A quick report on my results at the Crossroads GT. I'm not a GT player, but have been playing Dwarfs for many years and figured I'd get in a burst of warhammer battles with the new book against some nice armies and tough opponents. Had a great time, everyone I played was fun to play against and the armies were a sight to behold. Very inspiring from both a hobby and gaming perspective. I highlly recommend this GT to anyone who is thinking about attending in the future. Well run and a good crowd.

My opponents all commented that the new Dwarfs were more fun to fight against than the old ones.

My army was as follows:

Runesmith General with Stone, Furnace, Spellbreaking, Thori

BSB Thane with Grungni

Master Engineer with Stone

12x Quarrelers w/Mus

12x Thunderers w/Mus

22x Longbeards w/FC and Slow

19x Hammerers w/FC and Groth

Cannon with Forging, Burning

4x Gyrocopters (normal, none vanguarding)

14x Irondrakes wi/FC and Trollhammer, 2x Slow

Organ Gun w/Accuracy (usually entrenched with Master Engineer)

Flame Cannon w/Forging

1st Game against High Elves (Will Pardington)

My opponent had Archmage with Book, BSB with World Dragon (in White Lions), 24x Phoenix Guard, 21x White Lions, 10x Shadow Warriors, 15x Silver Helms, 3 units of 5x Reavers, Hero on GIant Eagle with Reaver Bow and Potion and 4x Bolt Throwers.

The scenario had us each picking three units from different categories as targets which, if eliminated, would give bonus battle points. I chose his hero, a bolt thrower and his Shadow Warriors. He chose a Gyro, the Quarrelers and my Irondrakes. I ended up getting the hero and the bolt thrower, he got the Gyro and Quarrelers.

His four bolt throwers were pretty effective, especially when boosted by Heavens magic. I was able to stop most of the critical spells, but with three hexes/augments there was always one getting through.

The critical battle was his large unit of Silver Helms against my Iron Drakes (who were deployed 7x2. He caused a lot of casualties, but we held on Stubborn from the nearby Hammerers, who then flank charged and elminated the Silver Helms. My cannon eliminated his hero and while I lost three gyros, they took out three of his bolt throwers as well as some of his Reavers. The organ gun scared off the Shadow Warriors and took out a Reaver unit and generally that and the flame cannon (which eventually blew itself up despite forging) kept him from wanting to move the Phoenix Guard close to the rest of my lines. The White Lions were following up the Silver Helms, but after the Silver Helms were destroyed, they thought better of it.

The game ended in a 10-10 Draw, 12-12 with bonus points

2nd Game against Daemons (Kyle Holman)

This was the toughest army I faced all tournament, in my opinion. In hindsight, it would have been tough to win, though I think with better tactics a draw or minor victory was possible. I don't play Daemons often, so my severe lack of experience and knowledge of the new book definitely hurt me, though my opponent was very good with explaining his army and rules to me.

He had a Great Unclean One with Death Magic and three gifts. Two blocks of 35 Plaguebearers with Heralds and poison on 5+. Another character of some kind with Death Magic in one of the Plaguebearer blocks. Four Plague Drones with FC, I think one may have been a character? Two Beast of Nurgle, a Skullcannon and another small unit or character that I can't recall.

This was a Blood and Glory style scenario where we can deploy 15" in and not within 9" of the edges. My first mistake was that I did not deploy far enough back and he deployed right up at 15". He went first and on Turn 1 the Great Unclean One moved up and sent an Irresistible Force Purple Sun 30" through my lines on an angle, getting half of the Iron Drakes, the Cannon, the Flame Cannon and 2/3 of my Hammerers. As a consolation, he then got sucked back into the Warp, but the rest of his army was already in charge range. On my turn, my organ gun managed to roll poorly and on Turn 2 he had his drones in combat with it.

My organ gun, quarrelers, thunderers and what was left of my Hammerers all ended up fighting the Plague Drones and one Beast and with one wounded Plague Drone left, he killed the last Hammerer, removed Stubborn and won the battle. The big Plague Bearer blocks slammed into my Iron Drakes and my Longbears (I actually charged in with my Longbeards as I could not get out of the way and I figured better to get the Strength 5). Both of those combats went quite poorly. I could not overcome his ability to poison on 5+ and the deep ranks of his blocks, especially with the Hammerers tied up with the Drones and the Iron Drakes at half strength to start.

I should have used my gyros better to redirect him, but I didn't realize just how powerful those plaguebearer blocks were and instead tried to thin them out with steam cannons. By the end of the game, I had destroyed one block along with his Great Unclean One and I think also one Beast, but he had destroyed my entire army except for three gyros.

End result was a 0-20 loss.

3rd Game against Orcs and Goblins (Corey Walizer)

He had a big block of Savage Orc Big Uns with a Great Shaman and a Black Orc BSB to quell animosity, a big block of Black Orcs with his General with a Crown of Command, a block of Night Goblins, Mangler Squiq, Five River Trolls, Six Savage Orc Boar Boys, Goblin Wolf Riders with a Character, Two Doom Divers and Two Stone Throwers.

My opponent had great luck this game with his Stone Throwers, but that was pretty much all his good luck. He went first and by his Turn 2, all my war machines were destroyed by three consecutive Hit, Wound, 3+ wound results for his stone throwers. My gyros ended up getting one doom diver and a stone thrower, the other doom diver blew himself up and one stone thrower survived the battle.

As he marched forward, one of my gyros tried to lead his boar boys on the flank away and succeeded for three turns, triggering his frenzy and causing failed charges. Another one pulled out his fanatics, which ended up very badly for him as he rolled 2 and 4 inches for them, leaving them right in front of his night goblins, who promptly failed animosity and charged through their own fanatics. My Irondrakes did great service on one flank, ending up after some shooting that wiped out the Trolls (help from the flame cannon on that) in the combat with his Black Orcs. Hammerers and Irondrakes wiped out the Black Orcs and what was left of the Night Goblins, but his Stubborn General held up the Hammerers for quite a while.

On the left flank, the Long Beards, Quarrelers and Thunderers faced the Savage Orcs and eventually lost, but the severely weakened Savage Orcs then ended up through a long pursuit and charge in the flank of the Hammerers who were still fighting his General. The Hammerers managed to still win that combat at the end and take out his BSB and send his General fleeing, though there were some Savage Orcs still fighting.

A very fun and tactical game, with a fair helping of bad luck for my opponent.

End result was a 16-5 win.

4th Game against Warriors of Chaos (Bill Robertson)

A pretty tough army. He had a Sorcer Lord of Tzeentch on a Disc with third eye and some other stuff I've forgotten. Slaanesh Sorcerer with Chaos Familiar on a Steed of Slaanesh. Marauder Fast Cav as a bunker for the Sorcerer. Eight Chaos Ogres (Nurgle), 21 Chaos Warriors (Nurgle) with Swords and Shields, Nurgle BSB in the Warrior unit, 5 Chaos Knights (Nurgle), Chaos Chariot, 3 Skull Crushers (FC), Chimera, 5 Hounds.

At the start, it was a bit daunting as he was sending the Warriors, Ogres, Knightsand Chariot up the middle along with the Disc Lord and the Slaanesh Sorcer behind them, with the Chimera and Hounds going around one flank and the Skull Crushers around the other. He moved up far enough with the Knights that I had a possible charge with my Hammerers, which I declared that would have resulted in a lot of S7 AP hits. He chose to flee with the Knights, I redirected to the Disc Lord but failed. His Knights continued to flee next turn, rolling 11 for Rally and then 12 for Flee distance, right off the board! That helped.

I used my Gyros to redirect the Skull Crushers and bait them into charging. Managed to get a wound on them from difficult terrain due to this and keep them out of the main combat. My cannon took out the Chimera in one shot - the rune of Burning helped a lot there - then the Organ Gun wiped out the hounds and things were looking more manageable. Runes of Slowness helped a lot here, causing the Ogres and Chariot to fail their first charge. That allowed me to shoot off the chariot. A second Ogre charge faced a double six on Slowness, but they also rolled a double six and managed a super-charge with d3 impact hits on the Iron Drakes. Ouch!

His spells were reasonably effective - he managed to get Acquiescence off on my organ gun and cannon at key moments, but they still did good service overall and I did stop some key spells as well.

After a mighty clash of the lines and countercharges from my Hammerers and Quarrelers, the main melee ended up with my Hammerers and Thunderers surviving along with my characters and Organ Gun. He had half of his Ogres left, along with the two Sorcer Lords (on only one wound left each!) and three marauder horse.

End result was a 14-8 win.

5th Game against Daemons of Chaos (Bob Giddings)

An impressive list and the second part of my crash course in fighting Daemons. He had a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh with the Lore of Shadows and got Pendulum and Pit of Shades along with Miasma and Withering. He also had two Soul Grinders, with various upgrades. Huge horde of Daemonettes, smaller unit of Daemonettes, unit of Slaanesh Fast Cav, Two units of Harpy/Fury things, and a unit of Six Fiends of Slaanesh.

I focused fire on the Fiends and only one made it to my lines, where my Thunderers managed to destroy it. Meanwhile my gyros blocked/redirected one Soul Grinder and started working on his fast cav and fliers. The gyros won the battle against his chaff and started steam cleaning his Daemonettes.

The key combat here was a long charge by one Soul Grinder and his Daemon Prince into my Hammerers and a following flank charge by my Longbeards into that combat. I found out just how impressive two Strength 6+ Thunderstomps can be, as he rolled quite well with them and the Eternal Blade on his Daemon Prince made her/it pretty darn effective as well. The end result was that I lost both units, but his Daemon Prince had only one wound left and his Soul Grinder had three left.

The Daemon Prince failed a follow-up charge and the Flame Cannon, Iron Drakes and Quarrelers managed to finish it off. The Soul Grinder ended up eating my Thunderers, but my Quarrelers were still holding it at the end of the game. I lost my Cannon, my Organ Gun, two Gyros and my General to a remarkable series of "Hit" results from the march/charge blocked Soul Grinder which decided to sit and shoot for most of the game.

In the end, between points and missions, it ended up as a 16-8 loss.