8th Ed. 750 Point LM vs Wood Elves

[The Great White Lizard]

Deployment, Lists, and Turn One​

Greetings! This battle was really fun and had some twists, so I'll get right into it.

This was his list:
Wood Elves

Glade Captain
Hail of Doom Arrow, Bow of Loren, Swiftshiver Shards, Spear, Shield

10x Dryads
Branch Nymph

10x Glade Guard
Swiftshiver Shards, Champion, Musician

5x Glade Riders
Swiftshiver Shards, Full Command

5x Sisters of the Thorn
Full Command

Total: 748 Points

This was mine:
Lizardmen

Heroes:
Scar Vet Cowboy
Sword of Battle, Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone


Core:
19 Saurus Warriors
Full Command, Spears


10 Skink Skirmishers
Patrol Leader

10 Skink Skirmishers
Patrol Leader

Special:
5 Cold One Riders
Spears, Full Command

Total: 749 Points

The narrators are the respective generals, the scar veteran Nka'loq and the glade captain Allora Silverleaf. My general strategy was to draw fire with my cold one riders and hopefully get a charge in with my saurus. Note that the glade guard lack a standard bearer, which seemed trivial at the start but was actually the difference between a loss and a win!

Deployment:
Before we started, he placed his Worldroots forest at the end of a road terrain feature we were using (+1 Movement for units on it). He made it a Poison Thicket. This would allow him to get poison attacks on his glade guard, which would devastate my saurus later. He vangaurded his cav, and we started deployment. I put my COR on the hill, hoping I could draw fire from my other units and that their 2+ armor save would protect against the S3 multiple shots of the elves. This turned out to be a big mistake as I forgot literally all his troops had armor piercing on missle fire. Other deployment was pretty standard.

The Second rode out towards Nka'loq, placing arrows on their bows and preparing their fire. Nka'loq wheeled his unit of Cold One riders around, knowing that their heavy scales would protect them from the worst of the missle fire and hoping to deter them from firing at the weaker saurus nearby. His skinks advanced, and began peppering the enemy with blowdarts. Nka'Loq roared as his unit began to pick up speed.





Turn One:

My friend won the roll off, giving him the first turn. He advanced with all of his cav, and took the forest with his Glade Guard. His general's S4 armor piercing shots and his unit took a terrible toll on my cold one riders, killing three of them and also killing several of the skinks nearby. I had a 4+ armor save and made none . I had not accounted for the devastating effect of his shooting, and this was a common theme throughout the battle. Luckily because of my 1+ armor save rerollable my general was almost impossible to kill. He also managed to get shield of thorns off on his unit of Sister of the Thorn (who were casting the spell). I responded by inflicting no damage at all and simply moving up. Several of my other skinks were killed by moving through the forest, which happened to be a venom thicket. Things were looking pretty bleak

Allora rode towards the abberations of chaos. Their heavily armored cavalry seemed to be asking for a couple of arrows in the chest, and Allora was happy to oblige. The lizards were even more foolish than she had thought. Her archers had secured a position in the nearby forest that was full of venomous creatures. Their arrows would be coated in deadly poison, and their dominion over the forest would ensure no harm would come to them. All was going according to plan.

 

[Lizards of Renown]

Deployment, Lists, and Turn One​

Greetings! This battle was really fun and had some twists, so I'll get right into it.

This was his list:
Wood Elves

Glade Captain
Hail of Doom Arrow, Bow of Loren, Swiftshiver Shards, Spear, Shield

10x Dryads
Branch Nymph

10x Glade Guard
Swiftshiver Shards, Champion, Musician

5x Glade Riders
Swiftshiver Shards, Full Command

5x Sisters of the Thorn
Full Command

Total: 748 Points

This was mine:
Lizardmen

Heroes:
Scar Vet Cowboy
Sword of Battle, Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone


Core:
19 Saurus Warriors
Full Command, Spears


10 Skink Skirmishers
Patrol Leader

10 Skink Skirmishers
Patrol Leader

Special:
5 Cold One Riders
Spears, Full Command

Total: 749 Points

The narrators are the respective generals, the scar veteran Nka'loq and the glade captain Allora Silverleaf. My general strategy was to draw fire with my cold one riders and hopefully get a charge in with my saurus. Note that the glade guard lack a standard bearer, which seemed trivial at the start but was actually the difference between a loss and a win!

Deployment:
Before we started, he placed his Worldroots forest at the end of a road terrain feature we were using (+1 Movement for units on it). He made it a Poison Thicket. This would allow him to get poison attacks on his glade guard, which would devastate my saurus later. He vangaurded his cav, and we started deployment. I put my COR on the hill, hoping I could draw fire from my other units and that their 2+ armor save would protect against the S3 multiple shots of the elves. This turned out to be a big mistake as I forgot literally all his troops had armor piercing on missle fire. Other deployment was pretty standard.

The Second rode out towards Nka'loq, placing arrows on their bows and preparing their fire. Nka'loq wheeled his unit of Cold One riders around, knowing that their heavy scales would protect them from the worst of the missle fire and hoping to deter them from firing at the weaker saurus nearby. His skinks advanced, and began peppering the enemy with blowdarts. Nka'Loq roared as his unit began to pick up speed.



View attachment 90358

Turn One:

My friend won the roll off, giving him the first turn. He advanced with all of his cav, and took the forest with his Glade Guard. His general's S4 armor piercing shots and his unit took a terrible toll on my cold one riders, killing three of them and also killing several of the skinks nearby. I had a 4+ armor save and made none . I had not accounted for the devastating effect of his shooting, and this was a common theme throughout the battle. Luckily because of my 1+ armor save rerollable my general was almost impossible to kill. He also managed to get shield of thorns off on his unit of Sister of the Thorn (who were casting the spell). I responded by inflicting no damage at all and simply moving up. Several of my other skinks were killed by moving through the forest, which happened to be a venom thicket. Things were looking pretty bleak

Allora rode towards the abberations of chaos. Their heavily armored cavalry seemed to be asking for a couple of arrows in the chest, and Allora was happy to oblige. The lizards were even more foolish than she had thought. Her archers had secured a position in the nearby forest that was full of venomous creatures. Their arrows would be coated in deadly poison, and their dominion over the forest would ensure no harm would come to them. All was going according to plan.

View attachment 90356


View attachment 90360

I like your table set-up.

Otherwise, yes. The Wood Elves are shooty little *****. I thought you were going to take some Terradons or Chamo Skinks?

 

[The Great White Lizard]

Turn Two and Three​

Turn Two

In order to turn things around, I needed a seriously good turn, and a seriously good turn was what I got. Movement went fine for the wood elves, but the Magic phase was a catastrophe! My opponent miscast twice in a row, destroying the entire unit of the Sisters of the Thorn. My opponent managed to get back some momentum as his glade riders dealt two wounds to my remaining Cold One Riders and they both rolled twos on their armor saves. However, on my turn my general charged his glade riders, redirected into the dryads when they ran, and killed four without a scratch. They ran and I missed catching them by one!

Nka'Loq roared in anguish at the death of his spawning brothers. Those cursed arrows had ended their lives one by one. Now he was the only one left. He let out a savage roar and charged the ones responsible for their deaths, but they didn't even have the courage to fight him. He redirected his charge into the forest spirits and hacked them apart branch by branch. These elves must pay for the deaths of his kin!








Turn Three

In an attempt to revive his advantage, my opponent moved up his glade riders and general in an attempt to wipe out my saurus with his Hail of Doom arrow. However, it only did three wounds, he rolled absolutely terribly. The rest of his unit only killed another two, and the panic test was passed easily. I retaliated by wiping out the rest of his dryads with my general (although he did take a wound somehow) and killing three glade riders with my remaining skinks. I thought I had the game in the bag at this point, but my opponent still had a few tricks up his sleeve... Oh yeah, a few skinks died from the glade guard but they passed their panic test

Allora watched in horror as the Sisters were all destroyed by an explosive firey miscast. Their corpses were charred beyond recognition. As she shot down the remaining cavalry, the general charged their unit. they quickly dashed backward, but this only resulted in the dryads bearing the brunt of the charge as they were annihilated by the warrior with an onslaught of devastating blows from his mace. She used her Hail of Doom arrow in a desperate attempt to destroy the advancing block of infantry, and it did some damage, but three of her unit were killed by the small lizards in the attempt. Allora raised her bow. These lizards may think she was beaten, but they had forgotten about the glade guard in the forest, still fresh and ready to unleash death.

 

[The Great White Lizard]

Turns Four and Five​

Turn Four
Turn four was pretty standard, as the rest of one skink unit and another rank of saurus fell to the glade guard and rider's bows. The Wood Elves were struggling, but they could still win the game if they played well. I made a huge mistake here, going after the Glade Riders and the general instead of charging the Glade Guard and stopping them from whittling away my saurus block. I should have just et the skinks and saurus deal with the Glade Riders. I managed to kill the rest of the Glade Rider unit with shooting from the skinks, leaving only the character.

After crushing the last of the forest spirits, Nka'loq rode towards the remnants of the cavalry unit. He would kill their champion. He would avenge his spawning brothers! The skinks managed to kill the rest of the unit around that cursed champion with their blowpipes, but he ordered them to stop. He would kill that elf himself.






Turn Five
Little did I know, turn five would actually be the last of the game. Sensing that if he could finish off my saurus unit, the VP would perhaps tie the game, my opponent moved his general into the Venom Thicket and joined the unit of Glade Guard. His shooting killed eight (!) of my saurus, leaving only two remaining from a unit of 19. I needed to end this game soon. Moving my remaining Saurus behind the blue rock, I charged the last unit with my Scar Veteran. This would be the combat that decided the game. Making it in, I put all my attacks into his general, but for once I didn't wound. His general did nothing, and neither did his unit. I won combat by 2, bring the unit's leadership down to 8, and my opponent failed his break test with a roll of nine!!! His unit fled off the table, giving me the win! If he had had that standard bearer in the unit of Glade Guard, they would not have broke and the game's outcome might have been very different. What a game!


Allora retreated back to the forest with the one remaining unit in her once-strong army. She would finish off that infantry block. As they fired, eight went down, leaving only two. If they could just last a little while, they could win this yet. but then their leader came barreling down, swinging his mace. Seeing his terrifying rage was simply too much. Allora broke, ran away from the battlefield into the woods of Athel Loren. Behind her, her brave Glade Guard were massacred, the brute cutting them down one by one. She ran far off into the forest with her steed, hanging her head with shame. Allora promised herself: she would kill that savage warrior or die trying.

 

[The Great White Lizard]

Aftermath and Reflections​

Wow! What a game! We both made a lot of mistakes (forgetting fear entirely, not charging when it was really important to, etc.), but they didn't detract much from the game. Thought on the battle:

• My saurus didn't get into combat once. Next time, I need to deploy them so they'll have a good movement line and won't get blocked by things like that stupid impassable terrain blue rock.
• COR are bad. I hate to say it, but they really are. I think I might bring kroxigor next time as they are (almost) as fast, tough, and can take a lot more damage without losing wounds
• I need something to tie down the archers. Chameleon skinks would be great, but the only problem is I don't own any... Ah well I can proxy who cares
• The skinks were great, drawing fire and killing an entire unit of light cav single handedly.
• The Dawnstone is ridiculous with a 1+ armor save. I literally saved like 7 wounds with it. Next time my opponent will probably bring bodkins to counteract it though, so perhaps go for a ward save?
• Don't let a unit of archers stay in a forest that gives them poisoned attacks for free.
• Schedule outdoor Warhammer for a day less windy next time. The terrain kept blowing over.

The survivors stand triumphant on a hill behind a massive pile of dead bodies

 

[Lizards of Renown]

Aftermath and Reflections​

Wow! What a game! We both made a lot of mistakes (forgetting fear entirely, not charging when it was really important to, etc.), but they didn't detract much from the game. Thought on the battle:

• My saurus didn't get into combat once. Next time, I need to deploy them so they'll have a good movement line and won't get blocked by things like that stupid impassable terrain blue rock.
• COR are bad. I hate to say it, but they really are. I think I might bring kroxigor next time as they are (almost) as fast, tough, and can take a lot more damage without losing wounds
• I need something to tie down the archers. Chameleon skinks would be great, but the only problem is I don't own any... Ah well I can proxy who cares
• The skinks were great, drawing fire and killing an entire unit of light cav single handedly.
• The Dawnstone is ridiculous with a 1+ armor save. I literally saved like 7 wounds with it. Next time my opponent will probably bring bodkins to counteract it though, so perhaps go for a ward save?
• Don't let a unit of archers stay in a forest that gives them poisoned attacks for free.
• Schedule outdoor Warhammer for a day less windy next time. The terrain kept blowing over.

View attachment 90378
The survivors stand triumphant on a hill behind a massive pile of dead bodies

Congrats for the win. Great narrative.

 

[The Great White Lizard]

Congrats for the win. Great narrative.

Thanks! I definitely will have to bring something next time to deal with the archers. Magic definitely would have helped My opponent is planning on getting enough models to bring his forces up to 2000 points, so it will be fun to finally bring my slann. I'm thinking lore of life, as flesh to stone is going to be invaluable on my saurus. I'm also dying to try out my homebrew Lore of Lustria in a battle though, so I might see if my opponent is ok with me playing that.

I like your table set-up.

Otherwise, yes. The Wood Elves are shooty little *****. I thought you were going to take some Terradons or Chamo Skinks?

Yeah, I am very new to terrain collection. I found it was easy to get some nice trees but other terrain features were harder. The road is made out of sandpaper and that hill is the result of 15 minutes of cardboard gluing. Terradons or cham skinks would have been great in that match, so I'll bring them next time. Not sure about the terradons though as they will get shredded fast without doing much

 

[emptyscale]

Great batrep. A fun read!

You could put a little masking tape around each layer of the card hill and then use some washed down pva to put some sand on it. Then a quick toot with a green spray paint, or sealing it in with some more pva mixed with water and green acrylic and you'd have a fine basic hill there.

 

[The Great White Lizard]

Thanks for the suggestions! Have a lot going on hobby-wise but I'll try to fix up the hill.

 

[emptyscale]

Just a word of warning, adding a layer of pva to the top might cause it to curl up a bit when the glue dries and contracts. There are a couple of ways to avoid and minimise that.

1) Dilute the PVA with water, it'll still do a good job holding on your sand (even better in fact because the sand will suck some of it up into the layer so you stick more of the sand than just the contact point)

2) Apply a layer of PVA to the bottom as well, let the two fight it out and hopefully it will stay flat.

3) When you make the hill in the first place alternate the corrugated card so that the corrugated bits run perpendicular rather than parallel (I can't see if you've done it with this hill or not but it is something you can do next time if you haven't)

Also if you don't like using masking tape to fill in the corrugated bits you can use premixed general purpose filler.