Slit Skythe watched as the manthings moved into battle formation. A mixed formation of infantry and cavalry, state troops and peasants, that was marked from the battles at Middenheim. This meant that they were veterans, but it also meant they were exhausted. He could only see two of the war machines warlock Britzelik hat been mumbling about, but that would just make it even easier to drag them down. The manthings would be easy pray for clan Ratsnik…

Setup

The terrain was marked by a large forest in the middle of the table, de facto dividing the battle field in two. I set up with two packs of giant rats and my night runners on the far left, followed by a unit of clanrats that contained my "chief warlock" who had the storm demon in addition to his skryre enhancements. Right across them were five pistoliers, a unit of five knights accompanied by a warrior-priest of Sigmar and a hellblaster. Hiding behind the main forrest was another unit of 8 knights accompanied by their grandmaster with a unit of ten muskets behind them.
My jezzails were placed in the middle where they had a good view on the left half of the battle field to take out the smaller cavalry units I was expecting there. Next were my rat ogres and storm vermin bodyguard of my warlord with three swarms infront. Across the field was a unit of swordsmen plus captain with a detachment of halberdiers and a unit of flagellants. On the right flank my second regiment of clanrats (with spears) and another unit of giant rats faced of against ten crossbowmen. Frank's mage hides in a forest (lore of life).

Turn One

I won the roll for first turn, and the game seemed to start well for me: One warp lightning spell kills two hellblaster crewmen while my jezzails kill two knights. The remaining knights promptly flee only inches short of the table's edge. Other than that my troops advance and my ratlings prepare to be in range for turn two.
The knights rally and my opponent moves his troops pretty much as expected with his large unit of knights moving toward the centre on the right hand side of the forest and the other knights taking on my left flank. Frank's pistoliers charge my night runners (I should have known better and kept them a few inches further back) who flee. The mage casts master of the wood on my jezzails and I choose to use my first dispel scroll. His cannon tries to sniper the ratling gun on my left flank, but the bullet buries itself into the ground an inch in front of the lucky weapon team (he rolled a misfire for bounce). His hellblaster kills a couple of clanrats but with no further effect.

Turn Two

This is a premier: My tunnel team dugs itself out of the ground on turn two - only to get lost on the way. My opponent decides it's a good idea to get charged by them with his swordmen, kills three of them and they run (big surprise, huh?). My swarms charge his large unit of knights (better than to get charged, right?), but he kills two bases outright. Ouch!
I arrange my troops to take on the enemy in the centre and take care of his flanks with warp lightning and ratlings. I could have charged his pistoliers with my giant rats but decide to let the ratling do the job instead. It somehow seemed to be the safer alternative at that point. My chief warlock fails to cast warp lightning and the storm demon is dispelled, as is the second warlock's spell (dispel scroll).

Turn Three

The clanrats rally, but right before that the jezzails panic and run of the table. Still with one ratling remaining and two active warlocks I should be able to do enough damage, right? It's just that my chief warlock is again too stupid to cast, the other warlock's spell is dispelled as well as the storm demon. But sure my ratling will take out the pistoliers this turn, but no, I get another misfire with two dice. Again the shots ring out in a random direction, but this time no one gets hurt.
In Frank's turn he charges my rat ogres with his large unit of knights and I decide to risk it. My general is close by, so they should stand a good chance to hold the charge and give my storm vermin the opportunity to counter charge. He causes four wounds which I counter with four dead knights. I outnumber him now, but he has a standard with the warbanner. That's a 6 with the general standing close by, but the rat ogres flee and get run down. Pretty much the same happens with the giant rats on my left flank that get run down by his pistoliers, and the remaining ratling gets killed by his cannon. His mage also takes out a couple of giant rats on my right.

Turn Four

Things are starting to look grim for me. My chief warlock's spell and storm demon get dispelled, but my other warlock kills ten swordsmen with one warp lightning. They run and I pray to the Horned Rat that they won't rally and cause panic in his lines so I can take on his flagellants without getting charged by his attachements.
The swordsmen keep fleeing but cause no panic. Frank's remaining knights and the pistoliers set up to charge the clanrats on my left flank. This doesn't look good.

Turn Five

The clanrats reform to take the charge and the warlock runs sideways to fry the pistoliers. If I can do that with the storm demon I would even be able to take out some knights from his large unit and thus greatly enhance the clanrats chances of survival. So for once I could get lucky with my magic, couldn't I? No. The storm demon gets dispelled (with one dice by the way, as always in this game) and the warlock again fails to cast his spell. If my warlord hadn't been paranoid anyway, he sure would have been by now. The fact that the other warlock kills eight of the ten crossbowmen (who mysteriously stand) is only a nice side note now.
Frank's hellblaster panics because of the fleeing swordmen, but the swordmen themselves rally. His pistoliers take aim at the incompetent warlock and blast him to pieces. In the following melee between his knights and my clanrats his grandmaster declares a challenge. Having nothing to loose I accept with my unit champion. Strangely enough his grandmaster rolls three ones to hit out of four attacks and another one to wound. This clanrat must truly be blessed by the Horned One! In return the grandmaster gets hit but not wounded. The rest of the tale is short and bloody, the clanrats get run down and the game is almost over.

Turn Six

My last warp lightning spell gets banned and no charges can be declared, so the game ends. I have managed to get a couple of his units below half strength while he slaughtered most of my army. All I've got left is my warlord, the storm vermin, the second unit of clanrats and the second warlock. Victory points are 1658 to 373,5, which means I got massacred.

Conclusion

Talking about bad luck with dice here, eh? But I must admit I also made a couple of mistakes. The rat ogres were not placed well to start with. The charge on my night runners could have been avoided - it was just a matter of inches. I don't know if it would have made that much of a difference, but you never know. And I definitely have to work on coordinating the different units in my army

Slit Skythe was furious. He had been betrayed! The Skryre weaklings had either fled like those worthless jezzail teams or outright sabotaged his plans. That false rat Britzelik was glad he got executed by those pistoliers or else Slit Skythe would have shown him the true meaning of pain. But he would show them. He hadn't grown up in the Badlands for nothing…