This was my 3^rd game of WFB and I decided to write up a battle report and hopefully get some good advice one what mistakes I made.  The first I think is my list.  I must have been jacking around with army builder and forgot to add equipment to my Lord.  No wonder I had so many war machines.  Also, I didn’t realize how cheesy 2 organ guns can be…so I won’t do that next time!  I included what the runes do because I posted this report on a non-dwarf site too.

• Lord – Great weapon, Shield-bearers…no runic items…wtf, mate?
• Thane – BSB, MRoGromril (1+ AS), RoPreservation (immune to killing blow/poison), RoResistance (re-rollable AS)
• Runesmith – Great weapon, shield, 2 dispels
• 19 Longbeards – Full command, RoCourage (immune fear/terror), RoDetermination (1 time 1D6 break test)
• 10 Quarrellers – shields
• 20 Warriors – Full command, shields
• 18 Hammerers – Full command, shields, RoStoicism(double unit strength), RoDetermination
• Stone Thrower – Engineer (re-roll misfire), RoPenetrating (+1 str), Flaming, RoAccuracy (re-roll scatter)
• Organ Gun – shredded cheddar
• Organ Gun – nacho cheese sauce
• Bolt Thrower – Engineer (BS 4), RoPenetrating, flaming
• Bolt Thrower – Engineer, RoPenetrating

I don’t know the exact list of tomb kings Sean (Shawn?) brought.  It was something like:

• King – some killer weapon
• Caster – bound item to cast another spell, flying cloak
• Bone Giant – note to self, do not let this thing charge….in your flank.
• Scorpion – bane of all my warmachines
• 2 units of chariots with bows and spears
• Light cav with bows
• 15-20 Tomb Guard with banner to allow reform
• 20ish skeleton archers
• 5 carrion
• Screaming Skull Catapult

Being my 3^rd game there were a few things I wanted to learn/improve on.

1. Deployment
2. Target selection
3. Challenges – how they work, when I should/shouldn’t, benefits/drawbacks
4. Unit positioning in the open field

Terrain was set up randomly.  I won to pick table sides and took the large hill simply because I was already standing there.  I really could have castled around it, but I wanted to work on combat mechanics and movement (see goal #4).

Right to Left –  Bolt thrower w/ burning, hammerers with lord, old school gob-lobber (stone thrower), OG w/ cheddar, warriors w/ Runesmith, Quarrellers, Organ Gun w/ nacho cheese, bolt thrower 2.

(Don’t mind his guys goofing around out in the middle…hadn’t been deployed yet)

His marker for the scorpion went about 7 inches in front of this organ gun:

Left to right:  Light cav w/ bows, chariots, carrion behind them, Tomb Guard with King, archers w/ caster, screaming skull catapult, bone giant, chariots:

I won the roll for first turn and decided to take it.  I figured I could get a few shots in as quick as possible.

Dwarf Turn 1:

All my combat blocks march forward.  OG moves up 3”.  Bolt Thrower takes 2 wounds off the Giant.  Stone Thrower lands a rock right on top of his catapult.  Scatter hits and the machine goes bye-bye.  I didn’t get the crew though, and he was nice enough to inform me that he can resurrect the machine with one of his spells.  I REALLY think now that I should have shot at the giant…concentrating my fire…doh!  First fail at goal #2.  Second bolt thrower whiffs shooting at chariots on the left.

Tomb King Turn 1:

Everything moves forward.  Carrion thought about flying out in the open to be able to charge the OG in the magic phase.  He decides against that in case I dispell the move and they are sitting right in the line of fire.  They move behind the hill and then are magic moved to the far left of the table.  I dispel reviving the catapult.  Archers kill 1 Longbeard.

Dwarf Turn 2:

Infantry advances again.  BT whiffs on bone giant.  Left BT kills a chariot.  Left OG kills 2.5 carrion.  Xbows wound a chariot.  Stone Thrower partial hits but fails to wound the bone giant.  ACK!  (you can see the scorpion marker in this pic)

Here I made a critical error.  I should have positioned my warriors so the chariot didn’t come crashing into their flank.  Also, I felt like my Hammerers are way out there.  He keeps the bone giant out of charge range.  In his next move the chariots just go running by them to hunt warmachines.

Tomb King Turn 2

He brings back the SSC.  I dispel his magic charge from the tomb guard into the warriors.  He tries it again, but they are out of reach and fail the charge.  That extra movement/shooting/combat in the magic phase is pretty brutal.  For some reason I used a scroll on his extra shooting spell.  I thought it was a good idea at the time.  The archers don’t really hurt the longbeards though so I think I should have let it go through.  Carrion Charge and kill the left bolt thower.  Overrun doesn’t take them off the table though…so they are right next to the OG.  Chariots smash into the warriors flank but only manage to kill 2.  I do nothing back, lose by 1 and hold.  Archers kill 1 LB in regular shooting.

Dwarf Turn 3

Sorry, no pic!

Organ gun rolls 8 hits and 7 wounds on carrion…nacho cheese is tasty.  Right BT whiffs on bone giant.  I destroy the screaming skull catapult again with my stone thrower, again.  I should have shot at the giant, I think.  Lesson learned.  The other OG rolls 10 hits but only 3 wounds on the tomb guard.  The warriors and chariots trade some wounds, I win combat by 1, and he takes another wound.  In hind sight, it might not have been so bad if I could actually break one of his units instead of just giving them more wounds.  Who knows?

TK turn 3

The Scorpion pops up.  GREAT!!  The tomb guard charge the warriors.  His magic phase allows his tomb guard and king to attack causing 1 wound on the runesmith and killing 3 warriors.  I dispel the giants extra move.  I wanted to get my longbeards into the T.G. flank, which left their flank to the giant, which I hoped would leave his flank to the hammerers, which became a giant mess that I came out on the wrong end of.

The scorpion kills the OG and pursues off the table.  The King whiffs attacking the runesmith but takes 2 wounds back on his failed “ward save”.  I lose the whole combat by quite a bit and break and get run down.  This doesn’t look good…

Dwarf Turn 4

Longbeards charge the flank of the tomb guard.  Stone thrower has a perfect guess on the chariots, but it scatters 10” into nowhere.  I should have just left it at that, but NOOOO…I re-roll the scatter hoping to hit and it ends up killing some quarrelers.  Doh!  Organ Gun hits 6 times and does 5 wounds on the chariots.   Longbeards win the combat by 7 and 7 more tomb guard crumble.  I really wish those units could flee and get me out range of the giant!

TK turn 4

The bone giant flanks the longbeards.  Lone chariot charges organ gun.  Other chariots charge BT.  His magic combat kills a longbeard.  He revives one tomb guard and heals a wound on the king.  My OG crew put 2 wounds on his chariot and kill it….hahahaha.  Other chariots kill the bolt thrower crew.  The bone giant has some cleaving attack when he charges.  I guess if he wounds he gets another attack.  And another.  And another.  And so on.  5 dead longbeards.  I challenge his king with my BSB (bad choice??) and we each score one wound.   I should have brought a ward save.  Immune to killing blow is nice, but he had a high str attack and even re-rollable AS wasn’t doing much.  I lose combat by 5 and use my rune of determination to hold.  Scorpion pops back up on the table, ready to get face punched by the organ gun.

Dwarf turn 5

I wheel my quarrelers so I can have a clear shot at the scorpion.  Good thing I did too, since the organ gun decides to misfire.  Great timing.  It doesn’t blow up though.   Stone thrower lands a shot right on the chariots but keeps rolling 1’s to wound.  Sigh…the shooting was bound to turn around at some point I guess.  BSB wounds the King, but is killed fairly easily.  I definitely think I did something wrong here.  Longbeards lose combat by 2, but they hold on.  I guess they are waiting for their hammerer buddies and the lord to hurry up and do something useful?  Seriously.  Poorly played.

TK turn 5

He kills some Hammerers from shooting.  King heals a wound.  4 more Longbeards go down and I break and get caught.  Pursuit takes him right into the hammerers.

Dwarf turn 5

OG wounds the scorpion.  Quarrellers kill a light cav.  My champion dies in a challenge to his champion.  I was hoping my lord could bust some heads, but it wasn’t to be.  He does wound the King, but the ward save throws the wound to one of the tomb guard.  I lose combat but hold.

At this point (actually quite a while ago) it is over.  His scorpion eats my stone thrower.  My guys kill his guys.  His guys kill mine…etc.  We didn’t tally up victory points since it was pretty obvious from the pile of models I had laying on the side of the table who won.

I learned quite a bit this game…and it was a lot of fun.  The guys at the store seemed happy to see that I didn’t sit on the hill and blow everything away.  With respect to my goals at the beginning:

1. Deployment — I need to protect my warmachines better.  Would a Dragon Slayer be effective against the scorpion?  I need to make sure my units are position a bit better to get into combat.  Maybe swap sides with the hammerers/warriors?
2. Target selection — I felt like the catapult was a valid target.  The giant is really nasty and should have had more attention paid to it.
3. Challenges – not really sure about this one.  I learned how they work, but still don’t understand what makes them effective.
4. Unit positioning — Getting flank charged sucks.  Is it worth flank charging an engaged unit if you know you yourself will be flank charged the following turn?

Next time I’ll drop an organ gun to put some more sharp stuff on my Lord.

Hopefully this wasn’t too long/boring.   Thank you very much if you took the time to read it.  Thanks even more if you post any comments/criticism!  I’m sorry the pictures aren’t really in a very coherent order.  Being a new player I was trying to pay attention to everything and forgot to snap pics a few times.  I’d eventually like to get my reports looking like DavidL’s.  Eh, maybe in a few hundred battles.

Also, I’m still working on painting everything.  Some of my Longbeards are posted in “The Forge” though.  =)