I’m planning on cycling out of the BONEBREAKER saga and into a slightly different, lower point build – starting this afternoon in fact! – so I felt I should toss up a few very quick recaps of the local tournament we had this last Sunday. Same old same old: 2500 points, no special characters, ‘Ard Boyz scenarios. Literally as I went to sleep the night before, I got this wild idea to change my list up …
SKAVEN 2500 – No Need For A-Bomb L: Warlord – warlock-augmented weapon, charmed shield, talisman of preservation, bonebreaker
L: Warlord – ogre blade, armor of destiny, dragonbane gem, shield, bonebreaker
H: Assassin – blade of corruption
H: Assassin – weeping blade
H: Chieftain –
BSB, world’s edge armor, shield
H: Engineer – level 2, condenser
H: Engineer – level 2
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: 36 Slaves – pawleader, musician
S: 5 Gutter Runners – deathrunner, poison
S: 5 Gutter Runners – deathrunner, poison
S: 6 Plague Censer Bearers
S: 6 Plague Censer Bearers
R: Plagueclaw Catapult
R: Warp Lightning Cannon
R: Warp Lightning Cannon
Yes, this is the first list I’ve ever played above 2000 with no hellpit, with his place taken by my PCC and a second multi-wounding assassin. Sadly my dispel scroll got cut for % reasons, making this the first game possibly ever that my skaven haven’t had a scroll
Oh, I’ve also dropped the globadiers, juggled points and fit in a second WLC, which I felt pretty dirty about until they actually hit the field
ROUND ONE – DWARFS First game was Meeting Engagement versus a relative newbie playing his anvil stunties. Sadly for him he got just a bit boned on reserve rolls!
L: Runelord – anvil, dispel rune?, rune of balance [RESERVED]
H: Thane –
BSB, 2+ rerollable save
C: 40-50 Warriors – full command, great weapons
C: 30 Longbeards – full command, shields
C: 10 Thunderers – shields
S: 25-30 Hammerers – full command, rune of 5+ ward within 6”
S: 20-25 Slayers – full command
S: Cannon – flaming, forging, engineer
S: Thrower – double penetration (!)
R: Organ Gun [RESERVED]
Pretty sure that was the measure of it. I only had 1 engineer reserved off board, but I won The Roll so deployed (as far forward with most stuff as I could), scouted gutters to within 12-ish” of his cannon and thrower, sent the assassins outflanking on an anvil hunt, and then went first. He had deployed across a corner, in a classic stubborn dwarf refused flank deal.
HIGHLIGHTS + With his anvil off-board I enjoy magical superiority for one turn! My reserved engineer rushes into 24” of his slayers, IF’s scorch into them, burns 10 slayers down (!), then forgets all his spells. Fair enough! Magic ceases to matter after this, except for a death frenzy I put on the LT ‘breaker’s rats, only to have them obliterated by the uber-thrower and LT abandon them to their frenzied fate (as it turned out, the command section was still alive and frothing at game end).
+ My anti-thrower gutters charge the thunderers between them and the gun, but it will take 4 full turns before the deathrunner finally runs down the last dwarf, having passed numerous 5+ dodge wards. In fact my 6+ gutter wards were drrrrunk this game, when I’ve literally never passed them before!
+ One unit of PCB bids its time, then sprints through a poisoned wood (1 dead) into the slayer remnants, liquefying all 10+ of them and leaving the table, mission complete. The other censers make a dash for the organ gun terrorizing my skirmishers, but are obliterated by an 8 shot volley. C’est la vie.
+ The anvil arrives in his first turn, followed immediately by my corruption assassin, who charges in and begins a loooong series of whiffed attaks and passed wards. He is able to cut down both anvil guards and hold the rune lord from ringing for several turns, time enough for the gutter runners (who had just flipped over the cannon), to scoot in and, over the next several phases, stab the dwarven smith to death. My opponent is very sad at this, but I am merely irritated that my assassin couldn’t cop it, and shocked that my gutters could.
+ Oh, we ruled before the tourney began that the blade of corruption's self-wounding rule (any roll to hit with two 1's means the wielder hits himself, including the Multi-Wound(2) rule!) when combined with
ASF would only work if, after rerolling misses, there were still two 1's left. My assassin
did just this, and was unable to dodge his own attak, though he had danced around the rune lord for so long
+ The weeping assassin wanders on around Turn 4, takes a wound from something, flips over the thrower the gutters have failed to storm into, then runs through another poison woods. He rolls a 1 and closelines himself
+ Both WLC, firing as many shots as possible into the grudge thrower, manage to put one wound on it. Also, one is taken out by his cannon. Guh. The plagueclaw scatters every single shot off of his enormous horde of dwarfs. Double guh.
+ All three ratters continue the inanity. Careful-ish placement has put all three within range of the warrior horde, and I prepare to grind them with impunity. For two turns in a row shooting goes like this: Ratter 1 = jam, S2 shots, 1-2 dead dwarfs (x2); Ratter 2 = jam, spin, shoot Ratter 3 (x2); Ratter 3 = 1-2 dead dwarfs, then dead by Ratter 2.
WTF.
+ End game comes when his horde, which has idled in the middle of his line for five turns (he essentially never moved anything all game, presumably because without his anvil for magical movement he did not want to risk any kind of overextension), charges into my last functional clanrat bus. Sad thing for him is that I’ve done what I’ve always known I could do but didn’t: gone deathstar, with both bonebreakers in the front rank accompanied by a champion, and then 7 ranks of untouchable steadfast-breaking rats behind them. My bonebreakers shatter a mediocre 8 dwarfs (from 21 S5+ attaks!), he does 1 wound (the champ) in return, breaks and is caught. Distraught, he calls it (in Turn 6 anyway).
We were the only game to finish all 6 turns
the entire day, pretty much confirming that 2.5 hours is not enough for 2500 to scatter terrain, deploy and play a full game … But it was a fun one for me, with things going more or less right (
), though neither of us were really thrilled by him never moving. All the same, big big win (23-0) put me at the top for next round.
ROUND TWO – ORCS & GOBS On the eve of their new book I finally come up against a serious O&G list in 8th, and played by a
GT winning player nonetheless. I knew I was toast, but was going to see what would happen I guess? He had just about every useful item in the old book, most of which I’ll admit I’m happy to see go:
L: Black Orc Warboss – martog’s basha, armor of destiny, other tricksters shard, shield
L: Orc Great Shaman – level 4, talisman of protection, warpaint, helm of stubborn (note: he didn’t mention this at deployment!)
H: Black Orc
BSB – spirit totem, shield
H: Night Goblin Shaman – level 1, staff of stealing dice
H: Night Goblin Big Boss – great weapon
H: Night Goblin Big Boss – great weapon
H: Night Goblin Big Boss – great weapon
C: 30 Orcs – full command, shields
C: 30 Orcs – full command, shields
C: 15 Orcs – full command, shields
C: 40 Night Goblins – standard, musician, nets, 2 fanatics
C: 40 Night Goblins – nets, 2 fanatics
S: 18 Black Orcs – flaming banner, full command
S: 2 Wolf Chariots
S: Boar Chariot
S: 3 Stone Throwers (!)
R: Doom Diver
Game is battleline, he went first.
HIGHLIGHTS + My opponent Andy compliments me on my skaven list, and apologizes for the tuned nature of his. He explains that he comes from a land of absolutely abusive skaven lists – bell, furnace, doomrocket, hellpit, doomwheel, double cannons, slave spam – and has to assume that that’s what skaven look like. We glance down the store at The Other Skaven Player’s army – bell, doomrocket, hellpit, doomwheel, slave spam – and both nod. To be nice, he decides to not take The Waaagh spell, and I heartily thank him!
+ Plagueclaw is killed first turn by throwers, lightning cannons fire all their shots into throwers and manage 1 dead before they are silenced. It helped that he suffered 4 misfires in a row with his throwers (3 in one turn, 1 in next), keeping my last cannon firing. Oh, the boar chariot was hit by a WLC shot headed into a thrower, dying in the process (though the thrower survived).
+ The possibility of outflanking gutters keeps all of his chariots pointed at his board edge, as well as the smaller orc unit. Thanks to avoiding arcs of sight and double squabbles from the orc boys (!), the gutters are still able to kill all 4 of his war machines. Hurr!
+ However most of the game feels like a non-event, as his magic dominance really shows through – he had fisted the
BSB’s clanrats into submission (but forgot the spell in the process), gazed some PCB down to 1 hiding censer, and warpathed various things. Finally he waaaghs and we get to fighting, with an orc unit with both his lords headed into a clanrat bus with the general breaker, the
BSB and both assassins. Unfortunately my bus is also flanked by some goblins, who net all my high strength dudes down
All the same we manage to win round after round from all the carnage (netted assassins fail to kill their lords, naturally), but he can’t fail stubborn and steadfast LD9. I counter-charge his gobs with the post-fisting clanrat block, and discover that fighting night goblins is awesome! So more rounds go my way, until finally it’s just the weeping assassin + Breaker #1, who break and are caught.
Meanwhile everything has gone to gak. Big big win to Andy (23-3).
ROUND THREE – WOOD ELVES Another first! Firmly in the middle, I’m up against woodies in a Dawn Attak game. I always enjoy playing this club member of mine, and if
WE are capable of abuse in 8th, this wasn’t it.
L: Lifeweaver – wand of reroll dispels, ? (no ward)
H: Noble
BSB – 2+ armor, 3+ ward on last wound, eagle
H: Wardancer Noble – fire blades, moonstone
C: 20ish Glade Guard – flaming banner, standard+
C: 10 Glade Guard
C: 10 Dryads
C: 10 Dryads
C: 10 Dryads
S: 6 Treekin
S: 6 Wild Riders – full command
S: 7+ Wardancers – champion, musician
R: Treeman
R: 2 Eagles
For all intents and purposes, we both felt like this game was mine. I’m loaded not only with multi-wound, decent strength magic weapons, but lots of magical shooting and offensive spells, not to mention double laser cannons. What could go wrong?
HIGHLIGHTS + Dawn Attak does nothing bizarre to either of us, though it does result in most of the game happening on my right 24” of table, where my blocks are and his treemonic heavies are incoming.
+ So throughout this tourney I’ve been up against some of the best defensive set ups in the game: dwarfs with +3 dice (which is really +5 with the rune of balance), orcs with +3 dice (which is really +5 with the stealin’ staff), woodies with rerolled dispels. It’s a good thing I don’t believe in magic! Though I was surprised at how I mismanaged my magic phases here. Thinking that I had the treekin handled, I tossed out a bunch of successful lightnings into dryads and war dancers, not focusing on the most immediate, nastiest to T3 infantry threats. Have I not learned over the years that NOTHING in the skaven army can be relied upon? If you want something killed, overkill it! Anyway, my magic was a wash, while his was plagued by very low winds rolls, meaning that he never cast dwellers (successfully), and mostly used his spells to buff up the wardancers’ toughness or heal the treekin and treeman. But yea, level 4 + WoWE is quite impressive for dispelling low cast spells.
+ The tale of artillery failure continues: plagueclaw scatters off of his big archer unit every shot, until I stop firing it due to imminent misfire. (While I misfired only once with it all tournament – and rolled a miraculous 6 – I also never rolled a single hit. It collectively killed 2 dwarfs over three games, and will pretty much never be fielded again. 100 points buys me 2x 5 globadiers, who have so far been allstars compared to this schlub.) The touted double WLC hammer round after round into his treeman, doing 5 wounds by Turn 2 (3 healed back by the lifeweaver), and finally dropping it in Turn 5 after it had dismantled my deathstar (we’ll get to that shortly). I did have an amazing shot on his lifeweaver too, but that ended in failure as well (also to come). Basically: 1 WLC has been amazing for me in casual games, 2 WLC did far far worse
+ There were two key moments in the game, one of them Amazing and one Infuriating. First up, the Amazing Event. With no artillery to harass, I outflank some gutters up to his level 4’s 10-archer bunker, to spit at them on a lark. 5 S3 poisoned shots kill 3 archers,
they fail panic and flee up through his line and directly into range of all three of my ratling guns! While my guns had been posed to blast hot death into his treekin (who are about to dock with my LT’s clanrats next turn), there is no way that they were going to pass up this opportunity. Ratter 1 splatters 2 archers, and Ratter 2 grinds down the last 5, leaving just the wizard on his own (who is now rallying on LD8 instead of snake eyes if 1 had been left). Ratter 3 revs up to win the game by dropping the enemy general and level 4 … and jams, exploding. I redirect a cannon from the treeman (also about to kill my clanrat bus) into the lifeweaver, slam a S10 shot into him … and roll a 1 to wound. I dropkicked that die across the store, to the cheers of my opponent
+ Now the Angry Event. So the treekin (1 dead from scorch) and the treeman (currently on 1 wound from the WLC shot) slam into a clanrat bus accompanied by Bonebreaker #2 and both assassins – a total of 713 points, loaded with high strength and multi-wounding weapons. I manage only 2 wounds to treekin (with the LT, the assassins failed to wound either the ‘kin or the ‘man, needing 5+ in both cases), the trees can’t hurt the assassins (4+ dodge wards were rocking hard), but wound LT (through his 3/4+ save!) and squish the clanrat champ. Then, because stomps are distributed as shooting, we rule that he is able to stomp and t-stomp the clanrats themselves, which flattens the maximum (8 from 2 treekin + a 6 t-stomp). Rats hold on steadfast. Next turn my dudes largely fail again – the treekin are down to 3, and the treeman still holds onto its last wound. The weeping assassin is killed (having done 0 wounds), and the clanrats once more suffer horrific stomp casualties, but the trees lose, sending the treekin fleeing, though the stubborn treeman holds. Foolishly, I shift over 1” to bring LT into play vs the treeman, which puts me just out of
BSB range. This round, some dryads charge in, his treeman is healed back to 5 wounds, I fail fear, do nothing to the treeman nor the dryads, am once again t-stomped for maximum damage, and needing a non-rerolled LD8 steadfast check, can’t make it. LT, the corruption assassin and a handful of clanrats flee into the WLC and hop off the table, with the treeman trundling up into the cannon’s grill, with dryads accompanying. Finally, my cannon puts a smoking hole through the treeman’s wooden heart, then is flipped over by angry tree wenches.
Other things happened – Breaker #1 +
BSB + friends mobilized around Turn 4, devouring the wardancers (who tried to
KB assassinate the general) and nabbing the level 4, then were flanked and began dealing with the treekin remnants – but when we ended at Turn 5 it was a 13-10 tie, with a few bonus
BP in his favor. As always, the close games are the most fun, but this one was a bit of a disappointment with how much the match up looked to favor me. Ah well.
After a big win, a big loss and a tie, I was at the dead center of the pack, coming in 5th of 10 players. I had a fun time, but in the end I’m really tired of playing 2500 points. I don’t want to use the hellpit if I can help it, and without an elite combat block (stormvermin or plague monks) to take its place I don’t feel that I have the models to properly play at this level, as I have to fill points with characters or ineffective war machines or more skirmish nonsense. When the plastic plaguebearers come out I’ll happily make a nice unit of monks and expand back to 2500, but until then I think I’m going to be holding out for 2000 to 2400 at the most (i.e. this minus the worthless plagueclaw).
Awesome note to close on: the game store that held this tourney has listened to my lamentations and announced that the March tournament is 2000 points. Suddenly, I’m excited about playing warhammer all over again
- Salvage
