For my second game I was traveling interstate and played against a friend who I actually met at an 8th edition tournament all the way back in 2013!
As for many players, the wind has been slightly removed from his sails with his Ogres considered a “Legacy” army, and he’s picked up Orcs & Goblins.
With my Skaven and Lizardmen based for Age of Sigmar, I’m sticking with my High Elves for now and here’s what I brought.
## Main Force [2000pts]
**Characters [838pts]**
Archmage [244pts]: High Magic, Wizard Level 4, Elven Steed, Silvery Wand, Ruby Ring of Ruin, Pure of Heart
Noble [291pts]: Shield, Full Plate Armour, Lance, Longbow, Griffon, Battle Standard Bearer, Seed of Rebirth, Talisman Of Protection, Pure of Heart
Prince [303pts]: Shield, Chracian Great Blade, Full Plate Armour, General, Dragon Helm, Seed of Rebirth, Chracian Hunter
– 1x Lion Chariot [125pts]
**Core [516pts]**
Ellyrian Reavers [105pts]: Scouts, Skirmishers
– 5x Ellyrian Reaver [18pts]: Cavalry Spear, Shortbow
2x Elven Archers [100pts]:
– 10x Elven Archer [10pts]
Silver Helms [211pts]:
– 7x Silver Helm [24pts]: Shield
– 1x High Helm [6pts]
– 1x Standard Bearer [31pts]: War Banner
– 1x Musician [6pts]
**Special [281pts]**
Dragon Princes [206pts]:
– 5x Dragon Prince [37pts]
– 1x Drakemaster [7pts]
– 1x Standard Bearer [7pts]
– 1x Musician [7pts]
Shadow Warriors [75pts]: Chariot Runners
– 5x Shadow Warrior [14pts]
**Rare [365pts]**
2x Eagle-Claw Bolt Thrower [80pts]
Frostheart Phoenix [205pts]
Here’s the list I was up against.
# Main Force [1998pts]
## Characters [428pts]
2x Night Goblin Bigboss [77pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Great Weapon, Trollhide Trousers
Night Goblin Oddnob [165pts]: Hand Weapon, Wizard Level 4, Waaagh! Magic, Potion of Foolhardiness
Night Goblin Warboss [109pts]: Hand Weapon, Great Weapon, General, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Talisman Of Protection
## Core [888pts]
3x Night Goblin Mobs [208pts]: Netters
• 24x Night Goblin [4pts]: Hand Weapon, Thrusting Spear, Shield
• 3x Fanatic [75pts]: Fanatic Ball & Chain
• 1x Boss [7pts]
• 1x Musician [5pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [5pts]
2x Night Goblin Squig Herds [132pts]:
• 3x Squig Herder [12pts]: Hand Weapon, Thrusting Spear
• 12x Cave Squig [120pts]: Huge Gobs
## Special [482pts]
2x Goblin Bolt Throwas [45pts]:
• 1x Bolt Throwa [45pts]: Goblin Crew, Hand Weapon, Bolt Thrower
2x Stone Troll Mobs [196pts]:
• 4x Stone Troll [49pts]: Callowared Hide, Hand Weapon, Troll Vomit, Great Weapon
## Rare [200pts]
Giants [200pts]:
• 1x Giant [200pts]: Callowared Hide
I’m a bit rubbish at taking good photos of my games. I flip-flop between taking cinematic shots or taking overview shots and end up taking these in-between shots which aren’t very good. With that caveat out of the way, here’s a photo taken very early in the game.
I had included Shadow Warriors and Ellyrian Reavers thinking that I could deploy behind the enemy and deal with Warmachines, lone mages and the like. My opponent deployed in such a way that I couldn’t get the reavers near the bolt throwers and they ended up awkwardly squished on the side, and the Shadow Warriors just slowly followed the giant around all game. I’ll touch on my thoughts on specific units in a later post.
The rest of the deployment was fairly straightforward. His three big blocks of Night Goblins were arrayed in a line with trolls separating them, flanked by squig herders. I was a bit nervous running my cavalry-heavy list into the hidden Fanatics, but I had enough shooting to pressure the goblins into coming forwards. When theFanatics did come out, though, they were pretty devastating for both sides. We didn’t keep an exact tally, but it was at least 4 Silverhelms, 2 Dragon Princes and and handful of archers on my side. They did manage to kill a dozen of his own Night Goblins and a Stone Troll though!
My Prince on Chariot was in an awkward spot this game. I didn’t want to charge in and take a bunch of damage from Fanatics and so I held him back, but then he died to a couple of well-placed shots from the Bolt Throwers and two particularly nasty rolls of the Vindictive Glare spell. He didn’t make a single Regeneration Save but them’s the breaks. Goblin Bolt Throwers seem very good for their points; particularly when you compare them with High Elven ones. Now that the volley attack suffers the -1 To Hit penalty from the Multishot rule and is D3+1 shots instead of 6, it’s seldom the right choice. So with the Elves you’re paying 80 points (instead of 45) for 1 more point of Ballistic skill and one less Wound!
The hivemind view seems to be that bringing a level 4 caster is mandatory; if not for your own magic domination, then at least to stop your opponent’s. In practice this game, our Wizards were more than 24″ apart so they both had the run of the joint and sparks flew. I (rather devastatingly) forgot that I had included the Ruby Ring of Ruin in my list, but Fiery Convocation did some serious work whittling down Night Goblins. Tempest also seems like a hard counter to Fanatics. It means that Open Ground is treated as Difficult Terrain and so Fanatics within 6″ are killed instantly.
Once his forces had been whittled down by some shooting and all of the Fanatics were out, I started to declare some long charges. I’ll elaborate on it in a later post, but it really feels like cavalry got a huge buff this edition compared with 8th edition, mostly due to the charge distances. You’re seldom going to be in a situation where you get charged and cannot use your lances. Especially with Fall Back In Good Order meaning that you’ll often get to use them for multiple rounds. My Dragon Princes enchanted with Fury of Khaine managed to trade favourably with a unit of Trolls, and my Noble on Griffon crashed through the other unit of Trolls. This allowed him to declare charges the following turn from behind the Night Goblins and because they’d been whittled down a bunch, their Leadership modifier from Warband was lower. They both failed their Terror check and fled. He redirected into the other unit which also fled and was run down.
Here is a photo from late in the game.
The giant was cut down before striking by the Silver Helms after losing several wounds to shooting during the game, as the way of the giant. The Noble managed to kill athird unit of goblins basically by himself making him the clear MVP.
I didn’t write down the scores at the time, but looking back at these chaotic photos think he won 1123 Victory Points to my 1714, giving me a clear, but not crushing victory.