Dwarfs vs Bretonnians 500 points

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report summary:-

"The main Dwarven line held !" (nice 5 minute 3rd person perspective story)

source : roundtable-bretonnia.org

credit : Lunar Camel

28-Dec-2008

Sir Beregund sat upon his faithful warhorse Longshadow. He turned to Sir Lunac, holding the battle standard high for all the rest to see. 'And you said there would be nothing of interest on this side of the border. Sir Lunac did not say a word; the only response was the pawing of his steed.

Sir Beregund was responsible for only five knights, ten men-at-arms, and ten peasant bowmen. A small force for such a large border he thought. But it was his faith in the Lady that would bring him victory, not the size of his force.

As he peered over the field, he could see the Dwarven force moving into ranks. Quarrellers to the right, a bolt thrower on a small hill to the left, and two groups of warriors in the middle, some with great axes; a small force but with enough dishonorable missile weapons to prove a nuisance.

Sir Beregund ordered the bowmen into the center atop a small hill which gave them an excellent field of fire. His men-at-arms were on the left flank with his knights on the right. As is custom, he lead his men through prayer to the Lady and asked for her blessing this day.

The Dwarves sat silent, then whooped and hollered, mocking the great men of Bretonnia. But they did not move. It would be up to Sir Beregund to bring the fight to them. He ordered his men-at-arms to advance at the march, but kept his knights under restraint. The archers, overzealous to say they had fought alongside Bretonnian's finest, loosed their arrows but were long out of range.

The Dwarves still stood, coaxing their foe. The quarrelers answered the archers in kind, but, they too were out of range. The bolt thrower, through the Lady's blessing, failed to fire.

The men-at-arms pressed the advance with the knights following them to the center of the field. The Dwarves still stood, mocking the knights with their rudeness. The bowmen stood dumb-founded, knowing they were out of range but did not move out of fear of leaving their position from their protective spikes.

The Dwarves fired again. A volley of ten quarrels hurled into the knights, striking an unfortunate mount and leaving one brave knight to walk. The bolt thrower, again, did not fire. Its crew baffled as to what was going wrong.

Then, Sir Beregund let out a mighty cry and both teams charged into the Dwarven line. The men-at-arms hurled themselves with their halberds into the Dwarves armed with their great axes. The Knights stormed into the main group of warriors along with their Thane. Lances skewered three of the short warriors without any losses of their own. Halberds fell but only killed two. The main Dwarven line held, but the smaller group with the great axes buckled and ran. The men-at-arms, excited to see their quarry run, pursued and slaughtered the group.

The Thane ordered his men to attack back at the knights but could only fell one of the brave attackers. The knights returned in kind, killing five. The Thane could only look in amazement as his entire rank was destroyed. But he did not flee. The Quarrellers moved to face the knights' right flank, enough to bring them in range of the bowmen.

As the bowmen fired, only one was struck by the range of the longbow. The knights cleaved through the remaining dwarves, killing three as they went without losing a man. The Thane, with no other choice fled with his men but was charged down by the mighty warhorses.

The bolt thrower still could not function, whether due to its crew or some other source. The men-at-arms turned there attention to it and started to climb the hill where it sat. The knights wheeled around, set their sights on a new target and charged. The Quarrellers were dumbstruck. With a mighty clash, four were trampled under hoof and fled. They only had time to turn around when they were overrun and scattered.

Before the men-at-arms could make their assault, a bolt was unleashed at the back of the knights. The mean missile only imbedded in a knight's shield, causing no damage to its owner. With a might clash, the men-at-arms charged the crew. But their courage was lacking and with the death of three of their mates, they turned tale and ran.

Fortunately, the Dwarves knew they were outnumbered and outmatched. The quickly abandoned their war machine and ran beyond the border they were trying to snatch. Sir Beregund and his knights stood on the battlefield, victorious once again.

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.