Holiday's here and gave my new Free Dwarves an outing in their first game today, against Vaughan playing his first game with his new Abyssals!
My Free Dwarf list was:
2x IronClad Regiments
2x Shieldbreaker Regiments with mastiffs
2x Ranger Regiments with mastiffs (1 Herneas's Elite Rangers)
2x Ironbreaker Cannon
1x Mastiff pack
Herneas the Hunter (using the new Female ranger for him this game, must be his sister, Hernietta)
Banick Kolearm
Vaughan's Abyssal list was:
2x Moloch Horde with Imps
2x Succubi Regiment
1x Abyssal Guard Regiment
1x Flamebearers Troop
1x Gargoyles Troop
Chroneas
Efreet
The Game
Here's the setup, with the plunder mission. Five objectives across the centreline, with the egg and the monolith two victory points each, and the other three one victory point each.
I win first turn, and have done my scout moves and had first turn. Realising I have a shooting heavy force with these Dwarves, I mostly hold back and concentrate on blasting the Abyssals. On my right I also have some good cover for Hernietta and her Rangers.
Molochs, Chroneas and Flamebearers in the Abyssal centre, some great looking units from the Wrath of Kings line Vaughan has here, including some nice 3d printed Abyssal looking terrain bases :)
Abyssal first turn sees a general advance, and I realise that most of their units regenerate (my own Abyyssals are mainly Succubi which don't!). Thus I really need to concentrate fire better and take them out one at a time to stop them doing this! Flamebearers flame my central Shieldbreakers doing some damage and the Cloak of Death from Chroneas also does a point.
Second turn and we are already in combat, I pound the Abyssal units ahead with shooting, and my Shieldbreakers thump into Chroneas doing some damage. On the left my other Shieldbreakers and Mastiffs charge and waver the first Succubi regiment, but Succubi have Fury ability so can still counterattack.
Abyssals second turn and almost their whole line charges, with Molochs crunching into my Ironclad doing ten damage to each unit and wavering them... Chroneas kills my Shieldbreakers.
My turn 3, my three wavered Dwarf regiments all pass their Headstrong checks (Headstrong is the main Dwarf special ability!), and two charge back in, while the third falls back to let the Cannons blast away. The Cannons and Banick waver the first Moloch unit which won't be able to charge now at least. My Rangers and Hernietta also shoot down the Abyssal Guard on my right. My Elite Rangers charge Chroneas and damage but do not kill him.
My left Shieldbreakers take out the first Succubi unit (the 11 damage behind the Succubi below is from them), but are now about to be sandwiched between the next Succubi unit and the Gargoyles.
Abyssals turn 3 and my left Shieldbreakers and an Ironclad Regiment are lost, and the Efreet and Flamebearers pile damage onto my Rangers.
My turn four, Hernietta has had enough of the Efreet and jumps the hedge to give it a good smack. She doesn't kill it, but at least it won't be able to cast its 'Fireball 15' next turn! My Ironclads flank and kill the first Moloch unit (and thanks to Vaughan for pointing out this charge to me as I didn't see it!) with some assistance from Banick. My Elite Rangers manage to kill Chroneas with their two handed hammers, and my other Rangers shoot down the Flamebearers! Things have gone from looking terrible to rather optimistic!
Turn four for Abyssals and the Gargoyles swoop in and kill a Cannon, and the Molochs kill the Ironclads.
Turn 5 my remaining cannon gets lucky and hits and destroys the Gargoyles. My Rangers and Banick charge the Molochs hoping to kill them and claim the central two objectives....
And instead they kill my Rangers...
And that was the game! And reviewing it now I think I recorded the turns wrong and there should have been another one, but we thought it was turn six and rolled and failed to go to turn 7 so ended it there. We added up the victory points at this point, and Vaughan had 3 points and I had 2, so victory to the Abyssals! Well done Vaughan.
Conclusion
A fun and useful learning game for both of us, with Vaughan seeming to have a very good handle on things already despite this being his first game. And thanks to him for suggesting to me a potentially game winning flank attack on turn four!
Lots of lessons for my Dwarves here, like concentrate shooting on regenerating units otherwise it is wasted, and use your throwing Mastiffs (60 points wasted this game, though three of the four units with them ended up in combat before they could use them!). Edit: and as another local Dwarf player Gordon has pointed out, Free Dwarf Shieldbreakers have Pathfinder but not Headstrong, and giving the Rangers Mastiffs is pointless because you can only use one ranged attack a turn! Abyssals I thought could probably benefit from an inspiring source or two but they mostly managed ok without it this game.
Anyway overall a fun and tense game, good times thanks Vaughan :)
Great looking game.
ReplyDeleteCheers Craig!
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