Battle Report: Skirmish #1 Skaven vs Ironjawz , Clash at Dawn

Travelling at nighttime is fraught with peril; warbands scouring the same territory may cross paths without even realising it. As dawn breaks, rival formations are revealed to be dangerously entangled, and the ensuing battle is brutal and chaotic.

After playing some practice matches with my brother to get used to the rules and not forget key things like the hero phase and battleshock, we started our first Skirmish campaign following the rules and battleplans included in the Skirmish book.

Decided to start at 40 points, because the Ironjawz units are so expensive it would be hard to get together a valid warband on lower point cost for them.

Skaven warband list:
General: Warlock Engineer
   Command Ability: Merciless Killer
   Artefact: Blessed Amulet
1x Rat Ogor (with warpfire gun)
7x Clanrat (blades + spears mixed)

Ironjawz warband list:
General: Megaboss
   Command Ability: Indomitable Will
   Artefact: Soulsever Blade
3x Ardboyz (big choppas)

SETUP


Dawn break on two unfortunate clanrats very far from their warband

The first match started with an interesting setup.

I was able to keep the boys relative close to each other in the middle of the battlefield. I wanted to keep them close for protection and also to be able to move in any direction needed later.

The skaven had to place two clanrats in a very unfortunate position. But other part of the warband deployed close together on one side.

Terrain rules rolled was not relevant in this match and so are not mentioned this time.

TURN 1 - Ironjawz

The Megaboss charged the only worthy opponent, the Rat Ogor

My Ironjawz finished set-up first so I had the start.

Charging the two lonely clanrats and moving my Megaboss against the Rat Ogor was my choice.

The clanrats had no chance and died easily, but the Megaboss was not able to kill the Rat Ogor in one go, it survived with 1 wound.

TURN 1 - Skaven

The overwhelming force of skaven and a super-charged Warp Lighinting defeated the Megaboss

The Ardboys who killed the clanrats were too far anyway, so all remaining skaven force charged on the Megaboss. A well rolled Warp Lighting from the Warlock Engineer wounded the ork general and the remaining skaven could kill it with some causalities.

The battleshock phase ended this game very quickly, both warbands lost half of their models and broke at the end of Turn 1. This result the game in a draw.

Battle analysis

The overwhelming number of skaven models made it very difficult to handle them.

Leaving the lonely clanrats alone and rushing towards the the main force with the Ardboys could have made more overall damage later, or spliting the skaven force into two giving more chance to the Megaboss to survive.

The Megaboss could have also charged the handful of clanrats at the tree, and maybe even be able to kill all of them in order to break the opposing force.

Staying away from the Rat Ogor or keep him busy with a single Ardboy looks like much better choice for the future.

The warlock is a huge threat. The Indomitable Will command ability may help a little in the long run, but it is not a guarantee to unbind the Warp Lighting. Key targets can be focused and killed in one or two turns easily with the magic.

From skaven point of view it was a good and obvious choice to focus down the Megaboss and possibly break the orks this way through battleshock.

You can find the other games of this Skirmish here:

• Battle 1 Clash at Dawn (this match)
• Battle 2 Treasure Hunt
• Battle 3 Fragile Cargo
• Battle 4 Vortex of Power
• Battle 5 Assassinate
• Battle 6 Seize the Relic (final match with nice photos)