Equinox Roundup - Battlereports

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending my first singles tournament of the year being Equinox. I took this as an opportunity to practice for the ETC later this year and entered a Chaos Dwarf army based on the Tamurkhan Books Legion of Azgorh. After running them at the NZTC earlier this year I was looking to get a variety of games in against a host of the other slave races, and not just Daemons.

The event was an interesting one in that we had 4 games on the first day, followed by a break on Sunday morning and 2 games in the afternoon. Something to do with a booking cock up from the Auckland Council.
The draw for the first round was published a few days before the event and we went in almost blind with none of the lists readily available pre tournament.

So the first settlement I came across was James Brown and his Ogres. James had been playing the good game all week with the "pre tournament smack" and had even gone as far as starting what can only be a new additional sideline competition going forward. The Battle of the blogs was on an New Zealands top Warhammer Celebrity would be decided this weekend. 

Lining up opposite me was all the usual suspects except this build had a tonne of fire wards. James, where you expecting my company? Being a crafty little Jafa, James lined up his little fatties all in a row as to minimise any magmacannon pain coming his way. James then lucked up and grabbed first turn, getting off a 2D6 fireball and taking out my Magmacannon first turn, followed up by laser guided cannonball taking out a Death Shrieker Rocket. To add to my misery a hobgoblin unit decided to leg it after failing an animosity test. I got my own back with the other Death shrieker rocket taking out the Ironblaster. The game was them spent with each of us out-maneuvering each other with me avoiding the Gutstar with the Bowser the K'Daai and James avoiding the K'daai with the Mournfang. Henery Khan managed to run around all game picking up heroic 1v1's with Sabre Tusks. The little (hob)goblin that could...This resulted in 10 slaves captured and 10 getting away. A draw in anyones books

Game two was against Russell and his VC. Normally not a very good matchup for the Dawi Zharr but in this case I wasnt to realise till after "what could have been". Russell had a Terrorgiest, or what I like to call it, no.1 top priority to kill. He also had a Black Knight Bus loaded up with leaches, and some skittles and what not to match. After taking out the no.1 target, my artillery spent the game working on dropping the numbers of skittles. Some timely casting of ash storm stopped them coming back. I fed the Bus with Henry first, followed by the Bull Centaurs whilst I ran around the back of the bus with Bowser and the Prophet after it survive a "going down the hole" roll. Meanwhile, my hobgoblins decided it was time to leg it again, and fled from the oncoming Ghouls. Early in the game Russell miscast and feedback caused wounds on a bunch of his characters allowing me the ability to snipe his BSB with curse of Hashut. This resulted in me picking up 12 slaves to his 8. After the game Russell pointed out that he had the flaming banner on his Bus, and only mundane weapons on the characters in the bus, and wondered why I didn't change in with Bowser. I had no answer except top bash my head against the table...

After kicking myself some more it was time for me top face Mike Stewart, a future (and past) team mate of the upcoming ETC. We had a mission this time, King of the Hill!. Mike had Empire with only one chicken Knights, however there was 2 cannons... Knowing my armies worst enemy was on the board in the form of cannons, I decided I would try just running at him. Yeah I want to be an Ogre deep down and push everything forward. A rolled up first turn and after hiding behind a hill I flew up the prophet and zapped a cannon with a 2D6 flaming wrath, but only picked up 2 wounds. I then finished it off with a Death Shrieker. Henry ran up the right flank into a grap shot from the other cannon. Meanwhile Bowser steamrolled right into the Halberdiers bunker with the L4 caster in tit and spent the next few turns grinding it to dust. I left the Great Swords alone whilst leading around the chickens until the Prophet could come over and deal with them. I sat some hobgoblins on the hill after chasing of some archers and collected myself 19 new slaves for the trouble, letting one get away. Damn it I still can't believe I didn't pick up on the flaming banner in the Black Knight Bus...

Game 4. Game on. Lining up opposite me was Rob's Chaos Warriors made up of many classic miniatures from GW's hay days. Looking good Rob. I started out by landing a perfect magmacannon shot on the trolls, removing 4 out of 5. The last one then spent the game hiding behind a hill whilst the cork come out the magmacannon and it blew itself up. The Hellcannon was dropped first turn to a combined Death Shrieker attack and I started pushing a refused flank in the hole I had made. I loose anothe Death Shrieker to a msifire and the Prophet survives another "down the hole" miscast  after zapping the Tzeentch Sorcerer Bowser then makes contact with 18 Warriors and a L2 sorcerer and cleans them up. Robs Tzeentch lord then ties him down for the rest of the game and I throw Henry under the skullcrushers to save them contacting Bowser. I pick up 13 slaves for my efforts.

Game 5 and a new venue. Tom is next up and another Ogre matchup to contend with. I start by giving Tom, a former ETC player and stuntie player a lesson on what it feels like to line up agaisnt a classic Dwarf deployment... Yeah I turtle up in the corner. Fist turn and another perfect Magmacannon shot. Bye bye Ironguts. I take 4 wounds off the Ironblaster but don't finish it off. In return Tom uses it to take out the Magmacanon. Tom tries to entrap my K'daai but I manage to get it in behind his lines. My Prophet takes out Toms "Bruiser who thinks he's an Arabian Prince" and overruns into 2 mournfang. A timely ashstorm stops the 4 mournfang in their tracks. I try make an Ogre sammich (between Bowser and the Prophet) but Tom bails all his chars into the Bulls before Bowser gets in to finish the ironguts. Tom lets me have a hardcast Burning wrath which I then roll up 12 hits on the remaining 4 strong Mournfang, killing 2. This however allows Tom the ability to charge my warmachines as Henry is no longer redirecting them. The Mournfang clean up a Death shrieker before overruning into the other one, which in turn allows me to charge the fangs in the flank with my Infernal Guard breaking them. I pick up 16 slaves for my troubles this game.

Last game and I am matched against the undefeated Ross and his Warriors of Chaos. He has a nasty list, including Skullcrushers, chariots, and the unkillable Tzeentch disc lord, not to mention that Nurgle Daemon Prince build we all love... Split deployment sees my Prophet and Bowser lined up opposite Ross's Helcannon and Daemon Prince. I get first turn and push up the flank with them. The DP and HC are out of range of the Death Shriekers so with the help of the Magma cannon they take of the Chimera instead. I zapp the DP with Curse of Hashut and take a wound off. In my second turn Bowser charges into the Hellcannon whilst the Prophet flies in behind the DP and zapps it again. Ross throw 6 dice at it to dispel, and rolls a 1,1,1,1,2 and 3... yeah. I cause 5 wounds in which he saves one. Bye bye DP. I fireball off some chaff and shoot some dogs. Poor puppies. Meanwhile, both Hobgoblin units feel that things are going so well that they are not needed, so leg it... again... and the magmacannon kills 4 or 5 Warriors each turn before the Tzeentch lord takes it off. The warriors flee the field. At this point Ross is felling extremely under the weather and asks to call the game. The game is called and we work out I have captured another 16 slaves all up. 

So that ends my first outing with the Dawi Zharr in a singles event, and with well over 40 attending I pick up 1st place over all, after the tie breaker with Ross. Not a bad way to start the year. I am happy at how the Chaos Dwarves are preforming so far and got some good practice in for the ETC later this year. The tournament was very tight at the top, with Dan Butler (WOC) out scoring me on battlepoints but with an unpainted army, and 13 points splitting the top 22 players!  I bagged 84 slaves out of a possible 120 so I hope the tower masters will be pleased. 

Horned Rat V - Part 2: Battle Reports

Game 1 – Chaos Dwarfs – Legion of Azgorh, Sam Whitt
Scenario: Watchtower

Sam bought along his excellent Chaos Dwarfs army using the new legion of Azgorh list from Forgeworld. He had some nice conversions like his Bull Centaurs which where made of Juggernaughts with Black Orc bodies along with a bunch of nicely painted Forgeworld minis.

His list consisted of a Sorcerer Lord, Castellen BSB, and a level 1 Demonsmith, 2 units of 20 Hobgoblins, a unit of 30 Infernal Guard, a Dreadquake mortar, a Death Rocket, Flame canon, 6 Bull Centaurs and a Ka’daai Destroyer… The Tower was worth an additional 600 VP.

Sam had been making a bit of noise with his unstoppable Ka’daai, and the matchup was not good for me. I had little in my army that could hurt it, thanks to its practical immunity to fire and -1 to wound

Sam won the roll off to take the tower and put in a unit of hobgoblins. He deployed his artillery, Bull Centaurs and Infernal Guard to my right, other hobgoblins centre left and the ka’daai directly behind the building. I had my Tomb Guard opposite the building, archers behind centre right and Necroknights to my right opposite his bunker. My catapults where hard left and casket behind the archers. My plan was to contest the tower early gaining a foothold, and use my magic to regenerate and hold it to the end of the game. In this scenario I get first turn

Turn one and I immediately assault the tower with the Tomb Guard, beating the hobgoblins and taking control. The catapults aim for his artillery but miss, and most of the archers are out of range so they just move about. I cast light of death on the ka’daai but fail to damage. My Necroknights move up to threaten his bunker. If I can get a charge off I should be able to grind them down over a few turns. Sam immediately counters my capture of the tower by assaulting it with the Ka’daai, who causes about 16 casualties after crumble. I have seriously underestimated its capability, and my unit cannot hurt him bar my prince due to the -1 to wound for non magical weapons. His hobgoblins rally and Sam moves his Bull centaurs up my right flank. Sam gets off Ash Storm on my Necroknights which I let through, as I feel I don’t need to move them next turn and want to save my dice for his magic missles. He then irresistible force’s his direct damage spell and proceeds to kill 2 of my knights, suffering no ill effects from the miscast. Sam then fires the flame cannon taking another 2 knights. He then gets a direct hit with his mortar on my casket, but fails to wound it thanks to T10.

Turn two sees me withdraw my Tomb Guard out of the tower as I cannot survive 5 more rounds vs his Ka’daai. I am forced to withdraw my remaining 2 Knights as this Bull Centaurs can easily charge them. I move my archers up and shoot off his flame cannon. Light of Death gets cast on the ka’daai and takes two wounds off this time. Only one catapults finds the mark and causes a single wound on Sams Bull Centaurs. Sam moves his ka’daai to the left hand side of the building and angles it so that he may charge either the building or my TG. His Bull centaurs charge into a unit of horse archers I had put in the way to protect my casket, and he shoots off the other one with his hobgoblins.

Its now turn three and I am playing a reactive game. A bad position to be in at the best of times… I re-occupy the tower with the Tomb Guard. My archers can only shoot some Infernal Guard and kill one or two. I use the magic phase to buff up my Necroknights for the inevitable charge from the Bull centaurs. Sam saved his dice for Light of Death which I saved to last and only threw 2 dice at. I get a direct hit from a catapult and take 5 wounds off his mortar! I bail out both my Liche into the Tomb Guard in the building, and I use my archers to shoot the remaining wound off Sam’s mortar. In Sam’s turn he charges into the building again with the Ka’daai, and charges my knights with his Bull Centaurs. Thanks to the buffs I kill 2 Bull Centaurs and win the combat, but Sam holds as he is steadfast. With little else to shoot at he launches a rocket at some archers. Sam also advances up with his Infernal guard to get within charge range of some archers. The Ka’daai inevitably takes another chunk out of my Tomb Guard.

Turn four becomes a turning point and once again I am reacting. Archers move to delay his Infernal Guard by blocking their advance on the tower, and I place continue to sneak up a 10 man archer unit towards his Ka’daai. I am forced to use my dice regenerating my Tomb Guard and thus have to abandon the Knights to their fate. Sam mops up the knights over his and my next combat phases. The ka’daai continues its onslaught and takes more chunks out of my Tomb Guard. Sam’s Infernal Guard delete a 20 man archer block and run into the other which I have given him a flank that’s 2 wide as to delay him for several turns. I loose a catapult to one of Sam’s spells.

As turn five comes I have only 5 Tomb Guard left in addition to my Prince and 2 Liche. I bail out of the Tower towards Sam’s table edge and infront of his Hobgoblins to stop them tacking the tower in an attempt to deny both of us the tower. I move my 10 man archer unit up and pin his Ka’daai against the building. It now cant pivot or charge my exposed Tomb Guard and can only move backwards or sideways. Sam throws a unit of hobgoblins into my Tomb Guard to attempt to pin them outside of the tower to try deny me any chance of capturing it. I roll up 8 dice for me and throw 2 at cursed blades with the intention of regening up my Tomb Guard, but a double 1 thwarts any attempt at that! I get Light of Death off on 6 dice and take a further 2 wounds off his Ka’daai however. At this point it has 1 wound left. Sam uses his Bull Centaurs to charge the rear of my archers that are pinning his Infernal Guard in place, and the combined assault removes the entire unit freeing his Guard to capture the tower last turn if he wishes. The hobgoblins predictably cause no wounds and get slaughtered by my Tomb Guard. They break and I try to restrain, but fail! I however I only roll a 3” pursuit, which is still enough to put me out of movement range to get into the building. I will have to rely on spells to get me back in last turn.

The final turn, and most people have finished their games and many are watching our table. I only have my casket, a catapult, my Tomb Guard and characters, and a single 10 skittle archer unit left. Oh I also have 1 horse archer hiding over by my catapult! I move my Tomb Guard unit backwards towards the tower, and try and move the archers to block the Ka’daai, however they do not have enough movement to block him. In turn the archers get charged by the Bull Centaurs and deleted. My catapult misses the Rocket Battery in the shooting phase. The most critical magic phase of the game and I roll low! All is not lost as I roll up more dice with the casket. Its 5 vs 2 dice so I decide to throw 3 at Desert wind to put me in the building and and save 2 for the casket to attempt to kill the Ka’daai. Sam try’s to dispel Desert wind but fails! allowing my Tomb Guard back into the building. This is where I forget a critical dice roll in the game, more on that later. I get off Light of Death but it fails to find the last wound on the Ka’daai… Sam then charges into the building with the Ka’daai. I was half expecting him to use is Infernal Guard but he elected to forgo capturing and try to wipe me out instead. His Bull Centaurs charge the 10 archers and delete them. The Ka’daai kills the remain 5 Tomb Guard, and causes a some additional wounds on my characters. Crumble kicks in and takes care of the rest of the wounds and I loose the tower. I suffer no I’ll effects on my remaining units from the hierophant dieing. The game all done and dusted we work out the scores and it is an obvious loss to me. Nobody captures the tower.

19-1 to Sam’s Chaos Dwarfs

I think I stuck to my plan well however in reflection I should not have made a play for the tower so early. I should have spent more time delaying his Ka’daai with chaff. I was worried about his Ka’daai getting into contact with my Tomb Guard outside of the building, and also of allowing him to capture it with his bunker unit. Sam got an excellent combo off on my Necroknights practically destroying the offence I had on my right flank and opening it up to his Bull Centaurs and allowing his bunker to advance up unthreatened. I had some very unlucky dice rolls go against me at several critical times in the game which did not help. I threw enough magic at the Ka’daai to kill it twice over, but Sam managed to uncannily make leadership tests on 3 dice no sweat! I’m pretty sure I didn’t make 1 parry save the entire game, even though I probably roll 50 of them… However the biggest mistake I made was forgetting to roll for restless dead lore attribute in my last turn after casting desert wind! At minimum I would have held the tower, and not lost my hierophant and Tomb Prince. At best I would have had 1 Tomb guard and my Light Wizard alive as well. Forgetting this dice roll gave away between 1091 and 1775 vp and the game!!!!

Lessons learnt the hard way I guess. Oh well. Sam was a great opponent to play against with an awesome looking army, and I look forward to fighting the rematch!

K'daai Fireborn Available for Pre-Order

Obvious title is obvious!

Head Shot... there is a lot of detail that is not obvious from the leaked pictures

I hope they inspect all the armour detail before shipping them, as there is alot that could go wrong

Wont stop me getting this fella though

After seeing these I've officially started my Chaos Dawi army...