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So I am playing in a escalation league, and my opponent was Skaven. I was a little worried about the numbers he would bring to the table against my Dark Elves but... well you'll see.

Opening Narrative

Cosair Master Drak Ebon'sul wrinkled his nose in disgust at the headless human lying at his feet. The entire village was destroyed, and Drak was upset because he had nothing to do with it. He turned as Rari Wormcutter, his first mate and cosair reaver, knelt and looked at the jagged wounds marring the human's flesh.

"A vicious blade did this" He said suddenly, looking up "And that smell"

Nodding, Drak breathed in deeply. Underneath the coppery tang of blood and the cloying smoke in the air, there was the smell of a wet animal. His eyes widened and a cruel smile played across his lips "Skaven..."

He gathered his band and began to track the vile rodents, who were inevitably taking their booty and slaves back to their caves. He would just have to catch up with them...


My list
x19 Cosairs
Full command
Sea Serpant Banner

x5 cold one knights

Lv 2 Sorceress
Tome of Furion
Dark steed

x10 crossbowmen

Master*
Beastmasters Scourge
Heavy Armor
Sea Dragon cloak
General

*Is in the Corsair block.

The Skaven

x20 Clanrats (#1)

x20 Clanrats (#2)

x20 Clanrats (#3)

x20 Stormvermin

x20 Plague Monks
Banner of the Under Empire

lv 1 Warlock
General, in Stormvermin

lvl 1 warlock
in Clan rat unit #2

Deployment

First we rolled for spells. He got a spell that made shooting harder (Warp Winds?) and Warp lightning.

My sorceress got Black Horror, Soul Stealer, and Word of Pain.

He won the honor of placing terrain first. He placed a forest, and I a hill (diagonally across from each other). Then we did the same thing on the opposite sides, so each side was a mirror image.

I won the roll to go first but allowed him to go.

His army went in a straight line, going left to right. Clanrats (#3) in his woods, next to the plague monks, then Clanrats (#2), then Storm Vermin, then Clanrats (#1)

My deployment was faster, and easier. I placed my crossbowmen on a hill, put the knights next to them, and the cosairs near the woods on the right. My sorceress was placed as far forwards near the trees, obscured.

Turn 1

He started by surging forward, with everything except the Clanrats in the trees marching forwards. His mages both failed to caste spells, and he had no shooting.

I stayed where I was (no movement) except for my sorceress, who marched 18' to right behind Clanrats (#1) where she was safe. In the magic phase I first cast Power of Darkness with 2 dice, and rolling 4 extra dice, giving me a total of 6 to play with. I cast Black Horror and Soul Stealer on the Stormvermin for a total of 14 dead rats and a wound on the warlock. The Vermin passed their morale check and we went to shooting. My crossbowmen ignored the presence of the Plague Monks and shot Clanrats (#2) killing 6.

With no combat we moved on.

Turn 2

He marched his rats again, accept for the Clanrats (#3) in the woods and Clanrats (#1) which the sorceress was blocking.

At the end of the movement he had moved into charge range of both my Knights (with the 14 clanrats from #2) and my frenzied corsairs (With the remaining Stormvermin). His spell phase was another failure as he failed o cast warp wind and I dispelled Warp Lightning.

I started by declaring charges with my knights and my corsairs. They were easily in range, and the clan rats passed their fear test from being charged by the fear causing cold ones. The sorceress moved to keep annoying their rear while still being out of danger.

In the magic phase I attempted to cast Power of Darkness with 2 dice, but he dispelled it with irresitible force. I then attempted to cast black horror on the Plague Monks but only rolled a 10, failing.

In shooting my crossbowmen drew a bead on the plague monks and fired. I was amazed to see, despite the monks toughness, seven of the diseased rats had fallen.

In combat phase, my Cosairs killed six Stormvermin, who failed their moral and were hacked down as they fled as they were caught in the cosairs nets. The cold one knights killed five rats in return for 0 casulties. I won combat resolution, and my knights rode down the fleeing rats.

Both of the warlocks were killed this turn, and so I dominated the magic phase from this point on.

Turn 3

In the movement phase the skaven declared charges on my crossbowmen (Who chose to stand and shoot) with the Plague Monks and the clanrats onto my Cosairs. His plague monks were 6 away so I could stand and shoot, but the clanrats were half an' inch out of range and so stopped right in front of my cosairs.

The clanrats in the forest finally made it out.

My stand and shoot was pathetic, only killing one. On their charge, with their banner, they inflicted seven wounds, one of which I saved. They then ran down the crossbowmen as they fled.

In my movement turn I declared a charge on the clanrats in front of the cosairs (#1). The Sorceress moved around, while the CoK's moved parallel to the conflict. In the magic phase I cast Black horror on the clanrats, then cast Power of Darkness with one die, then I got 2 more dice to cast Soul Stealer on the same unit, killing a grand total of 11. The Cosairs massacred the rats and chased them down with no casulties of their own.

Turn 4

There was a lot of manuevering this turn, but the only casulties were a hand full of clanrats.

Turn 5

The Skaven player tried desperatly to move his troops into position.

On my turn I charged his last unit of clanrats. In my magic phase I did a few more casulties to the Plague Monks. In combat I didn't have to chase them down because I did enough wounds to wipe the rats out. The consolidation accidently brought me in range of his Plague Rats.

Turn 6

The Plague Monks charged the Cosair unit. Their banner whiffed, and then came their frenzied attacks. Out of 15 attacks, 8 hit, and 2 wounded. I rolled a pair of sixes, and not a Cosair went down. In return the cosairs, thanks to the Master and hatred, wiped out the remaining Plague Monks. The Game ended with a Massacre Victory for me!

End Narrative

Drak's whip lashed out around the neck of a pustilent skaven. The disgusting creature coughed as the spiked length of the whip broke it's neck with a crack. He stopped and realized that the field was clear of the enemy. He briefly paused to eye the hill where the crossbowmen had been butchered and gave a mental shrug, they had been worth their pay- even if they weren't alive to get it. A voice interrupted his inner-musings.

"Master Ebon'Sul" It was the sorceress, Luxana Greyspire atop her dark steed "I believe I have found the Skaven's trove" she gestured to the trees that the last unit of rats had emerged from. The Cosair Master walked up and smiled evily. Piles of loot, and over a dozen human slaves. Add that to the eighteen skaven, and that interesting warlock, and he believed that he would have more than enough haul to replace a few crossbowmen.

The Human's looked up in hope that slowly dwindled to renewed fear, as they realized that they were not saved...

Conclusion

his was a really fun game, but my opponent never really stood a chance- not due to his list but his decisions. He frequently moved into charge range of my units, giving my big unit and CoK's the ability to have some fun. Also there was nothing he ever did about my Sorceress, who wracked up by far the most kills.

Well, it was a fun game, and I hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks for the write-up. Tell ya though, his list could have benefited from something other than blocks. Much as I love me some combat blocks, just a little bit of shooting or something nasty or even slaves would have been quite a benefit.

You say he never tried to do anything about your sorceress, but I don't know that that's very fair.

The only way he could have dealt with the sorceress would have been with those warlocks, but they were gone by turn two and even that was going to be tough. On a steed she wasn't ever going to have to fight if she didn't want to.

Also, he didn't really have much of a choice other than to come into charge range. Setting up a bait and flee, or turning your flank with a block might've been effective though.

I do like your flavor text- well written, and nice to have just a bit before and after, with the report being clear.

In the end, you played it really well, and hope you're going to keep posting up. Thanks for the writeup.

RZ

P.S. Did you mean to misspell Eldar in your sig?

Sounds like a fun little game. I also agree that there wasn't much for your opponent to do with that particular list. If he brought in other things he could've done more, but with what he had moving forward and a little bait & flee is about all there is to do.

You have a rather interesting Dark Elf list, as well. Three units, your largest of which is frenzied, and a Sorceress running about. You'll be in for a sad day when you meet light cavalry or other redirection units that just lead half your army around and chase down/shoot your Sorceress.

Solid playing good work!

Yargh, check the dates before the reply there IHEARTLARGEBLASTTEMPLATES. This one's a wee bit old.

Thread is being locked due to thread necromancy.