Guramm's Last Stand (an Oldhammer 3e battle report)

Guramm swiped the sweat from his forehead; all night he had marched with the remnants of his army towards the holy ruins of Ekrun, deep in the forest surrounding his family's stronghold. Yesterday's battle had been a massacre, and most of his army still lay, rotting, on the field of battle. Soon, he would get to join his fallen comrades and meet Grimnir. But not before one last battle. one last stand..."Chaos has no idea what it is getting into", he chuckled, smiling for the last time of his life.

A few weeks ago Chris (from Blue's Marauding Miniatures) came down from Vermont to help me give Kawe, from Westfalia Miniatures, an Oldhammer style welcome. Kawe moved this past summer from the UK and will spend the next few years in Canada, if we can survive our winters! We settled on a game of Warhammer 3e, and as the host I volunteered to Game Master the game. I wanted to do a game with a scenario (and a surprise!).

The game was between parts of my Chaos force, under the leadership of Kawe, and Chris' stout Dwarf army. We played using 3rd edition rules, and our armies both came from Warhammer armies. We agreed to not have magic, as the game was already complicated enough for Kawe, who hadn't played 3e since the early 90s(!)

The horde of Savalas The Savage

Savalas The Savage, Chaos champion, with heavy armour, shield, parasitic blade: 139 pts

Lobar Phorumine, Chaos warrior, with shield, heavy armour, barding, war horse : 94 pts

5 Marauder horse, with barding : 245 pts

11 Marauders: 427 pts

20 beastmen,with shield and light armour : 260 pts

5 Chaos centaurs, + Kadax The Fast, lv 5 hero : 242 pts

18 Chaos Dwarfs, with shields + Eneon Benorus, lv 10 hero : 328 pts

4 Trolls : 260 pts

Total : 1995 pts

The arriere-garde of Karak Drazh first army

Guramm Stonemore of Karak Drazh, General lv 15

Belgak Oakthane, army standard 

12 dwarf crossbows with Torerbor Magmagut, lv 5 hero

10 Troll Slayers

15 clansmen with Kizmas Bristlebringer, lv 5 hero

12 handgunners

10 hammerers

Total points: 1080

The scenario was as follow :

Just a few days ago, Guramm Stonemore’s army was a glorious sight to behold; proud ranks of Dwarfs after proud ranks of Dwarfs, in fine spirit, the army was assembled as Karak Drazh first line of defense against an invading horde of Chaos. Alas, the sheer numbers from the Chaos horde were too much, and the vast majority of the army died on the battlefield. Left with his “arriere garde” intact, Guramm retreats and, hoping to leave as much time as possible for his stronghold to prepare for the incoming siege, the Dwarf general attracts the Chaos army and makes his way for the Ekrun ruins, deep in the forest surrounding his people’s stronghold. He hopes the sacred ruins will boost the morale of his soldiers, and that they will inflict as many casualties as possible before meeting Grimnir in the afterlife.

Overview

In this battle a vastly outnumbered Dwarf army must sell the lives of his troops as dearly as possible.

Armies

The Dwarfs can spend 1000 pts from their army list in Warhammer armies.

Chaos gets to spend 2000 pts, also from the army list in Warhammer armies.

Special rules : 

- The dwarfs set-up their army first, in a 18 inch square in the middle of the table, around the ruins of Ekrun

- Chaos then deploy his army; units may set-up anywhere at least 24 inches from a Dwarf unit

- The dwarfs go first

- The game lasts until the Dwarfs are wiped out

- Special rules : The dwarfs expect to die and therefore are immune to panic

- Victory conditions : Calculate victory points for destroyed Chaos units and Chaos units reduced to below half points. If the result is more than the starting point value of the dwarves, the dwarves win, even if wiped out. If it less than half then Chaos win. Anything else is a draw.

- At the start of  the Chaos player’s 3rd turn, the GM must roll a D6, on a roll of 4+ a surprise happens. If nothing happens, the next turn the GM rolls again but this time with a +1 for each roll after the first (so 3+, then 2+, etc.)

There is TONS of pictures, so enjoy!

The Dwarfs position

The Slayers, superbly painted by Chris

Clansmen

Musketeers

Hammerers

Crossbowmen

The vast horde of Chaos; from left to right, centaurs, trolls,
chaos dwarfs, Beastmen, marauders horse, marauders

Should've removed those trees for better pictures!

Dwarfs moving to better face the Chaos onslaught

The Trolls start moving (good job!)

The Slayers set their sights on the Trolls...

The Chaos horde moves forward

The Hammerers, ready to defend the holy ruins

SURPRISE! On the first available turn, a level 7 Earth Elemental
rises up from the ground. Nature's answer to the corruption of Chaos.

The Dwarfs get in position

The Chaos Dwarfs are shot at by the Musketeers

In the middle of the battle, Chaos marches on

A good view of the Chaos and Dwarfs lines

Bracing for impact...

On the western flank, the Elemental passes through rocks,
determined to reach the Chaos Knights

The Chaos army lines itself for one massive charge

CHARGE!! True to Khorne style of strategy, the
Chaos general sends all his unit into battle

Brothers vs Brothers, the Hammerers
face their evil & twisted chaos brothers

Catastrophe!! The Hammerers rout the
Chaos dwarfs on the first turn of combat, as Kawe rolls an 11 (!)

The Centaurs move through the ruins 

Close combat rages on all sides

The Clansmen do their best against the combined might of
both foot and horse 

The Elemental charges into the Chaos Knights

The Chaos Dwarfs,
now decimated by their rout and the subsequent free hack

As nature intended; the Troll Slayers charge the Trolls!
Fantastic sight

The Clansmen numbers dwindle, while
the Crossbowmen give the Beastmen a run for their money

The Troll Slayers roar as a Troll bites the dust! 

The Clansmen barely hang on...

...and then flee, ran over by the bloodthirsty Khorne warriors

The Centaurs move through the ruins and charge
Belgak Oakthane, army standard

Kadax the Fast issues a challenge to Guramm of Karak Drazh.

Poor Belgak Oakthane is unceremoniously ran over by the Centaurs

The Slayers have killed two trolls, but the end draws near

Kizmas Bristlebringer rallies, and
stands his ground against the degenerates of Khorne

The battle has decimated both sides. On top, the Earth Elemental
keeps grinding at the Knights, one by one

A most glorious death!

The poor crossbowmen, now attacked from the flanks and the rear

The Elemental on a murderous rampage

The Trolls now charge the Musketeers

The crossbowmen have done more than can be expected,
but now the odds are starting to show

Decimated, the last few crossbowmen stand their ground

Fear nature's wrath, for it has the eternal strength
of stone and the endurance of mountains

Last combats rages on

The Crossbowmen fall...

For four turns, the duel raged on. And on four different occasion,
Guramm blows are deflected by Kadax armour.
But in the end, Guramm falls to the Chaos Centaur. His Last Stand is no more....

The last Musketeer on the table runs from the Trolls.
On the Dwarf side only the Hammerers remain.
The battle is truly over...but Chaos is licking it's wounds

Post mortem

• As per the victory conditions, Chaos barely won. But we all felt it was a draw. The Dwarfs fought a magnificent fight against all odds. 
• For once, lady Luck was on Chris side. His dwarfs held their own turn after turn, while Kawe had horrible luck. The Beastmen did not inflict a single casualties on the crossbowmen in 4 turns of combat! 
• I was surprised by Kawe's set-up; he could set-up all around the Dwarfs but chose to go with a classic pitch battle style of set-up. 
• The one thing that let Chris down was his general; he was plagued by horrible dice and lost to a lv 5 champion, how embarassing! It needs to be mentionned that Kawe rolled (and needed) FOUR 6 in a row for his saving throw. It was an Epic duel, the best I've witnessed.
• The Elemental got there the first turn it was allowed to arrive, and then Chris rolled a good number to make it a Level 7. It was our first time seeing an Elemental in action. And while we removed the "can only be wounded by a magic item" rule, it did not change much; a LV 7 Elemental is an indestructible engine of destruction. Wow.
• The Hammerers were outstanding against the Chaos Dwarfs, and had they been a little faster might've very well tipped the battle completely by charging the Beastmen from the rear. 
• Having a GM is such a nice luxury in a wargame; the game runs much smoothly. It's also so much easier to take nice pictures without delaying the gameplay.
• I really hope some of you actually read this and enjoy it! I've said it before and I'll say it again : writing a battle report takes forever!
• Am I masochist? Quite possibly, as I played another great game last week and I intend on writing a battle report for it in the coming weeks!