Hey guys, it’s time again for some battle reports!

Me and a mate found that we had some time last weekend that we could happily spend on a couple of matches of warhammer so I decided to take out the old pingpong table to work as a warhammer table. The surface area of one of those is surprisingly big, we even had quite a lot of spare room on the side for our books and models. But oh boy, is that thing heavy and unwieldy when you have to drag it accross the garden on those small plastic wheels.

On the right of the picture you can see the WIP Thunderbarge Airship I'm making. Link here!

Deciding on what scenery to use...

With the scenery and setup of it decided, it was time to.... start working on my armylist. 😛 Even though we had agreed to get as much as we could ready before sunday, I still found myself lacking a decent armylist.

So, without checking much to see if it was correct, I decided to go for something that I had always wanted to do: throw in as many different units as I can for some tactical variety. Sadly, since I dont use them that often, most of my Slayers are only undercoated with the beginnings of a basecoat and my Miners are not quite done either. But hey, nothing much on the line except having fun so here’s the list.

1 Runelord, Anvil of Doom, Spellbreaker, Spelleater
1 BSB, RoSpeed, RoGromril, MRoSpite
40 Warriors, FC, SH, GW,
30 Longbeards, FC, SH, GW
20 Rangers, Mu,
15 Miners, Mu
15 Quarrelers, GW, SH, Mu
10 Slayers
2 Cannons
1 Stonethrower
1 Organ gun

Total: about 2.5k ish.

My opponent would be fielding his Vampire Counts army followed by his High Elves. Lets see how this fairly randomly thrown together list will fair.

First battle of the Blight Valley

I won the roll-off and got to deploy first in a classic mix of the ‘The Enduring Mountain” combined with ‘The Bear Trap’; check out the 6th edition Dwarf Army Book for those of you young’uns who haven’t heard of these setups.

The big horde block of warriors deployed in between the two hills on my side, the Longbeards in front of the hill housing the Anvil, the Organ gun and the Quarrelers finishing of the front line of my battle line. Behind the Quarrelers the Slayers deployed slightly skewed with one of the cannons at the end. The stonethrower deployed behind the Warriors and the last cannon on the far left hill finished off my deployment.

As far as I know and can remember, my mates deployment with his Vampire Counts was the following; from left to right: 5 hounds, unit of 30 ghouls, 15 skellies with a big flying thing in front of it (can’t remember the name), another unit of 30 ghouls, black guard on foot, Black couch behind it and a unit of mounted black guard joined by the vampire lord and the BSB.

Without going into a play by play or turn by turn storytelling mode, here’s what happened.

On the left side, it was obvious from the start that the unit of mounted Black Guard would pose a big danger to my entire line. Slowing it down with my Anvil was top priority. One normal power and One Ancient Power rune of Wrath and Ruin saw these guys delayed for two turns before smashing into my tar pit unit of 40 Warriors. Luckily, these extra turns had bought me enough time to whittle his mounted Grave Guard down a bit, vastly reducing his killing power. As the combat went through turn after turn, the Warriors were vastly outclassed and killed like it was nobody’s business. However, the Horde formation has its advantages. Having 3 rows of models attacking with Great Weapons will allow for some decent random number generation kills, reducing his unit further and further until only his Lord with that ghastly Strength 7 sword (ogre sword or something I seem to remember). In any case, the unit was dealt with. Warriors, good job!

On the right side, the Varghulf or whatever-you-call-it flying vampire monster there made its way to my right flank, together with the hounds. The slayers ended up charging them and hacked them to pieces. Meanwhile, my organ gun had decided to blow up so the Varghulf went for my Longbeards, trying to tie them down until his Grave Guard on foot made it across the table. Luckily, a failed charge on their behalf gave my Slayers enough time to make it back from killing the hounds and charging into the Varghulf, killing it in the process. My Longbeards and Slayers were now ready to tackle the Grave Guard. Come on you undead bastards. Bring. It. On.

Varghulf in combat with my Longbeards.

Longbeards and Slayers ready to catch the Grave Guard if they charge.

On the other side of the board, nearer to my opponents side of the table, my Rangers had deployed on the far left of the board, trying to catch any stragglers off guard or attempting to tie down some units from making it to my side too quickly for my line to handle it. And what a great job they did. Helped by the miners that made it on the board in double time, turn 2 baby! they succeeded in tying down the black coach and the unit of skellies with vampire in it. My Quarrelers had taken the tower on my turn 2 and had been providing some LOS for my stonethrower combined with taking some pot shots at random units. One of his big blocks of ghouls however had started on charging my Quarrelers in the tower. They bravely held off long enough until my Rangers could charge them in the flank. Two turns of combat saw the ghouls slaughtered. The miners in the mean time had died to the combined might of the Black Coach and the Skellies with Vampire but their deaths had made sure the Quarrelers were saved by the Rangers. They died with honour!

My Rangers in combat with the ghouls near the tower with my Quarrelers in it.

In conclusion, trying to tie all these different pieces of action together, my Rangers and Miners succeeded in slowing down enough of his army so that those units that did make it to my side of the board got killed or dealt with before the rest could support it.

A Crushing victory to me!

Battle report of the Match against the High elves to follow as soon as I get my pictures sorted out!