Welcome everyone, to the first of many battle reports! My name is LG, and I'll be your guide today. Today we have the grueling battle between the absent-minded Slann Geroff'melaw'n and his powerful lizard forces as he attempts to fight off a wood elf infestation. These smelly hippies looked at the jungles of Lustria and decided to name it a national forest, and took offense when they found that stegadons regularly trampled through the area. They took down a prized bull stegadon, and the fight was on. Let's see who our two competitors are today! In this corner, we have the geriatric might of Lustria, Geroff'melaw'n and his entourage: Slann: BSB, wandering deliberations, becalming cogitation (reroll first failed dispel attempt), book of ashur 1 skink priest: level 1 heavens, dispel scroll 1 scar-vet: cold one, armor of destiny, great weapon 1 scar-vet: cold one, light armor, great weapon, stegadon helm 4 units skink skirmishers (10 models each): javelins and shields 1 unit saurus warriors (30 models): spears, musician, standard 1 unit temple guard (20 models) 1 bastiladon: solar engine 1 unit terradon riders (3 models) 1 salamander 1 salamander 1 unit camo skinks (7 models) 1 stegadon And in this corner, we have the mighty squirrel girl and her acorn of ages! Spell Weaver: Acorn of ages, steed Captain: BSB, steed, hagbane arrow, hail of doom arrow, enchanted shield, luckstone 11 Glade Guard: musician, trueflight arrows 11 Glade Guard: musician, trueflight arrows 18 Glade Guard: full command, hagbane arrows 5 Wild Riders: champ 5 Wild Riders: champ 5 Wild Riders: champ 5 Sisters of the Thorn 5 Sisters of the Thorn 5 Sisters of the Thorn: full command, standard of discipline (wizard bunker) 10 Waywatchers 10 Waywatchers Eagle Eagle Lets see how these to bastions of might do when they face each other in the arena! Battle set, go! Deployment ---------- Deployment was probably wider than I would have otherwise preferred, but I was worried about getting scouts in the flank. I made sure that my main combat blocks were within range of the slann, and set everything else up to cover all of my bases. As I was setting up, I was planning on having my temple guard and my saurus being my main force. Everything else would be in support of that. Looking back on deployment, I think that what I should have done was keep the salamanders more in the center, the TG and the saurus against one corner, and deploy the terradons in the opposite corner. This keeps fire focused on my main units, leaving the terradons to swoop in around back and wreak havoc. My opponent also went wide to prevent scouts. He did a good job overlapping his coverage, which left my camos out in the open. If I had followed the alternate plan I just outlined, I would have been able to place the camos in the opposite corner near the terradons. Turn 1 - Wood Elves ------------------- The opening round was something of a disaster for me. I vanguard moved my terradons 12" to the right after seeing the large amount of shooting arrayed against them. My opponent had used his acorn along with his free forest to sprout 2 venom thickets and had placed some glade guard and waywatchers in them. Magic was lackluster for the first round: 4-4 after my channel. It was the battle of the level 5s, but it wasn't that spectacular. He lowered the BS of my left-most skirmisher unit to 1, but I didn't think it was going to effect me much. Then came the shooting. Oh sweet jesus the shooting. First thing to go was the camos. 20 shots from the waywatchers, with an inordinate amount of hits, completely decimated the unit in the first go. The next was the second group of waywatchers firing anti-armor shots at my scar-vet. Fortunately for me, that was the scar-vet with the armor of destiny, meaning he only took a single wound from the whole barage. The 18 glade guard in the forest fire their load of poison shots into my stegadon, and end up pinging down 3 wounds. Finally, as the biggest kick in the teeth, the second group of glade guard take shots at the terradons with their trueshot arrows. They manage to take out one terradon, which panics the other two, which panics 2 different sets of skirmishers. The unit with the priest avoids panicking (thankfully), but the other one takes that as the cue to bugger off the field. So, in the first round of shooting I lost 2 complete units, have 2 more that are severely weakened, and a group of terradons that won't be getting across the map any time soon. Understandably, I was definitely feeling that I was on the back foot after this. Maybe I'd do better on my turn? After all, I had a level 5 WD slann. I was going to be able to force through enough spells to make up for everything. Turn 1 - Lizards ---------------- Well, it turns out I was completely wrong. My turn did NOTHING. In retrospect, I made a lot of obvious mistakes. Lets see if I can point them all out. I marched both salamanders forward. I wanted to get into flame breath range as quickly as possible. I move my non-bunker skirmisher groups up to get ready to provide cover fire. I move my TG, bastiladon, and saurus up cautiously, reform the terradons, get the scar-vets out of the way (though not enough to avoid charge blocking myself like an idiot), and move the stegadon up to take a bow shot. Finally, I move the priest bunker up far enough to be in range to vassal everything. Magic should have been amazing. 9-6, with a level 5 vs a level 4. I should have had an easy time. The plan was this: spirit leech any random model that is in range using 2 dice. Kill the model, get a dice back, and use the rest on shems, miasma, iceshard, maybe 1 dice a fireball, and toss a dice into the venusaurs solarbeam. Sounds easy. Failed miserably. Cast spirit leech. No dispel attempt. I rolled a 1, he rolled a 4, and nothing happens. Since that was a failure, I decide to try to searing doom the largest armor save he had (though I realized after the fact that it was just the BSB with the 3+ armor. The rank and file was a mere 6+). I needed to roll a 5. I rolled a 4. So, now I have a slann that lost his concentration, and it is 6 dice to 6 dice. Toss them all into the bastiladon, and it gets easily countered. So, round one with a WD Slann: total failure. Shooting was a loss, too. The stegadon missed with his giant bow (a huge shock, of course), the hexed skinks missed everything, and nothing else was in range. Way to go, boys. Way to go. Turn 2 - Wood Elves ------------------- This was another effective round for the wood elf menace. One group of sisters starts trekking along the backside, having decided that there were more credible threats over on the left side of the map. Can't say I blame them. The left-most group of wild riders doesn't try to restrain themselves and charges headlong into the salamander, while their compatriots decide they are man enough to handle 30 saurus. The middle group decides that the temple guard look scary and stay back. The wizard's group moves forward to get into a better magicking position. The right-most eagle tries to block the salamander, and a group of sisters come along-side to throw sharp things at the salamander. Most of the archers decide that they like their position, though one group of waywatchers does reposition a bit. Magic was not very noticeable, except for one thing: he was able to squeak the withering through my defenses and onto my temple guard. Dread mounted as we moved into the (incredibly long) shooting phase. Shooting! Ouch! I lose my stegadon to poison shots. Every group of skinks takes some pretty heavy fire, but I don't lose too many this time. The temple guard, however, get turned into pincushions. Still, I have enough to continue pressing forward. For close combat, the wild riders prove their worth. I could not believe how much damage these guys did. 3 attacks each (4 on the champ), plus 2 on the horses. The riders wipe out the salamander before he gets a chance to swing back, and the wild riders overrun. The second group did just as well, killing 7 saurus while only losing 2 of their own. Fortunately, I was steadfast. Turn 2 - Lizards ---------------- Alright, round 2. Time for the slann to shine. The first few rounds were painful, but the lizards are relentless, and the plans of the old ones will be fulfilled. Skinks move into shooting positions. The terradons make their move to shoot at the sisters. The temple guard and their bastiladon escort trundle forward toward the waywatchers. The remaining salamander rushes the eagle. The wounded scar-vet gets into position to charge the wild riders if necessary. The stegadon helmed scar-vet eyes the wizard and kicks his mighty steed into action. The steed looks up at him and grumpily trundles forward a few steps before totally ignoring its master. (I needed to roll an 8. I rolled a 7. This is a theme today). Magic was another close affair (8-7). I spend 3 dice at the start to get rid of the withering. I then try to cast earthblood to get regen and to give a wound back to my scar-vet. Dispelled. I try to 2 dice wildform. I needed a 5. I rolled a 4. Sigh. I try to 1 dice the laser beam, but I rolled a 1. Shooting went well. The skinks and the terradons on the right take out all but one sister, who then runs screaming. The other skinks take off 2 waywatchers. Finally, the melee. The saurus kill another 2 wild riders, and only lose 2 of their number. Unfortunately, the wild rider manages to stick around for another round. Boo. On the plus side, the salamander and the eagle trade wounds, so the salamander wins by one. The eagle runs. The salamander tries to chase, but doesn't get far. I still have several very effective units, but I still have a feeling of dread that is mostly the result of having lost so much while barely doing anything in return. Turn 3 - Wood Elves ------------------- Turn 3 for the wooded bastards ends up with my slann feeling very concerned about his survival. After movement, he is almost completely surrounded. The eagle charge the skirmishers by flying over the waywatchers. The skinks stand and shoot, and manage to knock off a wound in spite of hitting on 7s. The wild riders move around to get a rear charge on the temple guard, the waywatchers reform to get a better shot, and the sisters move around to pepper them as they go by. The one remaining sister from the right-most group fails to rally, and sets up the greatest salamander shot in the world. The eagle rallies and turns around to look at the impending fiery doom that is about to be belched forth. The wizard bunker thanks its lucky stars (or wood spirits) that the scar-vet failed its charge and move forward to get out of his charge arc. Magic went well for the lizards. I stop every spell and use my scroll. I figured this would be the best time to do it. If there was a distinct "key turn", this looked like it. Shooting was the (now standard) incredibly long affair. Seriously, it felt like the shooting would never end. The captain launches his arrow of doom at the stegadon helmed scar-vet and fails to cause a single wound. I love this guy. The glade guard take out a few skinks and another terradon. The remaining terradon runs, panicking the skirmishers on his way out. That's twice that they have done this. The priest bunker gets trueshot arrowed out of existence, and the combined fire from the surrounding units wipe out almost half of the remaining temple guard. I'm down to about 8 and a slann now. Close combat went in my favor, of course. The skinks that were charged by the eagle took him out without taking any casualties (which surprised me as much as anyone else). The saurus FINALLY finished off the last of the wild riders and reforms to face the wizard bunker. My opponent was not expecting that. Turn 3 - Lizards ---------------- Lizards are definitely feeling the attrition now. The terradons fail to rally (surprise, surprise), but the skirmishers do (though greatly diminished). The temple guard raise their weapons above their heads and charge headlong into the waywatchers. Being a venom thicket, they lose a member to dangerous terrain. The bastiladon moves to cover the slann's flank, while the skirmishers turn around to rain death on the waywatchers. The stegadon helmed scar-vet charges the glade guard, but takes a wound from the stand and shoot. The second scar-vet moves around the corner to prepare a charge for next time. The saurus charge at the wizard bunker, but they decide to turn and flee instead of facing my reptilian might. Magic sucked, yet again. I managed to cast earthblood on the temple guard, which also healed the missing wound on the scar-vet. I tried to cast wildform. Yet again, 2 dice, needed a 5, rolled a 4. 3 times in a row. Really? The bastiladon tries to make use of the extra dice, but loses flat out. I still have yet to actually blast anything. Shooting took out a few more waywatchers. The salamander had a perfect shot in front of him. Rolling a 2 or 4 would wipe out both the fleeing sister and the eagle. The salamander was surprised by the excited poke from his handler, looks high into the air, and screeches, belching forth his flame, and just barely clipping the eagle (which avoided all damage through some lucky manuevering). Way to let me down, buddy. Close combat was fine. The temple guard take heavy losses due to the poison attacks of the waywatchers (stupid venom thicket), but they dish out plenty of their own. The waywatchers run screaming. The temple guard try to pursue (and hopefully run into the glade guard). Instead, they fall short and lose another member to dangerous terrain. I now have a standard bearer, a champion, and a slann. The scar-vet deals a single wound with the impact hits, and 4 more afterward. However, they stay steadfast and stick around. I am running out of everything at this point. I need to get into combat and fast. Turn 4 - Wood Elves ------------------- The wood elves start their end game. The waywatchers that are in control of their bowels spin around to being a shooting duel against my skinks. The smellier waywatchers run screaming into the night, but do not panic anyone. The sisters get ready for some nasty casting, and the wizard bunker realizes that they were only faking their fear and run back to the side of the saurus. The eagle realizes how close he was to death and decides to run off to save himself. The fleeing sister makes it off the battlefield and keeps on running. Both sets of wild riders charge into the bastiladon. Magic was decent. He got withering off on the bastiladon and curse on the temple guard. Since they are in a venom thicket, they are going to have to take a dangerous terrain test no matter what they do now. Shooting caused me to lose a few more skinks, but they are definitely holding their own. The 200 point unit is getting flummoxed by a unit that is less than half the cost. The glade guard also take out the remaining salamander with a volley of poison arrows. The wild riders make short work of the weakened bastiladon, and overrun into the back of the slann. The glade guard manage to get one more wound through on the scar-vet and take him out, though they lose a few of their own. Apparently the venom thicket/ curse combo was one of the things my opponent was really looking forward to. I guess I am glad I could oblige. Turn 4 - Lizards ---------------- The lizards take their last turn. The skinks wander around behind the waywatchers to get ready to thin them out even more. The second group of skinks moves up to try to shoot the glade guard, but they aren't exactly holding their breath on this one. The remaining scar-vet charges the glade guard that took out his friend. Finally, the saurus move around the building to avoid getting charged in the flank by the wizard bunker. Magic sucked again. Low dice, and nothing gets through. Shooting takes out more waywatchers, so I am pretty happy that they are being kept busy. The waywatchers are super nasty, so I am glad they have been taken out of combat for most of the game. Finally, we have combat. The wild riders take out the rest of the temple guard, and do a few wounds to the slann. The scar-vet wipes out the glade guard and forces them to run. At this point, we call it. I can't possibly come back at this point, so we save ourselves the trouble. We could have fought it out, but I really just had the single group of saurus and a half dead scar-vet at this point. They say you learn more from failure than from victory. In this case, I think I learned rather a lot. Here are some of my observations of what I could have done better: - Don't bring camo skinks. I've been consistently underwhelmed with them at this point level. At 2500, my opponent will almost always have enough to prevent a scout behind their deployment. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal, since they are still really hard to hit with BS shooting. As I found out, this means nothing when the opponent has BS 5 and multishot. It would have been even worse against the 2 trueflight wielding glade guard units. I think I am going to bring camos only when the point value is 2000 or below. - Don't place salamanders on the flanks. My main army is ogres (you can see some of my battle reports for them here: http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=28677.0 and here: http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=28500.0. With ogres, you end up placing support units in the flank because they are all fast and effective. However, I need to stop thinking of salamanders as support units. They need to be charging up the front, and they need to be near the slann (especially if you are bringing high magic). I consistently make this error, and need to keep them closer to my chest, so to speak. - Move as fast as you can against wood elves. As my opponent described it, wood elves have amazing shooting, but die by the truck load if you look at them funny. I brought an army that wants its opponents to come to it, and he was playing an army that desperately wanted me to stay back. This did not go well for me. I cannot be timid. Next time, I am thinking of bringing Tetto to vanguard my main combat units and get into combat as soon as possible. - Place terradons on the flank, away from the majority of their army. They are fast enough to get into combat at the same time as the rest of your army. Deploying away from their units gives it a much better chance of getting into their back lines where they can do some good. - If you take a WD slann against wood elves, prioritize spells better. Do not bother with searing doom. Your first few magic phases are going to be uneventful due to having only 2 magic missiles that will really be worth anything. Cast preemptive wildforms if you have the dice. - Wood elves take FOREVER to finish shooting. It was only 4 rounds, but it felt like an eternity. 8 different units that could shoot, and they all did. Every time. I was ready to take a nap midway through the game while I was waiting for all of the various and sundry shooting attacks to finally stop. - Finally, when writing a battle report on battle chronicler and using skirmishers, take the extra time to remove all the models from the back. It doesn't show up well when you are making it, but it looks bad to have 2 guys missing from the front ranks. I'm not redoing it, so it will just look silly this time. Hopefully you all enjoyed my report. Please let me know if you have any questions that you would like clarified. Criticism and strategic advice are more than welcome. As mentioned before, I normally play ogres. However, I really like my lizards, and want to get better. Writing these reports is a good way of doing analysis, but I definitely will appreciate any advice I can get from more experienced lizard players.
Ah, magic. You miserable Queen B$#ch. => Imagine what you could have done with the points spent on things that cannot betray in 20 different ways. => You say it went well for the lizards, but for him it was the same old problem with magic. Is there a Dispel Cavalry Charge Scroll? Nope, but there is a Dispel Magic Scroll. Thanks for the report!
Yep, reminds me of my experiences with woodies, skinks can't shoot far enough and saurus are too slow, and monsters are just pin cuisions. Maybe next time try a Cold One bus with a SV BSB and the strider banner, and probaly on old blod in there too? (at least he wouldn't suspect it)
@Sleboda: Yeah, magic was terrible. I really want it to be effective, but spending so many points on wizards just seems like such a waste. The problem is that I need the magic defense, since the waywatchers have arrows that deny armor saves. If I can't buff my units or take out anything from afar, my precious scar-vets are going to get picked apart. Still, screw magic. So many points spent for so little impact on the game, or so many points spent to completely ruin the game for someone. @Eladimir: No other lizard reports (yet). This was the first lizard game I have played since I started doing battle reports. I will be sure to do more as I get more games in @n810: The only thing that I'm worried about is the fact that the waywatchers ignore armor saves. 30 points a wound is really expensive. I was thinking of doing the strider banner, along with bringing Tetto along for the vanguard. I would love to have cold ones, but I'm afraid that they will just get picked apart. I wonder if there is any way to screen them from the waywatchers? If so, I will definitely bring them along. They are really good, and I've always been happy to bring them.
Dang well that sucks, I was thinking they might just have ST5 attacks or somethng. Wonder if Skrox units would be any good against them ??? At least they are faster than saurus.
Nice battle report. It sounds like my normal Lizardmen army would have the same issues as yours. I normally go with more Saurus and Temple Guard than Skinks. If I play Wood elves, I will definitely have to change my strategy and army composition. More speed to get to CC fast.
Well, Elfs cheat But some pointers: 1. Salamanders are NOT good at shooting single models. They are really bad at that, actually. Point him at the blocks instead! 2. Skinks against armies that cause panic checks... keep them close to the general or they just run away, either because of casualties or the unit next to them panics. 3. Join the cowboys to a skink unit, and they will be safe from BS shooting. 4. With a WD slann vs WE, you only have 3 spells to cast, lower BS, fireball and light MM (or 4 with heavens). The rest is quite redundant. Unless you're really lucky with a spirit leach. 5. Use the terror! Even with ld 8-10 they can fail. Moving 4" or d6 doesn't really matter most of the time. And basti can still cast spells.