2300 Points v. Orcs & Goblins
Here's battle #4. Pardon if this is a bit sketchy. This was the least enjoyable of my games. For whatever reason, my opponent was very tired during this game. He kept saying, "I just want to get this over with and go to bed." As near as I can tell, he was purposely not moving troops that he should have, just to speed the game up. He didn't seem to remotely be putting the effort into the game that he should have - a fact that I penalized him for when it came to sportsmanship. Had he explained he was sick, or tired, or whatever, I'd have been fine. But his comments made no indication that he cared about what I thought of the game.
It is possible that he didn't move very often, because he was worried about my arrows and didn't want to get within range. Or that he planned to win using his trick wizards. I dunno.
Besides, he had tons o' orcs & goblins. So it was impossible to keep track of everything in his army.
--Stephen (Archer Boy)
Scenario: "Gain Ground". This scenario uses standard deployment, but victory is solely determined by the number of terrain quadrants you have at the end of the game. Stuff like characters, skirmishers, monster, and war machines can't take quadrants, but they can contest them. The game is five turns.
Note that this battle was 2300 points, rather than the usual 2,000. People could use their extra units.
Armies: I had my usual:
6 units of 8 Archers
1 unit of 7 Archer
2 units of 9 Glade Riders
4 units of 8 Scouts
2 Pegasi
1 General with the Hail of Doom Arrow.
He had:
1 Giant
2 Goblin Wolf Chariots
12 or so Squig Hoppers
1 unit of Orc Boar Boyz
1 unit of Savage Orc Arrer Boyz
1 unit of Forest Goblins
1 unit of Regular Goblins
1 Snotling pump wagon
1 unit of Orc Big'uns
1 Level 3 Orc Shaman with the Staff of Fiery Doom, Staff of Osiris, and Cloak of Mists & Shadows
1 Level ? Goblin Shaman with the Skull Staff and Book of Ashur.
Assorted other stuff that never had a major effect on the game.
Terrain: I had grown to like seperating the battlefield into two halves, so the terrain wound up mostly being placed down the middle of the battlefield from the center of his deployment zone toward mine. There was a wood in the center of my deployment zone (but sticking out of the front), and a house in front of that. A hill in the far left corner of the battlefield (but moved in about 4" so my scouts could start behind it), and a forest off on the right side of the board (that never did much).
Deployment: Deployment was annoying. He maintained each of his goblin squig hoppers was an independent model, giving him 20-something units. So he'd place a squig hopper, and then I'd place a unit. He'd place another hopper, and I'd place a unit. You get the point - it was quite annoying. Anyway, I wound up having most of my army down before he ever set up anything besides squig hoppers. He had set them up in a screen across the front of his deployment zone.
My own setup was in an Orion's Spear formation. Archers across my back line with a little "jig" toward the forest in the center. I had a pegasus on each side of my line (behind that jig). A unit of glade riders was placed on each flank. A unit of scouts were placed in the house in the center-forward part of the field, and the other 3 scout units were set down behind the hill on the far left corner of the field.
His deployment was simple. On the left side of the battlefield near my scouts and such he had his two goblin wolf chariots, as well as his giant and pump wagon. In the center and right-side of his field behind the squigs he had a number of his infantry units. Kinda vague description, I know, but it never really matters ('cuz he barely moved them!).
Strategy: Since points didn't matter, my strategy was to consider all forward scout units a sacrifice in order to keep as many of his units from advancing onto my side of the board as possible. I planned on blocking stuff form moving forward toward me with the pegasus as well. On turn one I wanted to take out the wolf rider chariots and as many of the squigs as possible. I planned on winning by controlling my two halves, but having stuff on his side of the field.
I'm not certain what his strategy was. I can only imagine it was to hold his half with his troops (thereby making me fire at long range with my archers), but to move his squigs onto my half thereby contesting my sides of the board. I think he felt the two chariots and the giant could easily take out the 3 scout units on his flank. I think he figured his wizards would do plenty of damage as well.
Spells: I didn't have any. He got Mork Wants Ya, Hand of Gork, and Gaze of Mork. He used the Book of Ashur to draw from another deck (dark, perhaps? I can't remember!). I remember he had one spell that held things in place, but can't remember much more than that.
Turn One: I won the roll-off, and went first. I immediately moved the scouts slightly and opened fire across the field. About six of his twelve squig hoppers died instantly. The scouts opened fire on the wolf chariots, doing some damage. Two of the wolves and two crew on one chariot died, and one wolves and a crew died on another.
I had made a point of making sure I'd be out of his charge arcs on his first turn, but I was concerned about the pump wagon. That thing doesn't have to have line-of-sight to charge. So we concentrated fire on that as well and killed it. (I didn't use the Hail of Doom Arrow). My pegasi had flew forward as well, landing behind the building and out of his line of sight. (Making their 24" range more effective for the second turn of the game).
In his turn, he began with his aimosity rolls. One of his goblin units failed (the farthest toward the right flank, were little action on the field took place). His chariots both turned and faced my scouts, as did his giant. The squig hoppers all hopped forward a bit, with the exception of one that randomly jumped into the middle of his battleline (but didn't hit anyone).
His infantry units, did not advance across the battlefield, but instead elected to turn and advance slightly toward my scouts, so that they could follow his giant and such toward my line.
Magically, he cast Mork Wants Ya on one of my pegasi, and some other mean anti-movement spell on my general.
Turn Two: Seeing that the giant would be able to charge my scouts, I decided to zoom my scouts back behind the hill. I was there to prevent him from moving forward, after all. So if they lost shooting in return for preventing movement, that was a sacrifice I was willing to make. A unit of glade riders also advanced on the right flank. The "free" pegasi flew across their lines, landing next to their rear unit that was facing in the direction of my scouts, thereby messing with his march moves.
At this time, I had an idea. I thought it would be interesting to move one of my units of archers foward into the house. They can skirmish if they move into it, and that would make my other scout unit free to zoom around. So I walked (not marched) one of my angled scout units so that it was facing directly forward. (I didn't want to march and lose their ability to shoot).
Shootingwise, the turn went all right, but not as successful as the first We eliminated four more squig hoppers, and were able to shoot in and kill half a dozen or so of his forest goblins from his right-most unit. We killed the crew entirely from one of his chariots, and knocked the other down to 1 crew. We also managed to kill a few orc big'uns.
I was a bit bummed that I hadn't been able to take any of his chariots out completely. My shooting wasn't as successful as I hoped it could be - the extra crew/steeds of goblin chariots was definitely coming in handy. Of course, it didn't help that my general was held in place, and all shooting at the goblin squigs during the game was being done at long range (-1) and individual model (-1) penalties.
Magically, I was able to dispel the spell on the general.
His turn two started off with his out of control chariot zooming toward my battle line about 6" or so. His two squigs jumped toward my line again (the closest one still being 20" or so away). He failed his animosity test for the unit closest to my scouts, therefore messing with the movement of everything that planned on advancing behind it. His giant and remaining chariot moved up onto the hill to face my scouts. Finally, his shaman with the cloak of mists and shadows zoomed across the board and into the forest on the middle of my side of the field. It didn't have much line of sight on my troops, but was out of my line of sight as well.
Magically, He managed to paralyze my general again with his anti-movement spell. He also cast Hand of Gork to move his crewless chariot into contact with one of my scout units. (I wasn't sure if he could do that, but decided after peeking at the rules that it was ok. Not 100% convinced though).
On turn three, I began by advancing my glade riders on the right side of the board. I figured The scouts were going to need some help. One of the two scout units moved back toward my line slightly and around the hill a bit, out of the dangerous charge arcs. The other scout unit went double-move up onto the hill, out of the offending arcs as well. (Love that double-movement M5 when you're that close together!) My spell-bound pegasus managed to escape his binds (rolled a 4 on 2d6, but took a wound when I hit the ground. Interesting question - do flyers have to take that S4 hit for falling?), and so flew toward his battle line and parked itself in the middle of his army, but out of any lines of sight. I didn't want him marching anywhere! Finally, I moved two archer units. The first was the one advancing toward the house (although it would be turn 5 or so by the time it reached there, since the nearby orc was preventing 'em from marching). The second was an archer unit on the right side of the field. I advanced them 10" forward. No major reason, mostly to get 'em over onto their side of the field in case they needed to contest terrain.
Shootingwise, there wasn't a lot of effect. I didn't have line of sight on the giant and chariot that wasn't in combat (was blocked by the other chariot) for the most part, and the scouts had both take double-moves. We did manage to kill a few more forest goblins (who passed their panic test) and one more squig hopper though. Killed an arrer boy or two as well.
In combat, not surprisingly, the impact hits of the chariot were enough to severely maul the scout unit. They died in droves and quickly fled off the board. We decided the chariot wouldn't pursue, because there were no crew and it was moving randomly. Fortunately, my nearby units all passed their panic tests.
In his turn, he moved the giant and 1-crew chariot unit yet again to face my scouts. (This is where I became confused - I couldn't figure why he didn't move his giant into the corner, so that wherever I went, I'd be within his charge arc. If I moved away, I'd almost certainly be in the charge arc of another unit. Perhaps he didn't think of it). His riderless chariot zoomed toward his line, but not close enough to hit anything. His remaining squig managed to bounce four times, reducing each of my pegasi to one wound. His orc shaman moved slightly so it could fire into my advancing archer unit.
You'll note that he didn't bother moving any of his infantry units. Although he could have (he passed his animosity), he didn't bother. He was remarking about "wanting to get this game over with" by this point.
Magically, he fired his staff of osiris, staff of flaming death, and gaze of mork into my archer unit. He killed several guys (4, I think - I got off lucky) with it, but didn't send them running.
In turn four, I moved my archer units forward again. I fired into his crewless chariot, killing the final steed (yaaayyy!). I moved the two other scout units, bringing them out of the offending charge arcs again (but since they moved over M5, they couldn't charge). I also managed to shoot dead the final squig hopper.
Magically, I managed to dispel the spell on my general.
In his turn four, he suddenly declared a charge with his 1-crew chariot on one of my scout units. I didn't think he had an arc on them, but he insisted he did. Unfortunately, he had picked up the piece before I was able to see for sure. Rather than have a really annoying argument with an opponent I had grown to dislike, I let him. Sure 'nuff, they killed enough scouts to send the unit running off the board. The glade rider unit was panicked as well and fled off the board.
He only moved his main units enough to turn them back toward the front of the battlefield. Again, he didn't bother moving them forward, citing he wanted to get the game over with. His Orc shaman did move though, and fired his varius staves at my archer unit advancing toward his table quadrant on the right. He killed 5, but didn't panic the unit.
In the final turn, my general lobbed the hail of doom arrow into his final chariot. I didn't see much better to fire at (the giant was out of range I guessed, and I was wary about shooting at giants, a fact that will come back to haunt me in game 6). The scouts in the house emerged and zoomed onto the far right table quarter. A pegasi moved in front of one of his units of troops (Orc Big'Uns? can't remember) so they they couldn't charge into the scouts. The remaining pegasus flew off to a generic place in the left table quarter to make sure it could contest terrain. The final left scout unit also moved again out of his line of sight. The archer unit on the right side walked foward, but it was unclear if it had reached their table edge or not.
Shootingwise, nothing of note happened. Out of deference for his "getting it over with", I bypassed most shooting. Victory wasn't on VPS, after all, so only terrain would matter. My shooting couldn't affect that much. (The Cloak of Mists and Shadows rendering his orc etherial and immune to my arrows).
In his final turn, he didn't bother moving any troops. He did charge one of my pegasi, hoping to panic the scout unit. Killed the pegasi, but the scouts remained.
Magically, he fired everything he had into the archer unit that was possible in his table quarter. I got lucky as far as dispels though, and managed to keep him from killing the unit.
We measured up terrain, and unsurprisingly I found I won. The far left quadrant had a unit of my scouts and a pegasus in it. The far right quadrant had a unit of scouts (the archers weren't quite within their quarter). The near right corner had both his orc and my archer unit in it, and my near left quadrant had tons of my troops but none of his.
Final Score:
Orcs & Gobbos - No Quadrants
Both of us - Three Quadrant
Wood Elves - One Quadrant.
I win!
Final Notes: I'm not sure what to say after this thoroughly unenjoyable battle. I won, but my opponent was so uncaring that I felt like quitting halfway through. He seemed to be playing only because he "had to," and not out of any sort of love for the game. This was disappointing to me.
In retrospect, I don't see a lot I'd do differently. I wish I had been able to take out his chariots earlier, but they were difficult to kill because of the extra wolf and crew. Not to mention that all his squig hoppers took up a lot of my firepower in the first two turns. And the scouts were so busy moving around that they didn't have time to shoot very often. If I had shot at his chariot units with my scouts, it's possible I'd have been able to take them out sooner. Then again, the giant would have been able to charge me. And if I failed to kill the chariots, they'd have charged as well. So who knows?
I wish my opponent had been into the game. He could have swarmed a lot of his units down toward my table edge, and with all those tons of squig hopper screeners I'd have been hard pressed to kill enough of his stuff to get ANY table quarters at the end.
I kept wanting to take over his army for him and play with some semblence of skill/caring. But it was his army, and he made his own decisions. So I won. Disappointing, but a victory nonetheless.
Day One Tally: One loss, Three Victories. I was inspired for the next day.
Next up: The dreaded Fog of War Scenario against Dogs of War!