WFB Battle Report: 2500, Wood Elves vs Skaven
Finally my first battle report of the new Wood Elves against my friend Xavier's Skaven. I don't have any of the new units built, but I thought it would be worth trying out a variety of units and seeing how they all perform.
Spellweaver: Level 4, Lore of Shadow (Mindrazor, Miasma, Withering, Pit), Obsidian Lodestone: 265Spellsinger: Level 2, Lore of Shadow (Miasma, Enfeeble), Dispel Scroll: 140 Waystalker: Bow of Loren: 110 Glade Captain: Hail of Doom Arrow, Gamblers Armour, Shield, BSB: 152
11 Glade Guard: Hagbane Tips, Musician, Standard Bearer: 185 11 Glade Guard: Hagbane Tips, Musician, Standard Bearer: 185 6 Glade Riders: Truefligth Arrows, Musician: 142 6 Glade Riders: Truefligth Arrows, Musician: 142
6 Treekin: 270 10 Wardancers: 150 5 Deepwood Scouts: Starfire Shafts: 85 5 Deepwood Scouts: Starfire Shafts: 85
Great Eagle: 50 Great Eagle: 50 6 Waywatchers: 120 6 Waywatchers: 120 Treeman: Strangleroots: 245
Total: 2496
Xavier's Skaven was similar to lists he's run before with a variety of threats and a lot of non-BS based ranged attacks.
Grey Seer: Earthing Rod, Potion of Toughness, Skaven Spells of Ruin (Warp Lightning, Scorch, Warp Gale, Dreaded 13th), The Screaming Bell: 485
Chieftain: Battle Standard Bearer, Halberd, Shield, Storm Banner, Warplock Pistol: 132 Chieftain: Shield, Warlock-augmented Weapon: 92 Chieftain: Shield of Distraction, Weeping Blade: 90 Warlock Engineer: Dispel Scroll, Skaven Spells of Ruin, Wizard Level 1 (Warp Lightning): 90 Warlock Engineer: Doomrocket: 45 Warlock Engineer: 15 Warlock Engineer: 15
48 Clanrats: Shields, Full Command, Ratling Gun: 291 52 Skavenslaves: 104 24 Stormvermin: Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame, Warpfire Thrower: 273 24 Stormvermin: Full Command: 193
10 Warplock Jezzails: 200
Doomwheel: 150 Hellpit Abomination: 235 Warplightning Cannon: 90
Total: 2500
Turn 1
The board was set up with a fair amount of terrain, we rolled 8 pieces: 2 Buildings, 2 sets of normal walls, Arcane Ruins, Anvil of Vaul, Scree Slope and a Mysterious Woods. I was able to pick sides, and I was also able to make Xavier deploy first. Having 4 units of scouts and 2 units of Ambushers meant that I only had 8 deployment drops, which secured me the +1 to go first, which I also won the roll off for.
First up, the Arrow of Kurnos failed to wound, but it definitely got the Grey Seer's attention. After doing minor position changes my magic phase saw the Jezzails reduced to BS1 and I lowered the movement of the Screaming Bell's unit by 3. In the shooting phase my scouts loosed their arrows, wounding the Wheel on a 5+, causing it to go out of control and barreling directly towards them. My unit of Waywatchers to my left flank managed to kill a whopping 5 Jezzails, but they did not panic. The Waystalker took aim with the Bow of Loren causing the first wound on the Skaven Battle Standard Bearer.
In the Skaven turn, the Doomwheel continued it's advance towards the Scouts, while the Stormvermin with the flaming banner found out that the Mysterious Woods was a Venomthicket, having 2 of their number eaten by lurking spiders. Not wasting any time, Xavier unleashed the power of the Dreaded 13th, only to have it stopped by my Dispel Scroll. In the shooting phase the Doomwheel killed 3 scouts, but they held their ground, meanwhile, the Warplightning Cannon took aim at a Great Eagle, but in true Skaven fashion, misfired. Finally, firing off the Deathrocket on 5 dice, it landed directly on target killing 3 Wardancers and 2 Waywatchers.
Turn 2
The Stormbanner has been activated, which is really going to annoy me. I shuffled a bit of movement, keeping myself out of any charges that I could avoid, while making sure the HPA wouldn't stumble into any of my blocks. The Glade Riders came on in a perfect position to kill the Warpfire Thrower, which they failed to do even with their arrows ignoring the penalties from the Stormbanner. My magic phase saw me get boxcars, which was no good because I promptly failed to cast Pit of Shades on 5 dice. My shooting was also largely ineffective due to the Stormbanner, nothing of significance happened.
The effects of the Stormbanner raged on, while the Skaven bode their time not declaring any charges. The Doomwheel slammed into the scouts and promptly obliterated 3 of them in the subsequent shooting phase. The ringing of the Bell reached a fevered pitch and struck a 13, it's deafening peals ripped through my army killing a Glade Rider, as well as members from most units on that half of the table, also putting a single wound one each of my eagles. Again trying to summon the power of the Horned Rat, the Skaven attempted the Dreaded 13th, though fortunately failed. After counting their blessings, the Warpfire Thrower promptly obliterated the Glade Riders that were sent to kill them, and after the previous failure the Warplightning Cannon took aim at the Eagle again, this time only firing a pitiful S2 shot, but that was all it took to fell the noble bird.
Turn 3
The howling winds died down as the unnatural storm came to an end. My second unit of Glade Riders still has not shown up. Seeing the opportunity to strike, I charged my 6 Treekin into the flank of the Hellpit Abomination. The Treeman, enraged at the sight of the gout of flames produced by the Warpfire Thrower declared a charge into the weapon team, a fight they had no intention of engaging in, so they did the right thing and fled. My magic phase was quite effective, reducing the Initiative of the Hellpit Abomination by 3, as well as successfully casting Occam's Mindrazor on the Treekin, though with Irresistable Force, which saw a mild detonation kill 3 of my archers. The Waystalker took careful aim and managed to put an arrow right between the eyes of the Skaven Battle Standard Bearer. With few other targets worth shooting, my general's unit of Glade Guard took aim at the Screaming Bell rolling several 6's to hit, though it only resulted in a single wound to the Bell and one wound to the Grey Seer. In another inspiring roll of a fistfull of 6's my other unit of Glade Guard managed to score 5 poisoned hits against the Warplightning Cannon, killing it easily. In combat we had the epic fight of Treekin hitting on 3's and striking at S8... With their 18 attacks they managed to deal 10 wounds, 8 of which were saved by the damned beasts regeneration. In return the Hellpit was on a feeding frenzy, dealing 5 wounds back to me, a drawn combat.
Now at a safe distance, the Warpfire Thrower miraculously managed to rally on it's LD of 5. The magic Phase was devastating though, first with a free Scorch spell cast by ringing the bell, then by Xavier rolling boxcars for the power dice. First up is Howling Warpgale, which I chose to let slide in fear of greater dangers. The Warlock Engineer's power pack energized, the hair on his back raised with static power. BLAM! In a cloud of green smoke and lightning the Engineer Miscast killing 7 Storm Vermin and after rolling a 1 for the number of shots for the Lightning itself, managed to zap himself in the process. Deep on his side of the board the Ratling gun unleashes a torrent of 11 shots killing my last Great Eagle with ease. In this second round of combat against the Hellpit, the Treekin managed to deal another 10 wounds, finally killing the beast, but it arose again from death with a single wound.
Turn 4
It would be really cool to have my Glade Riders right about now... The Treekin charged the risen Hellpit Abomination. In my magic phase I cast the Withering on the beast to ensure that it would be dead, though this was scrolled, and the rest of my magic dispelled. My shooting phase whittled down a unit of Stormvermin and killed off the Warpfire Thrower. The Treekin slaughtered the Hellpit, this time it only came back as a single rat swarm. I should have overran into the Stormvermin, but I did not.
The Stormvermin charged my Treekin, which I should have seen coming. In the magic phase the Skaven managed to irresistibly cast the Dreaded 13th, which turned my general, BSB and their entire unit into rats, and only killing a handful of Clanrats pushing the bell in return. In combat the treekin didn't manage to deal a single wound, lost significantly, but successfully fled the fight.
Turn 5
Things were looking grim, so the Glade Riders decided it was time to show up. The Treeman managed a flank charge on the Stormvermin by the building, where he promptly squashed the Chieftan he was in base combat with and overran the unit. In the magic phase I rolled 3 dice for miasma getting double 6's, killing all but one Glade Guard in the tower and wounding the mage. Not wanting to be shot to ribbons, the Glade Riders shot the Ratling gun, while the single poisoned arrow left in the Glade Guard managed to deal a wound to the Doomwheel, but unfortunately it remained under control.
Skaven had no charges and then rolled boxcars again for magic. Warplighting was once again manifested, this time by the Greyseer, which blasted one of my units of Waywatchers into oblivion. Again ready to cast the Dreaded 13th, he managed to get Irresistable Force once more, turning my Wardancers and Waystalker into a horde of filthy rats, and again the Irresistible Force did very little damage to himself in return. Not wanting to get trampled underfoot, the Jezzails turned their attention to the Glade Riders, killing 2 of them and causing them to flee right back off the board, while on the far side of the board the Doomwheel killed the last Glade Guard and the Spellsinger as well.
We called the game, all that remained of the Wood Elves was the Treeman, Treekin, 5 Scouts and 4 Waywatchers.
Post Battle
Overall I actually liked the way the Wood Elves performed. I know that I took a lot of random things to see what did what and I think I learned a lot from the game. The Glade Guard are fantastic, though a bit pricy, and the Waystalker sniping off the BSB could have really been critical.n I'm a bit wary of the Wardancers, though really I didn't have the kind of units or even the kinds of combats which make them excel. As with the previous book, to win with Wood Elves, it's going to be a delicate dance, avoiding combat at all cost, whittling down units, then striking only at the most opportune moment. Despite losing, it was a great game and I look forward to playing more games with the book.