Last night Ray came over and brought his long-collected but never-played Chaos Dwarf army. After years of fielding Vampire Counts he finally got to have a Shooting phase!
Anyway, so we played 1200pts and rolled up Battle for the Pass. Our armies consisted of the following, sans details and accuracy for the Dwarfs:
Ogres
- Butcher
- 5 Ogres
- 6 Irontguts
- 4 Leadbelchers
- 2 Mournfang
- Ironblaster
Chaos Dwarfs
- Sorcerer
- 25 Hobgoblins
- 20 Infernal Guard
- 4 Bull Centaurs
- Iron Deamon
I’m pretty sure that’s what he had. I’ve left out details like command options and character loadouts, as they may or may not come up later in the battle report.
So we deployed like thus:
Turn 1
The Chaos Dwarfs get first turn and begin by moving everyone up. The Sorceror gives everyone nearby Hatred, but otherwise the turn is over as the Ogres are all outside of Shooting range (thank goodness for slow Dwarfs!).
The Ogres on the right flank move up, while the two units on the left stay still, not wanting to get into charge range of either of those nasty Dwarf units. In Magic, Bonecrusher (magic missile) is dispelled, while I spend the rest of my dice to to dispell the Hatred spell. The Leadbelchers manage an average amount of shots at the Infernal Guard, but the only wound is saved on a 6. The Ironblaster does better, hitting the Iron Deamon (apparently he doesn’t like others running around the battlefield with “Iron” in their name) for 3 wounds.
Turn 2
The Centaur Bulls stay put, as do the Dwarfs, while the Iron Daemon and the Hobgoblins move up a bit. I manage to dispell the Hatred spell this time. In Shooting, the Iron Daemon does a hefty 6 wounds to the Ironguts, knocking out 2 models. The Infernal Guard with those cool shooty axes of theirs do 2 wounds on the Ogres, with a few other shots getting saved.
With a fierce battle cry the Mournfang charge into the Iron Daemon, and both the Ogres and the Leadbelchers charge into the Dwarfs. Trollguts, the spell giving Regeneration, is scrolled. The Ironblaster now targets the Bulls and drops one with a clean 3 wounds. In the left-hand fight, Impact Hits do nothing and no wounds are taken by anyone (despite the skulls in the image, which are supposed to be on the NEXT turn’s image!), and the Unbreakable Iron Daemon stays put. In the big melee the Dwarfs suffer Impact Hits, a bunch of weapon strikes, and then some Stomps, totalling 13 dead Dwarfs. In return, the Dwarfs manage a whopping 8 wounds on the Leadbelchers, leaving one with 2 wounds, but that’s it. The Butcher, looking to wound on anything but 1s comes up with…
Nice, eh?
Anyway, it’s all good as the Dwarfs pretty much need snake-eyes to stay, don’t get it, and Flee! 6″. Both the Ogres and the Leadbelchers follow up at 8″, chasing them down. It gets better (or worse if you’re siding with the Dwarfs) as the Hobgoblins take a Panic check for their friends breaking, fail on double 6s(!) and flee just a few inches, not enough to be safe from the stampeding Ogres, and are also wiped out. Two units in one fell swoop, and the Ogres only lost 2 models for it. I felt really bad for Ray, but he wanted to go on, the trooper.
Turn 3
The Bull Centaurs (I think that’s what they’re actually called) get into the Mournfang’s flank. With no Magic or unengaged shooters, we skip to Combat. The Mournfang manage a wound each on the Bulls and the Iron Deamon, but the Bulls deal 3 wounds to the Mournfang, killing one. The survivor runs but manages to land an 1″ away from the Bulls’ pursuit.
No (good) charges are possible, so the Ironguts move back 3″, the Ogres fail a swift reform and just reform, and the Leabelcher runs around to aim at the Iron Deamon. The Mournfang flees a little further. Magic…I forget what happens, but nothing came of it. The Leadbelcher rolls a 1 for shots on the Iron Deamon and then a 1 for wounding (apparently loading a single fork as ammo doesn’t do much). The Ironblaster, however, manages to drop a Bull, but fails to wound the second on a 1.
Turn 4
The Centaurs charge the Ironguts, and the Iron Deamon attempts a steam-driven move but only manages 6″ forward. In Combat the Ironguts drop one more Bull while losing 1 ‘gut in return.
The Ogres and the Ironblaster both charge the Iron Daemon, and the Mournfang flees off the table. The Butcher Miscasts with Trollguts, which takes out 2 Ogres. In Combat, the lower melee ends with a single Bull against 2 Ironguts, but I can’t recall how many wounds each has. In the other melee…you know, I’m not even sure if we fought it out…
At this point it was getting late and I had to run up and tend to my son, and by the time I got back to the table Ray was packing up. It was pretty certain that one way or another I was going to win, so he conceded.
While it did not look like it in the end, the Chaos Dwarfs are pretty tough. They can dish it out with great Weapon Skill, and their Toughness and Armour are so high that it’s not easy actually taking them out once you’ve hit them (which is also not easy). It’s just too bad that the Hobgoblins rolled that box cars for Panic, or else it would have likely been a different game.
But we both enjoyed it, and for me it was nice not having to face the Vampires again! Hopefully we can have a rematch soon.
Thanks for reading.
