Here is my first battle report. Well this is not a true BR because I played versus myself! There was no opponent avalable and I'm the only one to have the rule book yet. So plase don't be hard on me and don't delete this mail before reading! The BR is biesed but take it as it is: something to give an idea on warmaster games. I played this battle to figure out by myself how playable were the rules. Not to find out who's the best!
The fight took place on a small table (70cmx110cm) with two 1000pts army. This is a bit too small but this battle is only a try out so it was not really that important. All the minis are not yet avalable, so I used cardboards bases with the units stats written on it (every base is 2cmx4cm). Cheap way to find out if I like the rules and go buy the real models.
General 155 with Orb of Command (+30) G)
Hero 80 (H)
Runesmith 90 with Anvil of Doom (+10) (M)
2 units of Clanmen 220 (W)
2 units of Slayers 160 (S)
1 unit of Rangers 110 (R)
1 Canons battery 90 (C)
1 Flamme Canon 50 (F)
Total : 995
Tomb King 130 (T)
Lich Priest 90 in chariot (+10) (L1)
Lich Priest 90 in chariot (+10) (L2)
2 units of Squeletons 60 (S)
2 units of Squeletons with bows 70 (B)
3 units of chariots 330 (C)
1 unit of squeletons riders 60 (R)
1 unit of Carrions 65 (A)
1 Skull Chucker 85 (K)
Total: 1000
Setup (80cm apart)
H G M
RRR C F SSSSSS
WWWWWW
RRRCCCCCCCCC BBBBBB K
SSSSSS
AAA L1 T L2
Orders
L1 fails to move Carrions
L2 moves forward Skull Chucker 10cm
K fails move Chariots + Riders brigade!
All characters move in front of units
Orders
H fails to move rangers
M moves flamme canon forward 10cm fails to move canons
G moves Slayers + Warriors forward 20cm
All characters move in front of units
Orders
L1 moves Carrions 60cm to the front right
L2 moves forward Skull Chucker 10cm
K moves Chariots+Riders brigade forward 30cm
All characters move in front of units
Orders
H moves Rangers 20cm forward
M moves flamme canon forward 10cm moves canons forward 20cm
G moves Slayers+Warriors forward 20cm, wheels Slayers + Warriors 90° to the right (Ld9)
charges 1 slayers unit into chariots (Ld8) charges second slayers unit into chariots too
(Ld7). L1 in their way moves back and joins chariots units, fails to charge 1 warriors
unit into chariots (Ld6) (forgot the Orb!)
M joins the Slayers to help out (+2 attacks)
H and G move in front of rangers.
Shooting
Nothing in range or sight.
HtH
Due to stand and shoot from chariots, Slayers loose 4 wounds! That is a full base and this
will score for further combat resolution.
Slayers do little damage even with 32 attacks! Bloody 5+ save. They score 7 wounds but
that is 3-2-2 on the three chariots units so there is only one chariot base down. The
strike back is incredible and the chariots plus riders do 18 wounds out of 33 attacks!
There is only one slayers base left at 2 wounds with the Runesmith. I was not expecting
that! Slayers move back 8cm (18+4-7=15, 15/2=8cm). One chariots unit with 2 chariots left
and L1 persue Slayers (the other units re no more in front of them). Second round of
combat sees the Slayers units destroyed killing the Runesmith in the process. Chariots
loose one base thought (3 wounds). They are right in front of one Dwarf warriors unit but
do not elect to advance, waiting for support next turn (only one chariot base left with L1
and fighting the Dwarf Warriors with 4+ save armor is recipe to loose the lich priest). I
should hve moved them backwards thought.
Orders
L1 fails to charge with its chariot the Dwarfs warriors on his right!
L2 charges carrions into the rear of Dwarfs facing L1 with chariot. charges squeleton
bowmen on the very same engaged Dwarf warriors flank.
K Charges R+C+C brigqde into rangers 30cm away. Stand and shoot does 3 wounds, destroying
a chariot base in he process. Dwarf hero was in their way so he joined the rangers unit.
T moves behind charging chariots + riders but still in range of carrions in case of.
L2 joins a charging chariot unit to give them +2 attacks on Rangers. I forget to move L1
out of the 1 base chariot unit to a safer place.
Shooting
Forgot! Damned, some spells and shooting would have been usefull since there is no mone
Runesmith to dispell.
HtH
Chariots with riders kill all rangers after persuing once (1 wounded ranger base left
after charge round) killing the Dwarf hero in the process. They loose only one riders base
and a chariot base. Canons and flame canon are too far to advance into (you can advance
10cm only if you destroyed opponent in more than one round).
Carrions with Squeleton bowmen loose fight to dwarfs warriors by little and move back 2cm
with no base loss. Dwarfs hold still because they have 1 wound left on a base.
Winning chariots move back (when you win, you can persue retreating opponent, hold still,
move back or advance (only if all opponents are destroyed for advance)). So they can see
Dwarf warriors from far enough.
Orders
G charges winning Dwarf unit into lone chariot with L1, charges next Dwarf unit into
loosing squeleton bowmen.
I hesitate to make him join some unit to help out with his +2 attacks but I finaly elect
to move him next to Dwarf warriors to be able to give multiple orders next turn.
Shoothing
Canons destroys lone chariot with L2 killing it too. Flamme canon destroys 2 bases on
another chariot unit (1 base left).
HtH
Winning Dwarf unit wins again against Lich Priest L1 and destroys last base after
persuing.
Other Dwarf unit wins against Squeleton bowmen, persue and destroys them for good. They
canot advance into Squeletons in front of them (more than 10cm) and I forget to move back.
Orders
K charges lone chariot and lone rider into warriors that killed L1. The Dwarf General was
on their way and must move to join a unit. He goes with engaged warriors to help out (BIG
mistake). Squeletons and carrions succesfully charge the ery same Dwarf unit with General,
surrounding it almost completly.
Tomb King hesitate to fight and decided to move back close to the fight.
Shooting
Skull chucker fails to hit Flame canon.
HtH
Dwarfs with General loose heavy (2 bases killed) , move back, are presued and finaly
killed to the last man. Dwarf General killed, game is over.
Final score:
UD 585 (Dead slayers DO NOT give victory points!)
DW 535
After match thoughts: I must say that I forgot many things. Some move back movements for victorious units could have helped the Dwarfs greatly. It took me 2 hours to play those 4 turns but I checked the book many times to make sure I was doing right. The book is well done and it is very easy to find what you want to know. the chariots and riders units have a hudge advantage with their narrow frontage. The 5 Slayers bases made contact with 10 cavalery bases, taking away their charge bonuses (+1 attack per base). So take that advice: take as many cavalery base units that you can! Thay have a good save too so it is the best thing you can have since there is no Toughtness to help you. even the Slayers with 4 wounds per base suffered very heavy losses. Shooting was not very relevant mainly because I forgot to move back wounded units. You may have noticied that I said nothing about confusion. Well I forgot that the skull chucker confuse a unit it wounded on 4+. And Undeads are immune to confusion. But confusion happens most of the time because of units moving across others. In this small 1000pts battle, there is not enought units for that to happen. And I managed to have clear retreat paths all the time.
I hope you enjoyed this report and that you have many questions for me! If you liked this report, tell me so. I'm on my way to write a complete review of each army lists. Of course I'll do this only if some of you ask me to.