The illustrious Orc Pirate Kapten Kroog pursued Count Sudoku’s fleet on the high seas for weeks. Ultimately both fleets got caught in a storm and stranded close to Khardon Island. Count Sudoku’s army was found by the Dwarfs of King Belagor in Game 8 and have since joined his forces. Kapten Kroog on the other hand stranded a bit further to the South and has been making his way inland in search of treasure! To their great disappointment the island has so far not provided any treasure or gold trinkets, but only endless hordes of Skeletons and other Undead creatures. A mutiny is on the horizon for sure, unless Kapten Kroog can provide something for his men. To his great luck, his scouts reported that signs of Dwarfs. A big old scuffle with the ancient enemy could really boost the morale, as Kroog thought.

Meanwhile, King Belagor is oblivious to the presence of the Orcs. He has his mind set on something entirely different: His scholars have found that an ancient construct is located close to the army’s present location. The ancient Dwarf technology could be a decisive factor in his further progress to locate the Book of Grudges. His trusted Rune Lord is confident that the automaton is still in working form, and just needs a bit of thunder and storm to start.

Scenario

The scenario revolves around the Dwarf construct. This was placed on a pedestal in the middle of the table. The deployment zones were then 9″ from the diagonal centre line.

The objective for the Dwarfs was to reinvigorate the construct and get it off the table. The Orcs are not particularly against the idea, but just want a scuffle. Having been stranded for some weeks now, and only meeting skeletons or other Undead, the Orcs are releaved to see a proper normal Dwarf enemy to fight. In esssence, this means that the scenario is less focused on whether the Dwarfs succeed in getting the construct off the table, but more to see how heavy a toll they take before they succeed. The Orcs cannot really win, but will automatically be happy just by fighting. To use this in the scenario we decided the following:

Awaken the ancient: The Dwarfs need to fire a lightning into the construct to start it. Only the Runesmith can do this, and can only do it when he is within 6″ of the construct. He must succeed a ballistic skill test to fire a lightning at the construct from his hammer. Once the construct is switched on, it can start moving off the table. The game ends when the construct is moved off the table. The Orcs don’t care about the construct and won’t fight it (unless they run out of Dwarfs), but can march block it. The Giants also won’t fight it because they prefer picking on someone 1/10 their size.

Automaton: If the Dwarfs are not eradicated, and manage to get the construct off the table, they can use it for the following games. The automaton/construct counts as a giant and the Dwarves can use it for free. After each game, if the construct has taken damage roll on the following table:

1d6 roll*	Results
1	The automaton is permanently damaged and cannot be repaired
2-4	the automaton needs repairs and is not available next game
5-6	The automaton is repaired and avaiable next game

Armylists

I have not played Orcs and Goblins in a billion years, or so it feels. And when I did, it was only rather briefly. So in essence this was a completely new experience for me. I was not supposed to start my greenskin adventures before next year, but after a lot of gaming with the Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts I thought it would be OK with a small deviation. I didn’t make a stricly Warhammer Renaissance legal army, so I had 3 giants, because I had just printed them and wanted to field them. Also it was the only way to get enough on the table.

My theme for the army was that of a Pirate Orc force following Kapten Kroog. I didn’t want to have any goblins in it. Only cool dudes that Orcs would approve of. I have not really settled on a Kapten figure yet, but for this battle I used the Knightmare Miniatures Orc Warboss on boar. It is an enourmeous figure, and quite lovely.

For the basic troops I went with a block of Orc Boyz and a block of Black Orcs. Here I have probably already showed that I am not a competitive gamer. The Orc Boyz are not a patch on Savage Orcs and Black Orcs are worthless compared to Big Uns. But I don’t care. I suppose the Black Orcs I use could be Big Uns as well, but I just felt more like having a Black Orc Warboss, and so a Black Orc regiment is mandatory. I then added a unit of Orc Arrer Boyz, as I really love the models and have them painted. A group of River Trolls fit nicely with the nautical/pirate theme. The three giants (Gert-Jan, Joshua and Marcel) are all from the outskirts of Marienburg where they, after many years of ravaging the landscapes, decided to join Kroog’s pirate crew and go see the world. Wong the Eastern Orc Shaman joined as a last character before I decided enough was enough. Kroog himself was a Black Orc riding a Boar. He was accompaigned by 5 Big Un Boar Boyz. He got the Hydra Sword (Again! Yes yes, I know. But I thought I would need some help) and a Horned Helmet.

The final touch was a unit champion with Battle Axe of The Last Waaagh, which gives the bearer +1S and +1A per rank in the regiment. And as a final complete blunder I bought Mork’s War Banner for my Orc Boyz, because I thought that the Dwarfs might have brought an allied wizards (which they didn’t). The last decision meant that I played at a -100 points.

Deployment

My deployment was difficult – there was a lot of terrain, and my Warboss couldn’t stay close to the main units… In fact a Warboss on a boar was a horrible idea, I realised immediately. Anyhow, I went for a very centralised deployment with the mobile units on the flanks. Idea was to sweep around and block the construct from marching, while also dealing with the artillery/shooty elements. My boyz, Shaman Wong and the Black Orcs could perhaps hold off the Dwarfs until some propa flank charges could be made. Most likely everything would implode horribly, in turn 2 or 3, so no reason to plan too carefully.

Battle

The armies had lined up beautifully right right across each other and it did not take long before they connected. The Dwarfs won the roll off to go first, and pummeled the Orcs with succesful catapult hits and other nastiness. Luckily the

The Orc Shaman Wong was not going to go down without at least a bit of fizz from his magic wand. He placed a Foot of Gork squarely on the Iron Breakers and Slayers. The whining from the Dwarf player was worse than the English fans at Wembley.

The Dwarf Runesmith advanced to the construct and pouring lightning from his hammer into the behemoth, that immediately started to come alive. The Dwarfs cheered as it could be seen all over the battlefield.

A particularly powerful Dwarf Slayer – a daemon slayer – went all in trying to show the Giant Slayers how it was done. He singlehandedly finished off Joshua the Giant.

As the behemoth automaton was trudging off the field, the Orc main regiment connected with the Ghost Slayers – a newly named Slayer regiment, sporting white beards and mohawks, after their many fights with the Undead. The Orc champion, wielding the great Battle Axe of The Last Waaagh, essentially kept the Orcs in the fight for 3 whole turns, whereafter they turned their tails and ran like proper Orcs.

The Black Orcs could see the Iron Breakers in the horizon and thought they needed to show ‘da uvver Orcs how iz dun’. Charging into the Iron Breakers the tough mountain Orcs made like well-rounded snowballs thrown at a burning volcano. As they broke it sent a chain reaction through the Orc army and soon all the Orcs were busy legging it.

Oblivious to the failures of his army, Kapten Kroog was eyeing a new interesting opponent! Together with Gert-Jan, the giant he rode across the field, blocking the Automaton en passent, going for the Dwarf artillery. The pesky Dwarf gyrocopter (there were 2 in this game… *sigh*) was harassing them along the way. I think I will start adding a few small trinkets to deal with the gyros. They’re too big a threat to ignore, and they feature in every game.

Having a Warboss on a giant boar sounded quite cool, but turned out to be somewhat of a different experience. His leadership was simply needed too much other places, for him to wander around like this. But the Knightmare Miniatures boar riding Warboss is too cool a model not to use.

When the automaton walked off the table in turn 5 the game ended. Both sides had taken heavy tolls but the Dwarfs won the day. We did not tally the victory points, as it was more the kind of scenario where you see how much you lose than who actually won. But, based on what was left, it was a very equal fight.

Conclusion

I was super stoked to try out my old love of Orcs and Goblins again. This is the kind of army I can relate to: chaotic, unreliable, and ready to fall apart at any given moment! The reward is soo much greater when it works out though. Also, the army can play without magic, which is something I have really missed. I love playing Undead, but it gets a bit too magic heavy at times – or at least too reliant on magic. A bit of change from that is welcome.

When I played O&G in 4th edition I was but a young boy. I didn’t have any grasp of the game or the units. Also, I really liked Goblins the most. Grom the Paunch, river trolls and so on. Now, I want a different O&G army – I want primarily Orcs OR Goblins. Not a mixed bag. So in the works I have two Goblin armies and an Orc army. My goal is to finish these for next years continuation of the Khardon Island campaign. By that time I will have fielded my Undead a good 30ish times, which is a nice amount of games for any army. I am much looking forward to that.

So, as usual, thanks for reading my ramblings here and following the progress of Mark, Jonas, and me as we blunder through the Warhammer Renaissance rules in our narrative map campaign.