Blood in the Bloodlands - Spring Turn 1

We had an awesome time this weekend with 4 of the guys gathering to kick-start our excuse to play games and string them up into a story. Again, we are a non-competitive group of gamers and love modelling as much as playing. 

The following are pictures taken from the day. There are two battle reports of the two games I had with. Unfortunately the map flags were not fully painted by the time of this game but we have identified each Territory with the flags marked with our names. 

Descriptions are below the pictures. 

After the initial rolls and placement of Armies. Each player got 3 Armies to move about the board but I received an extra Army due to the initial set-up roll. Tet Hong (metal minis on the board) playing Dark Elves were very aggressive and moved two Armies into my Territory.

I moved two of my Armies into YouCai's Territory (Tomb Kings) to try to capture Mount Bloodhorn. Is is after all an Orcish lair. It also counts as an inexhaustible Mine.

These two are now the battles we will be playing.

Meanwhile, Defu (High Elves) was located futher along up river sipping tea. He decided to engage the Youcai's Tomb Kings. I am surprised he didn't attack the Dark Elves!


Spring Turn 1 - RT (Orcs & Goblins) vs TH (Dark Elves)
In this game I had to defend my lands against the blood thirsty Dark Elves. Tet Hong is playing the Dark Elves and will be known as TH from here on. I am RT.

We had agreed prior to this to play 2500 points and only brought 1 list each. Although we all scored 250 points of extra units, we agreed not to use it for this first game to minimise confusion. Then again, this 250 can be used for other games since it is reinforcements that can be added to any of the 3 Armies we have.

Deployment was odd since I had to split up my forces due to it being a Dawn Assault mission. However due to my numbers I could hold the entire board.

This may be where it all went wrong. I deployed my Night Goblins behind the graveyard. With that large number of impassable terrain in the way, it could only go bad. Hindsight is amazing. The two blocks of boys were in the right place - supporting each other.

And meanwhile Defu was waiting for Youcai to play, he was painting in the background.

With his special deployment options, TH moved a lot of his units across the board leaving only 3 units to face my units on my right.

His bus of Cold One Knights arrayed on the left, supported by the Dark Riders. In the middle was his Sorceress with supporting Crossbowmen. I would say a very solid build.

A view from the top at Deployment.

TH takes the first turn and makes his moves after his Vanguard move.

Left flank moves up

First round of Magic takes a toll on the Boss' Boyz.

While his shooting grills the other Black Orcs

I did one wound in my turn from my shooting

In Turn 2, TH charges my Doom Diver on the right flank.

 While his other unit of Dark Riders go after my Squig Hoppers.

Surprisingly my bad luck held. 3D6 Str5 and only 3 Dark Riders died. WTF....

I made a few moves in Turn 1 and now you can see my placements.

The Dark Riders understandably took out my Doom Diver

Black Orcs tries to charge the Chariot but clips the Dark Riders so had to charge them instead.

While the Warboss charges into his Black Guard in the middle of the board.

Meanwhile my Night Goblins decide to squabble with the Savage Orcs and held everyone back. Sighhhhhh

On the left flank the fight goes on.

The Boyz takes out the Black Guard and in a show of luck, overruns into the two Bolt Throwers

Meanwhile the Black Orcs overruns into the Hydra. TH needs to get a real model....

In TH's 3rd Turn he moves up his remaining Warriors to hug some fence after taking 11 deaths from the Mangler Squig.

While the bus of Cold One Knights rides down my Black Orcs

While his unit of Crossbow Warriors flanks my main unit of Boyz

Savage Boys finally got out of the silly arguments with the Night Goblins and engage the Dark Elf Warriors behind the fence. As there were impassable terrain, TH had to close the door by coming away from the fence. LOL

I angled my Night Goblins to face his flanking unit of Dark Riders.

After mopping up the Cold One Knights move down my flank

After destroying the Warriors, the Savage Orcs reform to face the block of Crossbowmen in the middle.

Word of Pain is really horrid. At WS1 my Boyz just couldn't wound enough of those pointy eared pansies so had to keep fighting.

While the Cold One Knights were bearing down  my flank, the Hero charged out alone to engage my Rock Lobba on the hangman's noose.

 And obviously killed them all.

 Turn 4 and we still fight. TH finally decides to reform to gain more ranks.

Zoomed out, my army moves up to threatened his rear. They like it from behind.

Buffed my Night Goblins and funnily enough the Fanatic moves out to threathen the Guard.

On my Turn 4, I charge my Savage Orcs into his rear. This should break the unit.

I charged my unit of Night Goblins into his Guard, should be easy to break

Chew chew chew and here we go!!!

WTF...he outruns BOTH units! On an average of 7, I can't beat 7 on 2D6 twice?!

And for the coupe de grace, he charges my unit with his Hydra...

Meanwhile a FULL unit of Night Goblins loses to 5 Guard....

And the Hydra wipes out my unit of Boyz with General.

 Thankfully my Savage Orcs can now attack the flank. Should be easy to break.

The Night Goblins regroup and get charged by the Dark Elves in TH's 6th turn

Lo and behold, I couldn't break the Hydra in Turn 5 and now TH sends in his inverse save Lord into my flanks....

 Curse yooooooooooooooooooooo

At the end of the game this is what remained.

Dark Elves took the day with the following results from the post game dice rolls for our campaign:

1. TH gets 1611 points, RT gets 630 points – TH wins
2. TH gets 50 point banner for free, selects Cold One Knights
3. RT gets Hatred against DE for this Army
4. RT lost Bashas’ Axe and Opal Amulet from this Army
5. RT BSB Hates DE

Post game thoughts:

I still think my army is quite well written and I need to just get used to playing this army. Keeping the units close together is important so that I can benefit from the BSB and the Warlord's leadership. Onwards and upwards, I will fight my 2nd battle of the day. 

Spring Turn 1: RT (Orcs & Goblins) vs YC (Tomb Kings)

Being an Orc - WAR is in my blood! LOL So next game! 

This time it is with another Army but same composition. The campaign distinguishes each Army but for simplicity the players decided to use one army list to represent all 3 Armies they have on the Campaign board. 

This meant that the above results I rolled are not applicable to this army as it didn't suffer the loss to TH. This is a fresh Army-just so happens it looks the same as the previous army. LOL! 

YC rolled for the mission and we got the funny one with side ways deployment. Deploying 12" apart, this was going to be bloody early game. 3 of my units got put in Reserve (you roll and on 1's your unit is put in Reserve) and 2 of my Doom Divers and the unit of Savage Orcs were put in Reserve.

Kept the units in one line supporting each other with the Manglers in between to support.

YC kept his hard hitting units on my left flank - 8 chariots with the Necrosphinx while his unit of 80 skeletons kept to the centre supported by his Necropolis Knights. His Casket hides far behind.

Great view of the battlefield from here

YC took the 1st Turn and he moved his Necrosphinx up

The rest of his army sits still.

Warboss and Savage Shaman was put in this unit of Boyz. Not ideal for me as my Shaman needed to be in the unit of Savage Orc Boyz so that they benefit from the Lucky Shrunken Head (5+ Ward instead of 6+). Ah well....

Everyday shuffling - 80 Skeletons shuffle up. YC also put a hex on my Black Orcs forcing them to take a Dangerous Terrain test if they move for whatever reason. Also, he took a few shots and did 2 wounds to my Mangler on my left.

In my turn I moved my Mangler up supported by my Night Goblins. Woosh the Fanatics come out but all 1 went through his unit of Chariots.

I elected to have all my Reserve units turn up on Turn 1. Can't fire my Doom Divers which sucked. Savage Orcs arrive right behind my Night Goblins unit to fill the space that I would vacate. This picture was taken after I moved my Night Goblin unit up.

My Warboss and his unit of Boyz moved up to threaten the Necropolis Knights. I made a boo boo here. I should have moved the Shaman back into the Savage Orc unit. My bad. Nothing much happened in my turn.

In YC's Turn 2 he charged his Necrosphinx into my unit of Nigh Goblins. Yay Netters! He also charged his Necropolis Knights into my Warboss' unit of Boyz. Good moves by YC as I could not really flank either of his units and if he broke through either unit it would put him outside the charge arc of the Black Orcs. Tactical genius YC. Well played

Killed off one Knight

And in return took 5 Boyz and my Shaman. Damn. This error cost me major points.

In my Turn 2 the Fanatics performed superb. In a bout of good luck they smashed apart 4 chariots together with the Mangler. Amazing...note to self: always team them up together.

Fights with the Undead last forever. They took 4 of my Boyz down while I removed another base.

I just realise that I was sending units piecemeal into combats. I managed to take out the Necrosphinx when my Savage Orcs charged in and took it out. Also, being Constructs, his Necropolis Knights survived on ONE wound. LOL!

In turn 3 YC then charged his Chariots into my Savages.

And in the Magic phase he generated more chariots! All that hard work for nothing! He then buffs the chariot unit up with +1 attack. This +1 also applies to his HORSES! LOL! And those Charioteers have 2 attacks each. That is a total of 6 attacks from Charioteers, D6 Impact Hits and 4 attacks from the horses. Those horses are fierce BTW.

Savages loss the combat with the Chariots and fled. YC pursued but owing to the impassable terrain on the left of the picture above, his Chariots had to stop and this allowed my Savages to escape.

Which then allowed me to charge my Black Orcs into his Chariot flanks. Slurp

After wiping the Necropolis Knights, they over-ran into the Archers. Took one wound on the way in due to stand and shoot.

The rest just go bouncing around at the back of the field.

Being Undead allowed YC's chariots to reform so I lose the flanking bonus. I then choose to reform my Black Orcs in anticipation of his 80 strong Skeletons.

In YC's 4th Turn, he charged his unit of 80 into my Black Ors.

YC's units both wiped my Black Orcs out and in the pursuit again his Chariots were held back by the terrain. I think we played wrongly here as this meant that my Black Orcs actually managed to escape and survived. I removed the unit just because YC rolled higher than me but did not realise that terrain actually hemmed his unit of Chariots in preventing him from completing the pursuit (similar to the Savage Orcs earlier).

I then charged my Savage Orcs in during my Turn 4.

 While the Warlord and Boyz went on to tackle his Casket of Souls.

Wore down his Chariots finally earning the points but his Lord remained alive.

In Turn 5, YC charged his unit of 80 into my Savages' flank and this caused them to break. Fleeing, the Tomb King rode them down.

In my Turn 5, the smallest of all heroes appears. A Doom Diver swoops down the warm currents and spies the lonesome Tomb King.

And in the last moment corrects his angle and KERSPLAT! He takes out the Tomb King! Even the Ward Save didn't help the Tomb King!

And this is quite self explanatory.

This is the view of the battlefield at the end of the game.

Conclusion: this is still a strong list. This is my second time using this list and am obviously still learning the ropes with the new book. Excuses aside, here are is the outcome:

RT vs YC:

• YC gets 1717 points, RT gets 1538 points – YC wins
• YC gets Stubborn on Skeleton unit of 80
• RT’s Mangler Squig misses next game
• RT have to move army towards own capital
• We have to both roll on the Injury table - will update results here

Lesson learnt:

1. Warlord can only be at one place at a time. He has to be in the middle of the Horde and if he is not, then I have make sure that he is. 
2. The Shaman has to be with the Savages so let's prioritize that. 
3. Night Goblins and Manglers are good together and deny opponents the flanks. Use that psychological advantage. 

For higher resolution pictures and if you would like to leave specific comments: https://picasaweb.google.com/100466673872876007452/CampaignSpringTurn1#