KOW Battlereport: Easterling Men vs Free Dwarves

Craig C was visiting Christchurch today, so we met up at the local wargames club for a Kings of War Game, his Easterling flavoured Kingdom's of Men army against my Free Dwarves.

Craig is organising the 'Oamaru Muster' Kings of War event in (suprisingly enough) Oamaru late June which I am looking forward to.

My Free Dwarf List was:

2 Ironclad Hordes with Mastiffs

2 Shieldbreaker Regiments with Mastiffs

2 Mastiff Packs with Mastiffs

2 Rangers (1 upgraded to Herneas's Elite Rangers)

3 Ironbreaker Cannons

Packmaster

Herneas the Hunter (using the newer Female ranger for him this game, so his sister Hernietta)

Bannick Kolearm

Craig's Easterling List was:

3 Knight Regiments

2 Mounted Scout Troops

1 Bowmen Regiment

1 Footguard Horde (Brew of Strength)

1 Giant

1 Allied Ogre Horde

General on Winged Beast

General on Horse

Wizard on Horse (Lightning Bolt, Boomstick)

The Game

Here's the deployment and Men have first turn. Scenario is Plunder with five objectives down the centreline. The middle and left objectives in photo below are worth 2 Victory Points each, and the other three 1 point each. Terrain generated from Epic Dwarf Map Pack as usual. 

Turn one both sides advance to gain tactical position, and exchange some fire, though nothing is wavered or destroyed. Three Dwarven Throwing Mastiffs and the Packmaster all target a Knight Regiment doing seven damage to it, but not enough to stop it.

My three Cannons all missed turn one, and turn two the Mounted Scouts ride down the first of them. However, the General on Winged Beast is killed by the two remaining cannon so that's a fair enough trade I think!

All three Knight Regiments charge home turn 2, destroying a Mastiff Pack, and doing 14 damage to the Ironclad Horde which nevertheless holds firm.

(Slight rules error here, I said the Knights had +1 Thunderous Charge here due to charging off the hill,  but checking the rules after the game I realised this only applies if the target is not on a hill - which the Dwarves were. This would not have changed the game as things turned out, but something to remember for next time!).

My Mastiff Pack wavers the Scout Troop opposite them with its Throwing Mastiff, and they pull back out of charge range.

In the centre my two regiments of Rangers and Hernietta fire volley after volley of deadly shots into the Foot Guard across from them. However, the Dwarven flanks start to cave in as Knights rout Ironclads on my left flank, and the Cannons are finished off by Scouts and the Giant on my right. I kill off one of the Knight Regiments, and damage another, but my left flank Mastiffs are run down by the Scouts in a lucky charge.

The Foot Guard routs from the Dwarven Ranger fire, and I advance in the centre to take the central objective with my Ironclad Horde. My Elite Rangers advance beside them towards the next objective, while the other Rangers prepare to sell their lives dearly to slow down the Giant and Ogres... Hernietta  takes on the Scouts by herself and wavers them.

My Shieldbreakers finish off another Knight Regiment but take nine damage as the last Knight regiment charges them, and whiff and only inflict only a single point to the Knights in return. My Packmaster is shot down by the Wizard and archery. Bannick and the Human General exchange blows but neither is able to gain an advantage.

Last turn!

On my left the Knights run down my Shieldbreakers, and on the right the Giant and Ogres rout my Rangers.  My turn, Hernietta routs the Scouts, and my Rangers contest the centre right objective with the Ogres.

Game fails to go to turn seven and so it is over! Men hold the left most objective for two points, and Dwarves hold the centre for two points. Other objectives are contested or not held so the game is a draw at 2 Victory Points each!

Conclusion

A fun close game which I was just able to save and turn into a draw, with Hernietta's wavering and then routing of the Scouts in the last two turns turning out to be crucial in stopping them running back to take the right side objective and victory. Nonetheless I think MVP's this game were probably the two Mounted Scout Troops for the Men, and Hernietta and Rangers for the Dwarves!

I did better with my Dwarves this time (their fifth game now!), by holding back, choosing better targets and planning ahead more carefully. Dwarves are an army one must have more patience with than the usual more aggressive armies I favour, which I guess suits their character well, if not my own! :)

Mistakes I made included that I should have scouted to the edge of the forest with my Rangers prior to my first turn in order to be in an optimum firing position from the start. Perhaps too I should have had a cannon on my left flank to help threaten units there, but the field of fire was limited which discouraged me from doing this, and maybe rightly so.

Edit: And Craig has added his own report here, check it out! :)

ADLG Battlereport: Seleucid vs Roman & Jewish

Making the most of holidays, an ADLG game today. Just the normal 200 points rather than 300. I used my Seleucids against Matt's Romans with Hasmonean Jewish ally. Here's brief report with photos.

My Seleucid force was once of those overly complex Selecucid assemblages of elephants, camels, scythed chariots, pike, cavalry, and lights. The Roman force was a more sensible one of two blocks of heavy infantry with a few supporting lights.

My camels, lancers and light horse press the Roman flank, while the scythed chariots mill unhelpfully around in the rear unable to get into action. The Romans advance their centre and other flank to oppose.

The Jewish light infantry gets ready to shoot up the Javelinmen protecting my Elephants.

The lines clash, elite Legionnaires facing the Pike. On the left my heavy cavaly defeats the first of two enemy cavalry, while the Numidians are forced back. My rightmost Elephant swings out to try and chase off the Jewish General.

Pike vs Legionnaires. A disastrous start as I throw three ones in a row for combats here...

Holes open in the Phalanx under the assault of the Legionnaries. My Army Commander leading the pike on my left defeats the Auxiliaries in front of him, but just to his left the Roman Cavalry General manages to defeat my Lancers.  On my right, despite being mounted the Jewish General manages to defeat my right most Elephant which has been weakened by slingers.

The Roman General swings into the flank of the Pike Block with my included General and breaks it. 

And on the other flank the Jews are successfully stampeding my elephants. Half my Pike are dead including my Army commander and with all the attrition already taken on other elements, my army breaks. Game over! Selecuids have reached their break point of 20, while the Romans have lost only 9/22 attrition.

So a defeat, but was pleased I got to use my camels (medium camels bow mediocre) for the first time in any real action, and they were quite helpful against the enemy horse. Poor tactics with my Scythed chariots who should have charged into something heavy on the chance of causing some disorder (not a great chance against Romans but better than nothing!).

KOW Battlereport: Abyssals vs Free Dwarves

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.

Vaughan also has two Succubi regiments which are making their way towards my left flank.

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.

On the left, Gargoyles break my Mastiff pack and Succubi waver 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....

But I fail to kill them....

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 :)