KoW Ratkin vs Salamanders [DOMINATION - 1000 pts]

Hello,
Couple of days ago I had the pleasure to play my first game of our local league and my first game with my loved but long time forgoten lizards (Now full time Salamanders). I had the inmense luck to play against anothe rookie and his amazing and completly painted Ratkin, what a joy to behold. It was a really fun game to play with some very tense moments.
We had to play Dominate! with 1000 points lists and our armies were something like this:

RATKIN
- 1 Horde of Slaves
- 2 Hordes of Warriors
- 1 Horde of Brutes
- 1 Regiment of Brutes
- 1 Regiment of Slaves
- 1 War Chief
- 2 Weapon Team
That's a whole lot of rats for just 1000 points

SALAMANDERS
- 1 Horde of Ghekkotah Warriors with Fire Oil
- 2 Hordes of Tyrants
- 2 Lekelidons
- 1 Ghekkotah Skylord
- 1 Herald with Diadem of Dragonkin

DEPLOYMENT

Numbers weren't on my side so my plan was to use the Lekelidons and the skylord to hold the right flank and my horde of ghekkos the left one with the help of that handy forest, deployed them in front of the Horde of Brutes with the hope that the Fire Oil would give them an advantage in combat (30 attacks with CS 1 isn't bad). The two hordes of Tyrants should fare well against his warriors, I was hoping to be able to control and hold the center with them. That was in theory though.


TURN 1:

He won the roll to first turn and he just pushes all his line forwards at differents speeds to keep clear of my tyrants, not much more to do and its my turn.
In my left flank the hordes of ghekkos move forwards un to the edge of the forest to force a hindered charge from his troops next turn and that way hopefully be able to contain the multicharge that is coming their way, the herald (will call him mage from now on) casts a first of many fireball on to the horde of brutes, making some wounds but not much more. My tyrants move forwards with not much delicacy, not really worried about his central hordes charging me really, and even if they have Fury just in case he is lucky.

In the right flanck the Skylord moves and hides behind the hill with they idea of gaining the rear and my lekelidons open fire on his weapon team destroying it, that's one less menance.

End of turn 1:



TURN 2:

Things start to get interesting for the ratkin player that declares two multi charges, one to my ghekkos on the left with the slave regiment and the horde of brutes and another one to the tyrants on the right with his horde of warriors and the regiment of brutes (made a terrible mistake letting that happen, just forgot about them) both combats end well for me woth not much damage done, thanks mainly to almost all of his troops being hindered. All is going acording to plan.

In my turn I had to take a couple of difficult decisions, on the left I counter to his regiment of slaves knowing that I can rout them easily and that way not having to deal with another multicharge the next turn, that way the mage can keep toasting his brutes, my plan works hafway and thanks to his rallying the slaves are just wavered.

On the other side my tyrants coutercharge the regiment of brutes on their flank that is the bigger threat and also the easiest to rout, a couple of good rolls and their low nerve do the rest and they are routed, my tyrants can reform to face his horde of slaves once again. The lekelidons keep shootind down the incoming horde with no mercy and my skylord seems to be doing nothing at all but gains at last his rear.

End of turn 2:




TURN 3:

This is the point were all my careful plan starts to go to hell, because of that I forgot to take a picture at the end of it, sorry.
The brutes countercharge my poor ghekkos, and with some VERY lucky dice they get destroyed, tumbling my left flank and leaving my tyrants exposed, I was hoping for at least another turn...

In the center of the board the horde of warriors and the warchief charge my tyrants woundng them but they hold really well, the slaves fail their yellow belied test and are left standing there, the weapon team shoot them though wavering them, on the right flank the horde of warriors cannot charge yet and have to keep moving forwards.

With not much to do I countercharge my unwavered tyrants on his warriors and pray. the mage shines wavering the brutes with yet another fire ball leaving my rear protected. Unfortunately rest of the things don't go so well and my horde bounces off the warriors inflicting some more wounds but nothing else. Lekelidons just keep on shooting the relentless horde.

TURN 4:

This turn turns out to be a very intense give and take. On one side the Slaves charge the Tyrants and the warrior horde at last manages to charge one of the lekelidons and on the other flank the warriors and the Warchief charge again the other horde of Tyrants. On the shooting phase my poor skylord is toasted by the remaining Weapons Team. Combat results are mixed, on one hand the Lekelidon survives with just two wounds but is disordered and won't be able to shoot next turn. The horde os slaves finally manages to destroy my batered Tyrants. On the right side of the table the other horde of Tyrants survive to fight another turn.

In my turn I do what I can, and countercharge his horde of warriors with my remaining Tyrants finally destroying them and reforming to face the incoming Brutes, that survived yet another fireball. The disordered lekelidon turns and moves into the forest in an attempt to take the center and the other one shoots the horde of warriors finally routing them.




TURN 5:

The ratkin Brutes charge my tyrants and with the help of the Warchief and their Brutal rule they rout my last horde. The slaves move backwards to take the center, while the other regiment of slaves is apparently on a picnic.

In my turn the ther lekelidon moves into the forest and both of them shoot the horde of slaves wavering them, seems like those pesky slaves are inmortal somehow... Another fireball later the brutes are wavered but thanks to inspiring, not dead yet.




TURN 6:

The battlefield is a blood bath at this moment, the ratkin can´t do much else than charging his War Chief into my mage, but luckily he survives.
In the salamanders turn the two Lekelidons advance into the Domination area and shoot the slaves, finally routing them.
With a roll of a dice the battle ends and in the Domination area there are only my two lekelidons and his weapon team, giving me an advantage of 130 points and victory.



CONCLUSIONS

Ratkin can deploy a lot of ratpower, they are scary, and being outnumbered is not nice. I know for sure that if he had played better I would have lost for sure, but instead of concentrating on the objective he decided to kill my troops, specially in the last two turns if he just moved his Chief and his remaining brutes on the enter he would have won the game.

Coming from WFB I'm amazed at how important terrain is in KoW, with a little bit of positioning his huge blocks couldn't charge me without beaing hindered and that made my troops survive a lot of attacks.

Finally I love the Lekelidons, they are amazing, also the Tyrants performed brilliantly enduring charge after charge but being outnumbered is not good for anyone.


Hope you enjoy it!

 

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