This week saw a 1500 points game against the Tomb Kings which was quite a fun game with a few interesting turns. Now I have played the odd game or two against them so nothing is especially surprising here but I have learnt to fear a few units in particular (now don’t laugh at me, low ld gobbos make you fear allot).
First up is the Casket of souls, this thing can really upset the artillery at the back of your army. While I can live with losing a hand full boyz or goblins to this thing, losing your artillery turn two really distresses me as it’s normally how I take down big beasties. The second is the Warsphinx and its thunder crush attack. While orc boys can attempt to take damage from it the lowly gobos generally get creamed by it. And finally Tomb Kings/Princes leading skeletons... why you ask? Well having WS 2 goblins needing 5’s to hit skeletons really irritates me, the boyz don’t mind as much but still aren’t especially happy about it. So having these fears about the Tomb Kings you would think I would prepare for it... well it appears not as I forgot about everything I have learnt about them while making my army list.
Orcs and Goblins army list – 1499 points
Lords
Orc Great Shaman – 265 W/ Orc boyz
Level 4, Fencers blades, Talisman of Endurance (foot of Gork, Ere we go, fists of Gork and gaze of Mork)
Heroes
Black Orc Bigboss – 140 W/ Orc boyz
Battle standard, dragon helm, opal amulet
(Before you laugh at him, I decided to change the orc bsb to black orc so I had to give him cheap equipment)
Orc Bigboss – 78 W/ Boar boyz
Boar, spear, enchanted shield, light armour
Night Goblin shaman – 110
Level 2, dispel scroll (forgot all game he had this) (gift of the spider god, itchy nuisance)
Core
48 Orc boys – 358
Standard, musician, 2 choppas
41 Night Goblins – 188
Standard, musician, nets, spears
Special
10 Boar boys – 200
Spear, shields
Rare
Doom diver x 2 – 160
And the game plan for this army? Yer, I’m not sure, it was more a vague idea of sending the horde of orcs straight up the centre of the field to beat up anything that they came across while they are flanked by both the Gobbos and the Boar boyz (from now on BB) in the flanks... hopefully. All the while the Doom Divers (DD) should be taking chunks out of the enemy. I would have preferred a rock lobba instead of the second DD but I wanted to test out having two of the pesky things. The heroes will all be in units and the black orc will hopefully keep the boyz in check, coz without him I could really get hurt if I loose a turn of movement or two with them. Anyway here is the Tomb Kings army I was facing.
Tomb Kings – 1507 points
Lords
Grand Hierophant Khatep – 330 w/ archers
Hoers
Tomb Prince – 149 W/ Skeletons
Great weapon, armour of silvered steal
Tomb Prince – 204 w/ chariots
Armour of fortune, great weapon, chariot
Core
41 Skeletons – 194
Full command
3 chariots – 165
20 archers - 120
Special
Warsphinx – 210 (proxyed by a orc wyvern)
Rare
Casket of souls – 135 (proxyed by a transformer and half a bone giant, we're quite classy you see)
Well onto deployment. As it’s a Dawn attack game we rolled and I won to set up first, rolling for all of my units I got lucky having all three of my units in the centre with one DD on the left. The plan looked like it might still work. But seeing it on the table my battle line looked tiny... it didn’t look like it would go well. Tomb kings turn to set up and his army was in a way just as localised as mine except all of his units got put on his left flank (my right) apart from the archers who got to set up in the centre of the table all alone. This looked like it could be quite interesting for me as the archers were set up slightly too far away from the rest of his army so I had a chance to get them on their own and destroy the hierophant before his army can really hurt me. Well that was the plan.
Looking at his army I wasn’t feeling great, he had everything I’m not happy about seeing. The Warsphinx and its T8 could be a real problem without a rock lobba. The chariots could be scary if they hit me flank and the damn casket has to die before I do. I think that’s going to be priority target for the BBs. He especially has to die as my general is only Ld8... Why did I pick this game to see how not having a Warboss would go? Anyway back to the game, he rolled to steal the first turn and failed on a 5... Close enough to worry me there a little.
Set-up
Turn 1
With my first turn I attempted to take an aggressive stance to dictate the pace of the game (or something like that, something that sounds good, and not like a dick). With no animosity kicking off yet, all my units charged forward going hell for leather attempting to get to the Tomb kings. The boyz and gobos ran towards the archers, while the BB go towards the chariots (hoping to charge them next turn).
Magic and the wind didn’t favour me, with the Tomb kings successfully channelling both side had 6 dice. Keeping with the aggressive stance I attempted to cast foot of Gork on the archers to hopefully open up Katep or if I’m really lucky squash him under Gorks sweet green foot. With a strong roll of 4 dice Katep uses his scroll of the cursing word to shut down the spell. Now this isn’t so bad, dispel scroll with a toughness test... so obviously I fail. Something happens if you roll a 6 you say? Isn’t it lucky that’s what I rolled. D3 wounds if it happens? Ok so only a 1/3 chance of it happening? OK so you rolled a 5 and he dies in an explosion of orc blood and dung beetles? Well I guess that’s what I guess that’s what happens when you rely on a shaman to be your general. Now I’m not saying that the scroll is overpowered, as its not, only 1 in 18 times is it going to work so beautifully, most of the time it wont do anything disastrous its just a bit gutting that it worked first time round. Then with the 6 remaining dispel dice my 2 lowly dice get shut down.
Shooting and both my DD’s target the archers end up dealing 7 wounds combined. So after what was meant to be an aggressive turn my opponent got 265 victory points (+100 for the general) while I score 42 (technically), what an amazing turn.
Tomb kings turn and very little movement, the army shamble forward with the chariots slowly moving alone and the skeletons and sphinx moving towards the archers.
Magic and the wind blows gently with a roll of 3 total but thanks to the casket of souls I’m out gunned with power dice, and with no level 4 mage to back up the dispelling I’m in trouble to begin with. The incantation of Vengeance was cast on the orc boyz which I had to let though as my DD’s would suffer from the casket if I let it though. Granted I didn’t understand quite how the spell worked and shot myself in the foot there as it’s a scary spell, but I stick by my convictions. The casket predictable targeted a DD but was stopped.
Shooting was very uneventful with the night goblins using their shields like pros taking no damage from the archers and showing up the BBs who don’t know the meaning of armour save and lose one of there number to the chariots shooting from half a world away. Got to love those 3+ armour saves...
Turn 2
And the first roll of the turn and the orcs fail their animosity test, luckily I had the foresight of a black orc who kills a boy to get order back into the mob. The night goblins run forward towards the archers but the orcs stay still, as if they move 1/6 of their umber will die. It’s a harsh spell which I will look out for next turn. The boar boys are out of charge range of the chariots so instead of moving forward to get killed they run into the shadow of the forest in an attempt to be able to charge the casket next turn.
Magic and a perfect roll, double 6. Shame I only have a level 2 mage with no damaging spells. Gift of the spider god was stopped and I slipped though itchy nuisance onto the archers (so only 1 inch move for them). Shooting and I managed to be heroic killing exactly 1 archer. A nice short turn for me.
Tomb Kings and the army shuffles forward again with no charges, and the chariots continue on there leisurely drive around the woods. The warsphinx jumps in front of the casket blocking my BBs putting me in an interesting predicament. Not what I want but I shall have to deal with it.
Magic and the wind blows as weak as last Tomb king turn and the same result occurs with the orcs being neutered in favour of loosing my artillery. How the winds can change so drastically.
Shooting and once again the undead surpass themselves with accuracy and kill 1 night goblin and some how snipe another boar boy.
Turn 3
Again no animosity so the army is behaving itself. The boar boys have a hard choice now, with a warsphinx in front of them and chariots slowly flanking them they have no choice but to charge and decide to charge the sphinx. The goblins run towards the archers again and will be in charge range next turn. The orcs having been neutered in the movement department they just hold their ground to save getting pulled in to the ground.
Magic and the shaman attempts to cast itchy nuisance onto the warsphinx to give the boar boys a fighting chance but all the dice are thrown at it and stop it in its tracks. With nothing to oppose it the BB are then gifted by the spider gods giving them poisoned attacks... fine by me.
Once again the DD prove there worth killing 2 archers between them... so glad I bought them this game.
Combat and then BBs fail there fear test... just what I needed. Having little chance of hitting now only 1 wound made it through thanks to poison but they took 2 in return. Even though they lost the combat the BBs hold their ground like champions and get ready to be hacked to bits next turn.
Tomb king turn 3 and the skeletons flank charge the BBs as expected. The chariots continue moving and are now in a dangerous place to attempt to attack me in a turn or two. The archers hold there ground again so the Night goblins should be able to charge next turn.
Magic and a high wind roll combined with a high casket roll makes it hard for me to stop everything I wanted to. Starting with the casket to draw out my dice (which worked... damn) it was stopped. The sphinx was granted as extra attack, the night goblins were targeted with the incantation of Vengeance but not wanted to loose them as they charge I dispel it with all my remaining dice. With no opposition the archers where given a 5+ ward save and the sphinx was given Killing blow. Not quite what I wanted but it could be worse (if I keep telling myself that, it’s true). Shooting and once again its quite ineffective only killing one Night goblin.
Combat and once again the BBs fail their fear test, showing their true colours and it sure as hell aint green. With so many initiative values it get a little confusing but after all is said and done the boar boys take soul destroying damage (surprise surprise) leaving the bigboss on his own. 1 skeleton died to the boars and the sphinx himself took 2 wounds thanks to poison attacks from the boar boys. The bigboss bailed from the fight an escaped and leave the skeletons and sphinx in his dust.
Turn 4
The orc boys once again fail animosity and get beaten back into order by the Black orc who’s not having any part of it. The night goblins charge into the archers and the orcs get back into gear and run towards the fights erupting in front of them (about time the lazy gits started moving). The Lone bigboss finally decides he knows how to pass a leadership test and rallies in the middle of the enemy unit... he will have some fun choices.
Magic and the goblin shaman starts showing his worth casting both spells, first itchy nuisance onto the archers which is let though (only did it to try and draw out some dispel dice) then casting gift of the spider god onto the night goblins with irresistible force. In return for being such a stud at magic he takes a wound and all the remaining dice are removed from the pool.
Shooting and the first DD misses spectacularly and is only outshone by the second by it exploding thanks to a misaligned rope or something (love how the DD was worth its points).
Combat and the night goblins net the archers and kill 4 of them only taking 2 wounds from the archers. The unit crumbles down to just Kapet giving me a chance to kill him.
In response to my actions the sphinx charges the night goblins in the flank, while the skeletons move forward and the chariots continue of their tour of the country side.
Magic and the deadly incantation of vengeance was once again stopped, and the sphinx was buffed to hell with +1 Attack and Killing blow. Katep wards himself but the caskets powers make it though this time targeting the orcs but fails to do any damage thanks to the leadership of the black orc. Shooting and the chariots keep up their marksmanship skills killing two of the orc boyz.
Combat and the sphinx thundercrushes and thunderstomps the gobos who take 13 losses but before it happened they managed to kill Katep with some very lucky poisoned attacks. Even though they took disastrous losses they held thanks to steadfast and the nearby battle standard (on leadership 5!!!) and then manage to reform in defeat to face the monster bearing down on them.
Turn 5
Once again my orcs start acting up and roll a 1 for their animosity. Luckily the black orc bigboss still had his choppa handy splitting the skull of one rowdy boy. With the lads back in line, the orcs charge the skeletons who have no choice but to hold. A very short movement phase. The lone bigboss walks towards the casket of souls ready to destroy it next turn.
Magic phase and with no Kapet to stop me my lowly shaman gave the goblins the gift of the spider god to hopefully deal some damage to the warsphinx. On to shooting and the once remaining DD does me proud smashing straight into the middle of nowhere.
Combat and the goblins manage to do a single wound to the sphinx but take 3 casualties from the tomb guard and the shaman gets pounded by the sphinx. A thunderstomp later and the goblins run for the hills while the sphinx reforms facing the orcs.
Speaking of whom, with a devastating charge the orcs managed to kill 8 skeletons only taking 3 casualties in return. So after all is said and done the orcs win combat by 7, so 7 more crumble.
Tomb kings turn and all the units have to tests for crumbling. The only unit that takes any damage is the casket with a double 6, which explodes killing the lone bigboss on boar. The sphinx charges into the orc boys left flank and the chariots charge into the orcs right flank. The orcs are in a massive pile of trouble.
With no magic or shooting we go straight to combat and the impact hits alone kill 8 boyz. I’m not going to bother explaining what happened to the boyz as it’s quite clear but the Tomb price on foot stepped forward issuing a challenge. The black orc bigboss sees an opportunity to prove himself and accepts the challenge, swinging with his choppas he deals a single wound to the price who in turn fails to do any damage thanks to the opal amulet. Combat resolution and the orcs (No longer being steadfast) run as well.
It’s practically game here so we didn’t go onto turn 6. Seemed a bit pointless, as I only had one DD left.
My army was devastated; we tallied up the victory points to be something along the lines of
Tomb kings: 1690
Orcs and Goblins: 585
So... that was successful for me. Have I learnt anything? Probably not, but here are a few points that might mean something.
· Boar boys are expensive and I’m sure one day they will hit home and be worth every point. But I either keep using them wrong or the situations they shine in are just not presenting themselves. Regardless of which one it is (probably the first) I’m going to stop using them for a bit.
· The two Doom divers were a bit lacklustre. If they had hit the chariots they would have done more damage but they were on the other side of the table. I will use just one next game and see what happens.
· Finally I don’t want to use a caster as a general again. I know it was a rare occurrence but I just don’t want to risk losing my general first turn again in MY OWN TURN!!!!
So that’s it for today, let me know what you think.
Malduran.
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