Escalation League - Week 2 in Review, Week 3 thoughts

Week 2 revealed to me the true all or nothing style of Skaven. I witnessed first-hand the importance of a strong leadership bubble. week 2 ended for me at 1-2-0. all three games a player was tabled. twice it was me.

Game 1 vs. Empire
Win for me, less about my tactical game play and more because my dad is still learning the game and his army.
Moment of importance: The Priest successfully cast wither on his Great Swords (reducing them to T2) and then the Censer Bearers came in and forced lots of failed toughness tests

Game 2 vs. Lizardmen
Game two looked solid for me untill turn 4. I destroyed a unit of saurus cavalry with the censer bearers after my ogres where destroyed from their charge. my swarm bases had been tieing up the engine of the gods, and had managed to kill the priest and crew inside before being stomped into oblivion. the slaves and giant rats killed a unit of skinks but did very little against the big unit of Saurus, who proved really tough to kill.
Moment of importance: The lizardmen's static combat resolution won in the end and broke or killed all my units.



Game 3 vs. High Elves
Tabled in 3 turns. an early flank block by a great eagle caused my units to clutter along the table edge. two elven turns of shooting later, 80% or so of my army had failed panic tests and fled off the table. At the end of turn 3 with a half a unit of giant rats, a unit of slaves and 2 bases left of swarms still a turn or two from hitting the elf lines I conceded defeat.
Moment of importance: Turn 1 march block bottle necking my units and the numerous failed panic and rally tests.

Week 3 adds 250 points to the mix. I just finished painting my furnace and am eager to unleash the might of Clan Pestilens on my foes. This week is full of non-gaming obligations so I predict this list will serve me for week 4 as well. I'm hoping to get in 2 games but might only get in 1.

Week 3 list 1250 points

Heroes
Plague Priest - Talisman of Protection, Plague Furnace - 300 pts
Plague Priest - Foul Pendant, Plague Censer, Joins Censer Bearers - 181 pts

Core
21 Slaves - 42 pts
21 Slaves - 42 pts
18 Giant rats - Packmaster, Skweel Gnawtooth - 170 pts

Special
30 Plague Monks - Full Command, Storm Banner, pushes furnace - 285 pts
5 Plague Censer Bearers - 60 pts

Rare
Doomwheel - 150 pts

Total: 1250 points


More photos of the furnace and some of my Doomwheel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more...

Escalation League - Week 2 is here

Technically started yesterday but I'll play game 1 of the week tonight. Points are at 1000 again. Here is what I plan to run: (I am posting via blackberry in class so pardon any format errors and my lack of point values.)

Plague Priest - lvl 2, Censer, Foul Pendant

20 Slaves
20 Slaves
18 Giant Rats - 1 Packmaster, Skweel Gnawtooth
4 Ratswarm Bases

21 Plague Monks - Musician, Standard, Storm Banner
5 Censer Bearers (joined by Plague Priest)
4 Rat Ogres - 2 Packmasters

Total 999 points

Hopefully this lists has a little more power, last week's list had staying power, but little punch. The Ogres and Censer Bearers should provide some truly damaging attacks, with the giant rats also causing havoc. The Swarms are to tie up cavalry or elite infantry. The plague monks should supply some hitting power and hopefully distract my opponent from the rest of the army. The slaves should do what they do best, set up the enemy for flank charges and explode, causing damage (here's to hurting more enemy and less friendlies).

Read more...

Escalation League - Week 1 in Review

Week 1 was 1000 points. 3 games; 1 win, 1 loss, 1 draw. Here is the list I used.

Hero
Plague Priest - Lvl 2, Foul Pendant - 165
Core
20 Stormvermin - Full Command, Storm Banner - 215
21 Clanrats - Spears, Shields, Musician, Standard - 117
21 Clanrats - Shields, Musician, Standard - 107
12 Giant Rats - 1 Packmaster -44
21 Skavenslaves - 42
20 Skavenslaves - 40
Special
10 Gutter Runners - 120
Rare
Doomwheel -150

Total: 1000

Game 1 vs. Empire
My dad's week 1 list, that I wrote. 2x10 handgunners, cannon, 20 greatswords, 5 KotIC, Luthor Huss and a warrior priest. Time permitted only 3 turns and the game ended in a draw before things really could get to full swing.


Game 2 vs. Dwarfs
Dwarf list: 2x10 thunderers, cannon, 20-25 warriors, runesmith, BSB thane. Being a dwarf player myself made this game fairly easy for me, I knew what to expect and how his stuff could hurt me. A 1st turn misfire (even after a re-roll!) for the dwarfs and the storm banner allowed my units to tie up most of the missile troops by turn 3. the doomwheel and stormvermin helped destroy the thunderers and break the warriors. end result was a massacre, winning by well over 1000 pts


Game 3 vs. Lizardmen
I was trounced in this game. I think my opponent killed everything and I none of his, if I remember correctly. Killing the doomwheel early removed most of my army's punch.

Thoughts for week 2:
Next week is 1000 points still. I am ditching the Gutter Runners, I don't think they have enough use in a small point game. Thinking of reworking completely using less units and more hard hitting units, thinking plague monks and censor bearers, some rat ogres, some swarm bases and adding Skweel Gnawtooth to a big giant rat unit.

Read more...

Assembling and Painting Skaven

This is a WIP shot of my doomwheel I started painting today.

I've been gluing together skaven for a week or so, prepping for the escalation league that starts Monday. This is is what I've done so far.

Keep checking back for more photos.

Read more...

Escalation league cometh

The local gaming store will be starting an escalation league for fantasy. I need to decide whether to use my dwarf army or my new skaven. I have played one game with a 1000 pt proxy army with the bases of the disassembled rat men and did win, I played this list:

Chieftain - Hand Weapon, Heavy Armor, Shield, Blade of Corruption, Poisoned attacks


Core
21 Slaves
21 Slaves
21 Clanrats - Musician, Standard
21 Clanrats - Musician, Standard

20 Stormvermin - Full Command, Storm Banner
12 Giant Rats  - 2 packmasters
12 Giant Rats  - 2 packmasters

Special
4 Rat Ogres - 2 packmasters

Rare
Doomwheel

Total: 1002

I have no confidence in this list, I had a fluke win due to my opponent's inexperience with playing against skaven. I also played 7 games with my dwarfs (against various High Elf lists commanded by brother, and a game against empire) and I won 6 and has a draw for the 7th.

Runesmith - MRo Swiftness, Ro Fury

Core
15 Warriors - Great Weapons, Shields, Full Command
15 Warriors - Shields, Full Command
10 Thunderers - Shields

Special
10 Ironbreakers - Full Command
Cannon

Rare
Organ Gun

Total: 997

I think this list is pretty solid. I have enough magic defense with 5 dispel dice. The warrior units are solid enough to take a charge and when positioned correctly I can get a flank charge off with the ironbreakers. the ironbreakers attract a lot of attention from missile units. This is beneficial as they do not have a role other than attract fire and/or charges from heavy infantry or cavalry.

The gun line truly shines though. thunderers are wonderfully effective against light to medium armored units. Furthermore, The organ gun is devastating, it consistently destroys entire units of knights, heavy infantry, light infantry, really anything that gets within the 24" range. My cannon, on the other hand, has earned itself a name; Barag Umgak, Dwarfish for "shoddy war machine." either i guess range purposefully short and roll low on the artillery dice, guess close and roll a 10 to have the cannon shot blast over the target unit, or misfire.

I think I will do well in the league if i play the dwarfs, but I think the skaven will be more fun in a zany way. Decisions, decisions...

Need to paint more dwarfs and rats! The rhino is on pause for a while as I am focusing on fantasy at the moment and the new semester starts in a week. I have a plague furnace in the prep stage to be painted and assembled. My doomwheel is in sub assemblies to be painted and fully assembled.

Read more...