Battle Of Longbottom, Part2 - Deployment

The battle report proper begins here!

Wizards and spell generation:
Melisandre with the Human Rangers has Lore of Fire (surprise) and gets Fireball. A pretty straightforward point and click spell.

The elven druid has Lord of Beasts and gets Feast of Crows (which sounds pretty GoT).  It causes alot of low Str attacks.  Which is fine for killing Gobbos, not so much for Toughness 4 Orcs though.

The dwarf wizard with the Hasslefreesians has Lore of Shadows and Unseen Lurker, which could come in real handy for moving around slow stunties and hobbits.  It gives a bonus movement if you could get it to work...  it casts on 11+

The Goblin Witch in Skarsniks unit has Fists of Gork.  Lots of ghostly green fists for smashing the enemy good.  It also negates "Look out, Sir" rule, so potentially hurts heroes without them hiding behind their troops.

The Goblin Shaman in the Gobbo archer unit gets 'Eadbutt! Another good hero killing spell.  If it can get line of sight, it can pick out anyone as the target.

On the Western edge of Longbottom is the Ironshoe Mercantile.  It is a Hobbit-owned merchant Outpost that many freefolk use to trade goods and merchandise.  Mostly, its Dwarf Beer for Shire Pipeweed, although the Elves try to export their salad and environment friendly hair products too.

  The Elves have deployed here on the furthest flank and beside them are the resilient and grim Grenadier Dwarves.  Luckily for the alliance there is a common enemy approaching.  Still, some glances are exchanged between the pointy-ears and the stunties.  The Dwarves are resolved to outdo the Elves in killing more Greenskins.

Here is the Ironshoe Outpost.  As you can see the eastern side has a makeshift wall that is made of various barrels, sacks, and crates.  The Thunderers and the Cannon are entrenched behind the walls, they check and double check the mechanisms of their weapons.

Here is the center, the main road that leads North to the center of the Shire.
The Dwarf General Reinhardt is in the Band of the Hawks unit. and next to them are the Hasslefreesians.
At first they were deployed in a staggered diagonal line from Outpost to the Farm on the Eastern side.  Which would be a good formation IF the Dwarves were advancing.  But they are static defenders here and the Greenskins would simply smash the Outpost first and move on to the farm.
In the end, Reinhardt kept his army formation as a straight battleline.

Here is the Eastern edge of Longbottom, with the Farmhouse in the background.
This side is defended by Arya, Melisandre, and the Rangers, the Mumak, and the Hobbit Militia.
If things go bad, they can retreat back over the tilled grounds, over the road and behind the walls of the Farm.

Arya: (to her Dire Wolf)  Nymeria, calm down. There will be plenty of Goblins for you to eat soon enough!

Looking south.  Enemy spotted!
The Horde approaches!
Lobelia's hound begins to howl. At the incoming Goblins or at Arya's Direwolf?

Note on terrain here:
Crop fields on the left, counts as woods (units 2" of edge can see out or be seen/ units inside get soft cover from missile fire)
The green tilled earth fields, however, do not affect movement or cover.

View from the center.

Reinhardt:  Hold steady boys!  Remember we are from the Blue Mountains!
Band of the Hawk:  Blue Mountains Forever! (as the pipes begin playing)

From atop the Mercantile Outpost.
The Organ Cannon begins a terrible barrage upon the enemy.
But for every fallen Orc or Goblin, many more take its place.

The allies sense that there are Orcs in the woods, but cannot fire at them until they are within 2" of the edge.

Its the Gor Brothers!  Gorfang and Gorgut.  And with them, Roborr Baratheorc on his extremely dangerous and vicious warboar.  (Thanks to our good buddy LordOdo for coming up with the name Roborr for our Orc General.  Its probably the most awesome name for this Orc General considering the tongue in cheek nature of this blog.  Thanks LordOdo... you get it!)

Roborr Baratheorc:  (reining in his Battle Boar) Whoa, you silly porkchop!  Calm down, its only a forest squirrel!  I swear you will be the death of me someday...

The Greenskin center has the large Night Goblin unit led by Skarsnik.  It has Netters to entangle enemies.  It also has a Goblin Witch.  It also most probably (definitely) has Ball and Chain Fanatics hidden in the ranks.  They are busy consuming their Mushrooms and waiting for it to "kick in" as it were.  Dirty filthy drug addled nutjobs!

Also, Skarsnik did use his Sneaky Schemes ability and not a single unit was affected.  (This would make a dwarf unit have to redeploy from its table edge.  Could have come in handy)

Beside the Night Gobbos are the Fireball Uruks who have sworn to pillage and burn the Outpost and the Farmhouse.

On the Eastern side, facing the Farmhouse is the General himself, Remulak on his Tusker.  He is the overall commander in chief for this battle.  In front of him are some Gobbo archers with a Shaman.  And to his side is his secret weapon to defeat and capture the Mumak... rats!

The Eastern road has some walls, which the Orc Arrer Boys have decided to use for cover.

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So the battle for Longbottom has begun!

Side note:  someone has asked about my trees and whether they are affixed to the base.
The based trees are indeed glued down to a base, but the mat underneath is separate and is the delineation of the forest edges.

Here is the mat with the forest base moved to the side.

Cheers,
Mar