Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Dark Elves Vs. Lizardmen @ 2500 Points

Did Lord Kroak just twitch? No, it couldn't be. The great toad had only been sleeping for a few centuries. It must have been a carrion beetle moving about underneath the ancient Slann's wrappings. But there it was again. Dreadlord Bait, one of the great lord's attendents looked intensly at the ancient undead being to see whether it would move again.




Slowly, the priest's mind began to fill with certain thoughts. The abominable dirtmen, sometimes called dark elves were once again trying to raid the jungles of Lustria. This would not do at all. DBait as the other priests called him for short (actually, it was hsssssss isss sss s, but the rough translation comes out DBait), quickly gave orders to the other priests to gather the cohort. "This is quite fortuitous" thought DBait. The new spawning of Saurus with their innate ability to ride cold ones need to be tested in battle. This should prove interesting.




Okay, with the fluff out of the way, lets get down to descriptions. I brought into this battle:




Lord Kroak
L2 Skink Priest w/2 Dispel Scrolls
L2 Skink Priest w/Cube of Darkness & Dragonfly of Quicksilver
Saurus Scar Veteran on Cold One
21 Saurus Warriors w/Spears, Champion, Standard Bearer
2x10 Skink Skirmishers w/Javelin & Shields
10 Temple Guard w/Champion, Standard Bearer w/War Banner
2xStegadon
8xCold One Cavalry w/Champion, Standard Bearer w/Sun Standard of Chotec




My plan was to put the Temple Guard in the middle with the Saurus to one side and a Steg or two to the other. I would use one of the Skink units to screen, and if possible use the other to harry the opponents troops. Then I placed the Saurus first and in the middle of the field, well that was silly. Especially since that meant they were smack dab in the middle of a patch of rough ground. That mistake would cost me dearly.



I put my Cold Ones on one flank so I could use the hill to shield them from missle fire. In retrospect I probably would have been better served to let them take fire since the Sun Standard makes them much more difficult to hit, and they have an impressive save. They took not one shot from a missle weapon all game. That was 40 wasted points. On the other hand, they were at full strength until their last battle, so maybe I played them exactly right.






Here is what the dark elf deploment looked like.






Here is what my setup ended up looking like.






Lizardmen Turn 1:



My magic phase was not spectacular. I managed to cast Portent of Far on one of my Stegadons. The other three spells I attempted failed to cast.




My skinks were out of range so they did not fire. Both Stegadons missed.








Dark Elf Turn 1:




His Hydra moved forward just far enough to be out of charge range, nothing else moved.




He did a lot of firing. He chewed through all 10 of my screening skink unit. He also killed 3 Saurus from my block of 21 leaving me with 18 and 1 less rank bonus.








Lizardmen Turn 2:
I again trudge forward slowly. My remaining skink unit spreads out to act as screen against the predictable hail of bolts from the dark elf line. The only other notable is my Cold Ones marching to within 3" of the enemy War Hydra. My Saurus Scar-Veteran Beday Pr'sntslay'r leading them. I realized after moving them there that "hey, that is the perfect spot to get smacked by some stanky Hydra-breath. Oh well, this was not the worst play I made all game and kept my Cold Ones out of the cross-hairs for most of the enemy army.




Magic is great this time around. I start off rolling 3 dice to cast the Lore of Heavens shield against shooting spell. I rolled snake eyes on 3 dice. Even with the other die added in I would not have made the total I would need for the spell, but the double 1s made that irrelevant. I roll an 8 on the miscast table and take a wound with one of my skink priests. The worst of it though is the magic phase ends when I still have 7 casting dice to use.





Shooting is no better than last turn. No skinks in range and I am not expecting to hit with my Stegadons needing 6s.









Dark Elf Turn 2:
He announces a charge against my Cold Ones with his War Hydra. After looking around to make sure his fellow Cold One Riders are game (aka taking a Fear test because Terror - Fear = Fear) Beday Pr'sntslay'r steadies himself and receives the charge.




On the other side of the field, the Master of Assasins appears in front of my Skinks, killing one immediately and forcing the rest to form up for combat, practically eliminating them as a shielding unit.

End of any attempt at real reporting

Unfortunately, I let this sit too long and do not recall well what actually happened in the battle. So from here on it is just going to be comments about particular details.


When the Hydra charged my Cold Ones the battle went like this: the hydra attacks hitting 3 or 4 times, wounding I think 2, and in the end all wounds were saved. The Beastmasters fared about the same. My Cavalry did a couple of wounds to the Hydra which he regenerated. In the end, one of my Cold Ones killed a Beastmaster. I outnumbered the Hydra, had a standard, and caused a wound. He lost the combat and broke. I pursued. I rolled first: WHAT!?! 3 on 3d6? Why me? Then I saw his roll: a 2 and a 1! That is ridiculous, I rolled nothing but ones and still caught his fleeing Hydra. The brief reference to a name for my Saurus Scar-Veteran above is a joke about this battle. The Hydra was a b-day gift from myself and another guy to Fixeddice. This is the first battle I played against him and I absolutely demolished it. To be fair, I had around 500 points in this battle to his 175, but it was still somewhat of a shock. Below is a picture of the dice from the pursuit roll.





This is a cool shot of my Cold Ones versus his Dreadlord on Manticore. I had broken off my Hero to try and get him into combat more quickly than the other Cold Ones were going to be able to. That turned out to be a mistake as his general charged, rolled a 6 to wound and had Killing Blow. He then overran into my Cold Ones.





This is the field at the end of the Dark Elf turn 2.



This is the field at the end of the Lizardmen turn 3.






My Cold Ones actually fared pretty well against his Dreadlord. I lost 3 in the first round, but held up because I only lost the combat by 1.





My Saurus that were in the middle who were supposed to be on the side got slaughtered. The broke and were overrun by his Cold Ones. It was not even close.





Following his overrun of my Saurus I charged his Cold Ones in the flank with my Stegadon. He ran not wanting to take the hit without the benefit of his shields.





I knew I couldn't wound his general, so I was directing my attacks at his Manticore. Had I remembered all of the rules, this would have been brilliant. As it was, it kept his general from being even more impactful.

I killed his manticore removing the part of his general that caused Terror. This meant that my Cold Ones causing Fear actually mattered. Since the general only had a unit strength of 1 and my Cold One Champion had a unit strength of 2 I outnumbered him. Since neither of us could get through the other's save, that was the only modifier on the combat resolution and I was winning the rounds of combat. Fear causes enemies you outnumber and beat in combat to auto-break barring a roll of insane courage. Barring another roll like the Hydra pursuit, my Cold One champion would have killed his general.







This is him breaking my Stegadon a turn later than he should have. (I tried to play the rules the way I thought they should be, but they would not let me. Oh well...) He caught steggy the next turn. He also finished off my last Cold One and killed a Skink priest.



Final Thoughts:

Rules:
We definitely still have a long way to go with knowing the relevant rules. I forgot at one point that any monster mount who's rider(s) is/are killed has to test using its own leadership. It took his Cold Ones an extra turn to break my Stegadon. I forgot about Fear against his general because his Manticore caused Terror effectively making it irrelevant... until I killed his Manty. I did not realize the power of rough ground until this battle.

Play:
I do not think I played particularly well or poorly in this battle. I definitely made some major mistakes like sending a lone Stegadon against a massive block of Cold Ones, but I also effectively protected my Cold Ones from fire, guessed the range I would need on Deliverance of Itza perfectly every time, and did an OK job of screening with my skinks.

MVP:
There is no question my MVP for this battle was Lord Kroak. He kept my Temple Guard from having to take a couple of panic tests, but he also leveled the enemy's firing line. He scored almost all of my points by himself. A spell that can hit everything on the field at S4 2d6 times is quite impressive, particularly against elves who all have T3. I will take Kroak any time I can against an Elven opponent.

Winner:
I lost by a marginal victory, but had I remembered a few key things I might have won by the same. If I did indeed kill his general, that is another 180+ for me, and 180 that he did not get for killing the last of my Cold Ones. Of course, had I remembered the Ridden Monster leadership thing, he could have taken down my Stegadon 1-2 turns sooner and maybe had time to take out my Temple Guard and Kroak.

All in all this was a very fun battle, and I am really looking forward to the next one, when hopefully I will do a better job.

Edit:
This is the image of Shadowblade that Fixeddice was referring to. I think this was one of my favorite parts of the battle. I got to show this pic around quite a bit and got many kudos. :)

12 comments:

kennyB said...

I think you failed to convey the awesome awesomeness that was lord Kroak.

Fullur correctly guessed the exact power level EVERY TURN to get 90% of my army in the spells blast radius, and cast it all but once with around 3 more power than it costs. When he tried to cast weak spells on 3d6, he rolled snake eyes and a 3, TWICE. When he cast the MAD DEATH OF DARK ELVES on 6d6, and 5d6, he did not miscast 4 out of 5 times (I think). Amazing job Fullur my brother. And each time it cast, it did huge quantities of casualties. It successfully wiped out all my Crossbowmen, all my Corsairs, 1 of my Bolt Throwers AND IT'S Crew!, wounded my Manticore, and killed a couple Cold One Knights! Holy Power of Itza Skinkman! Bow! WabaM! It was particularly successful as my army is Toughness 3 to it's Strength 4, meaning you only needed 3's to wound, and most of my army only has Light Armour, so they didn't even get a saving throw. My Corsairs with their Sea Dragon Cloaks and Light Armour faired better as they maintained an Armour Save of 5+ after modifier, and saved quite a bit, probably 33%, and my Cold One Knights with their Heavy Armour, Shield, and Mounts saved almost all wounds. However, most of my army is only Light Armour so it decimated them! As we counted it up, I achieved a Minor Victory. However, as you pointed out, if we had done it correctly you may have achieved a Minor Victory, or we would have Drawn, which means we were pretty evenly matched and both played well I think. I enjoyed it from start to finish, even the first time Itza fell on my head and killed probably 15% of my troops! Or when you walked over my Hydra in the second turn of the game when HE CHARGED YOU! Armour saves are insane! Both of our Heavy Cavalry stood up to everything but Killing Blow and one random missed save! Anyway, good game! :)

kennyB said...

I thought you might like to see my army list:

Dreadlord on Manticore w/Deathpiercer (Lance w/killing blow on turn he Charges), Pendant of Khaeleth (Ward Save), Armour of Eternal Servitude (Regen +Hvy Armour), Shield, Sea Dragon Cloak, and Repeater Crossbow - 454 (254 for Dreadlord, 200 for Manticore)

Malus Darkblade on Spite w/Hvy Armour, Warpsword of Khaine - 275

Master on Cold One w/Battle Standard, Banner of Naggarythe (+1 Combat Result to all units within 12", and the unit containing it is Unbreakable), Repeater Crossbow, Lance, Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Shield - 274

Shadowblade, Master of Assassins - 300

2 x 10 Dark Elf Crossbowmen w/Musicians - 105 x 2

15 Black Ark Corsairs w/Full Command and Sea Serpent Standard (Frenzy) - 200

War Hydra - 175

2 x Reaper Bolt Throwers - 2 x 100

12 Cold One Knights w/Full Command, Banner of Murder (Armour Piercing), and the Dreadknight is wearing the Cloak of Hag Graef (Sea Dragon Cloak + Any ranged attacks including magic with a Strength value have their Strength halved [rounding up] before rolling to wound) - 414

Total: 2,502

The idea is to use the corsairs to guard the middle, set the Knights on one flank and the Hydra on the other, so that whichever is attacked can be pincered in from the side/s. The enemy should be forced to advance because of the shooting, and the General on Manticore can be used to back up any troops that need his help or intercept the enemy if they make it to a flanking position. The shooting is divided up throughout my side of the field so that their is a hand to hand unit between each one supporting them and each other. Shadowblade is set to intercept either a skirmishing unit or a fast infantry unit giving me more time to soften up the enemy with shooting. The BSB in the Cold One Unit ensures a large starting Combat Resolution Bonus and good maneuverability if I need to break him off, while having Malus in the unit eliminates the chance that my Knights will dink around Stupidly when I need them most. There you have it. Basic, yet with no holes I have seen yet, except of course that Shadowblade died without even killing the unit of Skinks that he intercepted....lol

kennyB said...

Speaking of Shadowblade, Fullur had set up a unit of Skinks (referred to as the "orange skinks" on my paper when I wrote which unit Shadowblade had infiltrated) which I decided would be Shadowblades' target. I figured they would skirmish, causing me problems with shooting, and that they would stay close to the skink magicians. With that in mind, I figured Shadowblade would suck them in out of the way of my shooting, murder them all, then move on to the mages, and finally join in on other combats from the back, adding a few backstabs to my combat resolutions. However a kink appeared in my plan.

Dark Elf Turn 2:
Shadowblade is revealed in skinks. Skinks are forced to form up on him. Shooting goes meh, but still mission 1 accomplished. Shadowblade murders 5 Skinks, leaving 4. Skinks don't break.

Lizardmen Turn 3:
Lord Kroak casts Murdelization of Dark Elves. Radius catches Shadowblade. Hits and wounds 7 (?) times. Shadowblade has no armour, only a 5+ Ward Save. Fails 4. Has only 2 wounds to begin with. He has a magic item (the Heart of Woe) that explodes when he dies. It kills 3 of the remaining skinks, leaving one. So in his entire 300 point 1 turn life, Shadowblade scored 40 points, as he only killed enough skinks to get 50% of their unit value. >.< Between that and my Hydra dying the turn it charged, I couldn't stop laughing! Who woulda thunk it? Two of the most intimidating pieces in my army, and neither successfully did jack-diddily!

Fullur, please post the photo of Shadowblade, as he deserves some sort of momento for his sacrifice. Maybe photo-shop on a clown hat or something....rofl

Darth Weasel said...

it looked like fun and most importantly, it was a close game which is what I think we were all shooting for.

Of course, it was easy to tell when you lost interest....like when you did not turn your unit to face his about-to-charge general and left your skink-priests there for hi to slay. But we know why, too, so is all good.

Hilarious opening, by the way. Well done.

Unknown said...

Sorry about not getting Shadowblade's pic up. I will get it up soon. The image posting for Blogspot sucks! I had a hard time getting the images where I wanted them, and then the Shadowblade pic mysteriously disappeared.

Unknown said...

As for not turning to face his general, that was not because I lost interest, it was because his general on foot did not scare me, but his Cold Ones did. His general on foot would not get the benefit of his magic lance, hence no killing blow. His attacks are not terrible, and no matter what he did I was not running. If he managed to go against Kroak, He would have to get through 5 wounds with a 3+ ward save. Of course, had he managed to kill Kroak, that is literally an auto-loss for me, but I did not see the Dreadlord having much chance of doing that.

kennyB said...

Pretty funny how bad my characters get when they lose their monsters and lances!

Darth Weasel said...

I didn't think the Cold Ones could even get real close. They were at least 14" away and had to wheel besides...not that it mattered a while lot. Good to hear the thought process behind it.

As for the characters weakening...I am sad that my tooled up deadly guys of death are impotent even at their best :-)

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