It's been a while since I managed to get a game in, even in solo modus, but the past weekend I gave the solo rules for Underworlds a go.
These rules can be downloaded of the Warhammer Community website for free, and they give you a chance to test your might against an AI driven monster.
As the title suggests, in the ruleset it is a Formoroid Crusher from the WarCry line, but as I don`t have that model, I proxied it with another big smashy beast: a Mordor Troll from the Lord of the Rings line.
These scenarios take place on a single board, and you have to select a battleplan for the beast. As recommended by the rules, for the first outing I took the "Rampage" battleplan, giving the beast the keywords Priorities "Destroyer", "Enraged", "Breaker" and "Advance". This is generally the way the monster behaves during the battle.
To oppose it, I brought along my Night Goblins, and as the game doesn`t use objectives, I could already imagine the hard times the little critters would have. Especcially as the big one can't be driven back, severly limiting the usefulness of my Fanatic... and as your objective deck doesn`t take part in the game, the "score points by capturing objectives" for the swarm style warband is null and void... as is getting them Inspired, as that requires them to grab 3 or more Glory Points, and the only killable thing on the table looks very, very mean. Luckily in this scenario, one fighter inspires if another got his head smashed in...
The pre-battle phase and set-up
I chose the map "Abandoned Lair"... for no other reason then it was the first I got in my hands, and blindly placed the objective tokens as per the rules for the scenario. Baby Thorin looked on and approved.
The Battleplan required me to remove all my upgrades from my deck, handing out one to each fighter, and the rest was removed from the game. This made the starting band look like this:
Deploying forces and drawing my opening hand, I guess my best bet is Zarbag trying to shoot down wounds with his magic, as well as the archers nibbling away at it...
As such I took the risk of putting my best fighters around the beast, in the hope of doing some wounds early on before they got stomped in the ground.
Round 1
The Fomoroid begins his devastating spree by smashing Drizgit in the ground with his Breaker action, inspiring both the Squigs in return, as well as Zarbag for a fallen ally and Snirk just because he can, and has the Whirling attack upgrade.
Gobbaluk, who also has a +1 damage upgrade, bites the big monster for 3, but due to the Formoroid special rule this is reduced to only 2 damage. Snirk is the next one to suffer the Breaker, inspiring Prog, and soon after Gobbaluk suffers the same fate, inspiring Redkap.
In the Power Step, Curse of the Bad Moon is failed to be cast, but a Little Waagh is declared on Bonekrakka for another 2 damage on the monster, before he is pounded flat as well, but inspiring Dibbz.
Redkap and Dibbz laet lose their arrows to no effect, while Stikkit is pushed in with Sneaky Step to occupy the big beast one more round.
Observant readers will notice that even though I had the choice of which model would get the victim of the Breaker attack, I didn`t take away the weakest first. This is due to the fact that if it where a game versus a real player, I would go for the sure kill on the strongest models first as well. That way, I felt this would be a better representation of a game of "whack-a-gobbo".
The goblins where now 4 members down, but the big beast had suffered 4 wounds so far! Not enough, as he would surely be inspiring come next Round, and gain an additional 2.
Round 2
Round 2 begins with poor Stikkit being flattened with the Breaker action. I realised afterwards I might better haven`t done this, and let him suffer the possible attack of the Enrage, but that would also cause the Objective that was moved on to being tossed, so who can tell what would have been the better option.
A salvo from Redkap and Dibbs (long live Volley Caller) did a wound on the big beast, but the beast Enrages onto an objective as he charges Prog. The poor goblin wouldn`t live to tell the tale, and adding insult to injury the hurled objective caused two wound on Zarbag himself.
Even though Inspired now, the Fungal Blessing for taking out Prog at least caused an additional wound.
Zarbag casts Jealous Hex on the Formoroid, virtually taking him down to 5 wounds to go, in the subsequent Power phase.
Poor Zarbag is next on the rampage of the monster, chanceless against this brutal power in his already wounded state.
The archers let go, causing another wound, before Dibbz became charged by the Enraged Formoroid... and miraculously dodged it!
Their combined volley caused another wound on the beast, but it looked grim.
With Dibbz in Breaker range, and the Formoroid still on 3 wounds, this would mean Redkap somehow needed to lure the beast to an edge, dodge any charges, be pushed back for another wound instead, AND still shoot and hit... well, theoretically there was still a chance.
Round 3
As predicted, Dibbz was swiftly dispatched by the Breaker, but Redkap actually puts another arrow in the huge monster. But alas, there it ended, as the Formoroid charged the plucky archer, instantly flattening him without even needing to throw an Objective after him.
Never the less, the little guys, whose heavy hitters (sort off) would even be instasmashed due to Breaker and the fact they needed to deploy around the beast, managed to bring it down to 2 wounds, not a bad showing. It actually could have gone down, had it not blocked some of the arrows poured into him, so the tactic at least proved viable...
These solo game rules are good fun, though utterly brutal. I will probably try out the remaining two battleplans in the future as well, going for different warbands or so... and see what high defense or high damage bands can do against the beast!
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