Orcs & Goblins vs Skaven - the Warhammer Army "low-lifes" in action ;)
"As the Orcs started their own advance, they could see the grinning faces and large front teeth of the Ratling gun crews. They really looked like they were enjoying themselves, and their advance showed a cocky confidence that unnerved a number of the Greenskins."(Padre's reports are too good to miss, they're always amusing and engaging and are not to be missed - check out his other Warhammer reports under the "frequent writers" authors link)
| source :battlereporter.freeforums.org | credit : BatPadre | 29-Jul-2009 |
Warlord Gildag fights Clan Skallagad
Greenskins versus Skaven, 2500 points. Home rules terrain set up.
“I could crush any foe with this lot,” boasted War Boss Gildag to his chariot riding Big Boss. “Look at ‘em - you got eyes. There’s nowt could stand against ‘em! Not little ratmen, that’s for sure!”
Surveying his force, Gildag meant what he said - this was no empty boast nor self-deception to make him feel better about his chances - he truly believed it. He had two companies of Boar Riders, two Boar Chariots, a Giant, three war machines, two big regiments of Orc Warriors, umpteen Orc and Goblin archers, Goblin Wolf Riders and two Shamans. Top all this off with his own magical axe and kickin’ boots and he reckoned any enemy was doomed.
“This is gonna be a good day for killing,” he mused, philosophically (for an orc).
Once the Big Boss had trundled off in his massive chariot, Gildag surveyed the field of battle ahead. Like everywhere in the Badlands it was a barren and unforgiving place, but even so he’d turned the lie of the land to his advantage. He had the higher ground on his right, and the enemy had rough ground and a huge rock messing up with their advance. Gildag’s only problem would be arraying his warriors so that they could all get stuck in.
He sent his archers to make a show of it on the right, with the goblin wolf riders out the farthest just in case the enemy tries some trickery and comes around the side. He reckoned that lot could hold their own while he concentrated all his strong units together, like the bunched fingers of Gork’s fist ready to punch the enemy’s face in. He kept his two Orc Boyz regiments together, leading one himself, and ordered the Big Boss to sort the chariots and Boar Riders and the half-cut Giant out on his left. Some goblins meandered out in front on that flank, but to be honest Gildag failed to notice. It was easy to forget about goblins, until they got in your way. The war machines he simply expected to fit in where they could, and prove themselves worthy of their supper.
He was satisfied, pretty much, with the line. When he saw the goblins to his left he laughed, thinking that they looked a little comical out there, faffing about with their short bows and looking busy - as if they could contribute anything to the fight! When he looked forwards, however, and saw the enemy line advancing, the smile left his face. There were a lot of them, and they had plenty of their damnable gunpowder and warpstone machines with them (and he knew full well how potent they could be).
“Better get in quick,” he thought to himself, satisfied that this must be a good plan what with him being a military genius and everything.
The Skaven clan Skallagad managed a much neater array than the Greenskins opposite them - almost exactly precisely lined up. Gildag was not wrong when he reckoned they had plenty of machines of war - they had two units of nine Jezzails, four Ratling guns, two War Lightning Cannons and two Warplock Engineers. All this as well as three huge spear armed Clanrat regiments, a big block of armoured Stormvermin and a body of Plague Monks out on their far left and facing the Arrer Boyz and Gobbos.
“More to kill than we thought,” shouted Gildag for his boyz to hear. “We’re gonna enjoy this, lads, eh?”
A cry went up from the orcs at the back, the ones who could not really see the foe properly: “Kill, kill, kill!” But at the front the orcs just silently mouthed the words whilst staring at the enemy and trying to do a bit of counting. None could count that high.
It was the Skaven who made the first move, and it was their machines that they chose to deploy. While the Warp Lightning cannon and Jezzails crept along the far right flank, to get around the huge rock in their way, the four Ratling teams bravely strolled out ahead of their regiments and began to warm up their weapons. The Rat Ogres positioned themselves on the near side of the rock, as if readying to deliver a flank charge at anything that might come to the front of the Skaven centre.
The Jezzails at the rear stayed put - they could already see the enemy and reckoned they were in range. When the first blast of magic and shot came it wasn’t that impressive, what with so many machines having busied themselves with moving. The Engineers failed to harm the chariots but the Jezzails killed one of the Doom Diver crew goblins, as well as damaging the machine itself.
As the Orcs started their own advance, they could see the grinning faces and large front teeth of the Ratling gun crews. They really looked like they were enjoying themselves, and their advance showed a cocky confidence that unnerved a number of the Greenskins.
It turned out that the goblin archers did get in the way, for just as the giant and the chariots were wanting to get up quick before being riddled with warpstone pellets and lightning, they found themselves somewhat blocked. One chariot bit the bullet (!) and headed off towards the far left flank, hoping to hit the Jezzails before being shot to pieces and thus chase them off the field. Meanwhile the rest of the force advanced as best they could. The boars outstripped the foot warriors, and came on quick on the left, some keen to put the rock between them and the enemy’s deadly guns.
One Ratling team was crushed by the magical Foot of Gork, the orc shaman responsible proudly and flamboyantly bowing after his spell was cast. None of the warriors noticed - they’d long since made a point of ignoring his antics. The Doom Diver killed three Jezzails and sent the others running in panic, a site which some of the orcs did notice - though they would never cheer goblins and so pretended not to see. The Plague Monks, however, proved made of strong stuff - for when twenty eight arrows in total flew at them, from Orcs and Wolf Riders, none were harmed. While the Goblin archers on the far right were busy squabbling, which meant the goblin shaman wasn’t doing what he should be doing either, the other goblin archers and the Bolt Throwers did shoot, but they could no bring down any of the Ratlings.
Both units of Boars were snorting and stomping, keen to throw themselves at the foe and start gouging and trampling, but they were not there yet!
Meanwhile the goblin wolf riders stared with disbelief at the unscratched Plague Monks, while one of them mumbled: “They got armour under them rags?”
The reply he got was the usual, “Dunno!”
The real shooting was about to begin.
Just before the warpstone bullets went flying, the right most Clanrat regiment charged into the advancing Boar Riders, not keen to learn whether they could survive receiving the Boars' charge.
The other Boars received a different kind of attack as two died to Warp-lightning hurled by an engineer. They managed to take this without panicking, but when another four fell to a blast of Ratling Gun bullets their courage failed them and the surviving pair turned tail and galloped away.
Nearby, the chariot advancing on the Jezzails out on the flank found itself badly damaged as it’s prey fired a volley at it, and out in the centre of the field a total of ten Orcen warriors tumbled to the ground as a brace Ratling Guns had a go at them.
Luckily, however, the two Warp Lightning cannons fared a lot less well than their smaller counterparts, as both misfired. One blew up as a consequence, the other just fizzled. As the sound of the blast echoed across the field, the Clanrats facing the Boar Riders won the combat by sheer weight of numbers, their very momentum pressing hard upon the surviving six Orc riders. Just as the other Boar Riders had done, this unit also broke and fled - outdistancing their pursuers and so surviving the ordeal. The Clanrats moved boldly on and soon ran into the flank of the Chariot that had been bearing down on the Jezzails. It now looked very doubtful that the Orcs would find a means of silencing the deadly gunners out on that flank.
Warlord Gildag looked about him at his regiment, and even his slow counting skills were sufficient for him to understand very quickly that if he did not think of something soon he would have no warriors left. Luckily his very frustration was the thing that gave him the answer - he cried “Waaagh!” and let his lads know that now was the time to push that little harder towards the foe. His own diminished regiment leapt ahead of the line and he knew that he would have his chance yet to smash into the foe without having to face another torrent of death-dealing bullets.
Seizing the chance he shouted his command and his lads charged ahead into the Stormvermin. As if they thought his command applied to them as well, the goblin wolf riders and the orcen archers who had advanced down the hill when the ‘Waaagh’ was shouted, simultaneously charged into the Plague Monks off to the right of their Warlord.
Now the choppas rose and fell, swinging, slashing, piercing and tearing, and as their blood-red business was being done the two Shaman set about casting magics onto two of the Ratling Guns - this time slaying both teams. When the Doom Diver missed the last surviving team, the goblins who up 'til now had merely got in the army’s way made up for their blundering and laid low the team with the twang of their bow strings. No Ratlings were left now, and the Orcs would not miss them!
In the centre numbers were against the Greenskins once more, for although seven Stormvermin fell to the Warlord’s Boyz, the ratmen managed to hold their ground. Not so the Plague Monks who found themselves overwhelmed in their flank and rear and fled, only to be cut down by the Wolf Riders. The right flank of the battlefield now belonged to the Greenskins. Things were not going the Greenskin’s way on the other side of the field, however, as the Chariot was broken and fled off the field, with the Clanrats pursuing to once again smash into the rallied Boar Riders. They had already captured that unit’s standard but it seemed that this would not satisfy them and they wanted to kill the whole unit.
The Skaven now charged their rightmost Clanrat regiment, still wholly intact, onto the flank of the Warlord and his boyz.
Elsewhere on the field the fleeing Jezzails rallied, meaning there were still two sizeable units of these to continue their deadly armour-piercing volleys. The other Jezzails chose to stand still so that they could see off the pair of Boar Riders who were unengaged. This proved easy for them and their bullets. Just as they were sniggering at wat they had done, the Warp Lightning Cannon right next to them fired right through them aiming at the giant. It did indeed hurt the giant, but the arc of lightning killed two of the them also as it coursed over them! Their sniggering stopped.
Bravely the Rat Ogres moved up to face the now steaming (in more ways than one) giant. Their handlers cowering behind the beasts and hoping the giant would not notice them.
There was fighting all over the field of battle now. The Clanrats out on the far right of their line broke the Boar Riders facing them, but could not catch them, giving the Orcen riders one last chance to rally - which they would do (thanks to their musician)! These Boars Riders might not exactly be smiting the foe, but they were certainly keeping that particular regiment very busy!
Another Orc regiment who proved unable to withstand the damage was the hard-pressed Warlord’s unit. Gildag and his lads were surrounded and very much outnumbered, and when they broke and ran it nothing short of a disaster for the Greenskins. Not only were they cut down in flight, the Warlord Gildag dying, but the nearby massed regiment of Orcs panicked at the sight of the destruction and also fled away! The Stromvermin were carried forward in pursuit into the Wolf Riders, but these cunning goblins knew not to fight when they had no chance and fled away voluntarily.
Off on the far left of the Greenskin’s ragged ‘line’ the Boars (as I mentioned) rallied once more. They were not the only ones - the large Orc Boyz regiment halted and reformed, while the tricky Wolf Riders turned around to wonder at their successful escape. While the greenskins rallied their strength, four Stormvermin fell to their magic, and although the Doom Diver and Bolt Throwers could not harm them, the Orc Arrer Boyz to their front brought down another two. The armoured Skaven did not look so threatening all of a sudden.
When the Giant charged at the Rat Ogres they had wit enough to know that they ought to be afraid, while to their left the central Clanrat regiment fled from the Big Boss’s Chariot charge not out of fear but out of a deep rooted instinct for survival. The Giant thumped one of the Ogres with his club and pounded him into the hard ground, spattering blood over the rest of the unit. This was all a bit much for them, and they fled. The Giant lurched after them and was just about to hit the Warlord and his Clanrat regiment in their flank when they also chose to flee. Luckily for them they ran a little faster than the Giant could manage and they escaped his wrath (for now).
Frustrated by their long journey across the field, the Clanrats out on the far right decided to attempt one last time to finish off the Boar Riders and once again delivered a charge. Surely the Orcs could not hope to remain on the field now?
Somehow the Boars found a courage they had been previously lacking, and without a loss of their own to the ratmen they killed two and then stood their ground.
The Stormvermin, even though hampered a little by difficult ground, charged into the Arrer Boyz, losing only one of their number to the Orcs’ countershot.
The Warlord rallied his regiment but the other fleeing Clanrats ran on some more. What little Skaven shooting could be done had no real effect on the enemy, and it was down to the fighting to see if the rats’ advantage could be built upon. Unexpectedly as three died on both sides in the fight between Arrer Boyz and Stormvermin, it was the Skaven elite warriors who broke and fled, being cut down by the pursuing Orcs. The Greenskins were as surprised at this turn of events as the enemy, and several Arrer Boyz stood dumbfounded for a moment (by which I mean those few who were not repeatedly hacking away at the fallen Stormvermin)!
Now the Greenskins finally had a chance to deliver a powerful punch at the foe, and the Giant and Chariot smashed at one and the same time into the recently rallied Clanrats and their Warlord (with the army standard lurking in the rear ranks). The rallied Rat Ogres could only watch from the side to see what such massive force would do to their Warlord. The Chariot killed two rats as it hit them, and the Big Boss managed to sneak a scratch or two past the Skaven magical armour and ward saves, but could not quite kill him. A few other warriors died, but the whole combat was shaken when the Giant chose not to fight but merely to bawl at the foe. Somehow, in the face of that awful sound, the ratmen found the nerve to stand their ground. It was not enough to scare them off.
While this was happening every Jezzail team on the field was dying - a result of the two Foot of Gork spells conjured by the Shamans, combined with the Doom Diver’s suddenly very accurate shot. Not one Jezzail remained. The Warp Lightning Cannon crew out on the flank found this development a little unnerving and fled down the edge of the field away from the site of the destruction.
Not that anyone else on the field noticed (what with bawling Giants and magical gods’ feet stamping about) but the Clanrats in the corner of the field finally broke the Boars and sent them packing for good.
Although the running Clanrats and the Engineer with them rallied in the centre, the Warp Lightning Cannon crew had seen enough and disappeared into the gloom. The Rat Ogres, still dazed from their recent bout with the Giant, turned to look at that Giant currently engaged with their Warlord and his regiment.
Finally the Warlord showed what he could do and slaughtered the Orcen Big Boss, sending the Charioteer fleeing away. But the Giant, stubborn (and drunk enough not to really notice) killed a pair of rats and fought on. Behind him the last large Orcen Warrior regiment left moved up to prepare for a charge, one which they reckoned they had every chance of delivering because the Giant once again held his ground, even though blood streamed from five great gashes in his hide.
With little else they could contribute the Clanrats off on the far flank charged and destroyed the Bolt Thrower. Meanwhile in the centre of the field the Warlord had not really thought the consequences of his next action through - skillfully, bravely even, he slew the giant, only then to watch the massive monster fall onto his own regiment and crush four of them. For a brief moment the ratmen wondered whether fleeing was the best course of action, but between them the Warlord and the Army Standard bearer convinced them to stay.
While the Arrer Boyz squabbled, thus distracting their Shaman (the third time a Greenskin Shaman had failed to use magic for this same reason), the last regiment of Boyz finally got to deliver their charge, hurtling into the Warlord and his clanrats.
The fight was bloody but evenly matched, so that the two units settled down to begin an exhausting bout of hack and slash. Thus the battle came to an end - both sides very badly mauled, neither able to claim a true victory.
Result = Draw (Skaven 1614 VP to Orc 1702 VP, thus Orcs up by only 88!)
