First game with my skaven after swapping the vermin lord for double bonebreaker warlords and engineers. Was up against one of my favorite opponents, who’s been trucking along with his beasts since their redux and doing pretty well for himself. He'd recently switched stuff up too, dropping his gorebull
BSB and taking *SHOCK* minos without frenzy! With mixed results but still, I dig it.
SKAVEN 2500 L: Warlord - sword of might, charmed shield, talisman of preservation, skalm; bonebreaker
L: Warlord - ogre blade, armor of destiny, shield; bonebreaker
H: Chieftain -
BSB, biting blade, dragonhelm, foul pendant, shield
H: Assassin - potion of strength, dragonbane gem
H: Engineer - level 2, dispel scroll
H: Engineer - level 2, condenser
C: 30 Clanrats - full command, shields, ratling gun
C: 30 Clanrats - full command, shields, ratling gun
C: 30 Clanrats - full command, shields, ratling gun
C: 30 Slaves - pawleader, musician
S: 6 Globadiers - bombardier w/ death globe
S: 6 Gutter Runners - poison
S: 6 Gutter Runners - poison
S: 5 Plague Censer Bearers
S: 5 Plague Censer Bearers
R: Hellpit Abomination - warpstone spikes
R: Warplightning Cannon
BEASTS 2500 L: Beastlord - biting blade, armor of fortune, other trickster’s shard
L: Great Bray - chalice of dark rain, dispel scroll, iron curse [SHADOW]
H: Wargor -
BSB, beast banner, gnarled hide, heavy armor, shield
C: 40(ish) Gors - full command, ahw
C: 20 Gors - full command, ahw
C: 6 Unbows - musician
C: 6 Unbows - musician
C: Tuskgor Chariot
C: Tuskgor Chariot
S: 18 Bestigors - banner of eternal flame, full command
S: 6 Minotaurs - standard, musician, ahw
S: 6 Harpies - scout
S: 2 Razorgors
R: Ghorgon
MAGIC Engineer (condenser): warp lightning & howling warp gale
Engineer (scroll): scorch & crack’s call
Great Bray: miasma, enfeebling, mind razor
SCENARIO, TERRAIN & DEPLOYMENT We decided to just play Pitched Battle, and I picked out some terrain (nothing inane), which we alternated placing and scattering
3D6”. We took the sides we were on, I won the roll and he started deploying first …
Hopefully things are self-explanatory, but his line (left to right) is razorgors, chariot, bestigors, gor horde with his characters, ungors, chariot, minos, ghorgon and my gutters scouted to his flank. My line runs censer bearers, more censer bearers, clanrats with S5 bonebreaker + condenser engineer, clanrats with S6 bonebreaker +
BSB, clanrats with assassin (deployed) + scroll engineer, globadiers behind them, hellpit, warplightning cannon, gutters protecting the WLC from a harpie charge, slaves, and then his scouted harpies.
BATTLE He won the roll for first and got things started ...
BM 1 
The beasts surge forward, with the harpies keeping out of the gutter’s 18” range, and the left chariot lingering only because he forgot to move it. The ambushing ungors appear off the right edge, and the gors directly behind my S6 breaker’s unit, nuzzling up to 1” of their rear. Boosted miasma on that clanrat block is stopped.
SK 1 
The left most censers make the charge on the razorgors (need 8, got 8). Meanwhile, I grudgingly turn my breaker’s unit around to deal with the gors - I would have just put the breaker himself back there but there was no room - while also mobilizing more censers to their flank should they be needed. The hellpit slams 10” towards the monstrous flank, and I begin to question aloud my ability to use the big dude effectively
Slaves reform to face harpies, and the third clanrat block scoots up and repositions its ratling gun away from the harpies. The general breaker goads his unit towards the bestigors for turn two combat.
The great bray pours out the chalice and the rain of filth fouls up the skaven shooting more than usual - two ratling guns drop just four gors, and while the WLC can fire it overshoots the shaggoth.
The speedy censers on the left deal four wounds to the pigs, lose two in return and run the survivor down.
BM 2 
(Note that some of my movement arrows are a little confusing, particularly those reflecting multiple moves in one turn. I’ve not used Battle Chronicler too much since it was revamped, so some things are still pretty new to me.)
Left chariot wakes up and trundles forward, as the bestigors take up position behind the wall. The gor horde garrisons the building, providing a huge LD9 reroll bubble to his army, while both sets of ungors scramble around to take shots on ratling guns and the ghorgon scampers through the gap in the right flank to threaten the skaven center. More importantly the chariot and minotaurs throw themselves into the hellpit, and the harpies charge into the slaves.
Magic sees the hellpit enfeebled by two (S4 now) though miasma is shut down.
After bunches of impacts and attaks, the abomination takes three wounds and deals four back into the minotaurs. He loses by one but holds on stubborn 8. The slaves lose three to the harpies but tear four down, beating them but failing to catch.
SK 2 
The general breaker’s unit powers into the bestigors, the assassin chugs his potion of strength and charges the chariot stuck with the hellpit, and the slaves make the harpies flee a bit further. Otherwise the pig-hunting censers get ready to tackle chariot of bestigor flank (they were out of the chariot’s arc), the other censers stare at the ambushing ungors, the scroll engineer hops out of the soon-to-be-ghorgoned clanrats into the S6 breaker’s unit, and a lot of poisoned short-ranged fire power surrounds the ghorgon.
Magic drops the hex off of the hellpit, and then sees the remaining dice into a crack’s call through seven clanrats and into the ghorgon. It goes off irresistible, rushes 14” (3” short of the beast but through all of the rats!), sucks down one clanrat and then eight more die from the engineer’s unit when the small S10 template miscast is resolved. The engineer is wounded as well. Guh.
Shooting isn’t as self-destructive but as ineffective. The gutters can’t roll a 6 to hit or wound the ghorgon, the globadiers hit once and don’t wound (and hit themselves twice for one wound), and two ratters can’t roll 6’s to wound either. Unable to fire at the ghorgon because of the combat behind it, the WLC slams a shot into the building, claiming a gor or so.
Fighting is more awesome, as the assassin carves three wounds into the chariot, and the hellpit chooses to avalanche of flesh everything around it - the assassin had made sure not to cuddle up to it when it made base with the chariot! The chariot is wrecked and the wave of 10 auto-hits vaporizes the minos down to the standard. He flees and inexplicably explodes into pixie dust, with the abomination breezes after him. The assassin reforms to face the ghorgon’s future rear.
In the breaker vs. bestigor fight, the wall really gimps beastmen death (three die?), with enough clanrats falling to leave the bestigors with a doable rerollable break.
BM 3 
The ghorgon, undaunted by the patter of tiny projectiles, leaps into the waiting clanrats, who pass their terror check but have not yet realized their fate. Some ungors also charge a ratling gun, which stands and shoots, jams on six shots, spins into the house and clips a gor, and then takes the charge in its flank. Huh
Elsewhere the chariot prepares to flank the general’s rats and the harpies rally.
Big miasma against my general is shut down but enfeebling (-3) gets through.
In that combat, the bestigors lose one to two of their crew (I played that the -1 to hit from the wall continued indefinitely, which I thought was wrong and it turned out it was
) but drop many clanrats. The skaven lose but hold on steadfast. The losing continues as the ghorgon mashes 10-11 clanrats to paste, while taking two wounds in the process from particularly lucky / toxic rats. They hold on steadfast too. And the ratling gun is flipped over and stabbed a bunch by the ungors.
SK 3 
The assassin rear charges the ghorgon, while both the censer bearer units flail into things - on the top, the bestigor flank, on the bottom, the ungors. The hellpit cruises around the back of the house, the lower gutters return to their spot protecting the cannon from harpies, the upper gutters continue to be worthless, and the globadiers mobilize to hurl death globe into house. The scroll engineer also hops out of his unit and stands next to the ungors, with the intention of collapsing the house with crack’s call and sharing the miscast with the ungors if it goes nova again.
The gamble doesn’t pay off as the winds blow weak (3-3), providing enough dice to drop the enfeebling and just get cracks off. It’s shut down by +3 to dispel.
Ratling guns chatter into the building and shoot a gor or so in the head, and the death globe scatters 8” off the huge building. The WLC targets the chariot, tags it with S8 but then rolls a 1 to wound. Balls.
So the ghorgon’s got 4 wounds left, we can do this, right? Wrong - the assassin fails his fear test, scores 0 poisons and no wounds. The clanrats do poke another wound onto the monster, before being jellied once more. They hold off of their own steadfast LD7
but the assassin doesn‘t, and runs for the right table edge. In the other dragging combat, the bestigors are railed by censers and breaker, reduced to three models. They pop insane courage and stick around. Annnnd the beast player picks up his ungors after seeing if any PCB would choke or fall on an ungor dagger (no luck). The censers frenzy off the table.
BM 4 
Inevitable charges happen: chariot flanks the breaker’s unit, ungors tackle the wounded engineer, and the harpies make the assassin chain flee across combats and units.
Magic blows strong (6-6), resulting in enfeebling (-2/3) on the beleaguered breaker’s unit and big miasma on the other breaker’s unit.
The bestigors are finally killed, freeing the last two censers up there to reform and charge the chariot next turn. The ghorgon takes another wound but reduces his clanrats down to ten, which becomes nine after they break and the standard dies. Nobody panics except for the gutters protecting the WLC, who leave the table. In his own combat, the engineer not only survives the ungor’s hatred-fueled prodding but actually slaps one into submission! He loses by musician but holds.
SK 4 
Time for vengeance? The slaves charge into the harpies once more, the two censers fresh from fighting bestigors flank the chariot, and the S6 (and miasma’ed) breaker leads his depleted unit into the maw of the ghorgon, which had to have been approaching 10 attaks at this point. The assassin fails to rally and keeps heading across the table … Though the clanrats do rally after being chewed on by the ghorgon. Other movement is fairly inconsequential, with the HPA continuing his trek around the building and skirmishers skirmishing about.
Magic drops enfeebling. Note that at some point I put up howling warp gale and told him we’d probably just forget about it anyway. We did
Ratling guns, poisoned globes and warplightning blasts rain into the bunkered gor horde, dropping a token handful of beasties.
Fighting is more or less decisive, with the slaves cleaning up the harpies they missed the first time and the censer bearers trashing the chariot. And sadly the ungors shiving the suicidal engineer. The big bummer though is 4 S6, 5 S5, 1 S4 & 6 S3 attaks not being able to wound T6 twice, miasma’d or not - just one more wound gets through and the ghorgon liquefies clanrats in response, leaving just breaker,
BSB and eight rats. They hold on steadfast.
BM 5 
The horde dismounts from the building, reforming to eight-wide and about three-deep to account for the constant skaven shelling, as inept as it seemed. And the ungors charge the assassin, rolling high and running the super elite killer down - though nobody cares and panic is passed.
Magic sees the S6 bonebreaker enfeebled (-3 of course).
The ensuing combat thankfully drops the ghorgon, who drowsily goes to sleep after gorging himself on dozens of clanrats. The breaker and crew reform to contemplate the gors, pretty sure they can’t take them …
SK 5 
A general scramble to get into range marks the skaven turn , as suddenly a target appears amongst the green swarm! Globes and gutters ready their tiny poisoned things, the hellpit cruises back towards the action, the S6 breaker valiantly moves up to challenge some things to death and hold the line, while the
BSB and the tatters of his unit back up. The general breaker fails to overcome his fear of the three nearby ungors and staggers 6” out of his unit, even as the last two censer bearers hurtle into the wee beast scouts.
Magic involves dropping enfeeble and it’s on to shooting. Five globes, six poisoned stars, some ratter shells and a S2 lightning tickle a handful of gors to death but it’s of little consequence as panic is passed on the reroll.
The two censers do reduce the ungors to a fine mist though, for the cost of one maniac.
BM 6 
Apparently wanting to get their hands dirty, the beast characters and their gors accept the breaker’s invitation. The great bray gently caresses him with miasma (-3 of course), and the beastlord accepts his challenge. A lot of S6
AP hatred attaks later and the breaker is miraculously unwounded, despite the rerolled 4+ wards and all that. The beastlord takes two wounds in return but the breaker loses by a few, can’t manage to hold and books it. He escapes though the gor-star tags into the
BSB’s clanrats, who would really like to have fled :’(
SK 6 
The general breaker powers into the gor-star’s flank and the solo censer spins into its front corner, hoping to save the
BSB’s bacon. Magic drops enfeeble as usual, and then I suppose I made a mistake by challenging with my
BSB - I had hoped to protect him from 7 WS4 hatred S4 attaks from the gors, but instead just pulled over the armor-breaking, ward-rerolling beast general. He killed the
BSB with four total wounds caused. Part of that bargain was also to let the bonebreaker go to work on the infantry, but he fluffed as hard as he could. All the clanrats except for the champ were killed (two by the PCB’s stink aura!), which left breaker, PCB and clanrat champ testing on snakes. Miraculously the censer held, allowing the other two to escape!
[Note: I got my timing messed up at some point, because this wasn’t the end. The horde must have dismounted earlier, because there was one more round in which the S6 breaker and the fresh censers charged in. The breaker smashed the beastlord, but the censers, who were mostly there to assassinate the great bray, were killed by the bray and the wargor
BSB, who were not only boosted by the beast banner but also by rolling 1-1 for their primal fury!]
All the same, he had earned very few points - both censer bearers, one ratling gun, one gutter unit, the assassin and engineer - as all of my blocks were alive if severely depleted, as were the breakers (both fleeing!) and the hellpit. So:
SKAVEN VICTORY - Salvage
