Turn 1The Overlords had the first turn, and they had a choice to make: move north and shoot the Ungors off that objective in the hopes that their forces could fan out to claim the other two before my ambush claimed their DZ OR sit back in their DZ, castle-up, and hope my assault would fail such that they could putter north when they pleased and take my objectives at their leisure.
My opponent chose the former, steaming north with his frigate and blasting the unfortunate ungors into oblivion with pistol, cannon, and carbine. In his DZ, his troops shuffled around, trying to get the most defensible position they could in anticipation of the beastly onslaught to follow.
The dwarves claimed my central objective. The other two I had? Both undefended.
The Frigate Attacks!
The Duardin deployment zone stands lightly defended
It was all Kraggoth could do to keep his herd from pouncing the moment the sky-duardin alighted and began to unload equipment - heavy cargo that would weigh them down in their attempt to run down the unruly ungors looting the north end of the village.
The ungors, meanwhile, had begun to realize their role in this battle. They formed themselves up into loose ranks - it would do them no good. Around him, Kraggoth could tell that the beastmen now got the joke he had played on their lessers. "Bait," the Bloodkine grumbled with a throaty chuckle. "Little ones as bait for littler ones...
The frigate took off, heading full speed towards the hapless ungors, its weapons thumping and roaring their anger at the beasts. The duardin left behind a token force to help the villagers secure their homes against attack. They swaggered among them like the battle was already won, like they were the heroes come to save the day.
"Now?" the Bloodkine asked.
Kraggoth permitted himself a cruel grin, "Now."In my half of the turn...AMBUSH!
I brought everything on in the Overlord's deployment zone, all within charge range of the two Arkanaut Companies, but
out of pistol range (because pistol range is only 9"). Only Kraggoth, my Great Bray Shaman, was out of range, but it was his job to hang back and secure the only undefended objective in the overlord deployment zone. Before he came on, he laid down a curse on the central Arkanauts to the tune of 3 mortal wounds to them for 1 to himself, but they rallied (using one of their abilities) and got 2 out of 3 guys back, so that made no big difference.
The main show went like this: the Bullgors charged the arkanauts in the ruined building and crushed them utterly and easily. The gors charged the central arkanauts (the ones I'd cursed) and bowled them down with the Gor Stampede ability. The Bestigors also charged them and I rolled
terribly for both mobs and I only killed 6 of the 9 remaining dwarves. The cockatrice, true to form, failed its charge.
However, my Shaman looted his objective, the Bullgors easily looted their own, and I outnumbered the central dwarves such that I was able to loot that one, too - that's all three, all in one turn. Game over.
Game Over, man!
It was over quickly. Those duardin who survived the attack, quickly retreated to their frigate and flew away - so much for their heroism. Then, the beasts were given free reign to enjoy the pleasures of the little village. The smell of smoke and blood mingled in the air. The screaming would probably continue into the night.
Kraggoth paid it no heed. Instead, he searched through the discarded cargo, the chests and lockboxes, the crates and sacks, for the thing his staff had promised. Where was it? Where?
Then he found an ancient, rusty chest - something that must have been buried in the depths of the earth - marked with an ancient and corroded sigil of Sigmar, the storm-god. Karggoth smote the sigmarite lock from its loop with a contemptuous gesture and, with a kick, threw back the lid.
There, locked away and surrounded by warding runes, was the great horn of a mighty shaggoth, hollowed out and banded in brass and iron. It was cold to the touch, as though the frigid mountain air that made it still clung to its trappings. Sound this, Kragggoth knew, and no beast in a hundred miles could deny its call.
The bray shaman grinned. It had been a good day.Post-mortemWhile this was a textbook example of an overwhelming Beast Ambush and it was very cinematic in how it played out, I wouldn't call this an especially
interesting game. This, by and large, was the fault of the mission. This mission afforded my opponent no good solutions. Either he sat on his deployment zone and resigned himself to a slugfest he would have trouble winning OR he moved out and potentially lose everything at the chance of winning the game. I suppose if I'd failed a few of those crucial charges, that would have been one thing, but given that most of my units get a +2 charge coming out of ambush, that seems a bad bet to make.
Anyway, I think this is an indication to us that we should finally get around to playing matched play games, which probably offer better balance. Well, I hope so, anyway. This mission was so strongly in my favor, it wasn't funny. Similar to how the last game I played (against the Bonereapers), they *also* were heavy favorites for that one.
Anyway, it was a quick game, at any rate, and looked good on the table. It also meant I completed my quest to find a new relic and the Brayblast Trumpet is now added to my roster. Summoning Gors is back on the menu!
Thanks for reading, and thanks, as always, to my opponent!
