"These skinks just won’t die!" (Two warhammer lessons; 1] mounts always cause the most damage, esp. warhorses and 2] skinks die hard ! Grrr...)
(another good fantasy tournament battle report from Silas7)| source :warhammer.org.uk | credit : Silas7 | 22-Sep-2009 |
Skaven tournament 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 2000pt Army list
2nd gen slann (2+ ward, +1 spell, diadem of power, haunchi’s totem) leading 16 temple guard3x12 skinks (cohort, immune psych)
2x3 kroxigor
4 kroxigor
2 scar veterans. (There may be some other magic items, but I forget what they were).
Yes, you read that right. Two 2nd gen slann lists in a row. Time to fight in the shade again! David deploys evenly across the board, while I load most of my troops to the center and right.
Davis unit advance in a neat line. Going with mostly fire spells, the slann kills nine clanrats with firey doom. His scouts poke their heads out of the woods and pepper my night runners with javelins, killing three. Nobody runs. My rats move forward to close the distance with him. Hopefully I can make his immune to psychology work against him. Z’ym makes the singed clanrat unit frenzied, and zaps two skinks with warp lightning. I take some pot shots at the slann. A ratling gun blows away ten of his scouts, and night runners finish off the last one.
His army begins to consolidate towards the center of the board, while skinks and kroxigor work their way towards my weak right flank. The slann burns ten slaves to death, and then casts wall of fire on my frenzied clanrats (who are in charge range of his skinks). Blow darts kill two more slaves and four night runners, who panic away.
Howling in pain and frothing in fury, the frenzied rats charge through the wall of fire into the skinks. Seven of them burn, but the rest make it in to kill two skinks. The skinks kill one in return, and hold. The rest of my army edges forward.
The presence of the Old Ones makes itself felt. My censer bearers somehow avoid getting burned by fireballs, but two globadiers and five night runners get the life drained right out of them, falling to the ground as shriveled husks. An irresistible wall of fire springs up in front of Z’ym’s clanrats, to this frustration. Three clanrats die, and Grr takes a wound (he was in the front, to better influence combats). His skinks shoot five more slaves and the last globadiers from the drained unit. My frenzied clanrats kill 2 skinks, but they hold.
A unit of plague monks and the green censer bearers charge a wall of skinks in the center that are screening his kroxigor. My blue censer bearers charge the skinks coming round my right flank. Z’ym drives the blue censers into a death frenzy. One succumbs to the fumes, but the other two kill eight skinks and break the unit, running them down and pursuing into the kroxigor, where they promptly expire from the death frenzy. The other pestilent troops make short work of his skink screen and blast on through. Each one over runs into a different kroxigor unit, as my army presses forward. My clanrats kill two skinks, he kills none, and they hold.
The slann continues his rain of fire. Three globadiers go up in smoke, another irresistible wall of fire falls on my plague monks: three die, the priest takes a wound. My clanrats kill two skinks, he kills none, and they hold. These skinks just won’t die! My green censers wound a kroxigor twice, and then get chopped in half. The plague monks fare better, breaking and running down the lumbering lizards. The plague monks stand stock still before the wall of fire. Z’ym sees that the kroxigor are ready to charge the plague monks and will break them next round, rolling into his own unit! Warp lightning rends the air and two kroxigor explode in a shower of blood and bone. Zy’m then frenzies the clanrats to his left, preparing them for combat with the kroxigor. One ratling gun jams, the other one kills a third kroxigor, and a jezzail puts one more wound on the surviving one. The threat to the plague monks is contained. Clanrats kill one skink, they hold. Again!
One of his scar veterans charges out of the temple guard at my slaves, his kroxigor swing around the flank at the slaves as well. Understandably they flee. This exposes the flan of his kroxigor to my clanrats, and offers a charge to Z’ym’s unit. The slann lives up to its status as a 2nd generation by casting ANOTHER irresistible spell, this time drain life. Several rats die, but nothing that will cause a panic test. Another wall of fire lands on my frenzied clanrats killing two of them. (Truly a blessing and a curse, that frenzy.) The eternal clanrat / skink fight continues, neither side being able to wound this round. Thirteen clanrats die charging through the wall of fire at the kroxigor, losing several precious ranks. Neither side hits nor wounds, but we hold. The bell charges forward at the scar veteran, which flees. Only now, do I realize that the scar veteran may have HAD to have the mark of immune to psychology on it (as the entire army was a cohort) and therefore couldn’t have fled. Oops. Z’ym twitches and gnashes his teeth in agitation. A vermintide munches a temple guard, and warp lightning kills four others. Both jezzail teams decide to shoot themselves in the face and panic off the table. (Two failed reliable rolls?) Z’ym orders the bell struck, and his clanrats become stubborn. The clanrats finally managed to kill the last skink. My plague monks move behind his main unit
After many turns of silent contemplation and furious spell casting, the temple guard moves forward around my frothing clanrats. His scar veteran rallies. He uses the hanchi totem, and the temple guard move 6” forward, exactly what he needed to hit my seer’s rats.
He kills a lot of rats, but my stubborn rats stay. My clan rats failed to hurt his kroxigor, and he chops some of them down. The plague monks and clanrats charge his hero, who managed to chop down my plague priest before we drown him in a sea of furry bodies. I move some night runners, globadiers, and a ratling gun in range of the kroxigor fight, but decide not to shoot into the combat. His kroxigor had two wounds, andif I killed one, I would have to do three wounds in combat to avoid being attacked, instead of one. Also, if I took any wounds, I would be lower US than him and primed to flee if I lost combat.
Z’ym desperately casts death frenzy on his clanrats, dismissing the fate of the other frenzied units. There was no time for the bloated frog to cast wall of fire again! The bell is struck again, but no sounds emits from it !!! My clanrats fail a third time to hurt the kroxigor, and lose enough in combat to be outnumbered and broken through fear. The ratling gun, globadiers, and night runners all panic and flee (not a very smart move on my part, putting them so close to a combat I was likely to lose). The clanrats and temple guard fight again, and more clanrats die. I lose the combat, and fail my break test. Z’ym screams for Grr to wave his flag. Grr holds up a little snowflake doily he made from the army standard. Z’ym flips out and chases after Grr, threatening to tear him limb from limb! Grr runs away waving his snowflake, and the rest of the clanrats dutifully follow, running from the bewildered temple guard. (This colorful description of failing a break test and re-roll is funnier if you've seen Invader Zim).
Any chance of a win vanished with Z'ym.
Facing two 2nd gen slann is definitely a job of work. Both of the armies were much lower in comp than I was, but we were in the stage where matching were based on battle points. The last game was an entire fluke either, so there’s nothing to complain about. David dice were absolutely on fire, and he weathered everything I could throw at him, which wasn’t terribly much. I confess that right about when both jezzails blew themselves up, I gave up inside. I played the game out, but my heart was definitely not in it, and it showed on my face. Fortunately, my sullen behavior only cost me a point, and by that time I was so far behind it didn’t matter. Kudos to David for bringing a tough list, but not going over the top with it, and for getting a higher battle score than his friend’s comp score.
The ride home was pretty bleak. This year's GT season hasn't treated me kindly. After sitting down and recording my tales of woe, I did find that there was some triumph to be found as well. Derek showed me that High Elves are still a good army in the hands of a good general, without needing to go all cav, and before the new upgrades. Mychael and I had a great game with lots of carnage. I managed a win in game three despite losing my Seer. Brian is so much fun to play you don't mind his army and the rules for the scenario gave me a better than average chance of winning. My last game I can't shake the feeling that my poor dice and Dave's hot dice were a major factor in how things turn out. But isn't that how it goes sometimes? When you are on, you're on.
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