Old Differences

A 6000 point battle between my Dwarfs and Ben Leopold's High Elves.

Thorgrim Grudgebearer, High King of Karaz-a-Karak, waited impatiently as his throne came to a halt and was lowered to the ground by his sweating, huffing thronebearers. He then heaved his considerable up out of the chair and stomped across to stand before the small gathering of elves waiting near a copse of trees. With one hand on his hip and his belligerent expression, the dwarf king made no attempt to hide his irritation. Cradled in his other arm was an enormous tome that all present knew to be the Great Book of Grudges.

"Where is he?" he demanded. "I haven't come all this way to argue with a bunch of effeminate flunkies."

The gathering of armoured elves stiffened at the insult. The finery of their war gear and their regal bearing surely made it clear to even a witless Dwarf that each one of them was an important noble in his own right. He was being deliberately rude. Hands strayed to the hilts of weapons, but none of them deigned to answer his demands. They too knew how to be impolite.

Their continued silence was not lost on Thorgrim. His grip on the book tightened and he glanced back to where he had left his axe leaning against the throne, clearly wondering whether he should not retrieve it and put it to use immediately. He was right on the verge of doing so when something shifted in the shadows under the trees, and another elf appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Thorgrim jumped slightly, then covered his surprise with an even deeper scowl. "Alith Anar. There you are. What do you want? Shouldn't you be off tormenting some of your own kind somewhere?"

The Shadow King stared at the dwarf without any apparent emotion. "Lord Thorgrim. I have come to retrieve something that belongs to me."

Thorgrim sniffed. "Have you now? I can't see why I would let you take anything else from me. You still haven't returned that bowl you borrowed." He fingered the book meaningfully, making it clear that the debt had been recorded in detail.

"The Vessel of Shadows was not borrowed. It is mine by right," sniffed the elf. "It bears my name upon it."

Thorgrim spluttered. "Yours? It was crafted in Karaz-a-Karak by dwarf hands. It has nothing to do with you! Give it back!"

"I will not," refused the elf quietly. "And now I have come to lay claim to the Blade of Sorrows. That too is mine."

"You're daft!" snorted Thorgrim. "Just because you're a miserable coot who has not respect for the property of others doesn't mean the thing is named after you. Take your pointy-eared army and shove off!"

"Very well," said Alith Anar calmly. "I shall retrieve the blade myself once you and your warriors have been dealt with."

With that, the elf swept his cape up across his face and dashed off into the trees, looking for all the world like a child playing at Vampires and Victims.

Thorgrim snorted and was stomping back toward his attendants when an arrow hissed out of the trees, over his shoulder and punched a hole straight through the Throne of Power's carved stone backrest. He bellowed in rage at Shadow King's insolence.


"You'll pay for that, elf!"

Note that this won't really be a battle report per se, given that I'm not going to bother putting together maps and the rest. But the game was between two fully-painted armies and I have a camera, so I took some photos.

The Armies
Neither of us was trying all that hard to pack real punch into our armies. 6,000 points is relatively close to the limit of what we could both field with these races, so it was as much an exercise in putting most of our models on the table as it was a contest. 

Dwarfs
It would seem I need to paint up some more war machines. I'll never be taken seriously as a Dwarf player when I'm only able to field one war machine for every 2000 points in the army. I mainly just wanted to use Thorgrim, in a game where he wasn't going to absorb most of my points and make things weirdly balanced.

• Thorgrim Grudgebearer
• Belegar Ironhammer
• Runelord with Great Weapon, Master Rune of Balance, 2 Runes of Spellbreaking, Master Rune of Gromril
• Thane with Battle Standard, Great Weapon, Strollaz's Rune, Master Rune of Grungni, Rune of Slowness
• Grimm Burloksson
• Josef Bugman
• 50 Longbeards with Great Weapons, Shields, Full Command, 2 Runes of Slowness
• 24 Quarrellers with Great Weapons, Shields, Full Command
• 20 Thunderers with Shields, Full Command
• 38 Ironbreakers with Full Command, Strollaz's Rune
• 20 Hammerers with Shields, Full Command, Master Rune of Valaya
• 30 Slayers with Full Command, 2 Giant Slayers
• 12 Miners with Standard, Musician
• Cannon with Rune of Forging
• Grudge Thrower with Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Penetration
• Gyrocopter
• Gyrocopter
• 16 Irondrakes with Full Command, Strollaz's Rune, Rune of Sanctuary, Trollhammer Torpedo
• 11 Bugman's Rangers with Shields, Full Command
• Organ Gun with Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Forging

High Elves

Apparently Ben's list originally had 8 bolt throwers in it, but I think he realised he'd probably shred through my units a bit brutally and pared them back. For some reason Ben doesn't seem to like Dragon Princes - half his cavalry models were these, but every single one of them was just riding around as a pimp Silver Helm. Such indignity for the noble sons of Caledor.

• Alith Anar (Army General)
• Loremaster with Armour of Caledor, Sword of Might, Power Stone
• Archmage (Level 4 High Magic) with Book of Ashur, Talisman of Endurance
• Prince on Griffon (Swiftsense, Swooping Strike) with Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield, Ogre Blade, Talisman of Preservation, Lion Cloak
• Prince on Star Dragon with Star Lance, Other Trickster’s Shard, Armour of Destiny, Shield
• Caradryan
• Korhil
• Noble with Battle Standard, Armour of Silvered Steel, Halberd, Luckstone
• 11 Archers with Standard, Musician
• 5 Reavers with Bows, Musician
• 9 Silver Helms with Full Command, Shields
• 12 Silver Helms with Full Command, Shields
• 10 Silver Helms with Full Command, Shields
• 40 Spearmen with Full Command
• 21 Spearmen with Full Command, Banner of Discipline
• 8 Shadow Warriors
• 20 Swordmasters with Full Command, Razor Standard
• 21 White Lions with Full Command, Banner of Swiftness
• Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
• Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
• Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
• Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
• Great Eagle with Swiftsense
• Great Eagle with Swiftsense
• 6 Sisters of Avalon
• Frostheart Phoenix

Deployment

We used a slightly larger board than normal at 8'x4', and then I did a good job of ignoring a quarter of it anyway. Apparently 6,000 points of Dwarfs is still not really all that much.

Ben won the roll-off for vanguards, and took the opportunity to rush his Reavers forward to block the advance of my Ironbreakers and Thunderers (who were led by the BSB). My Irondrakes were able to waddle forward more or less unaffected.

The centre of the dwarf lines. With Belegar and my Runelord leading the Ironbreakers and Thorgrim at the head of the Longbeards, a fair chunk of my points were in those two units.

Some sneaky Shadow Warriors appear beyond my left flank.

The Star Dragon steals a march by refusing to balance on the corner of the hill. Ben only deployed fast elements on this flank, after it became clear that I was going to concentrate my forces up the other end.

Despite his impressive size, this guy didn't get the nod to lead the army. It seems Ben assumed I would just blow it away with cannons or something, Dwarf-style.

Josef Bugman leads his Rangers around the flank of the Elves, mimicking the behaviour of the Shadow Warriors. But doing it with drunken style.

I don't know why the Eagle is facing sideways. It's probably an illusion caused by swively bases. Or maybe the Rangers' breath is just that bad.

The heart of the dwarf army.

Did I mention this game was an excuse to field Thorgrim? Yay! I rolled a 5 for Ancestral Hatred, which combined with Thorgrim's Book of Grudges to ensure my entire army hated the enemy and Thorgrim and his unit could re-roll all failed hits in every round.

I figured I could vanguard the Thunderers out of the way of the Quarrellers, so deployed them one behind the other to make use of the hill.

The antics of the Reavers really put paid to that plan, though. Stupid 12" rule.

Dwarf Turn 1
Inspired by their smaller number of deployments and my superior skill (I won the roll-off), the dwarfs made the first move.

The Gyrocopter on the left flank turned and used its steam gun to cook a few Shadow Warriors, but the rest unsportingly declined to panic.

The Dwarf lines advanced steadily, although this meant the Thunderers were unable to fire as they moved up to give the Quarrellers a clear shot. The Quarrellers made use of the opening to wipe out the Reavers before they could do something else annoying. They might have been tempted to fire at the Phoenix instead, however the Cannon and Grudge Thrower could only manage a single wound on it between them, so it wasn't close to dead and would have been wasted effort.

Led by Grim Burloksson, the Irondrakes stepped up and unleashed a volley on the Swordmasters, savaging the unit pretty badly.

Bugman's Rangers made short work of the Eagle with their crossbows.

High Elf Turn 1

The Shadow Warriors did not take kindly to being steam cleaned by the Gyrocopter, however their swords could make little progress against its robust dwarfish construction.

The Frostheart Phoenix sailed in to attack the Ironbreakers, aiming specifically for Belegar Ironhammer in the front rank. He shrugged off its efforts and inflicted a wound in return, but despite doing little with its thunderstomp attacks as well, the Phoenix held on Ld 6. Curses.

The Eagle moved up to annoy the Thunderers. The Dragon Mage charged the Gyrocopter which fled, and then redirected onto the Irondrakes but failed to make the distance. Their stand-and-shoot volley wounded the Dragon, but glanced harmlessly off the rider's Charmed Shield.

The elveses are coming! Not the Loremaster lazing about on top the building. He and the Swordmasters decided they needed some indoor time after what happened to them in the first volley from the Irondrakes.

Stupid Phoenix. So annoying...

Dwarf Turn 2
On my left flank the Star Dragon had landed just on the other side of the forest from my Hammerers, presumably looking to use it as cover from the Organ Gun. It really wasn't very far away, and the Hammerers decided to address this lack of respect by charging straight at it. Unfortunately the trees in the forest between them were grumpy and old, and attacked the dwarfs with venomous hatred. More than a third of the regiment was crushed on its way through the forest. By the time they arrived in combat, it was clear that my plan of laying into the Dragon with zillions of Strength 7 attacks was not going to work - I could no longer absorb the damage from the Dragon without losing most of my damage potential. So the plan changed, and the unit champion issued a challenge. At least I could buy some time and tie the beastie down. 

This revised plan didn't go exactly as expected. The elf struck first and did a single miserable wound to the champion, who keeled over. The Dragon was left without a target, I had a rank, standard and charge... 

...and Ben rolled a 9 for his break test and a 7 for the flee distance. It was not enough.

The Hammerers were still giggling gleefully as they carried on into the Griffon.

Bad things happened to Belegar in the second round of his struggle with the Phoenix. 3 hits, 3 wounds, and I failed all of his saves. 4+ ward saves are vastly overrated. The Phoenix then celebrated by launching several turns of bogus thunderstomp rolls, generally squishing 5 Ironbreakers a turn and never taking a wound in return.

As gleeful as my Hammerers were, they were kind of fighting a whole flank by themselves...

On the right flank, I decided to direct the bulk of my fire-power at the Swordmasters in the building in an attempt to get the Loremaster. The Irondrakes killed a reasonable number, the Organ Gun added a couple more, and then the Grudge Thrower and Cannon did enough damage to wipe out the remaining Swordmasters and land a hit on the Loremaster. It rolled a 1 and failed to wound. Curses! To add insult to injury, the Quarrellers were given the job of mowing down the pesky Eagle at short range. 22 shots were only enough to do 2 wounds. The birdie lived! I refused to waste a whole volley of 20 Thunderers at it, so fired past it at the Silver Helms instead, killing half of them. The Cannon would just have to take its chances with the Eagle and knock off the last wound in combat.

Stupid Loremaster. Your time will come.

Over on the flank, Bugman's Rangers fired a volley at one of the Bolt Throwers and killed both the crew in a remarkably efficient display.

High Elf Turn 2

True to expectations, the Eagle flew over my Thunderers and into the Cannon. One crewman died and the others failed to land a wound in return. Queue a stalemate that would go for several rounds of combat. Stupid mostly-dead chicken.

The Silver Helms charged into the Thunderers and then benefited from Flaming Sword of Rhuin from the Dragon Mage. My BSB stepped across to fight, but didn't get enough into the thick of things and by the time he could bring his great weapon to bear, one of the elf knights had already been struck down and he was no longer within reach. Of course, I only moved him onto the corner in order to reduce the attacks against him. He still took a wound (4+ ward saves again. Sigh).

Speaking of the Dragon Mage, he had charged in alone against the Irondrakes. He issued a challenge and my unit champion accepted. The mage bounced off the dwarf's armour, but the Dragon landed 2 wounds, one of which was saved. Which meant I had won by a musician...

...and he broke. Despite fleeing 10", my unit caught him. Clearly did not learn from the Star Dragon's example.

Meanwhile, the elves on my left flank had taken offence at my Hammerers' heroic efforts.

Alas, we did not survive. (Check out what happens when you don't pay attention to your camera straps. Such a pro!)

The Shadow Warrior finally slipped up in their struggle with the Gyrocopter when they failed to do a wound and I did one in return. They fled straight off the table.

Dwarf Turn 3
With the surprisingly easy removal of both of the Dragons, things were definitely looking up for the dwarfs. Now all I had to do was get rid of that Phoenix...

Seeing Thorgrim about to flank him, the Phoenix conveniently performed a combat reform by shuffling down to the far end of the Ironbreakers at the end of the previous round of combat. Stupid bird. I guess I needed the Thunderers to dispose of the Silver Helms and lend a hand. Irritated by this cowardly behaviour, Thorgrim declared a long charge on the White Lions, who had backed off alongside the smaller Spearman regiment (more cowardice). The distance was too great, alas.

The Rangers continued to enjoy themselves, shooting several Silver Helms dead thanks to Ben's careless approach to within short distance and his refusal to pass 3+ armour saves. The rest panicked in protest at this poor treatment.

Elsewhere on the field, the Irondrakes moved into the building and opened up on the Loremaster before we both remembered that he was wearing the Armour of Caledor and had a 2+ ward vs flaming attacks. Oh well. He passed all the saves but he could fail eventually. I then went for an alternative plan and landed an indirect stone thrower shot exactly on his head (pro skills). I wounded him, he failed his save and I did a single wound (more pro skills). He was beginning to be annoying.

The elf Archers had been firing at my Quarrellers for a while, and now they decided to shoot back, immediately getting the upper hand thanks to their superiority in nearly every way (numbers, Toughness, Strength, armour... Everything except BS).

The Thunderers and BSB failed to make any progress against the Silver Helms as they flailed about uselessly and Ben passed all his armour saves. Meanwhile the Phoenix killed 5 or 6 Ironbreakers and wounded the Runelord. They were starting to thin out and help was not forthcoming...

High Elf Turn 3
Having expressed his concern that the only thing in his army that could threaten Thorgrim was the dead Star Dragon, Ben decided to demonstrate by throwing everything he had at the High King's powerful regiment.

Oh yeah, and the Gyrocopter had botched a bombing run and was chased off by Silver Helms.

All in.

So here we have a Prince on Griffon, Caradryan, Korhil and a pile of Spearmen and White Lions trying to hack their way through my beautiful Longbeards. Thanks to his large base size, Thorgrim could do little to protect his unit and had to settle for attacking the corner of the White Lions.

The cheeky Loremaster continued to run around and annoy me, this time forcing Iceshard Blizzard through on the Longbeards. Ben figured a single Ld 9 stubborn test without a re-roll was his best chance of ridding the world of Thorgrim.

True to his plan, he killed about 20 of my elite Dwarfs on the charge. They dented the White Lions in return and Thorgrim had to content himself with carving up Caradryan in a challenge. I lost combat by zillions, but I passed my break test.

Dwarf Turn 4
One very pleasing thing did occur in the previous turn. My BSB finally woke up and killed two of the Silver Helms. I won combat, they broke, and I let the sole fleeing survivor go so I could reform to face the Phoenix. Then in my turn, the Thunderers and BSB finally arrived to try to rescue the Ironbreakers and Runelord (who by this point was down to a single wound).

The plan worked, up to a point. The Phoenix split its attacks between the Runelord and BSB, both of whom were on 1 wound and had similar protection. Thankfully the Runelord survived, but the BSB was not so lucky. Sensing its reign of terror was over, the Phoenix barely did anything with its thunderstomp, took a couple of wounds, lost combat and broke. Both units caught it. 4 out of 4 successful pursuit rolls. I don't think I've ever managed that before, and normally I am running cavalry!

My Slayers decided the elves had had enough fun at the Longbeards' expense, and flung themselves into the Spearmen. They wouldn't have been my ideal choice of target, but I was not in a position to be picky.

The Spearmen killed quite a few Slayers. Unfortunately for them, deathblow combined with hatred resulted in me doing almost as many wounds with my dying dwarfs, and then I got my normal attacks to boot. Something like 15 Spearmen died.

The Slayers might have been doing well, but the Longbeards were still suffering thanks largely to the Griffon and its rider. Almost all of them died.

In the end it was 22 wounds apiece, and I won combat thanks to a couple of bonuses. Nothing fled (Korhil was making the Spearmen stubborn), so the Slayers reformed wide.

With the Phoenix slain, but Ironbreakers were finally making progress across the field. Whether this was a good idea in their depleted state though, remained to be seen.

My Gyrocopter flew over to the Archers and steam cleaned them whilst the Quarrellers kept up their barrage. There were not many left at this point, but they didn't flee.

It was at this point that the Loremaster finally met his end. The Irondrakes fired at him again despite his resistance to their flaming shots, and managed to get a wound through. Then the Grudge Thrower landed another shot on his head, and reduced him to a magical smudge on the ground.

High Elf Turn 4
With the Slayers looking like they were going to rescue Thorgrim, Ben was getting desperate for some points. He decided that the shattered remains of the Ironbreakers were a good target, given they were worth a ton of points. His character-laden Spearman unit charged at them, but I fled bravely. So did the Thunderers when he changed his target. 

Clearly miffed at my courageous display of cowardice, the Archmage blew my Runelord's head off with an irresistible Arcane Unforging. A few Spearmen died in the making of this spell.

Brave brave Sir Robin, he boldly ran away...

The Silver Helms that had been panicked by a volley from the Rangers had rallied and moved up to just outside of short range of their crossbows, having learnt from experience. The Bolt Throwers turned their attention to the retreating Ironbreakers and tried to drop them to a quarter of their starting strength, but failed by a couple of models.

I think at this point Thorgrim finally felled the last of the White Lions, but Korhil was proving difficult to kill and kept the Spearmen in place as the Slayers gradually got the upper hand in their war of attrition. The dwarfs reformed to bring numbers to bear upon him, whilst Thorgrim's struggle against the Prince on Griffon split into a separate combat.

The Eagle finally got the better of the Cannon crew, killing one and watching the other break despite his being stubborn. The victorious bird reformed to face the Organ Gun, fully expecting to be blown apart in a shower of feathers.

Dwarf Turn 5
My Miners decided it was finally time to arrive on the battlefield, after I forgot to roll for their appearance once and failed the other two times. They moved up to threaten the Bolt Throwers.

The fleeing Ironbreakers turned around at the first opportunity, however the Thunderers were not yet done fleeing, and kept running for safety. The Organ Gun considered firing at the Eagle to protect itself, but decided to be aggressive instead and added its fire to that coming from the Irondrakes as they savaged the Spearmen guarding Alith Anar, the Archmage and BSB. Having cast a couple of spells successfully the previous turn however, the mage was giving the whole unit a 5+ ward save and that coupled with -1 for firing at the Shadow King's unit limited the damage. Still, there were not many of them left now - hits were being allocated to characters. The Grudge Thrower misfired and lost a crewman, effectively nullifying it for the remainder of the battle.

The Slayers brought down Korhil, but still couldn't break the remaining Spearmen. Thorgrim wounded the Griffon, though his thronebearers did little to help. The Griffon and rider landed several wounds over a few rounds, but the Throne of Power means he starts with 7, which is an awful lot.

Ben's Griffon is too cool for a flying stand. Oh wait, there is still a White Lion there? Well, he dies eventually I assure you.

High Elf Turn 5

By the power of swiftstride, Alith Anar and his entourage charge the Ironbreakers in the rear. How? Because I rallied them facing the Organ Gun so I could try to save it from the Eagle. I didn't think this unit would really be a threat by this point.

Oh well, we're elite dwarfs, We can take it! It turns out that was true, and they did drop a Spearman which meant they were steadfast. They somehow failed to reform though, on Ld 10. I guess they wanted the elves to feel like they were doing well.

The Silver Helms weathered a final couple of volleys of crossbows and charged the Rangers, then somehow outfought them despite them being Toughness 5 from drinking some sort of particularly stout ale and fighting at Strength 6 with hatred. Really this charge should have been a terrible idea. Still not sure how they got away with it.

I had exposed the rear of the Ironbreakers thinking that they were relatively safe with all the shooting aiming for the Spearmen, and with the expectation that the Organ Gun would take a while for the Eagle to kill. Apparently I was wrong in every possible way. The Spearmen survived the shooting and made the rear charge, and the Eagle managed to kill one crewman and watch as I failed another stubborn test, losing the Organ Gun in the first round of combat. Imbeciles!

Dwarf Turn 6
The end was nigh...

By this point the Spearmen were all dead. I remember now why there was still a White Lion left - the Prince challenged to stop Thorgrim killing him. So he was safe. But the demise of the Spearmen meant the Slayers were able to reform to see the Griffon, and then charge into its flank. Thorgrim finished off the Griffon, the Slayers added combat resolution, and the Prince broke. The White Lion decided this was a good plan, and he turned and ran as well. Because this was apparently my game, the Slayers chased and caught the Prince whilst Thorgrim caught the White Lion. 6 out of 6! This is unheard-of!

The elf command posse continued to attack the rear of the Ironbreakers, doing little damage. The last Spearman fell in return and this time the dwarfs reformed successfully.

The Miners hacked apart one Bolt Thrower, but fell just short of another with their overrun.

A Gyrocopter charged and killed another machine, meaning there was only one left.

Meanwhile I the Irondrakes removed the remaining couple of Archers in an impressive display of overkill. The Rangers and Silver Helms fought each other to an ineffectual standstill.

High Elf Turn 6
Not much was left for Ben to work with at this point. His hopes rested on breaking the Ironbreakers and maybe gunning down Thorgrim.

The Bolt Thrower and Sisters of Avelorn combined their fire in an effort to remove Thorgrim's remaining 2 wounds, but his saving throws and Toughness saw him through.

Having dealt with my Organ Gun, the Eagle charged into the rear of the Ironbreakers. They wounded it (Apotheosis had given it back one of its lost wounds, so this was not enough to kill it) but lost combat. Fortunately they still had a rank, so were testing on steadfast and they held their ground.

In the end my army had been a bit battered, but I still had a lot of points left on the field. I had lost a couple of war machines, Belegar, my BSB, a Gyrocopter and the Hammerers and Longbeards. Ben had suffered a lot worse, with both Dragons, the Loremaster, Griffon, Korhil and Caradryan, both units of Spearmen, the White Lions, Swordmasters, Shadow Warriors, Reavers, Archers, Phoenix, an Eagle and 3 out of 4 Bolt Throwers. It was a solid win.

Final Victory Points
Dwarfs: 4191
High Elves: 2301

It was nice to break away from the "standard" game size and do something that gave us a bit more freedom to field some toys. I may try some smaller games at some point too so see what that offers. Until next time!