Images for this battle report can be found here on my Blog: http://paint-hammer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/2400pts-battle-report-lizardmen-vs-tomb.html Introduction So this was my mates first 2400pt game and first large game with his tomb kings and my first game in ages using death. We had a really great game, it was very close and went back and forward quite a bit. We are playing a standard battleline game with 2 forests, 2 hills and 2 rocky out crops. The board is 6'x4'. Army Lists: See previous blog post here: http://paint-hammer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/2400pt-battle-lizardmen-vs-tomb-kings.html Deployment: So my opponent wins the roll and deploys first and also finishes deploying first, he also wins scout deployment and places his horse archers in an awkward place but I just manage to get the chameleon skinks up close to the Necrosphinx on the left flank. Overall I am happy with my deployment. I have deployed a very strong centre with the saurus warriors, temple guard and Skink Krox units. His flanks are comparatively strong with the necrosphinx and chariots on his right and necro knights and buckets of archers to his left. Finally the terradons vanguard up to support the chameleons. Magic: My Slann has loremaster of Death so no problems there! The tomb kings roll up Desiccation, Smiting, Killing Blow Augment and Movement Augment. Pretty awesome from his point of view! Personally I would have taken the 5+ ward bubble as he could have exchanged with a double but hey heroic KB could be a nightmare for me so I see that too. Turn 1 Lizardmen I won the roll to go first and surged forward, the chameleons and terradons move into range of his Necrosphinx, bypassing his horse archers. I had an opportunity to drop rocks on the horse archers but it would have left me in a bad position so I fly up instead.The salamander on the left flank moves up for a burn down the flank of the horse archers. My main battle line in the centre moves up 8", the Skrox keeping abreast the saurus so as not to get too far ahead. The skink skirmishers move up and angle themselves to offer a charge by the necro knights hoping that they might take a few with them so that the saurus cav can get the charge in my following turn. I reckoned a charge from them might be enough to wipe the necro knights out or at least severely whittle them down. The Scar vet moves up to have a charge on the horse archers next turn and the salamander moves up to burn the horse archers too. In the magic phase I roll well for winds and try to spirit leech his BSB but dont roll enough. I throw a load of dice at bubble Soulblight to lower toughnesses for the on coming zulu dawn but it is dispelled. I now go for a basic purple sun, get it off but roll a missfire.... I hold my breath while a roll the scatter dice but thankfully it goes in to no man's land. Unfortunately it will massive hinder my movement next turn.... The shooting phase goes much better and I take 3 wounds off the necrosphinx with my terradon's javelins and the chameleons blowpipes. The salamander on the left kills 1 horse archers while the one on the left kills 2. The giant bow on the stegadon (Barney) kills another 2 horse archers on the left flank. Turn 1 Tomb Kings The Necrosphinx declares a charge against the chameleons but thanks to quick to fire and a nifty stand and shoot roll, the massive stone construct dies to some poisoned darts! I really think they should have made all tomb king constructs or at least the 4 biggies immune to poison or even a better armour save, a 5+ save for a massive piece of stone and armour seems a bit shitty! It was a poor decision on his part to charge but it is still one of his first games. The Necro Knights charge the skink skirmishers on the right flank there is some shuffling of archers, catapults, chariots and horse archers. In his magic phase he gets off bubble smiting but I dispell the casket and he fails to cast bubble movement. The purple sun moves off away from me thankfully and leaves me with enough room to move next turn. His shooting phase is rather poor and very unlucky killing 1 templeguard due to a massive scatter from his catapult, he also kills 5 skink cohort warriors and a few salamander handelers. I was very, very lucky! In combat the necro knights wipe out the skink skirmishers, reforming to face the charge of my coldone cav and panic the nearby salamander who legs it 11" away. Turn 2 Lizardmen The salamander rallys and turns around like a spare prick. The coldone cav charge the necro knights and the scar vet charges the horse archers. The main battle line moves up again and the chameleons move up in range of the now undefended screaming skull catapult. The terradons drop rocks on the chariots, killing one and reducing the other to 1 wound. Barney charges the remaining horse archers on the left flank. I roll rather poorly in the magic phase and first off I dispell the rampant, roaming purple sun and I try to get a purple sun off, hoping to get a bucket of dice back but he dispells it. The shoot phase starts badly with the chameleons only causing 1 wound on the catapult with very poor poison rolls but then the terradons get two 6s and kill it off, a rather loud LOL was heard. the salamander on my left flank tries to burn his big block of warriors but rolls short. In combat the scar vet wipes out the horse archers on the right and the steg does likewise. Barney tries to overrun into the chariots but rolls short. The scar vet holds his ground. In the necro knight combat the knights roll pathetically and dont kill any coldones but the serpents do better and kill 1. In return the cold one cav rolls terribly too and only cause 2 wounds. Due to his banner and the construct rule he suffers no crumbles. Turn 2 Tomb Kings The 2 remaining chariots charge my big saurus block who hold, the tomb guard charge my scar vet who flees as reaction, a ranked up unit of killing blow infantry seems a bit silly for my Rambo vet. I later find out I cant do this as the scar vet is immune to psych due to being stupid but he gets his just deserts in a minute thanks to @crouchingotter for pointing this out! He moves back with his archers and warriors getting in range for shooting the terradons. His magic phase goes well getting off bubble smiting bringing back a charging chariot and some wounds but nothing else. In the shooting phase he kills all the terradons from one unit of archers (damn I hate tomb king archers!) the other unit kills all the handlers on a salamader who goes berserk and is also on his last wound. The chariots impacts and smiting attacks are only enough to kill 5 saurus thanks to some lucky parries. The saurus then proceed to prove that the charge was suicidal and wipe out the chariots with attacks and combat rez. The Necro knights preform much better this turn killing all but one coldone, in return he causes another wound but it isnt enough and he breaks and flees. The last cold one is run down and they also overrun into the fleeing scar vet who is taken off (see I told you it went badly!) Turn 3 Lizardmen My right flank was gone, only a single salamander remained so he moved up behind the necroknights hoping to reach the tomb guard. My chameleons move up closer to his centre and barney moves up to counter any enemy charges. The main battle line moves up with the Skrox edging forward to entice a charge in the next turn. My other salamander moves right up to have a pop at his big warrior unit. I roll big for magic and get soul blight off on his warrior block and manage to spirit leech off his Herald bsb. I then to cast purple sun, ending my magic phase. In the shooting phase I get a perfect shot with my salamander and kill 12 warriors from his main block. The chameleons add to the tally and kill a few more. My other salamander fire short and does no damage. Barney's giant bow kills just 1 more warrior from his block. There is no combat this turn so over and done! Turn 3 Tomb Kings His main warrior block charges my skrox, his archers pivot to get a shot at the chameleons and his necro knights swing round behind my main line. In the magic phase he gets off smiting again, raising back some models here and there, but everything else is dispelled. His main archer block kills all of the chameleons (with only half its shots rolled!) and the other fails to kill the berserk salamander on the right flank. In the combat phase the warrior block with tomb king kill a few before the kroxigor smash 6 in return winning combat and crumbling 2. My champion challenge his champion but both roll parries! The tomb kings win but I hold due to ranks, bsb, cold blooded and the Slann! Turn 4 Lizardmen Barney tries to flank charge the warrior block but rolls low, the berserk salamander is forced to charge the tomb guard in the rear, the temple guard swift reform to face the incoming necro knights and the saurus warriors move up to threaten the hierophant. The salamander on the left flank moves up to flame the archer block. The magic phase is another biggie and i try to get bubble soulblight off but he dispells it (im in the middle of his army and this would effect everything!). I then purple sun his necro knight but 2 pass their initiative tests so only 1 falls down a hole. I then spirit leech another and try for fate on bjunta but dont make the casting value. In the shooting phase I kill only 2 archers due to rolling a 2 on the artillery die. In the combat phase the skrox lose more again but hold firm, the challenge continues with no clear winner! The salamander kills 3 tomb guard and doesnt die! He reforms to face to slaughter the pesky Turn 4 Tomb Kings Things are starting to look dire but his single necro knight charges my temple guard, he pulls of a sneaksie reform with heirophant putting him in range of several unit including the necro knights. Magic phase and he gets off smiting and brings back quite few models including a necro knight with 1 wound. He gets nothing else off again. His archers take down a salamander and the other unit kills a few saurus. In combat the tomb king and his warrior bunker whittle down the skrox but they are still steadfast. His champion kills my champion in the challenge but the krox kill loads more warriors. The necro knights kill 6 temple guard but are then wiped out by the temple guard who combat reform to face the inevitable warrior overrun next turn. The salamander is killing blowed and the tomb guard reform to face the skrox. Lizardmen turn 5 The saurus warrior block charge the heirphant and his unit of archers and the templeguard move up ready for the charge next turn. Barney is ready for the counter charge too. In the magic phase I fail to get anything of note off. There is no viable shooting so straight onto combat, he finnally breaks my steadfast but not before the krox kill a load more warriors. He then overruns into my temple guard. The saurus warriors wipe out the heirophant and archers with a combination of kills and combat rez and his army starts to crumble, a few warriors and archers go down. Turn 5 Tomb Kings He charges the tomb guard into the temple guard (seems like offence is the surest way to guard lol) and his archers back up. His casket tries to cast but is dispelled and it is perilously close to being smashed by the saurus warriors next turn. His archers try to kill some warriors but to no avail. The temple guard smash apart 8 warriors and take 6 casualties in return, they are soundly beaten but hold due to the ridiculous LD10 stubborn, cold blooded , BSB re rolled test. Conclusion. We call it there and end the game, he is about to be flank charged by my steg and between combat rez, kills and crumble his 2 remaining combat units are about to die. The casket is about to be charged and his archers will crumble. One thing to note, his tomb scorpion never turned up the whole game lol! I win, not by a huge amount though, if his units had made some more charges then the slann would have been in dire straits but the same could be said for Barney (who seems to have developed an convenient limp when required to get his horns dirty!). I think the game could have gone the other way quite easily, admittedly this is my mate 3rd game of fantasy and his first at 2400pts and this is a game with a massive learning curve. I think I was bloodly lucky with my terradons and chameleons who basically wiped a flank for me. After the game we discussed the events and in particular target prioritisation, he will now shoot the chameleons and terradons first, hopefully killing them turn 1, after which salamanders are his next target and then he should be closing the jaws of the trap on my main units. This is of course postulation but it should work well. All in all it was a great game and one I enjoyed a lot, I am very intrigued with Death magic and will write up a lore review later on this week. Next time we agreed he will face my Ogres which will be a totally different game so it should be very interesting! Well this was my first battle report, let me know what you think please!
Thanks for a really enjoyable battle report. I think you, as a blogger, have a solid grip on the writing of this stuff. The report was spaced nicely and you paint a picture of the happenings that can be followed even without pictures. Nice work! You don't mention it, but did you roll Initiative for the Slann and the Temple Guard that was hit? Because the template of the Purple Sun hits the caster and then moves to random direction. If you didn't and you had lost your Slann in the first turn, I think this would have massively affected the game. I'm with you there, as I, too, play Tomb Kings. Oh the pain! Anyway, thanks again and hope to read more of your battle reports in the future!
Thanks mate some really kind words! Lol your absolutely right I played the purple sun wrong there! the slann would have had to take his test along with all the TG! I think he would have atleast got a look out sir roll though as it is a template attack thankfully! But yeah bottom line that would have changed the game massively as many of the temple guard would have died. Tbh im never gonna take a death slann in a TG block again, bit too risky!
Good detail. You talked about good parry saves versus a chariot charge. You didn't give yourself parry saves for the impact hits did you? They don't apply to impact hits or stomps, just regular attacks.