In this weeks battle report my buddy and I teamed up to command my Daemons of Nurgle versus my friends Dwarfen Mountain Kingdoms. As a long term Dwarf player it felt odd fighting against the Dwarfs!

Dwarfen Mountain Holds

[2000pts] # ++ Main Force ++ [2000pts]

## Characters [791pts] Anvil of Doom [260pts]: General, Rune of Preservation • 1x Forgefather & Anvil Guard: Anvil of Doom, Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield

Runesmith [149pts]: Hand Weapon, Full Plate Armour, Shield, Great Weapon, 3x Rune of Spellbreaking

Thane [138pts]: Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Handgun, Shield, Master Rune of Bursting Flame, Rune of Rapid Fire, Rune of Accuracy

Thane [244pts]: Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Battle Standard Bearer (Master Rune of Grungni), Great Weapon, Pistol, Master Rune of Gromril, Rune of Fury

## Core [513pts] Rangers [223pts]: • 12x Ranger [15pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Great Weapon, Crossbow, Throwing Axe • 1x Ol Deadeye [6pts]: Crossbow • 1x Standard Bearer [31pts]: Rune of Battle • 1x Musician [6pts]

Thunderers [145pts]: • 10x Thunderer [13pts]: Hand Weapon, Handgun, Heavy Armour, Shield, Great Weapon • 1x Veteran [5pts]: Handgun • 1x Standard Bearer [5pts] • 1x Musician [5pts]

Thunderers [145pts]: • 10x Thunderer [13pts]: Hand Weapon, Handgun, Heavy Armour, Shield, Great Weapon • 1x Veteran [5pts]: Handgun • 1x Standard Bearer [5pts] • 1x Musician [5pts]

## Special [576pts]

Longbeards [293pts]: Unit Options (Drilled) • 15x Longbeard [14pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Great Weapon, Shield • 1x Elder [6pts] • 1x Standard Bearer [56pts]: Rune of Battle, Strollaz’ Rune • 1x Musician [6pts]

Longbeards [283pts]: Unit Options (Drilled) • 15x Longbeard [14pts]: Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Great Weapon, Shield • 1x Elder [6pts] • 1x Standard Bearer [46pts]: Rune of Courage, Rune of Battle • 1x Musician [6pts]

## Rare [120pts] Organ Gun [120pts]: Dwarf Crew (Hand Weapon, Light Armour), Organ Gun

Daemons of Chaos [1990 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Daemons of Chaos
++ Characters [690 pts] ++

Great Unclean One [445 pts]
– Hand weapon
– Plagueflail
– Level 4 Wizard
– General
– Daemonology

Daemonic Herald of Nurgle [245 pts]
– Plaguesword
– Death’s heads
– Daemonic Locus (Battle Standard Bearer) [Totem Of Eternal War]
– Palanquin of Nurgle
– Trappings Of Nurgle

++ Core Units [504 pts] ++

18 Plaguebearers of Nurgle [252 pts]
– Plagueswords
– Plagueridden (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

18 Plaguebearers of Nurgle [252 pts]
– Plagueswords
– Plagueridden (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

++ Special Units [531 pts] ++

3 Beasts of Nurgle [186 pts]
– Hand weapons
– Writhing tentacles

3 Plague Drones of Nurgle [210 pts]
– Plagueswords
– Death’s heads
– Hand weapons (filth-encrusted claws)
– Plagueridden (champion)
– Standard bearer
– Musician

3 Nurglings [135 pts]

++ Rare Units [265 pts] ++

Soul Grinder [265 pts]
– Hand weapon
– Iron claw
– Harvester cannon
– Heavy armour (Daemonic flesh)
– Daemon of Nurgle

The Dwarfs took a a defensive position castling in the left corner of the field, shockingly using the hill for some of their ranged elements. This deployment looks very familiar to me for some reason….

The Daemons of Nurgle took a wider range approach putting their faster elements on the far flank knowing they could make up the ground faster than their infantry.

In turn one the forces of Nurgle pushed forward across the board. Their magic was ineffective and their limited shooting was out of range. In the Dwarf turn the artillery, missile weapons, and the Anvil of Doom opened up on the forces of Nurgle. Despite the overwhelming firepower they only put a wound on a Beast of Nurgle and the Great Unclean One, however, they did manage to kill a Plague Fly. Any little thing helps, but even the slow moving forces of the Plague God were going to make contact if the shooting phase didn’t improve for the Dwarfs!

In the Nurgle turn the Daemons continued their inexorable march towards the Dwarfen lines, and the Plague Flies charged the Thunderers on the flank. The Dwarfs pulled out their great weapons and chopped down one of the Plague Flies, winning the combat and forcing the retched Daemons back!

Sensing the crush of battle coming towards the center of the line the Longbeards on the left flank of the line adopted a march column to swing towards the middle of the line. The Dwarfen line once again opened fire on the Nurgle line causing a smattering of wounds, but overall were even less succesful than the last turn.

The faster elements of the Nurgle line was now close enough to launch a charge so the Soulgrinder and the Beasts charged their respective Thunderers in front of them. The surviving Plague Fly went hunting for other targets, and the other units continued their forward advance. In combat the Soulgrinder and the Beasts killed a few Dwarfs but the resilient grumblers managed to win the combat against the Soulgrinder, and only gave ground against the Beasts, which promptly followed up.

The Longbeards continued to redeploy and the Dwarfs put some serious wounds on the Great Unclean One, dropping him another three wounds, and put a hurt on the Soulgrinder. Meanwhile the remaining Plague Fly was cut down to only one remaining wound. The Beasts of Nurgle rolled poorly and the combat worked itself out to a tie!

In the Nurgle turn the Daemons launched an all out attack on the Dwarfen lines with the Soulgrinder charging the Thunderers who it failed to kill the previous turn, the Great Unclean One going to aid the Beasts against the Thunderers, the Plague Fly trying to cut down the Organ gun, and the plucky Nurglings charged the large Thunderers on the hill! The Plague Fly and the Organ Gun tied combat, and the Plaguebearers pushed the Anvil back but failed to break or destroy it. The Soulgrinder and the Beasts finally killed their tormenters. The Great Unclean One was assisting the Beasts and so was able to overrun into the Anvil. Meanwhile the true heroes of any Nurgle army, the Nurglings, killed three Thunderers. Their saves didn’t help them much so they took six wounds in return and fell back in good order due to the Great Unclean Ones enhanced command radius due to his size. Yes, that’s a size comment, no, it isn’t a joke!

The Dwarfs opened fire on the Daemons yet again causing a smattering of wounds. Most importantly Beardy Harry, the mobile Dwarf war machine, finally managed to hit with his magical pistols and caused the last wound on the Soulgrinder taking him out of the fight. (Note: This picture was taken for dramatic effect, Beardy Harry was not in this position when he took the shot.) The Plague Fly cut down the Organ Gun in close combat.

Once again the majority of the action took place in the Nurgle turn as the Daemons charged their enemies. The Demonic Herald separated from his unit to head towards with the fight against the Thunderers while his unit moved forward to take over the fight if the Beasts failed. I really should have kept him in his unit and moved them towards the Thunderers but I didn’t want to send a main combat line against some shooters. As it turned out they just wandered the field looking for something to do and it put the Herald in an unnecessarily dangerous position. The Plague Fly flew to the rear of the Thunderers to assist as well. In close combat the Great Unclean One cut down the Forgefather. The Beasts looked like they were about to finally finish off the Longbeards by rolling a total of 17 attacks, but then, as you can see, only managed a total of five hits. Tzeentch must be working against his brother for some reason!

Beardy Harry moved into position and was able to shoot the remaining Plague Fly, stripping it of its last wound and finally killing the unit!

In the last Nurgle turn the Great Unclean One charged the unengaged unit of Longbeards, the Beasts of Nurgle charged the other unit of Longbeards and the Herald and Nurgling stand charged the last unit of Thunderers. The Great Unclean One and Beasts won their combat pushing the Dwarfs back, but the Thunderers once again threw back their opponents!

In the final turn of the game the Great Unclean One was able to break the Longbears as they rolled a 10 on their Leadership test and ran them down. The Beasts of Nurgle continued to struggle dropping their opponents down to just two models, but they managed to stick around yet again! With that the game was over!

We did not tally the final victory points as it was obviously a Nurgle victory as the Daemons only lost the Plague Flies and the Soulgrinder, while they Dwarfs were down to 2 Longbeards, a unit of Thunderers and two heroes.

My friend has not finished his army yet, I think once he gets some more artillery things will be different. As it is he has a hard time getting through all of the saves the Daemons have. Getting some runes on some more artillery pieces will help cut down on my numbers before getting into combat for sure.

If you’d like to read about this game and see some pictures from the Dwarf side of the lines you should check out Manteuffel’s post over on Wargaming from the Balcony!

-Wachtmeister