Finally some games....

So it's been about a week since my last update.  Mainly that is because there wasn't anything to update, until now.  My regular opponent, Shawn, asked if I wanted to enter a local tournament with him on Dec 17, and with my new goal of improving my game in mind, I agreed.

The tournament is going to be a 2000 point tournament, and my desired list was 2500, so I went to the underempire.net forums for some advice.  Great site by the way, with a phenominal article about competitive list building.  I recommend the reading for any skaven player.  After reading the article I came to 2 decisions.  I didn't have enough models on the table, and I am not strong enough with my big hitters.  I will address the second point first.

My big hitters were Stormvermin and Rat Ogres.  There were two reasons for this.  First, I think Stormvermin are great for thier cost, and second I really want Rat Ogres to work.  I tend to do this at times, take a unit that most people think is weak and find a use for it.  While a noble goal, sometimes I try the wrong peg in the wrong whole.  I think Rat Ogres have a place, but not as hammers I suspect.

Now after reading the forums, I decided to take my favorite model out of mothballs.  Early in the life of the Skaven book a friend converted a beautiful Hell Pit Abomination, so I supplanted the Rat Ogres with him, here on called Precious.

Shawn and I played a series of games this weekend, aimed at getting practice with our intended lists.

My 2000 point list looks like this.

Grey Seer
Talisman of Preservation
Staff of Sorcery

Chieftain
BSB
Enchanted Shield
Talisman of Endurance

Warlock Engineer
Level 1
Skavenbrew

40 Clanrats w/ Shields
Full Command

40 Clanrats w/ Shields
Full Command

50 Skavenslaves
Musician

30 Stormvermin w/ Shields
Full Command
Banner of the Under Empire

6 Gutter Runners
Poisoned Attacks
Slings

6 Gutter Runners
Poisoned Attacks
Slings

Hell Pit Abomination

Warp Lighting Cannon

Warp Lighting Cannon

I took this list against Shawn's Deamons.  Shawn doesn't run a beat your face in list, he has the old Deamonettes and loves the models, so his lists tend ot focus on Slaanesh.  Initially he was running a Level 2 Deamon Prince and a Level 2 Herald of Tzeentch with winged horror, for 2 mobile spell casters.

In Game 1, we got battle for the pass.  The last time Shawn's Deamons and my Skaven played this scenarios he clobbered me, so I knew this would be a good test.  Now, you may notice the 2 units of Gutter Runners in this list, well they proved thier worth by turn 3, 18" Poisoned Multi-Shots (2) took out the Deamon Prince.  108 points to 400ish.  I scouted them behind his lines 12" away from the DP.  Shawn moved first, I marched after and shot 12 shots at him, doing 2 wounds.  Turn 2 Shawn got the DP in combat with the stormvermin (more on them later) which broke ran taking BSB and WE with them, and the DP followed into the board edge, and because I had howling warpgate up, he had to stop (cannot leave long board edge unless you fly, and howling warpgate prevents that).  The Gutter Runners then moved range and did the remaining wound killing the DP and Shawn's General.  Definitly a win.  I won the game turn 5, as Shawn had nothing left, and I had Precious, a Death Frenzied Slave unit, both Clanrat units, a WLC, and my Grey Seer, left on the table.

Game 2 was Blood and Glory.  Shawn had 5 pionts, 2 for his General, 1 for his Bloodletter Standard, 1 for his Deamonette Standard, and 1 in his unit of 6 Seekers.  Bottom of turn 1, I killed his general with a WLC doing 6 wounds, and Prceious killing the Seekers outright.  I win, as Shawn is down to 2 Break Points.

Between Game 2 and 3, Shawn and I have some conversations about his list.  The units in question are his Herald of Tzeentch and the 6 seekers.  In any game that revolves around banners, they are an easy target.  The herald of Tzeetch has nowhere to hide as there are no other Tzeentch units on the table.  Taking my advice, he drops both units, and 2 Nurgling swarms (nasty buggers those), and adds a herald of Slaanesh to the Deamonettes (ASF I6, hurts) and 15 Plaguebearers with Full Command.  Game 3 goes in Shawns favor as I make a deployment mistake which makes me misuse one of my units.

Ok so the Game 3 mistake and on Stormvermin.  I designed this list for the stormvermin to get ot the flank of my enemy.  To do this I will tie up a unit with clanrats or slaves.  In game 3 the Stormvermin were in the center of my line (because I made a mistake and put them there).  This forced me to use them in a way I didn't design them for, and guess what they failed.  In game 1, I had them on the extreme flank, and Shawn used his superior movement and the terrain on the table to isolate them, and again they died.  So I need to work on opening deployment for them.

I think I did a good job prioritising my targets, and keeping Precious alive (which was a concern with a Tzeentchian mage on the table).  I hope to get a few more games in before the Tourney.