Jandar in a corner

We’ve been playing on a new map- it’s a big map, like we usually have but this one is bisected by a river six hexes wide. It’s bridged in the center with road tiles. Our current usual scenario is a kind of capture the flag with six flags- but once you have it captured you can move on.

Last night I faced my two older sons. I took Jandar. I knew my eldest son was taking the latest incarnation of his Skaven (ratmen) forces, so I made sure I took a mage who could hit with an area of effect attack. Since the skaven usually have low defence a good seven hex fire storm wipes quite a few off the map.

The skaven have an advantage which is also a deadly weakness. They are allowed to have two figures per hex- meaning they move better and when they are adjacent there’s twice as many attacks. But it’s also a terrible weakness against figures, like mages, who can target a hex or hexes rather than an individual figure.

I wasn’t feeling hopeful. The skaven are weak and cheap but their strength lies in numbers- they field a horde. My other son chose one of his favourite groups, the cavalry of the Kingdom of Arc. His 350 points got him two squads of heavy cavalry, a squad of armoured war dogs and the Arcen leader, Suri, who’s pretty hard to kill. So I was facing heavy cavalry and a skaven horde.

I chose Jandar because they are one of the factions with the greatest variety of units in our game. I chose Night’s Watch which is pretty heavy infantry, 4th Mass and Jandar’s arrows for ranged fighting, Bartie Silverhair who is a gnome mage, Bain who is a mage fighter (I was expecting a skaven mage), two ballistae, a variety of light infantry and a couple of heavy heroes- Carsene, a paladin and Sir Denrick.

I had no ambition to take all six flags. I entered on the corner of one side and took the high ground around one flag and made them come to me. I had the advantage of setting up before engagement, but they also were able to come at me as they chose, for the most part.

The skaven hung back out of ballista range and let the Arc cavalry come in. My main group was around a flag while a smaller secondary group was near the river, ready to cross it to cause a distraction or to achieve the victory objectives. The Arc horses hit this secondary group, felling Denrick immediately and causing heavy damage to Carsene. Jandar’s archers behind used their special to try and fell some of the heavy cav but failed completely.

The skaven charged then, a mass of squirming rats against 4th Mass with height and heavy melee infantry in front. Bartie Sivlerhair released a blast of fire which killed eleven of the massed skaven and set my son to howling. With that success, my light infantry flowed forward and engaged the remaining rats, doing heavy damage. The Skaven attack was broken.

But my sons are smart. I had to attack the Skaven, or be attacked by their great numbers. In taking the attack the ratmen spared the cavalry which rode into my extended lines the next turn and disrupted everything. They targeted Bartie Silverhair, the ballistae, the heavy defenders. I fought back of course but now I was fighting two fronts- the surviving skaven in front with their long range ratling guns and their mage, and the Arc cavalry and war dogs who had flanked me and ridden into my center and were hammering at the flag defenders. It was just a matter of time.

I fought to the end though, which came mercifully quickly. I don’t think I could have outbattled them, but perhaps I could have run for it and tired to tag all the flags first- but the cavalry would have ridden me down and I would not have been able to make it through the massed Skaven.

I had hoped to block the bridge and take the charge away from the cavalry but my forces could not win that race. Also when I got to my side of the bridge the skaven attacked because they were just arriving there too. We do have portable anti-cavalry spikes but I didn’t buy any with my points.

I do learn from my mistakes but I can’t help wondering how they do it in real life, because when you lose, you’re finished forever!