Orcs Drift

[Photographer]

The savage orc boar boys have spent two turns being whittled down by unrelenting magic and the fire breathing thing. Sir Shvants knows that charging the fire breather is likely to get him counter charged by the steg and cold ones, but if they stay where they are, they will just die. Sir Shvants charges, the fire breather flees, causing no panic as it runs through (hard to fail a LD on three dice, it seems) and rallying in following turn. Boarboys get counter charged in following turn...and all die anyway without inflicting any wounds.

[Photographer]

http://wackywildwesttown.blogspot.co...&max-results=2

Dumbledore repositions steg behind bum of wyvern, and in that turn and following turn, causes fair amount of casualties with some kind of 12 inch radius laser. Wyvern survives and flies off to bolster rear of Orcy lines...the orc unit with Fatboy and black orc battle standard bearer has survived and is gearing up for an attack...as soon as it stops squabbling.

It has been four hours (which included half an hour for Sir Shvants to find all the goblins for his setup and fix Wyvern, which breaks every time it leaves home). Blood sugar levels are running low. Eastern Block GW staff member has forbidden anyone to take a seat at any time. Sir Shvants sees the game is going nowhere. Are the wyvern and a squabbling orc boy unit going to take on a full strength steg, slann (which he reckons must cost about 600 points), cold one unit and fire breaher (although gobbo artillery has managed to withstand terradon attacks for three turns, they are all now birdfeed). Dumbledore takes his turn five, killing 4 savage orc boys and gearing up for final onslaught...and Sir Shvants just gives up.

An amazing game...amazing miniatures...and an amazing photo op.


By the way, I'm a man of my word....

Here is my Wild West project log.


http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237172

[Dumbledore]

Wonderful pictures photographer.

Not only were my dice on fire compared to his but I got to pick all the fights thanks to my deployment. All my ranged damage (magic, terradons, the salamander and skink blowpipes) did more or less average damage as far as I can remember, with the notable exception of one drop rocks killing a whole wolfrider unit. Shvant's warmachines, in contrast, did 0 damage all game, which really hurt him. He also suffered from well above average animosity and higher than average leadership test failure. I failed nothing meanwhile, though this is not hugely surprising with LM leadership. LM are pretty nasty compared to OnG anyway, everything we lizards have that matters is hugely reliable (amazing Ld, guaranteed damage from the engine, dropped rocks, good skirmishing movement, a big bag of power dice etc), while orcs n gobbos, well...

Anyway, the paint level of those orcs made the battleground a pleasure to behold and I look forward to playing against the empire!

[Razakel]

Great thread and pictures, thanks a lot for keeping it going Photographer, excellent job I must say.

[sir_shvantselot]

This was an amazingly fun game! Great miniatures...and yes I was unlucky...and yes Orcs and Goblins are truly reliably sh%t...and yes, Dumbledore's list was well-crafted/dirty as all hell...and yes Dumbledore was frankly a much better Warhammer player on any basis (amazing understanding of synergies in Lizardmen list). So, next time, there is only one thing to do...x 2 steam tanks + Karl Franz on Dragon...come on, a guy has to win somehow!!!! Looking forward

[Dumbledore]

I know shvants, it was completely mismatched power regarding the lists. Pretty much every model I have was on the table; my list has evolved to that level through playing mostly DE and VC and Skaven, while still having the models I want to paint in it. Any army that has to run at the lizards to kill them is going to have a hard time. Just a bit of luck with the warmachines or if you had been able to run your wyvrn into the engine, cold ones or the slann and things would have gone differently. My LM are very evasive but once you pin something important down things get a lot easier (even some wolves charging an engine have a good chance of killing the priest on top).

Synergy compliments are making me blush, though I was very proud of combining doom and darkness with my salamander, angled to send your wolves off the board. I've ALWAYS wanted to do that.

Once I get my bretonnian crusader force up and running we can have a fair and beautiful match-up for the the OnG! (I'm going to hopefully have 2k by march, as long as work goes as planned). As I said I look forward to playing your empire. How far finished is your WoC army?

[Dumbledore]

Oh and the wyvrn is a beauty! I also particularly admire the face paints. Fat boy also, though that goes without saying.

[sir_shvantselot]

Once I get my bretonnian crusader force up and running we can have a fair and beautiful match-up for the the OnG! (I'm going to hopefully have 2k by march, as long as work goes as planned). As I said I look forward to playing your empire. How far finished is your WoC army?

Crusader style Brettonians would be seriously cool! A real classic game against OnG. I have a massive warriors of chaos army, which I have played with like four times. I have everything: shaggoth, giant, demon cannon thing, knights, chariot...all assembled, but only two units are painted - marauder horse and chaos warriors. I try and stick to one painting project at a time...and I think I have like fifty Empire miniatures left to paint. So I could play with WoC, but no point in any photos.

[sir_shvantselot]

Oh and the wyvrn is a beauty! I also particularly admire the face paints. Fat boy also, though that goes without saying.

I thought the face paint made them look like celtic barbarians, perhaps a religious sign of dedication to the waaaagh...but Dimitar reckons they just look like Chelsea supporters...or being orcs, more like Millwall.

[Photographer]

Great thread and pictures, thanks a lot for keeping it going Photographer, excellent job I must say.

Thanking you sir. I too enjoyed taking photos and uploading them onto this site.

I am giving warhammer a break for now but am photographing warhammer rules wild west instead. Please visit my new thread.

http://wackywildwesttown.blogspot.co...&max-results=2

[Dumbledore]

This time it's my turn to write up a battle report! I got to play schvant's WoC army with the same 2k LM list that I used previously. Last game with his OnG I had played honestly quite boringly, being ultra defensive after not realising quite how chaotic OnG are. I therefore decided to be an ultra aggressive lizard this game, throwing things right in schvant's little face.

My list was:

- Slann, BSB
Knows Lore, Extra dice, Enemy drops 6's, Immune to Physical
Warbanner, Bane head, 2 Dispel Scrolls
- Skink Priest, lvl 2, EotG
Extra spell, Wardrums
- Scar Vet, Cold One, Light Armour
Burning Blade of Chotec, Enchanted Shield
- Scar Vet, Light Armour, Shield, Great Weapon
Charm of the Jaguar Warrior

10 skink skirmishers
10 skink skirmishers
12 saurus warriors, spears, musician

3 terradons
3 terradons
5 cold one cavalry, standard, musician

salamander, extra handler

I'm not sure of his exact list but he can post it if it's really needed.

"Left" and "right" shall be from the perspective of my board edge.

I had left to right:
terradons behind a wood, skinks, saurus with scar vet on foot, salamander behind a wood, engine by a wood so that it is out of sight of the hellcannon, skinks, slann floating solo, terradons and cold ones with mounted vet.

He had left to right:
Tzeench lvl4 on disk, marauder horsemen, knights, hounds, hellcannon, two spawn, 20 marauders with a lovely filler and a tzeench lvl2, marauder horsemen and 12 chaos warriors, another 20 marauders with a nurgle lvl2, his khorne hero general on a chariot.

He got gateway on his lvl4 while I got forked lightning as the only damage spell on the engine. I chose shadow on my slann rather than metal so that I could be really aggressive with the units.

I deployed wide. I pretty much always deploy wide, with all of my force in one place.

End of Deployment

My turn one: on the left I moved up with my terradons to threaten any advance. My skinks and salamanders all gathered into a wood so that they could later be a pain to his advance. I wanted to hold up his knights for as long as possible and hopefully tie up his hellcannon and lvl 4 as well while my slann, engine and cold ones munched the right flank. The saurus unit ponderously progressed to support the right flank. My right flank moved up, trying to keep the cold ones and slann in cover behind the hill somewhat. I moved the terradons far up between the building and the board edge to threaten his juicy marauder horsemen. In the magic phase I used charm and then steed of shadows to catapault my great weapon scar vet to the far right flank in order to threaten his chariot. No real damage was done as he dispelled most things.

I got extremely lucky as his hellcannon failed its test, moving to my terradons on the left flank, blocking in his knights and preventing any shooting that turn. He moved up across the board and killed two handlers and took a wound off my salamander with flickering fire. His general on chariot was a little behind his lines.

End of Turn One

I bombed his marauder horsemen on the left flank as my terradons moved into position to marchblock his knights. The skink unit downed the horsemen to a single brave soldier and his steed. The other terradon unit dropped rocks on the nurgle lvl2's marauder unit as it swooped in behind them. My skinks moved out of the way so that my cold ones could move in position to magically charge the marauders with unseen lurker. I thought that my cold ones and scar vet would muller the marauders with my twenty attacks on the charge, but not enough damage was done and his unit held with static combat res, killing one cold one after I reasonably heavily thinned his ranks. the rest of my magic was not hugely fruitful. I killed one or two of the horsemen on the right flank and my attempts to magically propel my scar vet on foot into his chariot were thwarted.

His unadulterated luck with warmachines against me stayed strong as his hellcannon shot at my engine with precision aim only to explode gloriously, pummeling schvant's nearby units with loads of high strength hits. Only his warhounds were hurt severely and I am glad to say that they were cooked to the consistency of a fine mist and evaporated along with the hellcannon. His chaos warriors countercharged my cold ones in the flank. I silently crossed every finger and toe on my body, hoping that my cold ones would hold, as that would leave me in position to charge his warriors in the flank with my engine. Due to my scarvet things actually went quite differently. He was on the flank of the unit charged by warriors and issued a challenge, preventing the warriors from hitting him. My four remaining cavalry cut down a fair few marauders while my scar vet enjoyed slicing and dicing the poor champion that took up his call and in the end had overkill to spare. The marauders and warriors both then broke (even though they had not lost by any huge margin), with the marauders running into the terradons placed behind them. Schvant's lvl4 grew tired of his knights being marchblocked and so spewed out a vast torrent of flickering fire at my terradons, leaving only a gently smoking pile of ash. On the left flank he charged his last marauder horseman and a spawn at some skink skirmishers. The poor horseman got a poisoned blowpipe in the eye only for the spawn to roll 7 attacks, chop the skinks furiously and then run them down. The right flank's marauder horsemen charged my salamander, who fled well out of reach.

End of Turn Two

My salamander rallied. My engine charged the fleeing chaos warriors in order to force them to flee once again further from combat into a wood. The engine fell short as predicted, now well placed to burning alignment about three or four enemy units. My terradons swooped over the chariot and landed the other side of him past a wood while my cold ones charged the frenzied chaos general and his chariot in the flank. My slann surveyed the battlefield from his throne, serenely floating high on the hilltop. He saw his skink priest attendant fry the last remaining horseman unit with a bolt of lightning, halving their numbers as the arcane fire of burning alignment gently cooked some marauders, lightly sautéed some chaos warrios and took a few wounds off of the chariot and hero. The slann was pleased at this and decided flex his own magical prowess, summoning the opening of a dark pit under the fleeing feet of the chaos warriors. They proved too nimble, and few fell in. Schvant's extended and intensive program of ballet lessons in the chaos wastelands had paid off, damn him. The exalted champion of chaos, blessed by khorne and mounted on a brutal chariot, challenged my saurus scar veteran, anointed of the old ones, to a fight to the death. The two of them then enjoyed a mild pillow-fight together, fighting like a pair of old babooshka ladies with dusty little handbags. Combat res, however, was on the side of the old ones. The chaos general's nerve was broken and he fled through the forest, only to be caught by my waiting terradons.

Sheridan rallied his remaining chaos warriors and charged his skink-killer of a spawn into my salamander while his knights finally progressed towards the fray without hindrance. His lvl4 also moved towards my forces and cast the notorious gateway spell on my engine, only to... miscast, only to... have it cast irresistibly and then forget the spell! Many S10 hits later and my engine had lost three wounds while the priest had lost one. The spawn chopped up the salamander, once again rolling for 7 attacks and running down the two remaining handlers.

End of Turn Three

I charged my engine and cavalry into his marauders (each would only just have been in range, the cavalry probably were out) and my terradons into the flank from the side. I was not sure of how the rules worked up but we just agreed that as the marauders fled the terradons flew past into his spawn and the engine and cold ones fell short. I lost one terradon yet the unit held. My skink priest opened the magic phase by cooking a couple of knights with burning alignment and then attempting to cast forked lightning on three dice, but miscast, ending the magic phase and imploding his own little skull.

He rallied his marauders and turned them to face my crippled ancient stegadon. He moved his knights up to threaten my stegadon's flank if it charged the marauders. His magic was ineffective as I had nearly as many dispel dice as he had power dice, not to mention that his lvl4 was in range for becalming cogitation.

End of Turn Four

We played the next turn as the last. I charged his marauders with my priestless stegadon, sadly resulting in few impact hits. Their combat res plus a couple of kills on the skink crew forced my crippled stegadon to flee and get cut down. My cavalry meanwhile charged the spawn still in combat with the terradon and cut it to shreds, only to overrun a measly 4" in 3D6 (2" more and they would have hit the knights in the flank).

Schvants then charged the cavalry in the front with chaos knights, in the scar vet flank with a spawn and in the other flank with the marauder unit. After some furious combat my cavalry held. The one same spawn once again rolled 7 attacks, but they proved futile against my veteran's 0+ save. I lost two more cavalry as the scar veteran annihilated the spawn. We called it game there.

[sir_shvantselot]

Superbly written battle report! At least so far . You have a career ahead of you, at least in copywriting. Let's mooch later about Old West. Just enjoying West Country hospitality.

[Dumbledore]

Eat three tubs of clotted cream for me schvants. I'm not sure strong flanks deployment with WoC is the best. If I were running that army I'd do pretty much what I do with my lizards: deploy the weak units evenly so that there is no full commitment, then put all of your powerful stuff in one place once your and enemy deployment has given you a good enough indication of how things fall. Also, putting the sorcerers in marauder units make what would otherwise be reasonably disposable units actually quite appealing: worth ~450VPs if the banner is caught rather than 200. Your warriors would make a better sorcerer bunker because they are so, so much harder. If you mount one and put him with the knights that could work too, nicely themed if they are all nurgle.

[sir_shvantselot]

Worthy advice. I will take it into account next time. Did some painting whilst up in the West Country and will post pics soon.

[Photographer]

Should have played Chaos instead.

http://wackywildwesttown.blogspot.co...&max-results=2

[sir_shvantselot]

I’ve recently got back in Warhammer…or at least various miniature agnostic sets and have recently painted these.