The Men of Westhaven face off against the Abyssal Dwarfs

Lesser Obsidian Golems.

Abyssal Halfbreeds. My photos don't do them justice.

My List: League of Rhordia

His List: Abyssal Dwarfs

Deployment

Turn 1

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 1

League of Rhordia Turn 1

Turn 2

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 2

League of Rhordia Turn 2

Turn 3

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 3

League of Rhordia Turn 3

Turn 4

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 4

League of Rhordia Turn 4

Turn 5

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 5

League of Rhordia Turn 5

Turn 6

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 6

League of Rhordia Turn 6

Turn 7

Abyssal Dwarfs Turn 7

League of Rhordia Turn 7

Result:

I played Christo again this week, this time at 2k.This is my current 2k tournament list that I'm looking to take to the Sydney Game Championships at the end of July. It's as MSU as I can reasonably make it.2 x City Militia Troops4 x Musket Block Troops2 x City Militia Spears Regiments1 x House Guard Regiment2 x Household Knights Regiments1 x Halfling Iron Beast1 x Baron, mounted with Mace of Crushing1 x Duke on an Ancient Winged Aralez1 x Army Standard Bearer, mounted with Healing Charm1 x Halfling Sorcerer with Inspiring TalismanAs you'd expect, his 2k list was quite different to his 2.5k list. He dropped the Iron Caster and Mortars, and brought in some Abyssal Halfbreed Champions.4 x Immortal Guard Regiments2 x Slave Orc Regiments2 x Lesser Obsidian Golem Hordes2 x Abyssal Halfbreed Regiments2 x Abyssal Halfbreed Champions2 x Slave DriversA lot of Def 5 & 6 units. The Golems are a helluva anvil, and the Halfbreed Regiments and Champions would be tough to avoid. No shooting or flying though. Also his anvils are slow af.We rolled Pillage! with 6 objectives. I won the roll for deployment and chose the south edge.I only had 2 extra drops on him, stacking my two Knight Regiments on my right flank. My plan was to desperately hold the one objective on my left, and take the three on my right.Dwarfs won the roll for first turn and elected to go first. He moving up, taking control of 3 tokens and making a strong claim on a 4th. His army had no shooting so nothing going there.On my left flank I moved up to take control of the objective, and prepared myself for an assault. I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with the golems if they charged in. I shifted my Duke around preparing to bring him over for a flank maybe. My leftmost rifle troop managed a couple of wounds on his Immortal Guards. On my right flank I rearranged my forces, positioning them to take the anticipated charge from the two halfbreed regiments and the champion. My two rifle troops put 8 wounds on his Slave Orcs and wavered them, while my Sorcerer managed to windblast the other Halfbreed Champion back into the forest. I didn't realise this at the time but this was a critical success, delaying the charge of that Champion by a turn.On my left he took firm control of the two objectives. In the centre he took another two, covering them with hard-to-shift Immortal Guard units. On my right he charged. One of his Halfbreed Regiments wiped my militia troop, the other combo charged my Iron Beast with one of his Champions. They put an impressive 11 wounds on the Def 6+ Iron Beast, but it held steady.I held steady on my left flank. I wasn't going to be able to get my muskets in a better position to shoot his Golems, and the muskets were all I had to counter them. I charged his lefthand Halfbreed Regiment with my Orange Knights, while my Iron Beast and Baron counter-charged the other Regiment. I thought about throwing the Duke into the fray as well, but I thought I'd set up a flank instead. He healed a couple of wounds on the Iron Beast.My Muskets destroyed the wavered slave orcs, and it turns out I wouldn't need the flank from my Duke, as my Knights routed the halfbreed regiment in one turn. The Baron and Iron Beast did 6 wounds then stepped back.He held steady on my left, happy with the two objectives he was holding there. He continued to move forward in the centre, securing another objective and trying to get his Golems in the fray. On my right his Halfbreed Regiment counter-charged my Iron Beast and destroyed it, and then pivoted to face my other Knight Regiment. His Halfbreed Champions both charged, one going into my Duke, the other getting the jump on my purple Knights critically disordering them.The standoff on my left continued. I was slowly chipping away at the Immortal Guards on my far left, but they had cover so I was only putting on 0-2 wounds a turn. My halfling sorcerer windblasted the Golems into the forest, while my two musket troops started to put some serious hurt on his Immortal Guards in the centre.I combo charged his remaining halfbreed regiment with my baron, orange knights, and Duke. They routed the halfbreeds and reformed to face the incoming Golems. My purple Knights countercharged the Halfbreed Champion, but without TC had a hard time getting through the Champion's armour.At this point the Dwarfs were holding four objectives quite firmly. I only had three guaranteed turns left to wrest at least one from his control.He continued to hold on my left flank. His Immortal Guard units on my right sat on their objectives. His golems shambled forward. His two Halfbreed Champions charged my two knights regiments. I stuffed the diagram up here. In reality the orange knights routed while the purple ones were only wavered (but they have fury, so NBD).My left flank continued to hold. My muskets continued to pepper his Immortal Guards. My Duke managed to just get over the golems and set up a rear charge on them, while avoiding the charge arcs of his Guards regiments. My spears charged the Golems in the front, hoping to pin them so the Golems could not avoid the rear charge from the Duke next turn.He continued to hold on my left. By now I was convinced this was a mistake, but his army couldn't have really gotten anywhere in the 2 guaranteed turns he had left. His golems countercharged my spears and crushed them handily. He tried to move forward out of my Duke's charge arc, but missed it by an inch or two. His Immortal Guards in the centre started to move forward, hoping to avoid a flank by my duke maybe, or perhaps set up a charge into my troublesome muskets.I finally decided to change the dynamics of the situation on my left flank. I moved one musket troop into the forest, so I'd now have two musket troops plinking away at the covered Immortal Guards instead of just one. My right flank muskets wavered this Immortal Guards in the centre.My Duke charged the rear of the Golems, supported by my Baron in the side and a hindered charge from my knights into the front (my diagram's been a bit off, IRL my purple knights were in the southern forest). Critically and surprisingly to us both, this was enough to rout the golems. My units reformed to face the two Immortal Guard units.At this point the Dwarfs were still in a winning position, but I was confident I'd at least snatch the draw in turn 6.Forgive my pants diagram. There wasn't much he could do in turn six. His Guards in the centre were wavered, the one on my right was holding an objective, and his units on my left flank were too far from anything now to make a difference.I charged his Immortal Guards in the centre with my knights and baron, and routed them, the knights reforming to face his remaining Guard unit. My Duke took the centre objective and healed up my knights a little. My muskets on my left continued to pepper his guards, who had about 6 wounds now. Consecutive 10's on a nerve check would be enough to rout them! What fun. My rightmost muskets moved forward to claim that objective. My sorcerer went for it, and windblasted his Guards off the objective. Despite a handy roll, they were still within 3 inches of it.So at the end of turn 6 the game was a draw, each of us holding 3 objectives. We rolled, and went to turn 7.He moved his Guards forward to sit over the objective.I moved my muskets forward to sit on that objective, and combo charged his Guards with my Knights and Baron. The charges were hindered so they did sweet FA damage, but they ended the game within 3" of the objective, and that's all that mattered.The League of Rhordia held 3 objectives, the Abyssal Dwarfs held 2, and the final objective was contested. A narrow win to the League!I was expecting a bigger push on my left flank. I deployed defensively, hoping to weather the storm. Didn't have a real answer if he had charged my House Guard with his Golems, my House Guard had CS (1), but that was it. Even if my spears got a flank on the golems naked attacks against Def 6 suck. Anyway, I hoped my healing could keep them up a bit. I should have moved my very leftmost Rifles into the forest earlier.The right flank was a congested mess. Destroying his half-breeds in one charge from my knights was unexpected and lucky. His Golems popped quicker than they probably should have too.He suffered from a lack of chaff. Getting the first charge in is so important with heavy cav. His half-breed champions were excellent, but I was able to delay the arrival of one with my windblast. That was critical.My Rifles did well. His army had no shooting which really helped me. I could sit in place and dictate terms of engagement.During the game I felt I wasn't getting the most out of my Sorcerer, but on review I can see that he was critical in disrupting the enemy offence. An extra few wounds from bane chant would have been less useful.His Immortal Guard Regiments are good anvils, but without shooting or flying pressure I didn't have to engage them at all. Slow and lacking any CS, they aren't a huge threat.Despite this, I got lucky. The lack of Pathfinder meant my knights were largely stripped of TC. If my Iron Beast had popped in one turn and his Golems or half-breeds had lasted one more, I would have lost. If we had rolled for fewer Pillage tokens I would have lost. If we had ended at turn 6 it would have been a draw.I need to work on my Deployment and movement in the first couple of turns.For Christo, I'd consider dropping a regiment of Immortal Guard for an Iron-Caster or a heavy mortar.A fun game, looking forward to getting better at the movement phase. Thanks for reading.