Ogre Kingdom Gutstar vs. Tomb Kings

My regular ogre player uses this type of lists all the time. He first put "dummy" gnoblars and sabretusk, then iron blaster and lastly the ironguts. As expected he did't want to face my arrow mayhem. I was forced to deploy archers before my opponent deployed ogres. I used full vanguards with horse men. H1 and H2 wheeled a bit. All the ogre characters went to Iron Guts and all my characters went to that enourmous archer block.

Magic:

I rolled very badly with spell generation. My roll was 2, 4 , 5 ,6. After long consideretaion I decided to swap Usirian's Incantation of Vengeange to Desert wind. My main idea here was that -1 t would outweight movement penalty for ogre horde and it would help me alot when in close combat. So my spells are Desert wind, Protection, Desiccation and skullstorm.

Butcher with Maw got The Maw spell. Opponent took it for the fun of it.

Beast Butcher olled penn pelt from beast, but opponent swapped for wyssan.

Slaughtermaster Comet of Casandroa, chain lightinng, harmonic convergence and curse of the midgnight wind.

On the bright side I won the first turn.

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Analazy of deployment

River: That river really helps me alot. He cannot march past it and keeps the ogres at bay.

Army desing: I should have designed my army better and with MUCH more consideration. First of all, I should have splitted those archers in to 3 unit. Pehrpas 2 x 20 and one 50 with kha. I prolly should have taken another catapult. When I did this list I just thinked that ok, they get to shoot more and since khalida increaes performance but it was expected that they had to move a lot and for some unknow reason I didn't remember that volley shot couldn't be used if moved. I didn't even play this wrong I just realized it when I deployed it and was like aww....

Archer Deployment: Archer prolly should have been deployed in the middle. That Irongut is pretty big unit (he deployed it mainly just avoid catapult shots at the first turn. He couldn't hide too much behind the building. Perhpas only few models wouldn't been able to shoot behind it. But when i did my deployment I just looked up it and was like ok that is the worst place ever since the building... BUT the rule is that the model has to see atleast one part of the target... And no hard cover (i prolly forgotten that when I did make the call)...... Another reason was that I wanted to have my casket behind fence in order to get more safety from cannon ball. Another way would have been to deploy those archers in left flank. Reason to this would be that those chariots would have put little "pressure" to the iron guts on the right, and he couldn't utilize that settlement so greatly. On the other hand then he would have much more freedom of movement due the reason that river isn't holding him up. Still I think that would have been tactically much more decent choice. But I allready deployed those horsemens there, so I pretty much missed that chance. I dare to say that this was the most important thing in the game and I prolly lost the game due this deployment. That extra archer units would have relaly payed off when they would increased my drop count and my opponent would have been forced to reveal iron guts first...

Catapult deployment: Ok the catapult it self is pretty ok as deployment. The thing is that I should have used one of those horsemen unit as "guard" for it...

Magic: Oh bloody hell. No choice on rolls, I got two hexex which are "useless" unless i manage to kill Rune Maw bsb with lucky shot. I didin't get Smiting which was the main spell I wanted. That was bad roll, only way I could have improved the odds in this list would have been including hero mage with nehekhara. But I actually think it would be pretty waste of points. If I would have played 3 archer units insted that one mongoloid horde, then that extra mage could have been worth it. Mainly due desert wind and ability to go backwards for in best case scenario second shooting.

Movement pretty much as seen here.

On magic I got Desert winds so chariots & archers I used venom staff to shoot a magic missile to one of the gnoblar units. Trued 6 dicing casket against iron blaster, but that got dispelled.

In shooting phase i was at range of the next gnoblar unit and shootet it. It managed to survive panic test. Chariots tried to shoot sabertusks, and catapult tried lucky shot on Ogre BSB., but that got scatteed.

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Turn analyzi:

- I really should have shooted sabertusk.

- I should have used horsemens to better protect casket / skull catapult.

Gnoblars tried long charge to horsemen and managed to finish it. This picture is little off from reality since that gnoblar unit was in 14 inch apart from the horsemen. Failed rally on gnoblars and they were out. My opponent decided to stay put with those two remianing gnoblars.

Iron guts turned a little and advanced couple inches. Sabertuks moved and went in 1 inch from chariots, so their movement was hindered greatly. This scale is little off, thos two sabertusk were little over 6 inches part so they wouldn't panic each other...

In magic phase real game breaker happened when Slaughtermaster caster bigger comet near casket (blue marker) and got IF, caskaded wounded every single ogre (in the next turn comet dropped down, and didn't do a single wound.)

In shooting phase IB missfired and got that swingin missfire. Ironblaster 2 tried to shoot casket, but hitted the fence. ( How can I remove terrain piece? )

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Turn Analyöe:

- Sabertusk really played right and I ashamed that i let them play me out so easily =(

I charged with horsemen to gnoblars and wiped them. Reformed from victory.

I made a concience decision to let that catapult die. I didn't want to use my archers or chariots to hunt them down and lose precious turns to get that ogre horde at bay. In retrospective I really should have used horsemen for guard duty.

Necrosphinx went behind fence.

In magic Comet crashed down, was it whopping double 1 for hits so total 4 hits and the range didn't get any other model than casket. And no wounds for it.I managed to cast desert wind again and archers & chariots got extra movement. Casket .... if i remember correctly managed to cast but failed to damage Ironblaster.

In shooting archers/chariots didnät have any targets. Tried lucky shot BSB, managed to roll hit, ogre passed Look out SIr, and did only 2 wounds, so no panic test was caused since no casualty occured.

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Turna analyle:

- I really think that in this particular scenario it was right call to ignore those dogs with chariots and archers. The real problem was that I didn't turn my horsemen to face those sabertusk. I probably had this idea at the time that I considered catapult a lost cause and i focused all of my redirecting power towards iron guts.

- I realised just now that I actually could have moved Khalida out of the unit and use her magic missile to get rid off those sabertuskss. In this game situation that 4+ poisoned archers really didn't have anything to do... Too bad I didn't realise this while playing ;(

- Magic was pretty satisfying, but mainly due the fact that ogres lacked level 4 and had only level 1.

Two of the sabertusk charged and killed catapult.

My opponent was forced to advance with haste so he swift reformed ogres to 6 wide formation and advanced right near the river (no in it so it was still mystery at the moment.

Gnoblars turned to face casket.

Magic was pretty much nothing

At shooting Ironblaster 1 missfired again and destroyed himself. Ironblaster 2 tried to kill necrosphinx but again fence got in the way (again i don't know how to remove those terrain pieces.)

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Turn analyze:

- Those sabertuks really got their share from the point perspective.

I moved with the horsemen to the river, it turned out to be river of light. I actually just rolled which spell it shoots then I remembered that I have a choice of not going there as mysterious terrain rules dictates... I said to this my opponent, but I have this idea that "you need to pay for stupidity", so since I allready rolled for the spell and got shems burning gaze from there. I managed to roll was it 6 hits, but then 5 wounds and none 6 for armour save.

Anorther horsemen started to chase gnoblars.

Necrosphinx flew off from ironguts charge (that angle is actually wrong, it was more

In magic I managed to do 3 wounds on ironblaster with the casket. .After that I used large desert wind and unfortunately casket was 25 inches away. if it would have been closer it could have moved behind another section of fence and would have been "defending" fence, ( I ain't sure does warmachines get that defensive bonus from fences) I decided to turn necrosphinx towards ironguts. I was farely confident that casket could nail last ironblaster.

In shooting chariots managed to shoot few shots to ogres and I got was it 5 shots with archers. I managed to do 1 wound!

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Turn analyzy:

- Remember rules...Don't let your own troops die for nothing. Well there is 4 "positive" and 3 negative light spells. But I really should have let ogreplayer reveal the river and use those horsemen more properly. In the next turn they really could have been "most important" unit in game.

- Magic was great and that large Desert Wind really payed off in terms of movement and it really surprised my opponent.

Gnoblars failed charge. Ironguts charged to horsemen. River shot burning gaze again, but no wounds. He managed to do reform just so that he didn't touch the river, and he measured a good angle to deny archers attacks due front.

Magic phase he realised that he could do The Maw and if he missfired I couldn't land it in his unit since he was in close combat. I dispelled it. The he used wyssans on IG.

In shooting ironblaster managed to do 4 wounds on sphinx.

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Turn Analyze

- That sabertusk behind my archer unit was brilliant. It denied my swift reform, i couldn't move back etc.

I was in real peril now. At this moment I had 41 bs 3 poisoned shooting attacks. I could have wheeled a bit to get all my archers to attack but that would resulted in total of 33 shots. I couldn't do swift reform in order to increase my ranks since that bloody hounddog was behind me. So I decided to stay put.

Magic Ogre used Hellsheart, it neede 4+ to reach my mage and luckily he rolled 3 so no effect from that. managed to kill ironblaster with casket. Then I casted 5+ ward to my unit but i got bad dice result and my opponent dispelled it. Then I decided to use skull strom and hoped that it would have been left in between and perhaps tried the first time for it. Did it in large and IF. My mage got powerdrain and I rolled 3, lost every other spell except Desert Wind (most devastaing was that protection... my only combat healer and really something that prolly would have saved enough skeletons in order to survive rest of the game... Any way that skull storm was so underwhelming (as one should expect, was it only 3 wounds)

Shooting was nice, was it total of 11 wounds to ogre unit. We actually remembered that Banestone at this moment and it really helped me to get some wounds. Too bad, I rolled quite a few poisoned attacks and little less average. I really could see that Khalida being absolutely devastating combo in the hands of better player than I.

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Turn analyze

- This was the perhaps the BIGGEST mistake I made in entire battle In retrospective I should have moved that necrosphinx so that is would have blocked iron guts charge. That way I could have utilized another turn of shooting perhaps even full board volleyshot. That sphinx only had 1 wound left and I was facing a battle that really was going to be devastaing in terms of combat resolution. Losing by 2 wuold mean that it will be toasted. When I realised this i though ok I can use bubble deesert wind, but sphinx was about 27 inches away from the mage... And when my Horsemen died last turn to that River, I could have used them in this redirect duty, that I originally intended for them...

- Skullstorm was next to nothing. Even in best case scenario it really couldn't done much damage and the risk was too high. I don't say that I would have won, but certainly I would have much better chance of winning if I had not used it.

All of his units charged. Ogres managed to roll 10 for charge distance and menaged to get that d3 impacthits.

In magic he managed to cast wyssans to ogres. Vortex scattered away from board.

I used Make Way with Khalida and tried to kill those hounds from the back. I rolled like hell and missed all attacks in round. ( I realized after game that she had ASF, so she would have got Rerolls.) That Tomb Prince with heroes swords was amazing, 7 attacks on str 8! I killed his Ogres challenged and i accept it with champion. That challenge got 5 skeleton attacks denied (oh god I hate challenge rule set... IMO they are great as cinematic, but the rules is just awful. Especially that no where to run no where to hide) Anyhow, I managed to do decent ammount damage back and my opponent forget to use his heavy armor. Nevertheless that ogrestar hits like bullettrain and about 60 models died due slay and combat resolution together...This time I remembered hierophants regeneration, but I didn't save nearly as much as "average" suggest

. Those sabertusks also had great success of killing skeleton archers. And since I was in combat in front / rear I couldn't even try combat reform as loser (all though that is slim snake eyes)

Casket survived gnoblar attack.

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Turn analyze:

- It was really bad that he could drive his horde to far side and wasn't in the vicinity of Banestone. That would have helped alot, since I was wounding only with 6 (cause of the wyssan).

Combined charge to the back rank.

I didn't have any spells to cast since I only had desert wind and khalidas magic missile.

Casket Falled in the hands of the gnoblars.

I did rather less damage with the impact hits from chariots. I got 12 hits from the 3d6 and wounded only 3. Necrosphinx got only one wound with the str 10 (too bad it wasnt HKB). My Prince once again shined and killed Ogre BSB and Champion (allthough the champ was wounded) I also had extremly lucky with sekelton attacks and almost killed his full health T6 W4 bruiser with just 8 sekelton attacks, got 4 wounds but he saved 2 of them. Khalida luckily killed two sabertusk from the back end before they could attack.. I lost combat still with 7. Those ogres really grinded the remianing skeletons. We actually played this little wrong, those back rank ogres should have been hitting in the rear. But in retrospective those chariots would have died more easily than archers since archers had ws 5 and regeneration 6. Those ogres had str 7 at the time, and they would have hitted chariots with more ease.. Necrosphinx died, I was left with musician, banner bearer, hierophant, khalida and prince.

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Turn analyze:

- Those rear charges just weren't enough. Allthough if I wouldn't done them I would have lost the combat with 15 and that would have meant I would have been only with my prince or khalida and hierophant left. Then at the next turn they would have died, and ogres reformed and then I would have a frontan assault from necrosphinx / chariots (after hierophant crumble)... So in this particular scenarion that was perhaps the best thing to do and hope for the best.

I had a glimpse of hope in this combat when Khalida died and his curse dealt nice damage to the unit. I was hoping that my prince would also died do the curse, since I lost the combat with only something like 2 in this round. With a little luck those curses could have caused extra CR and my last surviving chariot and hierophant could have in best case scenario broke the ogres and win the game... Anyhow that didn't happend. Prince actually again did excellent damage as did the Khalida with her poison. Those darn 3 chariots on the back still gave too much CR in combat. There was 5 regular ogres, butcher and bruiser left in the unit when the game ended.

So total anhilation at turn 5.