10 March, 2018
Initial Thoughts:
I’ve been trying to get the opportunity to play against Malcolm or his son Nathaniel for a few months now. Today all the cards fell just right, and I chugged my little creamed colored hamster up the highway to the Fairbanks Comic Shop. Now, to be fair, the wife wasn’t letting me off scot free. I had to hit the pharmacy for her on the way into town, and had a shopping list for after we were done.
I got the table set up, but forgot to add a bit more terrain. I had originally intended to add a couple buildings or the like, but hey, 2 hills, 2 woods, a pond, and 2 obstacles isn’t too bad.
Nathaniel showed up and started to unpack and set up his orcs. We talked a bit while he was getting set up. I introduced him to everything in the army, and showed him the list. The first thing he unpacked was a krudger on winged slasher, then the godspeaker and a hero on gore. (So the hero is actually the new annoyance type orc hero, a krusher on gore.) Yep this is shaping up as a pretty standard orc army. Next up comes some gore riders, a regiment and troop, then a horde of axe, and regiments of morax and greatax. The one thing that pleased me to no end is that then out came the skulks. I think skulks are one of the most under-rated units in the game. They technically fight better than they shoot, and vanguard gives them a really great opportunity to prove that. His final units were a horde of trolls, yay. I like Mantic trolls, but they look like they skip leg day at the gym more than the ogres do. Speaking of ogres, Nate lamented that he had loaned his giant to a friend, so he needed to use a horde of ogre warriors with CS2 in place of the giant. The final things that come out are 2 war drums.
Set Up:
After rolling Push as our scenario, those of you who’ve read my reports know just how much I love Push. [/sarcasm] We roll for sides and the orcs take the side without the pond. (For the rest of the report, this will be considered top, and my side will be bottom. Left and right will be from my perspective.) We’ll start with the orc deployment from left to right: Skulk troop followed by gore rider troop, morax regiment followed by greatax regiment, krusher on gore, ax horde followed by war drum and krudger on winged slasher, troll horde followed by godspeaker with inspiring talisman and heal, ogre warrior horde with great weapons followed by the second war drum, and a skulk troop followed by a gore rider regiment with pathfinder. Before we get going the left side skulks slip into the woods, and the right side ones move forward, stopping short of the woods. Ultimately the ax horde winds up with 2 loot tokens and the great ax get the third.
So, to counter his deployment, and make the most of my speed, I opt to go with the double envelopment. Pretty standard for me, as many of you know. The forces of the abyss, from left to right: Gargoyle troop, Archfiend Sophie (wings, lightning bolt 5, and Scarletmaws Fenulian Amulet,) tortured souls horde with Brew of Haste in the pond, succubus regiment with 2 loot tokens, succubus regiment with Griffin Banner and a loot token followed by a harbinger with the Lute of Insatiable Darkness, hellhound troop with Brew of Courage, harbinger with the Boomstick on the small hill, Lord of Lies (LoL), abyssal horsemen regiment with Macwar’s Potion of the Caterpillar, and a second gargoyle troop.
Turn 1:
I win the roll off, and open the game up. The left gars hop up to take cover behind the wall. Sophie and the souls advance in the open to just inside of their charge ranges for turn 2. The succubi regiments, harbinger and hellhounds move up about 8 inches using the hill as cover from the orc infantry, but into charge range of the slasher. (Having never played Nathaniel before, I wanted to judge how aggressive he’d be. The hope was he’d hit one of the succubus regiments, and leave himself open for a flank charge.) The harb with Boomstick and the LoL both move forward on the hill to where they have a clear shot on the right skulks. The horsemen and other gars advance to just inside the woods. Sophie lets her lightning fly at the left side skulks, but they are well grounded, only taking 2 wounds, and holding just fine. The LoL and Boomstick harb unleash on the right side skulks, and reduce the entire troop to ashes. (Man, looking at this picture, that wall of orcs looks pretty intimidating. If they stick together I’m going to have a hard time head on. I need to get my fast forces around into the flanks.)
The krudger on slasher doesn’t take the bait. On the left, the gore troop moves a bit towards the center, but not so far they can’t cover the skulks in the woods. The krusher moves up to threaten the souls and Sophie. The morax and greatax advance behind him. The ax horde gets really froggy though. Not knowing the abyssal forces very well, the orcs rush forward up onto the hill. The trolls advance up to the wall to face down the hellhounds with the godspeaker following behind. The ogres rush up to the wall, and face off with the horsemen. The drum also moves up to take cover behind the wall. The skulk cover is gone, so the gore riders hold just out of charge range of the horsemen. The krudger also holds back to where he can charge in anywhere that combat starts. (Where he is sitting, he literally has charge arc and range to support everything but the skulks, gore troop, and ogres. The skulks in the forest let loose a flight of arrows, and actually wound Sophie.
Turn 2:
I find myself in a very rare circumstance; I actually have the opportunity to take a quad charge on the ax horde. If I fail to break the horde, I’m ass out, literally. The krudger would have a flank on the souls, the trolls have the hounds, and an ax horde has a lot of attacks with which to harm a succubus regiment. On the other hand, if I do break the horde, I can reform the souls to take a frontal charge from the krudger and/or the morax, the hounds will also reform to take the hindered charge from the trolls, but they could then end up with a flying krudger in their flank. The other options I have are to send the hounds in on a hindered charge against the trolls, the souls against the morax, and the dual succubus charge on the horde with a best case situation being the hounds get really lucky and waver the trolls, the souls get really lucky and break the morax to be followed up by a charge from the greatax. The succubi stand a decent chance of wavering the ax horde provided one of them draws the bane chant. However, one of them will end up taking the brunt of the horde if I don’t hinder them, and the other will take a hit from the kkrudger on slasher. I decide to accept risk and send in both succubus regiments and the hellhounds in the front and the tortured souls in the flank. Just remember the cardinal rule of Kings of War, “There’s no such thing as overkill.”
Sophie can just see the gore rider troop on the left, so charges them. The gars flutter over the wall and into the krusher on gore. On the right, I move the horsemen deeper into the woods, and fly the gars to the other side of the forest to block charges on the horsemen from the ogres and gore riders. For shooting, the Lute harb bane chants the right side succubi, and the LoL and Boomstick harb try, unsuccessfully, to zap the drum.
With the less than efficient shooting phase, I get a little apprehensive about combat. I start on the left with Sophie who hits and wounds 5 on the gore troop. With the aid of brutal, the gores are broken, and Sophie spins to threaten the flank of the morax and greatax regiments. Okay. The gars go next, and somehow manage 2 wounds on the krusher. Even more surprising, they roll an 11 for nerve, and the krusher goes down. Heady from their victory, the gars advance, but have to stop just 1 inch from the morax. Now for the big combat. The hellhounds manage 4 wounds. The bane chanted girls get another 6. So far, so good. The other succubi blow their rolls bad, and only add 2 more. Finally, the souls get hot, and tack on another 12 wounds. 2 low nerve rolls are still enough to rout the ax horde, and we reposition to best face the threats coming our way. We distribute the loot, and pick up the one the Griffin Girls are on, effectively giving each succubus regiment 3 tokens, and sitting in the middle of the board. It’s still anybody’s game.
The gargoyles on the left successfully block the morax from hitting one of the good units, and prepare to die for the good of their Archfiend. The gars on the right are also prepared to do their duty to Archfiend Sophie. The morax charge the left gars, and the ogres take the hindered charge on the right. The krudger and the drum charge the Griffin banner succubi and the trolls take the hindered charge on the hellhounds. The greatax move up directly behind the morax. The godspeaker moves behind the hill to get a good line of fire on the souls, and the skulks emerge from the forest, also with the intent of shooting the souls. Finally the gore riders move up to get into the fight. The combined shooting of the godspeaker and skulks causes 4 wounds on the souls, who easily shake it off. Both gar troops die spectacularly, but hey, that’s what they’re for. The ogres over run into the woods. Surprisingly, the hellhounds hold, as do the Griffin succubi despite being wavered.
Turn 3:
One of the cool things about flyers is the asymmetric nature of the battlefield when they’re used correctly. Instead of taking the obvious charges, and, clearly, there are some traps set for me if I do, Sophie flies over the 2 combat regiments and smacks into the godspeaker, who is just in her range. The souls also don’t commit, instead the fly a bit to the right, and set down facing the flank of the greatax and morax. The unengaged succubi flank charge the drum, and the Griffin girls counter charge the Krudger. The Hellhounds also counter charge the trolls. On the far left, the horsemen charge the ogres in the woods. Again, I do something unexpected and send the LoL in on a frontal charge on the gore rider regiment. She knows she can’t break them on the charge, but she can take the estimated 4 wounds on the anticipated counter charge without much concern. (Note the 50mm base is representing the krudger right now since the hill is kind of messy.) The Boomstick harb manages to wound the drum, and the other hard successfully bane chants the Griffin girls. For combat, I start from the right, and the horsemen wipe the floor with the De4+ ogres. The LoL manages 4 wounds (pretty spectacular, all things considered,) but rolls a 4 for nerve. The hellhounds score 4 wounds on the trolls, but roll low for nerve. More shockingly, the Griffin Girls only score 6 wounds on the krudger, but he holds as well. Sophie eats the godspeaker, and turns to face the krudger’s rear and trolls’ flank. The other succubi smash the drum, and reform to face the oncoming morax.
Counter charges are the rule of the day; trolls into hounds, krudger into the Griffin Girls and gore riders into LoL. The Morax also commit against the succubi. The drum hustles down the wall to try to impede the horsemen, the greatax turn to face the souls, and the skulks shoot at them again, scoring another 2 hits, and almost breaking them. In combat, the trolls finish off the hounds, and turn to face Sophie. The krudger has a bad roll, and tags 3 more wounds on the Griffin Girls, wavering them. The morax do 9 wounds to the other succubi, and waver them, thanks to the presence of the still standing Griffin Banner. The gore riders do the expected 4 wounds to the LoL who easily shakes it off.
Turn 4:
Looking at the picture above, you can see I still have some options open to me. The horsemen and Sophie could gang up on the trolls and hope the Griffin Girls can break the krudger, or the horsemen could charge the drum. Both of those options would leave the charge hindered. The third option is to put them into the gore riders. This is the option I choose, but before I do, I move the LoL about 4 inches to the left, facing towards the trolls. (Looking at the picture below, you’ll notice I wasn’t very steady in taking this one.) The obvious options for the souls and succubi, I do take, as both succubus regiments counter charge their respective targets (I haven’t yet mentioned this report how much I love Fury.) Sophie decides that the krudger’s rear is a better charge than a frontal attack on the trolls. I do send the souls into the greatax, though. The boomstick harb takes another shot at the wardrum, but completely misses. The other hard also attempts, but fails, to bane chant the girls attacking the morax. Oops. The horsemen ride full bore through the gore riders, slaughtering them all, and rein about to face the drum and the trolls. The Griffin Girls roll really lousy and manage only a few wounds on the krudger, but Sophie picks up the slack hitting 21 times and wounding 20. The krudger is obliterated. Both turn to face the trolls on a slight angle. The trolls can only see Sophie, so the girls will have a shot at them next turn. The souls do 8 wounds and waver the great ax, and the other succubi decide that they are tired of being hit, and tear apart the morax.
The skulks flank the souls, hoping to relieve tension on the greatax. The drum turns to face the horsemen, and the trolls charge Sophie over the hill. The orcs have nothing left to shoot with, so go straight into combat. The skulks do 4 damage, but the souls hold. The trolls do 6 damage and waver Sophie.
Turn 5:
The succubi flank the skulks and the trolls, the souls charge the great ax again. The LoL also flanks the trolls, and Sophie counter charges. The horsemen charge the drum. As the dust settles, the orcs are obliterated to a man, and the abyssals consolidate around the hill to count up the loot they have gained.
After Thoughts:
On the Mantic Pathfinder Facebook group, We sometimes discuss our demo games, and we frequently admonish one another for tabling our new opponents. I related this to Nathaniel, and he was actually fine. Throughout the game, we discussed things going on, and that he has been playing for 7 months or so, but hadn’t yet faced a list like mine. The asymmetric nature of the way I played was outside of his experience level, so he was fine with the loss since it was a learning opportunity for him. We also talked about his dad’s primary army, the Trident Realms, and how they play very different from orcs, and from his dwarfs. He is looking forward to a rematch now that he knows what to expect. I was able to hand off Eckter to Nathaniel to get to his dad, who is impatiently waiting to paint him, and I got the model for running a demo back in November.
I will say, I had fun, and am glad I actually got to put models on the table again. It has been too long. I look forward to more opportunities, especially as I finish my herd and get it onto the table. Nathaniel played the orcs as they should be played, aggressively. It makes me realize just how different it is playing against some of the best players on 4 continents online Vs playing in person with the players who are in it just to have a good time. Pretzels and beer games can be so much better than the precision movements of players on Universal Battles. It was even fun trying to balance the units on that hill in the center without any models falling off.
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