Yes, that is a Fantasy battle about to commence. Yes, those are bits of paper in the middle representing terrain. Yes, most models are unpainted. And yes, there was even a small bit of proxying going on.
This might be a good time to mention that we are also using this campaign as an excuse to get our armies ready and painted, and make sure we have some nice terrain to play over. Since this is only turn two, we're still very much in the 'assemble and undercoat' phase of our painting plan. But, not to worry, as the campaign progresses you will see more and more painted Skaven and Greenskins. Hell, you might even see the occasional High Elf done and finished on the table. If we can get the HE player to stop messing about and get his ass in gear, that is!
(I wonder if he'll read this and take the hint ;) )
Anyway! Last weekend we wrapped up turn 2 of our campaign. As you could see on the map we had three battles to fight. One between High Elves and Orcs n Goblins in territory 19, and two between O&G and Skaven, in territories 25 and 27.
Now, the way these battles work is pretty simple. You just tally up the total points of the army banners in the territory, roll up a mission, and square off. This can lead to armies of different sizes fighting each other, especially when it's two banners to one, but that's all part of the fun!
The battle in territory 27 was between 500 pts of Skaven and 2*500 pts of O&G. I always like playing small battles. The line between victory and defeat is always so much thinner. And this one was no different. Plenty of "if only's" in this battle.
>If only I had managed to shoot more wolf riders with my ratling gun!
> If only our HE player hadn't pointed out my opponent had inadvertantly moved his unit boyz with shaman within 18" of said ratling gun, who then proceded to move them just out of range, safe from my fire!
> If only Warp Lightning had done just a little bit more damage before the Orcs hit my line!
As it was I lost the battle without causing enough casualties to have my opponent roll on the Campaign Casualties Chart for his units. These are charts (where you roll a D6) we made to see how many of the troops that died during a battle are actually dead.
Basically if your unit is reduced to less than 50% of its starting strength but isn't completely dead/wiped out, you return to 50% on a roll of 1-3, and back to full strength on a 4+.
If a unit died it stays dead on a 1-3 or returns to 50% strength on a 4+.
If 50% or more survive, you automatically return to full strenght.
If a unit fled off the table you use these results (1-2 = dead; 3-4 = 50%; 5-6 = 100%)
Easypeasy!
So I ended up with one dead warlock, one dead unit of clanrats, one warlock with 1 wound, and one unit of 10 clanrats instead of 20, while doing just about jack-all to the Greenskins. Not a very good start for the Skaven.
The battle in territory 19 was between 1000 + 2500 pts of High Elves vs 2500 pts of O&G. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see this game, but suffice to say the Orcs got soundly beaten. Not so tough now, are we?
I was very happy with both of the opposing 2500 pts armies being way up there in the north where they couldn't easily reach me. It meant that my armies wouldn't face more than 2000 pts in a battle (max of two banners in any one territory per side), and my 2500 pts army was free to roam around on its own and be assured of numerical superiority (something that every true Skaven player can appreciate).
The third and final battle for this turn was between 2000 pts each of O&G and Skaven. It was important for me to win because I had already lost the other battle on that front and if I lost this one I would have to send in other Banners to reinforce it. The battle was important for the O&G player because he had already lost the large battle up North, and he could ill afford losing battles with 4500 of his 6500 pts!
As an aside, our Campaign only allows a player to buy back around 500 pts of dead units per Campaign turn, so the more you lose, the longer it will take to get back to full strenght. So far I had lost about 300 pts, but the Greenskins were already down by over 1000 pts!
The battle itself was good fun with a fair few exciting turning points. Here are a few of the most important ones:
> Me facing down a (left) flank of 2 Wolf Chariots, 1 Boar Chariot, 5 Boar Boyz, and 10 Wolf Riders with a Doomwheel, 13 Nightrunners, and 5 Gutter Runners. I knew I was in trouble when I had lined up my Doomwheel so that all three chariots would be the closest targets for my Doomwheel shots, and it turned out I had wheeled the Nightrunners to be just closer to the Doomwheel instead! Duh! Of course, three dead Nightrunners later my Doomwheel was on the receiving end of three chariots. Double Duh!
> A horde unit of Savage Orcs led by a Shaman with Shrunken Head managed to charge my Hell Pit Abomination. Now, a HPA is tough, but not that tough, right?
> The O&G player managed to get a flank charge in on my Plague Monks with Furnace, who were conveniently placed just behind the HPA, ready to be overrun into by the Savage Orcs if they managed to kill HPA. This could potentially see me lose both my HPA and my Furnace in one turn. Talk about losing a game in one turn...
> Of course, as so often happens, things never go entirely to plan or, in the Greenskins' case, not to plan at all. My HPA only suffered four wounds from the Savage Orcs, regenerating two, and then proceded to pass his stubborn ld test four turns in a row.
> This meant my Plague Monks easily dealt with the Wolf Riders, although they were forced to pursue the survivors towards my left flank, which meant they didn't contribute to the rest of the battle. At least they didn't die...
> And to add insult to injury, my Doomwheel not only survived the triple chariot charge, but eventually even managed to defeat all of them, surviving with a single wound left!
> Over on the other side of the battlefield my Warlord on Bonebreaker and his unit of 40 clanrats more or less singlehandedly beat off 15 Spider Riders, a Goblin Warboss on Gigantic Spider, 10 Wolf Riders, a Shaman on wolf, and 2 Wolf Chariots. All for the low, low cost of 39 clanrats. Remember when I said I was glad I had brough 40 clanrats, not 39? Check the Campaign Casualty Chart again above and you'll see what I mean.
> A horde unit of Savage Orcs led by a Shaman with Shrunken Head managed to charge my Hell Pit Abomination. Now, a HPA is tough, but not that tough, right?
> The O&G player managed to get a flank charge in on my Plague Monks with Furnace, who were conveniently placed just behind the HPA, ready to be overrun into by the Savage Orcs if they managed to kill HPA. This could potentially see me lose both my HPA and my Furnace in one turn. Talk about losing a game in one turn...
> Of course, as so often happens, things never go entirely to plan or, in the Greenskins' case, not to plan at all. My HPA only suffered four wounds from the Savage Orcs, regenerating two, and then proceded to pass his stubborn ld test four turns in a row.
> This meant my Plague Monks easily dealt with the Wolf Riders, although they were forced to pursue the survivors towards my left flank, which meant they didn't contribute to the rest of the battle. At least they didn't die...
> And to add insult to injury, my Doomwheel not only survived the triple chariot charge, but eventually even managed to defeat all of them, surviving with a single wound left!
> Over on the other side of the battlefield my Warlord on Bonebreaker and his unit of 40 clanrats more or less singlehandedly beat off 15 Spider Riders, a Goblin Warboss on Gigantic Spider, 10 Wolf Riders, a Shaman on wolf, and 2 Wolf Chariots. All for the low, low cost of 39 clanrats. Remember when I said I was glad I had brough 40 clanrats, not 39? Check the Campaign Casualty Chart again above and you'll see what I mean.
Overall, I won the battle, losing a little over 600 pts (510 of which I bought back). The O&G player probably should have dealt me a more severe blow in the turn he charged my Doomwheel, my HPA, and my Furnace. As it was, he only managed to take down the HPA and the Doomwheel in the final turn of the game, which really was far too late. Also, you should have seen his face when he realised he'd not done enough wounds to kill the last of my clanrats in the final turn of the game. Golden...
Overall, a fun Turn Two. The Greenskins probably need to take it easy for at least a turn, and recuperate a bit. Meanwhile, I'm curious to see where the large Elven force is going to go. And it's high time I started killing me some Elves as well!
Get it?
"High" time...?
No..?
As a quick Turn Three teaser: there was a very 'interesting' battle between about 2000 pts of High Elves and a goblin force consisting 1 wolf chariot, 1 unit wolf riders, 1 unit spider riders, and no characters... I wonder who'll win that ;)
Also, I should be getting a spiffy updated and enhanced Campaign Map mailed to me soonish, and I'll post it here when I do!
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