Spoiler: Army lists === Mortezuma's Curse [1500 pts] Warhammer: The Old World, Lizardmen === ++ Characters [744 pts] ++ Mortezuma [405 pts] - Hand weapon - General - Lore Familiar - Ruby Ring of Ruin - Higher State Of Mind - Necromancy Saurus Scar-Veteran [339 pts] - Great weapon - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Battle Standard Bearer - Carnosaur - Talisman of Protection - Armour of Meteoric Iron ++ Core Units [376 pts] ++ 10 Skink Skirmishers [55 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Shields - Light armour (Calloused hides) - Vanguard 20 Saurus Warriors [321 pts] - Thrusting spears - Shields - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Spawn Leader (champion) - Standard bearer - Musician ++ Special Units [180 pts] ++ Bastiladon [180 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Thunderous bludgeon - Solar Engine - Fourth Skink crew member ++ Rare Units [200 pts] ++ Troglodon [200 pts] - Venomous talons - Vnom spray - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Skink Oracle with hand weapon (required) --- Created with "Old World Builder" [https://old-world-builder.com] He brought - Level 4 sorcerer on a dragon, magic item was a pendant with a 4+ ward - unit of spearmen with a banner that helped leadership - unit of crossbowmen - 5 cold one riders, champion with a wizarding hat and magic banner for combat res - master on a chariot with banner for combat res For his dark magic he rolled a 1234 which means he didn't have very good spells Mortezuma my Slann narratively loves to twist the minds of the lesser races by combining his magic with large dinosaurs. This was the scenario in which we had to capture the castle, we made some slightly custom rules to favour infantry and away we went. Deployment and turn 1 I was happy with deployment. The skinks were going to hit the crossbowmen, the carnosaur wanted the dragon, the Slann and bastiladon would hit the cold one knights with their magic missiles and the Saurus would handle the chariot However turn 1 I had made some amateur mistakes. The Troglodon needed to be within 15 of the cold one knights to cast unquiet spirits and he wasn't, so I couldn't cast. Worse, I'd managed to leave him exactly in range of the dragon (I didn't realise they were fly 10, gees). I'd somehow managed to miscount 29-4 and the bastiladon was too far away to magic missile either. In his turn the dragon charged the Troglodon. Rolled reasonably well and took it down before the trog got a chance to fight back. It followed up away from the carnosaurs charge arc. The dragon reforms to face the carnosaur. I figure I'll get out of there. This dragon is crazy good and delaying it seems to be best choice. The carnosaur takes two wounds from the arrows, now on 4. Things looked grim! Turn 2 - me My hexes failed to be cast, now and pretty much for the entire game they either won't cast or won't do anything useful. The carnosaur charges the spearmen. There is a challenge on in the middle and the carnosaur causes the unit to FBIGO. The skinks knock a few crossbowmen off. Unquiet Spirits is cast with it claiming two cold one knights! Suddenly the unit is less scary. The bastiladon also gets solar engine off, but 4 shots only and the two that wound are both saved. Ouch. Spiritual Vortex is out and affecting the stupid. Turn 2 - him Stupidity strikes thanks to the template! Nice when magic does something. The chariot charges the Saurus, I think in retrospect we made a mistake as the chariot didn't have swiftstride but anyway it did this charge. Issue a challenge and we FBIGO (wish I had shieldwall) and ready for next turn. His dragon shoots some magic missiles ineffectually. The carnosaur wins combat and is off the table, but takes another wound, now on 3. The crossbowmen wheel and shoot the skinks. Turn 3 - me Carnosaur appears again ready to hit the war machine. Uniquet Spirits claims another 2 cold ones. Just the champion left. Skinks whittle down the crossbowmen. The bastiladon charges the chariot. He doesn't roll well with impact hits, we do some wounds. Overall we win and his chariot gives ground, bastiladon follows up. Spearmen get ready to get hit by the dragon. Turn 3 - him Stupidity strikes again at a poor time, he wants to charge my Slann (which I thought I'd hidden but hadn't) Combat doesn't happen as he uses his conveyance to take his chariot out! Crossbowmen take another wound off the carnosaur, now on 2, oh dear. He makes, I think, his first tactical error and puts the dragon next to the Saurus unit. His idea is he can breath weapon and still be available to cast magic and dispel. Probably should have just charged the unit. And when he does this I have a moment of inspiration.... Turn 4 - me My Slann charges the dragon! I'll lock him into combat with ethereal for the game! The dragon is scared of the Slann and decides to flee haha. I can't catch him, so a lot hinges on next turns rally test. Carnosaur takes out the Warmachine and moves closer to the action. Turn 4 - him Cold one charges and dies to carnosaur. Chariot stupids again, really lucky for me. Dragon charges the Saurus and smashes them. They FBIGO but I'll have to get lucky on his stomps if I have a chance to last one more turn Turn 5 - me Carnosaur charges the chariot. The Master uses his hand weapon and does the two remaining wounds... With 4x5+ saves I manage to literally save the last one, the carnosaur is on a single wound and kills the chariot. Phew. Dragon charges the Saurus and smashes them. They FBIGO but I'll have to get lucky on his stomps if I have a chance to last one more turn Turn 6 Skinks can't kill the last of the bowmen but can claim the objective (unit strength 10 to unit strength 5 of dragon) Dragon wipes out all the Saurus It's 751 to 1220 for a comfortable win to lizards Breakdown My opponent thinks he needs to pack more power to take on a list like mine. I think he would win 6 of 10 games. He got very unlucky with stupidity and I got lucky with my magic all game. He had the worst dark magic spells and the dragon probably could have done more damage with (a) facing the troops not the carnosaur on turn 1, and (b) charging the Saurus the first time he had the chance. With 9 wounds I can't see how I could kill that thing. The more I think about it the more I think it was a minor miracle I won. The carnosaur is on one wound, if it died it would be a draw (and if that meant the chariot lived he would win) meanwhile the dragon is totally untouched and would table the entire army if the game went on. Necromancy is obviously not a good lore for us but it's my absolute favourite from a flavour perspective, and bringing big dinosaurs helps. Funnily enough, attacking leadership worked on their stupidity. We can only remember once instance where the spell actually caused it, most was bad dice rolling. Obviously for 15 points I could ditch the crap trog for the good stegadon but I'm trying to balance power here, not race to the top.