8th Ed. 4000 (2000 LM + WE) vs 4500 (1500 Orcs + WoC+ Skaven)

[Man0waR]

This sunday we had played a very nice battle, 5 players playing a big battle but also there was a few things that went wrong.
First was that my team (LM+WE) were the most experienced players and it gave it an unfair sense of the game.
Second was the bunch of scenery we fielded and the massive number of units our opponents fielded so their whole deployment zone were too narrow. (despite filling the whole side of the table)

Well the armies.

Spoiler: Lizardmen

Lords
- Oldblood General w/ crown of command, 1+ AS 4+ WS, sword of +1 to hit.

Heroes
- Scarvet BSB w/ Skavenpelt, 3+ AS.
- Skink priest lvl2 Dispel Scroll

Core
- #24 Skink cohort w/ champion & #3 Kroxigors
- #24 Skink cohort w/ champion & #3 Kroxigors

Special
- #38 Templeguards w/ Razor Standard & Full command group
- Bastiladon w/ solar engine
- Bastiladon w/ solar engine.

Spoiler: Wood Elves

Lv 4 Aeda w/ shadow on steed Acorn of ages
Lv 2 Spellsinger Metal w/ Dispel Scroll
BSB on steed w/ Moonstone
8x Sisters of the thorn

Waystalker
9 deepwood scouts

Waystalker
9 deepwood scouts

6 glade riders

5 wild riders

20 Gladeguards

Spoiler: Orcs & Goblins

Great Savage Orc Shaman Lv3 General Shrunken head of luck
Savage Orc Bigboss BSB w/ Silversteel armour & Great Weapon
Night Goblin shaman Lv1

#30 Savage Big'Uns full command group
#20 night goblins w/ nets + 3 fanatics

#6 squig hoppers
#5 spider riders
#5 spider riders

Doom diver
Pump Wagon
Squig Mangler

Spoiler: Skaven

-Grey Seer General w/ Scroll of Energy (the one that lowers spell dificult to half) & talisman of preservation
-Skaven warlord w/ d3 wounds sword & potion of strength

-Skaven Assassin
-Warpstone warlock lv1 w/ dispel scroll
-Warpstone warlock w/ rocket launcher
- Warpston warlock w/ orb of brass (the one that make ini test or die)
- Skaven Warchief BSB
- #27 Clan Warriors w/ full command group + globadier
- #25 Clan Warriors w/ full command group + ratling gun
- #25 Clan Warriors w/ full command group
- Hell Pit Abomination
- Warp lightning Cannon

Spoiler: Warriors of Chaos

-Exhalted Hero of Khorne General w/ Enchanted Shield & Armour piercing sword
-Tzeench Sorceror Lv2 on Disc Lore of Tzeench w/ familiar & 6+ WS amulet

- #20 Chaos Marauders of Tzeench w/ Shields & Light Armour
- #15 Nurgle's Warriors of Chaos w/ hand weapons & shield
- #14 Khorne's Warriors of Chaos w/ hand weapons & shield
- #6 dogs
- #6 dogs
- #3 Skullcrushers

The battlefield was full of scenary with an Altar of Khain, Idol of Gork, Bloody tower, Well of Destiny a Misterious Forest, a common hill +2 forest the WE set up. (and some more i can't remember)

In our deployment zone we had the well of destiny in the middle to left flank and the common hill in our right flank. WE player spawned his free forest (as common forest) in our left flank.

In their deployment zone (and in my point of view) they had a Destruction camp with Altar of Khaine, a common fence just blocking the whole left flank and being a massive bottleneck. Also the WE spawned one of his 2 (roll of D3) Acorn of Ages forest. In their right flank WE spawned the other forest.

In the middle of the battlefield laid the mysterious forest.

Forces of Order Deployment From left to right
Glade riders who vanguarded forward
Sisters of the thorn + Aeda +BSB inside a forest
Skrox n1 besides Well of Destiny
Bastiladon Inside Well of Destiny
Templestar w/ Saurus Lords/Hero besides Well of Destiny
Skrox n2
Glade guards w/ Metal Spellsinger atop the hill
Bastiladon on the slope
Wild Riders who vanguarded forward
Scouts units in the right flank.

Forces of Destruction from my left to right
HPAbomination
Doomdiver
both Spider riders who vanguarded forwards
Mangler squig
the 3 skaven units compacted and fielded as he could
in the middle was in front Savage Big'Uns Horde
behind them the two WoC units
Pump wagon
Dogs
Dogs
Night Goblin (too far from LD) (behind dogs)
Tzeench sorceror on disc, (between dogs & gobbos)
Marauders inside the woods
Warp lightning canon.

So we decided to choose the Skaven Cannon as priority target and scout went that way.

Turn 1 Forces of Light
All LM moves forwards, except Bastiladon on the slope of the hill who approaches to the TG and stand in the rear of Skrox n2. Skrox n1 took their chances and drank from the well, and they were granted a big destiny by da gawds. Gifted with stupidity & unbreakable.

WE Glade riders in the left march through a gap in the Destruction camp to shoot the Doom diver, or the HPA (depends on Magic Phase). Sister of the thorns holds their ground waiting.
In the right flank Wild riders move to protect the scouts for incoming charges, while the scouts took aim against the Warp cannon.

Magic phase went with 2 miscast, one on sister of the thorn, to Curse of Aranheir the Pump Wagon, dealing 1 wound on the miscast, and the other on Unfeeble foe to lower Toughness by 3 the HPA so its T2.
the miscast did Large Template F10 d6 PD lost. 1Wound on WE BSB and General, one more sister dead.

Shooting phase saw havoc in their bad deployed lines. Glade Riders caused 1 W on the HPA.
two units of scouts killed the Warp cannon with poison. Marauders pass panic test.
Skinks shot at dogs killing 1, the Glade guards wiped them. Night goblin fails panick test and runs out.
The Sorceror pass panic test.

Forces of Destruction Turn 1

No animosity, no betrayals from Skaven in the whole game.

Marauders Charges the Wild Riders who were protecting the Scouts
His whole line moves forward but the orc player mess it up. He forget to move his spider riders and the skaven player who was bottlenecked didnt realize it. (he had to move like 3 infantries in the room of 1 cuz of the spider riders.)
On random movement HPA slam into Glade Riders.
Mangler squig moves towards the bottleneck,
The pump wagon moves too far in charge range of skrox 2.

Magic phase they tried to Miscast empowered Foot of Gork over my harmless and innocent Templestar but no sixes. So Skink priest eagerly read his scroll.
With remaining dices but one they tried to Dispel the remaining in play -3 T on HPA but ugly roll happened.
The last one was an Skitter leap who succed and we failed our dispel attemp despite being 1v2
Here comes one of the mistakes of Skaven player, instead of leaping rocket launcher warlock he chose the one with ini test. (the big template of the rocket launcher at pointblank over a expensive horde is the wet dream of any mad skaven engineer)

He tried to snipe my lord despite having Bastiladon buff and LoS. Also Scatter dice. The shoot went weird (in the logic terms, he was 1" from the unit) and landed atop Skinks of Skrox n2. Killing 2 out of 11.
Also this little bug was in front of the Templestar redirecting them to nowhere and forcing me to charge and by his thoughts making me vulnerable in the flank to the incoming Savage Orc Horde.

Then he tried to blast with the rocket the sisters of the thorn who were too far away and the shot was wasted.

Doom diver shoot at Bastiladon at the left of the Templeguard and dealing 1wound.

Combat saw the Wild Riders killing tons of Marauders and only recieving one wound. Marauders held.
The impact hits from HPA against Glade Riders caused 1 wound only, And with the hex of T2 the HPA took 2 wounds more but obliterates the elves

 

[Man0waR]

Forces of Light Turn 2

Skrox 2 Charges against Pump Wagon
One unit of Scout with Waystalker charges the marauders (only the corner b2b) in order to gain Combat Resolution.
Templestar charges the lone engineer (then i explained as i couldn't wheel to close the door due to my large footprint collision against my own units in the flank, was the engineer who had to close the door so the whole redirection serve no purpose)
The rat choses to flee and i try to redirect against the Savage Orc Horde, Long charge who obviously I fail ending inside the Mysterious forest...
It turned out to be the one who gives poison, also Dangerous Terrain to everyone moving through it :S
40 DT test 8 fails. My saurus weren't listening those pesky elves about the dangers of the forest...

In movement, Skrox n1 moves forward to shoot at the spider riders, Bastiladon on the left of temple guard moves forward to give Initiative buff to Skrox n1 & TG also aims against the HPAbomination. The second Bastiladon remains in the rear of TG giving also the buff to them (better have 2 than 1 no one knows what could happen).

Sisters of the thorns teleports to enemies right flank forest and the unengaged scout unit backwards from the squig hoppers who could slam into with no reacction.

In magic I tried to Miscast empowered Kadon, who i didn't but forced to burn their only dispel scroll. With remaining dice tried again to miscast the solar engine to nuke the HPA with T2 and 3 wounds remaining but nope, dispelled. No magic this turn.

In shooting the squigs were down to 3, the spiders took another wound. And the Tzeench sorceror saves all the shooting from the Sisters.

In combat Wild riders took out most of the Marauders and lose one more. Marauders break but runs away. None catch them.
Pump Wagon is shred to pieces and I took the chances if I overun enough I could either slam into Skullcrushers (holding them by many turns) or at least get in the way of them so they could not reach my Templestar. Rolled 11" and they engage for the next turn.

Forces of Destruction Turn 2

One of the unit of clan rats charges against the bastiladon in the left of the templeguard.
No more charges, they didn't want to face a templeguard horde with poison, also didn't charge the flank of skrox 2 to help the skullcrushers.

In movement the Skaven units moves forward solving its bottleneck, but not for the HPA who had to move in the rear of their armies with no space to move on straight line forward.
The spider riders move to flank skrox 1.
Nurgle warriors position themselves at the side of Savage Orc Horde, so if I charge, next turn they will countercharge in the flank. Also Khorne Warriors put behind the horde in case they get run down the pursue / overrun would end against 'em. On the other side of the savage orc horde were the skullcrushers but now engaged with a big unit of skrox they will spend some turns to help the main combat.
Also to ensure they get more time to prepare the combat against the templeguard, they move a lone surviving dog from elven shooting to chaff the templeguard, Forcing them to wheel to the right and being flanked by Nurgle warriors or Savage Orc. (the lone wolf was only blocking the path of my right column of ten I had)

Now comes the other mistake of the orc player, he had to move the squig hoppers, they were in the flank of the templeguard or in the rear of 3 wildriders, but the elves got ASF and he thought they wouldn't stand a chance. So he decided to random move into the templeguard horde and in b2b of an Oldblood.
This is not only a weird move, its a huge mistake since I could reform after wiping them out since I haven't charge so no forced overrun.

The Tzeench sorceror fly away from the sisters and landed behind their units.

In magic Tzeench sorceror cast the template spell over skrox 1 who scatters a bit but lands in top of skinks, killing 9 out 12 who were hit. Succeed in Toughness test (4 from kroxigor) and now they had Regeneration(6+) and unbreakable.
The following attemps of their wizards was dispelled or failed, The HPA still hexed.

In shooting the Doom diver missfires with no shooting next round. and the spider riders didn't score any hit on Skrox1.

In combat the Skullcrusher champion issue a challenge that my skink champion step forward. The warrior deals two wounds on him killing it and got blessed with +1 strength
The remaining Skullcrushers wiffed and only score 4 wounds on skinks in total. The skinks bounce on the armour but the 3 Kroxigors went to town dealing 5 wounds.
The combat is won by the skrox and the Skullcrushers run away. As it was their turn, and we had elves that could force the skullcrushers to run again off the table i did my restrain check and reform to face the flank of the Savage Orc Horde.
The skull crushers roll high enough to flee off the table.

The squig hoppers of course where killed by the oldblood himself. So I reform quiting my most right column and adding one in the left, also put there the Oldblood (to deal with nurgle warriors) Now my horde is free of the lone dog chaff and glance at the Savage Orc Horde.

But not all is going well, The clan rats were many they had +5 Combat Resolution before the combat start, they obviously didnt wound the Bastiladon but ... the bastiladon and the skink neither wound , and thunderstomp roll of 1. At least it killed a rat.
But lose by 4 who i fail and the bastiladon run away.

The rats pursue catch the monster and engage corner to corner with the Skrox1.

 

[Man0waR]

Forces Of Light Turn 3

Skrox 2 charges the right flank of Savage Orc Horde.
Templeguard charge the front of the Savage Orc Horde, moving through the poisonous forest makes another bunch of Dangerous Terrrain, claiming 4. In the charge once i closed the door with the Savage Orcs, my left column (with the Oldblood there) was also engaged with the Nurgle warriors. I don't know if it was legit under 8th edition, but I engaged both..

The last bastiladon charges through the forest against the flank of clan rats who pursued into Skrox 1 combat.
I put the bastiladon in range of giving the much needed initiative buff to the Templeguard.
All lizardmen units were engage.

Wild riders charge the remaining marauders, Sisters of the thorn teleport to the left flank enemy forest to deal with the HPA. One unit of scouts moves behind enemy lines to shoot the sorceror. The other stays to kill the lone dog and the engineeer who was skitter leap. Glade guards moves forward to get things in range.

In magic a Miasma is cast on Savage Orc Horde but dispelled. They still had 4 dispel dice to end the remain in play spell that was lowering the Toughness of HPA to 2. So one way or the other elves would be wounding the HPA, Mindrazor was casted on Sisters of the thorn, as they had javelins they would strike at S8.
They try to dispell the RIP but failed with ugly roll too.

In shooting the sisters put two wounds on the HPA who had only 1 remaining, So scouts and waystalker who wanted to shoot at Tzeench sorceror changed the target against HPA but 3 regen saves were done.

In combat the Clan rats vs the Skrox1 & Bastiladon ends in a tie with some skinks and rats dead, Rats had musician so I lose by 1 but held with both. I reform 3 columns to the right to get more models in b2b.

In the main combat,
Nurgle Champion issues a Challenge that Oldblood gladly accepts, The attacks from the warrior bounce through the thick armour and the Oldblood lands his 6 attacks scoring 8 (you know, predatory fighter) and dealing 5 unsaved wounds.

Following initiative, the skinks did no wounds.
Scarvet slaughter the Savage Orc BSB
Templeguard champion and his 2 support attacks kills the Great Orc Shaman downgrading the Ward Save of Orcs from 5+ to 6+.
And now the truckload of attacks from templeguard kills too many savage orcs.
In their initiative turn, the orcs who had a proud number of 30 before combat and 2 hero/lord, now were only 12.
In return they kill 9 Templeguard, showing that Savage Orcs is one of the best core units. But too late. Kroxigors killed 3 more. They lost combat by gazillions. Nurgle Warriors broke in horror but the Orcs wounded in pride stayed on snake eyes. The Nurgle Warriors flight didn't panick anyone.

This outcome can be read in two ways. I couldn't pursue nurgle warriors and try to destroy them with no casualties. But in the pursue I would have run into Khorne warriors, which is not a favourable match up.
And I had the skaven main unit coming from the left, with Warlord & Warchief & Assassin..
So those snake eyes were a gift from the gods.

Wild riders ends the marauders and overrun is stop by friendly scouts (the one who shot at the HPA) preventing them to exit the table

Forces of Destruction Turn 3

Clan rats charge the Skrox1 to help the other unit who was fighting with them and a Bastiladon.
Spider riders charge the flank of Skrox1
No more charges,

Nurgle Warriors rallied and faced the incoming elves. Sorceror hide behind Nurgle warriors and faced Elves.
Khorne warriors couldn't charge as they were behind the decimated horde of orcs. So they waited

HPA random move into Sisters of the Thorn, hoping one miracle and killing the unit.
Mangler squig positions to slam in next turn against Templeguard.

The Skaven bunker moves to line up the grey sheer in a straight line that cross my two ranks of templeguard with a straight line.

In Magic phase, the skaven player talk to the other players to let him get all the dices. He wanted to cast the initiative spell that also breaks building , crossing my entire unit, and then the Dreaded 13th. A smart choice with weird execution.
He burned the energy scroll to lower the spell from 13 to 7. And took 1 dice to cast it, (and the remaining 6 to Miscast the Dreaded 13th)
I warned him that if he roll 1 or 2 he would lose concentration and not being able to cast anymore with that wizard. He didn't listen and keep with his plan. Roll his die, and 2. No more spells from grey seer this turn.
He obviously raged about.

So the magic phase were took by Tzeench sorceror who casted another template over the elves, killing 5 scouts who panicked (the last turn both waystalkers left their units to shoot different targets, so the waystalker didn't run) and 1 Wild Rider. The next attemp was dispelled.

In shooting the skaven globadier tries to land it on single Waystalker but scatters over my templeguard and kills 1.

And the skinks and bastiladon wins the combat but Skaven held.
In the main combat, the savage orc horde is no more. So i reform my temple guard to face the skaven engaged unit to wipe them with ease in my turn and then reform to face the skaven main unit.
I ended the horde formation and reform 6x3 as now I didn't have the numbers to benefit from horde rule.

While the skrox 2 unit reform after combat to charge the flank of the Khorne warriors to keep them busy and also forcing to pursue into nowhere. Granting my templeguard would have the time and security needed to deal with the Skaven.

HPAbomination deals 2 wounds to Sisters of the thorn with impact hits, but his last wound is took within the ASF attacks from the elves with Strenght 8 from Mindrazor or the Toughness 2 of the Shadow Spell hex. Not a good day to be an ugly mutant overfeeded rat.

 

[Man0waR]

Forces of Order Turn 4

Templeguard charges the rear of Clan rats that are already engaged with Skrox 1 & Bastiladon.
Skrox 2 charges the flank of Khorne Warriors of Chaos.
In movement, fleeing scouts rallied, Sisters of the thorns face the Doom diver
Scouts and both waystalker moves to shoot at the Tzeench Sorceror on disc.

In magic I ask for the whole 5 dice to Miscast improved Transformation of Kadon and i roll less than ten with 5 dices. For the lolz of everyone except the WE player who got mad about losing a magic phase.

In shooting Sisters of the thorn only does 1 wound to doom diver
And both waystalkers shot with the no armour save arrow and killed the Tzench sorceror. Panicking Nurgle Warriors out of the table.

Glade Guard now in range, shoot at the main skaven clan rat unit (the bunker of greyseer, bsb, warlord and assassin) and kill 7 rats.

In combat the Templeguard swept the clan rats and the other one held due to steadfast.

In the Skrox vs Khorne warriors, The exhalted hero miss a bunch and only deals one wound to Kroxigor.
The other 2 Khorne warriors dealt 5 wounds, but I roll high and saved 4 wounds.
In return skinks did nothing but Kroxigor aim at the Exhalted hero and kills it. Another general for the lizzies.
Khorne Warriors lose combat but stay and succeed to reform.

The game is pretty much set so we start talking about to end it.

Forces of Destruction Turn 4

Skaven didn't charge, also step aside making room for the Squig Mangler who bounce through templeguard killing only 4.

In magic the greyseer tried to 6 dice Dreaded 13th but no Miscast, so Spellweaver read her dispel scroll.
The following attemps were dispelled too.

In shooting ratling gun shoot 11 and misfire to random location ending over his target, killing 2 more.

In combat. Khorne warriors kill a bunch of skinks and some kroxigors. So Skrox lose and didnt snake eyes. Being run down.

The remaining combat skrox 1 vs clan rats saw the epic challenge between rat champion vs skink champion.
Too much tension, gambles and lolz.
The skink strikes both but fails to wound
And the rat kill the brave skink.

The combat ended in a tie and the skrox lose by musician, but are unbreakable.

Here we call the game as it was late and had little purpose to continue.

A very fun match but with some huge mistakes from unexperienced players. Hope next big match would set the couples more even.

Conclusions about Lizardmen:
- Templeguard horde is amazing. But its very situational. Slann is only a downside for this unit, losing 2 support attacks (4 if horde). Being the most dangerous threat to the unit and restrain the unit for engaging combats.
- Oldblood with sword of strife (+1 to hit) is golden. He did a carnage every time he swung
- Skrox unit for core: They serve the purpose of holding, but this match, my balls, they were mvp.

Conclusion about the game:
- Uneven match up. I should have not allow that team-ups.
- Too much elements of scenary, too much infantry.
- Too much wizards too many spells. Most of them did not cast succesfully. I keep thinking magic won't worth its point unless you are willingly risking your own wizard/unit rolling 6 dices. And this is not how I like the game.

Thank you for reading

 

[wildfish09]

Verry good battle