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.