Time for a write up of the last two battles of 8th edition that I played, complete with bad camera phone pics (I love the 21st century!)
First up, 2k of Empire vs Skaven.
List is as follows
GotE with VHS, GW, AoMI and HR
Warrior Priest with GW and talisman of endurance
Lvl 2 with dispel scroll and lore of metal
lvl 2 with power stone and lore of shadow
40 halberdiers, FC
dets: 15 halberdiers
12 handgunners
10 knights, FC
Banner of Swiftness
28 Greatswords with FC
dets
10 handgunners
12 Swordsmen
1 Cannon, 1 Mortar, 1 Helblaster
Skaven (from memory)
Warlord
2 lvl 2 Warlock Engineers
3 Units od 40 clanrats with spears and shield, FC
2 with poision wind mortars
2 units of 20 skavenslaves with slings and shields
4 Rat Ogres with 2 packmasters
2 Doomwheels
20 Plague Monks
Set up is as follows, we just played the pitched battle, as this was our 2nd game of 8th edition, spells were him: sorch and warp lightning and cracks call and warp lightning, for me final transmutation and searing doom and melikoths mystifing miasma and ohkams mindrazor.
Photo shows set up.
Turn One
Empire: I get the first turn move very little, push the knights back a bit on one flank knowing that I can wait for the doomwheel to near me then hopfully get the charge on it ( also hoping that I'll not be the nearest unit to it!)
Magic: melikoths mystifing miasma cast on skaven slaves in front of clanrats to reduce there move by 3 to 2, hoping to slow down some of his battleline.
Shooting: Cannon puts 4 wounds on the lefthand side doomwheel, helblaster shoots rat ogres, kills one and one packmaster, unit fails panic test and runs of the board!
Mortar missfires: its a dud
Where the rat ogres used to be!
Skaven: Movement: Both Doomwheels go forward an average amount, rest of army moves forward.
Magic: Warp lightning cast at helblaster, fails to wound it (I like the new shooting at warmachines rules
)
Shooting: Right hand side doomwheel frys his warlock (not quite sure why he didn't make sure he was further away, but I can't complain, other restrains, First poison wind mortar does this
And kills one swordsman
Second one does this
And kills 4 clantrats and 2 plaguemonks
Empire Turn 2
Movement: Knights charge the right hand doomwheel
Magic: Gold Wizard casts final transmutation on the skaven slaves, turning 8 into gold statues, pass panic test.
Shooting: Handgunners kill the left hand doomwheel, taking away it's last wound. Cannon fails to kill last poison wind mortar (passes its 4+ ward) other handgunners kill some skaven slaves in the slowed unit. Helblaster kills some clanrats on the right most unit.
Combat: kights fail fear test so are ws 1, one dies to grind of doomwheel however the cause 3 wounds to the machine, and break it chasing it down. Ending up on the skaven flank
Skaven:
Movement: Plague monks advance, right hand clanrats fail stupidity so stumble forward and inch on the otherside of the ford crossing the river. Both other units of clanrats move forward.
Magic: Nothing
Shooting: Skaven slaves kill one greatsword and one halberdier with slings Posion wind motar does this and kills 5 more
Combat: n/a
Empire Turn 3
Movement: Knights swift reform and advance towards the clanrats flanks
Magic: Cast final transmutation on the skaven slaves again, kill 4 and cause a panic test, which they fail
Shooting: Cannon kills three plague monks, dud, mortar hits right hand side clanrats and kills 5 helblaster kills another 3 and hangunners kill 3 skaven slaves from other unit. Other hangunners kill 3 plaguemonks.
Situation after shooting phase.
Combat: None
Skaven:
Movement: Same unit of clanrats fails stupidity and sumbles forward 2 inches leaving flank exposed to knghts, plague rats charge greatswords, handgunners support fire kills 4 and swordsmen counter charge.
Magic, cast cracks call on inresistable force at halberdier detachment, but roles low and reaches just one, who passes is I test. Warlock then looses a lvl and forgets the spell.
Shooting: slings kill one halberdier
Combat: Greatswords easily win combat killing all the monks, while lossing two of there own.
Empire Turn 4
Movement: Knights charge clanrats in flank, Halberdiers charge skavenslaves in front of them.
Magic: None
Shooting: mortar and cannon misfire, cannon a dud and motar can't shoot next turn. No targets for the rest of shooting.
Combat: Knights kill 6 clanrats and horse another 2 and loose none in return, win combat and skaven fail Ld test even with steadfast (Ld 8 from general and one remaining rank) break, killed
Knights end up in flank of next clanrat unit.
Halberdiers kill all 12 slaves in unit and overun into the same clanrat unit.
Skaven
Movement, last clanrat unit charges swordsman detachment, warlord charges knights.
Magic: none
Shooting: no effect
Combat: Halberdiers kill 11 clanrats after loosing 9 of their own, knights and horses kill 6 more, clanrats break and are cut down.
At this we ended the game with a clear victory for the empire.
Lessons learnt:
Final transmuation was great at making his horde army take lots of stupidity test, slowing up and uncordinating his advance.
melikoths mystifing miasma has a huge range, and is a great spell for reducing the movement of units early in the game.
Heavy cavalry in large (ish) units still have a role in winning the flanks, I was lucky to break the doomwheel after failing the fear test, but they went on to cause a lot of problems for my opponent, (even if the clanrats had faced them, I had managed to put some of his battleline out of position. As it is, flank charges with them still hurt, and steadfast units can still break, and against cheap low str troops even if they stay the knights can still hold the unit in place.
Cannons rock at taking out big single models (as if we didn't already know that)
Helblaster still is great, but vs elite units (heavy cav, monsterous infantry etc)
I was worried before I faced this army, as I'd seen an army the previous week lured into a trap by charging the screening skaven slaves, beating them and overunning into a clarat unit, only to get hit in the flanks by another 40 strong horde of rats. I think I managed to win this game so convincingly by slowing down is movement with spells, and by taking the time to panic one slave screen unit and dealing with the other on my terms, where I knew my knights were threating his flanks. To be honest my opponent made some mistakes: letting the warlock be too close to the doomwheel and his use of the plaguemonks wasn't great.
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Battle report vs Orcs and Goblins to follow soon.
Also bear in mind we may have made some rules mistakes so please feel free to point any you notice out.