BR: Dwarfs vs Chaos Beasts part 3

The game is half over, but the Battle had yet to really get going.
In a quick recap, the beasts had rushed across the field, but the timely use of the anvil and shooting, and great placement of his artillary had kept some of my forces at bay.

Here was the situation at the start of my turn 4:


It was time to get a few things started. Charges:
I needed that cannon tied up if not destroyed. I charged the furies into it. He fails his fear test. So all I really need to do is 1 wound to win combat.
Rat Ogres charge the Organ gun.
Hound and beastherd charge the crossbows. The hound mainly to prevent a stand and shoot.
The spawn charges the crossbows in front of the anvil.
The 2 hounds in front of the organ gun rally.
The fleeing Rat Ogres in front of the slayers rally.
The hounds move to the flank of the ironbreakers.
The RatOgres holding the Rangers banner move back on the field.
Chariot moves up.

In combat, the crossbowmen lose none to the spawn, and do a wound to it.
The other crossbows, kill a gor, while losing a couple of dwarfs. I win by 2, but he holds.
Onto the organ gun combat with the Rat Ogres.
Here I should have used my hand weapons, but instead use my great weapons and wipe out the organ gun crew and am stuck there.
If I use hand weapons, I get on average only 2 wounds, he would need insane courage to hold, so I get to overrun and hit the crossbows this round. And probably break them, setting up the chariot for a charge into the anvil.

Instead I have to just stand there.

Finally, the furies, get 2 attacks. Both hit!! Needing a 4 to kill. I fail to do a wound. Needing 6's to hit, he fails, but wins with unit strength, I pop.
Here is the situation at the end of my turn 4:


On his turn he shuffles a bit.
I don't remember what his cannon did, not much, IIRC.
His organ gun turns and with a slim line, kills a rat Ogre holding the captured banner from the Rangers. I make my panic test.
He then does Wrack and ruin, doing another wound, but more importantly, I have only a 6" charge range next round.

In combat, I kill 1 dwarf and he fails to kill any in the herd/crossbows combat. I win and he again holds.
The crossbows do another wound to the spawn, and the spawn kills one dwarf in return. He wins again.

Time for turn 5, here is my setup:


So the question now, do I charge the Iron breakers with Ratspawn to the front and hounds in the flank to break his ranks.
A tough call. I'd already used my Crystal ball and know he has the static:
Unit strenght, banner, bsb, warbanner and so would be +3 starting the combat. I would have my banner, but figured the flank bonus would be gone.
I was already surprised he had not used his anvil to go for the charge with them last turn. I thought for sure he would. Maybe he thought I would flee with them.
I didn't feel like I could wait any longer.

So after thinking about it for a second, CHARGE!!!!
Ratspawn and bodyguard into the Iron breakers. Hounds into their flank.
Both Rat Ogre units into the front of the slayers.
2 hounds and chariot into the Organ gun.
Rat Ogres into the flank of the Crossbows.

Everything was now in combat except his anvil, cannon and my 2 Rat Ogres in the corner.
Here was the situation after the charges:


Now into combat. I did the Rat Ogres into crossbows first. I was able to kill several crossbows, they auto broke (no insane courage) and were caught.
The spawn moves enough to hit the chariot and stop, while the Rat Ogres hit the Anvil crew, who have to line up to the Rat Ogres.
The chariot and hounds kill the organ crew and in a spasm of insane stupidity, they do not overrun.
The herd and hound (he has put 4 attacks on this 1 hound so far and failed to kill it.) Again he whiffs on the hound as I do a couple wounds, he flees and is caught. Both units pursue off the board.
The 4 Rat Ogres in contact with the slayers kill 5 slayers, the whole front line, leaving ony 7.

Finally, the big one.
I challenge with Ratspawn. His champion accepts. He thought about refusing, but when I reminded him, I get to pick who moves to the back, he accepted.

His BSB with Rune of swiftness sword goes first. He goes after my champion and does only 1 wound.
Now its my turn, I lick my chops.
Hounds get 3 attacks, nothing. (In retrospect, I may have done 1 wound here.)
Ratspawn in the Challenge: Needing 3's to hit and 3's to wound.
5 Attacks, only 2 hit. Ugghhhh!!! Thats ok, a single wound can do wonders with this sword.
ZERO wounds. I rolled a '1' and a '2'. This was huge. I knew he still had a 4+ armor save, but come on.
I really needed that 1 shot re-roll I had wasted earlier.

Well, the Rat Ogres can still pull it out for me. With 10 attacks, needing 4's, my dice continue to defy all odds and I get 3 hits??!?!
Surprisingly, I did get 3 wounds and with a 5+ save, he failed all 3.

Luckily his rolling was almost as bad. He did kill off 2 of the hounds, so I lost my flank bonus. But I was expecting that. I figured 2 wounds for the 3 ranks was a good trade.
And in the front, he did nothing. He had 3 wounds + 4 static against my 3 wounds + 1 static, gave him a +3 win. I remember it being only +2. Maybe the hounds did a wound I forgot about. Either way he won.

Needing a 6 or 7 to stay, I roll an 11 for the hounds. No biggie. The hound wasn't going to help next round anyway and would probably cost me a wound.

Then onto Ratspawns unit. Another 11. Oh boy!!

Yep, good old Ratspawn and company fled like little girls with their skirts hiked up.

Onto the flee roll and I get the big 3 inches fled. So maybe more like little boys with their pants down.
My dice have amazing ways to bend me over something fierce. But thats why we throw the dice.
He of course easily catches me and wipes me out.

So now, did you say make the charge??

Here is the situation after my turn 5:


Turn 5b: Things moved pretty fast after that.
He turns his ironbreakers to face the combat with the slayers.
Long cannon shot just hits the chariot and spawn, destroying the chariot but failing to put the last wound on the spawn.

In combat, the Rat Ogres wipe out 4 slayers leaving 3 alive after they failed to kill any, but did do a couple wounds. What helped was there were 2 units, so they had to split their attacks.
But with no ranks, I was easily able to win combat and now outnumbered him as well.
But if I had killed all 7 with 12 attacks, it would have again made a big difference.

With the Anvil, I put 5 attacks on the rune lord and 4 on the guards. I killed a guard, and no wounds on the runelord.

Start of turn 6:


There wasn't much to do here. I moved ths spawn into the runelord and last guard.
Then moved the hounds so he couldn't kill more than 1 from a cannon shot.
Moved the herd on and also spread them out.

In combat, I chop down the remaining 3 slayers, but am just stuck there.
At the anvil, my spawn does in the last guard.
The rune lord with 2 attacks, does another wound to my Rat Ogres and kills one. So only 3 attacks on him this round. He fails his armor save and takes a wound.
Oh, if he had failed one of his saves from the previous round I'd be in great shape.

Turn 6b:
Ironbreakers charge the flank of the Rat Ogres.

Another minor brain fart, but thought it was better to flee for some reason. If I stay, he easily kills the Rat Ogre on that end as it had 2 wounds, but there is a chance I stay with insane courage and no panic test on the 2nd unit. By fleeing, I stood no chance of saving the charged unit and caused an auto panic test on the 2nd unit, because they had to flee through them.

I fail the first panic check on Ld 8. Luckily I have undivided and get to roll again.

I pass it this time.
He shoots his cannon hoping to kill one of the non-fleeing unit, but the ranges are off and he misses.

So its down to the last combat with the Ruin Lord.
He swings first and does nothing.

I get 5 str 4 attacks from the spawn and 6 strength 6 attacks from the Rat Ogres.
I do 1 wound from the spawn, he saves.
I do 2 wounds from the Rat Ogres...

He fails 1 save.

.
.
.
He makes the 2nd. Ugghhh!!!

There is several hundred points I just lost.

Final positions:


When it was time to add it up, he was up on me by 200 or so points and
the game was declared a draw.

Tough, tough battle against a worth adversary. I made several mistakes that I wish I could go back and do again.
Still trying to get the hang of all these 7th edition rules.

While my dice played a part, my opponent played excellent. My hats off to him.

So I now sport a 2-1-1 record in the league and another tough Dwarf opponent coming up next.

Wrapup and things I should have done differntly, coming soon.

Until then...