Bay Area Open – Round 5 – Chad Pond – Skaven

Round 5, and I’m 2-2 with both my wins being strong. Over lunch I talk with Henri, he’s the chaos dwarf player I haven’t played yet, and find out he is also 2-2 with strong wins. Uh oh. Pairings go up and I’m matched with Chad Pond, phew, but only slightly. While his list doesn’t make me near wet myself, Chad is a good player and I haven’t beaten him as many times as I have. Chad and I were supposed to play, in my opinion, round 5 at the first Bay Area Open. At the time I was confidante that I would have beaten him to win the first fantasy BAO. Due to the 3rd and 4th players already having played though, I was matched against Brad, a match I couldn’t win (yay pandemonium and puppet being gone!). So I was happy to see Chad and I finally getting that round 5 BAO matchup, but sad it wasn’t at table 1 with the winner taking the price as it should have been that first year.



Come to think of it now, having gone 3-1-1 and then 5-0 at the last two years, starting round 5 at 2-2 already made for my worst BAO yet.



The mission was just a plain old battle line, and Chad’s list was:



Warlord, general, shield, biting blade, armor of destiny, dragonbane gem, crown of command

Grey Seer, tormentor sword, earthing rod, talisman of preservation, ironcurse icon



Chieftain, bsb, warrior bane, dragonhelm, foul pendant

Engineer, level 1, doom rocket

Engineer, level 1, dispel scroll

Engineer, brass orb

Engineer



49 Slaves, champion, musician, shield

49 Slaves, champion, musician, shield

34 Stormvermin, stormbanner

40 clanrats, full command, shield

40 clanrats, full command, shield

5 Giant Rats, 1 Packmaster

5 Giant Rats, 1 Packmaster

5 Giant Rats, 1 Packmaster

25 Giant Rats, 3 Packmasters (1 of which was a master mouldor)



6 gutter runners, slings, poison

6 gutter runners, slings, poison



Warplighting Cannon

Doomwheel



For spells both of Chad’s engineers took warp lighting, one even defaulting off of howling warpgale, which I felt was a mistake. His grey seer took Skitterleap, Warplighting, Howling Warp Gale and Cracks Call. Chad also rolled for his grey seer first, which I also felt was a mistake. I think that he should have rolled the Engineers first, taken warplighting with one, and probably the second. This would maximize the Grey Seer’s chances of getting what I felt were his optimal spells, Howling Warp Gale, Scorch and Cracks Call (I would probably have tossed the fourth at the other lore in the hopes of getting plague or wither). HWG shuts down my shooting and magic, Scorch kills dark riders and Cracks Call kills hydras. That would make any of the spells he tried to cast key dispels for me, which would mean I would always be forced to let a strong spell through. Chad also rolled 2 warpstone tokens on his grey seer.



Chad deployed his fighty unit of giant rats on the left side, though mostly towards center, followed by a unit of clan rats, a unit of slaves, his stormvermin with general and bsb, his second unit of slaves (with cannon behind) and his other unit of clan rats. His doom wheel held the right board edge along the deployment line. A rat dart went in front of each of his clan rats and stormvermin. He held his gutter runners in reserve.



I deployed one unit of dark riders far right, in case of scouts, two center, just right of the building in my deployment zone. Right flank got the rest, another unit of dark riders, than a hydra/dark rider/hydra with all the characters for support. Because he had deployed his doom wheel off my hydras, and I didn’t want to take the risk for basically 4 cannons across from my doom wheels, I dropped both shades right in front of the doomwheel. I figured even if he went first, the assassin should survive to fight, and then I would kill it on my turn, and if I went first I would just focus fire it to death with both assassins. I did deploy far enough out that he may not have gotten the charge should he have gone first. I vanguarded strong on the left, and moved the other four just up enough to be in shooting range without being charged should I go second. We rolled off and I went first.



On my first turn I continued to advance strong on the far left and kept the other four units of dark riders still to prevent the -1 for shooting. My general moved up behind an impassible feature to hide from the cannon, with my level 2 farther back along that same line. My BSB stood out in the open to draw fire from the cannon and try to get into position to charge his stormvermin to both pin them and attempt to character snipe. During my magic phase I only rolled 3PD/2DD but thanks to Power of Darkness managed to pull out the scroll anyways. My shooting took off the packmaster on one of the rat darts, killed another and dropped the doomwheel. Have to say, the assassins performed much better on day 2.



On the Skaven turn 1 the packmaster less rat dart jumped out in front of the right slave unit, and the right rat dart moved up to try to block up my shades. The fighty giant rat unit moved up to threaten the dark rider line in the center/right. The left most clan rat unit turned to face left/center. Skaven magic wasn’t effective at a 5PD/5DD phase. His cannon rolled S6 on a hydra but failed to wound.

My turn 2 and I tripled charted the fighty, in the rear with the left most unit and twice in the front with the center units. I did this mostly because this turn he activated the stormbanner. I also charged my BSB, using the Black Dragon Egg. I charge the rat dart in front of my shades with the Hydra, terroring it away to allow both of my shade units to flank charge the huge block of slaves. I wrap center with my general and advance my level 2 up the side to try to get a long charge on the warplighting cannon the next turn. In the combat, the giant rats fall to 10 models, including the death of the master mouldor, but pass their leadership 6 steadfast test leaving my dark riders hanging in the wind for the clan rat counter charge. Because of this I funky reform the unit in the rear to make the charge a little longer. The shades pummel the slaves who fail their leadership 10 reroll test, exploding and killing an entire shade unit and dropping the other to one model (but the Brass Orb dies as well). The stormvermin champion challenges out my BSB, who proceeds to achieve max overkill and win the combat. The stormvermin do not break.

On Chad’s turn 2 both gutter runners come on the board, one on his side to try to pick off the shades and assassins and one on my side to start to pepper the right hydra. Chad decides not to counter charge into the dark rider/giant rat combat due to the massive wounds I had put on in the last combat (though then I was at full strength, with spears and hatred and now I would have none). The terrored rat dart runs off the table and the stormbanner ends. His slaves in the center turn towards the right. In the 5PD/2DD magic phase not much happens except that I scroll cracks call, for which Chad uses a token. In combat the giant rats die off, with all three of my units overrunning towards the left rear and my BSB holds, taking a wound. The gutter runs kill the last shade and put a wound on an assassin. Chad forgets to shoot his cannon this turn.

On my turn 3 and its time for more charges. I put my level 2, a full unit of dark riders and a 1 wound assassin into combat with the right most clan rat unit. I put another 1 wound assassin into combat with the warplighting cannon. The other hydra advances on the second slave unit. An 8/6 magic phase doesn’t net much (just soul blight and doom and darkness on stormermin), but combat kills the cannon and panics off the gutter runners. My other assassin dies, as do a bunch of clan rats, which make their leadership test. The giant rat killing dark riders turn and start shooting the other clan rat unit. My BSB fails and dies in combat, allowing the stormverin to reform..

On Chad’s turn 3 he is starting to get distracted. He forgets to move his other gutter runner unit (I thought he just wanted to conserve points, but he later indicated he forgot). His stormvermin charges into the clanrat combat. On his turn he gets off a cracks call with a 10PD/6DD magic phase, drawing a line through two dark riders and into the right flank hydra. All pass their test (phew!) He wins the combat, with my character and dark rider unit running off.

On my turn 4 I double charge his stormvermin, front and flank with hydras. With a 5PD/3DD magic phase I fail to get Doom and Darkness but do get Soulblight into the combat. I roll for my handlers on the front hydra, killing the grey seer and Chad concedes the game.

so with my poor 3/2 showing that makes my 2013 DE at 8w/5l/0d