It’s been a couple of years since I last went to Entoyment in Poole for an event. Since then, it’s moved sites and had a fairly material glow up. It was very impressive with a massive gaming space, great retail selection and well stocked café.
Determined to get one of my armies into a decent position before Clash of Kings, I’ve been focusing on my ratkin, simply because they are the favourites. After watching with interest what’s been going on in the USA (gaming, not politics) and failing to get mixed arms lists doing what I want them to do I thought I’d give this ago:
Whilst influenced by the USA Masters lists, I had no intention of trying to build numerous hordes of wretches, which worked out well due to their slight nerfing in Fracture. I’m generally pretty happy with what’s in the list, rule of cool and model wise, and it’s great to give the Night Terror a run out.
My first game was against Ratkin, and we were playing Compass Points. Excitingly my opponent’s list was very different to my own and I found myself facing a very speedy force built around four tunnel runner regiments and four of the melee impalers. If anything was going to test the resilience of my list, this was going to do it.
I adopted my usual refused flank set up, whilst my opponent spread out pretty evenly across the board. Not surprisingly, combat started quickly and by turn two even the shock troops that usually cover the back field were up close and personal with their own nightmare machines. To begin with chaff, plague pots and Scorched Earth kept my troops relatively safe as the first couple of Tunnel Runners were dismantled. However, the chariots that had been given free rein to manoeuvre around the end of my line hit hard.
With the combat starting so soon, I’d been hoping to have enough units freed up to face down the flanking threat. However, this is a dice game, and the dice were keeping things spicy. A couple of double ones had kept my troops in protracted combats, then, to add to the excitement, an impaler managed the almost impossible of routing my spear horde in a single turn, leaving the centre of my line looking very exposed.
How the tables had turned, before turning back almost immediately as my opponent suffered his first double one malfunction, putting about 30 wounds on a warrior regiment and taking two of his units out of the game for the next turn. It was the breathing space I needed to get back on track.
My rats managed to grab a solid victory before some very cheesy nachos for lunch.
Lunch out the way it was time to face the orcs, for the first time this edition in Portal of Peril. The Portal of Peril scenario sounds like a sci-fi film from the sixities but plays like Inception. Whilst I did play this scenario during its development, I was about as aware of what was going on then, as I was on Saturday.
Fortunately, a kindly Moonraker was there to help me get my head around the mechanics, which was helpful. Unfortunately, the orc army I found myself facing was a pretty solid list that wasn’t going to make life easy.
The army was a great mix of different units with both traditional and riftforge units. I decided to try and push through the flanks with a view to circling into the centre to grab the portal for the last couple of turns. My loot counters went on the shock troop hordes and largely just slowed them down. On the flanks the shock troops did push through, but not quickly enough, as the orcs had enough units to block them up, whilst directing their hardest units into my weaker centre.
Trying to buy time I moved my centre back, but all that did was invite my opponent into their scoring zone, and they quickly ramped up the points. The rats did not put on a good showing here, but I would largely put that down to my own preference for more defensive playing. This did give me a really good insight into the scenario though, and I’m looking forward to giving it a go in the future.
The final game was, confusingly, against another rat-based chariot list, but being played as ogres. The models for this army are absolutely stunning, so it was great to see it in person and on the table. In terms of what was in the list it was pretty straight forward, six chariot regiments, two mammoths some goblins, a sergeant and a warlord. The scenario was Pieces of Eight.
So, for the second time that day my poor old rats found themselves bracing for impact. Again, turn two brought contact, and it was relentless. Rat chariots have lower nerve scores and melee four, making them a bit easier to deal with and far less predictable than the ogres, who just push out a ton of reliable wounds, especially against defence four units. The plague pots did the hard work in the centre making sure the ogres couldn’t put out wounds fast enough to break through, letting the shock troops grind them down.
Fortunately, I quickly won the left flank and was able to turn towards the centre before the chariots on my right flank could get properly stuck into my line. However, we were burning through units at an alarmingly similar rate (although I did have a lot more). As the units in the centre started to rout my plucky Birthing Daughter and Brood Mother threw themselves in harms way, giving the shock troops in the centre just enough time to finish their combats and turn to face the ruinous wheels heading for their flanks.
Despite a lack of commanders, and plague pots, the elite rats seized the initiative and reduced the orges to a single regiment, securing a maximum scenario points win.
The rats managed to squeak a very respectable fourth place, not to mention some bloody brilliant games and we left with joy in our hearts and cheese in our bellies.
I’d like to give a massive thank you to TO Todd, Ben, Jon and Mark for some cracking games, as well as recommending Entoyment to anyone in the Poole area who hasn’t managed to get down there yet.
I’m not going to talk too much about the list as I’m working on a bit of a Ratkin review, suffice to say that Shock Troop hordes are undoubtedly the workhorses of the army at the moment. Now I have a couple of broken hackpaws to fix and some final models to paint ahead of Clash.
Keep well peeps.
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