This is my first battle in our new Master's Border Princes' Campaign. A quick run down of the Campaign; I'm in the south/east corner almost streight down from Blood River Bogs, my ally is the Wood Elves and he's in the south/west side about three territories from me. In the west side is the Skaven, the Dark Elves occupy the north/west corner (by the road), the Dwarves are in the top North while the Chaos Mortals are streight west of Tor Anoc. We're on turn 6 currently and though I'm behind in points I have third most in territories and am about to knock the Skaven player out and steal his territories. My Forces; 2500 points Old Blood on Carn. Scimitar of the Sun Resplendant Maiming Shield Light armour General Scar-Vet BSB Sword of Battle Enchanted Shield Light Armour Skink Chief on Ancient Steg War Spear Skink Priest lvl 2 Diadem of Power Dispel Scroll 2 x 18 Saurus w/ Spears, Music, Standard 1 x 18 Saurus w/ Spears, Music, Standard 3 x 10 Skink Skirmishers 1 x 3 Terradons 1 x 5 Cold One Cav w/ Music and Standard 1 x 3 Razordons w/ 3 Extra Handlers (1 per) He had; 2250 Points Grey Seer on Screaming Bell 5 Warp Stone Tokens Assassin Unknown Magic Items 2 x Plague Priests 1 Dispel Scroll Each (2 total) 3 x 30 Clan rats w/ full command, 2 x Poisoned Wind Mortars 2 x 18 Giant Rats 1 x 5 Jazzails 1 x 10 Gutter Runners 2 Warp Lightning Cannons Set up; Terrain on my side was a hill to my left, scrub in the middle and a swamp on my right. His side had a ruins on the right, a cliff (the impassable side was facing to the right) and a hill on the left. I won the roll to determin set up so I allowed him to set up first. His first placement was the two Warp Lighting Cannons. One took the left hand hill while the other was center side of the ruins. He then placed a unit of clan rats to either side of the ruins w/ a mortar going with the unit on the same side as the WLC. He set his Jezzails on the cliff and his final unit of Clan Rats w/ Mortar had the Scream Bell and flanked by the Giant Rats. All of these were between the left hill and the cliffs. He set up his Gutter Runners on the left side of the left hill. He placed his assassin w/ his Gutter Runners and left his two Plague Priests in the Ruins because they had plague cencors and didn't want his clan rats to take T tests for every close combat round. I set up my CoC to the right of the swamp directly in front of a unit of Clan Rats. I set my Steg next to my Cav and then placed my Saurus next to each other with my skinks in between. I set up my Razordons on my far left flank for a deniged flank tactic and then had my Terradons on the left hand hill and my Sink priest behind the hill to keep him safe from shooting and he could work his dispel wonders. On a whim I placed my Carnosaur/OB between the left side hill and my Razordons. I'd placed him there so that I could face off against his largest grouping of infantry (his Scream Bell Clan Rats flanked by the two Giant Rats). Turn One I won the dice off so I naturally decided to go first. For the most part I moved my line up so that I could engage in some good ol close combat action. The only significant thing I did was to position my Terradons so that I could drop rocks on his Gutter Runners when I charged his warp lightning cannon on the left flank next turn. I also took some pot shots at one of his lone plague priests and actually rolled three six! He was dead dead dead! Phil (my buddy and apponent) moved his Gutter runners to try and throw stars at my terradons and kept the rest of his line stationary besides his right flank Clan Rats which he moved backwards out of my CoC charge range. In his magic phase he didn't get anything off but his shooting killed off about a half dozen Saurus and a small handfull of skinks. His Gutter Runners were out of range for throwing stars. Nothing that I would have to take panic tests for so we moved into turn two. Turn Two I started by declairing my terradon's charge on the left flank WLC which he held for. I moved two blocks of Saurus into position to support each other and draw a charge out of his Clan Rats between the ruins and the cliff. My Cold Ones inched forward out of his Clan Rat's charge range but within mine for next turn. I also psitioned my Ancient Stegadon so that I could shoot at his other WLC and threaten either of his Clan Rats flanking the ruins. My third block of Saurus moved to to aid my Razordon's flank any Giant Rats which might attempt to rear charge them. My Carnosaur I'd moved to to within terror check range of his Screaming Bell unit and another Giant Rat unit. In my magic phase I tried to get my third level spell off to give a unit of skinks some 4+ ward save against an impending charge from giant rats but I rolled double ones (one two dice). The resulting miscast allowed Phil to automatically cast his 13th spell which destroyed 2/3 of my BSB unit! Distraught I ended the magic phase but my Saurus passed their leadership check. Shooting went well, my terradons killed off a number of Gutter Runners whom they'd flown over and then my Razordons killed off a couple more (after my third one chomped down on two handlers). The resulting panic check saw them and the assassin with them run off the board, SCORE! My skinks poisoned to death the other plague monk while my Giant Blow piped destroyed the second WLC. Close combat with the terradons was short a brutal. They killed off all the skaven and then over ran into a unit of Giant Rats. Phil's turn two started off with two terror checks which he easily passed. He then made two charge declarations. One was his Scream bell unit which he charged into skinks and the other was his second giant rats charging into my second skink unit. My General was out of leadership range so I had them both hold and fire the chargers. His magic phase saw him kill off a couple more Saurus and skinks but nothing so drastic that I was worried about. He did grumble about Lizard shooting since he'd lost two of his Plague Priests and was now dependant on his Grey Seer. His shooting was fairly reduced as well with only his Poisoned Wind Mortar killing a couple more Saurus but nothing worth a panic check. Close combat with his Giant Rats went well for me. I killed six off (yup, all six attacks when through) and he didn't do anything to me so I won the combat resolution and he ran...which I promptly caught up to him and murdered behind his lines. Putting me within charge range of his Jezzails next turn. Combat with his Giant rants vs. my skinks was a push which I was impressed with. The Screaming Bell unit broke my skinks (typically) and while I only ran a skant few inches so did he... Turn Three My only charge were my Terradons into the flank of his Jezzails. I moved my Carnosaur to the flank of his Scream Bell and a unit of Saurus to his flank. I hoped that the skinks holding off the Giant rats would do so for at least one more turn. I didn't need to move my Razordons has his screaming bell was within range to shoot at. I positioned a unit of saurus directly across from his middle clan rat unit and then readied my BSB unit into flanking position to one side and my Ancient to the other side. My CoC moved up yet against towards his far right side clan rats but not yet willing to charge without support. I passed on magic, still sore from my miscast, and moved directly into shooting. The only unit able to so so were my Razordons which I eagerly openned fire with twenty shots. In a fatefully twist I got exactly haf those wounds through but he made most of his saves and so I only got around five or six kills. For close combat I killed off a single Jezzail but since I had a flank and outnumbered and he couldn't attack back I won combat and he fled off the board (I'd opted not to persue). Phil took the baitted charge against my Saurus and into the teeth of my flanking Saurus and Stegadon riding Skink Priest. The only other movement he had was to move up his Clan Rats near by CoC and he turned his Screaming Bell to face down my Carnosaur. His Magic was ineffective since he couldn't get any spells off (he tried dreaded 13 but didn't roll high enough). His shooting had been destroyed so we went to close combat. Phil's five front Clan Rats struck at my Saurus, gaining a couple of hits but only one wound to which I rolled a six on armour. My 24 returned attacks wreaked havoc on his unit, killing so many we didn't even bother with counting up combat resolution. He tried for double ones, failed the roll and fled. I tried to catch him but succeeded only in picking up his dropped banner. His unit of Giant rats killed off a handfull of skinks with me doing nothing in return. I fled from the monsterous rats and was run down, the unit over running into the flank of my Saurus I was hoping to flank the Screaming Bell with! Turn Four I declaired several charges this time. My Carnosaur charged the front of the Screaming Bell while the Razordons charged it's flank. I then charged my Terradons into the remaining Poison Wind Mortar and my last remaining skink unit charged the Clan Rats. Phil didn't roll high enough to avoid the Skink's charge range and so were killed outright. I repositioned my Ancient to gain a flank next turn on his remaining unit of Clan Rats. For magic I tried to cast the ward save spell on my Razordons but it was dispelled. I had no shooting so we went into close combat. Close combat saw the rest of the clan rats pushing the bell killed off by the Razordons while my Old Blood attacked and did two wounds to the Grey Seer and the Carnosaur did two wounds to the Screaming Bell. There were no wounds done to any of my units but since the bell is unbreakable we remined in place. The Mortar was destroyed outright, leaving the lone unit of clan rats and a heavily wounded Grey Seer on the board for only a couple of hundred points lost to my army. Phil Conceeded defeat on his turn four. We didn't bother to count up victory points but we were sure that had the battle continoued on I'd have gotten all his army and the six hundred points for table quarters, general's death and the captured banner.
Nice report! I regularly play skaven, and you seemed to handle them quite nicely. As for the campaign, do you have any allies? You may have a lot of territory, but if everyone gangs up on you, then you're toast. Good job.
I really like your list! No EotG and a Carnosaur! Very nice. Say, how do you like those razordons? Against Skaven they are probably pretty effective but normally I like to take salamanders for the panic checks. It is cool though that they can actually move and shoot. How is border princes played?
Thanks for the compliments guys! Yeah I do like playing Razordons. Their move and shoot ability combined with their stand and shoot rule is a big deterant psycologically for players. When you show that you roll three times w/ the arty dice for shooting and then six times for stand and shoot they tend to wanna avoid them at all costs which allows you to effect how they play against you (there by giving you control automatically instead of being reactive). Salamanders are good too but it seems I have bad luck with getting my apponents to fail panic tests. I do have a couple for those armies like Orks and Gobbos which have low leadership. I do have two allies, the Dwarves in the far north (currently tieing up the Dark Elves also in the north and Chaos in the far west. He also helped me against the Skaven to the far east but plans to move west to mess with the Wood Elf player). I am also allied with the Wood Elf player whom is occupying the south side of the map along with me. Boarder Princes' is a map based campaign which stems from the General's Compendium, published some years ago (likely more than five but fewer than ten). The book is out of print right now but you might be able to find it on ebay or a book store. The campaign is 20 turns long and is played on a map which is over 100 territories long. Up to six players can play at a time and you start with one HQ/territory spot and a single banner. Depending on how many players are in the campaign you gain a new banner for every certain number of new territories you control. There are five territories which are worth five campaign points, one which is worth ten and all the rest are worth only one. Whomever has the most campaign points by the end of turn 20 wins. Battles are fought when two apposing armies occupy the same territory at the same time. The winner stays in that territory while the loser retreats to the nearest friendly.
Nice report and nice result! The WLC's were somewhat disappointing..you do have a steg and a carny to open fire at! Once you have the smal(sih) support units, skaven are just like dwarves; only faster and less tough! Just blocks of troops then. In this case, you got his wizards out early, which is such a help. You continued with destroying all that shoots. And proceed with using your CC power in his meagre clanrats. well played! Sounds like a cool campaign, we'd thought of doing that when we started. But figured we don't play THAT often, so just play games instead. I still like to do it though... The Hunted
We set our campaign turns at two weeks apart so that players have ample time to get their battles in. It's worked out very well for us and we're very flexible if someone get's multiple battles in a turn we extend our turns out.