7 replies to this topic

[cypher623]

I attended the LVO Fantasy GT weekend before last.  I took the following army:

 

2500 pts.

 

 

42 longbeards, command, hw & sh, strollaz, sanctuary

 

24  Irondrakes, command, strollaz sanctuary

 

29 Hammers, command Master Rune of Grot One EYE

 

BSB  sh, Grungi, Strollaz

 

Runesmith  sh, spellbreaking, passage (general)

 

Runesmith sh, spellbreaking

 

3 gyrocopters with vanguard

 

5 rangers

 

2 gyrocopters 

 

General setup - BSB goes with Hammers to give them strollaz, hammerer banner makes everyone in 12" stubborn.

 

There were 28 total players in attendance.  I went 3-1-1 and wound up 11th overall with Best of Dwarves.  I am going to give you the breakdown on the five games I played and generally discuss how the army performed.

 

 

GAME ONE:

 

Opponent  Chad "somethingorother"

 

High Elves:

 

Lords:

 

He had two annointed of Assuryan both mounted on Frostfire pheonix.  One had the giant blade and 1+ armor save, the other had the Star Lance.  I don't recall what else these two heroes had, but each one ran about 545 points;

 

Heroes:

 

BSB:  elven steed, heavy armor, shield, lance, reaver's bow, potion of strength (great combination)

 

Also A+ for Chad, his use of the Frostfires was very beardy, but he had no magic so that made his list a bit more friendly.

 

 

Core:

 

3 x 5 silverhelms

 

2 x 5 reavers, spears only

 

1 x 6 reavers, spears only (bsb goes here)

 

Special:

 

One skycutter

 

Rare:

 

2 Frostfire Phoenix 

 

We played meeting engagement.  I had first turn, got to set up first and the Irondrakes decided they were late to the fight.

His reavers with his BSB came in late as well.

 

I don't recall this game in turn detail.  This was diagonal deployment.  I placed my hammerers in my left center, my longbeards to their right, four of the gyros on my right flank and one vanguard gyro close to my longbeards to block any attempts at jamming my strollaz moves.  The rangers I placed as an afterthought to the left of my hammerers.  

 

He placed all four of his monsters on my left flank.  The remainder of his army was placed with his three units of silverhelms on my right flank, his two units of reavers centrally backed by the Skycutter.

 

I was able to vanguard everything.  He had nothing to vanguard on my left flank, my center gyro moved up and stopped his vanguard reavers from jamming my foot.  I made sharp turns towards my left flank with both the hammerers and the longbeards on their vanguard move.

 

So, on my right flank, my gyros were going to tie up and delay everything in his army and my heavy foot would crush his monster mash on my left flank.

 

My first turn: I brought the Irondrakes on my left board edge within twelve inches or so of the hammerers in a 5 x 5 column.  Ignoring all of his central chaff, I marched my hammerer's and longbeards towards the fight that was about to start on the left flank. 

 

On my right flank I tentatively moved my gyros up to threaten his cotton candy cavalry, making careful that he could charge me with the reavers, not the silverhelms.

 

His first turn:

 

Left Flank: His first turn he charged my rangers with his non-general Frostfire (Frostfire 1) , crushed them and (my mistake) converted into my Irondrakes.  No worries though, he was be close enough for a  turn three charge by both my other infantry blocks.  The irondrakes, steadfast held, and actually won that combat by one.  Without his BSB he passed on an 8.

 

Right Flank:  

 

He brings his BSB unit on and zaps a wound off of one of my gyros with the reaver bow;

 

He lines up for a charge of the flank of my longbeards with a 5 man squad of silverhelms which pointedly ignore him;

 

He takes a wound off one of my gyros with his skycutter bow. 

 

He is very tentative with his cav and is very worried about the gyros; I have 460 points of my army tying up about 1000 points of his.  I expect to  ultimately lose on the right flank, but am confident in my left flank.

 

My second turn:

 

Left Flank:

 

I again ignore his chaff and knights with my blocks of hammerers and longbeards and march to within easy charge of his Frostfire 1,  which has its left flank there for the taking.  The fight between Frostfire 1 and the Irondrakes goes as expected, he wins, they hold.

 

Right Flank:

 

I charge one reaver squad, do two wounds and catch it on the over-run.  I bomb another reaver  squad and kill all but two horseman, they pass their test.  I steamblast a unit of five silverhelms with two gyros, he takes six wounds and saves all but one. I play hide and seek with his BSB reavers with the last gyro.

 

His second turn:

 

Left Flank:

 

He charges the general, and the other two frostfire phoenixs into the irondrakes.  General and one in the front,  the last one on the left flank of the irondrakes.  In the ensuing fight the irondrakes put a wound on rider from Frostfire 1 and lose.  Thanks to the stubborn banner on the hammerers, they pass.  There are about 10 of them left at this point.

 

Right Flank:

 

His bsb drinks his strength potion and finishes off the gyro he shot in turn one with three strength eight shots. Yeowch!

 

He charges another gyro with his skycutter and I evade and get away.  He charges it with at least two other squads, but my gyro is fleet and gets away clean. 

 

He shuffles his cavalry around to try and get charges with his silverhelms. 

 

 

 

My Third Turn:

 

Left Flank:

 

 

Hammerers AND Longbeards declare charges into the left flank of Frostfire 1, hoping to kill it, convert into his general and so on.   they both make their charges. So, I have 30 hammerers and 40+ longbeards on the flank of Frostfire 1.  Frostfire 2 (with his general) and frostfire 3 are lined up alongside Frostfire 1 on my irondrakes.  

 

To my complete and utter amazement I manage one wound on Frostfire 1, and one on the rider with all my hammerer and longbeard attacks. I apparently hadn't discussed my battleplan with my dice.  I lost the combat, but everyone is stubborn AND the round ends with three irondrakes still alive.  So the frostfires in contact with them are still stuck and can't move on his turn.  I am still in great position on my left flank.

 

Right Flank:

 

I charge two gyros into the flank of one unit of silverhelms, kill two, but they refuse to break.  This hurts!

 

One gyro is rallying; the other gyro is breakdancing with my opponents other five units, 2 reaver, two silverhelms and  the skycutter.

 

His Third Turn:

 

Left Flank:

 

Hand to hand in the scrum on the left flank sees me poised to rout the four units I failed to rout last turn.  He kills my irondrakes.  All of my hammerers and all of my longbeards  put the last wound on the rider of Frostfire 1, kill him, but fail to do even one wound to Frostfire 1.  I lose the combat again.  I am seriously low on hammerers who have taken quite a drubbing from Frostfire 1. 

 

 

Right Flank:

 

His BSB charges out of his Reavers, makes an incredible (note the word I used there) wheel past my blocking gyro and into the combat between the two gyros and the silverhelms.  He does two wounds on the gryo, everyone else flubs their attacks and both my boys scatter and get caught.

 

His skycutter charges the fourth gyro, needs an 11 rolls an 11, I hold. He does one wound, I pass my test.

 

At this point the game is essentially over.  The three frostfires formerly mauling the irondrakes are free to get after my two stuck infantry blocks.  My opponents dice are smoking hot and mine are as cold as Frostfire Phonix balls.

 

We call it.  Full victory to my opponent.

 

 

Except for the result, this game went exactly as I planned.  The gyros tie up two times their points while the heavy infantry traps and kills the elite fighters.    What went wrong??? 

 

1.  Dwarves are TERRIBLE MONSTER fighters and Frostfire Phoenix's are TERRIBLE MONSTERS!  This was my first time playing against them and I can tell you they are durable.  Frostfire  1 took on 2002 points of my army without dying. My army's weakness against monsters will come up again in the future.

 

2.  I made a two mistakes.  First I placed the irondrakes where Frostfire 1 could convert into them after smashing the rangers.  Really that was a minor mistake.  Second, in hindsight it might have been best to position my longbeards more towards the rear of the three Pheonix' rather than charge them in on the flank of Frostfire 1.  Had I known my dice would abandon me I would have done so, but there was really no way of knowing things would go that badly.

 

 

 

So, there it is, my first game and the only game I will lose in the entire tournament.  My opponent was a good guy, really friendly and we worked through a lot of issues in game. Sorry, no pictures, but his army was wonderfully painted. 

 

Don't worry boys and girls listening at home, the Strollaz Boys have nowhere to go but up, and they do go up from here.   I will post battle 2 tomorrow.

 

JG

 

 

 

 

[cypher623]

My second game was also against High elves.  My opponent's name was Brett, and he was one of those people I would travel across the country to play against again.  Super good sport.  Bash of a game.

 

His list was was as follows;

 

Lords:

 

Prince, barded horse, dragon armor, shield giant blade, dragonhelm, dawnstone ( a rock hard superstar) 622 pts

 

Mage:  talisman of preservation, book of hoeth, lvl 4 of beasts, mounted;  340 points

 

Heroes:

 

Mage, dispel scroll, ironcourse icon, talisman of protection, lvl 2 high magic, mtd  340 points

 

Noble  BSB, barded horse, dragon armor, shield, ogre blade, enchanted shield.

 

Core:  

 

5 reavers x2 spears and bows, mus 210

 

13 silver helms full command shield 329

 

6 silver helms, shields, mus 148

 

Special

 

10 dragon princes, full command and Banner of the World Dragon  370

 

rare:

 

2 great eagles 100

 

2 eagle claws bolt throwers

 

Frostheart Pheonix

 

 

For my hatred roll, I rolled a 2, so no help.  This was battle line.  I finished deploying first.  Looking at his army across the board from the left board edge to the Right:

 

Far left EC, in front of it 5 reavers, behind it one eagle.  6 man silverhelms about 12" away to the right deployed in two ranks of three.  About 12 inches  to the right (its a pattern) from that his Dragon Princes with all four of his characters; and within six inches of those the 13 man squad of silverhelms.   About 12 inches from that squad another EC/Reaver combo with a Frostheart phoenix deployed ahead and to the right of the EC.  To the faaaaar right, a great eagle.

 

 

I deployed two gyros directly across from his left hand EC bunker,  my irondrakes in column 5x5  I deployed across from his 6 man silverhelm unit, my hammers in column next, six wide five deep,  directly across from his Dragon Princes and within 12 of the drakes, my ironbeards in column five wide 8 deep, close to the hammerers and directly across from the silverhelms.  One gyro, non vanguarding directly behind my hammerers, the other two gyros, one a vanguarder across from the frostheart and the EC bunker.

 

The rangers I put 12 inches away from his 6 man silverhelms, to the left of the hammerers, and a bit in front of my rangers.  

 

I don't recall what his magic was, but it didn't matter between magic phase rolls and my spell breakers he was not able to cast one spell the entire game.

 

His general  battle plan is simple given his speed and maneuverability he can shoot and fight where ever he wants.  He commits the dragonprinces against any heroes or squads having magical attacks (but I have none of these) and lets the silverhelms get on a flank.  Not a force meant to jump across the board and slam into anyone, a finesse army.  

 

I vanguard all three foot blocks.  My hammerers are within 13 inches of his dragon princes, my beards are within 13 inches of his silverhelms.  The irondrakes on my  left vanguard cautiously angling for the inevitable flank charge on the dragon princes.  I vanguard all three other gryos aggressively.

 

I win first turn.  Now this battle plan will not necessarily be laid out on a turn by turn basis.  I am going to point out in general order what happened, what got killed, why, etc

 

FIRST TURN:

 

On my Right Flank.

 

 

In my first turn my vanguarding gyros (gyros 1 and 2 across from his EC bunker on my right move up so they are out of sight of the frostheart.  Gyro 1 is to the immediate right of his silverhelms, gryo 2 is lined up on the flanks of both the EC and the pheonix.   I also move the gyro (gyro 3)  behind my hammerers to my right, directly across from both his reavers and Frostheart.   I ignore the eagle to my far right and focus on tying up the frostheart and killing the reavers and frostheart.  In his first turn he charges Gyro 3 with his reavers, I stand, they make contact and whiff, I did two wounds they break and I run them down.  Also in his first turn he turns his eagle claw around shoots gyro 2, hits wounds and does a wound.  His eagle makes a long march to try and be relevant, his Frostheart moves forward to try and threaten my beards, but he is too far away.

 

In the center:

 

I march all three blocks forwards, again angling the irondrakes for a flank on his dragon princes.   I shoot his 6 man silverhelms with my rangers and do a wound.  In the bottom of the first turn, he realizes the inevitability of fighting his cavalry against my vanguarders, there is just no room to move. Chargers my hammerers with his dragon princes and he charges his 13 silverhelms into my beards.  He smashes my hammerers with his dragon princes and heroes, killing 10, in return I splat four dragon princes.  His silverhelms win combat against the beards, but only just barely.  I killed about five of them first turn.   Both squads pass their break tests due to "one eye".

 

On my left flank:

 

the EC bunker I moved the gyro copter with vanguard, (gyro 4) right into the middle of all three of his units, the eC, the eagle and the reavers, but no one has line of sight to him.  I move Gyro 5 up into charge range of his reavers and his eagle.  He shoots gyro 5 with his bolt thrower and reavers and does a wound,  the eagle swoops around menacingly and his  5 silverhelms charge the rangers.  He does two wounds, I do two wounds,he wins but I am in range of the "old one eye" banner and hold.

 

Turn 2:

 

My right flank, I fly over his EC with Gyro 2, bomb him, do eight hits and NO wounds.  Whiff.  Gyro 2, moves in behind the dragon princes and the silverhelms.  Gyro 3 moves to where he can be seen and charged by the Frost Fire.  His turn 2, he charges Gyro 3 with his Frostheart.   I run, he doesn't catch and now his Frostfire is on the flank of my beards, but not in their line of sight.  His eagle moves more toward the main fight, it is really a non-entity at this point.  He turns his EC and shoots Gyro 2, hits, wounds rolls a three, dead Gyro!

 

Center:  

 

His turn AND mine. More hammerers die, about six, in turn I kill three more dragon princes. Pass my tests and hold.  The beards who have strength 4 and armor piercing (my gosh having the runesmiths in the beards and drakes paid off throughout the tournament) and kill all the silverhelms  by the end of turn two. except two.  They flee, I let them go.  

 

Now here friends is where I made the mistake that costs me the win.  At the top of turn three the irondrakes have maneuvered to charge the dragon princes flank to my left.  They only need a 6.  I am free to reform the beards to either charge into the dragon princes flank to my right or reform to face the Frostheart and charge it top of turn three. 

 

I know, I know, I can heard you all pleading, reform and charge the frostheart.  Don’t take the risk charging the princes and getting the Frostheart on your flank thunderstomping you and taking away your combat results!   Did you learn nothing from game one.  Do It.  Charge the phoenix. Charge it!

But no, alas your author when the pressure was on, snatched Defeat from the jaws of victory and charged the flank of the Dragon Princes.

 

The rest is as they say, history.  I can sum up the game like this.  He killed two more gyros, one with another lucky roll from his EC, and another in combat on my left flank.  He killed the rangers, finally after about six rounds of combat.

 

When I gave the dragon prince hero bus the “Malanchi Crunch” treatment with my irondrakes and beard and charged them in the rear with Gyro 2, I killed everything except his lord, bsb and mage.  BUT I couldn’t scratch either the lord or the bsb on the turn I charged.  He also killed the last of my hammerers and my bsb on that turn.  So, I win, but not by much and he passes on a 7 with a reroll.  Then the thrice damned frostheart phoenix crashes into the rear of my beards,  (JUST AS YOU. AND THAT TINY VOICE IN MY HEAD THAT WE ALL SHOULD LISTEN TO BUT SELDOM DO,  KNEW WOULD HAPPEN) reduces their strength and stomps away. 

 

The result.  A draw. I killed about 120 points more than he did, but the margin of victory was 250 for a minor victory.

 

The draw was cold comfort.  I will say this.  Irondrakes and beards with runesmiths are trouble for any elite units.  They eat knights with the - 2 to their save -3 on the charge.  The Hammerers, though crucial to the army build to keep everyone stubborn are still a disappointment.  Losing 10 models at a time is harsh.  They hit back hard, but have very little staying power.

 

The Strollaz runes are boss.  No-one  and I mean no army you face has a plan for three dwarf combat squads in their face turn one.  

 

 

 

 

[cypher623]

I am going to suspend these battle reports due to lack of interest.  I know there weren't any pictures, but one comment for all of the trouble would have been nice.

 

JG

[Thundercarp]

I enjoyed reading these, sounds like fun games. Personally, it's hard for me to follow everything when its written as a play by play. Pictures can help, but I often prefer an abbreviated summary that shows the key moments of the game. 

 

You clearly put a lot of time into this and it shows (well written, engaging) and I know it can be frustrating to put all that work into sharing something and getting a minimal response. If it means anything, last time I checked 140 people read your thread. Please don't get discouraged: it's a flow of posts like these that help make this a great forum. 

[Strongbeard_Liam]

Read both and was wanting more! Your work is not in vain, let's see those dwarfs get a victory!

[Awooga]

Yep - enjoyed the reports and styles a lot. Don't change a thing - just add to it! V interested in seeing how the list goes and your thoughts on it and Strollaz in general. Thanks for taking the time and hope you get chance to add some more...

[Durak]

Even without comments, don't get discouraged. I find that when you do a battle report for your games, you remember them. Heck, I went through and did an entire timeline for my hold based on the old battle reports that I did. 

 

That said, well written reports. I did enjoy reading them. 

[Old Scratch]

Great read, I hope you complete the rest of it.