Skaven Runefang Wrap Part One

Runefang IV was held over the weekend here in Wellington. Rather than your traditional tournament, the event was based around a Mighty Empires campaign with three players on each side.

I used the Skavenblight Panzer Division that I had been threatening to do but went into the event with no practice games. The final list was:

• Grey Seer on Bell with 20 Clanrats
• Plague Priest (Lvl 1) on Furnace with 20 Plague Monks and Plague Banner
• Chieftain with Storm Banner
• 2x Engineer (naked)
• 2x 25 Clanrats
• 2x 39 Skavenslaves
• 1x 34 Skavenslaves
• Hell Pit Abomination

One of the characteristics of the army was the lack of shooting, the billowing fumes from the Furnace being the only ranged attack. To complement this more I chose my spells only from the Lore of Plague. Interestingly enough, I had the same 5 spells in every game – Pestilent Breath on the Priest and Wither, Vermintide, Plague and Curse of the Horned Rat on the Seer.

So how did it go? Well, surprisingly well.

In my first game against Tim Norling’s Wall of Chaos which included 60 and 40 man blocks of Khorne-marked Great Weapon-wielding Marauders backed by Rage Warriors, I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I managed to neutralise Tim’s major threats and then feed him chaff as I concentrated magic on his big block of marauders working on the assumption that if I picked up his hounds and them it would be enough to win.

All was going swimmingly until Tim charged a block of Slaves with his Rage Warriors who held him on the first round of combat. Their flank was exposed to possible charges from a unit of Clanrats with BSB and more Slaves. Now I’m going to put this down to “learned behaviour”. At last year’s Guardcon my Clanrats charged this same unit in the side and broke them……but I keep forgetting there wasn’t a unit of slaves – read roadkill – in their front. Rather than ignore the flank and let Tim harvest 72 points, I committed two units including the BSB and managed to lose an additional 435 points. Given the final margin was a 14 VP loss I think I need to “unlearn” this behaviour.

Next up for me were Glen Burfield and his Prince on Sun Dragon-led High Elves. High Elf armies always look small, and at 2000 points with a Dragon they look especially small. We were playing Battle for the Pass which suited the war of attrition that I wanted to play. The Prince charged a unit of Slaves and was held long enough to be hit in the flank by the HPA. My magic was concentrated on the rest of the Elf army and I managed to wear them down when they came forward to close, then flee so the elite units couldn’t get them. Over 4-5 turns the Elf army was reduced to a lone unit of archers – who decided life on their hill was just fine.

The final game of day one was against the Empire of Joel van de Ven-long. Joel had inflicted two Massacre victories and was very much helped by the hill in his deployment area being an Anvil of Vaul, giving units within 6” flaming attacks. When my HPA came on as a reserve I made sure it was down the other end of the board. Joel managed to roll IF with his Level 4 four times in the first three turns, the upshot of this was that he was Level 1 by the end of Turn 3. As part of a Time Warp inspired charge, a “6” was required by a 40 man Horde formation of Halberds led by BSB and Warrior Priest to charge my Furnace. I thought it was a bit ambitious anyway and when it failed I very quickly charged it myself with both Furnace and Bell units. My Priest picked off his Priest removing the hatred and the block broke and was run down.

The funniest moment was when Joel’s now-Level One miscast again while in combat with the Screaming Bell unit. Everyone in base contact took a Strength 10 hit, it randomised onto the Seer and took his last wound off him. Unfortunately for Joel, it was not enough and the rest of the Skaven army removed the rest of his army.

Day Two to follow.