Hey Guys!
Thanks once again for the kind words regarding my paint job. It's tough getting it done, so hearing positive things from you all really helps me stay on track and motivated.
Tonight, I had the opportunity to play at the local game shop and try out my list once again versus a random opponent. Naturally, we do the random selection and I draw my friend who fields a Thorek gunline. He switches dice with somebody (since we play each other all the time), and who do you think is the first model out of the case?
Why, Thorek, naturally.
So I present to you my latest battle:
Thorek Gunline - A Recipe for Indigestion
His list was as follows:
Thorek
Runepriest, Master Rune of Balance
Master Engineer
20 x Thunderers, Shields
10 x Thunderers, Shields
16 x Quarrellers, Shields
20 x Miners, Full command, Steam Drill
20 x Miners, Full command, Steam Drill
1 x Cannon, Rune of Burning, Rune of Forging
1 x Grudge Thrower, Rune of Accuracy, 2x Rune of Penetration, Engineer
1 x Bolt Thrower, Rune of Seeking, Engineer
2 x Organ Guns
1 x Bottle of Elf Tears, collected from all the elves from previous battles
I took my standard list, as detailed on the first page of this thread.
The fun starts with spell rolling - I get banishment with my first level 1, which I obviously trade for the default. I need the +4 to cast in this game to try to power through the Dwarven magic devense. I roll the level 1 mage, and get Pha's. Great. I can either take Pha's on the level 1 and increase my odds of getting timewarp and banishment, both of which would be incredibly useful in this match, or I can take the default and hope for the best, but surrender to the fact that I'm probably not getting Timewarp, Banishment and Pha's on my Archmage.
In the end, I stick with Pha's on the level 1, and roll the Archmage's spells - 2,3,4,4. Probably the worst possible roll. I end up with the following spells:
Level 1: Pha's Protection
Level 1 Noble: Shem's Burning Gaze
Level 2: Pha's, Banishment
Level 4: Speed of Light, Light of Battle, Net of Amyntok and Banishment
I don't even want to start thinking of what the odds are of a lineup like that happening...
He rolls his spells in a mocking fashion (he was a great sport, we both had a laugh), and we move on to deployment.
Deployment
He's got very few drops, so naturally I take advantage of whatever concessions I'm given. I win the roll of for first drop and let him have it, so by the time I've dropped two eagles, a unit of archers and the spears, he's on to characters. In the end, it looks something like this:
I position myself to quickly overwhelm his Western flank, without getting too close to the edge where the miners could disrupt my plans. The exception here being the Dragon Princes, who I expect to be out of the way by the time that happens.
My goal here, obviously, is to shut down Thorek as soon as Elvenly possible. I also intentionally rank up the Spears to try to tempt him to shoot them instead of my swordmasters. I plunk the BSB with the ironcurse in there as well to help them tank some of the inevitable hits.
I manage to win the most important roll versus a list like this and get first turn.
High Elves, Turn 1
Not much strategy here - I move up my fast movers on the western flank to present a couple charge threats. The Eastern eagle sits itself behind the building in the East, protecting it from the quarrellers. The coven stays relatively close to each other, while still doing their best to close the gap between them and the enemy.
I roll up my first, oh so important magic phase and get... snakeyes. He steals one of my power dice, and after a channel + 2 for the banner on my side and +5 dispel dice on his side, the result is a 4 v 6 magic phase. I have a couple options - Either throw 2 x 2 dice spells and hope for the best with my casting, or try to get off one large effect spell, again, hoping for the best. In this scenario, I opt to throw all 4 at a powered up Pha's, because I see the benefit of it being much, much greater than single target pha's or lower powered banishments (that's all I could cast reliably with 2 dice). He throws his 6 dice and dispels it easily. Sigh.
Shooting sees me put 3 wounds on his Western Thunderers, and we move on to his turn.
Dwarves, Turn 1
Movement is... well...it's definitely a phase.
I brace myself for the pain as we move in to shooting. He starts off with the Grudge Thrower, and drops the template on my block of spears - if nothing else, gunlines are relatively predictable. A direct hit and some horriffic wounding and saving rolls sees 19 of my spearmen fall to the ground.
Luckily, his shooting attempt with the organ gun on my dragon princes is a bust, as it misfires, and he forgets the Dragon Prince's ward vs. flaming attacks, so his cannon shot bounces off them as well. The bolt thrower puts two wounds on my Western eagle, and the second Organ Gun and Thunderers put 7 wounds on my White Lions.
Thorek strikes his runes, as he's apt to do, and Wrath & Ruin on ancient power effects two of my units. He chooses the Dragon Princes and the Eagle in the East. The Dragon Princes manage to save all of their wounds, but the Eagle isn't so lucky.
I dust myself off, and we move on to my second turn
High Elves, Turn 2
I have two charges - the dragon princes into the diminished thunderers, and the Eagle into the Bolt Thrower. The Organ gun's misfire has stopped it from shooting next turn as well, so I'm safe to leave it for the incoming swordmasters. The rest of the army moves up into place for turn 3 charges.
Magic sees me roll a 5 and a 1, and after failing to channel and getting 1 from the banner, I'm looking at a 6 v 10 phase. I cut my losses, and toss it all at a powered up banishment from my level 2 on Thorek. What do you know? Irresistable force. 9 S7 hits results in 4 wounds making it through (He rolled really well for his 5+ armour save), killing Thorek's bodyguard and little buddy, and putting a wound on him.
The Dragon Princes survive the stand and shoot from the thunderers without a scratch, and kill all but one of them in return. The lone dwarf flees, but the Princes hold and reform to face Thorek, who is suddenly feeling very lonely.
The eagle doesn't fare so well, failing to do a wound and falling to the engineer's attacks.
Dwarves, Turn 2
With their rerolls from the steam drills, both units of miners shows up to the fight, with the first positioning itself to fire into combat versus the Dragon Princes, and the second, mysteriously, comes out to face my unit of archers.
Shooting sees him dish out 8 shots from the Organ gun and all the shots from the quarrellers on my White Lions, reducing their numbers to 3, and put all the shots from the Thunderers on my spears, reducing them to 6. The Bolt Thrower skewers two swordmasters, and the Grudge Thrower fires wide despite its rerolls.
Thorek attempts an ancient power Oath & Honour rune to shoot the miners into combat and... FAILS! With his helper killed, his result of 2 on the miscast table means no runes this or next turn.
High Elves, Turn 3
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I set my troops in motion:
The White Lions and the Spears trade off targets - the lions are in the thunderer's flank, saving them from stand and shoot and reducing return attacks. The Dragon Princes charge Thorek and both swordmasters charge their respective warmachines. The southern archers attempt to musician reform, but fail to do so, so I face them towards his unit and hope for the best. I had hoped to get two full rounds of shooting - one now and one stand and shoot when he charges, so things are looking pretty dire for them. In a competitive situation, I probably would have just run away, but I didn't want to call too much attention to the Dwarves stumpy legs in a friendly match.
Magic finally comes up big for me - 5 and a 6 base roll, and 3 channels. The result is 12 v 11. I start off with a 3 dice net attempt on his grudge thrower... and roll a 1, 1, 2. I can't catch a break this game lol!
I make a small mistake this round in that I resolve the Dragon Prince combat first instead of doing the swordmasters south of them and allowing them to overrun and join the fun. Regardless, the Dragon Princes fail to wound Thorek, and he kills one in return. Tied Combat.
The White Lions/BSB score a perfect round of combat, but his steadfast allows him to stick around. He reforms to rank up and face the tattered remnants of the unit. The spears manage to kill a cannon crew member, but it holds on stubborn.
Dwarves, Turn 3
Both of his units of miners make their charges, with stand and shoot rolling well and dropping 3 miners.
Shooting sees his Grudge Thrower misfire - again, even with his engineer's rerolls (misfired on the reroll attempt, trying to improve his original scatter). The cannon stops short on the bounce, and the quarrelers kill 4 Archers in the mage bunker.
In combat, the spears put another wound on the cannon, and again it holds with steadfast.
Thorek manages to make a ridiculous number of saves, so no wounds are put on him. The Miners in the north lose 10 models to the Swordmaster's attacks, and only manage 3 wounds in return. They hold on steadfast. In the South, in a huge upset, the Archers put 5 wounds on his miners, with the miners putting only 3 on the archers. However, the standard, charge and rank on his part allows him to win by 1, but the archers hold.
Finally, the newly reformed Thunderers manage to put the final 3 wounds on the White Lions, sealing the deal for that unit.
High Elves, Turn 4
Not much movement on my behalf, with most of my units engaged.
Magic is once again 5 and 1, resulting in 6 v 10 with the loss of the banner of sorcery, but one channel. I throw it all at the Ring of Corin, hoping to take out Thorek's magic armour or the Master Rune of Balance. I don't get irresistable force, though, and he swamps the roll with 10 dice.
Combat sees me put one wound through Thorek's armour and ward save, and it goes on for another round.
EDIT: I just looked it up, and the Anvil only has a ward save vs. Shooting. /sigh, so many rounds of combat wasted
The Spearmen fail to wound the cannon, so it sticks around for another turn.
The Noble does two wounds, and the S3 troops are unable to put any wounds back on him. They hold on steadfast.
The swordmasters finish up the Miners, and the Southern miners finish up the archers.
Dwarves, Turn 4
Shooting sees the bunker attract a lot of attention. Between all of the shots, he effectively levels the unit.
Combat goes my way, however, and the swordmasters manage the last wound on Thorek. The entire store erupts into cheers, and I find it hard to concentrate with all the pats on the back I'm getting. At least that's how it played out in my head.
Thunderers whiff their attacks again, and hold on steadfast and the spears finally finish off the Organ Gun
High Elves, Turn 5
I declare my charges, and resolve them carefully - the swordmaster charge into the Grudge thrower clears up the pathway for the Dragon Princes to hit the backs of the Thunderers. They make their charge as well, with the closest point actually being through my own unit, but their one allowed wheel makes their charge legal. The spears charge in to the cannon, effectively shutting down his shooting.
Magic is *another* abysmal phase, so bad that I stop keeping track at this point. No spells get through despite Thorek being out of the picture.
In combat, the Dragon Princes maximize to be able to run past the BSB once the Thunderers are done, and this is exactly what they do. They run right in to the Quarrelers.
The Swordmasters grind through the Grudge thrower, and slam into the Master engineer. The Spears do a wound to the cannon, but it holds on steadfast. The crews have been chipping away at their numbers at this point, and only 3 or so are left.
Dwarves, Turn 5
His Runepriest charges the flank of the spears, and this about wraps up the movement phase.
In combat, the Dragon Princes cut a swath into his Quarrelers, who fail to do anything with Stand and Shoot. The hold on steadfast. In the North, the Spears manage to kill the cannon, but the Runepriest puts two more wounds on the spears. This leaves them with one model. The swordmasters cleave the Engineer, and slam into the Runepriest. At this point he concedes the game.
In the end, I lost:
Level 2 Mage
Level 1 Mage
11 x Archers
14 x Archers
18 x White Lions w/ Banner of Sorcery
2 x Eagles
Total: 1028
He Lost:
Thorek
Master Engineer
10 x Thunderers
20 x Thunderers
20 x Miners
2 x Organ Guns
1 x Grudge Thrower
1 x Bolt Thrower
1 x Cannon
Total: 2040 - ish?
Regardless, it's a solid victory for the magic inept High Elves!
After Battle Thoughts:
If I had to write up an article on how to combat gunlines, the first point would be "win the roll for first turn". It makes such a big difference it's not even funny. I hate games where one dice roll has such a huge outcome on the match.
So a few thoughts, first regarding my opponent's side of things:
- He needed those miners up supporting his artillery and Thorek, not off chasing archers. The Northern block was placed well, but the Southern one was way out to lunch
- He didn't shoot my swordmasters! I expected these guys to be craters by turn 2, but he ended up focusing all of his effort on the Lions and the Spears.
- With multiple units instead of large blocks heading his way, the effect of Wrath and Ruin is diminished. It's not possible to slow my entire army down with this, so I was able to quickly overwhelm his shooting.
- Thorek sucks. I hate playing against him. I'd make the same argument against him that most people make against Teclis (and rightfully) - games where it comes down to one model are boring. There, I said it!
And a few more about my end of things:
- My magic phase was a cataclysmic failure with the exception of one spell - Banishment on Thorek. Getting this through at just the right time allowed me to clear out his reroll, which resulted in his critical Rune failure in turn 2. Without this, it might have been a whole new ballgame.
- I think with more standard winds rolls and spell rolls, the casting strategy of spamming low level spells would have really paid dividends in this match. Unfortunately in the one phase where I had a chance to test this theory out, my archmage failed a comically easy spell (10+ on 3 dice)
- Despite all of this, I'm happy with how the army performed. There are enough threatening elements to keep even this much shooting at bay, and even with diminished numbers, it still packs a punch.
- Did I mention I hate Thorek?
So that about wraps it up! Once again, I'd love to hear your feedback or criticism. It was a bit of a flukey match, but at the end of the day you need to account for that, because it *will* happen.
I've got another match coming up this weekend as well, versus the WoC Dragon list, so hopefully I'll be able to put up a report where I get a bit more mileage out of my magic phase.
D