"He holds my magic at bay, while my ratling gun and globadiers kill five skinks on the left flank. The bell tolls another 13, an army wide panic test. Brian snickers and passes all his tests."
(another friendly, engaging tournament battle report from Silas7)| source : warhammer.org.uk | credit : Silas7 | 19-Sep-2009 |
Skaven Army List
Grey Seer Z’ym: dispel scroll, warpstone charm, twisted crown of horned rat, riding a screaming bell.Grrr!: cheiftan, battle standard, heavy armor, war banner
Hantus: plague priest, flail
Typhus: plague priest, flail
28 clanrats: standard, musician (the bell pushers)
25 clanrats: standard, musician, ratling gun
25 clanrats: standard, musician, ratling gun
3x20 slaves
3x3 poison wind globadiers
3x5 night runners: extra hand weapons, throwing stars
2x19 plague monks: full command
2x5 plague censer bearers
2x3 jezzails (yellow and red team)
Lizardmen Army list
2nd gen Slann(+1 spell, diadem of power, 2+ ward, fear banner) with
16 temple guard full command, war banner?
2x3 kroxigor
3x10 skinks
5 terradons w/brave
skink priest
nike saurus.
This was another objective based scenario. There were three markers along the center of the table. The player who had the highest collective unit strength within 6” of the objective won it. You needed a majority of the objectives to win the game; victory points only mattered for bonus points. I was sweating because Brian had a 2nd gen Slann, and Brian was sweating because I had him outnumbered about four to one.
Brian deploys his temple guard, salamanders and some skinks near the center objective, and his kroxigor and more skinks near the left one. I split my army evenly between all three objectives. He moves forward cautiously, sending his terradons to about the midfield. I weather his first batch of spells with little damage. I move forward boldly on the right, and with more caution on the center and left. A miscast on my part works in my favor, as I drain away the stored dice he was holding in his diadem!
The rain of spells begins, as the slann kills two jezzails and two censer bearers with his magic missiles. His skinks shoot a few slaves and a clanrat. His terradons hurl javelins and pin the ratling gun to the ground. The salamanders work up a tremendous volume of spit and melt fourteen plague monks into a puddle of goo! My slaves charge his skinks near the central objective. The night runners leave the safety of the woods and charge his terradons. Here's a shot of the left flank, showing the depleted plague monks.
He holds my magic at bay, while my ratling gun and globadiers kill five skinks on the left flank. The bell tolls another 13, an army wide panic test. Brian snickers and passes all his tests. His skinks hold up my slaves, being so close to the slann’s army standard. My night runners fail to wound at all, and his terradons “terr” them to messes, panicing the nearby globadiers. Why oh why didn’t I just stay in the woods? It’s not like he could have charged me! Stupid rats.
The scar veteran decides to take a chance and charges at the screaming bell, brandishing his great weapon. The salamander pack tears along with him. The rain of spells and darts continues to fall. It takes three magic missiles, but the slann finally finished off a unit of censer bearers. His left most skinks shoot the ratling gun that was causing them so much pain, while another plague monk falls from a dart in his neck.
His terradons swoop behind my second plague monk unit and skewer another four plague monks. The slave / skink combat continues, the slaves win but the skinks hold. The scar vet takes many swings at the bell, but only hits once. Once is enough, as I fail my ward save and the bell explodes! Some clanrats die, but my seer survives the mess with only one wound lost. Despite that loss, we still win the combat.
The depleted plague monks and surviving censer bearers charge into the salamander combat, while Z’ym skitterleaps out of the unit and into the clanrats on the right, far away from any hostile enemy. My night runners and globadiers sandwich the skinks between them (to deny them the chance of standing and shooting). The larger plague monk unit charges into the flank of the slave / skink combat, hoping to settle things at last. The last jezzail in the damaged squad takes his own life rather than risk getting fireballed again (reliable… HAH!) This round swings firmly my way. The night runners butcher his skinks, the plague monks slay the last of the skinks. The bell combat is epic: the plague monks kill a salamander, his scar vet challenges and kills my plague priest, and I kill enough handlers to make it nigh impossible for him to hold. My censers and monks run down the fleeing lizards, but my clanrats hold, not wanting to end up in charge range of his temple guard.
The temple guard surges forward into the slaves, who wisely flee. He just manages to “enemy in the way” into my clanrats, who (un)wisely decide to flee as well. Grr laughs manically. Brian sends the terradons into the rear of my plague monks to pin them down. (3d6 for Ld tests plus a BSB makes almost any unit a tar pit). The slann doesn’t blink as his spells kill five clanrats and 4 slaves from the fleeing units. His last unit of skinks shoots two censer bearers. The plague monks weather his charge and hold.
The censer bearers charge the skinks who fired on them, while the few plague monks charge a kroxigor unit in the flank. The slaves flee off the board. Grr yells out “Last one home has to clean the rat ogre cages! WEEEEEE!” and the clanrats leg it after the slaves, also leaving the board. I just lost almost fifty US worth of troops, leaving the center firmly in Brian’s hands. Z’ym curses his idiotic standard bearer, then hurls a plague into the temple guard. Four of them catch cold, and die. Z’ym’s hysterical cackle fills the air. The plague priest moves to the rear of the monks and swats some terradons, but they continue to hold cold-bloodedly. The censer bearers make short work of the skinks (short, get it?), but the plague monks and kroxigor fail to wound each other, and he holds.
Brian looks around the board. Currently I am winning the objective battle: my slaves and Z’ym’s clanrats hold the right objective, my plague monks are contending the center objective, and my clanrats and various skirmishers stand poised to swoop in and take the third, outnumbering his two kroxigor units greatly.
At his telepathic command, the temple guard charge into the plague monk unit. The slann sends more magic missiles to thin out the slave units, killing eight of them near the left objective. The temple guards make a wonderful mess of things and break the plague monks. The temple guardss wisely hold, while the last terradon (the brave, of course) runs down the monks and takes their banner. My other monks fail to wound again, and his kroxigor cuts two of them in half, breaking the rest of them and picking up their standard (this is very important!).
The censer bearers dither between charging the kroxigor on their left and the temple guad on their right. They end up careening into the temple guard, hoping to reduce their unit strength a little. Z’ym orders the clanrats forward towards the center, while the slaves sit on the right objective. Z’ym chuckles and wrings his hands. “Foolish flying jungle lizard! Keep our precious standard. It makes a wonderful conductor… for ELECTRICITY!” The brave is sheathed in a corona of warp lighting, and burns to ash along with his mount and the banner. On the left the night runners and globadiers run behind the kroxigor and pelt them with pointy and stinky things, wounding them slightly. The censers kill two temple guards before being slaughtered.
Here's the hotly contested left flank on the last turn.
Everything hangs in the balance on the last turn. The slann directs all of his remaining spells at the left clanrat block, killing about eight of them with spells. They panic and flee off the table. Suddenly the entire left flank is in doubt! My slaves, globadiers, and night runners all run like mad towards the objective. Z’ym urges his rats forward, but they won’t make it to the center in time. In spite, he kills a few more temple guard, reducing them down to three remaining. Shooting fails to kill any kroxigor, and the battle comes to an end.
Brian holds the center objective, and I hold the right. We add up the unit strength on the left flank. I have a total of twenty four (slaves, globadiers, and night runners) and he has eighteen for the two kroxigor units… and TEN for the captured standard. He has twenty eight, giving him the objective and the game!
At the time I was pretty broken hearted about losing that clanrat unit in the last turn, but as I review the report, this was a kick-bottom game of Warhammer. Brian is the kind of opponent who can make you laugh even when he's kicking your butt. Fortune swung back and forth, and while Brian was winning on points I was making him work hard to get the objectives. The last round was crucial. One thing I could have done better was to move Z’ym’s clanrats a round sooner, so they could have held the center. Who knows how things would have gone though? I do think my dice let me down in a number of key places, and I don’t know if I could have accounted for that. What do you think?
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