3600 Dwarfs v 3600 Ogres

These young whippersnappers have been keeping me busy doing stuff called NOT playing Warhammer, but Kev the ogre and I decided to correct that so off we went. I wanted to try out the new Dwarf book...yes, it has been so long since I played the Dwarf book is still new to me...

 I wanted to try out the new Irondrakes, etc. I figured he would be playing the Skaven so took a couple cannons, a flame cannon and an organ gun...the cannons would go after the H-Pit Abomination which always rips my lips off, if they found a way of getting it early then I would have something to deal with the Screaming bell and Doomwheel.

 Meanwhile, I put strollaz Runes all over the place so I could Vanguard as many units as possible. I had 2 blocks of Longbeards (20 for potential Watchtower scenario, and 30), a 25 strong Hammerer block, 1 10-strong thunderer, a couple gyrocopters, including one with Vanguard.

 My plan was simple. The Hammerers would go dead-center in my battle line, keeping the other blocks within 12" meant they would be stubborn with a re-roll, allowing me to theoretically whittle them down with shooting and then they would have to slay every dwarf to get points.

 That beardy Kev went and foiled my plan, bringing Ogres and rolling up Dawn deployment.

Most of my rolls were really nice...I planted a cannon in the right corner with beautiful fire lanes and protected by a mysterious river with a 20 strong Longbeard Block with thane to protect it. Next to that was the second cannon and my Runelord on Anvil. Just in front of him were the Irondrakes with Stollaz so they pushed well forward pre-game to control the center.

 In the center were my 30 Longbeards in hoard formation controlling a ton of space. Getting towards the left I had a mini-artillery park of steam cannon and Organ Gun. They were protected by a mysterious forest straight ahead but could easily hit either the killing zone in the center of the table or the left flank should he sweep around that one.

I had one vanguarded Gyrocopter and the Irondrakes, but missed that the 30-strong Longbeards had it. This would turn out to be a fortuitous mistake...

The only problem was the Hammerers, who were meant to be dead center, were stuck on the left flank. Oops...

For his part, his rolls were much worse. His 8-strong (!) Leadbelchers were stuck well off to the left (out of sight on the picture above) and his right flank was very crowded with a stonehorn, unit of...bulls? in fron, another unit of ironguts behind them, and maneaters behind them. He managed to only have 10 units to my 11 so got to go first. Or had to, depending on point of view...

Ogre turn 1
The sinister statue in the center of his line (the OOOOOOLLLLLLDDDD school giant) puts a wound on his regular bulls, then hits the general 4 times....and musters 3 "1"s and a "2". It would be my last bad roll until the game was decided...

The ogre lines made a general advance but had no charges. He gets off Flamestar with irresistible force, only to see the only wound saved, roll an 11 on the mis-cast table essentially making his special character a level 0 speedbump for the rest of the game...

His Ironblaster cannon overshoots the Irondrakes and puts a wound on the Anvil of Doom. His Leadbelchers can only muster 3 hits in 20 shots and kill 1 Longbeard. Overall this turn was a huge fluff for the ogres.

Dwarf Turn 1
I move the 20-strong longbeards towards the Leadbelchers. I really have no interest in getting closer to that firestorm, but this march actually opens an enfilade on his unit of Mournfangs.Ialso do slight retrograde with the Hammerers because I am an idiot.

They are a hard as nails combat unit. Oh, sure, they die easily if anything with decent strength hits them...but they dish out a ton of pain. He has a clogged up flank...I need to keep it clogged.

My cannon enfilade works perfectly as the two cannons both hit the Mournfangs in the flank and there is no more Mournfang unit on the board.

Meanwhile, the Trollhammer Torpedo fires out of the Irondrakes, putting 3 wounds on his Ironblaster and the rest of the unit finishes it off.

The thunderers, organ gun and steam gun combine to take out three bulls.


I have not played a shooting army since trading away the Wood Elves for the Beastmen. This is the most effective shooting phase I have ever had; 3 Mournfangs, an Iron Blaster, 3 bulls, the center of his line ripped out, leaving 8 Leadbelchers with a long shot at some longbeards and 3 bulls to take on 10 Irondrakes...his other flank crowded in on itself...I am instantly in control of this game.

Ogre Turn 2
The dice turn in his favor. His Gorgers, for the first time ever, arrive, 4 strong, and come on my back edge behind my 30 Longbeards. He declares charges all over the field, and they are easy to make charges. It hurts I erred in taking my BSB out of the Hammerer unit thinking A) the Rune of Slowness was on their banner and B) they were going to die to the combined charge they were about to receive. So no -d6" to his charge.

Not that it mattered...he moves forward 1" with the Stonehorn and 2" with the Ironguts as they both fail spectacularly. Meanwhile, his Bulls take 4 wounds when the Irondrakes stand and shoot them to ribbons.His level 0 charges my Gyrocopter and his general breaks out of the now 3 strong unit.

The Leadbelchers get a whopping 34 shots and do a handful of wounds.

The gyrocopter and character cannot hurt each other, but I fail my test, flee and get run down. The Irondrakes beat the Bulls, need a 4 to run down the remaining one...and he lives by an inch.

Dwarf turn 2
Well, that double-failed charge was a stroke of luck, but the Hammerers are still grumbling, knowing they will get smacked around next turn. Where is the rest of the army? Just like those young punks to be off gallivanting doing nothing while the mighty Hammerers do all the work.

At least the BSB rejoined to bolster them and potentially inhibit the forthcoming charge.

I need a 9 to reach his leadbelchers but decide to charge anyway rather than let him keep shooting my Longbeards without fear.

In the center I don't want his Gorgers charging the rear of my Longbeards, and then getting smacked in front by his bulls. I make those combo charges, I don't receive them so needing a 10 I declare the charge.

Both make it.

He needs like 3s to make charges and fails. I need 9 and 10 and make it. Bwoohahaha. As Gimli said, Dwarves are "wasted on cross country. We Dwarves are natural sprinters. Very dangerous over short distances." I am going to count 13" as a short distance...

I have his Gorgers lined up for an enfilade. To cannons speak...4 Gorgers leave the table having done nought but occupy cannons that had no other target.

This lets my steam cannon and Organ Gun concentrate on his general who eats their fire and walks off wounded three times.

In close combat we both expect his leadbelchers to win. This is stupid thinking...I charged (S5) with a strong, tough, armored unit. Sure, he is strong and tough too...but I hit on 3, he hits on 4, we both wound on 5, I have a save.

I beat the Belchers, need a 5 to run them down...he lives by an inch.

The 30-strong Longbeards in the center terrorize his bulls, killing them and running down the BSB. wow, could things be going any better?

Ogre Turn 3
There was an outside shot he could get two units into combat the first turn on my left flank. It is now turn 3 and time for the Stonehorns and Ironguts to charge again.The Stonehorn makes it with ease despite my Rune of Slowness. The Ironguts...are you kidding me? They fail. They needed I think a 4 and could not make it happen even without the rune.

His General charges the hapless Organ Gun. It is not long for this world...

Everyone rallies. Uh oh.

When he had most things running, it looked good. I still do not think I can stand up to him face to face in combat...Ogres are fast, tough and strong. With bad WS.

His name character enfilades the Longbeards with a breath weapon and kills 5.

The Stonehorn does 3d3 Impact hits. He gets...9. Max possible. He does fail to kill 1, but before the battle with his most fearsome troop starts I am down essentially a third of my unit, from 25 to 17. He then fluffs most of his attacks and does no further wounds, and the Hammerers kill the Stonehorn outright in one go.

Wow. behold the power of multiple attack S6, high WS guys v low WS.

Dwarf Turn 3
I charge his Leadbelchers again on the right flank with my Longbeards. Not much else they can do...he wins a shooting battle between his 20-30 shots/turn v my 0 shots, but I figure to do okay in cc. I do NOT charge his 1 bull with my Irondrakes. I want to fire that Trollhammer Torpedo again!

Meanwhile, my Longbeards charge his Level 4 wizard...that should end well for me I should think.

I fly the gyrocopter over to look at his single bull.

Shooting is pretty awesome as I take out his level 0 wizard, kill the single bull with the Trollhammer. His level 4 also dies. His Leadbelchers lose but refuse to break.

 Ogre Turn 4
Two turns too late his Ironguts charge the Hammerers. His general and some random unit of Bulls make a combined charge on the Flame cannon, the Bulls in front and General to the side.

Improbably, the Flame cannon survives and stands. Even more improbably the Hammerers take out his Ironguts in one go. I have no explanation for this.

Dwarf turn 4
The game is flying as there is little left to do. With him having no wizards left I am DOMINATING the magic phase...getting off the armor save boost has twice saved multiple Longbeards, the Wrath and Ruin is wounding Maneaters, Bulls, etc left and right...

I have very few targets left with the cannons as all but one of his 5 remaining units are engaged in combat and that one is behind a forest.

I charge my Thunderers into the Flame Cannon battle thinking I have Resolute and a chance...

The Longbeards force the Leadbelchers to flee off the table and are basically out of the game themselves, being in the far right flank across the board while the only remaining ogres are in my left flank deployment zone...

He finishes off the flame cannon, does lots of wounds to the Thunderers but they stick around.

Ogre Turn 5
His 2 Maneaters charge the flank of the 30-strong Longbeards. Why not, they have nothing else to do...

His Great Weapon Ironguts (?) charge the meatgrinding Hammerer unit. They battle fiercely, heavy losses both sides, I am down to 3 guys, he has 2, both wounded. Unfortunately, his unit Champ killed my BSB in a challenge. Fortunately, I passed the break test.

My General takes his champion in a challenge, he needs 6s to save the 2 wounds, gets them both, then adds insult to injury by wounding the general but I win combat anyway and reform to face them.

He wipes out the thunderers but gets stuck in the worst place possible...in front of the cannons.

Dwarf Turn 5
Unopposed, the Anvil Wrath And Ruins his bulls to death. The Cannons take out his general. The Hammerers and ironguts, both having great weapons, strike simultaneously. He does three wounds, wiping out my Hammerers. I do about 5 wounds...killing his last two unit members as well. Simultaneous mutual death. It was awesome.

His Maneaters break and get so far away that next turn would be me charging, him fleeing, then regrouping. Actually, they went through a mysterious forest, so I probably could not have seen them...we called it off since that was all he had left on the table.


What Went Right
Multiple wound-causing cannons getting enfilades on his Mournfangs and Gorgers before they could engage was unbelievable. I think he made a mistake not taking into account his positioning would allow me to shoot down his flank...but I made the right decision on  what to shoot at.

Additionally, when his already-clogged flank failed charges 3 of 4 attempts it allowed my single unit of Hammerers to take them on piece-meal and grind up the entire left flank, thus allowing the rest of my army to overwhelm him.

Finally, hitting those two low-percentage, high-risk, high-reward charges was a game-winning bit of luck. It got me out of precarious situations...if his leadbelchers get to sit back taking 20,30, 35 S4 shots a turn my Longbeards are going to die.

Meanwhile, multiple multi-wound causing weapons is a REALLY bad match for the ogres. If I enfilade a skaven unit, sure, I might do 5 or 6 casualties...who cares? Do 5-6 wounds (or 16...) to a Mournfang unit or Gorgers...well, that is a different story. I actually thought I would see skaven and against them the cannons would be nice but not stupid powerful. As it was, I think I fired the cannons 4 times each, had to reroll thanks to rune of forgning at least 5 of the 8 shots....and ended up never having a misfire, leading to some HUGE damage.

What Went Wrong
I definitely showed some rust in several decisions, but really, very little went wrong. I had a couple fluffed rolls but they were at times and places that did not hurt me overall.

He did a TON of damage. My 25 man Longbeards ended with 6 or 8 guys left...my 30 strong had I think 14 or so guys left...my hammerers, thunderers, gyrocopter, BSB, Steam cannon and Organ Gun all died...but the damage was spread out.

Really, I think it came down to my cannons being able to enfilade his key units and those failed charges. Do less cannonball damage and he can do some things. Get the Hammerers in a tough spot against a Stonehorn and Ironguts turn 2 and suddenly I don't have one unit holding up 3-4 units.

Final Thoughts
Overall, it was a really fun game. I love that I was able to vanguard 2 9and should have been 3 units, though if my Longbeards were further forward it would not have let me kill his Mournfangs, overshooting into his Maneaters...)

I like the Dwarf army has the option to push forward far enough to not have to sit back and gunline. At the same time, I kind of feel like I might have taken too much artillery...it was nearly 20% of my points, I just added it up. Sadly, Dwarfs are so expensive that taking say 2 less pieces would not let me take another combat unit. As is, nearly 50% of my points were in cc units and, including characters designed to make them even more CC oriented, well over 50% of them.I only had one unit of Thunderers so maybe a second one of them, but the nerf-bat they took makes that questionable.

Regardless, Kev said he liked the combat feel of the army and did not feel overwhelmed by the artillery/shooting and, in fact, thought he had more overall shooting. Not sure about that, though the 8 leadbelchers putting out 8d6 shots, his Ironblaster...they were fierce.

Anyhow, great time with great opponent. Looking forward to the next game. At this rate, that will probably be about 2016...

Dwarfs versus Wood Elfs pre-game nonsense

What a day. I have been looking forward to this game since last month's devastation of Josh's Orcs at the hands of my heroic and gorgeous Wood Elf shooting army of doom.  The humiliation of waiting 14 years to play a Wardancer unit only to see them routed by a crap unit notwithstanding, the game was a lot of fun. Warhammer usually is. Plus, with the new lights Rick installed and the felt he and I covered the tables with, it should look spectacular.

So I have been painting like mad and spent a good deal of time making sure there would be competitive armies for the Goblins, a couple Dwarf armies, a Wood Elf army, a fun and competitive Vampire count army. So I got the lists all together, gathered up all the stuff and set out to pick up Chad. 

Then I returned home to pick up the army lists. And headed off to pick up Chad.

Then returned home to pick up the army I forgot to bring. Then headed off to pick up Chad.

Then turned back to get the new scenery I had purchased. 

AAAAAAAAAggggggggghhhhhhhhhh! Not a good start.

Well, knew we would be having pizza, so did not eat breakfast. Well, got there late, things were a bit discombobulated. Never did get anything ordered. No big deal...except when all was said and done I would go from 2:30 yesterday afternoon until 9:00 tonight without eating. D'oh!

Well, anyway, we started off with a good game of Heroscape. Got some nice pictures, hopefully will get my camera issues resolved soon and get them up.

Unfortunately, the one thing I did not get resolved was table space issues. So we matched up Kenneth and his Dark Elf army against Josh and the Goblins, Phillip and his lizardmen against Rick and the Dwarf army (with Chad studying the game under Rick) and Kevin's new Ogre Kingdom army against Chris and the Vampire Counts. That left me without a game.

Now, to be fair Rick offered to sit out but I could not bring myself to play when someone else was sitting out so I was just going to take pictures and notes of all the games.

Oh, remember the numerous things I forgot to bring with me this morning? Well...I also forgot to recharge my camera batteries after Friday's Blazer game so I essentially had no batteries left. Just not meant to be my day.

I mostly watched Kevin and Chris. I explained the way I built the Vampire army to work; the Cairn Wraiths working as a protective screen to allow the Skeletons and Grave Guard to get into close combat without taking a lot of damage, plus carry Mannfred the Acolyte with them and let his Sword of Unholy Power do its work.

Unfortunately, he did not quite get what I was saying and put his screening unit off on the left, leaving his Grave Guard w/Mannfred unit exposed to the Leadbelchers of Kevin. With only 1000 point armies, this was a great risk; should the leadbelchers do enough damage to cause a break test and the test fail, he conceivably could lose almost half his army to the opening volley, a totally unnecessary risk.

That is why these learning games are good, because I could freely mention the strategy upgrade and reasoning behind it.

Meanwhile, Kevin had a pretty good set-up and won the first turn. His Leadbelchers and Gut-dudes all rumbled forward. Unfortunately for him, the Leadbelchers were about 1/4" out of range and his magic phase saw either failure to cast or else dispelled by Chris.

Then Chris was able to correct his set-up. He got the Ethereal Cairn Wraiths in front of his units so they would be the only target for the Leadbelchers. That was essentially the game as it turned out.

The next turn for Kev was more maneuvering and failed Magic. Then Chris charged his Cairn Wraiths into the Leadbelchers. Open up with the Banshee Ghostly Howl and soon the Leadbelchers were gone without ever getting to fire their guns. 

That was the way the game went; Kevin had nothing that could hurt the Cairn Wraiths who rampaged through every unit he had. Ultimately, one unit of Zombies Chris managed to raise was slain by one of Kevin's units, giving him 50 points, the total he ended with. At the end of the game he had fleeing Gnoblars and 1 character (75 point character) on the table while Chris lost a total of 4 skeletons. Brutal.

Lesson: Always, always, always have some way of dealing with ethereal creatures. That one unit did ALL the damage, 925 points. 

Meanwhile, the Lizardmen/Dwarf battle was almost as bad. A major tactical error saw 2 of the 3 cannons covered up by Thunderer units; the army he decided to use had 2 10 man Thunderer units (150 points each), 3 cannons (90 points each), a Master Engineer, and a 17 man Warrior regiment meant to surround the Thane. In theory, nobody in the entire army would move until the Warriors charged late in the game. However, he missed that part of the design and planned to move his Thunderers out of the way of the Cannons. However, an all-shooting army that sees 33% of its shooters unable to shoot (Move or Fire) is going to struggle. 

Phillip put a skirmishing screen of skinks all the way across the front. Perfect. Moved forward, fired. Rinse, repeat, and roll to a massacre victory which was only helped when 2 of the cannons blew up in the same turn. *Sigh*. Poor Rick. No luck paired with sub-optimal starting position meant disaster.

And in the third game, Josh also missed part of the army design. I tried to explain that he needed to put his Spider Riders spread 10 wide, then his Archers 20 wide, then all his hand to hand units, meant to move forward, firing as they went, and allow him to numerically overwhelm the badly outnumbered Dark Elf army. Instead he bunched the Spider Riders on one wing 5 wide, the archers about 10 wide, and spread his hand-to-hand units all across the table. Worse yet, he put his general off on his right wing.

This allowed Kenneth to charge his best unit into the unsupported, unready for close combat Spider riders, shoot one of his 40 spearmen units to ribbons on their way across the field, and never outnumber the Dark Elf army. Even with a 200 point advantage, that set-up meant he was way behind. 

I almost cried on the turn he charged his remaining spearmen into the Dark Elf quarrelers and instead of flanking them with his stone troll, instead charged the stone troll solo into a unit of Dark Elf Corsairs. 

Kenneth and Josh thought it was luck that the Stone Troll died in turn one; nope. Not even close. There were 3+ ranks of Corsairs. He had a +2 for that, +1 for outnumbering, +1 for Standard bearer. Before it even started he had a +4 to his combat resolution. He only had 3 attacks. Even if he killed with all 3 of them and took no return wounds, he would have to take a break test on Leadership 4 (out of range of the general) with a -1. The troll was dying that turn. 

This is not taking anything from Kenneth. He set up his army better and moved them better. Josh was in deep trouble from the word go. 

Overall, looked like everyone had fun, so that is a good thing. Shortly will post report on my battle with Chad.

Heroscape, December 13th, 2008

We elected to play a "rising gas, Marvel heroes" game. We were to pick an army of 400 points or less. I initially took the Knights of Weston, Captain America, the Monks, and I think some Morro warriors or something insignificant. But then I remembered we were not using the "only 1 order per turn for heroes"rule and switched to just the Hulk.

 Rick took Thanos. Kevin went with Dr. Doom, a unit of Samurai, and some Omnicrons, slightly over the point total. Josh took Spiderman and a couple heroes whose names I don't know. Phillip went with Iron Man, the Ninjas, and Guilty McGreech.

The Hulk was gnarly. I leapt out of range of everyone since I forgot I had 3 moves before the gas came. *Sigh*. Kevin moved towards Josh who responded by Spiderman injuring Dr. Doom. The Ninjas moved to attack Thanos who battled them back, taking one out. 

My second move was to move Hulk over and attack Dr. Doom, doing a couple points. 

He moved his Samurai close to me and actually hit me twice. 2 attacks versus 6 and 7 defense. Ouch. Josh then tried to kill me with a roll of 17+, but missed. Another Ninja died at the hands of Thanos.

Hulk took his vengeance, slaying Dr. Doom. The third Ninja died at the hands of Thanos, the unit never once injuring him.

The gas rose, closing off layer 1. 

Meanwhile, Hulk was pinned by two of Joshes' guys and 2 Samurai. With his wounds growing, 

he killed a Samurai with ease. 

Meanwhile, Guilty moved up to face Thanos. He actually did some damage but was not with us for long as Thanos opened up a can of whoop-smurf on him.

Hulk finished off the Samurai, but not until a Samurai had slain one of Josh's minor heroes. That freed Hulk to go after his 1-shot kill wonder, which he did, doing mass damage. 

Iron Man wiped out a couple Omnicron.

Thanos flew to level one to attack Spider-man as both Rick and I though we were on turn 2 but we were on turn 3.  That cost him his last wound and he was gone. Hulk killed the deadly 1-hit character of Joshes. Iron Man finished off the last Omnicron, thus ending Kevin's night. 

Hulk attacked Spider-man, who swung away. Iron Man then demolished Hulk, leaving him just one wound.

Hulk super-jumped away from the fray, leaving Spider-man and Iron Man in one-on-one. 

Even with Spider-man's Web-swinging, the battle was all Iron Man, who only had taken one wound at this point. I knew the only way to defeat Iron Man was for Spidey and I to work together, which Josh agreed to so I jumped into combat with Iron Man. 

Then Josh changed his mind and Spider-man killed the Hulk, only to immediately fall to Iron Man, the last Hero standing.

Very fun, fast-paced, exciting game.