My round two opponent in the Crossroads GT was a fellow Dwarf player by the name of Mike Rossi. Although you might expect a Dwarf v. Dwarf battle to be boring, the game proved to be anything but! Mike was kind enough to take a lot of pictures during our game and write up a detailed battle report. After some Google stalking, I managed to track down said battle report. I will reprint it here for your enjoyment. If you would like to see the original source please visit http://www.theshamblinghorde.com Big thanks again to Mike for being a top notch sportsman and a skilled general - hope to get a rematch some time!
GAME 2 – Greg Person – Dwarves
Greg is the co-host of the Painting Tabled podcast (with his wife Jen), and is a regular on the northeast tourney scene. He also happens to be another really nice guy. He was running a very “7th Edition” dwarf list, with a lord on shieldbearers, and a bunch of 15-20 man units of dwarves. He had a BSB, a pair of Runesmiths, a cannon, a super runed-up Grudge Thrower with a Master Engineer, and an organ gun. It was also one of the nicest dwarf armies I’ve ever scene on the table, with expert shading, highlighting, and a very clean look (it scored a perfect 30 out of 30 in painting).
Greg castled up in the corner, nestled to the left of some impassible terrain. From left to right: Grudge Thrower with Master Engineer, Quarreler Rangers in the woods, warriors with shields (his Lord went in there), a cannon, 15 Hammerers with a rune smith and rune of Grungi (5+ ward vs. shooting within 6”;), a BSB running around by himself! (with a 2+ ward vs. shooting), 16 Thunderers with Runesmith, 15 slayers, an organ gun, and on the far right he had his gyro (a dwarf with a jet pack). He also had a unit of miners set to infiltrate. I set the rangers up close on the left to put some pressure on while the rest of my army would rush forward to clog him up, and the miners would come on from behind and just generally make an annoyance of themselves.
GAME 2 – Greg Person – Dwarves
Greg is the co-host of the Painting Tabled podcast (with his wife Jen), and is a regular on the northeast tourney scene. He also happens to be another really nice guy. He was running a very “7th Edition” dwarf list, with a lord on shieldbearers, and a bunch of 15-20 man units of dwarves. He had a BSB, a pair of Runesmiths, a cannon, a super runed-up Grudge Thrower with a Master Engineer, and an organ gun. It was also one of the nicest dwarf armies I’ve ever scene on the table, with expert shading, highlighting, and a very clean look (it scored a perfect 30 out of 30 in painting).
Greg castled up in the corner, nestled to the left of some impassible terrain. From left to right: Grudge Thrower with Master Engineer, Quarreler Rangers in the woods, warriors with shields (his Lord went in there), a cannon, 15 Hammerers with a rune smith and rune of Grungi (5+ ward vs. shooting within 6”;), a BSB running around by himself! (with a 2+ ward vs. shooting), 16 Thunderers with Runesmith, 15 slayers, an organ gun, and on the far right he had his gyro (a dwarf with a jet pack). He also had a unit of miners set to infiltrate. I set the rangers up close on the left to put some pressure on while the rest of my army would rush forward to clog him up, and the miners would come on from behind and just generally make an annoyance of themselves.
I went first and surged forward, including the organ guns. I moved the rangers into the face of his quarrelers to press the issue. Shooting was mostly ineffectual, with shots scattering off target. His turn 1, he stood still, and shot up my organ gun on the left, doing a single wound. He also leap-frogged his gyro forward to another piece of tall terrain, hiding from my artillery.
My turn 2, I charge his quarrelers with my rangers, and moved the gyro up on the flank, facing in toward his main line. One unit of miners comes up in his backfield and the other comes in on his flank, ready to handle his grudge thrower. My shooting kills some thunderers, and I break the quarrelers in combat, running them off the table and plowing into his warrior block with his lord.
His turn 2, he flank charges my gyro with his master engineer. He’s about 9” away, and needs a 6 to make it. I decide to flee, with the intention of rallying next turn and just flying wherever I want again. I roll three dice, and flee 4 whole inches. He rolls an 11, and runs down my gyro with his engineer….sigh. His miners also come on this turn to deal with my grudge thrower. He turned his hammerer block toward my rangers. In his shooting phase he kills the organ gun, leaving my GT relatively defenseless.
My turn 3, the left miners charge into the GT and smash it up. I rush everyone else forward again, closing in to hopefully do some combat next turn. The warriors keep grinding away on the warriors, but with the unkillable lord in there, I keep getting the worst of it.
On his turn, he flank charges the rangers with his hammerers. I use the Rune of Challenge to force his thunderers to charge my hammerers (they fail the charge, but it saved me from getting shot up again). His miners failed to reach my GT, saving it for another turn. In the ensuing combat, my rangers break, but escape his pursuit.
On his turn, he flank charges the rangers with his hammerers. I use the Rune of Challenge to force his thunderers to charge my hammerers (they fail the charge, but it saved me from getting shot up again). His miners failed to reach my GT, saving it for another turn. In the ensuing combat, my rangers break, but escape his pursuit.
On my turn 4, I rally the rangers, and declare a bunch of charges, and he flees all of them. His hammerers and thunderers are on the run, as is his BSB, which fled from the right unit of miners. The miners overran into his cannon and killed it. It’s at this point that I realize that my right Quarreler unit is badly out of position, facing an organ gun that just isn’t there any more.
On his 4, he rallies everyone, except the BSB, who keep on fleeing past the impassible terrain and into LOS of my quarrelers. (I knew I put them there for a reason). He finally gets the charge off on my GT with his miners, and he eventually kills it. He sends his warriors and lord into my rangers again, and brings up his slayers to block off my warriors.
On his 4, he rallies everyone, except the BSB, who keep on fleeing past the impassible terrain and into LOS of my quarrelers. (I knew I put them there for a reason). He finally gets the charge off on my GT with his miners, and he eventually kills it. He sends his warriors and lord into my rangers again, and brings up his slayers to block off my warriors.
My 5, I charge the warriors into his slayers, charge his BSB with my quarrelers (chasing it off the table), and send my hammerers into the side of his warriors. I blast his gyro, which had come out of hiding. In the ensuing combat, my hammerers fluff their rolls, and he kills enough troops to win by one. The rangers break, but the hammerers stay.
On his 5, sends the thunderers into the flank of my warriors. In the ensuing combat, he rolls insane with his warriors, and kills 7 hammerers with his S3 attacks. I don’t do nearly as well, and am stuck in a losing combat with his super tough lord.
On his 5, sends the thunderers into the flank of my warriors. In the ensuing combat, he rolls insane with his warriors, and kills 7 hammerers with his S3 attacks. I don’t do nearly as well, and am stuck in a losing combat with his super tough lord.
My Turn 6 sees lots of grinding on both combats, with more hammerers falling. His 6 he charges in with his hammerer block, sealing my unit’s fate. I reduced his slayers down to the champion, but couldn’t remove the last wound over two rounds of combat.
In the end, I gave up 1039, he Gave 1009, making for an extremely tight draw. With the bonus points I scored a 5-4 draw. Greg was an extremely tactical player, using those flee reactions in turn 3 to really drop my killing potential and reserve his points. We discussed the game afterwards and we both thought I had a decided advantage going into round 4, but having a block of 20 quarrelers out of position for the second half of the game really messed up my ability to grab some points. All in all, though, an excellent game against a great opponent.
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