Dwarves vs. DoW Battle Report

“If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is little people,” barked the paymaster as he lowered his helmet onto his head.

“So that is why you never hire dwarf mercenaries,” questioned Chase.

“It is just unnatural in my opinion,” replied the paymaster.

“Anymore unnatural than animated skeletons or rats that walk like men,” retorted the captain of the crossbowmen.

“Bah… What do you understand other than firing a crossbow.”

In this battle report, the Coin Collectors find themselves facing off against an army of dwarves as part of the Outpost Gaming league that I am running. (Click here for details) The league default army size was 2000 points, so I needed to field a large number of units that were not “ready for primetime”. With that said, I selected units that I felt fit my overall play-style and interest.

The scenario was basically a victory point game with the diagonal set-up. I won the roll and deployed first. When deploying, I set myself back enough to avoid the 24” range of the dwarven shooting.

Merchant Prince w/ barded warhorse, grizzled warrior, boldness, cunning, mambrinio’s golden armour, giant sword and disc of Sotek
Hireling Wizard w/ level two and arabyan tome (lore of metal)
Paymaster w/ heavy armour, enchanted shield, and 5+ talismans
5 Cavaliers
10 Marksmen of Mirgalino
10 Braganza’s Besiegers
5 Vespero’s Vendetta
10 Ruglud’s Orcs
15 Cursed Company
3 Ogres w/ extra hand weapons
12 Mercenary Elves w/ Razor Standard

My opponent was Joe R, a smart young man that was very well versed on the 8th edition rules. He was fielding a nice mix of different dwarf units with a single large horde, a few shooting units, and a few warmachines. While I don’t have the exact details, nothing about his list seemed unfair or abusive.



Early Turns

The early turns of the game were clearly in my favor. I had positioned my shooting units to shower the enemy with arrows, while my CC units were positioned to intercept any units which got to close to my line. As Joe advanced, my shooting units were on target and worked hard to dwindle the dwarven numbers.

Mid-Turns

The middle turns of the game saw me make a critical decision that would eventually play a critical role in the outcome of the game. Joe had to close the distance between our armies if he had any hope of winning. Knowing that I had range with my cavaliers, I decided to charge a unit with them and my merchant prince. On the surface, this was a good decision, as I wiped out the unit and overran into the warmachine hiding behind it.

Late Turns

The late turns of the game saw my cavaliers run into a wall and be destroyed. I also saw my ogres fall to the horde block which was intentional as I wanted to slow the advance of the horde unit. Vespero’s unit was also shot down at this point.



Conclusion

This was such a fun game. My opponent was a great person and very polite. (Anyone who asks to look at a model before picking it up is cool in my book.) Who would win was always up in the air, so when the final results were tallied and I had lost, it didn’t feel that way.

Lessons Learned…
1) I need to plan ahead when I make a move. I should have anticipated the cavaliers getting charged by the dwarf horde and forced into the impassable terrain.
2) At larger sizes, I tend to ignore units in my army and only focus on what gives me an immediate bang. Vespero’s Vendetta was wiped out purely because I just left them sitting on the board and ignoring them for the first four turns.
3) I need to understand how dwarves work in the magic phase. After the first round, I basically ignored my wizard since my opponent had so many dispel scrolls and bonuses to dispel.