Druchii.net

Purely for some fun and 8ed discussion, below is a screen shot of an already deployed Dwarven army.



From left to right;

Back line - Grudgethrower - Thunders - Cannon - Bolt thrower - Bolt thrower - Copter - Bomber - Copter

Front line - Anvil - Slayers - Warriors - Irondrakes - Crossbows - Rangers

Rather than asking you to choose a list and full deployment, your challenge is to pick three units from the Dark elf list that you believe would be a good counter and explain where you would deploy for the first turn and why. No character choices or war machines.

I would probably take

Shades w/ great weapons
Dark riders w/shields & crossbows
Not really sure on third unit, maybe big block of corsairs w/ banner of swiftness?
Doh, forget warlocks

Dark riders on the right vanguard behind house and forests
Shades on the left to try and bum rush based anvil and get to grudge thrower
Corsairs in the just the right of the hill in the bottom.
Warlocks follow dark riders (staying more than 6" away though)

The Dwarf player has done you two huge favors. First, he took an Anvil which is pretty awful in the current book. Second, he didn't deploy his Rangers into the building on the right (his left). Rangers are still scouts, right?

But the DE player blew it in terrain setup. At least one of those woods should have gone right in front of that hill as soon as it was set down. Both hills, to be frank.

This setup is begging for a MSU opponent. Core full of minimum Dark Riders, lots of Warlocks, and probably a bunch of minimum Cold One Knights. Characters on Dark Steeds/Peggies. Run around faster than he can and pick off the smaller stuff while surrendering as little as possible.

(Strategically, I'd visibly start setting up my big blocks just out of cannon range on this side of the river, while sending my cavalry off behind screening terrain to cross the river elsewhere and hit him from behind... but that's beyond the purview of WFB. )

It's more difficult than it looks. The right flank does look very tempting for a unit or two of shades and dark riders (assuming the shades can fit there within the deployment zone and minimum distance requirements), but if the Dwarf player goes first, then those copters and bomber may be able to cripple those same units very quickly. He has also avoided placing any warmachines on the right flank, leaving that area with remarkably few juicy targets. Yes, disabling that big unit of crossbows would be nice, but again, if he gets the first turn he could wheel to anticipate your charge and no, you don't want to charge into a stand and shoot of dwarf crossbow bolts at short range.

Looking at it, I actually wonder if the left flank might be a better area to concentrate your forces on. He has relatively little infantry there, so a rush of MSU fast troops up that flank might be able to get to the warmachines to disable them very quickly, while the rest of his infantry potters around not doing much. The warriors would need distracting, though.

So, perhaps two units of dark riders or warlocks on the left flank, along with a unit of harpies, shades, or further unit of dark riders or warlocks in the middle to screen and distract the warriors. The Dark Riders could (potentially, depending upon the exact angles) be moved up out of the charge arc of the slayers during their vanguard movement, and then would be in an excellent position on their first turn to thrust across the river towards the grudge thrower and alongside the thunderers.

How many points is this? Seems quite a lot.

1. shades positioned to grab the house. With a -3 penalty to shoot at they will be very difficult to get out and reducing the number of any unit will be welcome.
2. WE (or another fighty infantry of choice, we have many possibilities here) southern of the house, protected by it from shooting (should be possible to have them in hard cover at least, if not outside of range). Their goal will be to just be there and look menacing. If the dwarfs turn towards the centre, they will charge something in the flank; therefore, they should hopefully keep quite a lot of points in check. Ideally, they should be supported by something that kills gyros reliably.
3. some crossbows opposing the slayers. Those dwarfs hit when they die so killing them in close combat would mean unnecessary casualties. Besides, with enough bolts, even the warmachines can go down. Out of range of thunderers - should be easy to achieve.

Marchosias wrote:How many points is this? Seems quite a lot.

Honestly I am not sure, I just created a random deployment to get some discussion going. Wanted to see how this sort of theoretical brainstorm would go down with people.
With the objective being only able to choose three units the points total seemed irrelevant.

If this is something people are interested in as an exercise then I can create any number of what if scenarios, not just in deployment but even mid battle as a 'what would you do next' situation.

Please do Amboadine, but keep it at about this level - it makes for a nice coffee break style exercise. If you increase complexity too much, then it becomes a completely different creature.