Fwee Dorfs – KOW

November and the 2000 point game has come around far quicker than i had anticipated.

So having lost every game so far with no expectation, and a fair amount of trepidation I took the following force:

1 Reg Rangers

1 Reg Brock Riders with Pathfinder, Dwarven Ale (WTF was I thinking giving headstrong to a unit that cant waiver), and throwing axes

2 Earth Elemental Hordes

2 Doggo regiments with throwing dogs

1 Greater Earth Elemental

1 Packmaster

Eryc’s Mallets (1 Lord with Lords Jewel with Scythe of the Harvester)

3 reg of shieldbreakers all with throwing dogs.

plus the free Acolyte

Against 2000 beautifully painted undead following water to play Pillage.

So what happened?

It was a close run thing – I wont give a blow by blow but the key moments for me were:

1 unit of Earth elementals holding of a double charge from Knights and Wraiths.

My Packmaster’s continuous attacks on the werewolves, resulting in wavering them denying a flank charge before eventually killing them before the end of the game.

Flank charges with my Brock Riders (52 dice) a couple of times – more on that in a minute.

My opponent’s greater water elemental facing off against my greater earth elemental from turn 2 until turn 7

The massacre caused by his Balefire catapults – horrible horrible things.

His Abomination, monster thing.

So how did it end – By turn 7 Alan had won with me only having my pack master, greater earth elemental, Acolyte and Lord remaining. He had the greater water elemental, his acolyte and the big git.

Now could I have changed things – not by playing better. It had been fairly tight and even for the most of the game. I don’t think I made too many mistakes that weren’t minor inconveniences in the grand scheme of things.

My rolls however were atrocious – well at least at key times! I managed to roll 4-5 double one on the nerve roll – usually on the re-roll thanks to inspiring…. I was not happy.

The main example was that flipping monster of his that wouldnt die. This was my first flank charge by the Brocks, and in the end causing 20 wounds devastating it in turn 5, only to get double one I think on the first roll.

Turn 6 it charged and killed my rangers before my Lord charged it, needing but 1 wound to get another roll on its nerve – killed it… inspiring re-roll, double 1…

Turn 7, the centre was locked the monster was the only other points scoring unit so Alan played the game and ran it for an objective so again the Lord charged to force the draw, and then again thanks to inspiring… it lived.

It was annoying, it was upsetting, it was fecking hilarious and fair pay to Alan for a great game. Unfortunately my phone died not long after deployment so not many pics which as i said at the start the undead were very well painted.

So, Mid October saw the 1500 pts game for this campaign and it was awful, and not just because my opponent is trying to get into the worlds competition for KoW!

So I took:

1x Troop of rangers (with blessing of the gods as i had 20 pts spare)

2x Hordes of Earth Elementals

2x Reg of hunting packs with throwing doggos

1x packmaster

Eryc’s mallets formation (1x Lord and 3x Reg of shield breakers)

The Lords had a Jewel and Scythe of the Harvester, and all 3 shield breakers had dogs!

Against an army of Twiglets.

So what happened – I’m not sure it was all over so quickly, with my opponents army moving in a coordinated manner, well thought out deployment good use of screening/blocking throw away units, I was just decimated.

I didnt even need to check my army list as he knew it better than I did.

It was, at least to me, a masterclass – I didnt even have any takeaways as it was just over really by turn 3 with just the mop ups going on (despite me happily calling it).

Did I learn anything?

Well yes, I will never be a competitive gamer – for me it is all about having fun, I even don’t mind losing every week (honest) as long as I enjoy the game and the company.

That said I do need to put a little bit more effort into it – I cant remember the last time I read the rule book. Before heading out I spend far too long trying to find bits and pieces I needed which meant I was running a bit late and flustered which doesn’t help.

Will that help me for the game on Wednesday… probably not but heyho!

So having spent too long in the original update before the system crashed I am going to summarise….
So for the doubles 1000pt game I took along:
1 unit of Shieldbeakers (with throwing dogs)
2 troops of rangers
1 horde of Earth Elementals
2 reg of Dogs (with throwing dogs)
Packmaster (with munchberries)
Standard Bearer
The acolyte (campaign “free” model)
SO how did it go?
I lost – bad. Tabled in fact apart from 1 reg of dogs, my acolyte and I think the standardbearer…
There were moments of brightness however – My scouting shieldbreakers wiped a unit of archers on the first turn before they got a shot off. My doggos and packmaster managed to take down a unit of firechickens with throwinging dogs and a charge of the remaining dog reg.
So what are my takeaways…
Watch Flanks, watch flanks, watch flanks
Hit things until they are dead – I allowed myself to get distracted and decided to shoot at my opponent’s acolyte rather than the nearly dead unit of swords that might have removed them.
If your opponent questions your actions think about why – the chap commanding the army in point 2 gave me a chance to think again before I rolled, he is a good guy and a far better Know player than me, but I got target lock…
Think about what to do if I win a melee – whilst in an exposed position following wiping the archers I left me shieldbreakers flank exposed to a charge from a horde of fire elementals which they did not survive. Whilst they were threatened by two units if I had pivoted or pulled back a bit then I might have survived a turn longer or pulled other units away from the main fight. Instead I left them picking flowers from amongst the dead and they got what they had coming
Roll better!!

So having spent too long in the original update before the system crashed I am going to summarise….
So for the doubles 1000pt game I took along:
1 unit of Shieldbeakers (with throwing dogs)
2 troops of rangers
1 horde of Earth Elementals
2 reg of Dogs (with throwing dogs)
Packmaster (with munchberries)
Standard Bearer
The acolyte (campaign “free” model)
SO how did it go?
I lost – bad. Tabled in fact apart from 1 reg of dogs, my acolyte and I think the standardbearer…
There were moments of brightness however – My scouting shieldbreakers wiped a unit of archers on the first turn before they got a shot off. My doggos and packmaster managed to take down a unit of firechickens with throwinging dogs and a charge of the remaining dog reg.
So what are my takeaways…
Watch Flanks, watch flanks, watch flanks
Hit things until they are dead – I allowed myself to get distracted and decided to shoot at my opponent’s acolyte rather than the nearly dead unit of swords that might have removed them.
If your opponent questions your actions think about why – the chap commanding the army in point 2 gave me a chance to think again before I rolled, he is a good guy and a far better Know player than me, but I got target lock…
Think about what to do if I win a melee – whilst in an exposed position following wiping the archers I left me shieldbreakers flank exposed to a charge from a horde of fire elementals which they did not survive. Whilst they were threatened by two units if I had pivoted or pulled back a bit then I might have survived a turn longer or pulled other units away from the main fight. Instead I left them picking flowers from amongst the dead and they got what they had coming
Roll better!!

Project system just Ko’s after failing to publish… bugger

So, apologies for the delay – given the results of the first set of games I wanted to get to this sooner but a poorly child and an impending attack of Auditors have gotten in the way.

So how did the games go… not good!

I played two games and the first was against a beautifully painted Elven force. It started well, my doggos with throwing dogs did some amazing job, almost popping a unit of Cav in turn 1. Unfortunately I overestimated the usefulness of “the Boomstick” on my Beast master which failed to do anything useful and then he got charged and popped in short order. The doggos took a couple of turns to kill his cav unit and one was still around at the end so not a bad showing from then.

In the centre my rangers advanced into a wood and failed to hit a reg of spears in front of them. They got themselves trapped out of the way for the mid game being ineffective apart from putting some good damage on my opponent’s Acolyte but Inspiring kept him around. The earth elementals took a fair bit of damage but aren’t great at dishing it out.

In the end it was a close run thing and if I had rolled a little better here and there it could have gone the other way.

My Second game was a rout! My opponent had ratkin and I underestimated them big style. I tried to to the same as last time but left my doggos out on the flank with nothing to do and the Hordes and the effect of the him taking the Wind Element meaning his Acolyte could give his tunnel runners he gift of flight just tore through my army to a dwarf!

Unfortunately there are no photos – I forgot to charge my phone before heading out and so it was not an option unfortunately.

What have I learned:

1. HAVE A PLAN AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING.
2. Doggos are amazing but give them a target.
3. The beastmaster cannot go toe to toe so dont make him
4. Earth elementals are not good at dishing out damage.
5. Remember special rules. In the campaign my Acolyte can force an opponent once a game to reroll damage… could have been useful!
6. Scout is great, but not so much when rangers are just thrown out in front with no support!

Need to draw up a new list for the 1000 game in Sept – do I go inventive or lazy…

So, the campaign organiser resent the the rules he’s created via a google doc so I got to remind myself what was going on, and found we get vp’s for taking elemental units… so time to revist the army list.

I have settled on

2 Earth Elemental regiments

1 Regiment of Rangers (with Hammer of measured force)

2 units of doggos (with throwing dogs)

1 Packmaster with berries and Boomstick

Now I had started work on the list below so some units have paint on – but I am very behind, but its a start.

My Earth Elementals have come along quite quickly…

So when looking for options I’m not a huge fan of Mantics ones, I had a stone golem thing from Fantasy Flights now dead game, but it needs a 50×50 base so are too big unless i run hordes of them, so spent a long time researching options… and that’s where it happened. Etsy brought up someone selling Pet Rocks for £4 and I loved the idea – no painting, no mould lines, what could go wrong!

So I made my own! My area of York isn’t particularly stoney, and neither me or anyone nearby have the “right” sort of gravel, but I got lucky. Our local B&Q had a few split bags of garden stones for £3 and one of them just happened to be the 30-50mm stuff, so that got snaffled.

We had some stone cleaner and sealer in the house already from a DIY project that didnt work so I washed a selection and sealed them, stuck them on some bases, added the eyes and job done! I intend to base them in due course but the “models” are finished.

So the first “round” is tonight so below is the 750 pts raring to go. Wish me luck!

So back before the EVENT, I bought some of Oathmarks dwarves while at Vapnartak to build forces for both Kings or War which our local club is very much into as well of the Oathmark set itself.

Roll forwards a couple of years, a new kid and a house move and the plastic was still largely on sprue. I had 12 of the lads done up as Rangers – for which I am using the bow armed dwarves and a few with spears.

Someone at the club has proposed a small campaign based around the 4 elements and their associated elementals. Starting with 750 points for August, and rising to 2000 in Nov, each force chooses one of the elemental types to “follow”, and gets a free Acolyte of the elements – who is guiding your forces to that element’s aims.

Now going Dwarf, it made sense to go Earth – yes it would have been fun to choose Water or Wind, but such wishy washy elements feel more Elvish in nature so they’re out! Fire is all about aggression which feels a bit more Naughty dwarf territory so Earth makes sense. The Earth Acolyte take the Surge all Acolytes have and adds Bane Chant into the mix therefore removing my need to add any stone priests into my army unless i go full Earth elemental…. (maybe more on that down the line).

Now this is already taking far longer to type than I expected so to finish up, some may have noticed on the UhH and on Discord I have been picking Gerry’s mind as to options and my lack of chaff. I did stick up a previous starting list on discord but I have moved on from then (plus upon signing up to Easy Army they got deleted so that sucks). So with guidance from Gerry my first 750 points will consist of:

Regiment of Rangers

Regiment of Shieldbreakers with throwing doggos

A Lord with lords Jewel (free dwarfs specific) and currently Dragons Diadem for 30 pts of magical items

2 regiments of Doggo packs

1 pack master to gee up the dogs of war

1 free Acolyte

So I suppose I should start painting then…