I made my first visit to Time Warp Gaming last night and had a blast. Not only did I walk away with new stuff for my growing orc waagh, but I enjoyed a bloody battle royale against Tony himself. I had wondered how my dated dwarfs would against the nastiness of vamps especially as I was lacking the Rune of Valaya and Iron Breakers. Also, against my better judgment I took slayers in the vain hope that would actually do something this game..... :x

Dwarf King
-Gromil Armor, Sh, GW, Shield Bearers, Runes: Kragg, Fury, Spangelhelm, Stone, Furnace, Spite

(For those players not savvy with rune lore my king gets: 1+/4++, Immune to Flaming and KB, magical GW with +1A and +1 to hit. )

Rune Smith
-Gromil Armor, Shield, HW, Runes: Stone, Cleaving, 2x Spell Breakers

(2x Dispel scrolls, +1S and +1 to AS)

Dragon Slayer
-Runes: Grudge, Swiftness, might

(HW with ASF, re-rolls against a chosen hero and double strength against T5 or higher)

20x Warriors
-FC, Sh, Hw, Ha

10x Thunderers
-Dhg, La, Sh, Hw

20x Long Beards
-FC, Sh, Hw, Ha

18x Hammerers
-FC, Runes: Stoicism, Battle

(Standard provides a +1 to CR and doubles my Unit strength)

9x Slayers
-4x Giant Slayers

Organ Gun

Grudge Thrower
-Engineer, Runes: Accuracy, Penetrating, Burning

(re-roll scatter die, +1 strength, flaming attacks)

Cannon
-Engineer, Runes: Forging, Reloading, Burning

(re-roll misfires, flaming attacks, can always shoot no matter what unless destroyed)

=2250

Mannfred Von Carstein w/ Skull staff and Book of Arkhan.

Wight Lord w/ Drakenhoff Banner (no Barding on mount)

Vampire w/ Flayed Hauberk and Black Periapt.

Vampire w/ Helm of Commandment.

10 x Ghouls

20x Zombies

3x Fell bats

5x Blood Knights w/ champ and standard bearer w/ Flag of Blood Keep.

7x Cairn Wraith.

=2250

(SPELLS: Manny knows everything, the other thralls both got curse of years and raise dead.)

"Listen well young beardlings for today you will learn of the King Skalf's Doom in the ancient sagas of kings. Long ago following the defeat of Von Carstein at Altdorf the get of Vlad wandered the world seeking knowledge of forbidden powers in his quest for domination over the Lands of Men. In time he went south to the Dead Lands and returned at the head of a terrible army of the dark.

Only the warriors of Karak Zorn at the tip of the World Spine mountains could have a chance at meeting the vampire in a battle before he escaped north to wreak untold destruction on the Lands of Men. Long forgotten by the Court at Everpeak, Karak Zorn had acted as the watchmen of the south lands for centuries. Halting Orc WAAGHs before they reached horrific levels and so forth. However, the waning days of the Elder races had weakened the clan's strength to a mere shadow of of its self. But, the King of the Mountain, Skalf Blackhammer, remained a shining beacon of the Dawi's lost glory; the last living embodiment of the splendor of the Olden Days before the Great War. He vowed to face the undead threat head on......no matter the cost."

THE GAME:

TURN 1
Vamps advance forward and raise some ghouls. Tony carefully screens his frenzied blood knight with his wraiths and fell bats whilst the ghouls act as flank anchors. My dwarfs have a strong center with the flanks having my artillery concentrated. My shooting was abysmal. The cannon and grudge thrower were spot on with there guess and could have potentially wiped his BSB and seriously wounded mannfred with his bodyguard.....had I know rolled a lot of 1's and then misfired with my organ gun. I knew that next turn my guys were going to get charged by his hammers and nothing I could could stop it. Time to nut up or shut up I guess.

TURN 2
Wraiths charge and annihilate my slayers over running into the longbeard and bats and knight also charge into the warriors and hammerers respectively. His magic phase saw all of his units receive a Van Hels Macabre giving them all re-rolls to hit. My magic defense simply could stop anything, too few dice combined with bad rolling is not good. G=However, I remained optimistic about it all. Tony's list was not the usually static Res undead horde, it relied heavy on speed and combo charges with lots of re-rolls. If my hammerers could stall his attack and make him lose momentum.....I might have a chance. Well, as it turned out my Longs Beards were raped and ran away like sissies as did the warriors. BUT, this is where things get interesting and having WS 5 pays off. HIs Blood Knights flubbed their attacks and killed a measly 4 hammerers while my Kings hacked down 2 knights and finishes off the wraiths.

TURN 3
Ghouls move up to engage the now rallied warriors and long beards and combined with a volley of curse of years, means that the dwarfs are losing handfuls of guys. My shooting gets better and keeps trimming his ghouls from getting too big. Meanwhile, the huge combat in the middle with the blood knights and mannfred continue to grind. I keep winning combat due to my king and he crumbles away the knights and wounds the heroes.

TURN 4
I the Curse continues to whittle my units down and soon ghouls are running amok through my lines. However, my firepower quickly unloads in some ghouls keeping them check. This joy was destroyed when he van hel's them into the rear of my hammerers. The kings continues fight valiantly and slays the with kings and some more ghouls, but it is not enough. With his bodyguard cut down to the last dwarf, he finally falls in battle against the Master Vampire. Not a single dwarf took a step back.

TURN 5
He prepositions his victorious units and suddenly realizes with horror that my artillery is placed all around him and effect, its like hitting a fishes in a a barrel. My gunners cut down ever last ghoul and cannonball the thrall in the face with precision shooting. The whole game store is dead quiet as my organ gun rolls to hit Mannfred....I roll a 10. Four wounds later Mannfred is limping away trying to get out range and not die.

TURN 6
Nothing really happens except Tony raising up 5 units of zombies to claim or contest all table quarters.

RESULT: DRAW

The Long Beard took a draft of ale and continued his tale, "....and so young beardlings that was the Saga of Skalf's Doom. He fought for Oath and Honor and took the fight to the enemy. Alas, victory was not his that day. However, such was the damage dealt to the Vampire's host that many of his prized creatures were slain. In particular all of the Blood Knight Thralls. I speculate now, as a veteran of Hel Fenn, that history would have turned out differently, if the Vampire had had the power of Aborash's Chosen Knights with him that day. Oh yes indeed.....". Then with a snore the old dwarf fell asleep in his drink and left young ones with more questions than answers again. Confused, the beardlings excused themselves and went back to work in the forges.

In his sleep the old dwarf mumbled on

“Skalf was a just king,
Of him the minstrels sadly sing,
The Lord whose realm was fair and free
Between the mountain and the sea

His shield was long and his axe was keen,
His shining helm afar was seen,
The sun's bright light upon the green field
Was mirrored on his golden shield

But long ago he marched away
And where he rests none can say,
For into darkness fell his star,
In Nehekhara, where the shadows are.”

Cheers,
Black Sword

P.S.Hope you liked the battle report and story as well.