Project beard part three: Erm....

Well bugger. You think you have a plan and it just falls apart around your head. Played two games yesterday against an SAD skaven army and an undead bunker list using my “new style” dwarf army.

First game against skaven ended up in a minor victory to myself (HUZZAH!). So hey! That’s a success right? Only thing was however that my victory came about because I marched across the table with 60 or so melee troops and thumped the rats in melee after weathering fire from 18 jezzails and 4 ratling guns. Still, a good result to say the least. the organ gun blew up on turn one but my cannon took out 6 jezzails, 8 clanrats and grape shotted a unit of poison glob chaps into a fine mess. Game ended with a thane + 3 ironbreakers beating down on 60 skaven while flanked from all sides. Huzzah for oathstones!

Then vamps happened… honestly I’ve never had my arse handed to be so thoroughly in two years. 3 vampires bunkered in a unit of grave guard with a swarm of ghouls leading the charge. The game started well with my 20 thunderers literally blending the undead horde as they approached. 30 ghouls dropped in two turns, my organ gun pulled off a full 10 shots decimating a unit of wolves and my little 10 strong flanking unit of dwarf warriors pulled a flank charge on the other unit of wolves wiping them out over 2 rounds of combat. But then… everything just went wrong. Once dice casting on a 3+ lashed out at me like a rabid dog. Those 30 ghouls I had wiped out reappeared with increased numbers. My cannon and quarrellers were overrun by black knights, taking my runesmith with them dooming me to defeat. My ironbreakers with oath stone thane were taken out in a single round of combat. My thane killing blowed by a WS6, ASF ghoul champion scoring a killing blow in a challenge. 3 vampires unloading their S5 attacks into my poor breakers. In the end I lost by a single point of combat resolution, but would you know it? Auto break from a fear causing enemy.
my only real success in combat was from my slayers who were able to blend through a unit of 30 zombies in 2 rounds of combat then moved on to take out one of the three vampires in that accursed bunker unit. My organ gun then decided to blow up for a second time.

At the end of the game I had managed to kill an unknown number of ghouls (not enough to kill either unit sadly), a corpse cart from thunderer fire, 2 black knights, a unit of zombies, 12 wolves and 1 vampire. In return my entire army was cleared off the table.

It really does make me want to chew my beard in frustration. How can I compete against vampires like that? The dwarf army is made up of single attack infantry. Very tough ones I admit, my longbeards managed to battle a unit of ghouls with no losses for 5 rounds of combat before getting flank charged and broken. My shooting was superb. Over 3 rounds of shooting I had turned the game drastically in my favour but I might as well have been throwing eggs at a brick wall. Once my runesmith went down I only had 4 dispel dice against his 8+ powerdice. All one dice casting to raise minions on a 3+. What chance do I really have against that? Especially with the helm of downright broken command. WS6 ghouls? My best units have single S6 attacks assuming I throw away my armour save. I have no hope of cleaving through a unit of 30 ghouls faster than he can raise them. I need to win every round of combat to keep fighting, they only need to win once and I’m gone.

I suppose this is my first experience of a truly evil vampire army. Though admittedly the second time I ran into a vampire bunker I had my lizard men against it, with a slan to boot. I didn’t enjoy that game for other reasons but I didn’t have my arse handed to me so royally.

So I’m trying to decide what to do. Do I keep with this hybrid approach? Maybe tweak the level of gunnery (quarrellers could be dropped I reckon) and pump in some more melee power. I’ve got plenty of options I suppose.

I guess I’m just miffed.