Welcome back folks to the concluding part of this battle report.
We had over a week to contemplate our next moves in this one so when we resumed we were both raring to go at it! For the beard! (in my case at least!)
So Dwarf Turn 4 began with minimal movement as most of my interesting units were either locked in combat or already doing vaguely what I wanted them to do anyway. And so we went almost straight to magic... and I'd been plotting this for some time!
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| A small bit of magic missile damage... |
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| But the main news was the Rune of Storms that I managed to get through and, with the last Lightning Attacks part taking the final wound, somehow Lucky's Sixes Phoenix rider was no more! This was despite the ward save and magic resistance! |
What a result!
I certainly didn't expect to kill the thing! My objective in this spell was to maybe do a wound or two, but mostly to stop the Phoenix using its flying movement to either support the Spearmen or hunt down my Anvil. Still... I'm not complaining!
Lucky-Sixes says...
Well... Damn! I must admit, I thought I could weather the magical storm with my BSB, mainly due to the magic resistance improved ward save but not to be. That really put a thorn in my side and with the Knights held up that bloomin' magical anvil will have free reign to do whatever it wants, and with multiple magic missiles it could really scupper my plans.
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| Further shooting added insult to injury as this unit of Archers was almost done for |
Then it was on to combat...
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| The Forge Wardens continued to show they weren't just a shooting unit and one further breath weapon to help the Spearmen were finished. Lucky-Sixes Elf character did survive to run, and get away, but the Forge Wardens were swiftly in pursuit |
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| In what was clearly a hugely well-timed magic phase I'd also made these chaps stubborn and it helped to hold up the Elf General even longer as the Miners threw themselves under his blade but held him in place! |
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| Also, as expected, the grind continued over here with both sides trading their weapons for pillows and no-one being killed! |
It had been an incredibly successful turn 4 for me and the Dwarfs, and the complete opposite for Lucky-Sixes and the Highborn Elves. But they certainly weren't out of the fight yet as that Dragon Mage was very much still looming and with three Bolt Throwers ready to get some revenge turn 5 for them could also be a massive one!
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| After Elf Turn 5 charges, etc. this was how it looked as the Dragon decided to take things into its own claws and the lone Elf character rallied to find himself staring down the Forge Wardens who'd decimated his brethren moments ago. |
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| With revenge on his mind Lucky-Sixes unloaded with his Bolt Throwers but if the previous turn didn't show that things were leaning my way a minimal amount of Forge Warden casualties confirmed it. |
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| Predictably the Miners couldn't hold on any longer in combat but they'd more than done their job. |
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| Less predictably something did go Lucky-Sixes' way and my Dwarf character failed his break test and ran away! But the Knights let him go in favour of reforming to dish out Elven fury on the Anvil for all the damage it had caused. |
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| But in the place of one Dwarf character having a blip another stepped up to challenge the Dragon and actually survived too! |
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| This is how it looked after Elf turn 5 and I couldn't help but begin to hope that I might be able to pull this one off! |
Lucky-Sixes says...
Yeah, the spears could not match up to a more elite unite. they had done their part but in the end didn't have the defensive capacity for all that fighting. It had been a mistake to charge them in so early and I had paid the price for it. Although, it was in no small part to my opponent having so many str4 breath attacks - brutal for my fragile elves.
Meanwhile, my other big combat threats had been chaffed up in several combats with several different champions or characters and that had severely slowed their progress. At least I had successfully defended my artillery hill up till now - although, again, it had meant that I hadn't been able to pump any shots into the Forge Wardens until now and now it was too late to have much more impact on them. It was going to be tough, but lets see what I could do to bring back this battle into my favour...
I had a bit of thinking to do at the start of my turn 5 as I felt like I could win this one but I knew there were a lot of points tied up in Lucky-Sixes' Dragon and Charioteer general, both of which I doubted I could do much about. The Knights of Ryma were also unlikely to yield me any points and therefore I came to the conclusion that I definitely needed to secure the objective.
Instead of charging all the Rangers into a Bolt Thrower I decided to bypass one of them and only go for the other two with my Runesmith. This allowed the Rangers, one of my few units with a standard bearer to go for the objective in a rather boring outing for them, but potentially crucial!
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| Something killed the final two Archers, probably some of that awesome Dwarven magic everyone knows and loves! |
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| A more reliable source of death-dealing here though as the Forge Wardens complete their bullying of the Spearmen unit by unloading on the surviving Elf character who didn't last long. |
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| It looks like something also finished off one of the Bolt Throwers... although for the life of me I have no idea what! |
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| And in the only combat of the turn the Dragon finally dealt with the Master Engineer that dared to survive the previous turn, but as can be seen the Forge Wardens had turned around and were ready to frustrate... |
Somewhat unfortunately for Lucky-Sixes, he didn't think this next turn coming was his turn 6 and so when that was established it was a bit of a shock for him. But nonetheless we made sure and it indeed revealed that it was now or never for the Highborn Elves who needed to continue picking up some victory points and also find a way to stop the Rangers from keeping the central objective.
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| The quest for points began with completing a charge on the Anvil by the Knights of Ryma who were so keen to kill it that they rolled double sixes on the way in. Don't blame them really! |
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| The pesky Runesmith that had tried to make a run on the Bolt Throwers was shot down for further points. |
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| And the Dragon chewed through some Dwarfs who no longer had anyone left to challenge him. |
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| Revenge? Justice? Anvil dead! |
Despite all this relative success for Lucky-Sixes the turn had started with his Lion Chariot general failing to charge the central Forge Wardens to help out the Dragon in killing them. An extremely frustrating end for the Highborn Elf leader in what had been a tough battle for him.
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| And this was our final picture as Highborn Elf Turn 6 ended |
It escapes my memory as to whether the Forge Wardens in the middle were killed off in my final turn or whether they had 1-2 left after the Dragon's final swing but with the Rangers claiming the objective it was clearly down to a count up!
When all was said and done (and counted) the victory points revealed that it was very close points-wise, actually just showing that Lucky-Sixes narrowly had done the most damage. But of course, in this game of objectives the 10-10 scoreline swiftly changed to 13-7 in my favour and victory was complete!
Overall I was slightly surprised that I hadn't just scraped the victory points as well but it made me even more relieved that I'd managed to claim the objective. This unique Dwarf list was one I thoroughly enjoyed playing and after that incredible turn 4 that turned the battle my way, I don't doubt I'll be giving a similar list a go again in the future... perhaps in a different gaming version... (spoiler alert!)
MVP for me goes to the Anvil. Although the Forge Wardens and characters were all important the spells that the Anvil was able to pump out with such success no less were crucial in getting the victory. Somehow I don't think the Anvil (or Dwarf magic) will stay this strong for too much longer!
Lucky-Sixes says...
In the end, it turned out to be a very hard fought victory for the Dwarfs, but with a little bit of luck the other way and my Phoenix surviving it could have gone all so different! Still a very fun battle, and nice to play a different type of Dwarf list than a standard gun-line or big brick of great weapon wielding brutes!
My tactic to shoot his crossbows I feel was successful, but in the end I didn't show enough respect to the Forge Wardens shooting ability - forgetting that str4 shooting is a massive pain for elves lol. Also, the magic potential the Anvil on it's own brings is insane! Very handy to have and was a real threat all the way through the game. Again, something I should have targeted sooner in the battle.
I was disappointed with my deployment of my lion chariot. he was easily kept out of the game by the multiple small units and in the end was glorified protection for my bolt throwers. Dragon did OK, but he and the Phoenix were limited in what they could damage due to 'Fireborn' on the Forge Wardens. They played their part and helped to clear most of the core/chaff but really they need to be concentrating on the threats. Knights did okay too, but were held up all too easily by the Dwarf character. They did manage to get rid of the Anvil though so probably get my MVP award. In the end, I was quite pleased to get a draw on points with it, but there was no doubt that this battle belonged to the Dwarfs!
The Fire Elves was a fun list, and as Hyper-G says, will be good to get a similar list up and running for future battles.
As always, thanks for supporting and see you soon! :)
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