Background

Having played out my Aggression campaign using the 4e rules resulting in a Goblin/Tzeentch face-off at 1000pts (see Herohammer Campaign Pt.5 – Finale ) I wanted to try again with a slightly larger force – more characters, the use of 4th Edition’s “Battle Magic” supplement, etc.

Thankfully I was just about able to stretch to 1800pts with some judicious counts-as figures.

Armies

Goblins

The Goblin Horde consists of a Lord in a large unit of spearmen, a Shaman in a unit of Black Orcs, one Giant, a large unit of Trolls, three units of archers, and two each of chariots, bolt throwers.

Chaos

The Tzeentch Daemonhost consists of a Lord on Disc, Sorcerer on Disc, two units each of Flamers and Horrors. One unit of Warriors, one of Thugs and one of Centaurs (shown below as Spawn)

The Game

The lines converge in the first turn, quiet but for the shaman failing his Eadbanger test and losing ‘Ere We Go’, and general greenskin animosity.

In the second turn the Wolfriders charge the Centaurs and cause them to flee due to the Dread Banner, then the Giant and Trolls surge forward.

On both flanks the Tzeentch flamers incinerate any greenskins they come into contact with, but in sharp contrast their cowardly mortal contingent (in the Centaurs and Thugs) continue to panic and flee off the table.

On turn three, the Chaos Lord glides into the Wolfriders and obliterates them handily, before being stamped to death by the Giant. The Chaos Sorcerer calls down the Firestorm of Tzeentch on the Goblin Lord’s unit of spearmen, turning nine of them into three pink horrors!

Unfortunately, this magical counterpunch is not sufficient to offset the carnage inflicted by the giant, who proceeds to break and run down the adjacent warriors and their sorcerer in turn four. With the loss of their armoured core, their lord and sorcerer, and the earlier loss of their human assets – the forces of Chaos concede.

Post-Game Thoughts

Game Size & Scale

This was my first real large game of “oldhammer” since restartng the hobby, since in addition to using smaller figures I’m also typically using low points-count

Since these old games tend to be balanced for surprisingly high points and figure counts – 3rd Edition is said to be geared towards 3000pts per side – this game is probably closer to the experience of playing it back-in-the-day.

I think the game size of roughly 10-12 units per side is a solid one with the beginnings of multlple battle lines and enough resilience to recieve an attack without immediately collapsing. I think my board (and brain) could sustain about 12-15 units total.

Magic

Using Warhammer Battle Magic for the first time with the proper cards was a real joy, and added a lot to the game. My plan is to use this for all my 4e games going forward, maybe even with the inevitable test-game of 6e.

Balance

It may be that I’m just not smart enough to figure it out, but there appear to be some really strong imbalances with certain figures: the giant doing 2D6 S7 hits in each round of combat with the only real risk being a 1/6 chance he falls over seems insanely powerful, as does the D6 S3 hits per Flamer.

Enjoyment

I found the use of the Magic system was very fun, as were the slightly silly rules around Bolt Throwers, Chariots, etc. – the things which made it enjoyable were the fantastical elements, rather than the rather rote pseudo-medieval combat. Kinda expected, really and it does reinforce my notion that sci-fi and fantasy need to be fantastical, not just a skin of ancients or WW2!