Finally... after 2 Vanguard skirmishes, we were ready for the big thing. We both hadn't played the normal KoW for quite some time, so we first did a test match which ended in a draw.
This weekend, we met to fight the real battle using the Vanilla 2nd Edition Rules!
My list consisted of:
2x Horde of Sharpsticks (one with Blessing of the Gods 25 pts)
1x Horde of Spitters (with Heart Seeking Chant 30 pts)
1x Horde of Trolls (with Chant of Hate 25 pts)
1x Regiment Mawbeast pack
1x Regiment of Fleabag Rides (with Helm of Confidence 20 pts) [and they were definetely led by Biggit Crunchem!]
1x Sharpstick Thrower
1x King on Chariot with the item gaining: no minus modifier when moving costing 30 pts [Warchief Dakkadak]
1x Flaggit (with Diadem of Dragon Kind 30 pts)
1x Wiz with Inspiring Talisman and Bane Chant
1x Troll Bruiser with Darklords Onyx Ring ~20 Pts) [I believe this is my Vanguard Troll, being an alone hero here!]
2x Giants
totalling 1870 pts. Base game was 1750 but because of the Kings of War hook from Vanguard, I had a bit more to spend.
Opposing me was:
Dragon Kindred Lord (with blade of slashing) [Therion the Commander]
1x Horde Kindred Archers (with Heart Seeking Chant 30 pts)
1x Troop Palace Guard
1x Regiment Palace Guard (with Brew of Haste 15 pts)
1x Horde Kindred Tallspears
2x Regiments of Shamblers
1x Horde of War Chariots
1x Army Standard Bearer (with Diadem of Dragon Kind 30 pts)
1x Elven Mage with Bane Chant and Inspiring Talisman
totalling 1750 points.
The Mission was Invade!
I was REALLY scared of the Dragon. Especially because I knew he was so overpowered that they had changed the rules afterwards so units with FLY would lose FLY when disordered.
So when the opportunity did arise, I tried to corner the dragon. That was my second mistake. My first was my army composition with so many artifacts.
We setup terrain and rolled and put down our units.
His setup (to the left of the picture missing: the dragon)
My setup (to the left missing on first picture: the mawbeast pack)
From the second Vanguard Game I had won I had the hook to be able to put 2 of hits unit into "HALT". I initially wanted to put that on the tallspears and the Shamblers behind his archers to be able to charge them, but I forgot the shamblers have a Vanguard move. D'ouh! So I could not do that plan. Now they moved before the Archers and that would not make sense. Instead I decided to HALT his Chariots and his Dragon.
Turn 1 Goblins: I begin and move forward
My idea is that I am able to charge his dragon, sacrifice my one Giant with putting some serious hurt onto him, then attack his chariots and be able to rout them before he is able to manoevre away...
Turn 1 Elves: the elves advance mostly
The hurt giant...
My giant unfortunately falls down just during setup and breaks both his ankles. Thankfully I provisorically fix him up with Patafix! Unoftunately he gets hurt even more by the elven archers. 9 wounds with a single volley. Ouch...
Combat ensues!
My Giant on the left gets killed, my Giant besides my Sharpsticks gets sniped by the archers again... and gets killed. That does not look good. I need to move my center units to engage to avoid flanks. Hopefully my Trolls can kill his Shamblers quickly with the help of Bane Chant.
Everything falls apart when my Sharpsticks on my right immediately rout... the Mawbeast pack valiantly holds against the charge of the Palace Guard, giving the Fleabag Riders under Biggit Crunchem a chance to charge their flank...
and then are able to crush them! Well done Crunchem!
But apart from that....
my center is doomed... the Shamblers just refuse to shatter and my Trolls will be charged into the side after the Sharpsticks horde there ran away... even the Sharpsticks on the left are not able to rout the small unit of Palace Guard!
Desperately I charge the Chariots with my King (Dakkadak) and the Troll Hero. They fail to rout the already heavily damaged Chariots! Thus Commander Therion on his dragon can charge Dakkadak in the flank... of course Dakkadak is gone... at least we had a Commander Clash! Even though it wasnt really epic...
I finally manage to kill the chariots and move the Troll out of the charging arc of the Dragon, but the game is more or less over.
On the other side the fleabag riders reorder to face the Shamblers. They get attacked by the Dragon Diadem of the Flag Bearer and waver even though they only have 4 wounds! This leaves the Shamblers open to charge them next round. I would have just moved them away into the enemy deployment zone instead of fighting, but this dooms them!
In the middle the Palace Guard Holds tight even though they get up to 14 wounds!
That means the rest of my units are now doomed because...
the flank attack comes....
At least the Troll stays alive. So does the Mawbeast Pack, but this is much too few points...
Final position for my Troll
Ouch... well... that was disappointing. But I also had some very unlucky dice rolls, but on the other hand... its Goblins! And this is about telling a campaign story and not just about winning!
I anyway made quite some mistakes while my opponent really made a great list. I am more concerned to bring the models I painted to the table (though this is the first game we had quite a few unpainted models!) instead of checking for their efficiency. That of course does not help. Still.. it hurts to know I lost even though my Vanguard Biggit got hurt with an unrecoverable wound in the process! And so did 2 other units in my Vanguard while the Elves only have one permanent loss and no injury so far!
Well, we will see how the campaign goes on...
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