Well, this week I was up against daemons. I didn't do nearly so well this time...

Anyway, hopefully maps should follow - we'll see how things pan out!

My army was as follows (and was the same for both games)

Runesmith, shield, MRoBalance, RoSpellbreaking
Thane, BSB, MRoGromril, RoPreservation
20 longbeards, HW+S, Full command, Runes of courage and determination
25 warriors, GW, FC
18 XBow rangers, FC
Cannon, rune of forging, engingeer
2 organ guns

The daemon army slightly changed for the 2nd game, but in the first game, this is what I faced

Great Unclean One (no upgrades at all)
over 20 plague bearers, FC
over 20 blood letters, FC
3 nurglings
2 units of 5 flesh hounds

I was not expecting to face a great unclean one in a game this size! That threw me a bit.

The table (from my left to right): A large village with 4 houses of various sizes joined by walls, then some outhouses, with a large hill in the daemon deployment zone, then a wood in the middle of the table, and then a hill in my deployment zone and another wood in the daemons' corner.

Anyway, on to battle!

Battle 1 - Or how to lose the game in the deployment phase...

I recalled from the last game against the Hight Elves how effective holding the village had been (defended obstacles allowing rangers to beat off major attacks etc), so I stupidly went for the village, when I probably should have castled up on the hill. Ho hum... My deployment from my left to right, was the warriors near the village, the LBs just alongside it, then all three pieces of artillery (cannon in the middle). The characters went with the LBs.

The daemons deployed some flesh hounds on my far left (behind one building) the Great unclean One behind another house (he got to deploy after my cannon...), the plague bearers opposite the LBs, and then the blood letters, with the flesh hounds out on the flank. The nurglings were deployed as close as they could to the furthest out organ gun, so the rangers deployed on that flank too, which was pretty thin, and to protect the artillery a bit.

Anyway, to battle!

I got the 1st turn. The warriors moved up to the wall by the village, and the LBs shuffled up a bit. Rangers charged the nurglings. The OGs were out of range, but the cannon shot a bloodletter. The rangers failed their fear test, and did not damage (suffering one loss), but won on static combat resolution. One base of nurglings survived.

In the daemon first turn, the great unclean one and one unit of flesh hounds came around my left flank, still out of sight of the artillery. The two units of infantry trudged forward, the plague bearers toward the LBs, the blood letters towards the rangers, and the flesh hounds racing towards my artillery. The only spell the great unclean one knew got stopped, but the crazy daemon chart thing reduced all their ward saves for a turn, which made me hopeful. The rangers finished off the nurglings, and reformed into a linear formation.

In my 2nd turn, I realised how badly I deployed, and I would probably never got a cannon shot on the great unclean one. Ho hum...There was no moving. The cannon shot the plague bearers, killing about 3, including the champion. The organ guns unloaded on the approaching flesh hounds, but only killed 2 (I got 16 hits, I think, but hardly any wounds - the unit should have been shredded). The rangers shot a couple of bloodletters.

In the daemon 2nd turn, the flesh hounds swung around the village, and the great unclean one approached the warriors. The plague bearers advanced again, the blood letters advanced on the rangers, and the flesh hounds charged one organ gun, but didn't kill all the crew.

In my 3rd turn, the LBs charged the plague bearers. The surviving organ gun shot the flesh hounds who were about to flank the warriors, but only killed one. the cannon shot a bloodletter, and the rangers shot another one or so. In combat, the LBs didn't do as well as they should have against the plague bearers, only killing a couple, but they still won on active+static comabat res, and thinned out the enemy a bit. The flesh hounds finished off the last gunner from the organ gun.

In the daemon's 3rd turn, the great unclean one charged the warriors from the front, and the flesh hounds in the side. The other unit of flesh hounds charged the cannon. The blood letters advanced on the rangers. In the combat, the warriors' champion distracted the great unclean one, and got royally crushed. The warriors lost by loads, only wounding a flesh hound or so, but kept steadfast. In the other combat, the LBs beat the plague bearers again, but 2 survived. The cannon lost 3 crew to the flesh hounds, but the engineer held on.

In my 4th turn, there was little movement. The rangers shot at the blood letters, the organ gun shot them too, but didn't do much. The LBs finally finished off the plague bearers. The warriors got battered again, but still steadfast. The engineer got eaten by flesh hounds.

In the daemon's 4th turn, the flesh hounds charged the organ gun, and the blood letters charged the rangers. The warriors were cut up badly, but (just!) kept steadfast. The last organ gun held on. The rangers lost by 2 to the blood letters, there was a lot of killing on both sides though, and they held on.

In my turn 5, the LBs began trudging back towards the main combats. The flesh hounds finished off the organ gun, and reformed so they could rake the rangers in the flank. The warriors were finally reduced to one model, who fled, and allowing the great unclean one and 2 surviving flesh hounds to race around the village. It would have been better if that last warrior had died...

In the daemon turn 5 the great unclean one charged the LBs, the flesh hounds flanked the rangers, and the last 2 flesh hounds moved around to help out the great unclean one. The great unclean one finally managed to cast his stream of corruption spell, but it didn't do much (killed one or 2 LBs, not a lot) In the combat, the great unclean one killed the LB champion, and won on overkill; the LB's held. The rangers were finished off, and the flesh hounds chased the survivors off the field The blood letters reformed and marched back to the main combat.

In my last turn, the rune priest challenged the great unclean one. Miraculously, he survived! The great unclean one lost on static combat res (by about 3, actually), and I hoped to Grungni he would fail his LD test. Naturally enough Alastair rolled the best LD test of the game, and the smelly old fat man stayed very much put.

In the daemon's last turn, the available flesh hounds charged the LBs. The runesmith dispelled stream of corruption, and then died in the combat. In the combat the LBs lost, but held. I am sure they would have died very bravely if we had played on, but it was clear the dwarves had lost.

OK, so what went wrong...

Basically, deployment! By wanting to take the village (which had been so useful against high elves), but not wanting to spread out too much, I deployed my cannons really badly on the gap between the village and the woods, so their fire arcs were very constrained. If they had gone on the hill (the obvious place...) I would have had better fields of fire, and the great unclean one would have been exposed to cannon shots rather than being able to hide behind houses the whole game. I think I basically got thrown by the fact that you deploy infantry first, then artillery - so my first unit to be deployed (my GW warriors) were deployed with me thinking 'ooh, where would be a good place to put some infantry? A-ha! Behind a wall!' without thinking that the only wall available was miles away from the best place for the guns, and this would mean putting the guns all by themselves or in a bad position (or just abandoning the warriors in their strung out position).

I do think my organ guns didn't do as well as they might - the daemons were very lucky with their daemonic saves. However, there wasn't anything I could do about that really. I found the core daemons a lot more fragile in combat that I thought. The plague bearers were just a speed bump for the LBs, really, and the rangers did fairly well against the blood letters.

Anyway, it was a very badly handled game on my part. Basically, dwarves have to get their deployment spot on, or they are in real trouble!

The 2nd report will come along later (when I get chance), and maybe maps later too.

All best,

David.