Norse vs. Skaven with Storm of Magic

On Tuesday, I pitted a 3000 point Norse army against Iraf's Skaven.  We played a standard battleline with Storm of Magic added in.  Iraf decided to use his extra points for a pact with the Vampire Counts, and I used mine for a couple wizards, some sabretusks, and a windcatcher prism that never got used.  For some reason, the Norse and Skaven found themselves battling it out in the jungles of Lustria!

To start off the game, the Terrorgheist flew forward to try and scream the Truthsayer off of his arcane fulcrum.  The attempt failed, and the Terrorgheist found him self surrounded by Valkyries, Berserkers, and Sabretusks.  All of my units also had +1 strength and toughness since I got off a sweet cataclysm spell.  Things were not going so well on the other side of the board for me though.  A skitterleaping warplock engineer blew up 14 of my marauders, and the Doomwheel weas heading my way.

With the Terrorgheist dead, my assaulting units were left in a bit of disarray, and the Sabretusks found themselves being slaughtered by a vampire and his small host of zombies.  My Ice Drake in the back on the picture to the left is hunting down a Warp Lightning Cannon.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, the Doomwheel creeps closer to my Zoat on fulcrum and other Valkyrie unit, and the Vargheists have charged into those Valkyries in a frenzy.

In a following turn, Iraf has started to get some cataclysm spells of his own off, summoning a pestilent swamp underneath my Ice Drake which could kill it with one failed toughness test when attempting to move.  Thankfully my Vitki was able to move the enchanted swamp under the plague monk unit with a cataclysm shadow spell, killing many of the monks but not the plague furnace as it moved out of it and towards the core Norse forces.

By this time, my core units which had been whittled down were revived back to full strength by a storm of renewal delivered by Zoat.  The core Skaven units were showing significant damage from the pestilent swamp, and some over-indulgence in Skaven brew by the Stormvermin.  Things were looking pretty good for the Norse, and this would have been a good point to charge forward.  Close by in the next turn though, the Doomwheel closed on the Valkyries who had finished off the Vargheists, and a unit of gutter runners entered the table right next to my Zoat on fulcrum.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, the vampire made is way to the fulcrum with the near dead Truthsayer on it and finished him off.  In a very short time, I found myself with no arcane fulcrums controlled, suffering from some serious magic deficiency.  Zoat was unbound and turned into a raging lunatic.  Iraf also summoned a Chaos Giant into the middle of the battlefield.

I used a small unit with my king in it to wipe some slaves out of my way which unfortunately left me in a bad position.  Because of this, I fled from a charge, planning to regroup and be in a better position.  The tide of battle decided to leave me like the tide of magic at that point though as another of my units decided to run of the board after being fled through.  Suddenly, the battle was lost, and the Skaven claimed victory.

Storm of Magic games are really fun.  Especially when you don't worry about keeping track of every spell you can cast, and just try to do cool stuff.  Even though my Norse lost... again (that's the one thing they seem to be good at so far), it was an epic and enjoyable battle.  And hey, since I was winning for the first half, in a way, I could call it a tie, right?

The Norse Fail List:

• King, 4+ Ward, Axe of impact hits every combat round
• Vitki, Level 4 Shadow, Poisonous Herbs, Breath Weapon Buckle.
• Skald BSB
• Another Skald
• Jarl on Fenrir Wolf
• Seer Level 1 Fire Magic
• 28 Huscarl
• 40 Marauders with Great Weapon
• 30 Marauders with xtra hand weapon
• 30 Bondsmen
• 10 Berserkers
• Ice Drake
• 3 Valkyries
• 3 more Valkyries
• Truthsayer
• Zoat
• 5 Sabretusks