Ogre Kingdoms vs The Empire 2250 pts

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report summary:-

Four scrap launchers ! (another great report from Xtapl)

source : warhammer.org.uk

credit : Xtapl

21-Dec-2008

The Empire Army List

Archlector
Heavy Armor
Barded Warhorse
Enchanted Shield
Mace of Helstrum
Crimson Amulet

Captain
BSB
Full Plate Armor
Barded Warhorse
Van Horstman's Speculum
Sword of Justice

Battle Wizard
Level 2
Barded Warhorse
Rod of Power

Battle Wizard
Level 2
Barded Warhorse
2 Dispel Scrolls

30 Swordsmen w/ Full Command
9 Free Company
8 Archers

30 Swordsmen w/ Full Command
9 Free Company
8 Archers

30 Swordsmen w/ Full Command
9 Free Company
8 Archers

6 Knights w/ Musician
6 Knights w/ Musician

6 Pistoliers w/ Musician

Great Cannon
Great Cannon

Ogre Kingdoms Army list

My opponent had an interesting Ogres army, to say the least:

Tyrant
3 Hunters
2 units of 3 Bulls with Musicians
20 Gnoblars
4 units of 8 Trappers
4 Scraplaunchers
2 Slavegiants

Super aggressive and super shooty (for Ogres), with tons of Fear and Terror flying around. Not much magic defense, which could work in my favor, but not a whole lot of what I would call "soft targets." Plus, those giant S3 templates coming down on my head didn't exactly make me feel all kinds of good...

Deployment looked like this:



I was really hoping to get first turn, but alas, not so much.

OGRES TURN ONE

Gnoblars bickered, but everything else moved up pretty hard. Three scraplaunchers and two Hunters took the hill, which I thought was fairly confident considering I had a cannon on the extreme right of the field, and I know when I play against war machines, I always assume they're going to work and plan accordingly. I guess he figured my cannon crew were a bunch of Paris Hiltons. Trappers started flooding over the hill to the left, backed by a scraplauncher of their own.

No magic phase, so I just stored some dice.

The catapults flung a bunch of junk at my lines, but only two of them were accurate. One killed a few Free Company from a detachment, and one killed eight Swordsmen and three Archers, panicking the Archers into the impassable terrain and killing them. Hunters killed a knight from the right hand unit and a crewman of the left cannon. The trappers took down two Pistoliers with their sharp stuff.



EMPIRE TURN ONE

Time to counter! I pushed the whole line forward very aggressively, moving the Pistoliers up onto the hill to takes some shots at the Slavegiant and getting my mages into position to do some work.

The magic phase was very deadly for the Ogres, as with no defense of which to speak, things got ugly quickly for them. First, the wizard at right cast Guardian Light on his own unit, making them ItP. Then the Archlector made his own unit Unbreakable. The Death Wizard at left cast Dark Hand of Death at the Slavegiant at center, which he let go, expecting the big magic missile next. The Slavegiant took a couple of wounds, but wasn't expecting me to cast Wind of Death with Irresistable Force. Six wounds later, the Giant was a heap in the middle of the field.

The cannons lined up their shots perfectly, as the left cannon smashed through the Scraplauncher at left, and then the right cannon got a ridiculously accurate guess on the troops on the hill, smashing one Scraplauncher, putting three wounds on a Hunter, and chain panicking the other two Scraplaunchers. When they were done crashing into each other and the poor Hunter caught in their wake, the Hunter had taken three wounds, and each of the Scraplaunchers was wounded as well.

My opponent said, "Hm. Guess I should have put the Tyrant over there, too, huh?"

Unfortunately, the Pistoliers completely failed to wound the Slavegiant, and I was pretty sure they were dead in the water.



OGRES TURN TWO

The Tyrant and his Bulls charged at the Archers, who were going to flee but suddenly remembered they were Immune to Psychology and couldn't do so. The Archers next to them, however, were not so lucky, failing their Fear test, fleeing, and dying. One scraplauncher continued to flee, smashing into the one that actually rallied and putting another wound on it. Trappers continued to menace my flank, taking the hill completely.

More no magic phase, aside from a failed attempt to dispel ItP. More storing of dice.

Fortunately for me, both Hunters were inaccurate this turn. Unfortunately for me, my Pistoliers died in a hail of rusty spoons and bent knife blades.

The death of the Archers was swift and brutal, and the Ogres slammed into the Archlector's Swordsmen. Free Company rushed into their flank, and the Knights prepared to help out on the other side.



EMPIRE TURN TWO

The Knights at left tried to weed out some Gnoblars, but the blighters turned out to be faster than expected. The Knights at right went into the flank of the Tyrant's Bulls, and everyone else moved up to deal with the incoming threats.

The magic phase was pretty uneventful, as Dazzling Brightness was dispelled by the Ogres on a timely double 6, and then I put Guardian Light back up.

A cannon misfire resulted in a dud shot, and the other cannon made a quick end to the third Scraplauncher, leaving just the fleeing one alive.

The Swordsman champion bravely challenged the Tyrant, leaving the Archlector to pulp one Ogre Bull. The other combatants couldn't do anything at all except cause a single wound, while the Bulls beat down a few Swordsmen. The Tyrant revealed his Thundermace, getting max overkill on the Champion. The Ogres still lost, though, but hung in the fight.



OGRES TURN THREE

The Slavegiant charged my Knights. Remembering advice given to me by a lot of people, which was never to accept a charge with Vanilla Knights, I turned and booked it. The Bulls curiously passed up my BSB's unit, making a beeline for the cannon. Whoops. My bad. The last scraplauncher failed to rally and exited, stage right.

Quick magic phase again, as the Ogres failed to dispel Unbreakable, even on two dice. I stored two dice in my Rod of Power.

Shooting took down one crewman of the right side cannon, and sharp stuff actually killed a fleeing Knight.

Combat was interesting, as the Archlector smashed another Bull into the dirt, but then the Tyrant revealed his souped-up version of a cannonball on a stick. 11 swordsmen died in the impact, and the Ogres easily won the combat. Fortunately, the Knights hung in, but the FC detatchment panicked, ran, and died to crossfire on the Bulls.



EMPIRE TURN THREE

At this point, I'm thinking, "Things are starting to shift for the worse here." I'm pretty brilliant at snatching a draw from the jaws of victory, so I was hoping I could recover and get the game back under control here.

Then, of course, my Knights failed to rally and left the table, taking the mage with them. I have to say, three games now, and there's not a single time I haven't wished those Knights were something else. Pistoliers? Outriders? Two more cannons? A Master Engineer with Pigeon Bombs? Anything?

Without my magic missiles, the magic phase went quickly, as both the wizard and the Archlector just kept up their RiP spells.

In the shooting phase, both cannons managed to roll a 10 on the artillery dice for the first adjustment, ending up overshooting the Slavegiant and the Bulls. I knew I should have used Grapeshot...

Combat was quick and dirty, as the Tyrant missed with his Thundermace, and the Archlector pulped the last Bull. Badly outnumbered and out-CRed, the Tyrant turned to flee and was run down by the jubilant Knights.



OGRES TURN FOUR

The Bulls stepped across the wall to greet the cannon crew while the Gnoblars reformed into gunline position and the Giant got WAY too close for comfort.

The Hunters combined to kill two Knights, while the Gnoblars killed a few Swordsmen, and, most irritatingly, the Trappers obliterated the Cannon crew with sharp stuff. Yeah, ignoring the trappers was a super bad idea from the start.



EMPIRE TURN FOUR

The Archlector and crew charged the Gnoblars, who turned tail and ran for it. The wizard led his swordsmen into the hunter, who stood and shot, but didn't do much damage. The Knights wheeled around to take on the second Hunter, while the BSB's unit reformed to deal with the inevitable Giant charge. Unfortunately, that left my Free Company march blocked and in no position to help out with that countercharge. Boo.

The Wizard tried to Dazzle the Hunter, but was dispelled, so he hooked the Knights up with some Immune to Psychology (which, in retrospect, was not a good idea at all).

The cannon took aim at the Slavegiant, at which point my opponent said my BSB was having a flashback to Lando and Han in Return of the Jedi: "Just a little higher! A little higher!" I rolled a 10, though, so it was TOO high, and the cannonball sailed over the Giant's head and killed a Trapper instead.

The Wizard took a wound from the Hunter after the entire unit failed to wound the Ogre, but weight of numbers broke him anyway. I chose to restrain, which, in retrospect, was stupid because why did I expect that second Hunter to stay put when faced down with a double charge? Because I'm stupid sometimes, that's why. :)



TURN FIVE

I forgot to take a picture of the Ogre side of the turn, so here are the turn highlights:

The Giant charged the BSB's unit, yelled and Bawled, and won combat. The BSB stuck in there. The Gnoblars kept fleeing, and the Bulls came back across the wall to help out with the combat. The Hunter charged my Knights, who couldn't flee, and beat them down. The last knight took off fleeing, never to rally. The other Hunter rallied.

In my turn, the Mage/Swordsmen took care of one Hunter while the cannon took care of the other. My BSB put a wound on the Giant, and the unit got beat up a little by the swinging chains, but the Giant hung in there anyway, despite being badly outnumbered and losing the combat by 2.



OGRES TURN SIX

Bulls charged into the Sword's flank. The Gnoblars continued to flee. Trappers moved to throw stuff at my FC.

No magic phase at all. I didn't even store dice.

The trappers did shoot some FC to death, while the Hunter hit the cannon but failed to wound it.

The Bulls put some hurt on my Swordsmen, but the BSB made up for it by putting three more wounds on the Giant. Go Sword of Justice! The Swordsmen kicked in another wound. However, that just made the Giant mad, and he started jumping up and down on my unit. Still, I miraculously tied the combat and hung in there.



EMPIRE TURN SIX

Of course, that didn't help much, as the Giant kept jumping up and down on the unit and broke my BSB's unit in the bottom of the sixth turn. Boo.

At least the cannon thumped the Hunter for two wounds, giving me half points.



At the end of the game, I had racked up a score, through quarters, killing the general, and other unit kills of 2288-1655 for a solid victory to the Empire!

My first win with the list, and it was a tough fought one. I got a little TOO aggressive, I think, and I'm going to be re-examining if Pistoliers aren't a better buy than the Knights. I might try that out in my next game and see how I feel about it.

Anyway, that's the game!