One Page Rules: Age of Fantasy battle report

My opponent and I decided on 1000 point game size and played the game out on a 4′ square table.

My list was built from the Rift Daemons army list, using Daemons of change sub-faction.

NOTE: Due to an administrative error I ended up being over by 285 points. I built the list manually in a spreadsheet and forgot to add the crab daemons cost, an error only spotted during the creation of this report.

Daemon Champion of Change upgraded with with wings – 215 points

Champion of Change with the following upgrades Magic Blast, Symbol of Change, Wizard and Flame Chariot – 245 points

Pink Warriors x 10 – 375 points

Manta Daemons x 3 – 165 points

Crab Daemon of Change – 285 points

My opponent used the Goblins list to build his list which was as follows.

Two Shaman each with Wizard 2 – 110 points

Two units of Goblin archers x 5 – 90 points

Troll giant with crushing blow upgrade – 205 points

Mountain trolls x 3 with boulder throwers upgrade – 195 points

River trolls x 3 with toxic vomit upgrade – 185 points

Giant cave beast – 110 points

Goblin boss with great weapon and large spider upgrades – 105

We rolled to determine the number of objectives in the game and five objectives was generated.

After placing the objectives we rolled off and I gained the first activation of the game.

Rift Daemons: The Pink Warriors move up and capture objective 5 on their right flank.

Goblins: A Goblin archers and Wizard unit move up to capture objective 3. The Wizard attempts to cast a spell but fails.

Rift Daemons: The Crab Daemon moves up slightly and shoots the other Goblin archer unit with his power cannon, killing a single goblin.

Goblins: This weakened unit of archers moves up and returns fire failing to wound the Crab daemon. Once again goblin magic proves unreliable.

Rift Daemons: The Champion on chariot moves up behind the Pink warriors to support them on objective 5.

Goblins: The River trolls run forward in response threatening the Daemons right flank and control of objective 5.

Rift Daemons: The Daemon champion and his flock of Manta daemons move up to take objective 4.

Goblins: The Giant cave beast makes a phenomenal long bomb charge into the Daemon champions unit placing a single would on a Manta daemon. Sadly it is destroyed by the retaliatory fighting.

Goblins: The Rock trolls run up and capture objective 2.

Goblins: The Giant troll moves across toward the centre of the board looking to support the fighting here.

Goblins: The Goblin boss on giant spider moves up on the Daemon players left flank just skirting the rock mesa dominating that side of the table.

With objective 1 remaining neutral, each player takes control of 2 each of the other objectives at the end of turn 1.

As I finished activating first in the last turn I got the first activation in turn 2.

Rift Daemons: The Daemon champion and his unit charge up into the Rock trolls on objective 2. A single Rock troll is killed. However the trolls give as good as they get killing a manta daemon in return.

Goblins: The river trolls move up into shooting range of the Champion on chariot and vomit acid all over it failing to cause damage.

Rift Daemons: The Crab daemon continues his slow progress forward shooting again at the damaged Goblin archer unit, killing another of their number.

Goblins: In a repeat of previous events the beleaguered Goblin archers and their, some might say incompetent, Wizard continue to throw nothing more than harsh language at the utterly unconcerned Crab Daemon.

Rift Daemons: The Pink Warriors launch a volley of fireballs at the River trolls causing a single wound holding their position in the face of the seeming inevitable River troll charge in turn 3.

Goblins: The Rock trolls fall back in the face of the Daemon Champion threat hurling boulders as they go.

Rift Daemons: The Champion on his chariot throws everything he has at the river trolls. A short range magical fireball, magical wounds from a Blaze spell and the transforming chaos energies from his Symbol of Change ability. The River trolls are reduced to a single model and then fail their morale check effectively removing them from the game. The right flank seems secure for now for the Daemons of the Rift.

Goblins: From the safety of cover behind a massive rock arch the second Goblin archer unit with attached Wizard fails to score any damage from shooting and fails to get it’s magic to work.

Goblins: Charging to defend the centre the Troll giant piles into the Manta daemon unit killing the rest of their number. As he is fatigued, the Daemon champion fails to cause any damage to the Troll giant in return. With the Daemon champion’s high nerve he fails to flee when forced to test.

Goblins: The valiant Goblin boss ion giant spider charges the Crab daemon inflicting 2 wounds and taking nothing back in return.

The only change in objectives at the end of turn 2 is that objective 2 reverts to neutral as it is now covered by both the Troll giant and the Daemon champion. The state of play is thus 1 objective to the Goblin player and 2 to the Daemon player.

As I was still outnumbered I retained initiative for the turn.

Rift Daemons: In a fit of overconfidence the Daemon Champion attacked the Troll giant causing some damage but then getting utterly destroyed in return.

Note: This was, I feel, my first tactical gaff of the game. My champion had wings so he could have flown over the Troll giant and threatened weaker units in my opponents back line or even contested objective 3. His huge damage output coupled with regeneration to resist incoming damage should have been a warning to me. Already outnumbered by enemy activations, the loss of another one was a huge turning point for my opponent.

Goblins: The battered Goblin archer unit finally succeeded in putting some damage onto the Crab Daemon using both arrows and magic from the now revitalised Goblin Wizard.

Rift Daemons: With the right hand side of the table secured the Pink warriors repositioned themselves and moved to defend objective 4, throwing some fireballs at the Troll giant and putting some damage on it.

Goblins: Scenting fresh meat the Troll giant runs toward the Pink Warrior unit.

Rift Daemons: The Crab daemon is fast becoming hemmed in by enemy models and in an attempt to break through to take objective 1, he shoots into the damaged Goblin archer unit, nearly wiping them out. However bolstered by his recent magical efforts the Wizard passes his morale check and the unit fails to run.

Goblins: The undamaged Goblin archer unit move back onto objective 3 to keep it secure in case units from the Daemon players right flank make a move on it. The Wizard successfully uses magic to move the Goblin boss on giant spider into a more central position. With my Crab daemon effectively trapped the Goblin boss has the potential to make it all the way over to my right flank and threaten objectives 4 and 5.

Rift Daemons: The Champion on chariot moves up to support the Pink warriors. Using the Blaze spell he kills a couple of Goblin archers on objective 3 and puts a wound on the Troll giant with his Symbol of Change ability.

Goblins: The Rock trolls move onto objective 1, finally securing it for the Goblin player.

Goblins: The Goblin boss on giant spider moves further over toward the Pink warriors and Champion on chariot.

Note: My opponent played a fantastic screening game in this and the next turn. Deleting even a small Goblin unit in this game is no mean feat and using these cheap units to screen out the objectives from my larger units was critical to my opponents success.

At the end of the turn the Goblin player controls objectives 1, 2 and 3. The Daemon player control 4 and 5.

Rift Daemons: The Crab daemon now needs to push through the formidable Rock troll unit to contest objective 1 but is unable to do any damage to these tough opponents.

Goblins: The Goblin archers and Wizard on objective 3 throws some arrows and magic at my Champion on chariot but fail to do any damage.

Rift Daemons: The Pink Warriors fall back and fully encircle objective 4 before throwing fireballs at the Troll giant. Objective 4 is definitely out of my opponents grasp but the Troll giant survives on 1 wound.

Goblins: The Rock Trolls bombard the Crab daemon with rocks smashing into an oblivion of twisted metal.

Rift daemons: In a desperate attempt to stop the Goblin boss from taking objective 5 I charge into him with my Champion on chariot. Unfortunately I make my second big mistake of the game. My Champions Symbol of change ability fails to go off and instead of using my spell against the Goblin boss, I used it on the Goblin archer unit behind the arch near objective 3. I kill sufficient goblins to force a morale check and they run demoralized but objective 3 remains in my opponents control. My close combat attacks fail to kill the Goblin boss on giant Spider and he survives on a single wound and passes his morale check.

Goblins: The Goblin boss on giant spider runs between my units and secures objective 5 for my opponent.

We called the game at this point. It was highly likely the Troll giant was going to kill my Champion on chariot but it was immaterial as my opponent ended the game with objectives 1, 2, 3 and 5 under his control, while I only had objective 4.

All in all a very enjoyable game that I learned a lot from. I feel I misused my Crab daemon whose damage output is not significant but whose damage absorption potential is high. Moving up more aggressively to control objective 2 early on and blocking the centre of the board would have been better than sitting out on the left flank picking off goblin archers. As discussed earlier I threw my Daemon champion away and I should have ignored his Troll giant and played round him more effectively. As a final thought I put too many resources on my right flank and did not leave sufficient time to redeploy to newer threats.

My opponent, on the other hand, played a pretty much flawless game, moving resources round the board exactly as needed to control the flow of play.