The Deathtrain face the dreaded Skaven!
.::. Battle Report - 2400 vs Skaven (ETC comp) .::.
Death Archmage L4 Steed, Power Stone, Crown of Command, Dragonbane Gem = 300
Prince on Barded Steed, Giant Blade, Dragon Armour, Dawnstone, Enchanted Shield, Ironcurse Icon = 282
Lords = 582
Noble BSB on Barded Steed, BOTWD, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance = 172
Noble on Barded Steed, Heavy Armour, Shield, Ogre Blade, Dragonhelm = 141
Noble on Barded Steed, Heavy Armour, Shield, Luckstone, The Other Trickster`s Shard, Sword of Anti-Heroes = 141
High Mage Steed, Dispel Scroll, Ring of Fury = 145
Heroes = 599
18 Silver Helms, Full Command, Shields = 444
5 Reavers, bows = 85
5 Reavers, bows = 85
Core = 614
5 Shadow Warriors, Champion = 80
1 Frostheart Phoenix = 240
4 Repeater Bolt Throwers = 280
Special & Rare = 600
Army Total = 2395
His list:
Grey Seer, Screaming bell, General, Fencers Blade, Dragonbane gem, Scroll of shielding, Skalm
Chieftain, Bsb, Warbanner, Greatweapon
Chieftain, Charmed shield, Rival hide talisman, Potents of verminous doom
Warlock Engineer, lvl 1, dispel scroll
Warlock Engineer, lvl 1, Warplighting condencer
Warlock Engineer, Brass orb
Assassin, Weeping blade, Potion of streght
39 Stormvermin, Full command, Stormbanner
40 Slaves, champion, musician
40 Slaves, champion, musician
40 Slaves, champion, musician
5 Giant Rats, Packmaster
9 Gutter runners, Slings, Poison, 2x Hand weapon
9 Gutter runners, Slings, Poison, 2x Hand weapon
Hellpit abomination
Warplinging cannon
// Pre-battle thoughts and deployment //
This list is so nasty, I don`t even know where to begin. Luckily, the usual problems of HE facing Skaven aren`t present: the bus is immune to everything in his army apart from one single model: the Hellpit. The only way he can tear me down is to get it into combat and kill the Prince. In any other case, the game rests upon him clearing the rest of my list and my reaching the Stormvermin without the HPA grinding me.
Sounds easy, right?
Magic saw me get SL, D&D, Soulblight, Caress.
With +1, I go first:
// HE T1 //
I move the bus up hard with the Phoenix going along. Magic sees me draw his scroll with Spirit Leech + Caress on the brass orb dude. Shooting saw me make a big mistake: single bolt hits the Bell => Bell rings => he moves forwards. Suddenly the Phoenix is exposed. Skaven and all their rules. The rest proceed to kill Stormvermin.
Notice the SWs getting up to his WLC
// SK T1 //
He charges the Phoenix and makes it, which is huge (8+ needed). Magic, can`t remember but nothing significant. Shooting, again nothing. Combat: he puts the force-re-rolls-chieftain into the Frostheart which means I only deal 1W to him. Thunderstomp is big though, which saves me big time as his static is huge and I barely manage to hold.
There is a small Engineer blocking my bus, he`s just impossible to see on the corner
// HE T2 //
Prince charges in to help the Frostheart. Start the grind! The bus reforms to an insanely long blocker and I can only pray his HPA can`t grind me down somehow. He does need 12+ to reach me, so there`s hope still. Shooting sees 2 single bolts hit the HPA despite needing 6s due to storm banner, but no wounds were caused. Magic saw me kill an engineer with soul quench who had moved to block the bus from charging the Bell (again a mistake on my part, pretty much the same as my BR game. Need to start measuring more carefully!). I also get D&D on his HPA.
In combat the Prince is challenged out by the champ but the Frostheart likes its killing and thunderstomping so we`re stuck. SWs kill WLC and run towards the center.
// SK T2 //
Potion of Strength on the Assassin is declared. 2 Slave units charge the blocker, along with the HPA which makes the roll. Due to having to maximise, one unit of Slaves get an insanely long charge. Magic: low cast of Death Frenzy, but a truly terrible dispel attempt sees it go through. Shooting: nada. Combat: bus goes about grinding slaves, HPA kills a few. I stand on stubborn. In my previous reform I took great care to ensure maximum character safety, essentially it`s impossible for him to start targeting me for a few more rounds.
Prince is challenged out by an assassin. I`m lucky that I even survive, but manage to save all wounds despite being down to 5+ re-rollable. I do 1W in return. This time the thunderstomp isn`t big: I lose but the Prince holds, allowing the bird to escape safely.
// HE T3 //
Shadow Warriors charge Slaves to help out. Frostheart rallies. Magic sees a boosted Soulblight go through, which is huge for me. Shooting irrelevant yet again.
In combat the Prince finishes the assassin with a couple of overkill, which helps me hold on a low roll (his static is huge!). The Slaves die in droves but his HPA kill a few as well, he wins just BARELY (we found out the next turn that we had calculated this wrong, I was supposed to have won by 1) and I hold.
// SK T3 //
Last Slaves charge into the bus. Magic sees him cast Deathfrenzy on Slaves. He also gets the no-fly spell off. Shooting nada, and in combat the Prince kills the BSB and holds (finally less CR!) while the bus finally wins, the HPA only scoring the B2B attack with being corner-to-corner so only 1 dead Helm. The HPA still being Doomed fails its break test and runs. There is hope still!
// HE T4 //
Bird charges HPA which runs away. I redirect AND make my 7+ charge into the Slaves` rear. Magic sees me get off boosted Soulblight again. In combat he challenges with his Grey Seer, but I am lucky and score 4 wounds, of which only 1 is saved! The Grey Seer goes down instantly. I hold. Bus + Phoenix win, but he holds with all.
In his next turn the HPA rallies. The Gutter Runners STILL don`t arrive. What happens now is just insane: his Slaves ALL break and explode, which deals a TON of wounds: Frostheart down to 1W, bus down to 1W on the bus itself, AM on 1W, BSB on 1W and Ogre Blade Noble on 1W. The Prince even takes a wound! Stormvermin are severely reduced, so I have 2 choices with my bus since I break him in his T4 (thus I can reform and move in my T5): I can either charge the Bell and hope his HPA doesn`t make it or I can run around, hoping that 2 rounds of GR shooting won`t kill me off. I take my chances with the former and everything I have (including Reavers) hit the Bell.
The Prince struggles to deal enough damage to it so he can`t help with clearing the Stormvermin, so I`m stuck and have to face the HPA which makes the distance (yet again, this is a fast beast!). By this time I had reformed with my rear to the bell to be able to cast SL + Caress on the beast, but to no avail. It hits me and kills the Archmage (300points), the BSB (272 points), the bus (247 points) and the fighter-noble (142 points). The Prince does kill the Bell however and all Stormvermin were dead, so both sides had taken huge points.
In the end, Skaven won by a small margin (less than 150 points) with my General bonus for the Grey Seer keeping me within a
10-10 draw
// Evaluation //
The HPA is a true pain for this list. I probably should`ve dedicated both units of Reavers to it from the get-go. He deployed on unit of Gutter Runners on that side though, which screen Reavers quite effectively.
Shooting the Bell T1 was a huge mistake. The bird was charged and I probably would`ve lost right then and there if it had broken and been run down. Also letting the bus be blockable is bad, especially since the same thing happened last game! I guess I didn`t expect things to hit off so soon.
RBTs in this matchup are largely useless. By the time the game ended I had 5 single bolt hits on the HPA but no wounds were caused (ALL of them because I failed to roll a 3+!). I think the best use for them here is to clear as many Stormvermin as possible before combat begins.