Edge of the Abyss

Grotti-Khan had fully expected King Smack-Git to react to his failure against the Elf counter attack with his usual apoplexy but the self proclaimed monarch had simply demanded he meet the human threat to the south of the logging camp with better success. Grotti had not dissapointed, bringing the remnants of his force to join up with Smack-Git's host to face the Basilean crusade.

With the manlings fleeing, the Goblin King brought his army back to face the pointy ears once and for all. Grotti's scouts found the Elf force much quicker than he had expected, for the simple reason that it had grown. Some local elves had joined up with the host and were moving towards the logging camp.

Grotti could see their shiny armour and spear tips across the glade. His mount growled menacingly. He looked to his right at the hordes of greenskinned creatures awaiting their commands and raised his fist. The sounds of gongs, horns and shields being drummed rose to fill the air. Even the Trolls were yelling, although Grotti doubted they had any idea what was happening. No doubt Smack-Git's Archers on the far flank could here the din and knew they had encountered the enemy.

"Try to escape this, knife-eared witch" whispered Grotti, unable even to hear the words himself over the noise of the Goblin host.
~

Seeing as this was going to be our final game of the campaign, we decided to have proper sized battle, rather than another skirmish. To that end, we convinced a new player to bring some of his old Elf models to create a 1600 point Elf force, which I matched with my Goblins. This meant I got to bring out King Smack-Git himself!

The scenario we rolled was Occupy: Two of the secondary objectives can be seen on the table represented by purple tokens, the third one is hidden behind the forest on the right. The Primary objectives were placed in the deployment zones, the one on the goblin side is behind the forest next to the Sharpstick Thrower, while the other is underneath the unit of Kindred Tallspears on the right.

I ended up deploying most of my shooting to my right, which led to a refused flank on my opponents side, leading to me placing the majority of my heavy hitters opposite his forces.

For clarity, The black regiment to the right of the Elf deployment are Palace Guard, and the regiment on the left facing the Goblin shooting is representing Hunters of the Wild, pictured after Vanguard. He also had a Standard Bearer behind them, hidden off camera.

After winning the roll off, the Elves elected to take the first turn.

The Elves began moving foward, getting their Archers into range to begin firing. The Hunters Of The Wild, moved into the forest in front of them.

The Archers managed to put a point of damage on the Mincer, while the Elven Bolt Thrower took out the Goblin Sharpstick Thrower.

The Goblins pictured above advanced cautiously towards the elven position, the mincer moving ahead of the Fleabag Riders and the War Trombone and Wiz entering the forest.

Seeing as it was likely only going to get one round of shooting, the Big Rocks Thrower got very lucky in it's first turn, hitting a regiment of Kindred Tallspears and dealing 6 damage. The Spitter horde was less successful, only doing 1 damage on the Hunters of The Wild in the forest, helped by another point of damage from Smack-Git himself.

Elf Turn 2

The Hunters of The Wild chose to charge the Spitters and leave the Rocks Thrower to the Elven Bolt Thrower. One of the Kindred Tallspears units moved forward, tempting a charge from the Trolls, with Palace Guard and second Tallspears regiment ready to retaliate.

In the Shooting Phase, one of the Tallspears regiments attempted to use the Sparkstone on the War Trombone, but only rolled a 3. The Archers in the woods put 2 more damage points on the Mincer and wavered it and the Bolt Thrower destroyed the Rocks Thrower. The Elf Mage on the hill healed 3 points of damage on the Tallspears regiment that had taken a rock hit last turn.

In the Combat Phase the Hunters put 7 damage on the Spitters.

Goblin Turn 2

Looking at the Elf formation before me, I realized that I could double charge the Tallspears regiment with the Troll Horde and the Giant, if I only made room. Moving the Sharpsticks horde backwards and the War Trombone forwards gave me room to carry this out, taking my opponent completely by surprise. I relocated Grotti-Khan from the cavalry who weren't moving much now that the Mincer had been wavered, to the Trolls and Giant to keep them inspired. On my right, I moved my Rabble regiment forwards, and even further right the Spitters Counter-Charged the Hunters of The Wild, joined by King Smack-Git hitting their flank.

For shooting, I targeted the Mage with my War Trombone, dealing 5 damage, while my Wiz used Lightning Bolt on the unengaged Tallspears, followed using the Amulet of The Fireheart to cast Bloodboil, bring them up to 9 damage. Unfortunately my nerve rolls were poor.

During Combat, my Troll and Giant team up destroyed the Elf Tallspears, reforming to keep the giant from being flanked. On the far right of my side, the spitters and Smack-Git only managed a couple of damage alltogether, bringing the Hunters up to 4.

Taking advantage of the Rabble regiment being too far forward, the remaining Tallspears regiment charged them in the flank, while the Palace Guard charged the Troll Horde. The Prince got into kitty range of the War Trombone, while the Hunters of The Wild Counter-Charged the Spitters at the other end of the battlefield. At the opposite end the Elf mage near the woods moved into range to Fireball the Fleabag Riders.

The Bolt Thrower fired at King Smack-Git himself, dealing a point of damage. The Archer troops on the hill fired at the Giant, dealing 3 damage and the Elf Mage managed to heal 5 damage on the Kindred Tallspears. The Elf kitty, destroyed the War Trombone before getting stuck up a tree.
The Archers in the woods and the Mage combined their fire on the Fleabag cavalry, managing to rout them.

In the Combat Phase, the Palace Guard put 4 wounds on the Troll Horde and the Tallspears routed the Rabble regiment before turning to face the Giant. The Hunters put the Spitters up to 12 damage, wavering the unit.

The Trolls Counter-Charged the Elves, regenerating a point of damage in the process. The Giant charged the Tallspears regiment facing him and the Mincer moved forward it's maximum speed.

With Grotti-Khans arrows, followed by a Bloodboil spell, the annoying Elf Mage was finally routed, completing Grotti's character arc and proving that these battles are completely scripted (kidding, maybe). King Smack-Git fired point blank at the Hunters of The Wild, dealing another point of damage.

In Combat, the Troll horde munched on the Palace Guard while the Giant stomped on the spearmen, routing both regiments.

Realising the danger they were in, the Elves began readjusting to maintain control. The Prince moved to block the Giants charges, while still allowing the Archers on the hill to fire on it. The archers on the flank turned to face the Troll, which was heading towards the Goblin primary objective. The Hunters charged the wavered Spitters, while the remaining Elf Mage moved to Fireball the Mincer.

The shooting against the mincer was fairly unlucky, the Mage dealing no damage and the Archers putting 1 on to it. This was followed by terrible nerve roll, leaving the Mincer free to Charge next turn.
The other Archer Troop fired on the Trolls, bringing them to 5 damage and wavering them. The two Kindred Archer Troops on the hill brought the Giant up to 7, but failed to nerve him.

On the far end, the Hunters of The Wild brought the Spitters to 15 and routed them, leaving only the Goblin King in the way of their primary objective.

The Mincer took the obvious rear charge on the Archers in front of them. The Troll Horde regenerated 1 point and managed to pass their headstrong roll (I can't recommend Dwarven Ale on Trolls enough) allowing them to advance onto the objective ahead of them. The Giant had no choice but to charge the Prince in front of him.

Grotti-Khan and the Wiz focused fire on one of the Archer troops on the hill, only managing 2 damage. King Smack-Git did another damage on the Hunters of The Wild, to little effect.

The Giant rolled poorly, only managing 4 damage on the Prince, but managed to waver him anyway.

Elf Turn 5

In a bid to contest one of the objectives, the Archer troop in the woods moved past the Mincer towards the secondary objective nearest them. One of the troops on the hill moved backwards out of charge range of the Sharpsticks horde, followed by Prince to keep them inspired. The Hunters charged the Goblin King.

The Bolt Thrower and the Mage brought the Trolls to 7 damage, and the Archers fired on the Giant, bringing him to 10 and wavering him.

The Hunters dealt 7 damage on Smack-Git, wavering him.

Goblin Turn 5

The Biggit and Flaggit moved to inspire as many units as possible, keeping the Trolls and Giant in their bubbles. The Sharpsticks moved up to control one of the secondary objectives, and the Trolls managed to regenerate 3 points.

Grotti-Khan and the Wiz fired on the Archer troop near the forests, to little effect.

Elf Turn 6

With the end in sight, one of the Archer troops on the hill moved onto the secondary objective in the centre, while the other troop on the hill turned to face the Troll horde. The remaining Archers moved into the forest to contest one of the secondary objectives. The Elf Prince charged the annoying Wiz and the Hunters continued their battle with the Goblin King.

The Mage finally managed to take out the Mincer with her Fireball. The Archers put 1 damage on the Trolls and 1 on the Giant, failing to achieve anything in both cases.

In Combat the Prince put 3 damage on the Wiz and wavered him. On the other end, King Smack-Git took a tactical retreat, having held off the Hunters of The Wild for long enough. The Hunters needed a 6 on the overrun dice to reach the objective, but only rolled a 2.

Goblin Turn 6

With the Goblins winnig 2-1, I need to secure my victory against a possible Turn 7. I charged the Archers on the hill with Grotti and charged the Sharpsticks into the Archers in the woods. My Giant could have charged the Archers on the hill, but elected to move towards the objective on it's right so as to contest it. The Trolls regenerated 2 damage and turned to face the Archers.

In the Combat Phase, Grotti managed to disorder the Archers, while the Sharpstick horde wavered their Archer troop.

With the Elves needing another turn to keep from losing, a third party was brought over to roll the dice.

He rolled a 3.

With the Goblins having 2 points to the Elves 0, the Goblins had a solid victory. It had been a pretty close game, with many moments of strange luck, and It made for a great end for our series of games.

I hope everyone who has read our reports have enjoyed them as much as we have playing them, and we look forward to Mantics next global campaign.

~

Smack-Git was pretty sure that human kings didn't have to hide amongst tall grass from insane Elf warriors. On the other hand, if they ever did, they would doubtless be far less capable of remaining unseen than Smack-Git was, such was his remarkable skill set.

It had been a good hour at least since the Elves had swarmed his position, slicing through the goblin bowmen like twigs. Smack-Git had fought valiantly, taking one out with his axe, before resolving to fire arrows into them from a distance. He had even managed to hold them off when they turned to charge him, until it became clear that they were capable of ending his life. With the future of his Goblindom in danger, Smack-Git had no choice but to escape.

Now, crouched in the grass, he could hear the sound of some kind of hounds approaching. Had the Elves sent hunting dogs? Did they even use those? He cautiously peeked through the grass. A group of Goblins riding fleabags were heading towards his position. He immediately stood up and began straightening his armour to restore some dignity.

As the fleabags drew near, he recognised Grotti at the head of the group. He addressed him as the group drew near.

"I see you have also managed to escape Grotti. Have the survivers regrouped? We should feed one in ten to any Trolls which wondered off during the fight, to remind them to keep fighting."

Grotti looked like he was about to respond but he let his King finish.

"I believe we have some more workers at the logging camp, we can either make a stand there or take what timber we have and load them into carts. We can begin a staggered retreat from the forest till-"

"My lord Smack-Git, King of the Goblins, Tamer of Trolls, Rider of Chariots, Wrestler of Mawbeasts, Giant Speaker, Basalisk Breeder, Archer Supreme and Wielder of the Golden axe of Ogre-Slicing."

Smack-Git closed his mouth. Grotti only bothered to speak half his full titles, and even then only when he had something important to say.

"My King, the gits in your position distracted the enemy so that our gits could take the enemy position. The Elves are legging it. We won the battle."

King Smack-Git stared in silence for nearly 10 seconds. Then he burst into laughter such that one can only hear in the most destitute asylum. The other scouts began to laugh in sympathy but Grotti just stared straight ahead, a bored vacant expression overtaking his features.

"YES!" he yelled between fits of laughter, "I AM UNSTOPPABLE!"