This is the fifth part of my account of the recent Big Old Grudges tournament. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.
Round 5: Encirclement (Strategic Locations 4; Baggage Train)
Tim Stewart - Skaven
- Grey Seer (General; Level 4, Elementalism) on Screaming Bell with Warp Condenser
- Plague Priest (Level 1, Battle Magic) on Plague Furnace with Plague Censer, Warpstone Amulet
- Skaven Warlord with Halberd, Heavy Armour, Shield, Skavenbrew
- Skaven Chieftain Battle Standard Bearer with Halberd, Heavy Armour, Shield, Banner of Verminous Scurrying
- Warlock Engineer (Level 1, Elementalism) with Warplock Musket
- 23 Stormvermin with Halberds, Heavy Armour, Shields, Full Command, Grand Banner of Superiority
- Weapon Team (Ratling Gun)
- 24 Clanrats with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command
- Weapon Team (Ratling Gun)
- 24 Clanrats with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command
- Weapon Team (Ratling Gun)
- 10 Giant Rats
- 10 Giant Rats
- 6 Warplock Jezzails
- Doomwheel
- Hell Pit Abomination
- Warp Lightning Cannon
Tim and I had travelled up from Melbourne together, and both of us had looked at some of the lists the night before the tournament and realised that we might have brought spoons to a gun fight. So it seemed inevitable that we would meet sooner or later. As it turned out, it was not on the bottom table as we might have suspected. Tim was on his way down the tables after a strong start, whereas I was working my way up after I struggled early. Happily I hadn't really run into any of those nastier lists on my way here, so things were going OK.
Mine was a pretty basic deployment. Cavalry on the flanks, infantry in the centre, huge lumbering monster aimed to squeeze through the gap next to the tower before the Bulls closed it off. You can't quite see it here, but the Hunter and his Sabretusks were out on my right flank, near the centre of the table.
This was the view from Tim's side. Note the Warp Lightning Cannon skulking behind the house, making use of the fact that it could shoot blindly, right through it.
Tim's Skaven are gradually taking shape in our Slow Grow, but for this tournament he decided it was easier to lean mostly on Pete's existing Skaven in order to make the units easier to understand, rather than it being a hodge-podge. He did bring along his newly finished Screaming Bell and Plague Furnace (neither of which have actually made it onto the Slow Grow updates yet, ironically)...
Tim won the roll-off for first turn, but elected to give it to me. I suspect this was because things like his magic and Ratling Guns were out of range. Anyway, I graciously accepted the invitation to take the first step, and my army basically lunged across the table.
The Stonehorn was eyeing off those large fancy multi-wound models - ideal targets for his Tenderiser.
The Sabrestusks made use of their speed to shoot around the flank of the Stormvermin, whilst the Mournfangs advanced toward their front (slightly cautiously, knowing the unit had a banner that gave them Swiftstride).
Tim didn't move all that much, given that I had done the legwork for him and stepped into range of things. This was how his Warlock Engineer celebrated the opportunity to hit us with magic. The red die was for his Warpstone Token (which resulted in an automatic wound), and the pink dice were a miscast which resulted in him disappearing in a sorcerous explosion, from which he did not emerge intact. 2 wounds from a single casting roll was very impressive. Not a great start for Tim, though.
The Giant Rats swung around the house and took control of the objective there, although even as he did so, Tim expressed concern that he was blocking the path of his Hellpit Abomination.
The Ogre Bulls again had both Regeneration from the Cauldron, and Glittering Robe in play. This was good, because they were the ones in range of the Ratling Guns. They successfully drew the enemy's fire, and then did a good job of passing saves to reduce the damage. The Stonehorn copped it worse, mainly due to the Jezzails. He was nearly half dead from a single volley.
Over on the flank, another Ratling Gun had stepped back to try to negate the threat of the Sabretusks. Unfortunately Tim managed to roll 2 misfires, the result of which meant it couldn't fire for 2 turns. Another disappointment.
In my turn, I did the sensible thing and charged with everything that could. The Mournfangs and Sabretusks engaged the Stormvermin, but the hope was that the Tyrant could either kill or push back the Plague Furnace, so that he could carry on and bring some muscle to the main combat.
The Mournfangs on the other flank also charged, but their dice weren't up to the challenge and they fell short. The Ironguts and Bulls pushed up aggressively, however - trying to maintain my psychotically menacing vibe.
Unfortunately my Tyrant didn't get the memo about maintaining the vibe. His charge into the Plague Furnace did not go at all as expected. The impact hits did nothing, the Stonehorn did nothing, and then the Tyrant did... almost nothing. He landed a single wound with his mighty weapon. Awe-inspiring stuff. In return, he sustained 4 unsaved wounds (largely from stomps) and was barely clinging to life! He gave ground, and the Furnace followed up. In other words, the plan of pushing through to help in the Stormvermin combat was in tatters.
We then turned to the main event, and the troops that I did have there ended up performing better than I had expected. A solid number of Stormvermin fell, thanks more to Tim failing most of his armour saves than to me rolling a lot of damage. We took little damage in return, we won the combat despite all the bonuses from banners and ranks that the Skaven had, and the unit fell back in good order. This would not have been a disaster for Tim, except... he had parked that misfiring Ratling Gun behind the unit. The Stormvermin fled through it, had nowhere to stop, and left the field - taking the Grey Seer on his Screaming Bell with them!
The Tyrant's efforts had been abysmal, but the Stormvermin popping off the table was a disaster for Tim. The Mournfangs restrained pursuit and reformed a bit, but somehow the Hunter and his Sabretusks ended up in the flank of the Plague Furnace. Looking at this now, it seems wrong. They should have been pursuing the Stormvermin off the table edge if they chased. I think with everything removed from the field, somehow we forgot they had fled and had in our heads that this was an overrun instead.
This was at the end of my turn. Note the nice clean lined of Skaven...
And this was after Tim's turn... Where it all devolved into utter chaos. The Doomwheel drove up and parked itself in the way of the Mournfangs, spewing lightning bolts relatively harmlessly into my units. Then the Warp Lightning Cannon revved up and fired down the line of my Ironguts... Despite having Regeneration, That was a highly unpleasant experience. Mercifully it didn't roll enough distance to basically halve my Bulls as well! Then came the combat phase... The Plague Monks that operate the Furnace managed to tickle my Tyrant to death, but I did some modest damage with the Hunter and Sabretusks, and the Furnace lost combat. It failed its break test, but with the Stonehorn gone, it turned and retreated from the flanking Sabretusks instead... down the entire line of Skaven. Panic tests flew everywhere, things piled up in a mob further along the end of the line, there was screaming and crying, and that was just coming from me...
The Giant Rats had now moved out of the way, but the Abomination had really lost a turn of movement, waiting for them to clear off.
So by the start of the third turn, the shape of the game had changed dramatically. I was no longer really fighting across the table. The Mournfangs on my right flank had been more or less left behind.
At least all this stuff had all fled in the right direction, rather than off the table.
At this point the next wave of charges started to arrive. The Ironguts made it into the Clanrats that had not repositioned the previous turn. The Sabretusks went to clean up the Giant Rats in the back line. The Mournfangs moved up to destroy the baggage train, which had been sitting in front of the Rats. The Mournfangs on the other flank engaged and destroyed the Doomwheel, then overran far enough that they reached the fleeing Plague Furnace, and destroyed it.
The Skaven response to this disaster was simple and decisive. The Warp Lightning Cannon turned to aim down the line of the Mournfang unit and vaporised the entire unit! It was very sad, but Tim didn't seem to agree with me. On the bright side, all the Clanrat units and Ratling Guns had been disposed of by this point.
The Hellpit Abomination was still on a mission of terrible vengeance, travelling slowly and ominously toward my units.
My lines pivoted again to face the remaining Skaven units, which by this point were tidily occupying a small corner of the table.
Faced with imminent destruction, the Warp Lightning Cannon took aim at the Sabretusks in the hope of achieving self defence through outrageous, overwhelming firepower. It nearly worked... One of the Sabretusks died, and the Hunter lost 3 of his 4 wounds. A slightly higher roll, and the unit would surely have panicked off the field.
The Ironguts reached and destroyed the Jezzails, then turned to face the Hellpit Abomination. It was still hoping to catch up to the Sabretusks (who had charged and devoured the Warp Lightning Cannon in a display we can't show you on camera - hence the strategically placed house). Unfortunately for Tim, the Abomination chose now to roll impressively low for its movement. Thankfully it was just enough for it to make it to the Ironguts, as some sort of consolation prize. So at least it got to fight something.
Again unfortunately for the Abomination, the Ironguts were a fairly tough nut to crack and just about killed it in a single round of combat. But at this point the game ended, and it narrowly survived the battle.
Things had not gone well for my Tyrant on his Stonehorn, but they had gone even worse for the Skaven. A bit of disastrous stuff early on had largely dictated the direction of the game. Another win for the Ogres!
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