Battle report: Brotherhood vs Goblins

My first battle report on this blog! Though it’s not as interesting a battle report as I would have hoped, I’m more than happy to share. Doing so helps me improving the play with my Brotherhood army.

Furthermore, I learned that writing battle reports is an art in itself that takes some time to master. So Kuddos to @swordmaster, as this only increases my respect for the monumental effort on your blog!

I played my Brotherhood list, see here for its content. As this was my first battle using them, I used them exactly as writen over there. Here’s the picture of them:

My opponent used a less-than-regular goblin list:

• Legion of sharpsticks / brew of strenght (260)
• Grogger’s Goons, horde (175)
• Fleabag rider horde; caterpillar (175)
• Fleabag regiment x2, voracious mawpack (320)
• Mawbeast pack troop x2 (120)
• War Trombone (65)
• King on Chariot (130)
• Wiz, Bane chant (60)
• Grogger Split-tooth (95)

It’s an army with (for a goblin army) quite a bit of hitting power. The voracious mawpack has the potential of causing serious trouble because the fleabags are faster than my knights! Fortunately, 4+ melee and TC (1) make sure they will need flanks and/or bane chant to do enough damage to worry my def 5+ cavlanry

The army has two anvils which I will have a hard time removing. Grogger’s goons regenerate, so it’ll require a double-charge from two regiments of knights to keep him away. The legion of sharpsticks (with their def 4+ and phalanx) is better ignored unless a flank charge presents itself.

Other than that, the army has the usual shenigans. Mawpacks (decent chaff with some damage potential due to CS(1); the trombone and the wizz. All-in, my reconoiterers will probably not last long against these goblin tools; their loss will be mourned.

The army was played with real models, but I didn’t make any pictures because my battle mat was in use by another battle and the army of my opponent was only partically painted. I settled on recreating the battle on Universal Battles. If there are omissions in ranges or charge arcs, it’s because I recreated the battle a week afterwards.

Deployment

The scenario featured three loot counters. As we played both fast and agressive armies, those loot counters were ignored for much of the game as the two forces were busy clashing.

Both armies stacked in the center with a strong right wing (left for the goblins). The two buildings created a nice killing field right in the middle. While the terrain-setup in the center for the Brotherhood was advantageous, as they could fit in more units than the Goblins, the forest would seriously hinder the knights. On top of that, the obstacle required them to advance beyond it to prevent even more hindered charges. All-in, there’s quite a challence to operate in such a small area.

first turn -Brotherhood

All brotherhood units advanced towards the center of the board to set up traps – in particular for the fleebag horde, which loomed quite intimidating. The left loot counter was ignored completely. If my opponent would go for it, it would effectively take out one of his units of light cavalry out of the battle and I was confident my army was fast enough to reclaim it.

The unit of Vileins (Vi1) advanced to within 1″ distance of the forest, so charging units would take the terein disadvantage but my counterattack would not. The Order of Redemption took position for a unimpeded counter-charge.

On the right, the vileins advanced slightly before the order of the abbysal hunt and claimed the loot! counter. As I mistakenly switched out both individuals (exemplar and adjudant) the left part of the center was without inspiring, so I recified that. Sadly, the Vilein and reconnoiterers on the far left were still left out.

Goblin turn 1

With a loud growl nearly all the fleabags charged into the fray! I knew that movement 10 would give them the alpha charge and that 28 TC(1) attacks supported with Bane Chant and pathfinder would hurt a lot, but seeing all those spider riders spurt towards my lines was impressive. As the legion of sharpsticks advanced as far as they would go, my opponent made the mistake of placing them partially behind the fleebags, so these could not back up or reform if they managed to destroy their target. Worse, the order of Redemption was in place for a flank attack which the horde had no way of preventing!

On the far left, the regiment of flea bags did a few wounds on the vileins, who held their ground (as expected). In the center, the horde routed the vileins they were fighting, but could neither back up nor reform. Therefore they could do nothing but await the inevitable flank charge from the order of redemption. A flame thrower blast and a few shots from Grogger wavered the reconnoiterers with a lucky streak, so these were out of commision for a turn.

On the far right, the chariot mounted king charged the vileins (see their role? To die….) and did a few wounds. All other units advanced as far as they could go.

Brotherhood turn 2

Both units of senior knights charged into flanks that presented themselves. On the far right, the Abyssal hunt obliterated the king on chariot, while the vileins backed off enough for the exemplar to join them. Afterwards, the Abyssal hunt turned to face Grogger’s Goons.

The center was the place where the slaughter was most devastating. First, the forsaken beast charged the legion of goblins, doing a few wounds but, more importantly, keeping them in place. Then, the wavered reconnoiterers backed up enough to allow the redemption knights to pass. The charge of the redemptionists into the flank of the fleabag horde was epic. Thirty-two wounds later, the fleabag horde routed and left a nasty hole in the battle line. The Redemptionists turned a bit, so they wouldn’t be flanked by either fleabags or mawbeasts.

The far left was not as successful. Even with a flank charge, the reconnoiterers and the villein couldn’t rout the fleebags, who managed to roll three on their nerve test and kept standing.

Goblin turn 2

Things were looking grim for the green guys, so they rushed forwards to extract revenge. On the far left, the countercharge of the fleabag regiment wavered the reconnoiterers (but not rout them). The second regiment of fleabags charged the adjudant, which they could see just beyond to the trees. The shaman bane chanted them, but even so their hindered charge only did two wounds. The mawbeasts charged the order of redemption, also doing two wounds, and finally the goblin sharpsticks managed to do four to the forsaken beast. All Brotherhood units held their ground. Grogger and the flame thrower were more succesful, as they managed to rout the villein reconnoiterers by fire and brimstone!

On the right, Grogger’s goon’s charged into the Abyssal Hunt. They were pleasantly surprised that -unlike all other knights- the Abyssal Huntsmen are only def 4+ and they promply wavered them after doing 9 wounds. The mawbeast pack charged the exemplar who held his ground nicely.

All-in, a fine turn for the Brotherhood. Only a chaff unit got removed and the knights were up for a few nice counters!

Brotherhood turn 3

On the far left, the vilein initiates lowered their lances and charged right into the inviting flank of the goblins. As they were already quite wounded from previous turn, they were routed immediately. The banner bearer got out of the way of the other regiment of fleabags while the order of redemption quickly removed the mawbeast pack. The forsaken beast killed a few more goblins, but this was not enough to even bother the legion.

On the right side, I remembered that the order of the Abyssal Hunt has fury, so I immediately countercharged them into the goblins. afterI removed the exemplar from fighting the mawbeasts, I could even fit the vilein initates. A streak of decent rolling later, the goons were routed.

Looking at the battlefield, my opponent saw that he only had a regiment of fleabags, single war machine, a chaff unit and an obstructed legion of goblins. Seeing this battle would not turn, he conceded.

afterthoughts

The battle wasn’t really a good one, as one pivotal error cost my opponent the whole battle. The Alpha strike with the horde of fleabags was questionable at least, the error with the legion of sharpsticks was a plain error. If he would have waited out so the infantry could have joined right away and the knights would have to content with the forest too, things would have been a lot different.

There were things that I did like though. Apparently, i could focus the battle in the center in the small area between the forest and the obstacle, as I haven’t had a single hinderd charge during the whole battle.

Futhermore, the vilein-initate trap works well, especially against armies which do not have a strong alpha-strike.

These are lessons I take with me to further battles!