Dwarves and Orcs

Yet another Hordes of the Things battle report! I was introducing a new player this evening with some classic fantasy foes - Dwarves and Orcs! David took the Dwarves, so I pulled out the highly mobile Orc/Wolf army.

FORCES

Orcs of Gorblank
1x (anit-)Hero General (Merk Gorbhead)
1x Behemoth (Trolls)
3x Beasts (wolfapcks)
5x Riders (Orc Wolfriders)
Hmmmm… y’know what… I think I might’ve had 6 riders on the table… lookit me being the big cheater!? Ah well – more for the Dwarves to slaughter!

Dwarvies or Muirvold
1x Hero General (Dwailin Muirson)
2x Shooters (Hand Gunners)
8x Blade (Dwarf Warriors)

THE GAME


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The Orcs were technically “defending” but I’ve always lived by the motto: “the best defence is a good offence” – So off they went, determined to push the Dwaren invaders back off their table edge…


First contact Wolfriders and Trolls charge the Dwarf handgunners!


BLAM! The trolls and woflriders are repelled – this became a bit of a theme for the evening…


The lines close… the Dwaves maneuver….


AS soon as I got the wolves in contact with the Dwarf (HERO!) General I realized it was a bad idea...


First blood went to the the Dwarf general – who collected himself some new wolf pelts!


I’m not sure how I ended up in this situation… was this the same turn and the behemoth had already been recoiled…? Or did the Wolf Riders tie the shooters in the previous bound (there was an awful lot of that going on – ties that is…), anyway…


BLAM! The Orc riders disappear in a cloud of smoke and fur!


Now Trolls aren’t the smartest critters that ever walk this (fantastical) world… but this situation looked bad even to them!


…and so they backed away from the crowds of stunties to give them a moment to think on how best to tackle (or at least distract) nearly half of the Dwarf army!


Meanwhile, at the other end of the line, The Wolfriders – lead by their General Merk Gorbhead – charge up the hill at the Dwarvish battle line.


The Dwarves held their own – recoiling some beasts and only one of their elements falling back.


On the following bound the Dwarven gunners flushed with their success at shooting up Wolfriders set off after another pack of them.


BLAM! And blew them to bits!


On my next bound the Wolves charged back up the hill and I flanked the – despite being overlapped on both sides – due to a gap in the line – That element on the far end of the line held on! Well… at least for one more turn…


On the Dwaves next bound they redressed the line on top of the hill and the General, thinking his warriors had things well in hand, charged down the hill looking for some more pelts.


The General got his pelts…


… but up on the hill things went south… could this be the turning point in the battle!


Not so much… The Trolls charged in again against the handgunners – They’re “mounted” (which quick-kill shooters) that fight them at even odds – surely they could roll a die higher once out of the half dozen turns I kept this up!? No such luck…


Back up the hill The orcs were hoping to clear off the rest of those dwarves… but DANG they are determined little fighters when the situation gets desperate – they held their ground!


On the Dwarves next bound the General finally came to the aid of the handgunners…


And collected some troll heads!


The Wolf Riders on the hill rode down one last stand of Dwarves, but it was too little too late!

Totally fun game – lots of back and forth. David picked up the game pretty quickly and will probably be a formidable opponent in very short order. Of course I find my seven-year-old son a “formidable opponent” at times, so…


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Gosh… so much to paint so little time… Dwarves? yeah, probably get those dwarves finished up…