Wartorn Beta Rules Battle Report 1500 points, Undead versus Orcs and Goblins

In my first game of the Wartorn Rules I playtested an Undead Army versus a host of Orcs and Goblins at 1500 points.

The Armies

The Undead Army 1490 points
Vampire Lord armed with an Exotic Weapon and Soul of an Innocent Charm 63 points
Necromancer 1 with a Soul of an Innocent and the following Spells: Wither, Decay and Animate Dead 125 points
Necromancer 2 with a Soul of an Innocent and the following Spells: Wither, Decay and Animate Dead 125 points
1 x Formation of Skeleton Archers 210 points
2 x Formations of Skeletons armed with Spears 192 points each
1 x Formation of Skeletons armed with Hand Weapons 180 points
2 x Formations of Wight Cavalry 204 points each

The Orc and Goblin Horde 1468 points
Orc Warlord with an Exotic Weapon and Orc Glyphs 55 points
Orc Shaman with Orc Glyphs and the following Spells: Face Punch, Bigger Than You Think and Grosh is with Us. 125 points
2 x Formations of Goblin Spears 150 points each
1 x Formation of Orc Archers 228 points
2 x Formations of Orc Warriors 198 points each
2 x Formations of Orc Boar Cavalry 172 points each

Deployment

Both forces faced each other across a battlefield with a hill in the middle and some wooded terrain to their flanks; both Armies deployed their hard hitting cavalry behind terrain (this was a mistake; the cavalry should have been deployed in the main battle line to inflict maximum damage).


Turn 1

The Undead Army had won the roll to deploy and also moved first, so they did. I had deployed both Armies 24 inches (~60cm) apart, I am thinking they should have deployed closer to each other, perhaps 16 – 18 inches (40 – 45cm) apart.
Apart from some of the Orc units not passing their Command Test to make a March Move, both Armies moved straight ahead (Their Cavalry eventually moving from behind their concealing terrain in order to attempt outflanking manoeuvres, the Orcs had massed their cavalry on one flank, the Undead had secured both flanks with their Wight cavalry).

Turn 2

The Undead Army, unable to March Move, continued their steady advance in a line abreast of bone, armour and weapons.
After advancing and capturing the hill in the centre of the battlefield the Orcs started the bloodletting with their Archers killing many Skeletons.

Turn 3

The Undead countered with two successful castings of Decay and their own archers decimating a Goblin Spear armed formation (half of the unit died under a storm of arrows!).
After suffering so many casualties from the Undead Command Phase, the Orcs moved off the hill in the centre of the battlefield and continued their advance against the Skeletons, with the exception of their Orc Archers, who killed two Stands of Undead Spears. The Orc Shaman threw caution to the wind, attempting to cast Face Punch three times with a single die each time, but the Undead supremacy in Magic (the Undead had 5 Dispel Dice to the Orcs 4 Magic Dice) saved most of the damage, only one of the Face Punch spells was successfully cast. The Orc Boar Cavalry advance up in two columns, one a full move ahead of the other, in an attempt to bait the deadly Wight Cavalry into a charge and then flank the Wights with the second Orc Boar Formation.

Turn 4

The Undead had lured the Orcs into their killing ground. Both Necromancers had positioned themselves well, the one on the left flank successfully cast Decay on the rightmost unit of Orc Warriors, causing 6 wounds, of which two were saved. This unit was then charged by a Formation of Skeleton Warriors; the ensuing round of combat showed the strength of the Orcs, with the ability to sustain several casualties but remain in the fight (with a Health of 4, many Orc Stands during the Battle lasted at least an extra turn in combat, this started to become a telling factor against the Skeleton Stands, many of which were Health 2). The Skeleton Archers reduced the previously decimated Goblin Spears, reducing that Formation to one remaining Stand with a Wound on it. The second Necromancer successfully cast Wither on the closest Orc Boar Formation, lowering their Armour Save by one. He then turned his attention to the second Formation of Goblin Spears and killed two Stands with the Decay spell. This Formation was charged by a fresh unit of Skeleton Spears, soundly beaten in the subsequent Combat Phase, broken and run down. The Wights on the left flank charged the baiting Orc Boar Cavalry, a combination of their Exotic Weapons and Trample rules allowed them to cause five wounds, removing a Stand completely. The Orcs fought back valiantly, removing a Stand of the Wights. Only the presence of the Orc Warlord (just) kept them from running; but they were Demoralised.

Things were starting to look a little grim for the Orcs, their right flank was about to be destroyed by a Formation of Wight Cavalry who had positioned themselves to flank charge the Orc Warriors already engaged in combat with Skeleton Warriors. Their left flank was only held by the Orc Boars, of the 2 formations of Goblins only a single Stand remained, the Skeleton Spearman; who had destroyed the Goblin Spears in combat previously, were now in a position to flank charge the Orc Boars still fighting the Wights. Only the Orc centre held, just. The Orc Warriors in the centre now charged the Skeleton Spears to their front, casualties were even, but due to Health 2, two Skeleton stands were removed to one from the Orcs. The Orc Warlord moved up in the centre. The Orc Boars flank charged the Wight Cavalry, who managed to hold their ground. The Orc Boars took no casualties; the Wights lost two Stands, but held. Elsewhere, the Orcs managed to cause more casualties on the Skeletons, grinding them down, but due to their own casualties sustained due to the spells of the Undead, the Orcs were starting to be outnumbered by the Fear causing Skeletons (Fear was one of the reasons the Skeletons were able to tie a round of Combat or even win it).

Turn 5 (due to being deployed so far apart, I thought an extra turn was allowable, and I hadn’t specified any Objectives to hold, this was a straight up charge and slaughter the enemy battle so I could get an understanding of the rules).

The Wight Cavalry on the left flank charged the Orc Warriors in their flank, the Orcs were soundly beaten and run down, and the Wights continued their charge into the Orc Shaman. The Vampire Lord joined the combat in the centre of the battlefield and proved his worth by removing a Stand of Orc Warriors and keeping the remaining two Stands of Skeleton Spears in the fight. The fresh Undead Spears flank charged the first Orc Boar formation, this proved too much for the Orcs, both Orc Boar Formations broke and fled, outdistancing the Undead easily.

The Orc Warlord bellowed a challenge and charged the Vampire, his lucky Orc Glyph saved him from two wounds from the frightful Vampire. The remaining Goblin Spears also charged the Vampire, but to no effect. The Skeletons had won that round of combat, the Orc Warlord and the Goblin Spears fled, the Orc Warriors died fighting where they stood. The Orc Shaman suffered several wounds form the Wight Cavalry but managed to hold his ground. The Orc Archers now had only one target, the first Necromancer, who had been exposed when the Skeleton Warriors to his front (who he had been hiding behind) broke the Orc Warriors and had continued their charge into the Orc Shaman. The sky above the lonely Necromancer turned into a whistling black cloud of death, as he and his acolytes were slaughtered in the arrow storm unleashed by the Orcs (18 shots, 11 hits, even with invulnerable saves the Necromancer still suffered 7 wounds!).

The Undead had prevailed!

Conclusion

I may have missed the intent of some of the rules, they certainly were very bloody. By having the second Necromancer, also with three Spells, the Undead owned every attempt at Magic being cast or dispelled; the Orc Shaman may have only cast three Spells during the entire battle, the Undead were casting at least 3-4 Spells most turns. The use of the Decay Spell, usually cast with three dice, was devastating; most times it caused 5-6 wounds with only armour saves reducing this by 1-2 wounds. Wither, cast early onto the Orc Boars, was very well timed and contributed directly to the Orc Boars suffering so many casualties when the Wights charged home. Can a previously cast spell be dispelled later?

I also found that archery is very deadly, I will have to try a Wood Elf Army and see how deadly they can be!

I will place a separate post on some of the questions or suggestions that I noted down during the battle. It took me about 3.5 hours to play, but as this was my first battle, and I took a number of notes, I think 2 hours playing time would be about right for 1500 points per side with people who knew the rules.

I think the basic rules did allow for a brutal fast play battle in 4 turns (I probably stuffed up the deployment distances) with a 1500 point Army per side, as stated in the intent of the rules.

_________________
Lord Kulhaq

The Nightmare of your nightmares

"During your enslavement to me you will learn that there are worse things than dying."
"The world is ours, you only have to be strong enough to take what you want."

Cool battle report, and it is nice to see some playtesting!

_________________
For all your Dark Realm, 6mm scifi and 6mm fantasy needs: http://www.microworldgames.com/

That was pretty fantastic, you have a way of telling the batrep that kept the flow of the battle visualized for me. Did the armies come across as balanced? And per chance do you have the points you spent on each character and formation so I can see how you spent your points?

I really like your use of mostly core formations with cavalry it added that epic war feel with so many formations on the table.

A previously cast spell can be dispelled for the base cost of the spell to cast successfully.

Did you have fun?

The Army Lists have been edited with their points value included. I used the Army List in Beta version 3-1. Whilst there is a small points difference, I would like to be able to buy additional Stands and add them to a Formation instead of every Core Formation having 6 Stands (except most Archery Formations) for example.

Deployment: I thought the Orcs had a sound deployment, racing forward to capture the hill in the centre of the battlefield. The Orc Warriors which were overrun by the Wight Cavalry did have a large field protecting their falnk, but as they became the target of a Necromancer whose Spells were devastating and not being dispelled (and in my opinion typical Orcish fashion) they left the '''protection'' of the flanking field. But re-reading the rules there didn't seem to be a penalty on combat factors for being in terrain, perhaps something to consider. I think the Undead Magic supremacy was the crux of the Undead victory, it forced the Orcs to come forward or stay and be blasted to death by magic.

Once the Orcs got into combat, they shone, hacking their way through Stands of Skeletons. But the damage had already been down, and with careful timing and selection of targets and spells, the Necromancers had weakened the Orcs battleline enough to use their superior numbers (once the Goblins had been despatched) to conduct some flanking attacks.

Yep, I had fun, but I was initially shocked at how many casualties were being taken per shooting or magical attack, until close combat commenced, then I realised how brutal this game is.

There were several situations I was not sure of, but I think I headed in the right direction of not trying to over complicate the issue. The dispelling of a spell after the turn it had been cast, I took a guess at the answer provided by Blindhorizon (the Orc Shaman failed to dispel the Wither spell cast on the Orc Boar Cavalry) . Arcs for the Archer formations to shoot, I took a guess at an angle extending 45 degrees from the left and right front corners of a Stand, with stands behind the first able to shoot at the same target, but I need to confirm this guess.

Sorry, no pictures, as I was using a very old 15mm Undead and Orc and Goblin Army based for DBM/DBF, all based on 40mm frontages and most Stands 20mm or 30mm deep. This gave me an understanding of ranges, the room required for a Formation to manouvre and looked better on the battlefield than a bunch of empty bases with some appropriate code written on them.

Still can't find my 15mm Dark Elves (they are hiding somewhere) but as soon as I do they will get their own debut playtest. And I will try to post a couple of battlemaps of the next battle in progress, to display the position of formations in relation to each other and any terrain.

More questions/suggestions to follow separately later.

_________________
Lord Kulhaq

The Nightmare of your nightmares

"During your enslavement to me you will learn that there are worse things than dying."
"The world is ours, you only have to be strong enough to take what you want."

Originally i wanted to have your core formation of six stands, and then you can upgrade x amount of stands at a cost of 90% of what a stand costs for the main formation. I don't know if the discount is the way to go. But i can see some formations being allowed to add extra stands. But not all formations. This is something that can be looked into.

Could have the penalty to combat factors for being in terrain. Originally i thought that would bog down the core rules i was working on and just wanted to get a solid set of rules that was work able and ready to play. But then i thought if an enemy is charging someone in woods they will both have issues fighting through the tree's so why give negatives when the negatives will just push on each other if you know what i mean.

Yes i do thinking you should have shaved some points here and their so as to get a second caster for the orcs so that was at least even. Magic is powerful but ultimately this game is ruled in hand to hand combat and without high leadership you can't activate as much as you need to keep your army together. Most casters have less leadership then a warlord so at least 1 warlord is key to holding the core front line together for activations. Also a warlord can add a huge punch to any melee combat, they can devastate most formations they come up against.

I also believe you should have considered getting some wolf riders, they are extremely poor troops but their ability to move so far is what makes them essential to targeting and destroying character stands and archer formations. They can use their speed to duck behind cover and place obstacles in between them and archers and casters. When you do that you break up your enemies battle strategy as now they have some marauders behind their lines they need to worry about.

Your instincts with shooting arcs is spot on, thats exactly right i just havent created any images with fire arcs in it for the rules as of yet.