Hello Servants of Hashut!
Here is my first Battle Report using the new Old World FAQ rules in a traditional open battle against an opponent with a wonderfully painted Night Goblin army. I was interested to test out the new rules that buff infantry and test out the robustness of a blunderbuss bunker. My list was: A level 2 with Lore Familiar (for Steed of Shadows), a level 1 for re-rolls, a BSB with Lammasu’s beard, and a Khan on wolf. The core was a Blunderbuss brick with the Armor Bane banner and a small number of Hobgob archers. The rest of the armor was an Iron Daemon, 2x Deathshriekers, 2x bolt throwers, 2x 12 Sneaky Gitz, and some Wolf Riders. The enemy’s army was two units of Night Gobos with Fanatics, 4x units of trolls, a Mangler Squig, Squig herd, several squib hoppers, a BSB and level 3, and a Warboss both in a giant brick of goblins as well as another one on a giant save squig.
The two armies squared off with the Chorfs deciding to concentrate their forces on the left flank, hoping to alternate fire across the battlefield and disrupt the enemy’s approach. The Trolls had to center around their general to prevent the perils of Stupidity (we assumed the Night Goblin Warboss has Ld 9 because of Warband, and that the Trolls could use this, if this isn’t correct let me know!). A lone bolt thrower on the right flank hoped to distract the enemy with the Wolf Riders aiming to slow the enemy’s approach.
With significant artillery fire power and low enemy leadership and armor saves, the Chorfs were hoping for a first turn but the sneaky fungus munchers moved faster than our forces expected and surged forward. Due to there being so many Trolls, one of which was in marching column, gaps in the enemies formation would allow our forces to counter position.
(End of NG turn 1) The Cave Dwellers surge forward
Frustrated at the enemies initiative, the Chorf Artillery let loose a volley for terrifying hell fire killing more than a dozen goblins from the two main infantry blocks containing the Fanatics. The Night Goblin General and its horde of spearman retreats with a FBIGO creating a gap for the Sneaky Gitz to exploit (helped by a Steed of Shadows). The smaller NG spearman unit showed more bravery (surprisingly), and shrugged off its leadership test. At this point, I was feeling very optimistic about the Death Shrieker’s ability to shred the enemy infantry. However, in future turns I would swap from using Infernal Incendiaries again the infantry blocks to Demolition Rockets against the Mangler Squig. This was a mistake both because the scatter is more friendly for large infantry targets, and I underestimated the risk of the Fanatics on the RHS.
(End of CD Turn 1) The Night Goblin bricks are hit with Infernal Incendiaries
The Night Goblin general rushes forward to regain his original position and orders one of this Troll minions to charge the sneaky gitz who wisely decide to flee. Luckily, their compatriot Hobgrots hold fast as their friends run through them and barely avoid being hit by charging River Trolls (1” more and they would have made contact).
(NG Turn 2) The Trolls lead the charge and the right flank advances
At the start of my Turn 2, the Sneaky Gitz continue to flee (and sadly will never rally – but luck!) and the Wolf Riders and the Khan charge the Squig Hoppers to prevent them from hitting the Bolt Thrower on the RHS. The Daemonsmith general orders the Blunderbusses and non-fleeing sneaky gitz to open fire on the trolls, but poor rolling and the loss of volley fire to movement did minimal damage to the slimy beasts. The artillery are given full license to take down the Mangler Squig, but one Demolition rocket misses its mark, and the other failed to wound on a 3+! Only one of the bolt throwers hits it mark and causes 2 wounds. This second round of shooting was much less effective. In the combat phase the Squig Hoppers are destroyed without a chance to swing back and the wolves reform to face the coming enemy.
(End of Chorf Turn 2) The Wolf Riders annihilate but Hoppers but are within range of Fanatics.
At the start of Turn 3, the enemy Goblins are now in a position to strike back. First, two fanatics are released to smash into the wolf riders. The Night Goblin Oddnob is able to get Itchy Nuisance off on the Blunderbuss bunker despite the MR(2) of the Lammasu’s Beard and a dispel attempt, lowering us down to Toughness 1. The Warboss of a Giant Save Squig counter charges into the wolf riders and the Trolls charge a Sneaky Git unit whose stand and shoot does little damage to their thick hides. In the Compulsory moves phase, the Fanatics smash through the wolf riders killing half of them (it could have been worse) but stop just short of the Bolt Thrower. The Mangler Squig is short by a few inches into the Blunderbusses. The Cave Squig and Warboss smash the sacrificial champion and push the Wolf Riders through the Fanatic killing everything in the unit except the Khan. The Stone Trolls crush the Sneaky Gitz and run them down.
The Chorfs are now faced with a difficult tactical dilemma: Do they wheel their blunderbuss unit to open fire against the Mangler and (almost certainly) kill it with a hail of buckshot, or do they pour fire down the flanks of the Trolls and rely on the 4 pieces of artillery plus magic missile plus Iron Daemon plus archers to finish off two wounds on a T5 monster with only a 5+ save? I reasoned that statistically, the weight of firepower we possessed would be enough and kept the Blunderbusses facing the Troll mobs. But unfortunately the shooting of the Chorfs would fail for a second turn in a row! First, one of the Bolt Throwers was destroyed by a fanatic and the misfires were rolled on the artillery die requiring the re-rolls to be used to prevent a misfire rather than adjusting the scatter roll. The rolling was also generally poor on the wound rules and the beast come out unscathed. On the plus side, the fusillade of volley fire did substantial damage to one of the troll units. However, the Blunderbusses would now have to face a Behemoth crashing into their flanks next turn. The Khan was slain in combat against the Warboss’ weight of attacks and his foul beasts gnashing teeth. Alas.
(Night Goblin Turn 3) The green horde strikes back
Going into Turn 4, the Night Goblin are emboldened by their Turn 3 success and once again cast Itchy Nuisance onto the Blunderbusses and the Trolls make a headstrong charge into the Iron Daemon. The Mangler Squig now easily crashed into the flank of the Blunderbusses and the Warboss on Cave Squig headed towards the vulnerable rocket batteries. In combat though, the tides of the night goblins began the wane. The 9x strength 7 attacks from the trolls with great weapons did only a single wound the metal giant and the S8 stomps of the Iron Daemon reduced one of the Trolls to a single wound causing the monsters to FBIGO. Despite D6 impact hits, D3 stomps, and D6 random attacks with killing blow all of which had AP -2/-3 and wounding on a 2+, only 2 Infernal Guard died due to amazing armor save rolls and poor enemy rolling. The Dawi Zharr even managed to do one wound back and easily called the monster to break on a single wound. However, the unit reformed and angled so that it could shoot at either the monster or the Trolls the next turn. The new FAQ rules were in full action here: both became we kept an armor save with the Parry save and were able to swing back with 4 troops because the fighting rank double our effective combat size. Our combat result was also improved by a 2+ for close order and outnumbering.
At the bottom of Turn 4, the Chorfs finally rip apart the Mangler with their ranged shooting and the Iron Daemon continues to push back the Trolls. However, it was unable to get the 3” needed for the impacts so relied on Stomps for the entirety of the game to deal wounds.
(Chorf Turn 4) The Mangler is about to destroyed
At the top of Turn 5, the Night Goblins Itchy Nuisance luck is finally broken by a perfect Unbinding. Undeterred a Stone Troll mob charges the front of the Blunderbuss and the Squig herd goes into its flank. The Trolls on the far left flank continue to suffer from stupidity, and the two units of Trolls in front of the Iron Daemon prevent the big block of Night Goblins from getting out their fanatics. The first Deathshrieker is hit by Warboss. In combat, the Troll falls back to the weight of the Iron Daemon and the Chorf artillerymen are killed. The main showdown between the Trolls and the Squig herd against the Blunderbuss is glorious for the Dawi Zharr. The enemy swings first and manages to kill three IG. We deal multiple wounds back and once again win substantially in CR causing the squigs to explode and the Trolls to FBIGO. In Chorf Turn 5 we eliminate the remnants of two Troll units. We had to speed play through Turn 6 and after some cursory dice rolls were able to finish off some stranded units.
In the final accounting we ended up with a draw at close to the 700 pt mark. It was overall a great game against a great opponent and made me feel quite positive about the strength of our infantry going into this new meta.
Take-aways
The Chorfs had good luck with their armor saves and some bad luck on the shooting. I made some tactical errors by not using Infernal Incendiaries enough to cause panic checks, especially on the flank that lacked the general’s leadership. Having an opponent with that many units is a big advantage because you can cause movement logjams. The new FAQ rules are awesome. A big block of heavy infantry that can get to a 3+/6++, have great static CR, fight in 2 ranks, and make a stand of shoot is very powerful. One issue I realized my list lacked is some form on “counter punch”. I’m going to try adding a Seneschal on Great Taurus for cheap (~200 pts) so something can strike back and punch a hole in a weak spot in the enemies lines.
Praise Hashut!
