Lizardmen Vs. Dark Elves 2250pts 3-14-2010

We decided to choose terrain and then scatter it.

I set a lake on the East side of the table.

He set a hill in his deployment zone.

I set a forest on the West side of the table.

He set a forest in front of the hill.

I set a hill on the West side of the table.

He set a difficult ground to the East of the hill in his deployment zone.

I set a small town next to the lake on the Eastern side.

Then we scattered terrain. At first it looked like things would stay pretty much as they were. In fact things changed substantially. The small town on the East side moved almost dead center in the middle of the table. The forest in the middle North came South to just outside the town. While these were the only significant scatters, it significantly changed the face of the board. Despite the apparent tactical advantage of the town (the ability to have my skinks go from the water to the buildings) I had really just placed it to make an interesting looking board. Now it would have a significant strategic impact on the game. The forest fixeddice had placed to protect his hill was now in position to protest a skirmish troop approaching the hill or his flank and to disrupt movement, but not much else.

As we set up our troops, it began to look like the entire battle would take place on the Western half of the board. The town and forest essentially divided the board into two halves for anyone but fast cavalry, flyers, and skirmishers.

Seeing how placement was shaping up, I placed Tetto'Eko on the Eastern side of the board. I figured I did not want him where he would be in much danger of getting into close combat. His Skink cohort bodyguards can be effective harrying troops if ignored or take a fair amount of missile fire, but are not much good in a stand-up fight. Running out of room on the West side and seeing that I was possibly taking control of the East, he placed his Cold Ones and his Chariot on his Eastern flank.

His chariot he placed on the Eastern edge set up to ride between the lake and the table edge. He realized later that this was a mistake. He had thought that chariots could march. In looking up another chariot rule, he noticed the rule that says chariots cannot march. This meant that his maximum movement would be 7. Being placed on the far edge of a six foot board with a 7" movement meant he would have little or no chance to have his chariot really impact the battle. (7" x 6 turns equals a maximum 42." If you are charging and overrunning a lot, a chariot can move pretty fast, but if it only gets one charge like it did in this game, it essentially takes you out of the battle to be that far away from things.)

I put my kroxigor on my West flank West of a unit of skirmishers. My Cold One Knights went behind the skirmishers. I put my two units of Saurus Warriors flanking and slightly in front of my Temple Guard with Slann. On my East flank I placed skirmishers between Tetto'Eko and a Barbed Razordon Hunting Pack. This would be the first time I had used the razordons and I was curious to see how they would perform. I also placed my Chameleon Skinks in the lake. Here they would be protected by the impassible terrain and soft cover, but be close enough to influence and harry the approaching troops.

It occurred to me during his first turn that I had left my entire Eastern flank with Ld 6 and no real help. This was probably a serious strategic error, although it ended up not mattering all that much.

Turn 1
He got the first turn. He moved some troops forward and did a couple wounds shooting.

I did likewise, inching forward and doing what shooting I could. My Chameleon skinks did a wound or two to Krone and her Manticore. I did one wound to a reaper bolt thrower and killed one crew with my Terradons. His Dark Riders had advanced on my West flank. I moved my Skink Skirmishers to try and block them while I moved my Cold Ones and Kroxigor to be ready to charge if they worked around my skirmishers.



Turn 2

I had moved a unit of skirmishers in front of my Skink unit with Tetto'Eko. He charged that unit with both Krone and his Cold One Knights. He also charged my Razordon Hunting Pack with his chariot. I rolled 4 artillery dice with the razodons (2 razodons, 2 dice each) to end up with 22 for their stand-and-shoot. They got a ridiculously high number of hits. Something like 18 or 19 out of 22. Then they wounded with about half of those. However, the chariot saved all but 2. The dark riders charged my skirmishers on the West end. Two units of Witch Elves charged my two units of 10 Saurus Warriors with Spears.

The chariot tore through the Razordons, killing one with its impact hits, and the other with the efforts of the Cold Ones and the chariot rider. Some more shooting did a couple wounds. The Krone tore up the skirmishers and both she and the Cold Ones overran into my Tetto'Eko unit.

The dark riders killed the skirmishers they were fighting and overran into the Kroxigor. I had placed them facing the side of the skirmisher unit, being accustomed to fast cavalry avoiding combat at all costs. This meant that when the Dark Riders overran, they hit the flank of the Kroxigor unit. At first, I thought the Krox had run off the table, but then fixeddice pointed out that the skirmishers were only unit strength 2 when the phase started, meaning that no test had to be taken by the Krox.

The two combats with the Saurus went much better for me. His big unit of 15 with the Hag in it lost by a little bit, but stayed put. The unit of eight that charged the more Western unit of Saurus faired less well, losing by several and fleeing. My Saurus caught them and destroyed them, with both flee-er and pursuer rolling 5's.



On my turn, I charged his more Eastern Reaper Bolt Thrower. I charged his rear unit of Witch Elves with my remaining seven Saurus in the unit that had overrun the previous turn. I re-positioned my Temple Guard unit in hopes of dealing with Krone and the Cold Ones as they came around the town. He had moved his Hydra over behind my Cold Ones

The game was interrupted on Saturday. We had to finish the following Tuesday.

When we resumed on Tuesday it was the start of the Dark Elves' turn 4. His chariot failed its stupidity test. The Cold Ones pulling it stumbled forward at about the rate of a fast walking dwarf. He moved his Cold One Knights forward trying to stay just outside of my knights' charge range.We think he was inside, but I ended up deciding not to. I figured I would not be likely to win a straight-on fight with his knights because of the characters in the unit, especially Malus. Instead I attempted to re-position to force a charge on my Temple Guard in such a way as to allow my Cold Ones to counter charge in the flank.

Warriors of Chaos verus Lizardmen

Brought in my 2250 point no Special Character, no Dragon list. First up (and ultimately only up) I would face the mighty Lizardmen.

Our field had a tower in one corner and forest in the other in one deployment zone. In the right center of the field (from the side I would eventually get to choose) was some very difficult ground protected by some hedges. Meanwhile, in what would be my deployment zone were a hill on the right and shallow stream on the left.

This would ensure a compact deployment in the center of the field for me. With 6 units, some would be deployed behind others due to the crippling nature of the stream on one flank and rough ground on the other.

Ultimately, I decided to anchor one flank with Shaggy (my Dragon ogre Shaggoth, who has developed the unfortunate habit of dying every single game) and the other with 3 Dragon Ogres, a unit I was trying out for the first time. This gave me M7, S7 or S8 models on each flank, so monsters held no fear for me. Then I had to decide; the infantry blocks I desperately wanted to get into battle in front and the mounted troops behind or the Marauder Horsemen and Knights in front and the Marauders and Chaos Warriors behind. I honestly did not know which I would choose until I dropped the Horsemen in the left front of my line.





This basically locked me in to putting cavalry in front. Lizardmen armies essentially have to fight battles from 12" in due to their short range in firepower. So I could charge after they shot.

Meanwhile, Fullur spread a skink skirmish screen across his front, temple guard with Slann in the middle flanked by big Saurus blocks on each side, backed up by an Engine of the Gods and a unit of Terradons. Finally, he put a Skink Priest and small unit of Chameleon Skinks by the tower on my left flank.



By the way, about this point I wished I had gone with an early permutation of the list involving 3 blocks of infantry, 2 Marauders and 1 Warriors that I discarded for need to include a scroll caddy. I would love to have a game where Marauders go against Saurus and Warriors against Temple Guard. Oh, well.

He won the roll and elected to go first.



Lizardman Turn 1

He advanced the skinks a rather interesting 5", the 3 infantry blocks moving up 4". The Chameleon Skinks marched into the rough ground and his Skink Priest showed he could fly, heading to the stream on my left flank for cover.

The Terradons, for the express reason that, "because they can and I think it is fun", flew into the forest. This, by the way, is the type of play that makes me love our Team Starving Crazed Weasels gaming group. It really had no bearing on the outcome, but did reference and earlier rules discovery and discussion, and added some "color" to the game in a fun way.



He starts throwing magic around; gets off the spell allowing d3 re-rolls, adds 2. Then the skink on the Engine cast Celestial Shield on the Skink Screen. I had nothing it would affect, but he did not know that. Then the Slann cast Guardian Light with irresistible force. Had he not done so, i would have used a scroll, because psychology was going to matter I think.

He then casts Burning Gaze at Shaggy, but rolls a measly 3. He picks up the 1 and re-rolls it using one of his 2 re-rolls...and rolls a 1 again. Shrug, pick up the "2", re-roll it...and it is a 2. Yeah, that helped...and really set the tone for a game that would be full of wacky rolls and goofy but fun moments.

No shooting, he passes the turn.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 1

Mithridates (my General) sends the Marauder horsemen off to the left flank...and I make a serious mistake. I thought about going after his Skink Priest, but then remember how deadly Chameleon Skinks are...scratch that, WERE in 6th edition and go after them.

I have not used much Fast Cavalry, so think I hit on 4+ all the time more or less, forget to make it 1 harder for them being Skirmisher and a further -1 for being Chameleons. I roll 4 dice, 1 wounds, he is down a Chameleon.

Everyone else marches up the gut, though not their full range, most about 6-7". Like chess, I control the center of the table and am out of his charge range...except the Skinks who I will happily let charge me if they choose.

I then roll my 3 Power Dice trying to Dispel Guardian Light, needing an 8...and roll a 7. More on this in the next magic phase.

Lizardman turn 2

The Skinks advance to get in good shooting position on the Chaos Knights, the Chameleons advance to get close to the Marauder Horsemen. He advances the 2 Saurus units, but leaves the Temple Guard, trying to draw me in and get some flank charges.

His terradons fly over the Dragon Ogres, landing right behind them on my right flank.

His Skink Priest on my left flank continues to wreak havoc behind my lines, flying behind the Marauder Horsemen.



Magic

This time, he remembers to have the Engine of the Gods make the Lore of Heavens one easier5 to cast. Ironically, had he remembered this in the first turn, nothing else would have been successful for him...but my Dispel attempt would have succeeded. So his "error"worked to his advantage.

The Skink on the Engine tries the lethal Comet of Cassandra next to my Knights, but the casting score is not high enough. The Flyink Skink casts 2nd Sign, this time adding 1 re-roll...but taking 2 dice to do it. Another intriguing moment.

The Slann tries Burning Gaze against the Dragon Ogres, I roll dice and Dispel it.

In the shooting phase, the Chameleons twice wound the Marauder Horsemen, and I save but one, taking my first casualty.

Then his 10 skinks fire on my Knights...and fail miserably, garnering not a single hit. His Terradons will make up for it.

Not with their rock-dropping; they drop 8 rocks on the Dragon Ogres. Only 3 hit, just one wound goes through. But he then throws his Javelins,hitting 4 times, uses the re-roll which fails, of the 4, 3 wound, I save just 1 and take 2 wounds on my trial unit.

Chaos Turn 2: Time to get down to business

I turn Shaggy to charge the skinks, knowing they will flee and I will end up in his Saurus furthest off to my right. The Dragon Ogres, having circled the fence, charge, catching his Saurus flank. The Knights, having the Banner of Rage, have Frenzy and also charge the skinks.

And he makes the interesting (and probably correct) decision to let me hit his skinks, thinking it will redirect the charges, I think. *

This time I send my Marauder Horsemen after the flying skink. My Magic phase is short; I dispel the Remains in Play Celestial.



The Marauder Horsemen are deadly. Of my 4 attempts, needing 5s, 3 hit and all 3 wound...his priest is dead.

While the skink had done no actual damage, he had been a headache, as I thought he could use the skink to hit me with a magic missile cast by the slann, which could have hurt, coming from behind. Later conversation indicates this may not have been possible,...but it affected my thought process. The Marauder Horsemen were proving their worth!

Also, the possible worth of cheating...I think his Priest was in the stream, and if so should have benefited from a -1 to hit for soft cover. D'oh! My Horsemen look good when I play by my own rules....

Anyway, the mighty Shaggoth reels off his 5 attacks...and only 2 hit, though both do slay skinks. The Knights have a mighty 19 attacks, need 3s...and hit 13 times. The 7 dead skinks, horses finish them off, over-run...and the re-direct has mixed results.

Shaggy hits his Temple Guard head on, not getting into the juicy Saurus combat. The Knights hit the Saurus head-on...and since that is a fresh combat which has not been fought this turn, they get to immediately fight another combat, pursuant to the (cheesy) rules since the Dragon Ogres had yet to take their turn.

This just in, Knights are AWESOME and when they get to fight twice a turn, bad things generally happen for the enemy.

Mithridates challenges, the Saurus champ accepts, for the first time ever I get overkill, hitting just half of my attacks, but all 3 wounding unsaved. The other Knights kill 5 more Saurus, the horses kill another; Diphratus (the army Battle Standard Bearer) kills 2 more, the Dragon Ogres go 5 for 5, hitting 5 times and killing 5. That is a whopping 16 dead Saurus in one turn. He flees, the Dragon Ogres follow and catch him while the Knights...well, they run into the Shaggoth and stop right there.



Furthermore, the angle they are at combined with the width of his base means they will not be able to charge the Temple Guard next turn.

This was a very mixed turn for the Lizardmen. On the one hand, they lost a unit of Skinks and a unit of Saurus, and Shaggy got the charge on the Temple Guard.

On the other hand, ONLY the Shaggoth hit the Temple Guard, the Knights and Dragon Ogres are out of position, and my Warrior and Marauder blocks are still half way across the table.

Lizardman Turn 3
This was his most effective turn of the game, and it cost him heavily. (When I posted the photo below, I noticed how heavily...had I not moved the Knights, he very well might have flank charged THEM instead of Shaggy...which changes everything said below)



He moves the Engine of the Gods into ideal position. They are behind the Dragon Ogres, no charge there. He is close to the Shaggoth, who is locked in combat with the Stubborn Temple guard (who have a re-roll, making them effectively Unbreakable). Finally, he is close to the Chaos Knights, but because of positioning, the Shaggoth keeps them from chargin. In other words, his Burning Alignment will hit my 3 best units...and the Knights include my General and Battle Standard Bearer...while being in no danger himself.


Furthermore, he flies his Terradons behind my Knights for some fun little poison javelin throwing action.


He does make one choice I might have done differently; his remaining Saurus unit has a choice between dealing with my Marauder block or re-forming to flank charge Shaggy.

I personally would have gone after the Marauders; the Saurus would have forced them to choose between going with Shield for a 5+ save after strength modification, but only wounding on 5+, or having no armor but using their Great Weapons to wound on a 3+. Either way, the Saurus will have a chance of striking the Marauders and doing lots of wounds which force break tests.

At the same time, if he can break the Shaggoth, he will flank the Knights and possibly win by Static Combat Resolution.

I think he underestimated the power of a Stubborn with re-roll LD9 model and he later admitted as much.

Be that as it may, they reformed to get the flank charge next turn and the Chameleons moved forward.

Now for the magic phase, where he effectively lost the game...by being successful.

The Engine went with Burning Alignment and it was brutally effective. The Dragon Ogres take 3 wounds, killing one and leaving a second with just 2 wounds left. It doesn't touch the Shaggoth...but it does wonders against the Knights.

I had a large unit of 6 which, when the 3 characters were included, was really too wide because for some inexplicable reason, I went 8 wide with them. This made them hard to maneuver. It was a mistake. Fullur corrected that for me, killing 3 Knights with Burning Alignment.

Now, on the one hand, that was brutal. I just lost half of a 355 point unit in one moment with no way of stopping it or saving against it. It was proof to me of just how good the Engine is against my armies (seeing my Dragon Ogres going down did not hurt with that perception...they were taken specifically to deal with stuff like the Stegadon).

On the other hand, taking 2 Knights off one end and one off the other end...meant I now was not blocked off by the Shaggoth. So his greatest success turned into a Pyrrhic victory. I almost named my General Pyrrhus instead of Mithridates...oh, the irony.

Well, after seeing that damage, I figured this was going to be a key turn in the game. If he could break the Knight unit, it would mean the Shaggoth would probably run as it was the Standard that made him stubborn and with "only" 5 attacks, facing a unit with 3 ranks, outnumbering, unit standard and BSB in the Slann/Temple Guard, he was guaranteed to lose every combat even if he killed with every attack so it was vital to keep him next to my standard. I could not afford for it to run.

The Skink Priest on the Engine, emboldened by the carnage he had wreaked, unleashed Uranon's Thunderbolt on the hapless Knights...another d6 S5 hits with no armor save? Uh-oh...but he failed to meet the casting roll. Whew. Relief.

He cast some Blinding spell that would reduce the Shaggoth's attacks to WS1. I used my first Dispel Scroll. (probably a mistake:I should have saved it for Uranon or the Comet). He cast the lighter Magic Missile and I used all my dice to Dispel it. He then failed to cast Guardian Light and I used my last Dispel Scroll to stop Cleansing Flare.

Which left him plenty of dice to try the Comet which, to my tremendous relief, failed to get cast.

So magic was survived in what I thought would be the key turn.

His Chameleons then wound my Marauders thrice (including 2 with poison), I fail 2 tests and see a couple of them die.

The Terradons only get one poison attack through on the Knights which I save.

The Engine, still flush with success, poisons my Dragon Ogres twice, I save neither, and he kills a second Dragon Ogre in the same turn.

On to close combat. Shaggy goes ballistic, hitting 4 times and killing all 4, leaving only his unit Champion to attack back. The Champ shows why he is a champ, hitting three times and wounding twice, neither of which I can save. I then roll a 10...fortunately, my BSB is right there so I get to re-roll, and this time pass handily.

The Battle Standard Bearer paid for himself right there.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 3
No longer impeded by the Shaggoth, the Knights have a choice; flank charge the Temple Guard or go after the Engine. I do not want the Engine roaming around casting Burning Alignment, so I choose that.

I continue advancing my Marauder and Warrior blocks up the center of the table, my Marauder Horsemen ride over to reintroduce themselves to the Chameleon Skinks, and now they are inspired.

This time I DO take into account the penalties for Skirmishing and being Chameleons...and in 3 shots, score 2 6s, both of which then kill Chameleons.

Epic Close combat:last time I got into combat with a Skink Priest on an Engine, I had a daemon Prince with 5 WS8 attacks at S5. In 10 total rounds of combat (9 consecutive) I did a combined 1 wound. I never did wound his Stegadon or any skink rider. So I knew this wound be tough.

Fortunately, Mithridates was tooled up. He had 6 attacks with Frenzy, all would hit on 2+, wound on 2+ with a -3 to armor save, and on any failed wound, the Skink would have to pass a toughness test or else die...and do a S4 wound to everyone on the Stegadon. I liked my chances.

Of course, I then hit slightly less than true percentage, getting three hits through. Unsurprisingly, I wound all 3 times. He rolls three dice needing 5s to save...and saves them. All three. Every. Stinking. One.

What? Does taking a measly skink and throwing him onto a Stegadon give him the special rule, "Darth Weasels' killing machines cannot harm you, ward save 0+, cannot be modified in any way"? SO FRUSTRATING!

But not as frustrating as poor Fullur found it. Because my Chaos Horse, with just the 2 attacks, hits. Now, needing 3s to save....he fails them both and his Skink Priest dies, removing the Burning Radiance with it.

Whatever. Mithridates cannot touch you, but a weedy mount takes you down?

My Knights were similarly effective, with 4 of their 7 attacks hitting and, in a fit of great dice rolling, 3 of them wounding the Stegadon. He saves just 2 of them. Diophantus the Battle Standard Bearer hits 4 times...and fails to wound any of them. I had all the horses attack the skinks, and one skink went down.

Now he attacked back. The Stegadon wounded the Knights twice, but I saved them both. One skink somehow manages to get a wound on a Knight, but I save that too.

Save this moment;
He needs insane courage, does not get it, breaks, flees just 6", but that hits the dragon Ogres and he is destroyed, while the Knights pursue...but run into the Temple Guard. Since that combat has not been fought this turn, they immediately get to fight again. For those counting at home, this makes 4 times in two turns the Knights have fought which means the battle is going great for me.

Mithridates kills 4, his mount another, Diophantus continues his incompetent ways, hitting just once (though that kills) and his horse equals him by killing another temple guard. The Knights wound 6, he can save but 1, the horses wound another three, he saves just one. I have killed 14 Temple Guard in one frenetic, furious charge.

He gets to attack Shaggy next because Shaggy has a Great Weapon. They hit 3 times, wound once, and needing a 5, Shaggy saves. I am getting more than my share of rolls. Shaggy goes after the Champ, hits and wounds with all 5. Good night.

Remember that moment I said to save/ Lets re-examine it. He remembered at that moment that the Stegadon was supposed to be stubborn which means that, although he still failed the first roll, his second roll had included 2 dice totaling 5, so he should still be there.

I am a big fan of competitive games, not a fan of routs. Myself and Fixed Dice had to argue with Fullur at this point that the proper thing to do was put the Stegadon back in combat and put back all the casualties done to the Temple Guard.

Fullur, who is playing the Lizardmen, is arguing that he should pay the penalty for forgetting.

After much debate, and him saying that if the Steg stood, he still thinks the game is in doubt, we finally convince him to return it to its position and undue the ridiculous damage that should never have happened.

I am glad he did. Made for a much better game I think and I think it was the right thing to do in the spirit of Team Starving Crazed Weasels. I am very against cutthroat competition (ironic, I know...see regurgitation) and very in favor of doing whatever it takes to make the game better and more fun for both players.

So now it is Shaggy taking the break test since even with doing 1 wound (it was not a challenge, so no overkill). And for a second straight turn he fails it, rolling a 10 again. And again I pass on the re-roll allowed by the BSB being right there.

Lizardman Turn 4
His Saurus now flank charge the Shaggoth. He has taken three wounds, showing he is killable. He cannot attack both units well enough to kill every Saurus in contact. This might be the right play, but only if he gets it done this turn.




Meanwhile, his Terradons fly behind the Dragon Ogre, he does not move his Chameleons.

The magic phase is now more manageable. I killed both his Skink Priests, removing 4 or 5 dice from his pool. I also removed 3 or 4 spells he could cast from his options...though he still has some stuff that can hurt me.

His Magic Missile kills a couple Marauders. Slowly but surely he is whittling that unit down. He heals the Stegadon and I have to save my Dispel Dice. Boo! That thing is so hard to wound in the first place! But I really did not mind...it would make for a good battle I think.

I had to Dispel Dazzling Brilliance so now he is unopposed...and promptly fails to get either Cleansing Flare or Guiding Light cast successfully. It it wasn't for bad luck, he would have no luck at all.

The Terradons twice wound the Dragon Ogre, but he saves both. The Chameleons hit the Maraduer Horsemen three times but cannot wound even once.

Close combat; the charging Saurus hit just 2 times, just 1 wounds, I save it. The Temple Guard hit 4 times but fail to wound at all. At this moment, the game essentially ended because now his Saurus were in deep, deep trouble. Shaggy strikes back, 5 hit, 4 wound, 4 dead Saurus. Did not go after Temple Guard because I figured the Saurus needed to start losing rank bonus. This time I passed my break test outright.

Mithridates opened up a can of whoop-smurf. This was the guy I thought he was, hitting the Stegadon 5 times and wounding it 4 times...noe of which were saved and I promptly forgot to have him take a T test. Which I am okay with. Mithridates horse killed a skink for good measure.

Diophantus continued to prove he is no Mithridates, hitting just twice, wounding once, but it was saved. The Knights wound the Stegadon a further 3 times, 2 are saved...but he only had 1 wound left and that killed him. Which is bad, because that was on the Lizardman turn...

Chaos Turn 4
The Marauder infantry charges his Saurus in the flank. That would be the Saurus who are flank charging the Shaggoth is is frontally facing the Temple Guard...who then get rear-charged by the Dragon Ogre and flank charged by the Chaos Knights.





And it was ugly for the Lizardmen. My Great Weapon wielding Marauders kill 3 Saurus. Mithridates kills 4 Temple Guard, Diophantus chips in his usual 1, the Knights kill 1, the horses another 1, the Dragon Ogre kills just 1 (what? 3 attacks at S7? Whatever :-) . The Saurus and Temple Guard hit Shaggy 6 times, wound him 3 times, he saves 2 but takes another wound. Only one Marauder falls. Shaggy kills 4 more Saurus.

Now comes a dissapointing moment. The Saurus, needing insane courage, obviously fail both rolls and flee 6". I decide to restrain the Marauders. He then rolls Insane Courage for the Temple Guard...who were testing on a Stubborn 8 or 9 on three dice. If those rolls reverse, who knows what his Saurus could have done since they would attack the Marauders first, so might have not been attacked again...as it was, I think I somehow contacted the Temple Guard, though I am at a loss to explain how.

Lizardmen Turn 5
The Terradons see the combat and decide it is not complicated enough, so they rear-charge the Dragon Ogre who is rear-charging the Temple Guard that are being flank charged by the Chaos Knights and fighting the Shaggoth to their front (and soon the Marauders as well), the flank charge on Shaggy having just been seen off or the Marauders would have been flank charging a flank charge on a front charge matched by a flank and rear charge that was being rear-charged. That might be the single greatest situation in Warhammer history...




The fleeing Saurus are trying to figure out the ramifications of this and decide it is too difficult, so sp they roll 6,6,5 and run right off the table. Whatever. Fullur just cannot roll dice against me...

Well, he gets Blinding Brilliance off against the Chaos Knight unit, meaning Mithridates, Diophantus, and the 3 remaining Knights have WS1 this turn. Including horses, that means I will have 27 attacks needing a 5...so I should "only" hit him 9 times this turn. Kind of says something about how bad they made the Lizardman "elite" infantry. They still expect to lose lots of guys.

Anyway, he casts Cleansing Flare on a 13. I ponder for a long time; this will hit the Dragon Ogre, Chaos Knights, Shaggoth, and Marauders. I have but 3 Dispel Dice...okay, I will try to stop it. I roll...a 12. it wounds the Dragon Ogre once, kills a Knight, does 4 wounds to the Shaggoth and for the fourth straight battle (and 5th time in 7 outings), the Shaggoth dies.

Burning Gaze hits the Chaos Warriors three times, but did no damage. It would be the only action they saw in the entire game. He then got off the spell that makes his units within 12" Immune to Psychology.

His Chameleons then prove their worth. they have 6 shots needing 4s to hit. Taking a cue from the Saurus, they roll about 5 3s and a two, producing no hits.




His Terradons proved more formidable than I would have thought. The riders of course do little, wounding just once which is saved, but the mounts wound twice and I save neither. Dragon Ogre is one wound from joining Shaggy in the dead pile. But first he wounds the Terradons twice.




My Marauders wound the Temple Guard 4 times, and three are killed. And my mighty 9 hits? Well, actually, Diophantus hit once and failed to wound...and nobody else even hit! Epic fail...not that it mattered. Static combar resolution alone meant he would lose the combat. So it was a good time for it and proved the power of the blinding spell.

The Temple Guard hit the Marauders three times, wounding 2, 1 of which I saved.


Warriors of Chaos Turn 5
Not much to do. My Marauders are locked in a shoot-out with his Chameleon skinks, my Warriors are caught in the middle of the field with no viable opponent (they are within charge range of the Temple Guard, but the entire frontage is covered) and everyone else is in that epic duel.

So I (barely) Dispel his ItP spell.

Mithridates kills 3 Temple Guard and his horse kills the last one. This is bad because with no Temple Guard, the Slann is now alone and not Stubborn. The Marauders wound him 5 times; his Ward Save saves 3, Regeneration another, so he takes a wound. His Terradon then kills my Dragon Ogre which, ironically, removes the Terradons from the combat since they were only touching the Dragon Ogre...

Well, the Slann breaks, flees 10", my Marauders pursue just 7" and the Knights 6. Yes, the Marauders outran the Knights. Good stuff.


Lizardman Turn 6
The Slann rallies. The Terradons make a suicide charge into the Marauders.

The Slann heals himself with one spell. Casts Burning Gaze, wounding the Knights twice and making it so Mithridates and Diophantus no longer have a unit to join, so now they are just independent characters. Who happen to be deadlier than elite units.

Dazzling Brightness fails...which he was sad about because all game long he had been trying to mis-cast.

Which Cleansing Flare promptly does...and he uses the Cupped hands to transfer it to my Wizard, but the result, even after re-roll, is simply a wound which does not go through. So anti-climatic...

The Chameleons do manage to hit the Marauders twice, wound once, but I save.

The Terradons cannot even wound the Marauders. Whatever. I manage to wound the Terradons twice, howe3ver...they flee and are done.



Warriors of Chaos Turn 6
Diophantus charges the Slann, and in a surprise move, my Marauder Horsemen charge the Chameleons who hang around to see what happens. I have no idea what I did with Mithridates.


Diophantus has his best turn of the game, wounding the Slann twice unsaved. the Slann needs Insane Courage (I guess I must have charged my Marauders too)...and gets it!

The marauder Horsemen wipe out the Skink Chameleons.

The game ends with his Slann bravely facing about 18 Marauders, 13 Chaos Warriors, 3 Marauder Horsemen, Mithridates and Diophantus. He did a LOT of damage in this game...but so did I.

Conclusion/Regurgitation

First, what went right. Which was everything.

Diophantus, while completely useless in close combat (despite having 5 WS7, S5 attacks, he averaged about a wound a turn, killing just 1 Skink, 2 Saurus, and putting 2 wounds on the Slann) is almost game-breaking. When fields are set up so I can keep my important units within 6" of him...which is not all that hard to do...they are functionally Unbreakable. Killing Chaos Knights, Dragon Ogres, and Dragon Ogre Shaggoths to the last man can be done...since every one of those I had did die in this battle. But it takes a long time and lets them do a lot of damage in return. In future games, if they have the option, they should definitely target him as, if I take him, he makes the army over-poweringly strong.

Shaggy was awesome. He killed 2 Skinks, 4 Temple Guard (including their champ or it would have been 8) and 8 regular Saurus, single-handedly holding up the temple guard for two turns while I finished off the Engine Stegadon.

Mithridates was awesome. He killed a Saurus Champ in a challenge, getting overkill. He killed the Skink Priest in a challenge (and I just, as I typed this, realized I failed to roll on the Eye table). He put 4 wounds on the Stegadon, killed three regular Saurus and 8 Temple Guard, plus a few skinks.



The Knights are always awesome, ringing up 2 wounds on the Stegadon, about 5 or 6 skinks, 6 regular Saurus and 3 Temple Guard.

And the Marauder Horsemen are tremendous as well. Their fast Cavalry antics wiped out his Chameleon Skinks and a flying Skink Priest.

I would even argue the block Marauder infantry performed at or above expectations. They are such a low-priority target...and rightfully so...that they were almost unscathed, were allowed to flank charge a Saurus unit, and even managed to hurt the Temple Guard.

So what did not work? Uh...uh...well, not enough to counter magic, which did kill I think all 6 Knights, several wounds on Shaggy, a couple Dragon Ogres, made one turn by my Chaos Knights/Mithridates/Diophantus combo worthless....

yet if we totaled up the points, I either won by Solid Victory or more.

Which means I really did have enough to counter magic. He threw everything he had at me and I survived long enough to do what the Warriors of Chaos do.

But that kind of points up the "what went wrong" portion of the proceedings as well. He deliberately went without Cold One Knights which was kind of him...but also sort of means I had a pretty bent, cheese-filled list. Yes, he killed all of my power units...but he never touched any of my characters and had nothing left to deal with my second line units. I think he played about as well as he could with maybe one or two things that, if done differently, may or may not have been better choices...BUT DID NOT MATTER. I would still have won handily.

On the bright side, I think it was still an enjoyable game and it had some truly memorable moments.

I loved certain elements of this game; Mithridates seeing his best shot laughed off by the Skink Priest, only to have the horse wound 100% unsaved....that was awesome.

The convoluted combat with my Marauders flank charging his Saurus who were flank charging my Shaggoth who was face to face with his Temple Guard who were flank-charged by my Chaos Knights and rear-charged by my Dragon Ogre was awesome, and it took up the majority of the game to resolve.

For the future, I think I might look into more big blocks of Marauders...strong enough to do damage when kitted up, weak enough to be taken out. I also might go back to more Magic. It is spotty, erratic, and when people are prepared, does nothing, and there is one army it means near auto-loss against, but I think it might make the Warriors of Chaos more vulnerable while still potent.

I do not know. Still toying with ideas.

I did love the Dragon Ogres, even though they ended up doing surprisingly little. They were a good choice, and had they gotten together with Shaggy, they might have been able to take out the Engine and leave the Knights free to go after the Temple Guard.

I think I am starting to not care for Lord-level characters as they turn the game into Hero-hammer. Yes, it was great watching Mithridates rampage. But at the same time...he did more casualties than a unit of 6 Knights. The Knights did not kill all 8 skinks, Mithridates had already killed a couple before they attacked but I did not write it down. He did more wounds to the Stegadon (4-2), more to the Temple Guard (8-3) and, if you take Overkill into account, more against regular Saurus (8-6). That is ridiculous.

Meanwhile, my hero level character, with a VERY impressive stat line of his own was not particulary effective in this battle...but could be.

Of course, the problem I run into is my Knights are considered by some to be Hero or Lord level characters on their own...as all Knights are on the verge of being, though mine are admittedly a hair better than any but perhaps the Blood Knights.

And if you start saying, "No Lord-Level", where does it stop? "Okay, then, no Knights." "Fine, no monsters (including Shaggoths, Treemen, ridden mounts)." "Oh, and no items that invalidate armor saves or make magic all but useless...and no spells like Infernal Gateway or weapons like Frost Blade."

Great, you take 10 Dwarf Warriors, I will take 20 Night Goblins, lets put them next to each other and roll some dice...not much fun.

Early on, someone said they thought every Warriors of Chaos game would be a Massacre, one way or the other. At the time, I had a couple games that were closer than that, and I disagreed.

But I have not been able to get the balance right and am starting to agree. What to do?

I am seriously considering shelving the Warriors of Chaos for a while. It would mean switching to Wood Elfs or Vampire Counts, since those are the two armies being used seldom or never. Or maybe the Goblins. But they, I think, are too weak. I will have to think about it.

I do not mean to sound like I did not enjoy the game. I did. I loved it. It was great fun with epic combats, classic mano a mano duels, and some thrills.

But I want my opponent to enjoy it to, and I do not know if I would enjoy going against the WoC.

Any way you look at it, I will be playing them at least sometimes. But I might look to go in another direction for a while, just to see if it can be more fun for everyone.

* Okay, major, MAJOR reassessment of this battle. When putting in the pictures, I noticed something I may (read "almost certainly") have done wrong whcih COMPLETELY changed the character of this battle. Look at the photo by the asterisk. It was when putting this photo in after writing the report that I noticed this.

His Skinks receiving the charge was brilliant...IF I did my charges correctly. I had to declare my Shaggoth charge on the Skinks, but could not declare one with the Knights because they had the Banner of Rage and therefore had Frenzy. That means the Shaggoth had to charge first.

No problem, I "wheeled" him at the beginning of combat so he would overrun into the Saurus my Dragon Ogres were flanking. No problem there.

But then I wheeled my Knights and charged at the same angle.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. As soon as Shaggy hit the Skinks, they should have "ranked up" facing him. Which means my Knights would have hit the Skinks in their "flank". Which means A) they would not have gotten as many guys touching the Skinks and B, more importantly, THEY WOULD HAVE OVERRUN INTO THE FRONT OF THE TEMPLE GUARD. Or at worst, still been stopped by the Shaggoth, but I think they would have been almost dead center in front of the Temple Guard, so their subsequent slaying of the Saurus on my right flank and then the Engine would not happen.

Okay, that HUGELY changes the complexion of the game. If I am in front of the Temple Guard, their armor save is 2 better. More might survive to hit back at the Knights. His Saurus unit might survive. The other Saurus unit might flank the Knights or it might become a blocking unit that keeps my marauders out of that battle...and would make the Chaos Warriors go a long, long way to get in position to charge. I am still Stubborn with a re-roll on a 9 with my Knights...but now I have to find a way to deal with his Engine which OWNED me while it had the Burning Alignment going.

So look at all the mistakes I made rules-wise which HUGELY impacted this game; Marauder Horsemen might kill fewer Chameleon Skinks which means they might do more damage. The Skink Priest in water, -1 for soft cover, may have survived for another turn or three and occupied the Horsemen attention, letting the Chameleons whittle down ranks of infantry marauders...who probably do not now get to flank the Saurus unit in front of the Temple Guard.

So maybe the army is not strong...my ability to not clearly think through the rules during a game is super strong.

Either way, I now feel horrible. My apology, Fullur. Lets call this one a Draw.

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. :)

750 point Chaos v. Lizardmen

Running Weasel's head came around. Had...had the Slann just moved? For generations it had remained motionless, so long that none remembered its name anymore. No matter, it was the job of Running Weasel and, for that matter, all Skinks, to serve and protect the ancient and wise Slann, even if they did not know his name. 

Yet now...yes, there it was. The faintest flick of his smallest finger. Knowledge filled Running Weasel's mind. He spun on his heel and hurried off to do the Slann's bidding. A swift gesture brought 2 units of Skink scouts to his side. 

"The Wise One tells me there is evil afoot in the land. Go forth, seek out and find the intruders. I shall gather what forces I can and come to join you as swiftly as possible."

Without hesitation the skink scouts headed off in the direction indicated. Wasting no time, Running Weasel summoned whatever Saurus warriors he could find. As they exited the village he saw a Stegadon returning from a training session. He gestured the handlers to join him and headed off to see what the incursion consisted of.

It never crossed Running Weasels' mind that they might be facing a vastly superior force. No, the Slann had instructed him to find and deter the invaders lest the invasion grow in size, so that was what he intended to do, regardless of odds.

Don Killemall glanced at the questioner. It was Paolo. "What do I know of this land? Nothing, Paolo, except there are enemies to slay, loot to be had. That is enough.

Suddenly he drew rein. Ahead he saw movement. "It seems we have been discovered. " He gestured ahead to where strange creatures developed out of the mist. He looked to the left where the Made Men, without waiting for orders, had already begun a flanking maneuver. He smiled inside his all-encompassing armor. Well, time to see what these enemies were made of. He had no need to know who they were, the fact they were not his men meant they were enemies. 

Setup

This game started rather rugged. To see who put a piece of terrain on first, i rolled a 1. To see who picked side of board I rolled a 1. To see who went first, I rolled...a 1. Ugh. My opponent, Fullur, was playing 6th edition Lizardmen. Initially I planned to go with the Wood Elf army, but feeling bad because Josh would again be the Goblins, I went with having him play the Wood Elf army I had designed while I hastily threw together a Hordes of Chaos. We were playing 750 point games. At the far end it was Kevin and his Ogres against Space Monkey and Liam, his acolyte, playing the Dwarf army. In the middle was Fixed Dice and his undefeated Dark Elf army against Cris and his undefeated Vampire Count army. I would be taking another proxy Chaos army. Meanwhile, Josh and his Wood Elf army would play one of the first two to finish their game. (Chad had a birthday party for his mother in law so was not there, thus making the 4th table unnecessary.

I took an Exalted Champion on Chaos Steed, gave him the Mark of Tzeentch (Level 2 Wiz, lore of Tzeentch), the Golden Eye (3+ Ward v. Shooting and Magic Missiles) and the Sword of Might (+1S) giving me a close combat monster: WS 7, S6, T4, 4 attacks, and a 2+ Save (1+ in close combat). For spells he scored a 2 and a 6. The six gave him I think Indigo, the one that makes an enemy character take a test of some sort or disappear; mis-reading Orange Fire, I kept that and got rid of Indigo in favor of Red Fire (Magic Missile, 30", D6 S6 hits, cast on 5+). I thought Orange Fire gave a Ward save to the entire unit; nope, just the socrcerer himself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. 222 points of lethality nonetheless.

Anyway, my first core unit was 4 Knights with Champion, Mark of Tzeentch (+1 power die), and Standard Bearer with Banner of Wrath (bound spell, 24", D6 S4 hits). 242 points.

Finally, I took 4 Chosen Knights with Mark of Tzeentch (+1 power die), Blasted Standard (Bound Spell Yellow Fire, grants unit 5+ Ward verse shooting) 262 points

726 points

Fullur had a 2nd level skink priest w/Cube of Darkness, a unit of about 16 (?) Saurus Warriors, and 2 Skink Scouts, approximately 10/unit, about 730 points.

The field was crowded with rough ground to the right, a marsh in the center, a building to the left. 

I meant to put my basic Knights in front, the Chosen behind them, and put my general slightly to the right. Instead, I put the Chosen in front in some sort of brain cramp maneuver, then attached my General to the other Knights.

Fullur flanked his Scouts wide right, but the other unit had no place to scout so went on the left end of his battle line. The Stegadon was to their right (from his viewpoint) and his Saurus to their right.

Roll to go first, after my mighty 1, he won and elected to have me go first.

Chaos Turn One

I marched my Chosen ahead to the left. Well...I say "marched" but for whatever reason had 4" movement in mind so moved them merely 8". Then I walked my other Knights forward...again, 4", not 7". Not a good start. 

No line of sight for the Chosen, Cast Red Fire at his Saurus, he dispelled it. Orange Fire passed, but since it only affected my Wizard it was kind of pointless. My Banner was successful since he had used all his Dispel Dice on Red Fire. So I would get off some key magic, D6 S4 hits. Except I rolled 1 for how many and then a 2 to wound. Not a good start.

Pointless magic my old friend

you've come to mock me once again

Wasted points I will probably need

to defeat the stegadon mighty steed

Lizardmen Turn 1

He advanced his left hand (from his viewpoint) Skinks into the march, walked his Stegadon and Saurus forward, and moved his Skinks on his right forward to get line of sight. He cast some Comet spell I did not like the looks of so I Dispelled it, and then his roll to cast a protective spell on the Skinks failed. Good to see the awesome power of magic works for others as well. 

His Skinks shot at my Chosen just 10 times in order to take advantage of the poison weapons (since multiple shots would move him to needing 7s to hit, then 5s or 6s to wound.  One actually hit which automatically meant he wounded. But I saved, so no damage yet.

The Stegadon big bow shot at my Champion-attached unit with his big bow but missed.

Chaos Turn 2

I charged the skinks to my left with the Chosen. He elected to stand and shoot. My other unit plodded forward another 4 inches. Good to see I had already not figured out my mistake...

My Blasted Standard went first, he used his Dispel Dice. Bwoohahaha, get ready for the power of Red Fire! Except...he had the Cube which auto-Dispelled it. Even worse, he rolled a 4 and ended the Magic Phase. 

In his stand and shoot he got off the multiple shots since he had not moved, meaning he again needed 6s. 3 hit, but needing just 2 or better to save, I saved all three.

In close combat it was no contest. Between my mighty Chosen and the horses, 7 skinks died. He ran, but not far enough. I pursued, hoping to NOT be in the Skink Priest's line of sight, but the 8" over run left me right where I did not want to be... and overrunning a 70 point unit with a 262 point unit was not unexpected. He would have liked to do at least one casualty before dying, but eh...whatchya gonna do when Chaos runs wild on you?

Lizardman Turn 2

His Saurus reformed to face my Chosen. His magic all failed or was Dispelled (I see a pattern here...) His remaining Skinks opened fire on my Knights. Needing 2 2s or better to save, I did save...one of them. I had taken my first casualty. Fortunately, his Stegadon missed again.

Chaos Turn 3

I declared a charge against his Stegadon but failed my Terror test. Instead of getting my Exalted Champion and Knights into combat with a unit I really wanted to destroy, I fled towards the edge of the field, stopping less than 3" from the edge. If I failed again, even rolling triple 1s would mean I left the field with 464 points. That would not be pleasant...

Meanwhile, my Chosen had no line of sight, so simply reformed to accept the charge from his Saurus. With my General/Sorcerer fleeing, there was no Magic phase. Actually, that is not strictly true. My Bound Yellow Fire was easily Dispelled by his 3 Dispel Dice. Ironically, having no wizard was every bit as effective as having a Wizard and 6 power dice to go with 2 Standards.

At this point, things were looking pretty grim. I was one 9 or higher roll, or a 1 in 3 chance, of losing 2/3 of my army and was about to be charged by his best hand to hand unit. I was outnumbered and, with my Wizard fleeing, down to 2 Dispel dice.

Lizardmen Turn 3

To the surprise of nobody, his Saurus charged my Chosen. With my Knights so far away, he (wisely) elected to move his Stegadon towards my Chosen since he could not catch my cowards. He tried to cast the Portent of Afar on the Saurus but he rolled just an 8 on 3 dice which I was fortunate enough to match on my 2 dice. His Comet failed. Once again, magic does...well...nothing. Magic sucks in this game. Just sayin'.

His Saurus then unleashed a hail of attacks on empty air. He needed 4s to hit, had 10 attacks, and managed to score 2 wounds. But I saved both. I then slew 4 Saurus. Well, he had a rank bonus of 2 and outnumbered me so I won the combat by one. He needed a 7 to pass and rolled...a 7. Good rolling?

Not really. His best hand to hand unit, with all the advantage of charging, did exactly no damage to me. Not one casualty. His lowly 70 point Skink unit had done more damage at this point. The next turn I would have the first attack, he had lost one of his rank bonuses...suddenly it looked like he was the one in trouble.

Chaos Turn 4

Needing an 8 or below, I saw the first die drop on a 6. Uh-oh...the other one tumbled, rolled, sputtered...and dropped on the 2. Total of 8, I passed! 

I used my Standard to cast at his skinks. Fullur just let it go. At last! Successful magic! Here come D6 S4 hits on the weak little skinks. Roll for number...1. Roll for damage...rolled a 2. Wait...back on turn 1, did I not roll a 1 followed by a 2? Why yes...yes I did. Fortunately, this was against Skinks, so even the 2 killed one. Bwoohahaha, magic did some damage! I mean, sure, I spent 70 points to give my Champ the Mark of Tzeentch, 40 points giving it to each unit, plus the upgrades to standard bearers and the 2 magic banners, meaning I had, at this point, spent about 275 points on magic to kill one 7 point Skink...but it was totally (not) worth it! But wait, the magic phase was not over...Red Fire was cast with Irresistible Force. Bwoohahaha. D6 strength 6 hits. For how many I rolled...do I even need to tell you? I rolled a 1. To wound? Yep...I rolled a 2. For a third straight time when I successfully cast something I rolled 1 for how many and 2 to wound. Oh well, I doubled the damage I had done. Now I had done 14 points of damage with my mere 275 points spent. Magic is TOTALLY worth it.

Orange Fire was again successful. Of course, it is also pointless. 

Close Combat is where the Hordes did their nasty work. I killed 5 Saurus, he could not even wound with his Spear 2nd rank attacks. He ran, the Priest, within 6", also ran, I over ran his Saurus. 

Final tally: 2 rounds of combat, 9 Saurus slain, no Chosen slain. Their point total was pretty close to that of the Saurus, but it was no contest.

Lizardman Turn 4

His Stegadon charged my Chosen. With his priest continuing to flee, there was no Magic phase, and my Knights were out of range of his Skinks.

This time I passed my Terror test. He did a whopping zero Impact hits. (He rolled 3 5s, but needed 6s) He did a whopping zero hand to hand hits. I Almost killed a couple skinks, did a wound to the Stegadon, he broke, I over ran him.

At this point I would be able to charge his fleeing priest, leaving him 8 skinks against my entire remaining army so we shut it down.

Review

So what happened here?  After my third turn it looked like he was on the verge of completely massacring me. 2/3 of my army was at the table edge, ready to flee. The last unit was facing a frontal charge from his best hand to hand unit and the next turn a flank charge from a Terror causing Stegadon while his Wizard had essentially a free hand in the Magic Phase. One and a half turns later it was a complete annihilation the other way.

His poor rolling when he charged did him in. If his Saurus could have done even a single casualty when they charged they would have possibly broken the Chosen and changed the game completely. If I fail a 33% chance to fail roll, he can focus all the might of his army against one suddenly badly over matched unit.

However, his Saurus could NOT get the rolls they needed at a key moment and I DID get the key roll I needed at a key moment. As a result, he really had no chance.

Kind of indicates the Hordes may have been vastly over powered or else the Saurus were vastly underpowered. In the 7th edition book, we did a quick comparison of the new Saurus against the Chaos Warriors and think they have done some nice tweaks. The Saurus are cheaper, the Warriors more...and the Warriors are slightly better, but not so much so that the Saurus should be unable to do at least a little bit of damage. 

Hopefully next months game will see me have legit models assembled and painted and playing the actual Warriors of Chaos. We are shooting for a 2500 point game. I know Fixed Dice is excited as he has finished painting and assembling his gorgeous Dragon model, Fullur is excited to get his actual Stegadon model and some Terradons on the table, and I am excited to get Warriors on the table.

My preliminary plan is to have Galrauch as my General, a couple Sorcerers, a couple small units of Marauders to fill my core choices, and a couple units of Knights because, over costed though I believe they are in the new book, I love, love, love playing Knights. We will see how it goes.