On thursday the second battle took place.
I was the defender with only 175 pts and needed to decide on a smaller list. i also knew i was going up against Blaine and knew I could not out-kill my enemy. I knew I would have to out-last him and hold the objective.
Finally I decided on:
The elves, lead by Blaine came with:
We then decided we would go for the "Kings of War Hook" from the book instead of the hook provided in the campaign for the winner.
We put up the terrain and I found out that I once again had forgotten something crucial... to put a hill into my backpack! The mission objective should be placed on a height 2 hill!
But we were able to improvise quite well as you will see on the pictures...
Very first roll would already decide if I could potentially win the game or not:
Because Biggit Crunchem has OLD WOUNDS, I needed to roll if he is able to fight. I rolled and got... a two! So thankfully, he could participate.
We then started the deployment.
I opted to have the two goblin on mounts on my left flank so that my opponent could not move his archers freely. The rest of my guys would just secure the objective. He just opted to move onto the mission objective from the middle of his deployment zone forward...
The improvised hill...
It is time to start the game, but first some lucky charm for myself!
My opponent decided to walk up from the middle and my plan with my two golbins on wolves worked... he was very protective with his units. He even did not run up to me (spending a run action and then a walk action with fatiguing) which I thought was a big mistake. He instead chose to move up on me in formation. I was happy with just securing the objective and biding my time.
My models move onto the objective. The elves approach cautiously
My two Luggits on mounts position themselves for an ambush
Round 2/3 went quite the same. He just moved up a bit, while I positioned my troops at the objective. Blaine came closer to me and I positioned my Wiz in a way so to stun him and his Shambler, robbing his most important figures quite much flexibility!
In round 3 I lost my patience and decided to charge my two Luggits on mounts into his flank with the Levy. My idea was that even if they get killed, I will get XP by killing the Levy! Plus my opponent would need to think of diverting forces back into those two Luggits! Whats more: because one of the two involved Luggits had the IMPRESSIVE SCARS from first game, he could reroll nerve tests which would increase the staying power of the two.
In the middle, my Wiz the Shambler and Blaine again. His Mage and Archers shoot at my Troll who mostly just shrugs the hits off.
My two luggits get their attacks boosted, but I am really unlucky with the rolls! None of my opponents go down!
Alltogether my mounted Luggits fare poorly and are soon taken out of the game without a single kill! At least I bind a few of his forces... My second mistake of the game is moving my Troll into contact with Blaine.
I figured I would deny his free charge attack and would be safe from the shooting attacks by that, but then saw my opponent force-fatiguing Blaine and nearkly insta-killing my Troll... ouch...
His Shambler is able to make contact with my Wiz. I send one Luggit to help with the idea of pinning the Shambler in place while later on escaping with the Wiz.
Round 5 starts. Like in all rounds, the elves get quite lucky with their dice rolls while I roll sub-par. But I am used to that already...
When Blaine kills the Troll in a second swift attack, suddenly the game looks quite different!
One agile elf Levy manages to run all the way from the middle and engange Biggit Crunchem together with Blaine. Crunchem is wounded, but stays in the game!
My Wiz disengages the Shambler which was not able to kill any Goblin so far. He positions himself behind the mission objective. We roll if the game ends or if the game continues into a 6th round.
The game continues!
Its already way past 1 A.M. but now the most complicated part of the game starts. The game suddenly becomes like a game of chess! We both try to figure out what models need to be activated in what order so that the game could still be won by the elves! This for me shows the depth of Kings of War: Vanguard!
His second Levy joins to engage one of my Luggits
If he kills my Luggit with his Shambler and engages my Wiz... and his Levy kills my Biggit, then Blaine can lighten up the beacon and I cannot unlight it... buut if I first kill his Levy...
it gets very complicated!
I solve the riddle and "Gobbler", the Goblin Luggit between my Wiz and Biggit activates, kills the Levy that engaged him and gets re-activated by my Wiz. By this, even if my Biggit gets killed, I can take the fire out again. (Note: this is the simplified version).
Without any chance to win, my opponent instead decides to switch tactics and take out as many models as he can.
Biggit Crunchem finally goes down to Blaine but at least I win the mission!
The Luggit Goblin Harti manages to survive the mission.
In retrospective, the mistake that cost my opponent the game was that he approached too cautiously. I on the other hand, should not have sacrificed my Troll so easily and shouldn't have let him move his Shambler into contact with my Wiz.
We both had some very unlucky dice rolls. He shot at my Biggit with his archers and Wizard and wasn't able to kill him. He tried likewise with the Troll quite in the beginning and barely made a scratch. On the other hand, the Luggits on my flank were very ineffective too!
It turns out, the "Light the Beacon" scenario is a very unhealthy scenario for the defender if you are doing a campaign game, because the defender is very likely to loose VERY many models while the attacker will not!
But I will write about the effects the game had in the campaign in another post!
I was the defender with only 175 pts and needed to decide on a smaller list. i also knew i was going up against Blaine and knew I could not out-kill my enemy. I knew I would have to out-last him and hold the objective.
Finally I decided on:
- 4x Luggits on foot (or 3)
- 2x Luggits Mounted
- 1x Rabble
- 1x Wiz
- 1x Biggit (with Heavy Weapon) (Biggit Crunchem)
- 1x Troll (with Heavy Weapon)
The elves, lead by Blaine came with:
- 2x Kindred Archers,
- 1x Kindred Tallspear
- 1x Citizen Levy
- 1x Battle Mage
- 1x Forest Shambler
- 1x Blaine
We then decided we would go for the "Kings of War Hook" from the book instead of the hook provided in the campaign for the winner.
We put up the terrain and I found out that I once again had forgotten something crucial... to put a hill into my backpack! The mission objective should be placed on a height 2 hill!
But we were able to improvise quite well as you will see on the pictures...
Very first roll would already decide if I could potentially win the game or not:
Because Biggit Crunchem has OLD WOUNDS, I needed to roll if he is able to fight. I rolled and got... a two! So thankfully, he could participate.
We then started the deployment.
I opted to have the two goblin on mounts on my left flank so that my opponent could not move his archers freely. The rest of my guys would just secure the objective. He just opted to move onto the mission objective from the middle of his deployment zone forward...
The improvised hill...
It is time to start the game, but first some lucky charm for myself!
My opponent decided to walk up from the middle and my plan with my two golbins on wolves worked... he was very protective with his units. He even did not run up to me (spending a run action and then a walk action with fatiguing) which I thought was a big mistake. He instead chose to move up on me in formation. I was happy with just securing the objective and biding my time.
My models move onto the objective. The elves approach cautiously
My two Luggits on mounts position themselves for an ambush
Round 2/3 went quite the same. He just moved up a bit, while I positioned my troops at the objective. Blaine came closer to me and I positioned my Wiz in a way so to stun him and his Shambler, robbing his most important figures quite much flexibility!
In round 3 I lost my patience and decided to charge my two Luggits on mounts into his flank with the Levy. My idea was that even if they get killed, I will get XP by killing the Levy! Plus my opponent would need to think of diverting forces back into those two Luggits! Whats more: because one of the two involved Luggits had the IMPRESSIVE SCARS from first game, he could reroll nerve tests which would increase the staying power of the two.
In the middle, my Wiz the Shambler and Blaine again. His Mage and Archers shoot at my Troll who mostly just shrugs the hits off.
My two luggits get their attacks boosted, but I am really unlucky with the rolls! None of my opponents go down!
Alltogether my mounted Luggits fare poorly and are soon taken out of the game without a single kill! At least I bind a few of his forces... My second mistake of the game is moving my Troll into contact with Blaine.
I figured I would deny his free charge attack and would be safe from the shooting attacks by that, but then saw my opponent force-fatiguing Blaine and nearkly insta-killing my Troll... ouch...
His Shambler is able to make contact with my Wiz. I send one Luggit to help with the idea of pinning the Shambler in place while later on escaping with the Wiz.
Round 5 starts. Like in all rounds, the elves get quite lucky with their dice rolls while I roll sub-par. But I am used to that already...
When Blaine kills the Troll in a second swift attack, suddenly the game looks quite different!
One agile elf Levy manages to run all the way from the middle and engange Biggit Crunchem together with Blaine. Crunchem is wounded, but stays in the game!
My Wiz disengages the Shambler which was not able to kill any Goblin so far. He positions himself behind the mission objective. We roll if the game ends or if the game continues into a 6th round.
The game continues!
Its already way past 1 A.M. but now the most complicated part of the game starts. The game suddenly becomes like a game of chess! We both try to figure out what models need to be activated in what order so that the game could still be won by the elves! This for me shows the depth of Kings of War: Vanguard!
His second Levy joins to engage one of my Luggits
If he kills my Luggit with his Shambler and engages my Wiz... and his Levy kills my Biggit, then Blaine can lighten up the beacon and I cannot unlight it... buut if I first kill his Levy...
it gets very complicated!
I solve the riddle and "Gobbler", the Goblin Luggit between my Wiz and Biggit activates, kills the Levy that engaged him and gets re-activated by my Wiz. By this, even if my Biggit gets killed, I can take the fire out again. (Note: this is the simplified version).
Without any chance to win, my opponent instead decides to switch tactics and take out as many models as he can.
Biggit Crunchem finally goes down to Blaine but at least I win the mission!
The Luggit Goblin Harti manages to survive the mission.
In retrospective, the mistake that cost my opponent the game was that he approached too cautiously. I on the other hand, should not have sacrificed my Troll so easily and shouldn't have let him move his Shambler into contact with my Wiz.
We both had some very unlucky dice rolls. He shot at my Biggit with his archers and Wizard and wasn't able to kill him. He tried likewise with the Troll quite in the beginning and barely made a scratch. On the other hand, the Luggits on my flank were very ineffective too!
It turns out, the "Light the Beacon" scenario is a very unhealthy scenario for the defender if you are doing a campaign game, because the defender is very likely to loose VERY many models while the attacker will not!
But I will write about the effects the game had in the campaign in another post!
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