Siege Battle vs. Dwarves

[Doc Havoc]

This Wednesday I am fighting a siege battle versus dwarves. We'll be using the sixth edition siege rules and the seventh edition Warhammer rules.
I will be fielding somewhere around 2500 points and he will have just slightly less than that.

I'm trying to get an idea of what to take for the battle. I think spider riders would be good because they can climb the walls. Also I think a unit of squig hoppers would be good and I will give them grappling hooks for one point each.

I am also thinking about taking snotling bases and giving them ladders per the siege rules. This will allow me across the field quickly and engage all of his gunners on the wall.

Other units I think I'll take will be two giants and aunit of orc big'uns with two hand weapons each, a banner of butchery and a battering ram. I would also like to bring some artillery. (Preferably two stonethrowers and bolt throwers but I would have to sacrifice the squig hoppers to do so.)

This battle is for a campaign so I don't have many characters and I don't have any lords as of yet. The two characters I do have are a level 2 Shaman and a black orc battle standardbearer. Both of which are on boars.

I have more than enough models to make almost any list, but I would just like some opinions from people who have played siege battles in sixth edition.

[Count de Monet]

I imagine Spider Riders would indeed be awesome in a siege battle. These will be priority shooting targets for the defender, so approach carefully if possible.

Rock Lobbas for potentially making breaches.

Might want to consider a front line of cheap gobbos. If he ignores them to target the harder stuff behind, the gobbos get to close up quickly. If he shoots them, the harder stuff is unmolested, and unbothered by puny fleeing gobbos due to "Size Matters".

The image of a siege tower full of Black Orcs makes me smile, but not sure how practical it would be.

[chaos_core]

a giant with a battering ram

[Doc Havoc]

OOOOH! I never thought about that! I'll have to check into that but I think he meets the requirements for having a battering ram!

[505]

umm the giant IS a battering ram

[Doc Havoc]

Yeah, but it would still look really cool!

What do you guys think about snotlings with ladders? 3 attacks, 3 wounds. I hit on 6's on the wall no matter what so I thought they might be effective.

[chaos_core]

dunno about the rules but i think snottos with ladders would be silly who trained them to use them


my mate had some house rules in the last seige i played against orks he could load special bolt into his bolt throwers with ropes attached or if your fealing silly a doom diver cat with a rope attached
I let him use these because It was clever

[Mordu22]

You don't have to train snotlings to use ladders, they just climb on top of each other in a "laddering" type move. That would make me laugh to see modeled, like 20 snotlings stanking on each others shoulders.

[Count de Monet]

like 20 snotlings stanking on each others shoulders.

That's a great "typo".

[Okuto]

orcs have got to be one of the best damn besieging armies in tha old world(well next to my beloved empire.....)

My ladz have been though quite alot of sieges so I'll share to ya what I know

dos
-take two hand weapons, more attacks=gud
-when using siege towers, take two, one of them will most likely come crashing down
-trolls were a gud thing back then, I'm thinking they could prove gud still
-cheap stuff is king, don't bother with too much expensive stuff, if you are using them, place um in siege towers(though I prefer to place me black orcs behind siege towers, they don't mind waiting for their turn
-Giants are great! But I've found that two are better for clearing walls
-lots of ladders and gobbo units work wonders, swarm those walls
-Magic is nasty, your opposition usually won't have enough dice to stop you

don'ts
-leave the cavalry at home, they suck in sieges, don't bother
-don't take missile troops, depends but with greenskins I say no
-mounted generals tend to not do so well.....I'd advise putting him on foot in a siege tower.

[Doc Havoc]

Here is the final list I will be taking tonight. I had a few more points than I had anticipated. There is very little magic in this list, but that is because it is a campaign. I am unable to purchase magic items and must find them through events or quests.
Also Seige toweres were not an option, total I had only 30 gold on seige items. (20 grappelling hooks and 1 Log Ram)

I broke one of the cardinal rules by bringing an abundance of fast cav. However, spider riders may climb the walls of the fort and assault. So this seems to make the spider riders the exception to the rule.

I should also note that my General, while being only a level 2 shaman does have a LD of 8 due to experience gained in the campaign. The idea is that the characters on mounts will be able to lend their leadership to the fast cav to tie up the enemy troops on the walls.

I took small units of fast cav to minimize my losses from shooting. If he has 20 gunners on the wall they can only kill 5 models in a unit.

I also realise that the night goblins and arrer boyz will most likely be useless in this battle but since they are part of my core list for the campaign I did not want to disband them and lose all of their current experience. So most likely they will be guarding my Rock Lobbers and flanks from attack. (Miners and Gyrocopters come to mind.)

Please let me know if you think I have a chance. I will be playing the battle later on tonight and will post my results.

Wakka ‘Eadbasha (General)
Level 2 Shaman
Boar, Choppa, Waaagh! Paint, Horn of Urgok

Stompin’ Waaaghmaka (Battle Standard Bearer)
Black Orc Big Boss
Boar, Armed to ‘da Teef, Mork’s Spirit Totem, ‘Eavy Armor

Gollum Weedygit
Goblin Big Boss
Gigantic Spider, Spear, Light Armor, Shield

Nogg’s Butcha Boyz (30)
Boyz Mob, Big ‘Uns
2 Choppas, Nogg’s Banner of Butchery, Full Command, Log Ram

Weedy Bentstiks (25)
Arrer Boyz Mob
Bow, Choppa, Light Armor

‘Da Black Ballz (25 + 3 Fanatics)
Night Goblin Mob
Short Bow, Choppa, Musician, Standard Bearer

‘Da Eight Ballz (25 + 3 Fanatics)
Night Goblin Mob
Short Bow, Choppa, Musician, Standard Bearer

2 Giants

2 Goblin Rock Lobbers
3 crew each + Bullies

Squig Hoppers (10)
Grappelling Hooks

Squig Hoppers (10)
Grappelling Hooks

Forest Goblin Spider Riders (5)
Short Bow, Spear, Shield, Hand Weapon, Boss, Musician

Forest Goblin Spider Riders (5)
Short Bow, Spear, Shield, Hand Weapon, Boss, Musician

Forest Goblin Spider Riders (5)
Short Bow, Spear, Shield, Hand Weapon, Boss, Musician

Forest Goblin Spider Riders (5)
Short Bow, Spear, Shield, Hand Weapon, Boss, Musician

Forest Goblin Spider Riders (5)
Short Bow, Spear, Shield, Hand Weapon, Boss, Musician

Forest Goblin Spider Riders (5)
Short Bow, Spear, Shield, Hand Weapon, Boss, Musician

Forest Goblin Spider Riders (5)
Short Bow, Spear, Shield, Hand Weapon, Boss, Musician

Forest Goblin Spider Riders (5)
Short Bow, Spear, Shield, Hand Weapon, Boss, Musician

2829 points

[Count de Monet]

Good luck! Defintely let us know how it goes, with pics if possible!

Hopefully the squigs and spiders will be able to keep him occupied long enough for the Orcs and Giants to close in and finish the job.

On a side note:

I am unable to purchase magic items and must find them through events or quests.

Neat, may have to use that idea if we ever get a local campaign going.

[Doc Havoc]

Yeah, there are a lot of details in this campaign like that. You can purchase magic when you first build your list/base. You get some 4000 gold to use to build your base and buy your army. You can only buy certain units off of the FOC based upon your training rating for your base. (So essentially if you want a maximum training rating so that you can make any kind of unit it will take just over 3500 gold, leaving you less than 500 possible points for your army and magic items.)

But each character may roll for a quest and once the quest is completed he may take on another. We also have "events" and locations on the map. One such event is a bazaar where you can purchase any magic item worth up to 40 points.

Sometimes I thinke the campaign is a little too complex, but if you have a fun group to play with it makes it worth while.

[Doc Havoc]

Well the battle rages on, after 7 turns the fortress had 5 contested/uncontrolled areas, 3 controlled by the defender and 1 controlled by the attacker.
On the last turn I finally breached the gate but was unable to get into the courtyard.

I made some fairly critical mistakes with where I chose to assault the walls, and it cost me.

However, I would say that I gave a pretty good fight. A last turn WAAAGH! cast with irresistible force was great! I had been trying to get that spell off all game. It was really nice since my unit of big 'uns had just breached the gate with my Black Orc BSB and my Shaman in the front ranks. I also used mu Banner of Butchery on this turn so the slayers on the other side of the gate didn't stand a chance.

Sqig-Hoppers were really fun! I gave them Grapelling hooks and assaulted one wall with them. They would get up on the wall, do some damage, but lose the combat. Then they would flee. Then they would rally and assault the wall again! Both units assaulted the wall twice! Other than that I only had 1 unit of spider riders (with 1 model left) break. And by that time I didn't have anyone near that unit.

So it looks as if the seige will continue, although I need to tally my losses and figure out what I have left. (I took some heavy losses and made some bad recovery rolls.) I will most likely continue the battle and fight again on Friday. If I press the attack he will not have time to fix his gate.

[Count de Monet]

Excellent! Sounds fun. Will be interesting to try to later defend with O&G if you take it.