I think it´s been almost two years since my previous game of 3rd edition WFB. My usual opponents live half way across the country and things like work have prevented me from traveling there. Luckily I found a new oldhammer enthuastic via forums and facebook groups with whom we found time to play last week.
It was Orcs & Goblins vs Dwarfs, 2000 points of each side and pitched battle. Here´s some pictures and a shortish battle report about that game.
My orcs & goblins battle line. Goblin chariot, wolf riders (behind whom two O&G civilians who did not participate in any way), gobbo horde, two trolls, war boar mounted general and army banner, orc arrers, two more trolls led by goblin shaman, orc boyz, goblin arrers and two bolt throwers.
The dwarfs left flank facing my goblins. Three dwarf cannon, hammerers, gyrocopter, iron breakers, flame thrower and quarrelers. My intention was to engage the elite dwarfs with my gobbos to keep them away from my main orc unit and trolls. I possible I would try to get the cannon with goblin chariot.
Rest of the dwarfs. Next to quarrelers a three barrel organ gun. Then pike armed dwarf warriors, another unit of dwarf warriors, bolt thrower, stone thrower and a small unit of slayers. I planned on engaging the warrior units with my orcs and then trying to break them with trolls.
My battle plan started to fall apart right from the beginnig as both troll duos decided to pick some flowers instead of advancing. And orc arrers fell victim to animosity and did not move. We played on a longish board with some distance between the armies and I knew my green skins would suffer greatly from those dwarf war machines.
Green skins advance. Well - most of them. Trolls are mingling around as they did for most of the first four rounds.
The wolf riders were the first to suffer casualties. Hit by a cannon they lost four goblins and had to roll for panic. That roll was suprisingly passed. They tried to retaliate by shooting at the gyrocopter but failed to hurt the pilot despite hitting him twice.
To slow down the elite dwarfs on that flank as planned (and not get shot to pieces) wolf riders and chariot charged the iron breakers. They would hopefully buy some time for my better troops to break the dwarf warriors.
As expected the goblin were suffering at the hands of the iron breakers and now were in danger of being flanked by the hammerers too. But they had slowed those two units conciderably now.
The dwarfs finally lost something as a warrior was impaled by a bolt thrower bolt.
The dwarf center advenced in good order and found good positions between two houses. They would not be flanked.
My orc line on the other hand was quite a mess. The boyz were blocking arrers advance and all the trolls were doing trollish things still at their deployment area. At top of the picture goblin arrers are sqeezing past the tower and prepare to shoot at slayer they are facing. Gobbo horde at the bottom moves forward behind the wolf riders and the chariot to forther block the dwarfs left flank.
Gobbos can see their wolf riding brethren being slaughtered in the distance.
Gyrocopter is heading for the orc bolt throwers and flying over orc arrers bombs them with a grenade killing several.
On O&G right the lone wolf rider hero is still finghting with the iron breakers when the gobbos close in releasing two fanatics. They move just five and three inches each falling short of their targets. In the next dwarfs round on is pin cushioned with cross bow bolts and in my next round the other rolls doubles and collapses. 60 points well spent. And with clear line of sight the organ gun released it´s barrels at gobbos who suffered roughly dozen casualties but held.
The gobbos bravely charged the hammeres in their flank. As iron breakers were jammed behind them it looked like my plan of holding the elite just might work.
On the other side of the battle field a fanatic and arrows killed all but one of the slayers. But that slayer charged the gobbos and eventually single handedly routed them.
The centers engaged but despite even trolls finally joining in the orcs were unable to break the darfs warrior units. As the last effort orc general himself joined in but it was too little too late. More dwarfs from their left flank (righ top in this pic) were closing in for charge. At this point I saw no hope of victory and congratulated my opponent.
Some lessons learned:
- You really need someone capable to lead the trolls
- Cannons are murderous with rule book rules
- Flying rules are complicated
- I need more gobbos (45 is not enought)
- I need more fire and hitting power
