Hello, everyone. I've been a long time lurker on this site and only recently joined. I've played miniatures games all my life but only recently got into Warhammer (yay new blood), mainly because I got tired of skirmish level games (I'm a warmachine refugee). But that's a story for another time.

I've played a lot of games over the past few weeks, mostly against the Empire and Orcs and Goblins (mostly goblins), and a match or two against Wood Elves. I won some, I lost some, but by far the most losses were at the hands of those nefarious Imperials and their knights! So I was reluctant to get my dwarven arse handed to me again as an unstoppable sheet of meteoric iron and horse flesh ran over my entire army as had happened twice in the past. Nevertheless, I accepted the Empire's challenge, expecting at least to take as many of the humans down with me.

I can't remember the lists exactly, but here are my best estimates:

EMPIRE

8 Knights of the Inner Circle with Full Command and War Banner (Ugh.)

1 Captain on Horseback with the Sword of Sigismund and Meteoric Iron armor (Knew he'd bring the sword so I didn't bother with runes of swiftness.)

20 Spearmen with full command and Two Detatchmnets of Handgunners (10 guys in each detatchement I think)

Captain on Foot (general with spears)

20 Halberdiers with Full Command

Great Cannon x2

I was surprised that he could take all of this at 1,000 points, especially considering how puny my force seemed. I knew he'd bring knights and two cannons, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I don't have a vast horde of figures, so I have to settle with what I can make and use some unorthodox tactics with them.

DWARFS (or Dwarves, whatever the standard is here)

25 Warrios with Full Command

15 Miners with Full Command and Blasting Charges

10 Thunderers with Full Command

Bolt Thrower with Engineer (brace of pistols)

Cannon with Engineer (brace of pistols)

Thane with Great Weapon and Master Rune of Gromril + Master rune of...thing that makes you re-roll armor saves...can't remember...

Dragon Slayer with no runes.

It was a standard table quarters match, except that there was a chapel that was worth an extra 100 points if you claimed it by the end.

This match had a little bit of a twist that made it interesting. Our local woodie player thought of this idea: Whoever won the game had to fight a 500 point wood elf force with whatever they had left. My expectations of winning were low, and considering that every victory I've ever had was truly Phyrric...

Well, terrain was interesting at least. We had four pieces of terrain, and then the chapel. My opponent placed a hill in each deployment zone to make sure that he would have a hill to place his guns on. So in a spell of pettiness, I set a small crop of trees in front of each hill to block line of sight. His artillery was better than mine anyway.

So we deployed. I resigned myself to losing the initiative roll (my dwarves are cursed to always lose the roll to see who goes first), so I deployed defensively. I stuck the cannon in the woods and the bolt thrower on the left flank. I deployed almost everything on the left flank because the chapel was there. My opponent thankfully had the same idea. I chose my miners to use the underground advance ability, although they were also cursed to never arrive (two games in a row they never showed up), so my expectations for them were low. But I figured that if I could get them on turn two or three, they could turn the tide and redeem themselves. So we basically had our entire forces on the left side of the board, except my cannon was in the middle and one of his cannons was on the right flank (my right).

Whaddaya know, he got the roll to go first, and of course took it. He marched his forces up (causing an uproar amongst the other players who were watching because my opponent was notorious for staying back and shooting with his cannons, so notorios that it made dwarves sick to their stomachs), his halberdiers moving to the center of the field and his spears on my left flank. His knights began their dreaded tide of steel on the left flank. Humorously, however, he wheeled his knights to be able to charge my warriors efectively and still let his left flank cannon shoot. I don't know if he just didn't see my cannon, but he lined up his flank perfectly so that I would be able to mow down his entire unit if I got lucky.

His shooting was unfortunately good. While his handgunners were unable to shoot since they had moved, a lucky turn one cannon shot took out five of my dwarf warriors. Owwies.

My turn one. I marched my warriors forward, hoping to get into melee and escape the terror of the cannon. The thunderers moved to get a good firing position on the knights. The thane and the Dragon Slayer kept behind the thunderers.

Shooting saw my perfect flank-shot, one-in-a-million chance cannonball managing to kill an entire one knight. By all rights I should have slain half the unit, but my engineers were so unused to firing a cannon (it usually gets sniped turn one by the enemy's cannons). Still, killing a knight is killing a knight. One down, 7 and the captain to go. My bolt thrower managed to take out another knight to my surprise. It has a history of missing.

Turn two saw the knights charging my warriors, his spearmen holding their ground for some reason, and the halberdiers moving towards the building again. His shooting was saw his handgunners killing a single thunderer and his right flank cannon sniping my cannon in the woods, obliterating it. Whee. Melee time! While warrior casualties were minimal, and I only lost the combat by one, my warriors of course failed the -1 leadership test and fled, nearly off the board. I was about to throw the towel in right there, but decided to wait until I saw what my miners would end up doing, especially when the knights managed to roll a four on three dice to pursue, apparently being outrun by stunties.

On my turn two, my warriors rallied and my thane and my dragon slayer moved to get ready to rescue the warriors when they would get charged again. My miners managed to show up turn two. I positioned them just close enough to be right within grape shot range, knowing that my opponent loved grape shot. Losing one or two miners to a whiff of grape was easier than losing five to a cannonball. They were also within charging distance of the spearmen's flank, so if I could survive until the next turn, my miners would get to wail on the Imperials with their mighty picks.

Shooting saw my thunderers kill two knights. No melee to speak of.

His turn three. His spearmen rotate to brace themselves for the miners' charge, his knights charge my warriors, and his halberdiers claim the chapel.

His shooting sees 7 handguns fired at my Dragonslayer. Five of these hit, and I thought it was curtains for my beloved hero. However, they all failed to wound. The Dragonslayer laughed as lead balls richochetted off of his iron hard abs. His cannons had nothing to do except the right flank one killed one thunderer.

In melee, his knights again win the combat by one, as I again fail to kill any of the knights. And, much to my chagrin, AGAIN I failed the -1 leadership test and fled off of the board. And his knights pursue off of the board so I don't even get to shoot or charge them.

My turn three sees my miners charging the spearmen, and my dragon slayer and thane moving to greet the knights when they return next turn.

Shooting sees my thunderers wiping out the handgunners, unfortunately opening up a lane for his cannon to fire through.

In melee, my miners rock the world of the spearmen, slaughtering five five of them. They flee but my miners manage to slurp them (slurp is the term we use when we catch the enemy while pursuing). Go miners!

His turn three. His knights come back onto the board, but he can't really them because the Thane and the Dragonslayer have formed a welcoming comittee. His halberdiers help themselves to the copious wine cellar in the chapel.

Shooting was a yin-yang sort of thing. His left cannon snipes my thane (I hate cannons when they snipe solos), slaying him instantly, while his right cannon EXPLODES!

No melee to speak of.

My turn four. Slayer charges knights and challenges his captain. Miners move up to the building, preparing to assault. Thunderers move forward to no particular goal.

I was sure that my slayer would lose the challenge, because even with runes the exact same thing has happened every game: the slayer gets decapitated by the Sword of Sigismund. God I hate that thing. But this time my Slayer takes but one wound (and that was from the horse, not the sword!), and the slayer deals one to the captain. For not having any runes, he's doing well.

His turn five. NOTHING WHATSOEVER. his left cannon misfires and can't shoot this turn or next turn, taking it out of the game. Halberdiers continue to help themselves to wine.

Melee saw the duel continue. Somehow my Slayer manages to land a devastating blow, killing the captain! This, actually, settled a grudge from a previous game, too, so extra brownie points. And the knights flee off of the board, only to, miraculously, get slurped by the slayer.

My turn five. Miners assault the building. This is all that happens these next two turns. I'll sum it up in saying that, while bloody on both sides, the halberdiers manage to hold the house (darned great weapons not working indoors).

In the end, I manage to eek out a marginal victory. But I might as well have slaguhtered the enemy with how proud I felt of my dwarves, particularly the miners. It was a tough victory, with me left with little more than three-hundred points, but I was still happy.

And then the wood elf player started placing his figures on the board.

I'll sum up that game quickly. He brought a big unit of stick chicks (dryads) and glade guards. I hate glade guards, mainly because they can just dance out of charge range and annihilate you with their bows while you can do nothing about it. But I was still able to put up a fight, and even bring it to a miraculous draw despite being 200 points down, this possible because my cannon crew was allowed to commandeer the remaining empire cannon that the crew had abandoned. Highlights include the dryads charging my miners as the opposing player wondered why I was just leaving the dwarves out in the open to get charged, when BOOM! Blasting charges kill five of them! 30 points well spent, if you ask me. Miners (I only had 8 left from last game) continue to perform admirable, slaughtering the enemy with the help of the dragonslayer. Glade guards kill the thunderers, slayer, destroy the cannon with friggin' arrows (rule needs a re-write) crew hides in the woods, miners run to the house and hide in there (the halberdiers from last game let them in when they offer ale), glade guardians ruhne up to finish off the crew, two engineers open up with pistols to annihilate five over the course of two turns, humiliating the woodies until they are cut down with arrows.

Overall, a good day to be a dwarf!