I played Rodion in my second game of The Ninth Age (T9A) on Sunday 23 September, and got my ass absolutely handed to me. Once again he fielded a very concentrated list, dumping the bulk of his 4000 points into three pimped out characters. This time he eschewed the Dragon, but the list was quite similar to the army he fielded in Koganei in our first T9A game, with the Dragon Princes acting as a hammer unit supported by some fast cavalry. He also had a small unit of Swordmasters, but the most decisive unit would be a flanking unit of Lothern Sea Guard, which utilized an Ambush rule to appear behind the greenskins and wreaked havoc on my battle line.
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| My Orcs versus the High Elves. |
My army, in contrast, was a classic horde. At first glance it looked like a mismatch, but events would prove otherwise. Rodion is a Magic: The Gathering player, and he showed his aptitude for creating strong combos in his unit and character selection. I, on the other hand, had so many units that I was overconfident, and paid the price. In retrospect I made several crucial mistakes which led to the greenskin's demise. First of all, I failed to take appropriate steps to counter the threat of the ambushing Sea Guard. I completely ignored them and just hoped that Rodion would fluff the roll to bring them on the table. Praying for someone to roll 1-2 is not a good tactic, and was idiotic on my part. I wasn't lacking for units, that's for sure, and all I needed to do was to put a Giant in a sweeper role and much of their effectiveness would have been neutralized. Ambushing units cannot charge on the turn they appear, but by ignoring them I basically gave them the initiative because my units would be reacting to them rather than dictating where they would appear. The net effect of the Sea Guard was that my main units of Orcs containing my General spent the entire game turning and turning in response to the threats to the front and behind.
Secondly, I pushed my center units too far too early. I had so many units that my ideal formation would have been a concave. The left flank was all mine by turn two, but by simultaneously advancing my Orcs in the center I didn't give the flankers enough time to get behind the Dragon Princes. I was able to launch a premature flanking attack with Boar Boyz but couldn't get my Boar Chariot into the combat due to weird LOS issues. The decisive combat played out with Rodion charging with the Dragon Princes, the Orcs holding easily (Steadfast and a Battle Standard Bearer nearby gave them Leadership 9 and a re-roll despite horrendous casualties), and then the counter-charge being as effective as a wet noodle. If I could have waited one more turn I could have completely encircled the Dragon Princes. To be fair, the appearance of the Sea Guard provoked the advance, which meant that my first mistake dovetailed into my second.
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| Deployment. |
Thirdly, I think my Giant was too timid on the right flank. Rodion won the battle for the right flank with two units of five Ellyrian Reavers against a Giant, a Grotlings unit and a Goblin Wolf Chariot. That was just poor play on my part. In the future I think Orcs with crossbows might serve as flank guards if I play Rodion again. His army is actually quite vulnerable to shooting because it's so small, and more missile fire will provoke him into bad positions and obviate the need to maneuver against fast cavalry. Fast cavalry are amazing troops, and Rodion utilized their mobility, shooting and ability to rally and move after fleeing to good effect to win the battle for the right flank.
Fourthly, my night goblin frontage was too wide. I deployed them Kings of War style (10 model frontage) and they just blocked everything in the middle, and made it impossible for Orc units to support them. In fact, the center was a debacle - we had four units facing off against two, and we couldn't support each other because we were tripping over each other and blocking charge lines. Rodion had no such problems - he just pointed his elite units where he needed to go, and they did their jobs. I, on the other hand, was derping all over the place. Derp derp.
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| The center was just a mess. My units kept getting in each other's way. |
To summarize, I played very badly, and Rodion played very well. Kudos to him for keeping the Orcs turning and wheeling while his elite units did their jobs. I underestimated magic as well. I didn't bring any magical protection, and paid the price. In turn two our Fanatics and Bolt Throwers caused four casualties in his Dragon Prince unit - almost half his uber unit - and in the subsequent Magic phase he resurrected them all. Doh.
Some other thoughts:
Grotlings (Snotlings) are not as good as their Warhammer equivalent, because they are not Unbreakable. All they really did was get in the way of the units behind. However, I did not use their Scout or Vanguard abilities (too many rules to keep track of!), which means I did not utilize them optimally.
Giants are not as good as they first appeared. They were horribly vulnerable to missile fire, eventually being taken down on the right flank by a total of 10 Ellyrian Reavers. Swapping them out for missile troops might yield better results. Then again, maybe they're meant to be missile magnets. If so, they did their jobs admirably!
Fanatics are great, but random. They are so characterfully greenskin, though, and with the removal of animosity, only the trolls with their Stupidity and the fanatic's blind, crazed random movement carry over the anarchic traditions of Orcs and Goblins from Warhammer into T9A. The fanatics killed more of my guys than High Elves, but that's why they're so funny and cool. We also forgot to bring scatter dice, so Rodion was spinning a pen to determine where they would go. By contrast, Orcs in Kings of War are ridiculously disciplined and retain none of their greenskin flavor in terms of playstyle. They're more like Chaos in the way they play.
The Steadfast rule really gives value to Core infantry. My Orcs took the charge and held against Rodian's uber unit of knights - it wasn't their fault that the countercharge was weak and pitiful. They did their job. Giving them shields will make them more durable, as the hand weapon and shield combo in T9A gives the Parry rule - hit rolls against them are capped at 4+. That will immediately cancel half of all enemy attacks coming at them on average. Steadfast also makes large blocks of Goblins quite durable, as long as I can keep my General and Battle Standard Bearer within range. I need to field 45 models per unit to field three Fanatics, and that's a lot of killing to get done, even for death star units. Giving them shields will also increase their staying power.
Trolls are a liability. At a crucial point in the game they went stupid, and blocked my general's unit. I was thinking of swapping them out, but they're like fanatics in that they give the army its flavor. Why play Orcs when you can't have dumb stuff happening all the time? As a plus my Troll in my Warband game against Rodion vomited on his Dragon Prince, and turned him into a steaming pile of elven goo. That there is reason enough to keep them.
Despite the crushing loss I did have fun. I learned more about T9A, and am starting to appreciate its detailed ruleset. It's extremely thorough, which makes it hard going to learn, but it also seems extensively play tested, because it goes into the nitty gritty of many of the fuzzy situations that can crop up in a game of Warhammer. I also got a measure of revenge by defeating Rodion in our subsequent Warband game, which I will write about in another post. My Orc and Goblin project is drawing to a close, and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to play at least a few games with them. My next game for the greenskins will be in two weeks, where I'll go back to Kings of War. After that the greenskins will be retired, with only my Warband coming out on occasional forays whenever Steve, Rodion and I can arrange campaign games. I ordered more Goblins on E-Bay, because I need at least 90 to field two units with three Fanatics apiece under T9A rules. In hindsight it seems dumb now, since I'm about to shelve them, but I also ordered more High Elf Lothern Sea Guard and White Lions to complete my High Elves. After the greenskins I will be working on the High Elves until the end of the year. I have to because I went on a spending spree on E-Bay buying up cheap High Elf models, and I need to put in some work on them to justify my purchases. I feel like an idiot, but I've always had poor impulse control. Ending the Orcs and Goblins project doesn't mean I won't be playing with them anymore - it just means that they get taken off the top of the painting priority list. I like their savage goofiness, and will definitely field them more times on the tabletop now that they're no longer just grey chunks of plastic.
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