A Goblin's take on Runefang - Day One

I figured I'd do a quick wrap up of my time at Runefang last weekend. It was great to play some Fantasy again, and even more fun to dive into the new O+G book. With no idea of what to use from the book, I picked my army according to the models that looked the coolest from my collection. My list therefore was as follows:

Goblin Warboss: Ironcurse Icon

Night Goblin Shaman: Scroll

Goblin BSB: Std of Discipline

Goblin Boss on Wolf: Spear, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem, LA

2x30 Night Goblins: 2xFanatics, Std, Muso, Nets

2x20 Night Goblin Bowmen: Muso, 1 unit had a single fanatic

2x5 Spiders

4 Trolls

24 Squigs and 15 Herders

5 Hoppers

Chariot

Arachnarok

Mangler Squig

Pump Wagon

My first game was against John Murrie and his High Elves. John had a Life Archmage, BSB, big unit of Spearmen, two units of archers, an eagle, and a unit each of White Lions, Phoenix Guard and Dragon Princes.

I caught John out early on with a Turn 1 charge with the spider into the archers who had deployed in the building, and so were much closer than 24" away. However, as I quickly learned, the spider isn't that killy so only killed around 5 or 6, and the mage was able to leave them to their fate in the next turn.

On my right, the Dragon Princes were blocked up by the goblin archers with a fanatic, but eventually John decided to go for it, and it paid off, as the fanatic's 2D6 hits only managed to roll 2 hits and killed one knight. The goblins died and the knights got into my backfield. They were later finished off by a timely chariot charge and the squig hoppers.

In the center, the Squig Herd were forced by animosity to charge the big unit of spearmen in the front, which resulted in me losing all the squigs for only a few spearmen kills. The spears spent the rest of the game dealing with a giant spider in the flank, which held them up for a couple of turns, then was run down.

The phoenix guard charged a unit of goblins through 3 fanatics, so were left with about 10 models. The goblins held easily on steadfast, and the trolls flanked and cleaned up the PG in my next turn.

The White Lions were attacked by a Mangler Squig, losing around 5 models. The mangler then decided he'd had enough, rolled a triple 5 for movement and disappeared/exploded in a puff of smoke (and squig bits). The Lions then charged through a fanatic into my other unit of netters, who broke but got away. The Lions were whittled down over the course of the rest of the game, and were eventually killed by the trolls.

The game ended with each of us having killed identical amounts of each other's armies (1109 points to 1113!), so we had a draw. John's got his account of the game up on his blog: http://stumpyheaven.blogspot.com/2011/04/runefang-warhammer-tournament-wrapup.html

Next up, I played Neil Williamson's Brets in a Dawn Attack. Neil was forced by the scenario to deploy 2 lances and his peg knights in one corner, and the rest in the center, so he had to spend the first half of the game redeploying. I rolled most of my stuff into the center, so put the squig herd forward backed up by units with fanatics to really put the hurt on the knights.

In the early game, I managed to get rid of the mounted squires, which was a big relief, as they had the potential to draw fanatics out, or march onto the mangler squig and kill him. This left the mangler with a clear flank and 2 juicy units of knights to bounce through, so he promptly exploded again (I rolled triple 6 for movement!), which opened that flank right back up again.

Mangler Squigs - the opposite of dependable!

On the other flank, the Arachnorok, pump wagon, and unit of NG played keep away with the Peg Knights and Questing lance. Probably not a great situation for me pointswise, but it let me focuis on the centre instead of worrying about the Pegs.

Neil charged two lances into some netters in the center. The fanatics killed 6 of 9 errants with 4D6 hits, which left Neil with 3 errants and 8 realm knights with lord (netted) needing to kill 16 goblins to break steadfast. Needless to say, I stuck around, and Neil got a squig herd and chariot in his flanks for his troubles. They broke and rallied on the board edge, and I broke them again in the last turn to win the game.

Last game of day one I got to play Glen Burfield and his Dragon-led High Elves. We played Meeting Engagement, and I set up first along the 6" line. I had the squigs in the centre, with netters either side, the fun stuff on the flanks, and the archers behind the main line with all the characters. In response, Glen stacked my left flank with the Dragon, Dragon Princes and Swordmasters, and had the Spearmen and Seaguard in the middle with the two Mages, BSB and the RBT.

The Squig Deathstar

The game started with a roar, as the squig herd was forced to declare a charge at the spearmen, needing an 11 to get in and rolling it. Sigh, we'd been here before already. Luckily, this time they dished out some pain, and got both the spears and the seaguard who charged in next turn down to around 7 models each. The chariot then went in and finished off the seaguard and overran into the spears, killing all but one and the BSB.

On the flank, the Dragon and Arachnarok chased each other for a bit, then the Dragon charged a unit of netters in conjuction with the Dragon Princes. The fanatics wiped out the princes on the way in, and the netters held the Dragon up for a few turns until the Swordmasters came in and finished them off. The Mangler squig managed to hit both the Dragon and the swordmasters just after this, but did next toi nothing, and then exploded due to rolling yet another triple! The arachnarok was also killed after just 4 shots from the Bolt Thrower (3 hits, 3 wounds, 3x3 wounds!)

Through a combination of animosity induced charges, squabbling, and having a Dragon, Glen was able to clean up enough points in the last 2 turns to give him the win.

Day 2 to come...