This Secret Sunday gaming club witnessed an epic knife edged encounter between my 1000 point Empire 1st Lustrian Expeditionary forces and the scuttling back stabbing vermin of Raven the Skaven.
Being the painting fascist of the Armoury gaming club has its draw backs, namely that people will not field unpainted mini's against me!
So despite my back breaking toil of painting all my spearmen and gunners Raven would only field 1000 points as his doom wheel was not prepped.
Despite my coaxing that that would be fine he refused to budge so 1000 points it is!
To be honest I wanted to play the 1500 points as I knew I would have an upstream swim against his 1000 point force and I really wanted to play 1500 points to equal the playing field.
On the opposite table Lano was a Gentleman and let Jack and Ed get in a game of Warmachine before he jumped on (when will he learn!).
DEPLOYMENT
My original plan was to run my outriders up my right flank to gun down Raven's Engineer and stop all his "Cracks call" nonsense while my Knights and Gryphs charged up the middle and went nuts.
I then bottled it as it would have left a big gap in the line where the gutter runners could sneak in and Rags had rolled some excellent hex spells so I wanted to keep him alive as long as possible. If I was honest with myself I knew it was an exercise in futility against 20 gutter runners.
Against my worst fears Raven wins the first turn and my Forces are forced to march forward into a hail of fire from the Gutter runners while his other forces skulk forward.
Thankfully my Outriders take the majority of the opening salvo and start to fall. I make the decision to sacrifice them to buy Rags more time to get his Hexs off for the charge and so keep them in the line of fire and open up on the Runners to their front.
Raven decides its time to start the chaos and opens fire with the first of his Warp fire cannons! and then............................ rolls a two on the range die.
It's amazing how two people can measure 2" so differently (oo er misses) and Lano is called over as the impartial ref and he produces his Warmachine measuring gubbins and the result is shown below.
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| PHEW! |
I decide its now or never as I need to stop this whittling away of my forces.
Unfortunately both my Wizards have been blasted off the field, so no Hexs to help, so I only have the power of my charge to rely on.
Thankfully through placement of the Warp cannons by Raven and maximizing of the ranks by me means neither of his Cannons get to stand and shoot against my charge.
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| KRUNCH! |
Both the charges shatter the clan rats lined up in front of them and the over charge runs me straight into the warp cannon and the engineer.
RESULT!
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| Run you furry little bastards, RUN! |
There is some confusion as Raven is playing with an older edition of the Skaven Army book and spell deck so it seems he can play "Cracks Call" where he probably could not in the newer edition.
For the sake of the game we decide to go with the cards as is.
Up to this point magic has been completely ineffectual, but this could be the moment where magic becomes the tipping point in Raven's favour.
We both wait with trepidation for the roll when....................................................................... a roll of 5 off 4 die means not a chance.
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| PHEW again! |
The Gryphs rip the Skaven engineer to tiny furry pieces then come under a hail of fire. I manage to fail my armour rolls and a leadership test of 9! to once again see them heading for the back table edge.
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| not again boys............... come back! |
The knights trample over the warp fire cannon to their front and the second cannon manages to completely over shoot my Knights. The clan rats reform to my front.
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| PHEW again, again! |
My Knights survive the hail of fire and crash again into the reformed clan rats.
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| Come to Daddy you furry little bastards! |
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| Once again the horses show the way and kill the most rats. |
I decide to pursue the rats off the field so I do not get blasted in the back by the Warp fire cannon so close to the table edge and am forced to flee.
Raven turns his attention on the Gryphs instead and then............................................... misfires and blows up in a large mushroom cloud (if only it had run into the clan rats first!).
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| "HE HE HE" ...........................BANG! |
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| A close up just to rub it in ;0) |
The Knights return to the field and Custoras surprises the Clan Rats with a Fireball spell from his magic ring
Burn you little sods!
Despite this success its on a knifes edge as Raven manages to line up a flank attack and has a Character armed with a fell blade,
This is going to be close.
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| "Eat incandescent flames of fury you little sods!" |
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| Paybacks are a bitch! |
My Gryphs charge into a unit of Gutter runners (we hate gutter runners) and gleefully go nuts on the little sods leaving nothing but a pile of fluff where once 5 clan rats once stood.
As the only unit not engaged in combat my Gryphs come under another hail of fire!
One Gryph falls under the first salvo (even with the 1+ save), My Gryph Champion then comes under another salvo. 5 attacks wound and I need to make five 1+ saves, this can only go well...................................
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| its a 1+ save for gods sake how can you fail! |
Thankfully my General makes an impact and hacks away at the rats on his flank. This allows me to reform and this turn I plan to go postal in revenge.
On a side note its at this point I hear Lano shout "For Gods sake Ed, all your figures are in combat, what the hell are you staring at! Just roll the dice!". I must admit I had to give a little smile to myself.
I muller whats left of the Clan rats and run down the survivors. Surely the game was in the bag now.
I start to extend my hand forward to shake hands on a hard fought win when my sly smile slowly starts to slip as more and more Gutter runners turn on the spot or move forward with murderous intent, Raven plays his last roll of the die as he opens fire with salvo upon salvo of sharp, pointy objects in order to shred the unit of Knights and force the moral check, if I flee Raven wins the points for the unit.
Raven only needs to inflict two kills to force the moral check but once again my plate armour and barding saves the day
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| PHEW again, again, again again! |
Blimey what a battle! The game literally hung on a knifes edge from turn two.
We both played the game to the last throw of the die and throw everything into the battle for the final win.
I must thank Raven for a brilliant game.
LESSONS LEARNT
1) I am pleased with the way I was not detracted by the gutter runners and focused on my charges, which really won the game for me.
2) Units with more ranks then me only make moral checks against their standard moral! Both Raven and I did not learn this until the final turns of the game and it would have made a world of difference to the game!
I need to relearn to gang up on units with my cavalry against infantry units or I will come unstuck.
3) There was at least two occasions where I did not make Raven make a moral check when I attacked with my FEAR causing Gryphs.
P.S. Lano never got his game of Warmachine in.
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