So, I played a skirmish match over the weekend with a friend of mine and it was quite a bizarre match so I figured I'd post up the result for others to read if it pleases them, plus like any good Dwarf I enjoy recounting our glorious victories of those that attempt to defile our homelands!

:dwarf:

[size=medium]Composition of Forces[/size]

Expeditionary Force of Karak Hirn
Thane of Pain (122) - MRoSwiftness, RoCleaving, 2x RoStone, Shield

14x Warriors (131) - Shields, Musician

10x Quarrellers (130) - Great Weapons

10x Ironbreakers (148) - Standard, Musician

2x Bolt Throwers (120) - Engineer (each)

Total: 651pts (we give ourselves a +/- 1 or 2 points in friendly matches)

Pillaging Warband of Chaos (don't know exact points costs each, so will just give list of units:

Mounted Sorceror w/ Lore of Fire, Homonculus, and something to re-roll one non-1 rolle during Magic Phase.
10x Chaos Warriors
5x Marauder Horsemen w/ Javelins.
10x Warhounds
5x Chaos Knights

Game Setup:
So we rolled for scenarios and got the Watch Tower. We'd had the terrain setup by a neutral party and it included: a large river enclosing a quarter of the board with two bridges and a hill nestled behind it; another small hill in the opposite corner with some fortifying walls to set up behind; two very large hills bisecting the board lengthwise which created a lot of LOS issues as they are just tall enough to obscure cavalry models; scattered small fences and walls to make some cover for infantry and force some movement for cavalry or take Dangerous Terrain tests; and lastly the watch tower in dead center.

My opponent won the right to setup in the Watch Tower unfortunately and parked his Warriors inside. With Steadfast, no CR from anything but wounds, their 2 attack each, etc. they were going to be hard to unseat.

I chose to deploy one the table edge that was protected by the rushing river. I deployed my warriors as far as possible towards the bridge that ran directly towards the watchtower and included my Thane with them. They were my best bet to oust the Warriors and claim the tower. My first bolt thrower went on the hill behind the river, but it's LOS to my right flank was obstructed by a larget tomb; the second BT went on my far left flank to give me some crossfire and separate my threats; the left-most BT was then protected in front by my Ironbreakers which gave them a clear path towards the tower and also forced anyone trying to reach the 2nd BT to go through them or spend some time/danger going over some steep hills; and lastly my quarrellers deployed along the riverbank with a large arc of fire and away from the undefended bridge to buy them some time.

My opponent ended up putting his knights on his left, my right, flank and screened them with the horsemen. His warhounds sat back on his right flank away from my BTs and Quarrellers so I couldn't rip them apart and they could, if need be, reoccupy the Tower (as his only other non-cavalry models). Lastly his Sorceror sat down in center of the board, strategically placed to hide himself from my BTs (did I mention that LOS sucked in this game?) but with a clear line of view to where my Thane+Warriors would have to advance to reach the tower.

The Fast Cavalry Horsemen made their way directly towards the undefended bridge to get at my right flank and then I got to start Turn 1.

Dwarf Turn 1
Seeing the highly exposed and soft Marauder Horsemen sitting in the middle of an open field made my beardy face light up with joy! Surely, with 10 crossbow shots at short range and 2 BTs that I could direct their way (one on his flank) I could obliterate the unit.

Sitting comfortably in my knowledge of destroying one of his most pesky units on Turn 1 my infantry blocks advanced forwards at full pace towards the Tower. My Warriors w/ Thane sat about 6" away (nearly head-on march from the edge of my deployment + the width of the tower model based on the center of a 4' board). The Ironbreakers were slightly farther away, and I had other plans on where they could go assuming they weren't needed at the tower (mostly to chase away his Warhounds so they could not re-occupy it once I got my Thane inside).

Now, time for shooting! My quarrellers lined up to fire on the Horseman and their 10 shots at short range did exactly...1 wound. Ouch, that hurt. I still had my 2x BTs though. The one on the flank should be able to kill 2-3 easily needing only a 3+ to hit at short range from my Engineer. But, lo and behold, his aim was not true and the missile sailed overhead to no effect. My last BT, which I'd hoped to fire at the more lucrative Knights sitting in the back, had to chance the shot to hopefully at least make the Marauders break. The bolt must have begun to tumble in the air because it hit the mark but failed to wound! 250 points worth of shooting to kill one horseman!

:dwarf:

Chaos Turn 1
The Marauder Horseman looped around to my right flank across the unprotected bridge, realignin in a 2x2 formation so they could charge through the thin gap between the hill with my BT and the river into the flank of my Quarrellers.

The Knights sped forward, taking up a similar position to where the Maruaders had just vacated. Though he didn't present his flank to either of my BTs this time with a little bit of maneuvering this time (he's a fast learner 😛). The warhounds elected to stay put, biding their time to see where they'd be needed, and the Sorceror moved slightly to get my advancing Warriors into view, making careful steps to avoid getting into sight of my BT on my left flank.

His Marauders heaved their javelins at my Quarrelers and somehow managed to slay 2 of them, far more productive than all of my shooting in the turn previous!

Then, in the magic phase he rolled a 4-2 on his dice, granting me 4 dispel dice to his 6 power dice. He successfully cast some spell (the name escapes me, liked the 4th spell in the Lore of Fire) that does like D3 S4-5 hits per rank of the unit targeted. He rolled quite high and I wanted to deny him the +3 to cast his fireball on the unit, so I threw all 4 dispel dice at it and rolled all 5's and 6's, denying him easily. Without the added power to his next spell (Fireball) he failed to cast by 1, huzzah!

Dwarf Turn 2
First and foremost my Dwarf Warriors were in easy range of charging the tower, needing only a 6" total move (so a roll of 3 on 2d6) to reach its base. So they confidentally declared a charge and I promptly rolled...

Snakeyes.

No combat for them this turn, so they bumped ahead just a smidge, but at least the charge next turn was guaranteed. The ironbreakers moved around the left-hand side of the tower, obscuring them from his Sorceror, and took up residence behind some barricades about 13" away from his hounds.

The quarrellers elected to not face the Marauders, hoping my left-flank BT could kill 1-2 and force them to flee, and instead decided to shoot at the far more dangerous threat of the Knights bearing down on the flank of my Warriors/Thane which would be catastrophic for taking over the Tower. Even with their reduced shots from the casualties in the previous turn and the 2+ save of the knights, one quarrel found it's mark and slew one of the fel demons!

:dwarf:

The BT on my right-flank on the hill behind the river could not see the Marauders closing in on my Quarrellers due to the large tomb on top of the crest of the hill. So they elected to fire at the oncoming Knights as well, hoping to kill 1 and force a Panic test. In this they were successful, only 3 Knights remained.

Lastly, my left-flank BT could only see the Knights and Marauders, but could potentially kill 2 Marauders due to their 2x2 alignment. Even though the Marauders were going to Flank charge the Quarrelers I elected to fire on the might-be-panicking Knights, because if they did not panic I wanted that unit as weak as possibly when it met my Warriors/Thane. The Quarrellers might just have to be sacrificed. In a turn of luck from my previous turn they also were able to slay a Knight and the unit had been reduced to only 2 models, who promptly Panicked and dashed within 2" of the right-hand board edge, hopefully they would not rally!

Chaos Turn 2

The Knights rallied, unfortunately, but I'd bought myself breathing room and greatly diminished his strongest unit. The Marauders, obviously, charged my Quarrellers in the flank. His Warhounds and Sorceror stood fast, the former waiting to see if it would be needed at the tower, or ready to loop around my Ironbreakers if they failed the long 13" charge towards them on his turn, getting them safely out of my LOS without having to retreat far from the tower.

The Sorceror rolled snakeyes for his power dice, but with the Homonculous and his ability to re-roll the die he got a casting value of 9 for his Fireball against my Warriors, which I couldn't dispel with my lone d6+2 value. It burnt one of my clansmen to a crisp, but nothing more damaging came about.

The Marauder's and Quarrellers met, each inflicting 1 casualty on the other. With the +2 CR bonus for flanking I lost combat, but passed the test to hold steady.

Dwarf Turn 3

My Warriors and Thane finally charged the Tower successfully and so our battle royale would soon commence. The Ironbreakers too made their risky attempt to charge the Warhounds and I got lucky with a distance roll of 11", making it into the soft target with an inch to spare!

The BTs had no other viable targets other than the distant Knights, seeing as everything else was in combat or placed out of my LOS (the Sorceror basically). They each fired and each slew a Knight, the unit was gone!

The small Quarrellers vs. Horsemen conflict resolved with 0 wounds inflicted on either side.

The IBs and Warhounds fought, I killed 5 of the pups and my Gromril performed admirably and kept all my precious clansmen alive. The hounds fled off the table, I restrained my pursuit and turned about to face his mounted Sorceror about 20" away. I would never be able to reach him but I could force him to move into range of my BTs or out of range of my Warriors while simultaneously moving back towards the Tower slightly in case I needed to reinforce.

My Thane proceed to hack apart some of his defiled Warriors, killing 2 of the malformed manbeasts. 10 of his strikes were directed at my Thane and the other remaining 6 against my RnF Warriors. He managed to wound my Thane once through his T5 1+ defenses and was able to similarly only kill 1 warrior thanks to a pair of lucky Parry ward saves. My warriors hacked back but to no avail, drawn combat.

Chaos Turn 3
With half of his army dead, there was little left to do. His sorceror ran from my Ironbreakers, further to his left-, my right-, flank behind the large interceding hill in the middle of the board. He was still out of LOS of my BTs but was also out of LOS for my Warriors and Thane.

He rolled a 4-4 on the power dice roll, granting him a somewhat large margin of difference in the dispel/power dice. He sent his first spell (the non-Fireball, forget the name still) against my advancing Ironbreakers and got an Irresistible Force. He ended up wound 5 and slaying 2, and on his Miscast he rolled a 7...keeping him perfectly safe 🙁 He then proceeded to cast his Fireball with only 2 dice, but got the +3 from the Fire attribute. Even with all of that he only got a value of 10, something I should be able to dispel rather easily with my full 4 dispel dice. I rolled a 1-1-1-2 and the spell splashed into my plated clansmen, killing another one. They passed their Panic test and held firm.

The Quarrellers and Marauders continued their diminutive fight (only 2-3 guys striking for each side). I lost two quarrellers and failed to kill any more Marauders. I failed the resulting -4 LD test to Break and was run down by the swift horsemen. However, there were only 3 of them left and in perfect formation to get a possible 2 hits/wounds from each of my BTs on the next turn.

More importantly my Thane was able to slay another Warrior, reducing his unit to only 7 strong. They again directed 10 attacks against my Thane but his T5 thwarted all but 1 of the hits scored against him which his Runic Armor handily dashed aside. The remaining 4 attacks failed to kill any of my Warriors either. Then, in a stroke of luck, my S3 Warriors managed to land a total of 8 hits and 5 wounds on his manbeasts and his heavy 3+/6++ save could only deflect 2 of them. My dwarfs won the combat by +4 CR and forced the Warriors to Break! The Thane lead his men triumphantly into the battle-scarred tower.

They fled directly into the path of my sweeping Ironbreakers on his side of the board.

Hammer meet Anvil.

:dwarf:

Conclusion:
With his fleeing Warriors about to be obviously run down by my flanking Ironbreakers and his Horseman in a crossfire between my two unscathed bolt throwers my opponent conceded the match. His only hope was to try and sling spells at the Tower (which, as Flaming, would get to re-roll to wound etc.) to unseat my Warriors and Thane. With LD9 and the number of wounds in the unit forcing them to panic or flee was unlikely, and I had another unit that could sit at the base of the tower ready to reoccupy it, whereas he had nothing left on the board to win with and could only hope for a draw.

Was a fun match, the terrain made for a very interesting game with the board basically intersected into lengthwise halves by the steep hills. Similarly we had strokes of awful and amazing rolls from turn-to-turn that greatly shifted the tide of combat. Nothing about this battle was average, excepting the inevitable victory of any Dwarfen Throng!

:dwarf: