Spoiler: Army lists === Xinfernoc's Hellfire [2000 pts] Warhammer: The Old World, Lizardmen === ++ Characters [759 pts] ++ Xinfernoc [345 pts] (Slann) - Hand weapon - General - Higher State Of Mind - Battle Magic (fireball, hammerhands, conveyance and the hex that causes panic) Aeontezin [260 pts] (Old Blood) - Hand weapon - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Shield - Cold One - Bedazzling Helm - Talisman of Protection - Horned One Skink Chief [154 pts] - Cavalry spear (if appropriately mounted) - Light armour (Calloused hide) - Battle Standard Bearer [Sun Standard Of Chotec] - Ripperdactyl - Charmed Shield ++ Core Units [504 pts] ++ 10 Skink Skirmishers [55 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Shields - Light armour (Calloused hides) - Vanguard 23 Saurus Warriors [389 pts] - Thrusting spears - Shields - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Shieldwall - Spawn Leader (champion) - Standard bearer - Musician 10 Skink Skirmishers [60 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Shields - Light armour (Calloused hides) - Scouts ++ Special Units [537 pts] ++ 4 Ripperdactyl Riders [166 pts] - Cavalry spears - Shields - Light armour (Calloused hides) - Ripperdactyl Champion 4 Kroxigors [196 pts] - Great weapons - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) Bastiladon [175 pts] - Hand weapons - Javelins - Thunderous bludgeon - Solar Engine ++ Rare Units [200 pts] ++ Troglodon [200 pts] - Venomous talons - Venom spray - Heavy armour (Scaly skin) - Skink Oracle with hand weapon (required) --- He had - 6 boar Boyz - unit of black orcs, red raggity flag, general lord and command - 40 night goblin archers & fanatics (ripper toad placement) - 30ish night goblin spears, level 4 wizard, BSB war banner, lord character & fanatics - 6 trolls - level 4 orc wizard on a boar and ruby ring Deployment & Turn 1 (him) (Note I used some swarms as proxies for rippers when their wings prevented them from being where they should) A normal battle today. I was happy with my deployment if a little perplexed at his. I wasn't sure what his plan was with hiding his black orc unit. Not being able to work it out makes me nervous. I felt I had a lot of answers for his boar Boyz. My 20 skinks were going to pepper them and any of the krox, rippers or old blood should finish them off. The fanatics were another manner. They would wipe out all my units except two. He has zero magic weapons so my Slann could hopefully flank one of the units, challenge some characters and win, this relied a lot of hammerhands. And my Saurus, I took some extra because they alone could absorb 3d6 2+ wounds and still put up a fight. Man, fanatics are hard to deal with. He had first turn and he was content to wait and shoot with little effect. Trolls were stupid and ran straight on. Turn 1 - me I tried to move up overloading the flank and mostly out of site or in cover of the bows. The Kroxigor hung back ready to charge the boars if they pursued. Shooting was great - solar engine ripped into the trolls doing 5 wounds and a fireball did another with 2 dead. And the skinks managed to take down 2 boar riders. Turn 2 him His boars charged my skinks. They wiped them out and he restrained and reformed to the flank. I had made a critical error with the placement of my Troglodon. I was in long range and they had to move but with no cover it was still 6's to hit. And the entire unit can of course shoot a large target so 39 poison arrows later 8 wounds, 3 saves the Trog was off the board. His magic was generally getting dispelled by the Slann, I was lucky in this, although that spell that allowed him to reroll 1's to wound kept going off. Turn 2 - me My rippers and old blood ran up the flank. My Slann continued to move 8" and cast. Skinks took down another boar. Another lucky shot from my bastiladon and his wizard on a boar dies! Turn 3 - him The fanatics come out of the spearmen! They take out 7 Saurus. Meanwhile the incredible happens. The trolls charge from 1 inch away. They have great weapons. This means that the +1 init bonus you get from spears actually does something! We're striking at the same time haha. The Saurus do a few wounds and win combat (losing one or two) and the trolls FBIGO, we pursue. The 3 boars charge the old blood. Thanks to some great bonuses and unlucky rolling for me they do two wounds. The old blood kills 2 back and combat is even. Turn 3 - me At the start of my turn the fanatics get released from the bowmen! I'm glad it's all over. They are so good. Two are in front of the Kroxigor and my opponent works out will need 7's to hit. One of them is to the right of the Slann and will go to the Saurus needing a 6. Now that's over I declare a charge with my rippers on the archers flank and Slann in the front. Suddenly I realise I've made a huge mistake. The fanatics dont HAVE to go forward. He can choose during compulsory move so the two that were for the krox could go into the rippers. At least one (maybe both) might make contact with his unit, but 2d6 dead goblins isn't much compared to most of the ripperducks being wiped out. I'm frustrated at myself for the rules oversight and my opponent kindly says I can take back the charge. I don't want to for a few reasons (my mistake, it's how we learn and part of the fun of Warhammer is capitalising on the other generals mistakes, also I'm a lot more experienced in TOW and have no excuses). I do at least reposition them as best I can when inspiration - pure luck - strikes. When my opponent set up the board (I was running late so he just did the terrain) he put some barriers down the road. You can see it in shot. If the fanatics make contact with terrain they are dead. My rippers are actually totally protected. Wow. Furthermore, my opponent rolls 3, 4 and 4 with the three fanatics movement, never once getting to a unit. The Kroxigor are blocked from making the charge though, which is my opponents plan. The combat goes as you'd expect, lots of dead goblins for minimal damage and the goblins FBIGO and we pursue. The old blood avoids the final wound and kills the boar. The troll loses and flee, the Saurus pursue into the goblin spears. Turn 4 - him The black orcs charge, kill the skinks and reform. I probably should have fled to pull the black orcs out of position. The Slann is a menace issuing challenges all game - he can't be touched and hammerhands is going off regularly. Archers flee (we are now double unit strength) and have to flee into the Saurus so are wiped out. Saurus win combat, goblins GG. Trolls rally. Turn 4 - me My bastiladon shoots again hitting the trolls. Solar engine has done exceedingly well but it's a lot of points for something that's so hard to get into combat. It's never in sight of the Slann so thanks to new rules I can't cast conveyance. Because I feel in control and want to see what happens my old blood charges the black orcs and issues a challenge. His general accepts! No one can do any damage, they win by ranks and because they outnumber Aeontezin so, my poor guy gets scared and flees! They can't catch him. Turn 5 - him His black orcs charge the Kroxigor. They absolutely annihilate the Krox. One remaining model flees, is caught, and so is the old blood. The night goblins are wiped out by the slann and the rippers pursue into the troll Turn 5 - me The troll swings as hard as he can and gets the remaining wound on the hero (he took 2 earlier from a challenge with the night goblin lord with a great weapon). The trolls flee off the table. And that's it with the scores being roughly 1000-1600 in favour of the Lizardfolk. What did I learn? Charges are very important to orcs Fanatics are a nightmare to deal with - but equally hit way harder Calvary, monstrous infantry, and even monstrous creatures. Need lots of small infantry for them. I got lucky on the magic all game, dispelled more than my fair share meanwhile he could not dispel to save himself. It felt like that barricade was a game changer, but my opponent pointed out afterwards that I'd the fanatics hunted and killed the rippers, taking downs few goblins too, the Kroxigor instead had an easy charge into that combat. This is true. He felt my greater mobility on the flank was my big advantage and it's hard to argue. I definitely rolled better for the game in some key combats with the Saurus. But the fact I could pick off half his boars and that his black orc unit couldn't get into combat until I was in control of the game was a big factor. If I had of been in a tournament, my old blood would never have engaged at the end and my Kroxigor would not have moved forward either. Mobility is a big factor in TOW and I am loving the ripperducks, even if the models are an absolute pain. That said - as funny as it was, MVP was the close combat machine the Slann. Ethereal and good magic rolling was too much. He was doing 4 wounds a round of combat with no chance of taking damage in return. Xinfernoc purges with fire!