Dwarves vs Empire – SELWG comp practice game 2 – part 1

My gaming has taken a backseat recently. I was due to finish my last group game in the club 40k comp when my wife broke her foot so I became chief child/wife carer for a month. Thankfully I’m back on the wagon and managed to line up a game at short notice against Dan Whites Empire list.

Dan is a new club member, regularly enters tournaments and has quickly earns a rep as being a strong player (he basically destroyed everyone who played his standard Karl franz list). Last time I played him I used my high elf list (based around seradains cavalry prince). Let’s just say I was less than competitive (I won’t even make any excuses!). I promised that when next we fought I’d bring my dwarves (being my most familiar army) in order to hopefully provide a decent challenge.

We both decided to bring our league lists and use all the comp rules. Dans list was as follows:

Arch lector on war alter with cloak of ulric + charmed shield

Captain BSB with enchanted sh + dawnstone

Lvl 4 light Mage with talisman of preservation + sceptre of stability

Lvl 1 light Mage with power stone

Lvl 1 light Mage with dispel scroll

Engineer

37 halberdiers fc

5 archer detachment

5 archer detachment

5 Knights with dhw + standard

5 Knights with dhw + standard

4 demigriff Knights + fc + steel standard

10 archers + music + stand

Hurricanum

Luminark

Steam tank

Hellblaster

Evaluation

So as per usual I will try and evaluate the list and where I feel the greatest threats are and then when I face him I’ll completely forget everything and change my mind…

Well let’s start with the ‘cannon off’. His stank will be gunning for my cannon and let’s be honest mine will be prioritising the stank followed by the Hurricanum or luminark. Getting the upper hand (or not) in this face off will dictate how I play the rest of the game

The other standout item about his list is that he is running a light council and with  3 wizards and the war alter, he will not only definitely get banishment but have it twice (as well as potentially all the other light spells).

If I know Dan (and I’m starting to) his list will have some really good synergies. The war alter, arch lector ‘spells’ and Hurricanum (+1 to hit in combat) will add some very useful buffs to his troops. Combine those with the light spells and his average stat humans will turn into combat power houses. Blocking his magic will then be a key factor to winning this matchup (together with crossing figures that the dice gods will look favourable on me and just generally trying to be a better general!!)

All that aside, I won’t say I’m confident but I’m definitely not as worried about this match up as I think I should be. If I stick to my guns, I have a good chance of winning.