2000 points vs Dwarfs

[tebw100]

My list:
Archmage – Silver Wand, Talisman of Saphery, Folariath’s Robe. Lore of Death
Mage – Jewel of the Dusk, Guardian Phoenix. High Magic
Noble (BSB) Armour of Caledor, Dawnstone, Great Weapon
28 Spearmen, Full Command
18 Archers, Mus, Std – Banner of Eternal Flame
23 White Lions, Full Command, Banner of Sorcery
6 Swordmasters, Bladelord with Talisman of Loec
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Spears and Bows, Musician
Great Eagle
Great Eagle
Great Eagle

His List:
Dwarf Lord on Shield Bearers
Master Engineer
Runesmith
Thane (BSB)
30 Quarrellers, Full Command, Great Weapons
30 Warriors, Full Command, Great Weapons
5 Slayers
10 Miners
Cannon
Grudge Thrower
Organ Gun

Magic – My spells were Spirit Leech, Caress of Laniph, Soulblight, Doom & Darkness and Purple Sun on the AM, Curse of Arrow attraction and Fury of Khaine on the M.

Deployment – I struggle with deployment still but I always deploy to a plan and, as the old saying goes, any plan is better than no plan. As soon as I saw him deploy an Organ Gun on an unprotected flank my reavers went on that side, thinking of their vanguard move. I made the vanguard move down the left side 12”. From L to R SMs (2 eagles behind) then Spears behind a hill, White Lions in a wood, then archers on the R flank. Eagle behind the archers. His deployment from my L to R was the Organ Gun, Cannon, the Quarrellers in the middle with the Slayers and BSB behind, and the Warriors on the R hand side (from my perspective) with the Grudge Thrower behind.

Turn 1 – HE – Declared and made a charge with the Reavers on the Organ Cannon. I didn’t roll well for winds of magic but did well with the banner, so we were 6 vs 3. He allowed Spirit Leech to get through but I didn’t get any wounds. I cast Caress at his Lord and he failed to dispel (2,1,1!). This set the pattern for his rolling on cursed dice. I then rolled double six for wounds and his 4+ ward could only take 5 of them off. Ouch and bye bye. Shooting was ok, killed 2 Quarrellers. The Combat – the reavers took 2 wounds off the crew.

Turn 1 – Dwarfs – Slayers charged the reavers and just got in on the corner. The quarrellers shot 4 White Lions. The Grudgethrower missed the archers (why shoot at them?) so he re-rolled and took 2 off. The Reavers battle continued, with the reavers killing the remaining crewman and 1 slayer. Already paid for themselves.

Turn 2 – HE – The eagle was able to charge the flayers but the White Lions failed a charge at the flank of the warriors. Magic again went 6 vs 3. I got soul blight off on the slayers but this wasn’t effective because they had this rule about their strength matching the toughness of what they were fighting. Alas. A lesson learned. The AM got Purple Sun off (disastrous dispelling again) but it misfired, harmlessly bouncing to the right. It played no further part in the battle. The archers killed two warriors. The reavers and eagle killed two more slayers for no wounds against. I had both my eagles behind his lines, aimed at the remaining artillery.

Turn 2 – Dwarfs – The miners arrived, next to the Great Eagle. In shooting, he took aim…at the spears. I tried hard to conceal my glee. He killed five. The cannon fired grapeshot at the spears but only killed 2. The Grudge Thrower missed. The reavers and eagle finally killed the last of the slayers and did a cheeky reform towards the flank of his army and the cannon.

Turn 3 – HE – It all came together here. I charged eagles at the BSB, Chaffmasters threaded through the gap at the cannon. Spears at the Quarrellers, White Lions at the Warriors and the last eagle at the Grudge thrower. All charges were made. Magic went well, 10-6. I got Purple Sun off, right through the unit of quarrellers with the runesmith, the grudge thrower, the Master Engineer and the Miners, ending up off the board. It killed 9 quarrellers, the runesmith (I even gave him a cheeky LoS, which he failed!), the Master Engineer, 2/3 grudge thrower crew and 2 miners. Devastating, and gave me extra dice for the pool. Southblight went on the Quarrellers and Caress took a wound off the BSB. Wow. Combat now. The eagles vs the BSB was equal. However, I should have done the SMs first, because they killed the cannon and overran into the BSB. Bah. Lesson learned. The spears killed 8 hexed quarrellers and lost 5 of their own. The quarrellers ran and I chased them down. The eagle killed the last grudge crewman and overran out of sight of the miners. Error, because it opened up the Spearmen flank. Finally the White Lions killed 13 of the warriors and lost 5 but amazingly didn’t catch the fleeing dwarfs.

Turn 3 – Dwarfs – The warriors rallied and turned to face the WLs. The miners charged the spears, who lost combat and fled. The BSB finally died. Bonus.

Turn 4 – HE – Not much left here. I rallied the spears, charged the SMs and the Reavers into the chasing Miners and the eagle into their flank. The White Lions charged again into the warriors. I cast D&D and Soulblight on the miners and threw away the rest of my dice. The SMs took out the remaining miners and the WLs killed all bar 3 warriors, who fled into a great eagle. Yum yum. I had taken his whole army off the board and not lost a single unit.

Reflections. I was lucky and he wasn’t great – leaving the flank open and attacking core to leave WLs to stampede through. I was pleased that I spotted his errors and punished them. The second mage was pointless (I wasn’t expecting Dwarfs) and didn’t cast a spell. I was happy with spearmen and the archers were ok but there was no chaff to shoot at and they didn’t have a role after turn 2. The White Lions are always awesome and I love chaffmasters. I’ve hidden the Talisman of Loec trick for another day. The surprise to me was the Reavers. I will take them again. The Great Eagles are always good – our best unit probably – and were my anti-war machine strategy and flankers rolled into one – there was no redirecting to be done anyway. Lore of Death is fantastic and suits the way I played today. High magic just wasn’t the right support for this army. I’ll think again about that.

Anyway, after being magnanimous in victory I came home and did a few fist pumps, then sat down to write out the evening up.

[MasteroDisaster]

Deployment – I struggle with deployment still but I always deploy to a plan and, as the old saying goes, any plan is better than no plan. As soon as I saw him deploy an Organ Gun on an unprotected flank my reavers went on that side, thinking of their vanguard move. I made the vanguard move down the left side 12”.

Turn 1 – HE – Declared and made a charge with the Reavers on the Organ Cannon. .

Sounds like a really fun game but unfortunately the sections I have quoted shows an illegal move on your part .

It states under the vanguard rules that any unit that chooses to use it's vanguard move before the battle cannot charge should their army get the very first turn, this means that your Revears shouldn't have been able to make that charge on the Organ gun. Without that charge your Reavers wouldn't have seen much action except an Organ Gun blast to the face. Still we all make mistakes good game!

[tebw100]

Sounds like a really fun game but unfortunately the sections I have quoted shows an illegal move on your part .

Oops. And it's right there in black and ...beige - if I had read the whole section on Vanguard I would have known! Thanks for that, it does seem a little unfair otherwise. The game took a long time because we were both fairly new to 8th Ed and were looking lots up - although not enough.

I certainly won't take bows with the reavers again but the models kind of demand it...

[MasteroDisaster]

Hehe no worries mate, I thought I'd mention it. I played Ogres the other day and didn't take a single fear test... we both forgot lol

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

Damn smashed him, nice work!