I'm working on a battle report for one of two losses I've had recently at the hands of an Ogres player I have consistently beaten for over six months. I think he changed one thing about his list that has reduced the effectiveness of my list dramatically.
He took a second Ironblaster.
Okay... Dwarfs can outgun us... we expect that. But Ogres? For the unindoctrinated, here's what their cannons have that makes them so lethal.
1) move and fire. My opponent starts his cannons behind obstacles. If I win first turn, guess what? They're hidden. Then on his turn, he peeks them out, hits my cannon and, usually, shatters them. I lost two in turn one last night.
2) two dice for bounce. That's right. Their cannon roll two dice for the bounce and pick the highest. This makes their cannon more reliable than ours. Much more reliable.
3) Five wounds. While they one-shot our cannon 2/3 of the time, we only do so 1/3 of the time.
4) T6 and some decent attacks. The Ironblaster is actually no slouch in combat.
Here's what it's done to my style of play:
1) I lose the long range battle. I field 3 great cannon. They have been destroyed by turn 2 in the last two games... leaving me my mortars, which he ignores.
2) I can't be aggressive with the Waltar. He's so great for an all-comers list because he negates uber-heroes and gives us lore of light, but he and the cart both get hit by a passing cannon ball. One or both get knocked out quickly. The AL is the one target he'll ignore my cannon for. Last game, I hid him behind a building.
3) They're still effective in combat! With T6 and 5 wounds, they're hard to kill and can hold up a unit for a long time.
I'll work on the bat rep this weekend. But I'm having a hard time sorting out what to do here. I don't want to change my list just for his army. It's a good, solid, list. I'm wondering if anyone else has had experience on the receiving end of two ironblasters. Any suggestions?
cheers,