Well, here it starts...
Last few days I've been reading the beginners rules for the SBG and part of the advanced rules... and yesterday-evening I had my first try to get the basic rules in my hands.
This will be my little diary through learning the rules-system, including all stupidity and blunders
I had set up a little play-area with some scenery of the Mines of Moria box (leaving the tomb out) and had a go with Dwarves vs. Goblins...
Since it was only to learn to toggle the dices I didn't care much about points or having a leader etc... just a random bunch of Dwarves being encountered by a random horde of Goblins which had to moe around a bit and encounter a close-combat or two.
On one side I placed three little groups of Dwarves, 1 group of 4 with a shield and handweapon, a group of 4 with 2-handed axes, and in the middle of both groups I had 4 dwarf-archers.
On the other side I had 3 groups of Goblins, on the left and on the right, two equal groups of each 3 with shield and sword and each of them backed up with a spear-wearing Goblin.
In the middle I had placed 6 archers...
So to start with, I had 12 Dwarves vs. 18 Goblins.
It all started quite relaxed... untill turn two... I was playing it completely wrong, so I had to restart. I had first started the Dwarves, doing all phases of the turn, and then did the Goblins all phases of the turn... which is the case for Warhammer.
So, 5 minutes later, I learned to handle first move for priority-team, and then move the others before moving over to the shooting...
After the restart, I learned dices are evil. Although priority went almost always to the Dwarves, they couldn't hit a single Goblin, while the Goblins had all the luck and love of the 6's on the dices.
So after 5 Dwarves were slayed, the first two Goblins fell... shot by their own kind...
I decided to ignore the 'broken forces' rules, since my game would have been over already without even having a chance to let a Dwarf smash one of those darn exploded frogs...
And then luck turned to my side (yes yes, I can't hide my love for the Dwarves...). Since I had a small raised area, I made a Dwarf jump up and defend it like a barrier.
I charged the Dwarf with Goblins and managed to slaughter two. But by then, other greenskins neared the fight and with their cave-dwelling-ability the Dwarf's luck was gone to the bottom of Khazad-dum.
While on the other side of the battleground 4 Dwarves with shield had been hacking up about 7 goblins in total.
In the end, all Dwarves died while 6 Goblins survived... and I had enjoyed this little starters game
Now, after reading the rules I used again, I came to understand I made some more mistakes... such as having a Dwarf attacked by two Goblins with sword and shield in close combat, while both being backed up by spears. As I understand well, backing up with spears isn't allowed in one-on-two close-combats (but correct me if I'm wrong please). Need to re-read that part once again
(it all sounds so easy while reading, but while playing, I forget it all)
Also, today I looked at the profiles again and realized another foolish mistake
the "F" in a profile must have a need somewhere...
I totally forgot to take that into account.
So, first thing to do next: re-re-read the close-combat rules...
I'll have another go at a little game some time soon after re-reading again, and I'll probably add some variety to both sides and maybe I'll take my chance to a hero or two... (and perhaps balancing the armies a bit might be another good idea)
to be continued