Beasts of Chaos vs Dwarfs 2000 pts

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report summary:-

It's so often about the static combat resolution (a quick game & a quick read !)

source : bugmansbrewery.com

credit : redbeard

25-Dec-2008

Played another game in my campaign tonight. After losing my last game, I cut back on my shooting attack a little, and ran a fully-kitted unit of longbeards instead. It was worth the change.

Dwarf Army List

Runelord w/ Anvil
Thane w/ GW, Shield
Thane - BSB

22 Longbeards, Full Command, RoBattle
25 Warriors
10 Thunderers
15 Long Drong's Slayer Pirates
2 Cannons (1 RoForging, 1 RoForging, RoBurning)
2 Bolt throwers w/ Engineers (1 RoPenetrating)
1 Organ Gun

Beasts of Chaos Army List

Doombull w/ 7 Minotaurs w/ GW
4 Minotaurs w/ GW
4 Minotaurs w/ GW
10 Centigaurs
3 Screamers
1 Spawn
A whole lot of beastmen in a herd, with 3 level 2 wizards

I don't have time to do the fancy graphics right now, but it was easy enough to describe.

I have a hill in my right corner, so I deploy in a refused flank castle on the right. There's a large swampy marsh in the middle of the right-half of the table, and little other terrain.

I have both cannons and a bolt thrower up on the hill, thunderers in front of the hill, longbeards to their left, slayer pirates angled to their left, with the warriors behind the slayers, and the organ gun and non-runed bolt thrower filling gaps on either side of the longbeards.

My opponent has his doombull on the far right, then the herd, then a block of 4 minotaurs, then centigaurs, then four more minotaurs, with the spawn and the screamers behind the minotaurs a bit.


Beasts of Chaos - turn 1
He goes first, moves everything up. Casts some spells - I let him get a magic missile off on my thunderers and lose 3, but stop everything else. (That would be the last spell successfully cast all game.)

Dwarfs - turn 1
I advance my longbeards and pirates, and then I shoot some stuff. Kill 2 minotaurs from the doombull's unit, the screamers (they lost 1 to shooting and 2 to instability) and one beastman.


Beasts of Chaos - turn 2
The centigaurs charge Long Drong, and 4 minotaurs charge my longbeards. His other stuff just moves up. Long Drong's unit stands and shoots, dropping 2, they lose a couple dwarves, but kill another 3 centigaurs in combat. He doesn't run. The minotaurs kill 4 longbeards, take a couple of wounds, and break under the +7 static CR. They run, the longbeards chase, cut the minotaurs down, and slam into part of the beastman herd. They turn to align with the beastmen.

Dwarfs - My turn 2
There's not a lot to shoot at, as a lot is tied up in combat. I drop another 3 minotaurs from the doombull's unit, so they're down to 3. Long Drong's unit drop another centigaur, lost a guy, combat ties. The Longbeards kill 3 beastmen and one of the wizards that was running with the unit. The herd kills one longbeard. They break and run, we catch them, and overrun into the flank of the doombull's minotaurs.


Beasts of Chaos - turn 3
The chaos Spawn joins the combat against Long Drong. His last unengaged minotaur unit cannot get into this fight due to the location of a terrain piece, and so have to wait for the centigaurs to die. Which they do, but the spawn kills another couple of the pirates. The longbeards, however, have it easy, killing the one minotaur they're in contact with, and again, pummelling the beasts with static [warhammertag25]CR[/warhammertag25]. The doombull's unit flees, and again, is cut down.

Dwarfs - turn 3
Mostly maneuvering to avoid the last block of minotaurs from overrunning Long Drong. Shooting kills the one minotaur that we can see. Long Drong himself is killed by the spawn, but his mates kill it off. There's now 6 of them left, still holding my flank.


Beasts of Chaos - turn 4
The last 3 minotaurs charge the 6 remaining slayer pirates. They stand and shoot, inflicting 2 wounds. The minotaurs only kill one more pirate, and the 5 other pirates hit them back for a wound or two. Realizing that, with great weapons, my slayer pirates will be swinging first from then on, and facing almost my entire army still alive, with only 2 minotaurs, he surrenders the field.


Battle Summary Comments
I've tried a lot of different configurations in my various games, and I really like the way this one played. Even though my shooting didn't actually cause a whole lot of wounds this game, it provided a psychological edge that forced my opponent's hand perhaps a bit more than he would have liked. Combined with my Runelord, who was able to completely shut down his magic phase, and had no option but to try and get into combat as soon as possible, even where the matchups weren't in his favor.

I had a bit of luck with how my longbeards turned to match up with the beastmen herd that they overran into, but that was one hard-as-nails unit. Putting both my thane and [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] in the unit, along with the runic standard, and they were going to town on everything they fought. With me rolling well (or perhaps, my opponent rolling poorly for running away), they ran down three units in two turns!

Long Drong's Slayer Pirates rocked. They held their flank all game, taking three separate charges, and inflicted serious hurt on the units that charged them in the process. Taking a stand&shoot reaction with 15 pistols is oddly a lot of fun.