The Lone Asian is one of my favourite opponents - the fact that Nick has yet to beat me actually adds an extra edge to our games as he is going for the throat and I often find myself desperately fending him off. The games are usually close and the turning point is generally in my fourth or fifth turn when I take advantage of a terrible mistake Nick has made.
This gamed turned history on it's head. Nick did make a mistake - in deployment when he placed his Rat Ogres and Globadiers (this is FluffyCon list; hence the Rat Ogres) on almost the opposite side of the battlefield from his General. The Rat Ogres quickly proved their reputation, fleeing the board after my Reiksguard Knights impaled and ran down a unit of nearby Giant Rats. The Knights (reduced by an irresistible Warp Lightning and Globadier fire) then spent the rest of the game running away from a Clanrat unit they could not hope to beat. They managed to assassinate the Warlock before being dragged down by the innumerable Skaven.
Oddly enough the same situation was happening on the opposite flank with the GW-Knights against another Clanrat unit but this time there was no one to assassinate. When it came time to finally charge (left with no other option) the Knights fluffed fantastically and were run down.
Artillery put the fear in Nick (aside from the Helblaster which, true to form, catastrophically annihilated itself shooting at a valuable target - Slaves). The Mortar rained death from above with alarming regularity, quickly reducing the Skaven Warlords Clanrat bodyguard to a point where he was no longer interested in charging the Spearmen (he spent most of the game trying unsuccessfully to reach the Plaguemonks and ended up dying to a gallant last turn charge by the Pistoliers!). The Cannon was frustrated by the lack of solid targets (which is of course what I expected playing Nick). I foolishly let slip my cunning plan to snipe the Assassin (who was hanging out with 3 Tunnelling Rats) so Nick tucked him away safely. My one shot at the Skaven General overshot. The Cannon also comprehensively nailed a Jezzail before the Handgunners finished them off is a superb display of shooting skill.
The 3 Tunnel Team rats spent 4 turns in epic combat with the Free Company detachment the lone survivor (a rat) then charged the Crossbow detachment in the flank and was soundly clubbed to death. Amusingly, much like the Knights, this was mirrored in another part of the battlefield as a single surviving Gutter Ruunner tried his luck against the single file flank of the Handgunners. He died a similar fate.
The Plaguemonks drove all before them, obliterating the Flagellents in a gruesome display of extremely capable dice rolling. In return the Spearmen detachment cleverly sacrificed themselves charging the flank of the Plaguemonks. Frenzy meant they had to pursue and while the Spearmen were caught it also meant the Plaguemonks were forced to charge the full strength Swordsmen unit with accompanying Arch-Lector and BSB in the last turn. After wiping out a unit of Slaves the Pistoliers hit the Skaven General, causing a wound and taking none in return. Having conveniently cross-fired the Boss Rat the Swordsmen then beat down the Plaguemonks after Nick's dice turned on him and chased them off in the last turn.
The end result was a hard fought for draw which could have been a defeat for me had Nick deployed better. Problem is he learned his lesson so the next game is sure to be even more of a challenge! Great game Nick - let me know when you have that table at your place and I'll come over for a game and return the favour :-)
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