Dwarves vs Empire – SELWG comp practice game 2 – pt 2

Scenario

So we rolled dawn attack which is played as per the brb except Victory goes to the player that controls the most quadrants with a non fleeing fortitude unit (over 5 models with a standard), with 2 pts given for each nme quadrant and 1 for your own.

Terrain

We rolled 2 hills (1 was scree – so dangerous terrain), 1 building with 3 walls and an Acropolis of heroes (impassable- units within 6″ are stubborn).

Deployment 

I lost the roll and so deployed first and used careful measuring to ensure I could fit war machines between units, which came to nought as both the war machines and iron drakes had to be set up on the right flank! The slayers were next to them, shield beards were dead centre and the hammerers were covering the left. Hatred was confined to my general.

Dan deployed centrally with most units. The hellblaster, archers and luminark were on my right (hidden from my cannon) and his Demigriffs were on the left. His level 4 got the spells: pha’s, speed of light, banish and birona’s. Both level 1s took shem’s.

Dwarf deployment 

Empire deployment 

Turn 1 

Dan started cautiously under the mistaken assumption that I would be barrelling straight for his troops, using his Knights to shield the halbadiers and as expected moving the stank into range of my cannon. It’s opening shot landed on the cannon but Dan choose this moment to start his impressive run of rolling 1’s to wound…

The dwarf cannon crew decided to show the upstart empire engineers how to use black powder and immediately took 6 wounds off the stank effectively neutralising it. The quarrellers then opened up killing 2 Knights. The gyro snuck off and hid behind the building.

Turn 2

The stank managed to overload, causing another 3 wounds to itself and its cannon shot plowed through the irondrakes failing again to wound (again!). Birona’s was dispelled but the boosted pha’s went off with the aid of the power stone. One the knight units planted itself in front of the hammerers to tempt a charge so they would open themselves to a flank charge from the Demi’s.

The dwarf cannon crew were overly cocky and failed to wound the stank and this gave the organ gun crew the chance to step up and they duely delivered, leaving just a smoking lump of twisted metal in the wake of it firing.

Turn 3

The empire continued to move away from the dwarf artillery and managed a single banishment that killed 2 quarrellers.

The dwarves pounced on this moment of weakness with the quarrellers opening up on the wounded knight unit. In a display of dwarf accuracy, they wiped out the last 3 Knights. The other unit of quarrellers and the hammerers then combo charged the remaining knight unit, whilst the gyro moved to redirect the Demi’s. The resultant combat was as one way as you could imagine and the end result was dwarfs 1, Knights dead.

Turn 4

The empire strikes back, with halbadiers charging the quarrellers and the Demi’s at the gyro (which held). Pha’s and speed of light were dispelled and birona’s was scrolled but I failed to destroy it. The luminark fired at the organ gun but failed to wound (at this point Dan had rolled 4 1’s to wound with his shooting). The halbadiers smashed the quarrellers but they held due to groth’s. The Demi’s caused just one wound to the gyro and he held for the same reason.

The shieldbeards charged the halbadiers and the quarrellers and slayers marched towards the centre. Due to angles the hammerers could not charge so reformed to face the halbadiers (a totally noob mistake born out of frustration). The organ moved towards the centre to try and get in range whilst the cannon caused some wounds to the luminark. The Demi’s finished off the gyro and reformed to face the hammerers flank.

Turn 5

The Demi’s charged the hammerers. The boosted birona’s was cast with irresistible force killing one of the lvl 1’s and wounding the lvl 4. The combat continued between halberdiers and shieldbeards with beards holding due to stubborn. Likewise the hammerers took a mauling.

In the dwarf turn the quarrellers charged the halbadiers flank and the slayers charged and killed one of the archer detachments and over ran. The cannon wounded the Hurricanum. The hammerers failed to reform on a 9 even with the BSB reroll.

Turn 6

The hellblaster was finally in range of something and shot a rank off the slayers. Birona’s and speed of light went off and in combat the hammerers and shieldbeards (together BSB and general) were wiped out. The quarrellers broke but survived.

The quarrellers rallied and as a final parting shot The cannon killed the Hurricanum.

Result 

At the end, due to both of us forgetting the objectives, Dan won 2-1. A final turn reform of the irondrakes cost me control of one of his quadrants and the game.

Thoughts

Again myself and my opponent failed to remember the objectives. It shows that we mainly play battleline.

Overall I was reasonably pleased with the game, I lost but it was a close thing. Dawn attack can always be challenging especially with dwarf low movement meaning units can effectively be out of the game due to it.

Magic – I would have been better off saving the dispel scrolls for crucial combats rather than trying to take out his spells early in the game. In fairness his later magic phases were brutal with maximum power dice from turns 4-6 there was always going to be a limited amount I could do. As suspected, light together with the Hurricanum buff and warrior priest buffs destroyed me in close combat.

I do need to think about moves in advance and consequences. A case in point was the hammerers. If I had moved them to receive the Demi charge I probably would have taken them apart which would have allowed them to either then flank the halbadiers or charge one of the chariot/war machines making the outcome a very different thing.