Battle Report 5: Orcs vs Ratkin 27/05/2017

Can the Demonspawn show its strength and slaughter some orcs this time?

Hello again, and welcome to another report between Pete (Seerlord Morskitta)'s ratkin and my orcs. This was a timed friendly game in the weekend between two local tournaments, the WWSS and Runefang IX.

Two weeks ago I had a narrow win my against Pete before being crushed. However I didn't take enough photos of the second game to do a report, so for Pete this was a chance to set the record straight, and for me it was a chance to show that wasn't just a one off.

It was also a chance for me to try out a few things before the next tournament. Firstly I wanted to try a combat group of the Giant and the two Gore Rider regiments, secondly I wanted to see if the army could handle a more open play style and see if that would allow me to get more units into combat.

I did think about playing the modified list that I'll be taking to Runefang but a combination of a long week and laziness meant that I didn't get all of the models finished in time.

Armies
Orcs
Ax Horde, Blood of the Old King 220
  - Godspeaker, banechant, heal 100
  - Wardrum 80
    - Skulk Troop 75
 
Ax Horde 205
  - Godspeaker, banechant, heal 100 
  - Giant 190

Morax Regiment, Brew of Sharpness 245
 - Flagger, Banner of the Griffin 70

Gore Rider Regiment 185
 - Flagger, mounted on Gore  65

Gore Rider Regiment 185
Troll Horde* 190
Orcling Horde* 90 




Ratkin
Shock Troop Horde 230
  - Weapon Team, storm of lead 80
  - Death Engine, vile sorcery 210
  - Warlock, banechant, Inspiring Talisman 130


Shock Troop Horde  230
  - Weapon Team, storm of lead 80
  - Death Engine, vile sorcery 210
  - Swarm Crier Lute of Insatiable Darkness 65

Blight Horde 205
  - Demonspawn, wings 340

Tunnel Slave Horde* 100
Tunnel Slave Regiment* 60
Tunnel Slave Regiment* 60 

Mission and Terrain
We rolled up the eliminate mission from CoK, in this mission there is one central token and three tokens on each player's three most expensive units. Pete's three bounties were on the Demonspawn and the two Shock Troop hordes, whereas mine were on the Morax and two Ax hordes.

Bounty is an interesting mission. Both of us needed to kill some tough units and at the same time protect our own three most dangerous units, not a straightforward task.

My plan was basically to protect my bounties at all costs and then claim the middle point at the end of the game, or at least contest it. Not the most exciting game plan but I thought it might be my best chance at victory.

There was an unusual piece of terrain near the middle of the board - a height 2 impassible.

Deployment

Pete set up as tightly as possible in the middle of the board, using his Tunnel Slaves, Weapons Teams and Blight as chaff for his elite units and Death Engines.

As I mentioned above, I wanted to test out how the army functioned playing in a more open way. To this end I deployed my Ax hordes in a way to allow them to move either side of the height 2 and use it to protect my flanks.

The plan with the fast group on the right was to threaten flank charges if Pete turned to face the Ax infantry units, and for the Giant to use the forest as cover whilst threatening a long charge.

However I quickly forgot this plan, as will become apparent.

Pete won the roll of and gave me the first turn (I would have rather gone second!)

The Ratkin keep a tight formation

Turn 1 Orcs

Thing start well for the orcs

The orcs pushed up as fast as they could, with the Orclings and trolls turning inward and shielding the Ax horde as the support units all moved into the centre to cover both.

The Skulks started off on a high, firing at the Weapons Team, doing 2 damage and waving them!

The armies face off over the battlefield

Turn 1 Ratkin

The Ratkin reposition slightly

There was relatively little movement from the Ratkin - the Blight shuffled over to allow the Death Engine to move up, and on the left the Tunnel Slaves were forced into the forest by the Demonspawn.
The Ratkin spell casters and monstrous machines quickly ensured that the Skulks wouldn't continue to pester the Weapons Team.

The ratkin keep a tight formation

Turn 2 Orcs

The Gore Riders and Giant move in but are too far away to threaten the Death Engine

Despite believing that the rats' lack of movement was the result of the Weapons Team being wavered, the orcs continued to advance at full speed.

With the Skulks dead, the Orclings were shooed in front of the orcs on the left flank, leaving the Trolls to chaff for the Ax horde.

The support units began to find themselves over-stretched by the orcs wide front, and relied on the partial cover of the ruins to support both Ax-hordes. However the Giant, Orclings and Trolls all found themselves out of both inspiration and Wardrum range

The cavalry take up positions

Turn 2 Ratkin

The ratkin gun down the Trolls

With the Trolls having wandered out into the open, the Ratkin gleefully moved their Weapons Teams into range and were joined by by the Demonspawn and Death Engines in doing 18 damage and breaking the beasts.

The rest of the Ratkin waited patiently for the orcs to be softened up.

The Weapons Teams move forward

  
Turn 3 Orcs

The Godspeakers return fire

The death of the Trolls took the orcs by surprise, as they noticed what a bad situation they were in. If they stopped their advance then the ratkin could continue to gun them down, but continuing to advance would allow the rats to take them out piecemeal.

On the right the orc cavalry couldn't risk charging into the blight, a combination of ensnare and terrain would negate the impact of a charge. They also couldn't charge the Death Engine positioned a sliver behind the two hordes, so they stopped, waiting for a better opportunity.

The Ax horde in the middle turned to face the Ratkin line and tried to keep within range of the Wardrum, Flagger and Godspeakers.

The Orclings saw a charge against the Slaves through the trees, opening up space for the larger orcs. However they didn't do much damage.

The Godspeakers, realising the threat of concentrated Ratkin shooting moved into range of the damaged weapons team and finished it off.

Let the chaff fight commence!

Turn 3 Ratkin

The ratkin guns continue to fire at the orcs

The rats repositioned their guns and the Warlock to fire at the Gore Riders, as the Tunnel Slaves were forced up to block both the Giant and the Ax horde.

One of the Shock Troop hordes also moved up to block any charges on the Death Engine.

The Weapons team, Warlock and Death Engine fire at the Gore Riders. Whilst they only did 4 points of damage, the loud noises upset the boars, wavering the unit for a Turn.

The Slave Regiment charged back into the Orclings but only did a minimal amount of damage in return.

Where will the Demonspawn go?

Turn 4 Orcs

The orcs lose their cool

The orcs' poor positioning became even more apparent as the support units continued to be overstretched. In desperation the Wardrum risked the ratkin's guns to move toward the right Ax horde.

The Godspeakers moved to both block charges from the Slave Regiment and to fireball the Warlock. However they could only do 5 damage to the wizard.

The wavered Gore Riders were blocking a charge from the other unit, and worse of all were also blocked from retreating by the steady Gore Riders. Fearing being gunned down, the cavalry decided to get some of their value back by charging the remaining Weapons Team. They manged to break it but their charge left them a massive response from multiple Ratkin units.

The Ax horde and Giant charged the horde of Tunnel Slaves through the forest but could only do 10 points of damage and failed to wound them.

On the right the Orclings finally broke the Tunnel Slave regiment and turned to face the Death Engine.

The Gore Riders break the Weapons Team

Turn 4 Ratkin

The Ratkin counter-attack

The Ratkin had a mass of good charges against several valuable orc units.

The Shock Troops, Swarm Crier, Death Engine and Blight ran down the Gore Riders. After killing the orcs, the Death Engine and Swarm Crier both advanced, allowing the Blight to reform facing the rest of the orcs.

The Tunnel Slaves shuffled over to counter charge the Giant and whilst they couldn't break him, they continued to provide a shield against the Giant, Ax horde and remaining Gore Riders.

In the middle the Tunnel Slaves rushed forward at the exposed Godspeakers (probably overjoyed that they were fighting a unit that was unlikely to ever break them) and did one damage to the shaman, disrupting him.

The Demonspawn leapt over the low ruins, at the exposed rear of the Wardrum, quickly routing the orcs, repositioning to face the rear of the Ax horde.

On the left the Death Engine rolled into the Orclings in the woods, killing enough of the diminutive orcs to waver the unit.

The Demonspawn surprises the Wardrum

Turn 5 Orcs

The orcs find themselves in trouble

The Ratkin had punished the orcs for their sloppy play, and threatened to annihilate the remaining orcs on the right and could continue to hold up the left.

The exposed Ax horde responded to the Demonspawn by backing up as far as they could, offering a flank charge instead of a rear one. The non-disrupted Godspeaker further moved to block the Demonspawn.

His fireballs had no significant effect on it however he could possibly hold up the monster for one turn, and allow the respositioning Morax to charge it in the rear.

The Giant and Gore Riders finished off the Slave Horde, and moved backward, blocking as many charges against the Ax horde as possible.

Things looked grim for the orcs!

The Godspeaker stalls the ratkin advance

Turn 5 Ratkin

The ratkin press their advantage

The Ratkin continued to press their advantage, on the right the Shock Troops massacred the wounded Giant, and the Death Engine rumbled into the Gore Riders, wavering them again.

The unengaged units advanced as far as they could. However the Slaves again failed to shift the Godspeaker stalling the Shock Troops for another turn.

Spotting the vengeful Morax, the Demonspawn decided that it'd rather be elsewhere and ignored the Godspeaker to leap behind the Ax horde.

On the left the Death Engine turning to face the Ax horde, whilst still blocking the orclings (and giving them a hindered charge). 
 

The Ratkin elite troops engage

Turn 6 Orcs

The orcs get desperate

The orcs continued to protect the Ax hordes as much as possible. The Ax moved backward as far as they could, hoping to use the forest to buy time, as the Gore Riders kept their position, blocking the Death Engine.

In desperation, the Mounted Flagger and Godspeaker managed to ground the monster, limiting its charge options and hopefully giving the Morax a chance to charge it

The Orclings charged the Death Engine as the left Ax horde gave up on seeing combat and settled down for a rest in the other forest.
  

The slaves and Godspeaker up close and personal

Turn 6 Ratkin

The Gore Riders continue to waver

The Demonspawn decided to charge through the Godspeaker and advanced enough to hit the Ax horde in the rear. This, combined with a front charge from the Shock Troops, was more than enough to break the orcs, and both units turned to face the Morax.

The Slaves again failed to break the Godspeaker, leaving their frustrated Shock Troops waiting behind them.

On the Left the Death Engine crushed the rest of the orclings and backed off slightly showing its front to the Ax horde in the forest.

The other Death Engine again wavered the Gore Riders, failing to claim their victory points.

As things stood the ratkin had won, but we rolled off and there would be a turn 7, giving the orcs a sliver of a chance of getting a draw...

The Demonspawn in a good position

Turn 7 Orcs
 

The orcs' last chance...

In order to claim a draw, the Morax would need to break the Shock Troops, and then survive the charge of the Demonspawn, and potentially the Tunnel Slave regiment as well. It was unlikely but not impossible.

The Flagger advanced to block the Blight from charging the Morax should the Shock Troops break, as the Godspeaker repositioned to continue chaffing up the Tunnel Slaves.

As it was the Morax under-performed, doing a total of 12 damage and failing to roll the double sixes needed to break the Shock Troops, giving the Ratkin victory!
 

 The orcs last gambit fails to pay off

Turn 7 Ratkin

The defeated orcs are slaughted

The orcs last gambit had failed to pay off, and left nearly all of their remaining units in poor positions. We agreed to give the Ratkin their turn to see how many orcs they could kill...

...and kill they did, the Death Engine finally crushed the Gore Riders, the Blight executed the Flagger, the Slaves chopped down the defiant Godspeaker and the Demonspawn and Shock Troops made easy work of the Morax.

The orcs were run from the field, giving the Ratkin a comfortable victory at the loss of only a few slaves. 

Not a good place for a Flagger!

After-battle thoughts
That was comprehensive! Congratulations to Pete. He played well and punished me mercilessly for my poor play and definitely deserved the win. It was nice to see what this army can really do (again), and how effective the Slaves are as chaff.

Overall I'm pretty disappointed by my play, but hopefully I've got some mistakes out of my system, and learned a few lessons ;)

Trying to play more openly clearly failed. It left my units isolated and open to flank charges, and also meant that I couldn't cover them with the inspiring and Wardrum support. If I am going to play more expansively like this, I'll need more inspiring. However, I think I'll be going back to my tighter formation from now on.

Beyond that, I again failed to see the Demonspawn coming - I thought Pete would try and shoot the Wardrum down and thought it stood a reasonable chance of surviving, and totally forgot the massive flier sitting in the corner.

I also messed up my positioning and charges on the right. I panicked with the non-wavered Gore Riders and wasted them on a really stupid charge thinking they were dead either way. I knew that I couldn't break the Blight but for some reason thought that taking out the Weapons Team was the best option, rather than just retreating a few inches.

I also thought that the Ax horde and Giant would break the Slaves that turn If this had happened, it would have given me the first charge into the Shock Troops. However tallying it up I was being optimistic to say the least

The one positive I can take out of the game was that I managed to hold up a reasonably large number of points with the Godspeaker, something that I said I would practice, but I think that I need to still work on in future.

I'll be bringing a slightly different army to Runefang on Saturday and will put up reports from the games there. However I'm going on holiday next week so I probably won't be able to get any reports finished before the 12th of June. After that I'll try and get 1 - 2 done a week.

After Tournament Report and Some Navel Gazing

Whilst I'll be dedicating this blog to battle reports, I thought I might just write up a short post of my thoughts on my recent Wellington Warlords Super Series tournament, and where I think I'll go from here :)

I won't be posting this on Facebook because it really is a lot of self indulgent naval gazing and I don't know how much interesting I have to say!

My first thought on the tournament, and the Wellington scene more generally is on how great my opponents have been. Its really nice to play people who are competitive but still polite, mature and sporting.

As for my performance, I aimed to come mid-table and achieved that goal, but I'm under no illusions that I was lucky to get there and that there are some things to work on in this weeks' Runefang IX (where I'll similarly aim to get mid-table, but I won't be upset if I totally fluff my lines and come 8th).

The two things which I think I'll work on are 1. keeping a cool head and thinking before I charge and 2. practice chaffing up and stalling enemy units. Neither of these are likely to be quick fixes, I've already repeated one of them in a game against Pete (which I'll post soon)! I'll just work on being aware of them and trying to change my play over time :)


I mentioned the first recurrent mistake in a couple of the games. I like to take offered charges, especially if I think that I can break the target. This is very orky but it can lead to me getting out of position and setting myself up to lose valuable units. I think that I've actually already improved on compared to my first games (I once charged a troop of Gore Riders into the flank of a Zombie legion) but I do still tend to see red once or twice a game.

I think that this is part of my problematic use of the Gore Riders, I tend to throw those units unsupported into the enemy lines and then watch them die. Improving on this probably will involve me thinking about the possible exchanges that I'm making but also thinking about my final positioning - charging the Ax horde out of the dominate circle in the game against Ryan for instance.

This also relates to the second point, sometimes it's better to not charge or counter-charge and break enemy units, particularly if they are stopping more dangerous units getting into the fight. This is something that Pete does really well with both his Beast Packs and Tunnel Slaves, and which Ryan also did with his Zombie legion.


There is of course more of an art to stalling and chaffing up the enemy than not charging. Practicing things like using the threat of a charge, throwing units under the bus, or positioning units in ways which disrupt my opponents' positioning are also things that I need to work on.

I have a tendency to not plan ahead in this regard. All to often I rely on throwing my individuals between my units and the enemies far to late to achieve anything (I've lost track of the number of times that I've needed an advance of 1" to save a unit).


I'm going to make a slight change to my list for the next tournament - dropping the Trolls and one of the Flaggers for another Godspeaker (with the inspiring talisman), another Orcling horde and another troop of Skulks. I'm not that optimistic about dropping the Trolls, but they're the only unit that I can easily cut whilst still having 4 heroes and 2 monsters.

Pete has posted a valuable warning about tinkering and failing, and this has stopped me from doing just what he warned against (I've now played about 20 games with this list). However in this case I want to try out a few different unit types to help me learn a bit. I'm not sure if my proposed change will stick but having a go with a couple of more chaff units will be a bit of an interesting challenge.

I'm not expecting that I will suddenly improve with these changes, but it will offer a few new learning opportunities. I don't think that I'll change my orc list any more after this though.

This means that my list will be:

Ax Horde 205
  - Godspeaker, banechant, heal 100
  - Wardrum 80
  - Skulk Troop 75
 
Ax Horde 205
  - Godspeaker, banechant, heal 100 
  - Giant 190
  - Skulk Troop 75

Morax Regiment, Brew of Sharpness 245
   - Godspeaker, heal, inspiring talisman100
  - Skulk Troop 75

Gore Rider Regiment, Mace of Crushing 185
 - Flagger, mounted on Gore  65

Gore Rider Regiment 185

Orcling Horde* 90 
Orcling Horde* 90

I had a game on Saturday against Pete's Ratkin, which I'll post in the next couple of days. That will be the last post for a couple of weeks - I'll be going on holiday from the 4th - 12th of June. I'll work on posting my Runefang IX reports after that.

Battle Report 4: Orcs vs Varangur 20/05/2017

You'll be amazed the distance at which those flails can kill orcs with the power of Korgaan!

Hello everyone!

This is the battle report for my third and final game at the Wellington Warlord's Super Series. After two losses and a bye I was drawn against Neil's horse-archer Varangur army.

I'd played Neil once before in my first real game of Kings of War (and first tournament game) where we'd played out a fantasy reenactment of the battle of Carrhae with my orcs in the position of the Romans. Whilst I was keen for revenge I wasn't exactly confident...
Armies
Orcs
Ax Horde, Blood of the Old King 205
  - Godspeaker, banechant, heal 100
  - Wardrum 80
  - Skulk Troop 75

  Ax Horde 205
  - Godspeaker, banechant, heal 100
  - Giant 190

Morax Regiment, Brew of Sharpness 245
 - Flagger, Banner of the Griffin 70

Gore Rider Regiment 185
 - Flagger, mounted on Gore  65

Gore Rider Regiment 185    
Troll Horde* 190  
Orcling Horde* 90  



Varangur

Fallen Horde – Brew of Strength 270

 - Devourer – Noxious Mist 190

 - Magos – Mount, Bane Chant, Inspiring Talisman 135

Horse Raider Regiment – Bows 180

 - Devourer – Noxious Mist 190

Horse Raider Regiment - Bows 180

 -  Devourer – Noxious Mist 190

Horse Raider Regiment - Bows 180

 - Magos – Mount, Blood Boil, Scarletmaw’s Fenulian Amulet 150

Horse Raider Regiment - Bows 180

 - Magos – Blood Boil, Boots of Levitation 160

Terrain


I got to play on the same board as my first game, and Neil picked the same side as Ryan. I was pretty happy about this firstly because there was plenty of cover in the middle, and also because that the odd shaped hill on his side would provide some protection for my advance.

This time we were going to play scavenge from clash of kings, which neither of us had played before. Neil placed his token on the left (from my perspective), and I placed mine on the same side. This is something which I always do as I'm usually the slower army so closing down the game is always in my favour.

 

Deployment

Neil placed his Horse Riders in the middle, with the hill giving two units a nice angle of fire, and the other two in a good position to rush round the flank. He placed his tougher units on his right, with the Magi distributed though out the line.

I was really concerned that he would move up to the scavenge points on turn 1, and then just chaff me up for the game before winning - Pete had pointed out that he could have done something similar in an earlier loot game with his herd army. because of this I wanted to rush up and claim the tokens as quick as possible.

With all of the tokens on one side of the board, I placed my main body in the middle, with the Ax horde just avoiding the obstacle to rush up a few extra inches. The Giant was deployed on an angle to rush into the forest and take cover, all of the other infantry hid behind the Ax - fueling the Godspeakers.

We rolled for turns and again I won and chose to go first.

Varangur ready to kill some orcs

Turn 1 Orcs

The orcs rush forward to take cover in the forest

The orcs charged up as quickly as possible, trying to claim the scavenge markers and take cover in the forest.

On the left the Gore Rides also advanced to secure the left token. The plan was to spend one turn looting that point and then retreat and destroy it if needs be.

The orcs advance

Turn 1 Varangur

The Varangur climb the hill and open fire

The Varangur horde raiders advanced to get sight on the orc hordes and open fire. The Skulks were quickly shot out of the forest, and a few points of damage was done on the Ax and one of the Gore Rider regiments.

On the left the Fallen moved up to just out of range of the Gore Riders, as the Devourers re-positioned to respond to the orc cavalry.

 

The horse riders open fire

Turn 2 Orcs

The orcs claim all the scavenge points!

The orcs continued their advance, unperturbed by the Skulk's demise and moved into the forests, claiming all of the scavenge points. The Godspeakers healed the damage done to the Ax.

One regiment Gore Riders produced a loot token and began to fall back with their bounty. The other Gore Riders advanced to cover their retreat.

Turn 2 Varangur

The Devourers get into positon

The Horse Riders fall back down the hill, moving out of range from the orc advance. On the right the Devourers moved up into the field getting the Gore Riders in range of their noxious breath. Combined with the Magos' lighting bolts they7 were able to route the lead unit of cavalry.

The horse riders on the left continued firing but the damage was minimal.

The Varangur present a strong flank

Turn 3 Orcs

The orcs loot and continue to march up

The orcs continue their advance in the middle, the Giant and Ax stopping briefly to scoop up loot. The Ax horde advanced, hoping to hide within the curve of the hill. The Orclings and Trolls turned to protect the flank of the Ax horde.

On the left the Gore Riders retreated another 2.5 inches, not willing to brave a rear charge from a Devourer. The Flagger charged forward to block the advance of one of the Devourers and buy the Gore Riders time.

Turn 3 Varangur

The Varangur heavy units charge into the forest

The orc advance had exposed their flank to the Fallen, and one of the Devourers and Horse Raiders joined in the slaughter. Despite piling on 21 points of damage, Neil snake eyed the nerve roll, perhaps the orcs relished a fight after all the cowering?

Things went better for the Varangur elsewhere, as the other Horse Raider units put 4 points of damage on the second Ax horde and the Devourers finished off the Gore Riders, leaving the loot unguarded.

The Varangur envelop the orc infantry

Turn 4 Orcs

The orc counter-attack is unimpressive

(Wow I was lucky with that double 1, I honestly didn't see the Fallen flank charge coming!)

The orcs breathed a sigh of relief, and the Orclings charged into the forest into a gap opened up by the Godspeakers, but couldn't do any damage to the Fallen.The Ax horde dropped their loot token and charged into the Devourer, badly damaging but not killing the monster.

On the right the orcs continued to scavenge for loot, the second Ax horde following in the Giant's wake.

The Flagger retreated as fast as possible, hoping to inspire the Morax and Giant.

The orcs still presenting a strong front

 Turn 4 Varangur

The Ax horde finally breaks

The Varangur continued to press the orcs - shooting down the remains of the Ax horde. The Fallen redirected their attacks toward the Orclings, doing 9 points of damage but failing to break them.

The Horse Archers continued shooting at the second Ax horde, bringing them up to 7 points of damage.

On the left the Devourers moved to secure the loot left by the deceased Gore Riders.

Turn 5 Orcs

The orcs re-position to protect the loot

With the collapse of the Ax horde and the army flanked the orcs began to retreat, the Morax moving up to take a loot token from the Giant as the support characters flee behind the Ax horde.

On the right the Orclings and Trolls attempted to remove the threat of the Fallen and move on the Devourers, however they could only do 9 points of damage and could only waver the mutants.

Turn 5 Varangur

The Fallen fall back as the Devourers move in to finish off the orc auxiliaries

Seeing the orcs' retreat the Varangur advanced, two Devourers attacked the Trolls and orclings, breaking the Orclings and stalling the Trolls. The Fallen fell back to claim their share of the loot.

The Horse Raiders continued to fire on the Ax hordes as the Magi moved forward to release their final weapon - boiling the wounded orcs' blood, slaughtering the entire horde and dropping their loot counter on the floor.

 Turn 6 Orcs

The orcs are in full retreat

The remaining orcs continued their retreat, protecting what loot they still had. The Morax scooped up the loot dropped by the Ax horde and retreated mostly behind the wall, providing them some cover. The Flaggers and Wardrum retreated behind the Morax doing all they could to keep them in the fight.

The Giant repositioned himself in the forest.

The Godspeakers remained in the forest to slow the Varangur down and even manage to finish off the wounded Devourer!

 

The remaining orcs try to flee with their loot...

Turn 6 Varangur

..but the Varangur are closing in

The Varangur continued their bombardment as the Fallen claimed their loot. On the left the combined shooting from the Devourers melted the Trolls.

The Varangur were running out of time. All of the Horse Archers and Magi advanced on the Morax, hoping to annihilate them and claim victory before the clock ran out.

However despite firing a massive amounts of shots into the elite orcs, and then two bloodboils, Neil rolled twice for nerve and got a 3 only wavering the Morax... then the clock timed out.

As things stood, that (un)lucky nerve roll left things as a draw, but we rolled and the orcs got another chance to claim victory.

The Morax refuse to die!

Turn 7 Orcs

There was only two things the orcs could do - charge the Giant into a Magus to claim the victory points and launch one last volley of fireballs into the Fallen to claim victory.

The Godspeakers proved their value yet again, burning the already damaged Fallen enough to force them to drop their loot, giving the orcs an undeserved victory.

The Giant failed to kill the Magus.

The few remaining orcs claim victory and rub salt in the wound.

After-battle thoughts

Hmm, I won... yay?

Firstly thank you to Neil for being a fun opponent. I've played him twice now and, whilst his army is horrible, he is really pleasant to play against. Also whilst I joked about his flail bows above I think it's one of the best looking armies that I've faced.

Tallying up the kill points, he had 885 more points on the table than I did (although this was incorrectly tallied up on the day as 795 points). I'll write an after-tournament report where I discuss this in more detail, but sufficed to say I got really, really lucky in this game. It also meant that I finished joint 4th of 9th with 2 other people.

This is the first time I've faced someone who has run out of time and I felt guilty immediately afterward because, had Neil had one more minute I have no doubt he would have easily destroyed the last of my orcs. On further reflection though timing is part of the game, and something to be aware of. Still I imagine Neil will be favourate to win if we meet next week!

As for things I did wrong, the most obvious one was not spotting the flank charge on my Ax horde. I had no real need to move them up on second viewing, so that was a blunder that I was lucky not to be punished more severely for.

I again misused my cavalry. I obviously should have dropped that token and charged earlier, I just thought that every turn the Devourers were moving toward the flank, the fewer turns that I would have to deal with them in the centre.

I also should have held the Gore Riders back and just covered the loot marker instead of attacking early - Neil had a far stronger flank than me so it was always going to be trying to stall him. I advanced because I was really worried that Neil would rush forward, take 3 - 4 tokens and then just chaff me up, preventing me from generating tokens. As I mentioned at the start, this was based on an earlier conversation with Pete's equally fast army in a loot game. I think I misjudged the scenario and Neil's play style there, but hey I am still learning :)

I'm scheduled to play Pete tomorrow, so I'll put the battle reports from that up next week. Heck he may roll enough 1s that I may even win another one ;) Thanks to everyone for reading these, and to Pete for organising and running the tournament. As always feel free to give critiques and suggest ways that I could improve.