Game 14
Scenario: Push
pts 2300
The Lists:
List Thoughts
Dave:
So I’ve noticed a tendency in my play to default my mindset back to kill, I know I’m not winning an attrition war with halflings, so I’ve taken out nearly all my hammers and built a list around delaying and maintaining field position.
I’ve adding in some mighty individuals as I think they will come in useful for blocking and bouncing around the lines causing havoc. I’m trying greedy guts for the first time as I want to see how well he can hold up combats.
I’ve also added in some artillery, mainly because I thought we were playing 2000 pts but when I loaded up Matts list I noticed I was short and scrambled in an extra 300pts with 2 howitzers and another rifle troop, (I drop the banner of hodenburg and juggled some items too)
Matt:
For those of you that read game 14 you’ll see some shieldbreakers have gone in favour of a horde of earth elementals and a stone priest with surge and scorched earth. Again tuning it in a way that fits with models I have because even though I have a bunch more dwarf models to paint I’m not going to have time on top of the Counter Charge challenge.
Normally I don’t add to my bits after reading Dave’s but it’s nice to read that he is finally starting to listen about the lists. I feel he’s maybe gone too far down the trash path but we will see. Aeron in particular I think isn’t worth it.
Deployment
Dave:
So out dropping Matt pretty comprehensively I’ve thrown down the majority of my force in the center with a kind of checker board deployment. I’ve got my rifles ready to hit the hill and get good lines of sight, and my last few drops were my mini contingent on the right.
Matt:
So when Dave picked bottom I knew that I would try and use one of my EE Regiments as my token caddy and that I would start in the forest on the left and move forward because would have limited ability to deploy next to the building. The next was just then what formation to deploy the rest and the idea was to make craggoth super annoying by deploying amd marching up the middle. I held him back until I was relatively sure this woldwortk.
My plan
Dave:
I don’t expect to kill Matt, i just want to block him up and slide my brave unit on the right over the line. As for the centre force, I need to delay and die slowly in front of Matt to keep his token on his side of the board. If I can do that I win 6-4
Here is my pre game speech to the troops
Matt:
Phase 1: Def 6 carries tokens and hopefully doesn’t die
Phase 2: Shoot the right side using the king as re director/hold up
Phase 3: Craggoth takes the middle
Turn 1
Matt:
My scout had put me on the central token immediately so craggoth moved slightly to be able to shoot the rifles and then picked it up whilst staying out of charge range of those slow halflings.
Herneas Rangers had scouted to allow shooting at the EJ’s. The idea is between the king and herneas I am hoping to shoot the Ej’s off and then be able to get the regiment to drop the tokens eventually. It may not be enough but we will see.
The only damage done in shooting was to the rifles with 4 from craggototh even with spellward. Shattering came home for me and they were wavered. No damage from Herneas rangers is a big deal and immediately puts my plans in doubt.
Dave:
Gulp…. That’s a big scout move I didn’t particularly plan for… in fact from here I think im screwed… but I’ll give this a red hot crack.
I’ve pushed out my braves the full 10 (making use of Aerons nimble aura) in an attempt to get ready to block next turn. As for the rest of my army I’ve just launched shots at the soft target dogs with my rifles and the howitzers tried to shot the rocks carrying the tokens but missed miserably with only my rifles adding a lone wound.
On my right flank its looking slightly more positive. I’ve pushed hard with my feast master to tuck 1 inch behind the crossbow regiment, this will stop matt backing up and shooting so I’m free to creep up my harvester and EJs to charge over the next few turns. The feast master, crossbow regiment and Matts king are all H2 so there is no LOS, effectively protecting it from the charge, but limiting matts moving options as he needs to avoid my potential LOS. This should give a clear path for my braves regiment to slide over halfway.
Turn 2
Matt:
One of my favourite things is to turn Dave’s misfortune into my own. On the right the king creeps fwd slightly so as to not be seen by the harvester but if the EJ’s go for him they will be hindered and if the go for the rangers they’ll leave the token carrying braves open.
The EE regiment over on the left charges the braves, whilst the rest of the EE move forwards. The shieldbreakers moved forward to stay out of charge range but to start unleashing dogs whilst the mastiffs take the flank on the braves in front of craggoth
In shooting the two dogs do 10 wounds. Big lol. Kohlearm adds a couple more to be sure. Herneas rangers do none again!
Craggoth does one more to the damaged rangers they fail to waver but the braves die.
I also cast scorched earth on greedy guts just to be annoying. The mastiffs do 6 wounds and force a waver also.
In combat the EE’s go beserk with 5 wounds and waver the braves
2 Turns in a row with no wounds from Herneas Rangers is massive and potentially could cost me the game. Particularly as I chose not to push forward with the king to block the EJs. If Dave has half a brain he will now be a chance.
Dave:
Ok…. So I’ve opened up UB and all I see is Matt’s rocks slowing shambling down the board with nothing in range to block…. Fuck.
So Naturally I just tried to pull some bullshit out of my back pocket and you know what…. It might just work.
Matt’s left his flamey boy off to the right of his shield breaker regiment and knowing that individuals align to the charging unit I tried some sneaky crap. I rolled up WC with my sauceror and had Aaeron around for nimble, My first unit to move was the right stalwarts pushing the Kholearm off on an angle and with my stalwart regiment joining for a multi charge I’ve got 22 attacks on 5/4 ready to take out this flame priest and overrun into the flank of a shield breaker regiment taking it off…. Except I only rolled 4 hits… so that died in the arse
In other news, Greedy guts punched into the other shield breaker regiment to hold them up, and my iron beast and Aeron made short work of the mastiff hunting pack.
On the right I launched my EJs in to die valiantly and my braves creeped closer to victory supported by my harvester in case I need it to pick up tokens
In good news my howitzers spiked and I put 5 wounds on the rock carrying the tokens.
Looks this is pretty much over for me now, but lets face it, it was over after scout moves.
Turn 3
Matt:
I always forget that cheeky sauceror. Thankfully it didn’t cost too much, what surprised me more was all the wounds on the token carrying elementals haha. That is some A-grade luck right there.
They continued to push forwards, Khanick pulled out of combat and the regiments charge in. Craggoth charged the braves whilst the ranges and the king both tagged the Ej’s.
The earth elementals only did 2 wounds and rolled a 3 so no waver. The shieldbreakers on greedy got 9 wounds but rolled a 4, craggoth did a couple of wounds but snaked the roll. The troop of stalwarts died, the shield breakers backed up. Herneas and the king took off the EJ’s
Those 6 wounds on the EE is big as they are now VERY vulnerable to someone like greedy
Dave :
Just when I thought all was lost I noticed a very cheeky sneaky play.
Using Greedy guts WC d3 I launched him into the side of the rocks with tokens, Greedyguts its 8 attacks on 3/5 vs the rocks with dread, it should give me 2 wounds and I’ll need 6 twice to break them, I launch my rifle horde into the combat too, just to pick up the tokens if greedy gets the kill. From here my plan is to slide D3 left with the tokens and scoot down the left flank while greedy guts and my other units delay and disorder his army. If I can pull this off I think I actually might win
Across the main battle field I throw my stalwarts in to block up matts shield breakers and I turn my iron beast to the rocks and start to make my way in support while my EJS strategicly blocked up the earth elemental horde to stop any surge bullshit Matt might try and pull.
On the right I punched my harvester into the crossbows to disorder them and add about 4 wounds, and my fest master and braves disordered the king and locked him down in the combat.
In shooting I managed to pack some wounds on the mastiff hunting packs and got the waiver.
Ok it’s time for the last combat…. I nervously pray to the UB dice gods, begging for forgiveness for whatever I have done that’s seen my UB dice cursed. I get my 5 hits, I get my 2 wounds… first nerve check is a 7…. The second a 6…. You beauty…
Turn 4
Matt:
Ok so after more wounds than expected on the EE’s the round before he’s managed to get the tokens. I should still have some shennanigans hopefullu but will still rely on greedy getting out of the way soon.
I kept not seeing that bloody feast master lol he’s too green for me and my colour blindness. Dave is now in a really good position top right.
I withdraw the earth elemental regiment and reform ready for a surge and charge with the horde. The shield regiment. I reposition to allow three shots on aeron. The king charges the feast master and the rangers into the harvester. In retrospect I was very dumb here and confused myself thinking I couldn’t scoot away due to not being able to withdraw. But I didn’t need to withdraw to do it.
The stone priest gets surge and BC off on the regiment. The three shots do enough to waver aeron.
In combat both stalwarts die the left breaker reg pulls back and the other reforms
The Ej’s die on the left the horde pulls back and the regiment reforms. Dave can get them if he uses WC on the sauceror with the iron beast but we will see because Rally may be the call he makes.
Craggoth takes off the braves and reforms
The rangers do no wounds and the feastmaster is wavered after 2 wounds brutal.
So luck hasnt’t been the problem this turn only my own dick fuckery.
Dave:
So filled with energy from my last turn hail mary I get straight to work disrupting and delaying.
My lower braves launched into Matts stone priest getting a lucky wound and disordering it, while greedy guts blocked up the lower earth elemental regiment. Matt was forced to expose a rear charge to my pride of the shires so I rolled wild charge again on my sauceror and got it into the earth elementals taking it off with the help of greedy guts dread.
My rifles continued to scoot away and my rifles shot away matts last masstif pack and the throwing dogs he had left with them.
On the right I finished off the crossbow regiment, continued to disorder the king and have now tucked away my braves nicely.
So my plan might just work. I don’t intend to hold Matts tokens for ever, I just plan to get them far enough away that his stumpy dwarf legs can drag them back over half way. I’m expecting this to go 6/5 my way.
Turn 5
Matt:
I finally remembered I can still scoot my king out of combat so out he goes. The Shieldbreaker horde has limited options – they really got stuck this game – and charged aeron. A regiment flanked the braves and the horde of rocks reformed to take on the rifles.
The was no shooting on relevance as the priest was disordered. Craggoth killed the rifles, the regiment of braves died and Aeron got snaked. IT’s likely Dave will be smart enough to move greedy round to protect the rifles so realistically the only chance is over running him and then needing to turns and some luck on the top tight.
Dave:
My rifles continue to amaze me as they duck even further away from harms way. Fireball from Kholearm is about all that can hurt them now as I stay just out of wild charge range from his shield breakers and my very mighty greedy guts blocks the earth elemental horde.
My pride took another unit off in the centre but its not impacting the outcome of this game, I’m also happy to let my centre fold at Matt keep wrecking face with his giant fire spewing earth elemental.
On the left I thought I would be super tricky and block the kings LoS with my feast master, until I found out from Matt individuals don’t block LoS….. so there is another rule to stick in your memory bank.
So right now I hurry up and wait for this game to be over.
Here is actual footage of my rifle regiment scooting down the flank
Turn 6
Matt:
Matt:
Greedy died the king did a few wounds but no likely spike. Even Turn 7 is not likely
Dave – I’ve done my best to protect the rifles, but if this goes to 7 they are gone. I’m very caution of the king on the right, his only managed 2 wound and I have the unit inspired but to protect this game for me I actually drop the tokens and counter charge.
Currently its 6/2 if we go to 7 I’m loose that rifle regiment and it will be 6/5, however there is a chance Matt packs on a few more wound to my braves turn 7 and pops them, if this is the case I’ll slide my harvester in to collect the tokens as even on an over run Matt won be able to block them with his king. If my braves live, I’ll just pick them back up…
As it turns out we didn’t get a 7 and I won 6/2.
Wrap up
Matt: This is probably the loss that most annoys me most so far. Even with the poor luck of two turns of no herneas damage, and the rifles overperforming there should have been no way for Dave to win after his deployment. I shouldn’t have had the regiment of rocks that were carrying out in front that was just stupid, and I should’ve been able to lumber my way to victory regardless of his units on the other side. I feel I should’ve been able to take this one at least very very easily.
Dave – There is no way I should of won this game, it was very interesting piloting a list that is built to delay and annoy. I still had the urge to pick up flanks with Aerons nimble aura but all in all I was very happy I was able to get the rifles away un harmed.
Greedy guts is getting the MVP award for me this game and I’ll be keeping him in most of my list for a while now I think, he links up well with the sauceror to really block up the battle field.
It took a lucky spike from my howitzers to get this result as really I should of lost as soon as Matt scouted his fire spewing earth elemental bullshit on top of the token before we even started.
But I did win…. So suck it Matt I crushed you
Final thoughts on the list
Matt:
This list is better than my last. Scorched earth wasn’t of much value but I think what I need to do is drop the knowledgeable and SE 3 and take it down to 2 as conjurer’s staff works on it. That way I can add mind fog as well which allows me to reach out and touch units more for a lucky waver etc, epecially when combo’d with throwing mastiffs. That will have 4 spells on one caster but they are cheap so I don’t think it’s a waste.
Dave:
Outside of dominate, push is probably the worst scenario I could of rolled, It would be interesting to see how this list played on pillage with 7 tokens or raze.
I don’t think stalwart troops have a place here, yes they are CS1, but at +4 melee they will not deliver like a true hammer should. I’ll most likely dump them all together and free up some space for aeronaughts or something that can move over my blocking forces to hit targets when I need.
My plan was to strategically die with this army and after starting with 22 drops I finished with 11 so I think I have scope to cut down to 16/18 drops to still have that MSU feel but with some decent strike options.
If Matt stuck the tokens on the horde. Or even positioned so I couldn’t scoot down the edge I’d have no answers and it would be a sure loss for me. So how I sneak some hammers in next time I don’t know… but it was a fun exercise to really focus on placement even if its not a competitive list.