Dwarves vs. Forces of the Abyss - Kings of War AAR

Only Gary, Dave and I managed to get together to play some Kings of War this past weekend. I forgot to record my game against Gary, where his Dwarves won a minor victory against my League of Rhordia in a Domination scenario. Not wanting to leave completely empty handed, I decided to stick around and watch the game between Gary and Dave. It would also be my first chance to see how a Forces of the Abyss army played. 

The scenario was Pillage, with five objectives placed on the table (one began under a Dwarf unit). Dave's Abyssal army was on the left, and included a few Abyssal Dwarf allies. Gary's Dwarves arrayed themselves on the right.

During the first turn, the Abyssals surged forward, the Succubi and Gargoyles taking the lead. The Dwarves shuffled their lines forward, firing off a few volleys in the hopes of knocking out a few of the weaker troop units. This failed, unfortunately, and the hellish monstrosities quickly regenerated their wounds.

The Abyssals then went to work on the Dwarven lines, quickly shredding Gary's left flank until only the Steel Behemoth remained. Dave began to swing his own left flank around, wary of Gary's cavalry units hidden behind the woods.

Another round of combat saw the Abyssals bounce off the stout Dwarven lines. The Steel Behemoth was keeping Gary's left flank protected from the Gargoyles, who couldn't see past the massive machine to be able to charge the units in the center of the line. The opposing cavalry units still held off, neither commanding willing to commit their units into the fight to only be charged by the enemy.

Unfortunately, the devilish strength of the Abyssal units wiped out Gary's Bulwarker horde, opening a gap in his line that needed to be plugged with the Brock Riders and other units. Another gap opened on Gary's left flank, with the distance between the main Dwarven line and the Steel Behemoth increasing, although the warmachine continued to hold on against constant attacks.

At this point, at the beginning of Turn 5, Gary decided to concede and pull his battered forces from the field. He knew that he couldn't beat back the Abyssals and move onto the objectives in two turns, while Dave only had to shred the remaining Dwarf units before moving back and winning the game.

Gary has had consistent problems with the Dwarves - while they can take a punch, their slow movement speed and relatively pillow-fist attacks means that, in objective based games, the stunties are always on the back foot. A future Forces of Nature army might give Gary the maneuverability he desires, however.

Also, a brief comment on my part during the game led to Dave revealing an apparently massive collection of Warmaster miniatures. If everything works out, I'll hopefully have an after-action report for next week.