No offense to Andrew, but FINALLY a different opponent!
I was sure I would play a game, as I was getting late to the store (see end of post). But luckily for me one play didn't show, so I was able to play.
Andrew paired off with Loy in a 1500pt Lizardmen vs. Bretonnian game, while it was my Skaven vs. Rob's Wood Elves at 1000pts.
My list:
Chieftan (General) w/ Halberd
Chieftan (
BSB)
Warlock Engineer, Level 1 (
Warp Lightning)
Warlock Engineer, Level 1 (
Scorch)
28 Clanrats w/ shields, standard, musician and Warpfire Thrower
24 Clanrats w/ shields, standard, musician and Poisoned Wind Mortar
24 Clanrats w/ shields, standard, musician and Poisoned Wind Mortar
Doomwheel
Warplightning Cannon
I was not very confident with my list. I wanted to fit in the Doomwheel, and I'm having trouble making a list without the WLCannon. Even if this meant my three (I know, ONLY three) Clanrat units were pretty small and my Chieftans (a Chieftan General!?) were not loaded up. I have yet to really load up my Lords and Heroes with all of the usual goodies that keep them alive and help them hit hard. I will probably have to change that at some point.
I may not have been confident in my list, but at least I brought the right one.
Unlike my opponent Rob, who brought a list he had used previously, and not the one he had meant to table. An error that could potential help me. A lot.
Rob's list:
Noble w/ Hail of Doom Arrow
10 Glade Guard
12 Dryads
3 Treekin
20 Eternal Guard w/ spears
8 Waywatchers w/ longbow, two hand weapons
No Magic? Sweet! A Flammable unit? Wicked! Not many Ranged attacks? Good times!
I'm going to admit now that we made a few mistakes throughout the game. We're still learning.
Also, there are a number of mistakes I made using Battle Chronicler this time. I will comment on them, just to clarify any discrepencies with the actual report.
And as usual, distances in the images are not accurate, but close enough.
Set Up & Deployment
So we rolled up Meeting Engagement.
Rob laid down first, with only the Waywatchers coming in as a Reserve.
I tabled second...and rolled four 1s! So my General, both Warlock Engineers and the WLCannon would come on later. Annoying, yes, but the worst part was that I would not be able to shoot the cannon on my first turn. Grr.
The Clanrat unit with the
BSB and WFThrower, labelled CR3, is actually in a building.
I couldn't "steal initiative," so I was going second, something that has only happened once in my handful of games against Andrew.
Wood Elves 1
*Movement: Not really close enough to do anything interesting, the Treekin, Eternal Guard and Dryads move up. The Glade Guard stay put for some reason, considering they can Move and Shoot without penalty. The Waywatchers come in up at the top and stay there at the edge. They did this because Rob thought on the turn you come in as a Reinforcement, you can't move. Which is wrong of course. And for some reason, I believed him, so I would do the same later. Oi! I knew the proper rule, but Rob has this power to get rules wrong and then somehow, without trying, convince others they are right. There is no malice behind it all...he just gets it wrong and we believe him. Anyway.
*Shooting: The Glade Guard take aim at the
BSB's unit in the building...and realise they are more than 30" away! Rob! You can pre-measure, man! He was out of range of all of my units. The Waywatchers take a shot at the Clanrats in the forest. Two arrows hit, but ping off their ratty armour and shields.
Skaven 1
*Movement: The Warlock in the Doomwheel is a little suspicious of why the Treekin, such juicy targets, are practically right in front of him, ready to be Charged. Not one to give up such a gift, he moves up and easily Charges into the Treekin's flank. Elsewhere, the WLCannon, General and both Warlock Engineers come onto the board. Here I followed Rob's made-up rule of Reserve units having to stay there. Duh. Doesn't matter much, but I'll have to watch out for things like this whenever I play him.
*Magic: The first Engineer steps up...and fails to cast
Warp Lightning. The second Engineer steps up...casts Scorch...and does nothing. REALLY!?
*Shooting: Could I reenact the awesome first turn Ranged combat from the last game against the Lizards? The short answer is no. The long answer is: the Doomwheel's Zzapp! is a whopping S2. No Wounds. The PWMortar shot against the Waywatchers scatters. The PWMortar shot against the Dryads gets a Direct Hit!!! But no Wounds, if you can imagine. Yeesh. The WLCannon just came on the board, so could do nothing.
*Close Combat: The Doomwheel rolls low for Impact Hits, and only manages one Wound. The little rats, with only an Strength of 2, manage a second hit. The Treekin, probably shocked (haha, Zzapp!) that the Doomwheel hit them out of nowhere, tried but could not even scratch the grimy paint off the wheel. With a Flank Charge and two Wounds, the Doomwheel wins, the Treekin Break, and they run...right through the Eternal Guard, but nothing further happens to either unit. The Doomwheel, positioned PERFECTLY to Pursue right into the Eternal Guard...fail 1.5" away. That's just dumb.
Wood Elves 2
*Movement: The Eternal Guard, between a rock and a Doomwheel, Charge the Clanrats in the trees. And fail, moving 2". The Dryads and the Glade Guard move up. The Treekin continue fleeing, through a Raging Torrent that does not affect them. The Waywatchers just reload their longbows.
*Shooting: The Waywatchers take aim at the Doomwheel, and all miss or fail to Wound. The Glade Guard may or may no have shot here, I can't remember. Either way, they don't drop anyone, so it doesn't matter.
Skaven 2
Looking for a better turn this time around.
*Movement: Doomwheel smacks into the Eternal Guard, as do the Clanrats. Both Engineers and the General move into nearby Clanrat units. The
BSB's unit moves out of the house, preparing to Charge the Treekin if they don't rally again. The WFThrower moves up to the front of the building, too (remember this).
*Magic: The second Engineer steps up and casts
Scorch...with Irresistable Force! Flame on! Well, I think this takes out something like four Dryads. The Miscast ends up being a Detonation! and two Clannies get fried. The last two Power Dice are lost to the Miscast, so no more spells this turn.
*Shooting: The Doomwheel Zzapp!s again at S2. Oi. BUT, somehow, all three bolts toast an Eternal Guard. Silly, but I'll take what I can get. The PWMortar in the trees scatters to the side of the Waywatchers, while the other PWMortar scatters away from the Dryads. Thankfully the WLCannon sends a blast that lands right on top of a Dryad's head, then bounces 10" at S10, taking out a second Dryad. I fire the WFThrower, roasting the middle Treekin, not remembering that since I moved I actually should not have been able to fire. I only realised this much later, while creating the Battle Chronicler pictures. I'm justifying the whole thing by deciding that it would probably had the same result next turn.
*Close Combat: Between Flank Charges, Impact Hits, a standard and lots of rats going crazynuts on the Eternal Guard, who only killed four rats, the Elves broke and ran...not far enough! The Clanrats hunted down and slaughtered the survivors. It was pretty gross.
Wood Elves 3
*Movement: The Dryads, down to six models but finally in range, Charge the nearest Clanrats. Treekin rally. Other units stay put.
*Shooting: The Waywatchers try to take out the Doomwheel again...but fail to Wound, again. The Glade Guard all fail their shots or fail to Wound (see a pattern here?), but the Noble with the deadly Hail of Doom Arrow unleashes some death upon the Eternal Guard killers, taking down 5 of their number. The Sinister Statue in the middle of the river (oh yeah, that's what that thing is, by the way), is actually not in the way of this shot. This causes a Panic test, and fail, but if you can imagine they are JUST within 12" of the
BSB, even though it doesn't look like it in the image (the
BSB is actually at the far left of the front rank, not in the middle). They pass the reroll.
*Close Combat: The Dryads, punks that they are, unleash a flurry of pointy branches, razor-edged leaves and not-yet-ripened fruit. They manage to kill off three Clanrats...and BOTH Engineers! C'mon, man! Stoopid trees. Two of them fall as the rats get peeved about losing both their Wizards. The rats end up winning combat, but the Dryads stay.
Skaven 3
*Movement: The Doomwheel pivots around to aim at the Waywatchers, rolls (literally), but is 1.5" shy of the Elves...again. The Eternal Guard killers move down to the lip of the River, ready to Charge into the Treekin once they inevitably Charge the big Clanrat unit.
*Magic: Oh wait, the Wizards are dead.
*Shooting: The Doomwheel's Zzapp! manages to take out two Waywatchers, finally rolling high Strength. The PWMortar in the trees Misfires and lets Rob place the shot right on top of the Wheel. It takes a Wound. I take a dangerous shot with the WLCannon, with the potential to hit the 'Wheel. But hey, we're all dirty rats here, right? With a roll of 2 on each artillery die, the shot ends just shy of the Doomwheel, thankfully. The second PWMortar scores a Direct Hit on the Glade Guard, blowing up five of them. The rest pass their Panic test. The WFThrower takes a shot at the Treekin, not cheating this time, and manages to roll a 1 on the
d6 Wounds! So the potential for 12 Flammable'd Wounds manages only 2, so he stays alive. This is where I think the other dude would have died, anyway, if I hadn't cheated last turn.
*Close Combat: Somehow the Dryads only kill one rat, and the rats can't even snap a twig off the Dryads.
Wood Elves 4
Rob was ready to call it quits here, with not much going for him at this point. But I'm tired of ending games early because I'm doing well. So we played on.
*Movement: The Treekin Charge the big Clanrat unit, the Glade Guard move way up, and the Waywatchers skirt around to the Doomwheel's flank.
*Shooting: The Waywatchers once again fail to even tickle the 'Wheel. The Glade Guard probably shoot at something, but most likely miss.
*Close Combat: The Dryads kill four rats, but the rats kill some Dryads and run down the rest (after the trees broke), collecting firewood to take home as they went. The Treekin faired little better, one of them dying at the hands of the General, the other surviving to inflict two kills on rats. Rats win combat (again), Treekin stay put this time.
Skaven 4
*Movement: Doomwheel once again pivots and this time crashes into the Waywatchers, point blank. The top Clanrat unit Charges the Treekin's rear but fail. They take no losses from the Raging Torrent. The other unengaged Clanrats Charge the Glade Guard at Rob's insistance. They fail, though. At least that allows the PWMortar to take a shot.
*Shooting: The PWMortar does in fact shoot, and does in fact take out 3 more Glade Guard. They pass their Panic test, again. The 'Wheel's Zzapp! rolls a Misfire! But since it is engaged, the Loss of Control result is ignored.
*Close Combat: Let's start with the Doomwheel, who crushes the Waywatchers, who cannot hurt it, Break, flee and get run down by the 'Wheel, that goes off the board. The General hacks the last Wound from the last Treekin.
Rob decides that two Glade Guard and a Noble cannot face the might of, well, all of the Skaven, and calls the game here.
Once again the Skaven perform exceptionally well, even though/regardless of mistakes that we made here and there.
I'm looking foward to next week's 2000pt battle against the Bretonnians. It'll be my first 2000pt game and my first play against the Brets. I better start building that list!
Thanks for reading. C&C always welcome.
