Ogre Kingdoms vs Dwarves (750 points); 03Dec13

It’s taken me ages to get round to writing up this, the latest of our very slow escalation league games.  This one is against Jonny’s Dwarves though it looks now as though he’s decided that WFB isn’t for him.  Anyway, I report it in the interests of completeness and entertainment.  My army is as per this post, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 6 Ironguts, musician, standard bearer (IG)

Helena’s lasses, 6 Ogre Bulls Cows, ironfists, standard bearer (OC)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Jonny seems to have opted for all that is good in Dwarf life, i.e. artillery, short armoured chaps with massive beards and ways to stop people casting spells.

Runesmith, Master Rune of Balance, Rune of Spell Breaking, shield (R)

15 Long Beards, rangers, throwing axes, great weapons, full command, Rune of Slowness (LB)

10 Warriors, shields, full command

Cannon, Rune of Fortune, Rune of Burning (C1)

Cannon, Rune of Fortune (C2)

The scenario is Battle Line and we have a terrible river right across the middle, and Anvil of Vaul in the West and an Altar of Khaine in the East.  The Firebelly rolls up Flaming Sword of Rhuin (which I love) but with a heavy heart I swap it for Fireball anyway on the basis that small units even of heavily armoured things won’t like a magic missile.  Of course, I hadn’t really appreciated the scope of anti-magic on the other side of the table so it didn’t make much difference what I chose.  The Dwarfs win the roll off and choose to go first.

The Warriors move up to wait on their side of the river and the Long Beards just sharpen their many weapons.  Jonny has the first of many rounds of terrible fortune with his Cannons as they only kill a single Irongut between them.

The Sabretusk charges the Warriors in the hope of eating the Runesmith – I should note that I didn’t realise that he also wore Gromril armour as Jonny had only mentioned the shield he’d bought extra.  On the other hand, I would have done it anyway I suppose as it was clear that the Dwarves had no intention of making the first move so redirectors would be of limited value.  The Cows are forced to try and charge the Long Beards due to the Altar of Khaine but fail because of the Rune of Slowness.  I roll up 3,2 magic dice, which ends up with four dice for me and five for the Dwarves because of the kit the Runesmith is packing; needless to say the medium Fireball at the Warriors is not successful.  The Sabretusk does remarkably put a wound on the Runesmith before even more remarkably surviving and holding with Insane Courage.

The Long Beards charge the Cows, who hold.  More spectacularly ineffective Cannon fire sees me get off with no damage as one rolls a 1 to wound and the other overshoots entirely.  The Long Beards blend the Cows mercilessly but the Cows do at least get away.  Sadly this is all to scary for the Ironguts who panic and flee into the river.  Surprisingly the Sabretusk lives long enough to flee from the Warriors, but is overtaken by the sprinting Dwarves who roll 6,6 for pursuit.

My poor Cows continue to flee but at least the Ironguts pull themselves together.  The Firebelly moves to breathe fire on the Warriors while his Leadbelchers line up shots on the Long Beards.  There is some magic of no consequence, then the Firebelly uses her breath weapon on the Warriors, lining up the perfect shot for all 11 in the unit.  Apparently they’re all wet from the run through the river and only one burns to death.  A hail of shrapnel from the Leadbelchers kills a couple of Long Beards, who are starting to look a bit sorry for themselves now.

The Long Beards chase the Cows off the table and the Warrior wheel to set up a rear charge on the Leadbelchers.  The gunners of the Cannons continue to show why they’re the pride of the Old World as neither can lend a hit on the Firebelly; one uses up its Rune of Fortune to avoid blowing up.

The Ironguts charge the nearest cannon and the Firebelly finds herself in the unenviable position of having to redirect the Warriors while I concentrate on the Long Beards with the Leadbelchers.  This time the Rune of Spellbreaking is used to stop another Fireball.  A great round of shooting from the Leadbelchers drops 5 more Long Beards and the cannon crew predictably do not survive the Irongut charge.

The Warriors gleefully charge the Firebelly and the remnants of the Long Beards reform to move past the Leadbelchers, unwisely presenting their flank in the process (I’m not sure what Jonny was trying to do here).  The one surviving Cannon again fails to achieve anything despite having a perfect shot lined up on the Leadbelchers.  Finally, in the combat the toughness 5 of the Firebelly is too much for the Dwarves to get through and she holds after killing a couple of them.

Even though Leadbelchers are primarily a shooting unit, they are still Ogres and so I’m happy to charge them into the flank of the depleted Long Beards; the Ironguts charge over to end the miserable existence of the other cannon.  Only two Long Beards survive to flee off the table and the Cannon crew are killed by impact hits alone.  Sadly the Firebelly fails her break check and flees this time.

The Warriors charge and catch my beautiful fleeing Firebelly, and the Long Beards leave the table having spotted a pub in the distance which isn’t filled with horrible cannon-bearing Ogresses.

There’s not much point even moving the Ironguts at this late stage so the Leadbelchers make this a short turn by shooting a single Warrior.

The Warriors fail to swift reform so simply turn to face the Leadbelchers.  I probably didn’t really need to do these maps.

I pretty much have to charge the Leadbelchers into the Warriors as I won’t be able to kill enough of them to get victory points by shooting alone.  So, in they go.  There’s a bloody battle, but with almost the last roll of the game, one heroic Ogress tramples the last wound off the Runesmith (the first having been taken by the Sabretusk in turn 1) to give me a clear cut win.  A few surviving warriors hold but we’re out of time anyway.  Victory to the Ogre Kingdoms!

That was mainly notable for the silly dice.  The cannons that couldn’t hit, the Long Beards going ninja on the Cows, and best of all the courageous Sabretusk.  Lots of fun and laughs had while we pushed around the surprisingly mobile Dwarves.  I was quite glad to have come close to losing after two blowout victories in the previous two games at this points level.  Funnily enough the Dwarves have been doing poorly in the other games they’ve played with this force because they’re outnumbered so badly.  That wasn’t a problem against my equally tiny force and so they were able to really punish me in close combat.

Ogre Kingdoms vs Lizardmen (750 points); 26Nov13

The second game of our ongoing escalation campaign at the 750 point level is against Joe’s Lizardmen force.  My army is as per this post, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 6 Ironguts, musician, standard bearer (IG)

Helena’s lasses, 6 Ogre Bulls Cows, ironfists, standard bearer (OC)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Joe has evidently decided that non-Skirmisher Skinks are just no good and duly dropped them.  So I’m facing a couple of different flavours of Skink, some flying Skinks and increasingly scary looking unit of Saurus Warriors.  The Skink Chief has apparently grown up into a Saurus Scar Veteran too.

Saurus Scar Veteran, Egg of Quango, Enchanted Shield, light armour (SV)

Skink Priest, Lore of Heavens (P)

13 and 12 Skink Skirmishers (S1 and S2 respectively)

17 Saurus Warriors, full command (SW)

3 Terradon Riders (T)

5 Chameleon Skinks (C)

We’re still defaulting to Battle Line and the random terrain gives us a forest in the North East, a Wyrding Well in the North West and a river in the South West.  The Firebelly rolls something useless again and takes Fireball; I don’t actually think there’s anything I’d have kept against this force.  Maybe Fulminating Flame Cage, maybe not even that.  The Skink Priest rolls Curse of the Midnight Wind and keeps it.  The Lizardmen win the roll off and opt to go first.

The Terradons roll right up to the Sabretusk, and the Chameleons evidently trust their mounted brethren to kill it off as they present their flank.  For reasons which are not clear to me, the Skinks swap sides with each other.  The Priest summons 3,1 magic dice and puts Curse on the Leadbelcher.  The Chameleons manage to outright kill one Leadbelcher but luck smiles on me as they don’t panic.  The Terradon riders are much less effective and fail to even wound the Sabretusk.

The Sabretusk charges the Chameleons in the flank; they’re too busy glaring at the Terradon riders to flee.  The Firebelly leaves the Leadbelchers, at least in part because they’re apparently magnets for ranged attacks, and faces the Terradons.  The winds of magic give us 3,1 magic dice again and they all go into a medium fireball at the Terradon riders.  One of them actually survives the barrage but only for long enough to remember he’d left the gas on back at the temple and flee off the board.  With Curse of the Midnight wind on them, the Leadbelchers predictably fail to do anything to the Saurus Warriors.  Just as predictably, the Sabretusk eats a couple of Chameleon Skinks and runs the rest down.

The Saurus Warriors fail a long charge into the Cows and the Skink Priest bails out of his unit to join the other one.  I suppose that this was to get in a better position for range on his spells, but it looked to me like getting in a better position to be eaten by Ogresses.  He uses his 3,1 magic dice to put Curse on the Ironguts then a hail of poison from the Skinks kills off the Sabretusk and wounds a Leadbelcher.

With the two ‘new’ units both gone and the rest of his force in range of mine, I’m feeling pretty good about this game now.  The Cows charge the Skinks, expecting them to flee and to hopefully redirect into the Saurus but instead they have to suck up a stand and shoot reaction which drops one of them.  Then I declare that the Ironguts will charge the Saurus, foolishly uttering the immortal words ‘Only snake-eyes will fail this charge’.  Naturally, they roll 1,1 and all of a sudden my great plans are for nothing.  Oh well, it would be a pretty dull game if I could predict everything flawlessly.  The Winds of Magic come up with 3,2 power dice and I go for a big Fireball on the unengaged Skinks but fail to make the cast.  The Leadbelchers do shoot 4 of them down though.  The Cows trample the Skink Priest and most of his unit; 3 of them live long enough to flee and the Cows reform to face the Saurus to make them choose between the fronts of two fairly competent fighting units.

The Saurus choose the Ironguts (it’s what I’d have done too) and make it of course.  Sadly, the forest turns out to be a Venom Thicket and a few of them don’t make it to the other side.  The fleeing Skinks rally, and the other ones move across the river and throw poisonous sticks at the Firebelly for a couple of wounds.  In the combat I’m expecting a tough time.  The Scar Veteran uses his Egg of Quango for a couple of wounds but then the Saurus put out a terrible round of rolls and only drop a single Irongut even with the hero and his magic item.  To really rub it in, my dice are on fire and the 15 attacks and 3 stomps back kill an outrageous 14 of the Saurus Warriors.  Needless to say, the Scar Veteran and his few remaining friends flee.  I think that Joe’s luck has continued when he rolls only a 4″ flee but the Ironguts only ponder after them 3″.

That’s pretty much it for the game, but Joe is keen to play on.  Just for a laugh, I decide to try to get the Ironguts into the Skinks so the Cows declare a charge on the Saurus (who flee off the board) to get them out of the way before rolling too low for the distance to reach the Skinks anyway.  Still, it can be a neat trick sometimes since the receiving unit must flee as the charge reaction whereas the charges themselves can be resolved in the order I choose.  With 2,1 magic dice, the Firebelly cooks a few Skink with a Fireball then breathes fire killing all but one.  The Leadbelchers finish off the other unit.  Victory to the Ogre Kingdoms!  Actually, we did play a bit of a further turn in which the lone Skink charged the Firebelly (we allowed him to turn then charge).  All it resulted in was one more squashed Skink.

Another satisfying game with a fun player across the ‘table’ (i.e. floor) from me.  I think I had things in hand anyway even without the Ironguts (which I expected to lose the Saurus Warriors) but the dice stopped any chance that Joe had of pulling this back.  Looking at the other side of the board, Joe needs to learn when to flee rather than holding all the time (in fairness, I also could do with learning this, but it matters less with brutish Ogresses than with squishy Skinks) and perhaps also to stop offering me perfect charges with the Sabretusk.

Warhammer Quiz Results

There seems to be a very minor spate of people on blogs I like posting up the results they got from a Warhammer quiz that can be found online.  Never one to be first into anything, I decided to follow the lead of Flames of the Phoenix and Iggykoopa30 (here and here respectively) and put up my results.

1. Ogre Kingdoms 95%
2. Dogs of War 85%
3. Beasts of Chaos 70%
4. Chaos Dwarfs 55%
5. Orcs and Goblins 55%
6. Hordes of Chaos 55%
7. Dwarfs 50%
8. Skaven 50%
9. Vampire Counts 50%
10. The Empire 45%
11. Wood Elves 40%
12. Tomb Kings 35%
13. High Elves 35%
14. Bretonnia 30%
15. Lizardmen 25%
16. Dark Elves 20%

Perhaps not completely to anyone’s surprise we have Ogre Kingdoms and Beastmen at the top.  Dogs of War are interesting in that they’ve never actually been part of the game when I have been playing it but a quick check online suggests that they’re the mercenary army.  Considering Warhammer Fantasy Battle’s general poor internal balance I can see why mercenaries are probably not a good idea.  The previous (6th edition?) Ogre Kingdoms book had quite a few units which could be in a Dogs of War force so perhaps liking Ogres has bumped them up.  In general, the quiz seems to think I like to play the baddies which I suppose isn’t too far from the truth.  It is interesting that Lizardmen are so low down as I quite like them.  I got one game played using the 7th edition army book and crushed Furycat so completely that I decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea to carry on.  If I was in the market for a new force then they’d certainly be contenders (except that Joe plays them anyway now).  Finally, I’m not sure why Dark Elves should be right at the bottom as I don’t have any special dislike for them.  I did answer ‘no’ to the question ‘Are you an emo’ so maybe that knocks off a lot of points.

Who could ever get tired of a fire-breathing curry eating magical giant lady?

Ogre Kingdoms vs Empire (750 points); 24Nov13

It only took us about 4 months get through the first round of our escalation campaign!  Not a bad effort for us to play only 6 games each.  Anyway, it’s not like we’ve been playing only this one game system, or indeed that we’re in any hurry.  As with the 500 point level the opening game is me vs Furycat; a match up that saw my only defeat in the opening round.  My army is as per this post, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 6 Ironguts, musician, standard bearer (IG)

Helena’s lasses, 6 Ogre Bulls Cows, standard bearer (OC)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Furycat had added a Witch Hunter and retinue of Free Company militia as well as bulking out his other units.  It is probably worth noting that Furycat has long been a proponent of how bad Free Company are, but put them in for story reasons.

Warrior Priest, Opal Amulet, Great Weapon, heavy armour (WP)

Witch Hunter, Potion of Foolhardiness, brace of pistols

25 Spearmen, champion, standard bearer (S)

2 x 5 Archers (A1 and A2)

24 Halberdiers, full command (H)

20 Free Company (FC)

5 Pistoliers, musician (P)

We’re still using Battle Line until the next escalation.  Our reduced strategy gives us a Scree Slope in the South West, a building in the North West, a forest (which turned out to be a Venom Thicket) in the North East and finally a river (a Raging Torrent when we actually entered it).  I still fail to roll any of the Lore of Fire spells I like and hence end up with Fireball as usual.  Luckily Fireball is pretty good when all units are tiny.  Furycat wins the roll off and opts to go first.

The Pistoliers saunter round the hill to be in maximum irritation position for the Ironguts.  The Archers find out that the forest is a Venom Thicket and the Halberdiers decide that they don’t fancy spending a couple of turns trudging through it being bitten by nasty little things so reform to head around it.  Both sets of Archers fire at the Leadbelchers, and, despite needing 6s to hit and 5s to wound, manage to put 4 wounds on them out of 10 shots.  Luckily for me the Leadbelchers don’t panic.  After that, the paltry single wound that the Pistoliers manage to put on the Ironguts seems a bit weak.

It may have become clear to anyone who has read this blog for a long time that I find Pistoliers very annoying so the Firebelly leaves the Leadbelchers and starts incanting at the riders.  We roll 2,2 magic dice and mid-sized fireball is sent to wipe out the Pistoliers which makes me happy indeed.  The Leadbelchers plink off a single militia man.

The Free Company and Spearmen both charge the Cows, making it but losing a handful of guys to the Venom Thicket.  For some reason, the left hand Archers charge the Leadbelchers.  Sadly, they roll terribly in the Raging Torrent, panic and flee again; presumably leaving the Leadbelchers looking rather bemused.  The Warrior Priest summons up 3,2 magic dice; Shield of Faith is dispelled but Hammer of Sigmar does go off.  The Archers who aren’t running like children fail to match their amazing volley of last turn, then we’re onto combat.  Bizarrely, everyone in the massive central scrum roll hopelessly but the end result is a narrow Ogress win which sees the Spearmen sent packing.  To rub it in, the other Archers also panic at this point; the Cows reform to maximise contact with the Free Company.

The Ironguts chase the Spearmen and Archers away making scary faces as they do so.  I roll a mighty 3,2 magic dice and put them all into the biggest Fireball at the Halberdiers which kills off a good chunk of them; the Leadbelchers kill off a couple more.  Those fleeing Archers are right in the way of the Warrior Priest’s unit and I’m quite happy for them to stay there.  The combat between Cows and Free Company continues to grind away at both units though the Free Company are taking most of the punishment.

The Spearmen and right hand Archers rally, meaning that the Halberdiers are spending another turn just looking at the stupid peasants dithering in front of them.  Furycat rolls up 3,1 magic dice and gets Shield of Faith through (failed dispel) but I am able to stop Hammer of Sigmar.  The Free Company have finally had enough and break; irritatingly for Furycat a single militiaman also survives the run through the Venom Thicket, meaning that the Witch Hunter won’t be likely to rally.  The Cows restrain themselves and face the Halberdiers.

It’s probably worth noting that there’s no good reason to throw the Cows at the Halberdiers here.  I’ve got ranged attacks and would be better to stand off and soften them up a bit more.  On the other hand, that’s pretty boring for both of us, so in they go.  The Firebelly rolls up 1,1 magic dice and kills off a few of the fleeing Archers on the left with a small Fireball.  The main event is the combat though; the contact is quite small due to the presence of the Archers, and if there’s something that Ogres are good at it’s concentrating force into a narrow area.  The Cows win by the closest of margins but Furycat rolls high on his break check and the humans flee and are run down.  With only the Spears left against practically my entire army, Furycat has seen enough.  Victory to the Ogre Kingdoms!

It was quite a strange game with the dice going hot and cold all over the place.  The Archers blocking off the Halberdiers meant that I could have focused all my attention on the rest of his force even if the Spearmen hadn’t rolled terribly and fled in the first combat round.  I didn’t do anything too clever and still got a heavy victory, though in fairness Furycat has knowingly selected some fairly weak units.  It’s always fun to play against Furycat whatever the game system.

Ogre Kingdoms force for slow grow campaign (750 points)

Miss Madras patted her increasing gut and wiped away the last bit of Dwarf vindaloo from her lips.  Perhaps mercenary work wasn’t so bad after all, and while the Little Death tribe certainly wasn’t in a position to be raiding any major food sources any time soon, there seemed to be a never ending stream of other warbands in the area in the aftermath of the battle.  Providing you weren’t too fussy about what you ate (never a problem among Ogresses, especially with curry sauce in the mix) you could easily keep a full belly here.  After a humiliation at the hands of the Humans with their fancy mustaches that had scattered the tribe almost for good, every day had led to an encounter with another race looking to take their turn in the cooking pot.  The constant wandering had allowed some more stragglers to be picked up, including Helena and her lasses who had found themselves a very suitable bit of work guarding a brewery.  They had be quite reticent on what form the payment had taken.

The only troubles were the continued absence of the other tribal leaders and the frustrating lack of progress toward finding ‘El Habañero’.  Still, there were surely clues out there and there was evidence of reinforcements arriving from all corners of the Old World to join the growing armies.  Well, almost all.  The Vampire Barry Von Carstein had been raising his new recruits from the plentiful supply of corpses littering the battlefields, and the Goblins appeared to be learning how to fight rather than increasing in number.  That was probably just as well considering how many of the blighters there already were, mused Miss Madras as she flossed her teeth with a beard-hair.

The first games of our escalation campaign at 500 points have gone better than I could possibly have imagined.  After the stern beating I received at Furycat’s hands in game 1 I was expecting to be on the wrong end of a lot of crushing defeats.  But my dice have been very good to me, and panic checks don’t seem to have caused as big a problem as I expected; all leadership checks are a bit worrying when your general is only Leadership 7.

After arguing strongly before we started this to allow monstrous cavalry at 750 points (which would allow me to field Mournfang Cavalry) I eventually decided that they would just be too awkward for most forces to take down at this level and I would probably win big most of the time and occasionally lose big when someone had a good answer for them.  Instead I bumped up the Ironguts to the full 6 I own and made one a standard bearer (because the standard bearer is the 6th Irongut in my collection) and added 6 Ogre Bulls Cows.  The Cows also got a standard bearer since I have one but I don’t have the points to make one a musician (which I also have as a miniature) so the musician has to stand shamefacedly at the back pretending not to have a trumpet.  It’s a shame my photography isn’t up to the performance of my dice rolling.

My force, the Little Death tribe at 750 points:

Miss Madras, Firebelly

Heidi’s lasses, 6 Ironguts, musician, standard bearer

Helena’s lasses, 6 Ogre Cows, ironfists, standard bearer

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk

Ogre Kingdoms vs Dwarves (500 points); 22Oct13

I thought that I’d completed all my games for the 500 point level of our ongoing escalation campaign, but then another new gamer joined our little group.  Well, not new, as Jonny (NinjaBreadMan) is another established member of the local Malifaux community and hence well-known to us as a gamer, but he hadn’t previously joined our little group.  Anyway, Jonny is using Dwarves and modifying / painting them as Chaos Dwarves based on the fluff from years ago (possibly it was retconned away at some point) that Chaos Dwarves turn into metal as they get older.  My list is as noted previously, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly, additional hand weapon (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 5 Ironguts, musician (IG)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Jonny, who is new to Warhammer, used this bunch of short-legged beardy chaps:

Thane, Grudge Rune (T)

24 Warriors, standard, musician, great weapons

5 Ironbreakers (I)

2 Bolt Throwers (BT1 and BT2)

We roll up two hills (the one in the South East is a scree slope) and two normal buildings.  Boring, but we somehow end up putting them in places where they couldn’t possibly affect the game anyway.  The Firebelly rolls up something useless and swaps it for the reliable Fireball.  I win the roll off and choose to move first (in fact I had a bit of a stupid moment and nearly made Jonny go first, which would have simply given him an extra turn of turning my Ogresses into kebabs with the Bolt Throwers before I realised).

Everyone moves forward.  We roll up 2,2 magic dice which all go into a mid-sized fireball at the Warriors; great rolling takes out 5 of them.  The Leadbelchers make up for it by rolling like fools and only bring down one more.

The Warriors fail an outrageous charge on the Ironguts; they held because it’s a fight I want to happen anyway, though of course I really want to charge in for the impact hits.  For reasons that aren’t clear to me, the Ironbreakers back up a little, then both Bolt Throwers miss their shots at the Leadbelchers.

Not being hampered by short legs, the Ironguts charge into the Warriors and the Sabretusk charges the Bolt Thrower.  The Leadbelchers advance, making sure to stay more than 6″ from the Ironguts in case that goes poorly.  A medium Fireball at the Ironbreakers is Irresistably Dispelled but the Leadbelchers do manage to drop one of the heavily armoured Dwarves.  After an epic blood bath at the Always Strikes Last step, the battle between the Ironguts and Warrior turns out to be a draw.  This is going to favour the Dwarves next round though as they’ll still get all their attacks thanks to the deep ranks whereas every Ogress killed in my unit is one who can’t fight back.  The Sabretusk kills two of the Bolt Thrower crew but the last one is stubborn and going nowhere.

Whatever the Ironbreakers were doing in the first turn, they evidently changed their minds as this time they march purposefully forward.  The Bolt Thrower misses its shot at the Leadbelchers (the only available target), perhaps because almost the entirety of both our forces was in the way. The Sabretusk finishes its meal of crew members and reforms to face the flank of the Ironbreakers, and the Warriors predictably do horrible things to the Ironguts, though they take a fair toll themselves. The final Irongut, on 2 wounds remaining, flees a mighty 4″ but the Dwarves roll even lower.

Apparently not full after dealing with the Bolt Thrower crew, the Sabretusk charges the flank of the Ironbreakers which has been inexplicably presented. The Leadbelchers shake their heads at the fleeing Irongut and move up to shower the Warriors in shrapnel. There are 2,1 magic dice but the Firebelly channels and then casts a medium Fireball scorching one of the Warriors. The Leadbelchers are not in such a forgiving mood though, rolling like the champions I know they are and cutting down the Warriors to just the standard bearer and the Thane. To my amazement, they flee. Well, they’re not coming back. Meanwhile the Sabretusk and Ironbreakers are unable to do anything at all to each other, but it turns out that Ironbreakers aren’t stubborn and don’t like flank charges. The Sabretusk, already outstripping my expectations by actually being alive, runs them down.

This’ll be a short turn. The Warrior isn’t able to muster 1,1 to rally and keeps fleeing with the unlucky Thane for company. The Bolt Thrower takes a shot at the wounded Irongut hoping to kill her and trigger a panic test in the Leadbelchers. It hits, it wounds, and I breathe a sigh of relief as it leaves my last Irongut on a single wound remaining.

Ignoring the fleeing Thane, everyone converges on the Bolt Thrower and all but one crew member is killed by the combination of magic and shooting.

The Thane and his drinking buddy continue the long trudge off the table and into a pub, and the Bolt Thrower can’t make a hit count at point blank range.

We didn’t really bother rolling the dice here, but the curtain closes on the final Bolt Thrower crew member preparing to sell his life dearly as the Ogresses run in licking their lips. Victory to the Ogre Kingdoms!

There’s not really much to say in conclusion here. We had a good time playing, but the game itself was quite pedestrian – we ran at each other, and fat ladies triumphed over short bearded chaps.

More painted Mournfang Cavalry

This the second pair of Ogresses to fill out my Mournfang Cavalry unit for the Ogre Kingdoms which I’ve finally got round to painting after preparing them a couple of months ago. There’s not really too much to say about the painting as it’s pretty much the same as the previous pair.  I had argued strongly to be allowed to play with Monstrous Cavalry at 750 points in our escalation campaign but after getting through most of the 500 point games I think that it probably would just be too awkward to deal with for most armies.  Also, I think I’ll get more value out of more rank and file Ogresses.  At the moment I am considering them for the 1000 point escalation.

I found that I’ve assembled the standard bearer in a slightly irritating position since the arms make it hard to take a photo of the face.  Nonetheless I’m pretty happy with the way that the eyes turn out.

As is traditional, I used a very simplistic design for the banner.  I originally had delusions of painting on some kind of avalanche crashing down the mountain but once the mountain itself was drawn I decided not to spoil it any further.

Musicians are excellent in Warhammer Fantasy Battle 8th Edition, allowing swift reforms as well as improving the chance to rally (useful if, like my Ogresses, you flee at the drop of a hat), so I’m happy to get the one for the Mournfangs painted up.

Here is the family shot of all four Mournfang Cavalry together, out for a drink and a curry.  I don’t think I’ve every put out the full rack of four plus Dragonhide Banner but even three strong this lot are more than a match for most opponents and fast enough to avoid a lot of bad targets.

Next on the painting table: Tuskgor Chariot.

Tuskgor Chariot conversion 2

It’s been so long since I posted anything about Beastmen that any random visitors here might be confused by the blog subtitle ‘A Warhammer Beastmen Blog’. Well, it is time to briefly rectify this lapse with a kit-bashed Tuskgor Chariot.  Long-time readers will be aware of my preference for plastic over metal as a miniature medium, and specifically my dislike for the proper GW Tuskgor Chariot kit.  A while ago, I received a High Elf Chariot as a gift; the lions were duly co-opted into my Ogresses’ force as Sabretusks, and now I’ve completed my nefarious plan by using the rest of the pieces of the chariot.  The Ghorgon kit contains a ridiculous number of skulls in varying formats so I put of few of them hanging on the chariot to make it look more Beastman-ish and the shields from the Gor kit are conveniently the exact correct size to hide all the fine workmanship of the Elven wheels behind a lump of wood and bone.  The individual pieces here are all just blue-tacked together for photo purposes; I’m only going to glue it all together after the painting is complete.

The beasts of burden are the remaining pair of Chaos Warhounds after the six I painted as a unit and the two pulling my other Tuskgor chariot.  The two halves of the body still fit together terribly.  Luckily, this perfectly matches my skill with Milliput and a camera.

The Gor is modelling the hands from the High Elf crewman because I like the look of the the reins.  They’re a bit fiddly since the only contact point at the moment is the wrist where I removed the driver’s original hands but when I get this all painted they’ll be glued on at the other end too.  Despite the reputation for some High Elf miniatures to have outrageous monkey hands, these are somewhat too small but I don’t think it’ll be too noticeable.  Since the Gor is unarmed (apart from his horns, which I imagine are tricky to use as a weapon while driving a chariot) the Bestigor has taken on the additional responsibility and packed a spare axe.

Ogre Kingdoms vs Vampire Counts (500 points); 22Aug13

The last regular game in our still-unnamed escalation campaign at 500 points is against Aramoro‘s Vampire Counts.  Test games with this match-up have been even more swingy than usual at this points level, but have mainly come down whether I can take on the undead units piecemeal and destroy them outright before they can get themselves back up to strength with Invocation of Nehek.  Grinds generally favour the Vampire Counts.  My list is as noted previously, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly, additional hand weapon (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 5 Ironguts, musician (IG)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Aramoro has some fluff for his army which he will presumably post in his own blog eventually.  The Vampire in charge, one Barry Von Carstein, has had doubts cast about whether he really is a Vampire at all as test games have regularly seen him miscast in turn 1 and forget his spells, or be poked to death by angry villagers.  Vampire Counts seem have a bit of a problem at this point level because they need the expensive Vampire but can’t afford to do much with him.  Also the units that they can put on the table are generally aren’t big enough to soak up the incoming damage and start grinding right back at their foes.

Barry Von Carstein, Vampire, Summon Creatures of the Night (V)

3 Crypt Horrors (CH)

20 Skeletons, champion, standard (S)

10 Crypt Ghouls (CG)

5 Dire Wolves (DW)

We’re still on Battle Line, and random terrain gives us two mundane buildings, a set of Blessed Bulwarks and a river that we all know is going to turn out to be a River of Light.  Miss Madras rolls up something useless again (probably Piercing Bolts of Burning) and swaps it for Fireball; Barry Von Carstein doesn’t even bother to roll and defaults to Invocation of Nehek (which is apparently critical to playing Vampire Counts).  Note that the Firebelly is deployed with the Ironguts this time to (hopefully) mess with Crypt Horror regeneration.  I win the roll and force the Vampire Counts to take the first turn.

With no ranged attacks available the forces of the Undead have no choice but to head forward as quickly as possible.  The Ghouls move into a building for no apparent reason and the Crypt Horrors threaten a flank charge if I dare to charge the Dire Wolves or Skeletons.  3,1 magic dice allow the Vampire to cast Invocation of Nehek which adds a few Dire Wolves to the unit.

Standing around and pinging a few wounds off in each shooting phase is dull (though effective) so I go for a long charge from the Ironguts into the Dire Wolves.  The plan is to blast right through them and over run to (relative) safety.  We roll for the river, and of course, it is Light.  Net of Amyntok goes on the Ironguts but I breathe a huge sigh of relief as they pass the strength test and also complete the charge.  The Sabretusk crosses the river and also gets Net of Amyntok for his troubles; luckily again it passes the strength test which otherwise would probably have been fatal.  Rolling a feeble number of shots, the Leadbelchers manage to scratch a Crypt Horror, then the Ironguts annihilate the Dire Wolves.  The penalty to hit from the Blessed Bulwark makes it a bit sticky though but the Firebelly personally stomps the last one and the unit overruns out of the charge arc for both the Crypt Horrors and Skeletons, again passing the Net of Amyntok test.  Getting stuck there would probably have been the end of the game as I doubt I could have afforded to take both units in the side.

Everyone reforms to make it inevitable that the Ironguts will end up in a sandwich and the Ghouls leave the building to get involved in the game.  Barry Von Carstein passes the magic phase as the risk of miscasting makes it not worth casting a spell that’ll only heal a single wound on the Crypt Horrors.

I try to swift reform the Ironguts so that they can move backwards and possibly take both undead units in the front, but they fail and choose to face the Crypt Horrors as I perceive them both as more killy and more important  to kill off in a single round of combat.  We roll up 2,2 magic dice and the Firebelly kills of the wounded Horror with a medium Fireball then another hapless volley from the Leadbelchers wounds a second.

Needless to say, the Skeletons and Crypt Horrors charge into the Ironguts while the Ghouls continue to slog their way into the action since they don’t have a grown-up around to tell them to march.  It’s another 2,2 magic phase and Invocation of Nehek heals the Crypt Horrors.  After two rounds of terrible rolling with the Leadbelchers my dice go red hot and the Firebelly immolates the Crypt Horrors with her breath weapon alone.  The Skeletons can’t do much damage to the Ironguts and Barry Von Carstein doesn’t make enough of a difference to stop the Ogresses winning due to their musician; they reform to face.

The Leadbelchers move up into the river and get Net of Amyntok again; they shoot a single Ghoul in a third round of stellar output.  Barry Von Carstein steps to the fore and criticises the curry-making prowess of Miss Madras.  This insult cannot go unpunished and both are locked in mortal / immortal combat.  Sadly, Barry may indeed just be pretending to be a Vampire and he fails to make any impression on the Firebelly and is kicked in the ghoulies stomped for his troubles.  The Skeletons pull down one Ogress but are smashed to bone dust by the mighty great weapons of the Ironguts.

We only roll up 1,1 magic dice this round but a well timed Invocation of Nehek heals Barry Von Carstein and resurrects a few skeletons.  The challenge gives us no wounds on either side but enough Skeletons fall that the Vampire crumbles to dust.  With only a few Ghouls left, Aramoro has had enough and calls it a day.  Victory to the Ogre Kingdoms!

Another fun game, but the real lesson here is that it’s better to be lucky than good.  If I’d roll less spectacularly with the Ironguts and Firebelly in the crucial first round of combat against the Skeletons and Crypt Horrors I could have found myself on the wrong end of an attrition battle; similarly if any of a number of things had gone wrong against the Dire Wolves I probably would have lost the unit.  So next is probably 750 point games, although there has been some talk of a multi-player game, possibly even Storm of Magic.  We’ll see what happens.

Ogre Kingdoms vs Lizardmen (500 points); 15Aug13

We have a new contender in our campaign; Joe (@Laundry_King if you do the Twitter thing) joins us by way of the Malifaux gaming group and has picked Lizardmen.  Actually, I think that he was brought back to Warhammer Fantasy Battle by the new Lizardmen book, remembered that we played it, and found a happy coincidence that we were just about to start an escalation campaign.  My list is as noted previously, but for convenience, here it is again.

Miss Madras, Firebelly, additional hand weapon (FB)

Heidi’s lasses, 5 Ironguts, musician (IG)

Helga’s lasses, 3 Leadbelchers (LB)

Blackcat Bone, Sabretusk (ST)

Joe seems to have based his army on the theme of ‘miniatures he owns’ which leaves me facing down a cloud of Skinks with a very chewy centre of Saurus Warriors.

Skink Chief, Enchanted Shield, javelin, light armour (C)

Skink Priest, Lore of Beasts (P)

2 x 10 Skink Cohort (SC1 and SC2)

13 Skink Skirmishers (SS)

15 Saurus Warriors, full command (SW)

Terrain rolls give us two normal buildings, a Grail Chapel in the centre and some Blazing Barricades in the South East.  The Firebelly takes one look at all the small, annoying, toughness 2 units around and chooses to take Fireball; the Priest swaps Pann’s Impenetrable Pelt for Wyssan’s Wildform.  A good choice, as strength and toughness 5 on Saurus will make them rather brutal.  The Lizardmen win first turn and take it.

Everyone rushes forward, though the Chief bravely orders his cohort of Skinks to ‘support’ the other one from behind.  The Priest pulls 3,2 magic dice and I’m unable to stop him putting a boosted Wildform on the Saurus Warriors.

My Sabretusk gets the scent of a toughness 2 character dead ahead and I am unable to resist charging at the Skink Priest.  Fortuitously, the Blazing Barricades provide cover at exactly the right point which stops the possibility of a poisonous stand-and-shoot reaction and indeed Blackcat Bone gets there unharmed.  The other units move forward, not in a rush to have anything to do with those Saurus.  We get another 3,2 magic phase and the Firebelly puts a mid-sized Fireball into the nearest Skink Cohort killing 4 of them; the Leadbelchers take another.  Combat goes better than my wildest dreams; the Priest is eaten by the Sabretusk and the rest of the Skinks are unable to deal with it before fleeing and being run down.  This is probably the perfect situation for using Sabretusks to do something other than redirect and die – toughness 2 means I wound the Priest on 2s, the Skinks are skirmishers so they aren’t steadfast or bringing a rank bonus.  All the Sabretusk has to do is live through the barrage on the way in.

To my concern, the Saurus Warriors declare a charge on the Ironguts.  I hadn’t even considered the possibility that they could get in from so far away and I’m pretty worried about how powerful they are after looking at all the rules.  The Saurus need an 11… and the dice come up a 10.  We all let out a sigh of disappointment, perhaps with a side order of relief in my case.  The small unit of Skinks moves into the Grail Chapel and the Chief’s Cohort moves up behind.  The Skinks then unleash a veritable hail of poison javelins at the Leadbelchers killing two outright from the 16 shots they have available!  Fortunately for me, the survivor and Firebelly hold.

I can see I’m outmatched in shooting here, so the Leadbelcher and Firebelly charge the Chapel and the Ironguts charge the Chief and his buddies; both units take a wound from stand and shoot reactions.  The Skinks in the building are killed easily, and the Ironguts make short work of the Chief, smiting him and most of his Cohort.  The remaining Skinks flee and I try to restrain to face the incoming Saurus but the Ironguts are having none of that, lumbering a ponderous 3″ after them.  Still, at least it takes them out of the Saurus Warriors’ charge arc.

I’m expecting the Saurus to charge into the Grail Chapel, but apparently Joe isn’t keen to try his luck on another long charge.  Instead the Saurus move up to make sure of landing the charge on the Ironguts next turn; the Skinks fail to rally of course.

The Ironguts and Sabretusk line up on the Saurus Warriors and the Firebelly leaves the Chapel.  I need a decent Fireball and breath weapon to get the Saurus down to a manageable level.  It’s a big phase with 3,3 magic dice so I go for it with the big Fireball.  Disappointingly, it only kills off 4 Saurus Warriors, but that’s enough to force a panic check, which they fail despite being Cold Blooded.  The Leadbelcher chips in another couple but that’s pretty much it now for the Lizardmen.

The Saurus rally, the Skinks don’t.

The Ironguts charge into the Saurus, take a few wounds then kill a satisfying number of the Lizardmen.  The survivors flee but not far enough; we’re eating lizards tonight ladies.  Victory for the Ogre Kingdoms!

It was a good game, and I was happy to get a shot against the new Lizardmen.  However, I think that Joe’s inexperience showed a few times: putting the Skink Priest too far forward and out of range of the Chief was a mistake as even without the lucky Sabretusk guided missile attack a single good Fireball could have panicked the unit out of the game.  I would have gone for it with the Saurus Warriors against the Firebelly and Leadbelcher too as even a failed charge would have achieved the goal of getting the right facing.