Monday 26 May 2014

Dark Elves v Orcs n Goblins 2500 pts

Our weekend game saw a return to the world of fantasy with a battle between my Dark elves and my dads orcs and goblins. With games workshop now operating on a different planet...and i don't mean 40k either :-)......and releasing more products books rules figures add ons expansions etc etc in a week than I have collected in over a life time we have somewhat fallen away in recent months from playing Warhammer which is a shame as we have a wonderful collection of models in our armies. So figures dusted down we set about having a good old set too. All terrain features at the end of the game if controlled by one of your units would add D3, 3 been 300 points bonus to your end victory total.

The set up, our main battle lines were pretty much lined up in front of each other, my Dark riders used their vanguard move to steal a move towards the Doom diver and giant. The monstrous spider ( its name I can't remember ) was deployed opposite my Knights along with a mangler Squig!  


The War hydra advances along with the rest of the Dark elves force protecting their flank, my cold one knights couldn't control the mounts as a result if of a -1 to my leadership for been near the charnel pit and stumbled forward stupid towards to monsters.


The Scourgerunner unleashes its bolt thrower at the unit of trolls inflicting a couple of wounds.


The Dark riders move to the flank of the giant but inflict no wounds with their shooting.


The result of the the first and last doom diver shot! A misfire result saw the doom diver snap a rope and send an unfortunate Goblin flying into a tree, the doom diver collapsed into a heap on the floor, I have a feeling a nearby unit of orcs may have tampered with the machine for a laugh before it fired, the Orc bully went to retrieve the unfortunate individual from the tree, probably to use in a stew later on! 


The rest of the Orc line behaved impeccably and moved forward as one battle line over coming the animosity phase with no problems, in there next turn animosity free again ( yep an Orc army following orders ) the entire line charged into my Dark elves apart from the savage orcs who failed to cover the distance, far to busy still applying there war paint to fight!


The Giant spider winning the combat by one thanks to charging and flank bonus after it inflicted 0 wounds and my high beast master and manticore replying with a wound ran down my General and Manticore after they failed there break test and fled, thanks again to that charnel pit and its dammed -1 to leadership. The goblin fanatics were released, one of them smashing through my Darkshards before the Night Goblins spears charged in. I won the combat over a couple of rounds but the Gobbo's held on thanks to the near by Grimgor Ironside and the fact I forgot I had a strength bonus because of a magic spell I had cast, which would have allowed the gobbles no saves! The Dark elf spears fought well and due to stead fast held their ground against the Trolls, however they had a rather large spider looming on their flank which did not bode well!


The Black orcs and Grimgor broke the sisters of slaughter after a couple of rounds of fighting and my Medusa was easily dispatched by the spider which crashed into the flank of the the poor Elf Spearmen still engaged with the trolls. Seen the destruction of Medusa my scrounge chariot turn tail and fled of the table, yep once again the minus 1 to leadership from that cursed charnel pit proved very costly!
  

The results of the mangler Squig crashing through my Knights, 7 dead leving only my command group left, things were not looking to good at this point.


The Spider crushes Medusa with a venomous tail strike.


My Executioners and Master preform a lot better and beat the orcs in the first round although the orcs hold their ground. My master fresh from dispatching the unit champion bellows out a challenge to the Orc War boss battle banner bearer and dispatches him in the challenge, the War hydra joins the fight in flank of the Orc boyz who are easily massacred in The pursing round of combat and ran down.


With the Spider joining the combat its thunder stomp proves the difference and the Spearmen are slain to the last along with the Sorceress.
 

After my hydra had flamed all but one savage Orc to death, who in turn was shot down by the near by dark riders the Giant bellowing charged into the hydra. The remaining executioners after been stomped from a foot of Gork braved themselves for the impact of the Monstrous Spider. After surviving the initial round of combat the master and remaining executioners great weapons slayed the giant beast, my dark elves were beginning to make a fist of it at long last.


The giant at first head butted my hydra stunning it so I couldn't strike back, but clearly not bothered to have to lay the nut onto the other 4 heads of the Hydra he decided to just thump it with its club inflicting 5 wounds killing the Hydra, no fuss!


The Mangler Squig now running wild moved uncontrollably  into the misty marsh were it failed its initiative test and was dragged below by what ever was lurking beneath.


With that the last turn saw the both of us claim the odd objective here and there with what little we had left and my executioners did the honourable thing and fled away from the giant charging into the flank and escaped out of its charge range. My remaining couple of Cold one knights chased the goblin spider riders from the table after the Gobbo's suffered abit of animosity and decided it was a good idea to charge into the knights, maybe they fancied their chances after the mangler Squig had weakened the knights so badly, but been Goblins they were wrong. 
 

Well that was a bloodbath, despite been battered in the first half the game, my Dark elves and especially my Executioners fought back well. Both armies had taken massive losses but my Force had almost been completely annihilated bar a few survives here and there. A quick tot up of all the victory points saw the orcs score 2260 to the Dark Elves 1577. With a difference of 683 points it wasn't double the victory points so the game ended with the orcs claiming a marginal victory.



Monday 5 May 2014

ACW Head on clash

My Dad has been busy rebasing and reorganising his ACW armies as he has decided to use Fire and Fury rules again after not quite been won over from the last rules he had adapted. He was keen to get them on the table top so at the weekend we had a straight up battle using them. I can vaguely remember using Fire and Fury what seems a lot of years ago but not the game mechanics. 


I used the Unions for a change and my dad took control of the Rebs. We managed to get several turns in during the course of the evening without much reference to the rule book and I picked up the rules quickly during the game after a quick briefing from my dad.
When we called an end to the game my dads confederates were beginning to break through, my left flank had started to collapse and although I did have success on the left of the centre my right centre had taking abit of a pasting when the confederates got into melee. My right flank had repelled the confederate attacks and was holding reasonably well. We did a quick points tally gained for destroyed/spent/wavering units and killed generals and my dad held the advantage 15-7 taking the victory.
Here are some pictures of the action,

The two armies start to close to each other

Union troops ready themselves for the advancing cavalry 
The union troops first volley across the corn fields
The Iron brigade in attack column charge but despite the bonus to hand to hand combat from the random event chart at the beginning of the game they fail to make any impact and are repulsed easily.
Union troops advance up the hill in the face of deadly Rebel fire.
The Confederates attack the church yard.
Union cavalry reinforce the wavering union centre
The Rebs attack the union right flank defending the woods, their random roll on the chart had seen this division on a minus to shooting due to wet powder.
The Union left starts to break as the pursuing rebels come under close range cannon fire
The depleted Iron brigade break  and retreat further through the cornfield as the greater numbers of confederates over realms them in melee 
The Union dismounted cavarly are forced to withdraw from the woods
The confederates attack is repulsed on the Union right
The union centre rallies and readies itself for the confederate second charge.