WHFB: Dwarves, Empire and fleeing foes

03/11/2014

So by the end of round one I’d managed to rally my fleeing dark riders, but my overall pincer movement was in tatters.

So on one of the few spells we got off, we shifted the CoK Chariot forward via a Gobbo spell to sit right in front of the enemy lines – in a vain hope we’d start disrupting their lines – with hindisght shifting one of the Goblin hordes *might* have been better.

The Portal of Kittens, on the hill was also causing disruption to bothe the Empire libnes and my own dark Elves.

The Empire skirmishers did a sharp exit as the Dwarves “Drago-Copters” moved in, but the archers were then charged by the Warlocks.

meanwhile, on the other flank, the Huppy-Griffs (aka Demi-Gryph Knights) charged the Savage Orcs, accidentally letting off the Night Gioblin Fanatics from the neighbouring horde of Goblin Spearmen. Causing damage to the knights and also the Savage Orcs.

The skirmishers were toasted, and the Warlocks went into the Drago-Copter, but also clipped the Hammerererers.

One knight less, but a lot more Savage Orcs dead…

The hordes in the centre plodded foward, towards all those Organ Guns and Hellblasters.

The CoK unit used the gobbos as a meat shield only…

…to be hit in the flank by the Hellblaster that did 26 hits (!) and killed 6 CoK.

Whilst the depleted Dark Riders on the other flank took on some skirmishers (ooo…brave…NOT)

The Gobbos died, and the CoKs went in against the Dwarves.

The Silver Talons crashed into the Dwarves in front of the organ guns, and defeated them to take on the Hell Blaster.

But by now the game was over.

The Goblin Horde of Spearmen having been blasted by magic and organ guns was running away, and our army was valiantly but futilely dispersed in bitty actions across the table, with Empire Knights starting to roll up the flank.

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WHFB: Dark Elves, Dwarves, Empire & Goblins

01/11/2014

Last w/e’s game:

Dwarves & Empire, against dark Elves & Goblins. I had lots of Fast Cavalry for my Dark Elves, to offset the two hordes of goblins Gav brought.

So my second unit of Warlocks got their next outing.

Against a gun line of lots of organ guns and hell blasters…not so good…

The Vanguard move saw me move 35 cavalry forward.

Looks good.

Only for the stunties and the runties winning first go and promptly blowing the fast cavalry apart…only 3 lost per unit …

And I failed both leadership tests, so they were all running away in the first turn !!!

But at least the centre advanced.

With a CoK Chariot being magically moved forward by the Gobbho Shamans !

So far so good…

Plus a charge into the skirmishers with the Warlocks.

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WHFB: Dark Elves cause Carnage – Conclusion

15/08/2014

Gav called it a day at about 9.30pm, so we’d actually been playing for about 8 hours and still only managed 3 turns.

We surveyed the scene:

  • Several of his key units such as the Black Orcs were gone.
  • He had lost his General and BSB.
  • Half of his Shaman had also been lost.
  • All three of his Cavalry units were gone, along with his trolls.
  • I had smashed the centre of his line, and still had all my key units intact.
  • The dice were really against him in every single phase.
  • I had had a lot of luck, bar a few failed Stupidity tests.
  • I now dominated the magic phase by quite some way – Blade Wind is a really horrible spell to use against Orcs & Goblins in their massed rank units.
  • His remaining units were scattered (and leaderless(), whereas mine were relatively still concentrated.
  • He had little that could take down the remaining Hydra and Eric, and nothing that could stop the CoK units.

Gav concluded that most of his army had been trashed even before the real hard units of mine had engaged properly.

Still at least we’d had some nice pizza and an Indian take out and had an enjoyable day. 🙂

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WHFB: Dark Elves cause Carnage – Part 2

15/08/2014 2 Comments

So at the end of turn one, we’d had a lot of combat and it was pretty close, probably just in my favour.

I charged my Silver Talons and Breathy the Hydra into Eega Ugezod’s Black Orcs, and also launched a Blade Wind attack beforehand to whittle down their numbers.

The wolf riders got a flank attack from a CoK Chariot. In fact, this game consisted of lots of flank attacks from units, which meant we rarely had the issue of numbers of ranks and associated steadfastness coming up.

The Spider Riders and Trolls got wiped out, and Spitty and Redark (Hunter in the dark) [cue twlight theme music for this very very scary name] my General followed up (Mengil’s couldn’t as they are reavers and spent time tearing up the corpses of their victims).

ASnd another one bites the dust, the Warlocks defeated the Wyvern and rider and moved on to another bolt thrower crew (all too easy).

Another flank attack, as Gav pushed the Orcs forward along with the Goblin horde !

End of turn 2, and its all a mess with so many units in combat. Great fun !

Well it was for me, as I had the Orcs for lunch, allowing my General to run them down, and Spitty turned to face the goblins.

The Orc Arrer boys did however over-run the Shades, but ended up pursuing them into the realms of nowhere they could do anything useful for the game as my CoK cavalry bypassed them. As I had no static units they didn’t get back into the game.

Gav’s right flank were similarly out of the game, having spent a couple of turns squabbling and then trying to move towards the middle of the battlefield.

the Night Goblin bowmen rounded the ruins, released the fanatics, who failed to make contact with my one unit of 10 RXBs and again were effectivelly out of the game.

The Orc Arrer Boyz (second unit) finally got into a scrap with the Spearmen, but Faygin Cheapsoul (my bargain basement hero with SFA) saw them off, moments after the goblin horde had received its own flank charge from Mengils who carved a path of destruction through them (again, unable to follow up).

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WHFB: Dark Elves cause Carnage – Part 1

14/08/2014

On Saturday, Byakhee Gavin A and I had a big game of WHFB – 5k per side – as he was able to game well into the evening as it was one of his respite days. A battle at 5k points value is quite large, so we were filling the entire table when deploying armies.

Of course the first thing I always have to do, is ensure his troops asre properly based. After 25+ years I am still doing this as he manages to find figures unbased or on the wrong bases.

Fixed !

I started out well, winning both the choice of table edge, then who did vanguard movement first, then who went first !

I deployed my scouts well forward.

Then the vanguard as far as I could forward – which resulted in me blocking Gav’s Wolf and Spider Riders being able to make a vanguard move.

Except, for the second set of Spider riders which moved into the middle of the table.

Entertainingly, Gav had put the Savage Orcs on the table, facing backwards – a prescient move as it turned out. he turned them round to face the enemy forces before we started. 🙂

My Dark Riders, were unable to resist temptation and charged them in the first turn.

And the second Dark Riders, and Warlocks also charged in the first turn – I have said previously that the rules for WHFB reward aggression, and that is doubled down in the DE rules. My army as a whole advanced rapidly.

The Warlocks broke the Savage Orcs much to my surprise, whilst the two sets of Dark Riders were held by the Wolf Riders (on the flank), and the Spider Riders in the centre.

Gavin then brought up his Trolls in a flank attack (there were a lot of these in this game, and we rarely had to worry about counting ranks in combat resolution).

His Lord on Wyvern moved in to support the beleagured Shaman and bolt thrower crew.

And his Orc Arrer Boyz flank attacked what remained of the Dark Riders – luckily I’d augmented them with Blades of Aiban so they were doing ok, but…

The Dark Riders were wiped out, and the Trolls and Spider Riders followed up into Spitty the Hydra, and Mengil Manhides’ troops, which was a mistake on their behalf.

Whilst the other Dark Riders were similarly despatched, with the Wolf Riders following up into my Shades.

Fortunately the Warlocks killed the Shaman, destroyed the bolt thrower crew and wounded the hero on Wyvern, winning the combat so they reformed to face the Wyvern and rider…

And this was all in the first turn !

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WHFB: 2014 04 12 A right old set to ! Part Two

13/04/2014 1 Comment

The Phoenix Guard crushed the Gors, taking their BSB with them and pursued across the battle field towards more foes.

Meanwhile, another unit of Gor ambushers erupted behind our lines, trapping the Dwarf line front and rear. Luckily, Anthony’s army list for me had ganted me Stubborness so whilst locked in combat with numerically superior numbers Shambles held the line. Several challeneges were declared and accepted, but each took two turns to resolve ! Eventually stouter Dwarf skill held out and the gobbos lost their BSB and hero.

Shambles’ unit got charged in the rear by the Gors and took casualties.

But the Longbeards defeated the other gobbos and chased them across the battlefield not quite catching them.

Having wiped out the goblin trebuchet crew, the War Eagles swooped onto a lone Goblin Shaman, as overseen by BlackJack who ensured Anthony’s measuring was purrfect. 😉

The Phoenix Guard caught the gobbo archers (about 30 of them) whislt the Eagles swooped on the hapless shaman.

The Longbeards caught up with the fleeing gobbos…

The goblin army fled across the centre of the board away from the rampaging High Elves and Dwarfs.

Meanwhile, Shambles’ unit had held the line fighting off the gobbos and the Gors despite casualties (stubborn is a great rule !), allowing Bugman’s Rangererers to charge the gobbos in the rear and the Long beards and Eagles to come to the rescue. Against all odds, the Organ Gun crew withstood (by one beard) the attack of the second Gor unit of ambushers, and held them there !

Phoenix Guard mopped up the last of the gobbos completing their slaughter.

Whilst Bugman’s Rangererers slaughtered the gobbs, crashed through into the Gors and drove them off.

At this point, the game was won with only one unit of Gors left to take on the virtually untouched Lothern Sea GUard, Phoenix Guard, War Eagles, Long Beards and Bugman’s.

Victory for the good side.

Just as well as BlackJack was found to be cat-napping Anthony’s bag underneath the table. 🙂

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WHFB: 2014 04 12 A right old set to ! Part One

13/04/2014

We had planned a game of Warhammer for Saturday. I had originally planned to be GM and Host, leaving the four Byakhees to be the players. At the last moment due to back injury and yet another problem with his car, Rich had to pull out, so I was now the fourth player.

I opted to play Dwarfs as I have a few and they haven’t seen the light of day recently. I didn’t however have the new rulebook, so Anthony agreed to write up an army list based on what figures he knew I had. Each player had 1500 points, so quite small armies, but with four players and 3,000 points per side enough for a full day’s gaming especially as Roo is only just getting back in to warhammer.

My dwarf army, which has barely seen lick of paint ! A lot of old school models here.

Lead by my general Shambles (named after an old AD&D character I played), busy smoking his pipe, and some rare finds on e-bay of a standard bearer and musician from the pre-slotta days !

  • Quarrellererers – 20 X Bows, including command squad, veteran and Shambles (Noble), pre and ealy slotta figures.
  • Bugmans Rangerererers – 20 Bugmans Rangers with X Bows and Great Weapons, second edition of the Regiment of Renown.
  • Long Beards – 20 actually painted plastic Dwarfs, Noble with BSB.
  • Organ Gun – with a few runes on it.

I allied with the tricksy Elves, to fight against Beatmen and a horde of Gobbos.

After Roo’s No.1 son Dylan (6 years old) had set up the scenery for us (supervised), and had finished admonishing his father for not having painted all his Beastmen (!), the armies deployed:

Beastmen & Gobbos. Unit of Minataurs on the bottom flank, spider riders top, hordes of (plastic grey) gobbos and Gors centre.

Lothern Sea Guard in black undercot flank the dwarf Longbeards and Quarrellererers, organ gun and RXB. Phenix guard guard the other flank.

Bugman’s Rangers deployed well foward to menace the enemy’s lines. This almost turned out to be a mistake, as I’d forgotten spider riders are Fast Cavalry, so get a vanguard move which meant they ended up on the Temple of Skulls, and that they ignored difficult terrain !

Meaning, I had now become the hunted ! A hasty re-arrangement, with reinforcement hurrying ofrward in the form of the Phoenix Guard and War Eagles calmed me somewhat, not that I needed to have worried…

The Spider Riders pounced, losing a few on the way in due to X-bow fire. I lost three Rangererers.

Before wiping the Spider Riders out entirely, and reformed to face the oncoming horde behind me:

Gors and Goblins advanced across the table. In our favour the large goblin unit of archers spent two turns squabbling due to the good old goblin animosity rules.

More worrying was the advance of the Minotaurs through the ruins on the flank. Fortunately, the Lothern Sea Guard with magically souped up fire power did their duty.

Cutting them down in number, before a second volley of fire wiped them out.

Anthony’s High Elf War Eagles closed in on their target – the goblin trebuchet. This had already squished a few of my Long Beards !

Two gobbo hordes, relatively unscathed by my Organ Gun and X-Bow fire charged in to the Longbeards and Shambles’ Quarrellererers.
At the same time a large unit of Gor Ambushers popped up right behind the Dwarfs (luckily for us unable to charge in that round of combat !).

The Eagles catch their prey…

Whilst the Phoenix Guard enter the fray with the somewhat battered Gors.

To be contionued…

PS: There is a running joke in our group about Dwarf unit names, hence the Rangererers, Quarrellererers etc….

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WHFB: Storm Of Chaos

18/01/2013 2 Comments

Well we’ve had the book since it came out, but it was only the week before last that we managed to get round to playing a battle using the rules. This is a woefully late report on the battle. Set up is a sper normal except you have the Arcane Fulcrums, and you deploy magic users onto them before the main army deployment.

I used the Chaos archway, the Tindalos monument and the actual arcane fulcum, along with a huge tree I’;d got – another aquarium item bought from the local pet shop.

Now I’d read the book, but this was the first game I’d played. So I stocked jup on bound creatures, 5 Cold Ones, a Carnosaur and a giant mostly so I could get some models I’d had ins torage out and in battle. Other than that a fairly vanilla DE army with one main tweak.

Byakhee Jim, didn’t go for bound creatures, instead going for items, so it was an interesting contrast.

Initially I seemed to do well, and then made some disaterous and self inflicted mistakes in retrospect. Including deplpyment. My idea was to flank him on both side which went well to begin with and then it all unraveleld rather quickly due to my mistakes in the magic phase and some luck on his part (and good deployment).

Magic phaeses were not as much fun as I’d expected. yes you get buckets full of dice to roll.

But so does your opponent, and in Jim’s case he’d min/maxed to get more dice than I did. So magic didn’t really make a huge difference.. yes I got one key spell off that ahd the Carnosaur magically lifted to the rear of their flank (that set of Night Goblin Fanatics) but it didn’t make a battle winning move.

The Cold Ones, frenzied as they were, were also no match for the 25 Orcs Jim deployed against them, and he also managed to unbind my Giant which was the back up I’d intended for the Cold Ones.

Under the rules, the Giant ahd to go against the nearest enemy, not the nearest enemy he could see, so rather than wading into the Orcs, he did a 90 degree turn and waded into a large Night Goblin Unit.

The Carnosaur suprisingly bounced off the Orc Shaman atop an Arcane Fulcrum – they have significant advantges !
The Cold One Knights got zapped by a big spell and the Goblin Shaman blew themselves up, but this left a magical vortex on the loose.

And then my Sorceress imitated him and another magic vortex was on the loose – in both cases behind my lines.

The Cold One Knights charged into combat and did a lot of damage against the night goblins (finally hurrah) but not enough to break them so we set in for a war of attrition.

Ultimately, Jim’s central units came into close combat with my DEs including a rathr odd move of charging the COB which finished off my army.

It was certainly not the usual game of Warhammer, and certainly does require subtely different tactics to be used in both choosing the army list and in deployment.

The Storm of Magic element was fun, even though it strangely seemed to have not that much effect, though we did only play for 3 rounds IIRC and in one of those I miscast and drained all the magic (and fun) from the battlefield.
I am keen for another go though. I suspect that we just didn’t use our spells wisely as we are SoM newbies. (assume Darth Vader voice) “Of course last time I played, I was but the learner, now I am the master” {cue lightsaber sound effects)….does Warhammer have a lightsaber spell?

A shed laod of photos are here.

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WHFB: Xmashammer 2012 Day Two

02/01/2013 2 Comments

Day Two starts with us deploying reserves and (part of) my army.

Needless to say a shiney dragon’s tail overhanging from the edge of the table attracted the attention of BlackJack, and we had to move it fast following the first exploratory dab with a cat’s paw almost hooked it off the table and onto the tiled floor.

The Eagles are coming !

It took til the fourth turn for all my troops to come on. This was due to the Orc artillery being placed only a few inches in from the board, and because several large units of Orcs and Goblins had spent time squabbling ratheer than moving forward.

I deployed the Silver Talons (30 DE Spears) on the flank to fend off the inevitable flank attack by HE heavy cavalry.

Hoever, it was the turn of the HE and Empire to start, so our forces were pinned down immediately including the inevitable charge by the cavalry onto the spearmen – which almost won combat if it were not for the fact I was steadfast. Elsewhere we had “wind back time” due to Gav forgetting he had to release his Goblin Fanatics into the fleeing remains of the White Wolf knights, which were predictably ddestroyed, and for the HE and Empire to destroy the whirling loonies. The DE bolt throwers reaped a heavy harvest, but in return about 30 HE Spearmen charged my Dark Riders and pursued them off the board on our extreme flank.

After much humming and hawing, the demi-gryphs climbed the pyramid, to be attacked by the Spider riders – and destroy them. The Emperor on his gopld dragon pussyfooted around, before finally commiting a flank charge into my DE Silver Talons that finally destroyed them after 3 turns in combat. The Orcs and Goblins still found time squabble in amongst this and eventually my Cold One Knights wandered over to their side of the board but had no one to engage in combat. I blew up one of my own sorceresses, and Gav blew up on of his shamen. the trolls aided by their General destroyed the Steam Tank.

The final act came when after several rounds of combat the Phoenix Guard finally defeated Harboth’s horde, and my Cold One Chariot supported by Goblins bounced off the another unit of HE Spearmen that had been brought up to support them on the flank.

And that was the end of the game – at nearly midnight !

The forces of Good had triumphed – by quite some way.

Players perspectives to follow.

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WHFB: Xmashammer 2012 Day One

01/01/2013 2 Comments

On Day One, each general was allowed to field up to 4,000 points from their 5,000 points army. Byakhees Jim and Gavin fielded Skaven and Orcs, and then Rich and Anthony fielded Empire and High Elves respectively. As host for two days, and as GM, I did not field an army on Day One as I have found it very difficult to host four players and attempt a semblance of order on the games as well as trying to play my own army.

Here’s the table, showing the ruins of Copalotothat:

First surprise was Rich’s deployment of the Folding Fortress of Fozzrick:

Meanwhile, the players were unearthing their treasure troves of figures, including Jim whose wife had bought him yet more Skaven for Xmas:

Nominally the players arrived at 11am, but it was not until gone 1pm thatb we actually started the game – its takes a lot of time to deploy 4 x 4,000 points. Rich deployed a unit of X-bowmen in the tower, and then both he and Anthony deployed a lot of heavy cavalry. Jim had lots of plague monks and a screaming bell as well as sundry war machines, and Gavin’s Orcs had several massed hordes.

And their opponents the Empire & High Elf alliance:

With Pistolier outriders:

These, along with the Drakwald Greencoats,flanked the Skaven and Orcs hoping to get at their artillery, only to be driven off.

In the centre, the armies headed straight for each other.

The fleet of foot Empire and HE armies seized the objectives early on. The secret surprises started to be revealed, with the Rich being able to summon triffids from the jungle terrain.

Whilst the Orcs & Goblins squabbled, the Skaven entered combat with the enemy.

The Skaven caused a lot of damage whilst the Trolls finally got into combat with the Steam Tank.

There was a lot of cobat, a lot of shooting, and units were runing hither and thither, and this after only two turns, but then a large surprise happened, the entire Skaven army fled the scene of battle, and my Dark Elves had arrived pursuing them for a hitherto unknown reason, to find their hated enemies locked in battle with long time “allies” hte greenskins…

(AKA: Jim had to disappear for domestic reasons so I took over, with the 2,000 points Jim had left plus the 1,000 points for Day Two)

More to follow tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Clawed was deeply unimpressed with all this:

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