Fantastic Battles AAR July 29th game

 

So, a bigger battle this time, Dwarfs (1,500 points) vs a combined army of Orcs (750 points) and Undead (750 points). I must say I much prefer bigger armies, more scope for variety of units. I felt very restricted trying to come up with the small 50 point armies. I had to make far more compromises than I would have liked. 

We tried to try out some experimental rules*, succeeded with some of them, forgot to use others...oh well. We did use the following:

1. March column
   
2. Artillery variables rules
3. Orc Animosity
4. Undead [Racial] Only remembered part of these new rules

 * These experimental rules can be found at the end of this AAR.

The Battlefield

 

 The troops as deployed with deployment mishaps indicated.

 

On the northern half of the battlefield, the Orc battle line is ready to charge the Dwarven forces

On the southern half it looks like the Undead army has homefield advantage!

The Undead army

The Orc army

The depleted Dwarf right flank await their fate at the hands of the Undead horde!

The Dwarf left flank stands ready for the Orcs

The Dwarf center

TURN ONE

    The Southern battle

The Dwarven rangers race towards the forest as do the Ghouls! The main thrust of the undead army is towards the center of the Dwarven line, where the Iron Breakers patiently wait. The rogue makes use of the Gyrocopter to get enter the graveyard, but for now he forgoes the pleasure of raiding the tombs.

The Undead horde slowly advances towards the Dwarven army

    While in the north

A general advance is launched by the Orcs. The archers on the northern end of the line run out of room and are slowed down by the ruins. The elite Black Orcs and Big Uns form up in march column eager to engage the enemy before all the glory is stolen by the boring gits.

The dwarf player belatedly decided that one of their mages should actually be more involved on their left flank and had the mage racing across the battlefield. This prevented the mage from casting any spells for the first 2 turns.

The Orc mage used the blink spell to accelerate the advance of the Orcs.

The Boar Boyz & Boar Chariot race pell mell towards the the Dwarfs

TURN TWO

THE SITUATION AT THE START OF TURN 2

    The battle in the south

Bats and Black Knights threaten the Dwarf right flank

Artillery fire targets the Orc archers & the approaching Grave Guard

Ghouls & rangers collide in the woods

The sneaky gyroscope flanks the knights ready to release a steam blast!

    In the North 

The Dwarf general miscalculates the speed of the enemy & activates the skirmisher fire thrower to shift it's position. The Orc chariot takes advantage of this mistake and charges the fire throwers. The Hammerers advance to close the gap.

    Turn two - melee round

In the north, a vicious battle commences!!

The fire throwers did not last too long! First blood goes to the Orcs.

The rangers start to make cord wood out of the ghouls.

TURN THREE

THE SITUATION AT THE START OF TURN 3

    The south

The Undead continue their advance in the center while on their left flank their swift moving Fell bats collide with the Dwarfs. However the cavalry cannot reach the enemy and in a remarkable turn, Bugman's drunken Dwarfs actually charge the knights!

The Dwarf general decides to not wait any longer, and advances the Iron Guard! 

The Gyrocopter attacks the rear of the knights.

Bugman's berserk brew stimulates his Dwarfs to attack the knights! Meanwhile the Fell Bats assault the clan warriors and the unengaged Greybeards wheel to flank the Fell bats.

    The North

The chariot is quickly destroyed by crossbow and gun fire but as it is expendable does not impact that much on the Orcs. With the arrival of the two march columns, the main focus of the Orcs is to maneuver their troops to bring them into the battle.

Orc arrer boys launch their missiles at the crossbow armed Dwarfs

    Turn three - melee round

It is a tight struggle between the Boar Boyz and the Dwarf spear sees both units approaching their breaking point. Spearmen prove their worth while the Boar Boyz, no longer enjoying warbeasts or charge bonuses, have a tough time inflicting wound on the Dwarf spear.The use of a curse spell by the Dwarf mage did not help the Orcs struggle!

Devastating melees swirl in the south & the Fell Bats fall!

In a daring move the rogue challenges the Undead Magelord!

The Ghouls are defeated taking their necromancer with them.

 TURN FOUR

THE SITUATION AT THE START OF TURN 4

In the south, the Dwarf get lucky, and are able to act before the advancing Undead horde can and therefore the Iron Breakers charge the Undead. The remaining undead are locked in combat for another melee phase, while the hapless Skeleton spear try to catch up to the battle. In the forest, the unopposed rangers wheel towards the Grave Guard

    In the north

The Orc spear are in position to strike at the Hammerers and launch an attack! The archery duel continues but the two to one advantage sees the Orc arrer boyz taking to much damage.

    Turn four - melee round

In  the north the Orc Boar Boyz tried and failed to break away from combat, so remained locked in combat. Once again a curse spell somewhat hampered their melee. Only the presence of their Warlord kept the unit from breaking. The Orc spear and the Hammerers exchange blows with the Orcs getting the worst of it. The small Orc warrior unit came up short in their charge leading to a very unfortunate result in the next shooting phase.

    In the south 

The Iron Breakers deal massive damage, but the pole axe armed undead do not collapse.

However things do not go well for the knights. They take devastating damage that results in the death of their Mage Lord and the destruction of the unit.

The death of the Magelord ripples trough the Undead host, destroying the Banshee and seriously weakening all other units!

 TURN FIVE

The situation at the start of turn 5. Well in the excitement of battle pictures of the North are largely missing. In the south the rangers are ready to charge while the Dwarf warriors, Greybeards and drunkards find themselves with out any immediate enemies to fight. They oddly all turn to the right before remembering that there is still another skeleton unit approaching them.

In the north the Orcs wait until the last moment to finally disengage from the Dwarf spear. Having already been activated, the Dwarf spear cannot react so must watch their enemy escape from their grasp.

 TURN SIX

THE SITUATION AT THE START OF TURN 6

While the Boar Boyz were able to break away, they were not able to move very far. They wound up crashing into the Black Orcs and grinding to a stop. The Dwarf luck worked again as they acted before the Orcs and promptly charged into the rear of the mounted Orcs. This turn saw the end of the Orc Arrer boyz (finally) and the crossbow and thunderers shifted their position to bring new elements of the Orc army into range of their missile weapons.

    In the south

The Iron Breakers continue to battle the skeleton pole axe troops. The rangers charge home, flanking the Grave Guard. One canon was out of service while the other canon had limited targets, but still took a shot at the Grave Guard prior to the ranger's attack.

 

The other Dwarf units wound up turning to face the, still slowly approaching, skeleton spear. While the rogue finally returns to the graveyard searching for treasure!

Scouting around he found a Wicked Blade of Piercing.

    Turn six - melee round

Well no surprises, the Orc Boar Boyz were charged in the rear and had a curse cast on them giving them a -3 for the melee. It was not a pretty site. The Orc spear also suffered defeat and they too were removed.

That was it for the battle, with the destruction of the Orc spear the battle was over. Both allied War/Mage Lords became casualties, as did one of the Undead necromancers. 

This was only our second game and there was still some learning going on. I know we made some mistakes but none of them really impacted on the outcome. Both sides had some non rules related challenges. For the Orcs they found themselves hampered by scenery, and were too crowded on the far right. The archer unit there never got into battle. For the Undead, the use of mages could have gone better. One had the summon spell but they started using it too late in the battle to make much of a difference. The Dwarf player flubbed how to use the skirmishers seeing them destroyed because he was unable to react to the enemy.

In the end it was a lopsided victory, with the Dwarf army losing only one unit yet it was not a cake walk. Any of the melees could have gone differently and the Dwarfs could have been in trouble. Had the elite Orc units been able to engage we would have seen very different results. Throughout the battle the Orc player was able to rally back resolve whereas the Dwarf player was hopelessly inept in his rally rolls.

As promised these are some of the rules we were testing out.

I have added comments after each new rule. Please not these new rules are in-house rules and not necessarily something that I feel the game really needs. As written the game is quite excellent and well balanced. 

These new rules are an experiment, rightly or wrongly to emulate some of the weirdness of the old GW rules. They are basically a mental exercise brought to the table.

Animosity Orc/Goblin [Impetuous actions]

1	That gits got a Gouge eye jersey on get im!	Wheel (or turn, whichever is most appropriate) to face the nearest friendly unit. Move to attack them if possible. Once engaged in melee units will remain so, fighting each melee phase until they or their opponent have scattered or disengaged.
2-3	Bickering & arguing about who killed who	Internal squabble, each company in unit loses 1 resolve.
4	Everyone is a bunch of idiots, we should...	1-2 3-4 5-6	Sod these gits! Turn 180 (-2BW) & move any remaining move Wheel 1D3 BW (1-3 Left, 4-6 Right). then move forward any remaining move. Not be too hasty...The unit holds its current position without moving. Units with heavy or powerful missile weapons will reload if they need to do so.
5	We’ll show everyone what to do, there's the enemy get em!	Become impulsive for a turn. The unit wheels the minimum distance required to face the nearest enemy unit (or turns 180° to the rear if this is required) & charges the remainder of its move directly to the enemy.
6+	In your name!	Treat the unit as though it is within command range. It may make a controlled action.

Modifiers

+1 Formed or Elite or Reliable

-1 Unreliable, target of confusion spell

 No Orc units suffered any animosity so this rule remains untested.

Artillery shots

Artillery rolls a D6 to see the effect of the shot.

1	Something different happens
2+	Resolve shot as normal

Something different charts

Indirect artillery

1	Snap/boom	Weapons is out of service for D3 turns. Destroyed if this result rolled again.
2	Miss short/long	1-3 short 4-6 overshot. Roll D3 (-1 reliable, +1 unreliable crew) for distance If a hit occurs treat as Partial hit
3	Miss left/right	1-3 left 4-6 right roll D3 (-1 reliable, +1 unreliable crew) for distance If a hit occurs treat as Partial hit
4	Partial hit	Resolve shot as normal but reduce total hits by 1
5-6	Forceful hit	Resolve shot as normal. If at least one hit is scored add 1 hit to total

Direct artillery

1	Snap/boom	Weapons is out of service for D3 turns. Destroyed if this result rolled again.
2-3	Miss short/long	1-3 short 4-6 overshot. Roll D3 (-1 reliable, +1 unreliable crew) for distance If a hit occurs treat as Partial hit
4	Partial hit	Resolve shot as normal but reduce total hits by 1
5-6	Forceful hit	Resolve shot as normal. If at least one hit is scored add 1 hit to total

The artillery rules worked out fine. The intent was to add some of the randomness from WH but without delaying the game too much. The Dwarf player had partial hits, and one snap/boom result (that put one gun out for three turns) It did require extra die rolls but not much in the way of extra measuring. The possibility of a short shot did cause the Dwarf player some worry as one of their units could well of been hit had the shot fallen short.

March column

Units that are at least 5BW away from the enemy & in column formation at the start of their activation may use march column

• May add 1BW to movement.

• May not move into contact with enemy.

• If enemy contacts them, marching companies suffer -1 melee in addition to any other modifiers.

This worked out fine. The Orc player was happy to gain the extra move and the restrictions built into the rule kept it from becoming a problem rule.

UNDEAD [-1 melee]

Do not suffer RES loss when friendly units scatter. Only a Mage-lord may rally. Resolve may be restored by bless spell. If IMPETUOUS, roll on the UNDEAD IMPETUOUS CHART.  

Any enemy charged/charging must roll under starting RES or must roll 6s in combat to hit. Also companies that could normally offer support cannot if the test is failed. Fear and Mindless units are immune

Undead units [Impetuous actions]

1	Absence of control weakens unit	Lose 1 Resolve per company. The unit holds its current position without moving. Units with heavy or powerful missile weapons will reload if they need to do so.
2-5	Let’s not be too hasty...	The unit holds its current position without moving. Units with heavy or powerful missile weapons will reload if they need to do so.
6	Grrrrr Arrrghh!	Shamble towards nearest enemy, within 5 BWs, wheeling if required to face that target. May only shamble 1 BW (including the wheel)

+1 Formed or elite

-1 Irregular or skirmish or Ephemeral

It was the fear part of this rule that we failed to remember to use. One skeleton unit did become impetuous, but only rolled the standard "Let's not be too hasty..." I based the FEAR on the terrifying rule and, originally, on malodorous. They do not rediate fear only impact those who contact (or try to contact) the unit.

As originally written the impact on a unit that failed a fear test was as follows:

A unit charged/charging a feared unit must roll under starting RES or suffer -1 MEL (-2 if mounted). Companies in support position cannot support if the unit fails the fear test. No effect on units with FEAR/MINDLESS.

Again since we failed to remember the rule I have no idea which is the better rule. I have also yet to determine a point value for this trait.

Final note, Undead trait is a combination of two traits into one racial trait, perhaps allowing the Undead unit to still have 3 other trait choices.