Dark Elves vs Ogre Kingoms, 2/20/10

Played a 2250 game vs Ben's Ogre Kingdoms army last Saturday at the Games Workshop Battle Bunker in Glen Burnie.

My List:
Dreadlord w/ Sword of Might, Potion of Strength, Enchanted Shield, Pendant of Khaeleth, Cold One, Heavy Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak - 277
Sorceress (lvl 2) w/ Dispel Scroll, Darkstar Cloak (rolled Black Horror and Bladewind) - 185
Sorceress (lvl 2) w/ Focus Familiar (rolled Doombolt, Chillwind) - 160
Death Hag w/ Manbane, Rune of Khaine - 140
5 Dark Riders w/ musician, crossbows - 117
5 Dark Riders w/ musician, crossbows - 117
20 Corsairs w/ Sea Serpent Standard, Full Command - 250
- Assassin w/ Extra weapon, Rune of Khaine, Manbane - 146
10 Crossbowmen - 100
Cold One Chariot - 100
5 Cold One Knights w/ Full Command, Standard of Slaughter - 210
6 Shades - 96
War Hydra - 175
War Hydra - 175

Fairly standard stuff, I tried running a Death Hag in with the Corsair unit. I thought I'd give it a try. Makes it more killy, certainly.

Ben's List will be on his page, likely tomorrow. (EDIT- Ben's post regarding the game is here)

Deployment:



Deployment on my left. Pretty standard stuff.



Aaand deployment to my right. Pretty normal.

You can see some of the Ogre Deployment, he can probably explain it better than I.

I won the roll to go first

Turn 1:

Everything of mine aside from the crossbowman advances.



I manage to roll Irresistible Force on my 2-die attempt to cast Power of Darkness... then miscast on my 2-die attempt to cast Chillwind. This all meant that my magic did nothing. Hydra dropped 6 trappers with a breath weapon attack, panicking them, while the shades killed a Leadbelcher.

The Ogres responded by advancing as well. His shooting goes well, dropping a Scrappalauncha template right on top of my corsairs, killing 4. The last Leadbelcher to my right fired 10 shots into the Dark Riders nearby, killing 4, and panicking them to uselessness. The ones on my left killed 3 Dark Riders. Pretty effective shooting for an Ogre army!

Turn 2:

My Cold One Knights go stupid. Not so impressive. The Hydra bravely charges the Maneaters in front of him, the corsairs, chariot, and right hydra charge the Ogre Bulls in front of them, which they flee from, right through an Ironguts unit who proceed to panic off the board (taking a Butcher with them). My shades finish off the right Leadbelcher unit. The Hydra deals three wounds to the Butcher, and receives a wound in turn (combat was a draw).



The trappers and bulls rallied, and Ben charges the Chariot on the Right with his Scrappalauncha. The chariot flees, so Ben redirects into the Hydra's flank. 2 units of Bulls charge the Hydra on the left.



The Butcher healed a wound during the magic phase, and the Gnoblars killed a corsair with shooting.

In close combat- the Scrappalauncha killed only a single Handler (the Hydra held), and in the other combat, the Hydra took 2 wounds, a handler died, but in return they killed Ben's last Butcher. The Hydra lost combat by 4, but held.

Turn 3:
Chariot rallies, Cold One Knights charge into the Maneaters, Corsairs charge the Gnoblars who run.

A Leadbelcher dies to Bladewind, and the Scrappalauncha takes a wound from shooting.

In combat, the Scrappalauncha kills the last handler (hydra holds again), the Knights deal 3 wounds to the Tyrant, kill a maneater, and deal 2 wounds to the other one. The Hydra ends up dieing, as does a Cold One Knight, but I win combat by 4. One unit of Bulls flees from combat, everything else holds.



Ben's Bulls and Gnoblars all rally, and a unit of Bulls charges the flank of my corsair unit.

The Hydra takes a wound, deals two the the scrappalauncha (another draw combat).

The Bulls kill one corsair, and because Ben wasn't sure whether I had given the Hag a ward save, he only sent 3 attacks its way, causing one wound. In return, the Hag killed a Bull, the Corsairs do a few wounds, and the Bulls lose combat by 4 and get run down.

I lose a Cold One Knight and the champion, the handler dies, and I end up losing combat by 5. I roll a 4 and stay! Now, Ben's major combat unit is stuck for ANOTHER round of combat!

Turn 4:
The Chariot charges a Scrappalauncha, the corsairs charge the other one. I do minor damage with magic and kill 7 gnoblars with shooting.





The Chariot kills the one Scrappalauncha, the Death Hag kills the other one almost by herself.

The Knights, Dreadlord, Tyrant, meaneaters, bruiser... everything in the general vs general combat fails to wound. I lose combat by 1, and hold.

Ben's Bulls charge my Cold One Knight's flank. The Trappers wound my one sorceress once. In combat, the Bulls' impact hits kill a knight, the dreadlord deals 2 wounds to the Bruiser, but I lose combat by 3 and run, getting run down.

This doesn't work in Ben's favor sadly. All his characters are out in the open, waiting for my turn.



Poor Ogres, just waiting for the punishment I'm going to unleash.

Turn 5:
My chariot charges into his Gnoblar. I do a wound to his Bruiser and Bull unit with Black Horror, then kill the Bruiser, the Maneater, and deal another wound to the Tyrant with shooting. The Chariot destroys the Gnoblar without issue.

Ben's Ironguts fail their fear test, and don't charge the Hydra (a common theme through the game), and the Leadbelcher does a wound to the Hydra with shooting instead.

Turn 6:
My Hydra charges his Ironguts, and chillwind kills the Tyrant. Ben concedes.

Conclusion:
Well, I will say there were several points where I was concerned about the game, around turn 3 and 4. In the end, I calculated that I had won a solid victory. Given that Dark Elves are considered the best army in the game by some, and Ogres are universally considered the worst, that really says something about Ben's play. I was outplayed almost all game, and still came out with a victory!

A few things made this so (aside from Dark Elves being a better army). My shooting was VERY effective throughout the game. I did a few wounds every turn throughout the board. After 6 turns, that really adds up, especially when Ogres have a low model count to start with.

Ben had a hard time passing fear tests. One of his Scrappalaunchas spent two turns trying to charge my Hydra, but couldn't. Killing it would have freed the units up to keep up his momentum.

My Dreadlord holding as long as he did really helped as well- if he had broken a turn earlier, Ben would've been able to set the unit up for a run at my crossbowmen and sorceresses, and I would've lost a lot of my ranged threat, which may have made the game very close.

In the end, I won, but I have to say it was the closest game I've seen against Ogres since they originally came out. Well done man!