Equis Tyranus

Equis Tyranus charges thru the Orc lines.

As I sorta prefaced in my previous post, The Bob and I played Warhammer Fantasy Battle 8th Edition this past weekend. This was my first game in about a decade, and it has been a long time for Bob also, so we were treating this game as a bit of a refresher. It was a standard 2k pitched battle.  Despite the rusty rules knowledge, I went in with an open mind and a desire to push these greenskins as hard as I could.

I brought 2k points consisting of:

• A Black Orc Warboss
• Orc Shaman (Lvl 2)
• Night Goblin shaman (Lvl 2) AKA Oddgob
• Big Uns
• Arrer Boyz
• Boyz with twin choppas
• Snottlings
• Trolls (7 of them!)
• 2 stands of spear/shield Night Gobos
• Night Gobos with shortbows
• 3 Fanatics, one hidden in each Night Gobo unit 
• Forest Gobos on Giant Spiders
• And a Boar Chariot

Waaagh Neverness assembled.

Bob tinkered on getting a list he thought would work for reintroducing me to certain situations that occur in WFB, and this is what he brought.

• A mounted Prince
• A lvl 1 Mage
• Silver Helms
• Dragon Princes
• Sword Masters
• Seaguard
• Archers
• White Lions

The elves gather.

I place my Warboss with the Big Uns, the Orc Shaman with the other Boyz unit, and the Gobo Shaman with a Night Gobo Unit. Bob put his Prince with the Silver Helms and left the Mage unattached.

The armies deploy.

Orcs Turn 1.

Amazingly, none of my units gave in to animosity. Most of my units moved forward, some faster than others, in an effort to engage the fearsome High Elves before them. The chariot whipped the boars in a full throttle boost towards the High Lines.

"Waaaargh! Fasta!!!"

The only action on my turn that resulted in a fatality was one of the Gobo Shaman's spells (Vindictive Glare) snuffed out an Archer.

High Elves Turn 1

Bob returned that insult and the Archers shot a volley into the Gobo Shaman's unit slaying 6 of the gits.

His Seaguard fired a volley into the Boar Chariot that was rampaging towards them putting a wound on it.

All in all, it was a fairly soft opening of the game...

End of Turn 1 state of the battle.

Orcs Turn 2

More maneuvers performed with the stupid Trolls actually moving where I wanted them to go. The Spider Riders failed their charge on the Silver Helms but the Snottlings that I sent in to support them actually make it in!

Snotings engage the Silver Helms.

Guess who won that enounter? (I hope you didn't say "the Snottlings"...)

Snottlings run away from the Silver Helms.

The Chariot impacts into the Swordmasters wiping out a whole rank from the impact hits. However the speedy elves are quick to bring down their blades, destroying the chariot swiftly and abruptly.

Chariot impacts the Swordmasters! 

High Elves Turn 2

Showing her magic muscles, the High Elf Mage cast Soul Quench at the Trolls with Irresistible Force! Killing a Troll. She detonated as a result but since no one was in base-to-base with her no one died (much to the relief of Bob).

The Silver Helms led by the Prince charged the Spider Riders. The Prince challenged the Spider Riders Champ and slew him. The other Spider Riders were defeated but they ran far enough away to avoid being ran down.

If spiders were really this big,..

 I bet they would be deadlier than they are in this game.

The Dragon Princes moved in on the Night Goblins only to find the first of the Fanatics.  After that frenzied interlude 2 of the Dragon Princes were dead!

"But I'm your biggest fan!"

The three remaining Dragon Princes easily routed the Night Gobos but they elected not to pursue them.

"They clean with soap?! Run away! Run away!"

Orcs Turn 3

Failing their animosity test, the Night Goblin Archers charged the Seaguard. ("Idiots!" I declared in disappointed awe). The other two Fantaics were released, one went toward the Archers while the other, emerging from the charging Night Gobo Archers, towards the White Lions. The one that crashed through the White Lions destroyed a whole rank as it took out 6 of them! The one Night Gobo Archer unit that attempted to charge the Seaguard lost 7 grots to shooting, paniced, and routed!

The Big Uns, led by the Black Orc Warboss, charged the Dragin Princes. The the Princes were defeated by the raging Orcs. The Warboss challenged the Champion and bashed him to death but not without taking two wounds himself!

The Warboss wins the duel! 

High Elves Turn 3

Set up for a perfect side flank charge, the Silver Helms charged the Trolls. The Sword Masters charge the Orc Boyz with twin weapons, and the Lions charge the unit of Gobos who have yet to run away.

Charge of the Elves! 

Magic phase results in another successful Soul Quench killing 4 Arrer Boyz causing them to panic and flee. The White Lions paste the Gobos with ease and over run into the Gobo Shaman killing him also.

In the middle of the table, the Swordmasters and the Orcs have a tied combat!

Big bash in the middle of the table! 

The Silver Helms and Prince engage the Trolls flank. They fail to wound the Trolls thanks to their Regeneration. The Trolls are fairly ineffective in turn. The Silver Helms horses however inflict two wounds killing an already wounded Troll which forces a Break Test. A Break Test against Initiative of 4. Which after modifers would require that I roll 2 ones on 2d6. Of course I botch that and these Trolls bolt it out of there. What do I roll on 2d6 for their flee distance? A two. A frick'n two when I absolutely needed that a moment before! The Silver Helms easily ran the Trolls down.

I was utterly beside myself and my morale was genuinely crushed.

Silver Helms trample over the Trolls and sight their next target.

Orcs Turn 4

It was tough to continue after that, I wanted to fold. Over half of my living army was in route and the High Elves seemed unstoppable. But I pressed on. The Goblins on the table edge failed to rally and bolted off the table. The Arrer Boyz and Spider Riders did rally, which was a refreshing turn.

The Fanatics rampage through the enemy lines again, killing 3 Archers and 6 Seaguard!

The Big Un's charged the White Lions. My Warboss issued a challenge to their unit champion which he accepted. The Warboss slaughtered the White Lion champ with ease however the faster White Lions massacred the Big Uns leaving only one survivor and the Warboss.

Big Uns cherge the White Lions.

The big tussel in the center continues as Sword Masters and Orcs whittle each other down. The Sword Masters actually lose combat but do not Break thanks to the proximity of their army's battle standard ("cor...we need one of doze!" Says the befuddled Orc Shaman..)

They just won't run!

High Elves Turn 4

Having lost way too many elves to the Fanatics, the Archers and the Seaguard shoot the fanatics to death ending their threat once and for all. 

The White Lions finish off the Warboss and the last Big Un.

The tussle in the center continues as the Orcs crush the surviving Swormasters but still take more losses due to the arrival of the Silver Helms crashing into their flank. Again, it was those hits from the steads that were the deciding element The Orcs don't break (by some miracle) but there is simply no way they were going to survive another round. 

The Silver Helms triumphant!

We called the game at this point, despite having rallied some units, I doubted that they could effectively do any more than harass the High Elves. Clearly the Orc battle line was shattered and we were now in the mopping up stages.

Battlefield overview. 

With that epiphany, the High Elves take the day!

All-in-all, we had a good time. My lack of recall on certain rule elements and tactics regarding the Night Goblins and the Trolls (especially the Trolls!) Cost more greenskin lives that could have been otherwise prevented. I say that, but...my dice.

The Fanatics impressed me more than I thought they would and clearly I need more. But only if I stick with the Goblins. It's really Orcs that I need more of as they aren't only a bit tougher and more effective in combat but their Leadership is better. Bob was suggesting that I acquire some Black Orcs, but making additional purchases for this game is something I am hesitant to do at this stage but I shall ponder upon the notion further...

The High Elves were awesome against this army. I was especially impressed with the Silver Helms who were just so tough to kill. And his damned horses...in our post game discussion we named the one that routed the Trolls: Equis Tyranis.

We'll see what happens when we try it again...

100th post! The Chronicle of Oddgob

Hard to believe it, but this is my 100th post on this blog!

And to make it special, I decided to go all kinds of nostalgic with this one and reminisce about my goblin wizard, Oddgob.



A sketch from my game notes.

This model was painted some years ago, around 2005-2006 I think. At the time I absolutely had no intention or designs to build an Orc & Goblin army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Indeed, I was putting together an Empire army at the time, but I was actually painting D&D models when I could spare the time. Those were very busy times for me back then and much of my hobby time was immersed in writing and creating adventures for my D&D 3.5 campaign.


Nazgit Oddgob was not for one of my games however, as this was my player character in Warfrog's campaign. I decided I wanted to do something totally off-the-wall and different and play a goblin wizard! What made this even more exciting was that Warfrog had taken the time and effort to convert the classic D&D (i.e. "Basic") Known World and adapt the City of Glantri over to D&D 3.5. He has to have the largest collection of 1st edition D&D materials of anyone I know and is definitely an authority on the Known World (later Mystara). Glantri was quite impressive and worked very well in this new edition. It was a city state controlled and ran by wizards. Which, much to the other player's surprise, Oddgob the escaped slave goblin, found himself to be quite well-positioned for success in this place. And notoriety as well I suppose.

 




Pre-game history of Oddgob.

I made an exciting background for Oddgob to explain how he even became a 1st level wizard in the 1st place. Which is well and good as at the start of our first game all of us players found ourselves tossed into a gladiatorial arena for the amusement of the wizard nobles. It was more amusing for them (and shocking!) to see this lowly gobo magic missile his foe to death! He and his fellow winners were all purchased by a wizard lord named Lorin who immediately set about securing a license for practicing magic for Oddgob and enrolling formally into a  school of magic. Our group was sent all over the region performing missions for Lorin and gaining levels and gold.

As he gained levels, he also gained cockiness, and was particularly apt to show off and try to out perform (and wit) any of the elves in the city. Particularly the party's elf Viruiem. In fact, Oddgob only called Viruiem "Elf", refusing to acknowledge any other title. We fondly recall Oddgob shooting an adversary that was giving Viruiem a difficult time, with his hand crossbow and yelling out for all to hear in the Beavis voice I used for him "You owe me a life-debt Elf!" much to the annoyance of The Elf. At some point The Elf died and Oddgob was very distraught over having lost his favorite foil. There is more story here regarding that event however and I shall save it for another post...

 

Sketch from game notes. Why use a crossbow when you can magic-missile stuff to death?

 



Ready to lead on!

Eventually, after being trapped in a pocket dimension (The Enclave) and finally figuring out what it would take to escape it, we made our way back to Galantri. Oddgob was now powerful enough to take the final trial, which was his rite of passage to become a 10th level wizard. He passed the test, and that turned out to be the last game of this unique campaign.
 

In his display box.

We all were burned out on D&D 3.5 just as WotC released 4th ed, which we were all pissed about considering the amount of dough we dropped over the years for books that would become irrevocably obsolete! And we never returned to Galantri or these characters again. 

 

So flash-forward to now, and here I am building an Orc army for WHFB. And just last week I found the 7th Edition starter set in a local game store and at the original price! So, now I have accumulated a good sized Night Goblin force with the added bonus of already having a painted model to lead it!

 



When I painted this model, again, there was no thought of ever putting together a Warhammer army of goblins: he was strictly for D&D and the typical D&D goblin miniatures sort of sucked, let a lone finding one that was a wizard. And I have always loved this classic Brian Nelson sculpt. I added a Reaper Miniatures skull on the base to added a bit more of a dangerous element.

The bottom of the base is magnetized as well as the bottom of the display case which I made, quite simply, from a clear dice box. He doesn't move inside this case and I was able to transport him to and from Warfrog's house without getting a single scratch or chip on him. I did this for most of my D&D models actually as they were very individual and the typical transport methods that I use for my armies seemed like overkill at the time.

 

So Oddgob prepares for his next big adventure. While in that pocket dimension I mentioned earlier, he freed a group of goblins and convinced them to work in a mine that our party secured. I imagine that Oddgob would go back to that place and raise an army out of that collection of gobos and descend on another realm to take over. Because, well, why not?