Adepticon Singles – Round 4 – Lee Horn – Orcs and Goblins

Day 2 and I was not doing well.  We had gone out to a movie right after the rounds ended the previous night, and then I had gone back to my room.  No dinner.  I did eat some fruit I had in the room.  In the morning I showed up at 20 to 8, thinking I would have time to go grab food as on Saturday we hadn’t started until 9.  But they had the first round starting at 8, so straight to my table I went.  My hands were shaking as I tried to measure out the angled deployment zone.  Next to that, I was playing Lee Horn, a friend from the California scene (lived in LA) before he moved to the west coast.  Normally he plays Elves, but he told me he was getting practice with the Orcs because that is what he was taking to ETC this year.  Yes, my second ETC member for the event – Lee being both past and current.  So another top notch player.

The Mission:

Deployment – Meeting Engagement
Special rules – Roll once for each power and dispel dice after all generation.  On a 6, your opponent adds a die to their pool to match (doesn’t take away your own die)
Victory – 100 or more points
Bonus Battle – 3 points for killing a wizard and 1 point for each standard in your opponent’s zone to a maximum of 2.

Savage Orc Warboss, Sword of Anti Heroes, Obsidian Trinket

Great Savage Orc Shaman, Level 4, Lore of the Big Waaagh, Lucky Shrunken Head

Black Orc Big Boss, BSB, Enchanted Shield, Crown of Command

Goblin Big Boss, spear, giant wolf
Night Goblin Shaman, level 1, Lore of the Little Waaagh, dispel scroll

35 Savage Orc Big’Uns, extra hand weapon, full command

20 Night Goblins, 2 fanatics
5 Wolf Riders, spear
5 Wolf Riders, spear

Goblin Chariot

Goblin Chariot
Goblin Chariot
1 Troll
1 Troll
10 Trolls

Doom Diver

Doom Diver
Rock Lobber
Rock Lobber
Mangler Squig
Mangler Squig

This list is particularly nasty for me, what with the 4 warmachines and my low wound units.  I knew I would have to crack the army open and get into its gooey center as quickly as possible.  Once those warmachines were taken care of, I would have the time to deal with the blocks at my leisure.  This was also the worst mission, besides perhaps battle for the pass, for me to play this army, as it gave him a corner to close up in.

For spells Lee rolled Gaze of Mork, Brain Busta, Headbutt and ‘Ere we go; his level 1 took cure of the bad moon.  I took Doom and Darkness, Spirit Leech, Caress, Purple sun and Fate.  My level 2 never cast so it didn’t matter.

We rolled off and Lee won to deploy first.  His goblins, one stone thrower and a chariot didn’t come deploy. He then bunkered into the corner, with both chariots, then the ogres and trolls and lastly the manglers blocking off the left corner.  I didn’t have any units not come on, put my dark riders heavy towards ‘center’ of his line, with one hydra and my level 2 hanging out on the right near his board edge.  I deploy almost to the line, while he deploys farthing back.  I both scout and vanguard as close as I can without being in good charge range.

I roll, and get the 6 to go first.  [Intersting note, I went with 5 friends and in 3 of those 6 games the first turn was siezed, 2 by us and 1 to us.  Not close to 1/6.]

On my first turn, I advance, carefully for counter charges.  One of my Dark Rider unit charges and pushes back the wolf riders.  I drop my bsb behind the building on the left to try to sneak him into the backfield quickly.  I move my level 2 to his board side.  Even though the points are bad, I’m hoping he will bring the goblins out to kill my wizard with the fanatics.  If I were him I would have held them in reserve until the BSB was killing warmachines – then bring them on and kill him.  With a 6/3 magic phase he scrolls doom, dispels Power and I fail to cast Spirit leech.  I put a wound on one of the troll redirectors, and kill 3 of the wolf riders.  Also kill the solo cavalry character.

On Lee’s turn 1, I pop my black dragon egg to discourage his chariots charging my BSB.  Instead one of them charges the Dark Rider unit that’s out of position due to the wolves.  Because of the long charge I hold but he makes it in.  The wolves then run off the table.  The fanatics take the bait and kill my level 2.  The manglers begin the long walk right towards the hydra and goblins.  In an 8/7 phase I let off gaze of mork which kills 2 shades and 2 dark riders.  I then dispel brain bursta on my general.  Head butt fails.  In shooting the rocklobba fails to wound.  1 hit with a doom diver on my bsb is cancelled with charmed shield.  Other diver misses.  The chariot kills the dark riders on impact hits.

On my turn 2 the hydra pushes back the chariot on the left and the other hydra pushes back the other unit of fast cav.  I move some shades into the building. The BSB moves next to the front diver roll a 3/2 phase and he dispels spirit leech.  I kill the solo troll and the fleeing chariot (which fled into my way as I tried to move up the field – just like the wolves the previous turn).

On Lee’s turn 2 and the savages charge shades.  A chariot charges dark riders and the trolls charge some dark riders, which flee.  Fanatic does 1 wound to both a hydra and the mangler.  A 6/4 magic phase sees me allowing brain busta to do a wound to an assassin.  I then fail to dispel head but on the general but it fails to wound.  Warmachines are ineffective, but the goblins put a wound on the hydra with their bows.  I kill 4 orcs in combat but all the shades die with 1 wound on the assassin, which holds.

On my turn 3 and a Dark rider charges a chariot that then flees off the table.  BSB charges doom diver, skipping the closest warmachine.  Some Dark Riders fail to rally and run off the table.  The assassin pops out of the building and tries to hide (turns out I didn’t do a good job of it, needing to shift him to make a gap for a unit to move through).  I roll a disappointing 5/5 magic phase.  I +2 dice off of power of darkness, he dispels doom and darkness, spirit leech fails to do anything as does caress.  Hydra moves and flames the goblins, which run off the table.  I would have moved him farther, but I failed the march test because of the mangler.  The other hydra only kills 2 orcs.  I shoot down the single level 2.  The BSB kills his machine and overruns into a lobba.

On Lee’s turn three the assassin flees from the trolls (bad hiding), one mangler turns around and kills a unit of dark riders, missing the trolls due to the failed charge.  The other mangler fails to wound the hydra, but goes crazy.  He rolls a 6/3 magic phase where he brain busta’s the 1 wound assassin to kill him.  Head butt’s general but fails to wound thanks to pendant.  The BSB kills the stone thrower.

 

On my turn 4 the BSB charges and catches a chariot when it flees.  The shades charge the single troll and the hydra goes into the savage orcs.  At this point I know I’ve lost.  I had to give up to many points to open up the back field and no longer had what I needed to get through the trolls and orcs – which was where his points where.  At this point I was hoping to get lucky and keep him in the corner so I could clean up some of the terrain.  I roll an 8/4 magic phase and throw them all at purple sun in the hopes of blowing up the orcs so the hydra can clean them up.  I roll a 24 instead of a 25 and watch that hope go down the toilet.  The troll passes 5 of 6 regens against the shades and kills 2 to tie combat.  The hydra whiffs pathetically and then loses but holds.

 

On Lee’s turn 4 and he doesn’t have much left to do.  The trolls turn around to face my wizard in his backfield.  Brain busta kills a Dark Rider and then he fails ‘ere we go with a 6/5 magic phase.  Hydra whiffs again and this time flees, as he over runs into a unit of dark riders.  The shades kill the troll.

My turn 5 and I put the shades into the rear of the orcs, hoping for a flub.  I roll a 6/4 magic phase, caress the last warmachine and put doom and darkness on the orcs.  Shades fail to preform, and he fails to whiff and he wins the last combat.  His orcs chase the shades as the dark riders to live to flee.

His turn 5 and he is no facing and close enough to charge my general (who is on the back edge).  Since fleeing puts me off the table I hold.  General dies in combat.

My turn 6 and I move to maximize my bonus points.  He fails to take any away from me on turn 6.  Once again I get a loss, but once again it’s a strong loss with 6 bonus points, putting me high even with a 2-2 record.  I don’t feel like I played well, and Lee didn’t seem to make a mistake.