6→ Cyle Pool’s Goblins
Scenario: Hold the Line
2300 points
After my last report I got a challenge from the Dinolord himself, Cyle Pool.
Cyle brought his more for fun than Master’s goblins, for a more traditional match up.
Mimir hummed to herself as she checked the barrels of the new field organ gun, there was no saving the last one after a terror stomped on it.
She shuddered at the thought of the titan from the void, then pushed it out of her mind. There was a different battle today. Goblins. It’s almost a comfort.
Goblins are dangerous, wicked and cruel. Certainly not to be underestimated.
They march to war and bleed on the battlefield though. An enemy of old that a dwarf knows well. The age old battle between reckless contraptions and orderly engineering.
No apearing from the void, no dread in the air, no shifting shadows nor creeping into dreams.
Mimir knew it was only a matter of time before that would happen again.
While The Fools had offered resistance and saved some, the Twilight Kin had gotten away with captives and loot after their last encounter. They will be back for more.
The fear and sorrow that the Twilight Kin left in the wake of their raid will also attract nightstalkers to the area.
The Fools have to save their strength.
The orders were to give the goblins a bloody nose to “encourage” then to find easier pickings. Target the actual goblins and don’t lose dwarfs trying to bring giants down. Hopefully that would see the goblins move on.
Lists:
The same number of drops as my list, but my dwarfs have a slight edge in US.
There are a lot of extra attacks going around.
Rampage and slayer as well as the bangstiks on Me 4+ will make for swingy combat results.
The Sp 10 fleabags and 14" charge on the goblin titans means that I’ll be taking the charges doing swingy damage.
The wiz with Alchemist’s Curse and Hex with the periscope is a nice idea.
The usual list, but with artefacts switched out to get hex on the flame priest. The wiz gives me an opportunity to try it out.
Deployment:
My centre with all its US goes in the middle where the points are.
The field on the right looks like a good place for sharpshooters with nice LoS and hindering charges.
Which leaves the left for brocks and rangers.
The downside is that there isn’t enough of the field in my deployment zone to give cover (same goes for the pond) and the blocking terrain in my deployment zone splits by attacking units.
The rangers scout up aggressively, do that they are close enough to the woods on the left to deal with anything trying to come through.
Goblin Turn 1:
The goblins get going right away. Everything moves up and shooting sees two units gone.
A troop of sharpshooters and the left brock troop (dwarf right flank).
The rangers have over extended. One regiment gets blocked up by the bangstik king and the other’s flank gets threatened by a giant. Neither can back out of the threats.
Dwarf Turn 1:
The dwarfs have to respond in kind and go for it too.
The rangers can’t back out of the flank threat, so choose to get flanked by hinderd rabble instead of a giant and keep the slasher busy.
The other rangers waver the leading bangstik.
The brock regiment moves up to be a threat and the lord on large beast moves to stop the brocks getting double charged by bangstiks. They should be able to take a vharge from one and get some vengeance.
I send all my mastiffs to chew up the rabble in the centre, putting on 8 damage, so that my ironclad can see it off later.
Return fire sees off a sharpstick thrower.
The brock troop on the right goes in to block things up but don’t get the waver I was hoping for.
Goblin Turn 2:
The nimble king on chariot can charge the brocks with a regiment of bangstiks and the blow right through them.
The other bangsticks pick a fight with the lord on large beast and put more damage on than I would like.
The slasher and rabble waver the rangers keeping them busy, do will be busy for another turn.
The goblin centre backs away from the hill.
On the right; the nimble fleabags disengage by sliding 5" (the width of thier base) to the left and pivoting 90°, which ends more than 1" away. This makes room for the rampage giant and Magwa to make short work of them.
Another troop of sharpshooters gets shot off.
The brock riders understood their orders.
They had seen the horrors from The Void and agreed that their strength was needed to fight that enemy.
The red rage, however, is not something that can be reasoned with. When the arrows and sharpsticks began to fly, the beserkers knew they could not stand on a battlefield and not fight.
When the fleabags were upon them, some lost themselves to rage and old grudges against greenskins and ran off after goblins. Either meeting their end from a bang or chasing a more cowardly goblin from the field.
Others, especially those whose grudge lay with nightstalker or the elves who embraced The Void, quit the field to bring their strenght anothet day.
Dwarf Turn 2:
The dwarf centre pushes up, it needs to deal with what’s in front of it before the flank threats arrive.
On the left the lord on large beast gets a waver on the bangstiks while the rangers see off the bangstik leader and reform to face the threat comming around their flank.
Countershooting is not as effective as goblin shooting, but a sharpstick thrower is wavered.
The organ gun picks off the sneaky fleabags.
Goblin Turn 3:
The nimble goblins on the left easily avoid the rangers to start threatening the dwarf line in the centre.
The centre engages, but the dwarfs hold.
The wiz gets to work on the steel behemoth with Alchemist’s Curse.
The right flank and woods get cleared out.
Dwarf Turn 3:
In the centre the ironclad charge the mastiff mangled rabble, but the goblins show insane courage.
The left most ironclad hold position. They probably can’t take another front charge from the giant alone, so getting flanked is overkill that keeps an enemy unit busy.
The steel behemoth moves so that the building covers its flank and starts burning goblins, aiming at the rabble horde.
The flame priest puts a hex on the wiz!
Rangers dodge bangstiks while the lord on large beast routs the other bangstick.
The banner with boomstick picks off the damaged sharpstick thrower.
Goblin Turn 4:
The goblin wiz continues with Alchemist’s Curse despite hex, but only takes 2 damage.
The bangstiks get the message of overkill and go big on the ironclad’s flank. All those atracks include 9 rolls of 6, which puts 9 damage on themselves!
Their reform gets the steel behemoth stuck.
The king on chariot angles for a better position while shooting the shieldbreakers with help from the winggit.
The slasher rampages through the remaining rangers and turns to face the dwarf lord on large beast.
Rangers have kept the slasher busy as long as they can.
The sharpshooters have already signaled their withdrawal, so it is time to move move onto the next task is signalled.
The rangers quit the field to go secure or evacuate as many of the surrounding villagers and their supplies as possible. While the goblins are busy.
Dwarf Turn 4:
The ironclad rout the rabble in the middle and turn to face the oncoming giant.
The shieldbreakers hold up the king on chariot.
The steel behemoth and flame priest burn some more goblins and both get a waver.
Which is great for the horde, but less than expected for against the damaged bangstiks.
It also makes the standard bearer’s move not worth it, moving short to get a shot in, but therefore in range to get charged.
The lord on large beast charges the slasher and does 2 damage. Which puts an end to any hope I had of scoring on that flank.
The great brock snarled, but its rider calmed it.
He had earned the honour to ride as Norgrunn did and seeking glory was so tempting…
Those were not his orders though.
He had to keep the slasher busy so that as many dwarfs as possible, including himself, could make it back to the Fool’s Hold.
This is where really feel that luck is against me this game.
Cyle is blowing through my units and I’m getting wavers.
More on that later though.
Goblin Turn 5
Coffin nails are hammered in. Jo’os eats the standard bearer and the ironclad need the inspiring.
The lord on large beast holds his ground though.
Dwarf Turn 5:
The bangstiks and rabble horde are shot off!
The lord on large beast does minimal damage again.
Turn 6
The goblins clean up.
With one wavered dwarf left we call it there.
*With most of the goblins themselves fleeing and the giants approaching the retreat is called, as are the orders. *
Mendeleev and the steel behemoth linger to punish more goblins with flame, but stay too long.
The steel behemoth crew find themselves unable to manoeuvre out! With limited space and damage from the wicked goblin magic, the crew are forced to abandon the mighty machine.
Surely Mimir has the knowledge and parts to build a new one, right?
The goblins appear to have plans for it…
Their delight at their prize distracts them for just long enough to let Mendeleev escape.
After game thoughts:
That did not go well.
As alluded to above, it’s hard not to feel unlucky.
My dwarfs got smashed when I, not unreasonably, expected at least some units to hold.
While I didn’t get the swing of luck that I needed.
In my experience, though, that kind of feeling makes something feel worse than it is.
I didn’t get the lucky break I needed, but I was in a position where i needed a lucky break.
I didn’t have much of a plan and my own deployment got me stuck with my centre and right flank unable to support each other.
A bit of luck might have seen more dwarfs left at the end, but I doubt they would have been in a winning position.
Cyle didn’t only roll well to blow through units, he also showed that he’s a much better player than I am.
With a few subtle moves and masterful use of nimble units.
I’m not playing like a dwarf. I’ll be kind to myself and chalk it up to being rusty.
I definitely should have given my battle plan a bit more thought. Sharpshooters are great, but don’t do enough damage to base my battle plan on their firing lanes
I’m thinking in terms of attack vectors, which is the norm for me, but not how dwarfs work in KoW.
Looking at the last two games, I’m expecting too much from my rangers again. They’re great versatile units, but not a spear point in an army that doesn’t work that way to begin with.
On to my list:
Hex didn’t do much. A goblin wiz is less valuable than a steel behemoth, so doesn’t care about taking damage to cast Alchemist’s Curse on it.
I also didn’t have LoS very often, so definitely need a boost in height for it.
The lord on large beast was out on the flank and in combat most of the game, so would not have done much better.
Cyle’s list has the solution though, the Ej Periscope.
The problem that creates is that to take it I have to drop the Inspiring Talisman.
Which brings me to the organ gun.
It’s in the list to add damage, but has been mostly avoided for two games and I’m having trouble finding shooting lanes already.
For 5 points (saved from the Inspiring Talisman) I can get inspiring and more mobile shooting in the form of a warsmith.
With the new longer range their shooting attack can add damage as well as making sharpshooters or the steel behemoth elite.
Which leaves enough point to give the lord on large beast the Ord of Towering Presence.
Which could have come in handy this game.