We played Warhammer Renaissance: Night Goblins vs Norse – 1500 points

Armylists:

Nights Goblins

Sniggleguts (Shaman Lord), Crown of Command, 2 Dispel Scrolls, 1 Destroy Magic scroll

Battle Standard Bearer
40 Night Goblins, Bows
20 Night Goblins, Spears
2 Giants
4 Monstrous Spiders
3 Spider Swarm
2 Fanatics
1 Fanatic, Mad Cap Mushroom
3 River Trolls

Norse

Wizard (Level 1)
Shield Maiden
Warlord
20 Huscarls, Banner of Odin
20 Thralls
20 Huscarls
1 Giant
1 Mammoth
3 Stone Trolls
15 Norse Dwarfs

Preamble

The battle was fought in Norsca, near the lower foothills of the World’s Edge Mountains. The land here is hard, uneven, and indifferent, scattered with broken stone, frozen scrub, and old cairns whose origins invite neither curiosity nor comfort. Warbands pass through this region regularly. Few linger by choice.

On this day, two armies met not because either sought a decisive engagement, but because Norsca has a habit of turning movement into conflict.

The Norse warband had gathered beneath the mountains before pushing outward in search of plunder and momentum. At its heart marched a mammoth of some renown, its sheer size radiating confidence and a complete lack of contingency planning. The mammoth was known as Möffe, a name spoken with pride by the Norse and with concern by everyone else.

Opposing them was a Night Goblin force emerging from caves and fault lines along the mountain’s edge. Their command structure relied heavily on a Crown of Command, a battle standard bearer, and the shared belief that morale is a negotiable concept.

Neither army had planned for a decisive battle. Neither had prepared a graceful exit.

---

The Battle

The engagement opened decisively when the Norse mammoth charged a giant, smashing it aside and toppling it with brutal efficiency. Victory, however, immediately became a positioning problem.

Elsewhere, the Night Goblin shaman Sniggleguts called down the Foot of Gork, aiming to crush the advancing huscarls. The god missed entirely, instead flattening a group of spider swarms while the huscarls continued unharmed.

On the flank, monstrous spiders charged Norse thralls, resulting in four turns of largely ineffective fighting. Both units remained locked in a prolonged stalemate that achieved little beyond consuming time.

In the center, a Norse giant charged a goblin unit, leapt up and down, and killed exactly one goblin. A madcap fanatic then slammed into the giant, wounding it sufficiently to force a collapse in resolve. The giant fled and was run down shortly thereafter.

The battlefield then ceased to resemble anything manageable.

Both armies released their fanatics and berserkers, turning the center into a lethal hazard zone. On the left flank, a berserker collided with a fanatic and they killed each other outright. Elsewhere, another madcap fanatic clipped a giant, rolled three hits, and achieved nothing of consequence.

One fanatic, however, remained at large and went behind his own Goblin army lines… more to follow on that.

After dealing with the Giant the mammoth trampled on. Carried forward by momentum and mass, the Möffe stampeded through and behind the goblin lines, forcing the main Night Goblin regiment to turn 180 degrees to face it. Under normal circumstances this would have resulted in panic and flight. Instead, the goblins remained in place, held together by the Crown of Command and the battle standard bearer.

The goblins responded with forty arrows, inflicting four wounds. Encouraged by neither the numbers nor reality, the mammoth charged again, crashing into the regiment and killing ten goblins outright. Once more, the unit held, stubbornly ignoring the situation it found itself in.

After lingering behind the goblin army for most of the battle, it finally struck, slamming into the mammoth from behind deep in goblin territory. This time the chains found their mark. The mammoth fell, slain not by planning or firepower, but by delayed inevitability.

Throughout the engagement, Night Goblin magic ensured the Norse general remained largely absent from decisive moments. The shield maiden attempted to reassert control, advanced with determination, and was promptly killed by an ’Ead Butt.

When the fighting ended, the field was littered with dead giants, crushed spiders, scattered berserkers, and the massive corpse of the mammoth lying far from where it began.

The Night Goblins emerged victorious, repeatedly saved from collapse by the Crown of Command and battle standard combination, and ultimately rewarded for surviving long enough for chaos to resolve matters in their favour.

Not a clean victory.
Not an honourable one.
But an entirely appropriate goblin victory.

---

Norse After-Action Report

After a long and brutal battle, in which the warlord was forced to watch his jarl be conjured out of the fight by foul sorcery, he had to accept that the battle was lost.

Even so, it had been a good and evenly matched fight in many respects.

The mammoth Möffe will be avenged another day.

For now, it is time to travel through the Empire and raise funds for a new army.

Night Goblin After-Action report

Well well well… Yet again, the whole army only stood after turn 2 because of Crown of Command… It is of course a little boring to use this item, but then again – it is equally boring to see the whole army succumb in a split second. I think going forward I will stick to the goblins, and add some squigs, herders, hoppers and what not. I have never really done a proper Night Goblin army.

Thus ended the clash in the Norscan foothills.

The goblins kept the field.
The Norse kept their pride.