AoS Seraphon and Dwarfs Vs Tomb Kings

This weekend I've played with two guys, a newbie and a moderately experienced player, that plays orcs and goblins and wanted to try Seraphon (not his army, but one that he knew having see it played).
I've got 3 armies: Seraphon, Dwarfs and TK... given that my friend wanted to try Seraphon, this BatRep will be decisely odd: not only because I'm not using Seraphons, but also because I will try to destroy what's usually my own army...

The game was basically the scenario with 3 armies taken from the Seraphon Battletome: a order force (in this case, Dwarfs) occupies a square of the battlefield and it's clearly doomed, surrounded by (in this case) Tomb Kings, then Seraphon arrive on a comet, impacting directly on the battlefield.

For the few of you that don't know it, the Scenario rules:
TK attack first and (in the first turn) can re-roll ALL to hit and to wound (the re-roll was not applied, to favor Seraphon / Dwarfs)
At the end of the first turn, Seraphons arrive, landing in one square; all enemy units in that square take 1d3 mortal wounds.
Risk of death for models that cross borders within squares, if they don't fly.


Dwarfs:
Belegar Ironhammer
Lord on shield
thane with battle standard
2 runelords
1 engineer
10 ironbreakers
20 quarrelers
20 longbeards
20 hammerers
1 flame cannon
2 cannons

Tomb Kings:
royal legion of chariots, including:
Settra
4 chariots units (3 chariots each)
Tomb Legion formation, including
1 Tomb King
1 liche priest,
2 units of 10 skeleton warriors,
2 units of skeleton archers (10 + 20),
1 unit of 20 Tomb Guard,
1 unit of 3 necropolis knights.
additional units, not included in the formations
1 unit of 5 horsemen
1 unit of 5 horsemen archer
2 SSC
1 BSB
1 Royal warkitty
1 necrotect
2 priests

Limitations for TK:
the hierophant of the Tomb Legion Formation cannot save dead models on a 6. TK can raise the dead, but cannot summon anything.

Seraphon:
given that TK field Settra Himself, Seraphon will use Lord Kroak!
plus:
Eternal Starhost,
1 Eternity Warden
3 units of 10 saurus guards each
Thunderquake Starhost, including:
1 EotG
2 Bastiladon (solar and snakes)
3 Sallies

Initial setting on the battlefield:

Please note that (knowing the potential of the Seraphon's army) I deliberately choosed a nearly suicidal line-up, 'cause I wanted to see if my friend would have been able to see the possibilities of dealing maximum carnage.




The Dwarfs:




Tomb Kings, ready to strike:

 

FIRST TURN TK

I decided to play softly: with shooting (archers and SSC) i simply obliterated the 10 ironbreakers, but leaving intact the other units and not targeting any hero.
With Settra and the kings, I buffed the unit of horsemen, and they charged (flying) the warmachines.
All the rest of the army, mantained its position, doing literally nothing.

With the horsemen, I simply directed all my attacks on the crew of the Flame Cannon: I could have done much more damage, but:
1) I wanted the newbie to do something in his turn
2) I wanted to keep my army in the same suicidal initial position
3) I wanted to give a silent suggestion that also my SSC's crews are a likely target
4) most of all, I wanted to show what was the potential range of a unit buffed by Settra, to give a "warning" to the Seraphon player about thinking well on his placement.



FIRST TURN DWARFS
he moves forward the quarrelers, seeing that I'm not advancing, then he moves a gunner from a cannon to the flame cannon: with all warmachines crewed, he blasts my horsemen. The rest of my army is out of range

FIRST TURN SERAPHON
The comet arrives!
...and it descends in a basically safe (for me) point: in the square opposed to dwarfs', just delivering some damage to my units.
The reasoning was: "so you will be catched between two armies".
Yeah, it doesn't work this way: You are not threatening the real bulk of my army, and all I need to do is to face the Seraphon, given that the dwarfs are far away and need to move forward to reach me.



Lord Kroak:
1- summons an Astrolith bearer (good move),
2- summons a skink starpriest
3- casts his comet-spell, delivering d3 mortal wounds to SIX units of mine... but he doesnt target the SSCs (so much for my previous suggestion)
4 - arcane bolt on the RoyalKitty

The Engine of the Gods: roll its dices and the effect of the engine, inflicts 6 mortal wounds (reduced to 3) to the RoyalKitty.

The salamenders shoot at the necroknights, Killing 2 of 'em

Bastiladons shoot, then the 3 units of Temple Guards charge the 2 units of skellies warriors and the Kitty. But, doing so, they move out of range of the Eternity Warden (which didn't move), losing the bonuses of the formation. BAD move.

What could have been a carnage, was simply a gentle caress: the skellies held and the RoyalKitty in the end suffers just 8 wounds

At the beginning of my turn, the banners heals some of the skellies and all the necroknights, so that unit is again at full health (picture was taken after my healing)

 

SECOND TURN TK

sigh. Enough with kindness, all my previous suggestions were wasted.

The Seraphon player left a corridor near the border of the map, with nothing to shield the core of his army: Lord Kroak and the EotG.
I simply buffed the Necroknights with Settra and the kings, and they charged both Kroak ad EotG, annihilating them.
Without chances to summon reinforcements, having losed the general and the key unit of the thunderhost formation, the Seraphon's player conceded victory.

Sigh, my poor Seraphon army...

 

why do I see some pictures, and some other don't seem to work?!? I've checked the links...

(edit: apparently, now I see them all... )

 

It should be probably played without units able to deliver a killing blow as mine. At that point, it would be a grind feast, more tactical, with charges, countercharges, retreat on new defensive lines, and so on.

There will be other chances to play it in a more "proper" way.

 

Probably my friend (the one that played Seraphon) underestimated the difficulty in playing the army of someone else, and I cannot certainly fault the newbie with Dwarfs. (BTW, me and the newbie already have planned some simpler game, each side with just a hero, a melee troop and a shooting unit )

 

Done!
It was Seraphons Vs dwarfs.

Skink star priest, 6 kroxigor, 2 razordons with handlers.

Rune priest, 20 hammerers, 10 thunderers.

A really close game, and also a fun one. The newbie was satisfied.

 

Seraphon , with units remaining:

Runelord

Skink priest, one kroxigor at full health and one with 2 wounds