Auspicious Aspiring Champion of Chaos
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Hey all-
Managed to get another 1500 point game in last night. Real friendly guy by the name of Brandon, one of the Battleforge owners. He had to slap a list together right before we played- another indicator that I need to get myself up to 2250 ASAP.
So- one apology here: There were players waiting for the table, so I felt a little self conscious about slowing things down to take notes. Point being, details are a little hazier than previous games. Bear with me...
My list, tweaked a little since last time. Check it out:
Thane, GW, MR of Gromril, Rune of Resistance, Rune of Preservation
Runesmith, Shield, GW, Rune of Stone, MR of Challenge, Rune of Resistance
Dragonslayer
25 Warriors, Shields, FC
20 Warriors, Shields, FC
15 Longbeards, Shields, FC, Rune of Battle, Rune of Stoicism
10 Rangers, GW, Musician, Veteran
11 Thunderers, Shields
6 Miners
Bolt Thrower, Engineer, Handgun, Valiant Rune, Rune of Penetrating, Rune of Burning
And I ended up facing
(Level 2 Nurgle Sorcerer on Palanquin in Block of 26 Marauders with Great weapons and full command)x2
5 Chaos Knights w/Mark of Khorne and lances
Hero on Juggernaut w/Mark of Khorne, and modify Eye of the Gods rolls
Chaos Warshrine
Hellcannon
There was probably other equipment on the heroes, but I didn't catch it. It was an all comers list, so it may have been scrolls and the like. Just to get this out of the way out front: Those of you who know your Chaos might notice that there are two rares here. I noticed as they went down, but didn't mention it. I figured there were worse things I could be bumping up against. For one, the knights weren't going to be screened under this set up. He
The board was interesting- a hill was available in both deployment zones, and I ended up with first drop. I placed the bolt thrower on a large hill that stretched from 24" to about 12" in on the right hand side of my deployment zone. The initial thought was that it would be way out on the flank, and hopefully get some juicy shots. One of his large blocks went down directly opposite and I flinched- ended up putting my thunderers on the hill, and all my units to the *right* of the hill (i.e. all packed in tight together near lots of board edges). My thought here was that the miners could come in on the flank of approaching Chaos blocks. The blocks were arranged with longbeards closest to the hill, with thane and runesmith, then 25 strong block, then 20 strong. His big marauder blocks with sorcerers were set up either side of the knights, who had the juggernaut with them. The warshrine was back with all three, and the hell cannon set up on the right board edge.
With nowhere to scout, I put the rangers out to the left, hoping for a flank or rear charge once things were stuck in. Or failing that, sucking a unit over their way. My plan at this point was to advance aggressively, while shooting his Chaos knights up to something a little more manageable, possibly baiting them elsewhere.
Aside 1: Possibly my first mistake was giving him first turn. Not sure about this. Thoughts? Second turn would give me last chance rallies in the bottom of the 6th, and with only one machine to shoot in the first turn I was figuring I'd let him come into range first.
His spells were: Buboes and Quagmire on the left, Buboes and Fleshy Abundance on the right.
Turn 1: Everything advances, and he has to move from my left to my right to start heading towards my blocks. The knights stomp straight at my shooters, holding back slightly for what will probably be a turn 3 charge. The only spell in range is the Fleshy Abundance to give the knights regenerate. I go for the dispel an roll a total of three on three dice. Standing beside the runesmith, my thane suggests somewhere physically dubious that the runesmith could put his staff that might be more effective. The hellcannon lobs a shot at the longbeards but misses and clips a bolt thrower crewman. The crew are too busy reading Prince Valiant comic strips to be worried about this horrible soul sucking death. Will he reclaim his kingdom? Who knows? Warshrine does... something to someone. Maybe an extra attack on the knights.
In my phase, I advance all three of my blocks at full speed. At this point I realize that my deployment was flawed, as the 20 man block will be scraped off by some difficult terrain. Woops. The rangers advance to threaten the flank of his leftmost big block, and maybe, maybe pull a charge from the juggernaut hero. I learn that Fleshy Abundance isn't RiP, so proceed to shooting. The bolt-thrower takes one from his saddle, while the thunderers fail to penetrate the armor, mocking the need for regenerate.
Turn 2
Further advances, most notably the Chaos knights aren't obliged to charge my rangers who are just a little bit too far, and go right at my thunders (about 6" away). I dispel Fleshy Abundance and somehow Buboes misses on three dice without miscasting. The big block on the right isn't scared of me and advances straight at all my dwarf blocks.The hell cannon misses the longbeards again, but gets three warriors from the rightmost block. They fail panic, but it is pointed out to me that they are close enough to the longbeards for a (successful) reroll keeping them from going right off the table edge. Yeah Old Grumblers!
In my turn, I, quite simply, lose my mind and maybe try to get a little too fancy. For one, I have forgotten the MR of Challenge, and so advance on the right, forgetting I have it. The marauders will be able to charge either the 25 warriors or the longbeards with both heroes. Hm. That's a tough one. Also a good move at this point? Maybe putting my characters in the 25 warriors to help them out. Didn't happen. Even worse on the left, I forget that the knights aren't regenerating anymore, and advance down the hill with the thunderers. The thought process here is that I will probably only kill one if I'm lucky (which in retrospect would still have been great), but I'm obsessed for some unknown reason with doing something fancy schmancy, and figure the overrun/pursuit will put the chaos knights in a perfect position for a flank shot from the bolt thrower, or a charge from the dragon slayer. In shooting- the bolt thrower hits but fails to wound.
Turn 3
Charges from the knights into the thunderers and marauders into 25 warriors. The marauder block on the left moves up, showing a flank to the rangers, who will close in for a turn 4 charge if things stay this way. The shrine puts extra toughness on the marauders. The hellcannon moves forward to fight as well. Magic... here comes the Quagmire on the longbeards... with Irresistible Force. Uhoh. My thane drowns in slime while wondering what exactly the runesmith even came along for. The runesmith gracefully backstrokes out of the ooze. Not so for the Greatbeard and three other longbeards. Apparently, they've seen worse, as they aren't subject to panic. I'd like to know how much worse quagmire disease pits were in the old days. Pretty bad, I'm guessing.
Combat! All thunderers are killed. Overrun is perfect and sets up a perfect flank shot *or* flank charge from the slayer. More on this seemingly easy decision later. The big marauder block barrels in, with the sorcerer challenging. Figuring I might as well accept, I totally douche the saves and my champion doesn't get to swing, and is even overkilled by one. With another casualty from great weapon wielding humans (wait, they buy those for 1 pt each?! wtf?) I lose by 4. That... went how it probably should have. Why didn't I expect this? I'm too used to 25 Warriors being good for static 5. I run, am caught, and the marauders smack into the longbeards, who are still wringing the pus out of their beards. On the plus side, this leaves a flank charge open for the 17 warriors. Solid!
Bottom of 3
So... another mistake. For some reason, I decided not to take the juicy shot of the decade and charge in with the dragonslayer. The warriors head into the flank of the marauders, and the miners come on, setting up to hit the knights from the opposite flank, now that they're pinned in place by the dragonslayer. Shooting is only the bolt thrower which lays one wound on the hellcannon. Gee, that's so much better than killing a bunch of knights. Great call on that slayer charge!
Aside 2: Really, not sure what I was thinking. Worst case would have been a miss, but the knights still had to turn around and weren't charging anything next turn anyways. Really weak choice by me.
On the plus side, the slayer kills two knights, though they do not run (won by 1, 2 kills, vs. outnumber). The marauder block loses after a lackluster runesmith vs. sorcerer fight and is wiped out by pursue, which unfortunately brings the warriors into a "we're about to be flanked by Dawi Zharr and the demonically possessed artillery" position. The longbeards are in a terrible position to do anything about it. On the plus side, I got my warriors' standard back and captured one of his.
Aside 3: I hit the flank of the marauders, expecting to do some damage before the great weapons. However, because we were both charging (him into the longbeards, and warriors into him) he said strikes were at initiative and the great weapons all swung, causing casualties on the flanking warriors, though not enough to turn the tide. That seems wrong to me... thoughts?
Turn 4
The hellcannon hits the flank of the dwarf warriors where it will stay, grinding them down slowly until the flee. Impressively, the chaos dwarfs pretty much matched the hell cannon kill for kill. Unbreakable US 5 monster in the flank is badness. The remaining sorcerer fails to cast Swimming Pool of Bile on the longbeards. The jugger over on the other side moves over to engage the dragonslayer and challenges. He only causes one wound, which lets me swing as well. I miss the chance to kill him, but do put another wound on him. Go 50 point naked dragonslayer! Except... you were kind of supposed to die so I could shoot next turn. Woops.
In my turn, I send in two critical charges. Rangers into the flank of his other big block, and miners into the flank of the knights. With the rangers, wounds will make the difference. I have a rank and a flank, and he has outnumber and a standard. With the charge and 6 attacks to his 5, with a higher toughness, I'm feeling good. Not for long though. With the miners, I am figuring that one kill will give me a +3 for kill, outnumber, and flank. Figure on a -1 for the inevitiable wound on the slayer, and I'm still winning by two, which I like. Multiple mistakes here. 4 attacks on one knight, even with great weapons are still kind of a stretch for one wound. Also, he's on a hill, so he has high ground. Also, the slayer is in a *challenge* which means overkill is possible (and likely). End result? The rangers kill two marauders, and the remaining three marauders all hit and wound. I lose badly and run, caught, and am wiped out. The champion kills my dragonslayer with overkill, the miners whiff, and run, caught, and are wiped out.
Turn 5 and 6
Crap. Almost pulled out some great stuff after some terrible decisions, but no. The bolt thrower misses the knights, who could theoretically panic now that the frenzy has been beaten out of them by the late dragonslayer. The longbeards dither about, still forgetting the MR of Challenge, which might have saved the bolt thrower from the knights. The warriors are finally broken by the hellcannon, and the only bright spot is the longbeards don't go below half in the one turn they have to fight a hell cannon to their rear, *and* they kill all the Chaos Dwarfs, for a little bit of pride.
There wasn't time to really add points up. I did so after the fact, and come up with something close to a 900 point loss. If it wasn't a massacre, it was pretty close to one. Basically, several big mistakes (MR of Challenge, Dragonslayer charge, possibly the thunderer move, possibly giving first turn) put me behind the power curve, and despite a last bid to turn it around I rolled slightly less than average on the Turn 4 charges and really, really lost.
As it seems to be popular, I'll do a quick grade on the units:
Thane: Learn to swim, fool. Gentleman's C-
Runesmith: Good, nice to have the GW for flexibility. MR of Challenge would have been nice to remember, but not his fault. B
Dragonslayer: Awesome for his points. Too awesome, unfortunately and baited me into a bad decision. Scored about a third of my VPs on his own. A
25 Warriors: Not so tough as I thought they were going to be. C-
20 Warriors: Flank was great, and held off that hellcannon for some time, sparing the longbeards. B+
Longbeards: Claimed all other VPs, and rescued a banner. Stayed above half to maybe keep me outta massacre town. A
Thunderers: Betrayed by me. Range was an issue and baited me into giving away 1st turn. I squandered their beautiful sacrifice. B-
Rangers: Could have been an A. Fluffed their way to a C
Bolt thrower: Poorly employed, could have been glorious... C
What do I need? A gyro. Baiting and redirecting is damn hard with Move 3 blocks. Need to get on that as I build the army up. Another bolt thrower would be nice, so I can fill out that special slot and be a little more threatening. Still happy with the naked dragonslayer. I know I don't see him in most lists, so I may be pressured to cut him, but damn, he's fun.
Otherwise, I think the MR of Challenge should stay, since I need more ways to affect the movement phase. I just need to create some kind of a reminder for myself. Maybe a 20 lb dumbell hanging from my neck that says Are you asking for a challenge?!!! on it. I only get to take it off when I use the thing.
For those of you who read this far- thanks. And I promise I will try to stop shaming Dwarvenkind with these lackluster performances. I did however, have a very fun game, that felt winnable, even as I sabotaged those very same hopes.
RZ
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It's nice to see not only what happened, but what you think should have been done in hindsight, etc. Awesome