Intro Confrontation Battle Report #5

Weenies That Roll Well

That's the subject of our battle reports this week. Yes, you heard correctly, reports. This will actually be a dual report. You wanted variety, you got it. This week we find the Wolfen up against some sissy little Lions, and the Dirz up against some nasty looking Orcs.

First, I'll start with an apology. For all of you that are waiting for the Divination Report to show up, it'll be here as soon as my wolfen rune casters come in the mail. I'm waiting o­n them and then Ill move o­n with Divination. So, hopefully thatll mean next week or the week after at the latest. We shall see.

Second, I'm using this week to remind everyone that anything in this game can kill almost anything else. Points aren't necessarily an issue. Were not talking 300 point monster of death destroys entire army in this game. If that big ol' monster steps o­n the wrong little bugger, hes dead as a doornail and theres nothing you can do about it. And with that, I bring you….

Game 1: Wolfen vs. Lions

Call it beginners luck. Call it Veteran overconfidence. Call it whatever, but that was the story of this game start to finish. While helping a friend learn to play the game with her Lions, I definitely got her interested in the game……

As it was an intro game, we each had 100pt armies. Wolfen brought a pair of the cheaper warriors, the more expensive crossbow, and a single non-javelin hunter. The Lions brought three Valkeries, a Paladin, an Alahan Pistolier, and a Lancer (I think..) Everyone of them had bravery, as you'll see below.

Deployment was pretty quick. It was a small table, and the Lions won the approach roll. Thinking ahead, the first lion out was promptly places right near the center of the board drastically limiting where the wolfen could deploy with their superior movement values. Each additional Lion made the problem worse. It ends with most of the Lions hiding behind a forest in the middle of the board and the Pistolier in a Tower to the right. The Wolfen find themselves along the back edge of the board with the Hunter forced into the corner because of his 17.5cm move value.

Turn 1:
Wolfen win the initiative, but the Lions are all at the top of the deck. Well, not all, since my Crossbow wolfen was about the third card, but he wanted to stand still anyway…. The Lions waited near the forest and the Wolfen began their Hunt but didnt reach any prey.

The highlight of the turn was the shooting phase. The Pistolier (using his scout ability) remained hidden in the tower where my crossbow couldnt see him since he hadnt done anything yet. As a result, he was able to aim his shot at the Wolfen archer and promptly place a just barely long range shot into the wolfens brain (6,5 o­n the Wound roll…) A third of my army dead before it even moved or acted…. Things were not going to go well….

Turn 2
Once again, wolfen win the tactical but the Lions are at the top. Thanks to terrain, the forest and a nearby high hill provided a nice funnel that the wolfen got stuck in, allowing the Valkeries to swarm the front runner while the other two o­nly could watch from behind.

Youll notice that I didn't mention Fear tests here. You see, for those of you that dont already know, Lions have a good courage value for their regular troops as well as this wonderful thing called "Bravery." Basically, a 1 no longer fails for fear tests. Which meant, for all intents and purposes, the Lions COULDN'T fail a fear test, so we didnt bother rolling for them….*grumble grumble* Also, from this point o­n, the Pistolier will do absolutely nothing because everyone is out of range and he didnt want to try climbing/falling out of the tower….

With the Charge penalty to his initiative, and the multiple model bonus to theirs, the Valkeries easily win the initiative roll for combat and go o­n the offensive. The wolfen defended mightly, but the o­ne wound that made it through came up (6,6) so he was dead without a chance to attack back. Fortunately, the Valkeries were too far away from the other wolfen to make a decent pursuit move and therefore stood still.

Turn 3
So this time the Lions win initiative AND have all their cards at the top of the deck. I'd get worried about the deck being stacked if I wasn't the o­ne doing the shuffling…..

Basically, turn 3 is summed up as follows…Lions draw early. Lions charge Wolfen. Wolfen fail initiative tests (Yes, both of them.) Lions don't roll anything lower than a 4. Wolfen die. Game over.

Yeah….. Ill talk more about this game later….

Game 2: Alchemists vs Orcs

This was to be my first game against orcs and I was excited. Keeping in mind the utter pasting my Wolfen suffered from the Lions earlier in the week (At the hands of the Orc players wife none the less…) I made sure to bring plenty of my favorite troops and hoped to knick and scratch them to death eventually…..

Dirz: 3 Pests, 1 Hybrid Clone, 2 Halberiers and 3 Dawn Warriors.
Orcs: 2 Jackal Warriors, 1 Horn Blower, o­ne Bruiser, and a Crossbow

Another smallish table. Hugh graveyard o­n the right, a hill in front of that, and a few trees off o­n the left. Deployment found the orcs in a nice cluster in the middle of their deployment zone and the Dirz much more spread out. Two Dawns and the Pests prepared to flank around the left of the hill while the Halberdiers and the other Dawn prepared to flank the right of the hill. The Hybrid was happy to stand o­n the hill where he could see everything o­n the board.

Turn 1:

Everyone moves forward for both sides other than the archers. They each stand still and get ready to shoot. The Hybrid injects himself with mutagen and rolls a (5). Two points are added to the initiative and then promptly exchanged for precision firing. The orc crossbow was long range and therefore the remaining three points boosted the Hybrids aim score. Twang went the bow, ow went the orc as he suffered a serious wound to the body….

Turn 2:

The pests each pick a big scary orc (including the Musician) to charge while the dawn warriors prepare to charge the next turn. Halberiers continue to flank the opposite side. The crossbowmen decides he doesn't want to be shot at again and charges o­n of the halberiers.

After a lot of trying to pick a target, the mutagen die came up a 1, and then so did the shot, much to the orcs relief. They just wanted into combat where it was an honest fight, or so they though.

Never, and I mean NEVER, underestimate a pest of flesh. They're quick little buggers, and if you don't roll your initiative well, they'll be attacking you. And in this case, out of three combats, they managed a serious wound and a Killed Outright (6,6) while o­nly suffering a light wound in return. The Orcs were not pleased….. The crossbowman and the halberd play patty cake for a turn and dont bother to even hit each other let alone wound…

Turn 3:

The two dawn warriors charge the remaining Jackal not in combat (who says Dirz fight fair anyway?) and another Orc decides to leave his pest behind and even the odds a bit. Unfortunately, the Pests hadn't been activated yet, and the pest engaged BOTH orcs at the same time. *insert evil, giddy laughter* The other halberier gangs up with his buddy against the orc and to discourage patty cake… The Killer Pest of flesh heads toward another orc but doesn't quite make it into contact.

Combat starts with the engaging Pest blowing up, killing off an orc (6,6) and seriously wounding the other. The dawn warriors grin and prepare to finish off the greenskin…. The crossbow holds his own against the two halberiers and a second pest of flesh is killed by the orc musician, who then dies as a result of the pest blowing up. (6,6) (At this point, I sat the double 6 rolling dice aside for the rest of the game, hoping to make it last a little longer…..)

Turn 4:

The Hybrid chuckles as the Dawn Warriors finish off the Jackal, and the halberiers combine forces with the final pest to finish off the crossbow. The battle was won and a few pests were lost. Most notable this game other than the dice was that I actually had a pest survive without blowing up. I was a bit confused……

So here's the point of these two quick battles: Don't underestimate weenie troops. Anyone can kill anyone in this game with good rolling. That's why initiative is so important. Use numbers to create lopsided fights in your favor and use the extra numbers to give you the edge in the initiative roll. Even weak guys get lucky when the big strong o­nes (like wolfen) are distracted. Lucky shots do happen, sometimes more than others. And remember, for every game the dice favor you, you'll probably have two where they don't.

As always comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome.

ck