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Okay, so I fought a battle yesterday that I thought was going to be friendly match, but I turned out to be badly wrong, so assuming I come across this army again I need some good ideas on how to put up a fight.

So the Dwarf list I was facing was something like this:

Three cannons, with reroll misfire runes

Two grudge throwers with strength boosting runes so they hit at st5

Three organ guns

Anvil of Doom

Three units of Pistoliers

at least three Runesmiths.



I think there may have been more but, that was the bulk of it. Basically what happened was this: He got first turn, tearing a lot of my army to pieces and using his anvils 2d6 damage and half movement power on my light Cavalry and Carrion meant that not only were both units almost wiped they had no movement left (1 inch for the Carrion!) so a lot of my war machine hunting ability was lost. The rest of it, the couple of Scorpions I tried to bring up scattered a little too far off course and couldn't hide anywhere properly, one eating a cannon to the face the other going down to an organ gun.

At that point I was reduced to very slowly trudging across the table getting utterly mauled while my expensive High Liche priest was completely neutered by the fact that he got 5 bonus dispel dice, took two of my power dice for his dispel and then had whatever I rolled on top. without the movement spell and the anvil hobbling anything even remotely close enough to attempt a charge I called the game at the end of turn 3 because I had virtually nothing left.

So, what should I or could I have done do you think? Bare in mind the list needs to be all purpose not tailored specifically against this one list, but I just need to know what might give me an edge here.

Thanks

First off i love the question then looking at your sig

Secondly do tombkings have anything that hurts BS? As dwarf BS is not great and that should help you agaisnt the guns. The cannons and such maybe lore of light then double up your movement and run as fast as you can towards him?

Ralin Givens wrote:First off i love the question then looking at your sig

Secondly do tombkings have anything that hurts BS? As dwarf BS is not great and that should help you agaisnt the guns. The cannons and such maybe lore of light then double up your movement and run as fast as you can towards him?

Hah! Hadn't thought about that when I wrote it, true enough though, I could probably win just by spending every point on basic skeletons and marching across the table. Can't stop them all!

In reply though, we've got nothing that can hit the Dwarf ballistic skill, unfortunately (Our Mirage Standard from the old book would work wonders - shame it's gone), and as for magic, well as I said unless I just pick up all my dice and try and power them through with irresistable force I'm really not going to cast anything against the magic counter he's got. And I'd need two Lvl 4 wizards to have a chance of getting the light spells I'd need as well and that's a bit pricey points wise for two units I can barely use.

Maybe gearing the list towards It Came From Bellow (or wahtever its called these days) using the prince SC and scorpions and all the good jazz and try to get up in his grill while you march massive blocks of skelies at him

I'm going to be facing a very similar situation in a couple days.

I plan on taking Khalida as my general and popping her in a horde (like 40, at least) of skeleton archers. I'll screen the advance of said horde with carrion.. -2 to hit for shooting thru screen.. but it only ruins the incoming thunderers/quarrelers fire.. TK don't care about such cover issues

Thanks to volley fire & Khalida's archer buffs, I figure as they march slowly they should wipe out 1 war machine each firing phase. Heck, if he lets me get off that spell that gives Multi-shot (2), I can crush Thunderer/Quarreler lines with arrows. Between the new war statuary & it came from below (not to mention the obligatory Casket & Catapults) it sounds like an army

Ralin Givens wrote:
Secondly do tombkings have anything that hurts BS? As dwarf BS is not great and that should help you agaisnt the guns. The cannons and such maybe lore of light then double up your movement and run as fast as you can towards him?

That's really only going to affect Thunderers and Quarrellers, cannons and grudge throwers are template weapons so BS does not apply and Organ Guns auto hit. I'm not familiar with the new TK stuff but I hate to say it you're a victim of the dwarf gun line, my advice is don't play against them.

Yah but giving up is not a good option...or a fun one...

Fuzzydeath, you can't volley fire if you move.

If you deploy behind carrion and he anvils the carrion, they can't fly and revert to their move of 1; which greatly slows your advance.

Organ Guns are rares, how many points did you play?
You need 3,000 for 3 of the same rare.
Also on the runes, you can't have the same combo, so you'd need additional runes to have the variation needed on those cannons.

How many chariots do you have?
I would do a combo of scorpions in the sand with a lot of minimum sized chariots. One or 2 chariots will kill any unit he brought, so just go with massed units and weather the fire.

I would go with minimal magic. If he is going to spend ~600+ points on rune smiths and dispelling runes, don't bother with the magic, just save the points and put them into more units.

-Matt

There's some odd ball stuff going on there. He shouldn't be stealing two dice- the balance rune is a Master Rune, and can only be taken once per army.

Not sure how difficult this would be to pull off, but getting a Purple Sun to go off running through his warmachines and anvil would be devastating. Power scroll and Neferra's could help there. Just not quite sure how you get a unit in position.

Also, if his anvil is affecting more than one unit and 2D6 hits, he's trying for ancient power, which only works on a 4+, which is very dice reliant. If he fails that, the anvil has a chance to misfire, and at the very least, won't be doing anything that turn.

How many points are you guys running?

Red_Zeke wrote:There's some odd ball stuff going on there. He shouldn't be stealing two dice- the balance rune is a Master Rune, and can only be taken once per army.

Not sure how difficult this would be to pull off, but getting a Purple Sun to go off running through his warmachines and anvil would be devastating. Power scroll and Neferra's could help there. Just not quite sure how you get a unit in position.

Also, if his anvil is affecting more than one unit and 2D6 hits, he's trying for ancient power, which only works on a 4+, which is very dice reliant. If he fails that, the anvil has a chance to misfire, and at the very least, won't be doing anything that turn.

How many points are you guys running?

I think it was the Special character anvil that was doing the stealing there, but I honestly don't know the dwarf book well enough to say, which means it has the 3+ reroll on the ancient power thing.

Also we were playing at 3000 points in our last game.

Well, 3K will buy you 3 organ guns, so he's got that going for him. Also, sounds like he brought Thorek, who allow you to roll ancient power at 3+. The re-roll has been erratta'd to once per game, as per the Dwarf FAQ:

"• Once per game, Thorek may re-roll a failed attempt to strike a rune on the Anvil, but if this second roll is also a failure, a - 1 is applied on the roll on the Anvil Miscast table (a result of 0 counts as a 1)."

Finally, there is no way for him to steal 2 dice per phase. The MR of Balance *is* a master rune, and can only be taken once per army.

Sounds like he's gone all out for the most lop-sided list he can bring. Don't feel guilty about pulling any punches back. Special characters included.

You could give some Ushabti some Great Bows and have a Necrotect nearby. Stand them in a line so each cannon can only hit one unit per shot. Though not sure if you'd win that war of attrition, you might with a priest helping to repair them, giving stuff like Ptra's Incantation so they get 2 shots. You'd be out of range of everything except cannon/grudge.

You got like 2389 units you can entomb beneath sands. And you can give 150pts worth of units the banner to let them come out, including archers who can shoot. And it also let's everyone else reroll their scatter. You might get beat up first round, but you'll be in a lot closer range.

While the TK Lore of Nehekhara doesn't have anything to really help you with shooting, Liche Priests and Liche High Priests can take Lore of Light that does have several things that can help. Unfortunately not their signature spell, but a few useful things:

Pha's Protection: Gives -1 to hit for both shooting and close combat, plus shooting attacks that don't use BS (ie Cannons, Organ Guns, Stone Throwers. Although I don't know about the Anvil's attacks) will force them to roll a 4+ or it's wasted. Can be boosted to protect multiple units.

Net of Amyntok: Forces the unit to take a strength test in order to move, shoot or cast. They also take hits if they fail the test in addition to not being able to do the action. Can be boosted to get them from further away.

Birona's Timewarp: While this won't protect you from the shooting, increasing the speed of an army that can't march for the most part is always a plus. Can be boosted to protect multiple units.

Overall it would probably be wise to invest some of those 3000 points in a strong Light Wizard against this foe. Normally I wouldn't recommend taking something just to counter a particular foe, but in this case the Light magic has lots of solid augments that can help shore up some of the weaknesses of the TK against many foes.