It's been quiet around here as of late. The reason is that I've just gotten two new jobs that require a lot of writing, so it's taken a little time to get into the right gear while still maintaining your hobby projects. I'll be back at full speed soon enough.
Anyway, I attended the friendly team tournament this weekend and brought my All-Goblin list at 1500 points. I switched some points around to get the +4 ward save for my Warboss along with a great weapon, and ditched a troll to get a unit of 5 instead of 6, in order to afford two spear chukkas to combat beasties.
We were four teams of three players each that fought in the tourny and the rules were simple: we rolled off before each game to determine which team got to decide the first matchup, and then the other team picked the remaining two matchups. The battles were fought as simple Battlelines (Pitched Battle).
Game 1: Dark Elves
My first game was against Dark Elves, who had brought quite a small list of very hard units. They were lead by a Supreme Sorceress wielding the Darkstar Cloak for extra power dice, and using the Lore of Shadows. Her BSB was a Master riding on a Manticore with the Pendant of Khaeleth (reverse ward save). The Sorceress deployed with her bodyguard of 30 Spearelves in the centre of the map, with a Cold One Chariot flanking her on both sides. To the east, up on a hill, stood 18 Crossbowers, while Harpies, the flying Master and his pet Hydra deployed on the western flank.
The Goblins deployed both their blocks in the center, with the Squig Herd flanking the Common Goblins and the Trolls backing up the Night Goblins and the Warboss. The Wolf Chariot was placed between the blocks, and my artillery were placed far bank across the battlefield, with the chukkas looking straight across at the Hydra and the Manticore from a top of a hill.
Turns 1-3
The Dark Elves got the first turn and moved forward with their beasties on the flank, while the Harpies flew ahead to prevent the chukkas from getting a good view. The Sorceress remained in the back with her bodyguard, and dragged half of the Squig Herd into a Pit of Shades. Unfortunately for the elves, the Goblin Shaman responded by blasting the Harpies to pieces with the Brainbursta spell (2D6 S4) which allowed the chukkas to have a good view to fire. And fire they did, at the flying Manticore to be specific but ended up hitting the Master of all things, which was a let down. Until the ward save roll showed a '6' (he'd live on 1-5) and the Master took two wounds and died with a spearshaft through his chest. Cheering, the Rock Lobbers then dropped a stone on the head of the frenzied, riderless Manticore that killed the beastie. The Doom Diver even inflicted a wound on the Hydra that didn't regenerate.
The Hydra responded by charging in and chewing the crew of one of the Spear Chukkas that just killed its master, but the overrun failed to get it off the table, leaving it open to more shoots from the goblin war machines. I commited a mistake there, that would prove very costly, when I turned my Trolls around to face the Hydra. Instead of simply moving up to get in the way of the big monster (while dropping rocks on its head for another turn) I charged in, hoping to get rid of the threat immediately. It would have worked, I thought, had they not been hit by a Pit of Shades that decimated them to only three Trolls remaining. As such, they only brought the Hydra down to 3 wounds before breaking from combat and being chased down. Meanwhile, the western Cold One Chariot, having suffered a few wounds from the arror gobbos, charged into the Night Goblins protecting both the Warboss and the Shaman. Their nets neutralized the impact hits, but the elves still managed to inflict two wounds on the shaman before the Warboss cut them down with his great axe.
Turns 4-6
The overrun had brought the Hydra to the rear of the night goblins, and the beasty charged in. The nets took away some of its strength, but the monster still took out a dozen goblins with its bite and breath attack. The Warboss made his way to the back and cut the monster with his axe, inflicting two wounds. The monster was now sitting on a single wound, and I was feeling comfortable about the situation even though my Wolf Chariot crashed from crossbow bolts and my Squig Herd had all but been decimated from shooting.
But the monster then proved to everyone why it's the most infuriating thing to face in all of the Warhammer world. The Shaman shouted out a spell of "Mork Wants Ya!" that saw a green hand reach down from the sky in an attempt to squeeze the Hydra unless it passed an initiative test (roll 1 or 2), or suffer D6 S10 hits. Naturally, the dice showed a '1', the Hydra survived and decimated another rank of gobbos and regenerated both wounds inflicted by the Warboss. Meanwhile, the second Cold One Chariot was shot down by the arrow gobbos and the Doom Diver, and the Rock Lobbers brought the Spearelves down to half their original number.
The Sorceress responded by hexing the Night Goblins, lowering their strength and toughness to make it easier for the Hydra to stomp on them. What remained of the Crossbowers took out the Doom Diver with a few well-placed bolts.
A single rank was all that remained of the Squig Herd, who with the chariot shot down now charged into the Crossbowers. A poor performance in battle by the elves actually saw them lose and break from combat. Unfortunately, the flee roll showed a double '6' where as I only managed to roll '11'. The fortunate dice roll continued, as my Shaman got through another Mork Wants Ya! spell that would surely spell the end of the wounded Hydra, unless it would pass yet another initiative test on a '2' or less. The dice showed a '1', and the Hydra killed off the last rank of gobbos, broke their spirit and then chased them down, along with the Warboss and my Great Shaman.
By now, my 40 strong arrow gobbos were staring across at what remained of the the elven bodyguard, with only 10 elves remaining. A charge would surely break them, as my BSB was there with the Spider Banner, and yield me the points for the Sorceress as well. Unfortunately, on the final turn of the battle, a squabble broke out amongst the goblins and prevented me from securing the solid victory. Instead, with both my Lords eaten by the Hydra, along with the trolls and the night goblins, I was down about 150 points. The Hydra survived with a single wound, after killing off about 900 points on its own, while the rest of the Dark Elves had taken out about 150. It was a bitter time to be a goblin.
Result: LOSS
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