Since Josh recently showed off a wonderful looking Goblins army for Warmaster, I set up a game with my Dogs of War so we could get a feel for the rules, and get some practice for the event at Historicon (barring any cancellations due to rising Covid cases. Who knows at this point...).
Terrain placement focused on a small village, surrounded by fields and the local lord's castle. One side of the road had more hills, eventually leading to a ridge (the table edge), while the other was forested, with denser concentrations of trees that acted as terrain pieces.
Josh and I brought 2000 point forces, and the scenario was a simple brawl to either a turn limit (6, 7, or 8 turns on a 4+ die roll) or break point (10 for me, 12 for Josh).
The first turn saw both sides move cautiously from the start, although on Josh's part that was due to a lot of failed command rolls.
Josh had pushed one of his brigades (Wolf Riders and a unit of Wolf Chariots) up to a gap between the castle and woods, so I sent in a small brigade of Knights to hopefully hit and destroy the units.
The combat overall went well for the Dogs of War, with none of the knights taking any damage and the Goblins retreating.
The little greenskins got their courage back when a wyvern-riding Hero and a Giant got into the combat.
In an absolutely stunning reversal, all but a single stand of the Knights were wiped out, including the attached DoW Hero riding a Griffon.
The Giant made a quick snack of the remaining stand of Knights before moving on towards the remaining DoW Knights, who were now leaderless.
Things were going a little better for the mercenaries in the center, where the Goblins masses were faced by a couple of pike blocks and the Ogres. Concentrated fire from the crossbowmen forced back a Giant that had wandered too close.
On the left, things weren't exactly going great. I had loaded most of my forces in the center and right, so I only had a couple units of Light Cavalry and Galloper Guns. I lost one unit of Guns to Josh's massive artillery brigade, but nearly wiped out a unit of Trolls in return.
My center was pushing strongly forward, wiping out goblin units left and right. But the real danger was the Giant, who could do a lot of damage when charging, if I couldn't surround it with my troops.
Back in the woods, the greenskins were mopping up the Knights, and the lone Wizard was overrun and killed.
With my artillery wiped out, I sent the Light Cavalry charging into Josh's artillery unit. If they could do enough damage before dying, then the artillery wouldn't be able to threaten my center.
On Josh's left, his commanders were busy gathering the various wayward units into a coherent force. I moved my remaining pike block to face them.
And in the center, my Pikemen had wiped out one brigade of Goblins, and my Ogres had singlehandedly destroyed another (with a little help from a friendly Wizard's fireball).
The Giant was wounded and down to 4 attacks and 4 hits, but that wasn't enough to bring the beast down, so it still threatened the rear of my army.
However, losing all those Goblin units was enough to push Josh over his break point! It was a very close game. I ended up with 9.5 unit destroyed, to Josh's 13.5. Had I lost an extra stand here or there, Josh's Goblins would have been the ones declaring victory.
All in all, it was a great game, with lots of suspense and blunders on both sides. With Josh's 3D printers, he can pretty much print any army he'd like, so I'm looking forward to playing against, and maybe with, various other armies!
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