Ok so both my brother and I will be making a Lizardmen list with no Slann and taking turns playing against the Dark Elf list and a WoC list as well. But as a very fast experiment in using core I played out a battle using only saurus warriors, to be exact I had the following army list
*Note - Some descriptions are brief and do not accurately describe the tactical decisions made and instead focus on end results, dice were random and helped in some key areas or hurt in others but did not swing in either armies favor decidedly. It was a fun match and I'm glad I had enough saurus to actually field this many
Core
3x Saurus Scar Veterans, LA, SH
20x Saurus FC, HWS
20x Saurus FC, HWS
20x Saurus FC, HWS
20x Saurus FC, HWS
20x Saurus FC, HWS
20x Saurus FC, HWS
20x Saurus FC, HWS
20x Saurus FC, HWS
20x Saurus FC, HWS
They were all arranged 8 wide for a unit structure of 8,8,4
We rolled for a straight up fight and had terrain pre-selected. One building and a marsh on the centerline, one wood and hill on each side, and 2 obstacles on the flanks.
Deployment
Dark Elves deployed two groups of riders to each flank, warlocks and big rider group to the center, RBTs had clear shooting channels from the back and since the lizardmen had no shooting the casters and dread lord on Pegasus were on their own with the dread lord on steed in the warlock unit, and the master with the big rider group. The idea was to shoot and use magic on the flank units of saurus and when maneuvering got too tight to charge in with the warlocks and riders to crush some center blocks to allow fast calvary to get behind the lizardmen.
Lizardmen deployed 8 units across the width of the board 1” off the 12” mark and keeping 1” between them and the table edges, and then one unit behind the first line. The idea was to see if I could weather 3-4 turns of shooting and magic before getting to charge everything on the board, not a very tactical idea but remember this was to see how long it would take a tournament army to deal with a 100% core army.
Turn 1
Dark Elves:
Movement: Riders all moved up to just within 12” range, as fast cavalry there was little risk in connecting a charge against them and they could easily rally and fire again next turn. The warlocks stayed back a bit at 16” away from the saurus.
Magic: Well as luck would have it they rolled a snake eyes on the winds of magic (Oh yeah, morathi had the doombolt, miasma, spirit leech and doom and darkness spells. Life caster had throne of vines, regen, regrowth and dwellers below). So with two dice morathi decided to cast spirit leech and caused one wound on a scar vet.
Shooting: Ok this is where I get awfully surprised and honestly a little shocked through the whole game, turns out saurus make very bad pin cushions. Probably could have been different with a boosted soulblight but that just didn’t take this game and so we have the following: All the riders needed 5’s to hit and 5’s to wound, each flank was focusing on one saurus block hoping to open up a lane (It was vitally important to allow the dark elves access around the lizardmen). But with roughly 28x shots per side they were only causing 1-3 wounds on each block per turn after saves, and the RBTs just didn’t have the ability to cause serious damage either, they had 3 total shots so one always missed, sometimes two, the ones that hit on average did 2 wounds. There was a maximum of 3 ranks but between rolling a 1 to wound on the one of the ranks it just was not impressive and I don’t think they even got their points worth in models killed. So honestly I’m going to gloss over this phase most of the time, run your own numbers if you want but the outcome was appalling for the dark elves tactically and in the end they did not open up any gaps in the lizardmen formation.
Combat: None
Lizardmen:
Movement: No charges, knowing that they could not catch the dark elves they decided to wait it out until they were close enough to the back of the board that fleeing would force the riders to go off the board so that charges could be made successfully.
Magic: none
Shooting: none
Combat: none
Turn 2
Dark Elves:
Movement: Being 4” away from saurus was not safe so they once again backed up, the riders and warlocks set up for charges on the next turn in case shooting once again failed (As I said it was shocking and not at all bad rolling, so they decided that Morathi was going to kill all the characters and using the warlocks and dark elf characters crush two units in the middle allowing that vital space for maneuvering). The whole game the casters were left alone and free to do whatever they wanted so I’m not really going to touch on them.
Magic: Well they made up for last round and rolled a 5,5 on winds of magic. Morathi cast spirit leech which killed the scar vet, warlocks tried casting boosted soulblight but that was dispelled barely, doom and darkness on a unit (Hoping to cause panic in shooting phase) and doombolt causing 2 wounds on a flank unit.
Shooting: didn’t cause a panic test, RBTs only hit once and caused 2 wounds, saurus saved really well on the wounds caused by riders. Not a big dice swing just kind of cementing for both players that saurus take the shooting phase really well.
Combat: none
Lizardmen:
Movement: Once again everyone moved up 8”, I should note that due to very clever placement of units the dark elves did not once suffer from any terrain, no dangerous terrain check, no shooting penalties, and no LoS issues. The saurus being infantry ignored most of these as well and just marched through the marsh losing 3 models on right most flank unit. Also units were angled to make flank charges on the off chance that anyone was able to take a charge and stay.
Magic: none
Shooting: none
Combat: none
Turn 3
Dark Elves:
Movement: It became very obvious at this point that if the lizardmen were able to make one more march move without having a gap in their line that every unit without a dread lord was going to be crushed. But that wasn’t going to happen, shooting is one thing and close combat is another with some tooled out characters and ASF units. So the warlocks charged in with their dreadlord, and the 8x riders unit charged in with their master along with the dread lord on Pegasus, they both hit a center block of 20x saurus, one of which had a scar vet. The other riders backed up enough so that charges could not be made against them, this made them long ranged but shooting was crap anyways and they couldn’t risk running off the board with a flee reaction (10” flee would have done it at a safe flee distance from saurus).
Magic: This was going to be good, the dark elves just needed that boosted soulblight, everything else was gravy, sadly the winds played fickle and they rolled a 2,1. So instead Morathi used 2 dice to kill another scar vet and life caster failed to put regen on the riders.
Shooting: Crap
Combat: Here is where things really get good, now I will say the dice played fairly well this game with no crazyiness for the most part, the winds of magic were oddly poor or great and a couple sets of rolls were awesome but usually balanced out with the next roll. So on to the meat of this phase, the dread lord and warlocks, the lord hit and wounded with all 4 attacks which was nice, and the saurus only saved 1 with parry, the warlocks waded into the party hitting with all attacks, only 1 poison though, and causing 8 wounds, of these 4 saved by armor and 1 by parry, horses did nothing. Saurus now down to 13 struck back at the warlocks with 23 attacks including PF causing 12 wounds of which 6 got through. CR was +9 for the dark elves and +8 for the saurus, they held easily (This combat surprised me, I have since played it out 3 more times and although some things change the saurus always are still there and one time won the round). The next fight was with the lord, master and 8x riders, the characters killed 4 saurus and the riders killed 1, again horses did nothing, peg killed 1. The saurus struck back with 14 left alive and reduced the riders down to four and doing no wounds on either character, the CR was dark elves +7 and saurus +6, the saurus stayed.
Lizardmen:
Movement: Well surprise, both units stayed so those flank charges happened, the other units all moved up in a graduated pattern so that the other rider units could not move outside of their flank sights but they were still well within charge range for next round, the one unit behind moved up to cover down on the dwindling saurus units in the front combat arc.
Magic: none
Shooting: none
Combat: Ok so a lot happened but the highlights are this, lord with warlocks killed 3 saurus and the warlocks themselves killed 1, the saurus took out 3 warlocks and wounded the lord (double 1 armor save) and saurus won combat but the elves stayed. In the other combat the lord and master killed 4 saurus (parry saves are amazing) and the riders killed nothing (5’s to wound with a 4+ AS stopped them easily) the saurus killed the remaining 4 riders, this left CR as such, dark elves +4 and saurus +8. The Elves fled and were run down by the saurus, all I can say to this is run your own numbers because it seems nuts but I played it out a couple times and this is the most likely scenario I found.
Turn 4
Dark Elves:
Movement: The Riders tried running around the sides of the saurus trying for as much distance as possible hoping for low charge rolls, also one unit almost charged the saurus in the flank fighting the warlock unit but they realized that they would only be adding to the saurus CR that way.
Magic: Rolled a 4,4 so on to the pain. Morathi killed the last scar vet, life caster got throne of vines and cast regrowth on warlocks getting 2 back, next spell dispelled.
Shooting: Utter crap (Again not because of dice, just wow are saurus resilient when they are not debuffed)
Combat: Remaining Lord caused 4 wounds 1 was saved by parry, the warlocks caused 1 unsaved wound. Saurus responded by killing 2 warlocks leaving 1 left. CR = dark elves +4 saurus +5, elves stay.
Lizardmen:
Movement: Charge everything! Only failed charge was against a RBT, everything else besides the two casters are now in combat. Rear unit charges dread lord and warlocks for the charge CR bonus.
Magic: none
Shooting: none
Combat: Long and very brutal phase ends with all warlocks dead, dread lord losing combat and failing break test, being run down by saurus, the same thing happens with every other rider unit except 1 and both RBTs. By the time this phase ends the only dark elf units left are morathi, lvl4 life, 3x dark riders and 1 RBT. The lizardmen have lost 3x scar vets and 0 units, 1 unit is down to 2 models and another is down to 7 models but everything else is 12+ and has reformed to kill the fleeing dark riders, remaining RBT and lvl4 life on steed (honestly with morathi flying I don’t think this army could corner her in 2 more turns but it was mute)
Turn 5
Unnecessary, it was a complete crushing victory for the lizardmen. I haven’t decided if this was just more of a rock/paper kind of thing or what but it was certainly fun and actually went against my forecasting (I thought this was going to be the 1st core army to lose). So my record with all core armies is still unbroken, feel free to Monday Quarterback any decisions, I’m sure there were things I could have done better as dark elves, it was turn 3 that really hinged this whole game and I felt that with the lack of magic and shooting opening up holes there was no other option but to try and force a breach, otherwise without combat the dark elves would have had no way to earn the VP back fast enough from having all their riders and RBTs destroyed turn 4. If I had a do over I would now know to focus on only one unit at a time with all my characters, even two is not enough to break saurus when you bring squishy CR into combat with them, heck even static CR is really hard to overcome with just 4 attacks. On average I will save 1 with a parry so 3 CR against 3 ranks (reformed after 1st round), flank, standard, charge = 6 CR means an average chance to fail, even worse if it lasted one more round with me getting a rear charge.
There was also a lot more that the lizardmen could have done with movement to force issues with the dark elves and set up things better, with 9x units I can even flee/redirect with saurus. But it was all about seeing how long it would take the dark elves to gain supremacy over a set army with a set tactic, having the tables turned was not really on the menu until after turn 3.
) of the reasons I really despise the end times. Army factions did not receive anywhere near the same level of treatment. All the bonuses seemed to go to the stronger armies, while the weaker armies received little to no attention.
