Ancient Hate Fight

 

Welcome back to another tale of battle. This one features my Dwarf army vs. Rob's Goblins. The original plan was to do what we did last time and have Bob and I throw a combined force at his greenskin horde. Only Bob couldn't make it so Rob tooled his army down to 1,000 points and we set about playing another Pitched Battle. 

The Dwarf army

===

Helga's Entourage  [999 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, Dwarfen Mountain Holds, Open War

===

++ Characters [242 pts] ++

Queen Helga [242 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Full plate armour

- Shield

- General

- On foot

- Master Rune of Adamant

- Rune of Striking

++ Core Units [275 pts] ++

16 Dwarf Warriors [200 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Shields

- Veteran

- Veteran (champion)

- Standard bearer [Rune of Battle]

- Musician

6 Dwarf Warriors [75 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Shields

- Drilled

- Veteran (champion) [Rune of Speed]

- Standard bearer

++ Special Units [110 pts] ++

Cannon [110 pts] 

- Cannon

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Rune of Reloading

- Stalwart Rune

++ Rare Units [193 pts] ++

10 Irondrakes [193 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Drakeguns

- Full plate armour

- Drilled

- Ironwarden (champion) [Trollhammer torpedo]

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Mercenaries [179 pts] ++

4 Imperial Ogres [179 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- 4x Great weapons

- 4x Ogre pistols

- Captain (champion)

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Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com]

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Orc & Goblin Tribes [986 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, Orc & Goblin Tribes, Open War

===

++ Characters [383 pts] ++

Goblin Oddnob [245 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Wizard [Level 4 Wizard]

- General

- On foot

- Idol of Gork

- Power Scroll

- Dispel Scroll

- Waaagh! Magic

Night Goblin Bigboss [80 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Battle Standard Bearer [War Banner]

- On foot

Night Goblin Bigboss [58 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Additional hand weapon

- On foot

- Potion of Strength

++ Core Units [603 pts] ++

28 Night Goblin Mob [224 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Thrusting spears

- Shields

- Netters

- Boss (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

- 3x Fanatics [Fanatic ball & chain]

29 Night Goblin Mob [228 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Thrusting spears

- Shields

- Netters

- Boss (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

- 3x Fanatics [Fanatic ball & chain]

13 Night Goblin Squig Herd [151 pts] 

- 7x Squig Herder

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Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com]

The field of battle.

How about some lore to set this thing up?

 When we last saw Queen Helga her force was defeated by the Chaos Warriors of the Gray Reavers in the Wasteland region of the Empire. While her demoralized army was making it's way back towards her mountain hold, reports of a goblin army marching towards a small village of men reached her. Sending word to another Dwarf army nearby, they both agreed (via carrier pigeon) to meet outside the village and together they would crush the goblins. Helga's force arrived, the other army did not. Seeing that the opposing force was much smaller than the original reports suggested, Helga made the gamble and decided to lead her force into the village anyway to try to hold it from the foul green skin menace...

   

TURN ONE

Dwarfs first Turn.

The Dwarfs went first. Pretty much the whole army surge forward, as fast as their lil' stubby feet could carry them. The cannon shot and it missed dramatically. 

End of Dwarf Turn 1

The Goblins did like-wise but the Oddnob successfully cast Foot of Gork right in front of the 16-man Dwarf Warrior unit with the Great Weapons. 

TURN TWO

The Foot of Gork scatters onto the 16-Man Dwarf  Warrior unit with the Great Weapons, killing three of them. The dwarfs unleashed a hail of bullets via the Iron Drakes who kill two goblins from the big block closing on them. The cannon also fires but only kills a single gobo. 

Then the Fanatics were released. 

Two of them passed through Queen Helga's unit of Dwarf Warriors with the Great Weapons killing four more of them!

Fanatics unleashed.

TURN THREE

The Foot of Gork wanders onto the Iron Drakes stomping four of them into paste. 

The lines up for a perfect trick shot and...blows itself up!

The Iron Drakes only kill two more goblins. Which is not a good trade-off for the losses they just endured. 

The Imperial Ogre mercenaries an the smaller Dwarf Warrior unit charge into the Squigherders. This turned out to be a bad idea as lost combat  by two CR. The dwarfs were pushed back but the Ogres stayed in the fight. 

Pushed back but still wanting to help.

Queen Helga and her Great Weapon wielding dwarfs charge the large unit of goblins that hosted the Goblin command. The Goblin netters made things more challenging for the dwarfs  also.  In the excitement of it all, In the excitement of it all, I totally forgot to have Helga issue a challenge. I think this would've made a difference, as her side lost the combat. . They make the Break Test however and they stay in the fight. 

Sprawling Melee!

At the start of the Goblin Turn a Fanatic tears through the big fight in the middle of the board killing three models for each side. The other two Fanatics both rolled doubles and strangles themselves. 

At the other melee the squigs kill another Imperial Ogre.

Those things are tough! 

The fight in the middle of the table goes totally afoul for the Queen, as they lost the fight and the Break Test (I rolled an 11!). Then I rolled very low on the flee distance, something you don't want to when playing units with the Resolute special rule. The Goblins take full advantage of this and run them down, eliminating the Queen from the fight!

TURN FOUR

More Fanatics are released and crash into the Iron Drakes , killing three more of them. The Imperial Ogres finish off the Squig Herds whose dramatic demise kills most of the small Dwarf unit, leaving only two behind. They regroup, look around, and realize that there isn't much of an army left for them to support. 

"Oy, where did dat Queen go? She still has to pay us!"

So with only a hand full of models left (like, I could literally hold the survivors in one hand), and the remaining models left from the unit of Iron Drakes surrounded by a tria of whirling Fanatics. concession seemed to be the only option left for the dwarfs. 

This looks Ike the end...

The finally VP tally was:

Dwarfs:  168

Night goblins: 769

Hahahha, yowza! That was a fun game, but it really went south for the Dwarfs very fast. Most of it was a result of the dice. The most dramatic failure in the game was probably the cannon failing to kill more than just a single goblin before it blew itself apart. Then came Helga's notching of the break test followed by a very low flee roll. A lot of it though was simply the way the army was built. It was just not equipped to handle these massive units. These goblin units are so big that they absorb range attacks like a sponge, and they absorb melee attacks almost as easily. Well, these goblins are definitely going into the book! 

Slayers! (Part 1)

A Slayer charges in!

What do you do when you're down with the illness? Well, if one's not too ill, you jam out some models!  In this case I assembled 26 Dwarf Slayers onto their 25mm bases with basing grit added. Then they were primed. 

A horde 'o Slayers primed.

 

This will either make for a massive unit, or I  can break them up into smaller units. I definitely like having this option. Also I have the restrained slayers (which I promise, I have not  forgotten about) which can also be used to fill out the ranks. I pulled an old Citadel Catalog from the shelf  and began separating them based on their level (ie Trollslayer, Giantslayer, Dragonslayer  and Daemonslayer) and a fifth group of the few I couldn't figure out or that the catalog lists as just "Slayer". 

Primed, with Skeleton Horde on skulls.

These first four models are the ones I couldn't figure out,, so I chose them to launch this paint party.. I started off with Contrast Paints. Appropriately Fyreslayer Flesh was painted into their flesh. Their hair was coated in Magmadroth Flame and Snakebite Leather used on their boots (except for the guy who was barefoot that is). 

Contrast paints started.

Then Black Templar was painted onto the weapons. I used Snakebite Leather on their boots and Warp Lightning (a deep green) was used on their pants. I had to apply two coats to get the coverage I wanted with the greens and flesh. 

Contrast Paint stage complete.

After some touch-ups (because I can get a bit sloppy with Contrast Paints) it was time for the traditional acrylics. 

I used Cadian Fleshtone in a very conservative layer onto of the Fyreslayer Flesh. An even more conservative highlight of Kislev Flesh was added on top of that. Firedragon Bright was carefully added as a highlight on the hair. 

Close-up at this step.

After those touches were added, I finished up the weapons using Leadbelcher and Stormhost Silver.

. I then, as best I could, added straight white stripes onto their pants.  This turned out as well as I had hoped considering how small the surface area was that I had to work with, and how wrinkled the fabric of their pants happens to be. 

I used a blue .05 Micron to draw some simple tattoos onto these guys. Most of them have them on their arms in form of lines, faux-celtic knots, or wavy lines. One guy has a heart with "Mom" above it. And another one has "LIV" and "DIE" on either hand. The guy below has a spiral on his back. 

Spiral tat.

Simple designs they are, but it does give each guy an additional sprinkle of character. So in my "head canon" (since I have been fruitless in determining what the actual canon is) I'm feeling that the more accomplished the Slayer, the more tats he'll have. So my Daemonslayers will likely look like crazy half-smurfs by the time I get to them. The Trollslayers are next, and I will advance their tattoos up to thicker patterns close to the examples I found in the tutorial from the 2004-05 Edition Games Workshop US Catalog. 

Miner's Report! (Part 2)

I keep doing this: I set up a new 'series' or 'thread' as a Part 1 post only to  have Part 2 never materialize or show up extremely late. This is one of the later examples but this one isn't nearly as late as some other examples we could find on this blog. But, hey, at least I get back around to these things eventually. And that's what we have here today, an update on my Dwarf Miners. 

Command section.

Back in Part 1 I had made the statement that I was probably going to paint over all of these guys, but I had a change of heart when my young daughter said how much she loved the dwarfs with the pink beards. So I opted to keep the beards as they were: metallic pink. I think they turned out OK, but my daughter thinks they're the best thing ever so, who am I to challenge a 4 year old girl's innocent perspective?

The full line of eight.

With those guys as finished as I felt I was going to get them, I turned my attention to the two metal guys that I was going to use as filler to get the unit up to a ten man dwarf squad. But they look radically different. They project a completely more hardened vibe. And they look better. So, after I finished these two chaps I decided that I am going to track down more of these metal dwarfs to make a whole new unit out of them. Gee, I think the whole "dwarf miners" theme is starting to dominate my dwarf army. 

Two metal guys (cue bad-ass guitar solo).

Ok, I got to ask: does anyone know if someone out there has ever painted any dwarfs (dwarves if non-GW) in Disney's Snow White color scheme? Not that I want to do it, I'm just curious...

A Chaotic Encounter

 

Queen Helga confronts the Silver Jarl.

Determined to settle her most recent grudge, Queen Helga pushed her force deeper into The Wasteland hunting the Cathayan warhost that her force recently fought against. Unfortunately she ran into a far nastier foe: The Gray Reavers. A band of ruthless savages descending from the land of ice, snow and furry beasts led by the even more ruthless Silver Jarl. 

Somewhere in The Wasteland. 

The field of battle was grey and desolate. A small thicket of scraggly trees and thorn bushes grew on one end, while the crumbling ruins of a long forgotten settlement stuck out of the dry and arid ground of the other end. 

We both showed up with small armies totally 1250 points each.. 

The Gray Reavers. 

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Warriors of Chaos [1241 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, Warriors of Chaos, Open War

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++ Characters [317 pts] ++

Exalted Sorcerer [90 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Light armour

- Mark of Chaos [Mark of Chaos Undivided]

- Wizard [Level 1 Wizard]

- On foot

- Daemonology (randomized spell: The Summoning.) 

Chaos Lord [227 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Full plate armour

- Shield

- Mark of Chaos [Mark of Chaos Undivided]

- General

- On foot

- Giant Blade

++ Core Units [578 pts] ++

15 Chaos Warriors [228 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Shields

- Mark of Chaos [Mark of Chaos Undivided]

- Champion

- Standard bearer

- Musician

15 Chaos Warriors [228 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Shields

- Mark of Chaos [Mark of Chaos Undivided]

- Champion

- Standard bearer

- Musician

15 Chaos Marauders [122 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Shields

- Chaotic Cult [None]

- Formation [Close Order]

- Marauder Headman (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Special Units [346 pts] ++

Chaos Chariot [110 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Halberds

- Mark of Chaos Undivided

5 Chosen Chaos Knights [236 pts] 

- Lances

- Shields

- Full plate armour

- Barding

- Mark of Chaos [Mark of Nurgle]

- Champion

- Standard bearer

- Musician

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Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com]

Queen Helga's Entourage

===

Helga's Entourage  [1250 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, Dwarfen Mountain Holds, Open War

===

++ Characters [285 pts] ++

Queen Helga [177 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Full plate armour

- Shield

- General

- On foot

- Rune of Speed

- Rune of Cleaving

- 2x Rune of Shielding

Engineer [108 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Heavy armour

- Handgun

- Rune of Shielding

- Rune of Rapid Fire

- Rune of Accuracy

++ Core Units [355 pts] ++

10 Dwarf Warriors [115 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Shields

- Veteran (0-1 unit per 1000 points)

- Veteran

- Standard bearer

- Musician

10 Thunderers [115 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Handguns

- Heavy armour

- Veteran (champion) [Handgun]

- Standard bearer

- Musician

10 Dwarf Warriors [125 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Great weapons

- Shields

- Drilled

- Veteran (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Special Units [248 pts] ++

Cannon [110 pts] 

- Cannon

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Rune of Reloading

- Stalwart Rune

8 Miners [138 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Great weapons

- Heavy armour

- Blasting Charges

- Veteran

- Prospector (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Rare Units [218 pts] ++

10 Irondrakes [218 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Drakeguns

- Full plate armour

- Drilled

- Ironwarden (champion) [Trollhammer torpedo]

- Standard bearer [Rune of Battle]

- Musician

++ Mercenaries [144 pts] ++

3 Imperial Ogres [144 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- 1x Great weapons

- 2x Light cannons

- 3x Ogre pistols

- Captain (champion)

---

Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com]

Dwarf Deployment.

I wanted to change up Queen Helga's list from the last time I used it. With Helga herself I removed the Rune of Adamant and gave her double Rune of Shielding. This was an effort to try to free up points for things elsewhere in the list. One of the the most obvious additions to the list was the hiring of a trio of Imperial Ogres. Thankfully they made their pre-game roll and showed up on time and (allegedly) sober.  

Chaos Deployment.

I can't speak to the decisions Bob made for his Chaos force other than that he eschewed all missile weapons in favor of getting up close and personal. His Sorcerer rolled The Summoning for his pre-game spell selection. 

TURN ONE 

All of the Chaos force marches forward! 

The Dwarfs focus on a a unit of Warriors and pick off a few of them with shooting from the cannon and the Iron Drakes. The Thunderers did not net any kills. 

CHAOS TURN TWO

In the previous turn, the Imperial Ogres shot their Light Cannons into the woods hoping to hit the Chaos Knights that were smashing their way through it. They missed every shot. Now that they were being charged they Stood and Shot and again missed with each shot. The Chaos Chariot crashed into the unit of Dwarf Warriors on the board's edge but only killed two of them. In return, the dwarf counter attack rolled only 1's and 2's on the dice! Somehow, we managed to get a drawn combat our of that mess. 

DWARFS TURN TWO

Helga and her unit of warriors charge the Chaos Warrior unit. 

Helga Challenges the Silver Jarl who eagerly accepts the it. 

The result is that Helga loses two Wounds, and her Warriors didn't achieve enough kills to win the fight. The unit Falls Back in Good Order. 

turn 3

The Knights win the fight against the Ogres even though the Ogre Captain with his mighty double handed weapon damn  near wiped the floor with them. The CR determined that the ogres lost.. He fails  the break test and runs away. I can't recall if the Knights restrained themselves of just failed to catch him. 

Meanwhile another unit of Chaos Warriors join the fray as the Silver Jarl and his unit charge Queen Helga's unit again. Helga once again accepts the challenge from the Silver Jarl. 

Although she and her unit held firm, the CR of the opposing force was overwhelming and they ended up breaking. 

Both units pursued and ran down the retreating dwarfs.  Thus Helga was defeated again. 

Dwarfs Turn 3

During the rally phase the Ogre Captain rallied! He turned to face the Knights defiantly.  Finally, the Miners show up, however my placement of them could've been better as I had a tough time maneuvering the unit. I had a lot of shooting to perform but my dice rolling stymied my hopes for  gaining any sort of edge over these guys. 

In the close combat phase the Dwarf Warriors continued to keep the Chaos Chariot locked in combat. Bob said of the situation: "If it helps that's really annoying."  

Chaos Turn 4 

Chaos finallt gets the big charge that they've been aching for: three units manage to get charges off.. The Marauders charge the Iron Drakes (kill two of them with their Stand and Shoot option), The Thunderers kill a Chaos Warrior with Stand and Shoot. And finally the Ogre Captain chose to stand and shoot, he raised his pistol and brought down the Chaos Knight's Standard Bearer with a single shot! It was an awesomely heroic moment. However the Ogre was defeated by the Chaos Knights unit Champion. He used his follow-up move to get a bit closer to the Dwarf Warriors that have bogged down the chariot for most of the game. 

The Thunderers held against the Chaos Warriors despite their situation worsening, But more dramatically the Iron Drakes won their combat against the marauders and actually managed to run them down after they broke,. 

Dwarfs Turn 4

The iron drakes redressed their ranks to take full advantage of their firing potential and opened up on the Chaos Sorceror who found himself in their sights. Amazing he lived through that but the Troll Hammer Torpedo found it's mark and exploded him violently across the battlefield. 

Turn 5

The Knight Champion and Chariot finally killed of the unit of Dwarf Warriors over on my left flank, 

I managed to successfully snipe the Silver Jarl with a cannon ball, but he made his save! We imagine he swatted it aside like it was little more than a dodgeball., 

We called it there. it was clear to us that the dwarfs would have to have  a miracle happen in order for the dwarfs to turn this encounter around.  Just look at the difference in captured banners alone: 

4 Dwarf banners captured to 1 Chaos banner captured. 

The final tally once all the points were calculated was Chaos 1220 to Dwarfs 321. ouch. 

That's not to say that I didn't kill a lot, I did, It's just I didn't finish off enough full units for it to make a difference. 

Chaos dead pile.

Dwarfen dead pile. 

Still it was another fun game despite my dice begging me to turn them into slingshot ammo. I think I switched dice four times before settling on a set that wasn't straight up embarrassing me. I do think I have put Queen Helga through enough lately, so I am going to give this particular army list a rest. I'm not done with dwarfs, just done with this specific theme.

 My favorite dwarf unit of the game, despite it not working out the way I envisioned, was the Imperial Ogres. I think I want to try them out with just double-handed weapons and Ogre pistols next time I use them. My Canon did well, especially having the Engineer's re-roll which made a big difference to it's performance. I think I want to field my organ gun next time simply because I have yet to use it. But only if the Engineer is there to support it!

The Chaos side was pretty solid. Although the Marauders feel victim to "new model syndrome" and was the one unit the dwarfs successfully eliminated completely. The Silver Jarl has claimed his trophies and we shall see if he makes another appearance soon.