Topic: Stormcast/Free People Vs Skaven

[Lord_Crom]

Normally I try and do battle reports in fluff but this one will be a little different and more a discussion of my thoughts on units and mistakes I made. My friend and I are both building AoS armies from scratch and we were both supposed to have the figures painting fully before playing but life got in the way so we had to allow unfinished stuff on the board.

My Army

This is an alliance of Stormcast and free people as I got distracted by Steg's posts on his army and decided to collect my own SC force.

Lord Celestant (army general)
Lord Relictor
Knight Vex
Knight Herald
This were placed on the board using the Lord of Storm formation so they were a one drop instead of 4.
5 x Liberators no special weapons as I hadn't built them yet
10 Empire Handgunners had a marksman but no piper and no banner again because not built yet
1 Empire General

Evil Skaven Army...booooo
Thanquol (army general)
Ikit Klaw
Warp engineer
Packmaster
Warp flamer
Warp launcher
21 Clan Rats
3 Rat Ogres

Sorry if names are right, I'm going from memory.

We played on the Battle Master Mat and had two GW forests and a hut with a row boat (this became important in the end).

My Lord of Storm Formation deployed on the left, hand gunners and EG in the middle and liberators way over to the right no where near anything.

His force deployed with Ikit Klaw, Warp flamer 21 Clan Rats and Thanquol opposite my Lord of Storm and his warp launcher and Rat Ogres and Pack Master in middle.

He had no formations so I easily won the first turn and decided to take it. Using the Vex's ability I scoped up the Liberators and placed them 3 inches from his Ikit Klaw, weapons team and Clan Rats causing a roll to see if they got a mortal wound. I thought I was very clever but to do this it meant they were lined up so they charged all three units in the charge turn. I seriously over estimated their killability and they barely dented anything. This is how they looked on the charge:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1633750476878737&l=6bb3599748

The majority of his army now turned their attention to them and they were wiped out in next to no time especially with no way for me to counter spells like scourch and failing to kill the warp flamer which throws out serious mortal wounds when overcharged.

The Skaven then moved down the board with astounding speed thanks in part to great run rolls and in oart to the fact Thanquol can run really fast. Also the pack master rat ogre combo helps them along as well.

I was a bit blue at this point as I knew I had no way to close on a fairly shooty Skaven force but advanced anyway. Risk Reward really paid off as I won the next turn and the battle started going my way. All my Lord of Storm managed to charge into Thanquol and the Lord Celestant sliced most of his wounds with the Knight Herald finishing him off. Feeling cocky and sure that the Clan Rats were no threat I forgot about Ikit Claw how warp lightninged three of them (irony there) killing my general, lord relictor and knight herald.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1633749833545468&l=fdf0ee0f43
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1633749826878802&l=b5206f9753
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1633749860212132&l=b72945205d

Meanwhile the handgunners had been peppering the advancing skaven to their right with shots but came under barrage from the poison wind launcher and then charged by the Rat Ogres which tore them to shreds, you don't even get a save against them (save 6).

The Empire General sprung into action and charge down the Packmaster. Was really impressed with his Greatsword that sliced up the Skaven with just the Knight Vex left the Empire General thought discretion the best part of valour. Chased down by the horde he managed to get into the row boat and make it back to his ship.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1633749830212135&l=7924f0bf1d

Knowing defeat was certain I hoped to kill Ikit Claw with the Vex but his Claw is really nasty and crushed the poor knight into a cube of Sigmarite.

It turns out that a force of heroes isn't as good as I first thought. Only one gets to attack before you give the advantage to the opponent so you need to sacrifice someone when the characters only have 5 wounds in a game where killing is easier.

So much more to think about than I first thought. The shape of your units, how to maximise hits on enemy units, how not to give away initiative. My main mistake was wasting the Liberators. The Vex power is really powerful but I was too eager to use it.

We plan to play once a month and my force will grow by another 10 handgunners, 10 Swordsmen, 5 more liberators and 3 Prosecutors.

[StealthKnightSteg]

First and maybe biggest mistake (apart from suiciding the liberators) is the assumption that a battalion scroll is a "unit" formation.
You deploy every hero as a single drop. And only by the time you meet the requirement for the battalion scroll you say you have those bonusses.
Only thing is that the battalion scroll abilities are looking at the proximity of your hero's but only 3 (out of 4 minimum? needed for the formation) but they move independantly still.

And indeed the Hero formation should be used with lots of ground troop support
As Hero's in AoS are easily singled out, you should really only use them to support your other forces and never go at it alone (not even your Lord-Celestant) as your General you might loose critical command abilities that way.

[Lord_Crom]

Agreed with what you are saying. Hopefully with the increase in reinforcements coming for next month's play through there will be troops to deploy that the command ability can be useful. I wasn't that impressed with Lord Relictor as he only really helps my characters so might just take Lord Celestant and Vex next time. Larger numbers of handgunners will mean that I can be more aggressive with them especially if the Empire general on foot is there to support with Hold the Line and I can snipe with the Longrifle.

The tables will most certainly turn when I can deploy a full State Troop formation backed up by a cannon.

When I have finished those two armies it is just a case to see how the free people are handled by GW to see if I collect anymore.

[StealthKnightSteg]

I think that the vex ability "Pennant of the Stormbringer" (note that the meteoric can't be used then) is actually far more useful defensively to add another unit to a combat that is already going and not looking so good. Or in the assassinate role to take out that backward hero or warmachine.