Mighty Empires!

Mighty Empires Campaign, 10/10 Games Workshop, Oak Park

We started Turn 2 of our ME Campaign tonight, round 1 results were as follows:
Orc and Goblins 6pts
Tony was challenged twice beating both Jeff W (Green Dwarfs) and Bill (Vampires)
Empire 5pts
I beat Felix (WE) in a massacre giving me 5 points!
Dwarfs (purple) 3pts
Billy defeated Eric (Lizards)
Dwarfs (green) 1pt
Lizardmen 1pt
Vampire Counts 1pt
Wood Elves 1pt


Starting Map Locations

Round 2 so far after moves, I will update later when I find out both Dwarf players and the lizards moves. see I used my 5 pts to grab a tile upgrade it to a Keep and upgrade my starting location to a city. Tony used his 6 points to just grab 3 territories, Bill had "land grab" as his strategic option so had an extra point to grab a territory, while Felix just upgraded to a keep.

I challenged Tony's Orc and Goblin army, it was a 1500 point match.

EMPIRE

Captain/ Army General
Battle Standard Bearer
Battle Wizard

24 Swordsmen /FC
10 Free Company Detachment
10 Handgunners
10 Crossbowmen / Musician
10 Huntsmen
6 Knights / FC
5 Pistoliers
1 Cannon
1 Mortar
1 Hellblaster Volleygun

ORCS AND GOBLINS

Goblin Shaman (General)
Goblin Shaman
Goblin Shaman

21 Night Goblins x 3 / FC
8 Spider Riders x 2
20 Black Orcs /FC
2 Spear Chukkas
1-Orc Chariot
1- O&G Giant
Tony's list was right about 1600 pts as he got an extra 100 from campaign rules.
Below is shot of the whole field post deployment.

I deployed first and finished 1st but tony still won 1st turn and it hurt. Outclassed in magic by alot of dice, I found the Goblin Magic to be deadly. My magic was total bust as I again took the Lore of Life and rolled "mistress of marsh" forgetting to add any marsh or water terrain to the board, my second spell "Gift of Life" is great but it never came into play so my magic was totally useless all game! Tony had alot of scary looking units. I'll cut to the chase here with some highlights and low lowlights.

Empire Highs: turn 1- my Cannon scores 2 wounds and on the Giant and obliterates the Chariot with 6 hits...biggest artillery success yet for me. My shooting all around was excellent, in fact I had too much of it, moving off my 5 man archer detachments to a 10 man huntsman squad was a bad call. Turn 2, my pistoliers blew away a full unit of Spider Riders in one volley, the HBVG blew away another unit of Spider Riders in one turn. my Crossbows and Pistoliers got another Nightgoblin unit down to 11 men, 1 away from having it be a scoring unit. Turn 3- My swordsmen who where taking it on the chin all game from the damn spear chukkas in the elevated buildings on tony's side of the field. Killed the Giant and then with seven men left killed and overran another unit of Nightgoblins.

Empire Lows: Turn 1, like I said magic was useless all I could do was dispel and my 3 dice didnt go far verus his three shaman and 8 power dice, I took the "Foot of Mork" right up the rear all game. Turn 2- Idiotically I had my huntsmen flee from some oncoming Night Goblins not noticing they were a bit too close to my Knights who held in their postion 1st turn and were only 12 inches from the table edge. Well guess what? yep they failed leadership check from the fleeing Huntsman, were too far from the BSB for a reroll and I roll a 15 on the 3d6 move. YUP OFF THE TABLE. probablly the worst thing thats happend to me yet. turn 4, my Mortar misfires and blows up killing everyone. Turn 5, The intimidating Black Orcs didnt get into the fray until turn 5 and which they were more than a match for my seven swordsmen and BSB.
While they only lost one man, they broke and fled into the remaining unit of Night Goblins- and were destroyed.

The Final Score was 1364-977 or a + 397 for Orcs and Goblins and a Marginal Victory for them
Considering I had no magic and no knights, I felt I did pretty well. If my damn knights hadn't run off the table before the game even started it would have been a different game.

I learned alot from this game, finally the Cannon pays off, I tried experimenting with the Mortar and thankfully I only blu tac'd it together becuase I am going back to another cannon. the mortar is two difficult to hit with using the damn scatter die. The Hellblaster Volley Gun simply ruled..I originally intended it to protect my cannons from fast skirmishers, etc..but I thought of several other strategic uses for it. Huntsman especially 10 on a large skirmish template are difficult , no. make that impossible to deploy behind ememy lines .They are way better in a 5+ units however they are not waywatchers and 5+ huntsman is about useless except in rare instance you could snipe a weak character. I am way better off using them a detachment/screener fodder. My Swordsmen and Army General continue to impress and I finally got some mileage out of my pistoliers. Crossbows are great glad I added them. Finally, Goblin magic is evil. Ouch.

I ended up surrounding the Giant on three sides and hacking that sucker down..thankfully I, put two wounds on him early with the cannon as he was about to go for round 2 of "jump and a down" I would have been toast.