Lizarmen Vs. Dwarfs 3-14-09

I did not take notes, so this is my best effort to recall the progression.

We set up terrain with a lake surrounded by forest on what we will call the north side of the table about 13" from the edge, a steep hill about 2" south of that, and a 12" wall just west of the eastern deployment zone.

The Dwarfs won the roll to pick sides, they chose the east side. This meant that the scenery would only serve to impede my advance in the middle, since the trees and water would not slow down my skink skirmishers, and my saurus warriors would advance on the south side.

The Dwarfs won the roll to choose who went first, they chose to let me go. Until I moved past the hill and forest there would not be many targets for the thunderers and cannons, but I had to get in close as quickly as possible because that is where I had the advantage. Fortunately, a 12" march that is not impeded by terrain (skirmishers ignore most terrain, and skinks are aquatic so they ignore water, one of the few terrains that skirmishers don't) can get you across the field pretty fast.

Lizard turn 1
I moved my whole army straight forward their full movement with a couple small exceptions. Additionally, my chameleon skinks had been placed on the northern table edge just far enough forward so I would be outside the required 12", so I moved them east-southeast to get them closer to his thunderers and behind them so they could not fire on me. I had placed my lone skink priest behind my middle which meant his line of sight would be severely limited, so I moved him off to the south flank. He was just able to get LoS to the southern line of thunderers.

Then came the magic phase, I suddenly felt naked when I realized I had not rolled for my priest's spells. We agreed to have me roll them then. I rolled a 6 and a 4 giving me a thunderbolt and meteor spell. I am going to spare the suspense and just tell you that I successfully cast the thunderbolt once in the whole game when it was not dispelled. I rolled a 1 to see how many S4 hits his unit would take, then a 1 for the "to wound" roll. Very effective spell casting.

The shooting phase was a little more successful. I was able to take out 2 of his northern thunderers with my chameleon skinks. I believe I also took out 1 with my northern skirmishers. I had made some kind of mistake moving my southern skirmishers, and they were just out of range.

Dwarf turn 1
He considered some moves, but after checking the rules on his move-or-fire units decided to just leave things as they were. He had no movement at any point during the game. As I understand it, this is how a dwarf army is supposed to operate. I do not think I could play a proper dwarf army.

His shooting phase saw some dissapointing rolls. I believe he took out 2 of my northern skirmishers. His cannons did 1 or 2 casualties. He did manage to cause my southern skirmishers to break, running back 3".

Lizard turn 2
My northern and southern troops once again marched forward. My chameleon skinks ran south behind the line of thunderers to close to within an inch of his northernmost cannon. I figured he would have to get very lucky to hit anything with a cannon at that range, and the thunderers could not turn around to fire at the chameleons. My skinks which had broken the turn before rallied. Cold Blooded is a beautiful thing! However, this still prevented my Kroxigor from advancing much because they were directly behind the skinks. I was able to get them down off the hill, but they would be out of charge range for a while yet.

Shooting saw another couple of thunderers in both lines go down to the skinks' poison blowguns. It is funny how you don't care too much that you have to roll sixes to hit when you have 14-20 shots and any sixes automatically wound. I shot at his cannon with my chameleons, but if I remember correctly did not do any damage since all of the sixes went into the cannon, and any that hit the crew failed to wound.

Dwarf turn 2
He fired away again, taking out a couple from the northern skirmishers, and one or two from the southern group. This may be the turn his cannon took out one of my saurus warriors. His northernmost cannon misfires and rolls a 2 or 3 causing it to not fire that turn or the next.

Lizard turn 3
My northern skinks walked towards his line stopping within 1" of his thunderers. Here they would be protected from his cannons, prevent his thunderers from firing at my more valuable troops, be able to use their multiple-shot blowguns, and not have the disadvantages of being in melee with a regular unit with higher WS. My southern skinks walked forward in front of the Kroxigor who were still outside of charge range. My saurus warriors wheeled on the southern flank and plodded on towards the thunderer line. Shooting went about like it had except for taking out one of his cannon crew.

Dwarf turn 3
Same as before, shoot with rifle and cannon, do a couple of wounds. At some point he managed to do a total of 3 wounds to my Kroxigor unit with his cannons. Had I taken the wounds properly, this would have taken one of my Kroxigor out.

Lizard turn 4
I charge his southern thunderers with my saurus warriors. He stands and shoots taking out 1 saurus on the way in. This is the last wound my saurus will suffer.

I fire at his cannon doing little or nothing. I fire at his northern thunderers taking them down to 3 left in the unit.

Close combat goes about like you would expect I take out all but 2 or three of his thunderers who, needing snake eyes, run like scared little girls. I pursue into the warrior unit right behind them.

Dwarf turn 4
He fires at my northern skirmishers doing some damage. Then he gets to try his northern cannon, which misfires, this is the same one that misfired on turn 2. This time it explodes. His other cannons don't do much.

In melee, I am counted as charging so I tear through several of his guys before he gets his attacks. Had we remembered how CC works, he would have only hit back with his general and his champion. As it was, he did not do much, he needed a three to stay in the fight and rolled an eight. He rolled 10 making it 9" that he ran, I rolled an 11 putting my front line on the edge of the board and overruning both of his routed units.

Lizard turn 5
My saurus reformed to face his cannons to the north. My chameleons marched towards his middle cannon. My Kroxigor, still out of charge range, marched forward behind their skink screen.

Shooting saw the southern thunderers go down to 2, and the middle cannon lose the master engineer.

Dwarf turn 5
His northern thunderers took my northern skinks down to 2 or 3 left. His southern cannon fired... and exploded. They just were not helpful to him.

Thinking this was turn 6, we called it. I missed something in there because at the end of the game he had only one crewman on his remaining cannon. At the end of the game, he had 2 thunderers and one crew on one cannon. I had lost most of one unit of skinks, 2 or 3 saurus, and taken enough wounds on my Kroxigor unit that I should have removed one.