This post will literally just break down the forces involved with some brief thoughts on how we would be simplifying some of it.
As stated before the main aim of the demo game was to field as many large units and big gribblies as possible. Not having any experience in this size game, I turned to someone who was well known in the blogosphere for his large games, Greg from the Hoodlings Hole. I didn’t speak to him in person about this game (though I have briefly spoken to him before and he is very approachable and is active on FB if you want to chat), mainly as he had conveniently posted on his blog about what they have done to simplify their large games. Some of it included unifying magic items on characters, something I thought was a great idea, so for the purposes of our game, we went with the following for generic characters (with the odd exception here and there).
All armies
Level 4 Mages will be assumed to have a talisman of Preservation (4+ ward) and earthing rod (one use – reroll a miscast result)
Level 2 Mages will be assumed to have a powerstone (1 use only – add 2 D6 to one magic cast)
Special Characters will be armed with what they have as standard
Empire
Generals of the Empire and Grandmasters, will assumed to have an Ogre Blade (+2 strength) and talisman of endurance (5+ ward) and a 1+ save if mounted.
Captains of the Empire, will be assumed to have a 2+ save, the sword of might (+1 strength)and a talisman of endurance (5+ ward).
Warrior priests will be assumed to have a 3+ save (1+ if mounted) and a sword of might (+1 strength)
Wood Elves
All Glade Captains, will be assumed to have a 4+ save, the sword of might (+1 strength) and a talisman of endurance (5+ save).
All Glade guard have trueflight arrows (no modifiers to hit)
All Scouts have hagbane arrows (poison)
All characters have the same arrows as the unit they are in (else they have none)
Dwarf
All Dwarf (+rune) lords will have a great weapon, a 5++ ward, T6 and 6 wounds
All dwarf Thanes will have a 1+ save, 3 wounds and a great weapon
All Runesmiths/lords will have a 2+ save and a rune of spellbreaking
Master Engineers will have a 3+ save and a brace of pistols
Lizardmen
Oldblood and Scarvets will be assumed to have a 2+ save, talisman of preservation (4+ ward) and a Great weapon
The Army Lists
The below is a breakdown of the army lists taken on the day. Generic characters will only list the exception items, that aren’t covered in the above list. Even ignoring the duplicate magic items on characters, not all the lists are fully legal but that was fine with us as the aim was to create a spectacle, not necessarily a balanced game, with units taken in larger sizes as visually that just looks better! As it went, we ended up fielding 19,578pts of models with the dwarves being outnumbered by just over 2k! Looking back, there were some additional upgrades I could have made to some of their blocks of troops that would have potentially made some a bit more survivable.
This isn’t by far the extent of my models for each of the 3 elements I bought along, but they do constitute the painted models and that was one of the main stipulations, everything must be painted!!
Dwarf Army – 8,658pts
Thorgrim Grudgebearer – High King – 650pts
Ungrim Ironfist – Slayer King – 350pts
Dwarf Lord on Shieldbearers – 286pts
Runelord – Anvil of Doom – 378pts
Total Lords – 1,664pts
Grimm Burloksson (Master Engineer) – 165pts
Thane – Battle Standard Bearer – 146pts
Thane – Oath Stone – 146pts
Thane – 121pts
Runesmith – 93pts
Runesmith – 93 pts
Master Engineer – 85pts
Master Engineer – 85pts
Total Heroes – 934pts
40 Dwarf Warriors – Full Command – Great Weapons – 430pts
40 Longbeards – Full Command – Ro Stoicism (Stubborn) – Shields – 585pts
39 Quarrellers – Full Command – Great weapons, crossbows – 576pts
20 Quarrellers – Full Command – Great weapons, crossbows – 310pts
20 Thunderers – Full Command – Handguns, shields – 290pts
Total Core – 2,191pts
1 Cannon – Ro Forging, Ro Fire – 150pts
1 Grudge Thrower – Ro Accuracy, Ro Forging, Ro Penetrating – 170pts
1 Gyrocoptor – 80pts
1 Gyrocoptor – 80pts
49 Hammerers – Full command – MRo Groth One-eye (12″ bubble of stubborn) – 791pts
30 Ironbreakers – Full Command – Ro Stoicism (Stubborn) – 485pts
40 Miners – Full Command – Mining Drill – 455pts (these should normally start off the table but we disregarded that for the purposes of the game).
Clan Ironfist Slayers – Musician + Standard – MRo Valaya (boosted magic defence) – 553pts
Total Special – 2,739pts
1 Gyrobomber – 125pts
1 Gyrobomber – 125pts
20 Irondrakes – Full Command – Trollhammer Torpedo, 2* Ro Slowness (roll 2 dice and reduce charges by the highest D6″) – 400pts
1 Organ Gun – Ro Accuracy – 145pts
1 Organ Gun – Ro Accuracy – 145pts
1 Flame Cannon – Ro Forging – 165pts
Total Rare – 1,105pts

Lizardmen Allied Contingent – 1,959pts
Oldblood on Carnosaur – loping stride, bloodroar – 460pts
Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur – loping stride, bloodroar – 419pts
30 Saurus Warriors – Full Command – 360pts
Bastilidon – Solar Engine – 150pts
6 Kroxigor – 310pts
Ancient Stegadon, sharpened horns, unstoppable stampede – 260pts
Wood Elves – 4,870pts
Orion – King in the Woods – 600pts
Spellweaver – Lore of High Magic – 350pts
Total Lords – 950pts
Glade Captain – Great Stag – 192pts
Glade Captain – Great Eagle – Hail of Doom Arrow – 207pts
Glade Captain – Battle Standard Bearer – 152pts
Shadow Dancer – Glittering Scales (-1 to hit) – 125pts
Spellsinger – Lore of Fire – 135pts
Spellsinger – Lore of Beasts – 135pts
Total Heroes – 946pts
28 Eternal Guard (spear elves) – Full command, shields, Standard of Discipline
21 Glade Guard (archers) – Full command
27 Glade Guard – Full command
Total Core – 1161pts
14 Wildriders – Full command, shields (completely forgot to give them a magic banner)
3 Warhawk riders – 135pts
6 Sisters of the Thorn – Full command – 186pts (again, completely forgot to give them a magic banner)
3 Treekin – 145pts
20 Deepwood Scouts – musician – 330pts (these ended up being fielded as 2 units of 10)
10 Wardancers – 170pts
Total Special – 1388pts
10 Waywatchers – 200pts
1 Treeman – 225pts
Total Rare – 425pts
Empire Army – 4092pts (Note this was entirely made up of Greg’s models)
Karl Franz, The Emperor – Ghal Maraz, Deathclaw, bloodroar – 585pts
Wizard lord – level 4 – Lore of Life – power stone (rather than earthing rod – due to the lore he was using) – 265pts
Templar Grand Master – 229pts
Total Lords – 1079pts
Battle Wizard – Level 2 – Lore of Fire – 120pts
Captain – Battle Standard Bearer – 146pts
Master Engineer – 86pts
Warrior Priest – 92pts
Warrior Priest – 92pts
Warrior Priest – warhorse – 110pts
Total Heroes – 646pts
24 Archers – 168pts
44 Halberdiers – Full Command – 294pts
12 Inner Circle Knights – Full command, steel standard – 365pts
Total Core – 827pts
4 Demigryph knights – Musician, champion – 252pts
1 Great Cannon – 120pts
38 Greatswords – Full command, standard of discipline – 463pts
5 Outriders – 115pts
5 Pistoliers – musician – 100pts
Total Special – 1050pts
1 Hellblaster Volley gun – 120pts
1 Hellblaster Volley gun – 120pts
1 Steam Tank – 250pts
Total Rare – 490pts
So there you have it. A bucket load of totally unoptimised lists for the game.
The next post will just be a breakdown of the day with plenty of photos.
Have to say the game looked great all laid out on the day, from the pictures I’ve seen.
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The main post should be up shortly. I finished it last night and scheduled it for today (not that I can remember what time!). It won’t contain much more (picture wise) than what was on my insta account if that’s where you saw it. I have to say I was quite please (if I say so myself) with both the game and how it looked on the day.
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Quite an impressive list of troops! 🙂
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There’s something about an old-school dwarf army (on nice square bases) that just speaks to my soul – looks amazing!
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Thanks wudugast
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Wow, that looks super. Never mind the game itself, just having those armies all ranked up for photos must have brought a proud tear to your eye!
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It’s a rare treat to get everything out so was great fun
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Looks like you are about to have some major fun. Rewards for all that hard work. Amazing armies.
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That’s a bloody impressive army mustered there!
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