Dwarfs march to war again!

 The dwarfs got their second outing and while it went better than last time it still wasn't great. Here's the list I took missing most of the runes. Using square based comp I had 2400 points to play with. From the dwarfs first outing I learned the importance of taking and holding objectives so both my core warrior units got vanguard runes to get on them quickly. To give myself more flexibility I let the king run around on his own trusting in his toughness and weapon skill to keep him alive.

King with shieldbearers, 2x Rune of Shielding, Rune of Preservation, Rune of Fury, Master Rune of Alaric the Mad

Thane BSB with the Master Rune of Grungni

Runelord

Engineer with the Master Rune of Slaying

24 Dwarf Warriors with shields

17 Dwarf Warriors with great weapons

18 Rangers with every available option 

18 Ironbreakers with a cinder blast bomb

Gyrocopter with clattergun

Grudge Thrower

Cannon

Dwarf Cart - for that extra 1" of movement 

Game 1 was against a troll hoard.

This was set to be a fun fight with 3 hags, 2 units of 4 stone trolls, a big unit of 8 river trolls, a giant and a bone grinder giant along with some ambushing wolf riders. The objectives were baggage train special feature and dominion. I placed my rune lord in the great weapon warrior unit for the flaming attacks and pushed forwards towards the river trolls. The shield dwarfs used vanguard to take the special feature early in the game and held on almost until the end. Unfortunately the special feature only counts for points at the end of the battle by which time it was too late. I think my main mistake in this battle was splitting my fire between targets. Having so many big monsters on the table I never knew what to aim for first with the war machines. In some ways this paid off. On the left flank both the giant and bone grinder took some damage allowing the king to change into each of them and finish them off. One of the hags was also killed by the king (or did she kill him? I can't remember now) while another one was on her last wound. I threw everything I had into her on the last turn but sadly she survived along with the third hag to hold a table quarter at the end. The rangers held the right flank the whole game eventually wiping out a unit of stone trolls and also holding a table quarter at the end. I sped up the board with Bugmans wagon to take another table quarter unfortunately the remaining river trolls moved around to grab the special feature and contest the quarter. What really lost me the game were the wolf riders. I felt like I was in a good position until they turned up then run through the back lines. My baggage train, war machines and engineer were all wiped out before they crashed into the king who eventually died. My biggest disappointment were the iron breakers who died in turn two. In the end I'd lost 6/0.

Game 2 was against night goblins.

Only one objective this time king of the hill. To say this played in my favour would be an understatement. On the left flank the rangers took out a mangler squig and a unit of squig hoppers. On the right the king took out a goblin boss on giant squig while almost dying to goblin arrows. Both warrior units ran forwards to claim the hill and remained there until the end fighting off ogres, goblins, a huge squig herd and 6 fanatics. There was also an aracnorock in there somewhere.

I'd won 6/0

Game 3 was against an Errantry crusade.

I made two big mistakes here and combined they cost me the game. The objectives were baggage train and 4 strategic locations. I was up against the green knight, a duke and a paladin both on royal Pegasus, 2 units of 10 knights errent, 10 knights of the realm, 6 questing knights and 3 Pegasus knights that were joined by the paladin. I really should have won this one.

The rangers held the right flank taking out a unit of errent knights but not doing much else.

The shield dwarfs held the centre keeping on my rear objective. They were eventually charged by the knights of the realm but didn't seem to mind.

The left flank was my first mistake. I vanguarded the great weapon dwarfs forwards to grab the objects trusting in their 5+ ward to keep them safe. Against a combined charge from the knights errent and questing knights it wasn't enough and the dwarfs crumbled. The iron breakers had been moving in to support but we're to late ending up being charged by the Pegasus and questing knights, they didn't survive till the end but they did do well.

If I had moved forwards with the iron breakers and supported with the warriors I think things would have went my way. I'd lose out on a few turns of objective points but that's fine if the enemy dies. As things went the errent knights were able to get to my baggage train before my unfortunately slow rune lord could cut them off.

The duke flew down into a challenge with the king and was soundly beaten down to one wound. I should have changed back in with the king, that was my second mistake, but instead took the cowards way out and decided to kill him with shooting. The kings pistol, engineers hand gun, cannon and rock lobber all failed to take the final wound. Next turn the duke flew over the the king and took out my whole back line. The king eventually caught up to him but the damage was done. To make up for his failure the king went on to kill the green knight in a single round of combat.

Even with the 250 points my opponent got for the baggage train I still beat him on objective points by quite a bit unfortunately I had only taken out a unit of errent knights, the duke and the green knight. The dwarfs had lost the iron breakers, the great weapon dwarfs, thain BSB, engineer and war machines. An unfortunate loss.

I was expecting the event to be around 12 people but sadly on the day there were only 6. In the last event I came 4th out of 14 which was great. This one I was 5th out of 6 which isn't so great but I did have a good time.

I also won best painted which was also great. There is a big event coming up in October which id like to go to but only if I get my chaos army painted and ready to go. My empire army can easily meet the 2500 point limit and I bought an anvil of doom (missing banner poles and wheels) and slayers for the dwarfs but something new would be ideal. I'll be honest it's not looking likely but you never know.

Thanks for reading.