Orcs and Goblins vs Dark elves 2000 points: Bolts of spite

A change in pace this week as I have a fantasy battle report for you, the hordes of Warboss Drongo face off against the dark elves in a 2000 point game. The first book of this edition vs the latest... let’s see what happens.

The Armies

Orcs and Goblins 1997

Orc Warboss – 188 (General) w/ orcs

Armour of Destiny, shield, sword of striking, iron curse icon

Goblin Great shaman – 205 w/ trolls

Level 4, dispel scroll (vindictive gaze, gift of the spider god, itchy nuisance, gork’ll fix it)

Orc Big boss – 129 w/ orcs

Armour of silvered steal, battle standard bearer, great weapon

40 Orc Big’uns – 430

2x hand weapon, full command, war banner

5 spider riders – 65

5 spider riders – 65

20 night goblins – 60

Bows

40 Night Goblins – 190

Spear, fanatic, nets

6 Common Trolls – 210

Arachnarok Spider – 290

Rock lobber – 85

Doom Diver – 80

If you can’t tell, I haven’t played fantasy in quite some time and though I would just throw some stuff together and see what happens. Honestly I have no idea if this is a good or bad list, only the game will tell.

Dark Elves 2000

Supreme Sorcerers (general) w/ crossbows

Level 4 (doom bolt, blade wind, soul blight, word of pain)

Death hag w/ witches

Cauldron of blood

30 corsairs

Full command

15 dark shards (crossbow men)

16 dark shards (crossbow men)

24 witch elves

Full command

Reaper Bolt thrower

Reaper bolt thrower

5 Doomfire warlocks

Bloodwrack medusa

The dark elf army has a lot of shots and a fair amount of magic, plus a very big and scary deathstar in the form of the witches plus cauldron of blood. Not great. I will have to be careful with set up.

The Mission

We roll for mission and we get Battleline, which is great for me as it’s been a while so having it simple helps me out. The elves win the roll for deployment and pick me to start setting up first, we deploy in turn and he ends up deploying first as I just about outnumber him, and we roll for first turn, he wins with a 7... Dark elves get first turn.

Deployment

Note: The night goblins at the back are between the boys and war machines, they wouldn't stay on the hill.

The Battle

Dark elf turn 1

Movement starts with the medusa walking forwards and hiding in the shadow of the observatory, the rest of the army walks forwards while the warlocks move up my right flank.

Magic phase and its 8 power vs 5 dispel, he manages to get off doombolt from the warlocks onto my trolls and deals 2 wounds which fail to regenerate. Blade wind is another spell which fails to get stopped and it kills 8 of my orc big’uns.

Hails of crossbow bolts fall from teh sky as one unit of crossbows shoot at my short bow goblins, killing 1, and the other unit shoots at the trolls and kills the wounded monster. The bolt thrower on the right shoots at the trolls and manages to kill another troll out right, but the bolt gets stuck in the troll behind and deals no damage thanks to regeneration. The bolt thrower on the left shoots at the goblin archers and kills 1, no problems.

Orcs and goblins turn 1

Without any bouts of animosity or stupidity the army moves forwards as a wave, one solid green wave.

Magic phase and all of my spells are stopped bar gork’ll fix it which is cast on the right crossbow unit.

The rock lobber hurls its payload at the cauldron of blood and hits it square on, but with a terrible roll of a 1, it deals no damage to the cauldron and the witches under the template make a lucky escape by not getting wounded. Terrible display. The doom diver targets the warlocks and hits, dealing 2 wounds but the ward save prevent any damage. In a desperate last attempt to do something the goblins on the back of the Arachnarok spider shoot at the warlocks and manage to bring a single model down!

Dark elf turn 2

Starting the turn we measure and see the witches are in range of charging the orcs so test to restrain and pass.  The medusa marches up towards my war machines on the left and the warlocks move back to face the spiders on the right. Moving forwards the corsairs stroll into the rocky terrain and wait there as they trigger the night goblin fanatic who comes out to play.

Magic phase and again its 8 vs 5. First he attempts to cast soulblight onto the Arachnarok spider reducing its strength, he then casts doom bolt on the spider and I attempt to stop it and fail, he manages to deal 3 wounds to him, dropping him down to 5. To finish the phase he attempts to cast bladewind onto the orc unit but I use my dispel scroll as he rolls very high.

Shooting from both repeater bolt throwers targets the Arachnarok spider with the multiple shot ability, but neither of them manage to deal any wounds. One unit of crossbows targets the night goblin archers and kill 3, while the other targets the boys and fails to do anything thanks to gork’ll fix it.

Orc and goblins turn 2

Rolling for animosity and the goblin archers unit fails and rolls squabble, but they are in range of the corsairs so I declare a charge hoping they might make it (and over rule squabble) and roll 11, easily making it into combat. The night goblins with spears declares a charge on the witches, but as I’m not 100% sure the goblins will make it the orcs declare a charge as well. After rolling distance the orcs make it but the goblins fail. On the right both the spider riders and Arachnarok spider charge the warlock who hold.

Magic phase and I manage to cast the powered up version of vindictive gaze on the crossbows with the level 4 mage and get it though, killing 7 of them and they run. I attempt to cast gork’ll fix it on the witches but its dispelled. To finish the phase I cast gift of the spider god on the orc boys and it gets though.

Shooting from the doom diver targets the medusa but misfires, I roll skid mark so the shot still goes off but hits the first thing in its path, the medusa and kills it in 1 hit. The lobber misses.

Combat and the warlocks fail their fear test but still manage to kill 2 of the spider riders, with the Arachnarok being weakened and bad rolling it only manages to kill 3 of the warlocks but they run and get cut down. The overrun doesn’t make either unit reach the bolt thrower but they are right on its door step. Corsairs attack the goblin bowmen with fury and the sheer number of attacks from them just rips the goblins to bits, I lose combat by a lot and require double 1 to stay, I don’t and get cut down attempting to flee, rolling double 1 for my distance. Chasing, the corsairs cut down the bowmen and slam into the night goblins with spears. The grand melee however is very mixed, the death hag attacks the orc big boss but her attacks just bounce off his armour, the witches though cut down swathes of orcs, and 14 falls to their blades. The orcs attacks back and manage to kill 9 witches over all, with the warboss killing 4 of the 9. In the end I lose combat by 2 and hold.

Dark elves turn 3

The crossbows rally and turn around, the other unit attempts to swift reform towards to spiders on the left but fails, so just reforms.

Magic and its 12 power vs 6 dispel dice.  I am not sure what spells he cast this turn, my notes are a little fuzzy, but he did manage to get a doom bolt off on the Arachnarok spider and deal 2 wounds to it.

Shooting from the crossbows onto the Arachnarok deals another 2 wounds, reducing it to 1. The 2 bolt throwers target it with the single shot and both fail to wound the spider! Long live the Arachnarok spider! Shooting at the spider riders on the left, the crossbows kill all but 1 and he runs.

Combat and the hag issues a challenge to which the warboss accepts (in true orc fashion, I refuse to get killed by a naked elf!) and the hag dies, and I get +2 overkill. The witches attack the boys and kill 18 of them reducing me to a handful of models. Attempting the same trick the death hag attacks hte BSB but again bounces off his armour. The bsb attacks the death hag back but she passes her ward save on the 2 wounds he deals to her. So I kill no one this turn and lose by loads, but double 1 for moral and stay! Awesome.  Corsair’s vs night goblins and the elves get a net to the face and only manage to kill 7 goblins, who in return kill 3 elves. I hold.

Orc and goblin turn 3

I have very little left now, I’m probably going to lose but let’s give it a go! No animosity fails which helps. The Arachnarok spider charges into the crossbowmen with the general and the spider riders charge into the reaper crossbow. In the centre the trolls charge into the flank of the witches.

Magic and its 12 vs 6, I mange to cast gift of the spider god on the trolls and gork’ll fix it on the witches, that's all I needed.

Shooting is over very quickly as they both misfire and can’t shoot this turn or next.

Combat starts right to left and the spider riders lose 3 of their number but the 2 remaining goblins (well the spiders) kill the crewmen, and over run. Arachnarok spider goes mental and stomps on 4 crossbowmen, the goblins kill 2 more and then the thunderstomp reduces the unit down to just the level 4 wizard. The wizard breaks and I elect to hold, hoping to help out against the witches next turn. He runs and stays on the table. Grand melee between the witches, orcs and trolls and the deathhag attacks the warboss and gets 3 wounds on him, I roll my 5+ save, fail, 4+ ward, fail all of them. MY general dies to a single round of close combat. His witches split their attacks between my boys and bsb. The attacks on my orc big boss with battle standard, cause 3 wounds and he also dies after rolling two 1’s. The remaining boys are cut down. Hoping to get some payback the trolls swing and mainly miss, only killing 2 witches, then stomp a further 2 into the ground. The trolls run and get cut down by the witches. Fighting between the spear goblins and corsairs ends with the goblins losing 6 and the elves losing 3, but the goblins hold with their basic leadership.

Dark elf turn 4

Charge! And the witches charge into the Arachnarok spider as they now face him after chasing the trolls. Rallying, the wizard turns her attention back to the Arachnarok spider.

Magic phase and the wizard kills off the 2 spider riders with a doom bolt and then casts word of pain on the Arachnarok spider giving it -3 to a few of its stats (including toughness).

Combat phase and the witches just murder the spider, it was only on 1 wound and the witches have soooo many re-roll he was bound to die. This round the corsairs kill enough goblins to stop them being steadfast and make them flee and cut them down.

At this point I call the game as It was practically over (I only had the war machines left) and it meant we could both get another game in against other people.

Post-Battle

That could have gone a lot worse, the big combat between the witches and orcs was what decided the game, and as if I could have killed them (not likely) I would have been able to mop up with the Arachnarok (hopefully). My plan was terrible as was my list looking back now but I enjoyed the game, I haven’t played fantasy in a very long time so maybe I should play a few more games.

Looking at the list I want to field more goblins, they didn’t do very well but I just want them. I love the little green gits and think it’s only fair I give them another shot. Who knows, maybe using my not very converted forest goblins will help out? We shall see...

Hope you could read this report, I played this game about 3 weeks ago and my notes are a little bad so I apologise for any and all inconsistencies.