Friday, August 8, 2008

Someone call a cannon manufactorer

I really should get into the habit of posting these lists earlier.

Utilising the gift of hindsight aside, here is the second 750pt list that I thought I'd run:

Thor the Thunderer (Bruiser, Wallpwner Big Name, Ironfist, Hvy Armour)
5 Bulls, Ironfists, Crusher, Banner-guy, Lookout gnoblar
Gorger
3 Leadbelchers
9 Gnoblar trappers
26 gnoblars
750 pts
45 models

So yeah, changes are dropping out the unit of Ironguts (pity too, they were cool) for some leadbelchers and trappers.

Friday, August 1, 2008

And now we've pushed our luck too far

The interesting note about the game against John is that no turn lasted longer than five minutes.

With this, the night was still young after two matches. So, in my madness, I organised a game with Hank.

His list was basically the closest thing you'll ever too to a Lizzie-gunline, featuring lots of Skinks, plus a pack of two Salamanders.

Turn 1 saw me advance in coherency (I might have moved the Gnoblars up too far by mistake but hey, I was tired and they died without doing anything anyway). Turn 2 was pure evil. The Skinks fired away at my Ironguts, doing a few wounds, after camping in a forest to the side. As the Shoot Phase began to close, Hank remembered his Salamanders. 2 Artillery D6 shots at -1 save. Oh dear. I had never seen so many sixes from eighteen dice, karmic distribution from the last games no doubt. From there, Thor was a lone ranger.

Next turn, he charged another unit of Skinks. They ran, only to get caught, but he ended up in front of a unit of Kroxigors on a hill. After fleeing from them (and sending said Gnoblars running), he decided to provide morale support (ie, he got caught).

The Bulls were surprisingly amazing. They killed off the unit of Kroxies despite not getting the charge, before getting shot up and becoming food for the crows, ironic as that is.

The final event of interest was the realisation that I had forgotten the Gorger Thankfully, I rolled a 2+, and he showed up behind the Salamanders, shrugged off a conflagration from them, before charging in, killing one and getting close to killing another. He was also able to kill off a JSoD with a 0+ save (I now love Killing Blow XD). At least I killed something other than the Skinks. The result was a massacre in his favour, and the first ever loss to the Tribe of Two Shoulders.

Fatal mistake #1- Turning my Bulls to take on the Chameleons Turn 1. They got stuck in a forest and didn't see any action until Turn 4. I should have just ignored them, expecting to take no more than one-two wounds per turn.

Fatal mistake #2- Not taking any Armour at all. I faced a lot of Poisoned shots. As you can guess, Ogres should learn to get their immunities up.

Fatal mistake #3- Charging up the centre trying to reach the Salamanders. they moved back, and my Ironguts ended up high and dry, surrounded by Skinks.

Learning points:
*Ogres are still fast. Against M6 Skinks though, this advantage counted for less.
*Salamanders are evil. My Ogres are becoming real pyrophobes.
*Gorgers are amazing assassins.
*I really need some ranged power of my own. Maybe next week the Leadbelchers will get dusted off.
*A Butcher would be a sneaky addition, with his immunity to poison. I'll see what I can conjure next week.

Next were the Stunties, in their grand halls

Next match was against John's Dwarfs (he can be found here). As it would transpire, it was him that brought my Dwarfs a while back. Small world.

The game went much better than I thought. The Thunderers were next to useless, and the Bolt Thrower defied all laws of statistics (Turn 1- Hits, fails to wound on a 2+. Turn 2- misses. Turn 3- does one wound). So yes, those were undoubtedly mine- especially that Bolt Thrower.

First to fall were the Slayers. Thor personally cut down several, mercilessly impaling one on his spiky Gutplate from the word go. His 2IC (ie, the Gutlord) took 4-5 combat phases to kill a Dragon Slayer though, he rolled a lot of 3s to wound, while I saw too many 2s.

The Bulls also did quite well, devouring the Bolt Thrower crew in one combat (they killed 2 on the Bull Charge- woot for inertia!), whilst the Gorger showed up late, but was able to pick apart a few Thunderers.

Turn 6 saw the Dwarf warriors roll a 10 for flee distance after deciding two units of Ogres were a bit too scary, bagging one crapload of points for me from killing the general and one huge unit. That said, I think I would have crushed it anyways. Thor had finally gotten on a roll, and him and his bodyguards on the flank of a Dwarf unit would have combined nicely with the charge to the front from the Bulls.

Again, some rolls really didn't work for him, like his big unit failing two Fear tests in a row at Ld9, this is before mentioning the abysmal luck his ranged units got.

Learning points:
*Ogres are still quick. This is a handy ability to have against gunlines, and against Dwarf infantry, well...
*Gorgers are still amazing, even though their killing power is a little questionable.
*Never underestimate the impact of a Bull Charge, even against Dwarfs.

And yes, the astute among you will have noticed that the Gnoblars are not mentioned. This is because they did as much, Useless curs