O&G vs Ogre Kingdoms, 2500 pts

For one of the final games with the Orcs and Goblins (for now) it was only fitting that I pit them against their old nemesis Ogre Kingdoms, right before their new rules book come out. My opponent, in preparation for a tournament down south that allow special characters, had brought Greasus Goldtooth as his General and BSB. Thus the Gut Magic had to be handled by two Butchers instead. Greasus joined up with a big unit of Bulls, as did the two Butchers and a Bruiser with The Other Trickster's Shard to make sure Greasus' attacks weren't warded off. That massive unit of flap didn't leave much else to round off the army; a unit of six Ironguts and a unit of eight Ironguts, 20 Gnoblars and a Giant rounded off the force.

The armies after deployment

As it happened, I had decided to try out an army lacking a Warboss in favour of even more mobs of fighters; trusting instead in the leadership of my Savage Orc Great Shaman. He was leading a unit of 28 Savage Orc Big 'Uns, alongside a Black Orc BSB, and deployed straight across from the Bulls. They were flanked to their left by a unit of 40 Night Goblins, 8 Trolls, 30 Squigs with their handlers and a Mangler Squig, with the plan to take out the 8 Ironguts and sweep in for the flank on Greasus' unit of Bulls. To the right went my 3 Goblin Wolf Chariots and 21 Black Orcs to match up against the Giant and 6 Ironguts. To redirect and hit soft flanks I had brought two lone River Trolls. In the back, behind the action went my 20 Night Goblins with short bows, joined by a Night Gobbo Shaman. Sadly, I rolled up all the wrong spells of the Big Waaagh! and missed out on both the Foot of Gork and 'Ere We Go! so I had to depend on minor cantrips instead. The same thing happened for my Night Gobbo, who only got his Magic Missile (not really useful against the three big Ogre units) and Naughty Stabbin'.

Things of note:

Goblin Wolf Chariots - As usual I looked for a juicy target to suicide charge into early on for the over-eager Wolf Chariots. On the right flank, the Ironguts had moved up to block them from charging into the Giant, which was a sound move. However, if the Guts were to die I could overrun into the Giant, whose potential for mayhem worried me slightly. So in went the Chariots, with the Guts thrusting in their bellies and big weapons to take out the Gobbos. 19 S5 impact hits later and a couple of nice spear thrusts from the gits in the wagons had only a single Irongut standing - the Standard Bearer - who promptly went down with the flag after failing his Insane Courage check. Howling, the Chariots overran into the Giant and were then counter-charged by the Gnoblars in the rear. That didn't matter, as again their impact hits killed off the Giant before he could bash them, and the Gnoblars then failed to catch the Wolf Chariots who fled far away, having taken out around 5 times their point cost in two rounds. A good start.

Ogre Bulls and Greasus - The big worry, however, was still the massive unit of Bulls led by Greasus himself. Early on, they were staring in horror at the Mangler Squig as it bounced its way towards them, with spells failing to kill it off. That was until my Squig Herd, eager to chew ogre fat, failed their animosity check and had to charge. That would send them running over the Mangler Squig, to my own horror, so instead of waiting another round before engaging while my Mangler Squig took out some Bulls and the Wolf Chariots could rally, I was forced to call the charge early (for some reason this always happens to me...). A lone River Troll charged in to die on the Mangler Squig, while the Common Trolls and the Squig Herd combo charged the front of the Bulls. To the right, the Black Orcs were left to chase after the Gnoblars who elected to flee. The Savage Orcs couldn't really fit in anywhere, and were hindered by a large impassable stone wall, so they held back to watch the mayhem that followed. Besides, I wanted the Trolls to match up against Greasus on the side of his unit rather than my infantry units, to prevent the Ogre King from thunderstomping me. The Horde of Squigs ate three Bulls early on while losing five of their number in return. Greasus and his pet Bruiser were forced to fight the Trolls, who ended up regenerating every single one of the wounds inflicted on them (my opponent rolled quite poorly here, I should add) and the Trolls took out a few wounds on both Greasus and the Bruiser in return. Losing by plenty, the Ogres revealed the Crown of Command carried by one of the Butchers in the second rank, which resulted in them passing their breaktest. However, help was nowhere to be found for the fat ones, since I had placed my Wolf Riders to redirect their backup of 8 Ironguts out on the left flank, meaning the Bulls were stuck in combat on their own. Not even their Gut Magic could do much to help them, with my Great Shaman dispelling all their augment spells with little difficulty.

Greasus and his Bulls go up against Trolls and a Squig Herd

The next round of combat saw the champion of the Bulls being chewed up by the Squigs, forcing one of the Butchers to take its place in the front rank, while the Trolls took down the last wounds on the Bruiser which brough the last Butcher out. Finally, Greasus again failed to wound the Trolls with his attacks and, despite his toughness of 6, was pulled from his throne by the Trolls. Losing both their General and Battle Standard at the same time sent the Bulls running, but the Greenskins chased them down.

That left the 8 Ironguts, after disposing of the Wolf Riders, to take on a horde of Squigs, 8 Trolls and two untouched units of Black Orcs and Savage Orc Big 'Uns, and it was my round three coming up. Of course, that would not have gone well at all, my opponent also realized, and the Ogres elected to surrender, giving the Greenskins a massacre in what might just have been their final game. At least for now. Of course, one never knows where next the Waaagh! will hit.