Age of Sigmar

This week Ian and I gave Age of Sigmar another try. Ian has had a few more games than me so it should be an interesting learning experience.  I opted to dust off my very old Orc and Goblin army, which has not seen the table in a long time, while Ian brought his Ogres.

I took a mix of everything:

30 Orruks with Spears

30 Orruks with Bows

40 Moonfang Grots with Spears

10 Boar Riders

20 Ardboyz

4 Grot Fanatics

1 Doom Diver

2 Orruk Warbosses

1 Moonfang Warboss

Orruk Deployment

Ian brought:

6 Ogors

6 Ogors

9 Ogors

20 Grots

1 Thundertusk

1 Ogor

2 Wizards

2 Tyrants

Ogor Deployment

I don't really have any Age of Sigmar stuff, apart from the Generals Handbook so was relying on he free app on my phone for the stats. We opted for a random scenario and got "Gift from the Gods", which involved getting victory points from controlling some meteors that impacted on a random part of the battlefield on turn 2.

I deployed fairly evenly across the board, with my boar riders and archers on my right flanks, and the other Orruk unit on my left, next to the Ardboyz.  The grots held the centre. Ian deployed his army fairly centrally.  I wont the roll off for first turn and legged it up the table, trying to get to grips with the Ogors. My shooting proved ineffectual, with the Doom Diver missing and half of the Orruks being out of range thanks to their dismal 18 inch range.  In Ian's turn he got stuck in, with one unit of Ogors managing to charge my Ardboyz.  Combat in Age of Sigmar is a bit odd as you take it in turns to select  a unit to make its attacks, so the order in which you choose your units can be quite important.  To cut a long story short the Ogors made a mess of my Ardboyz, killing quite a few with not very many losses in return.  This game seems to be all about what buff you can add to units, and the Ogors seemed to get quite a few. 

How many attacks?

Tally Ho!

Turn two and I won initiative and decided to get stuck in. the Boar riders charged Ian's Grots, the second large units of Orruk Spears charged in to help the Ardboyz, as did my general. the Moonfang Grots had advanced to the centre of table and hidden in a wood, but decided now was the time for the fanatics to strike. the four of them popped out of the units and managed to charge the Thundertusk, but fluffed all their attacks, inflicting only three wounds.  On my right I kept on at the Pgor units with my Ardboyz, finding them to be a tough nut to crack.

Still at it....

Lots of useless archers...

Hiding in the woods

In Ian's turn he charged with everything he had. ON my right flank his rampaging Orruks inflicted 24(!) kills of my poor unfortunate Orruk archers. In the centre he inflicted 19(!) kills on the poor Moonfang Grots.  My army was disintegrating before my eyes!  We managed another turn but there was pretty much nothing I could do and by the time we finished I think I had about 8 models left on the board, while only inflicting minimal casualties on the Ogors.

Just before I removed a very large pile of casualties

And again!

So not a great result for the Orruks, but in interesting learning experience for me.  There are a few things I would have done differently here.  the Orruk Archers were useless, as were the Fanatics, Doomdiver and Moonfang Grots mob.  I didn't bring a wizard, although that was mainly due to the Orruk wizard being pretty poor.  I didn't really pay much attention to the various buffs and bonuses that you could perform, which left my army at a disadvantage.

Not many Orruks left now!

Mopping up the last few models...

 

Age of Sigmar itself had a part to play here as well, as the rules certainly favour large multiple wound models much more that horde style armies.  With larger models you are better able to bring your attacks to bear, as there is less need to try and get 30 models into weapon range. You are better able to resist damage, as you only lose any combat ability when you have lost 4 wounds, plus it takes 4 wounds to reduce your units attack total by three, whereas a horde is losing an attack per wound suffered.  The moral rules are a massive problem for hordes as well. In the game you test whenever you suffer casualties. You roll one die and add the amount of casualties you suffer. For every point this exceeds your bravery by another model runs away. When you have a bravery of 5 and just suffered 20 something casualties it is pretty obvious what the end result is gong to be!  In the end the Ogors seemed pretty indestructible to me, but that is usual when playing a new game.

I will definitely play the game again, but will be a bit more mindful of how everything fits together.  There are some very odd points values in the Generals Compendium though, and I hope they will be corrected in the hinted at annual revision coming soon.