BR: Skaven vs Beasts Part 2

The Skaven horde won the right to go first and took the initiative. He surged forward and took up positions in all the major gaps.
Since his magic was pretty weak I went ahead and used a scroll. No use, letting a spell get through now.
His cannon shot and hit my chariot with a strength of 6, but failed to wound.
Finally, his jezzails shot and put 3 wounds on my chariot.

At the end of turn 1a, this was the situation I was looking at:


There were no charges for me, but I pushed forward. My furies flew into the middle to contest the boulders in the middle of the field.

Remember at the point I have no idea about any of his magic items. I use my Crystal ball to find out his General is a Minotaur/Rat Ogre killing machine as I figured he would be. Since he got to put him down after I put down Ratspawn, I'm no where near getting close to him. But his general is so far off to one side, his Ld values are pretty low.

In magic he lets me get off Bears Anger on my Lvl 1. My level 2 casts Beasts Cower on his swarms. He rolls his 3 dice for dispel and stops it.

Here is the setup at the end of turn 1. Beginning of 2a:



So its time to get into it. His Poison rat swarms charge my unit of 4 Rat Ogres.
His Clanrats charge the hounds. On my left flank his slaves charge my hounds.
I hold with everything.

I scrolled his warplightning again. But his shooting took out my chariot on my left flank. His ratling gun on my right flank kills 5 out of my beast herd but I hold.
We did the ratswarm combat first and I slaughtered his swarms, taking only 1 poisoned hit. I stomped on the last few rats running around.
His clanrats didn't do any wounds to my hounds and I didn't kill any, but I lose by 5 and break. I run through my Rat ogres who make their panic test and the clanrats overrun into the 4 strong Rat Ogres. I smile.

The slaves break the other hounds after killing 2. They break and run and no one cares except my unit of 4 Rat Ogres on that flank who fail a Ld 8 panic test, then re-roll and fail again!! ugghhh!! Very bad.

I took a picture here, but it somehow got corrupted and I had to delete it from the camera. So no pic of me starting turn 2b.

I think the 4 Rat Ogres can handle the clanrats so I charge the beast herd into the 2 globadiers in front of the stormvermin and ratling gun.
I move my spawn at the ratling gun. I have plenty of distance, so he stands and shoots. He makes his Ld 5 fear test. Then rolls a 6 for hits. Rolls again and in good skaven fashion blows himself up. So the spawn continues on into the storm vermin. Who make their fear test. Come on...

My furies charge his warp lightning cannon who flees and the furies catch it.
My beast herd declares a charge on the flank of the slaves on the left flank. The spawn is in the way, but I then point it at the PCBs. It needs to move about 8" to hit them. I roll a friggen 4. Ugghhh!! This blows the plan to tie up the PCBs and possibly kill them, and leaves the beastherd in a really bad spot.
The Rat Ogres on the far left flank charge around the wall at the slaves. It was close, so he decided not to risk it and fled.
Looking back I should have had my hounds charge the slaves in the center. Failure to do that, really mucked up the middle for too long.

My 4 fleeing Rat Ogres did rally, but then I realized I screwed up, rallying them before the hounds. The hounds failed to rally, run through the 4 Rat Ogres and force another panic test. I'm an idiot. Luckily I pass this one on the 2nd shot at Ld 8.

For magic, I cast Oxen stand on the 3 fleeing Giant Rats. He lets that go, looking to dispel my Bears anger at the end of the phase. So instead of letting him dispel it on 4+, I cast it again on myself and roll a '3'. Ugghhh!!

In combat, the herd decimated the slaves who broke. The herd tried to restrain but I roll an 8, missing by 1. And pursued, but failed to catch them. Ugghhh again.

The Storm Vermin only managed 2 wounds on the spawn tieing them down for another turn, while the herd wiped out the 2 globadiers and chose not to overrun.
Finally the big combat. His Clanrats attack the 4 Rat Ogres and only manage 1 wound.
With my 12 str 6 attacks back I kill 8 and win combat by 2. He is down to 2 ranks and so has a Ld of 7 -2 means a break test of 5. HE MAKES IT!! Ugghhhh!!

This is where the game started to turn.

Here was the setup going into turn 3a:



The skaven push the advantage. His Warlord and clanrats with PCB's both charge the beast herd. The herd flees and runs a big 5" and is cutdown by both units. The PCB's also hit the spawn.
The slaves at the back of the table fail to rally and run off the board, while the one up by the wall rallies.
His generals unit has a flank right in front of my unit of 3 Rat Ogres hanging out by the wall. It looks very nice. His Ratling gun pours warpstone death into them and does 6 wounds. Ugghhhh!!! Now I can't break ranks with it.
His jezzails kill off 2 furies.

He had made a great move, moving a single PCB in front of the flank of his generals unit. This just sucked because if I charged and killed it, I couldn't overrun. And if I kill it or break it, no one cares. My only hope had been to charge it, have them fail their Ld 7 fear test and then I could hit the warlords flank. But the Ratling gun, ruined even that attempt.

In combat the PCB's slaughter the spawn and overrun directly in front of my 4 Rat Ogres. Oh yea!!
The Storm Vermin kill the other spawn but are stuck where they are.
In the crucial combat, the clanrats do 2 wounds to the unit of 4 Rat Ogres and kill one off. With 9 attacks back I do only 5 wounds. He has 6 to my 5, and wins by 1.
I roll an 8. I measure to my general and am less than 1/2" out. I break, and am run down. The hounds behind them also panic and run.

I forgot to take a picture here. This is the last missed shot. I think.

Turn 3b: I need to salvage something here.
4 Rat Ogres into PCBs
3 Rat Ogres on far left flank into just rallied slaves. They flee and go 4" and are caught.
1 Rat Ogre into globadier. He makes his Ld 7 fear test.
Hounds and herd into slaves in the center. Slaves flee 8", but hounds catch them and stop right in front of jezzails.
Herd cannot catch them, but the 5" gets them out of the storm vermin charge arc.
Ratspawn and chariot moves up to threaten strom vermin with BSB.
Furies fly up right next to ratling gun making it make a choice.
My hounds on far right flank rallied at the boards edge.

Magic I roll another 3 and fail to cast bears anger again.

In combat the rat ogre slaughters the poor globadier and cannot overrun.

Here is the battlefield at the end of turn 3. Still up in the air, but with the collapse of my right flank, things are not looking good.



Stay tuned for the exciting end to the battle.

Coming soon...