Attack of the Goblins - Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish (Pic Heavy)

[Gibby]

First of two games of Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish that I played with majorsmith today. This was our second ever game so it's another straight up scrap to get the rules down in our heads a bit more. For this game we used mostly Minions, each side being led by a Companion level character. I was interested to see how it would play out with few full on hero units. Happy to say, just as fun as with heroes! Basic storyline:

Hastor the Necromancer had been exploring the ruins of Kallinor for some time when the goblins came. The deep forests of the ruined region were always home to bands of goblins (and worse), but the lure of treasures and arcane knowledge was too much for many seekers of power. A band of goblins under the leadership of the crazed shaman, Gibgob, were keen to see off yet another interloper into the borders of what they considered their lands (given that they have brought the place to ruin and seen off the humans).

(Forgive some of the dodgy pictures. Still getting used to this new phone camera!)


Goblins advance from the forests towards the ruins of Kallinor, bring some pet Dire Wolves with them.


Hastor the Necromancer (joined by his Wight thrall), picking through the outskirts of the ruined town, hears the gibbering of goblins from the forest and very quickly casts a spell to raise some undead servants. The bones of many long dead soldiers of Kallinor offer tempting targets for such dark magics.


The Goblins advance. Gibgob is leading from the back. The good thing about using a load of minions like Goblins is that if you have so many, you can upgrade one to a Mob Leader (3). In this case it's the fat Goblin in the armour bottom left there. A figure with this upgrade gains three activation tokens upon being activated, to be used upon any unit of the same type (goblins in this case) within 6". Combine that with the leader trait Gibgob has and all of the Goblins and the two wolves were getting to move in the early turns.


The Direwolves both move very quickly forwards. Creatures such as these that have the Animal trait are reasonably risky to use. When activated, if they aren't already in combat, you roll a D6. Among other results, a roll of a 1 means your opponent gets to decide what they do. It represents that these wolves may not be as tame as the Goblins think, and any minute one could have turned around and savagely turned on one of its masters! Luckily, 4-5-6 means they activate as normal, and both of these did that here.


Hastor raises another long dead soldier and begins to get them moving to hold the goblins at bay.


Two skeletons charge into a Direwolf and combat ensues; the old spears struggling to pierce the thick fur of the beast, whose mighty jaws likewise fail to take down one of the skeletons when the Goblin turn comes around. Thanks to the Animal trait, the second Direwolf activates but proceeds to stand and growl, hair standing up, but does nothing more. Two Goblins move up and yell encouragements at their "pets".


The mob leader moves around through the trees, taking an archer and a couple of out-of-shot-Goblins with him. The quickly expanding Skeleton force has already covered that flank, and at this point the Wight is moving around to advance in this direction. Gibgob is there too, and managed to cast a fireball spell, which due to the scatter rule explodes to the left of the Wight and the skeleton warrior.


This little Goblin archer sees the Wight heading his way. At this range he needed a 5+ to hit, which I managed to roll. Quite a rare achievement. The Wight has the Invulnerable All (1) ability, which means any (hence, All) kind of attack directed at him has its strength reduced by the (x) in the trait, so the Goblin short bow drops from Str 3 to 2. I needed a 6 to wound the Wight. I rolled a 6. Unheard of! The Wight goes down with a crude Goblin arrow stuck in its big stupid face. A significant blow to the Undead forces!


Not pictured: Goblin arrow in face.


The fighting near the ruins starts to hot up as the Goblins pluck up the courage to engage the skeletons. One undead minion goes down, having its bony legs torn from it by the Direwolf. Didn't find a rule to say Direwolves had to run off to chew on the bones in their baskets...


Hastor and Gibgob move up to support their respective minions.


The Direwolf still continues to growl and bark at the skeleton in front of it. What's this? The Goblin archer from earlier is sneaking around the rocks to try and put an arrow in Hastor's gob!




Oh.


Gibgob sneaks up to look down on the approaching Necromancer and prepares to cast another fireball in his foul, gutteral language.


Possibly my favourite picture of the day. Gibgob's spell fizzles out as he fails to cast it. Exhausted, he looks down with hatred at Hastor. Man, majorsmith's painting is awesome.


The fighting becomes more fierce as another skeleton is brought down, and over the next few turns a Direwolf is slain, as well as a Goblin or two. Hastor sends a skeleton behind the ruins to deal with the Goblin shaman.


The skeleton moves from the rocks and charges the two Goblins left on that flank. The mob leader is one of them, and he dies with a rusty spear blade jabbed through his fat belly. It's quite thematic that as Goblins begin to fall and lose their numbers, the loss of Mob Leader included, they fall to bits and begin to scare easily. Their somewhat limited fighting abilities are not fit for single combats.


Hastor moves in and begins hacking at Goblins with his short sword. The Goblin numbers are dwindling, and Gibgob is being attacked from behind up on the ruins there. Things are not looking good for the raiding party at all!




Hastor, using his Word of Power ability, easily bores into the mind of the Goblin before him (opposed intelligence tests are not the Goblins' forté). Dominated, and chanting the name of his new master, the Goblin proceeds to fail another intelligence test when commanded to attack his own pet Direwolf! He turns and thrusts his cruel blade into the Direwolf's gut. The beast, never expecting the attack, falls in a bloody heap - dead. The other Goblin, confused and terrified by the events around him, turns and runs back to the woods.

In actual fact, at this point the death of the Direwolf prompted a morale test for the Goblins in the End Phase of that turn. majorsmith had, before charging Hastor into combat, had him cast a spell that dropped all the Goblins' morale by 1. The evil magics whispering terrible things inside the minds of the Goblins, made failing the Morale test almost inevitable. D3 Goblins turned and ran (turned out to be 2).


This Goblin, the last of the Goblins on the flanks near the rocks, also turns and runs. A feeling of severe terror had overcome him, beyond that caused by the skeleton having killed his companions. Evil magic was in the air...


Hastor has no further use for his new Goblin slave (who had not yet managed to shake off the Dominated status), and so a skeletal guard does away with him with its spear.



Gibgob, having taken a wound and being more and more surrounded with foes, scrambles and scuttles around the skeletons and rolls down the ruined and weathered steps. He is last seen running in terror from Hastor and his guardians. He is not likely to survive long in the deep woods, all alone. Hastor continues his search around the ruins of Kallinor. Perhaps we will meet him again.

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I really can't recommend these rules enough. As a narrative driven wargamer, these are exactly what I was after in terms of balancing ease of play with flavour and depth. I have just as much fun creating heroes and warbands as I do playing - it's very fun. With all the available traits and weapons and rules and such, you could game almost any setting with these and give a fun, flavourful game.

[shadowking1957]

Looked brilliant, I got my  hard copy today and  I have to say its stunning , more games please I have a pig faced Orc gang sorted against my heroes soon, this spurs me on, thank you!

[frogimus]

Good job. Love the photos and the action report. Very cinematic table.

[Momotaro]

Brilliant stuff David (Or can I call you Gibgob now?).  Sorry I couldn't make it this afternoon - definitely up for it next time though!

How did you find the second game - easier?  And how was playing with more minions compared to last week's character-heavy game?

[Gibby]

Looked brilliant, I got my  hard copy today and  I have to say its stunning , more games please I have a pig faced Orc gang sorted against my heroes soon, this spurs me on, thank you!

Well being as you asked, I've posted another game report already. 

Brilliant stuff David (Or can I call you Gibgob now?).  Sorry I couldn't make it this afternoon - definitely up for it next time though!

How did you find the second game - easier?  And how was playing with more minions compared to last week's character-heavy game?

Thanks Derek. Please do call me Gibgob. You know I feel an affinity with the Goblinoids!

The second game was easier, and chiefly I got more things correct. The charging rule for example makes a difference. Playing with minions is interesting. You have more figures, but the Mob Leader rule that many minions get over a certain number means that you aren't stuck with too few activation tokens to get them all moving.
If you have 5 or more Goblins, for example, you can upgrade one to a Mob Leader for free - he gets 3 activation tokens to dish out to other nearby Goblins (and only Goblins) when he activates, meaning he can get the little guys moving and use their numbers how you'd expect. The same is true for many other Minion types, including Zombies... so an all Zombie mob fighting a gang of heroes is more than do-able.

Minions die a lot quicker than Companions and Legends, having only one hit, but I'll have to remember to leave figures that have lost their last hit points on the table until the End Phase, as there is a chance for all those healing abilities and spells you sometimes have.

All in all, a brilliant ruleset. You'll notice when you play again that it has plenty of opportunity for decision making and tactics with the various Activation based abilities. At one point I had enough Fate tokens to buy another Activation... but didn't need it!

[SgtHulka]

LOVED IT!

I assume Gigbob was a Legend or a Companion? I've found it's important to have at least one Legend/Companion otherwise you auto-fail your Shaken or Wiped Out tests.

The mob rule is brilliant. One trick I've learned is, when possible, to arm the mob leader with a ranged weapon. His activation ability is so important I seldom want to risk him in melee so if he has a bow I can have him hang back a bit and still order guys around.

I was surprised when poor Gigbob missed with his fireball. I've had great luck with that spell (though I've played exclusively in dungeons where the opponent tends to pack together so that might also be why).

[Gibby]

Gibgob was a Companion, as was Hastor. Cruel Conjuror and Wretched Priest respectively.

Good advice RE the Mob Rule, though generally I tend to pick things based around the narrative. The toughest, meanest Goblin would be the more likely leader etc. That said, I left him a bit exposed, and no Goblin is particularly tough really.

The fireball scattering D6 was what caused the miss - I wish I'd had a nice explosion marker for the picture of where it hit.

[Momotaro]

Thanks Derek. Please do call me Gibgob. You know I feel an affinity with the Goblinoids!

Hmm, and I collect Dwarfs... hmmm... short, fat, beardy and Scottish... hmmm...  

Sounds like the game is everything we had hoped for - excellent!

[Gibby]

Hmm, and I collect Dwarfs... hmmm... short, fat, beardy and Scottish... hmmm...  

Haha. I will check your garden for mining projects!