Ants Cheesy Odyssey

[Antony]

Having run through a few variations of Dark Elves I decided that I wasn't up to making a cheesy enough Dark Elf army. That is to say the ceiling for Dark Elves is so high I don't know what the air is like up there. So I settled on something with slightly lower aspirations (ha ha), but that could potentially foil the low model count armies that I expect. Also with the well deserved slagging Stunties have had on this forum it'll be put a bit of extra interest into each game.

Rune Lord, Anvil, Great Weapon, Shield, Ro Stone, Ro Furnace, 2 x scrolls - 384 pts
BSB, MRo Gomril, Ro Resistance, Ro Furnace, Ro Cleaving - 165 pts
Master Engineer, brace of pistols, Ro Furnace, Ro Cleaving, Ro Stone, MRo Challenge - 115 pts

10 Quarrellers, shields - 120 pts
10 Thunderers , shields - 150 pts
10 Thunderers , shields - 150 pts
20 Warriors, FC - 205 pts
19 Long beards, FC, Ro Stoicism, Ro Battle - 303 pts

10 Miners, std, mus - 125 pts
Cannon, Engineer, Valient - 125 pts
Grudge Thrower, Engineer, Ro Accuracy, Ro Penetrating - 145 pts

Organ Gun - 120 pts
Gyro Copter - 140 pts

2247 pts

Tune up
Having not played Dwarves in quite a while, and with an Anvil never, I had a tune up game vs Derrick and his WoC with loads of magic.

I deployed in a corner, in the prescribed Dwarven fashion. In my first turn or two I blasted a unit of knights and whittled down the Marauders with a combination of artillery, gyro. Eventually I Anvil rear charged a unit of Marauders with my Miners. This put Derrick in catch up mode, and to commit to a big scrum in the centre of the table which the Stunties won.

Having lost my Engineer earlier to Nurgle assasination, a turn 6 failed terror was by biggest loss as it accounted for the Warriors. Derrick had his Prince and Alter left.

This game, on Saturday pretty much sealed the deal for Stunties. Hopefully the next 9 games will be a challenge where the Stunites can punch their weight.

Game 1, Justin, Bretts
Although my depolyment was again in a corner it was nothing if not "sub optimal", with fireing lines all messed up. As it happened it didn't matter much as the Anvil, stone thrower and cannon all misfired in my first turn (although no 1s). This didn't help the Grail Knights who were reduced to a standard bearer and two characters after one salvo.

My cannon (unbreakable) held up one flank, and the missile troops held up the light Errant blocks sent their way. Eventually the large KotR block charged by Longbeards and BSB. They fluffed and were eventually run down. The Hippo Lord, who is unsuited to charging RnF was bogged down by Thunderers and flank charged by the Warriors, eventually broken, but rallying.

In the washup I had lost one and a half units of thunderers, the Cannon, Engineer and the Organ Gun. Justin lost his Grails, KotR, 3/5 characters, and a load of half strength Errant units.

Bring on the next cheesemonger

[Gratnuk Ironfist]

We are the stunties, no time for losers for we are the champions of the battlefield.

[Antony]

Game 2, Chris, Vamps

For a cheesy VC army, Chris was pretty light on magic, but started with big units. I started the game between a hill in the centre of my deployment zone and a piece of difficult terrain in the corner. Basically with my shooters lined up a couple of artilley pieces on the hill and my infantry separatingthe three missile units.
Chris had his big Ghoul unit (with all of his characters) and skellie unit opposite these, supported by the zombies, while the dogs and vargulf were way out on a flank. The black coach was hidden for the time being.

The fast stuff on the flank was only a march move or two away from cleaning up my artilley park, but some anvil blasting slowed down the dogs until they were anvil charged by the miners, and the vargulf was shot.
Meanwhile my gyro annoyed the hell out of the infantry until it was detryed by a stray stoene thrower shot 

By turn 5 chris reached my lines with only the Ghoul bunker fighting fit. Unfortunately an overrun move by my Warriors was 1" short (5 not a 6) and missed its flank, letting it charge my Longbeards. Ro Battle and Stoicisn means nothing if you suffer 7 wound from a vamp lord and don't have the numbers to out number any more, so they split, leaving me on turn 6 with nothing to shoot at or anything to do but shuffle to consolidate an extra table quarter.

I got all of Chriss' army except for his ghouls and characters (quite a bit there). He got my longbeards and BSB, the gyro and the stone thrower (panic).

[Simon]

I got all of Chriss' army except for his ghouls and characters

same here, and his unkillable lvl 6 black coach...

that unit is almost impossible to destory.. and half of his army is in that 1 unit..
it is gonna be really funny if Derick manage to casts Infermal Gateway with str 11 or 12 on that unit.

[Gratnuk Ironfist]

Meanwhile my gyro annoyed the hell out of the infantry until it was detryed by a stray stoene thrower shot 

You took the risk of hitting your own gyrocopter?

[Antony]

You took the risk of hitting your own gyrocopter?

Yep. Thats the price you pay for march blockers and stone throwers. Two reasons:

1. You (I) can't have a 10" radius no fly zone around what you're aiming at.

2. The event is all about total BPs not total net. So if I blow up my own gyro, it is not such a big deal if it is towards the end of the game when it has already inflicted close to max damage. The total BPs ecourages bloody play and is not for the risk averse.

Having said that I would rather I hadn't blown it up 

[Derick]

that unit is almost impossible to destory.. and half of his army is in that 1 unit..
it is gonna be really funny if Derick manage to casts Infermal Gateway with str 11 or 12 on that unit.

<Thread hijack >

I got it off 3 times, all it did was take out about 14 Gouls

[Simon]

I got it off 3 times, all it did was take out about 14 Gouls

if u roll 11 or 12 for str, the whole unit disappear.

[Derick]

If you roll a 7 each time, its only strength 7 and you only have 2D6 ... unless you know something I don't?

[Simon]

If you roll a 7 each time, its only strength 7 and you only have 2D6 ... unless you know something I don't?

Infernal gateway cast on 15+
pick an enemy unit, if that unit is within 24", takes 2D6 at strength of 2D6, if an 11 or 12 is rolled for determining the spell's strength value, remove the target unit and accompanying characters from play.

[Gratnuk Ironfist]

That is just a disgusting spell. Typical of chaos though.

Hey Antony, what do find performs better in most of your games the thunderers or the X-bows? I am really giving some serious thought to replacing my underperformin g thunderers with the more reliable X-bows.

[Derick]

Silly idea. Drop the cross bows, keep the thunderers.
Haven't you ever been charged by 1+ armour save Knigits?

Just get new dice.

[Simon]

Hey Antony, what do find performs better in most of your games the thunderers or the X-bows? I am really giving some serious thought to replacing my underperformin g thunderers with the more reliable X-bows.

thunderers >>> X-bows any time

[Derick]

my underperformin g thunderers with the more reliable X-bows.

What the difference is the BS between X-Bows and thunderers? 
Unless your letting your models roll the dice themselves this shouldn't be a performance issue.

If you problem is range - because your opponents are not interesting in coming anywhere near your fortress of dwarven stuntiness your just going to have to pound them with machines.

Your other option is to get a better army.

[wouster7]

What the difference is the BS between X-Bows and thunderers?

Stuntie Guns get a +1 to hit.
Damn cheesey sods... oh hang on it's cheesecon

[Antony]

Hey Antony, what do find performs better in most of your games the thunderers or the X-bows? I am really giving some serious thought to replacing my underperformin g thunderers with the more reliable X-bows.

Point for point they are about even.

Thunderers are +1 to hit so are way more destructive than the crossbows. The trouble with Thunderers is they are not much use if what you want to shoot with them is 24.5" away. If on the other hand you can encourage stuff to come and get you, then the Thunderers are worth it.

I will always but shields for them though. Combined with Anvil action they are great infantry.

[Fubar]

Well I know you wont be running from me it will be fun to fight against the stunties

[Antony]

Well I know you wont be running from me it will be fun to fight against the stunties

When we play, you know you're at the bus stop 

[Gratnuk Ironfist]

Well I will keep them for the next tournament (Runefang 2) and see how they go, but they are no where near as reliable as me X-bow rangers.

Antony, for your thunderers and X-bows, would a 12 dwarf unit be the biggest you would take in games <2250?
I just think it is really silly that they sell 16 in the boxed set. I used to use 15 thunderers until Philf gave me a serious bit of warhammer generalship mentoring about what makes an effective units size. Now I just sit around ten for both, but I might go up to 12 each as a limit no matter the size of the game.

[Antony]

10 is a convenient number. Go to 12 if you have the points.

As a general rule smaller units are more convenient. The trouble with small units is that they are easy to kill. So for Stunties, where no one wants to go near your big infantry blocks, you will loose the game if you loose your small units like missile troops and warmachines.

So although bigger units are more difficult to use and deploy etc. They start becoming more diffucult to kill. At some point, and this applies to all ranked missile troops, big units stop being easy to kill, and although they become less easy to use, they start being a bank of points that can't be got rid of (AKA points denial).

You may have seen this with glade guard, and TK archers. I've done it with DoW Xbows and DE RXBows, and I've seen 20 Stuntie Xbows.

In short, units of 10 or so are fine. Units of around 15+ with FC start becoming more difficult to use and to shift. Units of 20+ need a decisive blow to get points from.

[Antony]

Games 3, Levi, High Elves

Levi had a shooty magic army. I have a shooty combat army. After castling up on a hill in my deployment zone, and Levi doing the same in his deployment zone, he started and moved his Dragon Princes in front of the Organ Gun, and his Shadow Warriors loitering near it. Nothing else much moved, and the daunting magic phase ended uneventfully, mainly due to range issues. The RBT shooting was pretty effective though annhialating the crossbows who where shielding my Longbeards. In my turn the Organ Gun opened up on the Dragon Princes, but the other warmachines didn't do much.
In turn two the Shadow Warriors charged the Organ Gun, and tied it up for the rest of the game, eventually chasing it down. But with the Dragon Princes gone so had the main close combat threat, as the chariots were quickly shot up, and Levi was left with only ranged attacks, which were deminishing when the Miners got into the RBTs, and as units were whittled down to prevent look out sir rolls.
At the end of turn six the HE had collected the Gyro, Organ Gun, and RXB, but at the cost of all of the Elves.

[Antony]

Game 4, Glenn, Dark Elves

In a familier pattern of depolyment (that's why people don't play Dwarves) I was castled up, and also in a familier fashion, Glenn deployed his shades as close to the castle as possible in a wood, and a hydra as close as possbile behind them. Glenn started and moved the Shades close enough to the Longbeards to Anvil charge them, which they did. As a consequence the Shades broke and Hydra paniced. The Stunties could catch anything of course, but it bought some time.

The Dargon Lord popped out of hiding in turn two, and in turn three was encouraged to charge the unbreakable cannon. In my trun the Warriors flank charged the Dragon, but to no avail as they never won combat and were whittled away over the next few turns. The Hydra was shot up, and eventually most of both our support units.

On the last turn of the game, Glenn flank charged the Longbeards, but didn't scratch the BSB in a challenge, and was broken 

At the wash up, we had both lost 1400 or so points from kills, but I had few extra bonuses to sneak a moral victory.

[Gratnuk Ironfist]

When using the AoD, what runes do you tend to use most often?

I was looking at your list and wondering what type of runes you would most likely use, so would that be the wrath ruin and the re-roll break tests one? I was just asking, becuase besides the miners, there are not many units for the magical charge to be used for.

Congrats on the victories!! (insert beer drinking emoticon here)

PS: Why don't they have a beer drinking emoticon on this forum, they had it on an all dwarf forum I was part of.

[Antony]

When using the AoD, what runes do you tend to use most often?

There are three runes, the one that helps you out with fear and terror, the blasty one that slows down the target, and the movement one.
I use the blasty and movement ones in approximatley equal proportions.
With regards to movement, Dwarves with a 12" charge, are unexpected to say the least. Also the missile troops all have shields making them usefull flanking units. The Miners aren't the only ones who benefit from Anvil moves.

[Antony]

Game 5, Simons Demons

Stupid bloody game.
1st turn hubris I blew up my Anvil *gulp*
I deserve to lose from that point on and I do. What is surprising is that despite being on the back foot, which is why I did the big hit on turn 1, the Doofs were never really out of the game.

Apart from the Anvil blowing up, it was a standard Doof game plan. Simons BSB dodgeda bullet in turn 1 after a failed look out sir. And the Keeper dodgd one in turn 5 when a cannon ball staled in front of it.

The second turning point (after the Anvil) was the 6th turn charge by the Longbeards into the flank of the BSB Horror Bunker, which failed due to a -2 ld fear test *grumble grumble grumble*

In the end I got soundly smashed, despite being given every reason to hope for a draw.

[Vaul]

Is Antony Jr enjoying his visits to the club?  Which army are you getting him into first?

[Derick]

Rumour is William wants an army with transformers

[Antony]

Rumour is William wants an army with transformers

That would be right. It was Transformers vs Lego men on Sunday night. I won of course. But only after I wouldn't let him slide his troops over when mine were partially screened. He was about to start crying, but I told him to get over it and learn to play the game by the rules. He stopped snivelling after that 

 

[Simon]

That would be right. It was Transformers vs Lego men on Sunday night. I won of course. But only after I wouldn't let him slide his troops over when mine were partially screened. He was about to start crying, but I told him to get over it and learn to play the game by the rules. He stopped snivelling after that 

I didn't even know i can slide until AFTER the game and checked the FAQ, so i didn't say anything during the game becuase i didn't know so you are full of crap, but it won't make any different anyway. I would smash u either way.

u just angry becuase u can't beat me with your darkies, so u have to take your dwarf. U THOUGHT u had me with your castle on a hill but turn out I still smashed U.

[Vaul]

wow, calm down.  It was a game of warhammer, with miniature soldiers.  No point getting angry over it!  And the sliding thing is confusing sometimes, that's why it has generated a big thread.  It doesn't need to generate hard feelings yo!