Hello all,

I bring you another battle report in this epic war of Dwarfs vs Tomb Kings taking place here. I know.. you're probably thinking "I've seen this movie before". But this time it's different as I took the tomb kings and my wife, who has never ever played a tabletop wargame in her life picked up the Dwarfs.

Aside from the quick battle report below, the most important thing is that a brand new player who couldn't be further from the target market GW has set and one who has never ever played anything remotely similar to this, was able to pick up the game, roll some dice and have fun. She even said she'd do a re-match.

Sure, some will say: "Well, that's precisely what is wrong with AoS, anyone, including a 5 year old can play it". Well, in some respects, I'm finding that to be more true than not. AoS is a much more casual-friendly game than WFB was. My wife would have likely never picked up 8th edition, least of all, understand it, enjoy and be able to play by round 2 or 3 with little to no direction from me!

On to the report:
Rules: 2 heroes + 30 wounds.
I continue testing the "can't fire when in close combat" rule. Why? Well, otherwise, why bring anything that doesn't shoot? Bring an army of Irondrakes, Thunderers and arty then. No need for anything else!
Anyway, no shooting in close combat but can shoot units in other combats if not engaged.

Dwarf list:
1x Grimm Burloksson
1x Runelord

10x Irondrakes w/ trollhammer torpedo
5x Ironbreakers
1x Cannon
1x Grudge Thrower

Tomb King list:
1x Tomb King w/ shield
1x Liche Priest

5x Tomb Guard
3x Chariots
5x Horse Archers

Set up as so:

[Cannon][Grimm][GT] [Runelord]
[IBs] [IDs]

[Horse Archers] [Tomb Guard] [Chariots]
[TK] [ LP]

I allow her to choose to go first or second and she chose to go first.

Dwarf Turn 1
Hero Phase:
Runelord puts Ancestral shield on IBs
IBs Shieldwall

Movement:
None

Shooting:
Cannon kills 1 Horse archer
GT puts 3 wounds on LP.

TK Turn 1
Hero Phase:
TK gives my will be done for +1hit, move on Horse archers
LP summons 5 Tomb guard which are set to the left of the starting tomb guard.

Movement:
Horse archers move 13''
Chariots move up 10''
Tomb guard run up and TK and LP do as well.

Shooting:
Horse archers try for cannon crew but fail.
Chariots go for irondrakes and fail.

No charges/Combat.

We roll and she wins turn 2.

Turn 2 Dwarfs:
Hero phase:
Runelord gives +1 rend to IDs.

Movement:
none

Shooting:
Cannon shoots at chariots
IDs shoot at chariots
1 chariot goes down and another has 3 wounds on it.
GT kills LP.

Combat:
None

Turn 2 TKs
TK gives MWBD to chariots
Horse archer comes back.
1 chariot comes back.

Movement:
Chariots move up 11''
Horse archers mistakenly don't move up to within 12'' of cannon.
TGs run up again.
TK runs behind them.

Shooting:
Horse archers do nothing
Chariots kill 1

Chariots attempt a charge at IDs and need 4-5 to get in. I roll double 1s.

No combat.

Remaining chariot doesn't run.

Roll for turn 3 and she wins again.

Turn 3 Dwarfs
Hero phase:
Runelord gives +1 rend to IDs
IBs shield wall

Movement:
None

Shooting:
Everybody shoots at chariots and she exactly gets 12 wounds. Chariots are gone.

Charges/Combat:
None

Turn 3 TKs
TK gives MWBD to starter tomb guard unit.

Movement:
Everyone moves forward.

Shooting:
Horse archers kill 2 cannon crew

Charges:
Starter tomb guard charges IDs
TK fails the charge
Summoned TG fails the charge.
Horse archers charge cannon crew.

Combat:
Tomb guard are hitting on 3s, wounding on 3s, with 6 being double damage.
3 ID go down.
In return, 1 TG goes down.
Horse archers go after remaining cannon crew and kill it.

Battleshock takes nobody else.

We roll and she wins yet again!

Turn 4 Dwarfs
Hero:
Runelord gives ancestral shield to ironbreakers.
Ironbreakers shieldwall

Movement & shooting
Grimm moves a bit and shoots at summoned tomb guard and kills 2! (I have a house rule that summoned units can't be FC. They're summoned from the earth. They're just bodies)
GT hits TK for 3 wounds.
Runelord joins the IDvs TG combat.

Close combat:
IDs kill another TG.
TG kill 1-2 more IDs.
Runelord fails to hit.

Turn 4 TKs
Hero Phase:
TK gives MWBD to starter tomb guard again.
Starter tomb guard regains 1 model.

Movement:
TK and summoned TG move a bit closer to charge.

Shooting:
Horse archers shoot @ Grimm and produce 1 wound.

Charges:
Summoned TG attack IBs
TK charges runelord.
Horse archers charge Grimm.

Combat:
More IDs go down, to the point that only 3-4 remain.
Starter TG stay steady, losing 1 model.
TK hits Runelord for 3 wounds
IBs kill 2 TG while losing 1.
Horse archers have "LOL" rolls and give Grimm 3 wounds. (I think I remember rolling like triple 6s and a 5)

At this point, combat continues and Grimm goes down next turn to horse archers. Ironbreakers kill the 1 summoned TG that was left and move towards horse archers.
Unfortuantely, on the other flank, starting TGs kill IDs and TK kills runelord.

At this point, she concedes defeat and I flex my skeleton muscles!

Shoot questions or comments. In particular, I think I see two discussions here: The battle and the fact that someone was able to learn and play a game so quickly and do very well as you can see above (Yes, I did help with targeting and stuff, but she was making some decisions!)