Bretonnia Derby at 1500 Points: Knights vs Skaven Underground
Bretonnia Derby at 1500 Points: Knights vs Skaven Underground
We had a proper little Bretonnian derby this time — a 1500-point clash between the noble Knights of Bretonnia and the cowardly, revolting Skaven lurking right beneath the castles, towns, and villages of the realm. It was one of those games that immediately turns into a story generator: miscasts, misfires, exploding contraptions, heroic saves, and complete nonsense on both sides. In other words: exactly what we want from Warhammer: The Old World.
Right from the opening exchanges, the game started delivering. One of the first big moments was the fate of the Globadiers. Their contribution to the battle was… brief. They managed to shoot down exactly one Pegasus, and then the unit was gone. A very Skaven start: technically they did something, but not nearly enough to justify all the weird fumes and frantic squeaking.
Then the Skaven magic phase joined the circus. The Grey Seer rolled the first miscast of the battle — thankfully for the ratmen, it came off a bound spell. Still, it set the tone for what followed: this was not going to be a clean, disciplined engagement. This was going to be a full-on disaster parade with banners.
And the Skaven engineering department did not disappoint. The Warlock managed to blow himself up with the Doomrocket, which is honestly one of the most Skaven sentences ever written. Meanwhile, the Warp Lightning Cannon, with its mighty 8D6 range, first misfired and blasted a forest, then later actually hit something — namely two peasants. Not exactly a glorious return on investment, but at least it technically fired in the right direction once.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Ratling Gun also joined the list of Skaven misfires. At that point it was less of a battle report and more of a health and safety incident log.
Of course, Bretonnia could not let the rats have all the magical embarrassment. After that whole rodeo, our Damsel also rolled a miscast. In return she took a single hit at Strength 6, AP -3 — the kind of thing that should wound her on a 2+.
And then came the moment of the game.
Wilini rolled a 1 and saved her life.
Absolute cinema.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, a whole unit of knights got taken apart by a Doom-Flayer charge, which is the sort of sentence Bretonnian nobles never want to hear. Thankfully, the insult did not go unanswered, because the peasants later finished the machine off. A very satisfying bit of revenge there.
The biggest melee saw the mounted Damsel, a second unit of knights, and two Pegasi with the Duke slam into the Skaven. On the charge they killed 14 rats immediately, with something like 6 or 7 of those apparently coming from Doppelganger. A brutal hit — exactly the kind of decisive knightly violence Bretonnia loves.
And yet, because Skaven are Skaven, they passed their Leadership.
In the end, Fbigo managed to pull them away from the real aggressors, and that is where we wrapped things up. On small points the score stood at 170:255, so this one lands as a clear draw.
Honestly, this was one of those games where the final result matters a bit less than the sheer number of unforgettable moments packed into a relatively small battle. Skaven machinery exploded, magic backfired, a Damsel survived when she absolutely should not have, knights got mulched by a Doom-Flayer, and peasants got to be heroes for a moment. That is a very healthy mix for an evening of Old World gaming.
If your battle report includes multiple misfires, at least two miscasts, one self-inflicted Skaven explosion, and a miracle save at exactly the right moment, then we’d say the Lady was watching.