The Completed Skaven Clan Eshin Army

Game Night: Eshin vs. Empire

To celebrate the completion of my Eshin army, I took the all-skirmishing force to Game Night to give them one last run. I ended up playing Tom and his Empire.

I was quite worried about his two units of Knights (one unit of 10 Inner Circle with Warrior Priest Lord, one unit of 5 vanilla with full command) when the game started, but my Jezzails absolutely destroyed them. Each unit of Jezzails was averaging 3 dead Knights per shooting phase. By the time the knights got into the midst of my army, they small enough to tolerate. One of my favorite moments came when his Inner Circle Knights trounced a speed bump unit of Night Runners, over-ran, and ended up right between my Globadiers and a unit of Jezzails. Next turn--seven dead knights! (This had to have been the first game that any of my Globadiers or Jezzails failed to kill themselves. )

My Master Assassin was Skitterleaped into combat (courtesy of Irresistible Force) on the 1st turn, and he was supposed to take out the unit of Pistoliers that were going after my Triad. Sadly, as is becoming a habit, he only killed managed to kill one member of the unit, thus getting stuck in combat. He was then charged in the rear by a unit of Flagellants. I thought that for sure he'd be struck down, but the crazed zealots only managed one wound. A unit of Night Runners then charged into the Flagellants' flank, and a nearby Eshin Sorcerer Skitterleaped the Master Assassin out of the combat and into the flank of a 30-man swordsman unit--more specifically, into the flank of his BSB. He only managed one wounding hit on the BSB, but that became five wound (thanks, Fellblade!). The combat was lost, but the Master Assassin stuck around. He held up this unit for two more turns before the combined might of Gutter Runners and his Fellblade broke the unit, and the fleet footed ninja rats ran them down. Of course, the brave Master Assassin succumbed to the poisonous Fellblade on turn 5, right before he was going to kill the enemy Warrior Priest who had hid behind his Champion the previous turn. Such is the Skaven way of life...

I really enjoyed the game. I lost two units to a cannon ball the first turn (only two models were killed, but the unit panicked and then scared off another unit directly behind them). This was problematic, because I had overloaded my left side with a plan of overrunning his right side and then moving on down the flank of the army. For the first time ever--I think--I stuck to this plan and actually saw it through. Having so many placements allowed me to wait out my opponent before tipping my hand. With deployment being something that I have wanted to work on, I was pretty proud of myself.

Tom was a great opponent, and I'd love to get a game in against him in the future.

The best part about the game was that both of us had fully painted armies. I had never experienced that before, and it really increased my level of enjoyment.

Time to get crackin' on the next army!

An Elf Walks In to a Bar...

...to meet his four Skaven Assassin friends.

Finally, I have some pictures to share. I finished painting the Wood Elf Wardancer, as well as the two final Assassins for my Eshin army. Here they be:







The Eshin army is essentially complete. The last thing I would like to do is make a crap-ton of snow and to base the entire army. Then it will be completely complete.

Slowly Gettin' It Done

The Eshin are almost complete. I just put the final highlights on six Warplock Jezzails (including two that count as two Jezzails), so all ten (twelve) are complete. I plan on posting pictures soon.

Important note: I'm painting these Skaven to a tabletop standard--no more, no less. There are several models that I spent more time on, adding interesting details and such. But the majority of the army is going to be pretty basic. That's fine with me, since it'll be the first army that I will have painted. Also, I just want to be done with it due to the fact that it won't even be a legal army once the new Skaven book comes out...

Monday Night Game Night: Empire

The final night of the WFB league was this past Monday, and I was matched up with Devo and his Empire army. He was rockin' some large infantry blocks supported by an Arch Lector on foot, a Wizard, a mounted BSB, and an Engineer on mechanical steed. He had a unit of handgunners, a unit of crossbowmen, a unit of Outriders, a unit of Pistoliers, a cannon, a mortor, and a rocket battery for ranged attacks.

I didn't get my patented first round Skitterleap off, but it wasn't necessary. One of my scouting Gutter Runners weathered a round of shooting from his Pistoliers and then charged them. His fast-cav then fled, but unfortunately for Devo, when they ran through his uber-unit of Halberdiers (with Arch Lector and BSB), the big unit failed their panic test and fled off the board. That's a healthy chunk o' points gone in the first turn. Good for me, bad for Devo.

In retaliation, Devo blasted a building one of my units of Jezzails were hiding in, destroying the entire unit. I shall now respect the power of a cannon against buildings.

I had some good positioning with my Night Runners that led to some advantageous combats against his infantry. I was winning combats, and he was losing. It was as simple as that.

The only character my Master Assassin was able to kill was Devo's wizard, and that wasn't due to a Skitterleap. It was just a regular old combat.

With the game already in hand at the bottom of the sixth turn, my Master Assassin was Skitterleapt into the flank of the remaining Outriders. As I began to roll his four attacks, Devo burst out with a nice "FLUFF!" And, of course, I then proceeded to roll four ones. Good times!!

It was a fun game, and the win meant that I was fortunate enough to win the league! As my prize, I got a nifty Ordo Fanaticus t-shirt.

Sadly, I'm worried that I might not be gaming with my Eshin much longer. With the new Skaven armybook around the corner, I think it is time to devote some time into getting my Dark Elves up and running.

Sunday Night Game Night: Lizardmen

I got another game in against Bard_and_Dragon and his Lizardmen.

This time he didn't have any Stegadons for me to butcher. And sadly, even though I got a first turn Skitterleap off, my Master Assassin spent 3 turns killing a unit of Sauri with his Old Blood General (I was lured into declaring a challenge that he declined and hid from).

Per usual, his Terradons took out both my Ratling Guns in one turn. Yeah! I really, really, REALLY hate those things!

My Triad butchered a unit of Kroxigors over two turns. My Jezzails shot lots of things, and didn't kill any of their own! That is a feat in and of itself. All but one of them survived until the end of the game, as well.

One of my Eshin Sorcerers Skitterleaped himself into combat with the enemy Skink mage. He then caused one wound, and caught the Skink as it fled from the combat.

Those are the high points that I can remember. I really enjoyed this game, and it ended in a near-perfect draw. Thanks for the game, Jason!

Monday Night Game Night: vs Slaanesh Warriors of Chaos

I played Raindog and his marauder-heavy Slaanesh Chaos army tonight. The game ended in a draw, and I'm very proud to have achieved that against him. He is a great general, and probably would have kicked the crap out of me on any other night. Unfortunately for him, this night saw his General and attached Chaos Trolls spend the first three turns of the game being stupid. That allowed me to actually participate in some combats without getting completely annihilated.

I didn't get a first turn Skitterleap in (my attempts were scrolled twice in the first round), but I did get it off on my second turn, and I took out one of his Chaos sorcerers and accompanying unit of Chaos Warriors. My Master Assassin then killed himself with the Fellblade.

My Jezzails did a magnificent job shooting today--meaning only one died due to misfire. I shot up a giant and whittled down a couple of units of Chaos Warriors with them.

Playing against RD is great because he does a wonderful job of baiting with his fast cavalry. It really makes me think about each charge response, and whether or not I should charge his units.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable game.

Monday Night Game Night: Blue Ogres

I hate fear. I hate Gut Magic. I hate Ogres.

If it weren't for fear and low-cost magic of panic-doom, I wouldn't mind them so much. Sadly, Ogres have these things in spades.

I played Zach and his Blue Ogres. His list was something like this:

1x Ogre Tyrant of Uber-Death-Dealing
3x Ogre Butchers
2-3x3 Ogre Bulls
2x2 Ogre Leadbelchers
2-3x4 Ogre Ironguts
1x25 Gnoblars
1x9 Gnoblar Trappers
1x Rhinox Rider
1x Ogre Maneater

Another game, another first turn Skitterleap (Zach rolled double ones in his dispel attempt). My Master Assassin, Queetik, took down one of his Butchers and a unit of Ironguts. Second turn saw him charging into the flank of an Irongut unit, butchering three Ogres and running down the fourth. Queetik then was left in charge range to his Maneater, and feeling like I could outrun him and then rally in a good position, I fled his charge, only to be caught. Oh well--them's the breaks!

My shooting took out his Rhinox Rider, but really failed to do much else. There was even one round of shooting where I managed to kill more of my own models than my opponents. Even my super-star Globadiers utterly failed me this game!

The worst moment of the game was when I had a unit of 3 Bulls on the flank surrounded with rats (two units of Gutter Runners and one unit of Night Runners). I declared charges that would have put me in his front and flank. Oh yeah, I also had an Assassin hidden in one of the units of Gutter Runners. I felt that I could have taken down this unit and then threatened his close-by Leadbelchers. Instead, I failed all three fear tests. All three. I was then charged by the Bulls, shot up by the Leadbelchers, and my great plan failed.

My units were overpowered by the strength of the Ogres, and I really don't know how to use my Clanrat blocks effectively. They are essentially a way to buy Ratling Guns, but when the damned Gut Magic takes out the guns before they can even fire... My blocks just kinda stood around, got charged, maneuvered into wierd positions, and then died. Well, only one unit died. The other survived the entire battle, but did absolutely nothing.

It was an interesting game, but I still feel like there are too many times where I am sitting there, not knowing what to do. I don't know how to use my blocks effectively, and I need to figure out how to protect my Ratling Guns better. Aside from that, my other units seemed to do what they were supposed to. Granted, my units didn't necessarily perform well, but they did what they were supposed to.

Nuts.

Eric informed me that there are two weeks left in the league, so maybe there is a chance that I stay atop the leaderboard, but I really doubt it. I think that I've been lucky with my wins thus far--gotta love the Skitterleap-O-Death--but I still like the idea of being at the top. Only time will tell if that continues!

Queetik Gets a Makeover!

Because I only field my Master Assassin with the Fellblade and Talisman of Protection, I figured I should model the figure accordingly. So I broke off Queetik's hands and made new ones. I carved the Fellblade out of excess sprue, and then inscribed Skaven-y runes and drilled some holes. I wanted the blade to look archaic and foul, yet powerful and deadly. I hope that came through... I didn't really plan it, but I like how Queetik has a bunch of armor on the arm that wields the Fellblade. It kinda gives added emphasis on the evilness of the sword. He's even trying to protect himself from it!




I also have been working on a homemade ratling gun, and here the assembled product is:

Sure, I probably should have been painting unpainted models instead of painting already-painted models, but why stifle inspiration? There's plenty of time to get to the other stuff.

Oh, but I did primer more Jezzails and my two units of Clanrats! That's gotta count for something!

Monday Night Game Night: vs Tomb Kings

So I played Bard_and_Dragon again this week, but this time he brought his Tomb Kings.

I got owned.

There's really nothing more to say about it. He has strong magic, great shooting (always hitting on 5+), and causes fear and Terror (Bone Giant). It was ugly for me. No skitterleaps because of scrolls and dispel dice. No good combats for me because of his ability to move in the magic phase. My shooting sucked, and he took advantage of everything. I made a few mistakes in the deployment phase (not screening my ratling guns), but really, it wasn't bad luck that did me in. His army is perfect for destroying my Eshin.

Luckily, Jason is a nice guy, and he didn't rub it in as he was kicking my ass. Seriously, I think I had one unit of 7 guys left on the board at the time I conceeded in the 5th turn. Grossness.

Monday Night Game Night: vs Lizardmen

I never got around to posting this on here, but I played a game against Bard_and_Dragon's Lizardmen on Monday. Once again, I was fortunate enough to get a first turn skitterleap off, and my Master Assassin smashed into the side of an Ancient Stegadon, butchering it and sending the Chieftain riding it running for his life. The Assassin then pursued into the flank of a Saurus block, and after a turn of killing some lizards, he wiffed all his attacks and was poked to death by spears. This time, I held on to my early advantage and got a solid win. I had a unit of clanrats charge into the front of an Engine of the Gods and beat it in combat. They then chased it off the table or caught it when it fled--I can't remember which. It was a fun game for me. I just hope that I'm actually learning how to play smarter, and not just getting super lucky.

Eshin vs. Ogres

I played Sneak at Game Night tonight. He was rockin' Ogres, with lots of Ironguts and Bulls.

First turn, my Master Assassin gets skitterleaped into combat with a unit of his Ironguts that has his Tyrant (general) and one of his Butchers attached. The Master Assassin is in the flank, which puts him against a Butcher and one Irongut. The Assassin destroys the Butcher (gotta love the Fellblade!) and takes one wound from the Irongut. The Ogre unit loses combat, flees, and gets run down by the Master Assassin. Yes, that means on the first turn, my lone Assassin takes out two characters (one being the general) and a unit of Ironguts. The next turn he charged the second Butcher and butchered it.

It had to be the best start to any game of Warhammer I've ever played. Sadly, my Master Assassin was then killed by a unit of Gnoblars that were throwing crap at him, and the rest proceeded to fall to pieces over the remaining turns and flee off the table. I lost the game, after taking down 771 points in the first turn--not to mention whatever the 2nd Butcher was worth. Gotta love the game of Warhammer!

Rat-a-tat-tat

Nothing big, but I painted three Warplock Jezzail teams for my Eshin army. Therefore, I have four painted, and still need to paint the remaining five (six in game terms, but one of the models will count as two). I'm not picking out all the fun little details on the models, because this is just an army that I want painted to a tabletop standard--and because I want to be done with it already!

As an aside, I just wanted to say that I am absolutely in love with Devlan Mud. I think I'm going to end up using it on every model I paint. It is what Flesh Wash used to be (for me, at least). It makes the metals look nice as well as the wood. It makes painting a breeze when all I do is basecoat, wash, and then add a simple highlight. It makes things look like you spent a lot more time on them then you actaully did. Not a bad thing...

Clan Eshin Update

Shadows of the Howling Heights

Lords and Heroes:
Master Assassin - Queetik Eeksteen, Bane of all Man-Things [1/1 Complete]
Assassin - Adept D'Skreet [0/1 Complete]
Battle Standard Bearer - Name Pending [1/1 Complete]
Eshin Sorcerer - Nik-Nak [0/1 Complete]
Eshin Sorcerer - Name Pending [1/1 Complete]

Core Units:
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
10x Night Runners with Slings [10/10 Complete]
5x Night Runners [5/5 Complete]
7x Night Runners [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
5x Rat Swarms [4/5 Complete]

Special Units:
6x Gutter Runners [5/6 Complete]
6x Gutter Runners [5/6 Complete]
5x Warplock Jezzail Teams [0/5 Complete]
5x Warplock Jezzail Teams [1/5 Complete]

Rare Units:
Poisoned Wind Globadiers [7/8 Complete]
Eshin Triad [2/3 Complete]

The Rats Return

Sunday Night Warhammer sponsored by Ordo Fanaticus started up again last night, and there was a nice turnout of about 10 guys, some running multiple armies. Dwarfs, Wood Elves, Empire, Daemons, Hordes of Chaos, Lizardmen, Bretonnians, and Skaven all made an appearance.

My first battle pitted me against John (grayman) and his Dwarfs. If you will recall the last time I played Dwarfs, you'll notice the games tend not to be fun at all. All I do is run circles around them, throwing shuriken that bounce off their armor. I got into combat with a unit of Miners and a Bolt Thrower crew, but that's it. I avoided everyone else. I shot a Daemon Slayer to death with Jezzails and Warpstone Stars. My tunnelers decided to get lost, but I rolled the tunnel mishap that prevents the opponent from gaining victory points from them. It was pretty much a straight up point-denial game, but I came out on top, contesting two table quarters and owning the other two. Not a very fun game, however... but at least John was nice to play against.

Game two had me ambushing an all-mounted Bretonnian force with no magic whatsoever (spells, items). I managed to Skitterleap my Assasin into combat with some mounted Yeomen right off the bat, causing a mess to his battle line. This game had me lose one night runner unit, whereas I killed his three soft mounted Yeoman units and kill a few of those hard-as-nails Knights. Again, it wasn't very fun, and we called it at turn 4, when it was pretty much set that I was just going to avoid combat and maybe kill one knight a turn. Ryan was very pleasant, and his stand-in Mongolian army looked great.

I'm really thinking that this is the last time I'm going to run the Eshin army. It just isn't very fun to play with or against. I felt that I was playing it well during these two games, but that really meant it suffered in the fun category. No charging recklessly into combat, just denial denial denial. Run around and throw stuff, but never take a charge, and only fight against squishy units. It just doesn't scream, "Play me again, I'm fun!"

Swarms and Tunnel Markers

Finished a couple things recently, even though I really haven't been working very hard on painting.

Entirely Assembled and Primed

My Eshin force is a little bit closer to being finished. The entire army is assembled and primed, so now it won't look all silly when I'm playing it--it still won't look good, but at least it will look uniform (somewhat).

The members of Ordo Fanaticus that I play against regularly have painted armies, and it is inspiring to see them on the field. Thus, I'm going to try to have my army finished by year's end. Will I fail? More than likely. But at least I can try.

8 POINTS!!!

I played another game with my Eshin yesterday, and I missed out on a Minor Victory by 8 points! I had a 216 victory point advantage, but it was still a draw. Oh well, that was my first draw at a high point level! WOO HOO!!

The game was 1500 points, and it was against Orcs. My Assassin survived the battle, which was a definite first. I had him equipped with the Bands of Power and Warpstone Charm. Interestingly enough, he didn't even have to take a save. He just teleported around the battle field destroying Spear Chuckas early, and then took out two shamans later in the game. He definitely earned his points back.

My Sorcerats even got in on the killing fun (taking out a war machine).

My Gutter Runners sucked. They didn't do squat. They charged the flank of a Arrer Boys unit and whiffed, being run down in return. The others did the same, I believe. At least the tunnels didn't collapse.

I didn't take any Jezzails, which I would do next time. Additionally, I would take some rat swarms with poison, as poison is the best thing EVER against Orcs.

I magnetized my entire army this past week, and it was great for transporting and packing up before and after the game. Here's a picture:

The Eshin are Getting Stronger

Okay, so I lost again. Who cares, right? I DO! I was NOT massacred! This is the first time that I have managed to actually put a hurt on the opponent and position myself for a win. Unfortunately, it didn't happen, but I still played well. Usually when I play against people they take it as an easy win, but this time, I actually was making my opponent react to what I was doing and think. It was the most fun game of Warhammer I have played thus far.

2250 point game against Wood Elves.

He had 3 Alter Kindred (one Lord level), a mage (army general), two units of War Dancers, a unit of archers, a unit of glade riders, a unit of Wild Riders, two units of Dryads, a Treeman, and a great eagle.

I ran the following list:

(335) Queetik Eeksteen - Fellblade, Talisman of Protection, Smoke Bombs
(149) Chieftain - Heavy Armor, Battle Standard Bearer, Storm Banner
(140) Sorcerer - Level 2, 2x Dispel Scrolls
(130) Sorcerer - Level 2, Warp Scroll, Warp Token

(240) Triad - Smoke Bombs
(80) 8x Poisoned Wind Globadiers

(120) 6x Warplock Jezzails
(108) 6x Gutter Runners - Tunnelers, Poisoned Two Hand Weapons and Poisoned Throwing Stars
(108) 6x Gutter Runners - Tunnelers, Poisoned Two Hand Weapons and Poisoned Throwing Stars
(260) 4x Rat Swarms - Poisoned Attacks

(49) 7x Night Runners - Throwing Stars
(90) 10x Night Runners - Slings
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars


High points of the match:
1. Master Assassin takes out the General, but is killed by a charging eagle.
2. Gutter Runner unit and one base of swarms dual charge a full unit of Wardancers and destroy it--even with the Wardancers striking first.
3. My Night Runners with slings rapid firing at a unit of Wardancers 2" away, and missing all 20 shots.
4. Tunnelling Gutter Runners scattering right behind a unit of Archers, which led to the Archers being cut up and run down.
5. My BSB keeping the Great Eagle out of the battle for 2.5 turns and preventing the Wood Elf Archers from even firing.

The Shadows of the Howling Heights - The 2250 Point SoC: Eshin Army

Lord:
Master Assassin Queetik Eeksteen, Bane of all Man-Things (Fellblade, Talisman of Protection, Smoke Bombs)



Heroes:
Sorcerat #1 (L2 Wizard, Dispel Scroll x2)


Sorcerat #2 (L2 Wizard, Warp Scroll)


Chieftain (Bands of Power, Warpstone Charm)


Core:
Night Runners #1 (5 Night Runners with No Upgrades) [5/5 completed]


Night Runners #2 (7 Night Runners with No Upgrades)


Night Runners #3 (5 Night Runners with Slings) [5/5 completed]


Night Runners #4 (5 Night Runners with Slings) [5/5 completed]


Night Runners #5 (7 Night Runners with Throwing Stars)


Night Runners #6 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)


Night Runners #7 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)


Night Runners #8 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)


Night Runners #9 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)


Night Runners #10 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)


Night Runners #11 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)


Night Runners #12 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)


Rat Swarms (5 Swarms) [2/5 completed]



Special:
Gutter Runners #1 (6 Tunneling Gutter Runners with Poisoned Two Hand Weapons and Poisoned Throwing Stars) [5/6 completed]


Gutter Runners #2 (6 Tunneling Gutter Runners with Poisoned Two Hand Weapons and Poisoned Throwing Stars) [5/6 completed]


Warplock Jezzail Teams (5 Warplock Jezzail Teams) [0/6 completed]



Rare:
Triad (Eshin Triad) [0/3 completed]


Poisoned Wind Globadiers (8 Poisoned Wind Globadiers) [1/8 completed]