Post-Game Analysis

I wanted to take a quick look at the pre-game strategy, the actual results, and mistakes I made. I'm hoping this is a way to chronicle performance and use it as a way to get better.

Deployment and Battle Plan
As I mentioned at the beginning of the battle report A Pitched Battle, my general plan was to get the Night Goblins in the center of the line across the board as fast as possible and unleash the 6 fanatics. My big Orc unit with the magic Banner of Butchery would then follow across the center hill and clean up the mess left by the fanatics.  The auxiliary orc unit on the right flank would swing around the hill and then slam into the flank. The Orc archers were my reserve unit.

I believe that the High Elves plan was to advance the foot troops forward a little and try to entice a charge (since the elf spearmen fight in 3 ranks when not charging).   The elves had no idea that there were 6 fanatics, and not the usual 3.

When we decided that the center hill (see below) was difficult terrain, I had to change my plan.

The Center Hill

The old plan was to send the main block of Orcs over the center hill.  Since the hill was difficult terrain this would reduce my movement to half, potentially taking two turns to get over the hill.  The new plan was for the orcs to wheel to the left and follow behind the two center units of goblins.

change of plans...

The two risks with this idea were a) getting stuck behind the goblins if they failed animosity and b) never getting into the battle because of the logjam in the center.  Looking back at the battle itself, risk "b" is the one that materialized and the orc unit never really participated.  They got stuck behind the two goblin spearmen units, which didn't move for two turns because the fanatics were in the way.   Of course, the goblins ended up doing much better in combat than I expected.  It was more likely that the goblins would have been annihilated or fled from combat and at that point the Orcs would have been there to plug the gap.  But I still think it may have been better to stick with the original plan and just deal with the reduced movement getting over the hill.

Another thing that didn't work out great was the second orc unit on the far right flank. It took them 4 turns to get around the hill and get in position, and by that time I was thinking about holding table quarters for the victory points.  What were the alternatives? Well, I could have swapped positions with the goblin archers on the left flank, but because of the hill in my deployment zone they would have been to the left of the orc archers and farther away (in reality, equally as far away as they were on the right flank).  If I had deployed the goblin archers on the right flank they could have marched around the hill and then moved in close enough to release the remaining fanatic. But that would have likely taken until Turn 5.

Looking back, I think the overall plan was sound, most of the deployment choices were pretty good given the terrain setup, and I think the only mistake may have been changing the main orc unit's plan.  I'd love to get a second opinion.

The High Elf strategy was sound.  The only wrinkle was that he decided to advance his line forward, and that hastened the release of the fanatics.  There's only so much you can do when facing fanatics, so I don't think you can dwell on it too much.

Troop Choices
The goblins and fanatics performed as expected. Going with 6 fanatics really helps the Night Goblins, and I'm likely to bump it up to the full 9 allowed.  I'll probably wait to purchase older fanatics off of eBay.  The Night Goblin Warboss continues to impress in combat.  Well, at least in combat against an elf.  I'm not sure how he'd fare against some of the harder lords in the game.  I'm certain a Dwarf lord would rip him apart.  The one thing I'm thinking about tweaking is his equipment.  The great axe has been very effective however it means the warboss is always striking last.  This weapon was a great selection for the escalation campaign where points were scarce and magic items very limited; I needed something cheap and effective.  Outside of the campaign I think the warboss needs something that doesn't force him to strike last.  But I should remember that my original reason for going with the great axe was that having the Night Goblins in hand-to-hand combat isn't an ideal situation in the first place, so if the warboss managed to survive and actually fight back, I might as well get a +2 strength for a great weapon.  One other point: I accidentally stumbled upon just how effective the 'Ere We Go spell can be. Goblins + close-combat is not really a winning formula.  But if the fanatics have softened up an enemy unit then the extra free round of combat from 'Ere We Go spell gives the goblins a decent chance of winning combat.

The Orc boyz haven't seen a round of combat in three games.  I need to reconsider how I'm deploying and using them.  I haven't come up with the answer.

Our post-game discussion also touched on the army composition of the High Elves: the big block of 25+ spearmen is becoming impractical at these lower point level games.  Any game under 1000 points probably needs more flexibility in the troop choices.  The block of spearmen is most effective when it doesn't move, but at over 300pts, it occupies almost a third of the points, and this hamstrings the general.  At least one artillery piece would help this situation.   The mage was also a pretty expensive dude, eating up a large percentage of points.  Shaving off some points here might allow another unit, maybe some Reaver Knights to draw out the fanatics, or a small block of Sea Guard.

Things we weren't sure about
We ran into a few rules questions from 6th edition that were unclear:
1) When a fanatic hits a unit how do you handle a character?  We decided that if the path of the fanatic brings it close enough to the character, he would get a Look Out Sir roll just like a template weapon.
2) The biggest question was for spells that Remain In Play: on the turns after the spell has been cast, do the effects of the spell occur immediately and then you get a chance to dispel it, or do you get a chance to dispel it and then it causes damage?  The order of these things were unclear. We decided on dispel attempt first, then damage.  I'm going to re-read the magic section a few times and see if we missed something, and also see if there are any 6th edition FAQ's that answered that.

That's enough for now. I may add some additional thoughts to the post if I remember them.