20140417

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 8th 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.

20140302

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!

Mind the pig

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.

20131227

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!