2500pts vs James’s Bretonnians
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Snorri Galazgrund raised his chin to the night sky and ran his hands down through his beard. It was gritty from the fight, reddened by the dirt, and damp from the ale. He sighed, “This one will go down in the grudge book, win, lose or draw! It was we who tracked the orc warband and we who recovered the gold. It doesn’t belong to these poncy Bretonnian weasels, whoever’s land it was found on.”
The moonlight glittered on the knights armour as they appeared in the distance, forming a shining line on the horizon. As the army rode closer they narrowed formation and gathered pace to a full gallop. The hooves of the horses barreled like thunder and a war horn sounded in the air.
The veteran Dwarf warriors of the Stone Cutters clan stood still in silence. Filled with righteous rage and eager to fight, they began to beat their chests with their axes. A slayer spat into the air in disgust. Snorri growled and shook his body violently before settling down into concentration. He turned towards his front line where the engineers manning their mighty war machines were waiting for his command. Snorri gave the nod. It was time for war.
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Lists
My first time against Bretonnians, I decided to field the same army that I took to the tournament over the summer – warriors, slayers, war machines, runesmiths.. (see above for full details), partly because I hadn’t had time to think about a second list yet, and partly because I thought it would be too bad against Bretonnians – blocks of infantry to soak up a charge (hopefully) , bolt throwers and a flame cannon to get a few kills before they get to me.
James brought the following: 2 lances of knights of the realm, another of grail knights, and questing knights, mounted yeomen x2, paladin on Pegasus x2, trebuchet x2, Lord on warhorse with all the tools (I forget the exact combo but it included the Gauntlet of the Duel), BSB on warhorse, Prophetess (or damsel?) on warhorse (on lore of Beasts, if I remember correctly).
My initial thoughts were that the list was very mobile, no blocks of infantry, two characters on Pegasus and the yeomen to clear the field for the knights and hunt any lone warmachines. With only one gyrocopter I wouldn’t be aiming to do much mid-table skirmishing anyway so I thought castle up and wait for the charge.
Deployment
As you can see from the pics, my dwarfs deployed in two rows with one block of slayers and one block of warriors (with my general and bsb) behind my lines, the rough plan being to counter charge whatever crashed into my lines to turn things around in turn 4 or 5.
The Bretonnians were quite spread out. One Pegasus was on the far right (my left) to hunt my cannon and one bolt thrower positioned on a hill on my left flank. The other Pegasus stayed back on the right side to counter where I deployed my lone gyrocopter and prevent it getting behind the Bretonnian lines.
Turn 1
As the gyrocopter advanced to just behind the wood on the right flank the Dwarf artillery unleashed a volley towards the mounted Bretonnians, the organ gun wiping out one vanguarding unit of yeomen and the cannon thinning out the other. As would become the norm for the shooting phase this game, the bolt throwers couldn’t hit anything and the flame cannon burst fell short.
The mounted knights advanced at full pelt and the whole army closed in on the dwarfs last stand. One Pegasus went for my cannon whilst the other stayed close to the gyrocopter. The magic phase was closed down frustratingly for the Bretonnians failing to get a spell off successfully, which would become the second recurring theme throughout the game.
Turn 2
After some minor repositioning, the dwarfs loosed a second volley whizzed through the air towards the Brets and again failed to make a big impact. The damage (from what I remember..) totalled one or two knights and a couple wounds from one of the trebuchets, the lady’s blessing proving effective at protecting the advancing horsemen.
The Bretonnians declared many charges which fortunately for my opponent all made it in. The first paladin crashed into the cannon while the second paladin on pagasus abandoned its cat-and-mouse with the gyrocopter and instead charged the organ gun, killing the crew and overrunning into my general’s unit. The questing knights and the first unit of knights of the realm charged my dwarf warriors and bulldozed right through the unit of 30, however due to the placing of the terrain and the paladin were unable to make combat on the overrun. The second knight train and the grail knights charged the slayers, who were also cut down to the last dwarf. However, dwarf slayers always go down swinging and they managed to kill 3 of the grail knights in their final death blows. The knights overran into the flame cannon.
At the end of turn 2 the dwarfs had taken heavy losses and while my countercharge tactic looked viable on my right flank with the slayers, the marauding solo paladin was blocking my general’s unit so I would need a miracle not to take the charge in the next turn.
Turn 3
The second unit of slayers grit their teeth and charged the knights of the realm protecting the Bretonnian damsel. The Engineer, who found himself alone without his organ gun, also joined the fray by charging the flank of the knights. The slayers bit deep, killing 6 knights and only losing one slayer in return. After killing two out of three of the flame cannon crew, the knights turned and fled and the slayers rampaged on into the grail knights.
The marauding Paladin survived the fight against my warriors but due to the dwarf ranks and the presence of the bsb, also turned and fled. Yet he had done his job. The other paladin had also finished off my cannon on the left flank and was ready to charge into the centre where the battle raged. The gyrocopter moved behind the Bretonnian lines to go after the trebuchets.
Bretonnian turn 3, saw more charges with the knights of the realm and the questing knights killing the stone thrower and both going into my general’s unit. This would be where the battle was decided as our generals faced off at the dwarf board edge. The dwarfs lost 5 of their number and the unit champion was cut down in a challenge, but they held strong and killed a couple of knights in return. The fleeing units rallied and the magic phase was shut down once again.
The slayers continued their rampage on the right side and went straight through the grail knights charging into the just rallied knights of the realm unit (with the mage) for a second time.
At the end of turn 3, things were looking a lot more even, however things did not bode well for the dwarfs as the general’s unit was fighting a losing battle with the two units of knights with his back to the board edge.
Turn 4
The gyrocopter made it into the first trebuchet while the Engineer, buoyed from his recent combat success, once again joined the slayers in fighting the knights of the realm. The bolt throwers finally managed to hit something and take the last wound from the paladin on Pegasus.
The dwarf warriors managed to hold on in combat again despite taking heavy casualties and crucially losing the BSB, again in a challenge that he couldn’t refuse. The slayers and engineer won combat again and just the prophetess survived and got away on horseback. The engineer pursued while the slayers turned to face the main combat raging in the centre.
The Bretonnians responded with the other paladin charging the warriors in the flank and the trebuchet taking out some of the slayers. In the combat phase the dwarf warriors were taking massive damage and failing to hit much back. They would almost certainly lose steadfast next turn if things continued in this fashion.
Turn 5
The Bretonnian damsel failed to rally last turn and finally met her end in turn 5 with a flame cannon shot to the back! She had failed to get a spell off all game, and with the last crewman of the flame cannon still alive and desperate to avenge his fallen comrades, he aimed the flame burst high into the air and poured a sheet of burning death down upon her.
The slayers charged the flank of the knights of the realm setting up the final showdown, however with no more characters available to accept challenges, it was my general’s turn to meet the sword of the Bretonnian Lord and he fell, spelling the end of the central combat.
I don’t remember whether or not we played out the rest of the game in full, but in short, the gyrocopter finished off one trebuchet and went into the second one. The knights turned to face the remaining slayers and finished them off, or would do in turn 6, leaving the Bretonnians with the victory.
Post game thoughts
It was a very bloody battle indeed, with very little left on the table at the end!
I wasn’t unhappy with the list per se, but there were definitely some tweaks to tactics/deployment that could have made a difference, such as using my bolt throwers, gyrocopter and my engineer to block charges instead of relying on a deep unit to absorb the charge. With lightly armoured dwarf warriors, and the addition of the devastating charge rule for Brets, I simply didn’t have enough anvil to take a charge of two units of knights at the same time.
I also overestimated my ability to thin down the knight units before the reached me. I was expecting the bolt throwers to pierce some ranks and cause one or two good shots on the lance formations or to get a good cannon bounce through them but the ward saves and the dice prevented that from happening.
That said, the Bretonnian knights are actually quite tame after that initial charge and can be got with a brick of great weapons as my slayers proved, twice. For next time I just need some more redirecting and a stronger anvil unit.