Gloomspite Gitz Vs Idoneth Deepkin, Path To Glory Round 2Loonboss Gloama peered through iron-fringed ferns at the cave entrance about a half-mile distant. Down that cave was the underworld, full of health-giving fungus (and rife with a fair amount of the death-giving kind, too) and relative safety. It had been a grueling trek across the continent, from the edges of the Sigmarite kingdoms, through the Forest of Fangs, across the Sulphurous Swamps and now here, amid the ancient ruins of Daer Khoraz. All he wanted to do was drag his fish-man down into the darkness and give him as a gift to the Loonking. And then take a nap--a long, languorous nap.
But instead of a free passage into the underkingdom, he was now looking at the spectral wreck of a sailing ship, blocking the way of one of the (many) entrances to the places below. And there was only one way a shipwreck covered in seaweed wound up at the top of a mountain.
"Is that a...boat?" Giglitz, the babbling madcap shaman, crouched down next to him, the skulls at the end of his staff rattling. "Because I *really* like boats."
"The fish elves are here to take their prince. We must collapse all the entrances to the underworld, keep them from following us." Gloama said.
Giglitz nodded. "And they're probably going to collapse all the entrances to the underworld too, to keep us from escaping. Convenient."
Gloama pointed at the three stinking troggoths, lounging in a mud-puddle. "Will you just tell your troggoths to attack?"
Giglitz whistled at the toggoths, whose ears perked up at their "employer's" call. "Hey! You morons! Num-nums! THAT WAY!"
The troggoths looked at the small goblin with vague curiosity. One of them belched. None of them moved.
Giglitz smiled "Ooooh! They're angry!"
Gloama shook his head. "We are so, so dead."Last week, me and Uncle Tungsten met up for our second Path to Glory battle. Here are out lists:
Gloama's WarbandLoonboss w/Giant Cave Squig ("Gloama" General: Cunning Plans)
Madcap Shaman w/Moonface Mommet (Hand of Gork)
20 Stabbas w/Banner, 3x Netters
20 Stabbas w/Banner, 3x Netters
5 Boingrot Bounders
5 Boingrot Bounders
3 Fellwater Troggoths
Idoneth Pursuit ForceSoulrender (General: Extra Summoning; Crown of Lots of Mortal Wounds)
Tidecaster
Bloodwrack Medusa (Allied Hero)
10 Namarti Thralls
10 Namarti Reavers
3 Ishlaen Guard
3 Morsarr Guard
Mission, Terrain, and DeploymentThe mission we rolled up was Better Part of Valor, which means the longer you hold any of 6 objectives, the more points they are worth, but you can only earn points by "burning" an objective for victory points at the end of your turn.
The Terrain rules went as follows: The Realm of Metal rules were Ironbark Trees (or something like that) that granted superior cover against rending weapons. The cave entrances (marked as craters on the map) were mystical, granting those next to them basic feel no pain saves (represented as the nourishing/psychosis inducing fungi that could be found within their confines). Finally, the statue at the center of the board was Damned (or whatever reduces bravery). The Deepkin placed the two halves of the spectral shipwreck at the objective in the NE and the SW.
Beyond that, we had two large ruins in the northern half of the board that were both LOS blocking and tall enough to make them difficult to climb. The center of the eastern side had a big forest that extended to the center of the board. There was a large, rocky hill in the SW quadrant, and then a bunch of rocks and large boulders scattered around.
I won deployment. My army chose the eastern edge of the board. I dropped my stabbas on the central and southern eastern objectives. The trolls took the center board as far forward as possible. The two groups of Bounderz defended the northern flank, planning to intercept any eels that made a run for my objectives. Finally, the shaman and the Loonboss stood in the center of it all, ready to throw around commands. The Bad Moon deployed in the SE corner.
The Deepkin deployed the Morsarr Guard in the north, the Ishlaens in the south, and the Reavers to hold the center, with the Thralls behind the ruin in the north to offer close support. The two Deepkin heroes (and their Khainite friend) deployed behind the Thralls.
Deployment
Gloomspite DeploymentThralls in the woodsThe Deepkin northThe Deepkin southTurn 1I elected to give the Deepkin the first turn, hoping a gamble on a double-turn would pay off. I also wanted them to get the opportunity to get closer to me, if they so chose. They did not, as it turns out, oblige me. The Ishlaens moved forward to just past the southern spectral shipwreck, but otherwise it was a lot of shuffling in the Deepkin backfield by which they claimed all three western objectives.
Top of Turn 1
Well, despite not rising to the bait, a double turn would probably give me enough oomph to pounce on the Ishlaens, at any rate. Not willing to wait around for the Morsarrs to break cover, I shifted everything south and west. The Troggoths ran at full speed and one group of Bounders joined them, while the second group of Bounders stuck to their initial job of Morsarr interception. Both groups of Stabbas advanced, but not so far that they didn't claim the south and central east objectives. The Loonboss and Shaman also moved forward, the Shaman hiding in the bushes and getting a Mystic Shield off on the Troggoths (*should* have cast Nightshroud, but I forgot about the Reavers being so fast).
Bottom of Turn 1
Moving Forward!The Southern Stabbas sneak closer!The northern bounders lie in wait.Current Score: Gitz 0, Deepkin 0Turn 2We roll initiative for Turn 2 and I get a 6. HA! Take that, fish people - double turn, here I come!
And then my opponent also rolls a 6. Ugh.
The Bad Moon moves over the SE quadrant, helping my units, just not right now.
The Ishlaens retreat back over the rocky hill while the Reavers run atop it and pepper my troggoths with arrows. They do 4 wounds and I get 4 saves, re-rolling 1s. All I need to do is make a single armor save and I won't lose a troll (and they might even regenerate next turn!), but I fail all of them. This represents a fairly significant trend during the battle--my dice were terrible. Now, I know I complain about my dice luck a lot, but it really does seem like probability gives me the really short end of the stick most of the time. Anyway, the rest of the battle should show you what I mean. On the bright side, the Tidecaster attempted a spell of some kind and I was able to unbind it--something I was able to do consistently throughout the game and represented my best luck overall (and due, in no small part, to the Bad Moon being fairly obliging this game).
In the north, the Morsarr keep holding back. I'm not sure what they're waiting for, but something, anyway. In the battleshock phase, I spend a command point to keep the Troggoths from freaking out and running. At the end of the turn, the Deepkin burn the southwest objective for 2 VPs.
Top of Turn 2
The Reavers loose deadly volleys of arrows from their hilltopI lose 1 troggoth In my turn, the Shaman casts Nightshroud on the Troggoths and then eats his mushrooms to tries and cast Hand of Gork, but chokes on the roll, so my plan to drop twenty goblins in his backfield fails miserably. I am able, however, to charge the Reavers with the Troggoths and one group of Bounders. The Troggoths park themselves by a cave entrance, allowing them to claim the FNP roll. There are only 10 Reavers and they have a mediocre save and everything I got has rend. I'm throwing 28 Yhwh-condemneded attacks, 8 of which will kill 2 reavers a swing, and the bounderz are doing mortal wounds on the charge. You know how many I kill? 6 of them. SIX. Battleshock has another 3 run away, but there's 1 left and that's just a Yhwh-condemneded crying shame. At least I didn't take much damage myself (1 wound done to a troll who tanked his save but at least managed a FNP roll from the cave entrance, and 1 wound done to a bounder).
The moderately good news here is that my positioning on the hill and across the bottleneck at the center of the western board meant that the thralls were unable to advance without charging my bounderz.
Bottom of Turn 2:
Current Score: Gitz 0, Deepkin 2[/i]
Turn 3A double turn would be sweet right here! But I fail to win initiative again. Deepkin turn.
The Bad Moon, at least, moves to center-board.
On this turn, the Morsarr's finally break cover to run about halfway across the board at the very northern edge, heading for the NE objective, I think. The Reavers retreated and the Soul-Render replaced four of their number. The Ishlaens charged the Troggoths and the Bounderz and the Thralls charged the bounders alone. Because of the positioning, most of them don't get to attack much, and I lose 3 bounderz. The Troggoths are left uninjured due to some uninspiring rolls on the part of the eels. For my own part, the Troggoths totally miss and the remaining Bounderz kill only 2 thralls. I, again, find myself in the position of spending a command point to keep the Bounderz from running off the board.
Top of Turn 3
In the bottom of the turn, the Loonboss w/Squig and the central mob of stabbas charge into the fray after the bounderz in the central combat retreat. In the north, the bounderz up there, inspired by the light of the Bad Moon, charge the Morsarrs. My shaman
again fails to cast Hand of Gork, even with the light of the moon helping.
The trolls vomit on the Ishalens and do nothing, despite hitting on 2s and wounding on 3s. The Loonboss zaps Thralls with his Moon-prodder and does nothing. The Bad Moon turns 1 thrall into a mushroom. Ugh.
In this combat phase I learn how painful it is to fight the Deepkin in combat at High Tide. The Ishlaens kill one Troggoth and the other on runs away. The thralls kill about 6 stabbas. The Loonboss takes a wound. In response, I use Stab Em Good to command my stabbas to wipe out the Thralls, which they do. My loonboss whiffs on all attacks. I spend a CP to keep the Stabbas from running away entirely.
In the north, meanwhile, the Bounderz do 4 mortal wounds on the charge (YAY!) and kill an eel. They then turn around and kill 4 goblin knights on 8-9 attacks (that's 8 wounds done on that many attacks--good god, did my armor choke) and the fifth one runs away. So much for intercepting/slowing them down. Ugh.
Bottom of Turn 3
Interception!Stabbas plugging the gap!Current Score: Gitz 0, Deepkin 2Turn 4Boy, you know what would really help about now? A double turn! I rolled a 4!
So did the Deepkin. DAMMIT.
The Bad Moon moved to the NW quadrant and turned a couple reavers to paste and kept the Tidecaster and Medusa from casting much.
Then the Reavers filled Gloama the Loonboss full of arrows, sending his squig howling into the deep and forcing the mortally wounded goblin to crawl away to the closest group of stabbas (he was taken out of action). Then, between the Soul-Render's Crown of Many Wounds, the Bloodwrack Medusa's stare, and a charge from the Reavers, Medusa, and Soul-Render, all the stabbas were wiped out to the last gobbo (well, the standard bearer ran away). The Ishlaens charged the remaining bounderz and wiped them out, too.
In the north, the Morsarrs shot down in a SE direction, heading for my (valuable) central objective, but didn't quite make it. At the end of the turn, the Soul-Render restored enough Reavers to have them at 6 in number.
Top of Turn 4
Eels from the north!Things look bad for Gloama and the gitz...At this point, I am sort of assuming I've lost the game in spectacular fashion. All I've got left is a stupid Shaman and one mob of stabbas.
But then I started doing the math. Hmmm....
I burn the center-eastern objective this turn for 4 VP. I then,
finally manage to cast Hand of Gork and transport my last pack of stabbas (with their captured Lochian Prince and the arrow-riddled body of Gloama)
to right on top of the Northwestern Objective! This move denies my opponent 8 (!) VPs and, if I can hold it for just one more turn, I can burn it for 2 VPs, myself. That's a 10VP swing, my lads.
As for the Shaman, well, he does his best to hide in the forest at the center of the board and hope he isn't made into eel food.
Bottom of Turn 4
Current Score: Gitz 4, Deepkin 2[/i]
Turn 5After a great deal of cursing me for a sneaky, underhanded git (and, you know, fair enough), my opponent won initiative again and his Morsarrs claimed and burned the NE objective (for 1 point), burned the Center-West objective for 8 points, and ate my shaman with his Ishlaens.
Then it was all down to the Reavers, who shot and charged my Stabbas, but only managed to kill 3. The stabbas overwhelmed them, killed 4, and caused the other two to run away. For once in my goblins' miserable lives, they even passed a Battleshock test.
Oh, and seeing its work done, the Bad Moon scuttled off the board.
Top of Turn 5
Too little, too lateIn my half of the turn, I need to do nothing else but burn my SE objective (for 8 points) and burn my newly acquired NW objective (for 2). At the end of the game, Gloama, cackling madly through the pain of his wounds, manages to flip the pursuing Deepkin the bird before vanishing into a dark cave and collapsing the entrance behind him.
Bottom of Turn 5
Final ScoreGitz: 14
Deepkin: 11Post-MortemWhoa, was that a wild game. I was getting my ass kicked for most of the time we played, but in the end I was able to sneak-out a win thanks to the shifty, underhanded doings of my shaman. All of my combat units choked except for the Stabbas, who turned in a very solid performance. Killing the enemy, in the end, was less important than controlling the board and keeping the enemy bottled up, which I managed to do very well.
In a way, this game was a more extreme example of the kind of game I just played against the Overlords, in that my opponent was so distracted by my attempts to kill him with trolls and squigs and my general and such, that he failed to notice how he was exposing himself on things that were more important--namely the objectives.
This is the second game in the row where the trolls have performed very badly. The Bounderz, also, don't hit as hard as I'd like, mostly because I miss ALL THE TIME and it's very irritating.
As for our Path to Glory campaign, I earned another 2 Glory Points, putting the current score at:
Gitz: 7
Overlords: 7
Deepkin: 3
Thanks for reading and thanks, as always, to my opponent!
