BAO 2013: Round #4 - Chaos Dwarves

[Note, this battle report is way, way overdue. In fact this game took place over year ago. But I promised that I would post it, and post it I am. Enjoy, even if late and in the old battle report format. And remember, I was still playing Wood Elves.]

For the Fourth Round of the BAO, I played Henry. This guy on the left. Henry is perhaps better known by his twitter handle @Johnnycrass in which he constantly engages in various Warhammer discussions and hobby projects.








For the BAO this year, Henry brought a gnarly Chaos Dwarf army that included lots of metal and flame paint jobs. Check it out.

Yay, flaming warmachines against giant trees!













An Iron Daemon, always ready to run over my poor hapless models.












And a Chaos Siege Giant, because, why not?


This guy I really liked because of his long, metallic, ripping limbs that made him seem really capable of pulling a castle apart with ease.












Henry's army list was as follows:

• Sorcerer Prophet (375 pts) (General, Charmed Shield, Talisman of Preservation, Dispel Scroll, Level 4 Wizard, Lore of Hashut, Blackshard Armor, Darkforged weapon)
• Daemonsmith Sorcerer (100 pts) (Enchanted Shield, Level 1, Lore of Fire, Ensorcelled weapon, Blackshard Armor)
• Infernal Castellan (202 pts) (Battle Standard Bearer, Mask of the Furnace, Warriorbane, Blackdhard Armor, shield)
• Infernal Guard (457 pts) (25 models, full command)
• Infernal Guard (180 pts) (10 models, musician, fireglaives)
• Iron Daemon
• Magma Cannon
• Deathshrieker Rocket
• K'daii Destroyer
• Chaos Siege Giant

This army has a ton of heavy hitters (K'daii and siege giant) as well as devastating long range damage (all the warmachines). Looking at this list before the game, I knew my best chance was if Henry rolled poorly and blew up his own warmachines. You know you have an uphill battle when your best chance of winning is your opponent killing their own models.

Before deployment, we rolled for spells. Henry got Fireball and several of the flaming spells (yay!) from Lore of Hashut. My Lifeweaver rolled up Awakening of the Woods, Throne of Vines, Shield of Thorns, and the Dweller's Below. The Beastweaver rolled up Flock of Doom, Amber Spear, and defaulted to Wyssan's Wildform. My spells were decent, but unless I got some really good magic phases, I knew was I was going to be in for a beating. 

Deployment:

I deployed my wood elves in a rather spread out formation to negate all the damage that could be caused by the warmachines. On the far left flank I deployed a unit of Treekin with an eagle more than 6" away (I know the Treekin are Immune to Psychology, but keeping an eagle 6" is habit, and a good one to form and practice). In the center, I deployed the other unit of Treekin, the Treeman, and a unit of Dryads. Behind the dryads I deployed a unit of glade riders with the Level 4 of life and the BSB. Finally, on the right flank I deployed the other unit of Glade Riders with the Beastmage and the unit of Wild Riders.

Henry deployed with a strong flank position with all his warmachines on the left flank, protected by the Infernal Guard with fireglaives. His center was just the other unit of Infernal Guard with characters flanked by the Iron Daemon. On the right went the Chaos Giant and K'dai Destroyer.

Turn #1:
I won the roll off to go first, and after having vanguarded my glade riders away from the K'dai, I pressed forward. The Treekin and eagle on the left flank ran towards the warmachines, hoping to end them before they could destroy my whole army. The treekin in the center, along with the glade riders, rushed the large unit while the treeman and wild riders moved to take on the right flank. The Dryads moved forward to set themselves up for a second turn charge on the large unit of chaos dwarves.

In the magic phase, the Lifeweaver successfully cast a boosted Dweller's Below at the large unit of Chaos Dwarves and killed ten of the evil creatures (including the champion) but failed to kill any of the characters hiding in the unit.

Wood Elf shooting was uneventful and failed to cause a single wound on the siege giant.

For Henry's first turn, he surged forward with his units. The K'Dai, seeing a lone target in the Treeman charges the forest spirit, but fails the charge and takes three wounds from Strangleroot for its efforts. The Iron Daemon and siege giant rushed towards the wood elf lines while the dwarves move forward slowly, sauntering to keep pace with the rest of the army.

Magic saw ash cloud dispelled and the magic missile fail to cause any wounds. In the shooting phase, the rocket overshoots the eagle and the magma cannon fails to wound the closest treekin.

Turn #2:
I started Turn 2 with a lot of charges (in hindsight, most of them were on the long side) that didn't pan out. The eagle charged the rocket while the Treekin in the center of the board charged the large unit of dwarves (now at only 18 strong). The dryads also charged the unit, but failed, leaving them right in front of the Iron Daemon.

Both charges on the large unit, but only the Treekin make it. Those poor, poor dryads are now stuck facing off against an Iron Daemon.











I also charged the K'Dai with both the Treeman and the unit of Wild Riders, both of which made contact. Luckily, with a little magic (and shield of thorns) I would be able to blow right through this large creature.

While certain units were engaged, the glade riders with both mages moved to support the Treeman combat.





In the magic phase, I rolled a magical three for winds of magic and failed to cast shield of thorns on the Treeman. Wood Elf shoot was equally ineffective as both glade rider units failed to cause a single wound to the siege giant.

In combat, the K'dai failed to cause a single wound to either the Wild Riders (thanks to their 5++) or the Treeman. Unfortunately, the Wood Elves also failed to wound the creature and all three units were locked in combat. In the center, the Treekin kill 4 more dwarves dropping the unit to an even small size, for only a single wound in return. But the steadfast dwarves refuse to budge and stay in the combat for another turn. On the left flank, the eagle failed to kill the rocket outright, but the dwarves could not wound the creature back and so the rocket would be unable to fire on its next turn (which was all I was really hoping for).

Henry started his Turn 2 in a good position, he had stalled the Wood Elf combat units and he still had one operating warmachine. Plus, the Iron Daemon was staring right at the dryads with an easy charge. Henry took the easy charge and the dryads were struck by the steam-powered train.












In the shooting phase (mage was easily dispelled by the lifeweaver), the magma cannon hits the second Treekin unit and kills 2 of the forest spirits.

In combat, the dryads are crushed beneath the train and not a single spirit is left to stand against its might. The Irondaemon then turns to face the Treekin in combat with the general's unit. In the eagle combat with the rocket, the eagle takes a wound and flees from the combat, leaving the rocket with a single crew. In the center combat, the Treekin roll poorly and lose combat due to the musician. They promptly flee from combat only to be run down by the dwarves! Finally, over in the K'dai combat, the wild riders lose 2 models and the Treeman takes a wound for only a single wound in return. It was looking like that K'daiu would emerge victorious if the wood elf magic could not be brought to bear.

Turn #3-6:
The Treekin on the left flank would charge and kill the engineer that Henry sacrificed to protect his warmachines. In response the Iron Daemon would charge the Treekin in combat in the rear. The Treekin would lose combat and die. At the same time, all the Wild Riders would die in combat with the K'dai.

I would try and set up some more warmachine charges, but would eventually only get one. Meanwhile, with three turns without casting a single spell, the Treeman would also die to the K'dai, leaving the creature to rampage on the battle field. I called the game at the beginning of turn 5 when all I had was some glade rider units and a unit of dryads. Henry took a total win and left me and my army in shame. Needless to say, Chaos Dwarves own the old wood-elves with all those flaming attacks.