Warmaster Ancients - AB's vs. Raetian Goblins!

Good evening,

A couple of weeks ago I trotted around to Andy's house to demonstrate the mechanics of a 1000 pt Warmaster Ancients game to him and Adrian.

I've only got two armies with sufficient painted elements - Ancients British and Raetian Goblins - so we had a bit of a mythical bash in the foot hills of Wales!

As I didn't take too many photos, this won't be my usual lengthy Battle Report ("Yay!" I hear some say!). Suffice it to say that my Gobbos were overwhelmed by Andy and Adrian's Warband (they did seem to have more than me...).






Highlights - my Storm Giant (I was using the rules straight out of The Battle of Five Armies - the Tolkien version of Warmaster) getting run over by Adrian's Fanatics, who then in turn got run over by my Body Guard!





One very clever thing that Adrian did was brigade four Warband units, three elements deep. This meant that when my three units of Goblin light infantry, double ranked charged into his Warband brigade, he was able to spread the hits between his units, which meant that, well, my punch was spread too thin! I managed to take out his front rank, but...well..bother it!


However, as Adrian did point out, it really pays to pile in first. That charge bonus is a game breaker!

Nick

HOTT Day in July - Battle 4

And we came down to the wire, well, sort of.

Not being in the running for anything other than the Wooden Spoon, those who were at the top of the ladder were matched up against each other, while the rest of us were paired off to play amongst ourselves.

And so it was that I met Tony's 15mm WWII Germans, as I had in Game 2. We were on a different table this time, however - the one with a BUA in the middle (which was essentially the same as a forest), a couple of woods and a gentle hill.

It transpired that I was the defender this time, so I put out my 'Stronghold' (actually a couple of DBM Baggage elements that I had made some time ago when I was using my Goblins for 100AP DBM) for the first time in four battles, and Tony put away his, again for the first time in four battles,


We closed in on each other...




...while I sent my Beasts around to the right.


Flyers being Flyers, Tony flew them over my line to lurk to the rear of my Goblins. A potentially annoying aggravation...



I threw my army into contact first.

My heroic Hordes hurried into Tony's tremendous Tiger, with some trepidation I might add, and my right most doggies managed to close in on one of his Shooters.


My Riders ran straight into Tony's Magician and another Shooter...nasty, nasty Shooter...


Tony managed to push back my heroic Horde (they're surprisingly resilient little blighters)...


...while I dealt to his surrounded Shooter...


...and Tony's Magician recoiled my Lizards, leaving the other precariously perched on a potential precipice...


In the centre, Tony moved up Rommel, his Hero, to support the Tiger (Behemoth), which had just squished one of my Hordes (still, there's plenty more where they came from - well, that's the idea, at least. In practice, the battle generally ends before any of my re-generated Horde can get back into the fray!), and to support his out-doggied Shooter.


Alas and alak, the out-doggied Shooter survived, bouncing both Beast elements off with nonchalant ease. Bother.

He also moved up his Behemoth, but, as he had no room to conform (the BUA meant that he couldn't slide over his line to match mine...well, in retrospect, I suppose he could have, but then his Hero General could have been caught in the BGo, and the shooter would have had to move across the ZOC of the foremost doggie, and probably into flank contact with the other...it would have been messy...), so no combat was able to take place.


Instead, Tony moved up his Shooter so that, what with the overlap and all, my doggies had a good chance of becoming, well, dog food!


On the other flank, my other Beasts had managed to deal to the Shooter that was exposed at the end of the line, but my Riders had been pushed back to pop behind Tony's Flyers by shooting and magic respectively.

Tony had miss-understood the rules about Flyers in (or not in) contact, else he would have tried to move them into my Riders so that I couldn't recoil. Ah well, we play and learn...


So here was the situation.

We were delicately balanced on my left (what, with his flyers 'n all), I had a fast moving, terrain ignoring element on Tony's open flank on his left, and we were all set for a major punch up in the centre, weighted fairly decisively in Tony's favour.

The next few bounds looked to be interesting...


Right, for it! I roll my own Behemoth into the flank of his Tiger...to just sit there! As his Tiger wasn't in legal combat contact, and had no room to conform, well, there was nothing much either of us could do, until...


...he shot out my Beasts. Then we all had a bit of space to move.


On my left, I urged the Lizard Riders forward, under the German Flyers, and into the fray once more. This time, with the doggies in support. And in support again. 3 to 2 in my favour, with no where for the Magician to recoil.


Huzzah! Can't remember what Tony rolled, but it must have been pretty low for me to win that combat!


Unfortunately, I rolled equally badly in the next combat, and this time came out second best. Bother.


Tony moved a Flyer and the remaining Shooter into the last of my Riders...stink...


...and turned to face my flank contacts with both the Tiger and Rommel. Stink.


A recoil each in the centre...


...and my Lizards managed to bounce both the Shooter and the Flyer! Huzzah!


"Right", thought I, "time to end this. I hope."

I rolled in with my [Blade] General, and, since Tony's ZOCs were all facing the other way, zipped my doggies into the back of his Hero General. 3+1 for me, 6-1-1 for Tony, and nowhere for him to recoil. Roll high!


No, not Tony, me! Roll high me! What made it worse was that since my wolves had nowhere to recoil themselves, they got done! Oh bother it!


In rolled Tony again...


...and that was it. Not only did the Tiger run over the Giant, but my Lizards got shot down to boot! Stink!


Still, it was another good game, and probably the closest one I had all day.

Again, Tony really enjoyed the game, as did I, and, again, that's really what it's all about, isn't it?

Good on ya Tony!

Nick

HOTT Day in July - Battle 3

On to Battle 3...

Andy Gorman's 28mm (Boo! Hiss! He had this army in 20mm plastics and they looked way cool! Why Andy? Why? Oh, the plascicity!) Victorian era Pan-European Union army, complete with Venutian allies...

• 1 x Hero General


• 1 x Behemoth


• 8 (count 'em 8!) x Shooters


• 1 x way cool stronghold, with a bendy base

The battle ground was dominated by three steep hills and a patch of rough going...hang on, this is the same as last time, 'cept we're coming in from different sides!


As Andy had split his forces in three (what's "twain", but for three? "Twix"?), and he had all those Shooters (8 of the blessed things!), I decided to cower my mounted behind the hills for as long as I could, and strike forth with my Hordes. And so I did.



As Andy started rolling out his Steam Tank from the Stronghold, I started to move up my Giant to support what I was sure was to be his target - my horde of Hordes.





In crashed my Horde, with Beasts supporting...



...with pretty good success. First blood to me!


Unfortunately, Andy's support was not far off. Those alien Shooters were getting too close for comfort.


Still, my Hordes rolled in again, while one element of doggies 'closed the door' on his end shooters, and I ran the other to the relative safety of the Steep Hill.


Huzzah! Another one down!


In response, Andy pulled back his remaining Shooter, and brought the weight of the Steam Tank to bear on my Beasts-in-the-open. "That can't be good", thought I.

In the centre I decided to chance my luck and brought forward my other Beasts to try to run over his Venutians before they got stuck into my Giant with their laser pistols...


Alas and alak, it was too late. My Giant got shot down in a blaze of burning laz fire. The reek of seared flesh filled the battlefield as the Giant disappeared completely, leaving not so much as a pile of ash. Stink. Literally.


In the meantime, Andy's tank had managed to roll over my poor doggies. Things were starting to look a little grim.


So in charge my doggies...


...to quickly die and recoil in horror respectively!


Well that didn't work, did it?!

In the meantime, Bessie had rolled into my Horde...


...and they actually survived! Bessie followed up, as Behemoths are want to do, which opened up interesting new possibilities from my perspective.


Interesting possibilities indeed...


...which the Steam Tank for one was not in the least bit interested in perusing! And yet more of the Raetian Goblin army gets squashed by Bessie.

Still, I did at least manage to dispatch the last of his British Rifles.


On the other flank, the German rifles finally got into the action...


...to the detriment of one of my Lizard Riders! Bother.


Then it came down to it. The Venutians had worked around and had managed to come into the fray against the doggies who were ready to pounce on the Behemoth.


Unfortunately, a chance to pounce they did not get. Once again, to the fizz of alien laz pistols, my poor wolves were reduced to their constituent atoms...


...and that was that. I did at least manage to recoil Bessie, but, well, when all said and done, it just wasn't quite the sweet taste of victory that I was hoping it may have been...


Stink, stink, stink! Shooters? Whatdayadoingtodo when half your army is mounted and the other half are Hordes? Not much, apparently!

Still, it was pretty cool to play against such good looking minis, and I did appreciate how Andy split his forces for me to at least take down something!

Nick