NiCon test game - Blue Moons vs Purple Whiskers

Paul came over for a game. Easy to summarise - I had him on the ropes for 4 turns then a Storm Vermin rampage combined with a failed Look Out, Sir! killed off:

- both big units of Goblins
- my BSB
- a L1 Shaman
- my General
- quickly led to the Rock Lobber getting smashed and the Doom Diver failing a Panic check


After staring down the barrel of a big win I stole defeat from the jaws of victory and lost by around 300VPs (probs a 12-8 loss). Honestly - a bit miffed about the turnaround. Highlights/lowlights:


- Doomwheel falls an inch short of charging a Pump Wagon bottom of turn one. Str4 shooting from Doomwheel lightning - only one wound from the 3 hits (each doing D6 wounds!). Lucky LUCKY Pump Wagon!

- Squig Hoppers vs Doomwheel (on full wounds). Drew combat in the first round (Squigs charging), Squigs killed it off in the second with the Boss and 2 survivors remaining. Extremely close run thing (coming down to 6s to wound from Goblins and 4s to save on Wheel)! Squigs retreated to the back my zone and ran out the clock.

- PCBs took a Pump Wagon to the face, Pump Wagon smashed in return, one PCB survived (curses!). He retreated to the back of Paul's zone and ran out the clock despite my best efforts to kill the little bastard. 100+VPs going wanting thanks to a consistently (and wildly) inaccurate Doom Diver and my magic missile being shut down in the magic phase (or failing to cast).

- Plague Priest (on Furnace) cast Vermintide. IF/miscast. Spell killed off two Fanatics and a bunch of Gobbos from two different blocks. Miscast result killed off 15 Plaguemonks! Carnage. Tried and tried and TRIED to kill off the rest of the Monks - 2 left at the end of the game with an immobile Furnace (not enough rats to push it around). Curses!!! Two models away from over 200VPs!!!

- Epic fail from the Gutter Runners trying to kill the Manglers. One Mangler fires through some Runners (deletes them) and Monks (didn't kill enough - poor rolls - we played that it didn't hit the Furnace too or randomise hits onto it - weren't sure about how this worked - any thoughts?), randomly moves back through Stormvermin and Slaves (kills a few), rides out the game. Other one falls short of a move against other Slaves (who have been charged by both Pump Wagons). Decides to wander back to hit A-Bomb. Rolls short but fortuitously blocks a charge from a big Clanrat unit (with Grey Seer) into a Gobbo unit. Clanrats charge anyway. Swathes of Clanrats pulped by Mangler (crica 12 dead rats?). Seer Skitterleaps out of the combat because he sees what's coming - Clanrats beaten but escape and rally.

- Abomb wanders around waiting for Manglers to die. Sucks down 3 wounds from Fireball ring and some more from shooting and running through a Fanatic (which should have killed him but I rolled suckage). Wades into combat with one wound left against General/BSBs unit. One impact hit. Rolls up result to direct 12 attacks at BSB (who only has a 5+ armour save!). Only gets through ONE wound (God bless those Nets!). BSB kills off the Abomb with a swift riposte. Paul's face nearly falls off. Massive disrespect for the ABomb. Massive props for weedy Goblin BSB.

- Warbanner Stormvermin against General's unit. IF Death Frenzy goes off. 10 Gobbos die. Epic fail on return attacks although my general does kills the Rat BSB with a mighty 4 hits/4 wounds. Down by big numbers. Fail to hold and already lost my BSB to a Scorch (and aforementioned failed Look Out, Sir! taking his second wounds after he survived the Abomination). Break. Centre demolished. Spirit crushed. Game over.


Devastated at the end after some sterling play in the 1st half and a very sorry 2nd half/late game. Consistently having problems with the end-game turns. Unlucky scatters for most of the game when the shots needed to count (cleaning out Monks/surviving PCB, chasing down fleeing Clanrats) and couldn't clean up the stragglers. Paul dialled up 3 magic phase where he had 10-11 power dice and I maybe channelled 3 dispel dice/power dice in the whole game and only had one big magic phase (the same one where I'd lost my L4 to a poor Animosity roll - nice). Struggling with the concept of managing to play 4 games in one day at NiCon (day 1 - 8.30am start, circa 7.30pm finish?). Fingers-crossed I see a heap of WoC armies (lol) but a rematch against Paul would be pretty cool now that he knows the power of the mighty Pump Wagons!

Paul played well and generally did the right thing but there were so many threats that when something didn't do it's job (WLC misfire, Gutter Runners with poison slings needing 7s to hit Manglers so couldn't double-tap for Poison goodness, Abomb taking more wounds than anticipated from IF Fireball Ring then epic failing to kill Gobbo BSB, Doomwheel fail against Pump Wagon) he was on the back foot. I think his magic was brilliant and definitely won him the game with that big casting of Death Frenzy and the obliteration of my centre as well as Scorches and Crack's Call against Trolls and blocks. Damn that Death Frenzy!