Spikes:
So I played an all comers game of Chaos Dwarfs (Thommy’s list) vs Dwarfs this evening. I didn’t know what my adversary was bringing, so I took lore of metal because I hate To 7 elves and I want to wound them on 5+ or better. Stegadons and temple guard and warriors of chaos are also very annoying in that respect, so I find that lore of metal is useful most of the time.
Note: I played stormcallers with STR3 shooting with armor piercing. Really, ignoring all to hit penalties and being able to move is SO strong that I gimped myself. His thunderers cost one more point and they have LESS EVERYTHING, WITH move or fire.
He had (from memory and from not knowing dwarfs too much):
25 iron breakers with his invincible general on shield bearers
25 longbeards with bsb
25 warriors with the lord who gives dispel dice
15 miners
2x10 thunderers
10 slayers
gyrocopter
bling cannon
bling catapult
organ gun
I had:
Sorcerer lord with 4+ ward, lvl 4, lore of metal
Sorcerer with dispel scroll, lvl 2, lore of metal
Hero BSB with rerollable 2+ armor and sword of Ini 10
25 warriors FC, GW
25 warriors FC, shields
2x10 stormcallers
2x25 slaves, shields
25 slaves, shields, banner (this unit got animosity 2/3 times!)
29 immortals, banner of armor piercing, FC, shields
2x mortal artillery with slaves
2x3 bull centaurs with GW (for some reason army builder didn’t let me build them without so why not!)
We played the scenario where you deploy in diagonal and have to use reinforcement rules if you roll a 1. He chose table half, deployed his army, and rolled no 1s. Thunderers and slayers on my left, one behind another, between two terrain features. Artillery party, center-left. Three main blocks in middle, with organ gun. Thunderers in building on my right. I setup second, reacting to his deployment, rolling three 1’s: one unit of stormcallers, one unit of bull centaurs and one unit of warriors with shields! Left to right: bull centaurs, slaves, slaves, warriors with sorcerer lord, stormcallers with their backs to an impassable terrain feature (i.e. If I flee I take dangerous tests IIRC), immortals with BSB and hero caster, slaves. The warmachines are far from being annoyed easily, but the rightmost one is actually near the frontlines.
1)
He stays put on turn 1, tries to shoot my stormcallers, and explodinates his organ gun and catapult on turn 1. He doesn’t move with combat blocks. His gyro comes forward, but not too much: I’d need to roll an 11 on my slaves to charge him. Shots fly at the slave units, not panicking anyone.
I move forward agressively, because stormcallers can move and shoot at no penalty (didn’t see any move or fire in there!). I setup a turn 3 flank charge on the thunderers with my 16 " bull centaur march. The thunderers are looking down their barrels at 20+ slaves to the front. Magic removes 2 iron breakers (he dispelled well), but I remove one permanent armor save from the regular warriors to the right (facing slaves). I kill a couple of guys with my shooting, nothing much. One artillery misfires and turns around, blocked for 2 turns.
2)
He positions his gyro behind my lines, facing stormcallers. More shooting from him. I lose a couple of guys here and there, the gyro’s steam gun is not strong enough. His miners arrive behind my lines.
My rightmost slaves are too near a Frenzy terrain, they fluff their charge and shamble forward. I move forward massively, bull centaurs now in flank of thunderers. My bull centaurs arrive at my far right, pointing towards either the rightmost building or the rightmost flank of the warriors. Magic phase, nothing much happens, except that I burn his scroll on a 22 for the law of gold and manage some wounds on the ironbreakers with their 3+ armor (but he had 5+ ward on unit). My shooting just does some small insignificant support.
3)
He charges my rightmost warmachine with his miners, I flee so that he doesn’t benefit from over-run to get out of my LOS! He rear-charges my central stormcallers. He strategically positions his center fighting blocks. He keeps on shooting with the rest. The cannon kills some immortals, the thunderers almost panick the slaves, the other thunderers remove some slaves to my right (facing his warriors). My stormcallers hold but can’t reform because they fail their Ld check.
I charge the leftmost thunderers front and flank with slaves and bull centaurs: he stands and shoots against the slaves, they don’t panick! Only one BC in base contact because of terrain 1 " rule. My middle slaves (only one with banner) got animosity (didn’t remember if Thommy’s list had a “you ignore it if within X inches of Y unit”). So I charged the middle longbeards with my immortals, leaving the immortal’s left flank vulnerable to the ironbreaker’s charge. Rightmost slaves front charge warriors who have -1 armor. My leftmost warrior unit moved forward, intent on bringing the caster lord to bear (and setting up a counter-charge for the obvious bait). My HW+Shield warriors flank charge his miners. Reinforcement BC move forward, now within frenzy terrain feature range and aiming at the rightmost warrior’s flanks. Catapults don’t do much but magic goes through: central longbeards also get -1 armor save. Ironbreakers are about down to 18ish, I didn’t do as many wounds as I thought I would on the ironbreakers.
Combat phase, all my units hold (yay, slaves!). The miners are toast. I pursue and my backline warriors and reinforcement stormcallers will be useless for the rest of the game. The immortals didn’t devastate the longbeards as much as I thought (what with only parry to save his arse)! My champion kills his, and he holds. On leftmost flank against thunderers: BC fluffs his attacks, slaves deal one wound, and he loses by 1 (and holds).
4)
He takes the bait as expected and flank charges me. The slayers behind the leftmost thunderers shuffle a bit to try and react to slaves+BC. Cannon kills one guy (rolled an 8 for the first bounce, so only one under the line). My rightmost slaves, facing warriors, lose the fight and flee. He pursues instead of reform! He’s out of (ran past) my immortal’s flank.My immortals lose by 3-4, he killed my hero mage (but not BSB) but I don’t care because I’m STUBBORN! This crucial fact will win me the game. Leftmost thunderers are toast, I pursue off the board with BC and pursue past the slayers with slaves.
I charge the flank of his ironbreakers with my GW warriors. My rightmost reinforcement BC fluff their charge on the warriors’ flank, I rolled 3,2,2! Needed a 7. I come back on board with leftmost BC, and they (and the slaves) face his cannon. My backline stuff moves forward a bit. Magic makes 5 casualties against the ironbreakers with law of gold, and I gave my immortals 5+ scaly skin. 1+ save, can you imagine?
We stopped the game after the combat phase, when his longbeards and ironbreakers failed their -7 leadership tests to stay in combat.
Overall feelings: stormcallers are too strong with STR4, so STR3 would make sense at that point cost. Core troops with 4+ armour are strong, but compared to WOC they are balanced. I loved my lore of metal. My slaves were just enough to annoy and redirect and hold combat for a turn or two, which is enough to ask of them.
The immortals with armor piercing were just brutal. I love their stubborn ability. They are great special troops. RH list doesn’t have that, and it shows.
I like my fast BC with two wounds and 3+ armor (2+ against shooting when using shields). I am also surprised that I performed successfully with no warlord general, which is how I usually run things with other armies: 1 lord for leadership and 4-5 STR6 attacks; one lvl 4 caster lord.
If I had to do it again I would remove one unit of support shooting and try to make a small monstrous chariot with the nice daemonic engine rules.