Friday, April 16, 2010

Battle Report Skaven vs. Brettonians - 3K

Although we normally play campaign games on the 2nd Saturday of the month. Liam and I decided we'd like to play a one-off 3,000 point game. Although we were off to a slow lazy start and had a few (enjoyable) interruptions for Birthday Cake and Pizza for Fullur's birthday, it was a very good time. I took a few notes, but there's still a bunch that I had to go from memory on, so hopefully Liam will comment to correct the errors/omissions that are my fault.


Skaven List

Grey Seer on Screaming Bell - Shadow Magnet & Pipes of Piebald.
Chieftain – Poisoned Attacks, Sword of Battle
Warlock Engineer – Lv. 2 Wizard with a Warp Condenser
Queek
Snikch
Clanrats x25 with Shields,spears, lt. armor and Ratling Gun. Musician & Standard
Clanrats x25 with Shields,spears, lt. armor and Ratling Gun. Musician & Standard
Clanrats x20 with shields, spears, lt. armor & WFT. Musician & Standard
Slaves x20 with shields & spears
Giant Rats x20 & 1 Packmaster
Jezzails x5
2 Rat Ogres & 2 Packmasters
Plague Monks x30 with Musician, Standard and Banner of Superiority
Plague Monks x30 with Musician, Standard and Banner of Dripping Death
Doomwheel
Warp Lightning Cannon
Hellpit Abomination


Brettonian List


A unit of Grail Knights
2 units of Knights of The Realm
2 other units of knights (Yeomen maybe?)
30 Skirmishing Archers
Reliquae unit
~25 Peasants
2 Trebuchets
4-5 wizards
3 Pegasus guys
5 Mounted Yeoman
There was probably more, but I don't really remember much except that he had something like 10-12 PD and around 6 DD. That and the 2 Trebs is what had me concerned the most.

Setup
Terrain favored his (eventual) side with 2 hills in his Deployment zone and a forest on his flank. I ended up on the side with Difficult Ground in front of my left flank, a Building in the middle of my DZ and nothing really in the middle. I placed the Bell in a unit of Clanrats in the middle-left next to the Plague Monks with the Banner of Superiority. Everything else was near by except for my giant rats parked in a corner for Table Quarters and the other unit of plague monks and the WLC at the right flank. I had the Doom Wheel in between where I thought it would be ok.

Rolling for spells went well for me as I got Warp lightning and Howling Warpgale for my Warlock Engineer and Wither, Howling Warpgale, Death Frenzy, & Crack's Call for my Grey Seer. I can't recall all the spells Liam rolled, but the only ones ever cast were Uranon's Thunderbolt and Comet of Casandora.

Turn 1 - Skaven
Since he decides to Pray and I elect to go first & began by completely misunderstanding/misreading the way the Doomwheel moves. For some reason I was convinced that not only was the distance random (3D6) but also the direction. So I played that way the entire game including taking wounds in turn 1 for running into a building and only ever zzzapping my own troops because of the movement. Note to self, fully read and understand the rules and FAQ before playing with a unit that's new to your army. Besides killing itself it ended up mistakenly killing about another 130 points of my other units. Painful learning experience indeed.

To clarify for anyone else as blind as I was. The Skaven FAQ addresses this specifically on page 4 saying that “only the movement allowance is determined randomly.”

Everyone else except the Rat Ogres, Cannon, & Giant Rats marches forward. My Warplock Engineer kills 2 Grail Knights with Warp lightning by getting something like 6(+2 for the condenser) hits and wounding on 5 of them. Their ward save definitely came in handy. Jezzails only kill one of his mounted yeoman.


Turn 1 – Brets

A little posturing and positioning but the only thing of note that happens is Uranon's Thunderbolt Goes of with IF killing 4 of my Jezzails that I'd purposely parked behind difficult ground so they could hopefully kill anyone who came hunting for them. Adding insult to injury the Comet is cast in the middle of about 4 of my units. Also with IF.


Turn 2 – Skaven

The first thing that happens is the comet goes off killing 6 Giant rats (who end up fleeing), the WFT, & 9 Clanrats. I continue to move forward with everything I can. Shooting only kills 2 from his Reliquae unit with the WLC. Good thing to because my mistaken playing of the Doom wheel results in 15 wound's going through to the cannon because of course this would be the time I roll an 8 for strength.

Turn 2 – Brets
8 of his Knights of the Realm charge my unit of Plaguemonks with the banner of dripping death. The won the combat pretty handily, but between the effects of the banner beforehand and the effects of pursuing the banner killed all but his hero and 2 others from the unit. May have played this wrong as we played it such that they only fled from the banner killing so many wounds after overrunning my unit. I'm not sure how correct/incorrect that was.

His knights of the realm charge my unit of clanrats who completely whiff and lose combat. The flee and are overran.

His Grail Knights charge the other unit of Plaguemonks which contain Queek. His character and mine are both forced to declare and accept challenges if at all possible. His strength is enough that it all but negates my armor save and I only lose combat by 9 or so. These combats get my remaining 2 weapon teams to also start fleeing.


Turn 3 – Skaven

I am able to rally 1 Ratling Gun. I ring the Bell for the effect that damages his T7 war machines. Nearly killing it. The Bell unit charges his Peasants. Which breaks and flees. I miss catching him by 1”. My Rat Ogres charge his Knights who were shot at earlier by my Jezzails. They flee into impassable terrain and are destroyed. My Slaves and HPA charge the unit of Pegasus and kill 2 out of 3. He does enough damage back to only lose by one. He passes his test though and stays for a little longer.

Turn 3 – Brets
Magic does not go so well as his Level 4 Caster miscasts and loses Uranon's Thunderbolt and a Magic Level. He positions his Grail Knights and Knights of the Realm to be able to charge my HPA next turn. His Peasants continue to flee toward the table edge and are off it the next turn. He moves his Bowmen towards my slaves but LOS is blocked by a building. The CC with his remaining Pegasus kills my Packmaster, but I do one wound and outnumber. He still doesn't run.

Turn 4 – Skaven
I charge the Pegasus with my Rat Ogres who pass their Stupidity and finally the Pegasus flees, never to recover. My Magic is only useful for getting Death Frenzy on the Bell unit, but otherwise does nothing, while my Doom Wheel still incorrectly moves and kills my own guys.

Turn 4 – Brets

He charges his Reliquae unit into my Bell unit and we both do 4-5 wounds but an Unbreakable vs. Stubborn unit doesn't really go anywhere for a while. Death Frenzy does as much or more to me than close combat does. The Grail Knights and Knights of the Realm charge my HPA. I do a few wounds to him and he gets me down to half wounds in one round of combat. He wins, but luckily I don't run This turn.

Turn 5 – Skaven

My HPA dies and generates 3 Ratswarms which block off his Knights from being able to charge anything else. The Bell/Reliquae combat kills off all his rank and file guys and gets his hero down to ½ wounds. Unfortunately, the Death Frenzy kills of enough clanrats that it's movement will be next to nothing. Additionally, ringing the bell again damages his war machines Killing off the previously damaged one and putting a wound on the other.

Turn 5 – Brets
He takes what will be his last shot of the game with is Trebuchet, but although is range was right on each time, it just didn't do enough to make it's points back. His 2 units of knights charge my Ratswarms and do kill it, but just barely. Unfortunately, his guys are completely out of position to do anything else for basically the rest of the game. His remaining offensive spell that would have any effect (the Comet) fails to be cast so there's not much else to do.

Turn 6 – Skaven
I move a few people to ensure some table quarters and in a last ditch attempt for a few points, Deathmaster Snikch charges out of his unit to fight the crew of the last Trebuchet. They are handily dismissed and luckily I get a few more points.

Turn 6 - Brets
Nothing really happening as nobody is in position to do anything, including magic or shooting.

Victory Points
We count up Victory points and I lose by a little over 700 points which is enough to get him a Marginal Victory. He played excellently and with the only exception of some of his Knights being out of position for a turn or two, but I don't know what I might have done differently myself.

I'm pretty sure we also misplayed somewhat when the unit pursuing my Plaguemonks with the Banner of Dripping Death. In this case they took a panic test, but re-reading the rules shows that you never take a Panic test in the Close Combat Phase. I was more excited about almost killing off his entire unit than I was about any other effects. It's hard to say if the unit could have done much more after that anyway though. Live and learn I guess. In the mean time, I had a blast playing that game and Liam was a great opponent.

2 comments:

Darth Weasel said...

fun report. Often surprises me how an early devastation can often come back to be merely a ro9ught start. After the first couple turns, itachieving the result of only losing via marginal victory is pretty solid.

And for Liam, good to see him get a W.

Liam said...

I believe the only thing that went wrong was me running down your unit of plague monks then panicking from the no armor save standard. If anything, I should have panicked as soon as I said I would follow. But then like you pointed out, you don't take 25% casualties tests in the close combat phase. So really, besides the fact that my guys chased your guys, caught them, then as soon as catching them, running away, I believe the game went pretty straight-forward rule wise.

The Doomwheel actually being able to move where it wants would've drastically changed that game, I think. Later on, you probably could have gotten a flank charge on my various knight units that were reforming/repositioning on your side of the table, or perhaps even before that.

For anyone who wonders what I had for fighter-lord it was

Bret Lord
Virtue of Knightly Temper (every wound caused equals another attack, charge only)
Cuirass of Fortune (reroll 1s to wound)
Dragon's Claw (+5 ward, immune to fire)
Gauntlet of the Duel (enemy cannot reject a challenge)

The unit of archers was more around 15ish, and the two units of knights you thought were possibly Yeoman were.

Overall, good game!