JAMES’ Dwarves vs RIK’s, 3000 Points – 17^th August 2006

Army Lists

James’ Dwarves:

	Number	Points Each	Total		Unit Total
20 Dwarf Pikemen led by Dwarf Champion					611
19 Dwarf Pikemen	19	26	494
1 Dwarf Champion	1	117	117
20 Mithril Warriors					580
20 Mithril Warriors	20	29	580
10 Ram Cavalry with Lance	10	45	450		450
12 Handgunners	12	33	396		396
10 Crossbowmen	10	33	330		330
Ballista + Additional Crewmen	1	211	269		269
Dwarf Crew		15
Additional Dwarf Crew (4)		43
Dwarf Lord (Independent)	1	200	200		200
Light Catapult	1	166	181		181
Dwarf Crew		15
ARMY TOTAL					3017
Break Down
Core				2250	75%
Characters/Elite/Monsters/Warmachine				767	25%

Rik’s Orcs:

	Number	Points Each	Total		Unit Total
25 Orc with Spear led by Orc Chieftain					640
24 Orc with Spear	24	18	432
1 Orc Chieftain	1	208	208
20 Orc with Bow	20	32	640		640
2 Ballista + Additional Crewmen	2	211	422		442
Additional Crew (4)	1	20	20
25 Orc Warriors led by Orc Hero					373
24 Orc Warriors	24	12	288
1 Orc Hero	1	85	85
12 Greater Orc	12	24	288		288
15 Orc Berserker	15	19	285		285
Light Catapult	1	166	166		166
Chariot	1	90	90		166
2 Orc with Spear	2	18	36
2 Beasts	2	20	40
ARMY TOTAL					3000
Break Down
Core				2099	70%
Characters/Elite/Monsters/Warmachine				901	30%

Pre-Battle

Rik: I designed both the forces for this game as James hadn’t yet even seen the Armies of Arcana rules or armylists, but he had sent me a list of Dwarf models that he had, for me to turn into a hopefully somewhat decent AoA force! As he also told me he also had a lot of WFB Empire models, and I didn’t have many cavalry models to speak of, I also wanted to give his army a unit of Cavalry. We discussed whether it was better to use them as allied Human Cavalry in the rules, or as Dwarvern cavalry – even though the models wouldn’t quite match them – and we went for the Dwarf Ram Cavalry option as it would make the game a bit more AoA flavoured I hoped.

Being only 3000 points, we played it out on a small 4’ x 4’ table, however we ignored the 12” from the side of the table setup restictions in the standard AoA rules as this would’ve meant our forces were very bunched up and had very few options in deployment. If I had realised these rules existed before I setup the table, I probably would’ve played this on a 6’ x 4’ board even with these small armies. We purposefully played with small forces as this was our first game of AoA ever, and I didn’t want to involve too much in the way of special rules, although I’d tried to spread around a few more interesting units on purpose. We also decided to drop wizards for this first game. Of course this actually gives the Dwarfs a distinct dis-advantage with their high magic resistance going to waste! However to attempt to balance this out the Dwarf army had a few extra points, and also we played the Dwarfs on 20mm bases – whereas to be fair in AoA they really ought to be on the same base size as the Orcs and Cavalry. I also deployed a much more terrain heavy board than I usually favour, and concentrated a chunk of terrain towards the centre of the board. This was purposefully to try to reduce the impact of both side’s warmachine and fairly missile heavy forces, which I knew could be an issue going into the game. I knew missile power was a lot higher in AoA than in WFB and I did not really want our first game to just be an archery contest. I also enjoyed the novel concept that woods in the middle of the board didn’t represent effectively ‘impassable’ terrain to my infantry as it does in Warhammer. Without a set turn limit and being able to skirmish if I chose to do so – any of my units could potentially manoeuvre through a wood without too much difficulty – well all except the Chariot at least. The same was true for the Dwarves.

Before the game began we discussed the AoA rules and I tried to explain as many of the key differences from WFB as I could. We decided to play a regular AoA ‘objectives’ game. I chose both my big 640 points units – the Spearmen and the Archers to be James’ objectives, and James chose his Pikeman unit & the wood in his setup zone as a terrain objective for me to capture.

Rik: I believe our choice of objectives had a really significant impact on the way the game played out. Unit-based objectives should generally be fairly balanced I feel, especially as you get to design your list and choose them for your opponent, although I can think of a few cheesy tricks with them – the fact you have to chose your most expensive units and characters as objectives makes it hard to ‘break’. On the other hand terrain based objectives can very easily be unbalanced – and James used this very smartly to his advantage I feel! However as both of us were taking this game as a learning exercise so this was useful to discover.

Army Set-Up

The Orcs deployed across the board but concentrating their forces on the left hand side of the board, and splitting up their missile fire – some on the hill, and some covering the central hill and the wood on the right. Because the Ballistas were a skirmished unit, the Ballistas could be up to 12” apart and still form a unit.

The Orc deployment from left to right, front to back: Orc Warriors led by Hero, Orc Berserkers, Greater Orcs, Ballistas, Orc with Spear

led by Chieftain (Objective), Chariot, Orc with Bow (Objective) and off to the right not seen in the shot is the Orc Catapult.

Rik: As I deployed the general plan was to send the Orc Warriors, Berserkers and Greater Orcs down the left side of the board to try and take the objective wood in the far corner. I hoped to lure some Dwarf units over to my side of the board to attempt to take my two objective units. Any units doing so I would be able to put under heavy warmachine & bowfire and could be attacked by the Chariot if they chose to skirmish. And the Spear Orcs were positioned to potentially bolster defense or attack either side of the central hill. I was initially concerned about a Dwarf advance through the woods on the right which was one of the reasons the archers were set back a way from them.

I had hoped that my Ballistas would be able to shoot at one or both of the Dwarf warmachines so I could gain a significant missile advantage, however it became obvious during deployment when I reviewed the LOS rules I had ballsed this up badly. By putting them on the hill, I couldn’t actually defend them with a skirmished unit – James by contrast had set his Ballista up correctly, with skirmished handgunners preventing me from targeting it. Ah well I was still getting used to the rules. I didn’t really like using the Greater Orcs as a screen – but I skirmished them anyway as I felt they would be the most tempting target for the Dwarf Ballista, and this would help reduce casualties.

The Dwarf deployment: The Pikemen (Objective) in the wood (Objective) was flanked by the Mithril Warriors who were joined by the Dwarf Lord.

The Ballista and Handgunners were next, then the Ram Cavalry (proxied by Human Knights), the Crossbowmen and lastly the Dwarves

own Catapult was positioned on their hill – out of LOS of the Orc Catapult however.

Rik: I was quite surprised by the Dwarf deployment – putting both objectives in the same spot seemed a bit risky to me. Of course I realised pretty soon it was a great move and one that would make it almost impossible for me to win the game with this deployment.

The Early Game

Turn 1

The Orc left flank all advanced, however the Orc archers moved forwards at half pace so they could still shoot (at -1 to hit) and warmachines stayed still. The Dwarf units in the wood shuffled forwards to the front of the wood, with the Mithral Warriors staying with them. The Dwarf Handgunners, Rams and Crossbowmen all advanced.

The Orc archers fired upon the Dwarf catapult as it was the only target they could see, but at long range and moving, this was ineffective. The Dwarf catapult fired back at them but missed. The Orc Ballistas opened fire on the Handgunners – again, their only available target due to the LOS rules, and killed 2 of them. The Dwarf Ballista fired at the Orc Ballista unit and hit and did three or four wounds.

Rik: I have so many questions about the rules for artillery batteries, their crews and how the rules are supposed to work. I thought I had made sense of them, but this game did highlight just how little I really knew! This was really a shame, as it had a major effect on the game.

In the morale phase we believed the Orc Ballistas had to take a check for losing 25% casualties – the promptly started to flee next turn.

Turn 1 overhead view!

The Ballista’s luckily didn’t flee off the board though and would rally the next turn, and then return to their machines, but this lost them two rounds of firing. The Orc advance continued for the next two turns with the Orc Warriors running between the rock formations – just fitting through in RAF formation, followed closely by the skirmished Orc Berserkers. The Dwarves formed a battleline with their Pikemen, Mithrils and Handgunners, supported by their Ballista behind ready to attack the Orcs as they came around the rocks. The Ram cavalry stood to protect any advance over the hill. The Greater Orcs remained in skirmish, trying to keep out of LOS from the Dwarf missile fire behind the rocks yet support the Spearman advancing over the hill. The Orc Chariot did the same.

On the right flank the Dwarf catapult reloaded and then fired again at the Orc Bowmen killed a few of them. The Orc bowmen fired one round of bows at the Dwarf Catapult again, but only killed a single crewman, then loosed a volley into the Dwarf crossbowmen as they advanced around the hill. This attack was devastating, killing 7 of the unit and the remaining 3 fled.

The Dwarf ballista missed one shot, then killed one Greater Orc and wounded another with a very tight angled shot down the side of the rocks.

Rik: I had hoped to engage the powerful Dwarf combat units two to one with the Chariot, Greater Orcs and Berserkers assisting my main combat units, but all the terrain was boxing me in horribly. I was also really lamenting not having some useless Goblins to form a missile shield! Orcs shouldn’t be doing the dirty work! ;) Losing the Ballistas also gave me no missile capability on the left side of the board. It had also become clear at this point that James did not seem to be making any attacking advance on my Archer unit. With the Dwarves just playing a defensively I knew that tactically I was playing a fools game and while the Dwarves could force my units to engage one on one I probably didn’t have much of a chance. However seeing as it was my first game and I’d lost all sense of missile superiority I decided to press on and see where the dice would take me! At least my Orcs would make a valiant attempt to win the game. Plus this game would be pretty boring if we both just sat back and waited for the other player to advance. The centralised terrain was reducing the effects of all the missile fire successfully, but it was having quite an effect on how the battle played out also and definitely advantaged defensive play. :(

The Mid Game

The Ram Cavalry chose not to try to charge anyone and just manoeuvred slightly – the rest of the dwarf line stood firm.

In stark contrast, throwing all caution to the wind, the Orcs all piled onwards. The Greater Orcs abandoned the cover of the rocks and ran right into the barrels of the Dwarf handgunners. They fired at the Greater Orcs killed enough for them to start to panic and flee.

The Orcs charge onward!

The Dwarvern side’s view of the Orc tidal wave advance.

On the other side of the board the Dwarf catapult reloaded and the Orc archers exchanged inneffectual fire once again.

Rik: I considered, and retrospectively really should have advanced with my archers on this turn and tried to shoot at the fleeing Crossbowmen as if I killed one more they could not rally… however the odds were much better of damaging the artillery by having it within their normal range without having to move. Eventually I figured I had to destroy the darn thing!

The next turn: CHARGE!

The Orcs won the initiative – helping them a lot at this critical juncture and charged in with all their units that could. The Greater Orcs fled behind the rocks and the Chariot moved up to take their place. As they had to reload their weapons, the Dwarf Handgunners surprisingly decided to charge the Orc Chariot too!

The Dwarf Ballista had hit and caused the Orc Ballista crew to flee off the board again by now also. Apart from the first turn, the Orc Ballistas had dealt no damage at all.

Combat is joined!

In the combat phase, both the Orc Hero in the Warriors and the Dwarf Champion in the objective Pikemen unit squared off and each wounded each other. Neither infantry unit inflicted significant casualties on each other, but it was clear the Dwarf pikes were giving them the upper hand – the Orc Warriors actually did not kill a single Dwarf.

Rik: I was completely hoping to get lucky and kill the Dwarf Champion here – to force a morale check and then give me a chance to win the fight aftewards… however if I had looked at the combat skills of our two characters, it was clear I would have to be rather lucky indeed!

The Berserkers crashed into the Mithril warriors, but the Dwarf Lord with his first strike ability cut down a good number of them before they could stike! The Lord would prove to be critical in this engagement. The Orcs did manage to kill a Mithril Warrior and not take that significant damage themselves really, even rolling a double 1 for their morale check and not taking any extra wounds. But it didn’t seem they would stand up for long against the powerful Dwarf warriors.

Rik: As in the other combat, I knew very well my odds of winning were very slim – but again, I hadn’t factored in the stats of the Dwarf Lord really, and his presence cut my chances down even further than I’d realised. Still.. being Berserk meant the Savage Orcs would at least not run away.. and they could possibly hold up the Mithril Warriors for a while to give the Orc Warriors their chance to pull off some amazing luck without being flanked by the Mithrils too!

The Orc Spears charged straight into the Dwarvern Rams, enlarging their formation to get even more attacks, but taking the full brunt of the Rams ‘ram’ attacks also. Both units inflicted a large number of wounds on each other – and both took morale checks. However the weight of Orc numbers and the presence of the Chieftain meant their morale test was a lot higher, whereas the Dwarfs were at -5 or somesuch heavy negative. The Dwarf Rams fled and chose to move sideways across the board rather than back towards their table edge. This meant the Orc Spears chose not to pursue as I knew they would probably be needed to try and engage with the combats around the wood if the Orc force were to have a better chance of victory.

Rik: I didn’t have much choice but to engage the Cavalry really, so I decided to go for it – I had hoped the Spears and the Chieftain would mean the difference, and they did. Its clear that Spear units are VERY killy in AoA.

The Chariot also killed a bunch of Handgunners with its ramming attacks – although this was reduced by their skirmished formation. However the Gunners refused to flee!

Rik: We were both being affected by our WFB tendancies I suspect here – getting a charge off against a chariot or cavalry would normally be a huge advantage, but here it was minimal since both units still got to deal their Ram attacks.

In the morale phase both the Greater Orcs and Crossbowmen rallied also.

The Late Game

In the critical combat in front of the wood with the Orc Warriors and Dwarf Pikemen disaster struck the Orcs as their Hero was cut down by the Dwarf champion and yet more Orc Warriors died… but remarkably the warriors stayed in the fight with the Pikemen.

Rik: Sadly the Orcs’ bravery depsite losing their Hero was for very little – as my gamble to kill the Dwarf Champion had failed, this meant I practically couldn’t win the game already at this point! It has just proved impossible to bring enough units to bear onto one small corner of the board. :(

The Mithril Warriors and the Dwarf Lord lost a few more good Dwarfs but cut the Orc Berserkers to a single Orc.

Rik – I realised later we also played this slightly wrong, as I could’ve wrapped around the Mithrils with the Berserkers and got many more attacks in! Skirmishers can, and indeed Must move each turn, even when engaged with another unit, to bring as many or all their models into the fight as possible. Unfortunately at the time these rules were lost to me early on in the rulebook in the skirmishing rules - when I was looking at the engaged manoeuvre rules. Just one of the problems to be expected when playing a wargame ruleset for the first time! :)

The Orc Chariot had a crewman wounded by the Dwarf handgunners with some pretty lucky hits - and this caused a morale check which it failed.

The Orc Spearmen advanced to attempt to engage the Mithril Warriors, but couldn’t make it into combat and came under heavy fire from the Catapult, Ballista and Crossbowmen, which all hit them in the same turn causing the unit to lose yet more troops – however once again Orc bravery proved remarkable as they continued their advance.

Rik: Well my good luck on low Morale checks continues on from Warhammer at least! ;) I had considered just trying to get the Spears into a combat – any combat – or into skirmish formation, as I realised they would come under a fair amount of fire (although I did not expect that kind of luck!). I had wondered if they could break into skirmish formation and turn around and engage the Handgunners that were fighting the chariot as they were the only unit in range. However I wasn’t sure if this was a possible charge, and as it was getting a bit late by this point I decided not to try and figure out if it was ok or not. It turns out this would’ve been allowed by the rules as I suspected.

The Orc bowmen fired at the Rams, killing a few more and meaning they could not rally at all, but they only had to move a minimal distance next turn and so were in no danger of fleeing off the board.

The Greater Orcs advanced once more behind the Chariot.

===

On the next turn, the Mithril Warriors over-ran the remaining Orc Berserker, killing him and engaging the Orc Warriors in the flank.

Rik: I even considered fleeing with the Orc Warriors at this point – they were probably dead anyway, but since they was the smallest of small chances – the Orcs held their ground for the fight!

The Dwarf Ballista finally missed – but as the Mithril Warriors got their ‘free wheel’ move to engage they had gotten too far away from the Orc Spears for them to charge them now.

The Handgunners pursued the fleeing chariot, which had no choice really but to flee through the Greater Orcs! Using the “covering a retreat” rules, the Greater Orcs took a morale check, passed, and so were now engaged with the handgunners.