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Monday, July 4, 2011

O&G vs Tomb Kings, 2500 pts

The first match on Saturday was against Tomb Kings, whom I'd yet to face since their new army book and was really looking forward to experience. My opponent had brought a fairly combat-heavy army, with 30 Tomb Guards with Handweapons and Shields anchoring the center of their line, joined by a Tomb King and his Herald with the Battle Standard. Two blocks of 40 Skeleton Warriors (also with handweapons and shields) protected each flank, one of them joined by a Liche Priest with their ancient lore, while 30 Skeleton Archers joined by the Hierophant went in the back. On one flank he put his Screaming Skull Catapult and his Casket of Souls, and two units of three Carrions were flying around in the back. A Warsphinx with fiery breath went close to the Tomb Guards, as did a unit of 4 Skeleton Chariots, while three Stalkers had burrowed beneath the sand.

A surprising amount of models, I felt, but nothing extremely scarey. I weighed my eastern flank quite heavily to match up with my opponent, with the Squig Herd, Wolf Chariots, Black Orcs and Orc Big 'Uns (joined by the Warboss) going up against the Tomb Guard, the Chariots, The Sphinx and the Skeleton Warriors. Meanwhile my Savage Orcs, joined by their Shaman were up against a second unit of Skeleton Warriors, whom they should smash quite easily before sweeping up the soft flank of the Archers and Casket of Souls.

Things of note:
  • Wolf Riders - My opponent commited one mistake during his deployment by stacking his western flank so heavily, leaving his Catapult and Casket unprotected save from some Skeleton Warriors. This allowed my Wolf Riders, joined by the Big Boss, to vanguard forward, avoid one shot from the Catapult (who had to fire at them to hopefully send them packing, which protected my more important units in the meantime) before charging in on my first turn. The Tomb Kings tried to fly some Carrions forward to block the way, but as they can't march I focused my dispels on the movement spell and saw my Wolf Riders make it in. They destroyed the Catapult on the charge, then overran into the Carrions and killed them as well (which was a bit more surprising) before finally ending up in battle with the Casket. The Guards proved a bit too 'ard for my Gobbos though, but I kept them locked in combat for two rounds before they died, which was more than enough in my opinion, as the Big Boss did shine in all the engagements. That meant I only had to suffer one round of spells from the Casket, which still managed to kill off my Mangler Squig.
  • Black Orcs - The problem for the Skeleton Chariots was that they were matched up against my Wolf ones, and mine were swifter than they were. So they had to hurry into combat and ended up charging the Black Orcs. I went with shields and handweapon to prevent them from killing off too many, which turned out to be a mistake after the Hierophant imbued the Chariots with killing blow. Far too many Black Orcs still died for my liking, and I got stuck into combat against the Chariots for two rounds, not being able to kill their Standard Bearer off. That allowed the second unit of Carrions to charge in after that, and although I chopped a few down, I wasn't able to get free for another two rounds. If only I had picked my Great Weapons, or even additional handweapon. By round four, the Stalkers had entered my backlines and charged in as well, and that proved too much for even the Black Orcs, who were killed off to a man, but not before taking both the Carrions and the Chariots with them. Somehow fittingly, the Wolf Chariots then finally charged the Stalkers and destroyed them with their impact hits alone.
  • Big 'Uns - My Orcs and the Warboss got combo-charged by the Tomb Guards and the Warsphinx, after the Monster made a long 16" charge. I had positioned my Warboss on one corner of his unit, so that the Sphinx could only attack him with his regular attacks. I kept my boyz imbued with a Gift of the Spider God, while the Tomb Guards were granted an additional attack by the Hierophant. The Boyz took out the Herald and the Tomb Guard Champion early on, and the Warboss needed two rounds to roll enough 6's to take out Warsphinx, who although he did stomp out quite a few boyz, wasn't able to wound my Warboss with his attacks. At the end, the Big 'Uns were wiped out but the Warboss stood his ground against the Tomb King and around 20 Tomb Guards. By then, the Squig Herd had finished off the Skeleton Warriors on the eastern flank and could hit the flank of the Tomb Guards. My Warboss challenged the Tomb King to a duel and cut off his head, while surviving the magical feedback, and my Horde o' Teef turned the rest of the unit to dust in one go.
  • Savage Orcs - On the western side, the Savages Orcs went into battle with the second unit of Skeleton Warriors and took them out over three rounds, without suffering many casualties in return. Sensing doom incoming, the Hierophant left his Archers to their fate as the Orcs charged in, but my Great Shaman sniped out the High Priest with a 'Eadbutt spell while my Doom Diver took out the Liche Priest walking around on his own. This allowed my Night Gobbo Archers to march across the field and charge what remained of the Casket and defeat it on static combat resolution to watch it crumble as the battle came to an end.
This game was pretty straightforward, with the Tomb Kings being wiped out in round 5. Although I lost my Black Orcs and my Wolf Riders, as well as the Big 'Uns, the victory was still pretty convincing. Personally, I think the Warsphinx could have done a lot better by helping out either of the Skeleton units, rather than the Tomb Guards. Although its Heroic Killing Blow is scary in theory, I wasn't that concerned for my Warboss' safety and he was quite capable of taking it out with his attacks being poisoned. Rather than those Stalkers, I think a fighty Tomb King army need more Monsters to Thunderstomp their enemies, while the Legions of the Dead provide the numbers to break them. Although the Orcs didn't really feel threatened in this battle, I do think that Tomb Kings can make for an impressive enemy once people start to figure out how to use each unit type in collaboration with others.