The Succour of Le Hameau avec des Porcs (Wood Elves vs Skaven)

Elendil Pathkeeper strode into the temporary camp of the Kindred Of The Twilight Brook seeking his liege lord Silasal Skyslayer. Finding his quarry he quickly gave his report.
 'My Lord, I have found signs of a large Skaven force barely a halfday's march from the forest! Very close to the human village that we oftentimes trade pork and brandy.'
'To arms Kindred! Those foul rodents of chaos aren't getting their hands on my booze!'.
And thusly did the Succour of Le Hameau avec des Porcs begin.


I had my first game using the Vaticon Comp for my Wood Elves vs Skaven last week and it was the first time I got to use a Magic Lore that addressed some of the Wood Elves inherent weaknesses. I tried a few things that I don't really go for again Skaven and on the whole I was pretty happy with the results.

My army list consisted of:

Silasal Skyslayer' Highborn on Eagle with Sword of Might, Stone of the Crystal Mere, Dragonhelm, Charmed Shield, Annoyance of Netlings.

Cliath Carne The Skeinweaver' Level 4 Spellweaver (Shadow Magic) with Wand of the Wych Elm & Stone of Rebirth. Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma, The Enfeebling Foe, The Withering, Okkam's Mindrazor.

Gasaldriel the Noble, Army Standard Bearer with Armour of Fortune.

Kelthelmon Gladegrim,Wild Rider Noble with Dawnspear & Enchanted Shield.

Aeth Hawksight, Level 2 Glamourweave on elven steed with Power Stone. Wyssan's Wildform & Savage Beast of Horros.

Branchwraith

3 units of 8 Dryads

15 Glade Guard with the flaming banner

10 Glade Guard with standard & musician

2 units of 10 Glade Guard

8 Wardancers with Bladesinger & musician

8 Wild Riders with full command & Banner of Swiftness

2 Great Eagles

The skaven army consisted of a general on a warlitter (I really should build one of those), a Grey Seer on foot, Army standard bearer and a Plague Priest. There were five big units of at least 40+ betailed rodents, two were Clanrats, two were Slaves and the fifth was Plague monks. added to that was a Warp Lightning Cannon, a Doomwheel and a Hellpit Abomination. Three rat darts and two units of gutter runners made up the rest. Ninety three models vs approximately 233.  Not the ideal ratio, but then again, being outnumbered is something Elf armies are used to.

Wood Elf Deployment

Skaven Deployment

Deployment was pretty cagey, with me dropping both eagles on the flanks (the rat darts did likewise) I then placed my units to the left with Stuart starting around the hamlet & keeping a strong middle with presumably the intent of sweeping round my flank with the Doomwheel & Plague Monks. My plan was to occupy the buildings with the Dryads, destroy the high toughness units with hex's & buffs on my own units then to use the Wild Rider unit as a late game hammer.

Deployment

Turn One

I won the roll for first turn (essential for my shooting army!) and sent my eagles out to the flanks whilst advancing with my Dryads and getting the archers in decent firing positions. It's probably worth noting again that the rules pack I am using for a warm up to my upcoming tournament gives Wood Elves ASF special rule and access to all of the lores of magic. I took Shadow magic for my main caster as I thought it addressed many of the Wood Elf shortcomings, mainly how to deal with tough opponents, or high strength enemies. So in the magic phase I cast The Withering on the Hell Pit Abomination (as it was a one man rape show in my last game) to reduce it's toughness to a manageable level. I also cast Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma on the Doomwheel in an attempt to slow it down. I IFed the Withering (henceforth known as 'Die Rodent Die!') killing 5 Wardancers & putting a wound on my mage, at the same time taking -1 toughness from the Abomb. Also managed to cast Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma on the Doomwheel taking -1 from it's move. Shooting saw me kill the Abomb outright with approximately 36 shots and the flaming banner, and putting one wound on the Doomwheel, which went out of control. My turn ended with the feeling that the smoking mound of semi rotten rat offal couldn't hurt me this game. Result.

Wood Elf Turn 1

The Skaven turn started with a double rat dart charge on my left great Eagle and the other rat dart totally ignoring the one on the right. As the Doomwheel was moving very erratically, the Plague monks hung back so as not to start taking lightning bolts in their furry jacksies. Wither was cast on my Dryads in the largest building and the Warplightning cannon killed a couple when it shot at them. I was disappointed to find my Great Eagle couldn't stand up to two rat darts, doubly so when they killed it and overran pretty close to my large Glade Guard unit. Squatted Eagle aside things weren't looking too bad.

Skaven Turn 1

Turn Two

I managed a long charge with my Dryads into the Skavenslave unit with wet feet. I scooted round the other Slave unit with my eagle so I could line up some fun charges later in the game. I flew my Eagle rider to hide from the Warp Lightning Cannon and sounded a general advance. Cast The Withering on the Doomwheel but only reducing T by a mere -1 again. Shooting killed a few rats & the Glade Guard unit on the right caused another wound on the Doomwheel sending it out of control again! The Dryads layed some serious smackdown on the Slaves, and as they were halfway in the river, got no steadfast and no rank bonus. Unsurprisingly they fled. 

Wood Elf Turn 2

The Skaven army had two charges to declare, both left most rat darts charged the Glade Guard, but only one unit made it. I had completely forgotten about the Gutter Runners who appeared behind the Wild Riders. Curses! Magic saw the total lethality of Skaven magic when Plague killed a few Dryads then rebounded into a Clanrat unit killing well over 20 of them! To make matters worse for the unit the Grey Seer in it cast Wither with Irrisistible Force on my now toughness 2 Dryad unit in the building and fried half a dozen Clanrats. A few archers died to Warp Lightning, and to my horror the Gutter Runner units reduced my Wild Riders to three models! Close combat saw the rat dart seen off in short order fleeing virtually off table.

Skaven Turn 2

Turn Three

The Dryads charged the Warp Lightning Cannon, and my other combat unitsadvanced towards the main clanrat units. Due to the spectacularly lethal display from the gutter runners I gave them a few volleys of close range Elven arrows that  routed both units. The Dryads unsurprisingly killed the cannon crew and reformed (only not shown in the map - Drat!).

Wood Elf turn 3

The Skaven General charged out of his unit into the eagle rider and due to the exhausting backwards & forwards tactic employed by the Doomwheel driver the poor shagged out rats powering it hardly moved at all, which kept the Plague Monks stationary rather than have an out of control war machine run them over.  The Plague Priest miscast Bless With Filth rendering him a now, non magic user. Combat between the two generals was drawn.

Skaven turn 3

Turn Four

I charged my Glade Guard unit nearest the rat dart into them to avoid getting charged by the larger slave unit. I think around this time the dice gods thought that now I had no magical resistance, they wouldn't give me very many magic dice to clease the forest with! I advanced all my units towards the enemy and tragically split my fire resulting in panicking the Clanrats unit but not managing to damage the biggest threat (Doomwheel). The combat between the generals continued. The Glade Guard routed the rat dart (unsurprisingly) and overran to relative safety.

Wood Elf Turn 4

The skaven advance (sort of) continued on the flank and the Doomwheel wheeled round to splat and/or Zzzzaapp some Dryads. A couple of forest spirits were duly toasted. The skaven general finally failed his break test and I pursued, killing him and hitting the Clanrat unit in the flank.

Skaven Turn 4

Turn Five

I charged the Great Eagle and Dryads into the Clanrats in the hope that the steadfast could be removed (a long shot I know) in one turn, enabling me to out outmaneuver (sp?!) the filthy Plague Monks. I reduced the movement of the Doomwheel slightly with  Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma and sent a unit of Dryads out as bait for it (and hopefully stop it from getting involved in combat with my flying circus. Shooting killed a few slaves and that was about it. I think I won combat by well over 10 but steadfast spoiled the party!

Wood Elf Turn 5

The skaven turn saw the Plague monks line up for a charge and the Doomwheel destroy the unit of Dryads. The Clanrat unit broke, and was killed in the subsequent pursuit by the eagle squadron. I left the single Dryad and Branchwraith there as insurance against warp lightning and such.

Skaven Turn 5

Turn Six

Turn six was a wind down turn,where I left a little bit of bait for the skaven to ensure my more important (expensive) unit didn't give a bagfull of VPs at the end. The only thing I left in charge range were a couple of Dryads. Magic and shooting failed to cause much damage so I was in my happy place for the last turn.

Wood Elf Turn 6

The plague monks charged the Dryads whilst the Skavenslave unit charged the Wardancers in the wood. The Doomwheel advanced & shot a few from the other unit. Close combat saw 2 Dryads die and the Wardancers stay in combat with the slaves due to skirmishers being steadfast in woods.

End result, a solid victory for the wood elves and a big shiny endorsement for Shadow magic!

Skaven Turn 6

Below are a few pictures from the game.

Turn 2

The incredibly uncontrollable Doomwheel

Shoot Kurnous dammit!

Sneaky feckers!

it's amazing how messy a table gets

Isometric view?

Die skaven die!

Classy biscuits!