Dwarfs vs Ogre Pirates

A few weeks ago Drew from Back in Drew's Day and I arranged to play a game at the club. He has his sights set upon Rockhammer (a local 2999pt tournament coming up soon - presumably easier than saying 3000 points with no Grand Army rules), and so that was the point level that we agreed upon. Unfortunately I ended up arriving late and he had to leave early, so we didn't get to play through the game in full. But I did take the camera and try to get a few photos, so here is my list and the pick of the shots that I took:

• Lord on Shieldbearers with Great Weapon, Gromril Armour, Rune of Stone, 2 Runes of Iron
• Daemon Slayer with 3 Runes of Fury
• Thane (BSB*) with Great Weapon, Gromril Armour, Master Rune of Gromril, 2 Runes of Iron
• Master Engineer with Gromril Armour
• Runesmith with Gromril Armour, Shield, Rune of Stone, Rune of Spellbreaking
• 30 Longbeards with Great Weapons; Heavy Armour; Full Command
• 10 Thunderers with Dwarf Handgun, Heavy Armour, Shield
• 12 Quarrellers with Dwarf Crossbow, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Full Command
• 19 Hammerers with Full Command, Shields
• 24 Ironbreakers with Full Command
• 20 Slayers with Standard, Musician, 1 Giantslayer
• Gyrocopter 
• Gyrocopter 
• Cannon
• Organ Gun with Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Forging

*Actually, I see now that I never paid for the Battle Standard. So my list was about 20 points over, and I am the worst kind of filthy cheat. Boo yeah! 

Drew's main unit of Pirate Ogre Ironguts, including his Tyrant (the slightly excessively large guy in the coat), the Slaughtermaster (nearest the camera) and the BSB (who is hiding behind the unit banner).

The Ironblaster crocodile, which is one of the more recent additions to Drew's army. The initial army was all converted. Now it enjoys some Titan Forge reinforcements for the more exotic units.

The Whale is a Stonehorn.

My lines included a horde of 30 Longbeards. It was going to be 40 until I realised I had failed to include a Cannon. Worst Dwarf army list-maker ever. Hey, I threw it together in a hurry (I was disorganised).

More importantly, I had a unit of 21 Troll Slayers including a Daemon Slayer with 3 Runes of Fury (which gives him 5 Attacks, Frenzy, and extra attacks for each of the first wave that hit - so a possible 12)!

Those elegant ladies are Ogre Maneaters (playing on the other meaning of the word). Complete with a parasol. And they're about to devour my Thunderers.

The second unit of Ironguts, led by a Firebelly. A couple are missing here because my Organ Gun blew a hole in the unit.

The Thunderers embarrassed themselves with 2 volleys and a round of combat. Even got themselves wiped out, so Drew didn't have to test to restrain the pursuit. Stupid mega gut charge rolls.

Then they headed for the Cannon, but it decided to defend itself with grapeshot at short range.

After rolling only 2 shots, I was remarkably fortunate to do 2 wounds, panic the unit, then watch them fail to rally and keep heading for the table edge.

I had 2 Gyrocopters, which kept themselves busy. In turn 2 one of them managed to charge the Ironblaster in the flank (after it blew the Organ Gun off the table, alas). I won the combat by 2 but it held and turned to face.

Then came the rescue party of Leadbelchers. Bummer. I had missed my chance. Or had I? I took 2 wounds, did a couple back, and held...

The other Gyrocopter blocked the advance of the Stonehorn Whale and paid the ultimate price, but this allowed me to charge it in the front with Quarrellers (who had great weapons) and in the flank with Ironbreakers (led by a Runesmith). We did 5 wounds a piece, I won combat and the Whale fled the field.

The true highlight of the game was my tactical genius in making a 14" charge with my Slayers into Drew's secondary Irongut unit (yay for rolling 11 on 2D6)! Very bad things ensued for the Ogres. I did lose 12 of the 20 guys who made combat, but I did so much damage they needed double 1s to hold - which they didn't get. 

The Slayers then caught the fleeing unit and carried straight through into the flank of the Ironblaster. The Gyrocopter was being rescued! Unfortunately I then fluffed my attacks and left it on a single wound (it had also copped a couple from an earlier cannon shot). It held, although the Leadbelchers took the chance to flee and rally. The crocodile died immediately afterward.

Then my 30 Longbeards with great weapons and my BSB faced off against the Gutstar. Surely it would be a mutual bloodbath...

But no. The only blood was that of my Dwarfs. The Tyrant killed my BSB twice over, and his mates accounted for some 19 of my Longbeards. The lack of damage in return was a combination of the gut charge, higher initiative attacks from the Ogre BSB and Slaughtermaster, and then having to allocate attacks to characters and a general failure to roll well. Oh, and he had Trollguts in play. It was all a little sad. On the bright side, my unit managed to escape the Ogres when they fled. Given it was an expensive unit, that is something right?

Things were not going much better on the other flank. My 19 Hammerers and Lord held a charge from the Mournfangs...

And then there were 5. Needless to say I didn't do as much damage in return. My unit held due to stubborn, but the next round was likely to spell the end of that.

Unfortunately that was when we ran out of time. More than likely the next round would have seen the Hammerers wiped out and the Dwarf Lord finish off another Mournfang, before testing on around Ld 8 without a reroll. Dicey.

So after all of about 3 full turns, I had lost my BSB, Organ Gun, Thunderers and a Gyrocopter. Drew had lost the Ironblaster, Stonehorn, Firebelly and a unit of Ironguts. I was maybe marginally ahead, but things were happening. The fleeing Maneaters were nearing the table edge, the Hammerers were on the brink, my devastated Longbeards were heading for the hills, and the Gutstar chasing them had just exposed its flank/rear to my Ironbreakers. It might have been interesting. Pity we didn't have the chance to finish it. Maybe we'll arrange a re-match and do it properly.