This is the fourth part of my Cancon report. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.
Game 5 - Mountain Pass
Chris Ashton-Jones - Orc and Goblin Tribes
- Goblin Oddnob (Level 4, Waaagh! Magic) on Arachnarok Spider with Talisman of Protection, Lore Familiar
- Goblin Oddnob (Level 3, Waaagh! Magic) on Arachnarok Spider with Spidersilk Lobber
- Goblin Warboss on Gigantic Spider with Light Armour, Backstabbers Blade, Da Thinkin’ Orc’s ‘At, Charmed Shield
- 12 Goblins with Short Bows, Boss, Skirmishers
- 12 Goblins with Short Bows, Boss, Skirmishers
- 5 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Musician, Boss
- 5 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Musician, Boss
- 5 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Musician, Boss
- 5 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Musician, Boss
- 12 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Full Command, Spider Banner
- 12 Spider Riders with Cavalry Spears, Shields, Light Armour, Short Bows, Full Command
- Arachnarok Spider with Spidersilk Lobber -345pts
Wow, what a list. All Goblins - all Forest Goblins, even (technically the infantry were not, but clearly they would have been, had that been an option). It made for a very narrow selection of troops with a terribly low Leadership. It looked great, though. I told Chris that I loved his army, but I thought he was very brave...
All the spiders, all the time!
Man, look at that thing! That's the Oddnob who was leading the army.
I deployed in a solid line of Daemons.
Chris was making use of the depth of the mountain pass deployment. I... was as far forward as I could go, and vanguarded after that.
I also got the first turn, which saw my lines lunge forward pretty aggressively.
In Chris' turn, fully half the units that were in charge range failed their impetuous tests and charged. Multiple other units decided to join in as well.
A small unit of Spider Riders charged into the Fiends, but a much larger unit led by the Warboss went into the Bloodcrushers.
Another larger unit engaged the Bloodletters, and a small one charged the Fleshhounds. The unit in front of the Arachnarok actually tried to charge through the gap into the nearer Fury unit, but failed to make the distance.
So you'll be surprised to hear that as a rule, Goblins are not better than Daemons in combat. This was proven true nearly everywhere across the line. The Fiends wiped out their opponents and overran, stopping just in front of the Arachnarok. The Bloodcrushers beat the Warboss' unit and broke them, but couldn't catch them.
The Fleshhounds broke and pursued their attackers, but the Bloodletters actually lost combat. Shame on them. Khorne would be having words with them later...
In my turn, things charged. The Fleshhounds redirected into the Arachnarok after making the Spider Riders run again. The Daemon Prince went in to rescue the Bloodletters from their embarrassing situation. The Bloodcrushers went into the unengaged Spider Riders, the Fiends into the Arachnarok, and finally the Bloodthirster engaged the enemy Oddnob general on his Arachnarok.
The Flamers were moving up too, but failing to find a target to shoot at.
The Bloodthirster hit the the Oddnob hard, doing 9 unsaved wounds. Unfortunately he had 10, so was still alive. He did one wound in return before falling back in good order thanks to Stubborn. He popped through the Spider Riders, which meant he got away from the Bloodthirster's pursuit, as he instead collided with and wiped out the already-fleeing Warboss and his friends.
The Bloodcrushers made short work of their opponent, but the same could not be said of the Fiends, who got smashed pretty badly by the other Oddnob on his Arachnarok.
The unit fighting the Bloodletters and Daemon Prince broke and fled. The Bloodletters pursued, but the Daemon Prince elected to restrain. The Fleshhounds did OK against their Arachnarok, but I think the combat was a draw and now they were going to need help.
Both of the fleeing Spider Rider units left the field, which meant the Goblin archers could now see the flank of the Fleshhounds, and impetuous got the better of them.
The Arachnarok finished off the Fiends and carried on into the Bloodcrushers.
Having barely survived his first encounter with the Bloodthirster, the enemy general decided he might as well try his luck again and charge back in. Realistically his chances revolved around the Arachnarok's venom surge attack, which has Strikes First and can do D6 wounds. Still an unlikely bet, but you work with what you've got. Chris rolled a 6 for the hit, meaning it was poison and he wouldn't need to roll the 5+ to wound. I failed my ward save, and he rolled the 4 wounds he needed on the D6 to simply remove the Greater Daemon before he could swing!
In my turn I did what I could to regain control of the situation. The Daemon Prince charged the Bloodthister-slaying Oddnob, and the Flamers went into give me some options against the other one. Spells were flung all over the shop to try to improve my chances.
By this point the Fleshhounds had collapsed and now the Bloodletters and Furies were trying their luck. On the charge they stood a reasonable chance of further denting the thing...
So I say they had a chance, but what I really mean is they had no chance, and were going to get their butts whooped. I lost the Furies, but then the second unit arrived, having dealt with some Goblins.
The Daemon Prince managed to finish off the enemy general, and the Bloodcrushers and Flamers managed to beat the Arachnarok. Unfortunately, it having Stubborn again meant that any success was temporary, as it wasn't ready to run away just yet.
I seem to be missing some of the key photos of this game. The Arachnarok went back into the Bloodcrushers and resumed slowly beating them down. The Daemon Prince decided to mount another rescue and charged it in the rear, aided by Daemonic Vessel and with the Arachnarok afflicted by Gathering Darkness to lower its Leadership and Initiative. This was all well and good, until Chris decided to try his venom surge attack on the Daemon Prince again. Dead outright. And then he somehow managed to dance all over my corpse for 4 overkill (we were in a challenge). It was a debacle. The Bloodcrushers actually took it rather well, considering.
The Flamers had found a more achievable target in the Spider Riders, and were working their way through them.
Over on the other flank, all of my efforts to bring down (or at least break) the other Arachnarok had led to naught. All of my forces over there were gone.
In the end, I had managed to lose from what had looked like an unassailable position early on. The Arachnaroks had caused me untold trouble, thanks mainly to 2 perfect rolls with venom surge. That had cost me a squillion points and also resulted in me being unable to clean up the big spiders. I needed the muscle of those key models. The final victory point tally was a rather bloody 2081 for Chris to my 1720. It was not a bad loss - it just felt like a disaster.
Result: 9-11 Loss
You can find the final part of my report here.
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