Final Four part 1

We met yesterday at my house for my League Finals.
We started with 30 players in 4 divisions. You have to play 8 games and you earn points as follows: 3-win, 2-draw, 1-loss, 0 -forfiet.

The 8 games are scheduled, so you don't get to cherry pick your opponents. I actually set up the divisions and schedule. And placed myself in one of the toughest divisions and gave myself a very hard schedule.
My record after 8 games ended up at 6-1-1.
The draw against a dwarf gunline with the anvil and another 4-5 warmachines. Very tough list.
And the loss against a skaven player. The vps were a draw, but he had his objective and I had failed mine. This swung it in his favor for the win.

After the 8 rounds, The 4 division winners plus 4 other players (wildcards) make the playoffs. The wildcards are matched against the division winners for a wildcard round.

I was a wildcard as the skaven player in my division went 7-1-0 (1 draw). I played my son another division winner who had gone 6-1-1 also with a Chaos Mortal Slaanesh army. I ended up winning that game a couple weeks ago. All the rest of the division winners beat their wildcard challengers.

So we meet in what I call the Final four. The setup was:
My Beast army vs the Skaven army I lost to earlier.
A Tomb King Army vs a Wood Elf army.

Both the TK and WE army had gone 7-1-0 (1 draw) in the League.

The skaven army was not too bad:
Geared up warlord with weeping blade.
2 Plague Priests with Censors. He puts these in the clanrat units, so he can do damage to the clanrats and count them for his combat res.
1 Warlock with 2 d.scrolls.

3 units of 30 Clanrats, full command, ratling guns.
3 units of 20 slaves
2 Plague swarms
5 night runners
5 gutter runners w/poison
3 units of 2 globadiers
20 Plague Monks, ex hand weapons, full command.
6 Plague Censor bearers
8 Jezzails
Warp Lightning cannon.

Ratspawn the Reincarnated

Characters: Points:
Vermin Lord Ratspawn w/Doom Glaive, Mark of Moulder
(Doom Bull undivided, Heavy armor, Shield, Sword of Might)

Harbringer Setrad, Mark of Moulder 160
(Bray shaman lvl 2, undivided, dispel scroll, Staff of Darkoth)

Harbringer Sutenrot, Mark of Moulder
(Bray shaman lvl 2, undivided, dispel scroll, Braystaff)

Harbring Grubslob, Mark of Moulder
(Bray shaman lvl 2, undivided, Braystaff, d.scroll)

Core:
Ratspawns Rat Ogre Bodyguard
(5 Minotaur undivided w/Gr. weapons, Bloodkine, standard)

4 Rat Ogres (Minotaur undivided w/Gr.weapons)
4 Rat Ogres (Minotaur undivided w/Gr.weapons)
3 Rat Ogres (Minotaur undivided w/Gr.weapons)
3 Rat Ogres (Minotaur undivided w/Gr.weapons)
6 Mutated Giant Rats (chaos hounds)
5 Mutated Giant Rats (chaos hounds)
5 Mutated Giant Rats (chaos hounds)
Mutant Rat Cart w/Storm Vermin and clanrat (tuskgor chariot, undivided)
Mutant Rat Cart w/Storm Vermin and clanrat (tuskgor chariot, undivided)
7 Mutant Skaven extra hws & 6 Packmasters w/whips, clawleader, stand., musc.
7 Mutant Skaven extra hws & 6 Packmasters w/whips, clawleader, stand., musc.
(Beastherd: 7 Gors w/extra hws, 6 ungors w/spears, Foe render, standard, musician)
Special:
5 Chaos Furies

Rare:
Failed Rat Ogre Mutant (chaos spawn, Slaanesh)
Failed Rat Ogre Mutant (chaos spawn, Slaanesh)

Total Points: 2272
Power dice: 8
Dispel dice: 5 + 3 dispel scrolls

The armies were stretched from one end of the board to the other. I liked this, because his Ld would suffer more than mine. Or so I thought.

I was hoping my magic would do more, and even though I got Wind of Death with all 3 shamans, I just couldn't get things rolling. I did wipe out his night runners with it, but that was all. His Ld 5 slaves even make their panic checks.

On the left flank, I set up a great trap where I had 4 Minotaurs just in range of 2 PCB's but out of range of the rest of the unit and his plague monks.

So the 2 PCB's charge in, do 3 wounds to me and 1 to himself. I kill only 2 with 6 attacks needing 3's and 2. So he wins by 1. Needing a 7 to win, I break. Get away but fail to rally.

On my turn though, this opened things up for my herd to hit the last 3 PCBs killing them, then both chariots hitting the Plague monks and wiping them out.
One chariot overran a lot, while the other didn't go very far at all. So when his jezzails charge the chariot in the flank and killed it. My 2nd chariot plowed into them and killed them all. Only to be blasted by a WLC.

On the right, we danced around a lot, not really commiting while his Ratling gun blasted me to bits. Finally, I drew the Plague priest with censor out of the clanrats which freed up my 4 Minotaurs and spawn to charge the clanrats. I whiffed and only won by 2. He stayed. Next round the Plague Priest having finished off a lone Minotaur charges into my spawn and kills it off, but my Minotaurs have a hell of a good time and kill off 7 clanrats. This breaks both the clanrats and Plague Priest and I chase them both down.

In the middle, his swarms charged my spawn, then he shoots his WLC at my spawn at str 10, killing it. So I charge the spawn with my minotaurs and wipe them out. He then charges the Minos with slaves in the flank and gutterrunners in the rear. Breaks them and runs them down.
He then charges his gutter runners into my hounds, I win, run him down and charge those slaves that turned around in the rear with the hounds and lone minotaur in the flank. Break the slaves and run them down.

The big combats my Doombull was trying to draw the Plague priest out, without getting the clanrats to charge. twice I had him at 10.5". Finally charged his ratling gun that fled, and put me in easy charge range. He charges in. But his Censor only kills 1 clanrat. He kills my unit champ, I kill off his plague priest, and he wins combat. I hold.
On my turn, my herd hits him in the flank. His clanrats whiff and I do around 7-8 wounds. He losses by a bunch, breaks and is run down.
My DB then charges his WLC and runs it off the board.

In the end all he had left was his Warlord in a clanrat unit, that never got into combat.
I still had my Doombull with 2 of his 5 body guards. A herd with 2 shamans, a unit of 4 Minotaurs and a unit of 5 hounds and my furies.
I had also achieved my 200 vp objective, while he had failed his, which was capture 2 of the 3 objectives. With only 1 unit, that was impossible.

Massacre for the Beasts.

I think several things led to my victory.
1. The terrain really broke the game into 4 main areas, that spread units out keeping his general from being able to help out with his Leadership.
2. I also felt like he kept his warlord back too far. With the Weeping blade, he should have been going after my minotaurs.
As it was, he never saw combat, his only charge was on a unit of a fleeing herd, that he caught when he charged.
3. His shooting was good, but without any magic support, it wasn't devastating. He was then counting on the Plague Priests with censors to make the difference. They didn't.

So I moved on to the final round. As it turned out the wood elves stomped the Tomb Kings back into the desert and the final matchup would be my Beasts vs the broken Wood Elves.

Until next time...