Convic 2014 Aftermath – Part 3

This post is a continuation of my account of Convic 2014. You can find the previous part here.

Game 4 - Watchtower

Johannes Scherpenhuizen, Wood Elves

Comp Score: 1.4

• Spellweaver (General, Level 4, Lore of Shadow) on Steed with Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Preservation
• Sisters of Twilight on Ceithin-Har (Dragon)
• Glade Captain BSB
• 16 Glade Guard with Musician, Standard, Trueflight Arrows
• 10 Glade Guard with Musician, Standard, Trueflight Arrows
• 10 Glade Guard with Musician, Standard, Trueflight Arrows
• 5 Wardancers
• 5 Wardancers
• 5 Sisters of the Thorn with Musician
• 10 Wild Riders with Shields, Champion, Standard, Gleaming Pennant
• 5 Way Watchers
• 5 Way Watchers
• Eagle
• Eagle

Hannes' Wood Elves, complete with scratch-built Forest Dragon.

After the overnight break, it was back to fighting more Wood Elves for me. This game would be a bit different, given there was a Dragon kicking around and we were fighting for possession of a Watchtower (worth 750 victory points in this tournament). For possibly the first time in my 8^th edition tournament career, I was quite happy at the thought of winning possession of the tower at the start of the game, and I duly did so. I placed my Thunderers in there, giving them the best vantage point they would get all tournament. This game had the distinction of being the only time I actually managed to roll a 5 or 6 for Ancestral Grudge rule, giving my entire army hatred for the battle. How novel.

This game saw another dance of deployment between our scouting and vanguarding units, and it didn't go particularly well for me. My Quarrellers were effectively intercepted by Hannes' first Waywatcher unit, and were only able to wheel in a bit toward the centre of the table (they had plans to make good use of their full 12” allowance; presumably this was apparent to my opponent). The Irondrakes were likewise held up by the same unit. My Rangers went well out on my right flank, having given up on protecting my early advance and looking instead for a location from which they could contribute to the battle. The Wild Riders over to my left shot forward with their vanguard, whilst my Gyrocopter couldn't do anything of the sort given it was also blocked by Waywatchers.

Deployment, after vanguards.

My left flank. The Waywatchers blocked any possible advance by my Gyrocopter, then the Wild Riders exploited the gap.

The right flank, with the Quarrellers cursing the Waywatchers and wheeling in as far as they were permitted, whilst the Rangers appeared hard on the flank.

The Dragon, which I believe is meant to be a tree bewitched to fly about and terrify innocent Dwarfs (and other things, I suppose)

The centre of the field, with the all-important (well, 750-points-important) mushroom Watchtower.

With my having won control of the Watchtower, Hannes automatically had the first turn. His first act was to declare a charge on the Thunderers in the tower with the Sisters of Twilight on their Dragon. I would love to have stood and shot, but failed my Ld 10 Terror test instead. This would have been disastrous, however when you're in a building, this doesn't cause you to flee – instead your guys all just run off and hide in the closet or something, automatically Hold as a reaction, and count as failing their Fear test for the first round of combat. So I had missed a chance to shoot, but at least I still held the building. My champion stepped forth and issued a challenge (or rather, he shouted something lamely from his hiding position behind the door), and was soundly thrashed for his efforts. It saved the rest of the unit though, and this time they passed their break test and retained control of the Watchtower.

My Thunderers huddle inside the building whilst the Dragon makes very short work of the unit champion.

The Eagle to my right flew over the heads of my Rangers and landed between them and the Quarrellers, where it could not be seen. The Eagle off to my left similarly advanced in the wake of the Wild Riders, who continued their rush toward my back lines by sweeping up between my Gyrocopters and reforming to be 10 models wide.

The Wild Riders are in my deployment zone before I even get a turn.

The unit reformed 10 models wide - I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe they had grand visions of sweeping overruns off the Cannon.

With the Thunderers otherwise engaged, the Wood Elves had to find another target for their shooting. The Gyrocopters caught their attention and this resulted in the one on my left losing 2 wounds and the other losing 1, but they both remained operational. Hooray for Toughness 5!

In my turn I charged with both Gyrocopters. The mostly-dead one on my left lined up an Eagle, which elected to turn and flee rather than receiving the charge. This went poorly for it when it didn't flee far enough and was run down. The other charge was against the Waywatchers in the centre of the field, who likewise turned and ran. They were more successful and easily out-paced the Gyrocopter chasing them.

The Irondrakes leave the glorious Wild Rider formation looking a little depleted.

My Irondrakes spun on the spot and moved toward the Wild Riders with a swift reform. They showed off their Quick to Fire weapons by blasting 8 of the 10 Elves from their saddle, although being Frenzied, the survivors didn't seem to care. Over on my right, the Rangers found a sudden opportunity to use their throwing axes by reforming immediately behind the cheeky Eagle and bringing it down with contemptuous ease.

What birdie?

My Cannon had a very narrow window to try to bring down the Dragon, but couldn't manage to land a shot on it so close behind the building. I think my Quarrellers and Thunderers settled for shooting a few Glade Guard in light of this – there was no point wasting their shots on a fresh Dragon.

End of the first turn.

The survivors of the Wild Riders reach the Cannon

The surviving Wild Riders hurried past the Irondrakes and charged the Cannon, however with their entrenchments for protection, the crew refused to be easily removed. One of them survived and fought on, although there was little hope of him lasting much longer.

I got this...

Waywatchers charging? The nerve of them.

The Waywatchers off to my left had watched the Gyrocopter run down the fleeing Eagle and apparently took offence at this, deciding to charge into its flank and hack at it with their paired hand weapons. I thought this might go OK for me, but apparently I was mistaken. They landed a wound immediately and knocked my splendid machine from the sky before the pilot could fight back.

The apparently very scary Dragon finds a new target for its scariness.

The Sisters of Twilight apparently have a short attention span, because rather than continuing what they had started the previous turn, they decided instead to fly over the Watchtower and into the flank of my Irondrakes. This time I passed my Terror test, however I did of course fail my Fear test as my Lord stepped across and challenged the beast. In a less than impressive display of defensive prowess, he nearly died on the spot. With everything hitting him on 3s and 5 Thunderstomp hits, he took 4 wounds after saves, leaving him with only 1 remaining. My unit was steadfast and held their ground before reforming in a deep formation to face their attackers.

The Irondrakes reform to face the Dragon.

With the Dragon off doing something else, the remaining Wood Elves turned their attention to the Thunderers in the tower. Withering was duly cast upon them, and a billion arrows entered unerringly through every window and imagined gap between the bricks of the building. I lost at least half a dozen Dwarfs, but the survivors held their ground despite their apparently exposed position (Trueflight Arrows are silly).

In my turn the Rangers decided to wander into the building on my right, giving them a decent position from which to fire for the rest of the game. My Miners arrived straight away, moving onto the field behind the Glade Guard in a position to cause mischief.

The Miners arrive behind the Wood Elf lines.

The Gyrocopter scoots in to the rescue.

The surviving Gyrocopter decided to do what it could to help my sorely wounded Lord as he listed sideways upon his shield, and charged into the flank of the Dragon. The challenge continued of course, so the Gyrocopter was really arriving for moral support (read: combat resolution bonuses). The challenge went better than the previous round, as I passed my Fear test and the Sisters no longer had their charging bonuses. I still had to take several saves (especially when the Dragon rolled 5 for its Thunderstomps again), but somehow my Lord remained upright and did a couple of wounds in return. Having taken no wounds and with everything now in my favour, the Dragon found itself taking a nasty break test and failed comfortably. It turned to flee, but was run down by the heroic Gyrocopter, whose gloating was cut short as he braked hastily to avoid smashing into the Watchtower.

No more Dragon. Things are looking up!

I think my Thunderers focused on finishing off one of the smaller Glade Guard units this turn (they had made the mistake of walking out of the cover of the forest). My Quarrellers probably shot at something, but don't ask me what it was. The final Cannon crewman succumbed to the Wild Riders, who reformed to face back onto the field. All in all, it had been a good turn.

The Irondrakes find Wardancers in their flank, and Wild Riders in their rear. Should be OK...

The Wardancers were suddenly called into action in Hannes' third turn. The unit that had advanced somewhat saw the flank of the Irondrakes and decided to charge, whilst the 2 Wild Riders arrived in the unit's rear. This would have been fine, were it not for the horror that is Okkam's Mindrazor. The Wardancers were magically morphed from moderately entertaining to mind-alteringly terrifiying, and laid about them with Strength 8. My mostly-dead Lord was left with a terrible decision about using Make Way, and in the end decided he had to take his chances with the Wild Riders. This proved to be an acceptable decision, and he lived through the round of combat, taking down both the Wild Riders in the process. He was in the minority, however. Some 14 Irondrakes were cut down by the 5 magically-enhanced Wardancers. Thankfully I still had 5 models and the unit kept its steadfast, holding in the face of the terrible losses.

The other Wardancers had been lurking further back in the Wood Elf lines, and moved to block the charge of the Miners into the rear of the nearest Glade Guard, making a point of staying in the forest to ensure they were stubborn. The Thunderers shrugged off most of the enemy shooting this turn, thanks to their being back to Toughness 4.

The Thunderers in the Watchtower start to feel a little surrounded.

In my turn the Miners agonised slightly over whether they would take their chances with being bogged by the Wardancers, or try a longer charge into the rear of some more distant Glade Guard. In the end I decided to play it safe and went into the Wardancers. They hunkered down with 3+ ward saves and only lost a couple of models, but only 1 Miner fell in return, so it was a decent result. The tricksy Elves wouldn't have fancy ward saves forever...

Somewhere in those trees there are Wardancers. No wonder you can't break them - you can't even find them.

The Wardancers were still Strength 8 at this point, but found themselves foiled by a unit champion sitting on the end of the unit. The champion died most hideously, but he was the only one that fell that round. I then reformed to face the enemy and hoped like crazy that the madness of Mindrazor would not return next turn.

Man, it was such a nice unit of Dwarfs before those Wardancers arrived.

The Thunderers discovered that the mage bunker of the Sisters of the Thorn had emerged from cover (the Miners had flushed them out), and tried their luck in culling the unit. They met with limited success due to the unit's ward saves, but brought down a couple of them. My Quarrellers were too busy to help shooting anything – they were running as fast as their stumpy little legs would carry them, toward the struggle between the Wardancers and the shattered remains of the Irondrakes.

The Quarrellers hurry toward their comrades struggling in the middle.

In turn 4 the Wood Elf shooting continued to pour into the Watchtower, and the Thunderers were reduced to maybe 5 models by this point. The game could potentially end in the following turn (a slight modification to the scenario's normal random turn length), but even that might prove too late.

It was with a certain level of despair that I watched the Wood Elf Spellweaver cast Mindrazor once more, this time with irresistible force (and with no real ill effects). The Wardancers got that crazed look once more, and set about removing the sad tatters of my Irondrakes. The sole remaining Irondrake was felled with contemptuous ease, as was Grim Burloksson. My only model to survive the onslaught was my Lord, who continued to shrug off the worst of their efforts with his battered armour and ward save. It was somewhat hilarious – he'd nearly died in the opening exchange of combat after passing practically no saves, then had fired up and ignored everything since then. At this point he'd taken so many saves that he was maybe actually rolling above average for the game (unthinkable for me, I know)...

The Miners continued to hack determinedly at their own Wardancing opposition, and this time were rewarded when the Elves got sick of their previous 3+ ward defensive dance and moved onto some sort of modern interpretive nonsense that got them all killed. Progress!

In my turn, my BSB charged alone out of the Quarreller unit in an attempt to rescue my Lord from the horrid Wardancers. I could have sent the whole unit in, but it felt like a waste of their crossbows. Instead they continued to combine fire with my Rangers and Thunderers, crippling Glade Guard units and removing the odd Sister of the Thorn (I don't remember the exact targets at this point – suffice to say the Sisters and Spellweaver could all have been dead by the end, were it not for their ward saves).

Having brushed off the Wardancers, my Miners decided to charge into the rear of the Glade Guard nearby. They fled through the Watchtower to safety, so I redirected onto the Waywatchers who also fled, through my Quarrellers. No more combats for my brave Miners, alas.

Yeah, you better run!

The Waywatchers flee from the Great Miner Menace (I believe I rolled a 2 for the charge. The Menace is largely over-hyped).

The Mindrazored Wardancers were down to 2 models at this point, and they combined the full fury of their efforts in trying to finish off my Lord. He very nearly shrugged it all off again (which would have been slightly outrageous), but he finally perished even as the BSB cut down one of the Wardancers and broke the other one, who eluded his vengeful pursuit.

The Lord is dead. Long live the Thane (I hope).

The Waywatchers decide to charge the Watchtower and flush the Dwarfs out with hand-to-hand combat. They will cheat with magic, of course.

We were into Turn 5 now, and would have to roll to see if the game continued at the end of my turn. Hannes decided to gamble and charged the Waywatchers near the Watchtower into it. This seemed optimistic until he once more forced Mindrazor through, and suddenly had 10 very high-Strength attacks against my 5 remaining Thunderers. In the end the unti only having equal WS with my own and my fancy Dwarf Parry saves were enough, and 2 Thunderers lived to repel the attackers. I still held the building! If only the game would end immediately...

The attack is repelled.

The Wood Elf shooting was ineffectual, largely because most of the Glade Guard were busy rallying. I was actually on top in the shooting war, because in my turn I opened up on the BSB's unit and left it with the unit standard bearer and the BSB by themselves, and the BSB on a single wound (he had neglected to wear any armour into the battle). At this point my 2 Thunderers took aim at short range and managed a hit, but alas failed to wound the BSB who elected to take the bullet heroically (to save the last model in the more valuable unit). I think my own BSB charged at the Waywatchers, but failed to make the distance.

At this point we had to roll a dice. There was a 1 in 3 chance of the game ending. I was hoping, but it was not to be – the game continued and Hannes had another chance to steal my tower...

The Wood Elf army was largely shattered by now, but I still hadn't gained many points. Hannes decided that the Mindrazor gambit was not his best plan at this point, and decided not to charge. Instead, he would simply shoot me out of the building. No sooner had he decided this, than there was a problem. The single fleeing Wardancer continued his retreat, and passed straight through the only real unit of Glade Guard remaining. With squawks of alarm, the cowardly Elves panicked and ran, taking away the majority of Hannes' shooting and the sum total of his remaining Trueflight Arrows. Ha!

Oops. It seems the fleeing is contagious.

The Waywatcher units were both able to shoot at this point, and did their best to remove the last 2 Thunderers. Thankfully they failed, despite their ability to ignore armour. If the game ended this time, I would still have the Watchtower.

The scraps fight on.

The bedraggled Elf lines, lurking behind the tower.

In my turn, I did what I could to shoot things to death, but there were few remaining targets (many of them had fled into cover behind the tower). I killed a couple of the Waywatchers behind my Quarrellers with the Rangers, but they held their ground. My BSB still couldn't reach any combat targets and was suitably frustrated. My only success was the 2 Thunderers, who once more targeted the retreating forms of the BSB and unit standard. Once more they landed a hit, and this time the shot buried itself between the shoulder-blades of the BSB and he fell. Boo yeah!

We rolled once more to see if the game continued, this time on a 4+. Thankfully it ended, and I had held the tower throughout with my resilient Thunderers.

The victorious Dwarf front lines, such as they are.

Most of the Elves were dead, however there was still a single model from one unit of Glade Guard and most of another unit, both units of Waywatchers were still around, there was a single Wardancer, and one Sister of the Thorn continued to cling protectively to the wounded (but alive) Spellweaver. Not many models, but a whole lot of points were still on the table. I had lost both Gyrocopters, the Irondrakes, my Lord and Grim Burloksson, and my Cannon. It would have been a very marginal victory to me, but control of the Watchtower pushed that up to a solid win.

Result: 20-10 (22.1-7.9 after comp)

Game 5 - Battleline

Jonathan Vila, Ogre Kingdoms

Comp score: 1.3

• Slaughtermaster (Level 4, Lore of Beasts) with Great Weapon, Charmed Shield, Talisman of Preservation, Earthing Rod, Other Trickster's Shard
• Bruiser (BSB), with Great Weapon, Rune Maw
• Firebelly (Level 1, Lore of Fire) with additional hand weapon, Dispel Scroll, Potion of Speed
• Butcher (Level 1, Lore of the Great Maw) with Sword of Striking, Dragonbane Gem, Scroll of Shielding, Ironcurse Icon
• 9 Ironguts with FCG, Standard of Discipline and lookout gnoblar
• 6 Ogres with FCG, ironfists
• 2 Mournfangs with heavy armour and ironfists
• 6 Maneaters (scouts and poisoned attacks) with Standard, Musician, Gleaming Pennant, 2 Additional Hand Weapons
• 4 Leadbelchers with Musician
• Sabretusk
• Sabretusk
• Ironblaster

In the final game, I was going to have to try to deal with Ogres. Unfortunately, as with most of these games, it would mean finding a way to stop a “Gutstar” (a “Death Star” unit with all the characters piled into the Ironguts). Hopefully my shooting would be enough to strip it back, because my combat units were certainly not up to the task.

Deployment after scouts and vanguards.

I got the side of the table with a building in it, which meant that the “right” thing to do might have been to put the Irondrakes and co in that building and hope to simply weather the storm and shoot out. It would have been one way to reduce the combat effectiveness of the Gutstar. Sounded pretty boring to me, and might have just seen me lose everything except that unit, so I didn't go for it. Instead I deployed much like I would in any other game. The scouting Maneaters out-rolled me for deployment and planted themselves on my right flank, which was worrying for my Quarrellers. I ended up putting the Rangers in my deployment zone, also on the right flank and in a good place to shoot up the Maneaters. It would mean they'd struggle to get into the rest of the game, but the Maneaters were worth a few points and were a real threat.

The scouting Maneaters threatening my Quarrellers.

I got the first turn and moved a Gyrocopter to block the Maneaters, before opening up on them with the Rangers and Quarrellers. I killed half of them, but unfortunately the rest didn't panic like I had hoped. On the bright side, the Cannon blew the Ironblaster off the table with a single well-placed shot. My Thunderers tried and failed to kill one of the Mournfangs, and the Irondrakes unleashed upon the Gutstar, killing a couple of them (ie: not enough).

During the Ogres' first turn.

The main Ogre line closes alarmingly quickly with my own.

The Mournfangs are a little more cautious.

The Gutstar and Ogres next to them rushed straight at my Irondrakes, which was a little disconcerting. The Slaughtermaster cast Curse of Anraheir on my unit, which was bad for both my shooting and any potential charge I might have concocted. The other units advanced, but not so quickly. The Leadbelchers commenced what would be a brutal series of volleys, averaging close to 20 shots for the 4 of them. Thankfully they didn't roll too efficiently for damage, and I only lost a few Thunderers.

The Maneaters charge the blocking Gyrocopter.

The Maneaters charged and disposed of the Gyrocopter blocking them, electing to overrun a little way across the front of my lines.

It might be about to tear my army a new butt-hole, but it is a very pretty Gutstar, is it not?

It was my second turn and it looked like I was already out of time. My remaining Gyrocopter moved in to redirect the Ogres next to the Gutstar, ensuring I at least wouldn't have to deal with a combo charge. The Irondrakes stayed where they were and unleashed another volley on Jonathan's main unit. Grim Burloksson's re-rolls helped compensate for the Curse upon my unit, and between them and the Thunderers, I killed another 3 Ironguts. Unsurprisingly the unit didn't panic. My Quarrellers and Rangers shot at the Maneaters again, this time wiping them out. The Cannon shot at the Mournfangs and did a single wound which was enough to kill the already wounded model. They also did not flee.

The Gyrocopter moves up to block the Ogres, but the Irondrakes can only really stay where they are.

Oh dear, this is gonna hurt.

The Gutstar was less than 6” from my lines at this point, however when I pointed out to Jonathan that the Irondrakes could still stand and shoot (Quick to Fire), he decided the Thunderers with my BSB were a better target. This combat went predictably well, especially after he cast boosted Pann's Impenetrable Pelt which meant his characters all had almost infinite Toughness when they shouldered past the Ironguts and absorbed my attacks. Even with fancy Dwarf Parry saves, I only had to move 5 models when I broke and fled. It was apparently traumatic for them, because they went straight off the table the following turn, which was some distance away. The Gutstar didn't bother to chase, and instead reformed to look meaningfully at my Irondrakes.

The few survivors set a new Dwarf land speed record getting off the battlefield.

The unit of Ogres nearby also charged the Gyrocopter which had moved to block them, and beat it down with minimal fuss before reforming into line once more.

The Gyrocopter pays the price for its delaying mission.

The Irondrakes are well and truly surrounded.

It was becoming apparent to me that I was not going to be able to handle the Gutstar with my army unless I somehow shot it completely to pieces. With the Thunderers gone and the characters all practically invincible, it was all going to be a big ask. The Irondrakes reformed to face the unit and fired, killing 2 more Ironguts. There were still 6 models in the unit however, including 4 characters. My Lord decided he would have to strike out on his own and charged the Sabretusk which had moved to ensure I couldn't escape by charging through the regular Ogres. My Lord's situation was slightly different on his own, and he managed to cut down the Sabretusk before overrunning into the waiting Ogres. His mission was to try to buy some space for the Irondrakes and (if possible) save his own skin. He didn't reveal the last part of this to his underlings before setting forth. No point in worrying them unnecessarily. No doubt they would be fine without him...

I take what evasive action I can, with the Lord charging out to hold off one unit whilst the Irondrakes prepare to pepper the other one.

My Quarrellers decided they could not sit idly by and watch the undoing of the rest of my army, and charged into the other Sabretusk, which was behind the Gutstar. I cut the doggy down before overrunning into the rear of the Gutstar. 20 Strength 6 attacks would have to be worth something, wouldn't it? Unfortunately the Rangers and Cannon failed to contribute, despite combined efforts to bring down the remaining Mournfang.

My Quarrellers try to contribute.

Well it's some sort of plan...

The folly of the Quarrellers became apparent when the Leadbelchers flanked them and the Mournfang charged into the rear. For my part, I did maybe a couple of wounds to the Firebelly. And I lost my entire unit before I could even take a break test. It had gone rather terribly, but they had achieved what was ultimately their goal – they had bought the Irondrakes one last shot. Was it really worth it? In hindsight, I'd have to say probably not.

Quarrellers? What Quarrellers?

Oh, there they are. Guess I won't have to take a break test, then. That's something...

The Dwarf Lord and Ogres began a combat that would last most of the game. I generally won combat, but never by very much and always in the face of the Ogres' steadfast. I actually rolled pretty well in this combat, but Jonathan passed an improbably number of Parry saves, which really slowed down my progress. I broke the Ogres in the last turn when they finally dropped to 2 models, however they outran me and rallied on the table edge, taunting me. Nevertheless, the Lord was at least alive to chase them. The same could not have been said had he hung around in the main lines...

The Lord fights his own battle whilst the Irondrakes desperately continue to fire.

The Quarrellers had given their lives for the cause, and now my Irondrakes took aim and tried to make it worthwhile. Their volley landed a lot of hits, but with so many tough characters, they were distributed all over the shop. The unit standard was slain and the champion left on a single wound. The Firebelly, BSB and Butcher were all wounded. Only the Slaughtermaster shrugged off the damage. I also fired my Cannon down the flank, but the shot plugged in front of the first character before I could potentially save the game with something epic and bogus (4 characters with one shot? Yes please).

My Miners finally arrived at this point, and moved on looking at the Cannon. They were not the only ones, as the Mournfang was also glaring at it malevolently. The Rangers also moved around, given they had run out of targets.

The Mournfang apparently dislikes my Cannon.

As uninspiring as the late arrival of the Miners was, their early departure was worse. The Mournfang made the charge into the Cannon, killed it, and panicked the Miners straight back off the table. Apparently they knew a bad battle when they saw one, and were not hanging around for the final reckoning. Thanks, guys.

Thanks for coming, guys.

The inevitable combat finally comes to pass.

And my unit gets batted aside in a similarly predictable fashion.

The Gutstar (such as it now was) charged the Irondrakes with the sort of devastating impact I had come to expect. I lost an entire rank of guys, and in return all I could manage to do was pick off the mortally wounded Firebelly (this may even have been with the stand and shoot reaction – I don't recall). I lost badly, broke and was run down.

Don't look at me like that!

In my turn I made what was potentially a mistake and tried to charge the Mournfang with Bugman's Rangers. It was not that they couldn't win that fight; they would have thrashed it. But it chose to flee, and I was left with nothing to do with the unit when it got away. Maybe a volley of shooting would have been better, but Strength 7 great weapons sound a lot better than Strength 4 crossbows when your target has that much armour.

What's left of the Gutstar splinters as the various elements go their separate ways.

In the end the Gutstar survived the game, more or less. The unit itself still had a single wound remaining, out of the characters only the Firebelly had died, and the handful of wounds on the others counted for nothing. With the Ogre unit rallying after it escaped my Lord and the Mournfang eluding capture, I had not really won a lot of points. The Leadbelchers shot off half my Rangers, but the unit didn't flee and they, together with my Lord, were all that survived of my once shiny Dwarf army. I'd been rolled, basically by a single unit that my army simply could not stop.

The Ogres mock my Lord by rallying out of his reach.

What's left of the Rangers survey the wreckage helplessly.

Result: 8-22 (10.2-19.8 after comp)

So in the end, my army had acquitted itself OK. I had only won 2 games, but a very narrow loss and some solid comp boosts had dragged my score to somewhere just above breaking even. The list had not proven to be impossible to use, but in the games where opponents had really solid combat units, my regiments didn't have the spine to stop them.

In all, I was fairly content. I had enjoyed myself a lot more than I would have with a traditional Dwarf gun line, and all my opponents had been fun to play against. The whole thing left me wanting to attend another tournament, so now I'm eyeing off Rumble in the Bronx at the end of August. I don't think I'll be running Dwarfs, though. Time for another change.