Wood Elves vs. Skaven Age of Sigmar Battle Report

Tonight I'm going to give a run-down of one of the Age of Sigmar battles I played this week.  I'll give an overview of the game and a turn by turn assessment of the action.  I'll follow everything up with a few thinks like I enjoyed as well as some things I didn't enjoy about Age of Sigmar.



I should point out that this wasn't my first Age of Sigmar game.  I played roughly four games prior to this one so I learned the basics in those games.  Overall the game at this level still took a while to complete.  I didn't write down the length in my notes but it took roughly two hours to play this game.  For balance in this game we winked and nodded and came to an agreement that we wouldn't be up to much beardiness.  That said, we didn't agree to a wound total, or max warscrolls or anything like that.  We played Age of Sigmar as it was intended with each of us dropping troops until we were done.

Deployment Done.  Game ready to start!

The Setup
First we set up the table by picking one piece of terrain per 2-foot squared section of board.  We then rolled on the chart to determine what effects they granted.  We then rolled off for setup and I won the roll.  I chose the L-Shaped deployment and then we began setting up.  The armies are listed below in the order they were set up.





Interesting Note:  In 8th Edition the Point values for these armies would be around 2010 for Wood Elves and 1722 for Skaven

Deployment Notes
I chose to set up my rank and file Skaven in a manipular fashion.  That means that I had my weak infantry out front with my more powerful Clanrats behind them and the Stormvermin behind the Clanrats.  I figured I would wear down my opponent with the weak stuff before closing in the for the kill with the stronger hitters.  Meanwhile my Doomwheel and HPA would hold down the flank while the weapon teams run wild until they explode.  The Grey Seer and Ikit would stay close to the infantry to support with spells if needed but otherwise try and stay out of range and line of sight of the ranged support.

Because I outnumbered my opponent by at least a third my opponent was able to pick a sudden death scenario.  He chose assassinate and I chose Ikit as the target figuring I needed the HPA and Grey Seer out and about.  Because I won the roll and chose deployment my opponent took first turn.
My opponent forgot to use his General's command ability in the heroic phase but the Spellweaver put Mystic Shield on the Waywatchers.  In the movement phase everything moved up to try and bring their bows to range or maneuver into charge range.  The shooting phase was nonexistent as everything was out of range.  In the charge phase my opponent fell short of the wild riders charge by a mere 2 inches.  We didn't remember until turn 3 or 4 that Wild Riders can run and charge and his Glade Lord's command ability gives them an extra 4 inches on the charge.  Lesson learned.  Don't forget your command abilities!


Wood Elf Turn 2
The General remembered his command this time and used his inspiring presence to stem the flight of the Wardancers.  Meanwhile the Spellweaver cast an Arcane Bolt at the Doomwheel and caused a single wound.  After the brief action the elves moved implacably towards their foe but the glade guard were barely in range and only managed a couple shots which all missed the HPA.

Then the Wardancers charged into battle against the slaves and a grande melee ensued.  The Glade Lord acquitted himself well taking down three of the slaves while the Wild Riders killed seven slaves. The Wardancers, still leery of their previous losses, sliced through another four slaves.  The slaves in turn dragged another wild rider down to his death and through sheer numbers overcame two unfortunate Wardancers.  Even the Glade Lord looked worried as he took two  wounds from the sheer number of foes assaulting him.

Fortunately, the Skavenslaves were taken aback by their losses.  Another eight considered leaving the battlefield however all but two couldn't shake the spiteful state of the Grey Seer.  The slaves numbers are quickly dwindling.

Skaven Turn 2
Again the Grey Seer sends a withering look towards his minions to dissuade them from fleeing.  He also summons a wave of vermin that he lets loose at the Wardancers and another two of the graceful warriors are dragged down.  Ikit Klaw recasts the Mystic Shield on the Clanrats before moving behind the building.  The Grey Seer moves up slightly to stay in range of the infantry while both weapon teams move up for better range with the WFT speeding up to a run.  The HPA lets out a bellow of range but is distracted by nearby wildlife and barely moves.  The Doomwheel on the other hand screams across the battlefield towards the Waywatchers.  The Clanrats and Stormvermin advance cautiously.

Shortly before the Doomwheel smashes into the Waywatchers bolts of lightning streak out and fry two of the camouflaged elves.  The Ratling Gun lets loose another fusillade of warp-lead and down another four glade guard.  The Elves scatter away from the Doomwheel and manage to avoid the grinding wheel and whirling blades as well as the rats running the machine.  The slaves continue holding up the wild riders.  They drag another rider down to his death while they kill three of the remaining Wardancers and one cheeky slave manages to wound the Glade Lord again.  However, all is for naught as the Wardancers see their revenge realized when they slice their way through five slaves.  The Glade Lord and his retinue of Wild Riders carve their way through another four.

In the ensuing turmoil the Grey Seer cannot contain the slaves who finally begin to break.  No less than seven slaves flee the battlefield leaving only five of their brethren left to fight.  Meanwhile the Glade Guard panic even further because of the sustained barrage of warpstone their way and no less than four noble elves turn their backs on the field and run.

Wood Elves Turn 3
The Glade Lord turns his attention towards the Wild Riders and issues commands for them to fight unto the very end!  The Spellweaver manages to heal a Waywatcher with her Blessing of Life.  Movement sees the Treeman turn towards the Doomwheel while the Wildwood rangers move closer to the HPA.  The Glade Guard move continue their cautious advance and the Wardancers, no longer under threat of the slaves, move towards the approaching Warpfire Thrower.

The Waywatchers and the Treeman cause serious damage to the Doomwheel as they loose arrows and roots alike at the monstrosity while the Glade Guard have their revenge against the Ratling Gun with no less than seven wounds against the weapon team.  The Treeman then bellows a loud roar and charges into the Doomwheel and breaks it apart effortlessly.  The Treeman's rage must have distracted the poor Wildwood Rangers as they failed their charge against the HPA.  The slaves finally disintegrate as the Wild Riders and Glade Lord kill off the final five but not before the slaves cause yet another wound to the noble leader of the elves.  The Wardancers fight valiantly against the Warpfire Thrower but just narrowly miss killing the weapon team.  They even lose one of their remaining two models in the process!

Skaven Turn 3
The Seer, disgusted by his slaves cowardice, urges his minions to fight-fight again while also summoning another tide of vermin that sweeps over the Glade Guard.  Gnawing and clawing rats swarm over the Elven archers and four of them do not rise again from the filth.  Ikit casts Mystic shield on the Clanrats yet again before they move out of range.  Meanwhile the stalwart Stormvermin advance behind the Clanrat minions.  The HPA senses the danger from the Wildwood Rangers and runs behind the ruins to avoid being charged.

The Warpfire Thrower unleashes a gout of flame on the last Wardancer, ending their beautiful dance in writhing and scorching flames.  The Clanrats steady their shields and lower their weapons before charging the Wild Riders.  The Wild Riders anticipate this and with their Lord they cut down no less then eight of the Clanrats.  Two of the Wild Riders will never ride again however and the Lord looks weary after a stray blow rattles him.

The Glade Guard had barely begun to overcome the losses from the Ratling Gun when the Vermin hit and that caused two more Glade Guard to flee.  The Clanrats thought discretion was the better part of valor and five of them ignored the calls and venomous glares of the Grey Seer to live to fight another day.

Wood Elf Turn 4
My opponent and I labeled this turn the "Wood Elves Revenge".  The Glade Lord continued to urge his fellow wild riders onward.  The Rangers and Glade Guard advanced quickly towards the Stormvermin and Warpfire Thrower while the Waywatchers and Treeman sought to cut off the flanking maneuver of the HPA.

The Waywatchers wasted no time.  Knocking their bows with barbed arrows and taking precise aim, they let loose and caused four wounds on the HPA.  Meanwhile roots sprang up around the HPA and caused an additional wound.  The Glade Guard made the dubious choice to ignore the Warpfire Thrower, obviously hoping the Rangers would charge and deal with that threat, and the Glade Guard caused two wounds to the Clanrats as they tried to pile on the Wild Riders and Lord.  Disaster struck however when the Rangers failed their charge by an inch!

In combat the Wildriders and Lord killed no less than eight Clanrats bringing the total Clanrats dead this turn to ten!.  The Wild Riders saw significant losses though with two Wild Riders succumbing to the horde of Skaven and the Lord inching ever close to death.

Again the Clanrats broke and ran from battle with another four leaving the battlefield despite the best efforts of the Grey Seer.

Skaven Turn 4
Despite heavy losses in the Wood Elf turn, the Skaven came back swinging.  The Grey Seer kept trying to keep his minions in check while directing his vermintide towards the unnerved Glade Guard.  Three succumbed.  Otherwise the Warpfire Thrower advanced to within 3" to prevent the Rangers from trying to move around him to attack the Seer or Ikit and The Stormvermin, foreseeing the inevitable end of the Clanrats, marched forward to receive a charge.  Meanwhile the HPA lurched towards the Waywatchers.

The Warpfire Thrower team opened the nozzle on their machination of fiery death and killed no less than six Rangers.  The HPA charged into the Waywatchers and killed no less than eight of the sneaky elf-men with gnashing teeth and venomous claws.  The Clanrats performed admirably by dragging down both the Lord and another Wild Rider while only losing two of their own.

The Waywatchers were clearly shaken.  The remaining two fled quickly back into the woods while two Rangers joined them.
Wood Elf Turn 5
The loss of the Glade Lord boded ill for the Wood Elves.  With the lack of his inspiring presence their will to fight was faltering.  The Spellweaver tried to bolster her troops by throwing an Arcane Bolt at the HPA and searing the slimy and odorous flesh.  The Treeman turned to face the HPA and let loose a smirk while the remaining Rangers moved around the Warpfire Thrower to try and cut the Stormvermin off from the Glade Guard.

At this point we realized that nothing in the rules prevented a unit from splitting fire between two different targets.  So three glade guard loosed arrows at the Warpfire Thrower and brought the weapon team down while the remaining glade guard targeted the Stormvermin and took out three of the vermin.  The Treeman charged the HPA and stomped the gruesome beast into the dirt.  Meanwhile the Wild Riders killed three Clanrats but lost another of their own to the dwindling rat-men.  Just as the Treeman was turning to march on the distant Stormvermin, the HPA let out a sickening cry and shambled back to his many feet with six wounds!

The Stormvermin looked as stalwart as ever and no one noticed when one of their number slinked off into the shadows.  Two of the Clanrats gave up the fight though and fled from the sole remaining survivor of the Wild Riders.
Skaven Turn 5
Again the Grey Seer kept an eye on his minions and urged them to Fight-Fight! while sending the vermintide against the Glade Guard.  The Glade Guard, used to dealing with these type of foes by now, lost only a single member of their remaining number to the assault.  Ikit Klaw meanwhile bolstered the Stormvermin with a mystic shield again before running around the side of the building, away from the pesky bows of the Glade Guard.

The Stormvermin charged to a raucous clanging of shields and cries of Kill-Kill!  They swept over the rangers like a tide of black fur and blue armor with no less than seventeen wounds on the Rangers.  The Rangers fought to the last man, bringing down no less than seven of the elite rats before the last of them succumbed to his wounds.  The HPA roared back to life and lashed out with the fleshy limbs and gnashing teeth.  The Treeman was taken aback and suffered grievously but, ultimately, stomped the reanimated construct back into oblivion where, this time, it stayed.  The Clanrats lost another member to the maddened Wild Rider and was himself wounded as he lashed out in his beserk rage.

Two more clanrats fled from the sight of the enraged Wild Rider but the Stormvermin, knowing full well that the Grey Seer watched their every move, remained.  No less than eight of the armored rat-men considered fleeing.  But all reconsidered at the sight of the Grey Seer behind them.

Wood Elf Turn 6
Not much happened in Turn 6 for the Wood Elves.  They Glade Guard killed a couple Stormvermin and the remaining three Clanrats managed to kill off the last Wild Rider while losing one of their own and seeing another run off the table.

At this point we effectively felt the game was over, but, we played the final turn for fairness.
Skaven Turn 6
The only thing of note in the final turn was the charge of the Stormvermin into the Glade Guard.  The Grey Seer had caused a wound on the Glade Guard with Vermintide earlier in the round but the Stormvermin again plowed straight through the Glade Guard killing all of the remaining eleven elves while only losing a single Stormvermin in return.
Conclusion
At the conclusion of Turn 6, the game was called  We could have played it out to the bitter end but I think between Ikit and the Grey Seer and the Stormvermin, the Treeman would have gone down and the Spellweaver wouldn't have lasted much longer.  If she had been mounted she could have gone for the suicide run at Ikit, but that still would have been a long-shot.

Overall this was a fun game with many tense moments.  My plan worked perfectly with the Wild Riders tied up fighting chaff most  of the game while the rest of my force took out the weaker elf units.  The Rangers failing nearly every charge they attempted was huge.  Had they charged the HPA they could have very easily killed it in one turn since they cause D3 wounds per damage to monsters.


The Good Points
Overall my opponent and I remarked that we liked being able to take models we rarely played in 8th Edition WFB.  I never used Ikit Klaw in WFB because he was too expensive.  I could get almost two Grey Seers for that price.  My opponent liked being able to run with The Glade Lord on Stag and Rangers, two units he rarely used in 8th.

The game is very full of action with victory seemingly teetering back and forth with every player turn.  The Wood Elves had me on the ropes after their turn 4 but the Skaven came right back and evened the field in their own turn 4.

I really like the mechanic for fleeing.  I didn't think much of it in the first few games because we were using smaller numbers but watching models flee as individuals while the units stays to fight is such a neat mechanic and plays perfectly into a cinematic sense for Skaven.

The options available during play are pretty good.  I like being able to move, shoot, charge, fight with the same unit EVERY turn.  Nothing was more frustrating than having a unit in 8th who had to run around a lot but couldn't fire because their weapon was move-or-shoot.  If I was lucky I'd fire it once or twice a game.

The Bad Points
The rules definitely need some shoring up.  We came up with a number of questions during play that the rules simply don't address and ended up dicing off a lot of those.  An example is bonuses to rolls, can they stack?  If my Skavenslaves have +1 to their saves from their shields and also have Mystic Shield, which grants +1 to saves, do they stack?  The rules don't say one way or another.

Some command skills seem very lackluster.  The Grey Seer ability literally kept me in the game when I should have lost while the Glade Lord one really would have only been useful once.

Moving all these models sucks.  Period.  Having 126 individual models on the board that require me to move them as individuals really slows down the game.  Movement trays might help but them the units are bunched up and I wanted them taking up real estate.

I still have issues with the game.  I still state that it isn't Warhammer Fantasy.  However, I'm beginning to think that Age of Sigmar can stand on it's own merits.  I'll keep watching with cautious optimism.  But I really need to see more of the setting and what the new units will bring before I start buying product.