Combining several threads from another forum, 'cause, you know; bragging.
Some terms are explained that likely do not need explaining here.
Heh - the Kings of War battle went exactly as planned - Megan played my traditional Dwarf army, I played my woodsy ranger dwarf army, against Jon playing Undead and Julie playing Twilight Kin (Dark Elves). Two teams of two players each.
My army was split on the two flanks, Megan held the center. Because of the composition of my army there was no fast flank - both flanks were light infantry. I had the flanks because I am more experienced in wargaming - I could be more flexible in my tactics. (Kings of War and Mordheim are the only wargames that Megan has played. She likes Mordheim, not so sure about
KoW yet.)
Megan's center was riflemen, heavy infantry and cannon. The anvil to my hammers.
We were set up for a pincer, if Jon and Julie cooperated by pushing towards the center.
They did, so we rolled them up, both ends towards the middle, where her cannon tore them both to little pieces. I managed to come up behind them - catching their main units from both front and rear. Both the Revenants (Heavy undead infantry) and the Darksome Guard (Heavy Twilight Kin infantry) were squished in the same round.
We further annoyed Jon and Julie by not conferring during the battle - we knew our roles, had discussed them before the battle, and just did it. Two of my units of rangers sitting on the flanks softening the enemy before they reached the center, the other two moving around to take them in the rear.
We played Kings of War using a chess clock - each side had an hour and a half. Megan and I had an half hour left, Julie and Jon had five minutes....
Jon & Julie are married, and spent some time squabbling about what to do once they were engaged in the center. Megan and I just followed our plan.... Dwarfs are a straightforward folk... no real surprises needed. Not all that well suited for flanking, but my entire army had Vanguard, which gave them extra movement at the beginning of the game, and Megan didn't need the extra movement - her riflemen and Ironclads (Dwarf Heavy infantry) could soak up enough damage and still remain solid until I could close the pincer.
Don't know if they will be challenging us any time soon... I think that we unnerved them. Our plan had been in place since yesterday. Afterwords we just laughed....
I just had
sooo much fun last night....
And I think that this went a long way towards showing Megan that wargaming can be fun.
My Force:
Hunt of Herneas (1500pts)
1500pt Dwarfs Roster (Standard)
Dwarfs (Standard) Selections:
Solid Units (1370pts)
Rangers Horde (385pts)
Crushing Strength (1), Vanguard
banner (15pts), Jar of the Four Winds (30pts) (Jar of the Four Winds), Light crossbows (treat as bows), musician (10pts)
Jar of the Four Winds: The unit's normal ranged attacks gain + 12" range.
Rangers Horde (400pts)
Crushing Strength (1), Vanguard
banner (15pts), Heartseeking Chant (45pts) (Heartseeking Chant), Light crossbows (treat as bows), musician (10pts)
Heartseeking Chant: Grants Piercing (1) or increases the unit's current Piercing value by 1. Normal ranged attacks only.
Rangers Horde (375pts)
Crushing Strength (1), Vanguard
banner (15pts), Blasting Arrow (20pts) (Blasting Arrow), Light crossbows (treat as bows), musician (10pts)
Blasting Arrow: Roll one of the unit's ranged attacks separately. This one attack only counts as Blast (
d6). Can only be used by normal ranged attacks.
Rangers Regiment (210pts)
Crushing Strength (1), Vanguard
banner (15pts), Light crossbows (treat as bows), musician (10pts), Piercing Arrow (10pts) (Piercing Arrow)
Piercing Arrow: Roll one of the unit's ranged attacks separately. This one attack only counts as Piercing (4). Can only be used by normal ranged attacks.
Heroes/ Monsters (130pts)
Herneas the Hunter (130pts)
Crushing Strength (2), Individual, Inspiring (Rangers only), Piercing (3), Stealthy, Vanguard
Skewerer (counts as bow)
Roster Rule Summary:
Army Special Rule: Headstrong: Whenever a unit begins a turn Wavering, it rolls a die. On a 4+ it shrugs off the effects of Wavering and can act normally that turn.
Selection Rule Summary:
Crushing Strength (
n): Melee hits have a +
n modifier when rolling to damage.
Individual: The unit does not have any flank or rear facings. When shooting against this unit, enemies suffer an additional -1 penalty on their rolls to hit. The unit also has the Nimble special rule.
Inspiring (Rangers only): If the unit or any friendly units within 6" of it are Routed, the opponent must re-roll that Nerve test.
Piercing (
n): All ranged hits inflicted by the unit have a +
n modifier when rolling to damage.
***
Megan's Force:
King Aldrun's Anvil (1490pts)
1500pt Dwarfs Roster (Standard)
Dwarfs (Standard) Selections:
Solid Units (1115pts)
Ironclad Horde (290pts)
banner (15pts), musician (10pts), The Fog (40pts) (Stealthy), Throwing Mastiffs (15pts)
Ironclad Regiment (155pts)
banner (15pts), Blade of Slashing (5pts) (Blade of Slashing), musician (10pts), Throwing Mastiffs (15pts)
Blade of Slashing: Roll one extra dice in Melee.
Ironwatch Horde (315pts)
banner (15pts), Jar of the Four Winds (30pts) (Jar of the Four Winds), musician (10pts), rifles (15pts) (Piercing (2))
Jar of the Four Winds: The unit's normal ranged attacks gain + 12" range.
Ironwatch Regiment (175pts)
banner (15pts), Blasting Arrow (20pts) (Blasting Arrow), crossbows (Piercing (1)), musician (10pts)
Blasting Arrow: Roll one of the unit's ranged attacks separately. This one attack only counts as Blast (
d6). Can only be used by normal ranged attacks.
Ironwatch Regiment (180pts)
banner (15pts), musician (10pts), Piercing Arrow (10pts) (Piercing Arrow), rifles (15pts) (Piercing (2))
Piercing Arrow: Roll one of the unit's ranged attacks separately. This one attack only counts as Piercing (4). Can only be used by normal ranged attacks.
War Engines (255pts)
Ironbelcher Cannon (85pts)
Blast (
2d6+1), Elite (if within 6" of a Warsmith), Grapeshot, Piercing (4)
Ironbelcher Cannon (85pts)
Blast (
2d6+1), Elite (if within 6" of a Warsmith), Grapeshot, Piercing (4)
Ironbelcher Cannon (85pts)
Blast (
2d6+1), Elite (if within 6" of a Warsmith), Grapeshot, Piercing (4)
Heroes/ Monsters (130pts)
Warsmith (105pts)
Crushing Strength (1), Individual, Inspiring (War Engines only)
Da Boomstick (Zap (3))
Zap (
n): The unit has a ranged attack. You roll (n) dice for this ranged attack rather than using the Attacks value of the unit. This attack has a range of 24", always hits on 4+ (regardless of modifiers) and is Piercing (1).
Roster Rule Summary:
Army Special Rule: Headstrong: Whenever a unit begins a turn Wavering, it rolls a die. On a 4+ it shrugs off the effects of Wavering and can act normally that turn.
Selection Rule Summary:
Crushing Strength (
n): Melee hits have a +
n modifier when rolling to damage.
Elite (if within 6" of a Warsmith): Whenever the unit rolls to hit or to damage, it can re-roll one of the dice that failed to hit/damage.
Individual: The unit does not have any flank or rear facings. When shooting against this unit, enemies suffer an additional -1 penalty on their rolls to hit. The unit also has the Nimble special rule.
Inspiring (War Engines only): If the unit or any friendly units within 6" of it are Routed, the opponent must re-roll that Nerve test.
Piercing (
n): All ranged hits inflicted by the unit have a +
n modifier when rolling to damage.
Stealthy: Enemies shooting against the unit suffer an additional -1 to hit modifier.
Heh - I should probably mention that the pincer almost never works - but both Jon and Julie are
very aggressive in their style of play, and the dwarf cannon made a tempting target in the middle of the field.
Typically, I prefer a refused flank, but dwarfs, without the Brock Cavalry in the Kings of War rules, are ill suited for it. With Brock and Rangers on the fast flank... might be able to pull it off.
For dwarfs I generally castle up - cannon on a hill, riflemen lower but with good
FoF. Melee troops around the base. This is how Megan's element was deployed, as close to center as we could get.
If there is only a small hill then I intersperse melee troops and riflemen, retreating the riflemen between ranks of melee troops when the enemy is close to charge range.
Downside - no good at all for taking objectives - it relies on the enemy to come to you.
Anyone else have any battle reports?
The Auld Grump