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That weirdo scenario is... odd! Each to their own though!

Sad to see that the TK army was swept aside so easily - every battle report I've seen them in so far they've been awful! Not what I wanted to see, I've just started them!

Keep up the good work, Zeke! Great stuff as always.

Day 2 dawned mercifully. I’d timed the drinking to avoid hangover-ville, and felt pretty good. However, for whatever reason, I couldn’t for the life of me remember to take a picture, so accept apologies in advance for poor photographic documentation. Anyhow, two max-wins in a row on Day 1 sat me at 44 Battle points. It appeared the field was beating itself up pretty badly, so despite being a lot of points behind the leader (and the only other Dwarf), I was relatively high given the appalling first round debacle.

This sent me up against JWolf of Bell of Lost Souls fame. The Wolf makes his name in the 40K Universe by and large, but he’s a savvy opponent in Fantasy. He claims his list to be “terrible”, but for whatever reason, it gives me absolute fits. This isn’t the exact one I’d played against before, but pretty close. I don’t have a copy of it, because I passed mine on to another player who was looking to study the game a wee bit. As a result, there’s a lot of guess work in this list, but I think it was something like:

Chaos Lord, Mark of Tzeentch, chaos steed, 4+ (3+) ward, Sword of Might, Stubborn crown
Sorcerer Lord, Lvl 4, Shadow, scroll?, charmed shield [Occam’s, some other spells]

Sorcerer,Lvl 2, Mark of Nurgle, Spell familiar [Buboes, Quagmire, Rot, Glorious Rot]
Sorcerer, Lvl 1, Black tongue?, ironcurse icon, [Fireball]
Sorcerer, Lvl 1, Infernal puppet, favor of the Gods?[Flaming Sword]
BSB, Stuff, other stuff, Chaos stuff, stuffed Chaos stuff

16-ish warriors, rapturous standard, mark of Tzeentch, shields, full command
25-ish marauders, mark of Khorne, flails, full command
25-ish marauders, mark of Tzeentch, shields

5 Chaos Knights, standard, musician, Blasted Standard

Hell-cannon
Warshrine

And that’s it. Really small list, with everything focused in characters. Most of them drop into the Tzeentch warriors, with the level 4 in the Tzeentch marauders. The last time I played them, the warriors picked up the 3+ ward stubborn from the shrine, which was pretty much game over. The knights are pretty brutal, but very difficult to shoot, courtesy of their 1+/4+ vs. shooting. Thanks to the latest FAQ, killing the wizards out of their bunker would be a little easier, but not exactly a cake-walk.

Our scenario was Battle of the Bands. One of your musicians became a bandleader, capable of providing benefits- a bound 5 Uranon’s (Thunderstruck), +D3+1 to a charge (Born to Run), 5+ ward (Can’t Touch This), Ld Test to shoot/charge IGive Peace a Chance). My bandleader resided in my shield warriors, while Wolf’s was in his bunker.

The plan would be to hang back, kill the hell cannon if possible, a couple knights if I could, and get hammerers into the mage bunker to kill wizards for extra VPs. My problem with this list was that war machines were terrible at killing the knights and Tzeentch Ironcurse icon warriors. Inevitiably, the lord would hit my lines with his stubborn Ld 9 and slowly kill of an entire unit, then run through whatever he wanted. Things get much, much worse if the bunker goes 3+ ward, stubborn.

I dropped my deployment into a corner (see pic below) with as defensive a set as I could manage. Chaff was forward to delay the number of turns the knights and lord would have to churn through my units. I was relatively happy with deployment- no accidental exposures of the backfield, though it was theoretically possible to sweep through my left (unfortunately out of picture).



Another blurry shot. Let’s call it “artistic license”.

My plan, such as it was, was to knock some knights off to reduce their “grind rate” once they got in, in the hopes that I could get away with tying the lord up with a single unit, while I tried to get points from the rest.

Thanks to the latest FAQ, it was going to be harder to hide all the wizards behind command model in the Rapturous standard warriors, so I also hoped to kill the characters out of that unit (but only if it didn’t earn a 3+ ward). The hell cannon would also have to get shot down, since I was pretty sure JWolf would run it like before, and skip the shots in favor of combat.

I picked up the first turn despite not having the +1, which was a relief.

Then I actually ran through Turn One which was not a relief.

With only the cannon, crossbows, and grudgethrower to fire, I killed a chaos dwarf handler with a cannonball, bounced bolts off the cannon, and scattered away a rock.

Chaos didn’t have a lot of options available in their half, so an advance across the line came through. An irresistible fireball burned some chaff warriors, and the miscast was controlled with the puppet. In the shooting phase, the shrine granted something like toughness to the warriors.

Turn Two

I rolled my great weapon warriors around from the right to more firmly face the field and make sure they could respond as necessary. Given that all magic missiles appeared to be on the opposite side of the board, I also bailed the runelord out to make sure he didn’t get stabbed to death in any combats.

I had more shooting options this turn. The organ gun cracked off 8 shots at the knights, wounding with 5, but 4 were saved with armor, and the last was saved with the ward save. The cannon skipped short of its target, and the stone thrower failed to wound under the hole, with three knights surviving the splash damage. The crossbows killed another chaos dwarf handler. Clearly there were problems with this shooting strategy.

The Chaos army continued to rush forwards. The wizard bunker (containing all three of the low level wizards and the BSB) wandered up a wee bit closer than I’d have done. With the knights: I’d forgotten about the scenario effect musician charge bonus and JWolf employed it here to make a long charge into something quite achievable (18” on swiftstride +D3+1), aiming for the center of my army, but still couldn’t make it.

On the left, I let a Cloying Quagmire through on the chaff warriors, and it killed 4 of the remaining 8. A fireball reduced them to just the musician. Thankfully, when you’re playing the redirecting game against an army with no shooting, that’s all you need once the magic phase is through!

Turn 3

Okay- the situation is getting a little dire. Shooting has killed two Chaos dwarf handlers. There’s a few Chaos warriors dead thanks to miscast and that’s it. I push the gyro up into the knights’ face, and jog the last chaff warrior up as well. You can see it in the pic below.

The pressure was on over at the left. The hellcannon had almost arrived, and was, for all intents and purposes undamaged (2 crew down), and I really wanted the hammerers to be. After some thought on order of operation, I decided to fire crossbows, then organ gun before the heavy hitters to try to make sure I scraped off that last handler before the cannon tried to go through it.

Instead, the organ gun detonated and panicked the quarrelers off the board. The cannon dutifully killed the last chaos dwarf and the grudgethrower scattered a million miles into nowhere.

Balls.



Three turns, three Chaos Dwarfs down. At least I got the ones that count.

The Chaos Knights attempt another charge, not at the gyro, which I thought was blocking them, but at the great weapon warriors. Looking at the pic, I still think I’d positioned well, but JWolf was confident he had it, and I wasn’t going to argue. The lesson to be learned here was that if I want to block a unit, I need to make sure I’m doing it very clearly. I was trying to really fine tune things, but needed to be a little more blunt about it.

As it was, it looks like it wasn’t a good trap anyways. If the gyro holds, the knights can overrun into the last chaff warrior to avoid getting shot on my turn. If it flees, they look to have enough room to pivot past the warrior anyhow.

Sure enough, the make it in, and it’ll be a “how long can I hold steadfast” situation (though I’ll be able to send hammerers into the flank). The warshrine charges my gyro in the flank, but mercifully, the hell cannon can’t quite rampage into the hammerers.

Magic has Rot, Glorious Rot going off irresistibly, killing the last chaff warrior, damaging the gyro, and wounding the hammerers.

Combat is okay- the gyro takes no wounds, and holds long enough to turn to face the shrine. The warrior champion holds things up a bit by delaying the Chaos Lord.

Turn Four

It is unlikely I will kill the Chaos Lord, but I can kill the knights from around him, so I send in the hammerers to pound them away. My hammerers on the left launch in to the warrior-bunker looking to smash out some sorcerers, and hoping the war machines can finish off the hell cannon before it stomps them to death from behind. The shield warriors pull a long charge into the Khorne flail marauders, to try to keep their ranks and kills away from the combat where I’m trying to kill some knights.

The cannon skips a shot off the hide of the hell cannon, scoring a one to wound, and the grudgethrower misfires, essentially dooming the hammerers to their fate. I’ll have to get my punches in now, since the steam-roller’s coming around. I do take this opportunity to smack the Nurgle sorcerer in the face, which nicely pulls another wizard forward. I can’t get a wound through on the BSB- he was rocking some manner of protective gear, but without a copy of the list, I can’t say for certain.

On the right, the hammerers start cracking knights apart, managing to bag two. Even with heavy wounds on the great weapons, I win the combat, but the stubborn crown doesn’t care.

The shield warriors, with BSB assist beat the Khorne marauders and send them packing, but I can’t afford to pursue, as it will pull the BSB away from the other fights. I’m hoping the marauders flee through a house and end up completely out of the fight, but they end up just short instead.

The gyro is down to one wound, but decides to keep on keepin’ on. Good for you gyro.

The Chaos turn is bad news- the Khorne marauders rally, which is going to freeze my warriors by threatening them from more than one side. The hell cannon from hell hops on to the back of my hammerers who are busy trying to kill sorcerers.

The Chaos warriors get a little help from an irresistible forced flaming sword, but the miscast shreds several hammerers, chaos warriors, and the sorcerer himself. This brings the last low level caster up to the front, and I’m hoping I can make him take his licks as I get stomped to death. I even remember the scenario bonus ward save, but it doesn’t beat the odds for me, and the hammerers are all killed before swinging. The gyro also finally goes down. To rub some more salt in the wounds, I can only get one more Chaos knight (putting them at the standard bearer) while the Chaos Lord goes on a tear, and really gouges the great weapons down to less than three ranks.

Turn 5

I’m resigned to having to face the shield warriors at a weird angle to avoid getting a unit in the face, and a unit in the flank. There’s little left to do other than take another crack at the hell cannon. Finally its days are over, with the cannon and grudgethrower both hitting for a combined 7 wounds.

I bag the last Chaos knight (woot!) but can’t break through the Chaos Lord’s ward save. He passes his stubborn check.

Apparently all the finagling with the shield warriors was unnecessary, as JWolf had a more dastardly plan in mind. The marauders headed to the flank of the hammerers, which I was fine with- without frenzy, they’d have to go insane to burn through enough hammerers to get them all by the end, and I was stubborn. It would probably break the great weapons, since they’d no longer be steadfast, but with no one able to pursue, that would only really give up 25 points.

What I did not see coming, however, was an irresistible Occam’s on the marauders. This could be trouble. Sure enough, the buggers managed to hit hit pretty hard, and with the chaos lord’s help, grind the hammerers down to 12 strong. The Lord avoided any wounds, and as predicted, the great weapons were through with this mess, and ran off.

Turn 6

Not much to do here, but cross my fingers and hope. The war machines tried for a couple lucky shots on the warshrine, but 3+ ward is pretty good. Or so my great weapon warriors inform me. The hammerers are reduced to just 6 left, but hold and Occam’s expires.

In the Chaos turn, Occam’s misses its casting value (I think? Certainly it wasn’t cast. Perhaps it had been forgotten on the previous miscast.). This leaves only the crucial combat to resolve- the Chaos Lord kills 5 of the remaining 6 hammerers, leaving one dwarf with a flag. The marauders get 4 swings at strength 3, but can’t find the heart to finish the deal, and it’s all over but the counting (and my crying).

After adding it up- I’ve lost the gyro, chaff warriors, rangers, organ gun, and a unit standard. JWolf’s lost the knights, 2 unit standards, 2 sorcerers and the hell cannon. Sum total? Some 17 points difference.

8-8 Draw

Summary: Frankly, I felt happy to come away with the draw there, given how poorly the shooting performed in early turns. Magic was tough to manage, and I ended several phases with fistfuls of dice. JWolf was hitting a lot of IF- which would get a spell off, drain the pool. It meant I ended the game with both the spellbreaker and spelleater unused, which is a shock, considering how many casters were on the board.

This left me at 2-1-1 which wasn’t great, but it turned out everyone else seemed to still be beating each other up (except Aaron Chapman who was now the overall points leader and 4-0-0).

My draw for the next round turned out to be David Bowman (infamous overlord of Lonewolf) and a Lizardman Life Slaan list. Stay tuned…

He has an interesting list. I can't believe he doesn't take a unit champion for the knights- so that his lord can be free to fight rank and file instead of in a challenge.

Overall, I find super-character-heavy WoC lists to be kind of boring... but I agree with him that his list is not necessarily "good"- so many characters that he's low on bodies. A "bunker" of 16 warriors seems reaaaaaally vulnerable with that many wizards in it, and it looks like you took advantage.

What was the FAQ ruling that made it harder for him to keep his sorcerers back? It seems like there'd always have to be 1 in the front rank (BSB plus 3 models of command = 4 other models in the front).

Nice report and way to pull out the draw! Maybe if you'd chased down those marauders you'd have had a bit more of an edge, but probably not enough to make it a "win" of any kind.

RiTides wrote:He has an interesting list. I can't believe he doesn't take a unit champion for the knights- so that his lord can be free to fight rank and file instead of in a challenge.

Don't have the book to hand, but don't Chaos characters always have to accept anyway?

I think the FAQ made it explicit that you have to move characters forward if theres a space, people were leaving wizards in the 2nd rank as there was technically a loophole.

Thanks for the reports Zeke!

Vitruvian's got it. Previously, you'd be able to kill the wizard in the front, but he was under no obligation to bring the other casters forward.

The problem with adding a champion to the Knights is that it brings the rank and file below 5, which means the lord can be sniped out of the unit.

You better believe I'd be putting cannons through the guy pretty early if it meant I could have a chance and shooting away that stubborn crown.

Ah, thanks for explaining that!

Tantras, what I meant was that the champion could challenge instead (counts as a character for all intents and purposes) or accept a challenge. It's a pretty common trick, if not totally a "Chaos-y" thing to do

RZ- It wasn't worth it for you to knock off a knight and then try to snipe him out? I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here, he has a pretty small list so killing that guy would've made him hamstrung... but then again, you could waste all your shots trying to kill a knight and then plink cannonballs off his ward save, so maybe it's not worth it.

For what it's worth, I did try early on, and again with the organ gun. Certainly if the hellcannon had gone down, I'd have been gunning for something like that.

It's a tough call, but if I can get the knights killed, the lord probably grinds too slow to get through an entire unit and on into war machines behind.

It was nice meeting you at CCC. It was a fun event. I will post my report here too if anyone is interested in checking it out.

@ Jormi: Thanks! Hope to get up North before too long for an event outside of Texas.


So round 5, at 2-1-1. I knew I wouldn’t be making a run to the very top, but


Slann Mage-Priest, BSB, Focus of Mystery-Life, Focused Rumination, Standard of Discipline, Crown of Command, Higher State of Consciousness, Becalming Cogitation
Cupped Hands, Lots of time to think while he rolls leadership checks

Scar Vet, Burning Blade, Glyph Necklace, Light Armor, Shield, Inability to look my BSB in the eye
Skink Priest, Engine of the Gods, Scroll, Opal Amulet, Dragonfly of Quicksilver

29 Saurus warriors, shields, full command
30 Skinks, 3 Krox, Shield, Standard, Musician
17 Skinks, 2 Krox, Shield, Standard, Musician

10 Chameleons
9 Chameleons
4 Terradons

1 Salamander, cloaking device
1 Salamander, impenetrable force field



I like this list. As in, I think it’s good, and I think it could make for a good game. We have the tools to deal with each other, so it should be pretty interesting.

Clearly the Slann will never, ever break. With life magic and only my BSB to provide magic close combat attacks, I probably can’t kill him either. With other life boosts, this more or less puts his saurus unit out of the running for any VPs. The Scar Vet is killable, but again, I’ll have to do it all in one phase, because Life magic can boost him back. On the plus side, the unit doesn’t exactly churn out huge amounts of damage, so if I engage it late enough, it should be OK.

The Steg should be grabbable points, the salamanders have to go, and I have lots of practice at handling skinks. The terradons will split my attention. The Skrox are kind of an unknown- the small unit looks eatable, the large one too, if I get the right matchups.

My plan is to try to gun down the salamanders and steg, complete kills in a turn if possible to minimize the effects of Life magic (similar to my Tomb Kings strategy from the previous day).

Our scenario is Gerrymandering: to secretly plan to capture 4 table sections (out of 6- split up in 24”x24” sections).

Deployment goes OK, though I accidentally end up with the shield warriors holding the exposed flank (this is a problem I don’t really recognize right away, though I should have). I usually try to do this with hammerers for the stubborn contribution. I get a couple other things right, though- a nice layered defense with organ gun covering my rangers and chaff warriors, subjecting any chameleons who close to poison range to return fire from the gun. The gyro is helping cover things in the back, though I learn the same lesson I always forget- don’t face the gyro forward. The dwarf blocks are facing forward and capable of charging anything that pushes it. The gyro should face the flank/any zones that flyers or skirmishers might try to slip in to.

Turn One

I totally forgot the deployment pic, but there’s a decent set taken right before the Bottom of Turn 2 that will still convey the situation pretty well. Take a skim down there if you need some pictorial explanations. Or simply rely on my astoundingly lyrical prose to help you envision the field of battle.

The lizards won first turn and acted like a bunch of scaredy poopy-heads.

Actually, at first I was thinking we might be in danger of running out of time. Early turns were extremely cagey, starting with this one. David spent a lot of time trying to figure out where to position the Terradons. He couldn’t quite get them behind my lines but out of organ gun range, and most of the early landing spots made him vulnerable to getting charged by great weapon dwarfs. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to deal with the terradons and how to best discourage the chameleons. It was a really fun chaff war.

On the right, the chameleons elect to delay approaching near enough to shoot, preferring to wait until a little more support arrives. The steg begins performing the electric slide, showing me his flank to reduce the chance of a cannon scoring a direct hit, and expanding his coverage slightly. The Slann has a really low winds roll, and no real obvious castings this far out anyways.

Shooting was abysmal. The cannon came up short of its target, and the grudgethrower rolled a one to wound the salamander it landed on. The crossbows scored two hits, but no wounds on a salamander.

Turn Two

More dancing from the skinks who aren’t ready to commit yet. The terradons have to skirt around the outside, looking for an opportunity to pounce on war machines. The rest of the lizards advance in a fairly cohesive line. Magic blows low, and I let throne through to dispel in my turn, then stop the rest.

In my turn, I perform a little repositioning, including a probably silly reform from a unit of hammerers with (it seemed) nothing better to do than prevent the Terradons from having anywhere useful to land. In retrospect, I might like to have that little maneuver back, and let the gyro face the backfield instead.

I open fire again, but the cannon rolls a one to wound the salamander its firing at. The grudgethrower scatters well off the mark into nowhere. The organ gun still doesn’t have range to anything, but is acting as a tasty deterrent.

Turn Three

The Terradons are still dancing with my lines, and back up to a safe spot, biding their time. The skinks see some salamander help coming, and close into blowpipe range of my chaff warriors. The rest of the force continues their approach.

Magic is again insignificant, with the Slann missing a casting at Dwellers on a warmachine. The chameleons pour 36 poisoned shots into the shield chaff, and kill 3. One salamander spits short, and the other eats all its handlers, becoming subject to stupidity (obviously a post-prandial stupor).

Here’s a couple of quick pics of the battlefield right at the start of my turn (sorry they didn’t come sooner)



Semi-circle of death, eh? Touche, sir.

Clearly I can’t figure out what to do about the terradons.


I start with the shield warriors doing what they do, and charging the chameleon skinks (who are 10” away). I’m not sure if David will stand and shot or flee, and make me try to charge the other set 8” away. After much deliberation he stands, killing two warriors. I get a little charge happy- I try to send the great weapons into the skrox on my left- it’s a very long charge, but I am thinking I should tear them up, and then be into the lizard flank with a lot of great weapons. The rangers declare a charge on the nearest salamander, looking to get the jump on that combat, though they’ll need an 11” charge. I even declare a charge in to the slann’s bunker, hoping to give the lizards a tough choice with a stubborn unit in its midst, and maybe even smack the scar vet to death. Or something like that.

All the charges fail (not terribly surprising, given their long range) except for the shortest one- the chaff shields into the skinks. The gyro turns to face the terradons, while the other hammerers, embarrassed finish relieving themselves and turn to face the battle again.

With one turn left to go before impact, the cannon double misfires, the organ gun misfires, and the grudgethrower crushes a single chameleon skink with a wildly inaccurate shot.

So much for the shooting phase. At this point, some grand total of 5 dwarfs and 4 skinks are dead. We declare this to be a “gentlemanly” game, in which one does not offend one’s opponent by removing models all willy-nilly.

At least a little production in the combat phase. The warriors lose one more to skink attacks, but kill three back, break them, and run them down. This also panics the other chameleons, who flee back behind the salamanders.

Turn 4

David begins the turn, planning not to charge, intending to spray my lines with two very, very blessed salamanders. However, MR of Grungni convinces him that it’s time to charge instead. The Steg does its crazy monster thing, and hits a pretty good 15” charge into the hammerers. In a beautiful Disney on ice moment, the Slann’s bunker weaves a crossing charge past the Steg into my shield warriors, and the big Skrox go into the poor rangers. I’d like to flee this, but it will open the possibility of a flank charge into the shield warriors, which would be disastrous, so I stand and shoot a pair of skinks to death. All charges are complete!

The terradons finally commit, with just enough movement to drop rocks on the gyro, then back up in front of it. They manage to get a wound on my fabulous flying machine! Their javelins can’t add to the pain, though, and neither can burning alignment, which kills a pair of hammerers.

Winds come up a little short, and I’m able to control the magic phase with the help of a dispel scroll. It’s going to be tight, but I still have the spelleater, so we’ll see how things go.

The steg has a weak set of impact hits, and attacks, with an OK thunderstomp. After some consideration, I swing all attacks on the priest, get two through the howdah armor save, begin to celebrate, and then watch in dismay as the priest makes his obsidian amulet ward save. A grudge, I say!

Little happens in the main combat. I kill the unit champion with my BSB, which brings the Slann forward (mostly useful for reducing Sarus attacks). The Scar Vet is a meanie, but I can take the damage for now. Plus, I’ll be able to fight his burning blade with my 2+ ward vs. fire in a challenge next!

The rangers are slain for little damage back, but the overrun jams up the Skrox and they can’t get in to the main event.

In my turn, I try to keep it that way, hopping the gyro over to prevent the Skrox from entering combat next turn either. Hammerers get into the flank of the steg (as well as the front). The great weapon warriors manage to charge the little skrox (while in horde formation to boot!)


Gyro sacrifice to be followed by the "hope they roll a -3” on their 2D6 charge in Turn 6" plan. Winner!

Shooting starts out great. I re-roll the organ gun from 2 hits to 8, and wound every single shot, wiping out the terradons. The cannon manages to kill a kroxigor out of the big Skrox, and the grudgethrower misfires, but will shoot next turn. Enh.

The great weapons do a healthy amount of damage to the little Skrox, but but they lose just enough dwarfs in return to keep the skrox in steadfast. After some crafty combat reforms, my runelord is somehow fighting 2 kroxigor (!) next round, while his great weapon retainers gallantly volunteer to handle the nine remaining skinks.

The steg crunches up a bunch more hammerers, to the front, and in return, I finish off the priest, and take all but one wound from the beast.

The main combat is good, with only moderate damage received thanks to the Scar Vet not wanting to fight my BSB.

Turn 5

The big Skrox charge in to the gyro and the salamander with handlers slips between the steg and saurus to set up some cheeky pseudo-combat shots. The other salamander turns to try to breathe on the 4 remaining chaff warriors.

Magic finally hits a really big roll, and I’m getting ready to knuckle down for the hard stuff. Then David drops snake eyes on is first spell casting, and the magic phase is over almost as soon as it begins. Breathing room!

Combat goes well too- the little skrox are crushed, and flee, though I can’t catch them. The steg loses its last wound, but not before picking up some big points by crushing the last of the hammerers to its front. The gyro actually (somehow) survives combat, flees, escapes, but loses its last wound to a dangerous terrain check. No! I took two checks here- one for running through the saurus, and one for landing in the rocky patch that we were counting as a wood for terrain purposes. Not sure in retrospect if I should have taken the second check- I volunteered it, but might have been wrong, since it should have been using ground movement to flee.

In my turn, the great weapon warriors concede that they won’t be able to get back in the game, so charge the fleeing Skrox to make sure they only have once chance to snake eyes rally before they go off the board.

I have a bit of a rough choice- I can charge my hammerers into the flank of the saurus bunker directly, or hit the salamander and overrun instead. The latter is worth 75 VPs, but a bad roll on wounds (allowing the Slann to provide a modified Ld10 coldblooded re-roll check) or a bad overrun leaves the warriors on their own next turn, and I’ll need to generate as much kills as possible to keep them in the game. In the end, I skip past the salamander and go for the main event.

For shooting, I try to eliminate as many of the krox from the big Skrox unit as possible, given that unit will finally make it into the flank of my shield warriors. The organ gun kills one, but the cannon double misfires again, (and is done firing for the game) while the grudgethrower scatters off into nowhere land. That leaves one krox alive in the unit, which might be manageable, though I will be disrupted.

The arrival of the hammerers lets me win the main event, though as mentioned cold blooded re-rollable 10 isn’t too shabby for keeping a unit in place.

Turn 6

Here they come! The Skrox (with one lonely krox) get to the flank of the shield warriors, though they can’t get everyone in because of the awkward charge. The salamander rushes off into the grudgethrower, and the rallied chameleons swarm over to try to poison the organ gun.

Magic blows strong enough for David to attempt 3 spells. His first attempt is earthblood, which I let through, and he pulls a nice little move, restoring a krox to life in the newly arrived unit (damn!). Next is the spell I want to scroll- flesh to stone, but it goes off irresistibly (cupped hands controls the miscast). The lore attribute raises back the champion in the saurus, pushing the slann back. Finally a shield of thorns is crushed by all the dice I saved.

That went really poorly. I wish I’d let the thorns through and stopped the regen, but didn’t give full thought to what spells were inbound.

The chameleons can’t finish the organ gun, and the salamander kills a crew member, but stubborn helps me out.

My BSB swings his tiny little hammer, cracks through the stone skin of the saurus champ, but is rebuffed by his armor plating, letting regen stand. The hammerers swing hard but only drop one saurus, and can only hold while the warriors break on snake-eyes. The game may be saved, though- the warriors escape, leaving the BSB and unit standard behind.

In my turn, I have a decision to make: there are eight exposed skinks, and I have the organ gun ready. With a high roll and good to-wound, I could pick up 108 points, which might make the difference in a game this close. But it’s also risky, because the organ gun could explode.

I say go for it!

The organ gun explodes.

Damn.

The hammerers hold steady in combat, and the salamander can’t finish off his grudgethrower either.

All that’s left is the counting:

If 120 points make the difference, I’m going to be pretty ashamed…

In the final reckoning, David has something like a 227 point advantage. Which is to say, the organ gun (oh so barely) didn’t just lose me the game at the very end. I’ve picked up two objective points and it turns out to be a…

6-16 Loss for the Dwarfs

Summary: Ah, so close. Problem was, I knew from about the end of turn one that I was going to have trouble- the shield warriors were exposed on the end, and vulnerable to getting disrupted in a 2 on 1 matchup with the saurus and big skrox.

If I had it to play over, I’d have gone after the steg early. A liability of my small units is that a couple turns against a monster really grinds them down to nothing, Of course, it may be safe to say that all that shooting that failed at the salamanders would have failed at the steg too. It’s important not to make too big a deal on the shooting fail here- essentially skipping the lizard magic phase in turn 5 was really a big deal too.

Wrap up and army assessment to follow shortly….

Oooh, tough game from the Lizards Zeke, eh?

It's pretty funny, you've got to admit that the famous Dwarven firepower did little, as did the mighty magic of the Slann... all that was left was an awkward crunching together of units in the middle!

@Tantras: You said it. I think it's a good bet to say all came out fair when we were both feeling hard done by on the shooting/magic phase.



Wrap-up

Well, a 2-2-1 would put me in the middle of the pack. I got exactly half the possible objective points, too, which might be a little help, since I think they were a bit on the tougher side to grab.

Soft scores did give me a boost- and I ended up placing 13th overall. Compared to last year's 3-2 for 10th overall, that seems pretty good till you realize we only had 47 or so players out this time. Three players voted me "best opponent" which was good enough to bring home a "Second Sportsman" plaque, which was really cool. Not exactly a podium, but the first time I brought anything home from any of the categories.

As a side note, there were four players who all received 3 best game votes- one was Cody Johnson, who had a better award coming for Appearance. So really, I could have just easily ended up empty handed. It took a lot of consideration, but I finally gave best opponent to the Bowman. The game was really close, very back and forth, and very precise, while still keeping a very fun atmosphere. I was within a hair of giving it to Tony from Day 1, but actually figured he'd be rolling in votes anyways. I don't know. Wish I could have split that vote or something.

As to overall, I was fairly happy with it. I wish I had game 1 over, and would make a couple minor tweaks to my play in Game 5, but all in all pretty good. I don't know that I ever really "punched above my weight" with this list on this outing. Botched a good matchup, did well with two others, and didn't find a way to overcome the two challenging pairings on Day 2.

I was the lowest placing Dwarf, which might be cause for the Slayer oath, but I was also the second placing Dwarf behind Furgil. I'm really glad to see him take overall- he's really put the time and effort into it- with a great looking army and a list he's extremely good at. I'd like to think that the average placing for Dwarfs at this one might be the highest by race? I'll have to see if I can work the numbers there. Small sample size for the win!

For the army list, here's a quick rundown:

Runelord: B Magic defense was pretty stifling, but heavy magic builds can still bully their way through. A list that doesn't mind miscasts (JWolf's warriors) or gets extra dice (Night goblin shaman, Ruminating Slann) can push through some game winners. I actually ended up not using the spelleater in 3 games, and the spellbreaker in 2 (though one of each of those games was thanks to a no magic army- thanks Tony!). His lack of personal protection wasn't really an issue, though I had to be on my toes to keep him from getting in too bad a situation. The only game he died was one where his unit fled with him in it.

BSB: A Sweet defensive build, critical re-rolls, capable of neutralizing enemy characters. Rune of the Furnace is great with the proliferation of flaming attacks.

Shield warriors: B- Pretty hard to kill, but can't really stand up to focused damage. Did well in Games 2, and 4. Would have been more effective as greatweapons in Game 3. Could have been fine if deployed better in Game 5, but probably would have suffered even worse as great weapons there or in Game 1.

Great weapon warriors: B Nice hitting power, no complaints.

Chaff warriors: A- I really enjoy the chaff battles, and these guys do a good job of helping force matchups. Botched them in Game 1, crucial in Game 5. I'm a fan.

Rangers: B Didn't really impact these games as much as they have in the past. I do like the crossbows to help finish off things crippled by cannons, but I may look at going the warrior route and bulking them up a bit.

Hammerers: B Fight to the last, great to get in a flank, or for letting another unit get there. Provide the killing power once combat is joined. On the small side- particularly when monsters get involved.

--MR of Grungni: B Wasn't called upon as often in this tournament. Still exceedingly solid in the land of 8th edition shooting.

Cannon: B Critical inclusion for knocking out things I should know better than to fight (monsters!). Had some targeting issues.

Grudgethrower: C+ So many misses or misfires at critical junctures. Can be devastating in some matchups, but I'm usually too busy trying to snipe single models to be able to splat formations. Maybe another organ gun and bolt thrower instead?

Organ Gun: A- The usual reliability problems, but had some tremendous shots, and is always a great deterrent. Good to deploy near MR of Grungni because if anything is getting shot/magic missiled, it's this guy.

Gyro: B- Did some cool things in some games, mismanaged it in others. A little rusty with the thing, but still love the little guy.


Where to go from here? I've signed up for the Alamo GT in November, and I'm about to commit to Bayou Battles in August. At the end of the tournament, I was a little burned out on the build- or perhaps tired of hoping the war machines do their thing, and really interested in trying something else. Realistically, though, I'm not going to get anything painted in time, so the dwarfs will probably march forth again. I may take a look at trying something drastically different with the list, if nothing else, than for a change of pace.

Also, a note on pictures: Didn't do a very good job of taking them this tournament. This is actually something I need to practice- that is get in the habit of taking pictures. Since I'm not usually snapping shots during practice games, it doesn't come naturally in tournament games. Apologies, and tentative promises for better efforts are forthcoming for future events.

Anyhow- thanks all for reading. Hope you enjoyed- I did. My one stated objective for the tournament can certainly go in the "accomplished category."

-RZ

Very glad to hear you had fun Zeke, and congrats on the plaque!

I plan on attending BB this year and am on the fence about the Alamo. If you're looking to leave texas you should come to my neck of the woods.

http://rockwarsgt.com/

Always enjoy reading your reports RZ. Congratulations on meeting your goal and the sportsman plaque, from reading your reports and seeing your posts anywhere on here, I am a little surprised you don't win that every time. I am sure I would enjoy playing against you.

Great reports man, and good to see a seemingly well deserved Second Sportsman award for you. Can't wait to read the next report!

Great reports! Though its sounds like your last opponent was mis-using the lore of life attribute. It doesn't bring back dead models (kroxigor and champion) just heal those that have taken wounds.

Thanks guys. Sports is a bit of a crap shoot- there's some super fun guys on the Texas circuit, so I don't really sweat it. I do just try to make sure I'm having fun and that bleeds over.

The champ couldn't be brought back I was pretty sure, but the Krox didn't occur to me until you just mentioned it now...

Finally gave these a read, nice reports RZ. Looks like you totally met your goals for this GT? So a resounding success

- Salvage

Excellent reps, and highly entertaining to boot, those little comments in the text and pics made this a fun read, thanks!

oh and congrats on the plaque (it grants protection I believe)