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Hiya folks!
Another Zombiefest battlereport from yours truly! I had the joy of getting to face my girlfriends Skaven army today as our two warbands clashed. My list was the revised version I made after facing the Ogres yesterday (a list which can be discussed here)

Enough chatter, lets get zombified!





Table setup:
The terrain we had was a graveyard, ruined tower, small forest, a hill and two wall segments. As usual we took turns placing and scattering terrain until we had our field of battle.



Map key: The brown square piece of fabric is our forest, the bundle of jean material is our hill, the primed hourglasses lying on their sides are our wall segments. The place, our living room ^^

Deployment:
The Undead won the roll for deployment and took the side with the graveyard on it (ofcourse). Vampire counts set up around the hill, deploying a large part of their force opposite to the ruined tower. Skaven deployed their Jezzails in the ruins of the tower, the experienced snipers seeing the benefit of that place immediately. Skaven slaves deployed left of the tower, clanrats along with their warpfire thrower crept into the forest while the stormvermin led by the warlock engineer and followed by the ratling gun skirted the edge of the eerie wood.
Skaven finished deploying ahead of the Undead and won the roll for first turn.



Turn 1 - Skaven
All forces march forwards. Jezzails take up position in the ruins of the tower with the skaven slaves swinging around the left of the tower. Clanrats march through the forest with their warpfire thrower in tow. Stormvermin jog around the perimeter of the forest with their ratling gun close behind them. Engineer Scabnose unleashes his Storm Daemon at a unit of zombies, frying three zombies though his own attempt at a warp lightning was dispelled.
Skaven turn ends.

Turn 1 - Undead
The zombies lumber forwards, marching past the hill on the left flank with a corpse cart following close behind. The center zombie unit crests the hill, Barlag the Necromancer following close behind, urging them on. Zombies on the right flank push on past the segment of wall regarding the Skaven slaves with hungry eyes. One of the corpse carts trundles alongside them with Rothhurgur, with a surprising burst of speed, runs out into open ground with a evil cackle.
Barlag weaves potent dark magic around him, summoning five zombies into the zombie unit on the left flank. Rothhurgur taps into the winds of magic, attempting to wake the dead in the ruined tower. Engineer Scabnose frantically dispels his attempts. The stench of the corpse carts innervates the undead around them as they spew their miasma. Rothhurgur raises his staff into the air, pointing menacingly at the Jezzail snipers in the tower. A shrieking, flaming skull shoots out of his staff and crashes into the Jezzail unit. A skaven carrying a shield gets immolated on the spot and the sniper team disappears into the ruins with shrieks of "Relocate! Relocate!"
Undead turn ends.


The two armies get closer to one another.

Turn 2 - Skaven
The Skaven slave pawleader screams the order to charge at the zombies on the left flank. He takes a few steps and then realises no one is coming with him. The slaves fail their fear test and stand where they are. Clanrats move out of the forest and the Stormvermin simply adjust their position on the other side of the wall. No spells make it through this turn. The Ratling gun draws a bead on the center unit of zombies, with a high pitched whine it sends seven zombies hurtling off the hill splattering brain matter and guts all over the place. The warpfire thrower team angles their deadly weapon upwards and attempts to splash some burning death on the zombie unit, but misjudges the angle and instead sets some grass on fire.
Skaven turn ends.

Turn 2 - Undead
With a shuddering moan the zombies pile into the skaven slaves on the right flank while zombies elsewhere shamble towards the Skaven. Center zombie unit stops just shy of the clanrats. Left zombie unit appears from cover, scenting the unit of stormvermin just beyond the wall. Corpse cart on the left sticks close behind the zombie unit with Barlag huddling in cover by it. Right flank corpse cart positions itself just below the tower, between the two zombie units, Rothhurgur following. Barlag draws an extraordinary amount of dark magic to him and with a shriek raises his hands into the air, summoning a mighty 17 zombies into the center unit. Rothhurgur cackles, tapping into the flow of the winds raising a new unit of zombies behind the skaven slaves then blasting the clanrats with his Rod of Flaming Death. Though two of them catch fire, not even the scent of burning skaven fur budges the clanrats. Both corpse carts spew a new cloud of miasma and the undead become unnaturally lithe and fast.
Close combat phase sees the Skaven slaves fighting bravely against the zombies losing none to their grasping claws but sending two of them back to the ground. The zombies lose the combat and are outnumbered and three more crumble to the ground to the ruthless advance of the slaves.
End of undead turn.


Zombies shamble towards the Clanrats

Turn 3 - Skaven
The clanrats charge the zombies in the center, passing their fear test with gusto. Engineer Scabnose directs his stormvermin to attack the zombies while he'll take the leaders position of honor at the back...way way at the back. Scabnose leaves the stormvermin unit, legging it towards the forest. In the magic phase Scabnose unleashes his Storm Daemon at the center unit of zombies, though Barlag quickly weaves a counter spell, dispelling it. Scabnose is having none of it and swallows some warpstone, amplifying his power and casts a large warp lightning at the unit of zombies. Scabnose is furious to see some clanrats jump in way of the spell, they're surely traitors. Five clanrats get fried along with five zombies, the stench of cooking meat and fur suffising the air around the center melee. Scabnose barks orders at the Ratling gun which opens fire at the center unit of zombies as well. At this exact moment however, the ammo feeder starts retching from the stench of ozone, burning fur, grilled rotten meat and ofcourse the thick cloying scent of the musk of fear. This causes the Ratling gun to lead to far to the left. 4 more clanrats get splattered along with three zombies. The clanrats can't take it anymore and panic, running into the forest. They suffer two casualties from zombies hitting them in the back and dragging them back into the group to be fed on. The warpfire thrower sends an arc of burning death into the air which lands directly on the corpse cart by the tower. It takes two wounds from the deadly fire. Combat with the skaven slaves on the left flank is becoming desperate, though the slaves win against the massing zombies again, sending 6 of them into the ground with their attacks and CR.
Skaven turn ends.


Clanrats break from combat and flee

Turn 3 - Undead
Zombies on the left flank declare a charge against the stormvermin. The center zombie unit declares a charge against the warpfire thrower which stands and shoots, overshooting them by 6 inches but bravely standing their ground. The zombies behind the skaven slaves on the right flank charge as well. Magic phase is short and to the point. Everything fails to cast except for Raise dead which awakens five zombies in the forest, right infront of the fleeing clanrats. A thick smog of undeath seeps from the Corpse carts, their magical enchantments affecting all undead within range. Rothhurgur takes a shot at the ratling gun, fatally wounding it.
Close combat with the warpfire thrower is short. The weapon team accounts for itself, killing two zombies and receiving no wounds in return, but it cannot hold against such overwhelming numbers and it flees. As they turn to do so, however, the zombies grab their weapon harnesses and pull them into their cold embrace. The skaven slaves on the right flank are hopelessly surrounded and outnumbered. Panic sets in as they are unable to hold back the tide of undead. The break, flee into the rear zombie unit and are destroyed. The stormvermin hold out grimly against the charging zombies, killing three zombies and suffering no wounds in return. The combat is a draw.
Undead turn ends


Zombies bar the clanrats escape as zombies crash into the stormvermin.

Turn 4 - Skaven
The clanrats in the forest shriek and squirt the musk of fear as zombies pop up under them and pull them into the marshy undergrowoth. The unit is wiped out as it flees into the zombie unit. Scabnose grits his teeth and attempts to send more lightning death into the zombies, but is dispelled at every attempt. Combat with the stormvermin becomes desperate as they cause only one wound. Due to the immense numbers of the zombies they decide to leg it, fleeing through Scabnose. Scabnose looks over the field of battle and sees that all is lost. He joins his retinue as they jog off the board.
Skaven player surrenders, Undead player accepts, game ends.


Scabnose legs it, his stormvermin right behind him.

Result: The Undead win - Massacre!



After action report:
Wow, what a ride! Going from being massacred yesterday to massacring an opponent today, oh how you spoil me fickle gods of Dice and Undeath! It was amazing, my zombies refused to die and by dominating the magic phase there really was precious little the skaven player could do to stop me getting IoN, Raise dead, Miasma of undeath or Rod of Flaming death every turn. I could see that having just two dispel dice against this list is not nearly enough (I mean, it's got three bound spells and four power dice...hard for any army to counter save for the stunties perhaps ^^). Since I had four dispel dice I had alot of confidence in my opponents magic phase. I learned alot from this game though. I was extremely paranoid with my general, never once breaking cover with him. I got to be abit adventurous with my other necromancer and took some risks with him (placing him out in the open infront of four jezzails for instance ^^). I'm loving the changes to my list and I'll continue to refine it as I play more armies. The skaven player gave me a poisonous glance as she outlined the effects that Scabnose's failure would have. Apparently a special clan Pestilens envoy has been called to deal with this "Dead man-things" problem (she normally plays a crazy mix of Skryre and Pestilens). A rematch is scheduled again for tomorrow, or atleast over the weekend. I'm looking forward to it!

I got to get my groove on against a large list and the zombies prevailed this time. I shudder to think what havoc frenzied plague monks will wreak on my delicate zombies!

To read the report from my first Zombiefest battle go here
Undead Modelling and Painting WIP thread here.

P.S.
I apologize for the unpainted models and for the proxied corpse cart. The corpse cart is proxied from a black knight and three ghouls blue-taced to the Corpse cart base. I'm working on getting my entire army painted up to spec. The skaven player has a pretty large painted force, just happens not to have her Engineer and stormvermin ready ^^

Let us know what you think! Do you like this? Should we continue doing these? All comments, suggestions welcomed (Unless it's advice about not fielding zombies...)

Good BR, seems the scaven player was short on anti magic goods. Also, just because you can fire into combat, doesn't mean you alway should.

"Should we continue doing these?"

Most definately! Always nice to read some WFB reports (especially those with piccies ^,^) Helps me understand my opposition armies more, with me still being a nab at WFB

You do know you need a vampire for a general, right?

Mekboy wrote:You do know you need a vampire for a general, right?

Not according to Warband rules. I could make the unit champion in a skeleton unit the general if I so wished.
But thanks for your concern anyways ^^

Thanks Sexiest_hero and Gary for the thumbs up ^^. The skaven player has already made her frenzied Clan Pestilens list and we'll likely clash tomorrow. I'm also eager to face the ogres once again!

You asked if you should keep doing these... I vote yes! I just got done reading your 2 bat reps back to back, very well done, I very much enjoy the report written with a story feel to it. I am also new to Fantasy, plan on playing DE, but getting to see how the different armies play out is very informative, learning lesson for you and me, thanks again for the great Bat Reps!

Freaka

Hehe, I'm the Skaven player in this battle. Indeed, I didn't have enough dispelling power, though part of that was because we thought lvl.0 wizards don't get dispel dice, but they do, so I should have had three rather than just two.

Things do not look bright for the ambitious Scabnose, though f it hadn't been for that treacherous, incompetent rattling gun shooting at their own clanrats, he would have surely won an astounding victory. The jezzail teams have been avoiding him as best they can, though he doen't dare punish them for fear of the clan leaders' wrath.

An envoy of clan pestilens, plague priest Pusstle Pitraf, is visiting at the moment however, and he overheard Scabnose's abasement and explanation of foul dead man-things. Seeing this as a great opportunity for his own advancement, Pusstle has set out to find the dead man-things. All alone, save for his legion of minions, he will destroy the undead menace and claim the glory for himself!

Great batrep guys. Some you win, some you lose I guess, eh Proto?

Loving the style of these reports too, can´t wait for the next one!

Really great battle report Protocon.

I love that you put a big amount of time on your batreps.

Hi could you please post some more detailed pictures of the skaven... I love skaven and would like to take a closer look at them.

Thanx

Great BatRep they are always a joy to read. Keep it up.

Thanks for posting- interesting to see you guys getting spun up...

But am I to understand that you have a tablecloth with a pentagram on it?

RZ

Haha, yeah we do. Well actually it is a sheet. We hope that wasn't the most interesting part of the report though ;p
But yes indeed, a blue sheet with a pentagram on it bought in Germany. Doesn't get much more metal than that, does it? ^^

I must say, I'm oddly enticed by the small scale of your batreps. you don't see people playing under 2000 points very often at all, let alone under 1000. People just can't bring themselves to pare down a list to 600 points, and hate the idea of leaving some goodies behind!

kudos on these reports, I promise to read each and every one you guys write


PS I love the zombie horde at 600 points, surprisingly effective! I see Gerbrith is still trying to drum up a good counter-force for the skaven, and I don't envy you that task one bit!

Thanks everyone for your kind words!
At the moment I'm busy painting and converting more units for my 600 pt. list so that hopefully soon you'll see a fully painted zombiefest taking to the fields!

@Red_Zeke
Yes, we do have a large pentagram tablecloth. Quite a nice one and our cat loves it!

@The Defenestrator
Yes, I'm a big fan of warbands. Not only do you often see very creative ways to make the point limitations work for you, but you see more fully painted armies and often quite wacky compositions =D It's also a great help to me, since the difference between 600 and a 1000 points is...what...a 100 zombies? My carrying case is protesting at the cirka 100 zombies I have already! =D

I feel its only right to point people towards our other battle report, the grudge rematch with the skaven. Better terrain, better pictures and a more intense Battle report! See it here

Thanks alot to everyone for your interest!
Stay tuned!

if possible, could i get to talk with your girlfriend about her list?

Why don't you just ask me directly? I already mentioned that it is my list. Must have missed that reply. ^^
(Sort of like looking over my head at a dinner table and asking my boyfriend if his girlfriend might like some water, isn't it?) =P
(Not that it matters, just struck me as funny.)

If you're offering critique, I'd be happy to hear what you have to say, though if you've been reading other battle reps from our skirmishes, you know that I change out my list each time. ^^
I am testing combinations, trying out what happens when coupling certain units with others, or if you use this unit for that purpose.
Basically, I'm not so much trying to put together an ultimate "win" list, but rather a list I can have fun with, and one which offers bouts of hilarity and randomness, while still standing a chance against the zombie fest list of my spouse.
Also, the fluff that is growing out of these battles sort of urges me to think of new and fun set-ups. As my brave, superior and glorious, yet horribly betrayed and unfortunate skaven leaders become more and more desperate, so must their battle plans become wilder and wilder, with odd, unexpected and sometimes infuriating combinations. =D

For example, this list is the first time I tried out the stormvermin and slave units. Neither has ever appealed to me much, so this was a test of their mettle, so to speak.

Edit: So I don't sound like I'm offended