Hostilities Between The Dwarves and Dragonmen Escalate

 

Dave came by Thursday night for some more Warband. He used the Dragonmen again but with the mage left at home and a dragon in the ranks with some aerial knights as support.

I had my Dwarves but dropped the gunline, I opting instead for all warriors bar 1 sole artillery piece; I had 9 units, the largest Dwarven army fielded so far. I was traditional about my terrain placing the impassable Dwarven mountain on my left and the gold mine right centre. Dave placed a large wood along side my mountain extending into the board centre, he also placed a central hill in his deployment area.

 

The opposing armies lined up

 

My plan was to get up close and see how the dwarves manage in a proper stand up fight. Plus I was worried about the dragon so wanted to get on with it.

Hmmm.... This one could be tricky

 

Protect the Mine!

 

I started brightly, my right flank rushing to move around the mine. My centre advancing,  I had no left flank. Dave responded in kind. Early missile exchange saw a flaw in my plan as my artillery got too close and became a pin cushion...

 

Kinked lines in Warband!! The horror.

 

Dave cleverly angles his archers to be in range of my artillery but out of my artillery arc...

 

Dwarves stack the centre.

 

These odds look good to me and would let me turn his flank.

 

My motivation dice then went badly wrong as I struggled to extricate the artillery from trouble... So much so Dave had time to land the dragon behind it.  Artillry vs dragon only ends with a dead dragon in the movies,  in real wargaming the arty becomes matchwood.

 

Thank God Dwarves have Resolute otherwise that could get messy.

 

Get off our Mine!!

 

Oops....

 

Dragonmen archers feel brave.

 

Flying dragon knights swoop in and a bunfight breaks out.

 

Fortune favours the bold so I went for gold and I charged in where possible. My CPs dried up for a while so I relied on Dwarven resilience whilst our armies exchanged hits. 

 

Dwarves charge the archers but the dragon swoops in behind them.

 

The dwarves get close and personal on the right

 

Flying dragon knights bounce for hits but save them all, not so the poor dwarf unit.

 

Mayhem in the centre as archers recoil but the dragon snacks on dwarves. 2 Dwarven units dropped to low morale but cling on. Sadly they fell soon after to make for a nervous last couple of turns.

 

Slow work on the right as dragonmen warriors stand fast.

 

The dwarven King sends the reserves into the rear of the dragon and enters the fray himself to relieve the pressure on the left.

 

Pesky dragonmen are still holding up my right.

 

The flying dragonknights recoil again and finaly start to drop in morale. Because they are flyers my warriors that were facing them can ignore the restricted move rules and spin round to face their ground opponents. The unit in the foreground waits ready to protect the flank.

 

Dwarves are so resilient, they are taking hits but not falling back is worth its weight in gold. Dragonmen warriors and archers are routed leaving their general exposed for me to charge. The dragon itself is gradually taking damage... but look at those blue dice... 8 CPs just in the nick of time!! Guess who's getting a melee CP boost?

 

To take pressure off the general the last dragonmen archer charges the rear of the dwarven warriors

 

Woohoo!! The dragon is destroyed, only saving 2 of the four hits it took, but more dwarves fell soon after to make for a nervous last couple of turns. 

 

The flying dragon knights decide to try for the easier kill picking on the unit with only 1 morale left. By this  time I needed any one unit to win and had 2 that I could take down, Dave needed 2 units to win and I too had 2 that could be lost.

 

Buoyed with success against the dragon the dwarves follow up charge into more warriors.

 

So much for trying to take down the general, my unit is destroyed but my flank move around the mine finally gets into place and hits an enemy archer in the rear.

 

Just when you need CPs Dave's dice ran out and I got plenty. I took the required enemy unit and Dave could not dish out enough hits to force any routs. Dave's army broke at 3 points over the 250 required (of 500ap armies). I was on about 155 lost.

 

We are still alive!! And kicked the enemy unit too!! The fat lady breaks into song!!

 

That's the first time we have actually completed a game with a proper result. We started just before 8pm and were done 10.30pm. Neither had a mage so that helped plus we both moved quickly, and once all units were engaged the movement phases were very quick.

It was also a great fun game for those reasons with Dave having the upper hand at first then me as Resolute and Shieldwall gradually paid off.

 

 

Breaking news - Dwarves and Dragonmen renew hostilities

Dave Pike came round last night and we shared a bottle of wine and a game of Warband...


After a couple of week's peace the Dragonmen tried to take control of one of the Dwarven mines. Fortunately they were spotted and the Dwarven armies sallied out of their home to meet the enemy in the field...

 

 Dave had the Dragonmen with a revised list; some cheap marcher footmen to act as a skirmish screen for main force. Which was great because I had an all shooting Dwarf army that could test the skirmish plan. Dave also too the ubiquitous mage and a knight hero.

 

I had 2 artillery (range 6, 4d6 damage, powerful... best in the book), 5 bow units (2 powerful but slow shot) and a top general.

Dave placed a wood just off centre, I placed the impassable Dwarven mountain on my left, creating a nice secure channel (can you see what it is yet?), doglegging off the wood was the impassable Dwarven mineshaft to narrow the approach to my right.


I deployed so almost everything could fite through the gap. Dave had his archers and mage opposite the mountain, his main force behind the wood, angled so he could cover his approach. His knight on his left to swing passed the mineshaft and roll up my flank.
So Dave approached with his archers but stayed into arty arc... 2x4 dice with Powerfull and the archerss out of command for encouragement dice... After 2 turns there were 2 dead archer units... The 3rd archer used the mountain as cover to take shots at me but wqs never effective enough as it was too far to receive command points.

 

Not so many archer units now....

 

On my right Dave tried to flank me but I got 2 archers to move and cover that. Worth noting single units with no mates within 2 BWs lose 1 motivation and 1 protection. Dave kept charging and bouncing off but it took it toll and I was winning the attrition war there.

 

 

 

Dwarves race to protect the right flank from the advancing knights.

Dave's mage in the back ground stayed in the back ground and did... err ...very little apart from power up the general.

Dwarven General's view of the approaching enemy.

 

A battle of attrition on the right

In the centre... Well, you know things like Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt, Balaclava... Dave's skirmish line vapourised, especially as I turned my arty once his archers were no longer any use.

By the time Dave threw in the towel he'd lost 7 units including routers and was points away from collapse, I lost 4 morale points spread across 3 units. Dave did get 1 solitary, very poorly warrior unit into my line, only for my general to charge it and take it down.


 

The Dwarven general joined the fight and helps see of the enemy warriors.

Meanwhile the knights and archer continue to battle it out

Finally Dave's General has had enough and sounds the retreat.

Not many Dragonmen left...

 

Plenty of learning experiences there, I think Dave had fun, there were no gyrocopters in site but a Dwarven shooting line is lethal!

Ironhelm Dwarves March on Dragonia

The latest in our adventures with Warband, the new fantasy ruleset from Pendraken Miniatures.

We play in 28mm on a 6ft by 4ft table as it's what we have. Our Base size is 120mm by 60mm, so 2 standard dbx Base with a second row for infantry. Sabots are easy enough if required. Dave uses a mix of his Saga individual figures and FOG bases.

The Dwarven host arrayed. My Dwarves were all originally based for HOTT but I like the large Base vignette idea with the dice markers. This army has a top general(formed, resolute, shieldwall), 5 warriors, all resolute and shieldwalled, 2 had hill walking and the other 3 were formed, an honour guard, also resolute, formed and hero. Finally a pesky gyrocopter filled out the army. 8 unis only!

Kiwidave make final adjustments to the Dragonmen battle line. After previous unfortunate kickings of sundry mages and Generals we both put ours in the 2nd rank.

My general. Poor picture but I finally bit the bullet and demounted various HOTT bases to make up a suitable general. He stands amid his personal guard with his entourage around him.

The filthy Dragonmen have hired some mercenary Dwarven artillery! Oh ok, I lent them to him. I'll rebase them too soon.

The Dwarves open procedings and push towards cover to avoid the turncoat artillery. 

The hillwalkers go hull down on the hill as the gyrocopter hovers overhead. The honour guard move to cover the left flank.

Meanwhile on the table nwxt to us the war mammoths hits Andy's Elven line in an introductory game for Mike Shepherd.

The Dwarven right makes for the hill.

In the far distance Dave has pushed his Marcher cavalry forward and swings his left to meet my right. My general worries that he's out of CP boost range.

Eventually my hounour guard grow a pair and take on the cavalry. And start to give them a good kicking.

Back on the other flank I give ground as Dave has the hill and an archer unit. As long as I can avoid that and the artillery... 



The centre left gets warm. Dave casts flying on 2 infantry and they swarm onto the hill. My gyrocopter makes a nuisance of itself blocking fallbacks and taking pot shots. In the melee the Dragonmen are sent reeling and the dwarves break ranks to pursue. 

The honour guard push back a unit of marcher cavalry and pursue.

The battle in full flow.

Unfortunately for Dave, just as he needs some decent CPs and MPs it all goes wrong for him. The Dragonmen are pushed off the hill and panic as the gyrocopter swoops in behind. 

The honour guard secure the left flank.

The Dragonmen lose heart and break,  3 units run for their lines.

 

Sadly, or happily for Dave time was called at that point. Dave had lost 3 units for about 100ap whilst my gyrocopter was only just flying. One of the hillwalker warriors had taken some morale loss but were good to go.

Amother fun game. I am liking this set of rules more and more.  

First game of Pendraken's Warband

So at the Berkey Vale club Kiwidave and I decided to try our recently purchased Warband rules by Pendraken. They are designed with their 10mm range of figures in mind but they only large fantasy army I have is 28mm Dwarves so we used big toys and agreed 2 standard 60mm Base frontage as our Base size, so 120mm by whatever deep.

Dwarves are not cheap in the lists, once I'd got my Exceptional Commander and core troops there was little left for optional troops. I picked the Honour Guard and a unit of Gyrocopters to make 8 stands. I then took Formed for free and added Shieldwall where I could.

Dave sabot based his Saga Rus and used the Dragonmen list. He managed 11 unit including a mage, LH, Knights, infantry, bow and skirmishers.

We picked a selection of terrain that all ended up on the right... Typical.

Dave's Host ready for battle.

Hill Dwarves protecting their home.

Dave advances his line... Eventually... Whilst I held my defensive line Dave strugled to move his. He did move his flanking knight and LH though... Not the best idea as it happened.

Early shooting saw Dave's Berserkers route but were rallied before they left the board.

Eventualy his Knights advanced into a hail of musketry and crossbow Shooting. Oops....

The isolated routing Knights were then swept off the board by the Gyrocopters.

Dave eventuall crashes in but takes a good kicking from my Shieldwall line.

Nearing 11pm we called it a da,  Dave had lost 3 units for no losses to me and was never going to recover.

We very much enjoyed the game, the rules encourage a very relaxed game which suits nicely.

We learnt that Dwarves are hard as nails with Shieldwall. cps are very valuable once the game id underwa,  at first I thought it too easy to rally but the game showed that not to be true.

Dave learnt not to charge Dwarven bow when I have 8CPs to pump into shooting and nothing else to spend them on!

We will definitely play again and next time I might rebase... It needs doing anyway so I can knock up some temporary ones.

Great fun.