Sunday, August 26, 2012

Norse vs. Skaven with Storm of Magic

On Tuesday, I pitted a 3000 point Norse army against Iraf's Skaven.  We played a standard battleline with Storm of Magic added in.  Iraf decided to use his extra points for a pact with the Vampire Counts, and I used mine for a couple wizards, some sabretusks, and a windcatcher prism that never got used.  For some reason, the Norse and Skaven found themselves battling it out in the jungles of Lustria!


To start off the game, the Terrorgheist flew forward to try and scream the Truthsayer off of his arcane fulcrum.  The attempt failed, and the Terrorgheist found him self surrounded by Valkyries, Berserkers, and Sabretusks.  All of my units also had +1 strength and toughness since I got off a sweet cataclysm spell.  Things were not going so well on the other side of the board for me though.  A skitterleaping warplock engineer blew up 14 of my marauders, and the Doomwheel weas heading my way.

With the Terrorgheist dead, my assaulting units were left in a bit of disarray, and the Sabretusks found themselves being slaughtered by a vampire and his small host of zombies.  My Ice Drake in the back on the picture to the left is hunting down a Warp Lightning Cannon.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, the Doomwheel creeps closer to my Zoat on fulcrum and other Valkyrie unit, and the Vargheists have charged into those Valkyries in a frenzy.

In a following turn, Iraf has started to get some cataclysm spells of his own off, summoning a pestilent swamp underneath my Ice Drake which could kill it with one failed toughness test when attempting to move.  Thankfully my Vitki was able to move the enchanted swamp under the plague monk unit with a cataclysm shadow spell, killing many of the monks but not the plague furnace as it moved out of it and towards the core Norse forces.


By this time, my core units which had been whittled down were revived back to full strength by a storm of renewal delivered by Zoat.  The core Skaven units were showing significant damage from the pestilent swamp, and some over-indulgence in Skaven brew by the Stormvermin.  Things were looking pretty good for the Norse, and this would have been a good point to charge forward.  Close by in the next turn though, the Doomwheel closed on the Valkyries who had finished off the Vargheists, and a unit of gutter runners entered the table right next to my Zoat on fulcrum.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, the vampire made is way to the fulcrum with the near dead Truthsayer on it and finished him off.  In a very short time, I found myself with no arcane fulcrums controlled, suffering from some serious magic deficiency.  Zoat was unbound and turned into a raging lunatic.  Iraf also summoned a Chaos Giant into the middle of the battlefield.


I used a small unit with my king in it to wipe some slaves out of my way which unfortunately left me in a bad position.  Because of this, I fled from a charge, planning to regroup and be in a better position.  The tide of battle decided to leave me like the tide of magic at that point though as another of my units decided to run of the board after being fled through.  Suddenly, the battle was lost, and the Skaven claimed victory.

Storm of Magic games are really fun.  Especially when you don't worry about keeping track of every spell you can cast, and just try to do cool stuff.  Even though my Norse lost... again (that's the one thing they seem to be good at so far), it was an epic and enjoyable battle.  And hey, since I was winning for the first half, in a way, I could call it a tie, right?

The Norse Fail List:
  • King, 4+ Ward, Axe of impact hits every combat round
  • Vitki, Level 4 Shadow, Poisonous Herbs, Breath Weapon Buckle.
  • Skald BSB
  • Another Skald
  • Jarl on Fenrir Wolf
  • Seer Level 1 Fire Magic
  • 28 Huscarl
  • 40 Marauders with Great Weapon
  • 30 Marauders with xtra hand weapon
  • 30 Bondsmen
  • 10 Berserkers
  • Ice Drake
  • 3 Valkyries
  • 3 more Valkyries
  • Truthsayer
  • Zoat
  • 5 Sabretusks

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Orc and Goblin Game 3
Versus Josh Cal and his Lannister Empire

Up until now, I have only played Paul with my Orc and Goblin force.   Then our friend Josh messaged me on Facebook and offered to play me up in Portland at Guardian Games.  Josh has an Empire army based on the Lannisters from the Game of Thrones.   He is also a co-host on the Deployment Zone, a podcast by some of our warhammer buddies.

Anyways, I tweaked my list up a bit as I wanted to try some new things.

 
Unit Name                                Equipment                                                                                     Points
25 gobbos                                  Shortbows, shield, 3x skulkers, full command                                      160
25 Orc Boys                               Extra hand weapons, Full Command                                                   210
20 Orc Boys                                                                                                                                         155
Spear Chukka                                                                                                                                         35
Spear Chukka                                                                                                                                         35
Spear Chukka                                                                                                                                         35
Rock Lobba                                                                                                                                            85
Doom Diver                                                                                                                                            80
Giant                                                                                                                                                     200
Black Orc Warboss                     Armor of Destiny, Sword of Anti-Heroes, Other Tricksters Shard, 
                                                   Dragonbane Gem, Boar, Shield                                                           287
Savage Orc Great Shaman           Level 4, Skull Wand, Power Stone                                                     300
Goblin Big Boss:                          BSB, Spider Banner,Light Armor, Shield                                            149
Night Goblin Shaman:                  Level 2, Feedback Scroll                                                                   135
Goblin Chariot                                                                                                                                        50
16 Black Orcs                             Full Command, Standard of Discipline                                                242
17 Savage Orcs Big'Uns              Full Command, additional hand weapons, big stabba, Big'Uns             242
                Total:                                                                                                                                 2400



Josh brought his Empire Force with large units of state troops, a couple cannons, and a hellblaster. He also had a war alter and a hurricanum.   His army was loaded up with characters ranging from an arch lector, witch hunter, and level 4 metal wizard.  He had a small unit of 5 Reiksguard, a small unit of 5 pistoliers, and a couple units of 5 detachments for his empire troops.   The one unit I was the most wary of was his large horde of 40 halberdiers.   This was the focal point of his army and hid his bsb, witch hunter, and warrior priest.  I knew I didn't have enough models in any one unit to go toe to toe with it, so figured I would have to dish out a ton of damage to it to even have a chance against it.
We played a battle line with him getting the first turn.  Not what I was hoping for as I really wanted to strike first against him.   He took a few pot shots at me with his artillery and did a few wounds.  I managed to dispel most of what was thrown at me and we moved to my turn.

I decided to sit back and shoot a bit so didn't move any of my models forward.  My magic phase saw me successfully getting off a powered up Foot of Gork.  I hit his War Altar but now as I am typing this realized I played the spell incorrectly.  We rolled d6 for number of hits rather than total under the template.   Fortunately I only did a few wounds to it, but didn't kill it.  I stomped it again, and then accidentally stomped my savage orc unit, losing 8 models. 
Shooting phase was slightly better, when one of my bolt throwers hit a detachment of 5 troops in the flank, taking them all out.  Most effective goblin shot ever!   One of the others missed and the third misfired.   My doom diver took out a full unit of Reiksguard knights.  But that was followed by my rocklobba blowing itself up.   My goblin archers took cover in a building, but failed to do a wound to his pistoliers.  That ended turn one.   
Turn two saw the death of my doom diver to a pistolier charge, my two functioning boltthrowers getting shot up by cannons, and half a unit of orcs turning to gold.   Not much happened on my side of things but positioning.   
The next couple turns things got interesting.  My giant got teleported into the middle of his army, I charged his huge unit of Halberds with the large unit of orcs and my savage orcs, and saw my last remaining boltthrower get killed by the war alter, which then went on to beat up my level 2 night goblin shaman.   I won the halberdier combat, but  he managed to just make his leadership roll so we were stuck in.   My giant charged his hurricanum, my black orcs failed a charge, and he got a big unit of swordsmen into the halberdier combat, along with the war alter.   Some memories are getting muddled here as to what happened when.  I do remember getting crushed in the halberdier combat, fleeing and losing the unit of orcs, but escaping with a few savage orcs and my shaman, though they were too few to rally.  
My final turn saw the giant win combat against a small detachment of troops, a large unit of swordsmen, and the hurricanum, all of which fled.   I decided to chase the swordsmen for more victory points, but managed to roll snake eyes versus his roll of 5.   My goblins fared better that turn taking out the hellblaster with 4 poisoned arrows.       

In the end, I lost by about 320 points or so.   I don't mind as the main goal right now is to learn how to play this army and all the special rules that accompany it.   As you can see, I still need to learn the spells so that I don't misplay them again.  And if you missed me talking about what my wolf chariot did, you didn't.  I forgot to put it on the table.  Like I said.  A learning game.   

I know this battle report is a bit of a cluster f.  I forgot to take any pics and didn't really keep notes of my game.  I will try to remember to do so next time I play.

Things I am thinking about changing:  
-Getting rid of the poison banner.  Possibly changing my BSB to an orc of some type.   The banner is cool and I love poison, but I need my bsb in an anchor unit.    
-Upping the numbers of Savage Orcs.  They are awesome and need to survive long enough to get into combat.
-Get some chaff fighters to protect my warmachines.   I need wolves or squig riders, or something.  Maybe a few more chariots.  Something to keep fast calvary, flyers and scouts from ruining my shooting phase.

Current goals: finish painting my forest goblin unit.  I am also watching an ebay auction for a command unit for the gobbos.   

I will try to have a better battle report next time I do one. 
Until next time.
Chris