A slight change of plan. I decided to try this game rather than as a solo game but via skype with my friend Ian taking control of one of the armies. We'd not tried to video-game before so were a little unsure if it would work but it was, as they say, worth a crack.
Dwarves
1x General (elite foot)
1x Housecarls (elite foot)
2x axe-thanes (heavy foot offensive)
2x crossbows (heavy missiles)
1x warmachine
Ogres
1x general- elite foot (+fear)
3x bellicose foot (shiny armour + fear)
1x wargs (lesser warbeasts)
We rolled to see who got whicha rmy and Ian got the Dwarves and we were good to go.
We started with a hidden deployment. I deployed the ogres and had the camera facing so Ian couldn't see my deployment- not exactly subtle being only 5 units anyway) then Ian deployed the dwarves and we rolled to begin. The dwarves winning the first turn.
Deployment. The gores depployed as well, ogres. No tactics needed there. The only real thought being which side to deploy the wargs on.
The dwarves from top of the screen were: ballista, crossbows, elite dwarves (with axe-thanes behind), general, second unit of axe- thanes and closest to the camera the second crossbow unit
Turn 1, Ian managed to move the ballista and crossbow-dwarves at the top of the screen forward then failed an order roll- we allow 1 re-roll within 12" of the commander, a fairly standard house rule.
The ogres advance towards crossbows on my left flank.
I see tasty dwarves ahead.
Turn 2, Ian only activated the elite housecarls before he failed an order test.
Getting closer...
The ogres wade into the crossbows, the ogres had taken 3 hits from the ballista and crossbows on their way into combat. First blood to the ogres.
They destroy their target but are badly mauled (5 wounds in total- though I had a brain fade and thought they only had 6 wounds not 12, oops!)
Some subpar rolling from me.
The heroic dwarven general moves in for the kill- and the glory of finishing off the ogres (yep, I played the whole game thinking my ogres only took 6 hits to remove form the game, instead of 12!).
One unit down...
In the centre the ogres and housecarls clash.
Using the tripod to get close us for Ian. Overall repositioning the camera worked and allowed him to keep track of the game fairly well.
6 wounds equals? Another destroyed unit (actually it didn't but I only figured that out AFTER the game!).
The wargs finally get into the action charging the crossbow dwarves but not inflicting enough damage.
The wargs fall back to regroup (and try again)- alas my army is now under half strength.
More woeful dice- a good general never blames their dice, or do they?
The ogres all all but broken, only the general and the wargs remain. What is that I can see in the back row, oh that's right the elite dwarven housecarls, running and hiding.
See if I can do something about that. The wargs charge the housecarls in the flank but once again fail to finish off the dwarves.
This is definitely not looking good!
In the end the valiant ogres were overwhelmed and totally destroyed. The dwarves managed to lose a unit of crossbows, some axe-thanes, and so it was a crushing dwarven victory.
A good fun game. Ian rolled his dice at his end of the line and I did all the moving of the troops. The dwarven army was a nicely balanced (combined arms I think we call it) force. The ogres maybe a tad one-dimensional and could probably benefit form a few more wargs or other troops for variety- two units of bellicose orcs maybe at the expense of one of the ogres? At 8 points each they were fairly steep points wise. However, I was running the ogres as if they were only 6 strength point so they probably died a bit too easily (they should have been 12 strength points doh!).
As an experiment into internet based gaming it worked really well and we are keen to have game 2, Gondor vs the bugbears (a similar one dimensional army if ever there was one) one evening next week, so from that point of view it was a definite success.
This size game lends itself to online play really well, I wouldn't want to try it with a more complex game or much bigger forces though- unless we had a few cameras postioned to capture the action. .
Craig
Nice looking game, thans for sharing!
ReplyDeleteNo worries, it worked better than I thought it would.
ReplyDelete