Time for another Warhammer battle report with my growing Dwarf Throng. A huge team battle that paired my Dwarfs with another Dwarf army against a combined Chaos Daemons and Tomb Kings force with 6,000 points per side. First up, new painting (not much this time, as this game was only two days after my prior game):
Female Runesmith
This model is a female Dwarf from Scibor Miniatures, a European miniatures company that does some amazingly complex sculpts in the same scale as Games Workshop miniatures. I wanted to add some female commanders to my army, and thus I converted this one with a shield swap (so it matched all the GW shields) and weapon swap. I'm pretty happy with the model, as it has the same size and general look of the others. Plus, it allowed me to field a third Runesmith--for all sorts of runes of spellbreaking shenanigans in the battle.
As for the battle itself, I had a 3,000 points list of Dwarfs that teamed up with 3,000 points of Tom's Dwarfs. We faced off against 3,000 points of David's Chaos Daemons and 3,000 points of Shelly's Tomb Kings. For the mission we got a diagonal deployment across the board, with Chaos/Tomb Kings deploying first right up at their line, and the Dwarfs taking a more withdrawn stance in their corner to match their defensive nature. Below are pictures of the battle lines and close-ups of units, followed by the events of the battle.
The combined horde of the enemy, bound together with Necromantic and Daemonic magics.
The stalwart line of Dwarfs, their strong axes and gunpowder weapons ready to banish their unholy foes.
Tom's Thunderers took cover in the tall building near our side of the line--clouds of smoke filled the air with their fire.
On the Dwarf left flank, Tom's unit of Trollslayers led by a Daemonslayer led the way, supported by a cannon and a block of Warriors.
The center of the battle line was mixed, with my forces providing a bristling shooting line at the very front, and Tom's heavy infantry ready behind to counter-charge should the unholy foes break through at any point.
The right flank of the Dwarfs featured my units led by my own block of Trollslayers accompanied by a Daemonslayer. Tom's unit of Hammerers with a Runesmith held the very rightmost side of the line.
The enemy's Daemons of Chaos were varied yet uniformly vile in their countenance. Units of Bloodletters and Plaguebearers held the line side-by-side, commanded by a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch behind them.
The Tomb Kings were led by the the massive chariot of Settra the Imperishable, commanding an enormous group of deadly chariots with him--plus blocks of skeleton warriors following behind. Though their unholy deals were evident, as they were supported by a Great Unclean One.
The waves of Skeletons and Khornate daemons seemed endless. A second Daemon Prince--this one bearing the Mark of Khorne--led the left side of the force.
Two units of different vile magic: the Casket of Souls for the Tomb Kings with its withering, age-increasing magics, and a massive Soul Grinder of Tzeentch--it's warped arcano-techno form able to project disgusting gouts of phlegm.
Three Bloodcrushers of Khorne lurked behind a forest, ready to ride their massive, molten brass steeds into the heart of the Dwarf lines.
The ranged support of the armies: Screaming Skull Catapult and Skeleton Archers for the Tomb Kings, and the Blue Scribes of Tzeentch (with a great conversion using D&D miniatures Abyssal Maw figurines) and a Skullcannon of Khorne (using the very old Chaos Cauldron of Blood miniature from Armorcast--a company that did 40k-scale vehicle versions of Epic models).
One of the special rules for the scenario was that we had to roll a die for each unit and character, and on a result of a "1" it was delayed and entered as reserves. The Dwarfs had a unit of Warriors and an Organ Gun affected, while the enemy had a bit more left off--the Tomb Kings especially. One of their Liche Priests and a Hierotitan were delayed (pictured arriving above) as well as a unit of Tomb Guard and a Colossus.
The Daemons of Chaos found themselves similarly delayed: this unit of Pink Horrors was busy crafting their daemonic spell mastery and bickering with each other about the nature of true illusion to arrive to the battle on time.
Because the Daemons of Chaos and Tomb Kings had deployed first, they nominally got to take the first turn. However, the Dwarfs managed to steal a march (rolling a six result to start the game) and go first instead. Their thundering fire started to damage the foe, only to be met with a charge from Daemons and Tomb Kings alike on the foe's first turn. On the right flank, the Bloodcrushers collided with the Hammerers. While many Hammerers fell to their attacks, the unit stubbornly swung back and managed to demolish two of the daemonic beasts themselves. Eventually the Hammerers cleaved their way through the foes, though not without time and serious losses of their own.
In the center, my unit of Slayers--with a Daemonslayer and four Giant Slayers--that had advanced with Vanguard found themselves attacked from the front by Settra and his charioteer battle standard bearer and on the side by Bloodletters of Khorne. The Slayers died in droves, but they fought back with deadly precision even in their dying moments. After the first combat, they had lost almost half their number but they hung on--and in the latter combat they crushed Settra's assistant and a number of the Daemons, causing the remaining Daemons to disappear and Settra himself to crumble into dust.
On the left flank, Tom's Trollslayers led by a Daemonslayer were charged by a unit of Bloodletters and a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch. The Daemonslayer lived up to his name--taking two wounds from the deadly Daemon Prince's attacks but utterly cutting him down with his return attacks. The Bloodletters fared the same in this instance as the last--finding that cutting down a Slayer was as problematic as not, able to put out a lot of wounds on the Dwarfs but taking an unsustainable number themselves. While they hung on and continued fighting, the odds continued to be in the Dwarfs favor.
The Tomb Kings' Skeleton Horse Archers used their speed to attack the Dwarf Cannon in retribution--the first turn of the game the cannon managed to completely destroy the Casket of Souls. And while they had numbers, fear, and deadly mounts, the Undead were unable to shift the resolute crew. The next turn they were counter-charged by the Dwarf Engineer who was nearby, and slowly destroyed by the crew.
The Plaguebearers found the Irondrakes to be both deadly in their shooting and tricky in their defenses--their magical runes of slowness on the standard caused the Daemons of Nurgle to fail in their charge attempt--yet still suffering a stand-and-shoot reaction. As their numbers dwindled from ranged fire, the Daemons nevertheless continued to press the Dwarf line.
The other Daemon Prince (this one marked by Khorne, and a great conversion from a Warcraft figure), enraged by the death of his precious vanguard of Bloodcrushers, rushed headlong into the Hammerers himself. While he killed a fair number of them in his attacks, their stubbornness and retaliation strikes with heavy two-handed hammers proved too much and he fell defeated.
The Dwarf Miners turned up on the second turn, thinking they would strike at the ranged units that the Tomb Kings and Daemons had left in their backfield. However, they had miscalculated and forgotten about the reserves of the Tomb Kings themselves: a unit of Tomb Guard mummies and a Colossus appeared behind them. The Dwarfs, now trapped between the enemy forces, were shot to pieces by the great bow of the Colossus and the vile phlegm and harvester cannon of the Soul Grinder--only to find themselves pinned and destroyed by the Khorne Skullcannon and Tomb Guard in combat.
With a rumble under the earth, the Tomb Scorpion showed up briefly--only to disappear under the sands again with a delay mishap on its burrowing chart. The Longbeards had been nervous about the foe, but he would prove to not emerge again until the end of the game when it was too late for his deadly pincers to make a difference.
With both Daemon Princes dead and Settra the Imperishable suddenly entirely perished, the Great Unclean One decided it was time to carry the forces of destruction on his pox-ridden shoulders. He crashed into the few remaining Slayers with reckless abandon. My Daemonslayer waited within his unit, ready to strike the killing blow against such a deadly fiend with his runic weapons and abilities designed for just such a fight. Instead, he watched as the Greater Daemon not only smashed his unit silly but then stomped him to death--while his own blows only managed to inflict two wounds on the deadly beast. While he died in glorious combat--alone against a Greater Daemon--it was still sad that he failed to defeat the creature he was literally named to slay.
The Great Unclean One was then suddenly able to terrorize the entire Dwarf line. The unit of Warriors that had been delayed showed up only to be right in his line of progression. Tom's Organ Gun tried to help out, but it was unable to damage the gigantic foe--it crashed into the unit of Warriors with devastating effect, slaying eight of their number without a single wound himself. Only the nearby presence of the Battle Standard of Goth One-Eye saved them from fleeing (stubborn is absolutely a Dwarf's best friend).
Meanwhile the Hammerers ran forward into a unit of Tomb King Skeletons--their binding magic raising not only their own from the sands but those who perished on this soil as well. The Hammerers proved to be true to form as their prior combats: taking casualties but dealing back death double--they ended the game having finally ground through the Skeletons but only with four of their own remaining--too small to play a further role in the battle.
The Great Unclean One continued his assault, dropping Dwarf Warriors in droves. It was only as the unit of Warriors with great weapons charged that success was had. Both the Thane Battle Standard Bearer and the Runelord failed to damage the monstrosity--but it was the core of good old great axes that managed to fell the beast from behind. It had wiped out all but two of the Warriors from the unit before it, but its body fell with a sickening crunch from dozens of axe wounds from behind.
Tom's unit of Trollslayers continued their assault by crashing into the necromancy-infused Hierotitan. Their willingness and ability to strike down even the largest foe aided them here, demolishing the towering construct even as their axes bit and blunted on its stone form.
The Dwarf Quarrelers charged forward, but met their match against the Tomb Guard and Pink Horrors. While they managed to wipe out the Tomb Guard with their heavy great weapons, the Pink Horrors charging them in the side was too much for them and they fled. They fled as the game ended--scattering before the Daemonic threat.
The game ended with a fairly resounding victory for the Dwarfs. Tom had lost only his Daemonslayer, and while I had suffered severe casualties in many units, only my Trollslayers, Daemonslayer, and Quarrelers were destroyed at the end of the game. Meanwhile, the Daemons of Chaos and Tomb Kings had taken considerable losses at the hands of the Dwarf artillery and sturdy Dwarf infantry. Two critical factors to Dwarf success from the enemy's side: one, the Tomb Kings battle line was interrupted by some of their units being in reserve from the start by the scenario; and two, woefully poor magic phases for the enemy. I brought three runes of spellbreaking, and only ended up using two. On turns when they had dice, the Dwarfs managed to dispel. But on many turns, the Daemons and Tomb Kings were left with a poor pool or lack of decent targets. And for their own side, the Unbreakable Trollslayers and Stubbornness that was present through the rest of the army proved again and again to be the strength of the Dwarf force--they rarely budge. It was a great game, with great players to match up against. It was also a lot of fun to see some new armies with lots of exciting conversions and old models (Settra's chariot was the old Undead one complete with tailfins and the original banner).
Battles
Total 2015: 19 (Win/Loss/Tie: 12/5/2)
Total 2014: 15 (Win/Loss/Tie: 8/6/1)
Skaven:
7 Wins (Undead 2, Empire 1, T&T Daemons and Dwarfs, Siege Dwarfs and Bretonnians, T&T Daemons and Empire, T&T Dual Undead)
8 Losses (Lizadmen 1, Skaven 1, Empire 1, Dwarfs 1, Daemons 1, T&T Daemons 1, T&T Dwarfs 1, Special Game Nurgle)
1 Tie (Empire 1)
Dwarfs:
11 Wins (High Elves 1, Lizardmen 1, Dwarfs 3, Wood Elves 2, T&T Undead and Dwarfs, T&T Lizardmen and Wood Elves, T&T Chaos Legions and Lizardmen, Team Daemons and Tomb Kings)
2 Losses (Dark Elves 1, Empire 1)
1 Tie (T&T Dual Undead)
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