War of the Shrine, Part 4; Warriors of Chaos Turn 1

Varangia smiled. They were not the first to arrive. Though this meant a delay in his seizing of whatever artifact lay within the curious structure ahead, it meant he could indulge in his favorite pastime...war.

A gesture of his left hand saw that flank surge forward, led by the fierce looking but weak warhounds. They charged fearlessly into a wall of spears.

Varangia knew the spearmen would handily dispatch the dogs, but it mattered not...they were expendable. If they drew the elfs near his Chosen, it would be well worth the loss of a few dogs.

In the center the mindless Forsaken committed to a suicide charge against a block of the Dwarf Warriors.

Varangia shrugged internally. That was not who he sought...surely, somewhere on this field full of warriors was an enemy worthy of his engaging in hand to hand combat from which he knew he would emerge victorious and covered in glory.

Off on the right he saw his Giant charge one of the fearsome treemen. he made a mental note to follow the progress of that battle. A treeman would suffice if no better target for his war-skills arose.


The mages to his left and right began their fierce chants. He smiled as he saw one of the hated cannons of the Dwarfs disappear in a spectacular burst of magic. He would respect Dwarfs if they had the courage to fight up close and personal at all times instead of hiding behind their missile weapons.

He watched dispassionately as the Forsaken slew 2 Dwarf Warriors and had one of their own number fall in return.

Off on the left the Spearmen slew 3 dogs and took no casualties in return. The dogs fled, as they had been trained to do. He watched carefully...if the Spearmen were disciplined, they would brace to receive the charge of his Chosen...but no, they chased after the bounding wardogs. He smiled as the plunged into the waiting arms of his Chosen. Soon, the left flank would be his.

Casualties:

2 wounds to the Treeman (1 to the Giant)

2 Dwarf Warriors

1 Dwarf Cannon

War of the Shrine, Dwarf Turn 1

With a roar of wings, the Gyrocopters took to the skies, searching for their best target. Ah, there...a realtively undefended rock lobber among the Orc lines. They flew over and unleashed their mighty steam cannons, but the machine appeared unharmed.


Meanwhile, the mighty Dwarf cannons roared to life. One cannon ball nearly decapitated a flying Wizard of the north, another tore through massed Glade Guard.

The thunder of the Dwarf Handguns joined the fray. Rigal nooded in satisfaction as saddles emptied, infantrymen crumpled, and lines wavered...then silence descended over the battlefield as the first offense ended.

Rigal gazed down from the crest of the pyramid, wondering what his gunfire had done.

Grimly, he counted the casualties. They spoke well of the accuracy and hitting power of his ranged weapons...but the fallen enemies were fewer than he would have liked.

He nodded to his standard bearer who advised the Dwarf lines to brace for impact.


Casualties:
Orcs & Goblins
3 Orc Bowmen
1 Night Gobline Spider rider

High Elfs: 1 Dragon Prince
4 Bowmen

Wood Elfs
3 Glade Riders
3 Glade Guard
2 Wardancers

Warriors of Chaos:
2 Marauder horsemen

The War of the Shrine: Setup 2

Rigal Rocksplitter nodded his head in satisfaction. The map was correct...a large pyramid, no doubt left behind by the Old Ones, rose high above the desert floor.

How it had remained undiscovered for years despite being in the middle of open space mystified him, as did the lack of any growths.

Even more curious, a Goblin shrine was within easy walking distance of one side, and what appeared to be a Grudge pony statue eternally straining to move a coach was also in the clearing.

He shrugged and began ordering his men to set up camp. They had arrived too late in the day

to begin investigating the shrine.

With the patience inborn in every Dwarf, he knew tomorrow would be soon enough. With the ease of an old campaigner he began arranging his men in a defensive perimeter around the mighty pyramid.

His recently humbled twin Lagir objected. "Why do we have to cover all four corners? No one knows we are here."

Rigal allowed the contempt he felt for Lagir to bleed into his voice. "These type of things have a way of drawing attention to them self once they are discovered. Just because we are the first to arrive does not mean we shall be the only. Set the perimeter."

Wordlessly, Lagir moved off to relay Rigal's orders to the various captains. Soon the Dwarf army settled in for the night, leaving the watch to the misfortunate souls selected for sentry duty.

In the late hours, the prudence of Rigal showed through as the sound of thousands of footsteps and hoofbeats sounded from all directions, coming to a halt only a few hundred yards from where the Dwarfs were camped.

The stalwart dwarfs were unperturbed. Quickly they began to don armor, striving to be silent. They were silent...for Dwarves, that is. But silent for Dwarves rivals the most ferocious thunderstorm for din and it was soon obvious to the approaching armies they had been beaten to the prize.

Soon campfires flickered to life on every side of the pyramid and an uneasy silence descended as the various aspirants to possession of the pyramid waited for sunrise to reveal the situation.

As the first rays of light broke upon what would soon be a bloody field, he climbed to the apex of the pyramid.

South of the pyramid were hundreds of Orcs and Goblins. Rigal nodded speculatively. Surely they were drawn here by the mork Shrine.

To the north were vast hordes of Northmen...Marauders, Warriors of Chaos, the fearsome Knights, a few Dragon Ogres.

Even the typically fearless and stoic Rigal blanched as he saw the sheer number of Wizards. He knew from long experience how much carnage they could wreak.

Swiftly he did some mental arithmetic. Even if the Dwarfs could concentrate all their forces on the northmen, he did not have enough at his command to withstand the fearsome warriors...and though he knew he would break the Orcs and Goblins, he still had to devote forces to doing that.

Slowly he turned and looked to the West. There he received another surprise. Wood Elf armies seldom strayed far from their beloved forests, yet here was a force large enough to contain Treekin and even two of the massive, terrifying Treemen.

A quick glance to the East revealed yet more Elfs, these from the haughty, royal courts. He grimaced as again he say some of the powerful, High magic using mages the elves were famed for.

Slowly he shook his head. If he could concentrate his forces on any one of these armies...any two outside the massive Chaotic army, he could lead his Dwarfs to victory. But surrounded on all four sides...things looked grim.

His best hope was clear. Somehow he needed to pit the enemy armies against each other. But how?

The War of the Shrine: The set-up

Though lately I have been playing a lot of small games, there are times I want to play something big. Something huge. Something massive.

There are also times I want to try out things I seldom try...like Warriors of Chaos Forsaken, who honestly might be the worst unit in the entire army in any book.

Over-priced, worse than cheaper core troops, not survivable, taking away a slot better spent on Knights or Dragon Ogres or...well, anything not called Forsaken.

And so forth.

I also like rolling out every (painted) figure I have as what it is.

The problem is...that makes it tough to have a balanced game.

Unless, of course, I play every side.

So I came up with a scenario...the table would be too small, but that could be handled with a couple of minor adjustments.

The sizes of the forces would not be equal...which could also be handled with special rules.

And off I went.

Some of the special rules:

- any model within 12" of a shrine held by their side gains a 5+ Ward Save. If they already have a ward save, it adds +2 to that save to a minimum of 2+.

- Charges are always against the front even if only a flank is a viable target, unless that unit is already engaged.

- Shooting troops are granted an additional rank.

Any army that gains control of all three shrines for one complete turn wins.

I then gave shrines to the army that would be in the center and the two smallest armies and began setting up.

The mess you see in the opening photo is the result.

1K High Efl v. 1k Dwarf rematch

Anger was always near the surface with Rigal Rocksplitter, clan chief of the Hidden Caverns. When he heard of the defeat of a scouting party near the village of...he neither knew nor cared the name, come to think of it...by the pointy-eared, effeminate elves, it got his blood to boiling.

It also gave him an opportunity to show his superiority over his twin, Lagir Rocksplitter. Always the twins competed...for the affection of their parents, for pre-eminence among the dwarfs of the Hidden Caverns, for the respect of the longbeards.

And hearing that the pointy-ears still held the village where Lagir had met defeat brought a smile to his face. He would avenge the defeat suffered by the forces of the Hidden Caverns...and make Rigal look inept in the process.

He assembled his forces and marched forth to wreak his vengeance.



Lately I have been playing a lot of 1K games, most of them with forces set up to be deliberately underpowered. The beauty of it is..against armies built the same way, it results in incredibly fun, entertaining games WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THOSE GAMES.

At the same time, there is something missing...having no fliers, little to no magic, and using sub-par units almost exclusively takes a certain something away from the overall flavor of the game.

I think both types of games have a place...

Well, we had a day set up where Fixed Dice and Liam would face off over 3K of awesomeness, but Kev would have just a short time to play...so Fullur and I decided on a re-match of the game referenced in the flavor at the opening of this post.

In retrospect, I think the first time we played I counted on him needing 5s to wound and me having 5+ saves or better to eliminate the need for tactics. This time, I set up a bit more strategically.

First, I won the choice of sides and took the more open side this time. Second, I lined up 20 Thunderers across to whittle down his forces a bit as he came across the field, then backed them up with the Grungi-runed Hammerers to provide a ward save against High Elf shooting. The Warriors angled to face his Knights where they were set up, and this time I set the Rangers further back into the forest.

The plan was simple: make him come to me (good Dwarf strategy), whittle down his numbers with S4 shooting, when he inevitably wiped out a unit of Thunderers, I would have Hammerers to withstand the charge and then wreck the pointy-eared close combat blocks.

Meanwhile, the Rangers would pseudo-march block his White Lions and hopefully evade them for the entire battle instead of letting him wipe them out in one spectacular charge.


I won the roll and...what? went FIRST? There is a nickel in the Stupidity Fund. For whatever reason I thought his archers had 30" range so I was going to march forward, then when he climbed the hill, I would get first shot.

Dwarf Turn 1
I moved the Rangers back 1-1/2" in the forest...yeah, that would be a fast move! :-) Then marched everything forward.

High Elf Turn 1
He pretty much followed my plan for him, bringing his Dragon princes around the left flank, advancing the Lothern Sea guard and Repeater bolt thrower on top of the hill, moving his White Lions towards the forest and marching his Spearmen forward.


Dwarf Turn 2
I retreated the Rangers another 1-1/2". I let fly with 20 thunderers and watched gleefully as something like 8 Spearmen went down. Ah, yes...this was dwarf-like!



time to take some casualties off the table!

High Elf Turn 2

And now my nefarious plan began to evidence. His Swordsmen were too far from me to see me in the forest due to the 2" rule...but had to stop 1" away. Slowness, they name is High Elfs...

However, he cleverly advanced his spearmen in such a way that only one unit of thunderers would be able to fire. Very crafty, young padawan.

His shooting began to tell, now, as a few Dwarf Thunderers fell to his Repeater Bolt Thrower and Sea Guard.

Dwarf Turn 3
I continued my stall on the right flank, advancing to the rear another 1-1/2" I also reformed my right-most Thunderers to face outside the forest. Perhaps I would be able to enfilade his White Lions in a turn or two...

I also set up my Hammerers, anticipating his Spearmen would break my Thunderers, but planning to flank charge them.

My shooting was point-blank but far less lethal.

High Elf Turn 3

For the briefest moment, Fullur thought he was using the Warriors of Chaos. His Spearmen and Dragon Princes charged the Thunderers and Dwarf Warriors respectively.

He began shooting down my Hammerers and I continued to fail save after save (in the entire game I successfully made I believe 2 of nearly 30 5+ save attempts...)

Close combat went better than expected. He failed to wound a single Thunderer...and in return I did him the courtesy of wounding not one spearmen. I broke to combat resolution and my ploy worked to perfection...he was stuck right in front of the deadly Hammerers.

The Dragon Princes did a couple wounds, but the rank bonuses and outnumbering allowed the warriors to survive the charge.

Dwarf Turn 4

Fullur once had a great line where he made a bizarre tactical decision but explained it by saying, "I did not want to get charged by Dwarfs..that would just be embarrassing."

Fullur...welcome to embarrassment. Not only did he get charged by Dwarfs...he got FLANK CHARGED by my Elite Hammerers. Bwoohahahah.

Another 1-1/2" strategic advance towards my base battle line by the Rangers, another re-form of the Thunderers to get maximum firepower in a turn or so, a successful rally by the thunderers, and it was time for combat.

First, I went with the Hammerers. He struck first, killing 2. Whatever.

I struck back with a fury, hitting 4 times. I needed "2"s to kill.

Yes, all four dice rolled less than a 2.

Frankly, this was among the most dis-heartening moments I have ever had in Warhammer.

Unlike what I often do with the Warriors of Chaos (or, for that matter, the Dwarfs), I did not just "point and shoot". I actually put thought into my plan, deployment, and maneuvers. I set up things to get the combats when and where I wanted them. I even planned for poor rolls so they would not matter.

And then they did anyway. One brutal, unbelievably bad roll put all my plans in danger of failing.

If the Hammerers broke I would not have enough forces to bring his Spearmen to bear, he could happily retreat and shoot me to death. And should, by the way. The game was his.

I do not mind losing in games where I plan poorly, either through list-building or simply playing point and click (strong units, charge. Everyone else, stand around showing off your paint job).

I do not mind when my opponent does something clever and/or outplays me.

I HATE losing to a 1 in 1296 chance when I am actually trying to garner some sort of draw or win. And frankly, I did not have a lot of confidence in the ability of the Warriors, without their full rank bonus and with a wound on my T6 Thane (from a horse, no less), to win against the Dragon Princes.

Now, do not get me wrong...I do not mind losing. In fact, I actually wish I lost a bit more than I do outside of campaign games. But I want it to be reasonable losing, not to ridiculous horrific rolls.

Nevertheless, all my bad feeling was lessened when the combat turned out to be a draw.

On to the Dragon Princes V. Warriors round 2.

This time I was more successful, slaying two of them (after making one of my rare successful saves), and he ran. I ran as well...and ended up an inch behind them.

High Elf Turn 4

he advanced his White lions, started shooting down my heretofore untouched Thunderers before his White Lions emerged from the forest, rallied his Dragon Princes, and he rolled his General behind my Thunderers.

I knew at this moment I could not touch his General in the game, and lost another Thunderer to his S5 shots, and time to go back to close combat.

Another draw between my elite Hammerers on his flank and his 2 guys fighting spearmen. Not good.

Dwarf Turn 5

Outside the forest, the Rangers made a full march move away from the forest. My Warriors charged his Dragon Princes, mostly so they would not get a strength bonus.

Yes, that is two successful charges by my Dwarfs this game :-).

This time, I did a couple casualties to his Spearmen, they finally broke. I also broke his Dragon Princes and followed them off the table.

High Elf Turn 5
Things looked grim. His White Lions finally emerged from the forest, right in front of the Dwarf gunline.

He rallied his Spearmen, then went to work again shooting everything...Repeater bolt Throwers, Sea Guard, and his General, at the gunline preparing to take down the White Lions. Sure enough, he got them down to just 5 men.

Dwarf Turn 6

I turned the Rangers to face the inevitable charge from his White Lions, charged and finished off his Spearmen, and brought the Warriors back on the table.

Then I shot down 3 of his Seaguard, but did just one casualty to his White Lions.

I broke and ran down his Spearmen, and now it was time to see if I could withstand a furious last second attack by the reeling High Elfs.

High Elf Turn 6

Sure enough, his White Lions charged my Rangers...only to lose one of their number to my Throwing Axes.

His furious shooting from RBT, Sea Guard, and general combined to finish off the Thunderers who had been waiting for his White Lions.

The Close Combat was intense. He had 7 attacks. I did not have the advantage I hoped for...my rank bonus and outnumbering were nearly offset by his War banner, so he only needed to do one casualty to tie the combat and 2 to have an excellent chance to win.

He did about 4, I could only do one back. The Rangers broke and the game was over.

The Survivor shot...from the winning side.

And there were some living pointy ears, as well.

In the end, it ended up being I think a Marginal Victory...and that was just about perfect.

Wrap-up

This was a very entertaining game. There were moves and counter-moves. At one point he held off a charge I thought he was going to make because he wanted to break off his General from the Dragon Princes.

I was able to set up charges and counter charges, maneuver to get shots at units I wanted to shoot at.

He was very creative in a couple of maneuvers, such as his Spearmen wheel that invalidated half of my front line.

At one point, it looked like another High Elf victory, at another like a crushing defeat for them...but both of us seized the momentum back and in the final turn he pulled in enough points to turn it from probably a solid victory into a marginal.

I would love to see more games like this in play and outcome, regardless of size.

Overall, outside of one soul-crushing moment of discouragement, this was among the most entertaining games I have played in a while.

Rigal looked proudly at his force. The pointy-ears had fought better than he anticipated, but ultimately Rigal's forces held the field. He could not wait to get home and rub his success into the face of his brother.

"Sir, we fought for the village, should we not at least enter it?" asked his lieutenant.

Rigal shook his head. "Let the pointy ears have it. We have a victory feast to attend to."

He turned to go and his foot kicked loose a scroll trod under the hoofs of a Dragon Prince steed. He bent down an picked it up.

It unrolled quickly and easily. He gasped as he saw what it revealed. A smile lit up his face.

Even better than putting his brother to shame was what the map revealed...he instantly knew it for what it was. The path to untold wealth, power, and fame. This would make him the most powerful dwarf the world had ever known...

Warriors of Chaos Versus High Elfs, 1K

A bit of background. Lately I have been trying to build alternate armies...armies with more of the troops I find ineffective ion the context of the overall army.

An example would be Marauders. Yes, with light armor and Great Weapons they are way cheaper than a similar troop choice in say...an Empire army would be.

Unfortunately, without the artillery, archery, fliers, and other support, they are far less effective than troops that are almost unarguably inferior.

What I mean is...I would take the Marauder's stat line and abilities up against any Empire troop and feel good, yet my Marauders are cheaper. However, the Empire can whittle down my forces before we contact, a feature I am sadly lacking.

Also, my own army has better troops even for the cost...a single Chaos Warrior with Shield costs 1 point more than 3 marauders, but wins that combat almost every time.

Of course...when I am serious, I never take Chaos Warriors, either, because they are worthless in 7th edition.

They are too slow to catch the troops they can deal with and not rugged enough to take on the troops willing to let the Warriors catch them.

Sure, I will take Chaos Warriors 6 days a weak and thrice on Sundays over Saurus, Zombies, Ungors, or even Ogre Bulls....but the only time the Warriors get to fight in 7th is when Grail Knights smash them on the charge or Cold One riders run them down....

But I want to build an army with the worthless Chaos Warhounds, a block of Marauders, a block of Warriors...and play an army built to face them. So I made a series of 1K armies with a few ground rules.

- No more than 1 Elite Unit (except High Elves who are SUPPOSED to be elite).
- no more than 20% of the points in heroes...and max one hero.
- At least 2 blocks of foot sloggers

The idea was to have two armies look to engage their infantry and use cavalry as *gasp* support instead of as really the only effective tool some armies have.

Enter Space Monkey. He had a couple models he really wanted to get on the table since he had recently painted them.




So he put together his own 1K High Elf army, came on over, and the battle was on. I was going to play an Orc & Goblin army I had built but he wanted to face my WoC and...well...I have put more time, effort, and time and effort into the WoC than all my other armies combined, so yeah...it is on like Donkey Kong.


The Setup

He specifically wanted to try out Cavalry and March-blockers. So I deliberately set up to be march blocked. From his perspective, looking at what was coming, here is what he saw from left to right:



Chaos Warhounds. Fast-moving, low LD

12 Chaos Warriors: slow-moving, tough, hard-hitting.

5 Chaos Knights. Fast moving, tough, hard-hitting.

20+ Chaos Marauders; slow-moving, relatively soft, not overly hard hitting.

5 Chaos Marauder Horsemen; fast-moving, squishy, not very hard-hitting.



He protected his bolt thrower behind a stream, though it also limited the field of fire.

He placed his 5 Dragon Princes on that wing, then his Dragon Mage and Eagle-riding Noble, and finally his Lothern Sea Guard.




Warriors of Chaos Turn 1

I did not build this army for flexibility or tactics. I really had no way to deal with agile opponents...say, an Eagle or Dragon who could fly around. In fact, the army Space Monkey had taken is almost exactly what I face every time I decide to build an army like I want...

I had no way of catching the Dragon or Eagle, and even if I caught the Dragon I was likely to lose the combat...plus, between the Repeater bolt Thrower and the Dragon, there was a lot of "no armor saves allowed" stuff...

Then again, he already told me his goals. Experiment with march blocking and play with cavalry. Full speed ahead!





High Elf Turn 1
He advanced his Knights slightly, bounced his swordmasters up to get my Knights to charge them, and then burned down a couple Chaos Warriors with some magic.
Oh, and shot down 2 of the Horsemen with his Sea Guard.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 2
His eagle march-blocked my Chaos Warriors, Marauders, and Horsemen....but he did not realizing march-blocking did not prevent charges.

From one standpoint, it is irrelevant whether I charge his Dragon Princes or they charge me...he gets to go first. However...if I charge them, I have a 1+ armor save. If he charges me it drops to 3+...so I would rather charge them.

My General headed off in the general direction of the dragon, hoping he would charge me, i would survive and maybe get a lucky wound through, then have him fail a T test and die. The Marauder horsemen moved to take a few throwing axe pot shots at the Eagle.

They whiffed completely, as expected.





Ah, the glorious cavalry-on-cavalry charge. Strength against strength. Robbed of his Lance strength bonus, he saw my Chaos Knights actually make their saves, while I did in two Dragon Princes in return...probably one more than I should have. But not out of line.

High Elf Turn 2

He debated for a while, then decided to charge the Warhounds with his swordmasters. I think we all know how this turned out...Chinese food for all! (I would apologize to those offended by that joke except...well...I think it is pretty funny and if you are offended by it...you obviously have not heard my "Mom's cremation" series.)

Knowing the wall of fire spell meant my Chaos Warriors probably would not move, he used his Dragon and Eagle both to march block the Marauders and I reminded him to use the dragon's breath.

A few Marauders fell to that, a few more to bow fire, and then his Repeater Bolt Thrower shot at the General and hit. I thought the S was 6, he thought 4, we flipped a coin, went with 4...I saved it.*

Meanwhile, his Swordmasters were pretty pathetic, only knocking off 3 Warhounds...still more than enough to break them. He rolled to re-strain...failed and charged into the front of the Chaos Warriors.

Meanwhile, his Knights saw their best efforts saved...but an Elven Steed slew a Chaos Knight. The angered Knights put down two Dragon princes, the last one broke, and I pursued.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 3

I wanted out of bowfire from that RBT, so my General and Knights all charged his Sea Guard. They shot at the General but could not hit, and I hit his flank with the Knights. The Warriors charged into the Swordmasters and the Horsemen again pelted the Eagle with an array of spitwads, germs, and incompetent shooting.

Chaos Knights and Exalted heroes against Lothern Sea Guard is a pretty good match-up for the WoC...and I pursued, over-ran, and was well away from that RBT.


The Swordmasters put down a couple of Chaos Warriors, but in return had four of their own die, the last one broke and fled. Since I had, instead of my typical khorne, gone slaanesh, I was able to restrain pursuit.

High Elf Turn 3

He was down to a Dragon Mage, Eagle, and Repeater Bolt Thrower. He made a wise choice and charged his Dragon Mage into my Marauder Horsemen. Due to slaanesh, they were able to stand...not that it would matter much.

With the Flaming Sword of Ruin, he easily dispatched the horsemen and over-ran. Fortunately, slaanesh meant no panic for the Marauders.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 4

At this point, for me the game was really over. I had no reason to subject myself to more Repeater Bolt thrower fire, I had no way of catching either the Eagle or Dragon, so time to hide behind hills and forests.

Not very brave or Chaos-y...but then again, I had intentionally prepared an army that could not fight stuff like this, then elected to face one because it was the type of army my opponent preferred over the lists I had built.

And honestly...if I had recently painted a dragon, I would want the same thing.

High Elf Capitulation...sort of...

With targets for only one turn, we decided to end it there. He had the results he was looking for.

Recap

For Space Monkey, the game was a rousing success. He saw the power of march blocking, cheap troops like Eagles, and got to use his Dragon in close combat.

For me, the game was a modified success. I loved the Knight v. Knight and Swordmaster v. Swordmaster combats (though the Knight one would have been slightly better had he charged up front)...but really wanted to go head to head Marauders versus Lothern Sea Guard.

Furthermore, the outcome was a bit lopsided. He got full points for the Horsemen, half points for the Warhounds and Exalted hero, while losing the Dragon princes, Swordsmen, and Sea Guard entirely.

nevertheless, it was a very entertaining game, and thus we posed for the classic "We survived the battle" photo op.

* Regarding the shot on the General. I actually did not think he had a line of sight because of the combats and positioning...but if he DID have line of sight, it SHOULD have been S6, no armor save, and D3 wounds...a potentially devastating hit.

1K Dwarf v. 1K High Elf

No pics, as I am now in Nashville for the week and have no way of downloading them to the computer. Too bad, because there are some cool ones...

Background; I was fiddling around trying to make some small-game lists I would enjoy playing. Stuff with *gasp* no Chaos Dragon Ogres, no Dragon Ogre Shaggoth....lists that include stuff I normally leave off my list for suctitude like Chaos Warhounds, Chaos Warriors, big Chaos Marauder blocks not including Wulfrik...

Plus, I wanted to find a fun, workable Dwarf build that did not have the "gunline" feel but would be fun to play.

So I made lists for Warriors of Chaos, Wood Elfs, High Elfs, Dwarfs, and Orcs & Goblins.

All the lists were sort of restricted; less than 200 points in characters (and just 1 character), blocks of ranked core fighters, just one Elite unit (except the High Elfs).

My brother was going to take me to the airport, so we snuck in a game. Having just played Warrios of Chaos versus High Elfs the night before against Space Monkey (report to follow in a week or so), I was going to play either Wood Elfs, Dwarfs or High Elfs.

Just to give you a rough idea...my Wood Elf list was so soft it included both Dryads and Wardancers. This just in...skirmishing close combat troops with no ranked troops to help against ranked up fighter units = worse suctitude than normal.

Fullur selected the High Elf list, so I mentally flipped a coin. It came up Dwarfs.

I hesitated...with T4 and decent armor, against S3 Elfs...would the High Elf army have a chance? I decided they would and went Dwarfs.

Setup was simple. Dwarf Warriors in center front with Thane w/Oathstone in it. Thunderers to left and right, Hammerers directly behind the Warriors and a unit of Rangers in the woods on my left flank.

My right flank Thunderers would be blocked by a hill, but that was okay...this field was deliberately set to allow some shooting but encourage close combat and not allow hill-placed missile fire to control the field.

He had his Bolt Thrower on my right guarded by a small stream , then his Dragon Princes, big block of spearmen, then 11 strong Lothern Sea Guard, and on my extreme left, 5 White Lions.

He won the roll and passed the turn to me.

Dwarf Turn 1

I knew he was out of range. I also knew I wanted my Thunderers on the right to get up on the hill. I marched my battle line forward, meaning (but forgetting) to start my Hammmerers off to the right to back up the Thunderers who would almost inevitable get charged (and probably run off) by the Dragon Princes.

My turn took almost a full minute to complete.

High Elf Turn 1

He marches his Spearmen forward, angles his Dragon Princes to get my flank, walks forward with his Seaguard and advances his White Lions towards my Rangers.

He shoots down a Thunderer on my left with his Sea Guard(the Grungi-Ward save provided by the Hammerers did its job) and his Repeater Bolt Thrower does in one or 2 more. I easily pass my break test.

Dwarf Turn 2

This time I do turn and start moving behind the Thunderers. Too bad that means I move less than an inch because you cannot turn and march and Dwarfs are outpaced by slugs. I fire my right flank Thunderers at his Dragon Princes, taking out two of them. My left Flank Thunderers knock off a couple Seaguard.

I ponder retreating my Rangers so he cannot "see" me in the forest. But I decide to rely on the famed Dwarf toughness and armor. And my Rank bonus. I figure to put down a White Lion or two...

High Elf Turn 2

He does his best Warriors of Chaos impersonation, charging his Dragon Princes onto my Thunderer flank (the stand and shoot had maybe 3 or 4 guys firing and did nothing), his Spearmen into my Warriors, and his White Lions at my Rangers.

I pointed out if he put his General on the hill, he could fire the Reaver Bow at my Hammerers, so he did.

He took out I think 2 Hammerers. No big deal.

What I expected to happen: His Knights put down a couple of my Thunderers, they run, bounce through the Warriors 3" to their left, and he hit them in the flank, only to find me throwing my Oathstone and taking out enough Spearmen to win the combat decisively, while the Rangers lose one or two guys, put a couple White Lions down, break him, and the game is in great shape.

What happened: He put down a Thunderer, I break, and....roll snake-eyes. His Princes roll about a 6, which means they are 3" short of my Warriors, and wanting to set a trap, I do not throw the Stone.

His Spearmen put down a Warrior, my Thane gets 1 overkill in challenge with his Champ, but my Warriors only put down one more elf, he passes his test.

The White Lions put down FIVE Rangers. I break, he over-runs, and now I am hurting a bit.

Dwarf Turn 3

Because of how I am moving, the Hammerers have the flank of the Dragon Princes, but will only hit it...2 wide. On the bright side, he will be S3 hitting me and his Champ will not be involved.

My Thunderers take his Lothern under half strength with shooting. His one guy kills one of my Hammerers, I kill one in return, he passes his test.

The Spearmen then break my Warriors by doing one or two casualties to ONE in return. Yes, my Thane's 3 attacks needing 3s to hit and 2s to kill and my other 6 attacks needing 4/2 did a total of one casualty. I need a 7, roll an 8, then run...well, I rolled snake-eyes. He over-runs about 5".

High Elf Turn 3

He concentrates fire on the Thunderers and reforms his Spears to hit my Hammerers.

Dwarf Turn 4

The Hammerers kill one Dragon Prince, the last one breaks. His General passes his test, but the Spearmen fail, break...and run 9". 9-1/8th inch would take them off the table. They stay on.

I shoot at the Lothern, they have a couple guys left.

High Elf Turn 4

He shoots down the remaining Thunderers, we agree he will never allow my Hammerers to catch them so the rest of the game will be him shooting the Hammerers trying to force break tests and pack it in.

What Went Right

The Master Rune of Grungi in the middle of my line was awesome. Everyone had a 5+ ward v. shooting. The Hammerers were outstanding at taking on well-armored troops. The Thunderers were very effective and deadly...that -2 armor save is amazing verse high-armor troops.

What Went Wrong

2 bad decisions were painful;

1) The Rangers should have played hide and seek in the forest, keeping him from marching, staying 2+ inches away as long as possible. His 11 S6 attacks were always going to cause problems and I should have realized 1 rank and outnumbering would not be enough. I could have held up his unit for a while, then shot them with Thunderers.

2) The Hammerers should have either supported my weak right flank from the get-go or moved over there turn one.

3) Rolling snake-eyes for the Thunderer flee was an ouch moment; if I can reform 8 of them to do some more shooting, I am okay...unless, of course,

4) The Thane-led Warriors doing about 4 casualties total in 2 rounds of combat is simply unacceptable. I had them where I wanted them...fighting low-S guys who needed 4 to hit, 5 to wound, and I had a 5+ save whereas I needed 4s to hit and 2s to wound against what turned out to be no save.

At the same time, what cost me the game was not anything to do with dice, and had everything to do with getting out-played.

He properly protected his flanks, concentrated his fire, and made the most of his opportunities. He had some poor fortune in having his Dragon Princes unable to get in position to face the Hammerers and an ill-timed break of the spearmen (who would have rear-charged the Hammerers next turn) and yet dominated the game thoroughly.

I really enjoyed this game. It had some great moments and produced exactly what I designed the lists to do; some block infantry combat with tactics making the difference in the win-loss. Well played, young bean, and I want a rematch of those armies, that field!