1999pts vs Warriors of Chaos

Went down to play at the local Games Workshop store on their Thursday night open fantasy gaming. Nick was taking a break from his Empire army and trying out a new Chaos Army. He was worried from the start about getting shot to bits by the Dwarfs, but decided to play anyway. Both of us were trying out out 1999-point lists for a little tournament on Saturday.

The Dwarven Forces
(as deployed from the Dwarves' left to right)

Cannon w/ Ro Forging
20 Hammerers w/ Ro Courage w/ Thane General on Oathstone (GW, Ro Preservation, Ro Stone)
24 Longbeards w/ Thane BSB (Mro Gromril, Ro Preservation, Ro Resistance)
10 Thunderers
Organ Gun
23 Warriors w/ Runesmith (shield, GW, MRo Balance)
10 Thunderers
Grudge Thrower w/ Ro Accuracy

The Forces of Chaos
(as deployed from the Dwarves' left to right)

5 Mounted Marauders w/flails
5 Knights of Chaos w/Ensorcelled Weapons
Giant
5 Warhounds
12 Warriors of Chaos w/ Mark of Nurgle w/ Nurgle Sorcerer (level 2)
20 Marauders w/ Mark of Nurgle w/ HW+Sh w/Mounted Chaos Hero (general)
4 Trolls
5 Warhounds
12 Warriors of Chaos w/ Mark of Nurgle w/Nurgle Sorcerer (level 2)

The Battle

I deployed on the right-hand side of the 4x6 table. My plan was to use my elites troops to hold my left flank (at about the center of the table) while my shooting held off the other side, supported by my warriors in case anything got across the table. He effectively deployed right into my tactic, by putting all his cavalry on the wide flank trying to sweep in and roll my up - my Hammerers and Oathstone would have none of that. The terrain even favored that tactic for him, as a long hill protruded in from the left of the table, giving his cavalry and giant cover to advance. The forest against the right side of the table helped to limit how much he could send against my shooters.

He rolled an amazing dwarf-killing spell which I knew I couldn't let him get off - make a initiative test, if you fail, make an armor save, if you pass the armor save, you die - eeeew. He also had a spell that gave his unit regen for a turn , and two of the first spell that just does a single no-armor-save wound against any target. His power familiar brought and extra die for my Master rune of Balance to steal, leaving us at 6 dice each.

I got choice of first turn and even though only my cannon and Grudge Thrower were in range I took it and took some shots. I guessed a bit short with both but got lucky rolls and cleaned out a bunch of Marauders. He advanced full ahead.

My second turn I brought a lot of shooting to bear on the trolls, and also pegged his general with a cannonball - failed his lookout sir and so the trolls failed their panic without the general's leadership. I also took out the hounds on the right with my thunderers. He advanced full again.

This turn I started to work on the warriors on the right side of the table. The organ gun was rolling high and made a mess of them, the thunderers helped as well. Cannon could now see the giant, he had regen on him but it was still the best shot - short shot and bounce meant I missed him altogether.

Now he was in range for some charges - the giant charges the longbeards, and the marauders charge my cannon. The rest of his units move into position to charge next turn, except for his unit of warriors and hounds which are essentially stuck behind the giant with not much to do. he moved his sorcerer from the unit of warriors that was getting destroyed by shooting over to the other unit, which also limited their movement somewhat. The giant swings a few with his club, I make an armor save and only two die! My champion fights back and does a wound - the BSB is not in the fight yet. The Marauder Horsemen can't quite kill the entire cannon crew, and they of course hold.

The next turn of shooting the organ gun decimates the Warriors on the right side, with the help of the thunderers they are down to two models. The Marauders are reduced to 8 models, and the Grudge Thrower can't see anything now because of it's position. My BSB moves into combat with the Giant and does two wounds - the giant tries to pick him up and the BSB does another wound, saving himself and bringing the giant near death. The Marauder Horsemen finish off the cannon crew.

The moment of truth comes for Chaos with the Knights and Mounted Marauders charging the Hammerers, who set their oathstone and hold. The hammerers pull out their shields and choke up on their hammers, pulling off a few armor saves leaves 2 dead from each flank, including my unit champion. In reprisal my general and his unit take out 4 marauders but can't hurt the Knights. They win combat and everything runs. The lone Marauder can't rally. The foot Marauders also charged into my thunderers, who fail to wound them on their stand and shoot. No wounds are done in this combat and the result is a tie with the thunderers outnumbering and the Marauders with a banner.

There is not a lot of shooting left to be had in my turn. I charge the remaining pair of warriors with my warrior unit and they flee. I move my one unit of thunderers into better position for the final turn of shooting. My Hammerers are stuck (having dropped their stone) and I fear they may be ignored now but there is nothing I can do.

He rallies his knights and turns them around, the giant dies to my BSB, the marauders/thunderers tie combat again with no damage done, and his two warriors can't rally. I turn my warriors to face the flank of his marauders fighting my thunderers, get a few shots on his warriors that aren't really sure what to do with themselves. The final turn he charges his knights in against my hammerers and loses combat again, and flees. His warriors are too wide to charge in on my longbeards after the giant was killed.

The result is a massacre for the Dwarves!

Lessons Learned

My battle plan worked out perfectly. Killing his general was lucky and was a good part of what made the victory so solid. Some mis-management of the chaos troops caused the one unit of warriors to basically sit around doing nothing (a bunker for the wizards). There was also no reason to charge the hammerers after they dropped their oathstone, which as it turned out wasn't even necessary since no marauders were left to score the flank and negate ranks. Still I think I will try the same tactic in some more games, seems like a good way to make the dwarves work.

1999pts vs Orcs

Another Sunday spent gaming at the university, this time I played a game against Sohail's Orcs. We were both trying out 1999pt lists for an upcoming tournament.

The Dwarven Forces
(as deployed from the Dwarves' left to right)

Organ Gun
20 Hammerers w/ Ro Courage w/ Thane General on Oathstone (GW, Ro Preservation, Ro Stone)
10 Thunderers
Grudge Thrower w/ Ro Accuracy
10 Thunderers
Cannon w/ Ro Forging
23 Warriors w/ Runesmith (shield, GW, MRo Balance)
24 Longbeards w/ Thane BSB (Mro Gromril, Ro Preservation, Ro Resistance)

The Orc Forces
(as deployed from the Dwarves' left to right)

5 Spider Riders
5 Savage Orc Boar Boyz w/Banner of Butchery
5 Spider Riders (in frontof the SOBBs)
6 Squig Hoppers
20 Orc Boys
15 Savage Orc Boyz
20 Orc Big'Uns
20 Black Orcs
Giant
5 Goblin Wolf Riders
1 Orc Shaman (level 2) w/ power stone
1 Savage Orc Shaman (level 2) w/ war paint and a power stone
1 Goblin Shaman (level 2) w/ sneaky staff of stealin'

The Battle

I deployed on the right-hand-side of the board, putting my organ gun at about the middle of my table edge. He deployed spread out across the table so I forced his cavalry to make the long trek around but those spider riders are fast so it wasn't that effective. There were a couple of forests on the left of the table that didn't really come into play because the squig hoppers and spiders could ignore them. There was also a large hill on the middle of the right-hand-side of the table which gave the giant some cover from the cannon for a turn. I didn't quite get all the way to the right-hand table edge, which was a bit unfortunate.

Sohail didn't fail many animosity checks and came at me fast across the table. He had a lot of magic and the surprise of the power stones and the fact the he rolled Hand of Gork, Waaagh, and Gork's Warpath, among other spells, turned out very bad for me. I though I had his magic phase mostly under control until the power stones came out and I made a bad roll or two - the result being that he Waaagh'd twice, plus the usual calling of the Waaagh! I just didn't have enough turns to shoot him. On the plus side, my Hammerers did exactly what I wanted them to by anchoring the flank solidly - in fact they were the only things alive at the end of the game, holding up all of his cavalry and Hoppers. However, the Waaagh's he was able to cast caught me off guard and out of position. Also, the fact that I wasn't right against the right-hand table edge allowed his wolf-boyz to sneak in for a flank attack which with the help of the giant allowed the orcs to roll up that flank.

Lessons Learned

I think my deployment in the corner was solid other than leaving the edge open. I also should have deployed closer to my table edge, instead of the full distance forward.

The hammerers don't NEED the oathstone, but it helps their HW/Sh save on the flank and the character can do a bit of killing to help keep the casualties down. I think I would have done better in this game buy putting it on the other flank - however just deploying against the edge would have worked even better - part of the problem was that we didn't define exactly where that edge of the table was.

While the Master Rune of Balance gives me a strong static magic defense, I am still vulnerable to sneaky surprises like power stones or other "pull some dice out of my ass" tricks. I think I will see if I can fit a Ro Spellbreaking (dispell scroll) on my Runesmith to help me out in these cases. Sohail got very lucky on his spell rolls as well, I would have gladly allowed him to cast pretty much any other spell in the greenskin lore besides Waaagh and Warpath.

Hammerers and Lord Work In Progress

I'm not a big fan of the metal hammerers' figures from Games Workshop. They all have the same pose, and the pose isn't believable to me because it doesn't look like the dwarf can reach high enough over his head to actually finish swinging the hammer. So I decided to model my Hammerers using the the plastic Dwarf regiment set and a few conversions.


I also decided that since I would pretty much always field my lord on shieldbearers in the hammerers unit, that the shieldbearer figures should match the hammerers. It also seems appropriate since the shieldbearers are the epitome of "bodyguards" and the hammerers are supposed to be the Kings bodyguard.


The lord himself is a cross between the two "unit champion" bodies from the warrior and thunderer sets - I like the winged helm for my lord, but I wanted a long braided beard and the winged helm figure didn't have the right beard for it. I also wanted the figure to be as unique as possible (considering they are all from the same plastic set), so the helmet swap helped with that. His shield is a thicker piece of styrene sheet cut and filed into the right shape and then I sculpted a triple-horseshoe relief on top and added gems into the middle of the U-shapes. The pins are to give me something to attach his long braids to after I sculpt them - the idea is that they will go down to the shield and the dangle over the edge of the shield. He will have a great hammer in the right hand and a stein of ale in the left.

All of the hammerers have the cloaked bodies from the warriors and thunderers sets. I've added a bit to the edges of the cloaks where they sort of "disappear" due to limitations in the casting process. I also decided I wanted to have lots of gems on the hammerers, tying in with the gems on the lord-bearing shield. To this end I found some hammers from the older edition dwarf regiment, to which I could easily add a gem in the middle and really had the look I wanted. The trick will be finding more of these hammers for the rest of the unit.

I used the leather-wrapped handle from the champion's axe in the warrior box for several of the hammers, it matched the similar handle end of the banner pole from the thunderers box quite well and added a nice feature to the otherwise long and boring handles. For the Hammerer champion figure I wanted to do something unique, so I went for an over-the head dynamic pose, similiar to the metal hammerers, but I wanted to make sure it looked more believeable. I had to find just the right arms and hands, file down the shoulders a bit and do a lot of test fitting and redoing before I got the final result, but I'm quite happy with it.

I took a few more pics than are posted here, you can click any of the photos to head over to Flickr and check them all out.

Longbeards Work In Progress

I love the existing metal Longbeard figures, but there are two things wrong with them - They are equipped with great weapons, and they have very few poses which are all quite static (leaning on their great-axes). The new plastic kit suggests that all you need to do to make longbeards is add the little helmet bits that cover their eyes, but I didn't find these pieces to fit very well or look all that great. But you still need some way to distinguish your longbeards from your warriors - and while I plan to paint them differently, with more gold perhaps, and more grey and white beards, I also wanted to model them differently. Plus this was a good chance to work on my sculting skills, and beards can't be that hard, right?

I wish they made the banner pole a bit taller so standard bearer could see under the banner, but oh well. You may notice that, in addition to the longer beards, every one of them has horned helms as well.

Some of the sculpts are not so much significant lengthenings as just adding more beard variations, and not every figure has additional beard added, but I think it should be more than enough to make it clear that these are the longbeards.

1500pts vs Beasts of Chaos

Super busy day at the local university games club, but Gerald and I managed to clear a table for a game.

The Dwarven Forces:

20 Warriors w/ Thane BSB (Ro slowness + Ro Guarding) + Runesmith (shield, MRo Balance)
20 Longbeards w/ Thane General (w/ shield, Ro Fury, Ro Stone)
10 Thunderers
10 Thunderers
Cannon
Grudge Thrower w/ Ro Accuracy
Organ Gun

The Beasts of Chaos Forces:

25 beast herd w/ 3 bray shamans, 2x Lore Death, Lore of Slaanesh
12 chariots (1x Mark of Tzeentch, 1x Mark of Slaanesh)

Crazy list. Basically relies on the luck of the impact hits, with some strong magic. I basically had to let him get off a spell each turn, and sometimes I'd fail to dispell the ones I tried to stop. He used his magic to try to kill my war machines, mostly, and he had 2d6 s4 hits on both of his death shamans, and d6 s6 hits on his slannesh shaman, so lots of misiles coming their way.

My GT and cannon each crush a chariot in their turn, and the thunderers killed another, while the organ gun shot the beast herd. Everything advanced on the beast turn. I basically did the exact same shooting in the second turn, thunderers now in short range, and the organ gun caused his herd to panic.

He charged one chariot into 2 ranks of thunderers on the hill, and 2 chariots into my warriors, and moved to set up a triple chariot charge into my Longbeards,  after rallying his beast herd. His magic finished off my cannon. Low impact hits all around and the dwarf toughness and static combat res allowed me to marginally win both of the chariot charges and one of the pair fighting the warriors fled. My organ gun took out the rest of the beast herd, leaving 3 characters standing in the open.

He rallied his chariots, advanced with his characters, and triple-charged my Longbeards. Statistically expected result is me making 4-up break test and losing 12 guys... actual result was that the Dwarves won the combat by 1, losing only 4 dwarfs and doing 2 wounds in return. He concedes the game that point but we play it to the finish. The other chariots lose combat and break, my Runesmith charges out of my warriors to destroy a bray shaman, and my thunderers kill another shaman and wound the Bray-Shaman General with chaos armor. Final turn sees a lot of fleeing chariots, some rally, his general charges my Runesmith and the Runesmith finishes him off.

Massacre for the Dwarves! Some bad luck on the beast side, higher impact hits and they would have come out with the massacre. They really should have won and broken me with at least one of the charges, and any one broken unit would mean chariots on all sides of the dwarfs. The panicked beast herd could have been prevented with a 20pt unit champion for +1 ld (up to 7 from 6)... my organ gun is of course especially effective against those guys.