KoW- Ogres vs Dwarves

 A great game of KoW last night vs Gordon’s latest  list- mobile imperial dwarves. 6 regiments & 4 troops of Brock Riders, 2 lords on brocks and 2 lords on beasts. 14 drops and everything moving at 8”.

I had made some changes to my Ogres, adding a horde of splitters (I liked Nick’s spitter horde in his Goblins at GOATcon), a chariot troop and Slashy McSlashface a Goblin Slasher. The mission was push.

The game started well for the ogres with my taking off 2 troops and a regiment of Brocks in turn 2 (thanks to an ogre warrior regiment getting hits and 8 wounds to take out one troops single handedly) but the canny dwarves came back- taking out my sergeant then next turn.

In the centre the game devolved into a series of bloody melees. I managed to “win” the right flank, or so I thought, thanks to the intervention of my Boomers and in the centre a devastated bully shrugging off the wounds meant the siegebreakers were set up for an unexpected rear change on another brock regiment and the ogres were feeling confident of a long overdue victory!.

Still on the left flank the brock lord and a couple of regiments played smart clashing with the hunters and the chariot troop. In the end the brock lord abandoned the brocks to their fate and took off with a token to claim 2 VPs and threw his followers in to the fray to chaffed up any possible pursuit.

After sterling work the token carrying goblin spitters came to a messy end being charged in a swamp by 2 units of brocks- even hitting on 5s 78 attacks wasn’t going to be fun for the gobbos and they were crushed. Then on turn 6 Gordon used his last brock riding lord to chaff up a warrior horde racing to the rescue and grabbed the token formerly owned by the goblins to take the win.

Deployment

Turn 1- the dwarves advance

Ogres prepare for the onslaught

Dwarven brock rider troop crests the hill and becomes target of the goblin spitters and slasher. 

On the right the warriors advance to form a screen

The new slasher waits.

Brock riders smash into the slasher- the combat lasts a couple of rounds. 

The ogres get lucky with a snakes eyes nerve which saves the bully and seals the fate of the brock regiment. 

Using the wood for cover the ogres hold the left flank and make progress in the centre. 

The battle devolves into a number of skirmishes.

On the left flanks the brocks attack the hunters but do little damage thanks to being hindered and entangled. 

On the right the spitters face off vs two regiments. 

Things are looking gri for the spitters

Even with terrain the goblins are overwhelmed. 

They had dropped the token to prevent the dwarves taking it. 

Turn 6- the brock lord acts as chaff to slow up the ogre warrior horde. The seigebreakers have an objective and the brocklord at the bottom left is about to scurry off to safety. 

End of turn 6 the warriors advance after killing the brocklord the warriors fall just short of following through to the brock regiment. 

Result: 4-2 to the dwarves

A fun, close game and Gordon never took his eye off the ball (the scenario objectives). A damn fast dwarf army that is for sure! We will be having a rematch soon vs their Free dwarves brock riding cousins.

Well played once again Gordon

GOATcon Day 2

 Game 4: Loot vs Eric’s Salamanders

• 4x Salamander prime regs (2 regs with 2 hand weapons)
• 1x Salamander unblooded horde
• 2x ancients regiments
• 1x fire elemental reg
• 1x greater fire elemental
• 2x Ghekkotah slashers
• Mage Priest with diadem of dragonkind (fireball 16)
• Clan lord of fire drake

(13 units, 31 US)

The one game (apart from Gordon’s dwarves) that I was really dreading. I really, really liked the balance in Eric’s list and didn’t really want to have to face it. Eric had plenty of spell support and some hard hitting infantry, lots of hard hitting infantry. Oh and did I mention the two Slashers? I’d just built a Red Goblin Slasher for my army so really, really liked the fact Eric was rocking two of the Salamander’s equivalent… and a Clan Lord on a  firedrake (aka a dragon). The 2300 pts really had enabled people to unleashed their inner monster and almost everyone had one or more titans, monsters or dragons.  

One unit in his list I was wary of was his mage priest with a diadem of dragonkind which gave him fireball 16! Add a fire elemental with 8 fireball and I’d be facing fireball 24. The individual mage priest could be a real pain wandering around dropping fireballs left right and centre so I decided to try to target him (her? it?) as quickly s possible with my Goat.

Eric’s army is stunningly pretty too. Extremely well painted and colourful. A real joy to play. The one advantage I had? Eric had been at a beerfest all day Saturday (Mark ran a Slyvankin army as part of Team Meric on day 1) so was a little under the weather .

After spreading my army too wide in game 3 vs the halflings I aimed to keep my deployment much more focused in game 4.

Once again there was a giant in the centre of the table and this time the giant had one of the 3 loot counters which were the objectives of the game so the giant would need to be dealt with!

Eric took turn 1 and immediately fired and fireballed the giant. Brilliant I thought! So  in my turn I too focused fire on the giant with my Boomers and got it up to 17 wounds before rolling a double 1 for the nerve check. Doh!

One area I did get lucky was turn 2, when the firedrake charged Nom Nom, only did 3-4 wounds and was then overwhelmed by my counter attack. I was then able to slow down the oncoming slanders and control the tempo of the game a built. The giant died on turn 2 and I claimed that loot token. I wavered the mage priest with alightning bolt then my goat charged him and kept him occupied for a few turns till I eventually ground him/her/it into dust.

I ended up concentrating my forces on my centre and right flank and a combination of the giant, a bully, hunters and siege breakers eventually overwhelmed this flank and from there I was able to turn back towards the centre and reinforce my defence of the centre. I was surprised at how well my tactic worked and in the end the Salamanders were routed.

The game was an overwhelming victory to the ogres.

Battle is joined. 

Eric's army is extremely well painted. Love the fire elementals!

Turn 2. Uh oh. This isn't good- luckily the giant wanted along the fornt lines and not though either army.

The firedrake waits to pounce. 

The firedrake charges Nom Nom but is hindered by the terrain. Spotting an opening I charge the salamanders on the hill on the right hoping to deal with them before reinforcements can arrive.  

Up and at em! 

The firedrake is isolated. Let's get him boys! 

Hunters flank a regiment of slamanders, the warlord on the chariot chaffs up some ancients. The giant lends a hand. The wariros though are waverered and prevent the siegebreakers from charging (not for the first time this happens over the weekend!)

Boomers use terrain for cover and I senfdout the boomer sergeant and warrior regiment to slow down the iniital charge of the salmanders

Battle is joined and much to my surprise both the warriros and boomer sergeant survive- but the boomer sergeant is wavered. The flying chicken is no more. In the forst at the back a slasher is trying to stomp my Goat to protect the mage priest. A zero point unit tying down about 300 points of lizardsies.  

At last the siegebreakers get into combat. 

Erics flank has been crushed. The warlord is in the flank of the Slasher. Having killed the hunters the fire elemental is about to be overrun by sigebreakers and a bully and or the giant. 

Eric launches one last attack on the centre

 Eric's turn 6, my troops hold. In the background the Goat had killed the mage priest and survived the slasher stomping. My turn 6 and without rollng a die I've won the game by holding to two of the loot tokens and so call it there. 

A great game. Didn't go the way i expected it to and was glad to get away with a win. Those slashers ahd been terrorising the lcoal gamers over the past few weeks apparently. 

MVP: Siegebreakers, the hunters.. and the goat.

Game 5: Hold the Line vs Gordon’s dwarves

The last game and my big win had put me back in second place so I was up against the undefeated Gordon and his dwarves. With 4 wins Gordon had already won the event without the need for a 5^th game!  Furthermore, the dwarves had smashed my ogres in our previous three games in Oamaru prior to the weekend and so I knew I was up against it.

• 2x Ironguard Regs (Def 6)
• 2x Shieldbreaker hordes
• 1x mastiff hunting pack
• Goloch (Steel behemoth)
• 2c Battle driller (annoying monsters)
• Dwarf stone priest- radiance of life and shroud of the saint (heal 3)
• Faber Ironheart
• Formation: Bulwarkers
• 2x Bulwarkers regiments  
• Ironclad horde
• Dwarf army std bearer

(14 units, 27 US)

He also had 7 or 8 of the annoying throwing mastiffs to try to avoid.

My plan? Try to concentrate on one flank and the centre and smash at least 4 regiments and hordes of dwarves, and try to win the centre and one flank!

However, Gordon matched my deployment and I ended up not concentrating on my right after Goloch’s fury was placed opposite my initial units and I ended up spreading wider than I’d originally intended as I treied to switch my focus to my left flank. Still, I hoped to refuse my right flank and slow Gordon down so that I could use the extra mobility of the hunters and warlocks to reinforce the centre and hopefully overwhelm it.

I lost some warriors on my right flank early, and sent out my Goat to try to slow down Goloch while I tried to redeploy the hunters and warlocks to reinforce the centre before my right flank collapsed. On the left flank, Gordon retreated his troops to stay out of range of my boomers which suited me though his character, Fabian Stoneheart, used his superior range to good effect, sniping away. Gordon also kept backing his right flank up and keeping hs units out of range of the boomers.

Eventually I managed to engage the centre and the seigebreakers, warriors and hunters doing some damage to the dwarven regiments and hordes but Gordon was able to sweep his left flank in and I slowly but surely lost the battle of attrition. At the end of the game Gordon controlled all three of the scoring areas for a convincing win though I did take soe satisfaction in destring more dwarven units than in our previous games.

As usual Gordon played well. Clinical is how someone at the weekend described his game play and I think is a very apt description. He plays smart, always is well aware of charge angles and distances and is very hard to catch off guard. My plan to slow down his left flank kind of worked but in the end Gordon was able to counter this and capitalise on mistakes I’d made.

MVP? Probable the warrior horde that spiked spectacularly vs a dwarven infantry horde and enabled me to take the off in one turn. 

Deployment. I wanted to avoid the left flank originally but when Gordon countered my initial deployment I changed my mind...

Bloody tough propostion. Gordon covers his squisher hordes well with bulwarkers and ironguard. 

'Ere the come.

Send forth the goat to tie down a flank? Yeah, right. 

My attempted switch and bait. Hunters reinforce the centre. I made a mistake here though by not putting the leader point in the wood. Damn! The warlocsk have also made a "jump to the left". 

Tis a bit constricted but.... follow meeeeeee!

I've managed to take out some ironguard and using a bully to chaff the dwarf horde

. The arriros had kiled another regment and Iu'd wavered the horde in the foireground but with headstrong this isn't likely to matter.

And it doesn't. A horde in the flank of my warriors. Maybe I should have turend to face a bit more...

Giant and woarlord tag team! 

A horde of dwarves into the flnak of the warlord. That is 50 dice! Ouch! 

Siegebreakers take out the horde. i forgot the battledriller was an individual so I could charge into it. But even so, Gordon ad got enough unit strngth to control the centre and comfortbvle claim the game 7-0. 

Well played Gordon. My plan nearly worked. Well, I killed mroe dwaves than ?I'd amanged i any previous enocunters with them. 

Overall results:

My crushing defeat dropped me back down to 5^th by a point (losing out to those pesky slamanders!) maybe I should have tied to get a horde into one of the other scoring areas on turn 6 of the last game, but by that stage I wasn’t thinking about the wider event and simply trying to kill more of the annoying dwarvsies.

I picked up the best sportsman award which I was chuffed with. I’d had some really good fun games where win or lose we both had an absolute blast and at the end of the day that was all I was wanting to do. I won one less game than I'd ben aiming for but the game vs Arthur changed on a single throw of the dice so can't relly compalin. My overall aim tohugh was to get my army on table, roll some dice vs players I don’t usually get to play and hopefully have a laugh. I think I succeeded in this. 

My goat also had the most kills but came 2^nd (the focus is on sharing prizes round) and my army also was one of the top ones chosen in the best painted comp. I don’t think individually the army would have got a prize for this but I’d spent a lot of time working on my basing, and completing new units, to ensure that the army looked unified so was happy that this was acknowledged.

Finally, as always Mark ran a great weekend. I loved the narrative he’d come up with and the GOAT characters (there were three versions of the Goat) added a wee bit of additional flavour to the games. I loved the additional randomness of the giants bought to games 2 and 3 and felt that they really added to the event and hope he does more of these type of things in future.

2300 points was a success too, and the extra 300 points to what we usually play meant that there was often and additional monster added to lists which I think was awesome.

I look forward to the more KoW gaming next year.    

GOATCON 2024- Day 1

 Goatcon 2024

Goatcon is a small 6^th edition Warhammer competition in Christchurch and this year it was also opened up to a Kings of War event run, as always, by Mark. 8 of us made it to fight for bragging rights of the best general, or the greatest goat depending on how well one’s army performed. Each army had a special goat character to add to their army from game 2 with special rules provided by Mark. My Goat was the last surviro of a WFB beastman army I sold aobut 2002 or 2003.

I ran, as I tend to do, my ogres and had been busy tidying up the basing and painting up new units to match the others. Most of my army is by Traxli factory and are a lovely range of very characterful ogres.

I couldn’t settle on a final list an in the end having been smashed repeatedly by Gordon’s dwarves I felt that had a few weaknesses and was not 100% settl3d on a couple of the units erven though I was happy enough with most of it. 5 games over 2 days would give me a good opportunity to decide which units would perform. My aim to take as many units as I enjoyed using and avoid what I call the BAF (boring as fuck) ogre list of 3 warrior regs, 3 Siege breaker hordes, 3 warlocks and 3 sergeants with crossbows.. boring.

My own self imposed rule is to have no more than 2 of the same thing in a an army- so no more than 2 warlocks, bullies or siege breakers). With the rent changes to the siege breakers I wanted to drop one back to a humble warrior regiment but boosted its combat ability by giving it the brew of Str to give in crushing 2 in melee, so almost as powerful as a siege beaker horde bir 5 pts less (and Def 5 vs Def 6).  

 

Nom Nom Rides Again:

• 1x Hunter horde with mead of madness
• 1x Boomer horde
• 2x Warrior Regs
• 1x Warrior horde with Brew of Str
• 1x Siege Breaker horde- blessing of the gods (elite)
• 1x Giant
• 1x Boomer Sergeant
• 2x Beserker bullies
• 1x Warlock with boomstick- Drain life and Lightning Bolt
• Nom Nom
• Ogre Warlord n a chariot- orb of towering presence

13 units, 25 US

 

Game 1: Dominate vs Nick (Goblins)

• 1x Rabble reg
• 2x Sharpstick legions
• 1x Spitter horde (bows)
• 1x Troll horde- with Det packs and dwarven ale
• 1x Felabag rider reg
• 1x Mincer mob troop
• 1x Maw pup launcher
• 1x winggit
• 2x Giants (Doof and Dorf)
• 1x King
• 1x king on a fleabag with pendant of retribution

16 units, 26 unit strength

Nick loves playing goblins and orcs. This is the third time we’ve met on the table and I always thoroughly enjoy playing him. He definitely lives the goblin life in his approach to gaming.

The game was another good one. I got lucky early on by double charging and smashing both of his goblin legions but this meant Doof and Dorf his twin giants were charging at high steam towards my lines. 

My giant got hit to 17 wounds but a very fortuitous double 1 meant he survived for another round./ A goblin king wasn’t having any of that, grabbing his trusty side kick, a flaggit (standard bearer) he charged the giant and managed a wound and my giant fled the field. The following turn the same king/flaggit combo smashed into a badly damaged boomer horde and also saw them off.

However, by now the superior fighting prowess of the ogres meant that we claimed the field. A good fun opening game with lots of highlights and low lights for us both.

MVP: The warrior horde did sterling work. 

Steady! 

The Greentide advances

The goblin legions did not like being charged by the ogres and imploded in spectacualr style- bothw ere destoeryed in the same turn!)

But this allowed the giants Doof and Dorf to close with my ogres

Hunters slow up the trolls in theforest... I like the ensnare rule. 

Fighting rages in the centre

In the end the ogres maintined superior unit strenght in the 12" centre circel to claim victory. 

Game 2: Invade Vs Arthur’s undead

• 2x skeleton regiments
• 1x revenant horde
• 2x Wraith troops
• 1x Zombie troll horde
• 2x Revenant cav horrdes
• 2x Balefire catapults
• 1x Reveant king
• 2x Necromancer
• Undead standard bearer
• Lady Ilona
• Revenant king on flying worm

(16 units, 23 US)

 I’ve played Arthur once before and he had a fairly typical undead list including revenant horde, a couple of with troops, zombie trolls, revenant cavalry, the dreaded balefire catapult’s, and various characters and an undead flying chicken.

The game went pretty well for me early on and I chipped away at a few units but Arthur put pressure on my right flank with the flying chicken and cavalry. I used my Goat to try to slow down one of the cavalry units and succeed in holding them up for a while which allowed my army to engage the centre. The wraiths proved damn resilient, but I managed to take out the revenant infantry horde and skeleton regiments but in the end got stuck by the wraiths. The wheels fell off mor me when I got the undead trolls surrounded by siege breakers, Nom Nom and a Boomer sergeant and managed to roll the dreaded double 1 which meant rather than dying the trolls held and my units wee then charged from the flank and rear and my right flank imploded and from their victory rapidly slipped away and the undead claimed the field with superior unit strength on the last turn

Deployment

Ogres advance on their left flank and try to refuse the right one. Tactics, smactics. 

the Giant (Bam Bam) smashes into the skeletons. The wight troops in the centre proved ot be a pain though

Fierce fighting in the centre- I've cleared out the reveant horde

The trolls are going to die! 

The moment it goes horribly wrong. The trolls were all but devastated and I rolled a double one so rather than turning to face the reventnat cav and other units I was stuck with my back to them. So close! 

Arghhhh!!! Multiple flank and rear attacks rout my units. 

Time to deal with the last units of wraiths

But Arthur controls the centre

Nom Nom's last dance. Spoiler alert It doesn't end well. 

A great close game, Arthur played well, but I definitely felt it was one that slipped away from me when I blew it vs the trolls but that is the way the dice fall sometimes.

Well played Arthur.

 My MVP: Boomer horde- in hand to hand they did more damage than the siegebreakers vs the wraiths (they may have got a rear charge but even so!).

Game 3: Pillage Vs Rob G’s Knights of the 2^nd Breakfast Halfling army

• 1x Stalwart horde
• 2x Poacher regs (bows)
• 1x Forest troll horde
• 3x Jugger Cav regiments
• 1x Aeronaut reg
• 1x Harvestor
• 1x Ironbeast
• Muster captain
• Sauceror
• Muster Captain on winged Aralez

(13 units and 26 US)

 I’d not faced halflings before and boy do they get a wide range of special rules including plenty of spell guard to protect vs spellcasters.

Going into this game I knew I wanted to keep my forces reasonably compact and not spread out across the table but the way the tokens were placed I immediately threw this plan out the window and forgetting Ogres 101 spread my force wide to cover as many objectives as I could. In fact I felt comfortable that I could control at least 3 of the 7 tokens on the side of the table I started and so was quietly confident, even tohugh I’d never faced a halfling army before.

One nice touch added to the narrative of the weekend for this game was a giant placed in the centre of the table which would wander off in a random direction D10+4” per turn and if it hit a unit a round of combat would be fought before the giant wandered off in another direction.

The game started badly for me when the giant immediately wandered into my siegebreakers, caused 7 wounds and wavered them. My hardest hitting unit in the centre of the board was pretty much neutralised. Fortunately later on the giant wandered into the halfling Ironbeast (tree herder) and like the siegebreakers inflicted enough wounds to waver the beast.

I made a couple of mistakes, including failing to hit the halfling trolls with my hunters- believing that ensnare + being in a woods (hindered charge) would enable me to slow the tolls down so instead of charging them I waited for them to charge me . It was only then I realised they were FOREST Trolls and so had pathfinder. Doh!

The halfling bow troops plinked away chipping away at the nerve of my bullies and boomers but In the end the biggest factor ended up being the aeronauts which bombed a number of units off the table.

The point of the weekend was to get poeple playnig so the TO had relaxed the usual must be painted rules to encourage more players and nothing wrong with that. Rob fielded his new hafling army. Personally I'd have hit them with a can of an armypainter undercoat and painted some weapons but that's me.  

Ferocious little buggers with a host of special rules. Power creep anyone? 

Aralez takes on a warlock.

Nooo... The giant smashes into my siegebrekers. Where the hell did that come from? 

Carnage in the centre. RThe chipping damage from the bows added to my discofort. 

Waht the hell are they? The aeronauts blasted the crap out of my army! Apparently they'd been pants up to now and truth be told on their first turn they missed badly but after that they went nuts! 

The halflings have smashed the centre of the ogres and claimed nearly all the objectives.

Rob played well, and the game went to turn 7 and Rob controlled the bulk of the objectives (6-1) so a very comprehensive victory to the halflings. I was punished for the mistakes I made and Rob played his army very well and thoroughly deserved the win.

MVPs: The bloody giant and the aeronuts! 

Points at the end of day 1

So the end of dfay1 I was 1 win and two losses, the same as the bulk of the players. Gordon was in the lead 3-0.

Roll on day two.