Spoiler: Army lists === Xinfernoc's Blaze [1499 pts] Warhammer: The Old World, Lizardmen === ++ Characters [714 pts] ++ Slann Mage-Priest [375 pts] - Hand weapon - General - Lore Familiar - Higher State Of Mind - Battle Magic Saurus Scar-Veteran [339 pts] - Great weapon - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Battle Standard Bearer - Carnosaur - Armour of Meteoric Iron - Talisman of Protection ++ Core Units [414 pts] ++ 20 Saurus Warriors [314 pts] - Thrusting spears - Shields - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Spawn Leader (champion) - Standard bearer 10 Skink Skirmishers [50 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Shields - Light armour (Calloused hides) 10 Skink Skirmishers [50 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Shields - Light armour (Calloused hides) ++ Special Units [371 pts] ++ 4 Kroxigors [196 pts] - Great weapons - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) Bastiladon [175 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Thunderous bludgeon - Solar Engine --- He had: Small units of lesser knights Big unit of good knights with a hero and BSB and lady level 2 3 Pegasus knights Lots of levies We got the battle where you set up 18 inches apart and it's game over when you hit 25% unit strength for the army Deployment I like how I've deployed. I am all guns blazing trying to avoid their charges and hoping my skinks can help My general plan is to avoid and minimise the knights and let the carno do the work. The Slann is going to get into combat with hammerhands (conveyance, fireball and the template) Turn 1 - me I move up. Bastiladon fails to cast. Skinks shooting is average but takes one knight out. Fireball does a wound to his general. (So I was expecting to hit the knights but I moved behind the carnosaur and the LOS was blocked) The template gets off too. Turn 1 - him His Pegasus knights and knights errant get into the skinks. His good knights tried too and failed. Stand and shoot does nothing to Pegasus but claims two errant but overall the skinks are smashed however they both FBIGO. His shooting takes a few Saurus down Turn 2 - me The bastiladon charges his big unit and hits it, needing a 4+. It wins his combat but they only GG. The Saurus charge the skirmishers but they fire and flee. The carnosaur charges the lord and is counter charged. He is confident and so am I. The carnosaur takes a wound... but kills his general. Only just but there it is. He follows up and reforms, ready to charge his knights. The Slann YOLOs and charges the Pegasus knights, also needing a 4+. The Pegasus don't do well against the skinks (I got really lucky here) and the Slann gets hammerhands off and takes one out. The Pegasus knights GG and the skinks do not follow up. Without a banner and close order he's stuck in a battle he can only draw. The Kroxigor hold, but as the skinks are wiped out the knights errant manage to pursue and charge into them. At this point I will say we got an important rule wrong. We assumed if you pursue or FBIGO pursue you have charged so you get the lance strength. This is not true as it's only on the same turn you charge. Turn 2 - him His good knights charge the Saurus and absolutely obliterate them. Fortunately they FBIGO and I'm confident because the carnosaur will get there next turn. The bastiladon wins combat and a bad break test means men-at-arms flee and basti catches them. Fails to reform though. The suprise for me is the knights errant only manage a wound on the Kroxigor and in turn the Kroxigor wipe them out and overrun. Rolls were on my side but still. His shooting does 2 more wounds against the carnosaur. Turn 3 - me The bastiladon turns around and again fails to shoot. The Kroxigor declare a charge and the men at arms decide to flee. The Slann hilariously gets hammerhands and does zero wounds. However his single attack wounds and the knights flee. I position the skinks right behind them and they take extra damage. I'm not sure if they are wiped out or if the Slann catches them but the Pegasus Knights are gone. The carnosaur charges and accepts the hero challenge. The carnosaur... Rolls really badly. He takes a wound (now on 2) and only does a wound back. The knights smash the Saurus again (admittedly this combat looks differently if we realised they don't get their lance weapon bonuses). Overall we lose combat by 1!! This means next turn the Saurus are in combat and if they all die we are losing the game. However, I ask him for a unit count and it turns out he is 3 under 25% so... Victory Lizardmen! Why did I win? Well, the decision to flee from the Kroxigor was in retrospect massive. If that unit has of FBIGO then the game would have been on, probably the Saurus die and he wins. However... Yeah without the lance strength bonuses that last combat would have looked much different. One wound difference and the carnosaur is still on combat, but the risk of losing 6(I think) Saurus is still there. Two wounds difference means I may not have followed with the Saurus and probably issued a challenge. Who knows! The dice were really swingy. I definitely had a period rolling really well and felt the luck was with me. That last combat wasn't. And I made a lot of important charges. So yes I think I had the luck overall. And still very close. Bretonnia were very good. What a game to ignore necromancy. It would have been perfect but I really liked battle magic and I think I'm a convert. Im actually writing 5 themed lists for each magic type and style. Plus an old blood with no Slann. Lessons Mostly the rules around lance! Also it was a 2 hour 45 game it was my record. Slann in combat was interesting really worked well with Ethereal but I think those knights were the ideal target. Anything with ranks and banners won't work. He's there to flank and important combat and not much else. Also i didn't pay attention to his enchantments and I think I missed some dispel attempts. Slann in combat does make that hard though. Edit - actually FAQ says we did the lance rule correctly! Also I worked out US wrong and we would have fought on for a bit longer if the Saurus unit was wiped out.
Yays! More battle reports! Congrats on the win. 3 points under 25% xD I'm glad Battle Magic worked out for you. If you enjoy YOLOing with the Slann you can consider BSB + Warbanner for him to get +3 passive combat res (not optimal but certainly a fun way to play him).
Thinking about some more lessons from yesterday's game I think 20 is a minimum for Saurus. They need to hold and they have spears and if they are 6 wide... Yeah something around 25 is better. Also I find it interesting that skinks haven't been going that well lately. They really are specialised against high toughness low armour like giants and gorgons. Lastly, I am unsure about best targets for magic. I was hitting the elite unit figuring one or two is better than 5 levies. But was it? It often didn't do anything. But then, that one wound on the general from the fireball really came in handy allowing him to die a turn earlier (and not have another show at my carnosaur). Also when dealing with Cav I might need to start investing in Shield wall for the Saurus. That would be a game changer.