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| The Gobbos deploy for battle against Lizardmen |
This past weekend, as usual, I went down to the gaming club for a game. This time around I brought the All-Goblin Spider army, with the new addition of the Giant. A somewhat risky choice it would turn out, as I happened to be going up against a Skink-heavy, Monster army of Lizardmen. Leading the way were two Skink Chiefs in a large regiment of Skinks with three Kroxigors. They were flanked by two more Skink groups with two Kroxigors, who were in turn backed up by two Ancient Stegadons - one of them carrying a Priest with the Engine of the Gods. Rounding off the army were three Terradons, two Salamanders, two Razordons, two Skink Skirmishers and a group of Chameleons.
Lots of poisoned shots made me hide the Giant in a forest, ducking behind the trees for that all important soft cover, until it was time for him to charge out. Meanwhile, I spent the first turns shooting at his big beasties, but the Lobbers kept missing their mark, the Doom Diver got tangled up for a few turns, and the Chukkas proved almost too accurate; hitting their shots but kept killing skink crew instead of taking down the Stegadons. Early on, the Winds of Magic were blowing strong but my dice were failing me. The Great Shaman on top of the Spidershrine kept rolling 2's and 3's with two dice (when needing to reach 3 and 4) which made him lose concentration before too many spells got into play. Certainly disappointing, with the fairly weak magic defense of my opponent, but it happens. This battle, like so many others before it, was going to be settled in close combat.
Other things of note:
- Archnarok Spider - After losing concentration of the spellcasting for two rounds in a row, the Great Shaman figured it was just as well to charge into combat, so the Arachnarok charged after an Ancient Stegadon. That proved to be a mistake, as my poor dice rolls continued and the Spider failed to reach its target. Instead, the Stegadon charged into it instead, joined by one of the smaller Skink regiments and some Kroxigors. Definitely not a situation the Shaman had hoped for, who was dragged down and stomped beneath the feet of the Kroxigors. However, the Arachnarok took little damage from the impact hits of the Stegadon, inflicted a few wounds on the big beastie in return, then stomped enough Skinks beneath its bulk to actually win the combat. That opened up an opportunity for the Shield Goblins, led by the Warboss and several Shamans to counter-charge, breaking what remained of the Skinks while the Arachnarok put the Stegadon to sleep with its poisonous gland.
- Giant - After hiding in the forest, watching the Arachnarok fight off its attackers, the Giant wanted in on the fun. So he charged out, yelling and stomping, into the Stegadon carrying the Engine of the Gods. Sadly, he failed his Dangerous Terrain test as he barged through the forest and suffered 4 wounds (a mistake on my part, as it turns out Monsters don't take those). A few gobbos sent the Mangler Squig trashing through the Steggy before the Giant made it there, which took out the Priest on top and hurt the beasty some, before the Giant decided to Thump it with his club. Not known for being agile, the Stegadon failed to avoid the attacks and was thumped into oblivion. Not much later, the Skinks brought the big guy down with their blowpipes.
- Common Gobbos - Later on, the horded unit of Gobbos were charged by the biggest unit of Skinks, led by both Chiefs and three Kroxigors, but as they had to beat down the Bowgobbos before they could get there, the Arachnarok and the Shield Gobbos were able to counter-charge after fending off the Stegadon and the Skinks. That turned the combat a bit one-sided, with about 25 Skinks dying in the initial fight from the Spider and the Gobbos, and my Warboss cutting his Skink Chief down in a duel.
After that, there were not a lot of Lizardmen left on the battlefield, with my Fast Cavalry able to chase down his Skirmishers and Chameleons, and the Squig Herd finally getting to fight something as it chased down the last remaining Skink regiment. So that makes it three wins out of three tries with the Gobbos and I'm not sure what to think. Although I've faced a lot nastier lists with my Orcs, the Gobbos alone can still make for quite competitive armies it turns out. The addition of the Giant makes for two very destructive forces in my dual monsters, coupled with one of the most powerful magic offenses I can come up with, while still packing three Horde units, several chariots and five war machines.
