Back at it again, this time against Empire at 2500. The game was on short notice, so I took exactly the same army as last time. If you need a refresher, it looked something like this:

Dwarf Lord, Great weapon, shield bearers, Rune of Resistance, Stone, Preservation, MR of Spite, Rune of the Furnace, MR of Kragg the Grim, Rune of Fire, Kitchen Sink - 296 points
Runesmith, Shield, Rune of Stone, Spellbreaker x 2, inexplicable longing combat - 127
Thane, BSB, Strollaz, Rune of Guarding, cheese sandwich- 175
Thane, Great Weapon, Rune of Stone, MR of Challenge, inferiority complex - 99
Dragonslayer, tattered loincloth, deathwish - 50
25 Dwarf warriors, shields, full command, new shoes - 250
25 Dwarf warriors, shields, full command, tambourines - 250
19 Longbeards, shields, full command, rune of determination, 2 x rune of sanctuary, hair metal songbook - 303
10 Rangers (warrior variety), veteran, musician, great weapons, Tonto - 125
15 Hammerers, shields, full command, MR of Grungni, fully prepared last will and testament(s) - 275
12 Slayers, one pair of pants between the lot of them - 132
Grudgethrower, engineer, rune of accuracy, burning, and penetration, laser designator - 150
Cannon, engineer, rune of forging, reader's digest back issues -140
Organ Gun, long list of greivances - 120
Gyrocopter, traffic-cam - 140

I ran up against my partner, Aaron, from the one and only doubles tournament I entered. Aaron's the guy that painted his entire army before playing a single game. One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, but with a family doesn't get time to play too often. This was to be his first game of 8th, and so he took a little of everything to see how it went.

Arch-lector, war altar, Van Horstman's speculum, Sword of Fate, Armor of Meteoric Iron
Grand Master, warhorse, Sword of Anti-heroes, Laurels of Victory, 6+ ward
Mage, level 2, Light magic, dispel scroll
Engineer, pigeon bombs
Warrior priest, warhorse, sword of might, stubborn crown
Captain, Griffon banner
30 Swordsmen, full command
Detachment: 10 Halbrediers
Detachment: 10 Free company
10 Handgunners, marksman w/hochland
10 Handgunners, marksman w/hochland
5 Knights
8 Inner circle knights, full command
Cannon
Cannon
Steam tank

This was, of course, a little character heavy- but so was my list, so it wasn't as big a liability as it could be. The sword of fate was inevitably going to get pointed at my Dwarf Lord, which meant I really, really needed to steer clear of that fight. I'd fought the matchup once in 7th, but without the Sword of Power in the mix. Primary concern was the steam tank, though I hoped to neutralize it with a strength 10 stone and cannon fire. I was hoping my rangers would get a shot at the great cannons, or failing that, pick off some of the chaff/ cause problems.

The mage ended up with light of battle (the one that gives WS 10, I 10) and the basic magic missile. We elected to run the basic Battleline scenario to keep things simple.

Deployment pictures aren't great, as we were right next to a window which meant I could only really get pictures from this angle. At least, that's the excuse I'll use. There was a massive Khornate monument which we treated as an Altar of Khaine (frenzy within 6"), and the large hill that ended up on the Empire side became a scree slope to make things interesting. Other than that, the fortified manor on my side was split into two buildings and a courtyard.

As you can't see below, I managed to put my cannon, gyro, and grudgethrower out of sight of his cannon battery. I made something of a blunder and underestimated how tight the space was between the building and impassible Khornate monument. It meant I was forced out of my usual comfort zone for deployment. One warrior block went wide right to keep knights from running down my grudgethrower, and everyone else went left. Slayers had to go in front of the longbeards, and hammerers had to garrison the building to keep everything together.

Aaron deployed atop the scree slope (we said only the sloped parts of the hill were scree) with his infantry, knights back on either side, and arch lector out to his left. Things would be tight as far as who would win the shoot out. His cannons weren't in a good position to counter-battery me, but I needed mine for damaging the steam tank.

On the far left, I managed to get a spot to drop the rangers for a run through his artillery.

Turn Strollaz

The middle moved forward, though I didn't look forward to charging up scree slopes, I didn't think I had much else in the manner of options. The hammerers used the rune to exit their building, essentially keeping up with the advance, and recovering from my weak deployment. The organ gun pushed to the forward corner of the courtyard to shoot anyone unwilling to advance.

Oh the thrilling Strollaz move. Game changer!

Turn 1

Aaron won the roll for turn, and elected to go first. His infantry advanced to the very crest of the hill, while the steam tank went Dukes of Hazzard style off the cliff, and set up to menace the center of my advance. Both knight units and the war altar advanced to prep a counter charge on my units. Magic was weak, and only a sniper was buffed with Hammer of Sigmar, to no eventual effect. MR of Grungni worked to a charm and I only lost a slayer, a longbeard and 2 warriors to shooting.

In my turn I pushed on, without a great plan. I moved the warriors forward, expecting a charge from his knights, but thinking I'd manage to at least remain steadfast long enough to put my longbeards in the flank. Pushing the warriors also protected the longbeards from getting hit by the Arch-Lector who was geared out to assassinate my Dwarf Lord. On the right, I moved forward slightly and positioned to keep the knights from marching right past my warrior block to get after the grudge thrower, and the gyro hopped forward. I think the pilot was drunk, or felt invincible, because he put himself in sight of 2 cannons and 20 handguns. Not sure what I was thinking here...

Both the cannon and grudgethrower laid strength 10 hits on the steam tank, but both failed to wound the hot new Toughness Ten-mobile. Erm... uh oh.

Go, go, invincible gyro!

Turn 2

Since the MR of Challenge thane (in the hammerers) wasn't going to be able to affect anyone but the empire infantry, I decided to force the swordsmen into a long range charge. They'd need a 10 or 11 to make it in, and it would take them down the scree slope, forcing a huge amount of difficult terrain tests. Aaron, decided to send everything (more on this after the game), and put the Arch Lector in to my warriors, Inner Circle knights into my slayers, steam tank in to my hammerers, knights into warriors on my right, and all the infantry at the hammerers as well.

Everyone but the infantry made it in, and about 6 swordsmen broke their ankles on the icy hillside.

Magic was again shut down, though I burned a scroll to prevent a burning gaze at the gyro. Shooting pointed out some errors in my previous turn, with handgunners downing the gyro before it could show its stuff with the steam gun. One cannon could in fact see the grudge thrower, and put a long distance shot through it, but only caused a single wound. The other grapeshot 4 rangers to death, but they passed panic, spelling the probable end for the Empire artillery.

In combat, the warriors on the right lost 2, killed no knights, who held. The hammerers lost 12 to steam tank impacts, and caused one back. The 11 remaining slayers were all trampled to death except for the dragonslayer, who participated in a whiff fest with the Grand Master. This was actually kind of lucky/perfect, as it opened up a nice counter charge from the longbeards. If even one had survived, I'd have been blocked. The arch lector bounced his cart off the dwarf shield wall, killing a couple while they broke off his hood ornament.

And a closeup of the pivotal combats in the center

Ouch! Right in the hammerers!

In my turn I got to charge the leftmost cannon with rangers, charge in longbeards, lord, BSB, and longbeards plowed right back at the inner circle knights. I tried dropping a rock on the swordsmen, but scattered and only killed one. With the gyro shot down, it was time for the organ gun to do something spectacular. Instead it misfired, and wouldn't shoot next turn either. Yikes.

In combat, the rangers spiked the cannon, but didn't make it to the next one (or the engineer) with the overrun. The knights on the right broke, and escaped with warriors hot on their heels. In the middle the last few hammerers and thane threw another 7 great weapon attacks into the steam tank, and managed to knock another wound off. The Dragonslayer knew help had arrived when the Grand Master's Sword of Anti-Heroes powered up and chopped him to little pieces. Meanwhile, the "help" managed to kill nothing. My Lord engaged his warrior priest in stimulating conversation, while a few longbeards died. With laurels of victory, I lost this combat by a lot, but was saved by steadfast. Elsewhere, the arch lector shook his fist at the warriors who keyed long scratches in his paint-job. With supporting attacks and frenzy from the shrine of blood, I actually had a chance of doing a little damage each turn.

So much 1+ armor! Damn you Empire...

Turn 3

The game breaks open here. Grapeshot picks off another 2 rangers, but they still aren't panicking. Halberdiers charge in to help out the steam tank, but end up right back out of combat when the steam tank grinds the hammerers down to just the thane (who makes a 6+ save to remain alive). He keeps clanging away at the hull. The warriors on the left can't figure out how to do any more damage to the Arch-Lector's luxury car, so settle for rocking it back and forth menacingly. A shabby bunch of free company charge the organ gun, and completely wreck it in a single turn, despite the intervening wall. In the center, the grand master makes a mistake and gets in to a challenge with my lord who takes a couple wounds off him. The warrior priest goes down from regular longbeard attacks, losing the stubborn crown, and the unit is put on a re-rollable 5 to stay, which they fail. To add insult to injury the unit is caught by a big pursuit from the longbeards. This in turn panics the BSB's unit (who failed a charge on the scree slope earlier this turn), and they flee, once again along the scree slope and out of serious contention for another role in the battle.

My general cleverly assigns other units the responsibility of downing the war altar and steam tank.

You can do it! Oh wait, no you can't.

Turn 4-6

The game was mostly wrapped up after this- my lord left the longbeards so they could go help tip over the war altar (which they did). I put one more wound on the steam tank after he ground off my thane. With appalling luck, the Griffon banner unit failed to rally on 3 more attempts, eventually running off the board, but not before leaving most of their number dead to dangerous terrain tests all over the scree slope. The ranger champion was the only one who survived trashing the other cannon, killing the master engineer, storming up the scree slope into handgunner fire, and then single handedly breaking the unit he fought. On the other side, the free company ran all the way to my grudgethrower and then trashed it too. I never did kill another knight on the right, but kept breaking them, eventually pushing them right off the board edge in the final turn.

We're Dwarves, of course we're in your deployment zone.

Victory to the Dwarves!

Man of the match: Scree slope. Just kidding but only kind of. The swordsmen unit took something like 6 turns of damage by charging and fleeing along this thing, and it did more damage than any model in the game- killing 17 swordsmen.

Villain of the match: Steam tank. Toughness 10 is rough. I only managed 3 direct hits with strength 10, the last of which wounded, but only for a single wound. The rest came from hammerer whacks.

Other post game thoughts:

We had a bit of discussion afterwards and agreed the Empire really didn't need to advance. With magic and shooting, he probably could have afforded to hold back instead of charging across the board. At the very least, the knights and arch lector going solo into each stack of warriors with shields was a mistake.
I've gotten a little too comfortable with the gyro while playing against VC and Warriors. No need to have lost it this game, as it would have been easy to land out of range of the handgunners.
We're both essentially using 7th edition armies with slight tweaks, and I think both could stand to improve.
Still loving the naked Dragonslayer. At 50 points, and with slots gone, I think it's hard to go wrong.
The War Altar is an interesting option. Being able to cast any spell from the Lore of Light is kind of cool, though it's hard to say whether it's worth the points.

I think that'll do it for now. Thanks for reading, and see you in the next installment, hopefully coming soon!