1500 Orcs & Goblins v 1500 Lizardmen

Have I mentioned lately how much I love 8th edition? Never feel like I am beaten before game starts, never feel I have game won before game starts...to read just the game section, skip to after the row of asterisks.

Anyway, tried to get together High Elf list but it came down to choice between Dragon Mage or Prince on Griffon...so I made the obvious choice of O&G.

I love starting with Gorbad. He is okay in close combat but where he really shines is letting me have an army of S4 multiple attack guys...and S5 on the first turn of combat.

Gorbad filled my Lord points, I took a level 2 night goblin with Dispel Scroll, 20 Savage Orc Big 'Uns with extra hand weapon & full command (& Big Stabbas), 10 Savage Orc Boar riders w/extra hand weapon & full command, and 20 Night Goblins w/2 fanatics, Arachnarok Spider and a Mangler Squig. 1500 points on the nose. I would have a commanding, nigh un-overcomable 1 point advantage as Fullur could merely manage 1499 points.

I like putting the 10 boar riders with Gorbad. If they pass animosity they get in combat lightning quick. If they fail animosity they get into combat ever faster with potentially 25 S5 or 6 attacks without taking into account the 6 more Boar attacks. I like my odds of dealing out some damage.

Meanwhile the 20 strong Savage Orcs are a nasty unit in their own right. The Night goblins with short bows were a nuisance unit meant to whittle down the enemy and throw a few fanatics at them while the Mangler would control a flank with his potential for massive damage.

Meanwhile Deathnarok is a fast, potentially very hard hitting unit that will get where I need it when I need it.

The result is a compact, mobile, tough, hard hitting army (sounds a lot like my Warriors of Chaos, except less well armored. Ironically I have a much better save percentage with these guys...)

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We rolled up Blood and Glory. Strong. With 3 banners and Gorbad I have Fortitude 5. A Khemrian Marsh and mysterious river bifurcated the field right in the middle, a couple mysterious forests further made it a mystical, anti-maneuverable field.

Unless I put the Mangler on the left with a clear shot, the Boar Riders next to him to crest the hill, the Deathnarok where he could cross the river in one turn. The Night Goblin bowmen held the center of the field and the foot Savage Orcs protected the right flank from his Cold One riders.

He centered his army around several swarms with a large block of Skinks/Kroxigor on my left flank, a bastilidon behind the swarms, a big block of saurus behind the forest and his cold ones on my right flank.

O&G Turn 1
I did a general advance. My 20 strong bowmen could not fire, the Deathnarok riders hit just once and he saved it. I got poison on my foot Savage orcs.

Lizardmen Turn 1
His Cold ones don't move. In fact, let me save time: they never move until I charge them in turn 4. Everything else makes a measured advance. He moves his Saurus into the forest and I realize what a huge mistake I made. He forces the Fanatics into the open.

I can't send them after the Saurus...the forest would kill them. I have to launch them towards his Cold Ones on the right...which effectively takes my Savage Orcs out of the battle unless I want to change taking a massive hit.

Anyway, I have to let the Amber Spear hit Deathnarok, but it fails to wound. His shooting is better, wounding the Mangler twice. Ouch.

O&G Turn 2
I declare a double charge on the Skinks/Krox with my Boar Riders and Deathnarok.I am hoping the Mangler hits them and bounces out of my way first. Meanwhile I get my Night Goblins close enough to shoot at the Cold Ones.

Time to save time: I get off 56 shots with them in this game. I get 1 wound, which he saves. For the remainder of the game this unit fires ineffectually while the shaman goes nuts.

My charge hits home with both units but he stand and shoots down 3 of my Savage Orcs. Ouch. 30% gone already?

I get Bad Moon off and ship the vortex through his Saurus and Swarms. I forget it is a template and have him take just 6 tests. He loses 1 Saurus. Oops, my bad.

Meanwhile, Gorbad is in a challenge with a skink unit champ. I am licking my chops at the overkill. Except I only wound him 1 time. Oops. Warpaint is amazing, though, and I save both wounds his skinks put on me. Deathnarok kills 4 skinks, the Night Goblins on top do 5 wounds (hmm...), my Savage Orcs wound the Krox 5 times,kill off 3 more skinks...he flees, I run him down...and run into the Mangler. Between what he did to me and what I do to myself with the Mangler, I am down to Gorbad and the command models. I have lost 6 of that unit already...this is not good because my 20 man block is locked away on the right wing and the Deathnarok clipped the Swarms in his overrun.

Lizardman 2
His Saurus move to flank the Deathnarok next turn. He dispels Bad Moon, uses the shooting thing from the Bastilidon to put a wound or two on Deathnarok, I can only wound his hero once, the Night Goblins only do 1 wound, his SWARMS do 2 to Deathnarok...only a Thunderstomp lets me win. Well, that and the charge. But his anti-squishy ability saves the crumble. And he then adds a Swarm with the special rule...so they are STRONGER than they were before I attacked. This is not good...

O&G Turn 3
I spin the Boar riders to face the bastilidon, one Fanatic caroms into the forest, I fail to restrain and my Savage Orc block fails their charge, moving just 4 or 5". I finish off his hero, do lots of wounds, but so does he...Deathnarok takes 4 more wounds. I am down to just 2 wounds.

Lizardmen Turn 3
His Saurus flank charge the Deathnarok. The Bastilidon does another shooting wound. He adds another Swarm.

 Deathnarok will not go quietly, doing 4 wounds to the swarms and the Night Goblins do another, but his Saurus do 7 wounds to Arachnarok...who only had 1 left. Down goes Deathnarok as usual.

O&G Turn 4
The Savage Orcs fail to meet their charge distance. The Boar Boys charge the Bastilidon. Bad Moon succeeds, I do two wounds to the Swarms and kill a couple Saurus.

Gorbad hits the Bastilidon twice, both wound...and both multiply to 3 wounds, 1-shotting the poor Bastilidon. I clip the swarms on the overrun.

Lizardmen Turn 4
He flips the Saurus to face the nigh inevitable Savage Orc Boar Boy charge.
Gorbad, who remember does multiple wounds, has 4 attacks needing 3 to hit, 2 to wound, does...2 wounds to the swarms.But the Savage Orcs make up for it, doing 6 and the Boars do a couple more. Finally those obnoxious, lethal swarms (who ever thought I would say THAT?) are gone, gone, gone. Yeah! They go to crumble, so no overrun.

O&G Turn 5
I quickly check. He has 2 banners left. I just need to get one more. Unfortunately, I don't think the 3 remaining Savage Orc boar boys and the underwhelming Gorbad can take on 25ish Saurus. If he beats me in that combat I lose because I will only have 1 Fortitude. Oh, well, we are Orcs. The 20 man block charges the Cold One Knights, I charge his Saurus block. Death or Glory, right?

I get the Poison on the 20 man Savage Orc block with irresistible, do a wound to myself and lose rest of my power dice.

First I do the Savage Orcs on foot v Cold Ones. Our unit champs fight a challenge. I whiff all 4 attacks. His champ misses 2 of the 3 and cannot wound with the 4th. His Cold one hits once, cannot wound. That was...unimpressive.

But my rank & file do me proud, doing 11 wounds and he only saves 1, kills back 2 or 3 Savage Orcs and is run down.

Back to the important battle: if he wins it he wins the game, if we draw or I win it, his army will "break".

My Champ and his champ get in a challenge. Gorbad continues to prove outside of the Bastilidon, he just doesn't have a lot of combat power, doing just 1 wound. My unit champ does better, doing 2 wounds and saving the only wound done to him. (Go go gadget Warpaint!)

Gnarla matches Gorbad's output, the standard bearer does a couple more. He cannot wound Gorbad, does kill the standard bearer. I win the combat...and run him down. He was tabled.

What Went Right
The combo charge was a thing of beauty. He never had a chance. I had so many attacks that even a sub-par outcome was still a devastating win. Gorbad one-shotting the Bastilidon was awesome and, words you have never heard before and will probably never hear again, I DOMINATED the magic phase, getting off Gift of the Spider I think 3 times and Bad Moon twice.

Also, I saved like a fiend. Needing 5's and 6's to save I probably saved 30-40% of the wounds he did.

What Went Wrong
Bad setup of the Night goblins meant my Fanatics held up a powerful unit and did NOTHING to him.
My bowfire was...ineffective.
Dominating the magic phase killed 5 Saurus and 1 Swarm wound...not really a big deal.
Mangler did 3 hits to him...and 3 to me. That hurt me worse.


Overall it was a really fun game. Would have preferred a slightly different outcome, like...NOT tabling him, but I really like the new Lizard book and had a great time.

3500 Warriors of Chaos versus 3500 Lizardmen, Watchtower Scenario

After the experiment with the wizard on the dragon, I wanted to try an actually Chaos fighter lord on dragon. With the Ogre Blade, mark of tzeentch, Enchanted Shield and Talisman of Preservation he ends up having a 1+ armor save, 3+ ward, 7 S5 attacks, 6 strength 6 attacks, dragon breath and thunderstomp. He should do a number on infantry blocks and is quite capable of going after war machines, tough monsters, etc.

I actually like this build so much I am going to name him. Mithridates will make a come-back, and the dragon will be called Phangoria. Look it up. It is funny.

So when we decided to play an all-night game prior to me flying out to Nebraska, I was hoping it would be big enough to try him out.

We ended up rolling for size and 3500 came up. Score! Of course, fitting him him meant I would be susceptible to strong magic. I would have at best a level 2 wizard....

With over 700 points tied up in one character, I put in my normal BSB, a couple of level 2s marked with tzeentch, one with dispel scroll and the other with infernal puppet.

After fiddling around with points I ended up with a block of 20 chaos warriors with shield and tzeentch, a 14 warrior with khorne and great weapons and 2 marauder horsemen with throwing axes. I also had an h-cannon, warshrine, dragon ogre shaggoth, and 5 man and 10 man knight units. Whoops...due to points I had to drop the  10 man down to 5.

I like this build. If it is a straight up fight I just need to push forward and get into the right combats...hold them up with my 3+ save, 5+ ward Warrior block and blast the flanks with my hard hitting units while the Shaggoth and Dragon go after hard targets.

If blood and glory I have 4 units with banners, the BSB and my general. And if the Watchtower, if I get to set up in it, 20 Chaos Warriors with 3+/5+ re-rolling on an 8 are going to be hard to shift. I can use my other units to keep them from getting attacked.

Time to set up the field.

The field ended up being a bit...well, I thought at the time we had kind of blown the set-up. The center of the table was kind of crowded but there was little or nothing affecting the deployment zones. Too much of the terrain was next to each other. After the scenario, though, I think it was quite well set up. Had a nice impact on mobility.

They were taking a dual slann list. One had Life (?), the other metal. They had I think 3 other 10 man saurus blocks, a bik skink/kroxigor block and a couple units of skinks. Also the Engine and another stegadon.

As is typical for me when I see such a list, I immediately start thinking of its strengths. This army is quite well set up to crush my Warriors. I despise the lore of metal. It essentially removes my army wide strength of armor. Wish I had some lore that did not allow enemy armies their specialty....that removed ASF for high elfs, hatred for dark elves, cold blooded for lizardmen, etc. Saving grace is they have to be cast successfully. Downside is...with +2 to cast and the Slann abilities to add a die to every spell...I could be in a world of hurt.

Add to that the Engine allowing no armor saves and they have the potential to do a large amount of unstoppable damage that I can do nothing about. I just have to hope I can minimize that.

It used to be the Saurus would not bother me. I used to argue that they would sub-par and over-cost, that they did not do enough damage against weaker troops (say...empire state troops) and were as weak as state troops against stronger troop choices like Ogres. If there is one thing the Warriors are strong on, it is high quality troops.

Ironically, it was my brothers who convinced me the Saurus are better than I believed and a threat even to the warriors. So I am concerned. The skinks will cause me lots of saves which I tend to fail in large quantities, the Saurus outnumber me and their temple guard seem to be a valid threat to even my Warriors, they will dominate the magic phase and I could be in trouble.

I roll a 5 to snag the tower. I am happy. I already have my plan formed. I am going to throw my tough block into the tower, then tie up his other units and hope the game ends on turn 4 with me having 1 or 2 Warriors left in the tower.

I know that is all that matters. I can lose every guy I have except one. As long as I have one guy left but he is in the tower I will win. So that is the plan.

Then they spoil my plan by rolling a 6. "Fortunately" the only unit they have to put in there is a 10 Saurus block. I figure to be able to kill them...but will I be able to then occupy the tower?

I throw the 2 Marauder Horsemen units on the right as a feint. Everything else I plant right around the tower. My bog block of 20 is directly opposite the tower. The 14 khorne great weapons are to their left, the 5 man knights to their right in front with the 10 behind, the Shaggoth right of that and the cannon out to the side to get a line of sight. I plan to drop it on the Metal Tempe Guard/Slann unit hoping to get lucky.

I get to go first.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 1
I want to soften up the tower and do not want to use my Warriors to do it. I want to keep them protected as long as possible. I think it will take 2 turns to wipe out the Saurus in the tower. I also forget the rules....I start moving other units to block him off from entering the tower after I clear it out. If I can tie up his infantry units in combat then I will have time to occupy it on my turn. Otherwise, I figure I will kill his garrison off on my turn, then he will occupy it with a temple guard unit on his turn and that will be game.

The Knights make it into the tower, the big warrior block moves close hoping to be able to occupy it on turn 3, the khorne warriors move up on the building's left and the dragon flies in that direction.

I roll a whopping 11 dice for magic. I throw 6 at Infernal Gateway at his Metal slann. I want irresistible force. I will take my chances with the mis-cast. That is the most dangerous thing he has on the table to me. I am going to concentrate on it.

I roll a total of about 21, he rolls all his Dispel dice and stuffs it. I have 5 dice left and nothing to do.

Shooting; I center the template on the Metal Slann. It scatters off a couple inches. I then roll a "1" for the guy under the template and a 2 to wound the slann. Even though he loses 5 or 6 Saurus...I am disappointed. So far this turn has not gone well. Both units of Horsemen combine to get zero hits on their respective targets (I had moved them to throw shots at his terradons and a small Saurus block).

The tower battle goes very well, however. My 5 frenzied knights do what 5 frenzied knights do and wipe out all 10 saurus before they even get to attack.

The good news is...the tower is now empty. The bad news is...my knights are in the way of my warrior block getting into the tower.

Lizardman Turn 1


His terradons and saurus charge my marauder horsemen. I flee the terradons...and he overruns them. My other unit stands and shoots at his Saurus, do no damage and die in close combat.

The Metal Slann Temple Guard marches but outside the parameters of the building. The Engine moves up close to the building. The other Slann unit advances on what I call the left side of the building. Unbeknownst to them, they are playing right into the battle plan I formulated.

The old saw is "battle plans never survive contact with the enemy". They had no way of knowing this...but they were actually doing exactly what I would have begged them to do. By those moves they gave me the chance...albeit a slim one...of getting off suicide charges on both units. Clever movement of my BSB would mean I could tie them up with hard to kill, stubborn units.

They then rolled I think a 3 or 4 for the winds of magic. I breath a huge sigh of relief. They first attempt throne of vines. I do not even hesitate, I let it go. I know it protects them from miscast but it does not hurt me. I am saving all my dice to stop anything that lowers my armor save permanently or is damaging with no save.

My plan works as I have enough dispel dice to stop their casting.

Their stegadon bow misses. The skinks they put into the tower next to the watchtower then shoot at my dragon, one poison hit which I duly fail. After all, I only had a 3+...I am bound to fail one of 3 of those, might as well get it out of the way early.

So overall, the first turn was excellent for me. I already think the game comes down to one die roll which I will attempt post haste.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 2
The door is open. If I can get my Knights out of the way I will shove my Warriors block into the tower and then thrown everything I have at keeping him from assaulting it. I will save all my dice to protect the tower in the magic phase.

I declare the key charges. My knights with the zteentch mark and banner of rage charge the temple guard. This will come as a surprise to just about everyone...but I actually would not have done this in any other scenario.

As awesome as my knights are, I think they will severely reduce the Temple Guard unit but will eventually die. I want to combo-charge this unit. However, in the Watchtower scenario, the only thing that matters is occupying the tower. If I fail my swift reform roll, I need to keep him out of the tower.

Meanwhile, Shaggoth charges the terradons who also choose to flee. They go a long, long way.

On the left I advance my khorne warriors toward his other temple guard block.

It is now time for THE most important roll in the game. If I can swift reform the Knights, I will move them out of the way and shove my warrior block in the tower.

The charges succeeds, the swift reform...passes. I get my 3+, 5+ save, 20 man block into the tower. I now have a strong advantage.

Meanwhile, their positioning means I cannot get the dragon out of range of the skinks, but I fly him behind their lines anyway, aiming to charge the Engine next turn. I need to kill that thing off at all costs, because they have it perfectly positioned to kill off a few Warriors every turn.

I roll a 5 or 6 on the winds. After a brief debate,  I dispel Throne with all my dice. Probably should have tried Infernal on his engine.

The h-cannon scatters away, doing no harm.

My knights on the right do a few casualties and lose one of their own.

This next turn will be key. He will charge with his Temple Guard, do a few casualties, I will do a few. I actually figure I am about 85% likely to win the combat, I just need to withstand the attrition because that is what this has become; a war of attrition. I think they will work to wear down my block with repeated suicide charges and the Engine. Will I be able to hold out?


Lizardmen Turn 2
I get a huge shock. They do NOT charge the Temple Guard into the tower. Instead they move up between the tower and the Bane Tower or whatever it is. They move the razordon to block my Dragon charge on the engine and a jungle swarm hoping to also block.  The skink/kroxigor block swings around the tower.

They roll another low number on the Winds. He then fluffs Throne and I dispel his Metal spell. The Burning Alignment rolls a low number, does in one of the knights fighting his temple guard.

In combat I kill his champion again (came back to Throne prior turn I think?) and he kills another knight. I do almost no other casualties as they make every save.


Warriors of Chaos Turn 3
On the left I charge my khorne warriors into his Temple Guard. I believed they had made a mistake by not charging the tower last turn. (We had quite a debate about this post game. They had a different strategy than I would employ that they believed...and still believe in...which has some merit. If I knew then what I know now, I might not have charged...but I doubt it.)

This actually contradicts one of Napoleons dictates; "Never interrupt the enemy in the course of making a mistake." However, it also comes into whether they were making a mistake. And it completely comes down to point of view.

For the strategy they had adopted it was not a mistake. It was only a mistake if they had the same battle plan I would adopt in their place...which they would not. So while for me it would have been a mistake to not charge the tower, for them it was the correct play. Confused? Check out my post-battle meanderings for a more thorough discussion.

Behind his lines I charge Mithridates and Phangoria into his razordon. The stand and shoot is appalling as he rolls 2 hits and a misfire, eating a skink. He does no damage.
On the right Shaggoth charges his terradon who flee. A long way.

On the left he does in a couple of warriors and I then do in 14 of his temple Guard. Wow. that was..unexpected. It is also more what I used to think of Saurus.

He was striking first with I think 13 S5 attacks plus whatever the Slann does (read "nothing"). His S5 reduces my save to a 6+.   The damage done was quite modest. The khorne warriors, however, were devastating. Over 20 attacks needing 3s to hit, 2s to wound with a -3 are going to put a hurt on anyone. Him saving I think zero of them did not hurt.

On the right I do in a couple of his temple guard. I think he did not do any back, but he might have.

Mithridates and Phangoria do their thing, killing the razordon and over-running into the engine.

So this was a stupendous turn for me. I am in position to get some help to my Knight block on the right which is whittling down his temple guard, I am going to kill his life Slann in oneish more turns, I am a turn or two from ending the Engine's burning alignment, and the Shaggoth will stall his 10 Saurus block on the right. Even if he hammers Shaggy, 10 Saurus are not going to win this game for them.

Oh, think this was the turn I gave him a 3+ save with the Warshrine. So he is going to be pretty tough.

Lizardmen Turn 3
He moves some skinks up behind the Saurus on my right. His Terradons fail their rally test and fly off the field.

He again rolls abominably on the Winds...maybe a 3? 4? Their plan to regrow the Temple Guard on my left flies out the window. They do not have enough to Throne AND a metal spell. They cast a metal spell. I would need double 6s to stop it (might have been Dwellers Below, come to think of it...it was either that or Final Transmutation. Either way, all 20 of my Chaos Warriors take a test and die on a 5 or 6. That should drop them to about 12...I had lost a couple to Burning Alignment already).

I burn my Dispel Scroll. Burning does a wound to the dragon, takes down another knight, wounds one of my wizards.

In the shooting phase he hits the shaggoth twice with poison. Needing 3s to save, I take both wounds. Ugh.

I kill his skink priest in a challenge, then put a couple wounds on the Stegadon who wounds the dragon back. I now have 3 wounds on him. Just now occurred to me I forgot to roll on the Eye chart. Irrelevant, but would have been fun.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 4
Shaggy charges his Saurus. The cannon and Shrine move forward. Magic is pointless. I have nothing to dispel, nothing to cast.

Close combat is my specialty of course. The ancient stegadon dies, his Life Slann/Temple Guard block dies, I do a couple wounds to his Saurus with Shaggy (and take one back). The game is really over at this point. He does not have enough juice left to dislodge my essentially untouched tower-holding warrior block and I am devastating him everywhere else.

He does finish off my Knights, though. They did their job, whittling him down to maybe 5 or 6 Temple Guard left. Maybe less.

Lizardmen Turn 4
A little movement, another failed magic turn. His Kroxigor block did get into combat with the tower. I killed his skink champ in a challenge, put 2 or 3 wounds on kroxigor but think he did not get anything through.

I think this is the turn he charged my BSB who was left in the open when my knights died. I had been using him to keep Shaggy and the Knights stubborn. His positioning left him open.

Warriors of Chaos Turn 5
The knights charge in with Shaggy, my cannon and shrine finish off his other Saurus, he kills my BSB on his way out the door. The game is really over at this point so we call it.


Wrapping up
First off, what went right?

I think I came up with a really solid battle plan. The only mistakes I felt like I made were irrelevant. My Marauder Horsemen are in the list to go after Repeater Bolt Throwers, Stone Throwers, Jezzail Teams, Cannons. He had none. I threw them away going after irrelevant targets. They were not speed bumping units.

But it was at worst a minor mistake. I am not sure I want them in front of his tempe guard anyway as they would occupy space I would rather have for other units.

I had superior fortune in killing off his Saurus in turn one and then being able to occupy it myself with the block I wanted in there. There was very little chance I would fail my swift reform. I was trying on a re-rollable 9 due to Mithridates and the BSB. Had he kept just one Saurus alive, the game might have gone much different. As it was, I accomplished my goal in turn two and was able to put my plan into effect.

From this point on, my battle plan worked to perfection. I was able to occupy every unit he had that could assault the building and whittle them down to where they would be no threat to my warriors. I threw everything I had into stopping anything that could really hurt me. I got rid of his Engine's burning alignment, seldom had to stop metal magic and had plenty of dice to do so.

In the last couple of turns I made up for early bad fortune. The first couple of turns I was failing every save, he was making a lot of saves, my attacks other than the first tower assault were poor. I think it was 4 times I hit with 5 attacks, needed 2s to wound and did 2 wounds.

But most important of all, they rolled abominably for the winds of magic every turn. I think 6 was the most dice they ever got. They had based their strategy around crushing me with metal magic and regrowing their units. They never got enough dice to do both and spent their dice on Throne, leaving no dice for Magic.

Late in the game my dice were much better. They more than made up for the earlier pathetic rolls.

What went wrong?
Well...these are nothing but nit-picking. My shooting was horrific. The cannon scattered every turn, it never hit the Slann that was its target and was again ineffectual....though it was pretty awesome in close combat.

I did not know the correct rules or might have played slightly different. For whatever reason I was thinking you could not occupy the tower if you killed everyone in it. Otherwise I might have assaulted the building with my Warriors early on.

As mentioned above, early in the game I was failing every save. The shaggoth failed the first 2 3+ saves, the dragon failed all 3 3+ saves he attempted, my 5+ ward never saved anyone from the Burning Alignment.

All in all, it was a highly entertaining game against my brothers.

Now, on to the big controversy. Strategy.

Let me preface this by saying this; one of the things that makes Warhammer go is that different people make different strategies work. My take on this is not "right" or "wrong", it is MINE. By the same toke, their strategy is not "right", it is not "wrong", it is THEIRS.

Their strategy would not work for me. My strategy would not work for them. Whatever else you take away from the following, THAT is the key principle.

In the Tower scenario, only one thing matters. Who has a model in the tower when the game ends. Nothing else matters. Who killed what? Does not matter. How many saves did I make? Irrelevant. Did I get off an epic charge? Who cares. Do I have a model in the tower and is the game over? Button made of win.

If the roles are reversed, I am going to throw everything I have at the tower. I know going in that if I have Skinks, Saurus Warriors, or even Temple Guard and am facing Chaos Warriors...with or without the 3+ armor save, 5+ ward save...that I am going to lose the vast majority of combats. I am going to lose many more models in EVERY combat.

Math-hammer time.
10 Temple Guard with Halberds v. 10 Chaos Warriors with hand weapon/shield and tzeentch.
Chaos attacks first; 21 attacks hitting on 3s, 14 hits. 7 wounds with a -1. He saves, I want to save base 3+ save, 4+ net, he takes 3.5 - 4 wounds per turn.

21 attacks back (assuming champions are alive). 10.5 hits. 3 - 4 wounds, I save 2 -3 with armor alone. So he may or may not do a wound in any given assault (by the way, after this game I am back to believing what I used to believe; Saurus cost too much for what they are).

So honestly, I am going to win over 90% of the times this combat takes place.

At the same time, take the Knights versus Temple Guard grind. I wore him down over the course of several turns and he wiped out my unit (with the assistance of the burning alignment).  There was one turn where I think I failed 3 saves (only to make my only ward save with that unit in the game).

THAT is the turn my strategy revolves around. I want the charge where I have the statistical outlier. 18 of my attacks hit, 12 of them wound, my opponent saves 2.

Is it likely to happen? No. But I think it is my BEST CHANCE. Burning alignment is still taking off one or 2 models a turn. Reinforcements are theoretically available to me. My opponent has to hope to hold on. I can do this with multiple units. My first one dies horribly after 2 or 3 assaults? I send in the next unit.

This strategy requires me to protect the units I plan to tag-team the tower. I sacrifice the Terradons, small Saurus blocks, and skink blocks to keep my Temple Guard units available to charge the building every turn until the game is over or my guys are all dead.

Conversely, if I take the strategy they adopted and plan to kill everything in the building with magic and the burning alignment, I am going to fire everything I have at it.

When they rolled low on magic, I thought they got distracted. Throne of Vines is nice...but it does nothing to whittle down the numbers in the tower. If I were trying their strategy, instead of casting throne I would have been max dice at Final Transmutation or Dwellers below every turn. (Or Comet of Cassandora if they had it). If I lose my Slann to a mis-cast it is bad...but not as bad as going a turn without attacking the unit in the building.

Every shot I can muster, no matter how unlikely, is going to be aimed at the building. The 10 skinks in the building next door are going to be pot-shotting the building, even knowing I need 7s or more and am unlikely to do a casualty. But every casualty I do is just one small nick of attrition that is irreplaceable.

As it was, from my standpoint they got distracted. Burning alignment was taking 1 or at most 2 warriors per turn. Since I had 20 of them, that meant they needed 10 - 18 turns to get the job done with burning alignment.

I never had a Metal spell affect that unit. Each turn they had other things they attempted. We disagreed after the game on whether that was the right move. They believe they made the correct move, I was far more worried about the metal spells that could quickly and seriously reduce the number of Warriors I had available to defend the tower.

So it felt like I I was not facing a concentrated assault against the building. To me things like the Throne, shooting at my Dragon/khorne warriors were distracting them from the most important point of contact.

The thing is...I am in complete agreement with them on one point. Regardless of whether you go the magic/burning alignment route or the assault/assault/assault route, once I got that block into the building they were very, very unlikely to ever move them out. I suspect I win that game 98% of the time.

The question before us is what is more likely to win those 2% of the games. So for your amusement, I present the two strategies we discussed and let you choose for yourself.

Their strategy was to do a couple wounds with burning alignment and try to get a few more each turn with either Final Transmutation or Dwellers Below.

This has the probability to do several wounds a turn. I think it has an excellent chance of being successful and, in my belief, is best supported by throwing as many shots as possible in support. The hope is to use Burning Alignment, shooting, and magic to do 4 - 5 wounds a turn, then assault with the Skink/Kroxigor unit when it has been whittled down to a handful of warriors.

Weaknesses are if you roll low for Burning Aligment, Winds of Magic, or cannot get a spell through or cannot get your shooting into position.

Conversely, the strategy I would probably adopt would be combining Burning Alignment with assaults. This would also rely on having a secondary target; killing the BSB.

The goal here is to win that one combat and have them fail the Leadership roll. It is unlikely to work. As we saw above, neither Saurus nor Temple Guard are going to do very many casualties in an average combat.

However, if you have played Warhammer for long, you have seen the untouchable unit of doom fluff their attacks and the sub-par unit roll unbelievably well. I have seen night goblins take out iron-breakers, for example.

I have also seen LD 9 Dwarves with a re-roll have 3 units run in one turn.

And that is what I am shooting for. I want to wear down the Chaos Warriors,  hoping that Burning Alignment and my Temple Guard will take down 2 to 3 Warriors per turn and, if I am lucky, win a combat and have them fluff the roll.

Once the Chaos Warriors get into the building, the game is going to be won by Chaos the vast majority of the time.

The question is what someone believes gives them the best chance to climb the mountain.

Both plans have merit. The magic approach will almost assuredly do more damage over the course of the game if allowed to happen. It then requires assaults that rely on finishing off a weakened unit or getting that failed Leadership test.

The assault plan wants to do more casualties in one turn and get more chances at failed Leadership tests. It requires getting lucky and winning assaults you are unlikely to win.

Again...neither is likely to happen. Both are long-shots. It just depends on the mind-set of the person playing it which works better for them.

Run the numbers and you will find what all three of us already know; no matter which way you go, once the Warriors take the building, it is all but game over. So the moral of the story is this; if you engage in the Tower scenario with the Warriors of Chaos, do everything you can to keep them from getting into the tower.

Send squads to stand between their units that can occupy it. You will die, but they will not be in the building. If they get in the building, throw absolutely everything you have at them every turn as soon as possible, as often as possible.

And if those things fail, distract them while you move the tower into your deployment zone and hope he does not notice....

Watchtower Scenario, 1500 High Elf v. Lizardman

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 and Beasts of Chaos Versus Lizardmen and Ogre Kingdoms

Last months games that I participated in were...desultory at best, hardly worthy of a report. The first game I took place in this month was a fun little scenario but did not make a good battle report. Correction; it makes a great one and here it is:

I see Minotaurs to my left that look dangerous. I charge, they die. I see some sort of Gor...Gor, Ungor, bestigor, Centigor, does it matter? They look dangerous, I charge, they die. I see other units. They look alive. I charge, they die.

Wow, that was....fun? Entertaining? Illustrative of what happens when Chaos Dragon Ogres and Dragon Ogre Shaggoths are allowed to charge? Yeah, lets go with that one.

Well, then we elected to do a team game and randomly rolled to see who would team up.

Little secret; I wanted to team up with my brother Fullur. Nothing against Liam and Kev who are both good friends...but hey, I coulda teamed with my brother!

Then again, there was a certain synergy to rolling out the forces of Chaos as a team. We went secret dispositions. Liam and I elected to divide the field in two. We knew based on the lake in the back corner the Lizardmen were likely to set up there and Warriors of Chaos versus Ogre kingdoms is just fun, so he took the left wing and I took the right.

Our battle plan was simple...drive down the middle, turn one flank, and roll them up.

I put two units of Chaos Marauder Horsemen in front, my Shaggoth behind one and 3 Chaos Dragon Ogres behind the other with my General in between. My biggest fear was a first turn Scraplauncher hit or Comet of Cassandra strike while bunched up.

Chaos Turn 1

There are certain limitations to an all-Chaos army. The battle needs to be fought in base to base contact with such little range. My Horsemen have a 6" throwing axe, his flying dude...Jabberslythe? has a 12" range, and otherwise we need to be in close combat. So turn one was pretty quick...march forward, but not a full march. I wanted to keep him from first turn charging me.

Lizardmen/Ogre Kingdoms Turn One

He generally advances, somewhat quicker than a walk but slower than a march...except his Scraplauncher.

Magic; uh-oh. I had 2 lists prepared, and went with the one with no magic. So they had 6 Power Dice to our 4 Dispel Dice. Comet of Cassandra was our fear, so we let Uranon's Thunderbolt go and it put 2 wounds on the Minotaurs. Forked Lightning we had to dispel since he had so few dice left, and Celestial Shield went through (and would matter!)

His Scraplauncher guess was dead-on to do some damage to my Marauder Horsemen. But it mis-fired...and the result was I got to fire it. My guess was decent, the scatter better. I hit 2 Leadbelchers, a Bull, and his Giant...and could only wound the giant.

His Leadbelchers then put a whopping 20 shots at my Marauder Horsemen, killing 5 of them. The 6th one somehow passed his panic test...on the second try. Score one for the Will of Chaos special rule.

Warriors of Chaos/Beasts of Chaos Turn 2

I pondered and pondered. I thought my Dragon Ogres could hit his leadbelchers...but it would be C-L-O-S-E. If I failed, he would get my flank with his giant. I could be in deep trouble. I almost charged, then changed my mind.

Unfortunately, I would have made it. It is unfortunate because my General, subject to Frenzy, WAS within range and now charged in alone.

I moved my Horsemen to make the giant charge them so he could not flank my general or hit the Dragon Ogres and moved my Shaggoth up on the right flank, ready to charge the Scraplauncher next turn.

Meanwhile, one Ungor Skirmish herd came on...on opponents choice of table edge, so they started behind us. Second one came on on our choice, the left flank. The Jabberslythe flew behind the enemy lines.

His Aura did nothing...his tongue of flame attack also whiffed. My Marauder Horsemen could not hit the Giant for whatever reason...still shell-shocked maybe?

Close combat. First up, declare Word of Agony to shorten the odds...or I could just forget it. Fortunately, I did enough wounds to outright kill an ogre and he could not wound back. I( won by 2, he passed his test and remained. Oops.

Lizardmen/Ogre Kingdoms Turn 2

The Giant terror-breaks the single Marauder horsemen, so that unit is done having done nothing. Then the other unit also fails their terror test, flees, and their whole purpose...keeping said Giant from charging my Dragon Ogres...was not only not served, it would keep my Horsemen well out of position to do anything for at least two turns even if they rallied.

So his Giant charges in. he does some reforming and adjusting to give himself my flanks if the combat is drawn or nobody flees. Over on the left the skinks surround the Gor Raiders and go to town.

Uranon's Thunderbolt puts 2 wounds on the Jabberslythe. Comet of Cassandra is successful and we cannot stop it with all our Dispel Dice. It lands dead center on the Minotaur unit.

The Scraplauncher only hits one Ungor and fails to wound. The Chameleon Skinks prove their worth, however, putting 6 wounds on the raiders which allows him to throw his javelins at the jabberslythe. Say goodbye to the Jabberslythe.

At this point, Liam and I are in trouble. Our most potent moidel is dead, our left flank is bottled up and being shot to ribbons, our right flank is in bad shape with the very real possibility of being flanked and destroyed in one or two turns.

His Giant charged so attacks first. Fortunately, he gets a harmless "3", I pass my toughness test, and get to attack back.

News flash; Chaos Dragon Ogres with a champion can make 13 S5 attacks. The giant dies, falls on the Leadbelchers battling my general, though he does no damage. The Dragon Ogres over-run into those leadbelchers. They get to attack first, kill 2, my General can only manage 1 wound and takes one himself.

The last Ogre breaks. This causes the next unit...which has his general...to break and the scraplauncher, also within 6", also breaks. It runs through his Bulls bringing up the rear...who promptly fail their test and flee straight off the table.

Chaos Turn 3

This turn plays itself...sort of. I charge all his fleeing stuff which either runs off the table or is caught. In one turn 1000 points of Ogre Kingdoms leave the table. We now have about 1500 points to concentrate on the Lizardmen, though most of our army is out of position. No problem, this is just turn three.

Unfortunately, our team had an epic fail moment. For fear of getting shot by the poison javelins, Liam chose not to move his General on Chariot and/or unit of Minotaurs even though they were gith dead center where the comet of Cassandra was going to hit (with like 3 markers!) most likely next turn as the special Skink character let him re-roll to see if it hit.

Lizardmen Turn 3

Epic fail on their part. He rolled for the Comet...a 1. No problem, he can re-roll it...another 1! Liam's oops might not cost us!

The skinks move into a building in the village off to the left. He moves his Scar-Vet General (who passed EVERY Stupidity test in the entire game!) to keep the rear of his priest-protecting skink block from getting charged.

Then he opens fire on the Chariot, wounding it 2 more times.

Chaos Turn 4

We could not get away with it forever...the comet struck. 3 Skirmishers die, a previously broken unit is finished off, the Chariot is hit 6 times and wounded once, the Minotaurs take 4 wounds...ouch. That hurt!

Meanwhile, he elected to flee my Dragon Ogres. At this point it really seemed the game was over. We had a commanding points advantage, he had almost nothing. I stopped taking notes...and then the game got epic.

Lizardmen Turn 4

In what seemed like a desperation move, he charged his 3 Kroxigor at my Chaos Dragon Ogres. Think about it for a second...he has 9 attacks needing 4s to hit to my 13 attacks needing 3s to hit. Both of us are likely to wound and allow no saves.

Turns out it was a brilliant move. He does a whopping 5 wounds, I can only wound him twice. I break...which breaks my Marauder Horsemen and Liam's Ungor herd.

My General had just enough to charge his skink block and had to due to Frenzy. I finally remembered word of agony which should average 2+ dead skinks. It whiffed. I had 5 attacks needing 3 to hit and 2 to kill. I put down 1 skink. My horse did one...which means I lost the combat to ranks, outnumber, etc., broke and ran.

What a turn-around! Suddenly, he looked to have the game in hand as we had very little not running.

His general ended up dismounted....which proved to be a break. It allowed him to charge the skinks in the building, win the combat, they broke and fled, he was now in the building.

Meanwhile, my Shaggoth charged his Kroxigor, who failed their Fear test, broke and fled.

He shot and shot and shot at my General who passed about 10 armor saves to survive.

My Dragon Ogres failed their rally test, but the General and Marauder Horsemen passed.

His Kroxigor passed their rally test with exactly a 7. Grr.

At the end, we both had 2 table quarters. We had killed both their generals, earning 200 bonus points. That brought our score to 1466, while they scored 1262. In a 2000 point game, that gives us my favorite result...Draw!

It felt worse. When his entire right flank disappeared on turn2/3, it felt like a massacre in the making. However, the skinks with buildings and rivers to hide behind proved very elusive and the Kroxigor proved more effective than the Chaos Dragon Ogres.

My Shaggoth managed to go the entire battle without ever actually getting into combat, though he did force some breaks.

It was an epic game with huge swings...when the Jabberslythe and Horsemen died, we looked to be on the wrong end of a massacre. A turn later, they looked to be on the wrong end of a massacre. Then a desperation moved turned brilliant, and again we looked to be on the wrong end.

Even as the last turn started, it felt like rally tests could turn the game in either sides' favor. Ultimately, a close-run, entertaining battle had the perfect result.

Lots of fun, and I hope to have many more games like that!

Small Campaign Report:Wood Elf Versus Lizardmen in a Treasure Hunt

My Leaves of Asrai War banner moved into a new territory, intent on recovering a mystic item they had heard of. Unfortunately, a small Lizardman force had gotten there first and acquired it.

Springing into action, Windstar rushed to set up a battle line, intent on stopping the Lizardmen from departing with the treasure.

In his rush to get there in time, he left behind the Treeman who had joined up with him after the recent battle. Fortunately, the Lizardman general had hurried ahead of most of his forces as well and several did not show up in time to take part in the battle.

Hastily Windstar ordered the Glade guard to deploy in a line with a hill on their left and forest on their right. The Glade Riders flanked out wide right while Windstar and the Waywatchers advanced up the left flank.

Only a few skirmishing Skinks and a small unit of Skinks in tandem with their over sized Kroxigor brethren stood between the Wood Elf army and seizing the treasure.


Special Rules:

This game was fought using the rules for Treasure Hunt from the 1995 battle book. I selected a slow arrival, just a 4 needing all my units. Fullur was a bit more aggressive, selecting a 9. He would win the game by getting his General off through my deployment zone. I intended to win by leaving no opponent on the field...

Wood Elf Turn One

Windstar gestured the hard-riding Glade Guard forward and led his band of Waywatchers towards the woods on the left, even as the long line of Glade Guard advanced up the center of the field.

The Glade Riders fired first, doing heavy damage to the skink skirmishers. Windstar nodded in satisfaction as his Waywatchers and the Glade Guard concentrated their army on the unit of Kroxigors and Skinks, doing heavy damage.

Seeing the deadly bow fire of the elf army, the skirmishers had enough and fled from the field, leaving only the Kroxigor-led unit and the Skink Chief carrying the treasure.

Windstar smiled in glee. Soon he would possess it!

Lizardman Turn 1

The Lizardman force marched forward as swiftly as possible. The Skink Priest tried to cast the Portent of far, but the Wood Elf forces felt the gathering magic and dispelled it.

Wood Elf Turn 2

Windstar's battle plan showed his wisdom as the fast-moving Glade Riders circled behind the Kroxigor unit.

Again the hail of Wood Elf arrows took a heavy toll, even felling one of the mighty Kroxigor.

Lizardman Turn 2

Too late the Skink Priest realized the danger his army was in but he was caught. The Glade Riders were between him and reinforcements, the Waywatchers were pinning them down from the side, and ahead were the numerous Glade Guard. He saw no way out, so as swiftly as possible tried the one thing he had left...pushing through the Glade Guard and trying to flee the continuous fire of the Wood Elf army.

Wood Elf Turn 3

Windstar frowned. He had thought the bow-work of his highly trained and discipline army would force the Lizardmen to drop the item and flee or at worst surrender, yet here they were continuing their implacable advance. They were as resolute as Dwarfs! Despite the mighty archery of his men, he knew the Kroxigor could do tremendous damage if they were to attack the Wood Elf line in close combat.

Again the hail of arrows flew forth, cutting down the last few skinks and a Kroxigor even as the Glade Riders shot down the Skink Priest. But one Kroxigor was left. He held up his hand, ordering his men to cease fire, assuming the Kroxigor would rather surrender than die.

Lizardman Turn 3

Windstar watched in horror as the kroxigor took the opportunity offered by the cessation of bow fire to charge his lines. With mighty swings of its stone axe, the Kroxigor decapitated two Wood Elfs before one of the Glade Guard managed to finish off the already wounded Kroxigor.

Windstar looked at the field. Overall, acceptable losses, he supposed...for the loss of but two Glade Guard, he had captured a mighty magic item. With eager anticipation, he approached the body of the Skink Priest to see what the Wood Elf efforts had won...

Conclusion

This was a curious battle. I already had a points advantage, even before half his forces did not show up. It was pretty certain from the beginning I would come out victorious.

The problem came when I got overconfident that his Krox would not reach me and diverted some fire to the General instead of everyone shooting the Krox. It had long-term negative consequences, as losing two glade guard, on both of them I failed their survival rolls, so will not have them available for future battles.

At the same time, it was well worth it as I can now take a 100 point magic item and, more important, was provided a second home where I can create specials, rares, etc.

Overall, I really liked the alternative scenario. I was crushed that my Treeman did not arrive...yet I almost prevented it.

Before I rolled the dice, I had a feeling I was going to lose a unit, and almost reversed the order i rolled for my Glade Riders and Treeman. Had I done so, the Treeman would have arrived and i would not have had the Glade Riders.

As it was, the Glade Riders were awesome and in this scenario, not sure the Treeman would have been the right choice anyway.





Beware the power of Wood Elf bows!

Small Campaign report: Lizardmen versus Empire

Previously, I had faced the Empire with Chaos Dwarfs, playing as a neutral party. (Part of the reason I quit playing the C.D. list....for the way we play, they are indeed over-powered. We all like to smash into close combat which greatly negates the restrictiveness of 12" range weapons. And I would much rather have close combat based games than shooting games, which is strictly a personal preference and should in no way influence how anyone in or out of our group build their lists).

This time, he had grown his force slightly and I would be playing the Lizardmen, about 400 points worth again kindly built for me by one of my brothers. And, as mentioned in my previous post, the goal would be to inflict as many casualties as possible while losing.

Set-Up

I kept some notes on this game, but they do not include what the scenario was, so....

On my side of the field, I had a stream entering and leaving the left flank with forest about half way across the field and a hill on the far side where I expected him to place his cannon. Skink skirmishers like streams, forests do not inhibit them, seems like a good place to place them. And yep, his cannon went up on the hill.

I then anchored a block of 20 skinks with javelins and shields against the right flank of the skirmishers with a house on my right. To the right of the house I placed another block of 19 Skinks with Javelin and field. The middle of the field was wide open, so the plan was to advance 12" per turn, throw some javelins, see what happened.

My right flank saw another forest about half way across the field with rough ground almost in his deployment zone. Another nice place for 10 Skink Skirmishers with blow-guns. Last, my Skink Priest went with the left-most skirmishers.

He, meanwhile, placed a cannon on the hill on my left flank. (all position references to flanks are from my point of view, so for him it would be the opposite...example, when I say the cannon went on the hill on the left flank, for me it would be left flank, but for him it would be right flank.)

Anchored on the cannon were a detachment of archers, then a big block of spearmen with free company protecting their flank. This would allow the archers to command the field from the hill while the free company and spearmen advanced in tandem.

His Knights went on the right flank, angled toward the center with rough ground to protect their flank.

Lizardman Turn 1

I marched everything 12" forward, cast portent of Far on my skirmishers...a pointless maneuver if ever there was one. But hey, I got some magic off (he did not bother dispelling since it clearly had no effect).

Empire turn 1

He advanced the Spearmen and Free Company, trying to stay within 3" of the Archers, knowing I would charge and wanting to get the Archer stand-and-shoot by staying within 3".

Group Suggestion

I know "pre-measuring" is not allowed, but when we are specifically trying to say...keep within command radius, as he was doing here, I suggest we allow it to be measured prior to ending the move to ensure they are within command radius. I will certainly allow it, everyone else is left to their discretion, but that is my stand.

His Knights made a slight advance as well.

He tried the Conflagration of Doom with his 2nd level Battle Mage, rolling an 11. I used all 3 Dispel Dice to get a 13 and stop it. He then got Sword of Ruin off, making his Wizard a potent close combat model.

Now, against the Chaos Dwarfs, the cannon either missed or mis-fired something like 4 or 5 turns in a row. This game, it would be no different. His guess was impeccable, the ball flight perfection. 2" would hit a Skink, 4" would hit 3, 6" would go through all the ranks, as would 8 or 10. When it stuck in the mud, we knew it would be a long game.

His Archers somewhat made up for it with 5 hits in 10 attempts and 2 Skinks slain from the block of 20. I was already down a rank...

Lizardmen Turn 2

Had I known more about javelins, I would not have done this...but I did not, so CHARGE! The left flank block of 18 skinks charged the Spearmen. He had not told me why he was advancing so slowly, so I did not know he was trying to stay in range of the archers and he scrupulously refused to fire them since he was about an eight inch out of command range. He did, however, get the counter-charge with his free company.

Meanwhile, I advanced both units of skirmishers to get some shots off and slow-advanced my right flank block.

My left-most skirmishers fired at the cannon. Only one hit a crewman, and that failed to wound. 3 Blowpipe shots wounded Knights, but he saved them all. Then the Javelins were unleashed on the knights, twice wounding but he saved them both.

Poison, by the way, is awesome. Not needing to roll the wound about half the time when I hit at all was pure awesome.

He easily dispelled the Portent of Far now that it mattered.

His free company hit 6 skinks, killing 3. I hit just one Spearmen, but did kill him. The Flaming Sword of Ruin allowed his Wizard to kill a skink, the Spearmen then went ballistic; in 11 attacks, 10 hit, 7 wounded. So I decided to be ridiculous as well and, with a 5+, saved 4 of 7...

Still, I needed insane courage. No, flee...5". He kindly rolled snake-eyes to fail to catch me.

Empire Turn 2

Every now and then, there is a spirit-breaking turn in this game. Allow me to introduce you to Empire Turn 2.

His Knights charge my big block on the right, who stand and shoot. he again fails to catch my fleeing skinks.

His cannon this time over-flies the target. 0-for-2.

His archers hit just 2 skink skirmishers and kill just one.

Time to resolve the stand and shoot. All 5 javelins wound, he makes 3 saves...which means he failed 2. Time for a break test. He rolls...an 11. He flees 9"

Suddenly an easy game for the Empire just got tougher. But they should rally next turn...

Lizardman Turn 3

My skirmishers, for no apparent reason, elect to charge the Cannon. My javelins kill a couple members of his Free Company. My blowpipes put another one down. I am controlling the right flank, his Knights are fleeing, and I took the cannon out of the battle...

I put down one of the cannon crew, he cannot wound back, but passes his break test.

Also, my fleeing skinks rally.

Empire Turn 3

His archers charge the fray around the cannon, his spearmen charge the freshly rallied skink block. His Knights...roll another 11, which means the keep running, he rolls a massive 9 and flees the table.

On the bright side, for Conflagration of Doom, he rolls triple 6s. It does just one casualty, though, and I beat him in the roll-off to see if it continues. This meant I had 3 Dispel Dice for his Flaming Sword of Ruin, but he was unsuccessful in casting it anyway.

At this point, he remembered he had not ever placed his Scouts. I insisted he put them on at least far enough to shoot this turn, so he put them on my right flank and shot down a skirmisher. His Pegasus-riding General flew behind them and shot down another.

On the hill, all 4 archers hit, kill 3 skinks. the skinks kill a second cannoneer, the last one enacts a small measure of revenge by downing another skink. I flee, he cannot catch.

Lizardman turn 4

I briefly consider charging his general with my skirmishers, but elect not to. I als debate using javelins or charging the free company, ultimately deciding my 2-rank bonus makes the charge better and in I go.

My big block again rallies.

My left-flank Skirmishers fail to rally and leave the table.

My right flank skirmishers fire at the General, wounding him 4 times. He saves all of them, fortunately.

I do put down 2 members of the Free Company, in return they wound 3 skinks, only one of whom saves. His Free Company flees and outrun me.

Empire Turn 4

General charges Skirmishers, the spears charge my big block for the third time. His Archers kill 4 of the Skinks in my big block to the right.

His cannon, after firing short, firing long, and being engaged in combat, manages to...mis-fire.

In close combat, 4 skinks die to his spearmen, break, he does not pursue...and since the roll to pursue would have been the same as his try to restrain, we check and he would not have caught me anyway. Again.

His general puts down 2 Skirmishers, who break, he over-runs them and hits the back of my big block that was chasing the free company.

Lizardman Turn 5

As usual, my big block rallies. The General kills 3 skinks, I wound back one time but he saves it. The skinks break, flee, run into the 5-strong Free company which means they are destroyed.

Empire Turn 5

His spearmen do something new...engage in combat with my big block. Okay, so they have done so thrice, failed to catch them thrice...whatever. :-)

All his spearmen and the Wizard hit, 5 wound, 4 skinks die, they skinks break, flee off the table.

At this point all I have left is the Skink Priest hiding in the forest, so he flees as well and we call it.

Conclusion

Wow. It looked so bad for the Empire. The cannon was...ineffective would be a kind word, for the second game in a row. The Knights fled without ever seeing combat. He could break my Skink Blocks at will, but could never catch them.

At one point it looked like the Skinks would win by massacre, as his Cannon had a real chance of breaking which would have forced the archers to test, with his Knights already fleeing and his free company down to just 5 guys.

Fortunately, the game turned, the superior army won in the end, and the detachment system again proved its worth.

We need to get Fullur some dice, as his rolls are simply abominable.

the Skinks were a lot of fun to play, and the poison makes them potent. Sure, they are not often going to wound if it does not take effect, but you make an opponent make enough saves and some are bound to fail (see knights, 10 wounds, 8 saved...2 failed. The right amount at the WRONG time.)

All in all, I enjoyed the game and glad it turned out as it did.