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Tuesday was a big night for me. First of all, 2000pt game, which is the highest I've played so far. Second, I got to play another opponent, Loy. He's the one who played Andrew last week (when I played Rob), and Rob the week before (when I played Andrew). So the four of us are getting some good games in on a weekly basis, now. And Ilan joined the "group" on Tuesday as well, playing Rob on the table next to us.
Oh, and I also finally got to try out the Screaming Bell. Read on to see why I wasted 200 points!

Anyway, after shopping, chatting and dicking around for almost an hour, we set up and rolled Battle for the Pass. Oooh.

My list:
Grey Seer w/ Power Scroll, Screaming Bell (Pestilent Breath, Wither, Cloud of Corruption, Plague)
BSB Chieftan w/ Enchanted Shield, Battle Standard
Warlock Engineer w/ Level 2 (Warp Lightning, Howling Warpgale)
34 Clanrats w/ Shields, Full Command
30 Clanrats w/ Shields, Musician, Standard, Poisoned Wind Mortar
30 Clanrats w/ Shields, Musician, Standard, Poisoned Wind Mortar
20 Plague Monks w/ Plague Banner
5 Gutter Runners w/ Slings, Poisoned Attacks
Doomwheel
Warp Lightning Cannon
Hell Pit Abomination

His list:
Prophetess w/ Dispell Scroll, Barded Warhorse (Curse of the Midnight Wind, Urannon's Thunderbolt, Comet of Cassandora, Chain Lightning)
Paladin w/ Royal Pegasus, Wyrmlance
BSB Lord w/ Virtue of Heroism, Barded Warhorse, Grail Vow
7 Grail Knights w/ Musician, Standard (Banner of Chalons)
12 Knights of the Realm w/ Standard, Gallant
12 Knights of the Realm w/ Standard, Gallant
Grail Reliquae w/ 12 Battle Pilgrims
17 Peasant Bowmen
6 Mounted Yeomen w/ Shields
Field Trebuchet

Initial Thoughts
I've got the Bell, a Level 4 Seer, three awesome Rare choices and some PWMs that ignore (the Knights' 2+) armour saves and all that. What can go wrong?
N.B. As usual, the images show a pretty good appoximation of relative distances. There will be discrepencies that I will make note of.

Set Up and Deployment

So again, Battle for the Pass.
Not much terrain to be had: 2 Forests, Watchtower, Dwarf Brewhouse and Magic Circle.
Loy takes the North, so I get the South.
Loy opts for me to start deploying first, which I do.
When Loy deploys, he makes sure that there is no room for my Gutter Runners to deploy behind his lines. Grr. So they opt to come in later as Sneaky Infiltrators.
The Yeomen make their Vanguard move, the Brets pray, and the game begins.



































Skaven 1

I very often get the first turn, and most of the time my initial shooting is pretty good. I fully intended to repeat this.
*Movement: Both the Doomwheel and the Hell Pit move on up, and I advance the rest of my units forward. If not for wanting some support for the Wheel and the Abom, I would have left my units back and let the Brets come to me. It hit me almost immediately that I should have done just that, and tried picking off his Trebuchet with my WLCannon. Hindsight is worse when you see it only one phase later.
*Magic: Winds roll a 7, and I Channel both dice! Not a huge deal, but this is the second time that both of my Wizards have rolled 6s. I ring the bell and it comes up Emboldened, allowing my units to re-roll failed Ld tests. Yay. And since all of the Seer's spells are range 18" or less, he just sits atop his Bell twidling his rat thumbs. The Engineer casts Howling Warpgale without interference, but Warp Lightning is dispelled.
*Shooting: Here we go, usually my most successful phase! The WLCannon lines up a shot that could fly through the Bowmen and hit the Trebuchet. The shot ends up fizzling, not doing anything. The rightmost PWMortar lobs a ball at the Yeomen, and it veers off. The other PWM takes a shot at either the Grail Reliquae or the closer Knights, but either way it scatters too far away.
Well that was a cruddy turn, alright!






























Bretonnia 1

Having gotten off scot free on my turn, it was as if Loy had gotten the first turn. What havoc could he wreak?
*Movement: The Yeomen decided to go around the forest, not wanting to find out what it was, and got within short bow range of the WLCannon. All three units of Knights moved up, but not much, as did the Grail Reliquae. It's sad that my rats moved up more than a bunch of horses and "chivalrous" knights. Pfft. Pansies.
*Magic: I think Loy rolled, like, a million for Winds. I knew it was going to be a bad phase. So the Prophetess starts off with Urannon's Thunderbolt, frying three of my Plague Monks. I hate when people using Lightning against my rats. They're just jealous of our WARP Lightnin, that's for sure. Anyway, next comes Chain Lightning, of course, but this time the Prophetess casts with Irresistable Force! Woo. Side note: She did this last game against the Lizardmen, and ended up taking out almost her entire unit through the Miscast. I was hoping that would happen again, of course. So she targets the Plague Monks first, dropping another four. It successfully moves on and hits the Bell-pushing Clanrats, dropping three of them, and then it stops. Just in time for the Miscast Show, starring the Prophetess! One Calamitous Detonation! later and five Grail Knights have just poofed into thin air, and the rest of the Power dice are gone. And here I am, still sitting on 6 Dispell Dice, wasted. I mean the dice, not me.
*Shooting: The Yeomen start off by managing to hit the WLCannon for one Wound. The Peasant Bowmen somehow manage to knock off another four Plague Monks, even though they need 6s to hit and 4s to wound. Rubbish. But then it gets worse when the Trebuchet lands a direct hit on the Bell, clanging it for one Wound and killing off six more Clanrats! You know what the worst part it? I think I was supposed to ring the bell here, because of of the high-strength hit to it. Sonofa!






























Skaven 2

Well that was an annoying turn. Maybe I can turn things around a little.
*Movement: Once again everyone but the WLCannon move up closer to the Brets. Again, I'm moving up much further than I usually do, but again, the Wheel and the Abom decide to move up and stop just 4" and 3" from the enemy. Well done there. I knew the HPA would be double charged, so I set the Bell unit up so that it could flank charge the Knights of the Realm that hit the HPA, but also in case they charge the Bell instead they won't get its flank or anything. The depleted Plague Monks and the Clanrats over there move on up, angled to protect each other from the nearby Knights.
*Magic: Not many dice, but guess who forgets to ring the Bell! Yeesh! What a dolt. To be honest, I don't remember much about this turn's magic phase. I think I only rolled three for Winds, and only decided to zap the right Knights with Warp Lightning, killing one or two. Yeah, that sounds about right.
*Shooting: This is when I remembered that I had forgotten to ring the Bell. Quite upsetting me. At leas the WLCannon hit the Knights of the Realm with a S6 shot through them, landing in the back. I managed to take out three knights there. The leftmost PWMortar popped another guy or two from the rightmost Knights, so they've now lost three. The rightmost PWMortar decided to malfunction, but it was only clogged, so nothing serious. The Wheel's shots take out two of the Battle Pilgrims nearby.
And that was it for my turn! I dropped a few Knights, but not ringing the Bell was a real let down.






























Bretonnia 2

*Movement: Lots of Charges this turn: the Grail Reliquae into the Doomwheel (dang); both the Knights of the Realm and the Grail Knights into the HPA (dang); the other Knights of the Realm into the Clanrats; and the Yeomen into the WLCannon (dang). He also moved his Pegasus Paladin, who he forgot to move in the first turn.
*Magic: Whatever Winds were rolled did not really matter, as Loy no longer wanted to use much Magic.
*Shooting: The Peasants took aim at the leftmost Clanrats and dropped only two. Maybe I raised Howling Warpgale last turn? Anyway, the Trebuchet took aim and, like a kick in the teeth, got another direct hit on the Bell, killing, like, seven more dudes. At least the Bell didn't take another hit. But, of course, I forgot to ring the Bell. Wow, I've got to really learn my units before I play them!
*Close Combat: Here we go. So on the left, the Battle Pilgrims couldn't touch the Wheel, which knocked out a pair of Pilgrims there. On the right, the Knights killed a whopping five rats, losing none, but the rats stayed put (on a reroll, I believe). And in the middle, the HPA, before I could do anything else, got a nice whopping Heroic Killing Blow strike from the Lord. I didn't even know he had it until he took off the HPA's head clear off. Oi! But, because the Great Horned Rat deemed that I deserve at least a little pick-me-up, and I rolled "It's Alive!" bringing the Abom back with 6 Wounds! Haha, what revelry I enjoyed there. Anyway, when the stupification of that wore off, the Knights Overran into the Plague Monks (dang), and the Grail Knights reformed to face the HPA. A pretty cruddy thing losing the HPA before he could do anything fun, but he bounced back, which was pretty awesome. Oh, and not surprisingly, the WLCannon fell to the Yeomen, which was real drag as I do love that thing, and could definitely have used it some more.






























Skaven 3

Time for some revenge! At least that was the plan.
*Movement: The newly revived HPA Charged into the Knights, and the left Clanrats Charged into the Grail Reliquae. The PWMortars shuffled to get a better shot and the Gutter Runners arrived behind the Yeomen.
*Magic: With vengeance dripping from the Seer's lips and a lot of Power dice, he casted Wither on the Knights of the Realm. Then, ready for more, cast Plague on the Grail Knights, not hurting anyone, and with Irresistable Force. A Power Drain later and the now Level 3 Grey Seer had forgotten Plague. Oi. I think the Engineer cast Howling Warpgale again. I think.
*Shooting: This phase was reminiscent of the first turn. One PWMortar Misfired, but it was just a clog again. The other PWMortar miraculously...Misfired as well, and hot dog, landed (with Loy's help) right on the Screaming Bell. Another five rats dead, but the Bell was safe. And the Doomwheel, yes, you guessed it, Misfired, but it was engaged so it could not go Out of Control. Oh, and the Gutter Runners managed to take down one Yeoman.
*Close Combat: At least the Doomwheel and the Clanrats put some hurt on the Grail Reliquae and company, doing five wounds, and only taking one (in the rats). The Clanrats fighting the Knights did exceptionally well, not killing any Knights but not taking any losses. The Knights held. And in the middle, an Avalanche of Flesh and a few sideways attacks from the Plague Monks, took down 5 Knights. Two Plague Monks died in the fight, and the HPA Regenerated what he took.






























Bretonnia 3

*Movement: The Grail Knights and the Paladin both flank Charged the HPA (even though here it looks like the Paladin was behind the HPA).
*Magic: Scared of hurting himself again, I think, the Prophetess chose to not do anything here.
*Shooting: The Bowmen all failed to hit whoever they shot at, while the Trebuchet managed to smush a Gutter Runner.
*Close Combat: In the left fray, two more Battle Pilgrims fell, to no Skaven losses. In the right fray, the Clanrats took no losses AND managed to kill one Knight. w00t! The Lord was not able to Heroic Killing Blow the HPA apart, who managed to take a few Wounds, not Regenerating everything. Also, a Plague Monk died. But not before a flurry of blows (they reformed after the first round of combat) helped by the Plague Banner, and another Avalanche of Flesh, all managed to kill a Grail Knight, wound the Paladin and slay two Knights of the Realm. But, all little victories aside, the Skaven lost the combat. The Monks fled, through their own guys and the Knights they were fighting, but survived, ending up partially in the forest, which turned out to be a Wildwood. The picture makes it look like they were in the forest, but in reality only one was. The HPA stayed put, by the way.

Skaven 4

*Movement: I realised that the Bell was just less than 5" away from the Bowmen (I'll pretend I planned it that way), and so I charged the rats in, with the Peasants unable to Stand and Shoot. Instead they Fled, through the Trebuchet, who didn't like it and Panicked and died outright. Sweet! If the Peasants could keep on Fleeing, that would be another unit gone and 172 points in the bag. The Gutter Runners also moved up, ready to sling some Poisonous Hell on the Yeomen.
*Magic: Another low Winds roll meant that I couldn't do much. I think I attempted Cloud of Corruption, but failed. I rang the Bell (having forgotten last turn), but once again got Emboldened.
*Shooting: I twisted both PWMortars around to fire on the last two Knights of the Realm from that unit, which was risky as it could easily have scattered into my own unit. But I took the chance. The first shot scattered into empty space, but the second was a direct hit (not a direct hit AND a Misfire, this time!), and I was able to take out one of the Knights. The Gutter Runners failed to do anything to the Yeomen. I think the Doomwheel zapped one more Pilgrim.
*Close Combat: Here the Wheel and the Clanrats managed to do two wounds to the Reliquae. The HPAbom got Heroic Killing Blow'd, again, and this time just turned into a pair of rat swarms (not pictured). The Grail Knights reformed to face the Bell. In the big combat, there were once again no kills! But the Knights did not flee.






























Bretonnia 4

*Movement: The Yeomen Charged into the rear of the Clanrats, while the single Knight Charged into their flank. Both the Grail Knights and the Paladin Charged into the rear of the Bell. The Peasants rallied (dang).
*Magic: Not wanting to blow up again, Loy once again chose not to do anything magical.
*Close Combat: The Grail Reliquae finally died, freeing up those two units. In the big combat, the Clanrats surprisingly only took two losses! And not being disrupted, they still passed their Ld to stay. I can't believe how resilient these guys were. And at the Bell, the Knights (Lord and Prophetess) and Paladin had some rats in the way before they could attack the Bell, so they went and killed five more rats.
































Skaven 5

*Movement: The Doomwheel, now free, moved up and was actually perfectly situated for a flank Charge on the Grail Knights, if they were still there next turn. The Clanrats moved out, maybe able to help on the last turn. With only one target, the PWMortars moved up to be able to lob their balls at the Peasants, and maybe get them fleeing again. The Gutter Runners Charged into the rear of the Yeomen. The Plague Monks, although it doesn't look like they can, Charged into the Knights.
*Magic: I don't even remember what went on in magic at this point. It is quite possibly I cast Howling Warpgale. Guess who forgot to ring the Bell. Again.
*Shooting: The PWMortars shot at the Peasants but both scattered (not shown).
*Close Combat: We decided to do the bit combat first. Well, the Gutter Runners completely annihilated the Yeomen with their multiple, Poisoned attacks. The Clanrats and Plague Monks all failed do any wounds on the Knights, but the Knights failed to do any wounds to the rats! So with all the Charges, flanks, kills, etc. etc. the Bretonnians had enough and broke. The single Knight took off to the centre of the field, but the Clanrats could not chase them down. Above, the 8 Knights fled upwards, but must have been really tired as the Plague Monks managed to run them down! That combat earned me 400 points.


Endgame and After-Thoughts
With a scan of the table and a look at the clock, Loy suggested we pack it up. The store owner wanted to close up shop, and unless the Knights could kill the Bell or the Seer (which in fact they COULD have, but he didn't realise it), there wasn't going to be much he could do. We rolled to see if that single Knight might rally or die, and chances are I would be able to get him one way or another.
Tallying up the points, I had lost 325, while Loy had lost 662, not including banners lost (one each from Last Stand, not sure if the Reliquae counts as well). I don't know what that means, in terms of victory, but we didn't really finish so it doesn't really matter.

So, holy handgrenade, I can't believe how often I forgot to ring the Bell! We made some rules errors here and there, or forgot some things there and here, but I still can't belive that THREE out of five turns, I didn't ring the Bell! I'm not sure if Trebuchet hits would ring the Bell as well, but yeesh. That was 200 points that I pretty much wasted. Imagine what I could have done with 200 more points. I'm still going to table the Bell again, but I will need to come up with some way to make sure I remember to ring the dang thing.
Otherwise, I'm diappointed that my Gutter Runners took so long to be effective, and that my WLCannon died so early. I should have Scouted the Runners and taken care of the Yeomen right away, as I knew they would be going after the WLCannon.

So an enjoyable, long game. I learned a bunch. Loy learned a bunch. And now we're moving on to the next!
Thanks for reading, sorry about the delay between halves, and I hope you enjoyed it!
C&C welcome and appreciated.

Justin

Heroic Killing Blow!!!

Great and bloody game! Bloody the way WHFB is meant to be!!

Yeah, if I knew about that Heroic Killing Blow, I would have steered my HPA away from that guy and forced him to fight some Clanrats.
But I think the fact that the HPA returned from the dead made it all worth it

nice bat rep, keep 'em coming mrborges!!
you need a neon flashing sign or something really obvious that says RING THE BELL!! (or screams it if you prefer )
otherwise, the game looks like a classic clash, nice and bloody as freddy said, but quite tactical too.
Congrats on the win!

Thank you, Reiko. Much appreciated.

Definitely bloody. But looking at it, I only lost the HPAbom, the WLCannon and a load of rats from the one unit. Loy lost a tonne more. And yet we were only 300 points apart. Craziness.

If I forget to the ring the Bell next time I use it, I'm just going to shelve it

You need a turn counter that, when advanced, says "Ring the bloody bell!"

Good report, fun to see Brets in action, even if they get slaughtered by ratters

Yes, I too like seeing the Brets fielded, even if it's just on the table next to me.
If I didn't like Empire that much more, and if Loy didn't have Brets already, they would probably have been my next army.

Great report man also glad to see the bretonnians fielded, out of curiosity what is the program you use in order to create this battle report? Been looking around and cant find anything like it.

It's called Battle Chronicler. www.battlechronicler.com
Fun to play with. Easy to to figure out the basics, a little harder to figure out the little tricks.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
After watching the Skaven vs Vampire Counts game on bluetablepainting's youtube channel I realised a few things...

1) I forgot to mention that I totally wasted points on the Power Scroll. I hadn't remembered when I added it, and forgot to look up the wording again later, that you also cause a Miscast when it's used. Pfft. Next time I'm just bringing the Dispel Scroll.

2) I also forgot the Warpstone Tokens that the Grey Seer gets! Oi! This is what happens when you don't properly prepare for units you use for the first time.

3) I like Vampire Counts. They were my original army that I planned to play before I actually got into WHFB, but then I went Skaven, then High Elves, and shortly Empire. Now I'm thinking, if I ever get the drive to do another army, it might be Vamp Counts. If. Big if.