Gabriel is a local guy who can often be found looking for a game on
Fridays and Saturdays. He and I
haven’t played before, as I don’t get in a lot of non-event games, but he was
he was kind enough to give me a game in preparation for the 2999 CoC.
The List
Slaughtermaster – Armor of Destiny, Fencers Blades, Level 4, Lore of
Death
Butcher, Level 2, Lore of Great Maw, Great Weapon, Crown of Command
Bruiser, BSB, Heavy Armor, Great Weapon
15 Ironguts, Full Command, Dragon Hide Banner
12 Gnoblars
12 Gnoblars
12 Gnoblars
12 Gnoblars
9 Bulls, Iron Fist, Full Command
9 Bulls, Extra Hand Weapon, Full Command
6 Maneaters, Full Command, 3x Brace of Pistols, 3x Great Weapons, Heavy
Armor, Poison, Scout, Razor Banner
Ironblaster
Ironblaster
Magic
For this practice game I decided to split the difference on magic
spells, going 3/3 (Grey Seer 3/1 and Engineer 0/2). I wasn’t really sure what spells I wanted, as there are so
many good spells. I ended up with
the Engineer having Warplightening and Scorch and the Grey Seer having Plague,
Death Frenzy, Wither and Pestilent Breath along with 2 warpstone tokens.
Gabriel rolls up Strength and Toughness on his token maw caster, spells
he is very happy with. His death
caster ends up with Soul Blight, Fate of Bjuna, Doom and Darkness and Spirit
Leech.
Deployment: Battleline
For the roll offs Gabriel will win and choose to deploy first as we
have equal drops and he wanted the +1 to go first.
Gabriel starts off by dropping 2 gnoblar units sufficiently placed to
make sure that I would not get a corner for scouting. I do the same with a pair of rat darts. The rest of his army goes down the line
with the gutstar taking the center along with the parry bull unit. The other bulls take the right flank
and will later be joined with the man eaters. The iron blaster took the back edge in the center.
My deployment had me spreading the rat darts out. I figured if they didn’t have something
to chaff they might be able to kill gnoblars. The stormvermin took the left side of the center to minimize
its chance of getting flanked early.
The two slave units then went on its left side of hopefully provide some
distraction for the Ironguts.
Gabriel won the roll and put down his man eaters on the far right. I then put down my scouts on the left,
hoping to roll the gnoblars in a turn and get back into the ironblaster. I put one unit in front of the bulls
and ironguts in hoping to lure them into early striking range of my
stormvermin. I was really
interested in seeing what my unit could do, especially to an army of
multi-wounds.
We roll off and Gabriel gets the first turn.
Turn 1 – Ogres
To start the game off Gabriel makes the charge from the bulls into the
gutter runners. Wanting to lure
out a unit to test my bunker, I stand and shoot and get 2 wounds through. He rolls a 10 to secure a D3 impact
hit. [Gabriel’s’ smart play would
have been to hold back with the gutstar and flee with the bulls despite my
having additional units to push.
Odds are probably good I wouldn’t push him off and the gutstar, having
stayed back would have been there to general/bsb catch them.
The rest of Gabriel’s army moves up strong, except for the man eaters
which make sure not to march.
Gabriel rolls a, 11/6 magic phase. I allow a 3D soul blight on the gutter runners. They are already dead and I’m just
looking for poison. I then dispel
a 3D spirit leech on my BSB. I
allow a 2D +1S on Bulls, and then allow a 3D Doom on my gutter runners. He fails his 1D +1T, but I would have
dispelled it with my remaining dice.
The first cannon takes off 7 stormvermin, and the second takes off 2
slaves. The man eaters kill a
packmaster and a giant rat and the unit on the right runs off the table.
My gutter runners lose half to the impact hits, do 2 wounds back (he
makes his saves) and then get blown off.
I did forget my ward save, but it wouldn’t have mattered. He decides to stand and not overrun
towards my bunker.
Turn 1 - Skaven
I charge gutter runners into gnoblars. I then charge my weapons team and the stormvermin into the
small bull unit. He holds and the
weapon team fails.
I roll a 9/6 magic phase.
I 3D death frenzy on to my stormvermin, which he allows. I 3D wither onto his gut start. He throws 4 dice but still fails his
dispel. I then 3D scorch which he dispels
with 2.
My gutter runners gill 4 gnoblars in shooting and the unit runs back
towards the center of the board.
In combat, my gutter runners kill 5, he runs and gets caught, clearing
the flank and access to the iron blaster.
I go to roll against the bulls (he has 25 wounds left). First I roll the assassins… 14 wounds
total. Then I roll my fell blade…
17 more wounds, and the unit gets picked up. Amazing. I also
did roll well, 6 fellblade attacks maximizes at 18 wounds. Suffice it to say we both respected
that unit. The stormvermin over
run, but not that far.
I lose 5 stormvermin to death frenzy (forgot my MR ward save ) and
didn’t take a wound from fellblade.
Turn 2 – Ogres
Having put a unit of slaves in front of the gutstar last turn, Gabriel
charges the slaves this turn. The
gnoblars don’t rally and his right flank continues to come around.
He rolls a 6/3 magic phase.
I allow a 2D +1S on gutstar.
He fails to cast a 2D Doom on the slaves and I dispel his last 2D +1T on
gutstar.
The left ironblaster misfires and loses this turn and next. The other ironblaster kills 3
stormvermin. The man eaters kill 2
slaves.
In combat the slaves do 2 wounds to the gutstar. I then lose nearly 30 which causes me
to lose steadfast and I pop, killing some giant rats.
Turn 2 - Skaven
Night runners don’t come on.
A rat dart on the right center charges gnoblars.
The stormvermin pass their frenzy test and reform to face the iron guts
who have reformed. This is of
course after I launch my engineer cloud to ensure that he doesn’t get impact
hits. I pull back on the right and
move up with my gutter runners on the left to shoot the misfired ironblaster.
I roll an 8/7 magic phase.
I start off with a 2D warp lighting on the ironblaster which he
dispels. I then 3D scorch, which
he allows. I do 6 wounds on the
gutstar, and 1 on the butcher but he passes his panic. I then 3D plague, which he allows
(keeping his dice to prevent me from using my tokens on wither). I kill 2 ironguts and put 1 wound on
the BSB. This leaves the unit with
39 of 55 wounds.
In shooting I put both gutter runners into the ironblaster. I do 10 wounds, averages saying it
dies, but he saves 8.
In combat I kill 3 gnoblars and lose 2 rats. He holds.
I lose 4 Stormvermin to the death frenzy (forget saves again) and don’t
take any from the fell blade.
Turn 3 – Ogres
The bulls charge the slaves on the right, needing an 11 (unit is
outside general and bsb). The man
eaters charges a rat dart which flees.
The iron blaster charges the gutter runners, I stand and shoot and get 6
wounds. He saves 5, making him 13/16
on his 4+ armor. The bulls will
fail, the man eaters catch the rat dart and the iron blaster makes its charge.
The gnoblars fail to rally and run off.
Gabriel rolls a 7/6 magic phase.
He starts off with a 2D soul blight on the stormvermin. I scroll it. He then 2D Doom on the stormvermin, which I dispel. I then dispel his +1T on the gutstar.
I right ironblaster misfires and blows itself up. It then kills 5 gnoblars off the full
unit and 7 off the one in combat.
The gutter runners lose 4 to impact (I remember my saves). I do 2 wounds, which he saves 1, making
it 14/18 saves and keeping the bastard alive with 1 wound. He wins and catches me, hitting the rat
dart and insuring I can’t shoot him on my next turn.
Turn 3 - Skaven
Still no night runners. I
use both my potions.
I charge the stormvermin into the front of the gutstar. I then flank with a rat dart in order
to open up space for the doom flayer to also get a flank. I figure a rat will live so I’ll get
the static as well.
My gutter runners back off so the Ironblaster can’t turn and charge
them. I use my engineers to
prevent the ironblaster from getting into the stormvermin next turn.
I roll a sad 5/4 magic phase.
I 3D scorch onto the bulls, do 4 wounds and he passes his panic. I then throw 4D, including my
warpstones (7/4) at wither but he dispels it.
All my units in the combat pass fear. The Slaughtermaster challenges and I accept with my S7
Assassin. I wound him 4 times but
he passes 3 of his 4+ wardsaves. I
get 1 wound on my single D3 and then the Assassin is killed. My fellblade splits his attacks between
the Crown of Command (2A) and the unit (4A). I fail to hit the Crown once and then roll a 1 to wound, but
the warlitter comes through and kills the stubborn. Collectively, after my I3 and before he attacks I take the
39 wound unit down to the BSB (1 wound on him from before), the Slaughtermaster
(who has already fought) and 1 wound left on the champion… so 9 wounds… Means I
did 30 wounds, having fully fought but for the BSB’s great weapon and he had
stepped up into a place where he couldn’t attack. Gabriel doesn’t take his attacks, even though he could
probably having killed the Fellblade, but instead concedes.
So a quick game and a decisive victory. I really love the way Death Frenzy interacts with my army,
and I think for the next three games it will always be a first turn
casting. Wither was also
wonderful. Because I want to
maximize my chance for both spells I’m going to keep the split of my dice at 3
per lore. The other spells will be
nice, but I think those two are my key.
I’m still a little concerned that my army might underperform against
units without multi-wounds and large model count, but I’m hopeful. What I really don’t want to see is
always strikes first like witches as they will easily pick off my characters
before I have a chance to fight.
And I’m just dead if I see a Banner of the World Dragon.
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