#123: Festering of February Game 2 - Skaven Pestilens vs. Disciples of Tzeentch

After coming out of Game One with a convincing win, I found myself amongst some of the strongest armies in the pool, and round two saw me face down a Disciples of Tzeentch army. The list is as follows.

Lord of Change (General)
Herald of Tzeentch
The Blue Scribes
The Changeling
Gaunt Summoner w/Chaos Familiars
10 Pink Horrors
10 Pink Horrors
10 Pink Horrors
10 Blue Horrors
10 Blue Horrors
10 Blue Horrors
30 Brimstone Horrors
Multitudinous Host
390 points in Reinforcements

Note on the list: It only came to my attention while double checking points and lists that my opponent's army was one unit of horrors short to meet the requirements of the Host. In our game, this had no impact on the end result, as he didn't end up using all of his reinforcement points and could have just as easily had a unit of 10 Brims at the back of the board with no impact on how the game went. My opponent was very apologetic upon being made aware of this, and I have no doubt that it was a mistake.

This was probably the one army at the event that I didn't want to face, for one reason and one reason alone; the Gaunt Summoner. My army has three massive units of infantry, that do a great deal of the heavy lifting and I knew how brutal the Summoner's arcane barrage of damage can be! But, the draw was the draw and I was determined to give my opponent the toughest run possible with the tools at my disposal.

The scenario was Battle for the Pass, which favoured large units for objective grabbing. If I could keep my big units above twenty, I'd be able to snatch objectives off my opponent (Brimstones aside). My Plagueclaws deployed fairly deep into my deployment zone, making sure to have enough range to hit 3" past the mid-board objectives, meaning any unit cheeky enough to try and toe-tap the objective would be in range. I kept a unit of 20 monks back to screen my Arch Warlock against the Changeling (who ended up deploying in his own zone after all), while the Corruptor held down the other flank. I made sure that my Warlock went down after the Summoner, and measured to put him just inside 36". meaning that when I popped my Balewind, I had the range to hit him (inevitably atop his own Balewind) with both of my damage spells. On my front line, my Furnace held the centre, while a unit of forty monks lined up a mid-board objective each, each supported by a Priest. 

On the other side of the board, rows upon rows of Horrors stared back at me. The council of wizards formed a tight group to benefit from each other's auras. Having beaten my on drops, my opponent took first turn and unleashed hell. The Summoner popped up on his Balewind and hit one unit of monks with Treason of Tzeentch and hit the other with Infernal Flames, just melting huge chunks of the units. Unfortunately for me (and more specifically, my Monks), we were playing under the assumption that Treason triggered on 5's instead of 6's, so when combined with the many other spells coming my way, casualties were unsurprisingly high. After the game was over, we double checked the FAQ, and discovered the mistake. On the right side, Brimstones pushed up to cap the objective, while on the left, a unit of Daemonettes materialised and laid claim to the other. 

I was bloodied, but not beaten yet, as I prepared to unleash the full strength of the crazed rat. The Warlock popped up on his Balewind, and did three mortal wounds to the Gaunt Summoner with Warpstorm. Only two to go; an Arcane Bolt should do the trick! Nope... despite the bonus to cast, I failed to get the spell off. To make matters worse, the Furnace took a mortal wound from a failed prayer and both catapults missed the Brimstones (on a 2+, mind you!). Things were not going according to plan...

 Having found myself in quite the pickle, I began to do what I do best; scrap. Pushing as hard as I could on every possible advantage to try and scrape together some momentum, I tried to make the most of a bad turn and set myself up for a possible double turn. The left hand unit of monks, having survived better than their comrades, got buffed up and launched into the Daemonettes, blitzing the ten models off the table in a heartbeat and taking the objective. The other monks fell short of the charge against the Brimstones, and would have had to kill a large number of them to cap the objective.

Lady Luck was not on my side, and I had to endure another barrage of magic from the Summoner and shooting from the horrors, further crippling my main combat units. With only a dozen models left in the unit, I shredded my way through more than a handful of Brimstone Horrors, and foolishly hit the Blue Horrors as well, opening up the opportunity for my opponent to replenish the Brimstones (back onto the objective), before healing D6 Blues in his following Hero Phase.

The other flank fared slightly better. With superior numbers, and more prayers on them, they managed to carve their way through a unit of Pinks and a unit of Blues, while also putting some hurt on the Brimstones, who healed from the Blues dying. The Priest and Censer Bearers moved up behind them to hold down the objective, and contest against any more sneaky summoning. 

Both Plagueclaws missed again. The Arch Warlock failed to cast both of his spells.

Having survived the worst I could throw at him (not the Plagueclaws... they couldn't throw anything), my opponent went to work, mopping up the rest of my army. The Horrors on the right made short work in shooting down the last few monks, while my larger left flank unit drew the unsavoury attention of the Gaunt Summoner, who unleashed both Treason and Infernal Flames and just wiped them off the board. My Corruptor also got removed from the table, after the Changeling popped up on a second Balewind, nicked the Lord of Change's spell and unleashed Tzeentch's Inferno upon him. When combined with several other spells, the sheer volume of mortal wounds was too much for even Verminous Valour to save him, and he fell. 

In a turn full of moments that felt a bit "too little too late", the Arch Warlock FINALLY took the last two wounds off the Summoner and killed him, and one of the catapults found it within themselves to actually hit something and do two wounds that were promptly replenished. My Furnace, knowing that he was on half wounds and was incredibly close to death, ploughed headlong into the Pink Horrors, but failed to do enough to have an impact. Retribution was swift, as the Lord of Change forged a path of destruction, smiting down the Furnace before carrying on and clearing the objective of the Priest and Plague Censer Bearers. With only two Plagueclaws, twenty monks, one objective and no way to claim a lead, the game ended in a major loss.

I'm not going to sugar coat it. This game was rough. In three shooting phases, one catapult hit once, and my Arch Warlock simply barely managed to dish out five wounds in three turns. This resulted in the Gaunt Summoner wreaking havoc unchecked, managing to kill over sixty Monks on his own. I think, even if Treason of Tzeentch was played correctly, the actual impact on the game would have been very similar; the tally would have still been horrific and Battleshock would have cleaned those units off the board regardless. I made a couple of mistakes attacking Blues when Rabid Fever kicked in, which fed the severely damaged Brimstones, but it was a bit of a catch twenty two, where I didn't really have anything else to attack. Multitudinous Host is very strong! Between the splitting mechanic and the replenishing that happens in the Hero Phase (and sometimes the Battleshock phase for Pinks), they're deceptively difficult to get through. 

It was a tough match up, but I was determined to give my opponent a fight, and as much as you can blame bad dice or bad match ups, I refused to accept defeat until the last hope of victory passed into darkness.

With a Major Win and a Major Loss, I found myself in the middle tables, facing down a unique Slaves to Darkness army! Keep an eye out for Game Three, results and overview of the event.

Thanks for reading,

Gabe