KoW: Ogres vs Dwarves

 It's been  a couple of weeks since our last game and I've been off on holiday camping, doing some bike trails and traveelling up the Westcoast of the South Island in my camper van. Was great break and plenty of time to plot the demise of Gordon's dwarves. 

Gordon ran the same force as last time... brocks, lots of brocks. 

Gordon’s dwarves (2000 points)

• 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. 

I had slightly tweaked my own force, dropping a regiment of Goblin scouts (I used them woefully last game) in favour of an extra boomer sergeant and increasing the boomers to a horde. It also meant rejigging some of the magic items. 

My Ogres (2000 points)

• 1x goblin scout regiment
• 1x boomer horde
• 1x shooter horde
• 1x hunter horde- mead of madness
• 2x siege breaker hordes- brew of healing
• 1x giant
• 1x sergeant with crossbow
• 2x boomer sergeants
• 1x Nomogarok  

This game we also decided to use a clock for the first time which added a bit of extra pressure to get things done quickly. 

Mission:  Salt the earth- I didn't really get to grips with the misison last game so wanted another crack at it. 

Deployment 

I went for a strong centre (see photo below) with my siege breakers and boomers supported by Nom Nom, the sergeant and a boomer sergeant using the tower to secure my flank. Gordon went for weighting his right flank with all his brock riders and again deployed his sharpshooters to maximise their 36" range.  

This view gives a good overview of the location of the objectives. 

Turn 1: The ogres went first and some ineffective shooting meant not much happened for me. 

I advanced the siege breakers and boomers but everything else basically stayed put. 

The goblin scouts tried a sneaky advance to bring them into range of the sharpshooters next turn. I positioned them to minimise sharp shooter shots... or so I thought. 

Gordon's reponse was to send forward his Ironguard and release their throwing mastiffs followed by the sharpshooters also targetting the Goblin Scouts. End result? The goblins are no more. 

Turn 2: A lesson in charges. On my turn 2 I positioned the boomer sergeant to protect the shooters flanks- they had just done some serious wounds to the brock troop- but alas I was thwarted. 

As you can hear in the video Gordon's manovre completely caught me by surprise. I had positoned my Boomer Sergeant to block/ hold up the borcks for a turn or so) as I had assumed the shortest route to the target applied (red arrow on photo below) but actually the brock regiment could (as is shown by the blue arrow) advance past the boomer sergeant pivot part way through the charge and then hit the shooters in the flank (the brocks started in the flank arc). that completely screwed up my plan and not so surprisinly when hit in the flnak by a regiment of anry brocks the shooters were well and truely run down and my flank screen evaporated!

The shooters ended up double brocked and cut to pieces as a result; but the boomer sergeant survived vs the brock lord.  

This isn't going to end well. 

And here endth that particular lesson on charges! A mistake I shan't repeat in future that is for sure!

Turn 3: Gordon has rolled up my right flank but my main force are advancing steadily in the centre.

The mastiffs command the hill. The sharp shooters and the rangers focus fire on Nom Nom, who survives, but is wavered. 

Turn 4: Things were not looking good on my right flank and so used the giant to try to slow down the brocks- aka thicc chaff. I just wanted to slow up the brocks and try to stop them getting back into the centre of the table. 

Bring it on!

In the centre the Siege Breakers are getting in charge range of the Ironguard and Rangers while the Boomers too are getting into the swing of things. 

The Siege Breakers try to get on the flank of the Ironguard but Gordon in his turn advanced the dwarves out of their charge arc but the sharp shooters were also valid targets for next turn. Nom Nom remains wavered- thanks to a double 1 nerve test. 

The mastiffs charge the Boomers and get an unlikely waver. 

The siege breakers kill one unit of dwarven sharpshooters, while the Hunters hit the Rangers in the flank and destroy them- my first kills in the game.

Gordon underestimates the hunters and charges them with brock regiment and troop but the combination of ensnare and terrain protects the hunters- they are fast becoming my favourite unit. The dwarven hero charges the siege breakers to stop them supporting the hunters. 

The Boomers and Boomer Sergeant struggle vs the Ironguard and Mastiffs. Nom Nom healed himself and managed to remove... 1 wound. 

An aerial shot of the same turn- the mastiffs again wavered the Boomers. 

The siege breakers destroy the second sharpshooter troop and claim a token. 

The hunters get flank charged by another brock reiment and are cut down. Having seen off the dwaefhero the siege breakers are charged by a troop of brock riders.

Both the Boomers and the Sergeant are wavered. The Brock Riders about turn to go for an objective grab but the Siege Breakers are sitting on one objective.  

Turn 5: 

Turn 6. 

Result: 2-2 draw

The game ends at the end of turn 6. I had 2 objectives and so did Gordon. However, if we had a turn 7 Gordon auto won as I had no way to stop him taking another objective.

Thoughts 

 A tough game but a lot of fun. I totally screwed up my boomer sergeant chaff trick vs the brock regiment and my right flank crumbled as  a result and at that point thought I was about to be rolled up by the brocks. 

As usual Gordon played very well but I hope I managed to give him a bit of a run for his money and I felt that I did a better job of that in this game compared to our previous one. 

It was interesting playing under a timer and it did affect how we played and will take a bit of getting used to. We gave ourselves 1:30 each time was but both used about 1:02 mins so not too far off the 60 mins we need to get down to. 

This game was a good example of keeping your eye on the prize. We both made mistakes but I tried to keep my focus on the objectives as much as I could.  

I used the goblin scouts poorly again and once more the siege breakers showed their ability to take damage and  dish it out. The hunters too have been doing well for me and I again I was impressed by them.

The two boomer sergeants (which I consider to be chaff) worked well and I like the flexibility they bring to the list. 

So as is usual in my games vs Gordon lots to take way from this one and hope that I put a bit of pressure on in the last couple of turns. I am happy with the balance of the list, now I just need to get better at making the combinations work and minimising my mistakes. 

Craig