Kings of War - Skaven vs Undead

 

Went to Tom's today for a little warmongering and light lunch as is oft the case on weekends of late.

As I've had my eye on a skaven army project since the Warmaster tournament when Dobbsy spiked my interest in them announcing his intention to start one to out-horde my Orks I've been on the lookout for a deal - and as my previous post confirms I've found the motherload recently and there was no stopping me from acquiring it - I mean, it's a 6000pt Warhammer army worth $3600 (at GW's currently immoral prices, at least...)

While Mantic do not currently produce man-rat miniatures there are a number of fan lists out and I wanted to get a feel for how they'd play - and try the game out too, of course!

We opted for a 1700pt game and used his Orc and Goblin army as Skaven. I had two 40 strong hordes of slaves, three 20 strong clanrat units, an abomination, a bunch of characters, three 5 rat jezzail teams, two 3 strong units of ogres and a few other bits and bobs.

He deployed a very cavalry heavy army with supporting infantry and lots of magic.

We opted to play the intro scenario where you roll the victory conditions at the end of the game

 The Skaven lines at game opening

 Their recently deceased opposition

 Skeleton Cavalry....lots!

 The spider was a Warpfire thrower, for example, the archers clanrats, the big bad meanie in the center of the photo (a pre-painted D&D figure, I think) an abomination and so forth....

 First turn went to Tom and began his army's slooooow advance

 I spread thin since game's open keeping my shooters forth, infantry second rank, my heavies up the back in reserve as I knew neither how the army or game worked.

 As the game proceeded I took the initiative forth but the undead stood fast

 Those werewolves were the bane of my right flank for the whole game

 Overwhelming numbers didn't quite seem to cut it with the undead who don't waver much. You either annihilate them off the board of they remain unscathed. That and they regenerate as you fight them...nasty!

 We both effectively forfeited our centers to run two separate wing battles.

 On the last turn I finally, after MANY hair raising moments, took Tom's right flank

 On his left flank my rat swarms held, if only just, as I fed him unit after unit he munched into with delight.....

 Tom's losses at the end of turn 4 - a ghoul unit, some skellies, his large cavalry regiment.

 My losses were a clanrat regiment and a slave horde

A hero shot forth to block the Werewolves' advance into my plague monks which were VERY close to breaking!

Unfortunately, and as often happens unfortunately, at this point of the afternoon my phone died - and with it our camera. No, we had no spells handy to resurrect it (sorry, couldn't resist!) so a quick epilogue of the battle:

I broke Tom's right flank, missed killing his general by one on a die (I rolled 2d6 and needed a 6 for him to evaporate and, of course, rolled a 5....) and redressed my line (employing the Skaven's nimble rule to great and unexpected effect) on his left flank fleeing (or is advancing steadfastly to the rear??) from the onslaught of his Vampire cavalry and werewolves.

He killed both my Ogre regiments and another slave horde but at the close of turn 6 we rolled for the game to end - which it did - and also for the surprise victory conditions - achieving both pillage and slaughter (I can't remember the exact names in the book, now....)

In short the game came to 600-odd points to Tom and 900-odd to me.

Had it gone another turn, though, I don't think my nimble rat-folk would have escaped his charge on my right, which would have handed him two more objectives of the starting seven, and while I held the left flank in numbers his strong presence in the center and my no longer having a right flank to speak of would have spelled defeat at objectives if not points - probably both!

Unfortunately for the recently deceased hordes that was not to be and their general, perhaps realizing how close he came in the 6th turn to being thumped by the combined fire of everything in the Skaven force with a Ranged characteristic (including my spellcasters!), opted rather wisely to call it a day and let his army drop into piles of bones on the battlefield and for the rest of his servants to scatter into the woods to be chased down by my vermin-kin.

What do I think of Kings of War?
It needs tweaking here and there. The rules are not clear on some exceptionally rare circumstances which can arise, including but not limited to the role and specific rules re: characters, but I do feel Alessio Cavatore did a brilliant job in capturing the essence of what morale represents over losses in historical engagements.

The ability for spellcasters to heal OR attack with Zap (what a nifty gimmick this one....representing everything from fireballs to freezing winds to earthshattering thumps or whatever!) means where to place them is very important as wounds increase a unit's chance of either wavering or fleeing altogether. Excellent tactical depth is offered by the flank and rear attack increase mechanic and artillery only hitting on 6s (despite which they DID destroy a horde almost on their own....shame on them! Killing off my little pacifist slave horde who were doing no one any harm....) makes them potentially dangerous but not too overpowered. I felt the characters were maybe a little overpowered but they are, luckily, limited in their ability to effect the battle.

I very, very much enjoyed Tom's hospitality and the chance to thump him soundly once more!

Which, mind you, was as I wrote above only the result of the fifty-fifty chance of the game either continuing beyond turn 6 or not. Had it gone on another turn I would not have walked away with a win but have walked away with only my shooters left on the table.

Now I look forth to receiving and beginning to paint my own Skaven army and giving him a rematch soon, perhaps against the dreaded Orcs and Goblins....

What a fantastic way to end 2011!

Thanks for stopping by for a read and feel free to leave comments if you like
Steven