I have managed a few games lately, but Since they are fewer and further between I get focused, and forget to get pictures and notes. Today was a rare day that I was actually alone, coherent, and focused, so Swastakowey and I threw down in a 2K game. Sophie is again taking the field, kitted out this time with Scarletmaw’s Fenulian Amulet (lightning 7.)
Initial Thoughts:
Any time Jayden and I play, it’s going to be an intense game. We’ve recently played 3 other games, and Jayden won 2 of them at 2500 points. I won the other at 2000 points. So today it was back into the fray. This time we are both playing our respective primary armies. Jayden is running his beloved goblins, and I am running the Abyss. His set is a little different this time, and he doesn’t have his triple trombone threat. That could be to my advantage. The game is also an invade scenario which I still consider to be more favorable to me. Our last game was a dominate, and the numbers definitely showed. Sadly, so did the dice, an example is that out of 14 shots on 4s and 3s I managed a single wound. At any rate, it’s always a fun and challenging game against him.
Set Up:
The terrain is set to provide some solid covered and concealed routes, whichever side I choose. I think, looking at the list I’m facing, and the scenario, given the choice, I’ll take the top, and stack heavy on the left flank. Either side, the left flank is favorable for me, since that building and wall in the middle of the far right is not where I want to fight. I do win the roll off, and opt for the top. I know I’m significantly out numbered, but I will deploy without giving my plan away for as long as I can. My first drop is the gar troop on the far right. I do this to draw some attention to that flank, though I expect them to die to early bow fire. The goblins slap the rabble legion down front and center. This legion has brew of courage, and will unquestioningly be supported by the Griffin Banner. A tough unit to shift. I put down the other gars on the far left, behind the farm house to protect them from a first turn kill. The trolls with brew of haste come down next, on the right of the rabble legion. My hell hounds with brew of courage go down next to the left of the gars. The next goblin drop is the flaggit with Griffin Banner right behind the legion, as expected. Rather than a blow by blow from here, I’ll just spell out the deployment. Me from left to right: gar troop followed by tortured souls with brew of haste, Arch Fiend Sophie with lightning 7, hell hounds with courage followed by horsemen with pathfinder, harbinger with boomstick, Lord of Lies, succubi with Helm of the Ram, Succubus regiment with Blood of the Old king and harbinger with Lute of Insatiable Darkness, and over on the far right another gar troop.
The Goblins are deployed, from left to right: fleabag sniff regiment followed by mincer, another fleabag sniff regiment followed by mincer and biggit on fleabag, 3 rock lobbers, rabble legion with courage followed by mawbeast regiment and flaggit with rally 1, troll horde with haste followed by mawbeast regiment, wiz on fleabag with bloodboil, mincer followed by mawbeast regiment, king on chariot with slashing blade, and chariot horde with pathfinder.
Turn 1:
In our previous game, my whole plan hinged on me getting first turn, which I didn’t. This game, I was more conservative, and put more units into starting cover to mitigate a goblin go first. That said, I naturally win the roll off, and opt to take it. The plan is to be very aggressive on the right, since it is the weaker flank, and hold in the center while I roll up the flank in a classic echelon attack. The gars on the right are there to draw fire from the chariots on turn 1. With that in mind, the right side gars shoot up and take cover behind the wall, half shots on a 6 just might keep them alive until turn 2. the left gars move up behind the building and take cover facing left in case the sniffs shoot down the line. All the lightning shooters move into range to zap the sniffs. The rest move up to threaten the rabble horde, except the hounds who range further forward to threaten the rock lobbers. 17 lightning causes 5 wounds on 1 sniff regiment and 4 on the other, but neither routs or wavers. oh, well.
Jayden does the unexpected on the right, and charges the chariots into the gars instead of shooting them. Oops. The fleabags won’t take the hindered charges, figuring they can do more damage with bows than with blades. The rabble and trolls advance, but the mawbeasts hang back behind the hill. The king on chariot goes full bore into my territory. OK, I’ll admit it, a couple of these moves don’t make much sense to me. The king is really out of position to support anything, but I’m sure he’ll be right back in it. Apparently, Jayden also forgot that height 0 terrain still provides cover, so he didn’t think his sniffs would be so ineffective against my hounds. Shooting saw the 3 catapults all miss the tortured souls, and the wiz and sniffs managed 4 wounds on the hounds, enough to waver them. The one combat saw the death of the right side gars.
Turn 2:
Well, the wavered hounds puts a little crimp in my plans, but not enough to concern me. The right gars dying in combat was surprising, but not horrid since I expected them to be shot to death instead of hacked to death. Sophie Charges the far right sniffs and the horsemen charge the others after the hounds reform out of their way. The old blood grils charge the trolls, and the ram girls and souls charge the legion. The LoL and Gars move into position to charge the rock lobbers. and the boomstick harb lines up a shot on the biggit on fleabag. Shooting sees the Lute harb bane chant the blood girls, and the boomstick wounds and wavers the mounted biggit. Both sniff regiments are easily routed, and the horsemen and Sophie turn to offer front charges to the mincers. The souls and succubi waver the legion and the other girls rout the trolls. I was actually hoping for a waver on the trolls, but solid rolling meant I would need to roll a 3 for nerve to not break them.
So, the goblins have a lot of options for charges. The mincers on the right can both charge the horsemen, or one can charge Sophie. One mawbeast regiment and the other mincer can both charge the old blood girls, but one of the would be hindered as well as ensnared. The wavered legion on the top of the hill blocks any charges on the other succubi and tortured souls. The 2 left mincers opt to double charge the horsemen, and the other mincer elects to charge the succubi alone. The chariots choose not to move, for some reason, while the king takes his chariot into the forest. The fleabag wizard also slips through the forest to avoid the charge arc of any of my units except the hell hounds. The maw beasts just sort of mill around without anything for them to do, but one does turn to protect the rock lobbers. One of the rock lobbers shoots at the tortured souls and misses, the other 2 shoot at the hell hounds witting with 1 and doing 1 wound. The wiz uses bloodboil on them and causes another 2 wounds, enough to dispatch them. The king shoots at the ram gorls, and causes a single wound, followed by the obligatory box cars, wavering them. The 2 mincers slaughter the horsemen, and attempt to to advance clear of Sophie’s charge range, one only goes an inch, and will be a flank target. The other mincer scores a grand total of 2 wounds on the succubi, and bounces back.
Turn 3:
The LoL charges the far right rock lobber and the gars charge the far left one. Sophie has no hesitation taking the offered flank on the mincerThe Souls charge the legion again, while the ram girls reform slightly to ensure they are off the hill. The other succubi counter charge the mincer. The boomstick harb unleashes his power on the mounted biggit and wavers him again. The other harb bane chants the girls, who fail to break the mincer. The souls do break the rabble legion, and reform to face the right, being safely off the hill and out of sight of the maw beasts. The 2 charged rock lobbers are broken and will not ever fire again, both the LoL and gars turn to face the maw beasts,, and Sophie crushes the mincer.
The maw beasts charge the LoL, but if they fail to break her will take a flank charge from Sophie. The mincer and chariot horde charge the blood girls. The chariots in the flank should seal their fate, but will also put the war carts into charge range of the souls. The king moves his chariot to again shoot at the ram girls, while the wiz positions for a shot on the gars. One maw beast regiment and the left side mincer both move towards scoring positions. The remaining rock lobber fires at the boomstick harb, and misses. The wiz fires its lightning and zaps the gars for 3 damage, but they are fine. The king shoots at the ram girls again, but doesn’t get lucky enough to waver them this time. In combat, the blood girls are broken and banished back to the pit, but the maw beasts bounce off the LoL. At this time, I have the majority of my army in scoring position, I need only to keep my forces safely in scoring position to win this game, while stopping Jayden from getting any more units into scoring position. I have solid positioning and the maw beasts are not solidly positioned to support, heir best hope is to piece meal into the LoL or Sophie, which could prove disastrous for them.
Turn 4:
Rather than accept the hindrance, the tortured souls opt instead to charge the mincer. The gars charge the last lobber, and Sophie and the LoL gang up on the maw beasts. The ram girls turn to face the chariots, while remaining safely behind the hill where the maws can’t see them to charge. The boomstick harb decides that a flank shot on a mincer is a good target for his lightning, but the boomstick turns to a fizzlestick this round. The other harb fails to bane chant the souls, all around a very poor shooting phase, which has me worried that the combat dice may be just as bad. The gars start the fight, and easily break the lobber, then turn to face the biggit. Sophie and the LoL crush the maw beasts as well, and both ensure the maw beasts will have to pass a yellow belly test to charge them. Though Jayden has yet to fail one this game. To be fair, his 3 artillery pieces only scored a single hit the whole game (I can say that since they’re all dead now.) The souls break the mincer, despite its big shield, and turn to face the chariots and king.
The maw beasts pass their test and charge over the hill at Sophie. The chariot and king both assault the souls. The biggit moves out of the gars’ charge arc, and the wiz moves to try to block the succubi from charging. The other maw beasts and last mincer continue their journey to scoring position. In shooting, the biggit manages to waver the gars, and the wiz damages the girls, but they are fine. In a fit of poor rolling, the chariots and king bounce off the souls after causing just 6 wounds (they need a 12 twice to break them.) The maws score 5 wounds on Sophie, but she is just fine.
Turn 5:
The gars reform slightly and regenerate 1 wound. Sophie and the LoL charge the maw beasts. The souls counter charge the chariots, and the ram girls charge the wiz. The boomstick scores a wound on the mincer, and the other harb bane chants the girls. The girls barely slow down as they mow through the wiz and into the king’s chariot. They waver the king, but the souls don’t fair as well against the chariots. The LoL and Sophie waver the maw beasts as well, Sophie only getting 2 hits out of 9 on a 3+.
The chariots again engage the souls, the biggit moves and shoots at the gars again, this time missing completely (oops) and the maws and mincer roll further into scoring territory. The chariots defeat the souls, and back up 2 inches, still not enough to be in full scoring position, but causing any charge against them to be hindered.
Turn 6:
Sophie and the LoL ignore the severely damaged and wavered maw beasts, and instead charge the chariot horde. Even with hindered attacks, the 14 attacks on 4+ and 2+ plus brutal stand a good chance of routing them. The succubi again charge the king on chariot as well. The Gars, annoyed at being shot at, charge the biggit, which puts them safely out of range of the maws. Both harbingers move on to the hill where they will be able to shoot at the last maw beasts if they try to break for scoring position (and if there is a turn 7.) All 3 combats result in goblin deaths, and the goblins are now in pretty dire straights. If the maws pivot and run for the line, they will still fall short of scoring position, they aren’t capable of charging anything, and it is generally agreed upon, that this is game. Victory to the Abyss 5 to 3. for a 17-3 victory.
Unit of the Match:
The lowly little gargoyle troop are definitely the MVPs of this game. they killed 2 rock lobbers and a mounted biggit, and lived through the entire battle. This means they killed almost 3 times their point value in units, remained safely in scoring position from turn 2 on, and didn’t die.
After Thoughts:
Well, I lost a lot of units, but still scored a solid victory. The souls rolled poorly against the chariots, and it cost them in the end. Wavering the legion on turn 2 definitely was a boon for me, but accidentally killing the trolls before I was ready did cause a bit of an issue. In essence, I got my feet tangled in the middle of the table for a turn, and the extra lucky wavering of the ram girls added to that confusion. The flank force basically did what it was supposed to, clear the flank and turn in towards the center. I am quite pleased with how just about everything went, except the loss of the horsemen to an incredible dual mincer charge. Such a shame, that. You’ll also notice that the goblins failed to fail a single yellow belly test, just one of which could have really turned the game into a total rout. Also, had I been able to waver at least 1 fleabag sniff regiment with turn 1 shooting, I might not have committed so completely on the left. Well, we adjust on the fly. Over all pleased with how the modified list is performing, at least when the dice aren’t completely against me.
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