Dwarfs vs Ogre Kingdom, 2500 pts

As I arrived, Ogres were fighting Undead

I was lucky enough to find myself an opponent in the always-pleasant Benjamin and his overweight representatives of the Ogre Kingdoms. His army was being led by a Tyrant sporting a Wizard's Hat, which luckily enough (for him) ended up giving him the Lore of Death and the Purple Sun. Just my luck. Furthermore, he had a Brusier with the Battle Standard, the rest of the points were spent on warm bodies. The Tyrant was leading a unit of 7 Ironguts, while the Bruiser joined up with 7 Bulls. They were flanked by a total of three units of 4 Ironguts each, as well as a unit of 3 Bulls, and some Gnoblars, a Slavegiant and a Gorger hiding somewhere.

When the Ogres got the first turn, I knew this was going to end in bloody battle sooner rather than later.

Things of note:

• Thunderers - Protected my eastern flank brilliantly against two units of Ironguts. Each round of fire took down at least two ogres, leading to only a single unit of 2 making it into combat, where the Thunderers held on until a unit of Miners could arrive and cut down the last of the brutes. I was very pleased with how they performed. It's very good to remember that even though statistically 20 shots should hit their target ten of the times, it is quite possible that they will hit a lot more than that, and with so many dice at your disposal, they are very likely to do the damage the "ought to". Rather than trusting in artillery that (while devastating when they hit) could misfire or scatter more often than not, I believe I'll continue using my Thunderers, who can actually hold their own in a fight too.
• Rangers - Deployed far west to protect against my Hammerers being swarmed, and ended up in battle first with the small unit of Bulls, destroying them, before moving on to an Irongut unit, that they eventually killed, causing panic to strike the nearby Gnoblars. By then, the large unit of Bulls led by the Bruiser had taken notice and turned to engage me. With half of the unit cut down by the brutes, they decided to reform and run for hiding, avoiding the third Ogre unit for the rest of the game instead of foolishly fighting. I was very pleased with this unit as well, as they earned plenty of victory points without giving up any. Since most of my units are so expensive, I'm going to have to learn not to get into battles where the odds are against me unless absolutely necessary, which is what I did with these.
• Hammerers - Were charged early on by the Ironguts and the Tyrant in the front, which is what I wanted, while sadly giving up a flank charge to the Slavegiant (I blame the Ironbreakers for that one). They managed to cut down half of the Ironguts and kill off the Giant, while the Ironbreakers counter-charged, before they were slain to the last man. They still held up more points than they eventually surrendered, which was good, but I really need to protect my flanks better. I'm too used to outnumbering my opponents, I believe.
• Ironbreakers - Eventually found themselves in combat with (what remained) of the big Irongut unit to the front, a Gorger in the flank and a second unit of Ironguts in their rear. This is when I dropped my Oathstone and watched as the Ironbreakers did what they do best. The Ironguts broke from combat almost immediately, not doing nearly enough to make up for the Ironbreakers runes, flags and banners. The Miners then chased down what remained of the smaller Ogre Units.

Meanwhile, Bretonnians versus Goblins

Magic was mild, even though my Spelleater rune failed to devour the Purple Sun, it never got through anyway. After adding up all of the Ogre casualties as well as my own, I realized I had only really lost the Hammerers and the Organ Gun that blew up in the early rounds, while the fat ones had lost everything but their characters and the two larger units. This gave me a win with about 700 points to start off my Dwarf army project.

It struck me how extremely durable and sturdy the Dwarfs are compared to the Orcs & Goblins, with few units ever running away, and although we tend to lose quite a few of our soldiers, we take a lot of the enemy down with us. All in all, a good outing and fine introduction to the army. I hope to play more games with them as time goes on.