This is a battle report from a Baltimore Grand Tournament by the esteemed former Direwolf Rank’n’File FAQ Keeper Bob Lippman. You can skip on over to the cartographer, should you wish, and visit his Strategic Headquarters, which has a lot of good stuff on Skaven and Empire. Enjoy the Report!
THE ARMIES:
Skaven Army List:
30 Clanrats with spears, including a musician and standard, w/ 2 assassins, 2 Poison Wind Globadiers, 1 WFT. Led by the Warlord w/ Crown of Command, Black Amulet, ExAx, Pistol; Warlock Master, Skull Staff, Book of Ashur (I used only Skaven spells but was allowed a level 4 wizard and didn't want to spring for a Seer), Warpstone Armour, flail, pistol; champion, lt+sh, spear, pistol, Black Gem of Gnar.
19 Plauge monks, w/standard and musician, extra hand weapon, banner of sorcery. Led by Plauge Priest with Pot. of Str. and Flail of Skulls. 7 Censer bearers.
26 Slaves, with standard and musician, spears. Led by Champion with Lt+sh, flail, spear, and Poison Wind Globe. Warlock with Stormdeamon.
3 Rat Swarms.
5 skirmishing globadiers (hiding behind the rat swarm). Warlock with dark mace of death and flail (hanging out with the globadiers to finish off what the globes couldn't kill).
Wood Elf Army:
two units of archers with about 11 archers in each.
4 level one wizards, each with a dispell scroll.
A general on an elven steed with the Bow of Loren and (probably) a potion of Str and armour of fourtune.
A treeman.
A unit of 7 or 8 wardancers.
A unit of 5 Glade Riders led by a hero on an elven steed.
A unit of 5 waywatchers with the champion/hail of doom arrow guy.
SETUP:
I made sure my censer bearers were deployed wide enough to cover the front of both the plauge monks and the clanrats. There was also a hill in the middle of the table I could use as cover. A couple of woods covered each side of the middle and a gap about wide enough for one unit to get by was to the left of the hill.
The rest of the terrain on the table didn't really come into play, so I won't clutter your minds up describing it. The slaves covered my left flank from shooting out of the left woods, the rat swarms covered the right. I went first.
THE BATTLE
Skaven turn one:
the skaven advance the slaves up to the edge of the woods on the left. Censerbearers advance to cover the gap between the woods and the hill. Clanrats advance up to the hill and take cover behind it. Rat swarms advance up to the other wood on the right, PWGs try to hide behind them. Without power 3 spells, skitterleap or warplightning I was not particularly happy about my spells - oh well), but I decided to be brave and cast crakc's call on his waywatchers. He rolled 3 6's, and three of the unit fell into the earth. What luck! They didn't break however. I stored 2 dispell cards, having nothing else worth casting. I now had 8 cards saved up, since the banner of sorcery had given me a 5 (first time in the tournament I didn't roll a 1 with it!).
Wood Elf turn one:
The Waywatchers came out of the wood on the right (so who's watching the way now?) and, having gained LoS on my cowering PWGs, unloaded on them with all of their shots and the hail of doom. Needless to say, the unit, including its warlock, was decimated! The WE archers and general fired their bows at the PCBs, failing to kill even one! The 1st WE magic phase didn't do much to me, if anything.
Skaven turn two:
The skaven continued their advance. The censer bearers would be able to charge the archers on their next turn. The rat swarms had another two turns to get into hth, having failed to protect the globodiers. The clanrats and monks would finish the job onturn 4 if all went according to plan. I shot at the remaining waywatchers with my WFT, but only rolled a "2", falling just short of the closest one (darn!). My magic phase came and went without making much of a dent in the WE army.
Wood Elf turn two:
In his movement phase, the wardancers came bounding over the archers into the path of the censer bearers. No doubt they had shadow's coil planned for when I charged. The treeman moved into position so he could add his weight to the WE counterattack, to come after the wardancers shadow's coil had ended. The WE shooting phase did little to change either of our plans. If I had to charge his wardancers to get to the rest of his army, so be it. I was just happy to have some melee with the elusive woodies. His shooting phase took out a stand of rat swarms, I could live with that. But my plans took a turn when his magic phase came up and he cast "net" on my censer bearers! I needed a 2+ to dispell and rolled a "1"! Naturally, I was holding on to Drain Magic at the time, but didn't bother using it when all I needed to roll was a 2+...
Skaven turn three:
Now I had a problem. My censer bearers were stuck in place, and were blocking the rest of my army from advancing! I maneuvered my plague monks around the side of the censer bearers. I moved the clanrats up a bit. The remaining rat swarms moved into charge range of the archers. In the skaven magic phase I mentally dueled one of his level one wizards - his sheltered mind was no match for the twisted and warped visions the warlock thrust upon him, and the WE wizard died screaming praises to the horned rat (heh, heh!). I managed to dispel the net spell, for what it was worth - not that I planned on moving anyway before he charged me.
Wood Elf turn three:
And charge me he did - the treeman to the flank and the wardancers to the fore. They did their best to kill off the censer bearers, but alas the treeman, who hit twice, rolled snake eyes and failed to wound. The censer fumes kept the combat result about even despite my losses. The treeman, 3 wardancers and 1 (or was it 2?) censer bearers continued to fight on. The waywatchers had moved into my former deployment zone, for the 1 VP that being there would give them at the end of the game. The WE magic phase had no impact on turn 4 that I can remember.
Skaven Turn Four:
The plague monks charged the wardancers. The slaves thought about charging the treeman, but decided that they'd better just stay put. The rat swarm remaining tried to charge the archers, but I think it was destroyed by the stand and shoot. The clanrats advanced a bit, exposing their flank to the Glade Guard (the things we skaven have to do to lure the wood elves out into a fight!) careful to advance the detached PWGs and WFT onto the same side but not the closest target for shooting. In HtH the plauge priest singlehandedly killed off the wardancers. The treeman killed the remaining censer bearer. In the magic phase the skaven warlock master cast scorch with total power, doing 4 wounds on the archers and causing them to break and flee off the table, taking a wizard with them! Perfect - this evened up the VP - he'd have to come out of the woods now!
Wood Elf turn four
And he did - his glade riders declared a charge on the clanrat unit, while the treeman attacked by monks. The clanrats stood and shot with their WFT and PWGs. I rolled an 8 for the WFT - the warpflame shot through the glade riders hitting two riders and burning them to a crisp, while the rounded end of the flame template extended over to cover 4 of the archers in the other archer unit, killed them as well and causing them to panic and flee! As it was the last turn of the game, they would not be able to rally. The 3 remaining glade riders and the hero attacked the skaven flank, avoiding the poorly thrown PGWs, but having insufficient numbers to cancel my rank bonus. One glade rider wounded my warlork, but the black amulet rebounded the wound, killing him. The hero managed to kill 2 clanrats. Then the assassins jumped out (out of sequence I know, but this was of no effect as it turned out) and with blades a-weeping, killed two of the riders. The lone hero fled and was run down by the clanrats. As I recall, the treeman did but a few wounds and failed to cause a break test.
ANALYSIS
I cannot recall the final VP but it was enough to push me into 3rd place in the tournament in spite of the thrashing I took from Mike Rossi's High Elves. It was a fun game all in all, and Allison was a great sport about it. He has only used his WE army about a dozen times and gave me quite a lot to think about. I fear in a few more months he'll be kicking my rat-ass all over town! (We can only hope -Machiara :-)).