Empire vs Skaven

We hadn't played a game in a while and the Empire and Skaven had yet to properly face off.  Both armies had been building in size, so before things got hectic with the holidays we decided to set up a game.
Quick background:
A large chunk of Warpstone crashed from the sky just outside of a small Empire town.  Nearby, some Skaven became aware of the new source of Warpstone and sent a raiding force to the town to take the valuable stone for themselves.  The local townsfolk summoned their lord, who raised a defense force to repel the attackers.

The background narrative was to give some thematic setting to the Objective Capture Scenario #5 that we played.  An objective is placed in the center of the table, players set up 18 inches from each other (not the customary 24 inches), and the player with a unit closest to the objective at the end of the battle wins.  Game is random length, so after turn 4 you begin rolling to determine if the game will continue.

Empire Order of Battle:
Captain on a Pegasus (General)
24 Spearmen
8 Handgunners detachment
8 Handgunners detachment
10 Crossbowmen
2 Cannons
15 Swordsmen
10 Huntsmen Archer Skirmishers

Skaven Order of Battle
(I don't have exact numbers here)
Chieftan Rat Dude (in with Clanrats)
36 Clanrats
24 Giant Rats w/ 3 packmasters
20 Plaguemonks
5 Gutter Runners
1 Warlock Engineer
1 Warplightning cannon

 Empire plan was basically to suck the Skaven into the spearmen, softening them up with missile fire on the way in while the swordsmen threaten objective from the flank.

 Skaven won the roll-off to move first, and advanced towards the Empire battle line.

Skaven movement after turn 1

 Warlock engineer took out a rank of spearmen with his warp-energy condenser.

 Swordsmen, General, and Archers all advance on the Skaven Flank, attempting to get behind the rats and secure the warpstone objective.

 A bad omen to start the battle: both cannons misfired on the first turn.  The rest of the Empire missile troops were equally ineffective. This did not bode well.

 Turn 2 begins and the warlock engineer unleashes that crazy warp energy condenser gun again, annihilating half of the swordsmen.  With the general nearby they hold morale, but barely.

 The warplightning cannon crackled with energy and unleashed a bolt of lighting through the manor house on the hill, burning it down, along with 4 of the archers.  Yikes.

 The Empire turn 2 begins with the Empire facing down 3 blocks of Skaven troops across the table ready to hit the line. The Spearmen position themselves to take the impending charge from the giant rats, and the supporting handgunner detachments poured more fire into the rats to whittle them down.  Unfortunately for the empire not many rats were killed.

 The Empire general realizes that he needed to neutralize the warlock engineer and charges him but the Skaven holds true to form and flees from the charge.

run away!

 Turn 3 begins and the giant rats charge the spearmen.
The detachments make use of their coordinated training, with the left detachment countercharging into the flank and the right detachment fire on the rats as they hit home.

 Meanwhile, the plaguemonks absorb the incoming bolts and charge the crossbowmen.
The gutter runners finally appeared from nowhere and charged the brass cannon.

 The warlock engineer rallied, and since the warp condenser gun thing is "magic" he was able to fire it at the oncoming pegasus, causing two wounds and leaving the Empire general's mount with only 1 wound remaining.

 The warplightening cannon unleashed its fury again and killed 3 more swordsmen.

 The constant barrage of casualties proved too much for the swordsmen and they turned tail and fled the battlefield.

 The coordinated charge response from the well-drilled Empire infantry won the combat with the giant rats, causing them to break and the spearmen ran them down. Their pursuit charged them right into the block of clanrats.

 Amazingly, the crewmen of the brass cannon defended their war machine to a standstill with the gutter runners, killing 2 of them while only losing one. But the plaguemonks wiped out the crossbowmen, pursuing them off the table (to return later), and causing the crew of the gold cannon to panic and flee off the table as well.  The center of the Empire battle line was collapsing and the game was reaching a critical point with the large combat in the center.

 Empire Turn 3 began with the Pegasus bypassing the warlock engineer and hitting the flank of hte clanrats, hoping to tip the scales of the combat.

 It wasn't enough, and the clanrats won the combat and began to lap around the remaining spearmen.

 The remaining Empire missile troops all fired on the warlock engineer trying to exact some revenge...

 ...but they all failed to hit him. That summed up the Empire missile fire for the entire day.

 Turn 4 began with the Skaven warlock engineer ripping off another shot from the warp condenser gun, mowing down 6 of the 8 handgunners in that detachment.

 The plaguemonks returned to the battlefield and the gutter runners turned to engage the remaining handgunners with their poison throwing darts.

 The warplightning cannon zapped 3 more of the archers, who refused to run.

 The combat began with the Skaven Chieftan issuing a challenge to the Empire hero.  He accepted, and the Skaven general proceeded to gut the Pegasus, leaving the hero to stumble off his fallen mount and miss his remaining attacks.

 The combat eventually was won by the skaven, with the spearmen turning and breaking and the clanrats running them down.  Seeing his entire army in tatters, the Empire general also broke from combat and fled.

The game ended there with the Empire conceding and the Skaven in possession of the valuable warpstone.

A tough loss for me, but a great and entertaining game.

I'll follow up with another post discussing mistakes, strategy, and other proper second-guessing.