Tomb Kings vs Orcs & Goblins 2250pt battle report

warhammer tournament preparation battle report :-

"Everywhere the Orcs held in melee! I was shocked, but the General and Battle Standard Bearer's leadership kept even the Night Goblins from running."

(it goes to show how unpredictable animosity rules make O&Gs)

source : warhammer.org.uk

credit : Atchman

17-Mar-2009

My ole pal Tomb Kraig has risen from the sands again! This time he was testing an army list for a tourney next month. I just finished writing up a Horde Orc tactica for Da Warpath and wanted to try out my ideas.

Normally Horde armies have weak leadership out on the flank. Instead of more Orcs, I took 19 Savage Orcs and screened them with Snotlings and Wolf Riders. It was an interesting experiment.

Orc and Goblin 2250 point army list

Black Orc General, Boar, Heavy Armor, Enchanted Shield, Martogs', Big Eds Kickin Boots
Black Orc BSB, Boar, Heavy Armor, Dispel Banner
Savage Orc Boss, with Great Weapon and Collar of Zorga
Orc Shaman. 2 x dispel scrolls, boar

2 x 24 Orc Boyz, Full Command
1 x 20 Orc Boyz, Full Command
19 Savage Orcs, Extra Hand Weapon Full Command
4 x 20 NG Archers
1 x 5 Wolfriders
1 x 10 Wolfriders full command
2 x 2 snotlings

2 x bolthrowers
Rock Lobber
Boar Chariot
Goblin Wolf Chariot

Tomb Kings 2250pt army list

Tomb King
Light Armour, Crook and Flail of Radiance, Collar of Shapesh, Vambraces of the Sun

21 Tomb Guard - Icon of Rakaph, Champion

Tomb Prince
Biting Blade, Scorpion Armor

20 Skeleton Warriors - Banner of the Undying Legion, Champion

Liche Priest - Hierophant
Skeletal Steed, Dispel Scroll, Hieratic Jar

Liche Priest
Skeletal Steed, 2 Dispel Scroll

3 Chariots
3 Chariots
10 Skeleton Light Horsemen
Tomb Swarm
Tomb Scorpion
Tomb Scorpion
4 Ushabti
Screaming Skull Catapult w/ Skulls of the Foe


Figure 1 The Orc Deployment

Figure 2 The Tomb King deployment Sorry for the blurry picture





A spattering of animosity broke out among the lads, thankfully none of the Orc units failed only night goblins. Animosity had a huge affect on the game as it really kept me from closing with Tomb Kraig out on the right flank and gaining any real points.

I had no magic really so it was on to shooting. My Rock Lobber scattered but landed right in the center of his Tomb Guard taking out about 9 models! The Spear Chukkas took down a Ushabti and wounded another one! I was pretty happy with my artillery on turn one.



You can see the depleted Tomb Guard and the wounded Ushabti

Tomb Kraig shuffled forward during his turn and was content to fire his catapult and make some moves. He was probably cramped a bit by his own deployment.



The Orcs would have NONE of this shuffling stuff and went on an all out attack on turn2! Animosity helped this turn as it propelled the Savage Orcs into a Tomb Scorpion that was a little too close. I charged both of my chariots into his, but the Orc Chariot was a coward (DRAT!). Shooting really didn’t do anything on turn two.

There was powder all over the place as the Gobbo Chariot took out two of his counterparts. The Scorpion got chopped up by the Savage Orcs, which continued on into the chariots. This was going pretty well; that was until the Tomb King decided to come out to play…



The Ushabti and the Scorpion charged the chariot destroying it. In the middle the skeleton archers had to reform to keep from getting flanked by the wolf riders. I wish I had went straight for them instead of skirting the terrain so much.

Three more chariots went POP! However now I had to deal with the Tomb Kraig himself!



The Savages think they can take on the Tomb Kraig! Animosity messed me up this turn as I had perfect flank charge on the Ushabti but the unit stood still. However the Spear Chukkas reduced them down to a single model, which was almost as good-almost.

My Savages didn’t run at least killing a couple of Tomb Guard for a loss of a few of their own.

A closer view of the middle. The yellow dice is the unit that failed to move.

Tomb Kraig was not content to sit back! The remaining chariot and the remaining Tomb Scorpion charged a unit of Night Goblins. Not wanting to get shot again, the Ushabti charged the Snotlings. Seeing the Orcs coming a little fast, the two Liche Priests abandoned their unit.

Everywhere the Orcs held in melee! I was shocked, but the General and BSB’s leadership kept even the Night Goblins from running.



Finally after losing the Savage Orc hero, the Savage Orcs headed for home getting ran down by the Tomb Kraig’s unit. On the good side, the Snotlings reduced the Ushabti to a single model again, but with my magic defense waning it was going to be hard to stop them from coming back. Looking at the picture, they may have been out of range, but I didn’t think to have Tomb Kraig measure.

This was the turn I declared the WAAAGH allowing my General’s unit to destroy the Skeleton Light Horse. Right when I need the Night Goblins to move, they stood still of course! I moved some units to take advantage when the Night Goblins in melee broke fighting the chariot and the Tomb Scorpion.

I tried to take out a Liche Priest with shooting and lost my Wolf Riders to the Tomb Kraig. I thought it was worth a risk but instead it cost me more points later in the game as I could have diverted his unit.



The Ushabti took one for the team getting a choppa charge in the front from a unit of unpainted Ocs and the Black Orc General into the rear of their unit. The General hacked four wounds from the unit and the Orcs did but a single wound. Three Orcs fell and the Ushabti were crumbled.

Finally the Night Goblins broke from melee, but the Tomb Scorpion and the Chariot were destroyed by the very effective Orc artillery park! I was happy with the artillery this game.



This was it. I lost the unpainted Orcs to a Tomb Kraig charge and the Wolf Riders to the Tomb Prince. Both of these were my own mistakes that cost me a possible win. However, I was pretty happy to be in the game anyway since I had nothing to take out the Tomb Kraig’s Tomb Guard and his other Skeleton bunker unit. Pretty much I just destroyed all of his support units save the Catapult and land grabbed on the final turn.

Result: DRAW


Battle Summary:

This was a really fun game. I just couldn’t bring the weight of my troops to bear since Tomb Kraig hid in the corner of the table. If I had to change my plans, I would have just massed the hard hitting Orcs together and went straight for him in the corner. My other mistake was that I should have bailed the BSB out of his unit and sent it around the other side of the large set of trees in the middle of the table. That way I could have pressured his Tomb Prince’s unit.

I also didn’t use either unit of Wolf Riders well. I know they are fragile, but I was too tentative not pressuring the Tomb Prince’s unit. The other unit would have probably won me the game if I hadn’t let them get too close to the Tomb King. I think I could have diverted the Tomb King’s unit and possibly held that table quarter. We’ll never know!

This isn’t the army that I’m taking to the tournament it was just one I wanted to try out. I think my other army would have done better since I would have had some no-LoS magic to deal with those silly priests and even better magic defense. Having four units of Wolf Riders instead of two would have helped as well to make the Tomb Prince’s unit have to commit to a single formation.