Koborlas vs Dwarves Round 2

[WolfLord]

Here are some pics of my game from Sunday against the Dwarves. I hope to get the AAR up tonight.

 

 

http://s62.photobucket.com/user/Earthforce1/library/Warlord%20Nov%2017%202013

 

[joshuaslater]

Looks like a good time was had!

[WolfLord]

Koborlas

Troop 1

Vasyl, Rageclaw Alpha

Corm, Ghostmane Shaman

Familiar

Rageclaw Warrior (x3)

Rageclaw Sentry

Ironhide

Luck Stone

 

Troop 2

Takhi, Frostfang Shaman

Familiar

Rageclaw Line Breaker (x2)

Eye of the Ancestors

 

Troop 3

Kainus, War Veteran

Rageclaw Warrior (x2)

Rageclaw Sentry

Ironhide

 

Troop 4

Wargs (x5)

 

Dwarves

Troop 1

Freya Fangbreaker

Mithral Armor

Halberdier (x5)

Warrior (x3)

Ivar Silverfist

Durgam Deepmug

 

Troop 2

Tohil Steadyhand

Piercers (x6)

 

Troop 3

Stone Spirit

 

Troop 4

Gargram Heavyhand

Swiftaxes (x7)

 

Vasyl stared at the empty village in front of him and felt his hackles rise up. They had tracked the Exiles and their werewolf allies to this village, but it did not appear that were here any longer. The only inhabitant seemed to be the lone duck that sat on the roof of one of the houses. The duck, which from Vasyl’s view seemed to have horns, disturbed him. Corm and Takhi claimed that it was the strange rune stones that rose up from the ground on either side of the village that were causing the unease. A sudden movement on the other side of the village caught Vasyl’s eye. A war party of dwarves came into view as the exited the hills.

 

“I am Freya Fangbreaker!” Shouted a female dwarf in Mithral armor. “I am here to make you pay for your assault upon our King!”

 

“Your King foolishly got in our way!” Vasyl replied, as Takhi and his Line Breakers took cover. “Do not make the same mistake!”

 

Freya’s answer was to send Gargam Heavyhand forward with his Swiftaxes.

 

Vasyl responded by sending his wargs and Kainus’ troop to sweep around the right side of the tower in the center of the village while he and his men charged towards the dwarven piercers in an attempt to close before they could get any shots off. Meanwhile Ivar Silverfist began chanting while Freya and her soldiers moved to try and intercept Vasyl and Durgam Deepmug moved towards the wargs.

 

Dwarven crossbows twanged as several of the wargs came into the piercers view and one of the wargs collapsed as a quarrel struck its heart. In the chaos of the charge, no one noticed that various stones and boulders had been moving towards one another. As Silverfist finished his chant there was a roar and a Stone Spirit stood on the battlefield. It quickly burrowed as it moved towards the impending combat.

 

Vasyl’s troop slammed into the dwarven piercers line and quickly killed most of them. Freya and her men arrived seconds later and she was able kill one of Vasyl’s warriors in turn. At the same time, Durgam Deepmug found himself surrounded by the wargs. Fortunately he was able to hold them at bay, wounding one, until Gargram Heavyhand and his Swiftaxes arrived. As the Swiftaxes attacked the wargs, Kainus and his soldiers arrived. The two groups fought fiercely, but in the end Kainus and his soldiers had won, though not without cost.

 

Meanwhile Takhi and his Line Breakers had moved close enough for the Line Breakers to fire their crossbows and for Takhi to use his magic. A massive quarrel from one of the Line Breakers crossbows caught one of the dwarves in the chest, while another was wounded when a magically created hailstone slammed into him. As this was happening, Freya charged Vasyl. She was skilled enough to wound Vasyl, but she quickly found herself outmatched and even her Mithral armor couldn’t protect her from Vasyl’s qasik sword.

 

As Freya fell, the ground next to Vasyl erupted and the Stone Spirit slammed into him. Fotunately, Vasyl was wearing his Ironhide armor and that saved his life. Corm upon seeing his leader take devastating hits from the Stone Spirit, cast his most powerful healing spell on Vasyl. At first he thought that nothing had happened, but then he saw Vasyl’s wounds begin to heal. As Vasyl desperately fought the Stone Spirit, the last of his Rageclaw warriors also jumped into the fight and together they were able to defeat it.

 

As the Stone Spirit’s physical form fell apart, Vasyl offered to allow the dwarves to withdraw with their wounded and dead.

[wildbill]

Well, I hate to kick a good dwarf when he is down, but if he knew before the battle that he would be facing the Korbolas, and fielded that list, I am not surprised that he lost. I would never field a unit of 7 piercers (including sgt) and the unit of Swiftaxes. Both units are way too squishy and ineffective against the big doggies.

 

There are only two models (maybe three, I don't have the datacards with me) with Tough. That is not near enough. You need to be fielding more models with Tough just to give yourself a chance. Halberdiers are nice backups. I approve of them.

 

Was the Faction Doctrine utilized that provided buffs against large+ base sized models? I think you would have received Dodge +1 and mabye an MAV +1 bonus too. Or something like that. Either way, it would have definitely helped out as well (if not used).

 

This is a post I made in one started by joshslater a couple months back and I posted a list that I think ought to be tried against the same Korbolas list you just fielded. I think things would go a little differently, especially in combination with that Faction Doctrine (whose name escapes me ).

 

"Warwick and I have a grudge match that we have trying to find time to get together and play, and this is what I made this army for. I know he is fielding Mercs, and he knows I am fielding Dwarves. These are known quantities. I attempted to make a well-rounded Dwarf list as I know the Mercs can field all kinds of crazy combinations of troops. And that is before he might utilize Change Of Heart!! Yikes! Anyways, here is my list:

 

Freya Fangbreaker

4 Shieldmaidens

3 Warriors

1 Piercer

 

Griffon

 

Fulumbar Ironhammer

4 Berserkers

4 Mancatchers

1 Piercer

 

Stone Spirit

 

Luck Stone

 

Totals: 999 Points, 21 Models, 4 Troops, 4 Init Cards

 

The model count is a tad on the low side, but the Shieldmaidens and the Berserkers are walking tanks, especially with Tough/2 and Tough/3 respectively. Thrown in the Griffon and the Stone Spirit and look out! You will notice two things about this list: no mages and 2 random Piercers. I have plenty of lists that use magic, and sometimes it works very well. While healing is an option, I felt that between the Piercers and the big guys they should hopefully be able to neutralize any mage threat (assuming an Elite mage, not a warlord mage). The Piercers are there more as an harassment option than anything. I have tried taking the large troop of shooters and it never seems to pay for itself. But, if I take 1 shooter in each troop they usually hit everything they aim at, which then allows the rest of the troop to take advantage of it. You just have to remember to use shooting at the appropriate time during their Activation.

 

Also, pay attention to the synergies offered up by the Special Abilities. The Warriors have Provoke. You definitely want to have at least one of them attacking your target if you have a Shieldmaiden or two attacking the same target. The Provoke will prevent the Shieldmaidens from any retaliation, at least for that turn. The Mancatcher can Disable your target, and then the Berserker swoops in for the easy kill. Take advantage of the Stone Spirit's Burrowing capability to maneuver easily around the battlefield. The Griffon will unfortunately be an easy target as a Flyer, but if the opponent has minimal shooting, then Griffon runs wild. Be sure and review any shooting penalties against flyers.

 

While this army is somewhat designed to go toe-to-toe, there is still some finesse involved. There is no warlord, although you do have two big guys. You have no mage, but you do have a couple of shooters that can plink and hurt an enemy mage fairly easily. While 4 init cards is not huge, it is not small either. I feel it is about average, considering you only have 21 models. So, short story long, be sure and study up on the Special Abilities before playing to ensure you know how they are to interact within each troop and I think you can give those pesky Darkspawn a nice run for their money."

 

Anyways, I am glad to see people are out there having fun playing the game!

 

Wild Bill

[Doug's Workshop]

In my defense . . . I suck at strategy.

 

It's only my third game with Dwarves, and synergies aren't as obvious to me. But, I am learning.

 

I chose the piercers because they did a pretty decent job the last game, so if I added a few more to concentrate their firepower . . . yeah, y'all see how well that worked out.

 

I also realize my troop choice gave WolfLord way too much power in the draw deck. So while my piercers might have been able to concentrate their fire, they never got the chance to try.

 

I've never used swiftaxes before, and my thinking was that their rush attack could intercept some of the Korbolas before they hit my line. But my enemy moved way too fast in one turn, completely going the opposite direction once I moved that troop to intercept.

 

I had intended Ivar to be able to stay back and heal Freya's unit, but the strength of the hits meant I really didn't have wounded warriors, I had dead ones. So, Ivar's points were wasted.

 

Lots of opportunities to learn from, and I've been looking harder at the Dwarves list to try and find some synergies (the couple games I've played against Dwarves have shown they can hit really hard).

 

Plus, I haven't been using the faction doctrines, and I'm sure that will help (Giant-slayer gives additional MAV and Dodge against large and giant-based models).

 

Although I lost, I'm not disappointed.

 

If it's any consolation, I even managed to take last place in Candyland a few nights ago, behind my wife, my 4 year old son, and the cat (proxy played by me and my son). So, it's not limited to Warlord.

[joshuaslater]

If it's any consolation, I even managed to take last place in Candyland a few nights ago, behind my wife, my 4 year old son, and the cat (proxy played by me and my son). So, it's not limited to Warlord.

We could be related.

[Looter]

 

If it's any consolation, I even managed to take last place in Candyland a few nights ago, behind my wife, my 4 year old son, and the cat (proxy played by me and my son). So, it's not limited to Warlord.

We could be related.

 

Yeah that makes three of us. Seriously I have to bring cheese to get some kills in most warlord games because I always get screwed by initiative and when I need a 2 on the die to do anything I get a 1. Every time.

 

 

Now about your Dwarves if you want to try a fun ranged unit use Snorri and give him the hammer. Ranged Mighty is strong with this one. plus it makes him a monster in melee too. I usually go item heavy on dwarf units becuase they can get really mean when you give them half a chance to live through an initial rush.

[wildbill]

I have tried the item heavy Dwarf lists in the past, and inevitably, I found myself at a severe disadvantage. Usually it was because I had a lot less models than my opponent. Now, against the Korbolas, this may not be an issue, but with as hard as they hit and all of the Tough available, I think more quality models is the key to outlasting that particular faction. Most of the time I limit my magic items to Standards, Musicians, Mithril Armor and the occassional Magic Weapon.

[TaleSpinner]

@WolfLord: What are the white sticks on the bases of your models for?

[wildbill]

Regarding the synergies in the Dwarf faction, there are way too many to try and go into in this topic. Let me just say that I have more Dwarf lists than all other factions combined, and I have a lot of lists for other factions.

 

The good news is I am still trying to find new synergies within the Dwarf faction and am usually successful in doing so. That is a pleasant surprise!

[Doug's Workshop]

Talespinner, those little white sticks have small rare-earth magnets at the base so that WolfLord can attach plastic rings to his models indicating wounds and effects. They come off when he packs the models up so he doesn't have to worry about them breaking off.

 

With the holiday activities coming this month, we probably won't play until January. I guess that gives me some time to play around with my army list.

 

I really want to throw in bear riders (picked up a trio of Scibor's last year), but 1) they're not painted and 2) the point cost hurts.

I figure against the mobile Korbolas, the bear riders aren't as useful, and I'd probably be better off adding an earth elemental with the stone spirit.