WHFB – Dwarves vs Lee’s Lizardmen – Riotville Live 2020 – 01/03/2020

This year I again attended Riotville live, about the only event I attend each year (primarily as it’s fairly local and a one day chillhammer event). I’d failed miserably to paint up my Lizards in time so instead dug out my dwarves.

It was great to see many of the same faces in attendance again and spotting Lee, I knew that I needed to have a grudge match after his narrow victory last year.

This report is a long time coming (two months after the event), so apologies to him for that (and as ever any mistakes are down to lack of notes and poetic licence).

Lists

Dwarves

Barlin Silvertop – Runesmith (General) – Shield, Ro Stone, Ro Spellbreaking – 93pts (cheap as chips with a 2+ save and the equivalent of a dispel scroll)

Drugin Silvertop – Thane (BSB) – MRo Gromril, GW and Ro Furnace – 131pts (a cheap combat character with a 1+ save, 2++ ward save vs flaming attacks and 3 attacks at Str 6)

Grimm Burloksson – 165pts (Special Character – Master Engineer. Has the ability, on a 2+, to grant re-rolls to failed hits on ranged weapons, amongst other things)

The Old Grumblers – 24 Longbeards – musician, standard bearer, Ro Stoicism (grants stubborn) – 367pts

10 Quarrellers – 120pts

Brotherhood of Doom – 19 Slayers – musician, standard bearer, Strollaz Rune (grants Vanguard) – 283pts

The Firewardens – 18 Irondrakes – Full command, Brace of Drake pistols on the champion, Ro Slowness (grants –D6” to any charge against them).

The Valkyrie (Gyrocoptor) – 80pts

The Reliable (Gyrocoptor) – 80pts

Grudge Thrower – Ro Penetrating, Ro Accuracy (grants +1 Str to shots and rerolls to the scatter dice)

Total – 1799pts

 

Lee’s List

Lvl4 Light Slann – BSB – High state of Consciousness, Becalming Cogitation (Ethereal – re-roll failed dispel) – 410pts. He’d initially had a slightly different build (still with ethereal) until he realised that you could only have loremaster on High and not Light).

Skink priest – lvl 2 Beasts – dispel scroll – 125pts

20 Saurus – Standard + musician – 240pts

20 Saurus – Standard + musician – 240pts

10 skink skirmishers – blowpipes – 70pts

10 skink skirmishers – blowpipes – 70pts

10 Cold One Riders – Standard + musician, spears – 360pts

Ancient Steg – blowpipes – 230pts

Total – 1745 (He obviously had something else in the list that didn’t come up, likely on the Slann)

 

Pre-match rolls

Scenario

We initially rolled for Watch tower but as we had played that when we faced each other last year at Riotville (still the most enjoyable game of that scenario I’ve ever played), we agreed to roll again and got Blood and Glory.

Playing at 1.8k the army breaking point was 2. Lee had a fortitude of 6, as did I (3 standards, 1 BSB and 2 for the general), meaning we could each lose 3 items safely but once the 4^th was lost our army would break and lose the game.

Magic

Slann took Light magic – Briona’s Timewarp, Shem’s burning gaze, possibly Net of Amyntok and Speed of Light (he only cast two of the spells, hence the others were irrelevant).

Skink took beasts – Amber Spear & Wyssan’s Wildform

Other

All the dwarves hate the foe.

Terrain

This was pre-set and looked like this

Deployment

We both took the sides we happened to be sitting on (in time honoured Warhammer tradition of not being arsed to move) and the Lizards won first turn

T1 – Lizards

The army surged forward at maximum speed, one unit of saurus following as a second wave.

The Slann attempted to cast the bubble version of Briona (looking to double the movement, give always strike first and +1 attack to all the nearby units) and started what was to be a trend in the game, of failing miserably to cast it!

T1 – Dwarves

The dwarven lines hunkered down to await the inevitable charges in the next turn. The exception were the two reckless flyboys. Both Gyrocoptors shot forward, each moving over a skink unit and dropping their payloads. Old reliable proved anything but, suffering damage as its ancient mechanism jammed and the bomb exploded prematurely. The Valkyrie’s bombing run was more effectively with 2 of the skirmishers engulfed in the explosion. Two nil to the Valkyrie. The pilot grinned as he flipped his comrade the bird.

The crossbow armed dwarves then took advantage of the stunned skinks, peppering the exposed unit with bolts. Two more of the diminutive lizards fell and with their courage failing, they turned tail and fled. This in turn panicked the other skink unit and the priest, who also fled. The flank had fully collapsed (leaving Lee to remember why he had planned to keep the skinks near to the main lines).

The newly crafted grudge thrower had something to prove and the crew did some speculative fire over the top of the tower and landed a direct hit onto the slann. He had been nonchalantly wandering around in the belief that, being ethereal, he was safe from harm. The giant stone landing on him and the 3 wounds caused, rudely abused him of that notion.

Burlok adjusted his targeting lenses and shouted out instructions to the Firewardens. They opened up with their drakeguns and a wall of flame covered the cold one riders. When they shut off the values, only 2 of the 10 riders remained upright.

T2 – Lizards

With a bellow, the Stegadon charged into the Slayers, impaling one on its horns. Two more fell to the great beast and the plucky skink crew finished off another. This didn’t deter the brotherhood, as being in combat with a big monster was living the dream! Clambering over each other to get to it, they caused 4 great rents in its armoured hide. The sea of frothing orange and steel in front of it, combined with the gaping wounds it had taken, was too much for it and despite the skinks best efforts, the great beast turned to flee.  Howling with glee, the slayers pounced bringing it down and slaying the crew.

The remaining Cold One Riders, decided to ‘tactically’ retreat and the Saurus moved up.

Both skink units continued running with the so far uninjured unit, losing two of their number to dangerous terrain. The priest however, pulled up sharply as the Slann’s commands jolted into his head.

Distracted by the fear in his subordinates mind, the Slann failed, again, to cast the bubble Briona but he seized control of the priests mind and used it to cast the Amber spear at the grudge thrower, the only thing on the field that could harm him. Barlin saw the danger and quickly dispelled it.

T2 – Dwarf

The Reliable moved to the flank of the skinks, determined to show that older was better. Releasing the build-up of superheated steam, it roasted 4 in one unit and 2 in the other. The other Gyro moved up to target the Saurus but only 1 succumbed to the heat.

Burlok miscalculated with his adjustments for the irondrakes but despite that, they still took out 11 of the nearest Saurus unit, neutering its combat strength in one blow.

The Stonethrower again targeted the Slann and although their aim was good, the machine misfired, slaying a crew member and preventing it from firing next turn.

T3 – Lizards

The remaining skinks both rallied and turned to face the nearest of the Gyrocoptors, firing a hail of poisoned shots but couldn’t beat its sturdy armour.

With their prey in range, both units of Saurus charged into the dwarves. The full strength unit into the slayers and the depleted unit, wisely bypassing the irondrakes targeting the Longbeards.

The winds of magic had dwindled to a feeble strength and hedging his bets, the Slann cast the small Briona at the slayer combat. Barlin struck his staff to the ground invoking the runes to dispel it. Despite that, the Saurus still beat the slayers in combat, even though they actually lost five of their number to just three of the slayers. The orange haired lunatics weren’t going anywhere though.

The other saurus didn’t fare so well. Just two of the doughty dwarves were bought down but in return they slew a full rank of the lizards. This was too much for the cold blooded reptilians and they fled, only to be run down.

Just a gratuitous close up shot

T3 – dwarf

The Irondrakes advanced and then fired but failed to wound the rapidly retreating Cold One cav, as they were at the edge of the of their effective range (and I completely forgot that being quick to fire they didn’t suffer movement ‘to-hit’ modifiers – something that continued for the rest of the day).

The two Gryo’s moved to the flank of each skink unit and between their steam guns and the xbow armed dwarves, both units of skinks were obliterated. This left that flank firmly in dwarf control with just the Skink Priest left alive.

The Saurus/slayer combat continued with 3 deaths apiece. This was bad news for the saurus as the longbeards smartly reformed so they were now facing the flank of that unit, looking angry.

T4 – Lizards

The cav continued their headlong retreat and disappeared around the corner of a building.

The priest again shot an amber spear at the grudge thrower but it failed to go off. Shem’s burning gaze was then dispelled. This meant that the Slann had so far failed to cast a spell all game!

In combat, the lizards slew 8 of the remaining 9 slayers for the loss of 2 of their own, leaving just the banner bearer alive. Frustratingly for Lee, this meant they were still pinned in place.

We’re just going to run away, errr we mean investigate the suspected dwarf sighting in the ruins…

T4 – dwarf

With the wrongs of hundreds of years burning in their blood, the Longbeards smashed into the side of the remaining lizardman block. 4 of the Saurus died and they were so overwhelmed, they failed to finish off the slayer before running from the fury of the dwarf veterans. Both the longbeards and the remaining slayer ran down the survivors.

The older gyro charged into the skink priest causing a wound but the plucky lizard held.

The, now back in action, Grudge Thrower landed a direct hit on the slann but the fates were watching over him and it failed to wound.

T5 – Lizard

With almost nothing left on the table the lizardman options were few. The cav moved further into the cover of the village.

In a shock move, the Slann managed to cast a spell and the magic missile (Shem’s burning gaze) hit and wounded the nearby gyrocoptor.

The other gyro/priest combat went nowhere.

Hiding!

T5 – dwarf

The irondrakes reformed to face the village and the cowering cavalry within it.

The stonethrower missed the Slann completely.

The remaining slayer retreats to save his points from any magic missiles that might be directed his way.

The Gyrocoptor finally finished off the priest, gutting him on its rotors.

T6 – Lizards

The Slann, seeing an opportunity, tried a long charge into the flank of the Irondrakes. Failing to reach them, he then cast a boosted amber spear at them, killing 4 (we forgot that it was the skink who had the spell). The miscast caused a detonation but the wards on his palanquin flared up, protecting him from harm.

T6 – dwarf

Not trusting to the fickle reliability of the Grudge Thrower, the Gyrocoptor charged into the rear of the slann to try and make him flee through combat. With his naturally high leadership and BSB ability, it was a small chance and it didn’t pan out.

In a last ditch chance to claim points, Burlok jumped out of the irondrakes, as this gave him a shot on the cav. with hard cover and a low number of shots rolled he failed to kill either of them.

Results

Both of us failed to break the opponent to win automatically (I’d taken 3 of the Lizardmen fortitude but the other 3 were tied up in the Slann and Lee had not taken any of mine).

However the victory went to me due the victory points claimed for killing his units.

 

Post battle thoughts

Another fun game against Lee, even if it did appear at first read, to be a little one sided.

I will say that the dice were more favourable to me on a number of occasions. He should have destroyed the slayers allowing him to face the oncoming charge of the Longbeards (and at least getting their points). His ability to not cast a spell with the slann was just impressive. I’d not seen the like before. That mage priest needs to seriously contemplate his utter failing in that regard! Getting just one of the bubble Briona’s off would have made a significant difference.

Moving at full tilt across the board at me was somewhat unnerving. It made me realise just how few turns of shooting I’d get to soften him up.

Neutering two of his units with the Irondrakes took him by surprise. I get the feeling he hadn’t faced them before and the inclusion of Burlokk significantly boosted their threat, as he helps overcome their one shortcoming, by allowing re-rolls to hit.

Putting the stegadon into the slayers was probably a mistake too as their great weapons and slayer rule, meant they could really lay into it and attacking big beasties is where they excel (he was unlucky not to get a supporting charge into the Longbeards at the same time).

The placement of the skinks was a mistake (one he knew almost immediately) but even so, again his leadership rolls should have been better using 3 dice.

As I mentioned earlier, I was rusty with the dwarves and their rules. I’ve barely played them in the last few years and so forgot a few crucial rules (shield wall giving 5++ parry when charged and quick to fire meaning there is no move and fire penalty). Considering the list hinged around the Irondrakes, that second one was crucial and really came back to bite me in one of the other games. Know your army! One of the major rules and one I fell a bit short on (no pun intended).

I’m already thinking about what I should bring to next year’s event. Whatever I choose, you can guarantee I won’t have played a practice game with them and perhaps not a game in the last 5 years (if ever). Oooo what could they be?