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8th Ed. GCPD's Reports

Discussion in 'Battle Reports' started by GCPD, Mar 9, 2013.

  1. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    This is a thread to replace the one that has been retired with my old account.

    We've been playing a lot with the new Warriors book lately; mostly 3,000 point games to mess around with the new toys, but now we're trying to settle back into our 2,500 norm. There's also a few clubs around here that we're going to try to start going to soon, so I'm also trying to find an 'all-comers' list.

    Slann Mage Priest – BSB, Level 4, Light
    Cupped Hands
    Standard of Discipline
    Bane Head
    Focus of Rumination/Cogitation/Mystery

    Saurus Scar Veteran – Halberd, Light Armour, Cold One
    Dawn Stone
    Dragonhelm

    Skink Priest – Level 1
    Dispel Scroll

    24 Saurus Warriors – Full Command

    24 Skinks/3 Kroxigor – Full Command

    10 Skink Skirmishers

    10 Skink Skirmishers

    26 Temple Guard – Full Command

    3 Terradon Riders

    6 Chameleon Skinks

    Salamander (4 Handlers)

    Salamander (3 Handlers)

    Ancient Stegadon

    So a fairly standard list with a few surprises – Party Slann with the usual toys but also bringing the Bane Head. This is my Daemon Prince counter. Initially I had the Flaming Banner on the Temple Guard and the 4th handler on the second Salamander, but I dropped both of these in favour of the Bane Head. Its only got 4 wounds, so if I manage to sneak a couple through with a high level Burning Gaze (2d6 strength 6 hits – plausible) and Banishment (3d6 strength 4 hits; possible), then its one dead DP. If it has the Dragonhelm/Dragonbane Gem, or is a Daemon of Khorne with a tasty 2+ ward save, then I'm pretty screwed – but with the Temple Guard being the only other unit in the army that can reasonable give it a go, I didn't want both my counters to have Flaming. Of course this means that my TG can't kill a Chimera as easily, but hopefully I can Burning Gaze that – and if I can't, I can still break it through CR (unlike the Daemon Prince).

    The Scar-Vet is running light just to save a few points, but still has all the tools to do what he does best, and the Camo Skinks and Terradons are there to give me a little flexibility and mobility. I'm also going back to the Stegadon because a) its a fantastic model and looks great, and b) I need some sort of hammer damage dealer to compliment the Saurus. There's also another good reason in that I want to start working around 300 points into the army in anticipation of Monstrous Cavalry in the new book, and Stegadons seem a good stand in.

    Its a real shame that my camera is still broken as both our armies are fully painted (in my case re-painted), and look amazing, but I'll certainly have a battle report up later today or tomorrow.
     
  2. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    Re: GCPD's Battle Reports

    So here we go.

    Deployment

    WBd0E5f.jpg

    We rolled low for terrain (from left to right): Blessed Bulwark, mundane building, Mysterious Forest, mundane fence and a Mist-Wreathed Swamp. As you can probably imagine I didn't want anything to do with the Swamp, so stuck it off on a flank where it could at least box my opponent in. He didn't want anything to do with the Bulwark so did the same. I dropped the forest in the centre to break up his army, and he placed the building – I have no idea why as it further boxed him in, but maybe he was trying to block line of sight. An important thing to note is that our trees are the old Citadel ones; they severely limit line of sight to the point that I can't see his Daemon Prince with my Slann.

    Some quick overall thoughts on deployment. Firstly, I'm pretty sure that not taking any chaff of his own, or not bringing something that can deal with chaff (like flyers) is a mistake. Throwing his Nurgle Ogres right out on the flank also seems risky with their leadership 7. I've heavily weighted the right flank because its I fancy being able to quickly win it and then close on the centre in a sort of pincer move; whereas my left is going chaff heavy to tie things up whilst I do this. I'm not really sure where to place my Scar-Vet, but I don't think my opponent knew what to do with his Skullcrushers, either. They've made the mistake of going on flanks before, but their placement in the middle with a forest seems dubious – and, as mentioned, his Ogres may have made the same mistake...

    I dropped the Bane Head on his Daemon Prince and he got +1 attack on his Chosen. My Skink Priest rolled Thunderbolt and swapped for Iceshard Blizzard. My opponent rolled Steam of Corruption, Curse of the Leper, Rancid Visitations, Flesy Abundance and Plague Wind, being a level 4 Nurgle with the +1 spell upgrade. With my Vanguard, my Terradons moved up behind the building.

    The Nurgle Ogres had Great Weapons, the Tzeentch Warriors shields, and the Nurgle Warriors Halberds. Everything that could have full command did. The Warshrine was unmarked.
     
  3. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    Re: GCPD's Battle Reports

    Lizardmen Turn 1

    PtPWSCk.jpg

    I managed to ninja the first turn and, remembering my last game, was pretty cagey about it. Mostly I'm swinging stuff onto flanks ready to engage in subsequent turns. I rolled fairly high on winds of magic, but had few targets and kept my dice low as I didn't want to miscast this early in the turn. A few dice went on Banishment on the Ogres which got dispelled, and I followed up with a high level Burning Gaze through my Skink Priest which knocked a wound off the chariot.

    My camo skinks, being true heroes, managed to sneak two wounds on the Ogres.

    Warriors of Chaos Turn 1

    rsgez1a.jpg

    So this being a chaffless Warriors of Chaos army, he basically just pushes everything forward. The winds of magic are pretty average, and he throws a bunch of dice at Rancid Visitations on the Camo Skinks. I fancy sniping off a Chaos Ogre in my next turn and don't really want this to go through, so throw all my dice at stopping it. This then allows him to get Fleshy Abundance off on the Ogres – it was too early in the game to start Scrolling so had to let this through: I figured that volume of fire and only suffering -1 to hit from double tapping would help me out regardless.

    Lizardmen Turn 2

    zixXLTN.jpg

    Over on the right flank, I keep shuffling stuff into perfect arcs for the Stegadon to flank charge and the Salamanders to shoot. The Skink Priest is over there as well to try and draw line of sight to the Daemon Prince – again, I can't quite get it but keep him there just to give me the threat. It basically shuts off that flank of the battlefield for him and forces him round the forest into the gap between it and the building, and into the Slann.

    I should have probably popped the Camo Skinks out the building – if the Daemon Prince has a breath weapon they are going to be in a lot of trouble. Out on the left, I don't like how quickly those Ogres are moving up so in go the Skinks for Operation Redirect (I have no idea why Battle Chronciler has labelled them S12 and S22). The distance between them and the Skink-Kroxigor wasn't one I liked, especially with a 6” base move and all those potential impact hits. I figure that if he kills and overruns, he has to spend a turn turning back to face me or I'll get a flank off on him with the Skink-Kroxigor; if he restrains, I've at least bought myself a turn.

    I've jumped the Scar-Vet into the Temple Guard because it looks like his Daemon Prince is heading that way, and I'm pretty confident I can stalemate it in combat; or at least charge out and assassinate his BSB.

    The other Skink unit I'm not really too sure what to do with, as there's no real vulnerable spots to put them into where they can't be multi-charged. I'm sort of using them as a deliberate weak spot in my line, hoping he'll take a charge with the chariot that will fail; or which will at least mean he spends a turn turning around. I don't know; maybe they would have been better placed in front of the Saurus or backing off a bit.

    The magic phase is average again – I think I try another Burning Gaze on the Chariot which gets dispelled with all his dice, a Banishment which doesn't do any wounds, a high level Pha's which hit both the Skink-Kroxigor and the Saurus, and finally a Net on the Warriors because.. why not?

    In the shooting phase, I really go to town. Both Salamanders do exceptionally well and kill off a bunch of Warriors, though they pass their panic checks. The Stegadon fires off a bunch of wounds on the chariot with its Giant Blowpipes, but they all get saved. Because Skink shooting is amazing, I drop another two wounds on the Ogres, killing one outright.

    Warriors Turn 2

    jrz3SMb.jpg

    The Warriors make two charges this turn: the Chaos Ogres go into the Skinks and the Nurgle Chariot pulls off a reeeeally long charge into the skink skirmishers (the distances on this map aren't exact, it was probably a little bit further forward, but you get the idea). Everything shuffles forward – except, notably, for the Nurgle Warriors who fail their Net test, lose a couple more models, and block up the Forsaken. Again its not too clear here – I think the Forsaken were a little more to the left or the Warriors a bit more to the right, and were completely blocked off from advancing any further.

    In the magic phase he rolls really high – a 10 or 12 I believe – and starts with his Warshrine bound spell. I let it go because... whatever. This buffs the champions from his Chosen and Skullcrushers with +1 strength; it also turns the Warriors champion into a Spawn. The roll for his Chosen was really sketchy – 2 5s and a 6! He tries to cast Rancid Visitations on the Skink-Kroxigor, and rolls really highly – something like a 24 or 25. I don't fancy it decimating their ranks, so I burn the Scroll. This then lets me stop his Fleshy Abundance on his Daemon Prince with all my dice (4 6s, I believe).

    Both combats are predictably won by the Warriors and he overruns with both. I'm pretty sure that this is a mistake on both parts. The Nurgle Ogres don't go far enough to take them out of the Skink-Kroxigor charge arc (and again the map is really off on showing this), and the Chariot nearly bounces off the board and will have to spend its next turn turning around. Everybody passes their leadership checks.

    Lizardmen Turn 3

    681cUFf.jpg

    Operation Redirect goes swimmingly well, and I charge the Skink-Kroxigor into the Ogres' flank. I don't make any other charges this phase – at this point, I want another round of magic and shooting to soften him up before going in. To that end, all of my surviving chaff goes in to redirect his Chosen and Daemon Prince. The Camo Skinks were just able to redirect the Chosen after leaving the building, though they had to go wide to do it. I dropped the Terradons rocks on his Daemon Prince just to try and see what defensive gear he had; the armour save was only 2+ so I was pretty certain that he didn't have Dragonhelm, which was good news for the Slann.

    I bring the Skink Priest down to draw line of sight to the Chariot, but roll really low for winds of magic and only get a handful of dice. I spend these using Burning Gaze on his Daemon Prince (which gets scrolled), and then a Banishment, which gets lucky and scores 1 wound; doubling it to 2 from the Bane Head. Whee! In shooting, one Salamander misfires and eats a Skink, but the other one kills off another bunch of Warriors. I think by this point they have been reduced down to 5-7. My Ancient Stegadon also snipes off his Chaos Spawn, though everything passes panic.

    In the combat, I do enough wounds to kill off an Ogre and bring another down to 1 remaining. Although I lose 3 or 4 Skinks doing it, I have enough combat res that he's down to something like leadership 3 as he is out BSB and General range. They promptly break and runs off the board. I elected to restrain and reformed as the distance to the board edge was really low, angling the unit to be out of the Chosen forward arc and hopefully in a flank.

    Warriors of Chaos Turn 3

    rwNlgtU.jpg

    My opponent makes the two charges that he has to, and brings the shattered Nurgle Warriors up to at least present their front. I'm pretty sure there's only a rank of them left. His Chariot turns around and lines up on the Temple Guard.

    I can't remember what happens in the magic phase, but I think I pretty convincingly shut it down. The Daemon Prince only manages to kill two Terradons, but doesn't get any wounds from doing it. The survivor passes his leadership 5 break test and holds. This is a bit of a pain for me as it means the Prince is locked in combat during my turn, so I can't magic it, and will then be free to charge in his next turn. The Chosen kill all but one Camo Skink who breaks from combat and flees, but they elect to reform in such a way that the Skink-Kroxigor can't get in their flank.

    Lizardmen Turn 4

    fTQIypX.jpg

    At this stage, things are looking excellent for me on the flanks. I'm pretty sure that his left is so depleted that I can mop it up with my Saurus and Stegadon, to which end they charge the shattered Warriors, whilst on my right I'm looking to get a cheeky flank or rear charge from the Skink-Kroxigor into the Chosen or the Skullcrushers, depending on how they move. Again its not too clear, but the Chosen didn't have the Temple Guard in their frontal arc. I probably should have charged the Temple Guard in, but if I broke him and won, I might face the Daemon Prince in the flank, the Chariot in the rear and the Skullcrushers in the front in the following turn. Maybe I was being a little too risk-averse, but in this scenario the Chosen and the Skullcrushers are out of combat for another phase, and that can only be a good thing.

    Its probably lucky that I didn't go in, as I rolled really low for winds of magic and didn't manage to cast any spells at all (I think I try Speed of Light on the Saurus, which gets dispelled, then fail to cast Burning Gaze and Iceshard Blizzard on the Chariot). The Salamanders kill off about 4 Forsaken, though I had to angle their shots so that they wouldn't catch the combat, and the Stegadon and Saurus Warriors wipe out the last of the Nurgle Warriors; they restrain and reform.

    The Daemon Prince kills the last Terradon and, worse, gains a wound back. I brace for impact.

    Warriors of Chaos Turn 4

    EexXKC8.jpg

    In comes the Chariot and the Daemon Prince, who I challenge with my Scar-Vet which is why he is in that position. The Warshrine also charges the Salamander, which I totally didn't see coming, who elects to flee, and redirects into the Saurus. I'm not too concerned as I am pretty sure that I can beat it through static combat res. The Forsaken also run into the Stegadon – I was fairly worried about this until I realised that he can't get +1 strength from his mutation roll, which means I've got 3+ save on the Stegadon and 2+ on the crew, so I should be ok.

    The Tzeentch Chosen have swift-reformed to face the Skink-Kroxigor and the Skullcrushers have moved up into the gap ready to hurtle into the Temple Guard.

    In the magic phase I think he gets 12 dice to my 6: he hurls 6 at Fleshy Abundance on the Daemon Prince, which I let through. I figure I'm unlikely to kill it without my buffs anyway, and it probably can't kill the Scar-Vet. I'm also then able to stop him casting Plague Wind onto the Temple Guard, which was my big concern.

    His Chariot kills 4 or 5 Temple Guard with impact hits and I can't wound it back: hitting on 5s, wounding on 4s is actually a real pain. As predicted, the Scar-Vet and the Daemon Prince swing at each other but nobody manages a wound. His Warshrine kills off a couple of Saurus and I can't get a wound back – hitting on 4s, wounding on 5s, 5+ armour save 4+ ward is a real pain to get through. I still win by one or two points, but he just passes his leadership. Meanwhile the Stegadon goes crazy and smashes a bunch of Forsaken into the dirt, even with a 4+ Regen. He directs all his attacks at the beast but I save all the wounds, and he just passes his break test.

    Lizardmen Turn 5

    lyVsGvR.jpg

    So at this stage of the game I'm a little bit worried: I've only got 2 turns to make something happen, but my Stegadon and Warriors are going to be tied up for at least another round, and I've got nothing to throw into the way of the Skullcrushers until then (having forgotten to move my Skink Priest last turn). I also don't fancy the Skink-Kroxigor going head first into the Tzeentch Chosen: I'm pretty sure that I can stalemate the combat, and with some magic buffs I might even be able to win it. But its far from a certain thing, and I'm going to need to throw all my magic at keeping the Temple Guard alive anyway.

    So I return to the avoidance game, and run the Skink-Kroxigor into the building. My plan is to bring them out next turn and charge into the Chosen rear, but I guess that I lost track of the turn times. One Salamander rallies, and the other runs round with the intention of trying to shoot at the Chosen in my next turn.

    In magic I try Banishment on the Skullcrushers, which gets through but doesn't wound. I then try Speed of Light on the Temple Guard, which gets dispelled, and a Burning Gaze on the Skullcrushers which does two wounds. Finally I manage a Pha's Proection on the Temple Guard. Its a little something, which doesn't stop my Scar-Vet taking a wound in the challenge (though the Prince doesn't regain one), but the Chariot crew aren't able to hit any Temple Guard: they lose the combat through static res, fail their leadership and break. This is a really lucky turn of events for me, as it was generating +1 combat res just from being there and 4 strength 5 attacks is pretty nice: as mentioned, I also couldn't hit it for beans.

    The Warshrine kills another couple Saurus and I fail to wound it again despite a ton of hits, but it comfortably passes its break test. Fortunately the Ancient Stegadon finishes off the last Forsaken and reforms to face it, and in the shooting phase my Skinks sneak 2 wounds off his Chosen!

    Warriors of Chaos Turn 5

    XvDQyPH.jpg

    The Skullcrushers go in, the Chosen reform 180 to try and aid the embattled flank, trusting the centre to the 'Crushers and the Daemon Prince, and we forget to rally the Chariot.

    The magic phase rolls really low and I think he tries all of his dice on Fleshy Abundance on the Daemon Prince, but I dispel it with everything. In the combat phase, my Revered Guardian answers a challenge and gets smacked down; the Skull crushers kill off around four or five Temple Guard and I can't kill any in return, and the Daemon Prince and the Scar-Vet still can't touch each other.

    I lose some more Saurus to the Warshrine which I also can't wound, and once again it passes its break test.


    Lizardmen Turn 6

    O106rR6.jpg

    The Ancient Steg goes in to the Warshrine, hoping to finally end the combat, one Salamander runs up to redirect the Chosen into the forest; another tries to snipe their corner, and the Skink-Kroxigor pop out behind. Like I said, I had lost track of the turns at this point and was planning to charge in my next, when I should've really left them in the building to shoot with a couple more. Victory is looking good at this point, but the Scar-Vet is only on one wound – if he dies this round, the Daemon Prince and the Skullcrushers stand a good chance of being able to mop up my Temple Guard. There's less than 20 of them at this point, so its entirely possible. Had we remembered about the Chariot, it was more than possible.

    Then the magic phase happens and I roll 12. 5 dice Speed of Light on the Temple Guard – I roll high and he isn't able to beat it. This allows me to get Timewarp on 4 dice, then Pha's Protection on 3 dice. I'm not sure what I do with my remaining dice, but it doesn't matter. The Scar-Vet goes crazy, hitting the Daemon Prince 4 times, wounding all 4 times, he fails all 4 5+ armour saves and 3 5+ ward saves. Having taken 2 wounds already, and only regaining 1 wound, it is sent screaming back to the fiery chasm from whence it came. The Temple Guard kill two Skullcrushers, and with the Warshrine finally breaking and getting run down by the Ancient Stegadon, my opponent doesn't even bother rolling the 'Crushers attacks before conceding, which was probably fair at this point.

    We didn't bother calculating up victory points as it was clear who the victor was, but I estimate I got about 2000 off him whilst he got only about 210 or so off me, so a solid victory.
     
  4. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    Re: GCPD's Battle Reports

    So, conclusions. I was really happy with how this army played out: it felt like it has just the right balance of hammer, anvil and flexibility. As my opponent and onlookers commented, Lizardmen shooting can be suprisingly effective when it goes well, and I was rolling 6s like a daemon all game. 6 Camo skinks really are perfect size – the statistics said that you should get 2 poisoned shots, and this worked out every time they fired. I'm glad I didn't drop them to 5. Giant Blowpipes can also be surprisingly good - this was actually the first time I used them and did so several times, which worked out great (notably, one-shotting the Spawn).

    Otherwise, I think that I played the superior game from the 'list writing' phase, right up to the last turn. Other than perhaps being a little bit too cagey I think I played it right, choosing the match ups I'm confident of and avoiding those that I'm not, and using the terrain well to achieve this. There are some things that I need to think about, like the positioning of that Skink unit which just died to the chariot. Also I'm really not sure about the Skink Priest - perhaps I should have kept Thunderbolt just to give me some more ranged threat at the start of the game. What do people who use the Scroll-caddy thing? What spells have you tried on him?

    My opponent freely admitted that he wished he brought the Chimera, but hadn't just to try something new - he also reiterated that he doesn't enjoy playing the chaff game, which really costs him. This I think he just needs to accept is going to happen and adapt to deal with - especially against Lizardmen. Dropping the Warshrine, downgrading the Chosen to Warriors would give him some points for Hellstriders and dogs, and he should probably cut the Forsaken up into two units of 5.

    I also think that he made a number of mistakes: letting the Ogres suffer the same fate as his 'Crushers in a previous game, and diving his army up and sending them into choke points, also as in a previous game. Well, perhaps this time he'll learn - and at least I've been able to even the scales, after he wiped the floor with me using a Daemon Prince and Disco lord in our last game!
     
  5. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    Re: GCPD's Battle Reports

    Warriors of Chaos: Round Two

    This is a game that I actually played last weekend, a rematch against my Warrior opponent. I'm only going to go into the last turn though as it ended rather abruptly, and looking back at my previous post it was pretty lengthy.

    I brought my previous army with a couple of tweaks, notably dropping two Temple Guard in order to slip the Ruby Ring on the champion. The reason for this is just to give me some more Flaming threat, as I'm expecting the Chimera. I haven't put the Flaming Banner on them because I don't want to end up facing the Daemon Prince with a 2+ ward vs Flaming. His list dropped the warshrine, replaced Tzeentch Chosen with Tzeentch Warriors, and added a unit of Dogs and the Chimera.

    So we rolled up Meeting Engagement on this one, and after my opponent rolled off to deploy everything first I was really hoping would work in my favour. Get some of his stuff into reserve, and then I'm free to choose the match ups that I want.

    It didn't really work out like that. He rolled for reserve: one unit of dogs. Great. I rolled for my reserves: Slann, Temple Guard, Skink-Kroxigor, one Salamander. Brilliant. So not only do I lose my biggest hitter, I've also lost my level 4, BSB and General for the first turn. And I couldn't steal the first turn, either. I was therefore very cagey about my deployment and tried to go for a refused flank: setting up a bit of a trap in one corner and leaving my long table edge for the reserves to come on.

    The first 2 turns were fairly uneventful. I had to burn my Scroll in turn 1, but my Terradons dropped rocks on his dogs and killed them off. This left my Salamander free to shoot down the Nurgle Warrior's flank, which they did every turn - killing over half the unit. His Daemon Prince dropped into the middle of the battlefield, charged one unit of skinks off the board, redirected into the other and sent them running off, and stumbled forwards only 4". I thought this was a questionable decision, and would have turned him around to face my oncoming reserves. Equally bemusing, his Chimera dropped a breath weapon on my Skroxigor rather than charging the Temple Guard. It killed off a ton of Skinks and a Kroxigor, but they stuck around.

    W5VdSAB.jpg

    Here's the situation at the end of my Turn 2. The two Skink units that got chased off the table were stood around the forest next to my Saurus. You can see where the reserves came on and how the Skink-Kroxigor had been decimated (but you can also see how the Nurgle Warriors get shot up by my Salamander!). At this point things are pretty dicey. I've got a Speed of Light off on my Temple Guard: they now need to beat the Nurgle Ogres and Tzeentch Warriors, with BSB, and quickly before the Daemon Prince can turn around or the Chimera finishes off the Skink-Kroxigor. I'm also going to need to send the Stegadon and Scar-Vet into the forest to clear out the Forsaken on my flank, which could be risky. The Terradons I'm planing to throw away against his 'Crushers.

    Here's what actually happened:

    EkSVVfs.jpg

    His Daemon Prince goes into my Saurus Warriors. I can sort of see the thinking here: if he doesn't help out the Nurgle Warriors, that's going to be a big swing to me. Its also got the flight to get back into the game. After thinking about leaping over the Skink-Kroxigor and into my Stegadon with his Chimera, he decides to go into them first.

    By now, you've probably noticed the big template over his DP. In the magic phase, he rolled 12 dice. He started by rolling 6 at the extra toughness spell on the Nurgle Warriors: fair enough, I think, its worth the risk to save the points I guess. Cast it with no miscast. Then he picks up his remaining dice and rolls all 6 at the Nurgle Template Spell on my Terradons. o_O Sure enough, he rolls a miscast - Dimensional Cascade. Kills 2 of the Warriors. Rolls for sucked into the warp: a 2. Bye-bye Daemon Prince. Just to add insult to injury, the spell only does a single wound to each model and as the Terradons all have 2 each, they survive.

    At this point he practically concedes, but we roll out the remaining combats to see what happens. The Temple Guard continue to prove that they can take on anything when buffed by Speed of Light: The Champion steps up and whallops the Warrior Champion into the ground (3 hits, 3 wounds, 3 failed armour saves); the rest of the unit kill off 2-3 Ogres, and maybe half the Warrior unit. They take a bunch of wounds in return but still win the combat by 3. His Ogres stick around, but the Warriors fail their break test, fail the BSB re-roll, the Exalted BSB auto-dies, and the Standard Bearer also dies, taking the unit below 25% strength for rallying purposes. Unfortunately, his bad luck continues: the Chimera can only kill 2 Skinks before taking 2 wounds from the Kroxigor, losing combat, and breaking. We didn't bother rolling the pursuit.

    Lessons to be learnt: Kids, don't 6-dice your level 4 General spells unless you have some way of dodging the miscast. If you absaloutely have to 6 dice something, don't push your luck and try it twice in one magic phase. The Dice Gods are watching, and they are fickle masters.
     
  6. newscales
    Kroxigor

    newscales New Member

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    Re: GCPD's Battle Reports

    nice recaps. The strength of the TG is something I may have to revisit. I absolutely fear getting the slann anywhere close to CC and with putting him in saurus, he can LoS until he needs to pop out of the unit.

    What do you use to mock up your deployment? is an app or website? or are you just really good with MSPaint or something?
     
  7. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    Re: GCPD's Battle Reports

    I've been really impressed by the power of the Temple Guard horde. I've run them in 6 wide formations before and they've performed to satisfaction. However, since deploying them 10 wide they've really impressed me. In our gaming group, only White Lions have outperformed them - and they're just downright broken anyway.

    You don't really need to worry about the Slann because the enemy needs to chop through over 20 Temple Guard to get to him, and if they're doing that then you're in trouble anyway.

    The software is a program called Battle Chronicler. Its really good!
     
  8. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    Re: GCPD's Battle Reports

    Right, time to finally report on a game using the new book. First up, my list (AKA Skink Mayhem, AKA How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Bring Lots of Stuff That Might Not Work All The Time, But When It Does It Will Be Amazing).

    Lizardmen:
    Slann Mage-Priest with Wandering Deliberations and Battle Standard Bearer. General.
    Saurus Oldblood with Arabyan Carpet, Enchanted Shield, Dawn Stone, Sword of Might.

    Skink Priest with Sivejir's Hex Scroll. Beasts.
    Skink Priest with Dispel Scroll. Beasts.

    Skink Chief with Egg of Quango, Biting Blade, Javelin, Shield.
    Skink Chief with Potion of Strength, Sword of Striking, Javelin Shield.

    32 Saurus Warriors with Full Command.
    10 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields.
    10 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields.
    10 Skink Cohort with Javelins and Shields.
    11 Skink Cohort with Javelins and Shields.

    Bastiladon with Solar Engine.
    24 Temple Guard with Full Command, Standard of Discipline.
    3 Ripperdactyl Riders.

    Ancient Stegadon with Sharpened Horns

    Some justification, as I believe this is the first time I've posted this list. I really wanted to try out a flying Oldblood, which meant going light on a Slann build. However I'm not too adverse to this, as I've gone Slann heavy for the last several years and its time to be different. I originally had the BSB on a Skink Chief, but it was dropped in order to make both of them disposable. Speaking of which, the Potion of Strength build is designed to sit in front of something with lots of armour and chip wounds off it, and the Quango Egg build is designed to run in and give lots of combat res. To that extent, neither of them are expected to actually survive, which is why they only have 5+ saves (I also can't find the additional 4 points to give them both light armour).

    The Hex Scroll is there to ruin the dreams of Daemon Princes and Hoeth Loremasters alike (and in their absence - scroll caddies), with a Dispel Scroll for extra arcane protection. I could probably drop one of these two, but I like the redundancy in arcane protection, Beasts spell generation (more chance of getting Amber Spear or 3x Wildform), and LoS for the Slann.

    And those dastardly Warriors of Chaos:

    Daemon Prince with Mark of Nurgle, Daemonic Flight, Chaos Armour, Soul Feeder, Scaled Skin, Chaos Familiar, Sword of Striking, Dragonbane Gem, Charmed Shield. Level 2 Lore of Death.

    Exalted Hero with Mark of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch, Ruby Ring of Ruin, Halberd - unknown other equipment giving 2+ AS 4++ Ward.

    18 Chaos Warriors with Mark of Nurgle, Halberds, Full Command.
    12 Chaos Warriors with Mark of Khorne, Additional Hand Weapons, Full Command.
    10 Forsaken
    Chaos Chariot
    Chaos Chariot
    5 Chaos Warhounds
    5 Chaos Warhounds

    Chimera with Regeneration.
    6 Chaos Ogres with Mark of Nurgle, Great Weapons, Champion.

    3 Skullcrushers of Khorne with Ensorcelled Weapons.
     
  9. The Hunted
    Carnasaur

    The Hunted Active Member

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    Bring it on GCPD! Your list is...a toad different than 'the usual'. But it looks like a lot of fun, especially the kamikaze-skinks :p. I'm curious to see how the list performs against a tough-as-nails army as Warriors of Chaos.
    I'll be following this one!

    The Hunted
     
  10. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    Deployment
    wocvsnewliz_Deployment.jpg

    Terrain from left to right: Sphynx (above the Ripperdactyls), Acropolis of Heroes, the tower is a Tower of Blood, and on the far right a Sinister Statue. The two forests are Mysterious, although I deployed one Skink in my one which turned out to be mundane. And, yes, I was the one who put the forest in the middle :p

    We rolled randomly for scenario, but got Battle for the Pass and then Meeting Engagement. Our last four or five games have been these two scenarios and we were both pretty sick of them, so in the end went for a straight up Battleline. My opponent won the roll off for table edge, but lost it for deployment so went down first. I still finished deploying before him, but lost the roll for the first turn.

    My characters went down first, which is why the Potion Chief on the right (facing off against all that armour), and the Egg Chief is on the left (where his Egg should do better against the relatively weaker opponents). That being said, if I'd known where the Daemon Prince was going I may have swapped them round. In hindsight, I also think the Chiefs are better going in the Skirmisher units, whilst the Priests should sit in the Cohorts behind the front line. All of my characters are just within 12" of the General for protection against Spirit Leech, but in the end this was unnecessary as he didn't take it.

    The general plan is to fight a holding action on the left with the Saurus phalanx in order to prevent both flanks of his army from linking up, whilst using all my heavy hitting stuff on the right to go after his main damage dealers.

    My Ripperdactyls dropped a Bloat Toad on the Khorne Forsaken, which is probably the only unit they stand a decent chance of taking out, and Vanguarded to face off the board edge (no first turn Frenzy).

    Spell Generation:
    Hex Priest: Wildform (I rolled Pan's Pelt, but swapped it for a second Wildform because...)
    Scroll Priest: Transformation of Kadon (probably not a great idea to keep this as it needs a lot of magic dice and Wildform may have been better, with Pelt being easier to cast. But I do want to have a Mountain Chimera).

    Daemon Prince: Soulblight, Purple Sun, Fate.

    Warriors of Chaos - Turn 1
    wocvsnewliz_Turn_1_Warriors_of_Chaos-1.jpg

    The Chaos horde came rampaging forwards at full steam. A Warhound runs into the centre forest, which turns out to be the Poisoned one (my favourite, as its Dangerous Terrain for everything. The Chimera (C3) dropped behind the tower out of line of sight of my Slann. In the magic phase, the Warriors start off by casting the Ruby Ring on my right Skink block, which I dispel. They follow up by casting Fate on the left Skink Priest. I let this through, but fire the Hex Scroll.

    My Skink Priest dies pretty much as expected, but... the Daemon Prince fails his magic level check, and turns into a frog! :D I'm sad about losing the second Wildform (which goes back to my spell selection choices again) and arcane vassal, but its frankly 115 points well spent and a trade off I'm more than happy to make any time.

    Naturally, my opponent's face drops and he's in shock for the next few turns, and can be heard repeatedly muttering "how have we missed that for four years?!" to himself.

    Lizardmen - Turn 1
    wocvsnewliz_Turn_1_Lizardmen.jpg

    Operation Skink Mayhem is in full swing. On the left, the Skink chaff surrounds the artist formally known as Prince and prepares to deliver the coup de grace (to cries of, "wait, all of his stats are 2 except wounds? And he loses all items and abilities?"). Sadly, the Skink Chief misses his javelin shot, and the lesser Skinks can only put three wounds on it. So close, yet so far.

    Meanwhile, the Saurus phalanx moves into position with the forest weighting their flank, and the Temple Guard push out in the other direction. My Oldblood attempts a charge on the Skullcrushers, but fails the 20" distance needed. I bail the Scroll Priest out of his unit to get line of sight on the Chimera, whilst the Skink Chief leaves his unit and joins the Skirmishers to redirect the Nurgle Warriors, Chariot, Exalted, and whatever else fancies a go. My Ripperdactyls run up behind the Forsaken with a cunning plan in mind.

    In the magic phase, I generate a bunch of dice. First off - two dice on the Solar Engine, which rolls up the 6 result. Despite this fortune, I only roll 4 hits, dropping 3 Chaos Warriors dead and their WS takes a hit. I follow with a three dice Searing Doom on the Chimera, which takes off 3 wounds, and a three dice mid-level Fireball, which my opponent attempts to dispel but fails, to toppled the monster. With my last two dice I try for Spirit Leech on the Exalted, but roll up a 1 and a 2.

    Ancient Steggy fires his giant blowpipes at the Warhounds, but he's on 7s and rolls poorly so only kills one.

    Warriors of Chaos - Turn 2

    wocvsnewliz_Turn_2_Warriors_of_Chaos.jpg

    My opponent tries to save his Prince by throwing the Ogres into the Skirmisher Skinks. These guys had been positioned just right to redirect them out of the field of play, and even managed to take one down on a Stand and Shoot (although they paid for it with their lives)! Elsewhere, my Skink drinks his potion of Strength, although he misses his S7 Javelin shot, but his fellows drop two Chaos Warriors. The Tzeentch Exalted prioritises Ancient Steggy and I think he has the Ichor upgrade, as he saves the single poisoned stand and shoot from the crew on a 4. Evidently, the Forsaken don't give a flying skink about the Rippers and keep their backs to them.

    In the magic phase, we all watch with bated brief as my opponent rolls his Frog check and... its a 3! Evidently Tzeentch is highly amused with this sudden humbling of Nurgle's favoured disciple. With no eligible magic we go straight to combat. The Exalted takes a wound off Steggy, but the beast holds on its Stubborn check. My Skink Chief challenges the Nurgle Champion, but even with re-rolls to hit from the tower he only gets the one wound through. The Skinks themselves are wiped out, and the Chief flees and is run down. This causes my Skink Priest to flee, who ends up within 6" of the Sinister Statue.

    Lizardmen Turn 2
    wocvsnewliz_Turn_2_Lizardmen-1.jpg

    I spy a potentially incredible combo-charge on the left and go for it: throwing my Rippers into the rear of the Forsaken and charging my phalanx into the dogs. My opponent debates fleeing with them, but I've got an easy redirect into his Forsaken so decides to risk a failed overrun/pursuit. I also charge the Skink Chief out of his unit to try and run down the Frog Prince, but it escapes. My Temple Guard clear out the dogs and reform to present a line against his now isolated flank, and my Oldblood finally gets his charge into the Skullcrushers. This was actually a mistake, as I assumed that there was a Champion in there to challenge, but as we'll see it turned out ok.

    The Sinister Statue zapped my Skink Priest.

    In the magic phase I rolled high again, and went for a two dice Solar Engine on Chariot 2. Again I rolled a good result - 2d6 S5 hits - and again I rolled poorly for damage - only 4 or 5. Still, it took two wounds off. I then went for a Searing Doom on the Warriors, which killed one or two models thanks to poor hit rolls again (this is not shown, but they have about 10 guys left), and then dropped a Miasma on the Khorne Forsaken to drop their WS and I by 2 in order to give the Rippers a chance just in case the Saurus don't make it in. Finally, I tried Wildform on the Oldblood but my opponent, wisely, dispelled it with all his dice.

    My Skink Cohort on the left ran up to take the last wound off the Daemon Prince. 600 point swing to me.

    I started combat with the Saurus Phalanx, hoping to get that overrun and fight again. Sadly, they needed 6" to hit the Forsaken and rolled a 4: precariously exposing their flank to the Khorne Warriors baring down on them. The Ripperdactyls, fighting alone, then rolled badly for their attacks - only 4 each - then rolled amazingly well for their hits - getting something like 11 after re-rolls - and then rolled terribly for wounds. I got 1 Killing Blow and one normal hit on a 5: everything else was 3 or less. Between them and the Skink riders I only managed to kill 3 Forsaken, and in return lost two models. Then I missed the only Stomp attack. The Forsaken, who had been powered up with Killing Blow, still lost the combat through CR, but passed their break test and reformed to face me.

    The Oldblood didn't take a wound from the Skullcrushers, hits a bunch of times with Predatory Fighter, wounds a bunch of times, but only one got through. Kindly enough, my opponent failed his break test and off they went; promptly run down by the One Lizard Wrecking Machine. Steggy lost another wound to the Tzeentch Exalted, who was having a terrible time making those 4s to wound. But the beast and his crew either couldn't hit or wound for love nor money, so the combat dragged on - this time with Steggy in range of the General's leadership.

    Warriors of Chaos - Turn 3
    wocvsnewliz_Turn_3_Warriors_of_Chaos.jpg

    In came the Frenzied madmen to the flank of the Saurus. I'll admit - for a minute I debated fleeing with them. On average rolls I'd probably escape. But after a quick bout of arithmetic, I calculated that I shouldn't lose more than 6 models, so I'd still be Steadfast. And although unclear in the map, I'm well within the General's bubble. Chariot 1 goes in to the Skinks in its way, but rolls badly for Impact Hits and in the ensuing combat I only lose a couple of models thanks to Parry saves, so they pass their Steadfast check.

    The Nurgle Ogres and Nurgle Warriors both reform to face inwards, and there's some crazy LoS-denying shenanigans with Chariot 2 (who is trying to stay out of the Statue's 6" threat range and simultaneously not get zapped by the Slann or Basty).

    In the combat phase, my last Ripper dies - but not before taking 3 Forsaken with him, thanks to getting 5 attacks. Really, the sheer damage output per model on these guys is crazy, even if you're not rolling 6 attacks each - they are perfect for MSU hunting. The Forsaken reform to face inwards again.

    The Khorne Champion issues a challenge, which I accept with the Spawn Leader. The idea is to minimize the amount of damage I'm about to take, but given that the Champion will almost certainly win, and this gives him a chance to generate a Daemon Prince, it was probably a bad idea. However, so begins the almighty pillow fight: the Champion only gets 1 wound despite 5 attacks, although I fail the 5+. The Khorne Warriors do slightly worse than both of us expected, although I still can't make 5+ saves and lose 5 models, which puts me at the 6 I predicted. I think my Saurus kill one or two; either way, they pass their LD10 on the re-roll and reform to face them (at this point, with some of the Forsaken dead, I could get 7 of the 8 into base contact without clipping the other unit).

    The Exalted finally manages to put 3 wounds on the Stegadon... and I finally manage to roll a 6+ save. The Skinks then put one wound back on the Exalted! But sadly, that damned Disc rolls his 6 to wound, and I go back to being unable to make saves. The Eye of the Gods roll goes out... and he gets a 10. Phew (Actually, in hindsight, I would quite like this model to turn into a Daemon Prince as I get all the VPs for it, and its in perfect position to be blasted by Basty and the Slann. Its the one in combat with the Saurus that I don't want turning, as I can't really do anything about it just now).

    Lizardmen Turn 3
    wocvsnewliz_Turn_3_Lizardmen.jpg

    Eagerly seizing the opportunity for more Skink mayhem, my Egg Chief runs into the Forsaken. He's got the Egg, he'll attack first with the Biting Blade, and there's only 4 of them - what could go wrong? As it turns out, pretty much everything - the cracked Egg rolls result 3 which, while pretty ok at D6 S4 hits, means that - you guessed it - I rolled badly for number of hits again and don't do any wounds. The Chief himself cuts down a Forsaken, who then deal 2 wounds back to the Chief. With the Armour Piercing mutation he dies instantly - although I mistakenly rolled my saves before realising this, and one of them came up 6. if I'd found those two points for light armour, he would have been fine...

    The Oldblood comes back into play to sit in front of the Nurgle Warriors. He's close enough to the tower to get re-rolls to hit - but so are they, and they'll pack Frenzy to boot, and they don't have a Champion to challenge, which I thought they did. He may have been better going to chase after the Exalted. I also debated putting the Temple Guard into Chariot 1, but the Skink cohort was overhanging which would have made the angle awkward. Without a Skink hero nearby, I didn't want them charging off and out of the game.

    The Skink Cohort who went in to redirect the Nurgle Ogres took two wounds off a model (not shown), and in the magic phase I rolled about 6 dice vs 5. This was a bit of a dilemma - do I buff the Saurus combat, or try to kill the Exalted? My options for doing the latter are limited - I know by this point that he has the Dragonhelm, so I'm relying on Spirit Leech or the Bastiladon winning in combat. Putting off the decision, I tried to one shot the Solar Engine at the Nurgle Warriors, but failed to cast. I believe I then tried Spirit Leech on the Exalted with three dice, but this was dispelled, and used the last two dice to drop the WS of the Khorne Warriors to 3 (I could have gone for Iceshard, but it wouldn't have made me any better at doing damage, or Wildform, but on two dice I just knew I'd fail to cast). I probably should have used more dice on Leech rather than doing everything, but it was a safe bet that he's holding back everything to stop it so I'd need to 5 or 6 dice it, which of course risks a miscast. It didn't occur to me to buff the Bastiladon until much later, although I'm not entirely convinced it would be a good idea.

    A few more Skinks died, though once again they passed their break test. In the main combat, the pillow fight began in earnest - the Aspiring Champion, now S5 with his Eye roll, failed to wound, and the Khorne Warriors failed just as miserably and only managed to kill 3 Saurus. With all my attacks, including Predatory Fighter, I couldn't do much better and despite hitting a ton of times, rolled something crazy like 8 1s to wound, thus killing maybe 4. The Warriors lost, but managed their leadership 5 break test.

    Warriors of Chaos - Turn 4
    wocvsnewliz_Turn_4_Warriors_of_Chaos.jpg

    The Nurgle Ogres charged the Skinks, who couldn't manage any wounds on their SnS or in combat, and were wiped out for their troubles. The Exalted also charged the Bastiladon and put three wounds on it, although the beast managed to escape. The Nurgle Warriors went in to the Oldblood and took two wounds off him, even with his re-rolled armour saves. Yikes. Oldy then went completely mental and tore 5 or 6 of them apart - Predatory Fighter is great with re-rolls!

    Three Skinks died to the Chariot, but one lucky survivor made his Parry save and stood his ground.

    The Forsaken came in to the Saurus flank, but they and the surviving Warriors couldn't do better than three wounds (I think his mutation was ASF). The Saurus directed all of their attacks against the Warriors, leaving just the Champion (who, happily, again fluffed all his attacks) and the Standard Bearer standing. Both units passed their break tests, which were still high thanks to the Forsaken flank CR.

    Lizardmen - Turn 4
    wocvsnewliz_Turn_4_Lizardmen.jpg

    The Bastiladon rallies. Over on the left, the Khorne Champion finally manages to wound something and kills a couple of Saurus. In return, he and his last remaining companion are cut down. I direct some attacks against the Forsaken, who rolled up ASL, and kill one, and they don't do much in return, but hold their ground. The Saurus reform to face them, as I have one round to finish them off before I need to deal with the Nurgle Ogres.

    I send my Temple Guard into the Nurgle Warriors, who reformed from defeat to get all models attacking the Oldblood. He gets one wound back after my opponent lets me cast Earthblood on the Temple Guard through the Lore Attribute, dispelling whatever I attempt to cast next. The Oldblood then continues his rampage as he doesn't take any wounds, kills another 4 Warriors, and runs them down. The Temple Guard overrun into Chariot 2.

    And at this point, with it getting quite late, my opponent concedes. Looking at the map, I think victory would have been tough for him - whatever he does with the Nurgle Ogres, my Saurus will finish off the Forsaken in his turn and can either march out of charge arc or charge the Ogres first and try to grind them out. With some Slann buffs this isn't at all unlikely. Whilst the Exalted probably kills the Bastiladon, I've got a turn to bring my Oldblood back in to limit his options, and although Chariot 1 is going to go into the rear of the Temple Guard - odds are the Slann will survive it. Chariot 2 is going to die in any case, so C1 might well break and get run down.

    Regardless, I'm sitting pretty at some 1500 VPs already at this exact moment of time, and that's likely to jump to 1700 at the end of the next turn. Meanwhile, the Warriors have only taken 1063 off me - and that's including the Bastiladon. Its going to be extremely difficult, if not outright impossible, to grab another 700 points needed for a draw when the Saurus are only 384.

    Result: Lizardmen Victory!
     
  11. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    I see what you did there ;)

    Thanks! After initial disappointment with the book, I've really tried to push things out there and come up with a list that's unique and plays quite differently than before, but which is also as tactically flexible as possible. It started to come together after my usual list (Slann with all the toys, lots of Chameleon and Terradon chaff, Scar-Vets, etc) ran up about 90 points short, which was just right for a Skink Chief. But then I had two builds that I couldn't decide which one appealed to me more; and then I played some test games with multiple Skink Priests and loved it so added them in, and then there was that thread on the Flying Oldblood and I just had to have him in too. In the end I found myself with a list that doesn't rely entirely on one thing to work (ie, casting lots of spells on the Temple Guard), where the elements all support each other pretty nicely, and although it has a lot of stuff which could go badly, but because there's so much of it its all mutually redundant. Its also got a ton of options to actually go out and get points (Oldladdin, Ripperdactyls, the Skink Chiefs), rather than just sitting back and letting the opponent come to me. Its definitely a lot more fun this way!

    Warriors are always an extremely tough match up for me, as I always feel like I'm starting off at a disadvantage just through the stats alone. Then there's the additional mobility of so many of their units: its very difficult to seize the initiative when there's so much stuff coming at you with 20" Flight, followed by a second wave of Chariots, Knights, Skullcrushers and Forsaken, especially if they get the first turn. This can really throw me off balance by the time the third wave of kitted out Chaos Warriors arrive, by which point I sometimes struggle to get off the starting line (which you can see in many of my battle reports against them).

    Fortunately, as you can now see, I played this one pretty well and I was very impressed with how the list worked out.
     
  12. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    This afternoon I will be engaging in a re-match vs the Warriors of Chaos. My army is unchanged, because it was so much fun last time, but posted again as a reminder:

    Slann Mage-Priest with Wandering Deliberations and Battle Standard Bearer. General.
    Saurus Oldblood with Arabyan Carpet, Enchanted Shield, Dawn Stone, Sword of Might.

    Skink Priest with Sivejir's Hex Scroll. Beasts.
    Skink Priest with Dispel Scroll. Beasts.
    Skink Chief with Egg of Quango, Biting Blade, Javelin, Shield.
    Skink Chief with Potion of Strength, Sword of Striking, Javelin Shield.

    32 Saurus Warriors with Full Command.
    10 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields.
    10 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields.
    10 Skink Cohort with Javelins and Shields.
    11 Skink Cohort with Javelins and Shields.

    Bastiladon with Solar Engine.
    24 Temple Guard with Full Command, Standard of Discipline.
    3 Ripperdactyl Riders.

    Ancient Stegadon with Sharpened Horns

    I fully expect my opponent's list to undergo a full revision, and chances are there'll be a Daemon Prince without magic levels (so no more Toad bait, booo). This may make my Hex Priest entirely redundant; but the advantages of Lizardmen is that he isn't a one-trick pony. He's still a wizard, still generating dispel/power dice, still giving a better LD to Skink units, still giving LoS to the Slann and, ultimately, he can still be used as a relatively cheap 100 point redirector. And he might still ruin a Chaos Sorcerer's day, if one shows up.
     
  13. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    My opponent's list:

    Nurgle Daemon Prince with all the usual toys, Dragonbane Gem and Spellshield.

    Exalted Hero with Mark of Khorne, Juggernaught, Dawn Stone.
    Exalted Hero with Mark of Nurgle, Halberd, Talisman of Preservation. BSB.
    Exalted Hero with Mark of Nurgle, Chalice of Chaos, Obsidian Loadstone.

    18 Nurgle Warriors with Halberds and Full Command.
    18 Nurgle Warriors with Halberds and Full Command.
    18 Tzeentch Forsaken.
    5 Warhounds
    5 Warhounds.

    5 Skullcrushers.

    There may have been some more MR scattered through the Exalted Heroes.

    ---

    We rolled to randomly generate a battle, and ended up with Blood and Glory. Now, normally, I like random battles as they tend to encourage a certain behavior in list building. Generally, you need to give a thought to a random scenario when constructing the list just in case it comes up: the classic example is a Warriors list with Chariot spam that auto-fails Blood and Glory. Ordinarily, I'd consider this an advantage.

    Not this time. Every unit with a banner in it is rock hard, and backed up with an Exalted Hero. Without the Exalted's, I'd be hard pressed just killing two of these units, making three extremely difficult. And I also need to deal with the Daemon Prince, who, as expected, runs without magic levels. Whilst this means he doesn't have any magic, it also means the Daemon Prince has one less weakness (Miscasting/Hex Scroll).

    Deployment coming up soon.
     
  14. The Hunted
    Carnasaur

    The Hunted Active Member

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    Hm..tough one. I don't like the fact that he puts so many points in heroes, when he has seriously dangerous troops to bring to the field as well..
    Though this doesn't help you at all, you can try and death-snipe them. But that's pretty hard to pull off succesfully looking at it.

    The bad thing you talk about is also a good thing. He really only has 3 units (and 1 super-character). You have..more. And that gives you movement options.

    How are you planning on (trying to) handling the DP? And while I'm at it, the scary hammer of Skullcrushers...

    Looking forward to the report!

    The Hunted
     
  15. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    Yeah. I'm generally anti-Warriors because I find their gameplay mostly dull (generally - push it forward, with minimal thought to tactics or list design), and this is probably one of the worst examples of it. It's literally going to come running at me, with no magic, no shooting, and only token attempts at maneuverability. How fun :/

    I had a number of options going in to the game. Wandering Deliberations gives me access to Spirit Leech, so my primary concern was Death Sniping that Daemon Prince and then, as you say, following up by trying to pick off the characters. The Spirit Leech should knock a couple of wounds off it, and then run the Egg Chief in to take off the last wound. I was pretty confident that luck would allow this. Note the past tense... Worst comes to worst, it will get stuck into the Temple Guard or the Saurus Warriors, where I should be able to just tarpit it out for the game (it'll get at most one banner from the Saurus), so long as I can keep everything else out of the combat.

    The Skullcrushers really don't worry me. Plan number one is to run the Oldblood into them. He can kill of the Exalted and tank out the unit all game, no worries. Plan number two is to run the Ancient Stegadon in (this is, in fact, what he's built for).

    I'm busy as balls with work this week, but I'll try to get the battle report together towards the end of the week.
     
  16. The Hunted
    Carnasaur

    The Hunted Active Member

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    Got to give your opponent some props for the forsaken though :p

    But I agree, while they are a very powerfull army; I don't see much satisfaction coming from playing the army.
    Maybe if you go with a non-standard list (so no DP, Nurgle warriors, chimera, skullcrushers, Tzeentch BSB with daemonic mount and third eye of tzeentch...).


    Sounds like a decent plan. Hopefully the Daemon Prince doesn't make it into your combat blocks. He can eat skinks for days (and their poison).
    Are you planning on baiting the skullcrushers with some skinks, and flanking them with the sharpened Stegadon? That will give some carnage!

    And take your time ;), I'll be around long enough for you to make a report :p

    The Hunted
     
  17. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    You may have noticed that I never got round to this - well, I was distracted by the new Dark Elf book. I’ve managed to put it book down long enough to finally get round to this, and I want to try something new by concentrating more on the narrative rather than who rolled what.

    Deployment

    1gnoCmD.jpg

    As both sides drew up their battlelines, it was clear that each favoured one flank and as all the banners went down here as well it was clear which side of the battlefield the action would take place. The Slann and his Temple Guard took centre stage in order to give him maximum oversight of his forces, but this left him isolated as the Saurus phalanx drew up on the far flank.

    On the right, Ripperdactyls used their vanguard to get up the side of the battlefield, already sniffing out the Bloat Toads which Skinks had deposited in the Forsaken ahead of the battle, though their riders were careful to keep them out of direct sight.

    Warriors Turn 1

    s1S5y3e.jpg

    The Warrior line surges forward. A few dogs scouted into the central woodland and released clouds of noxious spores, though their primitive canine minds were unaffected by the delusions.

    Lizardmen Turn 1

    em8qsy8.jpg

    Summoning the unknown energies of the eldritch device that had been gifted upon him, the Oldblood surged through the air towards the Skullcrushers and the Exalted who led them. The Chaos champion accepts the challenge, but as he draws his blade he finds his reactions made sluggish by a Miasma cast by the Slann to aid the Saurus. In the furious duel that follows it appears that the two are evenly matched in arms for they cannot inflict a wound upon another (the number of 4+ saves made in this combat was something to behold...).

    The Skink auxiliaries on both flanks sweep out to surround the oncoming wall of armoured Warriors. A Skink Priest runs into the nearby arcane ruins to harness the power nexus there, whilst the Skink Chief in command of the right flank leaves his unit and withdraws to the safety of the Temple Guard.

    Skink shooting and the fickle ruined temple in the centre of the battlefield see the end of one unit of dogs.

    The Slann ends the magic phase by using a Spirit Leech to rend the Daemon Prince, knocking off three wounds.

    Warriors Turn 2

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    Unperturbed by the magical assault on his mind, the Daemon Prince charges into the Temple Guard and slaughters the Revered Guardian; feeding on his life force to restore some of the damage that had been done to him.

    The rest of the Chaos army continues marching towards their ancient foe and the duel between the Oldblood and the Exalted continue unabated.

    Lizardmen Turn 2

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    Fearing about the isolation of his bodyguard with the archenemy in their midst, the Slann directs the nearby Skinks to delay the forces closing in on his flanks. On the right they wound the Spawn, though can’t kill it outright, despite the Skink Chief contributing after darting through a gap. On the left, a Skink Priest runs up to distract the regiment of Warriors with the Battle Standard, whilst another Skink cohort does the same to the other regiment. The Ripperdactyls continue to stalk their prey, with the riders now directing them towards the rear of the Forsaken’s formation.

    Skink shooting and the fickle temple ruins claim the lives of some Chaos Warriors.

    In the magic phase, the Slann savages the mind of the Exalted bearing the army colours, killing him with a Spirit Leech. The battle further seems to tip in the Lizardmen favour when the Oldblood finally drives a wound through the impenetrable defence of his opponent. Meanwhile, the ranks of the Temple Guard hold resolute against the Daemon Prince, who feasts on the soul of another fallen Warrior.

    Warriors Turn 3

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    Anxious to avenge the loss of their BSB, both Warrior units charge the Skinks standing in their way. But one of the Warriors in the forest steps on a mushroom that releases a cloud of noxious spores, temporarily rendering them docile. The other unit loses more of their number to the poisoned Javelins on the Skinks, though they barely break their stride long enough to wipe them out and continue towards the Lizardmen lines. Out on the right, the dogs shuffle backwards to place themselves squarely between the RIpperdactyls and their prey.

    This time the Oldblood takes a wound from the Exalted, though his instincts still tell him to fight over flight. The ranks of the Temple Guard are depleted further and the Daemon Prince is restored to full strength.

    Lizardmen Turn 3

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    As one, the Lizardman line surges forwards to pounce on the isolated regiment of Warriors, with Skinks going into the flank to give the Saurus phalanx a clear path. So furious is the assault that the Ancient Stegadon finds itself falling behind and is unable to join the combat. The Warriors still tremble at the Bastiladon, but the nearby ruin grants them magical inspiration.

    The Ripperdactyls fall upon the dogs in their path, and run the survivor down. The Skink Chief is unable to see the Daemon Prince around the statue of Mork (or Gork), and so respositions himself. His counterpart runs up to the Skullcrushers to lend his aid should the Oldblood’s courage fails, though he doesn’t join the combat whilst the challenge is still in progress, knowing that his chances against the full fury of the Skullcrushers alone are slim.

    In the magic phase the Lizardmen are bolstered by a great well of power, allowing a number of augments to go off on the Temple Guard, but this does little to slow the Daemon Prince down and their numbers continue to dwindle.

    The Warriors take no losses from the Skinks in their flank or on the Bastiladon, and swing back to cut through over half their number, wounding the beast, and slaying a number of Saurus as well, with the Exalted killing the Spawn Leader in a challenge. The response is much more muted, and even the stomping of the Bastiladon cannot swing the combat. Both it and the Skinks break from the combat and flee, though the Saurus Warriors hold the line.

    Further disaster strikes when the Oldblood’s animal instincts finally tell him to flight and he flees the challenge with the Exalted, despite landing a second wound on him. The Skullcrushers overrun and collide with the Skink Chief.

    Warriors Turn 4

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    The unpredictable advance of the Spawn finally takes it into the flank of the Temple Guard, where a Saurus falls to its gibbering tentacles. Behind it the Forsaken charge the Skinks and lose some of their number, whilst three of the Skinks hold on. Shaking themselves out of their fugue, the Warriors in the wood charge the brave Priest standing in their way.

    The Chief drinks his Potion of Strength and bravely challenges the wounded Exalted. Despite overmatched in every way, he trusts to the Old Ones to guide his blows and lands two of them. But despite the temporary boon to his strength, neither is able to penetrate the thick Chaos armour, and the Exalted rips the Chief apart for his troubles. But in a surprisingly reversal of fortune, the Chaos Champion in the forest is unable to land a single wound on the Priest – clearly the Skink is blessed by some sort of divine protection.

    The Chaos Gods fight back against the influence of the Old Ones, however, inspiring the Nurgle Warriors with Speed of Light once again. With this they drive the Saurus Warriors back step by dogged step, though an orderly retreat takes them out of the reach of the pursuing Nurgle Warriors. The Temple Guard cannot put the wounded Spawn down despite all their augments.

    Lizardmen Turn 4

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    The Oldblood, Bastiladon and Saurus all rally, though the Skinks continue to flee past the Skullcrushers. The crew of the Ancient Stegadon motivate it back into action, and it issues a bellowing roar before charging the Nurgle Warriors. Their resolve crumbles despite the urging of the Exalted leading them, and the unit retreats before the might of the charging beast. Several fleeing Warriors are then splattered out of existence when the Solar Engine fires.

    Having finished feasting on the dogs, the Ripperdactyls fly back into position behind the Forsaken. But they are too late for the Skinks are run down and the mutated Warriors reform to face the exposed flank of the remaining Temple Guard.

    The Skink Priest continues to lead a charmed life when he suffers a grievous wound from the Chaos Champion, but either through fate, divine intervention or the mild-altering affects of the forest mushrooms, is not yet sent to meet his maker.

    The cracked Egg of Quango produces only a deformed creature which cries mournfully before dying, and the Temple Guard finally end the existence of the Spawn.

    Warriors Turn 5

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    The Exalted restores order in the ranks to rally his Warriors, and they join up with the Skullcrushers to form a new line.

    The Forsaken join the fight with the Temple Guard, though the Slann issues a challenge to the Deamon Prince to spare as many of the Saurus as possible. Two wounds penetrate his magical shielding, but the Guard hold. The Priest’s luck finally runs out as Chaos enters the ascendency.

    Lizardmen Turn 5

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    On the left flank, the Oldblood sees an opportunity to seize victory. Rather than coming to the aid of the Slann, then, he charges the Nurgle Warriors and urges the Ancient Stegadon to join him. This time the Warriors hold, and in anticipation of the coming fight the Exalted drinks his Chalice. Alas, the Chaos Gods are fickle, and the liquid drives the Exalted insane, making him easy prey for the Oldblood. But the Ancient Stegadon is exhausted by the charge, unable to kill many Warriors with his horns or his hooves. They hold, leaving the Lizardmen precariously exposed to the flanking Skullcrushers.

    In the magic phase, the Slann bolsters his unit with Earthblood and uses the healing energy of the spell to heal some of the damage inflicted by the Daemon Prince, though his shield cannot protect him from suffering further blows.

    Warriors Turn 6

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    Spurring their frenzied juggernaughts, the Skullcrushers hit the flank of the Stegadon – killing it almost instantly. The Oldblood and his nemesis are joined in combat once again, and the Saurus is nearly trampled by the unstoppable momentum of the mount.

    Fortune smiles again when further noxious clouds send the Warriors in the forest into another stupor, but the Daemon Prince cuts into the Slann once again with the magical shielding unable to withstand its furious assault.

    The Ripperdactyls finally fall open the rear of the Forsaken, but just before they are about to strike the mutated Warriors are seized by a sudden unholy grace, and knock two of the flying reptiles from the sky. The final Ripperdactyl, incensed by the Bloat Toad, goes wild and tears the Forsaken apart, running them down as they try to flee.

    Lizardmen Turn 6

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    The drums sound for one final Lizardman charge, though the Saurus are still shaken and cannot close the distance on the Skullcrushers and the Bastiladon goes in alone. The beast is soon bolstered by Wyssan’s WIldform, and even lands a blow from its mighty tail, but its not enough to kill even a single Skullcrusher and it is soon slain.

    Another successful casting of Earthblood heals the Slann moments before the Daemon Prince ruptures his shield again.

    Now, either I messed up my turn times somewhere or we lost track of the turns, but I’m sure we played one more round. If the game had ended here I’m not sure where victory would have gone: I’ve killed two Exalteds, two units of dogs and the Forsaken – but I’ve lost both Chiefs, all but one unit of Skinks, a Priest, the Bastiladon and the Stegadon so I’m either down on VPs or its a draw. In any case I was ready to throw in the towel here as it was clear where the game was going, but we decided to fight it out till the bitter last.

    There is, however, not much more that happens. The Saurus charge in but can’t do anything to the Skullcrushers and the combat between the Exalted and the Oldblood continues to stalemate. The Warrior unit runs away from the Skinks chasing it. In my turn, I try to cast Iceshard Blizzard to keep the Slann alive on 3 dice. You can probably guess what happens: double 6. Dimensional Cascade. The Slann doesn’t get sucked into the Warp, but the explosion kills all remaining Temple Guard (including the Standard). Just to add insult to injury, I also fail the ward save and, as he was on his last wound, the Slann dies as well.

    Post battle thoughts:

    That last paragraph pretty much sums up the game for me. It started off badly with my deployment, where you can see that I’m trying to weigh one flank but the Temple Guard is isolated. But then things go from bad to worse. Where to start? My Oldblood inflicts a mere two wounds over 6-7 rounds of combat, and that’s despite rolling a ton of Predatory Fighter dice. The Potion Chief lands two S7 hits, both of which get saved. The Egg Chief gets into the Daemon Prince and rolls 1 S3 hit. The Ancient Stegadon finally gets into combat after two failed charges (ok, one of them was due to a failed lucky Terror check), only to roll 2 impact hits, one of which fails to wound, and 1 Thunderstomp, which also fails to wound. I take three wounds of the Daemon Prince with Spirit Leech, and then he goes and heals them all back up in combat despite the Temple Guard having nearly every signature spell in the book (at one point I had Wildform and Miasma: hitting on 5s with Predatory Fighter and wounding on 3s with -3AS. No wounds got through).

    Still, its said that you learn more from defeat than you do from victory and I think there’s a lot that I could have done to improve things, besides deployment. Better positioning of certain units would have helped, such as getting the Ripperdactyls into the Forsaken earlier rather than having the dogs in the way, or the Egg Chief into the Daemon Prince when it was still wounded (not that the Egg would have helped). In fact, I probably should have swapped positions of the Chiefs around and next time I’ll definitely prioritise the Potion Chief for Daemon Prince duty.

    Thinking about my list, I still really enjoy playing it – especially the Skink wild cards (some would call them gimmicks, me I call them treasures), even though they have failed me miserably so far. There’s a couple of changes that I am considering. Small blocks of 15-18 Saurus intrigue me as they seem tough to use, especially in this match up, but they are a good way of getting more units and banners on the table without reducing combat potential. Its also not as easy to misdeploy two units as it is one! I’d be concerned about losing them in combat or two shooting, but I suppose they might make good flankers for the Temple Guard.

    Speaking of which, I’m thinking about reducing the size of the Temple Guard. Again this might just be match up dependant, but in the last 3 games now I’ve not used the unit to its full potential at all, which is a huge waste of 400 points. I could cut them down further to 18-20 leaving me 50-100 points to spend. There’s not much you could get for this, but I could slip in a Salamander or a unit of Chameleon Skinks. Now there's one victory and one defeat, what do people think of my list?
     
  18. VampTeddy
    Terradon

    VampTeddy Active Member

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    I still like your list.

    The sheer amount of skinks is awesome, i'd aim for something along those lines as well though i'd prolly do 4 x Skirmishers instead and pay for it in points.

    I think as you mentioned deployment ruined some for you here, but i also feel you might have wanted to try and kite him some more in such a CC oriented WoC list. You definetly have the redirectors for it.

    Nonetheless an interesting battle.
     
  19. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    Yeah, my usual approach to Warriors is redirect everything whilst focusing on one unit at a time and destroying it. That usually works, Daemon Prince shenanigans excepted, when I'm playing well (you can see this working in the previous game).

    I've got the Skink Cohort units in for a number of reasons: firstly, they are cheaper than the Skirmishers, so I can get more Saurus into the big block. I'd probably need to cut it down to 27 or 28 Saurus if I replaced them with Skirmishers, and that's just a weird number. But most importantly, they do things a little differently to Skirmishers. Skirmishers are great at mobility and throwing away, but because they have ranks sometimes the Cohort can come in and hold up things that they really shouldn't: like Monsters and Chariots, for instance (as you can see in the previous game). Its just an extra tool in the box and I'm a real fan of having that flexibility in my pocket.

    There's one modification that I'm making to the list: I've dropped the Bastiladon and the Standard of Discipline, and reduced the Temple Guard to 21 models. With this I can fit in 4 Kroxigor, which I'm looking to try out in a 2x2 formation that can go smack stuff in the flank. I can see some additional high Strength damage being really worthwhile in this list and more so than the limited support that the Bastiladon offers (the Slann is already overburdened with magic missiles anyway).

    If they don't work out, then I'll look to replace them with some Cold One Riders purely for some further experimentation.
     
  20. GCPD
    Bastiladon

    GCPD Active Member

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    I recently got lucky and won an Ipad2 in a prize draw, and it arrived today, so I immediately picked up Warhammer Battlefields: Lustria. Its a good purchase from GW and at a reasonable price. That aside, the interactive bits are completely gimmicky and there's no reason that they shouldn't release it on Android. Nonetheless, with my interest in Lizardmen flagging with the Dark Elf book, my Warriors of Chaos nemesis and I gave it a shot.

    The way it works is that each opponent chooses a strategy for the battle, and you compare the two on a chart to see what you play out. There's other special rules and things that affect the game as well, depending on choices.

    As it turns out, we should have spent a little more time reading it through and prepping rather than diving right in. This meant that we missed a couple of rules. For instance, we first ended up on a battle where I could only deploy units on the roll of a 1, and could only bring in reserves on a roll of a 1, because I hadn't put any points in the Planning skill for my General (because min-maxing, right??). We both agreed this was a non-game, so I tried a different tactic. After the battle, we also realised that I should have picked units from a 2500 list rather than coming up with a new one from scratch, etc. So if you've got the campaign as well, just bare that in mind.

    Engagement One: The Landing

    True to form, the Warriors of Chaos chose the Invasion strategy: landing their full strength on the Lustrian coast and penetrating deep into the jungle.

    More wary, the Lizardmen hoped to catch the Enemy off guard and chose Ambush.

    According to the matrix, this meant a Suprise Attack. The Warriors would deploy in a long, thin marching column in the centre of the battlefield, no more than 4 models wide, with the Lizardmen springing out of the jungle on their flanks. Whilst they had the advantage, the Lizardmen had only 66% of the opponent's strength.

    Warriors of Chaos

    Daemon Prince with all the toys.
    Exalted BSB on a Disc.

    18 Nurgle Warriors, Full Command, Halberds.
    12 Nurgle Warriors, Full Command, Halberds.
    18 Tzeentch Forsaken.
    5 Warhounds
    5 Warhounds

    6 Nurgle Ogres, Great Weapons, Full Command.
    Chimera, Regeneration.

    3 Skullcrushers, Full Command.

    Lizardmen
    The Campaign rules indicate that I should have picked choices from a 2.5k list. However, we did not realise this as mentioned so I wrote a new one from scratch - this was done in a rush as well, which is why there are odd things like no Dispel Scrolls. To be fair, it was 90% identical in any case. .

    Slann with Focus of Mystery, BSB

    Scar-Veteran on a Cold One, with Dawn Stone, Dragon Helm, Great Weapon and Light Armour.
    Skink Priest on Beasts.

    29 Saurus Warriors with Full Command, Spears.
    10 Skinks
    10 Skinks
    10 Skink Skirmishers

    4 Kroxigor
    3 Ripperdactyls

    Ancient Stegadon with Sharpened Horns.

    In addition, as defenders the Lizardmen also got to pick D3 Strategems, which are additional special rules in effect for the game. I selected Master Thief which meant I could destroy one magical item if the opponent had it. Naturally, I destroyed the Dragonbane Gem which the Daemon Prince was carrying. The other one I picked was Additional Reserves which gives one unit D6x50 points worth of models. I picked the Kroxigor and rolled 4, getting an additional 200 points worth and doubling the unit size.

    Here's a quick teaser of the Deployment. The Warriors had to deploy everything first, whilst I had to randomise which side of the table I deployed on.

    DPGXebs.jpg

    The Lizardmen get the first turn in this scenario, so I was looking to capitalise on as many charges as possible. I reasoned that the Ancient Stegadon and Kroxigor should be able to break or destroy the Ogres and Skullcrushers on a charge. I was less certain about breaking the Nurgle Warrior units with the Saurus and Ripperdactyls, even without a rank bonus and going into the flank, but I didn't want either unit to have a chance to reform.
     

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