OK V. Bretonnia

Ogre Kingdoms Vs. Brettonia 1000 points
Maxswell Vs. "Kyle" (fake name)

My list:
Firebelly, Warriors bane, R-R-Ruin
7 Ironguts, full command
8 Ogres, Full command (FB goes here)
1 Sabertusk
1 Ironblaster

This was the 3rd week in a campaign at our local store. Very easy, fun campaign with the forces of evil winning. As an Ogre Player, I play for whatever side has the fewest people, resulting in almost always playing Evil.

"Whatever land you conquer is yours to keep", the Chaos Lord spoke while pointing to a place on the map.

"Ya mean it's mine as long as I let ya use it wheneva ya want. Nut really a good offer.", the Ogre replied. The land was great land. Mountain range to the west with cascading rivers flowing down. Great hunting land full of wild life. The sprawling plains would make great homes, farms, and cities.

Lord Apture knew he was nailed. He tried to leave that part out. "Yes, we understand. We ask only that we can use your land as a thorough fare..."

Ogre Tyrant Osgud interrupted rudely, "Ya can build yer own road connect'n yer lands, but it's on yer own gold. Ya can use the road, but cannot pillage our lands. Final offer, runt."

The rage of Khorn seethed through him. For a human, he was massive. The dark powers of chaos infused him with great power, and everything in his being wanted to chop this ogres head off. The situation was too important. Chaos was near the gates of the city, but was vastly outnumbered. The Ogres were essential to keep the campaign going. Tyrant Osgud had won several key battles and would be a valueable ally to the powers of Chaos.

"Agreed, Ogre", he said through his teeth, "We have a deal".

Osgud leaned back in his large throne and grabbed a slightly cooked hog by the nose and back legs in each hand. He rotated the pig in front of his face, eating it's bloody body as a human would eat a corn cob.

I played against "Kyle and" his Bretonnians. He had a block of Knights of the Realm (lance formation) with a Damsel (wizard, general) and his BSB hero in the group. His second unit was a block of Knight's Errant who had full command. He had a unit of Archers with flaming arrows and a unit of Pegasus Knights.

"General Dalphene! The Ogres are out of range of our archers!" Dalphene sat high on her horse, surrounded by her best knights. The lumbering mass of monster was barely visable across the field, their stench was clear though. "Have the archers fire. Objects that must be possible to hit!"

During deployment, he put down his archers first. Way in the back and off to my right. I knew that I could easily avoid them all game if I just deployed away from them. Mission accomplished. One single arrow hit anything of mine the whole game, rendering them completely useless.

Dalphene could feel the winds of magic flowing through her. The blessing of the lady was with her and her men today. "We can defeat them on range. They have but one weapon of range and their peasant magic cannot match the power of the..." Her words were cut off as she ducked a cannonball.

On my turn, I barely moved. Just repositioned so that he would need 12's to charge me. I was confident that my cannon/firebelly made me the better ranged combatant. I was in no rush to get to the frey. With lance formation, I was bouncing cannonballs through huge ranks of valuable knights. I'll take that over any pot shots from bowmen's arrows.

Sir Tobias stepped in front of Dalphene as the cannonball was about to strike her. The mass of the object left only his shield behind. His horse, body, and armor were all lost to time. The blessing of the lady defended the other men from the primitive weapon.

I rolled pretty shitty on my cannon, only hit 3 out of a possible 4. Damsel made a lookout sir, and the other guys I hit made their ward save. One expensive knight dead.

A bright flash of light was coming from the Ogre's lines. Could it be that they have a wizard who can actually conjure a fireball? "Take cover!" Paladin Adams shouted as flame tore through the misty air and closed on them. Dalphene could feel the power of the lady cool the searing ball of fire. The ball shrunk down and dissipated into a warm breeze. What she didn't realize is that a second fireball was underway...

I through two fireballs at the unit (one with ruby ring of ruin) and one was dispelled. I also got off "Fire Cloak" on my own unit. The fireball failed to kill anything as they still had a 3+ 5++ save.

"Dalphene," Paladin Adams spoke quietly, "We cannot suffer this much longer. My Knight's are brave, but they don't like seeing us sit here while our enemy kills our brothers!" Dalphene nodded. She knew that these kinds of exchanges were costly in more ways than just lives. "Let's move men. We have Ogres to kill!"

His turn had the knights march. He measured carefully and got pretty close, but I still needed an 8 inch charge. He was hoping I would fail a charge so he could skewer me. His Pegasus knights flew up fast on my flank. He was in position to charge my Bulls or my Ironblaster. Bowmen out of range still.

The lumbering mass of Ogres were clad in Heavy Armor. They carried crude weapons that were bigger than a tall man. They had blood lust in their eyes... but some how... were laughing? "Lances: Down! Here they come!"

I made a charge with my ironguts into his KotR (the better knights with his BSB/General). Due to pretty good armor saves and ward saves, I  only kill 3. He returns and does 3 wounds. My firecloak, does one more. I moved my sabertusk up to the flank of this blob, so he couldn't charge my Ironguts next turn with his other Knights. I mess up and make it so I cannot fire grapeshot at his Pegasus knights, so I fire a cannonball, and he saves the wound on a wardsave. My Ogre block moves so that next turn they can charge the other knights and there's really nothing he could do about it.

The hulking mass of the ogres smashed horses and men alike. A lance plunged into the knee of an Ogre causing him to buckle. While down, the Ogre grabbed his horse by the hoof and pulled it down on top of him. The horses leg was destroyed and blood was pouring from the wound. The knight went to draw his dagger, but the Ogre was pounding him in his helm with a bare fist. The fine Brettonian steel buckled under the concussive force of Ogre's strength. Sinew oozed from the eye holes and the ogre loved the crimson, metallic spray. A Ogre club was coming down, and was deflected by the shield of one of the well trained knights. The shield broke the club in two, but the knight never buckled. Instead, he arched his sword and slashed the Ogre across the throat. Two massive hands came up to try to close the wound, but the loss of pressure caused the life to end in a mater of seconds.

I won combat, but only by one. With high leadership and a BSB, he held. We realize later that we forgot to do Fear Checks, but they shouldn't matter... Right?

Bretonia turn 2
The Pegasus knights, lead by Sir Aaron, landed gracefully at a full sprint. The Ogre tried to reload his cannon, but the speed of the airborne soldiers was too much. Lances and hoofs tore at the chariot. The Rhinox, gored, the Ogre swung his club, and the Gnoblar tried to stab at the amazing beasts. The chassis was blistered, but didn't falter.

"Charge!!!!" Knight Errant Champion Thames ordered his men at the monstrous cat before them. The fearless cat didn't shake.... Instead, he leaped at the man who ordered the charge.

The Errants charged the Sabertusk, and I held. He was a chaff unit and didn't have a chance. However, he killed the Errant Champion!
The Pegasus knights won combat by 1, and the Ironblaster held.
The rest of the knights killed the cat, and turned to face the Ogre Bulls who were waiting for them...

Ogres 3
The battle of the Knights of the Realm and the Ironguts was growing more and more bloody. Trembles quaked through the knights as the lost more and more men. The Ogres were falling, but their brothers were dropping faster. Fear became their god as they forsook the Lady who Blessed them. Dalphene couldn't keep the men in order. The winds of magic were blocked by lumbering Ogres who were taking over. She had one chance... Run...

In a rare roll, he failed the fear check... twice (bsb) and I killed every knight. The BSB and the Damsel were the only ones left, so he had 2 chances to roll snake eyes... he failed, I overran.

The Bulls were overcome with hunger. They could see the Brettonians foolishly charge the sabertusk. The bait was taken, and it was time to make them pay... Firebelly Tyer whirled a torrent of flame around the Ogres. Flaming armor surrounded them. Fire, infused with hate, to make a destructive weapon!

The Ogre Bulls charge and just destroy the Errant's. He has one knight left, and fails to roll snake eyes. He flees and the Ogre Bulls catch him easy.

The IB and the Pegasus knights fail to do wounds either way.
 The Ogres and the Ironguts were both nearly at full strength and had the Ogres directly in front of them.

Kyle of Britonnia surrenders.

This results in a total collapse of an important territory in our campaign, and it was a "double week" so I took another piece of land too.

Hope you all enjoyed it! I know I did!

Very nice win.  If this is a campaign, with the upcoming new Bretonnia book, how or will you adjust your campaign?

Thank You, Havoc! Great question!

So the league is run by our local game shop. You can play in it as much as you want, or as little. It lasts all summer and June was 1000 points, July is 1500, and August is 2000. So as long as you fall into the points brackets, you can change as much as you want!

When you arrive, the shop owner splits up everyone based on "Good Vs. Evil" (Ogres are mercenaries, and thus play for whatever side has fewer folks). We roll to see which side gets to place the first "attack" marker. Typically, the top player picks this as they go for the territory that is most needed. Of course, the defending team tries to answer back with a army/player who can stop them. We then switch sides on who gets to attack, and continue this until all the players are paired off.

So to answer your question, the Bretonnia player could show up with a totally different list every week!

A very very fine battle report, i thoroughly enjoyed it. Well written and well played

When you arrive, the shop owner splits up everyone based on "Good Vs. Evil" (Ogres are mercenaries, and thus play for whatever side has fewer folks). We roll to see which side gets to place the first "attack" marker. Typically, the top player picks this as they go for the territory that is most needed. Of course, the defending team tries to answer back with a army/player who can stop them. We then switch sides on who gets to attack, and continue this until all the players are paired off.

This sounds like a lot of fun, and more so, how does one decide what territories are needed?  Do you gain something for owing one?  Or, is there say, a different objective territories for each side and the route you choose determines the follow-on terrain/scenario?  I guess my question boils down to the campaign mechanics.

Nice battle report, nothing like a bit of fluff to get the crowd interested. Keep up the great work

Thank you for the positive feedback!

Great questions about the League/Campaign. Because people are interested, I'll go into a bit more detail.

So the teams are "Good" and "Evil". Ogres are mercenaries, and TK are "evil". Typically players pick an army for the duration of the campaign and stick with it till the end, but there is nothing stopping you from switching sides. The side that controls the most territories at the end wins! There are no prizes, no points, no nothing like that.

The map is a "Mighty Empires" tile map. http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Mighty-Empires;jsessionid=30BD4CA97EF1CC7484A6DF1353B50060?_requestid=2707574

It's basically a giant rectangle shape with some impassible mountains in the middle portions, but it's very generic otherwise. All terrain is considered the same except the mountains. The first week, the tiles were split evenly down the middle with "red" being evil, and "blue" being good.

Each team has two cities in the back corners of the map. If both of one sides cities end up defeated, the campaign is over.

When you arrive at the game store, the owner of the store puts the "good" on one side, and "evil" on the other. Ogres (that means you!) stay in the middle. The team that is losing gets a "+1" to their teams roll off.

The team that wins the roll off gets to pick a player (typically the best player is nominated to go first) and takes one of their models and is aloud to place it in an enemy territory. The other team then picks someone to play against him, and someone offers to defend. Typically, this is the most important match of the night as it's usually the spearhead of the attack force.

After the first attacker and defender are chosen, they go off to play. Meanwhile, the rolls switch. So if "good" got to attack, "evil" defended, now evil gets to attack into a good territory. Good then picks a defender, and so on.

Ogres are by this time assigned to a team and then are treated like any team member on the side they were put onto.

If there ends up an odd number of players, the Game Store owner (easily the best game store owner/manager I have ever heard of for about 1000 different reasons), picks up one of his armies to fight the odd man out.

About our little event group
It has typically been 18 players every week which has been really outstanding. People have tons of fun and almost everyone ends up staying later, switching opponents, and playing more just for fun!

This is not ultra competitive, but you wouldn't guess it by the atmosphere. A few people involved have been playing for years, played in tournaments, and know their stuff. Others walked into the store, bought a used army, and sat down. Every type of player you could imagine has played in our little league and I don't know of anyone having a bad time.

I stopped playing Fantasy years ago and played 40k. In recent history, I came back to the Fantasy and dusted off my Ogres. Picked up a few models that needed to be updated, and showed up at this league. I have been undefeated in this league, so it's getting pretty funny that I get to actually play as a Mercenary! In the game I posted the bat rep about, I told Kyle I would throw the game and let him win if he bought me a soda. Of course, I was joking, but there was a running gag going on about Kyle wishing he would have bought me that soda!

Due to the simplicity and team feeling of the campaign, it's been a really great atmosphere and I plan to make every week of it that I can!

Nice win!

I really enjoyed reading your battle report as you are very gifted at melding fun fluff with the actual battle as it went which made it incredibly enjoyable to read.

Your game store's campaign sounds like a GREAT time, I'm very envious haha!

Well if you are ever near Minneapolis on a Wednesday, let me know and I'll see that you get to hop in and kill some scrawny elves/humans!

Much obliged Maxswell!

If I ever happen to find my way out there I'd definitely take you up on it! Admittedly that is a bit far from my area though