[SIZE=10pt]Right - I promised swordthane some reports, however in my haste I was going to take some Photo's and forgot ( the heat of battle and all that ) so some imagination will be required.
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[SIZE=10pt]I used the following list in all three games that I played.
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[SIZE=10pt]Rune smith - shield, MROC, ROSB
[SIZE=10pt]Rune smith , Shield, ROSB, ROSB
[SIZE=10pt]Thane, BSB , MROG
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[SIZE=10pt]34 x warriors - GW and banner
[SIZE=10pt]34 x warriors - GW and banner
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[SIZE=10pt]Cannon - Engineer, ROF, ROB
[SIZE=10pt]Cannon - ROF, ROR
[SIZE=10pt]Cannon - ROF
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[SIZE=10pt]Grudge Thrower - ROA, ROP, ROP
[SIZE=10pt]Grudge Thrower - ROA, ROP
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[SIZE=10pt]Organ gun
[SIZE=10pt]Organ gun
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[SIZE=10pt]I had asked my friends to go with really gribbly tournament lists, but not to tailor too much to fight the dwarfs specifically.
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[SIZE=10pt]I was to fight, High elves, Empire and Warriors of Chaos - a nice balance.
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[SIZE=10pt]We rolled for player and I was to play the high elves - the scenario we rolled was Battleline.
[SIZE=10pt]First thing I noticed is that I would always get +1 to first turn, with only 4 deployments. Sometimes a problem, but if it helps getting first turn then I'm ok with it.
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[SIZE=10pt]Then I saw what he was putting down....Teclis... Many new entries in the book of grudges would be had this day. Selecting every buff spell and vortex he could I knew i was in for a hard time, confirmed by the next model – a noble with banner of the world dragon. A level 1 scroll caddy fleshed out his charachters, useless against dwarfs.
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[SIZE=10pt]He lined up with 15 silver helms and 24 archers as core, 35 ish Phoenix Guard formed the special and he finished the list with 2 Frostheart Phoenix. Small list, but tough to get the points.
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[SIZE=10pt]Deployment was swift – Phoenix guard in the dead centre, with Teclis and the Noble bsb. To the right was the archers with mage and to the right the silver helms. Each of those were flanked by a Phoenix ( deployed sideways to limit cannon fire hitting )
[SIZE=10pt]I deployed the warrior blocks dead centre flanked by an organ gun – the remaining artillery was spread as far apart as possible towards the back of the board, he was going to have to work for his points.
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[SIZE=10pt]A swift roll of the dice and grumble at his power list and I lost first turn after a roll of a 1.
[SIZE=10pt]He moved his infantry max and his cavalry up past the half way point about 9 away from the dwarf unit on the left side. Phoenix’s moved up and remained sideways to limit fire.
[SIZE=10pt]Magic wasn’t kind with the roll of double 2 – 4 dice apiece. A 4 dice purple sun was swiftly rune’d away. His archers couldn’t shoot. Onto the dwarfs turn.
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[SIZE=10pt]I moved the Dwarfs slightly forward and angled the unit on the right to face the silver helms ( can you guess what’s coming ) however I was wary as the phoenix’s were ready to flank.
[SIZE=10pt]I opened fire with cannons , first hit the phoenix, wounded and it failed its ward – however rolled a 1 for wounds, second cannon fired and i got past the ward save again, I improved my wounds 200% as I scored 3 – down to 1 wound. The other cannon shot the other phoenix – however it passed its ward save. The first grudge thrower misfired and rolled a 5 – so it was ok, the second ( the strength 5 one ) scored a direct hit and took off 3 wounds.
[SIZE=10pt]It was up to the organ guns, the first fired a 2 – swiftly re-rolled into a 6 – however through a combination of toughness 6 and some bad rolls with a 5+ ward I only scored 1 wound, the second Organ gun, shot the Phoenix guard and rolled a 6 – 2 kills thanks to their 4+ ward save.[SIZE=10pt]
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[SIZE=10pt]At this point I was in trouble – the phoenix’s although on 1 wound apiece could now take their pick of artillery, however my opponent did something unexpected, he ignored them. I used the Master rune of challenge from the runesmith in the warriors to the right on the silver helms ( you guessed it ) and he declared the charge, he needed a 16 in total to get to them, with movement 9 and with needing 7 on 3D6 i thought it unlikely they would fail, however he rolled a 2,3,3 meaning a failed charge and pivoting towards the warrior block, though not quite enough for me to flank them with my 8 wide warrior unit on the left.
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[SIZE=10pt]Phoenix guard moved up 5 archers moved up 5 and Teclis and the BSB moved into the archers. The frost heart phoenixs flew behind my lines to set up a rear charge on the next turn. Magic was flat again, with the roll of a 3 and 2 however Teclis activated his staff and that became 10, however the runes saved my blushes again and I was able to hold off the best mage for one more turn.... Archers opened fire and took a wound from one of the cannons.
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[SIZE=10pt]Dwarf turn 2 – this is where I had to hurt, or else id had it. Warriors on the left charged the silver helms, hoping to slice them open with my great weapons. The right block prepared to take the phoenix guard the next turn.
[SIZE=10pt]Artillery opened fire again and managed to blow the pigeon threatening the left warriors away, however due to some misfires, rolls of 1 to wound and missing altogether my artillery duffed big time, another 4 phoenix guard dead was the only other thing of note.
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[SIZE=10pt]Combat – Silver helms went first , and the cheeky str 3 beggars managed to chop 2 dwarfs down, I retaliated and killed 3 but with the charge, 2 ranks, bsb they swiftly fled, i did not persue, instead i turned to set up a flank charge on the phoenix guard if they went for the warriors.
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[SIZE=10pt]High elf turn 3 – As expected the phoenix guard charged the warriors as did the phoenix, however due to some movement in my turn the phoenix could only charge the side arc.
[SIZE=10pt]The silver helms rallied, onto magic and Teclis managed to make my dwarfs -1 to hit.
[SIZE=10pt]Archers managed another wound on the cannon.
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[SIZE=10pt]Combat went as expected, the phoenix guard killed 12 , the phoenix was next but only killed 1, dwarf turn, up stepeth the Runesmith Thorin Pigeon Doom, the heroic dwarf smashed the large bird in the face killing it dead....such laughs were had. The dwafs killed 5 phoenix guard in reply – however it wasn’t enough to stop me needing snake eyes... which I didn’t get. I fled, but due to the other unit waiting to rear charge if he chased he reformed to face.
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[SIZE=10pt]Dwarf turn 4 – I knew at this point I needed something good to make this balanced, the silver helms were ready to charge my side so i reformed 5 wide to be stubborn, the fleeing dwarfs rallied and were not badly out of position.
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[SIZE=10pt]Shooting was varied , a cannon exploded even with re-rolls the grudge thrower misfired and rolled a 3. Cannon 2 killed 2 silver helms , leaving 9 the other killed 1 leaving 8. I looked towards the Elf bane organ gun closest to the silver helms, took aim and BOOM! 10 shots, the barrels glowing red at the rate of fire, when the smoke cleared there were no silver helms any more.... something to cheer about.
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[SIZE=10pt]At this point it was fairly even, I was ahead on victory points, but i will sum up briefly the next turns as ive already rambled on alot.....
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[SIZE=10pt]Phoenix guard charged, Teclis cast 1+ str and 1+T on them, -1 to hit on my dwarfs in combat and sent a purple sun through the rallied dwarfs, killing 10 and an organ gun.
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[SIZE=10pt]In combat the Phoenix guard killed 10 and I managed to kill 3, i held Just due to stubborn.
[SIZE=10pt]In my turn, i charged the phoenix guard in the side with the 10 or so dwarfs left, all artillery targeted the archers , but with Banner of the world dragon giving 2+ ward saves i only killed 5 with everything.
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[SIZE=10pt]In my combat i lost another 10 dwarfs but managed to kill 5 back, the main block fled but the unit on the side held, the phoenix guard reformed,
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[SIZE=10pt]Magical death followed, 1 cannon and the other organ gun died, my dwarfs died and with that i called time on the game,
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[SIZE=10pt]Having 10 warriors, 2 grudge throwers and a cannon left – vs 12 phoenix guard and teclis
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[SIZE=10pt]I could of played the remainder, but I had seen enough to know what I was up against.
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[SIZE=10pt]All in all I scored 945 victory points to his 1450 ish.... but his were heavily invested in his charachters, which are hard to get too....
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[SIZE=10pt]Again its first turn dependant, but we discussed what i would do with first turn, i said that with hindsight, the grudge throwers would have went for the archers first and the cannon at the phoenix, if i had killed the archers then teclis wouldn’t have a place to hide and the dwarfs would have killed him....
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[SIZE=10pt]Then again the OP of the banner of the world dragon with its ward save against miscasts meant that my opponent could throw dice with wild abandon without fear of suffering damage to his unit....
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[SIZE=10pt]Many new grudges were recorded this day....
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[SIZE=10pt]I will let people digest this battle before i post the other two, my fingers are sore just typing this !
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[SIZE=10pt]Happy Reading