Well I was most surprised and a little flattered to find that Pete Dunn was keen to grudge me, ensuring that we finally met on the battlefield and wouldn't be dodging each other thanks to ill-luck with the draw in this tournament. Some serious research (reading his blog) and asking around (Reid) led me to predict what he was taking (for all the good it did me) with a high degree of accuracy. Outside of the absence of the ubiquitous Ratling Guns it was a fairly standard go at the Skaven horde concept replete with acres of crap to wade through (Slaves), ridiculous throwaway deployments (2 units of 2 Globadiers), the twins (2 Warlocks with kit including Storm Daemon and Dispel Scroll), and the Skaven Deathstar (term used lightly) – fully ranked Stormvermin with Warbanner and BSB with banner of +2 for outnumber (total of static 8). With a cowering Warlord reluctantly radiating ld7 (boosted via ranks to ld10) I wasn’t expecting much from Terror and Fear checks in this game and I think all up Pete failed just one Panic check in the whole game! Psychology schmychology!
Realising I would be finished deploying long before Pete had put anything worthwhile down I went for a central deployment, placing the blocks behind a hill and some light stuff and hitty monsters more towards the right. Pete practically castled his entire army in his left hand corner (barring a unit of Clanrats on the other flank who spent the game sneaking forward through a forest to contest a quarter), behind and around a couple of hills, one of which rather handily included a patch of forest for his Warp Lightning Cannon to hide in. I wasn’t exactly within striking distance of anything but was reasonably happy with how things looked. Tunneller markers went in front of the Reapers and to the right of a forest in my zone next to some Harpies and Dark Riders. On reflection I should have put the Hydra on the left flank and wandered through the forest but at least where it was he had to make a choice about what to shoot - the Hydra or the Cow.
I came forward like a bat (Harpy?) out of hell and motored straight up the guts with practically everything. Harpies flew to get in the way of Jezzail fire to save some Dark Riders while everything else pushed up the middle towards a hill behind which was lurking the aforementioned Jezzails, a BIG block of Plaguemonks and accompanying Censer Bearers, and of course some chaff (Slaves). A pittance of shooting culled a few Clanrats from the abundantly fleshed out hill-fortress on Pete’s left which he happily removed, safe in the knowledge there was plenty more where they came from. My Crossbow shooting was neutralized by several small hills on the left and a massive forest on the far left. In fact my shooting had (unsurprisingly) very little effect on the game but the Reapers and Crossbowmen did all survive so at least I wasn’t bleeding points (in that area at least!).
Pete hung back behind the hill and started to position Slave units for maximum annoyance value. Warp Lightning magic drew dice and probably a scroll while the Warp Lightning Cannon did what it said on the box – a tremendous str10 blast carving 4 wounds off the Hydra (feck! Ouch!).
Suddenly not rating my chances of the Hydra surviving beyond a few more seconds I chucked it forward and crossed my fingers. The Cow maneuvered to get a sneaky charge angle on some Clanrats and everything else hoofed it forward fast. A unit of Harpies and some Dark Riders whacked into the front of some Slaves who held and to my great dismay actually saw the Dark Elf forces off in the following turn ☹ I made quite an error at this point with the facing of a unit of Crossbowmen who were charged by some Slaves. With the Elf General and BSB nearby I had no problem at all holding and was able to counter-charge the Slaves with the other Crossbow unit and get rid of them but this cost the Black Guard a vital turn of movement.
In Pete’s turn the Slaves hit the Crossbows, stalling my advance which would cost me later. A mighty str2 shot from the Warp Lightning Cannon was enough to take down the Hydra (groan) leaving one Handler alive to play the diverting game. A unit of Tunnelling Gutter Runners came up and decided to play with the Shades, killing two before being butchered in return, the surviving rat forcing the Shades to pursue back towards my deployment zone. The other unit decided discretion was the better part of valour (or cowardice) and widely kept their heads below ground (Pete rolled a misfire – the rats didn’t come on and I didn’t get any VPs for them either. Kind of win-win). I managed to contain the Warp Lightning one last time at the cost of my second scroll.
Having suffered the attentions of the Reaper Bolt Throwers a reduced strength Clanrat unit took a giant Cow in the front. The Elf General laid about himself with wanton abandon but with the Skaven General and BSB literally an inch away the Clanrats didn’t budge. Bugger. With a unit of Censer Bearers looking to be in range (nevermind the Jezzails who were all too willing to shoot into the combat!) my General looked to be in a spot of trouble. A unit of Crossbows hit the Slaves that were tying up the other unit in the flank and broke them easily but in a quirk of fate the Slaves, fleeing from the highest unit strength, unit actually ran sideways along the length of the board, escaping the frustrated Dark Elves.
In went the Censer Bearers, only one having the range to actually make contact. The awkward conga line of lunatic flail-wavers hemmed in the Stormvermin who, as a further contingency to Skaven ineptitude, reformed to face the Cow should the Censer Bearers stuff things up. Shooting into combat Pete managed to take a wound from the Cow before the Bearer in combat whiffed. Both units took a beating from the Cow and Elf General but while the Bearers broke the accursed Clanrats held again. I had one more turn to make the magic happen and save my boss from a static 9 flank charge.
Sighting Slaves (both fleeing and non-fleeing) all over the place I declared a flurry of charges – Black Guard into one unit feeing from the previous combat who scarpered through their mates and of the board, Spearmen and Harpies into another who also scarpered off the board. By great good fortune this allowed the Harpies to hit the fleeing Censer Bearers who buggered off too before they could rally and cause me more grief. The sorely tested Dark Elf General finally broke the Clanrats (who needed 5s with a reroll – not a sure thing by any means) and pursued them off the board). Yay! This panicked the Warp Lightning Cannon which spent several turns fleeing in different directions before rallying itself in Pete’s last turn. The only serious concern I had now was that when he returned to the board my General had to choose between facing the twins and their warp lightning spells, or the Jezzails and their shooty death. Dang.
With the Harpies bearing down on them the decision of what to shoot was an easy one for the Jezzails and the flying harridans were annihilated in short order. Pete finally began pushing forward on the left with confidence in numbers canceling out his fear of my shooting the left flank. The rats milled around waiting for the Cow to make it’s grand entrance and face shooty/magic death.
I started my turning by sportingly asking Pete if I could just leave the Cow off the table. He declined ☺ and I decided to move it behind a hill so it was “only” facing a couple of Warp Lightning spells. The Black Guard crested the hill in Pete’s deployment zone ready to mess something up good in the next turn (we were at turn 5 by this point). I made my second really big mistake here and again it was to do with the facing of a unit. The Plaguemonks, being Frenzied, would be forced to charge the Black Guard on their hill. Likely to lose they would flee and I would have to pursue but unfortunately, while I was likely chase them off the board the pursuit wasn’t going to take me into the Stormvermin who I DESPERATELY wanted to get my hands on.
Pete’s turn and he was somewhat surprised (and disappointed) to realise the Plaguemonks had to go in. Taking 9 casualties on the charge they lost combat by something hideous (I think 14 - 3 ranks, standard, BSB, hill, outumber, kills vs 3 ranks and a standard or something like that) and broke. The Black Guard pursued and forced the Jezzails to flee the table too but the writing was on the wall at this point. The Stormvermin were not tempted in the slightest to try it on with the Black Guard and they finished the game a few inches away facing each other and hurling childish insults. On the flank my worst fears were realized and the Cow was gunned down by 12 (that’s a double 6 for hits people!) hits from Warp Lightning. The boss held the banner he’d captured and survived the game by skirting around the edges of a Clanrat unit.
In the end the battle kind of petered out and much jeering was made by onlookers of Pete’s decision not to fire the Warp Lightning Cannon in the last turn (sorry, it must have rallied in turn 5 – hazy memory) and by me because he wouldn’t charge the Black Guard with the Stormvermin (Pete’s not an idiot ☺). He’d dealt out a fair bit of damage and when the dust settled and the calculations were complete I’d snatchd up a 12-8 win (Pete's only loss of the weekend). Given the differences in our armies I’d say Pete did bloody well out of that little encounter! I enjoyed the game immensely – the army, the player, the mad dice – great Warhammer and an outstanding first game for the tournament!
I had the funny feeling I might have come off better in this encounter if I'd had my Empire lads with me. Sure did miss that Mortar!
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