Okay, I made another small change to my list before the game. I gave my Oldblood the Blade of Realities and Bane Head, while cutting the skinks down to 10.
His list:
Dwarf Lord
- 1+ save
- Some rune that always gave him a strength of 2 higher than his opponent's toughness
- 2+ to hit and +1 attack (A5 in total)
Standard Bearer
- A rune that could force one of my units into charging him or fleeing (had to choose),
2x 10 thunderers
- shields
10 crossbowmen
20 warriors
- full command
10 warriors
15 ironbreakers
- full command
20 hammerers
- full command
2x bolt throwers
- engineers
cannon
organ gun
gyrocopter
The terrain was quite tournament-like, no hills in any deployment zones, and an even spread of 4 pieces of terrain (2 hills, 1 wood and 1 swamp). We were intent on not playing for too long (maximum 2.5 hours like in many real torunaments) as we often tend to do. I got the first turn.
The skink screens worked fairly well. Two of the units were able to charge his war machines (cannon and 1 bolt thrower). The cannon was kept busy for the rest of the game (with 1 skink remaining after the final turn). The skinks charging the bolt thrower managed to kill 3 crew, leaving an engineer. In the following turn however, he countercharged these skinks with his gyrocopter and ran them down.
The terradons managed to kill 4 crossbowmen, before being blown to smithereens by the organ gun (he got 10 hits 3 times during the game).
The salamanders were only slightly harmed at the end of the game. Thanks to him being unable to counter them, they just stood and burned dwarfs most of the game. They made the 20xwarriors panic with their flames and reduced them to half strength, but otherwise did not accomplish anything specifc.
The Skink Chief was killed by a bolt thrower (the only thing being able to shoot at him due to my very careful positioning) in his 1st turn, a huge blow to my killing power and morale. The stegadon continued alone, being shot by the organ gun and bolt throwers (luckily 1 skink crew survived). It then charged and destroyed the organ gun before overrunning into a unit of thunderers, killing them too.
The Cold One Cavalry was shot by the gyrocopter (him trying to flame them from the flank) and thunderers, killing 2. They then charged the thunderers, beat them and ran them down. This caused panic in his 10x warriors - regiment standing nearby which fled through the skink unit that didn't get into combat, destroying them. The COC was then shot by his bolt thrower in the flank, but luckily he missed. In my final turn they charged the ironbreakers in the flank and ran them down in his final turn.
The EOTG protected my Carnosaur, the COC and 2 units of skinks (my right flank) with the 5+ Ward. I got Uranon's thunderbolt with my priest and actually managed to get it through his 4 DD once, killing 3 (or 4) thunderers, and also panicking them (lucky me)
. My Carnosaur advanced into a position for charging his ironbreakers, with 1 of my skink units (the one that didn't get into combat) making a screening corridor, protecting him against the cannon and organ gun. He then used the rune on his BSB to make may Oldblood charge his 20x hammerers + über lord + BSB
. To help him out, I also charged in my EOTG.
Impact hits killed 4-5. In the first two fight phases my Oldblood challenged and killed his champion and then his BSB. In return he killed the stegadon (EOTG) with his lord (S8), and my priest with his hammerers. In the third fight phase, everything was set for the big duel. I scored 4 hits with my Oldblood (me starting as I had packed up enough overkill in the 2 previous fight phases to win both). Unfortunately, he passed all 4 tests with his Ld 10 (bah), and no attacks got through his 1+ save (reduced to 3+). Then he striked after my Oldblood, however he only managed to score 2 wounds. Finally my Carnosaur scored 3 hits (despite hitting on 5+), causing 6-7 wounds with his S7 and d3 wounds. The hammerers then broke and were run down by my Oldblood, winning me the game.
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It was a fun game to play, the challenge between the lord and the oldblood being the highlight. I think dwarfs is perhaps one of of the hardest armies to face with my list. The stegadons being large targets meant that my skink characters (and stegadons) where exposed as long as they weren't in battle. That was the biggest weakness, in contrary to my carnosaur which was protected by screening. The EOTG I was satisfied with. Even though it died, it served its purpose and would have been even more useful if I had faced magic. However, is 2 stegadons too much? Maybe 1 would be enough? Of course I need to play more games first, but any thoughts on this?
