Tips for the Watchtower

I did a fight the other day.  I didn't take ogres, i took high elves, but I did fight ogres.  It was a watchtower scenario. 

Neither of us had a unit that could start out in the tower, and he got first turn.  First turn he marched a hoard of bulls into it with characters.  I couldn't get it out.  I could never get enough attacks to dislodge the unit because i could only send in a handful of elves at a time.  By the end of the fight He only had 2 heroes and 3 ironguts in the unit, but he still won.  Aside from that unit, i completely tabled him without taking many casualties, but I couldn't seem to get that unit out.  How can you win a watchtower scenario when they get a hoard in first turn?  It seems like a stupid scenario because the first person to garrison it will almost always win.  If you can get a little unit in at the start, just have them back out on your turn and send your hoard in and we're back to my prior problem.  If the scenario didn't have random chance to end, but was 8 turns minimum, I could see a hoard dying, but with a potential 5 turn game it seems kinda stupid that hoards can get into a building...  The only thing i see working is something that i find completely gay.  Pick a cheesy lore for a lvl 4 mage (maybe even teclis) and take a white lion hoard, but seriously, doesn't every high elf player in the world do that? 

Advice?  Are there any building rules I should be aware of?  How would ogres dislodge a hoard and how would high elves dislodge a hoard?  Are tactics team based, or is there a general rule of thumb for doing this?

Thanks

flaming banner to reroll wounds? Other than that its a rather terrible scenario for the reasons you just stated and most places change the rules to a bonus of 500 vps for holding it or something instead of winning if you control the watch tower.

The real problem is the building rules, they are terrible.

Why would they make a scenario that has almost no chance of being won?  That seems stupid.  I like the 500 pt rule.  That makes you still care about the rest of the fight.

The Watchtower is pretty horrible, though Ogres actually suffer from it more so as the Building rules mean they're very susceptible to war machines that have the Multiple Wounds rule. I've lost a lot of Ogres thanks to a single cannon shot on that damn tower.

I guess High Elves only have Bolt Throwers though, which makes life easier for the fat blokes, but still, it does come down to a grind fest between the two main units whilst everything else sort of piles in around the sides. Quite an odd one all in all.

I always found watchtower scenarios good fun.  I mean, in traditional warfare the attackers always had a harder job than the defenders, so it works that way.  Though being able to stick a horde of bulls into a shack is a little bit of a stretch.

Whenever we play, the best way we've found to remove units in the watchtower is artillery.  Don't have the rulebook in front of me, but I believe that if a template attack hits the watchtower, all models inside take the hit.  You artillery the everloving crap out of that watchtower, and everybody inside cops the hits.

I personally like sticking Maneaters or a nice big block of Leadbelchers into the tower.

I always found watchtower scenarios good fun.  I mean, in traditional warfare the attackers always had a harder job than the defenders, so it works that way.  Though being able to stick a horde of bulls into a shack is a little bit of a stretch.

Whenever we play, the best way we've found to remove units in the watchtower is artillery.  Don't have the rulebook in front of me, but I believe that if a template attack hits the watchtower, all models inside take the hit.  You artillery the everloving crap out of that watchtower, and everybody inside cops the hits.

I personally like sticking Maneaters or a nice big block of Leadbelchers into the tower.

In the little rulebook, it has rules for how template weapons work on buildings.  they don't hit everthing.  They hit d6 models i believe.

I always found watchtower scenarios good fun.  I mean, in traditional warfare the attackers always had a harder job than the defenders, so it works that way.  Though being able to stick a horde of bulls into a shack is a little bit of a stretch.

Whenever we play, the best way we've found to remove units in the watchtower is artillery.  Don't have the rulebook in front of me, but I believe that if a template attack hits the watchtower, all models inside take the hit.  You artillery the everloving crap out of that watchtower, and everybody inside cops the hits.

I personally like sticking Maneaters or a nice big block of Leadbelchers into the tower.

In the little rulebook, it has rules for how template weapons work on buildings.  they don't hit everthing.  They hit d6 models i believe.

Ah, well there you go.  Still, could get lucky and nail d6 instead of 1 model with the big end of a stone thrower, or hit d6 Ogres where the ball would normally stop on the first guy.

Just for the record he can't actually march into the watchtower - You can't march into buildings ever, which usually means you can't take the watchtower first turn unless you do some reform cheese and walk in (which i suppose could be what you're referring to. Besides that I know ogres in the tower are terrified of cannons - D6 hits on a unit that are all str 10 D6 wounds certainly scares monstrous stuff.

Flaming Sword of Rhuin is nice if you can get it too.

In my all comers list I have a unit of 20 gnoblar trappers to take the tower if given the option.  I also use two firebellies for the fireballs to throw at the tower.  Lastly my unit of poison sniping man eaters also have the flaming banner.

Just for the record he can't actually march into the watchtower - You can't march into buildings ever, which usually means you can't take the watchtower first turn unless you do some reform cheese and walk in (which i suppose could be what you're referring to. Besides that I know ogres in the tower are terrified of cannons - D6 hits on a unit that are all str 10 D6 wounds certainly scares monstrous stuff.

Start of the Watchtower Scenario does let whoever rolled first turn place a unit of up to 20 core infantry into the tower, which aside from Dwarf cheesiness (or similar) would be about the only way to get in the first turn.