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???

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.
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.