Time for the battle report for my 20th game of Warhammer Fantasy in 2015. I'm on pace for 40 games, which is pretty nice (and a whole lot of Warhammer). This game was a four player Triumph and Treachery game, with 1,500 points each plus 300 points of mercenaries. Or at least it was supposed to be (more on that later).
First up, my painting progress. I managed to add six new models to my collection for this game. I have been playing my Dwarfs a lot lately, so I felt like switching it up for Triumph and Treachery game and played my Skaven force. Most of my Triumph and Treachery games lately have been 2,000 points, and Mercenaries are 100 points for every 500 in the main force. Thus, 300 was a little less than the usual, and I didn't really have any good options for allies at that level with my Skaven (no way I was taking Dwarf allies... they would never sully themselves to work with Skaven). So I decided to add some new options, using the Storm of Magic units.
Three Unicorns
I decided to field a Dark Emissary as the Mercenary Captain, and added three Deepforest Unicorns to my force to be the Mercenary units. They can be bought in units of 1-5, and I ran them as three separate individuals. They were intended to be War Machine hunters, as their movement of 10" is fantastic. I modified the stags from the Wood Elf Wild Riders/Sisters of the Thorn kit to be a single horn. That way I can use them as a unit of Great Stags as well for higher-points games or Storm of Magic games. I have two more that will fill out the rainbow: one a yellow-green and one a green blue.
Two Clanrats with hand weapons and shields
I also added some more Skaven models to my force. I got in a good rhythm with my Dwarfs of completing rank-and-file models, and that's something that desperately needs to happen with my Skaven. So I managed to add two more Clanrats to the force. I know they're only 12 points of the army, but every bit helps.
Ratling Gun
I also added an option to go with their larger unit: a Ratling Gun. My usual preference is Warpfire throwers for the army, as they just make me laugh too much to not include them. But I wanted to have some options--and the Ratling Gun is a somewhat reliable choice (as Skaven models go). It can generally get between 6-10 shots without too much jeopardy, and the shots hit hard. Plus I like that the ratman in the back is cranking the weapon and grinding the bits of warpshard that are fired from the gun.
For the battle, my Skaven were facing off against Travis' Brettonians, Roger's Wood Elves, and Tom's Lizardmen. The points were 1500 per side, with 300 points of mercenaries each. However, there was some confusion on the points cost--we found out only at the end of the game that Tom brought 1,800 points. I think I was the source of the confusion, not remembering that we usually do 2,000 for 3-player, 1,800 for 4-player, and 1,500 for 5-player. And my goof was spread to all the players but Tom (who went with the normal amount). In the end it was a fun game and the variance in army sizes was not a game-changing difference in points, so it's all good. On to the battle report!
The small council of dark magics. Given that I've been doing Dwarfs for a while, it was time to go heavy on the magic use. So I fielded four casters with four different lores. From left-to-right: The Dark Emissary Mercenary with the Lore of Shadow, Warlord Ripear wearing his Wizarding Hat magic item (which randomly generated Heavens Lore for this game), Engineer Gnawfire with the Skaven Lore of Ruin, Plague Priest Cardinal Fang with the Skaven Lore of Plague.
My main force was a block of Stormvermin and a block of Clanrats, supported by Rat Swarms, small "rat dart" units of Giant Rats, Slaves, and the three Unicorns summoned and enslaved by the Dark Emissary for his nefarious purposes. A unit of three Stormfiends are not shown here, as they were busy burrowing their way to the battlefield.
The Bretonnians were considerably constrained by the small deployment zone (a 12" radius half circle from a point on a board edge), and two whole knights units were unable to start on the table. What began on the table was a big block of Knights, a unit of peasants, a unit of Pegasi Knights, and two Trebuchets. They were joined by a High Elf Mercenary Captain leading a unit of Dragon Knights.
The Wood Elves brought even more trees with them, and deployed in a small grouping around them. Their leader was a massive Treeman, supported by a unit of Treekin, a block of Eternal Guard, and a unit of Archers. The skirmishing Waywatchers used their scout deployment to man a barricade close by the their starting zone. And for Mercenaries, the elves brought along what they thought was another Treeman--however, it was actually a tree that was cursed and infested with the trapped spirit of a Khorne Daemon Prince (using those rules).
The Lizardmen force was led by Kroq-gar on his mighty Carnosaur, along with a large unit of Saurus Cold One Knights, a block of Saurus warriors, a big Skink Cohort, and a unit of Skink Skirmishers. For Mercenaries, they were joined by two human wizards: one with the Lore of Beasts and one with the Lore of Fire.
The battle began with savagery, as the Lizardmen spurred their Cold One mounts to try and strike the Bretonnian peasantry. They failed their charge only barely, and thus were counter-charged by the massive column of Bretonnian knights--led by the Bretonnian general. While the Egg of Quango slew three knights, the rest of the knights went unscathed from the Lizardmen's strikes--and the knights cut down six of the riders themselves. The Lizardmen fled, and were not caught by the knights. Shaken but still ready to fight, they rallied on their turn.
The general of the Wood Elves was a massive and ancient Treeman, and he ran toward the objective. There was a cursed statue in the center of the field, its eyes weeping blood. The Sinister Statue fired bolts of damaging negative energy from its eyes, but yet the armies each wanted to secure it for themselves. Due to the magics of the statue, only the general of each army could carry the statue (the particular Triumph and Treachery mission we got was the one with the objective in the center, and the statue was randomly generated in terrain set-up prior to the mission--so we figured "why not have to carry the deadly statue?). However, in the Treeman's zeal to reach the statue he became the target of enemies. In particular, the Bretonnian Trebuchets ranged in on him--the massive stone crashing down from the sky above managed to destroy the living plant in a single burst of destruction.
While the Bretonnians were focused on the Lizardmen and Wood Elves, my smaller Skaven units started clogging up charge lanes and reading for assaults--trying to discourage the left flank of the Bretonnian army from heading my way.
The Eternal Guard of the Wood Elves, joined by a Treesinger mage, were assaulted by the Rat Swarms and a Unicorn. The forest was a Venom Thicket, which gives all models within poisoned melee attacks--that proved to be a deadly tool for the swarms and the normally elite infantry only managed to beat my units by one point, and both held firm in the fight.
The rage-demon bound inside the wooden effigy ran forward and attacked the Lizardmen. While it slew a number of Skinks in the Cohort, it was not prepared for the savagery of the massive Kroxigors that accompanied their smaller brethren. With brutal roars, their crude great weapons tore the wooden structure housing the Khornate daemon to shreds in an instant, leaving it utterly demolished and the Wood Elves down another of their powerful tree spirits.
The Skaven Stormfiends proved to have a disastrous day. Their first attempt to arrive went awry, with them lost in the tunnels beneath the battlefield. On their second they came up right in the Khemrian Quicksand and one of their number drowned right before they failed a charge against the Wood Elves. The Wizard accompanying the Lizardmen then launched a magical spear at them, killing the second of their trio outright. The remaining one fled immediately (above)... only to wind up right in the path of Kroq-gar who chased him down and destroyed him with ease.
The Beasts Lore Wizard's glory was short-lived however, as the Bretonnian general was able to charge her from behind shortly after her magical assault on the Skaven. With no mercy, he rode her down under hooves, slaying her with a single strike that took her head clean off: a "not-so-heroic" attack with heroic killing blow special rule.
Meanwhile the Bretonnian Knights Errant proved their recklessness by charging straight across the Khemrian Quicksand into the side of the Saurus Warriors. While three died to the sand, the resulting combat demolished the Lizardmen and they were run down by the mounted foes.
The Bretonnians continued to plague the Lizardmen. Even when the rallied Saurus Cavalry managed to strike the flank of the Bretonnian knights, the knights didn't break. After one turn that ended with a small Bretonnian win (and reform to face), the Knights won and the Lizardmen fled. They were so close to the edge of the battlefield that the Bretonnians decided not to give chase, but reform. Tom's ability to roll all 1's on attack rolls should have been a clue, however, as the Saurus cavalry fled only two inches and remained on the board--denying their points to the Bretonnians who were now facing the wrong way.
The Skaven magic phase proved to be less than thrilling, despite all the casters. I got some good bursts of Warp Lightning off, but otherwise it was a pretty minimal set of phases. The looming presence of the Bretonnian Pegasus Knights behind my lines left me out-flanked and with sub-standard targets for my magical destruction.
The Warpfire thrower had a moment to shine, when it was charged by the remaining Eternal Guard with the Wood Elf Archers politely directly behind it. And of course, given the state of Skaven luck that far in the game, the device misfired. Instead, it suffered a fuel leak and bolted in a random direction--right into my rat swarms--and blew up in a massive explosion. A template weapon that does d3 wounds is a sore thing for swarms (which take double wounds), and it ended up inflicting 10 wounds total--two bases gone and one left with a single wound.
My last chance to have an impact on the game was the end, but both my magic and shooting failed to finish off Kroq-gar (which would have left my Skaven general--Warlord Ripear--closest to the objective at the end of the game. But the Ratling Gun couldn't get enough shots to wound, and the magic was limited. The game ended with Kroq-gar savagely wounded but alive and in possession of the statue.
The Skaven left without the statue, watching the field won by the Bretonnians and the statue ripped out of the ground and carted off by a massive Lizardman Oldblood mounted on a Carnosaur. Warlord Ripear felt discouraged at first, but then remembered: it was the Blue Rat who sent him on this mission. Ever since Ripear had recovered his magical hat--which gave him magical knowledge unparalleled even among the Grey Seers--the Blue Rat had been giving him ever more difficult missions. A simple thought dawned on him. The statue was cursed, and he had seen the bolts of black energy it continued to spew at the Lizardmen even as he carried it. Ripear realized that maybe it had been a trick all along--that the Blue Rat would be pleased with either recovering the statue or pleased with Ripear's death to the statue. Coming back empty-handed might have been the best option after all.
Despite Kroq-gar's success at capturing the statue--gaining the 500 victory points it awards--that was not enough for the Lizardmen to surpass the victory points total of the Bretonnians. Their Knights had savaged the Lizardmen, while their shooting had decimated a very expensive Wood Elves general. My forces ended up mostly intact other than the Stormfiends and the Rat Swarms, but had hardly inflicted enough casualties or won enough battles to compete. Travis' Bretonnians won with 1650 victory points, with Tom's Lizardmen close behind at 1350. Roger's Wood Elves and my Skaven brought up the rear with 650 and 900 points respectively. As always, the fun of the game outweighs the need to win, and it was a great battle with good folk.
Total 2015: 20 (Win/Loss/Tie: 12/6/2)
Total 2014: 15 (Win/Loss/Tie: 8/6/1)
Skaven:
7 Wins (Undead 2, Empire 1, T&T Daemons and Dwarfs, Siege Dwarfs and Bretonnians, T&T Daemons and Empire, T&T Dual Undead)
9 Losses (Lizadmen 1, Skaven 1, Empire 1, Dwarfs 1, Daemons 1, T&T Daemons 1, T&T Dwarfs 1, Special Game Nurgle, T&T Bretonnians 1)
1 Tie (Empire 1)
Dwarfs:
11 Wins (High Elves 1, Lizardmen 1, Dwarfs 3, Wood Elves 2, T&T Undead and Dwarfs, T&T Lizardmen and Wood Elves, T&T Chaos Legions and Lizardmen, Team Daemons and Tomb Kings)
2 Losses (Dark Elves 1, Empire 1)
1 Tie (T&T Dual Undead)
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