Hump DayHeroes: Troll Country Prep Game

My Adepticon WFB teammate, Tom Jackson, and I recently conducted a couple of practice games as part of our preparation for the tournament.

Team Name: Troll Country

John Ontto’s Orcs and Goblins

Night Goblin Shaman (lvl 4) w/ scroll

Goblin Big Boss BSB w/ great weapon and Standard of Discipline

36 Night Goblins w/ bows

38 Night Goblins w/ shield and nets

6 Trolls

2 Speakchuckas

1 Wolf Chariot

1 Doom Diver

Tom Jackson’s Warriors of Chaos

Throgg

3 units of 5 Warhounds per unit

2 units of 6 Trolls per unit

6 Chaos Ogres w/ Mark of Nurgle and full command

For our practice games, Tom played our side, while I played a combination Dark Elves and Daemons of Chaos. 

Daemons of Chaos

Epidemius

19 Plaguebearers w/ champion, musician and standard bearer

18 Plaguebearers w/ standard bearer

2 units of 1 Beast of Nurgle per unit

Skull Cannon of Khorne (John G. – Cheesy!!!!)

Dark Elves

Sorceress (lvl 3) w/ Dark Magic and Tome of Furion

20 Dark Shards w/ musician and standard bearer carrying the Banner of Eternal Flame

5 Dark Riders w/ crossbows , shields and standard bearer

Hydra

3 Bolt Throwers

With the armies set for the game, we decided on playing Blood and Glory for our practice game.

Turn 1

The first turn began with me rolling for fragile alliance and going down only 1 step.  I deployed the dark shards in the middle and held them in position while the plaguebearers moved to secure the flanks of the crossbowmen.  At the same time, the dark riders marched around the house on the board in an effort to threaten the doom diver while a beast of nurgle and the hydra moved up to the river’s edge.  During the first turn’s magic phase, I rolled a 9 on the warpstorm table, but no damage was done.  The sorceress attempted a doom bolt, but without an irresistible force to back it, the shaman was able to use its dispel scroll. 

During the shooting phase, I begin with the dark shards lighting up a unit of trolls with their flaming attacks.  The end result was a single dead troll and the unit having lost its regeneration for the turn.  This allowed one of the bolt throwers to put another two wounds on the unit.  The dark riders added a third wound, bringing down another troll in the unit.  I finished the shooting phase with the skull cannon taking a shot at Throgg.  Fortunately for the king of trolls, he passed is Look Out Sir roll and the daemonic cannonball was passed to another troll, who was killed by its impact.

Tom took over at the bottom of 1 and started by passing all of the stupidity tests required for the trolls.  Sadly, the night goblins with the shaman were not as lucky as they rolled a squabble result.  When it came to charges, a unit of warhounds moved into contact with the dark rider as the other hounds positioned themselves to block the beast of nurgle and hydra that were crossing the river.  The turn concluded with the dark riders running down a defeated unit of hounds and being in a position to charge the doom diver on the next turn.

Turn 2

The top of two starts the DE/DoC rolling for fragile alliance and becoming desperate allies.  The beasts of Nurgle declare charges against each of the remaining units of hounds, with one being caught and the other making a successful attempt at fleeing.  The attempt is short lived though as the hydra rolls a 12 for its charge and is able to catch them.  Lastly the dark riders charge the doom diver while the plaguebearers maintain their position on the board.

The magic phase begins with me rolling another 9 on the warp storm table that has no impact on the game.  Due to the army becoming desperate allies, the magic dice had to be split for the turn (5 for the DoC and 4 for the Dark Elves).  The sorceress attempts to cast power of darkness and word of pain, but the former is dispelled, and the later fails to me the required dice roll.

The shooting phase is similar to the last one, with the dark shards wounding a troll and removing the unit’s regeneration.  This allow a bolt thrower to kill a troll in the unit.  The skull cannon however misfires and is unable to shoot in the next turn.  

Close combat begins with the dark riders murdering the doom diver and making the bad decision to turn and reform instead of running them off the table.  Next, the beast of Nurgle rolls a whopping 2 attacks and ends up losing combat and disappearing back into the warp. 

The bottom of two starts with the night goblins all getting along while one unit of trolls failing their stupidity check and rushing into the unit with Epidemius.  Tom also charges the unit of 4 trolls into the other block of plaguebearers and the chaos ogres into the hydra (doing d3 impact hits in the process due to a roll of a 12 for the charge distance).  Finally, the goblin shaman and bsb move to join the unit of night goblin archers.

The magic phase was huge this turn as the shaman was able to cast ‘Gork wil Fix It’ on the unit with Epidemius.  While the spell was not irresistible, I had to split my four dispel dice between the two armies, so I did not have an effective means to stop the spell.  The shaman was also able to kill six shards with an irresistible vindictive glare to conclude the magic phase.

The shooting phase saw a couple of wounds placed on the skull cannon.  Close combat saw the chaos ogre kill the hydra, which resulted in the champion getting +1 armour from a roll on the EotG table.  As for the trolls that assaulted the unit of plaguebearers, the daemons lost combat, but a flicker in reality caused them all to return.  Dan looked like a deer in headlights as I rolled the double 1s for the leadership test.  The combat with Epidemius resulted in the tally moving closer to activation and the trolls passing a moral check after losing combat.

Turn 3

I began the third turn by charging the dark riders.  In retrospect, it was a bad decision, but doing the math in my head, I figured I should win or tie if I charged.  The magic phase was uneventful as I rolled a 6 on the warp storm table and had to split my dice between the two armies.  As a side note, I did attempt to cast word of pain and would have gotten it off if I had remembered to add the plus one for casting dark magic.

The shooting phase saw all three bolt throwers firing upon the spearchucka.  The end result was 2 hits, but neither was able to actually wound the warmachine.  The dark shards were also able to kill a single troll in Throggs’ unit.  As for close combat, the darker riders whiffed on all but one of their attacks and proceeded to be run down by the goblins.  In the same round, the unit of trolls fighting Epidemius was defeated and rundown.   

The bottom of three had a few significant events.  The biggest of these was Epidemus falling in combat to the ogre champion.  Having killed the character in a challenge, the ogre champion rolled again on the EotG table to gain +1 WS. 

Turn 4

The fourth turn would be the last of the game, as the DE/DoC forces began with a remaining fortitude of 4.  It was in close combat that the game was decided as I lost the standard bearers within the unit of plaguebearers and dark shards.