Warmaster: Orcs vs High Elves

My secret dragon (or cav) whompers! the varnish is still fresh

 So many bows... so many...

So- my mate Simon has, over the last 6 months been building up a sweet high elf army. Like 4000 points of it! I figured I'd let them get their first battle in and get bloodied on my poor Orc and goblin army.  We reckoned on 2,000 points each and started to plot out our forces for some lunch time matches at work (yeah, I have that kind of a cool job where we have a game room!). Today at lunch we revealed our armies, I got to oogle all of his immense forces -so many bows- and then we got down to business of dicing for terrain, sides, setting up, and who goes first.

Dragon's eye view of first part of turn 1. My goblin cav causing mischief

I see a flank charge in my future. End of my turn 1

High Elf left flank at start.

My extreme left flank. using the hill to not get shot.

Secret Weapons

I was pretty sure that Simon would have a dragon, or at least some heavy cavalry, and that I would need something that could reach out and touch them without getting into that nasty bow range. I needed some serious whompers. I raided my 10mm Romans box for a couple of onagers (catapults), added some wheels and subjugated some crew for them out of the rank and file, and voila- Orc Whompers!

Whompers!

Orc General inspects his new toys. (don't tell him where the armor came from)

 As luck would have it, my worthy opponent thought it best not to bring a dragon to an Orc fight, so my whompers will have to be content smacking cavalry around.

High Elves have a leadership of 10... kinda

I started the ball by getting my left flank, 3 units of  goblin wolf riders deep into enemy lines and close enough to fire upon a unit of chariots, taking one out and driving them back. My wizards used magic rings and Gerrooof! spells as a dirty trick to drive two of the enemy cav units off the board- one with success and the other almost. Sadly the one unit driven off was able to return, but all alone in the way back.

Other than some positioning of a goblin line, that was all of my troops I moved in turn 1.

Then it was the High Elf's turn. with an amazing leadership of 10 my opponent was able to move a third of his forces down to his right flank. As he was moving his last heavy cav unit into place- it happened. The roll of boxcars- the fumble roll. 

fumble and that unit is now smack dab center of my whomper range

Now Simon is a savvy fellow who knows he has crap luck with dice. His foresight had him buy a magic septre that would allow him a reroll on command. which he did- and rolled an 11. Those guys were staying right where they were, which is pretty much dead center of the battlefield, and straight down the barrel of my whompers, which may or may not be out of range. Next turn will tell.

Now that he was on a roll,  Simon brought all his archers he could to bear on my goblin cav, firing 6 shots and landing 2, of which I saved 1.  Yeah- elf bows...  A small drive back, but nothing to worry about.

And that's where we left off.  Tomorrow we'll be back at it, and I think I get to start with a flank charge. Wish me luck!