Hallo there!
Lucky-Sixes here for another battle report!
So on the back of playing against John’s Warriors Of
Chaos Army (see Battle Report #2), I wanted to start building my own 2,500pts Chaos army
with the models I had plus a few additions, based on what I had seen on the
internet and in the battle with John. I had painted up some of the models that I
owned (as you might be aware if you’ve been keeping up with the PTG painting
challenge I set myself…) and so was eager to see how it would fair. Hyper-G
duly stepped up to take on the Warriors list with one of his Dwarf armies that
he had lists for – and rolled a newly created, special character heavy,
shooting list at random.
The Generals line up to do a bit of rock/paper/scissors
before the battle. Unfortunately they draw and decide it's best to battle it
out…
We gave this battle a non-proxy rating of 5 / 10 as I had most of my models painted up, but the Dwarfs didn’t – mainly because it was a bit of a trial list. So the Night Goblins filled in for some infantry based support!
This would be good for both of us as Hyper-G was using a list that he had not used before, and I would see how my combat army would fair against a lot of shots!
The army lists are as follows:
Lords & Heroes – 791 points
**GENERAL** Chaos Lord (Zaggaroth)
[Chaos Armour, Mark of Nurgle, Skaled Skin, Helm of Many Eyes, Ogre
Blade, Crown of Command]
**BSB** Exalted Hero on Barded Daemonic Mount (Exodus & Santana)
[Chaos Armour, Charmed Shield, Great Weapon, Mark of Tzeentch,
Talisman of Preservation, Third Eye of Tzeentch]
Festus the Leechlord (Lvl 2 - Nurgle) (Special Character)
Core – 625 points
24x Warriors of Chaos [+ Full Command, Mark of Nurgle, Halberds, Shields]
5x Chaos Warhounds [+ Vanguard, Mutant Poisons, Scaly Hide]
5x Chaos Warhounds [+ Vanguard, Mutant Poisons, Scaly Hide]
Special & Rare – 1,064 points
Gorebeast Chariot [+ Mark of Khorne]
5x Chaos Knights [+ Ensorcelled Weapons, Mark of Nurgle, Full Command,
Banner of Eternal Flame]
3x Dragon Ogres [+ Great Weapons, Champion]
Chimera [+ Regenerating Flesh]
Dragon Ogre Shaggoth [+ Additional Hand Weapon]
Lucky-Sixes says… So this was the first time I had used this list, and I must admit, when it got pitted up against an all shooty list, I wasn't feeling confident. Having said that, the terrain did help my battle plans as it gave me a hill to hide behind for some cover. What would also help me was that I would have more drops than Hyper-G, which meant I could pick which side I attacked from. My aim would be to send my BSB on a war machine hunting mission and see how his build fares against a lot of attacks. The rest of the army would be on the other side of the battlefield looking to hide until I could position myself where I would have too many things for him to shoot down! Either way, I was looking forward to seeing whether my army could actually get over the other side of the table before being shot down!
Lucky-Sixes says… So this was the first time I had used this list, and I must admit, when it got pitted up against an all shooty list, I wasn't feeling confident. Having said that, the terrain did help my battle plans as it gave me a hill to hide behind for some cover. What would also help me was that I would have more drops than Hyper-G, which meant I could pick which side I attacked from. My aim would be to send my BSB on a war machine hunting mission and see how his build fares against a lot of attacks. The rest of the army would be on the other side of the battlefield looking to hide until I could position myself where I would have too many things for him to shoot down! Either way, I was looking forward to seeing whether my army could actually get over the other side of the table before being shot down!
The bonus for me with this army list was that after I have painted up all the Chaos models I own, I would only have to add Festus, the BSB and a Chimera to complete it, so I was looking to see if my models could do the business!
Dwarfs – Commanded by Hyper-G (Total 2,500 points)
Lords & Heroes – 968 points
**GENERAL** Belegar Ironhammer (Special Character)
Runelord (Podrick Rockstone)
[Gromril Armour, Shield, Rune of Parrying, 2x Rune of Fortitude, Rune
of Iron, Rune of Spellbreaking]
**BSB** Thane (Albin Isaaksten)
[Gromril Armour, Shield, Dwarf Crossbow, 3x Rune of Slowness]
Grimm Burloksson (Special Character)
Master Engineer (Alaric the Black)
Core – 641 points
47x Quarrellers [+ Full Command, Shields]
Special & Rare – 890 points
Cannon [+ Rune of Forging]
Grudge Thrower [+ Rune of Penetrating, Rune of Forging]
26x Irondrakes [+ Full Command, Rune of Slowness]
Organ Gun [+ Rune of Accuracy]
Hyper-G says… This Dwarf army list was one that I'd been looking forward to using for many months, having written it shortly after the new book came out the previous year. I had my doubts about Belegar Ironhammer as my general before this even kicked off and actually had a version of this same list where he was dropped and instead I had put his points into the other units. This would be his chance to show me if he was worth keeping in.
Hyper-G says… This Dwarf army list was one that I'd been looking forward to using for many months, having written it shortly after the new book came out the previous year. I had my doubts about Belegar Ironhammer as my general before this even kicked off and actually had a version of this same list where he was dropped and instead I had put his points into the other units. This would be his chance to show me if he was worth keeping in.
Despite my concerns over my expensive general I was feeling pretty confident as Grimm Burloksson would be ensuring that the Quarellers were re-rolling their hits (or extending their range) and my BSB Albin Isaaksten was hiding 3 Runes of Slowness in his trouser pockets so I hoped I'd easily be avoiding any of Lucky-Sixes renowned early long charges!
Having recruited some Night Goblins to help out with my lack of painted Dwarf models I wondered eagerly what could possibly survive against this amount of shooting?
The Dwarf Gun line preps themselves for some target
practice!
The Chaos Warriors decide to deploy on the other side of the
battlefield and use the hill for cover… well except for the BSB who takes his
chances behind a unit of dogs for cover
An overview of the battlefield…
Hyper-G says... I only had 4 drops to make in the whole of deployment (2 units, war machines, characters) so by the time I was placing my war machines all Lucky-Sixes had put down were his Doggies giving me little clue as to what he was going to do!
Only the Dogs next to the bulk of the Chaos army decided to vanguard, as the others stayed close to their BSB owner to give him as much cover as possible. In terms of terrain, there was a river on the nearside (that doesn’t get used at all throughout the battle), a hill on the far side and some obstacles in the middle of the field – as well as some being garrisoned by the Dwarf Quarrellers! There was also a chapel behind them which gave a 6+ Regen to those within 6” I think, but I don’t think it gets used either. The Dwarfs won the first turn on the roll off and away we went!
With deployment looking how it did, the Dwarfs uncharacteristically
moved forward to get into range of the soon to be oncoming Chaos Warriors. The
big unit of Quarrellers swift-reform to give themselves a better angle and the Irondrakes march up to keep the battle line.
The Dwarfs reposition themselves for a better look at the
Warriors…
With Dwarfs being Dwarfs there was no magic, and in the shooting phase
some mixed results for the Stunty’s. Firstly, the Cannon shot at the Chariot / Shaggoth, overshot the Chariot, but did 3 wounds to the Shaggoth and the Grudgethrower
peeled off 2 of the Warriors which wasn’t bad. It could have been worse though as
Festus in the unit failed his look out sir roll, but the rock failed to wound
him – probably because he’s so ugly! However, the Organ Gun decided to roll 3
misfires in a row with the help of their Master Engineer Alaric The Black, but luckily rolled a 6 on the misfire chart so just missed
this turn – which was lucky as some Strength 5 shots at the Chariot would have been
pretty nasty!
Some war machines start picking away at the forces of
destruction…
The High Elves look to sabotage the proxy Organ Gun and roll
3 misfires in a row! Poncy Elves…
Not much to talk about in Chaos turn 1. All the models on the right flank moved up to behind the hill for extra cover, except for the Warhounds which marched up to threaten the Organ Gun. The Warhounds and BSB moved up on the left flank in the same formation to give the Dwarf Irondrakes and war machines something to think about.
In magic, Chaos rolled 4+2 and threw all their dice at a bubbled
regeneration spell from the Nurgle lore – getting it off with irresistible
force! The resulting miscast rolled a calamitous detonation and killed off 2
more Warriors.
The Chaos advance! A lot of hiding behind terrain and other
units to avoid a peppering!
Regen for all! But magical feedback kills off two more
warriors…
In Dwarfs turn 2, the Irondrakes made a swift-reform to face the BSB and covering Dogs. The Quarrellers stayed as they were, but Grimm and the Runelord joined the Irondrakes to give them some support and deter the BSB from charging them.
Some heroes join the Irondrakes to give them even more
punch! As represented by Hyper-G’s fist…
In
shooting, the Organ Gun had a complete turn around and obviously didn’t want to
disappoint (or it panicked) and rolled 20 on two artillery dice! That pretty much
spelled the end for the Warhounds covering the rest of the army. The Cannon on
the left flank fired its grapeshot at the other Dogs. This unfortunately for
the Dwarfs only hit one dog, who was apparently the hardiest Dog in the Warhammer World and brushed it aside like a soft breeze. With this in mind, the Grudge Thrower changed its target to go against the Dogs as well, although it drifted
off and that too only hit one Dog… and you guessed it, failed to wound! By this
point the Dog in question pulled up a deckchair, lit up a cigar and started
pouring a beer to enjoy, while giving some adverse hand signals towards the Dwarf war machine crews. This obviously angered the Dwarven army, and the Irondrakes took no mercy in dispatching flaming death upon them! The BSB passed
his panic check to remain on course to wreak some havoc. Finally, the Quarrellers
shot at the chariot, as it was the only Chaos unit out in the open. This seemed
to be the turn where the Dwarfs forgot to load their weapons with actual ammo,
and although 3 wounds were done on the Chariot – all were saved on the 5+
armour save.
The Organ Gun goes to town on the Chaos Dogs in front of the
hill!
The other Dogs survive a barrage of war machine attacks and look
too snug about it, before the Irondrakes silence their cockiness!
Hyper-G says... Gutted! I wasn't supposed to be using 4 of my 5 shooting units killing Chaos Warhounds! And I probably could have accepted it had the Chariot taken a few wounds but apparentely cotton wool isn't particularly dangerous even when fired by a crossbow or forty...
In Chaos turn 2, the BSB charged past the Irondrakes and successfully made it into the Dwarf Cannon. Elsewhere, the Chaos continued their march and started to come out of cover, moving up to set up some turn 3 charges. The idea was to use the Dragon Ogres and the already wounded Shaggoth as cover for the Knights and Chimera, with the hope that one of them would survive to allow a choice for the Warriors to charge where they liked – easier said than done!
The BSB makes it into combat with the war
machines after successfully avoiding the potential shots from the Dwarf lines
(with the help of some Dogs of course!)
While the rest of the army moves up to
intimidate the Dwarfs – pfft, good luck with that!
In magic, Chaos rolled 4 dice and again threw all
of them in the hope that they would get the bubble regen. Although, this time
it was not cast with irresistible force, and the Dwarfs dispelled it with a
dispel rune. In combat, the BSB did not manage to kill off all the Dwarfs and
they passed their stubborn test to stick for another round.
Stubborn Dwarfs!! The Cannon sticks
around for round 2…
In Dwarf turn 3, Grimm did another swap and moved back into the Quarrellers before the Irondrakes moved to firm up the Dwarf battle line. Shooting was quite eventful. The Organ Gun targeted the first of the Chaos barriers in the Dragon Ogres – with huge success. 14 shots, 11 hits, 9 wounds. Pretty effective. It wiped out the Dragon Ogres and the Chimiera panicked and fled backwards. Further shooting saw the Quarrellers and Grudge Thrower both target the unit of Chaos Warriors and combined well to kill off 7 Warriors, but thankfully for them they (and the other Chaos units around them) did not panic. In the combat phase, the BSB finished off the last crew member, lining up his next war machine charge in the process.
Die Dragon Ogres Die! Also, please notice a
cowardly beast of a Chimera-Dragon in the background! Tsch.
The Dwarf General Hyper-G dances with joy
as the Warriors are getting slowly depleted…
Hyper-G says... I'm pretty sure I wasn't dancing... Chaos were getting way too close!!
The Chaos turn 3 was quite an important one in terms of the battle. The BSB continued his assault on the Dwarf war machines in the corner and – more importantly – the Shaggoth AND Knights both completed long charges into the Organ Gun. They criss-crossed and positioned themselves so that the overrun (being very presumptuous I know) would take the Knights into the Quarrellers – without a stand & shoot opportunity (YAY!) – and the Shaggoth into the Master Engineer next to them. The Warriors moved up, the Chariot stayed behind cover and the Chimera rallied.
The Chaos turn 3 was quite an important one in terms of the battle. The BSB continued his assault on the Dwarf war machines in the corner and – more importantly – the Shaggoth AND Knights both completed long charges into the Organ Gun. They criss-crossed and positioned themselves so that the overrun (being very presumptuous I know) would take the Knights into the Quarrellers – without a stand & shoot opportunity (YAY!) – and the Shaggoth into the Master Engineer next to them. The Warriors moved up, the Chariot stayed behind cover and the Chimera rallied.
A lot of successful charges from the Warriors' perspective!
The Nurgle Knights look a lot cleaner than usual… i.e. are actually High Elves in disguise!
Hyper-G says... You know that feeling of dread when you realise something really bad has just happened? I can't remember what the Knights and Shaggoth needed to make their charges... but both were failable... sigh... this wasn't looking good for the Dwarfs!
In magic, 9 dice were rolled setting up a very handy support phase – only to be swiped down after failing an 8+ spell on three dice with a level 2. Go figure…
In magic, 9 dice were rolled setting up a very handy support phase – only to be swiped down after failing an 8+ spell on three dice with a level 2. Go figure…
In combat, the Knights / Shaggoth killed off the Organ Gun and overran into the Quarrellers and Engineer respectively; whereas the BSB was unable to follow suit and again, only killed 2 Dwarfs, with the war machine passing a stubborn break test.
The Knights and Shaggoth move through, while the BSB is
stranded in combat with the Grudge Thrower.
Dwarf turn 4 was quite quick, as the Irondrakes were the only Dwarf unit that were unengaged by this point. They used this opportunity to close the gap on the Chaos Warriors so that some of the unit could get in range to shoot at them. 10 of the Irondrakes were able to shoot, but unfortunately, in a feeble show of skill, they only managed 1 hit; which wounded but was saved by an armour save of 6+. This seemed to epitomise the Dwarf shooting for the battle as once again the Warriors armour had held up.
“What the…!?” Hyper-G stares in disbelief, as the chaos
armour saves the 1 wound that the Irondrakes managed to get through!
Hyper-G says... and this is the first picture of my face on the PTG Blog... thanks for that particular choice of photo Lucky-Sixes!
In combat, the Shaggoth disposed of the Master Engineer; while the BSB finished off the war machine hunting he had started by killing the last of the crew and turning to face the Irondrakes. Both as to be expected. The third combat continued the trend of the battle with the Knight’s armour allowing no wounds through at all. This was made especially exceptional as the Knight champion declared a challenge and survived a barrage of attacks from Belegar, who gladly accepted. He used his special ability – “Revenge Incarnate” – to double his attacks, meaning he had 8 attacks! Only 3 of these hit, 2 wounding, but the Chaos armour stayed apparently impenetrable and none of these got through. On the flip side, the champion had 3 attacks to go at Belegar, 2 hits, 1 wound – not saved. Wow. The remaining Knights scored 4 more wounds and the Dwarfs held their stubborn leadership 10 test to keep the battle going. This was again another turn that went in favour of the Chaos warriors – and it wasn’t even their turn!
In combat, the Shaggoth disposed of the Master Engineer; while the BSB finished off the war machine hunting he had started by killing the last of the crew and turning to face the Irondrakes. Both as to be expected. The third combat continued the trend of the battle with the Knight’s armour allowing no wounds through at all. This was made especially exceptional as the Knight champion declared a challenge and survived a barrage of attacks from Belegar, who gladly accepted. He used his special ability – “Revenge Incarnate” – to double his attacks, meaning he had 8 attacks! Only 3 of these hit, 2 wounding, but the Chaos armour stayed apparently impenetrable and none of these got through. On the flip side, the champion had 3 attacks to go at Belegar, 2 hits, 1 wound – not saved. Wow. The remaining Knights scored 4 more wounds and the Dwarfs held their stubborn leadership 10 test to keep the battle going. This was again another turn that went in favour of the Chaos warriors – and it wasn’t even their turn!
The Knights do rather well in the combat against the
quarrellers – not taking a single wound! While the BSB and a blurry Shaggoth do
their thing…
In Chaos turn 4, the BSB charged the rear of the Irondrakes needing an 8, only to be told that they have the Rune of Slowness, forcing a failed charge. Not that it would have mattered as he rolled a triple 1 on the roll for charge distance! The Shaggoth charged the flank of the Quarrellers to help out the Knights, and the rest of the army moved up to support at a later date.
The BSB fails with an abysmal attempt at a charge; but the
Shaggoth gets in and the rest of the Chaos forces move up as reinforcements…
Magic saw Chaos roll 9 dice. Festus threw 3 dice at blades of putrification (poisoned attacks), which was dispelled by the Dwarfs, and then irresistibly cast fleshy abundance (the regeneration bubble). A calamitous detonation then occurred – to which all possible wounds were saved through the new protection of regen. The Chaos were being very resilient today!
A harmless irresistible force goes off and gives everyone
regen. No worries…
The Knight unit (and champ) ended up doing exactly the same amount of wounds as before – 1 in the challenge, 4 to the unit – and took none in response. The Shaggoth then added to that by doing 4 more wounds to the unit with regular attacks and 6 more through thunderstomp. The Dwarfs passed their stubborn test again, but were taking some serious damage!
The Shaggoth comes in to deal some serious hurt to the Dwarfs. And the Chaos champion keeps pluggin’ away at the Dwarf general,
Belegar…
So, onto Dwarf turn 5 – which turned out to be the pivotal point in
the battle. The Irondrakes swift reformed and moved up to focus their attention
on the Warrior unit. To which they shot and killed 4 Warriors, depleting the
unit to around 11 models.
The Irondrakes take some anger out on the Warriors…
In combat, there was less damage dealt by the Chaos units as there
were no wounds in the challenge, the Knights only managed 2 wounds to the unit
and 1 to Grimm, and the Shaggoth did 1 wound with normal attacks and 5 with
his thunderstomp – although, still with none by the Dwarfs in response.
However, the main turning point was yet to come. So the Chaos won combat, which
meant the Dwarfs had a stubborn (provided by Belegar) Leadership 10 test to
pass. They rolled boxcars, which was ok because they had a re-roll from the BSB
– but you guessed it, they rolled boxcars again, fled, got caught and that was
that!
The dreaded double boxcars! The Dwarfs decide it hasn’t been
a good day at the office and call it a night...
Hyper-G then raised his hand to handshake height, in order to signify
that the end had come. We decided to call it there as it didn’t look promising
for the Irondrakes who were surrounded by, pretty much, the entire Chaos army!
So it had ended in a pretty convincing Chaos win, and even though it was a
battle plagued by Dwarven bad luck and solid Chaos armour it had been pretty
close until the Dwarfs decided to peg it off the table. Regardless it had been
a good battle and left the Warriors of Chaos army hungry for another fight!
Final thoughts…
Lucky-Sixes says… Well, a bit of an anticlimax and a bit of bad luck all round for the Dwarfs! Shame to end the battle on a fluke bad roll (well double bad roll actually), but that happens sometimes I guess. Otherwise I really enjoyed playing this battle, and was actually quite pleased with how my army faired. I was pleasantly surprised that I actually made it in to combat, and pleased with how I did it. I thought my tactics were spot on with having a BSB war machine hunter, with a lot of help from the Dogs I must say. I might consider that as his role for battles where I have some war machines that could potentially rip my army a new one! I also liked how I sacrificed the Dragon Ogres to make sure the other units (mainly the Knights) could get into battle, and overunning into the big Quarreler unit was definitely the way to go, as I don't think I could've taken a stand and shoot from them with anything I had!
Overall, I think I played it well - although I did have the help of some bad luck on the Dwarfs part, but I thought I was in charge for most of the battle and dealt with the Irondrakes enough to keep them out of the game.
My MVP I think was the Knights, they did the damage really to keep the Quarreler unit testing and in the end that told. The champion was even close to killing off the general! Having said that, the Warhounds soaked up a lot of shooting in the early phases and helped me to get my units in position so a lot of credit goes to them.
LVP for this battle goes to the Chimera. He ran away at the first sight of danger and didn't really have anything to do in the battle. I think if the battle continued, he would have had more of a say, but it didn't, so he's the loser from my army list. If I was going to change anything in regards to the list, I think I would take out the Dragon Ogres. Yes - they do a lot of damage when they're in combat, but a 4+ armour save and only initiative 2 means they are gonna get shot before they get into combat, and they get taken down before they strike when they are in combat, so I can't really see a role for them yet. I will keep trying and see if I can learn what match ups they are good against. Plus they are awesome models and some of the first Chaos that I've painted so a bit of sentimental value in there as well.
Overall, I think I played it well - although I did have the help of some bad luck on the Dwarfs part, but I thought I was in charge for most of the battle and dealt with the Irondrakes enough to keep them out of the game.
My MVP I think was the Knights, they did the damage really to keep the Quarreler unit testing and in the end that told. The champion was even close to killing off the general! Having said that, the Warhounds soaked up a lot of shooting in the early phases and helped me to get my units in position so a lot of credit goes to them.
LVP for this battle goes to the Chimera. He ran away at the first sight of danger and didn't really have anything to do in the battle. I think if the battle continued, he would have had more of a say, but it didn't, so he's the loser from my army list. If I was going to change anything in regards to the list, I think I would take out the Dragon Ogres. Yes - they do a lot of damage when they're in combat, but a 4+ armour save and only initiative 2 means they are gonna get shot before they get into combat, and they get taken down before they strike when they are in combat, so I can't really see a role for them yet. I will keep trying and see if I can learn what match ups they are good against. Plus they are awesome models and some of the first Chaos that I've painted so a bit of sentimental value in there as well.
Hyper-G says... This battle was quite a disappointment for me in the end but one that I'm definitely considering more as a harsh learning curve rather than a total loss. It has to be said that Lucky-Sixes, whilst having most of the good luck (read all of it), was without doubt a superb general for this battle. He played it perfectly so deserved things to go right for him (add Dwarf grumble here).
Now that I've got the niceties out the way... a big unit of Dwarf Quarrellers as my core just didn't work. The fact that they can't move and shoot plus the lack of hits they inflict (even with Grimm with them sometimes) was just painful. I suppose they managed to kill a few of the Warriors nulifying their role in the battle but it wasn't enough. I didn't like having a whole unit of so many shooters all having to aim at one target either, something I should have anticipated really. And once they were in combat, especially against a 1+ armour unit it was game over.
Lucky-Sixes got his charges just right on them using the Organ Gun as a launching pad and I really should have avoided this at all costs. Terrible leadership on my part here so I got what I deserved. On reflection the Organ Gun should have been tucked away in a corner to take some of the Chaos army away for a turn or two. Instead I created a nice little funnel for Lucky-Sixes' Knights and Shaggoth to walk their way past my 3x Runes Of Slowness and a crucial stand and shoot charge reaction... oops!!
So moving onto Mr. Belegar Ironhammer... he's gone. If he can't kill a single wound Chaos Knight over 4 rounds of combat then something is not right. Another day and I guess the Chaos Knight rolls a 1 on its first armour save attempt but it just didn't happen and Belegar is dropped without a thought as a result. In my opinion there are much cheaper ways of getting a stubborn Dwarf unit, Belegar just doesn't cut it.
It's hard giving an MVP for the battle as I totally got it all wrong but the one thing that I did learn was that opponents will always fear and respect the Irondrakes... so I need to focus more on them. Although this wasn't the battle for outstanding performances, I'm going to award the Irondrakes the MVP purely because they are one of the few parts of this least that won't be cut!
LVP goes to.... ME! I made some horrible decisions here that the Dwarf army won't ever thank me for. I can blame the dice rolls sometimes but not this time. I was the biggest contributer to the Dwarfs downfall even though the list wasn't great. Must do better!
Needless to say, the Dwarf shooty list has been changed completely. So hopefully revenge (not incarnate) will not be too far away.
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