Empire pest control. no vermin too big!!

Today I had the pleasure of playing Jerry at the miniature empire.

Like myself he is an older gamer being reintroduced to the world of Wargaming.

As he had recently bought the Skaven from the Island of Blood starter set I asked if a game would be on the cards and he was happy to oblige, Lano watched over us to keep the pace of the game going.

I particularly wanted to play skaven as Cubantrog is in the process of painting a skaven army here as part of the tale of 4 gamers. Russel (our resident velvet glove of evil) also plays Skaven and is a beast to beat.

I had also heard that the skaven have artillery weapons which cause panic if they inflict wounds etc so I wanted to see them in action.

Initial deployment

once again I opted to leave the wizard on his own to give me some more tactical options. I also chose to use the Fire pack of magic as I wanted the signiture spell to cause panic in the Skaven ranks, and it would  be nice to give the skaven a taste of their own medicine

Jerry opted to forfet his move so I decided to be super aggressive as I thought it would disrupt his style of play.

Darkus (my wizard) opened up with both his spells but was largely ineffective. The Demigryphs failed their charge leaving only the Knights to get to grips with the vermin.

I don't know if it is the magnificent paint job but they managed to rout the rats for a loss of 4 Knights and cut them to pieces as they turned to run.

This basically left me sandwiched between two artillery units and the rat orges to my rear. Bit of a squeaky bum time for the Knights.

Jerry manages to throw a double 6 on his magic throw and only causes 1 wound to the gryphs and then his wizard forgets one of its spells! 

Now the rats charge the Demigryphs and once again the gryphs prove their worth as they mince the first three ranks of the clan rats at the cost of one wound to the gryphs, they really are nails!

  

The knights wheel round to face the rat orges, thankfully my General and champion finish off the two figures attacking my flanks (lano informs my I am a very lucky sod with my throws as this could have gone so wrong so quickly!!!), my wizard goes nuts on the orges and kills one and panics the other which legs it off the far table edge!!

Jerry and I shake hands on a well fought game and hope to face off again next sunday.


LESSONS LEARNT;
1) I will definately be buying pistoliers and more knights for my next 250 points.
2) I need to think more about how I can hit big units in the flanks as I think it was more luck then judgement which won me this game.
3) Fire magic is the way to go against swarm armies and gobbo's etc as I need to keep my enemy on the back foot.