Battle was once again waged between the High Elves and the Lizardmen. This time the Lizardmen force consisted of: Old Blood - Carnosaur, Scimitar, Enchanted Shield, Glyph Necklace, Light Armor Scar Vet - Cold One, Bane Head, Pirahna Blade, Light Armor Skink Priest - EotG, Scroll, Diadem, Second Level Skink Pirest - Scroll x2 2 x 10 Skink Skirmishers 1 x 11 Skink Skirmishers 4 Kroxigor 3 Teradons 1 Stegadon 2 Salamanders with 2 Extra Handlers 2 Salamanders with 2 Extra Handlers The High Elves brought: Archmage Dragon Mage – Ring of Fury Noble – Talisman of Loec, Star Lance 20 Spears 10 Archers 7 Swordmasters 1 Lion Chariot 3 Bolt Throwers 1 Great Eagle 5 Silverhelms - Musician 5 Dragon Princes – Standard Bearer, Banner of Sorcery He rolled up a bunch of spells on metal and fire. I don’t even remember them, but I will point out the important ones when they occur. I rolled up Second Sign of Amul on my lone Skink Priest and the Priest on the Engine rolled Celestial Shield and Comet of Cassandora. I won the roll and chose to go first. Deployment looked something like this: Turn 1 for the Lizardmen was pretty uneventful, I mostly just tried to advance without leaving too much open to shooting and magic. I failed to cast anything during the magic phase and only had my giant bow to shoot, which failed per the norm. The High Elves had a more eventful turn 1 including a charge from his Silver Helms to my Skinks, which I was ok with. They were set to turn the Silver Helms to the table edge and if I got lucky I would get a poison on the way in. I think I rolled like 4 or 5 5s and now 6s though. Next up was his massive magic phase, which I actually weathered very well. I think I just lost one skink. He had a couple fails and I think I used a scroll on Conflagration at my Krox. I also had 7 dispel dice to keep him off me a bit. Then it was time to weather his turn 1 shooting. I was scared of this as well, but I had tried to protect the important stuff. He ended up getting a few more Skinks and made them panic through my Krox, but the Krox stood their ground. We even got some combat in this turn and unfortunately my Skinks lost 4 and couldn’t get any back and ran, but luckily it put his Silver Helms out of position. Turn 2 I didn't get any charges off and my Skinks kept fleeing, but I did get to drop my rocks! Bye Bye Lion Chariot! Magic was rough this turn as my Priest on the Engine miscast with one of the rolls that does a hit on himself, his mount and all models in base contact. This is a weird miscast for the Priest on the Engine as he has Skinks on board as well, but they aren't models in base contact. At Adepticon the judge had me randomize the hit as shooting between the mount and crew. My opponent thought it should hit everyone, and that maybe makes sense fluff-wise, but it can completely ruin a very expensive unit if they all go in one miscast which they very likely will. Shooting was good for me though, and I saw his Silver Helms off the table with my Salamander breath. The High Elves got a charge off on my Old Blood. I knew when I moved him up he would get charged, but I needed to do something to stop his DPs. I was hoping for a failed leadership test so that I could charge instead. He also protected his archmage from my Scar Vet that was aiming to assasinate him. His magic and shooting this turn got a few wounds through, but nothing too devastating. Now was the time I was lookging forward to and dreading at the same time. I love to see my Old Blood in combat, but I was also worried about what his unit of Dragon Princes and Noble could do to me. He declined to challenge, so I made sure and challenged his Noble since I would be fighiting it anyway and I wanted to avoid all those other lances on the charge. Now I got to see what this guy was kitted with and it was pretty scary. He used the Talisman of Loec and was ready with a Star Lance. He sent his three attacks at the Old Blood but missed with two and only got one of those through with the reroll. Since his Star Lance took away all my precious armor I tried for my Ward Saves and missed both of them. Oh well, I am glad he didn't get that third hit! My Old Blood was mad as hell now though and ready to destroy the Noble and he and his Carno did just that and became frenzied in the process. I was excited for the next combat already. On my turn 3 I charged my Krox and Scar Vet into the Archers. I kind of wanted to put my Scar Vet into the Dragon Mage, but I wasn't sure how he would do against the dragon and I wanted to get my Krox into combat as well. I really wanted to get my Scar Vet in combat with the Bane Headed Archmage, but my .lizards aren't picky and are generally happy to kill whatever is in their way. My Stegadon chased the Eagle off and the Skinks kept running right off the board. During Magic this phase I actually got a spell off in the form of an irresistable Comet of Cassandora. I aimed it right in the middle of the spears. Nothing much happened in the shooting phase, but now it was time for my Old Blood to play with the Dragon Princes. Their pitiful attacks bounced off my Old Blood's Scaly Skin and he returned with his frenzied attacks to rout the Dragon Princes. The Kroxigor with the Scar Vet easily plowed through the Archers and into the Swordmasters. It is always scary getting into combat with Swordmasters, but I was hoping my Krox could soak up some wounds while my Scar Vet ate up some Swordmasters. The Comet went off at the beginning of his turn, and I also messed up my diagrams somehow, because the spears charged this turn, So, the next few diagrams are going to be a little goofy, but I am too lazy to fix them. So anyway, the Spears hit my Scar vet after suffering from the comet. I also got a couple bolt thrower crews to fail thier panic tests. I love it when that happens. I weathered the magic again, and the shooting was basically non-existant now! The Swordmasters made swiss cheese out of my lousy Krox, but niether they or the spears could touch my beastly Scar Vet. The remaining Krox and Scar Vet dropped all but two of the Swordmasters. My Engine got into the combat now too and takes out some of the spears with the Burning Alignment. He also got some with impact hits and attacks, but the Spearman also finished off the Skink Priest. The Lizards end up forcing the last few Spears to flee and they pursue to wipe them off the board. During his turn 5 shooting he had a nice line from his Bolt Thrower that went right through my remaining Kroxigor and Killed my Scar Veteran as well! I charged his Dragon Mage with my Salamanders as he had taken a wound on the mage and I was hoping to at least kill him, but I rolled one Salamander at him and he failed one hit and then failed the wound and the Mage survived at half points, while my other Salamander failed to hit the Dragon. I should have just focused both attacks on the Mage, but I thought one of my Salamanders would be able to handle it. I was able to shoot out the rest of the Bolt Thrower Crew with my skinks. On his last turn with nothing to lose he tried to get the last wound off my Old Blood with a rear charge from his Great Eagle. The Great Eagle got trashed by my Old Blood, but his Dragon Mage and Sun Dragon tore up my Salamanders. We didn't add up the points as we could tell it was a massacre in favor of the Lizardmen. I had his General, 2 Standards and 3 table quarters as well as most of his points and a fair amount of my army was still standing. Let me know if you saw any tactical blunders or anything? Thanks!
I guess the one thing that really jumped out at me was deciding to just have the skirmishers shoot at the last Bolt Thrower crew instead of charging them in. Sure the elves strike first, but they would both have to actually kill a skink to win combat, and even then it would only be a win by 1 kill (skinks would outnumber). At that late a stage in the game, the BT crew would have to be really proficient skink killers to even hope to reduce the skirmishers to half unit strength, but far more likely the skinks would eventually pick off the crew. You probably weren't anticipating the bolt thrower having such a juicy target, but I find that they can always find something to shoot. Might as well charge them and try to cut off shooting whether you kill them or not. Instead, the crew was left free to fire that devastating shot which finished the krox and the scar vet. Had your skirmishers been tying up the crew, the scar-vet could have rushed in to slay those fools at his leisure. Also, though you already mentioned it, the dragon-riding mage should have received a bit more attention in terms of putting attacks on him. Those things would have mattered if this were not such a slaughter for the Lizardmen.. good job and great report.
Thanks. I probably should have tried to tie up the BT. There was a turn where they got some shots on the Dragon Mage too though, so I kind of liked having them mobile, but keeping the BT from being able to shoot would have probably been better.
this is my second report that ive read, my only suggestion is in your format, all i would say is to have nice big words that tell whose turn is whose, other than that this is great.