Edge of the Abyss

The Kings of War Global Campaign

Devean vs Fued

2000+ POINTS
Salamanders
Devean
VS Orcs
Fued

Devean (Salamanders) vs Fued (Orcs)

This was a 2500 point game played over Universal Battle, an online platform for playing tabletop games. One of the best things about playing over Universal Battle is being able to play people from all over the world so lots of different lists pop up all the time. Fued is a semi-regular opponent of mine so we are both used to each other's tricks :)

We played the Secure! scenario at the Ardovikian Plain.

I've submitted our respective lists separately so no need to go through them. I will give some pre-game thoughts, a quick overview of the game as it went and then some closing thoughts on tactics etc. So without further ado....

Lists Analysis

Unfortunately, I don't have a screenshot of our deployment (we only remembered to take screenshots right at the end of the game!) Here is roughly how it was set up (see below for screenshots of the map:

I'll break deployment down into 3 areas, left, centre and right field.

On the left, Fued placed Grumtongue, 3 orcling regiments, his CS2 ax horde, a war drum, a flagger and a gore rider regiment. Facing them I had my unblooded regiment, a ghekkotah regiment, Artakl and a lekilidon.

In the centre, Fued placed Grumtongue's legion, an ax horde, his 2 godspeakers and a regiment of gore riders behind them. I had my tyrants regiment, ancients on rhinosaurs, clan lord on drake, Orlaf, a mounted clan lord, a flying battle captain and a regiment of ghekkotah.

On the right, Fued placed 2 gore rider regiments (brew of haste on the far right behind the hill), a war drum, an orcling regiment and a flagger. I had a horde of ghekkotah (between the forest and the rocks), a lekilidon (in the forest), a herald (rally), lancers with haste and my clan lord on his flying drake.

Regarding the lists, this, in my experience is a classic Fued list. He loves to focus in on one or two areas and play to the strengths of a list. In this case, he is using 4 (4!) regiments of gore riders as his main hammers and Grumtongues legion (with ax hordes) as his anvils. Backed up by a sizeable amount of orcling chaff. I believe he said that he is just using the models that he has so perhaps this list is not as optimised as it could be. Having said that, it is still a dangerous list to take on! Given we are playing Secure! (where we capture terrain pieces, not tokens) I'll have to chew my way through lots of wounds to break even with his mass of orcs. My advantages here are my speed (2 flying characters and haste lancers) and shooting abilities. If I can get a couple of turns of breath and other shooting into his hordes, one at a time, this game will be much more manageable.

Salamanders were lucky enough to get first turn and solidify their position before the orcs advanced. Of note here is that the lancers on the far right were able to pin the gores behind the hill (which is height 2). Orcs responded by moving up as aggressively as they were able to. Grumtongues legion marched straight ahead, confident in their numbers and the two soul draining godspeakers behind them. On the right, a war drum presented itself as a tasty charge target while gore riders waited around, ready to obliterate any salamanders foolish enough to charge the drum.

After assessing the situation, Salamanders decided to fall back on shooting to do the damage. Most things backed out of charge ranges while breath, barbs and blowpipe darts went into grumtongues legion in the centre and the war drum on the right. The legion was hurt but morale was still high, the wardrum however couldn't take the heat and was destroyed.

In response, orcs moved up more aggressively this time, ensuring that the Salamanders couldn't just back out of range again. Tyrants were drained for some wounds from a godspeaker which then healed the slightly toasted orc legion a little. Sensing the time was now ripe, rhinosaurs charged into Grumtongues legion and, with the help of Artakl and the Tyrants managed to wipe out the mass of orcs. Meanwhile, Orlaf and the mounted clan lord had been working their way behind enemy lines and were busy dispatching orclings and delaying the gore riders at the back. The gore riders however, frenzied by the sight of fighting up ahead obliterated the battle captain, and then overran into the clan lord, taking him out in one go too (note: I should never leave individuals in a conga line like that! Bad mistake) These heroic gore riders continued to be a thorn in the Salamander army and are outright winners of the MVP award this game. They singlehandedly held up the Salamander centre and destroyed about 600 points worth of Salamanders. Even a frenzied Orlaf was only a mere nuisance to them. Eventually however, they were overcome by a clan lord on his drake (after putting 8 wounds on him first!) which gave the centre to the Salamanders. On the left, Artakl shooting had delayed the gores advance and Grumtongue was unable to destroy the regiments fast enough which meant the Salamanders had control of the majority of the board (and its scoring terrain).

The upper right corner of the field was fought with wins and losses on both sides. Orclings surviving a devastating lancers charge on insane courage momentarily gave the Orcs hope of winning that side but the ghekkotah horde was able to survive a double charge to delay the orc relief forces. After some to and fro, the orcs held on to their lake terrain and an obstacle on the left. Salamanders had managed to either contest or claim the remaining terrain. Final score was 9VP's to Salamanders to 3VP's to the Orcs.

Below are the screenshots from the beginning of turn 11 (Salamanders), turn 12 and the end of the game.

Turn 11 (Salamanders)
Turn 12 (Orcs)
End Game

Post-game thoughts

Getting the first turn this game was very important. It allowed my lances to block up the orcs right flank, move up to contest the middle terrain and keep terrain in my side of the field more easily defended. In the centre and right I felt like my shooting advantage really crippled the orcs advance and allowed me to charge in and one-hit destroy his legion. I was nervous about the two soul draining godspeakers but they were unable to use that spell for the majority of the game either because they were disordered or because the range of 6" on a movement 5 model is very restricting.

Thanks Fued for a fun game, I'm sure you'll keep tinkering away with those Orcs and they'll be even more formidable in the future!

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Salamanders
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