Battle Report Skaven v. Dwarf & Empire

*Squeek*

Hmmm. I think I should actually call this a "Battle Overview", rather than a battle "report", because the latter would mean a lot of detail...

Anyway, 2,500 points of Skaven took on 1,000 points of Empire and 1,500 points of Dwarves. Both I and the Dwarf general are fairly inexperienced, whereas the Empire general has quite a lot of experience at WFB, but this was his first time out of the gate with an Empire army. Both opponents were great fun during the game, and I learned a lot!

Today, army lists. First up, the dwarves.

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Lords (318pts)

x1 Runelord (318pts). General, Gromril Armour, Hand Weapon, Shield 

x1 Anvil Of Doom (175pts) and Anvil Guard x2

Heroes (67pts)

x1 Thane (67pts) - Gromril Armour, Hand Weapon, Shield

Core (420pts)

• x24 Dwarf Warriors (265pts) Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour and Full Command
• x10 Quarrellers (155pts) Crossbow, Hand Weapon, Light Armour and Full Command

Special (575pts)

• x1Cannon (125pts) Rune Of Forging and x3 crew
• x20 Ironbreakers (315pts) Gromril Armour, Hand Weapon, Shield and Full Command (Standard Bearer)
• Miners (135pts) with Full command

Rare (120pts)

• Organ Gun (120pts) + 3 crew
• 
  

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Empire (1,000 pt)  

Full roster can be found here, or here is a summary:

Lords:

Archlector (General), with Enchanted Shield + Luckstone

Heroes:

Captain (BSB), Wizard Level 1. Iron Curse icon, Charmed Shield and Dispel Scroll

Core:

X33 Halbediers (Full Command)

Special:

x20 Greatswords (Full Command with Gleaming Banner)

x3 Demigryph Knights (Full Command with Flaming Banner)

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Skaven: 2,500

Lords: (495)

Grey Seer (495 pts) + Screaming Bell, Earthing Rod, Skalm

Heroes: (311)

Chieftain (122 pts) (Battle Standard Bearer),  Shield and Storm Banner

Warlock Engineer (45 pts) + Doomrocket 

Plague Priest (144 pts) Lvl 2 Wizard, Flail and Ironcurse Icon

Core: (638)

x35 Clanrats (217 pts) Musician, Standard Bearer, Poisoned Wind Mortar

x35 Clanrats (217 pts) Musician, Standard Bearer, Poisoned Wind Mortar 

x50 Skavenslaves (102 pts) + Musician

x50 Skavenslaves (102 pts) + Musician

x5 Giant Rats (23 pts) and Packmaster, 

x5 Giant Rats (23 pts) and Packmaster, 

Special: (520)

x7 Gutter Runners (126 pts) - Slings and Poisoned attacks

x8 Gutter Runners (144 pts) - Slings and Poisoned attacks

x30 Plague Monks (250 pts) Standard Bearer + Plague Banner, 30 pts

Rare: (490)

x1Warp Lightning Cannon (90 pts)

x1 Hell Pit Abomination (250 pts) + Warpstone Spikes

x1 Doomwheel (150 pts)

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So, from looking at these two lists, and playing against Empire and Dwarves for the first time, here are few things that I learned (and we will encounter again in future posts about this battle)...

• Death magic - Spirit Leech is a b*+stard! :-)  Character-sniping death magic is pretty scarey stuff! My opponent tried it on my Grey Seer once (but I think decided to go easy on me after that by not trying it again.)
• Dwarf Organ Gun - bad news! This thing automatically hits anything within range (24 inches)
• Don't forget that the Hell Pit and Doomwheel have "Terror" -so enemy units in CC need to take a leadership test in each round of CC (I think?)
• 2,500 points of Skaven is a fair load of bodies. Think carefully at setup about positioning! In this game my Plague Monks didn't work well as I was too slow getting them into combat (held up by other units out front.) Watch out for traffic jams!
• Skaven magic can be easily shut down by a combined enemy force that includes a Dwarf contingent with  Anvil of Doom (The opponents get x3 extra dispel dice?!)
• Doomrocket = Skaven fun!
• Dwarf cannon = v. bad news (you'll find out more next post!)

To whet your appetite for my next post (Deployment and early game turns), here are some deployment photos!

Until next time!

*Squeek*