Who Would Win? - Teaser Round

this round won't count for the tournament, this is just to show the format that the rounds will follow. follow this LINK to see the complete rules and to vote on your favorite team. so far we have only three votes. voting will close this weekend, so get your votes in!

Now to kick off the tournament, we'll be starting with two armies that regularly fight each other. My Skorne and my wife's Circle Orboros. Both units have the same number of models, and the stat lines are almost identical (Skorne has a slight advantage in armor, but will it be enough?). The interesting part is the units' special abilities. each unit has a UA that will be giving them a very useful perk during this battle. In addition, the wolves have several built-in abilities that could sway the battle early.


With that said, let's jump in!



roll-off
the wolves of orboros have both Reach and Pathfinder, giving them a +2 bonus to the starting roll. the Praetorians have no helpful abilities at this stage, and will be rolling a normal D6. the wolves roll a 5 (which becomes a 7) and get the first turn and charge!

the wolves decide not to use their mini-feat that would grant them an additional die on damage rolls, relying on their charge attack bonus to do the job. Wolves of Orboros also have Powerful Charge, giving them +2 to hit on the turn they charge. the Wolves charge in, evenly matching the swordsmen. they will need 5s to hit and 6s to kill the Skorne warriors. the wolves easily hit 8 swordsmen, killing all of them. the banner bearer dies, but the officer survives. the remaining skorne pass their cmd check.

the praetorians have 4 men left. they all choose to make 2 single attacks instead of using combo strike. they also decide to use their mini-feat just to avoid any low rolls, now that they are down in numbers. of the swordsmen's 8 attacks, 5 land hits, killing 5 wolves of orboros. Not enough for a cmd check, so they continue.

the remaining 6 wolves (plus the weaponless banner) swing back. The wolves use their own mini-feat giving an additional die on damage. the first two swordsmen are double-teamed and both go down. the third swordsman is hit, but survives (even with 3 dice, only needing a 6 to kill). the last wolf misses his attack on the swordsman officer.

the two remaining swordsmen swing back. the grunt kills 2 wolves by himself, making good use of side-step. the officer misses one attack, but lands his second swing and easily kills the wolf facing him. there are now 4 wolves, but one is a standard bearer, and 2 swordsmen.

two wolves gang up on the grunt, and the two officers square off (the UAs will always be paired up last if there are uneven models, keeping them alive a little longer than they might be in real games). the grunt dies to the second blow, and the officer takes 2 points of damage.

It's all up to the officer now. And he rises to the challenge, killing both grunts in one turn. Now it's down to the two officers (and one banner, but he won't actually be killing anyone). The wolf officer swings, rolls a hit. but without charge boosts or power swell, he just isn't strong enough to finish the job. he rolls a 7, doing two more points of damage (leaving the swordsman officer on one box). The Praetorian officer has to decide whether to try 2 attacks at a low p+s or to risk it all for a single straight dice attack. being the seasoned vet that he is, he decides to go with the more conservative approach and takes 2 single attacks. and a good thing he did, as his first attack misses. the second swing hits, and is now rolling dice - 3 against the Wolves UA. the damage roll comes up as..... 10! the wolf dies, leaving only the standard bearer, who is killed on the next turn.

Skorne takes the win!

Final Thoughts

that was a close game to kick it off! I really didn't expect the swordsmen to take a win. with the charge and another round of boosted damage rolls, I thought the Wolves would easily overcome the difference in ARM values that favored the swordsmen. but as always, we play a game with dice, and sometimes the dice just favor one player. the wolves had two opportunities to take down the primus, but couldn't quite pull it off.

Well, that's all for this round! luckily for Orboros, this isn't the end of the road. we haven't even started yet! Will the wolves have a chance to avenge their pre-season loss? or is this a sign of things to come?

don't forget to vote! you can vote up until Sunday night. I'll hopefully be running 2 matches next week.

oh, and as a bonus for reading this whole report, I present you with the brackets! maybe this will help you make your decisions before the games begin. Legion and Searforge have the byes, but will be tossed in against winning factions in round 2!