It’s not every day that you receive a mysterious message from the Creative Regular Opponent to come north and face him on the tabletop, with the promise of food provided. It’s also not every day that a storm is strong enough to knock Scotland into having a red weather warning and my target of the mysterious land of North Yorkshire is suddenly experiencing 65MPH+ gusts. After a little back and forth (and a slight delay due to work), we eventually decided it was safe enough and I thundered up the A1.

While partaking in a platter of cold meats, cheese and veggies (a far cry from the usual snacks of piles of sweets or pizza), we got down to playing some Old World, the game that the Creative Regular Opponent was mostly responsible for getting me into. As much as both of us have a lust for rolling dice, the main reason for me coming to the windblown north was to give the Creative Regular Opponent a chance to try out a new force that he will be bringing to the next game day. This Night Goblin heavy army is still in its early stages, so he took a chance to get some proxies and unpainted models on the table to work out how much the new shenanigans will cost him spiritually and financially.

For me, it was also a chance to re-learn my list, re-learn the game and then see how it plays against a different force. So far, it’s done okay against Dwarfs (mostly a gunline) and Bretonnians (all movement all the time) but still needed some work to learn how it’s going to function against armies that use different archetypes. There are also a few mechanics I haven’t dealt with such as magic that may appear when we play in our next event in March. So as much as I was a punching bag for the experiment, I was taking the chance to learn something about my own force.

So how did it go? Well, Orcs and Goblins are an army I haven’t faced before, with plenty of tricks up their sleeves. They somehow managed to perform the roles of both a gunline army and a manevoure army, with a giant block of goblins with bows combined with two sets of squig riders bounding down the flanks. This was then made worse by the fact that the mages with them were able to do what is best described as “Fucking Bullshit” – translated, this is a teleport move that lets them set up with 12″ allowing them to rapidly avoid charges and get into position to shoot what they would need. Combine that with two wizards hammering out buffs and nerfs left right and centre, and suddenly you have replaced goblins with a literal machine gun. In this case, my demon prince lost half his wounds on turn 1 thanks to the shooty boys.

This also showed off another flaw in my force – the distinct lack of magic defence. I was unable to stop any of the shenanigans that tore down my armour saves, affected toughness and initiative and then let those bowmen dance around. I haven’t fought much magic in the past so seeing just what it can do when left mostly unopposed was eyeopening.

The “stars” of the show had to be the Night Goblin fanatics though. These little gits caused a massive amount of damage to my force for their actual cost, leading to what is best described as utter devastation. The fact they are CONSTANTLY moving means that you can get slapped multiple times in the same turn by them. They are also pretty deadly and not even my beloved Chaos Chosen were not immune to being beaten up. The fact they are also lurking in the midst of a unit that otherwise is very tempting to get charged, effectively letting you block the potential of a charge and then deny an area. They aren’t reliable though and we had several just smash into buildings in the truly comical fashion

One startling example was the fanatic that managed to roam across three units (chosen, the warriors and then the marauders) and knocked out a figure from each. Seeing as a fanatic is 25 points, the little git more than paid for himself in this single move and this was the second big swing the guy managed to pull off.

The other thing that I got to see was someone finally breaking what has been amusingly referred to as “The Brick” by some of my opponents. Thanks to the stack of magical perks the archers got (and the sheer rate of fire) from 36 archers volley firing, they managed to wipe the block down to only a handful. The final stand-and-shoot reaction wiped out everyone except the champion and my hero character meaning that unless my demonsword-wielding champion was to go full murder mode, combat was lost. The demonsword did manage to slay a pile of goblins, but it then proceeded to slay her buddy after rolling a 1.

Seeing as it was 10pm we called it there as the goblins had managed to win. To wrap up, I think the Goblins list is going to be one he’ll be pushing forward on as he had a blast. It seems to have massive damage potential but also lots of hilarity with things like random movement and those swingy ball lunatics. We both also want to see how it does up against some of our other friend’s forces. Despite my loss, I had a really fun time playing Old World again.

So with that experience over, what is the next step for me?

First, I need to spend more time learning my list and reminding myself of the rules. The last time I played was back in September and since then my brain has been bouncing around 101 other things. I was constantly forgetting rules all the way through, which slowed down play. Before March, I need to make sure I know how each part of the list plays – it’s fine to quickly catch up on on stuff with NewRecruit but basic rules I should be more familiar with. This also covers larger chunks of rules such as magic which although I’ve not used yet, I should have at least an understanding of.

Speaking of magic, I need a method to handle it. Having someone finally break “The Brick” was just a touch eye-opening to just how much danger it can be in without some kind of magical cover, with the various enhancements allowing for even the heaviest armour to be penetrated with ease. I’m going to need something to assist with preventing the enemy spells affecting the warrior block and potentially going on the offensive. The spell Steed of Shadows would allow my infantry units to fly, marching them at high speed across the battlefield to reduce the time spent under the enemy’s guns.

Finally, there needs to be a change to the chaff. As the battle showed me, the marauder units feel like they aren’t as useful as I’d hoped, with the horsemen too expensive and the marauders on foot too slow. For this reason, I’m going to trade them out in favour of some warhound packs. These will be faster to get across the board, and at only 45pts per unit, it opens up additional options across the force.

With all this in mind, it’s time to think about getting ready for the next game day in March. Luckily for me there is nothing new I need to buy (I already have files for some big wolves) so I just need to get them printed and then get on with painting. As for learning the rules, there might need to be another game with someone to test it out…

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