Lord Magwe could feel the undead horde scraping at the edges of his mind as they advanced on his fledgling temple city. Wheeled war machines, too many to count, thundered inexorably across the plains, tainting the earth and air with their palpable corruption. And beyond the swarm of skeletal horsemen and once proud chariots, there came something else: A shadow even darker than the storm around it, darting and flickering at the periphery of Lord Magwe's perception. The Slann felt it as not so much a presence but as a profound absence; a hole in the fabric of the world. But how to close it? Setting his spirit adrift on the winds of time and space, Magwe searched for any clue that would aid his warriors in the inevitable confrontation. Distant worlds and infinite epochs of time stretched before his prodigious intellect, until at last he came upon a mighty battle. Warmblood humans clashed furiously near the ocean of a strange planet, heedless of the Slann's incorporeal form hovering far above. The fight was far from evenly matched, as those attacking from the sea outnumbered the defenders almost a thousand to one. The defenders were as canny as they were skilled, however, and had placed their ranks in a narrow pass where their numberless foes could not surround them. Time and again the men from the sea charged, and time and again they were driven back, breaking like the tide on the spears and shields of the besieged warriors. Lord Magwe granted the alien heroes a benediction of the Old Ones for their courage, and fled back to his body of flesh with the inspiration he had gained. Back in the temple of Kaiqubotl, the Slann summoned his greatest warrior, Oldblood Jihan, and communicated his will into the saurus's mind. He showed him an image of a nearby canyon, far too narrow to admit the enemy host's full battle line, that the foe would have to navigate on his march. His command was simple: "Make your stand here." As Jihan marched off to mount his fearsome carnosaur and rally the full might of the saurus, the mage-priest contemplated the desperate stand of the far off warmblood defenders. He had not needed to see the battle's conclusion to know how their tale ended... But the Lizardmen had their own story to tell. This was to be my first battle against the Tomb Kings, and given that the guy playing them is by all accounts one of the very best players at my game store (#2 in league play, losing only the final game to our resident power-gamers' vampire counts), I have to say I was fairly intimidated, especially with not knowing too much about them. What I did know was: 1)They cause fear 2)They can have many chariots (and my opponent is known for using them) 3)They can't miscast and don't use power dice like normal people 4)They somehow move again during the magic phase 5)They never run away AND...6)Everybody that's ever played this guy goes on about how well he maneuvers. What's a lizard general to do? Answer: Stack the deck. Now, I'm all about fair and square, but by this point I was somewhat paranoid. First, I know I'm going to get charged because I'm not skilled enough to avoid it. So I'd better take units that can hold up, and they need to be immune to fear as well. Second, the thing with the power dice probably means no becalming cogitation (?), and no miscast table means no cupped hands, and I have no idea how many dispel dice these guys generate so why take a Slann at all? So that equals carnosaur, who should be fun with all the chariots coming the way of his s7 attacks. Third, and this was critical if anything was, I needed to not get flanked by a guy who, by some accounts, is the Erwin Rommel of Warhammer. And since my tough, big block units aren't particularly mobile, that meant terrain. My pa was a history teacher and told me once about the battle of Thermopylae, which got me to read "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield and to watch "300", and that's what was in my head going into this battle- in addition to the song 'Powerslave' by Iron Maiden. Sorry about the melodramatic and prolonged intro; here's the lists. Lizardmen Saurus Oldblood "Jihan": (general) carnosaur, Scimitar of the Sun, Maiming shield, light armor Skink priest "Keen-Toc": lvl 2, engine, diadem Scar-vet "Botan": hide of cold ones, great weapon, shield Scar-vet "Bok-Ghur": Piranha blade, enchanted shield, light armor, cold one, battle standard 1x23 + 1x22 saurus: musician, standard (scat vet in each) 3 kroxigor 10 skink skirmishers Tomb Kings Tomb King: (general) Chariot, magic crook & flail, good ward save item 2x Tomb Prince: Chariots, one with great weapon, other stuff Magician: cloak that lets him fly, something else 2x HUGE block of chariots: possibly command (both princes in one, king in the other) Giant block of skeleton horse riders: banner that lets them resurrect, full command 2x evil scorpion I rolled to place terrain first, which ended up being absolutely critical. The store has a number of long rocky cliff sections about 20" long, so going first allowed me to place two of them horizontally across the center of the board with a gap in the middle, still keeping the requisite distance from the table center. The gap was wide enough for him to fit through, but with those giant blocks he wasn't sneaking down any table edges and basically had to come at me head on. He went first and started advancing, using his magic to move as well. He also did something that let units shoot their missile weapons, but this was to draw out my dispell dice so he could close in faster. Instead of moving forward, I shifted over, bunkering up in the corner of the board while covering my outside unit's flanks with the board edge and the side of the cliff. One Scorpion erupted out of the ground and attacked the far left saurus group with cold one rider scar vet, and the other had some sort of catastrophe while trying to emerge and basically died. The priest and his engine held back between the sarus blocks, safe from charge, while the krox and carnosaur swept up the right side, preparing to flank the oncoming chariots. My great mistake was forgetting that a chariot can wheel halfway through it's charge, so instead of charging my screen of skinks he was able to ram the carnosaur with the King's chariot unit. The other chariots slammed into the saurus fighting the scorpion, but had to hit the front next to the scorpion as he had little room to maneuver. I had to wonder why he put the princes and the king far out on the edges of his units where they weren't in combat. The answer came soon enough... ...When his chariots started splintering left and right from Bok-Ghur's piranha blade, saurus's spears, and everything the oldblood and carnosaur were dishing out. Only two saurus died to impact hits, and the carnosaur took wounds from the same, but from here on it was the single most one sided combat I've seen yet. I wish I could somehow chalk up what happened to tactical genius, but my dice rolls were almost impossibly good. Saurus after Saurus made his armor save, and their attacks hit home unerringly. The mean scorpion was slain before it caused a single fatality, and as the undead lost both combats, they took "crumble wounds", which the king and princes were able to partially shift onto their own chariots. The heroes' chariots broke, and the chaps riding them came bailing off the side, in preparation to charge back into combat next turn. The kroxigor charged the King's former unit and helped destroy it utterly, but the King was now unengaged and safe. Unfortunately for the two princes, the Engine was nearby, which splintered even more chariots on it's flanking charge. When the burning alignment went off, the lone heroes took it in the shorts pretty hard. Somehow they both survived, barely, and got to charge the small opening on the saurus unit's flank, (not that that mattered, as they were US 1 a piece) The prince with the great weapon challenged my mounted scar-vet BSB to a duel. Four s8 attacks, three hits, three wounds... and the saurus hero made ALL THREE 5+ saves, slaying the undead warrior with a blow from his piranha blade. The victory points were enough to turn the rest of the unit to dust... The Tomb King charged the carnosaur next, slaying the beast in a flurry of blows. Jihan responded in kind, causing two wounds himself, but the loss of his mount was too much and he broke from combat, luckily fleeing far enough away to rally somewhat later. The mass of enemy cavalry had been steadily advancing, looking for an opening, but strayed too close to the engine and it got another charge off. Elated by his good fortune, the priest Keen-Toc attempted to cast portent of far on his stegadon- and promptly miscast, blowing up himself, his crew, and the entire front rank of the enemy cavalry! The flying enemy wizard had managed to heal the Tomb King's wounds suffered in his duel with the Saurus general, but the King didn't count on being ambushed by the lurking pack of skinks and their blowguns. Even at +7 to hit, and with all the Kings' protective magic, the skinks somehow shaved two wounds right back off the fiend. Enraged, he charged the approaching kroxigor and slew one outright, but was himself destroyed as the great beasts retaliated. The stegadon, suddenly orphaned, nonetheless had the combat with the enemy cavalry well in hand when Bok-Ghur and his piranha blade showed up, crushing the unit champion in a duel and ending the battle at the end of turn five. Final result: My losses- Four individual saurus, the skink priest and his four crewmen, one individual kroxigor, and the carnosaur. My big block of saurus and hero in the middle of the board never even got into combat, as the enemies were always dead before they got positioned to charge. Opponents' losses- Everything but the flying wizard. I think I may have gone overboard with preparation on this one. By the end of turn two I could see where things were going, and halfway through three it wasn't even fun anymore. The other guy was a real sport about it all and took the flogging in stride, but I could tell he was having even less fun than I was. He's some sort of arithmetic student, and did some figuring on my dice rolls in his head, (which I verified with calculator shortly thereafter) saying that I made over 83% of my saving rolls throughout the battle with the two princes and their unit- armor, leadership for curse test, etc. I wish I could say this one was all skill, but the Old Ones seem to be favoring me with magic dice lately. For the record, this battle wasn't half as satisfying as the draw in my opponent's favor from the other day. Of course I agreed to a rematch, and this time I'll let someone else set up the terrain for us. All that was left of the undead horde was dust and splintered chariots, yet the heady rush of victory left Jihan strangely unsatisfied this day. His disciple Botan had not even tasted of battle, and now restlessly prowled the field, prodding at shattered bones in the hope of finding just one warrior to test his blade. Though the loss of Keen-Toc was a harsh blow, and the mighty carnosaur would be hard to replace, Lord Magwe's strategy had worked flawlessly... Almost too flawlessly for the Saurus Lord's taste. As he readied his unit for the march home, Bok-Ghur thought he saw a flicker of movement atop one of the rocky cliffs; a spot of darkness that moved against the wind. Though the day was hot, the fearless warrior felt a chill in his already cold blood... But surely it was nothing. When the last of the lizardmen had retreated beneath the jungle canopy once more, a lone figure detached itself from a shadowed outcrop of rock, it's cloak flapping like dried and dusty wings about it's skeletal frame. Two points of green fire flared briefly where it's eyes had been, back when it was alive. Then, with a gust of wind, it was gone. P.S. Despite my resolve to never gloat over a victory, I had one heck of a grin on my face there at the end, but only because I couldn't stop imagining myself bellowing "THIS... IS... LUSTRIA!!!!!!! -and kicking the other guy in the chest.
Nice intro and end (the absolute very end that is) But, as you already stated, if the dice decide to side with only 1 party. Well, that's is. You just have to shrug/laugh it off as 'the-other-guy-who's-dice-aren't-exactly-coming-along'. Still, good that you have read stuff and really prepped yourself. And the result is, ofcourse, very nice. The report is very clear and overall good. I sure hope to read more! The Hunted