Hail fellow Dawi,

I present a battle report of a practice game for my upcomming 1900 points tournament.

=> My list :

RS, SH, MroBalance, RoSpellbreaking
BSB, MroGromril, RoResistance, MroChallenge
30 Warriors, GW, FC
20 Quarrellers, GW, FC
30 Hammerers, FC, MroGrungni
Cannon, RoForging, RoFire
Cannon, RoForging
OG
Gyro

This day I had the chance to face our ancestral enemies, right many wrongs and settle many grudges. I was facing Urk and Grobi.

=> Opposing list.

L4 Night Goblin Shaman
L2 Savage Shaman, Shruken head
BSB, Warrior Bane
40 Black Orcs, FC
40 Savage Orcs, FC
60 Night Goblins, netters, three fanatics, FC
5 Wolf Riders, Shortbow, M
Doom Diver
Mangler

The battle took place at our local GW and the terrain was set up evenly, as one would expect in a tournament setting.
I remembered to take my camera and there are a lot of pics to illustrate this battle. Small negative side to this is that most of the pics are quite blurry.
I'd also like to note that the army I'm using is my plastic one, not my nice metal one. 😛

DEPLOYMENT

Dwarves : Left to right : Cannon, Quarrellers, Cannon behind, OG, Smith standing close, Gyro, Hammerers with BSB, Warriors.

Orcs : Left to right : Mangler Squig that's actually just a base in the far top corner, Savage Orcs with L2, Black Orcs with BSB, Night Goblins with L4, Wolfies, Doom Diver behind.

I was happy with how deployment turned out. There seemed no imidiate threat to my artillery park from the wolf riders or gobo's opposite them. Warriors and Hammerers where well positioned to support each other.

On the Orc side there where to mistakes that I was able to abuse. The first was nothing screening the Savage orcs, so the Gyro would have it's work cut out for it by leading them all over the board. The second is the mangler on the far left. Placed there to avoid cannon fire it would take many turns to reach my lines and while it was taking a long walk I could shoot other targets first.

TURN ONE

The wolf riders use their Vanguard move to run forward, straight for the cannon next to the Quarrellers. The pressure is on!

D1 : Having won the first turn the whole dwarven line stays put exept the Gyro which zooms out in front of the Savage orcs, exactly 16 inches in front of them (their maximum charge range) to abuse their frenzy by forcing failed charges. I was counting on taking the big blocks one at a time because I cannot win a one-on-one battle with them. For now the Gyro's safe from Mangler problems because of the building seperating them.

In the shooting phase 20 Quarreller shots manage to kill a grand total of one wolf rider. Not good. This forced me to shoot my OG at the riders as well in order to keep my artillery safe. I had counted on the Quarrellers doing this job, but not today it seems. Probably hungover from yesterday. 🙂
Both cannons shot at the Doom Diver in front of them, the first falling short (2 and 2) and the second flying wide (10).

All in all a lousy first turn. All shooting combined wiped out 65 points of wolf riders total. Leaving me open for return fire from the Doom Diver.

O1 : The Savages where forced to charge the Gyro, failed, and stumbled forward two inches.
The Mangler moved up staying behind the building. BO marched 8 inch forward. Gobo's entered the forest, which was revealed to be a Fungus forest, making them stubborn because they are eating mushrooms. 🙂

Magic sees a grand total of three for the winds of magic. This means I have double the amount of DD. Needless to say nothing gets through.

Shooting has the doom diver scattering of the table after aiming for the cannon next to the Quarrellers.

=> Thoughts : A very lackluster first turn from both sides. My artillery was weak, but so was his magic. The good thing here is that I'll probably be able to keep the Savages busy by making my Gyro pilot do loops in front of them.

TURN TWO

D2 : Movement is only the Gyro moving backwards until it's once again on the 16 inch limit of the Savages. It's flank is still protected by the building from the Mangler. I already started angling it to lead the savages away from the centre of my battle line and off to the side.

Shooting is more effective with both cannons combining power to kill the Doom Diver. Then the Quarrellers and OG kill 11 BO between them. The BO unit is at this point the one major threath heading for my lines and has to be weakened. In my mind I'm considering reforming the Hammerers to five wide to prepare for the BO charge that is comming and minimize their attacks.

O2 : As you can see from the pic A LOT OF DWARVES DIED A HORRIBLE HORRIBLE DEAD!

Movement sees the savages stumbling forward a few inches, the mangler continues onward and can trace LoS to the Gyro next turn so I'll have to move it. The BO march another 8 inches and the gobo's who are acting as a mage bunker for the L4 stay put. I would have moved them up to be closer to the Quarrellers and WM and try to release the fanatics.

Magic sees a decent roll on about 7 PD. The L4 Shaman throws six dice against Curse of the Bad moon and IF it. Not good. The template is placed on the Warriors and travels over all the Hammerers to land on the OG. I lose 13 Warriors, 19 Hammerers and a wound on the OG to it!
The magical backlash takes a wound off the L2. Cheap price to pay for so many deaths!

=> Thoughts : Not good. My turn started off well but that one spell changed everything. Right now my Hammerers can probably not stand up to the BO anymore, nor can my Warriors. This calls for a cunning plan.....

TURN THREE

D3 : I move the Gyro to within 8 inches of the Goblins to release the fanatics. At this point I'm thinking that I'll need to move the Quarrellers up and go kill the night goblins if I want to get enough points for a win after that awesome spell last turn. One fanatic goes for the Gyro but doesn't get there, the two others move straight towards my Quarrellers.
I Swift reform my Hammerers into ranks of two and activate my MroChallenge, calling in the Blorcs. Standing two wide with my BSB as one of the first models limits the amount of BO that can attack to nine of which at least three have to try and kill my BSB. That should allow the Hammerers to survive, pass breaktest on stubborn and let my Warriors charge the BO flank.

One Cannon and the OG take out another 7 BO. The Quarrellers have no target other then the 60 goblins so shoot them and kill four. I then snipe the L4 with my second cannon, hit him, and he fails his LoS roll! The cannon proceeds to kill him and three more goblins! And there was much rejoycing! 🙂

O3 : The BO are forced to charge the remaining Hammerers and make their roll. The Mangler (just the base) rounds the forest and finally sees my lads. The Savages are free from the annoying Gyro and march 8 inches forward. Gobo's stay put. One fanatic contacts the building while the other comes dangerously close to my Quarrellers. The last Fanatic decides to wander closer to the Savags, checking out how that warpaint is done.

Magic sees a succesfull cast of Foot of Gork, which I quickly Spellbreak.

Combat works out as I hoped, with the BO failing to wound the Thane and only killing three Hammerers. I easily pass my break test and the Warriors are looking forward to that tasty tasty flank.

Close-up of the poor-man's Lordpedo. 🙂