They dye their beards orange as a mark of an oath broken.
The army itself was five blocks of troops. Trollslayers led the way, with the Strollaz Rune banner which allowed them to vanguard ahead of the rest of the force.
Behind them was my Dwarf Lord, held aloft by his Shieldbearers, and in the midst of a unit of Ironbreakers.
The center of the line was a horde of Warriors with Great Weapons. My Thane with Battle Standard is on the unit's right side, where his Master Rune of Grugni not only protected him, but spread its protection to the rest of the army--especially the unarmored Trollslayers in front.
On the left side of the compact force were the Irondrakes. They were the sole shooters, but that shooting was considerable. Their flaming, high-strength shots would definitely put the hurt on most any foe.
Behind them was another block of Warriors, along with the Dwarf Ancestor statue--this time using the rules for a Tzeentch Daemon Prince with the Lore of Metal.
My foes in the game proved to be two Undead Legions armies, but two quite different versions of undead. The first was led by the grand necromancer himself, Nagash. His force was a couple of things to bolster Nagash's spellcasting (a Hierotitan and a Casket of Souls), and then a number of blocks of infantry between ghouls and skeletons.
The other Undead Legions force was much more varied, with two Necromancers and two Vampires and a whole host of different units. While the center was massed ghouls and skeletons, they were surrounded by a great number of bats and wolves and the other beasts of the night.
Between the two Undead battle lines was a tower of blood, which incited both sides into both Frenzy and Hatred--making it a nexus of bloodshed.
The battle proved to be rather tentative at first. While my Trollslayers took fire from the Skeleton Archers Nagash commanded, most of the action was in the maneuvering while the armies tried to get into position to attack with advantage. All the early casualties I managed to inflict with my Irondrakes were simply returned to life by the magic spells of the Undead wizards.
By the end of turn four, things were pretty limited in the conflict. While my opponents had scored points, I had merely destroyed a single Corpse Cart with shooting. Though I also had only lost nine Trollslayers out of my whole force. But it was time to get stuck in--hanging back and "castling" with Dwarfs wasn't going to yield me any points.
That was made worse by Nagash's summoning spells. While my army was doing little, his was growing exponentially--like this unit of five Spirit Hosts. The worst part was that these summoned units awarded no victory points, so they were merely an impediment to success for the two forces that weren't doing any summoning.
At the end of turn four, the Dwarf general looked across the board and saw that foes simply were not getting close. Time to get those stumpy legs moving and get into the enemy's face!
The Trollslayers (iconically) were the first into the fray, but they made a poor choice for foe to attack: the Skeleton horde that was adjacent to the Blood Tower so they had both the Hatred and the Frenzy special rule. Despite their toughness and stubborn resolve, the dwarfs were losing the casualties race.
Things were better for the other Dwarf units. Both units of Warriors managed to crash into the front and side of the Ghoul horde. While those in front weathered the storm and inflicted a few casualties with their basic weapons, those on the side provided the sheer chopping power with their great weapons to completely dissolve the horde in a single fight. The only low light was the challenge: the champion of the sword-and-board warriors rose to the challenge of the Ghast, and was cut down like a punk (even though he was buffed by the Lore of Metal to have a 1+ save plus his parry).
With the Dwarfs out and about, that meant ratcheting up the pressure on them for the Undead forces rather than internecine warfare between the contrasting unliving generals. While the hordes player toyed with assembling units to harass and protect with raising spells, Nagash cut to the chase: summoning a Terrorgheist! With a burst of magical power, the beast sprung into existence adjacent to the Ironbreakers and proceeded to scream at them--rolling boxcars and slaying SEVEN of the Leadership 10 models in a single scream.
However, that magical expenditure came at a considerable cost. The Dwarf Runesmiths had arranged a trap, waiting for Nagash to use a spell with considerable power. They deployed a Trickster's Ring (a Triumph and Treachery card) to make him miscast his spell. And through sheer fortune, Nagash was drawn screaming into the warp with a dimensional cascade (the second time I've seen it happen to him). Given the sudden weakness of Nagash's force, the Vampire-led Undead and the Dwarfs started extracting what victory points they could in crushing his remaining forces before the game concluded.
The battle ended with 1050 victory points for me, but also exactly 1050 victory points for another of the Undead generals (non-Nagash). The Nagash army still managed to net 600. So it was an astonishing exact tie in a Triumph and Treachery battle. We were flabbergasted that we hit the same points total! It was a great and fun game, and again Nagash proved to be very scary in concept, but ultimately undone more simply than I ever would imagine. For my part, I definitely enjoy the much more "smash-face" variant of Dwarf lists. I'll probably use a bit more combined arms in the future, but it definitely is more to my liking than the gun line list I fielded last time. While it was a low-scoring game, I was also pleased to note that the total victory points I gave to my foes were 50, for a single won combat against the Trollslayers. Choosing a different opponent in a subsequent combat released my remaining four Trollslayers from that fight, and they survived to the end of the battle.
Also, this marks nine games of Warhammer thus far in 2015. Last year since I started recording I worked in 15 total games (starting around August). So I'm already well on the pace to beat that. I'm actually on the pace to play over 50 games this year, if I stick with nine every two months. That's a tall order, but I'm thinking about whether I want to try and make that pace! And I've got to pick up my painting if that's going to be the case.
Fully Painted Models
Skaven: 78
Dwarfs: 52
Battles
Total 2015: 9 (Win/Loss/Tie: 4/3/2)
Total 2014: 15 (Win/Loss/Tie: 8/6/1)
Skaven:
5 Wins (Undead 1, Empire 1, T&T Daemons and Dwarfs, Siege Dwarfs and Bretonnians, T&T Daemons and Empire)
7 Losses (Skaven 1, Empire 1, Dwarfs 1, Daemons 1, T&T Daemons 1, T&T Dwarfs 1, Special Game Nurgle)
1 Tie (Empire 1)
Dwarfs:
5 Wins (Dwarfs 2, Wood Elves 2, T&T Undead and Dwarfs)
1 Loss (Dark Elves 1)
1 Tie (T&T Dual Undead)
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