LIZARDMEN (vs) BRETONNIANS- 4,000 points I was going to fight my friend's Vampire Counts, but he was tired of NEVER playing his Brets (who have gone ten years since their last army book), and wanted to test how playable they were in the newer rules. LORDS: Slann- BSB, Re-Roll First Failed Dispel, 2 Dice for Channeling, +/- 1 for Miscast Table (Lore of Metal) Oldblood- Carnosaur, No Armour Save Sword, Heavy Armor & 4+ Ward Save HEROES: Scar-Veteran- Cold One, Crown of Command, 6+ Ward Scar-Veteran- Re-Roll Failed Armour Saves, Armour Piercing Sword Skink Priest- Level 2, Ancient Stegadon- Engine of the Gods (Lore of Beasts) Skink Priest- Dispel Scroll (Lore of Beasts) Skink Chief- Terradon, Egg of Quango, Heavy Armour, 6+ Ward CORE: 34 Saurus Warriors 25 Saurus- Spears 13 Skink Skirmishers 32 Skinks & 4 Kroxigor SPECIAL: 6 Chameleon Skinks 21 Temple Guard- Razor Standard Bastiladon- Solar Engine RARE: 3 Razordons 3 Salamanders So my Army's basically set up around cutting down the high Bret armour saves, as well as large monsters supporting the big blocks (which are designed to absorb a charge from high-strength Lances, and thus leave the Knights more vulnerable in the second and further rounds). The Razordons were my choice over the Slamanders, figuring their higher number of possible attacks would come in handy, but I had points free for Salamanders and didn't want to just throw more Kroxigor or Cold Ones into things. I hadn't used Skroxigor in FOREVER, as they've always been rather vulnerable to me (it's easy to just focus on Skink death to gain easy CR), but this was one time where it might be handy to have some ranks to absorb damage and then use Strength 7 weapons. I also had a few units designed to chase down solo Mages or a Trebuchet, but unfortunately none of that was available, so the Chams, Skinks & Terradon Chief had to find other stuff to do. The Chief has that nasty Egg, designed to aid a combat the fast-mover can variably reach. BRETONNIANS: LORDS: Lord on Hippogriff- Something that lowers his own Leadership Lord on Horse- Makes Me Re-Roll successful saves Prophetess on Horse- 4+ Ward HEROES: Hero on Foot- Crown of Command Hero on Horse- BSB- Takes away my Ranks Hero on Horse- Something that can be used one or two-handed Damsel- Dispel Scroll Damsel CORE: 12 Knights Errant 12-15 Knights of the Realm- Banner that denies Stand & Shoot 40 Peasants (horde) 40 Peastant Bowmen- Flaming Arrows (Horde) SPECIAL & RARE: 6 Pegasus Knights 10-ish Grail Knights 20 Grail Pilgrims His army was set up with a big bog unit, a bit Archery thing, and of course the large units of Knights (to gain some rank bonus & such). His army was oddly smaller than mine, given that I had so many Monsters and large units. I think this is the key issue Bretonnians have in this edition- their Knights are too pricey for what they're actually capable of. DEPLOYMENT: LEFT FLANK: 3 Salamanders, 13 Skinks, 34 Saurus (w/ Stubborn Hero on Cold One), Stegadon/Priest, Oldblood/Carnosaur, 32/4 Skroxigor Unit (VS) Pegasus Knights, Grail Knights (w/ Lord & BSB), Knights Errant, Peasant Bowmen (w/ Damsel) CENTRE: 21 Temple Guard (w/ Slann & Scar-Veteran) (VS) Grail Pilgrims RIGHT FLANK: 3 Razordons, Terradon Hero, 25 Saurus, Bastiladon (Chameleon Skinks Scout ahead) (VS) Knights (w/ Hero), Peasant Horde (w/ Hero on Foot & Crown of Command and Damsel), Lord on Hippogriff Notes: So he went WAY more towards the left than I was expecting, forcing me to put most of my characters over there (I always use a character for my Temple Guard, and I needed the Stubborn guy where the Grail Knights were). Since he didn't use a Trebuchet or any vulnerable bits, I couldn't really do any sneaky hunting, and so my Chams went up to maybe do some damage to the Lord (actually my best available target). The Bastiladon & Stegadon were there to protect MY flanks and charge HIS, and so moved up with my troops. His best units were out on one flank, meaning I'd have to turn most of my army over in that direction. The Centre was pretty bare, with large spaces open on his side. Alas, his Knights were well-scouted- a ten point banner made my Razordons unable to Stand & Shoot on them! ONTO THE BATTLE!! FIRST ROUND: Pretty uneventful, as everyone moves up a little bit- I didn't want to get charged immediately, and his failed when he tried. I got the first turn, but was too far away to have effective shooting, and my Magic went nowhere on 3-4 Dice. The Chameleon Skinks did one Wound to the Hippogriff, and the Bowmen killed almost all of my Skink Skirmishers (leaving 5 left). The Hippogriff charged the Chams, sending them back through my lines, where they never returned. SECOND ROUND: I had some difficulty getting into position (my Temple Guard failed a charge on the Pilgrims), but the Brets started moving in- Knights Errant chased off my Salamanders (who had slain five or six Knights in one go- their Flame Templates being ideally shaped to hit most Knights in a unit), doing only two wounds to one. The Knights did the same to the Razordons, who fled with one beast remaining (he was killed in Round 3 by the same unit). The Peasant Horde & Hippogriff Lord charged my right-most Saurus, and were also forced to charge the Skink Chief on Terradon as well, since he was parked right next ot them- this turned out to be a big deal, as the Egg of Quango rolled the best possible result and killed TEN PEASANTS AT ONCE!! This turned a big loss on my part into a win, causing the Lord to flee!! I LOVE that Magic Item!! THIRD ROUND: Stuff starts getting ugly- the Knights Errant ran away from a charge by three of my units, and actually got away, leaving me going in the same direction I wanted to be in, but still vulnerable to a flank charge from the Pegasus Knights- they moved in, chasing off my Stegadon (who rallied right away), doing only one wound to him! The Grail Knights moved off to the flank, pointed to go down my line. My Temple Guard finally charged the Pilgrims, and got stuck into combat after killing 7-8 of them, since they're also Stubborn. The Knights saw off the last Razordon and turned around to Rear Charge me. While the Hippogriff rallied and turned around, my Bastiladon charged the flank of the Peasant Horde and together we killed a bunch of them, but they kept holding. FOURTH ROUND: Things get even uglier- my Carnosaur runs off the Knights Errant (who fled the charge, but never rallied), but is now out of position. BUT, in a move I'm rather proud of, I sneakily put the Skink Skirmishers in the way of the Grail Knights, preventing them from charging my big Saurus Unit- instead, my opponent could only charge the Skinks while the Pegasus Knights had to charge in alone- they obviously wiped out the Skinks easily, but the way the charges went off (the Pegs HAD to put as many models into combat as possible, meaning the Grail Knights could only get the tip of my Saurus after that- and the Lord's Special Rule meant that he HAD to declare a challenge, which meant none of the other Lances could get in their attacks. Therefore he wiped out my Unit Champion easily (no way was I risking the Crown of Command guy), but my Stubborn Unit survived with only minimal losses, and killing off THREE Pegasus Knights (who really aren't that tough) thanks to the Wyssan's Wildform Spell from the Skink Chief, boosting their Strength & Toughness. Alas, my Skroxigor don't fare so well, as they wheeled to face the big Knightly Charge (which could have been aimed at them), but ended up getting Flank Charged by the BOWMEN! God as my witness, I TOTALLY didn't think they'd do that! They were a BIT of a ways away, but I just left my whole flank exposed to keep them out of charge range of the Knights behind them. The Bowmen win (only one Krox is facing them), but the unit holds (the Slann is RIGHT THERE). On the Centre, the Knights finally got around to charging my Temple Guard in the rear, doing a fair bit of damage, but I still held on pretty well- the Razor Standard and Strength 5 attacks did a number on the Knights, and I reformed to face them. The Left Flank's combat got silly, with a massive war of attrition settling in- the Strength 4 Peasant Halberds are actually REALLY fearsome to Saurus, who go down pretty easily when hit- and the sheer numbers are dangerous. The Bastiladon did more from the Thunderstomp than his poor physical attacks (the Tail NEVER hit), and the Skink Chief on Terradon soon died. FIFTH ROUND: I get my counter-charges in- the Pegasus & Grail Knights (now boosted with +2 Toughness thanks to the Lore of Life) are now reformed into my Saurus, but have lost the charge bonuses to their strength, and thus I have the advantage- my Salamanders charge the Pegs in the flank, causing a failed Fear Test, and I do some damage. Still, I lose the fight by stay thanks to the Crown of Command (and another Wildform Spell)- the Carnosaur has to wheel into position again, as does the Rallied Stegadon. The Slamanders fled (they have REALLY bad Leadership now), but rallied next turn- they were done for the game. The Skroxigor fail to reform to face the Bowmen (though a Kroxigor devotes his three attacks to killing a Damsel, at least gaining SOME points back), and flee through a bunch of my units, eventually running off the table doing little in the game. At least my Temple Guard chased off the Pilgrims for a bit, and then finished off the Knights- only the single Hero remained, refusing to flee. On the right, the combat FINALLY ended- the Lord charged in on the Bastiladon, but had failed to put a dent in it, taking a RIDICULOUS amount of time, even with the Hippogriff! By the end of it, we were down to one single Saurus Champion fighting a Hero on Foot, a Damsel and a Peasant Champion, while a Bastiladon fought the Hero & Lord/Hippogriff- it was THAT attrition-heavy. By the end of Round Five, the Saurus killed the Peasant, the Bastiladon skooshed the Damsel, and then the Hero cut down my last Saurus and the Lord finally killed the Bastiladon, having held up a 300-400 point Lord up for several turns. SIXTH ROUND: My Carnosaur FINALLY gets that Charge he's wanted all game, hitting the Bretonnian Lord, who challenges. I'm pretty defense-heavy, so I go for it. We promptly spend two turns getting into an ineffectual slap-fight that results in neither of us getting hurt (I do one wound, but he soon heals it with Life Magic). At least I got +2 for Charging. The Stegadon rolls REALLY well on his Impact Hits (I almost ALWAYS roll five or six- this was a six), while the Scar-Veteran kills the last Pegasus Knight (the combat is literally Grail Knights/Pegasus Knights versus 20+ Saurus, Scar-Veteran, Oldblood & Carnosaur, and Ancient Stegadon- it is UGLY). In his last turn, the Prophetess tries a spell, but gets Irresistable Force, getting +2 Toughness again, but hitting a Large Template Strength 10 Hit, demolishing 2-3 Grail Knights (and wounding my Oldblood)! He charges the Peasant Bowmen into the flank of the Saurus... which turns out to be a mistake. Despite the +3 for Rear Charging, he forgot that Saurus are ULTRA-ELITE Core Infantry, and I turn around and do TEN WOUNDS to his helpless peasants, pretty much turning the whole combat into an easy rout. The Stegadon finally getting a Thunderstomp off on something does ANOTHER bunch of wounds, and I win the combat handily by this point. The Grail Knights & Bowmen flee in the last turn, earning me the battle. In the Centre, I FINALLY kill the last Knight with my Temple Guard, but the Grail Pilgrims charge my flank again- thankfully, the Hippogriff Lord fails his long-range Charge ("that's the game", my opponent says- this was before his Grail Knights fell apart). END RESULT: Lizardmen win a Massacre- 3,440 to 1,471
Yeah, Bretonnians are a lot like High Elves- exceptionally deadly in the opening phases, but not so good once stuck into combat. Battle Summation: Large battles are a tricky thing at times- individual combats mean less, and entire routs can matter less than in short matches. Magic only ever mattered for our buffs, and oddly, my SLANN was utterly useless- I rarely got anything in the way of spells off, and my only real target was the Grail Pilgrims a lot of the time. My big units were an issue against and army with such skinny units, because he could maneuver easily while I had to spend several turns wheeling around. In general, I won due to plain dumb luck and a lot of hard-to-break troops- I made an INSANE number of Predatory Fighter attacks (seriously, I was often getting 4-5 extra attacks EVERY SINGLE TIME), a lot of 5+ Armour Saves, and only one big unit failed their Break Test (the Skroxigor in their second round fighting on the flank). Since our Army got a bit nerfed in the new rulebook (justifiably so, I think- we were a BIT too dominant in certain aspects), things like Predatory & Cold-Blooded are all the more important, and turn easy losses into wins- if my big 34-Strong Saurus hadn't had the Crown of Command (just about the most amazing item in the entire game) and Cold-Blooded, I probably would have broken in one of the two of the lost combats, and my Carnosaur & Stegadon couldn't have charged. Other stuff: the Knights are a bit too expensive, which leads to them being badly outnumbered. The Pilgrims are tough to break (Leadership 8 with a Hero around) and effectively held off my best unit (the TG) for a good while. Unit By Unit: Slann- Hard to say- he didn't do anything on his own (his spells didn't even go off, really- doesn't help that I forgot he could cast through Skinks), but in terms of being a Ld. 9 General/BSB, he was handy (I certainly noticed how poor his positioning was when other units had to do without him), and you NEED a Level 4 to counter enemy spellcasting. Oldblood on Carnosaur- Well I guess chasing off the Knights Errant was good, but his complete "doing stuff" alottment was doing one easily-healed wound to the Lord. He had decent positioning, but just couldn't make any of his charges and got out of position, only hitting someone in the Sixth Round. Scar-Veteran in TG Unit- He killed 2-3 guys a turn (even Knights!). I always put a combat guy in the TG, and this is why. Scar-Veteran in Saurus Unit- Crown of Command is a game-changer. Every army should have one of these- it can make the Bretonnian Anti-Rank Banner ineffective, and turns routs into "you can probably pass on Cold-Blooded Ld. 8". Skink Priest on Stegadon- Well he SURVIVED the Pegasus Knight charge, and then was instrumental in helping out the Grail Knight combat and eventually helped rout the Peasant Bowmen. His Spells did little else and he only got Impact Hits once. But his BIG effect was getting the Wyssan's Wildform off TWICE, making my Saurus S 5, T 5 fighters! Skink Priest- Didn't do too much and got killed. He was a decent Scroll Caddy, though. Skink Chief on Terradon- HHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH EGG OF QUANGO! Ten wounds! Pretty much turned that whole combat around. He died soon after, but was greatly effective for his points-cost. 34 Saurus- Didn't do too much killing, since Grail Knights are TOUGH to kill (they kept getting +2 Toughness, too). But killing 10 Bowmen in one round is pretty sweet. 25 Saurus w/ Spears- VERY killy and went down to a man fighting a tough combat against a Peasant Tarpit that also involved a Lord on a Monster. Considering there was no character in there, they did quite well. Skroxigor Unit- Not very good, but it's my own fault for getting them flank-charged. Failing to rally didn't help- only one Kroxigor could fight! They never got to even fight a Knight. 13 Skinks- Actually a bit of a game-winner- if they hadn't been in the way of the Grail Knights, they could have easily charged my Saurus along with the Grail Knights. Instead, they had to beat the Skinks FIRST, THEN charge the Saurus, who by that point had already been charged by a full unit who had to link up to as many models as possible, leaving only the tip free for charging. This is the kind of reason to take Skinks. Also they killed a Grail Knight and a Knight Errant with poison, which is always funny. Temple Guard- One of their non-winningest games, but killing the Knights despite a Rear Charge is something a lot of units could never do. Stubborn means they'll pretty much never break (especially with a BSB). Chameleon Skinks- Did one wound to a Hippogriff (which got healed with Life Magic). Kind of useless in a game without Chaff or lone models/War Machines (we play VERY differently from Tournament Armies, as you can probably tell). Bastiladon- Got to flank charge some Peasants, and then took an insane amount of attacks from a powerful Lord & Hippogriff for 3 rounds of combat before dying, saving a whole combat. This basically meant that this super-expensive Lord and his Tarpit couldn't do anything on an entire flank. Never underestimate these cheap, low-Strength Monsters. Razordons- Pretty ineffective, especially since the Knights had that 10-point Banner. Killed about 2 Knights total. Salamanders- I wasn't expecting it (they were a final addition to the army), but they killed almost half a unit of Knights Errant, made the Pegasus Knights Fearful, then got a Flank Charge. Overall, I think the Bretonnians need to be a bit cheaper and maybe get some neat new things (most armies have several combos for "Synergy", while Brets only have Peasant using Knight Leadership and sub-par Wizards- possibly the worst in the game now). But they're still quite competitive. They just need to get over that hump of killing whole units on the Charge- armies like ours are pretty much the worst possible fights for Brets, because we have the best Leadership in the game.