The Dread Necromancer

Two days later, another game. This time it was a doozy: 2500 points on each side, facing off against Nagash and a horde of undead. On the painting side, with it being a work week, I managed to finish exactly one model. A single Skavenslave. My army has grown by exactly 2 points.

Here he is in all his glory. 

The battle itself started with a laugh, as Nagash miscast and was destroyed by a Dimensional Cascade on the first turn with his first casting of a spell. As that would have made for a crappy game, we decided to start over and not count that one.

 The central forces of Nagash, aligned again for battle. A Casket of Souls to fuel his casting power, a line of Skeletons and Ghouls to menace the rats, and a giant Terrorgheist to eliminate rats with its deadly screeching. 

 On the Skaven's left flank, a mighty Varghulf and a Banshee closed in on the Plague Monks. Led by Cardinal Fang, the monks managed to charge the Varghulf and finish it in combat, over-running into the Banshee. However, Nagash brought forth a unit of eighty zombies in a mass to menace the Plague Monks' side.

The Blue Rat used the powers of magic himself to counter the waves of risen zombies. He managed to cast his Plague spell, which cut the numbers of zombies in half. Meanwhile the Warpfire throwers focused on the Ghouls, hoping to whittle their ranks before the poisonous creatures reached the Skaven lines.

 Nagash's following magic phase was underwhelming, as he failed to cast a spell and was prohibited from using any more dice. On the Skaven turn, a Skaven assassin arrived from the board edge and began throwing his Warpstone Stars at Nagash, managing to inflict a wound. Despite three turns of throwing, and two that managed to result in failed saves by Nagash, he only inflicted two wounds with the weapon total. The Assassin took credit for "disrupting" Nagash's magic phase before he arrived, but most on the Clan council doubted his contribution to the battle.

The other unit of ghouls reached the line of Rat Swarms, and carnage ensued. While the ghouls gave better than they got, they still lost too many to the gnawing and biting attacks of the rat swarms. As the swarms collapsed, the remaining ghouls faced a charge from the Warlord and the Stormvermin and crumbled under their assault. 

Thanks to some impressive over-running the Plague Monks continued to skirt the zombie horde and pushed their way across the Undead backfield toward Nagash. He summoned a unit of Bat Swarms to try and slow them down, but the swarms crumbled under the sheer volume of attacks that the Plague Monks put out. While they had taken casualties from the Banshee's scream, the Varghulf's claws, and the bats, they had strong enough numbers to push on toward Nagash himself. 

 One of the Warpfire throwers had a brutal fuel leak, causing it to turn on spot and rush backward right into the face of a Plagueclaw catapult before exploding in a gout of flame. Luckily the catapult was not wounded, or it would have likely seen its crew scurrying for safety off the board edge. 

The Plague Monks finally reached Nagash, aided by the Gutter Runners. Their Death Runner proved to be the most effective, with his poisoned attacks and Weeping Blade dealing heaps of destruction--though certainly aided by the poisoned attacks of the other Gutter Runners and the multitude of attacks from the Plague Monks. They won the first round of combat and inflicted a single additional wound on Nagash through combat resolution. Then on his turn, the combat managed to land a decisive number of blows as he succumbed to the poisons of Clan Eshin. At that point, the game was over for the Undead as they didn't have enough left to stop the Skaven menace, so we ended on Turn Five. 

Overall it was a fun game, as Nagash certainly keeps things interesting with his summoning spells. However, with a bit of magic defense (a level four wizard, a dispel scroll, and a Warp-Energy Condenser on Engineer Gnawfire that consistently helped with dispel pool dice channeling) and some bad luck on Nagash's part, it didn't get overwhelming. He managed to add 80 Zombies, 4 Bat Swarms, and a new Terrorgheist before he was killed--along with raising some Skeletons and healing himself. I think that there could be games where his casting really gets out of control, but this wasn't one of them. The problem with him seems to be his price tag: so few models on the board with him.

This brought me to even wins and losses in 2015, which was a welcome thing. I'm starting to get the hang of Skaven and recognizing what works well, and what works not-so-well. I also was happy that I didn't have to rely on anything too overwhelming to take Nagash out (massed cannon shots, The Fellblade, or anything tricksy like a lucky shot with a Brass Orb). Just some poisoned attacks, static resolution, and a model with a Weeping Blade.

Fully Painted Models
Skaven: 78
Dwarfs: 41

Battles
Total 2015: 7 (Win/Loss/Tie: 3/3/1)
Total 2014: 15 (Win/Loss/Tie: 8/6/1)

Skaven:
5 Wins (Undead 1, Empire 1, T&T Daemons and Dwarfs, Siege Dwarfs and Bretonnians, T&T Daemons and Empire)
7 Losses (Skaven 1, Empire 1, Dwarfs 1, Daemons 1, T&T Daemons 1, T&T Dwarfs 1, Special Game Nurgle)
1 Tie (Empire 1)

Dwarfs:
4 Wins (Dwarfs 2, Wood Elves 2)
1 Loss (Dark Elves 1)