Dragon Wars

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Dragon Wars was last Saturday; I had a good time and three good games.

It was also my last go-round with the old Skaven book.  From now on, I’ll be playing with the new armybook.

The list I ultimately ran:

Dragon Wars
2,000 Points – Skaven
Lords & Heroes
Warlord – General, Dragon, Heavy Armor, Cautious Shield, Ring of Darkness, Skavenbrew
Warlock Engineer – Accumulator, Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll, Storm Daemon
Warlock Engineer – Accumulator, Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll
Core 
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Slaves x20 – Musician
Slaves x20 – Musician
Night Runners x5 – Slings
Night Runners x5 – Slings
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Special
Gutter Runners x5 – Slings
Jezzails x9
Rare
Warp-Lightning Cannon
I dropped The Gouger when I remembered that, per tournament rules, Dragons ignore magic weapons.  I replaced it with Skavenbrew, which I unfortunately forgot to use in 2/3rds of my games.  I really, really hate when I do that.
Game 1
First game was against Ben “Jammin'” Jones’ Vampire Counts.  He ran something like:

Vampire with Ghoulkin on Zombie Dragon
Vampire on Hellsteed
Necromancer
Ghouls x~20
Ghouls x~20
Ghouls x~20
Ghouls x~20
Corpse Cart
Varghulf
Black Coach

The scenario involved woods catching fire, spreading that fire to nearby units, and blowing dragons away from them.

Events of notes include when the Vargulf charged my Giant Rats (or did I charge it?):  when I realized it only had 5 attacks (only!), I knew it wasn’t going to beat the Rats.  After three rounds of combat, it crumbled to wounds the Giant Rats were never able to inflict.  Similarly, the Black Coach slammed into block of Clanrats, it didn’t last very long either: disintegrating to static CR alone.
I lost this one, to scenario.  I managed to tag Ben’s dragon twice via shooting and Warp Lightning, which was good for two points (one point each).  He was able to get a charge in on my dragon and, over two rounds, was able to put two wounds on it; each of which were worth four points each.
Game 2
This game was against the nephew of one of the guys who plays at GPC regularly, Cameron, who was running High Elves.  He ran something like:

Prince on a Moon Dragon
Mage
Spearmen x30
Archers x15
Dragon Princes x6
White Lions x20
Swordmasters x20
Repeater Bolt Thrower

The scenario involved placing a large blast template beneath the path of a dragon’s flight, scattering it, and then scattering any units touched by the template.  It never came up.

This game was over as soon as it began.  I went first, did my usual thing.  He smacked his Dragon Princes into a block of Giant Rats that should have fled but, because they were so badass in the previous game, decided to stick around.  It’s even entirely possible that they’d have fled through the Warlord who was perilously close to them.  Point is: the Dragon Princes wrecked the rats, who fled, kicking off a test in the Ld 7 Warlord who, as close as he was to the edge of the table, didn’t need 3d6 to be off the table.

At that point, we put aside the Dragon Wars special rules and continued with the game because our game had lasted 30 minutes and we didn’t have anything better to do.  Despite losing it nearly as soon as I’d started it, it was still a good game.

Game 3

Was on the bottom table, against Bill Donovan, who was running the ringer army.  I think he was running two dragons to deliberately give up twice as many dragon points as everyone else.  It’s not an accident that Jay‘s second game was on the bottom table and that his third was on the first table.

At this point, I’ve forgotten most of what he ran.  He had two casters (a hero and a lord) on dragons (sun and moon), spearmen and a chariot… but past that, I can’t remember.

The scenario involved rolling a d3 on the top of each player’s turn.  If the roll corresponded to the relative facing between the two dragons on the table (facing, not facing, one facing and the other not), then an effect would happen (dragons would shoot a breath weapon out of their backside, dragons would immediately charge each other and dragons would charge the nearest unit, respectively).

Through the game I did pretty well, plinking away at his weaker Sun Dragon with shooting and Warp-Lightning, eventually dropping it.

Then, I rolled the effect that forced our two dragons to charge each other.  At this point, I’d wounded his Lord and had an uninjured Warlord atop my dragon.  More significantly, where we met was perfectly positioned to have a full unit of Clanrats charge his dragon in the flank, getting in on the action.  Combat was pretty brutal; my Skaven did quite well against the dragon, killing it in two turns.

At the end of the game (which happened immediately after my killing his Lord’s dragon), I’d killed or run everything he had off the table, save for 4-5 archers.