irony 1 — n , pl -nies 1. the humorous or mildly sarcastic use of words to imply the opposite of what they normally mean 2. an instance of this, used to draw attention to some incongruity or irrationality 3. incongruity between what is expected to be and what actually is, or a situation or result showing such incongruity Our winter league has started, so here's my first battle: Yet another account of a 1K High Elf battle. Aside from being great to play against, my opponent is known as a skilled general, so I took the hardest list I could think up. I was glad I did! This game featured the most consistently strange die rolls I've ever seen. For special rules, he had scouts (I have to set up first and he gets first turn), and I had elite army (no restrictions on special or rare choices- still have to make core %). I didn't use the ability, but having it kept someone else from getting it this round. Lizardmen: Scar Veteran: General, cold one, light armor. Charmed Shield, Dawnstone, Venom Skink Priest: Level 2 (Got Iceshard and Uranons Bolt) 23 HW&S Saurus: full command Stegadon 6 Chameleon 2x salamanders: Extra handler each High Elves: Noble: General, great weapon, armor. Reaver Bow. Mage: dispel scroll (Got Flames of the Phoenix + Drain Magic) 15 White Lion: full command 20 Sea Guard: Full command, shield? 2x bolt throwers We rolled Dawn Attack. I had to set up everything first, except for the chameleons. Me: Left Flank: The general and saurus on the far left edge, next to an Abyssal wood. One salamander (Orange) in the wood. Ahead of them is a river of light. Center: The poor stegadon with no cover, out in the open. Right Flank: The priest and other salamander (Red), hiding in a regular wood. An earthblood mere is ahead of them. Him: On my left: Mage, out in the open. Bolt thrower atop a skree slope. Center: Sea Guard with general in the center of the skree slope, with other bolt thrower to its right. White Lions at the base of the hill to the right of that. The chameleons then deployed clear into the left hand corner, menacing the bolt thrower and mage. Turn 1) The chameleons really alarmed him; I don't think he expected me to be able to fit them in where I did. He fast reformed with the sea guard to aim at them, and the mage moved back and faced them as well. Them mage blasted at them with the flame spell, and I failed to stop it. Four died, and the rest failed their test and ran off. At least the archers had wasted their aim... One bolt thrower missed the stegadon, and the other failed to wound it. Phew! On my turn, the priest and red salamander made their way through the forest toward the marsh. The stegadon marched straight ahead, hoping to charge something before the bolts got it. Orange salamander moved out, and saurus moved up. He scrolled my thunderbolt at the Lions, but I got Iceshard on the right bolter. 2) Archers and mage turned back; Lions moved up to prepare for the stegadon. The mage got ultimate power on FotP at the saurus, killing four. She forgot her spell as a consequence, making my life easier. Archers killed two of Orange's handlers and wounded him. One bolt killed a stegadon crewman, and the other hurt the beast- thankfully only causing one wound. My turn: Stegadon declared a somewhat long charge against the Lions- they passed terror; he made it! Saurus advanced, priest and Red went into the marsh; Orange moved into range for the sea guard. Thunderbolt on the sea guard- three hits, two dead. Iceshard on the bolter again- dispelled. Orange made a long shot at the mage and sea guard- a lucky hit, killing four guard. In combat, the stegadon trampled 2 lions; they rolled poorly to wound and only did three back- taking it down to its last wound. Its return attacks and stomp killed a bunch more, and I won combat by a ton- a lucky break. It was here that we made a critical mistake. We both spaced off that White Lions are stubborn, and he tested as though he needed double 1's. By the time I remembered this it was a whole turn later, and he chose not to mess around with trying to reset things. As I said, a great person to play against! Thus, the Lions broke and escaped, with the stegadon close behind. 3) Lions failed to rally! The now mostly useless mage moved tantalizingly close to the saurus, tempting them away from the main lines. Sea guard shot Orange, killing him. One bolter picked another crewman off the badly wounded stegadon, and the other missed- surely its luck must run out soon! My turn (sound trumpets): Saurus took the bait and charged the mage, who comfortably escaped. Stegadon charged the fleeing Lions, and they didn't make it; stegadon successfully reformed to face the battle... I dispelled FotP that was still burning the saurus... Priest cast thunderbolt at one of the bolters, and he let it go- six hits and two wounds to kill the crew... Red approached the Sea Guard and nailed a perfect shot, hitting every last one of them! Eleven out of seventeen died... 4) His mage failed to rally and went off the board. The remaining sea guard aimed at Red, taking him to one wound and three crew, while the last bolter miraculously failed to kill the stegadon yet again. Stegadon failed a short charge at the Sea guard, and needed 6+ armor to save against the Reaver Bows' stand and shoot... Me: "I need a 6 to save him!" (rolls 6) The Saurus attempted to charge across the river of light to get the Sea Guard, too, and needed a Ten to make it. I rolled... a ten! As they entered the river, the random spell went off- it's the Net. I have to pass a strength test to continue moving. I boldly declared "This Saurus Hero is strength five, so I just need to not roll a six!" I rolled a six, and we stopped in our tracks, taking wounds from the spell. Thunderbolt killed a few more sea guard, while Red ate two handlers. 5) The Noble and his remaining two archers shot Red. He will live on in the Hall of Heroes. The Bolter hit the stegadon, and rolled a 3 to wound... Stegadon needed a 9 to make it to the bolter (couldn't handle another stand & shoot by the Noble)... I rolled a 9, and passed its dangerous terrain going up the hill with a 2! The Saurus almost slogged across the river the rest of the way. The Skink killed the remaining sea guard with thunderbolt, and put a wound on the hero. As the stegadon flattened the bolter, it was down to just the Noble... 6) The noble ran alongside the stegadon, trying to hide from the oncoming saurus. Three shots at the stegadon, point blank- one wound, enough to finally kill it! (Imagine Legolas versus the giant elephant...) Finally, the Saurus made their charge. Saurus hero passed dangerous terrain from the river, and the two generals squared off for the final fight. The Elf swung, somehow landing just one hit, even with his re-roll. I defiantly announced my Charmed Shield- "As long as I don't roll a 1, I'll not be hit!" I rolled a 1. He wounded, but my armor held, and two of my return strikes hit. 2s to wound... I rolled a 1 and a 2. The fey Elf fell to the ground, and the table was mine! If we'd gotten it right with the White Lions, the game would have been much different... They would have likely killed the stegadon, subjecting the salamanders and priest to fire much earlier. The Sea Guard would have still been standing when the Saurus got there- could have been quite a fight. As it stands, I claim mastery over naught but improbability.
Sounds like a really good battle!! Was lucky that the person you played against was so forgiving! lol! Very interesting read - thanks for posting! And well done on your lucky dice rolls (Dice hate me!)
I seriously wondered why you would charge your stegadon into a decent sized unit of white lions anyway? You surely could move past them, or at least move back. Let him chase the stegadon while pouring fire in the beast too. That way you 'lure' a unit+shooting. IMO, that would be better than charging into the White Lions....Then again, I don't know the exact board situation. The mistake is an onfortunate one, but a fair one. Buy your opponent something to drink to make up for it . If I have the board somewhat correctly in my head, you could charge his sea guard as well. If this isn't correct, ignore this whole line. Otherwise: why didn't you charge/went for the LSG? The useless mage is worth some points, but not as much as a unit of LSG. In this case, it worked out ok because the mage fled the board. But you might just as well be chasing the mage with your combat block. Not something I would like to do. Congratulations on the win, and next time: beat him, the fair way! The Hunted
First off, thanks for reading! Here was my appraisal of the situation: If I had moved the stegadon closer to charge the Sea Guard, the Lions would have charged him first. If I moved away, they would have stayed put, while the bolters finished off the stegadon. He moved the Lions up to make them a target, to get steg out of the way so his bolters could target something else. Either way, his plan made it so the stegadon wouldn't get close enough to menace his Sea Guard later on. I figured I could either take some Lions down with my impact hits (they were the only thing remotely close enough to charge), or get skewered by the bolters the next turn without having done any damage. I chose to kill what I could when I had the opportunity, in the hopes that he would fail terror/fear. In regards to the Saurus charging the mage, I didn't have any shot of making it to the Sea Guard that turn, and if she had rolled poorly for fleeing, my charge could have carried me farther through the river than slogging it during the movement phase. As it was, she rolled great and I rolled terrible (2); not even enough to make it to the river, let alone through it. If I had it over, I don't know that I would have played it any differently, other than remembering Stubborn for the Lions. I did give him the option to reset back to that point in the turn, but he declined, on the grounds that it was his special rule, and he should be the one to remember it. Such opponents are what makes this hobby great! Next up is a 1250 battle against Skaven... I'm still working on my list but I have a feeling it will be brutal.
I read more than you might think Still, somehow I would rather have my stegadon draw fire and die, then get a few lucky kills from impact hits. I guess our playstyles differ here . I'm looking forward to the report against the skaven! The Hunted
Terror, skaven hates it, also anything that can force them to make a LD check or flee ( i know theres a banner or somthing) we also have the skaven pelt banner thing, and the anti skaven items in our armouy, if I come up against skaven and I had to built a list espcialy for countering them I would be estatic we lizardmen are skaven vetrans and tis time to drive the filthy beasts from our land! TO VICTORY!
My main Skaven concern at this point level is 1) Weapon teams, and 2) Doomwheel, if he runs his- not sure how I'm gonna crack T6 if I run the Saurus mob + salamander I had planned. I'll need to screen a stegadon pretty well so he doesn't get fried by the electricity, methinks. I know he doesn't have the abomination (yet), but I saw him at the store making several selections off the blister pack shelf. The doom-flayer model is now conspicuously absent...