Probably fueled by their jealousy of all the cool magic and war machines of the Dawi Zharr, the Dispossessed were ready for a proper brawl, and had called up all their mates to help out. The scenario was Starstrike, which actually had me really concerned. As you can see by Dion's list, he had a massive numbers advantage, and off the charge, almost all of those Duardin would be re-rolling their saves. To top it off, between his Warscroll Battalion, the Order allegiance ability and the mechanics built into his warscroll, it was going to be almost impossible to battleshock them off, unless the dice favoured me in a significant way.
Here is what I was facing.
Allegiance: Dispossessed
Mortal Realm: Ghur
Leaders:
Warden King (General, Master of Defence, Gryph-Feather Charm)
Runelord (Rockjaws)
Unforged
Units:
40 Warriors
30 Warriors
10 Warriors
30 Longbeards
20 Ironbreakers
10 Hammerers
10 Irondrakes
Battalions:
Grudgebound Warthrong
Total: 1980
My opponent deploying 153 models in a single drop was pretty confronting. I was confident my shooting would be able to put in work, but my combat units would potentially get bogged down in prolonged combats, and stop me from capping objectives.
Knowing that if he took first turn, there was zero risk of anything even being able to try and charge me, I deployed everything on the line. No screens or layered deployments; no zoning out my backfield. This game was going to be a brawl in the middle of the table with no prisoners taken. I knew that given the opponent and the scenario, I was going to have to try and focus-fire off a unit at a time, prioritising whatever was most threatening to the objectives.
Dion took first turn, and marched almost everyone up onto the three possible locations of the objective ready for turn two. The Longbeards marched up and locked shields opposite my K'Daai, while a 40-strong unit of warriors parked on the middle point with an aftersave from the Runelord and the 30-strong unit marched on the right side of the board. The Irondrakes, Hammerers, Ironbreakers and 10-man Warrior unit all moved up in support, but remaining close to where the Turn 3 objectives would drop.
Left facing a metric ton of Duardin in the middle of the board, I decided to commit, and hopefully start grinding down these blocks of infantry. My shooting phase began with one of my Magma Cannons burning the Runelord to ash in a single shot, and that set the tone for one of the most horrific displays of violence I have ever witnessed in a game of Warhammer. The Fireglaives opened up, slapping through an uncharacteristically high number of wounds and mortal wounds, weakening the dwarfs for the imminent assault on their lines.
The Warhounds pushed up the flank, hoping to get a good dash at the Turn 3 objective, should it drop nearby. Before the Runelord's fiery demise, he'd managed to stop Daemonic Power from the Sorcerer Lord, so the K'Daai had to be content with Oracular Visions as they charged headlong into the Longbeards. Many of the grizzled veterans fell, despite re-rolls on their saves.
On the other side of the table, things were getting significantly more bloody.
Then the Skullcracker took a swing at the forty Warriors. Both myself and Dion knew it was going to get messy when I rolled 22 for his 4D6 attacks, and it all spiralled from there for the Dispossessed. The towering war machine went on a bloody rampage, killing almost thirty Warriors in one activation.
But, they would surely hold strong. They're dwarfs, with a re-rollable battleshock check that is ignored on a 1-3. All three units, with their re-rolls, rolled nothing but 5's and 6's. The usually stalwart core of the Dispossessed army was swept aside in a bloody display of power! The 40-man Dwarf Warrior unit in the centre completely dissolved, the K'Daai were left fighting 4-5 Longbeards, and the Taur'ruk was busy hacking down survivors on the hill.
Including the Runelord, 84 Duardin met their end in my first turn.
To say that Dion and I were both completely stunned is putting it lightly...
At the start of Turn 2, the first objective landed next to the building in the centre of the board, just outside of control of the Skullcracker, and after what he'd done to the Warriors, his name was at the top of the Grudge list in bold font. The Ironbreakers and Hammerers both committed to the combat, to try and bring down the infernal construct,
As if to balance the luck from last turn, the Skullcracker only rolled six attacks this turn, but still managed to clobber a good number of the Ironbreakers. It took two full rounds of combat, and the rest of the Ironbreakers, but the Skullcracker finally fell at the hands of the Hammerers. He'd done his duty!
Many of the combats continued in bloody fashion, with the Taur'ruk dispatching the last of the Warriors on the hill, and the K'Daai incinerating the Longbeards.
In my turn two, the K'Daai continued on their bloody rampage, killing the Unforged and the Irondrakes, who had already suffered losses at the hands of the Magma Cannons. This signalled a catastrophic collapse of the Dwarven battle line, as the twenty Fireglaives pushed into the centre of the table, firing as they went into the Skullcracker's combat, preserving the machine as long as they could and eventually murdering the Hammerers after the Duardin had finally dispatched the Skullcracker.
The game ended at the start of turn three, when Dion issued a challenge to my Taur'ruk to fight his Warden King in single combat. The King struck first, but his labour was in vain, as the hulking Dairy Queen shrugged off the damage before beheading the Dwarven lord and holding his head aloft in victory.
This game caught everyone by surprise, purely based off the fact that so many models died so quickly. Between long charges, lucky Magma Cannon shots, horrendous battleshock checks and the luckiest Skullcracker War Engine in history, I managed to forge a massive advantage in the first turn, and dominate the battlefield from that point onward. It was a scenario where I think I had the advantage, both in my ranged firepower, and ability to move around the table and react at speed.
I've played Dion several times before (most recently at RCGT last year), and he's always a blast to play, throwing plenty of insults and making many entries in the Book of Grudges. We had some great back and forth regarding the battle between ancient foes, but the Legion of Azgorh rose to the challenge on this day, with a bloody and decisive victory!
This left me with two major wins and maximum kill points going into my third game, propelling me to Table 1; not somewhere I'm entirely familiar with, but absolutely stoked to be there. It also put me into the top bracket full of armies that were no joke. From here on in, it was going to be tougher and tougher if I wanted to do well!
Check back in soon for my third game against Sylvaneth!
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Thanks for reading,
Gabe
Amazing!
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