2016-12-19 GoB: Lords of Undeath vs Orc Warlords, 2nd Battle, Part 3 - Conclusion

As the following will show, I still have not quite gotten the hang of, how to use my Heavy Chariot to full effect. As it has the same arcs, and move the same way as a formed unit (but without the Area of Control, if I have understood correctly), it is a bit difficult to place it effectively to make use of its Charge ability - especially when using it in a formed battleline like I did in this game.

As it were, I opted to move it forward, to be able to threaten a wider area and/or turn it to face enemy units as necessary. Furthermore, my Skeleton Horde was almost worn down, now, and I needed the Chariot to get clear of the War Orcs, not to get charged in the flank (flanks are really the weak point of the God of battles Lords of Undeath).

There must be a reason for the next photo, altough it is hard to determine what happened since the last one. I think the Troll charged the Necromancer's unit, and was beaten back - he now has an 'activated' token.

I didn't realize ti at this point, but the Greenskins really did not have much punch left close to my units to pose a real threat. Instead, I worried about my Skeleton Horde which was now rapidly crumbling to dust.

And finally the Skeleton Horde was destroyed. It held against the War Orcs until now, because I was able to raise a few Skeletons on previous turns, and again I fell that the Necromancer means a huge difference for the Undead army - never leave the graveyard without one!

I now turned my Chariot to face the triumphant War Orcs; note, that I could not charge them, as they were outside the Forward Arc when the Chariot started moving.

Again, my Necromancer drove his Skeleton Warriors into the Troll, and again the Troll was pushed back, but at a cost!

My Ghouls attacked the War Orcs, killed a couple of Orcs, and miraculously did not lose a single model. As the War Orcs are Tenacious, though, they had to Recoil after combat.

My Undead Knights had finally built up their resolve and started a headlong charge towards the Orcs' War Machine. The Orcs fired a shot, but missed miserably.

After ransacking my Baggage Train, the rampaging War Orcs started moving towards my rear, most likely to attempt taking my Camp.

I moved my intact and enhanced Skeleton Warrior unit in to support the Ghouls, and then I do not quite remember what happened. I think that I used my Chariot to charge the reduced unit of War Orcs, annihilating it - which meant that the Greenskin horde was reduced to exactly 24 points of scoring units + Camp and Baggage, which is the break Point for a 36 points battle.

I had lost 9 points (Skeleton Horde = 5, Baggae Train = 4), and thus had 39 points left on the table!

My first victory with my Lords of Undeath, yay!! 🙌🙌🙌

It feels like the Lords of Undeath benefit tremendously from strength in numbers; the more units in play, the more likely it is that enemy casualties are caused, and each time casualties are caused in Melee, there is a chance that an Undead model can be raised - giving the Necromancer the possibility to boost a unit that has lost models. This is potentially a very powerful ability - in this game a single Skeleton Horde (a rather powerless unit at 5 points) tied up one of the enemy's main fighting units for almost the entire battle, decimating it to be easily annihilated. As Undead units 'fight to the last Skeleton', not routing when reduced to 4 models like most other troop types, an Undead unit being boosted by raising new troops can become really difficult to get rid off! Of course, you have to draw cards with at least face value 5 for it to happen... 🙈🙉🙊

This battle clearly showed that armies consisting of many Formed Units should fight in a tight 'medieval/renaissance' kind of formation, thus protecting the vulnerable flanks, and limiting the enemies' freedom to maneuver with their 'Threat Areas'.

I am now more determined than ever to make my 'Main Infantry Battleline' basic 36 points force, consisting of four Skeleton Hordes (4x5=20 points), and two units of Skeleton Warriors (2x8=16 points). I only have to rebase and partially repaint two Skeleton Hordes, and make and paint standard bearers and leaders (and possibly musicians) for them, which I intend to do just after Christmas!

My Necromancer will then probably be placed in a Chariot behind the main battleline, hopefully able to hold out on his own, should the enemy outflank or break through my formation. 😣

This game was a blast! The Alternate Activation structure of God of Battles keeps both players immersed in the action at all times (it actually feels like breaking the tension to stand back and take a photo), and there is hardly an idle moment from the last unit is placed on the table, to the last dice are rolled. I wrote it before, and now I write it again: I am very fond of this game!

At some point, we may begin to use the weather rules, and even further in the future maybe also the special terrain rules, but that is still blowing in the wind... 😏

2016-12-19 GoB: Lords of Undeath vs Orc Warlords, 2nd Battle, Part 2

The Greenskin Shaman had used the 'Wait There!' Miracle, which was the reason for my battleline changing into an echelon. As I did not want to present the flanks of my Chariot and Formed Units to attack, I held back and let the Orcs come to me. Which they did.

The two enemy units in the centre now closed in on my left flank, and I despatched my Undead Knights to at least delay them.

More War Orcs joined the fray. My Ghouls placed themselves to act as a bump on the road, if need be.

The Necromancer urged his Skeleton Warrior unit forward, and pushed back the Mountain Troll.

The other Skeleton Warrior unit, enhanced with a Blacksoul and some Skeleton Dogs, veered off to support the Knights.

Lots of blood spilled, and bones split, in the ensuing grand melee. I shall have to read through the rules very thoroughly to check if we actually handled the situations correct. I have already found some things we definitely did not...

Some Goblin Pests (yes, they are called that), exploited the wide open gap in my lines to push forward and spray the Ghouls with arrows. The Ghouls may have been dug in, because all hits were saved.

On my far left, the lone unit of War Orcs finally arrived at my Baggage Train. The Troll charged back in. This must have been in Turn 4 or 5 - it is a bit difficult to keep track of the turns because of the Alternate Activation sequence, but this is actually a good thing, as one is kept on one's toes all through the game. Love it!

Although I - as always - rolled some very catastrophic batches of dice, and kind of felt that nothing I did was all that successful, things slowly but steadily went my way. The two units of War Orcs in the centre were worn down and finally routed, and the War Orcs on my right flank were nicely tied up by the Skeleton Horde, which, helped by the Necromancer raising new Skeletons, refused to be annihilated, and the Mountain Troll was pushed further and further back by the Necromancer's unit of Skeleton Warriors.

My almost 'oblique order' of battle effectively kept the War Machine guarding the enemy Baggage out of the battle, while the Orc Warlord swallowed the bait left out for him, taking another unit of War Orcs out of the equations.

Although my initial battleline was now disrupted, the Greenskins really did not have the units to exploit it, and my vulnerable flanks could not be threatened in force.

The last Goblins in the centre were despached by my Knihgts, who now prepared for a wild charge at the lonely War Machine. The Orcs manning it loaded and prepered to sell themselves as dearly as possible, with no hope of help arriving in time.

The Ghouls seemed bothered by the constant hail of arrows from the Goblin Pests, and decided that the little buggers would make a nice snack. Nom nom!

This concludes the second part of this AAR, as I have some other stuff to attend to (and another post to write). The third and last part will be written and posted tomorrow.

2016-12-19 GoB: Lords of Undeath vs Orc Warlords, 2nd Battle, Part 1

I had a game this evening, with my relatively new gaming buddy, Kevin - and it was a blast, as will be showed in this multi-part AAR (I shall not be able to get all the photos cropped, and the full report written, before it gets late - we finished the game at 23:00, so already pretty late).

As mentioned earlier, I decided to give my Lords of Undeath army another shot - this time at 36 points, which means I had to field my Undead Knights, but also that I could bring both my Necromancer and an Undead Chariot to the table.

As I expected, Kevin's Greenskin horde outnumbered my shamblers quite a bit, and I opted for a very tight formation in the corner containing my Camp, while Kevin spread his line along most of his table edge, This of course meant that I left my Baggage Train wide open to be sacked, but sometimes a Necromancer has to set his priorities straight, and as most of my army would not need any physcal sustenanc, it was a gambit I felt I could afford.

As the Orcs, not surprisingly, cored highest on the Agression Roll and thus were the attackers, I could deploy my Camp and Baggage plus a couple of units (actually, I miscalculated and only deployed one), after which Kevin had to deploy his whole army. I was quite pleased to see that he placed his Light War Machine in front of his baggage, out of reach of the area I planned to deploy in.

Initial position of the armies

The Orcs, not surprisingly, opened the ball by sending a unit of War Orcs forward on their extreme right, intending to take out my Baggage Train. I started a slow but steady advance towards the enemy left with my entire army.

My Ghouls were cowering behind the main battle line.

The green tide started surging forward, around and between the scenery.

My line formed to meet the threat. I began to feel a little worried about the units circling the woods in the  centre...

The hills are alive, with the sound of Orcses!

"They have a Mountain Troll!"
"Leave the Troll to me!"

A rare view from the far end of the battlefield. I simply love the way this game plays, and how you can really see the different styles of play of the two armies!

The War Orcs kept closing in on my Baggage Train, but I kept my focus on the enemies in front of my battleline.

Things were about to get close and personal, and Spells began flying about and being countered.

The most disruptive Miracle in this battle was my Deathwind, which with its 12D6 Attacks on any unit is a factor to be counted - even though the 5 To Hit is not overly powerful. The Goblin Rabble here just lost four of its numbers to the might of Argonor!

It is getting late, now, and I have to get some sleep. I shall continue this AAR tomorrow, so stay tuned!

2016-08-07 God of Battles 40 Points Half Game, Part 2

As promised, the rest of the AAR from Sunday's half-game.

The Dwarf Priest got to work.

One of my center units moved forward...

...was shot at, managed to roll 1 save (on 10 dice), lost 3 and recoiled. This was the point when I started to lose heart.

My right flank advanced.

Some of the Dwarves started to move around the ruined watchtower.

Although I had covered the most ground by now, my battle-line began to look a little jagged.

A  view from my far left flank.

Some Dwarves moved up to counter my flank attack...

...and my Skinks poured a volley of arrows into them, killing... one.

Ulrik then used his Stratagem to re-activate them, attacking the Saurus Warriors. As the reptiles had the Berserk Blessing, they got the chance to strike twice, before the melee ended. They killed a whuppin'... one(!) Dwarf.

The Dwarven archers then opened up on my Saurus Ravagers, inflicting 3 hits. My former experience with Defense rolls led me to use my Standard for an extra 2+ chance for a save, rolling 11 dice. I just barely managed to save the 3 hits on the normal Defense dice - and, of course, the Standard die rolled a 1, losing me the Standard Bearer never the less. Makes sense only if you are me..

The next Turn opened with nother fight on the extreme right, causing another whuppin' ONE Dwarf casualty. Yay! I think I even used my Stratagem to but I am not suer. I had used it before Ulrik used his, which proved fatal for one of my units.

I now did what would probably have proven a big mistake, should we have played the battle to the very end: I started abandoning my initial plan to surge forward and engage the enemy as soon as possible, and instead I drew units away from the centre and started 'tunnelling' them over the flanks to avoid the arrows from the centrally placed archer unit.

The reason for my decision was probably that I was a little shaken by my bad luck, and the bowfire causing casualties every time. Normally, I would have stuck to my plan and pushed on, but the bad dice-rolls made me lose confidence, and I wavered.

The Ravagers waded through the reeds and started moving towards the left flank.

Ulrik used his Stratagem to put an activation counter on the Saurus Warriors (Brutes) in front of his crack unit, then moved the unit up close to them. As I had used my Stratagem, I could not remove the Activation Counter, and as Ulrik had one unit less than me, he was certain to be able to charge with his hard-hitters next turn.

The battlefield at the conclusion of this turn.

Then came the charge, which cost me half the Saurus Warrior unit. This was the  point where I gave up. One too many bad rolls for one afternoon/evening. Besides that, I was getting tired, with a beginning headache, and I did not fell like gaming on.

Next time I play the Blood Gorged list, I shall stick to the plan of surging forward and get stuck in, maybe screen the main battle line with one or two expendable Skink/Youngling units to soak up incoming missile fire, and see if I can disrupt the enemy formation and get able to get a couple of units into the rear of it.

I guess, the Blood Gorged are much alike to a barbarian/celtic army, needing to get stuck in, and, hopefully, build up some impetus through their Blood Gorged rule (get a Trophy Token each time they inflict casualties in melee, Tokens can be exchanged for extra Attack Dice in subsequent fights).

Well, lesson learned, and hopefully I have used up my share of bad dice rolls for a while...