So the Orcs came to town game 1 of 3

EMP vs OnG

Random deployment

So an exciting day of gaming, but a sad day as this was my last chance to duke it out with Ben before he jets off to Australia to show them over there how to really play warhammer. This is the first of 3 battle reports. The other two will go up in a couple of days.

Ben brought his OnG to have some fun. He also brought afghans with a caramel bit. Note to other people I play-I am very much open to baking related bribes.

His list:

Warboss: +1 to hit sword, 4++, crown of stubborn

lvl4: scroll

savage lvl1: shrunken head

Black Ork BSB: 4++

Black Orc: HA

5 spider riders

30 something Savage Orc Big Uns

30 something board and sword orcs

6 trolls

1 troll

pair of gobbo chariots

2 manglers

doomdiver

rock lobba

Big spider thing (Ronald Reagen)

My Empire list was:

GTM: Runefang, ch.shield, luckstone                        250

lvl4: scroll (light)                                                            225

BSB: Bsteed, FPA, Sh, SOM                                          129

Engineer                                                                          65

13 ICKS: FC                                                                      355

10 xbows                                                                         90

2x5 archers detach                                                        70

30 Halberds: M, SB                                                        200

10 RICKS: FC-gleming Pendant                                   305

2 cannons                                                                        240

3 Dgriffs                                                                           174

3 Dgriffs                                                                           174

Hellblaster                                                                       120

2397

So an interesting matchup. I have a wall of steel, gunpowder, and a heroic sense of "being the good guy" and Ben has a green wall of smelly gross stuff that in the story provides a scary threat, but really is just a plot device for the dashing hero to discover something about them self.

Any who deployment. I had the honour of "deploying" my army first.

It went like this:

so yeah-all my knights on 1 flank and behind a forest... Also engineer is MILES away from the hellblaster. Please also note the painted skull temple hill thing. Did that the night before having initially bought it on pre-order...the sticky up bits are pinned in for easy storage.

Ben's orcs deploying in kind like this:

SO yeah-both manglers looking at my knights along with both artillery pieces and savage orcs to nicely swing by and clean up. Fun.

However the Orcs fail to steal first turn.

TURN ONE:

Empire:

Starts with me trying to untangle the left flank. The RICKS test the forest-venom thicket (of course), so opt to march through as no benefit to just walking. one of the DGriffs waltz's into the forest too, while the other unit reforms into a unit and looks to swing to the middle of the table white the bus decides to wait and see what the orcs do.

Magic phase opens with an IF burning gaze on the mangler my cannons cannot see. = dead mangler (yay), but also dead lvl4 (not so yay). Only kills 2 of his mates in the process + wounds the hellblaster.

The cannons open up and kill the 2nd mangler, while the other fails to wound Ronald. 1 archer detach kills a spider.

Orcs:

Well, what to do? The spiders declare a charge on the archer detachment, and fail. Something happens to them-I think they flee from a panic and end off the board-I believe it could have been from this.  The rest of the army hangs back, lurking around to see if the shaman can foot FTW.

In the magic phase the first foot gets off. This kills a few of the RICKS puts a wound on a DGriff. The WAAAGHtillery also targets the RICKS who were pushing the left flank hard.

TURN TWO:

Empire:

The WAAGHtillery was a little too far to charge this turn, so the RICKS move up aggressively to threaten both machines. The bus also decides to commit and moves to look the Savages in the face-but not without some DGRiff support. The other Dgriff unit moves towards the middle of the board.

With no magic it is straight to shooting. The archers manage to put a wound on the solo troll and the cannons bounce off Ronald. sigh. I might have gotten 1 wound on him. No Combat so straight to The Orcs

Orcs:

Ronald feels his time has come, so charges an archer detachment, who flees (voluntarily), but are run down. Best option really as it meant Ronald couldnt over run into the MANtillery.

The foot struck again killing a few ICKS. DDiver might have helped the foot clean up the RICKS as there were only 6 left at this stage. + 2 of the DGriffs are now dead, so I blame the foot (most likely candidate as that thing just kept on going...) No combat.

TURN THREE:

Empire:

The Grand templar, disgusted at the lack of combat decides enough is enough and orders the charge. The ICKS + remaining Dgriff smash into the Savages, while the RICKS decide to give the rock lobba a taste of some cold hard steel.  To support the charge, my remaining detachment moved up to block and divert any supporting charge from the Orc bus. I saw an "opportunity" to flank Ronald with the halberds, but an opportunity does not always = "good idea" so didn't. Instead I kept my respectful distance  due to gobbo chariots and trolls + black orc leadership that were slowly closing in. Shooting was a good as it was ever going to get. 2 cannons at Ronald + hellblaster at long range = ronald down to 3 wounds. the MANtillery is looking rather pathetic at this stage.

Combat : RICKS take out the lobba and reform in a way so they can support the ICKS combat, or charge the Ddiver. The main combat was a bit of a wiff TBH. RUNEFANG vs 5++...yeah...DGriff vs 5++ ward??? HELL YEAH. Dont need no fancy magic sword! The combat resulted in a draw, so we both reformed to look like this:

Orcs:

The bus, clearly annoyed by not been able to flank the ICKS takes it out on the poor down trodden detachment who was only doing as ordered (dead-reform to face ICKS). Ronald flies into cannon (dead-overrun into engineer). While solo troll moves to block the now central Dgriffs

 

Now I believe it is this magic phase where I lose some more RICKS (down to 4), but also get to foot the chariots-who flee having previously taken a wound or 2 from the super archers. I may not have a wizard, but I still get to kill stuff in the magic phase! The doomdiver then decides to explode having just been moved with the hand to safety.

In combat the ICKS do a lot better, but the savages hold as they gave it back just as good-but not good enough.

TURN FOUR:

Empire:

SO Dgriffs charge the troll and wipe it out. They reform to be a little closer to the orc bus. The Trolls, now being a little threatening, mean the halberds set up to charge them. The RICKS flank charge the savages to swing the combat my way with an awesome display of martial prowess, the Savages are beaten, flee and are cut down by the valiant knights, who all over run conveniently out of the Orc Bus's LOS. In the shooting phase I checked the engineer rules and it seems that they can still look after a warmachine EVEN IF ENGAGED IN COMBAT-only restriction is distance and not shooting...weird. Anywho the remaining cannon tries to snipe the black orc from the Trolls, misfires, engineer re-rolls to another misfire (probably because busy being eaten by a giant spider)...sigh.

(ps-the empty movement tray on the hill is where the 3 remaining RICKS should be. They just fell over and was easier to just put the tray where they should be)

Orcs:

A little miffed that the knights escaped, the bus reforms to face the DGriffs to avoid a rear charge. Ronal decides to eat another cannon, but fails to overrun into the Hellblaster. The Trolls are hand of gorked to a scary position.

TURN FIVE:

Empire:

After much thinking, the DGriffs charge the bus, confident that they have held up super Vamp busses (a very convenient thing to know). the knights all reform to face the rear of the bus (the solo DGriff runs to threaten the gobbo chariot that is on the board edge just in case it rallies).

 

The Halberds re-form to draw the trolls away from the bus combat and the hell blaster opens fire. The xbows move forward to avoid a potential over run.

Now short range, no engineer, get 24 shots = 12 should hit = 4 should wound = dead Ronald right???? Well I got 12 hits and this was my "to wound" roll:

...yeah Ronald has 1 wound left and a free pass to continue killing stuff.

In the combat my Dgriffs do amazing!  winning by heaps, and forcing a stubborn ldship check.

Orcs:

Bye bye hellblaster +and trolls charge into the Halberds.

...and I fail my fear AND my steadfast check and run (away)

TURN SIX:

Empire: 

ICKS rear charge the bus and Halberds rally and face off with the trolls for round 2.

I kill everything except the warboss and BSB in the combat.

Orcs:

Ronald is looking hungry for his next kill...

DENIED!!!!! by a failed terror test = flee 11 inches through building to safety!!!! However, the trolls still love eating halberds who once again flee (but die this time). The warboss and BSB survive a round of attacks, but only just.

 

RESULT

A sweet, sweet victory for the Empire. The MANtillery has some soul searching to do as it utterly failed to kill a giant spider. 5 hits for 3 wounds is stupid for cannons. Hellblaster was sans engineer, so can be forgiven. Ronald was player of the match.