Ogres at Equinox (Part 1)

So back from Equinox and 6 games with the Ogres.

I flew up with Mike, Ray and Charlie on Friday evening and then caught up with Jack and the Williamsons. Thanks very much to Doug Sainsbury for dropping me at the motel. Much appreciated.

Bright an early on Saturday we arrived at the hall where not only was there Fantasy but also 40k, Warmachine and Flames of War. Nice to see so many of the Auckland gamers. As I was setting up my army on trays ex- 40ker, ex-Fantasy, now Warma-horders Dave Stent wandered past. I had to check and I can confirm that judging by his reaction, Dave does indeed "have a pair".


Game 1 - John Matthews (Empire) Battleline

John had a very small Empire army - that is the case when you take 6 characters - with a 20 something Flaggie block, 22 Crossbowmen, 10 Knights, Stank, 2 Cannons.

My Ironblaster destroyed the War Alter first shot of the game but Arch Lector jumped into crossbows where Level 4 and Level 2 were bunkered. My Maneaters threatened his warmachines having scouted forward. This forced the Flaggies to redeploy.

John pushed his Knights with Warrior Priest and BSB to threaten my Mournfangs. This proved critical. On the second turn I fireballed John's bunker and inflicted 7 wounds. This caused a failed Panic Test and the crossbow and three characters (Arch Lector, Level 4 and Level 2) fled off the board. The knights moving forward early robbed the bunker of its reroll.

From there it was a case of mopping up points. I decided the knights were too tough a nut to crack so left them to their own devices. They moved forward into my far corner where I would have to approach them with a reduced frontage. I lost an Ironblaster to a misfire as well as two of my sabretusks for a 17-3.

Win 17-3


 My reward for seeing off John was to be drawn against Raymond Dick's Beastmen army and the first sighting of what appeared to be a re-emergence of Death Magic.

Game 2 - Raymond Dick (Beastmen) - Blood & Glory

The story of this game was my re-acquaintance with that darling of early 8th Edition, the Lore of death. Largely forgotten for 18 months it was out in force on the tables I played at Equinox. 

In this game Raymond had a Level 3 Shadow, Level 1 Death and Level 1 Beasts all backed by the Herdstone. He also ran lots of chaff units (5 man Raiders, Harpies), 2 Chariots, 2 Razagor, 3 Minotaurs with Doombull, a biggish Bestigor unit and a larger Gor unit.

Early on Ray got off a Purple Sun that ran through my Ironguts and an Ironblaster killing all but two of the Ironguts. Thankfully the Gnobblar driver saw it coming! From there I decided it would be hard to fight his blocks so worked over his chaff units getting Razagor, harpies, a chariot and a couple of Raiders (in part due to some poor rolling on Ray's part. I withdrew the Ironguts to the rear board edge knowing that Ray had no shooting or Magic Missiles that could get them and their 394 points.

In the last couple of turns I got Ray's Doombull with Ironblaster shooting, in the process blowing the other up. Ray picked up a Mournfang unit and the Maneaters before getting his Bestigors into my Bulls. I survived a squeaky last turn Leadership test to sneak an 11-9.

Win 11-9

Game 3 - Paul Clarke (Tomb Kings) - Dawn Attack

The last game of Day One was against Paul Clarke with Tomb Kings. We had played at Runefang a fortnight ago where he had Lizards versus my Skaven. Strangely that scenario was also Dawn Attack.

Paul ended up stretched across the table whereas my army was keep quite compact. Particularly unfortunate for Paul was that he had to deploy his Skeleton Warriors with characters, one of his SSC and his chariot unit behind a building on his far right.

I was able to scout my Maneaters forward so that they could occupy the building Turn One. The rest of the army trundled forward and I was soon into his lines. I had great luck with my shooting rolling 5+ every time for wounds. That removed two sphinxes and a catapult in the first three turns. My Maneaters emerged from the building to take out the other SSC.

A unit of Mournfang, supported by Bulls fought the Necropolis Knights over 4 rounds before eventually killing them. Paul's Chariots charged an Ironblaster and the combat eventually went the way of the Ogres.

In the last turns I cleaned up the rest of Paul's army to get a 20-0 win. 

Clearly the scenario didn't help Paul at all and once I was able to get an advantage it was always going to be difficult for him.

Win 20-0

So I ended Day One on 48 points - ahead of target - so I was pretty happy. Big points were always going to be hard to get as the VP table went up in 250 point blocks after the first two (10-10: 0-99, 11-9: 100-249). I thought that there were probably 3-4 ahead of me going into Day Two