Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Pendraken Rules! => Warband => Topic started by: fred. on 19 April 2015, 09:29:16 PM

Title: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: fred. on 19 April 2015, 09:29:16 PM
Played my first proper game of Warband this afternoon - my eldest daughter want to play a wargame over the holidays and was happy to try Warband (not that she had that much choice in rules...)

She wanted an army that got lots of little troops - hobbits, dwarfs or goblins were her options. Goblins were selected as there is a list for them and I have enough figures to make an army.

I went with Taurians - mainly to try out a smaller elite force.

We went with 400 pts a side - mainly because I ran out of movement trays (so more stuff to buy!!)

Steph had a Chieftain (1d6+1), 4 x Warriors, 3 x Wolf Riders, Archers & Trolls
I had Chieftain (1d6), 2 Minotaurs, 3 Centaur Warriors & Unicorns.

I liked that as I was about 20 pts short, that I could downgrade the chieftain slightly and then be able to afford a 3rd centaur.

We setup terrain - with lots of it appearing in the bottom right corner. [As an aside I like the idea of crevices and sink holes as terrain, and will get some of these made]

Then we rolled up defend the camp as the scenario - Steph wanted to have the camp, so she was the defender.
I scattered a few tents around - but that wasn't good enough!
A request for a fire was placed (and I remember I had some bits in the dungeon accessories) This was the camp the goblins ended up with
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IGCYs7fz91I/VTQEy8y2SzI/AAAAAAAAEiw/WGTsD3eD-9M/s1152/IMG_0908.JPG)


Deployment
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1DNBCyJzr-0/VTQEuznukGI/AAAAAAAAEiw/PBrqRBuBktE/s1152/IMG_0901.JPG)
She deployed in a ring around the camp.
I deployed 2 units on the left, and the rest over on the far right.

The goblins went first, and rolled high for CP (getting 7 in total) - but even with all of these CPs they struggled to move - but got enough units moved to block easy the Taurians.
The Unicorns went into the forest (to use their Forest Walker special ability).

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uENyaCP947M/VTQEvU3AQVI/AAAAAAAAEiw/ssF1qM0-zKQ/s912/IMG_0902.JPG)
The Minotaurs at the end of the line failed to move. But the others managed to attack a unit of goblin warriors - and routed them. This probably should have killed them as their retreat was slightly blocked - but I wasn't sure so let them rout.


On the second turn the Goblins got high CP again, with the Taurians just getting a few.
Goblins attacked the Unicorns in the wood - this went badly for them!!
Wolf riders attacked the Centaurs.


On the far side there was a big dustup. As the centaurs came in they were able to clip the routing goblins and destroy them (though they probably would have been off the table at the end of the turn anyway).

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4o72M6eUo78/VTQEv1aaFyI/AAAAAAAAEiw/WnLQBiEdd7Y/s1024/IMG_0904.JPG)
This is the aftermath of the combat
Showing all the extra hits taken by units that couldn't fall back for taking 2 hits.
The goblins to the left have just routed from the centre of the fight.
The trolls were proving very tough with their high protection saving lots of hits, and Fear reducing the income attacks.


On the other flank the Unicorns routed a unit of goblins - while the Centaurs and Wolf Riders were stuck in a fairly ineffectual combat. The other goblin units on this side were struggling to move.

On the right side the Taurians were able to gang up on the Trolls (by this stage 1 Minotaur and 1 Centaur had routed) - but this still left 3 to attack the trolls. This was enough to rout the trolls.

The Unicorns charged the goblins out of the wood - which allowed them to get flanked on both sides, but the goblins were only able to roll 5 attack dice in total - which was enough to drive the unicorns back, but their high protection blocked all the wounds.

On the right the Centaurs made a lunge for the camp to try to win the game.
At this point Steph made a very clever judgement - her troops were too far away to attack the Centaurs - but her unit of archers was on the hill facing them - so she was hoping to get 2 hits on them to force them back. So despite the Minotaurs charging them - they fired at the Centaurs at the camp. She fed in CP after CP to try to get enough hits - finally getting 3.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IuHMQaMUDqU/VTQEytveQ-I/AAAAAAAAEiw/Deu1-dRS8lE/s1024/IMG_0906.JPG)
This was the final positions - when we had to stop for bed time (as its back to school tomorrow).

Looking at the victory conditions it seems that the Centaurs just contacting the camp was enough to win the game - but I had mis-read this as they had to stay in contact till the end of the turn (which actually seems better, as it is very easy to just charge through a gap to get to the camp).





Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 19 April 2015, 09:53:54 PM
Well played Steph!  :D

Great report, well written.
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: Bodvoc on 19 April 2015, 10:07:26 PM
Sounds like a great game.
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: fred. on 19 April 2015, 10:26:35 PM
Thanks chaps.

Yes, she got the hang of the game very quickly - and its great to see her work out a clever tactic.

She did have some appalling dice rolls for movement, and some really good ones for CPs.

I'm still getting to grips with all of the Warband rules, I'm sure we missed a few things, but generally its better to keep the game moving, and check things after. War band is quite different in style to the WM variants that I am most used to, but this is a good thing.

I do like the big bases, makes it quick to move units, and they look good.

I have realised in the photos its probably fairly hard to tell the sides apart as they look fairly similar as both are green + brown colour schemes. The Taurians have green mini dice for their Morale. The goblins have various dice, mainly as Steph picked some tiny dice, probably 5mm, at Phalanx last year.
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: fred. on 19 April 2015, 10:29:15 PM
One thing that would be good for Warband is a few other markers

Direct Charge
Powerful Hit
Routed

seem to be needed, locked in combat may be useful (and I'm sure I thought of another earlier, but now can't remember it...)

Leon - do you think you can fire up the laser cutter for these - the hits markers are very handy.
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: Luddite on 19 April 2015, 10:33:13 PM
Excellent batrep fred, and great to hear the younger generation getting into the melee!

:-bd
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: Techno on 20 April 2015, 06:30:02 AM
Very, very enjoyable 'Fred'.  :-bd
Thanks for posting !
Cheers - Phil
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: getagrip on 20 April 2015, 09:28:07 AM
Fun looking game.

Everyone seems to be saying how tough trolls and the like are. :-\
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: Leon on 20 April 2015, 10:10:06 AM
Quote from: fred    12df on 19 April 2015, 10:29:15 PM
One thing that would be good for Warband is a few other markers

Direct Charge
Powerful Hit
Routed

seem to be needed, locked in combat may be useful (and I'm sure I thought of another earlier, but now can't remember it...)

Leon - do you think you can fire up the laser cutter for these - the hits markers are very handy.

Very possibly, once we get past Salute we'll have a play about and see what else we need.

8)
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: Luddite on 20 April 2015, 11:53:26 AM
Yeah, these would be great!  Basically chits for the things you need to be reminded of.   :-bd
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: fred. on 20 April 2015, 06:25:19 PM
Quote from: getagrip on 20 April 2015, 09:28:07 AM
Fun looking game.

Everyone seems to be saying how tough trolls and the like are. :-\

The trolls are tough, but they are worth 3-4 normal units. And they went down quite quickly when I managed to attack them 3:1.

Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: getagrip on 21 April 2015, 05:37:16 PM
Quote from: fred    12df on 20 April 2015, 06:25:19 PM
The trolls are tough, but they are worth 3-4 normal units. And they went down quite quickly when I managed to attack them 3:1.



Balanced then?  :)
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: fred. on 21 April 2015, 08:23:54 PM
From my limited experience - yes.

The points seem to work fairly well - more powerful stuff is expensive, but you can have a lot of cheap stuff, which isn't useless. The hardest ones to get their worth are shooters, as they are quite hard to deploy effectively, but can be very powerful if they get key shots in.
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: jchaos79 on 22 April 2015, 06:38:18 AM
Great report!
Title: Re: [BATREP] Goblins vs Taurians
Post by: fred. on 22 April 2015, 12:48:51 PM
Quote from: fred    12df on 19 April 2015, 10:29:15 PM
One thing that would be good for Warband is a few other markers

Direct Charge
Powerful Hit
Routed

seem to be needed, locked in combat may be useful (and I'm sure I thought of another earlier, but now can't remember it...)

Leon - do you think you can fire up the laser cutter for these - the hits markers are very handy.

A couple more thoughts on extra MDF
A shieldwall maker - as this only applies if you don't move
A failed move marker - I just used spare 20mm bases for this. It's easy to remember which have moved, less so to remember which ones you attempted and failed vs the ones that you have just left for later.

I also tried out some 1p sabot base options. I think there are two main options

5 holes, 2 in the front rank, 3 in the second. With a stagger between them. Good for Wizards or Commanders
Or 8 holes in 2 ranks of 4. Good for troops based on pennies for other systems. This is a fairly standard movement tray.
8 holes