Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all,

Actually managed to get in a double-header this time around. The venue was Dragon’s Lair in Austin, and the opponent was Warriors of Chaos, led by Mark.. I’ve actually seen his army online… somewhere. If I find it, I’ll post a link.

As with most my opponents, he was used to playing larger games, but was prepared in advance with an all-comers 1500 pt list he wanted to try out. It looked a little something like this:

Sorcerer, Lvl 2, Mark of Tzeentch, Disc, Conjoined Homunculus, Enchanted Shield, Biting Blade, Blood of Tzeentch
Sorcerer, Lvl 2, Mark of Tzeentch, Chaos Steed, Collar of Khorne, Dispell Scroll
Sorcerer, Lvl 2, Mark of Nurgle, Infernal Puppet
3 Chaos Ogres, Great weapons, Chaos Armor
5 Marauder horsemen, throwing axes, musician
18 or so Marauders with Chieftan
13 Chosen, Mark of Nurgle, HW/Shield, Full command, Champion had Magic Armor and +1/-1 on the Eye of the Gods chart. Standard was Banner of Wrath (magical, causing D6 S4 hits).
Warshrine

So, felt okay with this. The chosen were going to be potentially nasty, so I would pretty much avoid them unless I could get my thane and a block in their flank. Lots of magic, but still only level 2s, and only one was using Nurgle magic. I was also grateful that he had taken an all-comers- (i.e. scroll in the list)

I left my list as last time:

Thane, GW, MR of Gromril, Rune of Resistance, Rune of Preservation
Runesmith, GW, Shield, 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 Stoicisim
11 Thunderers
10 Rangers, GW, Veteran, Musician
6 Miners
Bolt Thrower, Engineer, Valiant Rune, Rune of Penetration, Rune of Burning

During field set up, the only hill went into the battlefield and became wooded. In the end, there was about a 20” wide alley through the middle (not the dead center) which acted like a funnel for what would be my deployment zone.

I set up, left to right- bolt thrower, slightly behind the hill, waiting for the enemy to move into the kill funnel and discouraging them from showing flanks, 25 warriors behind the 11 Thunderers, 15 Longbeards with runesmith, 20 warriors. The rangers scouted into the wooded hill on my left flank, with the dragonslayer behind, near the bolt thrower. From there, they could march block, or hit something in the flank if it strayed too close.

He had Chosen on my left with Nurgle sorcerer, marauders with mounted Tzeentch sorcerer, Chaos Ogres, Warshrine, and Disc sorcerer, tucked behind, and mounted marauders on my far right.

The Nurgle sorcerer came up with Buboes and Quagmire (booo, hisss) and both Tzeentch sorcerers got Infernal Gateway and Flickering Flames. This was mostly a good thing- even with +1 to cast, the only guy who was going to be able to succeed at that cast was the one with the conjoined homunculus. The Chosen rolled an extra point on to their armor save.

He won the roll and took first turn.

Turn 1
The ogres barreled up the middle, looking for a fight, closely followed by the rest of the army. The chosen were definitely going to get march blocked by the rangers, in turn three if not turn two. The disc sorcerer swung around towards the left, while the marauders swung around to the right. Both looked to loop around the outside of the woods on each side, funneling the rest of his army. His warshrine boosted the Ogres to Str 5 (7 with GWs, yikes). Magic was relatively harmless, with three casualties coming out of the thunderers.

In response, I pushed forward the block of 20 with thane, and the longbeards with runesmith. The rangers elected to remain out of sight, while the dragonslayer made a break for the woods to catch up and join in the march blocking/disruption element. The thunderers performed admirably, gunning down an ogre, making me confident on receiving a charge on any block. The bolt thrower carefully lined up a shot into the ogres to make it more of a sure thing, but accidentally loaded the rubber training ammo and it bounced off. And that was that.

Turn 2
I considered using the MR of Challenge at this point to keep the ogres coming at the longbeards, but decided I could take them regardless of the block charged. As it turned out… moot point and the Ogres went for the longbeards anyways. The other blocks continued to advance, and the marauders and disc sorcerer each looped around their respective flanks.

Magic resulted in more abuse to the thunderers, dropping them to 6. Flickering flames also triggered on my bolt thrower, but all hits went on the machine, with none wounding (of note here, is that if he’d rolled str of 4 or more, the machine would have been destroyed- he rolled 3 6s to wound). Buboes killed my engineer, dropping the BS on the machine. In combat, the Ogres inflicted a few casualties, but not enough to beat my static combat res, and the longbeards, who obviously knew the importance of proper stretching before a battle caught the fleeing ogres and moved into a great position to threaten the marauder block.

In my turn, the longbeards really got a head of steam going and blew right past the surprised warriors for a charge at the marauders, who fled. The rangers moved up to make a flank charge possible on the chosen to give them something to think about. The dragonslayer maneuvered to make things more difficult too. My thought here was to basically take this unit out of the game and try to get my points elsewhere. In the backfield, my 25 warriors moved to make sure the marauder cav would find any rear charges on my other two blocks would be distasteful. In the enemy backfield, the miners came on to catch the marauder block as it ran.

The thunderers failed to do any damage to the chosen and the bolt thrower, missed the disc sorcerer.

Turn 3
The chosen turned to face the rangers. The disc moved to set up along my back line, and the marauder cav closed on the flank of my thunderers to throw axes, apparently. They would receive a charge from the 25 warriors next turn, but would most certainly flee. Significantly, the marauder block failed to rally, and continued to flee. Unfortunately, I had placed the miners in the wrong spot, expecting the block to continue running in the same direction, rather than towards the nearest table edge. Woops. Lesson learned there.

Magic was reduced somewhat with one sorcerer fleeing. The rangers took a hit from Cloying Quagmire, killing three and panicking them right out the back of the woods. The Banner of Wrath also torched my Dragonslayer (forgot about that thing). In better news, the disc sorcerer decided to go big, and tried for Gateway, but missed even with the homunculus. Stupidity check next turn! Meanwhile the marauders used their sniper axes and killed two more thunderers. A failed panic check (and two failed rally checks later) and the thunderers were out of the game.

On my turn, the miners charged the fleeing marauders, sending them right back towards the longbeards, who marched up into the face of the block. The supporting warrior block, gasping for air, tried to catch up with the shockingly spry All World’s Edge Mountains Dwarven Track and Field Team of 2378. The warriors in the backfield chased off the marauders who predictably fled. Less predictably, they fled a good 15” right through the forest again.

The bolt thrower hauled itself around and shot the disc sorcerer in his facebone, killing him dead. Who needs engineers?

Turn 4

Throughly exhausted from sprinting in circles, the marauders finally rally and face the longbeards. The warshrine moves up to threaten the longbeard flank. Meanwhile, essentially out of the fight the chosen mill around, trying to figure out what to do. Exasperated, the nurgle sorcerer ditches them, and runs up into the wooded hill to start spraying nasty spells around. Magic, however is kept under control. Also of note- the marauder horsemen run right to the edge of the table, but not quite off.

In my turn, the longbeards triple jump into the marauders, who with miners to their rear and no cardiovascular fitness to speak of decide to hold. The longbeards and runsmith flatten the front row, and break the unit, sticking the landing, and letting the cheering miners backstop the unit and wipe them out.

Turn 5 + 6
Mostly a wrap-up, this saw the longbeards continue their athletic display, shot-putting the Warshrine off the field, and the marauder cav rallying at the last minute. My rangers also rallied and sat down to have a smoke and talk about why it was they always seemed to be acting as bait for big nasty units.

So… that would be a win! Quite a nice one. We didn't add it up exactly, but it was in the range of a Solid Victory. The list was probably pretty favorable for me, as I had more blocks, and his ogres came in piecemeal. The disc sorcerer not having significant shooting protection was quite nice too.

Lessons learned here included the exact workings of some of the flee rules, which I’m getting a better and better handle on. The miners were nice and definitely helped secure victory by being in a position to prevent flee and rally type maneuvers. The rangers were greatly helped by terrain here. Ideal for them actually, and so I can’t expect that kind of performance on a regular basis.

Dissatisfied with the result, Mike wanted a rematch after some list tweaking, and so I had “one for the road”.

That write-up to follow, along with thoughts on performance and individual units.

Thanks for reading!

RZ

He basically dropped the same deployment, with mounted sorcerer with the knights (making an awkward 8 wide block) and Nurgle sorcerer with the marauders. The warshrine shadowed the knights. Spells were quagmire and buboes for Nurgle (balls!), Call to Glory and Flickering for steed sorcerer and Treason and Flickering for the disc. He picked up first turn and we were on to…

Turn 1
Already quite similar to last game, the runesmith became convinced that there was a glitch in the matrix when the ogres again picked up +1 Str from the warshrine. “Whoa.” Much worse would have been… attacks, or possibly terror, or even leadership to keep them in place.

He barreled forward, this time sending marauder cav around my left and his general up the middle. The thunderers took some hits from flickering fire but endured. His disc had a 1+ armor save, 3+ Ward save vs. shooting. Still, only toughness 4 and 2 wounds meant he couldn’t be too cavalier with positioning. He screened from the bolt thrower, and flickering fired some thunderers to death. He also got off a treason on my block of 20 warriors. One of them finally passed out from trying to inflict a wound on eachother. Honestly, I would feel comfortable letting this spell on through on warriors all day. Or so I thought.

In my turn, I continued the déjà vu by laying out another Chaos Ogre. Will of Chaos kept them in it, though. The bolt thrower hit the only thing they could see (the ogres, taking two wounds from one more). I advanced aggressively, looking to get stuck in again. I figured I could conceivably take a charge from the knights on my longbeards if I really had to, since their mark was defensive and they weren’t carrying a fighty hero.

Turn 2
First questionable play on my part- I MR of Challenged the disc rider, who of course, fled. This would take him out of the game for a turn, which was good- and a failed rally would maybe see him off the table. However, the spells weren’t that nasty, and if I had waited for a better time, I might have been able to try this when he was nearer to a board edge (i.e. if he tried that business of getting behind me). Have to say I like this rune as it gives at least a little help in the movement phase. However, it will be a shame to have it wasted against VC and Demons.

The Chaos Ogres launched into my 25 warriors, and the knights, bewilderingly set up to get march blocked once again by my rangers, possibly presenting a flank again. The foot marauders didn’t bother advancing this time, keeping well clear of my blocks. Magic came in and took a buboes to my runesmith in order to stop quagmire. The longbeards were unimpressed with the girly constitution of today’s “heroes”.

In combat, the warriors killed the rank and file ogre, while the Mutant Ogre pummeled my veteran. He lost by 4 but held anyhow. Not really an issue.

In my turn, the longbeards and thane’s warriors advanced around towards the knights but wouldn’t be subject to a charge quite yet. The thunderers failed to take any of the knights down, what with Mark of Nurgle and dramatically high saves (and, I believe +1T from the warshrine).

The amusing combat between ogres and dwarfs ended in tomfoolery. After a frenzied spinning around with big axes, the Mutant Ogre got a little dizzy and decided to go have a sit down, fleeing 2”. I had already restrained pursuit, not wanting to get in the way of my other blocks.

Feeling pretty good at this point, but a little skeptical about how I was going to pick up points if he didn’t want to let me. Wishing I had the MR of Challenge back.

Turn 3

The knights obsess over the rangers, turning to face them, and peer closely. Clearly they couldn’t understand why anyone would field a unit of scouts that could only move 1.5” through terrain. Also at this point, the mounted Tzeentch sorcerer decided to play chicken with the Dragonslayer and galloped into the woods exactly 1” away. The marauder horsemen ALSO jumped into the woods trying to get close enough to see the rangers’ flank, but didn’t approach close enough. I can only assume he was hoping for a next turn charge that would allow a pursuit right out of the other side of the woods Unfortunately, but predictably, the disc rider rallied and got ready to get back in the fray.

The mutant Ogre, still dizzy apparently, staggered towards the nearest board edge… which was right back through the block of Dwarfs who had pushed him off for being obnoxious.

Ah, the magic phase. I stopped a point blank flickering fire on the dragonslayer, but double 1’ed a buboes on my runesmith dropping him. Uhoh. The longbeards complained loudly about how in their day, such spells would kill you instantly, unless you were dead hard like they were in which case, you got a runny nose and the rutz and walked it off.

The dragonslayer, having watched many an episode of Dukes of Hazzard knew that you never swerve at the last minute and ran right at the Sorcerer… who veered away like cheap TV show cop car full of extras. Take that Boss Hog! The flee rocketed the sorcerer most of the way towards the left table edge. Elsewhere, my blocks continued to advance. My miners arrived, setting up a welcoming committee for the fleeing sorcerer. The thunderers laid a wound on the disc, and the bolt thrower, not being able to actually see anything, dragged itself backwards for a better shot next turn.

Turn 4
Craziness continues in the woods. The knights push in close enough to see the rangers and dragonslayer. The fleeing sorcerer rallies at the last minute (swerving again, I might note). Marauder cav abandons the woods to throw axes at the miners.

Magic phase… could be rough- only 4 dispel dice anymore. The mounted sorcerer readies flicker fire. The miners laugh, and hold out their candles to be lit, having watched pathetic displays of Str 2 and 3 hits previously. Six strength seven hits later, they were sprinting right off the board. Blast! I figured on some casualties, but a counter charge might have bagged me a sorcerer. Elsewhere, Treason of Tzeentch went off on my thane’s block. Really getting in the spirit of things this time, 19 warriors managed to kill 5 of their own. Thane Stonefeet congratulated their skill and enthusiasm, ever the devoted middle manager.

In my side, the warriors positioned for a flank charge on the knights, while the Dragonslayer leapt out of the woods into knights, expecting them to swerve too. They didn’t. One big whiff fight later, both the unit champion and dragonslayer were completely untouched. Good enough for me. The knights were stuck.

Turn 5
Marauders move around to harass the bolt thrower, and spell casters traipse around for more magic. The foot marauders back up even further. In combat, the dragonslayer is obliterated, and the knight champion now has something like three buffs from Eye of the Gods.

Something makes the rangers flee, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what. A safe guess at this point is magic from someone. They come within a hair of fleeing into the marauder horsemen.

When my turn rolls around, the thane’s block of warriors who are now well trained at killing (dwarfs) charge the flank of the knights. After some deliberation, he flees, failing to panic the warshrine in the process. My rangers rally and form a seven wide line in front of the marauder cav to try to force a last turn combat.

The thunderers lay more hits on the disc who continues to save. The bolt thrower scores a hit on the mounted sorcerer, but only gets one wound, missing the chance at a nice kill.

Turn 6

My troops return to their specialties:

Rangers panic and flee from magic.
14 remaining warriors hit themselves 13 times with Treason of Tzeentch. This resulted in 3 kills, critically one short of getting them down to 50%.

On his side the knights rally at the board edge, and combat is basically done.

Final wrap up sees my rangers rallying once more, and my shooters almost but not quite getting the last wound on his general.

End result? A draw- about 85 points in my favor. That was kind of the result I was expecting when it became clear I wasn’t going to get the big blocks in any meaningful combat. Once again the Ogres threw me some early VPs. The last few turns had some pretty dramatic dice rolling for what could have pushed the game to a victory one way or the other. I was also helped by the unhealthy amount of attention my rangers and dragonslayer caused, but clearly, I’ll have issues engaging with this list.

So… time for grades:

Thane: No one wants to fight him… didn’t get to really do anything. B
Runesmith: Could have used MR of Challenge better, maybe needs a spellbreaker. Great performance in the first game puts him on a B.
Dragonslayer: Gets an A for disruption efforts and giving me a shot at the win by sticking the chaos knights and chasing off the sorcerer. Pretty good for 50 pts.
25 warriors: Workman like performance: B
20 Warriors: Inflicted more casualties than ever before. Except it was on themselves. Woops. A for effort, C for execution.
15 Longbeards: Purely on the first game, an A. Basically convinced him not to engage on the second game.
Thunderers: Absorbed a great deal of fire and dished it out themselves. Kind of clogged my movement and deployment though. B
Miners: Added some more critical movement elements, at a cheap cost. When points get bigger, it’ll be hard to justify that special slot though. Still, at this level, nice work, that could have been a little better. B
Rangers: Aided by a favorable board and an obsessed opponent. Any other situation probably wouldn’t have earned it, but here’s an A.
Bolt thrower: Too many points in one model, but did kill the general in the first game, and came close the second. With a little trimming he’ll be more worth it. B for performance, C for efficiency.

And that’s that. I really need to get myself to 2000. Projects on deck include another bolt thrower, hammerers, and a gyro. I’ll get some lists up for comments and criticism.

As usual- thanks for reading.

RZ

I am really enjoying reading about these practice games. Learning a lot. Looking forward to some tournament-point-level games.

- Blackbone

Great reports, real pleasure to read 'em. Dwarven Track Team, indeed!

- Salvage

Thanks all. Definitely looking to knuckle down and boost this to 2000 points in the near future, shortly followed by 2250. There may be some odd (read: even less efficient) lists in the process, but such is life.

RZ