Part The First:
Wherein Snori Whitebeard Learns The Art of Battle

First Battle: Of Cannon and Horse
[Game situation: 6-turn pitched battle. I issued a challenge against Jon Walsh’s human Empire army, in an attempt to move up from the bottom rank of the Whiz store’s challenge board. We each agreed to 650 points with which to “build” our armies for the battle. The dwarves I chose included a regiment of 16 basic dwarf warriors with hand weapons, heavy armor and shields; 2 bolt-throwing war machines; 10 musket-armed Thunderers; and 11 elite Ironbreaker infantry, who fought with our army’s rune-enhanced hero/general, making a pretty tough unit of 12.

Snori’s log entry:

“A bunch of trouble-making humans from the Empire barred our way along a public road. So after they refused to withdraw, we decided to teach them a lesson.

Their forces featured two really big artillery pieces: a so-called Great Cannon, and – curse them! – a stolen dwarf-made Goblin Hewer. Their other forces included some skirmishers (who skulked in the woods and accomplished nothing with their bows), a general who hung around in back and did about as much as the skirmishers, and two small but formidable units of heavy cavalry complete with plate mail and barding. Tough to kill, these.

At the beginning of the battle their cavalry galloped forward towards our lines and their artillery fired away, but the war machines had few targets thanks to their own cavalry getting in the way – stupid humans! Our fearless leader Buford Bugman ordered our Thunderers and bolt-throwers to concentrate their fire on one of the cavalry detachments as it approached. This had a good effect: by the second round of volleying we shattered that unit, breaking its morale and watching it flee (it rallied soon enough, but our gunners finished it off with more gun and bolt fire, wiping them out to a man).

Meanwhile the other cavalry unit had reached our regiment of 16 solid dwarf warriors, but in their hurry to avoid getting shot at by our gunners they inadvertantly rode up in range of our warriors’ charge. As we all know, being the ones to deliver a charge as opposed to receiving it is always a help when entering close combat. Several rounds of fierce close combat ensued, with casualties on both sides. Our warriors passed some morale checks, and managed to break their morale once when pressing them, but the horsemen rallied and kept fighting. In the end the combat came out fairly evenly – but the moral victory was surely ours for standing up to a regiment of their best!

Elsewhere, the human artillery finally managed to cause some damage here and there, including destroying one of our bolt-throwers, but aside from this they didn’t actually affect the battle much. Our elite Ironbreakers went after their skirmishers lurking in the woods and drove them off, the cowards, but never got to grapple with them so as to kill them. The position gained by the Ironbreakers was important, however – by advancing unmolested in this way they contested the humans’ control of that part of the battlefield, while the dwarves retained control of their own part. In the end the humans withdrew in defeat.”         

- Snori Whitebeard

[Game result: Technically a draw, even though the dwarves scored more points, because the margin was very close. But we were awarded victory thanks to having destroyed slightly more of the Empire’s forces, and also thanks to the dwarves’ slightly superior position on the board at the end. Even if it had been an exact draw, however, we would have prevailed, due to the fact that the dwarf army was mostly painted, unlike the bland, unpainted Empire troops – that’s the tie-breaker in this league! So the GRINDING GRUMBLERS advance to the second rank of the challenge board after this, their first fight.]

[Tactical lessons: Empire artillery can outgun Dwarven artillery if care is not taken; Empire cavalry is extremely tough but beatable if encountered in smallish units or subjected to armor-piercing missile fire.]

Second Battle: Armor vs. Arrows

[Game situation: 6-turn pitched battle. A demonstration battle – so no rankings at stake – put on by the Whiz store owner to show potential customers how the game is played. My dwarves fought against the store owner’s High Elves. Points: 925 each. The dwarf army featured the same forces as above except for a unit of 10 Miners instead of the 10 Thunderers, plus an extra leader (who fought among the Warriors) and a bunch of magic Runes applied to the bolt throwers and leaders to improve their abilities. Miner special rule to be aware of: they start the game off-board (tunneling!). Starting the 2^nd turn, there is an increasing chance that they will appear, running in from any board edge that I choose…]

Log entry:

“We heard there was a group of High Elves operating in the area, and knowing that elves are NEVER to be trusted we decided to recon in force. The result was a sudden hostile encounter that unfolded as follows.

We ran into their army on an obstacle-filled battlefield and immediately began to take fire from them. The elven forces boasted one of their new-fangled, multi-shot bolt throwers; a large detachment of deadly elf archers; a sharp-shooting leader with a magic bow; an 8-horse unit of swift cavalry; a 12-person detachment of elite Swordmasters; and some skulking skirmishers (again useless in battle – do skirmishers ever do their generals any good, I wonder?? – light armor, running around all half-cocked and disordered – a proper DWARF army would never use ‘em, says I!)

Our two bolt-throwers, stationed on the left flank, immediately took heavy fire from their fancy multi-bolt shooter and (once they moved into range) from the elven archers as well. Dang, those elves can shoot! Before too many rounds of firing passed one of our bolt-throwers was out of commission with a dead crew and the other was damaged. We only managed to take out a couple of his archers in return fire.

On the right flank our regiment of dwarf warriors (led by our fearless leader Buford Bugman) heard elf cavalry crashing through the intervening woods and got ready to be charged. Charged we were, but we took all their fury and gave it back redoubled. Soon we broke their morale and sent ‘em galloping off, capturing their regimental standard in the process! They rallied and we fought another round, but we broke ‘em again and sent them flying off the edge of the battlefield at top speed. Hurray for Buford and the warriors!

Back on the left flank, our weakened bolt-throwers were about to be finished off by their shooters when – lo! – our band of courageous Miners suddenly appeared right behind their war machine. The nasty engine turned and fired point-blank, causing quite a few casualties, but our Miners held ranks and kept coming. When they charged the fancy bolt-thrower in the next go-round they wiped out the crew and destroyed the artillery piece – then for good measure charged the nearby unit of archers, who had spun around and started firing on the Miners. A veritable hail of arrows fell in their ranks, but thanks to some good fortune with their armor protection, not too many Miners fell. Their subsequent charge against the archers killed a couple of the fiendish shooters, but that fight was inconclusive.

Meanwhile, a battle royale between their elite Swordmasters and our elite Ironbreakers was taking place in the middle of the field. The elves were highly skilled with their weapons, I must admit, and killed several dwarves despite the unit’s super-heavy Gromril armor; but our boys fought back and managed to slay just enough of them to avoid losing our morale, and thus we stayed in the fight. A duel developed between their second-in-command and ours. I am sad to report that our dwarf thane died fighting against the elven chief. But overall the contest of elite troops was rather evenly fought.

In the end the elves conceded the battlefield and slunk away, licking their wounds.”

-Snori Whitebeard

[Game result: Technically a draw once again, though once again the dwarves managed to score a few more points than their opponents thanks to the wiped-out unit of elf cavalry and captured standard therefrom, plus the destroyed elven multi-bolt thrower, plus some position advantage at the end. However, the elves got many points for slaying our secondary leader, a Runesmith, plus the damage done to our various regiments of fighters and our bolt-throwers. Since it was just a demonstration battle, no rankings changed, and the GRINDING GRUMBLERS remained one tier up from the bottom of the challenge board.]

[Tactical lessons: High Elven archery/shooting looks to be the best in the game, so be ready to outgun them — or hide! And respect their Swordmasters.]

Third Battle: Quagmire

[Game situation: 6-turn pitched battle. My Grumblers were challenged by an army on the lowest tier of the challenge board, its owner hoping to take our place. James Walsh  commanded an army of Lizardmen. 600 points were allowed for each army. The dwarf army was exactly like the army in the first battle, except that one of the bolt throwers had to be removed to get under 600.]

Log entry:

“Not far from our stronghold our forces were attacked, unprovoked, by a fearsome-looking group of cold-blooded Lizardmen up from the steaming jungles in the far south. Why they were here is a mystery. (Unless it was that dwarf-sponsored gold-hunting expedition into their lands from a few years back. Nah…..)

Their army featured two flame-belching giant Salamanders, each minded by a “crew” of little Skink lizardmen. The Salamanders were lined up opposite our main line of defense around a hill in the right-hand corner of the battlefield. They also came at us with a group of 3 big flying lizards with riders (who looked far more threatening than they proved to be), and two sizable detachments of little Skink skirmishers, one group armed with blowguns. Now I must admit that when I first saw the skirmishers I laughed and thought they would be useless, but that proved to be wrong, as you shall see….

The first action came on the right side of the battlefield as the enemy’s two Salamanders were urged forward by their handlers with surprising speed so as to get our boys in range of their flame-spitting. Unfortunately for them, our Thunderer musketmen on the hill let fly and killed or chased off the Skink “crew” of one of the big lizards, and the poor dumb lizard, bereft of guidance, freaked out and scurried off the edge of the battlefield. Our Ironbreakers were advancing on the other Salamander at top speed. These elite dwarves took a face-full of belched fire and lost a man, and before they could reach the lizard were in line for another blast – when inexplicably the Salamander turned on its Skink crew and ATE them, after which it ran off the battlefield after the first one! This was a real piece of luck, as it turns out: that lizard, properly directed by his crew, could have retreated and belched flame all day long and our gallant but short-legged Ironbreakers would never have caught them. As it was, our soldiers could forget about the Salamander and turn to the left side of the field, where the battle was heating up.

Their flying lizards had come up on our 16 dwarf warriors’ flank and were shooting their little darts at them (ineffectually) from a safe distance. Our lone bolt thrower couldn’t seem to hit the flying beasts, sadly. But the two units of Skink skirmishers had by this point run up the battlefield and were starting to shoot at the dwarves. In one cursed round of shooting, the blowgunner Skinks – shooting little poisoned darts! – managed to wipe out fully HALF of our doughty dwarf warriors, the darts unluckily going right through their armor. It was bedlam for a while as our warriors broke order, ran, then reformed. In fact, it looked bad for our chances for a brief time, as it seemed that our Warriors (and now newly arrived Ironbreakers) would never be able to catch up to & engage the little buggers in close combat, for they were faster than us and could zip in, shoot, and run away before we could grapple with them. NOW I see the value of skirmishers (especially large groups of them shooting poisoned darts!).

But then our luck changed for good. One unit of Skinks veered too close to the Ironbreakers. Our elite boys charged – and caught! – the little buggers. They killed a number of them and forced the rest to flee. Even better, as they pursued the first group they crashed right into the second group, which didn’t see us coming. This resulted in more close combat, and many more dead Skinks. When the dust cleared, only one beaten-up group of Skinks survived, having been driven some distance away. Meanwhile, our Thunderers and bolt-thrower had finally gotten the range on those pesky flying lizards, and by the end of the battle had shot down all three.

The dwarves had thus killed or driven off almost all the Lizardmen forces, winning the battle decisively.”

-Snori Whitebeard

[Game result: Technically a “Solid Victory” for the dwarves. They killed most of the Lizardmen, controlled more of the battlefield, and only one unit of dwarves suffered significant casualties. So the GRINDING GRUMBLERS survived the challenge from below and could now once again issue a challenge of their own.]

[Tactical lessons: Don’t get caught in a situation where heavy dwarf infantry, unsupported, is trying to chase down large masses of skirmishers – we won’t catch ‘em and we will be taking casualties in the meantime. We got lucky here with their misjudging our charge range.]

Fourth Battle: Chaos Lives Up To It's Name

[Game situation: 6-turn pitched battle. My Grumblers challenged a player on my own tier of the challenge board in sucha way that the winner would advance to the next level up (which had a vacancy, allowing this unusual move). We agreed on 650 point armies. He commanded an army of Chaotic Beastmen. My dwarven forces were constructed exactly as in the first battle. (I’m looking forward to a larger army fight – 1000 points? 1500? – so I can deploy some more and different kinds of dwarves and weapons….)]

Log entry:

“The evil forces of Chaos roam everywhere these days, it seems, causing destruction and tragedy wherever they turn up. Fulfilling our duty to the civilized peoples of the world, our stalwart army was on patrol in friendly lands when we were suddenly attacked on all sides by a large band of Beastmen: a hellish menagerie of goat-headed or centaur-like creatures who fought viciously and seemed to pop up everywhere. Fortunately, we were ready for them….

The encounter began when our troops, formed up with Thunderers and bolt-throwers in the middle around a hill and infantry units to the far flanks, saw in the distance beyond some woods a group of 5 centaur-like fast cavalry approaching, as well as a beastly leader of some kind. Since our fearless general Buford Bugman knows how these tricky Beastmen tend to fight, he immediately ordered our Ironbreakers on the right and dwarf warriors on the left to swivel and face REARWARD. Sure enough, a large group of snarling goat-men sprang up as if out of the earth itself immediately behind our Ironbreakers on the right. (Other beastmen, including a powerful-looking Shaman, made sudden appearances beyond the woods on their own “side” of the battlefield – one wonders if there was a mix-up of orders and all units were supposed to appear together behind our battle lines.) Thanks to our general’s foresight, the elite Ironbreakers were ready for the goat-like fiends and charged them as soon as they appeared. Fierce hand-to-hand combat ensued. Due to the nearly impenetrable Gromril armor of these dwarves, they escaped the exchanges of blows with nary a fatality, while steadily wearing down their opponents. Before too long the goat-fiends were either all dead or broken and fleeing from the battlefield, never to be seen again.

The Ironbreakers’ battle might not have gone so smoothly if the rapidly approaching man/beast/horsemen had been allowed to come crashing into their rear ranks while their backs were turned. Happily, our Thunderers and two bolt-throwers were not asleep. As soon as the freakish cavalry came around the edge of the woods our shooters let fly with everything they had, killing most of the cavalry and sending it fleeing with their first salvo, and then finishing the job on the next salvo after the survivors reformed. In an effort to rescue the regimental standard of the fallen centaur-beasts, a brave (but extremely foolish) leader of the beasts ran out from the woods to pick it up off the ground – and then charged our intact unit of Ironbreakers, now headed his way! The battle results were predictable: he was slain, though not before some well-matched exchanges of blows in a duel with our leader Buford. We dwarves honor such courage and skill, but wondered about the creature’s sanity.

At this point the battle was essentially over. On the left flank the remaining Beast-troops advanced toward our warriors’ position as rapidly as they could manage, but they never got far enough to do any damage. The only frightening moment came when their Shaman aimed a potentially devastating magic spell against our lines. But he must have forgotten that we dwarves are somewhat resistant to magic – our boys were able to shrug off the attempted enchantment without much bother. The battlefield was clearly ours, and not one dwarf had fallen during the hostilities. Now that’s a victory to savor!”

-Snori Whitebeard

[Game result: A “Massacre” won by  the dwarves. Opponents mostly dead, zero casualties of our own, captured enemy standards, battlefield well-controlled – it all adds up to a total victory for us. So the GRINDING GRUMBLERS won their challenge and moved up to the next tier. It is the second-highest tier on the board. We will have to defeat a challenge from below first before getting a chance to call out the lone army on the highest level….]

[Tactical lessons: None. They messed up the special “Ambush” deployment of  their forces by rolling badly – only 1 of 3 ambushing units appeared where they were supposed to – and also by choosing to come in right in front of our ready-to-charge Ironbreakers. This made it easy for the dwarves to take out their units piecemeal.]