Recently, we played a spontanous game of One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Skirmish, in which my War Disciples went against David’s Goblins.
Since version 3.4 just came out, we decided to use the latest rules for this game. Also, after the update, my list had too many points, and I had to reduce the cost of one of my hero models.
In the long-standing tradition of goblin players, David aimed for a “zerging” warband. Using the remnants of his 90es night-goblin horde, he managed to reach the 250-point mark.
We placed some difficult wilderness terrain, dangerous swamps, and 5 objective markers on a 3×3 ft. board. Before deployment, we agreed on the characteristics of the different terrain features. Since our board was a tad smaller as the rules dictate, we reduced the deployment zones to 6 inches per side. Thus, we maintained the 12 inch “no man’s lands” between deployment zones. A roll of the dice gave initiative to the Goblins.
Let’s fight!
We decided to throw coins into a wooden bowl to count our turns. I remember playing Magic the Gathering once on a beach when we used small stones to count life points. It does the trick well and must look pretty occult to the uninitiated spectator …
We quickly claimed first objectives. Both warbands assured control of the objectives closest to them.
Claiming objectives is all about speed and survival. Understanding and anticipating activation is key here. David would camp on the objectives, since he forgot that control was maintained until an enemy model approached.
A Pester Swarm lurks in the woods. Using the strider special rule as a proxy for flying 🙂
The great Luzrik leads the advance … from the rear.
The situation quickly became very messy at the center line of the battlefield. David’s gobbos had the advantage of shooting and spell casting, whereas I had brute muscle power in melee and defense.
My plan was to engage the weaker goblins as quickly as possible in melee combat to reduce the number of enemy units.
Against all odds, David’s goblins managed to slay one of my buff War Disciples…
….before being butchered with impunity.
The great Luzrik was struck by a cruel fate… a “quadra-six”!
A brutal brawl happened at the center of the board. My steroid injected warriors killed of 3 of David’s raging goblins, by luck on the dice and buffed combat abilities. How did I do that?
Final round!
Enter Vexnar, The Blood God’s Holy executioner! My 2 heroes’ main role, apart from bashing solitary goblins, was to buff my regular and weaker units simply by increasing their melee attributes.
At this final point, the game would either end with a victory for the goblins or a draw. All depended on the fanatic’s die roll. David initially intended the fanatic to wreck havoc behind enemy lines. Towards the end of the game, the fanatics caused some headache for me since he could defend two of my objective markers. David decided to go for Vexnar, the solitary war disciple – leader. Luckily, he failed to kill Vexnar, ending the game in a draw.
Towards the end of the game, the goblin fanatic charged into the leader of the War Disciples, neutralizing their control of the objective marker.
Capturing objectives in One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Skirmish is all about managing priorities. Are you trying to take out that unit so that it won’t be able to capture any more objectives? Or, are you going to dominate the field and focus on claiming more objectives than your opponent?
In the future, I’ll probably exchange some upgrades of one of my heroes.
I must admit, this simple and default objective driven game felt extremely tense. We were engaged at all times during the 4 rounds we had at our disposal.