliable.
Lastly, their Shaman added a nasty spell with an annoying lore attribute. Vindicative Glare is a 2D6 Str 3 magic missile, boostable for 3D6, which against elven light troops or RBTs can turn out to be pretty dangerous. The lore attribute substantially steals dispel dice.
Deployment and Vanguard
The match was a normal Battle Line scenario for the last game.
There was an high dangerous cliff with a plateau on top in the left-bottom corner, from which started a river flowing through the table on the left flank and crossed by a bridge. Two big hills in the opposite corners and two smaller ones somewhat central, with two forest in the middle of the table and a big ruin on the right were the other terrains.
We had to pick the side and chose the one with the cliff with the intention to place RBTs up there.
Deployment started with fast cavs from both sides, but before deploying Warlocks we committed the Warriors block on the left, near the cliff baiting RBTs up there.
They then decided to deploy both units of Troll on the opposite side.
At this point we had just Dark Riders on that flank and we clustered anything else on other side, leaving Trolls in front of nothing, bar 4 RBTs awaiting for them marching in the open.
They ended with war machines in the backfield and Mangler Squigs to protect them and we placed Chosen to intercept troll first and Warlocks to run toward their backlines.
Their characters were deployed curiously.
The Wolf Bosses went in a Troll unit Each, Throgg sat between Goblin Trolls (It makes sens, since the Chaos ones are Ld8 already) and just the Night Shaman stayed in the expected unit.
For fear of Doom Divers and lucky Hellcannon blasts we decided to hide Peg Masters in Warriors once again.
We won theroll for Vanguard and my central unit of Warlocks jumped ahead to limit their central Wolf Riders movement, who just shifted to the side. Our other warlocks crossed the River with the Vanguard move to be able to march afterward and he decided not to move any of the other Wolves units. Then I just redeployed all my Dark Riders closer to the main block, leaving a big empty area on all my right flank.
In this last match we didn’t rolled any double 6 on the Eye of the God and all the three units ended with +1 Attack each.
Our opponents had the +1 to start and proceded in rolling a 6, so theirs was the first turn.
Trolls Herd Turn 1
The central Squig (from which I payed attention to stop at 15”) rolled a whoomping 18 for its movement and run through my Doomfire Warlocks, for just one rider killed. The other one, instead, manage to move something like 7”.
The two Trolls block rushed forward towards the centre, followed short behind by Night Goblins.
All the Wolf started to gather behind his main blocks and the Sorcerer Lord decided to go chasing RBTs, but he stopped quite far from them, hiding to avoid 4 free shots on him.
The Vindicative Glare from the Night Goblin resulted in a deadly spell for my Dark Riders, while the Disc Sorcerer couldn’t find any suitable target.
Under enemy shooting a single Warlock remained on the saddle and he was ready to be sacrified for the greater good.
Hellcannon, aiming te Shrine, hit the closest unit of Chosen leaving just the champion standing here too.
Dark Force Turn 1
The lone elf jumped onto the Mangler Squig and died to make it explode, but at least there was one less thing to worry about.
Everithing else started to take position to receive the incomingTrolls, so they started to close up on the left flank, while our light Riders went to delay them with some quick manouver. Even the leftmost Warlocks were called back.
Approaching the Trolls, I placed my Dark Riders 8” from Night Goblins with the forest or his unit between us. The three Fanatics were released on the left, towards the bridge.
Magic once again achieved nothing, bar maybe a +1 to hit on the nearest full strength unit of Dark Riders (I honestly can’t remember and my notes are empty).
Finally the shooting phase came. I focused 30 RXB darts hitting on 5+ and 24 RBT bolts hitting on 3+ all onto the Chaos Troll, for the unbelievable amount of... 1 wound!
Thankfully my mate and I decided that each one of us would have rolled his own dice for his own troops, otherwise this would have been exactly one of those situations in which he starts to curse, throw templates and shout insults in the face of his opponents. This way, all he did after this exceptional exploit of luck on my part was just saying: “Ste, you really suck at dice.”
Thankfully again, it’s something I already know.
In fact I did not expect to decimate the Troll unit, even if a couple of dead bodies were expected. Next time I’ll be sure to have some sort of flaming attacks both for shooting and for close combat.
Trolls Herd Turn 2
Trolls were blocked by the double flee performed by Dark Riders, while their Chaotic cousins redirected the charg from my last unit of Dark Riders to the Chosen nearby.
The Disc Sorcerer Charged the first RBT.
Wolf Riders gathered behind his lines and the Mangler Squig proceeded in his slow advance onto the bridge.
In the magic Phase we stopped Enchanted Blades on Chaos Troll since we wanted to charge them next trun and they got Vindicative Glare on Warlocks, for a single wound.
Here I marked my Dark Riders as dead, but I honestly can’t recall if they fled the table next turn or went down to Doom Divers and Hellcannon. Since I didn’t write down anything else, I guess the latter soultion is the most probable.
Chosen were predictably killed to the last man, but at least they took down two Trolls after the Goblin General refused the challenge.
Disc Lord, instead, fluffed all his attacks and killed a single crew elf, just to remain stuck on the RBT.
Dark Force Turn 2
Our alliance started to whittle as we turned out to be “suspect” allies.
The leftmost unit of Chosen failed its frenzy check and had to declare a charge against regular Trolls, so we charged with the lone Chosen too. Obviously only the one alone made it (6+ to roll for the unit).
My BSB spot a decent chance and decided to charge the flank of the Choas Troll unit, considering on that flank there was the Goblin General too, forced to remain “outside” the unit because of different base sizes.
The fast cavs, in the meanwile, moved to delay Trolls for another turn.
(It’s possible we advanced with Warriors and Shrine too, because in next turns they look quite too far for the charges we made)
With the magic phase I drew some dice with an Enchanted Blades onto my Peg BSB just to place a Soulblight onto Chaos Troll with which they were ok, since the Vomit attack is not affected.
This time two RBTs teamed up with 5 Dark Riders and managed to make Night Goblin flee, crossing a unit of Wolf Riders and panicking them too. The last one, instead, had a flank shot on another Wolf unit and pierced them all, deleting the unit outright.
Comabt went as expected, with my BSB slaying the Goblin General with no harm back, even from Trolls vomit attacks, and winning the combat with ease. Trolls were still steadfast, but Ld8 can be failed outside BSB range, so they fled.
Needless to say, I failed miserably the pursuit.
Disc Lord killed the second elf attending the war machine, but at this point our opponents were pretty let down by my BSB killing their General and started complaining about their luck and whining about their dice rolls (actually, if luck would have been even, at that point I could have charged a unit of 3 or 4 Trolls after 54 shots and 21 Str5 atttacks from Chosen).
What’s worst, once they realized their forces were split up and surrounded they started a bad display of slow play to limit our unavoidable advance from here on.
Trolls Herd Turn 3
After a lot of thinking, to get out from the thorny situation Throgg charged out of his unit into the bigger Dark Riders unit, while the Disc Sorcerer, being too far from my Peg BSB, went for the second RBT.
Chaos Trolls failed to rally, as well as Night Goblins, Wolf Riders failed animosity and stumbled forwards few inches, while the Fanatics decided to go mad. One dived into the river, another strangled himself and the third decided to stop at the beginning of the bridge, effectively obstructing the passage for the Mangler Squig, who went back near Doom Divers. Regular Trolls simply moved back.
Magic and Shooting did nothing, because of a low magic phase, a Doom Diver misfiring and the Hellcannon scattering onto the Warriors and activating the Blasted Standard. And many more complaining came from our opponents who started to evaluate the chance of hitting, wounding and saving of any of their decision.
Combats ened as expected, with Disc Lord killing RBT in one single blow this time but being unable to overrun because of Chaos Trolls and Throgg vaporized Dark Riders with the help of his Breath Attack.
Now they were left with a hard decision: they had a 10” overrun into my BSB flank, but this would have left him alone in the open. I could have charged him with the other Peg Master and Warlocks if the BSB held or else I could have placed 2 bolt thrower shots hitting on 3 and wounding on 3, as well as a Doombolt from Warlocks. In the end they opted to leave him there where he stood to have some cover from shooting and limit the charge possibilities.
Dark Force Turn 3
This turn we shifted our alliance to untrusty, so I had to move my Cloak Master out of the Warriors unit and the best choice was to charge Throgg. They did not considered that two single models can be in charge even when touching just corner to corner, so the Peg Master could actually hit the Troll King. Chosen failed Frenzy once again (how bad I wanted a BSB for them the whole tournament!) and tried to leap onto Trolls, failing the charge. My BSB flew towards the Hellcannon and the other units moved around Trolls, with a Dark Rider falling into the woods.
Soulblight on Throgg was dispelled, Enchanted blades on the Cloak Master too, so I just put a Glittering Robe onto Dark Riders.
All the shooting could take down a single Troll (We should have targetted the Disc Sorcerer probably, but we were being very annoyed by our opponents behaving and tiredness was starting to step in too).
Throgg failed all his 3 Regen saves and went down in a rumble and the Peg Master overrun few inches, enough to get out of Troll’s charge arc.
At this point TO asked to pair the turns and our opponents were more than happy to end the match right there (we were almost even in points since they actually lost only Trogg, their general and a couple of Wolf Rider units), but fortunately we were told we must end at least 4 complete turns.
Trolls Herd Turn 4
To limit damage and gather some late points, the Disc Sorcerer charged Warlocks, who fled forcing him into a failed charge and Wolf Riders charged the flank of Dark Riders to block a possible multiple charge on his Trolls in the last trun.
Chaos Trolls failed to rally (now at Ld2) and fled the table (I forgot to remove the unit from the diagram), while Night Goblins rallied. Trolls moved further back and the BSB Boss rode alone behind our Warriors.
In the magic phase they IF a three diced Transmutation of lead on the nearest RBT, wounding the Night Goblin Shaman and then failed to cast a three diced Final Transmutation on Warriors after loosing 2 dice.
Doom Divers temed up to kill Warlocks but just one elf was saddled. The Hellcannon, instead, had a last moment of glory landing a perfect hit on the Shrine and splintering it for good.
Wolf Riders failed their fear test and managed nothing on the 2+ Dark Riders, but lost a rider from the sigle Druchii attack instead. Dark Riders held on Ld8.
Dark Force Turn 4
Both Masters charged the Hellcannon and Chosen went in support of Dark Riders against Wolf Riders.
Warlocks and Warriors moved to have the Disc Sorc in range.
A good magic phase made the split dice a non-issue since we had 5 dice to cast a boosted Searing Doom on the Lord which was dispelled and other 5 dice to try a Doombolt on him once they had no dice left, but we forgot the Night Goblin Shaman rallied, so it was simply scrolled.
The two RBTs also fired at him and both hit, both wounded and he saved only one of the two shots, but we rolled just two multiple wound. So close!
Again, with hindsight we could have focused magic and shooting onto the Goblin BSB for some last granted points.
Chosen did a short job of the Goblin Riders, as well as Peg Masters did with the demonic monster, who went down just with the riders attacks.
So the match ended there.
After match thoughts
That last turn earned us important 600 VPs for a 14-6 result (basically we were looking for a draw with Chaos Trolls and Hellcannon on the table), but from there on we could have fed RBTs to the Disc Sorcerer while Peg Masters would have cleared their backfield and Chosen along Warriors would have cut through Trolls in the last two turns for a even bigger win.
I have to admit I was surprised to lear how little we achieved before the last turn and how many points we gave them for free, especially if we consider that we had the control of the match since turn 2, when they split their two main blocks.
Probably it’s because Goblin units are so cheap and they had perfect ways to preserve points in the form of the Disc Sorcerer (450+ VPs) and the two Trolls block (almost 800 VPs including Throgg).
They’re all extremely hard to tackle and really dangerous to approach with unwarded units (I’d send Phoenix Guards against Trolls anyday, as well as flaming Sister of the Thorn on a flank).
It was also really interestiong the Goblin characters deployment since without template weapons we had no means to touch them before munching through lots of Troll flesh.
Their biggest mistake, in fact, was exactly to leave their General on the wrong side of the Chaos Trolls unit, reachable by my Master attacks. Once that unit was routed away from his lines all they could do was to limit the damage.
Another mistake IMO was to send the Disc Sorcerer on war machines hunter duties. That Character is extremely powerful and incredibly resiliant. If they kept him short behind their block I couldn’t have charged my Masters out so carelessly and they could have threatened all our central units, even if just pushing our fast cavs out of the table after some flee.
On our part we took some risks with the Peg Masters charges, but the prize for the price was high enough to give them a try (in all, they alone gathered 800+ VPs), after all we needed a good win in this last match to hope for a good placement.