Game 5 vs Varangur
My list:
2x Bloodsworn hordes, fury
1x Fallen horde
2x Magus conclaves
2x Devourer, breath
1x Cave dweller
1x Troll king
1x Magus, bane-chant, inspiring
1x Magnhilde
Opponents list (again missing some items):
1x Bloodsworn horde, fury
1x Fallen horde, brew of strength
2x Mounted sons regiments, pathfinder
1x Thrall horde
1x Thrall regiment
1x Lord on manticore
1x Magnhilde
1x Skald, lute
1x Goblin spitter regiment
1x Goblin rock lobber
A faster and even more punchy Varangur list than mine. I do out-shoot it by a mile though, so I would once again try to whittle him down a bit before we start the real grind. I don´t understand why he has allied in a goblin lobber when the magus conclaves do the same job, but with much more tactical flexibility and with no allied problems (like no inspiring)
There were three objectives, one in the field on the left side, one in the forest in the middle, and one on the far right. I started my standard deployment in the middle with my hordes, and since my opponent quickly committed on my left flank, I decided to take the center and right objectives, so my deployment was practically the same as all the other games. The biggest difference was that my opponent threw so much on the left side and so little on the right, so I had to give my Troll king some back-up with the cave dweller.
My Troll king and Cave dweller took up positions in the wheat field, ready to face the onslaught of the many powerful units over there.
My right flank pushed hard ahead, with my devourers breathing away a regiment of thralls on round 1, and then the goblins were cleaned out on round 2. I parked a devourer on the right objective and sent the rest of my army to fight for the center one. A pretty promising start!
On the left flank, my two big guys got the fight of their life, taking on a regiment of mounted sons (without pathfinder), Magnhilde and the lord on manticore, with the horde of thralls waiting on the sidelines to grab the objectives. With their opponents being hindered or disrupted, and with some good regen rolls, they kept grinding on for many rounds, also dangerously wounding Magnhilde and the mounted sons.
Meanwhile on the right flank, the enemy bloodsworn engaged on of my hordes, but where hindered on the way in and bounced. They were then flanked by the other horde and wiped out. The mounted sons where engaged by Magnhilde, robbing them of TC, stopping them from doing much damage to the bloodsworn in front of them. They were then surrounded by bloodsworn and fallen and were also destroyed.
The enemy fallen engaged my bottom bloodsworn, but while they did a lot of damage, they bounced as well and were wiped out by the bane chanted counter charge. With that, the enemy center was also crushed, and while my hordes were dangerously wounded, the remaining enemies were still fighting my two big guys on the left.
In the end, they did manage to kill of my Troll king and Cave dweller, but it was way too late, and they just did not have the time to go engage my forces in the center.
I think it was a mistake by my opponent to go so heavy on the left flank. He had mobility advantage, but that advantage was mainly wasted when a lot of the fastest units got bogged down fighting regenerating high defense units in difficult terrain. Since he did not threaten the right objective at all, I could pretty much all in on the center, and I had better mobility and just more units, nerve and attacks there, so I overwhelmed his forces. It is also worth mentioning that while I wavered the enemy rock lobber in round 1, it also missed for the remaining 4-5 rounds it got to shoot.
MVP: Cave dweller. He had two rounds of regenerating 6+ wounds, and he kept the two most mobile units in the enemy army occupied for the entire game, being just a bad nerve roll away from taking Magnhilde down with him.
Game 6 vs Goblins – Control
To my surprise, my army had done better than expected, and I found myself on the number one table against the other undefeated army in the tournament, a shooty goblin + kin list. I had played beside the list for several games, and all the games looked the same: the enemy army made it across the center line, looking in a great position, then I looked back ten minutes later, and the goblin player would be mopping up the sad leftovers of the enemy army.
Opponents list (almost correct even):
1x Spitter horde, heart seeking chant
1x Rabble horde, crystal penchant
1x Magwan´s regiment, warbow
2x Troll horde, fury
2x War trombones
2x Rock lobbers
1x Groggers great lobber
1x Goblin mega blaster
1x Flaggit, griffon banner
1x Wiz, bane chant
1x Magwa and Joos
1x Kin chariot regiment
1x Kin dragon lord
At first glance, the list doesn´t look that shooty. However, there are 11 shooting units, most of which also do decent damage. The three rock lobbers mean that you need to expect at least one hit per round, and if they get their hits in early, it can be very painful and make the game an uphill struggle. I absolutely hate playing against the ogre exploding wagons, and now goblins have one as well with the mega blaster. It even has a big shield to make it even rougher to take it out early. The crystal penchant on the rabble horde is the icing on the cake. Even if you manage to get into combat, the damned goblins then blow up. I use this item often myself, and it can impact enemy plans drastically.
My plan was to silence some of the rock lobbers early with my magus conclaves. I would also try to reduce his shooting opportunities as much as possible, using the hills and forest to hide my forces. For the scenario, I would rush one flank and turn into his center of the table, hopefully taking it. Meanwhile, my hordes would keep my center square away from his units.
Because of the amount of shooting, my deployment actually had to change a bit. The Troll king got some company on the left flank, with one of my bloodsworn hordes hiding behind the hill. One bloodsworn horde hid behind an obstacle in the center, while the rest of my army hid behind a wood and a hill on the right.
I got the first turn and took it, surging forward on the right flank, which was very lightly defended. My center pulled back so he had to move to shoot me in cover. My troll and magus conclave tried to take out the mega blaster, but failed. My other conclave wavered a rock lobber. That conclave tried for 3-4 rounds to take out the top right lobber, but kept wavering it or missing.
In return, my opponents left flank slowly walked up, managing to waver a magus conclave, but not doing much else. They had to hold back because the mega-blaster could explode. Other shooting was not too bad, except for one rock lobber hitting my center bloodsworn.
In turn 2, my troll, magus and a conclave managed to explode the damned mega blaster, taking it out without anything else taking damage. I had however managed to get my troll king within charge range of a horde of trolls, as I think other trolls also move at speed 5 like their king does 😛 My king survived the charge, but died the next turn when he got chariots in the flank as well. It was a sloppy move on my part, and I got punished for it, giving up my troll king way to easily.
On the right flank, I removed a trombone, but my opponent maneuvered very well, using the rock outcrop to slow me down, forcing me to spend more turns than I liked dealing with the rock lobber, wiz and last trombone. The trolls on the right flank kept my forces on the right contained until I could get my fallen through the trombone to flank them and kill them.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures during the next part of the game, as it was a very tight match. My flankers worked their way through his spitters, securing his center table quarter for me. I had however made scenario mistakes earlier in the game, and struggled to have time to get back to the two table quarters I had already cleared. I should have started to move one of my hordes to the bottom right quarter when it was clear I my plan was working, but that I could not spare any of my flankers for babysitting a quarter.
At the same time, because of my sloppy Troll king placement, I had to go on the counter-offensive, taking out the troll horde and chariots with my left infantry horde. The enemy rabble attacked my damaged center horde, but were hindered by the red lake, so they did little damage, and I got to hit them back, hurting them badly. The dragon lord then charged my horde in the flank, wiping them out.
Going into the end of the game, it was very close. Currently, he had my center quarter and one on his left flank, while I had the bottom left and his center. My horde was very damaged however, so I had to keep the dragon away from them. I threw a devourer at him to keep him busy for a round.
In the last turn of the game, I managed to destroy the badly wounded rabble with my magus and conclave. Then I counter-charged Magwa and Joos, who had charged my horde to stop them from going into the center. I killed him and managed to overrun just enough to get into the center quarter, taking control of it and winning the game!
MVP: Left bloodsworn horde. Killing a chariot regiment, a horde of trolls, Magwa and Joos and winning the game by overrunning just enough to take a quarter by unit strength from the evil dragon lord.
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