After fumbling around with the rats for a few months, they ended up becoming my army of choice for Clash of Kings. I’d originally wanted to take Basileans but the changes between editions and then the launch of the full list so close to Clash meant I haven’t had time to work out which direction I want to take my list in (I really like the new army and want to have them ready for action in the new year).
Taking rats really isn’t a second choice for me, they are my favourite faction, but for some reason I’ve never managed more than two wins at Clash with them. So, I went with a realistic view of how things were likely to go.
Something I struggle with is definitely list building, I’m far too partial to taking units I’m excited about over units that work well together. As a result, I was really rather shocked when I saw my list achieve the honour of being nominated Favourite Faction List by the Honest 4s. I’m not completely sure what the criteria was but I’d like to think there was more to it than the poor grammar in the title.
I arrived on Saturday morning to find the usual busyness and buzz. Steve and the team had pulled off yet another fantastic showing. The tables looked fantastic and there were some beautifully painted models on display.
The first game was Control, and I was playing a fellow rat enthusiast. Between us we had a serious amount of unit strength on the table, although we’d taken different approaches to structuring it. My opponent had mainly hordes and legions, with a lower number of units overall, whilst I had more units to play with. In the centre my smaller units were a massive advantage as they were able to block up the cumbersome hordes and legions allowing me to focus on wearing down a couple of the big blocks, opening a decent enough hole to allow my shock troop hordes and mutant rat fiend to start grinding through the surrounding units.
On the left flank my opponent’s mutant rat fiends tried to put pressure on the warriors trying to hold it. My warriors indulged the creatures just long enough for a horde of shock troops supporting the assault on the centre to turn their attention back to the flank to retake it from the fiends. On the right flank a doughty birthing daughter and more warriors tried to hold off tunnel runners, but there were no shock troops to help them, and eventually their valiant defence crumbled.
One of the enemy’s shock troop hordes captured my centre, but the victory was fleeting as my shock troops with the Brew of Sharpness eviscerated them, returning the centre to my control and giving my rats a win.
Game 2 was Raze and Protect against Abyssal Dwarfs. Since the changes to the Plague Pot command, with the removal of Stealthy, I haven’t played against armies with very much shooting. This list had just enough to concern me, if it had been concentrated in one place. Fortunately, the shooting was spread across the other side of the table, allowing me to close the distance on the left flank and in the centre in relative safety. Once engaged, the rats worked quickly on rolling up the flank, neutralising the war machines as a priority to help out the rats on the right flank.
On the right a game of cat and mouse was being played as warrior regiments and a birthing daughter did their best to prevent the greater obsidian golem and iron caster from scoring. The warriors had no chance in a fair fight, so went out their way to avoid it, instead contesting the objectives with superior unit strength. The only real threat to this approach came from the artillery, so closing the shooting down as quickly as possible became the priority.
Fortunately, the final turn rolled around before the warriors took too much damage and were able to hold onto one of the three objectives on that flank, which combined with the others the rats had claimed delivered a second win.
The final game of the day was against the Twilight Kin, and the scenario was Pieces of Eight. This was my first time facing the Kin in this edition. I really liked the list and was intrigued to see the Voidweavers making an appearance. Their shooting is pretty potent, and I was a little worried about what they might do to my poor old rats, particularly given the presence of a Crone with Blizzard.
Unlike the shooting in my previous game the Voidweavers and Crone teamed up to hold the left flank. Whilst the rest of the elves gathered in the centre. The advance was cautious, the rats being unexcited by the presence of the terror and the horde of elves with ensnare. Fortunately, a combination of scorched earth and plague pots forced the elves into some tricky charges which left my opponent with a dilemma that mean losing either the terror or the ensnaring horde to flank charges. This was the happy accident I was looking for and the mutant rat fiend made absolute mincemeat of the terror as a result.
However, my breathing space quickly closed down as the elves destroyed my fiend whilst the void lurker and impalers made a fresh attack. The rat warriors held and the impalers also fell victim to an exposed flank and all of a sudden, the centre seemed to be opening up for the vermin.
On the left flank a regiment of warriors had moved next to an objective marker. I knew, having placed it, that it was worthless. The Kin, however, took this as a sign that it had value and began targeting the unit with their shooting, allowing a shock troop horde to sneak around the back of a hill and close with the elven warrior horde. Although I knew it was unlikely I would win that flank I knew I just needed to stop them long enough to prevent them from supporting the dwindling troops in the centre.
With the Void Lurker occupied in the centre I decided it was time to send the Hackpaws after the objective on the right flank. Phantoms were now the only troops guarding it and I figured there was a good chance the two units would likely not rout each other in the remining couple of turns, meaning the score wouldn’t count.
Back in the centre things were looking good. Shock troops had the remaining Kin units on the ropes, and the spear horde was ready to help put the veteran vermin facing the elf horde position for a win, then the dice gods struck.
The void lurker needed two nerve rolls of eleven to remove the horde it was facing and managed it. That meant rerouting the spears to deal with the massive beast. This meant that despite routing their opponents the shock troops could not make the distance to steal the objective that would have given them the game. It was a fantastically close game and an absolutely brilliant way to round the day off.
In the evening we settled down to listen to the wise words of Ronnie. Fourth has been an interesting journey so far and I’m feeling pretty optimistic about what the future will hold, I’m also wandering if it might be time to revisit the Abyssal Dwarfs.
Day 2 is coming soon.
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