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probably because it sounded totally awesome?

ShivanAngel wrote:Wow I play skaven and have been playing it wrong this whole time...

Why the hell was I under the impression that feed regenerated wounds....

Confused with the chaos giant's Chomp?

-Matt

it's a different attack that does that.

can't remember which though.

No attack gives it wounds back. If it dies and has not suffered any wound from a flaming source, it can come back on a roll of 6.

A large block of troops to tarpit can work. It does require a great deal of luck or additional support though. On its own, very few blocks will ever beat it, and are likely to run away. That means support from at least the General or the BSB, and while everyone takes these chaps regardless, the Skaven player has now dictated where you must deploy them. And even with one or both around, you're not going to beat it most of the time, so he's tarpitting more of your points than vice versa...

HawaiiMatt wrote:
18" range, and you can't stand and fire. Even without a storm banner, this looks like a good way to get your BSB killed.
It looks really risky to me.

I'd rather try and take it on with ~50 or so night goblins with shields (for the parry). If it feeds (will hit 5 guys, wounding on 2's, parry on 6), and it rolls poorly for thunder stop, you might just beat it.
Mork will fix it + big mob, might be the best solution. (1's and 6's fail to hit and to wound, you parry on 6's, and it needs 5 wounds to win combat).

I'd hate to count on shooting against any skaven army.


-Matt

Definitely risky, but still quite a dangerous unit given a chance to volley. I know the vermin lord is not nearly as tough as the HPA, but considering mine was killed two times over by the night goblins...

Meh there are plenty of blocks that can take the hell pit head to head and win.

I have had mine onerounded by....

Swordmasters
Chaos Knights
Bretonnian Knights
Greater Daemons (kind of goes without saying tho)
Bestigors

The list goes on, If any of those things have flaming attacks/flaming banner the HPA is dead running into them.

However, as skaven, you have so many drops you can usually drop enough things to see where his flaming unit will be and put the HPA not there.

You left out burning cannons

I was talking in combat haha, but yeah if I added all the ranged things...

Flaming war machines
Flaming archers
the big fireball...

Also i've had luck with boosted burning gaze, but it usually takes 2 turns.

Hmm. I can only speak for Empire but I find the HPA exceedingly difficult to deal with. A flaming cannon can do the trick but hardly in one shot - 50 % chance to be able to shoot. 16.7 % chance not to wound. A small chance for a misfire or bad bounce. No LoS. Not getting Flaming Sword. Dispell scroll or rolling too low. Finally, a 66 % chance not to roll enough wounds. Granted, some of these things are only marginally relevant, especially with an Engineer, but it really adds up when there's sooo much that could go wrong.

In combat, 15 attacks at WS 4+ and S5 should cause 2.5 wounds. With the BoEF, that should guarantee its demise, so yes, a horde of Greatswords can work fine. They will come out badly mauled and cost 100 points or so more but hey. The problem with this, as ShivanAngel points out, is that it can be outdeployed relatively easily. Karl Franz with Ghal Maraz, a unit of knights and the Banner can do the trick, too, but will clock in at around 600 points...and without that Banner, they don't even need to try.

Well i have recently started a skaven army, and i am definitly looking into getting a HPA or two... it is just too wacky and fun not to... lol

Just for completeness' sake, I ran into an HPA last Friday. 10 Empire Knights, Grand Master (so ItP), Captain with Sword of Fate, BoEF. It turned out that my knights were deployed on the same side as the HPA and it moved up just right for a nice charge. Even with this setup - both TGM and Captain go before it, the latter wounds on 2+ and does d3 wounds - the characters did not kill it outright. I only lost a single knight to its return attacks and then they killed it but this was the next best thing to an Empire deathstar. Had the knights been on the other side of the table or even in the centre, without the Sword of Fate, without the Banner...uh-oh.

As an aside, the knights then had to chose between overrunning into 70 Slaves or receiving their charge. I overran and lost the whole unit over the next three or four turns.