The Tournament
This was a local tournament between 16 of us at 750pts. We were given our matchups and had a couple of weeks (not very strictly (just as well in my case)) to play our games. This was a knockout so winners would progress and their opponents would continue against one another to get the best ranking available. This was a nice chilled tournament hosted over several Thursdays and I’ll post the first two rounds for now and then the rest of my games in a follow up post.
My Army
Durburz (Leader)
Batswarm
Goblin Prowlers x2
Moria Goblins x 12 w/ 5x Shield and 7x Spear
Groblog
Moria Goblin Drum
Moria Goblins x 10 w/ 5x Shield and 5x Spear
Moria Goblin Captain w/ Shield
Goblin Prowlers x3
Moria Goblins x 9 w/ 4x Shield and 5x Spear
Moria Goblin Shaman
Blackshield Goblins x3 w/ 1x Spear
Moria Goblins x 3 w/ 1x Shield and 2x Spear
Cave Drake
Batswarm
Moria Goblins x 4 w/ 2x Shield and 2x Spear
Might: 10
Numbers: 55
BP: 27.5
25%: 13.75
Game 1- To the Death (Vs. Moria (James)
Opponent's Heroes: Dragon (Fly/Tough Hide), Druzhag and Ashrak
Opponent's Warriors: Cave Troll, Batswarm, Giant Spiders and Wild Wargs
We both marched up towards each other, with my goblins forming a shieldwall before the opposing Moria army. My drake was to my far left and Durburz tucked behind the left side. Groblog was behind the right with the shaman (who cast a Fury with so many terrifying opponents) and the captain was leading from the front in the centre. The drum was slightly further back.
James decided that there’s no point spending 300+Pts on a model if you aren’t going to use it, and his dragon flew into my frontline, killing 3 goblins. The next turn, I called a heroic move with my captain and he contested with his dragon. I won the roll off and using the fury of the shaman, I surrounded the beast with goblins. The dragons followers came in en masse to help him out, with spiders and wargs launching into my goblins and pulling a few away from the combat.
In the combat phase, I won a lot of the fights, thanks to the drum. And when we got to the goblins against the Dragon, we both called a strike and I got higher. Winning the fight, I managed to score 3 wounds upon it, with 2 fated and it passed its survival instinct roll.
The following turn, I won the move off again and piled into the dragon for a second time. This time I saw a chance as James had left his batswarm about 12” away from the drake, so I threw her into combat with several goblins against a spider, she then called a Heroic Combat and killed off the bats for me. The goblins across the board managed to clear out several of the wargs and spiders for me, but I got unfortunate with Groblog as he was caught by a troll, blew his Strike and was ripped to pieces. I got the upper hand on the dragon for a second time and scored another 4 wounds upon him. Again, he passed all of his courage tests, although he had to use a will point this time.
The dragon finally won a move off when Druzhag called it, and was able to fly back out of the encirclement, and pounce on my drake with Ashrak. He called a Heroic Strength, intending to get the monstrous charge benefit. I responded by getting a bat with Durburz in combat against a spider after passing the terror check and calling a Heroic Combat. The bats then flew into the dragon, allowing the Drake to fight Ashrak instead. Durburz and the goblins simply moved up the board.
The bats, as you can imagine were torn to shreds. And the Drake, unbelievably then spaffed it and lost to Ashrak, losing a golden chance to kill him. The beasts numbers were looking very thin by this point as the goblins numbers came to bear.
In the final turns, the Dragon charged the Drake again, called a Heroic Strength and slew her in a single, vicious combat! Ashrak moved to block Durburz and his troops and was slain by the Goblin King himself. Druzhag was killed by a horde led by the Goblin Captain and the Troll fled after failing a broken courage check.
With the dust settled, I had broken James while unbroken myself, got him to 25% and wounded his dragon for an 8-0 victory.
Game 2- Breakthrough (Vs. Khazad-Dum (Tom)
Opponent's Heroes: Durin (Leader), King’s Champion and Dwarf Captain
Opponent's Warriors: Hearthguard, Iron Guard, Dwarf Rangers and Dwarf warriors
The scenarios in play for the Quarter final, were; Breakthrough, Contest of Champions and Retrieval. I felt immediately, that Durin v Durburz in a killing contest would not go well, while the other two scenarios were not such an issue. I lost the roll off and so vetoed Contest. Tom had a hard think about it and decided that he did not want to have to defend in Retrieval against bats, so we played Breakthrough.
I deployed first and deployed high, I find that getting a good, high, aggressive line works well for goblins as they wont do well with a last minute pushback, but can reliably hold opponents up long enough to delay them taking back objectives. By the end, I had, from Left to Right, the warbands of Groblog, Durburz, Shaman, Captain and Drake. I wanted to avoid the Drake having to fight Durin or the Champion until the numbers and might had worn down.
Tom had deployed Durin to my left and further back on his objective, the Champion in the centre and the Captain to the right. He won priority and seeing the danger of the Drake near his flank, pulled back. I could have called a move to pin him in place, but decided that one, if he counters, I could lose the roll off and waste it and two, it serves me better to have him further from the right objective.
He then advanced the Champion and Durin to my right, while Durin's warband advanced forward towards Groblog and my left objective. The Captain's dwarves linked their lines with the Rangers, who with the rest of the Champion's unit held firm.
I cautiously advanced on my right, making sure that I didn't go too far forward and expose myself to any heavy flanking, as I wanted to use my superior numbers and spear supports to win fights. As I did so, the Shaman use his might to boost a 1 will attempt of Fury to go off, just in case.
My drum pulled back to within a turn of my objective, ready to claim it late game, if required. While Groblog and his unit pulled to the left to be ready to hold off the dwarves from the left objective.
In the first shooting phase, Tom's Rangers and Iron Guard killed some prowlers and warriors, before my prowlers returned fire and killed a ranger. In the following move phase, I got priority and charged. The prowlers killed a couple of rangers with throwing weapons on the charge and I got my Drake into the flank of his line with the goblins pinning them in place. Tom threw in the dwarves that could fit into gaps and moved Durin (red) and the Champion (blue) up and closer to my Drake. As we prepared for combat, I saw that I had inadvertently created a perfect hurl for myself (purple).
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I went through all the other combats, Groblog's warband had only moved along again and had three of them charged. I lost a couple of goblins but killed a Hearthguard in return.
On the other flank, I lost a lot of the fights, but managed to keep up with kills when I had won. Then I got my hurl off, the dwarf was thrown 6" and killed, he knocked down two of my goblins, three dwarves, killing one and took fate off of Tom's Captain.
The next turn, we both called Heroic Moves, Tom wanted to close the gaps in his line and I wanted to exploit them and kill the downed dwarves, while also throwing the Drake round the rear, maybe moving towards Tom's objective (near to her nest, seen top left of the pic). Unfortunately for me, Tom won the roll off and repaired his lines. Durin and the Champion fought side by side against a lone goblin each, both calling Heroic Combats. I threw Durburz in at the far side with his bats against a lone Iron guard, and called a Combat myself, along with one for Groblog on the other flank. Durin went first and easily killed the shield he faced, before fearlessly charging the Drake alongside the two warriors already facing her. The Champion went next and attacked two spear support goblins, killing both.
I used my first Heroic Combat with Groblog, so that I could see what Tom did and react after with Durburz. Groblog used it to kill a Hearthguard then trap a second, who he failed to slay. Durburz cut down the Iron Guard and then killed the last ranger, while the bats flew overhead and attacked the two warriors fighting alongside Durin! I had priority so pulled both against the bats, leaving Durin 1 on 1 with the beast!
There were fairly even losses through the combats, but I was concerned, seeing the Champion now getting stuck in. When we got to the Drake facing Durin, we both got 6s and went to a roll off, which I won. I opted to rend him and scored 3 wounds! Durin then rolled for his crown saves (I forget the rule name) and got a double 6! Further to this, he rolled a 6 on his fate and got away with no wounds! The bats lost their fight, and having taken a wound already, took two more and went down to one!
The next turn was another move off and Tom won the roll off for a second time. He tied up my goblins and threw Durin along with his Champion and two warriors onto the Drake. Durin called a strike and they won the fight, scoring 3 wounds between them on her. I managed to do a number on the rest of the dwarves on that flank, using Durburz for another Heroic Combat and trapping many, causing them to fall. Groblog was doing a sterling job on his flank, despite starting at almost even numbers against the elite troops, calling Heroic Combats, causing traps and using priority to tie up two opponents with one goblin, allowing the rest to gang up, was all paying off. Tom did send an Iron Guard towards my objective and the drum to capture it. But I charged him with the drummers and threw my bats with a Heroic Combat to trap and kill him.
The turn after, Groblog managed to hold the line again, killing another Hearthguard personally and a few more fell to his goblins as the bats returned. But on the other side, another move off happened as I used Durburz's last might to attempt it, but Tom won the third too! It was a disaster as I saw the heroes charge the Drake again! I had no way to help her and Durburz had no might to attempt a Heroic Combat, having called in all his cronies to pile the dwarf before him, who he killed. Tom used the last of his heroes might on a Strike from the Champion. Then, as expected with the 6 attacks with rerolls between them, managed to win the fight. I could only watch and pray as he rolled to wound...and did only 2! Even with the 1s rerolled! The Drake clung on with 1w, 1f.
Then I won priority...
The Drake was furious and lunged at Durin! The Champion was held down by chaff, along with his surviving handful of troops and banners. Durburz charged around the side and trapped Durin. On the other flank, I had realised that we were both only a few troops from breaking and so focused on trying to kill the required troops, even if Durin had to die too, with the amount of Hearthguard still alive.
In the combats, many of the surviving dwarves on the right are slain, besides the banners, champion and 3 Iron guard in the central woods. Groblog once again holds against the onslaught, but goes down to 1w, 0f against a Hearthguard. Durin loses to the Drake and Durburz, the Goblin King stabs at him, taking a wound off, before the Drake rends again and finally brings him down! We are now both broken.
I managed to go Heroic move with Groblog, so he and his goblins pulled back, with a few left to block off the dwarves from getting to the objective that I held. When they moved, several fled but enough stayed to make me nervous. Back on the right, the King's Champion rolled a 1 and 2 for his courage and fled the battle! The remaining dwarves charged into me and Durburz managed to cut one of the banners down. Fury saved most goblins from fleeing and I surrounded the dwarves with some, but pulled a load back as the two remaining Iron Guard from the centre attacked the right objective and killed 2/3 goblins.
With Tom being a couple or so of dwarves from 25%, I decided to go for broke after winning priority. Groblog pulled most goblins back and sat on the left objective, sending 2 to block the remaining dwarves, by charging 2. The bats flew over and landed on Tom's objective, with only 1 Iron Guard in range to stop them. He passed and stood beside the bats to negate the objective for both sides. One dwarf managed to get just within 3" of the left objective, but most piled into the sacrificial lambs thrown forward. The drummers both failed their courage, ironically would have passed if they had sounded the drum first and deserted my objective.
On the right, the goblins on the right objective parted, allowing the Cave Drake to charge down the gap and kill both of the Iron Guard before her, while Durburz and his goblins attacked the banner and failed to kill it.
The game ended and I had one central objective uncontested and one just contested, I had killed Durin and we had broken each other, leaving me at a 6-1 victory and into the semi final!
