Sunday, July 29, 2012

WFB shecksy models - Ogres + Warriors of Chaos

Turn 1a Dwarves
The Ogre Kingdoms & Warriors of Chaos alliance face off a horde of Dwarfs.
Turn 2a - Dwarves-001
A 15 block of Warriors of Chaos with a Mark of Tzeentch) hold off a horde of 30 Hammerers while also being rear charged by a block of 20 miners for 3 turns.
The WoC general was heard to genuinely remark: "Those dwarf hammerers are ridiculously good, how are they still alive?"
Turn 4b - Ogre + Warrios of Chaos Alliance
Some very pretty Chaos Knights charge a cannon. This photo is slightly out of focus, but they're still pretty boys. Get a room party knights!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Brocon - battle report 2 vs Dark Elves

Here's the army list I took.

Battle 2: Vs the Dark Elves  

Battle 2 Vs Dark Elves  - Turn 1 DE

Scenario: 
Watch Tower
This one caused me trouble, I hadn't accounted properly for it in my list. If you can't occupy the tower as a dwarf in turn 1, it's either empty or your enemy has it. If it's empty, it takes you three turns to get into the watch tower. No other army will take as long, so you're fighting a losing battle to get them out of the tower.

Army:
From left to right in the above pic, Dave took:
  • 40 Executioners - these nasties have killing blow and GWs. I believe they had a banner giving them always strike first. So striking first, rerolling, great weapon Str6 troops. Scary.
  • 1 Repeater bolt thrower 
  • 10 Crossbowmen 
  • 1 Lvl 2 caster in with the Crossbowmen 
  • 30 Corsairs 
  • 20 Spearmen Cauldron of blood, with hag and another character if I remember correctly (the cauldron is directly behind the spearmen, but just out of camera shot) 
  • 1 Lvl 4 caster (I think?) in with the Spearmen 
  • 1 Hydra 
  • 7 Shades 
Who went first?
The Dark Elves.

Battle 2 Vs Dark Elves  - Turn 2 Dwarfs
What Happened:
Shade scouts were deployed 12" away from my hammerers, and in their first turn they marched into range and repeater crossbowed a grudge thrower off the board. Some good shooting there. You can't even see the grudge thrower in the first picture above as it's already been removed, it was behind the hammerers.

On the left flank:
The cannon did some damage to the Hydra before it charged the hammerers. It then killed the bolt thrower.

Battle 2 Vs Dark Elves  - Turn 3 DE

The executioners advanced, I faced off my warriors and quarrellers backing each other up, increasing the charge distance the executioners would make and readying for a counter charge. I was expecting a charge from the executioners which never came!

My quarrellers pinged the 10 man unit of crossbows over two turns but having reformed into 5x6 (expecting a charge from the executioners) they never did enough damage in this formation to cause a panic test. I was hoped to panic them and have the lvl 2 caster flee with them. The executioners never charged, so kept hitting them, but the cauldron gave them a 5+ ward save.

I decided I was screwed unless I made an attempt at the tower, so in the warriors charged, while the quarrellers moved backwards increasing the charge distance the executioners would have to make.

Battle 2 Vs Dark Elves  - Turn 4 Dwarfs

I kept hitting the executioners with the grudge thrower, taking out a sizeable chunk more. Realising I was out of time, I also charged the quarrellers into the executioners. The quarrellers were winning, but it was already too late - turn 6 had arrived for this flank. The warriors were soundly beaten over two turns and fled the combat.

In the middle:
The hammerers moved forward to give the organ gun a clear shot at the shades. It killed 5 of them, they panicked and fled off the board over the next two turns. The next turn the organ gun decided to misfire and roll a 2, which means destroyed. Bye bye organ gun.

The remaining grudge thrower targetted the corsairs until they got in the tower, it then targetted the executioners on the left flank taking 10 of them away over two turns.

Battle 2 Vs Dark Elves  - Turn 5 DE

On the right flank:
The cannon on the left flank did some small damage to the hydra, which then charged the hammerers and was murderated by them.

The hammerers moved up with the idea that they'd either assault the building, or chase points behind the building via the lvl 4 caster general type in the spearman unit. They would have wiped the floor with them, and kept gunning into the cauldron. After killing the hydra, they marched forward in turn 3. It was turn 4 before they started to attempt charges on the spearman unit. Unfortunately, those charges would fail for the next 3 turns.

Result:
15-5 Loss
Because I didn't take the watchtower, the score started at 15-5.
I did enough damage to take it to 13-7, but adjusting for SCALE the Dark Elf army was a 0 and I was a 2, meaning it was back to 15-5.


What I would do differently: 
Ignore the building, or get into combat with it much faster.

What didn't work well:
The organ gun misfired and removed itself from the board. Sigh.
Assaulting a building with frenzied corsairs in it. They were putting out 23 attacks a turn.

What worked well:
Same as last time, I had spent a lot of points on anti magic and poor Dave had his magic phase shut down.

Missed Rules:
Buildings!

  • When assaulting with 10 people, step up rule still applies. We played it that if the corsairs killed 7 warriors (they frequently killed more) then I only got 3 attacks. Wrong. Attackers always get 10 attacks assuming they still have 10 models. 
  • When assaulting a building, even if you win CR your attacking unit is moved back an inch thereby not getting a followup round of combat in the occupying players turn. 
  • If you win combat res, and the enemy fails it's Ld roll and flees, you can combat reform INTO the building. 
  • I also didn't know that skirmishers could march and shoot. Barstewards.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Brocon - battle report 1 vs Warriors of Chaos

I played in Brocon in Limerick last weekend, t'was my first time playing in a tournament. It was really good fun, and most importantly every person I played was really nice. No bickering over millimetres or anything, which I was worried would be the case.

I had 5 games in total, 3 on the first day and 2 on the second. Here's how I got on:
  • loss v Dice Chucker Mike's Warriors of Chaos 18-2 (dawn attack, Mike won the tournament!)
  • loss v TLC Dave Dark Elves 15-5 (stupid watch tower)
  • win v Hans' Vampire Counts 17-3 (meeting engagement)
  • win v Dice Chucker Tony's Vampire Counts 17-3 (blood and glory)
  • loss v TLC Nigel's Demons 20-0 (pitched battle)
I was super tired at the end of the second day, I'm sure the 3 games on Saturday tired me out. The drinking on Saturday night couldn't have had anything to do with it.

I won best painted army on Sunday, which was a very pleasant and complete surprise. Huzzah! \o/

This is the first battle report, with some hazy details, probably some whining, maybe some analysis / what I should do / what I would do next time against that particular army.

Here's the army list I took.

Battle 1: Vs the Warriors of Chaos
Turn 1, set up.
Scenario:
Dawn attack (= no castling for the dwarfs).

Army:
From left to right Mike took something along the lines of (I've never read the WoC army book so this is very likely wrong):

  • 20 core warrior guys, with a lvl2 caster
  • war alter thing which gave random gifts like extra attacks, or ward saves to units within 12"
  • 15 elite troops, which had an extra attack (Mark of Khorne?), FC + halberds for Str 5
  • 15 elite troops, which had a Mark of Tzeentch, I think it was a 5+ ward save in combat when combined with parry
  • 40 Mauraders with GWs (a bargain at only 245 points!)
  • 5 fast cav flesh hound things
  • 6 chaos knights with ensorcelled magic weapons for Str 5

I should really go read the Warriors of Chaos book...

What Happened:
As his battle line advanced, I divided up my shooting. I really should have concentrated fire. I targeted the marauders with both of my grudge throwers, taking out about 12 of them. Organ gun and quarrelers fired on the non ward saving elite troops, with the cannon firing on the alter.

I don't remember which turns, but there were plenty of misfires. The organ gun didn't shoot for a turn, the cannon couldn't shoot for 2 turns, a grudge thrower couldn't shoot for a turn, and when they were firing the grudge throwers were less than accurate.
Battle 1 Vs Warriors of Chaos  - Turn 2 WoC
Turn 2
On the right flank:
The cannon took out a few of those knights, they were frenzied so charged my 40 block warrior bus. They eventually lost, I couldn't catch them with a pursuit roll of, literally, 2. The warriors failed their follow up charge and didn't get into combat with the flesh hounds.
Battle 1 Vs Warriors of Chaos  - Turn 4 Dwarfs
Start of Turn 4 - Dwarfs
In the middle:
The hammerers were facing off against the tzeentch block of troops, and the marauders. Which ever side they went of the obstacle in the middle, they were guaranteed to get a flank charge the following turn. I charged them into the tzeentch block, where they did some small damage but not enough to win. The marauders got their flank charge in, and over a few turns (god I love stubborn) they wore the hammerers down. The hammerers didn't win a single round unfortunately.

Battle 1 Vs Warriors of Chaos  - Turn 4 WoC
Start of Turn 4 - WoC
On the left flank:
The 5 slayers charged into the warrior block aiming straight for the caster. Unfortunately the giant slayer was killed before he got to attempt any blows by the high initiative caster (who turned out to be quite choppy). The 4 slayers were wiped out in the same turn by the chaos warriors, again with no chance to retaliate. I had hoped they would hold them up for a turn, but how and ever.
The chaos warriors charged into the organ gun, taking it out and overrunning into the cannon.

To the right of the warmachines...
stood a 30 block of quarrelers. These boyos shot at the generals unit (the one with the extra attacks / mark of khorne) for two turns, taking out a few models, before reforming and taking a charge from them. They didn't last past the first round of combat. The already choppy khorne marked unit, got a boon of +1 attacks from the alter, which meant a ridiculous amount of str5 attacks and the end of the quarrelers.

Out of my 3 blocks, only the 40 block of warriors on the right flank did ok against the 4 chaos knights. The remaining chaos knight fled, and unfortunately the warriors failed to catch him.

Result:
18-2 Loss

What I would do differently:
  • concentrate fire, big time, on the elite troops. Ignore the mauraders - it was tempting to fire on them because they could do a lot of damage and they didn't have an armour or ward save.
    In reality they were only 245 points, and they weren't the hardest hitters of the WoC army.
  • <moan> dawn attack messed up my deployment quite a bit </moan> 
What didn't work well:
Too many misfires with arty. I don't like Grudge throwers. With two of them, each having a rune of accuracy, I hit the mauraders twice over 4 turns killing approximately 12 men.
Even the organ gun misfired, taking it out of the game for two turns.

What worked well:
I spent a lot of points on anti magic, he didn't get off a single spell the whole game.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Demons Army Board

Fantastic stuff. I just wish the image was higher res.


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

K.Flay : this evenings painting music


Here's her latest EP, it's rather fantastic (make sure you listen past the first song 10th Ave which imho is the least bestest).
http://eyesshut.kflay.com/

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Slayers

I've been playing with a small unit of slayers in four of my most recent games.
Either a 15 block, which is a worthy roadblock/porridge unit, or a 5 block as chaff.

I like slayers. The fluff behind them is great. I believe that in the older rule sets of warhammer (I don't know which edition) you lost victory points for your slayers if they didn't die! Vice versa, you gained victory points if they were wiped out. That sounds great to me. Slayers aren't the best unit at the moment, they could really do with a little something extra to spice it up.

A ward save would be nice, but bringing back something fluffy like 'this unit has to die' would be great fun. It would change the unit's dynamic quite a bit. They wouldn't be a priority target for small arms or spells. It's amazing how scared people are of them, when they usually just die horribly in combat, I know I know, it's because they're unbreakable. Anyway.
Your opponent might even go so far as to attempt to avoid the slayer unit. It just really fits in with the fluff, a crazed unit of mentalist dwarves on the battle field shouting for someone to just face ME.


In related news I've started reading the first omnibus of Felix and Gotrek. Love those books.  I read them before a good few years ago. They're just good fun, and don't take themselves too seriously.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Tourney & Army List Thoughts

Sent in my army list last night. It had to be in before today to earn an extra 10 points.

I just spotted this battle report: More Dwarfs??
The list is remarkably similar to what I've chosen, except it managed to squeeze in an anvil. I'm not sure about it, but I think I'm regretting not getting one in. For a list that's practically a gunline (trust me, it could be a lot more gunliney) the anvil with wrath and ruin would have been great.

I'm approaching this tourney as a learning experience. I've been told it's a bad attitude, but I'm expecting to lose big. We're talking serious wooden spoonage.
I just don't play very often. And when I do play, it's the bi-annual get together of my gaming group for a weekend of warhammer.

I've upped the number of games I've been playing in preparation for brocon (my first tourney btw).
We had Basterdcon 7 (a friendly get together) in mid June where I got two games in.
I've played 3 games in the last two weeks, Demon's, Vampire Counts and High Elves. I have another High Elf match up next Tuesday.

I am enjoying playing much more though, so I'm going to make an effort to get a game in once a fortnight in future.

What that's shown me is how little I know about other races, their army books, their current favoured army builds and what they aim to do. I just have to play more, suck up some losses until I have a better idea of all of the above.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Brocon Army List

2500 Pts - Dwarfs Roster - Brocon I'm going to a tournament next weekend, open lists, here's what I've decided to bring.
There's probably too many points in anti magic, and not enough hard troops on the ground, but I've been getting somewhat hooped by magic recently. Good ole purple sun, and my next best friend the pit of shades really can screw the dwarfs something awful.
The Spelleater is always a gamble at 50 points, but screw it. It might make a the difference.

On the SCALE system the army is a 2:
Nice:
+1 no level 3 wizard or above
Nasty:
+1 > 450 points in hammerers
+1 >1 Rune of Penetrating on Grudge Throwers (cumulative across Grudge Throwers).
+1 : 1 auto dispel item after the first
= SCALE 2.

I'm not sure that 5 extra hammerers (pushing the unit > 450 points) is worth a dirty point.

Dirty point? SCALE system? It's linked from the tournament page, the rules PDF is here.
SCALE is the 20-0 points system for games, but the difference of each armies scale is applied to the 20-0 scoring. If two armies have draw at 10-10, and one army is quite dirty at scale 4, one less so at 2 then the difference is 2 and the overall score becomes 12-8 in favour of the less dirty army.
Max dirty score is 5.

Here's my army list...

2490 Pts

30 Quarrellers, FC, GW; 415 pts
40 Dwarf Warriors, FC, GW; 425 pts
35 Hammerers, FC; 500 pts
    1 Runic Standard (Master Rune of Grungni)
4 Slayers; 70 pts
      1 Giant Slayers

1 Organ Gun, 120 pts
1 Grudge Thrower, Rune of Accuracy; Rune of Penetrating; 130 pts
1 Grudge Thrower, Rune of Accuracy; Rune of Burning; Rune of Penetrating; 135 pts
1 Cannon, Rune of Burning; Rune of Forging; 130 pts


1 Runelord, 253 pts (General; Hand Weapon; Gromril Armor; Shield)
      1 Runic Armor (Rune of Stone)
      1 Runic Talisman (Master Rune of Balance; Rune of the Furnace; Spelleater Rune)
1 Runesmith, 147 pts (Shield)
      1 Runic Talisman (Master Rune of Spellbinding; Rune of Spellbreaking x1)
1 Thane (Battle Standard Bearer), 165 pts
      1 Runic Armor (Master Rune of Gromril)
      1 Runic Talisman (Master Rune of Spite; Rune of the Furnace)