Campaign Report vs. Skaven - Final Game

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Campaign Report vs. Skaven - Final Game

Post by Monkey »

Ok, I thought I'd try to do a battle report, how hard can it be right? I'm a big fan of decent battle reports, so hopefully this won't be too rubbish, and you can all point out the things I should have done.
My opponent, Gareth, and I have decided to play through the little Border Wars campaign pack which he has just bought. I had intended to use a Dragon + Double treeman list, but as it's a campaign and the armies are pretty much fixed for all the games, I wussed out and went for something a bit more conventional.

My List -
Spellweaver - Unicorn, The Wand of Wytch Elm, Glamourweave (the magic item as well as the kindred) - Shamelessly stolen from Pusherman :o http://www.asrai.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=24808
Noble - BSB, Asyendi's Bane, Hail of Doom
Alter Noble - Helm of the Hunt, Rageths Wildfire Blades, Potion of Strength, Light Armour + Shield - Shamelessly stolen from the Killer Noble Tread :o http://www.asrai.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25002
12x Glade Guard - Banner of Eternal Flame and Musician
12x Glade Guard - Standard and Musician
12x Glade Guard - Musician
10x Dryad
10x Dryad
6x Scouts
6x Wildriders - Standard and Musician
5x Wildriders - Standard and Musician
4x Treekin
2x Great Eagles
1x Treeman

Which I make 2497pts. The Spell weaver chose the Lore of Beats and ended up with Wyssans Wildform, Flock of Doom, Amber Spear and Curse of Anrahier which I was pretty pleased with.

Gareth's list was roughly (didn't want to look at it as he'll be using it in the later games)-
Grey Seer
Warlord on a War Litter
Chieftain BSB
Another Chieftain
Warlock Engineer with a Doom Rocket
Plague Priest with a Flail
Assassin with a Potion of Strength and the Obsidian Amulet
30x Clan Rats
31x Storm Vermin - shields, Halberds and the Storm Banner
40x Slaves
40x Slaves
29x Plague Monks - Plague Banner
8x Gutter Runners - Poisoned Slings
Hellpit Abomination
Doomwheel
Warplightening Cannon

The Plague Priest rolled Plague and the Seer got Skitterleap, Cloud of Corruption, Howling Warpgale and Death Frenzy along with 2 warpstone tokens

The Scenario (Border Conflict or something - have forgotten it's name) required that there be a river down the middle of the board with tress and hills at one side and a plain on the other. I was given the foresty-hilly side as it seemed more thematic - Ace! The scenario then requires both side to choose a strategy. I went a bit conservative and choose to Hold, Gareth went for Scout. Consulting the matrix this meant that Gareth could choose the scenario. He chose Meeting Engagement (other options were Battline or Blood and Glory). I was allowed to pick a Stratagem. Again I was conservative and opted for one that will give me a unit worth D6x50 points in the next game.

Gareth won the roll off and chose which way to divide the table (as we had already allocated sides), and set about deploying his army with the Warplightening Cannon and the Plague Monks delayed. The Gutter Runners chose to Sneaky Infiltrate. I then deployed my army, with the unit of 6 Wildriders and the Treekin being late. Gareth was careful to leave me now-where to deploy my scouts behind his line, and as I didn't know where the Warplightening Cannon would arrive I opted to put them over on the far left to help the Glade Guard Shoot down the Abomination.

There is a map of the deployment here. Sorry about the bluryness, I had the camera in macro mode :o So I have put little labels on so you can see what's what.
Image

At this point I didn't have a proper plan (I usually don't - it's probably a failing). I had in mind to use the 2 units of Glade Guard and Scouts to shoot down the Abomination (the Glade Guard with the BSB behind the hill have the flaming banner), Try and charge the Doomwheel with the Alter Noble as soon as it moved through the woods and use the Eagles to chase down the Warplightening Cannon as soon as it moved onto the board. Should probably mention the Plague Priest is on his own primarily to stop me deploying my scouts behind his lines, but also to await the arrival of the Plague Monks.
I managed to roll a 6 to seize the initiative, but then realising I'd sort of set up to go second, opted to make Gareth take the first turn.
Last edited by Monkey on 15 Dec 2013, 12:58, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Ok, the Skaven advance begins. In the south the Doomwheel busts through the woods in front of my Dryads and the Alter Noble, and in the North the Abomination races 16" across the board, nicely into short range of my waiting archers :)
Elsewhere the Plague Monks arrive and join up with the Plague Priest, the Stormvermin, Clanrats and the northern most Slaves cautiously advance. In the centre the Slave unit has to swift reform into a horde formation and then advance to ensure they have no models in the river, as this would take away their rank bonus and stop them being steadfast and leave them in a very vulnerable spot.
Photography also improved as I turned off Marco mode and turned on the flash!

Image

In the magic phase(9 dice, 5 and 5 no channels) I let Death Frenzy go on the central slave unit, and manage to dispel a 4 dice casting of Howling Warpgale using all my dice and the Wand of Wytch Elm re-roll :roll: Gareth chooses to end the phase with 2 dice unused, and then the Doomwheel fries 3 of my Dryads, 1 slave dies of Death Frenzy and it's over to me. At this point, I'm very happy with the way things are going.....
Last edited by Monkey on 25 Oct 2013, 14:28, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Right, so my first turn, and things were already looking good. Clearly my noble would demolish the Doomwheel, my archers would mow down the abomination in a hail of flamimg death, before reforming to take out the Stormvermin in subsequent turns, my eagles could soar over to take out the Warplightening Cannon next turn, and surely I could find a good way to take out the clanrats an the Grey seer? and after that he'd have hardly anything left. As soon as my battle report went up, I'd have loads of people lining up to tell me that I was a fabulous warhammer player right?

Wrong!! :( As no doubt everyone apart from me expected at the start of my turn Gareth activated the Storm Banner, so no flying and -2 to hit with shooting :roll: Well, never mind I thought, I can still carry out a part of my plan. So the Alter downed his potion of strength and declared a charge on the Doomwheel. At this point I realised that because I had foolishly deployed him behind the Dryads with no space for him to get past, then they would have to charge it to. So they did. Gareth chose to hold, reasoning he could put his Grinding attacks on the Noble, possibly kill him before he could attack, and then that would probably give him enough combat res to hold on.

So the Dryads rolled a 3 to charge which was the absolute minimum they need to make the charge. That was close, if they'd fail they would have blocked my Alter's charge. But the relief was short lived as the Alter Noble rolled a double 1 and failed the charge by 1 inch. So Potion of Strength completely wasted, and I was a bit worried about the Dryads now too.

Elsewhere the northern Glade Guard move to the edge of the wood, and the Glade Guard with the BSB, both units looking for clear shots at the Abomination, I wasn't very confident of killing it now, but reasoned that I'd try. I couldn't get the Treeman close enough to strangleroot the Abomination, so he moved off towards the centre of the board. Only later did I realise I could have moved him 10" towards it, ending in the wood and then used Treesinging to move himself into range. D'oh. The central Dryads moved into the wood in front of them (one with 1 tree, extent is indicated by the green felt in the pics). This was my free woodelf wood, and as it turned out it was a Wildwood, which promptly went wild and killed one of them :roll:
The two eagles hopped pathetically forward into the woods and the Treekin emerged over the brow of the central hill. As I didn't know what to do with the other Wildrider unit just yet, I opted to leave them off the board for another turn. Lastly the Spellsinger and Wildriders moved slightly northwards to where she could potentially get an Amber Spear on the Abomination.

Got a 5 for magic. Gareth let a 3 dice casting of Curse of Anrahier on the central slave unit and dispelled my 2 dice Amber Spear.

Shooting was a little better. Despite no needing 5's to hit and to wound, the Glade Guard on the hill with the flamming Banner put 3 wounds on the abomination. This success inspired me to finish the job in one turn, so the BSB unleashed the Hail of Doom. Gentle Shower was more apt, 6 shots, 5 hits and no wounds... The other Glade Guard unit and the Scouts managed a wound each, but rather inevitably it was still alive with one wound left and now very close to 3 of my units :eek:
The central Glade Guard unit shot down a Stormvermin, then it was on to combat.

The Drayds manged to cause a wound on the stupid machine, and it caused no wounds in return. It fled with the Dryads in hot pursuit, but as it entered the forest Gareth failed his Dangerous Terrain test, rolled 5 wounds and that was the end of that :)

So all in all Turn one hadn't ended too badly. The picture below shoes the situation at this point.
Image

So what did the silly rat-men have up there sleeves now....
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Skaven Turn 2:
The Stormbanner remained active and Gareth wasted no time charging the eagles with the Death Frenzied Slaves. I flee, so he re-directs into the second eagle who also flees. Happily they both stay on the board and this attempted charge costs him 11 slaves lost to the Curse of Anrahier. The Abomination, clearly incensed by the flaming arrows rolls a triple 1 for movement and moves 3 inches to the north - Hurrah!! that was a lucky escape.
The other units continue to advance, with the clanrats and the Strom Vermin feeling safe enough to end their movement in the river. No sign of the Gutter Runners.

Magic is 7 dice. I dispel Howling Warpgale (thanks to the Wand of Wytch Elm). Despite the fact it's usually a bad move, I let Skitterleap go, Preferring to save my dice for whatever final spell Gareth has planned. Am very surprised when the Seer only moves a few inches forward onto the edge of the wood directly in front of him.

What are you up too????
Image

Gareth uses his final dice to cast Cloud of Corruption, but with my carefully saved dice I dispell it.

Situation at the end of the Skaven magic phase
Image

In the shooting phase the Warplightning Cannonn falls short of the Treekin. The Warlock engineer launches his rocket at the Glade Guard on the hill. Gareth goes for 5 dice and rolls 18", which lands it smack in the middle of them. The BSB looks out, but 10 Glade Guard die :( , although they don't panic. To end the turn 3 slaves die from Death Frenzy and the Storm Banner ends.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Wood Elf Turn 2
So, at the start of this turn, I can't help feeling the Grey Seer has left himself open, and the Stormvermin and the Clanrats have left themselves in a vulnerable situation by being partially in the river. Only thing is I can't quite figure out a way to take advantage of this. The Seer has been carefully positioned so I can't charge him, and there is nothing really appropriately positioned to charge either of the other units, so in the end I decide to try and trap the clan rats in the river.
The central Dryad unit charges into the Death Frenzied slaves. Meanwhile the other Dryads move to the flank of the Clanrats and the second unit of wildriders comes onto the table and parks themselves in front of them. If they charge me they will still be in the river, so won't have a rank bonus so I'm confident they won't beat me well enough to cause me to flee.
The Alter Noble moves into the woods where he can chareg the Seer if he doesn't shift it, or into the Clanrats. The Treekin advance, the Eagles both rally and the Spell weaver and her bodyguard move back to the middle of the table ready to unleash some magical goodness.
At this point I don't really know what to do with the treeman. After trying him in a few places, I put him back where he was to start with while I have a think. But then I get distracted and totally forget to move him :o I also fail to realise I need to move my 2 remaining Glade Guard and the BSB forward to get them into short range to shoot at the Abomination. It may also have been a good idea for the BSB to jump ship into the northern most Glade Guard unit at this point, but that also passes me by.....

Situation at the end of my movement
Image

My cunning trap...
Image

Glade Guard not moving up to get the Abomination in short range
Image

Dryads pile into the Death Frenzied Slaves
Image

For magic I get a mighty 11 dice, and settle down for a strong magic phase. :evil:
But it's not to be, 2 dice Treesinging on the wood with the Seer in it is dispelled. The Flock of Doom kills a Stormvermin, 3 dice Wyssan's Wildform on the Dryads is dispelled then I fail to cast a powered up Amber Spear with my last 4 dice.

In the shooting phase the 2 Glade Guard with teh Flaming Banner take the final wound from the Abomination :nod: The scouts and the northern unit of Glade Guard manage to kill 3 slaves between them and the Central Glade Guard unit shoots down 4 Stormvermin.

In combat the Dryads kill 8 slaves. The Slaves hit back for 7 wounds, but somehow I mange to save 5 of them. The Slaves hold, but have lost their frenzy. So, now lest see how Gareth evades my trap that maybe isn't as cunning as I had thought it was :roll:
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Skaven Turn 3
Right, I don't seem to have an overview shot for this turn, so you will have to cope with my descriptions and some close up shots instead. The clanrats charge the Wildriders, confident they can burst through. And in another positional failing on my part, the Stormvermin declared a flank charge on the now tiny Glade Guard unit on the hill. After Gareth pointed out that at below 25% strength the unit would need a double 1 to rally should they flee, I elected to hold. I'm pretty sure this was a mistake as once he moved them in, I could see he had a perfect over-run path into the flank of the next Glade Guard unit :angry:

Why do I never see these things coming.....
Image

The plague Monks tried to charge the Alter Noble who elected to hold, but fell short.
The other slaves continue to advance, the Gutter Runner still refuse to show, and after failing his test to march, the Seer shuffles further through the woods, looking to get out of as many charge arcs as possible.

Where are you sneaking off too??
Image

Magic is a 10, and in a fairly poor roll Gareth casts Howling Warpgale only on a 7. In another display of poor judgement, I decide to use only 1 dice to dispel. I only need to roll a 3 right, and I have the Wand of Wytch Elm to re-roll it. Wrong again!!. Two 1's later and the spell is cast. I have to use all my remaining dice to dispel Death Frenzy on the Clanrats, leaving Gareth a free reign for the rest of the magic phase. He then goes for a Cloud of Corruption, but casts it irresistibly!
This kills 2 Wildriders, both Eagles, The Alter Noble, 3 Dryads, 5 Clanrats and puts 2 wounds on the Treekin. But then he rolled a double 1 for his miscast and disappeared forever :nod: :thumbsup:

Where did he (and several other people) go?
Image

The Warplightening Cannon misfires for no effect, and it's on to combat.The central Dryad unit kills only 3 slaves and 3 of them manage to die from only 8 return attacks. I lose by a musician but hold. Gareth elects to reform into a 2 wide conga line. :confused:
On the hill my BSB issues a challenge in a desperate attempt to save himself. The Skaven Warlord quickly chops him up, the unit breaks, with the sole surviving guy getting away, as the Stormvermin plough into the flank of the northernmost glade guard unit.

Bother!
Image

Then over at the other end of the table, an Assassin leaps out from the clanrat unit :roll:, killing one Wildrider and the Chieftain accounts for a second. The two remaining Wildriders mange to kill one clanrat, but it's not enough and even without a rank bonus the Skaven win by 2. They flee and the clanrats pursue, the clanrats don't catch the one remaining wildrider, but they do move far enough to just get them out of the Dryads charge arc :mad:

Clanrats escaping, and in the distance you can see the dancing slaves!
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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That's as much as I can do today. Hopefully I'm leaving you all in suspense, and fingers crossed I can get the rest of it up tomorrow. Feel free to leave comments and if you're feeling brave maybe you can predict the outcome? I won't be offended (too much) if you want to critise my many mistakes or suggest things you thing I should have done. I'm aiming to use this as a way of improving as well as giving you all a chance to waste some time at work.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

Post by Calindor »

Great report so far, good work! I must say that I love the look of that river :)
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

Post by Mollesvinet »

Yeah, i also love the terrain. Even though its kinda wierd that the river is light in the center, as you would think it would be deeper there. It looks great though.

Nice report, love the writing style. Seems like you need a more complete game plan from the start of the game, thinking especially of your treeman here. Treemen are brilliant when used in conjuntion with rivers, especialy against skaven.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

Post by godswearhats »

Nice report, look forward to the conclusion! I especially like your annotated opening photo, even though it's blurry - it makes it very easy to be able to envision the rest of the battle.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

Post by Dragon halitosis »

Nice work on the report so far. I like a battle report with lots of photos - helps us time poor folk get a good appreciation of things without massive blocks of text. Tough match up, pitching WE vs Skaven, I'll be interested to see how it pans out.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Ok thanks for the comments so far, and as I said I'm looking to use this as a way of improving my game, so feel free to sugget things that you would have done or things I need to pay more attention too etc.

Also a couple of things I have forgotten to mention -
The game was played with closed lists, so neither of us knew what magic items the other had, although there were occasions where we could make a good guess as we have know each other for a number of years (I would lay money on that Grey Seer having Skalm for example).
The Warlock engineer was with the northern most slave unit, but during turn 3 as he had fired his Doomrocket (presumably his sole purpose in life) he choose to leave the slave unit and moved towards the centre of the table. Forgot to mention this as I was rushing to finish the Skaven turn 3 yesterday and I don't think it shows in any of the pictures.
Gareth is also very much into his gadgets. At the start of my game I had loaded my army list into Quatermaster, and then he had imported it into Adjutant, which is a little battle tracking app. This allows you to mark a unit as dead and gives you a running total of the victory points. I haven't recorded these on a turn by turn basis (maybe I should?) but at this point we both knew it was close, although I was still slightly ahead.

Wood Elf turn 3
At this point it seemd to me that in order to win I should forget about the Stormvermin unit at the north end of the board. They were goingto wipe out the Glade Guard unit there, although hopefully the scouts could still escape, but they were so far away from the rest of the action they couldn't do much else. Else where in order to get the points I needed to win, it looked to me like I needed to take out everything else without losing too much of my own stuff.

With this in mind the Treekin charged into the central (conga line) slave unit which should clear a path to the Plague Monks and the Warplightening cannon beyond and would hopefully rescue the last surviving Dryad. In the north of the board the sole surving Glade Guard from the unit on the hill continued to flee, but more annoyingly the scouts fail their test to march, severly hampering their attempt to get away from the oncoming Stromvermin juggernaut. As I want them to shoot at the now solo Warlock Engineer I move them into the river on the flank of the Stormvermin.

In the sentre of the board the Treeman moves up ready to support the Treekin unit (warlock is out of range for a strangle root attack (but looking back at the photo again it looks liek I could have moved him up and tried to Treesing him in) and the central Glade Guard unit wheel left to thin out the Clanrats prior to my second attempt at a trap.

Unperturbed by my dismal failure to trap the clanrat unit, I resolve to try again. The sole surving Wildrider flees off the board, but I move the Dryads down one flank of the clanrat unit and the Spellsinger and her Wildrider bodyguard onto the other flank. Someone did this to me once before years ago, and it cost me a massive unit of Khorne Chaos Warriors, so this was bound to work. There was NO WAY he could get out of that :D

Situation at the end of my movement
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Even Blackadder would be impressed with this amount of cunning....
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I only get a 3 for magic and fail miserably to cast the Curse of Anrahier on the Clanrats. In the shooting phase the central Glade Guard discover their line of site is somewhat impeded by the Wildriders and only manage to shoot 3 clanrats. The Scouts get a hit on the Warlock Engineer but he passes his Look Out Sir and a slave gets it instead.

View from the hill
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In the combat phase the Treekin charge cause the central slave unit to explode, but not before they had hacked down the last Dryad. :( The treekin chosse not to overrun in anticipation of a chareg from the Plague Monks

At the northern end of the board the Warlord and his Stormverim butcher 5 Glade Guard for no casualties in return. The Glade Guard flee and are run down by the Stormverim. The scouts pass their panic test, but even so this is enough to move Gareth into the lead, after a pretty underwhelming turn for the Wood Elves :cry:

This is what you get for being an incompetant...
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Skaven Turn 4
At the northern end of the board the Stormvermin reform to face the scouts and the slaves also adavance towards them, ending in the river but being careful to be outside the Treeman's charge arc.

Positions at the North end of the board
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In the centre of the board the Plague Monks charge into the Treekin, sadly ending with only a single model in the river (so you can guess who the first casualty will be!) and the Warlock Engineer moves further towards the centre of the board where he is no doubt intending to cause some sort of trouble or just generally get in the way.

View from the Hill
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At the southern edge of the board, the clanrats reform to face the Dryads, and Gareth demonstrates exactly why he is a Skaven player as the Assasin leaves the unit and positions himself between the Wildriders and the clanrats. :angry:
The Gutter Runners roll a 1 and again fail to show.

Get out of the way!!!!
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8 dice for magic and Gareth 6 dices Plague form the Plague Priest at the Glade Guard on the hill. It's cast irressitably and kills 7, but they refuse to panic. The resulting miscast kills 2 Plague Monks, but the Treekin is saved when Gareth rolls a 1 to wound. The Warplightning Cannon hits the Treeman with a Strenght 8 hit, but again Gareth rolls a 1 to wound. :cool:

In the comabt phase the Plague Priest wounds a Treekin, which thanks to the Grey Seer's terminal spell is enough to remove one of them. The Plague Banner is activated, the Treekin kill 6, but take a couple of wounds from an avalanche of return attacks. They loose the combat by 1 but hold for now.
I'm now becoming quite concerned that after a promising start the game is starting to slip away from me....
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Wood Elf Turn 4
I only seem to have taken 1 picture from this turn, so apologies for that. Despite Gareth's best attempts to frustrate my plans, I need to start picking up those points. But before I can do anything, Gareth announces that his Assasin is drinking his Potion of Strength :tear:
Typical, once again my best laid plans are being foiled. Despite this I charge the Dryads into the front of the clanrats. I daren't charge my Wildriders into the Assasin, but I do contemplate charging the Spellweaver out of her unit and into the Clanrats to get the +2 for a rerar charge. Plus she's on a Unicorn, she might even cause a wound. But after thinking about it I change my mind, after all the Dryads will beat them, it's just whether they can cause them to flee or not really. So instead I move them to the flank of the Clanrats, only an inch away so the stupid Assasin can't possibly get in the way and where next turn I can charge into the clanrats and sweep them off the table in one fantastic move!!
With that end of the table now sorted, I turn my attention to the northern end of the table, and discover that yet again I have made an error. By moving the Scouts into the river so I could take pot shots at the Warlock Engineer I have left them in a situation where they can't march. As Gareth has reformed his Stormvermin in a wide formation my 5" move isn't enough to get them down a flank either... All I can do is move them as far away from the Stormvermin as possible and hope he rolls a double one for his charge.
In the centre of the board the 5 remaining Glade Guard swift reform and move down the hill in an attempt to get the Warlock Engineer into shot range. It doesn't work though as the annoying rat ends up being 16" away.

I get 8 dice for magic and try a 2 dice Flock of Doom on the Assasin. Amazingly it does 5 wounds, but then I discover he has the Obsidian Amulet, which with his dodge gives him a 2+ ward against the spell and he saves them all. I then stupidly decide to cast the Amber Spear against him too (he might roll a 1, right?) Wrong again. That bounces off the ward. Gareth dispells Wyssans Wildform on the Dryads and then asks me why I didn't try to cast Curse of Anraheir on the Clanrats instead of wasting my power dice with the Spear.

The scouts kill a Stormvermin and the 5 Glade Guard manage to shoot down the Warlock Engineer, despite being at long range.

In combat the Treeman has to pile all his attacks into the Plague Priest. Only 1 attack hits and I roll a 1 to wound. Nevermind, I can still Thunderstomp the unit, but unfortunately he rolls 1 hit and another 1 to wound... <.< Fortunately the Treekin have managed to kill 5 guys and the return attacks were also pretty poor, so I win the combat but the Plague Monks hold.

Nevermind I think, can't really repeat that performance can I? Especially once the Clanrat unit fails it's fear test. The Chieftan manages to kill a Drayd, which I was sort of expecting, then I set to with my 11 attacks, 3's to hit and 3's to wound. So 2 hits both of which fail to wound!! <.< Despite the Clanrats failing to hit anything I loose the combat by 3 and flee. The useless Dryads outdistance the Clanrats, but as it's the Skaven go next, it doesn't make that much difference. So much for my earlier optimism.

How did that happen??
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Skaven Turn 5
Now Gareth sets about finishing off what he can and securing a win. On the south edge of the board the Clanrats chase the Dryads off the board and the Assassin again moves to block the Wildriders.

Positions at the south edge
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At the northern edge the Slaves declare a charge on the scouts. I hold, reasoning that the Stormvermin will just chase them off the table edge if I flee. Gareth decides the Slaves have this covered and reforms the Stormvermin to face the last fleeing member of the Flamming Banner Glade Guard unit, just in case I get the double 1 I need to rally him.

Positions at the north edge.
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In the centre of the table, the Gutter Runners finally arrive, moving on the hill, behind the 5 remaining Glade Guard.

They're behind you....
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Gareth gets 5 dice for magic and casts Plague on a 16. Even with the Wand of Wytch Elm I'm unable to stop this with my 3 dispell dice. Even with their Talismanic Tattoos and Magic Resistance form the Unicorn, this kills 4 out of 5 Wildriders. Happily though, teh Unicorns magic resistance does prevent the Spellsinger from being wounded. The spell then jumps under my control so I pass it onto the Clanrats, hoping it will cause a panic test. 8 die, but they hold and the spell ends.

The Gutter Runners mow down the 5 remaining Glade Guard in a hail of poison sling stones, and the Assasin takes a cheeky shot at the Spellsinger and Wildrider, hoping to finish off the unit. I take the hit on the Spellsinger to preserve the Wildriders points, but despite being toughness 4 from the Unicorn and having the Glamourweave she takes a wound.

In combat the scouts kill a slave but take no damage in return. Despite the Slaves having no rank bonus for being in a river the scouts lose and flee, but do mange to roll high enough to escape the Slaves.

In the Plague Monk combat thinks go much better, The Treeman flattens the Plague Priest and 4 Plague Monks, and the two remaining Treekin kill another 4. The Plague Monks break. I don't really want to pursue as this will take me away from the action, but I can't afford to let this many points get away. As it's my turn next I pursue with the Treekin and reform the Treeman. Happily the Treekin run the remnants of the unit down, giving me a lifeline back into the game.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Wood Elf Turn 5
At this point the game is still very close, and the demise of the Plague Monks has got me back into contention (possibly even slightly in front) and not only that I can see that Gareth's softer targets are quite close to the edge of the board where a few good panic tests could see me right.

With that in mind the sole remaining Wildrider and the Spellsinger split up to prevent a well placed Warplightning Cannon shot taking them both out. The Spellsinger heads off to unleash some magical destruction on the Gutter Runners and the Wildrider heads off in the opposite direction. The Treeman crashes through the woods towards the Assassin knowing he is just in range of his Strangleroot attack.

At the northern end of the board, the Scouts rally, but my sole surving Glade Guard flees of the edge of the board. In the centre the Treekin cross the river in a half hearted attempt to reach the Warplightning Cannon.

Positions at the end of my movement phase.
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I end up with 9 dice for magic. A 3 dice casting of Curse of Anrahier on the Clanrats is allowed though (not sure why I cast this). A 2 dice casting of Treesinging on the Clanrats is dispelled and a 4 dice casting of Flock of Doom on the Gutter Runners gets through, killing 2 but they don't panic, and I am left wondering if parking my Spellsinger in front of a unit of Gutter Runners really was such a bright idea?

Genius :roll: - this picture is from the Skaven turn 5, but it's a nice illustration of the predicament she's in!
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The Treeman gets Strangleroot attack gets 4 hits on the Assassin, but only 2 wound and the sneaky rat manages to dodge one and lives to fight on.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Skaven Turn 6

It's Gareths final turn and the game could still go either way. In the north of the board the Slaves charge the Scouts who hold (if they flee they would be off the board, so it's worth trying to hold on).
At the southern edge of the board the Assasin fails his test to march and heads off towards the Clanrat unit. They meanwhile fail there test to swift reform, leaving the Assassin stranded alone in the woods… :eek: .

After the Skaven movement phase
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Alone in the woods....
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Gareth has no magic left, but the Warplightning cannon guns down my last remaining Wildrider. The Gutter Runners take aim at the Spellsinger, but fortunately for me only manage a single poisoned hit which is saved by the Glamourweave.

In combat the scouts kill 2 Slaves for no loss in return, but out of the river and with their rank bonus back, they win by two. The scouts flee and are run down by the slaves.

Skaven secure the northen part of the board
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Wood Elf Turn 6

There isn't much left I can do other than try and finish off something. I consider charging the Assassin with the Treeman, but decide not to after worrying about failing to make the distance. Instead I move up to make another strangle root attack. The Spellsinger moves to the flank of the Gutter Runners, knowing if they do fail a panic test they will go off the board. In the centre teh Treekin are to far from the Warplightning cannon to attempt a charge.

I get 7 dice for magic. Gareth dispels a 2 dice Treesinging on the Clanrats in the woods, but with his remaining dice is unable to dispel Flock of Doom on the Gutter Runners. This kills 1 and an Amber Spear takes out two more but the stupid things refuse to panic.

The Spellweaver resorts to her bow, but is unable to hit one of the lightly armoured rats.

Why won't you run away?
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Then in the final action of the game the Treeman strangleroots the Assassin. Strength 5 in the woods causes too many wounds for the Assassin to dodge, and he's torn to bits. Seeing this, the Chieftain and his Clanrats fail their panic test and much to my delight flee off the board, ending a very enjoyable game.

No rats in this wood
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We totted up the final victory points to discover that I had amassed 1581 and Gareth had 1532, so a draw slightly in my favour. EDIT: This is wrong, recalculating the victory points revealed the I had achieved 1606 and Gareth had 1707, meaning I had lost by the narrowest of margins.

Positions at the end of the game
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Consulting the Campaign booklet we found that a draw in this game means the battle must be re-fought, using the same terrain setup.This will be particularly challenging as we both now know a lot of each others surprises, and I'm really looking for4ward to it. At least I'll get an extra D6x50 points of troops at my disposal, which will help too.

Thanks for reading and please do leave comments. Don't forget I'm especially keen to hear any tactical insights and advice. Did I make the correct decisions, what would you have done instead and why?
Last edited by Monkey on 28 Oct 2013, 12:59, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

Post by SquidBoy »

great report and gratz to the victory! all battles where I have more vp than my opponent is a smashing victory in my book.. :)

one question..
Monkey wrote:This was my free woodelf wood, and as it turned out it was a Wildwood, which promptly went wild and killed one of them
I have always thought that the free wood always is a normal wood without random factors?
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

Post by wildZguy09 »

Great report and are you going to post the rest of your campaign?
Beastweaver + Tree man ancient = S9+T9+A9. Yay :)
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Great report and are you going to post the rest of your campaign?
Beastweaver + Tree man ancient = S9+T9+A9. Yay :)
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

Post by Mollesvinet »

Thanks again for the report. As for tactical advice... My best advice would be to have a better plan going into the fight. Which units of his do you intend to counter with which units of your own.

So for example, you would want to take out his cannon with either scouts or wild riders. You would probably want to assasinate his grey seer with your alter noble, unless he moves out of the unit again. If he has champions in his units, then it will be harder to do so. Preferably a double charge by wild riders with champ and your alter could do it. His combat blocks you want to counter with treekin and treeman, especially if you can get to them in the river. Slaves can be countered with dryads, again use the river to speed up the process. Flame banner archers versus his abomination. So on.

Good luck on your second battle, hope you will share it again.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Calindor wrote:I must say that I love the look of that river :)
It's Gareth's river, it comes pre-painted and I think it's made by Pegasus Hobbies. He said he got it from Wayland Games - http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/pegasus-h ... 15023.html
SquidBoy wrote: I have always thought that the free wood always is a normal wood without random factors?
To the best of my knowledge there is no rule that says the free wood comes without the random factors, but I could be wrong.
wildZguy09 wrote:Great report and are you going to post the rest of your campaign?
Thanks, I was thinking about doing it if people seemed interested although it did take much longer than I had expected to write up. It has been quite useful to review the game and see what other things I could have done and what I could possibly try to do next time.

Speaking of which looking back on the final positions photo and the victory points, I think we (and be we I mean Gareth as it is his ipad and he was in charge of all that) have added up the point wrong. I think he should have had 1707 victory points (2497-420-260-285+75+100 = 1707: Starting value -spellweaver-treekin-treeman+3 banners+ASB), which means unless we have made a mistake with my victory points as well I actually lost :(

With regard to the actual game play, I think I think people are right about requiring a more coherent plan. I do try and plan things, but I never seem to be able to factor in the opponents actions, so when they take out a unit or something I don't have any backup plans. I also find my positioning of models and units tends to be very poor, and one of the reasons I took up Wood Elves was to try and improve this.
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

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Ok, so just heard back from Gareth. Turns out we forgot to press the button on his gadget which gives you the final victory points, we were just accounting for the points for the things that had died. The correct final points were 1606 for me, and 1707 for Gareth, meaning a loss for me by 2 points :mad: :cry:
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Re: Campaign Report vs. Skaven

Post by Mollesvinet »

Darn. Better luck in the next battle.
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