Had a quick pickup game at the local GW store the other day against an Empire player. He's still building his army out and was only able to field 1500 pts, so I trimmed the list I had brought with me down to size and we got to fightin'. (I had originally built a 2250 list to play a WE player, but he didn't show, hence all the fire runes that ended up being so many wasted points).

My list:
Thane w/Oathstone; hw w/Rune of Snorri, Rune of Cleaving, Rune of Fire; gromril armor with Rune of Iron and Rune of Stone; shield 157 pts

20 Warriors, FC 205 pts
10 Thunderers w/shields and musician 155 pts
10 Thunderers w/shields and musician 155 pts
10 quarrelers w/shields and musician 125 pts

15 Hammerers w/FC, Rune of Battle and Rune of Stoicism 275 pts
GT w/Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Reloading, Rune of Burning 120 pts
Cannon w/Rune of Forging, Rune of Reloading, Rune of Burning 140 pts

OG 120 pts
Total: 1452

His list:
General with sword of might
BSB (not sure what he had)
Lvl 2 mage, lore of heavens (rolled Portent of Far and Forked Lightening)

10 handgunners /w champ, 5 man detachment of halberdiers (wizard here)
15 swordsmen w/ FC, 5 man detachment of halberdiers and 5 man detachment of crossbowmen
20 spearmen w/FC
15 spearmen w/FC, 5 man detachment of crossbowmen and 5 man detachment of halberdiers (BSB here)
10 free company
19 greatswords w/FC, 5 man detachment of free company (general here)

Great cannon
Mortar

Hellblaster (not the volley gun, the rocket launcher, may have the name mixed up)

He won deployment and proceeded to set up his gunline opposite the main hill in my deployment zone. His cannon went in the middle, rocket launcher on a hill on his right flank, and the mortar on level ground on his left flank. Handgunners with wizard were just to left of center, with 10 spearmen behind them and the swordsmen to their left. His greatswords went to the right of the cannon, and the free company and spearmen with detachment went just in front of the rockets on the slope of the hill. The spearmen with no detachment went behind the handgunners, for some reason.

I placed my cannon and GT on the central hill in my DZ, with hammerers and warriors directly in front on slope of the hill. To either side of them went one unit each of thunderers, with the quarrelers to the right of the right-hand thunderers. The OG went by itself on the left, hoping to protect that flank. The general joined the hammerers.

I won the roll-off for first turn

Turn one:
Since I was facing a gunline, I did something I rarely do: I moved my infantry blocks up the first turn. Since I placed my thunderers right on the 12" line and thought he placed his handgunners on the same line, I didn't move my missile troops (turns out I was wrong and the thunderers were out of range). The OG also moved up, as he had placed his troops on his right far behind the 12" DZ line.

In my shooting phase, my GT landed a perfect shot right on top of his rocket launcher and scored 4 wounds. Bam! His largest artillery piece was destroyed outright! :guinesssmilie: The cannon overshot his great cannon, and the quarrelers shot up the detachment next to the handgunners enough for a panic check (which they passed). Not great but not bad for a first round of shooting.

His first turn, nothing moved (he was terrified of getting his greatswords within 24" of the organ gun, can't imagine why. 😉 In the magic phase, he got off Portent of Far on his handgunners, but I stopped his forked lightening from hitting the OG. His cannon took aim at the hammerers but overshot, and his mortar landed a direct hit on the right-hand thunderers, killing three and causing them to panic and run back towards my cannon. His handgunners (with their rerolling 1s) killed four of my warriors (last time I let that spell get off). Still not enough to panic such a resolute crowd, though. The crossbowmen failed to wound anyone (he had a habit of rolling a lot of 3s when trying to wound my dwarfs with S4 attacks, it was very discouraging for him :biggrin🙂.

Turn two:
The panicked thunderers rallied and turned around (I knew it was a good idea to give them musical lessons). The warriors and hammerers moved up some more, as did the left-hand thunderers and the OG. In shooting, my cannon put a wound on his great cannon, but the GT overshot the mortar by a bit (I did kill one of its crew, though). My quarrelers then killed off his left-hand crossbowmen (which everyone around them ignored due to their being a detachment).

Again, he didn't move anything. His wizard tried to get off Portent of Far again but miscast, losing a spell level and that spell itself (whoo-hoo!). I stopped his forked lightening from doing anything to the OG. In his shooting phase, his great cannon put a wound on the OG and killed one crew and his mortar scattered to land just in front of the same thunderers it targetted last turn. Without his rerolling 1s, the handgunners whiffed when shooting at the warriors. His remaining crossbowmen took aim at the OG and killed one crewman.

Turn three:
Once again, the warriors and hammerers move up closer to his gunline, and the previously panicked thunderers moved back up into position next to the quarrelers. Nothing else moved.

The cannon took aim at his mortar but overshot it; the GT dropped a boulder right on top of the front rank of the greatswords, killing seven of them outright. They passed their panic check, but realized they really needed to start moving to get into the fight. The OG took aim at the crossbow detachment, scoring six hits and six wounds. Again, because they were a detachment, no one cared. But with only one crewman left, it meant the OG wouldn't do anything next turn. 🙁 The quarrelers took aim at the swordsmen and killed three, while the thunderers on the left shot up his handgunners, killing two.

He finally moved some units this turn. The greatswords and their detachment moved straightforward, the free company and spearmen on his right moved up towards the OG, and the swordsmen near the hangunners moved closer, banking on getting a flank charge on the warriors after they charged the handgunners. At least, that's what he was apparently planning. The detachment next to the handgunners moved back a few inches to give the swordsmen some room.

He got off his forked lightening on the hammerers, but only scored a single wound. His mortar scattered again, and his cannon misfired, rending it silent until turn 5. His handgunners shot up the poor warriors some more, getting them down to just 12 guys.

Turn four:
I still wasn't in range to charge anything, so I turned the warriors to meet the swordsmen impending charge headon and moved the hammerers closer to the handgunners. Nothing else moved.

In the shooting phase, the GT took aim at the mortar but scattered off the mark (even after rerolling the scatter die). The cannon took aim at the greatswords, as their previous movement opened up a great flank shot. It took out four more of them; they were now down to less than half strength. The lone OG crewman furiously refilled the weapon and the left-hand thunderers took aim at the free company detachment with the greatswords (I didn't want to risk panicking the handgunners before I could charge them). On the right, the quarrelers and thunderers shot up his swordsmen, taking them down to nine guys (eg, no rank bonus). They passed their panic check.

His turn finally saw some close combat when his swordsmen charged the front of my warriors. He moved his greatswords closer to the action, and his spearmen on the right moved up towards the (for now) hapless organ gun. Again, I shut down his magic phase (having four dispel dice at <2000 pts is great!), and his shooting was largely ineffective (the mortar scattered behind the thunderers/quarrelers, and the handgunners failed to wound any hammerers).

In combat, his swordsmen failed to wound any of the warriors; in return, I killed four of them. Adding in my rank and outnumber, he would need insane courage to stick around. The swordsmen looked at their dead companions and decided that discretion was the better part of valor and made a break for it...but weren't able to get away from the anger of the dwarfs! He rolled a six for break distance, and I rolled an 11! :dwarf: The swordsmen were wiped out! What's more, his halberdiers broke from panic and ran almost off the table; and while the spearmen detachment behind the swordsmen were too far away to be affected, the warriors steamrolled right into them, ensuring another round of combat in the next turn.

Turn five:
The hammerers charged into the handgunners, absorbing their shots without a care in the world. The warriors were already in close combat, so nothing else had to move.

The GT took aim at the mortar again, and missed again. The cannon drew a bead on his cannon, hoping to kill it before it could fire again, but misfired! A six on the misfire table meant I'd still get a shot off on the last turn. The OG was finally reloaded and took aim at the spearmen marching towards it. It fired eight shots, and scored eight wounds! But the unit passed their panic check and kept advancing. The left-hand thunderers shot up the greatswords a bit more; the right-hand thunderers and quarrelers just sat back and watched the carnage unfolding below them (should've moved these guys up as there was nothing more for them to shoot at at this point).

In close combat, my thane challenged his wizard to single combat...and completely whiffed! The wizard failed to wound the thane in return. But the hammerers killed four of the handgunners, and while they didn't have a rank bonus they did have outnumber and the battle rune; once again, he would need insane courage to stick around. The handgunners took off running and I decided to pursue. This was a mistake, as if I had stayed put I could've charged the cannon on turn six. As it was, the hammerers were woefully out of position to charge anything after this.

The warriors quickly dispatched two of the the three spearmen they had charged and pursued the lone remaining one into the flank of the spearmen that had been behind the handgunners.

On his turn five, the broken halbierdiers ran off the board through the mortar (would've panicked the crew, too, if they hadn't been a detachment); his badly-shot up spearmen on the right charged the OG with their detachment; and the greatswords moved up again to try to reach the hammerers. In the shooting phase, his cannon grape at the hammerers, taking them down to the general and the command group. The mortar hit the quarrelers, killing five of them, but they passed their panic check.

In the close combat phase, the warriors killed off all of the spearmen in base-to-base and broke that unit, as well, chasing them off the board and grabbing yet another standard. The BSB, spearmen, and detachment killed the last of the organ gun's crew and overran: the spearmen and BSB charged forward, closer to the GT, and the halberdiers ran towards the left-hand thunderers.

Turn six:
What was left of the hammerers turned to face the cannon, in an attempt to minimize damage from another round of grape. The victorious warriors came back onto the board, and the left-hand thunderers turned to face the challenge of the halberdiers. The right-hand thunderers and quarrelers scattered in an effort to throw off his guessing on the mortar.

In shooting, the GT dropped another boulder on the greatswords and the cannon tried to snipe the BSB. He passed his look-out-sir roll, but the unit was down enough that a single casaulty caused a panic check...which they failed! The BSB and the unit champ (all that were left) turned tail and fled, never to rally again. The GT's stone scattered off the mark and failed to hit anything.

His last turn saw his cannon fire grape into the hammerers again, killing the last of them, though the general survived. The mortar misfired, but didn't blow up. His halberdiers charged into my thunderers, who killed three on the way in and then the other two in close combat.

That was the game. At the end, he had killed only the OG and the hammerers, and no other units were even below half strength. Meanwhile, I had obliterated almost all of his units, got half points for the big greatsword unit, and captured two banners. A crushing victory for the dwarfs! :guinesssmilie:

The MVU for the game is a toss up between the GT that destroyed his most dangerous artillery piece and almost half of the greatswords, and the humble warriors unit that steamrolled through his lines. Cheers to them both! :guinesssmilie: :guinesssmilie: