09/11/10 Battle Report 2500 pts Dark Elves vs. Skaven

09/11/10 Battle Report 2500 pts - Skaven vs. Dark Elves

Scenario
Fixeddice and I wanted to get together since we haven't played each other for a while and agreed on 2500 points before hand. We rolled Scenario 6 for the battle in which 1 player starts out controlling The Watchtower in the center of the table with one garrisoned infantry unit and the other gets the first turn. From turn 4, at the end of each game turn a D6 is rolled and the game turn is added to the dice. As soon as it's 10 or greater, the game ends and the person controlling the tower, or closest to it wins the scenario.

Terrain
For terrain for a total of 7 pieces and thanks to the Encampment of Destruction and the Settlement of Disorder that we rolled we ended up with a Mysterious Forest, and Acropolis of Heroes, a Bane Stone, a Wall, A regular building, a fence, a wizards tower, a watchtower, and a sorcerous portal. That added to Fixeddice's Fozziks folding tower, and the one from the scenario and we had a lot of terrain.







The armies were as follows.

Skaven
Queek Headtaker
Plague Priest – lv. 2 on Furnace with Ruby ring of Ruin. Rolling for Spells got Pestilent Breath and Plague.
Warlock Engineer – lv. 2 with Crack's Call & Warplightning. Warp Condenser.

Warlock Engineer with Howling Warpgale & Warplightning. Warp Condenser

Plaguemonks x30 - Magic Banner of Under Empire. Musician & Standard Bearer
Plaguemonks x30 - Musician & Standard Bearer

Clanrats x 20 with Doom Flayer Weapon Team
Clanrats x 24 with Poison Wind Mortar
Clanrats x25 with Warp Fire Thrower

Jezzails x5
Slaves x20 with Slings

HPA
Doomwheel

Rat Ogres x3 with Packmaster


Dark Elves (going mostly from memory here, so I'm sure I'm leaving something out)
Level 4 Wizard
2-3 Level 2 wizards.
Crossbowmen x 12
Crossbowmen x 30
Witch Elves x6
Witch Elves x6
Harpies x4
Cauldron of Blood
Hydra
RBT
Dark Riders (?) x5
Cold One Knights x6


Deployment
Fixeddice won the roll for control of the tower, placing 12 X-bowmen in there. So I put my 2 units of Plaguemonks in the center with the HPA on their left flank. I placed my General in the unit of Monks that had the Banner and my Plague Priest in the other unit of Monks. The Rat Ogres went on my Extreme left flank across from his bolt thrower which didn't have that great of a LoS due to all the towers. My Doom wheel went to my extreme Right flank across from the Sorcerous Portal. I garrisoned the unit of Clan Rats with the WFT in the Tower that was in My deployment zone along with a WLE and put the other 2 between the Furnace. Sticking my other WLE in the one with more models. The Jezzails were in the middle, mainly to take potshots at his Tower across the board that had his large unit of X-bowmen and his Lv. 4 wizard in it.

Start of Game









Skaven turn 1:
Since I get to go first, I charge my Queek-led unit of Plaguemonks with the banner into the Scenario Watchtower. They make the charge needing only to roll a 7. The close combat kills 8 of his guys, but he kills 4 of mine back. He loses the combat, but doesn't flee the bldg. Everything else just moves pretty much straight forward except the Jezzails, the garrisoned ClanRats and their WFT. The sorcerous portal goes off , sending a Fireball straight to the Doom wheel which takes a wound. Magic doesn't really happen as one WLE is out of range, one doesn't have LoS for the Warplightning and the Plague Priest had all his spells dispelled. Shooting is ok as my Doom wheel Zzzaps 2/5 of his fast cav guys off the table at S10!



Dark Elves turn 1:
His frenzied Witch Elvesx5 have to charge my Furnace as there is a slight chance they will make it as I'm *only* 15” away.. He didn't want to do that so tries to restrain, but fails. Luckily(?) he makes the charge. They die later in CC after killing 3 of my Plaguemonks pushing the Furnace. His magic is pretty successful getting of Final Transmutation on my Queek-led Plaguemonks, killing 4 of them. Flamestorm kills 12 of my Clan Rats, but due to his miscast he loses 2 magic levels on his level 2 wizard which brought up an issue that we couldn't find anything against it in the rules, in which he uses his level 0 wizard to channel power dice. Strange, but it didn't make much of a difference in the end. He had a lot of shooting going on – 50 shots at my HPA to wound it only twice (thanks to getting 4 Regeneration saves) and his Bolt thrower kills one Rat Ogre and puts a wound on the other, causing them to panic and flee. He moves his Dark Riders away from my DoomWheel, moving closer to the middle. (can't remember if it was from panic or not)






Skaven turn 2:
My Queek-led Monks charge The Watchtower again, easily getting across the 1” gap from the previous turn. Close combat kills the rest of his guys controlling The Watchtower and I gain control. I move my HPA into his other unit of Witch Elves and kill 2 with impact hits. The Doomwheel keeps heading toward his CoK, but doesn't reach them. I do kill a few from the zzzap! The HPA dies in combat, but 3 Rat Swarms emerge. My furnace unit charges his hydra and he ends up killing about 8 Monks and my Plague Priest thanks to his Breath Weapon. He easily wins the combat, but I'm unbreakable so I'm not going anywhere. I move my garrisoned unit of Clanrats with a Warlock Engineer out of the tower on my side and move toward the tower with all his X-bowmen in it. The Sorcerous portal buffs my Doomwheel with something that never was used, so I forget. I charge his Dark Riders with my ClanRats who took the Flamestorm earlier, I lose a few, but end up defeating them and they flee. My magic was pretty uneventful. I think I may have killed 2-3 of his garrisoned X-bowmen with Warp Lightning, but that's about it.





Dark Elves turn 2:
His cold Ones charge the Doomwheel. His Witchelves charge the swarms (killing them in CC and Combat Resolution and only losing 1 in the process.) and his harpies charge my Fleeing Rat Ogres. The Rat Ogres somehow dodge his charge as he rolls a massive 4. However Dangerous Terrain tests put two more wounds on the unit, killing off another Rat Ogre. He rallies his Dark Riders and the maneuver toward my Jezzails. His Magic (Transmutation again?) kills 8 of my Monks garrisoned in The Tower. Another 50 shots from his garrisoned X-bowmen into The Watchtower kills 1 more plaguemonk. The massive Hydra/Furnace battle continues as he kills a few more Monks.






Skaven Turn 3:
I move my clanrats closer toward his garrisoned X-bowmen. Due to my Doomwheel being closer to my other unit of Clanrats than any of his units, I end up killing off 3 more them. My magic does nothing in this phase. Same with shooting from my Poison Wind Globadier. Close combat sees my Furnace kill off more Plaguemonks than his Hydra thanks to a misfire. My Doom Flayer charges his Cold Ones in the flank, but dies before he gets to do anything, however, the Doom Wheel grinds them down and finishes them off, mostly due to the Sorcerous Portal as it buffs my Doomwheel again with Wyssans Wildform. Unfortunately, the Hydra kills off my Furnace after an epic battle.





Dark Elves Turn 3:
His Harpies charge my Jezzails who only end up losing 1, but that's enough for a panic test and they do. ...Panic that is. They flee through to the far side of the bldg. His magic was pretty good rolling a 20 on 5-6 dice for Transmutation, but luckily I was able to roll all my Dispel dice and pull a 22. The Sorcerous Portal on His turn buffs my Doom Wheel with Speed of Light. His Witch Elves who killed my HPA earlier, charge my Warpfire Thrower who Stands and Shoots arcing right over them and pulling up just short of hitting one of is mages. They were something like 9” away and I rolled a 10 for the distance the flame arcs.




Skaven Turn 4:
I rally my Ogres a mere 3-4 inches from the table edge. My Clanrats finally can charge his garrison He hits 17/19 shots and wounds 10. I however scoff at that and save 8 (picture only shows 7) of them needing 5+! Woo hoo! I doubt will never get as good a save roll ever again. He takes 2 wounds in Close Combat and doesn't wound back, tying the combat and holding on to that watchtower. Nothing else was in any position to do anything so I simply moved my surviving units closer to The Watchtower.






Dark Elves turn 4:
His fast cavalry runs down my fleeing Jezzails. He tries to cast a spell on my Doom Wheel but fails to meet the casting cost. His shooting puts a wound on my remaining Rat Ogre. His Magic kills 1 more monk holding The Watchtower leaving me with something like Queek and 4-5 Plaguemonks defending it. The turn ends and just as we prepare for turn 5, I roll the dice per the Scenario. I get a 6 and that added to turn 4 Totals 10 and ends the game with me controlling the tower. News of our victory squeaks and chitters it's way through the tunnels of the Skaven who celebrate joyously!


Neither of us expected that result. I was expecting to lose on the next turn as he was maneuvering a few units to mop up my monks defending The Tower. and I couldn't throw all that much at actually controlling it. We decide to play another turn and see how the game would have turned around and probably given him the win instead, and boy were we wrong. Between miscasting, losing a few dice rolls and all around bad luck, Fixeddice ended up being much worse off than before. Complete shock to both of us.

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