Battle Report: Goblins vs Undead

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

What ho chaps!

Introduction
Thursday night my old friend Mark Gates and I set about our first game of Warband.
Before this report goes further, please accept three factors:
1) The Undead reinforcements had only arrived on Monday, I was lucky to have got a base coat and inks on them.
b) I had not seen the rules since early August, and had not been able to reacquaint myself with the more subtle rules.
iii) I knew the army Mark was using, but only had 10 minutes to do mine, so it's probably wrong! c'est la vie!

The Lists:
Mark went with 'classic' Undead.
Undead Lord (d6) with Powerful and Regenerate 103
Necromancers (d6) 64
Skeletal Warriors x2 68
Zombies x2 with Regenerate and Impetuous 100
Skeletal Archers 58 with powerful and slow
Wraiths and Spirits 101
489

My Army of Free Goblitopia
Big Jason on his Chariot (d6+1 General with Fierce 90
Red Cloak and other shaman (d6) 64
Archers x2 80
Warriors x2 56
Wolf Riders x3 84
Giant Spiders 44
Trolls 90
498

Terrain selection:
Mark chose 2 small patches of impassable terrain.
I chose my new village and went large and a road.
We rolled for placement of the village first, sector 1, an impassable disappeared, the other ended up in 1, and guess where the road ended up?
1!
I own about 40' of road, and got to deploy 6" between the village and road edge!!!

So, lots of lovely, rolling, open terrain and a dense cluster, perfect for Wolf Riders.

Scenario:
We randomised and it was...
Through The Fog
Random deployment in groups of threes.
Oh come on!!!
Mark quickly pointed out that knowing my luck I would roll all 5s (opponent places your units).
He was almost right!!!



Mark's first unit went down in sector 2, I ended up with two battle groups near base edges in 3&4, as I didn't want to be rear attacked, however it does result in a potentially nasty -1 protection dice, which Undead ignore for being near a base edge, Mark immediately also rolled a 3&4 so was deployed in my flank, causing hits in the fog.
My general's group (general and shaman) then ended up behind Mark's Necromancers and archers, causing hits too, but the Wolf Rider group was flanked by Mark's general and a unit each of zombies and skeletons, all would be well if I got the initiative.

The real kicker was my group of two archers with a warrior base. A useful stand off unit as they out ranged Mark, and could stand toe-to-toe in a fight.
And they rolled a 5!
So Mark deployed them all facing each other, tucked behind the town, in sector 1!
Mark claimed 'The three units had been sent to guard the graveyard and were spending their time staring down rabbit holes looking for zombies, except the plains outside the village were an ancient battlefield and full of useful bodies!'
Poop! Over 100 points basically out of the fight then!!!
Flank hits went in, One unit of Wolf Riders took a hit, who failed to save so did the trolls, who were down to morale 1, they took a long time to regenerate that!
It would all be okay if I could win the initiative (+1 general)

Nope!
2-6
Mark piled into my Wolf Riders with his general, and advanced his supporting skeletons and zombies towards the other Wolf Riders.
With his Shamen and Archers he stood off and shot. The wraiths started their epic across table sprint!
Big Jason charged the archers in the rear, while the other Wolf riders got involved vs the Undead!
Mistakes 1&2
Archers and mages
They can't shoot when engaged, we had about three turns where they did, oops!
In the first turn the Necromancers and archers targeted the trolls, both hit (4times), but the Necromancers chose to throw three fireballs upgraded to Powerful, along with the Poweful archers, took the trolls down to one morale in a turn! 

As we got used to the combat factors  my trolls made it out of their corner and hit the Skeleton Archer in the front as Big Jason continued to chew lumps out their rear!
Meanwhile my Shaman stand sent a fireball into the back of Mark's Necromancers, to try and distract them from the Trolls!

It was now becoming clear how much trouble I was in, I was taking loads of hits from flanking undead, extra hits for having flanks exposed and...
Powerful!
Powerful hurts!
Powerful and Fear is brutal! (-1 attack, -1 save dice)
Powerful, Fear and sitting within a base width of the edge is a very quick death indeed! (net -2 saves, usually on 3 or more hits, with no reply).
Ouchies!

Meanwhile on the other flank, the two stands of magic users decided to handbag each other!
Hits shown by damage, counters show powerful hits!


The slow demise of my Wolf Riders

Undead Lord, Skeletons, Zombies and Wraiths take the Wolf Riders apart, it was NOT going well!


The Archers and Necromancers succumb to the forces of Goblitopia, and the foot race starts to save the wolf riders before Mark's extra zombies and skeletons arrive!


So that didn't work then!


And over in the far corner, the Goblin reinforcements really fail to move!


The last Wolf Rider was swamped, but with some seriously boosted saves, held on!


Even the trolls couldn't cope with that, Big Jason heads in to combat.

Charging, Fierce, 4 dice, minus 1 for fear, ouch!
And with that, the Spiders were squashed by a combination of Wraiths and zombies, well over 250 points down, the Goblins break!

Superb game, with a great narrative, a well deserved win for Mark who completely had the drop in me all game.
We were in hysterics for most of the game!

Factors to learn for next time (two weeks, vs another undead and another Mark):
Exposed Flanks are deadly, if you are caught in small groups like this scenario starts, if you get hit you are toast! If this was a straight fight, I had more units, heavier hitters and I suspect I would have been a hard army to break, with Wolves around flanks.

Fear is nasty, especially combined with powerful, the Undead Lord wasn't even either of the heavy choices, if she was she would have ripped through me in minutes! Add to that Regeneration, Undead generals are a very powerful enemy indeed.

Having fast troops like Wraiths, Spiders or Wolf Riders and Trolls is great, but if you are caught near your baseline, you will never get to rally them! The break (2BW) then run two more, and are off table before you can rally! Big Jason had the points to rally twice, but too late, they were orft!

Did I enjoy it? Yes
Mark did too, but he's the type of player who likes a little loss so he can learn, so he's unsure whether he would play again, as after such a massive win he wants to keep his 100% record!

A cool rule set, great scenario, but man I was out played!

[Steve J]

Sounds like you had great fun and hope you get a re-match soon.

[Luddite]

Its and interesting scenario to start with eh?  It breaks up the usual flow of the game into a swirling mess.

Really glad you enjoyed it.  Looks like it was a lot of fun.   

[petercooman]

Nice report!

Strange scenario though, bit too random for my tastes   

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

And a faceache share too, cool!

[Techno]

Well...I liked it !
Cheers - Phil

[Luddite]

Nice report!

Strange scenario though, bit too random for my tastes   

Its a real tactical challenge.   

[petercooman]

Its a real tactical challenge.   

Maybe, but one fifth of the army being in a village so far away from the battle and not making it anyway near where the fighting is, with everything else so up close from the start, seems strange. Don't have the rules so don't know how it happened, so i'll just ponder no more 


What are the damage tokens lemmey? They look like plasticard pieces, a bit like pirates of the spanish main?

[Bodvoc]

Great batrep and good to hear you are enjoying the game. You could swap forces and play the same scenario again?

[Luddite]

Maybe, but one fifth of the army being in a village so far away from the battle and not making it anyway near where the fighting is, with everything else so up close from the start, seems strange. Don't have the rules so don't know how it happened, so i'll just ponder no more 


What are the damage tokens lemmey? They look like plasticard pieces, a bit like pirates of the spanish main?

The 3-unit blocks are deployed in random table quarters.  So its actually possible to keep your army relatively unified.  The 3 units sent to the town will have been a '5' result where your opponent gets to place the 3-unit block. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

It's a really nice twist in random deployment, 1-4 of a die are quarters of the table, 6 the owner chooses, but a roll of 5 is a brilliant twist! Your opponent can deploy your forces anywhere on table. Seeing as the large town had impassable terrain in front, it was a long walk round.
It didn't help that those three units couldn't group move due to the General being elsewhere, and it costs a Base Width to turn 180 degrees, Mark cleverly set up my troops so they were all higgledy-piggeldy, so it shut me down. In the fog, the units had been separated looking for undead!

The damage tokens are from an old Star Wars game by the same company and are plasti-card!

[petercooman]

The damage tokens are from an old Star Wars game by the same company and are plasti-card!

Thought it was something like that!

The 3-unit blocks are deployed in random table quarters.  So its actually possible to keep your army relatively unified.  The 3 units sent to the town will have been a '5' result where your opponent gets to place the 3-unit block. 

I get all that, but they moved what? A few inches?

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Well...I liked it !
Cheers - Phil

But your easy pleased.

Good report, but UNPAINTED figures.

IanS

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Not unpainted, unfinished old bean!