Warhammer 8th Ed Dwarfs v Empire - Now Even Meteor

With my kids back at school and my leave running on I was able to travel to the North Nottingham Palais Des Jeux for a game of Properhammer WFB 8th edition with Steve.

Some time ago Steve made some Warpstone meteor tokens so the scenario was for my Empire (bolstered a little by some of Steve's Nordlanders) to try and seize the tokens from under the noses of Steve's Dwarfs.
Our reasoning was that the Empire wanted to grab the warpstone to grind up to make powder for their wizards to sniff while the Dwarfs intended to simply haul the dangerous material way and bury it deep under ground in lead lined caverns.

There now follow some pictures, although unseasonally sunshiny weather in the North Nottingham area means some of my snaps are not the best.

The Empire forces assemble

 

The Dwarfs have been charged by the wizard Pol Darnyls to defend the Magic Circle

 

An Idol of Gork (or possibly Mork) with its Imperial defenders (?!)

 

Steel clad Reiksguard knights

The battle began with the Dwarf line rumbling forward. I pushed forward with the knights on the right flank and the militia on the left. Then I shot some war machines to little effect (I'd taken a mortar as I expected to be facing either Skaven or Night Goblins and big, low toughness units in their pants are what mortars love best. Also it's painted.)

"Grumble, grumble, grumble, it's off to war we go"

 

Largely I was shot up in return. Dwarfs being better at the gunline thing than Empire.

In the second turn I attempted to charge the Dwarf cannon, failed and left my Reiksguard flank on to some Longbeards. So they subsequently ran away across a poisonous river.

Run, stumble clatter, gurgle!

 

Meanwhile the militia, or what remained of them got stuck in to some clan dwarfs. Which went about as well as expected.

Feel our puny S3 wrath!

 

And left the handgunners a bit vulnerable.

Hold, hold....oh bugger, they're too close

 

The Longbeards charged into the river (and a fair few of them found the moisture got into their beards and dragged them under) and a grinding struggle began.

Eventually, as my line crumbled around me I threw the halbardiers forward. I also threw some "six dice Dwellers" spells from my Life Wizard, which didn't do as much damage as I'd hoped.

Try 20 Toughness tests, stunty

 

Meanwhile the Priest bravely abandoned the Spearmen to their fate and joined the halberds so he could get a better view of the Ironbreakers chopping them into tiny bits.

May Sigmar have mercy on your souls

 

The horseplay in the water dragged on...

"This river, Sir, it's all Oozy"

 

Dwellers, mortars and the like thinned out the dwarf general's unit.

Come on then, let's 'ave you

 

So that I felt emboldened to charge them.

Chop, stab, thump

 

Sadly I had clans dwarfs all up in my backfield.

Klaus, Klaus, set fire to their beards!

 

The halberds dispatched the Dwarf general, but were left alone in the middle of the battlefield with the vengeful dwarfs closing in...

For Nordland!

 

Hurrah for Warhammer!
This was great fun. It is still the best game ever and now I'm all excited to paint some more Empire men. This will be my Fantasy project for 2017.
However I've clearly got a bit of a learning curve ahead of me with the Empire - I'm not really sure how to get the best out of them and the magic and warmachines largely confuse me. Still, that's part of the fun.

Steve's version of events can be found over on his blog here.