This is the fourth part of my Cancon report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.
Game 4 - Meeting Engagement
Troy Kent - Orc & Goblin Tribes, Nomadic Waaagh!
- Black Orc Warboss on War Boar with Full plate armour, Trollhide Trousers, Da Choppiest Choppa, 'Eadbuttin' 'At
- Black Orc Bigboss on War Boar with Battle Standard (The Big Red Raggedy Flag), Full plate armour, Trollhide Trousers, Great weapon
- Kiknik Toofsnatcha on Chompa with Da Boss's Trophy Rack, Da Skull Smasha, Cavalry spear, Shield, Light armour
- Orc Weirdnob (Level 4, Waaagh! Magic) on Wyvern with Talisman of Protection, Idol Of Gork, Ruby Ring of Ruin
- Goblin Bigboss on Giant Wolf with Cavalry spear, Light armour, Shield, Wollopa's One Hit Wunda, Potion of Foolhardiness
- Goblin Oddgit (Level 2, Elementalism) on Giant Wolf with Idol of Mork
- 14 Goblin Wolf Riders with Shields, Cavalry spears, Light armour, Close Order, Full Command, Da Spider Banner
- 3 Goblin Wolf Chariots
- Goblin Wolf Chariots
- Goblin Wolf Chariots
- 5 Goblin Wolf Riders with Shortbows
- Black Orc Boar Chariot with Additional hand weapons
- 13 Orc Boar Boys with Cavalry spears, Heavy armour, Shields, Big 'Uns, Vanguard, Boss (Da Thinkin' Orc's 'At), Standard bearer (Da Banner of Butchery)
- Orc Boar Chariot
- Black Orc Boar Chariot with Additional hand weapons
Meeting Engagement meant diagonal deployment zones only 12" apart, and rolling to see which units would start as reserves that only arrived from Turn 2 onward. My Bloodletters and a unit of Furies started off the table. Troy lost his Boar Boy unit and one of his Black Orc Chariots. By the time you include the Wolf Riders with 2 characters who were already voluntarily ambushing, he was very thin on the ground.
That's a Boar Chariot hiding behind the central house, with the Goblin Oddgit just behind it.
I used vanguard to close the gap even further, giving me all sorts of options. And I did indeed get the first turn. Off we go, then!
On the left, the Fleshhounds charged the Wolf Chariot right in front of them. It got away, thanks to swifstride. The Furies behind the house charged the Oddgit, and when he ran they redirected into the flank of the Boar Chariot. The Fiends charged the other Wolf Chariot which also fled, and redirected into the Black Orc Chariot. The Bloodthirster charged the unit of 3 Wolf Chariots which also fled, and went straight off the table. He didn't have a redirect option, so get left a bit behind the line.
So those couple of charges that did actually manage to find a non-fleeing enemy... They didn't win combat. Somehow both chariots fought my units to a stalemate. The Flamers had managed to get hit by Steed of Shadows again, and flew over to shoot at the fleeing Oddgit. They wounded him, but couldn't kill him.
Everything that was fleeing rallied, and the Black Orc Warboss and Bigboss set about meeting aggression with aggression. They charged the Fleshhounds and folded them in a round...
...Then overran into my Herald, who had been minding his own business behind them. The combats between the Boar and Black Orc Chariots continued, and again I couldn't beat either one.
In my second turn, I set about trying to rescue my units. The Daemon Prince went into the rear of the Boar Chariot. The Bloodcrushers flanked the Warboss, and the Flamers went into the rear of the BSB. I was basically just looking to rack up solid combat resolution.
Nobody was in a position to rescue the Fiends, but my reinforcements were arriving. Maybe there was hope for them on the horizon. But not this turn. They still couldn't beat it.
The Daemon Prince proved to be a match for the Boar Chariot, but I think I messed up this combat a bit. I think the Herald challenged, but I should have challenged with the Bloodcrusher champion. He would have been functionally harder to kill, and it would have kept me more combat resolution. As it was, this combat was also a draw as a result of the Herald dying. And so the combat split, and the Wolf Chariot charged into the flank of the Bloodcrushers, whilst the reserve Boar Boys appeared.
The Fiends... still couldn't kill (or even beat) the Black Orc Chariot. It was just embarrassing, really.
The Orc Warboss set about carving up my Bloodcrushers with the help of the Wolf Chariot, and the BSB started beating the Flamers in combat. The Flamer champion had Daemonic Familiars, but every time he cast it he'd roll like a 3 to cast, or a 2 for the number of hits. Never managed a wound.
I sent in reinforcements, but this whole area was quickly turning into a mess. The Bloodthirster isn't actually charging here - he was too far away, so he marched. The Daemon Prince did charge the flank of the BSB, but he was in a challenge and beating up on the Flamer champion (who was only pretending to have some mastery of magic). The Furies went into the rear of the Warboss. It should have been the Daemon Prince, but he couldn't see due to silly angles.
Over on the flank, the Fiends finally landed another wound and actually killed the Black Orc Chariot. They then barrelled through and collected the Weirdnob on his Wyvern.
Ugh. So... I lost both combats here. All my stuff got shoved back. The BSB followed up into the Flamers, but the Warboss restrained and reformed. So almost nothing is in combat here. Not yet.
I... Seriously, I wanted the Fiends to get into the Weirdnob. At the very least they should have threatened to pin him in place a bit. But no, they were wiped out in a single turn. Even the rider did 2 wounds with his hand weapon. The flank was now lost. The Furies died immediately afterward.
I've missed some in between photos here, making it a little hard to keep track. Basically Troy charged and slingshotted through the remains of my units. The Bloodthirster ended up in combat with the Boar Boys, the Daemon Prince was now fighting both the Wolf Chariot and the BSB. Naturally I challenged and killed the BSB.
Unfortunately the Daemon Prince was then finished off by the Black Orc Chariot that had arrived late. The Bloodthirster was making very hard work of killing the Boar Boys, and was starting to receive Vindictive Gale up his backside whilst in combat.
At this point it seems I stopped taking photos, which is understandable. I was a broken man. The Bloodletters ended up dying - I don't remember if they managed to get to the Black Orc Chariot, or if it got to them. The Bloodthirster finally broke the Boar Boys, failed to catch them, and watched them run right past or through the ambushing Wolf Rider unit who had just arrived. The Wolf Riders were right there, looking at the Bloodthirster, but they passed their impetuous test. All that remained was for the Bloodthirster to be rail gunned off with another Vindictive Gale, and the game was over. I had been wiped out.
That game had been incredibly frustrating. Charging (even flanking) chariots should be the end of them, but I just couldn't get a break. My rolling had been impressively underwhelming all game, but I still spent most of the game just expecting things to start falling my way right up to near the end. In the end I had very few victory points to show for my efforts - I had 845 to Troy's 2639.
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