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Post by lordmuffin on Nov 26, 2018 6:09:18 GMT
I continued playtesting the Dogs of War this week, using some different regiments of renown and against a new opponent who brought a massive horde of savage orcs. Once again, pictures were limited but I’ll do my best to provide details from memory. Dogs of war: Leopolds leopard company Long drongs pirates Beorgs bearmen Marksmen of miragliano Birdmen of Cattraza Malakai makaissons goblin hewer Mercenary cannon Mercenary dwarf (paymaster) Mercenary general with giant blade Dark emissary lvl 3 (shadow) Mercenary wizard lvl 1 (beasts) Orcs: Giant with warpaint 7 big in savage orc boar boys Savage orc shaman boar boy with stunts smashin and lucky shrunken head 24 savage orcs 28 savage orcs Orc warboss with ward save Orc bsb 2 rock lobbas with bullies   Dogs setup with a strong core of pikemen and bearmen, with the paymaster and general in the pikes. The marksmen took a defensive position next to the goblin hewer. Finally, the cannon was set out on the flank to bait the boar riders, who were countered with the slayers. The orcs took the hill for artillery and met the main contingent of mercenaries with their own combat blocks. The boar boys were off on a flank facing the pirates. |
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Post by lordmuffin on Nov 26, 2018 6:30:13 GMT
The game had a few common threads, a few mistakes, and a few highlights. In the first turn, the Dow cannon misfired, but a miasma was successfully cast on the big block of savage orcs, reducing movement to 1. The birdmen flew right up the flank to try to march block, but the army general plus bsb meant it wasn’t likely to happen. The orc lone was staggered by the movement penalty, while the boar boys failed their friendly check and made a 16 inch charge into the dwarves, who killed three with pistols. The ensuing combat saw all the rank and file models killed, with just the shaman and Long Drong facing each other. (Only now do I remember deathblow, which may have helped further damage the shaman) Turn 2 the Dogs of War continued hampering the big units movement, but failed their other spells. The birdmen got distracted from reasonable prey and flew over to attack the warmachines, dealing 1 wound with crossbows. All the other ranges units missed. Drong died in combat to the shaman. The shaman successfully charged the flank of the marksmen, and he challenged, to be met with the dark emissary (hoping his regen would save him). Magic was big, as a perfectly hit foot of gork crushed 19 pikemen, and a hand of gork put the crippled savage orcs into charge range of the bearmen. I made the right call with the shaman, as the dark emissary had trouble wounding him, but was also holding his own with regen and t4. Turn 3 saw the bearmen charging the large unit of savage orcs and the pikemen charge the giant. Importantly, I got a wyssans wildform off on the bearmen. The giant blade, wielded by the general, slew his namesake, and the bearmen and orcs beat each other senseless. Beorg was fighting in a challenge against the warboss, but s and t 6 plus a 4++ proved to be quite a hardy foe and it ultimately took 4 combats for the orcs to break the unit. The last turns had some highlights. The dark emissary cast another miasma in the shaman, and used the lore attribute to swap places with the general, who promptly bisected the savage orc shaman with his giant blade. The warmachines were destroyed by a pit of shades after the shaman was dealt with. The large block of savage orcs eventually broke Beorg (after he killed the general, bsb, and unit champion in challenges) only to charge malakai and be stuck for 2 more combats. Eventually a handful of them made it into combat with the marksmen only to be cut down by Maximilian and the general. The middle block of savage orcs was broken twice by the pikemen (really just characters at the end of it) and run down the second time.   |
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Post by lordmuffin on Nov 26, 2018 6:49:04 GMT
I used these custom rules for the dogs of war: docs.google.com/document/d/1IvSGDZVc8d7DJU9d2NxvMewaqQiZb6SETqYPgn7U5dUI have several comments from the playtesting as well as some feedback from my opponent. Beorg stood up to a tremendous amount of damage and was likely undercosted. I will bump up the base cost of the unit to reflect just how much of a powerhouse he is. Birdmen are a tricky tool to use. I did forget that they had bs4, so they probably missed more shots than they had to, but ultimately I never knew what to do with them. When I finally committed them in the combat with the pikemen and orcs, they ended up getting wasted. I also have them on 25mm squares but that’s totally impractical. It looks like they were originally on 40mm squares, so I’ll move them over when I get some. The army feels very unique to play with. Knowing you have little redundancy but lots of special effects means the games are very different depending on the units you bring. Having so many special rules is a little overwhelming, especially for the opponent, so making sure to explain all of the units thoroughly seems important for a mutually entertaining experience. Additionally, it’s interesting having so many characters in the army at once. I started this game with 4 generic characters and 7 named characters and models. This has a lot of potential with lore of beasts spells, but also makes the game feel much more personal. I’m definitely going to make more of an effort to name my characters and unit champions for other armies after this experience. |
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Post by knoffles on Nov 26, 2018 8:46:04 GMT
I agree on naming stuff, I can’t field an army without at least the characters being named but I may also start doing the units too.
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Post by midnightfox0083 on Nov 26, 2018 14:08:44 GMT
The Birdmen actually never had square bases and instead used the smaller clear round flight bases. That said, 40's is the best bet for them in my opinion due to their size.
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Post by lordmuffin on Nov 26, 2018 15:28:30 GMT
The Birdmen actually never had square bases and instead used the smaller clear round flight bases. That said, 40's is the best bet for them in my opinion due to their size. Yeah, it’s definitely a physical problem to solve, rather than a gameplay one. I just could rely on them to be stable, and eventually my opponent was encouraging them to fall over in spite ( they’re unpainted for now, so no harm there) |
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Post by sedge on Nov 26, 2018 16:56:41 GMT
I love that you got Smoke & Mirrors to work, and your general chopped the Shaman to bits. It's the first time I've ever come across that attribute actually working out in a game.
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