There was a sadly a low turnout at the tournament and my first opponent was late, so I only had one game for what was advertised as a three game tournament. On plus side, everyone got bonus store credit so I walked away with a half priced Triumph and Treachery book. Revised List Slann Mage Priest, BSB, Skavenpelt Banner, Harmonic Convergence, Becalming Cognition, Soul of Stone, Channeling Staff, Obsidian Lodestone. (deployed with Temple Guard) Scar Veteran with Cold One, Armor of Fortune, Obsidian Trinket (deployed with Temple Guard) Skink Priest L1 with Dispel Scroll (deployed with Skirmishers) Skink Priest L1 with Scroll of Leeching (deployed with Skirmishers) Skink Priest L1 with Powerstone (deployed with Skirmishers) Skink Priest L1 with Cloak of Feathers and Scroll of Shielding (deployed Solo) 29 Sword and board Saurus with FC 3 x 12 Skink Skirmishers with Patrol Leader 30 Temple Guard with Full Command, Warrior Bane, Standard of Discipline 6 Kroxigor with Ancient Vampire Lord (aka Lord Renliss) L1 with Red Fury, Quickblood, Ogre Blade, Armor of Destiny, Potion of Foolhardiness (deployed with zombies) Necromancer L1 with Cursed Book (deployed with zombies) 39 Zombies with Musician and Standard Bearer My opponent was playing Brettonians. He had minimal knowledge of Storm of Magic so I had to coach him. Also this was not a normal Storm of Magic game. The game was fun, but I don’t I learned any tactical lessons since the scenario rules were bizarre (weird stuff happens every magic phase). We didn’t start out with any fulcrums. There were three empty ones evenly spaced out along the table center between our deployment zones. There was a lot of terrain on the table but the types it was were pretty irrelevant. I went first. Brettonian Army My opponent hand a L2 Life Damsel, a L2 Beast Damsel, and a L4 Heavens Damsel, he had two Paladins relatively light on magic items. He went very heavy on Core. He had three Pegasi knights in a unit. He had two blocks of about 25 archers, and two formations of about 24 Core Knights. He also had two Trebuchets and a big block of Men at Arms. He took a fully loaded Chimera with half of his SOM points and a Giant and three Yetis took up the remainder. He took the Green Knight but he had REALLY bad luck rolling for him to arrive. LM Turn One Movement was me advancing full out, except for my flying Skink which I hid behind a building for a reserve. I couldn’t march onto a fulcrum because they are technically buildings but I had a low level wizard ready to take all three next round. At the start of the magic phase, a nasty vortex emanated from a fulcrum, but it didn’t hit anyone’s troops. I didn’t have any fulcrums yet, so no cataclysm spells. I wasn’t in range of my Death snipes. I grew up eight or nine zombies but the rest of my spells of note were dispelled. I cast a just in case buff that triggered a miscast which inflicted a few wounds on my wizards but mostly made itself felt by eating my remaining power dice. None of my Skinks were in range to shoot yet. Brettonian Turn One My opponent also advanced though he was more focused on attacking me than claiming fulcrums. The scenario Chart of dDath rolled Frenzy for Force of Destruction units, so nothing happened yet. Magic involved me dispelling Chain Lightning and Comet. I took a zero damage Awakening of the Wood on my Temple Guard and ended up with Earthblooded Men at Arms. One Trebuchet missed and the other flattened about 15 zombies. The archers also shot at zombies killing another four or five. LM Turn Two I charged my Kroxigor into the Giant who left himself open. I claimed two fulcrums with a Skink Priest and the third fulcrum with my Necromancer. I positioned my undead block to absorb both knights and my Temple Guard advanced against the Men at Arms and the likely path of the Pegasi. Two of my Skink Skirmishers advanced towards the giant ready to swing around him and take out the nearest Trebuchet if the Kroxigor killed the Giant. My third unit of Skirmishers had nothing to do, so I hung them back just in case one of my low level wizards got knocked off a fulcrum (then they would shoot the enemy wizard). The Chart of Death resulted in a Vortex which killed a Temple Guard or two. I grew about sixteen zombies back, but my Death Snipe spells and my early attempts to cast Cataclysm spells were all dispelled or failed. My Skinks still didn’t have anything to shoot. The Giant rolled Yell and Bawl which meant no damage was inflicted but he won combat automatically by two points. My Kroxigor broke and were run down. I thought six Kroxigor should be able to handle one unbuffed Giant, but the dice gods would not allow it. Brettonian Turn Two The Men at Arms and Pegasi knights charged my Temple Guard. The Giant pointed towards the nearest fulcrum to hopefully beat the snot out of my Skink Priest occupying it next turn. Both knight blocks charged my zombies. The Chimera charged my Saurus Warriors. The shooters didn’t move. The chart of death rolled that ALL units within 6 inches of ANY terrain feature would take 2d6 S4 hits with no armor saves. Everyone but one Trebuchet was hit. All of my Skinks lost 4-5 models and the two units not within command range of my Slann fled off the table. Both blocks of Brettonian archers also panicked off the table. I lost about 4 Saurus Warriors, 4 Temple Guard, and three zombies. The Bretts lost about six Men at arms, a dozen knights and all the Pegasi. A Trebuchet and the Giant and the Chimera took a wound or two each. I lost all my Skink Priests except for a L1 Beast caster on the middle fulcrum and I lost my Necromancer on the right most fulcrum. Two of the Yetis died and the third panicked and almost made it off the table. The normal magic phase was pretty underwhelming since the Brets still controlled no fulcrums. Basically he tried to use buffs and hexes to give the peasants a chance against the TG, and I tried to stop him. The Trebuchet that was unscathed by the land attacking had offended the dice gods. It misfired and rattled apart. The other Trebuchet killed a small number of Temple Guard or maybe Saurus Warriors, I forgot which. With the Pegasi riders now dead, so the peasants were no match for my Temple Guard. The Men at Arms were broken and run down easily (along with the L2 Beast caster). Renliss butchered a Paladin in a challenge with maximum overkill, but my zombies died in droves. I lost a lot of Saurus Warriors to the Chimera’s breath weapon and normal attacks, but the thing was already wounded from the Chart of Death so I was actually able to kill it before it could Thunderstomp me. LM Turn Three I turned my Temple Guard towards the knights not expecting the zombies to last much longer. My surviving Skink Skirmishers ran towards the Giant. The Chart of Death rolled a wash result. I only had one fulcrum but I had Dominance. My opponent had a lot of dispel dice and burned a scroll so I didn’t do much. I also wasted some power dice being a little too ambitious with Cataclysm spells and failed some castings. Poisoned shooting inflicted a wound or two on the Giant. Close combat saw my Lord Renliss butcher another character with maximum overkill, but the zombies died in such numbers that my Vampire was slain by crumble along with the remaining dregs of the unit. No more undead for me. Brettonian Turn Three One knight block charged my Temple Guard, the other forgone charging in order to let the Damsel leave the unit and take a nearby empty fulcrum. The Yeti rallied. The Giant turned to face my Skink Skirmishers revealing my opponent was indeed a newbie to fighting Lizardmen. The Chart of Death resulted in my opponent picking a slain model of his to come back to life as reinforcements. He chose the Chimera. The regular magic phase saw my Temple Guard with a hex or two, but I stopped the Cataclysm spell attempts. The Trebuchet missed. Close combat was largely bloodless considering how big the units were and that I needed 5s to hit. My TG barely beat the knights who held. LM Turn Four My surviving Saurus Warriors charged the unengaged Knight block. I didn’t fancy my chances since I was outnumbered by knights but I at least wanted to nix the knight’s charging bonus. My Skirmishers marched out the Giant’s charge arc. The Chart of Death rolled another inconsequential result. I flung a lot of Death spells (including Choking Foe) at the reborn Chimera but they were all dispelled. I managed to put Doom and Darkness on the Knights fighting my Temple Guard just in case I broke them. My Skink Skirmishers shot the wounded Giant to death. Close combat saw my Temple Guard drew with the knights. My Scar Veteran was the only thing I had to consistently put unsaved wounds on the knights and the horses were consistently outperforming the Knights. The other Knights really whiffed hard and my Saurus Warriors beat them but failed to break them. Brettonian Turn Four The Chimera charged my Saurus Temple Guard. The surviving Yeti positioned himself to hit the rear of my dwindling Temple Guard block. The Chart of Death rolled another inconsequential result giving bonuses to mages in ascendancy (and none were in ascendancy this turn). The regular magic phase was a mostly wash due to a miscast eating some of his power dice and me getting good channel rolls (and Becalming Cognition being the best discipline ever). The Trebuchet missed again. The ref ruled he could use the breath weapon again, the resurrection counting as a new unit. I disagreed, but I see his point. I lost a lot of Temple Guard but I wounded the Chimera badly and killed his remaining knights. I lost combat (and my Frenzy) but I held being Stubborn and all. The Saurus Warriors more or less had a pillow fight with the knights they were fighting. LM Turn Five My Skink Skirmishers were in an empty portion of the board, so I marched them towards the mainline. The Chart of Death gave another inconsequential result. Most of magic spells of consequence were stopped but I killed the lone Yeti with Spirit Leech. Huzzah I guess. There was nothing that could shoot. My Temple Guard finished off the Chimera and reformed to point towards the knights grinding down my Saurus Warriors. Amazingly my Saurus Warriors held against superior numbers of knights though I only had four left. I think I had maybe six or seven Temple Guard and an unwounded Scar Veteran backing up my Slann. Brettonian Turn Five The Green Knight finally arrived positioning himself to charge either my Saurus Warriors or Temple Guard. There wasn’t anything else to move. The Chart of Death rolled that no one got any power or dispel dice this phase. Ouch. The Trebuchet misfired and took a wound and couldn’t shoot this turn or next. LM Turn Six My Skinks moved towards the main battle lines but they were still too far away to shoot. My Temple Guard relieved my Saurus Warriors by charging the knights. The Chart of Death let ME bring a slain model back from the dead so I brought my Vampire Lord back because he was worth the most points of my dead things. I threw all three BRB Death snipes at the Green Knight but they were all dispelled. Then I cast Doom and Darkness and then Choking Foe on him. To simplify what this did: with the two spells combined he had to pass a leadership test at -6 or die. He rolled snake eyes. I had nothing to shoot. My Saurus Warriors and Temple Guard beat the knights easily then ran them down. We decided to call the game since the game store owner wanted to wrap things up and he only had the Green Knight (with no one in charge range) and his L4 caster left. We both controlled one fulcrum. I took out almost everything he had (I killed the Chimera twice!), but I still had most of my expensive units alive on the board. All the players in the store agreed never to use that scenario again. Another table near me had the land attack them twice. The chart had killed more points in units than both players combined. Post Battle Thoughts Now that I actually painted and converted models, I plan to use a Vampire Pact force in every Storm of Magic or Monstrous scenario regardless of it’s the best idea. Given that this game was weird with the table arbitrarily slaying units and then bringing units back I don’t know what lessons I can bring forth for future games but I’ll give it a shot. -I think MSU style is crazy risky in a Storm of Magic game. I think most units should be padded to take lots of hits and keep fighting. -Blender Vampire Lords are great, but they should not be leading tarpits. The next time I end up playing a Storm of Magic game I’m going to either try to take a big block of zombies and put Renliss on a Abyssal Terror or fill up my Core with a small unit of Dire Wolves (aka Cold One zombies) and give Renliss a bunker made up of something more dangerous. -With a six dice maximum per casting, Cataclysm spells are not easy to cast. One should probably rely primarily on regular spells when your lore isn’t in ascendancy. -My opponent was late so I had to sit out the first game, so I watched other tables for quite a bit. There was another LM player there and I confirmed what I already suspected. Putting a Slann on an arcane fulcrum is dangerous since wizards on fulcrums who miscast get a double miscast. -For those of you who don’t want to take a Pact force, I would advise you not to run your big monsters as solo roaming killers. They should either be spellcasters taking/holding fulcrums or backing up infantry or cavalry blocks. The exception seems to be if you spend most/all your points on a single monster. The other LM player’s spellcasting dragon did so well that it made up for his Slann devolving into a feral beast. -If you are planning a WHF event. Storm of Magic is crazy enough that you don’t need to add extra scenario rules.
Wow what a crazy match, one of these days you are going to have to post some pics of your whole army fighting on the battlefield.
I tried, I really did but my camera skills are not great and my camera is old and cheap. Here is the best shot I got of that game. I'll look into buying a new camera soonish. This picture is of the mainlines when my zombies were near dead. You'll notice the two massive columns of knights they are stalling.
I haven't quite read through the whole thing yet, but why did you give the lodestone to your slann and the trinket to you scarvet and deploy them together?
That wasn't plan A, but my opponent "beat" me at deployment, and I had to go to plan B. I wanted the Scar Veteran with the Temple Guard because that's where the big monsters seemed likely to go.
Still a bit strange i'd think. you could still have gotten away with cowboying it up, taking out small units one at a time, solo. Or so i'm lead to believe (i never use the solo scar vets)