SAWS – Round 4 – Brandon Fischer - Dwarf

The Mission: King of the Hill

My Objective: Control more table quarters than your opponent (have a non-fleeing 5-man unit without your opponent having one)

Dwarf Lord, great weapon, shieldbearers, master rune of kragg the grim, rune of cleaving

Runelord, shield, master rune of adamant, rune of stone

Thane, BSB, rune of cleaving x2, master rune of gromril

20 Thunderers, full command, shield

20 quarrelers, full command, great weapons, rangers
25 Ironbreakers, full command

25 Hammerers, full command

Cannon, rune of burning, rune of forging
Cannon, rune of forging
Bolt Thrower, rune of penetrating

Organ gun

Just like round 2 this list was almost one of the two lists I thought I could beat.  Wood Elves without trees (but only wood elves as hatred and ASF means I couldn’t win) and Dwarves if they restricted the majority of their shooting to warmachines (so I could kill the warmachines and then run away).  This list didn’t quite meet my requirements, but I still felt I had an ok shot.  The mission I thought would help alleviate my issues, as holding the center would force the dwarves to abandon the warmachines.

Brandon deployed his two blocks center with the warmachines all on the right and the hand gunners on the left.  He choose to scout his quarrelers, but not to hunt my engineer (hiding behind a building) but instead in a building with a good section of the board open for shooting – including the three tokens I put near the warmachines.

Once again I went first, sad as this would have been an opponent I wouldn’t have minded losing 2 turns.  I didn’t have anything to do of course.  On Brandon’s turn 1 he took the opportunity of not being able to shoot to move his three units forwards – getting him into position to claim the water feature that was our “hill” to be king of.

On my turn 2, 2 units come on the table and I charge the cannon and the organ gun with the unit and its weapon team.  The other unit lines up and starts shooting the handgunners.  I kill 1.  In combat I do 2 wounds to the cannon and kill the organ gun and overrun into the other cannon.  Safety in combat.

On Brandon’s turn 2, the block units continue their march to claim the objective.  While getting ready to open up with his cannon on my night runners (the strip that was shooting the handgunners), I point out that he can only kill 2 but that with a grape shot he can kill the weapon team.  I guess he didn’t know about grapeshot and proceeds to roll 10 shots and blast it off the table.  His handgunners and quarrelers kill 11 out of the strip night runners, but they pass their test on a 6.  I kill the cannon in combat.

My turn 3 and 2 more units come on.  I’m able to charge the rest of the warmachines and the unit in the building.  2 units of gutter runners then come on.  I shoot and kill 10 handgunners.  I kill off the rest of the warmachines but lose the building and a few rats.  A weapon team I had shot off to kill a warmachine dies.

On Brandon’s turn 3 he fully claims the water feature.  His handgunners whiff and the quarrelers kill a weapon team.

On my turn 4 and the last of the gutter runners comes on.  The gutter runners fail to charge the hand gunners in the rear, needing a 4.  I charge the building again.  In shooting I kill 3 hand gunners and 3 warriors.  In combat I kill another quarrelers and once again lose.

On Brandon’s turn 4 the quarrelers  kill 4 in the unit that had been charging them, causing them to panic.  The hammerers turn around to try to see if they can catch the night runners that just decimated the warmachines.  If the game were to end right here I would lose because 440 points of night runners are still off the table and count as dead if not on by the end of the game.  We roll and the game continues

My turn 5 and both units roll to come on, followed by one of them misfiring and killing itself (only 2 misfires out of 4 games so far!).  The gutter runners charge the rear of the hand gunners.  In shooting I open up on the center warriors killing 9.  The hand gunners die.

On his turn 5 the hammerers continue their movement to catch something, focusing now on gutter runners (turns out he had picked killing champions and those were all in my gutter runners).  His quarrelers shoot and kill off the 2 fleeing night runners (revenge for trying to take their building?).  At this point it’s close, but with him holding the center it’s probably his game.  We roll and the game continues.

On my turn 6 I start opening up on the building because some units can’t reach the hammerers or warriors.  I manage to kill 1 needing 8s to hot.  I then kill off the warriors and leave the thane with 1 wound.  A weapons team dies, probably because I was sloppy with my movement.

On his turn 6 the hammers charge a unit of gutter runners, and because I feel like I’m up due to clearing the ‘hill’ and earning the warriors points, I flee.  He redirects into the unit hiding in the building, which kills 2 hammers on the stand and shoot.  I accept the charge because I’m confident that he won’t be able to kill the entire unit and then won’t be able to run them down due to the building rolls.  His quarrelers kill 3 night runners in the center, which hold.  I kill 2 hammerers in combat, then he whiffs only killing 3 and taking the building.  I pretty sure the game has now swung in to my side, but when we roll to see if the game ends we find it will be turn 7.

On my turn 7 both units of gutter runner units rally.  I then go onto kill the thane and claim the center.  I also manage to kill another quarreler in shooting.

On Brandon’s last turn he finds his hammerers out of position inside the building.  His quarrelers try to earn some points by shooting the night runner unit in the center, but only kills 2 and they hold.

So second win and with my objective of controlling quarters (though it was close, I had to not move into optimal shooting range to ensure I made it).  I’m pretty sure I would have lost had the game not gone on past turn 4.  The irony is last year I didn’t lose game 5 because the game did end on turn 4.  Lucky break both ways.