Ahoy shipmates!
It's been ages, I know, but I hope you'll be satisfied if I tell you only that real life has been a time-consuming son of a gun for the last few weeks. Thanks to you guys who have posted recently: I'll have a proper look over the thread and get some replies heading your way soon. Back in the world of WHFB, then, a couple of things have happened with the ongoing mighty empires campaign and they are as follows:
My Game 2, against Daemons, was missed because someone forgot to tell me I had a game on. I had to automatically forfeit that round, then, and only won 1 campaign point. Gargh! I built a mine, which got me a little gold and promptly collapsed. I understand that elves aren't brilliant at mining, but this was annoying.
Battle Report - High Elves vs Skaven
I then played my Game 3, against Skaven. This guy had an unpainted army (so he automatically loses 250 points), but he'd made up the difference with much better luck from his mines. I didn't spend much gold this turn because, since he was at a points disadvantage (I didn't bother thinking about his mining), I figured I could take him. Fate decided to test me, however, by sending me some violent food poisoning via some bad tapas. I was about to learn that playing a game of Warhammer whilst high on codein and having not eaten for 4 days, was actually quite difficult. To improve my chances despite my befuddlement, I opted at the last minute to include the Banner of Sorcery on the swordmasters. Core allowance had to increase slightly to allow for this, so another trooper and a musician went on the small archers. Everything in my 'set' list stayed in (them's the rules), so my list was as follows:
Seredain
Prince - Barded Steed, Dragon Armour, Shield, Giant Blade, Helm of Fortune, Plucker Pendant, Talisman of Loec - 286
Lecalion
Level 4 Archmage - Dispel Scroll, Lore of Life - 280
Caradath
Battle Standard Bearer - Barded Steed, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Dragonhelm, Dawnstone, Amulet of Light - 190
35 Spearelves - Full Command, Gleaming Pennant - 345
14 Archers - Musician - 159
12 Archers - Musician - 137
14 Swordmasters - Bladelord, Standard, Banner of Sorcery - 284
12 White Lions - Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame - 220
8 Silver Helms - Musician, Shields - 192
5 Dragon Princes - 150
1 Tiranoc Chariot - 85
2 RBTs - 200
1 Eagle - 50
= 2578 points
My opponent had rolled the scenario "elite army" and was therefore allowed to take unlimited numbers of any special or rare unit as limited only by total rare/special allowance. He'd taken this to heart and had chosen a total of 60 gutter runners arrayed in 4 units (I'm not sure if runners are special or rare - perhaps he could've done this anyway). His list looked something like this:
Warlord- No AS weapon, 4+ Ward, AS 4+
Hero- +1 Str, +1 Att weapon
Hero- Stuff
Hero BSB- Stuff
38 Clanrats FC, spears (Lord + BSB here)
39 Clanrats FC, spears (Hero)
39 Clanrats FC, spears (Hero)
40 Plague Monks FC - Plague Banner (re-roll missed hits and wounds- one use only).
Doomwheel
15 Gutter Runners w/ 3 netters (don't know the name for the skaven equivalent)
15 Gutter Runners w/ 3 netters
15 Gutter Runners w/ 3 netters
15 Gutter Runners w/ 3 netters
Warp Lightning Cannon
Warp Lightning Cannon
Not exactly a typical Skaven list, then. No slaves, HPA or plague furnace (I was pleased not to see the latter). The volume of gutter runners was a big worry, however. Along with the warp lightning cannons I figured I'd be taking some big hits at range. On the plus side (a big plus!), this guy hadn't brought
any magic at all. "Skaven magic is rubbish", my opponent said, with authority. I wasn't about to argue.
I didn't take any pictures because I was concentrating very hard on not falling over and the enemy army wasn't painted, but I have put together some maps using Battle Chronicler, which I've finally figured out. Ace.
Spells
Lecalion got Awakening, Flesh to Stone, Regrowth and then had to choose between Throne of Vines and Dwellers Below. Lots of people talk about Throne being necessary for Life to even work, but skaven are one of those armies against which you can operate without it: Flesh to Stone and Awakening don't need the boost to work against low strength and toughness ratmen. I chose Dwellers to tackle the hordes and hoped I wouldn't miscast too often...
Deployment
I set up my missile fortress early around the tower until he dropped down his lord's unit, when I threw down my killy units. The dragon princes and eagle went down on the left to throw my opponent off (he dropped a horde over there) and take care of the warp lightning cannons (which had gone down early). Another important consideration was that, if I left too much of my deployment zone empty, I'd have gutter runners all over me straight away. As it turned out, my opponent had to deploy them either in the middle of the field or off-table. He chose the field. As for my main attack, the plan was to go straight for the head: kill the general, force some break tests and watch the skaven army fall apart. To this end, Seredain, Caradath and the silver helms went right opposite the skaven lord and BSB, with spears and swordmasters on hand to offer support. The white lions went opposite the wood on my right, which would inevitably hold some scouts- they had cloaks so seemed best placed to deal with them. Lecalion went with the archers in the tower. Skaven won the first turn and prepared to throw a disgusting number of sling stones my way.
Skaven Turn 1
All the hordes rush forward to try and overwhelm my tiny tiny army, heralded by the gutter runners. Then all the shooting happens. My opponent rolls very well for all his multiple shots but, even so, the results are hard to bear. Two princes fall from their horses, the eagle takes so many wounds that it basically explodes and the chariot can't make a single 5+ save to protect it from 4 successful to-wound rolls. Arse. The silver lining is that the white lions shrug off all the stones hitting them. The warp lighting cannons both focussed on the tower, since they could knock out a repeater and get 2d6 hits on the archers to force a panic test on my archmage (I'd stacked my shooters and mage up like this deliberately to discourage the cannons from shooting my knights - losing a repeater was a risk worth taking, I figured). One repeater was smashed to bits and the tower archers lost maybe 3 or 4 elves, one WLC having missed the building altogether with a long overshoot. A couple of clanrats were frazzled by the doomwheel.
High Elves Turn 1
The princes charge some gutter runners, who stand and shoot but can't get past the armour. White lions charge the gutter runners in the forest and likewise shrug off a hail of stones. The swordmasters move up to cover their flank and ask some questions of the skaven infantry, while the silver helms move into charge-range of the skaven warlord-horde. The spearelves move up slightly to cover their flank.
Magic saw me generate 8 power dice (the Banner giving me 1) against 4 dispel dice. Lecalion, who'd vacated the tower and parked himself with the spearelves, throw up toughness on the swordmasters (now all my attacking units were resistant to missiles) and Dwellers on the nearest gutter runner unit. My opponent can't dispel anything and about half of the runners were destroyed but the remainder passed their panic test.
Shooting. To the left, all my archers opened up on the far-left runners, killing 4 but failing to panic them (damn). The remaining bolt thrower thudded a single bolt into the doomwheel and took 3 wounds off it - not bad.
Combat. The princes stomp all over their gutter runners and break them, but they get away. The white lions also do bloody work on their runners, but the ratmen are stubborn in the woods and hold.
Skaven Turn 2
The skaven warlord, staring my prince in the face, gets cold feat and decides to hold back slightly while the two hordes to either side, clanrats-with-hero and plague monks, advance to cover him. The gutter runners sat infront of my knights and swordmasters figure they're only going to act as a bridge, so scarper out of the way toward the tower. On my left flank, the princes' runners rally and their fellows run through open ground toward my fire-base around the tower.
Shooting. The sling stones of outrageous fortune find they've drained a little of their luck from Turn 1, failing to kill more than a couple of archers and failing to take out the repeater, who takes only 1 wound from 4 successful hits (about right). The warp lighting cannons are the really worry, however. One blasts a line right through my spear column (again I kept it in this formation to provide a tempting target), killing 6. The other doesn't take the bait, however, and draws a line through my prince. For the first time I fail a Look Out Sir save and I can only take more painkillers as my prince is blasted from his horse. This is bad. Shit.
High Elves Turn 2
Despite the loss of their general, there's no altering the plan now: the High Elves launch themselves into the heart of the skaven army. Swordmasters and silver helms charge the skaven hero-horde next to the wood, eager to avenge their lord (he'll be alright: the best reason to take a Life Archmage is that you have a good medic on hand when someone's arm gets blasted off
). The princes re-charge their gutter runners again, aiming to finish the job. The spears more-or-less stay where they are, ready to hold the plague monks in place while my killers go to work. Lecalion moves out of the spears, as far to the right as possible and taking shelter from the WLC's by hiding behind my units.
Magic. The Banner only gives me 1 dice so I get 8 against 4. That's more than I need, however. Toughness goes back up on the swordmasters and Dwellers goes off on the warlord clanrats, killing 22 rats (woohoo!) but leaving the warlord and BSB unscathed (damn). Dwellers causes a miscast but I've used all my dice so the resulting drain has no effect. The archmage takes a wound, however.
Shooting is pretty mundane. My repeater can't repeat (geddit?) the feat of wounding the doomwheel, but my archers manage to successfully plug a few more gutter runners.
Combat, and my silver helms and swordmasters absolutely go to town on the clanrat horde. Caradath challenges out the skaven hero and cuts him to pieces while his fellow elves devastate the ranks of rat spears. They can't put any wounds on the heavy knights and only manage 2 on the T5 swords, meaning I have 2 full ranks, break steadfast and run them down like rats. The swords move into the flank arc of the warlord/BSB clanrats while the knights plough right into their front. To the right, the white lions make a mess of their runners, who finally break but get away (I've lost 3 lions to combat by this point). On the left flank the princes successfully run down their runners and gallop on toward the corner wood.
Skaven Turn 3
The gutter runners close to the tower charge my repeater and the plague monks annoyingly make a long charge into the spearelves, who hold. The third rat horde continues to make its way across the battlefield to come to the warlord's aid. The doomwheel trundles along not very fast. I think something goes wrong with it (maybe a lightning cannon misfire?) but I can't quite remember what.
Something definitely goes wrong with one of the warp lightning cannons, however, which blows itself to pieces. The other rolls poorly for strength and fails to do anything useful. The gutter runners of outrageous fortune strike again, however, wiping a whole rank from my flanking archers. They pass their panic test, but are now in real trouble.
Combat sees me discover that the plague months are carrying a banner which allows them to re-roll missed hits and missed wounds. They absolutely tear into the spears, break steadfast (the warp lighting shot from earlier made the difference here) and run them down. I make a mental note that this banner exists and resolve to either divert the monks in future or hit them with heavy armour. The combat in the centre sees Caradath throw 2 wounds on the skaven warlord, who fluffs his rolls to hit and only manages one wound in reply. The silver helms, meanwhile, sweep away the best part of a rank of clanrats and lose none of their own. The rats have only one rank left and can't hold even with their BSB. They break and (frustratingly) get away.
High Elves Turn 3
The silver helms run down the fleeing warlord and his rats, reforming to face back into the field, while the elite infantry forms a new battleline on the right flank to face out against the last clanrat horde and the plague monks. Lecalion joins the lions. The princes march around the wood and within easy charge-reach of the warp lightning cannon.
Magic sees me get 2 extra dice from the Banner and throw toughness back on the swords and regrowth on the lions, raising them back to full strength. There's nothing my opponent can do- his dispel rolls are poor.
Shooting is a bit hazy to me. I think my tower archers shoot at the doomwheel and kill it: either that or it somehow blew itself up next turn. I can't remember what happened to it, exactly, but it didn't play a part in the rest of the game (the map has it moving next turn and blowing up, but actually I can't remember it getting that far, so I think that's wrong). My remaining flanking archers, only 7, fail to kill a single gutter runner from the unit closing them down fast.
Skaven Turn 4
The last clanrat horde makes a long charge into the swordmasters (with gutter runners in support on the flank) and the other gutter runners make their charges: the large unit charging the flanking archers and the small unit assaulting the tower. The plague monks swing round and move toward the white lions.
The warp lightning cannon thought long and hard about shooting the princes and forcing a panic test to save itself. In the end, though, it tried its luck at picking off the archmage stood in the white lions. All for nothing - the shot was strength 2 and couldn't wound anything, the archmage passing his LOS save in any event.
In combat the large runners completely wipe out my flanking archers, but the small unit has worse luck and is easily pushed back from the tower and brought down to one rat. The clanrats' hero challenges out the bladelord, who fluffs it and is killed. The swordmasters clear a rank of rats and wipe out the gutter runners, however, and are completely protected by their stone flesh. The clanrats lose but are steadfast and hold.
High Elves Turn 4
The princes charge the WLC while the silver helms gallop at full speed toward the rear of the clanrat horde fighting the swordmasters. The white lions move up to cover the swords' flank against a charge from the plague monks. Lecalion leaves the lions and stands near the swordmasters.
Magic sees me get the full 12 dice (the Banner giving me 2) to my opponent's 5 dispel dice. I chuck 6 dice at Flesh to Stone on the white lions, which my opponent lets through. I then throw 6 dice at a long-range Dwellers against the plague monks, who melt to half strength (or just over) when my opponent fails to dispel - with the difference of D6+4 he just can't deal with my magic phase.
In combat the swords bring the skaven hero down and kill a bunch more rats. They only lose 3 of their number in reply but the steadfast skaven (barely) hold again. The princes easily smash aside the crew of the warp lighting cannon and overrun into the centre of the field along the skaven table edge.
Skaven Turn 5
The plague monks charge the white lions and the large runners assault the archers in the tower. Shooting is all done so it's straight to combat and the High Elf troops really show their quality. Before their enemies have a chance to strike the white lions rip the heart out of the plague monks' formation and, without the sheer mass of attacks granted by their formation at full strength, the monks can't reply in kind even with their re-roll banner. Flesh to Stone seals the deal, the plague monks easily break and are run down. The swordmasters continue to tear into the clanrats, though the rats hold their own and manage to stand. With the silver helms galloping to their rear, however, they're doomed. Presumably because they can see the enemy army dissolving, the archers in the tower fight hard and hold their position.
High Elves Turn 5
Caradath and the silver helms crash home into the rear of the clanrats to bring them swift death. The white lions advance towards the tower to get within charge range of the gutter runners assaulting it, Lecalion moving up behind them to get within Awakening range of the last gutter runner from the nearest unit. The princes also hasten toward the tower over the open ground in the centre of the field.
In the magic phase Lecalion duly blasts the lone gutter runner with Awakening to claim the points for the unit. The archers in the tower open up on the last skaven gutter runners but, exhausted and with only 4 models left, they can't find the mark.
Combat goes as expected and the swordmasters and silver helms devastate the remaining clanrats. With only some gutter runners on the field (and within charge range next turn of some vengeful white lions), my opponent concedes and the game is over.
Victory to the High Elves!
Battle Review- High Elves vs Skaven
Well, technically it all went like clockwork: I deployed my best units together having used some tricky deployment to get my opponent to throw down a horde and the doomwheel onto the wrong part of the field, combined my best fighters together and unleashed a storm which skaven infantry are just ill-equipped to handle. My opponent's fighting characters, designed to provide some killing power to the hordes, were not able to counter the amount of damage I was throwing down. My opponent's hordes, meanwhile, were not large enough to handle the amount of damage I was able to cause in a single round of combat, even when I'd lost my chariot and my prince. They're cheap enough - skaven players may as well field their hordes in units of 50 strong to give them a chance of holding on the steadfast. As it was, having their general and BSB nearby wasn't enough to hold the rats in place and, once I'd steamrolled that first horde and overrun into the warlord's unit, the skaven were in trouble. Even if I hadn't got Dwellers off on that unit, the swordmasters were ready to flank next turn and, with the knights, would torn the rats up in any event. My opponent counted on being able to grind me down with steadfast infantry units but in hordes of 40 they just weren't able to cut it.
Plague Monks and the Plague Banner
The great exception to this were the plague monks. When I saw them go down without a furnace, I didn't think much of them. A steadfast spear-column would hold them in place while my knights and elites tore through the clanrats. That banner they were carrying was a real revelation, however, and isn't something I'll forget. My opponent never told me the name of it (I will say, briefly, that he wasn't pleasant to play against- lots of winging extra inches out of skirmisher movement, rolling dice without saying what for, rules lawyering (often without knowing the rules)- it was quite an exhausting game), but I intend to find out and will assume that, wherever I see a horde of plague monks, they will be carrying this flag. Losing my spears was definitely a downer.
In future, if I can't redirect them, I'd maybe just throw a tank infront of those monks (Caradath would be perfect since, without the furnace, they can't handle armour) and use the spear column to break steadfast alongside some elites.
Edit: Lord Anubis (below) has cleared up the mystery of the flag: it's the Plague Banner - only one use only but watch out for it!
Magic
Maybe the biggest single difference between the lists was in the magic phase, though. Even if my opponent had brought a cheap caster with a scroll he would've made life harder for me but, as things were, I could drastically alter any combat in my favour by either toughening my units or using Dwellers below to melt a horde into inefficiency. In one turn I was able to secure the doom of 2 hordes by casting Flesh to Stone on the swordmasters (which proved the key to breaking steadfast on the first clanrat horde), and Dwellers on the warlord clanrats, which allowed my helms to overrun and single-handedly run that unit down despite the two fighting characters stood with it. Dwellers likewise ensured the doom of the plague monks, who had no chance against T5 white lions when only fighting in a single rank (as they were after the lions' attacks). Magic was an absolute game winner.
Shooting
My opponent was remiss in not bringing at least some magic defence, but his shooting phase was very scary. 120 sling stones flew at my army during the first turn, with tremendous effect, and the warp lighting cannons made me very nervous even before they knocked my prince out. This is the first battle I've fought where I really wasn't able to use my shooting to take out enemy harassment or swing the big combats (magic had to step up here). Instead my shooting base spent the whole game trying to just hang on for dear life. Skaven gutter runners are elite units: if you see them in quantity, it may be sensible to change up your game plan. In hindsight, since I wasn't able to count on my support elements surviving long enough to dictate the movement phase (I had nothing to redirect those plague months, so I lost the spearelves), in future I'd maybe deploy more of my forces together, so that my archers can provide more support if my eagle and chariot both snuff it.
As for losing the prince... Well that sucked hard, but you just have to take strokes of bad luck like that on the chin and keep going. You will fail 2+ rolls occasionally! In any case, Caradath did an excellent job of picking up the slack: in fact my silver helms and both units of elites really showed their quality.
An interesting game, then, if not exactly a typical (or especially enjoyable!) one. Next up are the Warriors of Chaos, who I should be getting a game against at some point within the next 10 days. My mines have been kinder to me this turn and, although one of the two I built collapsed (argh!), I have a mighty 220 points to spend on expanding my forces. Not sure how much I should spend at this stage but I think we're looking at least at getting the Banner of Sorcery back in and an extra eagle...