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So my lovely wife got me one of those cool gaming mats for Christmas and we just had to test it out. I pick up some new scenery. I am giving Skaven a try this time. I am traditionally a Dwarf or Empire player so this seems a bit off to me, but I have been amassing these guys so wanted to give them a whirl. My son again wanted to go with Empire.

Here is a little something to put you in the mood




Armies

The Mighty Empire

General w/Ogre Blade and stuff, Mounted Warrior Priest, BSB, with Talisman of Endurance and Sword of Might, Warrior Priest, Level 2 Wizard.



50 Halberdiers, full Command


2 Detachments of 10 Handgunners


Crossbows (yup really need to finish these guys)



15 Reiksguard Knights w/full command (yeah because they need more stubborn units)


2 units of 25 Great Swords each with full command. We were impressed with how they did in the last game so decided two units would be even better. I managed to dig around in the bitz box and find an extra musician and standard.


A Great Cannon and Hellblaster. The Empire Artillery are still in storage so I we borrowed a cannon and organ gun from the Dwarf bitz box.




Skaven

Grey Seer, Warlock, Warlord on a Bonebreaker, and BSB


40 Clan Rats w/full command, spears, shields


45 Storm Vermin, w/full command, shields


2 Packs of Giant Rats


50 Plague Monks, full command


8 Censor Bearers along with a Warp Lightning Cannon



4 Jezzails and 2 Poison Wind Mortors.


6 Rat Ogres




Setup
Plague Monks in horde on the left, Clan Rats screened by the Censor Bearers, Storm Vermin, Then Jezzails in the forrest. The Warlord and BSB are with the Storm Vermin. The Grey Seer is hiding in the Clan Rats. The Warlock is out on his own over by the Jessails. The Empire Wizard is hanging out ontop of the giant skull. The General and BSB are with the Halberdiers, while the mounted priest is with the Knights. The Priest on foot is with the Black Great Swords.



The table is not as barren as it looks. There is another rock pile on the right-hand side, it just blends in really well.



Turn 1

The Empire go first and only move the Black Great Swords on the right out. A Fireball kills two Giant Rats. The Burning Head kills two Censor Bearers, miscast does a wound to the Wizard. The cannon rakes a few Storm Vermin. The Hellblaster get 22 shots on the Plague Monks but thankfully only kills 4. On the flip side the Rat Ogres Try to charge the Black unit of Great Swords but fail horribly. The Skaven magic and shooting are nothing to speak of.



Turn 2

The Reiksguard charge the Giant Rats and the Black Great Swords charge the Rat Ogres. The Cannon falls short while the Handgunners drop some more Storm Vermin. The Crossbows pluck off a few more Plague Monks. The Burning Head gets a Storm Vermin and two Clan Rats.






The Black Great Swords beat down the Rat Ogres who flee.



The Knights obliterate the Giant Rats causing a panic on the nearby Poison Wind Mortar. They then reform to face down the Plague Monks.


Beginning of Skaven turn 2. Both fleeing mortar and Rat Ogres fail to rally and flee off the board. The Hordes move up. Double Warp Lighting from the Grey Seer and Warlock claim some Halberdiers. A decent shot from the remaining mortar claim a few more. In typical Skaven fasion the War Lighting Cannon explodes . The Jessails manage to get 4 hits and 3 wounds to kill the Great Cannon in one turn .



Turn 3

Here comes the hurt. Kingts charge the Plague Monks, Red Great Swords charge the Censor Bearers, Halberdiers charge the Storm Vermin. Crossbows and Hellblaster take out a few Clan Rats. The Handgunners keep plucking away at the Storm Vermin.


The Plague Monks have a hard time wounding and lose Steadfast, breaking they roll a 4 to flee. The Knights roll a 5 to catch them, but fail to make it into the Clan Rats.


The Red Great Swords destroy the Censer Bearers, but not without taking a few casualties. They overrun into the Clan Rats.


Failed charge, so the Halberdiers hurl painful insults at the Storm Vermin.




The Strom Vermin Charge the Halberdiers, the Giant Rats charge the Wizard.


Not wanting to get butchered, the Grey Seer Skitter Leaps out of the Clan Rats and on to the rocks. He then kills a few knights with Warp Lighting.


The Storm Vermin win combat but the Halberdiers are still Steadfast, with a General and a BSB.


The Giant Rats kill the Wizard and overrun to the Handgunners.


The Red Great Swords beat the Clan Rats but the Skaven Warlord keeps them in the fight.



We call it here because we had guests arriving and the Skaven have just about lost the ability to hit back.



It wasn’t a great first outing with Skaven, but they seem like a fun army. 3 Stubborn units for the Empire is tough to deal with, though it would have helped it the Skaven shooting was better. Oh well, next game

It looks great! It brings me great joy that you are still having fun with 8th. The pics make me extremely nostalgic (Wish there were people around here that were still interested in playing)

Very nice, I really love a shooty army with the skaven (I play 6th, not sure how well they fare in 8th) they either win spectacularly or lose in much the same way. A well placed plague can turn the tides for them if it rolls right, but usually never does lol. I have found that rat ogres never really worked well for me in general, they usually got torn to pieces before they got to the other side, but i don't have a big unit of them

I want to play this list some more before I change it up. The Rat ogres might be a a waste but in love the old metal models. They need to be a supporting unit instead of out on their own.

Yeah, I played them for probably three years before grudgingly giving them up as they might see battle once every ten games for me, but on the plus side, they did soak up a lot of damage.

We had another game and I'm feeling better about them. I don't think Warp Lightning is as bad in 8th as it was in past editions, probably due to the fact that units are bigger. They're not my Dwarfs but they are fun and different.