With my failure as to the Necromantic infantry army I decided to move on and make a slightly better list. I asked my opponent about power level, but he was running a dragon and a ruby ring so I figured I would take list I saw as better. ++ Characters [764 pts] ++ Slann Mage-Priest [400 pts] - Hand weapon - General - Battle Standard Bearer - Ruby Ring of Ruin - Higher State Of Mind - Elementalism Saurus Oldblood [364 pts] - Great weapon - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Carnosaur - Talisman of Protection - Armour of Meteoric Iron ++ Core Units [527 pts] ++ 21 Saurus Warriors [336 pts] - Thrusting spears - Shields - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Spawn Leader (champion) - Standard bearer - Musician 12 Skink Skirmishers [65 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Shields - Light armour (Calloused hides) - Vanguard 11 Skink Skirmishers [55 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Shields - Light armour (Calloused hides) 11 Skink Skirmishers [71 pts] - Hand weapons - Blowpipes - Light armour (Calloused hides) - Patrol Leader (champion) ++ Special Units [509 pts] ++ Bastiladon [180 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Thunderous bludgeon - Solar Engine - Fourth Skink crew member 4 Kroxigors [203 pts] - Great weapons - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Ancient (champion) 3 Ripperdactyl Riders [126 pts] - Cavalry spears - Shields - Light armour (Calloused hides) - Ripperdactyl Champion ++ Rare Units [200 pts] ++ Troglodon [200 pts] - Venomous talons - Vnom spray - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Skink Oracle with hand weapon (required) --- He had - cold.one knights - repeater crossbow - witch elf character with a ruby ring and some magic armour - spearmen - crossbowmen - sorcerer general on a dragon with a 4+ ward against st5+ otherwise a 5+ ward - Executioners - corsairs Deployment I do enjoy the deployment phase. I did not realise that characters are dropped last! This makes my "run 11 blowpipes at something big so they can be charged" less viable. Overall my plan was to - use the carnosaur to rip through the cold ones and then flank into his army - harras with the skinks - his assailment spell was the only thing that could hurt the Slann but even so try to stay out of vision arcs - don't target the dragon. Try to delay it and make him struggle to get points back. - use troglodon to get outside dispel range so hammerhands can work - Slann spells wind blast, plague of rust, vortex and monsoon (I did not realise you can't vortex on a unit! That makes them a lot more ordinary) - that board was cramped with my deployment! Turn 1, me Just ran forward, threw a few javs with my vanguard. Bastiladon fails to cast. Turn 1, him I gave him a chance of making the cold one charge but it didn't work. He moved forward and shot. His crossbow hit my rippers for 3 wounds killing one, causing a panic which they FBIGO off table so... They're gone! Things are not looking good. Turn 2, me My carnosaur made the charge and killed his champ. He had a musician and I only won combat by 1, phew. He gave ground and I followed up. The troglodon charged corsairs and made it. Didn't get hammerhands off (for the entire game) but some decent rolling (and him on 6's to wound) mean we won combat by 1 or 2 after taking a wound. They FBIGO and we followed up. Both ruby rings did nothing the entire game. 24 inch dispel range of wizards in middle made it so. My vanguard forest skinks did some clever skirmish manoeuvre to ensure the witch character was their closest target. Did 3 wounds and bam, character is dead. Big result and I like where I am. Magic vortexes do nothing entire game. Plague of rust works and does little. Bastiladon isn't going to get a shot off now dragon is in range. Turn 2, him His shooting is underwhelming. His dragon charges the bastiladon and wipes it out in a turn. He faces my Slann (a mistake I think, it's too easy for me to get out of vision arc compared to say the Saurus block). His executioners hit my Kroxigor. It's not a good match up for him, I can't remember who won this turn but it was very close and now his champion is dead and mine isn't. It's a bad match up as they are Monsterous infantry. My troglodon again wins combat by doing 3 wounds (takes 1) and a bad roll and no BSB means they flee and are run down! Go troglodon! The corsairs open order, lack of ranks, and st3 was a bad match up for them. My carnosaur doesn't take a wound and kills all four cold ones. I was worried about being stuck there with a 2+ save but nope, it is frenzied so charges down the board but reforms. Turn 3, me My carno charges and kills the bolt thrower, overruns (frenzy) and reforms My Slann runs away and my blowpipes prepare for a dragon charge My Kroxigor do very well against the executioners. Executiones FBIGO through the skinks and take more damage. Krox should still be in combat but we stuffed up the rules and think they fail to follow up FBIGO because there is no room for them to be in combat. The troglodon charges the bowmen. The hammerhands is a critical mistcast and we both take a wound, (trog with 2 left). It wins combat and thanks to the rear charge the crossbow men flee and the trog runs them down. Wow. It's obvious at this point the game is slipping out of his hands. Can the dragon save it? Turn 3, him The dragon has no legal charge charge targets except the blowpipes which will take it further out of the game so he wheels and puts it in the centre of the board. The spearman just manage a charge on the blowpipes losing 3, winning combat and we FBIGO and they follow up. The skinks manage to last against the executioners only giving ground. Turn 4, me The troglodon makes the charge into the last of the executioners and wipes them out. What a game it has had! The blowpipes lose, flee and are run down Otherwise I prep for the incoming dragon as so... Turn 4, him He shocks me by charging the carnosaur with his dragon! I thought it was because he thought the game was over and wanted to see how the match up would be. But I think he didn't realise how tooled the carno is against monsters. I roll very well and the carno does 6 wounds (old blood zero) and we win combat. Turn 5, me The carnosaur takes his first wound (my armour saves have been very lucky) but the dragon is killed. So that's game with a big win. I think it can mostly be explained as follows with 3 notes A) I had the luck. Maybe not hugely but I made 5/6 armour of meteoric iron checks. 4/6 troglodon to hit rolls when it mattered and a few wounds off the oracle. All my leadership checks. B) my deployment. His cold ones should have ran down the Saurus block, having them at the carnosaur was a win for me. The executioners against the Krox was a mismatch and the corsairs struggled on the trog because of their strength and lack of combat res bonuses. C) my high risk plan of ignoring the sorcerer dragon with shooting magic and charges (and we can all appreciate this was a good dragon, not a broken one) and trying to give it minimal targets managed to come off. I think charging the bastiladon was a mistake as the closer unit could have meant a follow up into the bastiladon. and afterwards trying to face my Slann was going to be difficult and he was happy to run. If the rest of the game was even too, maybe it doesn't work but by the time the dragon was back, nothing was left for him (And as a bonus, he said there was a lot of points in that witch elf character that got stuck with one round of shooting from jav skinks) My Lessons - keep bastiladon away from a caster - troglodon is almost always going to be within dispel range if the caster is in the centre - don't put the rippers right next to the edge like that - I am still suspect that magic is overall, crap. It did nothing for the game. Now I find out you can't cast a vortex on a unit, they are almost all immediately dispelled. - ruby ring not the game breaker online people think, at least not at 2000 - infantry again doesn't seem that good in TOW..my Saurus didn't even get into combat!
Thank you for the report! Sincerely i prefer a normal stegadon than a troglodon if you have a slann. The spells is good but it's hard to come by and not be dispelled. The roar is a might combo together with ripperdactyls but then you must have at least 4 of these so that they can get 3 wounds before to test. If he had equipped the lord on dragon better with ogre blade for example i doubt your carnosaur had survived....striking always first is heavy for a elf lord. I wonder also too how did he did so well while the carnosaur hit at only 5+ due the high WS of the dark elf lord. Nevermind a small suggestion, try to optimize your skinks units. 12 is better than 11 because you need 4 kills to test for panic. blowpipes have often to stand still to shoot double so is better to have a smaller unit (i play only one of 10 models, or chameleons).
The rider of a dragon was a sorcerer, which I think will explain a lot about the fight. Neither of us had ogre blades I guess we aren't abusing a half-assed rule sets in friendlys... Yet There is no doubt that the Troglodon is crap for its points but I just love the model and the lore. I love the idea of the running the trog near the rippers for the roar, although the rippers already have furious charge so it would just be the skinks that would benefit... Probably won't do anything. Also good tip on the skinks, really end up wishing our minimum unit size was 8.