Return to Fantasy: Part 2

In our last episode, the Spider Riders tried to hit the flank of the Dwarfs, but the Dwarfs repelled them and almost broke the Night Goblin Army.  
Turn 3: Night Goblins
The Gobbos started with fleeing spider riders causing panic checks down the line.  Thankfully, the spearmen hold.  The spiders fail to rally, however, and continue to flee to the nearest edge. It appears that the rest of the Night Goblin army is going to cooperate this turn as no units are affected by Animosity and the Troll even manages to pass his stupidity check against leadership 4!  He remembers what he was doing and moves the full 6 inches towards the dwarf crossbowmen holding the hill. In a flash of intelligence, the Troll even decides to take cover behind the wall.  The rest of the night goblins take a cue from the Troll and move forward, preparing to slam into the dwarf line.

Hold...

The goblin shaman successfully draws enough power to cast the spell, but the Dwarfs dispel it.  Forgot to mention that the same thing happened on Turn 2...

Turn 3: Dwarfs
Seeing that the real combat is about to begin, the Dwarfs take one last chance to unleash the cannon.  Unfortunately the crew got a little anxious and lit the fuse to early. The cannon misfired again and could not shoot for two turns. The crossbowmen show them how it's done and manage to wound the Troll once.

Turn 4: Night Goblins
Before anything starts, the spider riders again fail their rally check and flee off the battlefield giving the first victory points to the Dwarfs.  After the remaining units pass their animosity checks the Night Goblin Big Boss issues charge orders to both spearmen units and they crash into the main Dwarf Warrior unit, with the secondary spearmen hitting the flank.

...the Dwarfs hold...

Before combat begins, the Night Goblin shaman tries in vain to cast the spell, and the Dwarfs dispel it.
The Night Goblins cause some decent damage, but it's the weight of numbers (rank bonuses, and the flank attack eliminated the Dwarf rank bonus) that tips the combat's favor in the Night Goblins' favor.  They win combat by a very large margin, causing a break check that could win the game, but the leadership of the Dwarf Hero General is barely enough to hold.  This is would be the pivotal combat result of the game.  The Night Goblins wrap around to envelop the Dwarfs, bringing more warriors to the fight.

Turn 4: Dwarfs
With a roar, the second Dwarf Warrior unit charges into the rear of the Night Goblins that were on the flank.  As they were already engaged in combat getting charged in the rear is an incredibly disheartening event.  Amazingly the spearmen pass their Panic check and fight on, but lose their rank bonus. We have a big melee now. Overall, the Dwarfs cause more total wounds than the Night Goblins and also have significant rank bonus with the new unit that charged in. This tips the combat in their favor.  Both goblin units fail their break checks, and as the main goblin unit with the general turns tail and flees, the Dwarfs pursue after them and run them down, cutting and hacking them to pieces as they retreat.

...and the Goblins do not!

At this point, I concede the battle to the Dwarfs.  A well fought game.
Victory for the Dwarfs.

The Return to Fantasy: Part 1

Finally made my return to Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I'm hoping to introduce a friend of mind to the game soon and wanted to brush up the rules (read: re-learn them completely).  I remembered that I bought a Battle for Skull Pass boxed set a while back at half-price. It included an entire starter Night Goblin army, and I also found some other Night Goblins in a box somewhere along with 16 Orc Boys and 16 Orc Boys with bows. I figured that was enough to use as an extra army so we can get a few battles in. All I have to do is paint 'em up and I have an extra army lying around.

I called my cousin and he came over to be the opponent. We decided he would play the Dwarfs (since I've always been Dwarfs; needed a change of pace). Roughy 750pts of Night Goblins vs around 810 pts of Dwarfs.
Basic Order of Battle is listed below.
Dwarfs:
20 Warriors w/ light armor and shield; musician, standard, champion
20 Warriors w/ light armor and shield; musician, standard, champion
10 Thunderers
10 Crossbowmen
Dwarf Hero General (Thane)
Dwarf Cannon

Night Goblins:
Night Goblin Big Boss General w/ Rending Axe magic item
Level 2 Shaman
20 Night Goblin Spearmen
20 Night Goblin Spearmen
20 Night Goblin Archers
10 Forest Goblin Spider Riders
1 Troll

Note: we played with 6th edition rules.

Dwarfs won the initiative and chose to go second.
This overhead shot shows the initial deployment. Dwarfs are all painted. Night Goblins are in plastic, not painted yet.

Troll is on the far left, then Archers, then Shaman alone, then Night Goblin spearmen with General, then NG spearmen, then Spider Riders on far right. Across the way on my left are the Dwarf Crossbowmen on the hill with the tower, then Warriors with General, then Warriors, then Thunderers in fron of right hill, then cannon on the right hill.

Here's a blurry closeup of the Dwarfs.

Here's the viewpoint from the Dwarf Line.

Turn 1: Night Goblins.

Archers failed their Animosity test and shot at the spearmen to their right. No damage. Troll failed the stupidity test and ambled forward at half speed (an omen of things to come). 

Spider Riders marched forward at a gallop (do spiders gallop?) on the right flank right over the hedgerow, intent on hitting the Thunderers holding the Dwarf left flank and potentially rolling the flank. Goblin spearmen moved forward in support. The Shaman tried and failed to cast the 'Eadbutt spell.  It wasn't until the end of the battle that I realized I paid for a Level 2 Shaman, but was using him as a Level 1 the entire time. Oops.

Turn 1: Dwarfs.

No Dwarf units moved. Cannon tried to fire, but misfired. Lost shot for this turn only. Crossbowmen on the hill on Dwarf right flank (with the tower) tried to shoot at the goblin spearmen, but were out of range.

Turn 2: Night Goblins.

The Big Boss general yelled some words of...encouragement...to his unruly mob and animosity had no affect on anyone this turn.  The Troll, however, couldn't hear anything and became stupid again, moving forward slowly without any apparent destination. The Spider Riders charged the Thunderers who bravely followed their Stand and Shoot orders causing a few casualties before the spiders even got there. The other spearmen units moved forward to support the flank charge, and the archers finally got going towards the Dwarf line.

Charge!

The casualties from the stand and shoot took a little bit of steam out of the spider rider charge, and they failed to cause any wounds.  The Thunderers took heart and struck down additional foes, repelling the charge, breaking the spider riders.  The Night Goblin general was admittedly stunned; his initial battle plan has been foiled.  

Flee!

With relief, the Night Goblin spearmen watching the spiders flee into them steeled their resolve and passed their Panic check. The battle could have been lost right there.

Turn 2: Dwarfs.

Content to let the greenskin horde come to them, the Dwarfs did not move.  The cannon crew noticed that the fleeing spiders were lined up perfectly in front of the block of spearmen offering a juicy target.  

Lining up the target

With a loud crack, the cannon launched a shot directly on target, hitting the first rank of the fleeing spiders, then bounced right through the spider second rank, continue to rip through all four ranks of spearmen behind them.  Tons of casualties to both units.  Seeing the success of the cannon brethren, the Dwarf crossbows unloosed a volley of bolts into the closest spearmen unit, killing a few.

...coming up: Part 2 and the conclusion to the battle!

Slow but steady

Making a little bit of progress. I have all the spearmen clipped and prepped. 14 of them still need to be primed. Also started prepping the archers. Painting-wise, I've started getting basecoat colors on a few miniatures, but I'm kinda stuck as I wait for my delivery of Future Floor Wax (now actually a Pledge product). Without the future floor stuff I can't do the dip shading and since I'm new to this method I would really like to completely finish a figure to learn the technique.

Obviously, these are a work in progress.

Greenskins

Got started with the undercoat for the first batch of goblins. Unfortunately I noticed that there's some undercoat "fuzz" from spraying outside in the humidity. Guess I'll have to just put these guys in the rear ranks.

Once an addict, always an addict...

Yep, I'm back. Pretty sad that it's been almost 3 years since I've posted. Almost as long since I've last painted. But I'm happy to report that I'm returning to the world of wargaming. I'll be getting back into Warhammer Fantasy Battle and need an additional army so I'm finally opening the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set that I bought 5 years ago. I'm painting up Night Goblins. I'll start posting pics as soon as I have a few models done.