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!

Chaos Dwarfs Versus Vampire Counts

Game 3: 1000 points of Chaos Dwarfs.

Took a Slavemaster with the hailfire gun, 25 Dwarf Warriors with Full Command, banner to give them Magic Resistance, and an Eruption Gun, 10 Annihilators, and 3 Inferno Golems including the Face of hashut and an Eruption Gun upgrade. He won the first turn.


Vampire Count Turn 1
General advance. Could not stop his Corpse Cart giving Miasma. Could not stop his Wind of undeath, but only took one casualty. He put the spirit host in front of the Warriors about 7".

Chaos Dwarf Turn 1
Basically, moved the Warriors forward (and would have been short had I charged), no other moves. I had some shots with my Eruption Guns so I took them. The one on the Golems promptly mis-fired and put a wound on the Golem. The other one rolled 2 shots, did no wounds.

Vampire Count Turn 2
Charged Spirit Host into the Warriors, marched everything else forward. Varghulf circled behind my Golems. Magic was not so good this time as Wind failed, nothing else of note. He did no wounds with his Spirit Host, it died to Combat Resolution. Decision time.

If I over-ran 6-8", it would let me flank charge his zombies when my Golems charged. Less and I would be in bad shape, more and I would have no LOS. I chose not to...and failed my restrain roll. Fortunately, I advanced about 7".

Chaos Dwarf Turn 2
Charge! With the Golems in the front and the Warriors in the side, my hope was simple; do enough casualties to force the entire combat to melt to combat resolution. If I failed, he would then flank my Warriors with his Grave Guard and rear-charge the Golems with his Varghulf.

(By the way, this is the type of play I prefer to make, as opposed to the plays I made in the "power-gaming" embarrassment. High-risk, high reward. If it works, I am in good shape for a marginal win, if it fails I am at risk of a huge loss).

Shooting was good as the Blunderbusses showed their over-powered potential, hitting about 2/3rds of a unit and slaying I think 9 of them. (I should note it also showed their limitation, as this would be the only time they fired in the game, doing a total of 9 casualties through shooting).

The Eruption Gun I fired at a Corpse Cart, again rolling 2 shots and doing no damage. *Sigh*. I know they are better than that.

The Close Combat did not go all that well. His Miasma meant he hit first. No big deal, I think he only wounded one, and I saved that.

But I could not do much either. My General could not even hit, the rest of the Warriors did one or two casualties, the Golems did maybe one more? I won the combat, but only by like 10 despite having his flank and ranks and outnumbering.

I know 10 sounds like a lot...but I should have won by about 15 which would have been enough to wipe out the unit and get me away from the inevitable.

Vampire Count Turn 3
Charge! Mannfred led the Grave Guard in. His zombie screen charged the Annihilators whose stand and shoot did not one casualty.

His bound spell Dust hand or something like that was introduced to the Magic Resistance of the Banner. Yes, it paid off!

He did a couple casualties, again my General could not even wound a zombie, the Varghulf (who also charged) did a couple wounds to a Golem, the Warriors broke, the Golems (being Stubborn) stayed.

Meanwhile, the Annihilators proved decent in hand to hand (they should, having a stat line equal to the Warriors) and did 3 wounds, the rest of the Zombies crumbling to combat resolution. I needed to pursue about 4-5" but went 10"! Grr.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 3
The Annihilators had no shot due to the over-run so reformed. The Eruption Gun did not move, the Warriors Rallied, but only because of the +1 the Musician gave them. Rolled a 10. Did a wound to the Varghulf with the Golems.

Vampire Count Turn 4
His Grave Guard charged the Warriors. His Corpse Cart charged the Golems.

Typical combats; somehow the Corpse Cart did not damage and I destroyed it, took a wound from the Varghulf. Warriors and General did no casualties, lost combat by 4. Somehow did not flee.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 4
Charged into his Grave Guard for no apparent reason. Did another wound to Varghulf, but lost another Golem. Did maybe one casualty to his Grave Guard, took a couple wounds. Passed break test.


Vampire Count Turn 5
The Varghulf and Golems continued their long-running duel, though this time it was the Varghulf taking the break test 9and passing). He was down to 1 wound after this round.

The Warriors and Grave guard did a couple casualties apiece and the Warriors passed their break test again.
Curse of years cast successfully.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 5
More combat, not much accomplished. Failed to dispel curse of years.

Vampire Count Turn 6
The game hung in the balance. At this point, I had lost over half the Golems, less than half of the Warriors and not much else. He had lost a Corpse Cart, a unit of Zombies, and half wounds on the Varghulf.

Now it started to swing. On the verge of putting his Varghulf down, instead it was the Golem who finally fell. He again broke the Warriors but, with the Eruption Gun holding him in the combat, could not pursue.

The Curse of years, however, proceeded to do about 11 casualties, taking the Warriors well under half strength, thus giving him points for them and, if I rolled an 11 or 12, full points for them and the General! Suddenly things were swinging.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 6
The Warriors rallied. So that saved me about 300+ points between half points for them and for my general. My Eruption Gun finally fled, but I was okay with that. I dispelled Curse of Years. game.

Conclusion:
Surprisingly, I ended up with a few more points...because I captured a standard of his but he did not get one of mine. His loss of the Corpse Cart was devastating.

Fortunately, the points difference was less than a hundred, and that is a clear draw.


This was a much better game. Both players got stuff done, the outcome was in doubt a few times, and that was cool.

I think the 12" range of the blunderbusses is a pretty good limitation on them. The Eruption Guns have been a marked disappointment, as the BS3 combined with the pedestrian strength make them pretty iffy.

On the other hand, the Warriors were surprisingly good. I lean somewhat towards starting to play the Dwarfs as opposed to the Warriors of Chaos. They are capable without being crushingly dominant the way the WoC are against all but one army in our group. We will see.

Campaign Round 1: Empire Versus Chaos Dwarfs

When I rolled up who each army would be facing, one of the units I rolled was Chaos Dwarfs. I have been wanting to try them out, though it is slightly more difficult since one player in our group thinks they are even more imbalanced than I think one of the official army lists is (I actually so despise one of their magic items I have considered not playing against them, though ultimately I have not elected to go there) and does not want to play against them, so my pool of potential opponents is one smaller.

So naturally, I took them on. There were a few things working against me; I would have 500 points and would be facing 750 points, they are a different style from the other two armies I typically play...and the Inferno Golems, the unit I really want to play test a bit, were way out of reach in a 500 point army.

But there were some things going for me, as well. While they are slower than either the 5" Wood Elf move or the awesome Chaos knight Cavalry charge, they do combine the ability to ramble 6" per turn with T4 and generally heavy or Chaos Armor, thus providing a rugged, tortoise style army. Plus they have the Eruption Gun.

They needed something to deal with monsters, so I started with a Chaos Dwarf Slavemaster with the Axe of ghorth, which meant he did not need to roll to wound.

Next I took something like 25 Chaos Dwarf Warriors with Chaos Armor and shield before re-thinking it. The idea was to provide a game somewhat softer than normal for my opponent, not have a bunch of hard-core, tough to wound killers. Plus, that was a lot of points so I removed the Chaos armor and dropped their unit size. After some fine-tuning, they would end up with 15 of them, including a Champion. By putting the Slave-master in this unit, they could lose a guy and still have 2 ranks.

They allowed me to take an Eruption gun, one of the controversial Dwarf units. At first it was thought to be identical to an Organ Gun, which would mean it was ridiculously under-priced at 45 points. Closer examination reveals it has a BS3 and suffers modifiers to its shots which means it has 0-10 shots that never have better than 50% chance to deal out S4 hits. Still seems a bit under-priced at 45 points, but we will see.

Next I took 10 Chaos Dwarf Annihilators, another controversial choice that seems perhaps over-powered.

Finally, I was able to take 6 Obsidian Guard as my elite unit.

I would be facing 750 points of Empire madness.

The field would encourage a melee in the center as there was rough ground on my right flank protecting a tower, and beyond that a small stream that would inhibit movement. To my left were a pair of forests opposite a hill. Oops, he won for table sides and I knew the cannon on the hill could be deadly.

Since I had no fast-moving troops, it would be 4 - 5 turns before I could get to the cannon (24" between us, 6" per turn max move) so that could be quite problematic.

He had a detachment of quarrelers butted up to the Cannon, then a big block of infantry, then a detachment of Free Company. finally, he placed his knights in the Stream, really the only place they could go. He won the first turn.

Empire Turn 1

The cannon would not move in the entire game. The parent unit and its detachments marched forward. the knights, hobbled by the stream, could only move 3-1/2" forward. Neither of us had magic, so shooting would be the fun phase.

This turn he could only fire his cannon. His range guess was excellent, the Artillery Dice kind, landing about an inch in front of my Warriors. Any 4, 6,8, or 10 would most likely do 4-5 wounds since his aim was perfect. He had a 66% chance of doing serious damage....and a 1-in-6 chance of what happened, the cannon ball sticking where it landed and doing nothing other than drawing an evil chortle from the chaos Dwarfs. Which is what happened. Ouch.

On the bright side, his Pegasus riding general, out ahead of the army, took a shot at the Eruption Gun...and wounded it.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 1

I marched the Warriors on my left wing and the Obsidian guard on my right the full 6". I moved the Blunderbuss 3" and took a shot at his Pegasus-riding General, but whiffed. The Eruption Gun stayed put to maximize its firing potential. It rolled a mighty 8 shots and, needing 5s to hit, hit 4 times, killing 2 of his big block.

Empire Turn 2

He made a slight advance, and his reasoning was not just sound, it was hilarious. "I guess I will stop here since getting charged by Dwarfs would just be humiliating."

Bwoohahahah, great line. Thanks, Fullur.

The Pegasus General flies behind my Warriors and shoots at the Eruption Gun, but somehow misses. then his Cannon...mis-fires. Fortunately, he rolls a 6 and will be able to fire it next turn.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 2

My Obsidian Guard makes just a 3" advance, as I do not want his detachment to charge with the Knights. I figure I can maybe survive a Knight charge, but would lose badly to a combined charge so I tried to stay out of range of the detachment.

Meanwhile, my Warriors march 6" again. I move the Annihilators just 3" so they can fire at the infantry block.

once again i roll an 8 on the artillery dice and, again needing 5s, hit 4 times and again wound 2 guys. The Blunderbusses, with S5 due to 2 ranks, also open fire on his unit...and proceed to do another 2 wounds. The unit takes 25% in this round...breaks and flees.

Empire Turn 3

He fails to rally. Whatever. The Knights charge my Obsidian Guard.

His cannon...for the second consecutive turn...mis-fires. In the interest of a better game (his cannon dropped the ball in the mud, mis-fired, and mis-fired) we make him re-roll, only to see it overshoot everybody.

His Quarreler detachment shoots down 2 Warriors and his Pegasus General shoots down the Eruption Gun.

Close Combat goes about as expected. His Knights kill one Obsidian Guard, they kill a Knight, are outnumbered, and needing an 8 roll an 11, epic fail. They flee but are over-run.

Chaos Dwarf Turn 3

Just a turn ago, it looked so good for me. Well, my Warriors charge his detachment, which flees...3". At first, I rolled the dice and thought I had caught them, but then we remembered I would only go my charge distance which lagged behind them by about an inch, so failed charge, I only go 3". His detachment lives.

I wheel the Blunderbuss unit to face the Knights who otherwise would be rear-charging me in about 2 turns.

Empire Turn 4

He initially fails both rally tests, but we take a good look at the dice. They have rolled 9 or higher 6 consecutive times. We remove the dice, have him re-roll and both units rally. His other detachment flank charges my Warriors, which I am not overly worried about.

Then his Pegasus shoots down a Blunderbuss, the Cannon does its first 2 casualties of the game against them, causing 25% to the unit...which promptly rolls an 11, flees, runs into the Knights and is wiped out.

In close combat, he kills 2 Warriors, who can do but one casualty in return. 2 casualties +flank beats one casualty + outnumber...I break, run, get over-run...and abruptly the game is over.

Conclusion

His dice rolling was appalling in this game. The 3 rounds of nothing from the cannon...the failing of EVERY SINGLE LEADERSHIP TEST until we made him re-roll...the Knights doing all of 1 wound...

While mine, on the other hand, was stupendous. I took 16 shots which should reasonably have had 5.3 hits...and got 8 out of it. Also, I should have averaged 5 shots per turn, so I got more than an extra turn of shooting out of the Eruption Gun, hit more often than it should.

I do think the Eruption gun is under costed by 5 points or so...it is pretty squishy for a War Engine, and I suspect will be pretty erratic over the course of time.

The Blunderbusses I think are pretty balanced. They are awesome against hoard type units and will pretty much be worthless against tough enemies unless I can keep them ranked up to get the strength bonus.

The Warriors I think are probably costed about right assuming regular Dwarf Warriors have WS4 as well, other wise I think they cost a point or 2 too many.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed playing as Dwarfs though and might take up the regular Dwarf army a bit more often. Assuming, of course, I can ever get the Gyrocoptor assembled...sometime after I get the dragon glued together, after I get the Juggernaut glued together. Have I mentioned lately how much I hate the assembling portion of the hobby? I suck at it, and it really sucks a lot of the enjoyment of the game out of it for me. I might have to try and trade off some Blazer tickets to someone to pin them :-)

Over-all, i think the spirit of the game was held up. The idea was to ensure an Empire victory, and he only permanently lost one guy, so no real harm done and I think it was a pretty fun game.

Seeing his 10 man Free Company detachment make my 15 Warriors and Slavemaster run was pretty awesome, definitely a highlight of the day for me. I like seeing my opponents do well and after watching the Cannon do nothing all day...it was time.

Good game, massacre for the Empire.