Fantasy 2400 Points - Empire vs Gobbos

[Arguleon-veq]

A mate of mine has been working on a new army lately, mono goblins, as a fun army. Im not a competative fantasy player but the lads I play with are, usually placing very high at the tournaments they go. To our suprise this goblin army has been dominating lately. It got second out of 26 at a tournament last weekend and beat our other friends [who is top 10 in the country and recently did well at the masters] very competative vampire build by tabling it. He hadnt played against Empire with it though so I dusted off my models to give him a game.

As his list was using a comp pack for an upcoming tournament he is taking these goblins to I decided to use the same comp pack for my empire army. Max 4 Warmachines, Stanks count as 2 and it is 0-2 choices of Gryphs/Stanks. I obviously made my list an all comer list so there is a lot in here that is pretty useless vs gobbos.

Lvl4: Shadow
Witch Hunter: Brace of Pistols
Captain: Armour of Met Iron, Greatsword, BSB
Arch Lector: Speculum, Cloak of Ulric, Great Hammer, Heavy Armour

40 Spearmen: Shields, FC
Det - 20 Halberds
Det - 15 Handguns

5 Knights

5 Demigryphs: Banner, Mus
5 Demigryphs: Banner, Mus

Luminark of Hysh
Cannon
Cannon
Cannon
Mortar

My opponents list:

Gobbo Lord; Light Armour, Charm Shield
Night Gob Lvl4; Ruby Ring
Night Gob Lvl1; Scroll
Night Gob BSB; Posion Banner
Gobbo Hero on Wolf; Magic Wep
Gobbo Hero on Wolf; Magic Wep

50 Night Gob Archers; FC, 3 Fanatics
50 Night Gob Spears; FC, Nets, 3 Fanatics
Squig Herd; 20 Squigs, 10 Night Gobs

Rock Lobba
Rock Lobba
Doom Diver
Doom Diver

2 Wolf Chariots
2 Wolf Chariots
2 Wolf Chariots

Mangler
Mangler

Pump Wagon; All the good toys

Then he took these units because taking them at this tourny gets you extra tournament points;

20 Common Gobs; 1 Skulka
10 Arrer Boys
5 Boar Boys; Spears, Shields

[Arguleon-veq]

As with a lot of fantasy tournaments they are just playing battleline with a 20 point system so for every 150 points you have more than your opponent you take an extra point, so if you win by 151 you win 11-9, if you win by 301 you win 12-8 etc.

Terrain: The only terrain that come in to play was a hill partially in my depo zone with impassable rocks on both ends of it, a house on my left flank and large LOS blocking impassable ruins in the centre.

Deployment: I got a cannon and my handgunner det on the hill, down at the side of the hill I have my spears with all my characters in it with their halberds on their left. The luminark and mortar tucking in behind them. I deployed my knights central, one unitof gryphs screening my hill on my right flank and another unit of gryphs out on my left. The 2 other cannons I deployed quite centrally. I deployed them quite badly as he had so many more drops than me he could hold his war machines, as his dont need LOS he hid them behind the ruins in the centre from 2 of my cannons and a rock lobba out behind the house on my left to also hide from my central 2 cannons.

He had 2 chariot units, the boars and arrer boys on my right flank, his wolf darts and 1 chariot unit on my left. Then his spears central flanked by his archers and squigs. He also had a mangler on each flank and the pump wagon quite central.

Turn 1:

I got first turn, my lore of shadow is pretty poor vs gobbos but I cast maisma on his poison bow block to reduce their BS but he dispels. My knights move up ready to unleash fanatics next turn. My gryphs turn to stop his wolf characters getting around the house to get behind me and into my 2 cannons. My mortar killed 9 archers, one cannon killed the mangler on my left flank and another took 2 wounds from the mangler on my right flank. The third cannon misfired but was fine.

He moves up cautiously. He puts one wolf dart right in front of my gryphs to stop them doing pretty much anything unless I kill him but angle him so that once I kill him, if I dont pass my reform test I will have to take chariots in the flank. The other hides behind the house. No animosity. His magic missiles kill 1 knight then he gork'll'fix its them and downs another with his bows. Annoyingly I fail my panic test. He warmachines dont manage anything though.

Turn 2: 

The gryphs declare a charge on the gobbo wolf, I figure an average over-run should take me out the chariot charge arc anyway. My nights rally. All my magic manages is maisma on the archers and I luminark the mangler to finish it off. My mortar misses badly and a cannon misfire but is fine. Another doesnt bounce so doesnt reach its target the last takes out one of the chariots that im worried about hitting my demigryph flank.

Amazingly of my 6 demigryph attacks and 2 rider attacks, I hit with nothing at all!, luckily he breaks anyway and I run him down which does manage to take me out of the chariot charge arc.

In his turn he is cautious on my right flank so edges forward as he doesnt want to get charged by the gryphs out there. On my left his remaining wolf sneaks past my gryphs and ready to get a cannon next turn whilst his pump wagon makes a move on my right flank ready to get my gryphs out there next turn and hes out of the gryph charge arc so I can just charge it to deal with it. He unloads his magic on my knights again as he doesnt want me to release his fanatics but when the dust settles 1 is left. His war machines take out one of my central cannons.

Turn 3:

My lone knights bravely marches to his death to release all 6 fanatics from his 2 hordes, the knight dies but he aims 3 at the central impassable terrain to kill them so that they dont get in his own way and kill his own stuff.

Again my magic is uneventful. The cannon with the wolf character bearing down on it keeps its cool and shoots him down, the other shoots down the pump wagon to spare my demigryphs from 2d6 S5 impact hits ignoring saves.

He crashes his chariot into the gryphs and does manage 2 wounds before it is chopped down. He tries to line up on my right flank for a triple charge on my gryphs with 4 chariots and his boars. His magic and warmachines dont do too much.

Turn 4:

My left flank gryphs move up to threaten his common gobbos and nigt gobbo archers. I shoot down a chariot unit on my right flank to mess with his plans to triple charge my demigryphs as I dont think even gryphs can take that much S5 in a turn.

Knowing he cant take on the gryphs on my right flank now he skirts his boars down my flank ready to get around my hill and get a turn 6 charge on my handgunners or cannon on there.

He pours the rest of his fire into my left flank demigryphs and takes them down to 2 models.

Turn 5:

I charge the 2 demigryphs into the 20 common goblins, I fail with my attacks again and only just win but I do still break them and run them down. I get a cannon shot right down the flank of those sneaky boars and take them all out. I also kill another chariot, making its buddy panic.

His chariot doesnt rally whilst his archers turn to face my demigryphs. He does some wounds to them with his archers whilst his warmachines take out a cannon.

Turn 6:

Im quite a few points up and the only way my opponent can manage a draw is to kill my last 2 war machines last turn and he only has 1 rock lobba firing due to a misfire last turn. He will also have to finish off my left flank demigryph unit. I turn the demigrphs to face the archers and thats about it as my warmachines only manage to wound his rock lobba rather than kill it.

He fails animosity on the archers who then get an extra move towards my 2 grphs which brings him into charge range. He then gets the charge off. His rock lobbas then manage a kill each...my cannon....and my mortar. His chariot rallies saving him another 100 points.

Now its all down to the combat between his poison archers and my gryphs. My gryphs get 4 wounds including killing his lvl1 shaman. He gets 0 wound, but with his BSB, banner, charge, 2 ranks he is on 5 so he is winning by 1. I still have my stomps though, then I get snake eyes to wound! the gryphs lose combat but I pass on a 5.

We tally up the points and thanks to killing the level 1 I have just taken it by around 200 points.

Result: 11-9 Win to the Empire

Post Game Thoughts:

It was a very edgy game with lots of holding off and picking off points. I think that was always going to be the case as I couldnt risk advancing into his chaff and without it weakening me he couldnt win the straight up combats with me. If I hadnt killed the lvl1 last turn it would have been a draw thanks to that big swing. If my gryphs would have broken without killing him he would have actually won the game.

[BigToof]

Great game!

I really am a closet fan of fantasy, and I'm glad to see that you had a rocking battle.

Empire changed rather significantly from their last book, and I'm often surprised how much damage the demigryphs do.

Hoping to see more!

Best,
-BT

[Arguleon-veq]

The one problem I have with fantasy [well, im not really sure its a problem] is that if you get some decently matched armies, games often end up like this with them manouvering around each other, staying out of charge arcs/range, picking up the odd points. In the 20 point system this isnt too bad as its usually just an 11-9 or 12-8 but if your just playing a straight up winner takes all as in the rulebook you have a super tight game with a razor thin win taking the lot. I suppose that can make it more fun in a way though. I quite enjoy the tactical edging and point sniping.

My demi's are a constant dissapointment in combat, they just never kill anything for me, what they are great for though is to deny huge areas of the table to an opponent as they rightly fear them and they are very hard to shoot down so it keeps my lines safe without giving up points from them dying.