Hi all, been a while since I have played but had a 3 game tourney a few weeks ago and thought I would share how it went. As this was just a 1 day tournament I wanted to try out a few things that I hadn't used before as if I was rubbish at using them it wouldn't cost me a lot.

Army list.

Runelord, gw, shd, AoD, Resistance, Preservation, Stone, Furnace, Spellbreaking
Thane, BSB, Strollaz's, Guarding
Thane, gw, shd, Stone, Challenge, Furnace

21 Dwarf Warriors, shdd, FC
22 Longbeards, shd, FC, Battle, Stoicism
10 Quarrellers, shd

15 Hammerers, shd, FC, Courage
GT, Eng, Accuracy, Penetrating, Burning
BT, Eng, BoP, Penetrating
10 Slayers, 2 GS

Organ Gun
Gyrocopter

The main things on my list to try were the Anvil, Strollaz and the GT. Basically my lord and a unit of thunderers make way for the anvil whilst the GT is a swap for the cannon. I considered putting some miners in to go with the anvil but didn't want to drop any of the other specials.

First up I was to play Ed with his empire. I won the roll for side and took the hill letting Ed deal with the forests. Arranged across from me was 5 Pistoleers, 14 greatswords (elector on foot), cannon, 5 steel standard knights (warrior priest), 5 plain knights, 24 swords (metal mage), 9 spear detachment, 24 swords (fire mage), cannon, volley gun, stank

I had BT out wide, hammerers, LBs, organ, warriors, GT, quarrellers, slayers, anvil behind hill and gyro behind hammerers.

1
Winning and taking first turn I did very little but drop a rock on one cannon (liking the GT already) and anvil the steel knights.

Ed's counter-battery was equally effective with the remaining cannon taking out the GT. Everything else moved forward.

2
Held my position again except for the gyro which steamed some swordsman and risked the volley gun to ready a charge on the cannon. Organ removed most of the normal knight unit and the anvil misfired missing next turn

Magic stopped organ from firing, the cannon misfired missing next turn, pistoleers proved useless unable to harm the BT crew, the volley gun gave the gyro a flaming death and everything else continued its walk/roll forward with the stank with an outside chance at the quarrellers next turn.

3
LBs charged last knight who was readying to charge the organ gun, and he fled to never return. The quarrellers and warriors stepped off the back of the hill and slayers angled towards the centre of the table where they expected the stank would go to try and cause trouble. The organ unable to fire stepped onto the hill.

Everything continued to move up with little of consequence as the infantry came straight at me and the steel knights round my left and the stank showing its broadside to aim itself at the longbeards. Pistols again unable to bother the BT.

4
Quarrellers walked back on the hill and slayers headed towards the stank with a hopeful look to the man behind the hill for some assistance. The organ and BT softened the stank with a combined 3 wounds before the slayers were magically propelled into it. 12 slayer strikes later saw it lose another 3.

The knights finally finished there sightseeing tour and arrived at the left flank of my force. The pistoleers decided the back of their pistols couldn't be any worse then the front and charged the BT whilst the infantry continued their long trek. The cannon once again fully operational destroyed the organ. The engineer could not get the stank to move and could only watch as irate naked dwarves reduced his steel behemoth to scrap metal, which unsettled the nearby swordsman who then legged it. The pistoleers then killed the BT crew in an amazing display of horseback boxing skills.

5
The hammerers finally turn to face the knights, the longbeards move up and the slayers get some anvil assistance into the remaining swordsman, break them but fail to catch.

The broken swords rally but the others continue to their board edge. The knights are challenged into the hammerers such that they can't get all there men in due to the hedge. The volley gun kills a bunch of slayers but also blows itself up. The hammerers draw with the knights.

6
Slayers again get anvil assistance into the swords to try and kill the mage, longbeards try to be useful and charge the detachment. Slayers kill the mage but lose the combat, the longbeards break the detachment which flees a stupid long distance into an empty table quarter, the thane pulls the warrior priest from his horse.

The stupid detachment rallies claiming that table quarter, fleeing swords rally, slayers fight to a standstill and the last knight holds against the hammerers.

14-6 win

Next game I was up against Mick and his Lizardmen. He had an ethereal frog who knew a whole lore, could re-roll miscasts whilst toting a bane-head and BSB, a mounted scar-vet with some toys, 3 x 10 skirmishing skinks, 3 krox, 18 saurus FC, baby steg, ancient steg, 5 saurus cav (FC) and 4 terradons. He set up to the left of centre behind a forest with one unit of skinks out of picture left.

I Strollaz the warriors, the organ and quarrellers but kept the LBs back for fear of blocking GT (you can move them out of the way in the movement phase you idiot)

1
Taking first turn the warriors move up with the LBs waiting to give the GT a shot before the large targets come out. The hammerers and slayers shuffle due to poor deployment. GT lands on middle krox, misses the partials and rolls 1 to wound. BT misses the steg but the anvil grounds the terradons killing two.

Mick responds by shoving everything forward and then it was back to me.

2
The hammerers and slayers continue to shuffle whilst the warriors and LBs move towards the centre. GT hits the ancient, kills all but one skink and rolls 1 to wound the beast, BT misses the steg again, the organ and quarrellers evaporate a skink unit, gyro kills half a skink unit and the anvil gets two cav.

The lizards again push forward with mostly everything. The remaining skinks focus on the gyro and drop it to one wound, the last skink on the ancient huffs and puffs at the hammerers to little effect. Magic is now in range but controlled easily.

3
Seeing as the ancient shot at the hammerers I now knew I was in range for the anvil charge, so hammerers moved up, slayers continue to shuffle left, warriors and LBs continue to move around the tower to support, organ has no targets so moves to a better position. GT scatters away and only gets a skink, there is a forest to the left now blocking the BT to the stegs so it misses the krox instead, quarrellers shoot like champions at long range and in one volley kill a swarm, hammerers anvil into the ancient much to Mick's surprise, seems he failed to pay attention at the start when I explained what the anvil could do. Hammerers and thane do two wounds to the beast and the thane gets stood on and killed but the big boy doesn't go anywhere.

Baby steg charges in to support his big brother, krox and cav move to support this combat while the saurus head for longbeards. Terradons running out of targets drop rocks on the warriors killing one and the skinks finish off the gyro. Frog floats to the edge of the forest to try and snipe the bane-headed BSB, I figure he is out of range so let it go, but he is in by half an inch, thankfully only having a 4+ save means it doesn't wound. The hammerers only lose a few more thanks to poor impact hits but the champion and one mate kill the big steg. Realised late that with decent impact hits and no BSB nearby this could have gone rather pear shaped.

4
Longbeards charge saurus, warriors move to flank, whilst the slayers continue to sidestep. The GT drops a rock on the ethereal slann but rolls 1 to wound (have they accidentally bought the Nerf-thrower instead of the grudge thrower?), organ finishes off the terradons, BT misses something and the warriors anvil into saurus flank. I kill bugger all saurus, the warrior champ is eaten by the scar vet but static sees them flee a paltry distance and they are caught by the warriors and the LBs who failed to restrain, hammerers continue to die but wound the steg twice. (actually judging by my picture I have muddled this order up somewhat)

Krox and cavalry charge the hammerers to try and finish them off, slann disappears into the forest again after last turn, skinks shoot up the BT to no effect, the lizard charge sees them pull out the rubber weapons and the hammerers respond by dragging two cav down and wounding the steg again.

5-6
The last cav is finally broken, the steg is chopped down by the hammerer champion and his last mate which removes them from combat with the krox. Skinks do nothing else and slayers get mostly smashed by a krox charge, Slann gets a magic missile through at the last two hammerers but is not good enough to drop the champion who is now left alone representing his unit and wondering how to get his two trophy stegadon heads home.

17-3 win

Pat turned up with a soft empire list that had a lord on griffon, fire wizard, metal wizard, warrior priest (all three on foot), 10 knights (FC), 20 swords (FC), 10 halberd detachment, 10 archer detachment, 10 huntsmen, 5 pistoleers, 5 outriders, 20 dirty nutbags and a stank. No artillery made me a happy dwarf.

1
Everything pushed forward at max speed with the griffon staying out wide to the right but with nothing in range it was turn over.

Pushed the hammerers up and angled to catch the knights for a LB flank charge. Gyro went to harass the infantry and the slayers headed round the warriors to try and catch another stank. Dropped a rock on the stank but another 1 to wound, missed the knight flank with the BT, quarrellers panicked the outriders and organ dropped a few knights. The anvil miscast to no effect.

2
Knights were challenged into the hammerers. Stank charged warriors who held, wouldn't have fit on the table if they had fled due to dodgy slayer placement. Huntsmen charged the BT out on the right flank and the gyro fled from the swords. Everything else moved up with the griffon moving to the hammerers rear. Outriders rallied, pistoleers moved up the left to shoot a few slayers. Hammerers and knights drew, warriors held on a 6 and the huntsmen killed two crew for no loss.

LBs charge knight flank, slayers moved towards pistols, gyro rallies and blocks halberd advance. Drop rock on the crazies killing a bunch, organ sends the griffon to the next world, quarrellers kill more crazies and slayers anvil into pistols who hold to stay on the table. Slayers send the pistols running and restrain. Knights are sent running but no one cares as they run through there own lines. Hunstmen finish off the last two crew. So much for dwarf crew being tough.

3
Hammerers have swords charge the front and lord on the side, gyro does the job of keeping the detachment out of this as they charge it instead and it flees towards the LBs. Knights rally. Outriders and flagellants move up again. Warriors are broken with only 5 remaining and are gone. Swords and general hold but the thane takes two wounds of the general.

LBs charge halberds who hold to try and save the wizard loitering behind them. Gyro fails to rally and goes home, slayers turn and move towards the stank flank. GT misses, organ puts a wound on the stank (it is actually on the hill), quarrellers make the last outrider run away again, slayers anviled into stank. Lord is killed by thane but swords hold again. Halberds are broken, run down and the wizard who elects to flee is also caught by the pursuing LBs. Slayers wound the stank 4 times.

4
The last 7 flagellants charge the quarrellers, the archer detachment tries (heroically/stupidly) to help the swords an charges the flank of the hammerers. Stank overloads and wounds itself. The knights are hemmed in by terrain and units and can't get out. Flagellants annihilate the quarrellers and overrun into the warmachine crew who are poorly placed. Swords and archers are broken with the swords being caught and hammerers overrunning into the knights. Slayers finish the stank.

Slayers get an anvil assisted charge into the flagellant rear and the giant slayers win the roll off to strike first and kill five flagellants between them saving the warmachine crew. The hammerers break the knights again sending them from the table.

The game ended as he only had his huntsmen and half a unit of archers left on the table.

20-0 win

Overall this placed me second. First was taken by an empire player with 3 20-0 wins. I would have played him next had we another round and would have liked the opportunity. I was happy with my performance but was lucky in my last round draw against what I thought was a weaker list and an opponent much newer to the game. Pat told me his previous opponents could not handle the stank and that it had gotten him through.

Having tried out a few new things in these games I'll give my thoughts on the army.

Runelord on Anvil Having only ever played the Lord list this thing was fantastic and allowed at least one key charge per game. My main concern is obviously the high cost which can blow itself up. Also think he may be over‑protected as he didn't and shouldn't really be seeing combat.

BSB Strollaz is nifty to allow some early repositioning and the option to get to grips with some enemies earlier. Didn't use it much though. Not sure if I like having him so vulnerable though. People's general attempt to avoid the LB block makes this less of a problem.

Thane Cheap and added some character hurting (and surviving) ability to the hammerers, except when being stood on by a dinosaur

Warriors Didn't do a lot (except hold the stank) but don't expect much either. Prefer to the smaller disposable units.

Longbeards This unit continues to perform. Hard for the opponent to get and regularly cleans up anyone who engages them.

Quarrelers one unit was enough shooting with the anvil to support.

Hammerers we all know how good these are. Special mention to the dino-slaying champion.

Slayers Loved them. Can normally be hard to engage but the anvil helps so much with these. Whilst miners are tempting I like these more. As can openers they excelled.

GT Really liked this. I have previously favoured the cannon due to lack of confidence in my range guessing but having improved this, I much prefer it. However, this is not based on actual performance as over three games it only got a cannon, half a dozen skinks and half a flagellant unit.

BT Such a solid machine, whose crew are fired. Being clubbed to death by rich empire boys, being carved up by glorified empire archers and failing to hit a veritable smorgasbord of giant lizards wandering around in front of them.

Organ gun again we all know what a good machine it is especially when it didn't blow up.

Gyrocopter Failed to survive any games. I continue to put it in harms way and continue to get the poor pilot filled full of holes. I know it can be effective and does this occasionally but need to be more careful I think.

If you have gotten this far, thanks for reading.