'O' is for OGRE; 'O' is for OUCH!

I must hand it to Shahrom. He who handed me my first massive ogre kingdoms defeat ever. At the end of the battle, I had nothing left save for some gnoblars who were skulking at the wrong end of the battlefield.

I don't believe that luck plays a huge role, for I firmly and still believe that luck is created, for whoever can stack the odds will find victory easier. As you all know by now, movement is an extremely crucial element in Warhammer. However, I feel that there are two other elements that play an important part in the game, and it was these two elements that Shahrom had in greater amounts that made him the superior general.

These two elements are: Guts and the correct use of the available troops.

Shahrom had more guts; he had the courage to put his troops to the right position, no matter how precarious it might seem. As mentioned before, movement is so crucial, sometimes we just lack the courage to push our troops into a deadly situation. I failed in this aspect as when the High Elf Chariot charged my Leadbelchers, I decided to flee. It would have been better if I took the charge. Firstly, he might have failed his fear test; secondly I had six wounds in the unit which meant that if he screwed up his impact hits, my belchers could actually do some damage in return. My mentality should have been 'since the belchers were going to die, might as well try to take some of them with me'. Instead, I opted to run and my belchers were caught in the charge range, which amounts to the same thing, the destruction of the belchers. But now instead of making him earn it, I gave it away for free. In terms of guts, I was sadly lacking that day.

The correct use of troops is the other element. It means sending the right guys to do the right job. It was pretty obvious that a 'pincer' attack was being carried out by the Elves, but I decided to attack in the center. Maybe I was concerned about the magical and missile barrage that I was facing, so instead of pushing my Butcher lead Ogre Bull unit to face the coming Silver Helms, I decided to push into the center to be ridden down by the Dragon Princes. On hindsight, it might have all been over earlier if not for the fact that the Dragon Princes were not too eager to get into another fight (5" pursuit move on 3 dice is just too close for comfort!) In the end the Dragon Princes tied up two valuable units, meaning I only had one available unit of Ironguts to take on the Silver Helms. Truth be told, I felt that a unit of Ironguts charging should have a fair chance of hurting the Silver Helms, however it was not to be. That's how battles go, I suppose.

Nonetheless, instead of attacking his pincer elements, which undoubtably would have made up the bulk of his army's points, I decided to do a random attack in the middle, exposing my flanks. Whilst Shahrom on the other hand, got his troops to do the right thing, pressing on the attack even though one chariot got taken out.

So kudos to Shahrom! Congrats on a well fought victory, and I hope to learn from the lessons you passed on to me. (no hard feelings, I swear! hahaha!)