TheLazySamurai:
Hello everyone,
I posted my army list a few weeks back for the tourney at OwlCon held in Houston, TX. I made some modifications to my list thanks to some suggestions from the community here and it was a great success. The tourney was 3 rounds with 14 players. There were a lot of veteran players from the major tournaments held here in Texas (Bayou Battles, Lone Wolf are 90+ player events) There was no comp scores, but the 20-0 standard scoring system was in place. I was really happy with how the scenarios were presented. You received 4 scenarios and you secretly chose which objectives you were going for after deployment. I’ll talk about the ones I chose in each of the battle reports below. I ended up with 46 points and the Best General award. This was special to me because I have several awards for sportsmanship and a painting trophy from a GW store competition, but I have been a perennial middle of the pack tourney player. It felt great and I got to game with a bunch of solid players who were also a lot of fun.
My list- 2500 points
Characters: 835
Sorcerer-Prophet
Lvl 4 (Lore of Hashut)
Enchanted Shield
Arabyan Carpet
Talisman of Protection
Daemonsmith Sorcerer
Lvl 1 (Lore of Fire)
Chalice of Blood and Darkness
Infernal Castellan
BSB
Shield
Dawn Stone
Dragonhelm
Iron Curse Icon
Hobgoblin Khan
Light Armor
Tormentor Sword
Giant Wolf
Hobgoblin Khan
Light Armor
Warrior Bane
Giant Wolf
Core: 639
29 Infernal Guard
Full Command
Razor Standard
12 Infernal Guard
Fireglaives
Musician
Special: 700
Magma Cannon
Magma Cannon
Deathshrieker Rocket
Iron Daemon
Hellbound
Rare: 325
K’Daai Destroyer
Total 2499
Round 1:
I drew Skaven for round 1. My opponent for this round also played chaos dwarfs so he was very familiar with the units. The list my opponent brought was:
Grey Seer
Warlord BSB with Storm Banner
Loadstone engineer
Doomfire Rocket engineer
4 blocks of 50 slaves
1 40 Stormvermin horde with Razor Standard
Small clanrat bunker for heroes
2 Giant rat packs
Hellpit Abomination
Doom Wheel
2 Warp Lightning cannons
Here is a pic of the start of our game:
Deployment:
I created a fire-base in the middle of the field with my war machines and set up the rest of the army to address the threats as he came forward towards them. He deployed his monsters across from my war machines and his general and BSB were hanging out in the back in the small clanrat bunker. The mission I choose was Assassin: 300 VP for killing the general and 150VP for the BSB. I rolled dark subjugation, curse of hashut, ashstorm and hell hammer for spells this game (not exactly ideal)
Turn 1
The Skaven got first turn and mainly moved forward down the center. His Hellpit and Doom Wheel were too close for comfort to my war machines after his initial surge forward. He had little magic since his grey seer was too far away. His shooting was not effective as his warp-lightning cannons did not roll well, but his Doom Wheel did fry one of my khans that I let get too close with vanguard.
My turn was pretty effective. I didn’t move much and he used the Storm Banner to try and stop my shooting. Magic was pretty tame. I cast Ashstorm and he scrolled it. I got lucky in the shooting phase, as I wounded the Hellpit with my magma cannon and then managed to get two wounding shots through hitting on 7’s with the Iron Daemon killing it outright. The Deathshrieker missed, so the doom wheel was still up and running.
Turn 2
My opponent managed to make the long charge with his doom wheel into my iron daemon, so I knew it was going to get destroyed by those shooting attacks. The Skaven scurried forward and he also charged my infernal guard with his stormvermin horde. Gutter runners came on the table and threatened my war machine bunker. His magic phase saw him skitter leap an engineer in front of the K’Daai to keep it from helping the Iron Daemon. His shooting was effected by the storm banner too and the warp lightning cannon that did fire failed to kill anything. The IG and the stormvermin ended in some wounds to both sides, but nobody moved. The doom wheel also couldn’t fire, so my iron daemon was safe for the turn. The gutter runners wounded my magma cannon some, but didn’t finish it off.
My second turn saw an early turning point in the game. I flew my wizard behind his lines. I moved the K’Daai into position to help kill the storm vermin horde. Magic phase was not devastating ending with a wound on his lord and a hell hammer through his lord’s bunker. With the Storm Banner gone, my shooting came alive and I killed all but a rank of his lord’s clan rat bunker with the magma cannon and the deathshrieker. He failed his LOS for his BSB and the magma cannon killed him. The unit was below 25% and failed a panic check sending them running towards the back edge of the board. So in one phase I eliminated his lvl 4 wizard, his BSB and picked up 450 VP from my scenario! Without the general and BSB, the stormvermin ran and I failed to catch them.
Turn 3-6
For the sake of being concise, the game was basically over at this point. My IG chased down the stormvermin and wiped them out. My khan charged his general’s fleeing unit off the board edge. He finished off the Iron Daemon and the warmachine bunker by the end of the game, but there was too many points already claimed from the grey seer, BSB, Stormvermin, engineers, hellpit and warplightning cannons, on top of the scenario points.
End result:
20-0 victory for Chaos Dwarfs. My opponent got to my war machines and my iron daemon, but the point swing from killing his general’s bunker with his BSB along with the scenario points was just too much.
Round 2
I drew Vampire Counts in round 2. The guy I played was very skilled and although his list doesn’t look rock hard, he plays it well and knows how to use his units. His list:
Lvl 4 Blender Lord with ogre blade
Lvl 1 Blender with GW
Lvl 1 Blender with GW
Cairn Wraith
2 units of 50 zombies
1 unit of 50 skeletons
3 units of dire wolves
Mortis Engine
8 Vargheist Unit!
Terrorgheist
Deployment:
I again created a fire base in the middle of the board with my big gribblies flanking my war machines to keep the enemy at bay. He placed his infantry blocks across from my warmachines and hid his terrorgheist behind the hill. I got first turn this time. I chose the scenario where I received 450 VP for having fortitude within 6" of the middle of the board at the end of the game. I rolled burning wrath, ashstorm, hell hammer and flames of azgorh for spells.
Turn 1
My dice were warm this game and stayed hot throughout most of it. I stayed put for the most part and fired away. I cast an irresistible small Flames and it landed on 6 of his Vargheists! I did 17 wounds and the miscast saw a wound go on each of my wizards (T6 Lord!). My artillery took the vargheist unit down to 2 models, so my war machines were safe for a little bit. On his turn he gave me some payback though. His wolves placed themselves in annoying positions and his terrorgheist landed close to the iron Daemon. The rest of his army moved forward. The remaining vargheists charged my khan. He managed to get off a spirit leech in his magic phase, but I beat him on the LD check. He rolled an 11 with his terrorgheist and put 7 wounds on the Iron Daemon!
Turn 2
My K’Daai ran up the flank of his battle line and positioned himself for a rear charge on an infantry block. The rest of the army shuffled around and got into position to shoot the terrorgheist. I had amazing luck for most of the game, but I miscast 3 times by the end and it led to the minor loss. I got off another flames on the terrorgheist, but the miscast caused me to lose 3 magic levels with only ashstorm remaining. The spell failed to wound the bastard to top it off. My shooting saw another strong round. The magma cannons wounded the terrorgheist and the Iron Daemon finished it off since it no longer had regeneration. The rest of the shooting ended with some dead wolves, but otherwise uneventful.
My opponent decided that he needed to play risky in order to swing things back to his favor. He attempted some long charges, leaving his general out in the open and the mortis engine hitting the Iron Daemons flank. He did play conservatively with his vargheists, as the last one hid behind the building to keep me from getting VPs. His magic was stronger now that I wasn’t able to use my lvl4 to stop him. The phase finished with a couple of buffs on the mortis engine. Close combat went south since I only had one wound remaining on the Iron Daemon. He managed to roll some 6’s and the ID was destroyed.
Turn 3
My K’Daai and the infernal guard both charged the zombie bunker with a lvl 1 blender vamp and the wraith, with the K’Daai on the rear. My lord flew away from the crumbling war machine bunker. I cast Ashstorm on his lord and again miscast. I lost the rest of my magic levels and he was simply a dwarf with a jet pack. My shooting was not effective, as I tried to kill the wounded mortis engine with no success and my deathshrieker scattered away from his exposed lord. Combat went well, of course and my K’Daii and IG slaughtered the zombies. His lvl1 blender vamp put a wound on my BSB. Despite heavy losses he still managed to have around 10 zombies stick.
His turn involved getting his lord back in his infantry block and charging my war machines with his mortis engine. His magic came alive again and he regrew his zombie unit twice, so much of the damage I had done was nullified. He killed the deathshrieker and ran into the magma cannon. My Infernal Guard and K’Daai continued to demolish the zombies, but not enough to finish them.
Turn 4
I didn’t have much to move at this point and I simply ran away with my general. My Lvl 1 daemonsmith threw 6 dice at the big fireball and miscast. The fireball wasn’t enough to finish the mortis engine and the miscast was mostly harmless. The combat with the zombies came to an end this turn with the k’daai and IG finishing off the vampire and popping all of the troops. They reformed to face the unit of skeletons.
He turned to face his skeletons to my IG and charged the flank of my fireglaives with his lords unit. His magic wasn’t as bad this round with only a raise dead to keep the K’Daai off his skeletons next turn. The mortis engine kept fighting the magma cannon and his lord’s unit cut down my fireglaives with little effort.
Turn 5
I charged his skeletons with the IG and the K’Daai came after the chaff in his way. I moved my lord and his 2 fortitude points to the middle of the table. No magic. No shooting. I exchanged blows with the skeletons, but without the K’Daai there wasn’t much hope of getting through them.
His turn 5 saw him turn his lords unit around and the buff the skeletons. He killed my BSB, but the unit stuck. We ran out of time at this point and called it a game.
Results
We both chose the same scenario, so we both got 450 VP for having fortitude in the middle of the table. The game would have been close to a draw if I could have found a way to kill that last vargheist. 378 VP that was within my grasp, but he hid them well and played smart. The result of round 2 was a 6-14 loss.
Round 3
My last opponent brought a daemon list. I was not familiar with some of the new rules for daemons, so he was kind enough to thoroughly explain them before we started. His list consisted of:
Lvl 4 Slaanesh Daemon Prince
Lvl 2 Tzeentch disk herald
Nurgle Herald
28 plague bearers
2 units of 10 pink horrors
4 beasts of nurgle
4 plague drones
4 screamers
2 units of 5 furies
Skull Cannon
Deployment
I was back on the first table I played on, but on the opposite side. I castled on the right flank with my big guys surrounding the fire base (sound familiar :)). He deployed fairly spread out through his deployment zone. My scenario this time was to get my highest VP unit into his deployment zone or keep his highest VP (plague bearers) unit out of mine. I rolled burning wrath, ashstorm, hell hammer and flames of azgorh for my spells.
Turn 1
I rolled first turn again. I moved up with my Iron Daemon and my khans positioned themselves to try and intercept the chaff coming towards the war machines. I rolled low on winds of magic and failed to cast flames. My shooting wounded a beast of nurgle and killed a few plague bearers.
He moved his general out from behind the hill to see my K’Daai and everything came forward. He failed to cast searing doom on my iron daemon and I used the chalice on the rest of his dice. He tried to use the skull cannon on my artillery, but the cannon ball got stuck in the ground after killing a fireglaive IG.
Turn 2
I charged both of his units of furies with my khans. I also charged my k’daai into his plague bearer unit since his flaming attacks would nullify that 4+ regen locus. My magic phase once again was limited by my dice. I used the chalice to knock out dice at the beginning of the turn and got ashstorm off on his beasts of nurgle without him being able to defend. My shooting ended with some significant wounds to the beasts (no thanks to ashstorm and my magma cannon). With his general exposed I took the opportunity to shoot her with my deathshrieker causing 4 wounds. Both of the khans died to the furies in combat. Combat went well for the K"Daai and he began the process of burning, cutting and stomping through the plague bearers. I had some luck with the ward saves against his poison.
He moved his general back behind the hill and the screamers charged my magma cannon. He placed his furies in front of my IG and partially in front of my Iron Daemon on my left flank. His magic phase was mostly uneventful between winds of magic and the chalice. His skull cannon destroyed the deathshrieker that had nearly killed his lord. The K’Daai went to town on the plague bearers and got them close to no longer having steadfast. The screamers went through the magma cannon and overran into my last war machine.
Turn 3
My general used his jet pack to get LOS on his general. I also charged the furies he put in front of my IG to keep them from blocking LOS for the Iron Daemon. My magic phase ended with ashstorm on his general. Shooting saw the beasts of nurgle knocked down to a single wounded model between the magma cannon and the Iron Daemon. The plague bearers could no longer deal with the onslaught of the K’Daai and they popped due to their LD roll. I turned the K’Daai around to face the flanking troops behind him. The magma cannon was wounded, but it survived the combat.
His turn involved running away with his beasts of nurgle and launching his drones into my Infernal Guard. His general remained hidden behind the hill. He positioned his remaining furies in front of the K’Daai to chaff them away from the drone combat. His pink horrors milled about, changing facing in order to prep for spells if the winds of magic permitted. His magic phase was inhibited by ashstorm on his lvl4, but the phase saw him wound my lord with tzeentchs fire and one wound from a standard searing doom on my Iron Daemon. He shot with his skull cannon towards my flying lord, but he over shot. Combat went poorly for my opponent. The drones killed a few infernal guard and they took wounds in return and lost combat though they made their LD check. The magma cannon continued to hold against the screamers.
Turn 4
The K’Daai charged the furies that would lead him away from significant targets. The iron daemon charged into the drones and so did the fireglaive infernal guard. My lord positioned himself close to the enemy general, but outside of LOS. My magic phase wasn’t great since I rolled low and my opponent channeled 2 dice. I threw everything I had at a boosted burning wrath, but he shut it down. I didn’t have any shooting since he had cleaned up most of my fire base and all the BS weapons were locked in close combat. The drones were destroyed due to the fireglaives wounding them and 7 impact hits from the iron daemon. They popped and the units reformed. The k’daai killed the furies and ran off to the middle of nowhere. He finished off my magma cannon with the screamers.
His turn 4 saw his disk herald come put eyes on my lord, as well as his screamers moving over my lvl 1 wizard. The screamers failed to harm the wizard with their special attack. The magic phase did no favors for my opponent and he only came up with 3 dice. I used the chalice and the phase was over. His skull cannon misfired and destroyed itself during the shooting phase. There was nothing in combat at the end of his turn.
Turn 5
My K’Daai ran over to get into position to charge one of his pink horror units and my general flew out of LOS of his daemon prince, but still within 8" for burning wrath. My magic phase saw me roll only 4 dice for winds of magic, but he only had 2 dispel dice. I threw them all and got the boosted burning wrath on his daemon prince with 1 wound remaining. I only rolled 2 hits, but both wounded. He made one save, but failed the other killing his general. My shooting took out his screamers with the combined effort of the fireglaives and the iron daemon. We decided to call it at this point.
Result
I managed to keep my opponent out of my deployment zone for 450 VP and he really only managed to remove my war machines and the khans. Between the points for the drones, plague bearers, nurgle herald, screamers, skull cannon and his general it was a rout. The score was a 20-0 victory for the chaos dwarfs.
Summary
I was surprised to win best general with only 46 battle points, but the competition was strong, so it seemed like most of the guys were splitting points more evenly. I had a great time and all the guys were competitive, but friendly. If you are still reading this, thank you for having a look. :cheers
P.S. There was actually another Chaos Dwarf player at the tourney! He won best paint and he absolutely deserved it. I know he lurks here so I hope he decides to post pics of his models. I took some pics of his army, but I won’t post them out of respect. If he wants them up, then I’ll let him decide when he wants to do that. Beautiful army though!
The Lazy Samurai