Game 5 - Push
Angriartists - Goblins
- Troll Horde
- Troll Horde
- Troll Horde
- Troop of Mincer Mob
- Troop of Mincer Mob
- Troop of Mincer Mob
- Troop of Mincer Mob
- Troop of Mincer Mob
- Troop of Mincer Mob
- King on Chariot with Piercing Arrow
- King with Jareth's Pendant (gives him a Headstrong aura)
- Mincer
- Mincer
- War Trombone
OK, so... This list confused me a lot. I admit I had never really read up on what a Goblin Mincer did, and now I was paying the price. I stole my opponent's army list so that I could make sure I understood what I was up against during deployment. Aris explained the general concept of the list as the Mincers being the anvil, and the Trolls the hammer. That made sense. The Mincers are not quick, but they're Defence 6+ from the front. Of course, if they got a clean charge on you, you might know about that too...
What the hell am I looking at? I immediately had guilt about the pile of unpainted pump wagons at home.
Mincers a bit confusing, really. A pair of them makes a troop, but you can field a single one as a monster. So that's a single one right on the end there, and 2 troops keeping it company.
2 more troops and another single one in the middle...
And the remaining 2 troops on the flank, accompanied by a troll so vomitous he was playing the role of War Trombone. Projectile vomit is a thing, I tell you.
In the end I was facing a pretty compact, defensive deployment. I was mainly trying to work out where Aris was going to commit, and how I could respond to that without getting too badly hindered by the twin forests in the middle. I made fairly heavy use of the open right flank, and was rather glad that he had deployed in such a way that it made that flank relevant.
I kind of wanted to ignore the units on the left, but one of them was carrying a token, so it would have to be dealt with before the end.
I got the first turn and advanced. Mincers are only Speed 5, so I could be pretty aggressive where it suited me.
Thankfully the forest on the right was close enough that the Mammoth could get his nose into it in order to see.
Onward!
The King in his Chariot was essentially sacrificed in order to pin my birb to the ground to protect unit flanks. Otherwise not a lot of movement was done.
Yes, I assure you. He did have his movement phase. You just can't tell...
Things shuffled over the fence on the left, with the War Trombone lining up my other birb with limited success.
Probably unsurprisingly, my movement was more aggressive. The birb counter-charged the King on Chariot, the Knights sailed right through to hit one of the Mincer mobs, and the Honour Guard hit the other one.
In the centre, a lone Mincer had broken formation and rolled toward me. So the Honour Guard focused on that one with the other units moving up in support.
I wanted the War Trombone gone, so sent in the birb. He would likely have to face a charge for his efforts, but I could live with that.
On the right, the Honour Guard and Knights were able to dispose of their Mincers and reformed to make themselves useful. The Chariot King was made of sterner stuff (or rather, the birb didn't hit as hard as the other larger units), and so that struggle continued.
The Mincer in the centre was also gone. You can see here that I was doing some strange maneuvers with the Baron in order to ensure I would have Inspiring where it was needed.
On the left, the birb disposed of the Trombone and elected to turn to face the Mincers. Aris was of the opinion that I should have gambled on rolling make a 3+ to carry on out of their arc, but I didn't trust myself, and figured I could take the charge.
At least it would mean that I had pinned down one of the units that might otherwise have rolled around my flank. I couldn't quite twist them into the terrain to hinder their charge, however. Their friends with the token carried on happily toward my table half.
This is why I really wanted Inspiring in place, although really the birb probably had that under control. A combined charge might actually test the Honour Guard a bit. Those Trolls are about to charge the Mammoth. I must have taken the photo in the middle of the enemy movement.
Over on the right, the other Honour Guard also had the enemy's attention. 2 Troll hordes sounds bad, but one was hindered. If I held my ground here, I would really have control of the flank.
The Knights succeeded in getting the attention of the remaining Mincer on that flank. Having removed so many so quickly did feel like I must have the upper hand.
The Mammoth took about 5 wounds from the Troll charge, so was fine. The Honour Guard were less fine. They copped 11 wounds, and wavered as a result. Good thing I had Indomitable Will...
Over on the right, the other unit copped 10 wounds, and also wavered. Good thing I had Indomitable Will...
Something is missing. It's almost like I did a shabby job of taking pictures at the right time. Curses. Anyway, the Knights wore the charge from the single Mincer, and somehow their counter-charge was enough to see it off. Not what you'd normally expect when fighting Defence 6+ with no Thunderous Charge, but I guess it had no source of Inspiring, as I had sent my Halflings in to rescue the birb in his ongoing struggle with the Chariot King. See you laugh, but I think the Halflings actually did 4 wounds. They were in the flank, so they got to roll 20 whole garbage attacks! It was enough, anyway. Meanwhile the Knights went into the flank of the first unit of Trolls fighting the Honour Guard, resulting in the Troll Alert being downgraded to a single horde.
In the centre, the strange things were going on. The Mammoth could see the flank of the nearest Mincer unit and took the opportunity to spin and charge them, with the Knights going in the front. The Honour Guard counter-charged the other unit, hoping to spike a high nerve roll because they were not going to inflict anywhere near as many wounds. The joke was on me, though. The Honour Guard managed to rout their unit, but the other one copped a total of 14 wounds, and then I rolled a double 1! To add insult to injury, I needed to have done 1 more wound for the unit to count as Devastated. So they would be at full effectiveness next turn (which is why they're driving excitedly into the Honour Guard in this picture). The Baron had moved up to block the Trolls, but the double 1s meant the Mammoth remained too close...
On the left, the birb and Mincers were trading blows ineffectually. I was healing, so they were making no progress. I was also missing, so I was making no progress either.
My efforts on the right flank made the remaining Trolls angry, and they vented their frustrations upon the very pre-loved Honour Guard.
Here we can see the Trolls evading the Baron Blocker. Curses. At least they would be hindered again.
So having benefited from my generous rolling of double 1s, the Mincers crashed into the Honour Guard, pumped wounds into them, and then... also rolled double 1s! What sort of bizarre karma is that?! The dead men walking were duking it out!
The other Honour Guard were not under some supernatural protection from the dice gods, which meant they got eaten by the Trolls. Pity.
Lucky as the unit nearby had been, the Mammoth was less lucky. You will note his absence. That's because he stormed off muttering something about double 1s and lucky Honour Guard getting all their karma.
We demand revenge!
You can see we're making great progress over here on the left.
Over on the right, the birb set off in search of more interesting targets whilst the Knights handled the Troll situation.
The luck of the Mincers ran out after another round of combat, but the Trolls were holding firm.
On the left, the Mincers with the token decided that they should probably be contributing in some way other than sitting in a corner, and turned toward the rest of the field. You can see in this picture I've actually done some wounds to the other Mincers. That's progress! I'm pretty sure there was actually a round where I did literally nothing to them, resulting in me copping a counter-charge including Thunderous Charge.
The Trolls on the flank are gone, however there is still a Goblin King with a magic Headstrong pendant running around there somewhere.
The Trolls in the centre were clinging on, but their opponents at this point were too fresh to be too concerned.
In my turn the Knights and Baron gave up on the Trolls, with their disposal being left to the Honour Guard in the flank. The Knights from over on the right had spotted the Goblin King, and did their best to ride him down.
This is where the other units were looking. They had a token. I wanted it.
The Goblin suffered 5 wounds, but he would not be moved!
The Trolls were now gone, however. And my birb up the back was still bogged...
...And then he wasn't, because he was dead! I admit, I did not see this coming. The Mincer suddenly fired up massively, revved some engine they had forgotten to turn up until this point, and chainsawed right through me! What the hell...
Naturally this upset me. I wanted revenge, and I wanted that token. It was now my 6th turn, so it might be my last chance to get both. I sent the almost fresh birb into the unit with the token hoping for a big spike or a 7th turn, and I sent the Honour Guard into the already damaged unit. Honestly, I just kind of assumed that they would do enough for that combat to be a done deal. I didn't do the math (which was only so-so), nor did I think about what I was risking. The Honour Guard were worth far more points. They were carrying a token, and they were in my opponent's half. Basically they were relevant, and the Mincers were not really. Except my terrible need for revenge! Well, I didn't rout them. Looks like I got them up to 8 wounds, then failed to roll the 6 I would have needed for them to disappear.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the reward for greed. Both Mincer units counter-charged. Both were apparently now supercharged with bloodlust. And both obliterated their opponents, both now had tokens, and both sat there mocking my approaching Knights as the game failed to go to a 7th turn...
Look, I still won. But I had controlled the whole game and I choose not to think how many points I threw away in that last turn. Sending the Honour Guard into the damage unit was foolish. It could have worked, but it was unnecessary. The birb was more easily justified, and honestly that was some pretty rough luck right at the end that saw it ground to a pulp by the apparently lethal Mincers. I did still hold 4 of the 6 tokens, and they were in my opponent's half. But I was only about 500 points up in terms of damage thanks to that late carnage. All in all, it was a pretty funny game.
Result: 16-5
No comments:
Post a Comment