O&G vs Dark Elves, 1500 pts

Down at the gaming club, I faced off against my good friend Erik who was bringing his Dark Elves against my Shaman Waaagh!. They were led by a Pegasus Sorceress of Shadow with the Pendant of Khaleth, and a Master with the Battle Standard. A large block of Spearelves and a smaller unit of Crossbows made up his core points, but he was also running three units of Harpies, two units of Shades, a Cold One Chariot, a Bolt Thrower and a Hydra.

Suffice to say, he was not about to let my orcs across the field, sacrificing Harpies after Harpies followed by Shades to keep my tangled up. I was alright with that, even though it makes for quite boring games, and by round 4 I had cleared up all his pit-stops and was standing in the middle of the battlefield, actually in the lead point wise.

Things of note:

• Night Goblin Shaman - The new Magic Mushroom rule is really useful, and I'll be bringing at least one hero Shaman for most of games, I believe. He gave the Stikkaz the Gift of the Spider God, poisoned attacks for most of the game, making them unlikely to be charged by anything and ensuring they could tear through the  throw away units in the way. However, the finest moment for the little snot was when he got off a Destructive Glare on higher power, causing 3D6 S3 hits on the Sorceress that not even the Pendant could ward off. That was the main reason I was leading after I had finally cleared my way through the critters standing in the way. 
• Squig Herd - I was risking a lot by bringing only seven Herders to keep 21 Squigs in check, and it proved too risky against a shooty Dark Elf list. On a very lucky round of shooting, ten of the twenty crossbow shots hit their mark, eight of the ten (!) ended up wounding, and seven of those eight got my Herders (?!). So the Squigs went wild, chewed up two units of Shades nearby, and inflicted six hits on my Boar Chariot trudging along too closely, which all wounded it (!?!) and it was destroyed as well. Lots of mayhem from a single unit of ten Crossbow Elves. 
• Black Orcs - Despite that misfortune, I was still feeling good about my chances with the Sorceress down. I was content to stay away from the Spearelves for the rest of the game, if only I could get the Hydra into combat with my Black Orcs with flaming attacks. I had already lost a lot of my Orc Boyz to Hydra fire, but I turned them as if wanting to face the Hydra to their front, while the Black Orcs were placed slightly behind them, 15" away from the Spear Elves. The monster took the bait and charged the boyz, who then fled, Battle Standard and everything, and the Hydra had little choice but to overrun into the Black Orcs. They were already affected by the 'Ere we go! augment, allowing them to re-roll missed attacks, and the Shaman was imbued with the Fists of Gork for plenty of extra attacks of high strength. Realizing the dire situation the Hydra was in, the Spear Elves had to hazard a long charge in hopes of helping the monster out. I was feeling good about it, with them being 15" inches away, until the dice showed a 5 and a 6, and the long range charge was made. By Gork, what's with these random charges I've suffered lately?

Still, the Black Orcs and their Shaman fought on, dishing out plenty of hurtin' with their S7 great weapons, almost killing off the Hydra in a single round of combat. After all was said and done, I still lost the combat by a point, but the Shaman revealed his crown and I was testing as Stubborn. Meanwhile, the Stikkaz were in position for a flank charge on the Spearelves in my own round, if only I could make the breaktest. Double 6's showed and I was looking around for my Battle Standard but the one round I needed him he was fleeing, and so off went the Black Orcs, by only a weak 6" flee distance. With little trouble, the Elves ran them down. So I lost my most expensive unit and my Great Shaman who was also my general, and that was the game. The Elves win by 300 points, give or take.

Never the less, I had plenty of fun trying out the new book and enjoyed the opportunity to test out my Stubborn Black Orc strategy that I wrote about previously. Although I probably think it's safer to use it in larger games, when you'll have the Warboss for the added leadership, and when it doesn't automatically lose you the game if they do break. Despite that, I felt my tactics were sound, my execution decent, but I had fair inferior dice rolls, which happens, and good generals need to be able to prevail despite that.

If you have any particular questions on how I experienced the new book and how it "felt", please be sure to ask. I'd love to elaborate, and most likely shall in later posts, but for now this will do.

Have a good weekend everyone.