A coincidental meeting with Nick on Gmail (god bless live chat) yielded a game on Sunday night (Nick having use of the car unexpectedly and determined to good on our last game - a close draw). Another chance for me to have at those dastardly Skaven; taking them on with the shining virtue and sharp lances of the Brettonian nobility is a most worthy pasttime.
I made no changes from my previous list (which is basically Dave's list without Large Target Killing blow but with Dispel Scroll) but was happy to enter the game with a much better idea of what the toys do (i.e. remembering Virtue of Discipline). Nick had made several changes including reducing the gear on the Warlord (so that he's basically a living leadership buff and not much else), removing the Warpfire Thrower, and putting in some Poison Rat Swarms. The issue he really encountered in this game was that the Warlord simply couldn't be everywhere at once to provide leadership support. This is the problem with Skaven - at the core they could have excellent leadership, but without the general they suffer enormously. The plan is to attack where the General isn't if you can't attack him directly and take him out of the equation (difficult to do when he's sitting in the back rank of his unit and that unit is covered by 2 or 3 others).
This idea somewhat came to fruition and over the course of the game I lost half the Grail Knights (Censer Bearers... ugh); the Peg hero (useless git he is too - won't be taking him when I get Ant's knights); and the Peg Knights to an irresistable Warp Lightning and failed panic check on the surviving Knight in turn 4 (curses! - after they forced a Clanrat block to flee a flank charge and had seen off the Warp Lightning Cannon - sweet revenge having some trees beat the Warlock to death thanks to Master of Wood). Nick also had one quarter and the Men-at-Arms' standard (after they charged a Clanrat block and fluffed/broke... losers). In the end, Nick had left: a clanrat block, a 1/2 strength Clanrat block, full strength Plaguemonk block, General, BSB, 1 Globadier.
Shooting from the Skaven was particularly poor and magic not much better - the Blessing of the Lady really is quite awesome when it works! Quite a different situation from the last game where magic and shooting smashed me good.
The highlight of the game was the surviving 1/2 strength Clanrat block containing the Skaven BSB and a captured standard - they rolled Insane Courage for three consecutive combat rounds. Argh! So many points just out of reach (the unit itself, the BSB, 2 banners, reclaiming the captured banner, contesting a table quarter!)!
In the end it was a win to the noble sons of pseudo-France by just over 1300VPs :-)
Magic was great in this game - one Damsel cast Howler Wind which Nick let through - stopped the Ratling Guns from killing anything (remains in play for the win! Nick forgot to dispell it in his magic phases) including by shooting into combat once I'd engaged so they were effectively neutered. The same Damsel took a wound in combat and later managed to heal herself (Gift of Life). Master of Wood on the other Damsel sucked up Skaven dispel dice as Nick managed for 4 turns to save his wood-lurking Jezzails but eventually got through 3 times - once taking out a nearby Warlock-Engineer and twice to kill off 5 Jezzails. Excellent. Magic is good when you know you've used all of your spells to good effect.
Characters - the big change I reckon (once I get hold of Ant's knights) will be taking out the Peg Paladin - probably for another small Realm block. Would also lose the Treb, Reliquae and some Skirmishing Archers for another Realm block if I had the models available. The Damsels are excellent - I can see why Marcello runs three. Magic resistance is great but they also get some useful casting off at times.
Looking forward to getting into the club on Sunday and hopefully out to the Garage Irregulars on Friday night to try the Horse-boys out on some different opponents and armies.
In terms of Nick's play - in the post-game discussion I was most adamant that the success of the army largely depended on the use of the 4 Slave blocks to divert/flee/bait/get in the damn way and set-up the best counter-charge options with massive static res Clanrat blocks. The Questor bus went into the Insane Courage Legends (Clanrat block) who held - they were subsequently flanked by a full strength Slave block (flank and 3 ranks to res) but the Slaves were beaten down by the Knights on the flank and fled. Virtue of Disclipine is GREAT! Thanks for the inspiration Antony :) Nick's BSB with Warbanner adds a lot to his combat troops - a very good choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment