Ogres vs. Wood Elves – twice

In preparation to an oncoming tournament in Styria, – one of the biggest in Austria – I tested my Ogres in my local gaming Club. The first two battles should be against Wood Elves, as the new release of the Wood Elf army book encouraged some players to field them. So the local metagame is kind of shooty and pointy-eared these days.

Tyrant, General, 2xHw, LA, Giantbreaker, Rock Eye – 243 Pts.
Slaughtermaster, 2xHw, lvl4, Lore of The Great Maw – 287 Pts.
Bruiser, GW, LA, BSB – 141 Pts.
Hunter, 2xHw, Longstrider – 153 Pts.
Firebelly, GW, Scroll, Lore of Fire – 154 Pts.
9 Ironguts, M – 397 Pts.
9 Ironguts, M – 397 Pts.
10 Gnoblars – 25 Pts.
4 Mournfang Cavalry, HA, Ironfist, M, S, Standard of Discipline – 315 Pts.
4 Sabretusks – 84 Pts.
1 Sabretusks – 21 Pts.
1 Sabretusks – 21 Pts.
1 Gorger – 90 Pts.
Ironblaster – 170 Pts.

Total: 2498

I wanted to test the Hunter, for his abilty to operate in a group of Sabretusks should make a small but decent melee unit. The rest is nothing special, all centred around three units who could fight or at least give the characters a place to hide.

The opponents army was a big unit of Thornsisters, carrying two Level-4 Magicians with the Lore of Death and Shadow. Two small groups of Wild Hunters added some severe melee power, while two eagle ensured that I would not come into close combat too soon. Some small units of Bowmen rounded this setting up. This fight would be a tough one.

Round 1

The game started with some skirmishing, an attempt to raise the ballistic skil of the Waywatchers was banned by me. A toughness decrease for the Mournfangs wasn’t rolled high enough, so the first magic phase was generously short.

The Bowmen shot at the Gnoblars and the Mounrfangs, the Greenskins panicked and run away.

At my turn, an attempt to boost the toughness of the Butcher’s unit was banned, but I was able to cast regeneration at the Mournfangs. Also, an automatic panic test was forced on the Waywatchers by a Butcher’s spell, but the high morale of the Elves made this attempt a feeble one.

Round 2

The Wild Hunt attempted to charge the Hunter and his Sabretooths, but rolled to low. On the other hand, both ambush units of the Wood Elves entered the battlefield. A bonus to the Ballistic Skill at the big unit of Bowmen wasn’t succesful due to low dice, the Miasma was banned. A Toughness Decrease at the Mournfangs forced me to use the Dispell Scroll, for they would suffer too many casualties in the direct fire of the Waywatchers. And they would have to endure this shooting for at least this round, so I thought this banning to be important.

The shooting phase saw the death of two Sabretusks and two inflicted wounds on the Mournfangs.

In his countercharge, the Hunter reaches the Wild Hunt. But before he was able to kill four of these Elves, they managed to cause the death of three Sabretusks by themselves.

The Ironblaster aimed at the Sisters of Thorn and tried to sniper at one of those Level 4 Magicians. Sadly, he managed to pass his Lookout Test succesfully.

Round 3

Before the Ogres could reach them in close combat, the Sisters of Thorn and their lead managed to outflank the Ironguts and be safe for at least this round. The Bowmen got a magic increase to their ballistic skill, while the “Walk between Worlds”-spell was banned. The Ironblaster suffered 2D6 S4 hits, and this, together with the shots from the cavalry units, was enough to kill him.

The Toughness Decrease at the Mournfangs, combined with the final shots from the Waywatchers, forced them to panic and run.

At this point, we shaked hands and ended the battle, for the outcome was pretty clear at that time.

Sadly, the Hunter and his Sabretusks were a waste of points (which I was told several times by everybody, but I was too stubborn to listen to them). Shamefully, a model solely useful for the showcase.

At the very least, it didn’t look like a total defeat on victory points. I would have never been able to get a decent number of points, but the important Irongut units were still standing (with the Mournfangs showing their low reliability again).

Game Two

Next week, the same opponent (with exactly the same army), a new concept on my side. This time, the Hunter was exchanged to a unit of six Maneaters, a unit I love for it’s appearance, but never convinced me by it’s performance on the battlefield. I would have liked to bring a Battle Standard Bearer, especially in an Ogre army, but I also didn’t want to cut the budget of the other stuff. So Iwould have to trust in my good dicing ability.

Tyrant, General, LA, Giantbreaker, Sword of Striking, Rock Eye – 255 Pts.
Slaughtermaster, 2xHw, lvl4, Lore of The Great Maw – 287 Pts.
Firebelly, GW, Scroll, Lore of Fire – 154 Pts.
9 Ironguts, M – 397 Pts.
9 Ironguts, M – 397 Pts.
4 Mournfang Cavalry, HA, Ironfist, M, S, Std. of Swiftness – 315 Pts.
6 Maneaters, 6 x 2xHw, Immune to Psychology, Stubborn, M, S, Standard of Discipline – 347 Pts.
1 Sabretusk – 21 Pts.
1 Sabretusk – 21 Pts.
1 Sabretusk – 21 Pts.
1 Gorger – 90 Pts.
Ironblaster – 170 Pts.

Total: 2475

The Wood Elf Mages knew the spells Warp between Worlds, Arcane unforging, Drain Magic, Soul Quench, Shadow Pit, -D3 Toughness and -D3 WS/BF

Round 1

Again, I placed the center of my Army in the right corner of the battlefield, with the Maneaters holding the left flank. The Wood Elves, on the other side, were able to spread much further.

First, the Mages casted -3 Movement to the Firebelly unit, while the attempt to inflict a decreased Toughness to the Maneaters had too little energy. Arahains Curse was banned with all my Banning dice. In the shooting phase, I lost three Maneaters to the Bows of the Wood Elves. At least, I was able to cast the Toughness Buff at the Mournfangs.

Round 2

The Ogres tried to gain some field control over the battlefield and moved forward. Naturally, the Wood Elves tried to avoid melee at that moment and moved sidewards, shielded by a piece of impassable terrain.

The Shadow Pit was casted with good energy, so I had to use by Dispel Scroll that early in the game. Drain Magic at the Sisters wasn’t succesful. One Sabretusk and two more Maneaters were shot down. I tried to cast the Panic spell to the big unit of Wood Elves Bowmen, but had not enough power. The Fireball was also banned. To complete this pityful turn, the Ironblaster took his chance to fail his shot and broke his Cannon in two pieces.

Round 3

The Gorger finally showed up to force the Wood Elf units to a halt (or something like this…). The Firebelly-Ironguts were rearranged so that they faced the unit of Elven riders who came from behind. The Shadow pit had to little energy, the second Sabretusk was shot.

Round 4

My attempt to increase the Slaughtermasters Toughness was banned. In return, 2D6 S4 hits to the Slaughtermaster casted by the Wood Elf Mages inflict three Wounds. The Firebelly-Ironguts had to suffer – 2 Movement. My opponent rolled too bad for the Walk between Worlds. All Bowmen turned to the Slaughtermaster and finally shot him.

Round 5

The Shadow Pit is casted on the Tyrant’s Ironguts, which killed four of them.

Again, another game against Wood Elves which we didn’t need to play until the sixth turn to see a certain outcome. The combined moving and casting ability clearly is something I can’t cope with at the moment. While theyr miniatures and Fluff are beautiful, I feel like Sixth Edition, when Wood Elves were one of the dominating tournament armies thanks to their flexibility with wooden terrain. And I certainly don’t miss these times. May all Treemen burn in Hell.

Dwarves vs. Wood Elves – no restrictions

2.500 points, no restrictions.

No. Restrictions.

Being used to tournament warhammer, which always means army restrictions in some way, i was surprised that smaug, a member of my local gaming club wanted to field his Wood Elves in a battle with no limitations other than the core rules. Well, as this would be a rare chance to abuse the possibilities of the new Dwarfes, i was very excited to play. I also looked forward to play against him because he is a torunament-hardened veteran who was skilled in the rules (so i wouldn’t have to look for myself, if i had a rule question). Also, he is the player who fielded Ogres and Dark Elves.

The Army lists

Shooty or Bashy? As i see it, the liquidation of the anvil from the old book and the cancellation of the “You have to attack me” rune leads to a simple build-up against Wood Elves. As you can’t catch them with a movement of 3 (and i’ve played enough battles against Empire where the Dwarves had to storm and ended in the humans deployment zone), so you have to out-shoot them. The new sweet organ guns with a ballistic skill of 5 (with Machinist and rune) and the now playable flame cannon (Woooosh!) should deal with everything sneaky, while the spear gun should be a nasty blocker against any eagle or falcon on the horizont.

As the new Dwarves got a little malus in their possibilities to ban hostile magic (judged from their options in the last book), a single runesmith with his banning rune was kind of risky, but sadly, nothing more was affordable.

Runesmith, Rune of Banning
Master Machinist (with the Organ Gun)
Master Machinist (with the Organ Gun)
Crossbowers Great Weapon, full Command
Crossbowers Great Weapon, full Command
Gyrocopter
Gyrocopter
Gyrocopter
5 Slayers, 4 Giant Slayers
Cannon
Spear Thrower, Rune of Flakkson and Burning 
Spear Thrower
Stone Thrower, Rune of Penetrance, Accuracy and Smithing
Stone Thrower, Rune of Penetrance and Accuracy
Flame Cannon
Organ Gun, Rune of Smithing and Accuracy
Organ Gun, Rune of Smithing and Burning

Mage Level 4, Lore of Dark Elves (how on earth is that possible by the Fluff?)
Mage Level 2, Lore of Shadow
Battle Standard Bearer
Hero Bow of Athel Loren
two small units of Bowmen, covering the heroes
fat unit of Falcons
one small unit of Wild Hunt
one big unit of Elk Riders
10 Snipers
a unit of Riders, coming from behind

The game can be summarized as a great shootout. While i was able to dezimize the fastest elements of the Wood Elves, smaug was very good in combining the nasty spells of his magicians to support his melee and shooting troops.

The battle turned when the scouting riders were shot down by the remnants of the Dwarven artillery. So, the artillery was saved (which surely would have caused great losses). I was also very lucky with my artillery dice (and the accurate hits on the Wood Elves units).

Finally, a several years old trauma caused by the Wood Elves from the sixth edition (the one with the woods you could hide in) was kind of solved and i was able to celebrate a light victory against a great and kind opponent and gamer. Thanks, smaug. Any time again.

Charity Tournament 2012

Last week, the wargamers of eastern Austria gathered in a charity tournament to collect as much money as possible for supporting an institution which makes researches in cancer, especially for children (the St. Anna Children’s Hospital à http://www.stanna.at/).

The event contained more than Warhammer, Warmaster, Warmachine and 40k was also played. We were able to play in the rooms of the tin miniature museum (http://www.zinnfigurenwelt-katzelsdorf.at/), a place where some players of the area play regularly.

Due to the character (and the purpose) of the event, it was clear that it should be a less competitive sort of tournament, where the goal would not be to overrule and smash the enemy. Thanks to the organisators and the players, the tournament was very funny and enjoyable. For gathering more players than in usual tournaments, two players would face each other in every battle. So, for the first time, “team austrohammer” would enter the battlefields of Lower Austria.

Preparations

Due to the fact that I wasn’t able to field my dream list of ten Mournfangs, I decided to field my old, beloved Dwarves. Thanks to the very unrestrictive Army Choice, I was able to bring a very tough artillery with me, which would have been banned in most other tournaments.

The Army Lists

Runesmith, General, Shield
+ 1 x Rune of Stone, 2 x Rune of Spellbreaking
– – – > 127 Points

25 Quarrellers, Great Weapons, Musician, Standardbearer
– – – > 340 Points

30 Dwarf Warriors, Great Weapons, Musician, Standardbearer
– – – > 315 Points

Cannon
+ 1 x Rune of Reloading, 1 x Rune of Burning
– – – > 105 Points

Grudge Thrower
+ 1 x Rune of Accuracy, 2 x Rune of Penetrating
– – – > 155 Points

20 Hammerers, Musician, Standardbearer
– – – > 258 Points

As you can see, the purpose of my half of our army was to shoot everything coming to near. The cannon and the Thrower would be essential to deal with anything our melee units would be too weak to do so. The Quarrellers were simply there to field a second core unit, and I would have preferred a bigger unit of Hammerers. But sadly, due to the Army Restrictions, they were as big as possible.

My partner, a High Elf player, would provide us with the very important melee power (with his White Lions) and a good support in the form of an Eagle and light cavalry.

1 Noble 143.0
Armour of Caledor; Guardian Phoenix; Great Weapon

1 Mage 155.0
Magic Level 2; High Magic; Staff of Solidity

20 Archers 225.0
Musician

19 Spear Elves 196.0
FCG

19 White Lions 335.0
FCG; Standard of Discipline; Ironcurse Icon

5 Ellyrian Reavers 95.0
Bow

1 Repeater Bolt Thrower 100.0

1 Great Eagle 50.0

Game One

The first game and we faced two players I have never played against before. We would have to fight an alliance between High Elves and Bretonnians (could anyone guess a fluff for THIS match-up???). Well, they fielded the obvious strength-five-catapult (if I hadn’t used the same Warmachine, just with the possibility to reroll the artillery dice, I would complain a lot about this piece of artillery…), some knights (flying and mounted) and the obvious White Lions. It promised to be a tough and interesting battle.

Both sides decided to place their armies on the same side of the battlefield. So there would be a tough melee in the middle of the table. I hoped to shoot the bretonnian Thrower with the first or second shot of my cannon. Our opponents started the game with placing the flying Pegasi knights before their battle line, perfect for a charge of my Hammerers. I wondered why they gave us the opportunity of charging their Pegasi knights, but nevertheless, we took the chance and charged with Hammerers and White Lions (on the knights). Meanwhile, both sides laid strength-five-templates at the opponent’s units and reduced them to mere rubble.

The Hammerers broke through the Pegasi knights (obviously), but the White Lions gut stuck in the knights and had to be supported by the Dwarf Warriors. Sadly, we were not able to break the unit. The last member of bretonnian chivalry stood with a double-one on his motivation test. So we didn’t get any points for the melee in the middle of the battlefield. The left flank proofed to be a much tougher place for our eagle and light cavalry than expected. We had hoped to get their artillery by outflanking them with our fast units. But the archers were able to protect their artillery against such attempts.

At the end, we parted with a result of 2:2, which was a little bitter for us, for we had expected a far better outcome due to the heavy losses our opponents had to endure. But anyhow, it was a nice game and well fought.

 

We even had the possibility to purchase ‘some’ 40k-stuff:

Game Two

Having plundered the grill station, we were ready to face our next opponents. I was surprised that we had to fight one of the highest rated teams at this event, an alliance between Wood Elves and Dwarves (again, I would really like to read a proper and fitting explanation for such a battle) fielded by Martin, a local legend and member of the team which has won the silver medal at the ETC (Dwarves) and Meni, a regular tournament winner (Wood Elves). I was very happy about the Burning Rune on my cannon, for we would need it very badly against the obvious treeman. Sadly, this battle saw a very interesting formula:

Grudge Thrower & Cannon < Cannon

Our artillery proofed to be incompetent (mishits and disability to wound) and was taken out of battle by counterfire. Meanwhile, our melee units were unable to deal with the treeman and the Dryads. We tried to save at least one corner of the battlefield (we played a scenario where every side had to conquer as many quarters of the table as possible), but it wasn’t enough and the outcome was a mere 0:4.

Some impressions from the tournament site:

Game Three

Well, after the second game, with only two points at the moment, the last one should be a little bit more successful. Our opponents fielded a coalition of Skaven and High Elves, containing a Plague Furnace, a Hellpit Abomination, White Lions and many Plague Monks. At least, locating the targets were pretty easy: for this was a scenario where you had to ‘break’ the other army, meaning that you had to conquer enemy standards and kill the enemy general, all we had to do was sitting at the back and shooting. My cannon got the order to shoot the Hellpit Abomination – she didn’t count for the outcome of the game in victory points (as normal victory points were not calculated), but could very serious damage to our troops.

Happily, I managed to shoot the Abomination in the first turn. Having cancelled this threat, both units of White Lions faced each other at the right flank, while the Skaven marched towards us a little bit slower. It came to a big melee with my Hammerers unit containing my General with the Plague Monks and their Plague Furnace. Obviously, the Ratmen had their banner which allowed them to reroll attacks and wounding hits in the first round of battle, so my poor Hammerers suffered severe damage right from the start of this important fight – at this moment, all armies including our High Elves were ‘broken’, so the outcome of the battle laid on the shoulders of my Hammerers – if their banner and the General would fall, I would be ‘broken’ too and we had a 2:2. Gladly, I rolled luckily enough to save at least the Runesmith and we won the battle 3:1. So, it wasn’t that bad at all.

We landed on the second-last place, only our unlucky opponents of the third round (who managed to kill their own magicians with a miscast) scored less.  But hopefully, we will see many of the participants of this tournament on the next events.

Afterthoughts

All in all, it was quite an astonishing tournament. The site was very nice, the games were fun to play, the catering was good (grilled sausages and chicken) and we were able to play for a good cause. So altogether, I’m looking forward to compete again at the next occasion. Sadly, the Dwarves played a humble and poor part in the battles, but after all, it was for the fun and good cause, so be it 🙂 The High Elves, on the other hand, were an interesting partner. With the White Lions as a frightening melee unit and the Eagle as an excellent unit for frustrating enemy units, they filled the usual gaps of a Dwarf Army – movement and melee skill.

Hope you enjoyed this tournament report. If you have some money left, I would ask you to have a look at the homepage of the St. Anne Children’s hospital (http://www.stanna.at/) – it’s definitely worth it!