Karnage Kup Round 3, Results and Conclusions….

Howdy peeps,

Sorry I've been a bit quiet lately, but the whole December/January thing involves a lot of events in my household, inclusing two birthdays, our anniversary and the obvious Xmas stuff.

Anyway, the first two rounds were done before christmas, and the reports can be found in December over on the right of the page. 

The third round game was 'The Watchtower', a much dreaded scenario by many, and as before victory points would not be used as a decider, rather actual kill points would be used (ie, if a clanrat costs 5 points and you kill 3 clanrats out of a unit of 20, you get 15 kill points).  I was facing my third, yes third skaven player in a row but I was hoping for a slightly easier matchup after having lost my last game and also having played both last years winner in the first round, and the 7 time winner (and record holder) in the second.

My army list was roughly as follows:

Prince, general, great weapon, crown of command, armour of caledor, guardian pheonix
Archmage, high magic, seerstaff of saphery, level 4, talisman of preservation
Noble BSB, dragon armour, great weapon, banner of the world dragon
28 Lothern Sea Guard, full command
28 Lothern Sea Guard, full command
20 Pheonix Guard, full command, banner of sorcery
29 Sworsmasters of Hoeth, full command, banner of eternal flame, dragonbane gem, ironcurse icon
2 Repeater Bolt Throwers

As you can see, deathstar ftw!  Both Noble and Prince sit in the the block of swordsmasters, immune to magic, able to take on hell pits/regenerating skweel ogres and storm the watchtower turn 1.  My plan was not to enter the tower in deployment, I wanted to take it back from the skaven.

His army was (roughly):

Grey Seer on Screaming Bell
Plague Priest
Warlock Engineer with Doomrocket
Cheiftain BSB
50 clanrats  pushing bell
20 clanrats
30 clanrats
50 slaves
50 slaves
38 plague monks
hell pit abomination
warp lightning cannon
8 gutter runners

Gareth (my opponent) won the roll off, and deployed his unit of twenty clanrats inside the tower.  I deployed my SM unit directly in front of the tower, the PG just behind them and the LSG units on either side.  My 2 RBT's went in the corners of the board to stop them pesky gutter runners getting behind me too early.  Gareth lined up his plage monks in front of the tower, with the bell unit right behind and the rest of his army spread into a battleline to either side.  His gutter runners deployed on my left, behind a wood to hide from the rbt on that side.

Turn 1:

With the skaven occupying the watchtower I got the first turn and immediately charged my deathstar into the tower, whilst my LSG units moved up to provide fire support and stop the enemy from reaching my pheonix guard, who would mach into the tower turn 5 (in theory).  Magic was pathetic, as was shooting, although 2 plahue monks and three gutter runners died to lothern sea guard arrows. Combat was predictably one-sided, the swordsmasters wiping out all twenty clanrats in one go and occupying the tower.

The skaven began by charging the swordsmasters in the tower, and generally moving forward elsewhere.  The skaven magic phase was shut down by my archmage and his +5 to dispel, and the bell didn't ring loud enough to do anything this turn.  His gutter runners killed my RBT on the left with poison slings.  Combat saw my prince take a wound from the plague censer held by the priest, along with three swordsmasters, before my prince cut down 4 monks.  My champion then slew the plague monk champion, earning me +2 with overkill, and a staggering 14 moreplague monks bit the dust too.  I lost a further 10 swordsmasters due to the plague banner, but won combat and knocked the frenzy out of the diseased skaven, who held due to the close prescence of the general and bsb.  Already about 40 models from the two sides were dead, and no powrful spells had worked so far!  It was going to be bloody..

Turn 2

Difficult decisions this turn, but I decided to charge the HPA on my right with my sea guard rather than take the impact hits next turn.
Magic went a lot better, as I accumulated 12 dice and powered through flames of the pheonix on one of the slave units, killing thirty, and also getting off shield of saphery on the lsg, courage of aenarion and drain magic.  Shooting saw 8 slaves die on the left, and combat saw two wounds onto the HPA for the death of 8 LSG, who luckily held due to being stubborn and within 12" of the bsb (a handy trick that would be repeated every turn hopefully!).

The skaven charged forwards, slaves hitting my lsg on the left, the plague monks once again into the tower and the slaves on the right moving forwards, pursued by the blue flames dancing over their bodies.  Finally his unit of 30 clanrats flank charged my pheonix guard who were hiding behind the tower.
His shooting phase saw 6 lothern sea guard die to poisoned slings and warp lightning, along wth several slaves, but before that Gareth managed to IF plague on my right hand unit of LSG, eek!  Luckily, only a couple died, and then he rolled a 1, meaning I could place it on his bell pushing clanrats, killing 16!
In true skaven fashion, Gareth decided not to dispel flames of the pheonix on his slaves. Oh, and the screaming bell gave all nearby units +1 attack per model, grrrrrr.
Combat saw another few swordsmasters die to the censer fumes, before all but six of the plague monks were beaten into a red mush, for the loss of a few more swordsmasters, leaving only 9 alive!  I won the combat, and the plague monks held again.  The HPA shrugged off the three wounds I scored on it, and killed a bucketload more LSG, but again stubborn/bsb saved the day.  On my left many slaves died to the LSG spears but held, and my pheonix guard lost heavily, only three models being able to attack the skaven not helping even though I killed the warlock engineer. I then needed to roll a double 1 to stay in combat, but I only managed a 3, before rolling a double 1 on my bsb re-roll!  get in!

Turn 3

Everybody was already in combat that needed to be, and so I proceeded to the magic phase.  I cast courage of aenerion, drain magic, shield of saphery and also saw another twenty slaves die to flames of the pheonix (only about 6 were left at this point). 
Combat was bloody, the slaves on the left losing heavily to my LSG and then running, killing two pheonix guard, three clanrats and three LSG as the exploded.  My LSG then piled into the side of the clanrat/PG combat, and the two units then destroyed the clanrats with ease.  On the right it went the othert way, only 5 lsg were now left alive but once again held thanks to stubborn/bsb.

Skaven turn 3 saw the 6 plague monks charge the tower again, and the bell then destroyed the tower!  We would be fighting over the ruins from now on...
Magic also saw my PG withered down to toughness 2, and then shot by poisoned gutter runner slings and the warp lightning cannon, leaving 8 standing.
Combat saw the plague monks wiped out before they could strike back, and a solitary sea guard survived the fight against the HPA.  There were not many models left alive now!

Turn 4

I charged the screaming bell unit, again to avoid impact hits, and reformed my LSG on the left to help them out next turn.  My PG moved onto the tower ruins.
Magic was poor, as was shooting, but combat briefly put a smile back on my face as 15 clanrats were put to the sword by my, er, swordsmasters, for the loss of two.  Gareth focussed too much on my bsb and general to really win the combat.  Being unbreakable, the rats held.  Oh, and my last sea guardsman died on the right, freeing up the HPA....

Which turned and moved over towards the bell/SM combat.  Magic saw the dreaded thirteenth spell kill off all but the PG champion and Archmage, this was not looking good!  The poisoned slings and WLC took care of quite a few LSG on the left. but they held.
Combat was once again one-side, the swordsmasters leaving only his bsb, grey seer and two clanrats alive, with the bell having three wounds on it too!  All I had now was my bsb, prince and unit champion in that unit, but they had caused some damage!  The unbreakable skaven though held again....

Turn 5 Onwards

I'm going to fill in now, my remaining lsg piled into the screaming bell, before losing to the rat ogre bellringers attacks and fleeing off the table.  My prince died to impact hits from the HPA, and my bsb could only knock a wound off it before being thunderstomped to death.  My archmage however killed three gutter runners over three combat phases after getting charged by them, whilst the pheonix guard champion died straight away! At the end of turn 6, or seven (I can't quite remember) I had been wiped out, and Gareth had 2 gutter runners, a BSB, a grey seer, a bell with 2 wounds and a HPA with two wounds left alive!

High Elves Lose.......


A couple of points here, firstly the tourney winner had already been decided before we kicked off, so it was more friendly than it would normally have been for a tourney game.  Also army selection was very out.  I would never normally have taken one deathstar of T3, 5+ save models, but the scenaio demanded it and it worked very well in my practise game.  Also if I'd killed off the HPA I'd have won the game, simple as.  Besides which, the last umpteen skaven armies I've faced have had more weapons teams than a skryre testing facility, and so I felt the bolt throwers and LSG were required.  If I was to fight the same army again I'd drop the 50 odd LSG for 3 units of 25 spearmen, and arm one with the banner of eternal flame (my SM didn't need it really).  I'd also drop the bolt throwers for a second mage or some fast cavalry to threaten gutter runners and cannons.
At the end of the day, I need to buy more pheonix guard, as 30 PG would make a much better tower unit than SM.
It was great game against a true gentleman who really knew his army, and had made a real effort to not follow the meta and take a jazillion shooty things.  And I can't have been that much of a sore loser, as we will at some point be having a wood elves vs orcs n goblins battle.  Result!

Final Standings




Name -- Race -- G Total -- VP -- Total

Andy T -- Skaven -- 15 -- 6782

Pete -- Skaven -- 10 -- 6162

Gareth -- Skaven -- 10 -- 4851

Lee -- High Elves -- 10 -- 4336

Ali -- Skaven -- 10 -- 3322

Mal -- Bretonians -- 5 -- 3959

Neil -- High Elf -- 5 -- 3778.5

Danny -- Skaven -- 5 -- 3740.5

Andy D -- Beasts of Chaos -- 5 -- 2801

Sam -- Lizardmen -- 0 -- 1057   As you can see, 5 out of 10 players were skaven, and I faced all of the top three!  Including both winners of the tourney.  I also faced three skaven armies, all very different but still a real challenge for high elf generals without unlimited budgets lol.  I most regret not running my dual dragon list for the entire tournament, but as everybody loaded up on cannons and anti-dragon stuff after game 1 I was forced to change from my plan.   Oh well, I have a 3k, 3 dragons list in my head, and also a challenging wood elf list for next year to try and break this skaven monopoly!   Adios until next time   Neil