Kings of War: The Deep Fields - Part 2

And so we continue our report of the Deep Fields Kings of War game. You can find the first part here.

Orcs Turn 5

Things were starting to look a little thin on the West side of the field. I charged my remaining Goblin King into the flank of the Elven Army Standard Bearer in an attempt to slow his advance toward my war machines. I failed to even wound him however, so achieved little. With the Slasher finally falling in the centre of the field, the path was opened for my Trolls to have a go at the oh-so-frustrating Tree Herder, whilst the Goblin Sharpstick legion swept on past and engaged the Palace Guard. Unfortunately neither of these efforts were very inspiring, despite doing my best with Bane Chant (I think I failed at least one attempt every single turn. I need Elite re-rolls like the fancy Elf Mages). My remaining Slasher attacked the Archer troop for the second time, but somehow still only managed to waver them. That was bad. There was a purple Tree Herder looking at my flank...

The Sharpsticks in the lack were still just sitting there and wavering in response to the repeated attacks from the Hunters, so there was not much I could do for them. My wounded Winged Slasher saw an opportunity to put a halt to the damage that the Sea Guard were doing with their bows, and charged them in the flank. This was not enough to even waver them, however. Their retribution was likely to hurt, despite my Ensorcelled Armour. Lacking a better plan, my remaining regiment of Greatax charged the Dragon in an effort to wound and maybe waver it. They did a few wounds, but nothing major.

In the centre, the remaining Earth Elementals collapsed under the continued pressure from the Ogres and Giant. The regiment of Ironwatch Crossbowmen that was positioned behind the forest was charged by more Ogres and the Winged Slasher, and routed with little resistance.

On the East flank, the Berserkers fell victim to the combined efforts of the Ax horde and the Giant. The Winged Slasher continued to rampage along the Dwarf lines, flanking and routing the already-damaged Shieldbreaker horde.

Having failed to waver them with a flank charge, the Palace Guard were now forced to hold their position in the forest and receive the counter-charge. Apparently it was all too terrible, and a number of trees left the forest and walked off toward the table edge, presumably looking to set up roots in a more quiet neighbourhood.

 

The forested centre of the tables was now firmly in the hands of the Ogres and Orcs. If only the same could be said about my Western flank...

2 Dragons, neither of them wavered. I was not particularly looking forward to the next turn.





I still had a few large or powerful units left under my command, but things had not really been working for me. Even if I eventually won through, I was going to have trouble claiming objectives.



The real question was whether the forces in the forests could get to the Dragons before they had finished their business in the centre and moved on.

Elves Turn 5

The Stormwind Cavalry on the flank moved back in toward the rest of the action, pointedly ignoring my Goblin King right next to them. Such disrespect (however warranted it may have been). The Army Standard Bearer carried on toward the Rocks Throwers, using the Stormwind Cavalry as a shield to keep my King from chasing him.

Note the lack of a Slasher fighting the Archer troop. Having wasted its 2 attempts to get rid of them, the Tree Herder arrived and pummelled it into the ground. The remaining Fleabags also collapsed after a second charge from the Archer horde. At least everyone else was holding their ground, although a single shooting wound was enough to waver one of my Wizzes (How do you say the plural of Wiz? Is it still Wiz? Wizs?)

The Sea Guard turned and counter-charged my Winged Slasher, and extremely frustratingly they wavered him. That meant he was pretty much doomed, although at least they would have to spend another turn finishing him off. As for what happened to those Greatax poking the Dragons... Well, the less said about that, the better. The Gore Riders also perished at the hands of the Tallspears. Oh, and those Hunters in the frozen lake crushed the last resistance from the Goblin Sharpsticks, leaving them free to interfere elsewhere.

The few remaining regiments on the East flank continued to fight. The Ironguard hit the Winged Slasher, but failed to make a significant impression. The Palace Guard in the forest had either wavered, or were simply unable to really harm the Gore Riders.

Realising there was not much point turning back and trying to assist what remained of their allies, the Palace Guard marched on toward the objectives behind our lines.

Orcs Turn 6

It was becoming a game of 2 halves. The East flank was looking good. But the West flank was struggling. The Goblin legion managed to rout the Palace Guard with another charge, however the Trolls just couldn't get the job done on the Tree Herder. On the bright side, the Rocks Throwers managed to find their range on the Stormwind Cavalry and shattered them, leaving my Goblin King looking very lonely over there on the flank. He must have been shot and wavered the previous turn. No reason he would still be over there otherwise.

The Winged Slasher did his best to make the Sea Guard work for their kill, whilst the War Drum hurried as quickly as it could to get within range...

The Ogre Captain started messing with the Tallspears as we did our best to shoot and fireball the Dragons to death. The green one was taking a beating and wavered. 

The Gore Riders managed to finish off the Palace Guard and moved on toward the Ironwatch Rifles. One horde of Ogres made it to the enemy war machines, but the other wasn't really moving. Why was that?

 

Somehow 2 Stone Priests were proving an effective roadblock to the Ogres. Such mischief. They should have gotten involved earlier!

By this point the Ironguard were hopelessly isolated and outnumbered, and were quickly mopped up by the Orcs.

Just in case you thought those Palace Guard were guaranteed to get away, they are being pursued by an ogre Warlock and an Orc Godspeaker, throwing fire and lightning at them. And they are running toward the unit Nick had left behind to guard an objective - a troop of Morax.

Elves Turn 6

The rot continued on the West flank. The Hunters flanked the Trolls, punishing them for failing to deal with the Tree Herder. They routed under the pressure. Shooting wavered the Goblin legion. The Army Standard Bearer reached the first of my Rocks Throwers, and managed to whip it to death with a sash or something (seriously, have you seen their stats? I don't think they actually carry a weapon).

The loss of the Trolls meant I would have little to respond with. I was out of units!

It was only a matter of time before the Army Standard Bearer whipped my remaining Rocks Thrower into submission.

The Sea Guard are no longer engaged, having finished off the Winged Slasher. And the War Drum was shot and routed as well.

Reinforcements were starting to move west across the field for us, but there might not be much left for them to rescue.

So close. I nearly had them.

Orcs Turn 7

There was a limit to what I could do at this point. I charged one of the Elf Mages with my Goblin King to try to stop her throwing spells, but I don't think I hurt her (the Goblin King was a hippy pacifist at heart - probably gave her a cuddle when he got there). My Wizzes moved up to try to talk the Tree Herder and Hunters into surrender, whilst Elmo finally finished off the Tree Herder he had been fighting for several months.

In the centre we kept firing at the Dragons, wavering the green one again. Our forces gradually made their way through the trees as the Ogre Captain continued to interfere with the Tallspears. Further across, the Ironwatch Rifles were dealt with by the Giant and Gore Riders. Another Giant got involved and ended the resistance of the Stone Priests.

The net was closing in on the Palace Guard, as spells flew around them.

The resistance is pretty much over in the East.

Elves Turn 7

 (Actually, I suspect these photos are from Turn 8, given the Great Wiz Wall should have slowed these guys down)

Word got around that Elmo was a tree murderer, and the trees took matters into their own hands/branches. Sadly even Elmo (who had regenerated about 75% of the wounds he had taken) could not resist the damage the followed.

 

One Dragon was in trouble, but the other set about dismantling our war machines in the centre.

 

The Finale

I took very few photos in the closing stages, although we played through 9 turns in total. Things were basically being mopped up at this point. After a couple of attempts, the Army Standard Bearer managed to rout my remaining Rocks Thrower on the West flank. With the demise of the Wizzes and Elmo, and the loss to shooting of my remaining Orc Godspeaker in the centre, I was completely wiped out.

In the centre, our shooting had failed repeatedly to get rid of the green Dragon, so the Boomers eventually charged it in the flank and routed it in the traditional fashion. Our Morax regiment got to the Sea Guard and finished them off. We never did kill that blue Dragon. You can see it mocking us from one of the objectives in our own deployment zone below. With no other options, the Palace Guard hard on the East flank ended up marching right up into the face of the Morax troop, hoping for a freak nerve roll to give them the chance to counter-charge. It didn't happen; they died.

In the end I had been wiped out, and so had Owen on the other side. The game would have been a draw, however I had done just enough damage to Pete that he was unable to claim every objective on that side of the field - one of them remained unclaimed. Which meant that despite my less than heroic collapse, our team had carried the day!

Final Scores

Orcs: 8

Elves: 7

The Orcs win!

Well I can't say that this game really worked out entirely the way I had hoped. There were probably a number of issues. No doubt the number of objectives and where they were placed was not ideal. Somehow it still allowed both sides to largely ignore them until right up near the end, so we still had a big grinding melee across the centre of the field. In this regard, the extra depth on the field really didn't have much of an impact.

We talked about it after the game, and came to the conclusion that so long as the armies are deployed with a unified front, there is always going to be the temptation to maintain a solid battle line and simply push across into the enemy. It makes sense. So if you we really wanted to see things flow differently, the best solution might be to separate the forces so that they were in 2 or more distinct deployment zones, with real distance between them. Make them choose where to go, and operate independently. Maybe next time.

Til next time!