Welcome back to another, long overdue, report on an Old World battle played between The Bob and I.
I chose to play with Chaos Daemons (Renegade) vs. Dwarfen Mountain Holds. And, Spoiler: The Dwarfs win! Ah, but the twist is in how they got there...read on!
We set the board up with the idea tht the dwarfs were defending and old ruin that has something buried in that Tzeentch wants. But that's as far as any plot for this fight goes as it's essentially a Pitched Battle scenario..
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Dwarfen Mountain Holds [1244 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Dwarfen Mountain Holds, Open War
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++ Characters [370 pts] ++
King [192 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Full plate armour
- Shield
- General
- On foot
- 2x Rune of Shielding
- Rune of Might
- Rune of Cleaving
Runesmith [68 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Full plate armour
Thane [110 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Full plate armour
- Battle Standard Bearer [Rune of Battle]
- On foot
++ Core Units [398 pts] ++
15 Dwarf Warriors [135 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Heavy armour
- Veteran (champion)
- Standard bearer
- Musician
10 Thunderers [115 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Handguns
- Heavy armour
- Veteran (champion) [Handgun]
- Standard bearer
- Musician
10 Longbeards [148 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Heavy armour
- Shields
- Elder (champion)
- Standard bearer
- Musician
++ Special Units [308 pts] ++
12 Hammerers [213 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Great hammers
- Heavy armour
- Royal Champion
- Standard bearer
- Musician
Cannon [95 pts]
- Cannon
- Hand weapons
- Light armour
++ Rare Units [168 pts] ++
10 Irondrakes [168 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Drakeguns
- Full plate armour
- Ironwarden (champion) [Drakegun]
- Standard bearer
- Musician
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Created with "Old World Builder"
[https://old-world-builder.com]
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Tzeentch Firebomb [1251 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Daemons of Chaos, Renegade, Open War
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++ Characters [575 pts] ++
Daemon Prince [400 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Ensorcelled weapon
- Light armour
- Fly (9)
- Daemon of Tzeentch [Level 3 Wizard]
- General
- Winged Horror
- Iridescent Corona
- Daemonology
Daemonic Herald of Tzeentch [175 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Flames of Tzeentch
- Wizard [Level 2 Wizard]
- Disc of Tzeentch
- Daemonic Robes
- Dark Magic
++ Core Units [424 pts] ++
12 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch [162 pts]
- Hand weapon
- Flames of Tzeentch
- Iridescent Horror (champion)
- Standard bearer
- Musician
20 Blue Horrors of Tzeentch [186 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Flames of Tzeentch
- Ectoplasmic Horror (champion)
2 Brimstone Horrors of Tzeentch [76 pts]
- Hand weapons
++ Special Units [252 pts] ++
3 Flamers of Tzeentch [120 pts]
- Hand weapons
- Warpflame
3 Screamers of Tzeentch [132 pts]
- Lamprey's bite
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Created with "Old World Builder"
[https://old-world-builder.com]
Before the battle began I randomly determined my spells. The Daemon Prince (Scalthazar the White) ended up with Daemonic Vessel, Daemonic Vigor and The Summoning. Moonhead, the Daemonic Herald on the disk, got Doombolt and Infernal Gateway. The unit of Pink Horrors ended up with Gift of Mutation.
We tied on the roll off, but the Dwarfs had a +1 due to finishing their deployment before the daemons so they got to go first. Going first essentially meant standing still and firing at anything within range. In this case the dwarf cannon pasted a single Blue Horror with a well aimed shot. 
TURN 3
The Tzeentch Daemons did the opposite on their first turn, and most of them surged to get closer to the hair runts in their way. The Daemon Prince (Scalthazar the White) cast The Summoning upon the Iron Drakes and actually killed one of them. Moonhead attempt to cast Doombolt on one of the opposing dwarfen units but the spell failed to wound. "It's good to see the magic," said Bob ironically.
So far it's looking like fairly even fight, we both have only lost a single miniature.
TURN 2
Seeing those Screamers quickly zipping at them, the cannon crew shoots at them and kills one. The rest of the dwarfs all take a stance a baseball batter, waiting to grand slam the hell out the approaching daemons.
And on their Turn 2, the Daemons grant them their wish. The Flamers charge the Iron Drakes who blast them with their stand and shoot option, but by some miracle I managed to make all three Ward Saves! Galvanized by this feeling of superiority the Flamers kill two of the Iron Drakes while taking no casualties of their own, however the Combat Resolution resulted in a drawn combat.
The Daemon Prince (Scalthazar the White) charges the Warriors unit. They seemed like an easy kill for him, and he did kill off four of them, and they fell back in good order. The Daemon Prince pursued and reengaged them, hoping to finish them off next round.
The Screamers charged the Long Beards, but failed to wound any of them. In turn, the Long Beards pulled the screamers out of the air, stomped, hacked and otherwise pulverized them back into the void that spawned them. The battle has definitely swung in the Dwarfs favor at this stage, but the daemons still have some fight in them...
The Brimstone Horrors, who has failed this charge last turn, was now with in grapeshot range of the dwarf cannon. Combined with shooting from the Thunderers and one of those Stands was reduced to a single Wound. (I neglected to snap any pics that really show off what was happening on this side of the table so sorry about that.)
The Warriors win combat against the Daemon Prince bringing him down to 2 Wounds.
The Flamers in melee with the Iron Drakes manage to kill one of the Iron Drakes, however the Iron Drakes win on CR and Daemonic Instability wipes out three Flamers in turn! At this pint it was beginning to feel like the Daemonic Instability was a bigger threat to my army than the dwarfs!
The Herald of Tzeentch, zipping around on his disk, attempts to cast Doombolt at the Longbeards. He miscasts, rolls an 8, which means the spell goes off anyway, it wounds one the Long Beards who makes his save regardless. It was a lot of work to figure out it didn't matter!
The Iron Drakes kill off the last Flamer.
TURN 4
The dwarfs seize their opportunity and go in for the kill. The Iron Drakes shoot and two Blue Horrors are blasted from the material plane.
The Thunderers charge the Brimstone Horrors and kill off a stand.
The Longbeards and the Warriors gang up on the Daemon Prince (Scalthazar the White) and their combined might sends the evil fiend back to the hell that spawned it. Hilariously, no Wounds were caused, it was Daemonic Instability which brought him down entirely.
The entire Pink Horrors unit is lost due to Daemonic Instability.
And the last Brimstone Horrors stand is also removed because of Daemonic Instability.
So all I had left was the herald and the Blue Horrors, The Blue Horrors I moved into Skirmish Formation so as to maximize their shots. I was determined to kill off at least one unit and the Iron Drakes felt like the tastiest one to me at this stage. It was a fruitless effort.
All in all, it was a fruitless effort, We ended the game here, as it was obvious that the Daemons had lost. We didn't even tally up the VPs, we knew the difference would be extreme.
So what went wrong for the daemons? My dice rolling on those Daemonic Instability checks was a huge factor. Again, I lost more to those checks than anything the dwarf army could throw at me. But where I can truly blame myself was overestimating the effectiveness of Tzeentch Daemons in melee. They suck at it. I have all this shooting capability and should have just kept it that way. Their shooting wasn't nearly as effective as I liked, but it was far better than their melee results.
One particular mistake on my part was ignoring the Screamers Slashing Attack ability and instead charged with them. This would have been a far more effective use of them instead of the suicidal charge I put them in. Play and learn, yes?
So I am not giving up on them yet, I just need to really think about what they do and how to get them to do it instead of playing them like orcs...
Also, I bet this little army would do far better in games with objectives then a straight pitched battle such as this. I hope to prove that sooner than later.
The dwarfs on the other hand performed admirably. I dare say Bob's skill with them makes them into patient apex killers, and they did what I imagine my Dwarfs should do. I chose his Long Beards as MVP. I threw a lot of shooting and spells at that unit and nothing seemed to really effect them. And they dished out death to anything that got to close to them. And they look awesome. Well done all around Bob!
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