Battle report WHBF dwarfs vs Daemons 2000 pts

Note up front: pictures to be added!

With the new dwarf army book out, I was dying to play a game with the new rules. Recently I acquired some extra dwarfs as well and it was time to give them some action after playing lots of games with the Ogres. Also playing a lot of Mordheim and even Flames of War lately so WHFB was a while ago (I’m still trying to convince everyone to play a game of triumph and treachery, but no success to date).

We fielded 2000 pts against each other and my armylist was mostly shooting with an anvil of longbeards. War machine wise I fielde a cannon, grudgethrower and an organ gun. For the rest 3 blocks of 10 thunderers (because I love the models and the fluff over quarelers) and a block of 40 longbeards. This was topped of with a lord on shieldbearers, a thane BSB (strollaz rune) and a master engineer to help shooting with the war machines.

The scenario rolled was Dawn attack and with a lot of rolling it was defined where our units would land on the battlefield. Of course this was not a preferred scenario, but it was how the dice rolled. My block of longbeards ended all the way to my right side and the rest ended left or in the middle. Very nice, since my opponents daemons ended on his right side (my left) setting our main forces as far apart as possible. Very nice when you can vanguard with your big block of dwarfs en nothing is there to vanguard towards! Argl! Bad start deployment wise.

Start of the game, I shuffled here and there, mostly positioning my shooters and war machines (pivot here and there). Now my main phase: shooting! First shot with my cannon, direct to the great unclean one in order to knock off some wounds. A nice hit, a nice wound and now d6 for the amount of wounds: 6! BLAM! Not saved, great unclean one: DEAD! WOOHOO! What a start of the game for the dwarfs. The canon is known to be the ultimate sniper and I proved this to be very right indeed.

The rest of the game for my dwarfs was mostly trying to shoot off the oncoming plaguebearer squads. Thunderers doing some of the work but not that fast and a tower got in the way. The grudgethrower managed to do mostly nothing and the organ gun was somewhat useful (at least lots of shots were fired each turn). I also had a gyrocopter flying around but the brimstone gun I found not that good an investment and I didn’t get (forgot) to drop some bombs, better luck next time here. The warmachines got swarmed over and killed by loads of fury’s. That was one of the weak parts of my army, I didn’t get to protect the warmachines that good. Part of the scenario and setting up, but also some bad tactics on my side.

During the game my huge block of longbeards and characters managed to shuffle their way to the centre but when turn 6 arrived managed to NOT get into a single combat! How nice. By loosing all the warmachines to fury’s and not being able to shoot of enough plaguebearers the end of the game was a draw, VP wise. Still it was a good game, a fun game and it was nice to see the new dwarf rules in effect.

Overall I’d say the new dwarf army book gives a new feel for playing dwarfs. A tendancy with new armybooks is that new = overpowered compared to “old” other armybooks, this is not the case for us. Only played one game, sure, but I’d say the feel for the dwarfs is balanced and inkeeping with 8^th ed WHFB. Furthermore I have 10 irondrakes waiting to be finished with paint and they must get some action soon. Very curious to see how these new guns play out.

Eminem of my eminem

Last friday we played a 2 vs 2 battle, the third round in our Border Town Border campaign (which keeps on creeping like a ancient turtle on the Galapagos). We chose the 'enemy of my enemy' scenario that after some beers soon was called the 'eminem' scenario. Sides were chosen according to alliances, with a 'good side' (Ogres and Marienburger) and an evil (or even better) side (Beastmen and Possesed).

The battle turned out rather one sided, caused by some brilliant tactical manoeuvres from my side: First I rolled fully intentionally and controlled a 'blizzard' result on the BtB weather table (chagne of 1 in 12, can't go wrong) nullifying the shooting weaponry of the Marienburger warband. Secondly I moved my warband away from Tom's on rushing warriors and marched toward the other flank, creating a supremacy of Chaos on that side. (Brilliant, despite some people interpreting this as 'cowering Nurglies').

By the time my warband arrived on the left flank, Hans' beastmen had already caused mayhem and victims within Ludo's Ogre warband. My excellent warrior Scorpio managed to add some more damage to the Ogres by spilling some black blood on his opponent (after having missed all his attacks, once again, brilliant tactics). Seeing that my commitment was not longer needed on that flank, I commanded my warband to turn against the Marienburger. This warband was a bit stretched out because of the diversity in race and tempo of their warriors. A marksman presented a tempting offer, manageable even for the elite forces of Nurgle. Off course, brilliant tactics once again payed off as the charges were intercepted by a big mercenary Ogre.

However after a few rounds of fighting, the Marienburger warband got surrounded and walked over fighting two warbands and decided to call it a day. This decision was made easier for Tom by Greatclaw, who single handedly smashed some of his warriors, including his captain. Did I mention the brilliant tactical plan that was behind this all?

Post battle income and experience rolls went quite nice. Once more the brilliant tactical plan was rewarded, when a meager henchman who had almost sneaked up behind enemy lines and almost had attacked a lone witch and by doing all this almost made an impact on the battle got the 'lad got talent' result. A fine hero indeed!



Unfortunately my loyal fighter 'Flyhead, son of Flyhead, son of Flyhead' was, despite the tactical masterplan, taken out of action, rolled a 'dead' result on the injury table. So next battle his son 'Flyhead, son of Flyhead, son of Flyhead, son of Flyhead' will replace him, looking for revenge.

Personal Development, No Plan

At the start of this year I (re)found work at a foundation in my beautiful home country. And as an employee in the Netherlands there's almost no escape from the compulsory ritual that's called 'persoonlijk ontwikkel plan' (personal development plan) or 'POP'. In such a plan employer and employee agree on targets and intentions for the next working year. Hammered in stone these targets are (depending on company, boss and/or HR department) used to assess the contribution toward the company's and your private goals...

Anyways, in this case the writing of my development plan was a process of filling in a excel sheet with a not entirely transparent structure, in which 'smart'goals were given 'weights' (in percentages) that resulted some work spaces and lots of excel scripts later in a very objective judgment of yours truly. Since I stepped in a few weeks after the deadline for filling in the excel, one of my first tasks was to fill in all categories satisfactory.

So I started out, sending in 'alpha' and 'beta' releases of my plan to my boss, who then returned my versions full of his remarks. This process repeated it self for quite some incarnations of my plan until it turned out all of a sudden to be 'ok'. During this workflow no goal, intention or other fiction was left untouched, except for one item, counting for one (1) percent of my personal development: Painting Waffen SS infantry for Flames of War. Being approved by my manager and HR department, I faced this challenge!

Having painted a Flames of War Czech-Russian tank army, I had become familiar with the practice of painting 15mm scale miniatures. The SS panzergrenadiers were however quite different: Instead of some tanks there were nearly 200 miniature men to be painted...
So actually it was a blessing in disguise that I managed to sneak in a little (bad) joke in my 'POP'. The pressure was on and I finished just in time!!

Let me know what you think of the paint job!

Regards and a happy wargaming filled 2014!

Post battle report

Last friday our second Border Town Burning campaign started off with a four player battle..

Ogres, Witch Hunters, Marienburger mercenaries and my Possessed battled for treasures hidden in chests, spread around the ruins (sorry, forgot the name of the scenario :-). There was a small chance that a chest contained a 'deamonic dog' instead of gold... So, in line with the laws of logic and statistics, every chest that was opened during our battle contained such a creature...

A Ninja Gnoblar with one of the fearless doggies.

Can the Witchhunters crack open one the dog infested crates?

It was though a bit surprising that the only warband with a 'normal' mix of heroes and henchmen managed to snatch the victory. That in spite of the endeavours by well thought-out warbands lead by veteran Mordheim players as for example a one hero all hired swords Marienburg gang, a all hero a bit on the shore side for henchman (just one) bunch of Possessed and a Ogre quartet supplemented by a Halfling. What could go wrong?

Here the fearless Marienberg hirelings!

The Halfling looking for trouble, can he see that withchunter, can he be shot?

Not shot, but bitten by dogs he can!

In the post battle events Scorpio, my unlucky Possessed who met two Ogres and went out of action, had to fight for his freedom in the Rind (Entry 65 on the Border Town Burning injury table). Because of a lack of time I went home without finishing this event. Few days later I used PBE Game Dice Roller to play the fight between Scorpio and a nasty Chaos Warrior:

Roll One
Generating 1 rolls of D2, 1 per line.
Comment: 1: Chaos Warriors gets the charge, 2: ST charges in...

2 ==> Scorpion Tail gets the charge(YEAH!)
CW: Fear check: 2 (he's cool..)
ST: 2 bare handed attacks
ST: To hit (WS 4 vs WS5: 4+): 5, 6 (two hits)
ST: To wound (S4 vs T4: 4+): 5,5 (two wounds)
CW: Armour saves (3+ -> 4+): 3, 1 (two fails!)
ST: OutOfAction: 5, 5 (OUT OF ACTION!!)

Scorpion Tail kills the Chaos Warrior in the first round of combat .....
And by the Border Town Burning rulebook: "He gains the mutation blackblood (!!), +2 Experience, +1 campaign point and evades
detection to rejoin his warband with all his weapons and equipment."

In the end on of the hirelings left was of course the dwarf Trollslayer.

============ For accountants and wargame auditors only =======================

Results sent via email and displayed via web.
Summary: Scorpion Tail gets in the Ring (injury: 65) (genereer 30 dice rolls voor iedere kant, die ik op volgorde van rol zal interpreteren tot uitkomst...)

--------------------------------------------------
Roll One
Generating 1 rolls of D2, 1 per line.
Comment: 1: Chaos Warriors gets the charge, 2: ST charges in...

2

--------------------------------------------------
Roll Two
Generating 30 rolls of 1D6, 1 per line.
Comment: Attacks of Chaos Warrior (2a with Sword)

2
3
1
6
2
4
1
4
2
5
5
6
6
2
6
1
5
2
3
6
5
6
6
5
2
3
1
6
6
6

--------------------------------------------------
Roll Three
Generating 30 rolls of 1D6, 1 per line.
Comment: Attack of Scorpion Tail (2 barehanded, 1 tail)

5
6
5
5
5
5
5
2
6
5
6
3
4
1
5
5
1
4
5
3
4
4
3
3
2
3
5
2
2
6

Tactical is not for the Ogres

After a well earned vacation it was time to bring out the miniatures again. Too long without any wargaming/painting and whatnot :) I had enough to read with me, but it is not the same :)

My Nurgle friend and player Arjan came round and it was quickly decided to do a small game: 500 points skirmish WHFB. Of course this meant pitting some Nurgles against my Ogre Kingdom.

The fun with 500 points is, that it is quick but also you never can guess what your opponent will bring. Since 500 points means always "kill your darlings" in your army list, it is the opportunity to take something wacky or something extremely fluffy. It is therefore more often then not a "use your experimental list" type of game. One thing guaranteed: fun!

The Nurgles were with
- some Marauder horsemen
- 6 forsaken with
- 1 Nurgle leader
- 1 spawn of Nurgle
- 1 chariot

I pitted the following Ogres:
- 3 Ironfists with
- 1 butcher
- 2 mournfang cavelry
- 2 sabretusks

Of course here and there they were kitted out but not much, since 500 points is easily spent!

The table had some obstructions in the middle: buildings, fences and a mysterious forest) THe battlefield was well divided in the middle. Starting of with the Nurgles some manouvering around the obstacles was done. My Ogres were playing a waiting game in order to get charges in this turn. After 3 turns running around the horsemen killed of 2 sabretusks but I got no charges in.
Eventually I manouvered in such a way, that the horsemen were in the wrong direction for charges but my Ironguts had a clear line for the forsaken and the mournfang could flatten the spawn. The chariot was still well away, since fences and forests proved to big a barrier. OK, charges are go and ....I roled a 1 and a 3, needing more then 4 inches for the charge.... So I moved 1 inch with the ironguts with a butcher mad as hell! The mournfang flattened the spawn as was expected, but left the rest in the open.

Of course the forsaken charged next and rolled 4 on d3+1 for their attacks and wiped out the ironguts! What happened here! Tactical masterpiece on my side but totally disrupted by throws of the dice! As my opponent nicely pointed out that in 7th edition WHFB I probably would have won but in 8th it is't so :)
This is then the charme of the game, forsaken being the winners of the game and acting as a superb bodyguard for their leader. A fluffy way to play the game against a small, hard as nails, scaving group of Ogres wandering through the woods.

All in all, as expected with 500points skirmish: FUN!

Book Review: In Her Majesty's name

This is a book review for a set of steampunk skirmish rules. We've not yet played the ruleset, a new review will be posted as soon as we do.

The ruleset caught my eye in the Wargames Illustrated. Greet mini's and great setting. We are playing Chaos in Carpathia but that is more Victorian horror. This is more the steampunk variation in my opinion. The book is accompanied by a blog with latest findings, errata, additional material and reference cards.

The book is good: Nice size book, softcover, good pics and not a ruleset with 500 pages. Read the book within the hour and flipped through the warbands. I love the setting and quick paced skirmish rules (as they read, how they play has to be experienced yet!).
I am enthusiastic on forming a warband and the fact that you can come up with your own themed warband is great. A solid ruleset for creating warband members including the formula's to calculate the points for your warband members is ace. Playing these kind of games leads to coming up with ideas of your own. It is then difficult to create such a thing. You need a lot of playing hours with existing warbands to get a feeling for points value. When eventually you come up with your own it needs loads of play testing and tweaking (and discussing with fellow gamers) until you have a balanced set (if you didn't quit in the process).
This set of rules bodes well for creating your own warbands in the steampunk setting. Love to get to grips with the game!

Some random ogre's appear!

A short while ago we decided to start a new campaign in Mordheim. I decided to go with Ogre's this time. This post is the first update on the progress of creating the models for my warband.

I really had some fun creating these guys! Not included is the Halfling btw.

Mind you, this is also my very first attempt with milliput ever!

All I made tonight.

A random base with tiles.

The full group thus far, front view.

Full group thus far, rear view.

Mountian Guard and Boss, I guess.

Again, but front view this time.