My first outing with my Pestilens army would be at a small 8-man exhibition tournament to celebrate the store birthday of the Brisbane City Warhammer store. All participants used this opportunity to take a break and run armies that were either new, or new-thanks-to-GHB17. Because of this, my first opponent was a stunning Wanderers army mastered by a very good mate of mine. Despite posing an extreme challenge to my list, I was quietly thankful to have my first game against someone who knew I was still coming to grips with the play style. My biggest concern going into this event was getting through my games… In 1600, I was fielding in excess of 80 models, and I know how testing of one's patience it can be playing against hordes. Add that into a recipe of new scenarios and a new army, and it goes without saying that I was very appreciative of the grace and patience that the other players showed me. Despite the challenges, I managed to finish all of my games on time; a victory in my book.
But I digress.
The first game of the day was playing the Starstrike scenario, which is the new Gift of the Heavens. At the start of turn two, an objective lands somewhere on the centre line of the battle field, followed by two more objectives on turn three (one on each of the 12" deployment lines).
My left flank was definitely the weaker one. A unit of twenty Plague Monks and a Plagueclaw deployed in such a way as to leave no windows for the Wanderers to leap behind my lines and cause mayhem! The Verminlord Corruptor (being the last element to deploy) ended up in the woods for lack of anywhere else to stand that would have an impact.
My right flank consisted of another catapult, 60 monks and the Furnace. A Plague Priest lurked behind the realm gate, while a second cowered in the woods in the shadow of the Verminlord. My opponent deployed the majority of his army in the two back corners (to give himself plenty of options for the Wanderer moves), while a thin green line of Eternal Guard stood shoulder to shoulder across the front of his deployment zone.
Having finished deploying first, I chose to take first turn, to make moves and get buffs off before key elements died to the inevitable shower of aelfen arrows. My big unit of forty monks were the focus of my hero phase, getting Inspiring Presence and Rabid Fever (pile in and attack upon death), while the Furnace was the recipient of a successful Mystic Shield from the Verminlord. My movement phase was entirely uneventful, but my shooting phase was something to behold!
The first catapult fired at the Eternal Guard and killed nine! This was a great start, but nothing else was in range of the second catapult, so it too fired at the Eternal Guard. The dice were kind, as it did another twelve wounds, outright killing the unit! What a great start to things.
Their deaths would not go unanswered, however, as both flanks were flooded with mist-walking aelves, bows drawn!
The barrage of arrows that followed was something to behold! The prime targets of these attacks were the Furnace (somehow surviving shooting from twenty Glade Guard and two Way Watchers), and my left hand Plagueclaw Catapult which...
…died a swift and painful death to the dreaded Arcane Bodkins, stripping it of any save it may have had before. To top it off, I may have gotten just a little bit double-turned. The centreline objective dropped on the left flank beneath the steps of the Dais, which was conveniently already occupied by Glade Guard.
The second consecutive round of shooting was not as brutal as I was expecting. Some horrific dice rolls and some truly spectacular saving rolls prevented major losses. The Furnace dropped down to five wounds and the Priest on my right flank took a single wound. On the left, determined to protect an objective that was rightfully property of the Skaven, the Glade guard unleashed yet another hail of arrows, this time into the Plague Monks threatening them, which suffered seven casualties after Battleshock. Considering the potential trauma my opponent could inflict, I think I survived the double turn relatively well. Time to show those dress-wearing Aelves what dress-wearing Skaven could do!
I wasted no time in making my intentions clear, by placing the Corruptor's Command Ability on the slightly bruised Plague Monks, turning a volatile unit into a downright explosive (literally) one! The Corrupter chose not to run, with hopes of landing a long-bomb charge at either the Glade Guard, or if luck favoured me, perhaps even the Sisters at the back.
On the right flank, the Furnace suffered a mortal wound from an incorrectly pronounce phrase from an infernal scroll of some kind, while the Priest by the gate successfully lobbed a ball of vomit into the impeccably dressed Glade Guard, killing one and wounding a nearby Waywatcher. The Furnace was pushed toward the gathering of Aelves, creaking under the strain of such weight moving on such rickety construction. My remaining Plagueclaw added its considerable firepower to the conflict, trimming a few more bodies off the cowering bowmen.
This was a learning experience for me, and one thing I learnt is that Plague Monks with a buff or two are absolutely horrific in their damage output! With four attacks each on the charge, re-rolling Hits, thirteen (THIRTEEN!) Monks butchered 20 Glade Guard without pausing to wheeze.
The other combat was somewhat less successful. While Glade Guard and Waywatchers are far from competent in combat, the Furnace was in such horrific condition, it failed to have any kind of significant impact on the fight. The Monks put in a few punches, but all in all, it would not be enough!
Frozen in the headlights of indecision, my large unit of monks spread out to prevent any unwelcome teleports, and protecting my remaining catapult.
In true aelven trickery and rules bending, out of nowhere, a fresh unit of Glade Guard popped up on a fresh objective and unleashed arrows into the Monks, who (with some small help from the javelins of the Sisters) did a fantastic impression of not being alive anymore. The following turn was a horrific one, with a few more Glade Guard dying in combat with my Furnace, but in exchange, the Furnace, my last remaining Catapult and the Verminlord all met their nefarious demise at the hands of Aelven-fletched arrows; the Verminlord in particular did a great job of head butting Arcane Bodkins.
Realising that the scenario was slipping from my grasp, the Monks on the right flank, having finally lost their Furnace to another hail of terrifying shooting, tactically withdrew (the most Skaven tactic there ever was) onto the freshly landed objective in my deployment zone. The priest moved into cover to prolong his ever-so-fragile existence in the face of such ranged fury.
Don't mind my cheat sheet in the background (an essential to learning with an army this layered). My forty man unit, bereft of their duty to protect the recently deceased Catapult, decided to chase the rabbit and kill a Waywatcher, wounding another.
This, of course, turned out to be a ruse, as I was left isolated from the key points on the battlefield. The movement abilities of the Wanderers simply allowed them to move onto the objectives and secure a convincing and decisive win for the Wanderers.
I think going into this game, with the random locations of the objectives and my opponent's ability to react to their arrival with relative ease, I'd already convinced myself that I'd lose. In truth, there was a lot that I could have done. Knowing that the first objective would be on the centre line, and that units of 20 or more models have precedence in claiming them, I should have pushed my entire army into the middle of the board on turn one instead of remaining static and reactive. That would have meant that my opponent would have to kill his way to my first objective, focusing on infantry instead of my big combo pieces and damage dealers. I think I was so focused on not letting my opponent get behind my lines, when in truth, it really wouldn't have mattered where he shot me from. I had nothing to defend in my deployment zone until turn three, and keeping my big unit of monks (my biggest combat threat) at the back of the board was a complete waste.
I think this game taught me that in some games, Prayers (and in turn, Echoes of the Great Plagues) are just not going to go off. I got off a couple here and there, but I think I was expecting to be dropping big prayers left, right and centre. Without forward planning, a lot of my pieces were just not in a position to have an impact, and the ones that were either failed to successfully pray, or their abilities (primarily Pestilent Breath) were proved impotent by poor rolling.
On the bright side, I got to stretch my legs with this army. The Plagueclaws proved how lethal they could be. Monks have horrific damage output. Monks also die to a gentle breeze. I think the most valuable lesson was my hero phase though, and thinking a turn ahead, getting those combo pieces set up to maximise their efficiency.
It's a very different army to my Bloodbound. I get a magic phase AND a shooting phase! Spoilt! I really enjoyed the off-kilter play style of such a unique army. This was a great learning game, and I wasn't expecting any wins from today with such a nuanced army, but I was ever optimistic. There were still two games left in the day…
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
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