Baltimore GT 2003 – A Skaven’s Return to the Limelight!
Posted by: john
Baltimore GT 2003 – A Skaven’s Return to the Limelight!
by Matthew York 2002/2003 Balt GT Overall Champion
After a surprising victory in Baltimore 2002, I put the Skaven aside to play Chaos at the Philadelphia GT. It was a nice break from playing a weak hitting horde army to play a powerful elite army. I did well with the army finishing 11th, but having so few models on the table it was not quite my playing style so I pull the rats back off the shelf and started playing them again. I started play testing a Plague Monk army with three units of plague monks, two PCB and the rest Clanrats and slaves. The army was very powerful and like the Chaos army could actually win a few combats straight up. This was a nice mix of having a horde and some hitting power. I had pretty much finalized my list just before hearing the results of the Minnesota GT. Upon hearing how complicated the terrain was and how many pieces of difficult terrain was going to be on the boards, I went back and started retooling the list to handle the terrain. Also to the fact that composition aspect had been drop and replaced with Theme, I was sure to face at least one Dragon/ Steam Tank/ Heavy Magic army so I had to prepare for the worst. I started with my previous years list and threw in a few tunnel runner teams to handle heavy shooty armies/Wood Elves/Dwarves and Empire. This actually proved to be the best improvement I could do to the army and they proved themselves time and time again on the battlefield. I also added a third Warlock Engineer as I was expecting at least 10 Power dice or more in a few of the games. Getting the 5th dispel dice and adding a second Dispel scroll would allow me to weather practically any magic phase and the addition of a third Warplightning spell wouldn’t hurt my offensive magic either.
Final list and some of the Fluff:
Clan Kricknar's Main Force:
CHARACTERS:
Chezeck Kricknar (Warlord) (90), Heavy Armor (6), Halberd (6), Shield (3) ||105
Since killing the Grey Seer Kroymith and taking over Clan Kricknar, Chezeck has led his army to an unprecedented string of Victories in the southern lands of Baltemer and the northern wastes of Teranto. Chezeck once again leads his army to the southern lands to face the masses that await his triumphant return!!
Skreecket Kricknar (Warlock Engineer) (45), Warpstone Blades (15), ||145
Warpstone Accumulator (10), Warpstone Condenser (15),
Warplock Pistol (10), Storm Daemon (25), Warp Charm (25)
Skrachet Kricknar (Warlock Engineer) (45), Warpstone Blades (15),|||145
Warpstone Accumulator (10), Warpstone Condenser (15),
Warplock Pistol (10), Dispel Scroll (25), Dispel Scroll (25)
The Twins continue to aid Chezeck in his battles. Chezeck has given the twins unlimited freedom to create, experiment and develop new elaborate ways to deliver the explosive power of WarpStone. Their
last creation, the Ratling Gun has been by far their greatest invention. The twins are currently working on a Cannon Variant, which should be completed by years end.
CORE:
Claw of Sharp Cheddar – 25 Clanrats (125), Champion (Reicket Kricknar) (10) |210
|Banner (10), Musician (5), RATLING Gun (60)
Claw of Swiss- 25 Clanrats (125), Banner (10), Musician (5)||||200
|RATLING Gun (60)
Claw of Moldy Limburger - 25 Clanrats (125), Banner (10), Musician (5) ||140
Claw of Liquid Gouda - 25 Clanrats (125), Banner (10), Musician (5)|||140
Claw of Mild Colby - 25 Clanrats (125), Banner (10), Musician (5) |||140
Claw of Tangy Monterey - 25 Clanrats (125), Banner (10), Musician (5) ||140
Paw of Swiss – 25 Slaves (50), Shields (25) Musician (4)||||79
Paw of Sharp Cheddar - 25 Slaves (50), Shields (25) Musician (4)|||79
Paw of Moldy Limburger - 25 Slaves (50), Shields (25) Musician (4)|||79
Paw of Liquid Gouda 25 Slaves (50), Shields (25) Musician (4) |||79
Paw of Mild Colby - 25 Slaves (50), Shields (25) Musician (4) |||79
Vermintide – 2 Ratswarms (90) |||||||90
|Models: 282 |||||||Total: 1850
Clan Kricknar's Right Flank:
Pekret Kricknar - (Warlock Engineer) (45), Warpstone Blades (15), |||95
Warpstone Accumulator (10), Warpstone Condenser (15), Warplock Pistol (10)
Pekret is the brightest Nestling from the latest litter born to Clan
Kricknar. The twins have taken Pekret under their tutelage and have
enlightened him to the ways of Warpstone. He is eager to prove
himself worthy to the twins!
Death from Below- 6 Gutter Runners (72), Poison Hw (12), Tunneling (18)|| 102
The Silent Blade- 6 Gutter Runners (72), Poison Hw (12), Tunneling (18)|| 102
Master Assassin Eerick has sent three of his Elite units to infiltrate Clan Kricknar and discover the secret to their success on the Battlefield. No Skaven General can be this successful without
some hidden secret. Once they obtain their objective, they have been ordered to assassinate Chezeck and put a new leader in his place.
|Models: 13 |||||||Total: 299
Clan Kricknar's Left Flank:
Man-Thing Scum - 20 Slaves (40)||||||40
Stiletto’s Sting- 7 Gutter Runners (84), Poison Hw (14), Tunneling (21)||119
Fang of Exploding Warpstone – 7 Jezzails (140), |||||140
|Models: 34 |||||||Total: 299
Overall 329 models
Casting: 6/8
Dispel: 4/5 w/ two Dispel Scrolls
Total Points: 2448
The UK team arrived a week before the GT in New York and was looking to get some games in ahead of time. The year before we had set up a day of gaming and looked to do the same this year. So we (The JAWS team and the Warmongers Club) set up a day of Warhammer just outside of New York City just for the occasion. This proved to be a great time to actually put the new list through its paces against some of the best players in the game! Most of the games were 2150 so the list I used included the Left flank on the list. I managed to go 2-0-1 getting a winning draw against John Dale’s magnificent Kroot Beastman army. My prediction at that time was for him to win it all as Beastman skirmishers proved to be suited for the tight terrain that was expected at the GT. Everyone had a great time playing for most of the day (Pizza and drinks provide by the store owner) then headed out to Dave & Busters for Steak.
Ok enough of the preliminary stuff on to the GT!!
Well almost anyway. I went down Friday to play some BloodBowl, which I haven’t played in 6 years. My team…Skaven of course. Going 2-1 and tying for 3rd pleasantly surprised me, while Todd Waitt sitting next to me went 3-0 and winning the BB tournament. Go Todd! That night was spent drinking with the UK guys and playing pool. I think we close the bar, but I’m not sure. Next Morning was painful and came too quickly!
Game #1: Randell Short – Vampire Counts
Randell’s list was pretty much a typical VC army with a large unit of skeletons, large unit of zombies, a unit of ghouls, a unit of batswarms, a couple units of direwolves and a unit of Black Knights with the Banner of 3+ to hit. All lead by a Vampire tooled up and a couple of Necromancers, one with the book. Knowing that a VC armies usually lives and dies by it’s magic phase I opt for the extra WE to add the 5th dispel dice to the list. The terrain we are playing on is the Chaos Waste with blood pools that are difficult terrain and cause panic checks if you end your movement on them. Needless to say I avoided them. I overload might right flank with the warlock engineers and both ratling guns to make sure that I take out the knights as they will be my biggest problem. Warplightning and ratling gunfire take them down with easy. My next objective was to eliminated the ghouls and wolves as they pose the next biggest threat. My Tunnellers popped up on turn 2 and charges one of his Necromancers sitting just outside the skeletons unit and took her down. Then they overrun to his ghouls and take them down. Later in the game they provide a key rear charge against his zombie unit after it was locked up with my generals unit!! I go head to head with two separate units of wolves with the slaves and eventually manage to kill them off on my left flank. Another unit of Slaves locks up with the swarms and over the next 4 turns take them below half strength. Randell’s magic phase was handled fairly well only allowing him to get off one raise spell and one Hellish vigor through most of the game. The unit he did raise didn’t pose a big threat in the center of the board. I charged them with one of my clanrat units and eventually flanked it with another. After his smaller units were gone I started concentrating on his two main units. After a round of magic and shooting they were quickly reduced in size so that my forces could take them on in a straight up fight. By the end I had taken down 80% of his army to me only losing about 40% of mine.
Result: Win
MVP: Stiletto’s Sting (Tunnel Runners)
Game#2 – Joseph Nuth – Empire
Joe had a very strong empire army with a Helblaster, 2 Mortors (bain of my army), steam tank, large unit of knights, large unit of Pistoliers with two detachments of cross bows, a unit of free company and 10 Levels of Magic (Ouch). Ok so I missed seeing that his general was a level 4 so I opt to take the Jezzails block instead of my third Warlock Engineer. With only 4 Dispel Dice and 2 scroll, I needed to do some thing quick and take out his mages! We are playing on an empire village with several pieces of terrain making it difficult for me to deploy my troops let alone fight them. I don’t remember all of the details of the game, but I do know that the Jezzails almost take out the Steam tank before they are run down by the steam tank that charged over some hedges to get to the jezzails!! Nice move, as I didn’t see it coming! On my second turn my lone tunnel runner team pops up right where I want them to and then charge the rear of the handgunners, beat them then overrun into the crossbowman who then beat them on his turn then overrun setting up a next turn charge on his level 4 General. They kill him and then overrun to his level 2 right behind him. They kill him then overrun to the crossbowman. But they aren’t finished yet!! They beat them and pursue into a mortar and kill the mortar crew. On my turn they flank charge the free company who have been trying to set up my main line as they advance slowly across the field. The tunnel runners beat the free company by one, they break, and I catch them and over run into his last wizard and kill him! Whew! A single Tunnel runner team took out well over 50% of his army!! I’m absolutely stunned as I’m sure that Joe is as well!
Result: Win
MVP: Stiletto’s Sting (Tunnel Runners) for taking most of his army!!
Game#3 – Michael Sullivan – Brettonian
I’ve played Mike a few time before and he has a winning record against my rats. For some reason he is the bain of my army and I just can’t seem to win against him on a local level. He is also wielding knights, which usually do a number on my rats! He has a unit of grail, a unit of questing, a unit of Realm and a massive unit of errant knights. We are playing on one of the Ice boards, which is actually good for me as it is more open then most of the other boards allowing me to set up the checkerboard. The victory conditions are similar to King of the Hill, as you have to control the objective at the end of the game to win. He gets the first turn, but elect to pray. I move my army in a sweep to the left and set up several charges for him to take that will divert his army away from the objective. Magic sees warplighting cast on his questing knights; they panic and leave the board opening up his right flank. On his turn he charges my far right unit of slaves with his grail knights. I think he is just short so I elect to hold. He was in by about half an inch…D’oh! Grail knight miss a lot and on cause a few wound but he wins by 3, I have a LD of 5 so I need snake eyes to stay….and sure enough luck was with me as I roll snake eyes and stay!! Slaves then hold the grails for another turn before being beaten and run down. But by that time they are so far out of the game that they can’t get back in time to take the objective. The most of his army falls to Warplighting include one very brutal round of 2 warplightning and a bound warplightning combined with two ratling guns decimating his generals unit leaving nothing standing!
Result: Win
MVP: Paw of Moldy Limburger (slaves) for standing up to a Grail knight charge and holding!
Game#4 – Bill Edwards – Tzeentch Deamons (Team USA)
The scenario is recycle, where your units that are destroyed come back on in the next round except for characters. Bill spots this immediately and deploys to take out my warlock engineers. I make the first of many mistakes of deploying my units and characters within his charge range and allow him to take out my characters. He charges his Exalted, furies and screamers into my warlocks eventually killing them all. His Exalted pops on the first round, but he damage is done and my magic offence and defense is gone! Initially I recover from this mistake, but then go on to forget my tunnel runners till the 5th turn in which they are so far out they have very little impact on the game. I also make another HUGE mistake of not positioning my sacrificial slave unit correctly and allowing him to pursue into my generals unit. OUCH. Bill does a great job of capitalizing on each and every one of my mistakes in the end it was a lot closer than I though as bill wins by 400 pts. Well Done Bill!! But as we joked at the start of the game, that I had to lose to him in order for me to win the GT. As that is what happened last year. Kind of strange as this is exactly how it happened again!!
Result: Lose
MVP: Bill
Game #5– Andy Reidel – Slaanesh Marauders/Beastman (Team UK)
Andy had a sweet looking/ hard army. He had a tooled up hero, Exalted (General) and a bane beast in a chariot, two units of 12 mounted marauders, one unit of 6 mounted marauders, warrior chariot, beastman chariot, a giant, a large unit of dogs and a unit of 4 ogres. The scenario was flank where one of your 300-point blocks and a core unit from the other 2150 came on at the end of your second turn. When we play tested a variant of this scenario your main force deployed in your left quadrant and your flanking force came on in your right quadrant. Ok no problem I know how to play this scenario. I put a strong force close to where his flanking force will come on to be able to take advantage of the fact that the come on at the end of his 2nd turn and give me a free charge/shooting before he could do anything. I deploy two units of clanrats both with ratling guns and two units of slaves to handle the force. The problem came about at the end of his second turn he start putting his flanking force on my right quadrant and not his. I told him that he was supposed to place them in his right quadrant, but he then showed me the diagram that clearly puts the flanking force in my right quadrant…D’OH…Crap now half my army is out of position and my flanking force is has nothing to face but my own troops. Ok quick recovery and a movement of 10” allow some of my troops to get back into the game. Mean while I was able to take out his hero and giant in the first turn do to some good luck with Warplightning and Jezzail shots. I also sacrificed a unit of slaves to his bane beast chariot squadron, which pursued in front of his warrior chariot blocking his LOS and not allowing him to charge his next turn. Next round of shooting/warplightning took out one of the beastman chariots, which panicked off a mounted marauder unit that was getting ready to charge with the chariots. At the center of the board a unit of slaves engaged his spawn to clog up the center for 4+ turns not allow him to get to me. My turn 3 tunnellers pop up and charge his ogres do 6 wounds and win combat by 4 yet don’t break them. Next turn they are beaten leaving one tunneller to run off and can’t rally. My 5th turn the other two tunneling teams show up and one charges a mounted marauder unit and the other charges a fleeing mounted marauder unit off the board. Ending result is a deceive victory for the rats with a lot of bonus points!!
|Result: Win
|MVP: Warlocks and Jezzails combine to take out most of his heavy hitters
|Game #7 – Arlan McWalter – Brettonian (Team UK) (My vote for Best Sport)
|If you get a chance to pick up the 2003 Annual, you will see a fantastic Brettonian army. This is Adi’s! Truly one of the best painted armies at the GT and played by what most people agree upon as THE Best Player in the game!! What a better way to finish up a GT than to play Adi! Our game was by far the best game I’ve had…Ever! Ok we are set up back in the empire town with lots of terrain, which is bad for both of use. I opt for the extra Warlock Engineer and two tunnellers as they have been performing far above expectations and I would need every bit of luck to beat Adi. Unfortunately this would be their worst game as they pop up on turn two charge the squires, lose big and then are run down!! Add to that on my first turn the extra Warlock Engineer uses his warptoken, rolls a one for it and takes a wound. Not to mention the fact that he rolls three ones to cast, rolls a 4 on the miscast charge and takes another wound and dies in a huge ball of green smoke!! Wow…Ok now I’m down 300pt before even getting into combat with Adi! I’m going to need a lot of luck to pull this one out. On my left flank I position a slave unit to take a charge and set him up by diverting his units away from my main battle line. It goes almost as planned save that he pursued too far and impacted one of my clanrat units. They hold him for two rounds before being run down. On my right flank, I do the same but the slave unit actually holds and then over the course of two turns eventually wins combat and runs him down…Must be the same slave unit that held a grail knight unit in game 3! My magic phase gets better as I manage to take his grail knight unit down leaving only his general, BSB and Bannerman. They charge a unit of clanrats with a my lead warlock engineer and kill him on the first turn, but the unit holds being close to my general. My next turn I unleash my magic and shooting into combat and finally take down his general!! My ratswarm ties up a very large wedge in the middle of the battlefield for three turns before I charge them with my general in a slave unit. Two turns later they break for the hill and I run them down!! All in all a fantastic game in which I eventually pull ahead when his general goes down and his last unit breaks and is run down. This game was by far the best against a Great opponent! Cheers Adi!! I hope I get to play you again!
Ok, so it took me 45 minutes to pack up and I pretty pumped as I had just played one of the best games against the best player in Warhammer and emerged victorious. At this point the thought of winning anything didn’t matter because it was such a great game. I packed up the car and left everything except the cooler in the car, which I brought to share the remaining wine and beer with my friends and went to the awards ceremony. Now going 5-1 I figured I wasn’t really in the running for overall, my battle scores were a complete mystery as the win/lose values of each game were not published, And honestly did it really matter..no, I just had probably the best game ever and was feeling very good about it. My painting was good, but not the best, maybe I might have a shot a best sports as I try hard to make sure my opponents have a fun game against me.
After they announce Best Sports..Adam Clark, I figure that I’m going home with nothing. Then Best army goes to John Dale, who I figured was a shoe in for overall, however he had just lost to Bill E. in the final round, so that kind of made sense. Then Best Tactician.. Bill Edwards who went 6-0 again makes some sense, but I thought for sure he would get overall. My next thoughts were who won overall as Peter Shuley who also went 6-0 got 2nd best Tactician. I know that Don Riddick also went 5-1 and Marc Robson went 5-1 but played an army that he won Minnesota with so couldn’t win overall, so who else went 5-1 that could be in the running? They started with Todd Wiatt for third overall, he went 4-1-1, then Tom Van Dyke also 4-1-1. My thoughts were maybe it was Don, or just maybe it was me?…And winning it all for the second year in a row….Matthew York……HOLY SHIT!!! Again? I can’t believe it! I’m sure that others were also saying the same thing!…Again! All I have to say is AMAZING…. This truly has been unbelievable for me!!