Showed up at a
LGS for a monthly 2500 point tournament, expecting low turnout, and indeed three other dudes rolled in. While we technically had enough players to do a three round event, we decided to save $10 each and just have a casual game or two on a sunny Saturday. No complaints here. We diced up for matches, and it was Beasts vs Skaven on one table and Warriors vs Orcs & Gobs on the other. Strangely enough both tables diced up Meeting Engagement, and the units below marked with [*] were held in reserve …
WOT 2500
L: Demon Prince –
MoT, level 4, third eye, fury, roar
H: Exalted Hero –
MoT,
BSB, talisman of endurance, halberd
C: 20 Warriors –
MoT, banner of eternal flame, full command, shields [*]
C: 20 Warriors –
MoT, full command, shields
C: 18 Warriors –
MoT, banner of swiftness, standard, musician [*]
C: 5 Warhounds
C: 5 Warhounds
R: Shaggoth – ahw [*]
R: Hellcannon
R: Spawn –
MoT
R: Spawn –
MoT [*]
Yes, so most of my battle line started off board
Thankfully though he was going first, so when my troopers appeared I could sort of reactively form up, and have his long ends jam themselves up.
ORCS & GOBS 2500
L: Orc Warboss – sword of striking, 4+ ward, the other trickster’s shard(, fire ward?)
L: Orc Great Shaman – level 4, opal amulet [*]
L: Night Goblin Great Shaman – level 4, dispel scroll
H: Orc Big Boss –
BSB, 4+ ward
C: 29+ Orc Big ‘Uns – standard of discipline, musician, shields
C: 29+ Orcs – full command, shields
C: 39+ Night Goblins – standard, musician, nets, 2 fanatics
C: 39+ Night Goblins – standard, musician, nets, 2 fanatics
C: 30 Goblins – standard, musician, bows, shields, 3 skulkers [*]
S: 4 Trolls
S: 2 Wolf Chariots
R: Rock Lobber
R: Rock Lobber
R: Mangler Squig
R: Mangler Squig
R: Pump Wagon
Much gentler reserves for him, and with two level 4’s it wasn’t like his magic was going to be too gimped even if I stole the initiative.
MAGIC
Demon Prince – flickering fire, transmogrification, pandemonium, gateway
Orc Great Shaman – hand, fist, ‘ere we go, foot
NG Great Shaman –
AP stabbiness, vindictive gaze, itchy nuisance, curse of the bad moon
TERRAIN & DEPLOYMENT
Rather unexciting terrain, just generic stuff (2 woods, 2 hills, 1 big house) set up for the tournament, then scattered. He picked his diagonal and dropped first, and then what wanted to show up of mine did so.
Orc
BSB and warboss join the big ‘uns, night gob shaman the other orcs. My
BSB (‘the Duke’) rocked out with the non-flaming warriors, while Prince Skullflux gibbered to himself off on the flank, far too busy with that to seize the initiative.
A not on the maps: The distances are extremely relative on this set, we weren’t actually passing up all the charges that look possible. I have a feeling I set the orcs too far forward to begin with, which messed with stuff. Also, the pump wagon was added in after the fact, as I mostly forgot about it 
BATTLE
Turn 1
All animosity is passed and there are no shenanigans to be had from manglers, pump wagon, trolls, etc. The general greenskin advance is followed by a magic phase that sees the right hounds detonated by a strong gaze, and a foot of Gork do nothing to the hellcannon. She is, however, served up 3 wounds from a lobber, while the other one misfires (but rolls a 6).
Not going to lie, those mangler squigs are already driving me nuts at this point … Turn starts with a spawn hurtling towards the night goblins, drawing out two fanatics and getting himself creamed. The prince then glares at the remaining warhounds, who nod their doggy heads and know what must be done: they sit on the first fanatic and suffocate it, and the one pup who survives (!) sits on the other one. Good boys
Skullflux himself hops to the building (mangler can’t get him due to the edge of the house being in the way), while Miss Nibbles hurtles towards the gobs and the rest of the warriors show up, along with the shaggoth. (You’ll notice the other spawn sitting on the table edge: we ruled that because Compulsory Moves happen before Remaining Moves, random movement units in reserve actually don’t get to move when they appear :’() Magic blows extremely low (2-1), but the
DP is still able to put up pandemonium and flicker the closest mangler to death. A mighty 11 roar pops a couple night goblins for effect.
Turn 2
An officially Bad Turn for the orcses: the common goblins roll double 1’s for animosity, locking down both themselves and the nearby orcs (and both wizards!), and the trolls follow this up with a failed stupidity check (pandy will do that). The night goblins toss themselves under the hellcannon, the mangler hops forward to continue inducing anxiety, and some chariots and faux-chariots cruise around. Magic drops pandemonium, and in the shooting phase the shaggoth is welcomed to the table with 5 stone thrower wounds. In combat, many goblins die, and I actually think the hecklauncher took a wound, bringing it to just one remaining.
Much of the chaos line plays it cagey and forms up the thin blue line, totally unsure of how to deal with the incoming mangler (I actually thought about sitting the shaggoth on top of it – 275 points to remove 65? In light of the shaggy’s fate, I probably should have
). For his part, Skullflux fails his march block test, but 10” is enough to hop the building and prepare to take on lobbers and backfield duties. Magic blows weak once more, with gateway on the mangler squig dispelled (or scrolled). Roar explodes another night goblin, with authority. Miss Nibbles eats some gobs too – the little vermin netted themselves this round, and would continue to do so until squished into paste.
Turn 3
Animosity rears its head for the common goblins again, forcing them to charge if able (they aren’t able) … But after that it’s time for charges and Dirty Tricks! Trolls and wolf chariots sail into the central
BSB warriors (non-flaming variety), then the mangler slams through the great weapon warriors and devours six of them (!), parking itself in front of a spawn. Following this, the unengaged night goblins swift reform to face the demon prince, sending their fanatics through their compatriots and into the hellcannon – a handful of goblins die, but Miss Nibbles merely grunts. With some magical assistance the bickering common goblins are handed a bit closer to the action, and foot against the shaggoth fails to cast. But then he eats a rock and dies, as the other lobber tags 3 wounds off of the prince.
I’m definitely feeling a little shakey as all my monsters are dead or near death (2 wounds left on prince, 1 on hellcannon, 0 on shaggy), and he’s about to hammer into the heart of my line. The chariots do 11 impacts, dropping 4 warriors, along with a 5th from the trolls. The warriors carve 4 wounds from the chariots (mostly the
BSB’s doing) and none from the trolls, but win on
CR, breaking and catching both units. Hurr! Nibbles devours some more netted goblins. Nom!
Skullflux rampages into the lobber, the last spawn sits on the wild mangler, and the blue line evens up a bit after the Duke had overextended to run things down. Magic sees the prince cast the second transmog of my career, on IF of all things – the far lobber does die (24” range is nice for reaching outside of rerolled LD10 bubbles), and Skullflux only loses 1 level (and transmog) as a result. He embarrassingly squishes a single lobber gob in combat, but wins, breaks and overruns all the same. The hellcannon finally breaks its goblins, catching them and parking near the other ~40 goblins.
Turn 4
Animosity continues to be a thorn: the orcs with night goblin shaman have to charge, but bump into the pump wagon
Meanwhile, the other night goblin bus reforms to face the hellbeast now bloaty with goblins, the common goblins keep their gak together and move a bit (!), and the damn pumper flubs itself forward. Oh, a fanatic kills itself too and the other heads for the chaos board edge. Magic ends up with the prince nuisanced (mostly to steal a die from me, which worked), and the big ‘uns handed over to face the itchy prince.
Both shield warriors charge the pump wagon, hoping to leapfrog it into the orcs behind, and Miss Nibbles trundles into some more night goblins, farting profusely. Great weapon warriors boost up to prepare for big ‘un fighting, and Skullflux heads further into the greenskin backfield (ignore the red arrow, he’s just cruising not charging). Magic serves up another IF, this time gateway on the big ‘uns – 4 S3 is not very impressive, though neither is
another single lost level and spell … Roar pops an awesome 3 big ‘uns, getting 3 more than that gateway
The Duke drops the pump wagon himself, but fluffy pursuits mean just his non-flaming dudes overrun into the orcs behind, clipping them corner to corner. Nibbles is netted, but eats gobs like a pro – throughout the game he did get several wounds on the ‘cannon, but her 4+ armor was golden.
Turn 5
The big ‘uns reform around once more, to face incoming warrior death, and that’s the extent of movement. Magic begins with itchy nuisance on the flaming warriors, and knowing full well that a curse of the bad moon is headed through them shortly, I throw everything into it … and roll very low, which along with just +2 isn’t enough. Their Initiative falls by 3, which hurts when an Initiative curse rolls from the night goblin shaman across both warrior blocks – 12 die from the flaming warriors (!!) and 5 from the
BSB’s boys – and parks in front of the great weapon dudes. In combat, he accepts the Duke’s inevitable challenge, but the Tizz
BSB brutalizes the orc champ, nabbing max overkill, which with other
CR is enough to win. The orcs fail their steadfast 10 (
BSB is out) and break, leaving the Duke and his men to pursue into the waiting big ‘uns. Also, Nibs eats some goblins.
Turns where everybody charges make the chaos gods happy: the great weapon warriors brave the curse (he chooses strength and 3 die) to charge the big ‘uns, the flaming warriors hit the goblins, and the prince runs down the orcs and their great shaman with a mighty 21” charge, reforming to face the rear of the goblins. Magic puts up pandemonium and drops the curse, and it’s on to fighting. Triple skulkers pop out of the common goblins, and because the flaming warriors are hexed to I2 actually get rerolls! Only 2 hit all the same (WS2 vs WS5), and no
KB means no dead warriors. Some goblins die, but they hold on steadfast, and the warriors reform into a line of kill. In the main event, the warrior champ challenges faster than the Duke, and gets a wound through the orc
BSB before being creamed. The Duke gets singled out by the S6 orc warboss but the beast fluffs, while he and his crew knock down a few orcs for not much in return. The great weapon warriors shine though, reaping through orcs – the greenskins pass their steadfast. Also, some night goblins are smashed as the hellcannon rolled around on their faces.
Note: Pretty sure I totally forgot about pandemonium through all of those steadfast checks, as well as his casts next turn. Oh well?
Turn 6
A brief bout of magic before fighting: the orc shaman lets my (useless because forgotten) pandy ride and puts up both fists on himself and ‘ere we go (which only affects him due to weak bubble range). The main event goes down first, which sees the Duke take a wound, no warriors fall, many orcs die and they steadfast. The warriors up against goblins do embarrassingly little, dropping a skulker and a couple gobs, for one dead in return (the champion, neatly dropped by the powered up shaman), but it’s a total wash on musicians. Annnnnd Nibs ‘fights’ goblins, who have started netting themselves with reckless abandon at this point.
One more bloody round, here we go. Skullflux charges into the rear of the goblins, dropping whichever of the orc spells is RiP (fists?) whilst recasting pandy (he dispels anyway). He bellows out a challenge despite himself, is answered by a particular shady looking goblin, and proceeds to reduce him to atoms (4 wounds to skulker in challenge – are these things champs?). Some other goblins are diced, but they steadfast. Chaos vainglory continues in the center scrum, as the Duke challenges out the warboss. He does manage to wound the brute, but is bludgeoned to death in return. In revenge for their dead
BSB, the shield warriors pile on the orc
BSB and take him out too, and the great weapon warriors continue to shine, lumberjacking through orcs until they break. The big ‘uns are caught, and all that’s left is for the night goblins to once more hold (turn after turn on their own
LD!) in the face of the hellcannon’s affection.
CHAOS VICTORY
Briefest thoughts on new O&G: Mangler squigs are really something, not just for the anxiety they cause but for the real damage too, yikes. I should have tossed the crippled shaggoth onto that last one, but the very fact that I would consider sacrificing a 275 point monster to stop a 65 point unit should say something about their cost vs reward … Other than that, wolf chariots are seriously legit, rock lobbers are still quite useful for taking on big things, and both magic lores are pretty rocking. I like how my opponent is running double level 4’s to try out both lores at once, very neat.
Also, really liking my warriors again with this monster heavy build, partially because it gives me something to play @ 2500 points, since my skaven don't really have the troops I want for that high of points, while my warriors can use the increased % cap to bust out more t-stomp
EDIT
I purposefully didn't want to tax myself at the time considering all the things my
DP could get up to by stealing his spells, but thinking about it now, curse could have seriously done some unpleasant things to him, particularly around my turns 3-4, when I didn't necessarily have all that many spells I really wanted to do but was right in his grill.
- Salvage
