More after action reports
I got a couple more games in over this last weekend, bringing me up to five. The first game was bit stressful to drive to since it was rush hour on a Friday evening to get to a place I’ve never been. It took me about half an hour to get home; but an hour forty to get there. My opponent told me that he has been playing since the previous edition, but only had like 8 games of experience. The guy had an ogres army (the only thing I’ve faced), but this list was a bit different than my normal opponent’s, starting with 4 things that ran up to you and then exploded for a hell of a lot of damage. It also had 2 hordes of ogre shooters and the uber-ogre living legend. The only other things I recall about it were 2 troops of goblin cavalry and a mounted goblin hero. What it lacked compared to what I was used to facing was vanilla warriors. Looking at it, the shooters needed to be shut down (especially with twice as many of them as I was used to – but at least none were elite), but my priority had to be the walking bombs since they had the potential to be unit killers. I also was very wary of the uber ogre or being flanked by the cavalry. The scenario was loot which isn’t great for an army that wants to stand and shoot while the baddies come to me. I decided early on that my goal was to have two loot counters at the end and to not worry about the third. I decided to ignore the one on the right. I did this for two reasons: First my opponent’s first drop was goblin cavalry on the right. Second, I felt the fields of fire on the other two objectives were better, having learned in 40K that anytime there is an objective it is a lodestone for shooting targets.
My deployment plan lasted until about halfway through deployment. My opponent’s right ended up being just the two units of goblin cavalry and the mounted biggit, while he was deploying his shooters (both units) more to the left. The uber ogre was central along with his lone warrior horde. He placed the walking bombs evenly across his front with one close to each table edge. By this point, I had already deployed most of my staying power (the sea guard horde) centrally with my chaff largely around it. I think I had a single troop of something like archers on my left, having planned to put my fast stuff (dragon lord, chariots, and gladestalkers) to my extreme left. Instead, I decided that my fast stuff could overwhelm his fast stuff on the right and went that way with it, leaving my left actually a little unguarded. Once he saw me putting that stuff on the right, he had to counter with his hunter unit also on the right.
On the right, by being patient with the dragon, I was able to kill those fast flank units, but only at the cost of both the chariots and the gladestalkers. I had double charged the red goblins, but didn’t get great damage. I still needed a 4 to rout them… and rolled a 3. That meant the chariots couldn’t pivot to face the hunters and got hit in the flank. Chariots regiments are not that durable. But by turn 5 (officially 9), his the goblin cavalry was gone, the hunters were hurt, and the biggit was in my rear, but I had managed to bring the dragon across his rear and into the flank of his remaining shooters, as discussed below. (Basically, I had reverted to my original plan to try for the two left most objectives, leaving his hunters to try to hold the right one. I wasn’t too worried about the biggit; he doesn’t hit that hard and, as an individual, gain nothing for rear or flank charges. He did have the war bow, but that was not that much shooting. Thus, when the opportunity presented, rather than have the dragon stick around and finish killing the hunters (which would not have been decisive and wasted his points), I had him go into the center where he was decisive.)
On the left, I was fighting a delaying action and not hitting too well with shooting. The walking bomb got behind cover and then behind my line of sight so I knew it was going to come around on my flank. I did manage to charge the palace guard hanging out there into something so that when the bomb walked up and killed me, it also got his unit too. That ended up basically clearing that side for both of us.
That left the center. I know I got first turn and opened up on one of the walking bombs, causing it to explode. This was when I learned that if I killed them, they exploded on him. This explosion also managed to hit BOTH shooter hordes making me very happy. I don’t recall the exact course of what occurred there after that, but I know that the uber ogre got into my lines, but NOT into the sea guard horde. Instead he charged it into a spearmen troop I had protecting my flank, disintegrated it and then advanced further into my rear. I don’t know if he was trying to get into my rear or just to hit the palace guard that was my second line. Maybe he was hoping I’d turn the sea guard to face the uber ogre, leaving my flank open to his other units. Either way, he left himself open for a charge from the palace guard which wavered him. That left the sea guard open to continue shooting at the walking bombs.
Speaking of the walking bombs, let’s dispose of them right now. Of his four, I managed to kill one of the central ones (call it #2 going left to right) on the first turn and damage the shooters. I wavered #3 for two or three turns before it exploded, damaging no one. #4 got to advance but got breath weaponed by the dragon and exploded, hurting nothing. #1 got around my flank and killed a regiment of palace guard, itself, and damaging some other unit of his (warriors, siege breakers, I don’t recall?).
So… back to the center. It took the palace guard two or three turns to kill the uber ogre, I think two. Meanwhile, the dragon had come across, taken out the last ogre shooters with a flank charge (the other ogre shooters had been heavily damaged by his exploding thing and then finished off by my shooting), and then pivoted to face the center. That pivot left him in the unenviable position of giving the siege breakers’ back to either the dragon or the palace guard (I think – might have been the sea guard). Worse, if he were to pivot to face the dragon, he could not move on top of the objective in turn 6/12. He opted to grab the objective. The following turn, the dragon flew up and killed the siege breakers, taking the objective and the palace guard moved onto the other objective. At this point, he had a biggit and his hunters with the hunters holding a loot marker and advancing from right to left. I had the dragon lord, a regiment of unwounded palace guard, an ASB, and a horde of slightly wounded sea guard and controlled two markers with everything facing right. There was no turn 7/13-14.
I think he really kind of hurt himself in deployment by essentially making three groups. Granted, there were three markers, but by putting all his fast stuff on the right, I knew that I did not have to worry about encirclement. I also think he was a bit timid with his walking bombs and that, had it been me, I would not have deployed them within six inches of my own stuff and certainly not a key unit like the shooters. Still the game was closer than it sounded. Granted, I rolled my three when I needed a four on the right flank and, at another time, rolled snake eyes, but I also HAD to succeed in both my attacks on turn 9. I had to rout the shooters with the dragon so I could turn to face the siege breakers (who had a marker) because I couldn’t break them with a single sided charge. I also HAD to break the horde on the far right (which also had a marker). Granted, it also had more than its rout threshold in damage (this was the unit benefitting from the double ones) so, barring another snake eyes, it was gone if I could wound it. Even then, it would have been a tie (hunters 1, my unit 1) unless I rolled a 1 or two for the after action advance of the dragon kindred so he could end his move on the marker and pick it up. He rolled a 1. Since all of those happened, I was able to get two markers and eek out the win.
My deployment plan lasted until about halfway through deployment. My opponent’s right ended up being just the two units of goblin cavalry and the mounted biggit, while he was deploying his shooters (both units) more to the left. The uber ogre was central along with his lone warrior horde. He placed the walking bombs evenly across his front with one close to each table edge. By this point, I had already deployed most of my staying power (the sea guard horde) centrally with my chaff largely around it. I think I had a single troop of something like archers on my left, having planned to put my fast stuff (dragon lord, chariots, and gladestalkers) to my extreme left. Instead, I decided that my fast stuff could overwhelm his fast stuff on the right and went that way with it, leaving my left actually a little unguarded. Once he saw me putting that stuff on the right, he had to counter with his hunter unit also on the right.
On the right, by being patient with the dragon, I was able to kill those fast flank units, but only at the cost of both the chariots and the gladestalkers. I had double charged the red goblins, but didn’t get great damage. I still needed a 4 to rout them… and rolled a 3. That meant the chariots couldn’t pivot to face the hunters and got hit in the flank. Chariots regiments are not that durable. But by turn 5 (officially 9), his the goblin cavalry was gone, the hunters were hurt, and the biggit was in my rear, but I had managed to bring the dragon across his rear and into the flank of his remaining shooters, as discussed below. (Basically, I had reverted to my original plan to try for the two left most objectives, leaving his hunters to try to hold the right one. I wasn’t too worried about the biggit; he doesn’t hit that hard and, as an individual, gain nothing for rear or flank charges. He did have the war bow, but that was not that much shooting. Thus, when the opportunity presented, rather than have the dragon stick around and finish killing the hunters (which would not have been decisive and wasted his points), I had him go into the center where he was decisive.)
On the left, I was fighting a delaying action and not hitting too well with shooting. The walking bomb got behind cover and then behind my line of sight so I knew it was going to come around on my flank. I did manage to charge the palace guard hanging out there into something so that when the bomb walked up and killed me, it also got his unit too. That ended up basically clearing that side for both of us.
That left the center. I know I got first turn and opened up on one of the walking bombs, causing it to explode. This was when I learned that if I killed them, they exploded on him. This explosion also managed to hit BOTH shooter hordes making me very happy. I don’t recall the exact course of what occurred there after that, but I know that the uber ogre got into my lines, but NOT into the sea guard horde. Instead he charged it into a spearmen troop I had protecting my flank, disintegrated it and then advanced further into my rear. I don’t know if he was trying to get into my rear or just to hit the palace guard that was my second line. Maybe he was hoping I’d turn the sea guard to face the uber ogre, leaving my flank open to his other units. Either way, he left himself open for a charge from the palace guard which wavered him. That left the sea guard open to continue shooting at the walking bombs.
Speaking of the walking bombs, let’s dispose of them right now. Of his four, I managed to kill one of the central ones (call it #2 going left to right) on the first turn and damage the shooters. I wavered #3 for two or three turns before it exploded, damaging no one. #4 got to advance but got breath weaponed by the dragon and exploded, hurting nothing. #1 got around my flank and killed a regiment of palace guard, itself, and damaging some other unit of his (warriors, siege breakers, I don’t recall?).
So… back to the center. It took the palace guard two or three turns to kill the uber ogre, I think two. Meanwhile, the dragon had come across, taken out the last ogre shooters with a flank charge (the other ogre shooters had been heavily damaged by his exploding thing and then finished off by my shooting), and then pivoted to face the center. That pivot left him in the unenviable position of giving the siege breakers’ back to either the dragon or the palace guard (I think – might have been the sea guard). Worse, if he were to pivot to face the dragon, he could not move on top of the objective in turn 6/12. He opted to grab the objective. The following turn, the dragon flew up and killed the siege breakers, taking the objective and the palace guard moved onto the other objective. At this point, he had a biggit and his hunters with the hunters holding a loot marker and advancing from right to left. I had the dragon lord, a regiment of unwounded palace guard, an ASB, and a horde of slightly wounded sea guard and controlled two markers with everything facing right. There was no turn 7/13-14.
I think he really kind of hurt himself in deployment by essentially making three groups. Granted, there were three markers, but by putting all his fast stuff on the right, I knew that I did not have to worry about encirclement. I also think he was a bit timid with his walking bombs and that, had it been me, I would not have deployed them within six inches of my own stuff and certainly not a key unit like the shooters. Still the game was closer than it sounded. Granted, I rolled my three when I needed a four on the right flank and, at another time, rolled snake eyes, but I also HAD to succeed in both my attacks on turn 9. I had to rout the shooters with the dragon so I could turn to face the siege breakers (who had a marker) because I couldn’t break them with a single sided charge. I also HAD to break the horde on the far right (which also had a marker). Granted, it also had more than its rout threshold in damage (this was the unit benefitting from the double ones) so, barring another snake eyes, it was gone if I could wound it. Even then, it would have been a tie (hunters 1, my unit 1) unless I rolled a 1 or two for the after action advance of the dragon kindred so he could end his move on the marker and pick it up. He rolled a 1. Since all of those happened, I was able to get two markers and eek out the win.
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