Another PBEM game on UB2 with Dave Fanning
Lists
Thoughts on Lists:
Dave: This is just an add on from my CoK22 list I took in January. I’ve added the ice naiad horde and thegn and hopefully this list keeps the good balance of survivability and high CS to get a win as I’ll been needing lots of CS2 or more to get through these dwarves. I’ve not used mind fog before so this will be an interesting test to see if I can get much out of it.
Matt: I’m taking a list that I currently have models for as I’m getting ready for an event. The idea is not for high output in attack but more of a shooting survivability bias. It doesn’t tend to lose big which is good.
Deployment:
Dave: I’ve tried to stretch Matt out in deployment and I think with my superior movement I can pincer him up nicely. Outside of stick the naiads in terrain I haven’t thought much about precise placement.
My main concern will be moving into position while limiting his mastiff damage.
Matt: I knew I wanted to clump two of my tokens together and then basically compete for those plus the centre token. I won the roll for side and took the bottom mostly thinking about the sharpshooters stacking in a corner and getting half the board to look at. My preference was to clump my tokens to the right but I buggered it up with keeping them close together and had to end up doing that on the left. I decided not to compete strongly for Dave’s bottom two tokens or my right, put I would put enough heat over there that he wouldn’t be able to come across easily. Instead I decided to deploy more heavy centre with enough US to protect the left hand tokens and hope to win a war of attrition there.
Turn 1 Matt:
I did a staggered push forward. From left to right I moved the left ironclad their four in terrain and pushed the iron guard and berserkers forward to control the space of the frostfang more. I deliberately brought the ironguard in range of the icekin if they wanted a terrible charge. The wingbane character pushed forward to threaten the ice kin hunters also. The battle driller moved onto the hill. I kept the horde behind the hill as didn’t want to risk both units of hunters shooting them just yet. The centre pushed forward as did the mastiffs and beast slayer character. The rest held firm. I’m leaving the brock riders back as a threat to try and draw Dave towards the right with his block above.
Shooting: The sharpshooters went at the dwarfs aiming to take US off a soon as I can, only doing two wounds. Golloch hit the hunters on 6s due to moving and cover did one wound. Both nerve checks failed. As i have played the dwarfs more and more I’ve learnt the value of chipping away with the shooting to allow my lack of crushing to have a chance in combat
Turn 1 Dave:
Well, I stuff up by scouting my middle ice kin unit, so I’ve tried to chaff up his dwarf regiments and re-deploy left. I’ve piled on shooting into his berserker brock lord on the left for 2 reasons, it’s the only inspiring over there and it’s the lowest defence.
I’ve moved up across the board, looking to start engaging some units from next turn, I mind fogged the right mastiff unit, bit failed to even let the spell go off.
I’m reasonably comfortable that the naiads have locked down their objective, so I’m looking now to collect my right two tokens, while defending my left flank.
Turn 2 Matt:
I was conflicted on how I would move this turn. My plan is to basically ignore the naiads and deal with them last. In the end the left hand ironclad crept forward to shoot their mastiff. The ironguard moved forward and positioned so the more dangerous units couldn’t get into a flank. The wingbane cloak character charged the ice kin hunters. The battle driller stayed where it was with the horde moving onto the hill. The middle ironguard charged the snow foxes. I had toyed with the rionclad flanking them but the reposition would have left me exposed. The two mastiffs moved forward to continue drawing the trolls to the bottom right. The Beastslayer character backed up and the brock regiment repositioned slightly.
Shooting: The two mastiffs on the left did 6 wounds to the dwarfs who were saved on a re roll. The mastiffs from mastiffs on foxes (that’s a mouthful) did 9 wounds and killed them. A combined mastiff and golloch fire took off the twilight kin hunters. The sharpshooters did another 4 wounds and a lucky ten twice took off the right hand dwarfs. A pretty delicious turn for me.
Combat: The beserker lord did 5 wounds to the hunters and the ironguard did 8 wounds on the foxes and over ran 6 inches.
All in all Dave had lost 8 unit strength this turn he is very likely to get his two tokens on the bottom right but now the likelihood of me being able to protect the rest has increased significantly.
Turn 2 Dave:
What the hell happened…. Loosing 8 US in a turn is sucks and it is hard to come back from, but I have faith in Matt’s ability to roll double 1’s for me when I really need it. Experience all those dogs in 1 turn is brutal, I for some reason thought I was out of range of the regular mastiffs (not the throwing kind) but as usual miss read the unit entry to my detriment.
I still have my trolls and lords on FF so I can still threaten his edge. I for some reason here decide its best to charge Hrimm head on into Golloch in an attempt to 1 shot it…. 10 plus d6 attacks base, plus slayer d6 sees me pile on 11 wounds, but the inspiring reroll saves its skin….. and now is the time I realise I’ve just left Hrimm open to a shield breaker horde flank…. What the hell was I thinking…
I charged one of my trolls into an ironclad regiment as they are CS2 and if I did remove them would open a big hole in Matts line which I hope to exploit, however they manage a waiver on the re roll as well
In other events, the ice kin hunters added a few more wound but failed to break the Berserker lord on Brock
Turn 3 Matt:
I think Dave missed an opportunity to charge his trolls and frosty forward and at least claim the tokens here on the right which probably means I win comfortably from here.
11w on Golloch took me by surprise I wasn’t paying attention to Slayer. Hrimm is a god damn beast! Thankfully I survived it! I repositioned on the left so the frost lord still couldn’t complete a flank. I hoped to finish off the ice kin with my brock lord and shuffled the battle driller forward to threaten. The shieldbreakers charged off the hill into hrimms flank, golloch failed the HS roll. The ironguard turned to threaten the rear of the trolls, whilst the ironclad also failed their HS roll. On the right one lot of mastiffs charged the thegn the other charge the trolls, the brock lord charged the frosty. The brocks repositioned forward and the sharpshooters moved forward.
Shooting: The ironguard threw their mastiff into the trolls for 2 wounds.
Combat: The brock lord did 4 wounds on the icekin but rolled a 3 and failed to waver. The shieldbreakers did 30 wounds and crushed Hrimm suck it you big loser
The mastiffs wavered the thegn and both other units failed to waver their opponents.
Turn 3 Dave:
Turn 3…. Why does it feel like this game is already over…? Ah that right, because it is… So Hrimm died, my trolls are left in the open with no support…. Sounds like its time for some hail marys…..
I didn’t want Matt’s Brock rider regiment to get the jump on me so I charged into it with my lord on frost fang, piling on 7 wounds but failing to break them…. First hail mary failed.
Next, I threw my other lord on frost fang into his other ironclad regiment again racking up wounds but I missed the nerve check as well… 2nd hail mary failed…
My ice kin hunters again fail to break the berserker lord on brock standing right in front of them, doesn’t really count as a hail mary… but really…. How have they not finished him off by now? Maybe their ice blades have melted in the heat of this battle?
Both my troll units made short work of their opponents however I was chaffed up on the right and would rather be supporting my lord on frost fang, and the ironclad regiment was nearly ready to break regardless.
Turn 4 Matt:
On the left the shieldbreakers took the top charge on the clansmen. The berserkers took a hindered flank on the frosty with the countercharging ironclad. The brock lord withdrew and charged the naiads instead whilst the battle driller went into the ice kin hunters. The triple charge in the middle was too good to miss and the brocks and brock lord took on the wounded frosty.
There was no shooting this turn
In combat everything that got charged other than the naiaids and bottom left frosty died and I’m looking pretty comfortable
Actually footage of my dwarfs demolishig Dave’s army.
Turn 4 Dave:
Don’t worry… any second now Matts going to double 1 a critical combat and I’ll make a comeback… right?… right?
Well anyways, after Matts Berserker lord on brock rolled through my ice kin, I hit back with my naiads and took him off…. Then rolled a 6 for overrun and had a go at his battle driller but failed to break it, (now originally, I rolled this combat out unhindered and took it off, gloating pretty comprehensively until I realised…. Being the gentleman that I am, re rolled the combat and only managed the one wound, so this unit is toast as its looking down the barrel of a flank and multi charge into the front.)
I did manage to get mind fog off on golloch this turn, but again rolled low on the reroll.
My Trolls on the right got vengeance for their lord and turned to face the other Berserker lord on brock and also picked up the token.
Look from here its thin, My lord on frost fang on the left cleaned up the ironclad and now is facing a berserker troop, I’ll need Matt to really fluff this roll or just straight up double 1 is and then I’ll need to hit back by 1 shotting it to stand a change, Now hopefully My trolls can claim that other token on the right and potentially I’ll draw this game…. But I really don’t like my chances.
Turn 5 Matt:
I got off wild charge 3 on both the berserkers on the hill and golloch so its time to bring the pain. The naiads died to a multi charge. The thegn and trolls died. Time to call this one I think
Turn 5: Dave:
Opening the chat log from matts turn I read the first line “ok wild charge rolls…” Fark out I totally forgot about wild charge, as just over 11 inches away from his berserker troop on the hill I thought my trolls where safe, but now he needed a 2 and his hitting me in the rear… naturally he gets a 3, and the next line reads “good night sweet prince” with just 1 scoring unit left of the board I had no hope so we called it and discussed how many… and I mean many, mistakes I made this round.
Wrap up:
Dave: Mind fog is not what I need in this list, the range is cool but without lots of shooting I didn’t get it into play well enough. Outside of that, this list just suffered from user error.
I really needed to not scout, and honestly not deploy them in front of a hill (not my worst miss-deploy but close), I needed to keep the 24-inch separation to maximise time I could pepper on wounds before I hit the dog zone.
As for all the throwing dogs, I really gave Matt too many options, and he took advantage of them all.
I probably should have looked to use terrain better, actually chaff up his units and then follow through with my force to strike on the second wave
Charing out Hrimm was a mistake… no idea what I was thinking there, and yeah also my chargge into the berserker broc regiment was an unfortunate reminder of the individual rule as I really didn’t expect to get countered with his berserker lord on broc as well as his regiment.
I’d like to face his list again, but playing a lot smarter now that I’ve dusted the cobwebs off, (I think I’ve had about 1 game in a month).
Matt: I think I had a pretty solid plan from the start. If Dave had charged forward and got those tokens I am confident he would’ve still been too far out of the game to do anything so I’m pretty happy with my play on this one.