Hobby Update: Free Dwarf Berserker Brock Rider Regiments

Up now are former (?) staples of Free Dwarf lists, with not one but two lightly converted regiments of Berserker Brock Riders! Over the years, I had picked up a few incomplete bundles online, as well as one NIB box second-hand. Months ago, I sat down and sorted everything, and then got to work.

The more heavily-converted regiment.

The first unit needed the most work. For them I lacked both heads and weapon arms, and went with a lot of GW Irondrake / Ironbreaker bits to supplement things, as I had picked up a lot of loose bits a while back. The arms were old arms bits or quickly sculpted with green stuff, with weapon-swaps from leftover bits from my Vulkite bundles for my recent Berserker regiments.

Another angle of the unit.

I tried to do greying ruddy beards here, and then simple steel for the rest, presenting a cadre of aging Berserkers. I think this goes contrary to the fluff, but the Mantic novels are frustratingly hard to find, so we’re just rolling with it. The weapons do have a lot of detail, but I kinda liked the brighter, plain silver for these old meanies, and we'll leave it for now.

The second regiment.

I went mostly stock with the second, just adding little axes and doodads to hide the missing middle saddle bits, and some assorted shields and icons to hide some of the missing Brock plating. Most got axes, because throwing axes was an option in 3E, though not anymore. Oh well, the bits add character.

Aside from these two, I have two other regiments planned out. One is NIB, with everything Mantic has to offer, and the other is just missing a few arms, which I might toss entirely for lances or something cool or unique, or maybe utilize the Banners from Mantic's metal Berserkers on foot, and spread those between both units. I couldn't decide so kicked the can. While the plan was to hobby up all four regiments-worth of Brock riders, I don’t think that idea will be proceeding anytime soon.

I just don’t see me fielding many units of these anymore. Some troops could be a slick way to pay a specialist tax, but they aren’t really cheap, and my lists so far are already very hungry for specialist slots. Even if a Lord swaps these into Core, you are unfortunately still limited to just two units, and troops still count as Specialist, not Auxiliary, so unless you are going multiple Battalions just to field these... the Brocks seem like they might be more of a rarity on the battlefield now.

Aside from slot concerns, the cavalry units are in a weird spot in the new edition. Hindered charges are excruciatingly debilitating, particularly for a unit that hits on 4’s innately. We’ll hold on to the extra units for now, but I am a little doubtful that they will see the hobby table, let alone the gaming table anytime soon ,given everything stacked against them. Still, we've got our two regiments to max a Battalion, and we'll see what they can do on the table sometime!

Hobby Update: Free Dwarf Berserker regiments

And up now are some Berserker regiments for the Free Dwarfs! The models are GW Vulkite Dwarfs. The classic, mohawk-sporting GW Berserkers are neat, but very expensive, and I was able to pick these successors up second hand in two chunks for very cheap a few years back, achieving a similar look. And in plastic, these were easier to work with than Mantic’s offerings!

Both regiments, ready to brawl!

There were no stands to clip, and I kept all the various little tactical rocks around to help with stability. Painting was pretty easy. While I want to try my hand at highlights for the army generally, these just got pretty basic paint jobs, with just a base color, wash, and touchup on most things. The exception was the headpieces, which I originally painted a bright red, but then opted to paint over with a few gradients of green, trying to add some of my army colors to the scantily-clad units, and explore some basic highlighting techniques before moving on to the units that would really need those skills.

One regiment, alone.

For 3E, when this army was being bought and (very loosely) planned out, Berserkers looked like some quirky fun. Optional Pathfinder, with lots of attacks, Slayer, and TC1 while charging and CS1 while counter-charging made them a wild-looking unit with a high skill ceiling.

And then the second.

In 4e, Berserkers are now limited to 2 picks per Battalion, which is funky. Lacking CS and such, they aren’t super strong, and don’t have a distinct role. I guess it is a fluff reason? As touched on in the posts about the Berserker Lords, I think the army design has some big misses, and I don’t like the design choices here to limit and reduce the quirky Berserker when Ironguard Spam has been the culprit for the fun and balance issues raised for the army previously, yet remains untouched.

On the table in 4E, they’ve lost a lot of their hitting power and special rules, but got a nice points decrease while gaining a bit of Nerve, being a whopping Fearless 15 as a Troop and 18 as a Regiment, which will take some work to budge. With shooting being what it is, they might see play as instigators and disruptors, heading out to fight shooty units, or as extra thick chaff to help delay an opposing push toward your main line / units. The Berserkers are neat, but I think will suffer similarly to Succubi, where they don’t hit hard on their own, probably aren't worth carrying items, and can only take a hit from trash units, given their lowish Def but high Nerve. They are not a battle-line unit, but we'll see if we can find a home and a role for them.

Hobby Update: Free Dwarf Berserker Troops and Berserker Lords

Arguably rather on-theme for the Free Dwarfs, the first units ready for my new army are a variety of Berserkers. Surprisingly, a majority of them are Mantic-made!

Free Dwarfs!

The Lords here would have made ideal test models for the new army, had I been thinking ahead. However, many units were actually painted up well before these, and these were just based up at the same time as a handful of other units. Oh well. It’s a sprawling project, but finally making some real progress.

A Berserker Lord.

The first model up is a Wizkids dwarf, picked up long ago as the pack also had a kind of cleric, which I thought should work out well as a Stone Priest, eventually. This model is as-is, with no conversions. He was rinsed, primed, and painted up, though we won’t get into the weeds here on the paints, and will save that for some of the unit discussions. He has a rocky stand and for the grasses, I just tried going around it, and it turned out well enough.

Da'vid. A second Berserker Lord, due to very old purchases.

The second model is a Mantic Berserker Lord. It is a metal model with a stand. I was not thrilled with metal or the stand, but didn’t want to clip away anything, out of concern for stability. On the base, I just tried working around the stand with milliput, then popping the mini out, so I could paint the mini separately. With just the one model, that approach worked ok here, and once all painted, I glued the Lord back to the base, and then applied the grasses and such. I like him. His nose and unkempt balding crown reminds me of my dad, so we’ll christen him Da’vid, the dwarf Berserker Lord.

On the table, these Berserkers Lords are probably going to be rare, excepting perhaps in smaller-sized games. The overwhelming majority of my purchases and planning were done in the middle of 3E, and cheap fearless combat lords looked like fun to have around for flier defense. In 4E, now, these are full-fledged Warlords, and with only 1-2 openings per army maximum thanks to the new slot system, plus significant points hikes. While I’ll pledge to give them a go as I explore the army roster, I don’t think these will make the cut very often in larger games, and likely never sharing the table, unless I am really bonkers.

Dad-bod Berserkers.

Next up for this post are the dad-bod Dwarf Berserkers, also Mantic, snagged for cheap (I think $10 total?) second-hand, and these got one weapon-swap each, as I didn’t want to mess around with the tall metal banners that came with the unit. Besides the swap, they are metal, but I do really like the look of them.

Foolishly, I was hobbying these up at the same time as the Mantic Lord. Due to weight and stability concerns, I also decided that I didn’t want to try and snip their stands either. Hobbying these up at the same time as the Lord, I tried the Milliput approach here too, and that was not the right call for the multi-model units!

Early basing attempts for the Berserker units... it was bad.

The first attempt was wrapping a coil of milliput around the edge of the stand and pressing that down onto the base… but the coil never stayed put. I then tried putting a coil down and pressing a model into it, but it was just a mess, and these sockets turned out a bit haphazardly. This all had to be done prior to painting, as the milliput needs some water to work well, and could create streaks while handling the models. When it came time to glue them back in about a month later, I didn’t have a reference for what model went where, so most of the connections were very poor, and it was a struggle all around. I think rolling a layer of milliput onto the base and then pressing these in (popping them out once dried) might have been a better approach. Oh well. The grasses and such were able to hide the joins well enough, and these turned out rather nice!

An angry Lord atop a Giant Brock!

Last up is a bit of a centerpiece model, formerly Sveri Egilax on a Hellbrock… now just a Berserker Lord on Giant Brock. He does all the things the infantry Lords do, but has better Nerve, more attacks, TC1, and greater speed, thanks to the mount. This unit cares about getting flanks, and will probably get the nod more often than not over the footy Lord equivalent.

It’s a hefty model, as it is a full metal one from Mantic. He’s a little cumbersome, but table-ready, and with what I’d say is an above-average paintjob for me. These are all ready for the table, but there are numerous touchups I want to make down the line, mostly with adding more bushes and flowers. I want to get more of the army to this point, before I tackle those "extra" bits though. 

We’re kicking off the Hobby Updates with these units, as well... they are the first done! But I also think there are a few design sins with 4E and within the Dwarf list, which these units showcase well. And it's my blog, and so we'll suffer a tangent as I try to organize my thoughts.

The first design shortcoming is overlapping slot-swapping from the Warlords. Messing with slots is a neat avenue for list-building in 4E, but the Dwarfs get a ton of versatility and redundancy for no darn reason. Both the Lord and Lord on Large Beast work with Ironguard, and both the Berserker Lord and Large Brock do all the same slot swaps to Berserkers, Brocks, and Stoneclaws: a bonkers 3-in-1 swaps coming from them. It would be more complex, but I think it would have been better to make each Warlord do one swap (ie Lord on Foot swaps the Ironguard; Berserker Lord on foot swaps the Berserkers; Giant Brock Lord swaps the Brock Riders). By limiting slot-swaps, your list is actually making meaningful choices.

The second shortcoming is incomplete swaps, particularly with the Berserkers. The Berserker Lords will swap the Regiments to Core, but Troops of both the Berserkers and Brock Riders are still Specialists, not Auxiliaries. This has to be a conscious choice, as Stoneclaw Rider swaps function for both Troops and Regiments. Unless a unit is obviously chaff (eg. Northern Alliance Snow Foxes, Abyssal Gargoyles, Forces of Nature Critters), it is hard to justify taking auxiliary slots so far. It would have been nice to flip the various Berserker troops over too, and give the Dwarves some interesting options in this slot.

The third shortcoming which I want to point out is unit limits, or the lack thereof. Most grumbles I had and heard against the (Imperial) Dwarfs was their ability to plop down an rather unfriendly, grindy list with all Def6, even in Ambush games. Expressly limiting niche units like the Berserkers and Rangers while leaving the door open to unfettered Core Ironguard is bad design. Unit limits existed previously, as did Irregular units, and is something I would have rather seen rolled out more, rather than the wacky unlocking system we have now. Heck, even having limits of [0] unlocked by Champions or Warlords, like we see with the Northern Alliance / Varangur, or the Forces of Nature / Brotherhood would have been neat to see, but having both slot swaps and limits is just really clunky here.

I still don't like Mantic's current pseudo-codex approach, but hopefully these oddities get recognized and smoothed out across all armies as respective books do eventually drop. So many armies feel woefully half-baked, even if we exclude the Command Order aspect.

Bringing this lengthy post back to the minis themselves, my approach to hobbying has generally been to do what I can now, and come back later as-needed for touch-ups, or to add things as my hobby skills (hopefully) improve over time. The grasses are done, and these are all table-ready, but again, not quite where I want them to be. I want to add in a number of additional flowers and tufts and little adornments to these units still, but want to tackle those across a fuller army. While my collection is very lopsided with respect to slots now, thankfully I have a few thousand points of stuff all at about at this level of completeness. In short, more to come from the Free Dwarfs very soon!

4th Edition: Battle #033 Stormcast Ogres vs Orcs in Seek and Destroy

Intro and Lists

I recently discovered that I had only taken a single day off of work so far this calendar year. I commute in a ways, and also tend to work a bit of overtime every week. With chores piling up daily and weekends generally booked up more than I'd like, no wonder I've been feeling a little crispy lately. A gentle reminder to everyone to take care of themselves during these dumb days. At work, I quickly blocked out some summer weeks, and grabbed the very next Friday off, which is now, and Joe and his Orcs were able to squeeze in a game. Joe fielded the following:

Joe follows things more closely than I, and apparently a few tournaments have started bumping limits up to 2500 points, and always eager to run more things, Joe wanted to try that out here, though some of his builds are not quite ready. For today, we have lots and lots of Orclings and units of Ax, one unit of Morax since that was all that was finished, three regiments of Gore Riders, two Fight Wagons with items, a Riftforger on terrestrial Manticore, Thonaar the Eternal, and a Krudger on Winged Slasher.

List building in the new edition has been hard for me. I bounce around between armies, and when I want to test a unit, I want to commit to it with multiples. Nowadays though, that approach can quickly end up with some very spammy lists, which are not always fun to run.

I was struggling to build a list that was a one-off, not spammy, looked like fun, and looked like it had a chance to win. After failing struggling through several army ideas, I remembered my Stormcast Ogres. I had picked up the Ogres just after the 9x9 days (9x unlocking Warrior units, termed Troops now, Regiments then, plus a staggering 9 supporting characters). Now that (effective) Troops are back to unlocking things regularly, I wanted to try out some real MSU play for the Ogres! I don't think it will be nearly as effective as the old ways, but we'll do our best, and up to test and evaluate is everything.

• Nomagarok. Troop spam somewhat forces us into multiple battalions given how limited slots are, so we're taking the big Warlock himself. Lightning Bolt, Heal, and Bane Chant are all very relevant spells, so we'll see what he ends up doing and casting this game.
• Ogre Warlocks. I want to run a lot of shooting, so our champions of choice will be Warlocks with Lightning Bolt. We'll hope to get some extra dice, and ding some units from afar.
• Grokakamok. With the second battalion and very limited character slots, we're taking the biggest Ogre warlord we can. He hits like a truck, so we'll try protecting him as we can, but tossing him at the biggest and scariest thing across from us, and see how that works out.
• Stock Ogre Warriors. I have just enough old Liberator models to make the build work. Ogres did not get their attack number nerfed. They aren't likely to break anything on their own, but with good all-around stats, they should be able to find ways to contribute.
• Ogre Warriors with two-handers. We have a few units of these, partially to try out, partially because I ran out of Liberator models. The extra CS could be impactful though, so we'll try to keep them in reserve, and applied as reinforcements where needed. If things go well, though should be able to mop up without their lower Defense coming into play.
• Shooters. We're going big with 4 troops as I simply love the silhouette of the models. A big, armored guy with a massive crossbow just tickles me. a 30" range is also very nice, so we'll try to deploy these back a bit and make use of the extra range.
• Berserkers. I have a little bit let over. Without chariots, Ogres are all Speed 6, which can make for awkward engagements. I'm hoping the Wild Charge can complicate things, and make any opposing cavalry or speedy units think twice about closing. 

It's ... admittedly pretty spammy, and I have just enough movement trays to accommodate the troop-intensive build. I would have liked to have explored some Boomers to help chaff and instigate, but I really wanted to commit to Shooters, and run the Braves for fun, and just didn't have time to fine-tune any thinking. 

Table and Terrain

We were out at Planet Chaos in Fort Atkinson, which continues to be a quirky little place, with Magic, comics, 40k, and lots of board games and collectibles. It's neat! The shop has tables, but geared towards 40k, we needed to push two together, and utilize our own terrain. This ended up being from my desert board for my Kingdoms of Men. We again forgot to explicitly reaffirm the new heights, but I don't think there were any impactful game moments, so we can say that we had some Height 10 Forests, the blocking Buildings were Height 7, Hills were Height 3, Obstacles were Height 2, and the drying oasis was Height 1. I need to update my terrain boxes. I think this last good looked at during preparations for the Northwoods GT, and we're missing some difficult terrain, while having an abundance of palm trees. We'll make do here, emulating our Northwoods endeavors, and swapping in a third forest in lieu of a second piece of flatter difficult terrain.

We rolled, and got Seek and Destroy for our scenario. We'd take turns scattering 7 Loot tokens around the board, and these could be picked up by units, and worth 1 VP each at the end of the game. During the game, if you rout a unit in combat that was holding a token, you can elect to pick it up, ignore it, or destroy it, and remove it from the game. 

The table, with tokens.

I won the rolls for tokens, and spread mine out, while Joe's drops all ended up pretty centrally. Joe then won the roll for sides, and decided to stay put and kick us off. 

View from the left, with an angry Slasher ready to rumble.

On the left is the Slasher, with Orclings on the line, and supporting units of Axes (green bases) and Morax (red base). The right had the contingent of Gore Riders with two in front and one in support, Thonar in support, and then the Fight Wagons with the Brew of Strength on the line (red cork) , with the Wagon with the Prue of Sharpness (purple cork) in reserve. The Orcs deployed centrally first, with Orclings and then Axes, then on the right, with everything, and with the Winged Slasher coming down last to keep my honest. 

Lots of Shooters in the center.

For the Orges, we have Warriors out on the far left, a bit back. Angled Warriors with Grok were poised to support the left, and were my final drops. On the line, a Warlock ready to get into the woods, more Warriors in the front at odd angles, and more two-handers in reserve. We tried to deploy the Shooters around the terrain, and sprinkle in Warlocks, to try and make use of the boosted dice to Lightning Bolt from their Master of the Plains rules, since all my non-heroic units will benefit them. Nom is the white-masked caster on the far right, and we have Warriors with two-handers in reserve, and then Berserkers and Warriors out on the far right, ready to play in the woods.

A bit of a mismatch on the right.

Going into this, I wanted to own 2/3rds of the table, favoring the right since there were 4 tokens out there. However, I ended up going very wide, playing for everything. I don't think this is wise, but surveying the field, I didn't want to bother with layers when it came to my Shooters, like I had originally planned. If the Orcs are clever and quick, I won't be able to charge out with my Warriors without obstructing my shooters on the turn before... so going wide was the approach, and I did manage to deploy things back as well. The Warlocks would need to move, but all the Shooters had Round 1 shots lined up. For other deployment goals, I wanted Warriors with two-handers in reserve positions, which I managed to do, and because it was scary, I opted to keep Grok until late to try and counter the Slasher. With stick combats, even without Individuals, if I can tie the flier down once, I should be able keep it down long enough for Grok to give him the business. 

Overview of the table, with a very long and weird line of Ogres...

Overall, I wasn't thrilled with my deployment. I achieved most of my goals, but everything felt very flimsy, and I did not have great fighting presence on either flank. My opponent did a great job deploying things, and checked beforehand, so that buildings and such would not gum up his opening moves. The Orcs were ready to be aggressive, and unfortunately for me, won the roll for turns, and kicked things off for us.

Top of Round 1: Orcs

On the left, the Slasher moves 10", getting behind the building and hiding. Not much we can do about that. Supporting the titan is a regiment of Ax, who pivot and move their 10" out towards the lane in the left.

A wise Krudger on Slasher holds back.

Centrally, everything moves up as well, with the Orcs being as about as aggressive as they can be. The Riftforger reins it a little bit since he is on a mount, but everything else moves their 10" forward.

Aggressive Orclings! With the adults close behind.

The palm tree forests slow things down a bit on the right. The Fight Wagons lag behind, as does one unit of Gore Riders, who will pick up a token. Thonaar stays central, but two regiments of Gore Riders run up, projecting some serious threat into my lines already.

Very aggressive Gore Riders!

Overall, the Orcs were really aggressive! Joe deployed wisely to not get tripped up by buildings or anything else. It's a scary army and I have my work cut out for me! 

Top of Round 1: Stormcast Ogres

The Orcs coming from the right are the immediate threats. It is Round 1 and already they are close enough that I have a double-charge into the lead Riders, and while I don't particularly like it, I think this is the best it's going to get out here, so both the Berserkers and the Warriors charge in. I can choose my path in, so both avoid the woods, which felt nice. Hopefully we'll land some damage here and be able to pick the unit up later.

Some brave delaying charges.

The next-nearest Gore Riders are the next most immediate threat, so a lot of my shooting goes into them, looking for a waver. Fortunately, all my Warlocks are maxing out on their Lightning Bolt bonus dice. I goof Nom's dice (6 instead of 7), but he lands 2, three groups of Shooters do a combined 4 damage, and another Warlock contributes 2 more, taking the Riders up to 8, and we are able to get the waver here, despite the unit being Inspired!

Reforms, after some decent shooting too!

In combat, the Berserkers and Warriors each land 4 damage, and we luck out here as well, able to break the Nerve 15 Riders! I don't want to muck about, so we sidestep inward, each moving 2 inches. At this point, I know the nearby Riders are wavered, and with the melee victory, things are going well, I just need to preserve a unit this turn (the Berserkers), and delay as long as I can here, as the Riders and Fight Wagons are clearly more dangers than the Axes and Orclings in the center.

The Orclings take some hits, despite Stealthy.

Centrally, the final troop of Shooters take aim at the Orclings, but land no damage, as the little guys have Stealthy, which I had forgotten about. Their Nerve is low though, so two of the Warlocks toss in with maxed Lightning Bolt Dice, and despite one of them moving, each lands 3 damage, and we are able to waver this unit with shooting as well, which should slow down things a bit, if my opponent wants to keep the Orclings in front.

The Ogres... sorta contain the Slasher.

On the far left, the Warriors back up, staying at the edge of the Slasher's range. The other unit with shields turns and moves out by the building, ready to brawl, and Warriors with two-handers and Grok lurk, so see of the Slasher will take the bait.

Top of Round 2: Orcs

I was struggling on how to try and contain the flier, and writing the report, I don't like the approach I took, as it is very passive. I might not have been able to reach the edge of the table with 2-handing Warriors, but if I can, the Shielded Warriors should be moving up to pressure, as the 2-handers would already be zoning out a flyby. Right now, I just have a cute kill box, but no pressure on the flier to make a decision.

With no pressure, the flier inches ahead, staying safe and threatens a worse flyby now, while the unit of Ax creep up and claim a second token for the Orcs.

The Slasher is hard to contain with just Speed 6. 

On the other side of the building, the wavering Orclings are left behind, as more Orclings and a unit of Ax run ahead, still being very aggressive.  

More aggressive Orclings in the center.

Centrally, the Orclings continue to sprint ahead, and while the Morax stop atop a token, my opponent opts to not pick it up. It won't really impact their speed, but it's the best fighting unit here, and my opponent doesn't want to just deliver the token to me. 

The Orcs just remove the Warriors, with the Berserker Braves still kicking.

On the right, the duo of Chariots are just barely able to multi-charge the Warriors. Thonaar's "Rage Plus" blesses the wagon with the Brew of Sharpness, which blasts into 22 hits and 16 damage. The wagon with the Brew of Strength doesn't roll, as the unit is already devastated, and we-fast-forward, and the uninspired Warriors do indeed break.

Thonaar looks to go solo, zipping far ahead, and looking to outride and envelope my line in the coming turn.

Top of Round 2: Stormcast Ogres

All turns are tough, full of hard decisions that will shake out immediately, or ripple out with consequences over the coming turns. This one feels extra important, and thank goodness we were not playing on a clock! The Orcs are already in close and threatening a multitude of charges. I have shooting, and have a few injured units opposing me, so target priority and feels very important.

We'll try ignoring the Slasher a bit.

On the left, I am not containing the flier well enough, so somewhat abandon the plan. It just has too many options now, and I can't devote half a dozen units to worrying about it right now. After much consideration, Warriors move at the double, grabbing a token for me and pivoting towards the beast, with the two-handing Warriors moving up behind. We're both large infantry, and not moving the full amounts, can fudge things a bit to just say they are dead square. Nothing else is threatened by the flier right now, and the Ax regiment lingering back would need all 3 Wild Charge successes from the order to help out in any fight. We're as good as we're going to get out here.

Multiple flank charges into the Orclings.

The aggressive Orclings have opened themselves up to a few flank charges. Not much that can be done about that, given the very wide line and slightly speedier units of the Ogres. Grok turns his attention towards the middle. Warriors make an awkward charge into some fresh Ax, Shooters lunge out with a flank into some Orclings, they crisscross with Warriors making a flank charge into other Orclings in front of the Morax, and more Warriors front-charge more Orclings. 

For shooting, the Warlock in the woods holds, and flings Lightning with 3 extra dice into the injured Orclings, landing 2 into the Stealthy kids. Another Warlock approaches the hill, flinging past the flanking shooters into the same Orclings, getting another 2 damage, and taking them up to 12 where they can be routed.

Reforms for the Ogres. 

The combats go pretty well too. The Warriors get Elite, don't bust the Ax regiment, flanking Shooters and Warriors pick up their respective Orclings, though the frontal charge lands a nice 5, and the little guys are found to be Insanely Courageous.

On my right is my last movement decision this turn, with the Berserkers charging the Fight Wagon with the Brew of Sharpness, looking to gum things up. They'll land a nice 6 damage, but will not budget the Inspired unit. Still, the Berserkers have done their jobs this game.

Fights and positioning in the center and right.

In the back line, the first unit of Shooters lands a ridiculous 5 to the wavering Gore Riders, taking them up to 13 damage. I probably should have just called this good, as it is almost certainly a waver, but the nearby Warlock flings into the same unit with Lightning, landing 3 more, and taking them up to 16 damage, where they can be broken, and they will eventually break at the end of the phase. The next Shooters have a cover penalty into the Ax regiment near the building, and land nothing, Nom lands 1 damage, and the last unit of Shooters deal 2, taking them up to 3. They are Inspired, and unbothered.

Aftermath of Round 2.

It was a high-pressure turn, and it felt like we did ok, removing almost all the chaff, and getting damage on a number of other units.  

Top of Round 3: Orcs

On the left, the Ax and their token finagle and move around the building, looking to hold it and maybe fight still. They get close enough to be charged, but finagle a way out of sight of the Warriors with shields on my far left.

The Slasher hops the lines.

The Krudger on Winged Slasher can only charge the Warriors with the shields, and decides that he doesn't want to fight yet, and hops the line instead, eyeing up my line of shooters.

The Ax that took a delaying charge reform into the flank of Ogre Warriors fighting them. Rage fails from the Warlord and the nearby Riftforger, but they still roll out of their minds, dealing twice the expected damage to land 12 onto the Warriors. The Ax will best them, and reform.

Centrally, the Morax charge Warriors on the hill, landing 6 damage, and these Warriors will hold. 

Clashes, mostly in the middle.

The Riftforger charges out and bonks a unit of Shooters for 1 damage, and Orclings reform, letting the injured unit of Ax come in with a Hindered Charge to try and break through the center, though neither unit can claw any damage in. Unfortunately, the Ax took some shooting damage (just 3), and appear to have lost their damage tracker.

On the far right, Thonaar outrides my line. The wagon with the Brew of Strength peeks into the woods to threaten things, and the delaying Ogre Berserkers take 20 damage from the flanking Gore Riders, and they are bested, with both units pivoting a bit. Unfortunately, the 6 damage on the Purple Fight Wagon also looks to have disappeared.

Top of Round 3: Stormcast Ogres

The pressure on the right is still nutty. So far, we've bested two regiments of Gore Riders though, and that feels pretty good. After some fiddling, the Warriors with two-handers make a hindered charge into the last unit of Gore Riders. as they are safe from the wagons here. That seems tricky and clever.

Positioning on the right. 

Shooters move up to block, and their leader point is not in the woods, so they will fire into Thonaar. Another unit of shooters will do the same, trying to condense and protect my shrinking line of Shooters, and together, they land 2 damage against the Warlord.

And a surprise win for the Ogre Warriors!

The hindered Warriors still manage 6 damage onto the Gore Riders, and will pick the uninspired unit up with a good check. I have Brutal, but kept forgetting it all game.

The double-engaged Warriors will throw hands into the Orclings, trying to pick them up, and we do, but cannot reform since we are still engaged. 

A Warlock flanks the Riftforger, as I think they have 5 attacks. They have just 2, and between the caster and the shooters, just 1 damage lands. Ouch. 

Nom tucks in between the shooters to fling Lightning into the Winged Krudger with 2 extra bolts. The two other Warlocks are safe, and will toss into the same target, though only 1 has extra dice. Together, they land 4 damage onto the titan. 

Centrally, the Warriors fight against the Morax, landing 6, though they do not care.

The positioning for the disagreement.

Moving onto the left, their is a rules disagreement. I want my shooters to flank the injured unit of Ax, but my opponent asserts that I cannot pass through my own unit, nor his. I think I can, but we struggle to look the rules up on the phone. We agree to his assertion though, with the Shooters pivoting and shooting with cover (9 attacks halved, down to just 4...) into the Ax on the obstacle by the building, with no damage done.

Looking things up now, I am correct, we just couldn't find the passage quickly. You can pivot through blocking terrain like buildings (p. 28), so long as you end your pivot clear. Charging units treat friendly units as blocking terrain (p. 17), so I would be able to get into the flank here. The Pivoting section at the bottom of the text says I can pivot through friendly and enemy units on a pivot too, again so long as I end clear) though there is some discrepancy with the section immediately above, saying that enemy units block movement, so I might not be able to get into the Morax, for example, though I believe we've generally been pivoting through things before.

Fights and positioning over on the left.

Grok goes in alone, blasts into 12 hits and then 12 damage, and we'll obliterate the unit. I am just over 10 inches away from the Ax on the far left, and sidestep 2" to really get away with my Warlord. It's still a flank charge, but the Krudger will need to fly back to use the command, and will need all three successes to make the hindered flank charge... and I think Grok is adequately protected.

Some decent damage, and reforms for the Ogres.

The Warriors with shields make it around the building, picking up a token, and threatening the Ax on the obstacle and their token. The Warriors with the two-handers inch around, as we deem them safe from the Ax. I was concerned with Line of Sight, but they might be out of arc as well. 

Top of Round 4: Orcs

The Ax and their token are really boxed in, and the obstacle slows them down even more. Options are not great, and they will turn and fight, giving my Warriors with shields a hindered flank charge, while keeping my Warriors with two-handers and the shooter in front arc.

The Ax ... try and do their best. Outnumbered, something is getting in with a flank though. 

On the hill, the Morax will get a Rage on the second attempt, clobber my Warriors and reform, though it looks to me like Grok is still in their flank. The Ax will reform, sliding over and out of the pond to fight the Warriors. Reforms have been tripping me up a bit, though this game helped in some regards. 

If multi-charged, without awkward spacing, the charging units will align to maximize and share frontage on that facing. The charged unit could reform... but unless another unit is joining in with a multi-charge, you should already be aligned properly. Here, my large infantry (120mm) Warriors were charged with a some swarming large infantry (120mm) Orclings, and heavy infantry (125mm Ax). With 5mm extra, both units should have leader points in my flank, and the Ax should be wrapping around. I was struggling and we just did not think the math through.  

Edit: I write reports to share ideas, and to get better, both in terms of personal decision-making, and uniformly applying rules better. It was pointed out on the Forum for a multi-charge shares proportional frontage, so the larger unit gets more frontage. Here, the Heavy Infantry (125mm) Ax is a bit larger than the Large Infantry (120mm) Orclings, so it would get more of the initial frontage, pulling its leader point closer to mine. The Ax are in the front, and this would have pushed the leader point of the Orclings out into my flank. So, this Reform was done correctly, if by accident.

So, the Ax slide over, and land 4 damage, but it is a pretty even match here, and the Ogre Warriors do not care.

The Slasher gets a kill.

The Krudger on Winged Slasher flanks the engaged Shooters. He's got a surprising 12 high-quality attacks, and will pick the unit up and spin around to hunt Grok. 

The Riftforger cannot victoriously reform, and will slam 2 damage onto the Warlock, who holds.

A weird engagement for the Shooters.

The right is extra complicated for some reason. Boxed in by the Shooters, both of the Wagons go into the troop, hindered. It's frontal charges, but this seems like overkill.

Rage Plus from Thonaar lands on the wagon with the Brew of Sharpness, and they land 17 damage onto the Shooters.... unfortunately, they are found to be Insane. The wagon with the Brew of Strength takes them up to 26 damage, but they shooters are insane, and holding up three strong units by themselves now, which is very unfortunate for the Orcs.

Joe can be pretty critical of his own play. I think he talked through it at the time, though writing the report, I do not recall or understand the thinking behind Thonaar's moves. He is in the woods, but is not charging. He's not preventing any hindered charge, and not being in the combat, isn't going to get any kid of reform here. Being in the woods, he's also going to be slowed down next turn. I 

Top of Round 4:Stormcast Ogres

I consider withdrawing the insane Shooters, but quickly think better of it. We're trying up three units, so we're good right where we are. I'm still devastated, and should swing on the injured purple Wagon with the Brew of Sharpness, but since their tracker dematerialized and I think both are wagons are fresh, we swing with half attacks into the outer unit with the Brew of Strength, and land no damage.

Positioning for the Ogres. The Shooters are delaying ...insanely well.

With no shots, the other shooters run up 12" and pivot, ready to continue to tie things down. The Warriors could turn to fight and threaten things, but I decide it is best to run away, and they pivot and start moving towards my opponent's deployment zone. Thinking all these units are fresh, I just want to take my token and run, and let him worry about the remaining two over here.

The Warriors battle the Ax regiment near the pond. They should be on 3 damage from some early shooting, but again, that looks to have disappeared. We do get the Elite order on them, and they hack 4 into the regiment, which holds.

Brawls in the center.

I consider withdrawing my Warlock against the Riftforger, but he's an individual, so we'll keep him locked down. The Warlock is still in the flank, and lands another 1 damage into him, taking him up to 2 damage.

Nom has a flank charge into the Winged Slasher, and that's an easy decision. The titan has already taken some damage, and losing Nom is fine, and I'm ready to sacrifice another Warlock to keep the titan in place for next round. We should be able to clean most of this center stuffs up this turn, and with the titan pinned down, Grok might be able to get the finishing blow by the end of the game.

I check Nom's stats, and I apparently lied to my opponent. I thought Warlocks had 5 attacks, but they have just 2. I thought Nom was the same, but he's got 5 in the flank, and he's apparently angry. Nom does a ridiculous 6 damage, and has Brutal, which I forget about. The titan is on 10 damage, and the initial Nerve checks is a hot boxcar. Since the initial Doomed result would still break the flier, I need to reroll, and get a lucky 11, and mange to break the the Krudger. I had him contained over the next few turns, but hey, we luck out instead. In shock, I forget to reform Nom.

Grokamok does have a flank into the Moreax on the hill, and will blast into 15 damage, though the Morax are found to be Insane, and just barely not devastated. Nuts. Halving their attacks would have been nice.

Some victories, with the titan falling to Nom's bonking stave. 

Shooters will run ahead to grab a token, looking to flee towards my opponent's deployment zone as well. A Warlock comes up, eyeing the token in the center.

The duo of Warriors will indeed sandwich the Ax and their token. I believe we get Elite on one of them, and they deal a combined 13 damage, and will break the regiment. The Warriors with Shields will pick the token up, and victoriously reform to face my opponent's deployment zone as well. The two-handing Troop will swing around, looking for more fights as the game starts to conclude.

Top of Round 5: Orcs

The insane-and-not-devastated Morax is nice, but things are not looking good elsewhere. The Morax get Rage from the mounted Riftforger, landing 21 hits and smack 9 damage onto Grok with some good dicing, but the Inspiring reroll lets the Ogre Warlord hold. Phew.

Fights in the center, still.

The Ax regiment struggles against the Warriors, and unfortunately for the Orcs, nothing connects here, so the Warriors hold firm.

The Riftforger continues against the Warlock, landing 1 damage, but doesn't pick the spellcaster up.

Fights on the right.

The Fight Wagons with the Brew of Sharpness reform into the flank of the Shooters. This is a wise move, as this puts them atop a token to pick it up. Joe's orcs currently hold the damage record for the blog with 61, and while this could be a contender, he opts not to go for it, and we fast-forward, and the Shooters are found to have calmed down enough to break now.

Reforms, after trampling the Insane Shooters.

Each wagon reform, looking for some way to help as the game concludes. Meanwhile Thonaar tries to pack up with a pivot, but can't quite clear the woods it seems. 

Top of Round 5: Stormcast Ogres

It's been a tough game, but I think the Stormcast Ogres are pulling away with it. From the left, Warriors hold 2 tokens, Shooters hold 1, and Warriors with two-handers on the right also hold 1, which should be enough to win. All of these units book it away from the fighting and towards my opponent's deployment zone. 

The brawls continue as the token-holders flee.

The Shooters on the right, opt to hold, and fire 3 damage into the Wagon with Strength. Nom and a Warlock slip a combined 3 damage in with Lightning Bolts, but on just 6 damage, the Fight Wagon holds on.

The Warriors struggle against the Ax regiment, landing some damage, but they hold on still. Had the shooting damage not disappeared, we probably would have this. 

Grok and the two-handing Warriors break the Morax, and overrun getting on and around the hill to see stuff.

Top of Round 6: Orcs

Since he is not an individual, Thonaar trots from one forest to the other to grab a token for the Orcs.

The Fight Wagon with the Brew of Strength charges the Shooters, getting out of the woods, and the wagon will pick the unit up. 

A Fight Wagon finally makes it into the center.

The plucky Ax regiment will be joined by a hindered charge from the Fight Wagon with the Brew of Sharpness. Thonaar's Rage Plus and the Riftforger's Rage both fail, but the Ogre Warriors are trampled.

The Riftforger swings, but misses against the Warlock. 

Top of Round 6: Stormcast Ogres

My units with tokens continue to flee, and they are still holding a combined 4 tokens for me. An Ogre Warlock gets into the middle of the board to pick up the last unclaimed token, bringing my total up to 5 for the scenario.

The Ogres continue fighting in the center, as the game concludes.

The Warlock lands another 1 damage into the Riftforger, but he holds.

The Warriors with two-handers charge the last Ax regiment, and will cut them down.

Grok is able to charge past that fight, and then pivot to get in cleanly against the Wagon with the Brew of Sharpness. Three hits Blast back into 7, and 7 damage lands. The unit is not inspired, and a good check picks it up. It is holding a token, and the Wagon and the Brew of Strength still handing around, I will destroy the token to cement my lead.

Bloodied reforms for the Ogres.

We have a rules thing at the end, where my opponent doesn't think I can both hold and score two tokens with my unit of shielded Warriors on the far left. I think that is only a limitation for Push (Scenario 12), and that does look to be the case. It's a victory for me regardless, but the additional token pushes this up to a 5-1 victory for the Stormcast Ogres!

Game Conclusions

A big thanks to my opponent for fitting this in on a weekday afternoon, and for putting up with all of my very long turns. I probably should have run something more familiar to me, but it was definitely nice to get the Stormcast Ogres on the table, and try out a bit of a funky build. 

I think I approached this about as well as I could have. There were definitely some goofs and sub-optimal plays, but we were able to make good decisions in the midgame for shooting and charging, and a little luck took us over the line. 

We discussed a bit on the car ride back. I think deployment and the early turns were all very strong from Joe and his Orcs. Things deployed well, in order to not get tripped up by terrain. Luck foiled the plans with his wagons, and Thonaar's odd sojourn into the woods is the only big misplay I can point to. He could have swung around the backline, retreated to grab the token in the woods a bit earlier, or doubled-back to threaten my Warriors and their token, and all of these would have been better options that entering the woods. All else being the same, it would still have been a tough end game, but he would have had some better options if Thonaar was more free.

Testing Conclusions

• Nomagarok. It was a weird but good game for him? We only tossed Lightning Bolts, got that number wrong a few times (Nom is LB4 as his base), but then managed to fell a Winged Slasher in combat. I cannot say he had a bad time, and he seems like a good pick for the Ogres, even if you are not investing into shooting, as Bane Chant and Heal can sill be very helpful.
• Ogre Warlocks. They did fine? Committing to them was a good idea, and in the early game when we had a lot of units, we were able to make good use of the extra dice. That petered out as the game went on though. Their spell selection is a bit goofy, and I don't know how these would fare in a list with less shooting. I feel like most lists will want other champions.
• Grokakamok. We struggled a bit early on, but Grokakamok eventually came into his own, chewing through a few units while enduring a little beating himself. He's still fun, and still very powerful on the battlefield. 
• Stock Ogre Warriors. They take up space well, are ok generalists, and they were able to find ways to help out all game. A very nice way to pay the core tax!
• Ogre Warriors with two-handers. A bit surprisingly, we were able to keep these in reserve, and they were able to move out, and punch through things. Luck was involved, but both survived the game, and having a mix of Warrior units was fun.
• Shooters. Four troops was a bit of a stretch, both for list building and on the table. I had a pretty weak line. If we were up against something besides Orclings and Ax regiments in the center, I think this would have gone very poorly for me. They were a fun unit, but still not super-impactful or super-scary since we're hitting on 5's at best. Hordes of these might be better, and having near-guaranteed Round 1 shots thanks to the extra range is nice. 
• Berserkers. The Orcs were set on instigating with a Gore Rider regiment, so these didn't make my opponent think twice about anything like I was hoping. But, they did a fine job punching and delaying for me. Fearless is nice, and they got a great Nerve for their size, at any size. The troop was fun, but I'd probably want multiple troops, or a sturdier regiment though. 
• Ogre Commands. I did a poor job remembering my Orders. The Stealthy one was useless here, but Elite is very helpful for the melee-minded Orges, and I think I remembered my orders twice?
• Ogre MSU. Heavy Shooters is probably not the way to run MSU, and it was a little awkward wrapping my head around things and dealing with all the incoming pressure, but this style was a blast to play and mess around with. The army started out as a way to demo the game using more familiar minis (unfortunately not encourage with Mantic's Pathfinder program), and is unfortunately also a little awkward with the this movement trays. We probably won't see them very often, but Ogres are still a great army to have around no matter how you run them, as they seem to have retained their popularity between editions. 

Again, a big thanks to Joe for fitting this in on a weekday afternoon! My brain took a big beating but this was a lot of fun to get in. We've got a couple Kings of War Wisconsin meetups on the calendar now, so hopefully a few more games and report to come through later in May!