[Spector]

Note, the player listed first has the top deployment zone.

Map = 3. Desert Obelisk

First Turn = Adrian MalSeraph

Dark Elves

Dark Elf Highborn (General)
Heavy Armour, Shield
The Crimson Death
Dark Steed
196pts

Sorceress
Lvl 2
Darkstar Cloak
Dispel Scroll
175pts


Dark Elves Warriors (10)
Light Armour, Hand Weapon, Spear
70pts

Dark Elves Warriors (10)
Light Armour, Hand Weapon, Spear
70pts

Dark Elves Warriors (15)
Light Armour, Hand Weapon, Spear
Shields
120

Dark Elves Warriors (15)
Light Armour, Hand Weapon, Spear
Shields
120

Dark Elves Warriors (10)
Light Armour, Hand Weapon
Repeater Crossbows
110pts

Dark Elves Warriors (10)
Light Armour, Hand Weapon
Repeater Crossbows
110pts

Dark Riders (10)
Hand Weapon, Spear, Light Armour
Standard Bearer
194pts

Dark Riders (10)
Hand Weapon, Spear, Light Armour
Standard Bearer
194pts

Witch Elves (15)
Two Poisoned Hand Weapons
Hag
--Witchbrew
Musician
Standard Bearer
250pts

Witch Elves (15)
Two Poisoned Hand Weapons
Hag
--Witchbrew
Musician
Standard Bearer
250pts

Black Guard (10)
Halberd, Heavy Armour
Standard Bearer
Musician
180pts

Reaper Bolt Throwers (2)
200pts

Basic Tactics:

The Spearmen head the front and draw out the opponent's main attacking unit/force. As they get dragged down and beaten, the Witch Elves move in and mop up the squads with fresh numbers. The Crossbows provide some basic fire support to these units.

The Black Guard move in last to engage extremely tough opponents and bring down large threats.

The Dark Riders act as an obliquing force, giving the opponent more targets to worry about, drawing focus from one front or the other. The Highborn rides with them, providing extra power with his Magical weapon.

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Kazzad Dolvir's March of Vengeance

Glorel Delsten (Dwarf Lord)
Great weapon
Shield bearers
Rune of stone
Rune of resistance
Master rune of challenge
231 points

Urkral Dollyr (Thane)
BSB
Strollaz rune
Marvelous hat (rune of guarding)
175 points

Cohag Redforge (runesmith)
Shield
Rune of stone
Master rune of balance
127

Yurbir Durgak (runesmith)
Shield
Rune of stone
Spell breaker rune
102

Core

Redforge clan
Dwarf warriors [24] (Cohad's unit)
Full command
Shields
241 points

Durgak clan
Dwarf warriors [24] (Yurbir's unit)
Full command
Shields
241 points

The Valbek Regulars
Long beards [19] (Falent's unit)
Full command
Great weapons
Shields
Master rune of grungi
341 points

Durrak Clan
Dwarf Rangers [10]
Great weapons
Shields
Throwing axes
Champion
Musician
145 points

Special

The Bazdukr Brotherhood
Hammerers [18]
Full command
Shields
264 points

Big Brunhilda
grudge thrower
rune of accuracy
rune of burning
110 points

The wicked sisters

bolt thrower
rune of burning
engineer
65 points

bolt thrower
engineer
60 points

rare

the Grungbad special
flame cannon

total models in army 115 (4 of which are warmachines, 12 warmachine crew and 4 characters)

power pool – 2
dispel pool – 7 with 1 dice removed from the enemy power pool and 1 scroll.


shield bearers - +2 to armour, model becomes US3, 2 extra WS 5 S4 attacks. (note that shield bearers are not a true mount and the lord gains +2 strength as normal from his great weapon)
rune of stone - +1 to armour, a single rune of stone may be placed on any number of characters in the dwarf army. (case in point, runesmiths)
rune of resistance – re-roll failed armour saves.
Strollaz rune – all dwarf units within 12” may make a free move before the game starts, units count as moving in the first turn in regards to missile fire.
Rune of guarding – 5+ ward save
Master rune of balance - -1 from enemy power pool, +1 to dispel pool
Rune of spell breaking - dispel scroll
Master rune of grungi – 5+ ward save against shooting and magic missile attacks for all dwarf units within 6” of the standard.
Rune of accuracy – re-roll the scatter dice (5/9 chance of direct hit)
Rune of burning – warmachine causes flaming damage

Engineers – bolt throwers may use the engineers BS
Royal blood – hammerers joined by a dwarf lord are immune to fear and terror

 

[Arklite]

JAHA! ZE MARCH OF VENGEANCE BEGINS! And what better a start than some pansy elves I ask you?

To get the obvious out the way I’m slower… horrifically so. This however isn’t really a bad thing. Due to my superior ranged punch it means the elves will have to try and find refuge inside combat, which by coincidence is where my army is strongest!

the dark elves msu play style will also work against them thanks to having 11 units to try and destroy my 5. to exploit this I’ll form up my line to one side of the table, using the edge to guard one flank while the hammerers and lord are positioned on the other. This will either A: cause the dark elf army to string out across the table allowing me to bring maximum force against a small part of the dark elf army. Or B: cause the dark elves to deploy in a tight area, carparking eachother and making it difficult to bring their large number of units to bear against my troops. Win-win.

Enemy shooting will be hampered thanks to my T, armour and the 5+ ward against shooting and magic missiles. The crossbows will have little effect due to this and the RBT’s will be weakened significantly, their single bolts becoming unreliable and their multiple shots having to beat the dwarven toughness and ward.

In response my artillery is very dangerous for the dark elves. With 2 large template weapons the elven blocks will be suffering something awful, hek they burn quite painfully on both counts too. (woo! Buuuuurrrrnnnn!)

The dwarf rangers will be on flank guard duty, moving with the dwarf battle line to ward off enemy flanking units with their throwing axes, great weapons and high armour saves being more than a match for dark riders and able to hold the witch elves off for a turn while the lord does his work.

In combat the dark elves are at a serious disadvantage with almost nothing above S3 they will be hard pressed to make any dents in the wall of dwarven armour. (10 attacks hitting on 4's --> 5 hits wounding on 5's --> 1-2 wounds --> 3+ armour = very few dead dwarves or if i'm using my hammerer's/longbeard's great weapons. 1-2 wounds ---> 1-2 dead dwarves)

in responce i've got a significantly better time. while the normal warrior units will be grinding things down my longbeards and hammerers hit on 3s/4s then wound on mighty 2's! splattering the elves in a huge show of gore!. or if i choose i can use my sheilds making them tougher and beat about the elves with S4 which is still pretty darn dangerous.

The only real concern is the dark elf highborn who, as luck would have it, I can force to charge my dwarf lord and hammerers unit. where I can kick him in the nadgers quite soundly.

While I’m out paced in this game I’ve got quite the advantage everywhere else, with stronger shooting, better armour, better toughness and better strength across the board the elves will be hard pressed so stop the march of vengeance moving let alone defeat it as I hack and slash merciliously though their cowardly bodies. >=]

 

[Adrian MalSeraph]

Hrm...Dwarves to start, eh? Well, I'm not going to lie. I've only just started playing, so my experiences are limited, Dwarves being the fewest I've played.

So, an approach I might take is to focus on one unit at a time. With my vastly superior numbers and greater quickness, enough focused charges can really start the Dwarves to fail their armour saves. I guess I'd start with an obliquing move with the Dark Riders to start a charge on one flank, followed with the slightly slower units following behind. With this, I'm blocking line of sight from some of his shooting and other units behind them.

However, as the battle wears on, I'm sure that my army will have taken substantial losses while his remain somewhat alive. To counter this, I suppose I could have the Reaper Crossbows focus on a seperate unit as my army obliques. Thus, I'll improve my casualty rate, even if by only a little.

I'd like to have my Highborn up front, the Crimson Death gives him S6 in combat, and that'll help to reduce his dwarven armour for some kills.

My sorceress, on the other hand, is basically nullfied. Let's hope with my 3 power dice and 2 spells I get some support stuff for my army.

I don't have much more to say as I'm not well versed yet with some armies. But I guess that's what I have.

 

[Bleyden]

I must admit, this one looks bad for the elves. The grudgethrower should take out a unit per turn until they get to combat and probably will go for the dark riders so that means they are gone by turn 2. The Master Rune of Challenge means the DE general cant choose his own fight (one of the strengths of MSU armies) and he will lose in a war of attrition against the dwarfs. The flame cannon can get rid of the Black Guard as 10 isnt a big enough number to last a couple of rounds of flaming. The sorceress will be nullified by the runesmiths. The RBTs wont be able to do enough damage before the dwarfs get into combat.

Im gonna scratch this as a victory to Arklite's Dwarfs.

 

[Spector]

The Dark Elves mobility here is offset greatly by the durability that the Dwarves possess. The high armor and toughness of the Dwarves is going to create alot of problems for the Elves. Factor in the Grudge Thrower and the nastiness of the Dwarves in close combat, and this match becomes very one sided.

Kazzad Dolvir's March of Vengeance

 

[andre]

dwarfs

The dark elf list has a lot of potential, tha would be very difficult to beat for alot of other lists, its just that its come up against a brick wall from aklite.

 

[tyurtddr]

the dark elves have a good list, but i think the dvarfs will win just beacuse they will form a wall and never be beaten in close combat, by smaller units of elves.

victory: DWARFS

 

[BirchQ]

I have to agree with the others, while there are many seeming advantages to the quick, light, mobile dark elf units in the army, they don't seem to able to exploit them against a heavily armored, range powerful force like these dwarfs.

I think the elves will suffer quite a bit of attrition as they approach the dwarfs to try to close into combat, and from there it won't go much better for them against the strong, tough, well-armored dwarven force.

The dwarfs will be very difficult to break even when the elves finally close into combat with their high leaderships and being stubborn.

Have to hand it to the Dwarfs on this one, sorry evil elven brethren.

 

[Phoenix]

I think Arklite's solid defensive list will hand him the victory here, the small DE warrior units will have a tough time breaking the Dwaves in combat.

I almost voted the other way, due to the fact Arky thought a Dwarf would be able to kick an elf in the nads! Headbutt maybe...

 

[Sir Theobold the Lame]

All your Elves are belong to us

Have to go with Arklite Dwarfs here- the grudgethrower and bolt throwers will force the Dark Elves to come and engage with the big infantry blocks and that is where I (and indeed Arklite) believe Dwarfs really shine- their superior armour saves will be telling. The Dwarf Lord and his rune of challenge will cause severe headaches to the Dark Elf Highborn as well, and should ensure he isnt able to influence the battle as much as he might.

 

[timk1111]

I probably dont need to, but this is so much fun!

Dwarfs get my vote. The Dark Elf units are just too small to do much, but big enough for a stone thrower to squish into the ground. Even the best unit in the list, the Black Guard, will struggle, with only 10 of them, and only s4.

Of course, the DE could try to hide? ;o Thatll show em...

Tim

 

[gingerninja]

As much as it pains me to do it, the Dwarves have this one.

Their armour is too strong for the elves to damage, and they are too tough to wound. They are the wall, and Adrian didn't bring his sledgehammer.

ninja out

 

[ArchonFarseerGuy]

I'm going to go against the grain and say why I think the DEs stand a chance. The Dark Riders will be able to pull the infantry out of position, while the Witch Elves can charge where they see fit. If Adrian can work his units together they stand a chance.

That being said, there are 2 mistakes I can identify:
*The Dark Rider units are too big. I'd knock them back to 6 and include another unit of 8 with Red Star Trek uniforms.
*Not enough firepower of their own.

No offence intended btw, I mean, it's better off learning about them in the halls of LO than the unforgiving fields of battle.

Also, the Dwarf units are too tough, and their firepower is too strong, so I'm going to say they'll win, but be hard pressed to do so.

-AFG

 

[swntzu]

Having taken a look at the map, I have come to the conclusion that the Dwarfs have the upper hand in this situation.

Deployment will be a problem for Adrian's army. With so many units, I am not convinced that they can all fit in without blocking each other.

There does not not seem to be much to hide behind so shooting units will pretty much have free reign here. The guns on both sides are for the most part not doing too much so I shall disregard those.

Warmachines are pretty good on both sides. RBTs can do a fair amount of damage while the dark elves close in. The biggie for the dwarfs is the flame cannon. It has a decent range and since adrian's plan relies on baiting, he will be forced to et into range of this monster. Being a template attack, it can potentially panic several units in one go. There is a main corridor in the centre to right of the field and it can cover this fairly well. The dwarven bolt throwers won't be gamewinners due to the lack of big unit blocks

Adrian's list is pretty unconventional (going by my past lists) and while the idea is quite neat, I do not see any units that can deal the killing blow. Dwarves need to lose by quite a margin to break and with a bsb nearby, it's essential that you make a huge number of kills. Unfortunately the best units on the Dark Elf side (with any staying power) are the witch elves who are still only S3. Cold ones knights or chariots would have been good here but they are noticeably absent. Even the lack guard (a unit with good staying power) are only 10 strong and won't last.

As has been pointed out before, the dark riders are a bit big and could be unwieldy but have some more survivability. Unfortunately they do not have enough punch to really cut through the dwarfs in one go which is really what needs to happen. The highborn will likely get dragged into a bad combat against the dwarf (master rune of challenge) and will probably not make it out.

It's a pretty bad match up though. Dark elves have a hard time against high toughness troops.

 

[Spector]

Arklite wins the match, 11-0.