Conquest 2021- Ogres on tour

 This weekend was the annual Conquest wargaming competition in Christchurch. Gordon (Dwarves), Josh (Goblins) and myself (Ogres) drove up on Friday afternoon. We spent a relaxing Friday evening discussing possible match ups, armies and units we liked the look of, armies we didn’t want to face.

 Mark organised the event and was our gracious umpire/organiser.

 Game 1: Nick Grant- kill

I knew of Nick through Robin Sutton’s blog Wargaming NZ, where he sometimes features in battle reports and games, but hadn’t met him before. Nick had a nice Goblin army which included two giants and two legions of rabble a horde of allied axe orcs and a krudger.

The missions was kill, which is always a good misison to introduce new gamers to the game. Looking at my ogre army I knew I was going to be out numbered but hoped to whittle down the orcs before dealing with the legions and the giants so focused all my firing on the orcs and soon had them waivered. The game ended up pretty ones sided and the ogres eventually emerged the victors having lost a couple of units in the process. 

That is a lot of goblins!

You know you are having a bad day when you are ganged up by two units of siege breakers and some boomers. 

Nick kept a great attitude throughout the game even when things went from bad to worse to damn near cataclsymic- he was left with a maw pup launcher on the table at the end of turn 5! I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him and sharing a few laughs over the game and weekend. Nick not only got my vote for best sport but also won the sportsmanship prize for the weekend which was a testament to the attitude he displayed throughout the weekend. 

MVP: Manny the mammoth, who was a major part in dealing with both giants- though the goblins scouts also got an assist on one of them. 

Game 2 vs Paul with Nothern Alliance- Loot

This was the game I was least looking forward to going into the competition and Paul’s army was one I hoped not to face and it looked as tough as nails and included:

A human Clansmen (Horde), a regiment of Dwarf Clansmen , a regiment of half elf berserkers, some Ice Naiads, 2x Huscarls regiments, a couple of troops of pack hunters a lord of frostfang, caver dweller and some characters.

The mission was loot there were three loot counters across the table and whoever controlled more of them at the end of the game would win. 

Northern Alliance deployment

 

Turn 1, the Northern alliance cave dweller heads for the loot counter

Turn 1- the frost fang charges the hunters in the woods and face difficlt going + ensnare. In my turn the mammoth flank charges the lord on fhe frost fang and make shot work of him. In fact on turn 2 I destroyed 3-4 units through shooting and the combats and suddenly the game swung my way. 

Rampaging siege breakers charge the huscarls. 

Over the next couple of turns the ogres smash theri way though the various units and by yhe end of turn 5 or 6 only two cahracters remain o fhte Northern Alliance army. 

Thoughts: that wasn't what I expected! Paul sending the frost lord in to the woods unsupported allowed me to take him and then the cave dweller out piecemeal and this really took the pressure off. 

I definitely had the roll of the dice fall my way but was glad to have seen off the army I still rate it as one of the most dangerous at the competition.

Hard luck Paul but well played even when the game swung so decisively in my favour. Paul went on to win three of the games and come 4th overall.  

Game 3: vs Emma (Basilians)- control 

This was Emma's third wargame ever- her earlier two games big her first two! Emma had just finished painting her army and it was looking pretty good. She hadn't had time to finish the basing but the army is coming along nicely, she has a great theme for it and the army is petty damn solid on the table top. In fact, this was actually the other army going into the comp that I'd have rather not face it I could avoid it as those knights hit hard and have extra movement on my ogres, and the flying units would also be a real problem fo rthe ogres to deal with.

Emma's dragon- the first dragon I've enocountered in Kings of War. 

Having not played the misson before Mark the TO and I explained to mission conditions and gave advice here and there but for someone who has only just started playing wargames Emma played a pretty damn good game and it really went down to the wire in the latter turns. 

Deployment

One of the three regiments of knights. 

Emma, made a strong attack early on my right flank. 

The mammoth was once again my MVP thee times a nerve reroll ended up on 17 needing 18 to destroy him and then Nom Nom would hela the wounds back a bit. 

Somewhere in the middle turns there is a brawl in the centre of the board. 

If in doubt send the mammoth vs the dragon. 

Turn 5- I am hanging on to get enough unit strength over half way. The Eohli has just slammed into the rear of the hunters destroying them and then done the same to the goblin scouts. 

End of the game- that was about all that was left on the table and the ogres squeeked out a win.

That was a great game Emma played really  well and really took it to the ogres. About turn 3 onwards she got her three fireball using characters focus firing on units and suddenly the ogres started to melt.

Emma was anothe great opponent and I really enjoyed the game, for someone who hasn't played any games before she played damn well and she ended up coming 5th overall Definitely someone to watch out for in future if she keeps playing Kings of War.

End of day 1

I had a great first day. Gordon also won three games and Josh 2. Going into the event I wanted to win two maybe three games and so had achieved that I joked about not needing to come back for day two.

I enjoyed all my games and although most of the players were new to Kings of War Mark ensured that everyone had a good time and that it was a chance to get familar with the rules enjoyed the event and hopefully would want to continue with Kings. There was a good friendly atmosphere throughout and everyone seemed to enjoy the games and rules which was the main aim. 

At the end of day 1 the Ogres were doing well but each game I was always worried at how easily they can melt away as had been shown in the third game when Emma managed to destroy 7-8 of my units. With only 11 units I tended to be to out-deployed and so tried to focus on what my plan was and what I wanted to do rather than what my opponent was trying to do with their deployment or to get me to react to them. This usually worked and gave me a solid platform in the first few turns. I really needed the boomers and shooters to chip a way a few units early if I could to bring the unit number balance back to more partity. As I had a small army I had decided to try to concentrate on two thirds of the table at most and not stretch my army out to thinly. In most games this strategy seemed to work reasonably well. 

I was probaby lucky not to face much more shooting as the army does seem to melt quite quickly to shooting. Still ,all the units had performed well in one game or another on day one and although I definitely was making mistakes by and large things had gone my way. 

Craig