8th Ed. help vs dwarves

[Rettile]

yesterday i had a game vs a friend who used dwarves (1000 points)
he used: 30 longbeards with a thane, 20(?) crossbowmen, an organ gun, a cannon and a stone thrower. I decided to go no magic and outnumber him, so i used 3x10 skink skirmishers, 2x15 saurus warrior, 19 temple guard + a scar veteran. He destroyed me
temple guard and scar veteran didn't see close combat, becuase the were shotted down by the cannon. Saurus warriors were decimated, and i needed them + temple guard to destroy longbeards. Skink skirmishers were destroyed by organ gun. Stone thrower and crossbowmen were not so dangerous, but cannon and organ ruined my day. Soon we'll have a rematch, but i don't know what to do

 

[Old Mossy]

I would say get some chamo skinks in to take out warmachines, and screen your sauruswith the skirmishers.

 

[Rettile]

chamo skinks are useless when he uses a organ gun...

 

[Stonecutter]

Chamo skinks can be useful but in this instance it would be necessary to field two units because the organ gun is very likely to kill at least one before they can take it out and possibly both, depending on deployment. Also, making the scouts big enough to have sufficient volume of fire to take out a war machine would eat up a lot of points so they definitely are not ideal vs dwarves. The key to fighting a gunline is speed and violence - if you delay at all it will simply allow them to employ more of their shooting to whittle you down. Since saurus and TG are slow, they need to start sufficiently large to withstand heavy casualties and still arrive in combat with enough models to take on the dwarves. This is no easy task when even the shooters are decent in combat and the horde of longbeards can really hurt you combat. Your opponent has done an excellent job of creating very unpalatable choices for you - you can't sit back and pray for misfires and even if you get there the LB will likely beat up whatever you send their way. Here are a couple approaches that might help out:

1) skrox - replace the 3 infantry blocks with skrox (~24 + 2 krox each) and go with a skink chief for the general. The skrox can march on turn 1 and be shooting on turn 2 (12" turn 1 march + move 6" and shoot 12" = 30" away from deployment area) in preparation for a turn 3 charge. Meanwhile the skirmishers can also be hosing down the war machines or the two units. The gunline will simply be overwhelmed with targets since the only infantry are the crossbows and the longbeards. In combat, the skrox should be able to maintain steadfast and since models are dying on a 2+ anyhow due to LB S6 attacks with great weapons, it is better to lose a 5 point skink than an expensive saurus/TG. Once in close, the skink chief can go after war machines with a skirmish unit in close combat.

2) Horde - put all the infantry in one massive horde (40+), deploy them 2-3 ranks deep and march across the board screened by skirmishers. The formation and iron curse icon should help reduce casualties and ensure the unit arrives in decent enough shape to take on even the LB.

Good luck and good hunting!

 

[Qupakoco]

Since I didn't see anyone else specifically point this out, Temple Guard are a pretty weak choice if they are not accompanied by a Slann. 19 TG cost a little more than 27 Saurus, not including command upgrades. In low point games like this I don't even consider them. You could revamp your list and run 2 blocks of 30 Saurus or so with the savings.

I agree going with Stonecutter's 1st recommendation. Get yourself some Skinks and let the Kroxigor lay on the hurt.

 

[david l]

As was said, your army list was pretty poor for fighting Dwarfs because it was so slow. The TG are a poor choice in general, but so are the size 15 Saurus units. At that size, Saurus cannot handle combat against anything that can seriously fight, and they are slow.

Generally against Dwarfs you want to avoid and go around the big combat blocks, and kill the artillery and shooters.

 

[Rettile]

thank you all for your answers. We had a second match (800 points), but it was before i read your answers. I played 2x15 saurus warriors, 5 cold one riders, 2x10 skink skirmishers and a lv2 skink priest with plaque of tepok and power scroll. He used 2 cannons, the organ gun and two close combat units (i don't remember what they were) with a thane with 3 dispell runes. My priest was fantastic (succesfully casted 3 comets and a chain lighting with 2 irresistible force) but both me and my opponent are not so expert (it was my second game in all my life ) and we didn't have the handbook, so my comets killed half of his army... but they should almost completely destroy it
we got wrong, so all of his warmachines survived with 1 or 2 servants, and his units were decimated... then he destroyed all my units with his warmachines
the game ended with dwarfs tryng to catch the priest who casted a chain lighting on the thane unit killing 4 warm-blooded and left the table shaking his hand to the dwarfs and dead lizardmen