Hi all,
This is my first battle report for the forum. I’ve been a longtime Chaos Dwarf enthusiast and bought my first models back in sixth edition, but got back into CDs with this great era of 3d prints and the Old World. I’ve played about 5 Old World matches before this game, so I’m still getting the hang of it but am enjoying the game system.
Opponent’s army: A very aggressive Dwarf army with four big blocks of Longbeards, Ironbreakers, Hammerers, and Royal Clan Warriors. A few skirmishing shooters, one Grudge Thrower, and a very strong King (no shield bearers though), Thane, and BSB Runesmith. He also had Bugman’s Cart that gives them the +1 movement.
My army: Level 4 sorcerer on foot w/ Daemonology that joins a unit of 17 Infernal Guard w/ great weapons and acts as a buff along with a BSB with Lammasu’s beard and Headman’s Axe, a Big Boss that joins 15 Black orcs with the frenzy banner, a wolf-riding Khan w/ the Ruby Ring that joins 8 wolfriders, along with 25 hob gobos w/ bows, 10 sneaky gits, 3 bull centaur renders, and a bolt thrower and a dread-quake mortar.
Pre-game Strategy: My goal was to blow up his Cart, slow everything down, and then hurl up the board to catch him out of position. I played too conservatively with my Steed of Shadows unit in my last game, so this time I was committed to flying the Infernal Guard behind his lines as soon as I could.
Deployment
He concentrates his forces in the middle with the Ironbreakers, hammerers, warriors, and longbeards going from my left to right and his Cart in the middle. A few crossbowman hold each flank.
On my left, I put the SGs to move through the difficult terrain and the wolf riders to support them. The IG are on the center-left but with Steed of Shadows they can basically fly anywhere. The weak goblins hold the center and then my right flank holds the frenzied Blorcks and Centaurs. A bolt thrower is hoping to get some flank shots (although I forgot to fire it most turns) and the Mortar sits on the hill within 12" on my general.
Battle lines are drawn
Turn 1
Things start off brilliantly. I win the roll off to go first, even though I was at -1. My Dreadquake Mortar scores a direct hit on Bugman’s Cart (with the Sorcerer’s re-roll), and then kill it straight out and slows down the Hammers and Warriors. Steed of Shadows is cast, but after measuring, even with 36" in marching column the IG won’t be able to fly to the right-side of the board so I hold off for another turn. My goal is to pressure the right flank so it collapses, thinking the Longbeards and Warriors will be the easier of the two units to kill.
Direct hit!
The Dwarfs move up in marching column, albeit a bit slower than expected rate; first blood is drawn as a wolf rider falls to a crossbow shot.
Turn 2
The Chorf army surges forward. The Wolf Riders fail a long bomb charge attempt against the crossbowmen and end up in front of the Ironbreakers. The Centaurs take a wound and run down the other crossbow unit. The Sorcerer gets of Steed again, and this time we have enough space to fly behind the Longbeards. We don’t have enough inches to wheel around so Turn 3 will require a full pivot/reform, but the right hand side is now at serious risk for the Dwarfs.
The IG, BSB, and General land behind the Dawi lines
The Dreadquake mortar misfires. IT WILL MISFIRE OR BE UNABLE TO SHOOT FROM TURNS 2-6! Despite it’s amazing first round performance, it will do nothing but lose crew going forward. Luckily it ends the game on one wound.
The Dwarf general sees the threat to his left-hand side, and his King/Hammerers march towards their kin, hoping the Warriors and Longbeards can hold in the next turn. The Ironbreakers decide to charge wolf riders to get them out of the way and they flee out of reach.
The Chorfs surge up towards their hated brethren
Turn 3
A tremendous melee ensues. The Centaurs smash into the Longbeards and kill many of them. The Black Orcs cause serious damage to Warriors. The Warriors use their Stubborn/Shield wall, as expected, and the Longbeards FBIGO. The IG face the direction of combat and hope to get into action for turn 4. The Sneaky Gits make their way up to the crossbowmen and the Wolf Riders rally and get off a few pot shots.
Many dwarfs are killed before the King comes to save them
The King and the Hammerers respond with fury and smash into the left flank of the black orcs. My champion was unluckily killed last round, so the Big Boss has to hide from a challenge from the King. In retrospect this was the right call as he otherwise would have been killed. The Blorcks are slaughtered in mass, flee, but luckily the overrun ends up being only the warriors into the front of the Centaurs (since the Longbeards fled away before I believe).
Turn 4
The IG charges into the combat with the Centaurs and with the Daemonology buffs we slay them to the man and reform to face the coming Hammerers. The Blorcks rally, validating my choice to keep the Big Boss alive. The goblins move up the harass the Ironbreakers as they advance. The Sneaky Gits get into combat with the crossbowmen and reduce them to two men.
The Hammerers and handful of Longbeards get ready for the endgame
This is a key round for the Dwarfs: First, and crucially, the Hammerers declare a long-bomb charge against the IG, and get a 6 on the dice allowing them to swing round the centaurs to crash into my General’s unit (which have lost their Daemonology buffs). The combat goes very much against me, many chorfs fall and the BSB and sorcerer both take a wound. In the other combat, the Sneaky Gits land no wounds even with 8 attacks against the crossbowmen, they kill two of ours, and they SGs break.
Turn 5/6
The IG and Hammerers slug it out, when the dust has settles, all of my men are dead, and his King is the last man standing. Sadly, the spacing meant the Centaurs couldn’t make the charge and the black orcs rolled very low so they couldn’t support our General with a crucial flank charge. I also did very badly with our saves, failing every single 6+ ward save from the Lammasu banner and the Sorcerer failed ALL SIX of his Armor and ward saves (probability of this happening is around 8%). The Mortar continues to misfire and takes a direct hit from the Grudge Thrower, but luckily he only gets 3 wounds against it. The wolf riders finish the job of the SG, who are still running away on the last turn.
The IG and Hammerers slug it out
The Dwarfs rally their longbeards, and preserve their points since they are at exactly 25% of their starting strength! I should have tried to shoot one more of them to get the points! The King decides not to charge into the Centaurs in the last turn to be safe, and the Ironbreakers fail to get into combat and fight off a futile flank charge from the goblins.
A tense ending position
Result
When the victory points are calculated, it’s A DRAW (around 1050 vs 1100). Overall, it was a great and very evenly balanced match. While we each had some great dice and some bad nice, my bad dice were probably more critical, especially for my sorcerer general who failed all of his armor saves.
Strategic take aways
- Using Steed of shadows in turn 2 is risky, since you won’t see combat until turn 4 most likely. I probably should have tried to use the flying IG to harass the King’s unit, rather than getting it behind the Longbeards, and made the bet that the black orcs and centaurs could have taken on the other two units.
- The dreadquake is awesome, but without the benefit of Infernal engineer (which I lost after turn 1), it’s too swingy. So I will take this when I plan to have more of a shooting line, or at least a general that stays within its command range.
- The Centaurs continue to do well, especially against Dwarfs.
- The goblins and sneaky gits have not been critical, but they are cheap enough that I will continue to take them, especially as they have acted as decent screeners and allow me to deploy chaff to see where his critical units are deploying.
- The Senechal BSB is too expensive for what he does. I could have easily taken
3x hob-goblin Khan’s on foot for his price with the banner, and they basically have the same stat-line (although can a Khan join the IG? If so, this would work very well with Daemonology buffs). - Hammerers are too hard to kill in combat, and it’s better to shoot as much as you can at them given their relatively low armor save.
- Remember to fire your bolt thrower! I think I only remembered 2 or 3 times!
