Dwarves vs Barbarians AAR

My dwarves were dying to fight Hippolyta's barbarian horde. We could have made sensible armies that ensured some sort of clear result by the end of the day, but instead we went for the tried and trusted, 'get everything you can on the table' format. So these armies were about 1850 points each, on a 9 foot table.

My opponent's biased account of proceedings are posted here:   https://hippolytastinyfootsteps.blogspot.com/2018/12/barbarian-horde-vs-mountain-dwarves.html

I had my new sleds in the field. I wasn't really sure what to do with them, as they aren't charging chariots (they don't have Impact) and they're not really missile platforms (they don't have Move and Shoot). In any case they proceeded to get rings run around them by a couple of units of Discipline 3 Light Horse. Which, I guess, is what you might expect.

I fielded three level 2 wizards which I thought was powerful, but my opponent went for two twos and a three.

My plan for the balloon was to just float over to the enemy lines and shoot them up. My opponent had no flying units, and it's Armour should make it pretty safe from the odd arrow. What actually happened with it, was that it took two casualties in the first turn, and then made three discipline tests over the course of the game to keep it alive, but it managed almost no shots.

I put my commandos in the forest on the flank, but apart from a few ineffectual shots towards the end, they did nothing at all. Except, I guess, they secured the forest. My Yeti did even less.

As I had some decent artillery and a bunch of crossbows, my opponent had little choice but to get into contact as soon as possible. With the artillery and the Melee Capable crossbows, my army is actually a pretty tasty balance between fighty and shooty. It doesn't have a lot of light troops, however.

The barbarians dont look scared, but they are.

So after the first turn, Hippolyta has approached my left flank with her wolves. I met them with my Ram Riders, who should have had the advantage, but the wolves were backed by two wizards to my one, so they pretty much cancelled each other out.

On the other flank two units of cavalry and a hero approached my crossbows. For some reason, I always found another use for my activation dice, and didn't manage to activate these guys once. Even when the cavalry charged in, they didn't have the wherewithal to stand and shoot.

In the centre, the enemy approached more slowly and I had a chance to artillery them. This didn't cause any casualties but in the second turn I went all Napoleon and moved my general to the artillery and got a bit more success.

Back on my left flank, the barbarian Light Horse get ready for a charge...

...while the wolves are joined by some cavalry (and later, an Elk). My Ram Riders don't have any power-ups, and so aren't really equipped for a drawn out melee.

My opponent was out-magicking me anyway, but had help from her profane Arcane Artefact stratagem. 

A captain, a wizard, and a unit of archers, hiding in the forest. These guys need to have a word with their general.

The light horse get ready to envelop my sleds.

My rams were nearly broken when a hero on an Elk joined the fight. I decided to charge in with my melee capable crossbow to help out, but they took casualties, too.

Back on the right, the barbarian cavalry charging up the hill, annihilated my other two units of crossbow. So I was clearly losing on both flanks. Fortunately, and not really deliberately planned, I had a spare unit of polar bears which had time to turn onto the cavalry's flank.

And with more fortune, they ripped through both units of cavalry in a single charge. This completely salvaged my right flank in a single phase, and put me ahead on Army Value.

Had this been a great general described in the history books, they would have said he deliberately lured the cavalry onto his seemingly helpless crossbowmen, and tricked them into exposing their flank, where the bears were calculatingly poised to take advantage. So, yeah, that's exactly what I had planned. Remember: history is written by the bloggers.

On the left, one of my units of rams had gone, and the rest were looking hard-pressed.

By this stage there were a lot of orange poker chips on the table.

This fight, between my elite bear cavalry and a single hero went on for the entire battle. Despite loading up on magic and having a massive advantage anyway, I just could not get the final hit on him.

In the centre my artillery managed to destroy one of the approaching infantry units, which was an efficient enough use of their points cost.

I had a unit of bear cavalry in reserve. They began to rush to the right when the barbarian cavalry broke through there. And seeing that was dealt with, it was all they could do to turn around, but they never managed to make their way to the left to help out there. Had they held their nerve for a bit longer, they could have been useful.

And it all had to end before the decisive clash in the middle. We knew that we wouldn't have time to finish, coz the armies were so huge.

My already heroic bear unit was menacingly poised to run through the barbarian centre, but who knows how that would have turned out? I was ahead by a couple of AV points and dominating the right flank, thanks to my lucky outflanking earlier. But I was potentially outnumbered in the centre, and my left was about to collapse. So, a hard fought draw that was still very much in the balance.