Battle for the Khazad Plain

Hello, last days i could not paint so much, just another batch of common orcs, arriving late to orctoberfest, but however it was enough, as I was able to make another Play test of War of The Ring, fighting with my friend Gabi:

"Mists have dissapeared after a cold night... The orc warbands woke up and started to move groaning under the wips of their taskmasters... The Dark Commander, one f the Ringwraiths sent by Sauron, had  given orders: time to advance on the enemy 

-Thatz good,boyz, we will crazh those little beardy barrels ho ho ho"

The horde started to move to the entrance of the Khazad Valley  in order to approach the Dangerous pass which leads to Khazad Fortress´Main Gate,  but suddenly some explosions sounded, close to the first ranks, not causing harm, just blowing up a few expendable goblins ..

Then the orcs realized: The dwarves were already there, out of the Valley, not hiding in their fortress but formed in open field, with their King Durin at front,  to show those green scum what some fine mithril Axes and pure blackpowder from the deepest mines could do on their heads...

it was time to start for ....

THE BATTLE OF THE KHAZAD PLAIN

Sounds quite epic eh? well, it was indeed, but let me tell you the truth :)

We had arranged a gaming evening for saturday, but were not very sure what to play.. All figures were around for Song of Ice and Fire, War of Ten ring but also Zombicide and some other Boardgames..but nothing really planned

It took us a long while to decide; Gabi wanted to play again War of Tne Ring as he had won lst time commanding the uruk Hai of Isnegard against my Rohirrim. I said " ok, but both armies are still in Progress for a bigger battle .. Lets try sometjhing new in the meanwhile! 

so we decided for something spectacular as  DWARVES AGAINST ORCS!!!, wanting to use and test the small dwarf force I  had begun 2 years ago, and also the already decent orc army created last year

We could imagine a pre- Ring of the War secondary scenario, when the growing dark armies of Sauron and his allies start to threath in the borders, as for example the scarce remaining  dwarf Holds... No terrain options, just a plain to fight a pitch battle...

This is the Dwarf  Army of fortress Khazad:, under my command/

From left to right: in picture/

-Dwarf warriors with shields  (2 companies)with captain, aka "Blue regiment"

-Dwarf hero (single warrior!) lets nominate him Brorr Ironskin

-Dwarf crossbows (1 company) with captain

-Dwarf cannon (one gun with three crew)

-Durin's Guard (the King himself as general, one elite company)

-Dwarf warriors with shields (2 companies with captain) aka "Red regiment"

This unit is also acompanied and suported by hero Gimli himself, as relative of Durin.

Total 52 stubborn and hard dwarves which would sell their lives expensive (many dice rolls for the enemy would need 6 or 6/4 result to slain a single dwarf)

The plan was easy. Surely expecting superior numbers, just wait with a equilibrated distribution of my hard infantry. Brorr inspiring and giving strike force in the righ flank, projectiles and artillery behind an old wall in the center, ery close to the Kings Guard, and finally more dwarves under Gimli's command defending the left flank. Classic "wait and shot until enemy comes to be punched hard" tactic , not orignal but  favourite one among the slow dwarf race in any existing Fantasy Wargame :)

 I must confess I did a little cheating in the army selection..

First , these rules dont know about gunpowder... I wanted a canon here, so i took the rules for a "dwarf ballista" and used it. No big problem 

A litle worse: dwarf cossbowmen are also unknown here... But i have many of them,  love them and  could not accept giving them poor shortbows. They received crossbows but my friend will never know that...

This is the orc army raised between Mordor and the Mountain orc and goblins tribes,,,Gabi accepted from Sauron to be their commander:

-A goblin swarm, 3 companies with a leader and musician

-A strong great-orc unit, 2 companies with banner and chieftain. also an orc shaman included

-A savage orc berserkers unit (single company). The general,one of the Nine ringwraiths included here

- 2 armoured War trolls

-A lesser-orc ("snaga") small unit, 2 companies

- Another  lesser-orc small init, with bows (Grishnak trackers)

-A unit of warg riders, 4 companies and a leader (further unit, the orc right side)

That meant: variable quality infantry with 80 infantry , inlcluding miserable Snaga orcs and goblins but also great Uruk orcs and Berserkers,and support of a orc Shaman.  Mobile and fierce support from the wargs, and shick power of  Two trolls which can be a real Threat and finnally  the Nazgul which can bring terror  and dark magic on the field...

The Horde was lead by one of the Nine...

Here the initial deployment as explained.. Nice, view, isnt it? Reminding happily to some old Warhammer Fantasy reports published in  White Dwarf in the 90´s...

Have a look the ugly improvised "unit cards" under each unit.. Better using this than an Army list as a table on a sheet, where you can never find out who is who!!

The orc Center: the savage orcs with the Lord Nazgul flanked by the two trolls. Some lesser orcs behind them as well as also in their right

The orc left flank... A bigger goblin unit as screen before the Big Orc unit..





The initiative were first (and many other turns) for the Dwarves which allowed the orcs to advance following their War drums . at least close enoght to be shot by  the cannon!!
 One shot was a miss, but in the second turn the gun shot again on the same Target... The savage orcs single company including the Nazgul general....

"Be ready fot this second shot, guys.. doublre charge of powder. this time. Aim at the black Halloween ghost leagin those naked painted orcs...he must be the leader .. At my signal... FIRE!!!!



BOOOOOM..................A lucky dice roll 5 and 6  which brought 6 hits of stregnth 10 havoc on the targeted unit...The savage orcs single company, inclding the Nazgul general were reduced to ashes and become the firsrt and very decisive  casualties in the orc army !!! (Not time even to get a good picture of them on the initial advance :(

It had a decisive effect on Gabi strategy for th erest of the battle.. From this point on, I realized the hard psychological impact of gunpowder!..First of all, the army general  had been vapourised and sent back as a shadow to Mordor...and also a strong combat unit had been destroyed in a single shot! .

I saw then scared orcs going away from the maximal range of the weapon...The enemy army formation Strangely divided in two pointy horns leaving an empty middle area of the table...

In this way the warg riders ran fast very closet to the dwarven "Red Regiment" and Gimli son of Gloin.. These riders were  totally alone and unsupported.. they stopped moving and kept the position there strangely.. Not daring to attack .. The dwarves also waited .. No time for rush still...

The other orc units the right followed the wargs, but as already said,  the formation was becoming too strange! The undiciplined orcs were moving fast to the side and slowly to the front, getting too crowded, in a very deep and narrow line at the right flank



In the next turn, as orc army was indeed divided, the dwarves decided this time to use initiative and move forward,  trying not to give the enemy a chance at that moment, and trying to hit first!!! Blue regiment, Brorr and  King´s Guard advanced trying to hold a line,. Also crossvbowmen left the wall trying to get better targets, and even th ecannon moved as they were not of use in that position (no problem for my plan, it was the dwarf melee warriors who had to hit now!)

In the dwarf right, as the dwarves finnally got closer to the enemy, the orcs decided also to advance... But initiative was dwarf that turn again! The goblins almost could not react when Brorr andt the blue regiment fell on them, however it was one troll who received the charge

And what a charge! Good luck again with dice in the "hard to kill" table.. The troll was slain at first strike! Gabi was not happy..

Then time for the Kings Guard..also a succesful charge and..another 6 rolled in the Hard to Kill! table ..the other troll also was killed...
Gabi started to be really  annoyed, Dwarven gods were helping my army too much

The Blue Regiment tried to move further to the gret orcs after slaining the troll, but they couldn..instead they were suddenly surrounded by the local superiority of foes and charged in the front by orcs and in the flank by the sneaky goblins!  A dwarf  Company was destroyed, first, then an orc company but finnaly the complete Blue regiment died fighting bravely, but decimating on of the last strong enemy units...

In the center, King during and the guards were encouraged after killing the other Troll and moved further to charge a poor "snaga" orc unit.. One orc company  and the orc cheftain were slain by just one single fallen dwarf

In the far quiet left flank, the hesitating warg riders finally decided to charge the Red regiment... It was really a brave action, but would it be useful ...?    Gabi took as many dice as he could for a single frontal charge of the beasts.. Maybe last chance of doing a hard damage to some of those stubborn and too fortunate dwarves

Well, some dwarves died,  so that under the half of its original strenght, one company was broken... It was however  time for Gimli son of Gloin and his surviving warriors  to counterstrike in a dwarven style.. First an heroic duel to finish the orc leader off..

Then using hability "Epic Rampage" to keep on inflicting hits on every succes, until just misses are rolled... No warg or orc left there to tell, all fell under Gimli and friends´ axes...We both were astonished at the extreme destruction capacities of this Charachter...

In the center, Victorious King Durin chased the last unit of inferior orcs, who were confused tryimg to do something... scape? attack another not-so strong dwarf unit? ...

They could not perform anything else, since the crossbowmen made a lethal volley at short range and finished them all...


In the left, the remaning weak, scared orc arrowboyz tried to shoot frm long range... The arrows did nothing against dwarven shields

What else remained? The last Great orcs company  and the Shaman, who performed also poorly all the game..  Single brave hero Brorr charged them and finish the orcc army with this attack, avenging the Blue regiment at the same time

It was too much for poor Gabi.. He ordered the last goblins (indeed the most succesful orc unit of the game!)  and orc archers to leave the field and going back to the darkness..

it was an overwhelming Dwarf victory for his King, defending the acces to their Mountains 

Victory! Long Live King Durin!!!

The victorious, glorious survivors

CONCLUSIONS: 

First lets talk about tactics... I would say I followed my plan (not a difficult one), but also adapted to the enemy reactions and  got advantage of  my troop abilities all time, specially after the psychological effect on Gabi of the tremendous shot of the cannon in the 2nd turn.. 

The impressive initial orc army advance (not a huge army but still good numbers on it) was instantly  stopped, and then two branches open to each side, trynig in an strange way (at least for an orc!) s to avoid my missile fire  and to  attack my flanks, as if my only useful weapon were artillery or crossbows..  I did not allow that: the orcs were missing a lot of time surrounding the centre of the Battlefield, so that I advanced with all line infantry units trying to keep the formatin and strike on the enemy at once  (i also moved the missile and canon in case they could perform more shots, but it was not actually my main goal.. dwarves were there to use Axes and Hammers and Gabi had not realized) 

I did not understand the orc plan anytime (even when Gabi tried to explain me later),  a divided force with also divided main units was easy to disarticulate later

Very good dice result and initiative on my side when requiered (I could charge and destry two powerfuk trolls also quickly) made only one result possible....

To be honest, I must say that we  experienced actually many playing difficulties again during this battle, The rulebook is still hard at many points (many micro-rules to have in mind all the time), and  since last time playing with the rohirrim I suffered many disadvantages for not taking in account everything (my rival did crudely take advantage on it ), this time I was less transigent.. i try to negate every advantage he could get anytime, so I used hard the book and the power I had against him, in a really dwarven style..  We were confused again severla time when playing the four game phases, we forgot some of our abilities (the poor orc shaman was quite disregarded by his player!) And also, not least, I had a lot of luck with dice...

We also understood, this game allow a lot of warriors to die fast... It was designed to play withbigger amries... We must take account on this .. One single artillery shot destroyed the company  the nazgul was attached to.. In a bigger unit, it had not had such effect.. We played mostly 2 companies big; The book allows up to 6 or nine in most of troop types.. That means a lot more of figures and time to ply!!

we like however the system, when rule details are on your mind it goes fast...

I realize now,  I really wanted to win this time, even at some points I was maybe too inflexible...We almost argued a pair of times..Not good at all for a hobby between friends !! 

Finally we agreed we need more battle to  follow all rules more "automatically" . I admitted my good luck and we considered our "small argument" as a consequence of the ancestral Hate between of dwarves and orcs, contagied from the small figures to us their human masters :) We laughed at last, wanting to play a revanche soon.

I liked the dwarves definetely.. The behaved as they are expected to do: be steady, slow, well armoured and resistant, hitting hard when coming close to fight, having also good missile power capacity...

No doubt, Gimli had won his smoke.. Next battle soon... Need to paint much more dwarves!! (well, also goblins and such green scum too, I have time indeed till orctoberfest 2020)