8th Ed. My First Storm of Magic Game 2000 points v. HEs

Lizardmen
Slann Mage Priest, 3 Disciplines: Power die, Lore Mastery (Death), Cancel 6s, Cupped Hands
Skink Priest (blue), Cube of Darkness, Curse of the Midnight Wind
Skink Priest (Dark Green), Dispel Scroll, Uranon’s Thunderbolt
Skink Priest (light green), Scroll of Shielding, Harmonic Convergence
20 Saurus Warriors, FC
20 Saurus Warriors, FC
10 Skinks, 1 Kroxigor
10 Skink Skirmishers, Javelins, Brave
24 Temple Guard, FC, Venom of the Firefly Frog for Champion
Salamander Hunting Pack + Additional Handler
Salamander Hunting Pack + Additional Handler
Carnosaur
Stegadon
8 Cold Ones

High Elves
Level 4 Arch Mage with Shadow: Melkoth’s Mystifying Miasma, Enfeebling Foe, the Withering, Okkam’s Mindrazor (I can’t believe he got to pick two spells and didn’t take Pit of Shades).
2 Nobles, one with the BSB
~42 Spearmen, FC
10 Archers
~15 Phoenix Guard, FC, War Banner
~20 White Lions, FC Terror causing Banner
7 Shadow Warriors with Champion
2 Repeater Bolt Throwers
Wyvern with several upgrades
Zoat, Level 4 Life caster with Throne of Vines, Dwellers, Regrowth, Flesh to Stone


Set Up
I had way more drops than my friend so I got to put most of my units down in response to his setup.
All four of our fulcrums were each about as close to a corner as allowed. Each of the fulcrums was pretty much parallel to the enemy fulcrum on the other side. We didn’t want to mess with mysterious or supernatural terrain so we just had forests, a hill, and a swamp. The only terrain that affected anything besides was a forest surrounding the Zoat’s fulcrum (giving him +2 to cast).

He plunked down both his level four wizards on his fulcrums and I put my green skinks on mine.

On my left, his archmage’s fulcrum had his White Lions in front of it (with a noble in the unit) and the archers to the side of it. Facing the White Lions were my Temple Guard and Slann. My little Skroxigor block flanked the left of Temple Guard opposite the HE archers. On the right flank of the Slann was a Salamander Team.

In the center, he had a Repeater Bolt Thrower, his Wyvern, and his horde of spearmen (with his other noble). I had my skirmishers (and my blue skink priest) opposite the RBT and put the Carnosaur in front of the Wyvern. My Stegadon and Saurus block were pointed at the spearmen.

On my right he had his Zoat on a fulcrum with his Phoenix Guard in front of it. His other RBT was in a building near the edge of the board. My Salamander and second Saurus block and Cold Ones were opposite the Phoenix Guard and Zoat. I had spread my forces across most the table but not wide enough to prevent him from putting his Shadow Warriors in my lower right corner. I won the roll off and went first.

My plan was to kill the archmage with my Slann then have the skink skirmishers escort my blue skink priest to the open fulcrum. I didn’t think I had a good shot at dislodging the Zoat without the Slann but I made a token effort to take it anyway figuring his Pheonix Guard would assault me first if I didn’t. My opponents plan was to stay put, beat off any assaults on his fulcrums and then use Magical Duel to dislodge my puny skinks.

Note I play with scroll caddies so seldom I forgot I had a dispel scroll, cube of darkness, and scroll of shielding until turn four. At that point the game was functionally over.

LM Turn 1
My frenzying Cold Ones were forced to take a charge that would have required double 6s and naturally failed. I originally planned my Salamander team near my left fulcrum to take a shot on the giant horde of spearmen, but I didn’t the Shadow Warriors to have a free shot at one of my fulcrums so I moved the Salamander to block them. The rest of my troops marched forward.

Skinks dominated my first magic phase Everything the Slann cast was dispelled. I cast Uranon’s Thunderbolt on the Shadow Warriors and killed four. My blue skink priest cast Fantastic Foresight and triggered a miscast, he then lost a wizard level and became an overpriced skink skirmisher without a javelins.

The skinks weren’t in shooting range of anything yet. One Salamander hit the remaining Shadow Warriors but failed to wound them. The other Salamander killed a single white lion (stupid lion pelts giving them lucky saves on 6+).

HE Turn 1
The Wyvern charged my Carnosaur. The archers advanced to get into short range of my Skroxigor. The rest of the HE units stayed put.

He cast Throne of Vines, but I dispelled it. He got dwellers off with IF and killed six Saurus Warriors. The Zoat lost a wizard level from the miscast and lost use of the Dwellers spell for the game (hah!). The arcane fulcrum miscast moved his fulcrum even farther into the corner. The bad news is the fulcrum was now farther away from my troops and thus harder to assault. It did push the fulcrum out of the forest preventing his Zoat from getting the bonuses which was nice. He cast unbinding on my Stegadon, but all it did was give my Steggy Frenzy . He cast the augmented version of Miasma on my Temple Guard and gave them -3 to all the associated traits. I forget what his last spell was because I dispelled it.

The Shadow Warriors killed a Salamander handler. One Repeater Bolt Thrower killed two Cold Ones with a volley the other shot a bolt at my Stegadon and missed. The archers killed two or three skinks off my Kroxigor block.

The Wyvern wounded my Carnosaur who failed to score a single hit in return. My Carnosaur barely held. Note to self, keep SOM Carnosaurs in range of the General’s leadership in the future.

LM Turn 2
I wanted to charged the White Lions with my Temple Guard but they were currently at WS 1 due to the Miasma so I decided discretion was the better part of valour. The rest of my troops showed no such discretion.

The frenzying Cold Ones charged the Phoenix Guard. One Salamander team charged the Shadow Warriors. One Saurus block tried to back up the Cold Ones with a charge of their own and failed. The other Saurus warrior block successfully charged the flank of the Wyvern. I was worried about the Saurus exposing their flank to the spearmen, so I positioned the Stegadon to make a supporting charge if necessary. My skirmishers charged the nearest bolt thrower.

The Magic Wheel was on Death this turn so my Death Slann really had fun. I cast all three sniping spells at the arch mage. All the spells were either dispelled or did no damage. Running out of things to do I cast Soulblight and Doom and Darkness on the White Lions in case they felt like charging me. A skink priest cast Harmonic Convergence on my Cold Ones figuring they needed all the help they could get. One of my skinks tried casting Let the Four Winds Blow but whiffed the roll.

The crew of the Bolt Thrower killed a skink skirmisher and the skinks inflicted no wounds in return.

The remaining three Shadow Warriors inflicted a wound on the Salamander on their stand and shoot, but the Shadow Warriors failed their Fear tests and thus were easily reduced to their last model and broken. They ran off the board. I failed to restrain pursuit with my Salamander and it nearly ran off the board. They might as well have ran off the board because they were functionally removed from the rest of the battle.

The Wyvern decided to go after Sauri instead of attacking Carnosaur and killed a few. Making up for his abysmal rolls last time, the Carnosaur inflicted enough wounds to kill the Wyvern twice over. The Saurus didn’t even get to lift a blade. My victorious units reformed to face the Spearmen.

My other dinos fared far worse. The Phoenix Guard killed four Cold Ones, the Cold Ones killed one or two Phoenix Guard in retaliation, then lost combat, broke and were ran down. The Pheonix Guard’s pursuit brought them into contact with the block of my Saurus (the one once hit by the Zoat’s Dwellers). Note to Self: If you ever decide to take Ld 3 troops again, don’t let them lose the general’s Ld bubble

HE Turn 2
The White Lions charged my Temple Guard, the rest of the elf forces didn’t move.

I had forgotten to apply Becalming Cognition last turn but I remembered this turn. First I dispelled another Miasma he threw at my Temple Guard. Then he decided he wanted to do most of his spellcasting from the Zoat from then on out so as not to lose his 6s. I dispelled Throne of Vines again. Then he cast Flesh to Stone on his spearmen horde. He used his remaining power dice to dispel my RIP spells: Doom and Darkness and Fantastic Foresight.

His archers killed a few more skinks. His unengaged RPT tried to shoot a bolt at the flank of a Saurus block and missed.

The Phoenix Guard killed a few Saurus and I killed nothing. I lost CR by a few points and held. Due to the fact that this combat came from pursuing a Salamander as opposed to a regular charge, only a few of our troops were in base to base combat so I rolled Ld to reform so as to put max Sauri in base contact.

My Skink Skirmishers killed the RBT crew they were fighting and reformed to point towards the Archmage’s fulcrum.

LM Turn 3
My Salamanders on the left side of the board charged the flank of the archers. My little Skroxigor block charged the flank of the White Lions engaging my Temple Guard. My remaining Saurus block, Stegadon, and Carnosaur all successfully charged the spearmen horde. My Skirmishers moved closer to the Archmage’s fulcrum to get a short range shot. My isolated Salamander team tried to move towards enemies again.

He dispelled my attempt to recast Fantastic Foresight. Three Death direct damage and a Uranon’s Thunderbolt later, I finally put my first wound on the elven arch mage. I cast Soulblight and Doom and Darkness on the White Lions again.

My skirmishers threw javelins at the arch mage only to discover that he was wearing Folariath’s Robe and thus was immune to all non-magical attacks (being a HE fan myself, I should have seen it coming). I would have needed to roll a ten to hit the RBT unengaged Salamander, so I decided not to bother shooting since I had a better chance of eating skinks than wounding an enemy.

Salamanders continue to show their worth, just not with shooting. The flanking unit broke the archers and ran them off the table though they were brought down to their last wound in the process.

My Saurus warriors fighting the Phoenix Guard did especially well and we actually tied that combat. Anytime LM Core can fight HE elites to a draw is a very good day.

My Stegadon, Carnosaur, and 20 Saurus Warriors took a heavy toll on the Spearmen. Even with Flesh to Stone, the poor guys were clearly outmatched. I killed just enough spearmen to deny them Steadfast. Despite having the BSB, they couldn’t hold. I ran them down with my frenzying dinos while my Saurus repositioned to point at the distant Zoat’s fulcrum (since the much nearer arch mage was immune to non-magical attacks).

The White Lions, temporarily hitting at S5 due to the Soulblight targeted as many skinks as they could figuring they’d be easier pickings than the Temple Guard. I lost a three skinks, but thanks to the Soulblight and good rolls, they answered back two kills, so they contributed positive CR with the flank charge factored in. Temple Guard made an even better accounting for themselves this turn. I won combat by a wide margin. White Lions are stubborn though and the elves from Chrace held on.

HE Turn 3
He didn’t have anything alive and not engaged in close combat apart from his wizards and a bolt thrower. His surviving bolt thrower volley put another wound on a Salamander.

First he cast Throne of Vines. He got such a fantastic casting roll I didn’t bother dispelling it. Then he cast Storm of Renewal. I didn’t bother dispelling that either because it was going to hit my unit too. The spell brought back six Phoenix Guard and seven Saurus warriors basically undoing the last two close combat rounds we fought. He also dispelled the Doom and Darkness I put on the White Lions. I dispelled everything else he tried.

After the healing, the Sauri and Pheonix Guard resumed their battle. They whittled each other down some more with neither side breaking. My Temple Guard, Kroxigor and two surviving Skinks wiped out the last of the White Lions.

LM Turn 4
I maneuvered my Carnosaur to be within charging range of the Zoat next turn. My Stegadon pointed the rear of the Pheonix Guard hoping to help the Saurus kill off that irritating unit once and for all. I got sick of my death spells not killing the arch mage,so I charged my Temple Guard into the fulcrum hoping the champion with Venom of the Firefly could get the job done where spells have failed.

Before my magic phase happened, my opponent’s car pool buddy convinced him to just concede so they could go home.

My friend thought he still might pull and underdog victory off because he still had both his fulcrums. It was at this point that I finally realized that I hadn’t use my Cube or Scrolls yet, so his odds of knocking my Skink Priests off with Magical Duel were remote.

Interesting to see how it went, he must have been lucky with his ward saves on the Archmage to take all that punishment.

Anton_S said:

Interesting to see how it went, he must have been lucky with his ward saves on the Archmage to take all that punishment.

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That was part of it. He also focused his dispels to stopping my Death Magic. Every time I tried Spirit Leech he won the Ld roll off as well.