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[Ok Okri]

Ok, so disclaimers up front:
1) There are NO dwarfs in this battle report - I spent ages writing it up for my club, so might as well post it everywhere I can.
2) The pictures are awful - my camera is terrible, and my guys were just moving too fast to focus on.
3) Neither of us have played much over the last year, so may have made many mistakes in the heat of battle!

We'd arranged to play a big team game a few weekends back, 2.5k a piece, but at the last minute people started dropping out, and it ended up just being me and Dai. We'd both bought additional armies for friends to use, so decided to play 2-on-2 with what we had. I've played against Dai's WoC with my Dwarfs, and alongside his Ogres, so decided to field my Tomb Kings and Wood Elves instead. Each army had been built separately, so synergies weren't taken advantage of - hence me ending up with 12 levels of magic + bounds!

We followed the allies rules from the BRB, so both sides were treated as suspicious allies. Here's how it turned out...

Order:
Wood Elves (the fast, annoying guys)
(N.B. My wood elf army is themed – it’s an empire hunt)
Highborne (Gen): scout, light armour, enchanted shield, bow of loren, arcane bodkins
Spellweaver: scroll, lamentations of despair, ironcurse icon
BSB: Asyendi's bane, hail of doom arrow
10 Glade guard, mus
15 Glade guard, mus, std, banner of eternal flame
15 Glade Guard, mus, std
10 Dryads
2*3 Treekin
2*Eagle
Treeman
2*5 Waywatchers

Tomb Kings (the dead, magicy guys)
Liche high priest (lvl 4, Heirophant, Nehek): scroll, talisman of preservation
Liche (lvl4, light, gen): book of Ashur
35 Tomb Guard, FC
2*15 Skeleton archers, std, mus
4 Chariots, std, banner of flame
4 Chariots
5 Horse archers
6 Ushabti
3 Carrion
Casket
Heirotitan

Spells:
Life - Earth Blood, Flesh to stone, Shield of thorns, Dwellers
Light - Pha's protection, Light of battle, Banishment, Time warp
Nehek - Cursed blades, Smiting, Vengeance, Desiccation

I wasn't too pleased with my light and life spells, only rolling one double to pick up dwellers. Nehek on the other hand I was very pleased with.

Destruction (roughly):
Ogres (the fat, tough, killy guys)
Bruiser, great big smashy weapon
Butcher (lvl4)
Thundertusk
3*Mournfang cav
12 Bulls
3 Yetis
3 Leadbelchers
Scrap launcher
~40 Gnoblars
8 Ironguts

Warriors of Chaos (the not-so-fat, tough, killy guys)
Archaon
Tzeentch sorcerer (lvl2 fire)
2*5 Marauder cav
19 Warriors, nurgle
Hellcannon
2*Spawn
10 Knights
10 Chosen

Spells:
Fire - fireball, and something that never got cast
Tzeentch - flickering fire, treason
Gut - Maw, +S, +T, bonebreaker(?)

Looking at the match up I was regretting the decision not to field my dwarfs. I didn't fancy taking on many of Dai’s units in combat, so I'd have to distract, redirect, and concentrate on taking down units piecemeal. With more drops, and plenty of fast stuff, my plan was to keep my Ushabti, Tomb guard and mages together on one flank (preferably near the wizards tower), and use buffs to help them beat one unit at a time. Buffed Tomb guard would be handy against the chaos troops and knights, whilst buffed Ushabti could take on the ogres. Archers would try and pick off the smaller units and "war machines".

We set up the table with a wizards tower, blood tower (centre), haunted mansion (graveyard), normal buildings, magical forests.


Looking down the table from the wizards tower


and back the other way

Deployment (from Order left to right)
Skeletal horse archers, Waywatchers, Treekin (well dressed ogres), Carrion with Skeletal archers (light liche) behind, Chariots with Heirotitan (bone giant) behind, Ushabti (swarm fillers) with Skeletal archers (heirophant) behind, Glade guard with BSB, Treeman (ridden carnosaur) with Casket behind in the centre...


Order's left flank (Skeletal horse archers and Waywatchers way out West). Note the abundance of spell cards - far more than I could ever hope to cast!

...Dryads (hunting hounds) with Tomb guard behind, small Glade guard, Eagle with Chariots (std) behind, Waywatchers, Eagle, Treekin, Glade guard (life weaver), Glade riders.


Order's right flank

Destruction left to right
Marauder cav, Warriors (lvl2), Hellcannon, Spawn, Spawn, Knights (Archaon), Thundertusk, Iron guts (Bruiser) in the centre...


Destruction's left flank

...Gnoblars, Scraplauncher, Marauder cav, Leadbelchers, Mournfang, Yetis, Bulls (Butcher), Chosen.


Destruction's right flank

With the chosen and bulls deployed opposite the wizards tower early, and warriors by the village, I decided to place my main units in the centre and hope I could take on the Knights, Ironguts and Thundertusk. At least I wouldn't need to worry about the Chosen, Warriors and Bulls! I'd planned on using the Waywatchers killing blow against the Knights, but couldn't get good positions, so one unit went against the Chosen instead. I then remembered KB only works at short range!

[Ok Okri]

Destruction 1:
Everything moves up, with the Hellcannon rampaging forward.

Treason and flickering fire kill 4 of the small Glade guard unit, who pass their panic test. +1S and +1T gets cast on the Bulls.

Leadbelchers and Scraplaunher wound the Ushabti once, and kill a Chariot.

Order1:
A bit of shuffling. I'd planned to block the Knights with my Eagles, using the ol’ double-flee tactic, but with the Spawns nearby I was worried careful charges from Dai could counter it. Instead I move one Eagle behind the tower, and run the Dryads and Treeman towards the woods at its base. If the Ironguts enter the tower, at least I can block all their exits!

I cast smiting on the Chariot unit on my left to get it back to full strength.

Shooting kills 1 Mournfang (go Skeletal archers!), 2 Gnoblars (to my 'elite' shooters - the Glade guard), 2 Knights (thanks Highborne), and 1 chosen (go go Skeletal horse archers!)


We can take 'em. No worries.


Hanging out on the left


Hanging out on the right

[Ok Okri]

Destruction 2:
The Gnoblars fail a charge on the Ushabti, and the Bulls fail a charge on the Waywatchers. Everything else moves up with the Knights pulling alongside the impassable ruins to prevent flank charges.

The Hellcannon takes some wounds to the haunted graveyard!


Here come the Marauders...


...and the Knights...


...and the Gnoblars!!!

Order 2:
Ushabti charge Gnoblars, Chariots smash into the Marauder horse, Treekin charge a Spawn. I move both Eagles to block the Knights charge and give me another turn to shoot them. I also move the Dryads into the forest and the Treeman ready to flank the knights along with the Chariots and Tomb guard as soon as the Knights leave cover of the ruins. The Waywatchers on my left take shelter in the wizards tower, while the Horse archers move forward to cover their retreat and block charges from the Chosen and Bulls.

Magic is all dispelled. I contemplated going for a big dwellers on the Knights, but didn't think it was worth the risk with the prospect of the puppet around. I’d be needing all my mages.

The graveyard takes more wounds off the Hellcannon, which is now down to 2. Waywatchers killing blow 2 Chosen. Skeletal archers take a wound off the Leadbelchers. Chariots kill 1 knight, and the Highborne kills another. Glade guard kill 1 Marauder horse on the flank.

Chariots wipe out the Marauder horse, and overrun into the Leadbelchers, passing a dangerous terrain test for the forest (venom thicket). Gnoblars (with hatred from the tower) hit the Ushabti 19 times, but only 2 wounds get through. In return the Ushabti kill 14, but the Gnoblars hold with steadfast. The Treekin do just 1 wound to the spawn.

[Ok Okri]

Destruction 3:
Knights double fail charges on the Eagles, but one stops right in front of the Tomb guard blocking them from charging next turn! Thundertusk charges the Dryads in the normal wood. Chosen charge the Horse archers, Yetis charge the Waywatchers in the tower, and the second Spawn goes into the treekin.

The fire wizard miscasts while throwing a fireball at the Glade riders. He kills just one, and loses his spells in return!

The Scraplauncher kills 8 skellies in the light unit.

In combat the Treekin kill 1 spawn and wound the other for a wound in return. The Thundertusk kills 6 Dyads, and despite steadfast the remainder flee. The Thundertusk pursues into the Treeman, preventing him from flank charging the Knights in the next turn! The Gnoblars loose 14-4 to the Ushabti. At this point Dai is happy - he wants them to flee so my Ushabti pursue into his Ironguts, which have been stuck behind the tower. I joke he'll roll snakes, and so he does! What we don't spot is how this could drastically affect the game in his favour...


"We're not afraid of giant animated statues with animal heads!"


You set up multiple charges, only for an Eagle to land right in your way!


Who will win? Place bets now!

The Chariots do 2 wounds on the Leadbelchers (one from the horse!), enough to break them and run them down. Waywatchers in the tower kill 1 Yeti, for 3 in return, but hold in the tower. And in the Horse archer vs Chosen combat, the Chosen do just 1 wound, and a horse takes 1 Chosen warrior down in return! 2 more Horse archers crumble, but 2 stick around to hold up the Chosen for another turn.


Chosen by whom?

Order 3:
On my left the Treekin charge the Mournfangs, but the real action is in the centre. The Knights have left their cover, but the Treeman is pinned and the Tomb guard are blocked by the Eagle. If I don't hit them this turn the Kinghts will get the charge on my Tomb guard, and I'll not be able to support them. The only option I can see is to charge in with my chariots. I'm hoping that with some buffs they'll pin the Knights for a turn so I can charge in with the Tomb guard in my next, but they could get crushed, giving the knights the opportunity to reform from combat and head off in a different direction before I get chance. I abandon my usual sense of caution, and charge the Chariots in!

Everything rallies, meaning that damn Eagle is stuck in front of my Tomb guard for another turn! Now my Chariots won’t be getting support any time soon, so they need all the magical support they can get…

To boost the Chariots I aim to cast Flesh to stone, Desiccation, Pha's, and Cursed blades. I get Flesh to stone, but Desiccation and Cursed blades are dispelled. Pha's is just out of range, so that goes on the Treeman instead. This doesn’t look good.

In shooting, the Glade riders take a wound of the Cannon and one of its crew. The graveyard spirits shoot out at the Treekin, who lose 2 wounds, felling one of them.

Combat sees the Chosen wipe out the Horse archers and get +1T on their Eye Of The Gods roll. Luckily they are now stranded too far out to get to my main units. The Treekin on my left do 4 wounds to the Mournfangs for 1 in return. The last Mournfang breaks and runs through the wizard's tower, taking another wound from Terrain, and will flee off the board in the next turn.


I'm surprised the tower is still standing since a Mournfang's run through it!

The Treekin on the right kill the second Spawn, so both flanks are now safe. I just need to hold in the centre with my main combat units. The Treeman does 2 wounds to the Thundertusk, and the Ushabti kill the last 18 gnoblars. Now I see a problem. Having killed off all the Gnoblars there is no pursuit for the Ushabti, who are now open for a charge from the Ironguts. If the Ironguts break through, the overrun is directly into the flanks of my two liche units, and from there an open run into my back line! Cue deep concern.

In the main fight I roll well for impact hits with the Chariots and take down 2 Knights, meaning only Archaon gets to fight back. Thanks to Flesh to Stone on the Chariots he only does 2 wounds, and does the same to his own unit! The Knights fail their break test and flee through the blood tower and the Ironguts, taking them close to the board edge and well out of the fight. The standard bearer falls in the break, dropping the unit below 25% of its starting size, meaning Archaon needs double ones to rally! Cue victory dance.


Bang! And the dirt is gone.


Oh, there it is!

Side note: the last time I played Archaon was with my dwarfs. He survived 2 cannonballs before eating through 2 great weapon hordes on his own. In the end he was only stopped when my Runelord sacrificed himself to ensure Archaon would take the full force of 2 organ guns to the face. Needless to say, the 4 Chariots surprised me.

[Ok Okri]

Destruction 4:
The Bulls, who had reformed and moved around the wizard’s tower charge the Treekin on my left. The Yetis charge the Waywatchers in the tower again. The Ironguts charge the Ushabti. Archaon fails to rally and is now 2" from the table edge. The broken Mournfang leaves the table.

Dai casts the Maw into open space. I fail to dispel it with my dice (I don’t have anything else to do with the dice), and it scatters 10" directly onto my leftmost Chariots! They fail their initiative test and one gets smashed to pieces, but luckily it fails to wound the other.

In shooting the Scrap launcher kills 6 out of my heirophant's unit, and the Hellcannon kills one of my central Chariots.

The Thundertusk does 2 wounds, whilst the Treeman only does one in return. He fails his stubborn break test, but luckily the BSB has moved into range and he holds on the re-roll. Yetis kill off the remaining Waywatchers in the tower, and the Bulls break the Treekin and run them down. Although my left flank is dead, it’s too far for the Chosen, Yetis and Bulls to get back into the fight.


Bulls smash!

Back in the centre the Ironguts wipe out the Ushabti, taking 11 wounds in return. This gives them the chance to overrun into my Heirotitan and the flank of my BSB's unit, potentially swinging the game back. Luckily the overrun is half an inch short! Cue relief.


Phew! That's a bit close for comfort.


It's all a bit quiet over here.

Order 4:
The remaining Treekin charge the Hellcannon on 2 wounds, and the Chariots on my left fail to make contact with the Scrap launcher. The rest of my line shuffles around, trying to keep away from combats with the Ogres. My Eagles fly in to do their redirecting thang and pull the ironguts away from my mages and Casket.

Magic sees me get 12 power dice. Flesh to Stone goes off on the Treekin, Vengeance goes off on the Ironguts, the Heirotitan leeches 2 wounds from the Bruiser, and Banishment puts 3 wounds on the Scrap launcher, which proceeds to roll 3 6's to save them!

Shooting is inconsequential as most of my archers are running for their (un)lives!

The Treekin kill the Hellcannon. The Treeman almost goes down to the Thundertusk, but manages to ward save its last wound. In return it kills the beast! The centre is saved – cue further dancing.

[Ok Okri]

Destruction 5
Archaon leaves the table, and the Ironguts double fail charge the Eagles losing 3 wounds in the process from terrain checks.


Fly my pretties!

In the magic phase the Butcher miscasts a powered up Maw. It scatters free, but the miscast kills a Bull and puts 2 wounds on the Butcher.

Order 5
The Chariots charge the Scrap launcher. One of the two Eagles rallies, but the other flees the table. My units continue to run for cover, and the Carrion finally find a use by flying in to help keep the Ironguts from charging anything significant.

To make up for last turn I roll double 1's for winds, and fail to cast anything.

In shooting the Treeman kills an Irongut.

Chariots and Scraplauncher do 2 wounds a piece, and despite the charge and flank bonuses the launcher holds fast!

[Ok Okri]

Destruction 6
The Ironguts charge the Carrion and overrun into the Eagle. Nothing else is in a position to do anything.



In the only combat the Chariots beat the Scrap launcher by 1 and run it down.

Order 6
I cast several buffs on the Eagle, but don't think to cast Light of battle. The eagle survives the attacks from the Ironguts, but fails its break test and flees the board, having saved the rest of my army multiple times.

[Ok Okri]

What a game! We both had a great time, and there were plenty of ups and downs. I thought I'd lost this on army selection and spells, then pulled it back in deployment, then lost it again on charges in the centre, only to pull it back by breaking Archaon and the Ironguts falling just short in their overrun into my back line.

Movement was my friend this game. I managed to get into positions where I could fight on my terms. My combat power was nowhere near that of the Warriors and Ogres, but I managed to make most combats go my way, or be cheap losses. Magic also played an important part, mostly by keeping my units in combat alive. I don't feel I had overwhelming, or particularly decisive, magic but I did manage to get of a few spells that helped turn the tide of battle.

My MVP's were definitely the Eagles. I've not had much practice with them, but have really discovered their potential. They kept the two most brutal units from getting into combat, giving me time to react. The Chariots and Treekin did well in combat, and the smaller units kept the other big threats occupied long enough that they couldn't pose a threat to my main line. The Horse archers holding the Chosen was unexpected to say the least. I wasn't disappointed by any of my units. The light and life mages didn't get the best spells, but what they did get was useful. The Tomb guard didn't see any action, but had the Chariots not taken down the knights then they were there to plug the gap.

[Targ Ironfist]

Nice report.

Both sides have mismanaged their movement, but you did better job at deployment and movement, so you won.

The Archaon -charriot story is entertaining, as I still remember being munched by him in the 6th edition. What I know he is totaly brutal still.

Thank you for the report and do a dawi one the next time you write!

[Hortennse]

Nice, my brother and I used to play 5000 point battles in 5th edition, but that was back when every model cost a lot more points wise. Ironbreakers were 20 points each for example. So our battles werent much bigger than a 3000 point battle is today, especially since 5th edition was "Hero-hammer", so lots of points went into godlike Runelords and such.

Thanks for sharing, battle reports are great ways to remember fun times so i try to make them a lot. My brother and cousin and I are hoping to be a 3 man team for a game this summer, so keep an eye out for a report

[Ok Okri]

Nice report.

Both sides have mismanaged their movement, but you did better job at deployment and movement, so you won.

Thanks. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on movement. It's not often I get to play, so feedback on how to improve is much apreciated.

Nice, my brother and I used to play 5000 point battles in 5th edition, but that was back when every model cost a lot more points wise. Ironbreakers were 20 points each for example. So our battles werent much bigger than a 3000 point battle is today, especially since 5th edition was "Hero-hammer", so lots of points went into godlike Runelords and such.

I remember the days well. Though in 4th ed. I really had no idea about the rules, and was crushed a lot more than I am now!

[Targ Ironfist]

Deployment:

Chaos&Ogres: Huge gaps between their units. Instead of rushing in an invincible wave, they came in piecemeal, allowing you to set combo charges and ambushes.

Setup: Puting infantry on a flank, when NOT protectign anything or not trying for a weighted flank approach is pretty ahem "unconsiderate"...
Faster ogres yes, but chosen and warriors on flanks was realy bad. Knights could have been ok too, but not this.

Archaon went in without support and that was against a KB unit (considering the tomb guard). Which he paid for. You were lucky, but he could have decreased your chances with a proper support.

TK and WE: Your deployment was better -even with a solid ploy to the left. But to the middle and right your units had no clear roles and your right wing was lacking. No real hitter there, which was not completely OK. Still would be Ok with that, but your deployment locked your Tomb guard and Charriots completely and a wiser opponent would have let you pay for this, defeating you piecemeal.

Then the eagle positioning nearly cost you the battle - as without the TG support your charriots realy needed to get lucky to stop that CK archaon travel agency...
On overal, your moves lacked the possible dynamics, but compared to your opponent, you were better, which shows the end result. On the other hand, you needed to be better as you were playing against top books with books which have hard life right now.

As said already before, your approach was better, but as you yourself commented, you could have lost it. And now, you should consider what would you do should you meet someone, who would be able to use his troops better, than your adversary (ies) did.

Still, thank you once more for an interesting report and I wish you good luck in your future games!

[Ok Okri]

Thanks for the feedback Targ! You spotted two of my most common failures: awkward deployment when I change plans mid way through, and a lack of foresight in my movement phase!

Although deployment was a mess, and it may look like my units didn't have roles, everything did pretty much what it was supposed to. There is also an element of psychology in there, knowing what my opponent was likely to do.

What you don't see from the photos is the order of deployment, which was very surprising and key to the game. I'd wanted to deploy my main force in one corner to limit the number of combats I'd have to face, but Dai placed infantry blocks on the flanks early on, whilst leaving the centre open. Had I deployed to one side, I'd have faced the thundertusk, ironguts, knights, AND a block of warriors/chosen. The center was then going to be the best place for me to keep out of those fights, and it gave me the opportunity to trap the ironguts behind the tower. Unfortunately, due to my earlier drops, this left everything a bit cramped.

[Hortennse]

I remember the days well. Though in 4th ed. I really had no idea about the rules, and was crushed a lot more than I am now!

If I remember right, GW actually never released a 5th edition dwarfs book, so it was actually the same book for both 4th and 5th edition. I sure miss those old organ guns! 5 cannons in one model with rune of Forging legal? Yes please!


Congrats on exacly 1000 posts lol

Edited by Hortennse, 17 June 2012 - 02:10 PM.

[Ok Okri]

No, there wasn't a 5th ed dwarf book, although the core rules went through a bit of a refinement between 4th and 5th. I didn't have my own BRB back then, so had to trust my friends with their recounting of the rules (which was very one-sided!). The old 65pt organ guns were a blast, but I think the stealth gyros were my favourite.

Thanks - oh, I've ruined it now