Longtime Dakkanaut
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I played my Tomb Kings against a Dwarf player, neither of us have played this matchup before, so there will be much learning.
Tomb Kings:
Common:
3 chariots w/standard bearer (Mirage standard)
20 Skeletons w/bows, standard bearer (banner of undying legion)
1 Tomb Swarm
Uncommon
20 Tomb Guard w/full command, Icon of Rakoph
4 Ushabti
5 Carrion
1 Tomb Scorpion
Rare
Screaming Skull catapult w/Skulls of the foe
Characters
Tomb Prince w/flail, chariot (chariot has power that makes it not die to s7/get ward save, and also d6+1 impact hits)
Tomb King w/ Destroyer of Eternities and scroll equivalent thingy
Liche priest w/Dispel scroll, casket of souls
Liche priest w/Dispel scroll, hieratic jar
My best recollection of the dwarven army has them having:
10 thunderers (guns that hit at +1)
20 normal dwarven warriors
20 longbeards
20 elite dwarves (not sure what type, ironeaters?)
20 slayers
2 bolt throwers
1 organ gun
There might be one more ranked unit in there. They've all got full commands. I'm sure about the war machines, but the ranked units sort of blur, basically there is this line of dwarves and a few shooters.
Characters:
Battle standard bearer
Thorek
Deployment:
We basically line up facing one another. Very little terrain. I've got a hill on the back board edge, on which I put my casket and catapult. He's got a hill a little ways ahead of his board edge, on which he puts his gunners, and behind which Thorkey hangs. Aside from that I line my army up on the go line, and he lines up a ways back from his go line. I bury my swarm under Thorek, but keep the scorpion in the line.
Roll to go first: He wins.
Dwarf turn:
His army just stands there. No joke, they chill out. They break out the Lager, start playing parcheesi. He doesn't move an inch. The war machines fire, but nothing really goes down. I'm figuring, hey, wasted turn, no problems this game, right?
Then he rolls a d6 for Thorek. This thing goes off and my carrion and chariots get pasted, and also are hexxed so that next round they are slowed. I grab for the dwarf codex and look this stuff up, become familiar with the anvil o' pain.
TK turn:
Well, this is rough no help for it though, so we move forward. My army moves up, then magic phase and we move up again. He stuffs the casket (lots of dispel dice and they all come from Thorek) but lets me move the guys. A bonus is that the Carrion can fly during the magic phase, so they go winging up in front of his army. The Scorpion is actually getting kind of far forward also. My archers get to fire at the dwarf shooters on the hill, but he makes all his saves. I don't kill a dwarf this round.
Both my catapult shots this round scattered back towards me.
His turn 2:
Once again no moving? I'm sort of getting the notion his army doesn't move at all, just shoots up the enemy with his anvil and war machines. It's the IG of fantasy.
He's looking at 3 well advanced units. The chariots (which are shot up pretty bad), the scorpion and the carrion. His shooting phase has him firing the bolt throwers at the scorpion, which deals it 3 wounds, his organ gun at the chariots and his gunners at the carrion (they've given up shooting at the skeletons because of the undying legion banner). He uses the anvil to Ruin us again, gets 3 units, which finishes off the Chariots (except for the Prince's chariot), kills the last of the Carrion and can't wound the Scorpion.
My turn 2:
Tomb Kings move forward, as we do. I've got a Prince on Chariot and a Scorpion real close, but neither can charge because of this anvil's power. Something sweet happens, however, when the Tomb Swarm pops up, and charges Thorek! Boo Ya!
The Casket goes off this round, however, and kills 2 thunderers and one of the enemy bolt throwers. So that's something.
Both my catapult shots this round scatter long, away from me. They are sighting in!
In the fight phase I read up on Thorek's entry and put all the Tomb Swarm's attacks on Thraggi, Thorek's chump assistant. He takes his wound and drops, so that's the re-roll taken care of. Thorek and his guards then take care of the swarm though.
His turn 3:
With my forces closing in, it's finally time to him to move! Backwards!! No, that's a joke, he chills out. His slayers and normal dwarves do form a wedge so the scorpion can't make it to his remaining bolt thrower though.
His shooting drops a few tomb guard, can't wound scorpion,and the Organ gun misfiles, can't fire this round or next. Thorek's power goes off, he only gets to hex 2 targets this round, chooses my Ushabti (who are getting kind of close) and the lone Prince, whose chariot he blows up.
My turn 3:
I finally get to charge, the Scopion wants him some of the normal dwarf unit, in particular, he wants to fight their BSB. The Prince gets right up in the organ gunners faces, avoiding the charge arc of some nearby ranked dwarves.
Then my catapult goes nuts. Double direct hits. The Slayer unit is nearly obliterated, 2/3 of them dropped.
The Scorpion rolls up to the ranked unit and chooses to direct his attacks at the BSB...but the guy has a magic weapon that lets him swing first. He does so, 4 times. All 4 are hits. He wounds, but the Scorpion is able to make its save. It directs all its attacks at him, manages to hit once...but its a killing blow and the BSB is dropped. Then the unit's ranked bonus crumbles the scorpion.
His turn 4:
He doesn't charge anything, though he does sort of angle around. More ineffective shooting Thorek elects to smite the Ushabti again, and his second target is the catapult, but he only kills one of the crew.
My turn 4: I finally get to do some good charges. My Tomb Guard + King hit his dwarves. My Prince rushes the Organ gun crew.
In the magic/shooting phase the Catapult remains sighted in, scoring another 2 direct hits, this time on the longbeards and Elite dwarves, killing bunches of them. Also, the endless fire on the skeletons is starting to tell on his thunderers.
The fighting goes bout like you'd expect. The Tomb Guard led by a King with a 70 points magic swords stomp on the dwarves, break them and run them down. The Prince kills the crew and wrecks the gun, then overruns off to the side.
His turn 5:
He still doesn't charge anyone, just moves closer. Now that I check, he didn't really have any charges, crummy 6 inch charge range. In fact, I'll have charges lined up next...what's up Thorek? You can Urgency your army too? Blam! Slayers hit the Tomb Guard flank, Longbeards hit the Ushabti front.
In general, this doesn't work so hot for him. The Ushabti get lucky and only lose their combat by 1 (they don't mind due to being UC), and the Slayers can't really do much to the Tomb Guard. They don't run, though, due to being stubborn.
TK turn 5:
These damn Slayers aren't going to let me get to Thorek, dang it! The Prince runs for the last war machine, while the Ushabti and Tomb Guard remain stuck in combat. The skeletons go nuts this round though, wounding 7 times, which will finish off the thunderers. The catapult and casket don't get much done this round. The king warps over to the Slayers to get his sword in the mix. The hierophant heals the Ushabti, and blows his jar healing them again.
Dwarf turn 6:
The remaining bolt thrower shoots the Prince, ending his epic race across the field with a bolt through the face. His curse fails to impress them (although it took a while to convince the other player that I had a curse, he thought I was full of it). Fighting continues, with the Ironwhatevers hitting the flank of the Ushabti, which really contributes to the grinding down. One Ushabti is left at the end of this, as is one Slayer. He's stubborn though.
Hah! Thorek mis-strikes. He can't strike next round...oh wait.
TK turn 6:
The battles resolve, with the 2 dwarf units finishing off the last Ushabti and the Tomb Guard finishing off the slayers.
Game end:
TK left 'alive'
Tomb Guard + Tomb King + Hierophant
Skeletons
Casket Priest
Screaming Skull Catapult
Dwarves left alive
Thorek
a Longbeard (so unit scores as under half...grr...)
under half strength Elite dwarves
Bolt thrower (+ crew of other bolt thrower, but they don't count)
I end with slighly more VP's, but come out ahead due to contesting one more table quarter than he and having captured 2 banners. Ultimately a roughly 450 VP margin, so just a little more than a tie.
TK Solid Victory
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