Swissdictator:
This event is a couple weeks old, I just haven’t gotten around to reporting it yet. My memory is really too fuzzy to give detailed turn for turn report, so I will post my thoughts on the battle with each army.
This took place at the new Rockford, IL store. I had asked, when I heard about the event, if I could bring Chaos Dwarfs. One of the Redshirt’s face lit up at the thought of Chaos Dwarfs making it. They agreed, so long as I brought a printout of the PDF for them to have.
Despite the snow, a friend of mine from where I go to college made it down as well (I had been at my Parents for break).
The tournament was small, ten people in attendence, thankfully over half were fully painted… though the four unpainted were new to the hobby, so that’s just fine.
There were 2 Brettonian Players, A Dwarf player, VC, Demons, Chaos 2 Mortals, 2 Dark Elves, and myself
My list
Chaos Dwarf Hero
Heavy Armor, Enchanted Shield
Chaos Dwarf Hero (BSB)
Armor of Gazrakh, Talisman of Protection
Sorcerer
Scroll
24 Chaos Dwarf Warriors (General’s unit)
Bnr, Mu, Warbanner
24 Chaos Dwarf Warriors
FC
14 Blunderbuss
15 Blunderbuss
10 Hobgoblin Archers tips hat to Time of Madness for pointing out my error :hat off
18 Orcs
Shields
Death Rocket
Earth shaker
1st Game: Bretonnians
The Earth shaker and Death Rocket were a major help to me. The Earth shaker for slowing them down, and the Death Rocket for raw killing power. The Death Rocket seems to be a better choice against Brets, as S4 only allows them a 6+ ward… vs the 5+ ward BTs allow (which will stop a bolt)… that and the ranked formations of Brets. Of course I rolled all direct hits with it, so I guess I should take it with a grain or few of salt as well.
Hobgoblin archers helped, as the sheer number of shots allowed them to drop a few knights over the game. Plus as cheap as they are, Hobgoblin archers are a rock solid deal in general.
With two main fighting blocks, having banners (an either war banner or BSB) really allowed my soft res to shine.
Orcs with minimal options make a great flexible unit. They can be fighting, they can be used to by up time (as they’re no soft unit), but they are also cheap enough where losing them isn’t a crisis.
I would have had a draw, but bonus points in banner and a corner won me it. Minor Victory.
2nd Game vs Orcs
Image from bottom of the first turn.
Both the Orc player and I laughed that we were facing each other, due to my “I need to fight Orcs, I need more slaves” comment and his boasting “I’m here to stop that”.
I deployed my Hobgoblins in the tower, which would prove to be wise.
Blunderbuss were quickly dealt with in this battle, he had an idea of what Chaos Dwarfs could do.
His Orcs seemed to have a momentum, at first I was on my way to losing, but I ended up saving victory from the jaws of defeat. My soft res, and utter resilience in combat, ended up saving me. My BSB’s block, who had been not pummeled by his bolt thrower ran down his really big unit on a chance failure of a break test (he had lost by one or two). I was able to hold out longer due to my LD 10, long enough for me to break him down.
Hobgoblin archers in the building performed amazingly well.
War machines had a nice target rich environment. I aimed center mass of the army and it tended to work well enough.
Don’t be afraid to trigger Fanatics with cheap units (Orcs in my case). The fanatics ended up killing his giant! My orcs had charged his giant on the side. While in the end I lost my Orcs (as I had charged the giant on the side, activating the fanatics in the not to distant Night Gobbos)… I was ok with that trade!
Blunderbuss can be amazing against Fanatics. Again the archers helped, allowing me to damage Night Goblins early on.
Game 3 VC
This guy made one mistake, though he had understandable reasons (he didn’t have the figures) by not taking Lord of Dead at this level.
I positioned my Warriors a bit behind my Blunderbuss as I knew the rules of Blunderbuss shooting would be a BIG help for me.
Blunderbuss (and magic defense) are the most potent weapon against VC as we can do the volume fire that gets deadlier as they get larger. Plus the Earth shaker helps us compensate for the Vanhel’s spell.
Try to draw the Varghulf off. I positioned myself so if he punched through the Death Rocket he’d clip my warrior block… which he did. Though as the Blunderbuss was there he couldn’t slide (unfortunately for me). However, despite amazing regen rolls for crumble, the varghulf died quickly enough from sheer soft res.
Using Blunderbuss in front of my lines allowed me to blast away at them and on the charge I really dampened their numbers advantage. Their hero vampires are nowhere near the beasts their lords are. Plus getting a flank charge on Grave Guard with Orcs really helped A LOT as they had almost not soft res and were taking a beating all around.
I ended up massacring him. I credit his not having Lord of Dead, and my trap with my General’s block and Orcs.
I ended up winning Best Painted, I tied with the guy who had gotten Best Sports… but as I had won Best Painted he got Best Sports.
I won a Dwarf Bolt Thrower out of it, now to ‘corrupt’ it an make it CD like.
Though my two buddies like Chaos Dwarfs, everyone else was really excited to have seen them in the tournament. All my opponents had a blast and were glad I brought the Big Hats. They also all got a kick out of my wearing a top hat and all. There was no Best General category. My friend (a DE player) won Best Overall.
3 wins. First time I’ve had a 100% win record.
