The river widened outside the jungles giving way to an open vista of green rolling hills. One threat to the healthy waters having being dealt with the it was time for another purging. The water here tastes of tin and is muddy from industry. Steam and smoke rise from the dwarfish forges among these hills. It is in following with the plan of the old ones that their heat be extinguished. Two quick battle reports While I did remember to bring (though not to use) my camera this time I didn't remember my notebook which means that these two battles won't be broken down by turn. (Or at least not accurately) As our hobby store's only real water terrain is a river, as a kindness to me (and a general novelty since they hadn't been getting used much) each of these games included a river running through it. My first fight was a 1200 (for real this time) game against Noah's Dwarfs. I didn't actually read his or my second opponents lists so these will be approximate. River Lizards Skink priest on EotG, lv 2 caster with 2 dispel scrolls 440 Scar Vet on a cold one with,LA, BoM and ES 145 16 Saurus with spears no command 192 2 x 10 skink skirmishers 140 6 Cold one Calvary 210 6 Chamo skinks 72 Total: 1199 Dwarfs - General of some type in a large unit (~20) hammerer's w/ command Large unit of warriors with full command. (~20) Two bolt throwers – Each of which had a rune-smith hanging out with it 2 lines of hand-gunners (~10 each) The only magic item which I'm aware of on his side which came into play was some item which drained one of my power dice and let him use it as a dispel dice instead. For spells in this first game the dwarfs naturally had none and I came away with portent of far (which I've yet to get any use out of) and forked lightning. I forgot to take photos but the terrain was sparse, a hill in each left corner, a forest in the top right corner and a 3” river running across the whole board from short table edge to short table edge with two bridges placed at 2' intervals down the table. During set up the dwarves castled on the top left side of the table with both bolt throwers on a hill, the warriors and hammerer's across from the left bridge and on unit of hand-gunners at the base of the hill and one to their right of the infantry blocks. I placed more of less directly across from them with my saurus warriors and EotG behind a strung out line of skinks. I really like being able to place my skinks first like this as it lets me react more to his setup before I have to place anything important and the skinks can get anywhere quickly enough. The exceptions were my chamo skinks which hid in the top right forest (much further than I liked but the only spot out of LOS) and my CoC which set up to cross the right bridge and come in on the flank. Top of the first: I took first turn. My skinks advanced into the central river, my CoC crossed the bridge. An observer (after getting permission from my opponent) gave me the invaluable advice to not offer a six wide flank of 35pt Calvary to two dwarven bolt throwers and I wheeled enough to avoid this. The EotG walked onto the bridge followed by my saurus warrior regiment. I need to say now that many times during this and the next game I forgot to roll for stupidity. I think I need to write my self a big index card in red ink which reads “HEY STUPID!” and leave it on the table. Since I expected anything I cast to be dispelled by dice I tossed all four of my power dice at a forked lightning toward a bolt thrower and got irresistable casting which caused one wound on the bolt thrower it's self. My EotG put up it's shield and that was the end of my turn due to my skinks marching this turn. Bottom of the first: Dwarves all stand still and smoke their pipes waiting for me to arrive. Their shooting was almost entirely aimed at the EotG but between missing bolt throwers and randomization, and armor (vs the hand gunners) the only result was a dead crew skink from a bolt thrower and one wound on the steg from handgunners. Top of the second: The left group of skinks leaves the river and heads to the base of the hill. The EtoG moved just to the other side of the bridge making sure to stay out of the dwarves puny 6” charge range. Saurus warrior move up behind it, right skinks move into a bend on the river and the CoC gets across the bridge fully and lines up to charge the hand gunners next turn. I also remember my chamo skinks (which I forgotten round 1) and they move up alongside of the CoC. Magic sees a second irresistible forked lightning on a bolt thrower which completely fails to wound. EotG keeps up the shield. The skink shooting at the bolt thrower is entirely ineffective on the armored dwarves and T7 bolt thrower. Bottom of the second: The dwarves continue to sit still. The bolt throwers have a better round of shooting this turn and take the priest off the EotG. In response it fails it's LD check and comes up frenzy and hatred on the monster reaction table. I think a saurus or two may have been nicked from my block here also but I don't remember. Top of the third: EotG frenzy charges the handgunners at the base of the hill. CoC charge the handgunners on the right flank. The EotG handgunners stand and shoot to no avail and the right handgunners flee, even being dwarves this is far enough to result in a failed charge by my CoC. The skinks on the left at the advice of the observer charge the bolt thrower since their shooting was doing so little. Saurus block moves up to charge the warrior block next turn skinks in the right river shoot uselessly. Chamo skinks keep marching forward. In CC the frenzied steg eats the hand gunners and peruses them right off the table. I wished I'd been lined up to go into a bolt thrower but my opponent was cannier than this. The skinks unsurprisingly lose CC with the bolt thrower crew but hang on with cold blooded determination. Bottom of the third: The dwarven warrior block moves forward to take my Saurus warrior charge with the hammerer block coming up on their right but hanging back juuuust a little so as to have a good flank charge on the following turn. The right handgunners rally and turn to face my CoC. The available bolt thrower takes out 3-4 saurus warriors. Top of the fourth: Saurus warriors charge. The damn CoC fail stupidity on one of the few times I remember to roll it and shuffle forward. The right hand skinks march forward out of the river to the right of my saurus block to keep the hammerer's from flanking me. My steg comes back on and in a major mistake I move it toward the warrior block to rear charge where I should of moved it over to the bolt throwers. Chamo skinks move up to ~8” and begin to shoot at the hand gunners failing to do much. In CC both of the two fights lose a model or two and no one runs away. I think I'm losing CR in my saurus block due to their standard and rank bonus. Bottom of the fourth: Hammerers charge my skinks who ineffectually stand and shoot. In shooting the remaining hand gunner unit takes out two of my six CoC (who stick around) bolt thrower ineffectually aims at my steg. In CC the skink & bolt thrower crew combat is a push, as is the warrior on warrior action in the center line. The hammer's utterly crush the skinks. Top of the fifth: Frenzied steg rear charges the depleted warrior block. CoC charge the hand gunners. The hand gunners stand and shoot and take out the remaining four CoC. The chamo skinks keep firing at the hand gunners. Kill one maybe, not very effective. In CC skinks are finally wiped out by the bolt thrower crew. The dwarf warrior block is annihilated leaving my six wide saurus lined up for bolt thrower shots. Bottom of the fifth: Hammer's turn around, no other movement. Hand gunners fire at chamo skinks and don't do much. Bolt throwers wipe out something like 10 saurus between two flank shots (OUCH!). Top of the sixth: Steg charges hammerer's, saurus warriors scoot toward the bolt throwers (I thought it was turn 5) and my chamo skinks hang tight. Chamo skinks continue to plink the hand gunners. Steg kills a few hammerers and loses combat to CR but passes LD. Bottom of the sixth: Bolt throwers take inconsequential shots at the sarus warriors, hand gunners shoot at chamo skinks who don't run. In CC the high str hammerers put a wound or two on the steg who fails leadership and fee's being run down on the last turn by the hammerers. The dwarf player said he had a minor victory but with that steg running I'd say he did better than that. We didn't bother with counting points. Overall it was a fun game. It seems to me that the key to a good game of warhammer is that at some point each player feels deeply threatened at one point or another and we both got that. I have a healthy respect and fear of bolt thrower side shots and he worries about stegedons. What I would of done differently would have been having my skinks charge the bolt thrower a turn earlier and remembering to move my chamo skinks on turn 1. More importantly I would of also taken the turn 5 move with my steg and gotten him over to the bolt throwers instead of the warriors. The reason of course being the frenzy and that I would have no choice of opponents after this move. The saurus warriors had been slowly winning their CC and would of likely finished off the warriors before taking the flank charge from the hammerers. The bolt throwers on the other hand would have been easy points for the steg and I would have been denying my opponent the ability to kill it. The dwarf player said he would of brought a cannon. He really enjoyed this game since he'd been playing (and is about to win) an escalation league at our store. So it was fun for him to not have to play conservatively with his characters. Stroking his beard the old dwarf smokes his pipe while watching the retreating backsides of the lizards. What the hell was their problem? Grumbling that it was impossible to understand of the reptilian mind the dwarves return to their forges.