The Evil of the Greedy Maw

A few months ago my Wood Elves played Stuart's Ogre Kingdom's army. I took loads of pictures but didn't write up a battle report. This is the story of the battle report that got away (then was gotten back).

The battle was a 2000 point game for the purpose of me getting used to fighting with my Nordicon (sigh) list to be used in November.

The Armies

The glorious elven host consisted of a large unit of trueflight glade guard, 8 Glade Riders (also trueflight), 9 Wild riders, 8 Sisters, 5 Wardancers, 10 scouts (hagbane), 8 waywatchers and an eagle. Characters comprised of a level 4 spellweaver (shadow), waystalker, and a mounted bsb.

Stu’s Ogres were 2 units of bulls, a gutstar(ish), Stonehorn, Gorger and a Thundertusk. A Slaughtermeister and a Bruiser BSB were his only characters.

My free wood was chosen as a venom thicket, I deployed my scouts in there with my Glade Guard, Wardancers and Sisters of the Thorn to their right. To their left was my Wild Riders, Waywatchers and Eagle. My BSB and Spellweaver were adjacent the the Wild Riders but without any intention of  joining whatever crazed charges they decided to enact. Basic plan was Wild Riders – SMASH! Whilst I focus fire on threats aided by Shadow magic (Melkioth’s, Enfeebling Foe, Withering & Pendulum).

Stu set up with the Gutstar central,flanked by bulls and the big critters.

Pre Turn One Assassination attempt: Unsurprisingly the T6 Ogre didn’t take a wound – and in all probability didn’t even know he got hit. Stu and I rolled off for first turn and his +1 may or may not have been pivotal. In any case Ogres got the first turn.

The evil before me

An Elf's Eye view

Turn One

Turn One started as they so often do against ogres with 12” forward marches coming at you. The Slaughterguy attempted to cast spells but to my knowledge was unsuccessful and the Thundertusk shot 4 Wild riders. Of course the next turn would involve the Ogres charging so I would have to make my first turn count…….

After measuring the distance both my Wild Rider unit and Great Eagle were in average charge range of the sinister Bulls (did you see what I did there?, sinister means left in Latin). I rolled for the Wild Riders first (a mistake) they failed to roll the required 6 to get into combat, whereas the Great Eagle did. I scooted both my BSB and Spellsinger out of the Stonehorn’s charge range, with the faint hope that he didn’t see the unit of Wild Riders in front of it. I advanced my Wardancers and Sisters up hoping to cause mischief over there.  Magic was possibly my best ever phase with the Slaughterogre failing his first dispel, allowing me to cast, Melkioth’s, Enfeebling Foe and Withering on the Gutstar (Happy Days). When you have a unit of Toughness & Strength 1 Ogres that now have a move of 5 it really does wonders for your own feelings of tactical brilliance.  A lot of shooting later, and I was whittling the Ironguts down nicely. The only issue I had with turn one was the death of Squawky my failful Great Eagle, had he been backed up by some crazed Wild Riders Stu would be down one unit of bulls. Instead a broken heap of bloody feathers was all that was left of him at the end of the turn.

Some advancing Ogres

Getting closer

The Wild Riders sit this one out

End of WE turn one or Squawky's lament.

Turn Two

Turn Two was when things got serious. The gorger made an appearance behind my shooty Glade Guard. The Stonehorn charged the Wild Riders, and the bulls on the left charged my Wardancers. After some deliberation Stu’s general (who I think I will name Slash due to his nicely sculpted top hat) charged out of his unit into the BSB. I elected to accept the charge, this was to prove a pivotal moment in the game. As he was leaving the unit with all those nasty spells cast on it the Ogre general did a kind of Popeyesque metamorphosis back into a rather tough spellcaster. The remaining units generally moved menacingly towards my weedy elves. Ogre magic was pretty uneventful I think, Stu couldn’t dispel any of the remains in play spells so the Ironguts remained rubbish. Shooting saw a few scouts shot up by the annoyingly accurate Thundertusk. Then came close combat. When a rather large Stonehorn runs full force into some rather flimsy elves the result is pretty predictable. Needless to say my (Raaargh!!!), Wild Riders were obliterated by the nasty monster. Likewise the Wardancers with their fancy 3+ ward save were routed and very nearly caught. The only combat that didn’t involve me getting spanked was the bsb Slaughtermaster duel. One wound each.

Sneaky gorger

Run Wardancer, Run!

Three arbitrarily placed dice that due to their proximity to models probably denote something.

My left flank is in trouble.

Dear Future me,

Please ,please, please, remember to roll for your ambushers at the start of your second turn, it could perhaps stop you losing important units due to ineptitude.

Kindest Regards

Past Me

As you have probably guessed I forgot to roll for my ambushy Glade Riders. Probably because I had been eying the pathetically weak Ironguts in front of the Scouts and charged them, partly because I thought it would be embarrassing for Stu but more to get them well and truly out of the Stonehorns charge range. I completely bottled it with my Waywatchers and tried moving them away from the bulls covered in Eagle feathers and bits of beak. I failed to get them out of harm’s way or cause any damage. I moved my Sisters round to make sure they were out of anyone’s charge arcs and this is something I really should have done with the Shadoweaver too. I spun my Glade Guard round to shoot at the Gorger. As my best spells were still hampering the Ironguts my own magic phase was pretty lacklustre. Shooting saw the Gorger pincushioned and killed. The scout/Ironguts fight went not-as-well-as-I’d-hoped but left me still in the fight. The BSB/Slaughtermaster fight ground on, with the Greedy Maw item breaking my BSB’s Sword of Anti Heroes! Then killing him! Not good. The Ogre general then reformed to be able to charge my Spellweaver in his turn. Oops.

An image scryed from Araloth's Hawkcam

Wood Elf scouts attempt to apply a shlacking to some weedy Ironguts

Turn Three

The big ugly immune to poison Slaughtermaster charged my Spellweaver, the virtually unscathed bulls on my right trundled towards the large unit of Glade guard whereas the other bull unit and thundertusk advanced perilously close to my Waywatchers. The magic phase didn't achieve much as I sure Stuart failed to dispell the Withering ending his magic phase. I don't think shooting acheived much for the Ogres either, which is pretty unimportant as combat is where they're at. Speaking of which, Slash got struck by my highweaver rocking a brand new pair of Gilette Fencers Blades, wounding him, that was until his Greedy Maw item passed his 6+ save destroying them! Slash then proceeded to larrup my wizard (think I'll call him Axl) making him flee the woods even though it was on an umodified 9! At least Slash failed to catch him.

 Ogre turn three :A Stonehorn goes crashing through the forest

Ogre turn three

If the Waywatchers can just reach the big bag of dice, they may be safe.

The Elven Cavalry are too late to save the day!

My turn three was about points preservation now, Sadly I had some doomed units. I rallied Axl (but it seems I ridiculously left him in the charge arc of Slash), ran the Waystalker (think we'll call him White Elephant) and scooted the Sisters of the Thorn out of everyone's charge arc. I span the Sureflight Glade Guard round to pepper the remaining weedguts with arrows hoping to kill the bsb. I managed to shoot off the final Weedgut and put a wound on the BSB (ending the spell and making him hard as fupp again). The newly arrived glade riders shot up Slash but failed to kill him. White Elephant also failed to wound him, leaving Axl full of trepidation for the next turn.

Just before the final unpleasant charge.

Turn Four

Turn four was mercifully short. Slash charged Axl, the sinister Bulls charged the Waywatchers and the Stonehorn and BSB charged the Sureflight Glade Guard. To cut a bloody, brutal story short Stuart's BSB died to angry elves whereas Axl, Waywatchers and the aforementioned Glade Guard went in the Ogres pot.

Ignominious defeat looms

I was then left with the choice of running my Sisters, Glade Riders and Waywatcher around in the vague hope I could whittle some Ogres down or just concede. I took the latter option.

Conclussion

Well, I have definitely identified a couple of mistakes that contibuted greatly to my downfall. Firstly, when I failed to reach the Bulls with my Wild Riders, I should have flown my eagle into the path of the Stonehorn angling it away from them thus enabling a favorable charge. Secondly when the Slaughtermaster charged the BSB I should have fled hoping to outrun him leaving him open to some trueflight arrows. Going all Chuck Norris with my scouts was probably a bad idea too. Finally, had I remembered to try to get my Glade Riders on in the 2nd turn there may have been fewer Ironguts to thwart my plans. Of course Ogres don't seem to be a very pleasant match up for me at the moment as Stuart is usually right down my throat on the second turn. That bloody Greedy Maw is a bastard of an item when it works!

Thanks for reading and next time I will be reporting a Wood Elf/Skaven match up featuring the new Thanquol model! I bet you can't wait!