Convic 2018 Aftermath - Part 4

This is a continuation of my report of the recent Kings of War tournament at Convic 2018. You can find the previous part here.

Game 4 (1750 points) - Dominate
Damien Madigan - Ogres (Hell on Wheels formation)

• Horde of Boomers
• Horde of Boomers
• Regiment of Chariots
• Regiment of Chariots
• Regiment of Berserkers
• Regiment of Berserkers
• Warlord on Chariot
• Warlock
• Warlock
• Troop of Red Goblin Scouts
• Red Goblin Biggit on Fleabag

I'm afraid my memory of some of the finer details of the list is failing me. I know one of the Warlocks spent his time casting Aura of Heroism, but I'm not sure what other spells or items were scattered about. This game was my second introduction to formations. This time the Chariots in the list got boosted nerve and the Warlord got Rallying(1). It's all very cute. At some point I'll read up on what I could have been considering when I chose a list...

I kinda of stacked my left flank a bit, but Damien had more drops with which to stall, so he was able to respond appropriately. He got the first turn. Or I gave it to him. I don't recall.

Damien's first turn was relatively cautious, although the Boomers on my right moved up without too much concern.

I moved in more aggressively, particularly on my left flank. I wanted to force the issue over there and get to those Warlocks, rather than letting them rain down 10 lightning shots a turn with impunity. My Shooters fired at the Warlord on his Chariot (in this picture an empty base, having left the rest behind), but I rolled suitably terribly and inflicted 1 wound.

Theory on the left flank was that with a couple of regiments of Berserker Braves and a single regiment of Chariots, the force Damien could bring to bear would be limited, and I had enough muscle to punish in return. Theory is good. Theory is nice.

With most of my activity happening on the left flank, my right flank was hoping for more time. That's where my shooting was, so the rough plan was not to engage too heavily until I had inflicted some damage. Of course 2 hordes of Boomers on the other side confused that plan somewhat. You can also see in this shot that in order to shield my other units and try to dictate terms a bit, I had to move the Shieldbreakers out of range of the Inspiring from my Boomer Sergeant. This is because that Goblin Biggit had ridden up, shot a wound off with how bow, and wavered him. Very helpful.

Maybe it was something we said... A regiment of Chariots, a Warlord in a Chariot and a horde of Boomers all charged my Shieldbreakers. Well, I guess I had asked for it with my aggressive movement. Honestly hadn't considered that the Boomers might get involved. I had been thinking I could wear the combined charge of the Chariots.

Things were also happening on my left. The other Chariot regiment charged my Warlord, whilst a Berserker unit went into my Warriors and the Red Goblin Scouts went in to block my other Siegebreakers. Like I say, if I was hoping to force things into action, I guess it worked. The Goblin Biggit shot another wound off my Boomer Sergeant, and wavered him again. This was beyond annoying...

It would appear I failed to take a couple of key photos, but you can put that down to me being consumed by emotional trauma. The Siegebreakers in the centre folded like a house of cards under the combined charge from Damien's forces there. That was fair enough. Without Inspiring and with so much damage coming their way, that was always going to be dangerous. But over on the left, things did not go according to script at all. The Chariots rolled into and through my Warlord like he wasn't even there. Then the Berserkers rolled ridiculously well against my Warrior horde (something like 7 or 8 wounds), and wavered them. So any hopes I had of counter-charging and taking control of that flank evaporated.

I responded with the only real action I had on that flank, by charging and routing the Scouts with the Siegebreakers. I also decided I basically had to abandon the flank and try to focus more on the centre, so my remaining Warlord on Chariot charged into the flank of the damn Goblin Biggit, who was so effectively crippling my lines with his 3 shot bow.

Of course, the Biggit was made of sterner stuff and I think all I managed was to waver him. Which meant my Warlord would not be free to help elsewhere the following turn. I did charge Damien's Warlord with my Warriors in the centre and cleared him off, so that was something. His Chariot regiment had reformed to face my left, so the pressure was temporarily relieved in the middle/right.

Seeing the intent of the Chariots, my remaining Siegebreakers had reformed to ensure they didn't have to wear a flank charge from them. The one upside to how badly the left had gone was that Damien was potentially suffering from a little congestion. My refusal to kill things was a cunning ploy to disrupt his movement! Yes, that's it.

Of course, the other great thing about the Goblin seeing off the charge of my Warlord was that the Chariots could revise their plans and swing into his flank instead. No more Warlord. Stupid damn Goblin...

I feel like I'm missing a couple of pictures again. Damien cleared off the wavered Warriors on my left flank by sending the other Chariots in alongside the Berserkers. Seemed unnecessary given how the Berserkers had done last turn, but I guess it made sure of things. One of the Boomer units had walked right up into the face of my Warriors, and as you can see in this picture, they are no longer with us. A combined charge from the Warriors and Shooters saw to that. The Boomer Sergeant, finally free to act in the game, charged the Goblin Biggit and only managed to waver him. So annoying!

The Siegebreakers had taken their chance to avenge my Warlord by killing the Chariots, but then had to turn to face Damien's entire flank as it closed in on my remaining forces. It didn't go especially well.

Die, stupid Goblin! DIE!! (He did, eventually. But the damage was done.)

OK, so that flank didn't go very well.

With the delaying help of my Army Standard Bearer (who appears to have perished by now), the Shooters did eventually deal with the other horde of Boomers. So the centre and right flank had actually gone OK, but I was definitely out-muscled by what was coming from the other flank.

As my remaining units crumbled, my only hopes were the Boomer Sergeant gunning down one of the Berserker regiments.

Didn't work, though.

In the end, the score from this game was just as bad as the previous one. However I had felt more in the game throughout, and dice played a lot more of a factor in my fate this time around. My left flank had been a disaster from which the rest of my forces could not recover. My instincts are generally to steer clear of the terrain that will hinder my own movement and shooting, but I think maybe next time I'm fighting what was essentially a lot of chariots and shooting, I might take my chances with the difficult terrain and obstacles.

Damien claimed that Goblin Biggit was completely useless for the entire tournament apart from this game, but he was pretty effective here. Probably cost me a couple of units all by himself. Little jerk...

Result: 2-19 loss

So by the end of day 1, I had won a single game, lost one narrowly, and gotten crushed twice. I could only hope day 2, with the full 2150 point armies, went a bit better.

You can find the next part of the report here.