Hey guys, I took my Lizardmen list to the Capital City Bloodbath in Ottawa, Canada. It was a six-game tournament hosted by Chris Hanes of the podcast Canhammer fame. It was a lot of fun and I didn’t have a single bad opponent. Everyone was great to play against I highly recommend signing up next year if you live near the area. These were 2400pt battles and I’m just writing them from memory with highlights. The list I took- Slann Mage Priest -Reservoir of Eldritch energy -Harmonic convergence -Focus of Mystery -Soul of Stone -BSB -Channeling staff Scar-Vet -Light Armor -Great weapon -Cold One -Dragonhelm -Dawnstone Skink Chief -Light Armor -Enchanted Shield -Spear -Luckstone Skink Priest -Level 2 (Beasts) -Dispel scroll 30 saurus warriors- Full command – Shield and Hand weapons 4 x 10 Skink Skirmishes – Javelins and shields Bastiladon- Solar Engine Stegadon 9 Chameleon skinks 4 Razordons 2x 1 salamanders Game 1- Alex with his Ogre Kingdoms Alex was a good opponent, really relaxed. His army Slaughtermaster- Lore of heavens Fencers blades Crown of Command Glittering scales BSB with standard of disciplne Slaughter brute- Lore of the Maw -Hellheart 14 Iron guts 2 sabertusks 3 units of 5 leadbelchers with bellowers 2 Ironblasters Highlights of the battle were my scar-vet taking a charge from an ironblaster and five leadbelcers, keeping them there for a turn for my Bastiladon to flank charge and run them all down. The razordons were able to chip away at the ironguts for four turns and killed all but 4 of them. The skinks and chameleons were able to take care of the other two units of leadbelchers by dancer around them and poisoning. I think he really messed up by charging his ironblaster into my cowboy instead of moving back to shoot a cannonball or just grape shotting him. His other cannon was pretty uneventful as it misfired or missed its targets. Razordons are amazing once you get hand of glory off on them and he became aware of that after I killed five ironguts the first turn. He was very wary of the spell afterwards and did everything to stop it. He also got a 30” Hellheart off and ended one of my phases. The game only lasted four turns. To his credit I don’t think he was slow playing, but was just genuinely slow at the game. We both took our time setting up and just talking, so I can’t really blame him. But, the last turn stopped with my bastiladon and stegadon in his remaining four ironguts with the razordons on his flank and my saurus unit poised to charge it, along with a wither, wyssan and hand of glory cast into that combat. Suffice to say, I don’t think they would have survived. I managed a slight win but if there was one more turn there was no doubt in my mind I would’ve gotten a massacre. The game ended with a minor win in my favor 11/9 Game 2 – Steve and his stunties Dwarf Lord on shield bearers -Rune of stone (?) -Rune that doubles his strength Rune Priest -Rune of spell breaking Rune Priest -Rune that just dispels Thane BSB 20 clansmen 4 units of 10 Quarrelers 2 cannons 2 gyrocopters 1 flame cannon 40 Ironbreakers Out of all my games I really enjoyed this one the most. Never thought I’d say that for Dwarfs. We were able to set up the terrain, so I grabbed this huge hill and placed it in the middle, which severely hampered his cannon shots. Poor Steve probably failed five re-rollable leadership 10 panic checks throughout the game. His unit of clansmen spent more time running and rallying than anything else. The horde of ironbreakers was really intimidating, but I thought that my superior magic would allow me to win that combat. My focus was arcane unforging his lord to get rid of some of those scary runes and use those razordons to really chip away at them before finishing them off with a combo stegadon and saurus charge. Until then I would chaff it up with skinks. My chameleons really shined in this game, taking out a unit of rangers, two units of quarrelers and a cannon. Arcane vassal was also really helpful to target his gyrocopters with soul quench and eventually destroy them. My plan fell apart as his rune of spellbreaking destroyed fiery convocation and he concentrated on stopping arcane unforging. Ironbreakers were really hard to whittle down (as they should be) and I couldn’t get a hold of wither. The game ended with him still having 20 ironbreakers and his characters, but nothing else in his army. It was a draw 10/10 Game 3- Will Paul and his Skaven Grey seer on a screaming bell Engineers with doom rocket and warplock capacitor BSB 100 clanrat unit 2 units of 20 slaves Rat dart Hellpit Doomwhell 2 warp lightning cannons Ahh, ratmen. Why can’t I play a game against them where their rules are consistent? I know, I know. I ask too much. Will’s a great gamer and he’s known in the area as being tough-as-nails to play against, so I went in just playing for a draw. Unfortunately, he had other plans… He got first turn. Teleported his engineer with skitter leap next to my saurus block. Shooting saw him kill my terradon chieftan with a warp lightning, panic a unit of skinks off the board as a result. Then he killed my scar-vet with a warp lightning cannon, which panicked my bastiladon off the board. Then he got a perfect doom rocket off on my slann bunker, which failed their re-rollable panic check and ran (luckily not off the board) But, hey at least I had my first turn coming up…. I was planning on using the skinks that panicked to put in front of the doomwheel so he couldn’t get warp lightning on my razordons, but with them fled they were prime targets for it. The next few turns saw him cleaning up everything. I got a few points as I took out his hellpit when my stegadon gored it to death and I managed to kill a few characters. The screaming bell is rough and I really wanted to get my saurus into combat against it but after the doom rocket, I only had 12 saurus left. I had the razordons and salamanders concentrate on horde of clanrats pushing the bell. But even with the help of two fiery convocations the unit was still twenty strong at the end of the game. The razordon’s had two turns of shooting at the bell, hoping to kill the grey seer (which they did) but I couldn’t kill the bell. Things tough. End of game saw a massacre 0/20 Game 4- Rob and his cheese-chickens When we arrived at the hotel the day before we went down to the hall to check out the armies on display. People spend a lot of time painting and modelling and usually have everything set up. As we walked along and checked out our competition my eyes fell upon one army, one army out of forty that I instantly knew I did not want to play. On this board sat four, yes, four frost-heart phoenixes (phoenixi?) So, when we arrived at my fourth game I was really disheartened to see the very same army across from me. Rob for his part is incredibly friendly and I wouldn’t hesitate to play him again. His army on the other-hand is something I would never choose to face. I mean, two frosthearts are tough, but manageable. I knew that with my poison shooting I had a chance to kill two, maybe three of them but no way all four before they found combat. I just didn’t see a way to take on four of them. Except for one small glimmer of hope, one lore of magic that might be able to put these birds in their place and that was shadow magic. Enfeebling Foe, Wither or Mind Razor would all be good spells to use against them. The game didn’t go well. My razordons got their hand of glory for plus one ballistic skill and shot the frost-heart heading towards them with caladyrn. I knew he does d3 wounds with his attacks but figured a shooting phase, stand and shoot and two wounds done by skinks would before enough to kill it before it got into combat. So I picked up the dice and rolled 2, 2, 4, misfire. 16 shots, no wounds. No problem, with ballistic skill four and quick to fire and instinctive defense they could really put a hurting on the phoenix when it charges, right? RIGHT!? Poison was spread around the board as were the frosthearts, making me grouping all my skinks on a single one impossible. In retrospect I should have put them closer together and done just that. Most poison was shrugged off from it’s 5+/5+ (I think he got the 4+ ward save two turns) Caradyn charged the razordons. Time to stand and shoot, hopefully getting those remaining wounds! 2, re-roll! Misfire! 2, re-roll 2. 4, re-roll Misfire! 4, Re-roll. 4. 10 shots and four dead skinks. Suffice to say it wasn’t enough to even wound the bird. Magic really bit my butt as I didn’t get many dice and I remember being frustrated as I threw two dice for apotheosis and rolling double 1’s on spell that I just wanted to either bait dice or trade out. I was able to trade out 3 spells and got steed of shadows (traded for miasma) and penundrum and Finally mind-razor. I knew that if I got it off on the saurus he would be in dire straights as 3 of his phoenixes were teetering on four wounds. But, then it was his turn and he was able to get them all to charge into my saurus block and I forfeited knowing that 30 saurus couldn’t take that many attacks and stomps. Looking back at the game I made a few glaring mistakes. As I said earlier I should have grouped up the skinks and chameleons to really concentrate poison shots. My razordons really underperformed which hurt. On top of that I was only able to get one or two spells off a turn, which meant I was trading out one spell a turn. I mean, besides the turn I broke concentration immediately and the other one he stopped with his dispel scroll. I had lined up my stegadon so that if he charged the sauruses I could counter-charge his flank and hopefully kill a bird with impact hits. After we deployed I realized that the steggie would only be strength four on the charge and it made me very sad ;( The game ended with another massacre 0/20 Game 5- Alex and his skaven Maybe I’m just picky. But, I don’t want to fight: Skaven, Daemons and Frostheart armies. That’s about it. So, seeing Skaven again was a disappointment. However, Alex was another great gamer and we had fun. This game went much better than my prior skaven encounter. Between the skink chief and the chameleons I had all three of his warmachines destroyed turn 2. The razordons shot the grey seer to death on turn 3. Then finished off the bell turn 4. The only part I messed up on was that I put them directly infront of the bell unit so I could simultaneously re-direct and stand-and-shoot but I forgot that the bell can just move forward D6” when it rings on a 2-4. I won’t forget that again. However, they killed it in hand-to-hand combat. He had an assassin that just ate my stegadon and bastildon. The rest of my army played keep away as I just chipped away at the horde. The game ended with a minor loss 9/11 which I’ll take after two massacres. Game 6- Ben and his Wood Elves I know wood elves. My brother plays them (he got 2nd best at the tournament with them) I know how they work and all their tricks. But, I just…I just…deployed stupidly and forgot everything. I was lazy and didn’t swap out any spells for more magic missiles or direct damages, which they hate. I didn’t bother to get a walk between worlds off on my razordon or even the saurus block to get into their line. I was unable to stop an irrestible force pit of shades into my saurus turn one. I didn’t even see combat as I just barreled my saurus and bastiladon forward until they were shot to death. My razordon were on the opposite side of the board to kill wildriders (which they did) and not much else. I was tired at the start of the game and exhausted at the end. So that’s what I’m blaming it on. Overall The Slann Obviously he was the centerpoint of my army and I knew relying on magic was a gamble. The reservoir of eldritch energy didn’t fail me once. I always got that extra power die. More often then not I would get an channel, but more often it was two. Pulling an extra 3 power dice was very helpful, but I still had phases where nothing seemed to get done. Overall, I really liked the slann, especially when I dropped spells to get shadow. Miasma is such an amazing spell. Contemplation is such a great tool. But, it’s very hard to use in a tournament as having to think of the spell you want and then going through the steps to take it is time consuming, which adds up in the end. After my third game, I would just default to Miasma or Wyssans to save some time. Scar-vet He was either amazing or shot off the board turn one. Skink Chief Definitely dropping this guy. For a few more points, I can grab terradons or rippers which I feel would be more useful. I just found him dying or unable to add to anything the chameleons couldn’t handle. Skink Priest Level 2 of beast wasn’t very helpful. An occasional Wyssan’s here and there but for the most part I’m sure I can drop him down to level 1 and probably switch to heavens as Ice Shard Blizzard seems amazing. He was definitely worth his points solely for Arcane Vassal. Because High Magic’s real drawback is it’s short range, having a skirmisher who can move 12” in any direction really ads those few extra inches you need (insert joke here). Saurus Did their job of keeping the slann from eating cannonballs and cleaning up smaller units. They were never wiped out in hand-to-hand combat. Skinks Skins are skinks. Awesome re-directors and chaff units. Every Lizard player loves ‘em and every other army hates ‘em. Bastiladon I love this guy. Almost every game he was marching straight-forward, shooting his laser which would either do damage or suck up a dispel dice or two. Then he would charge a unit and keep it there for awhile. I threw him into combats against core tar-pit units like skaven slaves. I think people don’t realize that this guy is solely a support unit and try to treat him like a monster. Because he isn’t. Stegadon My little baby-steg…I don’t know where to stand on him. He was remarkable for killing two hellpits and he was unremarkable for getting shot to death. I’m going to keep him and see if I can improve. Razordons I think people really underestimate these guys, especially in the meta of MSU. Most of my opponents didn’t know their rules and concentrated on killing the salamaders first. Even without hand of glory on them, moving them up and shooting at units was enough to kill most chaff. Salamanders People swear by them and I just don’t get it. I need more practice with them. I fought two skaven armies and thought they were perfect opportunities to use their breath weapons and they weren’t all that great. If you managed to read this far, thanks. I know it’s pretty incoherent and in the future I’d really like to take notes and organize what happened better. I really just wanted to keep track of my games as a lizardmen player. Comments are appreciated
@Greenmachine: Yes, that was a fantastic tourney and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Since the thread is already here, I might as well add my own experience and battle reports. With regard to the observations about units, I concur 100% with the arcane vassal - I really missed having a priest as it made casting MM & DD spells a challenge. While I am still not sold on razordons, I might give them another try based on your experience. My sallies did well so hopefully you can glean something useful for your own army - then again, I may have just been lucky in terms of my opponents' army comp (i.e. lots of 20 mm blocks). CCBB was an awesome 2400 pt, six game, two-day tourney held in the nation's capital, Ottawa. Excellent location in a large, air-conditioned hotel conference room, great organization and running of the tournament, terrain that actually blocked LOS, lunch and drinks provided and a lot of beautifully painted armies and fantastic players all round. Of note, tourney was 60% battle, 20% paint and 20% sports. Battle was different as a sliding scale awarded from 0-20/round based on 10% increments (e.g. 0-240 = 10/10 draw, 241-480 = 11/9, 481-720 = 12/8, etc. all the way up to 2400+ = 20/0). In addition, fleeing units/characters or units/characters at below half strength/starting wounds awarded 50% VPs. Taking this into account, achieving a 20/0 result was a big challenge - you had to table your opponent and have virtually zero losses or wounds to your own units. There were also up to 4 bonus battle points per round for scoring units(units with command models) to take. Of note, deployment directions are based on the perspective from the lizzie side of the table. This was my first big tourney after several years away due to work/school and I was really looking forward to catching up with a lot of old friends. Now, onto the list and battle reports: My list: Slaan BSB with standard of discipline, ironcurse icon, channeling staff. Harmonic convergence, becalming, mystery & soul of stone. SV Cowboy: cold one, dragonhelm, sword of striking, shield, dawnstone 20 saurus with hw & shield, standard & musician 3 units of 10 skirmish with champ 2 cohorts of 10 with musician 26 TG, FC, Razor standard 6 krox with champ 2 x twin sallie packs Game 1 vs Dark Elves My opponent was a really nice guy who was relatively new to fantasy (this was his first big tourney) and hadn't yet acquired all the great toys in the dark elf army (witches, big monsters, etc.) Supreme sorcereress, lore of shadow On foot BSB Dark Peggie noble with twilight cloak ~ 40 dreadspears 2 x 10 RXB 2 x 5 dark riders 20 executioners, FC 5 x cold one knights 1 x cold one chariot 5 x doom warlocks shades 3 x RBT Deployment: I set up with TG/slaan in centre, saurus & SV to their right, krox further right and skirmisher screen in front. Sallies were to the right & left, just within command range and in position to go into cover. Directly across from TG was the spear/wizard unit, executioners to the right and COKs and chariot in front of spears. Dark riders were on the flanks and shooters set up well to cover the area. Turns 1-2: We spent the first couple of turns trying to deal with each other's chaff units to gain a mobility advantage. The longer range fire of RXB/RBT was partially offset by terrain cover and the advantage of poison shooting along with direct damage spells for the slaan (fireball immediately replaced soulquench to give range). Magic defence was focused on preventing pit of shades although it did go off and scattered to nowhere. The main thrust at this time was to move the sallies around to the right and left through terrain so that they could breathe on the executioners and spears. Chameleons went after RBTs while other skinks dealt with dark riders, warlocks and shades. TG & saurus advanced cautiously while the krox got bottled up behind skinks and left behind due to poor thinking on my part although they did keep the dark riders from getting too aggressive in terms of charging and taking out skinks. By the end of turn 2, 2 RBT's & a unit of dark riders were dead at the cost of the cohort skinks, 1+ kroxigors & a few saurus. Turns 3-4: After clearing the front to allow supporting charges between all my heavy units, this part of the battle started with a multi-charge from the COKs and chariot into the saurus but poor dice rolling sent the chariot in on its own. The chariot held through two turns, denying a pursuit, before the SV killed it while the krox countercharged the COKs and the TG advanced aggressively. The sallies on the right were now in a good position while walk between worlds put the left sallies into a good shot at the spears. Three templates and some skink snacks later and the executioners were cut in half while the spears were likewise decimated. The magic phase didn't go so well however as a miscast killed 8 TG (walking between world the sallies) and a failed dispel allowed a pit of shades to drop the TG below half. A skirmish unit died in combat to dark riders while shooting killed enough saurus to drop them below half. The krox failed to break the COKs on the charge, allowing the executioners to join the battle. On LD 10 with re-roll, the krox held long enough for the SV to make it into contact against the executioners. After killing off the champ (thank goodness for no killing blow), the SV chopped up the BSB while the krox managed to kill the last of the COKs and finished off the executioners with attacks and stomps. Turns 5-6: The key aspect of this phase was charging the spears on the flanks with sallies and marching the TG forward to get them within 12" command range. The right flank sallies put all their attacks on the wizard, eventually overcoming the 4+ ward save and the others went after rank and file. Eventually, the sallies inflicted enough wounds to bring the unit below 5 models so steadfast disappeared and they ran them down. The game ended with a solid 14-6 victory and 4 bonus points for the fortitude (breaking point) objectives. Lessons learned: Skinks vs dark riders in combat is not a good match up. Heroes: Sallies. The templates were key to nerfing the infantry blocks and they were ninjas in combat with S5 attacks and stomps grinding T3 infantry into mush. Game 2 versus Ogres: This game was with someone I had last played about 8 years ago so it was a good grudgematch after such a long time. His list was pretty cool because it consisted of regular ogres and not irongutz. While this might appear to a be a major drawback, I soon discovered why it was so effective: Slaughtermaster with Hellheart BSB ~20 ogres with ironfist, FC 2 or 3 hounds 2 x 3 mournfang cav 4 x maneaters with scout & sniper 3 x leadbelchers 2 x ironblaster Deployment: Deployment was as per dawn attack, which is somewhat evident by the dispersed nature of some units. Terrain of note was a building centre right just outside my deployment zone, large hill centre right in ogre deployment zone and a hill on the middle left just outside my deployment zone. TG went left of the building with saurus to their left and kroxigor to the right of the building. Skinks were extreme right and left, sallies near TG & Slaan and the SV hid behind the hill on the left to avoid being cannon sniped. Ogres had the big block just left of centre, ironblasters on right and left flanks with mournfang positioned on each extreme flank. Dogs were near main block and leadbelchers on the left flank protecting the ironblaster. My scouts grabbed a spot near the right flank ironblaster and his scouts were middle right near the krox but outside the charge arc. Turns 1 & 2: For my part, the main effort at this time was to try and take out the ironblasters and delay the mournfangs and keep the SV alive and out of sight. The maneaters presented a bit of problem however due to their proximity and some skinks bravely ran away when charged. Other skinks and the sallies then surrounded and shot up the maneaters while the krox moved to engage them. Turn 2 the maneaters charged the krox and while they did inflict some wounds, they were ground into pulp with the return attacks. The mournfangs advanced rather cautiously and the leadbelchers and skinks exchanged fire. One cohort absorbed 18 shots at short range and the remaining 2 skinks managed to pass panic and stay in the game. The leadbelchers passed their own panic and the firing continued until they were eliminated, leaving two skirmisher units to go after the left ironblaster after shooting up a couple dogs along the way. Magic didn't do much although the slaan swapped out soulquench for lore of metal searing doom. The main ogre block advanced slowly, perhaps to maintain contact with the mournfangs. Turns 3 & 4: Magic began to play a bigger part in the game as the hellheart reached out 30" (we were 19" apart) on an 11 dice magic phase with a resulting detonation ("improved" to detonation from a cascade roll of 4 thanks to soul of stone!!) killing 7 TG and draining some dice. Some sallies got world walked and spat on the ogres for a couple bases down while a searing doom did 2 wounds on the right ironblaster. Shooting phase did very well as the left ironblaster was down to 2 wounds while the right one finally dropped from another searing doom and poison. The blasters managed to kill some saurus, TG and another kroxigor. A grapeshot against the chameleons in cover killed one despite 10 shots as my opponent thought they were autohits and didn't realize that he had to roll to hit. I offered to let him select another target instead after showing him the rule but as there wasn't much to shoot at so he went for chameleons. As the mournfangs moved in, the last two cohort skinks on the left flank bravely marched forward to redirect them while the SV marched to block the ogre horde and the saurus moved to flank the horde while the TG advanced to keep the SV within BSB range. On the right, the mournfangs and krox played a bit of cat and mouse with some skinks providing moral support. The ogres charged the SV and an unfortunate failed dispel resulted in them being boosted to S5 with S7 impact hits. The SV took one wound but held on and then the slaughtermaster actually accepted a challenge. The saurus eventually got in a flank charge but it was a mixed blessing as another S5 buff to the ogres resulted in the saurus giving up almost as much as they contributed. Turns 5: The SV held the centre and the right mournfangs charged the flank of the TG with the TG holding and reforming. The krox failed to counter charge (needed 5" and rolled double 2's!) and did squat. Magic was significant as a wound healed on the SV proved timely as he subsequently took another one and regen and toughness on the ogres prevented most wounds from hurting the block. The slaughtermaster healed a couple wounds but predatory fighter decided to make an outstanding display on the turn all the buffs were stopped. Three 6's resulted in 7 total hits and 4 wounds in the challenge, killing the ogre general. The TG had similar success as a hand of glory gave them I3 and they struck before the mournfangs. Another bunch of 6's gave more attacks and a pile of wounds at -3 (razor standard with S5) ended up killing the unit. We called it there due to time constraints after seizing objectives and it ended 13/7 for lizzies plus bonus points. Lessons learned: Don't cheap out on dispel dice when it is vital. The SV can hold quite well against S4 attacks and it was trying to save dice that resulted in him being subjected to S7 hits. Hero: The SV for single-handedly holding up the ogre block. Honourable mention to chameleons for killing a dog, a maneater, doing wounds on the ironblaster and march blocking the right flank mournfangs twice. Game 3 vs Dark Elves, King of the Hill Scenario This was another game where I got to catch up with an old friend who I hadn't seen in years and he had a beautifully painted druchii army. There were two rules that we had to consult the TO on with the 2nd ruling actually deciding the game! The list was fast cav and flier based as follows: Dreadlord on steed with dawnstone, potion of fools, giant sword Supreme Wizard, lore of death BSB on steed 1st level metal wizard on steed noble on dark peggie with cloak of twilight 20 RXB with flaming banner 3 units of dark riders, fully kitted 2 units of 5 harpies block of ~17 doom warlocks 5 shades with great weapons 3 x RBT Deployment: Important terrain was a woods just on my side of the king of the hill token, a big building on the centre right part of the field and several other woods/rocky terrain spread evenly across the middle of the board. TG set up to head right at the token, saurus to the right and krox to the right of them. Skink meatshield provided cover from the RBTs while the sallies were right and left within 12" and in cover. Scar vet was with the saurus. Chameleons were centre left in cover getting ready to go after the RBTs but the shades were deployed opposite them. Dark elves had all 3 RBTs on far left corner, dark riders left flank and centre left, doom warlocks opposite TG, RXBs ready to enter building and harpies on left and right flanks. He finished normal deployment first and chose to vanguard. We both rolled 3's and thought that we had won - hence the first call to the TO. The call was vanguard doesn't impact who goes first so we proceeded to play. Thanks to Hdctabmien for clarifying this for me in the rules section Turns 1&2: Clearing out the chaff. Turn 1 the left harpies charged the chameleons in cover and stand and shoot killed one and another one died to difficult terrain checks when landing. Dark riders advanced on the left flank and dark peggie and harpies on the right while the RXBs occupied the building. The warlock unit moved to within 18" of the meatshield. Magic and missiles killed some skinks but nothing big as I held out to prevent purple sun. A similar war of attrition continued on my turn with skinks killing a few dark riders and the sallies trying to get into the left to shoot across the enemy lines. Heavy infantry all advanced toward the main enemy forces with alignment to allow supporting charges. The SV charged out against the peggie noble on turn 2 and died horribly to the cloak of twilight killing blow - this was a major loss of a rock solid fighter and I should have remembered that peggie nobles almost always have this item!! The chameleons lost but held in combat and in the magic phase a successful unmaking managed to destroy the dreadlord's potion rather than his giant sword or dawnstone. Added to this was a miscast that killed 8 TG so it was not a great start to the game. Turns 3 & 4: Heavy carnage. The chameleons eventually died but dropped all but one harpy while skirmishers on the right panicked the other harpies backwards and then finished them with shooting. The TG & saurus advanced and the right flank sallies were in perfect position to hit the building and the doomwarlocks. Another IF moved the left flank sallies to a perfect flank shot that also could overshoot into the building but unfortunately dropped another 6 TG. The sallies then proceeded to light everything up with 3 solid templates hitting warlocks, one hitting dark riders and three clipping the building. End result was the warlocks dropped to 5 models, RXBs to 7 and dark riders to one with the wizard taking a wound. The dark peggie charged the right flank sallies, who fled, so he redirected into the krox's flank to pin them in the woods. Focused fire now came on the left flank sallies and a successful purple sun killed one but they passed panic. RBTs killed more TG, bringing the unit down to single digits. The krox lost but held and then proceeded to crush the noble the next round. The saurus assaulted the building and wiped out the remaining RXBs with ease thanks to a bucket load of PF extra attacks. A successful magic missile killed the level 1 and the remaining dark riders so at least magic was heading in the right direction. Turns 5 & 6: The TSN Turning Point. More skink vs dark rider, shades attrition continued and the rallied sallies eventually dropped a dark rider but did not panic them off the board (desperation yes but heh, one can always hope!). A successful walk between worlds moved the now far right skirmishers into position to shoot up a RBT and they survived counter fire to advance and wipe out a 2nd one at the bottom of turn 6. Shades died to skinks and a small magic missile while the saurus exited the building but weren't positioned to help out much. The TG moved into the woods near the objective and faced the depleted warlocks with the remaining characters while the krox moved to be in a flank charge position if the warlocks came into combat. This is where an epic fail of luck hit as the power dice came up 3+3 after the warlocks charged. A 6 dice purple sun later and only 2 TG and the slaan remained in the woods. Worse yet, the extra dice generated allowed doom & darkness for LD 7. Thinking quickly, I challenged with the slaan and he took a couple wounds while the unit was wiped out. This was a critical juncture as the druchii had won combat by 5+ and a key rule about lone characters in woods being stubborn (see page 119 forests and CC) came into play. I couldn't find it in the rulebook immediately and so we called the TO over. Rather than wait, we agreed to proceed with everything else in the turn and by the time we had the TO had found the ruling and I breathed a sigh of relief as LD 7 on 3 dice with a re-roll is easy as pie (the first roll was 7). This allowed the krox to hit the flank of the warlocks and the slaan to get off a magic phase to heal a wound back. The dark elf BSB was the only model in contact and whiffed while the krox did not, doing 7 x S7 wounds that killed the BSB. The slaan then proceeded to fail 3 of 4 ward saves in the challenge but since he had healed a wound, lived to see the bottom of turn 6. Static res result in a narrow lizzie victory but the druchii held and the game ended there. We added up the VPs and it came out to the narrowest of margins for the lizzies - 245.5 points for 11/9 but 4 bonus for holding the objective. While adding up the VPs, I asked my friend if he could see my 3rd skirmish unit as I couldn't find it. He couldn't so we looked around and eventually found it about 30 feet away on a spare table - I had left the unit on my display board and completely forgot about them so the skinks were drinking at the bar while the rest of the army was fighting for survival - darn, untrustworthy skinks!! Overall, this was one of the most enjoyable games I have played in a long time due to the tactics and swings back and forth between us. Hopefully, we can arrange a re-match in the not too distant future. Lessons Learned: Miscasts hurt TG, perhaps the Slaan should sit out on his own or with skinks when tossing dice! Hero(es): The sallies again. The single round of shooting not only inflicted heavy casualties but completely unnerved the druchii and forced them to dedicate time and resources to getting rid of them. Krox get honourable mention for crushing two nobles and not completely whiffing more than once! Game 4 vs High Elves: Last game of the day and it was against a nicely painted and themed high elf sea guard list. There was a quadruple frost phoenix list at the tourney and I was certain that is what I was going to be playing but it turned out this was not the case. Here is the list: Level 4 high magic, book of hoeth, khaine's ring BSB on foot, reaver bow, potion of strength 6 silver helms 2 x 5 fast cav reavers ~30 lothern sea guard 2 x lothern skycutter chariots (no bolt thrower upgrades) 6 x dragonprinces ~20 phoenix guard 3 x RBT 2 x eagle 2 x 5 sisters of avelorn Deployment: There was a nice mix of terrain covering the board that provided good cover along with excellent avenues for movement and a building in my half near the centre right. Deployment was TG centre, saurus right and krox further right. A skink screen was set out to deal with the fast cav and positioned to go after the RBTs while the SV joined some cohort skinks on the right flank. High elves were sea guard bunker opposite the TG, phoenix guard to the right, sisters and 2 x eagle, RBT and dragon princes in the far right corner. The silver helms, sky cutters were to the left of the bunker and 2 RBTs and the other sisters were further left while the reavers were middle left. I was waiting for him to drop the four x frost phoenixes and it was only when I asked him that I realized that he didn't have any. Obviously, this was a great sigh of relief on my part!! Turns 1 & 2: The game started very well for my opponent as I failed to dispel and he fiery convocated the saurus (the TG were out of range) and the shooting killed a number of skinks. However, it then went south immediately as the skirmishers shot up the right flank eagle, panicking the dragon princes off the board and causing the RBT crew to quiver in fear. On the left flank, the skinks advanced and played darts and arrows with the reavers and sisters, giving as good as they got while the chameleons hid out in water and pelted anything near them with poison. Again, the main effort was to try and get the sallies into position to hit the infantry and this progressed reasonably well. Turns 3 & 4: The skinks were taking a beating on the left flank but had seriously depleted the fast cav, wiping out one unit in a single round of shots (thanks to BS 6 from hand of glory). Making the most of the now empty right flank with the dearly departed dragon princes, the sallies and krox advanced while skinks shot up the RBT. A miscast killed a bunch of TG while another miscast was dropped from 10 to 9 to keep the slaan from losing too many levels. Both miscasts were on mediocre spells. Fiery convocation was dropped from the now 3 saurus remaining in favour of casting it at the TG but it was easily dispelled. However, the silver helms were walked 20" into the rear left and started threatening skinks while the sky cutters and skinks engaged in a dance of death. The sallies flamed the sea guard into ashes, leaving only a handful to escape while the TG advanced to engage the phoenix guard. The SV held up the phoenix guard long enough for the TG & krox to join the fight and the dice abandoned the elves as 7 of 8 ward saves were failed while a failed casting with 5 dice ended a magic phase! At the same time, a returning sallie killed one silver helm, causing them to panic and flee through skinks, killing another with dangerous terrain checks. On the far left, the sisters failed to kill a skink while the chameleons passed two panic checks and the three remaining ones proceeded to kill a RBT. Turns 5 & 6: The sea guard bunker six diced walk between worlds to escape the danger and moved to the far left in the lizzie deployment zone (which conveniently scored a bonus point). Elsewhere, the cursed die rolling continued as some skirmishers held against a sky cutter charge and tied up both for the rest of the game - eventually bringing them to 1 or 2 wounds before taking it for the team. The phoenix guard were run off the board and the silver helms, after rallying, took out another skink unit but again failed dangerous terrain. The final straw was the last two silver helms charging fleeing skinks in the woods both rolling 1's and dropping dead. The game ended with a solid 13/7 victory plus bonus points. Lessons learned: The dice are fickle and any battle can swing quickly so always keep fighting as best you can. Heroes: Sallies for putting the fear of god into the elves and the chameleons for surviving punishing fire and still managing to kill off an eagle, RBT and fast cav. Game 5 vs Bretonnians: Well, Sunday morning dawned and my opponent was another old friend and someone who had thoroughly spanked me the last time we played. He was playing Brets (the only player at the tourney) and with the lizzies, I felt this was a good match up and since he wasn't playing against woodelves, he was pretty happy too 2 x Lords with 1+ saves, one with heroic KB virtue 2 x paladins, BSB had dawnstone 2 x life 2nd levels, one mounted, one on foot 3 x knights of the realm units varying from 7-9 in size 9 x errant knights with errantry banner (+1 S on charge) 20 x archers, 10 x archers 3 x pegasus knights 2 x trebuchet Deployment: Meeting engagement set up with the 12" separation area going from lower left to far, upper right. A tower was about 1/3 of the way along in the separation area with woods slightly left of the tower in the lizzie deployment zone. There was a nice mix of other terrain in other parts of the board. Neither of us rolled any units into reserves. TG were just left of the tower, krox in woods to their left and saurus with SV right of the tower. Skinks were evenly spread with a cohort and skirmish fairly far right and the sallies were positioned near the TG where they could move forward and spit early. Realm knights and characters set up across from TG & krox right at the line so we would start only 12" apart. Archers with wizard on hill on the far left and the two trebuchets far left corner set up to prevent scout deployment and the smaller archer unit to their right. The chameleons couldn't get near the trebuchets so they deployed on the far board edge around the middle where they could advance and shoot up the small archer unit. Turns 1 & 2: Why wait when we can fight now! The krox figured a 7 was a good number to hit the knights but they can't count and rolled double 2's again and so staggered forward enough that their front was out of the woods. TG oriented left to protect their side and the saurus advanced on the right side of the building to get into a flanking position. One sallie pack entered the building and another advanced between krox and TG. Skinks marched on the far right to get to where the action was while the left flank skinks went after the peggie knights. Magic saw world walk stopped but hand of glory (HoG) give the TG WS 7 and soul quench was let go and killed one knight. The sallies dropped a couple more knights while the peggies were wounded by poison. Overall, the Lady was really favouring the Brets as there were a ton of 6's rolled on ward saves. Chameleons panicked the archers through a trebuchet, causing it to fail panic. All Bret lances except errant knights charged on turn 1, with the peggies hitting skinks, two lances hitting the krox and another taking on the sallies. The skinks held but the sallies were crushed, allowing an overrun into the TG front. The krox were beat badly after dropping a few knights but fled and rallied as the lances restrained pursuit (through woods) and reformed to face the TG. The errant knights advanced to flank the TG. Dwellers was dispelled and the trebuchet killed all but 2 cohort skinks sitting on an objective. The skinks passed panic and stayed there the rest of the game. The TG/knight combat was joined by the other two lances but they whiffed on the charge (thanks largely to HoG giving them WS5), killing only 8 TG, and a grind fest began. Despite inflicting a huge number of S5 AP wounds, only a few knights dropped due to a large number of successful armour and ward saves. Turns 3 & 4: Grinding for meat (thanks to the band, Judas Priest). The saurus and SV finally got into position and flank charged the knights while the errants hit the TG side. Again, WS7 TG proved effective but so did T5 knights facing the saurus. The peggies finally broke the skinks but pursued off the board before reforming to face the rallied krox who were about the rear charge the errants. The chameleons continued to first wound and then charge a trebuchet while skirmishers shot up the big archer block. Slowly, the TG and saurus were getting the better of the knights through static resolution and the middle lance dissolved due to losses, leaving only characters. A focused effort of WS7 TG dropped a lord and paladin as predatory fighter resulted in a half dozen or so wounds on each character - all at -3 to save. The TG were also being slowly ground down but still had over 50% since two miscasts either landed in or were adjusted to 8 or 9 on the table. Turn 5: The dam breaks. The peggies flanked the krox but whiffed due to fear and angry krox held, reformed and pounded on them. A successful dispelling of Bret magic followed by HoG buffed saurus and some hot rolling dropped 5 realm knights in one turn while more errants dropped to 3 TG who were on fire (7 wounding hits with PF). Combat results required 4 or less and all lances broke with one unit run down and the others unable to rally. The battle ended with a 18/2 score and full bonus points for objectives. Lessons learned: Sometimes, someone has to take it for the team. The loss of the sallies and a couple skink units were vital in both inflicting a few wounds on the Brets and delaying the combo charge. This allowed the TG to focus on one unit and get some buffs off before they were surrounded and also gave the saurus block time to move into position and get involved before the TG were decimated. Heroes: The TG. With the HoG buff they were amazing and the PF rule really came into play. Another key factor was the AP banner as it was essential to get through the bret armour. Honourable mention to the lone two cohort skinks holding the objective and the chameleons who took out two trebuchets, an archer unit and were shooting up the last archer unit when the game was called. Game 6 vs Vamps: My opponent for this last and final game had a really tough vamp list with twin terrorgheist, the blender lord and knight bus. I had never met him before so it was really nice to play someone completely new. His list: Blender lord on barded steed, dawnstone, ogre blade, lvl 1 vamp master necro level 4 on steed, scroll Vamp BSB, lvl 1 death, 1+ save, MR2 39 ghouls with champ 4 units of 5 dire wolves with champ 6 hex wraiths with champ ~12 black knights, FC 2 x terrorgheists Deployment: Key piece of terrain was a building in the centre left with a mix of difficult terrain, woods and hills elsewhere. TG went right of building, saurus right of them, krox left oriented to cover left side of building and sallies behind. Skinks were all kept within 12" of the general with cohorts further forward due to less mobility (i.e. ranked vs skirmish). Opposite TG was knight bus with characters, terrorgheist on either side, hex wraiths left of knights. Twin wolf packs were on either flank and the ghouls were centre right, just inside march range. Chameleons set up on middle right behind another building, 29" away from a terrorgheist (the distance where they are still safe from a fly and scream!). Of note, all lizzies were far enough back where required to prevent a turn 1 terrorgheist scream. Turn 1: Taking it slowly. Wolves vanguarded forwarded everywhere and the hexwraiths moved to hide behind the building, out of the slaan LOS to avoid being magic missiled. I won turn 1 and remembered my own adage, "you don't need to win the game on turn 1". With that, the flanking skirmishers moved forward to shoot up wolves but remained 29" from the terrorgheists while the chameleons did likewise on the distant right. The entire lizzie line shifted right a couple inches to give the slaan LOS to the hex wraiths while the krox held fast and were angled to cover the buildings left flank. Key point was keeping distance from the terrorgheists while ensuring skinks could swoop in when needed for massed fire. In addition, lanes were cleared for sallies to advance and the TG and saurus formed a shallow "V" to make a future flank counter charge easier. Soul quench was stopped while tempest dropped two hexwraiths and was replaced with banishment. The skinks shot up the dogs pretty well although no unit was completely eliminated. The hexwraiths charged the saurus on their turn as the knight bus advanced to within 12". The terrorgheists landed on either side of the knight bus but were out of death shriek range (how fortuitous!). Thanks to good channeling, the lizzies held more dispel dice and completely shut down the magic phase, thereby preventing any dances or recovered hexwraiths. The hexwraiths lost combat by 1 but didn't melt as BSB was within 12". Turn 2: One down, one to go. The TG flanked charged the hexwraiths while a cohort, two skirmishers and the chameleons moved to shoot up the terrorgheist to the right of the knight bus. Another cohort entered the building while some left flank skirmishers marched to get within 18" of the slaan. Magic was a dilemma as 11 dice were generated but the two key magic missiles were useless in combat. Instead, some skinks were denied augmented BS from HoG but the left flank unit was 5 diced walked 10" to where they could actually shoot the 2nd terrorgheist. With three dice left, I tossed a fiery convocation at the knight bus and up came double 6's. A couple knights and wounded slaan (another adjusted 8-9 result) later and it was on to shooting. Both sallies scored near perfect hits on the knights, dropping a few knights but, more importantly, wounding the master necro a 2nd time (1st time from fiery convocate) after a failed look out, sir roll. For shooting, the two skirmishers, scouts and cohort shot up the right side terrorgheist but it was still around with 1 wound after rolling 3 x 6's for regen. Fortunately, the cohort in the building was in range and finished it off. This was a major accomplishment and the last, walked between world skinks decided to heft a few javelins at the remaining terrorgheist. Only 1 poison and 4 hits were achieved but 3 of them actually wounded, resulting in dropping the 2nd gheist down to a much more manageable 2 wounds - those skinks must have been really pumped by receiving slaan magic! The hexwraiths were wiped out and the saurus & TG reformed their "V" with the SV in the TG unit spread 7 across vs the knight bus frontage of 5. The knight bus held steady during the vamp turn while the gheist flew behind the lines and screamed ineffectively at a sallie. The dogs on the right charged the rear of the skirmishing skinks, who fled and ended up passing through multiple units before landing behind the TG block. Vamp magic recovered a couple knights but the 4th level invocation was shut down. Since fiery convocation was still going, it again struck the unit and killed the champ plus wounded the necro. Turn 3: Taking it for the team. No one could actually shoot at the remaining gheist due to range or rallying and the only magic was HoG on the TG to give them I3/WS5. The vamps charged the TG on their turn and rolled 9 power dice. Unfortunately, the master necro rolled double 1's on the invocate and the remaining dice were used to dispel fiery convocate. In combat, the vamp general was left with little choice but to challenge and the SV accepted although he knew it was a blender lord. In the challenge, the 1+ re-rollable did not keep the SV alive but he did only surrender two wounds. The rest of the unit killed a couple TG and then it was lizzie return attacks. Maximum attacks were put on the vamp BSB, dropping him while the sacred guardian and 3 buddies managed to kill off the rest of the unit thanks to several PF bonus attacks. We added up the results three times to make certain and it was a lizzie win by 4. Since the BSB was dead and the master necro down to one wound, that meant the vamp general melted. With only the ghouls, some dogs and a two wound gheist left, the vamps conceded the field as instability, magic and combat vs buffed TG and krox would have wiped the ghouls in short order while the rest would have just melted with LD 3/4. Game ended with a 24/0 lizzie victory and full bonus points. Lessons learned: Massed skink shooting can bring down a terrorgheist but care must be taken to keep them within striking range to achieve this in one round (5 units were needed to drop a single gheist). Key decisions on which spells to stop also factored in as it prevented the knight bus from recovering more than a couple models. Hero: The SV for minimizing the blender lord attacks. Honourable mentions to the skirmishers who did 4 wounds and to my buddy who was on table 1 fighting to a near draw, thereby allowing me to squeeze up the middle and claim best overall by 3 points!!