KoW: Ogres vs Dwarves 2000pts

 The other day my little blog, and game vs Josh last week,  got a mention in the Kings of War community update .

Fame, sort of.

Well would the new found recognition go to my head or would Gordon and his sneaky dwarves bring me crashing back down to reality?

Gordon has revamped his dwarves and is now running a Brock heavy force backed up by Ironclad, and rangers of course. 

I always enjoy playing Gordon, he is a very skilled and canny player and always manages to do something to catch me by surprise and always learn heaps by watching how he uses his  units- in this particular game it was a lesson in use of characters to minimise/ protect vs charges.

 Gordon’s dwarves

• 2 regiments ironguard both with throwing dogs,
• 1 troop of mastiffs, 2  troops of brock riders,
• 2 regiments of brock riders 1 with brew strength, 1 with brew sharpness,
• 2 troop sharp shooters, 1 regiment of rangers, 1 berserker lord on a brock.
• 1 lord on a beast with blade of the beast slayer,
• 2 ASB 1 with heal 3, 1 with bane chant 2.
• 1 hero or lord on a brock. 

My Ogres

• 2x goblin scout regiments
• 1x boomer regiment
• 1x shooter hordes
• 1x hunter hordes- brew of haste
• 2x siege breaker hordes- chalice of wrath and potion of healing
• 1x giant
• 1x sergeant with crossbow
• 1x boomer sergeant
• 1x Nomogarok  

 I had added a regiment of boomers, my aim to use them as chaff to slow down charges and hen let the siege breakers counter charge the next turn... well that was the theory.  

Mission: Salt the earth

Deployment 

Gordon had more troops to deploy than I did so my goal with deployment was to keep my main force closely supporting each other and use the goblin scouts out wide on each flank to hoepfully force Gordon to deploy wider than he'd like. 

That is a crap load of brocks!

Gordon won the dice roll and went first. 

I deployed the shooters in the woods for extra protection but Gordon targeted them with his rangers and sharpshooters and managed 7 wounds then rolled and 11 for nerve test and destroyed them! I'd deployed my sergeant further than 6" away to try to get a bead on the brock troops. First blood to Gordon. I'd already lost a unit I was expecting to be able to slow down the brocks with without even firing a shot.

 

The brocks claim the hill- a handy positon to charge down from. 

On my turn I used the building to screen my goblins from the sharpshooters, opening myself to a flank charge from the mastiffs and brock lord but was worth the risk. Nom Nom, the boomer sergeant and boomers advance into the pond. 

I got lucky iwth Nom Nom, three lightening bolt hits on the sharpshooters in the woods, rolled a 10 for my nerve check followed by an 11. Both sides shooting was on fire. Alas I did forget to shoot the sergeant at the Brock riders, which was my main aim going into the game! 

At the top of the table I decided to scoot the oblin socuts up the flank to tie up the rangers and Ironclad for a couple of turns- option B was to do a 90 degee pivot and reinforce the centre which may have been the smarter move as it turns out. 

Turn 2: Sure enough the brock lord takes up the challenge- causing 9 wounds and wavering but not destroying the goblin scouts. 

The brocks lining up their targets...

Turn 2. I wasn't expecting Gordon to be so bold with his brocks, he threw a troop of them and a lord into the boomers and boomer sergeant but luckily for me only caused a few wounds. The second brock troop charged the giant and again did a bit of damage. I had stuffed up the hunters deployment and on my turn had pivoted them to swing round to where the shooters had been so they were not in a charge arc to support the giant- a mistake that Gordon capitalised on. 

My goblin scouts retreated and afterwards Gordon pointed out that nimble units can also turn in a retreat- a handy rule to know for future reference. The siege breakers did a hindered charge on the brocklord and did 5 or 6 wounds in him but were now open to a charge in their flank by the brocks. 

Things got complicated on turn 3. The bserker lord (big bully that he was) did a corkscrew charge vs the goblin scouts and the mastiffs and brock riders double teamed the siege breakers- something I'd overlooked  on my turn. 

Nom Nom had healed 5 wounds on the scouts but they weren't going to survive another flank charge. Things were not looking good for the Ogres. in the pond the dwarf lord and brock troop continued trading blows with the boomers and boomer sergeant. 

The giant was underwhelming (9 attacks) vs the brock troop near the woods then in his turn Gordon pivoted the brock troop 90 degrees and charged the giant with the brock regiment with brew of sharpness. Ouch!

A top down view of the key battles on Gordon's turn 4. 

Botom of turn 4. Not a complete white wash but I have lost the siegebreakers, goblin scouts, goblins scouts at the top of the board too- okay so it's not looking good. Hoewever, the boomers managed to take out one troop of brock riders while in the woods the hunters anniliated the oteher brock rider troop- hunters are becoming my favourtie unit. Overall though this definitely is not looking good! 

The brock regiment charges Nom Nom how despite the odds stays- doubles 1s! Gordon repositioned  the dwarflord to protect the brocks flank. 

The giant finally starts rolling over 3 for number of attacks and destroys the brock regiment but he is sitting on 13 wounds and is wavered. Even with fury he's not looking good. The hunters and the sergeant take on the dwarf lord and slay him- but the lord did as asked and slowed me down for an extra turn and prevnted me charging the units I wanted to.  

Hey were did the hunters go? Sharpshooters + rangers= no more hunters. In the last couple of turns rangers really hit home with some accurate crossbow shots. Somehow Nom Nom stands for another round vs the brocks. 

Turn 6. I wanted to charge the brock riders who were covering one objective with the  siege breakers but Gordon again made excellent use of an advance after combat to make sure that he blocked them and prevented the charge. The  sergeant who was my only other unit left on table claimed one objective. 

The siege breakers charge the Ironclad instead as it was their only option- they do a few wounds but not enough to count. 

Result: 4-1 to the dwarves. Turn 5 and 6 I tried to get in position to claim another objective but it wasn't to be. 

Thoughts 

 Gordon played really well and capitalised on my many mistakes and I was on the backfoot from early in the game and he never really gave me a chance to get back into it. The units I took out late in the game helped a wee bit but I was well outplayed this time.  

Gordon took out my shooters on turn 1 with a good nerve test roll which didn’t help my cause (sharp shooters 36” range, yikes!) but it was my fault for deploying the sergeant too far away to inspire them! 

His brock rider troop charges on turn 2 also caught me off guard and I was playing catch up, or more correctly trying to hang on for dear life, from then on and was never really able to wrestle the initiative back off him. Throughout the game Gordon did all he could to cut down flank charge opportunities and did this really, really well.

I played my goblin scouts very poorly and need to use them better, my plan to use them to try to spread his defence wide was sound I think but I should have reployed rather than trying to sneak up the flank on my riht hand side of the table. Still 1 goblin scout regiment did tie up the hunters and Ironclad for 3 turns so the sacrifice wasn't entirely in vain. 

Overall though, a decisive and very well deserved win to Gordon. I was worried about the charges of those brock riders, the mastiff pack on the flank is a great wee chaff unit too that needed to be taken into account each turn and so I think was another useful element of his force.

Not sold on the two regiments of goblin scouts and may swap one for more boomers but overall depsite the loss was happy with the force,. I just need to play it a bit smarter. I always learn more from games I lose rather than ones I win so have a few lessons that were drummed home in this one.  

I shall lick my wounds, take heed of the lessons and plot the demise of the dwarves in our next encounter.

Thanks very much for the game Gordon. I don't feel I put you under much pressure this time but I think that was because of the way you played it and as I said you definitely deserved the win. 

Craig 

Kings of War: Ogres vs Goblins

 We’ve been in covid lockdown in NZ the last few weeks but down in the South Island we are now down to level 2 and so I am able to get down to Oamaru and get some gaming in. Today Josh popped round, after having had a game vs Gordon in the morning, for a game at my place, both times using his new goblin list.  

Josh’s goblins- 2000 points

Josh has made some significant changes to his army post Oamaru Onslaught and I like the direction he is going in.

• 2x Goblin rabble hordes
• 2x troll hordes
• 2x fleabag rider sniff troops
• 1x mawpack beast troop
• 1x mincer mob
• 1x mincer
• 1x winggit
• 1x Goblin king
• 2x wizards- 1x boomstick, 1x conjurers staff
• 1x troll bruiser
• Magwa and Jo’os
• 1x Magwa’ns regiment

16x units, 23 unit strength

Lots of units there! The trolls and mincer mob especially being things I would need to watch out for.

 

I took my new ogres- 2000 points

I am unsure of a couple of points- one being the berserker bully but overall am fairly happy with the core.  I was also very unsure about the hunter horde and keen to see how it would fare on table. However, before the battle I had organised my ogres into three rough battle groups, units which I intended to work together. Actually, originally my plan called for the battlegroups to cinsit of a unit of siege breakers and either the giant or the hunters but in the end decided to group the two siege breaker hordes together and use the giant and hunters as a second battlegroup which I hoped would be able to control the difficult going terrain. 

Battlegroup #1: Left flank

• 1x Goblin scout regiment
• 1x hunter horde
• 1x giant
• 1x berserker bully

 Battlegroup #2: The Centre

• 2x siege breaker hordes
• 1x berserker brave regiment
•  1x Nomorok  

 Battlegroup #3: Flank protection

• 1x berserker brave regiment
• 1x shooter horde
• 1x sergeant with crossbow

Unit strength: 22, units 11

We rolled up the control mission so we got points at the end of the game for controlling each of six sections of the board.

I was going to be out deployed so my aim was to try and not spread out too much, try to focus on/ dominate the centre, have the hunters and giant hold one flank by securing the woods on the left. Other than that, I had no real plan really.

As you can see from the photo below the goblins stretched out over the board. Just out of picture at the bottom Josh deployed his winggit, which I really was unsure how I would deal with this as I have no anti-flyer options really. 

An aerial view of the orges deployment

The goblins took the first turn. Josh kept the winggit out of the arc of the sergeant but forgot that he was within the berserker braves charge range.  

The winggit wizzing down the flank. Josh concentrated his wizard's and Magwa's lightning bolts on the shooters who took a number of wounds. 

Ogres turn 1... charge!!!! Alas the berserker braves failed to do enough wounds but did waiver the winggit. 

On my left flank the hunters and giant charged the sniffs- overkill I know but hey it was fun!

The hunters and giant then fell back slightly, the trolls and goblin rabble charging the giant on their turn. 

As you can see the left is where the acton is taking place in and aorund the woods.  As you can see the shooters have taken 8 wounds from the various oblins wizard's and both the shooters and sergeant had returned the favour by wounding the wizard with the boomstick and removin a nit of sniffs. The sergeant has turned to face the winggit which by now had gotten right behind my right flank. 5 shots needing 6s to hit= bugger all chance in fact. At this point I was starting to rue not having any "indvidual" characters.

The brawl in the centre expands. The red goblin scouts and the giant both attack the trolls, which had regenerated a few wounds, the hunters supported by the siege breakers take on the goblin rabble, yes total overkill in use of my points but I didn't see to many problems on the horizon.  

To cover the siege breakers open flank I sent the berserker bully forward to kill the mawpack and possibly slow down the trolls and mincer mob too.  

The mawpack died to "Captain Chop Chop" but the scouts and giant failed to destroy the trolls which left the scouts open to being charged by a mincer. 

The Magwan's charge the siege breakers, the winggit continues dropping bombs and harassing various units- and I was unable to do anything except for a few crossbow bolts and lightning bolts from Nom Nom. The Berserker Bully got himself double charged and was cut down in a round. The Goblin rabble causing 9 wounds themselves. 

That bloody winggit and its firebombs! Josh keeps chipping away at the shooters

The mincer charges into the flank of the goblin scouts destroying them. 

In my turn I do a few sneaky charges- the giant charges the mincer and the hunters took care of the trolls. Further the right the siege breakers charge the other unit of trolls and the berserker braves charge the goblin rabble, while the other siege breaker unit continues fighting the magwan's. The shooters had taken a few more wounds  and were likely to die next turn to shooting so they too charged, 18 attacks at 4+ was very handy. The sergeant and Nom Nom continued on their futile game of trying to shoot down the winggit.   

A close up of the action

The hunters change their facing having seen off the trolls and to avoid being flanks charged.

A look a long the line as the battle rages. My second unit of bserker braves are eying up some goblin characters in the nearby forest. 

Turn 5 (I think): The seige breaker emerge victorious in the centre having smashed their way through the goblins magwans and trolls. Nom Nom contines hurling lightning bolts at that bloody winggit.  The berserker braves kill Magwa.

The mincer charges the siege breakers in the flank while the mincer mob charges the beserker braves. 

The mincer mob was then destroyed and the game ended at the end of turn 6. The ogres controlled 3 sections and the winggit one so game to the ogres.

Thoughts

It was a good close game. On turn 4 or 5 Josh chose to charge the beserker braves but afterwards we discussed whether charging the siege breakers might have been a better option but other than that not too many "what ifs." I liked the variety in Josh's list, it is defintiely a "tool kit" list d will require a  bit of tweakin and gwttin the right units workin together and supporting each other but I think he is on the right track with it. The trolls were very annoying to face, as was the winggit. I don't have much to counter one flyer, let alone two or three, and so that is a definite point of weakness that may ened addressin. Boomers sem to be a common "AA" choice but I rewally don't want gunpowder weapons in my force so are not an option for me, maybe a second unit of shooters instead of the bully and one of the bserker braves regiments, otherwise I will simply swap the beserker bully for another sergeant with a croosbow and leave it at that. 

I was very pleased with how the hunters performed, in the woods they really shone and made a nice 1-2 with the giant. Definitely worth their points. 

As i said above, one change I think I will make is to swap the beserker bully to a second sergeant. I needed inspiring for the giant and hunters and the 8 attacks of the bully meant I was a tad to... rash with the way I used him.

Overall, though I am happy with the balance of the force and how it has performed on table so far. 

Craig