1500pts vs Dark Elves

My game against the Khorne Demons was over so fast that even though it was his second game of the night, most others at the store were just finishing their first games. I managed to find another opponent whose name I can't recall.

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

10 thunderers (against the left table edge)
20 warriors w/ Thane BSB (Ro Slowness + Ro Guarding) + Runesmith (shield, MRo Balance)
20 Longbeards w/ Thane General (shield, Ro Fury, Ro Stone)
Grudge thrower w/ Ro Accuracy
cannon
organ gun
10 thunderers

Dark Elf Forces
(as deployed from the Dwarves' left to right)

20 Corsairs w/hero
10 Crossbowmen w/dark magic mage
10 Crossbowmen w/metal magic mage
2 RBTS
6 Shades w/ Assassin (scouted into woods)
10 Executioners

The Battle:

I wanted to put my two block units together to support each-other, based on my past experience. I figured the middle of the table should make sure they get to fight. That left the gunners to go on the flanks. I was certain the shades would be deployed in the wood just outside my deployment zone in the middle-right of the table, so I setup my thunderers and organ gun to get a good shot at them. He seemed to want to avoid my blocks and setup his fighters on the far flanks, which covered most of their advance by forests.

The Corsairs run up the side of the board, avoiding my warriors which I didn't move in the first turn because I wanted to force him to move to get in range to shoot. Shades pop out of a forest just outside my deployment zone, organ gun and thunderers destroy them including the assassin (although I have now learned that the assassin should have been left standing). Organ gun and thunderers also destroy the executioners when they round the same forest. All the dark elf magic and shooting is spent trying to kill the organ gun (which he eventually does). 3 miscasts by the DE wizards kills one and allows me to nullify most of his magic. My Warriors and general spend the entire game chasing down the corsairs, only to have the thunderers flank, beat, and run them down while they are fighting my cannon crew. The longbeards attempt to rush the elf firebase but just can't get there faster than the elves can maneuver out of the way. The Longbeards are shot to the last man, my general attempting to charge an RBT, doesn't quite make it but survives the dark elves firing squad to the end of the game.

Result is a win for the dwarfs as the Dark elves have only their 2 rbts, half of each crossbow unit, and one mage left. Organ gun is the hero of the game! If I had moved more aggressively with my block units I could have massacred him by forcing the frenzied corsairs to attack my warriors instead of allowing them to charge around killing my thunderers and war machines.

Lessons Learned:

- again my block units are ineffective - I need to move them up to kill stuff if I know my shooting will kill the threats that are advancing on me. 
- dark elf magic is uber with their free "try for more dice" spell and rolling as many as they want to cast, but also causes high risk of miscast by rolling more dice, sacrificial dagger seems like a must-take item as well

1000pts vs. Dark Elves

This, my first battle with the Dwarves, took place at the local university games club. I was anxious to try out my new army, and Alex was willing to give it a go with his Dark Elves.

The Karak Kadum forces:

• 20 Warriors w/Thane
• 10 Thunderers
• 10 Thunderers
• Cannon
• Grudge Thrower
• Organ Gun

The Dark Elf forces:

• 18 Spearmen w/hero
• 18 Spearmen
• 12 Crossbowmen
• 6 Cold One Knights
• 6 Shades

The Battle:

I cannot recall the turn-by-turn but here is the general idea of the battle.

The Dwarven cannon, stone thrower and thunderers destroy the cold one knights as they tried to out-flank the Dwarven forces.

Dark Elf Shades hide behind a hill then come after the thunderers on the Dwarven flank. The thunderers hold for a few turns but are quickly dispatched by the great-weapon-wielding shades.

Stone thrower and organ gun soften up the Dark Elf spearmen units, panicking the one unit not being led by a character.

The unit with the character advances into the Dwarven warriors, charges, and the characters fight a challenge, doing 1 wound each to eachother. The elves flee the combat after a minor victory by the Dwarves.

The Dwarven organ gun and remaining thunderers get in a shooting battle with the Dark elf crossbowmen.

The Shades, having finished with the thunderers, move on to take out the Grudge Thrower crew.

The Dwarf Warriors charge the Dark Elf spearmen (now rallied) and the Dark Elf general meets his end in a challenge with the Dwarven leader.

The result is a solid victory for the Dwarves.

Lessons Learned:

• At 1000 points, 3 war machines and 2 units of shooters is pretty much a gunline, kinda nasty.
• Night elves hatred is scary - lots of hits! Luckily, elves are weak and dwarfs are tough.
• In a straight-up shooting battle between elves and dwarfs, dwarfs win (due to toughness and armor, and the organ gun puts us over the top).

We had a fun game but Alex was concerned from the beginning that the Dark Elves would be no match for the dwarfs. I wouldn't say that any significant tactical errors were made, however I had no idea that the new shades were so powerful and I would have been more careful in deployment to try to avoid their ambush (or at least have an organ gun ready to shoot them). As it turned out, feeding them the flank of a line of thunderers prevented them from killing very many each round of combat and my thunderers fought to the last man, tying the shades up for quite a while.