Owen

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The Orgoth Legacy Overview

It all began with an opportunistic campaign that I played with Clay and Dan in Orlando late last year called Scourge Bringer. The idea of the narrative campaign is simple – every campaign, a sequence of at least a few games would carry the story forward a little. Scourge Bringer began it all with a mad scramble between three powerful warlocks/warcasters for pieces of a powerful Orgoth Weapon, the Scourge Bringer. Thagrosh and the Legion of Everblight won out after three hard fought games and won this dubious prize. Dubious for it is a weapon, that once assembled, has the power to slay a dragon. As Everblight is still gathering strength he ordered his minions to keep the weapon pieces separate and keep them safe.

To that end Vayl spawned three unique beasts in the Shard Spires (Northern Khador) and installed a weapon piece in each. These bestial vessels were continuous eroded by the weapon, but were designed to regenerate rapidly. For additional security each beast was frozen in the core of a glacier, but before the final beast named Vylodectes could be entombed the Legion were set upon by the audacious Cryx. Enter the Frozen North campaign, a part of the Cryxian Ambition arc. The forces of Cryx clashed with the spawned beasts initially resulting in a vicious stalemate. However, the Nightmare Empire overcame the Legion forces, destroying Vylodectes and seizing the weapon. Traveling through Khador is hazardous and the Cryxians have clashed with Pirates (The Landing), Trollbloods (Flanking Move) and finally each other (Power Struggle; yet to be played). The great draconic powers now possessed pieces of this most dangerous weapon.

However, Legion and Cryx aren’t the only factions with an interest in the Scourge Bringer. Recently the religious zealots from the Protectorate of Menoth have begun moving into Southern Khador as they begin moving towards what they view to be an abominable creation. They seek to use the power of their creator to purge the Scourge Bringer from Caen.

The interests of the enigmatic Skorne are less easy to decipher. They have clashed with the forces of Legion as they too show their interest in the ancient weapon.

Progress to date

Here’s a breakdown of the games played to date.

• Scourge Bringer (three games; Legion vs Khador vs Circle; Vescheneg Headlands) – COMPLETE
• Cryxian Ambition (eleven games)
• The Landing (one game; Pirates vs Cryx; Outside of Ohk) – COMPLETE
• Frozen North (ANNIHILATION team campaign (five games); Legion vs Cryx; The Shard Spires) – COMPLETE
• Flanking Move (ANNIHILATION campaign (four games); Trollbloods vs Cryx; Scarsfell Forest) – One game left
• Power Struggle (one game; Cryx vs Cryx; Outside of Ohk) – Not played yet
• Menite Incursions (four games)
• Near Fort Bruzig (altered ANNIHILATION VASSAL campaign; Protectorate vs Khador) – One game left
• Inflicted Pain (four games)
• Near Bloodsmeath Marshes (ANNIHILATION campaign; Skorne vs Legion) – Two games left

So, the campaigns are progressing well and I’m getting lots of games played. Once the Cryxian Ambition arc is finished I’ll figure out where the story can go next.

Owen

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The idea behind this is pretty simple. Campaigns usually fail because they involve too many players and take too long to play. I wanted a campaign that wasn’t going to fall into those traps. Enter the idea of a narrative campaign. It’s simply a story arc to house several smaller campaigns.

The Orgoth Legacy is such a narrative campaign. At the moment it is the story that houses Scourge Bringer (bespoke campaign), Frozen North (ANNIHILATION derivative), a campaign between the Legion and Skorne (standard ANNIHILATION), a campaign between Khador and Menoth (VASSAL-based ANNIHILATION), and a campaign between Trolls and Cryx (standard ANNIHILATION). All of these factions are being drawn into a fight over this powerful weapon.

As each campaign is only 3-4 games they are fairly easy to run and the results are fed into the overall story. Will the Cryx be able to sieze a weapon piece from Legion? Will the Menites be able to make their way north through Khador? What is the Skorne’s interest in this weapon? Will the kriels of southern Khador be overrun by the advancing Cryx?

All simple story tangents that feed into the overall arc.

Owen

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Steve’s army was led by Vyros, who I’ve only faced once before. It was a good tight game with my Sea Dogs dishing out a hellish amount of damage on the charge to two of Steve’s units. In response the Retribution decimated the crew and Pressgangers. The game devolved into a slugfest with me trying everything I could to get ranged shots on Vyros. Eventually it paid off and I managed to drop the Iosan ‘caster. The Commodore chipped in, but it’s main role was to keep the Retribution ‘jacks on their asses!

The second game was a much more one-sided affair. Again the Sea Dogs and Press Gangers got the hop on my opponent and killed off a swath of Swordsmen and Accuri. My dice were on fire and it seemed that everything I hit, I killed. In the face of so much destruction and with the Commodore having a commanding view of the battlefield, Harry decided that Xerxis would have been in trouble. He was right. Again the big cannon took on the big targets to slam them out of the way. Harry called it when most of his army was in shreds and he had no way of getting at Shae.

So, two wins to round out my practice with the Privateers. Let’s see what Saturday brings!

Owen

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Yesterday Harry and I played out a 75pt game (No Mans Land scenario) of Hordes. Here’s a 9+ minutes video battle report -

Enjoy!

Owen

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I played two multi-player games for the Blasted Heath season in the Shattered Grounds league. There are two options when it comes to multi-player games – King of the Hill and Unlikely Alliance. The first is a free-for-all and the second is a cooperative game. If you’re playing in the league both are worth looking at as they reward the extra organisation with extra league points. If you’re not in the league then they are worth looking at because they are just damn good fun!

King of the Hill

This scenario should be pretty familiar to most players. You win by being the last ‘caster standing or the first ‘caster to get 3 control points. Warcasters/warlocks are awarded one control point for being on the central hill at the end of their turn (from the second turn onwards).

Our game was a four-way 25pt battle for the hill with Grissel, Xerxis, Venethrax and Goreshade (me) all competing for the win. Grissel fell early, so the game was only going to be contested by the remaining three. I played a very cautious game, mostly because of Xerxis Bile Thralls nearby that could seriously dent my army. We swapped Bile Thralls and managed to take out a few Skorne Swordsmen with them too. Venethrax made the first move for the hill and was quickly joined by Xerxis. They traded blows, but didn’t wipe out each other. I saw an opportunity, but knew it needed to stick as Venethrax was on 2 control points. I moved Goreshade up, feated and sent the Bane Thralls to finish the Cryxian ‘caster. Xerxis had an awesome turn and managed to clear out six Bane Thralls – it was something to behold. He was now sitting on 2 control points. My turn came around and this had to be it. I positioned my Mechanithralls out of the way and charged Goreshade in. Smack, transfer, smack – game over. Goreshade wins.

The nice thing about this game is that all players get league points for playing the game equal to the game size, plus the bonus points (5pts each in this case). The winner gets the bonus points on top of that too.

Unlikely Alliance

This scenario is epic, not because there is anything particularly special about it, but because there are likely to be an awful lot of miniatures on the battlefield! It’s simply a ‘caster kill scenario with two players on each team. We had 50pts per player, so that was 100pts a side. It was truly magnificent to behold. We randomised which players were on which team and it ended up that myself and Anthony (Cryx and Cryx – sweet!) would play Skorne and Trollbloods (talk about an unlikely alliance!).

The thing I enjoyed most about this game was the talk-out-loud tactics that each team employed to coordinate what they did. For example, on turn three Anthony and I decided we’d pop both Deneghra’s and Asphyxious’ feats to try and take out Xerxis. This required positioning arc nodes, getting Hellfire off with a Skarlock to try and clear an Agonizer, moving Deneghra up, feating, casting more Hellfires, getting Asphyxious into position, casting more Hellfires (through a different arc node), feating and casting yet more Hellfires. That’s a little tricky to coordinate when there’s just one brain controlling the army, but try it with two brains! The great (an possibly horrific thing for Xerxis’ controller, Harry) thing is that Anthony and I needed to talk through that in advance and then communicate what we were doing through the turn. Harry saw (or at least heard) it coming, but could do nothing about it. The writing was on the wall for Grissel and despite a valiant attempt the might of two Cryx ‘caster (with fantastic synergies) was too much for the Trollbloods to overcome.

Not only was this a fantastic game, but everyone was a winner as far as the league was concerned. The 50pt per faction is actually counted as game two rows lower, e.g. 100pts. All participants get at least 8pts and the winners get 12pts. Nice!

I netted 19 points yesterday. A pretty cool Father’s Day present.

Owen

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Harry and I played two games this evening (over a couple of beers) – a 20pt game and a 35pt game. I decided to use Goreshade in the first game. He was accompanied by Deathjack, a Slayer, six Mechanithralls and six Bane Thralls. I’m not going to give a blow by blow other than to say I played a very cagey game and seeing Deathjack trample a complete unit of Swordsmen and later charge eMakeda (and crush) was a beautiful thing (photographed right).

Game two went well too. This time I used pAsphyxious supported by a couple of Arc Nodes, Deathjack, Bane Lord Tartarus, Bane Thralls, Bane Knights, Mechanithralls and a Skarlock. I had the opportunity about half way through the game to attempt an assassination by arcing Hellfire onto a furyless eMakeda. I hit her and did 10 damage. Asphyxious feated for 7 more focus and I rolled a boosted attempt to hit again. I didn’t get the 8 required! eMakeda survived another turn or two, but after Deathjack took out a Titan and the Mechanithralls reduced a Rhinodon to one wound the writing was on the wall for her.

Both games were great fun and Harry’s an excellent opponent. It’s a good start to the league for me and my attempts to get to know Cryx better. I hope I’m not relying on Deathjack too much, though. He’s fantastic, but at 12 points he’s pricey. Anyway, hopefully I can continue the winning trend tomorrow evening.

Owen

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Anyway, during the week Harry, a Skorne player, and I fought a 35pt game using the new rules. I had Thagrosh leading my force with a healthy balance of beasts, units and solos. I wanted to try out a bit of everything. Here’s my list (which I wrote up on Forward Kommander as it now supports Hordes) -

• Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
• Nephilim Soldier
• Carnivean
• Shredder
• Shredder
• Blighted Nyss Archers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
• Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (Leader and 5 Grunts)
• Blighted Ogrun Warmongers (Leader and 4 Grunts)
• Blighted Nyss Shepherd
• The Forsaken

That’s exactly 35pts (when you factor in Thagrosh’s +5 Warbeast points). I’d have to be careful to keep my non-fearless troops away from the abominations in the army, but other than that it’s pretty straight forward. Thagrosh, the Carnivean and the Warmongers can hit pretty hard. The Legionnaires are a great defensive unit and the Archers are decent at taking out lightly armoured troops or combining ranged attacks to threaten moderately armoured enemies. The Nephilim is a decent counter punching beast and the Shredders make good transfer targets with a useful animus.

Harry’s force (which I wrote up in iBodger and emailed to myself) comprised of –

• Tyrant Xerxis
• Cyclops Brute
• Rhinodon
• Titan Gladiator
• Agonizer
• 4 Cataphract Arcuarii
• 6 Paingiver Beast Handlers
• 6 Praetorian Swordsmen

I’m not very familiar with Skorne having only fought them once before, but Xerxis seems like a solid beat stick as are the heavy beasts. I really wasn’t familiar with this army (I even forgot to ask Harry what Xerxis’ feat was until he was about to do it!), but there’s nothing like learning what a unit does by plying against them!

I’m going to write the report in my terrible narrative style again, but I’ll comment on the MkII changes at the end.

Several days ago Thagrosh had send a scouting party of Striders ahead of his force to kill all of the inhabitants of a small mining settlement. His army needed to rest and recuperate after the long march south and the supplies, and fresh meat from the slain miners, should sustain his force for a couple of days. As they approached the miners’ huts the Striders seemed to have done an efficient job as there was not a living person in sight. Thagrosh had been distracted for the last few hours. Everblight’s ever active mind was revealing an intricate plan that sucked him deep into the Dragon’s vision and away from what was going on around him. The real world was a dream through his eyes. Even in this trance like state one unsettling thought began to surface, why had the Striders not reported back to him.

The enemy warlock urged his force to inflict brutal damage and charged in damaging the Carnivean, but failed to destroy it. The spiked beast attempted to break it too, but was having difficulty hitting the Legion creation. On his right the Nephilim Soldier miraculously held and blocked the advancing Skorne troopers. This was his opportunity. He forced the Carnivean to make room for him to engage, but in it’s fury it started to strike the Skorne warlock. Between it’s vicious jaws and powerful claws the Carnivean, which was the first victim of this encounter, finished it. The Skorne warlock had been felled by it’s anger. The settlement and supplies were Legions to exploit.

So, that is MkII then (well, at least the Field Test). Unsurprisingly it plays much the same. I forgot Vengeance on the Legionnaires twice during the battle, so there is more to be considered during the Maintenance Phase. I also forgot about Abomination early in the battle, resulting in the Archers not taking a Command check when the Warmongers strayed close to them. Neither of these were game changing. Harry got pretty unlucky at the end. He should have wiped the Carnivean out a second time, but then again my damage roles on the Rhinodon were terrible! He also should have taken out the Nephilim soldier, but again his dice abandoned him. When the Carnivean struck down Xerxis he was had four fury for transfers, but Harry had run too hot in his turn and both of his beasts were fully loaded. That said, Thagrosh was sitting on full fury and could probably have finished him too. It was an excellent game, but without any beasts frenzying (there was only one Threshold check in the whole game, and it was successful) or the need to Shake Effect we didn’t get to test out most of the newer aspects of Hordes MkII.

Owen

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